Improve battery time

[peter7769]

Hi All

Just wanted to share this little fact, i have had my desire for around 9 months now and my battery was only lasting around 6 hours and then i would have to put it on charge.

Over the past few weeks i have decided to leave my wi-fi switched on, it auto connects to my works wireless network & when i get home it does the same there, my battery lasts so much longer.

My Phone has been on for 8 hours now and the battery is only on 67%.
I can ony think that before my phone was constantly looking for a better network signal, as such this was draining the battery. Nothing else has changed on the phone so it cant be down to anything else.

Might be worth people who have poor battery life giving it a try.

Just a thought

Pete

 

[Gizzelle]

Have you recently upgraded to 2.3?

I found leaving Wi-Fi on detrimental to battery life prior to Gingerbread but it seems to have no such effect now.

EDIT : As far as battery life, my personal opinion is people don't realise how big a role screen brightness plays.

 

[peter7769]

No, im still on 2.2 & not rooted, phone been on for 14 hours and now on 23%

Pete

 

[Syphadeus]

I found the best way to improve battery life is to disable mobile data when you're not using it. My charge went from lasting a day, and now lasts approx 3 days between charges with moderate browser and downloading use.

I just put a shortcut on one of my homescreens to take me to Wireless & Networks menu where I can easily turn the feature on and off.

 

[amit_eighty8]

1.turn on when required:
*WiFi
*Mobile data
*Background Sync
*GPS
2.Adjust Screen brightness by a widget
for eg :Brightness level (free)

3.Short screen time out (30 secs)

and always try to drain out battery to zero than charge to 100%
i.e. full cycle charge

best o' luck

 

[amit_eighty8]

I found the best way to improve battery life is to disable mobile data when you're not using it. My charge went from lasting a day, and now lasts approx 3 days between charges with moderate browser and downloading use.

I just put a shortcut on one of my homescreens to take me to Wireless & Networks menu where I can easily turn the feature on and off.

well if u r using sense than there is a widget for mobile data on/off directly ...check it out

 

[SUroot]

and always try to drain out battery to zero than charge to 100%
i.e. full cycle charge

Not sure on that one. You can't drain the battery to zero. Safeguard cuts in at 10% or so, so not sure what you would gane from this.

 

[peter7769]

1.turn on when required:
*WiFi
*Mobile data
*Background Sync
*GPS
2.Adjust Screen brightness by a widget
for eg :Brightness level (free)

3.Short screen time out (30 secs)

and always try to drain out battery to zero than charge to 100%
i.e. full cycle charge

best o' luck

The problem is i brought a smart phone so that i can read emails, news etc and facebook, i dont want to keep turning things on & off just to do that, my emails come through all day and im very happy with the way its going using the wifi.

Pete

 

[SUroot]

Exactly. As long as it lasts to bed time, I'm happy. ...And it does. With everything on.

Well, I automatically turn wifi off during my working day, so I can use HSDPA, and back on when I'm at home.

 

[amit_eighty8]

The problem is i brought a smart phone so that i can read emails, news etc and facebook, i dont want to keep turning things on & off just to do that, my emails come through all day and im very happy with the way its going using the wifi.

Pete

well that's what i said turn on when required..... u require it for whole day than leave it on .....and for those who don't ..turn off...

 

[amit_eighty8]

Not sure on that one. You can't drain the battery to zero. Safeguard cuts in at 10% or so, so not sure what you would gane from this.

well that's something that i learned when i bought my first laptop.."calibrating the battery"

i used to do it once in a month ... and seriously it has +ve outcomes

"Safeguard" ...any source about that ..u said its cuts on 10%..

 

[Kibbster]

Exactly. As long as it lasts to bed time, I'm happy. ...And it does. With everything on.

Well, I automatically turn wifi off during my working day, so I can use HSDPA, and back on when I'm at home.

There-in lies the crux.
If I turn off wifi during the day when it's not needed then the chances are I'll forget to turn it back on when I get home and use mobile data all night when the phone is syncing etc.

OK, well the truth is I'm too lazy to switch stuff on or off, I just let the phone do it's thing
I will turn off stuff if I know I'll be away from a charger for a long time but generally it lasts ok with everything enabled as long as I don't go silly and spend hours surfing or using maps/GPS.

 

[robinta]

Kibbster - or you could install Ultimate Juice for Juice Defender. Try Juice defender (free) first (it really does work) then if you gofor ultimate it remembers your location & switches wifi off until you are are at the memorized location when it switches back on . It will also switch wifi off/on with the screen going off if you want. I compared this to having wifi on 24/7 & it makes a massive difference.

 

[SUroot]

well that's something that i learned when i bought my first laptop.."calibrating the battery"

i used to do it once in a month ... and seriously it has +ve outcomes

"Safeguard" ...any source about that ..u said its cuts on 10%..

With Li-on batteries, they need to keep a level of charge to keep the "juices flowing" as when the juices stop flowing, the batteries will never function again.

This means that it is not possible to drain them to 100% so any "calibration" on the desire that involves draining the battery does not work.

In regards to any sources, probably but its mentioned on this forum a lot.

Try it. Let your desire drain and see what % it turns off at.

In regards to calibration there is a method:

Charge until 100% and unplug
Turn off and charge until LED green
Unplug and turn phone on.
Once fully booted (about 2 minutes) turn off
Charge until LED green
Turn on and use

But I think all this does is move the goal post. It will remain on 100% much longer, but every other % will last the normal amount and it will probably shut off 5% earlier than before.

 

[SUroot]

There-in lies the crux.
If I turn off wifi during the day when it's not needed then the chances are I'll forget to turn it back on when I get home and use mobile data all night when the phone is syncing etc.

OK, well the truth is I'm too lazy to switch stuff on or off, I just let the phone do it's thing
I will turn off stuff if I know I'll be away from a charger for a long time but generally it lasts ok with everything enabled as long as I don't go silly and spend hours surfing or using maps/GPS.

This is why Tasker is such a good application. I schedule wifi, silent mode etc. I even created a shortcut to toggle auto brightness on and off. Its an application with a variety of useful uses.

 

[amit_eighty8]

With Li-on batteries, they need to keep a level of charge to keep the "juices flowing" as when the juices stop flowing, the batteries will never function again.

This means that it is not possible to drain them to 100% so any "calibration" on the desire that involves draining the battery does not work.

In regards to any sources, probably but its mentioned on this forum a lot.

Try it. Let your desire drain and see what % it turns off at.

In regards to calibration there is a method:

Charge until 100% and unplug
Turn off and charge until LED green
Unplug and turn phone on.
Once fully booted (about 2 minutes) turn off
Charge until LED green
Turn on and use

But I think all this does is move the goal post. It will remain on 100% much longer, but every other % will last the normal amount and it will probably shut off 5% earlier than before.

well i am using CIRCLE BATTERY widget .. i don't know how accurate is it..

some time its shows 5% warning and just in a sec goes off...
some times under 10% also..might be if i am playing games or something like that and when i turn on my mobile its shows 0%

i usually have to go office early so .i keep it on charging at night when i sleep...when i wake up my mobile shows green light and the circle widget show 93% and also the battery does.nt last long

i charge it without any overcharging ...it last longs...

is this a problem with my desire ..or??? ..thanks in advance SUroot

 

[SUroot]

well i am using CIRCLE BATTERY widget .. i don't know how accurate is it..

some time its shows 5% warning and just in a sec goes off...
some times under 10% also..might be if i am playing games or something like that and when i turn on my mobile its shows 0%

i usually have to go office early so .i keep it on charging at night when i sleep...when i wake up my mobile shows green light and the circle widget show 93% and also the battery does.nt last long

i charge it without any overcharging ...it last longs...

is this a problem with my desire ..or??? ..thanks in advance SUroot

There is another thing too.

If you charge the phone to 100% and leave it on charge for 2 hours, HTC have designed it so that the battery will rapidly discharge 10%. Once it reaches 90% it will charge to 100%. After 2 hours, this will repeat (every 2 hours).

Sometimes you take it off charge during this cycle, you end up with what you think is a fully charged phone, but it can be anywhere between 90-100%.

Work around. Unplug. Check %. If less than 100%, plug in again

 

[wibbly]

Hi All
I can ony think that before my phone was constantly looking for a better network signal, as such this was draining the battery. Nothing else has changed on the phone so it cant be down to anything else.

If it's still enabled for a network connection (so you can make/receive calls) it will still be chatting in background to the cell/tower. But user data should go in preference down an active WiFi link.

What's not often realised is having a poor 3G/GPRS signal will drain your battery big time. The specs say a handset can transmit at up to over 3.5 watts power if it needs to! WiFi's 0.1 watt maximum transmit power if I recall correctly...

Mobile phone radiation and health - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Radiation absorption section.

So particularly if you're in a poor signal area, doing anything to reduce the activity over the cellular network will help a lot.

My personal experience even with simple "text and talk" GSM phones is that they can barely last a day in areas where they're constantly in and out of service (and hunting for a signal and using high transmit power to try and maintain service). But with a good cellular signal the battery life is measured in days...

 

[smssms]

and always try to drain out battery to zero than charge to 100%
i.e. full cycle charge

Not a good idea with Li-ion batteries. 'Fully' discharging them drastically reduces their useful life. One of many examples of battery care articles says - charge at 10% you get 500 goes, charge at 50% you get 1500 goes, charge at 90% you 4700 goes before the battery is no good.

DEEP CYCLE IS A RELIC FROM THE OLDEN DAYS OF Ni-Cad BATTS; Li-Ion don't suffer from bad memory effect.

Charge them often (but don't over charge after full) and most of all - KEEP THEM COOL.

 

[Good Old Bakes]

I use 'Timeriffic' to turn off wifi, bluetooth and data at 11:30pm and turn on Airplane mode at midnight. This uses just 2% of battery between midnight and 8am when Airplane mode is switched off and the rest are turned on. I have wifi set to turn off again between 10am and 4pm during the week when I'm at work and don't need it. This seems to have prolonged my battery use.