Help Excessive Battery Drain (Even On Standby)

[gfurr24]

Anyone else experiencing horrible battery drain? I can barely get 10 hours out of my phone, even when I barely use the phone. I would have expected a 1500mah battery to perform better than this! I also notice that the phone will heat up while just sitting in my pocket. Never experienced this with any other Android phone before. Please comment and let me know if this is happening to you as well.

 

[TVCCS]

Anyone else experiencing horrible battery drain? I can barely get 10 hours out of my phone, even when I barely use the phone. I would have expected a 1500mah battery to perform better than this! I also notice that the phone will heat up while just sitting in my pocket. Never experienced this with any other Android phone before. Please comment and let me know if this is happening to you as well.

There are reports of shortish battery life, as well as others reporting battery life improves after the first several charging cycles. There are also people talking about making sure unused apps are turned off when not needed, especially Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

 

[OldPalmUser]

I'm having this problem! My dead phone is now recharging while I search for a fix. Thought it was something I'd left running since I'm a new Android user but I turned off virtually everything yesterday and same thing - the phone drains overnight!!

Really strange because I got fairly good battery life during the day while I was using the phone and still had 61% when I last checked at 11pm. Yet at 6am the phone is dead, same as the day before.

I'm going to check the time-without-signal and try the airplane mode but sure would like to find a solution. Great phone but to have the battery drop so quickly with no use isn't something I want to be dealing with.

 

[asadullah]

I think its the time without a signal that'd killing the battery.I've so far had my phone off the charger since six and haven't lost anything usually when I get home around six I've still got around sixty five to seventy percent but I always have a good signal.


My battery is at seventy five percent its four eleven

ok so its 843pm I just done playing radiant for about 45 minutes (yeah it's addicting ) my battery is at 35% So that's about 14 or so hours. I don't think that's too bad. Had data,satelite, and everything on. But (there's always a but) most of the battery use is from cell standby 62%

 

[SoftWyer]

Download a log viewer, like aLogCat or CatLog.

Have a look at the output. If you see lots of continual output from one application, then that may be the problem.

My partner had a similar battery drain issue and we found the cause to be an application that was setting an alarm notification every 5 seconds, thus not allowing the phone to go into a low power sleep mode.

 

[TVCCS]

Download a log viewer, like aLogCat or CatLog.

Have a look at the output. If you see lots of continual output from one application, then that may be the problem.

My partner had a similar battery drain issue and we found the cause to be an application that was setting an alarm notification every 5 seconds, thus not allowing the phone to go into a low power sleep mode.

Now there's a thought...I'll have to try that tonight.

 

[TVCCS]

Another idea that's being floated around is keeping the phone from hunting for 3G, which seems to be one of the leading causes of battery drains. There's a way to force the phone into 1x CDMA mode if desired, which is supposed to cut down a lot on battery issues. Of course, you also get 1x speeds. The changes are in the phones Network diagnostic menus, but a nice person has written a small free app to get at it quickly if desired. Available via the Market:

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.mangelow.network

 

[lpnalda]

If I install that will I still be able to stream audio? One of the main reasons I like this phone.

 

[TVCCS]

If I install that will I still be able to stream audio? One of the main reasons I like this phone.

All that little Network program does is provide an easy interface to switch the network's 3G signal on or off, which you can change at will in 5 seconds if you need 3G to have enough speed to handle your music stream. Other users are reporting they're getting up to 150k with a 1x signal, which is enough for them to stream...but it's all dependent on how good your signal is, 3G or 1x, wherever you happen to be.

I just ran a quick test on my phone...with 1x and 1-2 bars I was able to load Pandora and listen to it for a couple of minutes without issue. If your favorite stream is a 128k MPEG audio feed, however, you'd be more likely to run into buffering issues.

Try it...you're not going to hurt anything by doing so, and if it doesn't work, switch back to normal, and keep a charger handy.

 

[lpnalda]

If you get 10 you're lucky! I'm getting about 4.

Anyone else experiencing horrible battery drain? I can barely get 10 hours out of my phone, even when I barely use the phone. I would have expected a 1500mah battery to perform better than this! I also notice that the phone will heat up while just sitting in my pocket. Never experienced this with any other Android phone before. Please comment and let me know if this is happening to you as well.

 

[digitaljeannie]

If you're having a 50% "time without signal" issue (I noticed that I am), every time you reboot the phone, wait for everything to load, then put it in Airplane mode, then take it out of Airplane mode and you should then be able to check your battery stats and see the time without signal number slowly going down.
This is the same bug my old Eris used to have which astonishes me that this phone also has it but that's the workaround.

 

[Rezin]

Yeah, the batt is a quick drainer. My phone has been powered up (under moderate use) for 1:30ish, and I am already down to 85%

Only my fourth day with the phone, and only 3 charge cycles, so I'll update again in a week or so, see if it gets any better.

I have battery minder installed ATM, so I can see if that helps or hinders.

 

[TVCCS]

Another idea that's being floated around is keeping the phone from hunting for 3G, which seems to be one of the leading causes of battery drains. There's a way to force the phone into 1x CDMA mode if desired, which is supposed to cut down a lot on battery issues. Of course, you also get 1x speeds. The changes are in the phones Network diagnostic menus, but a nice person has written a small free app to get at it quickly if desired. Available via the Market:

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.mangelow.network

I ran that Network app and switched to 1x only , installed Juice Defender, and got rid of Live Wallpaper...and my overnight battery drain was only about 25% over 9 hours, which to me isn't that bad. I could be more aggressive as well, but I have chargers handy.

 

[lpnalda]

I'm going to get the above network app, but wanted to let everyone know yesterday while traveling, and no access to power, I drained my battery down to 10% in about 6 hrs. I then put the phone in airplane mode and got another 4 hrs. Out of it that way.

I ran that Network app and switched to 1x only , installed Juice Defender, and got rid of Live Wallpaper...and my overnight battery drain was only about 25% over 9 hours, which to me isn't that bad. I could be more aggressive as well, but I have chargers handy.

 

[Juancubo]

All that little Network program does is provide an easy interface to switch the network's 3G signal on or off, which you can change at will in 5 seconds if you need 3G to have enough speed to handle your music stream. Other users are reporting they're getting up to 150k with a 1x signal, which is enough for them to stream...but it's all dependent on how good your signal is, 3G or 1x, wherever you happen to be.

I just ran a quick test on my phone...with 1x and 1-2 bars I was able to load Pandora and listen to it for a couple of minutes without issue. If your favorite stream is a 128k MPEG audio feed, however, you'd be more likely to run into buffering issues.

Try it...you're not going to hurt anything by doing so, and if it doesn't work, switch back to normal, and keep a charger handy.

Hello!.
The network application just points to the network diagnostic screen (same *#*#4636#*#*). Do you get something different?. Which one you select, me defualt is CDMA auto (prl), which correspond to CDMA 1x.

Regards, JUAN

 

[TVCCS]

Hello!.
The network application just points to the network diagnostic screen (same *#*#4636#*#*). Do you get something different?. Which one you select, me defualt is CDMA auto (prl), which correspond to CDMA 1x.

Regards, JUAN

Yes...that's just a convenient shortcut to avoid all the keystrokes. Select "CDMA Only" to turn off 3G and use 1x.

 

[lpnalda]

Another idea that's being floated around is keeping the phone from hunting for 3G, which seems to be one of the leading causes of battery drains. There's a way to force the phone into 1x CDMA mode if desired, which is supposed to cut down a lot on battery issues. Of course, you also get 1x speeds. The changes are in the phones Network diagnostic menus, but a nice person has written a small free app to get at it quickly if desired. Available via the Market:

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.mangelow.network

Ok I got this app, just to try out CDMA only. Problem is when I put it back on "unknown" which is where it was when pulled up, my signal is only 2 bars, and it takes a whole minute just to load a page, and youtub won't even load saying there's a network error. I'm worried I hosed my phone with this!

 

[TVCCS]

Ok I got this app, just to try out CDMA only. Problem is when I put it back on "unknown" which is where it was when pulled up, my signal is only 2 bars, and it takes a whole minute just to load a page, and youtub won't even load saying there's a network error. I'm worried I hosed my phone with this!

Just set the phone back to CDMA Auto and reboot it if need be...that app can't break anything, it's just a shortcut to the phone's own menus.

 

[lpnalda]

Thanks so much! Back to normal.

 

[satguyjim]

Don't really need to install the app to fix the problem, just do the following:

"To fix the issue, dial *#*#4636#*#* and it will load the testing screen. You do not have to press call. Select phone information. The fix is to press Menu and then "Select radio band". The process will then force close. Go back to Phone info and select "CDMA only" and then select "CDMA auto (PRL)"

This fixed my phone and now overnight it loses just 1% of battery. Got the info here: Excessive Battery Drain (Even On Standby) - Page 3 - Android Forums

 

[Rezin]

Don't really need to install the app to fix the problem, just do the following:

"To fix the issue, dial *#*#4636#*#* and it will load the testing screen. You do not have to press call. Select phone information. The fix is to press Menu and then "Select radio band". The process will then force close. Go back to Phone info and select "CDMA only" and then select "CDMA auto (PRL)"

This fixed my phone and now overnight it loses just 1% of battery. Got the info here: Excessive Battery Drain (Even On Standby) - Page 3 - Android Forums

This works. 10 hours, with some phone use, still 59% batt. Much better than before.

 

[KentInPhilly]

I got the phone on Monday and have been having similar problems.

On Tuesday night, I let the phone charge all night and unplugged it about 7:30AM to head to work. On Wednesday, the phone was practically dead by lunch time.

At work, I have to leave my phone in a closed cabinet down the hall. I am speculating that being inside the cbainet leaves it with a weak signal and causing it to drain quickly. Last night I charged it up again (since it was dead again in less than 8 hours on Thursday) and played around with it for about 3 hours and still had about 90% battery life.

I'll have to look for this app to force CDMA mode and see if it helps.

I hope that's the problem.... I really like the phone, but I really can't deal with a phone that won't make it through the work day without a charge! This will by my first weekend with it, so we'll see how it fares being outside of an office building with a better signal for a couple of days.

 

[RocketFoot]

I'm getting about 2 days give or take on mine...but I have been constantly messing with it! I'll also gauge it over the weekend to see how it does.

Is there any bigger batteries available for the V yet?

 

[n9yty]

At work, I have to leave my phone in a closed cabinet down the hall. I am speculating that being inside the cbainet leaves it with a weak signal and causing it to drain quickly.

I'd put it in Airplane mode when you put it in the cabinet, it isn't doing you any good connected to the network when you can't get to it. I'd imagine that when you take it back out of Airplane mode it will catch up on voicemail/email/etc quickly.

I wish there was a better fix, a phone just sitting there not using any real CPU time, display time, etc., just simply should not be squeezing the life out of a battery. Mine does it even though I leave it sitting on a desk with at least two bars of strength and JuiceDefender running to supposedly limit mobile data time.

 

[jayleekay]

Today is only the second day I've had the phone. I had issues the first day. I had about 80% battery when I went to sleep. Woke up and the phone was completely dead. I had wifi on but the phone was in standby. Last night I charged the phone all night and so far so good today. I've been leaving the wifi off until I actually need it though.