YABLT - Yet Another Battery Life Thread

[Jaggrey]

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not looking to root my phone, and I know that is not the ONLY solution. Two other people with my same phone that barely know Android are having decent battery life. I'm really trying to track down what is happening with my phone.

The main issue is this: according to the battery information in spare parts (which just links to the *#*#4636#*#* code), on any given day my phone is running 80% of the time, which leads to terrible battery life. I've tried hard resetting several times, in which case it will be fine for a few days then start tanking again. I removed an app I had to lock out certain apps and it dropped down to running 70% of the time. This is with minimal usage, phone literally just sitting aside from responding to a few texts and the occasional call. It seems to lose about 10% / hour. (This is in contrast to my fiance's Optimus (different class I know) that runs only 30% of the time and she's always on the phone and doesn't nanny it like I nanny mine.)

I have System Panel installed and monitoring. I thought that was the issue at one point so the last time I hard reset I didn't put the app on, and the same thing started happening eventually. I have alogcat on but there's so much foreign stuff in there I don't really know what to look for. I tried looking for wake locks and I don't see too many of them. I'm willing to post the logs if someone knows how to read them.

I'm in a good signal area, I don't have many apps installed, I've never logged into Facebook since the hard reset. I've searched this site and others and tried other tricks, but nothing seems to work. The bizarre thing is I used to have decent battery life, where the phone would last me thru the day, but within the past couple of months it hasn't happened. Sprint has also given me a brand new battery, which helped slightly.

I've noticed in System Panel that the suspend process and the system process are the two highest battery consumers. Altho according to the app the consumption is only at some single digit percentages, when those go down my battery lasts a lot longer.

Please help, I'm really at a loss. I'll provide whatever logs or whatever screenshots you need.

 

[Since9600]

Dunno if it would help, but I have made a habit out of "conditioning" any new battery. I always charge to the fullest and discharge to the fullest and recharge to the fullest again. When I changed phones I told the Sprint techs they can't have my battery becuase it works great now lol.

 

[Jaggrey]

lol.... I did that as best I could with the battery they gave me. It was the middle of the day when I left the Sprint store and the new battery they gave me was completely dead. I charged it in the car and at home but I don't think it reached full until I charged it overnight when I got home. I've got 2 batteries now which is good... I wanna get one of those battery chargers actually so I can keep the other one charged if this keeps up.

 

[Windfrenzy]

I have found the same thing. If I don't reboot my phone every day and do the airplane mode toggle, eventually something will prevent it from sleeping and it will be running 100% of the time. In Spare Parts, Partial Wake Useage may point out any blatant offenders, but I haven't found a good way to troubleshoot what is causing the problem other than observation and experiment. I charge up before bed, reboot, then check drain overnight. This helped me see that the temperature notification in MyCast was a battery drain, and that I don't have to kill Media Hub DRM anymore (leaving it on didn't matter).

 

[scrufton]

I was having the same problem since the phone was released. You may find my thread on here. I kept waiting for a fix with each release but it never happened. I'm not telling you to root but I ended up doing so. I was so frustrated with this phone and ready to break it into tiny pieces. But after rooting and flashing a custom rom I love this phone. I don't see any reason I can't go the full 2 years to upgrade. All I can figure is a software incompatibility with certain phones, maybe different hardware. I hope you can find a solution.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[jjkm01]

Battery Life App

I am not sure if you are interested, but I installed JuiceDefender from the market and it has doubled my battery life. I use bluetooth and gps a lot and it lasts minimum of one full day.

 

[Jaggrey]

I have found the same thing. If I don't reboot my phone every day and do the airplane mode toggle, eventually something will prevent it from sleeping and it will be running 100% of the time. In Spare Parts, Partial Wake Useage may point out any blatant offenders, but I haven't found a good way to troubleshoot what is causing the problem other than observation and experiment. I charge up before bed, reboot, then check drain overnight. This helped me see that the temperature notification in MyCast was a battery drain, and that I don't have to kill Media Hub DRM anymore (leaving it on didn't matter).

How were you able to determine that MyCast was the one? Usually the highest offender in Spare Parts for me is Android System, which doesn't really tell me anything.

 

[Windfrenzy]

How were you able to determine that MyCast was the one? Usually the highest offender in Spare Parts for me is Android System, which doesn't really tell me anything.

Yeah, I have no good way to tell what is causing the problem other than to change something and see what the overnight effect is. So, in this case, I turned off notifications in MyCast and got less drain overnight.

 

[Jaggrey]

I was having the same problem since the phone was released. You may find my thread on here. I kept waiting for a fix with each release but it never happened. I'm not telling you to root but I ended up doing so. I was so frustrated with this phone and ready to break it into tiny pieces. But after rooting and flashing a custom rom I love this phone. I don't see any reason I can't go the full 2 years to upgrade. All I can figure is a software incompatibility with certain phones, maybe different hardware. I hope you can find a solution.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Rooting has crossed my mind but I would really rather not. I get horrible flashbacks to my Windows Mobile days where I was in the same boat of getting frustrated with it's quirks (Touch Pro at the time). I flashed different ROMs which worked great for about a week then they would just get all whacked out. I know that Android is different but I would rather remain stock because I don't have time as it is to be tinkering with my phone so much.

I am not sure if you are interested, but I installed JuiceDefender from the market and it has doubled my battery life. I use bluetooth and gps a lot and it lasts minimum of one full day.

I've looked at that too, tho what's interesting to me is that I don't have any radios on. I very rarely use Bluetooth and I only turn on WiFi or 4G when I'm in the area, otherwise they're off. GPS is on but it doesn't get used unless I use an app that requires it.

Thanks for the replies guys... I really appreciate it. This is really baffling, especially since it's a relatively recent issue..

 

[dtm_stretch]

I've looked at that too, tho what's interesting to me is that I don't have any radios on. I very rarely use Bluetooth and I only turn on WiFi or 4G when I'm in the area, otherwise they're off. GPS is on but it doesn't get used unless I use an app that requires it.

+1 On the juice defender. It seems like you have done all the necessary steps to optimize your phone. Because rooting isn't an option, JD is a good alternative. Just use it on stock settings and it will keep your 3g off(3g pulls a lot of battery) when you are not using it and as soon as you turn your screen on it will turn data right back on. It also turns its self back on every 15min to poll data(like email/mms/apps). 10% is a lot of battery loss per hour with minimal use.

 

[jrz5024]

Battery life was my number one complaint when I got my Epic, and the reason I'm even on AC today. I was just like you when I started - I'd get 9-10 hours at max, even with everything disabled and the phone sitting in my pocket most of the time. I've tried everything. The Epic, on a stock rom, just has crappy battery life. As it stands, you really only have four real options, and I'm sorry to say the good ones require root.

Non-root options
1) Cripple your phone. Disable everything that makes your smartphone smart (especially push Email, FB, Twitter, etc,) put wi-fi on never sleep and try to stay connected to it as much as possible, and just don't have 3g enabled at all if you can avoid it. Obviously having screen brightness set low will help immensely. Kill OmaConfigDRM on startup, as well as IQ agent service, GTalk, and anything else you don't use. Perform Airplane Mode toggle to kill TWS bug. Doing all this will net you marginal, but noticeable gains (maybe squeeze out an hour or two more).

2) Juicedefender / some other program. I've never found much success with these, but some people swear by them. Worth a shot since the trials are free.

3) Get an extra battery, which you've already done (I did so as well before I discovered option 4...)

4) ROOT! If you're really serious about battery life, nothing you do above will have even close to the same effect as rooting and installing a custom ROM will have. I literally saw my battery life double by doing so. I get better battery life on one battery now than I did with two batteries on stock (I'm not exaggerating in the slightest)

Even if you don't feel like installing a custom rom, rooting will still allow you to do two very important things - calibrate your battery and install SetCPU. Battery calibration can have really significant effects, or it might have no effect - but it's easy to do and worth a shot. SetCPU allows you to underclock your processor, leading to big battery savings. Even without a custom rom, doing the two steps above are guaranteed to improve your battery life more than anything you can do without rooting.

 

[scrufton]

Battery life was my number one complaint when I got my Epic, and the reason I'm even on AC today. I was just like you when I started - I'd get 9-10 hours at max, even with everything disabled and the phone sitting in my pocket most of the time. I've tried everything. The Epic, on a stock rom, just has crappy battery life. As it stands, you really only have four real options, and I'm sorry to say the good ones require root.

Non-root options
1) Cripple your phone. Disable everything that makes your smartphone smart (especially push Email, FB, Twitter, etc,) put wi-fi on never sleep and try to stay connected to it as much as possible, and just don't have 3g enabled at all if you can avoid it. Obviously having screen brightness set low will help immensely. Kill OmaConfigDRM on startup, as well as IQ agent service, GTalk, and anything else you don't use. Perform Airplane Mode toggle to kill TWS bug. Doing all this will net you marginal, but noticeable gains (maybe squeeze out an hour or two more).

2) Juicedefender / some other program. I've never found much success with these, but some people swear by them. Worth a shot since the trials are free.

3) Get an extra battery, which you've already done (I did so as well before I discovered option 4...)

4) ROOT! If you're really serious about battery life, nothing you do above will have even close to the same effect as rooting and installing a custom ROM will have. I literally saw my battery life double by doing so. I get better battery life on one battery now than I did with two batteries on stock (I'm not exaggerating in the slightest)

Even if you don't feel like installing a custom rom, rooting will still allow you to do two very important things - calibrate your battery and install SetCPU. Battery calibration can have really significant effects, or it might have no effect - but it's easy to do and worth a shot. SetCPU allows you to underclock your processor, leading to big battery savings. Even without a custom rom, doing the two steps above are guaranteed to improve your battery life more than anything you can do without rooting.

Agreed on rooting. I used to have 10-12% battery drop per hour when I wasn't using the phone. And this was after hard reset with no apps installed and no syncing. After root I only drop 1-2% per hour. And this is with all my apps installed and syncing on, wifi and gps left on even when not using them. I makes the phone work as it should. I can make it through the day with normal use with usually at least 50% battery left. I really wish samsung could have figured this out since I didn't want to root either.

I also like that you can run a rom that removes carrier iq. Look up carrier iq if you are unaware of what it is

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Jaggrey]

Agreed on rooting. I used to have 10-12% battery drop per hour when I wasn't using the phone. And this was after hard reset with no apps installed and no syncing. After root I only drop 1-2% per hour. And this is with all my apps installed and syncing on, wifi and gps left on even when not using them. I makes the phone work as it should. I can make it through the day with normal use with usually at least 50% battery left. I really wish samsung could have figured this out since I didn't want to root either.

I also like that you can run a rom that removes carrier iq. Look up carrier iq if you are unaware of what it is

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I'm well aware (I think) of the carrier iq issue. I've seen that thing run amuck on my phone quite a few times. What did you do after root to get that kind of battery usage (or lack of)?

If I were to consider rooting, is there a ROM that's pretty much stock but that works properly?

 

[Jaggrey]

Even if you don't feel like installing a custom rom, rooting will still allow you to do two very important things - calibrate your battery and install SetCPU. Battery calibration can have really significant effects, or it might have no effect - but it's easy to do and worth a shot. SetCPU allows you to underclock your processor, leading to big battery savings. Even without a custom rom, doing the two steps above are guaranteed to improve your battery life more than anything you can do without rooting.

Doesn't doing the hard reset erase the battery calibration file (or whatever it is)?

 

[scrufton]

I'm running the acs frozen rom 1.0.2.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[jrz5024]

I'm well aware (I think) of the carrier iq issue. I've seen that thing run amuck on my phone quite a few times. What did you do after root to get that kind of battery usage (or lack of)?

If I were to consider rooting, is there a ROM that's pretty much stock but that works properly?

I'm on SRF 1.0.2 as well, and I see similar battery life. I run everything enabled, max screen brightness, and I see 1-2% drop / hour. If I'm on the phone constantly and really working it, I might see from 5-8% drop / hour.

The latest version of SRF is 1.1.0, but I'm still using 1.0.2 because it's configured perfectly with no problems on my phone and 1.1 gave me issues I didn't have time to solve.

ACE is also a great in-house rom that's known for having really painless installation and stable performance. It might be a good place to start, esp since the dev is a mod here.

Doesn't doing the hard reset erase the battery calibration file (or whatever it is)?

I'd assume so, but to be honest, I never thought about it - that's a good question.

 

[scrufton]

I'm on SRF 1.0.2 as well, and I see similar battery life. I run everything enabled, max screen brightness, and I see 1-2% drop / hour. If I'm on the phone constantly and really working it, I might see from 5-8% drop / hour.

The latest version of SRF is 1.1.0, but I'm still using 1.0.2 because it's configured perfectly with no problems on my phone and 1.1 gave me issues I didn't have time to solve.

ACE is also a great in-house rom that's known for having really painless installation and stable performance. It might be a good place to start, esp since the dev is a mod here.



I'd assume so, but to be honest, I never thought about it - that's a good question.

I also tried 1.1.0 and had problems.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Jaggrey]

Another reason I'm wondering if I could somehow figure out what's up with my phone is I wouldn't want to go thru the trouble of rooting then my phone starts doing the same thing. I don't want to be constantly flashing different ROMs.

O why can't these things just work... lol.