I have a T-Mobile MDA Vario II with WM 6 (Black IV Shadow). I have the following problem: When I charge it, it first shows a red light which then turns to yellow. I have read the "red light"-issue in the wiki, but that is not the same problem as mine: When it is charged, it says the battery has a 100 per cent (the light, after all, turns yellow after some time). Still, it just doesn't last more than a day.
I may add that the Hermes fell on the ground once and was slightly damaged: The power and camera buttons do not work anymore, but everything else does (at least that's what it seems to be like). Can anybody help me to pinpoint my problem:
1. Charging device: Is the charging device possibly damaged? How could I figure that out? Is it possible to use a different device with the same socket (I have got an MP3 player, Creative Zen Micro, and another mobile phone called "OGO" whose charging devices have sockets that fit). Then again, I have read in a different forum that even though the sockets are identical, charging with a different device can be dangerous.
Anyways, how can I find out if there is anything wrong with the original charging device?
2. Battery: Is there any possibility to measure the battery's capacity? I could imagine there might be a program to control it. I would rather not disassemble the device just to find out if there's sth wrong with the battery.
3. Other possible solutions: Is there anything else I could or should think of?
Many thanks in advance for your hints.
Best wishes
Michael
Less than one day with reasonably heavy use would not be uncommon. When I use GPS for example it does not last long. So to know if it's excessive we'd need to know what you are running.
Mike
Also what radio version are you running - different versions can have significant impacts on your battery life...
Smiffy.
Thank you for your replies:
1. I do not use it intensely at all. I never connect to the internet, use bluetooth, GPS, Wireless LAN or the like. I even switch the phone off whenever I can. I doubt whether this is the reason. Still, thank you for your hint.
2. I am using Radio Version 1.05.02.00. Would you suggest upgrading?
Here's a tip, going all the way back to the PocketPC 2002 days but it's still relevant now, especially in power conscious devices like phones:
Go to SETTINGS/CONNECTIONS/BEAM and deselect "Receive all incoming beams"
It was (and is) IMO completely wasteful having the IRDA port constantly transmitting/receiving and being polled by the system. It's probably the least power sapping of all of the various wireless technologies in the Tytn but I don't feel that's a good reason to leave it on all the time.
YMMV, but who the hell uses IRDA anymore these days? I've been a power WinCE user for a decade and I've only used IRDA once or twice as a curiosity.
michaelbarrero said:
Thank you for your replies:
1. I do not use it intensely at all. I never connect to the internet, use bluetooth, GPS, Wireless LAN or the like. I even switch the phone off whenever I can. I doubt whether this is the reason. Still, thank you for your hint.
2. I am using Radio Version 1.05.02.00. Would you suggest upgrading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not an expert by any means, but I can flash with the best of them...and yes I do recommend you flashing your radio to a more updated one. Check in the wiki for extracted radio roms, go to their respective threads and see if anyone in you geographical location and with your service tier has mentioned anything about the radios. Or (my personal fav) start with the highest number (1.47 I think it is now) and flash it...if it works better for you great, if not then maybe take a step down until satisfied. The 1.05 radio is really old. Good luck...be sure to read Mr. Vanxs guide on flashing if you have not flashed before! PS- what os/rom are you using?
I get 3-4 hours onmine unless I have a car charger. But I am ALWAYS using data.
wpbear said:
I get 3-4 hours onmine unless I have a car charger. But I am ALWAYS using data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you on 3g or Edge?
ajmoncrief said:
Are you on 3g or Edge?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3G. When I am on Edge which also means not at work so I use less data, I can get 10 hours.
Me personally:
I am in the Charleston, WV (AT&T) area...I have been using radio 1.41, although I am now trying 1.47. My area uses Edge, I have configured my 8525 to always be on Media Net edge connnection, my email accounts are check every 5 minutes. I surf the web very sparingly but use email, various games w/out sound and ms office frequently throughout the day. I run roughly about 12-14 hours before the battery is somewhere around 10%-20%.
I have brightness turned down to the notch before the lighting is off.
I also have an extended battery that I picked up for about 20 bucks from ebay that very easily double or triples those results.
Wow- 12 to 14 hours using 5 minute polling of email! I'm also in an edge area running the 1.40 radio on Cingular network and am lucky to get about 8 with moderate phone usage and minor surfing but also with 5 minute polling of email - pop and Exchange 2003.
However, I do run my backlight timer at 2 minutes and power at 5 minutes...
yeah i'm pretty satisfied...I only pack along my extended battery for trips. Oops, I failed to mention that I am not a big talker...maybe 30 min a day. I use my office line at work. I have the screen timeout for something like 30 seconds and 1 minute as well.
michaelbarrero said:
Thank you for your replies:
1. I do not use it intensely at all. I never connect to the internet, use bluetooth, GPS, Wireless LAN or the like. I even switch the phone off whenever I can. I doubt whether this is the reason. Still, thank you for your hint.
2. I am using Radio Version 1.05.02.00. Would you suggest upgrading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you've already upgraded to WM6, then yes, go for it - it's a really old radio version but if you're still on the ROM that shipped on your phone, for warranty or whatever other reason, then you might want to be a little more reticent before upgrading your radio as it will almost certainly void it.
It still sounds like something is eating you battery life up though, or your battery is duff. i remember a long time ago I used a screensaver thingy on my phone and it took me ages to realise that it was that which was halving my battery life. What else have you got on your phone?
Oh, and just in response to the beam thingy above - it also switches off your ability to receive files over bluetooth...
Smiffy.
If the battery lasts less and less, don't overlook the obvious: The battery. My Hermes was down to 2 - 3 hours a day. I decided I need a second battery to get through the day. Turned out that the new battery lasted all day. Threw away the old one.
Well I get about a day. But I have Direct Push on, 200+ e-mail, about 1hr checking news, 1hr 30min of calls average etc.
maybe try this
if you know someone else with the same phone, swap batteries for a day. that will tell you if it is your phone or battery causing the problem.
its the UMTS that eats your battery. when you get the fone its on auto and coverage changes constintly, so when you not using umts rather deactivate it by your fone settitngs
Mr_GTI said:
its the UMTS that eats your battery. when you get the fone its on auto and coverage changes constintly, so when you not using umts rather deactivate it by your fone settitngs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, but that shouldn't happen since I'm in an EDGE only area right? Or should I still lock it down to EDGE? The nearest 3G/H area is 2.5 hours away...
i assume it searches for the 3g coverage all the timne, so yeah rather just leave umts on for when you need it
Wow - can't believe what a difference it made just locking it to EDGE made. Battery lasted until 10pm last night even with 1 hour of mono audio, light calling, some internet use, direct push all day and BT connected all day!
Related
Hi,
I have a very recently purchased XDA II.
I was under the impression that the battery time was considerably improved.
Although I have turned down the backlight brightness when on battery power, it still starts to loose power when I receive or send a SMS for example.
Is this normal or do I have a duff battery ?
Steve
try turning off bluetooth when you dont use it
it's suppose to be a batt hog
Yup,
done that. I only have BT on when I am actually using my headset.
Any other idea's
Steve
when does it auto turn off ?
when does the backlight turn off ?
are there any SD cards connected seem to recall that they eat batt aswell
I've had mine a week, have the same power drain problem. After charging it all last night I managed to use it as a PDA for a total of 40 mins over a 6 hour period today before the battery drained. No phone calls were made, Bluetooth disconnected (I do have a 256 MB card installed, but I don't know if this has anything to do with it), furthermore the backlight is set to the default setting and the auto power off set to 1 min. In any case I would expect to get more than 40 mins use of the PDA, the specification states upto 15 hours.
I took the unit back to the store, they say that this is a rare problem (yeah right :roll: ), they gave me a new battery which I am now recharging, hopefully this will work.
mmmm, it's very strange.
I am doing a test now. I have a imate with the official imate upgrade. I have a gps sysonchip bt. One and half hours ago i connected the imate with the gps and i started a demo of 500 km. Now the battery is at 75%.....Maybe de last upgrade solved this problem.... :shock:
You should get far better performance than this.
Three things that can drain the power:
Communications/Peripherals - IR, bluetooth, SDIO wireless LAN etc. Disable all of them unless you're actually using them.
Processor hungry programs - check if you have anything running in the background that could prevent the device switching to full sleep mode.
Lack of radio signal - if you're out of contact with a base station, the device tries to connect at full power every 30s - a big battery drain, so if you know you're out of contact, turn off the radio.
However, even with everything running, I'd expect a running time way above 40mins, so it sounds like you have a hardware problem with your device. I easily get 3h full brightness, full processing (ie watching a movie or playing a game) with radio on.
Turn IR off?
Is there anyway to actually turn the IR off on the XDA II?
Just the Start-Settings-Connections-Beam-Receive all incoming beams checkbox.
tried the new battery today, same procedure as yesterday (no bluetooth etc), had a slightly better performance today from the new battery, managed to get roughly an hours actual use out of the PDA (games etc) over a period of... 10 hours, ooh atleast it lasted the working day so must be better... however still no way near the 15 hours PDA work time as stated on the box!
However something I have noticed is that every now and then (after switching off the unit and just leaving it on the desk) the screen comes to life displaying a running program, (just how do you turn off the media player? I now realise it isnt with the "X"). Anyway why does it "power" back up? I wonder if this has anything to do with my power problem, that perhaps it has switched back on whilst in my pocket (BTW I have set the buttons so that they do not switch the PDA on accidently)
So, I'm recharging again, (I think I might take the MMC card out see if tht makes a difference). I expect something better for my EUR 500, what is the point of being able to go online anywhere if you have to be plugged into the mains! If I can't get the damn thing to work satisfactoraily by next week then it is going back to the shop, despite it being a Gucci shiny piece of kit!
@MoistVelvet: Actually, it;s not so much the device itself but the operating systems that is the cause of a few quirks. Luckily, a lot has been written on this forum and other forums on websites such as www.ppcw.net. A lot can been improved by limiting the number of programs that can be found in the \windows\startup folder of the XDA II. I'd suggest you have a look around in the various topics. I ended up honing my XDA II to a point where I am actually very very satisfied with it's performance ...
Can someone repost the items in the windows start up folder than can be deleted and what they do on the XDA II.
I was surprised at the amount of apps in there, but dont know what I can safely delete.
Steve
Wiz,
thanks for the tip, I'll have a look around.
Well the batery did last longer yesterday, managed to get through a whole workig day before it ran out, so the jury is still out!
Realised perhaps one of the reasons why the unit would switch itself on, whilst at work I have a very low signal, so every minute or two the signal strength would go up and switch the screen on. I have set to auto switch off after 1 min, but I wonder if there is there a way to stop it from switching on?
Hm, my experience is quite different. I use it throughout the day with around 15 phone calls, at least 2 GPRS synchronisations, some other usage of contacts, calendar and email and when I get home it's still around 60 percent - the most drain appears to happen on the way back home when I use the BT headset...
When your uses so much more power you may like to check what kind of programs you use. First idea is to have a critical look at fancy today plugins... my worst experience was with Battery Pack, the best way to empty your battery :lol:
Maybe you like to use UpTime plugin (http://ae.inc.ru/uptime_t.html) which really tells you how much you actually use the PocketPC and which doesn't do anythings while it's switched off...
MoistVelvet said:
Wiz,
Realised perhaps one of the reasons why the unit would switch itself on, whilst at work I have a very low signal, so every minute or two the signal strength would go up and switch the screen on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the reason it periodically switches on is the O2 Homezone application. Whenever your phone changes to a new base station (which can happen even if you don't move), the stupid Homezone app turns the phone on. This is a known issue, and the only known remedy is to disable the app completely (remove from Autostart folder, soft reset phone).
Cheers
Daniel
Hi
I have an xdaII, which i load loads and loads of things onto. I did find that the battery was draining quite quickly. eg. charge it all night, just leaving it running in the day with hardly any use would drain the battery by about 90 percent! Bluetooth was off etc.
One time, the thing drained completely, and it needed a hardboot. Im going to send it back shortly for investigation/repairs.
However, since it hardbooted, i have not installed a thing. And i am finding that the battery is lasting a lot longer. I managed to go 3 days, of average usage, (few incoming/outgoing calls), without charging the battery!
This makes me think some apps must cause the battery to drain. I had battery app installed (that runs in today screen). I had fonix voicedial installed. I had quite a few games installed.
I think some software was causing the battery consumption,.. possibly battery pack.
re
I have previously had problems with battery drain, due to apps running in the background.
I also found specific apps like the battery pack, LAN sdio, bluetooth and the camera app, would drain the battery quickly.
Although you can manage closing apps down through settings/system/memory/running programmes I found the app Gigatask http://gigatask.com/ a simpler way to manage tasks.
There are others, but I found this suitable for my needs.
Now when I close an app I know it's closed and not running in the background draining the battery.
I still charge daily, habit now when I get home from work, but I have no worries about battery drain, and it rarely goes lower than 65% for a normal days use.
Cheers, Shire
turning infrared beam recieve off will help a little
:wink:
I've read a few posts on HTC Wizard battery life and I'm trying to quantify what I'm seeing (which is hard given varying conditions under which the device can be used and what features are active but I'll attempt that here). I'd really like to hear what other pepole are experiencing under similar conditoins.
I’m getting about two days worth of battery life before the unit is warning that the device needs to be recharged. Here’s what I’ve done with it over the past 2 days:
· 47 minutes time spent using the phone. I get the full 4 signal bars just about everywhere I go, including and the office and at home. I have not used the speakerphone at all.
· About 1 hour of PDA use
· Bluetooth and WiFi have been off. There was no GPRS use during this time.
· The screen brightness is set to the lowest level possible, one setting above the backlight being completely off.
· When on battery power, the backlight automatically shuts itself off after 30 seconds and the device turns itself off completely after one minute.
· I’m running Windows Mobile 5.0
The battery currently reads 18% after 2 days.
Is this in line with what other people are seeing?
I used to drain my wizard to about 50-60% in one day (from morning to evening), when I still let it go to standby, so that seems about right. It goes down a bit faster now because I always leave it on (just let the backlight go off of course) so agile messenger will stay online...
I'm pretty sure this battery life is pretty good for a pda phone though, you can't compare this to a regular phone.
I always connect it to the charger at night so it's no problem for me, and I bring a very small usb cable (like 15 cm) when I don't sleep at home. Usually there's an opportunity to connect the wizard to a computer somewhere so it'll charge, the computer doesn't need to recognize the wizard for that.
I need to charge my Wizard evry night, if it's friday with party etc alot of calls i need to have my samsung d600 with me becuase the qtek goes empty around 23.oo :/
Just done a typical "intensive" day, and I'm really pleased of that thing. Here's what I've done:
~50 min on the phone
~2h30 MP3 playing with TCPMP, LCD off of course
~30min e-mail and internet through wireless
obviously a bit more PDA use, cause uptime meter says 4h39 :wink:
I still have 54% battery at the moment.
Useful to mention, forgot to turn off wireless after browsing, so it stayed on for like 1hr with device off, and that still drains juice.
Backlight is set at the middle.
Once again, my BA would be dead by now. I had ~4h PDA use at standard clock settings, 2hr with wireless on. The Wizard just doubles both these figures. I definitely understand why they've dropped that guzzling XScale... wish there could be an optimised version of TCPMP soon though, video playback is the only thing where i see a real difference in speed, haven't managed to have a video playing smooth without hangups yet.
Skype doesn't run well, but it didn't either with the BA without overclocking it at the maximum it would hold, giving a stunning 1h30 battery life (with wireless on obviously). The device was really hot while doing this, and the standard charger would not give enough current even to power the device, battery was still going down when connected. Had to use a 2A Axim adapter to charge while skyping :shock:
So definitively a GREAT improvement.
I used my MDA Vario the other day and it went down to 18% in approx 4 1/2 hours.
Screen was at max brightness and on for the whole time,
Tom Tom running.
Bluetooth on
About what I'd expect. I don't think my Treo 650 would be much better in similar circumstances.
I just updated the other thread about the battery that up till now its been fine but two days ago the dreaded issue started with me too
I've just lost 20% in 3 hours without doing anything (its been off since)
AKU2 rom gives a definite improvement, I can have 85% left after a day of normal use.
meschle said:
AKU2 rom gives a definite improvement, I can have 85% left after a day of normal use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which AKU2 rom. T mobile hasn't released one for my phone yet, to my knowledge.
The qtek rom, many vario users are using this rom out of frustration for t-mobile not releasing theirs.
meschle said:
The qtek rom, many vario users are using this rom out of frustration for t-mobile not releasing theirs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Hey if you upgrade the ROM you should run some tests before installing any applications. It would be a definite advantage to make sure it's not some buggy app that's causing your battery drain.
agreed... I think that is my issue too that it could be a memory leak somewhere in one of the programs
can only put it down to registrywizard, uptime, or resco, the latter i doubt very much though
I upgraded my vario to the newest imate rom and would totally recommend doing so.. my battery life is about double what it used to be now (may have installed something dodgy that was draining it though)
Its also much faster in operation and seems to be a lot more stable too (I suffered a lot from the random reboot problem previously)
what did you upgrade from?
and what rom version are you running? the ones on the ftp for kjam are numbered a bit strange and can be confusing
The numbers are confusing for me as a noob to WM5/wizard.
What is the difference between the Qtek & the Imate roms?
kilrah said:
... Useful to mention, forgot to turn off wireless after browsing, so it stayed on for like 1hr with device off, and that still drains juice.
Backlight is set at the middle. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi doesn't drain battery when the device is turned off, cause the WiFi module will also be turned off automatically - just test it: leave WiFi on and press the power button - after a few hours look at the effect on the battery... :wink:
I usually recharge my Vario every 3-4 days. Although I don't use WiFi and I also don't make many long calls I usually use GPRS always on to receive my mails. I also use BT quite often to listen to music over my A2DP headset - maybe one hour per day on average...
So there must be something wrong with the devices of some of the people posting here... :!:
Hi, my batter has been working great since Christmas, but now for some reason won't last more than a fwe hours without saying battery low. I have my gprs check email every 5 minutes, but it has always been that way and I have been gettnig a good 2 days out of my phone before.
Now i take it off of the charger in the morning and then around lunch the batter is low already...
Is my batter just toast?
Should I get another?
THANKS!
T
Just a question, but have you been overclocking your TI OMAP processor? Maybe there's a correlation?
contaygious said:
Hi, my batter has been working great since Christmas, but now for some reason won't last more than a fwe hours without saying battery low. I have my gprs check email every 5 minutes, but it has always been that way and I have been gettnig a good 2 days out of my phone before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is brand new (tmobile MDA) and when I enabled 802.11g I noticed a dramatic drop in battery life. I think for the sake of the battery I will only enable that as needed.
I wonder also if you are in the same proximity to the mobile towers, if you are on a border between coverage you will see a drop in battery life becuase it is transmitting more frequently to register with the mobile network.
To try to see if its your battery or something you are using, and while this may be incredibly difficult with a mobile, especially a mobile/pda that you use frequently, you may want to see about turning off features to see if that helps. Turn off wifi and see if that helps, turn off bluetooth and see about that, etc. Once you rule them out as the major culprit ...
While I highly doubt this may be the case, it is a possiblity, and worth looking into, especially if you noticed a sudden drop in battery life as opposed to a gradual diminishment. You may have some rogue software that is sending out more data via a wireless device than you desire. A worm, trojan, whatever. There are anti-virus packages available, I dont know how good any of them are, http://www.freecabs.de has some, some of the big commercial guys make some. Again I dont think its that becuase of the rules of probability, however it is possible and some have been known to exist in the wild for a few years now.
T,
I had the same thing with my c500, now I know they are two entirely different phones but after I flashed the device it was as good as new in terms of battery life.
It may be worth a try before you go and buy a new battery.
Marc
I have the same problem.
Not overclocking, no anti-virus, just regular phone use and my battery does not last a day!!
I keep it on charger most of the day to avoid shut-down.
me too
I've the same problem and I've an other big problem, when I turn off my Vario, it's dont't start on power botton (i must extract and insert a battery turn on the telephone).
We can make a test if anyone have a HTC diagnostic software (see service manual.pdf)
Check your today screen.
I too had the same issue. Mainly, PhoneDashboard was causing the battery drop. Along with any today elements that poll your hardware to display the amount of battery, memory and storage. Those all drain your battery.
To check whether it's really a today screen issue or not. Charge your battery to it's full 100%, remove ALL today screen elements, then use your mobile normally and keep checking the battery level drain rate.
Hope this was useful.
Mine dies, 100% when leave work, some usage and then dead in the morning.
I only have Pocketbreeze and a few plug ins installed.
There is NO wireless /bluetooth in that time.
KINetics said:
Just a question, but have you been overclocking your TI OMAP processor? Maybe there's a correlation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope.
I have not been using wifi at all lately either
I have spb today stuff but have had them since I first got my wizard. really, I have not changed anything....
some programs "eat up" battery life. Investigate by doing a HARD reset, then do not install ANY software for two days. I bet you will see your normal battery life ;-)
I took all today programs off
100% at 5.30
32% at 7.30
This is O2 Mini Rom without all the 02 crap.
I will investigate further. Hard reset here we come!!
Last night my battery was 100% at 5.30 after a hard reset, no o2 software installed and very light usage.
This morning at 7.35 it was 50% which is good I guess???
Suggestions as to whether it is the battery?
byronsp said:
Last night my battery was 100% at 5.30 after a hard reset, no o2 software installed and very light usage.
This morning at 7.35 it was 50% which is good I guess???
Suggestions as to whether it is the battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still not good enough, should hold for 3 days if you do not use it. Get a battery replacement.
Typically I charge every other day, little phone talks however.
PhoneDashboard was causing the battery drop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I run this. Is it bad? I've turned off all the scrolling updates etc - did you find that helped?
Got a battery replacement but still after no real use dropped to 50% in only 13 hours.
Any other ideas?
mine works for about 5 days normal usage with this options:
- phone on
- bt off
- wifi off
- automatically receive IrDa incoming... (Connections ->beam...)
so the wifi on my batt only last for a few hours, but when you disable wifi and the irda incoming you should have more batt. life
Thanks I will give this a try and have taken out irDA.
However my figures were with Bluetooth and Wireless off as well
I have noticed that with wifi on (and particularly if I'm using it) the battery drops at a frightening rate. Whereas with wifi disabled (which it's been for most of today - first day since I've had the XDA that I've been busy working and so haven't been 'fiddling' with it at all ) the battery still seems to be sitting happily at 80% after around 8 hours.
Funny, I thought that if the phone was suspended, the wifi would be inactive, so the battery wouldn't drop. Appears that's not the case...
Do u have Spb Pocket Plus installed? this program sucked my battery flat in 1 day. I removed it and now its up 2 or 4 days depending on how long i have wifi on. Checking email every 5 min also reduces battery life allot.
goodluck
No pocket plus... My today screen just has phmtray, resco today, taskplus, and the pocketmusic plugin...
I honestly want to know what you expect.
I woke up at 4AM this morning, and it's not 8PM, and my battery is on 61%. I've done e-mailing, made phone calls, received phone calls, texted, surfed the web a bit waiting for a buddy to meet me at the mall, and Shazamed a couple of songs that came on the radio in the car.
How long do you expect a battery that'll fit in the HD2's slim form to power its extremely demanding hardware?
All expect is a functional and practical device.
I bought this as a work phone. It isn't always practical to be carrying around a phone charger.
"Before we start the meeting, do you mind if I plug my phone into your wall socket?"
Having to plan around charging points on a long work day on the move defeats the point of a mobile phone.
I understand what you're saying about expecting too much, but perhaps phone companies should consider not making such poweful phones until there is a battery powerful enough to support them. It's all well and good having such great technology, but if you can't use it how you want/should what's the point? Just a thought.
Personally the poor battery life doesn't bother me too much, but then I'm not out and about all day.
CHIP STAXMAN said:
All expect is a functional and practical device.
I bought this as a work phone. It isn't always practical to be carrying around a phone charger.
"Before we start the meeting, do you mind if I plug my phone into your wall socket?"
Having to plan around charging points on a long work day on the move defeats the point of a mobile phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the latest radio and an efficient ROM, all that is unnecessary (even with the stock rom and latest radio I bet).
I usually charge it overnight, but forgot to do it last night.
I removed the charging cable yesterday at 8AM, made about 20-25 minutes worth of phone calls, 20 minutes surfing on internet + a few e-mails, around a dozen picture, 10 minutes GPS (iGO8) and messing around with the phone a bit from time to time.
It's now 10AM, so 26 hours later, and the battery is still at 75% (haven't put it on a charger at all, not even in the car while using the GPS).
I wouldn't really call that "having to plan around charging points".
I agree that during a busy work day, you could have more phone calls, but still, you should have plenty battery left (especially if you don't forget to charge it overnight like I did )
Just wanted to share with CHIP how I get around a busy work schedule with the phone.
The key thing is the USB sync/charge cable, when at my desk I sometimes plug the phone into the notebook dock via USB for juice, and it doesn't hurt that it's also syncing with the laptop.
On the move, I've got a USB socket adapter thingamajig for my car's cigarette lighter socket, so if the phone is low, it gets plugged in.
Furthermore if I get the chance to plug the laptop in like in a long meeting, the phone also gets plugged into the laptop via USB for more charging goodness.
It will probably kill the battery quicker this way, but it sure beats not being to use the phone at all, and besides, we did buy a phone that can have it's battery replaced easily right?
in my neck of the woods, you can get a third party USB sync/charge cable for about USD$9...
Spike15 said:
I honestly want to know what you expect.
I woke up at 4AM this morning, and it's not 8PM, and my battery is on 61%. I've done e-mailing, made phone calls, received phone calls, texted, surfed the web a bit waiting for a buddy to meet me at the mall, and Shazamed a couple of songs that came on the radio in the car.
How long do you expect a battery that'll fit in the HD2's slim form to power its extremely demanding hardware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
y well you are lucky i go out of home, after 10 mins of listening to music it's already on 95%. I'm eagerly awaiting the new battery.
Mithrandir007 said:
With the latest radio and an efficient ROM, all that is unnecessary (even with the stock rom and latest radio I bet).
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What would you class as an efficient ROM ?
I find the battery life on this phone abysmal .. To the point i switch off all wireless services except the one im using at the time to enable me to have any time on the phone at all .. Surfing the web on wifi with the other wireless services on i can practically watch the battery life decrease every few mins ..
Something is amiss .. I upgraded the radio to the 2.07.51.05 version but ended up going back to 2.06.50.04 as i found it to be better ..
Whats your profile for enabling wireless services, do you have 3G enabled all the time, Wifi, Bluetooth ?
Cheers
How much battery do you lose over night? On my phone it drops about 12-15% in 8 hours (radio off, flight mode). To me, it seems too much...
Spike15 said:
I honestly want to know what you expect.
I woke up at 4AM this morning, and it's not 8PM, and my battery is on 61%. I've done e-mailing, made phone calls, received phone calls, texted, surfed the web a bit waiting for a buddy to meet me at the mall, and Shazamed a couple of songs that came on the radio in the car.
How long do you expect a battery that'll fit in the HD2's slim form to power its extremely demanding hardware?
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there is a problem with battery life,there are lots of problems with this phone..currently my opera browser stopped working,the sms is still not fixed..
the fact that you have no problem with your device does not mean it's the same for everyone..
It's definitely ROM and Radio dependant. The ROM I'm using at the moment is incredible. Comebined with the latest 2.07 radio and my battery lasts for ages.
I was only getting about 10 hours with very light use and push email on when I was on 1.48. Now I'm on a 1.66 based ROM and the battery last about 300% as long.
I'm currently on about 26 hours since last charge and still got 38% battery. That's with push email (peak times 7am til 11pm), lots of surfing, about 20 mins talking and some texts. Over night I lose about 1-2% max.
I'm telling you, with the latest software, this is a different phone. Also it seems like it sorts out the SMS bug too. Upgrading makes this phone everything I wanted it to be when I got it 3 months ago.
Interesting ... I have been using the 1.66 series also and battery is poor.. i need to keep track of proper usage to really see whats going on given i use no push email either .. Im wondering if it could be due to the fact location is on and also the radio is looking for 3g when im in a gprs only location, could all be contributing factors .. gprs data always seems to be connected too ..
Life was simpler with the iPhone (less fun though)
Cass67 said:
Interesting ... I have been using the 1.66 series also and battery is poor.. i need to keep track of proper usage to really see whats going on given i use no push email either .. Im wondering if it could be due to the fact location is on and also the radio is looking for 3g when im in a gprs only location, could all be contributing factors .. gprs data always seems to be connected too ..
Life was simpler with the iPhone (less fun though)
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Click to collapse
On the ROM I'm using in the Wireless settings there is an option called 3G - Change to GSM Mode. This drops the connection down to GSM if there isn't a good 3G signal. Also there is a setting in BsBTweaks called PowerSaving that I have turned on. This combined with the fact that the 2.07 Radio gives me about 1 bar better signal everywhere seems to have made this phone perfect for me. Maybe you should start experimenting with some battery saving tweaks like this?
I woulld definitely turn off all the auto download stuff like weather, stocks, time sync, twitter etc (except push mail). I mean how important is it that the weather is up to date 24 hrs a day when you probably only look at it once or twice a day. If you need it you can just press the update now button and within seconds you have it updated anyway.
Mine did behave reasonably well untill I started throwing apps and mods at it as fast as I could to get it to the point where I was happy with it. Lights out last night for me was at 01:30 with 94% charge,bluetooth off,gprs connected and trawling for e's avery 15mins..at 06:30 the battery was down to 41% with no programs showing active on task manager and thats after a tidy up last night with MemMaid as well. Guess who's going to be flashing his first new rom later this week ..
chimpsinties said:
On the ROM I'm using in the Wireless settings there is an option called 3G - Change to GSM Mode. This drops the connection down to GSM if there isn't a good 3G signal. Also there is a setting in BsBTweaks called PowerSaving that I have turned on. This combined with the fact that the 2.07 Radio gives me about 1 bar better signal everywhere seems to have made this phone perfect for me. Maybe you should start experimenting with some battery saving tweaks like this?
I woulld definitely turn off all the auto download stuff like weather, stocks, time sync, twitter etc (except push mail). I mean how important is it that the weather is up to date 24 hrs a day when you probably only look at it once or twice a day. If you need it you can just press the update now button and within seconds you have it updated anyway.
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Yes, i have all auto download stuff off, weather just annoys me with all that moving clouds etc .. Twitter i refresh when i enter the app.
I have Change to GSM enabled. i am presuming this setting will continue to search for a 3g signal though .. Figured this used more power as the radio would be working harder no ?
I have power saving status enabled ..
The 2.07 radio for me i found really made the battery drain, notcibly so.. I moved back to 2.06 as recommended by the Miri page as i was using his rom at that time .. Not bothered to move back to 2.07 yet .. i may do in a day or so once i get a baseline to compare against.
The other night when i was on 2.07 i surfed the web for half an hour and listned to the engadget podcast for an hour, probably half of that with the screen off and i lost around 30-40% battery .. I blamed the 2.07 as i had better battery before i moved to that i thought..
I need to analyze this rom over the next day or so, i got the device 5 days ago and every day since i got it i have flashed one or more roms / radios so ive not really had a stable config to benchmark, what i do know is that i have the above settings enabled in all roms .. Ill be trying not to flash for the next couple of days to see whats what ..
Cheers
terrytpot said:
Mine did behave reasonably well untill I started throwing apps and mods at it as fast as I could to get it to the point where I was happy with it. Lights out last night for me was at 01:30 with 94% charge,bluetooth off,gprs connected and trawling for e's avery 15mins..at 06:30 the battery was down to 41% with no programs showing active on task manager and thats after a tidy up last night with MemMaid as well. Guess who's going to be flashing his first new rom later this week ..
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Click to collapse
Why do you need it scanning for emails every 15 mins while you're asleep. Why not change it to manaully download them in off peak hours (1am-6:30am) that way they'll still be waiting for you when you first wake up but not wasting battery checking while you're asleep.
Cass67 said:
Yes, i have all auto download stuff off, weather just annoys me with all that moving clouds etc .. Twitter i refresh when i enter the app.
I have Change to GSM enabled. i am presuming this setting will continue to search for a 3g signal though .. Figured this used more power as the radio would be working harder no ?
I have power saving status enabled ..
The 2.07 radio for me i found really made the battery drain, notcibly so.. I moved back to 2.06 as recommended by the Miri page as i was using his rom at that time .. Not bothered to move back to 2.07 yet .. i may do in a day or so once i get a baseline to compare against.
The other night when i was on 2.07 i surfed the web for half an hour and listned to the engadget podcast for an hour, probably half of that with the screen off and i lost around 30-40% battery .. I blamed the 2.07 as i had better battery before i moved to that i thought..
I need to analyze this rom over the next day or so, i got the device 5 days ago and every day since i got it i have flashed one or more roms / radios so ive not really had a stable config to benchmark, what i do know is that i have the above settings enabled in all roms .. Ill be trying not to flash for the next couple of days to see whats what ..
Cheers
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On one of the other battery posts someone said that you need to give the battery a couple of discharge/charge cycles down to 1% with a new ROM/Radio in order for it to accurately be able to predict its charge loss. Don't know how much truth is in this but it might be better to stick with one for a couple of days at least before changing so you can get an accurate comparison.
Ok, yeah ill give it a couple of days to see whats what before i really damn this beast and have to buy the fat extendo battery with kickstand
Cass67 said:
What would you class as an efficient ROM ?
I find the battery life on this phone abysmal .. To the point i switch off all wireless services except the one im using at the time to enable me to have any time on the phone at all .. Surfing the web on wifi with the other wireless services on i can practically watch the battery life decrease every few mins ..
Something is amiss .. I upgraded the radio to the 2.07.51.05 version but ended up going back to 2.06.50.04 as i found it to be better ..
Whats your profile for enabling wireless services, do you have 3G enabled all the time, Wifi, Bluetooth ?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rom I found the most efficient is the one I'm using right now (XannyTech Pandora 1.1, though I've read that 1.3 is even better), and my radio is 2.06.51.07.
I have 3G/HSDPA enabled all the time checking for e-mail every 30 minutes, and the other services every hour (except during the night, where it's set to manual).
Wifi and Bluetooth are disabled unless I need them, though (I think that leaving them enabled would make a big difference for my battery life).
I usually surf the web using HSDPA instead of Wifi (since it's pretty fast here), unless I have to download bigger files
I'm not sure how much battery it uses overnight since I usually sync it and leave it charging (only forgot a few times) but I'm pretty sure it was under 5% last night.
Changing the radio and ROM really did make a huge change for me.
The same situation when I was on 1.48 stock + stock radio, my phone would probably be around 20-30% battery instead of 75% at 10AM this morning.
Btw, as an update, I've made about 10 mins of phone calls, and surfed the web over 3G for 10 minutes since this morning, and the battery is now at 68% (3:30PM), so it's been off the charger for 31H30 now.
d4v0r said:
How much battery do you lose over night? On my phone it drops about 12-15% in 8 hours (radio off, flight mode). To me, it seems too much...
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I had the phone on in airplane mode, en route back from Brisbane (12 hour flight) and listened to music intermittently, and the battery wasn't drained that much. After another flight (2.75 hours) to Vancouver, the battery was still over 50%.
To be honest, I'm actually impressed with the battery life..
Mithrandir007 said:
The rom I found the most efficient is the one I'm using right now (XannyTech Pandora 1.1, though I've read that 1.3 is even better), and my radio is 2.06.51.07.
I have 3G/HSDPA enabled all the time checking for e-mail every 30 minutes, and the other services every hour (except during the night, where it's set to manual).
Wifi and Bluetooth are disabled unless I need them, though (I think that leaving them enabled would make a big difference for my battery life).
I usually surf the web using HSDPA instead of Wifi (since it's pretty fast here), unless I have to download bigger files
I'm not sure how much battery it uses overnight since I usually sync it and leave it charging (only forgot a few times) but I'm pretty sure it was under 5% last night.
Changing the radio and ROM really did make a huge change for me.
The same situation when I was on 1.48 stock + stock radio, my phone would probably be around 20-30% battery instead of 75% at 10AM this morning.
Btw, as an update, I've made about 10 mins of phone calls, and surfed the web over 3G for 10 minutes since this morning, and the battery is now at 68% (3:30PM), so it's been off the charger for 31H30 now.
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Thanks, at least this gives me some hope .. I usually would use 3g for my web surfing but on O2 uk carrier they have no 3g in my area, it will be like this until i get the HD2 unlocked and get on Vodafone, so for the moment im using wifi ..
Hey guys, I've had the phone since Saturday and even though I've been through a few charge cycles my battery only lasts about 6-8 hours. Today I took the phone off the charger at 10:00 AM and it died on me at 5:45 PM. I only texted a few times and only did an hour or so of Slacker Radio. Seems a little low for what I'm doing with the phone.
I am on Kumar's classic 2.2 ROM with 2.11 radio.
Matt V said:
Hey guys, I've had the phone since Saturday and even though I've been through a few charge cycles my battery only lasts about 6-8 hours. Today I took the phone off the charger at 10:00 AM and it died on me at 5:45 PM. I only texted a few times and only did an hour or so of Slacker Radio. Seems a little low for what I'm doing with the phone.
I am on Kumar's classic 2.2 ROM with 2.11 radio.
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Click to collapse
A lot of things can drain the battery, 3g on in a no 3g area, weather updates, twitter , email updates ...
But If I was you I would try a diff radio ... I get a full day out of mine at this point a little more ...
I've tried 2.12 as well and the battery didn't improve.
Is your activesync checking as items come in? That's what drained mine terribly. Basically, it can be a ton of things that make your battery drain such as:
1. backlight
2. agps
3. certain programs
4. etc
You'd have to list a bunch of stuff on what you're doing to your phone
Can you turn activesync off? If so, how?
Also, any other tips to save battery life?
Matt V said:
Can you turn activesync off? If so, how?
Also, any other tips to save battery life?
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Definitely lower down the screen brightness to 20%, turn off Bluetooth and WiFi, don't let things like Twitter and your e-mail update so often.
Also using the internet/music/videos will drain quite a bit of power, especially if you use the internet while listening to music.
Yeah I mainly use internet radio while at work. Would using WiFi be easier on the battery than using 3G/H?
Matt V said:
Yeah I mainly use internet radio while at work. Would using WiFi be easier on the battery than using 3G/H?
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Yes, I've done it both ways and wifi most definitely draws less juice when streaming data than 3g (and when idle too, for that matter)
do you think it matters whether you install programs on your SD card or on the device?
i have CHT installed on the SD card and i can't make it 8 hrs on light usage.
I only have 3 apps installed so far, but it's on the device.
Also, is there a way to have the default wallpapers without animation? I'm sure that doesn't help the battery every time I unlock the phone either.
Rugged96 said:
do you think it matters whether you install programs on your SD card or on the device?
i have CHT installed on the SD card and i can't make it 8 hrs on light usage.
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Yes. Try installing it on and running it from the phone instead, I'm sure you'll see at least a noticible difference.
Honestly, there's really not much of any reason to install apps on the SD card with this phone...there's more storage available than even most power users would ever come close to filling.
im in teh same boat. had it since march. on elegancia rom which people say is great for battery. on 2.12
now im in a bad service area in my basement often so i know sometimes thats the cause. but even at the gym 40 mins of internet radio dropped my battery almost 20 percent.
if i do nothing with the phone it usually drops 5 pct an hour 10 pct with moderate use but 20 easily if i do anything on the web over 3g or wifi. its awful
oh and i have lumos configured, i only have email connect every 2 hours and weather every 6. nothing else connects
lbhocky19 said:
im in teh same boat. had it since march. on elegancia rom which people say is great for battery. on 2.12
now im in a bad service area in my basement often so i know sometimes thats the cause. but even at the gym 40 mins of internet radio dropped my battery almost 20 percent.
if i do nothing with the phone it usually drops 5 pct an hour 10 pct with moderate use but 20 easily if i do anything on the web over 3g or wifi. its awful
oh and i have lumos configured, i only have email connect every 2 hours and weather every 6. nothing else connects
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Click to collapse
Wow! your phone's battery usage sounds a little over the top. Might want to try using a different radio. 2.08 has given me the best signal/battery efficiency, but of course that varies from phone to phone.
Also, I bought a 2600 mAh battery so now I'm not afraid to use my phone. As long as you don't mind the extra bulk it adds to the back of the phone , I would suggest getting an extended battery to everyone complaining about how their battery dies too fast.
I will back up the statement that putting apps in main memory will save you battery ...
The less your phone has to access the SDcard the less power it uses.
A big thing is if you have any apps that run all the time that are on the SDcard , not only does it drain battery but will degrade the performance of the SDcard .
Anyone else have any ideas?
talked to tmo on webchat last night got em to send me a new battery
so if nothin helps at least il have two
I'm trying that method right now, we'll see what happens.