Ive had my htc one x for maybe 5-6 months which is almost the longest ive ever been on one phone and i love(d) it, but its always been doing something very strange and aggravating that seems to be getting worse. Battery drain has always been a problem for me with this phone but ehh i can deal with it, but once my phone gets down to about 14% which is does often because of the draining it starts acting real funny with its power and sometimes goes from 14 down to 5 in an instant literally out of no where and as soon as i plug up itll go right back to 13, or itll shut down entirely at 14% but i can just cut it back on, or itll shut down in the middle of me doing something and i have to charge it for about 5-10 minutes before itll even come back on. The latter happened last night btw. No matter what combination of roms/kernels i try this always seems to be a problem. I really cant deal with this anymore and its to the point where i wanna throw my phone into a wall and just buy another one, which im seriously thinking about doing at this point. If such thing has happened to anyone before or you have insight on this can you please help before i just give up hope completely.
What you have described is normal for our device. Remember that the battery percentage is just an estimate of your actual charge. In addition, you find your phone shutting off around the lower percentages as a result of the device attempting to prevent damage to the battery. That is what the HOXl was designed to do.
Sent from my One X using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
KungFuCracka94 said:
What you have described is normal for our device. Remember that the battery percentage is just an estimate of your actual charge. In addition, you find your phone shutting off around the lower percentages as a result of the device attempting to prevent damage to the battery. That is what the HOXl was designed to do.
Sent from my One X using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last night when it did it, as it has before, i was still on 21%.... thats not normal. And this isnt my first android nor first htc, never happened before. Even on my aunts old one s it didnt happen
Do you allow full charges after these "forced shutdowns" occur? This should cause your battery to recalibrate.
Sent from my One X using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
NexusS4gFreak said:
Last night when it did it, as it has before, i was still on 21%.... thats not normal. And this isnt my first android nor first htc, never happened before. Even on my aunts old one s it didnt happen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery behavior on this phone has been interesting. I have the battery last over two weeks on airplane mode and I've had the battery last just a couple of hours with just a stock setup. There are so many factors that play into this. I work in an area with very little to no signal reception and my battery life goes crazy and the phone can get really hot while I'm there so I've seen the best and worst.
What I do to counteract this bad behavior:
1. Charge prior to 40% (I've had the phone go from 40% to zero instantly before)
2. Consider your signal reception and either try out different radios or use airplane mode to reduce erratic battery drain
3. Install a 3rd party app like batterycalibration (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nema.batterycalibration&hl=en) and use that when things get hairy (I calibrate every two weeks or so and that does the trick for me.
My phone has been like this since I pulled it out of the box. With a little management, it is just fine. You have seen it before but I'll say it again, you have to get through a few charge cycles when flashing a new Rom to get back to normal.
Hope this helps. It works for me and I work in a cell phone reception hell.
NexusS4gFreak said:
Ive had my htc one x for maybe 5-6 months which is almost the longest ive ever been on one phone and i love(d) it, but its always been doing something very strange and aggravating that seems to be getting worse. Battery drain has always been a problem for me with this phone but ehh i can deal with it, but once my phone gets down to about 14% which is does often because of the draining it starts acting real funny with its power and sometimes goes from 14 down to 5 in an instant literally out of no where and as soon as i plug up itll go right back to 13, or itll shut down entirely at 14% but i can just cut it back on, or itll shut down in the middle of me doing something and i have to charge it for about 5-10 minutes before itll even come back on. The latter happened last night btw. No matter what combination of roms/kernels i try this always seems to be a problem. I really cant deal with this anymore and its to the point where i wanna throw my phone into a wall and just buy another one, which im seriously thinking about doing at this point. If such thing has happened to anyone before or you have insight on this can you please help before i just give up hope completely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When a new ROM or kernel is flashed you need to let battery settle for at least 48hrs before you get super worried about battery. If possible during that time let device fully discharge then charge up to 100. Please use a battery monitoring app and then see what's causing the issues. With proper config hoxl will get good battery life. There is always the chance its hardware issue but doubtful as battery prolly would of completely failed by now. Also check your screen brightness settings. Hope this helps
Senseless Power Unlocked
For example
Senseless Power Unlocked
Madcat8686 said:
The battery behavior on this phone has been interesting. I have the battery last over two weeks on airplane mode and I've had the battery last just a couple of hours with just a stock setup. There are so many factors that play into this. I work in an area with very little to no signal reception and my battery life goes crazy and the phone can get really hot while I'm there so I've seen the best and worst.
What I do to counteract this bad behavior:
1. Charge prior to 40% (I've had the phone go from 40% to zero instantly before)
2. Consider your signal reception and either try out different radios or use airplane mode to reduce erratic battery drain
3. Install a 3rd party app like batterycalibration (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nema.batterycalibration&hl=en) and use that when things get hairy (I calibrate every two weeks or so and that does the trick for me.
My phone has been like this since I pulled it out of the box. With a little management, it is just fine. You have seen it before but I'll say it again, you have to get through a few charge cycles when flashing a new Rom to get back to normal.
Hope this helps. It works for me and I work in a cell phone reception hell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive done all three methods youve mentioned before and still same thing. Also im on 3/4 bars with lte 90% of the time so no reception issues here. And with my current setup ive been running it for about 2 weeks.
DESERT.TECH said:
When a new ROM or kernel is flashed you need to let battery settle for at least 48hrs before you get super worried about battery. If possible during that time let device fully discharge then charge up to 100. Please use a battery monitoring app and then see what's causing the issues. With proper config hoxl will get good battery life. There is always the chance its hardware issue but doubtful as battery prolly would of completely failed by now. Also check your screen brightness settings. Hope this helps
Senseless Power Unlocked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive always let the rom settle in and i constantly maintain the brightness on around mid level (mirror screen protector so i cant go too low) but its not just one rom or a few, its with every rom i flash ad that consists of most roms available for this device
The battery behaviour you described is completely normal if you understand how a battery of this type works, and if you understand how the software (especially the display of battery percentage) works in conjunction with it.
Sent from my Evita
timmaaa said:
The battery behaviour you described is completely normal if you understand how a battery of this type works, and if you understand how the software (especially the display of battery percentage) works in conjunction with it.
Sent from my Evita
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So youre telling me having the phone get to 22% and instantly drop to zero and power down is normal? Makes no sense at all. Also i cant get it to charge too 100% for anything. So if theres no fix to this, anybody want a one x with a troublesome battery?
What I'm saying is the battery percentage displayed by the software is never exact, it's only an estimate based on the voltage level of your battery. Your battery sounds like its long term life (capacity) has been decreased over time and possibly bad treatment (allowing the device to discharge too much too many times).
Sent from my Evita
NexusS4gFreak said:
So youre telling me having the phone get to 22% and instantly drop to zero and power down is normal? Makes no sense at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on what you define as "normal". Such behavior is certainly not unheard of (although you particular collection of symptoms may point to a more serious issue, which I'll get to later). Couple things you have to remember: the battery meter is far from accurate. Being off by 10% or more is not unusual (completely normal). So jumping from 5 to 13% as you mentioned is not out of the question. The battery voltage is not actually jumping around, just the % battery number that the phone is assigning to various voltage readings. Reading errors happen, and if a jump is noticed, its just the meter correcting itself.
Which brings us to the other point that should be kept in mind: the battery % is not a "real" measurement. Its just a number assigned to various voltages to give the average person a sense of how much battery is left. Its a completely fabricated and artificial measure that just gives some relative sense of when a user should charge their battery. Phone makers just decided to use a system that average people would understand, like the fuel gauge on a car. Zero doesn't really mean zero (or anywhere close), but reporting in voltages would make no sense for most folks. Also, as we all well know, just because (for example) it took you 12 hours to drain the phone to 50%, does not necessarily mean the phone will last another 12 hours to drain the remaining 50%. It all depends on what you are doing with the phone during that time. Which leaves the question: What does the % battery really mean? Really, not a heck of a lot.
On the other hand, the battery failing to charge to 100% is troublesome, as is the apparent frequency of the meter drops and the fact that the issue remains after various ROM flashes. Leads me to believe there may be some hardware issue going on.
The short answer: IMO while some of the individual symptoms are not unusual, the seeming frequency (you haven't exactly quantified this, but it seems relative frequent just based on your descriptions) may suggest a larger issue, but its not certain.
Thanks it explained a lot but it happened again today, went to the store with ~36% on the meter and walked out, haven't touched it at all, phone was completely dead. Tried to charge and it went to 6% and stopped charging, all signs showed it was charging but it was stuck on 6. Then it started climbing again and reached about 16% and actually started losing charge while on the charger. Switched over to my portable battery charger i just got and it held the charge at about 5% for ~30 minutes, which is what it was when i plugged it in and started to charge, then it stopped againand during the whole process the phone was getting very hot. Yea im getting a new phone :/
Related
I've had my nexus s (9020a) since late November (bought it used, in execellent condition.) While battery life was never awesome, it was at least bearable - until last week. I'm now unable to get more than 6 hours on a battery with super-minimal usage. For instance, today, as of right now, I have 5h 58m 57s (at 7% battery left) - the top "user" being the display (32%) with a "time on" of 17m 30s. Even when I power the phone completely off (not the screen, literally powering off) - say for a half hour or so - when I power it back on I lose substantial amount of battery.
Some other details:
Currently running stock 2.3.6 rom (since yesterday), but rooted.
Previously was running stock ICS (flashed the tmobile 2.3.6 ota, then ics, then the att radio) - was fine for the last 2 months
Tried brand new battery (not a samsung, but Anker) - no difference
Tried several different charges, and charging via computer
Have wiped battery stats several times (and done complete resets/formats of everything in between swapping roms)
Phone used to always top out at 95% when charging - but now will go up to 100%
This behavior started up when I was on vacation - a few hours after landing in SLC, UT. I do recall a sudden crash / reboot of the phone before the problems started - but I have gotten random reboots in the past. Was running ICS at the time. I thought maybe a poor signal was to blame, but again, the battery would drain even when the phone was powered off (or in airplane mode.)
I'm not sure what else I can/should do - short of calling Samsung. I'd think if it were a hardware issue, it would fail to charge completely. Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Sounds like something external is draining the battery. I've seen many cases with a magnet on them drain the battery very quickly, or possibly excessive heat. If not i would say it's some kind of hardware problem.
Does not sound like android chewing it up.
Harbb said:
Sounds like something external is draining the battery. I've seen many cases with a magnet on them drain the battery very quickly, or possibly excessive heat. If not i would say it's some kind of hardware problem.
Does not sound like android chewing it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a case on it - just a screen protector. The battery does tend to run in the mid 90s fahrenheit (according to battery status apps.. though I think I have seen it as high as the low 100s (maybe 102?) - but I figured that was normal.
Another weird behavior I should mention: sometimes when I power off and on while charging, it will cause the battery percentage to jump considerably. Right now, two consecutive on-off-on cycles (within the span of 3 minutes) caused the battery percentage to jump from 36% to 44% to 57%.
Heats normal. Not sure what it could be to be honest. Maybe grab a can of compressed air and spray around the back, maybe dust causing a short or something.
Harbb said:
Heats normal. Not sure what it could be to be honest. Maybe grab a can of compressed air and spray around the back, maybe dust causing a short or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, will try that
Sent it back to Samsung for "repair". As I suspected, all they incompetently did was re-flash 2.3.4 and say "passed all functional testing". Phone is still hosed and completely useless as-is.
(Fully charged, overnight - less than 8 hours - went down to 17%, with no apps running, no google accounts, no sync, no background anything, no screen time, no wifi, in airplane mode)
Samsung really is hopeless. Going to try again with them? Whatever you decide, best of luck. Hope it works out for you.
what is the mv reading when the phone is fully charged? Fully charged should be around 4200mv
Harbb said:
Samsung really is hopeless. Going to try again with them? Whatever you decide, best of luck. Hope it works out for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying again, but not optimistic. I talked to about 4 total "customer support" people today.. at least got them to "upgrade" me to 2-day shipping for sending back and forth instead of the normal ups ground.
It is so foreign to me - coming from Apple where, under warranty, they'll pretty much swap problematic devices out for new ones _in store_ on a dime. I pretty much begged Samsung to just send me a refurb unit to replace it with but they said thats "not their policy."
noobiekins said:
what is the mv reading when the phone is fully charged? Fully charged should be around 4200mv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have it with me (send it back for round number two) but I am fairly certain that is around what it was reading.
The thing would even burn through battery when powered off, if the battery was still left in. Taking the battery out = no drop. It has to be something hardware.
My raphael really is working really bad last times and unfortunately i wont be able tu buy a new phone for another 2 or 3 months...
Im using energy rom. Dunno if it matters tho.
1.My problem is my raphael battery or something around it. When i charge it to 100% and then just keep it locked in my pocket it will easily last a day or even more. BUT if i only start doing something it will turn off after a few minutes or even SECONDS... What the hell? I cant use it at all... It has been like that for few weeks... But it was perfectly fine before. What's strange , if i turn it on again after some time it will again have some pretty high battery percentage allowing me to do something for another few minutes. Has anyone experienced this? Is it problem with my battery? I do not want to buy a new battery for those 2 months.
2.Is there any way to lengthen the battery live? I have heard something about putting it in the fridge (0.0) but don't remember what exactly...
3.What's the best way to charge my phone by connecting it with usb to PC? In work i cant use my charger.
I've never really had great battery life with any mobile phone. However, I imagine that you can gain a few hours/minutes by disabling the background data. I usually charge up my phone over night and it lasts till I put it back on the charger. However, I have run it down to about 10% a few times.
Well... I don't know what to do... I switched back to manila ROM , changed radio, disabled 3g, wifi, backlight as low as possible... And it didnt really help much...
It's like that. I load it to 100% , hide it in my pocket and it will last from morning to late afternoon if left unused.
But if only i start to use it will turn off by itself after 5(!) minutes... That's not normal i think... The strangest thing is that it started to be like this so suddenly.
I don't know what else to tell you. It does seem rather odd but if you are just going to get another phone anyway, I'd try to tough it out till then. Do you remember exactly when you noticed this behavior? Has anything changed during that time?
Well... my charger broke like few weeks ago and i started chargingmy phone by connecting it to the pc... Could it be the reason?
Is your battery swollen in any way? If it is, that could be the cause of bad battery life.
Come to think of it, one of my batteries seem slightly swollen and even though it is the oldest of my three batteries, it still works on occasion (when I use it). Now on the other hand, I don't constantly charge my phone via laptop. I hearsay, that doing this somehow *may* change the lifespan (possibly behavior?) of the battery. I can't say for certain as I don't usually charge my phone in this manner. Additionally, I try not to continuously charge my battery to 100% (rather 80% is what I look for) and I also try wait till my battery is at least 30% before I put it on the charger. I have read that this is the "optimal way" to charge and discharge your battery (or li-ion batteries anyway).
Perhaps you can try to do this and tell if there is a difference? I almost want to say that even through this, there is a slight chance that you'll notice an increase of battery life but perhaps, it'll be more consistent instead of the rapid discharge. Also, this could be a telltale sign that your battery is on its way out? You might want to keep that USB cord handy in the meantime and try to keep the battery levels between 80 and 30%.
e334 said:
Is your battery swollen in any way? If it is, that could be the cause of bad battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now when i looked at my battery i see it is REALLY swollen. 0.0 Ehhh anyway, i am changing the phone pretty soon so i dont care that much...
@R^7Z
It's not so easy , you know... It will show 3-4 bars of energy (max is 4, windows 6.1) and it will just turn off... Meh, i am glad im changing it soon
Ah, I forgot you were using a stock ROM and not a custom ROM. So, what do you see when you tap the battery icon/top curtain?
Background: I have had phone 11 months. I am very familiar with how the battery drain is while it is stock (WiFi ON all the time). battery lasted ~16h which is plenty for me.
Rooted phone, Battery Life on AR14 and IceColdSandwich (and others) was around 20h with WiFi on all the time and light use.
Recent Kernels (anything IceColdSandwich 3.0.0+ or AR 23+ (haven't tested between 14 and 23) cause a base of around 50mA of drain even when phone is locked. Battery life is ~8-10hours WITH NO USE. I have tried these ROMs without installing ANYTHING on them with the same results.
Current Widget does not identify an offending program from what I can tell.
WiFi off, the phone lasted 2d9hr of pretty light use.
I first started looking into WiFi when I forgot to turn off airdroid and unplugged the phone for 3 hours. I found AirDroid still running but could not connect to it via laptop or desktop until I tinkered with the phone a bit more and the WiFi connection cycled.
However during this time, the charge lost on the battery was a reasonable rate, and after the WiFi connection cycled it dropped like the usual rock.
What I've tried:
WiFix
WiFi polling interval increase
Cleaning/checking battery cover contacts
Changing battery covers
Battery Calibration (which is a myth from other reading I've done)
A couple of different programs like Juice Defender.
On the list to do:
Try a different Kernel
Root my friend's phone and trade him hardware (he says he never uses WiFi, so it won't be an issue for him)
/wrists
Thanks for all the suggestions and help so far. I understand that the problem is pretty obscure and seems rare.
on icecoldsandwich ive seen quite a few people show an improved battery draining using lordmods newer bfs kernel. maybe give that a try and report back?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1450962
kernel: http://goo.gl/ZqBZl
btw, very good informative question. its heart warming usually we get 'my battery sucks yo, fix it!' haha
Here is some irony.
Exitz ICS AR25 has been on the phone for a couple of days and has lost essentially 10% per hour when not on the charger (been off work in my house) After the 4th day, I installed AirDroid and AngelCamera. I took it off the charger last night...
92% 6 hours later AND the phone has been awake(?) all night...
Seems I left AirDroid 'running' but couldn't connect to the phone through AirDroid until after the WiFi cycled...
I will see how the drain is today. I'll out of the house all day tomorrow (half a day in Denver), toggle off the wifi for a day at home, and then try your suggestion Darunion.
Here are a few screen shots (first two are old), and honestly, I don't know how much I trust the battery stats.
IceColdSandwich 2.0.0 pretty much shows that battery life I have been used to for a long time including before rooting. Not AMAZING, but not fail. (WTF Proximity Recaibrator 29% of Drain on a 16 hour day?) Also note this is about the same rate of drain I experienced with Existz AR14 last week. Light use and ~16-19 hours of battery life. Not amazing, but I can live with it.
IceColdSandwich 3.0.0 pretty much shows the battery life I have been getting with any ICS roms since.. well 3.0.0 was released. Oh and the voice call that is 37% of drain lasted less than 10 minutes.
Existz AR25 (someofthedrain.png) the steep drop was a 20 minute phone call...
And Finally Airdroidwtf.png is the same install three nights later (this morning) If I could get battery drain like THIS on a regular basis...
Anyway, I'll keep trying to isolate this down to the specific 'area' of the phone that is causing it....
Edit: and as for Darunion commenting about the information I've included... I'm a patient person, I don't want to be a drain on the community, and I have no issue trying to solve a ROM, APP, Radio, RIL, Or watever issue. I'm only posting because the issue isn't unique to a ROM but is unique to a time frame AND the issue is not solveable via Google or XDA search
Right now it is looking like the 'extra' drain on newer ROMs is directly related to the wireless being on*.
Right now the phone is at 1day 19 hours with 14% left and the wireless was only on for the first couple of hours this charge cycle.
I never thought there would be such a considerable difference between battery usage on any ROMs.
I'm going to continue looking around and trying to solve things, and I haven't quite made it to trying the Kernel, Darunion. It is on the list after I toggle WIFI on and off throughout a day.
*The rest of this post is just back-story I have ran the phone on stock for 11 months before rooting it and during that time, I got used to leaving the WIFI running all the time simply because the battery always lasted through my longer days and my-typical light-use. I'm near WIFI that my phone connects to about 80% of the time.
So after rooting, I had a little increase in battery life and I never changed this habbit, or more to the point, I was leaving WIFI on as to make it one less variable in drain while testing various ROMs and different build dates.
Wulamoc said:
Right now it is looking like the 'extra' drain on newer ROMs is directly related to the wireless being on*.
Right now the phone is at 1day 19 hours with 14% left and the wireless was only on for the first couple of hours this charge cycle.
I never thought there would be such a considerable difference between battery usage on any ROMs.
I'm going to continue looking around and trying to solve things, and I haven't quite made it to trying the Kernel, Darunion. It is on the list after I toggle WIFI on and off throughout a day.
*The rest of this post is just back-story I have ran the phone on stock for 11 months before rooting it and during that time, I got used to leaving the WIFI running all the time simply because the battery always lasted through my longer days and my-typical light-use. I'm near WIFI that my phone connects to about 80% of the time.
So after rooting, I had a little increase in battery life and I never changed this habbit, or more to the point, I was leaving WIFI on as to make it one less variable in drain while testing various ROMs and different build dates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was on battery for around 13 hours yesterday with wifi on for at least 8 hours of that and plugged my phone in with 51% battery remaining.
ST3ALTHPSYCH0 said:
I was on battery for around 13 hours yesterday with wifi on for at least 8 hours of that and plugged my phone in with 51% battery remaining.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know this isn't a typical issue for most everyone, and am not implying so.
Likely it will end up being something very specific to the two WIFI networks I am at for 80% of the time OR something else that is very specific to my circumstances.
Wulamoc said:
Yeah, I know this isn't a typical issue for most everyone, and am not implying so.
Likely it will end up being something very specific to the two WIFI networks I am at for 80% of the time OR something else that is very specific to my circumstances.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you, by chance, removed and reinstalled your back covers? I know it's unlikely, but since they contain the antennae, maybe they've come a little loos, resulting in higher imepedence connections.
ST3ALTHPSYCH0 said:
Have you, by chance, removed and reinstalled your back covers? I know it's unlikely, but since they contain the antennae, maybe they've come a little loos, resulting in higher imepedence connections.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not specifically toyed with the covers as part of trouble shooting. I will be sure that I look at them after my battery finishes charging on WIFI.
It does seem to be more a software difference, (I've casually be at this for the better part of 2 months) as I have seen expected performance when flashing back to a ROM I've used.
Thanks, I like being able to limit variables and this will be one I check before charging the phone again.
(What I'd really love to do is convince my brother or one of two friends who have the Inspire 4g to let me root their phones so I can trade them phones for a week and really isolate out hardware issues
fyi if you are still running icecoldsandwich. 6.2 just was released. Maybe give that a try?
Darunion said:
fyi if you are still running icecoldsandwich. 6.2 just was released. Maybe give that a try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now, I'd like to figure out WHY my WiFi is so bad on battery drain with later AOKP releases.
I'll try to rule out hardware issues (I'll look into antenna and MAYBE convince a friend to let me root their phone and trade them for a week... if not then covers at least.)
But likely this is something about newer releases and how my WIFI is setup. I don't live in a high-density area, so it's not because of too much wifi trafficz (I can barely see a 2nd wifi with any device and it's on the opposite end of the frequency choices.... by my settings)
Anyway, I am a very patient person, so I'll continue working on this slowly so that I can be thorough and find the real cause of the problem.
What I would wish is for someone to point me in the direction as to how WiFi MIGHT drain the battery so hard for later releases but not earlier. I'll be reading up more on logcat and how to read it in regards to wifi... but searching and reading is hard because 'wireless' and what not are very vague terms
Now at 1% (still) and 2d9h... is MORE than double my record on the first roms I tried after rooting OR my stock rom. and MORE than quadruple my record on any of the newer roms
I've swapped battery covers with a friend this past weekend, and the WiFi being on still drains the phone considerably (~8%/hr) when turned on. So if it's a hardware issue, it's not in the battery cover.
Wifi and blue tooth are very hard on the battery regardless. But 8% an hour seems pretty steep tho.
I would start by getting the current widget in Google market and put in on your home screen to monitor your Mili-volt ussage. If its running high like the 200+ constantly you have a lot of drain going on. When in sleep mode it should drop down to 0mv up to 8mv. If it stays high in the sleep mode you have apps waking your phone from sleeping. Which causes tremendous drain.
Next I'd try removing apps that have wifi permissions. To see if that drops your mv ussage.
Drop your notifications to less frequent times on your email and Facebook.
Remove any task managers or juice defender. They run constantly.
Google + is a massive battery drainer. Remove or limit notifications and sync as much as possible.
Also running wifi fix apk could also help. If you are knowledgeable enough you could also edit the build.prop to set the wife scan at a less frequent rate as well.
Last but not least get a toggle button widget for wifi and turn it off when not using.
I'd you follow these steps this will drasticly decrease your battery drain.
Sent from Soundwave aboard Nemesis.
dj sampson said:
Wifi and blue tooth are very hard on the battery regardless. But 8% an hour seems pretty steep tho.
I would start by getting the current widget in Google market and put in on your home screen to monitor your Mili-volt ussage. If its running high like the 200+ constantly you have a lot of drain going on. When in sleep mode it should drop down to 0mv up to 8mv. If it stays high in the sleep mode you have apps waking your phone from sleeping. Which causes tremendous drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time for this response!
I started by running current widget for about a week and with a 3 different roms AR23(?), IceColdSandwich 2.0.0, IceColdSandwich 3.0.0.
I was stock for 11 months, and ICS2.0.0 was a little better than battery drain than stock. AR23 and ICS3.0.0 were terrible and pretty much ran a constant 50ma drain asleep or awake as a baseline.
I'd really like to figure out what the difference is with the older AOKP and the newer AOKP, but that may never happen.
Next I'd try removing apps that have wifi permissions. To see if that drops your mv ussage.
Drop your notifications to less frequent times on your email and Facebook.
Remove any task managers or juice defender. They run constantly.
Google + is a massive battery drainer. Remove or limit notifications and sync as much as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been testing with stock roms since a couple weeks before I posted this thread. This is because current widget didn't really show any specific program causing the issue, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't have some issue from my installed programs.
The most I've installed (out of necessity is AirDroid and AngelCamera) in the past few weeks. Both were installed when I ran without wifi on one charge for 2d9hrs.
(I don't have a google+ account, I don't have juice defender or any task managers aside from the stock rom)
Also running wifi fix apk could also help. If you are knowledgeable enough you could also edit the build.prop to set the wife scan at a less frequent rate as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll do this and see if that helps things. Thank you
Last but not least get a toggle button widget for wifi and turn it off when not using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is likely going to have to be my solution. Just run cell data all the time unless I am doing something specific like downloading files or uploading pictures.
OR
Maybe I can convince my friend to let me trade him phones (root his and nand backup and then restore all his stuff to my phone) and see if it is about the same drain. His phone was bought a couple months after mine AND from a different vendor, so it isn't going to be out of the same manufacturer's lot.
I'd you follow these steps this will drasticly decrease your battery drain.
Sent from Soundwave aboard Nemesis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again. I'll definitely try the wifix along with the rest of your suggestions that apply
I'm in the same boat you are. I'm running ics aospX ar-26 and I can barely get mine to last from 8 til 4. Wifi is pretty prevelent around here and I leave it on most of time. I guess I could try turning it off til I need it. Anyway I'll be following this thread.
Sent from the heavens using XDA
You also might consider reading the threads on calibrating battery after flashing roms. I made the mistake of flashing a rom @ 40% battery. It jacked my stats all up. The new rom thought 40% battery was actually 100%. It had my stats all screwed up too. Except mine was Bluetooth. Showed running at 60% of battery ussage. So don't trust that system tool. Because the display is almost alway gonna be the biggest drain on the battery. An app called "spare parts" is a little more accurate.
I ran the gambit on this one finnally got my battery back to normal for me anyway. I've never seen a full days use with out charging. Get about 14 hours Max now. But the calibration steps is the way to go.
Sent from Soundwave aboard Nemesis.
dj sampson said:
You also might consider reading the threads on calibrating battery after flashing roms. I made the mistake of flashing a rom @ 40% battery. It jacked my stats all up. The new rom thought 40% battery was actually 100%. It had my stats all screwed up too. Except mine was Bluetooth. Showed running at 60% of battery ussage. So don't trust that system tool. Because the display is almost alway gonna be the biggest drain on the battery. An app called "spare parts" is a little more accurate.
I ran the gambit on this one finnally got my battery back to normal for me anyway. I've never seen a full days use with out charging. Get about 14 hours Max now. But the calibration steps is the way to go.
Sent from Soundwave aboard Nemesis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually have read quite a bit about battery calibration... and before I flashed a new ROM, I've made sure that current widget has been tracking 0ma for a while. (Only reliable way to be sure you have a full battery from what I can tell)
The batterystats.bin file and calibration has been ... contended in a number of places, mostly stating that when taken off the charger 'full' the battery stats file is overwritten... which makes calibration a non-issue (assuming that you occasionally charge your phone for a while after it hits 100% from time to time)
The problem is that the WiFi mA draw is HUGE compared to what it should be (in theory from reading other people's logs), and it's not because of the battery cover. AND It's not as bad in older AOKP ROMs than it is in newer ones. SO it could be a hardware issue exacerbated by a change in how WiFi is handled, but the hardware issue was never noticed because the battery life Stock was sufficient for my needs.
I've been busy working so I haven't been able to continue troubleshooting the phone (damn my patience), but Mondayish, I'll likely have traded my phone with a friend and root it and flash a new rom and see how the drain is with completely different hardware from a different vendor from a different lot of phones.
I had a similar issue with wifi. I changed the build.props wifi supliment scan from every 15 seconds to 180 and used the wifi fix manager apk. That seemed to help. Coupled with a proper battery calibration and I'm back to my display being the major battery draw.
So don't know if that helps but it seemed to work out my bugs.
Sent from Soundwave aboard Nemesis.
This I can do right now.. and given I'm on the same, unmodified AR24 release, I can observe it for the weekend before I annoy my friend about his phone.
Seems the WiFi scan interval was already set to 100... moved it to 180 anyway.
I used to have this issue. I could literally see my battery draining while I was using it. I keep wifi on most of the time. I recently purchased an anker battery online. It is AMAZING! My old battery wouldn't last more than 6 hours or so. Right now I'm at about 14 hours on this charge, and I'm at 47 percent. Try swapping his battery for yours for a day or two. Another thing to try is different radios if you're losing power to cell standby.
Zombies ate my Inspire
DynamiteRave said:
I used to have this issue. I could literally see my battery draining while I was using it. I keep wifi on most of the time. I recently purchased an anker battery online. It is AMAZING! My old battery wouldn't last more than 6 hours or so. Right now I'm at about 14 hours on this charge, and I'm at 47 percent. Try swapping his battery for yours for a day or two. Another thing to try is different radios if you're losing power to cell standby.
Zombies ate my Inspire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone ran for 2days 9hours with WiFi off and lasts for 8-10 hours with WiFi on. I am pretty sure that it's not a Radio/RIL or a Battery capacity issue. ;(
Hey all,
About three weeks ago I had a strange problem. I noticed that in two straight charge cycles, my battery life plummeted from about 80% to zero in just a few hours. I'm not sure what the issue was. I hadn't changed settings, installed new apps, etc. My first screenshot shows an example of what happened. 4G and data were off during the entire time.
Since then, things have been okay. I typically get 3 days standby with 4G on and light use, or 4 days with 4G off. That's mostly standby with maybe an hour or so of talking and minimal use.
After those strange battery plummets, I installed and used GSam Battery Monitor to get more details about what processes were running on my phone in case I noticed the sharp drop happening again. Everything had been fine for over two weeks, with me getting expected battery life before this issue and not experiencing any odd, sudden drops (maybe 5 or 6 charge cycles). This lends me to conclude that my battery's charge capacity is okay, and calibration also shouldn't be an issue.
However, the problem arose once again a couple days ago. Went from 75% to nothing in just a few hours. 4G was off during that time. The third and fourth screenshots show the same issue. Charged my phone, and this morning the same thing happened yet again. At about 90% the plummet began, and within an hour or so I was at 75%. At this point I took screenshots of Android's battery status, and I also did the same for GSam to show what apps and processes were running. The phone's temperature seemed fine.
The GSam screenshots taken when the phone was at 75% and dropping are in the next post, since I'm limited to four images in this one. I have no idea what's causing this massive, sudden battery drain. The only thing I can think of is that I've done Verizon's OTA updates, but otherwise pretty much all my settings, apps, and usage are the same. Plus, for two weeks I had normal battery behavior, so I'm completely baffled.
I also know that cell standby is incorrectly reported in the GS3 battery screen, and I'm getting a good signal where I live so that shouldn't be a problem. I forgot to get screen time for the first case (first two images), but it shouldn't be more than 10-15 min there since most of the charge was lost due to the freak plummet.
If anyone may have an idea of what's going on, or if there are some tools/tests I may use to figure this out, I'd really appreciate it. I turned off my phone after taking the screenshots at 75%, so if I need to turn it on and check something for you I can probably do that. Thanks a lot.
FYI, here are GSam screenshots from when the battery was in the process of plummeting this morning.
i think you built in battery status settings are off. i barely get 12 hrs with medium use, so what i think it happens is that the battery monitor is not showing the proper discharge, and then all of a sudden it catches up to the discharge rate.
are you on stock rom, rooted, unlocked bootloader?
wizzardeel said:
i think you built in battery status settings are off. i barely get 12 hrs with medium use, so what i think it happens is that the battery monitor is not showing the proper discharge, and then all of a sudden it catches up to the discharge rate.
are you on stock rom, rooted, unlocked bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am stock rom. No rooting, no unlocking.
These plunges are definitely an anomaly. Truly, with me barely using the phone and turning off mobile data, I get a few days of standby. I've had the phone since July, and the aberration in battery behavior has been the steep plunges I've shown.
In between these instance of steep plunges, I've had normal use. I really don't think it's an issue of calibration. Please believe me when I say that my normal, light use during the past four months gets me anywhere from 3-5 days with me barely using the phone. When I say barely using it, I mean not even touching it for an entire day if nobody calls me. But now, a sudden plunge in battery life is happening at 80% with no apparent reason.
I think it might be some kind of software or hardware glitch, but it's impossible for this to be normal given the battery life I typically get. Just looking at that steep drop, it's crazy and just happens out of nowhere.
But please trust me when I say that these sudden plunges that have happened a total of 4 or 5 times, causing the battery to drain completely in a few hours when I'm not touching it, are quite a drastic aberration from the normal standby life I get. Something is definitely wrong here, I just don't know what.
And one more thing to add is that after this sudden plunge and rapid drain, charging the battery still takes the normal time it does when I'm not having this issue. That is, about 2.5-3 hours to reach a full charge (and I charge with the phone 'off'). The battery is being completely drained. But this happened twice, then didn't happen for maybe 5-6 charge cycles, then happened again twice.
Before the first instance, I remember an OTA Verizon update around 10/5. My phone was okay for 2-3 charge cycles after that. Then two rapid drains. Then 5-6 normal cycles. Then two more rapid drains. There was a second Verizon OTA update somewhere in there but I can't remember.
and you said it only started once you did the OTA update from verizon right? well you could either try to go back to the stock verizon rom pre-update and see what happens there, or contact verizon and let them know what happens with the new OTA update. they could replace your phone, or it could be a bug of the new OTA update. i am on stock rom and rooted and deleted the apk that kept on trying to push the update. just unlocked by bootloader and so far my battery life has improved compared to previous locked bootloader.
i would take it to a verizon store and show them. They might give you a new battery.
I may have to do that. I'm just not really sure what the issue is.
- The battery can still hold a full charge.
- Based on running services, nothing is causing high CPU usage.
- The sudden plummet almost seems kind of random.
- Since there have been normal charge cycles, it's not an issue of calibration.
I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue or software issue. I'm trying to wrap my brain around what could cause the battery to drain so suddenly and sharply. Could the charge somehow be "leaking"? But in that case I'd expect it to happen all the time. If there's an underlying software issue, is there any other tool I might be able to use to figure it out?
Does the phone get hot?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
jhoutz said:
Does the phone get hot?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not from what I can tell. Note that the first couple plummet drains were overnight.
But today I caught it before noon. The phone wasn't hot, and the GSam screenshots show no CPU stress.
Maybe you can do a factory reset and se if that helps. They will probably do one if you bring it to verizon anyways. It sure sound like a hardware problem. You'd think if the processors are working that hard that the phone would get hot, I know mine gets pretty hot sometimes under heavy use.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Thing is, all indications show the CPU isn't working hard, and the phone wasn't hot.
I'm stumped.
This is a noobish question, but I presume the only way to go back to stock is to factory reset? One thing I might wait for is the Jelly Bean update, presuming this random drain holds off until then.
But yea, I dread going into VZW because they're just going to try to pass this off onto me doing something wrong, or me not knowing how to calibrate the battery, etc. The information I've provided in my OP and in the screenshots would fly over their heads. Maybe I can just do an online chat and tell VZ to send me another battery?
The only other thing I can think of is that sometime before these plummets happened, I went online to MyVerizon and turned off the Backup Assistant for movies/music/etc. so I wouldn't get all those notifications. I don't think this could be the issue, since the plummet happens when data is off. Plus, GSam would show that Backup Assistant is hogging the CPU or forcing a signal.
I doubt swapping batteries will fix it, though. I'm thinking my internal hardware might have a serious problem.
inm8num2 said:
Thing is, all indications show the CPU isn't working hard, and the phone wasn't hot.
I'm stumped.
This is a noobish question, but I presume the only way to go back to stock is to factory reset? One thing I might wait for is the Jelly Bean update, presuming this random drain holds off until then.
But yea, I dread going into VZW because they're just going to try to pass this off onto me doing something wrong, or me not knowing how to calibrate the battery, etc. The information I've provided in my OP and in the screenshots would fly over their heads. Maybe I can just do an online chat and tell VZ to send me another battery?
The only other thing I can think of is that sometime before these plummets happened, I went online to MyVerizon and turned off the Backup Assistant for movies/music/etc. so I wouldn't get all those notifications. I don't think this could be the issue, since the plummet happens when data is off. Plus, GSam would show that Backup Assistant is hogging the CPU or forcing a signal.
I doubt swapping batteries will fix it, though. I'm thinking my internal hardware might have a serious problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before the update, was everything normal?
Is the update with the HE base/baseband?
It probably isn't a hardware problem, just a bad base.
I've noticed after updating my GS3 to the HE base and the battery life was just horrid.
It's said that the new HE baseband uses up more battery also
emckai said:
Before the update, was everything normal?
Is the update with the HE base/baseband?
It probably isn't a hardware problem, just a bad base.
I've noticed after updating my GS3 to the HE base and the battery life was just horrid.
It's said that the new HE baseband uses up more battery also
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "HE" base/baseband.
But yea, this problem didn't come up until after an OTA update.
Check your baseband version under Settings -> About and paste it here
Sent from my rooted Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII
It's I535VRLHE
Kernel version: 3.0.8-1092717
Build number IMM76D.I535VRALHE
I turned on the phone and within 10 min or so the battery life went down by 2-3% without me doing anything. As a test I've put it into Airplane mode, and it's decreased by about 2% in 45 min.
Now I'm wondering if I have a faulty antenna or something.
Yup ive had it drain 90% overnight many times for no reason. Called verizon and my new battery should be here today.
1+ day on battery and only 11 minutes of screen time?!?
inm8num2 said:
It's I535VRLHE
Kernel version: 3.0.8-1092717
Build number IMM76D.I535VRALHE
I turned on the phone and within 10 min or so the battery life went down by 2-3% without me doing anything. As a test I've put it into Airplane mode, and it's decreased by about 2% in 45 min.
Now I'm wondering if I have a faulty antenna or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HE is the baseband version and the build number. For example I have: Android Version: 4.0.4
Baseband: I535VRLG7
Build: IM76D.I535VRALG7
which is the version before the update.
Like everybody else said, call Verizon or go to a store and let them know about the battery issues and they should send you a new one. Or even call Samsung and tell them you bought an S3 through Verizon and you are having battery hardware issues.
sonser said:
1+ day on battery and only 11 minutes of screen time?!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, no calls made or received during that time. No data being used.
So, wasn't really using the phone during that time...
So I'm running CM10.2 and was on one of the newer nightlies (10/02 I think). Basically my phone was being weird and the battery was dying extremely quickly. It got to 2% in about 6 hours so I put it on airplane mode. I checked about 30 minutes later and the battery was at 7%. I thought maybe this might be some battery calibration thing but the night before, my phone died on me (on the same nightly build), thus 're-calibrating' it when it hit 0%.
I'm wondering how this is possible and if it's a battery calibration or software thing.
TheDiddler said:
So I'm running CM10.2 and was on one of the newer nightlies (10/02 I think). Basically my phone was being weird and the battery was dying extremely quickly. It got to 2% in about 6 hours so I put it on airplane mode. I checked about 30 minutes later and the battery was at 7%. I thought maybe this might be some battery calibration thing but the night before, my phone died on me (on the same nightly build), thus 're-calibrating' it when it hit 0%.
I'm wondering how this is possible and if it's a battery calibration or software thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First it's not good do discharge lithium ion batteries all the way. If you have a habit of doing that it could be part of your issues. Second, you don't need to calibrate this type of lithium ion battery. It's not a smart battery so there's no chip to calibrate. Third batteries have a definite life cycle that can be shortened by certain things like excessive heat during charging from a low state. It's hard to tell for sure but I've seen lots of phones do the same thing when their battery was about to give up. If the issues starts happening more frequently and across various ROMs then get a new battery.
theesotericone said:
First it's not good do discharge lithium ion batteries all the way. If you have a habit of doing that it could be part of your issues. Second, you don't need to calibrate this type of lithium ion battery. It's not a smart battery so there's no chip to calibrate. Third batteries have a definite life cycle that can be shortened by certain things like excessive heat during charging from a low state. It's hard to tell for sure but I've seen lots of phones do the same thing when their battery was about to give up. If the issues starts happening more frequently and across various ROMs then get a new battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, I never do this. My battery usually never goes below around 30%. Second, by re-calibrate, I don't mean the old lithium battery theory where you lose battery if you never go below a certain %, but instead, re-calibrating the battery software so it knows what 0% actually is.
TheDiddler said:
First off, I never do this. My battery usually never goes below around 30%. Second, by re-calibrate, I don't mean the old lithium battery theory where you lose battery if you never go below a certain %, but instead, re-calibrating the battery software so it knows what 0% actually is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recharging at around thirty is definitely the way to go. Your software recalibrates itself after a full charge every time. It could easily have been a really bad wake lock. Install Better Battery Stats and if it drops that fast again then open the app to find out what the cause is. BBS is available free to XDA members but if you find it useful kick down for the paid app. It's worth every bit of 3 bucks. Usually when you see sudden drops then sudden ups it's the battery going bad. I haven't seen anyone else report this issue on CM 10.2 or any other 4.3 ROMs that I follow. Which is most of them. So I'd just keep an eye on it.
theesotericone said:
Recharging at around thirty is definitely the way to go. Your software recalibrates itself after a full charge every time. It could easily have been a really bad wake lock. Install Better Battery Stats and if it drops that fast again then open the app to find out what the cause is. BBS is available free to XDA members but if you find it useful kick down for the paid app. It's worth every bit of 3 bucks. Usually when you see sudden drops then sudden ups it's the battery going bad. I haven't seen anyone else report this issue on CM 10.2 or any other 4.3 ROMs that I follow. Which is most of them. So I'd just keep an eye on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I see, thanks a lot. What I did was go back to a previous nightly that I haven't had issues with but I'll definitely check out BBS.
TheDiddler said:
Hmm I see, thanks a lot. What I did was go back to a previous nightly that I haven't had issues with but I'll definitely check out BBS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should also check your battery physically. When batteries go bad they will swell and become convex. The easiest way to test this is put your battery on a flat surface and see if it rocks from side to side. If it rocks at all get a new one from amazon then throw the old one away.
theesotericone said:
You should also check your battery physically. When batteries go bad they will swell and become convex. The easiest way to test this is put your battery on a flat surface and see if it rocks from side to side. If it rocks at all get a new one from amazon then throw the old one away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My battery seems to be ok. I can usually go through a day. My phone is also pretty much flat and very very slightly wobbles so it should be good. I also plan on getting the Nexus 5 when it comes out even though I have about 1.5 years left on my contract so I think it should last till then,