[Help][50% SOLVED] LTE = random heavy battery drain aka "plummet"

[Sargeant002]

Hmmmm I'm generally forced to charge it once a night. Is it best to charge it on or powered off? I had been using the auto brightness which was constantly adjusting the levels. I've turnded that off and I feel it's much better today. It's like hylermiling for a car ha ha ha.

Brian-

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Android Central Forums

 

[Jowlah]

Hmmmm I'm generally forced to charge it once a night. Is it best to charge it on or powered off? I had been using the auto brightness which was constantly adjusting the levels. I've turnded that off and I feel it's much better today. It's like hylermiling for a car ha ha ha.

Brian-

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Android Central Forums

Generally, charging your phone while off will charge it quicker because it isn't using the battery as its charging. I keep mine on since I use my phone as it is charging.

 

[jeffreii]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

I'm having this same issue, it's random and has happened 5 times to me since phone has been released. Twice in last 5 days and I cannot seem to find out why unless it's the radio. Nothing else seems to be running in background according to the battery monitor. I will try gsam battery monitor today.

My phone will go from 100% to dead by morning when not even being used. I even cleared cache apps running in memory before going to sleep to see if that would help but nope. The graph shows the phone barely awake during.

Does a reboot fix it temporarily (~24 hours) and then it comes back? See if your symptoms are exactly like mine.

Here's another tip. If you really don't need it, turn off the Location Services option on your phone. Settings>scroll down to Personal> press Location Services. Then uncheck the boxes. My first couple of days with the Location Services checked on, I was lucky to get 9 hours out of the phone. After I uncheck them, I get between 22hrs and over a day+. The phone is always pinging off of the Google/Verizon/AT&T/Sprint GPS Tower trying to update widgets or apps that use the L.S. I hope that helps, too.

Battery saving tips need not apply here. This is some sort of bug that causes your battery to plummet. I have excellent battery life most of the time. If I reboot my phone once a day I never have a problem. Once this "bug" kicks in, though, I can lose large chunks of battery for no reason - and it keeps going until I reboot.

 

[jeffreii]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

IT'S BACK. Damnit. I was fine for 4 days of uptime but today it happened again. See the screenshots below...cell standby is the "culprit". Safe to say it's probably not a hardware issue...so here are the apps I have installed:

Adobe Flash Player 11.1
Adobe Reader
Alarm Clock Plus
Amazon Kindle
aWallet Password Manager
Bedside
Brightness Level
Chrome
Chrome to Phone
Dropbox
ES File Explorer
Evernote
Flashlight
Flipboard
Gesture Search
Google News
Google Reader
Google Voice
IMDB
Kingsoft Office
NOAA Weather
Nova Launcher Prime
PowerAmp Pro
QuickPic
RadarNow!
ESPN Scorecenter
Shazam
Swiftkey 3
Teamviewer
TuneIn Pro
Wikipedia
Xfinity TV
Youtube





Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[jcp007]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

It probably doesn't make any difference but I shut my GS3 down every night to charge it.

 

[jcp007]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

Fliboard, NOAA Weather, Poweramp, RadarNow, Sportcenter...Try uninstalling these apps...you may have to uninstall all your apps and reload one at a time to eliminate the culprit. Try reverting back to the TouchWiz. The likelihood that the same symptoms showing up on two different devices seems to be too much to be coincidental.

 

[Sargeant002]

Generally, charging your phone while off will charge it quicker because it isn't using the battery as its charging. I keep mine on since I use my phone as it is charging.

I do remember charging it off the first night and in the AM it had not reached 100%. It has only done that once. I have since charged it off and on. Seems ok now.

To the OP - sorry for the mini thread jack. I'll assume you are using the charger it came with?

Brian-

Sent with my SGSIII

 

[jeffreii]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

Fliboard, NOAA Weather, Poweramp, RadarNow, Sportcenter...Try uninstalling these apps...you may have to uninstall all your apps and reload one at a time to eliminate the culprit. Try reverting back to the TouchWiz. The likelihood that the same symptoms showing up on two different devices seems to be too much to be coincidental.

So check out this graph...update of the earlier one.

-turned off wifi - plummet continued.
-turned off mobile data - plummet continued.
-turned on airplane mode to turn off the radio - battery stabilized. You can see the plateau towards the end.
-turned off airplane mode - plummet resumed as you can see.

Any conclusions I can take from this? It seems like it's the phone radio/standby using all the power...the apps are not registering high battery usage at all...phone radio #1 by far...



http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6889/20120802000137.png
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[jcp007]

I don't have any suggestions or clues except to factory reset making sure all apps are removed. Install one app and see how your battery life is affected. Wait. Repeat.

Sent From My Samsung Galaxy S III Handheld Device

 

[jeffreii]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

I don't have any suggestions or clues except to factory reset making sure all apps are removed. Install one app and see how your battery life is affected. Wait. Repeat.

Yeah that's probably my next move but I'd have to use it stock for perhaps up to a week to determine if it's caused by an app or not.

I'm less inclined to believe it's an app, though, since it completely stops plummeting with the radio off...but if I turn mobile data off it keeps dropping.

 

[GalaxyOnyxWitch]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

IT'S BACK. Damnit. I was fine for 4 days of uptime but today it happened again. See the screenshots below...cell standby is the "culprit". Safe to say it's probably not a hardware issue...so here are the apps I have installed:

Adobe Flash Player 11.1
Adobe Reader
Alarm Clock Plus
Amazon Kindle
aWallet Password Manager
Bedside
Brightness Level
Chrome
Chrome to Phone
Dropbox
ES File Explorer
Evernote
Flashlight
Flipboard
Gesture Search
Google News
Google Reader
Google Voice
IMDB
Kingsoft Office
NOAA Weather
Nova Launcher Prime
PowerAmp Pro
QuickPic
RadarNow!
ESPN Scorecenter
Shazam
Swiftkey 3
Teamviewer
TuneIn Pro
Wikipedia
Xfinity TV
Youtube

[URL=http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2906/20120801204118.png]Click to view quoted image
[/URL]

From what I see from the pics I notice two things, at the point of plummet beginning it seems you have NO radio signal. (black dead space in between the green) I also notice that your WiFi is on the whole time and it doesn't need to be unless your screen is on and you are using it.

I use Juice Defender and it disables the WiFi every time the phone goes to sleep and brings it up when it wakes. It really does seem to make a difference not having WiFi on constantly.

[URL=http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/8955/20120801204122.png]Click to view quoted image
[/URL]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Fliboard, NOAA Weather, Poweramp, RadarNow, Sportcenter...Try uninstalling these apps...you may have to uninstall all your apps and reload one at a time to eliminate the culprit. Try reverting back to the TouchWiz. The likelihood that the same symptoms showing up on two different devices seems to be too much to be coincidental.

I might recommend CPU Spy and Bettery Battery stats to see what EXACTLY is using your power. Combine this with Juice Defender and I think it will improve much. If you are having reception issues that could really reduce your battery time having your device constantly searching for towers.

 

[Vengeful]

I still have this same I issue, but it's so random I don't know what it could be besides the radio, I don't have extra apps or widgets running, don't even have the weather widget on that it comes with.

The plummet doesn't happen all the time so it's hard to pin point how it begins to occur.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jeffreii]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

I might recommend CPU Spy and Bettery Battery stats to see what EXACTLY is using your power. Combine this with Juice Defender and I think it will improve much. If you are having reception issues that could really reduce your battery time having your device constantly searching for towers.

I have tried GSAM Battery Monitor and Better Battery stats and not found any help.

I have no reception issues. This is happening despite 4 or 5 bars of LTE signal in Miami where coverage is GREAT.

 

[jeffreii]

Re: [Help] Unexplained heavy battery drain...occurs randomly

UPDATED THREAD/OP:

Anyone who can help diagnose the cause of this would be my hero. Please read carefully the evidence I already have.

Scenario:
Battery life is great for awhile and then suddenly it will start plummeting for no good reason. It will continue to do so, even if the screen is off and the phone is unused with all tasks closed. It will not stop dropping fast unless I reboot it. Then battery life returns to normal/excellent..a day or so later it starts dropping fast again.

Things I've tried:
-Factory reset - reinstall only most common apps
-Exchanged the device at AT&T - same result
-Monitored with GSAM (Badass) Battery Monitor and Better Battery Stats. No culprit found.

Important notes:
-As per attached screenshot*, I have tested ways to stop the drain without a reboot. Turning off wifi does nothing. Turning off mobile data does nothing. Turning off the radio (airplane mode) is the only way to stop it - but once I turn airplane mode off, it continues to drop quickly. Only a reboot is a working temporary fix.
-The phone itself is reporting the "cell standby" as the major culprit. I am not sure if this is inflated due to the known bug in reporting that data.
-There is something quirky with the "mobile network signal" bar - I am in Miami where signal is strong almost everywhere. The steep decline occurs even at my apartment where I always have 4 or 5 bars of LTE signal. I am almost never in any area where there is no signal, despite what the line indicates.

Attached screenshots:
1 & 2) good battery life followed by a sudden and steep decline
3) the subsequent "test" listed in note # 1 above with the resulting plateau achieved by turning on airplane mode with the drop continuing when airplane mode was disabled
4 & 5) I then charged the device to full overnight and unplugged it in the morning. I let it sit unused for about 2 hours and the battery dropped 25%.
6 & 7) these screenshots are from normal excellent battery life scenario where the "plummeting" battery did not occur

Thank you so much for any help.

Updated thread title and OP to combine current evidence. Please see OP for screenshots.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[jay_g]

Re: [Help] Unexplained heavy battery drain...occurs randomly

I have the same issue. Very random, no idea wtf is going on.

 

[scorpiodsu]

Re: [Help] Unexplained heavy battery drain...occurs randomly

I experienced similar as well. For no reason at my, my phone would just be running warm. Of course, I check to see if any apps are running and nothing out of the ordinary. So I restart the phone and it cools down and is good. I experience this on an iPhone a while ago and just had to restart the device and it started functioning normally. Weird though. I just make a habit of restarting my phone at night now before I put it on the charger and haven't had the issue since I started about a week ago.

 

[whatda]

Re: [Help] Unexplained heavy battery drain...occurs randomly

Try going into task manager and clear memory from RAM, then reboot.

 

[jeffreii]

Re: [Help] Unexplained heavy battery drain...occurs randomly

Try going into task manager and clear memory from RAM, then reboot.

Wouldn't a reboot clear the RAM by itself? Having exchanged my phone and done 3 factory resets I don't think this is going to fix anything more than temporarily. Thanks though!

 

[jcp007]

I doubt that it would make much difference but I charge mine overnight with the phone off.

Sent From My Samsung Galaxy S III Handheld Device

 

[Vengeful]

Try going into task manager and clear memory from RAM, then reboot.

I tried this and it didn't stop the plummet.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2