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Desire battery consumption

I've had my Desire for about 2 months now and am generally happy with the battery life I get. Seems to be about the same pre & post FroYo ( was on stock before and after)

As far as I can tell, the main cause of battery draining for me has nothing to do with the phone or Android at all.

I find that when I'm at home with a full HSDPA (3G) signal I can go easily 11+ hours and only use about 10 - 15% battery with conservative usage and with some wifi and stuff thrown in its only about 25 - 30%.

However when I'm at my desk at work I get a very poor HSDPA signal so my phone is flicking all day between 2G and 3G (I know this because I am on 3 and when I drop to 2G I get the little "R" for roaming on Orange. I can go through 10% battery PER HOUR with very little usage.

This is the same for all phones, the weaker the signal the harder it has to work to get a lock and maintain quality. It doesn't bother me so much because I can charge at my desk whenever and I have wifi at work.

I can recommend that if anyone is in a very weak 3G area where you go between 2G and 3G a lot it would be worth forcing 2G only (not so much for the data battery use as a lot of people claim) as it may improve you battery life significantly because it will hopefully have a good 2G signal and wont have to work as hard and constantly switch networks.

My Setup

Stock FroYo
Data on at all times during day, switched off at night
Wifi on at all times during day, switched off at night
HTC Sense Live Wallpaper
Weather widget
Today In History Widget
Gmail, Cal, Contacts Weather + Mail Syncing every hour
Auto Brightness
No Facebook\Twitter
 
vanperski said:
To update you on my Desire's battery problem, If you have read over my previous posts on this thread you will see that I have gone to great lengths to solve my abysmal standby battery life (16-18 hours) including sending the device back to HTC.

Im not sure how relevant each thing I did here is, but in the chance that it may help others experiencing the same problem I will try and be as detailed as possible about what I did -

As a change to my normal habit of having the phone running in an absolute minimal state and then charging the phone when it ran out, I decided to charge the phone at irregular intervals, once from about 30% batt on mains charger, removing it from charge before the charge light turned green, but batt meter showed full. I also then charged it from 60% using the USB charge until full and the charge light showed green. It is currently running in only '2g' mode with nothing else running (as before), but is now showing 90% batt after 7 hours off of charge, obviously after seeing this i am extremely suprised but not easily fooled either so I turned the phone off and then on again to see if it was reading correctly and it is still at 90%. Not sure what to make of this and not going to start celebrating just yet. I will update this post in a day or so and see if this continues
Click to expand...

ok its been a few weeks since ive updated - since installing android 2.2 the battery problem has immediately gone. Wheras before with next to no use it would run dry in under 20 hours, since the 2.2 update I have had a stanby time of approximately 72 hours! the phone is now cold to the touch and not slightly warm as it once was. Ive started using the HTC again now because of it and its like getting the phone for the first time again. Dont know why this has made a difference, im just glad that it has. Hope this may help people with similar issues as I had run out of ideas and resigned to the fact that i would have to charge the phone every night even if i didnt use it.
 
Battety saving tip!

I have tried everything to get longer battery, Even bought the extended battery with the bigger case on the back of the phone, It didnt even last as long as the original!!!

The best way for me and if you are willing to do so is to turn off the 3G down to GSM only and it will save your battery buy a large amount.

When you are in an area that does not have a 3G signal your phone constantly tries to find the signal and in doing this will drain the battery even when the phone is idle.

Give it a try, Hopefully you will notice the benefits i have.

Settings>
Wireless&Networks>
Mobile Networks>
Network Mode>
Then change to GSM only. DONE!
 
deanbo said:
Battety saving tip!

I have tried everything to get longer battery, Even bought the extended battery with the bigger case on the back of the phone, It didnt even last as long as the original!!!

The best way for me and if you are willing to do so is to turn off the 3G down to GSM only and it will save your battery buy a large amount.

When you are in an area that does not have a 3G signal your phone constantly tries to find the signal and in doing this will drain the battery even when the phone is idle.

Give it a try, Hopefully you will notice the benefits i have.

Settings>
Wireless&Networks>
Mobile Networks>
Network Mode>
Then change to GSM only. DONE!
Click to expand...

Same findings as my post a couple above ;)
 
I've found the mobile network is hammering my battery, despite 'always on' being disabled. Now that it has been a few weeks since FroYo was released, I'm definitely not getting the same battery life as I was with Eclair and I've got everything set up the same.
 
I noticed that since updating Facebook to v1.3.2 it's back at the top of my partial wake usage list. This was the same problem as when they launched the new look app, but was fixed in v1.3.1.
 
Proudest_Monkey said:
I find this happens to all new phones for the first few charges. It then begins to settle and the battery lasts a lot longer.

Might not be too much of a problem!
Click to expand...
I had my HTC desire for two weeks and I charged it 12 times. I use the phone a lot and my battery lasts 8 hours at a push. Battery life improved a bit since I got it but that's it!

I can switch stuff off when it's not needed etc as you folk suggest. But that's hardly a solution! What's the point of having a phone with a battery that doesn
 
debt_collector said:
I had my HTC desire for two weeks and I charged it 12 times. I use the phone a lot and my battery lasts 8 hours at a push. Battery life improved a bit since I got it but that's it!

I can switch stuff off when it's not needed etc as you folk suggest. But that's hardly a solution! What's the point of having a phone with a battery that doesn
Click to expand...
 
Wi-Fi and/or Mobile Network and draining my battery much more with FroYo than I noticed with Eclair. This is with everything set up the same.
 
debt_collector said:
I had my HTC desire for two weeks and I charged it 12 times. I use the phone a lot and my battery lasts 8 hours at a push. Battery life improved a bit since I got it but that's it!

I can switch stuff off when it's not needed etc as you folk suggest. But that's hardly a solution! What's the point of having a phone with a battery that doesn
Click to expand...
 
I got mine last Thursday, best phone ever, not to bothered about charging every day yet as I use it loads, last charged 20h 45ms ago with 5% remaining which don't seem to bad :)
 
I find that my phone usually lasts a full day (usually charge every night) now I listen to music/podcasts all day at work I'd say 4-7 hrs a day and the batter usually lasts as above. The other day though it came up with low battery warning at 13.00 so it had only been on 6 hrs! Having read through this excellent forum I found out that the phone/Android OS might be using resources while in sleep mode. So the simple solution:

Take out the battery, give it a min and pop it back in and restart.

This made my phone go back to lasting all day with no worries of having to work minus any aural stimulation.

Give it a go, it may work
 
From the dialer, punch in *#*#4636#*#*, select battery usage and then select partial awake. The app with the longest blue bar is keeping your phone awake even when the screen is off. Uninstall that app, if you don't need it or can find an alternative, and your battery life will improve dramatically. 'Hi Yahoo' was my achilles heel, ow I use the official Yahoo messenger app and I'm getting to the end of an 18hr day with between 30-50% left with moderate use.

Another thing to try is conditioning your battery. If I remember the steps correctly,
1. Charge your phone normally for 8hrs or so.
2. unplug the phone, switch it off then replug it into the charger for another hr.
3. Unplug the phone, switch it on, leave it for 2 mins then switch it off again.
4. Replug the phone to the charger while switched off for another hr.
5. Unplug the phone, switch it on and use as normal.

Good luck.
 
just a note in case anyone interested..

my phone can last roughly 2 days and a little bit more..

standard usage is a number of messaging each day, a phone call or two,
wifi market browsing for like 20 to 30 minutes at night, an hour or so of
MAD missile or zezonia gaming.. and thats it..

all in all, satisfactory battery life for me..
 
I tried the method to enhance the battery life as follows:

1. 8 hours charge with the phone tirned on
2. Turn off the phone and charge it for another two hours
3. Turn on for two minutes, the turn off and another two hours charge.

It's fabulous ! Turning all unused services off, moderate use for talking and shut down during the night I've reached 10 calendar days and it's still on "yellow light" !

Even if you have to do it each time you want this autonomy, the hassle is small compared with the benefit !:)
 
Ok ...
I'v had the phone now since May and had really bad battery life from the start.
I've read forums, downloaded application / task killers ect ect...
I am sick and tired of having a mobile phone and having to turn it off to save battery power ( whats point in having a mobile phone you have to tun off ?)
I've done all the measures before mentioned and on Saturday i left to goto a football match which takes 2 hours to get there (mobile switched off at 10:20am).
I turned it on at 2:00pm to check something and turned it off again to save battery.
I then swithced it back on after match at 5:30pm and checked web for reports ect ect for 1 hour 35 min and battery was dead.
Last night i went to bed at 2:30am with a full battery and by 7:00am the phone had died with no battery power left.
I have done lot what has been mentioned and beginning to hate this phone.

Could I have a faulty battery ??

GPS / WIFI ect ect has all been turned off. Screen light set to normal.
Sync for facebook / google ect turned off.

I am currentl recharging battery to full and will report back what i get with medium use but if it's more than 4/5 hours MAX I'd be shocked !
 
smokeygb said:
Ok ...
I'v had the phone now since May and had really bad battery life from the start.
I've read forums, downloaded application / task killers ect ect...
I am sick and tired of having a mobile phone and having to turn it off to save battery power ( whats point in having a mobile phone you have to tun off ?)
I've done all the measures before mentioned and on Saturday i left to goto a football match which takes 2 hours to get there (mobile switched off at 10:20am).
I turned it on at 2:00pm to check something and turned it off again to save battery.
I then swithced it back on after match at 5:30pm and checked web for reports ect ect for 1 hour 35 min and battery was dead.
Last night i went to bed at 2:30am with a full battery and by 7:00am the phone had died with no battery power left.
I have done lot what has been mentioned and beginning to hate this phone.

Could I have a faulty battery ??

GPS / WIFI ect ect has all been turned off. Screen light set to normal.
Sync for facebook / google ect turned off.

I am currentl recharging battery to full and will report back what i get with medium use but if it's more than 4/5 hours MAX I'd be shocked !
Click to expand...

Have you tried using GSM only?
 
smokeygb said:
Ok ...
I'v had the phone now since May and had really bad battery life from the start.
I've read forums, downloaded application / task killers ect ect...
I am sick and tired of having a mobile phone and having to turn it off to save battery power ( whats point in having a mobile phone you have to tun off ?)
I've done all the measures before mentioned and on Saturday i left to goto a football match which takes 2 hours to get there (mobile switched off at 10:20am).
I turned it on at 2:00pm to check something and turned it off again to save battery.
I then swithced it back on after match at 5:30pm and checked web for reports ect ect for 1 hour 35 min and battery was dead.
Last night i went to bed at 2:30am with a full battery and by 7:00am the phone had died with no battery power left.
I have done lot what has been mentioned and beginning to hate this phone.

Could I have a faulty battery ??

GPS / WIFI ect ect has all been turned off. Screen light set to normal.
Sync for facebook / google ect turned off.

I am currentl recharging battery to full and will report back what i get with medium use but if it's more than 4/5 hours MAX I'd be shocked !
Click to expand...

Maybe you've done all these already but have you left your phone on airplane mode and see how much battery it consumes? If your phone dies within the day, then it's definitely a battery issue and you should call HTC/carrier to get your battery replaced. If in a day you get like a few % drop, then there's an app that's pretty bad on your phone. Since you said that when the phone is not in used (from 2am to 7am) on a full charge, it's dead by 7am. This just sounds like an app was keeping the phone awake all night.

Are you using spare parts or system pannel or dialing into the phone's setting to see if you have a 'rouge app'? Task killer can help but if the app auto starts again or it's an app you use regularly, then task killer is a bit pointless.

Another thing you can try is to do a factory reset. Start fresh :) Use your phone for a couple of days without any apps download. If you're still getting bad battery life, then you can be 100% sure that it's the battery.

Hopefully you get your battery issue resolves and get to enjoy your beloved Desire!

Cheers,
Roze
 
smokeygb said:
Ok ...
I'v had the phone now since May and had really bad battery life from the start.
I've read forums, downloaded application / task killers ect ect...
I am sick and tired of having a mobile phone and having to turn it off to save battery power ( whats point in having a mobile phone you have to tun off ?)
I've done all the measures before mentioned and on Saturday i left to goto a football match which takes 2 hours to get there (mobile switched off at 10:20am).
I turned it on at 2:00pm to check something and turned it off again to save battery.
I then swithced it back on after match at 5:30pm and checked web for reports ect ect for 1 hour 35 min and battery was dead.
Last night i went to bed at 2:30am with a full battery and by 7:00am the phone had died with no battery power left.
I have done lot what has been mentioned and beginning to hate this phone.

Could I have a faulty battery ??

GPS / WIFI ect ect has all been turned off. Screen light set to normal.
Sync for facebook / google ect turned off.

I am currentl recharging battery to full and will report back what i get with medium use but if it's more than 4/5 hours MAX I'd be shocked !
Click to expand...
That's not right, when it goes from full to nothing while idling there's something wrong, as already said in the above post search through battery history to see what's been consuming it. Factory reset is the best bet to see if it's still consistent.
 
Roze said:
Maybe you've done all these already but have you left your phone on airplane mode and see how much battery it consumes? If your phone dies within the day, then it's definitely a battery issue and you should call HTC/carrier to get your battery replaced. If in a day you get like a few % drop, then there's an app that's pretty bad on your phone. Since you said that when the phone is not in used (from 2am to 7am) on a full charge, it's dead by 7am. This just sounds like an app was keeping the phone awake all night.

Are you using spare parts or system pannel or dialing into the phone's setting to see if you have a 'rouge app'? Task killer can help but if the app auto starts again or it's an app you use regularly, then task killer is a bit pointless.

Another thing you can try is to do a factory reset. Start fresh :) Use your phone for a couple of days without any apps download. If you're still getting bad battery life, then you can be 100% sure that it's the battery.

Hopefully you get your battery issue resolves and get to enjoy your beloved Desire!

Cheers,
Roze
Click to expand...

Where do i find a phone number for UK to report this if I have to ?
I have now put phone on fully charge and start it, see ow long it takes to run out.
 
Currently 2hrs 28 min and have 55% left.
Mediaserver 46%
Cell standby 25%
Phone idle 24%
Androis system 5%

Ive been on web for max 5 mins and thats all.
 
smokeygb said:
Currently 2hrs 28 min and have 55% left.
Mediaserver 46%
Cell standby 25%
Phone idle 24%
Androis system 5%

Ive been on web for max 5 mins and thats all.
Click to expand...

Cell Stanby/Phone Idle seems like the phone is working really hard to connect to your network.

Have you been listening to music or watching videos for the past 2.5 hours as Mediaserver is WAY TOO high if you're not! This might be the culprit and you might want to investigate this.
 
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