vB Easy Archive - Razr External LCD, Only SOMETIMES visible

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Razr External LCD, Only SOMETIMES visible
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Posted by: mytwocents

OK, this got no where in the modding forum, so perhaps I'm an idiot and posted it in the wrong one....fair enough....here it is in THIS forum....someone one here has to know what in the name of anything holy, that I'm talking about.

I just got my razr (verizon) and have noticed a few oddities...The first one is that the external LCD sometimes is lit up, and sometimes not... yes, it stays lit when it's being charged, but I'm talking about when it's NOT being charged. I can't find where the setting for this would be, and as it continues to be random, I'm not sure there even IS a setting for it because as I said, it's random...anyone know anything about this?

The second odd thing is that 'how much battery life' I have left icon is completely independent of how much I ACTUALLY have. Case in point, I drove from L.A. to Phoenix a few days ago and was actually surprised at how well the battery was working because I had full battery even after the drive and even after being here in Phoenix for almost a day. So I go to make a call when I'm in my car and the phone just dies. I try turning it on, taking out the battery etc, nothing works. I freak out, go back to the house and plug it in the charger and all of a sudden it's showing I have ZERO battery. According to my father who has had a Razr (Cingular) for quite a while, it's somewhat typical of the phone to show a battery level that has absolutely nothing to do with the true levels....is this really the case???

OR is my phone showing sure signs of being a lemon and should I exchange it before my 15 is up?

Posted by: linuxmatt

Well the LCD thing is normal. When It's running off battery power, it turns off the outer lcd after a firmware-encoded timeout, to save battery power. If the LCD stayed on all the time, it would drain the battery faster. Just tap the voice button or the smart button while it is closed, and it will turn the External LCD back on. You can tap the volume buttons too, but then it will go to the ring mode menu.
As for the battery inaccuracies, that is pretty typical of rechargable batteries. The battery indicator is just an estimate. It's usually based on the average voltage output of the battery, which in some circumstances, can remain pretty constant. There are more accurate ways to measure battery charge, but they can get pretty expensive. I sure as hell don't want to pay $500 for a razr. $80 after rebates is still a bit much. However if your battery is notoriously inaccurate, you most likely don't need to swap the phone. Charge it and discharge it a few times, according to the owner's manual this should improve battery performance and accuracy. If on day 12 your battery is still going coocoo, ask if they can swap batteries, or better yet, plop about $40 to get an extra battery (740mah are standard, but you can pay a little bit more for one that's about double the capacity) and keep the old one as a spare. Before a long trip, charge the OEM battery, shut off the phone, take the OEM batt out and pop in and charge the extended-capacity battery. That way if your battery dies, you'll have a spare.