Tech Support- Reviving a depleted cell battery.
I recently encountered a first-world crisis of the first order and seemingly killed my cell battery.
The entire internet that could be accessed in a 10-minute search could NOT solve my problem!
So for the sake of testing Google and seeing if I can weasel any page views out of this crisis, I present my solution directly to you, the consumer. Because I provide value.
The phone in question is a OnePlus 10t, which I carelessly ran down to 0% battery a few days ago. This was not the first time I’ve run the phone down to shutdown, but this time the phone fought back and would not accept a charge when I finally plugged it back in. It would reboot, shut down, reboot, shut down, and just keep going.
I tried doing a shutdown while it was briefly up, to see if the manual command would keep the device dark until it was charged again, but as soon as it was out it just booted and shut itself down again. And again.
According to the internet, I had three options:
a) Leave the phone undisturbed until it could fully recharge.
b) Put the battery in the freezer until submission.
c) Replace the battery.
Now, a was already not working. The battery could not be easily removed for b, and could not be cheaply or conveniently replaced for c. Luckily for us both, the internet was wrong.
One if the tips I found made the point that if driven too low, the phone battery may fall below the communication threshold required by the charger. Which makes some sense; chargers have become smart devices in their own right, negotiating current flow from the wall to the device. And the OnePlus charging bricks (65-100w charging) certainly have to do some lifting for their part.
So I plugged my phone into one of my desktop computer’s USB ports to charge.
I figured the USB socket didn’t care what was plugged into it, it would just feed its relatively few watts to whatever would take it. And it worked! It was nowhere near as fast as the 65w charging of the OnePlus brick, but probably for the best to give the battery some room to breathe?
Anyway, there you go. Should you find yourself in the same poor unfortunate situation, consider there to be a fourth troubleshooting option to a depleted phone battery:
d) Plug the phone into a dumb or static source. Ideally before b. Definitely before c.
Also back up your photos from time to time, and don’t keep vital work on your phone that isn’t mirrored somewhere else. You never know…!
About The Author
davetwsprocket
Dave didn't get the memo until, like, just now. He is capable with arranging words, but only just getting started at getting those words to actually do anything. He is motivated by a disrespect for authority, and towards finally doing what's right. He's good with people, but that's a learned skill- his natural inclination is to be far, far away. He's a Leo.