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Root help me fix this battery issue once and for all

jpkotor said:
So when I wipe the data will I need to flash Fresh again? And this is what I did before, which is how I got to the point in the first place :/ but I guess I'll just have to do it again but bring back apps slower rather than in such large batches?
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Nope, for now, let's leave everything else the same. This will leave your ROM and kernel (whether it's stock or custom right now) alone. That's what we want. I want to see if it's any better without any other apps. That will help drill it down a bit.
 
:( i'm stuck in a loop in the fresh startup animation... should i restore the nandroid then wipe again or just reflash the rom? don't those result in the same thing?

edit: ps i already tried going back into recovery and wiping data/cache/dalvik again
 
You wiped data and you ended up in a bootloop? That's weird. Had you flashed any other mods? Go ahead and just reflash the ROM. If you flashed a custom kernel, you'll need to do it again.
 
akazabam said:
You wiped data and you ended up in a bootloop? That's weird. Had you flashed any other mods? Go ahead and just reflash the ROM. If you flashed a custom kernel, you'll need to do it again.
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I didn't flash a custom kernel, but I had flashed the mod from the UOT kitchen that puts a % on the battery meter. I flashed that as soon as I had wiped my phone the first time on like the 14th so I could see how the battery drain is doing without using system panel, setcpu, or battery monitor (to get that initial baseline)
 
i reflashed the ROM and the battery meter mod after i wiped data and cache/dalvik again and still got a boot loop... i'm going to wipe again and flash the rom without the mod and see what happens...
 
Ok so here's what I'm back to, for the second time this month.

Fresh 3.5.0.1
HTC kernel #15
UOT mod for battery meter
Google account linked
Exchange ActiveSync account linked

Only user app:
Lookout (gotta look out for this expensive battery guzzler!)

This is the config I regressed to on Feb 14th with the exception of Titanium Backup, which I reinstalled that time, but I'm leaving it off for now. With this basic setup I was getting the battery life I described in post #63, where I went a whole 24 hours without my battery dying.

Should I install anything else in the meantime, ie spare parts? osmonitor? I'm going to avoid setcpu and systempanel until I get a baseline again I guess. Then install them one at a time on separate days and see if one of them has been the culprit.


Edit:
Oh yea, baseband 2.15.00.11.19, pri 1.77_003, PRL 60675
 
Install spare parts. That is a very passive app, so it won't cause problems. Out of curiosity, have you tried *without* lookout? Oh, and what was the issue with the bootloop? How did you get out of it?
 
Not recently but my battery life was crappy before I discovered lookout, and last time I wiped data and started fresh I also immediately installed lookout (with my luck, if I go a couple days without it that'll be the first time i lose my cell phone), and after a couple charge cycles the battery was great. From my understanding lookout doesn't do much except scan once a week and I have it set for like sunday 3am.

I wiped a couple more times, flashed fresh again and it worked. then I went back into recovery and flashed my battery meter mod (from the same zip as before) and rebooted and it just worked.
 
That's strange. Anyway, if you don't mind, try it without lookout. The point is to try it with the same setup, but start with no apps, use it for a while, then start adding them one at a time. It's a slow process, but it helps weed out problems.
 
ok, i've removed lookout, now i just gotta give it a couple charge cycles to get a real baseline, so i'll follow up in a couple days.
 
OK so here's the update.

I wiped again on the 23rd, as I told you, and gave it a few days to level out. On Friday I unplugged at 9 AM and didn't have to plug my phone in again for over 30 hours. I didn't resist using it; I texted, looked some stuff up online, checked fb and few emails, etc. Like most work days, the first 9 hrs of the day is light use because I'm usually in front of my computer at work and can do most things from that. Good stuff.

Over the weekend I couldn't really keep track, I was kind of unplugging and plugging in a lot, sleeping in late etc. However, since I knew Friday-Sat gave me 30+ hrs of juice and I got to use my phone, I decided to start adding back apps and see where that'd put me today.

I installed Titanium Backup Pro, Lookout, and Adobe Reader. I figured Titanium is relatively innocent, Adobe reader probably won't cause battery problems, and the first "risky" app I'd like to have back is Lookout.

So far today I'm at a little over 11 hrs unplugged with 16% battery remaining. I did use the phone rather heavily though. My network went down at work so I needed to WiFi tether, I browsed several news articles on it at some point, used maps a little bit, and have over an hour of voice calls. So I hope this isn't representative of what a normal day is like now that I have Lookout back. Lookout doesn't show up in Spare Parts under any category. I left work with about 49% left and less than 3 hours later I'm down to 16%, and I only used the phone to map out the nearest ARCO on my way back from work, so I may be back to dismal.

Since my battery life dropped so dramatically since the last time I paid attention to it (fri), I am going to give it another day or two without changing anything again and see if today's dismal battery life was because of using it more than usual at work (and maybe the battery meter didn't fairly represent how much was used at work/after work) or if one of my user apps that I brought back f'ed it up (Lookout, Titanium Backup, or Adobe Reader). Oh yea and I installed the Copy Paste It Trial.
 
My phone is rooted and have setcpu running and am on Mikfroyo and have stock kernel I am assuming. I can never get more than 8 hours of battery life on my ebay 3500 mah battery! I am in an area where I constantly have 1 bar of signal and my time without signal is around 50%. Could having low bars affect your battery this much?
 
Well, 11 hours with heavy usage like that isn't too bad. I mean, wifi tether just kills the battery, as does a lot of maps usage, and an hour of voice calls is quite a bit. Give it another charge cycle or two and see what happens. If it seems bad, maybe get rid of lookout, and go through another couple of charge cycles. What shows up under cpu usage in spare parts, now?
 
Ventada said:
My phone is rooted and have setcpu running and am on Mikfroyo and have stock kernel I am assuming. I can never get more than 8 hours of battery life on my ebay 3500 mah battery! I am in an area where I constantly have 1 bar of signal and my time without signal is around 50%. Could having low bars affect your battery this much?
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Yes, it can. Go to menu->settings->about phone->battery->cell standby. What percentage do you see for time without signal?
 
akazabam said:
Yes, it can. Go to menu->settings->about phone->battery->cell standby. What percentage do you see for time without signal?
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I am in the same location for about 7 hours with one bar of signal and time without signal ranges from 40% to sometimes as high as 90%. Do you think this is the biggest contributer to my battery loss or could it be something else?
 
Ventada said:
I am in the same location for about 7 hours with one bar of signal and time without signal ranges from 40% to sometimes as high as 90%. Do you think this is the biggest contributer to my battery loss or could it be something else?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that will kill the battery pretty quickly. Consider using something like Roam Control from the market. That will force your phone to roam, which will stop it from constantly searching for a signal. The only downside is that you can't use unlimited data while roaming. You'll have to watch your usage.
 
akazabam said:
Yeah, that will kill the battery pretty quickly. Consider using something like Roam Control from the market. That will force your phone to roam, which will stop it from constantly searching for a signal. The only downside is that you can't use unlimited data while roaming. You'll have to watch your usage.
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Are there any cheaper or free alternatives to Roam Control that I could try out before forking out 4 bucks?
 
Not that I am aware of, but I could be wrong. I seem to recall being able to do this manually. I'm sure if there is a way, it's on xda.
 
I just had to plug in after 11 hours I was down to 1%, however in a frenzy to absorb as much info as I can in that last 1% (i got off a phone call and noticed it was down to 1), i couldn't quite remember what exactly was in the CPU usage in spare parts other than lookout was not there and everything had a tiny tiny amount of the bar filled--so nothing stuck out like using particularly high data. android system was at the top, dialer was up there, swype, internet, the usual high-rankers with none having exceptionally high usage.

although I did use my phone quite a bit today more than usual as well (maybe this is my new usual..). I had 3hrs 30 min of voice calls... so I'm going to say that's most likely what did it today. I barely used anything else but the battery stats for this phone say "up to 312 minutes" of talk time and I assume that means nothing but talk and I used 210 minutes of talk time plus whatever else I did on it today. Also, my time without signal was 7% for the day, which is weird because I'm never anywhere with bad signal. Yesterday I also started out the day with a high time without signal % which dropped throughout the day and ended at around or under 5%, which I forgot to mention in my last post.

Anyway, I still gotta give it a day of my "typical use" like last fri-sat when I got over 1 day on the battery and see how it is, because I expect with 3hrs30min of talk time 11 hours isn't necessarily bad. so if I do get a cycle in where it's my typical use (or even slightly more) and I'm getting under 15 hours whereas last week before I installed lookout I got 30+ hours, then I'll start removing apps, starting with that and see what happens.

edit: the only other apps being adobe reader, titanium, and whatever I mentioned before. I still haven't added anything else.
 
Yeah, I think you're going to need to go a day with more "typical" usage. Like you said, 3.5 hours of talk time is quite a bit, and 11 hours of battery with that is pretty good.
 
:/ ok well the jury is in for today and the verdict is... crappy battery life.

I left today at 8:15 am for work and I worked until about 8 pm (long day). My phone use today was opposite of the last couple days, I barely touched it all day. Under 10 texts and one phone call. I left work with 75% battery, pretty elated that it had been nearly 12 hours.

Well once I got off work I started using my phone a bit, but still what I'd consider light usage. Few texts, couple calls. I'm down to 16% now and I just plugged in, so that's a drop of about 60% in 3 hours of light use. I also had the annoying phenomenon I know I'm not supposed to get my panties in a bunch about but it seemed like any time I did anything even if it took a few seconds my battery drop a few percent. Nothing unusual in Spare Parts, no time without signal, everything looks normal. No hot apps in OSmonitor. I don't see Lookout in spare parts in any category, but then again I don't see any user app there that didn't come with Fresh after I wiped and was getting over 1 day of battery.

Anyway, I uninstalled Lookout and we'll see what happens tomorrow. My list of "User apps" currently are
OSmonitor
Adobe Reader
Copy Paste It trial
ES File explorer (came with Fresh)
Spare Parts
Titanium Backup Pro
Wireless tether (came with Fresh)


I still haven't brought back my google voice. Still using Fresh 3.5.0.1 with HTC kernel #15, haven't changed the radios so I'm still on baseband 2.15.00.11.99, PRI 1.77_003, PRL 60675.

I'm almost hoping that without Lookout tomorrow I start noticing some good battery again like I did after I wiped my phone.
 
I'm starting to wonder.... last week on Fri-Sat I got that good 30 hours out of my phone battery with pretty decent usage, over the weekend the only real thing I changed was adding Lookout. Monday and Tuesday my battery life was bad but usage was heavy, today battery like was Meh but usage was light. The only difference in the phone status between Friday and today was Lookout...

However, another thing different is where I've been working... So I'm wondering if that can be related. On Friday I worked in my office in the SFV, however Monday-today I worked in my office in Pasadena. Both places I get good reception, but could it be that for some reason in Pasadena my phone is bouncing off towers funny or maybe even though I have a few bars there's still something about how it connects in the area that causes more drain? I'm still going to keep Lookout uninstalled, and tomorrow I'm going to work in Pasadena with my phone in the same state it was in when I was getting good battery life... so I guess we'll see..

For now on I'll also track my battery life in terms of where I worked that day.... crap I'm gonna need to get an excel spreadsheet going lol...
 
Well, let's see how it does without lookout. It would just be strange if it's a problem, but not showing up on any reports. But like you said, it's all you changed. As for locations, etc., you're likely going to get bad battery life if the phone is looking for a signal a lot. You said you didn't see much in terms of time without signal, so I doubt it's a problem.
 
14 hrs 9 minutes off the charger, light use throughout the day and WiFi on in the office and at home where I get strong Wifi signal. I'm down to 16% and I'm about to plug in and go to sleep. Not as good as I was seeing after I wiped, yet I'm pretty much back to that state. The only apps I have now that I didn't have when I got good battery life is adobe reader and OSmonitor. Tomorrow I'm going to work in the SFV instead of Pasadena for the first time since last Fri so we'll see if I can recreate it now. My battery is still dropping rapidly every time the screen is on.

I won't remove OSmonitor or adobe reader now that I know Lookout wasn't the problem. Tomorrow if battery life seems much better it may be location related. If not, then its adobe reader or osmonitor, both of which are extremely unlikely. so it just means my phone makes no sense and the android gods are somehow dissatisfied with me.
 
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