[Q] Suddenly Poor Battery - Droid 2 General

My dad's Droid 2's battery life just took a nose dive about a week ago. He is running the rooted stock 2.2 rom, few widgets on the home screen, no task killing, and he hasn't gotten any apps in the last month (I don't think he knows how). Did his battery just die (unusable, not no capactity) or is there anything I can try?

What I would do, is tell him to get the battery to where the phone wont turn on anymore, its COMPLETELY DEAD. Plug it into the wall until its 100 percent, then drain it down to about 10 percent, then plug it into the wall again. After another complete charge, it should be good again. Its called reconditioning the battery. I do it about once a month.

boogerburns said:
What I would do, is tell him to get the battery to where the phone wont turn on anymore, its COMPLETELY DEAD. Plug it into the wall until its 100 percent, then drain it down to about 10 percent, then plug it into the wall again. After another complete charge, it should be good again. Its called reconditioning the battery. I do it about once a month.
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Click to collapse
I've heard a lot that Lithium-Ion batteries shouldn't be conditioned too often, because they only have so many charge cycles. I'm not expert though. (Don't let this keep you from trying what boogerburns suggested. I could work for you. I'm just stating that Lith-Ion batteries don't like to be drained a lot)
Anyways, the battery could have gotten a bad cell. You can check the battery condition by opening the dialer, and hitting *#*#4636#*#*
This will bring up a menu, and you can choose battery info (or something along those lines) If battery condition is anything but "good" then he'll probably need a bad battery.

boogerburns said:
What I would do, is tell him to get the battery to where the phone wont turn on anymore, its COMPLETELY DEAD. Plug it into the wall until its 100 percent, then drain it down to about 10 percent, then plug it into the wall again. After another complete charge, it should be good again. Its called reconditioning the battery. I do it about once a month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, now it's at a point where the battery is dead in only a few hours, so he's "conditioning" his battery once every few hours.
orkillakilla said:
I've heard a lot that Lithium-Ion batteries shouldn't be conditioned too often, because they only have so many charge cycles. I'm not expert though. (Don't let this keep you from trying what boogerburns suggested. I could work for you. I'm just stating that Lith-Ion batteries don't like to be drained a lot)
Anyways, the battery could have gotten a bad cell. You can check the battery condition by opening the dialer, and hitting *#*#4636#*#*
This will bring up a menu, and you can choose battery info (or something along those lines) If battery condition is anything but "good" then he'll probably need a bad battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did check on the battery condition somewhere, and it was "good". However, I was wondering if there's a way to check uptime/awake time on the D2. My Inc had bad battery once, and I knew it was a lemon since the uptime was far more than awake time. I'm afraid that a rogue update is sucking my dad's battery.
How can I check my uptime and awake time?

pianoplayer said:
Well, now it's at a point where the battery is dead in only a few hours, so he's "conditioning" his battery once every few hours.
I did check on the battery condition somewhere, and it was "good". However, I was wondering if there's a way to check uptime/awake time on the D2. My Inc had bad battery once, and I knew it was a lemon since the uptime was far more than awake time. I'm afraid that a rogue update is sucking my dad's battery.
How can I check my uptime and awake time?
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Click to collapse
Use the code I posted earlier, and this time select battery history. Select "partial wake" and see if anything is keeping your phone awake. Also look at network usage and see if anything is using that too much.
Alternately, you can download an app called Spareparts from the market (free) and you can get this information more quickly.

Related

Battery tracker

Whats the best program to see what had been eating up your battery?
The Android operating system.
Settings >> About Phone >> Battery >> Battery Use
Everything is normal in there yet in an hour by battery went from 100% to 84% on regaw 1.3.1
DirtyShroomz said:
Everything is normal in there yet in an hour by battery went from 100% to 84% on regaw 1.3.1
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My batter seems to go from 100% to 85% every day in a very quick manner. However, after that, it slows down. Maybe it is just the behavior of this battery (or the software that measures it).
Regardless, even with that, I get 12-14 hours (with moderate usage) before I get the 15% warning.
revlayle said:
My batter seems to go from 100% to 85% every day in a very quick manner. However, after that, it slows down. Maybe it is just the behavior of this battery (or the software that measures it).
Regardless, even with that, I get 12-14 hours (with moderate usage) before I get the 15% warning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is EXACTLY how my batt performs
revlayle said:
My batter seems to go from 100% to 85% every day in a very quick manner. However, after that, it slows down. Maybe it is just the behavior of this battery (or the software that measures it).
Regardless, even with that, I get 12-14 hours (with moderate usage) before I get the 15% warning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that as well, ill keep a close eye on it again today, i do have very heavy use
spare parts is helpful as well
If you're running a 2.1 ROM:
Don't forget to change the Network Mode to "CDMA Auto (PRL)". Do this by dialing "*#*#4636#*#*", and then pressing Phone Information. Even if it is already set to CDMA Auto (PRL), press it anyway.
Try using a 2.1 with a tweaked memkiller. It'll help to kill off apps that are still running and using battery. I usually get about 2 days of battery out of my phone while using TrevE's MOD.
I think the battery discharge curve that dictates battery level is off in the 85-100% range on these phones.
why dont people buy a 2000mah battery?
ebartolon said:
why dont people buy a 2000mah battery?
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chicks dig it
if you charge over night first thing in the morning do something to get it down to 99% then plug in charger again, i find my phone will charge for a good 15-20 minutes and the battery drops much slower
DirtyShroomz said:
Everything is normal in there yet in an hour by battery went from 100% to 84% on regaw 1.3.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had the same issue. download spare parts (as was mentioned earlier) and check 'partial wake usage'. sprint's voicemail was keeping my phone awake for some reason. i ditched it and have great battery life now. google voice all the way...
What is this TrevE Mod?

Battery Charging Tips (Golden 100%)

Just want to share my experience of 'best' charging method that can maximize the battery life of my Nexus one.
Firstly, let me introduce my equip:
- Machine: Nexus one
- Rom: FRF91 Stock, Deodexed, rooted, busybox... (Geo411m)
- Kernel: intersectRaven's 2.6.35_AVS-925mV_CFS_20100802_1056.zip
- Control: SetCPU, Interactive: 245-960Mhz when on, and 245-245 when screen off
The key method of obtaining max. battery life is the 'GOLDEN' time from 100% drop down to 99%. Once the battery shows dropping from 100 to 99%, the dropping speed is quite stably fast onwards
So, how to retain 100% longer before dropping to 99%? Below are the steps that really work for me:
1) Charge the phone to green light, some where between 90% and 100% (say: 95%)
2) Disconnect USB charging cable
3) Turn off the phone
4) Connect USB charging cable and charge the phone, it should show orange light
5) Set a timer, remember to *ONLY charge the phone for around 20-25mins*
6) The concept is NOT to charge the phone until you get green light. In order words, you need to charge the phone from 95% for 20-25mins where the light is kept ORANGE with the phone turned off!!!
7) After 20-25mins, disconnect USB cable and power on your nexus phone
8) You are done and the battery should last longer before dropping to 99%
9) Time in step (5) depends, you need to trial-&-error
For my experience, I normally charge the phone before I sleep and disconnect the charger. In the morning when I get up, it usually shows around 95% of battery. Then, I power off the phone and charge it. And then I take breakfast, bla bla bla ~ and after around 20mins, disconnect the charger and go to work. The battery can retain 100% for around 30mins of continuous web browsing, facebooking... and when I reach my office, sometimes, the battery still shows 100% !!!
So, above is my experience of how to maximize the 100% retaining time.
Please feel free to try and share with us whether it really works for you
Great advice.
Personally, I can't really be bothered with going out of my way to be overly concerned about battery life. I don't play games on my phone -- that will change when Angry Birds is released for Android -- nor do I watch movies, and I don't really do too much web browsing. Sometimes I listen to music, but not often.
I can go 12-14 hours of normal use (mostly Twitter and text messaging) and that will put me around 45-50%. I'm never somewhere that I can't charge the phone if I need to; USB at work, regular charge at home, and a charger in the car.
All of these tips and tricks for extending battery life are neat, but why bother?
^ Well looking at your usage, and the plenty charging points, of course you dont care. However, some ppl browse a lot, play games, so every last inch of battery life means something.
I just keep spare batteries in my pockets =D
I will try your golden tips.. then I will write my thoughts.
I thank you for sharing.
Screwing up the battery meter does not get you more battery life, period, and I suspect your shenanigans here is doing that. The battery has a set capacity, it's not going to charge more than that.
The Nexus One and a lot of other modern phones with modern batteries DO NOT trickle charge, they charge to 100% and STOP charging. When the phone drops to a certain limit, it charges more. Repeat as long as it's on the charger. This is why you might see it "drop a few percent" when you pull the charger.
Yea this sounds like a huge placebo effect.
Well I just did this, been off charger for over an hour.. still 100% after over an hour and two reboots.
At 1378mAh right now, didn't get a reading straight after first reboot unfortunately.
I'm also trialing autorun killer. Disabled a free services I don't use.. seemingly increased startup time.
heya,
Don't you mean decreased startup time?
Cheers,
Victor
Yeah, that's what I mean.
victorhooi said:
heya,
Don't you mean decreased startup time?
Cheers,
Victor
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Click to collapse
Goonish said:
Well I just did this, been off charger for over an hour.. still 100% after over an hour and two reboots.
At 1378mAh right now, didn't get a reading straight after first reboot unfortunately.
I'm also trialing autorun killer. Disabled a free services I don't use.. seemingly increased startup time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you figure out your mAh level? Spare parts only shows me mV.
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
This is placebo. In the OP you even say after it finally drops to 99% it drops fast after that. It's because the phone wasn't at 100% all that time. It was giving you a false reading from messing with the charging pattern.
The best way I've found to charge the phone is to delete the battery stats, turn the phone off, and charge it until it's green. I get a great day of battery life with the phone that way.
Ryjabo said:
Great advice.
Personally, I can't really be bothered with going out of my way to be overly concerned about battery life. I don't play games on my phone -- that will change when Angry Birds is released for Android -- nor do I watch movies, and I don't really do too much web browsing. Sometimes I listen to music, but not often. I can go 12-14 hours of normal use (mostly Twitter and text messaging) and that will put me around 45-50%. I'm never somewhere that I can't charge the phone if I need to; USB at work, regular charge at home, and a charger in the car. All of these tips and tricks for extending battery life are neat, but why bother?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree...I just charge when & where necessary and never worry about it! Don't have the time and it seems to last long enough for me to work & play
I had already discovered this and was looking for a fool proof way but I guess you beat me to it. Happens when you traveling alot. For me, I have gotten over 1500mAh more than once..some times 100% would last me half a day too. So it's worth it, my question is whether or not this is bad for your battery? or long term battery life.
ram130 said:
I had already discovered this and was looking for a fool proof way but I guess you beat me to it. Happens when you traveling alot. For me, I have gotten over 1500mAh more than once..some times 100% would last me half a day too. So it's worth it, my question is whether or not this is bad for your battery? or long term battery life.
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Click to collapse
I'm fairly sure that the Milliampere-hour (mAh) is the capacity of the battery (the amount of energy it will store). How can you get "over 1500mAh" on a 1400 mAh battery? None of you are making any sense what so ever. You can't get more energy out of a battery by charging it a specific way. If I gave you a bucket that held 10lbs of sand and you filled it with 8lbs of sand and waited a few minutes then started filling the rest slowly, it wont hold more sand. This is nothing more than a placebo effect. The only way to get more time from a battery is to reduce the amount of consumption. The only way to do that is to use your phone less or make your hardware use the battery less such as undervolting your CPU. I tried for the longest time to explain to people that underclocking your CPU does absolutely nothing. If you're still running at the same voltage you're still consuming the same amount of power.
Stop messing around with the battery and the battery stats.
Could someone please use the phone until it goes off in the evening? What percentage is shown on the batteryicon when it goes off? 20% or what?
xPatriicK said:
Stop messing around with the battery and the battery stats.
Could someone please use the phone until it goes off in the evening? What percentage is shown on the batteryicon when it goes off? 20% or what?
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Click to collapse
Actually it's not a good idea to fully discharge the phone often.
Source: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/
dumbestcrayon said:
Actually it's not a good idea to fully discharge the phone often.
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Click to collapse
I know but once isnt often.
Btw we have some great battery threads here.. somewhere.. general or accessories forums..
xPatriicK said:
I know but once isnt often.
Btw we have some great battery threads here.. somewhere.. general or accessories forums..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=669497
I have been using ultimate juice defender and battery life has doubled with usual usage. Maybe this can be considered as an alternative to longer battery life
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

Wipe battery stats made it worse

I followed directions on what I thought to be a battery fix, but it ended up making my battery life twice as bad. Actually it takes longer to charge now than it does to drain.
Anyone else have this happen?
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
I did the same thing, but I've only charged once and I didn't time it. I haven't been timing any of my charges or discharges, but maybe give it some more time, that's kind of how stats work isn't it....usage over time? Good luck.
Today I started at 100% (not a powered off full charge though). After 2 hours of moderate use I was down to 50%. I have been charging for an hour via car charger and currently at 67%.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Not to be a dink, but then it would appear that you didn't follow the instructions. As a result, YMMV I guess.
1. You will need to charge the phone to 100% (while the phone is off).
2. Leave charging cable plugged in.
3. Boot into recovery and wipe the battery stats (should be under Advanced).
4. Then boot into Android.
5. Then remove the charging cable.
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Click to collapse
Give it another shot, and I would suggest that maybe it not be thought of as a "fix". Try using the wall charger as well. I only use the wall charger as I have a converter in my vehicles. Let us know how it goes!
Wynnded said:
Not to be a dink, but then it would appear that you didn't follow the instructions. As a result, YMMV I guess.
Give it another shot, and I would suggest that maybe it not be thought of as a "fix". Try using the wall charger as well. I only use the wall charger as I have a converter in my vehicles. Let us know how it goes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those are actually the directions that I followed yesterday afternoon. I didn't notice the battery life being any different after doing that initially. At the end of the day I charged my phone via wall charger for roughly 8 hours while I slept.
I was unplugged for less than two hours and watched it drop down 50%. Wifi was off, Gps also off. I was doing some web browsing and also using the xda app. I played a game for a couple of minutes.. That was it. I really should've checked the battery usage but I didn't think of it in time.
I only charged it in the car today out of necessity because of the super quick discharge. When I'm at home I only charge with the wall charger.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
I'd venture a guess that you have something else running the background. I honestly wish that I had something more for you, but I'm going to have to fold.
Wynnded said:
I'd venture a guess that you have something else running the background. I honestly wish that I had something more for you, but I'm going to have to fold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard others say they found facebook or twitter running in the background and that when they killed that it made a big difference in battery life. Perhaps that?
WiFi set to never turn off
I noticed this morning that WiFi had been set to never sleep, I just changed that t 15 min.
Had a full 100% charge last night did not leave on the charger, minimal use this morning down to 78%.
Let's see how the new WiFi settings works.
oldman_58 said:
I noticed this morning that WiFi had been set to never sleep, I just changed that t 15 min.
Had a full 100% charge last night did not leave on the charger, minimal use this morning down to 78%.
Let's see how the new WiFi settings works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that doesn't do anything unless you leave wifi on all the time, and if you do then that would be one solution to this problem.
htc_woe_is_me said:
Those are actually the directions that I followed yesterday afternoon. I didn't notice the battery life being any different after doing that initially. At the end of the day I charged my phone via wall charger for roughly 8 hours while I slept.
I was unplugged for less than two hours and watched it drop down 50%. Wifi was off, Gps also off. I was doing some web browsing and also using the xda app. I played a game for a couple of minutes.. That was it. I really should've checked the battery usage but I didn't think of it in time.
I only charged it in the car today out of necessity because of the super quick discharge. When I'm at home I only charge with the wall charger.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I experienced the exact same issue after doing the battery thing yesterday. Tried several different kernals since then - no change: I could just about watch the battery go down. This morning I wiped and loaded SR Sense 2.5.2 and the updated stock kernal from ROM manager. We'll see how it goes...
rfarrah said:
I experienced the exact same issue after doing the battery thing yesterday. Tried several different kernals since then - no change: I could just about watch the battery go down. This morning I wiped and loaded SR Sense 2.5.2 and the updated stock kernal from ROM manager. We'll see how it goes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this and just installed 2.5.2. I then installed the Hydra kernel and wiped battery stats when I was at 100% and the unit was off/green light. The battery has gone to crap too. Any ideas?
thats weird, i did wipe battery stats (correctly) at 11 last night. i woke up at 9:30 (lol) with 93% battery left. the phone was sleeping the whole time, but i had sync turned on and had recieved several facebook updates, txts, and emails. now im losing around 10%battery every two hours or so, and i am using the phone to send txts and emails every three to five minutes. so battery life is actually much better. after the cable is unplugged, is it necessary to let the battery die fully, then charge, or can i charge it now? (its at around 30%)
so basically, i was wondering if it is necessary to run your battery fully down after doing a wipe battery stats
I don't know what to tell you guys. Since wiping stats, my phone has been up for 36 consecutive hours with an awake time of 2:40 and the battery is at 30%.
For reference I guess....
SLOflatlander said:
so basically, i was wondering if it is necessary to run your battery fully down after doing a wipe battery stats
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Click to collapse
Great question. Anyone have any knowledge on this? I didn't let mine discharge all the way.
I do have some kind of update. I had to do a factory wipe today and since I did that my battery life has been much better.
Sent from my rooted Incredible using XDA App
Has anyone else done this that can report there results?
I was about to do this but now I am skeered.
It's completely impossible for wiping your battery stats to make your battery life worse. It's a common misconception that by wiping your battery stats you somehow condition your battery. It's actually quite the opposite, because you're actually conditioning Android by wiping your stats. No matter what your battery percentage or meter says, your battery is still capable of holding a certain amount of electrical charge and your phone will not die until it's fully discharged. On the other hand it *might* make your percentage or battery meter read wrong if you either:
a. wiped your battery stats without a full bump charge (e.g. wiping your stats at 60% charge *might* make your phone think 60%=100% and as a result, you'd see huge decreases. but, you would most likely sit there with a phone showing a 1% charge for hours after it got there.)
b: didn't allow your phone to discharge fully after wiping your stats (same problem as example a, but the inverse of it)
All wiping your battery stats does is delete the file "batterystats.bin" from your /data/system folder. This file is recreated when you boot your phone after wiping them. It keeps the data on what's using your battery for when you click "battery use" in the settings menu. It's also thought to hold the stats that tell you phone what a full charge and no charge feels like and that if you fully bump charge your phone, wipe that battery stats, and then full discharge your phone (without interrupting it by switching ROMs or doing updates) that you will have a more accurate battery meter. It won't eliminate the need to bump charge your phone or make your battery life better. It will just be perceived as better since you won't get 20% drops in your reading in 30 minutes due to a badly calibrated batterystats.bin file. Also, you'll feel better because instead of looking at a 50% reading, you'll be looking at 60%.
Your battery still has the same capacity, charges to the same level, and discharges in the same amount of time. The only thing that can change those things are usage levels.
so should i redo my wipe battery stats then? when i originally did it, i ran it down to around 40%, then rebooted, then i plugged it in around 15%. would this mess it up then?
vantagejuan said:
It's completely impossible for wiping your battery stats to make your battery life worse. It's a common misconception that by wiping your battery stats you somehow condition your battery. It's actually quite the opposite, because you're actually conditioning Android by wiping your stats. No matter what your battery percentage or meter says, your battery is still capable of holding a certain amount of electrical charge and your phone will not die until it's fully discharged. On the other hand it *might* make your percentage or battery meter read wrong if you either:
a. wiped your battery stats without a full bump charge (e.g. wiping your stats at 60% charge *might* make your phone think 60%=100% and as a result, you'd see huge decreases. but, you would most likely sit there with a phone showing a 1% charge for hours after it got there.)
b: didn't allow your phone to discharge fully after wiping your stats (same problem as example a, but the inverse of it)
All wiping your battery stats does is delete the file "batterystats.bin" from your /data/system folder. This file is recreated when you boot your phone after wiping them. It keeps the data on what's using your battery for when you click "battery use" in the settings menu. It's also thought to hold the stats that tell you phone what a full charge and no charge feels like and that if you fully bump charge your phone, wipe that battery stats, and then full discharge your phone (without interrupting it by switching ROMs or doing updates) that you will have a more accurate battery meter. It won't eliminate the need to bump charge your phone or make your battery life better. It will just be perceived as better since you won't get 20% drops in your reading in 30 minutes due to a badly calibrated batterystats.bin file. Also, you'll feel better because instead of looking at a 50% reading, you'll be looking at 60%.
Your battery still has the same capacity, charges to the same level, and discharges in the same amount of time. The only thing that can change those things are usage levels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know how we can see what's inside the actual batterystats.bin file? I tried in root explorer and cannot open in no matter how I try.
i dont care what vantagejuan says, when i tried this process...and did it correctly, my battery was down to 85% within an hour..i know this because i unplugged it when i woke up for work, and i when i clocked in, it was at 85%
it was never this bad, i tried locating the file again from an old backup, but it didnt help...im hoping that like someone else said, a couple cycles through it will get better
im using the skyraider 2.5.2 vanilla with the hydra oc/uv kernal
i had this setup before AND after trying the battery fix and im using the seidio 1750...
frustrations are back from when i first got the phone

[Q] Does battery get better after a day? If not, what can I do?

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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.

WTF my battery is insane... any ideas?

Ok so I can't figure this out. My battery is kind of "retarded" for lack of a better word.
I can charge it up to 100%, reset battery stats (even if I don't the same will happen)... then let it drain. It will drain insanely fast... I mean from 100 to dead in maybe an hour sometimes...
Then I go ahead and plug it into the charger... for just 15 seconds... when I take it off the charger and turn it back on it'll have another 50% battery life, sometimes more sometimes less....
It's almost as if the battery isn't reading correctly and then the phone can't detect how much battery is left so won't let me turn it on unless I plug it in really quick...
Tried another battery and that one does the same thing.... What in gods name could be going on...
and yes.. I searched... before I hear the hit the search 2000x times.
Here is the instructions from the ExROM thread, they worked perfect for me:
Code:
--> For battery life: I think that you have to calibrate your battery.
- Run the device down until it turns itself off.
- Turn it back on and wait for it to turn itself off again.
- Remove the battery for 10 seconds.
- Replace the battery, but leave the device off.
- Charge the device until full and then for another hour.
- Enter recovery and go to advanced -> wipe battery status. Apply it.
- Run the device’s battery down until it turns itself off.
- Turn the device on and charge for at least 8 hours.
- Unplug the device, turn off, then charge for another hour.
- Unplug the device, turn on, wait 2 minutes.
- Turn off again and charge for another hour.
- Restart and use as normal.
I shall try those but who knows...
I've literally been turning the phone on, it dies the minute it hits the lock screen. Plug it in now for just 3 seconds until it says VIBRANT, it will load up shut down.. have down this about 30 times...
I'm lost on how the phone has enough juice to boot and shi*.... it's driving me nuts doing this over and over and over.. oh wait just turned on again and it's at 5%. This is stupid....
lol i will post back after I try these instructions I guess....
You MUST calibrate your battery every time you see a weird behaviour or install a new kernel. You wrote that you tried another battery, so we can exclude a premature death of the battery.
are you able to get into RECOVERY mode and stay there without it rebooting? Or even Download mode?
yo i dont understand.. didnt a google employee go out and make a public statement that batterystats.bin has NOTHING to do with battery calibration, its only used to keep the data from the settings>battery use graph throughout reboots? In the same statement, i think i remember she told aandroid users NOT to let their batteries die and charge em full cause that will damage the batt.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
I made a nice detailed post about this a while back, it took a google employee for people here to believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect
(Keep in mind, this applies to NiCad... but the effects are the same)
Bad news bro, your battery is bad. If you full discharge/recharge all the time, it will just hasten its death. Deep cycle charging when the battery is that far gone doesn't really have the same effect.
Try coaxing it back to life by recharging it to 100% then hitting the charger again at 75% a few times. This will increase the capacitance of the battery if there is hope of life. If it doesn't improve, its life is almost over.
younix258 said:
yo i dont understand.. didnt a google employee go out and make a public statement that batterystats.bin has NOTHING to do with battery calibration, its only used to keep the data from the settings>battery use graph throughout reboots? In the same statement, i think i remember she told aandroid users NOT to let their batteries die and charge em full cause that will damage the batt.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
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Correct. According to her Calibrating does pretty much nothing except make you THINK your battery is better/worse/same.
Haxel said:
I made a nice detailed post about this a while back, it took a google employee for people here to believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect
(Keep in mind, this applies to NiCad... but the effects are the same)
Bad news bro, your battery is bad. If you full discharge/recharge all the time, it will just hasten its death. Deep cycle charging when the battery is that far gone doesn't really have the same effect.
Try coaxing it back to life by recharging it to 100% then hitting the charger again at 75% a few times. This will increase the capacitance of the battery if there is hope of life. If it doesn't improve, its life is almost over.
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thanks for the interesting read, i love reading things that the mind thinks as something for a weird reason.. Placebo effect etc.
Putting your battery down to an absolute 0% will do nothing but hurt your battery. This would have worked if we were still in the 80s and 90s, but these are Li-on batteries, they work differently and it actually hurts them.
Ok so I have RESTORED the battery...
Here is what was going on after further looking. I downloaded a battery stat/drain program to see what exactly was going on...
Under a load the battery mV will change drastically, then once it settles down the mV will actually rise making the % rise...
So I completely killed the battery, I mean dead.. Restarted the phone, plug it in for just a second.. I took it to the point that I killed the SOB battery.
I then charged it up, and while charging I would use the battery drain program. the mV would change drastically and I did this every 10%.
So far so good, the phone has been on for 4 hours now and i've only drained 8%... I will see how it continues.
I've also been resetting my battery stats not because I believe it relates the phone to the actual battery % but the % would fluctuate on the phone, and I thought the phone was saying "batterys dead don't turn on" kind of thing...
Ok. Again.
Here is a more in-detail article with a quick google.
http://www.atomicmods.com/Categories/QandA-Batteries.aspx
How long will these batteries last?
Lithium-based batteries have a lifetime of 2-3 years. The clock starts ticking as soon as the battery comes off the manufacturing line. The capacity loss manifests itself in increased internal resistance caused by oxidation. Eventually, the cell resistance will reach a point where the pack can no longer deliver the stored energy; although the battery may still contain ample charge. Increasing internal resistance is common to cobalt-based lithium-ion. The speed by which lithium-ion ages is governed by storage temperature and state-of-charge. Figure 1 illustrates the capacity loss as a function of these two parameters.
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Although, there has been arguments for years about Li-ion "memory". Li-ions are not afflicted with the "memory" issues of other chemical types. What they are afflicted with is the inability to hold a consistent current under stress/load with age/oxidation (aging effect of the Li-ion batteries). This is where your battery sits. On the precipice of death. You may get another year or two out of it (if you're lucky.. really more like a few months) with a few correct charging cycles, but that is it.
Bringing a Li-ion to near 0 and back does not help the battery, it is 100% a placebo effect with short term gains at best. A common cause of your particular problem...
Lithium-ion batteries are often exposed to unfavorable temperatures, and these include leaving a cell phone in the hot sun or operating a laptop on the power grid. Elevated temperature and allowing the battery to sit at the maximum charge voltage for expended periods of time explains the shorter than expected battery life. Elevated temperature and excessive overcharge also stresses lead and nickel-based batteries. All batteries must have the ability to relax after charged, even when kept on float or trickle charge.
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http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_store_batteries
I'm giving random googling as I know it's difficult to believe a random person on the internet. No two type of manufactured batteries are created/engineered the same, but I'm basing my statements of chemical composition and the basic fundamentals of the Li-ion battery tech.
younix258 said:
yo i dont understand.. didnt a google employee go out and make a public statement that batterystats.bin has NOTHING to do with battery calibration, its only used to keep the data from the settings>battery use graph throughout reboots? In the same statement, i think i remember she told aandroid users NOT to let their batteries die and charge em full cause that will damage the batt.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
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Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
Most of these battery calibration techniques sound like a practical joke.
the only way you'll truly get a perfect idea of what your battery life is going to be is to drop the phone in the toilet.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using XDA

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