Battery Life Help!!

[KMfiremedic111]

Hi. I got my transform 3 days ago and I love it so far. The only complaint is the battery life. I have NEVER had a phone that drained the battery so fast. I have the screen at the lowest brightness, all the screen and keypad timers at only 30 seconds, no wifi on, no gps on, no google locations on. Email only checking every hour, I don't have a ton of apps either. I have a task killer that I constantly use and make sure things are killed, and after all this it still goes to 30% only after 5 hours and only a total of 1 hour internet time.

Is anyone else having the same problem? Can anyone recommend a good battery manager? The ones I have seen don't seem like they do much other than allow me to change settings within the app that I can change anyway by going to the phones settings. Any suggestions??? It is sad that to enjoy a new phone for any good length of time you have to have all the bells ans whistles turned off or way low.

 

[nox]

Task manager! No! Haha.
Getting rid of the task manager is what is need since there is no real need for it.
Constantly unlocking your phone, opening that app, and ending tasks is draining your battery.
Android runs certain processes/tasks in the background, whether you need them or not, constantly closing them and the system having to re-open them is not good for battery life.
So, get rid of the task manager, and just forget about all those running tasks and you should be fine.

We've all thought we needed to close tasks/processes at 1st so its ok
Also, these smart phones aren't the best with battery life

 

[TC]

KM,

One thingto check is cell signal. A CDMA phone with weak signal is a sure fire way to drain the battery.
Goto: Settings -> About Phone -> Battery -> Battery Use -> Cell standby
Then look for "Time without signal" Anything in the double digits % (>10) is a problem.


Related story: I recently had an EVO that wasn't great on battery life. When I checked the above figures, it was consistently >10%. I recently exchanged my EVO (for other reasons) and got back a hardware revison 4 model (my previous was a rev 3). Much to my surprise, cell signal loss percentage is now in the signal digits at home and my battery life extended.

You might want to also update your PRL just to make sure.

Hope this helps,
TC

 

[KMfiremedic111]

Thank you both for the reply. I am still very new to Android. First question. If I don't have a task manager what will clean the tasks? If you don't do that won't the system get bogged down and start getting slow? I can see what you mean by it constantly turning on and shutting stuff off and taking away battery life, but what shuts off tasks and more so the apps and stuff if you don't have one?

TC. I checked the time without signal and it is at 50%!! I live in a metro area where signal quality has never been an issue. Everytime I look at the phone it always seems to have 3 or more bars. I have only had the phone for 4 days. The PRL was updated when I activated it so I should have the latest one and latest software and everything. I actually just checked them all and they are all up to date. What does that mean then about the 50% of the time with out signal?? Does that necessarily mean I have a bad battery or phone?
Also it seems that it takes at least 3-4 hours to completely charge my phone from even just 30%. Is that normal for android phones??? Please help.

 

[TC]

TC. I checked the time without signal and it is at 50%!! I live in a metro area where signal quality has never been an issue. Everytime I look at the phone it always seems to have 3 or more bars. I have only had the phone for 4 days. The PRL was updated when I activated it so I should have the latest one and latest software and everything. I actually just checked them all and they are all up to date. What does that mean then about the 50% of the time with out signal?? Does that necessarily mean I have a bad battery or phone?
Also it seems that it takes at least 3-4 hours to completely charge my phone from even just 30%. Is that normal for android phones??? Please help.

50% is not good. Samsung Epic users have reported a software glitch that makes their TWS (time without signal) high also. Supposedly by just toggling Airplane mode after a reboot solves this. So if I was you try doing a reboot, toggle airplane mode on and then off, then monitor your TWS. Hopefully that will help for now until they issue a software update and/or Froyo 2.2

WRT charging, it's usally a function of the charger and how much current it can put out. Is it taking 3-4 hours with the wall charger? Or is this with it plugged into a USB port on your computer?

 

[acegolfer]

Uninstall auto task killer. It can drain battery. That's what androidcentral podcast recommends.

 

[KMfiremedic111]

I am charging with the wall charger. Seems to take forever. I talked to sprint and they agree it may be a problem with the battery. I will be taking it in soon for them to look at. I will try the airplane mode toggle. Today the Time Without Signal was only 25%. Better but still not good. I uninstalled my task killers. I could be wrong but it seems my phone is lagging. What kills the tasks and stuff when you don't have one? I am not sure if not having one is making it lag or now. What do you think?? I have also read reviews that 2.2 manages tasks better and that task killers are not needed especially with 2.2 I hope we get that soon.

 

[TC]

I am charging with the wall charger. Seems to take forever. I talked to sprint and they agree it may be a problem with the battery. I will be taking it in soon for them to look at. I will try the airplane mode toggle. Today the Time Without Signal was only 25%. Better but still not good. I uninstalled my task killers. I could be wrong but it seems my phone is lagging. What kills the tasks and stuff when you don't have one? I am not sure if not having one is making it lag or now. What do you think?? I have also read reviews that 2.2 manages tasks better and that task killers are not needed especially with 2.2 I hope we get that soon.

Anything is possible with these devices. Heck, I swapped my Evo at least twice at the Sprint Corp store within the first 30 days until I got a device I could live with (afterall, we're still paying $200 for these things). So yes, could be a bad battery or bad device build. I would confirm on the Sprint covearge map you're in a good area, if so, go back to the store and show them your TWS readings. TWS is a big battery drainer, especially on CDMA phones. If you're within the first 30 days and you bought the phone from Sprint, they have to swap no questions asked. The folks at my local Sprint Corp store have been really good about this. Good luck and let us know how it works out.

 

[KMfiremedic111]

My battery life sucks again! TWS 63%!!! Tried the PRL update and actually got another one in just 2 days, and the toggle airplane mode. No success. Took battery out then back in. No success. AAAAAAARRRRGG!!!

 

[berger1980]

just try it

My battery life sucks again! TWS 63%!!! Tried the PRL update and actually got another one in just 2 days, and the toggle airplane mode. No success. Took battery out then back in. No success. AAAAAAARRRRGG!!!

Mr Greg offers your money back for Roam Control if it doesn't work for you. Android users swear by it (that are in bad coverage area.)
I had a Hero last December, the signal here killed the battery very fast. I returned it because of the lack of signal here. I vowed not to have an Android device until roam ONLY was available. I watched for 10 months for an app that would do it. Then I was emailed about it. I love it, and I love my android.
I tested my roam only data 1x, and d/l was around 220k using tether.
And do you have it rooted or no?

 

[KMfiremedic111]

Thanks. I will check that app out. I did not root my phone. Sprint can't figure what is wrong with it so they are ordering me another one. I am thinking of jumping ship however and selling it for an LG optimus. We shall see.

 

[nox]

Really sorry for the late response.

Android runs apps/services in background from time to time. What happens is they idle there, not taking up any real resources.
They idle just in case you may need it again.

For example, you run the browser, go to Android Central | Android Forums, News, and Help and browse around then press the home button.
You open the browser not too long after and AndroidCentral will load again. It keeps in the background in case you need it.
After a while it'll erase it and when you open the browser again, it'll open to your default homepage.

Hope I somewhat helped. I probably over complicated it though

 

[DroidXcon]

Really sorry for the late response.

Android runs apps/services in background from time to time. What happens is they idle there, not taking up any real resources.
They idle just in case you may need it again.

For example, you run the browser, go to Android Central | Android Forums, News, and Help and browse around then press the home button.
You open the browser not too long after and AndroidCentral will load again. It keeps in the background in case you need it.
After a while it'll erase it and when you open the browser again, it'll open to your default homepage.

Hope I somewhat helped. I probably over complicated it though

To piggy back on what Jorge said,,,,android keeps the apps open as need when you open an app the requires more smoothly the system kind of picks the open application that has been used the least and closes it and this cycle continues as you continue to open apps.....those running apps in the background will not use battery because they are kind of in hybernation unless it is a poorly written app.

i would suggest also getting a program like Spare parts, this has a battery history fuction that may help you narrow down what function has the most usage.

other things you may want to check are apps that are constantly trying to fetch data for ex. facebook app or email apps etc... good way to reduce battery drain from widgets is to set their data retreival times less frequent.

if i am mistaken on any of this info please feel free to correct me Jorge.

good luck