My iPhone 3G says it's fully charged when it's not - HELP!!!

[kno25]

Hello,

New to this forum and haven't seen any thread that relates to my problem.

I got my iPhone 3G in December 2008. It is upgraded to 3.0. A couple weeks ago, I forgot to charge my phone before I went to bed and the battery died. The next morning when I charged it, it wouldn't charge. The battery symbol would be red, then slowly go green. It didn't even reach halfway green and then it would all of a sudden go to red. I rushed to AT&T and bought a new charger because I thought it was a charger problem. When I got home and used the new charger, my phone still wasn't charging. I made an appointment with the Genius Bar for that night. Luckily I was able to import all my apps, music and pictures to my iTunes little by little during the day, so when the Genius told me he wanted me to restore my phone to default settings, I was OK with that. Once he did that, he babysat my phone for an hour while I went to dinner to see if it would charge. I came back and it charged - YAY! He said it was the charging software that needed to be reset.

Another problem I was having was that I couldn't talk on the phone and have it charge at the same time. It seemed like it couldn't charge fast enough to make up for the battery life that I was using by talking on the phone. Everyone I talk to says their their iPhones charge with no problem while they talk on the phone. When I brought this up with the Genius, they said this shouldn't be happening and hopefully since he restored the phone, it would be fixed.

Now here I am and I noticed that even though my battery indicator states it has half a battery when I plug it in to charge, the battery indicator on the top right indicates it has a full charge (the plug sign)! I watch it for a while and it switches from the lightning bolt to the plug sign intermittently. I again went to the Genius Bar tonight. He gave me a new USB cord for my charger adapter, since my old one was all jacked up (the white protective covering was coming off and the adapter wires were showing). He said he was sure this would fix my problems. He also said I was supposed to turn my phone off and on once a day to turn off any programs I had running even though I exited the program. This was news to me! He also turned off my wifi, push notifications off, and turned my bluetooth off.

So I get home tonight and I have 20% battery life. I plug my iPhone in to charge. And whaddya know, the battery indicator is saying I have a full charge. Then it'll change to the lightning bolt. Then back to the plug sign. SO FRUSTRATING! Has anyone run into this problem?!?!

Also, I forgot to say that I have a car charger as well and the same thing happens.

As for the talking on the phone while charging, still no improvement since the first Genius' restore.

 

[taylortrask]

i have the same problem

i just got my 3g a few weeks ago (yes i know i didn't get the new 3gs), and i'm having the EXACT same problem with my phone as you are with yours. but last night upon using my charger at another person's house i realized that my phone charged perfectly normal and i even could charge it while i used the phone. so when i got home i tried to charge it and it's up to the same antics again. so it has to be something with the plugs at my house because why else would it work somewhere else? so check the plugs and circuit breakers to make sure everything is alright. i'm moving out soon so i'm just going to weather the storm til then.

hope i helped!

 

[Josito]

i just got my 3g a few weeks ago (yes i know i didn't get the new 3gs), and i'm having the EXACT same problem with my phone as you are with yours. but last night upon using my charger at another person's house i realized that my phone charged perfectly normal and i even could charge it while i used the phone. so when i got home i tried to charge it and it's up to the same antics again. so it has to be something with the plugs at my house because why else would it work somewhere else? so check the plugs and circuit breakers to make sure everything is alright. i'm moving out soon so i'm just going to weather the storm til then.

hope i helped!

Nope u didn't help.

 

[Josito]

I have the same problem. Only it's not all the time most of the time it's when I hook it up to my laptop. And then into the wall.

 

[tinfai]

So I searched this forum for a solution while encountering the final problem in the OP's original post (ie., indicator displays fully charged when the iPhone wasn't). I had my phone plugged into the wall charger last night. Thinking it was fully charged (as indicated), I was dismayed to see that it was only partially charged when I unplugged it. After plugging it back it, I saw that the indicator was again showing the phone to be fully charged after only a few minutes. This happened numerous times. I decided to turn my phone off for a few minutes before turning it back on. That solved the problem and the phone is now accepting a full charge again without the malfunctioning battery indicator display. Don't know if it is a system glitch or whether some program or process that kept running in the background, but I hope this might help the next person.

 

[zwm0426]

Bettery Death

There has a problem that your bettery has dead already.
So, change a bettery.
This a good idea, maybe.

 

[Resist]

I found something that might help.

Testing For Defective Batteries

As for defective batteries. First and foremost, charge from the wall. I tried charging my iPhone from my iMac and had a 20% charge the next morning. I'm not saying you can't successfully charge from your computer, but to diagnose a problem, I would give the wall charger a shot.

#1 - Reset your iPhone. (To perform a soft reset, press and hold the iPhone’s Sleep/Wake button and the Home button for several seconds, or until you see the Apple logo on the screen)
#2 - Fully charge your battery.
#3 - Fully drain the battery.
#4 - Fully charge, again.
#5 - At this point, your battery indicator should be more accurate.
#6 - If your battery is still really weak, head to the Apple Store to potentially exchange your iPhone. (1 year warranty)