BlackBerry Forums Support Community

rileyrg · 06-21-2009, 01:11 AM

Anyone else getting appalling battery life in standby? My 141 Storm won't even last 24h hardly used. Even more frustrating is turning it OFF with a quarter full battery and it not turning on later as the rest of the power has drained. I'm not running any bg apps afaik other than the usual "in memory" candidates. I notice that the vodafone germany advert claims 220h standby. While that is clearly exaggerated, has anyone managed more than a day with a full charged phone and just a few calls?

Note to designers: include a small lcd which displays numbers and names. We dont need a one million pixel display to light up when we get called. Leave the power screen off. Thanks!

Dubdub · 06-21-2009, 08:01 AM

Sounds to me like there are apps running in the background. When in an app, especially one which uses data, you should hit "close" so it shuts down as opposed to exiting out.

rileyrg · 06-21-2009, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubdub

Sounds to me like there are apps running in the background. When in an app, especially one which uses data, you should hit "close" so it shuts down as opposed to exiting out.

I specifically said there are no extra apps running than the standard ones. What battery life do you get?

Dubdub · 06-21-2009, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rileyrg

I specifically said there are no extra apps running than the standard ones. What battery life do you get?

I realize that is what you said, but you qualified it by saying "AFAIK", however, it really sounds like there is something running to eat that much battery.

Are you a heavy phone/Internet/email user?

Are you in a fringe area so the device is constantly seeking a signal? Shouldn't be seeking when it is off however.

Don't have a Storm. Get 14-24 hours on a Bold depending upon how much I use it.

The drain when you turn off is an interesting occurrence. Do a search on "9500 battery life" and see what you get. There are several threads in this section concerning battery life. Maybe an OS upgrade will help. Could also be a defective device.

rileyrg · 06-21-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubdub

I realize that is what you said, but you qualified it by saying "AFAIK", however, it really sounds like there is something running to eat that much battery.

Are you a heavy phone/Internet/email user?

Are you in a fringe area so the device is constantly seeking a signal? Shouldn't be seeking when it is off however.

Don't have a Storm. Get 14-24 hours on a Bold depending upon how much I use it.

The drain when you turn off is an interesting occurrence. Do a search on "9500 battery life" and see what you get. There are several threads in this section concerning battery life. Maybe an OS upgrade will help. Could also be a defective device.

As I said, it drains in less than day even only making a couple of calls. Signal fine. No gps SW running. No 3rd party apps running. The fact you use a Bold probably means you aren't too familiar with the Storm which is what I am enquiring about.

Dubdub · 06-21-2009, 03:23 PM

I read a fair amount about the Storm on here and battery problems are not device specific. Many of the new models have similar issues with the battery. In some cases an OS upgrade works. In others, it doesn't.

Did you try a search as I suggested? But it seems to have conflicting info in some of the posts.

BB Storm 9500 Vodafone VERY BAD Battery life - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com

rileyrg · 06-21-2009, 04:17 PM

Yes, I know how to use google. I was asking people what their experiences are. Since it also varies with different OS versions.

jefwic · 06-22-2009, 02:46 AM

Not sure if this is helpful, but I'm getting about 2-3 days with light use on .148. Previous to this I was running .122 and just getting over 24hrs.

rileyrg · 06-22-2009, 05:35 AM

Thanks. I'm doing a test know with the gps location turned off. It seems to be a LOT better and not the minor saving some say. It's all very, very disappointing as the BB is pretty useless to take on a camping trip for the gps facilities if it cant go two days turned off for 60% of the time.

Adrian Loh · 06-22-2009, 07:38 PM

Hi
I'm a new member and this is my 1st post.
I used to have similar frustrations for two weeks when I 1st bought the Storm.
"Blackberry Storm for Dummies" says the battery life is about 2 days only due to the large screen and color. The earlier versions could last a week.
I had help from a technical support person who asked me to cahnge myManage COnnections - Mobile Network Options to 3G instead of 2G / 3G as the Storm did not have to keep scanning for networks and the data line was always up after that.
I also did the following to have battery availabilty all the time:
A. Remove "vibrate in holster" for all my alerts - new email, sms etc. Vibrate takes up quite a bit of of battery life according to the manual.
B. Purcahsed an extra battery
C. Purcahsed a separate charger for the battery - not expensive.
D. Purchased an in-car charger to use on trips.

Seems a lot of expense and trouble but helps to ensure your blackberry is always up!

adorkable · 06-23-2009, 01:21 PM

Are you in an area with a poor signal? If so, that can be a MAJOR drain on your battery, even when the phone isn't in use.

Before I moved into my new house, I was able to talk on the phone for a few house, send lots of texts, use the web, facebook, twitter, etc. all day long, and I wouldn't need to plug the phone in until I went to bed. Since moving, my battery can easily go from about 50% to 10% (where it starts beeping and flashing the green LED) in three to four hours without even being touched. I've changed a lot of settings and removed a bunch of apps, but I still have to charge my phone or switch out the battery midday.

There are so many factors that play into battery life, so if you're having problems, it may take a while to figure out the exact cause. :\

rileyrg · 06-25-2009, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrian Loh

Hi
I'm a new member and this is my 1st post.
I used to have similar frustrations for two weeks when I 1st bought the Storm.
"Blackberry Storm for Dummies" says the battery life is about 2 days only due to the large screen and color. The earlier versions could last a week.
I had help from a technical support person who asked me to cahnge myManage COnnections - Mobile Network Options to 3G instead of 2G / 3G as the Storm did not have to keep scanning for networks and the data line was always up after that.
I also did the following to have battery availabilty all the time:
A. Remove "vibrate in holster" for all my alerts - new email, sms etc. Vibrate takes up quite a bit of of battery life according to the manual.
B. Purcahsed an extra battery
C. Purcahsed a separate charger for the battery - not expensive.
D. Purchased an in-car charger to use on trips.

Seems a lot of expense and trouble but helps to ensure your blackberry is always up!

great ideas about the network. thanks.

rileyrg · 06-25-2009, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adorkable

Are you in an area with a poor signal? If so, that can be a MAJOR drain on your battery, even when the phone isn't in use.

Before I moved into my new house, I was able to talk on the phone for a few house, send lots of texts, use the web, facebook, twitter, etc. all day long, and I wouldn't need to plug the phone in until I went to bed. Since moving, my battery can easily go from about 50% to 10% (where it starts beeping and flashing the green LED) in three to four hours without even being touched. I've changed a lot of settings and removed a bunch of apps, but I still have to charge my phone or switch out the battery midday.

There are so many factors that play into battery life, so if you're having problems, it may take a while to figure out the exact cause. :\

Basic thing is : battery life is bad. Which makes the gps useless for us cyclists unfortunatey. I'm currently researching other gps phones with decent battery life.

Why oh why do they not allow complete turn off of the screen after taking a call for example? That would be a huge saving.

rileyrg · 06-25-2009, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rileyrg

Basic thing is : battery life is bad. Which makes the gps useless for us cyclists unfortunatey. I'm currently researching other gps phones with decent battery life.

Why oh why do they not allow complete turn off of the screen after taking a call for example? That would be a huge saving.

The other thing I was thinking was that since most of the time (when not cycling for example) I use the BB indoors, allow even lower screen brightnesses. Mine is set to 10% for 99.9% of the time. Why not allow even lower brightness for (I guess) even lower battery usage?

blackberryfront · 06-25-2009, 03:15 PM

See this article on prolonging battery life.

More Blackberry Storm Tips & Tricks - Battery Life

davehacker · 06-25-2009, 06:42 PM

My Storm battery life is about 14 hours, but I use the camera a lot. As far as tips, some people don't know (you all probably do) that you can hold down the menu button to see running apps. This is a convenient way to switch between apps, but also a good way to check (and close) runnings apps that are draining your battery.

rileyrg · 06-26-2009, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackberryfront

See this article on prolonging battery life.

More Blackberry Storm Tips & Tricks - Battery Life

Pretty standard fare - dont run unnecessary apps and turn off when not using.

Anyway, it seems my main question is answered - there is no magical way of keeping the phone on and getting any more than about half a day out of it. Possibly I have a bad battery.

andrwetn · 06-26-2009, 04:19 PM

Last light, I left Google Latitude running and within three hours the battery was 1/2 empty (or 1/2 full).

Normally, it will last from 6:30 AM to 10 PM and 3/4 will be used.

I'm a pretty heavy Internet user, about 30 to 45 mins (at the most) on calls.

rileyrg · 06-26-2009, 06:52 PM

I just switched gsync to manual too as there was no mention of how to set the refresh rate the in the settings.

Green_Teg · 06-26-2009, 09:35 PM

Okay this probably isn't the situation but when I had my old pearl I used to leave it sitting on top of metal objects while I was working sometimes. For a long time I couldn't understand why my phone would drain 50% or more of it's battery in an hour and a half or less. Eventually it just occured to me it was only happening when the phone was left sitting in contact with metal. I think it had something to do with the magnetic sleeper holster. The back of the phone seemed to leak power when something conductive was next to it. I haven't really noticed it with my Storm yet. Over all I've actually had significantly better battery life from it then my Pearl.