vB Easy Archive - SLVR L7 battery/power issues

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SLVR L7 battery/power issues
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Posted by: schuster

I have an L7 purchased late last year from an eBay seller.
It is Cingular-branded, has the engineering mode in the
menus, but not iTunes. I'm not sure of the origins as it is
clearly for the Cingular market, but it has a weird IMEI#
and the SIM subsidy unlock code is all zeroes.
It came with the slow charger and a BC60 battery.

I've noticed a couple of power-related oddities and wanted
to trade notes with other owners to see if these are
prevalent issues, or maybe related to my owning "early"
hardware and/or firmware, or a defective battery.
When the Hong Kong pipeline of cheap OEM batteries opens up
(so far they seem to have only the BC50, or unbranded
questionables) I will see if a replacement battery helps.

1. High-current chargers don't work.

Since the battery takes forever to charge with the supplied
400 mA wall adaptor, I bought the 850 mA "rapid" travel
charger, as well as the Motorola car cord that are sold for
the RAZR. Both of these cables fit the phone and are
recognized; the phone displays "charging battery" ... but
the battery never actually charges. I can leave either of
them connected 12 hours or more, and the battery gauge
(during "charging" or in use) has not budged. Neither does
the charger or phone get warm, indicating it is not
drawing current.

2. "ENTER SIM PIN" draws extraordinary amounts of battery
current.
I bought the SLVR because I detest flip phones, but a quirk
of the L7 may change my mind back. I am a light user who
usually keeps my phone powered off unless I am on the move,
or otherwise expecting to make or receive calls on that
day. On a couple of occasions so far, coincidentally
after fully charging the battery, I have heard the low
battery alarm from the phone, sitting on the shelf or in a
pocket, when I _thought_ it was supposed to be powered off.
Instead, it seems, the power button (which must be too
quick to power up after a short accidental press) has
turned on the phone and it's sitting there, displaying
"ENTER SIM PIN" (which I routinely enable). In that mode,
it seems the SLVR will discharge a fully charged BC60
battery in less than a day! I don't think this is an issue
with battery _capacity_ as I get several days of standby if
I actually leave the phone on. Has anyone else run into
this?