Samsung Tab A8 10.5" always on consumes more power than charger

[Greg Griffin]

I want to have my Tab A8 always on. Problem is that when plugged in and using the Developer Mode option for "on while charging" that the unit when sitting and doing nothing consumes more power than the charger supplies. Do I need a special charger? Why would the charger not provide at least enough power to keep this running. Battery will drain to nothing if left plugged in a sitting in always on mode.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Is this the charger that came with the tablet, or a 3rd party one? Are you plugging it into a wall outlet, or somewhere else like the USB port of a computer or a car?

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html

 

[mustang7757]

Is screen on full brightness?

 

[Greg Griffin]

I've tried the charger that came in the box and an extra one that came that said "Adaptive Fast Charger". Both are Samsung.

I've put the screen on lowest possible brightness. Will try turning off wifi, but that will be critical to be on in my use case. Just curious if anyone else has gone to the developer mode and turned on "always on" setting and have their not consuming more than the charger. I have a USB volt/amp meter inline with the usb charge cable.

When charging from empty, I see 8.85V at 1.55A being drawn with the unit off.
During boot while charging, and operating, still 8.85V at 1.57A.

Wondering if I got a defective unit or one that stops charging while plugged in or if this is just a "feature" of this model. Just bought it.

 

[Mr Bojangles1]

I'm curious, what is the point to have it always on? Also are you keeping the volt/amp meter plugged in the whole time?

 

[B. Diddy]

Have you also tried a different cable? Cables can become faulty.

I made you the owner of the original guest post to make it easier to find.

 

[mustang7757]

I'm not sure how accurate the USB volt meter is but this tablet uses a 15w charger and your right at 13.89w with those voltage/amp measure value you seen

 

[Greg Griffin]

I'm curious, what is the point to have it always on? Also are you keeping the volt/amp meter plugged in the whole time?

This will be a wall mount display console in my motorhome serving various purposes.

 

[Mr Bojangles1]

This will be a wall mount display console in my motorhome serving various purposes.

Oh ok gotcha. That makes sense.

 

[Mr Bojangles1]

This will be a wall mount display console in my motorhome serving various purposes.

I would go through all the settings and apps and tinker with stuff. Google is your best friend. I'm sure there are probably a lot of apps you can uninstall or disable. Less stuff able to run in the background the better. Turn off stuff like location, Bluetooth/ wifi scanning for location accuracy, maybe use airplane mode. Look for stuff similar to "ok Google" where it's constantly listening in the background for you to say it. Any apps you're not going to use restrict background battery usage and background data, remove permissions, and force stop. You can disable automatic sync too. Just a few things off the top of my head that might help you save battery to where it won't lose battery while plugged in.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm curious -- if you leave the tablet alone, does the battery level continue to drop all the way towards zero? Or does it level off in the low 90s or high 80s and then start going up again? I wonder if the phenomenon you're seeing has to do with how the charging curve plateaus as the battery gets up to the 90s.

 

[mustang7757]

This will be a wall mount display console in my motorhome serving various purposes.

Hmm maybe too many things connected at once ?

 

[Greg Griffin]

On the 3rd day I've had this, suddenly there is enough power to keep it running. Wondering if Samsung had all kinds of downloads and updates for a few days keeping the wifi running? I know Wifi can suck a lot of power. No idea, but after 3 days of the battery slowly draining all day until dead, today it ran all day at 100% power. No changes to settings or anything else.

 

[mustang7757]

On the 3rd day I've had this, suddenly there is enough power to keep it running. Wondering if Samsung had all kinds of downloads and updates for a few days keeping the wifi running? I know Wifi can suck a lot of power. No idea, but after 3 days of the battery slowly draining all day until dead, today it ran all day at 100% power. No changes to settings or anything else.

Hmm..maybe something like that , keep a eye on it