Help After updating to Froyo, my battery charges to slowly for GPS.

[captainm27]

Before Froyo, I was able to charge my phone in my car and use the GPS. Now, with Froyo, my phone charges way too slowly. Infact, my phone actually DISCHARGES while uses the Navigation when plugged in!! I have two questions:

1. Is Froyo designed to slow charge the phone?

2. If so, it makes my GPS setup defective. How do I revert back from 2.2. to 2.1?

Thanks.

Daniel

 

[necosino]

Most likely it's reading it as USB now. Go to menu -> about phone -> battery and it should say Charging(AC or USB) If it says USB, and you are 100% absolutely, positively, cannot be wrong that it was charging at 1A before, unplug your phone and plug it back in and it should switch back to Charging (AC). I've actually noticed this on my home wall charger a couple times, too.

(It's Friday of a 3-day weekend and FFXIV open beta just came out so please excuse the goofiness )

 

[zemerick]

Make sure you have your phone set to not drain too much power besides the GPS. Screen brightness down as far as you can, not a ton of stuff syncing in the background, no apps eating everything up, etc.

The jury is still out on whether or not Froyo has changed the charge rate.

Also, do you really use your GPS enough that it would be a real issue ( IE: You actually kill your phone. I would imagine it is draining pretty slowly, you don't need to have 100% charge at the end of the day...you just need to make it TO the end. ) <Note> I am just asking, because I don't know what your actual usage and needs are. The more info you provide the better.

(It's Friday of a 3-day weekend and FFXIV open beta just came out so please excuse the goofiness )

Pbbt...nobody cares about FFXIV, SWTOR is at PAX! Me want that!

 

[captainm27]

Most likely it's reading it as USB now. Go to menu -> about phone -> battery and it should say Charging(AC or USB) If it says USB, and you are 100% absolutely, positively, cannot be wrong that it was charging at 1A before, unplug your phone and plug it back in and it should switch back to Charging (AC). I've actually noticed this on my home wall charger a couple times, too.

(It's Friday of a 3-day weekend and FFXIV open beta just came out so please excuse the goofiness )

Thanks for the tip, Necosino. I just checked this in my car and home charger, and both say AC, but it still still charges slowly, almost like it's doing a USB charge.

 

[captainm27]

Make sure you have your phone set to not drain too much power besides the GPS. Screen brightness down as far as you can, not a ton of stuff syncing in the background, no apps eating everything up, etc.

The jury is still out on whether or not Froyo has changed the charge rate.

Also, do you really use your GPS enough that it would be a real issue ( IE: You actually kill your phone. I would imagine it is draining pretty slowly, you don't need to have 100% charge at the end of the day...you just need to make it TO the end. ) <Note> I am just asking, because I don't know what your actual usage and needs are. The more info you provide the better.



Pbbt...nobody cares about FFXIV, SWTOR is at PAX! Me want that!

It's definitely Froyo, because I used the GPS two days before I got the Froyo OTA (And also ever since I got the phone), and I NEVER had a charge issue at all. I just used my GPS today and lost 4% on a 25 minute drive with the Navigation on, and nothing else running.

Here's an example of why I would need the device to charge: I went to take a trip back in July and used the Navigation with no problem. I used the phone alot during my trip there, and by the time was I getting ready to leave, I was down to 20%. Of course, that was no problem before, cause I knew the phone would charge. But now, since it's discharging, it makes my GPS useless for me.

 

[zemerick]

It's definitely Froyo, because I used the GPS two days before I got the Froyo OTA (And also ever since I got the phone), and I NEVER had a charge issue at all. I just used my GPS today and lost 4% on a 25 minute drive with the Navigation on, and nothing else running.

Here's an example of why I would need the device to charge: I went to take a trip back in July and used the Navigation with no problem. I used the phone alot during my trip there, and by the time was I getting ready to leave, I was down to 20%. Of course, that was no problem before, cause I knew the phone would charge. But now, since it's discharging, it makes my GPS useless for me.

What I meant by "The jury is still out on whether or not Froyo has changed the charge rate." was that it is possible the charge rate did not change, but instead your phone is drawing more power than before. Net result is the same ( less power to charge with ) but 2 very different possible sources, especially since the second one can be adjusted. Try to decrease power consumption using any of the battery saving tips you can.

Also, when you have a sizable distance to travel on a road and have several hours you don't really need the GPS, you could completely power the phone off which will let it charge faster than normal. Then, just turn it on as you are within about half an hour of where you next need the GPS.

 

[captainm27]

What I meant by "The jury is still out on whether or not Froyo has changed the charge rate." was that it is possible the charge rate did not change, but instead your phone is drawing more power than before. Net result is the same ( less power to charge with ) but 2 very different possible sources, especially since the second one can be adjusted. Try to decrease power consumption using any of the battery saving tips you can.

Also, when you have a sizable distance to travel on a road and have several hours you don't really need the GPS, you could completely power the phone off which will let it charge faster than normal. Then, just turn it on as you are within about half an hour of where you next need the GPS.

Doing some research on this on google, it seems that Froyo is setting the CPU processor to run too high. It seems like it never allows it to idle to the point that 2.1 had it, thus drawing more power all the time. I guess that's one reason why Froyo is "faster" on apps and such. But it's seriously a bummer for me. There are times where I travel in city areas, not the really long stretches of road, where I'll want to have the device connected all the time.

Basically, I am losing a function because of this update. If it was working great before, and now not anymore, it just seems like a losing situation to me.

 

[dgold82]

I noticed the same thing today. My battery discharged slowly when I was using Pandora and gps. That never happened before froyo

 

[captainm27]

I noticed the same thing today. My battery discharged slowly when I was using Pandora and gps. That never happened before froyo

Exactly! This is terrible news for me. I used to feel like my phone would never die, because I would always charge it in between trips. But now, this slow charge is really making me consider replacing my phone with the original 2.1 and rooting it to something else that is not 2.2.

Hmm....I wonder how I would explain this to Verizon if I should decide to go to a store? If I can prove my case (phone discharges even when plugged in), do you think they will allow me a swap? And if they do, most likely they'll give me a refurb

 

[zemerick]

Doing some research on this on google, it seems that Froyo is setting the CPU processor to run too high. It seems like it never allows it to idle to the point that 2.1 had it, thus drawing more power all the time. I guess that's one reason why Froyo is "faster" on apps and such. But it's seriously a bummer for me. There are times where I travel in city areas, not the really long stretches of road, where I'll want to have the device connected all the time.

Basically, I am losing a function because of this update. If it was working great before, and now not anymore, it just seems like a losing situation to me.

I do NOT see this. I've seen other people claim it...and 100% of the time they just had an app misbehaving. That app is what was causing the CPU to run faster than normal, not Froyo. ( The speed increase in Froyo comes from optimizations in the code to use less CPU time, and the JIT compiler which can cause a HUGE decrease in the CPU usage of everything. So, Froyo isn't running the CPU faster, it makes everything use the CPU less. )

You can try loading up System Panel Lite and looking at your CPU Clock speed. It will vary a lot, and it will not reach minimum speed while you are looking at it ( since you have to have both Android System and System Panel running to look at it. ), but you will probably see it dipping down around 400-500 mhz, and up to 800 mhz while looking at it. In this screen, the bar to the left of the various apps can show how much CPU they are using ( you will notice almost everything uses none. City ID, my verizon, etc. ignore those. ) People handles all of your contacts and is therefore used by basically everything so it is normal for it to be using a bit of CPU. Obviously System panel will be using quite a bit at the time as well. Besides these you shouldn't really see anything with even a sliver of CPU usage unless you have something actively running in the background.

Also, don't just take 1 look at it. Open and close it a few times, looking for a minute or so each time. If you catch it during updates, or anything, you might not see it go below 700mhz. It happens.

NOTE: With navigation and pdanet running I was seeing mostly 700-830. So you can check with navigation running, and if you see like 950 or 1000 then something might be wrong there.

 

[dillion3384]

I am having similar issues, after OTA 2.2 update crazy slow charging on car charger, is somewhat faster when plugged into the wall. Sometimes on both the wall and the car it will reach a point and the charge will not increase or decrease with nothing running and sync disabled. After a while on the wall charger it will out of nowhere jump up 30%.

The real bummer is when I take it off the charger the battery life drops like crazy, I mean 10% in 5 mins, literally.

 

[captainm27]

You are correct Zemerick. Doing some more googleing reveals that those who used apps to slow down their CPU speed are still experiencing the slow charging issue. So it's not the CPU, and in my case, not apps or anything. Literally, I have not installed anything since 2 days ago when I used it, and since I got the OTA yesterday. Zemerick, did you get the 2.2. update? And if so, have you tried running the navigation and charging? Does your battery % go down?

 

[captainm27]

I am having similar issues, after OTA 2.2 update crazy slow charging on car charger, is somewhat faster when plugged into the wall. Sometimes on both the wall and the car it will reach a point and the charge will not increase or decrease with nothing running and sync disabled. After a while on the wall charger it will out of nowhere jump up 30%.

The real bummer is when I take it off the charger the battery life drops like crazy, I mean 10% in 5 mins, literally.

I did notice a slight increase at the rate in which the battery drops, but only so slightly. See, when I was considering the Droid Incredible, I knew that going to a smartphone (previous phone was an Env3), I was going to do alot of charging. That's fine by me. But now that the charging is hampered, I feel like my phone is not as Incredible anymore.

 

[dillion3384]

I am having similar issues, after OTA 2.2 update crazy slow charging on car charger, is somewhat faster when plugged into the wall. Sometimes on both the wall and the car it will reach a point and the charge will not increase or decrease with nothing running and sync disabled. After a while on the wall charger it will out of nowhere jump up 30%.

The real bummer is when I take it off the charger the battery life drops like crazy, I mean 10% in 5 mins, literally.

Update: now plugged into the wall and it went from 39% to 96% in 1:00hr. Going to take off and see what happens.

I have a crazy huge extended battery wonder if that is part of the problem?

 

[captainm27]

Update: now plugged into the wall and it went from 39% to 96% in 1:00hr. Going to take off and see what happens.

I have a crazy huge extended battery wonder if that is part of the problem?

Was your phone on or off when you were charging it?

 

[dgold82]

I spoke with a verizon csr and reported a couple bugs I have been experiencing with Froyo (including this one) and they never heard of any of them. Told me to do a battery pull etc. Don't even know why I bother to call them anymore...

Btw, Pandora was real choppy and skippy for the first time too while I was driving with the gps. That never happened before either and I haven't changed our downloaded anything since my ota.

 

[captainm27]

I spoke with a verizon csr and reported a couple bugs I have been experiencing with Froyo (including this one) and they never heard of any of them. Told me to do a battery pull etc. Don't even know why I bother to call them anymore...

Btw, Pandora was real choppy and skippy for the first time too while I was driving with the gps. That never happened before either and I haven't changed our downloaded anything since my ota.

I was thinking about calling Verizon tech support, but then I thought "why bother?" Unless they get a million phone calls of the same issue, they won't do anything. I think it's still too early, not many people yet trying out their GPS Navigation and charging.

 

[Mahalo]

[KERNEL] [2.6.32.15] [HAVS] [BFS] [OC] [UV] KiNgxKernel #2/#3 "Charge it Up"

That helped me somewhat when I was running Froyo. The BFS1 was also very stable and I had no problems with GPS on long road trips with either. (7-8 hours at a time with GPS running all of the time.)

I'm back on stock 2.1 for now, though... I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled on the forums to see if anything looks promising enough to get back to 2.2. (Like a bunch of new fancy ROMs!)

 

[zemerick]

You are correct Zemerick. Doing some more googleing reveals that those who used apps to slow down their CPU speed are still experiencing the slow charging issue. So it's not the CPU, and in my case, not apps or anything. Literally, I have not installed anything since 2 days ago when I used it, and since I got the OTA yesterday. Zemerick, did you get the 2.2. update? And if so, have you tried running the navigation and charging? Does your battery % go down?

No I have not, I'll go ahead and start it now and monitor it for awhile...though I have to be connected through USB not full charge as my phone is my only internet ATM ( using PDAnet ). Course, if it does NOT drain my battery, then we know that much more that something is specifically wrong with yours.

I did the RUU, so I have a clean factory reset copy of 2.2. Only thing I backed up and restored was contacts, redownloaded all apps by hand.

I spoke with a verizon csr and reported a couple bugs I have been experiencing with Froyo (including this one) and they never heard of any of them. Told me to do a battery pull etc. Don't even know why I bother to call them anymore...

Btw, Pandora was real choppy and skippy for the first time too while I was driving with the gps. That never happened before either and I haven't changed our downloaded anything since my ota.

Hmm, yea it shouldn't do that. I'm browsing the internet, using Navigation and have Pandora playing all off my phone using PDAnet...and Pandora is clear running high quality. You may need to consider a factory reset. ( Fixes most all performance issues. )

 

[captainm27]

[KERNEL] [2.6.32.15] [HAVS] [BFS] [OC] [UV] KiNgxKernel #2/#3 "Charge it Up"

That helped me somewhat when I was running Froyo. The BFS1 was also very stable and I had no problems with GPS on long road trips with either. (7-8 hours at a time with GPS running all of the time.)

I'm back on stock 2.1 for now, though... I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled on the forums to see if anything looks promising enough to get back to 2.2. (Like a bunch of new fancy ROMs!)

I'm a total noob: The link that you provide, is that a custom ROM that one needs root access or is it like a patch that you apply it?

 

[zemerick]

I'm a total noob: The link that you provide, is that a custom ROM that one needs root access or is it like a patch that you apply it?

It is a custom kernel ( kernel being the core part of an OS that interacts with the hardware/cpu/etc. )...yes, you need root for that.

 

[zemerick]

....I'll go ahead and start it now and monitor it for awhile...though I have to be connected through USB not full charge as my phone is my only internet ATM ( using PDAnet ). Course, if it does NOT drain my battery, then we know that much more that something is specifically wrong with yours....

OK, after an hour and a half with navigation open, GPS running, and PDAnet streaming internet to my PC ( with my PC running pandora and browsing these forums )... all connected over USB not full charge, and I stayed 100% battery. Naturally, after connecting I got the normal quick drop to 90% ( to be expected since the phone was on and using significant power, preventing the battery from charging beyond 90% )

So...something on your phone is eating more power than it should be.

 

[SteveCA]

I used the gps for 25 minutes today plugged into my 12v charger which only puts out .5amp. I did this on purpose to see if it would charge/maintain charge or drain. My battery stayed at 74% the whole time so it neither charged or discharged. I have a 2 hour drive tonight so I'm going to use the 1 amp port (Belkin dual 12v charger) with the GPS and see what happens.

Separately, on the topic of slow charging, I stumbled upon something very interesting: My phone charges very slowly if I plug in the charger while the phone is on, but if I turn it off for a minute with the charger plugged in and then turn my phone back on, the charge rate reverts to what we experienced under 2.1 which will fully charge the battery from 20% in about 1.5 to 2 hours. Much better than the 10-15% per hour I was experiencing after updating to 2.2.

 

[captainm27]

OK, after an hour and a half with navigation open, GPS running, and PDAnet streaming internet to my PC ( with my PC running pandora and browsing these forums )... all connected over USB not full charge, and I stayed 100% battery. Naturally, after connecting I got the normal quick drop to 90% ( to be expected since the phone was on and using significant power, preventing the battery from charging beyond 90% )

So...something on your phone is eating more power than it should be.

I'm going to try a hard reset. This should eliminate anything causing this issue. I just hate the fact that everything was working perfectly until this update. That's my biggest gripe. With a hard reset, I'm going to try the GPS Navigation and let you know what happens.

 

[Ovy]

I always charge in the wall, and while I never use the GPS while it's plugged into the wall, I have noticed my phone charges a lot slower now.