Battery overheating / draining - T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII

There is something going on with my phone, Samsung Galaxy S3, V4.3 where occasionally, lately it has been once a day the power draw from the battery will spike as high as 2,000ma (2 amps). This last long enough to drop the charge 10 - 20% and creates excessive battery heat. It happens on charge or off charge. I have tried viewing the running processes with System Tuner and nothing shows up in the list using an excessive amount of CPU. Better Battery Staus also doesn't pinpoint the problem. I have most everything Greenified accept Google stuff of course and useful stuff like email, etc. I now believe it could be connected with GPS since I turned off the GPS I have not had another event other than a 800ma spikes that quickly go away. Need more time to confirm it is GPS related. Are there any programs that will log which applications are using GPS? Any other ideas what could be the problem? I don't understand why System Tuner doesn't show me which process is eating the battery? Can anyone point me in the right direction.

I thonk it may be the radio itself. I have recently noticed similar issues on mine but its usually when streaming videos. I rarely use gps so i cant speak on that right now.
If i have it plugged in while doing this, it gets hot enough to trigger a shutdown due to thermal event....it crashes!

DocHoliday77 said:
I thonk it may be the radio itself. I have recently noticed similar issues on mine but its usually when streaming videos. I rarely use gps so i cant speak on that right now.
If i have it plugged in while doing this, it gets hot enough to trigger a shutdown due to thermal event....it crashes!
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Click to collapse
Same here, I also noticed with System Tuner that several applications that normally use 1% or less of CPU seem to spike to 8 - 30%. This all seem very odd. Now I am wondering if the background radio steals CPU cycles and leaves no time for normal applications. Anyway, the issues are reduced with GPS off although the battery does get warm sometimes without any reason I can fine. I'll try streaming audio and see if it triggers.
I would be willing to try a different radio. My current software is Model Number SGH-T999, Android version 4.3, BaseBand version T999UVUENC2, Kernel 3.0.31-1962493, Build number JSS15J.T999UVUENC2.

Unfortunately, no other radio will work. You can try one just to be sure about it. It wont brick, but just wont function. Youll have unknown imei and baseband until you flash the NC2 modem back.
Im currently running my port of S3Rx 4.0, but ill flash back to NC2 in a couple if days to test more on mine. Im also using a case/housing not meant for the T999 so theres a good chance that is contributing to my problems though.

DocHoliday77 said:
Unfortunately, no other radio will work. You can try one just to be sure about it. It wont brick, but just wont function. Youll have unknown imei and baseband until you flash the NC2 modem back.
Im currently running my port of S3Rx 4.0, but ill flash back to NC2 in a couple if days to test more on mine. Im also using a case/housing not meant for the T999 so theres a good chance that is contributing to my problems though.
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Click to collapse
Okay, thank you for the replies. Please stop by if you learn anything new. Velis Auto Brightness is up to 64% CPU usage, grrr. I posted on developers forum maybe troubleshooting that will lead to a fix. The 2 amp spikes haven't occurred since I disabled GPS, so I am guess you are correct about the radio.

The problem returned so turning off GPS isn't a complete fix, seems to reduce the frequency is all. It looks like Android System is the problem. If I shut down pull the battery reboot the bad behaviour continues, only fix seems to wait it out. My next phone most likely will not be a sammy.

Im not really sure what to suggest at this point. I can say that what we are experiencing isnt typical though.
Out of curiosity, have you given any of the ported kk roms a try? I think my Sprint port is probably the most stable/bug free, but they are all good and ive had pretty good battery on each one compared stock. (Ive always had good battery life even on stock though, aside from a few recent issues that I believe are more my own fault). TMS3KK is a solid rom with very few issues. S3Rx 4.0 is as well, but ill be posting an update to it hopefully later today, so I cant say its really been thoroughly vetted yet. Still worth a look though, imo.

DocHoliday77 said:
Im not really sure what to suggest at this point. I can say that what we are experiencing isnt typical though.
Out of curiosity, have you given any of the ported kk roms a try? I think my Sprint port is probably the most stable/bug free, but they are all good and ive had pretty good battery on each one compared stock. (Ive always had good battery life even on stock though, aside from a few recent issues that I believe are more my own fault). TMS3KK is a solid rom with very few issues. S3Rx 4.0 is as well, but ill be posting an update to it hopefully later today, so I cant say its really been thoroughly vetted yet. Still worth a look though, imo.
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No time to try a different ROM yet. I should have time the weekend after next. Thank you for all your suggestions.

I tried replacing the battery. After the first charge the phone lasted for 2 days before the battery dropped to 5%. It took 6 hours to charge back to 100%. No problems until later, it seems to dislike being unplugged moved to a new location and plugged in again. This appears to be when the problem occurs. I usually just leave the phone plugged in all the time. I'll test further with the power before I make up my mind. I think this will be the last Sammy phone for me?

Is it a non stock battery? I've always had issues with those reporting correctly.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

DocHoliday77 said:
Is it a non stock battery? I've always had issues with those reporting correctly.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Usually I would buy a non stock battery however since this phone lays next to me in bed to wake me in the mornings I am a little concerned with a fire so it is a Samsung battery from Samsung. Leaving it unplugged for a bit and plugging it back in didn't work stop the battery drain. There are no processes eating the battery according to System Tuner so got to change the ROM.
Should I try a ROM first or kernel or both? Could it be an Xposed module, thinking about turning all of those hacks off?
I just remembered, this only happens if the screen is on and the phone is plugged into the charger. And rebooting doesn't clear the problem.

I would start with a stock based ROM. If it were me I'd go full stock rooted. But yeah I'd ditch xposed for now. You might even try reflashing your current ROM, factory resetting and this time don't use any exposed mods. If it still has problems, then try a different ROM.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to find xposed was the culprit. Its really cool, and the dev is amazing, but I prefer not to use it at all. IMO, it's much better to have the mods coded into the ROM itself.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

DocHoliday77 said:
I would start with a stock based ROM. If it were me I'd go full stock rooted. But yeah I'd ditch xposed for now. You might even try reflashing your current ROM, factory resetting and this time don't use any exposed mods. If it still has problems, then try a different ROM.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to find xposed was the culprit. Its really cool, and the dev is amazing, but I prefer not to use it at all. IMO, it's much better to have the mods coded into the ROM itself.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Thank you Doc, will do so and report back here the results.

My phone does the same thing now. My phone never did this when I first got it a couple years ago. I use GPS a lot because son plays on a travel hockey team. I could drive 3 - 4 hours away with the phone on and plugged in using the GPS without any issues. Now, my phone gets so hot in about an hour of the same type of use and it shuts down.
I thought that maybe there was something wrong with the phone because of age but now I see it could be something different.

It very well could be age related, or it could be partially due to that too. But I'd do as I suggested above and run stock for a bit to test. If on a custom rom, and especially kernel, you could run into issues like that too.
If you have the same problem on stock, (and you're sure its not an app acting up), there's a very good possibility that its more of a hardware related issue.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

And it is not the battery. I can't load stock until next weekend, need my phone for work.

You can always use better battery stats to investigate while you use it normally. Let it log all wakelocks, including kernel wakelocks for a full cycle.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

DocHoliday77 said:
You can always use better battery stats to investigate while you use it normally. Let it log all wakelocks, including kernel wakelocks for a full cycle.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that, been there, odd thing is nothing shows there. I'm gonna reload with stock per your suggestion next weekend and if that doesn't work I'll try a custom kernel.

Try remove greenify app and see what happens. Cuz with my case the latest version (2.4.x.x) of greenify driving my phone nuts. That app used to be great.

I'm back. Loaded stock 4.3 ROM / kernel, radio is at newest versions, I am going to say the problem is gone. The battery heats up to about 32-33 degrees Celsius however the phone isn't hot like it is burning up so I believe the problem is like Doc suggested earlier with the radio. Which would explain why the process monitors never see any rouge application using to much CPU. So after some pondering, this doesn't stop a rouge application from using to much bandwidth and cooking the radio so to type. If I had to pin it down I am going to suggest it maybe one of these two applications: FCC speedtest and or Opensignal or some other application. Both of the listed applications periodically test the network bandwidth and report back to a central server. I suspect that this maybe trigger the heat problem from the extend radio usage. No proof at this time just conjecture.
I am considering jumping to an AOSP ROM to be free of the Samsung bloat, NOT CM, don't care for CM, does anyone have any good suggestions to try?

Related

big mistake updating to 2.2

ever since I updated to 2.2, no matter what rom I'm using..performance has been so poor compared to 2.1. I wish I never updated. My battery runs out quick, temperature goes up to 100F even when idle and my phone hangs every time I turn on wifi. Hopefully I find out a solution soon, i've been flashing and uninstalling roms all day these past two days. I love the phone though don't get me wrong =\
That sounds quite odd.
Are you using an unmodified SBF, or are you using a release where the author/publisher has made a lot of changes? When having problems, it may be best to stick to one release and try to narrow down your problems, instead of trying many different releases and introducing new variables into the mix.
Are you overclocking your phone - perhaps it's causing the rise in temperature? Or are you running a lot of widgets? There may be some widgets that use the system too aggressively, causing too much strain/heat.
Hi! Did you do "wipe" before and after flashing?
That is very odd. I am on Froyo and performance has been phenomenal ever since the flash.
I agree with naenee, check the ROM you're flashing...
i flashed the UK 3.4.2-117 and right now using Pay's 2.1 rom. I remember that I did wipe data/cache before flashing and after flashing. IDK, im just not having problem's with this particular rom..it seems like it happens on all the other ones im trying. I get random freezes and especially when I toggle on wifi. I recently installed setVEL and will see if battery improves, this means i don't need milestone right? I'm also using setCPU.
I might try to flash 3.4.2_131-003 PL version. Will it cause any trouble and can I go back down to UK 3.4.2-117?
Seeing as it uses the same kernel, you should be able to do so...
bkuu said:
I might try to flash 3.4.2_131-003 PL version. Will it cause any trouble and can I go back down to UK 3.4.2-117?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using the orange 2.2 for several days and no specific problem is noted.
well I reinstalled pays rom first and everything is working good. No more hang ups or freezes but I still can't get the battery to last as long.My phone is mostly idled, running on 2G, just one widget, and everything in settings turned down to the least minimal settings..im talking about battery saver, screen brightness all the way down..everything off! 6 hours in and im already on 70%. I can live with that but I'm using setVsel and I know it could do better. Anyone know another way I can make my battery last longer?
I'm running Pays latest rom based on the UK 3.4.2 and it runs great. I'm also using setvsel (as every defy user should) and optimized all my vsels ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) using stability test. I haven't had a 'normal' day of use yet, but with heavy use (installing apps, web browsing, flashing rom) I've gotten at least a full day (~15 hrs) out of a charge.
I recommend minimizing your vsels using setvsel, then judging your battery life. Check out the setvsel thread for more help.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App
And remember this is a smart phone, some people report getting 2 to 3 days of use out of it. That's basically idle time tho. These new smart phones are just that, and use much more battery than the Dumbphone.
Dewman4life said:
And remember this is a smart phone, some people report getting 2 to 3 days of use out of it. That's basically idle time tho. These new smart phones are just that, and use much more battery than the Dumbphone.
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Click to collapse
Even if that's the case (and I dispute it, I use my phone a fair amount in the ~3 days the battery averages), it still doesn't explain why the OP's phone is dropping 30% in 6 hours while idling.
When I updated to froyo, my battery life went from about 15 hours of use to 21 hours between charges. So I'm thinking the op has an app doing the draining.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App
Unfortunately, this is a characteristic of Android.... Ridiculously inconsistent in the battery department.
Wife's phone is on official froyo, has been amazing since updated (a few weeks ago) but since yesterday some weird reason it's been super glitchy and freezing up. Not sure why...haven't changed anything to it and she's only downloaded an app or two (such as pandora) in the last couple days...I was playing around with it trying to figure out what was up...can't figure it out. I went into titanium backup to freeze some apps thinking maybe some blur crap was freezing it up but TB froze up so I can't even get in there. Also, same as OP, the battery has been heating up really quick lately, especially when on wifi.
Not sure what's up here...but I'm hoping nothing serious! Will keep you all updated on this...we'll see if there is a trend going on here.
bkuu said:
ever since I updated to 2.2, no matter what rom I'm using..performance has been so poor compared to 2.1. I wish I never updated. My battery runs out quick, temperature goes up to 100F even when idle and my phone hangs every time I turn on wifi. Hopefully I find out a solution soon, i've been flashing and uninstalling roms all day these past two days. I love the phone though don't get me wrong =\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check your cpu usage... if it's constantly arround 99%, you may experience the "usb-plug/unplug"-bug.
try enabling usb debug and restart your phone.
hah2110 said:
Unfortunately, this is a characteristic of Android.... Ridiculously inconsistent in the battery department.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would rather say it is a characteristic of people using android, to have widely different usage patterns, causing differences in how long a charge lasts for each.
Hi there. Have you tried to recalibrate the battery? There is an app on the marke called Battery Calibrator. From what I understand if you play with roms the battery can give you problems so it need to be calibrated again. I hope this can help.
For those interested... I'm having a problem, I don't know yet if it's a bug or a hardware defect.
My phones wastes A LOT of battery while it should be suspended.
I've tracked the problem to, apparently, Motorola's SIM driver. From what I've discovered so far, the SIM isn't accepting the suspend state and therefore the "suspend" process uses too much CPU time... all of this when the phone is, supposedly, saving battery.
As I can't get a motorola engineer involved, I can't say for sure if this is the true cause... but it's the closer I've got to a diagnostic, so far.
Your problem might or not be related to this, but if you're interested about what I've found or what my kernel log looks like so you can compare with your own problem... this is the thread at motorola's owner forum:
https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/47721

[Q] Defy+ Temporary bricking due to overheating?

Yeah, got a major issue: My Defy+ is overheating and I usually end up with a blocked phone, which ends up being useless for about 4-5 hours. And it's becoming more often.
I have 2.3.4 on it, but I seriously doubt 2.3.6 solves this issue.
Any tips?
Deformat said:
Any tips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try custom ROM's and DO NOT flash 2.3.6 full sbf as it's quite buggy and you'll be stuck with it.
You could also try to undervolt the CPU. In what conditions do you get an overheated phone?
vap_66 said:
You could also try to undervolt the CPU. In what conditions do you get an overheated phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How could I do that?
Also, I get it for no reason whatsoever. It gets overheated and that's it. I left it to cool about 4 God damn hours, and yet when I open it it works a bit, then it gets stuck. It's as if the memory isn't well processed.
To give ya an example, I left it over night and even charged it. Everything went fine.Then, got to school, got a break, wanted to listen to a song. Fine, listened to a song. A guy wanted to waste some time on Opera Mini with his Ikariam game. Fine, let him waste that 1 tab and browse online.
But then, when he gave it to me it was stuck.
Wait a lot of time to stop it via Android's button, did it eventually. Left it to cool 2 hours, tried again. Again, after less than 3 minutes of usage (wanted to share a file via bluetooth, but got to the folder only) it got stuck again. This time it was pointless, 30 minutes later I wasn't able to stop it so I took the battery off.
I kinda don't know if I should change it or still have faith in it.
Right now stuff seems worse. Sometimes it reboots itself, but that doesn't help with anything IMO.
BTW, would the 1% battery patch help? Might put that 720p functionality in there as well.
As Auris said, try flashing a custom ROM (CM7.2 is a good choice, stable and fast enough). For undervolting (if you are on a stock ROM only - because CM7 has a built-in CPU manager, accessible from the bootmenu) ), install SetVsel from the Play Store. Like PC overclocking/undervolting, be careful about the values you choose. You'll find a thread in the General section about SetVsel values.
If these ideas don't help you solve your problem, I think it might be hardware related.
Trimis de pe Defy CM9
My defy+ gets really hot on just about everything except stock! Undervolting didn't help, nor underclocking. Putting it in the fridge temporarily helped, but when I started using it again the temp climbed again!
What should I do? :-/
Sent from my Defy+ using Tapatalk 2 Beta
Well, since you flashed custom ROMs (unlike the OP), how about the baseband? I remember that when I flashed CM7 for the first time I didn't get 3G signal and the phone was overheating because the signal was too poor for the baseband that I used. Switched between a few and finally managed to get one with good signal and 2G/3G/3.5G working fine.
I never use 3G, so I've never bothered changing it. By the way... what are the differences between basebands with the same frequencies?
Could flashing a different kernel solve it?
Sent from my Defy+ using Tapatalk 2 Beta
Well, there are different regions - I don't know the technical details, but maybe some basebands work better with certain network operators. It's a trial&error method, you could choose one that works better or one that performs worse.
Regarding the kernel: I have no idea about the heat dissipation, but from what I've read there is a GB kernel that supposedly has better battery life. Ask Auris, he uses it (it's the kernel by walter79).
Okay, seems the issue solved itself, since now it works perfectly :|
I didn't play a game, which was kinda retarded: low quality, a simple Android game, and playing Temple Run/Angry Birds/ Angry Birds Space didn't give you me any issue.
I don't get it.

Frustrated with 4.3, thinking of downgrading

So I flashed the latest and "greatest" Android 4.3 on my Galaxy Nexus. After all, this is why we get our nexus devices for, right -- getting the latest updates without begging cell phone vendors or carriers. But Android 4.3 on Galaxy Nexus is driving me nuts -- A full charge won't last me for half a day without much usage at all. The phone intermittently wakes up and won't go back to sleep again, and after I press the power button to put it to stand by, it wakes up a few seconds later. Granted, it's not like that all the time, but it's often enough to be annoying and it's eating the battery alive. Before you ask, yes, I did do a clean install with root.
Very frustrated with this update, and come to think of it, the Android updates of late have not been stellar -- I experienced system random restart when 4.2 hits, and now this...
Sorry for the ranting but I'd like to know if anyone else has experienced similar problems. I googled around and there's an reported issue of Galaxy Nexus battery drain but given the discussion on there I don't think Google is going to dedicate any resource to fixing that.
Which JB point release do you guys think is the best for Galaxy Nexus?
Maybe battery life is not the best one, but you should let the phone settle some days.
The wakening problem is not 4.3 related. Indeed maybe its a usb port/pin problem.
kevinjqiu said:
Which JB point release do you guys think is the best for Galaxy Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4.3
Enviado desde mi Galaxy Nexus usando Tapatalk 2
Same here. Been downgrade to 4.2.2 after frustrate with 4.3 battery. Full charge at morning and low battery arround 5pm. 4.2.2 with 4.3 features also drain battery alot. Now I'm running on TeamEOS 4.2.2
Turn of mobile and network location in location settings and try it for a day
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4
Have you narrowed out that it's none of the apps causing issues?
kevinjqiu said:
So I flashed the latest and "greatest" Android 4.3 on my Galaxy Nexus. After all, this is why we get our nexus devices for, right -- getting the latest updates without begging cell phone vendors or carriers. But Android 4.3 on Galaxy Nexus is driving me nuts -- A full charge won't last me for half a day without much usage at all. The phone intermittently wakes up and won't go back to sleep again, and after I press the power button to put it to stand by, it wakes up a few seconds later. Granted, it's not like that all the time, but it's often enough to be annoying and it's eating the battery alive. Before you ask, yes, I did do a clean install with root.
Very frustrated with this update, and come to think of it, the Android updates of late have not been stellar -- I experienced system random restart when 4.2 hits, and now this...
Sorry for the ranting but I'd like to know if anyone else has experienced similar problems. I googled around and there's an reported issue of Galaxy Nexus battery drain but given the discussion on there I don't think Google is going to dedicate any resource to fixing that.
Which JB point release do you guys think is the best for Galaxy Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As personal experience, much of what you describe did happened to me some time ago and it was cause for some apps that were not optimized for the newer Android API version.
That said, you could try boot into Safe Mode (keep pressed the "Turn Off" at the shutdown screen) and see if keep happening the issues you describe
Use Wakelock Detector app to identify what's draining your battery unusually..
Way ahead of you, I need my tethering.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
The waking of the phone is most likely caused by a USB malfunction. 4.3 isn't great because Verizon hasn't updated the Nexus radios so the signal is very bad. It goes from LTE to 3g to no signal and back. It does this so ,much that the battery takes a big hit. Find a ROM where you can turn on and off LTE, that should improve your battery.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 2
The battery drain is because of "always searching for nearby wifi" option
Just disable it ...
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
ive been happy with 4.3 on my VZW Gnex except for constantly having data issues. i downloaded a couple 4.2 roms again to see if they help any. I'm guessing it's because VZW doesn't officially have 4.3 on the Gnex which is why we are seeing data problems. I don't know specifics, maybe binary problems, i dunno. All i do know is it's annoying. I can't even stream iheartradio or pandora at work without it constantly cutting out. then i'll lose data all together and have to reboot the phone to get it back.
kevinjqiu said:
So I flashed the latest and "greatest" Android 4.3 on my Galaxy Nexus. After all, this is why we get our nexus devices for, right -- getting the latest updates without begging cell phone vendors or carriers. But Android 4.3 on Galaxy Nexus is driving me nuts -- A full charge won't last me for half a day without much usage at all. The phone intermittently wakes up and won't go back to sleep again, and after I press the power button to put it to stand by, it wakes up a few seconds later. Granted, it's not like that all the time, but it's often enough to be annoying and it's eating the battery alive. Before you ask, yes, I did do a clean install with root.
Very frustrated with this update, and come to think of it, the Android updates of late have not been stellar -- I experienced system random restart when 4.2 hits, and now this...
Sorry for the ranting but I'd like to know if anyone else has experienced similar problems. I googled around and there's an reported issue of Galaxy Nexus battery drain but given the discussion on there I don't think Google is going to dedicate any resource to fixing that.
Which JB point release do you guys think is the best for Galaxy Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had this exact problem and spent a day working on it. It actually has nothing to do with android 4.3; its actually the usb port on the phone, as stated a bit earlier in this thread. More specifically, the pin inside the port is likely shorting with the outer surface of the port, due to it bending slightly. This causes the phone to have funky voltages being detected at the port, and results in the phone behaving as you described (the waking up when the screen is off is actually it thinking its going into charging mode). There are two things to do to fix it. Firstly, take some compressed air and thoroughly clean the port out. Dust that accumulates in the port can cause problems like this, and blowing it out is a relatively simple task. If that doesn't work, the next thing to do is to bend the pin up a bit. Note that this requires you to be a bit gentle, but is not overly difficult. Turn the phone off and remove the battery first, then wedge a very small flat head screwdriver between the pin and the bottom of the port. Very gently apply a bit of pressure, just to bend it up a bit. This doesn't need to be by a lot, in fact when i did it, i could only barely even see a physical difference. Put the battery back in and power the phone back up, and see if it was enough. It fixed all my problems when I did it a week ago.
Don't know what seems to be the problem here
Lasts me 1.5 days with 4hrs On Screen Time Every Time
Don't blame 4.3 if it's an app messing with your battery life
Thanks everyone for chiming in. Here's an update. I uninstalled Go battery widget and now the battery lasts longer. Not as long as I had hoped but better. I installed wakelock detector (thanks for suggesting it) after I uninstalled Go battery widget so I don't have the evidence to prove that Go battery widget is the culprit but the phone seems to be running better now. I also haven't experienced any random wake ups.
Would the data issues more likely be a factor of radio, rather than ROM?
chrisinsocalif said:
Have you narrowed out that it's none of the apps causing issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do that when you can complain on a new thread on xda?! 4.3 sucks because crappy Go apps create wakelocks!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4
I had the same issues with battery life when I upgraded to 4.3. However, I largely attribute that to T-Mobile's horrible reception in College Station, TX. I used PA, CM10, Purity, Avatar, and a few others but the battery life and performance was not respectable even though they claimed the contrary. This phone is reaching its the end of its product life and no matter how many "optimizations" go under the hood, the hardware is just not apt for ROMs designed for higher end phones.
In the end, I flashed a stock rooted ROM, no more "optimizations", "tweaks", or "improvements"...just a clean ROM. Granted, I in no way mean to offend any developer and their hard work but my experiences with their ROMs left a bitter feeling towards them.
Battery life improved significantly. What used to be 100% to 30% in 8-9 hours turned into 100%-50% in 14 hours. Do keep in mind I'm not a power user. My phone serves as a music player for my ~1 hr commute from and to school, occasional text messages, random redditing, and the random news article before class. In all, I average a little under 2 hours screen time before I deplete the battery to 5-10%.
It's also important to use the appropriate radio for your market.
TL;DR - Try stock and a different radio.
Kernel
I have always seen major differences between Kernels and attributed the majority of battery life to that. Some kernels just work better than others. For example, I know that TONS of people love Franco's kernel, but on my phone battery life is terrible on it. Personally, I like Golden and it seems to really improve battery life.
Same here. I've been having constant data issues with 4.3. So much so that I've just lock myself to 3G and so far, that's been good. 3G->4G or back doesn't work half the time and requires either toggling airplane mode on and off, or rebooting the phone outright.
Going to have to agree. I have VZW and all the 4.3 ROM's I've tried have been less than impressive. I obviously appreciate the dev's work but nothing i've tried is ready to be my DD

Rant about issues with 4.3

I'd like to vent:
Battery life went to absolute s#!+.
The phones keyboard lags horribly
And I really hate the fake 4g it's doing.
I'm in a 3g only area, it shows 4g, down [email protected] .12 mb, and that's lucky.
I want my old 4.2 back. I HONESTLY like "some"of the updates.
But really, it's agitating me to where I'm upset.
I used to get through my day, get home and have 50-70% Leff, I'm lucky to have above 30%. I've tried airplane mode at work, I've tired turning everything off, I've done what I did on phones that wouldn't last 6 hours. I even forked out for a new battery cause Sprint said so.
My battery is better than the new one.
I'm stock, no root, nothing special. Haven't changed anything but I git the update.
I've read where people saw improved battery life, and faster speed...but I've experienced the exact opposite.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Please help, I could care less about bells and whistles,I want my juice back.
Nothing is showing up as the reason for the draw!
I'm not new, I've owned three if these phone due to stupid failures. I've averaged a new phone once every six months....and not through tep, but phone failure.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk
I would recommend backing up all your SD Card contents that you want saved, especially the DCIM folder (pictures). Then get an app called Helium by ClockworkMod, and run the PC software with your phone hooked up, to enable a backup of all your user apps-messages-call logs-launcher layout. Then copy the Helium/Carbon backup folder to your PC. Then do a Factory Data Reset. I've heard of and known people that took an OTA update that were furious that their phone performance went backwards, but after a Reset all was fine.
Just my 2¢, but I think it will fix the problems.
Sent from my SPH-L900
Yeah definitely try a factory reset I unrooted and took the update and it's actually quite nice smooth but not as fast as a custom kernel but battery life vastly improved. Lol if I turned on airplane mode it would probably last a week or more
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Charging is slow and no note 3 stuff
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I get my hands on quite a few phones where I work at (a cell phone shop) and I don't mean to sound like an ass but maybe you've junked up your phone? I've had people come in crying about how slow their phone is when they have a million apps, enough porn to take up all the internal memory and 10 things running in the background hogging up RAM. If you do a reset/data wipe and it runs to your satisfaction, scale down on the play store app frenzy. Just because you have access to a lot of things doesn't mean you should get everything you can. Just my .02!
Also charging has always been slow on every Note 2 I've had my hands on. Probably has something to do with the gigantic battery. Note 3? Same way IMO (again chalked up to the bigger battery. Think about it, more cells, same charger, more time required to recharge those cells)
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Yea I have to agree with some of the others on here, I think it may be some apps or settings you have on your phone causing problems. I did the full install from lorjay that is deodexed rooted and I have to say that compared to 4.1 this is a HUGE step in performance for me, most notably in the modem. I was at my sisters for thanksgiving the other day and had 4g everywhere in her house where normally I am constantly switching between 3g/4g, and even better yet it was usable 4g! Phone itself is CRAZY smooth, love the fact that the bars now show data signal when on 4g, and I love all the other little UI changes that were made as well. The only 2 things I have noticed negative since 4.1 is that the battery life MAY be just a tad bit less than before. Granted it has only been a few days I have been using this, but i have noticed a little bit of a drop, nothing to write home (or to samsung) about. The BIG issue that I have noticed that is driving me crazy is that the home/lock buttons seem to not respond very well (if at all) sometimes. I am sure I will figure this issue out soon enough however.
Do a nandroid, then factory reset, and before installing any apps at all, try the phone out for a bit and see if your problems are all still there.
Good luck!
interpole00 said:
Charging is slow and no note 3 stuff
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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My battery died over night...which is fine it was 12 % when I got home.....here's the thing I plugged it in and left it to charge for about 20 min this morning then turned it on and checked galaxy current and it reported 466....unplugged and replugged a few times ...still 466.....now 7 hours later the phone is only at 89%....checked battery status still showed as usb charging @466...unplugged ..replugged now it's at 1698
this was all with the 2amp factory wall charger. My guess is that mandatory SLOW charge gets initiated when battery is below a certain level and for whatever reason doesn't automatically switch back to AC mode ever unless you unplug and replug.
I have to pay more attention to when AC or USB charging is taking place, see if it is actually based on the current battery charge at the time it's plugged in.
ecs87 said:
I get my hands on quite a few phones where I work at (a cell phone shop) and I don't mean to sound like an ass but maybe you've junked up your phone? I've had people come in crying about how slow their phone is when they have a million apps, enough porn to take up all the internal memory and 10 things running in the background hogging up RAM. If you do a reset/data wipe and it runs to your satisfaction, scale down on the play store app frenzy. Just because you have access to a lot of things doesn't mean you should get everything you can. Just my .02!
Also charging has always been slow on every Note 2 I've had my hands on. Probably has something to do with the gigantic battery. Note 3? Same way IMO (again chalked up to the bigger battery. Think about it, more cells, same charger, more time required to recharge those cells)
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
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Slow charging has nothing to do with the battery size.
The stock firmwares from Samsung intentionally brick the 2Ampere stock charger via software limiter into charging only around 500mA. Note3 users have been happy about charge speeds at stock because Samsung has chosen to cease gimping their chargers with a software charging limiter in the newer devices.
When I was using an AOSP rom, the first time I plugged the charger it did not charge at all but when I unplugged and replugged it charged normally. This happed happened on my Galaxy player too with PAC rom. After a few days it charged normally. So maybe the battery is recalibrating? for the new ROM installation.
Edit: Everything is indeed smoother and quicker but there are times when things get loaded so fast that lags slightly after. It could be the Knox files or whatever. AnTuTu went up by 2000 points. (Stock rom, 19000 to 21000)
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Guess if it ain't broke, don't fix. Still on 4.1.2 and everything works just fine, battery life, tether, etc. Obviously would like to be on the most current version but all this Knox stuff and etc just make it unattractive in my opinion and i really don't see what 4.3 brings that's radical.
Look through your battery usage and see what's killing battery or download BetterBatteryStats to see exactly what is causing the drain. I had serious drain when I took the 4.3 update but I figured out my cause. Since I had factory reset to take the update when setting up the phone all over again I chose that stupid allow apps to get location while Wi-Fi off. Thing is battery hungry
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LordLugard said:
Guess if it ain't broke, don't fix. Still on 4.1.2 and everything works just fine, battery life, tether, etc. Obviously would like to be on the most current version but all this Knox stuff and etc just make it unattractive in my opinion and i really don't see what 4.3 brings that's radical.
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don't be fooled....there already are 2 full 4.3 roms with NO KNOX in them that are flashable like any other rom except the need to odin the wifi fix....4.3 is running just fine on my phone, overall improvement
I hear it's Google Play Services that are to blame for battery life. That's what most of the reviews of it are saying after users grabbed an Android version update. Direct link to our issue with Note 2 maybe?
Formating the SD card also helps because the new Android version will no longer be picking through old files from an older Android installation or files that weren't correctly overwritten with the same filenames or paths. Also gets rid of old app data so 4.3 apps aren't trying to do the same thing with 4.1 data. .. All this assuming your SD card hadn't been manually partitioned by the Android version you're going to (e.g. 4.4 and sdcard/0).
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Skripka said:
Slow charging has nothing to do with the battery size.
The stock firmwares from Samsung intentionally brick the 2Ampere stock charger via software limiter into charging only around 500mA. Note3 users have been happy about charge speeds at stock because Samsung has chosen to cease gimping their chargers with a software charging limiter in the newer devices.
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Click to collapse
I'd think a bigger battery (Note 2 or 3) would take longer to charge than a smaller battery (say from a S2) given the same exact charger being used to charge both devices? Meh.
ecs87 said:
I'd think a bigger battery (Note 2 or 3) would take longer to charge than a smaller battery (say from a S2) given the same exact charger being used to charge both devices? Meh.
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Apples to apples, yes. As I said, it is not apples to apples.
For the exact reason I posted. Sammy software throttles the "2A" chargers back to 0.5A in the kernel on older handsets. Only with Note3 did they release the throttle clamp and allow full speed chargin of the charger at stock.
Skripka said:
Apples to apples, yes. As I said, it is not apples to apples.
For the exact reason I posted. Sammy software throttles the "2A" chargers back to 0.5A in the kernel on older handsets. Only with Note3 did they release the throttle clamp and allow full speed chargin of the charger at stock.
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Is this something that a dev can do for our Note 2's?
elosogrande7076 said:
Is this something that a dev can do for our Note 2's?
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Yes it's a very simple kernel adjustment. Jellybombed had it built in. I think you can download an app for rooted handsets. I think it's called STweak? (Please correct if wrong). I'm sure there are others too.
But it's VERY IMPORTANT you know what you're doing or you can very easily fry a chip or more with the wrong voltage settings.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
LordLugard said:
Guess if it ain't broke, don't fix. Still on 4.1.2 and everything works just fine, battery life, tether, etc. Obviously would like to be on the most current version but all this Knox stuff and etc just make it unattractive in my opinion and i really don't see what 4.3 brings that's radical.
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Click to collapse
I'm with you. When I used my Galaxy Nexus, I always had to have the latest and greatest rom (it had 4.3 months ago and was buggy on even that phone) but I am more than satisfied with digiblur's de-bloated 4.1.2
It seems that Samsung really screwed this update and introduced more problems than new features. I'm sticking with my rooted 4.1.2 rom until this Samsung disaster is cleaned up by the great xda dev community.
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I am rooted but still running stock 4.3 rom and stock kernel. Everything is good here. Battery is about the same if not just a little better. I would do a reset. I usually just back up my pics and reset. I don't fool with backing up apps and data stuff. Figure I am better starting from scratch then downloading things one at a time to see if it happens again. Then I know what caused it.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
I know this is supposed to be complaint thread, but I thought I'd chime in with my experience. I was running rooted MC2 based DigiBlur (which is a heavily de-bloated, moderately tweaked, but otherwise stock-ish ROM). I'm now running Lorjay589's KNOX-free MK4 which is a rather stock-ish ROM (other than root and no KNOX), and it's actually performing better than any MC2 ROM I've tried, including stock rooted MC2. I think the key was in order to flash MK4 I had to wipe everything, basically starting over. I restored only 3rd-party apps/data (no system data) with TB, and I have absolutely no complaints.
So, although encountering post MK4 OTA problems could be for a variety of reasons, the easiest solution to try is a factory reset. Basically, it can't hurt and it may solve the issues.

P3XL Suffering from lots of random apps closing/freezing,etc. Any ROM that will help?

I have a P3XL that's roughly 1 year old. It's seriously slow and laggy and stutters like none other. If i'm in Chrome and browsing reddit, it can crash from having a long page of images open. Using simultaneous apps like Spotify and Instagram kills the phone. I was using flashlight and making a call at the same time and it crashed.
I originally used stock, that was the same. Switched to Havoc OS and it's pretty much the same. I can only guess this is from poor RAM management. Battery life is crap now too. Doesn't last me till 6:00PM on a low usage day.
Any ROM suggestions? Or is there something here i'm missing? 4GB should be enough... the P2XL was absolutely fine but this is atrocious. I frequently want to toss this device across the room.
You may have a bad battery which is causing voltage/amperage problems and glitching. If you've already done a fresh clean install of the factory OS and still have issues that'd be my next guess.
Did you regularly run it below 20% or until dead?
Yeah I gotta say that sounds a battery issue or something else going on. I've been running stock Android 9 rooted with Kira kernel for about half a year now and although there is still a lot of reloading (especially when using chrome or internet browsers with lot of tabs open) it's still snappy and reloads quick. I've never had anything crash.
Unfortunately I have no clue how to test a battery for proper amperage. I know 2 ways to get an estimate on capacity with accubattery and extracting it from a bug report but I don't know if that will help with identify it or not.
It sounds almost identical to the same issue I had with my LG V20 which was a bad battery that would randomly shut down with around 15-25% capacity left when it got that low and when I changed the battery it fixed it
assassin10000 said:
You may have a bad battery which is causing voltage/amperage problems and glitching. If you've already done a fresh clean install of the factory OS and still have issues that'd be my next guess.
Did you regularly run it below 20% or until dead?
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I guess it could be a bad battery causing voltage issues. I have done a fresh clean install of factory OS, and still have issues. I would say i'm average when it comes to running it below 20%. I don't do that often, but sometimes it does. I rarely let it die completely.
Best scenario would be to go through Google Support?
KUSOsan said:
Yeah I gotta say that sounds a battery issue or something else going on. I've been running stock Android 9 rooted with Kira kernel for about half a year now and although there is still a lot of reloading (especially when using chrome or internet browsers with lot of tabs open) it's still snappy and reloads quick. I've never had anything crash.
Unfortunately I have no clue how to test a battery for proper amperage. I know 2 ways to get an estimate on capacity with accubattery and extracting it from a bug report but I don't know if that will help with identify it or not.
It sounds almost identical to the same issue I had with my LG V20 which was a bad battery that would randomly shut down with around 15-25% capacity left when it got that low and when I changed the battery it fixed it
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Yeah, mine is crashing hard. Hard enough that it's one of the poorest performance phones i've ever had. And that's saying a lot lol.
I'll try to use accubattery today to see what I get. It doesn't shut down at 15% thankfully.
dewie68 said:
Yeah, mine is crashing hard. Hard enough that it's one of the poorest performance phones i've ever had. And that's saying a lot lol.
I'll try to use accubattery today to see what I get. It doesn't shut down at 15% thankfully.
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My V20 wouldn't always die at those ranges but it happened pretty frequently. Do you notice a difference with it plugged in?
I would definitely start from scratch if you really want to troubleshoot this. Backup everything then flash a stock system image from Google with the wipe all command and start from there and see. If it still does it then it is most likely a hardware issue.
Sounds more like a cache problem to me.....dodgy nand chip. Needs to be replaced no matter whats causing it. If you cant get rid of it after trying everything including swapping the active boot slot from a to be or vise versa
boe323 said:
Sounds more like a cache problem to me.....dodgy nand chip. Needs to be replaced no matter whats causing it. If you cant get rid of it after trying everything including swapping the active boot slot from a to be or vise versa
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Thanks for the suggestions and information. I'll try this. Thanks everyone else!

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