A tale of three smartphones: Rescuing a dead battery

[slitchfield]

Faced with a dead Nokia N86 that refused to charge, I didn't panic - armed with the luxury of some of other devices to hand, I was able to get the N86 and its battery revived and working properly. And, in the process, learned that all Nokia's batteries are electrically interchangeable. Maybe these concept will save the day when your precious S60 phone appears to have died? At the very least, add this to your 'Things to try' check list!

Read on in the full article.

[pintofale]

I've noticed that very dead phones don't light up with the 'Nokia' logo for five minutes or so (perhaps longer) after they go on charge - perhaps you should have left the N86 plugged in and gone off to mash up?

[carrotmadman6]

One more thing to learn - even though the device doesn't boot up, the battery is being charged.

I remember a couple of years ago when my friend tried my battery in his phone. His phone was a Nokia 6510 and my battery from a Nokia 6610. The battery fitted physically perfectly but not electrically. His phone never booted again until back from the Nokia Service Centre, so battery exchange is not always as successful as in Steves case.

[zyler]

You should add a disclaimer to this post. This is probably not the kind of thing Nokia would approve of.

nicely done steve!
this taught me a lot! glad to see that u can actually fit one model's battery into another

[slitchfield]

@carrot and pintofale: Come on, give me some credit. The FIRST thing I did was try leaving the mains charger plugged in and waiting for the device to come to life. I figured that after 15 minutes it wasn't going to, hence using a different device as battery host 8-)

[icebox]

Even if they fit and even if the voltage is the same the charging logic EXPECTS a certain capacity : i.e. amps. And it charges with a certain speed according to that capacity and temperature. So there's also the possibility to blow a small battery in a phone calibrated for a bigger one, or the temperature sensors inside the batteries speak different languages.

I sure wouldn't want to try it unless forced in an emergency. Li-ion batteries tend to ruin the fun when not charged properly

[oecboy]

old nokia phones didn't use to work with exchanged batteries. Had tried unsuccessfully with my n-gage qd once. Newer one's do work. Even if the battery doesn't fit verically in the other phone, i have charged it while keeping it pressed into its position with my hand

In the middle east lets just say we have varying current and voltages I have learnt NOT to let my n85 go completely flat. If it does then sometimes only a true 240v supply will bring it back on line. This does not apply to my n70 so maybe these newer batteries have an issue ?

[shadamehr]

I concur with the first post...

I have OFTEN had very dead batteries that don't do ANYTHING in terms of appearing to charge, and giving the tell tale beep, until sometimes after five, and even TEN MINUTES, of being connected to the charger.

PLEASE ALL (and Steve) bear this in mind before risking any potential electric shock, or device damage, swapping batteries around...?

[stuclark]

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned in relation to this article, but... this is a generic trait of phones that use USB derived charging sockets!

I had this explained to me once accurately from someone who knew (and worked at the time for a major phone manufacturer) - essentially though, when using USB to charge, the phone needs a certain amount of power in the battery BEFORE it can even POST (boot in English) enough to turn the screen on.

The basic rule is, as people have said... leave the charger attached to the phone, EVEN IF it appears to be doing nothing - sometimes (Sendo & Motorola phones were bad for this, along with early HTC devices) they can take 30 minutes or MORE before they'll turn on!

Oh, and as far as this article goes - swapping batteries out is OK, IF and ONLY IF, the voltages are the same. Even then though, the currents may not match, so this should ONLY be done in an emergency!

[TheUndertaker]

dont limit it to nokia alone!
my ngage qd bl6c battery worked fine on my sony ericsson p910i! booted up and it even gives more battery capacity than the original p910i bst15!

[slitchfield]

Fair points guys. I only gave it 15 minutes or so, I think, before I gave up and went for the lateral thinking approach. If it happens again then yes, leave it longer.

Charging time is also long - it's taking five hours or so to fully charge this N86 from scratch. Ouch!

Be sure to check the battery voltage and current first. not all phone batteries are created equal.

I tried my sister's Nokia 7610 battery into my Nokia 6233 once as a geek experiment but didn't work. Glad it didn't toast the phone though.