Can I "format" my thunderbolt - battery issues

[itzed]

Hi. I'm not really a phone guru, but I'm pretty good with computers and most electronic equipment. I've had a TB for about a year now, and its been the best phone I've ever had. However, about three weeks ago it began eating batteries. I assumed it was the battery, and ordered two new ones, and it eats them too. It's not consistent, but sometimes will kill a battery in as little as two hours when not even being used. And the phone gets very hot while this is happening. I have done some limited research, and think maybe a process is stuck. I have not spent anything on apps, and don't much care if I lose data, so is there a way to just format the thing and have it wiped clean? Any advice.

 

[bjboucher]

Hi. I'm not really a phone guru, but I'm pretty good with computers and most electronic equipment. I've had a TB for about a year now, and its been the best phone I've ever had. However, about three weeks ago it began eating batteries. I assumed it was the battery, and ordered two new ones, and it eats them too. It's not consistent, but sometimes will kill a battery in as little as two hours when not even being used. And the phone gets very hot while this is happening. I have done some limited research, and think maybe a process is stuck. I have not spent anything on apps, and don't much care if I lose data, so is there a way to just format the thing and have it wiped clean? Any advice.

You can do a factory reset. Don't have my phone anymore but I think it's under menu-settings-storage or something like that. Should be an option for Factory reset. Will wipe the phone and put it back to the way it was the day you picked it up (just with the newest software already installed).

 

[trter10-imore]

Settings > SD & Phone storage > Factory data reset

 

[itzed]

Thank you both. I did this last night, and set up my email accounts again this morning, so I guess we'll see how it goes. It did wipe out my applications, but I was surprised that some settings actually remained: it found my home wireless network and had the password already, and it remembered my frequent contacts on that screen as well. I also checked to wipe out data on the sd card too, so it's not like I left anything as an option during the format.

 

[bjboucher]

That's weird. It should have deleted everything, especially if you wiped the SD card too. Don't think mine ever remembered any of my stuff after a factory reset.

 

[Wildside]

The WIFI login info was probably stored with Gmail. When I flash a new ROM and set up my Gmail account the backup device to Gmail is checked by default.

I think the same for the frequent contacts.

I've never factory reset my phone though so YMMV.

 

[itzed]

Well, one day later after the factory reset, and so far so good. I traveled yesterday, and had what I would consider "normal" battery life. Did quite a bit of texting, and some web surfing, and one decent phone call. So as of now, I think it worked. I also found out that in addition to all the standard browser links that the reset gave me back, it also kept all my personal links I had before. So essentially, it wiped out out my email accounts, removed my installed apps, and deleted my pictures and documents on my sd card. One thing I forgot to mention, before the reset, I did find six emails in my exchange outbox from as far back as about a month ago, that could not be sent for some reason. I wonder if it was continuously trying send them.

 

[bigberries]

I hope your problem goes away. Please post again in a week. I started having the same problem. I've had my phone since day 1 and never had a battery problem. Now... five times in a single week the battery goes from full charge to dead instantly. I think it might be related to recent updates. (I'm suspicious of "MX Player" since it's the most recent update I've done) Something's going on. We need better tools to check these things.

 

[itzed]

So far, two and a half days of no issues. Better and faster than new, with battery left at the end of the day. I'll check in again at the end of the week.

 

[itzed]

It's been a week now, and the phone is still fine, better than ever. It's faster, and the battery lasts more than all day. The factory reset was a minimal inconvenience, so I would highly recommend it.

 

[bjboucher]

Yeah, they are like mini-computers, sometimes file systems and apps get corrupted and stop working right so a factory reset puts things back the way they're supposed to be. Just like re-installing windows makes your computer feel like brand new.