Abnormal Battery drop - mobile network signal??

[cvail]

I've been trying to figure out what's going on with my battery life overnight. Battery life is good through the day, drops much faster overnight. I've factory reset probably half a dozen times, slowly added apps back, etc. At this point the only thing I can point to is the mobile network signal. Here's my story from yesterday:

Fresh charge to 100% at 9:00 am at work. Very minimal use (to rule out the screen use), even had my google account sync off. At 4:00 pm (7 hours) the battery dropped to 97%, or .4%/hour (excellent). My mobile network signal was constant, according to my battery graph:

I turned my Google accounts on to sync automatically at 4:00, and over the next 6 hours my battery dropped to 89% (1.3%/hour). I could still live with this usage, but I noticed my mobile network went black around 8:30 pm, and see the graph dip a little with it:

So I let the phone go overnight and checked it at 6:00 this morning (8 hours) - battery dropped 22% (2.8%/hour - not acceptable). No other settings were changed, but notice the mobile network being black:

But did I actually lose the mobile connection? GSam doesn't show that I did:

And looking at my wife and daughter's S2 (my N2 sat right next to my wife's S2 overnight), their mobile signal is full/good all through the night.

So what the heck does all of this mean? I've watched this happen over different nights - occasionally it doesn't through. Do I have a lemon with a bad radio, or is it the combination of the N2 and AT&T in my location that I'm just going to have to live with? I don't understand this band talk enough - my sim is coded to LTE, but I'm pretty sure we're not in an LTE area. Looking at the graphs, I don't know that that matters though - it looks like it's something with the phone signal.

I have about a week left in my return window (bought it outright thru Amazon). Should I just exchange it? Any other troubleshooting ideas?

Thanks

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Well that's a really detailed post, I commend you.

I too have noticed the random blackouts on the Phone signal bar and I have no idea why they occur. I know I have signal during those periods as I have even seen it when the screen is on. I am not experiencing those hefty drains though. I can unplug my phone at 100% at night and wake up 8 hours later to it being at 98% most of the time.

 

[cvail]

Well that's a really detailed post, I commend you.

I too have noticed the random blackouts on the Phone signal bar and I have no idea why they occur. I know I have signal during those periods as I have even seen it when the screen is on. I am not experiencing those hefty drains though. I can unplug my phone at 100% at night and wake up 8 hours later to it being at 98% most of the time.

Thanks, I try. Unfortunately I've posted this on 3 different forums (including XDA) and haven't had a single person comment with some troubleshooting advice.

So I have a new N2 from Amazon today to see if I experience the same mobile network signal drop and battery drop. If yes, then I think I have an AT&T issue and will try to go down that rabbit hole to no where. First stop will probably be to push for a new sim to see if that helps.

I'm also going to keep this new one on 4.1.1 for a couple days too, to see if I see the drop on 4.1.1 - then update to 4.1.2.

I really like this phone - just don't care for the unexplained battery drops.

 

[SpookDroid]

2.8% an hour?! And you call that non-acceptable?! Wow, you're one tough cookie to please

Strictness aside, I noticed that you have WiFi on the entire time... are you connected to WiFi during the day or just at night when you get home? One thing that always made my phone go nuts was that I (inadvertently) had turned on Dropbox sync for all my pictures and some other sync options that only occurred when I got home and used WiFi... although I don't see any weird 'awake times' during your night graph.

Are you running any app that's time-aware (like a battery manager) that probably turns your radio-off at night? I know this should conserve battery, but maybe the app itself is going nuts. Even GSam might be going rogue on you while doing all the stat collecting.

BTW, another thing that used to drain my battery was an issue with Google Maps + Google Now. Google Maps had location History active, but also the 'automatically update location' option checked; this caused MAJOR drain because my device was constantly updating location, especially if you have GPS turned off and your cell radio is the one defining your position (it tends to jump if your reception varies).

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

2.8% an hour?! And you call that non-acceptable?! Wow, you're one tough cookie to please

Strictness aside, I noticed that you have WiFi on the entire time... are you connected to WiFi during the day or just at night when you get home? One thing that always made my phone go nuts was that I (inadvertently) had turned on Dropbox sync for all my pictures and some other sync options that only occurred when I got home and used WiFi... although I don't see any weird 'awake times' during your night graph.

Are you running any app that's time-aware (like a battery manager) that probably turns your radio-off at night? I know this should conserve battery, but maybe the app itself is going nuts. Even GSam might be going rogue on you while doing all the stat collecting.

BTW, another thing that used to drain my battery was an issue with Google Maps + Google Now. Google Maps had location History active, but also the 'automatically update location' option checked; this caused MAJOR drain because my device was constantly updating location, especially if you have GPS turned off and your cell radio is the one defining your position (it tends to jump if your reception varies).

That's almost 3% an hour of pure idling. Not good. My phone averages less than 0.2% per hour when idling at night connected to LTE. He's got a battery drain issue for sure.

 

[cvail]

2.8% an hour?! And you call that non-acceptable?! Wow, you're one tough cookie to please

Strictness aside, I noticed that you have WiFi on the entire time... are you connected to WiFi during the day or just at night when you get home? One thing that always made my phone go nuts was that I (inadvertently) had turned on Dropbox sync for all my pictures and some other sync options that only occurred when I got home and used WiFi... although I don't see any weird 'awake times' during your night graph.

Are you running any app that's time-aware (like a battery manager) that probably turns your radio-off at night? I know this should conserve battery, but maybe the app itself is going nuts. Even GSam might be going rogue on you while doing all the stat collecting.

BTW, another thing that used to drain my battery was an issue with Google Maps + Google Now. Google Maps had location History active, but also the 'automatically update location' option checked; this caused MAJOR drain because my device was constantly updating location, especially if you have GPS turned off and your cell radio is the one defining your position (it tends to jump if your reception varies).

In context, that's 2.8%/hour with zero screen time and absolutely no leftover processes running from apps - AND compared to rates during the day of 1% or less. So it's not that I'm a tough cookie - I'm a not-understanding-the-behavior-because-it's-not-consistent cookie.

I have very few apps installed - and I doubt it's GSam because I was having the problem before I went exploring for an answer and found GSam to try to help troubleshoot. No other battery manager like JD installed, location services are off. Wifi runs constant at work and at home. I have a 5 minute drive between work and home twice a day when I'm not on wifi.

If I hadn't been watching and analyzing the different battery drain throughout the day and overnight I wouldn't be hunting this down. But it just doesn't make sense, other than this mobile signal dropping - and I can't figure out a fact pattern as to why that appears to turn off for hours at a time (when my wife and daughter's are solid green during the same time period).

Oh, and I don't think the signal is actually off. I noticed this morning I was in a black period and called myself from my wife's phone - call hit my phone fine.

 

[SpookDroid]

Talking about so many cookies made me hungry...

OK, so here's what I'd try:
1) Re-calibrate battery. Drain the sucker out at least once, recharge, re-use.
2) You say you're always on WiFi, so I'm assuming you're home at night and at work during the day. It might have something to do with WiFi signal strength/type?
3) Call a warlock and have him break AT&T's voodoo curse on your phone. It doesn't make sense that your phone blacks out just like that and mostly if it's not really blacked out at all (you say you still got a call to go through).
4) I'm not one to root while I have a warranty active, but you could try to either root your device and load a stock Samsung ROM instead of AT&T's or (probably harder to do) get an unlocked Note 2 that is also using an AT&T SIM and have them lie side by side at night and compare battery drain.
5) This might be overreaching, but how about swapping batteries? I had an issue with my old GSII once and had a friend with the same phone swap batteries with me for a day. Voil?, my phone was back to normal and his went to hell. I knew I needed to claim my warranty then.

 

[cvail]

Talking about so many cookies made me hungry...

I like cookies. I'm giving my wife a 12" buttercream iced chocolate chip cookie for Valentine's tonight. So I will be feasting on cookie in a few hours.

2) You say you're always on WiFi, so I'm assuming you're home at night and at work during the day. It might have something to do with WiFi signal strength/type?

I've sat the phone right next to the router and right next to my wife's S2 and experienced the drain (and mobile signal loss) when hers didn't (my wifi bar was constant too). So I'm ruling out wifi.

5) This might be overreaching, but how about swapping batteries? I had an issue with my old GSII once and had a friend with the same phone swap batteries with me for a day. Voil?, my phone was back to normal and his went to hell. I knew I needed to claim my warranty then.

I just received a 2nd N2 today with a different battery from Amazon (I still have my original too - haven't shipped it back yet). So if it is the battery, I shouldn't experience the trouble with the new one too.

4) I'm not one to root while I have a warranty active, but you could try to either root your device and load a stock Samsung ROM instead of AT&T's or (probably harder to do) get an unlocked Note 2 that is also using an AT&T SIM and have them lie side by side at night and compare battery drain.

That's the final step. My fear is I have an AT&T problem with whatever radio band my N2 is trying to connect to. And I don't understand radio bands and switching things around (yet - I would really rather not have to learn about it though). So I'm really hoping it was a specific device issue.

 

[SpookDroid]

That's the final step. My fear is I have an AT&T problem with whatever radio band my N2 is trying to connect to. And I don't understand radio bands and switching things around (yet - I would really rather not have to learn about it though). So I'm really hoping it was a specific device issue.

If it is an AT&T problem, getting and unlocked Note 2 (maybe you have a friend with one?) with an AT&T SIM would help you rule out if it's a Network issue (but you'd have to get the two phones together, side by side, at night). If it's not the network, the unlocked phone would work just fine and then you'd know it's a ROM issue. If the unlocked one experiences the drain, then you'd know it's time to switch carriers

Another wacky test you could try to rule out location: leave your phone at the office at night (I'm assuming WiFi there is never off). If you come back in the morning and STILL see the same battery drop, then contact your preferred exorcist (and maybe get a warranty exchange).

 

[cvail]

Bad news...

I let the replacement run on 4.1.1 for a couple of days (no apps installed) - I had a couple small black periods of losing mobile network signal, but not the 8 hour variety I was having with the commensurate battery drop. So to see if it was the device or 4.1.2, I updated to 4.1.2 earlier today. I've already had a couple of signal drop periods that had the higher battery drop along with it. So it appears something with 4.1.2, AT&T, and my house don't agree with one another.

I don't know what to do next - I've posted my situation on XDA to see if anyone there has any ideas (no one has responded). I'm going to try to get a sim replacement to see if that makes a difference (I tried getting one tonight from one of the local AT&T stores, but they wanted to charge me $5) - I'm not expecting it to change anything. So I think my options are to roll back to 4.1.1 and double verify I don't have this problem on 4.1.1, get yet another replacement that will be on 4.1.1 and not ever update, or go with a different phone (I really want like this, if I could just get consistent battery consumption).

Very frustrated...

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Generally the black will correspond with when Wi-Fi is on, not low signal, but it will show up randomly. No mobile signal is red.

I would install Better Battery Stats for a diagnostic tool only, it will tell you exactly what app and or process is eating your battery. Low signal for LTE will eat the battery and I used to be able to put my S3 on 3G using a second APN, doesn't work on the N2 for me, I will lose all signal completely and have the circle with a line through it for my signal.

Sent from my AWESOME Note 2

 

[cvail]

Generally the black will correspond with when Wi-Fi is on, not low signal, but it will show up randomly. No mobile signal is red.

I would install Better Battery Stats for a diagnostic tool only, it will tell you exactly what app and or process is eating your battery. Low signal for LTE will eat the battery and I used to be able to put my S3 on 3G using a second APN, doesn't work on the N2 for me, I will lose all signal completely and have the circle with a line through it for my signal.

Sent from my AWESOME Note 2

I was hoping not to spend the $3 for BBS (I know, I'm cheap - and stupidly so when I spent $650 on the phone itself). I still might get it - I don't have a lot of faith that's going to help, other than confirming the mobile signal is the cause - and not give me the fix.

The guy at my local AT&T store said I'm not in an area with LTE (only HSPA), but I think my sim got coded for LTE (I only see the 4G in my top bar). Still weird how it appears to behave between 4.1.1 and 4.1.2.

I've still been scouring for others experiencing the same drop as me, and I have found some that experienced this kind of nighttime battery drain with 4.1.2 and wanted to roll back to 4.1.1. I'm researching now how to roll back to 4.1.1 - it looks like I should be able to flash stock 4.1.1 from samfirmware via Odin without rooting (whatever the heck that all means).

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I was hoping not to spend the $3 for BBS (I know, I'm cheap - and stupidly so when I spent $650 on the phone itself). I still might get it - I don't have a lot of faith that's going to help, other than confirming the mobile signal is the cause - and not give me the fix.

The guy at my local AT&T store said I'm not in an area with LTE (only HSPA), but I think my sim got coded for LTE (I only see the 4G in my top bar). Still weird how it appears to behave between 4.1.1 and 4.1.2.

I've still been scouring for others experiencing the same drop as me, and I have found some that experienced this kind of nighttime battery drain with 4.1.2 and wanted to roll back to 4.1.1. I'm researching now how to roll back to 4.1.1 - it looks like I should be able to flash stock 4.1.1 from samfirmware via Odin without rooting (whatever the heck that all means).

If there is no LTE service in your area, it won't matter about the LTE for your phone. All AT&T LTE phones have the LTE "turned on" if you are in an LTE area or not. The phone is set to first pick up LTE, then HSPA or whatever it is. If you are in a 4G area though, they could be working on getting LTE turned on and it will be up and down for a while.

Sent from my AWESOME Note 2

 

[kevinnugent]

I found my N2 was losing 50% from midnight to 8am. After putting CPU Spy and GSam Battery Monitor on it, I discovered that it was being woken from Deep Sleep by something all the time. It was Light Flow.

Taken that off, and my battery is SOOOO much better.

 

[cvail]

Generally the black will correspond with when Wi-Fi is on, not low signal, but it will show up randomly. No mobile signal is red.

I forgot to mention, I looked all over for an explanation for what the black meant - even read where someone looked through the code. The code referenced all of the other colors, but made no mention of the black. So I couldn't find any definitive code reference to what it means. I don't think black means it's on wifi though, as I'll have wifi running strong all day (either at work or home) and have long periods of green (good signal strength) - as does my wife and daughter's S2s that are sitting right next to each other. GSam shows the same story on signal strength during that time (strong).

I found my N2 was losing 50% from midnight to 8am. After putting CPU Spy and GSam Battery Monitor on it, I discovered that it was being woken from Deep Sleep by something all the time. It was Light Flow.

Taken that off, and my battery is SOOOO much better.

Can you elaborate on how you found it was Light Flow - how CPU Spy helped with that discovery? I've had GSam running for quite a while now, but all it tells me is that the Kernel was taking up a lot power - and I'm not technically smart enough to understand what that really means or how to correct for it.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I forgot to mention, I looked all over for an explanation for what the black meant - even read where someone looked through the code. The code referenced all of the other colors, but made no mention of the black. So I couldn't find any definitive code reference to what it means. I don't think black means it's on wifi though, as I'll have wifi running strong all day (either at work or home) and have long periods of green (good signal strength) - as does my wife and daughter's S2s that are sitting right next to each other. GSam shows the same story on signal strength during that time (strong).

http://thevails.smugmug.com/Other/W...02-13-06-00-55 Corey's GSam phone radio-L.png



Can you elaborate on how you found it was Light Flow - how CPU Spy helped with that discovery? I've had GSam running for quite a while now, but all it tells me is that the Kernel was taking up a lot power - and I'm not technically smart enough to understand what that really means or how to correct for it.

http://thevails.smugmug.com/Other/W...13-02-13-06-01-06 Corey's GSam app list-L.png

That was kinda my point..I will always have black correspond with Wi-Fi being on, I don't use Wi-Fi much though. Putting your phone in airplane might duplicate it, not sure, haven't tried that.

I also bought Better Battery Stats fire $3 and it tells you exactly what process or app is waking your phone. I do not leave Battery programs, etc on my phone, I keep then on for diagnostic only, then remove them. I'm running BBS and GSM right now just to make sure I don't have something running too much, then I will uninstall them.


Sent from my AWESOME Note 2

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Also, don't know if you can duplicate the black bar with simple turning data off our not.

Sent from my AWESOME Note 2

 

[cvail]

That was kinda my point..I will always have black correspond with Wi-Fi being on, I don't use Wi-Fi much though. Putting your phone in airplane might duplicate it, not sure, haven't tried that.

I did this (airplane mode overnight) early on to try to see if it was purely an Android thing eating the battery or something related to a signal. Airplane mode would give me the black bar, and I didn't see the excessive battery drop. So again, the signs pointed toward it being a signal-related drain of some kind.

Also, don't know if you can duplicate the black bar with simple turning data off our not.

How do I turn just data off (I assume you mean to keep the mobile/voice signal going but just turn off the data)? I don't think I know where that switch/toggle/setting is.

I also bought Better Battery Stats fire $3 and it tells you exactly what process or app is waking your phone. I do not leave Battery programs, etc on my phone, I keep then on for diagnostic only, then remove them. I'm running BBS and GSM right now just to make sure I don't have something running too much, then I will uninstall them.

I broke down and installed Better Battery Stats (what's another $3 to help troubleshoot a $650 purchase). So I have BBS and GSam running now. Only problem is - I don't know what I'm looking for regarding the problem. Should I just post a bunch of screenshots in hopes someone who knows more will see something?

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Charge it up, then let it run until time to charge and then look at the stats, you can post screenshots also if you still need some help. Also charge it before bed and key the BBS run overnight to see what is happening.

For data..go to settings, data usage and then uncheck "data".

Sent from my AWESOME Note 2

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I did this (airplane mode overnight) early on to try to see if it was purely an Android thing eating the battery or something related to a signal. Airplane mode would give me the black bar, and I didn't see the excessive battery drop. So again, the signs pointed toward it being a signal-related drain of some kind.




How do I turn just data off (I assume you mean to keep the mobile/voice signal going but just turn off the data)? I don't think I know where that switch/toggle/setting is.



I broke down and installed Better Battery Stats (what's another $3 to help troubleshoot a $650 purchase). So I have BBS and GSam running now. Only problem is - I don't know what I'm looking for regarding the problem. Should I just post a bunch of screenshots in hopes someone who knows more will see something?

I had this issue with my S3 and after installing BBS, I found several things I didn't realize were causing wake locks and had to go through and adjust them.

Sent from my AWESOME Note 2