[Battery] Charging Issue

I have a 16GB hacktivated/unlocked ziphone 2.4 and I encountered a weird charging issue just today. I have charged my phone 2 times from empty before this incident. This time, when I placed my phone in the charging dock at near empty at night, I found it to be the same the next morning. It's as if the battery didn't charge at all. I thought maybe I didn't put it in the cradle correctly. So this afternoon, I placed it in the cradle again and came back to check after dinner (6 hrs later), and the icon still shows the same very low battery level as before. So this time I decided to power cycle my iphone. After which, the iphone showed full battery life. I tried searching the forums regarding this issue, but couldn't find anything. Would anyone know what would cause the misgauging of the battery life? I had no issues charging it the first two times.

On another note, will the iphone charge when it is turned off after being placed in the cradle? I noticed that placing a turned off iphone in the charging dock will cause it to turn on. Will it continue charging if I turn of the iphone after it is in the dock charging? TIA