Develop Bugs

HTC Desire Battery Life

I have a question regarding my battery life. Yesterday night at 10:00 pm i played +/- 40 minutes on games like Angry Birds and used my 3G connection for about 10 minutes. My battery dropped from 100% to 61%. When i didnt use my phone (just idle mode) @ 11:46 pm i wanted to check how much battery i had left today in the morning (10:00 am) ..... it whas completely dead 0% .... i have this phone since august but if i knew the battery life whas so crap i would have picked another device.
Is there a way to improve it ??? since i read in diffrent topics people can use their desire for 2 days without a recharge.
- Not rooted
- Froyo 2.2

The HTC Desire is a smartphone running powerful mobile OS and a lot of additional gadgets like GPS, ...
So comparing battery life is impossible.
You can get a battery life of a mobile phone/week if you use it like a mobile phone: No GPS, no data, no playing games, no surfing, just occasional talking. So the battery life is normal and good, compared to mobile phones.
But normally you use it like a smartphone, thus you use it daily, play some games, ... which results in a battery life of a few hours (navigation) up to two or three days (moderate use), with an average battery life of a day (heavy use).
However, one thing for sure: Something is wrong with your phone.
This dosen't mean something is broken, rather you use an app/setting, which causes the battery drain, so you did something wrong, you're the failure, not the device!
Playing a game drains the battery fast. The display is on, probably max. brightness and the CPU and GPU is working like hell. It also gets warm, so you can feel the increased power consumption.
In sleep mode however, it should consume much less than it did for you. Maybe 2% each hour.
So to find what app you've installed or what app you keep in the background running, install a program like Android System Info and take a look at the task list, CPU load should be around 10% if you wait a few seconds and do nothing.
Take a look at the running services (android settings, applications, ...) and check if you really need all of them or if an app is active which you don't use. Then don't force close it, only idiots do this, rather open the app and deactivate the service (like automatic updating)
Next option: Test the battery life again. Maybe an app crashed and caused the increased power draw and now everything is working fine again and battery life is normal again. Then it's impossible to find a culprit with Android System Info.
Also tell us what settings you've activated: GPS/Wifi/Data/BT/...

This is happening because, some process not letting your device to sleep..!!
All you need to do is type *#*#4636#*#*
and check the battery history ,you'll get to know which process is using your battery, and remove that application.

UpSpin said:
The HTC Desire is a smartphone running powerful mobile OS and a lot of additional gadgets like GPS, ...
So comparing battery life is impossible.
You can get a battery life of a mobile phone/week if you use it like a mobile phone: No GPS, no data, no playing games, no surfing, just occasional talking. So the battery life is normal and good, compared to mobile phones.
But normally you use it like a smartphone, thus you use it daily, play some games, ... which results in a battery life of a few hours (navigation) up to two or three days (moderate use), with an average battery life of a day (heavy use).
However, one thing for sure: Something is wrong with your phone.
This dosen't mean something is broken, rather you use an app/setting, which causes the battery drain, so you did something wrong, you're the failure, not the device!
Playing a game drains the battery fast. The display is on, probably max. brightness and the CPU and GPU is working like hell. It also gets warm, so you can feel the increased power consumption.
In sleep mode however, it should consume much less than it did for you. Maybe 2% each hour.
So to find what app you've installed or what app you keep in the background running, install a program like Android System Info and take a look at the task list, CPU load should be around 10% if you wait a few seconds and do nothing.
Take a look at the running services (android settings, applications, ...) and check if you really need all of them or if an app is active which you don't use. Then don't force close it, only idiots do this, rather open the app and deactivate the service (like automatic updating)
Next option: Test the battery life again. Maybe an app crashed and caused the increased power draw and now everything is working fine again and battery life is normal again. Then it's impossible to find a culprit with Android System Info.
Also tell us what settings you've activated: GPS/Wifi/Data/BT/...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brightness is already said to medium, i also turned of those life wallpapers and it still drains like ****. When i look at the battery status it says battery life is good. Maybe a application that is running i dont know, ill try to find it out. So far i have a few apps installed which i rarely use.
harish.awe said:
This is happening because, some process not letting your device to sleep..!!
All you need to do is type *#*#4636#*#*
and check the battery history ,you'll get to know which process is using your battery, and remove that application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks will check it out and see what it does now in idle mode.
Idle mode 01:28 pm starts now, will post results in a few hours.
Edit: It's 02:00 pm here and i already lost 4% battery, its 96% now , i did *#*#4636#*#* and checked battery status and it seems wifi is in full use 99.7%. I will turn this off but what about the 3G connection
Edit2: It's 2:24 pm here and the battery status is 92% now, i reveived +/- 4 emails in that time. I checked the status in battery indicator pro and this is what it says
Android system 37%
Mobile Stand-by 22%
Phone inactive 15%
Wi-Fi 15%
view 11%
nothing else......i am really lost now.

Is my battery damaged/broken ? .... how can i reset/callibrate the battery ? or should i contact the shop where i got this phone from for a new battery ?

don't worry, lots of people are having bad battery lifes, and angry bird drain your battery really quickly, so it is quite normal, especially on AMOLED desires.

h3llb3nd4 said:
don't worry, lots of people are having bad battery lifes, and angry bird drain your battery really quickly, so it is quite normal, especially on AMOLED desires.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i have AMOLED
PS: After 30 minutes without touching it the battery is still 92%.

you could install setcpu and set profiles to save battry life

Might try that.....but after 1 hour the battery is still 92%.....i guess wifi drained my stuff down all the way as i am pretty sure i turned that thing of last time.
i will do some more tests later....
Edit: After 1 and half hour the battery is still 92%, guess the stock rom isnt that bad .

MichelN said:
Edit2: It's 2:24 pm here and the battery status is 92% now, i reveived +/- 4 emails in that time. I checked the status in battery indicator pro and this is what it says
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not 5:09 pm here and the battery is now 91% (idle, not touched)....guess wifi what the bad thing on my phone.

Tested the battery last night and must say i am happy with the results
10:00 pm yesterday the battery whas 60%, today i looked back @ 11:24 am and the battery just dropped with 10% (3G is on), i didn't touch the phone since then.
Stock Rom / Froyo 2.2
The battery drain came from wifi

I wrote HTC about the battery and they just sent me a brand new one So now I have 2 batteries and I think I'm happy DD

You can check your battery usage with a widget called "currentwidget" (search for it on this forum)
Usually on SBY with radio ON my phone drains from 3 to 4 Ma and 2ma in plane mode. (sounds good with a 1400mah battery)
In heavy usage, it can go anything from 150 to 500ma (ie: playing game with wifi ON)!!
For nice graphics, try to install "battery snap" too.

From HTC themself:
“To also help with Battery Life you can do these steps exactly:
1) Turn your device ON and Charge the device for 8 hours or more
2) Unplug the device and Turn the phone OFF and charge for 1 hour
3) Unplug the device Turn ON wait 2 minutes and Turn OFF and charge for another hour Your battery life should almost double, we have tested this on our devices and other agents have seen a major difference as well“
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
also found this on a swedish website (i useed google translate, to lazy to manually translate it)
A known problem with the new update of the HTC Desire to Android 2.2 Froyo is battery life. How users have experienced the change is highly variable. Several said that battery life has improved, some even talk about a major improvement. The others have had problems that the phone charges from a fully charged battery several times in one day. If you have experienced such problems, there are measures, some simple, others more complicated and time consuming. Below I list things you can try, the lightest at the top.
# 1 Look what it's drawing power. Go to Settings> About phone> Battery> Battery usage or enter * # * # 4636 # * # * on the keypad and look around a bit. Is there anything that seems abnormal, or any program that seems to be the culprit, uninstall simply the application and see if that helps. While you can uninstall applications you believe is in the background and drag the cream from the phone's battery. Some applications may slip into the "Android System" in your battery history.
# 2 Uninstall system control and task killers. Advanced Task Killer and similar programs do more harm than they help. It is unfortunately only to realize this and stop using them. Android is an OS made for having many applications driving on the background. The operating system puts himself applications you do not use the idle to conserve battery power. Different programs that measure your performance on the phone, for example, Task Panel never sets in idle and therefore system resources continuously. If you have such software installed it may be time to consider uninstalling it. More on why the task killers and Android do not go hand in hand in to read this article by Android developer Dianne Hack Born.
# 3 Clean your home screen. It can be a good idea to try if it helps to clean up your Home screens from various widgets.
# 4 Do a soft reset. Discharge the battery completely (not that the phone is turned off), turn off the phone manually, remove the battery and reinsert it, restart your phone and put it on charge. This may have some effect and provide an improved battery life. Such a restoration known as a soft reset and should be tested before you do a master reset (hard reset).
# 5 Do a "hard reset". Have you done all the methods above are still not noticed any major difference? Then it's time to do a master reset of the OS. HTC have said they for some users might went wrong during the update to Froyo causing poor battery life, and when it is easiest to do a reset to get to grips with the problem. Although Android automatically sync contacts in the "cloud" so it might be a good idea to make a backup of your contacts (Contacts> Menu> Import / Export). Note that when you do a hard reset resets the entire phone, including messages, settings, themes, installed applications, etc. These are not the contents of your SD card. There are two methods to restore your phone, do a google search on "hard reset desire," so there are many simple guides. After restoration, the idea not to install any applications you had installed before. Install the programs one at a time and not too many at once.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

what would be the best kernal for me to have ?

my battery drains like a bugatti veyron doing 252mph constantly
so what would you advise . is the kernal i have now the best or should i change .. i dont want to reall lose much performance on what i have now but would like the battery to maybe improve if possible ...
from full charge taking plug out searching market for 2 mins the battery drains 5-8% in matter of mins
and i have only had the phone a week

With that kind of drains the problems the kernel won't change that much. There is probably a app that causes the battery drain so looking in to that will have more effect. Also the brightness/screen on is the biggest drain and kernel won't do much about that.
You said that you have the phone a week, the battery needs some time to reach it's full potential and you probably use the phone a lot because it's new. So use the phone normally for another week, after that week let the phone drain until it shuts itself off, leaf it off and charge it till it's full. (there is a different calibration method but this always worked for me)

What do you have now? Stock or rooted?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

First of all, I would assume that you don't use the phone non-stop (it would be justified to lose power in a few hours if you're on it non-stop).
I recently had issues with power consumption as well. What I did was:
1) check the built in battery monitor: menu-settings-about phone-battery-battery use. The bad thing about this monitor is that it does not differentiate well the apps consuming power, but you can still see if there's something wrong, as the most consumption should come normally from the screen and voice calls. For me, the most consumption was made by com.htc.bg, which, if I let the monitor on for a few seconds, would transform in the calendar app. Weird stuff. I unchecked the calednar auto sync from menu-settings-accounts and sync. It may have slowed the power loss down, but not significantly. I noticed a significant loss of battery by WiFi. I realized, I needed more information so:
2) I installed an app called 'Power Tutor'. What it does is, it calculates which apps consumes power, and it shows you in percentages. After install, you need to start the 'power profiler'. It will appear in your notification bar. If you let it run, after a few hours, you can see in "view application power usage" who is using power. That's how I discovered that my winamp app was really off the charts using power like crazy. So I went in the winamp settings, and I unchecked some options that could have determined this power consumption, like wireless sync, automatic mount as USB drive, etc. There was actually an option that was overriding the wifi power management, stating that the wifi does not stop after 180 seconds of standby. Basically, if you have wifi on, and you stop using the phone for 3 minutes, the phone automatically turns off the wifi. This was not happening any more, due to winamp. So I unchecked all those options, and voila. It worked, I have now normal battery life.
Good luck!

be aware of a couple of things
1. battery drain for the 1st few weeks are high because of a couple of factors, the battery "learns" and gets conditioned over a period of time (doesnt use the old 16hr charge process). its a new device for you so its a novelty, you probably mess about with it with the screen on more than you think.
2. there is a configuration within HTC's builds and in the memory chip of the battery to stop over charging. the device will charge to 100 and then slowly deplete to 90% while still saying full on the phone. as soon as you disconnect it recalibrates to the correct value which is anywhere between 90% and 100% depending at which part of the cycle you catch it

Some other tips to increase battery life, from a friend of mine in the Romanian forum:
1) use the app watchdog, it will warn you when an app is using too much of the processor and will ask you if you want to close it.
2) juice defender with the paid add-on 'ultimate juice' - with the correct settings... it's amazing.
3) Dial *#*#4636#*#* - phone information-network type: select gsm auto prl. The phone will stay on 3G when it has good signal, and switch to 2G when it doesnt, saving battery
4) Change the wallpaper to a static one, not a live one.
5) Go to menu-settings-accounts and sync and increase sync intervals for weather, news, or even set them to sync manually when you choose.

i will try and answer everything at once ..
ok my screen is on 13% brightness
i hardly ever use my phone , the only real use was to root , s-off, put ROM ETC ON
I reply to about 50 texts ish per day and search the market for literally 1-2 mins to see what new apps are in
i dont play games or anything
the thing the battery uses most is the screen and as i say i have it on monochrome theme with 13% brightness, there is nothing synced , i check automatically for email etc .. actually beautiful widgets is set to auto update every 4 hours
i never use wifi as i have a 3gb download/data usage, i dont use gps ...well i do but i have had no need to .. thats about all i can tell ya
rastaman the pt2 is a bit weird it should stay at 100 if just taken out of charge

I calibrated the battery and that made no difference.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Regarding the Awake length when checking the battery

Hey guys. So, I'm currently using a stock rom for the XS w/ SSKernel v7 on it. I usually run my phone in OnDemand governor w/ 1.62ghz up and 138mhz (thru SystemTuner). When my phone is on standby for like 7-8 hours, 5-10% of my battery gets eaten up. And when I check the battery consumption (thru Settings ->Battery ->Battery Graph illustration), the phone is usually awake for like 75-90% of the time. How is this possible and are there any ways on lowering this down so that I could save more battery during standby?? Hope you guys could help me out with this Thanks..
P.S. WiFi, BT, Data Access(Mobile Internet) are off. Only the network carrier sim is on.

Can you provide a screenshot
Like this
Sent from my Xperia S using xda premium

I just charged my phone again But your awake length isn't that much. How did you do it? I tried switching to KA19 rom. Still testing it out though.

First, ur settings are not optimal.
Second, dont trust ur battery. Use betterbatterystats to look for wakelocks and something like that.

Here's my screenshot. Apparently, that 7 hours is like standby coz I was sleeping at that time. You could see that it's been awake for a heck of a time and it's just so annoying to see that. What should I do??
Battery was from 82%-76% when I left it at standby mode.

battery draining too fast new or old

im on a stock rom not rooted and new battery and old battery both discharge really fast. Totally dead in 5-6hrs light use. Im guessing there is a hardware issue with the phone as this isnt normal. Any ideas?
lets see I did a factory reset after Jellybean update
changed the battery for a new one
biggest power drain is showing up as screen 33-39%
I have the thing on power saving mode and mobile data I turn off when not in use.
only thing I can think of that I didnt try is flashing another radio. But I doubt thats it because ive put it in airplane mode and it still looses power fast.

craig198 said:
im on a stock rom not rooted and new battery and old battery both discharge really fast. Totally dead in 5-6hrs light use. Im guessing there is a hardware issue with the phone as this isnt normal. Any ideas?
lets see I did a factory reset after Jellybean update
changed the battery for a new one
biggest power drain is showing up as screen 33-39%
I have the thing on power saving mode and mobile data I turn off when not in use.
only thing I can think of that I didnt try is flashing another radio. But I doubt thats it because ive put it in airplane mode and it still looses power fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get Better Battery Stats and check your wake locks. A lot of information in that thread. Might have a rogue app draining you.
Edit: also screen on is always going to be your biggest drain. Keep brightness down as much as you can. App called screen filter is good for achieving lower brightness than system allows. You could try the ktoonsz kernel, undervolted as well. Turning off sounds in settings (key press, vibrate, etc as well). Toggle data and WiFi when not using. These are just some basic suggestions.
Sent from my cracked out SGS3

This is my second s3 and the first one never had a problem going 10-12 hrs normal use. Im thinking it is a hardware issue as I did a factory reset and it still persists on fast draining.
Edit.. I just disable google talk maybe that was causing it?

It's not Google Talk. Check your battery and it'll show you what's drainage ng it the most. Also check screen brightness
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Benconquerer said:
It's not Google Talk. Check your battery and it'll show you what's drainage ng it the most. Also check screen brightness
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well after the screen 40% we have android OS @ lower 30%

Do you have an SD-Card in?
I was getting the same battery life, took out my SD-Card, and I'm getting 7 hours on screen time with stock battery.

andybones said:
Do you have an SD-Card in?
I was getting the same battery life, took out my SD-Card, and I'm getting 7 hours on screen time with stock battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol sd card?? well I tried it anyway and no, it still drains like a pissing racehorse. Ive noticed this phone gets pretty warm sometimes even with light use. Im not sure what is causing this but must be a factor in why the battery life is so poor. When I talk on phone, not very often, the ear piece actually gets hot. Im gonna send this puppy to samsung and see what they can do.

GSam Battery Monitor can offer better details about your battery usage, including wakelocks, cpu usage, etc.. It's more detailed than what Android offers.
I'd also recommend using an AOSP based rom as they include out any carrier/Samsung services that may adversely affect your battery life, particularly in a fringe coverage area or with many sync and push items. I'd also stay away from powersave mode for the time being.
If you want to know for sure, I'd do something like this:
- update PRL on current rom
- wipe and format everything in CWM
- flash rom as per developer suggestions
- wipe battery stats
- boot and do not sign in with your Google account (very important!)
- do not install or restore any apps
- turn off auto-sync and leave data on
- enable auto brightness
- confirm that phone signal is somewhere between -50 and -90dbm
- turn off phone and charge overnight
- turn on in the morning and use normally for the day
- install GSAM if issues persist
Please post back with updates.

It could be a hardware problem also you know.... if something ground off in the phone then the battery will drain faster than anything....I had a n96 with a grounded problem and it use to dead in 4 hrs....

battery running out very fast

i;m on cm 10.1 M3 and my battery running out very fast. On data connection something about 30% in 1h. And its charging very fast full battery in 1h. Can someone help me?

guma55 said:
i;m on cm 10.1 M3 and my battery running out very fast. On data connection something about 30% in 1h. And its charging very fast full battery in 1h. Can someone help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dirty Flash?
Low signal area?
From what I know 4.22 has about 1 hour less screen on time than 4.12. Then again, I think we all here can drain about 30% battery in a hour, if we wanted to. What exactly are you doing in that 1 hours time.

battery isn't what it used to be.
4.1.2 was much better battery wise

Some solutions
you can try apps like:
greenify which hibernates background apps and some other apps which are hibernated as your phone goes in standby. (Root)
Ds battery saver which will turn off wifi when the phone is on standby.
Cpu sleeper which turns off one core when phone is on standby (Root)
Battery Calibration (Root)
Lux auto brightness which adjust the brightness and is battery efficient
You can under clock or under volt or even change your screens colour settings. (Root)
Hope these apps and tips help

While i acknowledge that most of battery life is determined by the actions of the user and what apps they use, some ROM/Kernel combos just have notoriously crap battery life regardless of how you cut it. I have found that 10.1 and its stock kernel are one of those instances. Hell, even while using a different kernel and great settings i still have been unable to get the same kind of battery as i can with other combos. Personally, EOS is the complete package of customizability and battery life out of the box for me. Perhaps you should give it a shot. CyanogenMod is just far too dirty.

dking2012 said:
you can try apps like:
greenify which hibernates background apps and some other apps which are hibernated as your phone goes in standby. (Root)
Ds battery saver which will turn off wifi when the phone is on standby.
Cpu sleeper which turns off one core when phone is on standby (Root)
Battery Calibration (Root)
Lux auto brightness which adjust the brightness and is battery efficient
You can under clock or under volt or even change your screens colour settings. (Root)
Hope these apps and tips help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All good except for Battery Calibration. That app, and others that operate on the same premise are 100% snake oil. And end user can do the exact same thing that the app does simply by unplugging their phone from the charger after a full or near-full charge. It in no way, shape, or form touches anything related to battery life or battery charge indication.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2