Excessive Battery Drain

[DirkBelig]

Reviews have placed battery life for the Fire at around 7-8 hours. I seem to be getting about 3-4 hours from mine. I don't have long reading or video watching sessions. Perhaps 20 minutes of Bejeweled 2, a half-hour episode of streaming video, a little reading. I seem to have to recharge it every few days with so little usage. I charged it last night and put it in my laptop case. Pulled it out now and there is only 66% remaining when I haven't used it at all!

Since it's not dependent on phone signal strength and I don't think any of the apps are auto-refreshing, what could be sucking the battery dry? Is there a rogue app or do I have a duff unit?

 

[ddave55]

wow that sucks.. and for the battery to drain when you're not even using it!
perhaps a button was pressed while it was in the case?
I've had many instances when my phone was basically on because a button was pressed down on in my bag.

 

[DirkBelig]

No, I don't think the button was pressed on in the bag. I had it resting horizontally in the middle of the case behind my laptop.

 

[Kuroth]

I too think I am only getting like 4 to 5 hrs between charges.. But I sometimes start charging when I hit 20% left..

Do we know if there will be any Apps for the KF like Battery Doctor that does full cycle charges.. I use BD for my Itouch and it really seem to make a difference..

 

[DirkBelig]

Something's definitely wrong here. I played Bejeweled 2 and read for about an hour total last night. It sat on my nightstand all day, so nothing was hitting the button and when I turned it on this evening, it had drained to 26% battery and 45 minutes of Bejeweled knocked it down to 10%.

Checked running applications and there were two GetJar instances (1 service, 1 process each), a pair of Nook items and Tweetcaster Pro, in addition the the Kindle Keyboard and a few other A'zon apps. Brightness is set at about half and the volume isn't blasting.

For mine, if I don't constantly charge it, it will probably go dead on it's own in less than three days. Bleah.

 

[mynameisJohn_q]

Well what's the level of your screen brightness? I easily get get 7 hours watching video 30%-50% brightness, and as far as reading goes 10-11 hours brightness all the way down. If you're doing full brightness I expect a much lower battery life then usual. My friends ipad 2 gets only 5-6 hours browsing full brightness so might it be screen drain. Try turning it down a little bit and check back.

 

[DirkBelig]

Ugh, I was so tired I forgot to mention that I have the screen around 50% brightness and volume at about 80%. The issue isn't that it's dying with use but bleeding terribly while unused. In two days, I used it less than two hours and it was time for a charge.

 

[mynameisJohn_q]

Hey I'm back, I seem to have experienced your problems too! Well I was using email and I turned wifi off then put it to sleep mode. It dropped 13% in like 10 minutes. I pressed the home button THEN put it on sleep mode it really helped. Try closing the app before you put it on standby hoped this helped.

 

[ITS ME DAVID]

How do you close an app just hit the home button? There not running in the background like multitasking are they?

 

[thewperry]

Is your wi-fi set to stay on when you sleep the unit? One of my apps (Rdio) changed the wi-fi setting so that it holds the connection even when the screen is off...kills the battery.

 

[mynameisJohn_q]

How do you close an app just hit the home button? There not running in the background like multitasking are they?

I think it depends on the app (my probel was email). pressing the BACK button should work NOT the home button.

 

[coolVariable]

Battery certainly seems weak, especially compared to the nook Color with cm7 ...
There are a ton of amazon services always running though and I hope that is the problem ... which will get fixed with cm ...

 

[JesseMT4G]

No battery issues here. I have read books hour after hour, streamed movies, played games. I am actually really surprised how long it has lasted. I generally get 8-15 hours depending on use.

Sent from I am on Fire!

 

[brillrick]

I was having battery issues also, but once i got the version 6.2 update i haven't had any battery problems.

 

[DirkBelig]

Looks like I'm going to have to contact Amazon because something is seriously wrong with the battery. I started logging my usage and found I was draining below 50% after only 2-1/4 hours of reading and Bejeweled 2 and this wasn't even constant use. I'd play for 15 minutes here and read for 20 minutes there.

Looked at A'zon's site and it recommended turning off wireless. OK. Turned off wireless, charged it fully, pull it out of my bag 12 hours later and it's at 86%. Read for 10 minutes and put it away. Turn it on this morning and it's at 75%. Check for running applications and kill GetJar and a couple of Amazon services and email (which I've never even set up) and after another 12 hours and 5 minutes of reading, it's at 69%

Wireless is off, brightness is down, nothing is running that should be draining it and it's in a case, so nothing is hitting the power button. It's just dying when not used. I've also discovered a faint line of stuck pixels running halfway down the screen in the middle which are visible while watching video. I think I've got a duff unit. Bother.

 

[DirkBelig]

I'm still testing because I forgot to log my usage, but I think that GetJar is the culprit here. I uninstalled it and charged it up and after perhaps 60-75 minutes of use and 30 hours of standby, it's at 78%. This is a massive improvement. I'll fully charge it tonight and properly track usage.