Database Users

Question about Dock charging issue.

I don't have much knowledge in anything electrical or charging mechanisms so I am trying to get a better understanding of the draining issue with tab and dock being connected.
I have a B50 tab and B50 dock. Dock currently drains at 1.75% per hour when connected to tab and in sleep mode(both were fully charged). Dock drains at 1.5%(both were fully charged) when connected to tab and tab is off.
Now if I understand correctly the dock is more like a charger rather then a extra battery, meaning it charges the tab battery as long as they are connected. So for the most part when I disconnect the 2 the tab is fully charged and the dock reflects the drain of the charging the tab.
Now when both are off I would assume it's fully up to the dock to insure the tab stays charged, since the tab is off my assumption is that the dock would use some of it's own battery just monitoring the state of the tab battery. Is that incorrect? I don't believe 1.5% per hour is acceptable in terms of drain
but wouldn't be feasible to lose say .5% while monitoring tab battery when both units are off?

Battery drain when powered off w/o dock

I've noticed that when I attempt to power on my Transformer a couple days after powering down that the battery is completely drained as if the device was never shut down. The only way to power on is by plugging in to an outlet. I was under the impression the battery would last longer than a few days when powered down.

It definitley should, if I just put my tablet in sleep and leave it all day, it loses about 1% per day, so turned off I'd expect the same or better.

darkonex said:
It definitley should, if I just put my tablet in sleep and leave it all day, it loses about 1% per day, so turned off I'd expect the same or better.
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Wow, mine loses about 10-15% overnight. The same as the op... The batch number is B50*****

Mine too drains battery when in sleep mode. Also B5 build...hope an OTA update will fix it soon and that it is not a hardware problem.

Same here and I'm stock w/out root...
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Mine was in standby with airplane mode on (wifi off) - B3OK
100% battery was down to 64% by the morning. In 10 hours lost 36% battery
With all the talk about keyboard dock drain - I think this is more a important issue.

I have a B50 tablet, and mine only looses 1-2% per day if left in standby. This is in Airplane mode. Dunno what you guys are doing to loose half your charge over 24 hours.

Probably background apps. Some apps force load themselves (Like Thumbs keyboard and TapaTalk which wants to prevent standby on installation according to someone else on this forum).

I am also experiencing this issue. When I put the tablet on standby the battery continues to drain. When I when to sleep last night the battery was at 30%. When I turned it on this morning, it showed 4%!
This is unacceptable. The battery saving option is turned on. Is ASUS aware of this issue?

if you look at the battery info chart, does it show it becoming awake shortly after using it and staying awake for quite some time with the screen off?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

B50 here. 0% battery drain. woke up and used it to check XDA for a little bit and went down to 98% but that's to be expected since most tablet/phones don't like to stay at 100% battery level to preserve it longer.
airplane mode while sleeping.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p163/gbd270/P20110723082933.png
it would also be helpful for you guys to say what ROM / kernel you're using.. and if you're stock, say stock. hence why people on XDA have this stuff on their signatures

I am on stock. Could it be because I have some apps running that are causing this battery drain? Or is it the microSD card?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

sazfar13 said:
I am on stock. Could it be because I have some apps running that are causing this battery drain? Or is it the microSD card?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
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microSD wouldn't drain your battery. I would say check your battery usage but that's disabled on stock.
- Check your Google Accounts in Accounts & Sync. Is Picasa Web Gallery checked for syncing? I heard there was a bug about that and it consistently drained the battery even when you're not on Wi Fi.
- Any syncing apps, make the interval longer or make it a manual refresh if it's not important.
- There is a bug where the tablet may be trying to interact with Mobile Data. I'm not sure why but people on other Honeycomb tablets have reported the same thing. You can bypass this by activating Airplane mode. You can still use WiFi when it's in Airplane mode.
- I personally don't use any SetCPU profiles. They tend to do more harm than good. Just my opinion, it's up to you but if something's going wrong with your battery. Try disabling them and see if you notice a difference or not.
- My WiFi sleep policy is set to "when screen turns off." Even though I select this, my tablet still gives my notifications on emails and stuff. Seems to be working well for me.
- Don't use any task killers.
- If you use a kernel that supports undervolting. Play with the settings and undervolt. My kernel that I use doesn't support it but I still get good amounts of battery life.
- I don't overclock. This could drain your battery as well (unsure, but it probably does to a certain extent). At 1.0GHz my Transformer is fast and responsive so I don't OC anyway. I only OC for benchmarking for fun.
Many people have said to disable GPS. But in fact, GPS is on demand! Even though when it's enabled, GPS is only used when a app or the browser requests your location from GPS. I personally have it on, but it's up to you really.
There. I just compiled some battery tips. Hope they help.
A true way to find out if something is severely wrong is to put your tablet into Airplane mode while sleeping. When you wake up, check how much % you lost. If it's over 5-7%, I'd probably say something is wrong with your setup.

^OK thanks . I will give it a try when it is fully charged.

sazfar13 said:
^OK thanks . I will give it a try when it is fully charged.
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At least check if Picasa was syncing. If it was then that could of been the source of it. Let me know?

zephiK said:
At least check if Picasa was syncing. If it was then that could of been the source of it. Let me know?
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OK I have unchecked the following syncs:
- picasa
- calendar
- Skpe sync
I have also turned on airplane mode. Lets see what happens.

So how do you tell ???
How can you tell which model ( B30, B40, B50, B60 ) you have ????

marcelol said:
How can you tell which model ( B30, B40, B50, B60 ) you have ????
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It's the serial number. Check the sticker on the dock for S/N or on the box that it came in.

After making the changes I described in my last post, I am now losing about 2% every 4 hrs. That is 0.5% every hour on standby. Much better than before but I believe others here have a much lower battery discharge rate.
I will continue to monitor the battery discharge rate under different scenarios.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

Same problem, if left overnight looses around 30-40% of charge and looses 3-4% as soon as I disconnect charger. All sync is of, email check is manual. Juice defender is installed and on. So I have checked its logs and it says that almost every 10 minutes tablet uses WiFi connection. Went to Settings of WiFi connection and unchecked Notice about open Wifi spots and checked Always on when cgarger plugged in instead of "Always on". Will see how it works now.

[Confirmed by Asus]Working MobileDock Battery saving mode = fixed dock battery drain

Just a crazy idea based on what I've been reading on the forums, and what Asus has said. If you have proof to prove me wrong, please provide it.
Asus said on facebook that they would be contacting people regarding the dock charging/drain problem. Asus just contacted a bunch of people about the MobileDock Battery savings mode. It is both a hardware fix (earlier versions of dock) an firmware update, which is exactly what people have been expecting to fix the dock drain issue.
Most B60 docks don't have the drain issue, from what I hear. They also can use the battery savings mode.
I've yet to see someone say they can use the battery savings mode and not have dock battery drain problems or vice versa. If I am wrong, please correct me.
My B60 dock can't use battery savings mode. When checked, tablet still wakes up from keyboard. I also have the dock drain problem.
The dock drain problem is related to a low power state for the dock, which is exactly what the MobileDock Battery savings mode is supposed to remove.
My guess is that the dock never exits the low power state. If the battery savings mode is used, the dock never enters the low power state, and thus the dock drain problem is fixed.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think Asus is ever going to admit that there was a problem. They definitely don't want to issue a recall notice. Most people probably don't know they have battery drain issue, because you can not see the dock battery level on stock, without installing the dock battery app. I know I would have never noticed the battery drain problem until I went on a long trip, had I not found out about the battery app and the problem here on XDA.
However, Asus would do something like this MobileDock Battery savings mode fix, fixing the problem silently, and waiting for it to go away without making a fuss. Here is my proof, directly from the letter from Asus most of us got:
(7) If #6 is true and you also require the new feature, then please contact your local ASUS service center
I also think that the mystery dock firmware, which updates from 209 to 209, may play a part in it. People in the USA and Europe have been receiving this update. They also have MobileDock Battery savings mode working, and lower battery drain on the B60 docks. I've had 4 Chinese B60 docks, all of which had the exact same battery drain rate, MobileDock Battery savings mode didn't work, and in china we never got the mysterious dock update. I'm gong to flash my B60 TF101 to the WW firmware and see if I can get the mysterious update and get MobileDock Battery savings mode working.
If that doesn't work, I'm taking my TF101 to the Asus service center to get them to fix dock battery savings mode. I have a feeling it will also fix the dock drain.
UPDATE: I took my B60 tablet and dock to Asus service center, and was told specifically that fixing and enabling the MobileDock Battery saving mode would fix the dock battery drain problem. He also told me about which parts needed to be replaced and the software update. Will elaborate more when I have time.

i have a feeling that to test this energy saving mode, you have to wait a certain while before the dock actually goes into power saving.. when this mode enabled, i can wake my transformer instantly shortly after the screen went blank. however, if i wait several minutes i can only wake it by using the powerbutton. also when you close the unit, by putting the screen down on the dock, th screen goes dark immediately, and when opening it, also after an hour or so the screen goes on immediately, regardless of the powersaving mode. so the dock also has some kind of switch build in to sense the position of the tablet. so i think the powersaving mode actually works, but only kicks in after a while. i have b60 tablet and b70 dock, purchased yesterday seperately...

I originally thought the same thing. If you wait a while after putting the dock/tablet combo to sleep, when you wake up the tablet, it has to re-mount the external sd card on the dock. This would mean the the dock was effectively disconnected/powered off.
However, the instructions from Asus are:
(4) Press power button on the Transformer Pad to make the unit go to sleep.
(5) With the option checked, if your unit does NOT wake up with the tap of a keyboard, the new battery saving mode is enabled and working.
(6) With [MobileDock Battery saving mode] checked, if your unit still wakes up by a key press, you have the earlier design.
Since Asus provided these, I have to use it as my basis for testing.

glenner05 said:
i have b60 tablet and b70 dock, purchased yesterday seperately...
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B70!!?
asdfsafdsa

darkonex said:
B70!!?
asdfsafdsa
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I completely missed that! You have a B70 dock!?!?!?

It's pretty clear that the battery draining is directly related to the keyboard not powering off at all. The broken docks have no way to turn off the current to the keyboard, which is where the battery drain is going.

typci said:
I completely missed that! You have a B70 dock!?!?!?
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Yup no doubt about that...my s/n nr starts with b70. Bought IT yesterday, i came in stock earlier this week and was completely sold out in a few houres

glenner05 said:
Yup no doubt about that...my s/n nr starts with b70. Bought IT yesterday, i came in stock earlier this week and was completely sold out in a few houres
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So the obvious question is: Do you have a dock battery drain issue? With the tablet powered off and connected to the dock, does your battery drain? You can use the dual battery widget to test.

typci said:
So the obvious question is: Do you have a dock battery drain issue? With the tablet powered off and connected to the dock, does your battery drain? You can use the dual battery widget to test.
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i will tell you tommorrow, because both tablet and dock are almost empty, i'll charge them fully this night and will test it when i wake up. I leave the tablet powered off for two houres connected to the dock, is that enough to notice any drain?

How do i see the serial number for the dock? I have no sticker on the dock ...

mashedbymachines said:
How do i see the serial number for the dock? I have no sticker on the dock ...
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Check the box it came in, because the serial number should be on the box.

You should have a peace of tape with s/n on the dock, at least it is on the new device. Also s/n is on the tf's box.

glenner05 said:
i will tell you tommorrow, because both tablet and dock are almost empty, i'll charge them fully this night and will test it when i wake up. I leave the tablet powered off for two houres connected to the dock, is that enough to notice any drain?
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2-3 hours should be good. If it drops more than a percent, you have a dock drain. If it only drops one percent, might just be the battery going from 100% to 99%, they tend to do that really quickly.

this is weird because my tablet and dock are b50s and i have NOT gotten any updates, and my setup works as asus explains it should, ith it checked, the kb doesnt wake the tablet.
however, mine does suffer serious lag, when typingin web forums like this...

ok i tested my tablet/dock combo for battery drain. when fully charched, in normal standby mode, i loose 2% per hour. when completely turned off dock battery went from 96 to 95 in 2,5 houres.the 1% drop could be explained by powering op the tablet ofcourse. so i think i'm safe with my b70 dock

Where do we enable the battery saving mode???!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

glenner05 said:
ok i tested my tablet/dock combo for battery drain. when fully charched, in normal standby mode, i loose 2% per hour. when completely turned off dock battery went from 96 to 95 in 2,5 houres.the 1% drop could be explained by powering op the tablet ofcourse. so i think i'm safe with my b70 dock
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Sounds like you are good to go. I think the 2% per hour is standard for standby mode with MobileDock Battery saving mode disabled. That's what I usually get on my B60. You might want to check to see if MobileDock Battery saving mode is enabled. If it isn't, enabling it will extend your battery time, and you only lose the ability to wake the tablet via keyboard.

moorie said:
Where do we enable the battery saving mode???!
The following is a step-by-step guide on how to verify if your unit can support the new optional battery saving mode:
(1) Make sure your software is updated to 8.2.3.13 or later; and your mobile dock is updated to 0209. ([Setting]>[About Tablet]>[Build Number] & [Mobile Dock version])
(2) Dock the Pad into the keyboard dock.
(3) Go to [Settings] > [Screen] and select [MobileDock Battery saving mode]
(4) Press power button on the Transformer Pad to make the unit go to sleep.
(5) With the option checked, if your unit does NOT wake up with the tap of a keyboard, the new battery saving mode is enabled and working.
(6) With [MobileDock Battery saving mode] checked,iIf your unit still wakes up by a key press, you have the earlier design.
(7) If #6 is true and you also require the new feature, then please contact your local ASUS service center “
Best Regards,
ASUSTek Computer Inc.
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So to elaborate on my visit to the Asus service center. Also this conversation was in Chinese, so some details may be lost in translation and due to my poor chinese language skills.
I told him about the dock battery drain and non-functional MobileDock Battery saving mode on my B60 tablet & dock combo. I also showed him the letter from Kimi_Q in English. He was able to understand the important parts of it.
He verified what I told him on the TF101. He then went and read his Chinese version on the instructions regarding MobileDock Battery saving mode. He told me to fix it he would have to order parts to fix my TF101: one week for delivery, and 1 or 2 days to fix. Said he would call me when the parts came in and to bring back the dock.
Then he said (with a lot of gesturing to help with the language barrier) that fixing the MobileDock Battery saving mode would fix the dock drain as well.
I asked him about the parts. He said something about a part on each side of the dock's hinge, that feed electricity to the tablet. After looking at some pics on the inside of the dock, there is a cable running into the hinge on each side. So I think it these cables that need to be replaced. I asked about a firmware update. He said I already had the latest firmware (209), and that the fix was software related, not firmware.
I'm sure I could go back and ask some more specific questions, if people want all the little details. He seemed really eager to talk with me. Also there was were no other customers in the service center, which is quite common here.
The Asus customer service and repair center's in Xi'an are awesome. They usually test the computer right there on the spot, if not they get back to you in under 24 hours. Also, they will talk to you all day about your computer and problems with it. It is so much better than dealing service centers over the phone. As soon and I have a problem, I just drive down to the service center and they get right on it. Just awesome.
Oh, I also asked him about the mini HDMI-to-VGA adapters. He didn't know anything about them, so Asus must not be selling them yet.

link to what asus said on facebook?
My tf wakes from keyboard touch, but i have t battery saving mode on. dock is 50 version
I have also tested. gps off wifi off. battery save mode on.
completely charged. completely shutdown.
after one night of sleep. tablet 100% dock 81%. so there is definatelysomething wrong.

[Q] Question regarding keyboard dock Power Saver mode

I recently purchased a new B60 dock to replace my B50 which had a bad battery (would not charge).
This B60 dock does not wake up the tablet when you hit the keyboard while the tablet is locked and asleep and the Power Saver mode is on, meaning it passes the "new hardware test" the Asus Representative posted about on this forum and therefore should not have the battery drain issue.
However, touching the touchpad or clicking one of the left/right click buttons wakes the tablet.
Should this be happening? This technically means that the dock must still be draining power since the touchpad is still being powered...
I've tested the dock and so far I'm losing 1% of battery per hour that passes by, which is so much better than the 5-10% loss per hour I was having on my old dock.
Thank you for your help.

So what exactly is the news with the dock battery drain?

I didn't want to create another thread for this, but I couldn't find anything solidifying what exactly is going on with the dock and battery drain.
So apparently, according to asus, we should be able to enable a feature "MobileDock Battery Saving Mode" that is intended to fix the battery drain with the docks. If i'm not mistaken, when we enable this feature, the TF is only supposed to awaken from the press of the power button and not from just opening it or pressing a key. I have confirmed that mine does not do this. With the feature enabled, it still turns on whenever I open it or press a keyboard. This is were the confusion comes in (unless i'm wrong about everything else, then I'm just really completely oblivious), if my TF isn't doing what its supposed to in order to conserve battery life while in battery saving mode, then does that mean I am sol?
Is the only viable option to RMA it? (i'm well out of my return period)
If so, then does that mean that this is a hardware issue? or is there a possible software fix that may come along?
Also, one more thing, would something as simple as undocking the tablet when not in use remedy the issue? If so, then i'd much rather do that then go through the hassle of returning it and waiting god knows how long to get it back (although I do live in Texas and I heard there is a repair center down here) when the battery life is still relatively good.
Any updated info would be greatly appreciated. Again, sorry about creating yet another thread over the same beaten horse.
Thanks in advance.

Afaik if your tablet is waking up from a keyboard press with the option enabled you would have to RMA it if you would like the feature to "work."
Sent from my Captivate

I don't know where "if you open the lid and it turns on" got mixed up with the button press test. Asus never said anything about opening it and it shouldn't turn on. It turns back on because of the magnets.
Does yours pass the button test? If not, it will need to be RMA'ed or exchanged. (If you feel the need, don't fret, your dock is still perfectly good)

I have the battery drain problem. I am thinking about adding a physical on/off switch to the dock to disconnect the battery. Of course I would need to find a switch rated correctly for the power consumption of the dock and make sure what ever I do looks good.

My B70 wakes when I lift the lid up, but no battery drain. It was 100 when I went to bed and 100 when I woke up. No tablet or powercord on the dock.

Yes, the "MobileDock Battery Saving Mode" is the fix to the dock battery drain. If "MobileDock Battery Saving Mode" isn't working, you have to do a hardware upgrade via RMA. I have a B60 which is waiting on the parts.
The dock battery drain was caused by the dock having a low power state which never turned off. The "MobileDock Battery Saving Mode" turns off the low power state. I don't think it is anymore complicated than that. If you RMA, and don't turn on "MobileDock Battery Saving Mode", then you will probably still have the dock battery drain.

ok, thanks for clarifying that for me guys. My dock does need to be returned because it does turn on from a key press when battery saving mode is enabled, but I think i'm just gonna go ahead and keep it.
I undocked it last night and the dock only lost %1 battery in over 10 hours which is good enough for me. Ideally I don't wan to have to undock it as much, but it seems like a simple remedy to a over exaggerated problem.
thanks again guys.

My findings...in the main thread... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1112835&page=87