Droid X battery problems discovered!!!!!!!

[Cdjones187]

I'm not convinced that leaving GPS on drains the battery, but one thing that does seem to drain my battery is being in a location with poor service. When I am at work, I dont get 3g and the phone drains the battery within 8 hrs. Seems that searching for a signal uses more power.

This has always been the case. With almost ALL cell phones. Not just those running Android.

And to the OP, my phone goes to "sleep" just fine without extra battery use after using the GPS (Which I do, daily).

I'd say you have a rogue app thats not shutting the app down the correct way. When leaving GPS programs, and ALL APPS FOR THAT MATTER, USE THE "BACK" BUTTON! When you use "Home", the app just keeps running in the background.

ALWAYS USE THE "BACK" KEY FOLKS

Both back and home do the same thing... Thats how android works, apps do not close for a certain amount of time I do believe, maybe wrong.

 

[Gnatman1102]

Another thing to consider is the Battery Manager/Battery Profile setting. The default setting is Smart Mode.

When in Smart Mode, check the Battery Profile Options. During Off-Peak hours during night hour settin, the Data Timeout is set to 15 minutes. This means all data transmissions cease if phone is in standby beyond 15 minutes. In Peak Hours, the default data timeout is set to never. If you leave wi-fi or gps running during peak times and data timeout is set to never, these will chew up the battery in a heart beat. If you leave your phone off the charger but in standby, I recommend a data timeout setting for Peak Hours to something less than never.

I generally set my phone to the Battery Saver Mode. For most normal activities with the phone, this is a perfect setting unless I am listening to Pandora and I leave the phone in standby. Data timeout is set to 30-minutes unless the phone is being charged, and the screen is set to a lower brightness setting.

A couple of days ago with the phone Battery operation set to Smart Mode and the wi-fi running, I put the phone down in stand-by with 60% battery life remaining. I picked up the phone 5-hrs later and found a completely dead battery. When the phone is in Battery Saver Mode, I have never had this problem. I have picked up the phone in the past after a similar period of time without losing more than 10% of the battery.

 

[Gnatman1102]

For kicks, I will go to bed tonight with the phone at full charge in Battery Saver Mode, but will leave the gps and wi-fi activated. When I get up, I will record how long the phone was in data timeout and percent charge remaining. I will respond to this thread with the results.

 

[pilot25]

performance mode, gps off

I get 14 hours of moderate use from the X. GPS on 4 hours.

Moto knows about the issue and is working on it.

 

[aminaked]

By default wifi turns off when the screen is off so it isn't using any power. Leaving 3g on all night uses little power. Leaving gps on all night uses no power if no apps/widgets are using it.*

I think battery saver/smart mode is bs because I want to receive email immediately always.

What's really draining your battery isn't wifi or 3g or performance mode...it's this bug we've been talking about.

*Droid X users needs to turn off GPS after using it because it's preventing the phone from sleeping. Wait for the update and you'll be able to leave gps on.

 

[supahrob]

I put the phone down in stand-by with 60% battery life remaining. I picked up the phone 5-hrs later and found a completely dead battery.

I don't think I am physically able to go 5 hours without playing with the phone lol!

Take care,
Rob

 

[Gnatman1102]

Ok! My little overnite experiment seems to point to the lack of a cell signal as the problem. Normally the signal at my house is good. It is correct the wi-fi is not the problem. GPS is not a problem either. GPS is only used for locating on maps or apps that can use GPS to locating. The battery use indicated cell standby as the major use overnite at 80%. Display was 2nd at 12%.

Or my phone was mad at my for me not playing with it during the day that it decided to die on me.

 

[aminaked]

Ok! My little overnite experiment seems to point to the lack of a cell signal as the problem. Normally the signal at my house is good. It is correct the wi-fi is not the problem. GPS is not a problem either. GPS is only used for locating on maps or apps that can use GPS to locating. The battery use indicated cell standby as the major use overnite at 80%. Display was 2nd at 12%.

Or my phone was mad at my for me not playing with it during the day that it decided to die on me.

Calling *228 fixed this for me. Select option 2. If that doesn't work call again with option 1.

 

[gtg450g]

Acute Battery issues

All, first post on the forum, but I have been perusing and found a lot of good info since I got my Droid X a week ago.

Bottom line, I *love* the phone, but it is untenable because I am only able to achieve 5-6 hours of battery life on each charge. Obviously this is unacceptable, and I have searched and searched for corrective options.

I have GPS/Wifi/BT toggled OFF unless I am at home and actively using Wifi. I am on the "Smart" Battery profile, but I have the Screen Brightness set at minimum.

I have deleted ATK and the dreaded Facebook widget...I cleared off most of the other widgets and I have three completely blank home screens.

After analyzing my Usage on Spare Parts and Battery Manager, nothing big jumps out as the obvious culprit. If I am talking a decent bit, it is Voice calls, and if I don't it is Screen Brightness.

After a few days at work with the phone dying right after lunch, I went to Verizon to complain. Obviously they tried to get me to re-install ATK, but I explained what I had learned on Droid Forums and they relented and gave me a new battery. However, I am having the same problem with the new battery...

Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[aminaked]

You callibrated the phone/battery by completely draining the battery and then completely charging it a few times? You turn off gps as soon as you're done because of the droid x sleep bug? You tried *228? You don't have any apps draining power? Maybe you have a bad phone or charger.

 

[Jjaeger240]

Figured I'd jump on the bandwagon and say I'm extremely impressed by this battery now that I used it for a day with gps off. A week or so ago when I made this thread: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...battery-life-yeah-another-battery-thread.html

my battery would be down to 70% after 5 hours with the phone on sleep the entire time. After toggling a couple widgets based on the results of my old thread I got a significant and ample increase in battery life.

After turning gps off today, I had 90% battery after 5 hours with several speaker phone calls, 30 minutes of internet browsing, and 30+ text messages sent. To make this even more impressive, after charging the phone no more than one minute it had gone back to fully charged, which leads me to believe it had just clicked down from 100% to 90% shortly before plugging it in.

Also checked my battery use and now my cell standby percentage is always at least double the display percentage.

 

[aminaked]

I think display should generally be the #1 battery user...it may even be a catchall for other phone processes.

I guess you're happy with your battery life now, but you may want to try *228 to see if you can bring down Cell standby. Worth a shot. Won't hurt anything. Did wonders for me.

To anyone just joining the discussion, on the droid x you should turn off gps when done using it as there's a bug. After the update, you should be able to leave it on.

I also say it is ok to leave on wifi, sync, and background data. Let your phone spread it's wings!

:soapbox:

 

[aminaked]

Just when I thought this problem was figured out, I checked the other forum (Battery Drain due to Software Bug w/GPS? - Android Forums) and people are saying that not only does GPS cause the "no sleep" bug on the Droid X, but WIFI does too!!! I haven't tested this, but some people are saying it.

This bug is not limited to GPS...

My DX WiFi was doing the exact same thing. While WiFi was On 100%, it was also Running 100%. Tried rebooting... didn't fix a thing.

After toggling WiFi Off, then back On, waited 5 min... WiFi On 97%, WiFi Running 91%.

I used the Moto widgets to toggle.

I have NOT confirmed this myself, but it is something you might want to try. So on the droid X, until the update comes out, you definitely want to toggle off GPS and maybe WIFI when you are done using them. Normally, you can leave those phone settings on all the time. I do on my original droid and the battery lasts all day. GPS only uses battery when an app or widget uses it. WIFI actually uses less power than 3G.

Give it a try. Turn off GPS and WIFI on the droid X when you are done using them. Again, this is not normally what you would do on an Android phone, but until the update, it looks to be the right thing to do.

Some people are also reporting that merely toggling them off is not enough and that a reboot is needed after their use, but this has not been confirmed. They may not be refreshing Spare Parts (the battery monitor app).

I'm getting all of this info from the link above. Check it out.

UPDATE: more issues???!!!

I've noticed that my DX also won't sleep after a night of charging. When I pull out off the charger and put it to sleep it status pegged at 100%

Once again, I haven't confirmed this on my own so who knows but if this is true then to maximize droid x battery life:
1)turn off gps when done using it
2)turn off wifi when done using it
3)reboot after charging

Jeez, what else?! I'll tell you what, when these bugs get ironed out, this battery is gonna last for days.

 

[Sydman]

So I went a whole day with the performance mode on and don't seem to be getting any worse battery life, does the smart mode just turn off the date after time during the time frame you set? Cause it does not seem to be any better than performance, I don't see the point to just turning off emails for 8 hours while I sleep. Don't get that many to begin with and battery didn't seem to mind either way.

 

[aminaked]

Yeah, go with performance mode. I like data to be on all the time. I've also noticed that it doesn't effect the battery much.