Eris Battery Life and Meter Theory

[dequardo]

Since it's acknowledged that the signal meter is flaky (many times reverting to 0 dBm) is it not possible that much more power is exerted during these times and thereby causing excess drain? I know HTC/VZW refers to it as an 'UI issue' but....

Thoughts?

Mike

 

[OfTheDamned]

I'm kinda wondering if it isn't more like the battery meter is flaky too. Some people have talked about the battery staying on 3% for a few hours, but it will drop from 100% to 90% in under 30 minutes. I'm wondering if this thing isn't running like a car on empty and you may be able to get a couple more miles out of it before it really dies.

 

[OldSmoky]

I'm kinda wondering if it isn't more like the battery meter is flaky too. Some people have talked about the battery staying on 3% for a few hours, but it will drop from 100% to 90% in under 30 minutes. I'm wondering if this thing isn't running like a car on empty and you may be able to get a couple more miles out of it before it really dies.

This is exactly what is happening to me, but this is the first I've read about it happening to others. Mine drops 14% in the first hour in the morning.

 

[OfTheDamned]

This is exactly what is happening to me, but this is the first I've read about it happening to others. Mine drops 14% in the first hour in the morning.

Have you tried letting the phone go until it dies? I am curious about how long people are able to stay at 3 to 5%. I think that some people are going red and slapping on the charger without finding out how long the battery will really last. For some, not all, I think that they could be squeezing another few hours out of their battery and not knowing it.

 

[ryanc2]

Mine was doing this (and still does) as well. I've let mine die until it shuts off for the previous 3 nights and put a full 12 hour charge on it. Today was the best day of battery life I have had. Previously, I would be at the 10% charger screen after about 7 hours. Today I have used as much as previous days and after 13 hours I've only dropped 4 bars.

I also changed the backlight off auto and set the brightness to around 11%.

 

[OldSmoky]

Have you tried letting the phone go until it dies? I am curious about how long people are able to stay at 3 to 5%. I think that some people are going red and slapping on the charger without finding out how long the battery will really last. For some, not all, I think that they could be squeezing another few hours out of their battery and not knowing it.

I just did this for the first time and will post back after a few days on the result.

 

[Caddyman]

it is recommended for electronics with lithium battery and battery meters to let the battery totally drain and fully refill once every 3 months to calibrate the meter to the battery

 

[dequardo]

My thread's gotten a bit off track. My concern is the flaky SIGNAL meter (aside from the battery meter) is CAUSING a larger battery drain.

Comments on that?

 

[OldSmoky]

My thread's gotten a bit off track. My concern is the flaky SIGNAL meter (aside from the battery meter) is CAUSING a larger battery drain.

Comments on that?

I would be inclined to think the meter is giving false readings and the battery drain especially when it starts from fully charged is erroneous. I doubt if the meter itself could cause that kind of drain.

My phone was at 10% last night, and I wanted to fully drain it before charging. I called it from my land line and left the call open and it took 1.5 hours to fully drain and shut off.

 

[mandable]

My battery got down to 3% and I wanted to kill it completely so I turned on WiFi, BT, Always on Mobile (everything basically), I surfed the web for about 20 minutes, made a couple 5 minute calls, and watched You Tube videos for about 15 minutes. I was actually getting frustrated that the battery wouldn't die! After I finished watching the You Tube videos, I just let it sit and about 20 minutes later my phone finally shut down. So I guess that I got over an hour of use from 3%.

IMO, the battery meter is a bigger problem than the battery life.

 

[jeffyo]

I'm pretty confident that many issues will he resolved with the OTA. It seems the hero on sprint is seeing some improvements. Give it a few weeks. My only suggestion to those frustrated.

 

[canrunin]

I'm kinda wondering if it isn't more like the battery meter is flaky too. Some people have talked about the battery staying on 3% for a few hours, but it will drop from 100% to 90% in under 30 minutes. I'm wondering if this thing isn't running like a car on empty and you may be able to get a couple more miles out of it before it really dies.

the meter is not accurate i turned the phone on after pull off the charger.ate a bowl of cereal and my battery went down one notch. but last night i tried for two hours to run it down and shut off before i charged it and at midnight i gave up and went to bed i had the orange bar on the battery level when i shut it off.

 

[NefariousAryq]

Okay, after an incident I had yesterday I am now more convinced than every that the "reporting" of the battery level is a bit flaky as others have suggested might be the case.

While working out yesterday, I realized I had not turned on my e-mail notification audible alert. I leave it silent most of the time unless I am out and about and need to know when a new e-mail has come in. Anyway, I was listening to a podcast via Listen, and popped into Gmail to turn on the alert tone. Long story short, something goofed up and I was no longer getting any audio out of Listen. Music played in the music app, youtube had audio, etc ... just not Listen. So I decided to reboot.

Just BEFORE the reboot, battery reported a 50% charge.
Immediately AFTER the reboot, the battery reported a 55% charge.

As others have noticed, sometimes my charge "drops" from 100% to 90% relatively quickly and then much slower the rest of the day... and last night I decided to see how long it took to go from 10% to DEAD. It took FOREVER, much longer than it took to drop from 20% to 10%. So, yeah. I really don't think the Eris battery life is really as bad as it seems... its just that the "reporting" of the battery life is rather inaccurate.

Just my .02...

 

[mss12]

My battery got down to 3% and I wanted to kill it completely so I turned on WiFi, BT, Always on Mobile (everything basically), I surfed the web for about 20 minutes, made a couple 5 minute calls, and watched You Tube videos for about 15 minutes. I was actually getting frustrated that the battery wouldn't die! After I finished watching the You Tube videos, I just let it sit and about 20 minutes later my phone finally shut down. So I guess that I got over an hour of use from 3%.

IMO, the battery meter is a bigger problem than the battery life.

What battery meter? I dont see any meter that comes with the phone, only a battery widget from the market,