Lumia 950XL - battery bulges - overheating problem

Anonymous
2016-08-28T08:26:05+00:00

I'm posting this to share my 950XL experience with users. I've become too aware that MS don't care.  Unlike other brands, we are clearly users and not "fans" or "supporters".

Purchased on 3rd Dec 2015, on the first day.  Immediate overheating and battery drain problems, plus lots of "teething" issues with the OS.  Phone would get very hot and run the battery flat in 4 hours from full charge, even with no apps.  So notable you feel the phone heat up in your pocket, without any interaction.

From Dec - March 2016 (approx.) I am applying updates and reinstalling OS on a nearly daily basis.  Every OS update is being followed with interest, as it seems most of the 950XL community is waiting for this problem to be resolved.  Spending hours on the internet using MS support chat and phone calls.  Using the Device Recovery Tool allows the phone to work for a short while, but it would soon slip in to the old patterns.  Spend many days using my old Lumia 920.

19th March - Phone gets sent to Hungary for a repair.  this involves Software update only.  It comes back with no noticeable changes.  Soon afterwards an OS update seems to stabilise the phone.

Early July - Big update is applied automatically and the old problems return.  Now there are new problems:

  • Phone is shutting down in my pocket.  Sometimes it restarts (apparent as sign-in screen says it has restarted and PIN is required), sometimes it stays off!!!! 
  • Screen often flickers to a dull yellow, as if the green element has been removed from the display (I realise this isn't the case, but that what it looks like).
  • The phone sometimes locks in different ways: 

1:  The whole screen goes green / yellow.  All buttons are inoperable.  The phone gets hotter and hotter.  Battery drains by 40+% in less than a minute.

2:  The screen goes black and the phone buzzes so loudly, i'm not sure if it is the speaker or the vibration element that is actuating.  Same battery drain impact.

  • When the phone is at 40%, sometimes it will show the battery empty icon and shut down...  Cannot restart and the same icon is showing.  Put phone on to charge and it will be at 80-100% within 5 mins and last for a few hours at normal battery usage.

Since this last problem, all battery monitoring tools are showing the battery as behaving well (5-9% drain per hour), but the power remaining in the battery is shown as depleting faster than that.

I had noticed that the battery was not perfectly flat within a few weeks of getting the phone, but it seemed to match the case.  The battery now has a noticeable bulge on both sides.  Approximately 1mm+ deflection on both sides. 

MS have now arranged for another collection by UPS to repair it.  Well....   my wife received an unhelpful message barked down the phone, giving a collection reference for the day we go on holiday.  Couldn't change the date.  Couldn't postpone it.  Couldn't do anything other than take the reference and call UPS. 

THIS PHONE HAS NEVER BEEN FIT FOR PURPOSE.  For personal reasons I need to be contactable by my family 24/7 - Everyone knows how important a working smartphone is in today's society/business communities.  Having a phone turn itself off in your pocket makes it worse than useless.

MS have strung out their repairs and reassurances for months. 

MS spends millions in advertising, so why p*** off the very users who promote their products without cost?  People buying an EXPENSIVE flagship phone expect teething issues and updates (all part of being an early adopter), but being treated like this will be costing MS many loyal customers.

I'm desperate for MS to resolve this and sort out their customer care (not "support"...  CARE!)  I want to have a Windows ecosystem throughout my house and keep iTunes out, but that is becoming less likely.

Windows for home | Other | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-01-04T18:17:27+00:00

    I have the exact same problem with random restarts and battery bulge. I know for certain that the battery is the issue as after swapping my battery with the one from my significant others 950 XL I no longer face any issues. To address this I have tried contacting Microsoft support by phone. They don't help. They point you to multiple websites such as Microsoft.com/mobile and support.b2x.com. B2X simply doesn't call you back if you request it, I had to try multiple times before the online chat functionality worked. After acknowledging my issue they noted the 6 month battery warranty and said they couldn't help me. They also wont sell me a battery.

    So let me get this straight MS

    You outsource all mobile device support to this joke of a company B2X then you continue to ignore all of the issues your customers are facing and absolve yourself of all responsibility to help and instead point everyone to B2X. You also put a 6 month warranty on an essential component of the device and even though you know 6 months isn't long enough for the battery to bulge and go bad you don't care, nice! And to top it all off there are no licensed sellers of the battery in the world! Fantastic!

    Whether intentional or not, after jumping on to the surface book, lumia 920, 1020, 950 XL and every operating system since MS DOS I'm about done. I am beyond disappointed in their lack of care for their customers when it comes to their lumia devices.

    Anyone up for a class action suit? On second thought, that would require a  significant number of people to have actually bought the phone in the first place :L

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-12-04T22:11:01+00:00

    The answer of "Update the phone software" is the worst answer than anybody can make. It's simple, this device has a design fail in the battery. And this is not a question of guarantee, this is a question of resposability, you can not make a device, which is (or was when I bought it) 700 Euros, and the battery bulges, the phone restarts or shutdowns. I have my 950XL since Febreruary.. now I'm using my old 925 (this is a sign of customer loyalty) but Microsoft has no loyalty to their customers. The less you can make is a compensation to all the people who has been cheated with this phone!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-04T04:39:33+00:00

    No idea if that would fix mine. Have purchased a Huawei P9 Lite and am happy. Especially with being able to get all these nice apps. Microsoft promised that this would be addressed with BRIDGE but so far....

    Missing the fantastic camera though.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-04T03:26:30+00:00

    I had the problem associated with over heating and random restarts. The my phone battery could not hold a charge and the battery bulged. I finally got a new battery. Now my Lumia 950xl works fine and I am happy.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-11-03T22:23:49+00:00

    Did the new battery solve the problem?

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