Can anyone explain why the battery overlheats?

[Anonymatt]

Originally Posted by asuh

Thanks for the thorough and frustrating replies! Now I understand what's going on and why my options are limited in fixing this problem.

Yeah, I'm not an electrical engineer nor am I ambitious enough to take my phone apart to make it work without the battery, so no worries.

I guess my biggest frustration is how older PPCs can easily run lots of software and/or tether with computers easily for hours and then, suddenly, this new design is causing everyone a lot of problems. That also probably shows my lack of understanding how this phone is superior to these older yet similar phones.

It is a bit frustrating that the Touch Pro heats up significantly more than older phones would. Part of the reason seems to be that the antennas draw about 2x the power to operate as the Touch did (I didn't have a Touch, so can't confirm, but saw a post somewhere claiming that their phone radio used ~200 mA, while the ones on the TP use ~400 mA) I'm REALLY hoping that a radio update will help fix these inefficiencies (and even give better reception, since I get worse reception with the TP than other phones in the same locations), but I don't know how likely that will be.

[esqueue]

metal rear covers with some sort of thermal pad hear the camera area should reduce the problem.

Originally Posted by esqueue

metal rear covers with some sort of thermal pad hear the camera area should reduce the problem.

I honestly have been trying to devise a way to get the heat transferred out. Have the camera and flash LED to deal with in that area, as well as the fact that the back case must be slid on, and conform to a VERY uneven surface. The only thing I could really think of that would conform and fit in that area well would be some type of foam (think 3m moulding tape)... but that would have the opposite effect, it would be an insulator. I think just having physical contact with the stock plastic back case would be enough to keep things cool and charging longer.

[esqueue]

Originally Posted by ShadowDrake

I honestly have been trying to devise a way to get the heat transferred out. Have the camera and flash LED to deal with in that area, as well as the fact that the back case must be slid on, and conform to a VERY uneven surface. The only thing I could really think of that would conform and fit in that area well would be some type of foam (think 3m moulding tape)... but that would have the opposite effect, it would be an insulator. I think just having physical contact with the stock plastic back case would be enough to keep things cool and charging longer.

Are users of seido's extended batteries having this issue? How about a battery with a metal backing and some way of having it make contact with an aluminum rear cover? This will help the battery dissipate some of the transferred heat that it received. There are things that can be done but will not as it isn't cost efficient on their part.

[WhiteBlazer01]

Originally Posted by ShadowDrake

The phone won't run without the battery. Using No2chem's power tools to monitor power consumption... I've managed to make the phone draw over 800mah, even over 1.2amps. Since the charger can only provide 1 amp MAX, the battery is in place to cover the extra power drain that the charger can not provide.

I got the HTC brand car charger from Expansys, and it says it provides 2A output.

Originally Posted by hbenz2008

Good job Shadow; also the battery will stop when it reaches a heat point.it will need cooling b4 it starts again

Originally Posted by ShadowDrake

Taking off the back cover makes a HUGE difference. In fact, next time it overheats and stops charging... take off the back cover and blow on the top part of the phone, around the camera. It only takes me one deep breath over like 20 seconds blowing on it to cool it enough to start charging again. Part of the reason the back cover doesn't transmit heat well though is by design, if it did, I could imagine the phone almost becoming too hot to touch in that area. Personally, that's a trade-off I'd take.

I find myself doing this occasionally. When I'm on the internet and charging, etc... I'll take off the battery cover, and blow on the back of the phone to cool it down. It does stop charging if it's too hot.

Lol, I even went to lengths to charge the phone inside the fridge! I had my bluetooth headphones, so all calls were sent through with good quality!

[dr g]

From what i can tell, it's not actually the battery heating up, which makes this all the more frustrating. The sensor which cuts off the charging is apparently very near the radio. I have found that exclusively the cellular radio (Sprint/CDMA) is the culprit of the heat/non-charging issue. With Realdice poker, I can get it to cut out in a couple of minutes. But I can play a movie from the SD card via TV out (Directdraw), which gets the device quite hot, and it will charge all the way through.

I have experimented very cursorily with heatsink material (aluminum foil) inside the back case to try to spread the heat around, with the thinking that even though the back panel is insulative, at least spreading the heat around would help heat dissipation. No luck yet but again the tests were VERY cursory.

Frankly this is becoming for me a major irritation. While in usual day to day use I don't have a major problem with it, the most intensive uses -- the capability for which is what sets WM phones, and especially the ubercapable Touch Pro apart from other more consumerish OSes -- run up against this issue rather rapidly, which is disappointing.

I spent over 12 hours in a hospital waiting around the other day and had my charger with me, and I kept having to stop utilizing the data connection to let the phone cool off and charge.

BTW you can also cool off the phone to get it to charge again more quickly by blowing directly on the open keyboard, right around the WASD keypad area.

[cornelious2]

Originally Posted by dr g

From what i can tell, it's not actually the battery heating up, which makes this all the more frustrating. The sensor which cuts off the charging is apparently very near the radio. I have found that exclusively the cellular radio (Sprint/CDMA) is the culprit of the heat/non-charging issue. With Realdice poker, I can get it to cut out in a couple of minutes. But I can play a movie from the SD card via TV out (Directdraw), which gets the device quite hot, and it will charge all the way through.

I have experimented very cursorily with heatsink material (aluminum foil) inside the back case to try to spread the heat around, with the thinking that even though the back panel is insulative, at least spreading the heat around would help heat dissipation. No luck yet but again the tests were VERY cursory.

Frankly this is becoming for me a major irritation. While in usual day to day use I don't have a major problem with it, the most intensive uses -- the capability for which is what sets WM phones, and especially the ubercapable Touch Pro apart from other more consumerish OSes -- run up against this issue rather rapidly, which is disappointing.

I spent over 12 hours in a hospital waiting around the other day and had my charger with me, and I kept having to stop utilizing the data connection to let the phone cool off and charge.

BTW you can also cool off the phone to get it to charge again more quickly by blowing directly on the open keyboard, right around the WASD keypad area.

the aluminum foil being reflective can have the opposite affect and reflect the heat back. you might want to try scuffing it up before using it.

[dr g]

Originally Posted by cornelious2

the aluminum foil being reflective can have the opposite affect and reflect the heat back. you might want to try scuffing it up before using it.

I deliberately positioned the shiny side out to avoid that

[Darkjedi]

Originally Posted by dr g

I deliberately positioned the shiny side out to avoid that

quick piece of semi-useless trivia, the shiny side is only a couple more percent more reflective than the duller side. The reason foil has a shiny side is because the manufacturing process requires 2 sheets of aluminum on top of each other in order to properly roll and flatten to the thinness desired.

[mrchris1234]

Yeah this is really something, I mean I realize building in some safety features to prevent problems with exploding batteries. But I never had to charge my phone in the fridge with my Touch, my Treo 700wx, My PPC-6700 nor does my wife with any blackberry she has owned. They all make calls, they all have data... Its a bit ridiculous to think that a top of the line phone like this requires being strapped to an ice pack to charge.

I'm in a pretty cool part of the country, I'd hate to be in Vegas or Phoenix in the summer and try to keep this thing cool. Frustrating is an understatement