Swollen Battery? Expensive To Replace? Run Your Smartphone Without A Battery!

Batteries in older phones can swell after a charge cycle. The battery also swells when not used for a long time. Although batteries can be replaced in some cell phones, the high cost of battery replacement drives many cell phone owners away.

Also, these phones are usually several years old and the firmware update may have been stopped. This is the main reason not to spend money on buying a new battery for your old phone. Wouldn't it be better to do without the battery at all?

Why does the battery explode in the first place?

The charge and discharge cycle results in the formation of lithium battery electrolyte gas inside the battery. Swollen batteries pose a safety hazard as they can overheat during charging, catch fire and even explode. It is advisable to replace these batteries immediately.

The problem is that cell phone manufacturers don't use different types of batteries in their models. This results in replacement batteries becoming unavailable after a few years.

One way to fix this is to buy a replacement battery from a third-party manufacturer, but most third-party batteries have a poor safety record and can be risky to use.

What else works on the phone?

The battery may die, but other components of the smartphone still work. Either way, most smartphones have no resale value and end up in electronic junkyards.

There is still life in this smartphone if it is reused. How long does he live? , you ask. In fact several years. electronic components and processors; The memory and the screen have a long life.

Try the simple method first

Remove the battery from your smartphone or tablet, connect the USB charging cable and turn on the device. Unfortunately, most devices shut down unexpectedly during the boot process due to low battery detection. Some of them will already complete the boot sequence and work fine. It is mainly observed in tablets. If your device works like this, you can't do anything: you're in luck. Otherwise, you have to trick the device into having a battery by buying luck with logic.

Phone Test Review

This Android smartphone is manufactured by Alcatel. The battery is dead but works. Ever since cell phones were manufactured a few years ago, it has been difficult to get replacement batteries. It is very fast and has a perfectly functional screen. It runs Android 5 Lollipop, an outdated operating system. It doesn't receive any firmware updates, but the Play Store still works fine and many popular apps are still compatible.

The smartphone has a built-in 3.8V battery, so you will need to use a DC power source with the same voltage. Fortunately, the 5V USB source is suitable for this purpose. USB chargers and power supplies can do the trick.

However, modern smartphones have other requirements. An example would be games that consume a lot of resources at maximum screen brightness. In this case, the battery can supply an additional electric current directly. The 5V USB power supply you choose, whether it's an adapter or a power bank, must have a decent current rating to meet the demand. Batteries with a capacity of 2.4 to 3.4 amps work well depending on the screen size of the smartphone.

The swollen battery barely fits in its compartment. The test battery has four contacts. Two of them are marked as positive and negative; There is no marking on the other two. The phone has a PIN code with the same number; Only two of them will be used for energy. The other two types are used to determine the battery level in some phone models.

The idea is simple: cut a USB cable and solder it directly to the contacts of your phone. Since the polarity has already been determined, we don't need a multimeter. Remove the grommet from the USB cable and solder the red wire to the positive terminal and the black wire to the negative terminal. USB cables often have two additional data cables. It is not necessary and can be cut.

Use a high quality, heavy gauge USB cable as it must carry a lot of current. You will need a cable rated for 3.4 amps and above 5 volts; The cable that comes with the power supply is usually ideal.

Connect the other end of the USB cable to the USB power adapter and turn on the device. Your smartphone should work without a battery. It will also work with power banks.

problems solving

Note that before soldering, you can test the installation by temporarily connecting the wires with alligator clips.

If it doesn't work properly, here are some troubleshooting tips:

The phone does not work: check the solder.
The phone turns on and off: check the power of the USB power adapter and the quality of the cable.
Phone turns on but complains about battery temperature: Since the phone has no battery at all, this is a false warning. appears in the status bar; ignore him.
Phone turns on, complains of low battery, turns off: remember the unmarked contacts on the battery? Some smartphones use it to check the battery status. Measure the voltage across the battery terminals. Solder a resistor between the positive pin and the corresponding sensor pin on the phone to create a voltage drop. Selecting the correct resistor depends on the battery readings.

apps for phone without battery

You now have a working device. However, since the manufacturer does not release updates after a few years, you may end up with outdated firmware. This is especially true for non-Google Android devices. A quick check in the Play Store shows that there are still plenty of apps available for your device.

Even if there is a program, think carefully about what to install. If there are security issues, the old firmware becomes vulnerable. In general, this combination should be avoided: "The device is connected to the Internet and has an application that collects sensitive data."

Another problem, the mod is not very portable: it is difficult to carry it in a pocket with a power bank. This limits the types of apps that can be used, but fortunately many of them are suitable for this purpose. Here are a few :

ping monitor

You can use this application to test the connection of any IP address. This is a quick screen that shows the status of devices on the network, for example, to check if a network printer is on or off.

wifi analyzer

Has your Wi-Fi not worked for several days? Neighboring signals may interfere with the signal. Using Wi-Fi scanner data, you can quickly decide whether to switch channels or not.

Google Authenticator

If you need stronger security, you can force apps to require two-factor authentication at all times. Instead of accessing the main phone, you can view the real-time 2FA code on the recovered phone. There's a caveat: if your phone restarts, you'll need to reset the clock. The reason is that it does not contain batteries.

Subscribe to YouTube or Google Analytics

If you have a website or manage a YouTube channel, you can track visitors using this app. Live data can give you insight into popular content and help you narrow down your recommended content.

Google Maps GPS Navigator for Car

If you use your phone in a car for navigation and place it in front of the windshield, you will notice that it gets very hot on a sunny day. Heat is dangerous for your phone's battery. Now that you have completely removed the battery, you can safely use your phone. You can even use it as a permanent entrance.

Let your phone last its entire lifecycle

Battery replacement is very beneficial for smartphone manufacturers. Easy suspension replacement starts with a sealed rear cover. It may be a smart chip on the battery under the guise of security. This will effectively lock the phone from the manufacturer battery and make it unusable without the battery.

Now that you know how to operate your smartphone without a battery, your modified device will work perfectly for years. It is more likely to fail if the flash-based ROM overwrites; After that, you can safely send it for processing.