Galaxy S3: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

[jlehrer100]

My phone has been getting slower and slower. And today, with the phone nearly idle, the battery went from 100 to 15% in three hours. The phone says it was awake for the entire three hours, but the list of active apps doesn't show anything unusual (see screenshots). As you can see, the Sprint signal wasn't great during that time, and that's not unusual either.

Where can I look to find the problem?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Galaxy S3
Sprint

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

This kind of thing can happen from time to time, and it can be hard to pinpoint what app or service is causing the problem. It often clears up with a reboot. You might want to install GSam Battery Monitor, which gives a more detailed breakdown of battery usage, as well as wakelock information (wakelocks are when an app wakes a phone from sleep, either fully or partially, in order to perform a function). GSam doesn't give as much detail on KitKat, but since you're on Jellybean, it should work well.

Another thing to check is your battery integrity. A quick and dirty way is to remove the battery, lay it flat on a table, and try to spin it. If it spins freely, it's bulging in the middle, which means it's starting to fail.

 

[mouseglider]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

Quick battery drain can also happen when you are in a weak signal area - and if you never had a weak signal where you are, then a tower that you normally connect to could have went down.

If your phone was very warm - it could be that your phone was constantly searching for a signal thus causing fast battery drain in 2 to 3 hours - I have had that happen to me more than a few times either in a low signal area or a tower outage.

 

[alippy]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

I've got a solution.
Same problem.
For now, I'm dumping android. I paid for the phone and the service, android has gone too far in privacy issues and control of pHone.
This lady update is the LAST update.
Hello windows.

 

[SteelerChic]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

Hi..just read your reply.. I had posted my issue on the security forum...my battery is draining super fast... my Wi-Fi signal is weak..just found out that Sprint is updating tower near me...so that explains that...BUT..last night at 2 different times...there was a weird looking symbol that flashed where the battery % display is.. and 1 time where the time is. Do u think that cud b related to the tower update or do I have some weirdo virus? Any help?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[SteelerChic]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

Me again...I was addressing that to you Mouse Glider.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[GSDer]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

there was a weird looking symbol that flashed where the battery % display is

Without seeing what the symbol was it's hard to tell, but icons that display on the left are typically 3rd party app generated, so you should start there. You could boot into Safe mode http://support.verizonwireless.com/support/devices/knowledge_base.html/59242 and see if the problem persists.

Your phone was awake for the whole time which is unusual in-and-of itself, particularly since even a weak cellular signal shouldn't cause the phone to stay awake the whole time. The 'Screen on' time was listed at 34% but you didn't capture that detail, so it's hard to tell how much that factored in (the Screen on bars in the History detail didn't look like that much).

Can't speak to your security concerns other than to ask if you've installed any non-Google Play Store apps, or if you've tried one of those anti-virus or security apps?

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[mouseglider]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

Hi..just read your reply.. I had posted my issue on the security forum...my battery is draining super fast... my Wi-Fi signal is weak..just found out that Sprint is updating tower near me...so that explains that...BUT..last night at 2 different times...there was a weird looking symbol that flashed where the battery % display is.. and 1 time where the time is. Do u think that cud b related to the tower update or do I have some weirdo virus? Any help?

Posted via Android Central App

What did the symbol look like? If one of them looked like a pyramid, that is a symbol for roaming onto another tower - example you might be on Sprint but if you see the pyramid, it might mean you are on a Verizon tower temporarily.

But it is hard to say without describing what the symbol looks like.

 

[jlehrer100]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

Thanks, B., the reboot definitely helped. I'm sure that poor signal is part of the battery problem, as several of you have mentioned. I spend a lot of my time in downtown Chicago and near-north suburbs. The signal strength fluctuates a lot.

My phone also is running very sluggishly and I'm thinking about a factory reset.

Meanwhile, I'll try Gsam Battery Monitor. Even if it doesn't fix anything, it'll help me focus my anger in the right directions.

 

[GSDer]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

My phone also is running very sluggishly and I'm thinking about a factory reset.

Might as well boot into Recovery mode and wipe the system cache first - it's quick and it can't hurt.

I'm fully in with the Factory Reset though.

If you have a marginal/lousy cellular signal and also leave mobile data turned on you may want to try switching to 3G (or HSPA or whatever it's called on your network) - if the phone isn't constantly trying to maintain a 4G/LTE signal that'll also save on battery life.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[Conflict305]

Re: Battery nearly dead in three hours!

How long have you had the phone. You may just need a new battery.