Droid Razr Maxx Not Charging, even after battery replace (battery ? mark)

[lifegradient]

Hi all,

Having plenty of issues with my Droid Razr Maxx. I'll try to be brief yet detailed.

[Before I get into it, some specs on my phone. It is rooted, safestrap'd, running the latest stable build of Spyder Cyanogen Mod (10.2?) It's been modded like this for months, with absolutely no problems or issues at all. With that said, I'll proceed.]

Last Friday morning I woke up to find that my phone didn't charge overnight. I just figured I hadn't plugged in the cable correctly. Got to work, and within a matter of a couple of hours, it started to get pretty hot, and the remaining 50% battery life went down all the way to 4%.

Being the idiot that I was, I tried to power on my phone after it did its safety shut off. It immediately went from 4% to 0% and shut off again. Then the white light of death came. I proceeded to read a bunch of articles here and on other forums with similar problems. I tried leaving it charging, as many people just needed it to stay plugged in for a while before the charge status would come on. Nothing. I tried car charging it, also to no avail.

Finally, I decided to replace the "non-replaceable" battery. I figured this was the next logical step, and it wasn't too expensive. I ordered one online, along with t3 and t5 screwdrivers.

Today my battery/screwdrivers arrived. I got to work. With plenty of patience and dexterity, I successfully managed to replace my battery, get everything back together.

I managed to boot it up. My heart rose.

Then I noticed the question mark in place of the battery icon. Crap.

I tried re-installing cyanogenmod, I even booted up the stock rom. Same problem.

Here's where I'm at now. I have a new battery installed. It's sitting at 80% battery life (at least the phone could tell me that much). It is currently off, to prevent battery drain. My question to anyone who can help me:

What should I do now?

I thank you very much in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Cheers,
Noah

 

[FoxKat]

Well, the only reasons why it would give you a question mark for the battery that I can think of are either that it's a knock-off, not an OEM battery, no matter how good and original it looks... Or the other possibility is that the phone is confused by the new power levels of the battery when it last read one that was dead.

Power the phone off.
Plug it into the charger and allow it to boot into charge only mode.
Let it charge until it reads 100% when you press and release one of the volume control buttons (don't press the power button as it might actually boot up).
Once fully charged, power it up and use it until it tells you to plug into the charger again (15% or 10%, can't remember which).
Then power it off immediately...but whatever you do, don't let it self-power down. If it gets below 10%, but doesn't make it to 0%, you're likely still OK, but I wouldn't chance it.
Then plug in and charge to 100% with power off again.

From there, you should be good to go.

What you will be doing is telling the phone that the battery stats it has are wrong and the new ones will be read from the battery during this 3-step process. If this doesn't cure it, I'd try to jump-start the other battery by connecting it directly to the power source for 15-30 minutes, and then reinsert it into the phone, and then do just what I described above.

 

[lifegradient]

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't think I can get into charge only mode. Even with the replaced battery, the white led light blinks on briefly. From other articles I've read, that usually means it detects the power cord but can't do any charging. Is that correct?

 

[FoxKat]

No, it's not likely the power cord. If the phone was charging fine before the battery went dead, then what are the odds the power cord would fail at the same time?

I'm suspecting the meter is confused and needs a refresher on the battery. You say that it won't charge even with the new battery from a cold shut down? Very strange, but not inconceivable.

With the new battery, plug in with the power off and wait 20 seconds. If it doesn't start into charge only mode, unplug and try again. I'd keep trying as many times as I could stand. Some have been able to get it started by trying multiple times...perseverance.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[lifegradient]

No, it's not likely the power cord. If the phone was charging fine before the battery went dead, then what are the odds the power cord would fail at the same time?

I'm suspecting the meter is confused and needs a refresher on the battery. You say that it won't charge even with the new battery from a cold shut down? Very strange, but not inconceivable.

With the new battery, plug in with the power off and wait 20 seconds. If it doesn't start into charge only mode, unplug and try again. I'd keep trying as many times as I could stand. Some have been able to get it started by trying multiple times...perseverance.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for the advice. I've been trying this all evening, but I'm still getting the same white led light for about 2 seconds every time I connect the power cord. Is there a plan B? What is the "jump-start" you mentioned?

Edit: I tried reconnecting the cord with the power off as you suggested throughout last night, but alas, I'm coming up empty. I'm at the point where I may have to just get a new phone, sadly. I'm not sure what else I can try.

 

[lifegradient]

UPDATE:

Okay. I managed to jump start my old, dead battery with success. Yet STILL, the power-off charge icon won't come on, and it blinks the white led light when I connect the cord. So, I KNOW that the battery isn't dead, but for some reason, the charge cord just will not charge. I can't take my phone apart and jump start the battery every day to keep it alive...I love my phone, but there's a line.

Any thoughts?