My battery just lasted 3 hours with nothing open.

[TerryMasters]

Hi everyone. I just took my phone off the charger after leaving it plugged in overnight. As I was making breakfast, I noticed my pocket was seriously warm. I took the phone out, felt the back cover and it was definitely coming from the battery. I checked the battery to make sure it wasn't about to explode, and it wasn't. I didn't know what to make of it so I just put it back in my pocket and kept an eye on it incase it got any worse.

I looked at my phone a little while ago, and the battery is already on E. Here's what the battery use says:

"2h 49m 14s since unplugged

Cell standby 32%
Phone idle 31%
Android System 21%
Dialer 6%
Display 6%
Voice calls 4%"

Maybe I'm just not that familiar with Android yet, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary there. I have no idea what's draining my battery like this. When I purposely tried to drain the battery I couldn't get it to go this quickly. This is the first time it's ever done this, and the only change I made was uninstalling the Twitter app yesterday. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[xaronax]

There's a couple of things you should check.

How often are your stock/sense widgets set to update? Some of those go under Android System

How much reception do you get in your house? Cell idle is killing the most of your battery, which usually only happens in areas of bad reception. The phone is constantly searching for better signal, and sending maximum power to the radio to hold onto what it has.

Invest in a holster. You're going to be paying upwards of 2 grand for the phone over the contract, and having it sit in your pocket getting terrible reception, covered in lint, and overheating isn't going to make it last. I got an awesome one at target for 10 bucks.

You could also have a bad phone/battery. Sometimes they just suck. I highly recommend keeping your eye on how hot it gets, and avoiding that at all costs. Charging the phone when the battery is already hot is a terrible idea. Let it cool down. Also, don't mess with the battery when its hot, exploding battery in the face = bad.

Rambling a bit here. Hope it helps.

 

[TerryMasters]

Well I just reset the phone and the battery cooled down almost instantly. There was no change in the list of running programs but the battery use now reads:

"13m 18s since unplugged

Android System 50%
Cell standby 17%
Display 14%
Android Live Wallpapers 11%
Phone idle 8%"

I have no idea what made the phone freak out like this. Something else I noticed though is that when I go to charge the phone, despite it saying it needs 4 hours to completely charge, my light turns green after about an hour. Is that normal? I leave it charging overnight anyway but I thought that was strange. The phone typically lasts me about a day.

 

[slinky317]

What was your up/awake time ratio?

 

[xaronax]

The culprit is probably the heat. I use an app called SystemPanel App / Task Manager. It works great as a non-automated task killer and shows a lot of useful information including system usage graphs and such. It also shows the current mV of the battery and the battery temperature. Mine stays around 75 degrees unless its on the charger.

Charging is usually very quick on a wall charger, which is charging at a full amp. The usb/car chargers usually only charge at .5 amps. Mine never takes 4 hours.

The stock battery is not very good, since its the same one from the Eris. That being said, it should still get you through the "day" with light to moderate usage. My problem is I have literally zero cell reception at work, and sometimes I forget to turn off the cell radio. I also use the hell out of the phone for everything from web browsing to reading ebooks to torrenting. I forgive the phone for not withstanding the almost constant usage. I am looking forward to the extended battery.

I would concentrate on seeing how hot your phone/battery is getting and go from there.

 

[kev83202]

This happened to me using a verizon car charger, it did that everytime I used it even if I only had it plugged in for a few min. I grabbed a cheap walmart charger and haven't had the problem since.

What kind of charger are you using?

 

[VKitty]

You're going to be paying upwards of 2 grand for the phone over the contract

People keep saying this an it does not make to much sense to me. I understand signing a 2 year contract, but what happens if you KEEP the phone after those 2 years. Does the cost of your service go DOWN?

If it goes down then I get it, but if it does not and you are paying the same amount you would be paying had you not have the phone or you bought it on ebay, or something. Then how are you paying for it over the course of the contract?

 

[novacellx]

Consider it this way; the phone is subsidized to $200 from the $530. Take that $330 divide it by 24 and subtract the result from your monthly access fee.

Basically that is your reduced access fee and you are paying for the phone over the course of the 2 year contract. So its really better to consider it a discount on the cost of your plan rather than the phone.

The proof of this concept is that if you purchase the phone at full retail, the plans cost is still the same, so if you were to keep the service for two years, you have spent $330 more than was necessary.

The only wireless company that provides discounted costs for non-contract plans is T-Mobile.

 

[JimmyMac]

Either way, you are going to be paying a fee every month regardless of which service or cell phone you have (unless if the company/work pays for your service).

Anyways, I always have my cell phone in my pocket at work. I work in a factory, so having it on a holster is not a good idea where I more than likely to drop it or break it while I'm working on a machine. My pocket is the safest place. I have no issues with the phone over-heating. I usually get over 12-13 hours per charge.

I think my 3 mail services check every 15 minutes. HTC weather every hour, Weather Bug every hour. Not sure about my other settings. If your phone acts funny (especially after downloading a program), just shut it off completely and restart it. Get a fresh reboot. I did this often with my iphone (now an ipod touch 3gs, hehe).

Oh yeah, check and see if your battery has swelled. If it has, do not use it. Return it for a new battery. If it happens again, try a different charger. I've been using my apple one from my iphone. If it still happens, you probably got a dude phone. Return it and get a new one. Let us know how things turn out.

 

[TerryMasters]

Just thought I'd post an update, not sure what it was (I think it might have been eBay, everytime I open it I have to force close it and it seems like it drains faster), but powering it off and booting it up again made the problem go away. All is well now. No swelling or anything on the battery thank goodness. Strange but at least it's fixed.

Thanks for the help everyone

 

[bart151]

It seems as if Applications themselves are or seem to be the cause of major battery drain. Its buggy as all hell. 1 charge my phone will stay at 100% for a good 20 min. Other charges as soon as I power my phone on it drops to 90% within 2 minutes. I have a week left before my dates up before I cant return it anymore and highly considering trading it in for either a replacement or just getting my money back. In my opinion, a device that I pay 570 dollars for barely lasting me 2 hrs is flatout unacceptable. I dont care how powerful the damn thing is. 2 hrs without doing NOTHING on it is rediculous