Serious battery problems when signal is marginal

[bxojr]

I know there are a ton of battery-life topics out there, but I wanted to see if my specific situation is common (and if there's anything I can do about it).

When I'm in an area with good reliable signal, my battery life is fine. (It's not as good as it was on 2.1, but it's good enough.) But if I'm traveling around, or if I'm in a place with a weaker signal, two things happen. First, my phone becomes noticeably warm in my pocket, so much so that it's uncomfortable; second, my battery drains ridiculously fast. Tonight it went from full charge to roughly 25% in about an hour.

I'm currently running the community ROM version 1.2, but I had this problem on OTA Froyo. (Actually, it's happened on every Froyo ROM I've used, starting with DL30.) It doesn't seem to have anything to do with data usage, because it still happens if I turn off background data. I'm guessing the problem is in the phone radio, since it didn't change when I went from OTA to the community ROM.

This problem is so bad that I would call Verizon about it, if I were still on stock Froyo. (I've even considered re-flashing ED01 just so I can call them and complain.) Is this a common experience with the post-DL30 radios? Has anybody found any kind of fix? Anybody know if it's been reported to Verizon? Or is it just me?

 

[curley]

make sure your data roaming is turned off. That can save some juice when you are in a low signal area. But that heart and battery drain is your phone trying to find service. So it cranks up the power to increase the signal or antenna. If you want to keep your battery longer, turn of your data from the notification drop down. That will give you phone calls but not internet or email, but will save battery.

 

[bxojr]

Thanks, but that's not really what I'm asking ... I know all the ways I can try to mitigate the problem, but my point is that this battery drain is way beyond what should ever be considered normal, even if the phone is having to work harder for a signal. I never had this problem before DL30 (and I've had the Fascinate since day one), so it's clearly a problem that was introduced with Froyo.

Is this the kind of behavior other people are seeing with the Fascinate? Because frankly, it's hard to believe that anyone would consider it acceptable.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

That doesn't seem to be a common issue. It is possible there is something wrong with the battery or the phone itself

 

[calbrs04]

I have had the same issue at work. It was mostly with the 3g not picking up so I got the same problems. What I did to resolve this is just turn off mobile data, and the problem went away. Had the same issues with the og droid, and bb storm.

 

[bxojr]

That doesn't seem to be a common issue. It is possible there is something wrong with the battery or the phone itself

I suppose it's possible, but it seems rather unlikely, since the problem didn't appear until I upgraded to Froyo. I guess the only way to be sure would be to re-flash Eclair and confirm that the problem doesn't occur, but I'm not sure I'm willing to go to such lengths.

I guess if I really want to do anything about it, I'm going to have to go back to stock ED01 and then call Verizon. But that seems like a last resort; most likely they'd just offer me a replacement phone, and if it is a software problem, that wouldn't do any good.

 

[voghan]

I have noticed this too. My wife's patents live in a dead zone for Verizon and my battery dies super fast there. I'm almost always on 1x and its not like I can use it there so I don't know why the battery dies so fast there. I'm going to try the roaming thing and see how that works.

 

[herbb623]

I have 3 Fascinates since day one. Battery life was OK and varied some after each 'upgrade'. But since the 2.2 upgrade, all 3 have had about half the battery life they used to. All 3 have had Factory resets and battery bumps done. 3 differnent types of users, me, wife and son. All light to average though at best. Would easily get 2 days on all 3. Now none will last 1 day. Can't figure out whats draining them, but something 'appears' to be. Lots of chatter about this same topic on many other forums, so I dont think its bad hardware or batteries... Problems started right after the 2.2 software upgrade.

 

[swenpro]

I have 3 Fascinates since day one. Battery life was OK and varied some after each 'upgrade'. But since the 2.2 upgrade, all 3 have had about half the battery life they used to. All 3 have had Factory resets and battery bumps done. 3 differnent types of users, me, wife and son. All light to average though at best. Would easily get 2 days on all 3. Now none will last 1 day. Can't figure out whats draining them, but something 'appears' to be. Lots of chatter about this same topic on many other forums, so I dont think its bad hardware or batteries... Problems started right after the 2.2 software upgrade.

Wow this is very compelling evidence, thanks for sharing!

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

I've never had serious battery issues with the Fascinate, but this has always been the one exception for me. When I'm in areas of lower coverage (1 or 2 bars), which thankfully isn't very often, my battery consumption jumps dramatically. Then again, I'm almost always hovering around 35 or 40% of "time without signal" -- which has always seemed a bit suspicious to me.