Help Alarm and battery drain...

[DroidRick]

I just started using the alarm feature for the first time last night.
I set the alarm for 9:45 am and then went to sleep at 12:30 am with my SGS at approx. 95% battery life.

I always have it set to 'Flight mode'.

Today I awoke and there was 1% battery life left!

I never had any battery issues before (3 months use).
I always get very good battery performance.

Does alarm = battery drain galore?

If not, what can be the problem?
TIA

 

[goyal.sanchit]

Alarm is not a battery drain galore. When you check your battery usage under settings-> About phone what does it show? Which app or part of the phone is taking maximum battery? I am guessing some app is not letting your phone sleep resulting in wake usage and thus draining the battery.

 

[DroidRick]

Alarm is not a battery drain galore. When you check your battery usage under settings-> About phone what does it show? Which app or part of the phone is taking maximum battery? I am guessing some app is not letting your phone sleep resulting in wake usage and thus draining the battery.

I guess I probably should have checked this immediately after the battery was drained this morning.
I just checked now (this evening) and here are the results:
Display 90%
Cell standby 5%
Phone idle 2%
Android system 2%
Swype 2%

When I checked in the past the display has always been the greatest consumer of battery power.

Any ideas what could be the problem here?

 

[ekyle]

I've noticed on my Droid X that if you check #*#*INFO#*#* and look under sensor the alarm never lets go of the sensor... I have to FC it every morning. It's really annoying.

 

[DroidRick]

I just checked now (this morning, after setting the alarm again last night) and here are the new results:

Phone idle 85%
Display 15%

Go figure!
Now the alarm doesn't seem to be affecting battery use at all.
Battery went from 99% to 94% overnight.
BTW, what is phone idle?
As I mentioned my phone is in Flight mode almost all the time.
Is my phone idling when it is in Flight mode?

 

[ekyle]

I just checked now (this morning, after setting the alarm again last night) and here are the new results:

Phone idle 85%
Display 15%

Go figure!
Now the alarm doesn't seem to be affecting battery use at all.
Battery went from 99% to 94% overnight.
BTW, what is phone idle?
As I mentioned my phone is in Flight mode almost all the time.
Is my phone idling when it is in Flight mode?

I think that is just when you aren't using it and the screen is off.

 

[goyal.sanchit]

There are 2 things- Phone standby and Phone idle.

I guess when you keep the phone in flight mode phone standby doesnt consume any battery but phone idle still consumes battery.

Phone idle is I guess various android processes which keep running while the phone is on.

 

[DroidRick]

...I guess when you keep the phone in flight mode phone standby doesnt consume any battery but phone idle still consumes battery.

Phone idle is I guess various android processes which keep running while the phone is on.

Thanks ekyle and goyal for the info!

 

[DroidRick]

Today's results slightly different, but no more battery drain!
Went from 95% to 92%

Battery use: (covers and extra 1.5 hrs. before going to sleep)
Phone idle 63%
Display 34%
Android 2%

 

[ekyle]

I didn't want to spend more time on a stock app so I downloaded a different alarm from the Market and removed the stock app lol

 

[DroidRick]

Well since I returned home from my trip last week my SGS battery performance has gone south again and I haven't a clue why.

I charge her up at night at close to 100% and have my alarm set, that's it.
Last night I used it a bit before retiring. I went to bed at 80%.
Woke up after the alarm went off and it was at 40% !!!
WTF?

 

[goyal.sanchit]

Again the same questions-

1.) What %age break up do you get when you check what thing used how much of battery?

2.) You may want to check if some app is preventing the phone from sleeping and thus causing partial wake usage?

 

[DroidRick]

Again the same questions-

1.) What %age break up do you get when you check what thing used how much of battery?

2.) You may want to check if some app is preventing the phone from sleeping and thus causing partial wake usage?

Thanks Goyal. You were spot on (though I found the problem before I read your post).

Lesson learned! Background tasks/apps DO MATTER!
I read threads where people were saying "Oh, don't worry about killing those background apps/tasks etc. they do no harm, etc.".

I looked at what was using up the battery last night before retiring and I saw a bunch of crap there.
I stopped the processes/apps, set my alarm and went to bed at 90%.

Today I woke up with a reading of 87%.
Now that's more like it!

 

[holgalee]

Hope the OP won't mind my riding on this thread now that the issue has been resolved: what's the best app for checking battery or system use? TIA.

 

[DroidRick]

Hope the OP won't mind my riding on this thread now that the issue has been resolved: what's the best app for checking battery or system use? TIA.

That's probably a loaded or Catch-22 type of question.
Probably the best way to check is to simply go into Settings/About Phone/Battery Use.

If you use an app to do this you will be draining the battery with that app, all day long, creating a vicious circle.

 

[ekyle]

Killing an app isn't a solution. For now, since I'm rooted, I removed the .apk for the alarm and am using Alarm Clock Plus. Seems to fair a bit better with battery life. If I need to kill an app with a task killer then it is poorly coded and I remove it.

Another way to check battery that is a bit more detailed is opening up the dialer and entering *#*#info#*#* then going into battery history.

 

[holgalee]

Killing an app isn't a solution. For now, since I'm rooted, I removed the .apk for the alarm and am using Alarm Clock Plus. Seems to fair a bit better with battery life. If I need to kill an app with a task killer then it is poorly coded and I remove it.

Another way to check battery that is a bit more detailed is opening up the dialer and entering *#*#info#*#* then going into battery history.

Thanks, DroidRick and ekyle!

Ok, don't laugh now, but must my phone be rooted before I can do this *#*#info#*#* magic? I've installed WatchDog but don't really now how to decipher all the numbers.

 

[ekyle]

No root needed for that.

 

[holgalee]

Thanks, but keying in all that into the dialer made my phone hang for quite a while and I had to restart. Is it suppose to take a long while before I'm able to check my battery status?

 

[ekyle]

mine brings up the menu instantly. the spare parts app does the same thing. not sure how well it work with 2.2