Strange Battery behavor - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

ok my battery has good days and bad days. I have now tried something different and it seems to have worked for me. When I wake up in the middle of the night and the light is green i unplug my phone from charger. Then when i wake up four to five hours later it is usually around 95%. In the past I let it charge till I woke up then I would send a text or two a quick call or check email and it would drop to 88% or 90% in minutes. But now that I leave it unplugged for about five hours I get up and do what I usually do and battery doesn't seem to drain as quick. My question is why does this happen???? Strange that before it would go from 100 to 90ish real quick. now i start off at 95% and battery drains slower.

My battery is absolutely horrible. I unplugged it today n within minutes it was down to 93% n i didnt even use it at all. I have GPS turned off, wifi is off, 4G is off, friendstream is gone, i have everything set up to sync manually so idk wat the deal is.

If you are running a custom Rom you should do a search in the dev section for how to calibrate your battery.

it is stock rom. I have tried every battery trick. you could think of even the one someone posted from htc. none have work but for some reason this seems to be giving me better battery life. and i am just wondering why and sharing for other people to maybe try.

nothing new under the sun. a search would have revealed the following posts...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=701567
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712990
it sounds like voodoo, but based on the battery graphs before and after...it worked for me. the upgrade to 1.47 and 2.5 baseband seemed to help quite a bit too.

Strange battery design
OK it seems odd that the EE's who designed the phone specified a 4.2 volt charging cut off to the battery, and a 3.5V battery. It was probably to limit the heat production by components regulating internal voltage.
SO we can either up the charging cut off by rewiring a charger to use the feed but not the sensor ( 4 tabs on a battery), or get a battery rated a a slightly higher voltage ( which would only be partially charged due to the HTC charging algorthym). It may be that the recycling on /off specified by HTC ignores the sensor reading.

Related

Battery Problem

Hi. I have a Voda branded TP2.
I have installed the 1% battery indicator and have realised that the battery is dropping at an alarming rate. In two hours without any data activity, just two calls of 5 mins each and the battery has already reached 74%. The number drops in front of my eyes. Quite scary actually.
Anybody else faced a similar porblem?
2 things I can advice you (as a TP2 beginner)
-First times: charge up to 12 hours non-stop even when light is green (has nothing to do with phone but with the chemical proces inyour battery) this will prolong lifetime
-This TP2 WWE ROM has a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of background running stuff compared to other WM 6.1 - ROMS. So you thing it is not using any current but it is!
Maybe you could install advance task manager and check out all running programs and processes ...
hope this helps ...
greetz,
Kjoere
Thanks. I have done the 12 hours charging many times - about 6-7 times. Will try the advanced task manager.
Anybody else with a battery problem?
Any application / software is known to be a battery drainer?
Thanks
Had a strange one last night. Went to be, put the phone on charge (was about 16% iirc), and the orange light came on to say it was charging. Then, this morning at about 3am, I hear the phone making bleeps. Check it out, and it's at 5%, with orange light flashing. Take out charger, put it back in, and it starts charging. I went out afterwards, came back about 4.30, and it says it was about 80% complete. Go sleep, wake up about 7.30am, and it's fully charged (green light). Then, I unplug charger, turn on, and it says 96%, and I notice it dropping the amount of charge in front of me (like OP's notice), until it got to about 91%.
Now, about 5 hours later, it reckons the charge is 74%. So dunno why it went down so quickly, and why it didn't actually charge... But will keep my eye on it and see how it goes...
data connection
Another way 2 keep your eye on it: check data connection (start>settings>connections>comm manager) a lot of stuff open this connection which uses power. if it turns on without you knowing .... (especially auto-update plugins (weather?)), sometimes AS also ...
gr
C.
For indo, it says here (amongst others)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=519673
that it isn't a good idea to do "old style battery cycling"
I really don't know what to think of LiPo battery management, so many different theories.
Also, something that annoys me is that I fully charge the TP2 overnight, in the morning the lights green. If I simply unlug charger and plug in back in it well go back orange and stay orange for a good half hour... and I can start again a few times...
To be honest, I had to hard reset my device couple of times and haven't had time to 'fully' recharge it after the resets.
I guess I will give it a few days of full charging and then check on the battery.
But, I am not joking when the 1% battery meter just drops numbers faster than a meter at the gas station.
vinayaksupekar said:
To be honest, I had to hard reset my device couple of times and haven't had time to 'fully' recharge it after the resets.
I guess I will give it a few days of full charging and then check on the battery.
But, I am not joking when the 1% battery meter just drops numbers faster than a meter at the gas station.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this problem when I have push mail turn on. If you disable push mail and set it to receive like every 15 mins, it save the power a lot.
Try the advance config to auto disconnect every x mins, this will helps as well.
Hi HaveryR and others,
yep your source isn't to bad. Beginning with full charges (6 to 12 hrs instead of 3 like the manual says) isn't about the old charge-memory story (because Lithium-Ion battery don't work this way, only the nickel-cadmium and nimH do) but about fully charging cells.
I mean the best way to look upon this is like a pile of bricks on top of each other (all different cells if you wish). So the first time it is important to give all the bricks enough time to charge - so even when it says 100% it does not mean that it has (you're indicator is a feedback of a reading by your cpu). So not all the bricks (let's say) have the same quality (yesyes even in this day and age of hight teck).
So you can also take this parallel to discharging: if you discharge fully, you risk that one of these bricks get busted and so will NEVER recover.
So i agree on this with your source a LiOn batter is bettery served with frequent partial charging and must NEVER be drained completely
Greetz,
Kjoere
Guys,
I put the TP2 on for charging the whole night (about 9 hours). In the morning the LED was green and the battery meter said 100%. I took the charger off from the handset and re-inserted the tip in. Guess what? 95%.
AM not sure if it is a battery problem or handset problem?
Its come down to 73% with just one phone call of 5 mins. Mail is on, but its on manual and havent pulled anything since morning.
Any idea?

Desire Battery Voltage Issue

Hi all,
I've been having issues with my phone lasting nowhere as long as my girlfriends identical one,
I installed Quick System Info on both phones, Killed all tasks.. Not only is my display duller than hers on the lowest setting using the power control widget but the voltage on my battery is 3737mV while hers is 4071mV..
Is this cause for concern?
Update, forgot to mention, this is from a full charge on both handsets.
Sounds like your battery is fu#ked!
There seems to be an issue with the way android reports the battery voltage. If I leave my phone on the charger until the light goes green and the indicator says 100%, the voltage will often report between 4.146v - 4.156v.
Upon unplugging the phone would drop to 99% and 4.125v almost immediately.
I noticed the other day that after leaving the battery on the charger overnight the voltage was reporting as 4.206v and I was able to use the phone for over 15min before it dropped to 99% from 100%.
Minimum voltage before your phone powers off is around 3.6v - 3.650v. So 3.737 is pretty close to the cut-off point. The OS is may report 100% charge but your battery is not holding charge.
I had a battery on a different device that was like this. The battery had collapsed. I could charge it for 24hrs and it would not make a difference. Within 30min of use or 1 phone call it would die.
Does your battery have any bugles, bumps or protrusions? This is often a sign of a collapsed battery.
Edit: Don't write when you're tired, silly things come out of your fingers! Soz!
have you tried to swap batteries between the two phones. That will exclude either your phone or the battery from being faulty.
Yes, after scratching my head for a few days I did eventualy come up with the genius idea of putting the battery from the other phone into my phone!! and after charging it up, set it down for an hour and then checked and the battery was on 98% !!
So it looks like there is something wrong with my battery, This morning I woke up and my phone had been charging for 7 hours and was fully charged, I looked at the battery meter and it said 100%, I turned the phone off then back on and checked again.. 90% ???? WTF ??? just from turning the phone off and on?

Is my phone the culprit?

So like everyone else my battery life sucks. No big deal. I bought the extended battery from Sprint, and I can see the battery diminish in front of my eyes. I mean dropping 1 percent per minute. Is there a way to test the phone to see if it is the culprit?
Sent from my PC36100
ther are lots of ways to check things. does it drop 1% a minute all the time meaning you only get 100 minutes? does it only do it when you take it off the charger at 100% where ti will drop to any where from 99-90% in a matter of minutes?
if the later then thats normal and is because the phone doesnt have a trickle charge. this means that the phone charges your battery to 100% then stops however the indicator on the phone will not change it will still show 100% once the acctual power reaches 90% the phone then charges again up to 100%. what this means is once you take your phone off the pwoer if it has been sitting there even if it says it is at 1005 it can be any where from 90-100% which the battery quickly changes to over first few minutes.
If it happens past 90% and all the time then something is wrong and you likely have at least 1 if not more apps running wild on you, you have things set to sync constantly, and you have everything under the sun turned on for your phone.
for apps the paid version of system panel is very nice for monitoring you can go to monitor top and top apps and see which apps are using the most battery/cpu.
witht he information you have given that is aobut the best i can tell you. I would not say everyone has crappy battery life with the evo as i have slowly gotten my phone set up and now with moderate usage i can get 14-15 hours and at least 8-10 with very heavy usage(stock battery) which i dont consider to be crappy battery life.
I appreciate the response, and I forgot to add that I'm running stock unrooted sense. This is not my first Android phone so I know about battery managing. I don't have everything sync every two minutes nor do I have everything turned on. It does drop rather quick even past 90 percent. I think it might be the phone it self. I doubt I got 2 bad batteries, one being extended. I'll see if I could get a device swapped out.
Sent from my PC36100
My first EVO was like that. It drained quickly shortly after charging. I could never figure it out. Till one night before going to bed, I noticed something weird about the bottom keys on the phone. They were " very dimmly " lit. The home, menu, return, search were all dimmly lit. It was I believe a defect in the phone. I got it swapped out. No problems like the 1% drain since then.

Battery Charging Issues

Normally I charge my phone nightly right before I go to bed and don't plug it in at all during the day usually.
I have noticed that on days where I have to use my phone heavily and require a charge midway through the day for the next week my phones battery life is almost cut in half. If I charge it regularly at night for a week or so the battery life will go back to normal. Has anyone else noticed this behavior? I'm trying to figure out if this is an incredible issue or an android issue.
Another thing I noticed is that under the battery stats it lists that my awake time is 43 hours. Its just slightly less that the up time. This makes me think that my phone isn't going to sleep. Anyone know how to tell if my phone is sleeping or tell me which app is keeping my phone from sleeping?
Install this app
http://www.appbrain.com/app/spare-parts/com.androidapps.spare_parts
Go to partial wake. in one of the drop downs.
I checked the partial wake usage and I don't see anything out of the ordinary.
I actually have an update to the situation. As a last resort I wiped my phone and loaded Cyanogen 6.1. At first it was working awesome. Battery life was awesome but as time went on the battery life got worse and worse and now i'm back where I started.
It sure seems like there is software problem with the way the phone tracks the battery usage/charging information. As I said it seems like charging the phone midway through the day or charging the phone before the phone is dead seems to have a negative effect on the battery. I don't get it. Letting the phone completely die isn't realistic. Charging the phone when I go to bed without affecting how long the phone last after the next charge should be totally doable you would think.
Does anyone have any suggestions or insight that might help me out.
You don't say if you charge with the phone powered off or on. But sound like you're always charging with the phone turned on.
I don't think the phone charges fully while turned on (to prevent overheating maybe? ).
If you can, I'd suggest trying to charge with the phone off, at least during the nightly charge.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.11.15
Yes I do charge my phone while its powered on (like the rest of the world). I don't know anyone that turns their phone off to charge.
My phone is paid for by my company so that they can get ahold of me in the event of a server failure or some other IT related disaster. If the phone was off I wouldn't be able to receive those important calls.
I can't believe no one else has witnessed this type of activity with the incredible. I have tried 2 phones (replaced for an unrelated reason) and 3 batteries. The behavior seems like a software glitch. I have noticed with with both AOSP and Sense Roms.
Does anyone have an in depth understanding of how the battery system works on this phone. I also have an Iphone and the battery life compared to my android phone is ridiculous. I would use the Iphone exclusively but it doesn't do everything my android phone can do. I'm hoping there is a way to fix this.
Well, now you do know someone who charges with their phone off. Me!
I'm in IT as well and on call one week per month. But we don't run a third shift, so late night calls are almost never, and they have my land line number.
Back on topic, I have experienced better battery life while charging with the phone off. Maybe you can get an external charger until a solution is found.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.11.15
Well i'm on call 24/7 and I don't have a landline.
What do you mean by "get an external charger until a solution is found." Do you mean a second charger to charge during the day? I have plenty of chargers. Thats part of the problem. Charging in the middle of the day I believe is causing the problem. Until a solution is found? Are you saying there is in fact a problem?
Having to leave my phone plugged in all day kind of defeats the purpose of having a wireless phone don't you think?
Please...anyone have any knowledge of how the charging system works in android and specifically how it might work differently on the incredible?
trevoryour said:
What do you mean by "get an external charger until a solution is found." Do you mean a second charger to charge during the day?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have said get an extra battery and a stand-alone charger that allows you to charge the extra battery while it's disconnected from the phone.
Have you read the thread in general titled 'your battery gauge is lying to you'. (or something like that). Good read. Also there's hundreds of other threads on the inc's battery issues. Well known problem.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.11.15
If your up time and awake time are essentially the same, you definitely have something running in the background. Try menu/settings/applications/running services and see what program might be running that shouldn't be. You can also use an app called System Panel to do a comprehensive survey. I recently had an update that resulted in the program running continuously in the background, affecting my battery life.
Some other threads have discussed that after 40+ hours of up time, their phone goes into max CPU usage all the time. Again, using the app System Panel, I confirmed this for my own phone at 45 hours. My ROM is the stock Froyo 2.2 with a custom kernel. the simple solution is to power off/power on the phone which resets the uptime.
My routine is to charge the phone with power on over night so I can use the alarm. When I get up in the morning, I power off the phone and bump charge it for about 30 minutes until the light turns green again. Then I'm usually good for about 10 - 12 hours of uptime with 3-4 hours of awake time using a 1500 battery. That time can also be reduced considerably if I'm receiving a poor 3G signal.
I did originally have a problem with a program not allowing my phone to sleep but I have since uninstalled that program and now my wake time numbers are where they should be. I think the remaining battery issues are a result of me having to charge my phone in the middle of the day as a result of the misbehaving program prior to me uninstalling it.
It almost seems like the the battery in the incredible has a memory. On a hunch I have started completely discharging my phone completely everynight before I put it on the charger. As a result my battery life as almost doubled. When I get home at night I start playing angry birds with the brightness at full until the battery gets to about 3 percent left. This obviously isn't a permanent solution but It certainly sheds some light on the root of the problem.
Prior to doing the full discharge I did a bump charge and wiped my battery stats. The battery is working great now. I wish someone would create a kernal/rom that has this issue resolved. Since these new lithium batteries aren't supposed to have a memory anymore I'm thinking it has to be something that the OS is doing with the battery stats file.
According to this article you should fully charge and discharge once every 30 or so charging cycles to resync the battery meter with the actual battery voltage. So maybe the complete discharge fixed your problems.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
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Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.11.15
not sure if this will help or not, but i have been running advanced task killer ever since 2.1(haven't gotten around to uninstalling before now, ha ha) and recently uninstalled it and installed watchdog task manager and my battery has increased two fold!
just my two cents worth.

Shutdown at ~25% with new battery and 20% with old

Hello,
I've read the threads about battery in the desire, BATT FIX with new kernels etc but can't really find a definite answer for my problem.
I bought my phone 18 months old and from the beginning it has shut down at about 20%. Tried the battery thing with charging, on/off, charing again etc, wiping battery stats etc but it doesn't seem to matter. So, I thought I'd just buy a new battery and be done with it.
The new battery arrived yesterday (actually, it's a used battery from customer returns but seller tells me it's been tested to be in mint condition). So this battery shows 3% when I first start up with it, "good, this seems to work" I think. But when at 75% the charger indicator (LED light) all of a sudden turns green and battery % jumps straight to 100%. I do the battery calibration trick with on/off charge and wipe battery stats. Stuck at 100% for some time as reported by others trying this "trick", have been using it all day and it shuts down at 25% even worse than the other battery...
The best voltages I've seen on this supposedly new battery is 4,144 and somewhere above 3.5 (nowhere near 3.2 and 4.2). What strikes me as odd is that I get very close to the same values with my old battery so I'm starting to think that maybee both battery are good but the phone reports way wrong values...is this possible?
Battery life with phone and data connection on, 1 gmail account but disabled backup feature (no GPS, BT etc) gives me -5% after 10 hours standby and I can use the phone for browising, light gaming for about 3 hours and 40 minutes before it dies (more or less constant usage at very low autobrightness levels and Turbo 3G enabled).
If someone has some insight into this it would be really helpful before I contact the eBay seller for this particular battery.
Regards, Olle
Same thing
My phone shuts down at 35% now... Is that a problem with the chipset or what? Only with Alex-V's calibrated kernels my phone shuts down at 0%, and sometimes it decalibrates too, but after calibration is Okay. I wonder if i need a new battery or my chipset has issues.

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