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Optimize your Droid Eris battery life (READ THIS)

Solitary said:
Oh i wont be surprised because i know what kind of apps are running :) i've been reading quite a bit about Android OS, and know some stuff about Linux. That is why i am asking you to show me a proof of what you're saying.

My battery life is better because i follow the guidelines of this thread. Here, not OT anymore =)


...whats the point of making an OS where to exit an app you have to use a 3rd party software? I am not trying to get people to listen to me and not use ATK..but its not that necessary either.
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Since you are no stranger to computers, isn't it feasible that the less free memory you have in your personal device the harder the hard drive and processor have to work? More work means more heat and heat is the biggest evil when it comes to battery life.

At first I started looking at Notebooks and the increases in battery life when RAM is increased. I found the following article that shows more RAM does buy you more battery time when it comes to notebooks:

You Want 4 GB RAM on Your Notebook? : Buy RAM to Increase Your Battery Runtime - Review Tom's Hardware

A little additional googling and I found what may not be a smoking gun but someone that also believes allowing your apps to run rampant can negatively impact battery life (and this is specifically regarding the Droid):

Android Tip: Speed Up and Increase Battery Life of Your Android Phone

I'd like to see data to quantify the benefits of managing your apps with an iron fist but I don't need to see it to know there's a benefit in performance and an increase in battery life, even if marginal.
 
Magnus_CA said:
Since you are no stranger to computers, isn't it feasible that the less free memory you have in your personal device the harder the hard drive and processor have to work? More work means more heat and heat is the biggest evil when it comes to battery life.

At first I started looking at Notebooks and the increases in battery life when RAM is increased. I found the following article that shows more RAM does buy you more battery time when it comes to notebooks:

You Want 4 GB RAM on Your Notebook? : Buy RAM to Increase Your Battery Runtime - Review Tom's Hardware

A little additional googling and I found what may not be a smoking gun but someone that also believes allowing your apps to run rampant can negatively impact battery life (and this is specifically regarding the Droid):

Android Tip: Speed Up and Increase Battery Life of Your Android Phone

I'd like to see data to quantify the benefits of managing your apps with an iron fist but I don't need to see it to know there's a benefit in performance and an increase in battery life, even if marginal.
Click to expand...
I spent a day killing every app after I was done using it except for the apps you can't kill and Google talk, since I use it all the time anyway. I didn't notice too much of a difference in battery. I was still at 20% at the end of the day.
 
Magnus_CA said:
Since you are no stranger to computers, isn't it feasible that the less free memory you have in your personal device the harder the hard drive and processor have to work? More work means more heat and heat is the biggest evil when it comes to battery life.

At first I started looking at Notebooks and the increases in battery life when RAM is increased. I found the following article that shows more RAM does buy you more battery time when it comes to notebooks:

You Want 4 GB RAM on Your Notebook? : Buy RAM to Increase Your Battery Runtime - Review Tom's Hardware

A little additional googling and I found what may not be a smoking gun but someone that also believes allowing your apps to run rampant can negatively impact battery life (and this is specifically regarding the Droid):

Android Tip: Speed Up and Increase Battery Life of Your Android Phone

I'd like to see data to quantify the benefits of managing your apps with an iron fist but I don't need to see it to know there's a benefit in performance and an increase in battery life, even if marginal.
Click to expand...


Everything you said about Notebooks is true. And about CPU, and heat, etc. The only difference is Linux and Windows.

When there isnt much free RAM left, windows tends to lag, freeze, and shut down to prevent overheating (thats when CPU is running at the max of its power). Linux however works differently. In Linux, when free RAM is low, there is an automatic relocation of RAM from processes that dont need it as much, and in many cases, automatic shut down of the processes that are not necessary.

I will also include a link :)

FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android Geek For Me – Android CDMA Sprint Hero
 
Solitary said:
When there isnt much free RAM left, windows tends to lag, freeze, and shut down to prevent overheating (thats when CPU is running at the max of its power). [/url]
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When low on ram Windows spends a lot of time send and retrieving data from the hard drive (the pagefile, or swap file, whatever you like to call that) which has the double bonus of slowing down the machine and using more battery power.
 
mhotovec said:
When low on ram Windows spends a lot of time send and retrieving data from the hard drive (the pagefile, or swap file, whatever you like to call that) which has the double bonus of slowing down the machine and using more battery power.
Click to expand...

either way freeze, lag and other get caused because Windows does not relocate RAM from\to processes that need it less\more :)
 
Solitary said:
Everything you said about Notebooks is true. And about CPU, and heat, etc. The only difference is Linux and Windows.

When there isnt much free RAM left, windows tends to lag, freeze, and shut down to prevent overheating (thats when CPU is running at the max of its power). Linux however works differently. In Linux, when free RAM is low, there is an automatic relocation of RAM from processes that dont need it as much, and in many cases, automatic shut down of the processes that are not necessary.

I will also include a link :)

FAQ: Why You Shouldn
Click to expand...
 
Magnus_CA said:
Touche! ;)

Nice find on the link. I'd still argue that relocating RAM is using processing power (and battery power :D) best served for opening and using apps but an interesting read, nonetheless.
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:D

Of course it does, but at the same time its not really healthy to forcefully close something that is not ready to be closed.

Give it a try, take like a week or two and go without task killers. :)


P.S. I really respect when someone can not necessarily agree with another persons view but at the same time respect it. Well done Magnus.
 
Last night I let the phone run down. I turned everything on (BT, WiFi, Mobile Network) and browsed the web, streamed YouTube, etc. Once the battery died I turned it back on. It reached the VZW screen and turned off. I pulled the battery out for a few minutes (probably not necessary) and plugged it in. I let it charge overnight while off. So far the battery life seems to have increased a lot. I unplugged at 5AM and right now at 12:45 It is still at 90%. Normally I'd be down to 70% or so already. Hopefully this will repeat itself tomorrow :)
 
Li ion batteries need to be conditioned before performing optimally. The best way to do this is to completely discharge the battery several times. I'm not surprised your performance improved.
 
Right now I'm down to 40% with more usage, which is good :). You say doing what I did last night may help it improve? Well then, I'll do the same tonight and see what happens. Hopefully I'll get it up to par before my trip to Jersey on Sunday. Thanks.
 
I bought a Droid Eris a couple days before Christmas. I leave the phone on the charger at night while I sleep. I installed handcent and disabled oem sms. I don't use wifi, bluetooth, or gps, just basic mobile network which should be standard on a smart phone. I make between 0-2 calls ranging .5-5 minutes in length, and maybe a dozen txts between charges. Other than that I look at the main screen for weather(which is usually wrong) and that's it. No browsing or video watching, no picture taking.

No _, no exaggeration whatsoever, my phone will go from 100% charged to 15% in under 6 hours, and will be stone-dead in 9 hours time. Nine _ _ hours.

This is a god _ outrage. I wanted to use this as an ipod like I did with my 9530 storm, but there's no way it could handle that. I really wanted to like this phone, and all the features at very least satisfactory, but this battery problem is a deal-breaker. I'm going to go up to VZW and try to replace it next week, otherwise I think I'll get the Storm 2 and hope to god it's an improvement over the numbingly unstable and laggy original.
 
rosh400 said:
Li ion batteries need to be conditioned before performing optimally. The best way to do this is to completely discharge the battery several times. I'm not surprised your performance improved.
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Nope...The need to repeatedly discharge/charge a lithium-ion battery to condition them is a myth. All you are doing by a full discharge / full recharge cycle is calibrating the battery meter. Repeated full discharges will actually do more harm than good. Only one full discharge followed up by a full charge is necessary (and recommended) once every month or two. If the battery's life appears to be prolonged after a full discharge / charge it's only because you've synchronized the battery meter in your device with the [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]battery's state-of-charge.[/FONT]

I know this is and will continue to be of great controversy since many folks have been programmed to 'condition' their Lithium batteries like their NiMH counterparts.

Li-ion batteries have no memory.

Read for yourself...
Charging lithium-ion batteries
How to prolong lithium-based batteries
 
"pick your new sms app as default"
how do u set handcent sms to default message app? Or does it do it by itself once
installed
 
after installing handcent

go to your people app, pick a person, touch send message (txt) and it will ask to use stock app or handcent. touch use as default and touch handcent.
 
Caddyman said:
1. KNOWN ISSUES - Native SMS app will not let the phone sleep. This has been posted and reposted, but it can't hurt to have it here again.

to check go to settings>about phone>status and at the bottom awake time. if it is 100% you more then likely have this bug

to fix it go into your messages app, menu>setting> and turn off notifications.

go to the android market and download handcent sms or chomp sms, and install. then pick a contact and press send sms, pick your new sms app as default, and send any message. then do a reboot.

once that is all done, power on your phone, let is sleep for a minute after reboot and go back to settings>about phone>status and at the bottom wake time. if it is around 50% or so the fix has worked and you should be able to charge faster and hold a charge longer.
Click to expand...

I just checked my Wifes Droid Eris because she fully charged it last night and this morning she was down to 50%.

Her Awake Time said:
116:00:00 (92%)

What the heck is SMS? Does 92% sound like she has this problem?
 
SUPERSPORT said:
I just checked my Wifes Droid Eris because she fully charged it last night and this morning she was down to 50%.

Her Awake Time said:
116:00:00 (92%)

What the heck is SMS? Does 92% sound like she has this problem?
Click to expand...

SMS is text messaging.

92% is high. Mine is usually below 20%.
 
just got my eris recently. i'm still trying to customize it according to this thread. btw, great thread!
just a quick question, what is a good % range for the awake time? is too low of a % bad also? and what is the difference between awake time and up time?

thanks a lot.
 
yasikwidit said:
just got my eris recently. i'm still trying to customize it according to this thread. btw, great thread!
just a quick question, what is a good % range for the awake time? is too low of a % bad also? and what is the difference between awake time and up time?

thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

Up time is how long it's been since your last reboot.

A low % for awake time isn't bad. It means your phone hasn't been working very much. In other words, it's been in sleep mode. A high awake time would result if you use it constantly or an app is keeping it from going to sleep. The percent is calculated based on your awake time and up time.

My uptime is currently 40:36:15
My awake time is 4:32:05 (11% of my total up time)
So, for me, my phone has been sleeping 89% of the time since I last rebooted it.

Hope that helps.
 
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