Psycho battery

[alexgaston]

Hello,

So I've had my Galaxy S3 for over a year and the battery has always been pretty sucky. But all of the sudden my phone is dying like crazy. For example, I went to work this morning at 7am and put my phone in my purse. By 11:30am my phone was at 34% charged. I don't have any apps running and my screen brightness is like negative 66%. It says "phone idle" is draining at 43% and "cell standby" is draining at 33%. There's really no point in having a phone if it consistently dies before I can use it. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

 

[Thom]

Welcome to Android Forums.

I moved your question (thread) to the area (forum) where issues with your phone are discussed.

Good luck.

... Thom

 

[kate]

It appears that you need to buy a new battery. Unfortunately batteries don't last forever and over time don't hold a charge as long.

Make sure to buy a name brand battery and not a cheap knock off.

 

[Yatezy]

Before you get a new battery get a battery Monitoring app as it could possibly be an app draining your phone.

Gsam or better battery stats are good ones to get

 

[Doit2it]

Agreed. Try GSam Battery Monitor to start. Install it and forget about it for 1/2 a day or so. With "phone idle" is draining at 43% and "cell standby" is draining at 33% I'm thinking you've got a poor reception signal at work. When you do check GSam, tap on Phone Radio and look at the signal strength. The S3 doesn't have the best radio (I know this too), but if the majority of signal strength is below medium, try setting you phone away from anything metal around your desk (file cabinet, computer, etc.) This might keep the S3 from continually searching for a signal.

If it's not signal strength, tap on App Usage and see whats running in the background. GSam is good for this, but there are better apps, Better Battery Stats being one.

Of course there's the basic battery saving tips. Make sure GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi are off if you are not using them. Also, if you are using the new Google Now, it's a battery drainer. Not as bad as you are experiencing, but some. To turn it off: App drawer / Google (search, blue icon) / Menu key / Settings / Google Now (toggle off)

 

[deandec44]

I recently had a similar experience. Rather just turning off the screen, I held the button longer and elected to power off the phone.

I then let it sit for a couple of minutes.

Then I powered it back up (rebooted).

That fixed my rapidly declining battery problem.

 

[GalaxyS609]

I had the same issue last week, out of the blue I went from 100% at 9am to 19% at Noon.

I know you didn;t mention a charging problem, but after I researched my problem there were plenty of threads I read about poor battery life, everyone was saying either the battery or the charger (cable). Neither was my problem although I did try to go purchase a new battery from my service provider, but they didn't carry them.

Nevertheless, I planned on rooting, backing up and doing a factory reset, except neither of my computers recognized my phone any longer, so that plan was out.

I ended up taking my phone completely apart, cleaning around all the buttons, blowing off all the circuit boards and really cleaning out the mini USB connector at the bottom of the phone with a toothpick and tiny flathead screwdriver.

When all was said and done, everything seemed ok. It was charging normal again, not discharging rapidly and the phone recognized the charger being plugged in a lot faster (a problem I had for a while but never thought anything about it until recently).

 

[John I]

My battery slowly got worse so I didn't notice it at first. Recently it was obvious that something was wrong. The phone was getting hot and I was having to charge it to make it through the day. I got a new battery last week and holy cow what a difference. It is above 50% every night when I put it in the cradle to charge over night.

I made sure I got an OEM battery by ordering directly from AT&T (I get a 50% discount on accessories through my company). I saw a lot of bad reviews of supposed OEM batteries from Amazon...