Help Different wifi networks drain battery differently??

[wkupike2000]

I started using Wifi exclusively at home and my office after reading about the benefits on here. I noticed a TREMENDOUS increase in battery life. But when I'm on Wifi at my gf's parents house, the battery drain isn't even about the same as 3G it seems like it is MUCH worse. What could be causing this?

The signal strength is often better at this locaton than home/office so that shouldn't be the problem.

 

[Howie]

frequency? N vs G ?

 

[wkupike2000]

Well I thought about that but office & home are N and G so you'd think the difference would be there. But at those locations the battery life is tremendous. When at the gf's house which is also G like my home, the battery lasts about half the time. It makes no sense.

 

[zemerick]

Well I thought about that but office & home are N and G so you'd think the difference would be there. But at those locations the battery life is tremendous. When at the gf's house which is also G like my home, the battery lasts about half the time. It makes no sense.

I believe N should use less power. Also, at the GFs it is possible that while you have a stronger signal, there is also more noise. Check out the app Wifi Analyzer and you can see how many other WAPs are running on various channels where you are. Perhaps changing to a different and less used channel will help.

 

[wkupike2000]

Thanks. I've used Wifi analyzer before but never thought it might affect battery drain just signal quality. I'll check that out. I've went ahead and just stuck with 3G while I'm here this weekend. Yesterday off the charger at 8 am and battery was at 10% by 1 p.m. with average usage to check some emails, check twitter, and check Facebook. That's just absurd.

 

[wkupike2000]

Still no luck, changing Wifi channels didn't help. But got home last night and phone dropped only 11% from 8 p.m. to 8 am this morning on that Wifi. So I'm still baffled.

 

[SteveNYC]

So something to consider....

When you talk reception, let's be really specific...

When you are at your GF's place and you say signal strength is great, are you talking about the WiFi signal strength or your cellular signal strength at her place?

The reason I ask is this....

If the cellular reception in your GF's place is weak but the WiFi reception is great, you would still have a big drain on the battery. Keeping that cellular signal available in a low coverage area will still eat away at the battery, regardless of the WiFi reception.

You might have already meant that, but I just wanted to check because the message thread was a little unclear.

Good luck.

 

[wkupike2000]

I was referring to Wifi reception but both are great actually. I was there from Thursday to Monday and once I turned off Wifi my battery life went up tremendously. That makes no sense as it's always been about 25-35% better when I use Wifi.

This only started happening after Froyo update. Work and home still remain that way when using Wifi so it's only at the gf's house.

 

[jaymf]

I know this is a really old thread, but I've been having the same issue for a long time and finally got urged enough by slower data speed to search more and found this thread. Similar problem - connected to wifi, battery drains within hours even without much use. Not connected, will at least last all day like normal. All other phones that connect to the same network don't have the problem, and it's the only wifi network that I've ever connected to with my phone that gives me this problem. Tried different wifi channels, didn't help. The only thing that is different that I can figure is that on this one we use MAC address filtering rather than a password on the network. There are a lot of other wifi networks around, but I always stay connected to the correct one.

Has anyone come across anything that would help me find a solution?

edit: I've had the problem after froyo as well, was hoping GB would fix it but didn't happen (and I'm still not rooted).