Battery just drained very quickly, weird

[neocryte]

I have traditionally had decent battery life. Today it drained at an alarming rate, especially during the second half of the day. Check out the screenahots...

I've done a factory reset already last week (after which battery life was OK, could last 2 days), and the weird thing is that I wasn't doing anything - the phone drained from 50% while in standby within a few hours.

Thoughts? Should I swap the unit?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

What were you doing while the screen was on?

 

[neocryte]

I used maps and texts mostly, also Google Talk - and after it got to 50% it just sat on the counter while I took a nap.. Woke up and it was dead.

 

[Gdwheel]

I have had this happen twice. Like you, I normally get great battery life. Twice it has drained in a half day with no use. The last time it happened, I checked it and it said 35% remaining and five minutes later it shut down -- totally dead. Recharging was the only thing I could do. That happened about a week ago and hasn't happened since, but it concerns me about my ability to rely on it. Unfortunately, it drained so quickly that I could not even look to see what was using the battery.

 

[jess.hickey]

I've been with android since the nexus one and one thing has been a constant. Every now and again an app will, for lack of a better term, go rouge. Most of the time simply power cycling the phone will fix the problem (thus shutting the app down).

Download an app called where's my Droid power. It gives a better in site into what is chewing your battery. My guess is it won't happen after you get the app...kinda like taking your car to the shop and it wont make the noise again.

 

[neocryte]

Thanks guys, interesting to see that it happens once in a while. I will try that app!

 

[inertianinja]

I had it happen yesterday. Maybe it is an app thing...

...I also have an issue that i think is related - periodically the phone will fail to disconnect from wifi networks even after i have gone out of range. as a result i appear to have no data/internet connection until i either kill all tasks or turn wifi off completely.

My uneducated guess is that HTC's little custom multitasking management isn't working well.

 

[neocryte]

Hmm I may have used WiFi before it died as well.

Do you guys use Google Talk, any issues? That's the only other thing I was doing differently yesterday (I never used it before).

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I use google talk all the time. sometimes more than i text. I've never had this particular issue with my One X. I have the AT&T version. The wifi bug is something different from what I've read. I have had that happen to me very rarely. I notice it happens more when I'm connected to a wifi network, but never get into good signal strength. Like when I pull up to work it'll connect, but be almost unusable. Then if I leave again, it'll say it's connected to it still. If I walk inside and get 2-3 bars of wifi and then leave it hands off just fine.

 

[kevp913]

I have this same issue and a reboot always seems to fix it. I haven't been able to identify the rogue app/process that causes it either. Very frustrating! I noticed the top of the phone gets warm when this happens as well. Before today, I was running for 20+ hours with moderate usage. You can see what I'm talking about in the screenshots below. The phone has been on my desk all morning and hasn't moved. It started last night and has happened a few times in the past.

 

[neocryte]

Yikes, a little scary to hear that this happens once in a while. Kinda makes it difficult to go anywhere without a charger.

 

[luckydwg]

I have this happen to me as well. Went to bed with about 50% and woke up 7 hours later at 10% the hard rest seemed to fix it. If it happens again I will try and get some screen shots.

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[oldmanjenkins]

I have this same issue and a reboot always seems to fix it. I haven't been able to identify the rogue app/process that causes it either. Very frustrating! I noticed the top of the phone gets warm when this happens as well. Before today, I was running for 20+ hours with moderate usage. You can see what I'm talking about in the screenshots below. The phone has been on my desk all morning and hasn't moved. It started last night and has happened a few times in the past.

That's exactly what mine was doing!! It would get hot, I would check battery life and before you know it, I needed to charge it. I thought maybe it was because of carrying it in my pocket but that is where I have always carried it (and other phones for that matter:-\) and would notice it getting hot. Started just laying it out and it would get hot. When it doesn't do that Juice battery program would show 20+ hours left on charge. On the times it did get hot, it would quickly fall to below five hours. I don't know it it was just a bad phone or what. Best Buy told me several people had brought back their phones for the exact same reason. I think I am going to go back to BB and get another one to see if re-booting it fixes it as well as downloading the droid power program to see if I can find the culprit.

 

[kevp913]

Sounds good. I haven't done a hard reset yet as I find it comical to even consider on a phone I've owned for 2 weeks with minimal and safe apps installed. I'll probably head back to AT&T to swap it out before my 30-day trial is up too unless they come out with a patch before then. Other than this power issue (and the well known wifi bug) I'm extremely happy with this phone. Please let us know if you figure out the culprit!

 

[neocryte]

I did a hard reset two weeks ago.

I am not sure if swapping the unit will do anything, as it sounds like it may be a software issue with some process running "rogue." I am considering doing a swap anyway though, to see if I can get a unit with better battery life.

Other than this, my unit has been perfect.

 

[icebike]

Another possible issue is the charge controller not measuring charge correctly, and/or not reporting charge correctly. So your phone is running along and all of a sudden the battery protection circuit (built into the battery) takes the battery off line, even though the phone thought the battery was fine.

Running the battery to depletion followed by a full powered-off recharge is the cure for this, so its a self-solving problem.

I also noticed Battery Left app will sometimes develop "red zones" (charge levels for which it has no data) even after having data the day before. I've discontinued use of Battery Left for the time being. I think its a Battery Left bug.

 

[oldmanjenkins]

Have another X so going to install some apps and let it deplete the battery and see if she holds out.

 

[kevp913]

@icebike... I thought of that. However when the sudden battery draining occurs the phone gets warm on top, indicating a component is actively processing and consuming power, and giving off heat as a result. If the battery was being read inaccurately, the phone wouldn't get warmer than usual. That said, I have done a full battery depletion and charged back up with no change. It's a very intermittent issue with the phone for sure.

For those who are suffering from the issue (like me), I'm curious, did you update any of the AT&T bloatware installed on the phone via the Play Store? Apps such as TuneIn Radio, Twitter, YP Local, AT&T Code Scanner, FamilyMap, U-verse Live TV, AT&T Navigation, etc.? I have not installed the updates because I don't use the apps, but wondering if not updating could be the issue? (ie, a bug in one of the apps is causing it to run or run a process on the phone)

 

[jess.hickey]

Where's my droid power

 

[neocryte]

Where's my droid power

Is that any different than GO Power Master or BetterBatteryStats? Or even just the stock ICS app?