Battery problems, quirks and issues: Read first.

[gamepete64]

Hey guys and gals. I plan on buying a Moment despite all the problems it's said to have and appreciate the stuff you guys have done.

On a side note, would you guys recommend that I charge it to full as soon as I get it, before even using it?

 

[flyjbaker]

I've talked with a tech support from sprint and he told me something off the wall. He stated that the app that the droid OS uses pretty much puts the phone into over kill mode every time you use the app to text. He stated it would kick the processor into 100% usage when you sent a text that way. Of course higher processor strain equals more juice to suck. They suggest you use a 3rd party app in order to send and receive sms or mms. What do you guys think?

No, that is not off the wall. That was an issue with the HTC Hero(Sprint's other Android phone) and I honestly don't think that is an issue with this phone....although people have taken that advice just in case. Handcent seems to be the best/most popular one out there. I use it simply because I migrated from the Hero and got used to it and like it. DL Spare Parts to see if your phone is "sleeping" properly. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but I do not think the native text app on this phone has the same problem as the Hero.

 

[marcusb]

I did not notice any sleeping problem w/ the default app but use handcent now just because I like it better.

 

[acp]

I'm attempting the battery conditioning again today, 1st try was unsuccessful.

1. I let the battery drop all the way to the point it shut off the phone, I could still turn it on, but it would shut off automatically within 15 seconds.

2. I'm now charging the phone with the ac adapter

3. At about 90% I will top off with a USB charge (this may take several hours according to adrift)


few questions:

are these steps correct? can anyone provide an estimate of how long the ac charge needs to be (same question for the USB charge)? does the phone need to remain off during the charging? did you check the battery level periodically, or just go by the times I asked for above?

for those of you who were successful....did you condition the phone immediately after purchasing it? or, did you do it later on like myself?

I reallly want this to work because I'm only getting 2-3 good hours out of this phone before it goes into the 15% mode where things stop working. I turned off Weather.com and have GPS, Wireless and Roaming off when they are not needed. Also, my backlight is below 50%.

thanks in advance

 

[jackal424]

Yes this was the method used on this charge. Wall charged until it reached fully charged pulled from wall charger and it read 80%, so I put on USB until fully charged, took several hours.

Dude this is an important find. I think it'll help many out. You should convince the mods to make your explanation a sticky as a battery issue workaround. That way peeps dont have to dig through threads. Granted everyone will have different results, but this method seems to make sense and work for others.

I think it'd be unfair to not credit satinkzo as well. He also initially mentioned the complete discharge routine until it doesn't turn back on and you added the trickle charge.

 

[acp]

great find jackal. I remembered reading that, but I couldn't find it again. It answers most of my questions

 

[ed3165]

Whats funny about this is that most the time I pull my moment off wall charger it will read 100% and it will stay there just like I think it should kinda weird to me really.

 

[methoderik]

Dude this is an important find. I think it'll help many out. You should convince the mods to make your explanation a sticky as a battery issue workaround. That way peeps dont have to dig through threads. Granted everyone will have different results, but this method seems to make sense and work for others.

I think it'd be unfair to not credit satinkzo as well. He also initially mentioned the complete discharge routine until it doesn't turn back on and you added the trickle charge.

Not to rain on the parade, but I have had mixed results with the usb charge. I have had the meter drop to 80% within minutes of pulling it off the usb charge, just as with a wall charge.

 

[marcusb]

Not to rain on the parade, but I have had mixed results with the usb charge. I have had the meter drop to 80% within minutes of pulling it off the usb charge, just as with a wall charge.

I'm having the same results. I'm gonna see how long it stays charged today then kill it and condition again.

 

[CriticalCritic]

Not to rain on the parade, but I have had mixed results with the usb charge. I have had the meter drop to 80% within minutes of pulling it off the usb charge, just as with a wall charge.

I'm having the same results. I'm gonna see how long it stays charged today then kill it and condition again.

Are you both killing off the booted apps BEFORE you unplug?

When you let the battery drain to zero, then recharge/restart the phone, it boots a tons of apps with it. Thus, if you unplug the phone after the battery hits full charge without killing those apps, the phone makes a battery estimate based on everything running (and immediately drops to 80%).

From my own experience I have found that, as long as I remember to kill off all the boot apps before I unplug, it will not immediately drop to 80% and the 100% charge reading will last much longer.

 

[marcusb]

I have startup auditor and it prevents unnecissary apps from starting on boot

 

[satinkzo]

I've been pretty absent from this thread for a while, but I think it's time to update with my findings after trying the trickle method also. Additionally, I think it's worth noting that my phone battery life has been great and the meter is better yet not what I would call reliable.

Anyways, I have not done a complete drain of the battery for some time now. Just charging it up at night.
Battery drops to 90% usually within 30 minutes of coming off the charger. I attribute this to the meter only working in 10% increments until the very end. Odd since it obviously works in 5% and and even 3% increments as those who drain the battery have seen.

I have been leaving my GPS and WiFi enabled all the time, I have never turned them off in 2 weeks or so. No battery drain issues as I don't really have anything going on that requires them unless I call up Google maps etc. No widgets using location services. Also, I have wifi set to sleep when the screen turns off (advanced settings in the wifi screens).

I use my phone pretty normally, about 30-45 minutes talk time a day, Auto-Sync enabled. SMS alerts for emails in hotmail and such (I don't like the mail app). I probably surf the web for 60 minutes a day or so daily. Stream some pandora at work during lunch.

When I get home at the end of the day my phone has been off the charger for 10 hours or so, battery meter average read is 30%. When I put it on the charger at night (around 10pm), it's either at 30% or 15% still.
I did do the USB top-off method if I wake up at night for some reason, I'll go plug the phone into the computer and let it do that for 3-4 hours or whatever. It does seem to help.

One thing I noticed on the charger that samsung provides
Output 5v .7a
using other devices to charge, I see 1a outputs
Most computer USB ports are .5a

I have charged my phone on all 3, with no discernable difference in charge time, especially after it hits the 80% mark. No change in how fast the meter itself "discharges" either.

Anyone else play with other options other than the charger it came with and a computer USB port? I have a car charger, it's nothing special, but I cannot read the output any longer on it.

 

[acp]

fail #2

battery: 40%

up time: 1:55:20

I watched 1 youtube video, trolled through here for about 30 minutes and that's about it.

 

[ragingbull2k2]

I guess I'm still failing as well... just unplugged the charger, and saw it change from 100% to 90% as I unplugged it and it made the notification... and yes, I've "conditioned" the battery more times than I've wanted to... most of the time I can't help it, since the battery runs down before I can get to a charger...

Joey

 

[souljah335]

I think you guys should swap your moments and try again.

 

[ragingbull2k2]

not ready to give up just yet... it is getting better, lol... day before last was the first time I made it home from work without having the phone die on me... and that was with heavy use...

Joey

 

[Naldonnis]

I'm going to spring to hook up the phone to one of their diagnostic tools to test the battery to see if that's the problem. Wish me luck

 

[Deleted User]

I didn't even charge last night, just to see what would happen1. Took the phone off the charger yesterday at about 10 am, this was a USB-top off from an overnight charge. Made it rhgouh to last night with decent usage and got down to 50% before I went to bed. It hit 30% at about 6 am, then down to 15% at 7:30. I charged it in the car on the way to work and again at my desk via USB until full, came off the charger about noon and is only just down to 90% now (I'm in cali for time zone reference).

Long story short, I'm perfectly happy with my battery life. It seems if I have the phone just sleeping it lasts a long time. I leave my GPS on, WiFi off usually (even at home), and BT on. I have Moxier and Gmail on push and another e-mail on 30 min polling.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

I have to say I have done nothing special with the phone, and battery life for me is well over a day. I'm really happy with the phone.

I'm planning to buy an extra battery though for when I travel, so I can do a quick swap as needed.

 

[TangentReq]

I have to say that I have had some issues with the battery.

It seems to die very very fast. I have read about the cycling the battery a few times to get the meter working and have tried that. Maybe it is because I am playing around with it a lot, but today all I really did was surf a bit, get some text messages, no talking, a few turns in a turn based game, and thats about it. GPS off, BT off, Wifi off, good signal the whole time.

A few things i have noticed and i guess it comes from my android noobness.

1. Sprint navigation, and other apps seem to appear in the background tasts at random. There are a lot of things going on ithe back and I don't know what is using my battery, what I need, and what I don't need.

2. gmail/gtalk. Right now it seems it is being pushed to me very often, and people can msg me on gchat anytime they want. Is this really killing my battery? I don't see where I can turn this off of change how often it does it.

3. Moxier Mail: I never use this because I just have the gmail account, but it keeps appearing in the background.

Do opening the browers, and then letting it idel in the backhurt the battery?

 

[Naldonnis]

Do you possibly think that it's a defect on some of the phone? or maybe a firmware defect is the reason it's draining the battery? I'm looking at my signal and it's showing it constantly connecting to the internet to download something, but I just don't know what app is causing it to do that

 

[acp]

I have had 3 moments and each one has had a battery problem....all of them go to 15% within 2 hours, but trying to get them to die after 15% is nearly impossible lol

The defect is the battery meter and it triggers the phone to go into power save mode way to early. What pisses me off is I know the mthrfkrs at samsung knew this beforehand. Hopefully, they fix the problem with an update soon. This and the loose plastic on my phone is starting to irritate me, but regardless the Moment is still my phone of choice on Sprint

 

[Deleted User]

I am getting two days out of my phone with reasonable use. I think one of the problems is that people are downloading battery apps that tell % of battery left expecting the phone to show changes in small increments. Get rid of the battery widgets and you won't obsess on battery life. I used the battery app that told you the amount of time left, which gave me more confidence. With 15% left, it was telling me that I had 2 hours of use time and tens of hours of standby.

Antonio

 

[Stryf3]

The same as many here, the meter is clearly the problem. Although, I really don't care as long as the phone works, when it "thinks" it's below 15% and dims the screen, turns off the camera, and turns off the keyboard back light.

Compound this with the fact that it normally is doing this at night WHEN I NEED THE KEYBOARD BACK LIGHT!!

Super-Frustrating. Otherwise, I love the phone, if they could just release a patch to fix this ONE THING, I would be ecstatic with the phone overall.

 

[jayford00]

UPS systems typically use a Lead/Acid battery which has a completely different charge/discharge cycle than the Lithium-Ion battery in wireless phones.

I'll give ya that. but with every phone I've own in the last 9 years I was told to "condition" the battery. This was by the store associates and technicians alike.