Help Please help with battery issues.

[dyno_detour]

Just received my HTC Desire from US Cell last Saturday. I love this and what it can do. Most of the weekend I was around my charger so this wasn't wasn't an issue.

Today, I go to work. (Delivery Driver) 7am unplug from charger and its full. The phone is on stand by until 11am when I quickly check the weather. Noticed the battery was at 75%. I check my facebook and some other things quickly around 2pm and it was at 50%. WHAT??? So, I return from the route around 6pm and I get the message "please plug in etc"

Wow, I checked my phone 3 times and I have a dead batt?

So, I checked the battery status:

96% Android
2% Stand-by
2% live wall paper.

I wasn't running any other programs and the GPS was turned off.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Ryan

 

[erachilla]

I know it does take some time to "train" your battery... I.E. charge it all the way up and run it all the way dead for a while as much as you can and the battery will improve when it is broken in... as far as the android system using 96% of your battery that sounds waaaaay wrong... on a day like that most of your use should be standby and idle... I would make sure your phone has been rebooted since you got it otherwise... if this keeps happening... I might call tech support...
or drop by the store...

Sorry I couldn't give you a better answer... I hope this gets resolved for you!!!

 

[Durtydawg]

I am starting to think it is the OS, I have a Tilt that came stock with windows. I played games on it at lunch surfed the web did spread sheets etc. battery would last 2 days.

Decide to try android so flashed it to my tilt would barley use it and could not get a day out of the battery, Ok well Android not made for that phone so chalk it up to hacked system.

Droid still interest me so buy the Aria, guess what if I use the phone much at all lucky to get a day out of it. I have background services disabled run task killer every morning before leaving and kill all task including task killer and still barely get a day out of it.

Talk to a guy at work who just got his droid and he has the same issue, I forget which phone but I know its a Verizon branded HTC.



Another person hears us talking and says she has the EVO and same issue she even took hers to the sprint store and had them check that she had everything stopped she could possibly stop without interfering with the phone portion working and they verified she did.


I know very little about the system but for me this will be a deal breaker unless they fix the issue I didnt buy a phone to leave at my desk on charge all day so I can use it on the way home.

 

[slippknot]

android at 96%..??

thats a bit way too high, i think..

something is sure to be going on in the background, thus the battery drain.
mine is normally at 47% or 46%

 

[Griff_LI]

You need to find the app that's keeping running. On the phone dialer type *#*#4636#*#* which pulls the Testing app up (you can also download an app call Spare Parts which gives slightly easier access to this information.

Look at the Battery History and select Partial Wake Usage. There really shouldn't be any big bars in there (it's pretty-much the list of apps that are doing stuff in the background). Whichever one(s) are at the top of the list are dodgy (feel free to post the list here someone will tell you which are bad and which aren't).

Once you have this sorted you'll get a whole better experience from your phone.

 

[DaveY62100]

Battery life will get better after a few cycles, but there are a few things you can do to help:
I had the same problem. First thing I did was turn off live wallpaper, bluetooth, Wi-Fi, turn screen brightness down, increased all the update, sync and refresh times. Use an App / Task killer everytime I send the phone to sleep. Then I conditioned the battery by a set charging procedure. See post on the forum to do this. I started with 10 hours and now have over 20 hours with 'adverage' use. Install JuicePlotter from Android market it gives battery time left estimates and charging times, Lookout for steep falls in the graph! Always use a car charging lead in the car if using the Navigator Sat Nav. Good luck.

 

[Griff_LI]

Task killers are massively contentious. I'd say most people on here would advise against their use. There's a very good article here. If you still think you need a task-killer after reading it you probably need to read it again.

My advice, DO NOT INSTALL A TASK KILLER, but that's just me.

 

[USCellularHTCDesire]

Ok guys here is my two sense…
I got the HTC Desire for US Cellular a week ago. I noticed how bad the battery was the first weekend. I had to take my charger to the bars I went to! I switched from the iPhone to the desire and I thought I could finally leave my charger at home… anyways, I searched the forums for a while and finally figured some stuff out.
1) The screen kills the battery. Set it to a standard black background (a few are preloaded on the phone for USCC)
2) The weather, email, facebook, and most apps update more frequently than needed. I had 3 email accounts updating every 5 minutes during the day. KILLED my battery. And why have the weather update when you’re not even looking at the phone?
3) Check to see what apps are running in the background (I have read that the app killer sucks, so I won’t even download it). I went to “menu – settings – applications – manage applications”, then forced stopped all the ones I don’t use (such as myspace, footprints, friend stream, etc).
4) I set my dimmer on the desire from a minute to 30 seconds
5) Have the wifi turn off after 15 minutes of no use (WIFI is a huge battery killer. Some people just turn it on when in use, and then turn it off right away). Go to: menu – settings – wireless and networks – wifi settings – menu – advanced – wifi sleep policy.
I did all this on the night of Monday the 6th , and I didn’t really noticed a difference. My battery was almost dead after 6 hours of some text messaging, and email responses. TODAY (Wednesday the 8th) however, is completely different. Using the desire the same way, I’m still at 70%. Basically I’m saying it takes a day or two to configure itself.
Good luck guys. I hope this helps since it helped me.

 

[dyno_detour]

I recently figured out that the Slacker Radio app is causing my phone to stay awake and drain my battery, even when the app is not active.

Anyone know if LAST FM app does the same thing??

 

[dyno_detour]

android at 96%..??

thats a bit way too high, i think..

something is sure to be going on in the background, thus the battery drain.
mine is normally at 47% or 46%

It was Slacker radio.

 

[venkig]

Me too got the phone just a day back. Battery isn't doing great but I kinda knew it takes some time to get adjusted. These tips are great. Will defn keep a track and will post my observation in coupla days.

Battery info shows Android OS takes upto 96%.

@USCellularHTCDesire how much does it show for you now ?

 

[USCellularHTCDesire]

@venkig

It's funny that this is a battery thread, and I am currently charging my phone at work...

I unplugged and plugged it in, so it reset the battery breakdown (oops). I'll post on Monday when It has time to keep the stats. I know what I posted worked for me, but it took a day or two to configure. Have you tried the settings?

 

[USCellularHTCDesire]

@venkig
I have had my phone unplugged for 3 hours and these are my numbers:

cell standby 33%, phone idle 33%, android system 13%, voice calls 10%, wi-fi 5% (which i turned on to use then off), display 4%, and dialer 2%. my battery is at 90% charged.

 

[USCellularHTCDesire]

so yeah my last post was only from a 3hr charge... here are better numbers:

phone has been on for 1 day, 2hrs, 50 mins
cell standby: 38%, phone idle 38%, android system 12%, voice calls 4%, display 4%, dialer 2%, wi-fi 2% (remember I turn on the wifi to use, then off right away once im done)

Hope that helps. I also just noticed that when your looking at the breakdown of the battery, if you click on "display" for example, it breaks it down even more. It tells you the actual time usage for that exact feature, and then gives you the option to reduce the display to save battery. Pretty slick HTC... pretty slick