Database Users

Evo battery life trick read

For those of you having battery issues I found a way to DRAMATICALLY improve the battery life.
I tried this and I have seen a huge improvement.
First things first, go into Settings> About Phone> Battery> Battery Use> Cell Standby. Assuming your phone has been on, or off the charger for ~10 minutes, it should show Time Without Signal at around 50%.
Next thing, press HOME, and bring up the dialer. Dial *#*#4636#*#* (Do not press "Call"). After a second, it should bring up the "Testing" menu.
Go into Phone Information, press MENU, and tap "select radio band." You should experience a Force Close, don't panic, this was supposed to happen. Scrolling down shows that the preferred network type is GSM auto (prl).
What this means is that even though you are connected to a CDMA network, your phone is trying to find a GSM network, preventing the radio from sleeping, and causing excessive battery drain.
Remedy this by tapping GSM auto (prl), and changing it to CDMA auto (prl).
Now your done, your TWS should drop dramatically, and you should experience much better battery life!
Note: You need to do this every time you reboot.
I wish there was a way to make an application to toggle this thing on and off so you don't have to do it every time you reboot the phone.

Going to try this for tomorrow and see how my battery life is. Seems silly that with all the customization HTC did to the OS they missed this detail.

seems weird; has anyone confirmed if this works?
-m

Just checked mine and it was already CDMA(auto).

btw for what it's worth, my EVO has been off the charger for ~2 hours, and the cell standby details just shows "time on: 2h 19m". Mine is also defaulting to 'CDMA auto (PRL)'
Perhaps a recentl prl update fixed this?
-m

Nice find though - the battery history tab (especially the all time tab) is awesome..
For instance, I've been seeing my GPS turn on and stay on while indoors.. according to these stats, the 'movies' app is the one that was using it the most..
-m

I found mine in CDMA already too

Mine was GSM my son's was on cdma, we both did the prl updates and both of us did the sd card update as well.
I guess some phones were on cdma by default some weren't.
Maybe thats why some people are calling other crazy for the battery drain.

thanks...interesting find...mine was on gsm. everytime i reboot?! damn.

Mine was set to CDMA with Cell standby of 48%.

mines was on gsm also..but i rebooted and it stood on cdma..it didnt default back

There is an app in the market called "network" that is basically a shortcut to this menu.

diomark said:
Nice find though - the battery history tab (especially the all time tab) is awesome..
For instance, I've been seeing my GPS turn on and stay on while indoors.. according to these stats, the 'movies' app is the one that was using it the most..
-m
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could just use spare parts from the market place it shows you all of that

Mine was on GSM. I'll see if my battery life is any better tomorrow.

Mine was set to GSM. The phone came from Google I/O so maybe that was a bit different? I'm excited to see how this improves it! If it does...good find! If not...still probably a good thing to change!

Thank you so much for this, it seemed to fix my sporadic signal issue!!!!

just changed mine to CDMA thanks

spurnout said:
Mine was set to GSM. The phone came from Google I/O so maybe that was a bit different? I'm excited to see how this improves it! If it does...good find! If not...still probably a good thing to change!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine was set to CDMA

Thanks for the tip...Mine was set to GSM.

Mine was already set to CDMA auto (prl). I saw another option was for CDMA only. I wonder if there would be any difference with that selected?

Changing 3G to Edge on Aria

I have tried settings
wireless & networks
mobile network settings
network operators
Search networks & select Automatically is greyed out and doesnt work
Here is what I did to get it working
1.click phone then press *#*#4636#*#*
2.click on phone information
3.scroll down and click on wcdma preferred
4.click gsm only
5.hit back until you get out and there you go
Down side is every time you reboot you have to do all over again. If any one else knows a better way It would be greatly appreciated.

Mine stays on 3G. I tried this a few days ago using Anycut to create a shortcut to "phone info" and I had NO luck there either.

kirbo20 said:
Mine stays on 3G. I tried this a few days ago using Anycut to create a shortcut to "phone info" and I had NO luck there either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Phone is rooted so maybe thats why, or possibly you need to type in
*#*#4636#*#* a little faster I tried 1st time and no luck but on second time worked like a charm.

I wish a direct dial shortcut would work but no luck either. I did get there manually though and yes you have to dial fast. The other thing I noticed is my icon just changes to a 3g with a check mark lik ehow it does if you turn off the always on feature. I suppose I could test with a network speed app to see if it really is on edge though.

deleted

sentinel79 said:
I wish a direct dial shortcut would work but no luck either. I did get there manually though and yes you have to dial fast. The other thing I noticed is my icon just changes to a 3g with a check mark lik ehow it does if you turn off the always on feature. I suppose I could test with a network speed app to see if it really is on edge though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get the E from edge and have done speed test and confirm it is on edge..some times when you change the settings to GSM ONLY..just wait until the E (edge)pops up and if that doesnt work you have to change it back to wcdma preferred and then back to GSM ONLY it will work... and no need to exit out until you get edge on...I just did it and it took a few times but it works I promise.

sfernandez said:
I get the E from edge and have done speed test and confirm it is on edge..some times when you change the settings to GSM ONLY..just wait until the E (edge)pops up and if that doesnt work you have to change it back to wcdma preferred and then back to GSM ONLY it will work... and no need to exit out until you get edge on...I just did it and it took a few times but it works I promise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay after a couple tries and testing with XtremeLabs speedtest I can now see the E and it's definitely on edge speeds. Also my unshielded subwoofer is buzzing like crazy Maybe Edge and EMI are go hand in hand

sentinel79 said:
Okay after a couple tries and testing with XtremeLabs speedtest I can now see the E and it's definitely on edge speeds. Also my unshielded subwoofer is buzzing like crazy Maybe Edge and EMI are go hand in hand
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMAO..good old technology...and glad it works 4u

Please forgive me for being a complete noob but what are the benefits of being on edge instead off 3G?

Joesalad21 said:
Please forgive me for being a complete noob but what are the benefits of being on edge instead off 3G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will help with battery life. 3G drains battery pretty fast, also depending on where you live and signal strengths,your signal can go back and forth from 3g to edge and draining your battery even faster. So if you leave on Edge will help out battery.

Also you can always add a widget to turn off your mobile data when connected to wifi.
Click on Menu -> Add + -> widget -> Settings -> from the list choose mobile data. You can now turn on or off your mobile data when not needed.
Thanks

There's a widget by curvefish.com on the Market that switches between edge and 3g. Haven't tried or tested. Android noob and a little worried to.
How's the battery life difference? I know on the HTC Tilt 2 there was a 4 - 6hr difference.

I think it is the way the SIM card is provisioned. I wasn't able to go to 2G only on my Backflip either even though some could.

asiancuta said:
There's a widget by curvefish.com on the Market that switches between edge and 3g. Haven't tried or tested. Android noob and a little worried to.
How's the battery life difference? I know on the HTC Tilt 2 there was a 4 - 6hr difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried this widget. It didn't work it just takes you to the settings page.
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App

hunkyn said:
Also you can always add a widget to turn off your mobile data when connected to wifi.
Click on Menu -> Add + -> widget -> Settings -> from the list choose mobile data. You can now turn on or off your mobile data when not needed.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a better widget that cuts off data but still allows you to send and recieve SMS and MMS
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-camurphy-toggledata-jCE.aspx
asiancuta said:
There's a widget by curvefish.com on the Market that switches between edge and 3g. Haven't tried or tested. Android noob and a little worried to.
How's the battery life difference? I know on the HTC Tilt 2 there was a 4 - 6hr difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery life is allot better when I have used the widget above and using edge.... I'm still figuring out how much but so far is greatly improved

I have a widget called Extended Controls which looks identical to "power controls" and it has an APN switch.
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App

sentinel79 said:
I have a widget called Extended Controls which looks identical to "power controls" and it has an APN switch.
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really like that extended controls..THANK YOU , but the TOGGLE DATA WIDGET that i was talking about will still let you send and receive SMS ans MMS..the original one cuts off the APN completely and no SMS or MMS. Thats the only reason i use it. While we on the subject of widgets..check out Audio Manager Pro.

I think I found a way to sustain battery life as much as my old WM phone. A combination of this Edge techniques and setting autokill up and ignore lists ... and removing polling apps (but everyone knows this) ... so the result is today I went into Edge mode with 9% battery left and 3 hours later it was still 9%. Seems really promising. Tonight I'll go to sleep and let you know how much it dropped while at rest (with APN on).
I also tested the Extended Controls APN button with respects to Edge and I was able to recieve SMS and MMS (but the picture portion of the MMS would not download until I activated the APN button). But I suspect leaving the APN on will not hurt your battery life as I had mine on and battery was rock solid (at least with Edge).
To save additional battery, I ditched Advanced Task Killer and went with "Task Manager" which also has a convenient kill widget. I also dumped the aiSystemWidget (WHICH I LOVE BY THE WAY) as it was constantly polling information and instead installed an app called "Android System Info" which is just as effective at displaying information about my system. Anyone else have an app like this that is light on memory (sorry for the hijack).
Sorry to ramble

I get about a loss of 1% per hour now with sync and apn on.
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App

sentinel79 said:
I think I found a way to sustain battery life as much as my old WM phone. A combination of this Edge techniques and setting autokill up and ignore lists ... and removing polling apps (but everyone knows this) ... so the result is today I went into Edge mode with 9% battery left and 3 hours later it was still 9%. Seems really promising. Tonight I'll go to sleep and let you know how much it dropped while at rest (with APN on).
I also tested the Extended Controls APN button with respects to Edge and I was able to recieve SMS and MMS (but the picture portion of the MMS would not download until I activated the APN button). But I suspect leaving the APN on will not hurt your battery life as I had mine on and battery was rock solid (at least with Edge).
To save additional battery, I ditched Advanced Task Killer and went with "Task Manager" which also has a convenient kill widget. I also dumped the aiSystemWidget (WHICH I LOVE BY THE WAY) as it was constantly polling information and instead installed an app called "Android System Info" which is just as effective at displaying information about my system. Anyone else have an app like this that is light on memory (sorry for the hijack).
Sorry to ramble
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMAO..no you weren't rambling at all you were explaining.
I agree with you 100% on the combination of this Edge techniques and setting autokill up and ignore lists ... and removing polling apps...I also have start up startup cleaner 2..and that does help out with boot up speed.
How is "Task Manager" different from Advanced Task Killer? I have the Pro version and love it....and I'm digging that Android System Info.
Plus I found this widget last night called Quick Boot, It will let you reboot, recovery mode of fast boot with 1 click ... Im lazy like that.
sentinel79 said:
I get about a loss of 1% per hour now with sync and apn on.
Thats on Edge? how often so you have everything syncing up? Either way thats great battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Having 3G Connection issues

My vibrant when holding it like normal will switch to zero bars and then switch to edge when i am in a strong 3g area i think this phone has poor 3g recpeition and a problem with it reciveing 3g signals.When it switches to edge it will display a full 3 bars and then 2 and none less than 2 then when on 3g will go from 4 bars when sitting on a table to none when i am holding then to edge.

Yes, my phone always switches back and forth from 3g to edge. I live in a strong 3g area too. My old g1 never had this problem.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant
RIP my beloved rooted G1

get a new phone the vibrant is not for you....

It's an issue that I am experiencing as well. In my case, simply lifting the phone from the table, with a single finger, will cause the data speeds to slow by half or more. Calls will always drop to EDGE, and sometimes, disconnect entirely.
If I had to guess, it's probably an engineering problem. I will try replacing the phone (again), to see if anything is improved.

temperbad said:
get a new phone the vibrant is not for you....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nor is customer service for you.
The phone is not perfect and I seem to have the same 3G issues.

Your a D!ck
temperbad said:
get a new phone the vibrant is not for you....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^...Really? WTF would the phone be, "Not for you". Its got nothing to do with the end users ability to understand how to use their phone.
I don't mean to feed that negative comment. But, seriously....

bennyha said:
^^^...Really? WTF would the phone be, "Not for you". Its got nothing to do with the end users ability to understand how to use their phone.
I don't mean to feed that negative comment. But, seriously....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Negative? That couldn't be any less negative.... if he experiences signal droppage especially where he lives, I say pick a new device cause the vibrant has this issue, so if it effects him or bothers him, the vibrants not for him... and abbreviating what the **** is pretty negative itself.... man funny.. hell you even called me a ****? So hows that good? Can you say that when people are dicks? Your the ruler on who gets to be rude when and where? Or are the only one that can capl people dicks?
I think I get harped on so much from my screen name, but I wasn't being negative. ..
Simply put, if it bugs you the vibrant is not for you....
Cause this is what it does...
Negative. .. lmfaoooo people say way more negative stuff and get away with it.
And no customer service for me? Huh? Didn't even make sense.
Op, the vibrant is not for you man... they all have this misreading....
And what should have been said to the OP IS, please search the forums before posting this... there's many many threads on it....

If this is a such a issue then why does everyone with the problem still have your phone? I mean if my phone dropped to edge just by a finger I'd get a new device.
I just don't get it? If its a issue for some, why do ya guys still have the device. Is the device so nice ya hoping it'll get better? Hoping Samsung has a fix?
They won't, they can display the bars better but that's it, that will do virtually nothing for real world speeds/ reception. It doesn't effect me where I live I can't even get it do drop a bar in some areas if I try, and coming from a n1 it was way worse. .....
Just don't get it, if y'all could answer that would be great, what are you waiting for? Why ya still got the device?

I still have mine honestly because I can give a rip about 3G. Never really used it nor need it. I mean its a phone for phone calls, grabbing some email and now and then updating my market apps. I think when I used my G1 for the close to two years I used 3G twice. Once to uh and ah at it and the second because I wanted to update my maps app faster.
I have wifi everywhere so sometimes I consider 3G overated at least in my house and work, however with that said. Its rather horrid when it comes to a connection. My G1 would easily connect and stay connected. Vibrant connects, disconnects, connects, disconnects. 1 bar, 3 bars, back to edge, no bars.
All over the place. Its like dating somebody with a split personally disorder. I only tested it because others have complained and wanted to either confirm or deny their comments. I can confirm it.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=738327&page=4&highlight=signal
I just called tmobile and they confirmed getting a new sim card 50.01 does help the 3G signal.

The new SIM will probably help. Mine phone has no 3G issues. Just GPS and compass issues.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

1 post and no follow up? please

Lock into 3g speeds.
Hey, I posted this in a different forum. This helps lock into 3g speeds. I kind of found this on my own, so I don't know how accurate my instructions are, verify with others before trying, but it worked for me
Tired of edge speeds, want to lock in 3g? Okay this next one, do at your own risk ask usual, use with caution. I kinda figured this one out on my own, through trial and error, so I’m not sure how stable or accurate, or even how safe it is to do this. I did notice though, if you screw up, you can use the factory reset code above and things should go back to factory defaults.
Okay…so again do at your own risk. Also by locking into 3g speeds, if you ever go into a non 3g area, or if your 3g signal is poor in your area, then your phone calls will drop and data will stop, unless you go back and set the phone to its default automatic gsm/cdma settings.
Dial: *#*#197328640#*#*
Click [1] debug screen
Click [8] phone control
Click [7] network control
Click [2] band selection
This is where you make a change, default setting is [1] automatic, which means it chooses automatically between gsm/cdma (Edge vs 3g). So we are going to change this and set it to wcdma band which is 3g.
Click [2] wcdma band
Click [1] wcdma all []
Now it should display “select wcdma all bands [*]"
Now on the bottom of your phone, click the menu key, it’s the one next to the home key, now click back, menu again one more time, back one more time, this is just to confirm it set to number 2 wcdma band.
Now click menu key one last time, click end.. and you are done. Now to double verify that the phone is locked into 3g, dial in: *#*#4636#*#*
Then click phone information Then scroll down to “set preferred network type” It should now have listed “wcdma only.” PS, if you tried to do a shortcut, and just set wcdma this way first without doing the lock above, it would just go back to gsm/cdma auto once you exit the screen.
Your phone should now be locked into 3g.

[Q] Time without signal > 50%

This is an issue that a lot of Hero users had. I was fortunate enough to not experience it with the Hero, but my current time without signal is 52% on my Epic. If I remember correctly, it was a PRL problem, but it might also be the radio. It would be the cause of serious battery issues. I've attempted updating my profile and PRL to no avail. Is anyone else having time without signal issues?
To check, go to settings -> about phone -> battery use -> cell standby.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I thought it was just a reporting issue
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

No. I remember what it was now. It was that the Hero wasn't set to use CDMA towers and was searching for GSM towers for some reason. Something to do with the fact that the Hero was originally a GSM phone, which would make sense here. Someone in the thread that was created just a bit ago suggested it had something to do with the PRL update, which is possible, because I did it and that's when I started getting bad battery life and a high percentage of time without signal.
I've been having a hell of a time with my data connection today, which would explain my poor battery.

I've got a very high time w/out signal as well... I'm surprised this hasnt gotten more attention. Its a huge battery drain.

...
I've got 50% time without signal on mine. It seems likely that the searching for GSM towers could be happening on this phone as well because of all the material that crossed over from the international versions. Is there a way to check and/or fix this problem and get the phone to only search for the CDMA towers?
Thanks,
-Rob

I've been trying to set the network mode to cdma auto using the network app i downloaded from the market. I dont think its fixing the issue though...

Strangely enough this is a similar issue I have seen with the Samsung Intercept. Especially having a hard time with keeping the data connection...
-CC

clockcycle said:
Strangely enough this is a similar issue I have seen with the Samsung Intercept. Especially having a hard time with keeping the data connection...
-CC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't have this issue and I live in Puerto Rico. We have 5 carriers on this tiny island and Sprint is the only one with CDMA.

I think I figured it out. I set my network to cdma auto and my time without signal dropped to 3%. Battery drain seems improved in the short term...

Did you set yours up to WCDMA only? If I went WCDMA Preferred, I can see it was trying and failing to connect to GSM.

HeroHTC said:
Did you set yours up to WCDMA only? If I went WCDMA Preferred, I can see it was trying and failing to connect to GSM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I set it to CDMA auto
I dont think WCDMA is available in the US.

...
Can you please elaborate a bit on how to change network preferences?
Thanks,
-Rob

TheRob44 said:
Can you please elaborate a bit on how to change network preferences?
Thanks,
-Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to the android market and search for an app called "Network"
Open up the app, you should see WCDMA Preferred in a drop down box near the bottom of the screen. Select that and change it to CDMA auto.
Exit the app.
Your Time without service should drop really low (mine went to 3%)
I've had the app behave strangely and revert my settings. I'm paranoid so i've been checking it pretty often. I'm not sure if there is a way to make this change permanent. I dont know if it reverts when the phone is rebooted.

The way that the problem was solved on the Hero was by accessing a system menu through a ##CODE## code and telling it to prefer CDMA towers. It was defaulted, for some, to GSM. Because I never had this issue, I don't know a whole lot about it. I know that ##CODE## codes are not available on this phone, though, so we might be out of luck until we can get into some kind of dev menu, I think. The app fix mentioned above sounds janky as hell to me, though, so I'll avoid it for now.
My phone has a hell of a time holding on to a data connection right now, but Juice Defender is really helping that not absolutely kill my battery. Aside from this one concern, my battery is actually lasting a surprisingly long time. I was expecting it to die nearly twice as fast as my Hero, but it is definitely giving it a run for its money. I'm very pleased with the Epic

...
I followed your directions. Got into Network, changed the dropdown box to CDMA Auto (PRL) and then hit the home button. Nothing changed, so I went back into the app to check if it stuck and it was back at WCDMA Preferred. Am I missing a step to make the change stick or something?
Thanks,
-Rob

TheRob44 said:
I followed your directions. Got into Network, changed the dropdown box to CDMA Auto (PRL) and then hit the home button. Nothing changed, so I went back into the app to check if it stuck and it was back at WCDMA Preferred. Am I missing a step to make the change stick or something?
Thanks,
-Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did it multiple times. =)

Mine is not sticking either...ah well..
Hero used to be
#*#*4636*#*#

I'm going to try the suggested fixes but we need a permanent solution. This drain is horrible, check out my battery usage from today in this pic. I really like this phone but I'm going to have to return it if this keeps up.

richse said:
I'm going to try the suggested fixes but we need a permanent solution. This drain is horrible, check out my battery usage from today in this pic. I really like this phone but I'm going to have to return it if this keeps up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, Thats what mine looked like until I fixed it with the Network app.
Yes, I have been playing lots of games/angry birds

I have been trying to use the Network app that people are suggesting but I am getting some weird issues. When I open the Network app it says I am on "WCDMA preferred" but then if I just let it sit for about 15-30 seconds it changes to "Unknown" without my pressing anything. I tried setting it to "CDMA only" and to "WCDMA only" but it doesn't save either setting. If I exit and reopen the program it goes back to "WCDMA preferred" and then changes itself to "Unknown" after a short duration. Anyone else have a problem like this? Any ideas?

Couple of Bugs...

Few issues...
1. This one has never been addressed... Even with my G2, and with vibration set to always, my phone never vibrates for incoming texts, MMS's or emails. How do I make this work? I have yet to use an Android ROM, even stock out of the box with the phone, where this works.
2. From time to time, T-Mobile is replaced with (No Service) on the lock screen, even though I have service. This also happened with my G2.
Both issues seem to be a bug with Android, probably at the kernel level. Anyone know of a fix?

agentfazexx said:
Few issues...
1. This one has never been addressed... Even with my G2, and with vibration set to always, my phone never vibrates for incoming texts, MMS's or emails. How do I make this work? I have yet to use an Android ROM, even stock out of the box with the phone, where this works.
2. From time to time, T-Mobile is replaced with (No Service) on the lock screen, even though I have service. This also happened with my G2.
Both issues seem to be a bug with Android, probably at the kernel level. Anyone know of a fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. easy fix, check this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=981120
2. i had the same problem, check this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=975282

lowrider262 said:
1. easy fix, check this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=981120
2. i had the same problem, check this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=975282
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Point 1's link seems to be for actual signal drops, which I don't really have, and plus I'd rather use 4G not 2G...

Your No Service issue is probably because you have your phone set to WCDMA Only instead of GSM/WCDMA auto. When the 3G signal is not present there is no GSM/Edge signal for your phone to fall back on.

Agoattamer said:
Your No Service issue is probably because you have your phone set to WCDMA Only instead of GSM/WCDMA auto. When the 3G signal is not present there is no GSM/Edge signal for your phone to fall back on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm...makes sense. How do I change that? Went into Wireless Settings, didn't see it.