Galaxy Tab 3 8" Battery Issue

[CversusF]

I've had a Galaxy Tab 3 on contract since June.  Been very happy with it so far.  However ten days or so ago the battery started draining really quickly and I mean quickly, fully discharging in under half an hour or so.

Symptoms are the battery drains quickly, not one percent at a time but sometimes in chunks of 7% or more.  If the battery has discharged really quickly sometimes after a reboot it will show 43% battery or whatever but again that doesn’t last long.

I’ve never overcharged it, always used the charger that came with it, so not sure what the problem is.  I thought it might be something my son had on there; Minecraft or something so I reset it back to factory defaults but still have the same issue. 

I tried to ring Vodafone today as I’d like a repair or a replacement but was told to ring-back in 24 hours as my phone number was being migrated to a new system…is this right?

Anyway, any Vodafone bods on here got any suggestions?

[hrym]

When you recharge, does the battery also charge suspiciously quickly?  This has some of the hallmarks of a dead one, that's all.  You say you haven't overcharged it, but have you allowed it to go flat?  That'll shorten the life of a lithium-based cell - they're much better off being topped up and don't have any memory effect.  If something else is draining a fully-charged battery that fast, I'd expect the current drain to make the device very hot as well.

The Vodafone repair service will be able to help you, but it might also be worth going to Samsung on this one - check the Support tab of their UK website.  Vodafone will probably do a reset and an electrils test and, if it's working after that, may just mark it as fixed.

[CversusF]

No, it doesn't charge too quickly.  Sometimes it takes ages.  For example I'll charge it for an hour or so and it will say something like 23% charged.  Will reboot and it will say seventy something, then discharge really quickly.

[drey_p]

It sounds like the battery TBH but to be sure, it may be an idea to try a different charger, just in case a the charge itself is faulty and not giving enough power output. 

[CversusF]

Also tried that Drey as we are an Android household.  Still the same result.  In fact with other chargers I get the red x on the battery sometimes.

[AndrewGlossop]

Have you checked software issues before jumping to hardware?

Have you checked the battery drain in Android settings?

I have had something similar and it was Google Maps, it had an update and something had gone wrong. I went in to App Settings and cleared all the data and cache then did a force stop. Rebooted the tablet and all was good. 

[CversusF]

Andrew I thought a factory reset would fix anything but not thought it could be a pre-installed app such as GM that could be causing the issue.  Will try that first before getting onto the phone again tomorrow.

Yes, I have checked the battery drain levels and the biggest drain on resources is the screen although the screen is set to 15 seconds time out and is on the "adjust brightness accordingly" setting.

[hrym]

That would be about right.  I normally set the timeout to 1 minute and don't have any problems.   It's sounding more and more like the battery.  Did you ever say whether it had been allowed to go flat?