Battery down 10% in ten minutes...

[callderek#AC]

Man, so I came over from the Pre and thought that battery life was bad, but JEEEEZ! So I've had my EVO for about a month and love it, exept for the battery life. I've read practically every thread and post about the battery life and there's another website that gives 20 ideas on how to save your battery life. I've done almost all of them and have gone to "Running Programs" in settings and forceclosed those that were uneeded. From what I've read some will just start running again by themselves so that wasn't a supprise. But what's happening now is each minute that goes by the Evo looses a percentage of charge. I've had it charging off of my laptop and in three hours it only charged about 20%. I'm going to put it on the HTC charger tonight to see what the rate of charge is....

Any ideas??

I also took the live wallpaper off and put one of the static wallpapers up.

 

[Jerzyiroc]

Well for one, charging thru a laptop will always give a slow charge. There's nothing you can do about that. As far as the battery dropping 10% in 10 minutes, that actually might be normal. You'll probably notice that after about 10-15 minutes it wont drop as fast. If it is then you have some issues with your phone. Most electronics don't have that floating charge effect that keeps the battery 100% charged. It'll charge it but it'll actually let it slowly discharge a little bit in order to prevent overcharging or the charger to overheat. This is completely normal. I personally don't even charge my phone through the wall charger. I have an external wall charger where the battery sits in and charges. I've get a couple of hours of extra battery use out of it by doing it that way. There's no reason why you can't get at least 12+ hours of battery use. I use the hell out of my phone. I don't do any of those (in my opinion) ridiculous battery saving tricks. I have mobile on (unless im home, then I use wifi which uses less battery than the mobile network), gps on, things syncing as soon as every 5 minutes and I still get wll over 12 hours of use. I'd say start looking deeper into your battery issue if you're not getting over 12 hours of battery with moderate use. My other piece of advice, don't pay too much attention to the battery meters. They're not 100% accurate anyway.

 

[andyx3x]

As far as the battery dropping 10% in 10 minutes, that actually might be normal. You'll probably notice that after about 10-15 minutes it wont drop as fast. If it is then you have some issues with your phone. Most electronics don't have that floating charge effect that keeps the battery 100% charged. It'll charge it but it'll actually let it slowly discharge a little bit in order to prevent overcharging or the charger to overheat. This is completely normal.

This is exactly right. Once I charge my Evo to 100 percent and then disconnect, within just a few minutes it will drop to around 94 percent. After that, everything is OK.

 

[callderek#AC]

Thanks for the replies. I'd LOVE to get 12 hrs on a single charge! Maybe I got a funky battery, I get about 5-6 hrs out of mine.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

The odds of getting a "funky" battery are very slim.

 

[Dave Blake]

There are lot of custom ROMs out that do a good job of increasing battery life but my experience with Springs OEM ROM is the 5 to 6 hours normal use is about average. If you really want a boost in battery life I would suggest an extended battery or a custom ROM.

Later,
Dave

 

[callderek#AC]

Gotcha, thanks Dave. I'll check it out, I'm a noob so I'll check the Rom stuff out.

 

[tndank]

Could pick up some cheap batteries on ebay. I noticed an improvement using a 2000mah battery. Plus, I just keep one in the charger now. Get home from work, spend 30 second changing the battery. Heading out for the evening? Swap batteries right before you leave. Never have to worry about saving your battery or not running things or turning stuff off and on, etc.

 

[Gekko]

i deleted all battery % widgets and i suggest you do the same. the battery % is not accurate and it's silly to sit and watch every % and extrapolate when the battery % consumption is not linear and constantly worry about the battery. my advice is to just look at the default battery bar and stop stressing about the battery. just relax and enjoy and use the phone and stop obsessing about every misreported incorrect battery %. you will have a little less stress in your life.

good luck all.

 

[geekaren]

I have an external wall charger where the battery sits in and charges. I've get a couple of hours of extra battery use out of it by doing it that way.

+1, definitely agree. Putting battery in external charger (vs charger battery in-phone) helps get more battery life out of a full charge.

 

[bclinger#IM]

I have a 3500ma battery and do not get a "full day" from it. Reception strength, bunches of big buildings, steel, et cetera.

 

[reynoldsrobbie]

Ive had my EVO since release day. I am rotating between 4 batteries (2 oem and 2 ebay). I am lucky to get six hours out of any battery. I toggle each option as needed ( gps, wifi, bluetooth, etc.) It seems like before the last update my phone was giving me about 8+ hours. Now Im lucky to get 6 hours. On Friday I was out doing the Black Friday shopping and got just 4 hours on a full charge. I was doing a lot of web surfing looking for deals, but come on!!! Thinking about carrying 2 batteries in my pocket at all times.

 

[paradroid]

My battery life is outstanding. I use my EVO as my alarm clock to make sure it gets plugged in each night for a recharge. Usually when I go to bed 15 - 16 hours later I am at 50%+. I have never came close to a dead battery in a single day.

Unlike some people I have never been one to chit chat on the phone. Normally my calls last under 2 minutes. That is probably the biggest reason for my great battery life. I don't game on the phone and since I work from home I am usually on wifi all day. But I have also done the wifi hotspot on the road and have taken lots of pictures without battery issues.

BTW: I am rooted and using cm6 and Set CPU.

 

[reynoldsrobbie]

I wish I knew how you guys are getting 12 hours! I am totally stock and use no live wallpaper, use toggles for everything, use the charging dock to charge the batteries outside of the phone. I do love my phone and will love it if I only get 4 hours! Just kind of a pain pluging it in wherever I go (car, work, home). If I didn't have 3 extra batteries I'd be upset instead of frustrated.

 

[PapaNoHair#AC]

Amen - I second that!

 

[EVO_lve]

Download an app called juice defender. Basically it turns off ur 3g data when ur screen is locked or turn off and then turns it on for 1min every 15mins to sync. When you turn ur screen on and unlock it automatically connects. Help battery a ton.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[kinster02]

Man, so I came over from the Pre and thought that battery life was bad, but JEEEEZ! So I've had my EVO for about a month and love it, exept for the battery life.

First off welcome to the android army recruit, as a former Pre owner until June 4th when Evo came out I can feel your pain...having the Pre did prepare me on how to adjust settings for better battery life.

After reading reviews from different sites I found that some get great battery life and other don't...it all depends on what your doing or running.

I average around 12 hours and the most I ever got from the Evo stock battery doing an experiment by just letting it sit in standby with nothing turn off, was 49 hrs...I was shocked. This was before I started adding the 100 or so apps I have on it today.

If you are really concerned about you battery you can toggle on and off you data and auto data syncing(using widgets). I found that when you turn off the data battery life is almost like a feature phone...it last all day barely going down at all. I turn the data off when i'm out and about and I know that my battery might not make it and then I don't worry about because I know it will.

I also recommend removing the the phone from the charger once its at 100% because after that it will start to run on the battery and not the external power...this is why your battery drops so fast after unplugging.

In order to get it charging again, you have to unplug it wait 30 secs and plug it in again.

There's and app I use called watchdog task manager, its not a task killer although you call kill a rouge problem causing app. All this app does is monitor your phone for apps using 30-40% cpu (adjustable) and notify you when they do and your have the option to kill, ignore or whitelist the app so it doesn't notify you.

Unlike a task killer you can only deal with the problem app, there is no list of apps to kill/auto kill or put on a list...look up this app and read the reviews.

So far my battery life is better and the only time I got an alarm is when I installed an active screen saver using 58% cpu...I deleted it since sense was only using 1.1%.

Anyway good luck with your Evo hope everything works out, it really is a good phone .

 

[truslide]

Well, i've read through most of this thread and no one has mentioned anything about the kernels. With each update HTC will most likely change it's kernel, which will effect your battery life. So if you guys see worse battery life after an update, thank that new kernel.

The battery widgets. #1, don't have more than one, it's not neccessary. #2. Having multiple battery widgets is dumb, it will drain your battery more since the phone is sending the same signal to multiple widgets while that information is consistently dropping. #3. the battery % is an estimate, not solid.

Pertaining to battery memory... Did you follow proper instructions when you did your first charge? I spoke with a sprint rep the other day who told me it didn't matter since it was a lithium ion battery and blah blah blah. But that doesnt negate the fact that the battery will have memory to it. One thing you should NOT do is use your phone aggressively while the phone is charging. That wont help at all.

Check your 4G scanner, it could be on...

Check your bluetooth, wifi, etc... they may be scanning in the background without you knowing.

Automatic startup... yes, many apps do this. There is no way to really stop it unless you root your phone and use the Autostarts app. Then you can dictate what apps start after the phone boots up.

Don't use task managers! Ever... android kills tasks that automatically fall to the background. Task killers are not needed. Killing a task early could result in loss of information, which could cause force closes down the road. Task killers USED to be a good thing... Android developers have fixed this... you'll find that information if you read up on basic android development about "activities"

Temperature... it effects your battery. Be aware if the temperature is high on the battery, it will suck the life out of it.

Rogue apps... you could have one. There's an app called Tango that used to have this problem, it has recently been resolved. It's not to say you don't have another rogue app sucking up battery life.

Have you bought another battery and tried that? See if it is in fact just the battery, it could be shot. They don't last forever... You may just need a new battery and to do a proper first charge.

The reason you never see 100% when you're off the charger is to prevent over charging. There are many threads on the reason why. There is no fix. It's a safety feature. You'll typically have 94/91% right after you take it off the charger.

Good luck.

I'm willing to put money on the fact its
#1 aggressive to moderate use
#2 the kernel
#3 possibly a rogue app

 

[kinster02]

I wish I knew how you guys are getting 12 hours! I am totally stock and use no live wallpaper, use toggles for everything, use the charging dock to charge the batteries outside of the phone. I do love my phone and will love it if I only get 4 hours! Just kind of a pain pluging it in wherever I go (car, work, home). If I didn't have 3 extra batteries I'd be upset instead of frustrated.

Maybe its your phone? hey you had a Pre and you should know what to do swap it out for another.

 

[callderek#AC]

Awesome responses y'all. I have all of the usual 4G and WiFi stuff off. But I did calibrate my battery and have seen an improvement, but I'll probably invest in a 1700 battery and use this stock battery as a back up.