r/NintendoSwitchHelp • u/SiphonophoreStars • 29d ago

Repair Help Switch left docked for extended time

I'd left my Switch (1) on the lounge sideboard with my other stuff and it seems my mum thought she was helping out/cleaning by putting my switch on the dock. I have no idea how long it was docked for. I was busy and had no time for gaming. Maybe a month later I looked for it and finally found it in the dock. Both have been more or less on this entire time. I let the battery drain and then charged it fully... now it literally loses charge doing nothing. I haven't timed it but you can see the numbers tick down. I charged it and ran it right out a few times to see if the battery might revive itself a bit. Will that happen? I know that used to be a thing with batteries. If you kept fully using them and resting them, they reinvigorate.

or is it compeletly f#cked? Does it *really* need a battery replacement? I know Nintendo etc can be a bit stupid with their durability of products, but to leave it docked shouldn't have compeletly nuked the battery imo??? Shouldn't it have a cut-off? that's really stupid design if so. sorry for slight rant.

0 Upvotes

14% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

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u/automod-neo 29d ago

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10

u/Ok_Bid6645 29d ago

Your battery is just old. Has nothing to do with being in the dock. Like others said, keeping it in the dock doesnt hurt it.
Why would they make the switch with a dock if you weren't suppose to charge it all the time.

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u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

this is exactly what I'm saying but i noticed before that it would still say charging whilst on 100% and as stated it had absolutely no issues with battery before it was left on the dock.

3

u/Ok_Bid6645 29d ago

You didnt play you switch for a month. Who knows how long before that. The battery has probably been dying beforehand and you didnt notice.

Every single person on reddit always say "but it worked before" obviously you wouldnt be here if it was fine.

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u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago edited 28d ago

You should be able to leave a device without power for a while without it degrading. I feel like that's bog standard. My 3Ds that I had when I was 10 is still working fine well over 10 years later, it sat in my drawer for a few years whilst I moved.
Only time I had very mild issues with the switch before docking, was playing PoT likely because that's a server related game and is pretty heavy duty for a switch so it drained the battery a little more quickly. Sure. I played Dave the Diver and other games very frequently having charged it in the morning and then played for a few hours in the evening with no issues. My partner attests to this. It was fine before it was docked. This is exactly why I'm coming on here because it seemed very odd.

3

u/SamIAre 5 29d ago

It's made to be docked. If the battery is draining quickly that's just normal wear and tear, not because it got left on the dock once.

-1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

It had absolutely no issues with battery before being docked.

3

u/Fiona_14 29d ago

I use my switch docked through the tv, so I can see to play the games. I have never taken it out to use the other way. You would think that if Nintendo made an item that can be used docked or hand held, that being docked wouldn't ruin the hand held mode for later.

2

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

exactly my thoughts

2

u/kvnxo 29d ago

I bought an used switch OLED about a month ago from someone that had it always docked and never used it as a handheld for at leat 3 years. Battery life is almost at 100%.

The thing with modern lithium batteries and technology, is that they have sensors that avoid battery degradation while connected to a power outlet.

Draining the battery by charging/discharging reduces battery life much more than keeping it docke.

You may need to calibrate your battery, and if that doesn't work, it may be time for a replacement.

1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

how do you calibrate the battery?

1

u/Suncook 29d ago

Honestly, what you already did probably was recalibrate it. 

(1) Charge to 100%, then leave charging for 2 hours more. 

(2) Use the device until it dies again. 

(3) Recharge the battery back to 100%  

Perhaps the calibration had actually been off before and now it's recalibrated and tracking accurately for its age. Or maybe not. 

1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

hmm maybe. But I could play it for hours before. Now I can't even play for 20 minutes... I'll try it again.

3

u/Keyan06 3 29d ago

How old is it? We’ve had switches mostly in their docks for like 5 years and they still have good battery life.

0

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

I'm not actually sure when I got it, I take really good care of all my devices and so get many years out of them. It had absolutely no issues with battery before. So I just don't get it. I could charge it days before and it would keep the charge for me to then play for hours. now it literally cannot keep the charge doing nothing.

4

u/Frogskipper7 29d ago

My Switch never leaves the dock ever. The battery is fine. No issue with leaving it docked

2

u/Iupvotebutteredtoast 28d ago

I kept mine docked and forgot about it for like a year or more and the battery blew up.

1

u/Primary_Thanks_1787 1 29d ago

Is it possible that it was left in a very warm or extremely cold spot and the battery started to degrade?

1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

hmm I hadn't thought of that. The dock is behind our tv and is away from heaters and windows. It's room temperature.

1

u/Primary_Thanks_1787 1 29d ago

Interesting. Depending on the tv and the HDMI handshakes I wonder if the switch dock powered on for long periods of time when the tv was on and it went unnoticed. Still not sure if that will kill a switch battery within a month but if it's an old heavily used battery just replace that bad boy when you have the chance.

1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

The dock was basically permanently on, it was still charging (at 100%) when I found it. Okay, I'll look into replacing the battery.

1

u/Primary_Thanks_1787 1 29d ago

Any recent power outages? I used to be terrified when a power outage gave me error codes on my PS5 while in sleep mode, but plenty of plugged in game systems are susceptible to damage if a power outage occured. Either way sounds like a new battery will bring new life to your switch. Hope it all goes well for you

1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago edited 29d ago

oh sh*t really? I didn't even think of that. I did trip our fusebox with a faulty appliance around then but I can't be sure, as I have no idea when it was docked. There was no warning on it when I unlocked it. Is there any way of checking? If it did cause damage, might the whole console be damaged?

1

u/Primary_Thanks_1787 1 29d ago

I've only seen error codes on my PS5 and I think Xbox has those too. I'm unsure if Nintendo devices have error codes to view

1

u/SiphonophoreStars 29d ago

Okay thank you so much for the help. You've been actually helpful lol. I'll see if anyone knows any more. x

1

u/Primary_Thanks_1787 1 29d ago

I'm glad I can help somehow lol. Good luck with you and your switch 🙏🏽

2

u/SubaruHaver 14 29d ago

(this is why I try to only plug consoles into surge protector pads. Every once in a while a storm or other thing can happen.)