Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 - Rapid Battery Drain and Occasional Overheating Message

[palmpre06062009]

I have had Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 for about 10 months. It is running KitKat 4.4.2. Till early December, the battery life was quite good (about 4 hours of continuously video play time). I also have SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 SD card installed. I had about 42GB of the SD card space used up (mostly movies).

Since early December, I have seen rapid battery drain. I would only get about 60 to 75 minutes of video play time. It would go from 100% battery to 5% within an hour of playing video.

Occasionally, I also get overheating message which I never had before. It pops up and then goes away on its own in a few seconds or so.

I have tried the following things so far. Not much success. I hope I find some good inputs here. Thanks in advance.

1) I forced stop (via application manager) all my apps. Yet my video play time didn't improve.

2) I uninstalled all the antivirus scan softwares (cm security and avg antivirus pro) and clean masters. Not much change.

3) I booted into Recovery Mode and wiped the system cache partition. I see less of overheat messages, but no change in battery drain.

4) I used battery doctor and other similar apps to identify apps that may be draining the battery. I haven't been able to identify any particular culprit. I removed these battery doctor apps as well.

5) I enabled the power saving mode. My brightness setting is just at 50% as it always was. I don't have location enabled. Don't use any games. Just some RSS feed apps (inoreader, feedly and greader), whatsapp, email, tweetcaster, etc. So not sure what app is draining the battery in the background if any at all.

6) First, I deleted about 20GB of files from the SD card. That didn't help. I removed the SD card completely. I haven't tried the continuous video play yet as I have left my tablet stay idle w/o charge for almost 3 days now. I just wanted to how long is the standby time and see if I can identify any app draining the most via GSAM battery usage monitor app.

Here are the few stats. I will post some screen shots shortly.

From Battery under Settings

Battery Charge left --> 25% after being on standby (mostly idle) for 2d 9h 40m 46s

Screen --> 51%
Android OS --> 12%
Android System--> 11%
Device Idle --> 9%
Email --> 3%

WiFi, Samsung Push, Greader, com.android.systemui are all 2%

From GSAM Battery Stats:

Battery usage due to Screen 30%
Wifi active 2%
Held awake 1%
App Usage 58% (i hardly used the device...less than an hour or so over 58 hours period)
Android OS 18.2%
Android System 16%
Email 3.7%
Next 7 apps are ~2% each. The rest are all 0.5% or less.

The question I have is: How do these stats compare to so-called reference point? Do they look off mark? Why is OS and System taking up so much battery as part of app usage? What could be causing it? Or is this expected behavior under standby mode?

Is there a battery app that actually checks the health of the battery? Provides current capacity compared to its original capacity, etc.

Should I uninstall and install the apps I have? Is there a way to actually backup an application (not just application data, but the actually apk?). I haven't performed the factory reset because there are apps I have that are not available in google play anymore. Is there a way to backup the actual *.apk file and restore it after factory reset?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[palmpre06062009]

I was playing movies from the SD card and not via WiFi using either VLC or MX player apps.

 

[palmpre06062009]

After totally discharging the battery and then fully recharging, the battery usage via Android OS and Android System reduced by 50%. What can explain this? I haven't uninstalled any apps or changed their behavior (notifications, etc.). Puzzled by this 50% drop. Battery Widget app indicated my battery's current capacity as 4508 mah (as compared to rated capacity of 4600 mah). So it seems the battery's health itself is quite good. Next attempt is to try out the video play time. Will update with more info later.

 

[Carrie Grider]

Please let me know what you find out. I have had almost the exact problem with my note 8. It completey drains after 1/2 hour of use and I get cpu overheating issues. I sent mine to Samsung repair in Texas and just got it back. All they did was change the usb power card . There is no change its still draining. Samsung repair was a waste. This happened to me after Kit Kat install also. So frustrating. I read somewhere that you can take the battery out for a while and then put it back in. Not quite sure how to do that but considering it. Who knows...maybe Kit Kat completely killed the battery. Anyway, please keep us posted. Thanks and good luck.

 

[palmpre06062009]

I just finished testing video play time. After 100 minutes of video play, battery usage went from 73% to 38%. Much better than before where within 60 minutes or less I would lose almost 95% of battery.

Here are a few things I tried apart from what I mentioned in the initial post.

I moved apps from the SD card to the device storage. So no apps on SD card. Then i unmounted the SD card. I let the battery discharge completely. I uninstalled about 10 apps or so that were installed on/after I started noticing rapid battery drain. I re-installed them again. I went thru un-install and re-install of these apps just in case if something went wrong during the initial install.

I played the movie from the device storage. I haven't re-mounted the SD card yet. My plan is to re-format the SD card and then just use it for storing movie files. If I want to play any movie, I will move the file back to the device storage and play it from there.

So after a week of hassles, I still don't know the precise problem. But it seems to be related to SD card. I SD card for a few months, but didn't have this issue before. May be the amount of data on SD card played a role? Once I went beyond 32G (I had 64GB SD card), it seems the problem started. I can't tell for sure since even after reducing the SD card data size to 20GB, the problem was still there. So I ended up removing it.

I will keep updating this post in the hope that it may help others.

BTW, Samsung Technical Support was horrendous...they just wanted me to perform factory reset which I didn't. My intention was to narrow down the root cause. I also found a way to backup actual application (*.apk) file since some of the apps I have are no longer there. Thank you File Expert HD with Clouds app. Now if I have to really reset the device, I wouldn't have to think too much.

 

[palmpre06062009]

Please let me know what you find out. I have had almost the exact problem with my note 8. It completey drains after 1/2 hour of use and I get cpu overheating issues. I sent mine to Samsung repair in Texas and just got it back. All they did was change the usb power card . There is no change its still draining. Samsung repair was a waste. This happened to me after Kit Kat install also. So frustrating. I read somewhere that you can take the battery out for a while and then put it back in. Not quite sure how to do that but considering it. Who knows...maybe Kit Kat completely killed the battery. Anyway, please keep us posted. Thanks and good luck.

You can watch this Youtube video if you want to remove your Note 8.0 battery. However, you can also completely discharge it the way I did it. It should have the same impact.

www youtube com/watch?v=sZG28TPmd8Y

 

[palmpre06062009]

Please let me know what you find out. I have had almost the exact problem with my note 8. It completey drains after 1/2 hour of use and I get cpu overheating issues. I sent mine to Samsung repair in Texas and just got it back. All they did was change the usb power card . There is no change its still draining. Samsung repair was a waste. This happened to me after Kit Kat install also. So frustrating. I read somewhere that you can take the battery out for a while and then put it back in. Not quite sure how to do that but considering it. Who knows...maybe Kit Kat completely killed the battery. Anyway, please keep us posted. Thanks and good luck.

I just finished testing the battery for video play time. I used 35% of battery (73% to 38%)
for 100 minutes of video play time. This is much much better than what I was getting
two weeks ago when the rapid battery drain issue started. I was draining 95% of the
battery within 60 minutes or less then.

Here is a list of few things I tried apart from the actions highlighted in my original
post.

I moved all the Apps that were on the SD card back to the device storage. After this
I unmounted and removed the SD card. I completely discharged my battery (to mimic battery
removal). The device was mostly idle (just receiving emails and Whatsapp messages). It took
about 60 hours to completely discharge the battery. I left the device dead for about
6-7 hours before re-charging the device. Once the battery was fully recharged,
I un-installed a few Apps that I had installed around the timeframe
my battery drain issue started. I re-installed them again. I did this just in case
if something got corrupted during the initial installation of the Apps.

After going through a week of hassles, I still haven't precisely identified the root
cause of battery drain. It points towards the SD card, but I am not 100% convinced yet.
I had SD card installed for few months and I didn't have this problem. May be the
amount of data on the SD card might have played a role. I started seeing the battery
drain issue when the SD card data size was around 34GB (I have 64GB SD card). I reduced
the data size to 20GB, but no change. I am planning to re-install my SD card after
few more days of battery verification. I will format it again. This time I am
planning to use SD card just for storing video files. I won't move any of my Apps
to SD card. Also, I will move the file temporarily to the device storage before
playing it. I just want to reduce SD card file access, etc.


I will keep updating this post in the hope that what I find may help others with similar
issue.

BTW, Samsung Tech Support was horrible. They hardly had any clue. All they wanted me
to do was to perform factory reset which I didn't want to. I wanted to really identify
the root cause of the battery problem and not simply mask it temporarily via reset. I also
learned how to backup an App (*.apk file) and not just the App data.
Thank you File Expert HD with Clouds. So now if I really need to perform factory reset,
I won't have any hesitation since I can backup my apps that are not available
in Google Play anymore.

Thanks and Good Luck. Let us know what you find.

 

[palmpre06062009]

I have also noticed the following:

Battery shows 91% and then I plug the charger and it immediately shows 100%.
Battery shows 25% and I reboot the device and it immediately shows 15% and gives me low battery warning indication.

What can explain these rapid / instantaneous changes in battery power? Does this imply weak battery?
Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[palmpre06062009]

I have also noticed the following:

Battery shows 91% and then I plug the charger and it immediately shows 100%.
Battery shows 25% and I reboot the device and it immediately shows 15% and gives me low battery warning indication.

What can explain these rapid / instantaneous changes in battery power? Does this imply weak battery?
Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Here is a snapshot of my battery charge time via GSam Battery Monitor app.



Here is the info from the chart. Battery charge was at about 4% at 8.15am when I plugged the battery in for charge. Around 9.20am the charge was about 28% (~10% every 27 minutes...which is about 4.5 hrs for full charge, inline with what various tech publications claim for Note 8.0). Then the interesting thing occurs. The battery charge then instantaneously shoots up from 28% to 100% (fully charge). Does this clearly indicate there is something wrong with the battery? I am only getting 2 hours of full video play time which is significantly less than 8 hours claim by the same tech websites referenced above. The 8 hours may be with airplane mode, but i don't have many apps that are really pulling much data in the background. So the diff in the video play time with airplane mode on and off shouldn't be that different.

Any thoughts? Thx

 

[donnajo62]

My Note 8 was also having these problems. The battery was draining crazy fast and the recharging time was too fast to be accurate too. I figured that it was time for a new battery so I ordered a replacement. When I got it, I followed the youtube vid instructions I found and managed to change it out but when I go to power it on, it is all wonky--black screen followed by weird rebooting screen I had never seen, then immediately black screen again. So I decide to just put the original battery back in and send the replacement back. When I get it all back together the original battery is back to normal! In fact, I've never had my battery last this long and the charge time is what it should be. Don't know why this helped but I'm happy! So maybe just take the back off your Note 8 and unplug the battery for a few minutes then plug it back in.

 

[palmpre06062009]

Please let me know what you find out. I have had almost the exact problem with my note 8. It completey drains after 1/2 hour of use and I get cpu overheating issues. I sent mine to Samsung repair in Texas and just got it back. All they did was change the usb power card . There is no change its still draining. Samsung repair was a waste. This happened to me after Kit Kat install also. So frustrating. I read somewhere that you can take the battery out for a while and then put it back in. Not quite sure how to do that but considering it. Who knows...maybe Kit Kat completely killed the battery. Anyway, please keep us posted. Thanks and good luck.

Here is the latest update. After following the steps I have listed in this thread, I finally did the factory reset. These are the steps I used for factory reset.

- power off tablet
- Press and hold Volume up and Power and home button simultaneously then release when turning on
- The Android system recovery menu will appear.
- select "wipe data/factory reset", and then press the Power button
- select "Yes – delete all user data", and then press the Power button
- select "reboot system now", and then press the Power button

Still no luck. It behaved exactly the same as before the factory reset. Rapid discharge as well as rapid charge as shown in the chart I attached previously. So I decided to sent it in for Samsung repair.

The tablet was delivered into the service center last Friday and I got the email message today that the unit is repaired. But no information on what exactly was done. So I called Samsung. They didn't have the info either in the Service Request solution. So I got the phone number for the third party sub-contractor that Samsung uses for these warranty repair and services and spoke to the lady about what was done. She said they replaced the USB charging port (just like in your case) as well as USB charging cable. Seems like they are all following this step blindly given that it didn't actually fixed your issue. So I talked to the lady and gave the description of the problem and asked her to keep the tablet for an extra day or two and go through the entire charging and discharging mechanism (discharge it through a video play back) and note all the times. This way they can completely verify whether the problem is actually fixed or they are just using boiler-plate solutions to fix any and every issue related to the short battery life.

Will keep people posted as to what happens. This has been very frustrating to say the least.

 

[MAXXTX]

This happened to me one time. I took the back cover off and disconnected the battery wire to the battery and off for an hour. re connected the battery and boom! back to long life battery. no reset nessisary

 

[palmpre06062009]

Here is the latest update. After following the steps I have listed in this thread, I finally did the factory reset. These are the steps I used for factory reset.

- power off tablet
- Press and hold Volume up and Power and home button simultaneously then release when turning on
- The Android system recovery menu will appear.
- select "wipe data/factory reset", and then press the Power button
- select "Yes – delete all user data", and then press the Power button
- select "reboot system now", and then press the Power button

Still no luck. It behaved exactly the same as before the factory reset. Rapid discharge as well as rapid charge as shown in the chart I attached previously. So I decided to sent it in for Samsung repair.

The tablet was delivered into the service center last Friday and I got the email message today that the unit is repaired. But no information on what exactly was done. So I called Samsung. They didn't have the info either in the Service Request solution. So I got the phone number for the third party sub-contractor that Samsung uses for these warranty repair and services and spoke to the lady about what was done. She said they replaced the USB charging port (just like in your case) as well as USB charging cable. Seems like they are all following this step blindly given that it didn't actually fixed your issue. So I talked to the lady and gave the description of the problem and asked her to keep the tablet for an extra day or two and go through the entire charging and discharging mechanism (discharge it through a video play back) and note all the times. This way they can completely verify whether the problem is actually fixed or they are just using boiler-plate solutions to fix any and every issue related to the short battery life.

Will keep people posted as to what happens. This has been very frustrating to say the least.

It seems that the service center didn't keep the tablet...they shipped it out yesterday....oh well...i may ship it back out again....most likely the issue may be there....unless they also kept the battery out for an hour or so as stated in this thread and other threads on this forum. We shall see.

 

[palmpre06062009]

Here is the latest. I just got the tablet back from the service center about an hour ago. I have been testing it via video play back. It seems they performed the factory reset in addition to changing the charging port as well as giving me new USB charging cable (not the A/C adapter).

This is what I see from the limited testing so far. After playing 45 minutes of Youtube Video, the battery drained by about 10%. About 4.5 minutes per 1% of battery drain. That would be about 7.5 hours of video play time to completely drain a fully charged battery. That seems within the range of what Tech Publications suggest for the video play time for Note 8.0. When I had the discharging / charging issue mentioned above, I would get about 1 to 1.25 minute video play time per 1% of battery drain. This is significant improvement. Hope it sticks.

Will post the results once I have tested enough. So far so good.

 

[palmpre06062009]

I drained the battery to about 5%. It took about 2.5 hours to fully charge the battery. I didn't see any instantaneous jump from x% to 100% like before. Is 2.5 hrs to fully charge the battery within the normal range? Is that what most people are seeing? I have seen 4 hours quoted in tech publications (Engadget, AnandTech, etc.). Can someone please confirm what they are seeing for fully charging their unit? Thanks.

 

[MAXXTX]

normal use I get about a good 6 hours before I need charging, video use ANY video use Youtube, the built in video player, or netflix ect... gets about 3 hours of use before the tablet gets to the 15% mark. try looking into some external battery chargers to get some time out of it. You know something like this GreatShield PowerTank 10400mah 3.1A Dual USB Port High Capacity Power Bank Portable External Battery Charger - Blue - Walmart.com

 

[MAXXTX]

Or if you got a spare TV with an hdmi. Look into chromecast. You can stream most of your stuff especially Youtube for mega hours cause its not actually playing anything on your tab. just straight to the TV

 

[palmpre06062009]

normal use I get about a good 6 hours before I need charging, video use ANY video use Youtube, the built in video player, or netflix ect... gets about 3 hours of use before the tablet gets to the 15% mark. try looking into some external battery chargers to get some time out of it. You know something like this GreatShield PowerTank 10400mah 3.1A Dual USB Port High Capacity Power Bank Portable External Battery Charger - Blue - Walmart.com

How many hours does it take to fully charge your Note 8.0?

One other thing I noticed. Prior to the service center change, my battery would go all the way down to 1% then eventually to 0% shutoff. But now, it shuts off at 7%, that is, it drops instantaneously to 0%, while the video is playing. Has anyone noticed this behavior? After two days of video play time testing, I am getting about 4.5 minutes per 1% battery drain. About 7.5 hours in total. I am testing the charging time now.

 

[palmpre06062009]

How many hours does it take to fully charge your Note 8.0?

One other thing I noticed. Prior to the service center change, my battery would go all the way down to 1% then eventually to 0% shutoff. But now, it shuts off at 7%, that is, it drops instantaneously to 0%, while the video is playing. Has anyone noticed this behavior? After two days of video play time testing, I am getting about 4.5 minutes per 1% battery drain. About 7.5 hours in total. I am testing the charging time now.

This says Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Review | Ubergizmo about 2.5 hours to fully charge the Note 8.0 device. That is what I have noticed now and last year before I had the problem.

 

[MAXXTX]

I never really timed the charging process but it does seem to take forever. kind of does feel like almost 3 hours for a full charge. I have had a couple of times the charging process goes lower to the 1% even when plugged in. It ONLY happens when its near the 5% or lower. It just doesnt have the juice I think to maintain a charge even though its plugged in.