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Help Android OS & suspend process eating my battery

So far I've deleted over 30 apps. Each time it takes a bit longer for suspend to pop to the top of the list. I'm about ready to call it quits, do a factory reset and reinstall my apps.

Another problem popped up since yesterday. Gmail is no longer pushing new email to my phone. I have to manually sync it although it is set to automatically sync. Background data is on in case that makes a difference. Same thing happened several months ago when my HTC Incredible got a sytem update. Many people reported this at the time. Eventually it seems to have fixed itself.
 
I also used Titanium Backup to freeze the following crud. It's known anything Yahoo related that gets frozen/removed will mess up your contacts somehow. But so far, I haven't had any issues with after freezing these, but I make no guarantees this won't mess something up in your phone!!:

  1. Apps 2.00.97
  2. Backup Assistant+ Media
  3. Demo Mode
  4. Device Setup
  5. Facebook Authenticator
  6. FixedEmailAuthenticator
  7. Flicker Authenticator
  8. GoToMeeting
  9. Guided Tours
  10. Help Center
  11. Home Screen tips
  12. IM
  13. IM Presence
  14. LastFM Authenticator
  15. LinkedIn Authenticator
  16. Mobile Hotspot
  17. MOG
  18. Motoactive
  19. MS Exchange Service
  20. MusicStore
  21. net.jupiter.junos.pulse.placeholder
  22. NewBayService
  23. NewBayServiceClient
  24. News
  25. Orkut Authenticator
  26. Photobucket Authenticator
  27. Picasa Authenticator
  28. Print to Retail
  29. Setup
  30. Setup Wizard
  31. SetupSettings
  32. Skyrock Authenticator
  33. Slacker Radio
  34. Slingbox
  35. Smart Actions
  36. Smart Dock
  37. Social Location
  38. Social Messaging
  39. Social Messaging Service
  40. Social Networking
  41. Social Sharing
  42. Social Status
  43. Sticky Note
  44. Suggestions
  45. Suggestions Core R...cker Services
  46. Suggestions Poll SC...duler Services
  47. Swype
  48. Talk 1.3
  49. Tasks
  50. Twitter Authenticator
  51. VCast Tones
  52. Verzon Location Agent
  53. Verizon SSO engine
  54. Verizon Video
  55. VZ Navigator
  56. Weather
  57. Webtop
  58. Webtop Connector
  59. Work Contacts
  60. World Clock
  61. ZumoService
 
Good stuff guys. I'm following this thread for a client with the same problem. My DRM has great battery life...but I have very few non-native apps loaded.

Don

PS: I too have read that the problem is directly related to an issue with android kernel 2.6.35.
 
Good news/bad news update.

Bad news: the new OTA is on the same kernel so hoping for that to fix this is done with http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-razr-maxx/533934-6-12-181-update.html#post4275626

Good news: I am working with the developer of BetterBatteryStats on XDA who seems to know what he's talking about on these kinds of things. His latest app update has a bug preventing me from providing a log, but once he fixes it, I will have him analyze my phone's log to look at my issue and let you know what I hear.
 
mahers said:
Good news/bad news update.

Bad news: the new OTA is on the same kernel so hoping for that to fix this is done with http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-razr-maxx/533934-6-12-181-update.html#post4275626

Good news: I am working with the developer of BetterBatteryStats on XDA who seems to know what he's talking about on these kinds of things. His latest app update has a bug preventing me from providing a log, but once he fixes it, I will have him analyze my phone's log to look at my issue and let you know what I hear.
Click to expand...

I would love to help with development, I will log at if needed.
 
biggiesmalls657 said:
I would love to help with development, I will log at if needed.
Click to expand...

So basically, the developer of BetterBatteryStats is on XDA. He rolls out updates to his app on there for bugs and whatnot before releasing it to the Play Store. I identified a bug in his latest build that force closes the app on the Maxx when you attempt to dump the log to a file. He said he'll work on it prior to release. I only found it by trying to get a log and told him what happened.

With that said, he looks at the file dumps folks post in the thread and analyzes them to see if he can identify the battery hog. The app is pretty slick and shows a ton of information. Unfortunately, I have no technical language skills and have very little ability to decipher what the app tells me. I am hoping he can decrypt it and let me know what to look at for a fix...fingers crossed!
 
I've been googiling this the past few days. There is a lot of discussion on this. (Search for android suspend process). It affects a lot of phones, not just the Maxx. It's been going on for a long time. I found discussion going back to 2010. I fail to understand why it has been allowed to persist all this time. It's apparently a problem in the kernel, not any one app. I guess now we can only hope that it's been fixed in ICS and that ICS gets here quickly.
 
CharlieD,

I think it's well established now, especially with all the discussions, that this is a kernel issue, but in my opinion (which doesn't mean much, I know), it must be one or more apps that aren't cooperating, otherwise, every person with a MAXX would see this issue. By looking at some other comments in the forum, it's clear, that is not the case. Folks are getting 1.5 to 3 days on their MAXX. If I get through the day, I'm happy, but I don't stream music, videos or anything else. I use my phone minimally at best, but for the sake of argument, let's say I am a moderate user. There are several comments of folks streaming Pandora all day (or at least several hours), and YouTube and/or movies for a couple of hours, and yet, they end the day at 50% or above. If I leave work with 50%, it's rare, and MOST of the time, it just sits on my desk untouched. WTF!?!?!?

I have yet to hear back about my BBS stats, but I posted another file dump today to see if I can get someone to look at it.

You see any difference after the OTA and your factory reset? I may, and that's real iffy at this point, unroot and do a fresh reset and then add only one app per day. I have over 100, but I definitely don't need all of them on a daily basis. From the monitoring apps I have, there are several that don't register on the phone, so those can be added without concern...I think!
 
mahers said:
CharlieD,

I have yet to hear back about my BBS stats, but I posted another file dump today to see if I can get someone to look at it.

You see any difference after the OTA and your factory reset? I may, and that's real iffy at this point, unroot and do a fresh reset and then add only one app per day. I have over 100, but I definitely don't need all of them on a daily basis. From the monitoring apps I have, there are several that don't register on the phone, so those can be added without concern...I think!
Click to expand...

No difference after a factory reset. After I did that I loaded only appbrain and watchdog. Still had the problem I'm wondering if it's some setting or combination of settings on the phone itself. ICS can't come fast enough. I'd prefer not to root the phone and install ICS now as others have done. I'd like to keep it stock, although given my job as a *nix sys admin, it's not something I'd shy away from.

Looking forward to hearing what you find out from your BBS logs.
 
Very interesting, indeed, my friend.

If you wouldn't mind, I think it would be VERY valuable for you to post that on the Moto Owner Forum in my thread I started over there. The "Moto Experts" basically saw I was rooted and used that as an excuse to stop helping me, but if you add that you are not and never were rooted and that you did the reset after the OTA with only two apps installed, yet still see the issuse, maybe they can jump in and give a suggestion. Iit never crossed my mind it could be a phone setting. Again, you and I can't be the only ones that have the "wrong" setting causing this...can we? LOL!

If you haven't already registered, here's the link
 
Hey All, over the past few days, I've noticed Watchdog hasn't been set off with the suspend process going sky high. It still appears as a top battery suck, but not nearly as much as before. I think it has to do with the removal of Avast. Just an fyi.
 
Ok, so updated info after getting my new repalcement phone on Friday:

My usage on the weekends is typically a little different than during the week, as is probably the case for most folks. In any case, I didn't see any issues on Saturday after putting a select number of apps back on the phone. On Sunday, however, I reinstalled quite a few more and within a couple of hours, Watchdog screamed bloody murder because the suspend process hit 43%. No idea which app did it, so I am freezing the ones I put back on Sunday and putting them back a couple at a time to narrow it down.

Hope this helps someone else, so here's the list of apps I reinstalled on Sunday. I'm freezing them in alphabetical order to see if the issue goes away after a day or two, then trying to narrow it down from there. I eliminated several apps from my original list as I just didn't like them pulling updates for no apparent reason (CircleLauncher Light, GetJar, and some others)
Amazon (1.4.0)
Amex (2.8)
Angry Birds (2.1.1)
Angry Birds (1.4.3)
Angry Birds (2.3.0)
Angry Birds (1.1.0)
AppBrain App Market (8.01)
Asphalt 6 (1.3.3)
AudioGuru (1.27)
BART Usher (1.9)
Backgrounds (2.0.1)
BusyBox Free (7.9.1)
Camera ZOOM FX (3.5.1)
Compass (2.1.1)
Convertr (1.1.1.2)
Crossword Solver (2.2)
Dictionary (3.1)
Fandango (3.2.2)
Fast Web Installer (3.0)
Firefox (10.0.4)
Flixster (4.1.5)
Instagram (1.0.6)
Klondike (3.0)
MX Player (1.6d Rev.1)
MX Player Codec (ARMv7) (1.6d Rev.1)
Offers (1.2)
OpenTable (2.0.2)
Paper Camera (2.1)
PayPal (3.1.1.1)
Play BooksPrettyPix (1.4.4)
PriceCheck (1.1.12)
Reckless Racing HD (1.0.7)
Roadside (1.2)
Shopper (2.3)
Solitaire MegaPack (8.04)
Tapatalk (2.0.2)
Tape-a-Talk (0.9.7.6.5)
Terminal Emulator (1.0.42)
Tip Calc (2.3.2)
Ultimate Stopwatch (5.0.2)
Unlock With WiFi (2.4.8g)
Urbanspoon (2.1.8)
Volume Ace Free (2.1.3)
Wells Fargo (1.4)
Where's My Water? (1.5.0)
Wikipedia (1.1.1)
Words Cheat (5.2)
Words Free (4.83)
Yellowbook (4.5.1)
Yelp (2.9.10)
aLogcat (2.6.1)
xScope Pro (6.50)
 
I'm curious. If you go back to the state your phone was in on Saturday when you did not have all your apps installed, was the suspend process still using cpu, just not as much perhaps? My theory is that the more apps you install, the more cpu the suspend process will use. Also, on my tests, it sometime took a while (15 minutes perhaps) for the suspend process to start showing up in the list of top processes, especially when only a few apps were installed.
 
@CharlieD,

I believe you are correct. Suspend was showing up on Saturday, and the battery was no different than what I had previously, but I attributed that to the fact that the battery was on its first full charge. I was home all day yesterday with wifi on and it drained 30% from unplug to bedtime. I didn't use it a ton, but that's the kind of behavior I expected when I bought it, albeit with more usage than what I had.

I can't say for sure how much how much battery was getting drained from suspend, but I have Watchdog set to go off any time an app uses over 30% cpu. It didn't go off on Saturday, and nothing so far today. I really don't have a clue what sets it off, other than it does it when I am not using it. Is it an app updating? Is it from a combination of things/apps? It has to be something specific, I would think. I just would love to know what it is. Maybe we are stressing over nothing and ICS will fix all our issues. We shall see.
 
Quick update: I have yet to see the suspend process as high as before. I reinstalled a couple of apps yesterday, and so far so good. I actually still had 50% battery when I went to bed last night which is by far, the best it's been. The apps I reinstalled/unfroze were:
AmEx
AudioGuru (Note: this had a high number of wakelocks, so I am not using it at the moment. Dev doesn't ever reply to emails.:()
Number Guru

The apps I still have frozen that could be the guilty app causing the issue are as follows. I am highly doubtful aLogcat or any of the games are at fault. It could be AppBrain, but I believe CharlieD tested that one out and didn't see any difference.
aLogcat (2.6.1)
Angry Birds (2.1.1)
Angry Birds (1.4.3)
Angry Birds (2.3.0)
Angry Birds (1.1.0)
AppBrain App Market (8.01)
Asphalt 6 (1.3.3)

I also just reinstalled Lookout, so stay tuned
 
I have the suspend process bug on my DRM too. It just started happening a couple days ago, I've only owned the phone about 3 weeks, but now it often won't wake up when I turn the screen off. Suspend process seems to be to blame.

I can't wait for next week if the rumors are true...I've heard that Verizon is rolling out the ICS update on the 17th. We'll see. Until then, I can't get through a day without charging it, but the first 2 weeks, I'd barely go through 30% of the battery with pretty active browsing and using Pandora.
 
Forgot to mention, I'm not rooted, nor have I ever rooted this phone. I moved over from a Droid X, so I just installed all the programs from that phone onto this one.
 
Yeah, I look forward to that rumor actually panning out. I had the suspend process pop at 99.9% the other day and was like WTF!?!?!? Also, so far it didn't occur when the phone was plugged in, but the other day, I was down to 1% and within a few minutes of plugging in the charger, the suspend was back. I've upped my Watchdog alarm threshhold to 40% for system apps, so I should see it less since it's usually just under that, but knowing that it's happening is still annoying!

Btw, I don't think it's Lookout, as it is disabled atm. I've given up trying to determine what it is since it's so random. I've actually been getting decent battery life lately, but still not nearly what others claim: I stream music for 5 hours, use gps for 2, 100 texts, surf the web, blah blah blah, and go to bed at 70%...I call BS!
 
mahers said:
Yeah, I look forward to that rumor actually panning out. I had the suspend process pop at 99.9% the other day and was like WTF!?!?!? Also, so far it didn't occur when the phone was plugged in, but the other day, I was down to 1% and within a few minutes of plugging in the charger, the suspend was back. I've upped my Watchdog alarm threshhold to 40% for system apps, so I should see it less since it's usually just under that, but knowing that it's happening is still annoying!

Btw, I don't think it's Lookout, as it is disabled atm. I've given up trying to determine what it is since it's so random. I've actually been getting decent battery life lately, but still not nearly what others claim: I stream music for 5 hours, use gps for 2, 100 texts, surf the web, blah blah blah, and go to bed at 70%...I call BS!
Click to expand...

its android system process.
 
I still have this problem. In all my testing I have not found one app that causes this. we can only hope that ICS fixes this problem as it sure looks like it is a kernel problem and not an app problem.
 
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