Droid short life

[n0m0n]

Hello,
I seem to now be only lasting half a day in respect to battery life.
Ive had my device for 3 months now and it just doesn't last as long.
It used to last most of the day an I would find myself throwing a charge on it for a bit int he evening before plugging it in to charge at night.

I installed a task manager now that automatically kills some apps even though there aren't many running that need to be killed.
I also install locale and and set my wifi to be on only when I am in my home network.
As well I have my device set to turn off the back light when I turn it upside down after 15 seconds.
Yet when I go into the power settings the highest usage is the backlight at 38% discharge.

I cant seem to see why its dying so fast.
I assume there are other things running but not showing up...

Is there anything I need to look for?
If so how and what do I do to correct?

Thanks

 

[mtbhk44]

Well, I've gone through a few droids b/c of battery life. I'm convinced now it's b/c of what I was running. Locale was the first major offender. Once I got rid of Locale my battery life spiked. I was getting about 18 hours per charge until this one particular day my battery life fell off the charts. I had installed the google news reader and even though I uninstalled it, my battery life never recovered. SO, I wiped the Droid clean, reinstalled only the apps I actually use and I'm now getting over 24 hours per charge with moderate usage.

Sometimes the only way to correct the problem is to wipe and restart. Kind of annoying, but I'm loving the battery life now.

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

I agree that what you have installed can have a major impact on battery life. I actually had to uninstall a battery monitor that was causing a big hit on battery life.

another that can kill battery life is a weak cell signal. That will force the phone to try and amplify (that may not be the correct technical term) the signal, thus draining the battery. I found that another program that seemed to cause a big drain for me was Weather Bug (i think that was the name).

I have a lot of stuff installed and am a heavy user with an overclocked processor (1 ghz) and I still get through a full day on a fresh battery charge. I leave wifi, gps and bluetooth on 100% of the time.

 

[640k]

Top 3 culprits of poor battery life:

3. Task Killers - these guys seem like they're helping you out, but they're just making things worse. Android doesn't need another process interferring with what it does natively.

2. "Service" Apps - you know, apps that poll your phone's resources (GPS, wifi, data) like Locale that are a constaint drain on performance and battery life. Widgets can be a drain too, but be aware of the app you're installing. GPS takes alot of power from the battery/device, so apps like Locale can be a huge drain.

and the #1 culprit?

1. Cell Strength - simply being out of range of your towers will KILL your phone. Your battery will "suffer" a quick "death" daily, if you don't keep it in service. If you're going to be out of service, the best things to do would be to turn it off, or plug it in.

I get well over 20hrs of battery life with good signal and heavy use.

 

[n0m0n]

Top 3 culprits of poor battery life:

3. Task Killers - these guys seem like they're helping you out, but they're just making things worse. Android doesn't need another process interferring with what it does natively.

2. "Service" Apps - you know, apps that poll your phone's resources (GPS, wifi, data) like Locale that are a constaint drain on performance and battery life. Widgets can be a drain too, but be aware of the app you're installing. GPS takes alot of power from the battery/device, so apps like Locale can be a huge drain.

and the #1 culprit?

1. Cell Strength - simply being out of range of your towers will KILL your phone. Your battery will "suffer" a quick "death" daily, if you don't keep it in service. If you're going to be out of service, the best things to do would be to turn it off, or plug it in.

I get well over 20hrs of battery life with good signal and heavy use.

3. Task Killers - Ok I am deleting the task killers.
2. Service Apps - Like what apps exactly?
I do have Locate on my device for ringtones to be silenced during certain times days.
Also I use it to shut off the data (wifi, 3G).
When I am in my home network I have it turn on my wifi, and off my 3G...
When I leave my location it goes in reverse, wifi off and 3G on.

1. Cell Strength - I think my signal strength is good at least it was on my Storm1, and 2...


Any additional thoughts?

THANK YOU

 

[640k]

locale doesn't need to switch you between wifi and 3g, the device does this for you. once you're connected to a wifi hotspot, 3g service is "turned off".

locale requires the use of gps to determine your location, if you're not using set times. gps drains your battery.

my wife went from poor battery life, to average just by changing where she stores her phone while at work. it could be where you're keeping your phone.

also, if you need your phone silent while at work, it's an easy swipe from where you turn your phone on.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Top 3 culprits of poor battery life:

3. Task Killers - these guys seem like they're helping you out, but they're just making things worse. Android doesn't need another process interferring with what it does natively.

2. "Service" Apps - you know, apps that poll your phone's resources (GPS, wifi, data) like Locale that are a constaint drain on performance and battery life. Widgets can be a drain too, but be aware of the app you're installing. GPS takes alot of power from the battery/device, so apps like Locale can be a huge drain.

and the #1 culprit?

1. Cell Strength - simply being out of range of your towers will KILL your phone. Your battery will "suffer" a quick "death" daily, if you don't keep it in service. If you're going to be out of service, the best things to do would be to turn it off, or plug it in.

I get well over 20hrs of battery life with good signal and heavy use.

Agreed. As well, be sure to "condition your battery"

As you said, you would put a small charge on it part of the way through the day. This is a no-no in the long run.

In order for your battery to HOLD a complete charge it must be drained COMPLETELY [let the phone die] and then charged ALL THE WAY before disconnecting.

This is suggested with anything with rechargeable batteries. If you're giving them partial charges here and there, it's like the battery forgets what it's full capacity is and will think it's got a full charge when it really doesn't.

I do this AT LEAST once a week, but it's recommended to do it only every month or so. I, too, get well over 20 hours of sometimes heavy use out of my phone [Almost ALWAYS connected to WiFi when at home, browsing the internet regularly, searching for and downloading apps, updating/checking facebook, etc.]

As well, when you plug it in to charge, try to avoid unplugging it before the full charge cycle is complete. This will help as well.

You said it wasn't bad at first, but got worse over time. If your battery isn't conditioned properly, that'll happen.

 

[640k]

Top 3 culprits of poor battery life:

3. Task Killers - these guys seem like they're helping you out, but they're just making things worse. Android doesn't need another process interferring with what it does natively.

2. "Service" Apps - you know, apps that poll your phone's resources (GPS, wifi, data) like Locale that are a constaint drain on performance and battery life. Widgets can be a drain too, but be aware of the app you're installing. GPS takes alot of power from the battery/device, so apps like Locale can be a huge drain.

and the #1 culprit?

1. Cell Strength - simply being out of range of your towers will KILL your phone. Your battery will "suffer" a quick "death" daily, if you don't keep it in service. If you're going to be out of service, the best things to do would be to turn it off, or plug it in.

I get well over 20hrs of battery life with good signal and heavy use.

Agreed. As well, be sure to "condition your battery"

As you said, you would put a small charge on it part of the way through the day. This is a no-no in the long run.

In order for your battery to HOLD a complete charge it must be drained COMPLETELY [let the phone die] and then charged ALL THE WAY before disconnecting.

This is suggested with anything with rechargeable batteries. If you're giving them partial charges here and there, it's like the battery forgets what it's full capacity is and will think it's got a full charge when it really doesn't.

I do this AT LEAST once a week, but it's recommended to do it only every month or so. I, too, get well over 20 hours of sometimes heavy use out of my phone [Almost ALWAYS connected to WiFi when at home, browsing the internet regularly, searching for and downloading apps, updating/checking facebook, etc.]

As well, when you plug it in to charge, try to avoid unplugging it before the full charge cycle is complete. This will help as well.

You said it wasn't bad at first, but got worse over time. If your battery isn't conditioned properly, that'll happen.

Johnny, read this:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/te...ery-life.html?highlight=understanding+battery

conditioning li-ion batteries as you've described is never recommended. you should never completely drain a li-ion battery.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Quoted from the first page of that thread...

"Cycle them for a full charge & full discharge every so often, preferably monthly. Whether you use AC or DC power to charge your battery most of the time, try to drain the battery periodically to keep it fresh and healthy."

Did I read that wrong, or is there a correction later?

**EDIT: Read further... "So, unlike NiCAD, there's no memory effect. But better still, if you charge regularly, before the battery dies, it's likely to last longer than those 300-500 cycles, which are based on full cycling the battery."

 

[n0m0n]

locale doesn't need to switch you between wifi and 3g, the device does this for you. once you're connected to a wifi hotspot, 3g service is "turned off".

locale requires the use of gps to determine your location, if you're not using set times. gps drains your battery.

my wife went from poor battery life, to average just by changing where she stores her phone while at work. it could be where you're keeping your phone.

also, if you need your phone silent while at work, it's an easy swipe from where you turn your phone on.

Well its at church, home at night when sleeping BUT I have the notification off not phone...

Need to know if ppl need to reach out.

Is it good enough to just switch off the Locale options, or does it need to be un-installed?

I noticed a app called autostart in respect to ringtone scheduling...
Is that better worse or the same?

Thanlks

 

[aaf709]

Top 3 culprits of poor battery life

1. Cell Strength - simply being out of range of your towers will KILL your phone. Your battery will "suffer" a quick "death" daily, if you don't keep it in service. If you're going to be out of service, the best things to do would be to turn it off, or plug it in.

True enough. Our house is in a bad area so I had to go outside to make (or receive) a call. If the Droid was connected to the computer via USB the battery actually dropped instead of charging. I have since installed a Network Extender for calls, but I charge with the multimedia dock.

 

[TimChgo9]

Depending on what I am doing on any given day, I get between 12 and 20 hours of battery life out of my phone.

I don't use Locale. If I am going to be somewhere where the phone needs to be silenced, then I just silence it from the lock screen.

Wi-Fi is on at all times
GPS is off, unless I need it.

I run WeatherBug and ATK, and it doesn't really affect my battery life to any great degree that I can tell. One day last week, I did leave GPS on, and it ran my battery to 30% in a couple of hours, so I was recharging before noon....

I have a bunch of widgets running (FB, Retro gauges, Retro clock/date. Astrid, calender, Slacker and Pandora, WeatherBug, as well as SportsTap) and I don't seem to really notice any large loss of battery life.

Besides GPS the biggest battery killer is games.... my daughter absconded with my Droid the other day to play "Air Control", and it dropped the battery a good 25% while she was using it. I have noted the same thing if I am playing for an hour or more, there is a considerable drop in battery life....

 

[zero7starz]

It is recommended by Verizon that for the first charge you let the battery die and then fully charge it. This is once, and keep in mind for a year they warrenty your battery all you have to do is call customer care.

GPS kills batteries. Wifi is a strain. Being out of cell service is a drain. You don't need task killers, the OS does this for you. Web browsing uses a lot, so does phone calls. However my number one battery killer is tethering!

 

[zero7starz]

It is recommended by Verizon that for the first charge you let the battery die and then fully charge it. This is once, and keep in mind for a year they warrenty your battery all you have to do is call customer care.

GPS kills batteries. Wifi is a strain. Being out of cell service is a drain. You don't need task killers, the OS does this for you. Web browsing uses a lot, so does phone calls. However my number one battery killer is tethering!

 

[n0m0n]

I killed the GPS as well and still I had to recharge the Droid at 1400 today.

Frustrating to say the least.