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When I first got my TP2 the battery life was great. Then I started adding tons of applications and tweaks and then suddenly one day the battery started to go crazy, it would drain in under 4 hours, with absolutely nothing running.
I started trying to track down the culprit. One thing I noticed right away is that my data connection would come on randomly. I'd shut it down, then a little while later is was on again. I turned off all the automatic updates I could think if (email, weather, stock, Windows update). With data, BT, wifi all turned off, screen off, nothing running, the battery would get hot and every minute would lose a few more percent. The phone was at this point basically useless. Because task manager showed nothing running I figured the battery had gone bad, or horrors, some fault maybe in the TP2. I took it to TMobile and got a replacement.
On my new phone, battery life seemed OK again. So, I did my Resco restore but it didn't work because I had password protection on the phone when I did the backup (not the TMobile password, but the one before that you get during boot up), so on restore it wouldn't let me into the phone saying the password was invalid (apparently something I should have known. grrr, bad Resco!).
So, I manually reinstalled everything again, not thinking to do it one piece at a time because I thought my battery troubles were over. I was wrong. Once it was all loaded up again, the exact same battery sucking began, and the data connection coming on again.
One thing I had noticed is that if I turned off TF3D I could see the icon for ESET virus protection running (it doesn't show in task manager). I knew I'd installed it, but because the TouchFlo screen hid the icon I'd forgotten about it. So, I went to that and clicked 'update' wondering if it was automatically checking for updates and so accessing the internet. But 'update' just gave an error message. So I figured the anti-virus wasn't going to be much use to me until updates were working, so uninstalled the application. BAM! (c) Emeril, battery problems ended!
I did a little googling and saw a couple of other references to ESET and battery drain on other phones, so I think that's been the problem. I don't know if the problem was the software itself draining the battery in its normal state, or if it was maybe constantly trying to make an internet connection to check for updates (but because that feature wasn't working it just kept trying).
I'd like to point out that I am in no way maligning ESET, it's totally my fault: 1) they do not yet claim compatibility for the TP2 ( http://www.eset.com/products/mobileantivirus.php ), and 2) I picked up the .cab from a link from one of the phone forums (not sure where or how any more, I have loaded up so much stuff), not from the ESET web site, so I could well have an older or bad version. I thought the software was freeware, but looking on the site I see it's just a free 30 day trial, so it's quite possible I had a cracked version. Their official version may well work with no problems.
But I did want to post this warning in case anyone else runs into battery drain issues.
Hi Iam an official reseller for the Eset antivirus. Just installed a version on my phone, will report back if drains my battery. How quick did it drain. If any probs i will report back to eset, to get sorted. Could just be the patched version. Funny enough the very firts pc version i got was a pirated version. Liked it so much much i thought sod it and paid for it.
Let me know if you wish to purchase it I can do a bit of a forum discount for you. same goes for pc version.
Hi, thanks for helping to try to get this resolved. The software ran very fast and I think could become a valuable addition once the WM6 viruses become more prominent.
The drain was *rapid* I'd say from 100 to 0 in about 3 hours, so if you do have the same problem, you should know right away. Also, the battery got warm to extremely warm, I might even say hot to the point that it was getting uncomfortable to hold. That certainly leads me to believe there were possibly two problems. One being that the software was for some reason maybe running aggressively in the background. The other that it appears to have been trying to connect to the internet every so often. I'm not sure exactly how often, it seemed somewhat random, but I'd say at least every 15 minutes (I would keep turning off the data connection whenever I saw it running). So I don't know if these are one and the same problem (that the software was trying to update and that was the code that was going out of control). Now that I have the phone working well again, I can have the data on constantly without anywhere near the drain I was experiencing, so the data alone was probably only a minor part of the issue.
When I tried to 'update' I got an error (I can't remember what it said). Is this still the case with the current version? If not then I can assume I have an old version and maybe the battery issue is gone now.
If you like I'd be willing to dl the 30 day trial and see what the latest version does.
Several hours later no battery drain. The software should only update itself 1 a week by default and at most every 3 days if set. Download the trial give a whirl. PM me if you want to buy and I can get a cuople of quid off, same goes for pc based one. This is extended to anyone else aslo.
Don't use any antivirus program on your phone. I've tried several antivirus trials on several htc phones (s620, s710, touch pro) and they all showed extreme battery drain. Since then I've stood clear of any antivirus program on my phone.
Well nearly 24hrs later and no significant bettery drain. I even ran a couple of scans. There is no reason why an antivirus should drain a battery, otherwise no one would have them on laprops either. It was probably down to the pirated version you had.
Let me know if you have any probs.
I never used a pirated one, I only used trials (that's why I tried so many ).
Maybe it's a different story these days, might have to try one again some time...
Hey guys,
at the moment I have a massive problem with my HTC HD2. Several month ago I flashed it with 6.5.3 and installed some little things, mostly for the design. Everything worked fine for 3 month, but now since this week, my HD2 is loosing battery extremly fast. If I charge it full, it is completly off after 20 hours WITHOUT using it. So I know the HD2 needs lots of battery, but if you don't use it very often, I could use it at least for several days and now, thats not possible anymore. I don't know why, I haven't changed anything. Also I think it got slower, so I checked for running applications with the task manager, but there is nothing????
So I'm kind of helpless right now, also I'm scared that I lost my gurantee with the update on 6.5.3.....
Do you guys have any ideas?
I'd try the easiest first and work your way down to the more complex things:
1) Re-calibrate the battery (sounds like you might have done this by completey running it down and then fully charging it.)
2) Remove the microsd card and see if you still get extreme battery drain to see if the problem is being caused by that.
3) Check that the wifi is idling when in standby and not staying connected.
4) Hard reset the phone.
Let me know if any of these shows a result.
I will do that, btw. I forgot one more problem. I have it often that I can't unlook the phone. so when its looked, the screen is black, normaly one push of any button is getting me back to the keylook screen where I can slide the button, but since I have the battery problem, I also have the problem that the screen stays black and only the hard buttons at the bottom are lighted, but the screen stays black. When I wait for some more time, than I can use it again, but for like 20 seconds its not usable.......it seems that something is using all the processor power.....DAMN this problem really freaks me out.
I know you said you checked for running apps with task manager, but if you meant the one that comes on the phone then I'd strongly recommend getting dotfred task manager (google finds it no problem). It's a much better task manager and gives you control over processes, rather than just listing them.
Edit:
Since it's so easy to google for it, I did it for you I'd only got as far as "dotfr" and google suggested it!
http://www.dotfred.net/TaskMgr.htm
Ok I have installed it, if I check the cpu usage the process filesys.exe is using around 95%??? If I kill the process the phone freezes....also how can I identify process which are not working probably?
Ok, its definitiv the filesys.exe process which is killing my phone......everytime the phone is extremly slow, the filesys.exe process is using 95-100% of the cpu. I don't know why and when this process is running, sometimes it does, sometimes not.....how can I stop this process from killing my phone?
I already have removed the microsd card and the wifi is also not odeling.
I installed Spare Parts and saw that my phone was never sleeping, even though it was on standby all the time.
This was caused by the location by antenna feature.
Ever since i unchecked that feature i've had around 50-60 hours of uptime, with a few calls and a lot of texts.
hope this helps alot others
With the new firmware the problem of battery dissapears completely
There is a known issue with network location detection in android 1.6. I had the same issue with my galaxy and it was solved. Now that we have root, we can hopefully do the same.
Also, br aware that I have found spare parts to actually stop the phone from sleeping, as well as tapatalk. I suggest rebooting after using either program.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
adrianoftyriel said:
There is a known issue with network location detection in android 1.6. I had the same issue with my galaxy and it was solved. Now that we have root, we can hopefully do the same.
Also, br aware that I have found spare parts to actually stop the phone from sleeping, as well as tapatalk. I suggest rebooting after using either program.
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that issue is fixed in the latest update so it's already fixed without needing root.
Which firmware? I know I'm still experiencing it.
RBA020 solved the battery issues for me.
Where in spare parts does it show you if your phone has been sleeping?
you don't need spare parts. Just dial *#*#4636#*#* and click battery history and then the running bar.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Inebriatef said:
This was caused by the location by antenna feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope this means that under Location, you had Wireless Networks and Assisted GPS enabled.
One question tho... how did you isolate this feature as the one that was keeping the system awake?
I just found that my phone has been running most of the time, I see Running at 100% under Battery History. Then I select Partial Wake usage and see Android System has the largest share. But what part of Android System? how does one get to know?
I know from having a Samsung galaxy and being part of the androidforums community that was going nuts until Simone found a bug report with Google saying that network location was stopping devices from sleeping. We had root so a Dev applied a patch to services.odex and voila! Phones were napping again.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
adrianoftyriel said:
I know from having a Samsung galaxy and being part of the androidforums community that was going nuts until Simone found a bug report with Google saying that network location was stopping devices from sleeping. We had root so a Dev applied a patch to services.odex and voila! Phones were napping again.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... time to give this a try... so is it just Wireless Network or also AGPS that causes this problem?
I hope I can still leave GPS turned on?
EDIT:
adrianoftyriel said:
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't know that there was an XDA App till I saw your sig. Looks like its worth a try since its free!!
Update after turning location off completely
Well first run with all location methods disabled (I can still enable GPS quickly via a widget when I need to use it)... the battery performance is up phenomenally!!
I charged fully before going to bed last night, then kept the phone unplugged... woke up and found the battery was at 97%. This has never happened to me.
Ok, one thing tho, I use Juice Defender with night time schedule, so my wifi and 3G were off during most of the night. Anyways, its been around 3 hours since I woke up, and I've been using the phone on and off to do some browsing.
The battery is now at 93%.
I do not use any other aid other than Juice Defender... no task killers, no startup editors. Will update on how the rest of the day progresses.
EDIT: my thanks to Inebriatef and adrianoftyriel for pointing this out.
j4mm3r said:
I hope this means that under Location, you had Wireless Networks and Assisted GPS enabled.
One question tho... how did you isolate this feature as the one that was keeping the system awake?
I just found that my phone has been running most of the time, I see Running at 100% under Battery History. Then I select Partial Wake usage and see Android System has the largest share. But what part of Android System? how does one get to know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too would like to hear a bit more. Could the OP please elaborate?
I'm running the latest FW and although my battery life increased exponentially, I find that it's not going to sleep anymore! I had close to 50 hours battery life and now I repeat everything to get just under 20 hours.
I don't use task killers and crap anymore, just before I put my phone away. If I don't, I have a trillion programs running with like 40mb of RAM free. Although I understand this is Linux based, these programs are RUNNING and not idle. All my **** is draining the battery again after a clean reinstall of everything. What a bummer.
bongd said:
I too would like to hear a bit more. Could the OP please elaborate?
I'm running the latest FW and although my battery life increased exponentially, I find that it's not going to sleep anymore! I had close to 50 hours battery life and now I repeat everything to get just under 20 hours.
I don't use task killers and crap anymore, just before I put my phone away. If I don't, I have a trillion programs running with like 40mb of RAM free. Although I understand this is Linux based, these programs are RUNNING and not idle. All my **** is draining the battery again after a clean reinstall of everything. What a bummer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@bongd, by latest FW, do you mean the R2BA020? If yes, then you shouldn't be affected by the problem being reported here. I'm still on R1FB001, which apparently has this Android 1.6 bug related to location.
As in my case, simply by disabling location settings (even though this reports that network location is the culprit, I disabled them all), the phone is now able to suspend itself and basically consume very little battery in standby.
Personally, I dont see any issue with lot of applications running and having little RAM left because I trust the Android system to manage it efficiently. Furthermore, the RAM on these phones is not as fast as what you would see typically on desktop systems, so it actually helps having things around in memory rather than aggressively cleaning it out. Checkout this link to understand a bit more about Android task management features: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
I suggest you use Spare Parts to isolate your battery drain, there might be some app that is misbehaving and hogging systems resources. Also turning off very frequent updates/refresh intervals in some applications is the way forward.
I found through trial and error that fancy widgets keeps my phone from sleeping.sad cause I really want to use it.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
j4mm3r said:
@bongd, by latest FW, do you mean the R2BA020? If yes, then you shouldn't be affected by the problem being reported here. I'm still on R1FB001, which apparently has this Android 1.6 bug related to location.
As in my case, simply by disabling location settings (even though this reports that network location is the culprit, I disabled them all), the phone is now able to suspend itself and basically consume very little battery in standby.
Personally, I dont see any issue with lot of applications running and having little RAM left because I trust the Android system to manage it efficiently. Furthermore, the RAM on these phones is not as fast as what you would see typically on desktop systems, so it actually helps having things around in memory rather than aggressively cleaning it out. Checkout this link to understand a bit more about Android task management features: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
I suggest you use Spare Parts to isolate your battery drain, there might be some app that is misbehaving and hogging systems resources. Also turning off very frequent updates/refresh intervals in some applications is the way forward.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, j4mm3r. I am using R2BA020. It looks like I have some diagnostic troubleshooting to do when I get home.
Sitting here at work charging my phone, it isn't loading craploads of programs anymore. And it seems to be sleeping okay. I'll play around when I have some free time.
Fixed my problem big time
Hey guys,
I just wanted to throw my two cents into the pot.
OK – so after experimenting with Task Killers, Task Managers, Spare Parts, Juice Defender, etc. I came to the conclusion that they (for the most part) did more bad than good. It was getting to the point that I was just starting to accept that “The X10 just has ****ty battery life” end of story.
I also read in a Google released post on the web, that there are a number of reasons that Task Killers, etc. are actually not required to end tasks. Android actually has a fairly intelligent and systematic approach to killing tasks that are not being used. I haven’t used any sort of proprietary battery saver, task ender, startup cleaner, etc. and I’ve been having the best phone performance since I got the headset.
The time now (Eastern Standard) is 3:30pm on Monday. The last time I charged my phone was Saturday evening at 6pm, and currently I am showing 24% battery remaining. Let those numbers do the talking!
My settings are:
Wi-Fi always off unless I am going to be actively using it (browsing)
Using Phone info, I change WCDMA Preferred to GSM Only (enables 2g instead of 3g without disabling data altogether)
GPS always off
Screen settings, brightness, etc. I believe have a much smaller effect than people tend to believe. The SINGLE BIGGEST factors for me, and noticing this huge increase in battery life are:
Settings -> About Phone -> Software Update -> UNCHECK Automatic Search (this constantly searches the market, etc. for app updates and what not)
Cycle power immediately after charging. Once my phone completes its charge, I turn off and then on again.
I hope that some people can enjoy moderately extended battery life as I have. I am SO ecstatic to be at HOUR 43 and still at 20%+
Worth mentioning also that I am on Rogers (Canada) and have not received any updates, so this extended battery life is not a result of a firmware update.
How I Fixed My Batter Life Problem
My Incredible would run dead in about 4 hrs doing nothing. I finally dug into several "task killer" programs and found that about 20 - 30 apps were invisibily running in the background constantly. As soon as I permanently killed them, my battery life went to normal. I can now get about 2 days of normal use on 1 charge. Even a day of pretty heavy use will last almost all day.
So for me, it was all the new apps I installed when I first got the phone that were running in the background. The free "task killer" program was not showing them. I finally found the app called "System Panel." It was the ONLY app that would show me all the "invisible" apps that were still running invisibly in the background and let me kill them. Once I killed them with System Panel, they stayed dead and the free "task killer" program could auto-kill them from them on.
Not sure why the free programs could not see the rogue apps, but my battery life is GREAT now.
Inebriatef said:
I installed Spare Parts and saw that my phone was never sleeping, even though it was on standby all the time.
This was caused by the location by antenna feature.
Ever since i unchecked that feature i've had around 50-60 hours of uptime, with a few calls and a lot of texts.
hope this helps alot others
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean caused by the location of the antenna feature?
Where is this option to uncheck this feature.
Thanks dear.
Vatis
I'm running R2BA023 and I am struggling to get a full day from the phone at the moment. It normally lasts around 12 hours and then its flat.
However, I ran the Telenor R2BA020 update and I manage to get a full day with ease.
I have just done a clean install of R2BA023 Generic UK "root" edtion and going to see how I get on. What I did notice before is that the phone was not returning to a idle state.
So I am reading the tips and tricks article - GREAT article by the way! - and I come upon the note stating to not use task killer (shown below in bold).
SHOULD I USE A TASK KILLER?
Absolutely not. You have the best OS and one of the best spec'd phones ever. You would be doing more harm than good. If you do have one, uninstall, reboot and let me know what you think!
In addition, even Google at Google I/O 2010 addressed app developers and asked them to no longer include "quit" or "close" as options within their apps. I think Andronica (another great android site) summed it up well with their article, found here.
XDA user iunlock created a thread with some good debate based off this sticky. You can read all the thoughts by clicking here. In short, the overwhelming majority agreed and some have commented on seeing an increase in performance after deleting their task killers. Awesome job guys.
That having been said, I went a day. Sure, it ran smooth, but my battery life stunk.
I'd like to hear from other users on the pros/cons of using a task manager on your Vibrant. Not trying to start a flame war, just wanting to hear thoughts other than my own (and the little voices that come from the ear piece of the phone )
Personally I am completely for it, as long as you are not killing off critical processes or apps that you use on a regular basis. Bottom line here - know what you're doing.
Feedback please?
I had the exact opposite reaction after getting rid of the task manager, battery life increased.
I kept ATK, battery life improved with it. If i play games and then hit the Home button which i always do. it stays running in background and kills the battery. Didnt really notice much of an impact with performance but my battery life increased
I use task manager. people can say what they want, but lowmemorykiller is designed to kill apps when the system needs memory. our phones have a lot of memory so they are capable of keeping so many apps open, if no one believes me download a task killer and just open it up to see how many apps are really running on your phone, its ridiculous, especially if you still have the bloatware. I don't necessarily use it because my phone bogs down from so many apps (that reason was back in the day with my g1) i do it because theoretically your battery life should go up. What's worse, a task killer running, or the last 20 apps you've used? All I know is my phone runs fine, smooth, and has battery life that I really cant complain about. It's hard to really tell what is correct though, I mean theres's hundreds of posts about the gps on our phone and mine launches up, finds my exact location within 30 seconds, and navigates perfectly. Got mine the day it came out, so ive really never worried about what other people have said, i just find out for myself. try both and see what you observe to be best.
I own(ed) a G1, Google Ion, myTouch, CLIQ, Behold II, Nexus One, myTouch Slide, GARMINfone, and Samsung Vibrant.
I have never used a task killer / manager on any of them and have never experienced lag on any of them.
My battery has also lasted from wake (9am) to bed (im usually in the bed by 11pm, sleep comes much later) on all of them and that includes at least 2 hours of stereo Bluetooth music. WiFi, GPS and Sync on all day. Bluetooth and brightness are managed as needed.
I'm no developer, but I have flashed my fair share of roms, and run plenty of tests. I don't know what is best, but I do know that they are NOT NECESSARY. Are they helpful or useful to you? Possibly. If you want to use one, have fun. I see no reason for me to start now...
EDIT: I also play a fair bit of SNESoid, GENSoid, and now PSX4droid....
Also, I don't have a car charger or office charger. I only charge overnight.
If you have to use a charger during the day, you blew it.
Task Mangers slow my phone down more. I don't use them.
joe.kerwin said:
I use task manager. people can say what they want, but lowmemorykiller is designed to kill apps when the system needs memory. our phones have a lot of memory so they are capable of keeping so many apps open, if no one believes me download a task killer and just open it up to see how many apps are really running on your phone, its ridiculous, especially if you still have the bloatware. I don't necessarily use it because my phone bogs down from so many apps (that reason was back in the day with my g1) i do it because theoretically your battery life should go up. What's worse, a task killer running, or the last 20 apps you've used? All I know is my phone runs fine, smooth, and has battery life that I really cant complain about. It's hard to really tell what is correct though, I mean theres's hundreds of posts about the gps on our phone and mine launches up, finds my exact location within 30 seconds, and navigates perfectly. Got mine the day it came out, so ive really never worried about what other people have said, i just find out for myself. try both and see what you observe to be best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android has a task killer built in to kill apps if memory is low automatically.
Couldnt enjoy my phone without one.
laristech said:
Task Mangers slow my phone down more. I don't use them.
Android has a task killer built in to kill apps if memory is low automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, read. I referenced that in the first line. It's a low memory killer, my phone still has 100mb of memory available even with 15-20 apps open. I'd rather have those tasks not running if i've finished with them. Plus apps also reopen periodically by themselves, auto-kill on a 3rd party task killer will kill this as soon as the phone is sleeping, the build in task killer will not.
AndroidZ28 said:
I own(ed) a G1, Google Ion, myTouch, CLIQ, Behold II, Nexus One, myTouch Slide, GARMINfone, and Samsung Vibrant.
I have never used a task killer / manager on any of them and have never experienced lag on any of them.
My battery has also lasted from wake (9am) to bed (im usually in the bed by 11pm, sleep comes much later) on all of them and that includes at least 2 hours of stereo Bluetooth music. WiFi, GPS and Sync on all day. Bluetooth and brightness are managed as needed.
I'm no developer, but I have flashed my fair share of roms, and run plenty of tests. I don't know what is best, but I do know that they are NOT NECESSARY. Are they helpful or useful to you? Possibly. If you want to use one, have fun. I see no reason for me to start now...
EDIT: I also play a fair bit of SNESoid, GENSoid, and now PSX4droid....
Also, I don't have a car charger or office charger. I only charge overnight.
If you have to use a charger during the day, you blew it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no way your g1 ever lasted 14 hours, let alone consistently with that usage. Either that or you dont understand how some of us use our phones. The only reason this must be such a debated topic is because there truly isn't much of a difference. Will your phone have a weeks worth of battery life with one? No. Without one? No. Users preference I suppose, but before i deleted bloatware, my telenav and slacker radio were always open and i honestly never even opened them to even check them out.
That having been said, I went a day. Sure, it ran smooth, but my battery life stunk.
I'd like to hear from other users on the pros/cons of using a task manager on your Vibrant. Not trying to start a flame war, just wanting to hear thoughts other than my own (and the little voices that come from the ear piece of the phone )
Personally I am completely for it, as long as you are not killing off critical processes or apps that you use on a regular basis. Bottom line here - know what you're doing.
Feedback please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People will give all sorts of anecdotal evidence one way or another about this topic. Just keep in mind that anecdotal evidence won't answer the question. It's not a simple yes/no question either.
Here's the deal. *IF* you have errant tasks that are causing partial wake issues (running too much or too often when the phone is supposedly asleep), those applications will be the culprit for your bad battery life.
These are not likely to be core tasks of the OS, or OS bundled bloatware either...but they can be. When I had my Behold II and was running ADW.Launcher, for instance, I had to use a task manager to keep parts of Touchwiz from waking up and complaining about the UI not being front-and-center. And the reason WHY I used a task manager was a simple one. It was a core data task of the embedded software that could not be REMOVED.
The best solution to partial wake issues is to identify the tasks that are causing them, and GET RID OF THAT APP. In my very specific case above I was unable to do so, so a task killer had value.
The reason why task managers can be a very bad idea are legion. The Android OS runs a lot of interdependant tasks, and killing one seemingly innocuous task can and often will start a domino effect with other tasks that rely on them. It can even cause other dependant apps to eat 100% of cpu time during sleep cycles or at other times, and make your battery life mysteriously go to hell.
So far on this Vibrant, I've found no core tasks causing partial wake issues. Third party apps and widgets however, I've found quite a few that "wake up" and cause partial wake issues (i.e. they are spending too much time working and running when the phone is in "sleep" mode). Pure Messenger Widget being one of the nastiest I've tried lately.
What do I recommend? Use the built in battery statistics, and install the market app "Spare Parts". This combination will give you the ability to glean useful information about exactly what is running and what it's doing. There are other tools and whitelist managers that you could employ as well, but this is enough for me.
And even if you are running task managers and killers, you should be using the above to know whether what you are doing is a complete waste of time or even making matters worse.
When left to its own devices, Android 2.1 does a remarkably good job managing tasks and memory, PROVIDING THAT 3RD PARTY APPS ARE BEHAVING. Since we all run a very different set of 3rd party applications and widgets, it's no wonder that people are having battery life issues (great, bad, not so bad, etc..) all over the map.
I use Advanced Task Manager Pro and I love it. The close-all widget is great because it closes everything except what you have told it not to kill, and it kills itself to that is not running down your battery either.
joe.kerwin said:
There's no way your g1 ever lasted 14 hours, let alone consistently with that usage. Either that or you dont understand how some of us use our phones. The only reason this must be such a debated topic is because there truly isn't much of a difference. Will your phone have a weeks worth of battery life with one? No. Without one? No. Users preference I suppose, but before i deleted bloatware, my telenav and slacker radio were always open and i honestly never even opened them to even check them out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what to tell you other than it did.
I am a pretty heavy user, but I do have fantastic coverage and work in a bright environment so brightness stays down. SetCPU works wonders.
I tested my Vibrant today. Came off the charger at 5:30am. It's now 10pm & my phone is freaking out for juice. I think my G1 could match this.
I'm constantly pulling from Gmail & Exchange (usually on Edge - poor reception in the office). I used GPS for about 10 min on the way home. Once home I started wifi. I turned it off an hour ago to play a few rounds of Let's Golf.
That's not terrible for such a badass smart phone, I think.
-bZj
_____
-sent from my Samsung Vibrant via XDAapp
I personally will only have a task manager installed for when I'm working on my game / app projects, as to make sure they properly close when exited or to kill them if something goes wrong (neverending looping media), so I don't have to reboot the phone.
I was using atk before my last factory reset. I've decided against it now though. I've also decided not to use any more web apps when I have a perfectly good browser. Just seems like a waste of resources to me and my phone is much quicker without them. That and launcher pro have made this feel like a different phone. I think the combination makes atk unnecessary.
If I decide to keep this phone I'll reroot and clean out all the crapware. I'd prefer to keep this phone well-maintained like my computer sip that a task killer would be mostly unnecessary.
First and foremost, this will only apply to you if you have seen the following symptom:
You go to Settings -> About phone -> Battery usage -> click on the graph above and see "Awake" as a solid bar instead of (mostly) lining up with the "Screen on" spotted bar below. Here's my previous thread of when I discovered this issue when my "Awake" bar showed solid for an entire 8 hours when my "Screen on" would show frequent off/on's:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13938317&postcount=772
I found my SGSII was getting decent battery life, but idle was certainly worse than my SGSI. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me what could be causing it given I was running the exact same apps as my SGSI 2.2.1 handset, but the solid Awake bar did not sit well with me.
Observations:
1) After 8+ hours of solid Awake, I would have no apps running under Settings -> Applications -> Running services except for those that I normally would expect in the background... Settings, NoLED, Google Voice, Swype, etc.
2) I noticed that under this "Running services" screen, if you hit Menu and select "Show cached processes," there are actually other cached processes that are in a semi-dormant state. Are they running or are they not? Hmmm....
3) After a system restart, the Awake and Screen on would line up once again.
Suspicion/Hypothesis:
Some app that I normally have running... even if I completely exit out of, it would sit under cached processes and somehow still keep the device awake.
Testing:
First, wanted to see which app when normally running would keep the phone "Awake." After a few days of testing, isolated it down to eBuddy, which is a chat client I used to have running nonstop on my Froyo SGS. So, after several hours of running eBuddy and seeing a solid Awake bar, I exited out of eBuddy properly (Menu -> Exit), ensured it was no longer running under Running services, and tested it for another 4 hours. Sure enough, with the device mostly idle and eBuddy shutdown, the Awake remained solid/on!
So, I then revisited Settings -> Applications -> Running services -> Menu -> Show cached processes, I saw eBuddy was still cached and taking up memory. So, I clicked on the process and chose Force stop. Afterwards, I let the device idle for a few hours more, and the Awake and Screen on lined up once again.
Conclusion:
I'm not sure if this is a Gingerbread bug or eBuddy bug or a combination thereof, but something changed in the code from Froyo to Gingerbread. Probably has to do with this caching feature, but there ARE apps out there that will keep your device constantly on even if you do properly exit out of them.
Solution:
I used to run "Advanced Task Killer" on my SGS with Froyo but never bothered with Gingerbread because people much smarter than me on here have said time and time again "it's not necessary for Gingerbread, you're wasting time/battery life." Well, that still may be true, but given there are these rogue apps that will cause Gingerbread to stay constantly awake, Advanced Task Killer is the best solution at this time.
(It may not be pretty, but hey, it works.)
So, I installed Advanced Task Killer, did a fresh boot, put all the system apps and other apps I don't want ever shut down (Email, Swype, Settings, etc) on the ignore list, turned the kill setting to every hour, and let it sit. I can say for the past 2 days, my idle battery life has improved significantly. Normally by the end of my work day, I'd be skimming along around 40-50%. (Keep in mind, I use the phone primarily for business, which means 2 push E-mails, 2 pull E-mails, constant text messaging, and lots of phone calls.) The last two days, I have been easily at 70-80% by the end of the day. For instance, right now at 4PM CST, I am still at 82% remaining battery.
Also, keep in mind, I have just about EVERYTHING else I don't need frozen/uninstalled through Titanium backup. This includes but not limited to WIFI Sharing, all the hubs, all the readers, all the SNS junk, AP News, Accuweather, etc.
And the most telling bit that the fix is working: My Screen on and Awake line up perfectly with no more solid bar for Awake. And, this is even after running eBuddy last night.
I know this won't help everyone, but hopefully, it will be of use for some of you. Good luck!
If you're managing to kill apps that keep the phone awake, does it prevent you from receiving messages on eBuddy when the screen is off?
dinan said:
If you're managing to kill apps that keep the phone awake, does it prevent you from receiving messages on eBuddy when the screen is off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting question. I had Advanced Task Killer running all last night, and I woke up to messages in eBuddy in the morning. So, my immediate answer to you would be "no," but this will probably take more testing.
Maybe, I'll set ATK to an aggressive 15 minute kill, and have someone message me after 15 minutes of idling with eBuddy running...
I have noticed that with eBuddy actively running, you cannot select it under ATK and kill it. You must exit out of eBuddy properly (Menu -> Exit) for its active process to shut down. Little did I know though... it would still float around in your "Cached processes" afterwards and keep your device Awake!
Well I've been using ATK since this morning and I can't find any change in Android OS ..
It's still high..
Anyway ATK reports that all the games I downloaded from gameshub are active..
And even if it kills them, they appear again in like 10 minutes.. It's really wierd
TMaLuST said:
Well I've been using ATK since this morning and I can't find any change in Android OS ..
It's still high..
Anyway ATK reports that all the games I downloaded from gameshub are active..
And even if it kills them, they appear again in like 10 minutes.. It's really wierd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use game hub, but I do have a bunch of games on my device, including the larger Gameloft games. And, I can say for a fact that I do not have any of them ever running in the background.
Something else is keeping them alive, and has nothing to do with ATK. ATK will only help to kill cached processes, but if something is launching them again, that's what you need to look into stopping.
Well.. I do not like tools like the Advanced Task manager.. BUT looking at battery drainage it seems to do wonders!
8 hours of light usage (display 45 mins) --> 75% battery left
3g on (with JuiceDefender à 30 mins) + sync (so I receive whatsapp messages & mail etc)
Listened to music / radio for about 1-1.5 hours
Android OS is sadly still at 36%, Display at 22%
But this I can live with !
Thanks!
[edit]
It would obv. be nicer to be at 80+% without that Android bug... Ah, and I did delete / freeze all that Samsung crap with Titanium, didnt really help much! I can also recommend getting CPU spy to see how much your phone actually is in the sleep mode (around 80% for me!)
Breece said:
Well.. I do not like tools like the Advanced Task manager.. BUT looking at battery drainage it seems to do wonders!
8 hours of light usage (display 45 mins) --> 75% battery left
3g on (with JuiceDefender à 30 mins) + sync (so I receive whatsapp messages & mail etc)
Listened to music / radio for about 1-1.5 hours
Android OS is sadly still at 36%, Display at 22%
But this I can live with !
Thanks!
[edit]
It would obv. be nicer to be at 80+% without that Android bug... Ah, and I did delete / freeze all that Samsung crap with Titanium, didnt really help much! I can also recommend getting CPU spy to see how much your phone actually is in the sleep mode (around 80% for me!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I wouldn't run ATK unless I absolutely have to. Like I said in my first post, it is a "brute force" method of ensuring apps are completely closed out and there are no rogue cached processes keeping your device awake. Since I've installed it, the "solid Awake bar" phenomena is completely resolved... and in return, I get much better battery life.
And yes, this is of course on top of freezing just about everything Samsung and anything else I don't need or care to use.
Couldnt agree more!
One questions, what is your "Android OS" % at?
Breece said:
Couldnt agree more!
One questions, what is your "Android OS" % at?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8%... Display is at 62%, LOL.
Interesting ^^ Oh well.. my battery life should improve but if it stays like this I am fine with it...
Oh Hope ?
Nah, i will try it
cmd512 said:
....
Solution:
I used to run "Advanced Task Killer" on my SGS with Froyo but never bothered with Gingerbread because people much smarter than me on here have said time and time again "it's not necessary for Gingerbread, you're wasting time/battery life." Well, that still may be true, but given there are these rogue apps that will cause Gingerbread to stay constantly awake, Advanced Task Killer is the best solution at this time.
(It may not be pretty, but hey, it works.)
So, I installed Advanced Task Killer, did a fresh boot, put all the system apps and other apps I don't want ever shut down (Email, Swype, Settings, etc) on the ignore list, turned the kill setting to every hour, and let it sit. I can say for the past 2 days, my idle battery life has improved significantly. Normally by the end of my work day, I'd be skimming along around 40-50%. (Keep in mind, I use the phone primarily for business, which means 2 push E-mails, 2 pull E-mails, constant text messaging, and lots of phone calls.) The last two days, I have been easily at 70-80% by the end of the day. For instance, right now at 4PM CST, I am still at 82% remaining battery.
Also, keep in mind, I have just about EVERYTHING else I don't need frozen/uninstalled through Titanium backup. This includes but not limited to WIFI Sharing, all the hubs, all the readers, all the SNS junk, AP News, Accuweather, etc.
And the most telling bit that the fix is working: My Screen on and Awake line up perfectly with no more solid bar for Awake. And, this is even after running eBuddy last night.
I know this won't help everyone, but hopefully, it will be of use for some of you. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WORKED FOR ME AS WELL< EXCELLENT!!!
Task killer is a must
Uninstalling/freezing rogue Samsung apps is a must
ONLY THE COMBINATION WORKS and it works well indeed.
Mmm bizarre! I was waiting for the hordes of people telling you that 'task killers' are unnecessary and stupid.
Thank you very much for your findings.
On my SG2 The android System process is eating almost all my battery! any solution for that?
rdy2go said:
WORKED FOR ME AS WELL< EXCELLENT!!!
Task killer is a must
Uninstalling/freezing rogue Samsung apps is a must
ONLY THE COMBINATION WORKS and it works well indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cigaro78 said:
Mmm bizarre! I was waiting for the hordes of people telling you that 'task killers' are unnecessary and stupid.
Thank you very much for your findings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear it's working for you guys. With Advanced Task Killer running in the background, I haven't had the "solid Awake bar" reappear again... my Awake bar is always segmented and match up fairly well with my Screen on bar.
Idle battery life is very much acceptable now and definitely no worse than my SGS.
I've always enjoyed your posting and i'm glad you didn't just jump on the bandwagon like everyone else. This is definitely the type of posting we need where everyone work together to solve/identify the issues at hand.
ph00ny said:
I've always enjoyed your posting and i'm glad you didn't just jump on the bandwagon like everyone else. This is definitely the type of posting we need where everyone work together to solve/identify the issues at hand.
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Click to collapse
Appreciate the kind words. Like I said in my first post, many people much smarter than me/in-tune with Android have said it's unnecessary. But, you're right... there are way too many "DO THESE STEPS AND IT WILL FIX EVERYTHING" posts on here with 0 to little evidence to back up the claims. In the end, nothing beats thorough testing and proven results.
I for one hope 2.3.4 resolves this bug... ultimately, I'd like to not have to run ATK altogether. But for now, this is a solution that works.
cmd512 said:
Appreciate the kind words. Like I said in my first post, many people much smarter than me/in-tune with Android have said it's unnecessary. But, you're right... there are way too many "DO THESE STEPS AND IT WILL FIX EVERYTHING" posts on here with 0 to little evidence to back up the claims. In the end, nothing beats thorough testing and proven results.
I for one hope 2.3.4 resolves this bug... ultimately, I'd like to not have to run ATK altogether. But for now, this is a solution that works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works with Freezing/Uninstallin Samsung "bad apps" (WiFi Sharing, Social Hub, etc.). I suggest you emphasize that more in your initial post.
ATK itself helps but ATK is always late (30 minutes or one hour).
That's what I recommend to freeze/uninstall without crippling core functionality:
1 WiFi Sharing and WifiManager
2 Samsung apps (Social Hub, Days, Yahoo Finance, AP News, Games Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub, AccuWeather)
3 Voice Command Uninstalled using Titanium
It's based on my testing using OS Monitor / ATK - those apps tend to wake up phone for no reason even when you don't use them.
Now it's 24 hours with 4 hours of screen on, no Juice Defender etc.
It works better than SGS (one) despite huge screen and excellent speed.
rdy2go said:
It works with Freezing/Uninstallin Samsung "bad apps" (WiFi Sharing, Social Hub, etc.). I suggest you emphasize that more in your initial post.
ATK itself helps but ATK is always late (30 minutes or one hour).
That's what I recommend to freeze/uninstall without crippling core functionality:
1 WiFi Sharing and WifiManager
2 Samsung apps (Social Hub, Days, Yahoo Finance, AP News, Games Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub, AccuWeather)
3 Voice Command Uninstalled using Titanium
It's based on my testing using OS Monitor / ATK - those apps tend to wake up phone for no reason even when you don't use them.
Now it's 24 hours with 4 hours of screen on, no Juice Defender etc.
It works better than SGS (one) despite huge screen and excellent speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, freezing and ATK are needed to reach 2 separate goals:
1) Freezing: Needed to completely disable apps you plan on NEVER using.
2) ATK: Needed to completely close out apps you DO use when they stay cached/rogue in the background and keep your device awake.
So I do agree with you, freezing is absolutely necessary, but it really is the bare minimum. You still need ATK on top of that to actively seek out and kill battery draining apps.
I can confirm, OP solution works great on me. Thanks..