Develop Bugs

My battery problem - poor signal

When I'm at home and getting -80 to -70 signal, I lose like 10% battery in 4 hours. When I'm at work and getting -120 to -100 signal, I lose like 50% battery in 4 hours.
Sucks....
Neither ROM nor CPU speed or scheduler or running apps or anything makes that big of a difference. The only single factor I know that can kill the battery faster is the screen.
I keep a charger at my desk, but I'm wondering if I can do anything to improve this situation. I tried JuiceDefender for a while. In theory it would help a lot, but it seemed to cause some problem where Grooveshark and some other apps kept trying to hit the internet and couldn't which seemed to kill my battery just as badly. Maybe if I get the pay version it would allow enough tweaking to help.
Any advice?

I'm noticing the same thing. Was at a bar the other night with really poor reception. I was only there for about 2-3 hours. Without really using my phone at all the battery dropped from about 75% to 15%. Meanwhile, at home where I get good reception I can routinely get 15-20 hours.
I definitely think signal quality substantially impacts the life.

My signals been crap since I updated my PRI. Don't know it its related just been doing it since then.

I moved recently and am in a little 'deadzone' area where I don't get very good 3G or 2G signal (thankfully its a short stay). When I leave my phone on, I found that I lose a tremendous amount of my battery (phone indicates that I am without signal 95-97% of the time typically) -- I had a blackberry curve before my evo and even that phone and its otherwise kickass (only good feature...) battery life would go down significantly or die from sitting over night.
What I have found that I can do to minimize the damage is turning off data and connecting to my local wifi and running some setCPU profiles locking the processor at 245mhz. Last night my battery decreased about 12% doing this.
Its funny because last week I was on vacation in south florida where I had awesome signal and if I turned my data off and connected the wifi, my battery literally would stay the same for 10 hour or so before ticking off a percent.
I'm running a stock rooted odexed ROM with Herver's #2 Kernel. I do not use a task killer or juice defender.

liamaa said:
I'm noticing the same thing. Was at a bar the other night with really poor reception. I was only there for about 2-3 hours. Without really using my phone at all the battery dropped from about 75% to 15%. Meanwhile, at home where I get good reception I can routinely get 15-20 hours.
I definitely think signal quality substantially impacts the life.
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Click to collapse
well yes, because you phone is continuously searching for a better quality signal.

Excessive battery drain today due to data outage?

Hey folks,
for those who sufferred from the data outage today, do you observe a severe battery drain in 4G mode?
Even the phone is idle, it is consuming 8-10% per hour, while usually at this time of the day, I will see a straight line if my phone is sitting at the same area idling...

What area is the outage in? The most probable cause for your battery drain is the radio trying to search for signal that isn't there.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Thanks for replying. I am in midtown Manhattan
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

One of the biggest problem is when modern day phones keep looking for a 4G/3G signal in a poor reception area.
Either by forcing your phone to use 3G/2G it should reduce the drain
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I've done some tests; my PIL's live in a cellular black hole, and drain was phenomenal, no way around it. If I'm spending a significant amount of time there I revert to WiFi and/or turn off data. You'd likely observe some nasty user and kernel wakelocks if you have BBS installed.

I'm in western PA and mine has been going nuts all day trying to pick up 4G, when its normally not a problem. Even after the outages "cleared up", it has been struggling.

yeah.. the problem was, even I turned off mobile data, the drain is still ON. seems to be a problem in celluar signal etc itself.
Similar thing happens when I was at home, one particular place (between two pillows in my bed), the drainage was crazy overnight. even I have wifi on.

Thats because its still an "outage".
The ehrpd network is down and turned off. Devices are now switching between Rev A. and LTE. Expect longer transitions.

Verizon needs to seriously dedicate more time to fixing these LTE issues, but hey how can we complain, they were the "first".

So my excessive battery drain started the other day when the LTE network is down. (NOTE:I am not in an LTE area, and I do not have LTE enabled)
My battery drain is approximately 10%/hour, if the phone screen is off (ie the phone is powered on, but in 'standby' or 'sleep'). If it is doing something (say, playing music to me while I work, which I normally do everyday), it drains even quicker (roughly 15% to 20%/hour). This is much worse than normal.
While I can't say that I'm seeing any 'app usage' that is much higher than normal (mediaserver and com.mixzing.basic [my music player] are right below my screen usage), I can say that suddenly my CPU state percentage (seen using CPUspy V0.4.0) is 70% in 350 MHz, 26% in deep sleep, and the last 4% broken up between the 3 higher speed states. This is disturbing, as previously 350 MHz was not that high, normally I was seeing a much higher deep sleep percentage (over a 24 hour period...this is over 37hours atm).
Something has changed, and I fear it's something in conjunction with Verizon. I haven't changed anything with my phone in this time period, no 'new' rom, nothing. I've been running the leaked V4.0.4 stock ROM (rooted of course) for approximately 2 weeks now. My previous battery time was acceptable. This is not, since I cannot even go from breakfast to lunch now without having my phone tethered to a charger.
Any ideas? I've searched, and nothing else really matches this except perhaps this thread. It's not an exchange problem since I don't have exchange (as others have posted previously about that in other threads, I use gmail for my email).

Just gotta email from sprint

They were sayn that wifi saves batt up to 50%. Ive always been told the exact oppisite. Wifi kills batt life. Wtf
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

harley1rocker said:
They were sayn that wifi saves batt up to 50%. Ive always been told the exact oppisite. Wifi kills batt life. Wtf
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Depends on distance/strength of wifi signal...
It's a good way for them convince you to not use your data connection for a while and slow down the network.
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710

I got an email/text or statement insert saying the exact same thing. Funny thing is ever since that statement I have always made sure to have wifi on when home.
I know it sorta turns off when disconnected but then it scans and picks up wifi networks so I just turn it off when I leave the house.
On my OG Evo I did not notice any change in battery life with wifi on.

Searching for WiFi is what really kills the battery which is why I turn mine off and on manually rather than leaving it on. If I'm in an area with WiFi available and my 3G signal is low, then I'll turn on my WiFi, also when I'm at work or home my WiFi is always on but if I'm out and about then I keep WiFi off rather than have it drain my battery constantly looking for signal.

Technically, I think Wifi takes up less battery than, say 3G when actively used.
Just a guess o-0

MochaCharok said:
Technically, I think Wifi takes up less battery than, say 3G when actively used.
Just a guess o-0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think this is true, especially if you're sitting close to the router like at home or work rather than pinging off a cell tower however far away.

It goes both way guys. When idle, wifi consumes more battery than an active cellular data connection.
By virtue of simply being more efficient, wifi consumes "less" when actively using it. This is, however, because of the generally increased data speeds: it takes less time to accomplish a task (I.e. downloading a file), thus providing battery savings. In this regards, even 4g consumes less battery, even though it technically takes more juice to run 4g.
The way to really look at it so it becomes clear is say, hypothetically, you had a wifi connection whose internet side connection was very slow. In this regards, wifi doesn't save you any battery, and will probably end up consuming more, simply because its gain in efficiency is now gone.
Of course sprint wants us to get off cell data as much as possible, but in a lot of real world situations, it will save someone battery. Take my typical work day for example:
I wake up at home, drive to work, stay at work all day, then go home and probably stay there. I have good wifi connections both at home and work. Now, if I was the kind of user that didn't auto sync anything, I would probably end up using more battery life than I need to if I left wifi on all day, simply because I'm pumping juice into a radio that isn't being used.
However, I DO use a lot of auto sync functions, which means that my phone is actively using data a lot throughout the day. In this case, the battery drain due to the time in which wifi is left idle is out-weighed by the gain in battery life I get by the times my wifi is now being used instead a cell connection.
In a nutshell, as I said at the beginning, cellular data connection is more efficient at being idle than wifi (provided it's a good connection), and wifi is more efficient at being actively used (again, provided it's a good connection and the internet-side speed is sufficient).
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

My battery last far longer on wifi than 4g, not even close in my book.

Since I have wi-fi at work and home I can say there is a HUGE difference - especially since at home and work the 3G/4G signals are so weak that the phone burns quite a bit of battery just searching for a signal. Hoping that this will change as NV completes in the area but it might be the frequency that we're on is not too friendly with the newer building materials.

Yes, using wifi will save you more battery life than using your 3g/4g

Pastie13 said:
My battery last far longer on wifi than 4g, not even close in my book.
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4g is a completely different animal than 3g when it comes to battery drain. So far when on 4g your battery life is sucked out of your phone. The email Sprint sends out I would safely say is comparing 3g to wifi.

That same tip is on Sprints website when you log into your account. It is on the right hand side.
As for battery life my findings have been WIFI uses less juice when the signal is good. 3G uses less juice when the throughput is good. So when I am on 3G in an area that has good speeds I can hit near 30 hours of battery.
I can do the same on WIFI when the WIFI signal is good, but if the WIFI signal is on the lower end the throughput slows since the quality has been lowered.
So in essence the better the throughput the better the battery, because when the phone wakes to check on any sync items setup the longer it takes to make that check the longer the CPU is at max and the more battery drain occurs. And I'm not talking signal strength for 3G since you'll get more drain on the battery in lesser areas because the phone is naturally going to have to boost the transmitter power. I'm talking best signal and crappy 3G network throughput. That is where the drain comes from.
I have tested this in my house with my WIFI and my Airave. On WIFI if I go outside my WIFI range is really bad and my battery drains a lot quicker. If I turn off the WIFI and use the Airave, which has a much higher transmitter power, I can get great battery. I have also seen this in over night testing. My WIFI is in the living room which is 5 walls away and the signal is pretty poor. If I leave my WIFI on over night and not charge my phone I loose 50% battery and when trying to use my phone for internet I get super bad throughput since I am on the edge of the signal. But turn off my WIFI and ride on the Airave I only loose 15% over night and the internet is great, but limited to 1.5m since it is 3G. So if you download a 1meg attachment. 3G takes 2 min and WIFI take 4 min then 3G will use less battery. This also goes vis versa. Whoever is maxing the CPU the longest is your battery killer because both are always on and always ready when they are selected.
Hope I didn't go into to much detail, but transmit power is not the big thing here it is throughput quality of the signal. The worst the throughput the more time it takes to transmit and thus more battery as the CPU is maxed till the job is complete.

VZW Version: What's your battery life? How's your signal?

Well, I just purchased a Note 2 and am still in the "evaluation phase". I really do like the phone, fast, amazing battery and awesome signal. However I am asking this because I ama wondering if I am getting all that I can be from my Galaxy Nexus before I decide to keep the Note 2 for $700+.
For reference I have recently been using the Euroskank CM10.1 releases with Franco's newest kernel and undervolting CPU to approximately the values in the LeanKernel Aggressive Undervolt levels as well as knocking down all IVA and CORE voltage 100mv.
I can generally stretch the Nexus' battery life to 13 or 14 hours, but that's with <2 hours of screen on time. If I am using it a lot 8 hours of battery life is lucky, if not less. This really isn't with any gaming or using it for listening to anything, just genrally Facebook and the internet. I do leave LTE on even though at work I can only get 3G. I have turned LTE off before but honestly I have never seen an increase in battery life from doing so. This goes to signal issue also, at work it will go to 30% or more time without signal and Cell Standby will be the second highest use of battery. I have a refurbed unit from Asurion that is version 10 and using the latest radios for CDMA and LTE. The Note 2 in the same usage environment reported 0% time without signal and Cell Standby was way down the list of power usage.
So, basically I am wondering, am I getting everything out of the Nexus that I can, or should I be getting better numbers. Maybe some of you on here can verify that the Note 2 is actually better for signal etc. or that I am just being delusional. Thanks in advance to all of you!
EDIT: Oops, meant to put this in the Questins section, accidentally put it here, Mods, please move!

No one?

Seriously? Even a piss off would be nice to hear, lol.

My signal is fine, my battery life is like yours (<2hr screen on) even with the OEM ext battery.

WiredPirate said:
My signal is fine, my battery life is like yours (<2hr screen on) even with the OEM ext battery.
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Thanks for the reply, good to hear my battery life isn't out of the ordinary. Signal does seem bad on mine though, I am going to call Asurion as this one runs unusually hot, uncofortably hot to hold even.

Yeah, mine gets fine signal, though the current radio firmware that came with the 4.1.1 OTA seems to have a problem hanging onto LTE signal indoors. I'm sure it'll get fixed in the next OTA (hopefully to 4.2.1). As far as battery life, it's what you would expect from an LTE phone...about 2.5 hours of screen-on time, maybe 3 if you're really lucky. Battery life can be affected by so many things like apps you have installed, screen time, cell signal, etc.
One thing I'll tell you, though...you'll find your battery life go up by at least 30% by keeping it connected to WiFi. If you're on a cell connection, your battery is going to zap a lot faster because as a matter of principle, cell modems are far more power-intensive than WiFi is because WiFi is a much shorter-range technology, thus the transmitters don't have to put out nearly as much power. Also, if not connected to WiFi, weak cell signals are going to drain your battery even faster than a stronger signal.
But, as long as you keep the phone on WiFi when you can, you'll find the battery life is no better or worse than most other LTE phones.

sesdevel bordure
With WiFi, easily 15 hours with ~2 hours screen time. With LTE enabled, usually around 6-8 with ~1.5 hours of screen time. I also get pretty bad signal around my city.

oldblue910 said:
Yeah, mine gets fine signal, though the current radio firmware that came with the 4.1.1 OTA seems to have a problem hanging onto LTE signal indoors. I'm sure it'll get fixed in the next OTA (hopefully to 4.2.1). As far as battery life, it's what you would expect from an LTE phone...about 2.5 hours of screen-on time, maybe 3 if you're really lucky. Battery life can be affected by so many things like apps you have installed, screen time, cell signal, etc.
One thing I'll tell you, though...you'll find your battery life go up by at least 30% by keeping it connected to WiFi. If you're on a cell connection, your battery is going to zap a lot faster because as a matter of principle, cell modems are far more power-intensive than WiFi is because WiFi is a much shorter-range technology, thus the transmitters don't have to put out nearly as much power. Also, if not connected to WiFi, weak cell signals are going to drain your battery even faster than a stronger signal.
But, as long as you keep the phone on WiFi when you can, you'll find the battery life is no better or worse than most other LTE phones.
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Click to collapse
Well the Note 2 destroys the Nexus in battery life and signal reception to be honest, but then again a 3100mAh battery should. I like the Nexus and I am trying to get myself to keep it over the Note because having AOSP rocks and so does saving like $850.

[Q] Fast battery drain

My battery was doing well, had about 70+% remaining after about 5-6 hours on battery, then in a one-hour stretch it dropped 30%. I'm running battery doctor, but it really isn't telling me what could have caused that. Even after a half-hour con-call this morning, the battery was still at 80% or so until noon.
It seemed to fall off the cliff when I left the house for about an hour to run some errands. But 30% when you're not doing a lot with it in an hour's time frame seems like an issue.
Anyone have any ideas on how to debug this?

mikecico said:
My battery was doing well, had about 70+% remaining after about 5-6 hours on battery, then in a one-hour stretch it dropped 30%. I'm running battery doctor, but it really isn't telling me what could have caused that. Even after a half-hour con-call this morning, the battery was still at 80% or so until noon.
It seemed to fall off the cliff when I left the house for about an hour to run some errands. But 30% when you're not doing a lot with it in an hour's time frame seems like an issue.
Anyone have any ideas on how to debug this?
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I'd like to know as well. I'm at 33% at 7 hours usage.
Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Were you using GPS? That's killer on the battery when you combine it with other drains

Also perhaps you ventured into a low signal area, so the phone was straining the battery to connect to a poor signal?

Samething here ... even after a factory reset & disabling a bunch of bloats.
It idles fine @home but really sucks @work ... I lost 30% (last 3hr idling) with the screen off (wifi off too, location is off, greenify running).
Phone barely lasts 2 days (with ~1hr scrren on, 1-call/2-TxtM a day, no emailing ... minimal usage).
One thing I notice... data signal @work is pretty bad (3G) while better @home (LTE).
This is a Verizon phone. My G2 was much much better, same exact setup.

This might sound like the opposite of what is intuitive, but your battery life at work may *increase* if you turn *ON* the wifi.
The reason is that you have poor 3G signal strength. So every time your phone updates anything data related, even just checking that you have an email, the phone burns a lot of battery trying to squeeze data over the poor signal from the cell tower.
But, if you turn on wifi, the phone can check all the data stuff using the wifi, which is far less battery intensive compared to trying to talk to the cell phone tower far away.
So try that, just turn on wifi *particularly* when you are in a poor cell phone reception area. Even though you now have an *extra* radio turned on in the phone, it should greatly help while at work or in any low signal area that has wifi available.

when did you get the phone? you have to do a few full charges and disable some Google bloat for the battery to last. and remove batter doctor. don't use apps like those task killers that keep themselves in the background like avast security. i just use lookout since it doesn't overly do it's job like avast.

What carrier are you on? If its T-Mobile, then its probably the My T-Mobile app. Drained my phone like crazy, T-Mobile also knows its an issue, but haven't said anything on fixing it.
Just uncheck all the boxes in the settings and it should stop, if not try the debloater tool.
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

KingFatty said:
This might sound like the opposite of what is intuitive, but your battery life at work may *increase* if you turn *ON* the wifi.
The reason is that you have poor 3G signal strength. So every time your phone updates anything data related, even just checking that you have an email, the phone burns a lot of battery trying to squeeze data over the poor signal from the cell tower.
But, if you turn on wifi, the phone can check all the data stuff using the wifi, which is far less battery intensive compared to trying to talk to the cell phone tower far away.
So try that, just turn on wifi *particularly* when you are in a poor cell phone reception area. Even though you now have an *extra* radio turned on in the phone, it should greatly help while at work or in any low signal area that has wifi available.
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This will still drain it heavily even on wifi. It will continue to struggle to get good bars and will do what it takes in order to achieve good reception.
At work I always have wifi on and my drain is very high.
A weekend at home and I easily got SOT of 4 hrs+.
Work day, I struggle to get SOT of 2 hrs+

Very interesting approach, and it seems to work. I tried this overnight, and the falloff didn't seem nearly as great as when the wi-fi setting is off.
Many thanks.

I'm on verizon and when my phone switches to 3G it gets super hot upper middle area of the screen and the battery drain is outrageous. I have to disable data otherwise it would probably burst into flames. My previous unit did not have these problems. Wish I would have kept it.