50% without signal

[OfTheDamned]

FWIW....

This is for those of you that are running one of the leaks and those of you that are new to 2.1. I decided to play around with this issue and test a few things out. Now YMMV, but this is what happened for me.

Normally, if I restart my phone I will put it in airplane mode as soon as it is finished booting. Of course I do this to avoid the dreaded 50% without signal that we have all come to know and love.

Recently, however, I have been trying things with and without the airplane mode trick to resolve the issue.

A week ago, I restarted the phone and did not do the airplane trick. 50% w/o signal bug appeared immediately. I ignored it and went about my day. After 24 hrs Up time the 50% was still there, but I was not noticing any real difference in my battery. I do use the phone quite heavily and I typically have to put it on a charger during the day no matter what. After 32 hrs of up time, I went back and checked. To my surprise, the 50% was gone and cell Stanly had returned to a pretty normal percentage. Still no real difference in battery life.

I restarted my phone and tried it again. Did everything the same as above and when I checked around 28 hr mark, the 50% was a again gone.

As I said, YMMV and I think people should test it out and see how it works for them, but for me it isn't an issue anymore.

 

[alprazolam]

Thanks OTD...I haven't been bothering to change it either and I've not noticed adverse effects on my battery life. Also, FWIW...checked my girlfriend's moto droid, hers says 50% as well.

 

[spider87]

What exactly is the 50% without signal error?

 

[OfTheDamned]

On a 2.1 phone you go to Settings > About phone > Battery > Battery Use > Cell Standby and look at the use details. If you see something there that says time without signal 50%, that is the bug people are talking about.

 

[spider87]

Does it actually make a difference or is it just agitating to look at?

 

[OfTheDamned]

There have been plenty of theories on what causes it and what it actually does. In the beginning, probably because we were all on our phones 24/7, it was thought that this bug was burning up our battery faster because the system "believed" it was getting insufficient signal that it would work harder to find proper signal. This would then use more juice and kill the battery faster. This is where the whole airplane mode trick came from and why people do it. A few of us have been wondering if it is really necessary anymore and I figured I would test a little. I expected it to just not do anything, didn't expect it to go away completely. I does make sense though.

 

[spider87]

That's strange. I know we've been bugging verizon and htc for this update forever but it almost seems like they just caved to the pressure and released a version that wasn't properly fixed. Kind of disappointing but I'm still excited. I've been having repeated issues receiving picture messages so I'm hoping 2.1 addresses that... My fingers are crossed at least haha.

Thanks for your help.

 

[tproctor]

I just did the download OTA upgrade and mine is at 25%. Of course, I haven't put my phone down since I did it.

 

[fmadrigal]

i know some have it worse then others.

For instance, i charge my battery 100% pull it from the charger, restart...and within 7/10 minutes my battery goes to 85/90%. (my task killer takes out running apps after 10 seconds from reboot)

Does charging the phone while it's on compared to charging it while it's off make any difference in the matter?

 

[tgulch22]

Yeah i think this bug does cause some battery issues..My gf has a moto droid and ever since she got her OTA her battery life has been terrible...i finally got around to checking and she has the 50% bug also..looks like the official 2.1 has the same bug as the leaks

 

[mdeblaz]

I tried something new this morning regarding the 50% issue and I do think it zaps your battery at first.

After a full charge and rebooting, I do the Airplane mode trick and then you see the 50% going down slowly. Along with this, you'll notice that your battery is already down 1 notch after being on for what, a minute? So I plugged the phone back in.. and it took about 10-15 minutes to get back to a full charge. When you unplug the charger, the line for the 50% issue is gone

Now, my phone is still at 100% after 3 hours of moderate use - 2 calls, camera, some browsing...

Usually the 50% comes back after a reboot

 

[lennyjew]

I haven't noticed any significant battery drainage between days I do the airplane mode trick and days that I don't and get the 50% time without signal.

I stopped doing the airplane mode now and it's fine.

 

[edgeupgx]

I personally think the signal does drain the battery I have a fairly new battery like 2-3 weeks old and the other day with the phone in my pocket for most of the day it had burned around 30% of the battery with the cell standy by being at 96% usage. When I do the airplane trick after a reboot I have no issues with battery drain while not using the phone.

 

[fmadrigal]

I tried something new this morning regarding the 50% issue and I do think it zaps your battery at first.

After a full charge and rebooting, I do the Airplane mode trick and then you see the 50% going down slowly. Along with this, you'll notice that your battery is already down 1 notch after being on for what, a minute? So I plugged the phone back in.. and it took about 10-15 minutes to get back to a full charge. When you unplug the charger, the line for the 50% issue is gone

Now, my phone is still at 100% after 3 hours of moderate use - 2 calls, camera, some browsing...

Usually the 50% comes back after a reboot

After you charge it the 2nd time around do you reboot?

 

[mdeblaz]

After you charge it the 2nd time around do you reboot?

No reboot after the 2nd charge.

 

[fmadrigal]

My process is a little different. I Charge 100% and while the cord is still plugged I place the phone in airplane mode for 1 minute or until the screen blacks out.

Then I take the airplane mode off and pull the charger from the phone and it's done. No more 50%...

 

[txeris]

I've had the OTA a couple days (from 1.5). My battery life seems noticeably shorter.

Up Time: 40:20:56
Awake Time: 32:52:56

Cell Standby: 58%
Time w/o signal: 50%

This seems wrong. Is non-awake time when the screen is black? If so, then it's been non-awake a LOT more than 8 hours. What gives?

 

[sawah]

Just to let you know, Verizon will send you a replacement phone for the time without a signal problem. I'm getting my mine on Monday. The airplane trick works, but it's not very convenient to have to do that. Not to mention the dialer lag and my phone now has a wierd spot on the side where the camera just randomly comes on when you touch it wrong. However, they are replacing it purely on the fact that time without a signal eats my battery.

The gentleman I got at tech support was awesome. I wish Verizon had more people like him. I'm definitely going to send them an email and give him mucho kudos.

 

[surgeon0214]

On leak 2 v2 i noticed no change in battery life from 1.5 but leak 3 I have DRASTICALLY LESS BATTERY! I have to plug it in after 10 hours of standby and gentle use (checking time in school, the occasional txt, etc.) I checked and I have the 50% bug on v3 and I didnt have it on v2. Anybody else experiencing this?

 

[gpa111]

I have it now on the manual ota download.

 

[QuasiNerd]

I feel like I know so little about my phone....

Do a lot of people reboot after charging? I almost always leave my phone on (well, except for lately, because in my head reboot = update).

Am I destroying battery life by leaving it up all the time? I can't really turn it off at night because I get calls from my job at all hours

Thanks in advance.

 

[tonyb81]

12hrs deep after a full charge and reboot, still 50% without signal.

 

[jlrosell]

Well as I have already said, I do have the bug. But all I am worried about is battery life. I do not care to go through all those menus and continuously monitor to see if the % ever changes. As long as my batter life is still as good as 1.5 Im happy.
So with that said....
I dont remember what time I did the update. Sometime this afternoon. My phone was somewhere around 70% at the time. It definitely absolutely flew down extremely quickly, but I felt it was because of downloading new 2.1 apps, setting things back the way I liked them etc. It got down to the 20s and I charged it to full. I have not tried anything with airplane mode. I wanted to see whether if causes me problems first, and only then would I look for a fix.
So...took it off the charger at 8pm, and by 8:01 it was already down to 99%.
However, it has stayed there for over an hour now. Im thinking this is looking pretty good, and I really dont care about what this little %age meter says somewhere where I never even plan to look in my phone anyway.
So far so good imo.

 

[Hercules]

I have been on OTA for about 24 hours now and have the 50% bug but my battery is still above 90% (Came off the charger about 8 hours ago). Battery life is great on 2.1. I don't think the 50% bug means anything.

 

[jlrosell]

I have been on OTA for about 24 hours now and have the 50% bug but my battery is still above 90% (Came off the charger about 8 hours ago). Battery life is great on 2.1. I don't think the 50% bug means anything.

Interesting. Wonder whats killing mine like this?
Maybe once I have it for a day or 2 it will be back to normal as well. That is what I am hoping.
I used to get 2 days consistently out of this phone. Sometimes even 3. And that is with use! Im not a heavy user obviously. But this is even more surprising being that I have used my phone absolutely not at all in the last 3 hours.
With this post I rechecked my battery life, and its at 93. Weird, Seems to hold steady a bit, then plummet, then hold, then drop again.
Im still guessing that it is just my battery widget learning how to read what is going on in the phone. I know they get more accurate over time.
LOL by the time I am about to submit this post, it is at 92.