Battery Drain Data? - Touch HD General

Is anyone else interested in seeing battery usage stats for individual apps? If so, I was wondering if it might be possible to devise a way for readers of this forum to submit data on their battery draw in a controlled manner so that reliable statistics on battery usage for individual apps can be developed. If each person could record pre-install and post-install usage figures based on an agreed measurement standard for a particular app then maybe this data could be added to the Software Wiki (http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Software)?

Related

Idle data connection and battery

How does idle data connection effects on battery?
It increases the battery usage.
Be sensible, dont waste forum space.
EDIT: If you are really interested maybe you could do some tests of your own instead of asking, i presumed you haven't searched the forum already so maybe you should try that first.

[Q] Isn't a battery still a battery, regardless of OS?

I was just wondering about the whole deal with wiping the battery stats. To me it seems as if the point of this is strictly to get the OS to report and understand the battery more so than anything to do with the battery itself. I mean, the OS can't actually change the physics of the battery, right?
But the OS needs to understand what a full charge is and what an empty charge is, so that it knows when to shut down and when to stop charging and all that sort of stuff.
What I'm thinking is that if you wipe the stats and it's not at 100%, it will think that the discharge from that point to an actual low level is the full breadth of charging and adjust accordingly.
Is any of this remotely accurate? Or am I just making wild assertions?
Actually...it's the software that can make or break battery life...take for example background notifications. Wifi uses battery power and if you have different programs all polling for updates at x amount of times per hour..even when asleep..it will eat up battery juice...another example is the cm bug that kept the speaker on all the time and the nook never really went to sleep...it used tremendous amount of juice for not doing anything...another example..screen brightness..does not the software control how dim or bright you want it...and say you could not adjust the settings..your right..a battery is just a battery but how the kernel, drivers and loaded programs determine how fast or slow the battery power is to be used. Clearing the stats gives more accurate measurements for the kernel and hence will power down(power saver mode ) or other items for the kernel depending on what type of governor is on the nook..software wise.
I think you misunderstood what I was saying. What I'm trying to say is that the OS can't change the physics of the battery. Drain is drain, no matter what software is running. In other words, say you have two perfectly identical systems, both running the exact same software. The battery capacity is exactly the same on both and they both have the same drain. The battery doesn't actually drain faster on one vs the other, but the OS can *think* it's draining faster. That's why we have all these battery stats and such...right? Or am I wrong?
Oh Ok...you are right in the fact that it cannot and the software..depending on what it's state(charge level) is will determine how to run..it just makes it more accurate.
Wiping the Battery Stats tells the OS to start learning what the new High and Low are.
It doesn't matter what level of charge the battery has when you do this....
- As the battery gets lower the stat keeps updating the level as the new low.
- As you charge the battery it continuously updates the stat as the new High.
Once you have taken the battery to both of these extremes then, in theory, the OS will have accurate info on your battery.
At a certain point in time the battery stats stop updating which is exactly why it is important to do this.

[Q] acer iconia battery saver app - obsolete or not?

Is the "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" app (sorry, not allowed to post links yet) useful at all or is it obsolete if on HC 3.1 and higher?
My understanding is that it is all about disabling phone.apk and telephony.apk (by renaming or moving from /system/app to some backup location) so that there is no battery juice wasted on the cell signal discovery in our Wifi only A500 models.
I am running stock 3.1 ROM and I see that those apps (phone and telephony) are present in /system/app (both 'apk' and 'odex') and yet I do not see anything in the "battery use" statistics about consumption by cell service. Does it mean that those apps are already disabled and therefore "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" (or disabling of phone.apk and telephony.apk tick) is obsolete and unnecessary.
I know people were reporting good results with "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" app earlier on when they were still running it on 3.0 (and yes they saw cell usage in the battery use stats).
But is it relevant now? Thanks in advance for your replies....
Since all reports of 'improved battery life' from removing those apps is circumstantial, it is about as relevant now as it was back then.
It is my opinion that there could be no battery usage if there was no hardware there to begin with. It was a ghost stat and hence had no effect on battery life.
Of course people will disagree but since no quantifiable data exists, (that isn't based solely on personal opinion and uncontrolled tests) the argument is kind of moot.
Well, I hear your point. And that is why I am trying to get to the bottom of this.
I understand your point about if cell hardware is absent then there should not be any battery drain to begin with. However, it is not completely accurate. The running software could easily account for the drain. Theoretically, if those two apps constantly run trying to ping the supporting cell hardware, that will still waste some battery (and maybe significantly so if, as some reports claim, the ping algorithm implemented in such a way that it is very aggressive about trying to detect the signal while it is absent).
Also, it is strange that people who reported the battery life improvement from using "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" or the hack (by manually removing phone.apk and telephone.apk) claimed that while they DID see the appropriate consumption entry ("cell usage" or something like that) in the battery usage stats before the the same entry disappeared after they implemented the hack or deployed the saver app. Of course, maybe it is a red herring after all.
Anybody, who actually tried the saver app or implemented the hack cares to clarify?
I have a rock here. It claims to ward away bears from attacking me in my sleep.
No bears have attacked me in my sleep ergo, the rock must work.
You cite unsubstantiated claims. Again, there is no quantifiable data that proves removing telephony/phone.apk had any affect on battery life.
Polling nothing with nothing = nothing.
While yes, running software can certainly account for *some* drain but, more to the point, its the LCD panel not the application itself (baring any serious CPU intensive apps or memory polling) that chewing through juice. Hardware use is really the only way to drain the battery in any significant way. Having Maps sitting on stand-by (which you didn't launch) with Wifi off will not drain your battery of any significant amount in the same way that telephony/phone.apk on standby would if there is no hardware there for it.
Considering those ghost stats were showing 45 - 48% battery use, the return now that it's gone doesn't add up. Even a tech rep told me of the tests he did there was less than a 0.2 return in battery life. That's an insignificant amount.
Android OS juggles memory and stand-by applications from one end of the spectrum to the other with little to no difference in battery life. Force closing background apps (and saved-states) that HC has put into standby will net you nothing but a high risk of instability.
bingo bango?
Surgar in the gas tank.
I to agree with gamma.the standby could have been using some CPU cycles.but very little.I have-not seen any change in battery life now that it's gone.
I think that you would really see a lot more battery savings using apps like SetCPU, Brightness Level or even by setting your wallpaper to be something darker and definitely not a live wallpaper. Since the screen is really the main battery user I tend to be very picky about the brightness level and that is why I use a widget to be able to control the setting easily. With that said, if getting rid of these 2 phone apps will save some battery then let me know.
I just use airplane mode then turn wireless back on. Sounds like a winner don't it?
Sent from my Acer Iconia A500 running HoneyVillain 1.1 HC 3.2 for A501, OC'd 1.5GHz
highly doubt it makes a diff
You can always just edit /system/build.prop and add ro.carrier=wifi-only to the file - done this on my current rom, but I cannot say I see any evidence for increased performance / better battery life. Who knows; without a controlled test any evidence via personal revelation is pretty meaningless.
I was having battery issues and used BetterBatteryStats to hunt done the app that was using my battery. It isn't a free app but well worth the cost. Be sure and read the FAQ
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats
Was wondering about this too
I am fairly new to the android world but after some reading i finally put honeyvillian and the kernel on my acer and was noticing it said please install SIM card. i looked in settings > about tablet > Battery use and it said Cell Service 20%!!!!!!!!! after alot of searching and reading i found out about the ro.carrier=wifi-only thing in system/build.prop i just changed it tablet booted just fine now just waitin to see if it helps my poor battery. Cell Service is gone from the list in settings now tho so hopefully it will be ok
So Charged iconia last night to full started using at around 8AM its currently 7:39 charge is at 26% I have been using it alot during these 11.5 Hrs did take an hour nap and left it on. definately helped use to have to charge before now. Although i do hear of ppl whos will run for days without being charged kinda makes me wonder how much they really use it in those few days tho? I am really using it tho to play music download stuff still in process of gettin it just the way i want it too so that may be another reason it doesnt last forever.
I just got a new A500 last week and I looked after starting it and while it was running 3.0.1 and the battery status did show Cell Phone using the battery towards the top of the list.
Upgraded to 3.1 and checked again and there is no mention of the Cell Phone using the battery so it appears that the issue was fixed in 3.1
lk757 said:
Is the "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" app (sorry, not allowed to post links yet) useful at all or is it obsolete if on HC 3.1 and higher?
My understanding is that it is all about disabling phone.apk and telephony.apk (by renaming or moving from /system/app to some backup location) so that there is no battery juice wasted on the cell signal discovery in our Wifi only A500 models.
I am running stock 3.1 ROM and I see that those apps (phone and telephony) are present in /system/app (both 'apk' and 'odex') and yet I do not see anything in the "battery use" statistics about consumption by cell service. Does it mean that those apps are already disabled and therefore "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" (or disabling of phone.apk and telephony.apk tick) is obsolete and unnecessary.
I know people were reporting good results with "Acer Iconia Battery Saver" app earlier on when they were still running it on 3.0 (and yes they saw cell usage in the battery use stats).
But is it relevant now? Thanks in advance for your replies....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the battery saver app and it made absolutely no difference. I don't mind sacrificinga dollar to experiment, but the experiment is done. Save your dollar. Edit your build.prop

[GUIDE]How to improve your phones battery life

How to improve your phone's battery life
It is about time to make a guide to help people who are struggling with battery life. There was a guide to save battery life but that was only for dorimanx users (thanks to voku). This guide is for all s2 users who currently have to battle with their phones lack of battery efficiency.
Disclaimer
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
/*
* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this guide
* before doing anything! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
*/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here are the things we are going to discuss:
- Battery life myths
- Affects of apps
- Affects of ROMs and Kernels
- Affects of screen usage
- Other things to improve battery life
Battery life myths
Here are some myths that some people believe to cause battery life drainage:
Q. Installing a custom rom will increase my battery life
A. This statement can be true if the right ROM has been chosen. A ROM with less inbuilt apps could have less battery drainage, whereas a ROM with lots a bloatware will be the complete opposite. However, a number of factors can account for battery drain, therefore this isn't necessarily correct.
Q. Rooting my phone will increase my battery life
A. Rooting doesn't save battery life. It just allows the user to modify the phone which would be otherwise be restricted by Google or by the manufacturer. It is installing battery saving apps (like Greenify) that can use root that could save your battery.
Q. Black or dark colours that are displayed on my screen will drain batteries faster than on a white or brighter colour.
A. Dark colours used to drain the battery more significantly than white or lighter colours. But that was for LCD displays! The S2 has a AMOLED display which blacks are displayed by switching off the individual LED crystals, therefore saving battery.
Q. Battery drain can be improved if undervolt my CPU/GPU
A. For most people, undervolting can be a very tedious adjustment a person can make to their phone. The actual battery savings from undervolting is small and can also be a waste of time for the inexperienced. Undervolting introduces instability and lagging if inappropriate voltages have been set and so the user experience will be annoying!
Q. If I reset the fuel guage indicator, the battery life will last longer
A. Resetting the fuel guage indicator (found in custom kernels) doesn't solve battery drain issues. It just helps to relieve the battery drop after rebooting your phone as the fuel guage sometimes needs to recalculate the battery's remaining life.
Q. Updating my ROM to the latest version will give me better battery life
A. In most cases, this statement isn't true. For stock roms, updates can be problematic and lots of things can go wrong during the installation. Updated stock roms can bring more bloatware to the device causing your phone to drain more battery. This happened when android 4.1.2 was released for the s2 and as a result, lots of people were forced to choose to install a custom rom. Custom ROM updates can be a good thing as ROM developers always work on their ROM to fix bugs. This can be a benefit for battery life since more bugs are fixed. However, sometimes an update may not go too well and battery life could start draining quickly after installing the update. Choose the version that you believe is best and/or check reviews/comments on XDA before flashing a ROM.
Affects of apps
You may have heard the less apps you have, the longer your battery life will last. This may be true if you have lots of apps that rely on active notifications, but even with having fewer apps with active notifications, there still could be a noticeable effect on your battery life.
Apps that use active notifications:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Apps that classify as active notifications includes:
- Instant messenging apps like facebook messenger, skype and hangouts
- Any social media related apps including youtube, facebook, google+
- Some games that have social media features
What you can do?
These apps are a likely cause of your battery drain. To prevent further battery drain, these apps can be removed by uninstalling these apps manually. Some phone OSes bundle social media apps with their software bundle, if you don't use social media apps like facebook, uninstall them. If you must rely on using social media apps, try using your phone's browser to load up the mobile version of the social media website. Doing this may save you battery life.
Battery saving apps
Believe it or not, some battery saving apps can drain your battery instead of saving you battery life! Here are some examples of battery saving apps that simply drain your battery:
- Apps that claim to manage your wifi and mobile data
- Apps like Juicedefender that claim to 'intelligently' manage your phones behaviour
- Task killers that don't require root (usually doesn't work properly anyway)
What you can do?
Uninstall the app. Enough said. If you have to use a battery saver, the only one I trust is greenify: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en (Note: Requires root)
Google Now
Google now is one of the most commonly used apps on android phones today. It has many features that can make your phone experience easier. However, it is known to have a drain on your battery so here are the things you can do.
What you can do?
Turn off ask google from homescreen or from anywhere on your phone. This speech recognizer function keeps your microphone active which in turn could drain your battery. A better option would be to disable Google now altogether. Some home launchers have an option to disable google now from homescreen, so you will need to disable it from there.
Battery monitors
A battery monitor doesn't classify as a battery saving app. This is because it doesn't do anything to manipulate your phone so it doesn't really save any battery. Moreover, battery monitors look at the statistics of battery drainage which could help users identify their battery issue.
What you can do?
If you experience battery drainage after using and closing an app, install and wakelock detector: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uzumapps.wakelockdetector&hl=en and you can see which app you need to force close to save battery. Apps that have a long awake time period could indicate a possible battery hogging app. Uninstall the app and your battery life could be extended. Another way to check if you have an app that is hogging up your battery is by using the in-built battery settings graph. Pressing the graph will allow you to see a combination of statistics. The statistic you should be focusing on is the awake bar and the screen on bar. If there is more awake than screen on, this usually indicates there is a rogue app. If they are the same, you have no wakelock problems.
Antivirus Software
If you are connected to the internet, there is a chance that you have encountered a virus once in your life. An antivirus may need to be installed to protect your device from viruses, all sorts of malware and even phishing. But what affects do they have on battery life?
So what's the battery affect?
Antivirus software aim to protect your phone without much performance hit. There are some fake antivirus apps that claim to protect your device but instead scams you into buying your product. Antivirus software don't usually use much battery life and are actually quite lightweight (most of them are, but they can still be unsuitable for old android devices like the i9000). Here is a good webpage that discusses the performance and the battery consumption on various antivirus suites for android devices: http://www.av-test.org/en/news/news...tection-apps-put-to-a-6-month-endurance-test/
Bloatware
Bloatware is one of the biggest culprits that just simply steals your battery life. Here are examples of bloatware:
- Any pre-bundled software that come with your phone
- Any apps that you don't even use that came with your phone
What you can do?
Uninstall the apps that you don't need/use. If you can't or have trouble uninstalling certain apps, try using titanium backup to freeze and uninstall any apps you don't need: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&hl=en (Note: Requires root). Some pre-bundled apps can only be uninstalled from your phone's application manager in the settings.
Affects of Kernels and ROMs
Custom kernels and custom ROMs can have a large variety of benefits for the user. Custom ROMs could add features that are only available on AOSP roms, custom kernels can add hardware improvements and functionality such as support for BLN and more CPU governors. But what are the battery effects concerning with custom kernels and roms?
Kernels
Kernels play an important role in any Operating system. It contains all of the drivers, information and programming required to allow the device to function properly. Without it, our phones will be worthless. Custom roms introduce more features than your standard custom rom kernel and here are the list of some kernels:
- Siyah Kernel
- Dorimanx Kernel
- Gustavo Kernel
- Apolo Kernel
- Speedmod Kernel
- And the list continues
The point is that custom kernels allow the user to customize more things on their phone than normal. This includes CPU governors, IO schedulers, voltages and etc. Here are some things you can do in a custom kernel that will help save you battery
Don't overclock your CPU
As simple as the statement reads, don't overclock your CPU. Overclocking your CPU could boost you phone's processing speed but this can also lead to overheating issues and bad battery life
Underclock your CPU
Here is where the benefits starts to come in play. Underclocking is making your processor run at a lower speed than the manufacturer's specifications. This results in better battery life but could also reduce performance. A slight underclock is enough to improve your battery life by a bit.
Play around with CPU governors and I/O schedulers
Being one of the more experienced XDA members around here, I often see users asking for the best combination of CPU governor and IO schedulers. My response will be to try a balanced CPU governor first or try a battery saving optimized CPU governor, then see which IO scheduler you like most. In my case, I like HYPER and SIO as it is a solid combination and provides great stability and battery life. For more information on CPU governors and I/O schedulers, visit my website here: www.androidmodguide.blogspot.com
Disable LED on touch
LED is a feature that allow your phone's hardware buttons to light up when you touch your phone's screen. This can be a bad thing in regards with battery life. Disabling LED on touch will prevent further battery drain especially if you constantly text others or play games.
Try not using BLN
BLN is a great feature that all phones should have. But keeping the phone's hardware button lights can lead to excessive power drainage. If you find BLN is not too important for your everyday phone usage, disable it. It will save you some battery especially if you get lots of notifications and constantly check your phone for updates.
Enable LCD Power Reduce
Even though the display on our device is an OLED display, the settings still applies for our device. LCD Power Reduce is similar to Adaptive Brightness in a way as they both alter the display settings when displaying different content. This feature is included is most custom kernels and is usually set to enable by default. If you disable this because you don't like the colours, you are missing out on extra power savings.
ROMs
One of the great things of rooting your phone is that you are able to flash a custom ROM. Stock roms can come with lots of bloatware and unnecessary apps that it just simply slows the phone down. Custom ROMs can help speed up your phone as they generally come with less or no bloatware and are better optimized for our device thanks to the developers of the ROM. Here are some examples of Custom ROMs:
- Cyanogenmod
- Paranoid Android
- Omni ROM
- Slimkat
- And many more ROMs
Here are the thing you can do in a custom rom that can help you reduce power usage
Avoid android lollipop
Android lollipop was one of the most anticipated android releases in Google's history. Lollipop comes with heaps of new features, optimizations and fixes that just make android better for everyday usage. However, with more features comes more chance for apps to drain your battery. Not all apps run on lollipop without bugs and are susceptible to stability issues due to the newly implemented ART runtime. If you care about your battery life, stick with stock android 4.1.2 or custom kitkat rom as they don't suffer from the same issue!
Use ART
Not the paintings or the drawings that you would think of when you see 'ART'. ART (or Android Runtime) is a new runtime for android that is supposed to replace the aging dalvik runtime that currently run on most devices with kitkat and below. The benefits of using ART is that it supports 64bit chips (which doesn't give us any benefits), faster app load times and slightly better battery life. ART for kitkat is still a bit unstable and it requires more of your storage space when installing apps (less apps, more space used). However, not all apps are compatible with ART so make sure to google the app and version (important!) before switching to ART.
Enable battery saving GPS settings
Enabling GPS on a phone can seriously drain the battery quickly if someone was to forget that it was left on. Newer android versions allow the user to use different combinations or methods to determine the person's location which can potentially save battery life for people who use location services a lot.
Enable Adaptive backlighting
A relatively new (yet still old) feature on newer android versions include a feature that controls the brightness of your phone when specific content is shown. The difference in brightness in not really noticeable and so it is a feature that everyone should enable.
Use the default messaging app for your messaging (SMS)
With Android Kitkat, you are able to set the default messaging app. The default messaging app that comes with your phone is most likely a basic messaging app that allows you to send any kind of normal SMS to someone else with a number. Third party messaging apps like hangouts are more heavy with features and this can be a bad thing if you care about your battery. The simpler the messaging app, the better! (Not regarding the look, but I'm talking about features)
Use lighter home launchers
Home launchers determine how your phone would look if you were to access your apps that are on your phone. Launchers can be designed for visual and function purposes. The general rule with launchers is choose a lightweight launcher (like nova launcher) for your phone and your phone will have more ram and responsiveness. Battery life could be slightly improved by switching launchers too.
Use stock android browser
Web browsers on android are a must for most internet enabled phones today. With the large variation of web browsers, people may feel tempted to try out a different, more advanced browser. However, the truth is that if you browser on the web a lot, third party browsers can drain your battery faster than stock browsers. Stock browsers are the browsers the come with the OS. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing interface but it usually lighter than most their party browsers on the play store and can save your battery!
Use stock keyboards
Without a software keyboard on our device, how else could we type a message or search for anything on the web (excluding voice and hardware features)? The keyboard bundled with stock roms may not be the easiest to use so you might download and use a different keyboard. Third party keyboard could be resource hungry and as of a result, it could drain your battery. Choose a simpler keyboard like android keyboard (bundled with AOSP roms) or google keyboard with holo design.
Avoid using audio improvement apps
You may have seen an equalizer app or an app that specifically is made for users to tweak the sound of the music. This can be great when you want to improve your audio but this could cause addition audio drain to your phone. If you can, try not tweaking the settings too much or make any changes that would improve the loudness of your speakers or earphones as this requires addition power. Audio enhancing apps generally require more processing power from your CPU and from your DAC, so that means less juice for your phone! If you are using an app like viper4android, use the battery saving mode when installing the driver and don't install the super high quality mode to save battery!
Affects of screen usage
Most people are unaware that one of the biggest factors that affects your battery life is the screen usage. You screen is one of the most power hungry components on your phone and so it's best to limit the brightness to get the best possible usage time. Here are some things you can do to stop screen battery drainage
Decrease time to turn off screen automatically
Having the automatically turn off screen feature set to long periods of time can seriously affect your battery life, especially if you forget to lock your phone after you are finished using your phone. Setting this to a shorter time will ensure no extra battery life is wasted from excessive screen on times.
Decrease your brightness and turn off automatic brightness
This is one of the most common actions to do to increase your battery life. Having your screen too bright can lead to serious battery drain. Find a setting that suits you and disable automatic brightness as it could adjust your brightness even once setting your brightness level.
Use darker, black wallpapers
This isn't necessarily a good method to save battery but the evidence suggest that actual black colours will save you battery life. Choose a wallpaper that uses black colours and your battery life should be slightly better (if you find yourself using your phone to only use the homescreen )
Other things you can do
If you have tried everything to fix your battery life and you don't see any improvement, you can either buy a new battery or simply buy a new phone.
Use greenify
You may say "I thought battery saving apps were bad for battery life?" Well in this case, Greenify is different from most battery saving apps as it is responsible of 'hibernating' your apps stocking them from leaving your phone on wakelock which could consequentially result in loss of battery life. This option is available for all other rooted phones too with different versions of android too.
Buying a new battery
If you have done everything possible to fix your battery life and your battery life can't stop depleting, it is probably a good time to buy a new battery. There are a number of ways to check if your battery is dying buy monitoring your battery voltage depletion or seeing a drop in battery life when your phone is hardly awake. When buying a new battery, be sure to buy from a trusted source and if possible, buy a genuine battery. There are a lot of compatible batteries that state that they have {so and so} battery capacity but the chances are they have the same capacity as the genuine battery (and sometimes less!).
Disable fast dormancy
Fast dormancy(FD) is a feature that controls your mobile radio by putting it to sleep when not in use. This can be a good thing if your carrier supports this but it could be a bad thing if your carrier doesn't With stock rom, you can easily disable fast dormancy by going on the phone dialer and typing *#9900# . In custom roms, you can use quick dialer numbers, so you will have to use an app called fastdormancy toggle by the legend gokhanmoral: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gokhanmoral.fastdormancytoggle.i9300&hl=en. Even though the description says it's for the i9300, it should work with the i9100. As you can see on the image above, this shows the different combinations of phones that have FD enabled or disabled and carriers that do and don't support FD.
Mediascanner bug/Music bug/FP bug/Fuse bug fix
Known as the infamous music bug, this bug has existed since Android 4.0.3. The problem was caused by the corruption of FP registors, in other words, when your screen turned off, the code for saving your state of your phone was not properly coded by Samsung, and as of a result, battery life was lost. The music bug affected all users of android 4.0.3 or later and could be noticed when after playing music from an external sd card where the music would just suddenly stopped. To fix this bug, install a custom kernel that includes this music bug fix (like apolo kernel, dorimanx kernel or gustavo kernel) and your problem should be fixed. Note: This also requires a rooted phone with custom recovery.
Change your phone's modem
A modem modulates and demodulates signals for communication between networks. Your phone's modem is responsible of providing a software layer that controls the mobile cell to communicate with the cell tower. Sometimes, the current modem may be poorly optimized for your carrier/device which may lead in some battery drainage. To solve this issue, you may have to replace your current modem software with a newer or different one. The benefits can only be determined by the user, so it is hard to tell which modem is best for your usage. Have a look at this thread to download a modem: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/general/ref-samsung-modem-ril-cwm-installers-t1881304
Factory reset
Some battery drain issues that can't be solved using apps like greenify or issues to do with mediaserver can be resolved with the good old factory reset. Factory resetting your device will return your device back to the factory defaults (deletes your apps, settings, etc) but doesn't delete you personal files (like music, photos, etc). Be sure to backup all important files just in case something doesn't go as planned. Beware: Stock Android 4.0.x Touchwiz users are advised that factory resetting with stock recovery with stock kernel can cause your phone to hardbrick. Once your phone is hardbricked, your phone is officially dead unless you buy a new motherboard for your phone! Update to JB 4.1.2 first then factory reset or install a custom kernel. To check if your phone is affected (if you have insane chip), download and run this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vinagre.android.emmc_check&hl=en.
Keep your phone cool and don't play games while charging
This is more of a maintenance tip for your battery but when you charge your phone, your phone's battery and circuitry can heat up. This heat can damage your phone's battery so it is important to keep your phone cool. Remove any cases on your phone and allow it to cool naturally. Don't play games while charging your phone as this will heat up your phone even more until your phone gets very hot. Remember that in the battery world, cool is better.
Huge thanks for all of the kernel developers including @dorimanx, @cybernetus, @Computoncio, @pedestre, @Gustavo_s, the developers of the custom roms including @CyanogenMod, @fusionjack and everyone else who made customizing the s2 possible.
Reserved.
Good guide mate thanks!
I will hopefully update the guide today, as well as my governor and scheduler guide
Update: I've added one new tip to stay away from android lollipop. I've also fixed how the image links were shown instead of the actual image.
gsstudios said:
I will hopefully update the guide today, as well as my governor and scheduler guide
Update: I've added one new tip to stay away from android lollipop. I've also fixed how the image links were shown instead of the actual image.
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Definitely some good info here! Not sure I totally agree with your statement about Lollipop. Currently I find it very stable and don't personally suffer any more issues than I did using any other custom build. Battery wise I've had 4hrs+ screen time with 3g/WiFi, location on, sync on all day. No under clocking used. On a standard battery. With a some streamed Google play music, a couple of short calls and a lot of browsing. In fact with how smooth it runs in comparison to previous android builds vs battery life I highly rate it. Although yes nothing beats stock 4.1.2.
Also I did use sine build.prop tweaks with some Xposed modules and some popular battery saving apps.

3T Battery Life: planned, detailed investigation

Hello everyone,
since Battery "Problems" are popping up left and right, and i found myself putting out Information mostly based on "observations and gut feelings", i thought it's time to make this scientific.
I plan on making detailed measurements in varying states and with various Apps installed. I want to kick this thread off to get some input on what methodology you'd use, want you want tested and what you think in general about this idea.
The current plan is the following:
establish a Baseline for both, Screen on and Screen off
This would be OOS, latest stable, right after Setup without google signed in. No Wifi, no other settings changed. Screen on with a 100% white background to compare for AMOLED Black screen saving.
Those Baselines would be a 100% Score. Every change would be normalized to this percentage.
Varying Settings for SoT:
All Black Screen
Video Playing
Ebook Reading
Varying Setting for Standby drain
Wifi On/Off
Bluetooth Connected
4G/2G difference
For measuring drain, two tools are used: BBS and Battery Historian. Any physical, direct measurements are out of the question, because it would render my phone unusable Using the same tools for all variations should make them comparable.
Since Standby drain can be sub .5% per hour, getting accurate measurements takes time. So, i suggest taking a sample of close to 4 hours for standby drain and 1 hour for Screen on drain. Everything gets then normalized to %/hr. I'll start making a excel chart for all those values.
I'll take a Nandroid of the Baseline setting. After every Test, the phone gets recharged to 100%, then restored from Nandroid Backup. After that, the necessary changes are made and measurements take place. This should give every change a equal starting ground.
I started with some testing today, but, as stated above, those things take time. So, expect the first results close to the weekend. Until then, every input on methodology or variables for testing would be greatly appreciated.
The goal is, to make a comprehensive list on what you can expect certain settings to drain. That way, we can all determine wether the values we are seeing are normal or not. This would also help verify new Software versions for improvements.
Please note, that i'd rather leave the testing to myself. I do encourage you do check the values i find and report them here, but for my spreadsheet, i won't include them. A phone has to many Variables to make sure you're running the exact same setup i do (network connectivity, wireless, BT, Accounts set up, Sync Settings, Apps Installed). Since i expect differences between some variables to be close to or under .1%, it's crucial to have a perfectly controlled environment.
That's it for now. I'll report back with the first Baseline Readings as soon as they're done. Until then, Hit me with your ideas :good:

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