[Q] How can I test if battery is bad or phone isn't charging properly? - EVO Shift 4G General

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to test which one might be bad? Any app you know of that can monitor things and tell me if a rogue app is killing the battery or if the battery is bad?
I was running mik 1.1 and was using it pretty heavily with gaming and downloading stuff. The phone died after about 7 hours. I thought that maybe the rom or cwm or something else might be killing the battery. Something strange though is that, like I said, I ran the battery until the phone shut off. Then I left it off and put it in a wall wart charger for about 8 hours and the status light was still orange. My gf had the phone and told me once she left it plugged in overnight and in the morning it was only at like 50 something percent. I thought maybe the charger went bad so I gave her another one and she didn't say anything else about it. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the phone's battery has a weak or bad cell. I kinda doubt that there's something wrong with the charging circuitry of the phone but there could be, anything is possible. I will probably take it to the repair center and tell them about it and see what they say. I tried looking on htc's site for oem replacement batteries but couldn't find anything. I found lots of aftermarket but I didn't want to go that route.
I don't know if it would not be a good idea or not to try and use my original evo battery just flipped over. I suppose if that's the only thing I have to try and troubleshoot this problem then it will have to do.
Can anyone give me suggestions or has something similar happened to you?
Now let me see if I can find that evo battery..........

Spare parts, in the market if not on your rom by default, had a battery information tab that will indicate battery health as well as what kind of plug the phone detects when charging (usb, ac, or none)
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Like danaff37 said, spare parts can be useful. Also try CPU Spy, free from the market, which shows what % of the time your CPU spends at each frequency, but this actually more relevant for determining if your phone is properly sleeping..
For proper charging you can get an app like CurrentWidget or Battery Monitor Widget which tells your the current consumed during usage or current injected during charging, as well as the voltage in mV. Full charge should reach around 4200 mV, and when charging the current should be around ~800 mA for lower % battery left.

Thanks for your input. I found the evo battery and did the same thing as before. I ran it until the phone shut off and then put it one the (same) charger and went to bed. About seven hours later, it was still orange charging. Both times the phone was off. Now something that could be a possibility is the charger is weak or bad. When I put my evo on it, it charges seemingly fine. I should try using the battery until it shuts off again and use a different charger and see what happens. Six to eight hours charging, with the phone off, coming from a dead battery, on a Motorola charger that has a rated output of eight hundred milliamps at five volts. I have others at different output rates and a two amp charger intended for an ipad. Some might say that the charger is too much for the phone. The charging circuitry only pulls as much amperage from the charger as the phone was designed to. Now on the other hand if I put a smaller output charger on, say one hundred and fifty milliamps, it will take longer to charge the phone than usual. "They" say trickle charging is better. Whatever. I will post my results if I find any. Or, I just might trade the phone in for a nexus s or an evo 3d.

I was just about ready to throw in the towel and say the phone was defective, but then things started happening. I will fill you in on what I have done in the meantime. Okay so the flipped over evo battery kinda works but not completely. It will charge but not to 100% and green light. To test this, I took the evo battery out of the shift. It didn't seem to want to go more than 98 or 99%. I put the battery into the evo and after a few minutes the light went green. This was initially off. Then I booted the evo and let it go to sleep. After it booted the light went orange then green after a few minutes. Okay so the evo battery is capable of going to 100%. These charging tests were done with a different charger.
I forgot to tell you, I let the evo battery charge while I was at work and the phone was off. So the battery was charging roughly twenty hours and still no green light. I suspect that even though the positive and negative terminals aligned with the correct tabs on the shift, the center two contacts must be different internally than the shift battery. I speculate that those center tabs are for the battery and phone to communicate to each other during it's charging state. I am guessing that the battery tells the phone it is fully charged and to go trickle charge and perhaps the evo battery wasn't communicating to the phone or the phone didn't know when to say it is done charging. The battery never got hot either.
The shift was rooted, running mikshift 1.1 and the latest clockworkmod recovery. Here is where I suspect that there still might be charging bugs with that setup. I used the pcxx.zip file that when booting into the bootloader, would flash the phone back to stock everything. After trying this and assuming that the phone was back to stock, I kept going with my what the hell is going on with this phone battery charging test. A note about the flipped evo battery. Yes it will work in a pinch but it won't charge properly. Luck has it that the notches in the battery and phone allow it to work in a shift. Only thing is, the shift battery won't work in the evo. The tabs are on the wrong side and the phone's tabs won't allow the contacts on the battery to meet up with the phone's terminals.
Okay, where was I? Trying different chargers wouldn't make the shift green light full charge. I tried the same chargers on the evo with it's original battery in and it would green light after a few minutes on or off. There wasn't anything wrong with the chargers. Oh and another note, while using the battery monitor widget, I noticed that both phones wouldn't pull more than a little over three hundred milliamps of power from the charger to the battery. Interesting to know how much it really pulls from the charger.
Anywho, I tried something different for my process of elimination testing. I actually ruu flashed the shift back to factory and guess what happened..... The battery and phone were charging both on and off all the way to green full charge at 100%! I think I'm getting somewhere with this! All my luck, either it is a known bug somewhere in the forum in a place I haven't stumbled across or I'm the only one that this is happening to. It doesn't really matter I guess.
My conclusion, which isn't scientific by any stretch of the imagination, is that the phone isn't truely back to factory unless you ruu it. The pcxximg.zip doesn't put everything back to stock. I haven't narrowed it down to what is causing this behavior. I don't think it is root. It could be cwm recovery or the rom or both. I didn't try the stock rooted zip either. I suppose I could go further with this investigation but I am too lazy to now. I might root it again and just leave things stock rooted. I might activate this phone in the morning and run it all day tomorrow and see how it acts. I will have to charge it a few times during the day to keep the levels up when I really use the phone heavily. I've written enough for now. Does anyone have anything to ask or add to this topic?

Since the latest update to CWM phone-off charging finally works again but the light never turns green. It charges fully but with the phone off the LED never turns green. It's not just you.
EDIT: If this is not the actual question I apologize. The posts were far too long to actually read
^ Shift Faced

OK. I thought something might have been broken.

Forgive me, I am truly a newbie to Android after having a BB for 8 years. This battery thing is killing me. I am on my 2nd Evo Shift, the 1st one wouldn't last for more than 2 hours with barely any usage so they gave me a new one. This one barely lasts 5 hours. I am barely running anything. I took it into the store and they thought I was going to be running all these programs, but I kill everything. They told me the "battery trick" about turning off the phone and unplugging it and plugging it back in 10 times so I did that but I am not getting any more life out of the battery. My display is constantly using at least 70% of the battery it says even if I turn it down very low or if I set it to choose its setting. Do you have any advice for me? I am not running a task killer, I kill all the programs I am not using. I have no widgets running because I am afraid to use the battery, I only have 2 screens out of the 7 with things on them. I am being help hostage by my cool phone that I want to use but am scared to kill the battery! (sorry for the long post)

Ok if you use a lot apps just close them after (for stock 2.2) . Even on stock you can literally stream music and movies for about 4-6 hours. (sometimes a lot more) . The background info that runs doesn't use a lot of juice , but if you want you can go to your home screen any of them hit menu (but not with the app drawer open) select settings go to accounts and sync turn off background info and just turn it on manually when needed such as the android market . You can also turn off the auto sync and just manually choose to sync , like in the clock (and gmail etc.) it will say no weather after you click it , just hit menu you will see a little sync button option to sync and voila you have weather . So when you visit the market it will automatically ask you to turn it on (background info as will all apps that need this) . And the screen on any android is a battery killer . So when not using your phone simply tapp your power button to turn your screen off and lock (and to keep from pocket dialing lol) . But if all you do is text , emails , and web surfing (surfing drains more but no where near as much as streaming) you can literally do that all day , the screen will actually suck the most power . If manually turning off your apps is too much . Just turn your phone off (not just the screen) and on . If a new app didn't turn off after you start your phone back up you know that will be a problem later . So when not using your phone turn off your screen it will last soooo much longer . I only make a call or two and a couple of texts maybe a few minutes of internet with opera mini . My battery lasts over 24 hrs , but I barely use my phone . Hope that helps .
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

BTW if you have a bunch of apps running in the background video games etc ... and you charge your phone all night and in the morning it is not charged . You should probably turn your apps off . Or simply power your phone off which shuts off most apps . Then turn it back on . The phone should not take all night to charge , it should only take an hour or 2 . 3 hours max .
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

i suggest watchdog lite,it monitors cpu usage and alerts you when 1 uses more than your max threshold.if this helps,please click thanks.

When you changed ROMs, did you do it with a full charge? If not, your battery stats file is probably messed up.. Ive used Battery Calibrator free from the market in the past to fix that problem.. I believe a brand new battery on the Shift shows about 4200mV when fully charged or just slightly below that.. Run the app, when it gets close, calibrate (which essentially just deletes the battery stats file and creates a new one)

Related

battery drained out.....any idea

for some odd reason my battery was drained out very fast, i mean fast....
i thought it was my battery but i guess its my phone....cuz i bought a new battery n it was at 60% n less than 3 min it was down to 6%....
is there a way to fix this or is my phone broken...
any help would be good....
thank you!!!
Enter *#*#4636#*#* in the dialpad, that brings you to a service menu. There, go to Battery History and select Partial wake usage. That shows you if you have some app installed that prevents the phone from sleeping.
Also, the battery needs to go through a couple of full charge-discharge cycles before it reaches it full capacity.
Hope that helps!
Was it hot?
Hi,
To dissipate that amount of energy in that time would make the unit very hot indeed.
Is the unit getting hot?
If not, then the energy wasn’t really there and it’s likely your battery is damaged/faulty and needs replacement.
Regards,
Paul.
The best advice i can give you is to find a widget that disables your data connection.
I used to have major battery drain. ie: Right after a charge, i only got 97%. By 10am, with almost no usage, im on around 68%.
Now, with data disabled (when not in use), i am still on 95% since i took it off charge at about 12am in the morning!
setfree said:
The best advice i can give you is to find a widget that disables your data connection.
I used to have major battery drain. ie: Right after a charge, i only got 97%. By 10am, with almost no usage, im on around 68%.
Now, with data disabled (when not in use), i am still on 95% since i took it off charge at about 12am in the morning!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I ask you what widget you use for that? I'm facing the same problem: 94% right after recharge and rapid discharge after that.
Try "Data on demand", worked for me.
P.
data on demand is brilliant.. but I don't think that is the problem that the OP has experienced - no amount of data use would cause the battery to drain that quickly.. it's likely to be 1 of 2 things..
1. Faulty battery.
2. faulty app which is battering the processor and using 3g/wifi at the same time..
no the battery is not hot....my phone was working fine this 3 day ago....n now with the new battery is still the same.......
i also turn of everything on my phone n restart everything...with 0% this morning ....with my phone n now im back home im still at 23%.......is it virus?...but i scan my phone with this app from the market n its fine........
Timescape and Mediascape might be the cause
Hi, I had the same problem. I had to charge my phone three or four times a day. I read in a thread here that some people removed Timescape and got amazing improvements. I removed Timescape, Mediascape and other applications I don't need. Your phone must be rooted for removing these applications.
This night my battery dropped 3% in six hours. I now charge once a day and is happy with that.
Helps to mention to them any side effects of removing timescape n so forth..
Sent from my rooted 026 X10i using swype via XDA!!
Yeah, removing timescape and mediascape is a good idea, i also removed the phone dialer, and the browser because it was draining lots of battery, and also removed parts of the Android UI but figured it was still using some battery, so i now use the shell on minimum screen luminosity and always on plane mode !
Yes, you can mock about it, but both Timescape and Mediascape got replacment apps which are actually way more usable and gives me more than just a fancy user interface.
That is one of the good things about Android. I am not locked to any application.
Sorry to take over here but whats a good replacement for timescape? I've tried many phonebook apps and they all look horrible.
I would really like the HTC sense phoonebook any way i can get that?
Sent from my X10i using XDA Apptr
I don't know about that but theres apps such as acontacts, takephone (something like that) n quickcall!
Sent from my rooted 026 X10i using swype via XDA!!
It happens to me once, from 92% to 36% in just under 6 minutes. Then draining very fast after that. I removed one application I installed (can't remember the exact name) and rebooted and it never happen again...
phone is dead now..........
wont charge!!!!
this suckx!!!!
wast of money!!!!!!
You need to take it back buddy - it's obviously faulty.
Dear all members,
I plug in the phone yesterday for charging and probably due to the charger was not plugged into the socket probably, it is not charging.
To my surprise, when I wake up in the morning, the battery was drained and shut off.
I try to charge the battery up but the charging seems a little slow now, is the battery faulty?
I can feel the back of the phone was hot though.
Definitely something wrong with my battery, I have been charging from morning till now and the battery never charges up to 22%, when it reaches 22%, it will drain out slowly even the socket is still connected.
I will have to bring my phone down for them to check.
beno1 said:
Enter *#*#4636#*#* in the dialpad, that brings you to a service menu. There, go to Battery History and select Partial wake usage. That shows you if you have some app installed that prevents the phone from sleeping..
Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any way to disable those apps while the phone is sleeping?

Sprint rep told me that battery graph is what is draining my battery

I'm within my 30days
I love this phone.
My battery discharges rapidly, especially their the first 5 mins off the charger.
I have been looking at this issue, but I am new to android.
I find it funny we can't actually see a battery percentage without installing third party apps. Then Sprint tries to say that these apps are the cause of the issue.
Trust me, I understand that this phone will drain the battery more rapidly than a lot of other phones. But there is something wrong with the way this phone charges the battery, therefore we see less battery life.
Can anyone prove or disprove their little claim that I am killing the battery by looking at its performance?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
tell him that the phone and the plan is also draining your wallet, may be you should do something about that too
the reason your battery sometimes drops so quickly after you take it off the charger has been well documented. several threads with ways to improve the battery as well.
it has to do with the way the battery actually charges. it charges to 100% then allows the phone to discharge to 90% then charges up again...so at any time when you unplug the phone you may have 91% to 100% charge. or something like that.
1) have you tried conditioning your battery? (plug, wait, unplug, rinse repeat)
2) are you rooted? (try using something like SetCPU or JuiceDefender)
3) are you on stock or custom rom? (the custom kernel devs have been working on this issue)
hmmmm...how could you possibly disprove the sprint person? try not using it for a couple days...see what happens.
DraginMagik said:
try not using it for a couple days...see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No doubt....my withdrawals kick in after its been in my pocket for too long...
While do appreciate the input, I disagree with it being well documented. I have tried both top off methods, aka conditioning, and it seems to give you more of a charge, but as soon as discharge the battery you are right back where you started, conditioning the battery every morning is not ideal.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
If the phone is new, its going to take a few cycles to improve. I remember when in my first week it wouldn't last a day. Now I can get 20-30 hours out of it. (ROMs and tweaking of course.)
There are tons of threads detailing what you can do to improve battery life... What have you done?
The purpose of a battery graph is to compare how your phone discharges to how your phone is being used. What plotting app do you have?
engagedtosmile said:
If the phone is new, its going to take a few cycles to improve. I remember when in my first week it wouldn't last a day. Now I can get 20-30 hours out of it. (ROMs and tweaking of course.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is false...lithium batteries do not get broken in or conditioned. What you saw is more than likely a result of constant using your new toy. The novelty has worn off and you have tweaked it so now you have extended the battery life.
I have disabled Bluetooth, WiFi, gps, and 4g
I set the radio to cdma only, and this led to problems. So I cleared all data And started over.
Are youguys seriously ok with 'conditioning' your batteries every morning?
Sometimes I think people think I'm just trying to find faults with this device. I want to keep the phone, but I also want this problem clearly identified and resolved. I should not have to use my tilt 2 to charge my battery because my new state of the art phone can't do it correctly.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
lettcco said:
tell him that the phone and the plan is also draining your wallet, may be you should do something about that too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's called the Fat Wallet Mod Discussed in other threads also,
But yes, I think it's dumb to have to condition the phone to get the best battery life, and how I have to get soo much good Light to take a good camera shot when other comparable phones don't need too. You have to weigh the goods and bad yourself.
The discharging of the battery is necessary as trickle charging a lithium battery is not recommended...thus this leads to you possibly having 95% instead of the full 100%. This is normal. Just unplug the device and charge again, or top it of in the car.
You never mentioned if you were rooted or not. If you don't use the news then don't sync it. If you don't use gtalk then disable it and turn off the auto sign in...i found that this app uses a lot of battery and its turned on by default.
It is not conditioning your battery.
When you charge your new evo and it hits 100%, the phone STOPS charging. It has no trickle charge. It begins charging again at 90% if still plugged in, although it reads 100% until it comes off the charger.
SO, when you unplug it, it says 100%, but could be anywhere between 90 and 100. If you simply unplug your phone, wait for it to display something other than fully charged (usually takes 30-60 seconds), then plug it back in, it will then charge back to 100%. You can simply unplug it, wait a few and then plug it back in while you go about your shower and cereal. When you are ready to leave the house you'll probably be at or near 100% instead of seeing it drop to something much lower.
This is NOT conditioning your battery. A more appropriate term would be "bump charging". As you are simply bumping it back to a charge state when it was in a resting state.
Another GREAT method of increasing battery life is resetting your battery stats. This is clearing out what the phone defines as full, and as empty and setting up these values again. I am not sure why, but they are off on many phones. They also get wiped anytime you flash a new rom so this procedure would again be in order if you experience poor battery life.
These are the instructions straight off cyanogen wiki. You can also reset them using Amon recovery.
Battery recalibration
If you're experiencing higher than normal battery drain, try the following:
1.Charge the phone to full battery; let it keep charging until the battery says it is fully charged. Do not just wait until the light is green, it isn't always fully charged, causing a lot of inaccuracies. (You can check by going to: Settings -> About Phone -> Status -> Battery Level = Full.)
2.Boot to recovery mode and go to console (or adb shell) and type:
mount -a
rm /data/system/batterystats.bin
NOTE: Newer Amon_Ra and ClockworkMod recoveries have an option to delete the battery stats, do this in place of the console commands above.
NOTE: To have the most accurate of battery stats, reboot the phone immediately after wiping the battery stats and wait for CM to boot completely to the desktop. Once your entire boot is done and you have full access to the phone, go ahead and pull the charger and continue with this troubleshooter.
1.Do not charge the phone until after draining the battery completely, resulting in it automatically shutting off.
2.Recharge the phone completely and then use as you normally would.
Excellent write up carguy... +15 internets to you
surrealmethod said:
Excellent write up carguy... +15 internets to you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why thank you kind sir!
potna said:
I'm within my 30days
I love this phone.
My battery discharges rapidly, especially their the first 5 mins off the charger.
I have been looking at this issue, but I am new to android.
I find it funny we can't actually see a battery percentage without installing third party apps. Then Sprint tries to say that these apps are the cause of the issue.
Trust me, I understand that this phone will drain the battery more rapidly than a lot of other phones. But there is something wrong with the way this phone charges the battery, therefore we see less battery life.
Can anyone prove or disprove their little claim that I am killing the battery by looking at its performance?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sprint rep is an idiot and if you took the time to search instead of making this post you could have saved yourself some trouble
no...i can't imagine anyone 'conditions' their battery daily. however, if experiencing issues wiping the stats and doing the conditioning thing do have an impact.
Sporkman said:
sprint rep is an idiot and if you took the time to search instead of making this post you could have saved yourself some trouble
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While most of the battery problem isn't the plotter app, the plotter app is using a fair amount of battery, so I usually would recommend not having such apps running except when you are diagnosing problems. Turn off various apps sync settings and keep background apps to a minimum, like juice plotter, battery widgets, and other data intensive apps and widgets. That right there will save you some power. Other than that, follow all the excellent suggestions that are already in this thread. Oh, and I find I get better battery when I just don't worry about it. I set up all my sync services and then leave them alone. Then just go about my day, using my phone as needed. Constantly worrying about it only wastes power because you are constantly fiddling with settings and apps.
PROTIP: Never believe anything a cellular rep tells you. Ever. EVER!
The Evo just has terrible battery life, that's my personal conclusion. One of the trade offs with such a huge screen and such. You'd think that in this day and age battery technology would have kept up with all the other bells and whistles, but no.
carguy4471 said:
It is not conditioning your battery.
When you charge your new evo and it hits 100%, the phone STOPS charging. It has no trickle charge. It begins charging again at 90% if still plugged in, although it reads 100% until it comes off the charger.
SO, when you unplug it, it says 100%, but could be anywhere between 90 and 100. If you simply unplug your phone, wait for it to display something other than fully charged (usually takes 30-60 seconds), then plug it back in, it will then charge back to 100%. You can simply unplug it, wait a few and then plug it back in while you go about your shower and cereal. When you are ready to leave the house you'll probably be at or near 100% instead of seeing it drop to something much lower.
This is NOT conditioning your battery. A more appropriate term would be "bump charging". As you are simply bumping it back to a charge state when it was in a resting state.
Another GREAT method of increasing battery life is resetting your battery stats. This is clearing out what the phone defines as full, and as empty and setting up these values again. I am not sure why, but they are off on many phones. They also get wiped anytime you flash a new rom so this procedure would again be in order if you experience poor battery life.
These are the instructions straight off cyanogen wiki. You can also reset them using Amon recovery.
Battery recalibration
If you're experiencing higher than normal battery drain, try the following:
1.Charge the phone to full battery; let it keep charging until the battery says it is fully charged. Do not just wait until the light is green, it isn't always fully charged, causing a lot of inaccuracies. (You can check by going to: Settings -> About Phone -> Status -> Battery Level = Full.)
2.Boot to recovery mode and go to console (or adb shell) and type:
mount -a
rm /data/system/batterystats.bin
NOTE: Newer Amon_Ra and ClockworkMod recoveries have an option to delete the battery stats, do this in place of the console commands above.
NOTE: To have the most accurate of battery stats, reboot the phone immediately after wiping the battery stats and wait for CM to boot completely to the desktop. Once your entire boot is done and you have full access to the phone, go ahead and pull the charger and continue with this troubleshooter.
1.Do not charge the phone until after draining the battery completely, resulting in it automatically shutting off.
2.Recharge the phone completely and then use as you normally would.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry but that all sounds like the formula to derive the circumference of the nucleus of an atomic variable perpendicular to the perimeter of the nth root in relation to the isosceles of the .........geezus, all that just to get a smidgen of decent battery life...

Extend Battery Life?

I found something for the Desire, Evo 4G and Droid Incredible where they said that you could increase (sometimes double) battery life by doing this:
Turn your device ON and Charge the device for 8 hours or more
Unplug the device and Turn the phone OFF and charge for 1 hour
Unplug the device Turn ON wait 2 minutes and Turn OFF and charge for another hour Your battery life should almost double, we have tested this on our devices and other agents have seen a major difference as well.
Ok, this is strange tricks, but many people said that it’s really works!
Anyone know if it works?
SSJVegetto said:
I found something for the Desire, Evo 4G and Droid Incredible where they said that you could increase (sometimes double) battery life by doing this:
Turn your device ON and Charge the device for 8 hours or more
Unplug the device and Turn the phone OFF and charge for 1 hour
Unplug the device Turn ON wait 2 minutes and Turn OFF and charge for another hour Your battery life should almost double, we have tested this on our devices and other agents have seen a major difference as well.
Ok, this is strange tricks, but many people said that it’s really works!
Anyone know if it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about trying it for yourself? I severly doubt it will double your battery life. It's usually recommended if your phone battery isn't fully charging or you notice your device draining rapidly. This shouldn't be a problem on a new phone with a fresh battery.
Tried it, did nothing...
Charged my phone @ 100% at 12:00AM, switched off Internet Connection, kept it until 9:00AM and battery was 72% in the morning!!!!!!!
Very very strange, my HTC HD2 running Android is much better than that????
I'm sure there should be somthing wrong with the device or the ROM????
Yes, something is wrong with your phone. No data connection and you still used 28% overnight? Very wrong. What did battery stats say used your battery?
In flight mode my HD2 used to be able to occasionally chew through ~50% battery in 9 hours our so it's usually down to a background process or app using up the CPU's free cycles.
Exactly. And using battery stats and 'Spare Parts' it should be quite easy to figure what it is.
will test it tonight.
I experienced, that Visionary drained a lot, so after perma root I deleted it, and using MoDaCo custom ROM helped a lot, I can use my phone a full day without charging, previously I couldn't as I listen to music a lot.
I tried to do the battery calibration yesterday, but there really is no point because when you turn off the phone and plug it in the led goes green instantly so it doesnt charge it anymore. I dont understand how this could do anything.
let me ask one question
how do you charge it when it is turned off? mine turns on every time and boots into recovery
EDIT:
I did it as much as I could, but I can not see a big difference

[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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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] [Help] My battery is draining too fast, some soft problem ?

I bought this Hero off eBay, and it was dodgy since the begining.
The phone had cyanogen, and was restarting itself occasionally.
So i wiped it, installed 2.1 and it got fixed, but now i have a problem with battery drainage.
Its insance, 10minutes-10% im pretty sure its not supposed to be like that. with or without wifi/3d turned on, its just riddiculous.
I borrowed battery from a friend, and that didint make any change, i installed latest update from the autoupdate in the phone and still its bad. I read somewhere here that its faulty email app that keeps on trying to sync and drains battery, how do i fix that ?
I did a full wipe, cleared cache and everything back to factory settings, with no apps installed it goes from 100% to 0% in an hour.
I downloaded 2.1 from some android forum, as i was unable to find one here (there are only links to 1.5 on the xda.wiki WHY?)
If you can point me to a proper 2.1 (or higher?) software to download that doesnt do this crazy **** i'll be happy as infant on crack.
Please help, here is my software information:
Firmware: 2.1-update1
Baseband version: 63.18.55.06JU_6.35.09.26
Kernel version: 2.6.29-063c4d24
Build number: 3.32.405.2 CL191507release-keys
Software number: 3.32.405
Browser version: WebKit 3.1
Try calibrating your battery it gave me a huge boost on my hero... went from getting 16hours day.. to about 30hours on a single charge!!
Every time you flash a new ROM you need to calibrate your battery. The battery meter in the OS (Android in this case) is generated based on the battery stats file.
Battery stats is erased when you flash a new ROM.
Easiest method of battery calibration when you're intending on flashing a ROM:
Ensure battery is fully charged according to the OS. Switch phone off, unplug charger and plug back in. Once light is green, leave charging for another 30 minutes (light goes green at approx 95% charge).
Switch on, flash ROM. Allow first boot to complete.
Shut phone off. Disconnect charger. Remove battery. Replace battery. Place on charge, light green, leave charging another 30 minutes, yadda yadda. Switch phone on, boot immediately to recovery. Wipe battery stats.
Boot phone up. Now would be a good time to install JuicePlotter. Use as normal. Do not charge, let the battery run down completely. When the phone shuts itself off, power it back on. Repeat process until it won't switch on anymore.
Remove the battery. Put the battery back. Turn the phone on. Repeat until it won't turn on anymore.
Now charge the battery on the mains to 100% while the phone is off, keep charging for 30 minutes after light goes green. Power on. Voila, fully calibrated battery.
The last part, run until completely dead and charge only needs to be done once in a while (this is calibrating the battery innards, not the battery stats)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hah, yea thats what i accidentally figured. phone was switching off, but when i powered it back on it had 30%.. and it was like that 3 or 4 times.
I ran it down completely and now am charging it till max, we'll see what happens. at worst i'lkl start your process from the beginning thx !
I diidnt know you had to do that. i've been playing with my G1 and not even once i had to calibrate that.. maybe i should
How'd it go? Any improvement on battery life?
it diidnt help I did what you quoted step by step and its still running down the battery like crazy :/ what else can i do ? im thinking of switching to 1.5 but thats just not progressive and my friends phone is running fine on 2.1, with the same battery even.
Edit: i've installed task killer and killed all the mail checking apps.. hope that is the problem
Edit2: it didint help at all, in 5 minutes i lost 15% fcuking hell !
I just switched to 1.5 and its still happening ! I using a different battery and its just as bad... why is this happening to me
ill try second to latest radio from xda wiki.. im running out of ideas,what else can i do ?
That really wierd... its not the battery if you have tried using different ones. Its not the ROM if u have changed it.
Have you tried disabling auto-updates? and auto-checks for emails. Which email client do you have? you should find the option to "sync-never" in the app settings.
Buying it from ebay is kinda ominous though.. was it described as faulty? perhaps you could contact the seller and request a refund is all else fails?
you can try using setcpu to underclock the cpu.
i have similar situation as you. before going to bed around 11pm, it showed 50% left, turned on airplane mode, then in the morning around 6am, phone was powered off.
now it has been 2 days, still have 20% left.
Logan3D said:
I bought this Hero off eBay, and it was dodgy since the begining.
The phone had cyanogen, and was restarting itself occasionally.
So i wiped it, installed 2.1 and it got fixed, but now i have a problem with battery drainage.
Its insance, 10minutes-10% im pretty sure its not supposed to be like that. with or without wifi/3d turned on, its just riddiculous.
I borrowed battery from a friend, and that didint make any change, i installed latest update from the autoupdate in the phone and still its bad. I read somewhere here that its faulty email app that keeps on trying to sync and drains battery, how do i fix that ?
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever take into consideration that some part of the hardware might be damaged?
Devices that got water damaged, sometimes show weird symptoms as well:
- They still boot up and seem to work well from the first sight
- The battery drains very quickly
- Some of the peripherals are not working stable or not starting up anymore (e.g. wifi, bt, gps)
- Other crazy things might happen as well (e.g. random reboots, backlight flicker, etc.)
So you might have a look at the mainboard. Red stickers indicate water damage!
Regards,
scholbert
Yea but if it were damaged would it show 50% battery after restarting thinking it had reached 5% ? i dont have the tools or will to unscrew it.
i paid 100 pounds fo it, the normal price of a used hero, but the auction said "phone restarts for no reason" and they do not accept returns, so im propably screwed :I
I had an old blackberry 8300 curve, i had it in the bathroom while i was showering, got too moist, turned the detection pads red but phone seemed to work fine after i dried it out. But the battery went to crap progressively in the manner. I would charge to 100%, take it off the charger and maybe an hour it would say less than 10%, do a battery pull and it would go back up to maybe 80% and last maybr another hour and keep doing that till it would normally drain on top od the numerous reboots i would be doing until eventually it would just drain and die.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Can dead pixels cause this ? i have like three.. but then again why would it show 50% after restarting from 5%..
the thing is its not draining the battery, just registering it wrong
Any updates on this? Any resolution?
shinji21 said:
Any updates on this? Any resolution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry mate i have tried everything unsuccessfully and returned the phone to the seller.. dont tell me you bought it ? (london)
No, but i have a samsung galaxy tab and experience similar symtoms. It does not bother me too much, the battery life is still great. Just the percentage is off and i need to restart from time to time.
I read similar complaint from droid x forum too.

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