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Love The Phone but...Battery Rant

Hey Guys,
I am usually just a silent observer on the boards and try and gain knowledge from all these amazing developers but my experience last night has pushed me to vent. I live Atlanta, and a Vendor had offered us some suite tickets to the Falcons Ravens game. Of course I would take those. Knowing this phone does not get the best battery life, I made sure to have the phone fully charged before I departed. I left the office at 5pm with a full charge. Throughout the night I would send a txt here and there and take a photo, nothing too strenuous I thought. As the game was coming to an end I looked down and saw that the phone was already in the yellow, not terrible since it should last me till I get to the car. I’m not thrilled because this means the phone charge has only lasted 6 hrs. I get off the mass transit station and go for my car key…..and it’s not there. I check all my pockets to find nothing. I am now screwed. No car, no phone, no charger. To cut the story short, I had to find a payphone (needle in a haystack) and call collect to my father, who has the only spare key. Needless to say he was not too please coming down at 2 am to get me out of the jam. I am just so furious that the phone died so quickly on me. It seems if I ever go out at night, if I’m not near a charger, that phone is dead within hours. Sorry for the rant, but its just the one major flaw about this phone. My old Tilt would last a couple days ( I know I know, small screen low processor) But a solid day out of these phones would be nice.

Do you manage the battery consumption by turning off unneeded features such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi? Have you set the screen timeout to a few seconds of idle time? The display is the biggest consumer of battery power. Finally, when I know I'll be away from a power source for more than 6 hours, I put a fully charged spare battery in my pocket.
FYI the Galaxy S has one of the best batteries for a smart phone. With careful use and battery management, I routinely get 16 hours before a yellow warning.

I had much of your same problem in the first few weeks of having the captivate, prompting me to go buy two extra batteries and a charger off ebay ($10). I feel that upgrading to cognition 2.2 and using the task manager to stop facebook and such from always updating has saved a lot of life, and my phone will last a day to a day and a half on a single charge, so long as I put it into flight mode at night. then I just shut the phone down, switch out batteries, and turn it back on.

I have the screen set at the lowest possible brightness (11%). When i am out i never have bluetooth or wifi on. Perhpas there was a runaway app that was draining the battery. I have never gotten 16 hrs though. My max is about 12, and thats if i dont make any phone calls. You start making calls, it just kills the battery life on my phone. I did use to have a spare battery on my tilt, i might have to do the same with this phone.

It's most likely because your phone is not sleeping when the screen is off.
Download the "Spare Parts" app or just enter *#*#4696#*#* in your dialer and check out the "Battery History". If the Running % is almost full (around 80%-100%) during a day's use, your phone isn't sleeping when the screen is off which means battery is draining. Give it a reboot when that happens, but the known cause I've found was that WiFi causes this issue.

Are you sure you weren't losing signal when you were in the arena? When you lose signal the phone constantly searches for a signal causing your battery you drain.
I know in arenas you don't get a strong signal...
Just a thought

Turn on airplane mod when ur not really using your phone..

I have a great battery life. Especially when not using HSUPA. Try deleting your battery stats.

I typically see 12 to15% per hour drain with constant use.... meaning display is on all the time and I am on internet, phone laying idle overnight... 1%/hr tops. I do have a nice signal at home though... ranges from –70 to –85 so the modem is not working hard at all.

[Q] Go Launcher Ex?

Does this program drain battery? Had it on, and my battery was draining. Just want to make sure. I really like it to replacement stock launcher, but if it's going to kill the battery, might as well not keep it.

I use go launcher on both my phones and it doesn't use any more power than any of the other launchers do

Damnit, eerywhere I go Reg, your there to tell me that nothing I use is effecting my battery:/ this is my 3rd phone, I have no idea what I should do, factory reset?

my battery life sucked too when i first got the phone. i had been lurking this section since day one before i got the phone so i was aware of all the battery issues and possible fixes. so when i finally brought the phone home the first thing i did was made sure i did the setup wizard and immediately after i did a factory reset. then after doing the wizard again i restored all my apps and started using the phone. quickly noticed my battery life wasnt great so i downloaded the battery monitor widget and saw that the phone was constantly using 100+mA at all times. It was then that I decided to factory reset AGAIN. After doing that and reloading all my apps everything was fine. my phone uses 2mA at idle and fluctuates sometimes into the hundred but it always goes back down as it should. I also charged my phone to 100% then booted into clockworkrecoverymod and deleted the battery stats to insure the phone is reading the battery capacity accurately. No need to drain the battery and recharge it, thats just a waste of time. Now my battery is awesome. I lose 2-3% per hour idling and 1% every 10 minutes or so in actual use (assuming im not doing anything thats constantly using data connection).
Moral of the story... You prolly need to factory reset more than once because it didnt work for me till the second one.
Just for the sake of comparison.. My Vibrant loses 10% per hour idle and 1% every 2-3 minutes in use. So the battery like on the G2x is double if not more. Unless you have a defective phone or battery I dont see why the factory reset would only work for some people.

Okay, I think I'm going to do the factory reset, I won't lose my superuser functionalities or root right? Or BloatFreezer apps etc.?

You wont lose root. All your apps will be gone though so make sure you back them up with either titanium backup or mybackup pro. if i were you id install battery monitor widget and monitor that for an hour or 2 letting it idle to see if its still sucking juice for no reason and also use it for a good amount of time to make sure the mA go back down when you let it idle. that way you dont restore your stuff only to find the reset didnt work.

Sounds good, thanks for the advice man, will try this tomorrow!

So far it's not bad, it's at 1ma really when I'm idle, but as soon as I walked into my school building, I got 20ma, wtf? Is it maybe because my connection in school sucks? The cell standby went from 48% to 78%, can this be why?!

Mikeglongo said:
So far it's not bad, it's at 1ma really when I'm idle, but as soon as I walked into my school building, I got 20ma, wtf? Is it maybe because my connection in school sucks? The cell standby went from 48% to 78%, can this be why?!
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Yes. Weaker signals will make your phone poll for a better signal more often. It'll be searching for other towers more frequently.

Correct. So dont pay it too much mind. The phones power useage will fluctuate. What's important is that it's not consistantly using 100+ mA. All the time. I've seen my mA usage go up to 40-50 while idle yet when I checked back moments later it was back down to 1. This is normal behavior.
via LG G2x

Okay, good well right now it's constant at around 10-15 ma, woke up at around 9 with 97% and now at 93% at 11:30 with a few text messages and browsing, I actually think that's a lot better than the past few days. Let's hope it stays that way

Consider your battery drain fixed then. I should note that my idling at 1-2mA is when connected to strong wifi. Your slightly higher consumption is more than likely due to less than great signal strength. Never the less.. you should find that your battery life increases dramatically. Even with 3 bars of 3g here at work I only lost 5% in 3 hours of idling.
via LG G2x

Kudos, I will report if anything changes, because it is only 2 hours into the day

GummyCharged and battery Drain Issue

I know this has been discussed in the Gummycharge thread, but its buried pretty deep.
I know kej said that it has to do with the gallery, but I have uninstalled the Gallery3D.apk using the toolbox and I still seem to be losing about 10% per hour with the phone sitting idle on my desk.
Is there something we can use to quantify the appropriate battery drain rate? We all use our phones differently, so we need a way to standardize the battery drain so we can discuss it.
I saw someone mentioned that they were only losing 2% per hour while idle.
Currently, If i unplug the phone, and leave it sit for an hour (after a full charge) with only wifi on (gps, and bluetooth off) I lose about 10% per hour. If i use the phone at all, for example, When i wake up in the morning after a full charge and read the latest XDA posts, or some news articles, I can go from 100% to 85% in about 20 min.
this doesnt seem right.
Can we consolidate the battery drain issue to this post and post fixes and discuss reasons here?

This should have been posted in General first off.
Also, do you have SpareParts installed? If so, use that to check if your phone is entering sleep mode. You may have an app that is preventing your phone from sleeping, which will cause excessive battery drain like you are experiencing. My battery drain is <<1%/hr in airplane mode (I lose 1-2% over 8-9hrs in airplane mode) and when not in airplane mode, I'd say I loose at most 2-3%/hr if the phone is only sitting idle and I'm not using it.

imnuts said:
This should have been posted in General first off.
Also, do you have SpareParts installed? If so, use that to check if your phone is entering sleep mode. You may have an app that is preventing your phone from sleeping, which will cause excessive battery drain like you are experiencing. My battery drain is <<1%/hr in airplane mode (I lose 1-2% over 8-9hrs in airplane mode) and when not in airplane mode, I'd say I loose at most 2-3%/hr if the phone is only sitting idle and I'm not using it.
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OK cool, I wasnt sure if this was a general issue or not. Can a Mod move it? Or should I just delete and Remake?
Ive looked in spare parts and Im not sure where it would give that information, under battery history ive got running at 38.2%, screen on 25.2% phone on 14.5% and wifi on 100%
nothing mentions sleep mode

imnuts said:
This should have been posted in General first off.
Also, do you have SpareParts installed? If so, use that to check if your phone is entering sleep mode. You may have an app that is preventing your phone from sleeping, which will cause excessive battery drain like you are experiencing. My battery drain is <<1%/hr in airplane mode (I lose 1-2% over 8-9hrs in airplane mode) and when not in airplane mode, I'd say I loose at most 2-3%/hr if the phone is only sitting idle and I'm not using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get a drain of about 3-4% an hour if mine sits. However I leave it on LTE and at the office there is no LTE service yet. Yeah I'm just lazy......lol.
Curious on your SpareParts thing tho. I've never used it much really. Where does it show/display whether or not it is going into sleep mode. now I'm kinda curiosu if mine is correctly or not. Not that I'm very concerned about 4% and hr as I make it threw a full day fine. TIA

msticlaru said:
OK cool, I wasnt sure if this was a general issue or not. Can a Mod move it? Or should I just delete and Remake?
Ive looked in spare parts and Im not sure where it would give that information, under battery history ive got running at 38.2%, screen on 25.2% phone on 14.5% and wifi on 100%
nothing mentions sleep mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's not running, it's sleeping. You're battery drain is likely caused by wifi being one 100%. If you are leaving the cell radio on, LTE, and also wifi, that is 3 radios on all at once, draining power.

imnuts said:
If it's not running, it's sleeping. You're battery drain is likely caused by wifi being one 100%. If you are leaving the cell radio on, LTE, and also wifi, that is 3 radios on all at once, draining power.
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Click to collapse
is that just an issue with the charge? with my Incredible, leaving wifi on saved battery as it did not need to talk to the cell tower and try to get a 3g signal. Also, Before I flashed, I was able to sit all day in school and still be at %80ish power.
I will see what turning wifi off does.. but to be perfectly honest. that seems a little inefficient, that would mean every time i turn on the phone to use it, i would have to turn on wifi and sync, then turn it back off again.
For example, since I wrote this post, my battery has gone from 87% to 70%. 17% in 66 min even with wifi on, that cant be "normal drain". And All i have done is looked at 2 text messages.
Please do not get me wrong, I am not complaining at all. but I would like to get to the bottom of this.
I was on my way to the store to return the charge I hated it so much, but after flashing gummy and your kernel, I love the thing more than any phone ive ever had. So please do not mis-judge my intentions here. I simply want to know if this is normal. In my experience with sell phones (Droid Incredible for over a year, Wife has htc thunderbolt, and now the charge both stock and now custom rom) It is draining much much faster than any phone I have used before.
If this is normal, then I will just deal with it.
I am going to put it in airplane mode for the next hour and see what happens

It is def something in connectivity. Still at 75% after 1 hour in airplane mode. going go turn on 3g only and check again in 30 min.
I was going through battery stats and saw that wifi ON was at 100% and Wifi running was also at 100%..
seems like maybe somethign is using my data. so if that is true, it should try while on 3g and I should get huge battery drain.
will report back

Dude you are NOT alone. my phone drains like a siv, when its nt even being used. I always have LTE off, unless i tether wifi and I always plug it in when i tether so i dont drain. Itll just sit and be idle with NO use and lose 30%. i have gps, wifi and bluetooth off..... wth? this phone is looking ro get returned if i cant sort it out. i cant sit on a charger all the time.

If you are running Gummy, the gallery thing should not be an issue anymore (he fixed it a few versions ago).
When you go into spare parts, go to battery history and change to sensor usage. That will tell you immediately if you have some app that is draining your battery (ie the Gallery).
For the most part the battery killer for people is network searching. 3G,4G and WiFi are all in the same boat in that they will kill your battery if your phone has to constantly scan for them. To my knowledge using WiFi is better on power than 3/4G, but that is only if you are connected to a good signal and your phone doesn't have to search.
Also, I have noticed that the WiFi antenna on my charge isn't all that good, so you may want to keep an eye on it during your day. You may find that it is losing WiFi and scanning without you realizing.

The LTE radio in the Charge can be a huge hog. Especially if your in an area that likes to switch between 4G and 3G. Both my work and my home switch between 3G and 4G a lot and its not uncommon to see my phone drain almost 10% in an hour. On a good day it will be 5% an hour with LTE enabled. With mobile data and wifi off it can go down 0-2% per hour.

As far as I know, this is most likely just a sign of the Charge's battery. I'm not sure what Engadget was smoking in their review, but my Charge gets pretty horrendous battery life, especially in areas with dodgy signal (think constant switching between 3G and 4G). This is the first phone I've bought extra cables for charging in the car and office, but honestly, with these things getting as crazy as they are, I think this might be the norm in the future, what with battery technology lagging behind so much.
Some tips I've learned: turn the Wi-Fi radio off when not in use, and if you're in a really low-coverage area, consider even turning data off (you'll still be able to receive calls).

I live in NY, which is absolutely blanketed by 4g. I get better 4g reception than 3g in some places. I am getting horrific battery life. I just wiped, then mounted each partition individually and wiped and then reinstalled gummy 1.8.5 and per imnuts' recommendation, not install the reboot options. I had a custom rom on this phone within an hour of purchasing this phone, so I can't compare stock to a custom rom's battery life. I just know over the few days I've had this phone, my battery has been terrible. I shudder to think what the Thunderbolt must be like.

Your battery may be draining fast the first boot. Just reboot it. If that doesn't work then it didnt flash properly. Just reflash everything and remember to clear data, cache... hope it helps.
You can download an overclocking app and reduce battery use IF you already solved the battery drain problem.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

DC hardware/software issue nad warrany replacement?

Hello everyone
Im new in Dc area, switch from Dx and here are problems i got almost from start.
So my question after i explain everything is should i repalce my DC or look for more solutions on forums, and thank you for any help.
Here are the problems i run on:
Im on unlimited voice/data/hot spot plan, after walking out of store, playing some time with Dc i noticed my data serive would drop and no connectivity to net, had to toggle of/on data switch, or reboot phone to start work.
Second proble i noticed was batter life, Dc was hooked up all day do car mount with charger pluged in, and at the end of day battery wasnt eeven charge fully, and after shutting down phone and putting asaide for few hours, battery was almost dead.
Third annynoing thing is, phone was by itself redialing same number over and over until i did batter pull.
And some other minor issues.
Same things happend when was on stock or running leaked Gb from MDW.
Thanks in advance for any help

I've never had the issues you are refering to. My data drops sometimes, but has never required a reboot to come back on, it usually comes back in a few seconds.
As for the battery draining while charging, was it in use all day? playing music, navigating, screen on. Was it hot? battery will not charge if it is too hot, its a safety feature as Li-ion batteries are a run-away exothermic melt down if they ignite.
Dialing the same number over and over, I've never heard of such a thing.
If it was me I would try and get it replaced.

[Q] Odd battery life situation

I've always been reasonably happy with my battery life. If I use it heavily it goes down. If I don't it can stay charged for a couple of days. Within the last week or so that has dramatically changed. All of a sudden it barely makes it through the night from a full charge to 10% or so. It also "seems" that normal use drains it at least twice as fast. Anecdotal but I know something is wrong or different.
I haven't made any changes to my phone for months. I'm running existz kernal for 2.2 and that is the only customization. I did get a bunch of app updates but that always happens. The battery use screen shows the batter is being used for display but over night, it doesn't/shouldn't display much.
Thoughts on how to find what the heck is going on would be appreciated.

Use spare parts app and find out battery stats on partial wake clock usage and sensors usage
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

What I would do if I were you is charge to 100%, recalibrate, and take the battery out for about 15 minutes before you put it back in and turn your phone on. I dunno.why this procedure worked for me but that's just a suggestion if you don't wanna flash to stock and back to whatever you're using.

Uninstall updates, then add them back, one at a time.

KMan94 said:
I've always been reasonably happy with my battery life. If I use it heavily it goes down. If I don't it can stay charged for a couple of days. Within the last week or so that has dramatically changed. All of a sudden it barely makes it through the night from a full charge to 10% or so. It also "seems" that normal use drains it at least twice as fast. Anecdotal but I know something is wrong or different.
I haven't made any changes to my phone for months. I'm running existz kernal for 2.2 and that is the only customization. I did get a bunch of app updates but that always happens. The battery use screen shows the batter is being used for display but over night, it doesn't/shouldn't display much.
Thoughts on how to find what the heck is going on would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I notice dramatically different battery life when I use this procedure to charge my phone known as a bump charge.
1) charge to 100% or as close as your phone will get while it is on.
2) Disconnect charger
3)Turn off phone
4)Re-Connect charger while phone is off
5) Wait until the phone says 100% charged while it is off. You can check the charge by using the volume buttons if the screen is asleep.
6) Unplug charger. (This is important. If you boot your phone with your charger plugged in it can give you inaccurate battery information.)
7) Boot up the phone.

That is really odd but mine has started doing the exact same thing. I have never had battery issues and for the first time today my phone was completely dead within 6 hours, and the past week it seems to hardly make it 12 hours.
I was just assuming it was the launcher I was using but I removed it and it never helped whatsoever.

mrhaley30705 said:
Uninstall updates, then add them back, one at a time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would agree with you on that but... I really have no idea what all got updated and don't know how to find out. the perils of auto-update I suppose.

capocaccia said:
I notice dramatically different battery life when I use this procedure to charge my phone known as a bump charge.
1) charge to 100% or as close as your phone will get while it is on.
2) Disconnect charger
3)Turn off phone
4)Re-Connect charger while phone is off
5) Wait until the phone says 100% charged while it is off. You can check the charge by using the volume buttons if the screen is asleep.
6) Unplug charger. (This is important. If you boot your phone with your charger plugged in it can give you inaccurate battery information.)
7) Boot up the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give that a try... it made it through last night in pretty good shape though. Confused I am.

Not sure if this helps or not, but here is my experience.
I have two wireless routers in my house. One I keep locked to N-only and the other to G-Only. The N router I have suspected for some time has a weak or flaky radio because I can watch the signal strength fluctuate wildly over a period of 10 seconds or so. I noticed a while back that when my phone is connected to the N router it will kill itself pretty much overnight. When I disable that connection and let it connect to the G router it only loses a couple % over an 8 hour period.
I don't know if it is due to being connected to N, or if my suspected flaky router is causing it to use more power staying locked onto the signal or something of that sort.