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Almost ready to return this phone... FREAKIN' BATTERY ISSUES!!!!

I love the phone... I love the operating system... I love the Sense UI... I love the look and the feel of it.. but I freakin HATE the stupid battery issues.

The most frustrating thing, in my opinion, is the inconsistency... One day, I'll have decent battery life where it'll be noon and I'll still have more than 70% left with moderate use. On those days, the battery lasts me all day and unless I intentionally drain it when I get home, all the way through when I go to bed.

Other days (like today), the phone will be dead before I leave work. For example, this morning I took the phone off the charger at 7:10 a.m. (after charging all night), on my way out the door. It's now 8:07 a.m., I made one eight minute phone call and I'm down to 83%. That is absolute B.S.

I've read all the battery-related threads on all these forums so I know all the issues... My awake time is only 25%. I already downloaded Hancent SMS. I had been using Advanced Task Killer but uninstalled it when I read that that could cause problems. I have everything (except mobile network) turned off.

WTH?

I love this phone but I hate the fact that I have to babysit the thing all day and make sure that nothing is eating up my battery in case I actually need to make a phone call later in the day.

If a permanent solution that doesn't require me to constantly monitor awake time and all that B.S. isn't found soon, I'll be heading back to Verizon to get my money back.
 
I love the phone... I love the operating system... I love the Sense UI... I love the look and the feel of it.. but I freakin HATE the stupid battery issues.

The most frustrating thing, in my opinion, is the inconsistency... One day, I'll have decent battery life where it'll be noon and I'll still have more than 70% left with moderate use. On those days, the battery lasts me all day and unless I intentionally drain it when I get home, all the way through when I go to bed.

Other days (like today), the phone will be dead before I leave work. For example, this morning I took the phone off the charger at 7:10 a.m. (after charging all night), on my way out the door. It's now 8:07 a.m., I made one eight minute phone call and I'm down to 83%. That is absolute B.S.

I've read all the battery-related threads on all these forums so I know all the issues... My awake time is only 25%. I already downloaded Hancent SMS. I had been using Advanced Task Killer but uninstalled it when I read that that could cause problems. I have everything (except mobile network) turned off.

WTH?

I love this phone but I hate the fact that I have to babysit the thing all day and make sure that nothing is eating up my battery in case I actually need to make a phone call later in the day.

If a permanent solution that doesn't require me to constantly monitor awake time and all that B.S. isn't found soon, I'll be heading back to Verizon to get my money back.


Anyone monitoring the Droid forum? Is it any better?
 
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In case you have not done this yet, condition your battery by letting the phone run down to dead. Heck, I even turned it back on a few more times right after it died to wring out the last few electrons from the battery. Then I charge it overnight. I've heard/read that this should be done 3 times.

Also, when I normally charge my phone at night I usually turn it of first.
 
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I love the phone... I love the operating system... I love the Sense UI... I love the look and the feel of it.. but I freakin HATE the stupid battery issues.

The most frustrating thing, in my opinion, is the inconsistency... One day, I'll have decent battery life where it'll be noon and I'll still have more than 70% left with moderate use. On those days, the battery lasts me all day and unless I intentionally drain it when I get home, all the way through when I go to bed.

Other days (like today), the phone will be dead before I leave work. For example, this morning I took the phone off the charger at 7:10 a.m. (after charging all night), on my way out the door. It's now 8:07 a.m., I made one eight minute phone call and I'm down to 83%. That is absolute B.S.

I've read all the battery-related threads on all these forums so I know all the issues... My awake time is only 25%. I already downloaded Hancent SMS. I had been using Advanced Task Killer but uninstalled it when I read that that could cause problems. I have everything (except mobile network) turned off.

WTH?

I love this phone but I hate the fact that I have to babysit the thing all day and make sure that nothing is eating up my battery in case I actually need to make a phone call later in the day.

If a permanent solution that doesn't require me to constantly monitor awake time and all that B.S. isn't found soon, I'll be heading back to Verizon to get my money back.

I am with you 100% on this. I have tried everything under the sun to keep the battery at a sustainable level. I have did every tip, trick out there. It is no fun being scared to use the phone because of the battery. I really love it, but I really am getting sick of it. Maybe the Droid is a better answer!!
 
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Those last few %`s are long!!!
its fast to get there but once its there it takes forever to die!
also, according to the PDF released by verizon, the updates coming dec. 11th should fix alot of the issue that effect the battery
im holding out :)
well...im still within my 30 days so if the passion comes out at a nice price i will be returning this for that! :)
 
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I'm trying to play a .wav file that was emailed to me and I get a message saying its not supported. (HTC Verizon Eris) Verizon and HTC say it should play wav files but no help. Does anyone else have the same problem.

I posted this in another thread on this site and it's no longer there. I'm not sure if someone moved it or deleted it. If there is a particular thread that I should post this in I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!
 
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Although it goes against everything I believe to be true of lithium-ion batteries, I did run the thing dead the last two nights. And, both nights the phone was off while charging.

I just plugged it in at work and it went to 100%... I took it off the charger and literally within 20 minutes, I'm at 91%. It's not the awake time either because that's only at 54%.

Maybe my battery is bad, IDK. I'm definitely loosing the love for this phone though.



Edit: The reason I say that draining the battery goes against everything I know about lithium-ion batteries is because from what I understand, lithium-ion batteries do not have cell "memory" like the old nickel-cadnium and nickel-metalhydried (sp?) batteries. From what I understand, the only issue with lithium-ion batteries is you have to maek sure they don't fall below a critical voltage becuase if they do, the cells will never recover. I know this from flying battery powered R/C helicopters where you land before you start loosing too much power to protect your batteries. At this point though, I'm willing to try anything...
 
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Anyone monitoring the Droid forum? Is it any better?

I have a Droid and watch those forums as well. From personal use and those threads, battery life doesn't seem to be even half the problem that you all are having with the Eris.

I am considering returning my Droid for the Eris (because of other reasons) but this battery issue has me very concerned, and may prevent me from doing so.
 
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I have a Droid and watch those forums as well. From personal use and those threads, battery life doesn't seem to be even half the problem that you all are having with the Eris.

I am considering returning my Droid for the Eris (because of other reasons) but this battery issue has me very concerned, and may prevent me from doing so.

It seems to me that the the standard Eris battery (when everything is working properly) gives reasonable battery life. I have been able to get to noon from 6:00 a.m. with more than 70% remaining with moderate to heavy use.

The problem is, nothing ever seems to work properly so the battery never lasts. I've had the phone for about a week and I've only had two days where the battery lasted me until I got home in the evening. I think the phone has a bunch of different issues so that even if you fix one, there could be others causing problems.

The bottom line is, the battery doesn't usually last very long. Even after all the "fixes" and programs to attempt to solve the issues, issues remain. I've tried basically every conceivable combination of settings, programs, etc. and still my battery is being depleted when I'm not even using it. I don't know what is causing it to drain so quickly but I know that I can't own a phone that I have to babysit every day to make sure the battery isn't being drained.
 
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Oh, I should add something productive as well. Uhm, yeah, I've noticed the battery reporting seems to be a bit "quirky"... Meaning, sometimes I'll have the phone locked and doing nothing for an hour and I wake it up and have lost 3-5% battery life... and other times I can be using it with texts and facebook and this and that and it not show any battery life loss. I dunno if that has something to do with how the battery reports, or what... but kinda kinda weird. Overall though my battery life has been great.
 
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Oh, I should add something productive as well. Uhm, yeah, I've noticed the battery reporting seems to be a bit "quirky"... Meaning, sometimes I'll have the phone locked and doing nothing for an hour and I wake it up and have lost 3-5% battery life... and other times I can be using it with texts and facebook and this and that and it not show any battery life loss. I dunno if that has something to do with how the battery reports, or what... but kinda kinda weird. Overall though my battery life has been great.

FROM HERE

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/19584-some-interesting-battery-usage-care-info.html

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops/cellphones/etc) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely. [/FONT]

might help, if not, turn off your mobile connection ;)
 
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One thing I've noticed is that it doesn't seem to matter whether my phone is on and being used or off... the battery seems to deplete at the same rate. Kind of weird. I might go back to Verizon and try to get a new battery.

Also, something I've noticed is that there appear to be two types of battery issues: (1) issues that prevent the phone from sleeping, and (2) issues that don't prevent the phone from sleeping but somehow, still drain the battery while in sleep mode.

I think a lot of the reason why fixes seem to work well for some and not others is that the fix is only good for that particular type of problem. Like the Handcent SMS fix will help if your phone suffers from the first problem, but probably not if it has the second kind of problem.

Oh well, my saga continues.
 
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I've been following all the battery threads too, and have had some success in extending my battery life. Up to yesterday, I was only getting about 2-4 hours out of the battery, but after following all the steps in these forums (except turning off the mobile network), I got it to last from 6am until 2:30 before it petered out. To me, that's just not acceptable. It has to at least get me through the work day. I was an iPhone user, so I'm used to living with a battery charger everywhere, but I used the iPhone a lot more than I do the Eris. With mild usage I'm only making it to 2:30. I really like this phone, but something has to be done about this.

I have 2 questions. Can someone explain to me what happens when you turn off mobile network? Do you still get notifications when email or SMS messages come in?

And 2, I read in one of the threads that the Imagio battery fits in the Eris shell, and that there might be a 1700 or so battery that would fit as well. Does anyone know how to find larger batteries for this unit?

Thanks.
 
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I've been following all the battery threads too, and have had some success in extending my battery life. Up to yesterday, I was only getting about 2-4 hours out of the battery, but after following all the steps in these forums (except turning off the mobile network), I got it to last from 6am until 2:30 before it petered out. To me, that's just not acceptable. It has to at least get me through the work day. I was an iPhone user, so I'm used to living with a battery charger everywhere, but I used the iPhone a lot more than I do the Eris. With mild usage I'm only making it to 2:30. I really like this phone, but something has to be done about this.

I have 2 questions. Can someone explain to me what happens when you turn off mobile network? Do you still get notifications when email or SMS messages come in?

And 2, I read in one of the threads that the Imagio battery fits in the Eris shell, and that there might be a 1700 or so battery that would fit as well. Does anyone know how to find larger batteries for this unit?

Thanks.

seidioonline.com sells larger batteries but they claim they are not compatible with the Droid Eris. Someone on another forum (I think android central) said they ordered the 1750 battery and they should have it Friday and will report back results. I worry about putting a larger battery in there....not sure of the implications.

Turning off mobile network turns your phone into a dumbphone. Phone and text message only. Turning it off works well for me as this phone is purely for pleasure and I sit at a desk in front of a cpu most of the day so I dont need it. I turn it off for hours at a time and the battery meter doesn't move.

today I have listened and downloaded some music, added a few contacts, made a few calls, and played with it a bit and at 2:42 pm I am at 56%. Like I said earlier I think the Battery gauge is a bit in accurate. I think there is more left then it says.
 
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I've been playing around a lot with this as well. Things I've done on my phone that seem to help me include:

1. Limiting the number of desktop widgets. I use the weather clock, favorite people, google search, and calendar widgets and that's it.

2. My phone spends the majority of the day and night in areas where I have wireless access so I've turned the option for wireless to sleep when the screen goes off completely off. Now instead of trying to get data off the 3G when I'm at work or home it just gets it off wireless. I went from around 25-30% awake time to 8% wake time with this one change and my battery life went from about 6-7 hours (dead) to around 16 hours with over 50% left.

3. I use ATK and I only kill apps that I've started up. Regardless of what I've seen on these forums I know that when the memory starts getting down around 10-20k the phone starts lagging. Killing off the apps I'm not using that I have clicked on and started (not the ones the phone auto starts) gets me back up to 40-50k free and the phone is completely lag free again. I never leave ATK running, it's one of the apps I have it kill as well :)

4. I've replaced the messaging app with handcent. It is a lot better.

5. when I'm not in a wifi area I turn wifi off.

for me this has made the battery last well over a day with pretty good amount of usage. Probably about an hour or so of talk time a day, many text messages, and lots of demos for people :)

Hopefully when the update comes out I won't have to do some of these things anymore but this is what I've been doing to work around the battery issues I had.
 
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Here's another observation:

I've read some negative things about a certain task manager/killer app that I think gets confused with Automatic Task Killer. I think it's called Advanced Task Manager or something like that. Anyway, I think that program may cause issues with the phone going into sleep mode and I think people confuse it with Advanced Task Killer.

I installed Advanced Task Killer on my phone the second day and noticed a huge improvement in battery performance. I then uninstalled it because I read that it could cause issues and my battery went into the shitter.

I reinstalled it and my battery has seemed to improve. It's now about 4:00 p.m. and I'm at 65%. That's not bad considering at 10:30 a.m. I was at 91% and the phone had only been off the charger for 20 minutes.

So my conclusion is that some program was running even when the phone was in sleep mode and draining the battery. I'm assuming that with the Advanced Task Killer installed, the program now gets terminated each time the phone sleeps.
 
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I think that was some of my problem as well, I'm using Advanced Task Killer not automatic. The automatic one was killing processes it shouldn't have and actually causing features to stop functioning for me. Advanced Task Killer has been the best one I've found. TasKiller also caused me some issues but not as bad as automatic task killer.

My phone has been off the charger since about 8am this morning and I've currently got 82% battery according to Spare Parts.
 
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I did the same thing, installed ATK, read the reviews, uninstalled it. But I am trying it again and wow at least it tells me all the crap that is running. And boy once I killed things, the bad lag I was getting went away. I am going to test it for a day. I don't see how it can cause anything negative since it can kill itself and isn't running in the background. Am I correct that this has to be all manual? It can't kill everything (besides ignore list) when the phone is put to sleep??
 
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