How to isolate and fix battery drain (and maybe lag, too) - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Some battery threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=978269
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1004760
updated tl;dr for most of you lately:
Your problem is probably that you flashed a new ROM or kernel recently, which causes battery stats to be very inaccurate. The most common symptom is that suddenly the battery drains like crazy, when before it just dripped. The opposite can also happen - you flash a new ROM and it seems like the best battery life ever. Until it suddenly jumps from 60 down to 10. This can happen even if you erased stats after flashing. You need a few days with your new ROM first, then you should see what your battery usage is really like. Do full charge cycles to speed up this process. (Bump charge, erase stats, drain, charge, don't bump charge or erase stats anymore, drain, charge, drain, charge, etc.) Simply put: you cannot judge battery performance after flashing a ROM. Often it can be a week or more before battery performance and battery level reporting becomes stable.[/tl;dr]
Every time a chef makes a new ROM available, or even among those using stock OS, there seems to be wildly inconsistent feedback on battery life. Many report catastrophic battery drain, while others using the same hardware/firmware/kernel/ROM say it's the best battery life they've ever gotten.
It would seem that a battery can run away on you for a variety of reasons, and flashing back, or returning to the store, doesn't have to be the first thing you do to fix it. This thread is to consolidate many of the complaints around xda about sudden battery drain, and discuss proven (or superstitious) fixes for it. This is not another discussion on tips and tweaks to extend battery life. There's a good wiki on that already. This is specifically about when you experience an unexplained dramatic increase in how fast your battery is draining, and the usual tweaks aren't having any effect.
And, in some cases, if you are experiencing battery drain associated with one of the "more interesting" issues below, you might be experiencing lag for the same reason. Please attempt all of the below to the best of your ability before making a post about battery drain or lag with a particular ROM or kernel.
We'll start with the simple.
Don't rule out your imagination or neurotic behavior as the main problem.
I hate to open with a "shut-up-noob," but this one is real. I know I've almost fallen victim to the disease of "let me turn on the screen just one more time to check the battery %." Or hours of "man this new lagfix is great watch how fast I can swipe screens and load apps over and over!" Both of which, obviously, result in more battery usage. Then there's also the case where you just installed a numerical battery meter for the first time, and watching it tick down is weighing on your psyche much harder than the previous, barely noticeable movement of the bar and making you think your battery is draining wildly. Which then can also then lead back to disease #1 in a vicious cycle of psychosomatic battery abuse.
It may just be the battery itself. Some are reporting an apparent quality control problem with the batteries. You might get a great one, or if nothing below helps you then maybe you got a dud. I can't help much there. Try reporting the problem to AT&T or Samsung. I hear AT&T is a lot better to deal with.
Check the basic battery usage stats. Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Use. This won't necessarily tell you a whole lot, it isn't always accurate, but it can give you an idea of what the system thinks is using most of the battery. Such as whether it's playing with the screen too much, or making a lot of phone calls, etc. Keep in mind... I'm pretty sure that these stats are only based on the time period listed at the top of the screen. A lot of people get confused when it shows the display using 90% of the battery. But if that's only based on the 30 seconds since you unhooked the charger, then it isn't all that confusing anymore.
Be wary of the "battery full" status. I have repeatedly found, at least in leaked 2.2 ROMs, that this alert actually goes off long before the battery is finished charging. This bug often continues even after you've done all of the other various tricks and tweaks and recalibrations. It says "100" and that the battery is full and to disconnect the charger, but when you disconnect, it instantly drops into the low 90s and drains quickly from there. Rather, if you ignore the alert and keep charging for considerably longer, it will actually be at 100 when you disconnect, and will drain slowly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm quoting out the above, since I can't find the strikethrough tag. With new accurate battery mods, this isn't true anymore. Your battery doesn't need to go to 100%. It will be high-90s when you unplug, this is normal.
Drain and charge.
Sometimes the battery meter will seem to plummet, but then sit at <10 for hours before it finally shuts off. Giving a full drain may help calibrate where the "zero" really is. Run a long video, or just leave the camera up, until it shuts itself off. Then charge it back to 100%.
The bump charge (now commonly referred to as recalibrating).
Maybe your phone forgot where zero really is, or maybe he forgot where 100 really is. Here's the bump charge. Read carefully; I did it wrong for a while before I got it right. Charge the phone to 100% while it's on. As soon as it hits 100%, unplug the charger and power off. Now plug in the charger while the phone is off, and charge to 100 again. As soon as it hits 100, unplug the charger and power on. Wait until it boots completely, then don't charge this time, just power right back off. Now charge to 100 one more time with the power off. Power on and you are bump charged. Many also consider a stats wipe to be essential to this process as well. See below.
See joeybear's post (linked below) for more info on bum charges and battery stats, such as different procedures for CyanogenMod.
Erasing the battery stats (for you rooters/flashers)
Sometimes you just want your phone to forget everything he thinks he knows about his battery, and re-learn it from scratch. Your phone maintains a file with statistics on battery usage, which in turn is used to help calculate battery life at any given time. Sometimes, especially if you've been playing with ROMs, kernels, and lagfixes, the stats in the file just aren't applicable anymore to how the hardware is being used, so you get crazy battery drain.
Clockwork Recovery has a simple function to wipe the battery stats. If you can't run Clockwork, use ADB or a terminal emulator (search the market) to delete that battery stats file located at /data/system/batterystats.bin. The link at the bottom to joeybear's thread has a little more info.
The general idea is to start by trying the above - make sure it isn't your own fault or maybe just a bad battery, then drain, bump charge, and wipe stats - in that order.
There are lots of ideas about what may or may not happen when you experiment with the above. Wiping battery stats after a ROM flash that already wiped them for you is at least redundant and may even contribute to a battery drain problem. Some say you should wipe first and then drain and bump charge. Be careful about wiping stats and bump charging too much, though. Over-charging your battery will hasten its demise.
HOWEVER, if you're like I was when I first started this thread, you've seen the above recommended many times, and none of it has ever helped you one bit with an actual sudden battery drain problem.
Now for more interesting work.
Occam's razor. The simplest answer is the most likely. Battery appear to be suddenly draining faster? Well, it could be that you need to retrain your phone (or your mind) by using the procedures above. It could be that your battery suddenly went bad. A more simple answer is that something is draining your battery. Something is abusing your CPU, your memory, or your network interfaces. Try to find out what, or at least stop it even if you don't find out what. Simply looking at the stock report of battery usage isn't likely to tell you everything you need to know, though.
If you've recently flashed something, try your flash again, and this time be more aggressive. Make sure you turn off any lagfixes you've installed beforehand. Make sure you've got the most charge you possible can before flashing (see above - you want a true 100% charge immediately before flashing). Take the plunge and opt for repartitioning, data wiping, formatting, master clearing, or any other options you may have to start with a clean slate with the new ROM. Even flash stock first. Pay close attention to battery usage as you re-install apps and get your phone set up again. It may be one app in particular that was responsible.
Uninstall all task killers. Yes, uninstall. I know task killers are supposedly battery savers, but 99% of you (including me) don't know what we're doing when we get our hands on a good task killer. It is very possible you've got one service that is constantly trying to load and call home, and another that is constantly auto-killing it. If you really want to include task killing as part of your phone maintenance and battery tweaking processes, then download an app that is specifically designed and configured just for battery efficiency, not a general-purpose task killer that will allow you to hose up your Android system.
Check your background syncs. Experiment with turning them off, one at a time, and see if there's improvement. The app may have gotten confused after all your flashing and is doing something crazy as it syncs. If you isolate one that makes a difference, reinstall it or try living without it.
Live wallpapers. They actually improve your battery life, no lie. Ok, actually that is a lie. Some of them look awesome, but many users, myself included, experience a significant increase in battery drain when there's a fancy full-screen animation running non-stop on the phone. Try getting rid of them and see. There are some nice, simple, dark wallpapers that don't animate but are still pretty enough to impress the ladies at the bridge club. Live wallpapers can also create some majorly noticeable lag in your other apps, too.
Install OSMonitor. Set it to sort process by load, descending order. There shouldn't be much in the list, the OSmonitor app itself should show up near the top, at around 20%. Other apps should be in a 0% wait state or occasionally grabbing a few %. If you recognize an app sitting consistently at 50%+, that could be your problem. Make sure you know what it is first (not a critical system service) and try uninstalling it.
Is kswapd0 taking a lot of CPU? This is the memory swap / page file process. It's normal for it to be grabbing little chunks of CPU here and there, but if it's sitting at a high %, or jumping in frequently to a high %, then something's going on with your memory cache. Unistall your lagfix and try a different one. If you aren't using a lagfix, get OCLF and use it to install EXT2 and then OCLF V2+. Despite the changelogs and debates that claim otherwise, several have found OCLF to be very useful after flashing to any Froyo ROM (unless that ROM already includes a lagfix such as voodoo or stumpy's). If none of that works, your kernel may be the problem. Swap it or go back to stock.
Look at data/network usage. If you have a router or other device on your home wireless network that can give you some info, try that. Does your phone appear to be trying to send or receive an unusually high number of packets/data even when you're not doing anything with it? Also, while off wifi, watch the little green and red data icon in you notification bar (the 3G / E icon). Are they spasming green and red constantly every 2 or 3 seconds, even when you don't think you're doing much data transfer?
OSMonitor can also again be your friend here. Under "Network" you can expand each interface and look at live data transfer #s. Does one of them seem to be really active despite you not doing anything in particular with your phone right now?
If you have any of these signs of heavy data usage, go back to OSMonitor and look at Connections. Turn on DNS reverse lookups in settings. Turn on some whois. Ignore any loopback (127.0.0.1) and likely you can ignore the 1e100.com stuff, that's just Google (get it? 1x10^100). Are there any other established connections? Does the reverse lookup (the domain name) indicate what application might have the connection open? For example, if it's weather.com, that might be a Weather Channel widget or app. That one was responsible for destroying my battery one time. Use whois and similar tools in OSMonitor and on the Internet to help you figure out what your phone is connecting to. If you've got heavy data usage and an app or apps have open connections, uninstall / reinstall those apps and see if the battery drain stops.
Under-volting. Xan's Voltage Control App. There's a lot more of this going around now that there are several overclocking and undervolting kernels available. There isn't a whole lot to be said here. Different CPU clock steps can be individually adjusted to pull a little less juice from the battery. Make sure you keep them as temporary settings and do not "set on boot" until you're sure you've got a stable configuration. If you set something to a level your phone can't handle and script-save it for booting, you might not be able to boot again. Anyway, under-volting will not suddenly revolutionize your battery performance, but it can help.
Also, switching UV settings can significantly affect your battery meter after reboot. If you've recently switched UV settings and rebooted, your battery meter might suddenly show 20% more or less batterly life than before. This is simply what the meter thinks to be the case, obviously your battery did not just jump 20%.
Backlight notifications. I don't have hard data to back it up yet, but I've noticed that when a backlight notification is active, my battery starts racing to zero.
Cyanogenmod. It's available on Captivate now. It isn't stable/supported. It has a lot of debug code enabled. That means it uses more battery than it will someday when it's stable RC and debug code is commented out.
I've successfully used all of the "interesting steps" above in different cases where I had sudden battery drain and the basic steps didn't fix it. Anyone else have success with these? Any other tactics to share? Please post.
Thanks to joeybear23 for good info on recalibrating the battery.

Great info on the battery.
And you mentioned Occams Razor... the simplest answer is the most likely!
Ok, maybe your batteries are actually no good. Many have found theirs to be faulty and that after replacing them all is well again.
I just got a spare and the new one is great!
Maybe a batch of samsung batteries has problems and they begin to lose charge quite quickly after they have been in use a month or 2 (Or they get confused after multiple Flash's of ROMS .
Basically, I bought a cheap aftermarket battery as a spare and decided to try it in my phone today. I have made several calls and installed some apps and have played around with the phone as per normal. After 7 hours it is at 53%. MUCH better than before. With old battery it would be at 10-15% after a day at work.
Only thing different is I did install the lag fix over the Beta 5.5 to see if it helps speed.
Is it the battery or the phones software causing the problem??? Well if they have a chip in them maybe it IS the battery...???

Great read there! I haven't really been having any problems with battery life lately, but installed OS Monitor anyway just to see what was running. Nothing too out of the ordinary, as everything seems as you say it should be. OS Monitor is up there at 15-20%, android system is at another 8-10%, and system/bin/sensorserver_yamaha is running at anywhere from 7-16%. I assume this is the sensor that monitors what position my phone is in. Other than that, I don't see any other process taking more than a small slice of CPU or so from time to time.
I have done all of the suggestions before; bump charging, draining, and wiping stats, but I also feel that there may be differences since I am using a few different batteries. If I seem to get amazing battery life from a battery after wiping the stats and then using it til it dies, when I put in the next battery, it may work differently, thus screwing with the stats yet again. I have tried to not be as worried about battery life, especially since I have multiple batteries, but it's still something of interest to me.
I'll be subscribing to this thread, and look forward to reading some other users' thoughts/experiences with their batteries.

Scott -
In my own experience, putting lagfix on cog 5.5 has a huge beneficial effect on battery drain. I'm not sure yet but I believe the Unhelpful kernel uses a lot of cpu trying to manage swap unless you put an ext cache on it.
However, it's also true that you can great great life out of a new battery for the first 2 or 3 charge cycles. But a battery suddenly draining faster than normal is probably something your phone system is doing and not a bad battery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Cog 2.2 beta 5.5 with OCLF

Also, Demented, don't forget to look at antennae/network abuse, not just CPU. I once had a malfunctioning weather widget that wasn't using much CPU but was going berserk on my 3G and sucking batt juice so fast that you could hear the battery whimpering a little bit.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Cognition 2.2 Beta 5.5 with OCLF

There should be a college class on correct battery usage.
Thank you so much for this thread, my battery thanks you as well!

Sorry if i shouldnt be posting this here. But i just read that wiki link at top and i was wondering what you guys think about leaving use wireless networks and power saving mode checked on to save battery???
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Good thread; subscribed. I'll be trying some of this stuff out and reporting back here.

roadrash7 said:
Sorry if i shouldnt be posting this here. But i just read that wiki link at top and i was wondering what you guys think about leaving use wireless networks and power saving mode checked on to save battery???
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Some of the stuff there is valid; not sure I agree with using the task killer or the advice about leaving "Use Wireless Networks" on and GPS off. I leave both off, and when I want GPS access I turn on the GPS from the power control widget.There's no need for your Wi-Fi adapter to always be searching for networks and associating with Skyhook, etc.
Regarding leaving Wi-Fi on rather than 3G, it does make sense when you are using data. However, if the phone is idle, I doubt leaving the Wi-Fi card enabled will actually save battery life, as it will have to maintain connection with the access point (see your Wi-Fi sleep settings). I think a few short bursts of 3G download/upload when syncing, etc. will be less drain on the battery than leaving Wi-Fi enabled just for those small amounts of data that will be used when syncing. But, if you always want to be ready to browse, or do a lot of DL/UL at a moment's notice, I could see how keeping it on would be justified.
If manually syncing is acceptable to you, then by all means turn off the background data and auto syncing... personally I feel like the phone is really being limited and you have to balance utility and battery life, so I leave those options enabled.
Just some thoughts, if anyone can correct me on anything, I'm eager to learn.

TheYar said:
I'm not sure yet but I believe the Unhelpful kernel uses a lot of cpu trying to manage swap unless you put an ext cache on it.
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Click to collapse
I'm not really sure what you mean by that? There is no swap in use unless you add your own script to mount a swapfile.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Update
Updated the OP with some other items I forgot.

Unhelpful said:
I'm not really sure what you mean by that? There is no swap in use unless you add your own script to mount a swapfile.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Sorry I wasn't being very accurately descriptive there of what I've seen. I rarely know for certain what caused or fixed a battery drain issue. Thanks for calling me out on this one, because going back over my history on this it looks like I was largely mistaken in thinking your kernel had much to do with it. One of my worst experiences with battery drain, it seemed that I had some apps/widgets that just didn't work well after the kernel swap, but Cog also made some non-specific references at that time to battery issues with the kernel and that stuck in my head. Another time with a Cog ROM I believe I may have misread the changelog and I was under the impression that I was on a new Unhelpful kernel, when I wasn't. Looks like that time it was actually a stock kernel partly responsible for the drain, which makes sense. Was I totally confused thinking Cog 2.2B5.5 uses an Unhelpful kernel?
As for what I was seeing (thinking now it was actually not on your kernel), kswapd0 was going berserk on my CPU. All I know is that is generally the name of kswapd0 is referring to virtual memory management, and putting OCLF on fixed it.

Well, vm also allows clean pages that are backed by files to be "swapped" out by freeing them, without using a swapfile, because the data already exists in storage.
A release or two ago I had some battery drain issues that were resolved by reverting some config changes.
Cognition 2.2 can't use any of my kernels, the froyo leak uses a different kernel version, and we don't have Samsung's modified sources yet.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Unhelpful said:
Cognition 2.2 can't use any of my kernels, the froyo leak uses a different kernel version, and we don't have Samsung's modified sources yet.
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Click to collapse
Right, which makes sense when I look back over my flashing history. DG had two versions in one changelog, and a line about re-adding your kernel to Cog 2.1.7 slipped in between some changelogs about Cog 2.2 beta releases. So I originally misread and figured that you'd somehow made a 2.2 kernel. It started draining my battery like crazy, which is exactly what happened the previous time I used an Unhelpful kernel (though again probably unrelated or only somewhat related to the kernel), and so I figured I was on to something. I was wrong. My b.
The issue that still remains is that I believe many people who flash to Cog 2.2.B5.5 (and perhaps 6), without master clearing and stocking first, end up with some odd behavior with whatever kswapd0 does (e.g., odd behavior like constantly using up to 90% of CPU for no dang reason). This is probably a cause, or the cause, of the Lagfixgate scandal and maybe Sudden Rapid Battery Drain Syndrome. And for whatever reason, OCLF fixes it.
I master-cleared and flashed 2.1 stock and then Cog 2.2B6, and kswapd0 and lag are no longer an issue even without OCLF. Battery is too soon to tell, though. Seems to be fairly normal, but not as good as some of what I used to see on Eclair with various other kernels swapped in.

Great resource here. Please keep updating! Subscribed...

Although you can't see it so well in the vid, the lagfix demo I captured also demonstrated a couple of points of battery life improvement.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8631303&postcount=15

Bumped for updates in the OP.

With any of the 2.2 builds my cpu runs at constant 10%. We know its beta but worth looking into. Only info i have seen on my phone was android system. So im unsure what it is. Havent tore into it yet. But that was all stock with no apps installed. Even cog 6 i have the same cpu readings. So who knows.
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Guess its not really 10% but up there

Just a tip. I was using latitude and wasnt getting the normal battery life i usually was when i wasnt using it.
I didnt know it was effecting it though cause you dont see it in task manager but you will in applications/running services. Anyways i signed out of latitude and battery life is back to normal.
It wont be remarkably better but it was noticeable to me. Just a tip.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

smokestack76 said:
With any of the 2.2 builds my cpu runs at constant 10%. We know its beta but worth looking into. Only info i have seen on my phone was android system. So im unsure what it is. Havent tore into it yet. But that was all stock with no apps installed. Even cog 6 i have the same cpu readings. So who knows.
Guess its not really 10% but up there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does that compare to when you're on earlier (eclair) builds? I expect there'd always be a little utilization going on.

Related

Battery life between leaked Captivate Froyo and custom ROMs

I noticed battery life on ae leaked Captivate Froyo 2.2 build (with AT&T bloatwares intact) was stellar!!! The battery life nearly doubled the custom ROMs that I have tried (the latest Cognition 2.3b8 and Axura 2.3 ROms).
I have tried all three on a regular work schedule from 8am - 4pm in a same location. I left all the ROMs installed as is. Here are the battery life meter findings at the end of my shift listed by ROM:
1. Leaked Captivate Froyo 2.2 --- Battery Life (92%)
2. Axura 2.3 --- Battery Life (69%)
3. Cognition 2.3b8 --- Battery Life (65%)
Anyone know why is this? Don't get me wrong, I love the Axura new functions and all that extras built-in. However, the battery life is discouraging.
did you recalibrate the battery and delete the batterystats.bin each time you changed to a different ROM? also, im not sure but the different modems could be the cause of the battery drain.
I almost want to say this is common sense. If you load something that increases your phones speed with a lagfix, gives you stronger reception and faster download speeds with using a different modem, and has many more enabled options would you not think battery may be effected?
All this being said I can get 20 hrs of moderate use on my current configuration. I do not need much more then that
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mcord11758 said:
I almost want to say this is common sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*almost*
I have questioned this myself sometimes, then realizing that there is a lagfix installed. it's like buying a Vette for the gas mileage.. not gonna happen.
Hence, some custom ROM's do have damn good battery life with lagfixes! So, it's just a matter of finding what suits your needs.
The issue I've been seeing with the latest builds of most of the ROMs in the Dev Forums are:
Using customized i9000 Kernels and Modems. These are hacks/tweaks (and very good ones) to work with Captivate phones.
OC/UV Kernels that offer awesome overclocking/voltage capabilities but at a price - battery usage.
Using a Vibrant build for Captivate phones.
Custom "Captivate Kernels" (sorry the quotes aren't there for sarcasm just emphasis) that are still in beta or development.
All of the above cause battery issues as they are not optimized for our phone, missing some bits in the software that handle the OS/battery life, or straight up bleed the battery to death as your OVERCLOCKING YOUR PHONE.
And to make it worse utilizing different modems just exacerbates the problem.
Lag Fixes - SHOULD NOT AFFECT BATTERY LIFE AS THEY ARE JUST CHANGING YOUR EXISTING FILE STRUCTURE IN YOUR PHONE.
So it does make sense that while using a "stock" ROM you would get better battery life.
Now.. on to battery life/usage:
Calibrating the battery helps at least keep a more accurate track of how your phone's battery performance is doing.
You can do a few things to optimize your battery usage:
Of course Calibrate your battery - removing battery stats on your phone, doing the drain it down to 0% and re-charge to 100% to ensure you have an accurate idead of true battery usage is always helpful. I delete battery stats right after every flash to a new ROM.
Turning off Wireless/GPS/Data etc. while not in use. This does NOT mean to use a task killer since if you have an errant app running it will just make battery life worse not better.
If your using an OC kernel - then the usually install Voltage Control is a must! I have heard great things about tweaking these settings and people getting great battery life from their devices. Now.. mind you you don't have to overclock if your running the OC kernel. It's just there if you want it.
Also - being careful of what you have installed on your phone is one of the biggest ones most people miss. If it's trying to do a push every 3 seconds that is utilizing your battery/proc and that will be killing your phone.
With all that being said though? The custom ROMs are all awesome and I'm very glad we have them - even if it means I sacrifice a little bit of battery performance (which to me is horrid to begin with). I use a little common sense and I can at least get through an entire day with average usage (txts, email, calls, xda, angry birds etc..) without having to throw it on a charger.
Sorry.. long post - too much coffee and 90 wpm does that to me sometimes
cachookaman said:
did you recalibrate the battery and delete the batterystats.bin each time you changed to a different ROM? also, im not sure but the different modems could be the cause of the battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whats the easiest way to do this?
vuoflfan said:
whats the easiest way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For battery stats - you go into the advanced Clockwork Recovery Menu - go to Advanced - and you should see Clear Battery Stats there.
I would make sure that your phone is charged to 100% before doing this.
There is another trick you can do also that works for some people.
Charge your phone in.. as SOON as you get the notification stating to unplug your phone you should unplug it - wait 30 seconds then plug it back in. If it wasn't calibrated correctly you will see the percentage on your battery typically at around 97% instead of the reported 100%.
The improved battery life can probably be most attributed to the difference between the Java interpreter in 2.1 and Froyo's JIT.
In short, when Java does interpretation, it reads a single application instruction, decides what to do with it, does it, and repeats. If the same function is encountered again, the interpreter still has to re-read the instructions, decide what to do again, and do it.
In comparison, when Froyo's JIT encounters an application function, it reads the instructions in a large batch, decides what all of them should do, and records the result in the processor's "native-language". If the same function is encountered again, the processor just does it without needing to make all of those decisions again.
The speed difference is more than 30x. Running application code is only a small fraction of the total "working time", so benchmarks typically only see about 3x improvement. For the parts that are running applications (including even the home screen), Froyo is ultimately running 1 operation that used to take 30 operations - that means fewer electrons are wasted on the processor.
Also, Samsung's crappy filesystem decision certainly will impact battery life, since the format they chose (a relative of the old DOS format) performs seeks optimized for linear mechanical devices (like hard drives), not from FLASH, which suffers on fractional block reads and excels at non-linear reads. Lots of electrons will be wasted interacting with FLASH unnecessairily, but that kind of interaction is rare compared to other battery consumers.
- Kipp
Embedded Systems Hardware and Software Engineer

[Q] 2.2 Froyo update, battery life lost

I have not yet updated my Captivate to 2.2. Reading posts in regard to the update I am very bothered by a common complaint that battery life has just died. My Captivate has excellent battery life using it fairly heavily over a 1 day period. I charge it every nite. Also, my GPS is workng fine in 2.1. So am considering not updating it due to the problems I am hearing about.
Anyone else have input on battery life after the update??
I went from STOCK 2.1 to Cognition 4.1 (built on Froyo 2.2) and my battery life is about the same. My usage varies wildly from day to day, but as best as I can tell, overall battery consumption is about equal.
I wonder if the people complaining about battery life have set up their phone "post-update" with different apps or turned on "apps syncing background data"...
Battery life did reduce on 2.2 but it is obvious in my point of view. But its not too bad either.
it's about the same, i upgraded to stock 2.2, feel no difference on the battery life. moderate usage last mine for about more than 24 hrs, u should update to froyo for you to experience it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
SnackCracker said:
I went from STOCK 2.1 to Cognition 4.1 (built on Froyo 2.2) and my battery life is about the same. My usage varies wildly from day to day, but as best as I can tell, overall battery consumption is about equal.
I wonder if the people complaining about battery life have set up their phone "post-update" with different apps or turned on "apps syncing background data"...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I upgraded Stock 2.2 end of Feb and noticed a big drop in my battery life the first week. But just reading above, i did turn on "apps syncing background data" so i think that's my problem. Just turned that off so we shall see...
Let your phone go through a week or so recharging cycle before judging its battery life after a ROM flashing. You just lost all your battery stats when flash a new ROM. Your phone/OS has no clue how your battery will operate until it has time to learn or you manually calibrate it.
For what it is worth, my battery life is about the same or slightly better than leaked 2.2 ROM as well as 2.1 ROM. No big changes.
My battery has been about the same since the 2.2 upgrade. At first it felt like my battery was draining quicker but I also noticed I was playing with more phone more. The screen is the biggest power drain on the phone so just playing with menus and looking at new settings can cause a small dent.
Give it a week or two after upgrading and you'll notice it'll be about the same. Unless of course you have more accounts or programs syncing data in the background.
Why upgrade to 2.2
Thanks everyone for the input. The more I read and hear the more I am leaning toward not upgrading to 2.2. On different forums I am seeing and hearing problems with battery life and some saying about the same battery life. Also, seeing GPS not being fixed or going from working ok or good to not working so good. Right now my phone does everything I want, GPS works really good, email works fine, internet works fine, battery life is outstanding, mp3 works great, screens all are clean and to my liking, I have an easy work around for turning off 3G and one tap returning my volumes to normal after using a USSD code.
REally cannot see any advantage to upgrading and risking introducing a problem I don't need. The list of new features really does not thrill me.
gstreff said:
Thanks everyone for the input. The more I read and hear the more I am leaning toward not upgrading to 2.2. On different forums I am seeing and hearing problems with battery life and some saying about the same battery life. Also, seeing GPS not being fixed or going from working ok or good to not working so good. Right now my phone does everything I want, GPS works really good, email works fine, internet works fine, battery life is outstanding, mp3 works great, screens all are clean and to my liking, I have an easy work around for turning off 3G and one tap returning my volumes to normal after using a USSD code.
REally cannot see any advantage to upgrading and risking introducing a problem I don't need. The list of new features really does not thrill me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2.2 ROM is a big step forward, not backward, IMO. Sure it didn't solve GPS issue but it is not making it worse either. GPS issue is purely hardware issue. If you have a good one, it doesn't matter which stock firmware you use.
I just can't see any disadvantage for upgrading (other than slightly more difficult to root or unlock, but not impossible). Battery life thing is as I mentioned above. You will see all kinds of complaints (either dain too fast or too slow) after a new firmware comes out, any firmware. You don't know what you're missing until you upgraded.
I noticed a big improvement in battery life. Sometimes with light use it will last up to four days, whereas before with 2.1 it would putter out after maybe two days.
GPS isn't fixed, but drop one of many GPS fixes in and it will get somewhat normal performance.
Wifi sleep policy
You may also want to check the Wifi sleep policy after the upgrade to Froyo. In my case, the default was "Never sleep". Changing this to "When screen turns off" improves battery life on 2.2, as it does on 2.1.
Just my $.02 worth.
foxbat121 said:
Let your phone go through a week or so recharging cycle before judging its battery life after a ROM flashing. You just lost all your battery stats when flash a new ROM. Your phone/OS has no clue how your battery will operate until it has time to learn or you manually calibrate it.
For what it is worth, my battery life is about the same or slightly better than leaked 2.2 ROM as well as 2.1 ROM. No big changes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on stock 2.2 since the day it came out. My battery life is actually trending worse day-by-day. I did a full battery clear/reset this weekend and after 4 days I'm finding battery life is not improving at all. The degradation from stock 2.1 is significantly noticeable to me.
For the first couple of days post-update it seemed actually to be better, but got worse and worse, to where I was lucky to find the phone working 12 hours after disconnecting from the charger @ 100% ... even if I hadn't -touched- the phone during the day. My applications loaded are virtually identical to before.
I did have Background Data on, so I've just disabled it, but was this option not in 2.1? I know that Google Voice, etc, were doing background syncs in 2.1.
It can't be WiFi, as for the last 2-3 days I've kept WiFi turned off. However just for sanity I did adjust the sleep policy.
I'm wondering ... my battery woes seemed to start when I hooked up my Microcell. Could having a strong 3G signal so close to the phone actually be causing problems?
jahfry said:
I did have Background Data on, so I've just disabled it, but was this option not in 2.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is the same as in 2.1.
I'm wondering ... my battery woes seemed to start when I hooked up my Microcell. Could having a strong 3G signal so close to the phone actually be causing problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be your problem. I don't know. I know 2.1 doesn't work very well with microcell either.
Yep. I'm pretty convinced it is the microcell now. Phone works great with it from a call/data/signal standpoint. However after unplugging my microcell last night, charging my phone to 100%, and then letting the phone discharge normally with no microcell ... I'm now 10 hours later and have an almost full battery.
Sad, because our reception here is so spotty that we lose calls and data regularly without the microcell. My wife says her phone charge has been pretty normal, so I'm getting ready to move the cell away from my desk and see if distance helps the story.
So, as far as this thread is concerned, my results for 2.2 and battery life are great ... better than with 2.1 ... just don't use it with a microcell.
Froyao 2.2 Battery Usage Dillema
I see no significant or excess battery drain while riding the KB1 over the JF6.
Just a thought for those experiencing excessive or significant battery drain. KB1 loads some new features and new additional bloatware that loads on boot and runs as a service, process and both.
If you're familiar with poking around your system settings and understand what doesn't need to always be running in the background, or what doesn't need to load on boot, you can simply kill the process and even alter the way a certain application handles on boot.
By killing many unneeded or unwanted processes at boot time, it will significantly save you hours upon hours of battery life in the longer scheme.
Another FYI, Lithium Ion batteries have memory. You need to train or retrain the batteries memory over time in order to sustain a longer life for it.
Tips:
Don't continually through the charger on your device after minimal drainage. Let the battery run down before fully recharging it again.
When flashing to another ROM wipe your battery stats.
When flashing any new code to your device - a few forced charge deaths to purge the battery and reset the memory again prior to recharging may be a good idea...
Hope this helps...
Peace-
Liv33viL

[Q] Phone Signal and Battery Drain -- is there a correlation?

Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forum, but not totally new to rooting and flashing ROMs. I have a MT3G (second android phone to come to the market...yes I'm old school ), rooted and flashed CM7-Gingerbread 2.3.3 and it's working very well.
I also managed to buy a NookColor, immediately rooted it and flashed phiremod nook v5.1. and everything is very good. My Quadrant Score is 1485
However, what I've noticed is that if I compare the battery usage on mytouch 3g vs the nookcolor I see something interesting and I think it might have to do with the overall battery drain I've noticed on the nook....I'm hoping someone here can shed some light.
When I go to my settings > about tablet > battery use, I can see a graph on the top. If I click it, it shows a nice relationship between time (x-axis), battery % (y-axis) and underneath it are 5 variables (Phone Signal, Wi-fi, Awake, Screen on, Charging). These variables are key because you can see what is really draining a battery.
See the two attached images. One is from mytouch 3g and the other is the nook. What you can see is that when my nook is sleep, it drains a lot faster than MT3G and in fact what you see is that the PHONE SIGNAL is constantly on, where when my MT3G is sleep, the PHONE SIGNAL IS NOT....
Is there a way to completely remove this 'phone signal'...I suspect we can get more battery life out of our nook if we can just remove this!!!
Thanks for reading.
easy to do if you have adb.. otherwise use terminal.
rename the following files in /system/app
Mms.apk
TelephonyProvider.apk
Phone.apk (phone will keep forceclosing.
reboot.
If you are not using adb, just force power off using the power button.
When it comes up, you will have much better battery life.
Yeah, I saw that posted somewhere, and I've done that. So does the phone signal still appear on yours after you renamed it?
I wonder if this procedure is enough.....
labrazil said:
Yeah, I saw that posted somewhere, and I've done that. So does the phone signal still appear on yours after you renamed it?
I wonder if this procedure is enough.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enough to remove Phone from being listed in Spare Parts? Yep. It won't change anything.
CM7 is really bad with the battery. It doesn't sleep properly. The phone or lack of phone has nothing to do with it. It doesn't have a cell radio after all ;-)
Apparently there is a bug and it crashes or something? when it sleeps. I read that the devs just disabled sleep until they can get it fixed. I think that will probably happen after video is all working.
It still easily lasts through the day with a fair bit of use though. I just charge every night instead of every third ;-)
ylixir said:
CM7 is really bad with the battery. It doesn't sleep properly. The phone or lack of phone has nothing to do with it. It doesn't have a cell radio after all ;-)
Apparently there is a bug and it crashes or something? when it sleeps. I read that the devs just disabled sleep until they can get it fixed. I think that will probably happen after video is all working.
It still easily lasts through the day with a fair bit of use though. I just charge every night instead of every third ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, so it's safe to assume that the devs are working on this for future ROMs/Kernals? I really like my nook even though I just got the wifi-xoom today.
There's already been a 20+ page thread on this, where comparitive testing found no actual diference in battery life by removing those functions. The result is a purely cosmetic change where the power consumed under "cell standby" is shifted to "phone idle" or something else, I forget exactly. Any perceived improvements in battery life are a placebo effect and/or simply the result of the variables in different day-to-day usage.
Removing them also causes Market problems with certain apps not showing up due to "incompatibility" with devices lacking those functions, which I suspect is why they are not removed in the first place.
The NC's "high" power drain on CM7 is because it's not allowed to actually sleep due too a kernal bug which prevents it from reliably waking up. This will get fixed eventually. Right now, "sleep" simply turns off the screen.

Poor Battery Life On Overcome Jupiter

Hi,
I don't have sufficient posts to be able to participate directly in that forum, so have no other choice but to raise my queries here.
I've just flashed over from Overcome "Hermes" to "Jupiter". All's well except that the battery performance is quite drastically affected for me.
I've been reading the improved battery life "Jupiter" gets over earlier versions of the Overcome ROMs, but I seem to be experiencing the opposite.
Already did the batt stat wipe via recovery menu. Do I need to so call "run-in" before it reflects correctly? Even if accuracy is one thing... but dropping 3% just on bootup.... is this typical of an uncalibrated battery?
Appreciate any advise here on what I should do. (Apart from a fresh wipe install )
Thanks
I appreciate the enthusiasm these coding geniuses have in rolling out update after updates in the ROMS yet I am apprehensive about the effect of these frequent flashing on the Galaxy Tab components itself. This includes the battery.
My job involves electronic repair and there is a so called number of hours before an equipment goes for a thorough check(preventive maintenance) say for example 1000 hours on a meter. Unfortunately the galaxy tab (or any tablet) does not have this. So if you frequently do a flashing on your tab you subject the electronic components to unnecessary stress,thereby affecting the life of the components like the battery.
In "normal" everyday use of the tab you will seldom do any restart/reboot of your tab,yet in flashing ROMs as many as 3 reboots is needed. As I don't know how to measure the surge in current during reboot, I can just imagine how high an initial current during startup is generated, thus putting a big strain on the battery.
Unfortunately the battery is not user detachable.
There was an author here in XDA describing himself/herself as an "flashing addict"(or something similar). I would like to appeal to everyone-please don't be a flashing addict.
As for battery issue read here
JUST MY FEW CENTS!
PCdumb said:
Hi,
I don't have sufficient posts to be able to participate directly in that forum, so have no other choice but to raise my queries here.
I've just flashed over from Overcome "Hermes" to "Jupiter". All's well except that the battery performance is quite drastically affected for me.
I've been reading the improved battery life "Jupiter" gets over earlier versions of the Overcome ROMs, but I seem to be experiencing the opposite.
Already did the batt stat wipe via recovery menu. Do I need to so call "run-in" before it reflects correctly? Even if accuracy is one thing... but dropping 3% just on bootup.... is this typical of an uncalibrated battery?
Appreciate any advise here on what I should do. (Apart from a fresh wipe install )
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to the Tweaks section at the team overcome website, it will take several charge cycles before you notice an improvement after the stat wipe. Try giving it a few days before going any further.
PS Not to question your ability to follow instructions (sometimes we miss things) but did you charge to 100% with the tab off?
Yes, I did charge to 100% with the Tab off.
Now upon reading the instructions once more..... I might have conducted it slightly different from the written procedure.
I unplugged the Tab from the mains, then only booted up and wiped the batt stats before re-booting. Hmmm.... maybe I'll go try booting up while still plugged into the mains, do the batt stat wipe, and re-boot. (all while plugged into the mains). Then only unplug the charger.
Wonder is there any diff in doing so.....
Would definitely try re-doing it with the tab plugged in while doing the stat wipe. And if it doesn't seem to fix it, do go through a few cycles before reverting back to a previous ROM.
It's important to completely drain your battery before recharging it to 100% in order to complete a cycle.
Hope you fix it. Battery life results vary between tab's even if they are used very similarly, I'm running the OVERCOME Jupiter ROM with IMPROVED battery life. I keep my Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS on all the time. I also flash quite often and have not seen a decrease in overall battery life. It seams that each tab is a bit different, hardware wise, than one another. Everything from battery to board it seems is slightly different coming out of the manufacturing process.
Thanks. Will try that out.
But it just seems strange coming from Overcome ver 1.4 (Froyo) which had no batt drain problem.... to Hermes which was better in batt performance.... to Jupiter which I'm experiencing heavy drain.
As I did a NoWipe install, all apps and setting are similar (except the new market app).
I was able to run 2 movies back to back (about 3 hours total) and still have at least 40% life left (usually about 45 to 50%). Now on Jupiter, just fiddling around testing the various features for functionality, plus maybe an hour of NFS (total about 3 hours as well).... the batt drops to about 10% life.
Anyway, I'll re-do the calibration and and give it some time to "settle in". Hopefully, that is all that is needed. (I would hate to have to do a full wipe install... and re-installing all apps)
PCdumb said:
Thanks. Will try that out.
But it just seems strange coming from Overcome ver 1.4 (Froyo) which had no batt drain problem.... to Hermes which was better in batt performance.... to Jupiter which I'm experiencing heavy drain.
As I did a NoWipe install, all apps and setting are similar (except the new market app).
I was able to run 2 movies back to back (about 3 hours total) and still have at least 40% life left (usually about 45 to 50%). Now on Jupiter, just fiddling around testing the various features for functionality, plus maybe an hour of NFS (total about 3 hours as well).... the batt drops to about 10% life.
Anyway, I'll re-do the calibration and and give it some time to "settle in". Hopefully, that is all that is needed. (I would hate to have to do a full wipe install... and re-installing all apps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in the Tweaks section, perform the Stat wipe and then two full recharge cycle
recharge to 100% (while the Tab is closed) then drain the battery till it is off then repeat the cycle and you will enjoy it man
Please tell me if you need anything
bongski55 said:
I appreciate the enthusiasm these coding geniuses have in rolling out update after updates in the ROMS yet I am apprehensive about the effect of these frequent flashing on the Galaxy Tab components itself. This includes the battery.
My job involves electronic repair and there is a so called number of hours before an equipment goes for a thorough check(preventive maintenance) say for example 1000 hours on a meter. Unfortunately the galaxy tab (or any tablet) does not have this. So if you frequently do a flashing on your tab you subject the electronic components to unnecessary stress,thereby affecting the life of the components like the battery.
In "normal" everyday use of the tab you will seldom do any restart/reboot of your tab,yet in flashing ROMs as many as 3 reboots is needed. As I don't know how to measure the surge in current during reboot, I can just imagine how high an initial current during startup is generated, thus putting a big strain on the battery.
Unfortunately the battery is not user detachable.
There was an author here in XDA describing himself/herself as an "flashing addict"(or something similar). I would like to appeal to everyone-please don't be a flashing addict.
As for battery issue read here
JUST MY FEW CENTS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where you were hiding this all ? i bet you were so damn angry to say all of this , i never saw you writing more than 3-4 lines , chill out buddy .
@The OP flashing custom roms means battery need to re-life back
bongski55 said:
I appreciate the enthusiasm these coding geniuses have in rolling out update after updates in the ROMS yet I am apprehensive about the effect of these frequent flashing on the Galaxy Tab components itself. This includes the battery.
My job involves electronic repair and there is a so called number of hours before an equipment goes for a thorough check(preventive maintenance) say for example 1000 hours on a meter. Unfortunately the galaxy tab (or any tablet) does not have this. So if you frequently do a flashing on your tab you subject the electronic components to unnecessary stress,thereby affecting the life of the components like the battery.
In "normal" everyday use of the tab you will seldom do any restart/reboot of your tab,yet in flashing ROMs as many as 3 reboots is needed. As I don't know how to measure the surge in current during reboot, I can just imagine how high an initial current during startup is generated, thus putting a big strain on the battery.
Unfortunately the battery is not user detachable.
There was an author here in XDA describing himself/herself as an "flashing addict"(or something similar). I would like to appeal to everyone-please don't be a flashing addict.
As for battery issue read here
JUST MY FEW CENTS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Viewed purely from an engineering perspective, I'm unable to see any significant connection between the flashing of the ROM and a degradation of battery capacity. Further, in the event that the TAB was connected to a charger during the flashing, I can see absolutely no connection at all! Please help me understand your logic.
Ok Back on topic. PCdumb (dude what's with the username lol). Check your app list. It could a new app you or an old app you updated or an app you didnt use before but you use now that is being a battery hog. A small trick I learned is checking apps running services in the background. Go to Settings, applications, running services and check (why is skype working after Isigned out its not a battery drainer but I hope you got the picture).
Thanks for the advise. That was one of the 1st few things I did to check that there's nothing out of the ordinary running in the background and taking up the juice.
Mine's actually draining alot when in usage. Not too sure about when in standby.... will check later.
If after a few charge cycles and the drain is still bad, guess my only next best option is to do a full wipe, re-stock and re-install.....
I did not get any effect from Battery calibration. As expeced. Anybody did actually?
The background services instead might have an effect on power consumption, I agree. But needs numerous testing...
Batt recal did not give me better battery life. There's no difference in the battery performance after 3 recharge cycles.
My tab can at most get slightly more than 5 hours of continuous usage compared to about close to 7 hours on hermes. This is when i dial down the OC from smartass mode to conservative and also put the min freq to 200 instead of 400 which was the setting i was using all the while.
Doesn't seem to be anything else running in the background. On standby overnight, i only lose about 3% which is not too bad. But when in use, that's where the Batt drains fast. Just for comparison, i only lost 1% at most for overnight standby of about 7 hours when running hermes.
Guess I'll have to live with this if i want the speed and smoothness. Still contemplating whether to restock and do a clean flash.
PCdumb said:
Batt recal did not give me better battery life. There's no difference in the battery performance after 3 recharge cycles.
My tab can at most get slightly more than 5 hours of continuous usage compared to about close to 7 hours on hermes. This is when i dial down the OC from smartass mode to conservative and also put the min freq to 200 instead of 400 which was the setting i was using all the while.
Doesn't seem to be anything else running in the background. On standby overnight, i only lose about 3% which is not too bad. But when in use, that's where the Batt drains fast. Just for comparison, i only lost 1% at most for overnight standby of about 7 hours when running hermes.
Guess I'll have to live with this if i want the speed and smoothness. Still contemplating whether to restock and do a clean flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to confirm that JUPITER is the reason that you are experiencing poor battery life, try re-installing a previous version that you feel worked better for you. Maybe reverting back to a previous version may yield better battery results, and I sure hope so, this way you will know if it's the ROM or other elements affecting the abnormal battery drain.
If you do see an increase in battery life, try flashing JUPITER again, see what the results are. I don't know if flashing and re-flashing will have a negative long term effect on your SGT, I know that I flash every time a new release is out (Stock safe, cooked ROM, Kernel) and if i'm not happy with the release i go back to a proven one by flashing another three times (stock safe, cooked ROM, Kernel) and so far I have not had any (knock on wood) abnormal battery activity.
It's worth giving it a shot (if you haven't already).
EDIT: I know, I know the proper sequence is stock safe, kernel, rom.
after week of using the Overcome ROM i can confirm that the battery performance is between 85 and 90% from the Orignial stock ROM performance
No problem since this is normal as we are using a cooked ROM
bongski55 said:
I appreciate the enthusiasm these coding geniuses have in rolling out update after updates in the ROMS yet I am apprehensive about the effect of these frequent flashing on the Galaxy Tab components itself. This includes the battery.
My job involves electronic repair and there is a so called number of hours before an equipment goes for a thorough check(preventive maintenance) say for example 1000 hours on a meter. Unfortunately the galaxy tab (or any tablet) does not have this. So if you frequently do a flashing on your tab you subject the electronic components to unnecessary stress,thereby affecting the life of the components like the battery.
In "normal" everyday use of the tab you will seldom do any restart/reboot of your tab,yet in flashing ROMs as many as 3 reboots is needed. As I don't know how to measure the surge in current during reboot, I can just imagine how high an initial current during startup is generated, thus putting a big strain on the battery.
Unfortunately the battery is not user detachable.
There was an author here in XDA describing himself/herself as an "flashing addict"(or something similar). I would like to appeal to everyone-please don't be a flashing addict.
As for battery issue read here
JUST MY FEW CENTS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW ! This was an eye opener for me...
Thanks for clarifying this...... I didn't know this was so bad for the hardware ....
Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk
PCdumb said:
Batt recal did not give me better battery life. There's no difference in the battery performance after 3 recharge cycles.
My tab can at most get slightly more than 5 hours of continuous usage compared to about close to 7 hours on hermes. This is when i dial down the OC from smartass mode to conservative and also put the min freq to 200 instead of 400 which was the setting i was using all the while.
Doesn't seem to be anything else running in the background. On standby overnight, i only lose about 3% which is not too bad. But when in use, that's where the Batt drains fast. Just for comparison, i only lost 1% at most for overnight standby of about 7 hours when running hermes.
Guess I'll have to live with this if i want the speed and smoothness. Still contemplating whether to restock and do a clean flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After reading all this superb discussion....
I would just recommend you to go back to your older rom.....
Its forbthe best....
Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk
I do get 4 to 5 hours of continuous use with overcome Jupiter, mostly browsing the web over
WLAN or umts. Hermes release didn't gave me so much more juice, probably 5 hours.
In the background I have emai push, contacts and calendar sync and some instant messaging apps, if I switch off all that I might get an hour or so more.
PCdumb said:
...On standby overnight, i only lose about 3% which is not too bad. But when in use, that's where the Batt drains fast. Just for comparison, i only lost 1% at most for overnight standby of about 7 hours when running hermes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, maybe your tab is one of the ones with a battery from the bad batch, and it's finally on its way out. I upgraded from the stock AT&T Rom to Overcome Jupiter, and on Airplane Mode with all stock settings (no overclock or undervolt), mine only drops 1% in standby over 14 hours and I can get about 5 hours of video watching straight with the brightness on max before it dies!
DarkPal said:
A small trick I learned is checking apps running services in the background. Go to Settings, applications, running services and check (why is skype working after Isigned out its not a battery drainer but I hope you got the picture).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also been experiencing a major increase in battery drain even after doing a couple wipes exactly according to the tweak guide. I went from about 24 hour normal use down to 6-8 hours normal use.
Checked the services as per your suggestion above and found a couple major battery drainers running. Skype and Yahoo but also Google+. What I dont understand is why Skype and Yahoo would be running even though I had not started either since at least several re-boots ago. I had Skype and Yahoo installed for quite a while Google+ is a new one. Anyway I killed all of them and now and will see what happens next.
Not sure thought that this is all there is to the issue. Recahrging is finiky as well. I can turn off the tab and let it charge all night just to find that it charged to about 70% if I re-plug it might charge to 90%-95% and then if re-plug it might get to 100%. The drain from 100% to 60%-70% is extremely fast and still quite fast from there. On one occasion after complete drain I couldnt get it to start charging at all for about 5-10 minutes. I was checking power, cables, connections and starting to panic when all of a sudden it started to charge.
Any advice on possible reasons or solution woud be appreciated. Not sure I want to go beck to stock ROM and un-root just to take it to service center for repairs.

[Q] Battery Problem??

I dunno whether it is a battery problem or what but I got a brand new battery
coz the last battery was too bad but the new battery also sucks.
I was wondering if it was cause of the ROM and kernel so
I switched to stock rom for trial purpose and still I got juz like barely 7 hours of juice....
with juz some files thru bluetooth and half an hour or so of texting....
so what could be causing the problem?
Here's the battery stats...
NiiSyth said:
I dunno whether it is a battery problem or what but I got a brand new battery
coz the last battery was too bad but the new battery also sucks.
I was wondering if it was cause of the ROM and kernel so
I switched to stock rom for trial purpose and still I got juz like barely 7 hours of juice....
with juz some files thru bluetooth and half an hour or so of texting....
so what could be causing the problem?
Here's the battery stats...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not really an expert on this... but I'll try!
First, data - depending on how often your apps that use data refresh, it may be killing your battery because they are always updating in the background
Next, apps - depending on how many are open, and trying to retrieve info or a responce, this may be killing your battery life
Another, backlight brightness - I would say half brightness looks almost the same as full brightness, so turn that down too. Another thing you can do is make sure that your phone times out so the screen is always on and sucking the life out of your battery
Plus, bluetooth and wifi - turn those off when you aren't using them! They turn on in a couple of seconds so there is no use in just leaving them on and draining your battery.
Lastly, I dunno what "kik" is (the app running in the corner of the status bar) but it may be using battery too (probably not because it isn't in the list of the battery use so I don't think that's it.
Anyways, in short, possibly shut off the data if you don't always use it (you don't have to tho ), go into the settings of apps, and get the refresh rate at a longer period of time (so they aren't always using data), kill any open apps if you can with an app manager, turn down the brightness of backlight, change the time it takes to shut off the backlight, and shut off the bluetooth and wifi when you aren't using it.
Unfortunatley the battery life on the Ace is far from the best, if anything it's terrible, but other than that I have very few issues with the phone.
Well... That's my two cents. Hopefully it helps, but if not, search around on the forums and see if you can find any other solutions. :fingers-crossed: I'm not the expert, but I'm trying to throw ideas out there. Good luck
Running background processes is a major battery kill. I used to get 12h+ on 3G with Stocklite V6. Never used heavy apps though. Just Textplus, Opera Mini to check fb sometimes and WhatsApp whenever someone talked to me. Light usage.
How much the battery lasts depends on the user completely.
thatdude02 said:
I'm not really an expert on this... but I'll try!
First, data - depending on how often your apps that use data refresh, it may be killing your battery because they are always updating in the background
Next, apps - depending on how many are open, and trying to retrieve info or a responce, this may be killing your battery life
Another, backlight brightness - I would say half brightness looks almost the same as full brightness, so turn that down too. Another thing you can do is make sure that your phone times out so the screen is always on and sucking the life out of your battery
Plus, bluetooth and wifi - turn those off when you aren't using them! They turn on in a couple of seconds so there is no use in just leaving them on and draining your battery.
Lastly, I dunno what "kik" is (the app running in the corner of the status bar) but it may be using battery too (probably not because it isn't in the list of the battery use so I don't think that's it.
Anyways, in short, possibly shut off the data if you don't always use it (you don't have to tho ), go into the settings of apps, and get the refresh rate at a longer period of time (so they aren't always using data), kill any open apps if you can with an app manager, turn down the brightness of backlight, change the time it takes to shut off the backlight, and shut off the bluetooth and wifi when you aren't using it.
Unfortunatley the battery life on the Ace is far from the best, if anything it's terrible, but other than that I have very few issues with the phone.
Well... That's my two cents. Hopefully it helps, but if not, search around on the forums and see if you can find any other solutions. :fingers-crossed: I'm not the expert, but I'm trying to throw ideas out there. Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all thnx for taking this much time out....
It's rlly helpful...
but
1. My data usage is barely 10 mb per day....
and no wifi and mearge usage of bluetooth....
2. Background apps;
only adw and one or two others...
and Kik is juz like whatsapp, a messaging app....
and it's quite lightweight, been using it since uite some time...
3. Backlight is at an always 25% and screen timeout 30 secs....
so juz wanna know if there's a possibility of some hardware fault......
coz I've tried most things possible to take out the software fault if any....
NiiSyth said:
First of all thnx for taking this much time out....
It's rlly helpful...
but
1. My data usage is barely 10 mb per day....
and no wifi and mearge usage of bluetooth....
2. Background apps;
only adw and one or two others...
and Kik is juz like whatsapp, a messaging app....
and it's quite lightweight, been using it since uite some time...
3. Backlight is at an always 25% and screen timeout 30 secs....
so juz wanna know if there's a possibility of some hardware fault......
coz I've tried most things possible to take out the software fault if any....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, i just forgot!...
I get this too sometimes, but what might help is if you reset your battery stats! I have to do this too because I found that after a half an hour after unplugging my phone with no use I lost 10% battery life, for no apparant reason. Search in the Play Store "BatteryCalibration". All you have to do is charge your phone to 100%, and tap the button . You usually have to do this after flashing a new ROM, because you might not flash it at 100% battery life and the stats go from there. So I would say, try it and see what happens.
Now... If not... The only other suggestion I have is if you find a battery booster app such as "Juice Defender" from the Play Store. I tried using it, but didn't see a huge difference (I don't have data, so I just keep it off), probably because I barely use my phone. I've also heard some thing about a script called "v6 Super Charger" (I've only heard of it, please search it if you want to know more because I sure don't ). Aparantly it boosts battery as well, but no promises haha.
If you are really desperate for better battery life, I would say switch to 2g service in the settings. Other than that.... I'm out for now
Hopefully this might help you out as well, but other than that the Ace is not well known for a good battery. But that's a mid range phone for you (but the Ace ain't no slouch either)
Anyway, goodluck!
-edit----------
Ok, so after looking around a little, I found a very interesting thread about Lithium-Ion batteries! Really cool and really worth the read! I learned quite a bit. Hopefully this answers any additional questions that I wasn't able to answer!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=669497
Try also eliminating any widgets or live wallpapers that you may have running. These might keep the processor running at a higher speed then neccessary, but no promises.... Plus I already mentioned closing apps you don't need (so this is pretty much the same woops) and you might have done it already.
The biggest thing to remeber is that you have to sacrifice performance for the best battery life. This may go as far as underclocking your maximum CPU speed, but this might cause some lagging especially at the startup. I think that this should be a last resort to be honest, because you still want to use a phone, and not a laggy device that you are trying to conserve as much battery as possible.
I also heard something about the motherboard possibly having a hardware fault in it causing excess discharge... But... I will need to do a little more searching to see if I can figure this out for you!
The other possiblity is that you get a power bank... But that just adds to what you have to pack around, so this is probably another last resort, but it's all up to you.
thatdude02 said:
Wait, i just forgot!...
I get this too sometimes, but what might help is if you reset your battery stats! I have to do this too because I found that after a half an hour after unplugging my phone with no use I lost 10% battery life, for no apparant reason. Search in the Play Store "BatteryCalibration". All you have to do is charge your phone to 100%, and tap the button . You usually have to do this after flashing a new ROM, because you might not flash it at 100% battery life and the stats go from there. So I would say, try it and see what happens.
Now... If not... The only other suggestion I have is if you find a battery booster app such as "Juice Defender" from the Play Store. I tried using it, but didn't see a huge difference (I don't have data, so I just keep it off), probably because I barely use my phone. I've also heard some thing about a script called "v6 Super Charger" (I've only heard of it, please search it if you want to know more because I sure don't ). Aparantly it boosts battery as well, but no promises haha.
If you are really desperate for better battery life, I would say switch to 2g service in the settings. Other than that.... I'm out for now
Hopefully this might help you out as well, but other than that the Ace is not well known for a good battery. But that's a mid range phone for you (but the Ace ain't no slouch either)
Anyway, goodluck!
-edit----------
Ok, so after looking around a little, I found a very interesting thread about Lithium-Ion batteries! Really cool and really worth the read! I learned quite a bit. Hopefully this answers any additional questions that I wasn't able to answer!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=669497
Try also eliminating any widgets or live wallpapers that you may have running. These might keep the processor running at a higher speed then neccessary, but no promises.... Plus I already mentioned closing apps you don't need (so this is pretty much the same woops) and you might have done it already.
The biggest thing to remeber is that you have to sacrifice performance for the best battery life. This may go as far as underclocking your maximum CPU speed, but this might cause some lagging especially at the startup. I think that this should be a last resort to be honest, because you still want to use a phone, and not a laggy device that you are trying to conserve as much battery as possible.
I also heard something about the motherboard possibly having a hardware fault in it causing excess discharge... But... I will need to do a little more searching to see if I can figure this out for you!
The other possiblity is that you get a power bank... But that just adds to what you have to pack around, so this is probably another last resort, but it's all up to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried battery stat reset at every charge to see if that helped....
but no friggin help...
Prolly it's the motherboard fault.....
coz I even reverted back to touchwiz launcher with juz icons and stock rom and now dat's juz the limit...
the phone looks like a crippled giant....
capable of everything but is chained by the bloody harware problem...
gonna give it to the Samsung Service center....:/
NiiSyth said:
I tried battery stat reset at every charge to see if that helped....
but no friggin help...
Prolly it's the motherboard fault.....
coz I even reverted back to touchwiz launcher with juz icons and stock rom and now dat's juz the limit...
the phone looks like a crippled giant....
capable of everything but is chained by the bloody harware problem...
gonna give it to the Samsung Service center....:/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably the best thing to do! Sorry I couldn't be any help to you, so it's probably best if you do that. I love my Ace, but the battery just has to hold it back
It sucks, but anyway, I hope you can get it fixed!:fingers-crossed:
Guys i face the same problem. My battery stays only for 1 to 2 hour. I tried wiping battery stats, full discharge and charge but of on use
Need some help guys.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda app-developers app
This may be a common reply.. But I still would recommend using juice defender ultimate.. It helps a LOT!!
Sent from my GT-S5830i
Sent from my GT-S5830i

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