Help WiFi and Phone Bars at the same time causing battery drain?

[jacksonista]

Sorry, did not mean to post in "all things root", how can I delete this post and post in the right place? thanks

I'm confused. When I had my GSII and I connected to a wifi network, the phone bars would disconnect because I was using WiFi.

With my new GSIII, the WiFi is connected, with a strong signal, and still I have phone bars showing and they vary depending on phone signal strength.

I'm having trouble with battery drain which I did not experience the first 2 1/2 weeks of owning the phone and I'm beginning to wonder if the fact the phone signal is on the same time as the WiFi could possibly be playing a part in it.

My old GSII would have me connected one way or the other, not both and I had simply amazing battery life on that phone prior to the ICS downgrade.


I have also noticed while at work, where we have a strong WiFi signal, my phone will constantly come up with roaming alerts. Why would it do this when I have WiFi with a strong signal? My old GSII did not do this, ever while I was at work. I am in a strong Sprint signal area while outside of work, but inside the signal is more 'iffy' which makes me glad I can connect using WiFi.

There just seems to be something to this. Shouldn't my cell signal turn off once connected to WiFi? Why would both be on?

 

[youdoofus]

Your computer all signal will be on all the time unless you're in airplane mode or something like that. The phone uses the cell towers to get texts and make/receive phone calls even while WiFi is on and connected. The signal strength is based upon the radios in your device and the prl you're on in conjunction with your proximity to the nearest towers (according to the prl that is) if you're rooted I saw a post on xda providing Al the sprint prls including the corporate ones. You might try flashing one of those to see what kind of signal you get then. Its draining your battery so quickly most likely because its constantly popping from transceiver to transceiver on whatever tower you're connecting to. You could also try turning off roaming but that might actually make it worse if your device is having a hard time staying connected to sprint service

 

[jacksonista]

Thanks for the reply. I thought I came up with my own solution by turning on airplane mode, which saved me tons of battery, however, you can't call, receive texts, etc.

So I knew this was not going to cut it. What I was certain about was that for the first 2.5 weeks, my battery life was awesome, so I knew it had to be a setting or app or something. I have been reading everywhere about cell standby, etc, and of course, mine was way up there with everyone else's and I thought 'there I go, stuck with a bad phone'.

Instead, I decided to reset to factory. I installed only a few must have apps and surprise, I still have 54% and my phone has been unplugged since 4:30AM and it's now 7:36PM, it's been on for 15 hours! It was on roaming all day too, I used it and I made a 30 minute phone call. This is the phone I remember! AND, cell standby is at 44%, and I still have over 1/2 of my battery life left. I bet if I leave it on all night, I will still have plenty in the morning.

I now realize that I installed something that was causing the problem and have decided that when I install something, I will wait at least a day to see what it does to my phone. If it's a hog, I will pull it off and that is that.

I am just so happy to have my phone back. Living from short charge to short charge is for the birds.