Upgrade Thunderbolt with extended battery

[TheForce]

After over 2 years my two standard size 1400mah batteries began to have short times so I figured it was time to investigate replacement batteries. I discovered a huge supply of the extended versions from htc and Siedio for very low price. I became excited that I might get into one of these, that back when they were new, cost over a a hundred dollars. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053XZHKM/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Price too good to be true? For that price I ordered two. I also read the feedback and the major concern was that the larger back would not work for 4G. Others complained that the batteries were used. But the price was too good to not take a chance. I got two kits in and tested them. The backs were different. Both had the left metal tab with antenna. But the large dual tab on the right was missing on one and the other it was two individual tabs. I have no idea why these are so different but when I tested them on the phone I discovered the reports to be true. The one with no metal tabs on the right would only get 1X data. The one that was split could only get 3G and then had trouble accessing any high speed sites like my security cameras video on 9 cameras or sirius XM app. I soldered a jumper wire connecting the two metal tabs and then tested again. Now the LTE popped right up and all my broadband apps were functional on LTE. SUCCESS!



Next to test the extended 3500mah batteries.
I charged them up for 18 hours. Then put the first one in.

Note my original 1400mah batteries were giving me 7-9 hours of run time so for a long day I would carry two in my case. I'm still testing but so far the extended battery is on the second day and only down to 43%. Plus I have a second one when that goes down.

 

[Hall]

If you're getting that life out of them, odds are they're not used. I've bought a few batteries off of eBay that were supposed to be new and OEM but I was very skeptical. For the price, like you thought, can't hurt to try. The "new" replacements had shorter life than my 2-year old batteries that I replaced ! One even had scuff marks so I'm certain it was used.

Reading the reviews is funny. They have "fake", spray-painted pieces made to look like the antenna ?? Haha !!

Pay attention to the battery %. I used Rezound batteries in our Thunderbolts. They were the same dimensions except they were maybe a millimeter thicker. Not enough to be a problem keeping the standard battery cover. They were 1650mAh rated, so you would get a bit better life. Problem was, the kernel didn't calculate the % properly, as if it was hard-coded to work from 1400mAh (or 2750mAh). When I had the 1650mAh battery in, different tools/utilities thought it was a 2750mAh battery (it's capacity was greater than 1400, so it must be the next stock size up). It would stay at 100% for hours, slowly creep down to 80-90%, then drop like a rock ! Finally, the phone would turn itself off at 10%. It thinks there's 10% life left but there physically wasn't.

 

[TheForce]

Yes, I understand. BTW- the picture I put up is real close to the actual cover. I "painted" in the jumper wire just to show where it goes. I should take a picture of my solder job, I guess to prove I did what I did.

Anyway, This morning I turned on sirius radio and streamed it for 5 hours and the battery went from 43% to 10% and the warning came up. I pulled the battery and looked closely at the htc printing. It is labeled 2750mah. I put the other one in from Siedio which is 3500mah. Let's see what they do. Both new batteries appear to be new since they had no scratches on the metal contacts. I believe these batteries will also improve run time after a couple of full charges and drains. We'll see. For the second (Sidio) test I am turning on the wifi to stream sirius radio. It's been on now for 90 minutes and still at 99%. This seems to be similar to what you report.
So the first one is only a 2750mah and it lasted for about 30 hours with 6 hours of it being on streaming audio, a couple short phone calls and the rest dormant standby.

I guess the main problem with these ultra cheap battery/cover deals is that they are like Forest Gump box of chocolates.

 

[Hall]

I guess the main problem with these ultra cheap battery/cover deals is that they are like Forest Gump box of chocolates.

Yeap, you don't know what you'll get. I stopped buying from eBay and through Amazon, I really wanted to get ones directly from Amazon or at least "fulfilled by Amazon".

30 hours is probably standard even for the extended battery. On the stock battery, running Sense, I think 12-15 hours is considered "good" (sad to say). I've ran AOSP (non-Sense) ROMs and could get 20-24 hours.

 

[TheForce]

10 hours is what I used to get with average call time. Lately it was 3/4 that so is why I decided to get new batteries. I really love my t-bolt. I do so much with it and it never fails. Have no desire to upgrade.

Been running with streaming audio now for 4 hours and is reading 88%.

Only problem I have had so far with Amazon was a pair of shoes I risked buying. I ordered the right size but was shipped a different size. right numbers but the physical size was quite different, much too small. I do read the reviews and generally find them honest. Ebay auctions are kind of rough. Been successful on a couple for camera stuff but in one case the guy didn't even have the product. Finally got my money back after 3 months and Paypal help.

edit- one thing I don't like about the thunderbolt. I have a 32Gb card and it is close to full. I tried to put in a 64Gb and it won't see it. Tried several different suggestions on formatting but no go. Many forums have mixed opinions on whether it will work but few claim they have had success. Those that did post simple, "works for me" and no real explanation. I know about the partition snafu and I already addressed that but still no go. If you know the secret, please let me know. Verizon just says the phone doesn't support 64Gb.

 

[Anole]

Alternative fix

In December on 2011, my buddy couldn't keep his Sprint HTC EVO alive a full day without extra charging.
I wanted to get him a bigger battery, as you've described.
However, the battery came with a larger back, and that wouldn't fit his Otterbox case!
.
We compromised.
He wound up with two regular batteries and a drop-in charger for $9 through Amazon.
The lithium packs were tiny, and he was happy to swap mid afternoon, and place the dead one on his drop-in charger at work.
Comparing his original pack and the replacements, he found no difference in life.
After several months!, one battery got cranky.
I contacted the Amazon supplier, and without a whimper, they sent a free replacement!
(remember what I paid for the entire kit!)
.
Late last year, he got a Samsung Galaxy S3, and asked me to research batteries and chargers, again.
Few days later, he called a halt to the hunt.
The S3 just had so much better battery life, he didn't need spares!
.
Moral of the story?
New phones suck less!
Maybe it's time to try one. :up
?.

 

[Hall]

For a 64gb card, try formatting it IN the phone. It should default to exFAT format that way. Or, in Windows, format it there but make sure to choose exFAT format. In the end, the phone may simply not support that capacity though...

This person says they're using a 64gb card: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28283784-. You have to remember, VZW is only going by what HTC tells them and at the time the T-Bolt was released, they simply didn't test that size card. It by no means means that there's a hardware limitation keeping it from working.

 

[TheForce]

I did that exFAT format by computer only. The card wasn't even recognized as plugged in when in the phone. I'll check out your link but it may be one I already saw. Thanks for your suggestions. I'm game to try anything, and then keep trying all new ideas.

Update:

Following your link and reading through the thread, not finding anything significant I decided to try something that I didn't do before. I did try to format the 64Gb card in my computer ( desktop) windows 7. And that didn't work. I decided to reformat the card in my Surface Pro microSD slot. Once done there I put it in the T-Bolt and it showed up again as the little card symbol with a ? over it. I pulled the top down to see it there and it said "unknown file system" touching this it then asked me if I wanted to format the card and I let it do that. Success! It works. The phone formatted the card and now I have 64Gb of space. For some reason the exformat done on my windows 7 computer did not work. formatting it with the Surface Pro fixed it. The card came with a small second partition that I did remove in my win 7 machine. One of my earlier threads on the subject mentioned that the card for the Thunderbolt can't have that partition. I understand it's some Sandisk thing and not on all 64Gb cards.

 

[TheForce]

Here is the picture of the two different extended battery covers. The one on the right is the one I fixed with a jumper wire to activate the 4G (LTE)



The one on the left shows the two tabs with brass shorting them out but it lacks the actual antenna that resembles black tape. Hard to see. The 3G tape antenna on the left side of the covers is more visible. It has the single tab.

 

[TheForce]

Update- The Seidio 3500mah battery is really powerful. I got 60 hours time that comprised of wifi on, 6 hours of screen time and streaming audio the balance on standby. I charge the battery for 12 hours in the phone.

 

[Ramy]

The extended battery I had for mine came from Verizon. It was $45 when I bought it. Probably 2 years ago.