Cell Standby, Time Without A Signal

[joebob2000]

I am almost totally convinced the biggest battery drain on my phone is the dreaded Cell Standby; it will typically run 30% or more and the "time without signal" is 40 to 80%. I tried the "airplane trick" and got it to work once, where the next 5 hours it showed under 10% for usage and the without signal figure was 3%. Do I have a bad phone or am I expecting too much from the fascinate?

I read that there is an outstanding "cdma bug" in android; anyone know if the bug is cosmetic for the statistics or does it really kill a battery? And can I get a replacement phone without the bug? I am ready to pull the ripcord on the fascinate; even when I am trying my damndest to be as good on the battery it still is under 50% by lunchtime and when I am leaving work it inevitably needs to be recharged.

 

[NickA]

I mentioned this in another post, but you seem to have a ton of issues with your phone. I urge you to just return it for another Fascinate while in the 30 day window and get another one. There's no harm and you have nothing to lose. I've been lucky as to not have any issues with my Fascinate.

I don't think your asking too much to have your battery last all day. Even being at 50% at lunchtime sucks.

 

[joebob2000]

I mentioned this in another post, but you seem to have a ton of issues with your phone. I urge you to just return it for another Fascinate while in the 30 day window and get another one. There's no harm and you have nothing to lose. I've been lucky as to not have any issues with my Fascinate.

I don't think your asking too much to have your battery last all day. Even being at 50% at lunchtime sucks.

Yes I do have something to lose. If I spin my wheels for the next week (when my 30 days is up) and I don't get a fixed phone I will have missed the chance to bail out of the fascinate entirely. I need to know if this cell standby thing is normal (ie defective software) or if somehow this brand new phone has defective hardware.

 

[NickA]

Well, only one way to find out. Swap the phone. There are people on here that are on their 4th Fascinate. I'm just saying that you have reported other problems with the phone, so I think you got a lemon.

 

[jackmei2]

I agree with Nick... best to see if you really got a lemon or not by swapping for a new fascinate. if it still sucks, then you got time to get a diff android phone

 

[joebob2000]

OK ok ok ok. I am ready to deploy the airbags. I am sitting here at work (albeit not in my normal office) and the phone is showing 96% "time without a signal". I have been checking it every half hour or so and it never actually shows no service. The battery is now under 15% after 8 hours of light use. I will de-root it tonight and try for a replacement from the store.

 

[NickA]

I curious as to how the new phone works for you, so report back. And I bet the Verizon rep recommends a task killer when you tell him about the battery

 

[Chris3D]

OK ok ok ok. I am ready to deploy the airbags. I am sitting here at work (albeit not in my normal office) and the phone is showing 96% "time without a signal". I have been checking it every half hour or so and it never actually shows no service. The battery is now under 15% after 8 hours of light use. I will de-root it tonight and try for a replacement from the store.

I would take the "time without signal" message with a large grain of salt. I've had it report way more time than can actually be true. I never seem to miss or drop any calls, yet it'll report that it didn't have a signal for 30, 40 or more percent of the time. It just can't be true.

That being said, if you're getting really poor battery life, have the phone replaced. My first one was horrible, wouldn't make 8 to 10 hours with almost zero usage. But my new one has been much better, and it's not all because of rooting and debloating. I returned mine to stock for most of today (because I had to have the SD card replaced and didn't want them checking to see if it was rooted and then saying the warranty was voided). Even completely stock, the battery didn't drain as fast as my first one did, so there does seem to be differences from unit to unit.

 

[joebob2000]

I would take the "time without signal" message with a large grain of salt. I've had it report way more time than can actually be true. I never seem to miss or drop any calls, yet it'll report that it didn't have a signal for 30, 40 or more percent of the time. It just can't be true.

That being said, if you're getting really poor battery life, have the phone replaced. My first one was horrible, wouldn't make 8 to 10 hours with almost zero usage. But my new one has been much better, and it's not all because of rooting and debloating. I returned mine to stock for most of today (because I had to have the SD card replaced and didn't want them checking to see if it was rooted and then saying the warranty was voided). Even completely stock, the battery didn't drain as fast as my first one did, so there does seem to be differences from unit to unit.

So even your "better" fascinate is showing the 40%+ time without signal? The thing that worries me with this one is that cell standby is almost always the #1 thing in the "Battery usage" list, regularly accounting for 30% or more of the usage unless I am using the phone a lot at which point the display obviously becomes the biggest one.

But how will I know the new one is any better? Without a way to measure it, it will take me at least 3 or 4 days to get a feel for the runtime. By then, my 30 days may be up...

 

[emptycube]

Even when I'm at home for extended periods (i.e. 0% time without signal), Cell Standby is still one of the biggest drains on the battery and is always up in the 30%-40% range.

 

[jackmei2]

here's what mine is showing at the moment:

and I reset the battery meter last friday

 

[Chris3D]

So even your "better" fascinate is showing the 40%+ time without signal? The thing that worries me with this one is that cell standby is almost always the #1 thing in the "Battery usage" list, regularly accounting for 30% or more of the usage unless I am using the phone a lot at which point the display obviously becomes the biggest one.

But how will I know the new one is any better? Without a way to measure it, it will take me at least 3 or 4 days to get a feel for the runtime. By then, my 30 days may be up...

Like I said, you have to take the "time without a signal" message with a grain of salt. I rebooted my phone to start fresh, set the screen to stay on and let it sit for about 20 minutes. It showed 2 bars the whole time and the time without a signal was reported as 3 to 4%. I then locked the screen (screen turned off) for about a minute, turned it back on and when I checked the time without a signal, it now reads 26%.

Even if it dropped the signal completely when the screen was turned off, the reading of 26% is still incorrect, as 1 minute is not 26% of roughly 20 minutes. I've been reading, and the time without a signal issue seems to be widly reported on many Android phones, and with 2.1 in particular, so it looks like a software bug.

By all means, if you're getting really poor battery life, return the phone for a replacement, but just don't fixate on that one reading. If you get 24+ hours on a charge (with average use), you're doing good. My first phone struggled to get 10 hours, my current one went 36 hours and was still showing 15% battery remaining.

 

[joebob2000]

OK I am at 48% remaining after 4h50m and here are the stats:

Display 32% (screen at lowest setting the entire time) time on: 24m 47s
Cell Standby 29% (time without signal 69%) time on: 4h 50m
Phone Idle 15%
Android system 9%
all the rest 15%

 

[jackmei2]

when you got a new phone, you got a new battery too right?

after looking closer at my battery usage stats, it's incorrect... I know I had gone longer than the 10 hours without charging my phone, more like 16 or so, but it still reported 10 hours. not sure why, so it looks like this battery meter is even more inaccurate than just the cell standby and phone idle...

 

[Chris3D]

OK I am at 48% remaining after 4h50m and here are the stats:

Display 32% (screen at lowest setting the entire time) time on: 24m 47s
Cell Standby 29% (time without signal 69%) time on: 4h 50m
Phone Idle 15%
Android system 9%
all the rest 15%

Maybe they sent you the phone I returned, seems like pretty much identical numbers.

Couple questions - are you rooted, have you removed bloat apps? If not, go into Settings>applications>running services, select each of the following and hit the stop button: Skype, CityID, MobileAP. I think they're the big ones for sapping the battery. That'll tell you if it's the bloat.

Dial *22899 and let it do it's thing. It'll reset the tower list to use the nearest and typically give you a stronger signal.

If nothing changes, and you like the phone otherwise, return it for a replacement. My first one was exactly like yours, my new one lasts for 30+ hours on a charge.

 

[joebob2000]

False alarm; i havent had a chance to get to the verizon store to replace this one yet. This is the original phone, i just want a benchmark to use if/when i can get it replaced. This is all with debloat for all the verizon background apps. I have done the *22899 a couple times now, no change.

 

[joebob2000]

OK last checkin:

8h 27m since unplugged: battery 12%

display 39% (time on 1h 3m)
cell standby 24% (time without signal 65%)
phone idle 12%
android system 8% (cpu 21m, foreground 31s)
rest 17%

 

[joebob2000]

Awesome, the cheap aholes at verizon wouldnt replace the whole handset, they want to replace just the battery and of course they dont have any in stock (AND they had to give me a lecture about how i should never be without ATK.) I have to wait for the new one to come, test it out and then take it back and tell them where they can shove it. I am tempted to just nuke the thing tonight just so I can get rid of it. If I wait for the battery i will only have a day or two left before my 30 days are up.

The strange thing was that after i de-debloated, the market notified me of a ton of updates (slacker, docs to go, aim, gps toolkit, etc.) Was there something to the debloat that broke the market update checking?

 

[egg_head]

There has to be something wrong with your phone.
Check mine out..
57% left on the battery.
11 hours and change since unplugged.

That's with at least 90 minutes of Pandora, 30 minutes of web browsing, 50 text messages, 10 minutes of calls and reading several news feeds.

[tapatalk on android]

 

[joebob2000]

There has to be something wrong with your phone.
Check mine out..
57% left on the battery.
11 hours and change since unplugged.

That's with at least 90 minutes of Pandora, 30 minutes of web browsing, 50 text messages, 10 minutes of calls and reading several news feeds.

[tapatalk on android]

This is becoming apparent. Going about securing a new one seems to be the challenge now.