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I've had my Hero since October. I've been reading these forums ever since I bought it. I keep reading about people switching from one rom to another, discussing battery life changes. Some people are stating they only have to charge their battery every two days, or get 16+ hours of heavy use on a charge. I'm on my 3rd rom, having tried Modaco, Fresh 1.0, and Fresh 1.1. I am now runnning Fresh 1.1 + Gumbo + SetCPU.
I work for Sprint. Advanced Tech Support. I work 13 hour days. I get to work, I turn off the mobile internet connection on my phone. I disable background data. In my SetCPU, I set it to powersave mode Min 245 Max 485. (Those might not be the exact numbers, at work can't check, but you get the idea.) After 13 1/2 hours, I go out and my battery is giving me the >15% remaining warning. I've maybe missed two calls and recieved 8 txts. On my off days, I wake up, take the phone off charge, and do a moderate amount of txting. I play a little music while im playing Xbox, maybe open the browser to check a game FAQ or walkthrough. Within about 3 hours of waking up I'm below 50%. If I'm planning on going to the bar to shoot pool I have to make sure my battery is fully charged, or if anyone is trying to get in touch with my I won't know cause I'm at the bar for 5+ hours txting and talking, and my phone will have died if not 100% charged. So...
I read that running Fresh 1.1+ Gumbo + SetCPU would greatly increase my battery life. Tried it. haven't noticed a change. I don't use task killers, I don't run apps, I think I've downloaded 9 apps from the market in 5 months. I use Shortcovers (Ebook reader). Dolphin browser, Handcent sms. Thats about it.
Is there a viable solution here? Does anyone have any troubleshooting steps to recommend, apps that might help, do a complete wipe and re-install Fresh and Gumbo? Change settings in CPU? I've been reading about Mugen and other batteries, any recommendations on which one would be best to try out? I love my phone, and I don't do anything to it without reading up on these forums first, just looking for any advice to not have to stay tethered to an AC outlet all day. Thanks.
fresh 1.1 + the less aggressive gumbo kernel will help alot. you don't need setcpu at all. i also recommend looking into a bigger extended battery, one that doesn't require the use of another back cover.
sirstanley said:
I've had my Hero since October.
I work for Sprint. Advanced Tech Support. I work 13 hour days. I get to work, I turn off the mobile internet connection on my phone. I disable background data. In my SetCPU,
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Click to collapse
It really sounds like you have a background task that is running and not letting your phone sleep. I turn off mobile internet at night (so I don't get bugged with Tweets and other alerts) and my battery drops 3-4% overnight (7-8 hours while sleeping). What is your awake time?
On a full charge, I can go all day (7am - 10pm) and still have more than 30% left. I have 2 email accounts, each set to sync every 30 minutes, a twitter app set to sync every 15 minutes, and I don't use weather or location services. I think a lot of people experience poor battery life due to signal quality. I get really good signals at home and a fairly decent signal at work as long as I say out of the lower (basement) floors.
-Daryel
Here's my experience with my HTC Hero from H3G (Three) UK:
Had the phone for about 2 weeks now, battery lasts me easily 1 day with quite heavy use (30-60 min GPS, 2-3 hours browsing, installing programs, 30 min music, some texting and talking. I know that for some of you guys out there this might be 'light' usage, but I believe for all of this, battery life is quite good, better than my friends' Iphones. With moderate use i get through 2 days of usage. I am just experimenting with turning off Mobile Internet, have had the phone running for 60 hrs + and my battery is at 65%, I've been turning wifi on for a few minutes a couple of times and have been talking and moderate texting during this time. I intend to leave Mobile internet off until the battery runs out of power to see how much time I get out of it. I never turn the phone off at night. I am amazed what a big difference turning off Mobile Internet does.
The OP clearly states that he downloads / runs minimal apps, and asking a Sprint advanced tech if his phone is sleeping, while a nice gesture, isn't terribly practical. I hope.
I think that there are certain phones that don't scale with GCK or a change in the CPU governor very well. I have bounced around to every ROM available, flashed and reflashed, cleared boot and dalvik caches and played with about every governor / frequency setting imaginable. With all that, all I can conclude is that my personal phone does significantly worse when the governor isn't MSM7K and drains downright terrible under GCK's stripped governors on anything other than MSM7K. Even Powersave (which OP referenced) drains my phone significantly faster than MSM7K.
I'd recommend you keep your current GCK install and adjust SetCPU to MSM7K to min 245 max 480. Then enable Profiles > Sleep > min 160 max 245. For a bit more performance when your phone is awake slide your normal max to 528; add significant performance by sliding normal min to 480. See if that helps any.
mkeyslehman said:
The OP clearly states that he downloads / runs minimal apps, and asking a Sprint advanced tech if his phone is sleeping, while a nice gesture, isn't terribly practical. I hope.
I think that there are certain phones that don't scale with GCK or a change in the CPU governor very well. I have bounced around to every ROM available, flashed and reflashed, cleared boot and dalvik caches and played with about every governor / frequency setting imaginable. With all that, all I can conclude is that my personal phone does significantly worse when the governor isn't MSM7K and drains downright terrible under GCK's stripped governors on anything other than MSM7K. Even Powersave (which OP referenced) drains my phone significantly faster than MSM7K.
I'd recommend you keep your current GCK install and adjust SetCPU to MSM7K to min 245 max 480. Then enable Profiles > Sleep > min 160 max 245. For a bit more performance when your phone is awake slide your normal max to 528; add significant performance by sliding normal min to 480. See if that helps any.
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Click to collapse
Could just be the different experiences folks receive with the Hero but when I used SetCPU to create profiles, I saw much higher battery drain. Once again, may have just been my experience but battery runs much better without profiles on my device.
Thanks for the response. And yes, my phone does sleep. I checked Spare Parts, and my most used app is Lightning Bug (use it when I sleep at night. I live in the hood and it covers up the radios and dogs barking.) After that it's Shortcovers (my ebook reader.) and then Handcent. So no abnormal program activity. Lightning bug only runs while I sleep, shortcovers just when Im reading. So nothing keeping my phone awake or anything. I do have one of the first Heros, I pre-ordered and recieved it like October 10th, so it's not Google branded, if that makes a difference. I'm considering just getting another one, but after 5 months of flashing and moifying and tweaking I'm kinda attactched to my phone. I'd feel like I was trading in my wife. So I guess I'll just go for an after market battery. Any more advice would be great. Thanks again.
kbizzle said:
Could just be the different experiences folks receive with the Hero but when I used SetCPU to create profiles, I saw much higher battery drain. Once again, may have just been my experience but battery runs much better without profiles on my device.
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Personally I'm on Modaco 2.2. Pulled mocaco.sh and changed the governor from "performance" to "msm7k" and pushed it back to the phone. No compcache, but I did include the internal task killer call in compcache.sh. Read thru either the Modaco 2.2 thread or GCK if you need help.
I'm having the same results as you. I have a non-"with google" Hero200, and my battery life absolutely sucks.
Today, took it off the charger at about 10:30, now at 3:30 it was down to 20% battery.
this was leaving mobile data on and a few text messages.
How exactly do you choose how often you want email to sync? I tried finding that in the settings menu of the Gmail app, but there's nothing there about that, just signatures and such.
I am running gumbo 1.5c bare, so it's quick (no sense UI) but battery is just as bad as with sense.
I'm not running setCPU or anything, just gbhil's kernel (i think?)
I'm about ready to spring for an 1800 mAh battery
dangit
Hate to say it, but I'm glad im nota lone on this one. Misery loves company.
I'm gettin tired of reading about people claiming they get 2 days of moderate use out a hero without charging, with a stock battery. "Oh, with this new rom I just tried, after 12 hours I was below 50%, this is unacceptable, I can normally go 2 days without charging." WTF? Did they just build a choice few heros with super batteries? Just wondering.
sirstanley said:
Hate to say it, but I'm glad im nota lone on this one. Misery loves company.
I'm gettin tired of reading about people claiming they get 2 days of moderate use out a hero without charging, with a stock battery. "Oh, with this new rom I just tried, after 12 hours I was below 50%, this is unacceptable, I can normally go 2 days without charging." WTF? Did they just build a choice few heros with super batteries? Just wondering.
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Lol, sorry man (I'm guessing you read my post at one point, 12 hours to 50%, it really did annoy me lol). I CAN get 2 days using Fresh 1.1, gumbo kernel, and SetCPU. Granted, I don't use my phone nearly as much as a lot of the people on here, but I also sit in areas with little to no service for most of my time, which can have a drastic effect on battery life.
rt1oo said:
I'm having the same results as you. I have a non-"with google" Hero200, and my battery life absolutely sucks.
Today, took it off the charger at about 10:30, now at 3:30 it was down to 20% battery.
this was leaving mobile data on and a few text messages.
How exactly do you choose how often you want email to sync? I tried finding that in the settings menu of the Gmail app, but there's nothing there about that, just signatures and such.
I am running gumbo 1.5c bare, so it's quick (no sense UI) but battery is just as bad as with sense.
I'm not running setCPU or anything, just gbhil's kernel (i think?)
I'm about ready to spring for an 1800 mAh battery
dangit
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Click to collapse
OUCH. I unplugged mine at 9am, it's now nearly 4, and I'm only down to 80%. Had WiFi on all morning, and mobile on from noon on. Sent a dozen texts, and read a half dozen emails (syncs every 15 min). Mobile data SHOULD sleep when your phone goes to sleep, and I think it'll turn on when your accounts/email sync. Same thing with WiFi.
I'm amazed at the massive variation in battery life people have. I wonder if there were a few different manufacturers of batteries, and that's causing the problem.
But I cant even bring my phone into the building so it sits in my glovebox with all data services off and no apps running for 13 hours and its at ten percent when I get off work. I just don't get it. I think I'm gonna wipe, reflash Fresh 1.1, reflash Gumbo, and start over.
sirstanley said:
But I cant even bring my phone into the building so it sits in my glovebox with all data services off and no apps running for 13 hours and its at ten percent when I get off work. I just don't get it. I think I'm gonna wipe, reflash Fresh 1.1, reflash Gumbo, and start over.
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Click to collapse
Wow, it sounds more like something might be wrong with your battery.
I could turn everything off on mine, and leave it sit in an area with decent service, and probably get over 2 days out of it...so that just seems odd. Are you running SetCPU? That'll help. Set it at either 160 or 245 min, and 528 max. "On Demand" seems to be working the best for me. It'll basically drop your processor speed when the phone's asleep, and bring it back up when you need it.
daryelv said:
It really sounds like you have a background task that is running and not letting your phone sleep. I turn off mobile internet at night (so I don't get bugged with Tweets and other alerts) and my battery drops 3-4% overnight (7-8 hours while sleeping). What is your awake time?
On a full charge, I can go all day (7am - 10pm) and still have more than 30% left. I have 2 email accounts, each set to sync every 30 minutes, a twitter app set to sync every 15 minutes, and I don't use weather or location services. I think a lot of people experience poor battery life due to signal quality. I get really good signals at home and a fairly decent signal at work as long as I say out of the lower (basement) floors.
-Daryel
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Click to collapse
+1 on this. While I understand you're a Sprint tech, it's still good to check the awake time, as it's a good indicator that something's awry. You said you run minimal apps, do you run any weather apps at all? Had some bad luck with those. Also, do you roam? I know setting it to Sprint Only helped me at home, and this is what you suggest to ppl everyday, so I'm not telling you anything, but some of the things we KNOW to be absolutely true can be wrong under our noses sometimes because we're so sure. Double check everything again.
I know it's painful to think of this as a viable solution, but there absolutely IS a way to determine if it's apps or not. I've had great luck with Fresh 1.1 AND Gumbo 1.5b. SetCPU and Gumbo Kernel made it even better.
Try this: Install either Gumbo or Fresh 1.1, the Gumbo Kernel, and setCPU (that one is optional for you I suppose, but I'd recommend it)
Don't install a single app or widget for the first day. Not a single one. Leave it for 24 hours, and see the battery life. (exceptions for apps that don't run in the background or connect for data or updates)
Then install them one by one until you find your culprit. This is how I found the weather widget was sucking the life out of my hero.
I too, have a non "with google" hero 200, and I have GREAT battery life, and even had great battery life on Fresh 1.1 when I had near 80 apps installed.
I'd bet money it's something in the background. I can speak a lot for Fresh 1.1 as I've used it the most. Great ROM, great battery life.
Btw, I also have two email accounts, one Exchange, one Gmail, BOTH set to "as items arrive" and I still can go from morning to bed on a charge with no probs.
**EDIT**
To echo Tatonka_hero, I also recommend doing the ondemand 528/245 as it worked really well for me. I got even better battery life when going that route than before, although I was never complaining about battery life in the first place.
my opinion.. it has to be something due to the signal strength.
I wonder if there is a way.. to check and monitor how often the phone looses tower contact? Then it has to try to find the next tower available, then has to bounce back to the closer one when it pops up? Is it constantly, jumping from one week signal to the next?
Which would keep the radio up and running... while the phone itself looks asleep.
Just me guessing.. with no Knowledge to base this off of.
I don't use any weather apps. A list of every app I have that didnt come with the phone:
Handcent
Shortcovers
Lightning Bug
Gensoid
GBCoid
Spare Parts
Terminal
ES File Explorer
SetCPU
I know you guys are really stuck on the idea that I'm running some intresting app, but I'm sorry to dissapoint. I wiped the phone, flashed Modaco, wiped, flashed Fresh 1.0, wiped, flashed Fresh 1.1, wiped, flashed gumbo. And then I re-downloaded the apps above. I work 7 days a week, I like to read Ebooks before I go to bed, I use lightning bug when I sleep, and if I'm riding with someone I play my emulators. Thats the story of my phone use. Also listen to music if I take a day off and im playing xbox. Theres nothing running in the background. I always have at lest 3-4 bars of signal strength. I turn off mobile network (data) when not using it. I keep my GPS off. I check Spare Parts, and everything in there is pretty much correct. My phones awake time is about 20%, if that. haven't checked in a couple days. So, tonight I'm gonna wipe, re-install Fresh 1.1, re-install Gumbo, and see if that helps at all. Is there any kind of consensus on the best settings for setCPU to save my battery?
sirstanley said:
I don't use any weather apps. A list of every app I have that didnt come with the phone:
Handcent
Shortcovers
Lightning Bug
Gensoid
GBCoid
Spare Parts
Terminal
ES File Explorer
SetCPU
I know you guys are really stuck on the idea that I'm running some intresting app, but I'm sorry to dissapoint. I wiped the phone, flashed Modaco, wiped, flashed Fresh 1.0, wiped, flashed Fresh 1.1, wiped, flashed gumbo. And then I re-downloaded the apps above. I work 7 days a week, I like to read Ebooks before I go to bed, I use lightning bug when I sleep, and if I'm riding with someone I play my emulators. Thats the story of my phone use. Also listen to music if I take a day off and im playing xbox. Theres nothing running in the background. I always have at lest 3-4 bars of signal strength. I turn off mobile network (data) when not using it. I keep my GPS off. I check Spare Parts, and everything in there is pretty much correct. My phones awake time is about 20%, if that. haven't checked in a couple days. So, tonight I'm gonna wipe, re-install Fresh 1.1, re-install Gumbo, and see if that helps at all. Is there any kind of consensus on the best settings for setCPU to save my battery?
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Thanks for the detailed reply...it helps us get a better picture of your habits.
That being said, use the ondemand 528/245 and you should be just fine. Make sure to set it to save those settings on reboot too, because setCPU used to (not sure if it still does) set itself to performance mode on reboot otherwise which would definitely drain your battery.
alright this is probably a stupid question but how do i check awake time with spare parts? is it under battery history? then is it partial wake usage option?
And is Locale.apk known to be a battery hog...I feel like it might be...ouch.
rt1oo said:
alright this is probably a stupid question but how do i check awake time with spare parts? is it under battery history? then is it partial wake usage option?
And is Locale.apk known to be a battery hog...I feel like it might be...ouch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just under Settings > About Phone > Status then all the way down
I was pondering possible reasons for the battery life problem that many of us are well aware of. Some peoples batterys will last a good day or two and then theres people like me who charge my phone in the morning and when i get home in the afternoon just to keep it alive and this is compared with people using the same rom. So i thought maybe there could be something to do with what the battery level is when the phone is rooted or a new rom flashed, and this process may reduce the battery cycle to a specific point. E.g. if i 1st root and load my new rom on my phone at 50%, when booted it could show 100% but its actually 50% than it should be. i have not tested this but im just putting it forward as an idea. if anyone does have the time to unroot, charge to 100% and then reroot their phone + custom rom and test the battery life could they please post their results here. No harm in trying ...
EDIT:It seems we have found a solution or alteast a way to greatly improve battery life by putting my random idea and the information from maxisma togethere.. here are the following steps:
1. When the battery is low e.g. 10% boot into recovery mode and wipe->battery data
2. Reboot and then drain the battery or let it die (turn on mobile network add the 'sync now' widget and keep syncing with the music on loud - works pretty fast)
3. Leaving the phone dead put it on charge and let it charge fully till the led indicates green (may take longer than normal)
4. UNPLUG!! the charger then boot the phone up and your battery life should be much better
TIP!! Remeber when changing and flashing new roms to unplug the phone from charge after you boot!
Hope this works for you all PM me for results (i went from 5-10% loss an hour to what is now about 1-2% max )
Nice idea but almost certain your wrong
Edit: turns out that you shouldn't boot your phone while charging after all
I've think it's more likely to do with how I charge my phone. If I charge the phone on my PC then the battery lasts me a day. On Sunday night I charged it with a mains charger, and a day and a half later I still have 40% left. That's with constant WiFi, Talk, calls and text messages.
Sometimes I'll do the same things mentioned above and the battery will be about 20% by the time I'm going to bed.
I could be very wrong, I'm no battery expert!
There shouldn't be any difference between PC charging and mains charging. The mains charger would utilise a transformer to give the same oomph as a PC gives...if not it'd fry the battery whilst charging.
Funnily enough, mains AC - DC transforms are a little choppy, although at such a low current it should be entirely negligible, but your PC's power supply should give a cleaner power output than the mains. Are you sure it isn't just a placebo, I still like to think charging my PSP via the mains rather than USB will do it quicker and last longer, since its dedicated
TheAshMan said:
I've think it's more likely to do with how I charge my phone. If I charge the phone on my PC then the battery lasts me a day. On Sunday night I charged it with a mains charger, and a day and a half later I still have 40% left. That's with constant WiFi, Talk, calls and text messages.
Sometimes I'll do the same things mentioned above and the battery will be about 20% by the time I'm going to bed.
I could be very wrong, I'm no battery expert!
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Click to collapse
I've heard this theory before. I can't even begin to fathom how this could be possible. I hereby dismiss it as 'rubbish'.
Seriously though, I think it's far more likely to be related to the apps/widgets people are using after flashing the rom. The only thing that differs drastically from build to build is the different apps that people install.
Might be worth those with very crap battery lives sending me an hours worth of logcat. I can do an hours worth of logcat for myself (I never have battery issues), and compare the results.
He's partly right.
Android has a bug that when it's plugged into a charger while booting up, it'll report a higher battery status than it actually is.
This is preventing the phone from charging the battery completely.
So, a recommendation for you: Always unplug your phone from the charger before powering it up.
Attempt
Since my last post ive drained my battery out. Kept the phone off and charged it fully. It did take longer than normal which could be a good thing. Ive booted it up about 15 mins ago and il post later/tomorrow about how the battery performs now.
WOOO
I maybe jumping the gun a bit here but my phone says an up time of 1hour 27 mins. and normally its about an hour to about 5-10% of battery life and im sorry to say... im still on 100% WOO . I will still report how this lasts through to tomorrow, however i think theres enough evidence to suggest that the method stated earlier seems to fix what seemed to be a 'shortend battery cycle'. Anyone else with a short battery life i advise you to do the same asi have and please feedback to me with any results.. hope this has been helpful
EDIT: Its been two hours now and still 100% woooo
I got escited too bratfink when I had 100% battery for ages while it was in sleep, then I dl'd a few progs from market and whoosh my battery started disappearing faster than expected. Try downloading a few things and you'll see your battry disappearing quicktime.
minfree or ramzswap off could be causing the issue.
I remember before I put that tweak on my phone (when it first came out), my battery life was amazing.
After I put the values in for init.d as from the forum page below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622666&page=6
the battery life started disappearing like mad! and this was on a modaco rom!
I think now that all the new 2.1 roms are including this minfree tweak it is causing this battery issue to be carried over. All attempts to reduce battery drain are not having as much effect as they could because of this.
I would like to try one of these new roms without the tweak but I do not have the knowhow to stop it. i.e. put the original init.d (or equivalent) for the the roms in place.
You might argue that the memory clearing has nothing to do with the battey drain, but what i saw was that it did on a modaco rom. I don't know whether it is the switching of ramzswap or the minfree settings ( i have a feeling it is both.
Can a chef cook one of their roms without the tweak and keep the original settings?
adb remount
adb shell rm /system/etc/init.d/02memkill
then reboot.
kendong2 said:
adb remount
adb shell rm /system/etc/init.d/02memkill
then reboot.
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Click to collapse
I'm on the BeHero v1.3.2,m will that command put my phone memory settings back to what they would normally be without the taskkiller?
If so can I just remove that file with OI file explorer as atm my laptop usb aint working (can't connect to phone properly, can only charge)
If you use Bluetooth, GPS*, or plug/unplug usb, CPU lock at 528Mhz and battery drain. This happend in all eris/roms.
I can see with Battery Graph while I sleep the battery is full, but no reason (only unlock to check time, kill alarms, read mail,...) the battery drains constantly. (no tweeter, no facebook, no GPS, no BT,..),
This kernel sucks. It's very buggy but is what is
kendong2 said:
adb remount
adb shell rm /system/etc/init.d/02memkill
then reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's OK managed to fix the usb on my laptop.
I am currently performing the third step...i really hope this works cuz I am getting really really horrible battery life right now...I get only about 8 hours with ocassional use...like listening to music, browsing, taking pictures, sms.
thanks for posting this thread.
Ill post the results tomorrow ( hopefully positive)
I noticed that using the overclock widget (even with the lower clock option when screen is off) also eats some battery, it definitely reduced my usage time on Android 1.5.
Could someone confirm?
I dont know what it is and why people have this bad battery drain.
I have the VillainRom 3.4 installed. Totally NO drain. I turned on Bluetooth and called several times. Battery drain is 8% in 12 hours .
I did not install any widgets. Pure standard custom ROM with newest radio.
Leeejohn said:
I dont know what it is and why people have this bad battery drain.
I have the VillainRom 3.4 installed. Totally NO drain. I turned on Bluetooth and called several times. Battery drain is 8% in 12 hours .
I did not install any widgets. Pure standard custom ROM with newest radio.
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Click to collapse
exactly my view.
I'm using HeroDroid and i had really bad battery drain problem. I'm a sort of heavy user and with bluetooth & gps permantly on, my phone had drained out by lunch time. After doing some tests, i have found that my problem was related to GPS. If i boot my phone with GPS off and left it at off, i get the same battery level usage as my original cupcake 1.5 ROM. Perharps you guys can try it and post your results.
rubik said:
I'm using HeroDroid and i had really bad battery drain problem. I'm a sort of heavy user and with bluetooth & gps permantly on, my phone had drained out by lunch time. After doing some tests, i have found that my problem was related to GPS. If i boot my phone with GPS off and left it at off, i get the same battery level usage as my original cupcake 1.5 ROM. Perharps you guys can try it and post your results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that to help as well. In the last 3h10m it only went down by 4%. That's definitely a lot better than what I was getting before and with the previous ROM. I am using the new Autokiller and Overclock widget if that helps any and booted up with my GPS off and followed the steps mentioned in the first post.
hmm if its the case that the phone is "capping" the maximum amount of charge the phone can have then it should take longer to charge also
my battery life i kinda okay, lasts 10-12 hours with intermediate use, using battey graph app it took me 70 mins to charge from 40% to 100%
ill let it drain out tonight and see how long it takes for a full charge
it would be good if we could compare results with people with and without battery problems
Ok guys here is the deal. Some people claim they are getting amazing battery life and I want to know what they are running.
If you are getting great battery life like some claim. Post up this info about your phone. Let me know if i left out anything.
1. ROM
2. Kernel
3. Radio version
4. WiMax radio version
3. Are you using set cpu if so how are your profiles set up
4. Are you using juice defender/ultimate juice if so how are your profiles set up
5.Sync Settings
6.Radios always on or do you turn them on and off
7.Display settings
8.Categorize usage (light,moderate,heavy)
9.How do you charge your battery(through the phone, through the phone with an odd technique, wall charger, car charger, usb, etc..)
10.Anything else that would affect battery life/miscellaneous comments
11.Post up some screen shots of battery life unplugged and device up and awake time(be sure to reboot before your battery run as awake and up time do not reset every time you unplug)
I will be testing out my phone today and ill post my results later. Thanks guys I think this should help users get better battery life.
SantaClause88 said:
1. ROM
2. Kernel
3. Radio version
4. WiMax radio version
3. Are you using set cpu if so how are your profiles set up
4. Are you using juice defender/ultimate juice if so how are your profiles set up
5.Sync Settings
6.Radios always on or do you turn them on and off
7.Display settings
8.Categorize usage (light,moderate,heavy)
9.How do you charge your battery(through the phone, through the phone with an odd technique, wall charger, car charger, usb, etc..)
10.Anything else that would affect battery life/miscellaneous comments
11.Post up some screen shots of battery life unplugged and device up and awake time(be sure to reboot before your battery run as awake and up time do not reset every time you unplug)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good luck on trying to start a "definitive" thread. I think you may be asking for a bit much of people though. 11 items? screenshots?
How do you define "amazing"? I generally get about 17-21 hours with moderate usage on baked snack 1.7 with default kernel. I have latest radio, and the 2nd latest wimax radio. I'm not running cetcpu, any of the juices, or anytype of task killer, although I do have systempanel set up to monitor all the time. I have echange and gmail set up to sync as items arrive (with no off peak times). I uninstalled FB (cuz it would try and sync even when I told it not to - even the one for sense), uninstalled news, stocks and all of the other bloatware. data always on, rarely use wifi (cuz my router sucks), and keep radios always on - i never turn them off. Moderate daily usage - maybe 20 minutes worth of calls, read and reply to 15-20 emails, 40-60 minutes of pandora, 30 minutes of internet browsing with stock browser, and my biggest battery drain is the xda app, which as some of you might have guessed, I'm slightly addicted to. I generally charge for an hour or 2 at night with the stock wall charger, then top off in the car on the way to work if I'm below 75% or so (30 minute drive will charge about 25% battery with an aftermarket palm pre car charger). Keep my brightness at auto until I get home, when I change it to 19% (because I can't seem to get the slider to hit exactly 20% on the dazzle widget lol)
occationally, I'll charge at my desk or on the way home, but those are the exceptions, on days when I'm using the phone heavily
biggest thing Ive found to help my battery is system panel - helped me identify a number of rogue apps using cpu and sucking my battery dry.
no screenshots.
and just so you know, you can probably find all of this info by searching and going through the threads. There are a ton of battery threads already.
edit - heyhey this is my 600th post!
so ij am wondering about battery life it really sucks balls i can't get this phone to last over 4 hours on a full charge i have a advanced taskiller juice defender is there something i can do to resolve this or will the battery ext really help this out tremendously another question swype i can't get it to work on my evo anyone have a idea why i don't really see the imput method to enter swype either.
Get rid of ATK and Juice Defender. They do more bad than good.
Is your phone rooted? and have you "conditioned" you battery yet? What do you do with your phone? These things could help us help you.
I am rooted with MikG ROM and I conditioned my battery. I get at least 15 hours out of mine and that is with streaming Pandora for at least 6 of those hours.
As for your Swype issue, make sure it is installed. It comes standard with Sense and any of the Evo updates.
EDIT: I was looking for the post I followed to condition my battery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712990
This helped my battery life a great deal.
Four hours?! You've gotta have all your radios on and be doing a lot of something for it to go down that fast. Root that action, get a good kernel and do some CPU scaling and maybe some undervolting.
I agree with CDKJudoka, get rid of task killer. Although, Juice Defender doesn't seem to be a battery drain. If you're not using Bluetooth turn off, big drain. Also you must check any email accounts you may have set up. Goto settings and check how frequent they are sync'ing. Same goes for FaceBook and other similar apps. 4G is a battery drain, especially if signal is weak or toggling between 3G. If you're not rooted, you may want to consider it. After rooting mine, battery life has drastically improved (depending on ROM). I'm also running MikG ROM, which works great for me. I used to have the Seidio 3500 battery to last the day. Now the stock one does the same.
As far as Swype, goto menu/settings/language & keyboard, select Swype and tap Swype settings, then choose tutorial. At this point it should let you choose input method. Hope this helps.
Well here's how good the Evo 4G battery life can be:
I recently upgraded to the Evo 3D and left my Evo 4G laying on my bedside table using it to check email and as a backup alarm clock. GRANTED it doesn't have service and everything is underclocked and my battery is an extended battery.. BUT I picked it up about an hour ago. 7 days 13 hours on battery with no charging... and still 8 percent left on my battery which will probably make it until mid-day tomorrow. Under normal use I was getting 3-4 days on a charge.
CM7 and Tiamat kernel.
If you arent rooted here is what you can do:
1) turn off wifi, data, gps, bluetooth when not in use. (I also turn off the wireless networks location service)
2) turn off haptic feedback and vibrations on keyboard.
3) turn off automatic syncing
--Increase the time email, facebook, gmail, twitter, etc. refreshes data. Instead of every 30minutes, make it 2hrs. I turn auto refresh off because I update every time I go into the app anyways.
4) If youre running gingerbread- turn off google backup (under backup data)
5) turn off any animations in the system.
Now if your evo is rooted here is what you can do:
1) download setcpu and underclock the cpu and set up profiles for when the screen turns off that the cpu downclocks low.
2) user vipermod's undervolting script to make the cpu run at lower voltages.
3) use CM7 or MIUI for your custom ROM. (Someone please suggest a sense/gingerbread rom that has good battery life)- A good kernal with one of these is Thiamat or Saveged-zen
@ CDKJudoka i am going to give it a shot hope this works as for the rest of you guys thanks for the help the awnser is yes i am rooted and i am running android 2.3.4 kernal version i am usiong is 2.6.37.6 _cynogenmod 01504 rom is gingerbread-evo-deck 1.2 buld is grj22 i noticed my battery is a little better with this rom not a whole lot better maybe it is because i am running a stock rom everything is off as far a underclocking i will do it if i have to however i believe i should not have to underclock it for it to get through the day just a opinioni wonder if i can take my phone to sprint and have them look at phone and see if there is some battery issues is there a way that they can do that even though i am rooted. i am not sure if i can reverse it cause doing all this on linux can be a bit of a issue? thanks everyone for the quick response i will try battery conditioning tonight
bfitzpatrickd2d said:
@ CDKJudoka i am going to give it a shot hope this works as for the rest of you guys thanks for the help the awnser is yes i am rooted and i am running android 2.3.4 kernal version i am usiong is 2.6.37.6 _cynogenmod 01504 rom is gingerbread-evo-deck 1.2 buld is grj22 i noticed my battery is a little better with this rom not a whole lot better maybe it is because i am running a stock rom everything is off as far a underclocking i will do it if i have to however i believe i should not have to underclock it for it to get through the day just a opinioni wonder if i can take my phone to sprint and have them look at phone and see if there is some battery issues is there a way that they can do that even though i am rooted. i am not sure if i can reverse it cause doing all this on linux can be a bit of a issue? thanks everyone for the quick response i will try battery conditioning tonight
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Click to collapse
Not a problem dude. I don't have my phone underclocked at all and I am using the newest stock ROM. Over the past three days I have charged my phone overnight once, and I am still going strong. You will notice the battery drop very quickly after removing it from the charger. Mine drops from 100% to 89% in about 30 mins, but it holds at 89% for a good 2 hours before it drops again. That is while streaming Pandora and downloading a 260mb ROM over WiFi.
I will just let you know now that if you bring a rooted phone into Sprint for service because of battery issues, they may try to blame the root and the custom ROM for it. Try to do the steps that are outlined by the other posters and the HTC double battery thread. It may just save you a trip to the Repair Centre.
I took my phone into a sprint store for them to check the battery. They ran a test on a machine. The guy said it passed but said "I noticed youre running a custom ROM, so it may be that."
But I've realized I get bad signal where I work during the day and somtimes roam while in the building. On weekends im able to go easily 10hrs and only be at 75% (stock battery).
You may also want to check to see if you have any rogue apps running in the background that eat up cpu usage or data
I've unlocked and am running Ken's Alien ROM and so far I really like this. Im an international user on orange uk, so I use faux123's kernel for Oc and ram fix. But there is one caveat. I have really rubbish battery life. I did all the stuff (charge to 100% from 0% wipe stats, calibrate). The fact is, I left it on, for ten hours. The display was on for about 2. No usage. When I returned the battery was 30%, with phone idle consuming 30%. Newer radio needed? What can I do? My baseband is N_01.95.00R .
I've heard good things about the newest AT&T radio for battery. How can I flash this to an international ATRIX?
Help appreciated
Edit : phone idle consumed 40% :O
I have the exact same issue. Unfortunately, all that I can say is that changing neither kernel, radio or rom did fix this issue. I had some improvements when I followed this topic and flashed back my stock kernel (with no OC), but still very far from what I would consider a decent battery lifetime (10h with 3g + email and twitter sync and screen off)
Some users have tried and it worked well from them. I'm on the team that didn't work ): But you could give it a shot
Calibrate your battery. Charge to 100% wipe battery stats. Then discharge to shut off. Then charge to 100% again.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
_Dennis_ said:
Calibrate your battery. Charge to 100% wipe battery stats. Then discharge to shut off. Then charge to 100% again.
OP stated he tried calibration without success... I too am having subpar battery performance - interested to see what others have done to achieve better battery performance besides the previously mentioned methods.
Sent via Motorola Olympus using XDA Premium
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Click to collapse
_Dennis_ said:
Calibrate your battery. Charge to 100% wipe battery stats. Then discharge to shut off. Then charge to 100% again.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done all that stuff, but it doesn't help IMHO. (at least it didn't do anything for me)
Only 2 real fixes that have worked for me are these:
1. Freeze unnecessarily apps with Titanium Backup (use "System panel" from the Market to find out what keeps constantly running/popping up in the background that you don't need)
AND
2. Turn off Automatic Sync, and get in the habit of doing that stuff manually all at once.
@2. I use to sync in the worst signal areas, and that drained the **** out of my battery. Sync/get your updates manually in strong signal areas whenever possible...
New radio from the fruitcakes thread and the latest faux123 kernel seemed to kill that bug.
I sold my atrix to my less then nerdy friend and I just fixed that bug for him yesterday. Same deal tho...
Sent from my Samsung Seine
I noticed from X2 battery (I think) every minute or two the phone constantly checks for either cell or data signal. I can let my iphone 4 sit on the counter all day and it might use 1-2% but my atrix drops 5% in an hour without touching it. No calibration or battery fix will help. Even CM7 uses it fairly quickly. Im running Alien 4 with max battery saver and gps and auto sync disabled...it should last for a full day with heavy usage.
Alien 4 w/theme, faux123 kernel, everything at stock settings for this rom, nothing frozen, and I am sitting at 1 day and 13 hours with 28% left, mostly idle, but an hour long call and bit of game playing.
If you are getting something on the order of just a few hours then your phone or battery must be bad. I am doing nothing to extend the battery life other then using the default settings.
The phone should get 2 days sitting on the counter..LOL Of all the phones I've had and iPhones I've jailbroken, there is definately something wrong with the Motorola or Android software running on this phone. I've never had to worry about calibrating or battery fixes. This is just my honest opinion. I've had 2 ROMs in all the ones I've flashed that had good battery life and I think it was a coincedence that maybe something didn't load right or got deleted by accident.
Phoneguy589 said:
The phone should get 2 days sitting on the counter..LOL Of all the phones I've had and iPhones I've jailbroken, there is definately something wrong with the Motorola or Android software running on this phone. I've never had to worry about calibrating or battery fixes. This is just my honest opinion. I've had 2 ROMs in all the ones I've flashed that had good battery life and I think it was a coincedence that maybe something didn't load right or got deleted by accident.
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Click to collapse
Most iphone users need to charge at LEAST once a day. A lot of them charge more than once. I can sometimes get 2 days usage from my Atrix, with heavy texting, some calls, and some games - which is pretty damn good.
Maybe your battery is the issue. not all Atrix are created equal and not all batteries function the same
When you go into settings>running apps, does your free and used ram add up to over 800? Mine used to and now it doesn't. It adds up to like 750....I always thought it would add up to mid to upper 800's. It also could be the battery but I was pointing out that I have left my wife's Iphone 4 and my atrix on the counter all day (neither one got used) and my atrix was down in the 70% range and her phone was at 96%. I'm just thinking something is running or consuming the battery. I've used fastboot to do all wipes and still seem to be having an issue.... I also flash ROMs every few days so maybe the battery calibration doesn't have time to really calibrate. I'll pick a combo I like and keeep it for a few days and see if I notice a better battery life.
How long has it been since you've flashed a ROM? It usually takes a few days for it to settle back in and provide decent battery life (at least from my experience). My phone right now has been on for a little over 7 hours and is at about 55% with Display using up 60% of the battery (3hrs on). This is with the Alien v4 and Faux's latest kernel. The first few days after flashing a ROM my phone would usually only last about 7 hours.
i get 2-3 days on stand by. and about 6-8 hours of straight use. 3-5 if i'm using mobile broadband.
1: keep gps and data off (background data is almost irrelevant.)
2: use green power
3: use a task manager to close applications that you are not using. (be sure you can add "ignore" exceptions otherwise get a different manager. anyone who says not to use a task manager is a ****ing punk hipster ***** fag who's irreparable damage to the geeks good name will not go unpunished)
4: do the "wipe battery stats" bit after every flash (100% charge, wipe stats, full discharge)
5: is to install a custom kernel and use SetCPU to underclock to 312 while the screen is off..
most importantly: use your head. if you stream 1080p using mobile broadband for 2 hours your battery is dead.
I flash ROMs every few days but I call BS on the whole "Battery Calibration" thing. If my battery is showing 4200mv...it's full. It will die faster the more processes the phone does so my point it....whether I flash a rom every day it shouldn't matter, if the phone (After I set up and install whetever apps) gets unplugged, something drains the battery. Maybe the infra red sensor is always on, or a process is always starting and ending, who knows but the battery cannot be calibrated, the phone might need to be calibrated to read the correct voltage but batteries don't hold memory unlike the old NiCD rechargables from years ago.
When you flash a rom the battery stats get messed up. Based on what I know the way the battery drains depends on previous battery usage data hence the reason why it last longer after a few days of use after a rom is flashed. It needs to build up new data to correctly report battery use. Maybe I'm wrong but my experience supports this.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
I am running Alien v4 with the stock kernel and I am getting well over a day with pretty heavy usage (phone calls, texts, emails, FB, twitter, XDA, Games). My setup:
Battery Mode= Maximum Battery Savings
Auto Brightness off, usually on 30%
Unused blur apps frozen
Reinstalled performancemanager.apk (blur task manager), set to kill unnecessary apps after 2 minutes of inactivity
No overclock, I don't see the need to overclock outside of high benchmark scores. Without overclock I still play every game smoothly without any hickups or slow downs. The phone still feels super fast without it.
I turn off all unused services (gps, bluetooth, wifi)
After you charge your phone and take it off the charger, reboot it.
It seems that a process kills the phones battery after you take it off the charger. You have to reboot after taking it off. It works wonders. Currently on 16 hours of use @ 45% battery on alien rom with stock kernel.
Cheers.
lilhaiti said:
I am running Alien v4 with the stock kernel and I am getting well over a day with pretty heavy usage (phone calls, texts, emails, FB, twitter, XDA, Games). My setup:
Battery Mode= Maximum Battery Savings
Auto Brightness off, usually on 30%
Unused blur apps frozen
Reinstalled performancemanager.apk (blur task manager), set to kill unnecessary apps after 2 minutes of inactivity
No overclock, I don't see the need to overclock outside of high benchmark scores. Without overclock I still play every game smoothly without any hickups or slow downs. The phone still feels super fast without it.
I turn off all unused services (gps, bluetooth, wifi)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the same battery settings recently. I turn off GPS and Sync unless I'm using navigation. Which blur apps do you freeze? I just noticed (read on the Alien thread) On the unlock screen, hold the home button and it unlocks. I wonder if something like in pocket detection keeps the IR eye on all the time.
Phoneguy589 said:
I use the same battery settings recently. I turn off GPS and Sync unless I'm using navigation. Which blur apps do you freeze? I just noticed (read on the Alien thread) On the unlock screen, hold the home button and it unlocks. I wonder if something like in pocket detection keeps the IR eye on all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have frozen:
All of the authenticators
Weather
Tasks,
Home,(I use launcher pro)
Music (I use Poweramp)
Toggle Widgets,
News,
GingerBlur,
Gallery, (I use QuicPic)