Help Please sticky - htc incredible battery drain / signal problems

[Stockmoose16]

I'm re-posting this so it doesn't get lost in the other thread about battery drain. Would the moderator please sticky this note?

Many of you - like myself - have been having significant battery drain/signal issues on your Incredible. If you want to ever get the issue fix, read below:


I went to the VZW store today to swap out my phone because my battery would drain to 0% in a few hours with little or no use, but they didn't have any in-store to give me, nor did they have any new batteries. I told them that I thought the problem was the signal dropping in and out, and they acted like this was the first time they'd heard that. I went around to the various phones in the store and noticed that all the Incredibles were at -90 dbm, while the Droid Eris', for example, were at -70. It's clear there is some kind of signal problem here.

I called VZW customer service and they are sending me out a new phone, which I'm almost certain will NOT fix the problem, since this is either a phone-wide hardware problem or a software issue. When I called VZW, I asked how many people before me had called about this issue, and the agent told me they had "absolutely no reported issues with the Incredible yet." That, of course, makes no sense, since one peek at this board will tell you there is a signal and battery drain issue.

The agent then told me that Verizon needs three customer complaints on a particular issue before it is sent to the manufacturer. So, they've logged my serial number - and I'm the first. We need a bunch of other people to call VZW customer service and say: 1) the signal is weak/dropping out, toggling between 1x and 3g 2) The battery is dying far too quickly, possibly as a result of #1.

If nobody calls, the issue WILL NOT be sent to HTC, and thus will not get fixed. So everyone, please inundate VZW with phone calls and tell them the Incredible needs an update immediately.

 

[nopick]

I have been having major problems with dropped / noisy / unable to make calls. I just compared my signal strength to a co-workers incredible. Mine was ranging between -97 and -101 db and her's was -74 to -87. I had both phones in my hands. I called Verizon and they are going to swap me for a new phone.

 

[jwm2]

First of all how long have you had the phone? My eris and my incredible have the exact same signal strength from where i am sitting right now. I do NOT have any issues with signal in my area, but others experience may vary depending on their location. So its not a problem with all incredible handsets.

 

[kyler13]

I put my DI side-by-side with my BB Storm and get about the same signal within a dB or two. What I did notice is my DI is always 1 or no bars at home or work. Turns out about -80dB to Blackberry is worthy of 4 out of 5 bars. I was under a tower on the drive home yesterday and noticed I had full bars on my DI with a -53dB signal. I suppose signal strength is relative to each manufacturer but it would appear my reception is par for the course despite it looking like I barely have a signal most of the time.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Mine seems to work pretty fine for calls, very clear voice quality, very good data rates... battery also seems to be about 40% after heavy usage installing apps, browsing this site, and sending a few emails via Exchange.

 

[andrewzpsu]

The battery isn't messed up because of the signal. It is most likely messed up because your phone is stuck in wake lock.

Shut off your phone, turn it back on and don't touch it except to turn off the screen. Wait a couple minutes.

Go to Settings > About phone > Battery and check your awake time. It will equal your up-time and will stay that way until you do one of two things:

1) Put your phone into Airplane Mode and then turn it back into normal mode.

2) Open a task killer (I hate task killers) and kill ONE application that loaded on start up. Be it FM radio, foot prints, dialer). If you press an End All Widget, it doesn't stop the wakelock - oddly.

Once you do this and get the phone to start sleeping, you'll notice the battery life is superb. I'm going on two days right now with moderate usage.

 

[jwm2]

Also you may notice that when the phone is just idle it may say 1-2 bars, but then when you go to make a call it'll jump to 3-4 bars. Even in my basement where signal isn't very good at all i get 4 full bars when making a call and all calls are crystal clear. This is most likely due to it metering 1x digital voice vs 3g data when the phone is idle.

 

[seVer]

so you are getting another one shipped, but are confident that it won't fix the issue. way to waste time, money, gas for shipping, etc etc etc

also, just because 1000 people (just throwing a number out there) post on a message board about a problem, doesnt mean that a company is going to check those boards and go "oh, these people are complaining. maybe we should do something." it hasn't affected them yet, so your suggestion to call in is fine.... but people shouldn't expect much more than logging the complaint.

 

[jwm2]

The battery isn't messed up because of the signal. It is most likely messed up because your phone is stuck in wake lock.

Shut off your phone, turn it back on and don't touch it except to turn off the screen. Wait a couple minutes.

Go to Settings > About phone > Battery and check your awake time. It will equal your up-time and will stay that way until you do one of two things:

1) Put your phone into Airplane Mode and then turn it back into normal mode.

2) Open a task killer (I hate task killers) and kill ONE application that loaded on start up. Be it FM radio, foot prints, dialer). If you press an End All Widget, it doesn't stop the wakelock - oddly.

Once you do this and get the phone to start sleeping, you'll notice the battery life is superb. I'm going on two days right now with moderate usage.

Thats not nessissary. Just doing the airplane trick (putting it into airplane mode, waiting 20-30 seconds and then taking it out of airplane mode) will do what you need. The task killer step is not really doing anything for you.

 

[jwm2]

so you are getting another one shipped, but are confident that it won't fix the issue. way to waste time, money, gas for shipping, etc etc etc

also, just because 1000 people (just throwing a number out there) post on a message board about a problem, doesnt mean that a company is going to check those boards and go "oh, these people are complaining. maybe we should do something." it hasn't affected them yet, so your suggestion to call in is fine.... but people shouldn't expect much more than logging the complaint.

Also you have to figure that when someone DOES have a problem, where are they likely to come for help? A forum dedicated to that phone, which is exactly what this place is. Also when searching in google for an answer you'll come to links pointing to topics here, due to accellerated discussion about such topics in this forum.

 

[howarmat]

the "we have not heard any complaints" is a standard line they deliver no matter what

 

[AckMan]

My phone was fine yesterday but today the phone was stuck in wake mode. I had to play around with it (on, off, plane mode, gps on/off) just to get into sleep mode. This to me is a software problem.

 

[jeffparker1978]

I just did the airplane trick and Up time and Awake Time are still the same. I am sure there is an issue here, because when I look at what is killing my battery, it is the cell that is killing it.

 

[johnperkins21]

The battery isn't messed up because of the signal. It is most likely messed up because your phone is stuck in wake lock.

Shut off your phone, turn it back on and don't touch it except to turn off the screen. Wait a couple minutes.

Go to Settings > About phone > Battery and check your awake time. It will equal your up-time and will stay that way until you do one of two things:

1) Put your phone into Airplane Mode and then turn it back into normal mode.

2) Open a task killer (I hate task killers) and kill ONE application that loaded on start up. Be it FM radio, foot prints, dialer). If you press an End All Widget, it doesn't stop the wakelock - oddly.

Once you do this and get the phone to start sleeping, you'll notice the battery life is superb. I'm going on two days right now with moderate usage.

Thats not nessissary. Just doing the airplane trick (putting it into airplane mode, waiting 20-30 seconds and then taking it out of airplane mode) will do what you need. The task killer step is not really doing anything for you.

Neither of these worked for me. My problem was the Calendar process, and only the calendar process. Killing any other program did nothing to help, and neither did the airplane trick. Running a force stop (no task killer required, just go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications, find calendar and select Force Stop) on the calendar app fixed my issue. Calendar still works, I just had to kill it that one time, but I continue to monitor my awake vs. up times to make sure, and if it's out of whack, I force stop calendar again.

I'm now going on 34 hours since the last time my phone was charged, with fairly light usage, and I still have 30-40% battery (no real battery monitor right now), whereas before I couldn't go more than 18 before it died completely.

 

[kthomasrr]

Picked up my incredible on Sunday. Absolutely love this phone. Just a few quirks:

1) Signal bars hover between 0-3. Strength around -89 to -99 (no protective cover).
2) Battery life doesn't last a full day. Even with light use. And I've tried doing a few things this forum has suggested but no luck.
3) The biggest quirk for me: The incoming voice quality is poor. When someone is speaking to me, in the background, I can hear faint static, only when they speak (even when someone was using a land line). I can barely make out what they are saying and it never seems like I can hear them (even with the incoming call volume on high).

So, I've ordered an extended battery until VZ's 3500 comes out (I'll take my chances). But I am almost tempted to take the phone back to see if there is anything that can be done about the poor voice quality.

At this point, I'm at a loss as to whether the poor voice quality is isolated to my phone or it is a broad issue with incredibles'. If it's the latter, not sure I want to bother if I'm just going to experience this all over again.

This phone is almost perfect, for me.

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[johnperkins21]

2) Battery life doesn't last a full day. Even with light use. And I've tried doing a few things this forum has suggested but no luck.

Which things have you done? Have you programmed using *228 option 2? Are your up times and awake times virtually identical? Have you turned data always on off? Have you tried a factory reset?

I've heard that a factory reset has helped others with a similar audio issue, but the battery issue is something that likely needs more info to try and narrow down. I spent almost a week trying to figure mine out before realizing the culprit.

 

[nopick]

I have been having major problems with dropped / noisy / unable to make calls. I just compared my signal strength to a co-workers incredible. Mine was ranging between -97 and -101 db and her's was -74 to -87. I had both phones in my hands. I called Verizon and they are going to swap me for a new phone.

I have compared my signal strength to three other DIs and my signal is consistently 10dB worse than those phones. Verizon is sending me a new phone. My signal is running in the -90 to -100 range. Based on my poor call quality and dropped calls I have been having, I think there is a problem with the phone. A 6 dB drop is signal is a 50 percent loss.

 

[JETC]

....A 6 dB drop is signal is a 50 percent loss.

Nevermind, you are right. You are referring to signal loss which is a field quantity that refers to electric field and not general power. Ah...it's a long day when I start confusing these myself

 

[kthomasrr]

Which things have you done? Have you programmed using *228 option 2? Are your up times and awake times virtually identical? Have you turned data always on off? Have you tried a factory reset?

I've heard that a factory reset has helped others with a similar audio issue, but the battery issue is something that likely needs more info to try and narrow down. I spent almost a week trying to figure mine out before realizing the culprit.

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I've done all with the exception of the factory reset. Do you by chance know how to do that while retaining my customization?

 

[johnperkins21]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I've done all with the exception of the factory reset. Do you by chance know how to do that while retaining my customization?

I don't believe saving the customization is possible. I think you can use the Verizon Sync to backup your data, and your purchased apps are tied to your Google account, so you can re-load with no issues, but I don't believe you can backup your customizations. Sorry.

Though, I'd imagine if you go into a Verizon store, one of the first things they might do is a system reset anyway. May as well save yourself some time and try it on your own.

 

[jsborn]

I have already stopped in at Verizon to ask for help with the battery drain problem. They made a few suggestions such as turning off Bluetooth and the WiFi signals but it has not helped. I called HTC directly last night and the technician said they are getting a lot of calls on this problem. He had no suggestions at all but said they are looking into it. He logged my complaint with the serial number of my phone. I am hoping there will be a fix coming or I'll be going back to a Blackberry before my 30 day trial is up.

I'm re-posting this so it doesn't get lost in the other thread about battery drain. Would the moderator please sticky this note?

Many of you - like myself - have been having significant battery drain/signal issues on your Incredible. If you want to ever get the issue fix, read below:


I went to the VZW store today to swap out my phone because my battery would drain to 0% in a few hours with little or no use, but they didn't have any in-store to give me, nor did they have any new batteries. I told them that I thought the problem was the signal dropping in and out, and they acted like this was the first time they'd heard that. I went around to the various phones in the store and noticed that all the Incredibles were at -90 dbm, while the Droid Eris', for example, were at -70. It's clear there is some kind of signal problem here.

I called VZW customer service and they are sending me out a new phone, which I'm almost certain will NOT fix the problem, since this is either a phone-wide hardware problem or a software issue. When I called VZW, I asked how many people before me had called about this issue, and the agent told me they had "absolutely no reported issues with the Incredible yet." That, of course, makes no sense, since one peek at this board will tell you there is a signal and battery drain issue.

The agent then told me that Verizon needs three customer complaints on a particular issue before it is sent to the manufacturer. So, they've logged my serial number - and I'm the first. We need a bunch of other people to call VZW customer service and say: 1) the signal is weak/dropping out, toggling between 1x and 3g 2) The battery is dying far too quickly, possibly as a result of #1.

If nobody calls, the issue WILL NOT be sent to HTC, and thus will not get fixed. So everyone, please inundate VZW with phone calls and tell them the Incredible needs an update immediately.

 

[kthomasrr]

I don't believe saving the customization is possible. I think you can use the Verizon Sync to backup your data, and your purchased apps are tied to your Google account, so you can re-load with no issues, but I don't believe you can backup your customizations. Sorry.

Though, I'd imagine if you go into a Verizon store, one of the first things they might do is a system reset anyway. May as well save yourself some time and try it on your own.

Appreciate your help. Went to VZ last night and they experienced the same problem with the voice quality. I'll be getting a new phone tomorrow. They also mentioned a new software update coming out shortly to address some of the common issues people are experiencing.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[bryn987]

Really wish we had a list of exact settings to turn off/on to get the most out of our battery and phone.

I pulled my phone off the charger this morning at 100% full battery, surfed the net for 10 minutes while in bed, on wi-fi, and ended up at 89% battery.

I do get a full day out of my phone but does 1 minute of surfing really = 1% of battery?

 

[cdma]

You have to remember the just because you have good signal that if you do not have good Ec/Io (Energy/Interference) you may still have poor performance. A CDMA system is all based on Ec/Io not signal strength alone. As the interference increases the cell site will adjust to overpower the interference to your phone. Your phone will also have to transmit higher to overcome the same (more battery usage). So I could have a receive level at -50 but if my Ec/Io is over 20 you may not be able to make a call or you may drop a call. Bars on a phone is also an average over time not necessary what is sees right now. Conversely if I have a -95 and it is the only signal it sees your Ec/Io could be around a 5 which is better than the previous example in a CDMA network.

 

[nopick]

I did a hard reset and got the ota update. My phone is still seeing 10 db less than other DIs I have access to for comparison. A new phone will be here today and I will post if it is receiving better than my current phone.