[Q] Battery life horrendous - Microsoft Surface

Hi all
I've tried 2 Surface RT's now, and both have horrendous battery problems. I've tried refreshing them, resetting them, installing all updates, turning off Bluetooth and many of the live tiles, but still the battery lasts at most 24 hours. There's nothing much installed, just a few apps (ebay, Flixster, a book reader), I have two email accounts (Hotmail and an exchange account), and that's about the lot. All updates have been performed, but still, on two separate units, the battery life is so bad that I'm thinking I can't use this as my daily tablet.
I've done the powercfg -energy test, and I get 2 errors - one is that the Nvidia Wave Device driver is preventing the system from sleeping, and the other being for high utilisation (between 18%-30%). If I turn the volume off, the Nvidia driver warning disappears, but the battery life is still poor and I don't know why the volume would need to be off when not in use. I can't find any other apps that rely on this driver (it's a speaker driver as far as I can tell), so I'm well and truly stumped.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this Nvidia driver problem?
Thanks

Do you use any music apps or web pages on the tablet? If music is playing, or even paused, the app may prevent sleep. However, generally speaking, such apps should be suspended when idle for any meaningful period of time.
Even with some third-party Win32 programs running in the background on my Surface RT ("jailbroken" and then installing things like MirandaIM, which don't get suspended automatically) the tablet lasts at least three days if fully charged when I put it to sleep (I don't usually try to push the battery life, so I'm not sure what the max is) and without background network-connected processes it lasts for over a week.

Hi
Thanks for taking the time to reply. No music apps are or have been running. Since wiping it all and starting from scratch just last Thursday I've only used it for emails, web browsing and reading books on a book reader. Just can't understand why I've had such bad battery results with two separate units!

My guess would be along the lines of what GoodDayToDie said, some app you use is probably holding a wakelock on the device.
Can you list out the non-MS apps you're using to see if we might be able to find out if it is one or not?

Morning
The only apps I've installed from the store are ebay, Flixster, Book Bazaar Reader and Facebook.
Maybe I'll try to uninstall these, running the powercfg -energy report after every uninstallation. I'll report back!

tjjpowles said:
Morning
The only apps I've installed from the store are ebay, Flixster, Book Bazaar Reader and Facebook.
Maybe I'll try to uninstall these, running the powercfg -energy report after every uninstallation. I'll report back!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, all apps listed above removed, ran the powercfg -energy report and still getting the Nvidia driver error, and processor utilisation at over 20%. No apps were running in background, and same results even when volume was off.
Am completely at a loss now!

Have you run Windows Update? Normally it's not even optional (you can disable it if you use the registry, but that's the only way) but the only thing that comes to mind is that your tablet may be missing some required driver update or something... that's very odd though; I haven't heard of any such problem from anybody else.
Given that the nominal runtime of Surface RT when not in sleep mode is 8-12 hours, you're definitely not going to have a good experience if sleep mode isn't working. Technically you *can* shut down the tablet between uses - it boots up very quickly, at least - but that's a pain compared to sleep mode.

GoodDayToDie said:
Have you run Windows Update? Normally it's not even optional (you can disable it if you use the registry, but that's the only way) but the only thing that comes to mind is that your tablet may be missing some required driver update or something... that's very odd though; I haven't heard of any such problem from anybody else.
Given that the nominal runtime of Surface RT when not in sleep mode is 8-12 hours, you're definitely not going to have a good experience if sleep mode isn't working. Technically you *can* shut down the tablet between uses - it boots up very quickly, at least - but that's a pain compared to sleep mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Yes, I have run all updates, including the firmware update dated early April. I have looked for updates in both the normal 'tablet' mode and also by going into the update section of the desktop. So everything is uptodate, all of my apps from the app store have been uninstalled, but still the Nvidia driver error reports that it won't enter sleep mode and processor utilisation remains high.
As stated in my first post, I currently have two of these tablets to play with, and I have exactly the same issue on both, so I think we can rule out hardware problems, leaving some sort of software glitch. I did see this Nvidia problem on another forum, but the guy who posted it later reported that it simply went away, so that doesn't ger me anywhere.
It seems like a great piece of kit, but it'll be going if I can't resolve the battery issue.

Hi
Although I don't have any battery drainage I have to confirm that I have the same 2 errors despite the fact that I have all the updates. Can anyone else confirm if they have these errors?

That's odd. If you have the same errors but not the same battery drainage, I wonder what is causing my battery drainage and how I could check this out?
It does definitely seem to be linked to my driver error. The same problem has returned - the Nvidia driver error reporting its preventing sleep mode when the volume is on. When volume is off, that error disappears and battery life seems a little better.

Have played around with it some more, but same issue still present on both of the Surface RT's I have - battery drain unbearable. I have to ensure volume is off whenever closing the lid/pressing power button to put it into sleep mode just to try and see sleep mode actually kicking in.
If I had installed lots of third party apps I could understand some battery loss, but given they have both had full wipes, all updates installed and haven't got any apps installed other than pre-loaded ones, I just don't understand how I have the same issue on both machines. Only other thing to try would be removing my email accounts, but then there would be no point at all in keeping it!
Does anyone have any suggestions at all? If not, I think it will be time to see them going.

My only thought is incredibly bad luck and both devices have the same hardware fault.

My surface sips battery. Have never had any issues with battery

cx1 said:
My surface sips battery. Have never had any issues with battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That must be nice, both of mine use so much juice they render themselves useless!
I can't think it's a hardware issue on both, especially as the huge loss of power seems linked to when the volume is on 2 or above and sleep mode is for some reason prevented.
Anyway it seems there may be no solution to whatever software glitch I have, and all of this has very much made me look at the Surface with a huge amount of disgust, so I think I'll go back to my Galaxy Note which just doesn't have such ridiculous issues as these units.

Well no-one else seems to be experiencing these issues so whatever is wrong is something with your devices. I would contact the vendor.

SixSixSevenSeven said:
Well no-one else seems to be experiencing these issues so whatever is wrong is something with your devices. I would contact the vendor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same hardware fault on two devices when the error report is linked to Nvidia wave device driver error preventing the units from going into sleep mode? Doesn't seem all that likely to me. I still think it's a software error, as this was reported also by somebody on a different forum, but with no clear resolution.
Thanks anyway.

Apart from the error, good practice for saving battery life can also be setting the screen brightness to low. In your Nvidia settings do you have the option to enable and disable power saving?

tjjpowles said:
The same hardware fault on two devices when the error report is linked to Nvidia wave device driver error preventing the units from going into sleep mode? Doesn't seem all that likely to me. I still think it's a software error, as this was reported also by somebody on a different forum, but with no clear resolution.
Thanks anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One could argue that the software error is environmental, as it only seems to be a minority experiencing this issue. There could be a hardware fault though, don't discount just because it is two devices, you could have been incredibly unlucky and received two devices that just happen to have the exact same fault.

Well I've done some more playing about with the device, and it seems my battery drain issue seems linked with my work email account. If I am just running my normal Hotmail account, battery drain seems fine. When I add my work Exchange email/diary account, the battery drains like nothing on earth. Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that to even get this work email account working, I had to get our IT chap to send me the security certificate for me to install.
Not sure if anyone might be able to suggest a way of having push emails still running on my work email account without the battery draining hugely?

Related

The thread of Known Issues

This forum seems to be really negative. And it scares people away. I don't want to start a thread that says "OMG, I love this phone so much" because nobody wants to read that and, well I don't love a phone that much. So I figure why not have a thread that has all the known issues? So people can have a better idea of what to expect.
Well, to start off, I want to say there is no perfect phone in this market. Every phone has issues. Anyway, you will use it for only 18 months and then throw it away. So don't act like you are making a life decision.
1. hardware related
(1) Random shut down.
Possibility: 1/5. Reported by some users. I personally never have this issue.
Solution: exchange for a new one.
(2) Poor battery life.
Possibility: 5/5. Don't have high hopes on battery because it is a huge smart phone. But don't freak out if it only lasts for 5 hours in the first day. It will get better (much better) after several cycles.
Solution: There are tricks all over the internet.
(3) Soft key backlighting isn’t tied to screen timeout
Possibility: 5/5. Soft key backlight time is about 2s. It can't be changed, no matter what the screen timeout is.
Solution: none.
2. software related
(1) Performance Lag.
Possibility: 4/5. As powerful as this phone is, you will feel sluggish once in a while. For example, transition delay, touch response delay. Most annoying: phone freezes when installing apps from the market.
Solution: by using Launch Pro or ADW, you can have a better and smoother experience. But the phone still freezes when installing apps. All you can do is to wait for the installation to finish. Things might get better after the 2.2 update. But there is no official date for Froyo in the US market yet, so I can't say that's a solution.
(2) GPS
Possibility: 4.5/5. Seems like lot of users have this problem. Few users claim theirs are fine.
Solution: None. Samsung promises a fix by the end of Sept.
(3) Sideload apps
Possibility: 5/5. You can't install out-of-market apps.
Solution: You can root. If you don't want to ruin your warranty (I don't), you can use Sideload Wonder Machine. I used it for Genie Widget and Angry Bird. Both worked fine.
(4) Calendar
Possibility: 5/5. When adding an event, the default calendar is the locally "My calendar". And it won't get synced to your online calendar. You have to manually change it to your gmail calendar EVERY TIME.
Solution: none.
(5) Browser brightness setting
Possibility: 5/5. There is a separate brightness setting for browser. It could be annoying when the screen has different level of brightness.
Solution: none.
(6) Music player
Possibility: 4/5. Stock music player doesn't recognize playlist. You might be frustrated to find an alternative one. you may have to pay for a music player.
Solution: I want to say none. You can always find one in the market. But it was not a pleasant experience for me.
(7) status bar trick
Possibility: 2.5/5. You can slide on your status bar to change the brightness. It could be a welcome trick or annoying feature. Screen brightness is so important to your precious battery life, sometimes you don't want to accidentally slide on your status bar.
Solution: none. You can love it or hate it.
I just want to list all the issues that you'll have. Potential buyers can make their own judgement. Please reply if you can think of any other problems. But please don't say things like "you can always root" or "flash your rom", or "there is an fix coming soon".
[update] A lot of the items I listed were not defective issues. But they could be complaints. They could be something you don't like and you can't find a way to change. And i don't care if it's from AT&T or from Samsung or from Google. As long as it might be a problem, I am listing it here.
Calendar:
Does not recognize phone numbers or URLs in any part of calendar event (no click to call or launch web page)
Contacts:
Looking up GAL contact (global address list) only available from compose email screen, and only returns email, not phone number.
Email:
No control over which folders sync (Exchange); No select all option; other minor issues
mwxiao said:
Well, to start off, I want to say there is no perfect phone in this market. Every phone has issues. Anyway, you will use it for only 18 months and then throw it away. So don't act like you are making a life decision.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Most new phones especially complicated ones have issues. But it would be nice for it to work as advertised.
We don't really know yet if some of these are software or hardware. The GPS issue for one looks like software but may turn out to be hardware. Too soon to tell. Let's hope they have a real fix for it because even though it is not critical, it is a useful multi-purpose tool that many of us rely on daily. I expect it to work. I am patiently waiting for the promised fix but if it doesn't prove reliable, I have to find a different phone.
Random shut downs. I returned one Captivate because of this. Again, hard to tell if its hardware or software but I am assuming hardware and returned mine.
Poor battery life. Not as much an issue as it is a relative expectation. Seems a lot of the faster Android devices and even the IP4 run out of juice pretty quickly. My BB 9700 will last twice as long but maybe that's because the screen is half the size, half the resolution and half the brightness.
Also, a handful of Captivates have a problem getting into recovery/download via the three button method. Only a handful as of now.
As for the software issues... well, let's hope we get plenty of good ROMs from Samsung and plenty of modded ROMs from the smart folks around here!
mwxiao said:
This forum seems to be really negative. And it scares people away. I don't want to start a thread that says "OMG, I love this phone so much" because nobody wants to read that and, well I don't love a phone that much. So I figure why not have a thread that has all the known issues? So people can have a better idea of what to expect.
Well, to start off, I want to say there is no perfect phone in this market. Every phone has issues. Anyway, you will use it for only 18 months and then throw it away. So don't act like you are making a life decision.
1. hardware related
(1) Random shut down.
Possibility: 1/5. Reported by some users. I personally never have this issue.
Solution: exchange for a new one.
(2) Poor battery life.
Possibility: 5/5. Don't have high hopes on battery because it is a huge smart phone. But don't freak out if it only lasts for 5 hours in the first day. It will get better (much better) after several cycles.
Solution: There are tricks all over the internet.
(3) Soft key backlighting isn’t tied to screen timeout
Possibility: 5/5. Soft key backlight time is about 2s. It can't be changed, no matter what the screen timeout is.
Solution: none.
2. software related
(1) Performance Lag.
Possibility: 4/5. As powerful as this phone is, you will feel sluggish once in a while. For example, transition delay, touch response delay. Most annoying: phone freezes when installing apps from the market.
Solution: by using Launch Pro or ADW, you can have a better and smoother experience. But the phone still freezes when installing apps. All you can do is to wait for the installation to finish. Things might get better after the 2.2 update. But there is no official date for Froyo in the US market yet, so I can't say that's a solution.
(2) GPS
Possibility: 4.5/5. Seems like lot of users have this problem. Few users claim theirs are fine.
Solution: None. Samsung promises a fix by the end of Sept.
(3) Sideload apps
Possibility: 5/5. You can't install out-of-market apps.
Solution: You can root. If you don't want to ruin your warranty (I don't), you can use Sideload Wonder Machine. I used it for Genie Widget and Angry Bird. Both worked fine.
(4) Calendar
Possibility: 5/5. When adding an event, the default calendar is the locally "My calendar". And it won't get synced to your online calendar. You have to manually change it to your gmail calendar EVERY TIME.
Solution: none.
(5) Browser brightness setting
Possibility: 5/5. There is a separate brightness setting for browser. It could be annoying when the screen has different level of brightness.
Solution: none.
(6) Music player
Possibility: 4/5. Stock music player doesn't recognize playlist. You might be frustrated to find an alternative one. you may have to pay for a music player.
Solution: I want to say none. You can always find one in the market. But it was not a pleasant experience for me.
(7) status bar trick
Possibility: 2.5/5. You can slide on your status bar to change the brightness. It could be a welcome trick or annoying feature. Screen brightness is so important to your precious battery life, sometimes you don't want to accidentally slide on your status bar.
Solution: none. You can love it or hate it.
I just want to list all the issues that you'll have. Potential buyers can make their own judgement. Please reply if you can think of any other problems. But please don't say things like "you can always root" or "flash your rom", or "there is an fix coming soon".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok well I want to address these one at a time
1) random shutdowns - true, seems very hit or miss on who it affects and how often.
2) poor battery life - I have to strongly disagree with this. almost everyone seems capable of eeking at least a day out of their battery even with heavy usage. if you aren't getting at least a day, either the battery or unit is defective in some astounding way or you're using GPS while streaming videos for 7 hours a day.
3) soft key timeout - this isn't an "issue." if the iPhone 4's antenna thing is a "total non-issue," so is this. it may not be the most sensible decision to have them on different timers (it would be preferred that we could manually set this), but this isn't an "issue," this is just personal preference. I personally don't mind it at all since I rarely press them when I'm using my screen, and if you truly use this phone, it isn't hard to remember where they are
1) performance lag - true, but I'm kind of willing to believe a lot of this will be fixed when froyo is released. to me, it's pretty obvious samsung is working on this since the JH2/JH3 builds are way faster than JF6 without any modifications.
2) GPS - definitely an issue I can agree with. Samsung should have been on this faster (even the Fascinate users are claiming issues already). they should have rolled out of a fix by now considering how many phones they have out there in the world.
3) sideloading apps - seriously? this isn't Samsung, this is AT&T. If you've got an android phone on AT&T, this is what you're going to have to live with without personal modification. don't like it? stop being on AT&T
4) Calendar - can't comment, don't use
5) Browser Brightness - again, a non-issue. you can use the slider bar to change it on the fly (which is a massive improvement over other android phones IMO) or set it to whatever you'd like
6) Music Player - can't comment, replaced with stock 2.1-update1 music player for personal preference
7) status bar trick - I don't see how this is even considered an issue. if you're manually setting your brightness, does it make more sense to do this or go into settings, sounds and display, brightness, and adjusting it there to change it right back moments later? no. I personally think this was a brilliant move on samsung's part. I keep my screen on the lowest brightness almost always, and then I realize I need to turn it up because the sun is too bright, so I can just fix it instantly by pulling it down, turning it up, and then turn it down when I'm done. if you're doing automatic brightness, this "trick" doesn't even work
edit: I'm just saying that if you're going to bash the phone for these issues, let's agree what is actually an issue and what is just user-preference related
Kaik541 said:
edit: I'm just saying that if you're going to bash the phone for these issues, let's agree what is actually an issue and what is just user-preference related
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree - separate bugs that affect 90% of the phones from other variables.
My phone has never rebooted or shutdown on its own, and it is not something 90% of the people are complaining about - unlike GPS.
Battery life is subjective and based on usage. Compared to my iPhone it is about the same. BB - definitely better, but as mentioned the screen is smaller, and BB controls the sync settings - so not a fair compare.
Music player has a workaround for playlists - move music to phone, go to recently added playlist, select all, create new playlist. Not ideal, but a different way to do things. There are free music players too.
Some things - like the soft key lights - are sort of a gray area - is this a feature implementation or a bug? Probably a feature issue. It is easy for one person's feature request to be another person's bug report.
Kaik541 said:
I'm just saying that if you're going to bash the phone for these issues, let's agree what is actually an issue and what is just user-preference related
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I am trying to do, is to list the issues (or complaints if you will) that have been posted. The issues I listed might not necessarily be defective of the phone. They were the things that may raise your eyebrow. I tried my best to be objective.
In terms of user-preference, I won't post it if it is really user-preference. The issues I listed, e.g., status-bar trick, brightness setting, they are NOT configurable. If you like them, great. But if not, sorry there is NO way to change them. That's why I list them as issues. I want to list all the potential issues/complaints so that potential buyers have a better idea what to expect.
mwxiao said:
What I am trying to do, is to list the issues (or complaints if you will) that have been posted. The issues I listed might not necessarily be defective of the phone. They were the things that may raise your eyebrow. I tried my best to be objective.
In terms of user-preference, I won't post it if it is really user-preference. The issues I listed, e.g., status-bar trick, brightness setting, they are NOT configurable. If you like them, great. But if not, sorry there is NO way to change them. That's why I list them as issues. I want to list all the potential issues/complaints so that potential buyers have a better idea what to expect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, i got you. But some of these issue/complaints are from a vocal minority and I would say they unfairly describe the captivate - especially things like battery life and random shutdowns. Battery life depends on what you do and where you are located. Reboots are probably a hardware issue involving a small group.
IMHO if you are going to mention hardware issues that affect an uncounted minority, then you have to add all the weird stuff people have returned phones for - speaker not working, screen pixel out, volume switch, etc.
alphadog00 said:
IMHO if you are going to mention hardware issues that affect an uncounted minority, then you have to add all the weird stuff people have returned phones for - speaker not working, screen pixel out, volume switch, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if there was a loooong thread about screen pixel or speaker, I would have listed them already. Unfortunately, I only see several threads about random shutdown. I did list it as low possibility though, meaning it only happens for a very small percentage of users.
Would there be any merit to posting some of the individual issues as their own thread with a yes/no poll, so that we can see relative numbers about how many people are being affected by a particular problem. Granted, it wouldn't be "scientific data" as the typical poster to those threads would probably be users looking for the info or having the problem, but still...
FWIW, I have a Captivate that is going back today due to the randon shut down problem. Funny enough, the GPS works perfectly.

[GUIDE] The Total Newb's Guide to Wakelocks

PARTIAL WAKELOCKS
PWLs are a different beast. These are almost all caused by an app (with a couple of notable exceptions). For that reason, I won't go in-depth on too many of them, as the solution is usually to delete the app causing them. There are a few notable ones, and a few apps that merit mention.
AudioOut_1, AudioOut_2: This is an evil leech of a wakelock that will drain you dry if given the chance. For being such a pain in the app, it's surprisingly easy to get rid of. This wakelock is created whenever the phone's speaker plays a sound. With 99% of sounds, it goes away almost instantly. With keypad sounds, however, it doesn't go away so quickly, and it will sit there draining your battery for as long as it goes unnoticed.
To fix: Open Settings, then select sound. Turn off keytone sounds, touch sounds, screen lock sounds and vibrate on screen tap. It'll take some getting used to, but the extra battery you'll coax out just by solving this ridiculously simple problem is more than worth it. See DoctorQMM's post (#5), linked at the end of this one, for info on additional causes of this wakelock and how to fix them.
ConnectivityService: This will appear whenever your phone is trying to connect to a mobile data network. Excessive wakelocking here suggests that your phone is having a hard time finding a network, and an even harder time staying on it.
To fix: Test out different radios and see if one's better in your area. I personally have to use UCLF5, as UCLF6 is a mess out where I live. If you're able to control your radio bands and you don't live in an LTE area, setting your phone to hunt for GSM/HSPA connections only can save you a little bit of juice here. Not much, but every drop counts, and if you're not using LTE anyway...
AlarmManager: This isn't a wakelock unto itself so much as it's a compilation of app alarms and the time they held the device awake for. Seeing the wakelock alone doesn't tell you much, but here's where one of those features of BBS that I said we'd be using comes in.
To fix: Open BBS. Tap the menu button, then "More", then "Raw Alarms". That will show you which apps are waking up your phone, and how often they're doing so. Google will have a ton of wake-ups, but they're mostly innocuous. We'll discuss some of Google's problem apps later. Email clients will also have a ton of alarms. If anything else looks out of whack, though, first check the app settings to see how often it's refreshing. If the app is set to refresh every hour but it's set off 400 alarms in the last 30 minutes, get rid of that sucker and email the dev. You can't eliminate this wakelock, and it's constantly my #1 PWL at this point, but you can minimize it.
A special note about this wakelock: You will get all kinds of crazy numbers out of this wakelock. You may see as high as 20m on a 1h30m stretch of battery. You will want to kill this wakelock, and kill it with fire. Don't, I say, don't do it! Look at your deep sleep time vs. time awake - screen on. Odds are, it's far less than the 20m that this wakelock is showing. You may have a time awake - screen on time of less than 3 minutes. What's the reason for the discrepancy? Well, it's well-known that there are wakelocks out there, PWLs especially, that will hold your device awake even if it's already been woken up: i.e., you'll have a PWL registering while the screen is on. Alarms are certainly among those that do so, as they are designed to wake your device up, so that's the first thing they'll try and do. I suspect the remainder of the discrepancy is caused by the way BBS reports. I suspect every alarm is tallied differently, so that if you have two alarms go off at the same time and last for 2 minutes each, BBS will register 4m of wakelock even though it was only held awake for 2m. Make sense? It doesn't for me either, but that's the best pair of explanations I've got, and the numbers seem to back it up.
MediaScannerService: This is a wakelock created by the system as it scans your device for music, movies, pictures, etc. Once in a while, it will randomly get hung up and hold the phone at 384 MHz for...well...until you notice and do something about it. Like AudioOut_1, this is a heavy-drain wakelock. Luckily, like AudioOut_1, it's almost always easy to fix. A note about this wakelock: it's been shown to be an occasional, but serious, problem on Jellybean ROMs. We're still not entirely sure why, let alone how to solve it permanently. That said, haloeight has been able to beat it into submission on his phone.
To fix: Reboot. Ninety-nine times or so out of a hundred, this solves the problem. If the problem persists, go to Settings -> Applications -> Running then tap on "Show cached processes". Find the Media process and stop it manually to kill the wakelock. That's a short-term fix, though, as a persistent wakelock from this process most likely means you have a corrupt media file somewhere on your phone--and there are a lot of sounds, movies and images on your phone. This is one of the few wakelocks that, if it's a regular problem, justifies considering a full wipe and clean reinstall. That's not because it's doing any kind of damage to your phone, but more because sifting through every single media file on your phone to find the culprit isn't really a practical solution. If you've got a persistent wakelock here on a JB ROM, try haloeight's approach above.
SyncLoopWakeLock: This is exactly what it sounds like; your phone is being held awake while apps sync. There are two possible causes for this: apps syncing (duh) and a bad data connection.
To fix: Open BBS. Tap the menu button, then "More", then "Raw Network Stats". This will show you which apps are using the most data, and help you narrow down possible culprits. Once you've done so, check those app settings and make sure they're not set to constantly push notifications, refresh every five minutes or anything dumb like that. If they're set correctly and still holding sync open that long, try downloading the Speed Test app off of the Play Store and test your phone's connection. If your connection is on the slow side, it's possible that the apps are struggling to sync because of your bad data connection. Try flashing different radios to see if that solves it. If the troublesome apps remain so after you've found a better radio, it's best to just delete or freeze them.
ActivityManager family: This is a harmless wakelock. The typical cause is not exiting out of apps fully before turning the screen off.
To fix: Don't sweat this one too much. If it's a big issue for you, make sure that you're exiting out of apps fully (i.e., either use the back button to exit the app or FC it in Task Manager) before turning the screen off. Credit to the XDA Wiki on this one, as this is one of the PWLs I wasn't able to figure out for myself simply because I hardly ever saw it. I use the back key to exit apps.
GTALK_ASYNC_CONN family: Despite its name, this wakelock doesn't seem to be directly related to Google Talk. How do I know? I haven't had Google Talk on this phone in over a month, but the wakelock still pops up from time to time. This wakelock also seems to be related to a poor wifi connection, so keep an eye on that as well. These wakelocks can be absolute destroyers of your battery if given the chance, and unfortunately, there's no known root cause for them, and no reliable way of eliminating them.
To fix: These wakelocks will often disappear within a minute or so of generating. If one becomes persistent, check your wifi/data connection and make sure it's good. If it persists, reboot into recovery and wipe cache and Dalvik ASAFP. That solves the problem temporarily, but it will reoccur. Thanks, Google.
NetworkLocationLocator: What a lovely name for such a lovely wakelock. It's a minor annoyance usually, nothing more. If this one is persistent, it's because you're in an area with crappy cell coverage and very few Google-mapped Wifi networks.
To fix: Why, exactly, are you leaving Network Location on all the time anyway?
NetworkLocationCallbackRunner: Thanks to clankfu and mw86 to pointing this one out, and a huge thanks to promiseofcake for finding the solution. This is the first wakelock published here that's specific to a phone other than the Skyrocket; it's an S3 issue. Hooray, we've gone global! NetworkLocationCallbackRunner is another wakelock caused by that most wonderful of apps, Google Maps. If you're still using it, seriously, why?
To fix: Upon turning on your phone, don't open Google Maps or anything else that utilizes Google location data. Or, you know, you could just uninstall Google Maps and use an alternative program...details below.
show keyguard: This is a new one for me. It had always been there, but since switching ROMs, it's really started to show up. Not in massive quantities, but enough to make me scratch my head. I've already established that setting your lockscreen to not show user info, weather or calendar data will significantly reduce this. I'll play around with adding those back in more, and having sliders on your default lockscreen won't do much damage either. Still, the more people who've goofed around with this one, the better, as it makes this entry all the more accurate.
To fix: I'm testing several possibilities now, but the one that's worked best so far is turning calendar, weather and user info off. It seems that having those on causes the lockscreen to wake the phone to refresh itself, which creates the wakelock. Judging by my recent experience, this seems to be a pretty big leech.
Chekin Service: Thanks to epapsiou for finding this one and confirming my guess on it. Getting tough to test without my Skyrocket being used as a phone anymore. This wakelock, while a Google Services process, seems to be caused by Facebook. That kind of confirms my theory that Facebook "borrows" Google services.
To fix: Uninstall Facebook and use an alternative app, or just access Facebook through your mobile browser of choice.
SCREEN_FROZEN: Uh oh.
To fix: If this is high on your list, you've got bigger problems than a wakelock.
PWL OFFENDING APPS
We're almost done, I promise!
Down here, I'm going to list off for you apps that will cause you severe PWL migraines, and what to do about them.
A note when uninstalling Google built-ins: Google built-ins are often system packages, and deleting them can have unpredictable results. I highly recommend freezing them in Titanium Backup for several days to see how the phone runs before uninstalling them through there as well. Deleting system processes is inherently risky, and I assume no responsibility for your own decisions.
Facebook: Any social networking app will want to sync as often as it can, but you can overrule that by setting notification intervals. Thing is, Facebook doesn't respect those intervals, and wakes up the device for data exchanges pretty constantly (even though your news feed may only update every hour or so when you want it to). This app is no better than bloat, and should be treated as such when you clean house.
Alternative App: Friendcaster and Fast are both great alternatives that let you set how often the app wakes up, but I've taken to just accessing m.facebook.com through the browser of my choice lately.
Gmail: A running theme here will be that if there's a non-Google equivalent to a Google app, you should probably kill the Google and download the alternative. Gmail is an alarm fiend, and one of the main offenders if you have an excessive SyncLoopWakeLock problem.
Alternative App: How many email clients are out there? I've had the best luck with the stock Email app, but K-9, Kaiten, MailDroid, even Enhanced Email and Touchdown for the power users are all great alternatives. Speaking of which...
Whatever email client you're using: Email clients will always be high up on the list of alarms, and that's by their nature. Keep an eye with raw network stats on how long they're connected for, and don't be afraid to experiment. I tried K-9, Kaiten and MailDroid before settling back on the stock Email app as the one that gave me the best balance of battery life and necessary features.
Alternative Apps: Download and try out different clients until you find the one that works for you. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Google Latitude: Latitude is a tracking service. As such, it tracks you. Beyond the creepiness aspect of that, it holds your phone awake pretty often while doing so. Kill it. Kill it with fire.
Alternative App: Personally, I'm not into the whole stalking thing, but I've heard that Glympse works quite well.
Google Maps: Colossal waste of space and battery. You can do better. An important note on Google Maps: this app will still wake your device up even after being frozen in Titanium Backup. I don't know how it happens, but it does. To truly solve the alarms from Google Maps, you have no choice but to uninstall it. Do so at your own risk.
Alternative Apps: I'm a fan of Waze for navigation and MapQuest for a Google Maps-ish browseable interface. OSMAnd is also a great alternative, but it uses a ton of internal memory because of its offline nature. If you really love Google Maps, reinstalling it from the Play Store as a user app can reduce those wakelocks dramatically.
Google Play Music & Movies: Updates itself constantly and wakelocks. Even if you freeze it, it still somehow manages to tell you that there's an update available. It's the Google zombie.
Alternative App: There are literally 100+ music and/or movie players out there. I'm sure you can find one that works for you. I'm a big fan of RocketPlayer for music, and I just use the stock video app more often than not.
JuiceDefender: What's that you say? JD sets off tons of alarms and holds the device awake for more time than I'd care to discuss, largely because of its data control settings. More harm than good, in my opinion.
Alternative Apps: JuiceDefender's main goal in life is to minimize the amount of time your device is held awake. Therefore, if you've just gone through all this to clear out wakelocks, do you really need another wakelock-prone app to do what you've already done?
Skype: Occasionally, after a call, Skype will wakelock. This is not designed to happen, and is more a glitch in the app than a forced sync. Force-stopping the app and clearing its cache have solved it for me on the rare occasion that I've seen the wakelock occur.
Alternative Apps: No idea. I don't personally consider this a "replace" situation.
World Weather Clock Widget: Do you have this on your phone? Get rid of it. I installed it as an alternative to SiMi Clock Widget, and while it certainly looks pretty, it ignored my "Update every 3 hours" and tried to update 275 times in that 3 hour window. This drove AlarmManager, GSYNC_ACONN, and NetworkStats off the deep end, and left me at 82% deep sleep with 6% of my battery gone in 3 hours. Kill it. Kill it with flaming nuclear waste.
Alternative Apps: I liked SiMi Clock and wanted to try something new, basically. I'm back to SiMi, but there are literally hundreds of clock widgets out there.
Google Search: If you use Google Now, forget trying to fix this one. GNow is a battery hog, and there's nothing you can do about it without crippling the feature. If you don't use GNow, you can use Greenify to hibernate Google Search and stop the persistent alarms and wakelocks it creates. Greenify is a method I hadn't used in the past, but I've grown to like it for hibernating rogue Google apps.
Alternative Apps: A quick look at the Play Store revealed Quick Search to be the second most-popular option after Google Search. I've run devices without Google Search in the past without issue, but it is usually a system app, so freezing instead of deleting would be a safer option.
That's the bulk of what I've learned from clearing out wakelocks. Remember how, early on, I specified that the search engine of your choice was the third tool? Simple fact is, I haven't installed every app on the planet, so I haven't seen every PWL out there. Because of the way my phone's set up, there are KWLs that I've never seen and never will. If you've got a pesky wakelock that won't go away and it's causing noticeable battery drain, Google (or Bing, or Ask.com, or whatever) is your friend. Good luck, happy hunting, and enjoy the extra battery life you'll get just by spending a few hours over the course of a few days tracking down and killing those wakelocks.
Also, be sure to check out Jrockttu's thread on fixing your battery, as there's tons of great information in there.
Additional in-thread references below. If any of these posts helped you out, please click the link down here and send them a thanks.
DoctorQMM covers com.google.android.apps.maps, an alternate fix for AudioOut_1 and using CPU Spy to help track down wakelocks.
kishke tracks down an alternative cause for the sdio family of wakelocks (including sdio_al) and details it for us here.
polarbearno shares their experience with the mmc_detect family of wakelocks.
haloeight gives us some great steps on how to get rid of the MediaScannerService wakelock on AOKP-based ROMs.
promiseofcake solves the S3-specific NetworkLocationCallbackRunner PWL.
Hi,
I am trying to use smartcharging feature on my crdroid ROM. During the charge, when I reach the preset charging value, it is working well as the phone stop charging. However, at this time, I can see with betterbatterystat that a Kernel Wakelock appears and prohibit the deep sleep mode to be enable. The name of this kernel is c440000.qcom,spmi:qcom,[email protected]:qcom,qpnp,smb5.
As a result, the deep sleep consume a lot of battery and the next morning, when I unplug my phone, I can see a huge battery drain around 2-4% per hours, which is not ideal for a smartcharging feature...
Do you know why this kernel wakelock appears? Is it possible to do something to avoid that?
Thanks
A Comprehensive (but not by any means definitive) Guide to Wakelocks
OP edit, January 12, 2016: To say that I'm proud of what this guide grew into would be an understatement, given that drawing it up was a weekend project for me using my old Galaxy S2 Skyrocket and either ICS or JB.
Take that last little bit into account here. It was done over three years ago on an S2-variant phone using Android 4.0 or 4.1. A lot of the specifics here are no longer going to be 100% correct, even if the principles remain true. If you're a rookie de-wakelocking your phone for the first time ever, please take what you see in the OPs with a grain of salt and ask questions in the thread before making any drastic system changes or mucking around in a terminal emulator.
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you know a little bit more about your phone when you're done here than you did coming in!
-TJ
----
Wakelocks suck. If you're trying to maximize your battery life, you know this already. Some wakelocks are happy, friendly things, but many are silent leeches, sucking away your battery life while you remain blissfully unaware of what's happening. The goal of this guide is to list some of the more common wakelocks you'll encounter and how to wipe them off of your system. As you encounter ones not on this guide, let me know and I'll add them to the list. For some reference, I typically have light to moderate use of my phone. Before de-wakelocking, I was getting maybe 24 hours on one charge. After de-wakelocking, I was up to 36. Then I bought the Galaxy Nexus Extended battery, and on that battery's third cycle, I went two and a half days on a single charge. Impressive, right?
First off, you have to understand the difference between kernel wakelocks (KWL) and partial wakelocks (PWL). KWLs are wakelocks caused at the kernel or hardware level. Some of these are benign, and some of them are vampires. The only way to solve them is to change how your phone behaves. You'll see examples of that below.
PWLs are wakelocks caused by an app. The solution to these, more often than not, is to freeze (or, in the case of Google apps, uninstall) the offending app. Before you do so, and this is critical, go in via Settings -> Apps, force close the app, and wipe its cache and data. If you don't, you'll almost certainly cause yourself more headaches about 30 seconds after killing the app.
Second, you need to know the tools involved in wakelock hunting. The first is Better Battery Stats. Google "better battery stats XDA" and the dev's post will come up; they give this app away to XDA members. That said, if BBS helps you out, show the dev some love and buy the paid version. It's only $2.89, and the dev will have more than earned it from you by the time you've finished de-wakelocking yourself. The other tools you'll need are (hopefully) this guide, and, of course, the Internet search engine of your choice. I won't cover everything simply because I haven't seen it all.
Two final notes before the guide: do not go wakelock hunting right after installing a new ROM or clean-wipe reinstalling your current one. New ROMs cause the phone to go nuts for a little while, as things decache and little behind-the-scenes tweaks are made. Wait one full battery cycle (100% to 0%, which you're probably doing to calibrate after a clean ROM install anyway) before trying this, or you'll drive yourself nuts. Also, remember that solving one wakelock will often create another, especially early in this process. That's normal and to be expected. God does not hate you, your ROM of choice is not crap, your phone is not glitched, and a clean install while your current ROM is still settling in will only make things worse.
So, how do you track these wakelocks down with BBS? This is a really complicated procedure, so make sure you're with me. First, open BBS. Then, see the dropdown menu at the top that probably says "Other" right now? Tap it, and then you'll see "Kernel Wakelocks" and "Partial Wakelocks" below. That was obscenely difficult, right?
Something to note with BBS: it seems to have a weird "counting" bug. While testing a ROM with BBS, I finally began to question why my PWL time would be considerably higher than my true wakelock time. "True wakelock time," simply put, is time awake - time awake with screen on. If your phone is awake for 45 minutes and the screen is on for 40, you have five minutes of true wakelock time.
So why does BBS say that you have 90 minutes of PWLs when you only have a true wakelock time of 45 minutes? Well, I have two theories to account for that. One, BBS counts wakelocks independently, even if they occur at the same time. For example, if AlarmManager wakes your phone up for two minutes and AudioOut_1 wakes your phone up for 30 seconds during that same time, BBS will register 2m30s of PWLs even though the device was only held awake for 2m total. Now throw 30s of wlan_rx_wake (KWL) in there, and BBS is registering 3 minutes of wakelocks when there were only two. Throw in the notion that you had the screen on for 30 seconds during that time frame, and suddenly you're showing 3m of wakelocks when really there was only 90 seconds of true wakelock time to begin with. BBS has effectively doubled the reported wakelock time, and thrown off your stats. Now, throw in several dozen mini-wakelocks happening at once with the screen on, and you can easily see, say, 6h of PWLs on a 24h run, even if your true wakelock time is only 45m. It seems that Android's battery screen in settings reports this the same way, so my advice to you is to use the true wakelock time when cleaning up and attack KWLs and rogue apps. Some PWLs (AlarmManager) will always be high.
The second theory is that alarms are given a minimum reporting duration; i.e., five seconds per alarm for the sake of demonstration. Now, let's say you have Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Gmail, Email, News & Weather and BBC News all set to sync every 30 minutes. They'll each set off an alarm at the same time, and suddenly your five seconds of alarm reporting time becomes 40 seconds every half hour. Now, let's say you have 35 alarms going off every half hour (not out of the realm of possibility with Google Services Framework). 35 x 5 = 175 seconds of time awake (in the five seconds per alarm scenario), which is now 350 seconds per hour of wakelocks reported, even if the true wakelock time was only ten seconds. Just something else to keep in mind when attacking PWLs.
One more note on BBS and how it handles KWLs: There is no such thing as a 0-KWL cycle, regardless of what the BBS reporting screen says. If BBS is showing 0 KWLs, tap the menu button, then "More", then "Raw Kernel Wakelocks" to see them. KWLs are required to boot the phone. In essence, the only phone that has 0 KWLs since it was last charged is a phone that hasn't been turned on since its last charge.
There are a couple of other features of BBS that we'll make extensive use of later, but there's one you need to know right now. Tap your phone's menu button to get the BBS menu up. Tap on "More". See the button that says "Set Custom Ref."? You'll need it--you'll need it a lot.
Also, anytime new information about a certain wakelock or wakelock family comes to light elsewhere in the thread, I'll be sharing that information here. If it helps you out, please visit the post that gave us that information and thank the poster. I'll link to each post twice, once in the wakelock description and once at the bottom of the OP, so no excuses about not being able to find it!
Last, but certainly not least: modifying your system in any way, including altering or deleting processes needed to resolve wakelocks, can have unpredictable results. Use caution and make backups of your apps and data, as well as nandroid backups, frequently while finding and eliminating wakelocks. Any modifications you make are done at your own risk, and I assume no responsibility for any damage you may do to your phone while cleaning out wakelocks.
With that said, we'll get started with the KWLs, as they're the trickiest to get rid of. Use the guide below to identify your wakelock, what is causing it, and how to get rid of it.
KWLs in post #2
PWLs in post #3
KERNEL WAKELOCKS
wlan_rx, wlan_rx_wake, wlan_wake: This is a wakelock caused by network traffic. The easy solution would be to just turn off Wifi, but be careful doing so! If an app goes to sync and it sees that Wifi is off, it will search for a mobile data connection (which causes the ConnectivityService wakelock). If it can't find a mobile data connection, it will wait and search again at its next sync interval and/or automatically sync when the phone wakes up. This wakelock can also, deceptively, be caused by the Wifi network itself as it refreshes connections or refreshes IPs.
To fix: This is a tricky little sucker to fix, as there are so many possible causes for it. Airplane mode is a safe bet--syncing apps seem to "respect" airplane mode, whereas if Wifi alone is turned off, they'll just try to find a way around. But then, of course, you lose your ability to talk on the phone. If you're particularly unlucky, your Wifi network itself will be the problem. Mine was--between my wife and I, we have four computers, an iPad, three Androids, a Wii, a PS3 and a Wifi-enabled TV hooked into our home network. The "background noise" caused by all of that would wake my phone up constantly. The solution? I happened to have a spare Wifi router laying around, so I hooked it up, set it on a different channel from my main router, and we now use that network for two of our three smartphones. Period. It's not the easiest fix ever, but wlan_rx_wake is almost completely eliminated (I'm looking now and have 4m45s of it 12h27m into a charge).
PowerManagerService: This is probably your #1 or #2 kernel wakelock, and you'd probably love to get rid of it at all costs, right? Hate to say it, but there's not much that can be done about this one. PowerManagerService is a KWL that serves as a "catch-all" for your PWLs. It's a placeholder, nothing more, nothing less. Don't spend much time worrying about it.
To fix: Reduce PWLs. See below.
deleted_wake_locks: Remember what I said above about force-stopping an app and deleting its cache and data before uninstalling it? This wakelock is why. It's the PowerManagerService for deleted apps. Once the app is gone, the wakelocks it caused suddenly become unknown to the system, so they get lumped in here. This number can also go up as the system "looks for" deleted apps and/or finds more wakelocks associated with them, but not dramatically.
To fix: Make sure to force close apps and wipe their cache and data before deleting. A reboot should eliminate the wakelock entirely. If it's still showing up, wipe phone cache and Dalvik.
sdio_al, sdio_dmux, etc.: This is an annoying wakelock, as there are two potential causes for it. One's easy, and one sucks. The easy one is that you've fallen victim to the charger wakelock. The easiest way to tell is to download Jrockttu's Skyrocket Charger Test App. If your charger shows up as AC Regular Charge, there's your problem. If it's AC Fast Charge or USB Normal Charge, your wakelock could be caused by your SD card. That can be an irritating fix, but the SD card version of this wakelock is typically small enough that it's not worth addressing. Also, a huge thanks to kishke for discovering a third cause for the sdio family of wakelocks: data. It seems that the sdio family is also the wlan wakelock family equivalent for cell data, and can be caused by apps searching for a data connection.
To fix: Check your charger and adjust if needed. To test the cell data possibility, make note of the time on the sdio wakelock, then turn cell data and Wifi off and walk away for an hour. Check it upon your return, and if you have minimal to no sdio wakelock, that was it. Try out some different radios for a better connection, or leave cell data off and stick with Wifi only. If it's the SD card, it's probably not a strong enough wakelock to be worth fixing, but if you want to fix it, you'll have to format your SD card. If formatting doesn't work, format it again, then wipe cache and Dalvik.
alarm_rtc: This is your phone's internal alarm scheduler, set to wake up your phone for sync, push, etc. Closely related to the AlarmManager PWL.
To fix: Check your apps and make sure they're only set to sync when you want them to, not for constant push or stupid-short intervals.
mmc0_detect, mmc1_detect, mmc2_detect: I'll be honest, I have no idea what causes these. Fortunately, they seem to be minimal, so I've never wasted much time worrying about them. polarbearno, however, has had a great deal of experience with this wakelock, and traced the cause of excessive activity here to a faulty SD card.
To fix: Unmount your SD card and pull it, then reboot. Might want to clear cache and Dalvik for good measure. If your problem was caused by a faulty external SD, this should solve it. If your problem was not caused by a faulty external SD, we're back to the original solution of "good question".
vbus_present: This wakelock exists as long as the phone is plugged into a wall charger. This wakelock can also persist if you use an Apple-compatible charger, which registers as "slow USB" charging and will cause the wakelock to hold after you'e unplugged.
To fix: Check your phone. Is there a cord plugged into it? If so, does that cord lead to a source of power? If so, unplug your phone (after it's fully charged, of course). Is the wakelock still there? Plug your phone into an OEM charger for a few seconds, then unplug it to kill the wakelock, then consider ditching that piece of fruit you're charging with. I try to use OEM Samsung chargers as much as possible, as they're designed for the phone (and to not cause persistent wakelocks). Jrockttu has an awesome charger test app, linked to in the OP of his outstanding "fix your battery life" thread.
suspend_backoff: This is a difficult one to nail down. Very difficult. To make a very long story short, this wakelock is caused when your phone wants to sleep, but a running process blocks it from doing so. Typically, this is going to be Wifi. Make sure your Wifi is set to stay awake when the phone sleeps. Otherwise, you risk the Wifi going out of its way to keep the phone from sleeping. This can also, unfortunately, be caused by apps, making it hard to pin down.
To fix: Do the Wifi thing, then reboot into recovery and wipe your caches. If it persists after that, you have no choice but to look at a dmesg output to pin it down. Go into a terminal emulator app and type the following commands, one per line:
su
dmesg >/mnt/sdcard/dmesg.txt
Next, transfer the .txt file onto your computer and open in WordPad or a similar program that automatically cuts line (i.e., no Notepad). Search the document looking for the word "event". You should find a lot of strings that look like this:
eventX-XXXX
Where the X's are all numbers. See those last four numbers after the dash? You should see them repeated again and again. Write them down, then go back into your terminal emulator. They are your process ID (PID). Once there, type:
ps
This will show you all processes that have run since your last boot. If you look at the second column from the left hand side of the page, and you should see a sequence of four numbers. These are listed sequentially, lowest to highest, as you come down the page. Scroll around until you find the sequence of four numbers that matches the one you wrote down. The line below those four numbers is the name of the process causing the wakelock. If it's instantly recognizable as an app, delete the app and see what happens. If it's a hardware thing that can easily be fixed, like Wifi, change your settings to accommodate it. If it's com.android.process.acore, I smell a wipe in your future. If you don't know what the process is, don't go screwing with things to find out. You can brick your phone in terminal emulators. Instead, write it down and Google it. Someone has already written about what this process is and what it does. If it's something you can easily fix, go for it. If it's a deeply-embedded system process, I'd just do a full wipe and clean reinstall.
Remember, terminal emulators can brick your phone if you're not careful. If you use them and something bad happens, or if you wreck your phone trying to fix this or any other wakelock, it is your problem, not mine.
There are a number of other, lesser KWLs that I'm not going to worry about here because you shouldn't worry about them either. You might occasionally see a battery cycle with very low (sub-1%) KWLs, but that's the exception and not at all the rule.
PWLs in post #3
The phone doesn't sleep when its charging, some android thing, that specific wakelock is called vbus_present.
kishke said:
The phone doesn't sleep when its charging, some android thing, that specific wakelock is called vbus_present.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That one's in there. It's the last wakelock under KWL.
I know it's there but you wrote: "This is a weird one. I never could quite figure out what causes it, but it seems like it's there as long as the phone's plugged it."
So I just want to clarify it so you could give it a straight explanation. Also you have a small typo there it=in.
It's a great guide!
T.J. Bender: Good topic… good write-up. I can’t agree with you more regarding the frustration level chasing down “greased-pig” wakelocks! The key is to have the right tool-set for analysis. At a minimum, make sure you have CPU Spy, BBS, and a utility which will show you what processes and services are active. Here’s my approach to identify wakelock problems. Again using CPU Spy to check time in Deep Sleep.. and using BBS to check Count of Alarms as well as time (minutes/seconds) of wakelocks:
1) open BBS and set a “Custom Reference” point (basically, this will reset the clock)
2) open CPU Spy and “Reset Timers”
3) turn screen off and let it sit for your predetermined time (i.e., 15min, 30min, 60min, etc)
4) when you reach the first predetermined time checkpoint, turn screen on and first check CPU Spy. How much time did the phone NOT sleep?
5) open BBS and check “Partial Wakelocks” against “Custom Ref Point”. Also check “Alarms” against “Custom Ref Point”.
6) do this every predetermined time (i.e., 15/30/60 min).. and write down results
What I found was very interesting. First I found "com.google.android.apps.maps" Partial Wakelocks were running about 80 times an hour (and preventing Deep Sleep): SOLUTION (thanks Bruno2123), un-check "Google Location Service” in "Location Services" in system setup.
Second culprit: AudioOut_1 : I also had unchecked all the keytone and touch sound options in setup, however, I was still getting a boat-load of PWL for AudioOut_1. I tracked it down (trial-and-error) to PowerAmp. Even though PowerAmp was not actively running, I had checkmarks (in PowerAmp Settings… Headset) in “Pause on Headset Disconnect” and “Resume on Headset Connect”.. which were preventing Deep Sleep. By un-checking these, it stopped the PowerAmp AudioOut_1 PWLs… and allowed Deep Sleep.
Third: this was a surprising find. Started to continue to see excessive AudioOut_1 PWL times; however, fewer counts (number of occurrences). Turns out, every time I open PlayStore, AudioOut_1 PWLs incremented… every time I played certain games (even with sound turned OFF in the game’s settings), AudioOut_1 PWLs incremented. However, these did not interfere with Deep Sleep.. these PWLs incremented when screen was on anyway!
Anyway, hope others find this approach useful and hopefully will help you identify PWL/ Alarm problems and find solutions.
kishke said:
I know it's there but you wrote: "This is a weird one. I never could quite figure out what causes it, but it seems like it's there as long as the phone's plugged it."
So I just want to clarify it so you could give it a straight explanation. Also you have a small typo there it=in.
It's a great guide!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sarcasm is a fine art, mastered only by years of practice.
DoctorQMM said:
snip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely forgot to mention CPU Spy! Honestly, I did almost all of my hunting using the BBS "Other" timers, which show the percentage of time in deep sleep, awake, screen on, PWL and KWL. That's not to say CPU Spy isn't a valuable tool, because it is, but I had plenty of luck with BBS alone.
I kind of hinted at the benefits of leaving all Location Services off unless you need them. That said, I'm going to link this post from the OP, because you've kind of underscored the need to do so here.
And yeah, again, good catch on wakelock times. I was thrown for a loop the first time I had 94% deep sleep and 9.8% PWL until I realized that a lot of those PWLs were coming from apps that were running only when the screen was on.
This is an informative post. Thanks op
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda premium
Good stuff...
Too bad your findings point to Google in a lot of ways as far as battery drain... maps, gmail, etc...
I don't mind Maps that much. It has been pretty accurate from me. When I ran BBS last time, it showed no problems on my phone as far as wakelocks, etc... I had more problems with BBS than anything.. WEIRD....
Every time I unplug my phone, it will ask for root permissions about 5-6 times before I get to my home screen even.... I just don't have time to be hitting allow that many times... (yes, remember is checked...)
Thanks for the posting! I subscribed and will check back here often!
onealvideo said:
Too bad your findings point to Google in a lot of ways as far as battery drain... maps, gmail, etc...
I don't mind Maps that much. It has been pretty accurate from me. When I ran BBS last time, it showed no problems on my phone as far as wakelocks, etc... I had more problems with BBS than anything.. WEIRD....
Every time I unplug my phone, it will ask for root permissions about 5-6 times before I get to my home screen even.... I just don't have time to be hitting allow that many times... (yes, remember is checked...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost sounds like you've got a ROM issue. I've also read that switching from Superuser to SuperSU can solve a root permissions "loop" like that.
Unfortunately, yeah, a lot of the PWL headaches I've come across can ultimately be traced back to a Google app. That said, I set out looking to make a battery last as long as possible. If you get to a point where you're happy with your battery life, I'd stop there regardless of what apps are still on the phone. The more you change, the more you can potentially screw up.
Can someone post the link to xda bettery stats, I search for it and find nothing.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
specter07 said:
Can someone post the link to xda bettery stats, I search for it and find nothing.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately you don't know how to search my friend.
http://bit.ly/NuHF7q
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
jyazzie110 said:
Unfortunately you don't know how to search my friend.
http://bit.ly/NuHF7q
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems you don't know how to google either. Where's the free better bettery stats for xda members? That just shows the link to the store for the paid one.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
No at the bottom of the second post is dl link I just grabbed it
Sent from my SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
specter07 said:
Seems you don't know how to google either. Where's the free better bettery stats for xda members? That just shows the link to the store for the paid one.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know how to google....your the one who cant search or read! Haha
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
jyazzie110 said:
I know how to google....your the one who cant search or read! Haha
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be nice
Sent from my SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Illnevertell said:
Be nice
Sent from my SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, when he says it... u have issues lmao
Illnevertell said:
No at the bottom of the second post is dl link I just grabbed it
Sent from my SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I kept scrolling pass it since on my phone you can hardly even see the attachment on the broswer.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Come on, guys, please keep this thread on topic.
Wanted to share some results with you. Screenshots below. No KWLs in 24 hours since being unplugged...not half bad. PWLs are within reason, especially considering that Alarm Manager is one of those PWLs that will hold even if your screen is on. The only thing that strikes me is Twitter alarming my phone 6 times, when it's set to never auto-refresh. Not a huge deal, but worth investigating.
70% battery 24 hours into a charge, screen-on time of 31m. Granted, I have barely used my phone today outside of sending a few texts, checking into XDA once and playing a few quick hands of Blackjack, but I'm still pretty stoked with this run.
**EDIT: Good thing I checked! Twitter had automatically updated earlier in the day, and when it did, it reset itself to sync every hour. Switched it back to never sync, and that should solve it.

Battery

I know I've made a few posts about this in the past, but now I've learned a few things since then.
I know the battery isn't the greatest on the infuse (no rom that I'm using atm..) but would like to get the most juice out of my device that I can. I have root access and currently use the apps "battery calibration" and "no-frills CPU control" which I set my cpu at a relatively low frequency to help keep juice.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use. I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it. I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery. However, I have used this application in the past and after a few days of use, it shuts off my mobile connection altogether.
My question is, if I were to use this application again and my mobile network were to malfunction, would I be able to change my apn to regain my network connection? In the past I had to reset my phone to regain connection, which isn't really worth using if that's the only solution.
Or are there any other battery saver apps worth using??
Thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Dr_Nacho said:
I know I've made a few posts about this in the past, but now I've learned a few things since then.
I know the battery isn't the greatest on the infuse (no rom that I'm using atm..) but would like to get the most juice out of my device that I can. I have root access and currently use the apps "battery calibration" and "no-frills CPU control" which I set my cpu at a relatively low frequency to help keep juice.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use. I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it. I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery. However, I have used this application in the past and after a few days of use, it shuts off my mobile connection altogether.
My question is, if I were to use this application again and my mobile network were to malfunction, would I be able to change my apn to regain my network connection? In the past I had to reset my phone to regain connection, which isn't really worth using if that's the only solution.
Or are there any other battery saver apps worth using??
Thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A bit more information is needed before a specific course of action can be recommended. How much battery life are you using in an average 24 hour period? Also, what version of Juice Defender(beta, free, plus, ultimate) are you using, and what specific settings are you utilizing. It is a very customizable program after all. You might look into Battery Indicator Pro, which estimates your total remaining battery life based on your level of usage. I would also recommend CPU spy, which, if your device is rooted, will show the percentages that your device is running at various CPU levels.
If you turn off all the locational stuff, turn off 'update my current location' in Navigator, and set your CPU gov to conservative, you might get better battery life. I've not had any lasting luck with any of the battery saving apps. In the end, I decided to buy a couple of Anker batteries from Amazon just in case I have a bad battery day... Also some of the battery saving mods work, but I'm not sure about applying them to ICS and JB ROMS. I haven't tried!
Battery life is what you make of it..
Anything running in the background will drain the battery.. email constantly checking for new messages, twitter, Facebook, GPS, WiFi if no connection is found, etc..
Anything that makes the phone process even while the screen is off is going to kill a battery..
What ROM are you using? Some ROMs have better life than others..
How much are you actually using the phone?
What's the brightness set at?
Have you tried changing the processor and slowed it down?
Lots of information that is missing is helpful..
Its powered by Jellybeaned AOKP!
I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some have good luck with these, others don’t. I prefer to try to adjust settings myself.
I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about putting a widget on your homescreen to toggle data on/off. Keep it on only when you need it. I go a step further, I use Tasker to automatically turn my data off every time my screen times out (because that means I’m not using it... I can restart my data later with my widget when I need it). Maybe that’s extreme, but I’m not just watching my battery.. I’m managing my limited data plan.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be that you have wakelocks keeping your phone awake when it’s supposed to sleep. One way to see this is (in GB or above) Settings / About-Phone / Battery Use...then click on the small graph at the top... should expand it to a large graph with traces along the bottom including Awake and Screen On. If you have long periods of time where phone is awake while screen is off, that’s a wakelock problem. A good program to troubleshoot that is Better Battery Stats. If nothing else, follow the instructions in the first post in the BBS thread linked below, and then post a dump to the end of that BBS thread (the developer and a lot of other knowledgeable people follow that thread and will help you interpret results):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
Thru use of BBS, I found that Google Maps is one that was keeping mine awake and I think someone else on the forum reported the same. If that program (Maps) is causing problems, you can disable it from auto-starting on boot using Gemini Manager. It will still be available when you need it, just take a few seconds longer to load the first time after boot. Then need to reboot to stop it from causing wakelocks after use (there may be other easier ways, but this works for me).
Another program (Power Tutor) was helpful to me to see programs that were consuming unusual amount of battery although not necessarily thru wakelocks. In my case Dolphin Browser HD was occasionally drawing very high power even when that program was not actively in use.
electricpete1 said:
I found that Google Maps is one that was keeping mine awake and I think someone else on the forum reported the same. If that program (Maps) is causing problems, you can disable it from auto-starting on boot using Gemini Manager. It will still be available when you need it, just take a few seconds longer to load the first time after boot. Then need to reboot to stop it from causing wakelocks after use (there may be other easier ways, but this works for me).
Another program (Power Tutor) was helpful to me to see programs that were consuming unusual amount of battery although not necessarily thru wakelocks. In my case Dolphin Browser HD was occasionally drawing very high power even when that program was not actively in use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how can I stop maps to running in background? only rebooting the device is the only option?or is there any other option?
TIA
atrix4nag said:
So how can I stop maps to running in background? only rebooting the device is the only option?or is there any other option?
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to provide more details on my previous post (not sure if it's answering your question):
I followed instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29420959&postcount=7059
In particular, I installed the free program "Gemini Apps Manager". That allows you to stop programs from auto-loading at boot.
So I used the program to stopp Google Maps from auto-loading at boot.
That stopped a large chunk of my wakelocks, as long as I don't manually launch Google Maps.
If I do manually Google Maps, then those wakelocks come back, and to get rid of them I have to reboot.
I don't use Maps that often (only when I go on trips), so it's not a big problem for me to reboot when I'm finished with my trip to help keep my battery use low.
It may also be possible to kill it from the list of applications at Settings/Applications/ManageApplications and killing botht the application and the process...but I'm not sure if it will stay killed that way... haven't tried. I know some applications have hooks that make it hard to get rid of them once they're launched.
But (if you haven't already), I think it's a good idea to use BBS to find out what programs are causing problems on your phone. You may have other apps causing lot bigger problems than Maps. And it certainly may be the case that a program that acts up on one phone can be fine on another phone due to differences in the way the user configures the application settings and the phone settings (along with other possible differences in application version, ROM used, etc etc).
electricpete1 said:
Just to provide more details on my previous post (not sure if it's answering your question):
I followed instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29420959&postcount=7059
In particular, I installed the free program "Gemini Apps Manager". That allows you to stop programs from auto-loading at boot.
So I used the program to stopp Google Maps from auto-loading at boot.
That stopped a large chunk of my wakelocks, as long as I don't manually launch Google Maps.
If I do manually Google Maps, then those wakelocks come back, and to get rid of them I have to reboot.
I don't use Maps that often (only when I go on trips), so it's not a big problem for me to reboot when I'm finished with my trip to help keep my battery use low.
It may also be possible to kill it from the list of applications at Settings/Applications/ManageApplications and killing botht the application and the process...but I'm not sure if it will stay killed that way... haven't tried. I know some applications have hooks that make it hard to get rid of them once they're launched.
But (if you haven't already), I think it's a good idea to use BBS to find out what programs are causing problems on your phone. You may have other apps causing lot bigger problems than Maps. And it certainly may be the case that a program that acts up on one phone can be fine on another phone due to differences in the way the user configures the application settings and the phone settings (along with other possible differences in application version, ROM used, etc etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your detail explanation. My main question was how can close the app without restarting? i feel my major battery drain is from dolphin browser, befor dolphin i used opera, even that has the same problem. Most of the time, if I dont open dolphin, my phone battery is good, but once I open it, it drains battery. So i am looking for soemthing simple which does, without rebooting the device.
Any way thanks for your help.

[Q] Battery Life

Alright, I think I might be having some issues, and I was wondering what your battery life like?
I charged mine earlier this week, used it a little bit after I pulled it off the charger and have barely touched it since. This morning when I went to go and watcha Youtube Video, my tablet was completely dead. Now I used it about 2 days ago and it still had over a 40% charge. To me it seems odd that the tablet drained over 40% just sitting there for 2 days.
I checked the battery manager for some statistics and the most battery draining services were the Screen at 34%, Tablet Idle at 22% and Android OS at 18%. I am not sure if this is normal for the Shield Tablet or if I might have something stuck running in the background or might even have a defective unit.
So I guess my question for you guys other than what your battery life is like, is do you think this is normal? Or should I try a factory rest? Any other suggestions? Returning it to BestBuy is an option as I bought it about a week and a half ago.
Thanks for the tips
menendez1293 said:
Alright, I think I might be having some issues, and I was wondering what your battery life like?
I charged mine earlier this week, used it a little bit after I pulled it off the charger and have barely touched it since. This morning when I went to go and watcha Youtube Video, my tablet was completely dead. Now I used it about 2 days ago and it still had over a 40% charge. To me it seems odd that the tablet drained over 40% just sitting there for 2 days.
I checked the battery manager for some statistics and the most battery draining services were the Screen at 34%, Tablet Idle at 22% and Android OS at 18%. I am not sure if this is normal for the Shield Tablet or if I might have something stuck running in the background or might even have a defective unit.
So I guess my question for you guys other than what your battery life is like, is do you think this is normal? Or should I try a factory rest? Any other suggestions? Returning it to BestBuy is an option as I bought it about a week and a half ago.
Thanks for the tips
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd try to manage background applications with Greenify. You'd have some more options like BootManager if you have root. Don't worry, root will disappear upon factory reset if needed for returns. Besides those two controlling agents, there is a flashable MOD I discovered recently called ComoDose 3.5 here on XDA. With all three, my S3 hits the bed as soon as I turn off the screen, boosting idle time tremendously. You'd need to go a step further and install a custom recovery to try ComoDose; if you have any issue and need to return, there is already a guide here on how to get rid of it. So don't worry about that!
Most likely, your device just isn't going to sleep. I don't think it's unusual.
Settings > Shield Power Control > Apps tab:
Let Nvidia Optimize everything. It seems to end up saving me a ton of battery life. Using apps that don't need much power (like Cheezburger, G+, Udemy, Play Store, etc...), the Nvidia governor seems to handle the clocking very well. Then it cranks it up as needed with games (I bought a few that are listed in the Shield games thing).
You just need to remember to go in and optimize new apps that you install. By default it doesn't put a governor profile on them, so the apps just run as Android tells them to, instead of how Nvidia profiles them.
I've been charging my Shield Tablet about once every two days. That's maybe an hour of gaming a day, and a lot of web browsing, and various forum reading, and whatever other random stuff I do during the day.
The pre-installed app Camera Awesome installs a bunch of corrupt jpg's to internal storage. While they are their it causes the "media server" service to keep running constantly in a loop. Was so bad that while plugged in, my battery went down while actively using the tablet. Since I removed those corrupt jpg's the battery has been fine. So step 1, check for corrupt jpgs.
Harfainx said:
Settings > Shield Power Control > Apps tab:
Let Nvidia Optimize everything. It seems to end up saving me a ton of battery life. Using apps that don't need much power (like Cheezburger, G+, Udemy, Play Store, etc...), the Nvidia governor seems to handle the clocking very well. Then it cranks it up as needed with games (I bought a few that are listed in the Shield games thing).
You just need to remember to go in and optimize new apps that you install. By default it doesn't put a governor profile on them, so the apps just run as Android tells them to, instead of how Nvidia profiles them.
I've been charging my Shield Tablet about once every two days. That's maybe an hour of gaming a day, and a lot of web browsing, and various forum reading, and whatever other random stuff I do during the day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just did that this morning while it was on the charger, hopefully it makes a difference like it did to you.
daeymon said:
The pre-installed app Camera Awesome installs a bunch of corrupt jpg's to internal storage. While they are their it causes the "media server" service to keep running constantly in a loop. Was so bad that while plugged in, my battery went down while actively using the tablet. Since I removed those corrupt jpg's the battery has been fine. So step 1, check for corrupt jpgs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that you mention it, I did have the media server service running and taking up battery. I guess I will delete the pictures I have and replace it with a different (Google) Camera. Thanks for the tip.
daeymon said:
The pre-installed app Camera Awesome installs a bunch of corrupt jpg's to internal storage. While they are their it causes the "media server" service to keep running constantly in a loop. Was so bad that while plugged in, my battery went down while actively using the tablet. Since I removed those corrupt jpg's the battery has been fine. So step 1, check for corrupt jpgs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its still too early to call but I think you hit the nail on the head with this one! I wasn't getting drain with the screen off but it was draining really fast with the screen on. Thank you so much for this suggestion of deleting these corrupt files because right now my battery is finally draining like it should.. nice and slow. Thank You!!
dukehazard77 said:
Its still too early to call but I think you hit the nail on the head with this one! I wasn't getting drain with the screen off but it was draining really fast with the screen on. Thank you so much for this suggestion of deleting these corrupt files because right now my battery is finally draining like it should.. nice and slow. Thank You!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is your screen on before and after deleting the corrupt files? Would you mind posting screens or stats
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
daeymon said:
The pre-installed app Camera Awesome installs a bunch of corrupt jpg's to internal storage. While they are their it causes the "media server" service to keep running constantly in a loop. Was so bad that while plugged in, my battery went down while actively using the tablet. Since I removed those corrupt jpg's the battery has been fine. So step 1, check for corrupt jpgs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Where exactly on internal storage I can find those corrupted files?
I would like to give it a try.
Thanks in advance.
pghostek said:
Hi,
Where exactly on internal storage I can find those corrupted files?
I would like to give it a try.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android/data/com.smugmug.android.cameraawesome
Check any sub folders in that folder as well.
There are apps you can get which will scan your device for corrupt image files too.
I'm not an android expert, so apologies if I say anything out of turn.
I think the .jpegs appeared to be corrupt as some of them might have been for the 'picture frames' of the camera awesome 'special effects'. Thus they are 'transparent' in the centre of the image.
I had some in the Android/data/com.smugmug.android.cameraawesome/downloads directory.
I read an article, which said if you add an empty .nomedia file to the directory it should stop the media service from reading from it.
Would adding that file not be enough to stop the media service, rather than deleting all the files?
Silverfox476 said:
I'm not an android expert, so apologies if I say anything out of turn.
I think the .jpegs appeared to be corrupt as some of them might have been for the 'picture frames' of the camera awesome 'special effects'. Thus they are 'transparent' in the centre of the image.
I had some in the Android/data/com.smugmug.android.cameraawesome/downloads directory.
I read an article, which said if you add an empty .nomedia file to the directory it should stop the media service from reading from it.
Would adding that file not be enough to stop the media service, rather than deleting all the files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had similar problem. I deleted all the jpg files, infact deleted the entire folder,Android/data/com.smugmug.android.cameraawesome/downloads directory. However, everytime i opened camera app, the folder generated itself (check in ES file explorer). Better option is to disable the app (you cant delete as its a system app) and use google camera or any other camera of choice. My battery life has increased (screen on and off) i get about 4 hours of screen on time (lot of browsing, drawing, you tube and 40 mins of gaming). Its not as much as others are getting. Also i am not rooted. On a side note Lollipop is coming in couple of days, it should alleviate some battery issues.''
I have a problem with battery life. Was at 100% this morning 11am, now it is 3h20 pm and there is only 58% remaining.
The problem is it was in my bag between this morning and now and it has not been used... WiFi is set to be off while screen is off, and is not available for location when wifi deactivated. Nvidia camera is disabled. I will do a factory reset to see how it goes...
If I go to battery menu : it show only one line : screen, 1%, which of course is impossible.
EDIT : ok, it is unusable with such battery life... Since I bought it yesterday, I decided to do a factory reset and to NOT restore anything from other devices.
I'm currently charging it and will make a report later.
Judge584 said:
I have a problem with battery life. Was at 100% this morning 11am, now it is 3h20 pm and there is only 58% remaining.
The problem is it was in my bag between this morning and now and it has not been used... WiFi is set to be off while screen is off, and is not available for location when wifi deactivated. Nvidia camera is disabled. I will do a factory reset to see how it goes...
If I go to battery menu : it show only one line : screen, 1%, which of course is impossible.
EDIT : ok, it is unusable with such battery life... Since I bought it yesterday, I decided to do a factory reset and to NOT restore anything from other devices.
I'm currently charging it and will make a report later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT 2: time to RMA. Yesterday : a factory reset, no google account configured and charged at 100% , airplane mode. 8hours later ( this morning) , shield shutdown itself during night. So bad.
Judge584 said:
EDIT 2: time to RMA. Yesterday : a factory reset, no google account configured and charged at 100% , airplane mode. 8hours later ( this morning) , shield shutdown itself during night. So bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you on lollipop or kitkat?
Lollipop. Is that the problem ?
Judge584 said:
Lollipop. Is that the problem ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Still dunno. I'm waiting to be able to flash the kitkat firmware. I bought shield 3 days ago registered to nvidia dev site just today. Let's see
I bought it Wednesday and received 4 OTA updates without registering to dev site
Judge584 said:
I bought it Wednesday and received 4 OTA updates without registering to dev site
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it worked as intended lol I need to be registered and agreed to dev site to be able to download the firmwares
But do you have same problem as me?
I've not had any battery issues and I'm running Lollipop.
I have set my screen brightness to Auto (Screen On uses up a lot of juice).
Using the "Shield Power Mode" I've set the "Processor Mode" to "Optimise".
Under the Advanced Wifi options I've turned off "Network Notification", I've left "Scanning Always available" on, and set "Keep Wifi on during sleep" to "Only when plugged in".
Finally in Android/data/com.smugmug.android.cameraawesome/downloads I've made sure there is the empty .nomedia file.

Craig's Root Batter Saver - Lollipop Supported!

So i got installing all the battery saver apps, greenify etc... they all close apps and not much else, my version comes from the mind of an electronics engineer view point...
hardware drains power NOT some little app running in the background! (Purely software programmer logic... )
So my app grabs what states wifi/gps/bt/modem at the time the screen goes off...
When the screen comes on, it re enables them! Eg go bed with 95% wake up with 94% put in your pocket it just does it...
The 2nd feature is the lost/stolen phone feature while the app itself can not get your gps data (no permissions for it) it can switch gps on/off...
So you send "on" without the surrounding quotes, the app will then switch on gps/wifi/modem/bt... it then disables itself
Now you can use wheres my droid or any other location finding app to easily pinpoint your lost or stolen phone (try getting a location with gps/agps/data disabled which people often do to save power!)
(Includes option to keep wifi/gps untouched from the app)
as for ads!... the ui has 1 ad, no popups or notifications ... and when activated the activity with the ad on is destroyed and can't touch battery life ... at all
Craig's Root Battery Saver!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=saver.battery.craigs.craigsbatterysaver
Well done
Holy crap! Someone replied (first for me here lol)
Thanks!
To be honest, your app is great when it comes to save battery, but in my opinion your approach is plain wrong in terms of the main purpose of a smartphone - receiving notifications in a timely manner, not when you turn on the screen manually. The same purpose can be achieved by using DS Battery Saver, which will in addition turn on mobile data once per specific time interval to receive push notifications.
And you should reconsider your opinion about "software does not drain battery but hardware does". Check this great thread for example. I am using a combination of different apps (Greenify, Amplify, Power Nap) to tame aggressive services/alarms/wakelocks and I am able to achieve a battery drain close to 0.0% per hour while screen is turned off with WiFi, mobile data and location turned on the whole time without losing instant notifications.
The app supports wake up notifications (well, will... the app's not quite finished yet, been too busy to get everything finished)
If you had gone to the playstore you'd have seen
Also you might want to reconsider what i said..... hardware drains it not software!
You refer to wake locks ... well believe it or not, wake locks turn on hardware which drains the battery, i program microcontrollers with the esp8266 / bluetooth / compass / etc ...
Software can only drain the battery if it's purposely trying to max out the cpu, and if it did you'd know it's malware... there are wakelock detectors too
Craig Capel said:
The app supports wake up notifications (well, will... the app's not quite finished yet, been too busy to get everything finished)
If you had gone to the playstore you'd have seen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came across this, therefore my reference to DS Battery Saver, that already is capable of exact those things. Nevertheless, your app is doing what it was designed for - saving battery (and this is pretty good, indeed).
Craig Capel said:
Also you might want to reconsider what i said..... hardware drains it not software!
You refer to wake locks ... well believe it or not, wake locks turn on hardware which drains the battery, i program microcontrollers with the esp8266 / bluetooth / compass / etc ...
Software can only drain the battery if it's purposely trying to max out the cpu, and if it did you'd know it's malware... there are wakelock detectors too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I am familiar with what wakelocks are. But without software, that produces a wakelock, there would be no noticable drain, right? Thus we can go round and round here, I guess. From my point of view the most battery drain on an Android device is the result of poorly programmed software (which results in an unneccessary wakelock) and alarms waking up your device, not from ****ty hardware. You can hunt down those wakelocks/alarms by using apps like Better Battery Stats or Wakelock Detector and reduce them to a minimum without losing functionality. Therefore I consider this as a better approach.
But without software, that produces a wakelock, there would be no noticable drain, right? Thus we can go round and round here, I guess. From my point of view the most battery drain on an Android device is the result of poorly programmed software
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Unless the software drains it by intensive cpu work, anything else has to be hardware, if i power a gps module, talk to it via uart to enable/disable it... then it's hardware doing it not software..
Take Qualcomm, the newer cpus support an embedded DSP
https://gigaom.com/2014/12/12/5-things-to-expect-from-qualcomms-flagship-mobile-chip-in-2015/
Qualcomm*made that feature possible*in the Snapdragon 800*with its DSP, and they’re pushing hot words even farther. New devices will have the ability to passively listen, using only a small amount of power, for more than just the word “OK.” Qualcomm calls this feature Snapdragon Sense.
The first feature it will enable is a much faster Shazam search. So if you find yourself too slow on the draw when trying to identify unfamiliar music, you’ll love this: When you boot up Shazam, it’ll already have been listening just a little bit, so it can identify the song in a few seconds.
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As hardware gets smaller and uses less power, then things like the embedded dsp chip will allow you to use wakelocks without little drainage, but were no where near that yet...
think of it like this... software simply carries instructions which can turn on hardware via a field effect transistor, that binary 1 value shows up as 3v logic and the fet begins to conduct between the drain and source, this sets a flip flop and the hardware starts wasting power...
Or to put it another way after the software enables the hardware via a gpio the software stops, or better still, show me software draining the battery with all hardware services disabled... it can't
Good
Does it really work ..
Don't you believe the title? (Really works!)
Craig Capel said:
As hardware gets smaller and uses less power, then things like the embedded dsp chip will allow you to use wakelocks without little drainage, but were no where near that yet...
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True words. I can also see your other points and do agree with them. But as you said, we are not even close to a system where wakelocks do not drain as much as they currently do. Would we have such a system, your app wouldn't be required, I guess. Therefore taming the unneccessary wakelocks is a good way to achieve a great battery life without losing functionality for the moment.
Awesome
Awesome!!!
Can't open the settings and this sound makes me rly angry lol. Why it makes this sound? (even my phone is silence)
Gesendet von meinem ONE A2001 mit Tapatalk
There are no settings... work in progress (says so in the play store readme)
I've had the flu for the past week so i've not been developing much... expect updates shortly to remove the "settings" option which annoyingly is placed there by default... i never put it there
The sound is cool no? ... it plays a low volume sound to indicate the app is working!
Alright, update includes support for android 4.1 for gps now... i'm slowly working my way through android oddities and different techniques to switch hardware / on and off and with 5 phones to use 4 of them use kitkat!
Had to stop for a break i've had the flu all week, throwing up constantly, later on i'll add the finishing touches to wake up notifications as right now it's extreme power saving mode...
Stay tuned.... oh and i found a bug supporting lollipop, fixed that too, so if you have lollipop and it never worked, it should now ...
Antibiotics did the trick! It was sadly not the flu but some rare bug...
I've almost finished the autowakeup every x minutes 5, 10, 20 min intervals..
Unless someone here can think up a value or maybe add it as an option.
.
I removed the blocking side of things prior i used a thread/sleep now i use a timer event this stops the lag when unlocking the device on older models...
nive work :good:
I dumped the smart check (as far as i can tell anroid never fails, so i removed it)
It should now be seamless between lock screen and the main screen without any more lock up due to the threading...
Enjoy!
great!! will try it. thanks!

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