Display killing battery

[anytyme]

Recently I've noticed my battery draining a lot faster than normal so I looked and what's using my battery and the display is using about 68%. So then I unchecked auto brightness and put the brightness really low and the battery is still draining really fast. What can I do to fix this?

 

[sexyington]

Recently I've noticed my battery draining a lot faster than normal so I looked and what's using my battery and the display is using about 68%. So then I unchecked auto brightness and put the brightness really low and the battery is still draining really fast. What can I do to fix this?

what i noticed if you turn off ur 3g/4g when your not using it, you will see a huge different if your battery life. 2nd you ideally if your worried bout the display killing your battery set it at 25% brightness and that should help. when you have the phone on auto brightness it does suck up a lil more power because it is constantly adjusting the amount of light used.

 

[anytyme]

what i noticed if you turn off ur 3g/4g when your not using it, you will see a huge different if your battery life. 2nd you ideally if your worried bout the display killing your battery set it at 25% brightness and that should help. when you have the phone on auto brightness it does suck up a lil more power because it is constantly adjusting the amount of light used.

It's an a500 there is no 3G/4G and I set my brightness to 14% and the battery is still draining fast. You do know the a500 is a tablet right?

 

[Mrhelper]

Recently I've noticed my battery draining a lot faster than normal so I looked and what's using my battery and the display is using about 68%. So then I unchecked auto brightness and put the brightness really low and the battery is still draining really fast. What can I do to fix this?

What you are seeing is typical. It's not likely a defect, but merely a normal consequence of the technology, and how tablets are often used. The display is the largest component in the system, it has to put out significant light, and it never rests when the tablet is on. If you do a lot of browsing, reading, etc., none of the other components use much power, so the ratio of display use to all other components widens. My battery right now is at about 30%. The time has been about 11 hours, and the display battery usage is at 86%. Wifi battery usage is at 5%, and Idle is about 4%. A few apps used the remaining amount. That's exactly what I expect it to be based on how I've been using the tablet today.

 

[anytyme]

What you are seeing is typical. It's not likely a defect, but merely a normal consequence of the technology, and how tablets are often used. The display is the largest component in the system, it has to put out significant light, and it never rests when the tablet is on. If you do a lot of browsing, reading, etc., none of the other components use much power, so the ratio of display use to all other components widens. My battery right now is at about 30%. The time has been about 11 hours, and the display battery usage is at 86%. Wifi battery usage is at 5%, and Idle is about 4%. A few apps used the remaining amount. That's exactly what I expect it to be based on how I've been using the tablet today.

But it never used to be like this. I've always left it on auto brightness and I had to charge my tab maybe once every four days and now it's everyday I have to charge it. I don't use it more often than I used to.

 

[Mrhelper]

But it never used to be like this. I've always left it on auto brightness and I had to charge my tab maybe once every four days and now it's everyday I have to charge it. I don't use it more often than I used to.

What you describe suggests either battery wear, or a change (even subtle) in the tablet usage.

Batteries have a limited life span relative to the number of charge/discharge cycles. Battery life also varies by usage patterns, how deep the cycles are, etc. As a battery is repeatedly discharged and recharged, the useful charge capacity gradually decreases. Depending on usage patterns, some lithium ion batteries will last for 2 years with only moderate loss of capacity, and others may only last a year (or less) before losing significant capacity.

Another explanation for shorter charge cycles could be some change in your usage habits -- e.g., any change that keeps the screen on longer, or a change involving use of different apps or features. It seems possible that you may have installed an app that is using more resources in the background than it should. Dolphin and the stock Android browser do this if swapped to the background while multiple tabs are active. There are other apps that do this as well. You can find problems such as these by installing Watchdog, which monitors and alerts when any app is using excess background CPU.

A simple change like extending the screen timeout by just a few minutes can cause a very significant increase in battery usage. The screen timeout setting has significantly more influence on battery drain than does the screen brightness setting.

 

[Valkillmore]

But it never used to be like this. I've always left it on auto brightness and I had to charge my tab maybe once every four days and now it's everyday I have to charge it. I don't use it more often than I used to.

I'm a battery life nutter, running custom rom, auto tasks scheduled etc. and I have my Iconia a500 dialed in pretty well, and I can just barely achieve 4 days if I leave my tablet pretty much alone, other than to check notifications and very light play. No video watching, file transfering or anything like rom backups that crank up the CPU.

If you were getting 4 days with your typical use, meaning you use it more than to just check emails, then you need to tell me your secrets. Crazy. Damn, now I have to start tweaking again .............

I am going to try the suggested app myself, thanks MrHelper !!

 

[jsbach]

I've been having this same problem over the last few days. My tab is about 7-8 months old so the battery should still be good. Over the last couple of days I've been noticing that the battery has been draining real fast. Really weird, nothing has changed. I used to get 4-5 days out of a charge. Now it's barely a day if that.

 

[Mrhelper]

I've been having this same problem over the last few days. My tab is about 7-8 months old so the battery should still be good. Over the last couple of days I've been noticing that the battery has been draining real fast. Really weird, nothing has changed. I used to get 4-5 days out of a charge. Now it's barely a day if that.

It's either some change in the battery condition, a charge cycle issue, or a change in the power usage.

Look under Settings-->Battery to understand usage.

This site may be useful to help understand battery issues and to guide charging practices: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University.

 

[jsbach]

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't see anything different though...