Terrible Battery Drain on the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701

[luxx-sn]

seems to be that before you're updating Google Play Services over 5.0.89, battery won't drain, no matter which application you updated.
So the cause of draining is Google Play Serviices 6.5.99. it meens we need to wait until Google will release a new version of G-P-S with a hope that it will change our issue and may be try to poke them from time to time.
Anyway, I'm happy that it's not a hardware issue.

 

[Alan Downie]

I couldn't find any explanation of how to downgrade Google Play Services to 5.0.89, but here's how I did it, despite "Uninstall updates" being greyed out in the app manager dialogue:

1) Go to Settings->Apps->Preloaded
2) Find Google Play Services in the list and open it.
3) Tap on "Disable" and confirm you want to proceed.
4) You may get an error stating it can't be disabled because it is an active device administrator. If so, tap the "Settings" button and uncheck "Android Device Manager" to disable it. Go back to the App settings and try disabling GPS again.
5) You will then be asked if you want to enable the factory default version 5.0.89, so accept that.
6) Go back to App settings and re-enable Google Play Services
7) Go to Settings->Security->Device Administrators and re-enable Android Device Manager
7) Don't forget to turn off automatic updates in Play Store or you will be back where you started.

Hope this helps.

 

[fersorianello]

Nice catch; it seems Google Play Services are indeed involved. At a guess, a service is keeping some device open, preventing nvavp from stopping and blocking the tablet from suspending. That goes some way to answering why nvavp is busy.

Simply downgrading Google Play Services to the Asus-provided factory version (5.0.89) and rebooting seems to have allowed my tablet to suspend properly. In fact, I had to wake it up to open the debug connection I used to collect the following files (after letting the tablet sleep for about 5 minutes):

/sys/kernel/debug/suspend_stats:

success: 18                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
fail: 5                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
failed_freeze: 4                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
failed_prepare: 0                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
failed_suspend: 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
failed_suspend_late: 0                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
failed_suspend_noirq: 0                                                                                                                                                                                                                
failed_resume: 0                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
failed_resume_early: 0                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
failed_resume_noirq: 0                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
failures:                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  last_failed_dev:                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  last_failed_errno:    -16                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                        -16                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  last_failed_step:     freeze                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                        freeze

/sys/kernel/debug/suspend_time:

time (secs)  count
------------------
   0 -    1    1
   1 -    2    2
   2 -    4    3
   4 -    8    2
  16 -   32    7
  64 -  128    2
 128 -  256    1

This looks quite promising (it's clearly spending several minutes at a time properly suspended), so I think I'll give it a full charge and see what happens overnight.

Downgrading Google Play Services has a few side effects, although the only affected applications I've found so far are Google Play Music and Hangouts, neither of which I actually use.

I was looking for a solution since july. It seem promessing because in the battery log the google play services seemed to wake the device up to 800 times. I hope it will fix the problem

 

[yeatsie]

Re: Terrible Battery Drain on the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701 - Nvidia drm fix

Looks like we may have found a quick fix for the TF701 battery drain which doesn't need a downgrade of the Google Play service.

Just remove the Nvidia DRM plugins that are causing the fail to deep sleep. (you need root to be able to access /system/vendor/lib/)

with thanks to buda5767:"
I found nvavp is used by NVIDIA's Widevine DRM proprietary plugins.
I removed all proprietary DRM plugins from /system/vendor/lib.
Code:
/system/vendor/lib/drm
/system/vendor/lib/mediadrm
/system/vendor/lib/libWVStreamControlAPI_L1.so
/system/vendor/lib/libwvdrm_L1.so
/system/vendor/lib/libwvm.so
Then, the idle battery life becomes normal.

I supposed these thingy are used by Google Play Video/Music, that why some people think disable Google Play Services helps. Althogh I guess it is a bug in NVIDIA's proprietary DRM plugins causes this issue.
I never used Widevine DRM stuff, deleting those files seems to have no drawback for me."

We're trying it out now and so far its getting a good response, with the tablet getting back into deep sleep.
Obviously just a temporary fix until a proper one gets rolled out, but looks promising.

 

[berndlb]

Re: Terrible Battery Drain on the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701 - Nvidia drm fix

Looks like we may have found a quick fix for the TF701 battery drain which doesn't need a downgrade of the Google Play service.

Just remove the Nvidia DRM plugins that are causing the fail to deep sleep. (you need root to be able to access /system/vendor/lib/)

with thanks to buda5767:"
I found nvavp is used by NVIDIA's Widevine DRM proprietary plugins.
I removed all proprietary DRM plugins from /system/vendor/lib.
Code:
/system/vendor/lib/drm
/system/vendor/lib/mediadrm
/system/vendor/lib/libWVStreamControlAPI_L1.so
/system/vendor/lib/libwvdrm_L1.so
/system/vendor/lib/libwvm.so
Then, the idle battery life becomes normal.

I supposed these thingy are used by Google Play Video/Music, that why some people think disable Google Play Services helps. Althogh I guess it is a bug in NVIDIA's proprietary DRM plugins causes this issue.
I never used Widevine DRM stuff, deleting those files seems to have no drawback for me."

We're trying it out now and so far its getting a good response, with the tablet getting back into deep sleep.
Obviously just a temporary fix until a proper one gets rolled out, but looks promising.

This is one of two possible fixes and the one I like better.
The other one is to use the Autostarts app from Play (the paid version) and disable everything under Google Play services in the "after startup" category.
My drain went from 18% per hour to average 1% per 8 hours of sleep after disabling GP services. This was tested over two days with a few reboots. It did not affect using Gapps at all.

For the fix described by @yaetsie it may only be necessary to delete these two folders:
/system/vendor/lib/drm
/system/vendor/lib/mediadrm
I know of one user who did this and reported: drain gone.

In CM's bug reports someone suggested that it may only be needed to delete the single file libwvdrmengine.so inside /system/vendor/lib/mediadrm.
No confirmation for this I am aware of, but this is what I will try first today.

What's not been tested so far is if deleting those folders/files has any affect on playing DRM protected content.
But we should find out soon enough - quite a few users on XDA have applied this fix.

If you try this you need root, mount /system writeable and I would suggest you create a backup copy of the files/folders before you delete them.

Reverting to an earlier GP services version does not work long term. I did that and it updated itself (with auto updates turned off!!!!) to the latest version. And anway, the new GP services are needed for the new Material design Gapps. Who wants to be stuck on outdated Gapps, right?

 

[Alan Downie]

Re: Terrible Battery Drain on the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701 - Nvidia drm fix

Both the DRM and Autostarts solutions only work on rooted tablets, so downgrading the Google Play services and some of the Google apps is the only solution for those of us with standard systems.

Berndlb said:
"Reverting to an earlier GP services version does not work long term. I did that and it updated itself (with auto updates turned off!!!!) to the latest version. And anway, the new GP services are needed for the new Material design Gapps. Who wants to be stuck on outdated Gapps, right?"

If it's a choice between some outdated apps (which work fine) or a dead battery every time you open the tablet, then I know which I prefer! And so far Google Play has not updated itself on my tablet. Even if it does I'll just downgrade it again, as it only takes a minute or so.

 

[berndlb]

Re: Terrible Battery Drain on the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701 - Nvidia drm fix

Both the DRM and Autostarts solutions only work on rooted tablets, so downgrading the Google Play services and some of the Google apps is the only solution for those of us with standard systems.

Berndlb said:
"Reverting to an earlier GP services version does not work long term. I did that and it updated itself (with auto updates turned off!!!!) to the latest version. And anway, the new GP services are needed for the new Material design Gapps. Who wants to be stuck on outdated Gapps, right?"

If it's a choice between some outdated apps (which work fine) or a dead battery every time you open the tablet, then I know which I prefer! And so far Google Play has not updated itself on my tablet. Even if it does I'll just downgrade it again, as it only takes a minute or so.

Good point!

 

[menace6983]

Re: Terrible Battery Drain on the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701 - Nvidia drm fix

Hey all--I joined just to share my experience--I too was having the battery drain problem--rooted, installed cyanogenmod 11, freshest Gapps etc--still had battery drain. So I downgraded the google play services to default and that definitely cured the problem (i'm running 4.3.25 currently and have been for several days) I have setup new apps, visited the play store etc. and it has not forced an upgrade on me yet. Problem is that newer apps insist on newer play store settings so I got looking for a plan B.

I just deleted the two folders (after making backups)

/system/vendor/lib/drm
/system/vendor/lib/mediadrm

and will post back after I update G-P-S and see if just deleting them solves the issue. But yeah G-P-S rollback definitely worked for battery life and did not impact my use of the tf701 other than the newer rovio apps that demand an update..

 

[berndlb]

Those of you without root: I just read on XDA that one guy got god results with the GserviceFix app from Play.

 

[mattheinrich]

Yeah same problem with me for about the last 3 weeks. Did the gp downgrade like was suggested and was awesome! I got near on 36 hours out of the battery. But last day of 2 went back to using battery. I looked and gp was still downgraded. Any ideas? I've got it on ultra saving mode but the battery table shown the WiFi constantly turning on and off and the android os using all the power. If I keep gp as disabled then I can't use anything I've found and with a downgraded version I can't use the apps like gmail and YouTube.

I sent an email off to Asus and they said a factory reset, which I haven't done yet. Anyone had it work with success and can still use apps?

Being a Google program, it seems odd that only thing I've found online it about the 701t and no other devices.

 

[berndlb]

Yeah same problem with me for about the last 3 weeks. Did the gp downgrade like was suggested and was awesome! I got near on 36 hours out of the battery. But last day of 2 went back to using battery. I looked and gp was still downgraded. Any ideas? I've got it on ultra saving mode but the battery table shown the WiFi constantly turning on and off and the android os using all the power. If I keep gp as disabled then I can't use anything I've found and with a downgraded version I can't use the apps like gmail and YouTube.

I sent an email off to Asus and they said a factory reset, which I haven't done yet. Anyone had it work with success and can still use apps?

Being a Google program, it seems odd that only thing I've found online it about the 701t and no other devices.

Did you read my post just above yours?

 

[mattheinrich]

Yeah saw it after I posted. Looked at thread from the tablet and saw an ad so stopped scrolling. Will have a look now

 

[jon421]

Actually, I'm starting to like the battery drain problem - the tablet now makes a great bed warmer

 

[Paul Nancarrow]

I just got a kernel update dated 12-18. Has anybody else seen this? Has it made a difference in battery drain?

 

[jon421]

I installed the new update and did a full factory reset a day ago. So far so good.

 

[Guy Bernier]

The last build dated 12/18 but released by ASUS on December 26, definitly fixed the problem. (KOT49H.US_epad-11.4.1.29-20141218) 044000252_201405060027.

I updated my tablet with this build early this morning and it only lost 1% of its charge after 12 hours sitting on my desk in sleep mode with WiFi, Google Sync, GPS and Bluetooth on.

 

[Louwiif]

I confirm too; since the update from December 26th 2014, the problem seems to be gone! I'm down by only 2% after 19 hours in sleeping mode with power saver in ultra-saving mode.

Quite amazing!!

I opened a case with ASUS yesterday and they told me :
"We will release the new firmware to solve the battery issue for TF701. Please wait for some time." So they seemed to be aware of the problem and fixed it with the latest version.

Kernel version : 3.4.66-ge79544a
Build number : KOT49H.US_epad-11.4.1.29-20141218
Android version : 4.4.2

It's a nice Christmas gift!

Happy Holidays!

 

[Alan Downie]

Got the new system image pushed to my TF701 this morning, so eagerly installed it:

Kernel version : 3.4.66-ge79544a
Build number : KOT49H.WW_epad-11.4.1.29-20141218

Also re-applied all the latest updates to Google apps including Google Play Services (does it really need all those permissions?!)

Still early days, but initial signs are that consumption in standby is on a par with the GPS downgrade fix. It has only lost about 1% of charge on idle in the 8 hours since I did the upgrade. That's with ultra-saving mode enabled and location services turned off. This compares with about 8-10% per hour previously before any fix.

Thanks, Asus! A welcome Christmas present indeed.

 

[Brian Bulkowski]

Concur, this looks like it fixes the issue. Way to go, Asus and/or Android engineers.

 

[tombman]

I have the same problem. Is the new update something that Asus will send me, or do I need to down load it from somewhere? As of this morning, the "check for updates" says I have the latest version installed, but it does not match the version you have posted here.