Battery & Android OS

[nfe522]

For a few weeks I have been having bad problems with my battery draining. It happens the majority of the time, but occasionally will not happen for a little while. At the times when the battery does drain really quickly (which is almost always,) when I look at the battery manager, the Android OS is always over 70% and sometimes even 80%, which when it is working correctly, is not the case. I do not change any settings or turn on any apps when having this problem. It starts on its own sometimes when the phone turns on and off (sometimes by itself) and I think sometimes randomly also.

Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

 

[illmatic636]

Are you on a custom rom? Or stock?

 

[nfe522]

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I want to say stock? I haven't rooted the phone or anything, if that helps at all.

 

[jpcalhoun]

For a few weeks I have been having bad problems with my battery draining. It happens the majority of the time, but occasionally will not happen for a little while. At the times when the battery does drain really quickly (which is almost always,) when I look at the battery manager, the Android OS is always over 70% and sometimes even 80%, which when it is working correctly, is not the case. I do not change any settings or turn on any apps when having this problem. It starts on its own sometimes when the phone turns on and off (sometimes by itself) and I think sometimes randomly also.

Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

Droid Pro, as well as other Android OS phones, have a known habit of rebooting themselves for no apparent reason. I have a Pro and it reboots itself a couple times a week. I think the first issue you should be concerned about is the high CPU usage when the phone is just sitting there. Have you downloaded any apps and installed them, especially a "task killer"? If yes, I'd uninstall any app/widget you have downloaded and installed and uninstall them. Observe your phone for a day or so and see if you are still experiencing the high CPU usage. If not, then you know one of your apps that you downloaded is causing the problem. You can add one or two apps at a time until the problem reoccurs, that way you have a good idea which one is causing the problem. Most Droid gurus recommend not having a task killer on the phone...kills your battery and can interfere with other functions as well.

 

[illmatic636]

Mainly because Android OS manages and shut down tasks for you.
Certain 3rd party apps can have a negative affect on the OS i.e. Taskillers, Overclocking apps(you need know nothing about that) battery saving apps. I would go with the 4th post, as I am on the Droid 1.



Good luck

 

[nfe522]

I have a task killer, but it was already on the phone when I got it from Verizon. I guess they put it on there for me. The issue with the CPU usage started randomly one day though. Would it have been prom a previously downloaded app?

And is there a difference between a downloaded and installed app? I have a bunch of apps, but like I said, the probably didn't start after the download of an app, so I don't know.

It's really bad. The battery can go from fully charged down to almost dead in about 5 hours with hardly any use.

 

[LT*]

Lose the task killer and see how your battery improves.

 

[nfe522]

Ok, I'll give it a try. I had the phone for like 2 months with the task killer before the problem started though. Could that still be the cause after all that time?

 

[LT*]

Ok, I'll give it a try. I had the phone for like 2 months with the task killer before the problem started though. Could that still be the cause after all that time?

Not sure, but task killers a notorious for causing all sorts of issues. I'm still not sure why Verizon doesn't get this. Try it and if it doesn't help it will at least rule it out as the issue.

 

[hookbill]

For a few weeks I have been having bad problems with my battery draining. It happens the majority of the time, but occasionally will not happen for a little while. At the times when the battery does drain really quickly (which is almost always,) when I look at the battery manager, the Android OS is always over 70% and sometimes even 80%, which when it is working correctly, is not the case. I do not change any settings or turn on any apps when having this problem. It starts on its own sometimes when the phone turns on and off (sometimes by itself) and I think sometimes randomly also.

Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

Droid Pro, as well as other Android OS phones, have a known habit of rebooting themselves for no apparent reason. I have a Pro and it reboots itself a couple times a week. I think the first issue you should be concerned about is the high CPU usage when the phone is just sitting there. Have you downloaded any apps and installed them, especially a "task killer"? If yes, I'd uninstall any app/widget you have downloaded and installed and uninstall them. Observe your phone for a day or so and see if you are still experiencing the high CPU usage. If not, then you know one of your apps that you downloaded is causing the problem. You can add one or two apps at a time until the problem reoccurs, that way you have a good idea which one is causing the problem. Most Droid gurus recommend not having a task killer on the phone...kills your battery and can interfere with other functions as well.

Excellent advise, but let's get straight on the first sentence. Android OS phones do NOT have a known habit of rebooting for no apparent reason. There is always a reason. And the steps you gave are the correct way to go about finding out what causes it.

If your Droid is still resetting on it's own, then you have a bad phone. Take it back because Droid does not reset on it's own.

 

[jpcalhoun]

I have a task killer, but it was already on the phone when I got it from Verizon. I guess they put it on there for me. The issue with the CPU usage started randomly one day though. Would it have been prom a previously downloaded app?

And is there a difference between a downloaded and installed app? I have a bunch of apps, but like I said, the probably didn't start after the download of an app, so I don't know.

It's really bad. The battery can go from fully charged down to almost dead in about 5 hours with hardly any use.

The task killer that came with you phone is probably not the problem. I was referring to any other task killer that you may have downloaded and installed. The only way I know of to isolate an app that is causing you the problem is to uninstall them and reinstall them one at a time. The difference between a downloaded and installed app is this...when you download an app you get a notification that the app has been downloaded and the notification bar gives you the option to install. Once you select "install" the app is now present and can be running without you knowing it. Some apps don't close when you move away from them/close them...they continue to run in the background. The OS (in theory) should close them when they are no longer needed...that doesn't always happen with some apps. That is why I recommend you uninstall any app that you have downloaded and see if your CPU useage/battery life improves. If it doesn't you might want to do a factory reset. If that doesn't work I'd recommend a trip to Verizon for a different phone.

Here are some recommendations for battery battery life: Make sure your phone is on CDMA (not global or GSM), turn down you screen brightness to the lowest level you can tolerate, if you have email being fetched set the time interval to as high as you can tolerate (better yet, have those emails forwarded to gmail and let gmail push those emails to you), live wallpaper eats battery life, turn the time the screen is on to 30 sec or 60 sec, turn off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth until you are actively using them.

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

[FONT=&quot]Battery Life[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Here's my tips (Individual items may not apply your phone):[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1. Go to settings/wireless & networks/mobile networks/Enable always-on data. Uncheck always on data. Your phone will still receive email, text, & phone calls as before as well as internet usage but your battery will last a lot longer.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]2. Emails: I don't know what email app you use, but try this. It saves battery power and in some cases emails arrive quicker. This scheme will have you using only the Gmail app on the phone for all email accounts whether they are pop3 accounts or Gmail. Go to the Google Gmail inbox on your computer and log into the Gmail account. On the top right of the screen is an option called Settings. In there is an option to have the Gmail program poll your regular, non-Gmail accounts (From the inbox; Settings/Accounts & Import/ Check mail using POP3). Provide the email address and the password. The Google Gmail program will then poll your other accounts on a frequency from 1-5 minutes and push the email immediately to your phone. The polling frequency is determined by each account's activity - more emails = faster polling. This saves battery power because on the android OS pop3 accounts are polled at a frequency of 1-30 minutes and that really eats battery. Because the phone goes and checks those accounts for mail whether there is mail there or not.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]3. If you are using Live Wall Papers, stop![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]4. Use wifi any time it is available. It uses a lot less power than 3G and it is much faster.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]5. If there are widgets that automatically update (facebook, weather, etc.) change their update frequency in their settings menu. Set them to 30mins or 1 hour.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]6. Oh, almost forgot, get the extended battery from Verizon.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]7. Turn off the GPS unless you are actually using it. There are some background apps that can burn a lot of power via a live gps.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]8. The Power Control Widget is a good tool for easily turning on and off some of these features (gps, wifi, screen brightness, etc.).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]9. From the home screen do the following: menu/settings/About Phone/Battery Use. This graph will show the 10 biggest power users on the phone. It should always be Screen as the top user and the android os, android system, phone standby and phone idle should be the other top users. If there is an app listed you should determine if it’s an app you actually use a lot or do you have a rogue app that needs to be uninstalled.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]10. Get Screebl. It will turn your phone off anytime you are not actively using it.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]11. If you have either a task killer or an anti-virus app installed, you should uninstall.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]12. Go to data>system>and delete batterystats.bin after you've charged your phone to 100%. This will help with battery meter accuracy.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]13. D2G - go in to settings, wireless and networks, mobile network and change the network type from global to CDMA only. The d2g is locked out from using the local GSM networks in the US. You don't need global radio turned on in the US just overseas. Go into Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > Network Mode > and turn off the default setting of Global and turn on CDMA. This assumes you are in the US.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]14. If you have ad blocker, turn it off.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]15. If you are using Launcher Pro, try switching to ADW for a while.[/FONT]

 

[jpcalhoun]

For a few weeks I have been having bad problems with my battery draining. It happens the majority of the time, but occasionally will not happen for a little while. At the times when the battery does drain really quickly (which is almost always,) when I look at the battery manager, the Android OS is always over 70% and sometimes even 80%, which when it is working correctly, is not the case. I do not change any settings or turn on any apps when having this problem. It starts on its own sometimes when the phone turns on and off (sometimes by itself) and I think sometimes randomly also.

Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

Droid Pro, as well as other Android OS phones, have a known habit of rebooting themselves for no apparent reason. I have a Pro and it reboots itself a couple times a week. I think the first issue you should be concerned about is the high CPU usage when the phone is just sitting there. Have you downloaded any apps and installed them, especially a "task killer"? If yes, I'd uninstall any app/widget you have downloaded and installed and uninstall them. Observe your phone for a day or so and see if you are still experiencing the high CPU usage. If not, then you know one of your apps that you downloaded is causing the problem. You can add one or two apps at a time until the problem reoccurs, that way you have a good idea which one is causing the problem. Most Droid gurus recommend not having a task killer on the phone...kills your battery and can interfere with other functions as well.

Excellent advise, but let's get straight on the first sentence. Android OS phones do NOT have a known habit of rebooting for no apparent reason. There is always a reason. And the steps you gave are the correct way to go about finding out what causes it.

If your Droid is still resetting on it's own, then you have a bad phone. Take it back because Droid does not reset on it's own.

My apologies regarding Android phones and the reboot issue. Being a newbie to the Android world myself I should know better than to state other user's opinions as "fact".

At any rate, I hope you find out the problem nfe552. If you do everything recommended here and you still have the problem...go back to Verizon and see if you can get a new Pro.

 

[illmatic636]

Can someone other than the OP confirm that the Droid 2 comes with a preloaded task killer? Or is it just a verizon ap the store may have downloaded when the phone was bought?

thanks

 

[hookbill]

Can someone other than the OP confirm that the Droid 2 comes with a preloaded task killer? Or is it just a verizon ap the store may have downloaded when the phone was bought?

thanks

No, it doesn't come with a preloaded task killer, it just doesn't need one. Droid is smart enough to handle it's own memory without having a task killer. Task killers interfere with the way the Droid works and can cause issues down the road.

For more information on Task Killers go to to this link: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/65483-task-killers-answer-google-developers.html