Root Curiosity: Why did activation increase power consumption?

[DrHow0]

Believe it or not, I am a newby when it comes to mobile phones. (I have had an Android tablet for over 3 years.)

I recently acquired a 2 or 3 year old HTC Evo 4G. Before activating it, I played around with it using wi-fi. I discovered that, if I put it Airplane Mode with wi-fi and Bluetooth off, the power consumption in Standby mode was very low. I would estimate that it would have continued on a single charge for at least 10 days.

Then I activated it on the Sprint network (using extraordinarily inexpensive service from RingPlus). 3G and 4G are disabled. To my surprise, even in Airplane Mode with wi-fi and Bluetooth off, the power consumption in Standby mode increased substantially. Now it won't even last 3 days. I am wondering why.

If I had to guess, I would imagine that it is now listening, using the receiver even though, in Airplane Mode, it must not use the transmitter or answer a call. But why would it do that?

If anyone can offer some insight, I would appreciate it. Obviously this is just to satisfy my curiosity. I can live with it this way. (I'll just power it down instead of leaving it in Standby mode. I don't plan on using it much.)

 

[EarlyMon]

Evo - one of the best phones ever - but - you did have to baby it some to get battery life.

Ideally, yes, everything goes dead in airplane mode.

But - the Evo came with a lot of bloatware and liked to talked to Sprint and tell all about itself - all of the time.

So, airplane mode is helping by turning off the radios - but - it's not helping the nonsense processes from waking up and trying to get out on the network - failing - going to sleep, waking up... lather, rinse, repeat. And it seems clear that activation started all of that up for you.

If it gets to be a problem, do what we all did - root and remove the bloatware.

But if you're happy, it ain't broke so don't fix it.

Welcome to the forums, congrats on your new Evo!

Here's a little fun from our release days - and man did I have to track this down!

 

[Mikestony]

**fun fact**--See that hand beckoning the Sprint employee to "gimme gimme gimme"? Yeah, that was EM's hand lol

Ah the Evo 4g..still got mine. Don't ever think I'll part with it.

And if you do decide to root it, head on over the root forum for the Evo:
http://androidforums.com/forums/evo-4g-all-things-root.218/

It's still alive somewhat and monitored by a few of us

 

[EarlyMon]

**fun fact**--See that hand beckoning the Sprint employee to "gimme gimme gimme"? Yeah, that was EM's hand lol

LOL - actually, when the phone was in high demand and while I was constantly warned to get on the waiting list - I didn't bother until a day or two before release.

The store employees were pissed as poked hornets that I had the audacity to say I'd be happy to take one in two days (our expected date from the forum megathreads) - and yeah - I did that on purpose.

June 4th, I just got home, they called - they had one left, had started down the list, no answers, so went to the bottom - me.

And I thought about it and I thought about watching TV so I said I'd come in in a few days.

And an hour before they closed on the 6th, it was still there.

I had great Evo karma.

Sorry you had to wait Mike. Man, that must have sucked. I feel bad for you and everything.

Spoiler

 

[DrHow0]

If it gets to be a problem, do what we all did - root and remove the bloatware.

I have already rooted it. It still has the standard ROM. Can you point me to a list of the bloatware I need to remove? (Note that I am not buying service from Sprint directly anyway.) I do see an amazingly long list of apps the function of which I cannot fathom. But I can't start deleting them willy nilly because some may actually matter.

I was impressed by the number of responses my little curiosity query elicited. Thanks.

 

[EarlyMon]

Jeez - it's been years since I debloated my Evo. I did it by hand and very much the hard way - tracking down every app lol.

Mike and ocnbrze can probably give you the most current advice, mine would be to use a rom that's already debloated.

Here's the thread from our Evo All Things Root forum -

http://androidforums.com/threads/the-list-utilities-apps-roms-kernels-for-the-og-evo.618281/

Check that out, ask there if Mike doesn't have better ideas here.

Hope this helps.

 

[DrHow0]

Mike and ocnbrze can probably give you the most current advice, mine would be to use a rom that's already debloated.

I kept browsing around.

I found a list: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=769528&page=1

However, I think I like the advice about a debloated ROM better. What looks best to me at this point is CM7.2, unless someone has a good reason to warn me off of that one. (CM9-supersonic looked promising; but I could not figure out what happened to it. It just seemed to have fizzled out somewhere along the way; but I never found anyone lamenting its passing either.)

 

[Mikestony]

I'll tell you what, (highly recommended rom) try Decks reloaded. CM based, small memory footprint and just plain awesome.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1661605

If you need help, you can always ask here.
As a matter of fact, I just may move this thread into the root forum for the Evo4G. (if that is ok by you )

 

[EarlyMon]

The Evo had a lot of resources for its day but you can only fit in so much - and Gingerbread (aka CM 7) brings a lot to the table.

I think that the best debloated Sense rom was the CleanROM by scrosler http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1351890 but unfortunately, he's retired the download.

Lots of advantages going with your CM 7.2 plan imo.

Ninja'd by Mike lol!

 

[Mikestony]

The Evo had a lot of resources for its day but you can only fit in so much - and Gingerbread (aka CM 7) brings a lot to the table.

I think that the best debloated Sense rom was the CleanROM by scrosler http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1351890 but unfortunately, he's retired the download.

Lots of advantages going with your CM 7.2 plan imo.

Ninja'd by Mike lol!

Holy Crap! CleanRom?!?!? Amazing I missed that one! I ran CleanRom on my S3. Had I known about it back then, I would have tried it. Nice find! Too bad it's retired. I'd have given it a whirl

 

[EarlyMon]

Holy Crap! CleanRom?!?!? Amazing I missed that one! I ran CleanRom on my S3. Had I known about it back then, I would have tried it. Nice find! Too bad it's retired. I'd have given it a whirl

Yeah, Scott was and still is The Man!

 

[DrHow0]

I just may move this thread into the root forum for the Evo4G. (if that is ok by you )

No problem.