for those with batt issues after upgrade

[flynlow]

Quick synopsis, upgraded, battery was being killed so fast I had to charge 2-3x a day. Took phone to Store at Sprint HQ. (That's the closest to my house and the one I always use). Rep had never heard of the issue, called engineering, they had never heard of the issue either. Asked that I bring it back Saturday so someone in engineering could look it over and see if they could figure it out. Not that I am special but that they hadn't heard of any update issues, only what it was supposed to do.

Took it in, they played with it for close to 3 hours. Found that a background running app listed as DRM was the issue. It won't allow the device to sleep. It's function is to check for theft from media hub. It runs constantly, updating every 11.5 seconds. Simple solution is to go into your running services and shut it down. If you use media hub, kill DRM after you log off. I also learned that if you kill Gtalk, it uses more battery. It is attached to gmail/android and if shut down, the phone does a constant scan until your gmail acct is verified and turns back on. It's best to leave it running, as it sits idle.

What it has done for me. Full charge at 9PM, it is now almost 2AM and I am at 88% battery. So essentially 12% loss in 5 hours, compared to about 60% loss in 5 hours immediately after the update. Also learned 2.2 is set to come out for this phone 3rd week of October. So, try killing DRM if you are having the battery drain. Working great for me.

 

[SomeAudioGuy]

Trying it now.
Hopefully this helps (and isn't something you need to do constantly).
Thanks for the tip!

 

[murso74]

how do you kill this service?

 

[Guapo104]

Is there any way to also stop the Media Hub from starting. Maybe this can save some more battery power and not allow the DRM from starting in the first place... I have stopped Media Hub, only to find that it has restart itself moments later.

 

[antmon1]

i just killed DRM and haven't touched GTalk (i was killing this in the past too)....

i don't see Media Hub listed in my Running Services though...maybe i killed it a while back and it never came back?

 

[flynlow]

how do you kill this service?

Go to settings > applications > running services, it's in there.

Media hub has not come back on since they shut down DRM on mine. It apparently was the issue. I had 88% battery when I made my initial post, I am at 68% right now, 6 hours later and 9 hours after coming off the charger. Whereas before I would have had to charge again, or would have been in the 30 range at best. I am running a battery minder program which I wasn't before, it tells me it has used 4% of the battery. So if I wasn't using that, I would be at 72% right now. I will probably delete that now since there is no real need for it.

This will need to be done again if you power cycle the device.

 

[HAAS599]

Are any of the following services ok to close?

AndroidSprintExtensionService

SnsPhotoService

SnsService

 

[Guapo104]

I would be interested in knowing what else Sprint's Geek Squad did to your phone in the three hours they had it besides the DRM shut down. I have shut down DRM on my phone and I'm still experiencing battery drain. At the time of my posting earlier this morning I had 96% battery when I shut down DRM, I now have 49% with light use.

Phone has been unplugged for 4hr 38 min with the following stats;

Display: 50%
Cell Standby: 18% with 26% Time without a signal
Voice Calls: 10%
Phone Idle: 8%
Android System: 7%
Android Core Apps: 2%
Android OS: 2%

48% of my battery power drained in 4hr 38min is simply unacceptable. Spint and Samsung need to find a fix, FAST!!!

 

[flynlow]

Are any of the following services ok to close?

AndroidSprintExtensionService

SnsPhotoService

SnsService

No. those are needed to run the phone.

 

[flynlow]

I would be interested in knowing what else Sprint's Geek Squad did to your phone in the three hours they had it besides the DRM shut down. I have shut down DRM on my phone and I'm still experiencing battery drain. At the time of my posting earlier this morning I had 96% battery when I shut down DRM, I now have 49% with light use.

Phone has been unplugged for 4hr 38 min with the following stats;

Display: 50%
Cell Standby: 18% with 26% Time without a signal
Voice Calls: 10%
Phone Idle: 8%
Android System: 7%
Android Core Apps: 2%
Android OS: 2%

48% of my battery power drained in 4hr 38min is simply unacceptable. Spint and Samsung need to find a fix, FAST!!!

What else do you have running? Have you done a PRL update? That is all they ended up doing, except for killing the media hub which was also running. I am right now at 54% but I have been texting a lot this morning. What is your display set at? My cell standby is like 60%, time without signal is 50%.

To my knowledge that's all they did. They hooked it into a computer and took readings, turning on/off apps, getting readings to see if they were idle, how often they updated etc. that's what they came back with. They shut down DRM and media hub and told me to leave gtalk alone. They said only 5 things should be running in the background. IQ service, sprint extension, swype, sns and gtalk. I am supposed to contact them on Tuesday with an update. So far so good for me.

 

[johnny hotsauce]

I would be interested in knowing what else Sprint's Geek Squad did to your phone in the three hours they had it besides the DRM shut down. I have shut down DRM on my phone and I'm still experiencing battery drain. At the time of my posting earlier this morning I had 96% battery when I shut down DRM, I now have 49% with light use.

Phone has been unplugged for 4hr 38 min with the following stats;

Display: 50%
Cell Standby: 18% with 26% Time without a signal
Voice Calls: 10%
Phone Idle: 8%
Android System: 7%
Android Core Apps: 2%
Android OS: 2%

48% of my battery power drained in 4hr 38min is simply unacceptable. Spint and Samsung need to find a fix, FAST!!!

Keep an eye on your cell standby and time without signal. Are you in the double digit percentages often with time without signal?

 

[johnny hotsauce]

What else do you have running? Have you done a PRL update? That is all they ended up doing, except for killing the media hub which was also running. I am right now at 54% but I have been texting a lot this morning. What is your display set at? My cell standby is like 60%, time without signal is 50%.

To my knowledge that's all they did. They hooked it into a computer and took readings, turning on/off apps, getting readings to see if they were idle, how often they updated etc. that's what they came back with. They shut down DRM and media hub and told me to leave gtalk alone. They said only 5 things should be running in the background. IQ service, sprint extension, swype, sns and gtalk. I am supposed to contact them on Tuesday with an update. So far so good for me.

Your time without signal is way too high unless you are living in a weak signal area. If those techs can figure out what is causing that and get your phone down to under 10% and keep it there you'll really see your battery life shoot up. With it being that high, even while on standby your phone is continously searching for a signal which it shouldn't be doing.

I had the same standby issue on my first epic and the standby time is what was killing my battery, the phone was trying to lock onto a WCDMA source, which is a GSM variant. I then did the PRL update "duct tape method" to trick the cell radio to work properly but after I updated to DI07, the PRL update trick didn't work anymore and my battery drained 30% an hour to be dead in just over 3 hours with absolutely no use on the phone. I swapped out Epics and the new one doesn't seem to have this issue but I haven't updated to DI07 yet on this one since I'm afraid of what might happen... I don't use media hub since the prices are a bit high and that seems to be the only real benefit of updating to DI07.

 

[flynlow]

I am in a good signal area. If you go by bars on the phone anyway, I am rarely under 3. In my house it's always 4-5.

Something has changed it for the better. I am going on 15 1/2 hours now and am at 44% battery. That may not be as good as pre update, I didn't really pay a lot of attention then, just charged it every night and had plenty left the next night. After the update, I was using 60-70% in about 8-9 hours and had to charge a minimum twice a day, sometimes 3 times a day. When I contact them on Tuesday, I will certainly bring the time without signal issue up. Thanks for calling that to my attention.

 

[dekcufi]

I will check it out as soon as the epic walks in the door lol

Thanks for the info

 

[taylormah]

... When I contact them on Tuesday, I will certainly bring the time without signal issue up. Thanks for calling that to my attention.

Since you are having direct access to people (or call them engineers) who can actually "fix" things, can you please also discuss the upload, gps and other issues with them that the epic community is facing. Sure sprint knows about it, but just want to hear what is their engineers take on this. Thanks!!

 

[dekcufi]

Since you are having direct access to people (or call them engineers) who can actually "fix" things, can you please also discuss the upload, gps and other issues with them that the epic community is facing. Sure sprint knows about it, but just want to hear what is their engineers take on this. Thanks!!

You might find it surprising how long it can take for word on the street and return issues that people are experiencing to reach cooperate execs.

I hope they are more proactive then they have been in the past.

 

[johnny hotsauce]

I am in a good signal area. If you go by bars on the phone anyway, I am rarely under 3. In my house it's always 4-5.

Something has changed it for the better. I am going on 15 1/2 hours now and am at 44% battery. That may not be as good as pre update, I didn't really pay a lot of attention then, just charged it every night and had plenty left the next night. After the update, I was using 60-70% in about 8-9 hours and had to charge a minimum twice a day, sometimes 3 times a day. When I contact them on Tuesday, I will certainly bring the time without signal issue up. Thanks for calling that to my attention.

Not a problem and I'm glad to hear that your battery is lasting a lot longer now, that's actually awesome news

 

[bevorules]

Did Sprint update you ROM? I have tried to use Autorun killer to stop the DRM Protected Content Storage and DRM Content Launcher. However, Autorun Killer lists both as "Self Restarter.

 

[Guapo104]

Keep an eye on your cell standby and time without signal. Are you in the double digit percentages often with time without signal?

Usually I am in the double digits with the time without a signal, but always have coverage. This whole battery issue is really giving me second doubts about the Epic. I love the phone and all its capabilities, but the battery issue is a HUGE problem. Having to charge a phone 2 and 3 times a day is just ridiculous...

 

[rsbenedict]

Cell Standby: 18% with 26% Time without a signal

You need to turn on airplane mode and then off again when you restart the phone. That will take your 26% time without a signal down. This is another bug that is draining the battery. I have 0% time without a signal and my battery life is great.