Battery life issue/question

[hdevine]

I have read the Sticky about how to improve the battery life on my Eris, but much of it didn't seem to apply or help much. All I really got out of it was "if you turn off all of the cool features of this new smartphone, your battery will last longer". What's the point?

Anyway, the problem that I'm having with my battery is that is seem to drain very, very fast. For example: I took it off of the charger today @ 7:10am. It is now 8:35am and I'm down to 85%. I'll have to put it on the charger again by 2pm. That's really terrible.

I don't sit and put a heavy load on it all day with tons of surfing, etc. I have it check my email accounts once per hour, and its doing the normal smartphone things in the background (weather, etc). I'm running the GDE home app with the iDroid theme. I used to have Advanced Task Killer and would periodically kill off any running apps, but I got the impression that it drained the battery so I uninstalled it.

I'm just trying to figure out how to tell what could be going on that is running the battery down so quickly (in my mind that is). I think that something must be running that's doing it, because as a side effect, I notice that at times, the phone is very slow to respond. For instance, when I go into my email, it takes between 5 and 10 minutes to bring it up, click Menu->Delete->Mark All->Delete, then go back to main screen. Not acceptable.

Any ideas?
Harry

 

[jreed2560]

download a program called spare parts. Gives you all kinds of info on what is using CPU cycles and battery history. Should give you a better idea of whats going on. What is you awake time %? Check by going to settings>about phone>status its the very last item on the bottom

 

[hdevine]

I have spare parts installed, but the Battery History and Battery Information pages aren't very intuitive IMO. From what I can see there, everything looks normal. Yet I"m down to 79% currently. That's about 10% per hour in battery reduction.

My Awake % is currently @ 25%. I don't understand what that means, but from the Sticky post, I assume that's OK.

Thanks for the reply!
Harry

 

[pkopalek]

Harry-

You almost certainly have a program that's running/trying to run in the background and draining your battery alive.

The only other likely alternative is a defective battery, which is much less likely than having a program that's draining it.

The even less likely option is that your phone has a defect that drains the battery wildly fast.

I'm going with the first hypothesis. It's probably an app.

What programs/apps/widgets do you have installed? I'm assuming, from Market > My Downloads, you can find most of what you have installed.

 

[jreed2560]

awake time = the time your phone is being used/the time since your last reboot. So if you turned your phone on ten minutes ago but only used it for 60 seconds then your awake time would be 10 %. Clear as mud right?

 

[hdevine]

Do you want a list of everything that's installed? Or just what's running? I think I can use Astro (which is one that I have installed) to get a list of the apps that are running if you want. I'm looking at it now and the percentages all seem normal to me.

Like I said in my original post, I am running the GDE home app. I heard a lot of good things about it and decided to try it. The HTC Sense one was good too, but I wondered if that was causing my battery drain, so I decided to switch it and see what happens.

Thanks,
Harry

 

[jreed2560]

Yeah shoot a list of running programs. I would also like to say sense is a home replacement just like GDE, ahome, etc. So I would imagine one designed by the phone mfg. would be as efficient on battery as any other. But I would say Paul is right. You got a rogue app somewhere. Widgets, rss feed readers, and multiple email accounts polling can all also run down ur battery.

 

[jreed2560]

This got me thinking.... do we have a thread for a list of known apps that drain the battery? I thought there was one, but I can't find it now.

 

[mattjphoto]

This got me thinking.... do we have a thread for a list of known apps that drain the battery? I thought there was one, but I can't find it now.

Yes we had one but idk how far it got pushed back now...it has been almost a month I would bet.

 

[pkopalek]

Installed, not running.

Well, running is good too, I guess. If you have Advanced Task Manager and want to type out a list of running processes, you could. But what programs are installed are the best indication of what will go on. Most of the processes will be the same as every Eris. And the program causing problems wont' be necessarily ALWAYS running, just whenever it wants to. You might not see it at any given time in a task manager.

 

[Lucidot]

This got me thinking.... do we have a thread for a list of known apps that drain the battery? I thought there was one, but I can't find it now.

Here you go:

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/40395-known-resource-hog-apps.html

 

[MongolStomp]

Are you in an area with poor service all day? Because I spend majority of my day in lecture halls with bad service and battery life is a joke. I know I'm not running apps that kill it and I use it minimully. It's just that areas with poor service will kill battery life..

 

[jreed2560]

Here you go:

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/40395-known-resource-hog-apps.html

Thanks! harry you should check this thread out and see if you have any of these apps!

 

[Lucidot]

Are you in an area with poor service all day? Because I spend majority of my day in lecture halls with bad service and battery life is a joke. I know I'm not running apps that kill it and I use it minimully. It's just that areas with poor service will kill battery life..

I agree. My battery takes a crap on me whenever I'm in a bad reception area.

 

[MongolStomp]

I agree. My battery takes a crap on me whenever I'm in a bad reception area.

Yup. For example I pulled my phone off the charger at about nine, its now 11:40 and my life is 66%. I've been in lecture for 40 mins.... very minimal use too. A few texts and on these forums for a few.

 

[pkopalek]

Yes, with 0 bars, I can lose battery VERY quickly, more than 10%/hour if I have Slot Cycle Index = 0.

 

[jreed2560]

I had my slot cycle down to 0 for a while. I noticed a decrease in battery so I put it up to 1. I live in a fringe area so I too know all to well about how signal strength can put a strain on ur battery.