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Old 03-08-2009, 04:22 PM   #1
vinmontRD
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Question 8900 - battery was great - now awful! (help!)

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Very strange and frustrating set of events over the last few days.

I sold my old 8300 and replaced it with an 8900 about 3 weeks ago. It was fantastic from day one, and I was pleased to note that I had none of the battery issues that I read about here, especially after upgrading the OS from 114, to 152 and then to .168.

Until about 4 or 5 days ago, the battery life on the device, running .168, has been comparable to that of my old 8300 -- except that I'm doing a LOT more with the 8900 than I could ever do with the 8300, including using GPS, Viigo on all day, YouTube, web browsing, etc (some possible on the 8300 -- just much more enjoyable on this device).

Even with all the activity, I'd start out the day right off the charger with 100% battery, and it would rarely dip below 80% by the end of a 16 or 17 hour day.

That all changed sometime in the last week, and I have no clue what's happening.

One day I woke up, unplugged the charger cable and saw that the phone was STARTING the day at 95%, after 7 hours on the charger (genuine OEM 8900 charger - one in the box with the phone). By mid-day, I was down to 40%, and barely made it till I got home and plugged it in again.

I checked all the installed / running apps. Using "switch application" I could see what's running. Once I saw the battery drain issue, I turned OFF Viigo, and made sure that only the standard BB apps are running in the background. BBWeather doesn't keep running -- it schedules itself for the next weather update and shuts off - so that's not it.

What's especially bizarre is that the only "new" apps I've installed between the time it was working beautifully and now, with the battery draining incredibly fast (even with no activity) include Poynt (beta) and BBFileScout, which I've used all of 3 times. I'm using the same version of Facebook that I've used since day one, same version of Viigo, same version of BBWeather.

I've tried battery pulls, started uninstalling recently installed apps (e.g., BBFileScout, although I can't imagine how it impacts battery life), and I'm considering uninstalling Poynt (last new one installed).

I'm using the stock Precision T-Mobile theme (with my own selected wallpaper) -- no custom themes installed.

I've tried charging this both in the car and from the indoor 110v charger -- in both cases, I can get the charge up to 100% -- but it still drops off quickly.

I can understand perhaps having gotten a dud battery -- except that this worked perfectly for 2 weeks -- and then abruptly started hemorrhaging its charge.

I plug the 8900 in every night and let it go to bedside mode. Except for the one morning when I found the device only 90% charged, it shows up as 100% charged when I get up -- but drains during the day, whether or not I turn on Viigo or BeeJiveIM or any other major apps.

Anyone else ever see such an abrupt change in battery behavior, especially in an 8900? I'm stumped -- tempted to buy a new battery, but this is silly after only 3 weeks. If it's not the battery, it would be a shame to waste the money like that.

Aside from this, the 8900 is spectacular -- best mobile device I've used to date (over many, many years). Any and all suggestions and advice most appreciated.

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Old 03-08-2009, 04:28 PM   #2
koleary19067
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i barely get my bold to last past 5pm
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Old 03-08-2009, 04:38 PM   #3
vinmontRD
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Something'w weird here, though -- ever since I moved up toe OS .152, and then .168, the battery life had been great on the 8900. I'd love to get back to where this was just 5 days ago!
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Old 03-08-2009, 05:03 PM   #4
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try to downgrade to .152 to see if the problems stays
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Old 03-08-2009, 08:53 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by koleary19067 View Post
try to downgrade to .152 to see if the problems stays
I might go there... I'm hesitant, though, since this worked perfectly well for quite a while with .168 on it, and only started to "go bad" in the last few days. I'm suspecting that there's another explanation. I may hang in with .168 for a while, may uninstall apps to see what might be causing this. Also - haven't heard from anyone else that .168 is causing battery drain problems, and it's unlikely that I would be the only one experiencing this if .168 were the problem.

I'd love an answer -- just hate shooting in the dark...
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Old 03-08-2009, 09:14 PM   #6
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Man I wish I could get the battery life you get...I have noticed going to .168 has improved my battery GREATLY but I still pretty much kill it from 7a to 4p and that's just email, bbm, and web browsing...I don't use GPS. I know Viigo sucks the life out of the battery as well...I am contemplating removing it as well
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Old 03-09-2009, 02:23 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BCollins521 View Post
Man I wish I could get the battery life you get...I have noticed going to .168 has improved my battery GREATLY but I still pretty much kill it from 7a to 4p and that's just email, bbm, and web browsing...I don't use GPS. I know Viigo sucks the life out of the battery as well...I am contemplating removing it as well
I've only had GPS in use when I fire up Google Maps or use Poynt. I like the idea of location-based-services, and actually made real use of it about a week ago searching for a place to buy a certain gift for my wife's birthday -- great concept. My question would be whether or not the app and 8900 are smart enough to *stop* using the GPS when there's no app running that's demanding the information.

Anyway -- I just downloaded .174 beta, and I'm about to load that up and see if there's any difference.
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Old 03-09-2009, 12:09 PM   #8
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Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

That was one thing I noticed with the 8900 that I could not find a place to turn on/off the gps in the options...unless I'm blind lol
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Old 03-09-2009, 12:33 PM   #9
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I can't find a way to turn GPS on/off either. Maybe they've got it set up to only seek to lock onto signals if an application is asking for GPS info? Hopefully it doesn't burn as much juice when there are no GPS-based apps running...

Meanwhile - I loaded .174 last night. This morning, I woke up to a 100% charge. It's been off the charger for 2.5 hours, I've done some browsing, used bluetooth (headset) and made a couple of phone calls, and the battery is at 95%. I'll see how it goes today.

edit:

BTW -- where do the marketing numbers come from that talk about 5.5 hours talk time, and 15 days stand-by???
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Last edited by vinmontRD; 03-09-2009 at 12:50 PM..
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Old 03-09-2009, 01:39 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vinmontRD View Post
I can't find a way to turn GPS on/off either....
I believe you can turn GPS off by going to Options > Advanced Options > GPS and setting the GPS Services option to Location Off.
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Old 03-09-2009, 02:45 PM   #11
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Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

If .174 brings better battery life I'll definitly upgrade...waiting to hear back. My battery doesn't seem to die as fast as it did with the OS out of the box when I got it though which is a big improvement
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Old 03-09-2009, 03:22 PM   #12
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So far .174 really seems to have made a huge difference. Trying to incorporate a bit of scientific reasoning, though, it's not clear that .174 itself is the cause of my improved battery life since loading .174 -- three possibilities:
- .174 itself is the reason for better battery life
- my more conservative OS load this time, removing AIM, Yahoo, etc (have BeeJiveIM)
- maybe just the action of loading a new OS...?

Anyway - battery life seems great so far, although it's a bit premature to be confident of this. But here's what I'm seeing:

- off the charger 6:15am today -- 100% battery
- 45 mins driving, using bluetooth headset, making a couple of calls
- in 5 hours of use, I've made/received several phone calls @ about 10 mins each
- BBWeather updating every 30 mins
- sent myself 4 large emails from the pc, each with 22 to 25 high res wallpapers
- opened the emails, opened the images (close to 100), downloaded and stored on mem card
- some minor web browsing
- a handful of SMS msgs

No idea if it's relevant, but in case anyone's curious, I have an 8GB memory card in the 8900. Stock Precision T-Mobile theme, but an alternate image for the home screen.

Most of this activity was via UMA (not the part when I was driving!)

Most of this time, the 8900 has been sitting, naked, on my desk (what an image!). When I'm not using it, I simply put it in standby mode. Only use the case when I get up and walk around.



After 5 hours of use like this, with .174, I'm at 90% battery.
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Old 03-09-2009, 04:40 PM   #13
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Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

Dang I might switch tonight, I was off the charger at 7a and now 12:45 and I'm at 60% and have been browsing the web quite some bit, and sms messages...no calls, nor wifi/gps usage and I'm on .168
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Old 03-09-2009, 04:46 PM   #14
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I agree that 168 zapped battery. 174 seems much better.
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Old 03-09-2009, 04:48 PM   #15
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Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

Oh and I have been using my bDroid theme and holster mode when I'm not using it
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Old 03-09-2009, 08:10 PM   #16
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I've been off the charger since 6:15 this morning -- 9.5 hours now, using bluetooth, several phone calls, sms, web browsing, receiving 4 emails with a total of 100 480x360 wallpapers that I stored to my mem card, etc. Battery at 80%. I'm doing much better with .174 than with any prior OS version.
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Old 03-09-2009, 08:25 PM   #17
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where do I find 4.6.174? Is it fully released?
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Old 03-09-2009, 11:26 PM   #18
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From what you say Poynt was the problem. Rapid unusual battery drainage is almost always from excessive radio use, usually in the background. Poynt being a GPS program uses a radio, you installed it/used it and all of a sudden the battery sux, so there you go. I've said many times that when you update the OS you probably will turn off all the radios and set them to ground one. One person solved her battery disaster just doing a battery pull. I know I won't convince some people of this, but the OS by itself doesn't drain your battery, it's the radios and the screen lighting up. I have the original OS and used mine Fri/Sat/Sun with some GPS/BT/the usual stuff I use and it was 15% at 10pm last night. I make sure stuff is shut off though. Once my 8100 battery wasn't lasting long. I found a Ryder Cup plugin RSS feed was trying to update after the tournament was over. A beta GPS program may be tough to control. A lot of people swear the OS is the difference but that doesn't make any sense logically. I've yet to find someone who didn't use any apps, just updated the OS after a week of use and that alone made a difference between horrible and good battery.
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Old 03-11-2009, 01:45 PM   #19
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Quote:
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A lot of people swear the OS is the difference but that doesn't make any sense logically.
I was on a call with a guy from RIM on an unrelated issue, and I told him that I read that there is a correlation between OS versions and battery usage. He told me that despite what people say online that was not the case.
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Old 03-11-2009, 02:40 PM   #20
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I dunno, I haven't changed any usage, programs, themes, etc and coming from the stock TMo OS to .168 I saw a better battery consumption. I just loaded .174 last night so I can't say with that
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