Hi -
I've had my HTC HD2 a few days and although I'm happy with it's features, I'm really frustrated by the poor battery life. The first day I used it the battery was dead within under 12 hours from me starting to use it, and at the start it was fully charged. On this first day I did have email and weather etc on auto check though.
So last night I disabled weather, set email to manual checking and disabled a few other things, but did leave HSDPA and 3G on. There was a slight improvement today but not much, the battery lasted the full 12 hours, but with only 2% remaining.
Both days I don't think my usage was very high. I'd maybe had 10 minutes of phone calls, sent around 10 text messages, listened to 45 minutes of music, checked one or two websites, and played games on the phone for about 15 minutes. Imagine how it would be when I need to make several calls in a day.
I have searched the forum for tips on improving battery life but the main suggestions seem to say that I should disable HSDPA and 3G but one of the main functions of the phone is internet usage and I don't see why I should how to switch to manually putting these settings on and off each time I want to use the internet, just so I can get a longer battery life - the battery should be able to cope with moderate usage!
Does anyone have any further suggestions?
Thank you
Look for an application called 'Bandswitch', it can disconnect idle connections. THis way 3G won't be enabled when you don't need it, should save some battery.
Disable automatic screen brightness and set it to something like 30%.
Disable location services and stuff.
Give the battery some cycles to reach full potential.
But of course, gaming, internetting and listening to music will drain the battery faster. It lasts about 2 days for me with moderate use (some internet, some playing around, etc) which is pretty fair imo.
dagrim1 said:
Look for an application called 'Bandswitch', it can disconnect idle connections. THis way 3G won't be enabled when you don't need it, should save some battery.
Disable automatic screen brightness and set it to something like 30%.
Disable location services and stuff.
Give the battery some cycles to reach full potential.
But of course, gaming, internetting and listening to music will drain the battery faster. It lasts about 2 days for me with moderate use (some internet, some playing around, etc) which is pretty fair imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give that a try. So will it automatically enable it when I start browsing the internet or something?
I already changed the screen brightness and disabled location services though. That didn't seem to make a big difference.
And how much difference does giving the battery some cycles make?
Thanks.
dagrim1 said:
Look for an application called 'Bandswitch', it can disconnect idle connections. THis way 3G won't be enabled when you don't need it, should save some battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but it doesn't work that way
Bandswitch can definitely do 2 things- it can disconnect idle connections, which will reconnect when needed, but this won't switch the transport between 3G and GSM, and has little effect on battery life
Or it can be used to manually change between 3G and GSM, using whichever is selected for its current transport and then autodisconnecting if required. It is the action of switching to GSM which has the most impact on battery life, but there is no way to switch automatically between to 2 as it needs a phone radio off/on to execute the switch.
Poor 3G signal conditions will hammer the battery because the phone will continually hunt for the strongest signal and switch constantly between modes. If your 3G signal is less than 2 bars I'd suggest switching it to GSM until you are in a stronger signal area. Do this by going to Phone/Menu/ then scroll down to Band and from there switch between Auto and GSM. If that makes a difference then you could install a small utility to make the switch easier to access.
seems very odd, mine was fully charged around 11pm last night, have sent around 20 texts, 20 mins calls, had wifi on, done some browsing, abit of sat nav and its on 68% 20 hours later.
I get at least 24 hours with moderate use. Most of the time i get around 30 hours.
I have weather and peep updating automatically + email retrieval at every hour.
When I first got mine it was lasting less than 12 hours too.
Now I'm on ROM 1.61 and have the following settings:
HSDPA disabled
Weather update every 3 hours
Twitter updates ever 1 hours (though it actually only updates when I scroll to the Peep tab)
Facebook auto updates - Off
Stock auto updates - off
Bluetooth and Wifi off unless needed.
Screen brightness - 30%
Haptic feeback, Vibration - off
Push Email - On
I'm getting over 24 hours of life out of a full charge now. I have got the push email set to manual updates only during off-peak hours ie when I'm sleeping. During the night the charge drops around 1% per hour. It was at 47% when I went to sleep last night and was 40% when I woke 7 hours later. This seems to be typical overnight drop for me.
Over my first few days of tinkering and setting up I found the battery drain to be massive. Once you settle down to regular usage it is a lot lot better.
However, just to be careful, I do now have a desk cradle at work so I can charge my phone if I have to.
Prior to my most recent hard-reset I found that if I left the phone in stand-by over night, with it checking for email every 5 minutes, and weather every 15 minutes, the battery would go from 100% to zero in less than nine hours. And that's without using it at all! As an experiment I tried turning off everything that could possibly be using the data connection, and turning off 3G, so nothing was running at all except the phone in 2G mode listening for calls and texts. It still burned 20% of the battery overnight in stand-by.
Since doing a hard reset, if I repeat the second experiment then I find that overnight battery drain is now only 4% - so clearly some piece of software that I had installed prior to the reset was hammering the battery even in stand-by. Quite what it was, I'm not sure yet. (My current prime suspects are the task manager and 1% battery status icons).
If you're having battery drain issues then I suggest doing a hard-reset and then not installing anything remotely controversial for a day or two to see if that sorts out the drain. If it does, then you can start reinstalling things gradually to see what difference each one makes.
NeilM said:
Sorry, but it doesn't work that way
Bandswitch can definitely do 2 things- it can disconnect idle connections, which will reconnect when needed, but this won't switch the transport between 3G and GSM, and has little effect on battery life
Or it can be used to manually change between 3G and GSM, using whichever is selected for its current transport and then autodisconnecting if required. It is the action of switching to GSM which has the most impact on battery life, but there is no way to switch automatically between to 2 as it needs a phone radio off/on to execute the switch.
Poor 3G signal conditions will hammer the battery because the phone will continually hunt for the strongest signal and switch constantly between modes. If your 3G signal is less than 2 bars I'd suggest switching it to GSM until you are in a stronger signal area. Do this by going to Phone/Menu/ then scroll down to Band and from there switch between Auto and GSM. If that makes a difference then you could install a small utility to make the switch easier to access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I misunderstood it then... thank you for clearing that up!
It's very interesting, to see the number of people who have battery draining problems. I have the french SFR ROM 1.44 and since the beginning found my battery life satisfying (I didn't expect long life, as my wife has to charge her iPhone every night).
My battery lasts in heavy use 24h (though it can go down to 18h when using internet by 3G/HSPDA for long period like 1h or more) and under "normal" daily use (checking e-mail regularly, 20 min phone calls, sending some SMS, 30 mins internet, 45 mins playing around / listening some music) around 1.5 days.
My settings are:
3G/HSDPA enabled
Weather update every 6 hours
Stock auto updates - every 8 hours
Bluetooth and Wifi off unless needed
Screen brightness - auto
Haptic feeback, Vibration - off
E-mail check: every 2 hours (POP3)
Faulty batteries? I think not....
Whilst I'm a master of google searching, I get worse results using the search facility on this forum than just using intuition.
Anyway, I just wanted to add my comments on battery life after owning a stock 1.43 phone from Vodafone UK. I was getting less than 8 hours life with everything on auto and making just a couple of shortish phone calls and a couple of quick browses. The rest of the time I was in standby and I thought that my phone was one of the worst out there. I had also installed Skype which I had running in the background which sometimes causes the phone not to go into auto-standby even though it would dim normally. I also noticed that I was in a very weak signal area and that my phone was constantly switching between 2G/3G/H which I understand can consume a lot of power. Also, I had stopped using wi-fi to see if that helped.
After reading a million threads, I decided to conduct an experiment last night. Usually if I charge the phone before going to sleep for 8 hours it is down to 70% when I wake up having been left in standby. So last night I disabled everything. Turned off 3G, data connections, My Location, Weather update, Stocks Update, FaceBook login, e-mail updates, Skype, bluetooth, wifi. In fact absolutely everything I could find that could be turned off except the basic 2G phone itself.
Guess what, I wake up 8 hours later... 96%.
16 hours later.... 81% with very light use.
Now I'm going to have to spend many days playing around with different settings to see which apps or functions are gobbling the power. I have a nasty feeling that the weak signal is half the problem
So cheer up! It's not ideal, but this is a brand new, smartfone with bugs - not a Nokia 6110. Higher capacity batteries and ROM updates will come. In the meantime you just have to figure out what is sucking up the juice on your HD2 and disable these functions if you don't need them or when you are not using them.
Good luck and enjoy it! The coolest phone around...
Rickster
Donations appreciated (That incompetent government and those reckless banks put me out of busines...)
Hello everyone,
like the majority of the owners of HD2, in order to optimise the duration of accumulator charge, I use Band connection control programs , to pass in 3G only when it is necessary. Thus, I have:
- phoneAlarm: to force the 2G mode the night, and also for differ quiet mode if I am in meeting, etc…. In particular, in the case which interests me there, I force the 2G the night and asks to pass to 2G the morning.
- WMlonglife (version for HD2): which normally loads himself to make the effective switch 2G towards 3G or 3G+ if an application program requiring it is launched, and otherwise to remain in 2G. It should be noted that WMlonglife has two applis, one for the configuration, and to make manually changes 2G 3G, WMbandswitch.
- recently, I tested Bandswitch v2.8
I meet the following phenomena, and I would like to know if others also have them, and/or if there are parameters to change so that it goes better.
Point A: Already some question about the icons of the bar of state in top.
There are always two icons side by side. Tell me if I interpret them well.
one with a letter: G= GSM, E= Edge, 3G = 3G, H = 3G+
This letter tellsonly that this kind of network is available, but it does not say that one is actually connected there. Is it well that?
To know in which mode one is actually connected, it is another icon, on its line, with the 1 to 4 bars of reception and a small letter, which should be looked at.
This small letter, it is “H " ==> connected in 3G+, “3G” ==> connected in 3G, “E” ==> connected in Edge
and finally a simple antenna, which I imagine wants to say that one is just connected in 2G, no data connection
Is what all that is correct?
Is there another mean of knowing in real-time the current mode of connexion (and thus mode of conso of the accumulator)?
Point B, use of Phonealarm:
like said in introduction, I force the 2G (mode GSM/GPRS) during the night, and to 6:00 of the morning, I pass it in mode “house” where I put “Car”, by also putting the pin number at it, because it seems that for this transition, one needs the pin number (is it the radio cycle on-off?)
There, the first thing, they is that every morning, when I unlock it I find myself with the screen for input of the pin number, where it is enough to make cancel (because the code already entered via PA and even already connected). Moreover, if one tries to enter a pin number, then he refuses the input.
on the other hand, at this time, the telephone seems to remain in Edge icon “E”, and does not pass in H. On the other hand, so there I reset, then he will connect to H with the boot
Have you also this history of pin number?
For hangs, it is as if WMlonglife did not take the hand to force a 3G mode or 3G+….
this brings me to the point C
Point C: WMbandswitch… after a software reset, my Tel. is connected automatically towards the 3G network (or 3G+) of orange. On the other hand the morning (after to automatic wake up through PA), it remains in E. When I test action manually a passage in 3G with WMbandswitch, it does not change anything. I tested with radio operator chip on Samsung, or Qualcomm (WCDMA). similar behavior….
To check out, I then loaded and installed Bandswitch 2.8, and tried to change into 3G, and there I see appearing the letter H. so, there is a difference with WMlonglife, which would seem to show that WMlonglife does not manage to make the switch towards 3G.
Which radio chip put in WMlonglife?
Have you to it even thing?
Poind D: use of bandswitch 2.8 (on xda): I tested. Hard to know if that is interfaced well with all the remainder. Of your experiment, which one would you advise? It does not have the system of “whitelist” like WMlonglife…
Here is, in synthesis, to summarise my questions
- Has: major significance of the icons
- B: phonealarm and switch of the 3G mode (after a forcing in 2G the night)
- C: WMbandswitch, and configuration/use for HD2
- D: alternative to WMlonglife?
For info, with normal use of browsing, email and phone, I drop of about 50% battery for 24h, that is not so bad, but I 'd like to make sure about the Bandswitch thing...
Thank you in advance for all…
vdelab
Can someone explain to me how, with the phone turned off (just the phone option in settings, almost airplane mode, but still using WiFi) and screen brightness set to lowest possible,
am I getting a 21% battery drain in 1 hour????? I just fully recharged this joker, and within 8 minutes it went to 99%, soft resetted, 95% at startup...soft resetted again, 90% at startup...within 15 minutes I had dropped 10%!!!
2 nights ago, I left the phone on standby at 65% overnight...woke up to a 2% battery charge!
I looked at task manager and there was nothing running...okay, just typing this and down to 77....I'll soft reset and update the %.....11:05pm...
okay...it's 11:07 and upon startup, phone batt. % was at 70%...I lost 7% just by restarting...
currently using Xannytech 1.7c ROM (yes, I need to change my sig...)
Any ideas?
i am no tech guy but i'll go with saying maybe your battery is dying or i donno have you tried getting a new one ? my battery reading is highly consistent and they sure as hell dont fall down as much as yours does in short time periods. mine after a full discharge charge cycle holds on every percentage like a m o and stays with me for two days.
performed a hard reset?
SR will only really fix lockups/unresponsiveness (like the reset button on your PC)
HR is effectively a full reinstall from scratch. will (or should) cure power management issues like you seem to be having.
ofcource, it could be the battery. A HR is free so i'd start there...
I treated my phone like a baby for its first three months, and the first day I left it unattended when I went to the loo, my friend spilled water all over it...
Now the (range of new) batteries I buy for it last only 7 hours tops before hitting 0%. So maybe, like mine, there's something in your phone that is rapidly draining your battery? (Still not been able to solve my problem six months down the line )
Morning...left the phone off overnight and woke up at 69%... Never spilled anything on it...maybe flashing to stock rom may help?Just reading your posts and I'm down to 67%. WITH PHONE TURNED OFF AND LIGHTING AT MINIMUM. Maybe flashing to stock may help? 66%
11 am...well, ended trying out a reflash of Xanny 1.7c...restores ALL programs through Sashimi. Went to do some grocery shopping (yes ladies, I cook too!), had phone on, playing music through headphones for about an hour and battery went down 5%...an improvement...will update if anything else changes
Ways your phone uses power
My phone got moist when I was running in the rain, and the power button (on the top of the phone) seems to be permanently pushed in. It looks ok and I can push it, but the phone doesn't notice. The result is that my phone is constantly draining the battery and I can only get about 4 hours out of a full charge.
Also note that some ROMs are configured to download data for multiple reasons/applications, at regular intervals. These include:
- weather updates
- My Location updates
- Twitter feeds
- email checks
- AGPS updates
- GPS updates
- updating phone's clock from Internet
- MyPhone synchronisation
- PIM Backup scheduled backups
Then there are numerous settings that may be set to run all the time:
- Infrared ("Beam" settings)
- Wifi, especially Wifi power mode (Performance vs. Best Battery)
- wifi router
- Bluetooth
- Vibrate (any time the phone vibrates, a small electric motor spins)
- enabling auto-dimming features such as auto screen brightness control
- Smart features that use the phone's light or 'motion' sensor e.g. Mute ring when phone placed face down or make phone ring louder if placed in your pocket
And there are settings that have a more pronounced impact on battery:
- wifi in a weak signal environment (more power is used to boost signal)
- wifi encryption type (none vs. WEP vs. WPA) (WPA uses more CPU than none)
- screen brightness
- volume
- screen dimming and blanking timeouts
I'm sure there's more, but these are ones off the top of my head. Some ROMs have some of these features enabled, some features are enabled by you when initially configuring after a flash. If you want to keep power consumption low, you need to check or consider all of these and make decisions that trade functionality for battery life.
And of course, your battery could simply be poor, wearing out, faulty, or low quality.
I keep seeing all these threads about how people are getting rediculous hours on 1 charge, but mostly all the post I see are people with rooted phones. What are the best ways to increase battery live on a epic with stock rom?
Those crazy battery life u see is ppl putting their phone in airplane mode and with very limited use. They don't mean anything. But some tips to improve batt life are keep screen brightness down, turn off 4g when not in use, maybe use juice defender to automatically turn off 3g whenever the screen is off.
Sent from my Epic 4G
I'm 100% stock, unrooted.
Turned off Auto-Sync
Brightness set to auto
Wifi on, since I'm usually within range of work or home wifi
Swapped Wifi policy to never drop when asleep. (prevents wifi from dropping and going to 3g)
Killed that absolutely stupid DRM process
Activate Airplane mode after initial boot and turn it back off. (Due to Samsung bug)
Have any program that syncs set to sync at 2hr intervals
My battery life with heavy usage will last over 6 hours (games, txts, browsing, app downloading). With moderate usage it usually can go 15 hours (sans app downloading), and with light usage I've pushed it 2 days (games and txts).
Mind you I don't use the browser much since 90% of my day is in front a PC, Mon-Fri.
I'm 100% stock, no root as well.
1.Train your battery!
when I got my phone I did at least 3 full charge/complete discharge cycles
2.I do not use any Task Killers or JuiceDefender (tried and uninstalled for ineffectiveness), I just use built in tool to monitor running programs and kill off the one I do not need. I prefer not to install application that do not have clean exit programmed. I do use JuicePlotter to monitor battery charge/discharge.
3. After each reboot toggle airplane mode on and off(Airplane trick)
4. Go to Menu/Settings/Applications/Running Services and shut down all services that not needed (DRM, MediaHub, etc)
5. Set brightness to minimal possible value (works fine for me), not auto set - when I need it on the street just slide the finger across the status bar and raise the level as needed.
6. All 4G, GPS, Wi-Fi are off and on only when needed. I use Wi-Fi home, 4G at work, rest of the places 3G or whatever is available. My data/sync is always on. Wi-Fi set to never sleep.
7. I have Roaming Guard off since my house in the very poor reception area so it's roaming most of the time but there is wi-fi for data.
8. Use dark background/wallpaper (I use Star Wars light speed jump live wallpaper)
IMO the battery life is depend on the type of use. From my 2 month experience the following battery killer tasks are:
1.Streaming video, music with screen on (will discharge the battery even when plugged in.
1a.Streaming music with screen off.
2. I haven't tried tethering (hot spot mode) but would think it's a killer as well
3. Browsing web, especially over 3G
4. Roaming
5. Game playing.
6. GPS
Obviously you can have a bad (defective) battery, but it's likely less then 1%.
Good luck!
nikon120 - What do you consider moderate? I consider my usage to be moderate, but I can't go 15hrs. Yesterday after fully charging the phone from mid point, my phone completely died after 5hrs, with very light usuage as most of that time I was busy. Today with light to moderate usage, my phone is indicating that it needs to be charged at roughly hr 10.
stud_muffler - I'm not familair with this airplane trick you're referring to. Can you enlighten me?
I'm doing most of the things suggested in this post, but I still don't think the battery usage I'm getting is up to par. The battery life on my Epic is much worse then what I was getting on my WinMo TP2, with roughly the same amount of usage.
noreboy said:
stud_muffler - I'm not familair with this airplane trick you're referring to. Can you enlighten me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After you reboot the phone press and hold Power button until it buzz.
Menu will appear.
Select and touch Airplane Mode option. It will turn off all radio and show plane icon in the status bar.
wait few seconds and repeat to turn radio on.
that's all.