Database Users

Another critical bug on the universal :-(

I just found another painful bug....this one is related to charging (battery). I normally put my qtek on charge all through the night when I go to bed. For the last 4-5 days I have been unplugging the device when it showed 100% charge, put it on standby (no wifi,btooth,gsm etc.) and made sure there were no applications running. I usually leave it in the standby state for 2 hours while I finish my morning exercise.
whenever I return, I see a power loss of 20%!! I was shocked to see how I could loose 20% in 2 hours ith my device on standby mode. this time, I even made sure I pressed the power button before I closed the lid, and still...no luck :-( I still lost 19%
I guess the problem is, when the charger is connected and the battery gets completely charged, it stops charging further. I guess it reaches a fully charged state within 2 hours, and the battery starts to drain all through the night...and wm5/htc don't start charging once again when the levels go down....i'll have to do a cuple more tests until I can totally confirm that this is the bug...until then, are anyone of you guys experiencing the same problems?
Another thing I forgot to mention, once again I charge my battery from 80% to 100%, and it lasts through the entire day(12 hrs) and drops to only 40% with highhh usage (bluetooth ON throughout, gsm on with 3hrs talktime, and some light gprs usage). so it really is not a problem of my battery as I see it!
Cheers,
San

Hmmm. I hate to say, but I don't see that problem. But I do have the unlocked JasJar Universal from HTC, not the qtek. If this happens with other qtecs, maybe they load a custom software that is acting up. In fact, I could leave the device on for two straight hours off a 100% charge and I don't think I'd lose 20% unless the phone was on too.

DaleReeck said:
Hmmm. I hate to say, but I don't see that problem. But I do have the unlocked JasJar Universal from HTC, not the qtek. If this happens with other qtecs, maybe they load a custom software that is acting up. In fact, I could leave the device on for two straight hours off a 100% charge and I don't think I'd lose 20% unless the phone was on too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried charging your device for well over two hours before unplugging? (around 8-9 hours of charging for instance?)
I don't really think it has anything to do with the qtek rom/device. the qtek rom has the least ammt of customisations on it...
I still suspect that the charging process halts and it starts to drain the battery....but the os doesn't reinitiate the charging process once again....hmm
I'll have to wait till tomm before I can do another round of checking....tomm, I want to charge it....and before I unplug, I'd remove the battery and put it back and see what it indicates...I suspect that the power would have already dropped to ~80% by then...that's the only explanation I can think of at the moment....
San

Hi Dreamtheater!!!
I exactly follow you as far as charging is concerned and I hv a Jasjar....just to inform you...I started charging yesterday at 11.30 PM and just got up to see the charge..it is 100%...no power loss...

hdubli said:
Hi Dreamtheater!!!
I exactly follow you as far as charging is concerned and I hv a Jasjar....just to inform you...I started charging yesterday at 11.30 PM and just got up to see the charge..it is 100%...no power loss...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it shows 100% for me too...but in just 2 hrs, it drops to 80% which is weird! from then on, it drains normally...
I still need some time to nail the exact cause for the problem...hmm!
S

Hey dreamtheater, I charge my Exec overnite everynite just like you. Usually at least 7 to 8 hrs everynite, but I have yet to experience what you mentioned here. My Exec always start fresh from 100% and by the time I get home at nite, it will drop to about 70% so no, I'm not getting the batt drain issue like you do..

I did not experience any such behaviour with my Qtek. It charged fine over night and had 100% battery when unpluged.
Are you sure your's does not wake up for some reason after you suspend it?

Dreamtheatre, I charged my XDA Exec overnight (7 hrs) and after 2 hrs with GSM/UMTS radio on the unit lost 5% battery charge.

@DT,
You need to set the device to switch off after a specified time interval. This can be done by going to start>settings>battery>advanced and check the device timeout box. I usually set it to 1 minute.
Last night i was browsing on my JJ and fell asleep while doing so, IE and notes and inbox applications were still open. When i started, the battery level was 93%, i browsed for about 10 minutes over Wifi before i fell asleep. The device shut itself off and when i woke up the battery level was 82% which is prportionate to my 10 min WiFi use and probably 1 minute standby time before it shut itself off.
Try it out, i'm sure you will stop seeing the massive battery drain
Cheers.

Another thing. Contraty to what people think, keeping the universal's battery topped off improves battery life. Prevent it from dropping all the way to say 30% or so. You will notice the difference in battery life in just about a week or so

Another source of battery drainage i've found is when i'm charging my Exec from the USB connection on my PC - If I leave my Exec connected and put my PC into standby, it will literally suck the life out of the battery over the course of a few hours!

I think some of you have got me wrong...let me restate the problem...
I charge all night
Wake up with 100% charge
Pull off the charger
Leave it on standby for ~2 hrs (no apps running, gsm, wifi, all off)
Come back, and find a ~20% drop
Back to my findings now.......
Another morning, no luck :-(
It had 100% charge...I pulled off the battery, put it back in and restarted....still showed 100%, so I guess it really was fully charged after all. This time I turned off receive incoming beams as well....left it for a couple hours, and was disappointed to see 82% when I got back :-(
However, through the day I get excellent battery life....all day's use ends up consuming roughly 30-40% charge which is excellent compared to my prev xda2 which would comparitively loose all of it by eod. I guess if I park my device in flight mode it tends to start draining quickly....now that's my only available reason or cause that I can think of....
tomm I guess I won't put the device on flight mode and leave it just On instead. This is weird because its just me having this problem :-(
San
PS: I'm using the regular ac charger itself for charging...hmm

DT, I disabled PowerSave and switched off the GSM/UMTS radio on my Exec. After about 8 hours I had lost about 30% charge. So your 20% does seem high. It could just be the battery as loss of charge is not linear. Why not let it drop to say 60% and then do your test again. By the way there spare batteries seem to be available now for the Universal.

Battery life

Hello
Just got my blackstone, had it for a few days and i need to charge it every day, almost 2 times a day with moderate use. I turned off 3G, turned down the backlight. But still, if i just mess with it a little, in settings and so on, i can litteratly see the battery life getting lower. An hour ago it was 100%, now its on 83%. Any one who got some pointers on this?
Thanks.

I had a similar issue with mine, got it a couple of weeks ago with a stock Orange UK rom onboard.
Battery hasn't fully depleted, but I usually charge it everynight as it quick charges.
I've since put Dutty's 3.9XT Turbo rom on and battery life has been a lot better.
For example, charged overnight last night (from 59%) and am now at 90% after a few texts and emails. Normally I struggle to hold a 3G signal in my office so its alternating between G, 3G and H all the time, which also drains the battery, and have a push mail application running in the background.
I also charge it in the car in my cradle to and from work. Could probably get two days at a push if I needed to, but it would require charging in the car as well to do that.

Thanks. I flashed it with the energy rom, and the battery really sucks. What does actually the "H" mean, when that is in the status field? "E" is edge, G is 3g, but "H" is?

Try disabling 3g to see better battery life. I think my battry life is quite good without 3g. Running latest energy rom. H is hspda I think. Disable that also to check the affect on battery life.

Thanks. Ive done all that. 7 hours ago the battery was at 100%, now its at 15%. Ive texted 5 messages, and made 2 phonecalls. If i go into settings f.example, press a little, i can see the % gone down a few. Something must seriously be wrong.

bthelastman said:
Thanks. Ive done all that. 7 hours ago the battery was at 100%, now its at 15%. Ive texted 5 messages, and made 2 phonecalls. If i go into settings f.example, press a little, i can see the % gone down a few. Something must seriously be wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, somethings up with it. To compare I took mine off the charger 7 hours ago sent 4 emails, used gps 3 times, browsed several sites for a total of about 45 min., made two short calls and I'm down to 75%. Thats all on edge.

bthelastman said:
Thanks. Ive done all that. 7 hours ago the battery was at 100%, now its at 15%. Ive texted 5 messages, and made 2 phonecalls. If i go into settings f.example, press a little, i can see the % gone down a few. Something must seriously be wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely sounds like a more serious issue.
I have 3G and HSDPA on all the time and still get through about 25% battery during most of the day, with a few texts, a call or two and some email/browsing etc.
I also make sure that I close any other applications that I've finished with to calm memory and processor usage down.

Thanks. Yes, it sounds like an issue. Wish i had you guys battery. I can litteratly see the % go down, if i go to settings, press something go back and so on. Bought a new 1350mah battery on ebay, hope that would do the trick. Its bugging me sooo much, breaking swet becouse of it, lol.

Did you also turn off bluetooth and wireless? I get three days out of mine without 3G.

Yeah, all that stuff is off. Only edge is on. The battery must be faulty, thats the only thing i can think of. Example, made a phonecall now for 5 minutes, it dropped 10% on the battery.

bthelastman said:
Yeah, all that stuff is off. Only edge is on. The battery must be faulty, thats the only thing i can think of. Example, made a phonecall now for 5 minutes, it dropped 10% on the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bthelastman,
Try these following steps to recalibrate your battery.
1) Turn off the phone.
2) Let it charge overnight and don't unplug it.
3) In the morning, use the phone till it is down to 10% (Don't go lower than this number).
4) Turn off the phone, and do a full-charge again.
Repeat these steps 2 ~ 3 times and see if the battery gets better. Sometimes, it is not that the battery is bad, but merely the calibration is a little off. Always try to charge your phone when it is turned off, it keeps the accuracy of the battery lasting much longer without having to do a full-discharge.
Let us know how this works out for you.
Cheers.
Cheers.

Thank you PoisonWolf, i will test this out. Thanks.

PoisonWolf said:
bthelastman,
Try these following steps to recalibrate your battery.
1) Turn off the phone.
2) Let it charge overnight and don't unplug it.
3) In the morning, use the phone till it is down to 10% (Don't go lower than this number).
4) Turn off the phone, and do a full-charge again.
Repeat these steps 2 ~ 3 times and see if the battery gets better. Sometimes, it is not that the battery is bad, but merely the calibration is a little off. Always try to charge your phone when it is turned off, it keeps the accuracy of the battery lasting much longer without having to do a full-discharge.
Let us know how this works out for you.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PoisonWolf mate these techniques used to work on old battery but the new lithium batteries don't need these manual calibration process...

akash_nu said:
PoisonWolf mate these techniques used to work on old battery but the new lithium batteries don't need these manual calibration process...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
akash_nu,
I beg to disagree. What I am saying is, sometimes, the battery in itself can hold the right amount of charge, but the onboard motherboard thinks it is not holding the right amount of charge. The full-discharge helps correct this issue.
If you don't believe me, keep charging your TouchHD whenever it is at 80 ~ 90% for a couple of months and you'll notice a "drop" in how fast your battery drains.
Cheers.

I definitely agree with this.
My Touch HD kept dying after a couple of hours, even when charging it over night. So I turned my phone off and charged it over night with a wall charger (instead of USB) and then it lasted for 48 hours with the same usage.
I think the battery tells the phone it is fully charged even when it is not. So like you say, it just needs recalibrating.

Not sure why the post appeared twice, I only submitted once!

Hi,
The button to the top wright of the phone, to close apps, the screwdriver icon says 59%. I guess that means running 59% of its power of whatever?
Shouldnt it say like 0%, since no apps are running?
Thanks.

After eight months and having my battery give me 2 minutes of talktime on a four hour charge, Orange UK have replaced it for me FOC.

bthelastman said:
Hi,
The button to the top wright of the phone, to close apps, the screwdriver icon says 59%. I guess that means running 59% of its power of whatever?
Shouldnt it say like 0%, since no apps are running?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That % shows the amount of free RAM your device has, not how much power it is consuming..

Not sure why you are having this problem, I use BB Connect all day at work and am on the phone for several hours, I don't have 3G in the US but notice if I have WiFI on it drains the battery fast.
Are you sure you don't have a program running that is always looking for the internet? You could try HD tweaks and turn off the internet all together and see if that helps.

Nexus One Battery Charging

Greetings all, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed that their battery doesn't charge to full when using the wall charger or USB? I have LiPo chargers from RC cars and I have used one to discharge and fully charge the battery to 1400mah and found that the phone seems to have much better battery life than when charged with wall charger / USB.
When charged with the external ("direct") battery charger, I can get to 4211mv whereas normally with the wall/usb it only goes to 4173mv max. From what I know of LiPo/LiIon batteries, they need to get to their max charge voltage (~4200mv) or so and stay there for some time to get full charge.
I have noticed that my phone has terrible battery life when compared to my Touch HD which used to get 20hrs+ of full use on 3G/HSDPA, same usage pattern with push e-mail and I can't even get 12hrs with the Nexus One before the battery runs right down. And I thought the Touch HD had bad battery life!
Any help / feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks!

It's interesting I see this as today has been a very odd battery day. I woke up and unplugged it at exactly 5am. For 7 minutes I checked e-mails and twitter and it had dropped 3%!!! By 8am I was down to 82% (ride in to work, listening to music for 25 mins, thats about all) I was thinking this was getting silly. It's now 5pm here and I'm still at 61%?!?! So, over the first 3 hours it went 6%ph, since then it's done 2.3%... that's the best I've ever got from it.
Could this be related? It's not really fully charged, even though it shows 100%, drops very quickly and then when it returns to where it perhaps should be (around 80%) it acts as normal?
What is a LiPo charger and how can I use one to charge my Nexus battery?

http://blog.quantifly.com/?p=2
iMAX B6 is what I have been using. I have another heavier duty one but this one is good enough for the battery. I have a generic battery charger thing which I got from China which holds the battery while the other unit charges it. Right now as I write this, my phone has been on for 1hr 25minutes after being charged with the charger, I have used the browser for 10minutes, on 3G, downloading things etc. and it is still on 4211mv and 100% charge.
Curious if this is an issue with the onboard battery microchip, or the radio/firmware. Does anyone know where to source an original replacement battery (non-generic replacement)?

The batteries in these smart phones makes no sense. The other day, I charged the phone overnight using USB, and the next day, I was at 97% after 3.5 hrs. Then, another day, with basically the same usage, I'm down to 85% after 3.5 hrs. No rhyme or reason. I wish someone could explain it.
I also wish someone could make a battery that lasts for 48 hours on normal use

"Drops very quicky"
same here but ive had this 'problems' since stock firmware. its not CM related.
I also noticed that its dropping from 100 to 80ish very fast when starting many apps in the morning for example. Like stopping airplane mode, starting some apps and opening browser. stays at 80ish for some hours then

xPatriicK said:
"Drops very quicky"
same here but ive had this 'problems' since stock firmware. its not CM related.
I also noticed that its dropping from 100 to 80ish very fast when starting many apps in the morning for example. Like stopping airplane mode, starting some apps and opening browser. stays at 80ish for some hours then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. That was the same thing with my Pre. It would never stay at 100% for more than a few minutes, and then it would plummet into the 80's, and then it would be okay.

Battery Antics
I purposely left the phone not to charge last night from about 1AM - and I woke up (around 9:30AM) with it at 99% charge still. Used it for a bit and it dropped to 89% and now it's 1:06PM and it dropped to 75% with calls, web browsing and some other stuff. Previous days to this it would be at 75% after just 2-3 hours!
I also noticed that the phone didn't download any e-mails overnight (since there's no "scheduling" for peak/offpeak like in WM I assumed this shouldn't happen?) which may account for the minimal discharge.
All in all very strange, seems like I am not the only one with these problems - maybe I'll try get another battery and see what happens!

The thing about the battery in a smart phone is that it has a micro chip in it, and the phone reads info from it to give us the battery meter(this is true of any phone, actually)... your LiPo charger reads charge in a similar manner, only it doesn't talk with the batteries chip, instead it does it's own thing(I will spare the details)
With this in mind, what you want to do to get the most out of your battery is get the chip in the battery, and in turn the "circuit" it completes with the phone properly calibrated. To do this, you want to run the phone's battery down until it turns itself off. Do a battery pull and let it sit for a little bit (at least 30 seconds, I usually wait several minutes)... then, put the battery back in, and turn the phone on. One of two things will happen, it will either power off before fully booting, or if it does not you will want to use the phone until it powers off again.
At this point, pull the battery again and let it sit out of the phone for a bit again. Then put it back in, and without trying to power the phone on, put it on the charger and leave it on the charger until it is fully charged "green light comes on" plus a couple hours.(best to leave it on the charger overnight) At this point, take it off the charger, and then turn the phone.
This will properly set the low point and the high point for the battery stats. Do not do this a lot, it is bad for a LiIon battery to be "deep cycled", which this comes really close to doing. Ultimately, the phone is not going to charge the battery as high as a LiPo charger will, nor will it discharge it as low, because unlike an RC car's batteries that are used for rapid discharge, these batteries are designed and used in a slow long term discharge.

Thanks, I'll try that myself
Do you run any risk of damaging the battery when charging with a LiPo?

How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most
Tips: How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most:
1. Always try to drain your battery or wait till its 15% or below then charge your phone. Its very important to turn the phone off before you plug it to charge. This help maximizing your battery charge.
2. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power doing so.
3. Switch off the vibrate function on your phone, and use just the ring tone instead.
4. Turn off your phone's back light.
5. Avoid using unnecessary features. If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, don’t use the camera or connect to the Internet. Flash photography can drain your battery especially quickly.
6. Keep calls short. This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their mobile phone say, "I think my battery’s dying," and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone (and a good one, at that), but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
7. Turn off Bluetooth. It will drain your battery very quickly.
8. Same goes for WIFI, GPS, and infrared capabilities, if your phone has these features built in. Keep them off; save more power.
9. Use GSM - Using your phone in 3G / Dual Mode will drain the battery quicker than if you just use GSM mode - have a look at your phones spec and you'll see it will quote two different battery life times - normally 50% more for pure GSM use.
Very Important:
Anyone purchase a new phone. Its best DO NOT USE the phone with the little remaining power the battery has. It is best that you put the battery in the phone and turn off the phone and change for minimum of 5-6 hours.
The 1st charge for the battery is very important for lithium ion battery. Leaving the phone off will give the full maximize charge the battery can take. Normal when phone shows charge complete by integrator light or on the screen means its 95% complete. To complete the 100% charge you need additional 1-2 hours after the full charge integrator show. Having the phone off also help keep the charge. A phone that is on and charging will never get that 100% charge because there is alway a little battery being drained just because the phone is one even if its plugged in to a charger.
If you see your battery is not giving the same performance what it use to. You can try this method at least 3-4 times for 1 week and follow up every other month. Meaning turn the phone off and charge it every night. It is best if you can drain the battery to 15% or less before charging the phone.

nuc70st said:
Tips: How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most:
1. Always try to drain your battery or wait till its 15% or below then charge your phone. Its very important to turn the phone off before you plug it to charge. This help maximizing your battery charge.
2. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power doing so.
3. Switch off the vibrate function on your phone, and use just the ring tone instead.
4. Turn off your phone's back light.
5. Avoid using unnecessary features. If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, don’t use the camera or connect to the Internet. Flash photography can drain your battery especially quickly.
6. Keep calls short. This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their mobile phone say, "I think my battery’s dying," and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone (and a good one, at that), but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
7. Turn off Bluetooth. It will drain your battery very quickly.
8. Same goes for WIFI, GPS, and infrared capabilities, if your phone has these features built in. Keep them off; save more power.
9. Use GSM - Using your phone in 3G / Dual Mode will drain the battery quicker than if you just use GSM mode - have a look at your phones spec and you'll see it will quote two different battery life times - normally 50% more for pure GSM use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10. Keep the phone off, it'll not drain the battery at all!

So one person says don't let it drop down low very often, the next person says let it drop to 15% all the time...
Personally I've heard not to let it drop low more often these days. The old 'let it decharge regularly' was talked about a lot 4 or 5 years ago... no?

nuc70st said:
Tips: How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most:
1. Always try to drain your battery or wait till its 15% or below then charge your phone. Its very important to turn the phone off before you plug it to charge. This help maximizing your battery charge.
2. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power doing so.
3. Switch off the vibrate function on your phone, and use just the ring tone instead.
4. Turn off your phone's back light.
5. Avoid using unnecessary features. If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, don’t use the camera or connect to the Internet. Flash photography can drain your battery especially quickly.
6. Keep calls short. This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their mobile phone say, "I think my battery’s dying," and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone (and a good one, at that), but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
7. Turn off Bluetooth. It will drain your battery very quickly.
8. Same goes for WIFI, GPS, and infrared capabilities, if your phone has these features built in. Keep them off; save more power.
9. Use GSM - Using your phone in 3G / Dual Mode will drain the battery quicker than if you just use GSM mode - have a look at your phones spec and you'll see it will quote two different battery life times - normally 50% more for pure GSM use.
Very Important:
Anyone purchase a new phone. Its best DO NOT USE the phone with the little remaining power the battery has. It is best that you put the battery in the phone and turn off the phone and change for minimum of 5-6 hours.
The 1st charge for the battery is very important for lithium ion battery. Leaving the phone off will give the full maximize charge the battery can take. Normal when phone shows charge complete by integrator light or on the screen means its 95% complete. To complete the 100% charge you need additional 1-2 hours after the full charge integrator show. Having the phone off also help keep the charge. A phone that is on and charging will never get that 100% charge because there is alway a little battery being drained just because the phone is one even if its plugged in to a charger.
If you see your battery is not giving the same performance what it use to. You can try this method at least 3-4 times for 1 week and follow up every other month. Meaning turn the phone off and charge it every night. It is best if you can drain the battery to 15% or less before charging the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you didn't understand a LI-ION battery!!!
1. completely false
2. I've a mobilephone also I wan't to use it!!!
3. Maybe... Have you tested it with a ampere meter?
4. A black display is always a good idea!
5. Why not buying a Nokia 3210 ?
6. Better: Don't use it for call.
7. Correct! (If you don't use a headset)
8. See Pt. 5
9. See Pt. 5
A few facts:
- a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging
- Limit the time at which the battery stays at 4.20/cell. Prolonged high voltage promotes corrosion, especially at elevated temperatures.
- 3.92V/cell is the best upper voltage threshold for cobalt-based lithium-ion
- The 1st charge is no different to the 5th or the 50th charge. Stickers instructing to charge the battery for 8 hours or more for the first time may be a leftover from the nickel battery days.
Whole article on: batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm (by Cadex Electronic Inc.)

jahmann82 said:
I think you didn't understand a LI-ION battery!!!
1. completely false
2. I've a mobilephone also I wan't to use it!!!
3. Maybe... Have you tested it with a ampere meter?
4. A black display is always a good idea!
5. Why not buying a Nokia 3210 ?
6. Better: Don't use it for call.
7. Correct! (If you don't use a headset)
8. See Pt. 5
9. See Pt. 5
A few facts:
- a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging
- Limit the time at which the battery stays at 4.20/cell. Prolonged high voltage promotes corrosion, especially at elevated temperatures.
- 3.92V/cell is the best upper voltage threshold for cobalt-based lithium-ion
- The 1st charge is no different to the 5th or the 50th charge. Stickers instructing to charge the battery for 8 hours or more for the first time may be a leftover from the nickel battery days.
Whole article on: batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm (by Cadex Electronic Inc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this as well. The tips given by nuc70st is only applicable in the old days with nickel based batteries (Ni-cd and Ni-MH), which for the past 5 years mobile phones have in general stopped using and have shifted to lithium varieties. Nickel Cadium and a smaller extent Nickel Metal Hydride suffer from "memory effect" so it was important to deep cycle the batteries to maintain its capacity.
Lithium batteries in contrast should be treated in the opposite. You should keep it charged up whenever possible, and fast discharging (draining its charge as fast as possible) actually does more harm than good. Most mobile phones don't discharge it fast enough for it to be problem, but plugging a lithium battery in a purpose made discharger is still a no-no.

I dont know if anybody else can try this with their N1 but I have recently noticed that when my battery does its initial.. drop to 95% before you can wonder what happened, I can charge it with the phone on and the green light stays on, implying that the phone is fully charged.
Then I turn the phone off and charge it, and the red light quickly comes on and allows another hour? of charging before the green light will re-appear.
I think i'll be trying leaving my phone on and on charge overnight and then turning it off while I get ready in the morning and don't necessarily need it.

The green light comes on before the battery is fully charged

AndyCr15 said:
So one person says don't let it drop down low very often, the next person says let it drop to 15% all the time...
Personally I've heard not to let it drop low more often these days. The old 'let it decharge regularly' was talked about a lot 4 or 5 years ago... no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm right and the other guy is dead wrong. Deep cycling was better for nickel metal hydride batteries, because it helped delay the memory effect.
No such issue for Li-ion batteries, plus charging makes Li-ion batteries HOT, which isn't particularly good for the battery. So numerous charges leads to less exposure to prolonged heating.

nuc70st said:
Tips: How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most:
1. Always try to drain your battery or wait till its 15% or below then charge your phone. Its very important to turn the phone off before you plug it to charge. This help maximizing your battery charge.
2. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power doing so.
3. Switch off the vibrate function on your phone, and use just the ring tone instead.
4. Turn off your phone's back light.
5. Avoid using unnecessary features. If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, don’t use the camera or connect to the Internet. Flash photography can drain your battery especially quickly.
6. Keep calls short. This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their mobile phone say, "I think my battery’s dying," and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone (and a good one, at that), but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
7. Turn off Bluetooth. It will drain your battery very quickly.
8. Same goes for WIFI, GPS, and infrared capabilities, if your phone has these features built in. Keep them off; save more power.
9. Use GSM - Using your phone in 3G / Dual Mode will drain the battery quicker than if you just use GSM mode - have a look at your phones spec and you'll see it will quote two different battery life times - normally 50% more for pure GSM use.
all very good tips, but its just funny that to save battery life we cant use ours phones as they where intended for us to use them. I need dilithium crystals.
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mikesm1234 said:
all very good tips
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Oh dear. Have you read this thread?
No, they are not good tips...

Rusty! said:
The green light comes on before the battery is fully charged
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I noticed that just last night! Are you supposed to keep charging it until its 100% or stop it from charging when the green light turns on?
Cheers,
M

[Q] EPIC 8 hour max battery life -- is this normal?

I am LUCKY to get 8 hours of battery life on my brand new stock Epic.. I usually get 4-6 hours. It will NOT last through a normal day of work without putting it on the charger around lunchtime. I take it off the charger around 6:30 AM and I am usually home by 4PM and have to immediately go and charge my phone.
Even if I put it on airplane mode, kill all running applications, and shut the screen off to standby, the phone still seems to suck battery life down very quickly (~5% in 20 minutes on airplane mode, wtf???).. So airplane mode doesn't help.. And I really DON'T want to put it in airplane mode to conserve battery because then my phone is completely useless -- it won't even ring when my wife calls..
Is my battery defective? Please tell me it is... This can't be right..
Are there processes still running that use lots of CPU, even when the stock sprint "task manager" program shows that nothing is running? Is there anything I can do to improve this if I root the phone? How about custom roms? I would really like to run Froyo/Gingerbread anyway.. If anyone has any suggestions to help to make my battery life not such an EPIC FAIL, I would greatly appreciate it.
EDIT: Also wanted to comment on the SLOW CHARGING. With the stock Samsung wall charger, it takes at least a couple of hours to get a full charge. With a USB cable plugged into a PC overnight, it only gets to about 50%. Compared with my previous phone, the HTC TP2, this is really really REALLY slow. It charged in 30-60 minutes and the battery lasted much longer.
I did notice that Samsung only provides a 0.7 amp charger, versus a 1.0A charger for the TP2. Why does Samsung limit the charge current like this? And apparently there is no nueBattery mod driver for android
UPDATE: JuiceDefender looks very promising. Installed the free version and my battery is only down to 95% after one hour. Thanks for the suggestion.

FWIW, I'm getting about the same 8ish hours on mine running DK28. I'm losing about 4% an hour without touching it. I'm seeing some people claiming insane battery life (18 hours with heavy browsing on wifi) I wish I knew how they were managing that.

Wait, it won't even ring when you're wife calls? and you're complaining?

First, the airplane mode means you switch the phone to airplane mode first then switch it back so you won't have time without signal problem which can cause battery drain.
I am able to get 10+ hrs at least by doing the following
1) use airplane mode trick so no TWS
2) use titanium backup to remove a bunch of stock junk
3) use titanium to freeze certain applications (DRM, MediaHub, Qik etc)
4) Have as few applications as possible that constantly pull data

Just yesterday I had 1 day 17 hours before switching
Yesterday when it finally gave up the ghost with the battery indicator blinking i checked my stats.
I had 1 day, 17 hours unplugged. Screen time was around 2 hours and some minutes. I had 45 minutes of talk time.
One thing i will add is I purchased a charger with two batteries off Ebay. Previously when charging with the stock charger as soon as I pulled it off the charger it would read 97%. With the seperate charger it reads 100% for quite awhile before it starts to drop.
And for the record I purchased this charger and two batteries of Ebay for a winning bid of $0.01, plus $9.95 S&H. It was a steal in my opinion.

Unless you are getting near 12 hours of battery life, one of 3 things is occurring:
1) You are using the phone an insane amount
2) You messed something up
3) The battery is defective
For the record, its almost always number 2.
I suggest doing a Factory reset, which will wipe everything off the phone. Then without installing anything or setting your facebook to update every 15 seconds, see how long the battery life lasts. If it is still only 4-6 hours, then your battery is most likely defective.

well of course it won't ring if your wife calls if its in airplane mode. That radio is turned off.

8 hours? That's it? I wouldn't call that normal, but that's just me...
I just plugged my phone in after 4 1/2 days (108 hours) running on a stock 1500maH battery, running Quantum Rom 1.5 (DK17), no special apps running to disable data (aka Juice Defender, etc.), not in airplane mode at all, with the DRM software running, in other words, a more or less 'Stock' configuration (taking into account any differences in the base Rom).
Granted, I barely used the phone in the last 4 days though

muyoso said:
I suggest doing a Factory reset, which will wipe everything off the phone. Then without installing anything or setting your facebook to update every 15 seconds, see how long the battery life lasts. If it is still only 4-6 hours, then your battery is most likely defective.
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I'll do that. For the record, I've got fbook set to never update, and seesmic once every 6 hrs.

Koadic said:
8 hours? That's it? I wouldn't call that normal, but that's just me...
I just plugged my phone in after 4 1/2 days (108 hours) running on a stock 1500maH battery, running Quantum Rom 1.5 (DK17), no special apps running to disable data (aka Juice Defender, etc.), not in airplane mode at all, with the DRM software running, in other words, a more or less 'Stock' configuration (taking into account any differences in the base Rom).
Granted, I barely used the phone in the last 4 days though
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LOL at screen on for 52 minutes total. That is 11.5 minutes a day.

muyoso said:
LOL at screen on for 52 minutes total. That is 11.5 minutes a day.
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Like I said, barely touched my phone in the last 4 days... been feeling a little under the weather so have been at home a lot and in bed doing all my internet stuff and gaming (pogo) on a laptop instead of on my phone.

Since I updated to the leaked Froyo, my battery life has plummeted. It lasts maybe 1/3-1/2 as long as it used to. Turning off 3G has helped immensely though, so that must be the culprit. I used to be able to leave 3G on while at work and make it to bedtime before having to charge it. Or if I shut it off at night (which I usually do), it would make it through my commute to work the next morning. Now, I'm lucky to get through the work day unless I turn off 3G. Huge difference in battery life for me since updating. I'm hoping they fix this in the official release of Froyo.

Well, I've recently found out that if you flash via update.zip while the USB is plugged in, you'll mess up the battery calibration of your device. This is what I did, and i'm pretty sure the cause of my problems. I did find a fix, and here it is:
siliconaddict said:
This is the procedure that works for me:
The following steps should significantly extend the battery life on your phone:
1. Let the battery drain close to empty (5% or less).
2. Connect the phone to the charger (AC or USB, USB is better) while powered on and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green, indicating the device is fully charged and untill the voltage is at least 4187mV. A higher voltage like 4192mV or more is even better. Use a tool like Overcharged or Battery Indicator to monitor this. Note that a green notification LED does not automatically mean that the voltage is good too.
A higher voltage means in practice that it will take longer to discharge, a lower voltage means that the battery will discharge a lot quicker! The difference can be quite significant!
3. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it off.
4. Reconnect the phone to the charger while powered off and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green. The notification LED may turn green immediately. Leave it on the charger for another hour.
5. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it on.
6. Once the phone is powered on completely (has restarted fully) wait 2 minutes and power it off again.
7. Reconnect the phone to the charger while powered off and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green. The notification LED may turn green immediately. Leave it on the charger for another hour.
8. Leave the phone on the charger and reboot into the ClockWorkMod recovery menu and wipe the battery stats via -> Advanced -> Wipe battery stats.
9. Disconnect the phone from the charger, restart the phone and start using it as normal.
From then on always let the battery drain close to empty (5% or less) as often as possible and then charge untill the voltage is at least 4187mV. A higher voltage like 4192mV or more is even better.
Normally you will have to do this only once. However, on all Android ROMs, if you flash a ROM while charging or during the first boot screen on, first boot mucks up the levels Android thinks the phone is at, i.e. Android will think you’re at 100% when maybe you’re only 90% or whatever. So in theory you will need to repeat this every time you flash a ROM while charging!
Better is to make sure the battery is charged before you flash a ROM and just remove the USB/charge cable before you flash a ROM. Put it back in (if you must) after the first boot screen (when the custom screen or whatever shows).
Click to expand...
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There is a shorter version that also seems to work well:
vidler said:
So combining the two bits of info we've compiled, the best way to calibrate your battery is as follows
1: Charge phone whilst on till LED is green.
2: Disconnect phone from charger, power it off.
3: Reconnect to charger with phone powered off and allow to charge till LED is green.
4: Disconnect the phone from charger, power it on. Once completely powered on, turn it off again and reconnect to charger until LED is green.
5: Reboot into recovery (back button held at same time as power button) and wipe battery stats.
Battery should now be calibrated.
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From what I've been told, you don't have to wipe the stats (you need root to do that) but it helps if you can.
I think this may also stem from interrupting the inital charge of the device. I know I did this on both my wife's device and mine (plus my added fubar of flashing with the USB in). Anyway, hopefully I can report some good news tomorrow.
If y'all are really interested in reading a 51 page thread on this, go here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=755903

I get 4 or 5 hours if that. I can barely make it to 6. But i probably use my phone more than the average person. Because i take public transportation and browse, stream, email and have 4g connected on my commute back and fourth.

diego1985 said:
I get 4 or 5 hours if that. I can barely make it to 6. But i probably use my phone more than the average person. Because i take public transportation and browse, stream, email and have 4g connected on my commute back and fourth.
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I've been running JuiceDefender for about 5 hours now and I am loving it.. I still have 75% and I can still receive calls just fine.. It turns off data when the screen is off, but turns it on at scheduled times (default is 1 min every 15 min) so that your emails/twitters/etc can update like normal. The paid version has even more features so I bought it..

Never mind im dumb for not reading his post. Already answered my question sorry.

sleebus.jones said:
Well, I've recently found out that if you flash via update.zip while the USB is plugged in, you'll mess up the battery calibration of your device. This is what I did, and i'm pretty sure the cause of my problems. I did find a fix, and here it is:
There is a shorter version that also seems to work well:
From what I've been told, you don't have to wipe the stats (you need root to do that) but it helps if you can.
I think this may also stem from interrupting the inital charge of the device. I know I did this on both my wife's device and mine (plus my added fubar of flashing with the USB in). Anyway, hopefully I can report some good news tomorrow.
If y'all are really interested in reading a 51 page thread on this, go here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=755903
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Decided not to quote the whole thing but I'm in the process of doing this right now! Took 2 hours to drain my batt from full (running everything and keeping my phone searching for gps constantly in a place where it would also be searching for signal makes quick work of a battery!).

knyque said:
Wait, it won't even ring when you're wife calls? and you're complaining?
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*golf clap*

diego1985 said:
I definitely need to try that out. Can you still receive calls or no?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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Yes, with juice defender I can receive calls and my gmail/twitter/facebook/etc. are all already up-to-date whenever I pick up my phone. It works exactly as before, except my battery is not constantly being drained now.
I guess the downsides are that I might not get a new email notification for 15 minutes, and that there is a service running in the background that may cause some slowdown. Neither has been a problem for me so far. I highly recommend this application for Epic 4G owners. Problem solved, basically.

I usually get 12hrs with moderate use (~2hrs with screen on, half of that is usually on the browser). I turn background data off bc I don't have a twitter and I rarely check Facebook so when I do I just use the browser.
I also noticed that wifi burns more battery on DK28, on 2.1 I would hardly lose any battery on standby with wifi, now I get a 3-4% drain per hour... But with 3g on now I lose less then 1% an hour, it used to be a battery hog.

[Q] Battery issues

Ye, my battery just went from 48% to 3% in about 3 minutes. Does anyone have any idea why this is?

Same problem here. From about 43 % down to 7 % while it started to charge the battery with the original charger. Afterwards the Tab didn´t charge at all. Battery drained and got very warm.
I Called Vodafone and was told i have to send the Tab in for fixing. I hate waiting for the tablet 3 weeks.
Update: After 2 hrs. of waiting the Tab cooled down and i was able to start it again. Did a factory reset and was able to charge again with the wall mount charger.

Just wanted to bump this as my battery life is miserable and it discharges really fast in standby...
My HTC desire has been on for 52 hours, used for a lot of stuff and is at 20% battery.
The Tab charges to 100%, I unplug it at night and in the morning it has lost approx 10%, I leave it a few more hours and it't down to around 60%. This is with no use and no apps running!
I've tried killing apps or leaving them in memory and it doesn't seem to make much difference. I also use setcpu and have a profile where the CPU speed decreases when in standby to conserve battery?!
If I charge to 100% and use it constantly, I get fair life out of it maybe 4-6 hours of light use - some streaming over wifi, web surfing, kindle, sudoku etc. If I use it occasionally or heavily though, it dies very quick and if I leave it at about 40% on the evening, it's generally dead in the morning.
Why does it discharge so fast in standby??

Check to see if it continually searching for a signal. I've noticed that mine loses a lot of power constantly searching for a signal, cellular and wifi. So, I used airplane mode to conserve power. Remember that it syncs to different services that require it to periodically download data. That may be your issue.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App

Thanks Chuck, I use it in airplane mode all the time and only use web over wifi (bought unconnected in the UK). Would it still be syncing for email etc? I didn't think it could turn on wifi and sync itself but only when I turn wifi on. I always turn wifi off when not in use. I had problems with widgetlocker asking for superuser permission quite often and that killed the battery quicker so I removed that until it's fixed and saw an improvement.
I'm not seeing the times that other people are though, losing at least 10% overnight and there's nothing really running.
I installed battery doctor and the times it quotes are high for different types of usage and nowhere near what I'm getting.
I'll make sure email and calendar are set to manual update, adjust brightness etc and see what happens. It seemed better when I first got it so perhaps an app is draining it? I installed system panel to monitor this but it's hard to see what is actually draining it, any recommendations anyone???
Quite disappointed at the moment, ipads barely drop 1% overnight and I'd rather not have to turn it off to conserve battery when it should maintain it in standby...

Check the task manager and see what application are running. Also you can go in settings- about device - battery use to see if a specific application is using your battery out of normal. Also , the display is generally the battery hog, you may have set it to a super high level. One last thing you may have the buggy 3d gallery app, and it will show in the battery usage.
P_

this is an interesting problem. its very similar to the Apple Macbook Air.
The Macbook Air was very thin - very nice looking - however it needed to depend on wifi to do most things.
the association i am trying to build here is this: the Tab needs a bluethooth headset so you dont get all your calls broad-casted over speakers and that could drain the battery a lot.
for me the battery drainage didnt seem so bad and its been on for the last 36 or so hours. the battery icon didnt look like it moved so much and i was impressed considering this thing had a gigantic battery. then i loaded up a utility that read the battery and said i had 59% so my jaw dropped. not only is the battery indicator wrong there maybe rogue processes casuing the battery drainage. and this is on 2.2 which is supposed to be somewhat battery efficient.
i dont know - frustration is what i am all about here with this thing. it seems that every time i buy a new android device i want to move to another android device. no one is getting the damn thing correctly setup.

Am at work right Now, Charged the tab overnight, just few minutes ago my battery said 60% left and now the tab is completely dead, wont turn on, I ll wait until i get home to charge, fingers crossed.

Change the battery...
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

shubh.27hd2 said:
Change the battery...
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
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its been charging for 2 hours now and battery is not even warm to the touch plus no power yet... if charging is what you intended....

more than 3 hours of charging and counting and still no sign of life...This device is just 8 days old today from Brand new...

mudstuff said:
Just wanted to bump this as my battery life is miserable and it discharges really fast in standby...
My HTC desire has been on for 52 hours, used for a lot of stuff and is at 20% battery.
The Tab charges to 100%, I unplug it at night and in the morning it has lost approx 10%, I leave it a few more hours and it't down to around 60%. This is with no use and no apps running!
I've tried killing apps or leaving them in memory and it doesn't seem to make much difference. I also use setcpu and have a profile where the CPU speed decreases when in standby to conserve battery?!
If I charge to 100% and use it constantly, I get fair life out of it maybe 4-6 hours of light use - some streaming over wifi, web surfing, kindle, sudoku etc. If I use it occasionally or heavily though, it dies very quick and if I leave it at about 40% on the evening, it's generally dead in the morning.
Why does it discharge so fast in standby??
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Click to collapse
I am experiencing the same thing. Tab on flight mode and charged to 100% overnight. Unplugged at 9am, still on flight mode with no apps running, and it is 88% at 2pm.
12% drop in 5 hours with no usage whatsoever is way too much imo, comparing let say to my HD2, even not in flight mode. Wonder if they have a bad batch of battery for certain tabs........

Just wanna report back after my last post. When the percentage was dropped to 85%, I did a reboot. And guess what, now it displays 95% !!!!!!
5% drop from the morning til now in flight mode seems right and okay. Does it mean the tab is miscalculating the percent left?
PS.
I have been following the voltage in Spare parts this morning. All settings are the same (no apps opened, same screen brightness and in flight mode. Only turn on to record voltage)
94% - 4087mV
91% - 4081mV
88% - 4075mV
85% - 4067mV
But then after the reboot
95% - 4040mV
Man, I am not sure whats going on here........

shinji21 said:
Just wanna report back after my last post. When the percentage was dropped to 85%, I did a reboot. And guess what, now it displays 95% !!!!!!
5% drop from the morning til now in flight mode seems right and okay. Does it mean the tab is miscalculating the percent left?
PS.
I have been following the voltage in Spare parts this morning. All settings are the same (no apps opened, same screen brightness and in flight mode. Only turn on to record voltage)
94% - 4087mV
91% - 4081mV
88% - 4075mV
85% - 4067mV
But then after the reboot
95% - 4040mV
Man, I am not sure whats going on here........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
let me jump in here again and share a similar deli-ma i had with my X10i.
while i was messing around with some custom roms i decided to stick to one that looked somewhat nice. well the funny thing is the battery indicator would always display 100% and for about 4 hours it would drop ever so slightly. then i removed the battery and put it back in -- the battery indicator showed 0% and i got a red light flashing ....
after screwing around with it for a bit i re-flashed the stock firmware from Sony-Ericsson and magically my battery meter and my battery worked fine.
so to sum up -- it maybe a software issue like the one i had on my SE X10i above?