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Help!
I'm running the 81xx firmware on a direct-from-dell unlocked Streak.
My battery life has so far been abysmal, and looking at the battery usage screen, my cell standby is usually over 60% while idle is less than 20%, everything else like 2%. This isn't from weak signal, though; I am in a well-covered 3g-only area and my phone has reported only being disconnected about 4% of the time.
Another strange thing is, my data indicator is constantly switching between the H symbol and the 3g symbol.
Anybody know what's going on?
It might be that while you are well covered for 3g, you are marginal for HSDPA and that constant switching back and forth is using your battery. I have not tried it but have a look and see if you can disable HSDPA in settings somewhere and see if that helps.
i'm usually around 40% cell standby.. do u have any task killer apps installed? although people think those are useful they usually do more harm then good.
I have the same problem, and I used another Android phone in the same location (hence same cell coverage) with no such problems. I just took my phone off the charger and had the display on since then non-stop. Cell standby used as much battery as the display!! There's no way that is appropriate.
I'm running build 8102, but it was the same with 6941 before. Can't tell about 1.6 as I bought my streak used with 6941 on it.
What Android version are you guys running? Maybe we can find common denominators.. :/
Edit: here's a screen shot of the battery usage after a while off the charger with the screen on constantly:
http://i.imgur.com/3OrqZ.png
You must be Australian W0nk0
Do you think your antenna might be loose or defective?
I can't imagine the antenna to be loose really - but who knows, I bought mine used. If so, I think there is a signal strength value in " about phone" somewhere, no?
What signal strength are others getting? I'll post mine later, I'm on airplane mode right now so that I get some battery life.. :/
For signal strength, I am getting -75 to -95, and 9 to 12 for the two values while riding the train (not subway).
It also appears my battery life is quite good when my phone is in standby and not doing anything... the problem seems to come from net browsing or anything else that uses an active connection... Just browsng XDA is taking about 2% a minute!
Oh and my android is the 81xx 2.1 version with the modaco tweaks
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
I had really high cell stand-by too. then i installed juicedefender, now my cell standby is down to about 29%.
I think the main thing is that it disables data connections while your screen is off and only turns it back on when the screen is on and unlocked. It also has a setting where it enables data connection periodically to allow background syncs and whatnot.
I'd recommend you guys give it a go, it had almost doubled my battery life!!
Mine shows,
cell stand by 50%
phone idle 44%
it seems quite common on the streak as I read in all the forums. I am on 2.1 stock rom? what's 1.6 like?
I've noticed that the phone is getting half the wifi signal that my iPhone 4 gets, has anyone else noticed this issue as well? I did a battery pull but that has not corrected the problem.
Same here it seems like I'm literally one wall away from my router but still getting one bar of wifi
Sent from Rodney's Nexus S
Yeah. I am getting only two bars even though I am standing right next to my router.
Run a speed test, it could just be a signal display issue.
Anyone got any ideas how I can stop my battery from going flat?
According to the literature stuff, your battery on the HD2 is supposed to last for hundreds of hours whilst on standby, why then does mine go flat in a little over 8 hrs? I go to work, put my phone in my locker after making sure its locked and everything is cleared (via task manager) but it is still almost flat (around 25%power left) when I get home..
ideas on a postcard please.
Every time that happens to me it's just do to the build that you're using some are good on battery life others not so much. I started using setcpu to control my phone while on stand by and low usage etc. it does the trick for me.
If your locker blocks the signal, perhaps your battery is dying quickly as it tries to find one. May be best to put turn phone (signal off) whilst in locker. This happened to me the other day when i put my phone in a blackspot at work, and ended up with a drained battery.
The problem might not be no signal, but rather a very weak one.
Some time ago someone on here asked HTC why when the HD2 loses a signal for a short period of time it doesn't find it again as soon as a signal becomes available. The reply was it was a designed to save the battery life. All you need to do was click on the notification bar, at the top of the screen and that would reactivate the phone to start looking for a signal.
If the phone is in a very poor, but constant, signal area then the phone would use a load of battery power to constantly keep in connection.
If you put your phone in Aeroplane Mode, then you should see little drop in the battery level after 8 hours in the locker.
As I'm looking through the threads I'm seeing people getting terrific battery life. What can I do to get better battery life besides all the little tricks like cutting of gps, syncing, and back light etc? As I stated in another post I run the tunein app for 2hrs and my phone is at 20% HELP!!!
Stop using tunein/find alternative? I'm not exactly sure what the application does but I'm sure there has to be another application that offers similar functionality in the market, that might be easier on the battery.
powered by the tears of a million orphaned alpacas...
I've tried a alternative. I've tried the app for the actual radio station still get the same thing.
I use Tunein Radio since it's one of my favorites apps and have no issues whatsoever ... I mean it's normal the battery usage since it's streaming media.
Turning off the 4g made the biggest difference for me.
I'm usually near wifi, and with that on all day I SOMETIMES end up w/ <60% battery at the end of the day.
So just kick a man while he's down why don't ya!!!
Try this:
1. Do a full reset
2. Fully charge the phone. Once light is green, Let it stay unplugged for a couple of seconds, turn off the phone and plug in again. When light turns green again (may take up to an hour). Repeat until the green light appears almost instantly. This may take anywhere from 4-10 cycles.
3. Run the phone stock for one complete cycle. Don't add any apps.
4. If you have no problems, charge the phone then try adding one app then let the battery cycle again.
5. Keep adding an app after each cycle and monitor your battery consumption.
This way you can find out if the issue is your phone or the app. I know this isn't a quick fix, but it will help you dial in on the problem. I had similar problems as you before going through these steps. One of my cycles only got 2 hours of life before dying. I now get 15 hours of medium to heavy usage consistently! I am currently at 15 hours 5 minutes with 32%.
why dont you stop using apps to "fix" your battery and use the internal battery monitor program to narrow down exactly whats causing your battery drain?
settings>about phone>battery>battery usage
keeps a running tab on whats been using your battery since last unplugged.
if its cell standby, that usually means you are in a place that doesnt have service too long.
display is just screen being turned on.
android system is basically stuff installed in android. such as email, surfing the web, the market, etc etc.
see what that tells you. dont cover up the problem. get down to its roots. my phone completely stock got medium usage and lasted almost 9-10 hours.
Good points, newkidd. Finding the root cause is critical. However, I'd like to add that just because Display or Cell Standby is the top battery user at any given point in time is not necessarily a bad thing.
For example, if you were to unplug your phone in the morning but then forget it on the kitchen table when you leave the house for the day (No, I've never done that!), you'd see that Cell Standby was the top battery user for the day. But that's expected with a properly running phone that sat all day with 0 usage.
On the other hand, if you did nothing on your phone all day but turn it on every 5 minutes to check the time and then turned it back off, then Display would be the top battery user. Doesn't mean there's something wrong with the display or settings. At least not if your battery still lasts a full day. It just means the display was on a lot.
However, if your battery is down to 20% after only 2 hours, something is definitely wrong. Tunein is a streaming audio app, right? When you use it, are you in a good 3G (or 4G) coverage area? If the phone is having difficulty keeping a strong data signal then a streaming service could definitely eat up more battery than normal. How long does your battery last when you don't use Tunein? Or have you tried using it while connected via wifi instead of cellular data?
I'm starting to come to the conclusion I'm in a bad coverage area when at work. I left my at home today by accident and it was still almost full battery. I haven't tried using wi-fi.
Poor reception kills your battery QUICK. My house has horrible reception and for the week I was battling the cable company over our internet (no wifi) my phone would only last a few hours. Last weekend when I was home most of the day, so using maybe 85% wifi, my battery lasted the 18.5hrs until I went to bed. And I'm a heavy user. 3 gmail accounts synced, screen at near max brightness and lots of screen on and data use.
^ Shift Faced
my work
My work as well has horrible reception. We run a lot of electronics and are next to the airport, all bad for cell signals.
I try to stream music, but it is a crap shot depending on the day.
I have an audiobook that I listened to all day, with no significant additional drain. However streaming music gets me about three or four hours.
I work in the middle of Houston, TX, so I should be covered by excellent 3G and 4G signal. But at my desk in a corner office, windows on 2 sides of me, on the 6th floor of a 20 floor building, I get intermittent 3G and have never gotten a 4G connection.
Although that's better than when I was on the 20th floor for about a year. My desk was right against the windows but I couldn't even get a cell signal, much less 3G (no 4G at the time). I had to put my phone on airplane mode when I got to the office or the battery would die before lunch just from trying to get a cell signal. I could change the settings to force roaming only and calls/texts would work OK, but still drained the battery quickly.
Fortunately, we have wifi at the office so I connect to that every morning now and everything works fine. It's just annoying that I can't get 4G at all. Can't get it at home either (in a house, right by the window), even though the Sprint coverage map shows that I should. I can zoom in to my address and it's in the dark blue (best available) coverage area that should mean I can get a 4G signal inside buildings - "You will be able to use 4G data inside most buildings, in a car, and outside." Nope. Not unless I stand outside.
Back on topic, a poor signal will eat the battery for lunch...
no 4G at all here
I am annoyed that there is no 4G in Phoenix at all. 4th or 5th largest city in the country, (depending on the study), and we get snubbed.
Thanks a lot Sprint
Exactly! Where's our 4G in Phoenix. I remember reading about some test market thing with the valley, Clearwire and Sprint about running WiMax and nothing ever came of it. Oh well, guess we just have to be patient.
My battery life is great on my shift. Still stock, having issues getting root through my laptop, but I usually get a whole day out of my battery. For the first time I'm actually impressed with android battery life.
Sent from my Shift using Tapatalk
I'm trying out some things today for battery life, will post with results tomorrow
Problem is Android Market makes it way too easy to download a crap ton of of apps to the point that your phone slows to a crawl. We live in an always connected world, but this also means we need to be more aware of what and whom we interact with. Be careful out there kiddies.
Hey, I am trying to figure out why my battery drain is so high. Part of it is the display (trying to work on that too) but I see that my "phone signal" is quite bad. I have a feeling that this is draining my battery.
I have attached my battery stats. Do they look normal. And does the phone signal look normal or below normal. I think it is worth noting that I almost always have 4 bars of signal so I am not sure whats going on. I use my phone in Canada on the fido/rogers network (i believe it is the same as At&t in the states). Is there another radio I can flash or something if this is not normal (which will still work with my phone/network)?
Thanks a lot
Reports are that using 3G a lot drains the battery immensly.
Try switching to use 2G only and see how that affects your battery life.
Greetz
frutelaken said:
Reports are that using 3G a lot drains the battery immensly.
Try switching to use 2G only and see how that affects your battery life.
Greetz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think it is worth it to pay $30 a month to use 2g networks. I will try to turn off the 3g radio when on wifi though. And maybe only turn on 3g when i need it. As for the phone signal bar. Is it the same or worse than what you guys are getting?
asb123 said:
I dont think it is worth it to pay $30 a month to use 2g networks. I will try to turn off the 3g radio when on wifi though. And maybe only turn on 3g when i need it. As for the phone signal bar. Is it the same or worse than what you guys are getting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It already works this way. Wifi is going to be your best bet to lessen drain if available (both in standby and when using data - just make sure you have the sleep policy set to never).
If you have poor signal you are going to murder your battery - no way around it. The radio will boost power (Gain is adjusted automatically) in an attempt to get a better signal - and constantly search for a better one. So if you are bouncing between no service and 1 bar or even with just a weak 1 bar signal you are going to see atrocious battery life. There's not much you can do there except potentially switch to SIP in those times if you use a SIP provider.
If you are sitting with 4 bars then you should be seeing decidedly better battery life. What is the actual time the display was on in that screenshot?
I use 3G and its fine. What radio are you using?
the choices are: JK8, KB1, KB3, KD1
you can find them on the dev forums
asb123 said:
Hey, I am trying to figure out why my battery drain is so high. Part of it is the display (trying to work on that too) but I see that my "phone signal" is quite bad. I have a feeling that this is draining my battery.
I have attached my battery stats. Do they look normal. And does the phone signal look normal or below normal. I think it is worth noting that I almost always have 4 bars of signal so I am not sure whats going on. I use my phone in Canada on the fido/rogers network (i believe it is the same as At&t in the states). Is there another radio I can flash or something if this is not normal (which will still work with my phone/network)?
Thanks a lot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that looks pretty normal for that kind of usage. id say that you were a moderately heavy to heavy user.
krohnjw said:
It already works this way. Wifi is going to be your best bet to lessen drain if available (both in standby and when using data - just make sure you have the sleep policy set to never).
If you have poor signal you are going to murder your battery - no way around it. The radio will boost power (Gain is adjusted automatically) in an attempt to get a better signal - and constantly search for a better one. So if you are bouncing between no service and 1 bar or even with just a weak 1 bar signal you are going to see atrocious battery life. There's not much you can do there except potentially switch to SIP in those times if you use a SIP provider.
If you are sitting with 4 bars then you should be seeing decidedly better battery life. What is the actual time the display was on in that screenshot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually have about 3-4 bars. The time on for the display was probably just over 2 hours (judging from what it is now).
zephiK said:
I use 3G and its fine. What radio are you using?
the choices are: JK8, KB1, KB3, KD1
you can find them on the dev forums
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have KD1, how does that stack up?
also, I am using netarchy bfs kernel if that matters.
simms22 said:
that looks pretty normal for that kind of usage. id say that you were a moderately heavy to heavy user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. you're a pretty heavy user So far different radio doesn't drain battery, but only the difference of data connection speed cap.
window7 said:
I agree. you're a pretty heavy user So far different radio doesn't drain battery, but only the difference of data connection speed cap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I do love android (been tinkering around since the g1). I do realize that I am a heavier user than the average person but it might also be that I recently got this phone so I am using it more.
Aside from that, does everything else seem normal?
"Android System" should not be taking such a high %. It should be about 1-2%.
There is (was?) a bug that causes high cpu usage (and shows as Android System) when wifi is on, but not connected to a network.
Another thing I can think of and is something I've experienced, is that sometimes you get an IP address from the mobile network that has a lot of noise, that is, it's an address someone has likely used p2p programs with and there are lots of connection retries. You can see it because the green arrows don't stay dark for more than a couple of seconds, and it kills your battery quite fast. Reconnecting to get a different IP address is the only solution...
Also, bluetooth may be a factor...
spamlucal said:
"Android System" should not be taking such a high %. It should be about 1-2%.
There is (was?) a bug that causes high cpu usage (and shows as Android System) when wifi is on, but not connected to a network.
Another thing I can think of and is something I've experienced, is that sometimes you get an IP address from the mobile network that has a lot of noise, that is, it's an address someone has likely used p2p programs with and there are lots of connection retries. You can see it because the green arrows don't stay dark for more than a couple of seconds, and it kills your battery quite fast. Reconnecting to get a different IP address is the only solution...
Also, bluetooth may be a factor...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Blutooth is always off unless I need to use it (which is rare). I am not sure how to make my mobile network connect to a different IP adresse, would turning it on and off do the trick?
Being in area where there is low/no signal also causes my battery drain to increase by a lot! Which sucks cos where i live i get either 1 or no bars of signal.