Lately I've been having problems with the battery life. The charging asymptotes at about 50% and then after a while it resumes charging, but overall it takes about 10 hours to charge, which is a little excessive since I'm using the stock battery. Meanwhile, after I take the phone off the charger, it either instantaneously drops to approximately 60% battery life or drains at an incredible rate, going from 100 to 60% in 2-3 minutes. As a result, I'm getting maybe 12hours of battery life with limited usage; 1 hour or so of screen time reading, no cpu intensive apps running, which is rather annoying.
This started approximately 1 month ago, but I didn't post on this until I was pretty sure I ran through most everything already discussed and for the previous 11 months, everything was working well. Also, I'm pretty sure it wasn't an update issue since I went through so many roms and the issue remained.
First off I replaced the battery and the problem remained. Second I obtained an external charger to charged the batteries in case it was the port. Then I tried battery calibrations from various sources, using apps, physical drain/charge cycles, manually deleting the battery stats files (just in case). As well, I have tried going to CM11, back to stock T-Mobile, back to CM11, to SlimKat and now I am back on CM11 (calibrating all the way, again, just in case) in hopes that it was a problem with an update, but the problem persists through all of this.
Looking at/using battery monitor widget, it appears that the battery voltage is being underreported; I charge the batteries either in the phone or in the external charger and they reach approximately 4.3 volts, however when I place them in the phone and boot up, the S3 reports the voltage as about 3900 mV. I even checked the battery under load, and while the phone is reading 3900 mV, the voltmeter is reading 4.2 volts. The phone tracks the voltage but it continually underestimates the voltage by approximately 0.2-0.3 volts, e.g. when the phone is reporting 3500 mV, when I measure it, it is 3800 mV. I couldn't find information on the S3 specifically, but a lot of other electronics estimate battery life based on voltage, which is why I spent so much time discussing this.
So the question is, what am I missing that is causing all of these problems? I am at a loss.
Related
Hey all, so I have a different theory on the GNex battery issue but I'm not sure how to test it. It also might explain why there has been such a discrepancy in people's battery stats.
My theory is that there is something wrong with the way ICS/GNex is charging/reading/identifying battery information. Here are a few of the reasons why I think this is the case.
1 - My phone will occasionally charge absurdly fast, like 20 percent in 10 minutes... but then it will die equally as quick. My first thought was that the phone just charges and discharges quickly... BUT
2 - After charging for, say an hour, when I do a battery pull and let it sit for a minute or two before putting it back all of a sudden my super quick battery charge to 62% is now only at 37% (actual numbers that happened to me tonight). So why did I do a battery pull...?
3 - Because I noticed that after 10 minutes my phone had gone from 62% to 56% and I thought that was absurd. Once I did the pull and was back to my (as I like to call it) normalized battery percentage I have only dropped 15% in 2 hours and that includes heavy data usage on maps, navigation and texting. And another strange thing
4 - I have actually seen it go the other way! I once was around 30%, rebooted the phone and it jumped to 50%. Now that I'm thinking about it I often see weird fluctuations in my battery reading. One minute it will be 28%, then I turn it off and turn it back on and it will be 29%. Oh... and for those of you wondering
5 - This has happened both on a stock rom, rooted stock (although not like that would make a diff) and a custom rom ARHD. But still there is one last question...
6 - Why is there so much disparity on the issue? My theory is because this battery madness is so unpredictable you, you don't know when you get a normalized charge or an inflated charge. And lastly...
7 - I think it's gotta be a SW issue, why else would Nexus S owners be seeing the issue as well? (So that's good news... hopefully).
Soooo, that's my little rant. I think part of the problem is people are getting distracted by all these other theories with kernel drivers and etc because of the absurdly high Android OS issue (although in all fairness my theory could be more misdirection).
So why post? Well if people could try their luck validating/disproving my theory I would really appreciate it!
Here's what I'd like (and what I am going to do).
Charge your battery for an hour, if it charges really fast note the percentage.
Optional: Play with the phone for a while and see if it discharges quickly.
Do a battery pull, let it sit for a sec and put it back in and note the percentage.
If the percentage is significantly lower (10+%) start using the phone now and note the time to discharge.
Thanks!
EDIT: Also a good thing to mention, I am not disagreeing about the Android OS bug - I think that's also very real and something I have experienced as well. BUT if you look at the other battery thread you'll see a lot of people posting battery success images with high Android OS utilization. I think it could be an indication of multiple issues contributing to a negative experience.
Oh and I submitted a bug report to Google.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=23311
I've also noticed crazy battery drop after reboots or pulling battery. Easily drops 10%+ at times. Reminds me of my great blackberries back in the day
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
all good here. i'm very pleased with the battery life.
while there may be issues with the stats, the wake times are real for some users - as well as the heat generated (indicating the cpu is working) when the phone should be sleeping.
There is no question there are either bugs in ICS that cause wake locks to get stuck, or badly written apps that keep it awake that didn't keep awake froyo/gingerbread.
Agreed on the wake lock. In fact I really should have quantified that in my original post - I too have that ridiculous Android OS utilization.
I updated my post - you make a good point.
Charged to about 21%. Pulled battery and rebooted and reported about 31%. Running ARHD.
EDIT: Pulled battery again and rebooted and reports 20%.
I realized mine was charging extremely slow so I decided to turn it off and let it charge faster. It was only at 48% when I turned it off but as soon as the battery indicator showed up with the phone off it appeared to be well over halfway charged, I would've guessed close to 75% but I didn't think to turn it back on and see..
edit: I did charge it fully with the phone off then wiped battery stats in cwm before rebooting into the OS after this. Since then it seems to be charging normally and reporting the correct battery level
To prove this theory, I think you should check the reported voltage of the battery and compare that to the percentage meter. Most battery apps/widgets use the old Android "battery info" screen to report this data. There very well may be a problem with the GN/ICS meter, but to be sure there has to be some constant to go back to.
These batteries drop like a rock from full charge to something like 87-88%, and again from around 37-38% to zero. It's just the battery technology, perhaps exacerbated by not having enough battery stats to adjust the % meter.
As far as I know, an app/widget that reports battery voltage will do so from the information being provided by the battery circuitry itself, so it's not subjective or adjusted in any way like a meter will be, making it a far better correlation point for the discussion.
djp952 said:
To prove this theory, I think you should check the reported voltage of the battery and compare that to the percentage meter. Most battery apps/widgets use the old Android "battery info" screen to report this data. There very well may be a problem with the GN/ICS meter, but to be sure there has to be some constant to go back to.
These batteries drop like a rock from full charge to something like 87-88%, and again from around 37-38% to zero. It's just the battery technology, perhaps exacerbated by not having enough battery stats to adjust the % meter.
As far as I know, an app/widget that reports battery voltage will do so from the information being provided by the battery circuitry itself, so it's not subjective or adjusted in any way like a meter will be, making it a far better correlation point for the discussion.
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I use current widget to tell me my voltage, as I don't pay attention to the meter. On a stock LTE battery, you should cap out at 4.203V
Voltage meter sounds like a reasonable way to approach the problem. I'm definitely not an expert on battery stats though - what should the voltages read? I know it caps at 4200mv, but what is the min?
Also how does mv relate to mah?
m0sim said:
Voltage meter sounds like a reasonable way to approach the problem. I'm definitely not an expert on battery stats though - what should the voltages read? I know it caps at 4200mv, but what is the min?
Also how does mv relate to mah?
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mv stands for millivolt which is a measurement of voltage. Examples you may have heard before are 9v battery, 110 volt wall outlet.
1mv = 1/1000 volt OR 1v = 1000mv, so you can see a mv is very small compared to a volt.
mAh stands for milliampere-hour and, in layman's terms, is a measurement of battery capacity, specifically how many hours a battery will last if the device it is connected to pulls a known amperage.
So, if a device pulls 500mA and the battery is rated 2000mAh, then generally the battery will last 4 hours (2000mAh/500mA). There are numerous other factors in the equation such as temperature, age of battery, etc. that can affect the battery life.
My G2 gets ghastly battery life. I've tried Juice Defender and I've recalibrated more times than I can remember. Most notifications are turned off and I'm conservative about powering off the various radios when I'm not using them. It wasn't always like that. I felt like I was getting most of a full day on one charge and loving it for many months, but something happened last summer I think. Maybe dust or moisture affected the phone. I've got a total of six batteries and three external battery chargers. No battery whether it's the OEM original, 1500mah spares that were amazing before, or the new 1800mah evo shift 4g batteries I tried out, will last more than about four hours from full charge to the 15% warning sound.
I've tried only charging in the phone. I've tried rotating batteries charged in the external chargers. Like I said, I've tried calibration scenarios of various kinds.
Last night, I took a fully charged 1800mah battery and put it in my phone and then charged the battery in the phone. The orange led never turns green when the phone is off. When the phone is on, I can just barely get the led to turn green at about 91% (starting from what should be a full charge that is reported as 80% by the phone). This takes a good 10 hours of charging. As soon as I woke the phone this morning, the battery meter started dropping while the phone was still plugged in. After unplugging, the meter drops to 80% in a matter of a few minutes.
Like I said, I tried juice defender. It only helps a little but the cost is waiting for the data radio to reconnect every time I wake the phone. I thought BT was the culprit for a while, but now it really doesn't matter if I leave it on or turn it off.
At the other end of the charge, the phone can run for several hours when the battery is supposedly between 1 and 3%. I know we are told to start charging again at 15% but my phone drops to that level in 3-4 hours of regular use. I haven't seen the phone report 100% charge on any battery in six months time, but it runs and runs at 1%. This is what bugs me. Is the phone just mis-reading how many milivolts are coming out of the battery? Why can't I complete the first step of calibration (charge overnight to the 100% mark)? Is there a hardware component that can be causing this or should it be entirely fixable in software?
Thanks for any ideas or tips
Did you wipe battery stats?
Sent from your phone
waxinpoetic said:
Did you wipe battery stats?
Sent from your phone
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Yes I have many times but thanks for the suggestion.
Figured so.. Too bad, would have been too easy. I'm starting to see some batttery drain on my desire z now too. Im wondering if mine is a radio issue.
Sent from your phone
waxinpoetic said:
Figured so.. Too bad, would have been too easy. I'm starting to see some batttery drain on my desire z now too. Im wondering if mine is a radio issue.
Sent from your phone
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I changed radios and did RIL matching last fall based on other's comments about better battery life, 4G and GPS. While I've had faster GPS locks and maybe better 4G performance, my battery life did not improve. It may have even gotten worse.
Today I'm trying out some different CPU governor settings. The CM 7.2 RC1 default is 'interactive' and I wouldn't normally touch those settings. I think the powersave governor helped a lot, but the phone became almost unresponsive. Trying 'conservative' now. I should have read This long ago, but just got around to it today. I might invest in the SetCPU app as well.
OK, I can count on a good six hours of normal use if setCPU is holding down the max cpu frequency at night or when the screen is off. I'm still tweaking. Today, the phone crashed while playing music over A2DP and tracking a run with runkeeper. I think it needs to tick faster than 368Mhz when the screen is off.
Are you seeing improvement? I changed radios and like you havent seen much improvement. But I am a little better off than you are. My battery drain is terrible (1-3%per minute) only when connected to the internet (4g or wifi) or using navigation. If the screen is off, or if Im using non-internet apps I seem to get regular battery use. Good luck with your cpu settings.. I have ordered a new battery, but I doubt it will solve my issue. I may try tweaking my settings too soon, but Id better research more.
Just wondering do you have SuperCharger V6 installed? On my Desire Z I had some serious battery problems just as you mentioned. After I would flash my ROM (wiping the caches + reinstalling) my battery life would return to normal. But whenever I would flash SuperCharger v6 my battery life would spiral out of control. My suggestion for a ROM that handles battery life fairly well is Andromadus Audacity B2, just make sure you download and flash GAPPs (google apps). For example running that rom I have been getting very good battery life, approx. 16-20 hours of battery life with moderate use) with default CPU settings and data always turned on. I'm sure if you use Juice Defender to control your data you'll get above average battery life.
Note: Andromadus is an ICS (android 4.0) ROM
Qwerty_Uieo said:
Just wondering do you have SuperCharger V6 installed? On my Desire Z I had some serious battery problems just as you mentioned. After I would flash my ROM (wiping the caches + reinstalling) my battery life would return to normal. But whenever I would flash SuperCharger v6 my battery life would spiral out of control. My suggestion for a ROM that handles battery life fairly well is Andromadus Audacity B2, just make sure you download and flash GAPPs (google apps). For example running that rom I have been getting very good battery life, approx. 16-20 hours of battery life with moderate use) with default CPU settings and data always turned on. I'm sure if you use Juice Defender to control your data you'll get above average battery life.
Note: Andromadus is an ICS (android 4.0) ROM
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Thanks (and thanked) Ive been waiting till ICS roms are bug free and having working cameras, but I think I may just jump on it now. My battery issues are untenable at the moment on a CM7 based rom. Thanks for the advice.
I was seeing some improvement due to SetCPU profiles. However, now if I have GPS and Bluetooth on so that I can listen to music and track my run in runkeeper, the phone seems to 'crash' after about 35 minutes or so. The battery meter shows that the battery takes a nose dive and I think the phone shuts down at 1%. If I restart the phone, it might say I have 30 or 40% charge left but then it drops rapidly again. It seems like it hates the warmth of my pocket. If I let the phone out in the cool air like on my desk, I can reboot at get back to 60 or 70% even though it was just saying 3%. I'm not running SuperCharger.
I'm trying to find cheap G2s for parts on ebay now. Maybe I can at least test out my six batteries in a different phone to see if any of them are shot. They all seem to have the same problems in my phone.
This will be my final update. I bought a used G2 off ebay. The same batteries I used before now show as fully charged when I expect them to be fully charged. I will be getting a feel for general battery life over the next few days, but I expect battery life to be roughly the same. I just won't have to guess at what the current battery level really is.
I'm seeing now that the new phone will show a 60% charge when the old phone shows 15% for the same battery at about the same time.
The new phone shows 100% when topped off but if I put the topped off battery in my old phone, I see 75-80% charge.
I may try sending the old phone to HTC depending on what they offer for repair services.
revwillie said:
I bought a used G2 off ebay. ... the new phone will show a 60% charge when the old phone shows 15% for the same battery at about the same time
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I think what's happened to your old phone (and mine!) is that the onboard voltmeter chip is reading low. I've compared the on-board mV reading to a multimeter-measured battery voltage and what the phone reads as 3.9V the multimeter gets 4.2V (a fully charged Li-Ion battery).
Who knows what's behind it, but it seems like a hardware problem to me.
Hi all,
Over the last three days I've been having some trouble with my S3's battery. Recently I've been experiencing large battery drain while not using the phone excessively. Today within 20 minutes of unplugging the phone from a full charge it read 40% charge. It's almost as if I am lacking 60% of my battery.. From when I got the phone (on release day), I had never found the battery to be very impressive. The advertised 800 hour standby time has always been far out of reach, and I often found myself having to plug the phone in after 7-8 hours, (I'm a student, so it's away all day as I'm in class, i.e, low use.)
I don't use WiFi (I have 7GB/mo data), I don't use automatic brightness (held between 5-20%), GPS is on (For some Tasker profiles, but is rarely used), and I have never used NFC/S-Beam.
I have done factory resets, two since having issues with the battery. The phone is rooted and is running CM 10.1-20130203-NIGHTLY-d2att, I thought that updating the CM build might help (Feb 3rd as you can see), but hasn't. Also it is underclocked to MAX 810mHz. Battery usage statistics pins the main user as the screen, but I feel this is false.
I'm thinking of buying a new battery, might that help?
TL;DR: I'm having battery problems, and have tried all the normal fixes I could find online. See the attached images for battery details.
Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks!
Zev.Isert said:
Hi all,
Over the last three days I've been having some trouble with my S3's battery. Recently I've been experiencing large battery drain while not using the phone excessively. Today within 20 minutes of unplugging the phone from a full charge it read 40% charge. It's almost as if I am lacking 60% of my battery.. From when I got the phone (on release day), I had never found the battery to be very impressive. The advertised 800 hour standby time has always been far out of reach, and I often found myself having to plug the phone in after 7-8 hours, (I'm a student, so it's away all day as I'm in class, i.e, low use.)
I don't use WiFi (I have 7GB/mo data), I don't use automatic brightness (held between 5-20%), GPS is on (For some Tasker profiles, but is rarely used), and I have never used NFC/S-Beam.
I have done factory resets, two since having issues with the battery. The phone is rooted and is running CM 10.1-20130203-NIGHTLY-d2att, I thought that updating the CM build might help (Feb 3rd as you can see), but hasn't. Also it is underclocked to MAX 810mHz. Battery usage statistics pins the main user as the screen, but I feel this is false.
TL;DR: I'm having battery problems, and have tried all the normal fixes I could find online. See the attached images for battery details.
Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get the app BetterBatteryStats to narrow down what's draining your battery.
Also, being so UV = takes longer to load stuff = longer screen time = more battery usage. UV too much results in higher battery drain.
Okay but...
BWolf56 said:
Get the app BetterBatteryStats to narrow down what's draining your battery.
Also, being so UV = takes longer to load stuff = longer screen time = more battery usage. UV too much results in higher battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay I just bought Better Battery Stats, I'll let it analyze whats going on for the next few days.. And I assume UV means under voltage? Either way I put the processor speed back up to default (1512 mHz). But that still doesn't explain the 60% battery drop in 20 minutes after being unplugged.
I don't think it is possible for your phone in any case to drain 60% in 20 minutes. That's a ton of power usage, your phone would probably melt if it was using that much. Sounds like your phone is not reading your battery level properly. You may want to try resetting your battery stats, however I have heard that the s3 battery monitors its own level. In this case you probably would be better off just getting a new battery.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
I recently bought a S4 Mini (i9195) and I noticed it has a decent battery life.. until 5%. When the battery reaches 5% I get a huuuge drain.. it's like, draining to 0% in about 1 minute. And it happend all the time. Whats wrong with the device? :crying:
I'll try that, haven't noticed what happens at 5%.
Im shure mine has 3%/hour battery drain over night so I'll spect from 5% at least one hour at idle
Sent from my GT-I9192 using Tapatalk 4
Doesn't happen to me but I've experienced that with my old phones. Always happens when I charge my phone when it's far from empty and unplug it when it's far from full, multiple times.
Like I used to plug it in whenever I could find a power source so that I can play my games throughout the day. And I usually have to leave halfway for other things so I'll unplug it when it isn't fully charged yet.
Then after a while I noticed that the battery was draining quickly when it was at lower percentages but draining slower at higher percentages.
It slowly became more constant as I learnt to charge it when it was completely dead and unplug it only when it was full. (I bought an external battery pack USB charger to help with this)
I think this calls "memory effect" or?
Lithium batteries do not have memory effects anymore.
If the phone is new, try charging it completely and discharge it completely a few times. If it then still persists, the battery is probably not calibrated right.
The real size of a battery is not as stated on the cover 1900, but varies around it, depending on the manufacturing. Similar to CPUs, that get tested and then categorized for certain speeds.
So could be that you have a less optimal battery and therefore the calibration to 1900 as expected by the system is not right. So when you see 5% you are already much lower in reality.
I am new to Android, so I do not know if there are battery calibration tools out there, but I guess so.
Greetings
Christian
Solved my battery drain by updating google maps to latest version
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app
Nope, the system will just shut down at about 5% to prevent a deep discharge of the battery which is really bad for li-poly/li-ion batteries.
Hi.
Having my Note 2 for some time now I can understand that the phone is failing in some manner. Maybe someone can answer some questions I have. I had some problems with a failing battery that eventually became bloated and chucked it out. Bought a newer third party battery but It did not work right. After that I bought a original battery and it looks as original as I can see.
When my first original battery was failing I was getting wrong percentages and sudden voltage drops as expected with a damage battery that could not hold its charge anymore. With the third party battery I still could not get it right or just did not gave it enough time to settle in.
With my newest battery still get a sudden voltage drop but then it climbs up again when I read it with a software monitor. It charged as normal to 4.3mV (100%) and then a sudden drop to 3.7mV (70%) in those fifty minutes then it climbed up again to 4.2mV but the percentage gets stuck on 69% until the mV reaches the actual percentage.. I still get several days usage out of the phone until it needs a recharge so that is not a problem. I just like things to work as they should if it is possible. Googled around but the results I read mostly went into resetting the phone, back to factory setting or wiping several things. Already tried those things.
I was just wondering the following...
- Could this be a hardware malfunction..
- Should this eventually stabilize after several charges.
- Does the voltage drop indicate a bad cell.
- Has the battery lost its full capacity since it old stock.
Maybe someone has some insight or it is just as it is and I will just accept it.
Thanks.