• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Battery Drainage Experience - And Fix

robo21

robo21

Android Expert
Since receiving a (brand new) warranty replacement (mfg date 10/20/10) I have been enjoying the Vibrant like never before. I was surprised and dismayed when, all of a sudden, it began draining battery power like crazy.

I checked the task manager, nothing was running. I went into Startup Auditor and disabled the usual suspects all to no avail.

And I don't mean subtle battery drainage, I mean 10-15% per hour! It was so bad the phone would be warm while idling.

All I did was a soft reset and bingo: The battery drains a minimal amount again. So if you suddenly experience a dramatic increase in battery usage try a soft reset before anything else. It's fast, easy and may be the cure.
 
Any other tricks up your sleeve, Robo? Because the soft reset is not fixing the battery drain problem on my Vibrant. And the battery completely drains in 5-6 hrs max with little to no use of the phone.

The battery life was ok up until the TMobile craptastic fix for the GPS which spelt death knell for battery life.

On a completely different note, is this phone getting any kind of updates like Froyo or Gingerbread anytime soon or are we all stuck with Android Twinkie 2.1, a really f'ed up version of Android 2.1?
 
robo21 said:
Since receiving a (brand new) warranty replacement (mfg date 10/20/10) I have been enjoying the Vibrant like never before.
Click to expand...


I also got a replacement last week in fact! and to be honest it is working like a charm! and id almost swear the battery life is better than before...and this time with oclf the thing is a screamer! omg so fast a million times better than the old one...

and since they dont give you a new battery now... it has to be the phone...cuz i have the old battery... [ the reason they dont send the battery is because of 9-11 tsa crap] you have to be a certified hazardous materials shipper with ups and that costs big big bucks... shipping the new phones by freight line avoids that cost...but i digress...


n e ways the replacement I got is 10-12

enjoy :)
 
PinkFloyd said:
Any other tricks up your sleeve, Robo? Because the soft reset is not fixing the battery drain problem on my Vibrant. And the battery completely drains in 5-6 hrs max with little to no use of the phone.

The battery life was ok up until the TMobile craptastic fix for the GPS which spelt death knell for battery life.
Click to expand...

Some say a factory reset helps the post JI6 update battery drainage issue. The other thing that makes a huge difference, if you are in a weak 3G area, is turning off 3G. If you are in a spotty area for 3G the phone will continuously "seek" a tower which will suck the life out of your battery.
 
PlowRox said:
I also got a replacement last week in fact! and to be honest it is working like a charm! and id almost swear the battery life is better than before...and this time with oclf the thing is a screamer! omg so fast a million times better than the old one...

and since they dont give you a new battery now... it has to be the phone...cuz i have the old battery... [ the reason they dont send the battery is because of 9-11 tsa crap] you have to be a certified hazardous materials shipper with ups and that costs big big bucks... shipping the new phones by freight line avoids that cost...but i digress...


n e ways the replacement I got is 10-12

enjoy :)
Click to expand...

It's like a different phone! I know exactly what you mean... :D
 
Soft reset didn't work for me either. I actually purchased 3 replacement batteries and a wall charger on Ebay for about 2 bucks a piece. I keep them charged and usually carry an extra. My battery life absolutely sucks. I get about 8 hours per battery with normal usage. That's with me disabling my wireless when not in use. Blutooth and GPS are almost always off.

I wish more phones would adopt the Garminfone car dock concept. If you haven't seen it, it's awesome. You put your phone on the dock, and the dock itself charges the phone without plugging in any wires. The phone and dock have charging contacts. The phone also goes straight into car mode (speaker phone, GPS mode, voice activations).
 
flywatt said:
Soft reset didn't work for me either. I actually purchased 3 replacement batteries and a wall charger on Ebay for about 2 bucks a piece. I keep them charged and usually carry an extra. My battery life absolutely sucks. I get about 8 hours per battery with normal usage. That's with me disabling my wireless when not in use. Blutooth and GPS are almost always off.

I wish more phones would adopt the Garminfone car dock concept. If you haven't seen it, it's awesome. You put your phone on the dock, and the dock itself charges the phone without plugging in any wires. The phone and dock have charging contacts. The phone also goes straight into car mode (speaker phone, GPS mode, voice activations).
Click to expand...

This variation in battery consumption from phone to phone boggles my mind. Since the soft reset (and before the problem suddenly occurred) I might burn through 20-40% during my 8-10 hour workday depending on usage. GPS, Bluetooth, and email sync every 5 minutes all on, maybe a dozen 1-2 minute phone calls, a couple text messages, occasional GPS usage. Average about 25% for the business day starting with a full charge.

When this problem first occurred with the replacement phone it was a real shock. I tried all the tricks (except a factory reset) I knew to no avail and wanting to avoid a factory reset I then called Samsung tech support and was told to try the soft reset. Had that not worked I was told to call back and given a case number.
 
Hey Robo21

have you considered what apps you have installed and how they operate in the background?

For example, if leave my GPS on, and use an app indoors like Where or WeatherBug, they will try to access my position using the GPS. When I hit the Home button to get exit back to the home screen, they will continue in the background for however long trying to find my position or get background updates thus draining the battery.
 
laufu said:
Hey Robo21

have you considered what apps you have installed and how they operate in the background?

For example, if leave my GPS on, and use an app indoors like Where or WeatherBug, they will try to access my position using the GPS. When I hit the Home button to get exit back to the home screen, they will continue in the background for however long trying to find my position or get background updates thus draining the battery.
Click to expand...

This is a good point however I sure have considered them as possible culprits and went through all the apps with Startup Auditor looking for anything that might cause this. Since I added no new apps from when the battery didn't drain rapidly it had to be something else.

The soft reset got me back to good battery life. Idling from 8PM until 8AM with GPS, Bluetooth, and Sync all turned on the battery drained 7% overnight last night. I don't believe any apps are unduly draining the battery at this time. The one weather widget that I use must be set up with a zip code and is not GPS dependant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom