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

[jay_g]

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

and its back

 

[jay_g]

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

Pull battery for a hard reset and back to normal.

 

[jeffreii]

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

I'm on day two of leaving wifi off no matter what - waiting to see if the plummet starts. Next test will be manually disabling LTE.

I'm putting off the "factory reset and use for a week without apps" last ditch effort in hopes of the OTA with cell radio fixes in it!

 

[Nazty111]

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

I updated to the latest firmware today.the attached pictures are showing the battery following the automatic boot up after the firmware update. I used the phone maybe an hour before I went to sleep.woke up with the phone really hot about 6 hours later. I had left mobile data on and I have it set to wcdma only (international s3) I think the phone is constantly downloading data when the drain happens, as the up and down arrows keep going even though I'm not doing anything. By the way, it never happens when I'm on wifi only as I switch to gsm only. So it's definitely a problem with handling 3g. Annoying problem and its getting more prominent nowadays! Update didn't fix the problem!
View attachment 34124

View attachment 34125

 

[jeffreii]

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

I updated to the latest firmware today.the attached pictures are showing the battery following the automatic boot up after the firmware update. I used the phone maybe an hour before I went to sleep.woke up with the phone really hot about 6 hours later. I had left mobile data on and I have it set to wcdma only (international s3) I think the phone is constantly downloading data when the drain happens, as the up and down arrows keep going even though I'm not doing anything. By the way, it never happens when I'm on wifi only as I switch to gsm only. So it's definitely a problem with handling 3g. Annoying problem and its getting more prominent nowadays! Update didn't fix the problem!

I'm not sure you have the same problem as there's no decent battery followed by a significant plummet in your graph. You had some significant screen on time and the awake bar shows something constantly waking up your phone pretty regularly.

You might want to install GSAM Battery Monitor and see what's causing all that activity. Check the app-sucker section and see power used and wake locks activity by app.

 

[Nazty111]

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

I'm not sure you have the same problem as there's no decent battery followed by a significant plummet in your graph. You had some significant screen on time and the awake bar shows something constantly waking up your phone pretty regularly.

You might want to install GSAM Battery Monitor and see what's causing all that activity. Check the app-sucker section and see power used and wake locks activity by app.

I've installed, and waiting for it to happen again.thanks for the tip.
The significant screen time was earlier when I used it for an hour or so, and then I went to sleep. All apps were closed. I fully charged then rebooted and it happened again as seen in the pic.this time I didn't begin with any use, but when I woke up again it has plummeted until I briefly attached the charger and it stopped draining even though I was using it. So I hadn't started any app. And it doesn't happen all the time. It couldn't be something like whatsapp could it? As it doesn't happen all the time.Just randomly I get high cell standby during my sleep!

View attachment 34155

 

[jeffreii]

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

I've installed, and waiting for it to happen again.thanks for the tip.
The significant screen time was earlier when I used it for an hour or so, and then I went to sleep. All apps were closed. I fully charged then rebooted and it happened again as seen in the pic.this time I didn't begin with any use, but when I woke up again it has plummeted until I briefly attached the charger and it stopped draining even though I was using it. So I hadn't started any app. And it doesn't happen all the time. It couldn't be something like whatsapp could it? As it doesn't happen all the time.Just randomly I get high cell standby during my sleep!

Honestly it could be anything. I've gone through all my app settings and made sure nothing is set to constantly update more often than I need it to. There are many apps that will update every 15 minutes if you let them...and if you have multiple of those installed your phone will be waking up constantly and never really deep sleeping, which is where good standby time comes from. GSAM should be enlightening.

Again though neither of your screenshots have shown really good battery life followed by a sudden plummet as you'll see in mine throughout this thread - so you may just have a general problem which is much easier to fix once you find the culprit(s)!

 

[Nazty111]

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

Honestly it could be anything. I've gone through all my app settings and made sure nothing is set to constantly update more often than I need it to. There are many apps that will update every 15 minutes if you let them...and if you have multiple of those installed your phone will be waking up constantly and never really deep sleeping, which is where good standby time comes from. GSAM should be enlightening.

Again though neither of your screenshots have shown really good battery life followed by a sudden plummet as you'll see in mine throughout this thread - so you may just have a general problem which is much easier to fix once you find the culprit(s)!

yeah i know what you mean. im not the type of person that always has to have things pushed immediately. email is on sync every 6 hours, facebook, instagram,pulse etc arent on push. i dont have many other apps except for a few games that send notifications every time i switch the phone on. whatsapp and viber are the only apps that are constantly connected. but as i said, it doesnt happen all the time, and when it does, its the cell radio that shows as the sucker. and in the second screen shots i sent, it was draining from full charge, and it stopped as soon as i connected the charger and pulled it out 2 seconds later. so i cant figure out what it could be.

 

[jeffreii]

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

yeah i know what you mean. im not the type of person that always has to have things pushed immediately. email is on sync every 6 hours, facebook, instagram,pulse etc arent on push. i dont have many other apps except for a few games that send notifications every time i switch the phone on. whatsapp and viber are the only apps that are constantly connected. but as i said, it doesnt happen all the time, and when it does, its the cell radio that shows as the sucker. and in the second screen shots i sent, it was draining from full charge, and it stopped as soon as i connected the charger and pulled it out 2 seconds later. so i cant figure out what it could be.

You need to reboot and see if it goes away for awhile - and then comes back after 12 hours or even a couple of days.

You can't trust the cell radio stat as there's a bug that causes cell radio to report 10x more power usage.

 

[Nazty111]

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

You need to reboot and see if it goes away for awhile - and then comes back after 12 hours or even a couple of days.

You can't trust the cell radio stat as there's a bug that causes cell radio to report 10x more power usage.

yeah i know about the misreporting cell radio, but my battery is draining alongside it so its not just misreporting. also it didnt go away after the full charge and reboot, but it did go away after briefly plugging in the charger. ive just got it fully charged now, and gsam battery monitor running, so i'll see how it goes from now. i also uninstalled one or two apps that i wasnt using, and went through all other app settings to make sure theres no random syncing going on. thanks for your help mate, ill report back if i see a change or figure something out.

 

[jeffreii]

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

yeah i know about the misreporting cell radio, but my battery is draining alongside it so its not just misreporting. also it didnt go away after the full charge and reboot, but it did go away after briefly plugging in the charger. ive just got it fully charged now, and gsam battery monitor running, so i'll see how it goes from now. i also uninstalled one or two apps that i wasnt using, and went through all other app settings to make sure theres no random syncing going on. thanks for your help mate, ill report back if i see a change or figure something out.

Glad to help.

Regarding the cell radio bug: I know it's not causing extra battery drain but it is misreporting it. So you have battery drain and you check and see "cell radio" is the culprit...when in fact that stat is misreported and skewing all the other numbers. You still have the battery drain, you just don't know if cell radio is really the problem or not.

 

[Nazty111]

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

Glad to help.

Regarding the cell radio bug: I know it's not causing extra battery drain but it is misreporting it. So you have battery drain and you check and see "cell radio" is the culprit...when in fact that stat is misreported and skewing all the other numbers. You still have the battery drain, you just don't know if cell radio is really the problem or not.

Well it definitely goes away when I switch to gsm only. I checked wake locks in gsam and Samsung push services are piping up loads, as well as Google services.and maps. Any idea on what my problem is now? Also how do I get maps to not keep opening in the background and giving my ram?

 

[jeffreii]

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

Well it definitely goes away when I switch to gsm only. I checked wake locks in gsam and Samsung push services are piping up loads, as well as Google services.and maps. Any idea on what my problem is now? Also how do I get maps to not keep opening in the background and giving my ram?

I disabled Samsung Push and most other Samsung stuff as well.

Google Maps - make sure you're not signed into Latitude as it will constantly check and update your location. I also prefer to leave GPS off unless I use maps as I believe any app that checks your GPS location will use Google Maps to do so and the usage will show up as Google Maps.

 

[Nazty111]

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

I disabled Samsung Push and most other Samsung stuff as well.

Google Maps - make sure you're not signed into Latitude as it will constantly check and update your location. I also prefer to leave GPS off unless I use maps as I believe any app that checks your GPS location will use Google Maps to do so and the usage will show up as Google Maps.

I don't use latitude, and GPS is always off unless I briefly use it.But there's always some Google network services running as well as maps that return soon after I force close them. Also I don't use Samsung push either as far as I know.How do I disable it?

 

[jeffreii]

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

I don't use latitude, and GPS is always off unless I briefly use it.But there's always some Google network services running as well as maps that return soon after I force close them. Also I don't use Samsung push either as far as I know.How do I disable it?

settings / application management

Go to the app and choose the disable option.

 

[Nazty111]

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

settings / application management

Go to the app and choose the disable option.

Found it and disabled Samsung push as well as a bunch of other little things. Phone went the night with couple percent battery down even in wcdma with data off.result! Thanks darling what is Samsung push anyway? Is it specific to push Samsung updates or push notifications in general?

 

[parshah11]

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

Update on the newtork switch to HSPA (wap.cingular) from LTE on AT&T. Been going 5 days and no more random battery drains. I can't explain why nazty111 has the problem though on WCDMA, as if I check my phone info (GSAM), it now shows WCDMA only also and I am definitely not having the problem anymore, whether data is on or not, maximum battery drain when the screen is not on is around 2-3%/hour, with bad signal, data on, and sync on. Most of the time now averaging 1%/hr, without the random drains.

I have the same question nazty111 does, why does maps keep coming on even after disabling GPS. And google services are taking up a bunch of wakes. Is this only related to google account sync settings.

 

[jeffreii]

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

Well I just got the plummet again after 3 days of use with ZERO wifi on time. Figured I'd test to see if wifi switching was at all to blame...cross that off the list...

Let me know how it's going for you guys with the LTE disabled. Has anyone tried this method to force HSPA only, rather than the APN method?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1189241

 

[dfb8085]

Re: Exchanging mine tomorrow - battery plummeting randomly!

I have not had this issue and I am on AT&T. I may be not doing this correctly and it may be overkill. I always hold down the homescreen button and clear everything. I also turn off WiFi when not it use as well as sometimes turning off BT. Can't you also adjust the GPS function as well?

Hey first I'v heard of holding down the home key. What does that do? Like kill everything running or what. Thanks for the tip

 

[OpenTrackRacer]

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

I'm on Verizon and my phone did the exact same thing as jeffreii's tonight. Everything was running fine until about 6pm and then a steady plummet from about 65% to 20% over three hours with a corresponding increase in device temperature. I rebooted the phone and now the battery drain has flattened out and the temperature has dropped.

The phone was on WiFi the whole time.

So, it's not just a GSM issue.