[Q] Cell Standby while having no reception - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I work in an office which is a level below ground in central Sydney so most of my work day I am out of reception.
Now I do venture into reception areas so every now and then so don't want to turn aeroplane mode on and off all the time.... So please don't suggest this.
With my previous phone (i8000) I didn't have such a drain on battery when out of reception all day from what I remember. I used to get really long standby times but I didn't use the screen anywhere near as much.
Now I know the phone will use more power in low reception areas because it needs to turn the sensitivity up to get clear signal. But the i9100 seems to drain much more than all my other phones I have used.
I am on stock I3 firmware with CT Root kernel. I have a high level of 44% Cell Standby with only being on for 6 hours (and out of reception for 3 of them) even though I have used the screen for 1 hour and that only shows 37% of usage. I don't remember it being this bad on H3 but to be honest I didn't really check for comparison of usage.
Is this normal? My old O2 phone on win mo used to go into a state of sleep for searching for reception when at work because it used to take a few minutes sometimes, after I got into reception zone, to realise I had reception. The i9100 seems to get it straight away which makes me think is it polling all the time I am at work and draining the battery more because it tries so hard?
Hope I made this clear.

So it appears like from research this high drain is fairly common on android devices when in no reception areas. I could understand why it would happen in low reception areas where the phone uses more power to pick up a weak signal. But why would the phone continually do this in a NO recpetion area. I thought samsung would have made the phone relaise it has no reception and only try every 5 minutes or so...
I never noticed this on my i8000 or any of my win mo phones before it. I assume they realsied there was no reception and stopped polling at full strength the whole time I was at work. This would have been indicated by the slight delay of leaving my bilding before getting messages sometimes where now its instant. But without the battery usage stats I can't compare.
I have tried to find an app that automatically puts the phone into aeroplane mode when NO signal for 30 minutes or something. And keep s turning aeroplane off every 5 or 10 minutes or so. But I have yet to find anything.
I realise there are programs that will use GPS and do it automatically but this is not ideal. I only want it to happen when I have no reception.
Any ideas of ways to fix this without me manually putting my phone into aeroplane mode when I'm in my office and remembering to take it back out when I know I should have reception? I don't want to use location based because this doesn't work when I go up one level.

Just bumping my ancient thread.
After an app that will recognised NO reception for long periods and automatically put flights mode on. Then turn flight mode off briefly every 5 minutes or so to check if reception is back.
In my office I have no reception but if I go up two levels I do. So time based automation does not suit nor does location based unless it knows what level I am on.
See above for the long story
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Related

[Q] High "Cell standby" percentage at battery info

Hi,
I watched my battery info a moment ago and don't know if those stats are normal.
Cell standby: 42%
- Time on 19h 44m
- Time without a signal 100%
Display: 20%
Android System: 15%
Phone idle: 7%
Android OS: 6%
"Cell standby" seems to use much battery power and my phone signal strengh does not show more than 2 of 5 "bars" in the notification bar (inside buildings). Data network is not enabled.
Now I'm not sure if the antenna of my phone might be defect cause of this high battery usage. I am also sometimes not reachable if people try to call me.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=15648244#post15648244
sounds like what were going through mate!
WongKit said:
Hi,
I watched my battery info a moment ago and don't know if those stats are normal.
Cell standby: 42%
- Time on 19h 44m
- Time without a signal 100%
Display: 20%
Android System: 15%
Phone idle: 7%
Android OS: 6%
"Cell standby" seems to use much battery power and my phone signal strengh does not show more than 2 of 5 "bars" in the notification bar (inside buildings). Data network is not enabled.
Now I'm not sure if the antenna of my phone might be defect cause of this high battery usage. I am also sometimes not reachable if people try to call me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you miss the key component battery used in that time span .
1% battery used 90% used ???
Your post reads as phone not receiving a signal .Phone sleeping/not in use .
Of the battery used in that time 42% was cell standby NOT 42% of the battery 42 % of the amount used .
more than 2 of 5 "bars" in the notification bar (inside buildings)
No network will guarantee any reception inside buildings . Faraday cage and all that .
Test the phone outside the building first for signal strength .
jje
Cell standby
If you know you wont have signal turn airplane mode on, to save it from searching for a signal all the time, and thus draining some battery.
@Jesmicael: Thanks! I'll watch this thread.
@JJEgan:
My phone uses about 12% battery within 9 hours. No display, no data network, no wlan, no gps, but about 1h of listening to music in this timespan.
I got signal inside buildings most time (with 0-2 bars) but it also happend to me that I was not reachable, even when I placed the phone next to an open window. Outside of the building I have maximum signal.
I did not have any problems with my older LG phone in the same situation.
Of course I know that this 42% are just compared to other battery users
@veyka:My phone is not placed in an isolated cage, and I want to be reachable in this time. Airplane mode is good for saving battery, but not when you want to use a "phone" ^^
WongKit
WongKit said:
@Jesmicael: Thanks! I'll watch this thread.
I got signal inside buildings most time (with 0-2 bars) but it also happend to me that I was not reachable, even when I placed the phone next to an open window. Outside of the building I have maximum signal.
Phone gives full signal so nothing wrong with the phones hardware or antenna .
Your alternative is to take the phone to a service centre .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seeing as you're pretty much putting your phone in stasis for the 9 hours of usage. i think its pretty normal drain. it just looks like the only thing the phone is actually using is the antenna.
Just a wild idea, did you set the phone to GSM/WCDMA auto?
PrimaryComplex said:
Just a wild idea, did you set the phone to GSM/WCDMA auto?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but does it matter, if I have no data connection enabled? If so, what should I use instead?
Maybe this battery "drain" of the cell standby is normal, when I do not use the phone in this time. On the other hand I am a bit confused, cause due Samsungs official data sheet, the phone should last up to 620h in standby with 3g enabled.
Of course the realistic value is less than 620h, but not 6 times less.
Ive come to realise that this might just be an erroneous stat. I honestly don't think it takes up 100% of my battery. Cell standby has actually deceased since I've flashed villainrom 2.1
any one else have a clue?
I had a theory that since my gsii its actually gt-i9100t not gt-i9100 it might make a little,difference.. whoo knows.. :/
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
I've come to the conclution that the SG2 is not for use it all day, I have turned it on this morning connected all day to wifi/dataplan and after 14 hours the battery is dead. Will not be able to use it for an entire day.
Pd: wanted to share a pic but seems that the forums are not allowing the png format.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
mine lasts all day even with pretty heavy useage mate
you will get about 5 hours screen time on average from this device and battery .
I suggest checking to see if you have killed samsung bloatware that likes to run all the time , installed juice defender which helps a lot , adjusted your start up programs , installed latest firmware or a custom rom like leomar2.1 , if you cant get 3g signal switch to 2g only , switch wifi/gps/bluetooth off when not in use .
Doing all of the above will get you excellent battery life and you will easily last through the day .
The only way i can kill my battery in a day is with some severe gaming sessions and dlna sessions or internet browsing sessions
Battery and phone are fine its the setup thats important
Hope you get it sorted peeps and have a great day too
Look its really normal. You phone will use power in standby, so there is really nothing wrong. The numbers are relative.

[Q] Forcing 2G when 3G not available

Heya all.
I'd like to know is there some android application that can control my 2G/3G settings based on a rule (something like AutomateIt, which does not do that) so that it stops my phone from trying to connect to 3G network when signal is low or lost?
Let me explain - I go twice a week to a gym which is actually in the basement of a building, and my carrier's network is very weak there, mostly no signal at all.
During those 2hrs period I've noticed that my battery drainage is larger than when I'm in the reach of the network.
Since I know that cell phones tries to log-on to the network using maximum power, and that 3G uses more juice than 2G, I concluded that my phone is trying to reconnect to 3G network when it looses signal instead of doing nothing.
Now, I don't exactly know how phones in general behave when they loose signal alltogether (I think they go from 3G down to 2G and then should go into some passive, listening-only mode, waiting for the beacon from the cell tower), but I guess that in such cases it would be better for me to force the phone to go to 2G (and keep reconnecting/listening on 2G) and later on, when it detects 3G, switch back to it.
Unfortunatelly, AutomateIt does not have radio control and I can't use it like I do at night to turn off sync and data and turn it on in the morning.
Also it does not have a rule related to network signal strength/type/whatever.
I can't use some timer app that would simply turn on/off airplane mode during that period, because I might not go to the gym sometimes, or I might simply be late or leave the gym later, so I'd still have larger battery drainage, even for a short period of time.
Many words, but I hope everybody understands my problem.
Cheers.
OK is it possible that nobody knows the answer to this?
I know that 2g/3g autoswitching should do it's job but watching my power drainage I get the feeling that phone keeps trying to force 3g and that eats the battery.
Sent from my Prime

Battery draining after losing signal

I have a Telus SG3 (Canada) and my battery was empty after 7 hours without any usage (stand by and a couple of text messages that's all). This was happening mostly during the week (when I'm at work).
I suspected something with the LTE and taking the subway. Yesterday my cell battery was draining really fast, I decided to reboot the cell phone and the draining stopped. I was at 60% at 12h32pm and then 46% at 13h42 without any usage (lte and wifi on, stand by). I rebooted my SG3 at 13h55 while I was at 43%, afterwards much better, I was at 40% at 15h12pm and 36% at 16h48.
Today, I closed my cellphone before entering the subway and opened it up after the ride. It's 14h00 and I'm at 86% !!!!!
I'm telling you guys, this is a huge concern for Samsung. But for now, I'm just glad I found an alternative to this huge problem.
Ref: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1777226&page=5 (HTC One X)
This is normal. When your phone loses signal...the radio works twice as much to try and gain a stable signal back. So even though you're not actually using your phone, it the radio causes your phone to stay on. Unless you put your phone in airplane mode.
babymatteo said:
This is normal. When your phone loses signal...the radio works twice as much to try and gain a stable signal back. So even though you're not actually using your phone, it the radio causes your phone to stay on. Unless you put your phone in airplane mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But why should it work twice as much after I regained the signal (I'm talking about 45 minutes ride). The battery drain starts when I get out of the subway station.
I have no signal at work and the battery would be dead by the time I would head home. Now I put it on airplane mode > use wifi + google voice to text. The battery is usually around 70% when I head home.

What is Causing Some Folks to Have Truly Horrible Battery Life?

Because Im seriously curious... This phone has a rap of being "atrocious" in terms of battery life... Now I'm not making this post to be mean or anything, In fact I really do want to know what IS causing it or some theories.. and share one theory I have
But my personal experience really says otherwise, Tonight I set a new "record" on my One X+, 16 hours 28 minutes with 2 hours 43 minutes screen on time... And I didnt do anything "extreme" to achieve it, My Google Now is on, my location services are on, autosync is enabled.. About the only thing I have done is install JuiceDefender (My previous record without Juice Defender was about 15-something hours) I watched youtube videos, Read some websites, listened to music, and even played some games... I'm completely stock, no roms or anything
Now, I will note, I had a problem the other day where my battery killed itself, FAST.. After a bit of digging around and tweaking, I discovered the cause was that my One X+ wasnt entering Deep Sleep, and thus the processor was staying at 475mhz or so even when the screen was locked (Causing the battery to be drained like i was using it) What caused this? My Wi-Fi, of all things, While I had a really good signal, I had it prioritizing the 5.8ghz radio, and in my room, the 5.8ghz signal is fairly weak as im a ways from my router... so the phone was switching between it and the 2.4ghz signal, causing the phone to be unable to sleep, Removing the 5.8ghz AP from my phone fixed the issue completely and my phone returned to "normal" behavior...
Yeah i know it sounds really farfetched and weird, and took me a bit of googling to get the idea that this might be what was causing my issue (I tested my hypothesis by turning Wi-Fi off completely and using Cell data, Sure enough my phone slept like a baby and barely used any battery.. i flipped Wi-Fi on and suddenly the phone was drinking its battery down rapidly.. I disabled the 5.8ghz AP and suddenly the phone worked 100% properly again)
I suspect that this is the cause behind some folks who are saying their phone is draining down 7% in 20 minutes with it locked, Its simply not entering deep sleep, the processor is doing something in the background... Could some of them be having the problem i just described? Its possible, Especially if you have multiple Wi-Fi points in your house.. Could the wi-fi in the One X+ be bugged? I dunno, Thats possible to, Thats why I'm posting this...
Now of course some people need a phone that is going to go for 2-3 days without a charge, and no, this isnt the phone for you (There arent many smartphones out there that can manage that if you actually USE it any) But really.. 16 hours with 3 hours of screen on time is pretty darn good.. Thats getting quite close to my Galaxy Nexus with a 3500mah Extended Battery (Around 18h standby, 3.5-4 hours screen on) despite all of the "handicaps" the One X+ has over the simple GNex (Like LTE and a Quad Core processor) and is vastly better than my stock Galaxy Nexus battery which died constantly...
And yes, heres a screenshot as proof if you dont believe me...
I just want to add that I find that googlenow also drains the battery and as such I always disable it. It was a problem on my S2 and thus I have disabled it on my HOX+
Honestly, mine wasn't lasting longer than 8 hours until I rooted it and simply "froze" all of the AT&T apps I wasn't using. That alone gave me an extra 2-3 hours a day of battery life! (I've read here that the AT&T apps, even if you aren't using them, keep running in the background) The other thing that seems to help is an app called Smart WiFi toggler that's done wonders for both myself and everyone else I know who uses it in terms of minimizing WiFi battery usage.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sebouh00.smartwifitoggler&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5zZWJvdWgwMC5zbWFydHdpZml0b2dnbGVyIl0.
I'm sure other folks have other tips, but this has been the winning combo for me.
I should add that i also froze every ATT app i could and never opened ANY of them.. So maybe thats part of it as well..
JuiceDefender i believe is doing something similar for me with the Wi-Fi by turning it off when its not needed...
My battery life was terrible when I first got this phone. I let it charge out completely once this month and I've been using LBE Security Master. Those two things have greatly extended my battery so much I have been able to go more than a day with it before charging. Another factor might be that my phone isn't carrier branded or anything.
The "My Wi-Fi isnt letting my phone enter deep sleep" thing is actually starting to get annoying, I thought i fixed it but it keeps coming back...and yes, it is legitimately killing my battery at twice the normal rate because the phone will -not- enter deep sleep
My phone goes into deep sleep just fine if i turn Wi-Fi off...and my battery drain returns to normal....So it cant be some app downloading stuff or constantly pinging the internet or else it would do the same thing when im on LTE...
Also i've reset the "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" option to never 20 times now, it keeps going back to "always" on me...
Ideas?
My battery life is ok. See here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2067143
Mine is too, Provided i turn Wi-Fi off or i get the bug to go away for a bit (basically toggling wi-fi on and off a few times and twiddling with the settings makes it work right, but the problem comes back minutes or hours later)
Otherwise, Wi-Fi wont let my phone enter deep sleep, and my battery drains like im using it..
The thing thats annoying me more is that the "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" setting will not stay where i set it and keeps going back to the default setting....
I guess i can just toggle wi-fi on and off manually...

'keep wifi on when screen times out'?

what are others thoughts on some of the pros and cons of this update? i'm thinking it will actually save battery to have wifi 'always on' in standby mode rather than repeatedly switching between a on/off state which uses more energy.
It will definitely eat more battery if it's always on under the lockscreen...
Also there is an option to deactivate notifications when new wifi hotspots are around.. if you are about battery life you should deactivate this..
Ikkari said:
It will definitely eat more battery if it's always on under the lockscreen...
Also there is an option to deactivate notifications when new wifi hotspots are around.. if you are about battery life you should deactivate this..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I keep my Wifi always on because it consumes the least battery (vs 3G, LTE, etc).
If I don't play games on my Lumia 920 the battery can last 3 days.
This update is freezing my phone Dunno why but I have tested it. I occasionally get a freeze now and then, but when the keep wifi is on, it is like every couple of hrs... Will test it more though.
Ikkari said:
It will definitely eat more battery if it's always on under the lockscreen...
Also there is an option to deactivate notifications when new wifi hotspots are around.. if you are about battery life you should deactivate this..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong unless your phone is using 5-year old wifi chip.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is the wifi on this phone an on demand type system? From what I see on mine, the wifi unless being used for an actual update or downloading other content goes to sleep when the lock screen is on. It then wakes up if there is an update pushed to it or if something else needs it or of course if you unlock the phone. At least that is the way it appears that mine works.
Also your radio service are going to use much more power than the wifi will as they are higher power transmitters and receivers. There is a reason wifi only works within a few hundred feet and radio works for several miles that is due to the power difference. Of course with more power you get more battery consumption.
In the case of conserving the battery you are better off to use wifi when possible, leave it on and let the phone control it.
In my experience keeping Wifi on permanently lead to a remarkable decrease in battery life. That will depend on where you are though. If I have it sitting at home where it has Wifi connectivity it's likely that I would see better battery life because all actual transfers will happen via Wifi. At work though it can't connect to the Wifi network (private phone, work network) and so I have 3G running anyway while the phone keeps looking for Wifi networks to connect to.
The problem boils down to the fact that while you can switch off Wifi completely because everything can still work using 3G you can't switch off the phone part completely because only data is done over Wifi but you still need the mobile connection to receive calls/SMS.
I would suggest to anyone to simply try out what works better for them. For me it worked best to let Wifi deactivate automatically as it had been the default in WP since WP7 came out.
foxbat121 said:
Wrong unless your phone is using 5-year old wifi chip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe Wifi is using less power when you are downloading something and need a lot of data... But when your phone is idle... Constant on Wifi is using far more battery power than 3G that checks for email or weather every 1-2 hours...
Simple enough...if you are consistently in an area with a WiFi signal, leave WiFi "always on"...it will consume less battery. If you're in an area without WiFi signal then turn it off, as searching for a signal will help run your battery down.
Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2
Ikkari said:
Maybe Wifi is using less power when you are downloading something and need a lot of data... But when your phone is idle... Constant on Wifi is using far more battery power than 3G that checks for email or weather every 1-2 hours...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, simply not true unless you are using a 5-year old phone. Even if you are in an area that has no wifi connection, the extra drain caused by searching for Wi-Fi networks is minimum in a modern OS and modern chipset. I have left all my android phones (the ones that offer Wi-Fi always on feature for a few years now) wifi on all the time. Never have felt much difference vs if I turn wifi off. It annoys me that WP didn't offer this capability for so long.
foxbat121 said:
Again, simply not true unless you are using a 5-year old phone. Even if you are in an area that has no wifi connection, the extra drain caused by searching for Wi-Fi networks is minimum in a modern OS and modern chipset. I have left all my android phones (the ones that offer Wi-Fi always on feature for a few years now) wifi on all the time. Never have felt much difference vs if I turn wifi off. It annoys me that WP didn't offer this capability for so long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested a lot of phones Android and WP, my experience is that wifi always on is a battery killer... And I'm talking about state of the art hardware... It's just my 2 cent's but i keep it off...
When I don't charge overnight and wifi is always on my battery drops about 40%
with only 3G on about 8-10%
Foxbat: you can leave it any way you want to do it. I'm not saying Microsoft should remove the feature. But in my experience keeping Wifi on kills the battery faster. I tested it for my use case with always on and with Auto and in the end: Auto it was for me.
The best advice you can give to people is: try it out yourself and you will see what works best for you.
A picture or two says it all. See the attached files for my two testing: one with wifi always on for 24-hour and one with Wi-Fi in auto mode for 24-hour:
The right picture shows 0.0%/hour under current discharge rate... pretty impressive
Ikkari said:
The right picture shows 0.0%/hour under current discharge rate... pretty impressive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The keyword is 'Current' -- means at that moment. You can derive the same thing from the left in various sections. The key here is that I don't see any discernible difference. Certainly not a battery killer in any sense as you claimed.
If you look at the first 12-hour period of both chart (when the phone is mostly sleep and not used), the result is almost identical. FYI, there are three push emails connected all the time: Hotmail, GMail and Corporate Exchange Email.
Yes the keyword 'Current' -- means at that moment... so your phone is not discharging although your screen is on... Very accurate app...
Ikkari said:
Yes the keyword 'Current' -- means at that moment... so your phone is not discharging although your screen is on... Very accurate app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, what you saying is that if you have the screen on, you will see your battery percentage drop immediately? You should return your phone if that is the case.
Battery app get its information from the phone OS reporting. If the OS reported the same battery percentage over a short period of time, the discharge rate won't be anything other than zero. That's limitation of the platform, not app.
Instead of criticize the app which is not the point of the post, why don't you post your findings where leave Wi-Fi always on kills your battery?
it' % per hour... and your phone is using currently using 0,0% per hour so if you leave it like that it will run for ever... so where is the mistake?
Ikkari said:
it' % per hour... and your phone is using currently using 0,0% per hour so if you leave it like that it will run for ever... so where is the mistake?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
% per hour is a unit of measurement. It doesn't mean you have to take one hour to measure it in order to claim its rate. That will be average rate on that hour, not current rate which is meant to see what your current usage pattern is. It can't be used to predict your battery life. If you notice that when you take your phone off the charger, it will stay on 100% for quite some time before it starts to drop. Does that mean your phone battery can last forever? Think about it before post these ridiculous statements.
Foxbat - you are trying to tell us how our devices should behave while we are telling you how they actually behave in the real world out there. You can repeat your 5 years story as often as you want to but it clearly doesn't live up to the factual reality we experience every day and I guess after trying it out with different ROMs on the 920 and leaving all other settings the same I know the effect it had pretty well.
Nice to know though that you are having a different experience with different devices.

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