[Battery] Fixes and Tips

thanks dscribe =)

Posted this question elsewhere, but probably should have posted it here:

Loving my shiny new DInc -- so new I'm only on my 4th full charge cycle. I tried the "rain dance" charging method for the first time last night (charged to 100% while device was on, unplugged, then kept charging until light turned green).

Powered on the device and clicked on the home screen clock to open the Desk Clock, which originally had a % battery life indicator. But the indicator was only there for a split second, after which it disappeared and hasn't returned.

Has this happened to anyone else? If so, is there a fix? Aside from an app, is there any other way to see what % of my battery life is left?

Thanks.

njoker said:

How long is the break in period for new batteries? about how many cycles?

Click to expand...

0 cycles. Lithium batteries do not have a break in period. There is documentation all over the Interwebs to support this. The concept of breaking in a battery dates back to NiCad when batteries had memory. Lithium batteries do not experience memory.

What you will find is that the battery *meter* becomes more accurate after a few full charge/discharge cycles, but actual battery life is unaffected. This is a fact and though people will say, "yeah, but I experienced...." they are wrong. Chances are, people who experience increased battery life after a week or two of usage are really experiencing lower usage as the honeymoon period with the new device is over.

I posted this elsewhere - but it belongs in this thread:

n/m

Hi there,

I've had the phone (Inc) since Monday and yes I understand that it may need a few full charges and runs before it's up to speed and length.

My question is this:
Android system : 96%
Cell Standby: 2%
Phone Idle : 2%

Everywhere I've read, 96% is crazy high. I've come from a Storm and it's easy to "turn off" apps. Is there a way to hold down menu or something to see a list of the apps running and turn them off? OR a specific program that will help me clean up some of the space? I tried d/ling System Panel but the d/l wouldn't take my pmt.

Any suggestions? Thanks so much.
-C

bimmer14pa said:

Hi there,

I've had the phone (Inc) since Monday and yes I understand that it may need a few full charges and runs before it's up to speed and length.

My question is this:
Android system : 96%
Cell Standby: 2%
Phone Idle : 2%

Everywhere I've read, 96% is crazy high. I've come from a Storm and it's easy to "turn off" apps. Is there a way to hold down menu or something to see a list of the apps running and turn them off? OR a specific program that will help me clean up some of the space? I tried d/ling System Panel but the d/l wouldn't take my pmt.

Any suggestions? Thanks so much.
-C

Click to expand...

Download Advanced Task Killer. There is a free version that will do what you are requesting as well as automatically shut down apps at given intervals. It rocks.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

On another note, I am so freakin frustrated with the battery life and have been since purchase. I have tried so many things including advanced task killer, turning brightness down, practically never using wifi, airplane mode when at work. At this point I run ATK to kill programs every hour, I never use social messaging stuff like Facebook or anything, I keep Bluetooth on all day but only use it during my am and pm commute of about 40 minutes (which is also usually the only time I occasionally talk on the phone), and practically never use gps.

I even resetted to stock and reinstalled only the apps that were totally necessary to me and it still didn't make a significant difference.

I am desperate. I hate this phone because of the battery life. It is essentially useless because I feel like if I actually try to do anything on it or play with it or anything then it is dead by 3pm.

Part of the problem is that I work in a hospital made of cement and the coverage is horrible in the building and because of the goddam CDMA technology (I think....because I had the same problem with my other verizon phones....but never close to this bad) the battery just drains after only a few hours purely because of weak signal. I also am never at a desk so i cannot charge the phone during the day like i think some people do or are able to do.

Im totally desperate for solutions. If I could get I'd of this phone today I would but am stuck in the contract I guess.

Anyways......

bimmer14pa said:

Hi there,

I've had the phone (Inc) since Monday and yes I understand that it may need a few full charges and runs before it's up to speed and length.

My question is this:
Android system : 96%
Cell Standby: 2%
Phone Idle : 2%

Everywhere I've read, 96% is crazy high. I've come from a Storm and it's easy to "turn off" apps. Is there a way to hold down menu or something to see a list of the apps running and turn them off? OR a specific program that will help me clean up some of the space? I tried d/ling System Panel but the d/l wouldn't take my pmt.

Any suggestions? Thanks so much.
-C

Click to expand...

What is your uptime vs awake time?

31 hours up

30 hours awake

WTF?!!??!!?!

How to I find out what is doing this.

get rid of ATK and start using system panel lite.

All these tips and tricks are panaceas. Universally, if you are getting battery life where it dies in your pocket after 8 hours, then your phone is not sleeping...period. There is no point in turning of Wifi, GPS, setting Mobile Data Always On to Off, or any of this until you resolve the issue. If your phone is not sleeping, battery life is going to suck. Check your Awake Time vs Up time and you'll see that I am right. Task Killers are mostly useless, though I do use one occasionally if I find a rogue process. Get System Panel Lite, and look at Battery History for Partial Wake Lock. In some cases, it's an actual application doing it. In most cases, it's Android System. I had an issue where everything was fine, but after 24-48 hours Android System would start to Wake Lock, the phone would get hot in my pocket, and the battery would drain at an astronomical rate. I never resolved that issue. In the past, Calendar and Facebook have been the culprits, but those have since been fixed.

FroYo seems to have resolved all the Android System Wake-Lock problems for me. I don't recommend that everyone root their phone and install a new ROM, but if you are comfortable with it, FroYo is a vast improvement. For example, yesterday, I unplugged my phone at about 8AM after which the battery *quickly* drains to 90%. I don't bother with the bump charging, though that does certainly give you a bit longer life. I was on WiFi all day, used about 1.5 hours of web browsing (some of which was Flash based), spent about 30 mins on the phone, and spent some time emailing plus 30 mins of Google Listen usage. This is not heavy usage by any stretch, but is typical for me. When I plugged it in at midnight, it had 50% battery. My Up time is 143:31:00 and my awake time is 19:57:00. I have noticed that my phone is awake about 1-1.5 hours a day without touching it, so that means I have been actually using my phone for a solid 2 hours a day on average.

Let me repeat. If your battery is dying after a few hours, you have a wake lock issue. Try a factory reset - if that doesn't fix it, call HTC.

When I put in a 1800mAh battery the original battery info of 1200mAh stayed on.
I'm assuming this is info built into the droid and won't change and that I will get the full 1800mAh capacity out of the battery.

Comments
Bo

When I had my Eris I enjoyed the step by step "how to make your droid eris faster, smoother, and increase battery life" on jonsuh.com. I'm looking for something like that with my Incredible. I had my eris overclocked to 710mhz from 528.
by;
Rooting,
using setCPU,
AutoKiller,
Cachemate,
and had loaded xtrSense.

It all came together to make a miserably slow Eris fast, and enjoyed a long battery life. I would plug it in overnight, unplug it in the morning when I woke, and ran an 18 hr day before plugging it in to go to sleep. And I rarely used more than 50%. It was great.

Today Im charging my Incredible for the 2nd time now. I have to say having had this phone for 3 days now, I can see this getting old quick. And it looks like it has for the rest of you.

well what have you done to try and getting better life on the incredible?

So far,

Rooted using unrevoked 3,
Installed setCpu to underclock,
Installed Autokiller and set to Extreme,
turned off Facebook for HTC Sense,
Installed Cachemate,
Screen brightness turned down to maybe 20% (not auto)

The worst part is I feel like I can't use my phone for fear of running out of battery. Its like owning a Dodge Viper and not being able to go full throttle for fear your going to get terrible gas mileage. Ha. With the Eris, I was able to run it full throttle for a good 10 hours. I would carry it around in my shirt pocket at work listening to music all day (10 hr work days) and still have 30% left when i got home. With this phone im charging it at lunch, then again when i get home. Its unbelievable.

Have been doing some research on this. I'm using the battery that came in my eris in my incredible. Long story short, Verizon game me the incredible and a handful of accessories because i went through 5 replacement phones for one reason or another. But they made me keep my battery. I'm assuming its a 1300 mah. Which was OEM in the Eris. Its already 11 months old. I just ordered the chichitec 1800 mah from htc express. It was 39.98, free shipping for 2 batteries and a wall dock.

From what I've seen on here this will help tremendously with my problems.

i stopped after reading using taskiller.

delete that then come back after a couple days

Against Taskkilling eh? Why is this? Its not really that big a gray area for me. The worst part about Android is the fact that the system does not automatically close apps when you exit them. Of COURSE this uses up memory depleting the battery. Give me a break.

bobarr said:

When I put in a 1800mAh battery the original battery info of 1200mAh stayed on.
I'm assuming this is info built into the droid and won't change and that I will get the full 1800mAh capacity out of the battery.

Comments
Bo

Click to expand...

When I get my new batteries I plan on Wiping my battery info.
Turn off the device> hold vol down and power button> recovery> advanced> wipe battery stats. Reboot.

I did this for my eris and it worked very well. You may have to have root to do this aswell.

36-48 HOURS OF STRESS FREE USAGE - BUT IT'S REVENGE OF THE MIDDLE AGED SMART PHONE USER

I read dozens of user sites before buying my Incredible, and yes, my first 24 hours were awful. But it took me all of one day to get perfect usage out of the battery and it's been 36-48 hours between charging for the 3 months that I've owned it! Very simple solution - get a life!! No, really, get a life.

Since I have a life and do not need to know what my friends had for breakfast or what some barely literate celebrity can string together in 140 characters: I NEVER HAVE MY BACKGROUND DATA ENABLED AND I NEVER CHECK AUTO SYNCH. That's the secret!!! Not rooting. Not useless apps that really don't manage power usage.

Trust me, all of those apps that "manage" battery life and display the sources of usage are useless. It's plain and simple: if you insist on running apps (mainly Facebook, Twitter and anything that requires your location) that require constant checking and rechecking to see if a message is waiting out there for your, then your battery life will suck. If you have a life, then you get what I have: limitless Internet surfing, Gmail, a separate corporate email program, synching calendar, a handful of sports related apps I use, some other stuff and easily 36 hours between charges, sometimes 48 hours. If you insist on your apps always checking for Twitter and Facebook feeds, you're hosed.

In Accounts, I just uncheck Background data and Auto-synch. (and I only keep bluetooth on when in my car). That's it folks. An entire industry has been created to discuss Incredible battery life, and it's all BS. Get a life, check Facebook only when you really need to, not with the app in "always-on" mode which requires background data, and forever leave these forums.


Oh, and btw, no matter what anyone posts in a reply: I continue to have an awesome HTC Incredible experience with great battery life. Do you?

@jessejames987654321: Thank you for letting us know that the way to get great life out of our smart phones is to not use them as smart phones!

Why, I suspect that if I get a Motorola Razr or some other non-smart phone I could get even better[/b] battery life. Huzzah!!

Thanks again, you've opened my eyes.

BTW - I use an 1800 mAh from HTCExpress as my main battery with a 1500 mAh from Bidallies as a backup. My main battery generally gets me through a typical day without any problem. If I'm on my phone a lot, I can always pop in the 1500 after work and I'm good for the rest of the evening.

I don't worry, either.

My wife has been wondering about improving the battery life on her Incredible. There are a lot of task killers on the market so it's hard to pick the right one. Any suggestions?

dont use one at all, that is the best one

howarmat said:

dont use one at all, that is the best one

Click to expand...

I guess I just have to find out what she does on the phone. I have no issues with battery life on my X. I'll have to look at her phone.

Brausso said:

No idea. I had the Storm 2

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That's amazing...I had a Storm2 for a year and never made it through an entire day without charging the phone as I used it for personal and business use. And that was after spending time on Crackberry forums learning how to tweak battery usage.
My Incredible does considerably more, considerably faster...I would expect battery drain.