GPS, wake lock/battery drain and digitizer issues

[osirhc]

This is a loaded question/issue I have been having so I will try to make this as brief yet as detailed as possible (EDIT - this proved harder to do than I originally anticipated).
I apologize in advance, first I will post a quick list before I go into detail.

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Quick Glance issues
1. GPS turns itself on randomly - Android System kills my battery - despite Location Services turned off
2. CacheUpdateService under Google Services wakelock taking up 96% of sleep time
3. Mild digitizer weirdness.

****

First issue - GPS
I have recently turned Location Settings OFF completely and today I was hit with a number of huge wtf moments. My GPS is turning itself on randomly, it happened once this morning while it was in my pocket, the only app I had run was Maps for the bus times, I close all my apps when I'm done with them before I put it back in my pocket. I turned GPS off and then not two minutes later it was back on! After work this morning I pulled my phone out while on the bus and while I was in the Facebook app I saw GPS turn itself on. This happened at least 5 more times today, while I was on a call it turned on, I turned it off only for it to turn on again as I was hanging up! It happened three more times while typing a post on another site's forum, couldn't have been more than a few minutes in between each instance. This has obviously effected my battery heavily - my battery stats report that Android Services eating almost 60% of my battery! The best part is it tells me to manually turn on and off GPS which is what I have been doing this whole time anyway!

Second - wake lock and other battery drain.
I have noticed a service on my phone titled "CacheUpdateService" under Google Services which has been preventing my phone from sleep (reporting 96% Awake time!) with a total of 10.5 hours on while only "waking locking" a total of 6 times.
Andorid System - 58% on battery with GPS time of almost 12 hours
Google Services - only 7% on battery but total keep awake of 10.5 hours

Also, somehow the GPS reports almost an hour increase in battery usage despite only a half an hour passing by in between the times I checked (check out the time in the screenshots).

Lastly - Digitizer issues.
Since day one I had a mild issue where the digitizer would bug out and typing/navigating became sporadic and impossible, swype would type out full, random words with one stroke and regular tpying rendered words coming out like tttthhhhhhhiiiisss. Locking and unlocking the phone fixes the issue temporarily. This has only happened a few times in the week and a half I have owned the phone, however it happened today twice (never happened twice in one day before). It doesnt seem to be app related, however it mostly happens in the stock messaging app. Also possibly related to this issue has been the issue with LG Keyboard crashing while typing. This also doesnt seem to be app related but again it mostly happens in the stock messaging app, however it has also happened in chrome. When it crashes a system message pops up telling me LG Keyboard has crashed, of course in the middle of text input, forcing me to close the app in order to get my keyboard app (possibly related, LG Keyboard shows in battery usage killing 2% of overall battery usage).


I have two battery management apps, Snapdragon Battery Guru and Wakelock Detector (WLD).
Prior to today Battery Guru worked pretty slick and seemed to improve overall battery longevity.

If anyone has any insight at all into what could possibly be turning on my GPS with Location Services OFF I would be greatly appreciative.
If anyone has any recommendations as to fix any of these issues I also would be greatly appreciative - at this point I'm thinking of factory restoring to see what happens.

I will post the screenshots a soon as my phone decides it wants to send the email to myself on my computer.
Again sorry for the obscene amount of text, but I really have no idea what to do nor do I know who to ask. I thank you in advance.

EDIT
Uploaded Screenshots.

 

[Just_Some_Nobody]

I am not 100% sure but carrier IQ is running in Android Services and so it probably is sending back gps info. You can try stopping it by:
Settings->general->apps->running
Look for Android System. Click it and you should see carrier IQ and can stop it. After that you can stop Android System itself.

Try that and see if it helps with battery life.

As for the digitizer; i think i would try getting the phone replaced.

Posted via Android Central App using an LG G2.

 

[osirhc]

I am not 100% sure but carrier IQ is running in Android Services and so it probably is sending back gps info. You can try stopping it by:
Settings->general->apps->running
Look for Android System. Click it and you should see carrier IQ and can stop it. After that you can stop Android System itself.

Try that and see if it helps with battery life.

As for the digitizer; i think i would try getting the phone replaced.

Posted via Android Central App using an LG G2.

I was afraid of that (having to get a replacement)
I just paid $200 for this phone and I really don't want to get a replacement because they'll just give me a refurb which is garbage imo.

Also, the more I hear about Carrier IQ the more I don't like it - last night I let the phone die totally and turned it back on an hour later after it charged a little because I needed to make a quick phone call. As soon as I turned the phone on GPS activated itself. I had the phone on for 15 minutes tops and the GPS literally turned itself on as soon as I turned it off. It happened about 10 times in a row and I wish I was exaggerating!

I ended up factory reseting and the GPS issues have ceased, however the digitizer issue still persists. I may end up taking it to AT&T soon to see what they have to say. I'm still within my 14 days so maybe, hopefully, they can just give me a new phone and not a refurbished unit.

Thanks for the reply, btw - hopefully the GPS issue doesn't come back

 

[Just_Some_Nobody]

I was afraid of that (having to get a replacement)
I just paid $200 for this phone and I really don't want to get a replacement because they'll just give me a refurb which is garbage imo.

Also, the more I hear about Carrier IQ the more I don't like it - last night I let the phone die totally and turned it back on an hour later after it charged a little because I needed to make a quick phone call. As soon as I turned the phone on GPS activated itself. I had the phone on for 15 minutes tops and the GPS literally turned itself on as soon as I turned it off. It happened about 10 times in a row and I wish I was exaggerating!

I ended up factory reseting and the GPS issues have ceased, however the digitizer issue still persists. I may end up taking it to AT&T soon to see what they have to say. I'm still within my 14 days so maybe, hopefully, they can just give me a new phone and not a refurbished unit.

Thanks for the reply, btw - hopefully the GPS issue doesn't come back

If it's w/in your 14 day period, DEMAND a new phone and not a refurb. Don't think of it as you being a nasty customer. It's not going to cost them much to return it to LG as defective.

 

[osirhc]

If it's w/in your 14 day period, DEMAND a new phone and not a refurb. Don't think of it as you being a nasty customer. It's not going to cost them much to return it to LG as defective.

Honestly I was thinking of doing just that, the only issue I foresee is I bought my G2 at an at&t authorized dealer and in a different city (while I was back home) so I don't know if at&t will play nice with that. Also I just realized my 14 day period ended yesterday, the day the issues started off course =/

I'm going to give it a try anyway though. If all else fails I'm removing carrier iq as soon as possible. Carrier IQ is malware as far as I'm concerned


Sent from my LG-D800 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[JayWill]

Honestly I was thinking of doing just that, the only issue I foresee is I bought my G2 at an at&t authorized dealer and in a different city (while I was back home) so I don't know if at&t will play nice with that. Also I just realized my 14 day period ended yesterday, the day the issues started off course =/

I'm going to give it a try anyway though. If all else fails I'm removing carrier iq as soon as possible. Carrier IQ is malware as far as I'm concerned


Sent from my LG-D800 using AC Forums mobile app

I currently have Carrier IQ disabled via root and the app System Tuner. It's not ideal (I prefer to not have to run a process to disable another process), but it does the trick. However, if you're willing to go a step further than root and install custom recovery and flash a custom ROM, the dev at XDA who has developed a couple of stock ROMs for the AT&T G2 will likely be releasing his Clean ROM this weekend built from the Bell Canada ROM base, which has no Carrier IQ and unlocked wifi tethering.

 

[kollarism]

I disabled variety iq like "just some nobody" mentioned, and that did the trick for me. Make sure you go into Google settings and make sure everything is off. I consistently get 35+ hrs with 5+ screen time.

 

[osirhc]

I disabled variety iq like "just some nobody" mentioned, and that did the trick for me. Make sure you go into Google settings and make sure everything is off. I consistently get 35+ hrs with 5+ screen time.

That's amazing, I've done all that you have but I still only get 13 to 15 this with 3 to 4 this screen time.

I currently have Carrier IQ disabled via root and the app System Tuner. It's not ideal (I prefer to not have to run a process to disable another process), but it does the trick. However, if you're willing to go a step further than root and install custom recovery and flash a custom ROM, the dev at XDA who has developed a couple of stock ROMs for the AT&T G2 will likely be releasing his Clean ROM this weekend built from the Bell Canada ROM base, which has no Carrier IQ and unlocked wifi tethering.

This sounds very promising, I will keep an eye out for that release. Thanks for the heads up

Sent from my LG-D800 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[osirhc]

Just as an update,

I've been disabling the IQ process and Android System on every reboot and start up. This only seems to work sometimes and the inconsistency is confusing. Days like today still show Android System eating over 60% of my battery with GPS time equal to what my total power on time. In other words GPS is always ON despite location access set to OFF and GPS icon does not pop up on its own.

I have decided not to get a replacement for the digitizer issues i continue to have. I'm just going to root and install custom recovery and probably flash a custom rom or at least delete CarrierIQ myself because I'm so ******* sick of it lol

Ill update after i do it and let everyone know how it goes

EDIT
All that being said, to anyone else having this issue, stopping Agent IQ and Android System is much more consistent if you reboot. What i mean ive noticed GPS on even when stopping said processss, rebooting when it doesn't seem to actually stop seems to rectify it.

Sent from my LG-D800 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[bad43085]

So I've posted my comments in other threads. But I'm having the same concerns. I've only had the phone since Sunday and I am new to Android so all of this is quite foreign to me still. Today alone (it is 10:20AM and I unplugged my phone at 6:40 this morning) I've spent a grand total of 16 minutes on screen time and I'm down to 84%. In interest of full disclosure, I have sent 2 texts today as well. That is it. I love the phone, I just wish the battery were living up to the reviews. I'm not sure what to do. Android System is taking up the most at 44%. My two year old iPhone 4 prior to this got better battery life than this thing so far, and I never had to make a conscious effort to turn OFF things like GPS, notifications, WiFi, etc. I would even go days at a time without closing out apps on my iPhone. I make sure I close everything everytime I open something on this and it's still garbage.

 

[Just_Some_Nobody]

So I've posted my comments in other threads. But I'm having the same concerns. I've only had the phone since Sunday and I am new to Android so all of this is quite foreign to me still. Today alone (it is 10:20AM and I unplugged my phone at 6:40 this morning) I've spent a grand total of 16 minutes on screen time and I'm down to 84%. In interest of full disclosure, I have sent 2 texts today as well. That is it. I love the phone, I just wish the battery were living up to the reviews. I'm not sure what to do. Android System is taking up the most at 44%. My two year old iPhone 4 prior to this got better battery life than this thing so far, and I never had to make a conscious effort to turn OFF things like GPS, notifications, WiFi, etc. I would even go days at a time without closing out apps on my iPhone. I make sure I close everything everytime I open something on this and it's still garbage.

Have you tried disabling Carrier IQ as mentioned above?

 

[beeare]

My gmail seemed to have a lot of wake locks and was awake for over an hour. Anybody know what might cause this?

My battery seemed to rundown quick today and I think this might have something to do with it.

Sent from my XT1080 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[osirhc]

My gmail seemed to have a lot of wake locks and was awake for over an hour. Anybody know what might cause this?

My battery seemed to rundown quick today and I think this might have something to do with it.

Sent from my XT1080 using AC Forums mobile app

Maybe it has something to do with sync settings? I'm not sure. How many emails do you usually get in a day?
The other day Soundhound spiked in my wakelock detecter, GPS usage was through the roof! Just as I seemed to have CarrierIQ under control...I ended up turning off location settings in soundhound's preferences and it stopped, but it was quite strange.

It seems despite my best efforts to disable CarrierIQ and Android System from eating my battery with its "always on GPS," CarrierIQ STILL persists. I've noticed the past few days Android System taking up MORE than 50% (may or may not upload an screenshot later, but seems sort of pointless as the issue seems already well documented).

I have decided finally to take my G2 to AT&T to see if I can get a replacement G2. All I have to do to replicate the issue is to reboot. GPS turns on seconds after the phone powers on. And of course I have quite a collection of screenshots to show off as well.

I love the G2, on days where CarrierIQ leaves me alone, I can easily go 30+ hours on a single charge - sometimes even getting me through two whole days (simply amazing). I would LOVE to enjoy the FULL power of my 3000 mAh battery though; I can only imagine what a G2 sans CarrierIQ can do.

So I've posted my comments in other threads. But I'm having the same concerns. I've only had the phone since Sunday and I am new to Android so all of this is quite foreign to me still. Today alone (it is 10:20AM and I unplugged my phone at 6:40 this morning) I've spent a grand total of 16 minutes on screen time and I'm down to 84%. In interest of full disclosure, I have sent 2 texts today as well. That is it. I love the phone, I just wish the battery were living up to the reviews. I'm not sure what to do. Android System is taking up the most at 44%. My two year old iPhone 4 prior to this got better battery life than this thing so far, and I never had to make a conscious effort to turn OFF things like GPS, notifications, WiFi, etc. I would even go days at a time without closing out apps on my iPhone. I make sure I close everything everytime I open something on this and it's still garbage.

Give the battery a week or two, my G2 did not give me the best battery performance at first either but after a while (assuming no GPS/CarrierIQ issues) you'll be averaging 30 hours per full charge. Interestingly, my GPS/CarrierIQ issues didn't start until about two weeks into owning the phone (right after AT&T's 14 policy of course).