Develop Bugs

[Q] Terrible Battery Life - Hardware Fault?

I've had my new desire z about 2 weeks now, and am utterly dissapointed by a frankly dreadful battery life.
It's my second DZ, given the original was nicked, but (kicks self) wasn't insured, so was purchased from a supplier that shipped my phone from Hong Kong (I live in UK, and the new phone is an identical model, except for a slight difference in key layout - A2727 I think is model number)
The original phone would give me over two days life with very low use, which i considered to be fair for a decent smart phone.
The new phone barely gives me 10 hours with no use. I've done a couple of tests - unplugged it at 2am, but 8am it's at 30% or lower. This was done with all data connections turned off.
If i leave the new phone to go dead then that's it - it won't charge. The only way i've found to get juice back into the battery is to hold it in my old touch-pro 2 until it's charged enough to charge from the desire.
Last night was the clincher. I've gone out with some friends to the pub. I had a conversation over it, and checked my battery life - 42%. As a last dith effort i factory reset the phone at that point to rule out a mischevious app, and checked - 39%
Within 2 hours, and with no use at all that was down at 8%. In order to avoid the charge issue i cut my losses and turned it off at that point. Once home (oh, about 4 hours later maybe) I was unable to turn it back on. I then left it plugged in overnight, and was still unable to turn it on this morning until i'd done my cross-phone charging trick.
I'm now entirely convinced there's some form of hardware issue at fault here, so i'm wondering if anyone else has had the same problem with this phone before? I see lots of thread regarding poor battery life, but most seem to be solved by turning data off or some rouge app, neither of which are an issue in this case. Also, any hints for making my life easier when I phone HTC tomorrow? I've read elsewhere their support might not be all it should be.
Thanks in advance for any help! I've ready to pull my hair out as what is a fantastic phone otherwise has been completely ruined by this battery issue.

I think you should get a new battery to rule out that the battery itself isn't a problem. I had similar issues with my G1 a while back and it solved a lot of wierd, seemingly unrelated problems. Batteries are pretty cheap online, $15 or so and some are free shipping.
The way that I figured out my battery was toast was by comparing it to other batteries. it had a bulge in the center where it should have been flat. Fingers crossed it isn't hardware.

had already tried a diff battery (did you know you can chew a corner off a touch pro 2 battery and make it fit??) Which i know worked fine in the old nicked dz and imo as i was getting same issue ruled out battery problem.
anyway... phone has now been returned and i'm waiting 2-3 weeks to get it repaired under warranty (though am hoping for complete replacement obviously)

Chewing on batteries has got to get you extra xda brownie points. I'll remember that
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I'd like to think there was some techincal or engineering skill in there somewhere.
but it was mostly "Well, apart form this nugget of plastic they're the same shape..."

I'm having the exact same problem... When you take you shutdown to recharge a dead battery, does it sometimes try to turn back on? I left my apartment like 30m ago with 100% battery, and I'm at 84% and declining. There's nothing running. And I've replaced the battery, same issue.
I think I might just RMA this one.. seems like an engineering issues.
Edit: I'm the 40 seconds it took me to type this, battery dropped to 82%.

Wanted to bump this post. I've since wiped / reloaded and wiped battery stats. It's still jacked. I think it's an internal electrical thing. Reason is: I'll power down to take the battery out. When I put the other one in, it'll turn back on. Or if I power down to charge, it'll turn back on - plugged in or not. I don't want to deal with the RMA process again, but I think it's my only choice. I've taken two phone calls this AM @ 100%, and it's at 96% now. Drives me insane. Ugh... I'll call TMO. Anyone know if the replacements are still rootable?

So... I had my phone replaced, and it's still doing the horrid battery thing. Flashed CM 7.1 RC3 or w/e the latest is, cycled one battery - and it drops like a stone. I have two chargers (one at work, one at home) and they both charge the phone up to 100%. But it's still losing battery life quicker than I'd like. I used to be able to get a good 18 hours out of this phone. Even with a new battery and a new phone, it's acting up. I'll try to flash an older ROM and see if it's the same thing. I updated to #130 nightly from 7/10. We'll see how it lasts today. But I do remember I had horrible luck with CM's ROM's on my G1. Battery would just drain for no reason. The main process taking up the most battery life is "Cell standby" so I changed to the latest radio - and it still drops. OP - have you figured out your problem? I've removed a ton of apps, and it's still messing up. I listen to music for... 45m in the AM, and I get down to 54%. I've formatted my SD Card as well.. it's driving me insane.

I just flashed CM 7.1 a few days ago and while the ROM is great, it does seem to be a litter harder on my battery than 6.1 was. With light/moderate usage yesterday, I got about 16 hours and that was running the battery almost completely dead. With heavy usage, I get about 10 hours and need a bump charge in the afternoon.
You might want to look into getting a Mugen 1800mah battery. You can get them on Ebay from 35-40 dollars. The seller 'nakedcellphone' is based out of Southern California and another user has confirmed ordering from them and getting a legitimate battery (lots of fakes on Ebay). Either that, or carry a charger with you...
Have you tried using Watchdog to see if there are any 'rogue' apps that are causing the drain by running in the background? What about going to spare parts > battery history > Partial Wake usage? There it will show apps that are draining your battery when you're not 'actively' using your phone. For me, the Android System is the highest drain in that menu. Good luck! Hope some of this helps!

I just checked spare parts, and there's nothing too odd in there. Just my music app. And I've changed that too - thought Winamp was killing me. I'll check Watchdog. This is a brand new OEM battery along with an RMA'd G2. It has to be the OS / Radio or something. I've stripped like every non-essential app too.

[Q] Can't get a full charge!

Hey Folks, Just wondering if there are any other G2 users out there that have experienced this. For some time, I haven't been able to get my phone charges fully, and by fully, I mean something close to the reported norm of 97%-100%.
The hightest I got my phone was to 81% and that with a new battery, recalibration, and bump charging. In fact, I've had the phone powered off over night and upon restarting it, it was at 71%.
I've watched logcat to see if anything could be an issue there, I've installed ZDBox, (cool app, btw), and Battery Dr. The good news, is that after uninstalling a few apps and widgets, my battery life seems prolonged, (relatively speaking).
I'm running CM-7.1.0-RC1, 2.6.32.41-cyangenmod pershoot, and using the 26.06.2.27_M radio.
Since I couldn't get a full charge with it powered off, I'm thinking it might be a hardware issue or maybe the radio since so I might try 26.08.04.30 radio. Googling other forums, people were able to get a replacement phone from T-Mobile and some others said their motherboard needed to be replaced.
Any other ideas before I call T-Mobile?
Thanks!

Did you try clearing battery stats?

redpoint73 said:
Did you try clearing battery stats?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, several times. Good call, though! By clearing the stats, I was able to get to the 81%.
Thanks!

Have you tried reflashing the rom? Maybe trying a different rom? Clear caches? I dunno I'm shooting for broke i guess....is it an aftermarket battery or stock?

killj0y said:
Have you tried reflashing the rom? Maybe trying a different rom? Clear caches? I dunno I'm shooting for broke i guess....is it an aftermarket battery or stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, killj0y. Yes. I did that after posting. I did a Titanium Backup, then Nandroid backup, then wipe, superwipe, then flashed the CM7 nightly, (which is very slick, i might add). After bump charging I was able to get it up to 71%. I let it go down to 0% overnight and now I'm letting it recharge fully.
In about an hour, I'm going to call T-mobile and see if they have any other ideas.
It is an aftermarket battery but it behaves just like the OEM/stock.

You shouldn't ever drain your battery to 0% on purpose. You run the risk of the battery not being able to take a charge. Draining to 20% for battery meter calibration purposes is more than sufficient.

Yea plus aftermarket batteries can and do fail more often than stock. What brands is it?

Do you still have your stock battery? Try using that one and see how it acts. I'm willing to bet it's the battery.

The OEM battery I could never get above 71% and the new battery I have it up to 94% now and it isn't charging any higher.
I've had it plugged in for two hours. I have read the warnings about letting the battery drop to 0% and I agree, but I figure one time wouldn't hurt it. I got the second battery, thinking it was a problem with the OEM battery.
Ah! This happened as I was typing this. For the first time in a long time, the LED is green but the battery is at 94%, which I think might be okay.
Maybe the wipe/superwipe/reflash helped? I will keep you all updated and I sincerely appreciate the help and advice.

jpabian said:
I have read the warnings about letting the battery drop to 0% and I agree, but I figure one time wouldn't hurt it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that one time results in a battery that won't take a charge, then it hurts. Full discharge is also not good for the long term life of Li ion batteries. And it certainly doesn't help anything to run the battery to empty.

Yea I don't know how many times I've corrected people still quoting NiCd rules for Lithium ion batteries phone or otherwise lol. Anyways if the stock does the same thing it is probably the phone. Especially after a wipe, was it a clean reflash of the rom? Maybe that would work.

Here's my update. Kind of interesting.
So, by evening, my phone got down to 4% left of the battery. I plugged it in, (with my factory charger), and ZDBox said it would be 2 hours, 44 minutes until fully charged. Three hours later, it was at 45% full. I rebooted the phone and when it came up, it said it was at 86% full. Then I left it plugged in over night.
This morning, it was still at 86% and I rebooted it again, and then when it came back up it was 93% and within a couple of minutes, the LED turned green.
So, with this new batter, it *seems* slightly better, but I don't understand what's going on. This is weird, if you ask me.
The other bit of info is that at 7AM it was 93% and right now, (9AM, two hours later), my phone is at 72% with the majority of it being consumed by "Cell Standby."
I guess, since this is a new battery, there still might be some calibration/conditioning going on. I am still unsure if this points to a hardware issue with the phone.
Thanks again, for the help guys! I really wonder if I am the only person who is experiencing something like this.

Update: 19.09
Things have been a little better, but still not perfect.
I flashed CM7 Nightly, pershoot kernel, and 4.30 radio.
I have only been plugging in the charger when the phone drops below 20%. The phone only charges to 45% - 51%, then I reboot, and when it comes back up, the battery will read anywhere from 88% - 93%.
Once unplugged the batter rapidly drops down to the low 80's - mid 70 percentile and it stays in that range for a much longer time. Then once the battery drops below 40% is drains rapidly.
So, for example it says right now, "7h 54m 58s on Battery" and I'm at 20%. The breakdown is as follows:
Android system: 57%
Cell Standby: 12%
Wi-Fi: 12%
Phone Idle: 11%
Voice Calls: 9%
I'm really frustrated with having to reboot the phone to get seemingly get a full charge.
I think I am going to flash the latest nightly and then reflash the pershoot kernel and see where we are at that point. I still haven't decided if I need to call T-mobile since it could be a hardware issue.

It really sounds like a hardware issue to me. especially after several so many flashes and batteries...

killj0y said:
It really sounds like a hardware issue to me. especially after several so many flashes and batteries...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I called T-Mobile this morning and they are sending me a new phone. The guy asked me to inspect the battery, contacts, etc. He did ask me if I had put any "modified" software on it.
He also said, if they found modified software on it when they received it back at the shop, I would be charged a $108 restocking fee.
Quick, where's that downgrade guide!
Thanks for your help, everyone!

Update!
After I talked to T-Mobile, I downgraded my phone to the OTA Gingerbread and unrooted it, and turned S-ON. I admit, I was impressed with the OTA update since I had been running cooked roms since I got the think back in November 2010.
My new phone came today. Immediately, the battery behavior is completely different. I took out my battery from my old phone that said it was at 51% and put in the new phone and it said it was 80%. That's a good sign!
While we were at dinner, I got all the OTA updates, which really meant when I got home I had to downgrade it, but the guides here were really great, and I was back in business in no time.
I went with the latest CM7 nightly, the LEAK radio, and the latest pershoot kernel. I can tell already that battery behavior is much better.
Interestingly enough, on the stock gingerbread ROM, the DISPLAY was the major consumer of battery. Now on the stack I described, "Cell Phone Idle" is the biggest consumer. Maybe the stock T-MOUS radio is the best!?!? Who knows.
I hope this helps others who might be having weird battery problems. Have a great weekend!

I'm having this exact behavior where I can't get past ~73% without rebooting, then it goes to ~93%, which is about as high as I can get it. Guess I'll call T-Mo, I've seen it with different ROMs to I figured it was probably hardware as well.

Hey Thermalx, I hear you! The replacement phone I got from T-Mobile is behaves completely different. I have kept a charge +26 hours. I never thought I'd see the day!
Let us know how it works out.
Thanks!

[Q] Weird HTC Wildfire Battery Meter Issue

ROM : Cyanogenmod 7.1.0.1 Android 2.3.7 <<< Doubt this is important
Kernel: 2.6.35.14-nFinity [email protected] #1 <<< Might be important
S-ON
Okay so my Battery meter is definitely acting up. After charging the battery overnight it only charges to about 89%, maybe 91% if I'm lucky.
If I unplug and immediately reboot the device the battery meter says 98% or 97% at startup. Right now I have a reboot scheduler app that restarts my phone every morning at 4AM so that it's accurate-ish in the morning.
But that's not the only issue...
When I use my phone during the day, maybe making a call or two, on a 2G network to save battery, no Wifi or Bluetooth use and phone not overclocked, my battery drains incredibly fast. It goes down 15%-20% per hour! By about 3PM the phone says 15% left and then slowly drains down to 3% battery life. This is when it gets real weird... The battery level stays on 3% for about 6-8 hours, then finally goes to 2,1 and then dies. I got 3.5-4 hours on 3% with max overclock (768mhz on performance setting), maximum brightness, screen doesn't turn off, playing music while on HSDPA network, bluetooth on... So the battery doesn't seem to be the problem, only the battery reading that is displayed.
I tried going back to the default software that came with the phone, Android 2.1 with Sense and original kernel. The battery drain was a little slower but same effect, staying forever on 3%.
Can someone please explain to me why the phone does this? It's not a trainsmash, at least the phone isn't really draining as fast as it looks, but I effectively have no idea how much time the battery has left, which isn't ideal. It still lasts me the day and I charge it every night but I'd like to have this solved, it wasn't always like this. The phone is now 10 months old.
Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.

Defective "chipset"? (This i what HTC says, not me)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1236844
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1252687
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1280396

I sent in my Wildfire for repair. Got it back and it's not the chipset.
Its something to do with clockwork or Cyanogen.
The battery was fine until I re-flashed them.
Now it's back to the same ****ty battery life before I sent it.
Soon as I get home. I am going to flash a new rom. Possibly an older clockwork and flash a new radio.
Will post results.

BarclayTech said:
I sent in my Wildfire for repair. Got it back and it's not the chipset.
Its something to do with clockwork or Cyanogen.
The battery was fine until I re-flashed them.
Now it's back to the same ****ty battery life before I sent it.
Soon as I get home. I am going to flash a new rom. Possibly an older clockwork and flash a new radio.
Will post results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you notice the first thread, people who have never rooted/modded are also experiencing this. But, in either case, do post your results.

3xeno said:
If you notice the first thread, people who have never rooted/modded are also experiencing this. But, in either case, do post your results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but in my case I know the problem to an extent.
I remember now that the battery starting acting up after updating to newest Clockwork recovery.
So I will flash that first. Run tests.
Flash Radio. Run tests.
Flash Rom (non-cyanogen). Run tests.
I shall do tests 1 day at a time maybe if tests prove a posotive results then I will do 2 on the same day.

Don't forget to re-calibrate the battery before your tests. It's a major cause of battery drain on Custom ROMs.

Ah, yes. Almost forgot :3

Battery gone bad??

I have a year old EVO and love it. But lately the battery life f'in sucks. Just today I was using it at work, the battery was at 70% then the device shut off. I rebooted to find the battery at 0%???
I have been on Synergy Rom (Non God Mode) and Freedom Aggressive for months, but it seems the battery is just getting worse and worse. Could it be as simple as a bad battery? Or should I try a less aggressive kernel?
bummed about my phone, and not ready to upgrade just yet... have to wait till may ..
So I just hooked up to the computer to charge and reboot, now it shows at 83%. WTF???
Thanks for any input or advice in advance...

Try undervolting your kernel using viperMOD, or try this trick by zeppelinrox: Calibrating Without Downtime!

Get the F out of here?
Im running into the same issue. Phone is almost a year old, running Mik 2.59 with the agressive freedom. WTF is going on? Im going to try the links above and see what that does. For real though, same thing, charged at 80% then phone shuts off turn back on its at zero, then plug it in to charge and it's at 55%. crazy!!!! Hopefully the tips will help. thanks
edit: The calibrating without downtime wont work. When you pull the battery the phone won't boot at all. This must be a motorolla thing where the phone will still boot without the battery. Didnt try the vipermod tip yet.

I'm experiencing a similar issue - I'll pull it off the charger at 100%, check a few emails on my way to work and i'm suddenly sitting at 70%...sits on my desk with an occasional email check and by lunch I'm at 25%...I can play a few hands of solitaire and watch my battery drop by 10% in less than 5 minutes...or surf the net and see it dropping a % a minute or more ... even sitting in a full 5 bar svc area.
I'm starting to wonder if my choice of Synergy RLS1 with the Freedom (Universal) kernal is the cause.
I'm Evo 4G
Synergy RLS1
Kernel: 2.6.35.10-Freedom-v0.7.6-HAVS+ [email protected] #1
baseband: 2.15.00.0808
software: 4.24.651.1 (no updates to Synergy since the last OTA)
PRI: 2.15_003
PRL: 60681
Any suggestions or tips or ideas for a new ROM/Kernel combo (prefer Sense 3 or higher) are welcome!

This is what I came up with after thinking my ROM was messing my phone up. Check it out. Since my phone was almost one year old, I figured I should check to see if battery was good anymore. I went to Sprint to check it and sure enough the battery was bad. Changed it out and now my battery life is back to normal, even better with the ROM and
kernal I'm running
Sent from my Bad Ass Evo using XDA App

Try this....it worked for me a little while ago when i had batt issues....charge your phone to full while its on... Then turn the device off and unplug the charger ....wait till the led turns off then plug it back in...wait until it charges to full and them repeat. Unplug...wait for led to go away and charge again...after a few times repeating this process boot into recovery and wipe the battery stats and reboot and unplug from charger...did that and i got a 16 hour batt with moderate usage and no extended battery... Hope this helps
Sent from my EVO with a 16 hour battery

If u check the recent threads everybody has been having this problems including myself its the battery trust me get a new battery
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Did you try wiping the battery stats
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Phone shutting off at 35% battery level

Ever since I upgraded to Marshmallow, the phone is shutting off at 35%.
If I plug it into a fast charger it'll start back up. Non fast charger forget it. Battery shows 35% when I plug it in to charge.
Took it to Best Buy after speaking to an AT&T tech. The Samsung rep at BB, said he ran some recovery software to check for missing or corrupted files associated with the upgrade. It appeared that they just reinstalled the 6.01 update.
Anyways it did nothing and the Samsung tech said I could try doing a factory reset or maybe try a new battery. He then said that if the problem started after the the MM update, then that's the issue. He mumbled something about the phone just wasn't able to handle MM blah blah blah.
ATT offered to ship me a new phone with a working upgrade.
Before I go that route or try a factory reset, I thought I'd check here for other ideas.
Not happy with the phone since the MM upgrade. Along with the phone shutting off issue, it's shutting off while charging on my wireless charger, phone screen is screwed up in landscape mode and doesn't show any of the buttons that show in portrait mode.
Is there a battery calibration app that will run on this without root?

I'm a computer tech, with a VZW N4. I popped over here to see if I could help a friend with the ATT N4. Looks like he's stuck without root, but saw your post and decided to reply.
I always recommend installing 'Battery Left Widget' from the Play Store and use it on the main screen. If you want to test the battery... do the following. But I'd recommend getting a new battery. It's most likely the cause of your problem.
Go to the settings and change the 'Discharging Widget Man Text' to "Estimated Battery %". The other settings can be as you wish, but I prefer the 2nd to be time remaining and 3rd to be time dead. Do the same for the charging options.
Let it calibrate for a few days. If you see a big discrepancy between the system battery (in the top right) and the widget, you've got a dying battery. Buy a new one. My Verizon version of the Note 4 started dying at 22% and rebooting. Dying battery was the cause. I knew this because it would read 72% in the top, but 42% in Battery Left Widget. And when it would get to 5% in the widget, it would start rebooting. The other battery at the top was reading much higher. A new battery fixed my woes. However the OTA upgrade to MM did a job on the battery too.
One word of advice ... turn off Fast Charging. It probably killed your battery in the first place. The original Samsung chargers will still charge it to full in a couple hours, but Fast Charging does something bad to the batteries, and they don't last as long. I know, I've had a Note 4 since day one, and I'm on my 4th battery.
A note about MM upgrade. I have to say, I wasn't a fan either. My battery didn't last as long on MM as it did on LP. The tricks about doing a full wipe didn't help. The only fix was to get my VZW model rooted and I regained control. Now I have a MM rom that actually works well and gives me 15 hours a day of usage, 3+ hours of on screen time.

What rom you are using anyway. I have changed my battery and switched to miui 8. But problem remains same with an extended battery life... But mine won't charge more than 67% and shut down @ 12% with a SOT of 3 hours and above.

rsd666 said:
What rom you are using anyway. I have changed my battery and switched to miui 8. But problem remains same with an extended battery life... But mine won't charge more than 67% and shut down @ 12% with a SOT of 3 hours and above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would try your battery in another device, just as a test.
Well ... mine is a VZW Note 4, not AT&T. I've used multiple roms over the past few months. I don't know what type of extended battery you are using, but if it's the ZeroLemon, it may need a better kernel to work with it. The phone doesn't know about extended batteries without additional instructions, so charging and time to empty can vary.
I just know I will NEVER buy another Samsung battery from anywhere. I think 99% of them are fake. I went with an Anker brand and it's been perfect.
Currently, I'm running MODest v5 ROM. I just installed Nseven on a 2nd device as a test. As for the MODest ROM, after only a couple of days of testing, it looks like I'll get even better battery life than I did with PaulPizz v2 (over 16 hours of heavy use compared to the 13 with PaulPizz)

Thanks for your quick reply... Im using samsung original Stock battery and there is sticker of smart care and it is from a samsung showroom
So no idea its original or not.. Should have been original... My note 4 SM 910S SK tel korian version so the rom options are very limited. Do not have any warranty period left so im confused whether i should go for a hardware checkup... Anyway im pissed of since the marshmallow arrives....the problem started right after that update.. Since then i have changed rom changed battery.. So now i guess i have to change the phone finally... Anyway thanks for your reply..

I have the same problem with charging to only 67%
If you take out the battery it will continue charging to 100%.
All this cr*p started when updated to MM
Going back to stock 5.0.1 and doing the #*0228# reset should help.
And samsung batteries are a disaster, even the genuines ones.