# Phone powers down prematurely

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-powers-down-prematurely/824500>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 14, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-powers-down-prematurely/824500 "2018-11-14T13:26:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-powers-down-prematurely/824500/1 "2018-11-14T13:26:16Z")

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LG G5, about 2 years old.

Sometimes it spontaneously powers down, which it will do if the battery is too low. But as soon as I plug it in, the display will show anywhere from 15-20% battery (I would not expect it to power down until it is around 2%). If I turn it back on without plugging it in, sometimes it will just power back down, or sometimes come on but the battery runs down within a few minutes and it will power down.

Is this is symptom of an old battery? Faulty battery? Or the phone is not reading the battery correctly?

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**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-powers-down-prematurely/824500/2 "2018-11-14T13:49:19Z")

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Had similar problems about a year ago with 2YO Samsung Galaxy S6. Battery capacity had dramatically decreased from new, and by that time, it would sometimes jump from indicating ~50% full to 1-2% full, and then powering down on its own. Replacing the battery solved the problem.