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Help Task Killer or No?

I have made a thread regarding this very app, I love ATK, it has saved my battery. Then again I have it setup to do more then it usually does for the normal user...
 
I ran a task killer for a few days after I got my X, then uninstalled it and been using it that way since.

I feel my battery life is actually better without it, but it could be just my battery is calibrated and what not now after a few full discharge/charge cycles. In all honesty, I didn't notice ANY performance difference with a task killer compared to without, but maybe thats because I only use a couple apps and do not play with my phone 24/7....
 
No difference for me whether I have ATK or not for my battery. I sent all of yesterday and half of today, and don't see a difference. If ATK is a battery killer, then I have bigger things to worry about if apps are draining my battery. As it is, my battery has already gone through a good amount of cycles from a full drain to a full charge, so it is nice and healthy. I'll probably reinstall ATK tomorrow since I do like to force close apps that are buggy.
 
It doesn't seem.. It is helping.. You are not getting my point, it helps for me and others, who cares if it maybe "short term"(Which I doubt by the way) The phone is less then a month old and I doubt anyone would have data to back it up that it is only a short term helper for our phone.

I may come off like an asshole, but I don't beat around the bush, carefully wording my posts to not hurt peoples feelings.
 
What do you expect people to do then? Just let their batteries die with in hours being off the charger? I don't see logic behind NOT using something that helps...

If your cell phone battery is dying within hours of being unplugged, maybe you have something else that is screwing up your charge? Maybe the GPS bug that leave GPS enabled and tracking after you close down the app that needed it (this bug alone dropped my phone from 100% to 50% in 3 hours before I found out about it)?

In the past 7 hours of checking and sending a few emails and playing a small game for a few minutes, my battery has dropped from 50% to 40%. I do not use a task killer and unless I have an app go out of control I probably never will, I tried an task killer for a few days and my battery usage did not change at all. Task killers on the Droid X are completely useless in my experience UNLESS a task goes out of whack.....
 
If your cell phone battery is dying within hours of being unplugged, maybe you have something else that is screwing up your charge? Maybe the GPS bug that leave GPS enabled and tracking after you close down the app that needed it?

In the past 7 hours of checking and sending a few emails and playing a small game for a few minutes, my battery has dropped from 50% to 40%. I do not use a task killer and unless I have an app go out of control I probably never will, I tried an task killer for a few days and my battery usage did not change at all. Task killers on the Droid X are completely useless in my experience UNLESS a task goes out of whack.....

Everything is off except Syncing(Or what ever that little logo is with the two arrows, everything else is off)
 
How long does a full charge last with light usage? I went around 20 hours on accident with light usage (a few texts and emails every few hours, a couple calls, some web browsing, and some light games) because I forgot to charge it.....made it home that night with around 40% left still.

If your phone dies in 8 hours of light usage, I think you need to go to Verizon and tell them you have a messed up battery.....
 
you shouldn't have to have everything off. I always run my phones with wifi on all the time, sync on all the time. I do turn off window animations, I don't allow weather or time apps access to gps, i turn my brightness down to about 30 percent. I have never run with a task killer, and I have never had battery issues (even with the eris which everyone knows had a POS battery) I keep my app count down, and if I notice something running when I haven't asked it too, well I get rid of it and find an app that does the same things only better without killing my battery. I back out of apps or use a dedicated exit option in the app itself. I don't put alot of widgets on my homescreen (they have to keep a constant connection open to keep there info up to date)

Think of it like this. If your house isn't keeping cool/warm do you buy more fans or heaters to combat the problem or do you find out where you are loosing air/heat and fix the problem that way?
 
How long does a full charge last with light usage? I went around 20 hours on accident with light usage (a few texts and emails every few hours, a couple calls, some web browsing, and some light games) because I forgot to charge it.....made it home that night with around 40% left still.

If your phone dies in 8 hours of light usage, I think you need to go to Verizon and tell them you have a messed up battery.....

If you look around you will see that I have my settings in ATK set to kill when phone is off, My phone used to last anywhere from 5-8 hours down to 4-6 hours, and now with ATK installed I got 3 days of minimal usage out of it, Reason behind such a long time between charging was because I got married over this last weekend and forgot my charger and used it off and on for the 3 days out of the city.
 
If you look around you will see that I have my settings in ATK set to kill when phone is off, My phone used to last anywhere from 5-8 hours down to 4-6 hours, and now with ATK installed I got 3 days of minimal usage out of it, Reason behind such a long time between charging was because I got married over this last weekend and forgot my charger and used it off and on for the 3 days out of the city.

If you haven't used it for 3 days, how can you make any assumptions as to how much better it runs with ATK? I hope we are all taking this a civil debate here and not personally. I like discussing things like this because I think both sides learn something. I try to share what information I have and I'm always willing to listen to others opinions. I've been proven wrong on many occasions on here and I am always quick to admit it when it happens. Congratulations on getting married Btw. I've been hitched for almost 4 years now. Best decision of my life!
 
How long does a full charge last with light usage? I went around 20 hours on accident with light usage (a few texts and emails every few hours, a couple calls, some web browsing, and some light games) because I forgot to charge it.....made it home that night with around 40% left still.

If your phone dies in 8 hours of light usage, I think you need to go to Verizon and tell them you have a messed up battery.....

I can go maybe 10-12 hours with light to moderate use, but I have to constantly watch what I'm doing so I don't kill it before I get to a charger. The only apps I have that should require any constant updates, other than my emails on a 1 hour fetch interval, are ESPN and weatherbug. I don't download rogue apps that I've never heard of or weren't recommended by someone, or come from reputable places (Yelp, DirecTV, etc). If their apps are sucking my battery, I'll drop 'em like a bad habit. I may get the osmoniter someone mentioned to see what apps are sucking juice. I would rather lose the ATK, but if I see it helping, it's staying. What kills me is the folks who claim to use the hell out of the phone and get like 2 days worth...that just ain't right, man!
 
HalfFrozen, it honestly sounds like you have a bad battery, have you tried exchanging it? Even with GPS constantly running (that is, the bug which causes GPS to continue tracking your location after you use an app that accessed your GPS but have already close that app) I could get around 6 hours of light usage out of mine.

As I said, in the last 7 hours of light usage (a few emails and some light games) my battery has only lost 10% charge......thats with my battery set to Smart Mode and leaving my 3G on all the time, and without using a task killer.
 
you shouldn't have to have everything off. I always run my phones with wifi on all the time, sync on all the time. I do turn off window animations, I don't allow weather or time apps access to gps, i turn my brightness down to about 30 percent. I have never run with a task killer, and I have never had battery issues (even with the eris which everyone knows had a POS battery) I keep my app count down, and if I notice something running when I haven't asked it too, well I get rid of it and find an app that does the same things only better without killing my battery. I back out of apps or use a dedicated exit option in the app itself. I don't put alot of widgets on my homescreen (they have to keep a constant connection open to keep there info up to date)

Think of it like this. If your house isn't keeping cool/warm do you buy more fans or heaters to combat the problem or do you find out where you are loosing air/heat and fix the problem that way?


I don't use WiFi though, my browsing and connection is perfectly fine in my 'local' area of use.

I don't need the brightness, my phone looks perfectly fine with it off.

I have quite a few widgets on my home screen, but I use them all.

Like you said about the Eris, tons of bad batteries, and maybe you are just able to always get a good one, who knows.

Also, if my houses AC unit is the cause of bad A/C then I would get a new one, but I wouldn't just live with out A/C... I would use a fan to keep me cool in the mean time, a very nice fan at that.
 
I can go maybe 10-12 hours with light to moderate use, but I have to constantly watch what I'm doing so I don't kill it before I get to a charger. The only apps I have that should require any constant updates, other than my emails on a 1 hour fetch interval, are ESPN and weatherbug. I don't download rogue apps that I've never heard of or weren't recommended by someone, or come from reputable places (Yelp, DirecTV, etc). If their apps are sucking my battery, I'll drop 'em like a bad habit. I may get the osmoniter someone mentioned to see what apps are sucking juice. I would rather lose the ATK, but if I see it helping, it's staying. What kills me is the folks who claim to use the hell out of the phone and get like 2 days worth...that just ain't right, man!

If its really worth it to you to find out what is going on (bad battery? rogue app?) you might try a factory reset and redownload one or two apps at a time and see if and when you start to notice the battery life starting to suck. It will eliminate the possibility of a bad battery right off the bat, and shouldn't take long to find the app culprit either. Depending of course on how many apps you have.
 
HalfFrozen, it honestly sounds like you have a bad battery, have you tried exchanging it? Even with GPS constantly running (that is, the bug which causes GPS to continue tracking your location after you use an app that accessed your GPS but have already close that app) I could get around 6 hours of light usage out of mine.

As I said, in the last 7 hours of light usage (a few emails and some light games) my battery has only lost 10% charge......thats with my battery set to Smart Mode and leaving my 3G on all the time, and without using a task killer.

What kind of apps do you have? And how many?

I have said, it is lasting 3 days now... ;)
 
I don't use WiFi though, my browsing and connection is perfectly fine in my 'local' area of use.

I don't need the brightness, my phone looks perfectly fine with it off.

I have quite a few widgets on my home screen, but I use them all.

Like you said about the Eris, tons of bad batteries, and maybe you are just able to always get a good one, who knows.

Also, if my houses AC unit is the cause of bad A/C then I would get a new one, but I wouldn't just live with out A/C... I would use a fan to keep me cool in the mean time, a very nice fan at that.

right, the point being the fan would be a temporary solution. And in your case I can understand you maybe using one until you find the problem, but I would try what I suggested in the post above. You would know right away if its a bad battery. and widgets like photo gallery and music player are ok, news widgets, espn or scoreboard apps, however are a drain on the battery. It doesn't mean that they are a bad app, but if you using the widget and using a task killer your not really utilizing the widget because you keep killing off its update services. Either that or your wasting battery running the widget the killing it off just to have it open up again after a few minutes. Thats the cycle of task killers, which is why I consider them pointless.
 
Well I have been looking at my CPU usage stats from an app mentioned in my other thread and ATK isn't anywhere near the top for me...
 
I wouldn't think it would be. task killers themselves aren't battery killers. its the constant killing of processes that the system wasn't quite ready to be killed yet and the respawning of said processes after the kill that drains the battery.
 
What kind of apps do you have? And how many?

I have said, it is lasting 3 days now... ;)

Weatherbug (widget also on desktop) with GPS MyLocation disabled
Digital Clock Widget
Verizon Data widget
Astrid
xScope Lite
K-9 Mail
handyCalc and Formulas
Transdroid
Timeriffic
JuiceDefender (disabled)
Barcode Scanner
Traffic Jam
Memory Trainer
GPS Status
Battery Indicator
AppBrain
LauncherPro

All free versions (if a paid version of it exists), the rest are the stock Droid X apps.

I have K-9 setup to use IMAP/Push with a 12 minute idle connection refresh.

I keep Sync enabled and use a low brightness (low as the slider will go) when indoors and the stock Power Control widget to change it when I go outdoors.

I also have all animations and what not enabled in LP, including the memory usage being set to high.
 
I wouldn't think it would be. task killers themselves aren't battery killers. its the constant killing of processes that the system wasn't quite ready to be killed yet and the respawning of said processes after the kill that drains the battery.

I guess I am not really following the fact of it draining battery because mine isn't. It is saving my battery to ridiculous measures.
 
like you said, you babied it for 3 days because you forgot your charger. I'm just saying give it a week or so using atk with NORMAL usage and I think you realize that it was maybe that and not atk that was saving your battery
 
If its really worth it to you to find out what is going on (bad battery? rogue app?) you might try a factory reset and redownload one or two apps at a time and see if and when you start to notice the battery life starting to suck. It will eliminate the possibility of a bad battery right off the bat, and shouldn't take long to find the app culprit either. Depending of course on how many apps you have.

So if I paid for an app and uninstall it, would I be able to get it back without having to pay for it again? I would rather not do a factory reset. It took me forever to customize it the way I like and I don't want to have to do it all over again. If I uninstall apps and reinstall them one by one, I may be able to find one that's gone astray. I doubt that's the case because I don't see anything out of the ordinary running, either in "running services" or the ATK list.

If anyone knows enough about the apps out there, here is my list. Let me know if you see anything I should dump because of known issues, either battery drain or otherwise. THANKS!
 
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