Help android system killing battery

[drake3]

Hi All,

Just upgraded from a Droid Incredible (1st gen) to a Stratosphere. I have had the Stratosphere for a week now. The incredible was supposed to be a phone pretty weak on battery life, but I am not a heavy user for voice, e-mail, sms, etc. So I could get 24 hours plus on the old incredible before it shutdown.

The Stratosphere, however, is down to 25-15% battery life after 10 hours of uptime. This is with very similar pattern of usage that I was doing with the incredible.

The android system is taking up the most battery, usually from 35% all the way up to 50% depending on the day. The display is usually next with around 20 to 10% on average. Everything else is under that in the single digits.

I have the same two gmail and one exchange account syncing. I do leave bluetooth on (which I did on the DINC). I keep standalone GPS off and my screen timeout is 1 minute. I only installed about 20 applications, "run of the mill" stuff like weather channel, pandora, amazon, nothing special - generally the same apps that I had on the DINC with the exception of Skype. I cannot tell what is eating up the battery. I turned off most syncing except for the push mail and calendar. Oh, I am also in a 4G area with 4-5 bars in my office and house. Also, I removed the verizon data use widget and accuweather widget to see if those were the culprits. No luck.

Almost forgot, I keep wi-fi completely off too. I only turn it on when I am at home and need it to connect to the network. (Samsung remote control app for Samsung TV or remote desktop or connectbot)

Would an app like system panel give me more detailed battery use information?

Past this I think the next step is to factory reset and keep a track of what changes I make.

Any other ideas on tracking down the battery hog?

Thanks!

 

[p_025]

The 4G LTE chip is very likely your culprit. I'd suggest grabbing an app like JuiceDefender which can disable the data connection when you're not using it, and enable it periodically on a schedule so apps can still sync. It's the only way I can get any kind of respectable life from my aging Moto Devour.

I lurk a lot in this forum because the Stratosphere is going to be my upgrade in about a month. Not a moment too soon, too.

 

[drake3]

If the 4G radio is drawing a lot wouldn't the cell standby take up more on the battery usage page? Or does it just count the downtime and not the transmit and receive times?

I can turn off the LTE mode in the wireless networks settings and goto CDMA only. Maybe that will only let it go to 3G and I could diagnose that way.

 

[p_025]

True, you could turn off 4G in the phone settings, but then you won't get Verizon's top-tier LTE speeds. If you don't mind slower internet browsing and downloads, then by all means try CDMA only. Even for a CDMA phone, though, a battery manager app like JuiceDefender can help a lot.

I have found that Android's battery usage meters in the About Phone settings don't tell you a lot. Generally speaking, the data radios in the phone and/or apps using data in the background are the main battery drainers when the screen is turned off.

 

[drake3]

I would try the juice defender program, but as a network admin I need push e-mail so I get alerts from the data center, servers, etc. It defeats the purpose of the unit for me.

It sucks that this phone eats up so much battery because I really like the phone. The guy who sits next to me in my grad class heard me complain that my phone died tonight from the battery. He asked me if it was 4G because his Bionic had just died too.

 

[p_025]

I would try the juice defender program, but as a network admin I need push e-mail so I get alerts from the data center, servers, etc. It defeats the purpose of the unit for me.

Not necessarily. Like I said, JuiceDefender can be set to automatically enable data on a schedule, and it can be scheduled as frequently as every five minutes on the "Ultimate" paid version (I think 15 minutes might be minimum time span on free version).

 

[drake3]

Well, I believe you are correct in the 4G radio being the culprit. I have done a factory reset, not install any apps, removed several of the default widgets and still can only get about 12 hours before the phone dies with light use.

I am not liking the juice defender solution, so what I will try next is to set the radio to 3G for a whole day and see what happens. There are widgets out there that will change that setting or I will write my own.

 

[KnightCrusader]

The Stratosphere, however, is down to 25-15% battery life after 10 hours of uptime. This is with very similar pattern of usage that I was doing with the incredible.

You are getting better battery life than I am and I am ecstatic that I can get a full day out of a charge.

If you had the power-thirsty monster called a Thunderbolt before, you'd completely understand why this phone does very well with its battery life. Hell, that thing went through a whole battery in a few hours.... I had to buy at least 4 spares.

 

[p_025]

Don't know what else you can do, if you don't mind getting CDMA-only speeds then go ahead and disable LTE.

Also: Extended Battery (3000mA) | Samsung Mobile

 

[seanmsulli]

I get good battery life on mine as long as I turn off the GPS in the pull down menuwhen not using it. Substantially better. Making site I am not using a live wall paper gets a little more for me as well.

 

[drake3]

Don't know what else you can do, if you don't mind getting CDMA-only speeds then go ahead and disable LTE.

Also: Extended Battery (3000mA) | Samsung Mobile

Well - I switched to 3G the entire day yesterday. It was working well. I switched back to 4G twice to check to see how long it takes to sync up to the network on demand. It was under 10 seconds, maybe a little faster before data started to come through. That would have been completely acceptable to me to use 3G to save battery and go 4G on demand when I wanted, except that my battery life was WORSE at the end of the day on 3G. Again, Android system was the top battery drainer.

I saw that extended battery. I am really interested in it. I would buy it now, except I carry the phone on a Seidio belt holster (like the IT nerd I am). And the Seidio case that allows me to use my holster does not have an extended battery version, arrghhh!

I will try to e-mail Seidio to inquire about an extended battery shell.

 

[drake3]

I get good battery life on mine as long as I turn off the GPS in the pull down menuwhen not using it. Substantially better. Making site I am not using a live wall paper gets a little more for me as well.

My standalone GPS is off. The only location service I have checked is Google. My wi-fi is completely off all day. I do keep the bluetooth on because it links up with my car only for phone calls. Bluetooth is at the bottom of the battery drain list everyday. I can use it for audio over BT, but that does kill battery, even on my old Incredible. Especially when I used Amazon's cloud MP3 player. So I would not even think about that on this phone.

What % of battery do you have left at the end of the day and what is your top drain?

 

[Shadowalpha]

a newbie here to droid phones.

been trying to find the setting to switch back & forth from 3G to 4G?
I went to settings > wireless & networks but don't see anything that specifies to disable or enable LTE

Thank you!

 

[HankHill]

Once inside Wireless & Networks scroll down to "Mobile Networks" and then choose "System Selection" - that will let you choose. Lots of buried goodies in the menus - easy to get lost!