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So I'm on a visionary temp root, overclocked with setcpu. Ive set up several different profiles but I've noticed that my battery life with the profiles isnt as good as other users have claimed.
I have noticed that when i open setcpu sometimes a little message will flash up saying that setcpu has been given superuser permissions. Does this mean that prior to opening the program, it didnt have permissions? If it in fact did not have superuser permissions, could that be why my battery life is less than expected? (i.e. The program didnt have permissions and thus couldnt use the profiles to slow down cpu speed upon screen off, etc.) The message does not come up every time I open setcpu, but it seems to come up when I havent opened the app recently.
Any ideas?
cmccollough said:
So I'm on a visionary temp root, overclocked with setcpu. Ive set up several different profiles but I've noticed that my battery life with the profiles isnt as good as other users have claimed.
I have noticed that when i open setcpu sometimes a little message will flash up saying that setcpu has been given superuser permissions. Does this mean that prior to opening the program, it didnt have permissions? If it in fact did not have superuser permissions, could that be why my battery life is less than expected? (i.e. The program didnt have permissions and thus couldnt use the profiles to slow down cpu speed upon screen off, etc.) The message does not come up every time I open setcpu, but it seems to come up when I havent opened the app recently.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my understanding, you only set it once. i had set a widget because i thought set cpu had to be running. But i deleted it because if you think about it....superuser app already has the permissions set, and when you open setcpu it shows the current speed.....if it wasnt working it would show 800mhz then KICK into 1 ghz?....thats what i think. You shouldnt need to worry.
Great, thanks for the response.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
same here. from time to time this popup comes.
anyway i cannot see any benefit from running setcpu as the profiles are not working for me.
i tried setting up screen off profile. this never triggers.
i leave setcpu deinstalled now. battery life is good so far
snudel said:
i tried setting up screen off profile. this never triggers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you tell if it triggers or not?
cmccollough said:
How can you tell if it triggers or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question. Can't find anything in logcat.
set notifications.
on the magic you could see him switching profiles right after turning on the screen
you wont see it on the g2
I agree, something is fishy with this. EVERY time I open setcpu it gives me the su permissions granted window like its not being saved in memory
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
EDIT: After shopping around on the market I came across an app called "CPU Tuner". The UI is nice and has roughly the same customization as setcpu if not more. It does take a bit of getting used too but i'm more than willing since the profile notification actually cycles with this app vs. setcpu. I'll give it a shakedown tomorrow as it's getting too late here to test.
cpu tuner doesn't work for me.
in profiles, it just shows 700mhz to 800mhz, which makes it useless as i want to underclock to 200 when screen is off.
That toast pop-up is nothing to worry about, its just something that has featured in the last couple of SU builds, it doesn't mean your app is not working.
I just turn the notification off in the SU settings.
I can now confirm that the screen off profile is not working correctly. Before going to sleep last night, my phone had a charge of 99%. I did not have anything running (no wifi, bluetooth, sync, etc.) and I woke up to 81% battery. It never killed that much overnight before overclocking. We gotta get this fixed.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
cmccollough said:
I can now confirm that the screen off profile is not working correctly. Before going to sleep last night, my phone had a charge of 99%. I did not have anything running (no wifi, bluetooth, sync, etc.) and I woke up to 81% battery. It never killed that much overnight before overclocking. We gotta get this fixed.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have mine set to 1ghz max 245 min profile screen off 245/245 priority--100..and put a widget on my main screen. My phone has been on screen off for the pat 5 hours....and drained only 2% battery life.....i dont understand why it doesnt work with some peoples phones??!!. is it different cause im using a desire z and yours a g2?...i HARDLY doubt that would be a problem :S..
have you tried the widget?.when going to running services, my setcpu app has been running for ever. aka profiles and setcpu working.
jark99 said:
i have mine set to 1ghz max 245 min profile screen off 245/245 priority--100..and put a widget on my main screen. My phone has been on screen off for the pat 5 hours....and drained only 2% battery life.....i dont understand why it doesnt work with some peoples phones??!!. is it different cause im using a desire z and yours a g2?...i HARDLY doubt that would be a problem :S..
have you tried the widget?.when going to running services, my setcpu app has been running for ever. aka profiles and setcpu working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running the setcpu widget on my phone caused instability issues at higher clocks (feeling ballzy w/ flippy's 1.8 kernel). After removing the widget my profiles were hit and miss for some reason.
As far as the battery issue goes, anyone running CM RC2 and earlier might want to check out nightly 36, apparently there was a memory leak causing battery drainage ( I don't know anything about what it means but common sense leads me to believe a leak is bad lol). If anyone is still not satisfied with setcpu I highly recommend CPU tuner.
jark99 said:
have you tried the widget?.when going to running services, my setcpu app has been running for ever. aka profiles and setcpu working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have the widget on my homescreen. Weird that so many people get different results
Could the scaling be giving people varying results? I don't even really know what they do, I have mine set on ondemand. Would someone mind sharing what exactly the different scalings do?
cmccollough said:
Could the scaling be giving people varying results? I don't even really know what they do, I have mine set on ondemand. Would someone mind sharing what exactly the different scalings do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/rescue-squad-guides/47871-overclocking-101-a.html
Centered around the OG Droid but basic concepts still stand.
- Just picked up an app called SuperPower, had it a while back and had issues..but it's been update a lot since then. Looks like it's an all purpose battery management app that has the ability to govern cpu speed also. I'll test drive it and see how it works.
My battery life has improved markedly since installing CM nightly #36 and Pershoot's latest kernel. I've been using my phone pretty heavily over the last 8hours and still have over 50% left. Lots of texts, emails and websurfing etc.
Just rooted my phone a week ago and installed setcpu and a new kernel (made for 4.0.2 - and I quadruple checked that 1) I am definitely on 4.0.2 and 2) the kernel is definitely made for 4.0.2 (it's Faux's 4.0.2 kernel).
With that out of the way, here's my issue: with SetCPU installed, my phone is a slow, laggy mess. When I uninstall the application, my phone is fast, zippy, and all is well. It doesn't make sense given the context. More details below.
Specific things that lag especially bad are the following: 1) very slow screen wake/unlock (without any screen-off profile set/enabled and with the phone at stock min/max CPU frequency and ondemand and interactive governors, and also when underclocked and overclocked and in any combination you can think of); 2) homescreen performance; 3) typing; 4) switching between apps; 5) answering phone calls
I have tried using Setcpu with and without screen off profiles set and enabled, I have tried using the phone at stock clock, overclocked to 1.35ghz, and underclocked to 920mhz, and in all situations and combinations, the phone is slow, jerky, and a bit laggy. I also played with different scaling governors (interactive and ondemand mostly), and had the issue regardless of the governor used. I have not messed with voltage or anything else.
This issue has persisted over three days now, it happens regardless of how many times I've rebooted the phone and uninstalled/reinstalled the SetCPU application, etc. In short, there seems to be nothing I'm doing wrong on my end (or so I think) to explain this issue. And every single time I uninstall SetCPU, my phone is a speed demon again.
I have never had this issue on any previously rooted phone using Setcpu. Also, yes, I wiped cache AND dalvik cache before flashing Faux's kernel. I am not new to Android, cell phones, rooting, flashing kernels, etc. I can even use ADB without problems.
So, hopefully I covered all my bases. Anyone have any thoughts on why I might have been experiencing this issue?
I reflashed stock JB kernel the other day and found my phone to be running very smoothly. But I can't stand the colours on my purply screen, so back to Trinity (latest stable release).
The problem is, I'm getting a lot of lag and jerkiness on Trinity. Google Now takes forever to load, responsiveness takes a hit, and it generally feels like that whole "Project Butter" has turned into cold chunks of margarine.
I did buy the Trinity app to change settings. Is there anything I should be doing with Trinity that would give me stock-like smoothness and performance? I have a feeling there is some default setting in Trinity that is supposed to be helpful for some users but for me it's just killing the experience.
Or alternately, would I get better results with Franco?
I had similar issues. Not flowing very well , reboots and crashes. Also even though I bought the trinity app changing the clock speeds made the phone very very unresponsive. Tried many times to install it but no luck. Swapped back to Franco / glados (tried air kernel which was nice for battery but a bit laggy)
Franco also has trinity settings you can play with
J
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Me personally had a better experience than Franco. But all the phone are different and some might like trinity and some might like Franco. Seems like yours like Franco more
Swyped on my Galaxy Nexus running AOKP with Trinity Kernel, overclocked to 1.4GHz
Personally I've had ridiculously good results with Trinity - with 384 GPU, not 512 (1536-384-Stable35). Absolute butter even when I have very resource heavy, multiple, tasks running - and havn't had a forced reboot, freeze or anything of the sort even once. Interactive/SIO, min 307, max 1190. Everything else on default (except screen colours/gamma which I changed to my liking).
That said, if the 384 GPU is also not working for you I suppose you can give Franco or the other kernels a try, every phone set probably responds a little differently to each kernel.
cmstlist said:
I reflashed stock JB kernel the other day and found my phone to be running very smoothly. But I can't stand the colours on my purply screen, so back to Trinity (latest stable release).
The problem is, I'm getting a lot of lag and jerkiness on Trinity. Google Now takes forever to load, responsiveness takes a hit, and it generally feels like that whole "Project Butter" has turned into cold chunks of margarine.
I did buy the Trinity app to change settings. Is there anything I should be doing with Trinity that would give me stock-like smoothness and performance? I have a feeling there is some default setting in Trinity that is supposed to be helpful for some users but for me it's just killing the experience.
Or alternately, would I get better results with Franco?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What trinity kernel are you using? I am on trinity 384 Alpha 56 and it is butter smooth... even get great deep sleep with it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
cmstlist said:
I reflashed stock JB kernel the other day and found my phone to be running very smoothly. But I can't stand the colours on my purply screen, so back to Trinity (latest stable release).
The problem is, I'm getting a lot of lag and jerkiness on Trinity. Google Now takes forever to load, responsiveness takes a hit, and it generally feels like that whole "Project Butter" has turned into cold chunks of margarine.
I did buy the Trinity app to change settings. Is there anything I should be doing with Trinity that would give me stock-like smoothness and performance? I have a feeling there is some default setting in Trinity that is supposed to be helpful for some users but for me it's just killing the experience.
Or alternately, would I get better results with Franco?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try using supersu instead of superuser. also, update your busybox. a lot of people have issues with root apps obtaining su slowly with superuser on jelly bean, which leads to lag.
I have good flow with trinity kernels. No lag or unresponsivness
*Who needs a gs3 when you have a NEXUS*
simms22 said:
try using supersu instead of superuser. also, update your busybox. a lot of people have issues with root apps obtaining su slowly with superuser on jelly bean, which leads to lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already doing both, thanks for the input.
I'm using 1344/307 and I also previously tried 1536/384. My phone seems to have some overheating issues so I don't want to crank it too hard... Just want to get close to stock performance.
I'll try interactive / sio. Are those essentially what the stock kernel uses?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
cmstlist said:
Already doing both, thanks for the input.
I'm using 1344/307 and I also previously tried 1536/384. My phone seems to have some overheating issues so I don't want to crank it too hard... Just want to get close to stock performance.
I'll try interactive / sio. Are those essentially what the stock kernel uses?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i like ondemand/deadline. overheating.. whats your cpu temperature? most think that their devices are overheating when it falls in the normal range. tkt comes with widgets(in the app drawer widget menu), put the no background cpu temp widget on your homescreen and youll also get a cpu temperature reading in your status bar. at 100C the thermal throttle will kick in to lower your cpu speed and cool down your device. the safety shutdown temperature is 110C, your cpu will automatically shut down at that point. 110C is only reachable if you turn off the thermal throttle in the tkt app and you are benching your phone at a high oc. otherwise, i wouldnt worry about overheating.
The other thing is I get lockups every day or three. Today I rebooted the phone and plugged in the charger while it was rebooting. The moment the screen went off the phone was locked up. Power button would not respond. Unplugging/plugging the charger did not light up the screen. Had to do a battery pull.
In fact this happened again a second time in a row. Is there a reason the phone is locking up immediately after boot if I have the charger in? I'm trying it again a third time with the charger out, letting the screen auto-sleep before I touch the phone. Okay apparently it has nothing to do with the charger.
EVERY time I start the phone up now, if I don't unlock the screen myself before it auto-sleeps, the phone locks up and auto-reboots again. WTF??
cmstlist said:
The other thing is I get lockups every day or three. Today I rebooted the phone and plugged in the charger while it was rebooting. The moment the screen went off the phone was locked up. Power button would not respond. Unplugging/plugging the charger did not light up the screen. Had to do a battery pull.
In fact this happened again a second time in a row. Is there a reason the phone is locking up immediately after boot if I have the charger in? I'm trying it again a third time with the charger out, letting the screen auto-sleep before I touch the phone. Okay apparently it has nothing to do with the charger.
EVERY time I start the phone up now, if I don't unlock the screen myself before it auto-sleeps, the phone locks up and auto-reboots again. WTF??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you undervolting at all? which yrinity kernel are you using? did you happen to use franco kernel before using trinity? try using a different charger too, ive had similar issues with a certain charger before too, until i started using a different charger.
Despite the fact that I disabled "Set On Boot" in Trinity Kernel Toolbox, it does seem I'm still set to interactive/sio on boot. And check out the logcat I captured over USB when I was doing a reboot and it locked up:
http://pastebin.com/sSe9eFXT
In particular to trim out just the TKT lines and the last few lines before lockup:
Code:
D/TKTBootHelper( 1853): TKT: Boot Completed
D/TKTBootHelper( 1853): TKT: Set file permissions.
V/LockPatternKeyguardView( 299): Set visibility on com.android.internal.policy.
[email protected] to 8388608
V/LockPatternKeyguardView( 299): Set visibility on com.android.internal.policy.
[email protected] to 8388608
D/TKTBootHelper( 1853): Current Version: 3.0.38-04149-g1d1c555-dirt00:23:38|
D/TKTBootHelper( 1853): Previous Version: 3.0.38-04149-g1d1c555-dirt00:23:38|
D/TKTBootHelper( 1853): TKT: Versions match, let's restore settings.
E/vpnapi ( 1672): Function: Connect File: AndroidIPCSocket.cpp Line: 172 failed
to connect fd=38: Connection refused
E/vpnapi ( 1672): Function: Run File: LocaleChangeMonitor.cpp Line: 140 Invoked
Function: AndroidIPCSocket::Connect Return Code: -26476533 (0xFE6C000B) Descrip
tion: ANDROIDIPCSOCKET_ERROR_CONNECT_FAILED
So it would seem that right after TKT says "let's restore settings" it locks up, if the screen is off, when set to interactive/sio. Huh?
simms22 said:
are you undervolting at all? which yrinity kernel are you using? did you happen to use franco kernel before using trinity? try using a different charger too, ive had similar issues with a certain charger before too, until i started using a different charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my post immediately after yours.
No undervolting at least that I know of. I tried cranking max screen off frequency up in case that was the cause, and tried going back to default CPU settings. Still does the same upon reboot.
But I can confirm that if I uninstall TKT completely and boot with Trinity Kernel, there is no screen-off lockup. Whatever settings were being restored by TKT were causing the phone to freeze if the screen was off. I'll leave it at that for now and give it another go when it's not so lovely and sunny outside.
cmstlist said:
See my post immediately after yours.
No undervolting at least that I know of. I tried cranking max screen off frequency up in case that was the cause, and tried going back to default CPU settings. Still does the same upon reboot.
But I can confirm that if I uninstall TKT completely and boot with Trinity Kernel, there is no screen-off lockup. Whatever settings were being restored by TKT were causing the phone to freeze if the screen was off. I'll leave it at that for now and give it another go when it's not so lovely and sunny outside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
delete the data for the tkt app(main phone settings, apps). dont use set on boot, its usually not a good idea. my screen off is set to 307. if you are overclocking, you have to disable smart reflex mpu or you will freeze and reboot if not other issues. turning off smart reflex is very important if raising the cpu speed. otherwise the device will try to automatically set the voltage too low for the cpu speed and itll cause freezes/reboots.
simms22 said:
delete the data for the tkt app(main phone settings, apps). dont use set on boot, its usually not a good idea. my screen off is set to 307. if you are overclocking, you have to disable smart reflex mpu or you will freeze and reboot if not other issues. turning off smart reflex is very important if raising the cpu speed. otherwise the device will try to automatically set the voltage too low for the cpu speed and itll cause freezes/reboots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't overclock and I didn't undervolt. What is smart reflex?
Set on boot was DISABLED, let me emphasize. Yet the logcat shows TKT restoring settings, followed up very soon with a lockup.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
cmstlist said:
I didn't overclock and I didn't undervolt. What is smart reflex?
Set on boot was DISABLED, let me emphasize. Yet the logcat shows TKT restoring settings, followed up very soon with a lockup.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does your rom have its own cpu settings? maybe theres something enabled in there?
---------- Post added at 04:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
cmstlist said:
I didn't overclock and I didn't undervolt. What is smart reflex?
Set on boot was DISABLED, let me emphasize. Yet the logcat shows TKT restoring settings, followed up very soon with a lockup.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
smart reflex is a built into stock, it controls your voltages. the thing about it is that it doesnt know overclock or undervolting, so if you overclock or undervolt, it restores voltages for stock cpu speeds. which causes freezes if youre trying to overclock by setting the voltages too low.
simms22 said:
does your rom have its own cpu settings? maybe theres something enabled in there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock yakju Jellybean flashed straight from Google image files, with the exception of Trinity.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
cmstlist said:
Stock yakju Jellybean flashed straight from Google image files, with the exception of Trinity.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try clearing the tkt data, or uninstalling it and reinstalling it? honestly, this is the first time ive seen this behavior. do you have any other cpu control apps installed?
cmstlist said:
I didn't overclock and I didn't undervolt. What is smart reflex?
Set on boot was DISABLED, let me emphasize. Yet the logcat shows TKT restoring settings, followed up very soon with a lockup.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, set on boot is for critical settings only, like frequency policy and voltages.
All trivial settings are always restored as they were set.
What ROM are you on? I jumped into the middle of this page and missed it.
Side note, if it's settings being restored, clear the app data using the option in the menu.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
simms22 said:
did you try clearing the tkt data, or uninstalling it and reinstalling it? honestly, this is the first time ive seen this behavior. do you have any other cpu control apps installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I do not. I will try reinstalling now since I uninstalled it completely.
morfic said:
Yes, set on boot is for critical settings only, like frequency policy and voltages.
All trivial settings are always restored as they were set.
What ROM are you on? I jumped into the middle of this page and missed it.
Side note, if it's settings being restored, clear the app data using the option in the menu.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, pure stock flashed straight from Google, except for Trinity.
Better Battery Life Tips
I've been using (and tweaking) Android devices since the original HTC Dream (aka G1, Android Dev Phone) was released, and I've had devices that are both good and bad at power consumption. In this thread I will share what I have learned and invite you to share what you have learned as well so that we can all get the most out of our devices.
Please note that I like to keep my smartphones "smart" and don't like to be manually toggling things on and off throughout the day. If you like to geek out 24x7 you can manually turn on/off every feature of your phone every time you use it to conserve juice... that's not me though!
Here we go...
-Consider a Different Browser
It seems like Opera Mobile and Mini are the kings of battery conservation. I tried Dolphin, Boat, Firefox, Chrome, the stock browser, and about 10 others... I didn't see significant differences in battery with any of them, but with Opera I noticed the difference. It makes sense since Opera renders the pages and optimizes the images remotely and then sends the bare minimum amount of data to your device to display the page.
-Location, Location, Location
Android's location related services can be a big drain. There are 3 different location settings you need to know about.
1) Location Access (Settings -> Location access): For maximum savings, you can turn off "Access to my location". However, there are many apps that make good use of your location. If you don't want to cripple them, leave this option turned on but at the very least uncheck "GPS Satellites" to save some juice.
2) Google Apps Location Settings (Settings -> Accounts:Google -> Location settings): Allows Google apps, such as Google Maps, to access your location. Why this needs to be separate from #1 above is beyond me, but turning it on requires the above setting to be on as well. If you don't use Google Maps, Now, Plus, or any other Google services that use your location you can turn this off.
3) Location Reporting aka Latitude (Settings -> Accounts:Google -> Maps & Latitude -> Location Reporting): This is the bad one. Really bad. Wakelock and battery drain city. I don't even know why anybody would want this. Kill it with fire. Set it so that it does not update or report your location.
-Turn off stuff you don't use
This should be common knowledge by now... if you aren't using GPS, Bluetooth, or even 4G... turn them off. If you don't need instant notifications and app updates you can even turn off Auto-Sync. If you decide to do that, I recommend the Synker widget from the Play Store. It is nice and configurable so that you can sync on demand with one touch.
-ROMs and Kernels
I'm not going to go into these too much here... there's a whole development section devoted to them with tons of info. Generally you get the best life from the stock based ROMs. Liquid Nitro and HO!NO!'s v20f (+Wind kernel) are quite good. Next best is probably HO!NO!'s CM9. The CM10.1 ROMS and kernels have a bit of catching up to do at battery consumption, but they keep getting better.
-Kill Google Talk!
If you don't use this program, disable it. It is always trying to do something on the network. Even if you turn off data and wifi you can still get NetworkConnectivity wakelocks from this app trying to do its business! Killing it is the first thing I do after flashing a ROM, especially CM10.1. From home hit: Menu -> Manage Apps -> All -> Talk -> Disable.
*Some report that disabling apps through the Android OS might not stick. If this is a concern for you, download NoBloat or Titanium Backup and freeze this app. Or if you're a nerd like me, use a root file explorer and move or rename the .apk file in /system/app
-Kill Google+ (Plus)
Just like the above, if you don't use it, deactivate it. It also uses data and location services pretty regularly. Disable it in the same way, or use NoBloat or Titanium.
-Kill Google Now
If you don't use it, deactivate it. It uses data and location services pretty regularly. I like its features and keep it enabled on my N7, but leave it off on my phone. To turn it off, go into the Google Search app (long-touch menu/search button), hit Menu -> Settings -> Google Now. You'll see the option to disable it.
-Data-Toggling Battery Saver Apps
These are pretty controversial, almost as much as app-killers were when they were very popular. In a nutshell they turn your data connections on or off based on whether your screen is on or off. They usually will check to see if you are downloading or streaming anything before they shut off the connection. Then, they periodically turn the connection on while the screen is off so that the device can perform a sync to get emails, etc.
Should you use one? If you are running CM10/10.1/AOKP4x then YES USE ONE!! EDIT: THE LATEST VERSIONS OF QUATTRIMUS AND WIND FOR CM10.1 HAVE RESOLVED THE BATTERY DRAIN ISSUE. Use of a battery saver is no longer essential. If you still want to use one, read on...
Whether or not you use a battery saver depends on how you use your phone, and if you are willing to accept the trade-offs. These apps get their savings from maximizing deep sleep time for extended periods with zero data concerns or interruptions. If your usage habits allow the app to do its job, use it. If not, don't use it.
[What follows here is some long drawn out jibber jabber about the pros/cons of these apps. Read it if you like]
Some people love these battery saver apps and swear by them; others hate them. The reason some like them is because they get a few more hours of battery life. The reason why some people hate them is because:
1) They wake the device periodically to do their job... which negates some of the power savings you get from having them. To some people these tiny wakelocks are the most horrible thing ever... even if their impact is quite small compared to the power being saved. These people are usually the ones who live and die by their BBS logs. I'll admit, I was one of those people
2) Syncs are delayed, so messages and notifications do not arrive instantly but when either of the following conditions are met-
a) The screen gets turned on (which triggers data on and autosync)
b) The program hits a scheduled time trigger (usually at user selectable intervals)
3) There's a small lag while data connects when the screen gets turned on. If the screen gets turned on very frequently the constant on/off/syncing can actually hurt the battery more than it helps.
But, if you are ok with the delayed syncs and you set up the sync intervals long enough apart you WILL see a gain in battery life. Your phone will sleep much more soundly as well. With one of these apps my Nitro HD on CM10.1 can sleep all night and will only lose maybe a percent or two.
*Note that these will NOT help you at all when the screen is on, which is a bummer because the Nitro screen sucks down a LOT of power. Also, your usage patterns may make them ineffective for you... in which case you are probably better off without them.
Personally I get about an hour or 2 of extra life if I use one, but it's a trade-off since I lose instant notifications and a there's a slight delay while it reconnects to the network when the screen gets turned on. And the more you turn your screen on/off, the more it disconnects/reconnects/syncs... meaning it is using a bit MORE power than usual for those seconds.
[/jibberjabber]
The following are my favorite data-toggling battery-saver apps. All of them have "free" versions and more advanced "pro/prime/advanced/whatever" paid-for versions. These are not the only ones out there; feel free to report back on ones you prefer. If you find one that you really like, I suggest buying the pro version not only for the additional customization they offer, but to support the devs for a job well done.
1) DS Battery Saver - Super easy to configure and since it kills background tasks before sleeping it puts your device into a nice deep sleep. Also combines the feature of CPU Sleeper if you are rooted... it'll shut off a CPU core when sleeping.
2) Green Power - Works really well. The interface is simple and well laid out. I used it for years before I discovered DSBS.
3) Juice Defender - Another decent app, similar to Green Power. I personally preferred the options and the interface of GP better, but you may not.
4) CleverConnectivity +++Battery - The interface is a bit weak, and I had problems with the full data on/off features working on my P930 w/CM10.1... BUT this program has one very cool feature- it has an option for dropping the connection speed down to 2G/EDGE when the screen is off instead of disabling it completely. This allows syncs to still occur while still saving some power in 2G. I've even streamed Pandora on 2G, so in theory you could do stuff like that too. This feature worked fine on my P930 dispite the normal data on/off failing intermittently. There is a moment of zero data while it toggles between 2G/3G. I think this app might be awesome when development advances some more.
-Underclocking (rooted users)
Capping your max CPU frequency at a lower limit can save power. Quite honestly, for 99% of my daily use I can't tell the difference between the CPU clocked at 1.2ghz and 1.8ghz except that at 1.8ghz my battery bar laughs at me and gives me a wedgie. On custom ROMs there is often a built-in method to set the CPU clock frequency (Settings -> Performance -> Processor). On stock-based ROMs you'll need a 3rd party app like Kernel Tuner, SetCPU, or any of the other 50 options in the Play Store. You can usually safely set your minimum frequency to 192mhz, but some phone/ROM/kernel/voltage combos will cause stability or lag issues with doing this. YMMV.
*If you are using a CPU controlling app like SetCPU that allows for profiles, you might be tempted to set the screen-off frequencies to the absolute lowest setting of 192/192... be careful! This setting could end up costing more power consumption because the CPU has to work for a much longer time to handle the tasks at hand at such a low clock speed. If it was allowed to ramp up a bit the task would be done more quickly and efficiently. Honestly I gave up on setting screen-off profiles. I just use governors based on smartass which have their own screen-off settings integrated. Less adjustments needed, similar results. This leads us to...
-Changing governors (rooted users with custom kernel)
There's about 50 different governors floating around out there. If you don't know what a governor is or what each one does, read this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1736168
In short: Any governor that is based on smartass, ondemand or interactive is going to be pretty light on battery, and you may not be able to tell the difference between them in normal use. I like smartassv2 and badass, which are both based on smartass. Conservative may sound the most battery friendly, but usually ondemand does better and is less laggy.
Try some out. Have fun with it. Eventually you'll want to start tinkering with the I/O Scheduler... that's a topic for another thread. There's not much battery life to be gained there anyway.
-Undervolting (rooted users with custom kernel)
WARNING: This can cause instability if done improperly. MAKE A CWM BACKUP BEFORE TINKERING WITH UNDERVOLTING!!! I've never seen *drastic* gains on any device, but you do get a little bit more life, and every little bit helps, right?
So if you want to do it, read this: http://bigfatreality.blogspot.com/2012/03/guide-to-undervolt-android-safely.html and then proceed with caution.
Generally you can aggressively undervolt at lower frequencies, but be careful at higher frequencies because your device needs more power under load and will not like it if it can't get it. If you're a car guy this is like running too lean of a fuel mixture
Kernel Tuner and IncrediControl have nice GUIs for fiddling with voltages. Remember, adjust in tiny increments, followed by thorough testing! If you get a crash or reboot then you've gone too far. DO NOT ENABLE "SET ON BOOT" UNTIL YOU ARE SURE YOU'VE GOT STABLE VOLTAGES!!!
-Screen dimming
Screen backlights use lots of power. This ain't no AMOLED where you can save power by using dark backgrounds- LCDs light up the entire display regardless of what is on them.
I suggest turning off auto-adjust and set your brightness at a level that is just bright enough to be comfortable. I keep mind around 30-40%. Auto-adjust periodically polls the sensor to get light data, and uses a small bit of power to do it each time.
Turn on the 'Status Bar Brightness Control' if your ROM supports it so that you can easily swipe your finger along the top of the screen to brighten or dim the display on the fly. In CM9/10(.1) this option is under Menu -> Settings -> System -> Status Bar -> Brightness Control.
If you MUST use the auto-adjust, consider adjusting the levels that it uses. Make them as dim as is comfortable for you. For stock-based ROMs you'll need a third party app like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wsMSwyLDEsImNvbS52aXRvY2Fzc2lzaS5sdXhsaXRlIl0.
For CM/AOKP based ROMs this can be done from the Display -> Brightness sub-menu of your device's settings area. CM10.1 has an excellent and simple adjustment interface.
-Build.prop Tweaks (rooted users)
You can add the tweaks below into your build.prop file that may or may not help with battery life. Download BuildProp Editor from the Play Store and add them. They seem to help a bit, but it could be placebo effect. They certainly don't hurt anything so give them a shot and report back what you get. These seem to work with ICS and JB:
ro.config.hw_fast_dormancy=1
ro.ril.fast.dormancy.rule=0
ro.ril.disable.power.collapse=1
pm.sleep_mode=1
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=180
net.tcp.buffersize.default=4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.wifi=4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.umts=4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.gprs=4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.edge=4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960
^ this forum keeps adding a space near the 16384... there shouldn't be any spaces. I think they get disregarded anyway if they are put in the file, so no biggy.
^some of these have presets in BuildProp Editor, some you have to enter yourself. I copy/paste them individually. Don't paste the "=" signs though. Everything before the "=" goes under "Property Name", everything after it goes under "Property Value". If you are experienced you can edit the build.prop file directly using a text editor. Just back it up first and don't screw with the permissions.
-Some other useful apps that help with battery life:
*CPU Sleeper (root users)- Shuts off all but one cpu core when the screen is off. This probably isn't required with a good kernel and governor setup (and a stable phone that sleeps well), and if you are running DS Battery Saver this feature is built-in to it. It uses barely any resources whatsoever, so give it a shot.
*Greenify (root users)- This essentially freezes selected apps when they are not in use. They cannot do background tasks or wake your phone when they are not active. When you attempt to open one of the apps it instantly thaws them for use. After you are done with them it freezes them back up. It is quite brilliant really! It eliminates a lot of wakelocks and battery drain from apps trying to update, gather location data, etc. Use with caution though- don't greenify apps that you actually need to have a data flow from or ones that you use widgets for.
*RootDim (root users) - You know how when you are using your phone in bed at night and the screen is just too bright, even on the dimmest setting? This app lets you go even dimmer. Less brightness means less power, so it will reduce battery usage in the process.
-Apps that help diagnose battery drains
*Better Battery Stats - Good for discovering the cause of battery-draining wakelocks. Just uninstall it when you're done using it to diagnose- otherwise it is constantly doing its thing which is not going to help battery life any!
*OS Monitor - See if your CPU is settling down like it should and see what is keeping it busy. It also has a ton of other advanced options and features.
...there's too many apps to list here! Share the ones you like I'll add more later.
-Adjust your advanced Wifi settings
Go to Settings -> Wifi, then hit Menu -> Advanced
Most people agree that Network Notification should be UNCHECKED, Keep WiFi during sleep should be 'Always', and 'Avoid poor connections' and 'WiFi optimization' should be CHECKED.
If you have a noisy wifi router (some Netgears are guilty) that keeps waking your device from sleep with wifi packets you may get better results if you change Wifi During Sleep to 'Never' or 'Only when plugged in'.
-Watch the reboots!
Every time your phone reboots, Android checks the SD card for errors and then runs the Media Scanner to take inventory of all media files. Both processes consume power, so try to limit unplugged reboots. The more files on your SD card, the longer Media Scanner has to work, so get rid of unnecessary files cluttering up your card. You may have some luck using .nomedia files to tag directories to be skipped during scanning. You can also use an app like this to disable the automatic Media Scanning Service. It also lets you scan on demand. Caution- If you don't ever do a scan, then new pictures won't appear in your gallery nor will new music appear in your player.
I'm sure I'll think of some things later that I have forgotten, and I'll discover new things... I'll update this when I do.
Please share your findings so that this can be the best battery saving thread... In the world.
Very interesting and helpful info.
Thank you very much !!! :good::good::good:
Couple things I'd add, especially if you're running a CM-based ROM
Get NoBloat and disable the following:
SuperUser - Get SuperSU instead, less battery drain.
CM Update Checker - Every time I use my phone to go online (I don't have data on 24/7) this thing pops up and wants to check for updates, but never properly gets flushed. Disabling this one app dropped my hourly drain by about 1.5% on CM10
jekostas said:
Couple things I'd add, especially if you're running a CM-based ROM
Get NoBloat and disable the following:
SuperUser - Get SuperSU instead, less battery drain.
CM Update Checker - Every time I use my phone to go online (I don't have data on 24/7) this thing pops up and wants to check for updates, but never properly gets flushed. Disabling this one app dropped my hourly drain by about 1.5% on CM10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this- I just disabled CM Updater.
BTW with JB there's no need to download NoBloat- you can disable most apps (including this one) from the built-in App manager. Settings -> Apps -> All -> CM Updater -> Disable
Here's another trick for a specific type of battery drain: (you don't apply the fix in on your phone though)
Symptoms:
1) Your phone drains its battery while doing basically nothing while connected to your wifi router.
2) BBS shows massive amounts of wlan_rx_wake wakelocks
3) Android OS seems to be a high contributor to battery use
Fix #1: (Found HERE) "Change DTIM value in your router configuration from 1 (default) to 255. This value is usually in Advanced->Wireless tab on most routers."
^Seems to help a lot.
Fix #2: Set a static IP on your phone for your home network. The easiest way to do this is to find out what address range your router uses when it hands out IP address via DHCP, then hard-set an IP on your phone that is not in that range so that there won't be any conflicts with other devices that connect to your network. You'll need to consult your internets and googles to figure out how to get this information from your router, if you don't know how. Once you know a clear address you can use, go into your phones Wifi Settings, long-touch your network name, hit 'Modify', 'Advanced', punch in the static IP you wish to use. This might not be an option on corporate or shared housing wireless routers.
Fix #3: Check ALL computers on your network for the presence of the Dropbox software. Mac, Windows and Linux computers alike. If it is running in the system tray, click it, go into preferences, turn off 'LAN Sync'. This little booger wreaks havoc with wifi locks on some Android devices.
mpsantiago said:
Thanks for this- I just disabled CM Updater.
BTW with JB there's no need to download NoBloat- you can disable most apps (including this one) from the built-in App manager. Settings -> Apps -> All -> CM Updater -> Disable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found that for whatever reason the built-in app disabler doesn't always work. I still like using NoBloat better.
Second to this, once you do disable a bunch of apps it's good to boot back in to recovery and wipe dalvik/fix permissions.
jekostas said:
I've found that for whatever reason the built-in app disabler doesn't always work. I still like using NoBloat better.
Second to this, once you do disable a bunch of apps it's good to boot back in to recovery and wipe dalvik/fix permissions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree.
Thanks for all the info it is very interesting! I'll be trying this
---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:59 PM ----------
Thanks for all the info it is very interesting! I'll be trying this
thanks you. it greats:good:
LTE battery drain
Any good tips for reducing battery drain in LTE and Wifi for 20c?
Updated the OP... from now on I'll just put new tips at the top of the list.
frankshi said:
Any good tips for reducing battery drain in LTE and Wifi for 20c?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What ROM are you using and is LTE available in your area?
Awesome guide man, +thanks:good:
Oh this is kinda off-topic but Mattman86 I wanted to ask you, I just installed your Hono CM9 Full Throttle rom and I'm having some issues putting the apps onto my SD-Card. Whenever I move them (through titanium backup or just standard move to sd in settings) whenever my phone restarts the apps disappear and or say "app not installed" then they are a green default android icon and just don't work :\ Also does Wind Kernal work with your 4.0.4 Rom?
alainmona said:
Awesome guide man, +thanks:good:
Oh this is kinda off-topic but Mattman86 I wanted to ask you, I just installed your Hono CM9 Full Throttle rom and I'm having some issues putting the apps onto my SD-Card. Whenever I move them (through titanium backup or just standard move to sd in settings) whenever my phone restarts the apps disappear and or say "app not installed" then they are a green default android icon and just don't work :\ Also does Wind Kernal work with your 4.0.4 Rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't done anything with CM9.
I currently have the ROM in my signature with Wind Kernel 3.5 and Battery Guru along with SetCPU installed and I get roughly 23 hours of battery.
mattman86 said:
I haven't done anything with CM9.
I currently have the ROM in my signature with Wind Kernel 3.5 and Battery Guru along with SetCPU installed and I get roughly 23 hours of battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh then I'm tripping then haha, I have a question though. I tried installing Liquid Nitro and every time I tend to wipe data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, and wipe system. It just hangs at the LG logo and I haven't had the ability to try out your v7 or for that matter any of the other previous Liquid Nitro. I'll send you a PM since I can't really post in the development section due to my lack of postage xD :cyclops:
On the CM 10.1M3 with wind kernel 1.8, after one day of normal use with WiFi off and Data Off and Location services off I got Google Maps being the worst offender battery wise, the weird part is that I didn't really used maps that day. So even with everything off some service is still eating bat in background.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I've never really been active in these forums, but I read them plenty and usually find fixes to all my problems and answers to all my questions. This one has eluded me however. Here's how it is:
I rooted my phone many months ago and I don't remember exactly how I did it. I installed busybox and xposed and have been using my phone without tweaking it for a while. So now that I have time and the interest, I decided to do something about the very hot device in my hands. That's besides the point, although some of it may have something to do with the problem. Anyway, it turns out that even when all cores are active the last 2 cores in the big cluster remain unused, they bear no cpu load as reported by Kernel Auditor. It's quite annoying as I feel like the extra strain on the other cores is causing the heat curve to be a bit steeper than it should be, since the inactive cores are still generating heat with them being on and ramping up in operating frequency. Let alone, not getting the full value of performance out of this phone.
I've tried doing a full wipe to see if that fixed it, it didn't. I tried a custom rom and kernel and it still hasn't been fixed. Has anyone else had a problem like this?
tl;dr - the last 2 big cores are online but do not process anything
*UPDATE*
So it turns out that the problem was HTC pnp manager. Not sure why, but after I turned it off, all the cores were working properly. After turning it back on the cores stopped working again. I'm going to try switching to the default thermal_engine.conf file.
**UPDATE**
The default thermal_engine conf file did not fix the problem. I can only speculate that either something is wrong with pnp manager, or something is wrong with the hardware. I would like to find a way to fix this. I can manage without pnp manager, however, without pnp manager I have to run user apps, scripts, etc. to accomplish the same thing as pnp manager which could increase cpu usage and potentially cause slightly more heat and quicker battery drain. If I can use pnp manager and maintain use of all cores, I would prefer to do so. I'll take any suggestions, if you want to help but need more info I'd be happy to give more.
@ironman120693
How did you disable pnp manager?????
My phone doesn't have a custom kernel so is there any other way to disable it?????