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Hello there,
I would really like some advice - my battery is draining like water. I'm quite convinced it is the regulation of the unit; I bought a 2400mAh battery replacement and it lasted ages on first go, but then my G1 started draining stupidly fast after I'd recharged it. This also happens on the stock battery too (buy even quicker!). I'm convinced it is the regulation because a) I've never had battery problems previously and b) the battery meter starts at about 26% when I plug it it in (after the phone shuts off from it being dead and I then plug in the charger).
I actually have a bricked G1 that still charges batteries, so I thought I'd do an overnight charge on the battery that way, to 'remind' the other G1 what a 100% battery is like, but that didn't seem to work either.
Can someone help? Is this a known problem? I would really appreciate any advice.
Mark
Things that cause ridiculous battery drain;
Backlight, keep it at no more than 30%
Wifi - turn off search for open networks,
Gps - wow does this drain
gridlock32404 said:
Things that cause ridiculous battery drain;
Backlight, keep it at no more than 30%
Wifi - turn off search for open networks,
Gps - wow does this drain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS doesn't really drain battery unless it's actively being used...at least not on my phone.
You can also try disabling 3G if you're not in a 3G area. It will keep trying to find a 3G signal, which really drains battery.
For the record, I have a stock battery that I get ~13-16 hours on from a single charge... my backlight is at 40%, GPS is always on, and I use wifi whenever I want to surf the web and am near an open network.
OP...if your battery is lasting you only a couple of hours, then I'd try to reflash your ROM. Might help...
Wow 13 to 16, I am lucky if I get 6 with 30% backlight, and wi-fi and gps off, I have always gotten that on ever rom even stock with no widgets, you are one of the very few with good battery life cause I have seen many complaints about short battery ranges
gridlock32404 said:
Wow 13 to 16, I am lucky if I get 6 with 30% backlight, and wi-fi and gps off, I have always gotten that on ever rom even stock with no widgets, you are one of the very few with good battery life cause I have seen many complaints about short battery ranges
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's on a normal, moderate usage day. If I use it heavily, with a lot of wifi and web browsing, then I'll get around 10.
Maybe your battery needs to be replaced... could just be old and not holding a charge properly.
It's 2 months old, has done it from day one, I also have another battery that does it too that I kept from a previously brick g1, so one 3 phones, all the same battery life but then I use it quite heavily, always browsing on the web since my computer burned out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=555048
try that? 3rd gen battery could help..
Thanks for the suggestions, but it's not a wifi/3g/brightness etc problem - I've had a G1 for six months, I know exactly how much power should be consumed. It's also not the battery; I have two stock batteries and a brand new 2400mAh battery, which for the first few charges lasted about 2 - 2.5 days and was brilliant (as it should be), but now doesn't last all that long.
I may have made the situation slightly better however - I did a Nandroid backup, wiped to factory (well, Cyanogen 4.0.4 anyway) and booted into that. I then restored the backup and when I plugged back in to the charger, the meter was at 85%, and seemed to take a normal amount of time to charge (and not jump to 100%). It remains to be seen if the problem is solved, I've yet to have the battery drain (this is a good sign though) an plug in the charger to see if it will jump from 0 to 25 or not.
I'll re-post when I know.
run the battery down until the phone shuts off without plugging it in.
charge the battery while the phone is off over night
do this 3-5 times and see if you get any improvement.
also remember some of the cheap 2400 batts from ebay and such claim 2400 but that is from 3.5V to 3.0V. The G1 considers 3.2V to be dead so you only get from 3.5V to 3.2V which sucks.
I'm with gridlock on this one. My batteries suck. It always needs a mid day charge. And to the poster that said to reflash a rom, that is bad advice. There is known issues with getting poor performance out of these batteries. I have 2 and both do the same. Got the second one from complaining to t-mo about how bad it sucks.
Reflashing seems to have worked...the 2400mAh battery seems a lot better now, it lasted nearly two days (it runs at 3.7v, according to my battery diagnostic), I've only just recharged it last night. When I plug it in, it charges normally and linearly now, instead of jumping straight to 25%.
So my advice, if anyone is having similar problems to me, would be to try a reflash.
Thanks for your help everyone.
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
For what this device has and what it can do the battery life is pretty good, if you just use it for a few random pics, bit of browsing, bit of music and a few calls you should get a days use, if you sit there for ages messing with it its gonna drain.
Im pleased with it myself, apart from the bugs, but waiting......
It's killing you literally? Step away man!
I find the battery life on-par with other smart phones I've owned. I use a desktop cradle (well should soon be using a desktop cradle) and an active holder in the car, so I find the battery keeps up OK with a typical day's use for me. The biggest battery killer is when the screen is on full brightness so I find essential to have the phone on power when I'm using the satnav.
I had really high hopes for this thread when I read the title. Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed.
Where's the death I was promised?
Die and prove it.
mox123 said:
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be fair most smartphones drain their batteries pretty damned quickly. Disconnect your data connection when you're not using it and bluetooth too. OK so you won't get weather updates but you'll save battery life. Just charge it nightly and buy a car charger if you really drain that sucker!
Wow, I think battery life is good considering the screen, better than I expected.
Currently, with screen set to 70% brightness, push email on 0800-1800 with hourly retrieval outside those hours, hourly weather/Twitter update, automatic Quick-GPS almanac data update, I last all day (~0700 to 2300), and still with about 20-30% headroom with the following use:
Push email as per above settings
50 minutes GPS tracking
50 minutes bluetooth on (heart rate monitor)
1-2 hours listening to music
Around 1-2 hours high-drain use (screen on, using cellular data/WiFi/GPS - for example browsing/app use/gaming/watching video)
30-40 SMS
15 minutes calls
One simple little trick that I learnt some time ago to preserve battery life is ..........turn down the brightness of the screen display. The brighter it is the more juice gets used.
Get the screen to turn itself off after, say, 30 secs of use. That also helps.
The rest, such as killing off data connections when not in use, etc, you already know.
It never ceases to surprise me at the number of negative comments re battery life. The impression I am left with is that if the battery does not last at least 2 months between charges, even though it is being hammered to within an inch of it's life, then that makes the battery performance rubbish. Anyone ever heard of a battery charger?
It's a really easy to use piece of kit that comes with your device that can be plugged in at night when you are asleep, leaving your device fresh for the morning.
Amazing.
WB
What the heck do you expect from such a phone? The energy management is kinda good and it's the display that kills battery life. You have to get use to it. At least my Touch HD seems to last much longer, but I would never change back.
If you watch a video your battery capacity drops quickly. I estimated 4,3-4,5h of HW-acc WVGA video and 3,5h with a non-HW-acc VGA video. Not that much but it really looks fantastic.
My Solution for this problem is: second battery, extended battery and/or load the battery whereever u can. My normal usage drains 30% of the battery a day, so I get 3 days of normal usage (I'm not an excessive handy user). The standby duration is with 300h not that good, but yeah that means still 12,5 days of standby if I calculated correctly.
The point is, that the phone is that good that I'm attracted to play with it and then the battery life tends to last just a day or less.
I bought a second battery (~22€) just for longer rides. I think it's ok.
mox123 said:
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EEK!, don't come on this forum and complain about the HD2! not allowed. this is now the official HD2 Appreciation society, don't ya know.
I recommend instead you buy some lube oil, massage it into the device, light some candles, play a bit of Barry White, and all will be well.
Then come on this site and reassure all the sensitive souls here that it is indeed the Holy Grail of mobiles and admit you are a Troll for finding a fault with it, and daring to ask about why it does not preform as it says on the tin.
And final advice...In the words of legendary Basil Fawlty... Don't mention the War !..or in this case, the Keyboard!!, I mentioned it once...and thought I got away with it..but no.
hawrai68 said:
EEK!, don't come on this forum and complain about the HD2! not allowed. this is now the official HD2 Appreciation society, don't ya know.
I recommend instead you buy some lube oil, massage it into the device, light some candles, play a bit of Barry White, and all will be well.
Then come on this site and reassure all the sensitive souls here that it is indeed the Holy Grail of mobiles and admit you are a Troll for finding a fault with it, and daring to ask about why it does not preform as it says on the tin.
And final advice...In the words of legendary Basil Fawlty... Don't mention the War !..or in this case, the Keyboard!!, I mentioned it once...and thought I got away with it..but no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice one.
NetDwarf said:
What the heck do you expect from such a phone? The energy management is kinda good and it's the display that kills battery life. You have to get use to it. At least my Touch HD seems to last much longer, but I would never change back.
If you watch a video your battery capacity drops quickly. I estimated 4,3-4,5h of HW-acc WVGA video and 3,5h with a non-HW-acc VGA video. Not that much but it really looks fantastic.
My Solution for this problem is: second battery, extended battery and/or load the battery whereever u can. My normal usage drains 30% of the battery a day, so I get 3 days of normal usage (I'm not an excessive handy user). The standby duration is with 300h not that good, but yeah that means still 12,5 days of standby if I calculated correctly.
The point is, that the phone is that good that I'm attracted to play with it and then the battery life tends to last just a day or less.
I bought a second battery (~22€) just for longer rides. I think it's ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly !!
1000 Mhz this bugger does.
And really its more then just a phone. with the battery cunsumption like wise.
But they told me one thing,,. something that Noone does
When you get the HD2. Its battery got 20% juice init.
Thats not for fun of the company (prolly sanyo) was laizy and dint bother to fill em 100%.
You have to charge the battery 6 to 12 hours and to peeking at your new jewel.
And i know Noone ever does that. But it ensures batterylife and eficiency
Here is the article >>
Initialize a new battery. New batteries should be fully charged before their first use to obtain maximum capacity.
Nickel-based batteries should be charged for 16 hours initially and run through 2-4 full charge/full discharge cycles, while lithium ion batteries should be charged for about 5-6 hours.
Ignore the phone telling you that the battery is full--this is normal but is not accurate if the battery is not initialized.
#DO NOT fully discharge a lithium-ion battery!
Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries' life is shortened every time you fully discharge them.
Instead, charge them when the battery meter shows one bar left.
Lithium-ion batteries, like most rechargeable batteries have a set amount of chargers in them.[1]
2Keep the battery cool.
Your battery will last longest if used near room temperature, and nothing wears on a battery like extended exposure to high temperatures. While you can’t control the weather, you can avoid leaving your phone in a hot car or in direct sunlight, and you don’t have to carry your phone in your pocket, where your body heat will raise its temperature.
In addition, check the battery while it’s charging. If it seems excessively hot, your charger may be malfunctioning.
3Charge your battery correctly, in accordance with its type. Most newer cell phones have lithium-ion batteries, while older ones generally have nickel-based batteries. Read the label on the back of the battery or in the technical specifications in the manual to determine which yours is.
Nickel-based batteries (either NiCd or NiMH) DO NOT generally suffer from a misunderstood phenomenon known as the "memory effect." As described in Wikipedia and many expert sources,[2] the term "memory effect" has been widely mythologized to describe any and all deterioration of NiCd (and other battery chemistries), in many cases misleading consumers into further shortening the lives of the batteries through over-discharging to "recondition" them.[3]
[This section formerly read: If you charge the battery partially enough times, eventually the battery "forgets" that it can charge fully. A nickel-based battery suffering from memory effect can be reconditioned, which requires the battery to be completely discharged, then completely recharged (sometimes several times). The appropriate length of time between reconditionings varies. A good rule to follow for nickel-battery cell-phones is to discharge them completely once every two to three weeks, and only when you have a charger available. [4] ]
Lithium ion batteries can be preserved by careful charging and avoiding storing them at full charge.[5] They do not require "reconditioning."
Regardless of the battery type, use only a charger rated for your battery, and discontinue use of a charger that causes the battery to heat up excessively.
Enonoid said:
Exactly !!
1000 Mhz this bugger does.
And really its more then just a phone. with the battery cunsumption like wise.
But they told me one thing,,. something that Noone does
When you get the HD2. Its battery got 20% juice init.
Thats not for fun of the company (prolly sanyo) was laizy and dint bother to fill em 100%.
You have to charge the battery 6 to 12 hours and to peeking at your new jewel.
And i know Noone ever does that. But it ensures batterylife and eficiency
Here is the article >>
Initialize a new battery. New batteries should be fully charged before their first use to obtain maximum capacity.
Nickel-based batteries should be charged for 16 hours initially and run through 2-4 full charge/full discharge cycles, while lithium ion batteries should be charged for about 5-6 hours.
Ignore the phone telling you that the battery is full--this is normal but is not accurate if the battery is not initialized.
#DO NOT fully discharge a lithium-ion battery!
Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries' life is shortened every time you fully discharge them.
Instead, charge them when the battery meter shows one bar left.
Lithium-ion batteries, like most rechargeable batteries have a set amount of chargers in them.[1]
2Keep the battery cool.
Your battery will last longest if used near room temperature, and nothing wears on a battery like extended exposure to high temperatures. While you can’t control the weather, you can avoid leaving your phone in a hot car or in direct sunlight, and you don’t have to carry your phone in your pocket, where your body heat will raise its temperature.
In addition, check the battery while it’s charging. If it seems excessively hot, your charger may be malfunctioning.
3Charge your battery correctly, in accordance with its type. Most newer cell phones have lithium-ion batteries, while older ones generally have nickel-based batteries. Read the label on the back of the battery or in the technical specifications in the manual to determine which yours is.
Nickel-based batteries (either NiCd or NiMH) DO NOT generally suffer from a misunderstood phenomenon known as the "memory effect." As described in Wikipedia and many expert sources,[2] the term "memory effect" has been widely mythologized to describe any and all deterioration of NiCd (and other battery chemistries), in many cases misleading consumers into further shortening the lives of the batteries through over-discharging to "recondition" them.[3]
[This section formerly read: If you charge the battery partially enough times, eventually the battery "forgets" that it can charge fully. A nickel-based battery suffering from memory effect can be reconditioned, which requires the battery to be completely discharged, then completely recharged (sometimes several times). The appropriate length of time between reconditionings varies. A good rule to follow for nickel-battery cell-phones is to discharge them completely once every two to three weeks, and only when you have a charger available. [4] ]
Lithium ion batteries can be preserved by careful charging and avoiding storing them at full charge.[5] They do not require "reconditioning."
Regardless of the battery type, use only a charger rated for your battery, and discontinue use of a charger that causes the battery to heat up excessively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame most powerful mobiles heat up like nobody's business whilst on full chat these days.....there's no chance of keeping the batteries cool! Still, it's an expendable item and at least you can buy a replacement.....none of this iPhone 'sealed' tin rubbish.
while i find the battery life reasonable with the features this phone has (read screen size, processor speed), it will be nice to get the CPU throttling app another thread is discussing. don't need that 1000MHz running everytime i pick the phone.
On the same notes, how can i check if automatic screen brightness is kicking in?
here4info said:
how can i check if automatic screen brightness is kicking in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stick the phone under a bright light such as a desk lamp and cover the light sensor with a piece of paper.
here4info said:
while i find the battery life reasonable with the features this phone has (read screen size, processor speed), it will be nice to get the CPU throttling app another thread is discussing. don't need that 1000MHz running everytime i pick the phone.
On the same notes, how can i check if automatic screen brightness is kicking in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It certainly isn't running when I boot my phone up....hardly gives an impression of speed.
mox123 said:
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you the first wm phone user? Do you have good experience with phones that has so much specs? Do you use wifi and browse with phone very heavily? If you do, it is really normal that the battery will drain. My Touch HD does the same, it can last a day or 2 or drain like water not more than half a day, it depends on your usage. Try to get a second battery, or even the third one like I do, what is a big deal? It is completely normal.
I don't have a lot complaints on this phone as it meets most of my requirements.about the battery, I seriously don't think it is that bad. for example if you have a car with 1500 horse power and expect it to have or rather 30-40 mpg, don't think it is possible. try to use your local gas station (in this case your friendly charger) more often.move on with your life please.
c4Lvin said:
I don't have a lot complaints on this phone as it meets most of my requirements.about the battery, I seriously don't think it is that bad. for example if you have a car with 1500 horse power and expect it to have or rather 30-40 mpg, don't think it is possible. try to use your local gas station (in this case your friendly charger) more often.move on with your life please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be a little difficult because this battery problem is killing him, LITERALLY
So I got my G2 yesterday at about 4:30. I LOVE it, absolutely (a bit of a weak hinge, and I had a random reboot and trouble starting WiFi at first, but it's seriously fantastic). But I'm having problems with the battery. At the store the guy turned it on and handed it to me, and I used it on the way home to the point that, by about 1.5 or 2 hours after turning it on the first time, it was at about 15% battery. So I started charging it, and then read an article online that it should be discharged, so I unplugged it after it went up about 4 or 5% in battery life to 16% and used it a bit more to drain it all the way. Then I read a different one saying you should never discharge it because it's Lithium Ion, and so I turned it off until I could get to the charger and then charged it and left it charging until I woke up at 6. Then I unplugged it, used it for about 20 minutes in the morning, and turned it off. I turned it back on at 3 today, used it mildly (Angry Birds, an emulator, and the camera, but couldn't get data access except very intermittent EDGE, no Wifi or GPS enabled) until 4:10, and noticed that it was at 65% battery life. The screen is on automatic brightness, and I have animations and a live background, but those are my only concessions. It said 45% of battery use was Android and that was the highest thing, I think display was only second or third (unlike my parents' Vibrants where it's like 66% display).
So that's 1.5 hours for a third of the battery, with moderate usage (I would argue that no data or GPS or wifi or internet usage at all is very moderate). So, on average, I could expect to get 4.5 hours of battery life? At one point it went from 55m unplugged to 1:07 unplugged and the battery went down about 10%. That's worse than my parents' Vibrants, and they say they didn't do anything to train their battery--and I've seen reports, especially on here, of people getting 10 or more hours of use with more usage than I had. I know you train Android and not the battery, but still, I have seen SUCH conflicting information on this that I don't even think it'd be helpful to search anymore (and trust me, I have). So does anyone know about this, definitively? Does the battery life get better after I charge it and discharge it for several days? Should I let it go down to a full discharge or keep it above 35-40%? Does it harm it to keep it plugged in after it finishes charging, or does it have a thing to stop charging the battery and just run off AC once it reaches 100%? Is it too late to train my battery now? Are there any official or reliable large-capacity ones for the G2, like a 1750 mAh?
Thanks,
Rocky
Don't trust the battery meter. Fully charge your phone up, and it runs for forever. I've gone days where I unplugged it at 7:30 AM, and didn't plug it back in until 5:30 AM, and the battery was still above 20%. That was a day of fairly light usage, so that's not necessarily typical; with my normal usage (which is somewhat heavy), it's at about 30% by the time I plug it in at around 10:00 PM. The only time this isn't true is when I go for hours on an Angry Birds marathon :S
I have noticed on all my android phones that the first couple charges seem to drop much faster and each subsequent charge seems to get better. I run mine all day with push work email and vibrate all day and am upset when it is below 65% at 10PM and I unplug it at 7:30 am each day.
But did you guys do the same thing I did (15% then charge overnight) and then get around the same life, on your first day? Is it likely my short charge the first time did any damage? And are there any apps to provide a more accurate battery meter, preferably in place of the stock one?
Thanks,
Rocky
I did nothing special. I put it on charge when I got it but did not do a full charge before leaving work and going home. Did a full charge that night.
I plug it in each night when I go to bed and it has been as high at 70% and as low as 30% depending on how much phone and data time I spent that day.
I unplugged mine today at 7:36am and at 4:06PM it is at 79%.
I use battery indicator from the market. It does not poll and only listens for the OS battery change broadcast so it does not use up battery by running. Some poll and as such use battery to report.
The general thing about Lithium Batteries is that a full discharge is bad if the voltage level goes below a certain point to where the onboard circuits will disable that battery permanently. Most of the time the boards only do that if it's left discharged for a long time I believe, correct me if I'm wrong here.
Ideally, you're not supposed to turn on the phone when you got it. You were supposed to charge it till green and then you could use it, but I'm pretty sure not everyone can resist the temptation to turn on such an awesome phone . The battery life will blow the first week of use. I don't know why, but it just does; you'd have to break in that battery. Then the general rule I follow is to perform a full discharge once a month and then do a full recharge.
I also placed my phone on GSM AUTO PRL but for doing that I just exchanged some low 3G signal threshold for Edge; the extra battery life I got though is just that much more useful to me. Using WCDMA Preferred, the phone just wasted so much
To answer your questions, my experiences with the N1, Vibrant, and G2... battery life just blows in the beginning but gets better with use. The first charge you did shouldn't have damaged the battery but I think you may have wasted 2 of the possible 400-500 cycles that battery is capable of doing what you did. Finally, I use BatteryTime by Motalen for the status bar battery indicator which shows the % left.
Yeah, it just sucks because the guy at the store literally put my SIM card in and then turned it on and handed it to me. I probably wouldn't have turned it on until it had charged if he hadn't, or at least I like to think so.
So it's good to do the discharge thing once a month, and probably not bad for the battery to let it dip down as long as I don't prolong it too much? And I'm okay to just charge it and use it during the day, basically, from now on?
Does battstat poll the battery or just listen?
SeReaction said:
The battery life will blow the first week of use. I don't know why, but it just does; you'd have to break in that battery. Then the general rule I follow is to perform a full discharge once a month and then do a full recharge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nonsense. The battery runs down fast the first week because you got a new toy and you can't help playing with it all the time. After a while the novelty wears off and you use it a lot less. The battery doesnt just magically get better
grennis said:
Nonsense. The battery runs down fast the first week because you got a new toy and you can't help playing with it all the time. After a while the novelty wears off and you use it a lot less. The battery doesnt just magically get better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See but if that's true then I can only expect 4.5-5 hours of battery life which is not what the G2's supposed to get. Which means either I DID mess up my battery instead of just running through some cycles, or I have a bad one, but not horribly bad, just for some reason only like 60% as good as everyone else's. I do agree about the novelty thing (it's my first smartphone), but understand I was not really doing all that much when I drained my battery like I said. Not nearly as much as it should take.
aacrabtree said:
The only time this isn't true is when I go for hours on an Angry Birds marathon :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those damn birds aren't content to kill pigs; they have to go after our batteries too!
grennis said:
Nonsense. The battery runs down fast the first week because you got a new toy and you can't help playing with it all the time. After a while the novelty wears off and you use it a lot less. The battery doesnt just magically get better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm hoping that's the case. I remember receiving my N1 and I got to relive my childhood days for 12 straight hours. Regardless it's pretty sad to say that I leave my G2 at home while at work and it's down from 100% to ~60% with Wifi on (and with it staying on in the advanced settings) and GSM Auto PRL; I work a 8 hours shift. I left my N1 at home to mess with my G2 at work and my N1 went from 100% to ~80%.
Those 100 extra milliamphrs shouldn't do that much of a difference. Not to mention the N1 is slower and on a 65nm process. Did I also mention that both my G2 and N1 run the same services and 3G is also disabled on my G2 since I don't have my new SIM activated yet? Also, Latitude is always on for my N1.
It's just my experience though. I'll give this a good thorough test when I get the time. That or pony up for an extended battery.
On the other hand, my wife's GalaS is doing just fine in terms of battery life. Matching my N1 with the same settings and services.
Hi,
I recently flashed my G2 to the leaked T-Mobile gingerbread release: so it's not rooted or anything like that. I'm not using it any differently to how I was before.
The upgrade went very smoothly. However, the battery seems to be draining a lot more quickly than prior to the upgrade, and Android's battery usage app points a very damning finger at the display: currently it's showing 67% usage, and pretty consistently shows a high usage most of the day.
Before, I could consistently run the phone for the whole day and charge overnight, but now I'm finding that I have to charge it a bit during the day too in order for it to make it to the night.
I'm pretty sure that I'm not using it any more than usual, and I pretty much always have brightness set to 20%.
So my question is, what could be causing this? Could something be using the screen when it's not supposed to be even though it's not showing anything? Could it be a battery calibration issue? Maybe the power usage app in gingerbread calculates what it attributes power consumption to differently to froyo (though that wouldn't explain the overall reduction in life). What, if anything, could I do to try and track this down further?
Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Some things I should add.
I really haven't changed my behaviour regarding how I use things like wifi, bluetooth and gps. In fact, so far I actually have one fewer gmail account set up on it that before the upgrade, so sync should be doing less work. The apps I'm using are all about the same.
When I said I could use it for the day, I mean it would often end the day with more than 50% battery left. On some days I'd get it down really low, but that would be due to obvious extra usage, which isn't the case here. Occasionally I'd let it die completely. I always charge it fully overnight.
Finally, here are the other top items in my power consumption list at the moment:
Display: 67%
Maps: 8%
Cell standby: 7%
Phone idle: 5%
I seem to remember that before the upgrade, Cell standby and Phone idle were usually the top users of power.
no problem
Sorry, but I don't see any problem. Maybe its just placebo. This is the same on every android based phone. I Had HD2 and had 2 NAND androids till now and the battery stats were showing also display use 60% and then after new NAND version - gingerbread they were up to 80%+ but the battery was better than ever before.
Let me explain it to you. The display should consume most of the battery if you have 3.7 inch display and more. Maybe some navigation and 3G is the biggest sucker like the display but with normal use the Display. And if your display consumes lets say 75% of battery over when you are at 1% battery then it means it sucked 3/4 of your battery and just 25% other things did like phone idle and cell.
If it was before and your display consumed like 40% or less that meant that the other things like cell standby, phone idle consumed more power so it wasnt battery efficient. So its more battery efficient. Maybe you just have much more awake time than you did before. The awake time - sucks the hell of your phone(some apps warn you taht your phone wont turn to the sleep, which means your processor is still working hard which means your battery will deplete completely in a short time)
I experienced this also that my phone lasted only 6 hours or so and before it could wen to all day . Then I deleted some apps which were causing it and my battery was perfect.
and last advice. try to charge your phone via USB, I dont really know why it is caused but it will last longer , but on the other hand you will have to charge it longer. But if you go somewhere where the extra juice is needed then its nice.
With these steps my HD2 with old battery (about 1000mah left on 100%) went through 2 days of medium USE and about 5 days of just receiving calls and messages) so I dont know anyone else who could say that !
¨
hope I helped you. GL a HF
If you can stand it, turn the brightness as low as you can handle . EDIT, you're already doing that....hmm
Not sure why gingerbread is giving you problems, personally I find it slightly better with battery than froyo.
Sent from my T-mobile G2
Hmmm... placebo. By that, I presume you mean that since Display is ranking higher in the list now, that's making me think more battery is being used before. I suppose it's possible, but really it's more to do with how often I've been reaching that "I should charge" point, which for me is a function of battery level and time. If I get to 50% before lunch time, I think "I should charge". But getting to 15% just before bed I don't. What I've noticed is that since the upgrade I've reached the "I should charge" point every day.
I'm just very surprised by how the proportions in the battery usage list have changed, while a the same time the phone's battery usage seems to have increased, despite the fact that Gingerbread's battery usage is supposed to be improved.
One other thing that came to mind: perhaps Gingerbread's battery usage is just more accurate than Froyo's? It always seemed to me that the battery level used to work a lot like a car's fuel gauge: it would stick at 100% for a long time and then would drain. It was as though "full" as a concept understood by Android was a range rather than a limit, and so as a result the phone appears to drain more quickly, but it's actually just showing a more accurate battery level over time. Just a theory.
So last night I allowed the phone to completely die. This morning I switched on and immediately checked battery usage: display showing 99%, which is exactly what I'd expect. So I'll see how it goes now that Gingerbread has experienced battery exhaustion.
Personally, if I was upgrading from Froyo to Gingerbread, I'd prefer to start from scratch rather than doing an "in-place upgrade". I'd worry that maybe there are some leftover settings or files from Froyo that could cause unintended consequences. Consider backing up as much data/apps as you can (it's more difficult if you don't have root), charging the battery up to 100%, doing a factory reset, and then restoring and reinstalling everything back. Doing this will also reset Android's battery stats file, so you may find your battery levels maybe inaccurate while it's relearning the right levels for a few days.
Alternatively, if you don't fancy a factory reset just yet, you could try monitoring your power use with a widget like CurrentWidget which looks that the current draw rather than percentages. Also consider installing Watchdog Lite which might be able to help you identify if there are any processes using excessive CPU cycles.
EDIT: Just realised that if you flashed a leaked version, the install would probably have wiped everything anyway, so you can probably disregard the first paragraph.
Like the others have said, I think the screen usage being higher in 2.3 has more to do with the reduced usage of other apps and not the screen using more battery than in 2.2.
Think about it, most of the high battery usage items (web browsing, etc) also keep the screen on at the same time.
Yes, that's probably mostly because other things are using less power. I also suspect that maybe Gingerbread's battery usage app is calculating display usage differently: I just checked it on someone else's G2 (still running Froyo) and Display was way down the list. It dominates mine, even though I haven't used it that much today.
Today's power consumption has been a lot better. It's down to 39% now after 12.5 hours on battery, with 59% of that being attributed to Display. So that's not bad at all really.
Thanks for the tips on the monitoring apps. I'm already using System Panel (which only seems to care about apps and not hardware so much), but it's always worth checking out alternatives.
Couldn't it be due to you being in areas with bad connection?
I noticed that my G2 is down tot 30% after a few hours at school in bad reception+bad wifi areas. When I'm home the whole day my G2 is still at 60% at 10pm.
I have 2 exchange mail accounts set up to push and one gmail account...
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Friend has a new Desire Z (bell, unlocked). Using it on AT&T network.
When at a house, and we use WiFI (30Mbps DL, 25Mbps UL), the speeds are VERY inconsistent. With my iPhone 4 using speedtest.net, it shows up as 20/15 each time. (WiFi is a little slower than the modem).
With the Desire Z, we get 15/10 (which is fine/acceptable). Then 3 minutes later we do it, we get 5/2. Without even moving the phone or touching the modem connection (not downloading anything on the computer), the connection just gets slower. Then it might be fast or slow, basically it's a toss-up.
The first time we noticed the issue is because when we are outside, we get HSPA speeds of 2.5/1.0, then randomly decreases to 0.1/0.05. HUGE difference. And VERY inconsistent. He is using a microSIM from iPhone 4, with an adapter, so we figured maybe the SIM card is getting loose at certain points? However, the WiFi is also inconsistent in addition to the HSPA, so it's probably not that.
What should I do? Is this the situation where I have to flash a new radio or something? (Please suggest others if I am wrong).
Thanks!
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Also, his battery is kinda weak. The battery health is apparently clean/healthy. He came from an iPhone 4, where he would have 3G, WiFi, and GPS on at night but not actually using them. Wake up, and 3% battery loss, maybe 5. WITHOUT using them, just having them on.
Now, with the Desire Z, we have the WiFi + 3G on, but NOT the GPS. He is losing 20%-25% in 8 hours without even using the phone.
Information about battery shows a high Cell standby (25%) and Phone idle (25%) percentage. When going into Spare Parts > Partial Wake usage, we didn't find anything really fishy. BUT we had rebooted so perhaps some info may have been lossed. Should he just go to sleep tonight and report the Partial Wake Usage statistics again?
We have a feeling it may be some apps refreshing at night.. But he clears all the apps with Advanced Task Manager except for like Facebook (2 hour interval refresh), GMail, and Google Voice.
I highly doubt a 20% battery decrease overnight is normal.. My mom's Atrix only loses about 5% overnight, with the same parameters I gave before.
I thought it may be a bad battery, BUT the phone idle + cell standby are abnormally high.
Thanks!
Why is this in General as well as Q&A?
Put this in Q&A, didn't get any answers. Went to General, saw that more people posted there, even for Q&A's. Have an actual problem that research didn't help much with, so made a thread. If necessary, I would be glad to remove the thread on Q&A.
By the way, thanks for the answer .
Would you be able to post your software specs? Radio version, rom version, android version? My Bell DZ only loses about 3% per night if I don't plug it in to charge. I, like you, have wifi, gps and hspa enabled with no huge I'll effect.
The stock battery is usually alittle weak. Being a 1350mA, it doesn't have the capacity either, but that is why it is user replaceable. I picked up the mugen 1800mA battery that gives the phone the stamina to last a full day of full use or 2-3 days of light use. I forget how much I spent on it but it was definitely an upgrade.
As for the signal issues, we would need to know what you are running. The latest .30 radio is recommended for AT&T if I remember correctly. Also, the type of rom (stock or custom) might give us abit more insight.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA App
I lost about 10% overnight today I believe, possibly 15 (don't remember exactly what I left off at).
Not sure on all the stats because I don't know how to check them but
Android Version 2.3.4
Cyanogenmod 7.1.0-RC-Vision (seller did it for me)
What is the radio version? I think that is baseband not kernel? If so its 12.52.60.25U_26.08.04.30_M3
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If anyone knows about the sporadic data, that'd be helpful. It does seem that if I go into airplane mode a few times it fixes itself, but I doubt everyone does that to ensure fast HSPA speeds
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA Premium App
I've never used CyanogenMod Custom ROM's before, so I can't speak from that experience. I can, however, tell you that while running RMK (and team's) Custom ROM's (Virtuous, G-Lite, Unity) and now MIUI, battery life has been excellent, even with the stock battery. The current build of MIUI lasted for about 15hrs on a day of full use, RMK's ROMs would last about 12-15hrs of moderate to full use on the stock battery. Alot of the custom roms have different power management settings and tweaks, if you're comfortable with flashing, I would recommend another ROM and see if that helps with either of your problems.
If you like the Vanilla/AOSP look of android, try RMK's G-Lite ROM. It is very lightweight, fast and stable. I remember having one issue with it, but it was a very small issue and didn't stop me from using it for a few months.
I am currently on MIUI English 1.7.1 and with moderate use I am sitting at 50% charge spent over 2 days. Moderate for me is about 300 texts with about 10 phone calls and a total of about 4hrs of web browsing.
I can link you to those roms if you need, but they're all located in the Dev section. Your radio seems like it's on the right version, so perhaps it's not the issue. Try running another rom for a week and see if that helps to any degree.
I re-calibrated the battery, let it die, charged it up, let it die, charged it up. I followed the instructions to the letter and all that.
It was at 100% when I went to sleep. Woke up 8 hours later, 74%.
Settings > Battery shows nothing high 40% for cell standby and phone idle. Everything else (Facebook, etc.) REALLY low.
Then I went to Spare Parts > Battery Usage, Partial wake usage, everything incredibly low as well..
I will try Watchdog, but could it just be a bad battery? Or maybe should I try a different ROM?
Thanks!
JayXL14 said:
I re-calibrated the battery, let it die, charged it up, let it die, charged it up. I followed the instructions to the letter and all that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO! This is poor recommendation, and people need to stop perpetuating it. People keep recommending this, but its NOT a good idea to let the battery drain until it dies, just to calibrate the battery meter. While the protection circuit on the battery will USUALLY prevent over discharge, it is not 100% failsafe. There is a slight possibility that over-discharge of the battery will happen, and then the battery is no good, and will need to be replaced. Unless you have a special battery meter with a "boost" function (which most people do not have access to). See the following table on Battery University, where it says for Li ion batteries: Discharge: Prevent full cycles
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/do_and_dont_battery_table
Best practice is to charge to 100%, drain to about 20%, repeat a couple times. No need to go below 20%. The battery meter is not very accurate to begin with, so there is no value added going to 0% versus 20%, but you risk killing the battery.
Plus people keep abusing the terminology. You are just calibrating the battery meter, not "calibrating the battery". When people say this, I think its just a holdover from the old days of NiCad batteries, where you had to condition/discharge the batteries periodically to prevent memory effects (Li ion batteries do not suffer from memory effects, and require no period cycling).
Can't really speak to the Atrix or the iPhone. But the battery drain on the DZ described by the OP is right in line with what I've seen. I also have an unlocked Bell DZ on AT&T, and battery drain of 2-4% (on various ROMs and couple different radios) when the phone is completely idle, screen off is totally normal. Best I've seen on my DZ is with the Virtuous Unity ROM and the .30 Gingerbread radio, where I've seen somewhere around 1-2% drain per hour when idle.
One possibility, is that the different phones are not reporting % battery the same way. As I've mentioned above, the battery voltage meters on phones is not very accurate, maybe in the range of 5-10% accuracy (although, even with this, the drain on the DZ versus the ATrix and iPhone still sounds inconsistent). But what is more important is how many hours of usage you get before needing to charge.
Thanks for the info.. Ill try charging that way.
And I honestly think the battery is just reading it wrong. It honestly feels like it dies faster idle than not, go figure. Yesterday, at like 10% battery, I wanted to kill it off, and played a game for like 10 minutes straight, still 10...
Then I tried leaving the flashlight on for 10 minutes on and it maybe lost 1
How is that battery I recommended from dealextreme though?
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA Premium App
It's interesting to see all the troubles that people are getting on the DZ...
I've had my DZ for about 6months and never seen any of the reported problems.
My 1350mha will last me on a frequent usage near 24hrs and if I'm using it lightly like when i'm busy at work... almost 2days worth.
Mind you I'm running Cyanogen MOD7. No GPS. Wifi is on and I use JuiceDefender.
Cheers mates.
Last night, I charged my phone to a complete charge before going to bed to see what kind of drain I would see overnight. After 9.5 hours, my battery had only lost 2% sitting idle. That is with 3G on, but no Wifi or Bluetooth enabled.
The phone idle accounted for 47%, cell standby 48% and Android system 4%
While it seems remarkable, I'm still not convinced that its not my phone incorrectly reporting the battery level. On a typical day when I pull my phone off the charger, the first 10% is very slow to drain. Today, I have sent a few text messages and played maybe 3 minutes of word feud. That has drained 6% of my battery.
We will see where I'm at later in the day. I suspect that the actual level is lower than the 94% it is reporting. Typically, I get between 12-16 hours of usage, depending on how much I play with my phone.
Well I am at nearly 23 hours on this charge. Have used the phone rather lightly during the day. It sat idle for about 9 of those hours while I slept last night.
Conclusion: Idle drain is very minimal on my device and looks as though the percentage was being reported rather accurately. I'd say if you're having a lot of drain while sitting idle, do some digging and find what it is.
More info:
Facebook: update 1 hour
Gmail Sync: 1 hour
Fancy Widget update: 1 hour
Brilliant Quotes widget: update 1 hour
Light Bluetooth usage (about 15 minutes)
Wifi on all day (not overnight so about 14 hours total)
Screen brightness set at about 50%
Average signal strength: -100dbm