Database Users

Battery Life concerns with Push email + GPRS on Wizard

The possibility of T-Mobile bringing unlimited GPRS is great. I can't wait to get my Direct Push email sorted. BTW - will we have to pay for an extra service from T-Mobile (UK) to enable Direct Push or would having the GPRS be sufficient?
Another thing that has hit me was whether we'll have to enable GPRS on all day....Is this necessary or will it use a sms based system?
For people who leave their GPRS on all day (for Messenger+email for example), how long is your average battery life on your Wizard?
I don't think many complained about the battery life on the Blackberries - but I suppose they weren't that power consuming right compared to the Pocket PCs?

my battery life is pretty much the same....using push mail service for a little more than 2 weeks now......

I haven't actually got my Wizard yet (still stuck with Magician) - but how many hours are you looking at - and what usage is that based on?
So I presume you will have to keep GPRS on at all times right?
Thanks again for your replies

my GPRS is always on. Usage is as follows:
I mainly use my wizard for phone, text, and e-mail. Occasionally streaming some audio, and surfing the web (slashdot.org, wap.yahoo.com, etc...)
I need to charge my phone at night before going to bed and I'm using it the following morning by 9am. I charge it in the afternoon and during lunch when I'm in the car, and by the end of the day before I put it on charge I have about 18% battery left.
From 2/28 until today (3/13) I've used
980 anytime mins
260 weekend mins
200 mobile to mobile
300 nights (after 9pm)
11MB Internet Data
221 text messages
12 picture/video messages
so from that you can surmise that i'm a moderate user (some might say upper moderate).
hope that's enough for you...
note: in the begining for about 5 days i didn't have the push mail

GPRS on all day and battery life
I am planning on getting a Wizard (have a Magician right now). I have found that keeping GPRS on all day to use my push email client prevents my phone from going into standby and massively drains my battery. (Backlight will go off, but screen does not switch off entirely, seems to be GPRS over-riding my power settings.)
How does the Wizard handle this? Are you able to keep GPRS ticking over but still have the device go fully into standby mode?
Wondering if my issue is device specific or this is a normal facet of GPRS always-on usage?

Mine goes to sleep/stby as-designed with GPRS constantly connected. I, too, have noticed very little (if any) difference in battery life since the new ROM upgrade.

I've been using the qtec test since the WWE version came out and now the iMate Rom on tmobile uk.
I've had push mail working for an entire month of my contract now, and my data usage dropped by at LEAST 10mb a month. I mainly use the web for an hour a day surfing bbc news, the register etc. I have the push mail enabled from 6am until 6pm. using I use about 32 of my 40mb, this month I only used 16mb. I was syncing every 30 minutes on the earlier ROMs during the day, so I has been an amazing improvement.
The other good news is my battery life has increased by a large factor with the iMate rom. On an evening after just GPRS usage (no wi-fi) I had 98% battery, the best I had managed before was approx 70% so I am very very happy.
I don't use the phone very much,only about 5 minutes per day so obviously this helps my battery life too!
By the way yes the GPRS keeps the constant connection while in standby, and wakes the phone a little like a text message.
I am confident my findings are accurate, I read in the exchange server blog direct push works by opening a http request and waiting for a response or timeout. There is little overhead in this, I believe the battery overhead should be little more than having GPRS connected permanently (or between the times you use direct push)
Hope this is useful!

wow thanks stevieg (glad you are helping us pocket pc users as well as liverpool! )

Direct Push and Standby
Have anyone of you had a problem with Direct Push when the Wizard is in standby mode? It works fine when I test it and the screen is alive, but when it's on Standby/Sleep the mail doesnt come in.
Is there something I need to config on the phone or Exchange?
Thanks

Does automatic email checking kill the battery

The reason I am asking is I am trying to track down a battery drain issue. The only thing I think can be causing it is the fact that I have my phone set to check 4 different email accounts every 5 mins.
I have a 3000mAh battery and I am able to kill it in 8hrs. I seem to remember someone talking about an app that could tell what apps or services were causing the most battery drain?
I am thinking about doing a test where I turn off automatic email checking and seeing if the battery lasts any longer. I use the phone for business as well as private use so I need to keep track of things when someone needs to get a hold of me. So I use email a great deal.

Ya.. that seems pretty fast.
I would also recommend checking the radio version that you have. Some people say that some radio versions kill the battery faster than others.
Check that out.

I have push mail set for one account (MS DirectPush with an Exchange server) with a 4/5 minute update interval, and I get acceptable battery life... It's not fantastic, but what do you expect for a PDA smartphone As soon as I fire up pRSSreader to check four RSS feeds (even if I set the interval to 3 hours!) my battery life REALLY suffers, and I'm in a 3G area - close to a mast, stationery - all day every day. The Palringo client REALLY kills the battery, we're talking about 3/4 hours to get to 10%.
SPB GPRS Monitor is useful for seeing if there's any data throughput going on, and the BatteryStatus Today plugin is also useful for seeing current battery drain in either mW or mA, so you can kinda figure out what's going on with your phone at the time (that and acbTaskManager to see if there's any processes maxing the device's CPU out, which has caused me battery drain in the past). I've got a HERM with v1.05.05.00 radio, for the record.

I've been having the same issue with my Vario II...
The battery life was relatively good when I didn't have my web'n'walk connection enabled. But now I have DirectPush enabled to check emails on an Exchange server set for 'as items arrive' aswell as another three POP email accounts.
The GPRS is almost always on and on full charge will only last me about 8-9 hours from 100% charge. If I'm out for a continous stretch for more than that time- I'm in trouble (as I was yesterday!)
I'm guessing this is normal behaviour then? Not too good if it is (!)

Well I went from 4 accounts every 5min down to 1 account every 5min and my battery life doubled. So yep constant email checking does kill the battery. Oh well, I have my important account set to check every 5min (may change it to 20mins) and my other accounts set to once a day, which I usually just check manually when I have a few min.

There seems to be many other threads on this issue and some say, even with multiple accounts setup, battery life is in the region of 20hrs. Changing to a different [radio] ROM seems like one of the solutions.

Sorry guys...I know I'm kinda late joining this discussion, but I thought I'd put in my two cents...
Checking your EMail in the fashion you described in your first post definitely drains your battery. I was in the same situation you're in: about 4 different accounts, set to update around 30 minutes or so...my phone was beeping "low battery" before the afternoon was over (and that was after being charged the previous night!)
Not only that, but I'm convinced that the "always-on" state that the radio was in from all that EMail-checking is what caused the radio to "burn out." I had to get a new 8525 after that happened.
Good luck with your situation. I'm looking for a solution myself.

Idle data connection and battery drain

I know, I know, the following question has been answered oh so many times, but that exactly is my problem!!!
Does an idle data connection actually drain the battery faster or not? I've searched the whole forums (not just x1) and really read a lot of threads... There are people who say "yes, it does" and the opponents. I've also come across a blog-entry on MSDN where it says it doesn't.
So, which one shall it be?!
I'm pulling Mails every 60 minutes, all other data-settings are set to manually. I'm asking this because of my post in Itje's Touch-IT v.10 thread. ("auto-disconnect after..." makes a phone call end a data connection on 3g)
Best regards,
Cal

I believe it DOES drain more. Why don't you try?

Firefall! said:
I believe it DOES drain more. Why don't you try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I will try. (especially if there's no definitive answer) But that would also mean I shouldn't play with my phone for a day - come on, seriously?
Nah, I'll see over night, post it here and then there's at least one specific thread on this from 2009. Thought i'd might ask anyway.

For me, it does NOT drain the battery more. What kills the battery for me is having IMAP IDLE enabled, which will definitely drain the battery, as it is actively using the connection, passing data. If the data connection is enabled and on, then it won't use more juice until it actually starts transmitting data. You'll want to check if any applications you have open (or running in the background) are set to "Auto Update" after a certain amount of minutes (e.g. RSS readers, Twitter apps, etc.)

See? Two answers - two statements. *lol*
scar45 said:
For me, it does NOT drain the battery more. What kills the battery for me is having IMAP IDLE enabled, which will definitely drain the battery, as it is actively using the connection, passing data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
imap idle? are you using a different mail client or did i miss that in pocket outlook? Oo
Nevermind. Found it, Email Scheduler and Imap Pusher - reading into it now... ^^
scar45 said:
If the data connection is enabled and on, then it won't use more juice until it actually starts transmitting data. You'll want to check if any applications you have open (or running in the background) are set to "Auto Update" after a certain amount of minutes (e.g. RSS readers, Twitter apps, etc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope, no apps, no automatic updates (that i know of. pretty sure i disabled them all. no suspicious process in task manager as well.) except mail-pull every hour. so, i'll see tomorrow morning what my phone has to say about it.

I really think it drains the battery!
I noticed in past 2-3 weeks that my battery drains faster than before. I thought that probably it dies because i charge it every time i can: at home, in the car; I talk and use the phone a lot. I also noticed in past days that I got two "E" icons (edge) in taskbar instead of regular big "E" and antenna.
I got to conclusion that data connection drains battery faster, because i set up regular email check just recently.
The only way I found to disconnect data connection is going to Start-Settings-Connections-Comm Manager-Menu-Disconnect Cellular Data.
Can anyone provide a tip how to make it disconnect automatically after the program that required it was closed?

not after closing the program, but after a certain amount of time... there are some possible ways:
- use "bandswitch" (not free)
- use "advanced config" (free) - more settings -> connections
- with a reg editor add these keys
- ...
i'm sure you'll find many other apps to do it if you search for them on xda. these above are just the 3 ways i tried myself since i've got my phone.

okay, i lost 7% in 10 hours - so i guess an idle data connection DOES NOT drain the battery. at least for me that is.

caliban2 said:
okay, i lost 7% in 10 hours - so i guess an idle data connection DOES NOT drain the battery. at least for me that is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the data connection constantly on and mailcheck every hour?

Firefall! said:
With the data connection constantly on and mailcheck every hour?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
- polling evey 60 minutes
- data constantly on
- gprs connection (no edge on my new carrier )
- 3 of 4 bars reception
- standby mode (phone doesn't wake up at new mail)
- cpu set at 122 mhz in standby with clock speed
but i'll have to see how it does in the next few days... and i'll give outlook email scheduler a try, for it's imap idle support. pretty sure this would increase battery drain.

And what do you guys think,
Is beeing on a hsdpa network without data connection but using the X1 drains more energy than the same circumstances but disabled hsdpa(only gprs but still not connected)?
And whats the situation when the phone is off with the both network type?
caliban2 said:
- cpu set at 122 mhz in standby with clock speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With what program can you do that?

How to improve battery life?

can someone tell me how to improve the battery life through the options since i am new...

disable vibration at touch flo
disable auto rotation
enable auto bright

In notifications, disable the sounds and the screen coming on for Reminders etc
Make sure you Close (not minimise) apps before putting your phone on standby
Don't use push web/ auto weather update auto rss etc
set phone to 'lock' phone when you switch it off (search other threads)
These should help stop your phone from doing 'stuff' when you put it in standby (or put it in your pocket) and using up battery when you just want it on standby.

and the best thing to do is, stay with stock rom :-D

cottonpickers said:
In notifications, disable the sounds and the screen coming on for Reminders etc
Make sure you Close (not minimise) apps before putting your phone on standby
Don't use push web/ auto weather update auto rss etc
set phone to 'lock' phone when you switch it off (search other threads)
These should help stop your phone from doing 'stuff' when you put it in standby (or put it in your pocket) and using up battery when you just want it on standby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using S2U2 helps with all this which is both pretty and useful as a locking app.
Tony

The best thing to do is switch off data connections, but the kind of defeats the object of a PDA.
Best to grin and bear it, as ROMs and Radio improve, I've found it gets better, still crap, but better than it is now.

On the Diamond if you went into phone settings and used GSM instead of auto it gave a nice boost to battery life. Something to do with constantly searching for HSDPA I think.

Lol Chippa, That didn't work to improve the battery... But it did give me 3 more bars of reception xD Lol, PROXIMUS LIED ) I contacted them on the matter of bad reception, And they said I should have excellent reception... apparently, their 3G network isn't that good yet x)
Then perhaps, the radio on the TD2 isn't as bad as I thought

Hi
The best thing to do is switch off data connections, but the kind of defeats the object of a PDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is an urban myth now. A mobile data connection doesn't use any more power when idle. You maintain a data connection all the time with the mast, that is how your phone works to receive text messages and phone calls. A data connection on the phone is just the same thing with the added extra of your phone having a valid IP address on the network.
It will use less power to keep the IP address continually rather than have it connect and get a new one each time as obtaining an IP address uses power.
You can test yourself with any application that shows mA of the battery and it isn't any more for having a data connection on, unless of course you have an application actively using the connection.
Regards
Phil

PhilipL said:
Hi
I think this is an urban myth now. A mobile data connection doesn't use any more power when idle. You maintain a data connection all the time with the mast, that is how your phone works to receive text messages and phone calls. A data connection on the phone is just the same thing with the added extra of your phone having a valid IP address on the network.
It will use less power to keep the IP address continually rather than have it connect and get a new one each time as obtaining an IP address uses power.
You can test yourself with any application that shows mA of the battery and it isn't any more for having a data connection on, unless of course you have an application actively using the connection.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem is for those of us with poor 3G reception. Continually reconnecting to the 3G network increases consumption. I'm no expert so I cannot state this is categorically true.
Tony

in advanced config power management enable all.

I am disconnecting GPRS/3G when turning the device off and I do believe that I have a quite better batter life...

Hi
in advanced config power management enable all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd advise against this. HTC are not stupid and they will be disabled for a reason. The drivers are either ignoring these settings or the power savings are very insignificant or it means more power is used.
Powering down these things also costs power to bring them back up, which means it can use more power sleeping and re-awaking devices than it does to just keep them on. This is why SmartPhones (non touch screen) don't sleep like Windows Mobile PDAs, they just turn the screen off but the CPU is still on responding and programs are still running and awake. Historically Windows Mobile PDAs were not mobile phones, they were just PDAs, so it made sense to make them sleep where the CPU shuts down completely and no programs run, basically like a computer hibernating. This still happens today but isn't ideal now as PDAs are constantly having to turn on to receive text messages or phone calls or retrieve email etc, and each time the phone has to leave standby it uses power to initiate all the drivers, so you end up expanding more power transferring between power states than you save. Microsoft will move to the 'always on' modal like SmartPhones probably with Windows Mobile 7.
Why the long explanation, well HTC may be deliberately not using power management as they are moving parts of their phones to be always on, and trying to enable these things may cause instability or for the phone to use more power.
Using a program to measure mAmp draw on the Topaz there was no difference in power consumption between having power management enabled or disabled, so my opinion, leave it as it is.
Regards
Phil

PhilipL said:
Hi
I'd advise against this. HTC are not stupid and they will be disabled for a reason. The drivers are either ignoring these settings or the power savings are very insignificant or it means more power is used.
Powering down these things also costs power to bring them back up, which means it can use more power sleeping and re-awaking devices than it does to just keep them on. This is why SmartPhones (non touch screen) don't sleep like Windows Mobile PDAs, they just turn the screen off but the CPU is still on responding and programs are still running and awake. Historically Windows Mobile PDAs were not mobile phones, they were just PDAs, so it made sense to make them sleep where the CPU shuts down completely and no programs run, basically like a computer hibernating. This still happens today but isn't ideal now as PDAs are constantly having to turn on to receive text messages or phone calls or retrieve email etc, and each time the phone has to leave standby it uses power to initiate all the drivers, so you end up expanding more power transferring between power states than you save. Microsoft will move to the 'always on' modal like SmartPhones probably with Windows Mobile 7.
Why the long explanation, well HTC may be deliberately not using power management as they are moving parts of their phones to be always on, and trying to enable these things may cause instability or for the phone to use more power.
Using a program to measure mAmp draw on the Topaz there was no difference in power consumption between having power management enabled or disabled, so my opinion, leave it as it is.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Phil,
Theoretically you right, but i don't agree with everything.
There are other tweaks that definitely improving performance but still, HTC did not set it, so probably they have their reasons...
I used this tweak more than year on several devices & many roms and did not see any stability or other issues.
About powering on versus idle,
If it takes more power to turn on than keep idle (i'm not sure thats so but lets assume) then it must depend on how long its idle - there must be a time frame from where it do saves power.
The only question is if its actually doing what it supposed to do or not...

PhilipL said:
Hi
I think this is an urban myth now. A mobile data connection doesn't use any more power when idle. You maintain a data connection all the time with the mast, that is how your phone works to receive text messages and phone calls. A data connection on the phone is just the same thing with the added extra of your phone having a valid IP address on the network.
It will use less power to keep the IP address continually rather than have it connect and get a new one each time as obtaining an IP address uses power.
You can test yourself with any application that shows mA of the battery and it isn't any more for having a data connection on, unless of course you have an application actively using the connection.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude do a simple 1 day test with data on, then data off, then lets compare notes

Hi
About powering on versus idle,
If it takes more power to turn on than keep idle (i'm not sure thats so but lets assume) then it must depend on how long its idle - there must be a time frame from where it do saves power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Info on the subject here http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/08/01/446240.aspx
Like I say I've tested the current draw and saw no difference enabling the power management options, so I think better to leave alone, at best the settings are ignored by the drivers, at worse they may have some negative effect I can't see.
Yes there are settings that may make the phone quicker like enabling caches or making them larger, sometimes we think things are quicker, sometimes they really are Just like a computer some performance settings are off for safety, for example write caches which when enabled could mean data loss, so HTC (and any other manufacturer) will be very reluctant to enable these things, again these things are disabled for a good reason, and not just because HTC want their phones to be slower. I never said all settings should be left alone, and if you want to risk losing data for a slightly faster PDA (whether real or a placebo effect) why not.
Dude do a simple 1 day test with data on, then data off, then lets compare notes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having the phone maintain a data connection does not use more power in itself, I have done the tests and linked to an article below. If you enable a data connection to use Push/Pull email then the fact the device is constantly polling for and retrieving email will of course eat into battery life, but it isn't leaving the data connection established doing that, it's the applications using it.
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/07/14/666203.aspx
I don't just make this stuff up you know, I've worked with Mobile Devices (Windows CE mainly) for some time
Regards
Phil

Hi all I've been using TESS 1.6 ROM and Radio 4.47.25.13 and did the fake Exchange server to prevent ActiveSync turning on and enabled all the power management features in Advanced Config (especially ASyncMAC power management) and I've managed to go
Standby: 98 Hours 23 minutes
Talktime: 5 minutes
Device Usage: 2 Hours 7 minutes
Mostly using Facebook application, Checking Email and Occasional webpage surf. This all from one full charge on the standard battery. I think that's pretty good! It's improved a lot with the newer radios. I've just upgraded to 4.47.25.21 hopefully this will be better!

PhilipL said:
Hi
Info on the subject here http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/08/01/446240.aspx
Like I say I've tested the current draw and saw no difference enabling the power management options, so I think better to leave alone, at best the settings are ignored by the drivers, at worse they may have some negative effect I can't see.
Yes there are settings that may make the phone quicker like enabling caches or making them larger, sometimes we think things are quicker, sometimes they really are Just like a computer some performance settings are off for safety, for example write caches which when enabled could mean data loss, so HTC (and any other manufacturer) will be very reluctant to enable these things, again these things are disabled for a good reason, and not just because HTC want their phones to be slower. I never said all settings should be left alone, and if you want to risk losing data for a slightly faster PDA (whether real or a placebo effect) why not.
Having the phone maintain a data connection does not use more power in itself, I have done the tests and linked to an article below. If you enable a data connection to use Push/Pull email then the fact the device is constantly polling for and retrieving email will of course eat into battery life, but it isn't leaving the data connection established doing that, it's the applications using it.
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/07/14/666203.aspx
I don't just make this stuff up you know, I've worked with Mobile Devices (Windows CE mainly) for some time
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that enabling all power saving options is probably not a good thing. I have been trying a selection
◦SD Memory power management - disabled
◦NAND Memory power management - disabled
◦SIM Memory power management - enabled
◦AsyncMAC power management - enabled
◦IrSIR power management - enabled
◦PPTP power management - enabled
◦L2TP power management - enabled
seems ok so far

Hm.. just got my D2 some days ago...
only thing I really hate is, that battery drops fast as hell!
phone was fully charged yesterday 11 PM... now at 09:30 AM battery is at 40 %...
the phone just lay on the table and only checked for mails every 60 minutes... and one phone call in the morning...
someone made same experience?
I thought battery life of Diamond 1 is bad... but now...

ChiefmasterB said:
Hm.. just got my D2 some days ago...
only thing I really hate is, that battery drops fast as hell!
phone was fully charged yesterday 11 PM... now at 09:30 AM battery is at 40 %...
the phone just lay on the table and only checked for mails every 60 minutes... and one phone call in the morning...
someone made same experience?
I thought battery life of Diamond 1 is bad... but now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery thing is certainly weird. My TD2 was terrible at first never lasting a day but now lasts 3+ days and I can only put it down to using SL2U and changing over from a very old SIM to a brand new SIM.
I'm sorry I can't help more other than say it is working well here.
Tony

Wlan { wifi } sleeps when phone goes to sleep. HD2

Any registry tweaks apart from mortscript to overcome this problem. Thanks

check BSBtweaks.....but keeping wifi up in sleep mode sucks your battery dry

This works but after soft reset system replace it!
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\BCMSDDHD1\Parms]
"HTCKeepWifiOnWhenUnattended"=dword:00000001

Battery Eating - No Problem
Thanks for reply, WLan eating battery not a problem, as i need to sync company emails, etc 24/7. Thanks

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5353195
Installs a little exe that runs at startup to restore that reg key.
But yes, this forces your phone to never enter standby anymore, giving you a max battery life of about 14 hours even when not touching it.
IF you use push e-mail via Activesync/Exchange, wifi will stay on also without the hack, and won't draw extra battery.
If you need to sync email 24/7 you'd better be doing that over data though.

kilrah said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5353195
Installs a little exe that runs at startup to restore that reg key.
But yes, this forces your phone to never enter standby anymore, giving you a max battery life of about 14 hours even when not touching it.
IF you use push e-mail via Activesync/Exchange, wifi will stay on also without the hack, and won't draw extra battery.
If you need to sync email 24/7 you'd better be doing that over data though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, You are a Legend mate.