Develop Bugs

[Q] Awful battery life. Should I replace my phone?

As I posted in another thread:
I am lucky to even get 12 hours with minimal use. No calls, just some texting and maybe browsing my bank website. Screen is always the killer for me, even on 20% brightness. If I go lower the screen actually flickers.
I bought the red HTC Chichitech batteries and they didn't help me at all.
Tried overclocking module, didn't change much.
The only app that ever shows any significant battery use (over 5%) is Maps, when I use maps.
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Click to collapse
I am rooted, S-OFF, using the Sense Modaco ROM. Battery usage was no better with the Stock Bell Rom before rooting or S-OFF.
My main concern is the screen flickering at low brightness. it's as if it's unable to decide on a specific level of brightness and makes me question if it's actually saving any power.
I set my phone to Auto brightness and I am going to see if that is actually worse of if it's on par with 20%.
Ugh - just realized there is another thread pretty much all about this. I thought it was a different issue. Still, does anyone know if there is a better batch of phones or something? I have a FutureShop warranty so it'd be easy enough for me to replace if it will actually provide a solution

No-one has posted anything, to my knowledge, about a different batch of phones having better battery life. I would check out the other threads about battery life (including those on the G2 side too) and see if you can get yours to last better. But it could just be something faulty on your phone/battery.

Auto-brightness would make it even worse..because there is some type of bug or something that isn't making it function like it should. I was also getting terrible battery life until I followed some of these steps: http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/20-tips-to-improve-htc-evo-4g-battery-life.html
Biggest killers are any widgets that are constantly updating..or facebook/twitter apps that are constantly updating. As well..i recommend SetCPU to underclock your phone when your screen is turned off. This should also help with conserving battery life along with some of the steps provided in that link.

steviewevie said:
No-one has posted anything, to my knowledge, about a different batch of phones having better battery life. I would check out the other threads about battery life (including those on the G2 side too) and see if you can get yours to last better. But it could just be something faulty on your phone/battery.
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Click to collapse
I am considering waiting a month or so and then having mine replaced. Unless I managed to figure something else out. My HTC Legend had better battery life.
Rickroller said:
Auto-brightness would make it even worse..because there is some type of bug or something that isn't making it function like it should. I was also getting terrible battery life until I followed some of these steps: http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/20-tips-to-improve-htc-evo-4g-battery-life.html
Biggest killers are any widgets that are constantly updating..or facebook/twitter apps that are constantly updating. As well..i recommend SetCPU to underclock your phone when your screen is turned off. This should also help with conserving battery life along with some of the steps provided in that link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason I want to try auto or higher brightness is to see if lowering it was actually saving me any battery life. I am curious if there's a driver or display issues that causes it to use the same amount regardless of the setting. So far I don't seem to be running out any faster @ auto than I was at 20%, but it hasn't been a long enough time to tell for sure.
Also I am unable to do the battery tip for the evo because once I turn off the phone and go to charge it again, it's instantly green. But I am going to try it anyway even though it's green.
Since writing the first post I used the OC module to get my phone to 1.2ghz. I have SetCPU set to run on boot with the onDemand setting. I have a profile that says to slow the CPU when the screen is off. From what I've read it doesn't make a ton of difference with this particular phone, but we'll see...

rewen said:
Also I am unable to do the battery tip for the evo because once I turn off the phone and go to charge it again, it's instantly green. But I am going to try it anyway even though it's green.
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Click to collapse
Yep, that's what I found too, when you try and charge it thinks it's already charged and goes green straight away again. But as you said, worth a try.

I just wanted to report back and say that I had my phone replaced. So far so good:
- No screen flicker issue at low brightness
- Battery has lasted nearly 20 hours with moderate-heavy use (played NFS Shift, setup basically everything on the phone after rooting, installed all my apps, backups, flashed some roms, 20+ texts, 3-4 short calls, showing people random apps.)
If it's not all in my head then this is definitely much better now!

Curious. It seems that everyone who reports the screen flickering problem has poor battery life.
Defective displays?

I feel my battery life is pretty bad as well. I've unplugged the phone this morning at 7 AM. Now it's 2 PM, and I'm at 37%. In between, the only things I've done are: send/receive a few emails and chat on gtalk. Brightness is at 40%, animations are turned off, wifi and gps location off. Using latest Cyanogenmod (6.1.1) and have no screen flicker issues
Edit: 17 minutes later, it's now at 27%

How long have you had the phone for?
Initially the first few days I got the phone, battery life was really bad, could drain in a few hours.
After a week or two of use, I now have reasonable battery life, the phone can last all day with light usage and still have lots of juice left. Actually I think if you make a few calls and a few txts, battery could last 2 days. If you play with it, one day for sure but you need to plug in over night.

(if you're talking to me) It's quite new, just picked it up on Friday actually. Also I've kept on researching, and it seems that poor coverage (like I have at work, from 7 til 3) tends to drain the battery even more, since the phone keeps switching between HSPA, 3G, etc.

I had my first one for about a month at least. This replacement was from Saturday.
Today I've had my phone unplugged since 8am, it's 5:30pm and I have 45% battery left, but the screen is the #2 user. Standby is #1 @ 40% of my battery usage, due to over 4 hours of time without a signal. The screen is only 24% and has been on for 48 minutes. Voice calls is #3 at 23% battery usage, with 23mins of calling.
My other phone would have died by now.
Also I spent an hour of streaming bluetooth audio to my car. Bluetooth doesn't even register on the battery usage. I've never seen it use more than 2% and it's always on. I am not sure why people say it uses a lot.

Just want to share my experience.
I too had poor battery life. Stock Bell ROM. Got to 3:00 pm and it used to die. Use this for work. Pushing data all day from Exchange server, bluetooth on all day because I'm in and out of the car, talk on average 30 minutes per day, texting, surfing, tethering, blah blah. Believe it or not, my old Omnia II would get me thru the day no problem.
I was also tempted to return it. But I decided to try a few things. Installed Set CPU and a task killer at the same time. Shut down as many tasks as possible on start up. Widgets and accounts, except Exchange-push, run and sync every hour. I get about 40% battery by dinner. I am happy now .

I'm quite happy with my Desire Z's battery life, It lasts for about 36 hours with moderate use. I have Juicedefender and Ultimatejuice installed, data or wifi are opened only when an app needs data connection, this increased my battery life by 10 hours or sth like that. Nice app.

I had terrible battery life until I went overseas. It is a stock Bell ROM, but I arrived in Spain Monday and am using a Spanish SIM card.
My battery life has increased from 14 hours with Bell's 3G signal to my current 27 hours and 35% remaining battery using GSM and WiFi always on. Funny thing is that no matter where I am it says the screen is by far my biggest power drain.

Where did you buy your Desire Z and how did you get it replaced? I'm with Bell and they would take mine to send out for "repair" but not sure if that will do anything. This will take 3-6 weeks apparently and I'm not sure if they it is worth it.
I'm running 10 hours with that I consider fair usage (few calls, text, map/gsp, and facebook.) My display is the highest battery usage at 60% and on for about 1:45h. I'm very disappointed.

Hey,
it's the same with my G2.
Max 24h.
I've standard ROM installed.
No WiFi.
Brightness to about 30%.
Juice Defender is installed and I'm surfing and just the regular stuff, but even if it's just in standby, it's taking a lot of power (display takes most)
Best!
-blubberor

architect_ said:
Where did you buy your Desire Z and how did you get it replaced? I'm with Bell and they would take mine to send out for "repair" but not sure if that will do anything. This will take 3-6 weeks apparently and I'm not sure if they it is worth it.
I'm running 10 hours with that I consider fair usage (few calls, text, map/gsp, and facebook.) My display is the highest battery usage at 60% and on for about 1:45h. I'm very disappointed.
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Click to collapse
I bought mine at FutureShop since I didn't think Bell would let me without buying at least a month of service (or being an existing customer). I also purchased FutureShop's extended warranty which is how I was able to get it swapped for a new one so quickly.

I use the extended battery for the evo. Lasts about 1.5 days with ass loads of use. Just have to trim the plastic edges a bit.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I have a couple of those red chichitech batteries but I wasn't able to notice any improvement with the problem phone.

My Desire Z also has a flickering screen at lowest brightness, and with moderate use it dies after about 12 hours max. Even on lowest brightness the screen ueses 59% battery. I rarely manage to make it through the day without having to charge the phone. Im on stock ROM with latest OTA (1.72) btw.
Gonna have it replaced next week just cause of the flickering screen. Has anyone tried the 1700mAH battery from seidio?

[Q] First time with new kernel, wanting to better my battery life (HeyitsLou #8)...

...and I've verified that the custom kernel was installed by going into About Phone. Is there anything else I have to do for the new kernel's advatanges to, well, take effect? I took off SetCPU since in the dev forum they were saying that the kernel itself will do what SetCPU did.
Sorry for the newb question. I've just rooted my phone and started researching a bit and wanted to make sure I didn't mess up or leave something out. The actual visual part of the phone looks the EXACT same as before I put the new kernel in.
I appreciate any help you give me in advance

I'd recommend you just use your phone like normal for a few days - if your phone is anything like mine, you'll see marked improvement in your battery life. The other day, with light use, I still had 30% remaining after 25 hours unplugged (without bump charging)... impressive!

I was in the same position a week ago. I installed Lou's #8 on my stock rom and it seemed to drain my battery faster. But I let it drain until it shut off and then charged my phone overnight. Turned it back on, and guess what? My battery indicator was stuck at 100% for like an hour. I thought it was a glitch, but it wasn't. That day, I had a 21 hour uptime... before I installed it, I could barely get more than 4 hours before having to plug in.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

tim.ton said:
I was in the same position a week ago. I installed Lou's #8 on my stock rom and it seemed to drain my battery faster. But I let it drain until it shut off and then charged my phone overnight. Turned it back on, and guess what? My battery indicator was stuck at 100% for like an hour. I thought it was a glitch, but it wasn't. That day, I had a 21 hour uptime... before I installed it, I could barely get more than 4 hours before having to plug in.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Does it matter when I allow my phone to discharge the battery completely? I will have to keep it charged and plugged in tonight because it's also my alarm to wake up to, but I'll have the battery dissipating all day tomorrow until it hopefully dies.

VrikkGWJ said:
Does it matter when I allow my phone to discharge the battery completely? I will have to keep it charged and plugged in tonight because it's also my alarm to wake up to, but I'll have the battery dissipating all day tomorrow until it hopefully dies.
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Click to collapse
I don't think it matters. Mine conveniently died just when I was heading to bed that night. I do use it as my alarm as well. Thankfully, it was a weekend night.

Update: Running it today, haven't seen much change yet (but it's only the first day). However, how can I check to see what my battery usage is (I know you can check in "About Phone" but is there a numeral amount that would tell you guys something of significance)? Therefore if I posted something like that here people could tell me, "That really sucks, it's not working for you", or "Hey, working fine!"
Also, where I sit at work doesn't have that great of a cell reception, meaning maybe one bar if I'm lucky. Would having no cell reception drain the battery so much that it's almost dead by the end of the work day?
Would turning my wifi ON help the battery usage reduce some because the phone wouldn't constantly be searching for 3G?
Thanks again for everyone's help so far!

Wifi uses a ton less battery over 3g and low cell reception kills battery fast. Just let the kernel do its thing also letting the phone die is a bad idea. Our batteries aren't designed to ever fully die.
VrikkGWJ said:
Update: Running it today, haven't seen much change yet (but it's only the first day). However, how can I check to see what my battery usage is (I know you can check in "About Phone" but is there a numeral amount that would tell you guys something of significance)? Therefore if I posted something like that here people could tell me, "That really sucks, it's not working for you", or "Hey, working fine!"
Also, where I sit at work doesn't have that great of a cell reception, meaning maybe one bar if I'm lucky. Would having no cell reception drain the battery so much that it's almost dead by the end of the work day?
Would turning my wifi ON help the battery usage reduce some because the phone wouldn't constantly be searching for 3G?
Thanks again for everyone's help so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App

VrikkGWJ said:
Update: Running it today, haven't seen much change yet (but it's only the first day). However, how can I check to see what my battery usage is (I know you can check in "About Phone" but is there a numeral amount that would tell you guys something of significance)? Therefore if I posted something like that here people could tell me, "That really sucks, it's not working for you", or "Hey, working fine!"
Also, where I sit at work doesn't have that great of a cell reception, meaning maybe one bar if I'm lucky. Would having no cell reception drain the battery so much that it's almost dead by the end of the work day?
Would turning my wifi ON help the battery usage reduce some because the phone wouldn't constantly be searching for 3G?
Thanks again for everyone's help so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are so many variables, I don't think there's any given number or threshold which will make us say "That really sucks, it's not working for you" ...
I've found that lack of cell service is the number one thing that will kill my battery regardless of kernel etc. I get between zero and one bars of (roaming) 1x at my house and if I set my phone somewhere that blocks the signal just a bit more, it can kill my batt. a lot faster. If your phone is using data throughout the day and you have a wifi signal available, I'd definitely experiment with leaving wifi on all day - that's what I do at home to have any data connectivity worth using. Using wifi like this doesn't seem to be too big a hit on my battery.
Also experiment with your phone to see if you can find a location or orientation which gives you a better phone signal - go to Settings -> About Phone -> Status and scroll down to see "Signal strength", this will be a number expressed as -dBm where the higher magnitude of the number (ie. -99 is a higher magnitude than -80) the worse your signal is. Keep in mind that this scale is logrithmic, so a change of magnitude of a few dBm indicates a fairly large signal strength change... So if setting the phone on the right side of your desk gives you -85 dBm and setting it to the left gives you -95 dBm, your battery will die faster with the phone set to the left... Keeping the phone in your pocket can really knock the signal strength down - experiment with the phone lying on your desk, check the signal strength and then cup your hands around the "bottom" end of the phone, covering the optical track ball and the buttons, etc... In my experience, just covering this antenna area like this drops my signal by 5 dBm or more.
One more thing which it sounds like you might be aware of already is that people report that due to small differences in hardware, these kernels don't work the same for different phones, so maybe trying a different one of Lou's kernels (or a different developers altogether) might work better for you (although trying each of the myriad kernels available sure sounds daunting to me). Good luck!

[Q] Desire Z : Really Inconsistent Speeds + Battery Issues

Friend has a new Desire Z (bell, unlocked). Using it on AT&T network.
When at a house, and we use WiFI (30Mbps DL, 25Mbps UL), the speeds are VERY inconsistent. With my iPhone 4 using speedtest.net, it shows up as 20/15 each time. (WiFi is a little slower than the modem).
With the Desire Z, we get 15/10 (which is fine/acceptable). Then 3 minutes later we do it, we get 5/2. Without even moving the phone or touching the modem connection (not downloading anything on the computer), the connection just gets slower. Then it might be fast or slow, basically it's a toss-up.
The first time we noticed the issue is because when we are outside, we get HSPA speeds of 2.5/1.0, then randomly decreases to 0.1/0.05. HUGE difference. And VERY inconsistent. He is using a microSIM from iPhone 4, with an adapter, so we figured maybe the SIM card is getting loose at certain points? However, the WiFi is also inconsistent in addition to the HSPA, so it's probably not that.
What should I do? Is this the situation where I have to flash a new radio or something? (Please suggest others if I am wrong).
Thanks!
---
Also, his battery is kinda weak. The battery health is apparently clean/healthy. He came from an iPhone 4, where he would have 3G, WiFi, and GPS on at night but not actually using them. Wake up, and 3% battery loss, maybe 5. WITHOUT using them, just having them on.
Now, with the Desire Z, we have the WiFi + 3G on, but NOT the GPS. He is losing 20%-25% in 8 hours without even using the phone.
Information about battery shows a high Cell standby (25%) and Phone idle (25%) percentage. When going into Spare Parts > Partial Wake usage, we didn't find anything really fishy. BUT we had rebooted so perhaps some info may have been lossed. Should he just go to sleep tonight and report the Partial Wake Usage statistics again?
We have a feeling it may be some apps refreshing at night.. But he clears all the apps with Advanced Task Manager except for like Facebook (2 hour interval refresh), GMail, and Google Voice.
I highly doubt a 20% battery decrease overnight is normal.. My mom's Atrix only loses about 5% overnight, with the same parameters I gave before.
I thought it may be a bad battery, BUT the phone idle + cell standby are abnormally high.
Thanks!

Does anyone have an answer? I was wondering this

I have been running CM 6 since November and just recently flashed CM 7. On both ROMs, Cell Standby and Phone Idle have been very high on my list of things that are 'draining' the battery.
For example, today Cell Standby shows as 37% and Phone Idle as 30% for me.
In fact, its very rare that these two things aren't at the top of the list of things that are using the battery for me.... I've seen cell standby as high as 47% before.
I can't speak for the drainage overnight. Definitely doesn't sound normal to me, but my phone is usually on the charger overnight (have enough trouble making it through the day with the stock battery).
Have you tried using Watchdog to monitor CPU usage of apps that run in the background? You could set the notification threshold very low and see what it spits out... Good luck!

gbarayah, thanks for the post, that was helpful.
If anyone can help with the inconsistent data speeds, that'd be very helpful.
And any additional info on the battery would be great too. I recently calibrated it, and will post any additional stats.

Damn it, I forgot to try Watchdog. However, I re-calibrated the battery, let it die, charged it up, let it die, charged it up. I followed the instructions to the letter and all that.
It was at 100% when I went to sleep. Woke up 8 hours later, 74%.
Settings > Battery shows nothing high 40% for cell standby and phone idle. Everything else (Facebook, etc.) REALLY low.
Then I went to Spare Parts > Battery Usage, Partial wake usage, everything incredibly low as well..
I will try Watchdog, but could it just be a bad battery? Or maybe should I try a different ROM?
Thanks!

Not sure if 26% drain over 8 hours is normal or not... Maybe someone else can shed some light on that. My phone is usually on the charger overnight.
The only other thing I can think of that would drain the battery is if you have a bad/weak cell signal in your area. I've experienced that with some job sites where my cell signal is very bad and my battery suffers excessive drain from trying to get a better signal or connect to 3G coming from Edge.

On my week old desire Z running virtuous unity sense3.0 rom and streamlined kernal i very rarely see phone idle and radio burning battery lik you say. Radio occasionaly gets high but only wen in bad coverage areas other than thats its ok.
Battery is still rubbish though due to fact even on 2nd lowest brightness setting screen seems to burn 80%-90% battery
Just checked: phone idle:2%
Cell stanby:8%
Screen (lowest setting):70%
Not this isnt a great example as its taken over a short period of havy use but it still reflects the relative proportion of the battery draining elements in question.
Also a question, if you have a live wallpaper set where is its battery drain shown? Screen, or launcher?

Not sure what to say about the high variable speeds.
Sticking to just GSM(2G) rather than AUTO will in some cases increase the signal and battery life at the expense of slower connection speeds. As mentioned when the phone struggles to get signal the battery gets drained alot faster.
Lower the refresh intervals of all the apps to the maximum period of time or a reasonable amount like 12 hours for FB for Sense, HTC Sense and Weather and 4 hours or Never (to make it on-demand) for Facebook.
Setting the Wi-fi sleep policy to "Never when connected" may make it on-demand too - when an app needs to update Wi-fi gets turned on again
If they have "Use wireless networks" checked to allow the clock-weathers mini-widget to update then they should try removing said clock and re-adding it, but search for the city when doing so. It'll provide them with a general outlook for their entire city and not force it to download and update the information for wherever they are whilst out and about. E.g if you were in London and went from Westminster to Peckham, it may update as you pass through each borough.
Live wallpapers and masses of widgets that need to constantly update are nice and everything but they can also drain the battery.
Think of these suggestions as ways to cycle the battery as well as save it.
I can't think of anything else to add.

I'm using Cyanogenmod 7 and it's pretty damn good. What do you think is the best ROM with Gingerbread if it's more lightweight and easier on the battery? (I honestly don't think the ROM accounts for the 25% battery loss but we'll see)
MIUI or mexiDroid for me?
By the way, could it just be a bad battery? I was thinking about picking one of these up:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=940263
$8 and people said it's okay.. What do you think?
Thanks, and I JUST calibrated recently, so once again I will leave phone off overnight and report.
-----------------------
As for the network issues, I FIGURED IT OUT!!!
I believe it was the Speedtest app itself that was messed up. Like I said earlier, I don't have live wallpapers (just info) on, and also NO GPS unless using Navigation.
Well, Speedtest was connecting to WICHITA, KANSAS. I AM IN NEW JERSEY. WTH??!!
Anyway, so I'm going to keep GPS (satellites) on, it connects to NJ, and Voila, GREAT SPEEDS!
HSPA about 3.5/1.0 DL/UL
HOORAY! Network problem fixed!!!
Only issue is battery still D:
Honestly, I think it may be a bad battery. Partial wake usage doesn't show any app going nuts.. Every refresh interval is like 4 hours. And I use Advanced Task Killer to kill all apps before going to bed. I downloaded "Watchdog," let's see

gyromanx55 said:
Friend has a new Desire Z (bell, unlocked). Using it on AT&T network.
When at a house, and we use WiFI (30Mbps DL, 25Mbps UL), the speeds are VERY inconsistent. With my iPhone 4 using speedtest.net, it shows up as 20/15 each time. (WiFi is a little slower than the modem).
With the Desire Z, we get 15/10 (which is fine/acceptable). Then 3 minutes later we do it, we get 5/2. Without even moving the phone or touching the modem connection (not downloading anything on the computer), the connection just gets slower. Then it might be fast or slow, basically it's a toss-up.
The first time we noticed the issue is because when we are outside, we get HSPA speeds of 2.5/1.0, then randomly decreases to 0.1/0.05. HUGE difference. And VERY inconsistent. He is using a microSIM from iPhone 4, with an adapter, so we figured maybe the SIM card is getting loose at certain points? However, the WiFi is also inconsistent in addition to the HSPA, so it's probably not that.
What should I do? Is this the situation where I have to flash a new radio or something? (Please suggest others if I am wrong).
Thanks!
---
Also, his battery is kinda weak. The battery health is apparently clean/healthy. He came from an iPhone 4, where he would have 3G, WiFi, and GPS on at night but not actually using them. Wake up, and 3% battery loss, maybe 5. WITHOUT using them, just having them on.
Now, with the Desire Z, we have the WiFi + 3G on, but NOT the GPS. He is losing 20%-25% in 8 hours without even using the phone.
Information about battery shows a high Cell standby (25%) and Phone idle (25%) percentage. When going into Spare Parts > Partial Wake usage, we didn't find anything really fishy. BUT we had rebooted so perhaps some info may have been lossed. Should he just go to sleep tonight and report the Partial Wake Usage statistics again?
We have a feeling it may be some apps refreshing at night.. But he clears all the apps with Advanced Task Manager except for like Facebook (2 hour interval refresh), GMail, and Google Voice.
I highly doubt a 20% battery decrease overnight is normal.. My mom's Atrix only loses about 5% overnight, with the same parameters I gave before.
I thought it may be a bad battery, BUT the phone idle + cell standby are abnormally high.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well... can't be that odd. Mine are
cell standby: 8%
Phone idle 6%
display 51% (highest)
dialer 11%
wifi 10%
....
about conn. speed. I haven't used speedtest yet but downloading speed on the phone is slower than on PC remarkably using the same internet connection

barclays said:
well... can't be that odd. Mine are
cell standby: 8%
Phone idle 6%
display 51% (highest)
dialer 11%
wifi 10%
....
about conn. speed. I haven't used speedtest yet but downloading speed on the phone is slower than on PC remarkably using the same internet connection
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi will always be slower than wired connection, probably about 50% if not more.
Also, what setting do you have your display on and how much would you say you use your phone/have the screen on and how often do you talk (hrs/day)

noneabove said:
WiFi will always be slower than wired connection, probably about 50% if not more.
Also, what setting do you have your display on and how much would you say you use your phone/have the screen on and how often do you talk (hrs/day)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have auto brightness but I stay in office and not turn it on much (have to work though ) so the display isn't on much (when i said HIGHEST, it means highest in the list )
I have to phone connected to wifi all day but rarely use it
Mainly use the phone to text and talk less and 1/hr/day
Just try left the phone unused (stand by - airplane mode) for one day, drop about 20% or so

Its seems like its getting a little better.. only lost 10% overnight. Guess its calibrating
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA Premium App

[Q] Utterly HORRIBLE battery life across batteries and ROMs

Hey XDA
I'm having absolutely HORRIBLE battery life with my GIO. I've gone through extensive testing to find the root of the problem but nothing seems to be the cause. So far i've had to charge twice, maybe three times a day.
So here's the story. A couple of months ago I noticed my Gio's battery was dying quicker so I flashed another rom [Particle Mod] over it. I was happy, until I found out the problem persisted. Then I flashed a 2.3.7 Cyanogen mod, the battery still wasn't lasting and the battery life was only slightly worse owing to CYMOD.
I then flashed the GALAXYICS beta, and it's getting even worse. I've even bought new 1600mAh batteries to see if it was the battery's fault. Apparently not, so I went back to stock for a day or too to see what it was like, and I was still lucky to get 12hrs out of it with featherweight usage.
I simply do not know what to do, I've tried numerous battery mods [flashable zips etc] and they've only done a tiny bit. Lately I've been playing with clockspeeds but it seems to only make a difference if I raise the minimum speed, the extra top end performance is nice though.
So, what I'm saying is this normal for a Gio? Is it a hardware fault? software? 4th dimensional? I'm at a loss, and I think the infamous Samsung cell standby drain is to blame.
Attached is screenshots of general battery screen, Cell standby and the Graph. I've been switching between 2G and 3G, Airplane mode on and off, and listening to music for an hour or so and It seems to have utterly crippled the device doing simple tasks, and I've done EVERYTHING to minimize the drain by lowering screen brightness to %0, turning off vibration, animations, wifi, GPS, BT, radio, everything except google contacts sync and a couple of root things in between like deleting the batt stats.
The new batteries help somewhat, but I still can't last long enough for a single school day... FFUUUUU!
I really don't want to have to buy a new phone, I'm only 14 so I can't work to get one, and I can't just ask my parents because then I'm just being a spoilt brat. I want to make this phone last as long as possible [Until I can work for a Google Nexus or something] and the battery isn't helping.
Thanks for reading.

Yeah you're a spoiled brat. This is not great but not extraordinarily bad. My epic 4g touch spends the day on the charger.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Well, it seems to be all right with your battery. And your '1600 mAh' battery was just a fake. A lot of people get scores like this

What I am worried about is not so much the capacity, it's the RATE at which it drains. I see a lot of "stair steps" on my graphs so I'm not so sure, especially when checking the other phones in the house "a Galaxy Ace and 2 HTC Incredible S's] they seem to have a more consistent curve, I notice my batteries will drain by as much as %5 in half a minute, which is either a reporting bug or inconsistent strain.

Have you tried to do a wipe and test it with no installed apps?

Do not trust the "stairs", it is just bad reporting (as you said).
In my case when I switch on 3G or WiFi, it happens that the battery drops by 10% instantly.
The only value that is relevant is the total duration between a full charge (100% charge + several hours still plugged) and the "low battery" indicator.
According to my own experience, the things that drains the most are :
- 3G network : this is the main factor, by far.
If you can, try to stay in 2G mode most of the time, switch to 3G when needed, and as soon as not needed anymore go back to 2G.
- WiFi / BT
If you switch On/Off very often, or is always On and you moves very often (changing hotspot), then WiFi / BT will be a very important battery drain factor.
- Multimedia
Videos / MP3 drains battery a lot.
If you can, switch to "airplane mode" or switch off the phone during night.
Finally, with 3G / WiFi / Multimedia usage mix, a "One Day" autonomy is good.
I'm sorry but you will not find any smartphone that can pass "One Day" with that usage type.
With my own usage (very few calls, sms, wifi) and with above tricks, my Gio lasts 4-5 days.
PS : As you mentioned, available ROMs are very unequal as far as battery drain is concerned.
Stock ROMs (and moded ones like Adrenaline) are the champions of battery life, while ICS ROMs are the worst.
CM7.2 ROMs are in between.

I agree with Vilo76. When you don`t have wireless or 3g, or play any music/games, you can actually get a few days of life from your phone, but if you do some of the stuff i just said, the battery life is going down like crazy...
The only think you can do to get some bit of juice out of your phone is if you format your battery, but actually that is just for a better battery reading, not actually extending your battery life...

By the way, I can't figure out why phone manufacturers don't use more long lasting batteries ...
There are many many examples of batteries that are about the same size as a phone one, but deliver way more mAh.
Among others :
- House wireless alarms keypad batteries are the same size but can be as much as 3000mAh ...
- Classic cylindrical AA or AAA accu can be as much as 4000mAh ...
While a typical phone battery hardly ever exceed 1500mAh.

Okay, I'm back and I have some results for today
3G Is DEFINITELY using more in Australia on idle, while 2G is a bit less brutal
There is something cause my phone to wake intermittently, I've turned sync and location services, and killed any apps that may be checking the net etc, but it's still waking up with screen off.
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Today I decided to do something bit extreme, I ran the phone an airplane mode all day with the original "dead" battery, I only lost %20 all day with 1hr or so music usage, phone standby is up but Cell standby isn't there at all [Obviously].
Something's telling me that's it the cell radio and whatever is waking my phone up is causing the suck. I'm upgrading to GalaxyICS CM9 beta10 today with a full dalvik, battery and cache wipe, so we'll see how that goes
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MORE NEWS
Good news this time! I've installed a Cyanogen Mod 7.2 on their [The one that's updates through Goomanager] and the battery is holding steady at 100 idling for 1hr on 2G.... Not sure if I have to calibrate but I think I've fixed it, it's working better than stock!

Battery is draining faster than it should (VZW)

My wife and I both got new Verizon Galaxy Nexus phones about two weeks ago. Having heard of the poor battery life, I immediately bought an official Verizon extended battery; wife stayed with the stock one. After both of us set up our phones and went through a few charge cycles, I noticed something odd: while her battery would last 24-36 hours with mid-level use, mine would die within 9-12 hours with minimal use (it has never made it overnight).
My first thought was that some widget or app was syncing or otherwise waking the phone when it shouldn't, so I removed all the widgets from my homescreens and disabled all syncing but Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts. I also turned the screen down to minimum brightness. Still had the fast discharge issues.
Next step: uninstall all apps that I've downloaded. Battery still drains too fast.
Finally, I did a factory reset of the phone, and did not download any new apps. I thought maybe there was some deeper setting that I had overlooked that was causing the issue. After the reset, the battery had its worst performance yet at ~9.5 hours with bare minimum use (mostly overnight). Wife's phone was still going strong with about 34 hours of usage.
I am in wifi coverage all day (except when driving to/from work), so I have kept that on. Bluetooth and GPS have been off the whole time. Average time without signal is ~2%. 4G is also on. I also tried 1-2 charge cycles with the regular battery to make sure that it wasn't just a faulty extended battery, but it predictably resulted in even worse discharge time.
I have kept track of the battery usage stats both in the standard Settings as well as Badass Battery Manager, but nothing has seemed out of the ordinary. Right now I am charging up my wife's standard battery in my phone, and she is using my extended battery, to make double sure that I didn't just end up with two bad batteries.
Both of us are using stock ICS 4.04, and are not rooted.
She uses her phone for Google Talk, Facebook, Tamadroid (Tamagotchi app), etc. throughout the day (don't have more exact usage stats at the moment), while mine has been sitting practically unused for the last few days while I try to see if my various steps work, so the top drainers have been (in order) Mobile Standby, Phone Idle, and Screen On.
Last night when we went to sleep, my phone was at ~70% on the extended battery, and hers was about 14%. This morning, mine was dead and hers had 5% left.
Is there anything else I could have missed that could contribute to this issue? Unfortunately I do not have access to to my actual usage graphs/stats right now, or I would link them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, it's back to Best Buy to exchange for a new phone.
UPDATE: This was a hardware issue. Exchanged phone and saw immediate, drastic improvement. See my last post for more detail:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30778596&postcount=32

It sounds like the battery to me. Not all batteries are created equally. The quality of the components is going to directly lead to the discharge rate, degradation over time, etc. It sounds like the battery you were sold sucks and the stock one would probably work better.
I certainly can't think of anything else you can try. It would seem that swapping batteries with your wife for a day would tell you for sure if it's something to do with the phone or the battery.

Stealthz said:
It sounds like the battery to me. Not all batteries are created equally. The quality of the components is going to directly lead to the discharge rate, degradation over time, etc. It sounds like the battery you were sold sucks and the stock one would probably work better.
I certainly can't think of anything else you can try. It would seem that swapping batteries with your wife for a day would tell you for sure if it's something to do with the phone or the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am going to swap out the battery at a Verizon store later tonight, and see if it works any better.

To make a better comparison, compare screen usage as it is the big eater of the battery. You should find it on battery usage.
My galaxy Nexus can ve 2h30 with screen on (+ intensive app using) to get 0% from 100%
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Its hard to say why.. but is there anything wrong with the network on your phone? My brother got one, his dropped signal every 2/3 minutes and the battery lasted at least 4-6 hours, you can also check to see what your phone is using in the battery section in settings.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

Got a new extended battery from Verizon, and it seemed to be working a lot better during the day. However, once I went to sleep the charge dropped like a rock! I am doing a new charge cycle with Badass Battery Manager watching over it, and will post pictures when it is done. I have no apps other than fully updated stock apps and the battery manager. This is incredibly frustrating because my wife's phone is not experiencing any issues overnight. It is looking more and more like this is a faulty handset...

Got some usage stats now. Here is the first full cycle on the new extended battery; seemed pretty good at about 1d 5h. Unfortunately, it has gone downhill from there.

looks like your phone was working for a signal alot of the time.

Here are the results from the next cycle; there is already a noticeable drop to just over 22h.

Oarsman05 said:
Here are the results from the next cycle; there is already a noticeable drop to just over 22h.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah you have terrible signal. your phone is trying to push for a better signal, which causes more power drain.
if you look at your signal graph, you hit red signal, which is near dropped signal range.

This is from last night. After letting the battery completely discharge, I recharged it while the phone was off. It hit 100% around 12:30AM, when I went to sleep. Fast forward to 8:00AM, and the phone has discharged 66%! Obviously, I was not answering calls/texts/etc. during this time.

Zepius said:
yeah you have terrible signal. your phone is trying to push for a better signal, which causes more power drain.
if you look at your signal graph, you hit red signal, which is near dropped signal range.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, he seems to have a lot of horrible coverage in his area or his phone is in a terrible spot where there is hardly any signal.
Test your phone around your town or home.
Your signal should pretty much look like this
I'm usually full bars, rarely do I drop below to three.
If it helps, disable 4g until you need it.. it will saviour some of your battery.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

withbloodskies said:
Yup, he seems to have a lot of horrible coverage in his area or his phone is in a terrible spot where there is hardly any signal.
Test your phone around your town or home.
Your signal should pretty much look like this
<image omitted>
I'm usually full bars, rarely do I drop below to three.
If it helps, disable 4g until you need it.. it will saviour some of your battery.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This makes sense, but for that my wife's phone is usually in the same general area and is getting significantly better life. Could the signal difference at my work compared to home really cause that big a discrepancy? I am usually at 3 bars, according to Phone Radio's settings. This would also not account for the massive overnight drain that her phone does not experience 6 feet away.
I installed Badass Battery Monitor and CPU Spy on her phone for comparisons; I will check her signal levels when I get home.

Oarsman05 said:
This makes sense, but for that my wife's phone is usually in the same general area and is getting significantly better life. I installed Badass Battery Monitor and CPU Spy on her phone for comparisons; I will check her signal levels when I get home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I hope its not a hardware issue on your phone.
I've seen way too many people having this issue recently.. .My literally only issue is my screen, its covered in tint. Yellow, red, blue, purple :/ funny I get a perfect hardware phone and get a ****ty screen. Not going to return it to take chances.
Its possible you may need to update your radio - depending on it, for various users it has different effects on battery life and signal.
Anyway looking forward to the results.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

withbloodskies said:
Its possible you may need to update your radio - depending on it, for various users it has different effects on battery life and signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The radio would affect the "time without signal," right? Last night (66% drop in ~7.5hr) it said I was without signal for 4% of the time.

Oarsman05 said:
The radio would affect the "time without signal," right? Last night (66% drop in ~7.5hr) it said I was without signal for 4% of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but.. the RADIO should help or make your coverage "signal" worse. If its hardware or just horrible signal the % loss should be a lot higher with normally about an hour of screen on it should show around 20-40% signal loss.
Normally signal loss is around 2-4%.
I would keep an eye on your signal bar "on the status bar" if it drops - plummets to an empty bar with an × then its possible you have a hardware issue. If it don't drop or if it does check the signal loss occasionally to see how much is lost.
If its horrible signal I do suggest a new radio to help you, if you dabble in the radio world.. please read carefully on them. They can cause serious issues if you get a bad download or wrong download "md5 mismatch". At the least harmful it can boot but without any type of signal etc.
Its easy to use but can be dangerous to your device if not handled properly
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

Mine is 4% loss also. I've never noticed any significant differences in battery life going from the cornfields to the city.
This phone is known for radio issues. It's pretty disappointing but I've just grown used to it.
Which radios are you currently on? Settings, about, baseband. Should say fc04 fc05 if you're on the latest.
Some people have better luck with different radio combinations depending on their phone.
From your battery Stats its like you barely use your phone. Could you show a screen shot of cpu spy?
Would you consider a different rom and kernel?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

jfriend33 said:
Mine is 4% loss also. I've never noticed any significant differences in battery life going from the cornfields to the city.
This phone is known for radio issues. It's pretty disappointing but I've just grown used to it.
Which radios are you currently on? Settings, about, baseband. Should say fc04 fc05 if you're on the latest.
Some people have better luck with different radio combinations depending on their phone.
From your battery Stats its like you barely use your phone. Could you show a screen shot of cpu spy?
Would you consider a different rom and kernel?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming you mean me, give me a few hours? Gonna throw on a full charge and wear it down. I'll give my screens of my phone when its near dead, I heavily use my phone. I'm surprised I was on 2hours with half battery after watching videos.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

jfriend33 said:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same baseband as this image. I just added CPU Spy this morning. I will add some screenshots of it after my next full charge cycle.
If it is a faulty radio, would it be in my best interest to exchange the phone at Best Buy? I have about another week to do that if necessary.

I'm having similar issues, although it doesn't seem as bad. I'm going to take the chance of exchanging it because I also have 4G dropping issues, because like you said, we've got a week, and I'll exchange the phone as many times as I need to until I get a *new* one without any issues.
Kind of disappointing, my screen seems great.