Samsung s4 slow charge. 3 hours and only 30%

[tnt3k]

I just got the samsung s4 and I noticed that when i'm charging it, it is very very slow. I'm using the power outlet and it was at 28% at around 9 pm and now its 12 and its only at 70%. My old iphone took an hour to charge or so and it was super fast. I rooted the s4 and uninstalled some bloatware. Could i have possibly uninstalled something that affects charging the battery? thanks!

 

[d4nnn]

The only time I've had this issue was when the charger itself had low amp rating or just plain sucked. Try using a different one.

 

[tnt3k]

unfortunately I don't have another charger. This is the stock charger that came with the phone that I'm using.

 

[T4rd]

Is this with the OEM charger and cable that came with the phone? If not, check the output of the charger. It should output at least 1A or so (I've seen them vary from 850mA to 1A). I see the OEM charger for the GS4 is rated at 1A, so you should only use chargers rated at least that high.

Also, make sure the phone is charging at AC speeds. Do this by going to settings > battery, then at the top, you'll see the battery's percentage, then next to it "Charging (AC)" or "Charging (USB)." If it says USB, then it's only charging at about half (550 mA) the rate a normal 1A wall charger, therefor it will charge very slowly, esp. if the phone is active/awake at the time.

If the phone is charging properly, it should only take it 1.5-2 hours to fully charge from 0% if inactive or a bit faster if it's turned off. So something is definitely wrong if it took it 3 hours go go from 28% to 70%. I'm guessing the wall charger or cable you're using is inept and your phone was charging at USB speeds instead of AC. Either that or something is keeping it awake and highly active while it's charging to keep it from charging faster. Are you sure it's not downloading something, using GPS or are you constantly using it while it's charging?

 

[RobustDude]

Also, make sure the phone is charging at AC speeds. Do this by going to settings > battery, then at the top, you'll see the battery's percentage, then next to it "Charging (AC)" or "Charging (USB)." If it says USB, then it's only charging at about half (550 mA) the rate a normal 1A wall charger, therefor it will charge very slowly, esp. if the phone is active/awake at the time.

Thanks for that knowledge bomb. (NotOP), Totally get Charging (USB) with the included charger and Charging (AC) with my LG charger.




Why did they include a lesser charger with the phone then? Save cost?

 

[T4rd]

Thanks for that knowledge bomb. (NotOP), Totally get Charging (USB) with the included charger and Charging (AC) with my LG charger.




Why did they include a lesser charger with the phone then? Save cost?

That definitely shouldn't be the case, the OEM charger that came with it should be charging it at AC speeds. Are you using the OEM USB cable that came with it (though it shouldn't matter) too? Try swapping cables regardless. I would have to say you got a defective charger/cable with your phone if that's the case. My Note 2 came with a 2A charger and my Galaxy Nexus came with a 1A charger, they both work great and charge the phone at AC speeds (as they should). The OEM charger should be the de facto standard for chargers for your phone (if it's rated for 1A, using anything else at a different output will not help as the phone will only accept up to 1A to charge with) and should charge your phone just as well, if not better than other chargers.

 

[RobustDude]

That definitely shouldn't be the case, the OEM charger that came with it should be charging it at AC speeds. Are you using the OEM USB cable that came with it (though it shouldn't matter) too? Try swapping cables regardless. I would have to say you got a defective charger/cable with your phone if that's the case. My Note 2 came with a 2A charger and my Galaxy Nexus came with a 1A charger, they both work great and charge the phone at AC speeds (as they should). The OEM charger should be the de facto standard for chargers for your phone (if it's rated for 1A, using anything else at a different output will not help as the phone will only accept up to 1A to charge with) and should charge your phone just as well, if not better than other chargers.

Yea, the OEM USB Cable & Charger were giving a Charging (USB). The charger from my previous phone (LG Optimus S) gives a Charging (AC), but I solved that issue with some minor detective work.

In other news, make sure your cable is in all the way to the charger base lol.

PS: The LG Charger is rated at 0.7A so it might just need to be above a 0.5A to give the increased (on screen) charge?

 

[T4rd]

Yea, the OEM USB Cable & Charger were giving a Charging (USB). The charger from my previous phone (LG Optimus S) gives a Charging (AC), but I solved that issue with some minor detective work.

In other news, make sure your cable is in all the way to the charger base lol.

PS: The LG Charger is rated at 0.7A so it might just need to be above a 0.5A to give the increased (on screen) charge?

Lol, nice.

Yeah, I have some headphone chargers and older phone chargers hanging around are 550 mA and up to 850 mA and my phone says AC too while charging off of them. I think the phone will say AC regardless as long as the middle two pins (responsible for data transfer) on the cable/charger are closed off from the circuit. It seems like some devices react differently to these lower rated chargers to me. My Note 2 and previous Gnex seemed like it would force a full Amp from these chargers because they would charge at seemingly the same rate as the OEM charger. But my wife's Kindle and HTC Rezound seem like they charge slower off of them despite indicating AC in the battery menu.

There are ways to force a full Amp for AC charging from chargers and computer USB ports that aren't rated for that high of an output (I think USB 2.0 only supports up to 500 mA). For my Gnex, there were custom kernels with "USB fast charge" features that would basically disable the data pins on the phone, forcing whatever it plugged into to charge the phone at AC/1A speeds, so I was charging my phone off of my monitor's and laptop's USB ports just as fast as the OEM/wall charger. They said there was a risk of burning out your USB ports by doing this, but I did it for a full year with my Gnex without an issue. Somehow my Note 2 seems to be able to force AC speeds off of every device that's not a computer with the stock software whereas sometimes my Gnex would charge at USB speeds from some devices/chargers if I didn't force the USB fast charge feature in the kernel settings.

 

[onedestinazn2]

In other news, make sure your cable is in all the way to the charger base lol.

This. lol

Normally my S4 charges fully in like an hour. There was one time I was getting terrible charging speeds like the OP and noticed I didn't push the cable in all the way lol

 

[Bman123]

Just get a 2A rapid charger like the one that came with my note 2, that sucker charges in no time

 

[NKD]

Galaxy S4 charger that comes in the box is already rated at 2A, I know because I have own one. No need to get after market charger that is rated at 2A.

 

[Medion]

Just get a 2A rapid charger like the one that came with my note 2, that sucker charges in no time

No guarantee that this will work. Samsung limits the charging rate in the kernel and via hardware. I can't speak for their current devices, but the Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100 model) is limited to 650mah using A/C. The stock charger is 700mah, but even using my wife's Kindle Fire 2.5A charger won't speed things up. Kernel authors even tried voltage control, but the device still won't accept more than 650mah.

Again, I don't know if Samsung does this on current devices, and if so to what degree. If they are shipping 1A/2A chargers with their devices, then one would assume that the charging rate, if capped, is near those charger ratings.

 

[T4rd]

No guarantee that this will work. Samsung limits the charging rate in the kernel and via hardware. I can't speak for their current devices, but the Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100 model) is limited to 650mah using A/C. The stock charger is 700mah, but even using my wife's Kindle Fire 2.5A charger won't speed things up. Kernel authors even tried voltage control, but the device still won't accept more than 650mah.

Again, I don't know if Samsung does this on current devices, and if so to what degree. If they are shipping 1A/2A chargers with their devices, then one would assume that the charging rate, if capped, is near those charger ratings.

This.

I think most phones are capped at around 1A. The Note 2 is a special case because of its overized battery (3100 mAh), so they needed a 2A charger to be able to charge it in an acceptable amount of time. It's kind of crazy that the GS2 is limited to 650mA for its charger, that's not much higher than a standard USB 2.0 port on a PC, so charging from the wall isn't much faster than charging from a PC.

 

[Ruoh]

Just got my GS4 yesterday, and noticed that my phone came with a 5W/2A charger. It charges VERY quickly.

 

[T4rd]

Just got my GS4 yesterday, and noticed that my phone came with a 5W/2A charger. It charges VERY quickly.

That's nice that the S4 supports 2A chargers, very few phones do that (the Note 2 and GS4 are now the only two that I know of, but I'm sure the Optimus G Pro does with its larger battery too). I'd say a 2600 mAh battery does charge pretty fast with a 2A charger. My Note 2 charges pretty fast too, seemingly at about 1%/minute or so.

 

[W.Feather]

Takes about ~1 hr to 1hr 30min to charge my S4 from dead to full, so pretty sure the 2A charging speed is in effect