[Q] Why is my battery so erratic? - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm on an older HTC Evo running EnergyROM with stock kernal and my battery varies wildly. As referenced my phone did go for at least 2 days with very minimal using. Like the second day I just got stoned and watched movies all day, but still. The other day though it was half gone, half an hour after unplugging it and I had done almost nothing to it. Is there a reason or a way to pinpoint this?

nintennuendo said:
I'm on an older HTC Evo running EnergyROM with stock kernal and my battery varies wildly. As referenced my phone did go for at least 2 days with very minimal using. Like the second day I just got stoned and watched movies all day, but still. The other day though it was half gone, half an hour after unplugging it and I had done almost nothing to it. Is there a reason or a way to pinpoint this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like a lot has to do with your signal strength. When the signal is weak (yellow or gray bar) the phone is constantly searching for signal which can drain battery very quickly.
The other major culprit is your "Awake" time - this means there's likely an app creating a "wakelock" or "partial wakelock" which is keeping your phone from sleeping. There's a number of threads dedicated to resolving wakelock issues, so perhaps the best solution there would be to visit the original ROM thread and search for people also having wakelock issues.
To get a better feel for battery life, there's an app a number of people use called "Battery Monitor Widget" (available from market, commonly abbreviated as BMW). I'd also consider what apps were running (if you left navigation on in the background, for example).
Let me know if any of that was helpful/useful.

Hey,
I would suggest trying a different rom and when you do wipe your battery stats when you get to a full charge and follow the instructions within the battery wipe app * you can get it from the market*
and get battery monitoring apps from the market as well, it could be certain apps you use as well.
and just a tip of life you might want to stop getting high...

Battery Calibration
I'm been using Battery Calibration from the market I do it one a week and it help a lot and you need to do this after flashing a new rom....

Related

[Q] Battery life + heating trouble.

Here's a thing that keeps bugging me - either i'm doing something wrong, or there's something wrong with my settings, or maybe it's defective battery or device, in the end (gosh, hope not).
So the problem is, running mb525 with xd11.2.5 (nordic .177 - based), VSel 300/22,650/32,100/52, stock battery, few if any "side" programs- basically Elixir and DroidWall.
a) I know people around do get 24+ hours from their Defy's, and by the look of the battery size it's OK. But I hadn't been able to get close to that, much less go "2 days" - battery go down in 12 hours of "ordinary use" or so.
Battery Manager always shows "mobile standby" as the foremost juice gnawer (50%+).
b) The ordinary use above is - wifi bt gps off 99%, data on 50% of time. I'd say it's very fair, and really expected to, as they say in spam mails, last longer All sorts of process monitors, task managers and killers absolutely fail to find any "rogue app" that could've been responsible (and I control those managers themselves pretty tightly, aswell). Other people running xd1 rom do not report same problems.
c) But that's not the worst of it. At times, my battery would really heat up. Not cannot-touch heat up, but, well, speaking my native Celsium, if the normal operating temp is 32-34, when it's "hot" Elixir would show 40, even 43. That's still far from scary, but not sure if normal either - noticeably warm to the touch.
Last two times it really heated was
- when i DLed a big (20mb+) app from Market over 3g - it took about 5 minutes and by the end of it back battery cover was seriously hot, 43 Celsium seemed accurate or even understated.
- while doing full nandroid backup in Clockwork recovery (heck, neither ROM nor VSel aint loaded yet!). Again about 4-5 minutes and 40*C, give or take.
Granted, I can't guarantee it's battery itself or something in the phone (core, anthena) spreading the heat, but net result is the same.
So, any idea what's the problem is and what should I do?
Any advice, similar experience and other helpful bits are greately appreciated. I fell in love with Defy bigtime, but quite honestly, 12 hours battery life is not something I can live with Especially when people are getting 48 out of the same device with the same battery
P.S. Might be a baseband problem as it's a UK-bought defy with Nordic ROM being run in Russia... but i've no idea how to check it out or fix...
ArcanisX said:
Here's a thing that keeps bugging me - either i'm doing something wrong, or there's something wrong with my settings, or maybe it's defective battery or device, in the end (gosh, hope not).
So the problem is, running mb525 with xd11.2.5 (nordic .177 - based), VSel 300/22,650/32,100/52, stock battery, few if any "side" programs- basically Elixir and DroidWall.
a) I know people around do get 24+ hours from their Defy's, and by the look of the battery size it's OK. But I hadn't been able to get close to that, much less go "2 days" - battery go down in 12 hours of "ordinary use" or so.
Battery Manager always shows "mobile standby" as the foremost juice gnawer (50%+).
b) The ordinary use above is - wifi bt gps off 99%, data on 50% of time. I'd say it's very fair, and really expected to, as they say in spam mails, last longer All sorts of process monitors, task managers and killers absolutely fail to find any "rogue app" that could've been responsible (and I control those managers themselves pretty tightly, aswell). Other people running xd1 rom do not report same problems.
c) But that's not the worst of it. At times, my battery would really heat up. Not cannot-touch heat up, but, well, speaking my native Celsium, if the normal operating temp is 32-34, when it's "hot" Elixir would show 40, even 43. That's still far from scary, but not sure if normal either - noticeably warm to the touch.
Last two times it really heated was
- when i DLed a big (20mb+) app from Market over 3g - it took about 5 minutes and by the end of it back battery cover was seriously hot, 43 Celsium seemed accurate or even understated.
- while doing full nandroid backup in Clockwork recovery (heck, neither ROM nor VSel aint loaded yet!). Again about 4-5 minutes and 40*C, give or take.
Granted, I can't guarantee it's battery itself or something in the phone (core, anthena) spreading the heat, but net result is the same.
So, any idea what's the problem is and what should I do?
Any advice, similar experience and other helpful bits are greately appreciated. I fell in love with Defy bigtime, but quite honestly, 12 hours battery life is not something I can live with Especially when people are getting 48 out of the same device with the same battery
P.S. Might be a baseband problem as it's a UK-bought defy with Nordic ROM being run in Russia... but i've no idea how to check it out or fix...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude.. Try using another sim card and see if you see any improvement in the battery.. The sim card you are using might be old and may be the phone is not able to suspend it when it is in deep sleep mode..
It is normal for this battery to heat up when running different big things....3G ussualy causes it to heat up
I get 2-3 days....i dont know why you get only ~12 hours. When i bought this phone i "formated" the battery (some people say that is no needed for newer batteries) - charged it 3 times, each 8 hours (from 0% - when phone powers off itself to 100%)
If you are using Nordic version you SHOULD change your baseband (900/1800/2100 in Russia)
stefa_vr6 said:
If you are using Nordic version you SHOULD change your baseband (900/1800/2100 in Russia)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kinda fail at it, asked in original thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1052745&page=4 - basically it's either "850/1800/2100" called ChinaME722 1.10 or "900/2100" variants...
How do I check if the phone is "able to suspend or not"? I just got a just-pulled-out-of-holder-card new SIM card from my operator less then a week ago (old one wouldnt work with net access at all, for some reason).
Is it the same as SetVSel's "limit to vsel1 while screen is off" (which I have enabled the whole time), or a different thing?
Just today had another "controlled use", unplugged right with hte last post (e.g. 11 hrs ago, give or take), 1.5 hr voice calls total (2x of 45 mins), 1hr GPS on + data on for GMaps, 20 mins watching youtube via browser, the rest standby with everything off. 2 hours ago battery hit 30% where my VSel goes to "paranoid mode"(99% + vsel2 limit) and there it stays so far. Battery manager attributes 38% battery usage to "mobile standby" and 31% to voice calls.
^^tough luck
Have you tried watchdog? 3g also drains a lot try minimizing background apps to see if there are differences in the batt life. As for the battery, check if it is bloated or bulging. If it is then you need to replace it. If phone is still in warranty. unroot and have it checked out. Good luck
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App
At one time my Defy got into a state similar to the one you describe; unaccounted by any measurements battery rundowns (in my case also excessive data use). Only a reset to factory settings (wipes and all) restored sanity to the phone operation.
____
Tapped into XDA app on Moto Defy
As wrote earlier, data/3g is completely disabled most of the time - batt drain still there.
I currently switched baseband to chinese 850/1900/2100 - will see if it changes anything. Also with some luck some people might just know the "correct" baseband to set for Russia (either here or in baseband svitcher topic).
Will give watchdog a try, but then again, i've been closely monitoring processes with tons of other stuff. Almost nothing's running (as I hadnt installed much yet). Plus the fact that "battery usage" gives foremost percentage to mobile standby hints the problem might be there, not in runaway app.
Had several wipes, if all else fails i'll try some different base ROM (e.g. not .177 nordic). Admittedly, I hadn't used anything else much so far.
And for "double tough luck", as said, friend brought Defy to me from UK, so getting is serviced it no easy task - if I find the battery to be in fault, might be easier to just order a replacement (or that Mugen extended one).
I still kinda hope it's some kind of settings/software/ROM glitch and not a hardware problem. The battery looks and feels OK most of the time - I would've definitely seen an obviously defective one. It charges and discharges pretty linear, any soft I tried that checks battery (such as Elixir or SpareParts) returns normal. Uptime not counting deep sleep and real uptime are different, hinting the device does enter sleep at times (no idea if properly).

[Q] Investigating a battery drain issue

Hello all,
A few months ago I became a proud owner of a Moto Defy, a great rugged phone that has been working great for me until just last week. For some reason the battery life was cut drastically! So bad that while the screen was off and not touched at all, the battery percentage would go from 100% to 40% in four hours.
what was even worse was when I would connect the charger, the phone would charge completely in less that 1 hour! I didn't seem to matter if I was browsing the web, playing music over the loud speaker, or just leaving it alone, the battery seemed to fall the same.
I began to research online for some answers since I couldn't believe that the battery would just go bad just like that! first I installed a custom recovery that had the option of wiping the battery stats, but that didn't work. then I stumbled across this thread on a battery bug in the android os 2.3.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1039696
Even though the os on this defy is 2.2.1 I thought I was on to something. they talked about an app called watchdog. I also found an app called Battery monitor widget, which allowed me to see the battery usage in milli-amps.
I got concerned when during the day, I noticed a spike in the battery usage that was crazy! the app showed where the usage went from 99ma to 2399ma drain and I lost 8% of the battery in that one minuet! Keep in mind that the battery is only rated at 1500mAh to begin with. With that being said, I was thinking I have a short in the phone! The spike happened again later on that brought my phone to it's knees!
while reading further into the thread, I installed watch dog lite. Immediately after the installation finished, I started getting flagged for an app using over 60% of the cpu while the screen was off! Fancy widget 1.3, I had liked this app so much on my old Moto cliq, I imported it over to my defy.
Maybe I have found the culprit, I donno. This is just my experience so far, if anyone can add to this, please do. I will continue to monitor the phone and the activity of the apps. I am still shocked about the battery drain spikes that I saw! I am still, to my knolage, running the stock rom that came with the defy, now with the addition of Clockwork MOD recovery installed.
i have issues too, in the last week my battery dies in 13-14 hours with normal use. before that, it lasted 24-25 hours with heavy use. i also have sudden pattery percentage drops (which is probably the same as yours, that 8% in one minute). i already tried reflashing sbf/cm7, calibrated battery with cwm and app, nothing seems to work. now i disabled boot oc and use setvsel, and installed battery monitor widget and watchdog lite, maybe those will help :S
sent from my cm7 defy...
Since I installed rc1.5 my battery last for a fairly long time. It droped from 100% to 26% in 23 hours with medium use (data connection always active, when I used it heavily I turned on 3g, I used wifi and I was on a sunny place so the screen was bright)
Sent from my MB525 using xda premium
many have reported battery drain on rc1.5, seems its not present in every case. just installed 110909 nightly, so cant really report on that yet, but ill do as soon as i can.
Im on CM& RC 1.5, my battery last me a long time (more than 30 hours) using a lot of wifi + edge data, and lots of calls and sms, so i guess i dont have the battery drain bug

How To: Better Battery Life

I hear it all the time... Does this rom provide good battery life? How's the battery life? Why is my battery life suck? So; it may have been done already somewhere; but I figured after watching and logging my own battery life, I could really help some others. I'll section this out; no specific order at all.
ROM: No matter how many times I look at a ROMs thread, I get to see a multitude of "How is the battery life" posts. You know it, I know it, and we all know it. Truth is; after using plenty of ICS roms out there; most of them have similar battery life. Currently I'm running the Blu Kuban rom, and I get just as good battery life as I do with most other touchwiz based roms. To each rom their own. Read up on the rom itself before you go blaming the rom for battery life. I've noticed the JB builds aren't the best with the battery, but we must remember those are usually noted for having bad battery life. Either way, most of the ROMs I've used personally perform rather similar in actual battery life.
Kernel/Governor tweaks: I can't stress this enough. Governor's and Kernel Thread. That thread will teach you more than anything you want to know about kernel and governor tweaks. Some of these governors can send your phone to absolute battery immolation, while others can set your phone up to last 2x as long. I prefer the more conservative approach and end up with a ton of battery left at the end of the day. While these settings are important, the most important is yet to come.
APPS. I can't stress this enough. I used a quite a few different setups to find what all really uses battery, what doesn't, and what I should to to maximize my own battery. For those of you who don't know me at all, I work ten hours a day, and I used this time frame to measure the battery usage while it's sitting in my car for ten hours. I have a Trexcell 3800mAh battery, so it's roughly 2x the power as the stock battery.
What's the number one usage on my device? NOTIFICATIONS! All of those apps that automatically feed their greed by getting updates from the servers or whatever. Facebook, Hotmail, Tapatalk, and EVEN just the gMail app could drain 10% of my battery in ten hours. Let me show you my findings.. These are the normal apps I use that can automatically update over certain time frames.
Hotmail
Tapatalk (Xparent Red version)
gMail
Facebook
Now if they all automatically update on the stock settings, ten hours of work will mean I'm coming back to a phone with only 75% battery. With only 4-6 hours of deep sleep! That means these apps are waking my phone up to do whatever they want for quite a while. With all of them set to be manually updated; I come to 95-97% battery life. That's quite a stretch in a difference you know?
So, I tested each with the others off and here is what I found. (I tested for three days, wrote my results for each day, then switched to a different app)
Hotmail set to update hourly would leave me with about 90% of the battery at 4:30. Average deep sleep times were in the 8-9 hour ranges.
Tapatalk was setup stock for 15 minute updates. I'd lose at least 10% on the battery every day! Deep sleep however would range in the 8.5-9.5 hour range.
gMail was set to update hourly and would leave me with 95% each day with only keeping the phone awake for 30 minutes on average.
Facebook updates are odd; since they don't happen all the time. So I had a good friend post on my wall three times a day and noticed that it would eat a LOT of battery, usually 10-15% and keep my phone awake for about 30 minutes a pop.
Now I must note, for my tests I had almost nothing installed on the phone aside from the apps listed and the basic apps available in the blue Kuban rom. For the tests, I set google voice to do not disturb so phone calls and the like wouldn't be an issue.
With all four of the apps set to default updates however (no messages on facebook aside from one day), the battery life ranged from one day being 67%, second day ended with 74% and the third day left me with 72%. That's a LOT of battery for just sitting in my car.
After these findings, I've switched all my apps to update only when I manually refresh them, and I'll tell you what, my battery life has never been greater. I literally come home with 95% battery on average and can sit and play on my phone almost all night without charging until it's nightly stay on the charger.
Just some other tips I've learned along the way.
Wifi is a battery slaughterer if it's not connected. Driving around the city and having the wifi detect all kinds of networks is just battery slaughter. So, my rule of thumb now is, when I leave the house the wifi goes off. It's true that wifi uses less battery than 3g and 4g, but when you're picking up random networks and the radio is searching through them, it's just no good for the battery.
Brightness, it's a key. I can't stress this enough, if you don't need 100% brightness and want better battery life, turn that screen brightness down to an acceptable level.
As an ending to this short but sweet little tidbit of information, I'd like to share why I wrote this, did all this testing, and why it mattered to me since I have an extended battery. My phone is my link to the world, my family, potential jobs, and just my favorite handheld entertainment device. Me and my fiancee` both have the E4GT, and I have the extended battery. She has the stock battery and it doesn't last long at all for her. So my plan now is to work with her on her battery life, and give her this extended battery. I won't need it since I literally have to try to get to 50% battery life with it. I usually end up plugging my phone in for the night at 65-75% battery. I just figured I'd share this with people on the forum as maybe a different approach to saving some precious battery. If you like it, tap the thanks button. If you have any ideas to better this, let me know!
How's battery life on this ROM
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VVVVVV
ÄÖK¶ B4
"420 Special Edition 10/16"
Just like to add for people to check their batteries lol...these stock batteries that come with the phone don't last all that long..a lot of these batteries go bad quick and need to be replaced (a simple spin of the battery will tell you if you need it changed)...and for a lot of people to stop constant deep charges and to charge when needed instead of pushing the battery to low critical levels
-TeaM VeNuM Like A Boss
I will also add that if you're going to try and mess with settings such as I/O or over/under clocking do your research so you don't jack your phone trying to save a battery. I say this from experience lol
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
I understand leaving your phone on all day long so you can see texts and missed calls and stuff but why not just turn off your data during the day instead? I use this widget when I am in a poor signal area, don't need data, or sometimes overnight https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.data.enabler&hl=en Simple and effective and you can let your apps sync for times when you are using the phone
Undervolting also helps a little
Step 1. Install CM10 or ParanoidAndroid.
Step 2. PROFIT!
Battery life between stock and AOSP is night and day.
The questions about battery life are there because not every kernal is the same. Especially ones that are early in development. Pretty much every AOSP rom will defer some amount and even more so if 1 of them is in its early stages.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
What battery problem I'm, all good
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
What most people need to know is no matter what tweaks are applied.. YMMV. It's all down to the user.. Best way to save battery on your phone.. Turn it off!!!! lol But I agree with the things posted. I'm always messing around to find the best settings.. So far i've gotten over a day (1d 3 hours) with over 2 hours screen on with my setup. Which is great for me. But all in all, it's how i use my phone.
MiguelHogue said:
Just like to add for people to check their batteries lol...these stock batteries that come with the phone don't last all that long..a lot of these batteries go bad quick and need to be replaced (a simple spin of the battery will tell you if you need it changed)...and for a lot of people to stop constant deep charges and to charge when needed instead of pushing the battery to low critical levels
-TeaM VeNuM Like A Boss
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean spin the battery? As in literally put in on a counter and spin it?
VeEzyZ32 said:
What do you mean spin the battery? As in literally put in on a counter and spin it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.. If it's spins that means it's bulging.. And that equals a bad battery
-TeaM VeNuM Like A Boss
MiguelHogue said:
Yes.. If it's spins that means it's bulging.. And that equals a bad battery
-TeaM VeNuM Like A Boss
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And if it jumps up and starts doing flips.... YOUTUBE THAT SH!T!!!!! :laugh:
milky1112 said:
And if it jumps up and starts doing flips.... YOUTUBE THAT SH!T!!!!! :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol if it jumps and starts doing flips.. Stand back... That thing about to explode
-TeaM VeNuM Like A Boss
Oh everyone loves the magical blue smoke! (i was an airvraft electrician in the navy, seen batteries that werent happy lol noooooo funn)
Sent from my braille Epic Touch
I wanted to share some of my thoughts and experiences with battery life on my E4GT.
On GB I had great battery life...As soon as I got on any version of ICS I started having battery life issues. I eventually learned that my battery was buldging so I ordered a new one. Once I got my new battery, I thought life would be grand...NOT so much!!
Over the last month or so and ROM after ROM, tweak after tweak and even going straight stock I figure it was actually the device itself that was the problem...AND it was the problem from the day I got it last Dec. From reception to battery life to buzzing camera.
Something I've seen as is that "freezing" an app doesnt always disable it...I've had to completely uninstall something to get it to not run...even though its frozen and all of its startup references are disabled in Autostarts.
I dont care for the stock browser, but I've learned that 3rd party browsers such as Firefox and Chrome continue to run and use CPU even after exiting...Now, FIrefox has an actual "Quit" option while chrome doesnt...So if you Quit out of Firefox its ok, but unless you close your tab in Chrome it just keeps on chugging battery power.
A TEP replacement phone is what finally resolved my issues!!
I've only had my new phone for 2 days now, but I'm already seeing better battery than before, plus better reception and a camera that doesnt buzz.
I've got Agats ROM with the BluKuban 1.8 Kernel. This Kernel has a few more options enabled so I use that but I like how Agat put his FI27 ROM together.
Thanks for reading...
Found this one to be very helpful (written for the nexus but some does apply to our device):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1599025
Also if you have a newer version of maps, make sure to go to settings-location settings and disable location reporting and location history, these two kill your battery when turned on.

what happened to my battery?

So a few days ago I installed Nova Launcher, got root, changed my dpi to 170, applied the screen off SMS fix, and installed accuweather. I feel like battery life has decreased considerably. I usually don't leave my phone plugged in overnight, but did yesterday. Today, I am down to 81% with 22m on screen time -- at this rate, I would get an hour and a half on a full charge, where I've gotten 3 days and 5 hours of on screen time before when the phone was 100% stock. I had the phone in airplane mode for most of the day, but the battery graph still shows a sharper than usual decline. I just uninstalled accuweather to see if that would help, and will do a complete drain this charge cycle. Anyone else seen something similar to this?
I installed nova launcher prime and my battery life is still amazing. Although I'm not rooted, I wouldn't think that root is the issue. Have you installed an app that has gone rogue and is constantly running? For my part devices that was the problem most of the time. Check your battery stays to see if you can identify which app is exhausting your battery and if you can't, my suggestion is to hard reset to get better results.
One of the great things about the note is the battery life. It would suck to have this advantage become a disadvantage. Good luck
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Search for better battery stats here on Xda. You can get the paid app for free (though I recommend purchasing it).
It may help you identify the app, or service eating cycles, or draining your battery.
Did you by chance recently enable Google now?
Or do you have maps reporting/updating your location with GpS radio enabled?
sent from my ginormous Note II
Yes, I experienced something very similar, as did at least one other user in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1977476
My battery suddenly went from being awesome to draining about 1% every 5-10 minutes with no apparent cause, even while sleeping. I wiped and re-flashed, which did not seem to help, then tried an odin re-flash, with still questionable results immediately thereafter. The next day, it seemed to be spontaneously resolved - though, I'm not convinced my battery life is quite as good as some people are reporting.
Interestingly, better battery stats did not show any suspect activity.
I know that's not a solution, but you are definitely not alone. There is something weird going on here. That other user theorized it might be a calibration issue. Seems as plausible to me as anything else. If you are feeling patient, perhaps let it be for a day or two and see if it does indeed spontaneously resolve for you. That would be a helpful data point. If you can't bring yourself to do that, at least keep us updated on what you do and the results.

Random Battery overheat & drain - Software issue or Hardware?

I have a 2 year old S4 Mini (GT19195), currently running latest stable CM 13.
The phone is working fine except for the occasional (once a week or 2) unexplained battery drain.
With my fairly light daily use, the battery is lasting over 2 days. <And can usually run 4 or more hours screen on.> However, in the last few months, at random times (even with phone asleep - screen off for > 10 min, so presumably in doze), the phone will heat up, and battery will drop 5-10% per minute. After the phone shuts off from dead battery, recharging and restarting the phone will return things to normal, until the next time.
During these episodes, the phone behaved normally, I did not notice any lag on waking up the phone, switching/opening apps, etc. The battery meter page showed no unusual process using the battery (none of the process actually showed any increase in % battery use); except for the battery life dropping off a cliff as I watch. <I noted that the battery usage stat never adds up to 100% even in normal use ... It might show 10% screen, 5% Android, etc, but all that only adds up to 50% or so from full charge to when the battery is near dead.>
Anyone seen this before? Is this a sign of an ailing battery, or something else? Can this be a software problem - like something running away in the background? <Of note is that this happened once when I had completely wiped the phone and had the fresh install of CM 13 + Gapps (micro) ... so if this is software, it would be something in stock Android, rather than a 3rd party app.>
Thanks for reading & responding.
@JohnSoong
This sounds like the processor is stuck on max frequency. Either it is an app(s) playing up or some other process that is keeping the CPU working when it should sleep.
The first thing I would do is install BetterBatteryStats app or something similar to see what is keeping the device awake. You could also try to grab a logcat, but you would need to catch the incident and either plug into a pc with adb or run an app like catlog
JohnSoong said:
I have a 2 year old S4 Mini (GT19195), currently running latest stable CM 13.
The phone is working fine except for the occasional (once a week or 2) unexplained battery drain.
With my fairly light daily use, the battery is lasting over 2 days. <And can usually run 4 or more hours screen on.> However, in the last few months, at random times (even with phone asleep - screen off for > 10 min, so presumably in doze), the phone will heat up, and battery will drop 5-10% per minute. After the phone shuts off from dead battery, recharging and restarting the phone will return things to normal, until the next time.
During these episodes, the phone behaved normally, I did not notice any lag on waking up the phone, switching/opening apps, etc. The battery meter page showed no unusual process using the battery (none of the process actually showed any increase in % battery use); except for the battery life dropping off a cliff as I watch. <I noted that the battery usage stat never adds up to 100% even in normal use ... It might show 10% screen, 5% Android, etc, but all that only adds up to 50% or so from full charge to when the battery is near dead.>
Anyone seen this before? Is this a sign of an ailing battery, or something else? Can this be a software problem - like something running away in the background? <Of note is that this happened once when I had completely wiped the phone and had the fresh install of CM 13 + Gapps (micro) ... so if this is software, it would be something in stock Android, rather than a 3rd party app.>
Thanks for reading & responding.
Click to expand...
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That sounds like an issue I've had for several months, also running CM13 (Official) nightlies & Open GApps micro, unfortunately I've never had the time investigate (well I did once but it worked fine, I couldn't recreate the problem). It is currently happening less than once a week so not a major issue for me.
I've noticed several times that the phone felt hot, I've then used the Trepn profiler app, it would show the web browser running at 30-50% cpu constantly, so stuck as per @noppy22, though not at 100%. I have tried all the major browsers and they have all done it at some point, also most have crashed at some point, which I suspect may be related. Normally just the browser app crashed but yesterday using Chrome the phone FC and rebooted itself. Crashes seem to happen when I touch screen or scroll (though one may not have been when touching). Also XDA app crashed (1st time) when scrolling a couple of weeks ago, so probably not just browser issue on some sites as I thought previously, but might be unrelated. The stock battery meter did not show particularly high battery usage by browsers, though were a little elevated in % terms but hard to tell due to different usage patterns and not checking when things are good! I have noticed a bit of lag, which now makes we run trepn, if it shows high than expected usage by an app I close the app, which fixes it even if I go back to the same web page. This morning I woke up and my phone was off, I put it in my night-time profile (wifi & data off) that normally only uses a few % overnight but last night it must have used more than 30% of battery that was left, first time this has happened.
The other thing to consider is how good is your battery? At 2yrs old it could be tired if it's had a hard life (though yours maybe not) or you have allowed it to get very hot eg I did one trip using gps nav with phone mounted in windscreen cradle driving direct into the Aussie sun when my battery was about 2.5yrs old, thinking back I now think this was when I first noticed my battery was really dropping of quickly when around ~40% charge (though it was faster with more charge remaining also than my new battery, I would say), so think I the high temp the phone got to that day affected the battery. I think 4hrs of screen on time may be marginal, I was only getting about 3 to 3.5 when my battery dropped off fast, my new battery is giving me 6hrs SOT (mostly using browser app), so possibly you just need a new battery as only one other user has reported high cpu usage like I have.
Battery stats not adding up to 100% is normal.
I've just installed BetterBatteryStats, so I'll give it a week of so and see if it catches anything. So far nothing unusual in the stats.
I am leaning towards this being a hardware issue, likely the battery. Since the phone responded fairly normally during the overheat & battery drain episodes, this does not seem to me an app taking over the CPU. If the CPU was occupied by an app, shouldn't everything else be slowed down?
I have so far noticed no particular pattern to these episodes, and I cannot reproduce it at will. It is infrequent enough for now that I can live with it (although an unexpected dead battery is annoying.) I will see if the monitoring app pick up anything.
Hey guys,
Maybe you have to try to flash your stock or custom kernel again.
Thats probably the problem.
Xheers
When I got mine a few years ago the media process kept getting stuck and overheating/draining my phone and even a reboot wouldnt fix it. I found out because I was using the system panel app and monitoring cpu of system processes. I ditched and deleted the gallery app (it was trying to create thumbnails for 100+gb of photos and videos) for quick pic v.4.5.2 on every phone I've used ever since and haven't look back.

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