Wifi drains more batt than mobile data? - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all,
Is it normal for wifi to drain 1% every 5-10 mins on standby? Where as when I'm on 2g mobile data I get 40-45mins for every 1%. I've investigated this for 6 hours and it consistently shows the same result.
My setup:
Same Apps and setup. Wifi Cisco E3000 and 20 feet away from my room.
I also placed my phone 6feet away and still get the same batt drain.
I get a 120-190mah as per batterymonitor app on wifi and only 20-30mah on 2g
Thouhts?

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My battery consumption on a 2.3.4 XXKG3 rooted S2, without Samsung crap:
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Check your running services, you will know rightaway what is killing your battery.

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Yes, that is possible. It all depends on your situation. For some people mobile data drains more battery then wifi. And for some wifi drains more then mobile data.
Nothing to worry about.

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yqed said:
My battery consumption on a 2.3.4 XXKG3 rooted S2, without Samsung crap:
Check your running services, you will know rightaway what is killing your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How the heck can your battery last that long? I barely touched my phone and its down to 50 in hours. Does it matter if I'm on KH3? I live in Nz but imported my phone I think from Taiwan or hk. Will I be able to use KG3?

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WiFi drains battery if it is continually searching for a signal when non is present i find .
jje

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I prefer to use wifi when possible just because the battery consumption is less than 3G.. i remember one time I forgot the phone at night with wifi turned on and connected, after 7-8 hours i had lost only 2%

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I leave wifi and data both turned on, all the time. That way it just uses whatever's available and I don't have to worry about it. With very minimal use (only a few calls and a handful of SMS) I can get 4 days out of my phone. I have a tablet and am usually in front of a PC, so the phone rarely gets used as anything more than a phone!
Anyway, wifi is not your issue. Have you looked into freezing the wifi sharing app? (You don't have to actually be sharing wifi for this to be a relevant thing to do!)

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JJEgan said:
WiFi drains battery if it is continually searching for a signal when non is present i find .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is correct, if you have a good Wi-Fi signal the battery drain should be les than 3G but if not then it's gonna be worse.

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thanks for the rep guys. I notice that my wifi scans continuously eventhough its using my home network. It's like scanning every 20 secs or so. Ss that normal?
With regards to Apps, and I've frozen everything I can think of that might cause a drain like beautiful widget, setting all my snyc to manual except my google account. I don't receive too much push email. I've frozen the usual culprits like wifi sharing/manager, all samsung Apps, disable fast dormancy, disable auto backup by google.
3 hours ago I frozen juicedefender and when I checked batt still drained 1% 5-15mins.!!! I'm now trying viber frozen.
I'm running out of Apps to freeze!
Is it possible that my phone drains more batt by using wifi N? Btw, as my first post says I already tried to put my phone closer to my router and I still get the same drain. Damn!!!
---------- Post added at 11:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 PM ----------
Does having kh3 have anything to do with it? If I change modems will I benefit from it? Could it be rom related - I remember when I first rooted I was on lp and I think the batt was better. I'm now on cog1. 5.1. But I'd imagine it's more of the kernel
Edit: I forgot to mention that I'm getting 60-80% Android OS

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Kepster said:
thanks for the rep guys. I notice that my wifi scans continuously eventhough its using my home network. It's like scanning every 20 secs or so. Ss that normal?
With regards to Apps, and I've frozen everything I can think of that might cause a drain like beautiful widget, setting all my snyc to manual except my google account. I don't receive too much push email. I've frozen the usual culprits like wifi sharing/manager, all samsung Apps, disable fast dormancy, disable auto backup by google.
3 hours ago I frozen juicedefender and when I checked batt still drained 1% 5-15mins.!!! I'm now trying viber frozen.
I'm running out of Apps to freeze!
Is it possible that my phone drains more batt by using wifi N? Btw, as my first post says I already tried to put my phone closer to my router and I still get the same drain. Damn!!!
---------- Post added at 11:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 PM ----------
Does having kh3 have anything to do with it? If I change modems will I benefit from it? Could it be rom related - I remember when I first rooted I was on lp and I think the batt was better. I'm now on cog1. 5.1. But I'd imagine it's more of the kernel
Edit: I forgot to mention that I'm getting 60-80% Android OS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, I kept it short and simple. I flashed the XXKG3 generic ROM that is compatible with my Bell distributor then I installed CF-Root and started to uninstall the apps, not "freezing" them (no idea why is called freeze, as the command is "# pm disable PACKAGE").
I use Wifi N with a Cisco E4200 DD-WRT (phone at 20") as well Beautiful Widgets and I never disabled any of the system services you mentioned in your post, you should NOT play with them. You are trying blindly to see if you improve your battery when in fact you are hurting it by killing processes that are needed by system apps (there is your drain). And Juice Defender saves you a bit of battery than use it on its app... not a big advantage. Just start from fresh with a stock ROM and clean your way up, the right way... don't just disable/uninstall what you "think" it might help. And stop installing "optimization" apps, how do you know they actually help if you do not monitor them? Get your system cleaned first, then start installing one app at the time while checking the stats available in your OS, not some fancy app. DocRambone posted a very good list, related to safe applications to be removed. Did you looked at that list? Personally, I uninstalled only half of them.
These are my running services:
Code:
PID USER VSZ STAT COMMAND
1 root 508 S /init
2 root 0 SW [kthreadd]
3 root 0 SW [ksoftirqd/0]
4 root 0 SW [migration/0]
5 root 0 SW [watchdog/0]
9 root 0 SW [events/0]
11 root 0 SW [khelper]
15 root 0 SW [async/mgr]
16 root 0 SW [pm]
19 root 0 SW [suspend]
20 root 0 SW [sync_system_wor]
151 root 0 SW [s5p-tmu]
337 root 0 SW [sync_supers]
339 root 0 SW [bdi-default]
341 root 0 SW [kblockd/0]
356 root 0 SW [khubd]
359 root 0 SW [kseriod]
394 root 0 SW [irq/331-max8997]
434 root 0 SW [kmmcd]
527 root 0 SW [kondemand/0]
540 root 0 SW [pet_watchdog/0]
549 root 0 SW [khungtaskd]
550 root 0 SW [kswapd0]
599 root 0 SW [aio/0]
612 root 0 SW [crypto/0]
1237 root 0 SW [sec_jack_wq]
1240 root 0 SW [irq/350-sec_hea]
1245 root 0 SW [spi_gpio.3]
1262 root 0 SW [svnet_txq]
1274 root 0 SW [file-storage]
1300 root 0 SW [irq/328-mxt224_]
1306 root 0 SW [irq/325-k3g]
1312 root 0 SW [irq/326-proximi]
1315 root 0 SW [cm3663_light_wq]
1316 root 0 SW [cm3663_prox_wq]
1366 root 0 SW [mali_dvfs]
1369 root 0 SW [mali-pmm-wq]
1378 root 0 SW [sii9234_wq]
1379 root 0 SW [irq/481-mhl_int]
1380 root 0 SW [irq/496-mhl_wak]
1383 root 0 SW [irq/343-max1704]
1394 root 0 SW [kstriped]
1396 root 0 SW [kmpathd/0]
1398 root 0 SW [kmpath_handlerd]
1399 root 0 SW [ksnapd]
1400 root 0 SW [kconservative/0]
1414 root 0 SW [ktflash_requlat]
1429 root 0 SW [usbhid_resumer]
1432 root 0 SW [binder]
1441 root 0 SW [irq/333-IPC_HOS]
1452 root 0 SW [mmcqd]
1481 root 0 SW [l2cap]
1482 root 0 SW< [krfcommd]
1488 root 0 SW [dynamic hotplug]
1501 root 0 SW [melfas_touchkey]
1506 root 0 SW [fimc0_iqr_wq_na]
1509 root 0 SW [fimc1_iqr_wq_na]
1512 root 0 SW [fimc2_iqr_wq_na]
1515 root 0 SW [fimc3_iqr_wq_na]
1518 root 0 SW [hdcp work]
1529 root 0 SW [tvout resume wo]
1535 root 0 SW [sec-battery]
1538 root 384 S /sbin/ueventd
1761 root 0 SW [Si4709_wq]
1782 root 0 SW [jbd2/mmcblk0p9-]
1784 root 0 SW [ext4-dio-unwrit]
2563 root 0 SW [jbd2/mmcblk0p7-]
2564 root 0 SW [ext4-dio-unwrit]
2566 root 0 SW [jbd2/mmcblk0p1-]
2567 root 0 SW [ext4-dio-unwrit]
2570 root 0 SW [jbd2/mmcblk0p10]
2571 root 0 SW [ext4-dio-unwrit]
2579 system 868 S /system/bin/servicemanager
2580 root 6616 S /system/bin/vold
2581 system 1972 S /system/bin/notified_event
2583 root 732 S /system/bin/debuggerd
2584 radio 9512 S /system/bin/rild
2585 system 4624 S /system/bin/npsmobex
2586 system 8476 S /system/bin/drexe
2590 bluetoot 1372 S /system/bin/dbus-daemon --system --nofork
2591 root 932 S /system/bin/installd
2592 keystore 1804 S /system/bin/keystore /data/misc/keystore
2594 system 14192 S /system/bin/tvoutserver
2595 shell 800 S /system/bin/sh /system/bin/rtc_log.sh
2612 shell 780 S /system/bin/immvibed
2907 wifi 2644 S /system/bin/wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ieth0 -c/data/wifi/bcm_su
3374 media 56536 S < /system/bin/mediaserver
3375 root 15472 S /system/bin/netd
3376 root 126m S zygote /bin/app_process -Xzygote /system/bin --zygote --star
3391 system 276m S system_server
3496 root 0 SW [iscan_sysioc]
3497 root 0 SW [dhd_watchdog]
3498 root 0 SW [dhd_dpc]
3499 root 0 SW [dhd_sysioc]
3502 system 152m S com.android.systemui
3511 app_99 168m S com.sec.android.inputmethod.axt9
3521 radio 155m S com.android.phone
3522 app_66 148m S android.process.media
3528 app_53 134m S com.sec.pcw.device
3532 system 134m S com.samsung.bt.avrcp
3536 bluetoot 134m S com.broadcom.bt.app.system
3544 app_12 176m S com.sec.android.app.twlauncher
3604 app_54 173m S com.google.process.gapps
3631 app_12 148m S android.process.acore
3688 app_84 135m S com.sec.android.app.FileTransferManager
3777 app_36 137m S com.sec.android.widgetapp.weatherclock
3927 app_38 136m S com.sec.android.widgetapp.apnews
4193 app_91 137m S com.sec.android.app.clockpackage
4220 app_16 137m S com.android.providers.calendar
4234 app_100 134m S com.sec.android.daemonapp.accuweather
4255 app_78 159m S com.google.android.gm
4333 app_81 174m S com.cooliris.media
4366 app_119 144m S com.google.android.apps.reader
4376 app_103 170m S com.levelup.beautifulwidgets
4435 app_37 138m S com.sec.android.widgetapp.stockclock
4453 app_16 138m S com.android.calendar
4476 system 156m S com.android.settings
4486 app_112 177m S com.google.android.music
4633 app_82 137m S com.sec.android.app.fm
4752 app_40 135m S com.sec.android.app.samsungapps.una
6623 app_68 185m S < com.google.android.apps.maps
9014 dhcp 916 S /system/bin/dhcpcd -ABK eth0
10732 graphics 139m S com.sec.android.app.screencapture
11958 system 138m S com.wssyncmldm
11989 system 135m S com.sec.android.providers.drm
11997 app_1 139m S com.smlds
12037 app_102 139m S com.skype.raider
13094 app_5 141m S jackpal.androidterm
13136 app_115 135m S com.noshufou.android.su
13170 app_68 149m S com.google.android.apps.maps:NetworkLocationService
13180 app_68 144m S com.google.android.apps.maps:FriendService
13503 app_83 141m S com.sec.android.app.FileTransferServer
13579 root 0 SW [flush-179:0]
13646 shell 1684 S /sbin/ext/busybox sh /sbin/sleep 3600
13651 shell 1676 S /sbin/ext/busybox /sbin/sleep 3600
13707 app_68 154m S com.google.android.apps.maps:HotpotService
13788 system 135m S com.android.MtpApplication
13825 app_5 796 S /system/bin/sh -
13858 root 796 S sh -
13966 root 1684 S /sbin/ext/busybox sh /sbin/ps
13971 root 1716 R /sbin/ext/busybox /sbin/ps
Compare it with yours and see what is running extra. Here are the visual running services and my battery after 29hrs (just for reference, the proper way is to look into a terminal):

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I will do what you said bro and start from scratch! Never thought I'm actually causing more drain by disabling some Apps! One more question bro. Which Apps did you remove from the list?
Thanks again!

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Certain routers are known to drain battery life on our SGS2s. I'm fairly certain some D-Link routers are known offenders in this regard. I can't be certain about you're router, but if you have access to different wifi connections, you should do a little testing.
Fiddling about in your router settings and upgrading your router firmware may help.
I'd link the threads where I came across the info, but I can't seem to find them atm.

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Kepster said:
I will do what you said bro and start from scratch! Never thought I'm actually causing more drain by disabling some Apps! One more question bro. Which Apps did you remove from the list?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DocRambone's list is very helpful. Technically, you can remove all that list and it won't cause any issues to your phone. However, I wanted to keep some of the apps like the NDLA, Analog Clock (for alarms), Memo, etc. Just go with your usage and uninstall what you think you will never use. Is always easier to remove it later, instead of putting it back. I don't remember exactly which apps I uninstalled (not disabled), I did it the hard way through terminal.
Many people recommended Titanium but I feel much more comfortable to see what is going on. SystemApp Remover is very good alternative to Terminal, IMO.
Here it is a list of the package manager commands:
Code:
# pm
usage: pm [list|path|install|uninstall]
pm list packages [-f] [-d] [-e] [-u] [FILTER]
pm list permission-groups
pm list permissions [-g] [-f] [-d] [-u] [GROUP]
pm list instrumentation [-f] [TARGET-PACKAGE]
pm list features
pm list libraries
pm path PACKAGE
pm install [-l] [-r] [-t] [-i INSTALLER_PACKAGE_NAME] [-s] [-f] PATH
pm uninstall [-k] PACKAGE
pm clear PACKAGE
pm enable PACKAGE_OR_COMPONENT
pm disable PACKAGE_OR_COMPONENT
pm setInstallLocation [0/auto] [1/internal] [2/external]
The list packages command prints all packages, optionally only
those whose package name contains the text in FILTER. Options:
-f: see their associated file.
-d: filter to include disbled packages.
-e: filter to include enabled packages.
-u: also include uninstalled packages.
The list permission-groups command prints all known
permission groups.
The list permissions command prints all known
permissions, optionally only those in GROUP. Options:
-g: organize by group.
-f: print all information.
-s: short summary.
-d: only list dangerous permissions.
-u: list only the permissions users will see.
The list instrumentation command prints all instrumentations,
or only those that target a specified package. Options:
-f: see their associated file.
The list features command prints all features of the system.
The path command prints the path to the .apk of a package.
The install command installs a package to the system. Options:
-l: install the package with FORWARD_LOCK.
-r: reinstall an exisiting app, keeping its data.
-t: allow test .apks to be installed.
-i: specify the installer package name.
-s: install package on sdcard.
-f: install package on internal flash.
The uninstall command removes a package from the system. Options:
-k: keep the data and cache directories around.
after the package removal.
The clear command deletes all data associated with a package.
The enable and disable commands change the enabled state of
a given package or component (written as "package/class").
The getInstallLocation command gets the current install location
0 [auto]: Let system decide the best location
1 [internal]: Install on internal device storage
2 [external]: Install on external media
The setInstallLocation command changes the default install location
0 [auto]: Let system decide the best location
1 [internal]: Install on internal device storage
2 [external]: Install on external media

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For some reason I couldn't upload screen capture photos of my usage our lack thereof but basically with minimal apps installed I still get a drain from 100 to 76% in 6 hours over wifi-with 2 signal bars. Android os 91%, display 8%, cell standby 5%, idle 3%.
Checked running apps and saw fotaclient, fb, drm, Settings, maps, viber, setcpu, go launcher, syncimds, google services, voice command. I'm assuming this are normal background apps. I've got a strong feeling that my router doesn't like my phone. I will try to keep my pyotr idle but this time on data connection
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

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Problem solved! It was indeed my e3000 that's causing the excessive drain! I just separated my 2.4 and 5ghz signal and voila! After 8 hours out only drained 8%! Woohoo!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

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Some users had reported wifi drain for KH3 radio. When i was on stock 2.3.3, freezing wifi sharing, wifi sharing manager and switching to KG5 modem did the trick. KH3 also caused higher battery temp when compared to Kg5...

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Kepster said:
Problem solved! It was indeed my e3000 that's causing the excessive drain! I just separated my 2.4 and 5ghz signal and voila! After 8 hours out only drained 8%! Woohoo!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to add, I see you are on 2Degrees, I get higher drain on my 2Degrees than my Vodafone...whilst I suspect that 2Degrees have weak reception in my area, and usually runs on 2G, I presume the phone is still searching for 3G network...hence uses more power. Just out of curiousity did you buy your SGS2 from Vodafone or Telecom? Chur.

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droidphile said:
Some users had reported wifi drain for KH3 radio. When i was on stock 2.3.3, freezing wifi sharing, wifi sharing manager and switching to KG5 modem did the trick. KH3 also caused higher battery temp when compared to Kg5...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm that XXKH3 drains faster the battery compared to XXKG3, but look at the GPS gains... whoaaa, pinpoint location in less than 3 seconds with a 5meters accuracy. Really happy to finally use my GPS properly, it is worth the increased battery drain. From my tests, the new firmware decreased the battery life by about 4 hours... I can live with that, in exchange of a great GPS.

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Yeah GPS locking was brilliant in KH3... But i use wifi and data connection more, than GPS. KH3 drained more battery on standby also. May be it's causing more wakelocks...