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Help droid x signal -87dBm. is low signal causing my battery to drain faster?

my droid x signal pretty much always between -92dBm and -87dBm with 1-3 3g bars. My former droid eris would get -92dBm with 1 bar and also drain incredibly fast.

On the droid x, if I go into google maps, the circle of the cell tower appears and the place I live at is half way within the edge of the circle and the other half is outside of the circle. I always seem to be connected to this tower. Bad luck I guess that I'm on the outskirts of the circle.

Does anyone know how cell towers are distributed? Do they overlap sometimes?

I run pandora with the screen off for a half hour with the screen off and my battery is down to 70%. I have about 15% screen brightness and battery saving mode on.

yesterday, I was on meebo for an hour and 45 minutes and it was down to 60% from a full charge.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.
 
If your phone has to struggle for a signal, then it is going to drain the battery faster. I would turn off anything running in the background you do not need.

Your signal seems pretty good, so I do not think it is a tower issue. You're getting a better signal than with the Eris. Motorola has always been good with their antenna design....**cough apple cough***. Their batteries usually suck but so far, the X is good.

Just shut off anything running in the background you do not need. Example: wifi if you're not in an area where you connect to wifi.The fact the device is searching for wifi connections will drain it faster.

My biggest disappointment with the X has been the memory card failing today. But, I logged into my account at vzw and with the employee discount, I could not pass up getting the 32 gig card.

Lemme know if you have any more problems. I think you just need to optimize your device.
 
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hm. yeah I got ATK, I only use it when absolutely necessary though.

I keep wifi, bluetooth, gps, off all the time. I also have google autosync off.

I'm not sure what else I can do. I got the screen brightness slider down almost all the way.

I could start during background data or mobile network off, but the point of having a smartphone is to use the 3g (mobile network) and background data needs to be enabled for the market. hm

Pandora is probably pretty demanding on the battery.
 
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Could be pandora.

Do me a favor and make sure it is charged fully, go through a day and report back what your battery usage is. At that point, I can make a better determination. And yes, I used to work as a data tech support rep so you are getting the same advice you would by calling in. Also, I am better than most reps, so you'll get better service ;)
 
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It's probably not actually draining that fast. I had the same problem. I'm pretty sure its a SW problem that should be fixed in the next OTA update, rumored for tomorrow the 19th. Try this: wait till your battery gets dow to roughly 30%. Turn your phone off and give it a few seconds and start it back up. I dunno why this is doing it but mine jumped from 40 to 70
 
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Yeah, is -87 really that bad? I normally have somewhere around that, and I think I have pretty good signal.

I think -87 dBm is pretty par for the course... That's about what I typicaly have at home and at work...plus or minus 3, of course.

My reception, signal, calling has always been pretty good with this for my Eris and the X does seem to have a better antenna.
 
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can any one help me, i have my droid x, i notice that when i'm on wifi the battery last long like about 8-10 hrs with moderate use, gps off, bluetooth off, but when i'm using 3G the battery drains fast 5x quicker than on wifi, this is so frustrating... can anyone help me why is this happening?

What do your signal levels look like?
 
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Having issues with my battery as well...Had the X since saturday...I send around 20-30 texts, no web browsing, check my tweetdeck updates and make sure my apps are up to date during the day...I unplugged around 7am yesturday morning and by 9pm I was at 30%...

Here is some info I grabbed off the phone to help...

-Signal is -93dbm
-Phone Idle 32%
-Cell standby 25%
-Display 15%
-Android System 9%

and I have the battery setting as "nighttime saver mode"

Any help would be appreciated!
 
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My signal ranges from -90 to -95. Never seen it drop below 90. When my internet connection drops out and I get a 404 Error, I have quickly gone to settings to check the signal strength and the two somehow don't seem to be related? Am I missing something? If my internet connection is lost, wouldn't the signal be real low? This is getting off the original topic of battery drainage, but the thread reminded me to ask about this.
 
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