Help SD Card, CPU Usage and Battery Life

[normau]

Hi All,

When my SD card is mounted in my Magic, the CPU usage is very high (90%+), the battery is very warm (34 degrees +) and it drains the battery very quickly (dead in 10 hrs with very min use).

When the SD card is unmounted or removed, the CPU usage drops to 10% or below, the phone is cool and the battery lasts very long.

Does anyone know the reason behind this and how it can be resolved?

I've reformatted the SD card and removed some of the media files not supported by my Magic but still have this issue.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.
Norman

 

[MoreYummy]

It could be your phone is heavily depends on your sd's usage, such as apps, storage, video/audio etc.

What is "minimal" usage? If using normally with all radio on, you still get 10 hours, that's super. So you can get the idea.

Also the battery hot is normal in li-ion.

 

[normau]

When I say minimal usage, I mean 5-10 min of calls and less then ten text messages, all radios off, screen brightness at 30%...essentially everything possible to reduce power consumption.

With the SD card unmounted, performance of all aps, games, phone, etc is really fast. With nothing running, CPU usage is between 4-9% and after 6 hrs of minimal use, battery life is still 90+%.

Perhaps there is something on my SD card causing the CPU to run at 90%+. The only way to find out is trial and error.

Just curious...for other Magic users, does the CPU usage really drop when you unmount the SD card?

 

[MoreYummy]

Are you using an apps to monitor cpu usage?

It is either some apps or some apps files depends on your sdcard so heavily.
But if true wondering what that is if constantly using your phone....

 

[normau]

I'm using System Monitor to check on CPU usage.

I found the offending files on my SD card. It was a bunch of videos (96 files, 290 MB) I took with my old Windows Mobile phone which I transferred to the new phone SD card. I'm not sure why the phone kept on trying to access these files but once I removed all of them, the CPU activity dropped to between 4-9%, the phone was noticeably quicker, battery cooler and of course, no issue with batter life.

Thank you for your input.
Norman

 

[MoreYummy]

sounds like an app is trying to decode or figure out what it is, but unable to do so, or goes into a loop.

 

[normau]

Just an update...with about 10-15 min of calls a day, 5-10 sms, all radios turned off unless needed, screen brightness at 50% and playing games for about 30-45 min a day, I can end the day with about 75-80% charge left in the battery.

Since battery life is no longer an issue, I'm using more Widgets (my Magic has been updated with HTC Sense UI).

Battery life is finally meeting my expectations. I really enjoy the Magic.

 

[MoreYummy]

Cool. Does that count those time you sleep? Usually not much, but still need battery.

I dont get that much battery as you do, but im still using older kernel.

 

[normau]

Since the last charge, about 40 hrs ago, I've made about 15 min of calls, played about 30 min of games, sent/received about 10 text message and surf the Internet (with wifi connection) for about 20 min. The battery still has 67% power.