Optimising battery life before/after root? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I really enjoyed the S2 guide(somewhere here in xda) about tweaking the phone so as to maximise potential battery time.
With the increased battery of the S3 I know its not as big of a deal but I'd still love to see a few tips on how to go about getting as much juice as possible from the battery on the S3?

chicoelnino said:
I really enjoyed the S2 guide(somewhere here in xda) about tweaking the phone so as to maximise potential battery time.
With the increased battery of the S3 I know its not as big of a deal but I'd still love to see a few tips on how to go about getting as much juice as possible from the battery on the S3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the first few charge cycles to any battery determine how well they perform, I have put my S3 through 4 full charge cycles so far and the longest life I've had out of it is a smidge over 36 hours with fairly frequent usage, I'm looking in to optimisations for it but I think the charge cycles are key to good long term performance.

Would you mind explaining what a charge cycle is?

Sure..
Basically when I first got the phone I put the battery in and left it charging for ~16-18 hours before I even turned it on, next morning unplugged, turned it on, went through set up etc.. hammered it all day until battery died, went through the same process again (repeated x4 so far, on 5th full charge now)
It is important to charge fully then discharge fully a few times to allow the battery to exercise and calibrate its maximum potential.
After this partial charges are fine, but worth doing a charge/discharge/charge at least once a month to allow the calibration to remain good
Hope that helps,
R.

radialblur said:
Sure..
Basically when I first got the phone I put the battery in and left it charging for ~16-18 hours before I even turned it on, next morning unplugged, turned it on, went through set up etc.. hammered it all day until battery died, went through the same process again (repeated x4 so far, on 5th full charge now)
It is important to charge fully then discharge fully a few times to allow the battery to exercise and calibrate its maximum potential.
After this partial charges are fine, but worth doing a charge/discharge/charge at least once a month to allow the calibration to remain good
Hope that helps,
R.
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Click to collapse
It's not necessary to charge up the phone before using it the first time I was told. If you drain it first time then proceed as you said afterwards its still basically the same thing imo.

Cool. Thanks for the responses. I'll definitely try one of these methods.

chicoelnino said:
It's not necessary to charge up the phone before using it the first time I was told. If you drain it first time then proceed as you said afterwards its still basically the same thing imo.
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I'm not saying it's necessary, but if you want to condition the cells correctly it is advisable.

radialblur said:
I'm not saying it's necessary, but if you want to condition the cells correctly it is advisable.
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That is not true, a technician told me that newer batteries doest have to be drained and fully charged to perform optimal. It WAS neccesary back in the day with the older devices and no smartphones etc.

It is clearly marked on the directions to charge fully before use

Related

question about reconditioning battery

yesterday after flashing nero 5 i wanted to recondition, so while sleeping at night i charged my phone to 100, and now during the day time im trying to waste the battery, but during that i got caught up on adb and connected my charger, and left it there, now its back at 83% battery, does this mess up the reconditioning process? or do i have charge back to 100, then do it all over?
anyone? please lol
xriderx66 said:
anyone? please lol
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Click to collapse
what you should do is drain it all the way untill you cant turn it on anymore and leave it chargin all night turned off, and when you wake up turn it on and let it charge untill its full again, then boot into recovery and wipe batt statt , and you should be good to go mine last about 20 hours after i did that
T.C.P said:
what you should do is drain it all the way untill you cant turn it on anymore and leave it chargin all night turned off, and when you wake up turn it on and let it charge untill its full again, then boot into recovery and wipe batt statt , and you should be good to go mine last about 20 hours after i did that
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Click to collapse
I did just about the same with mine, minus the chargin all night turned off, and I am getting about 20-24 hours with mine, which is more than I need as I plug it in every night
cjggilbert said:
I did just about the same with mine, minus the chargin all night turned off, and I am getting about 20-24 hours with mine, which is more than I need as I plug it in every night
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Click to collapse
me to im near a power source or computer all the time so
What you should do is keep letting it drain until 1% or so. I don't think you need to let it die completely. Charge to 100%. Boot into recovery and clear battery stats with the charger still plugged in. This is the important part. Then drain the battery and charge to full. Then you should be good to go.
question, after draining to about 1%, does the phone have to be off? and can i use the phone just a bit while its charging?
xriderx66 said:
question, after draining to about 1%, does the phone have to be off? and can i use the phone just a bit while its charging?
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Click to collapse
The general consensus is that when you condition you should charge the phone while it's off. I don't know enough about battery chemistry to tell you why. Just do it to be safe
Battery "recondition", actually does not "recondition" the battery, it is a trick just to get more accuarte readings (that's the only reason you reset STATS)
The battery may not charge up to 100% and will never do, just following this procedure. It will just say it is @ 100% when you actually are @ 85 or 87, that's why the sudden "jump" you see.
Best way to try to get better readings is charging the battery till it says 100%, unplug it and plug it again a couple of times until it fully charges and follow the same procedure.
Once yo did this a few times, turn off phone, reboot in CWM (with the phone never unpluged) and clear battery stats. turn off phone and unplug,,,,
You will got at least more accurate readings
gagb1967 said:
Battery "recondition", actually does not "recondition" the battery, it is a trick just to get more accuarte readings (that's the only reason you reset STATS)
The battery may not charge up to 100% and will never do, just following this procedure. It will just say it is @ 100% when you actually are @ 85 or 87, that's why the sudden "jump" you see.
Best way to try to get better readings is charging the battery till it says 100%, unplug it and plug it again a couple of times until it fully charges and follow the same procedure.
Once yo did this a few times, turn off phone, reboot in CWM (with the phone never unpluged) and clear battery stats. turn off phone and unplug,,,,
You will got at least more accurate readings
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Click to collapse
Android Police did a piece on plugging and unplugging your phone to get up to 100% (it's called bump charging, see below). They recommended that you NOT do it because it doesn't get you much additional juice and you wear your battery out faster. Normally I just charge my battery up to 100% (no drain), wipe the battery stats, unplug and go until it dies. I use it while it's plugged in and still get a full day easily out of my phone.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/1...bump-charging-and-inconsistent-battery-drain/
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. You can not condition a Lithium-Ion battery. All you are doing is wearing it out prematurely by deep cycling. Every time you do this you destroy your over all battery life a little.
I have posted about this here in several thread, and I am getting a little tired of having to tell people NOT to do this because they don't search for themselves. Do a search on the forums for deep cycle li-ion and see for yourself.
If you want to know the technical reasons why, Google is your friend.
so we just deal with what is perceived as faster battery depletion?
Im asking because As i have posted on another threat I am a complete freak about my battery life.
Basically yes, I have 3 batteries to go around all day, although I us the car charger, if for any reason one day I take the train to the city, I will eat up 2 and a half batteries in a day.......
I had 3 batterys for my hd2 I need to get 2 new batteries for my vibrant. I guess im just tripping because I tried and over clock kernal and it seems like its dying faster while the screen is off
T313C0mun1s7 said:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. You can not condition a Lithium-Ion battery. All you are doing is wearing it out prematurely by deep cycling. Every time you do this you destroy your over all battery life a little.
I have posted about this here in several thread, and I am getting a little tired of having to tell people NOT to do this because they don't search for themselves. Do a search on the forums for deep cycle li-ion and see for yourself.
If you want to know the technical reasons why, Google is your friend.
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Click to collapse
went to your link, and found this..
http://www.ehow.com/how_6803484_do-lithium-battery-cell-phone_.html
anyways, i've heard it all, and even i used to agree with people like you, and it probably DOES wear out my battery, but the first time i did it, i got 6 hours more in battery, does that mean that my batterys dying because its giving me more life?
hazard99 said:
so we just deal with what is perceived as faster battery depletion?
Im asking because As i have posted on another threat I am a complete freak about my battery life.
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Click to collapse
Yea, just chill. It is all in your head. From ROM to ROM, usage pattern to usage pattern, and app version to app version - there are just too many variables to worry about. Just use your phone, charge it when it needs it, and relax.
Your phone's battery is going to get less life as it ages. There is nothing you can do about that. Also, it will likely only get 2-3 years before it needs replacement. If it gets less than 2 years it is because you have been "conditioning" it. which ages it prematurely and also causes how long it lasts between charges to shorten as well.
Li-ion does not have a memory, so conditioning is an inherently false concept. Recalibrating the devices ability to read the battery is a different story, but it should only be done if it really needs it (like it thinks it is at 1% when it is at 20%), and it should never be done more frequently than a minimum of 30 charge cycles or if you charge it once a day when you go to bed no more than once a month. Less frequent is better.
So sorry, you need to find something else to obsess about. Might I suggest getting Team Whiskey to make BlackFroyo the default theme, use the 5 bar signal meter, the larger numbers on the battery, and the hacked camera the used the power button to take pictures. That would save all of us some time.
xriderx66 said:
went to your link, and found this..
http://www.ehow.com/how_6803484_do-lithium-battery-cell-phone_.html
anyways, i've heard it all, and even i used to agree with people like you, and it probably DOES wear out my battery, but the first time i did it, i got 6 hours more in battery, does that mean that my batterys dying because its giving me more life?
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Nice link - try reading the stuff by the engineers that work with batteries for a living now instead. You do know eHow is just a site where any idiot that thinks they know something can post, right? Are you going to reference wikipedia next?
BTW when you recalibrated your battery and got 6 more hours, did you do anything else that might have explained it? You know like flash a new effing ROM? That might possible change a few things to do with your power usage.
T313C0mun1s7 said:
Nice link - try reading the stuff by the engineers that work with batteries for a living now instead. You do know eHow is just a site where any idiot that thinks they know something can post, right? Are you going to reference wikipedia next?
BTW when you recalibrated your battery and got 6 more hours, did you do anything else that might have explained it? You know like flash a new effing ROM? That might possible change a few things to do with your power usage.
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Click to collapse
it was a joke
and no, i flashed Nero 4.1, and then used it for a week thinking the phone would adjust to the battery and new rom, it didn't.
then i thought i'd just take a chance and recondition my battery, it was my first time, and it worked out great.
and trust me i'm a heavy user.
roughly 300-400 texts per day.
20-40 phone calls
music about 5 hours per day
and i play soem games, but thats understandable because playing dungeon defenders uses like 30% battery per hour bcz of the high graphics and such.
a bunch of app downloading.

[Q] Why do soo many people recommend something soo bad for your battery?

One of the worst things you can do to a lithium battery is discharge it completely. They don't suffer from "memory" yet every time someone here in the forums complains that they are getting crappy battery life the instruction to discharge and recharge to 100% before clearing stats pops up.
For those who are interested here is an article that explains in detail.
batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
My main question- Is there some function in android that looks at the maximum depth of discharge level of the battery or is it that most people don't understand the characteristics of L-ion and confuse them with those of Ni-Mh or Ni-Cad?
I want to know because if I need to completely discharge to get better perfomance, despite the reduction in charge cycle lifetime, I will do it but only infrequently.
I've only let my battery discharge completely once, and it wasn't on purpose. From the posts I see here I think I get above average battery life. About 18 hours miui before I go for the charger and on 2.2 roms I'd get 20 hours and still have 40% or so to go. So no I don't think completely discharging your battery does anything for battery life.
Sent from my T959 using XDA App
I have never run mine down completely. Gotten it to about 6% but that was because I was fighting ROM flashing problems. I usually call 25-30% enough for me and plug in then. I am also getting 30 hours out of my 2.2 with a good deal of use. I used to have a Motorola and their batteries are total crap. If you EVER let it get down below 10%, it took some real work for it to charge correctly and boot up. Even as much as a hardware mod where I have had to cut the wires on a USB charge cord and charge it rigged up with the wires pressed against the battery and prongs in the phone. Very dangerous, but worked for a last resort.
Discharging the battery is not for the sake of the battery,but more so for the ROMs data and how it acquires the battstats usage. I only run it up and down and clear stats when flashing a new ROM, but I do use my phone moderate to heavy daily and have had great success in battery life the way I calibrate it.
The solution I think is to use a larger capacity battery and regulate it to narrower window of operation never fully charging or discharging.
The fastest killer though seems to be heat.
I have read several times that your phone does not fully discharge the battery...that there is still a minimal amount of charge,not enough for the phone to opperate but enough to not damage the battery when it shuts down
Maybe the batterystats file can be saved after being calibrated once and then restored after every wipe oor flash.. that would save some time aabd according to you guys, batt life too
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
I've only ever calibrated my a few times and only after flashing a new rom. I never run my battery down after resetting the stats. I just use my phone as I normally do. My understanding of calibration is that it's not about squeezing more life out of the battery despite what most people think but of getting a more accurate measurement of the battery's actual charge. Also while it's true that the phone will shut of before the battery is completely discharged damaging the battery, allowing the battery charge to drop that low shortens your battery's life and decreases the amount of charge your battery can hold.
What gets me is I also read somewhere that for optimum battery life you should keep your battery level somewhere between 70%-40%. Of course that doesn't stop me from charging my phone to 100% everyday. I don't remember where I found that article but I'll post a link if I can find it again.
The reason this bad advice about completely discharging your battery persists is probably the same reason people keep recommending automatic task killers.
batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
ok, ok ill volunter, ill watch porn till my battery"discharges" At least my log will be interesting
radiohd said:
One of the worst things you can do to a lithium battery is discharge it completely. They don't suffer from "memory" yet every time someone here in the forums complains that they are getting crappy battery life the instruction to discharge and recharge to 100% before clearing stats pops up.
For those who are interested here is an article that explains in detail.
batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
My main question- Is there some function in android that looks at the maximum depth of discharge level of the battery or is it that most people don't understand the characteristics of L-ion and confuse them with those of Ni-Mh or Ni-Cad?
I want to know because if I need to completely discharge to get better perfomance, despite the reduction in charge cycle lifetime, I will do it but only infrequently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Discharging the Battery & Running the Battery Dead is 2 Different things!
We recommend running the battery dead ( Phone Shuts Off ) & recharging while off to train the Android OS from Full > Empty..
Running the Phone until Dead is not Going to hurt the Battery in anyways shape or form despite what you may think or read!
The Reason is, the battery is never fully Discharge & still holds Voltage.. The Calculations of Charged / Dead is at the Kernel Level, so even when dead it still has a 3.4v still or roughly..
As long as the kernel isn't tampered with, discharging the battery via the Phone will never hurt the battery period!
Now, Based on the link you posted you would have to run the battery down past the safe discharge point.. Via some other means of killing the battery, other than using the Phone.
To help ease your mind, Remember this:
~ Charge levels is controlled by the kernel
~ Even when Phone powers off, there is still plenty of charge in the Phone's Battery
~ Battery is never Fully charged, as this also hurts lithium batteries
Roughly every Android kernel does not let lithium battery get below 3.4v and at most 96% charged.
Hope this helps,
~Eugene
If you are still concerned wait until your phone turns off and stick your battery on a meter. You will see there is still power left in it...
My original battery that came with the phone got great life, then couple of months later it was discharging in like 2-4 hrs(froyo), so I called, they sent another one free...5-6 months later that one started doing it as well, so I pulled out the old one from the drawer, it powered on at like 85% ! and I was getting crazy ass life out of it on miui over 30 hrs one time...now that one is acting up again, so I'm going to try to swap again..lol...maybe there's something to not using them for a while...
I've used diff roms and combinations of draining/recharging...calibrating, not calibrating...it's always different results..honestly I don't think there's any rhyme or reason to it other than the fact that many vibrants have diff hardware and there will always be some weird quirk on a per user basis...
As far as hurting it by draining it all the way, I hardly think that's the case seeing as with both batteries I've always let it run down...not on purpose but there has been many many times I've plugged in at 1% or had to power back on because it died...charged it up and got 20-30hrs no prob..usually issues come up when flashing a new rom...
i think it all comes down to luck of the draw. ive had my vibrant since launch day, and i still manage great battery life. my battery is actually stamped 7-02-2010. every 2 weeks or so ill drain the battery completely, turn it back on and allow itself to die again, and finally allow it to fully charge overnight or 4 hours. i usually get a good 7-8 hours of constant use on cm7, or over 24hours if let on standby.
im still debating if i want to grab an epic 4g touch battery as well to increase it even more.
qpinto said:
im still debating if i want to grab an epic 4g touch battery as well to increase it even more.
Click to expand...
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what's this about?
Epic 4g batteries are 1800 and fit in our vibes.
Dr.Stainedglove said:
what's this about?
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http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1262035
in there they tested in a store since the epic 4g touch battery fit into a regular epic 4g, if it would fit into a vibrant. only thing is you have to put the battery in facing inside, and it fits and works 100%
Yeah the Epic 4G batteries fit in our Vibrant's. You can buy knock-off one's (that work well) for 19.99$ US! Here's a thread about it...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1316492
Epic touch battery for the win. I've been rocking it for a few weeks. I was on miui and getting 14-16hrs. I recently went back to froyo and yesterday I got 12hrs off of a 67% charge.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium
dont know if people have seen this article but i thought it was pretty interesting about the battery stats file not actually needing to be deleted...
http://www.androidcentral.com/wiping-battery-stats-doesnt-improve-battery-life-says-google-engineer
jonen said:
dont know if people have seen this article but i thought it was pretty interesting about the battery stats file not actually needing to be deleted...
http://www.androidcentral.com/wiping-battery-stats-doesnt-improve-battery-life-says-google-engineer
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Lol one of the biggest flukes in our forum haha.. people will harm their battery to calibrate it and it doesn't even do anything ...
Thank god I only calibrated once
sent from the xda app on my android smartphone.

Droid x2 battery life

My wifes x2 display is using 59% battery. Weve changed the timeout to 30s and brightness down really low. But her. Battery still dies very fast. Its only 2 months old. We ha e disabled bt wifi and gps. Any other tips?
One other question. When her phone dies she cannot plug it in and turn it on or it gets stuck on the motorola logo. Qe have to wait till droid boot animation to plug it in. Any ideas?
Sent from my DROID4 using xda premium
If you plug it in from off do you see the charging screen? Try plugging it in and holding the power button simultaneously if the phone is off.
Is the phone rooted and romd or stock?
Is it running 2.3.4?
Sent from my DROID X2 using xda premium
Its running 2.3.4 rooted but not romd. I had the phone for about a month and had no issues with it. However i never allowed it to die. Shes not a heavy user but my main concern is why the display uses 59% where my d4 uses only 26% on the same settings as hers. Can i unroot the phone in case i have to return it under warranty?
Sent from my DROID4 using xda premium
when the phone dies you need to plug it in and wait until the battery on charge only screen shows at least 10% before the system will, allow you to turn it on
if you have BSR installed tho, as soon as it dies you can plug it in and when BSR comes up you can just choose reboot system now.
and the reason you d4 uses less battery on screen it's because I believe it is an amoled screen, which consumes much, lower power levels than an LCD screen
Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk
Have you tried recalibrating the battery too?
No. How do i do that? Thanks
Sent from my DROID4 using xda premium
First, make sure the battery is completely charged, then boot into custom recovery (BSR). Go to advanced options (towards the bottom of the list) and there should be an option that says 'recalibrate battery'. Once you recalibrate it, reboot back into android. I usually always let my battery run completely out after doing a recalibration before recharging it after a re-cal. If you find on your first discharge after recalibrating that your phone tells you you've only got 20% left and it would normally only last an hour before, depending if it needed the re-cal it may last 2 hours. Those numbers are just hypotheticals. Point is, recalibrating lets android know it's for sure 100% full at the start, but it doesn't necesarily know the end point until it gets there by allowing a full discharge. Also, the lithium batteries our phones use do best when recharged around 15-20%. It's actually bad to let them completely discharge all the time. And if you have multiple batteries and one may be sitting for a while, it's best to store them between 30-40%. Let me know if you need any more clarification.
Im going to try that thank you
Sent from my DROID4 using xda premium
More importantly, if you are already rooted and such, why not run a custom ROM? CM7 and/or Eclipse should give you a good boost in battery life. Running CM7 my standard battery lasts 18-24 hours with light ish usage. And that's with my original battery from when the DX2 first came out. I also have an extended battery I am running right now, but don't have data on that one yet since it's still discharging now. I do know that swapping between batteries of different capacities pisses android off sometimes though lol. Aside from custom roms, there are scripts and apps/software-based mods that can help it significantly too. Namely, wifi vs 3g usage, turning 3g data off when your phone is not being used, etc... I started off with an original DX but VZW gave me a free upgrade to DX2 after my 6th warrantied DX. I miss Rubix's ROM and being able to overclock and undervolt... My DX would last 2+ days sometimes when I had it all dialed in.
Its now my wifes phone. Since she already has had time getting used to stock i doubt she'll let me put a rom on it lol. But ill try
Sent from my DROID4 using xda premium
Well fortunately you've got a Blur-based and AOSP-based option for it. I know what you mean though, my gf likes her Sense-based UI, but had to give it up for a semi-funtioning Eris. I think she is getting a Bionic sooner than later... HTC is garbage.
Maleko48 said:
First, make sure the battery is completely charged, then boot into custom recovery (BSR). Go to advanced options (towards the bottom of the list) and there should be an option that says 'recalibrate battery'. Once you recalibrate it, reboot back into android. I usually always let my battery run completely out after doing a recalibration before recharging it after a re-cal. If you find on your first discharge after recalibrating that your phone tells you you've only got 20% left and it would normally only last an hour before, depending if it needed the re-cal it may last 2 hours. Those numbers are just hypotheticals. Point is, recalibrating lets android know it's for sure 100% full at the start, but it doesn't necesarily know the end point until it gets there by allowing a full discharge. Also, the lithium batteries our phones use do best when recharged around 15-20%. It's actually bad to let them completely discharge all the time. And if you have multiple batteries and one may be sitting for a while, it's best to store them between 30-40%. Let me know if you need any more clarification.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you can download the app battery calibrator (haar a red Android as the pic) and follow the directions
Sent from my MB870 using xda premium
letting your battery die completely is not recommended no matter what you've been Told
Li-on batteries were designed to last longer when you don't let it die completely
start charging around 15%-10%, 5 is pushing it cuz its most likely gonna shut down before you see 5, trust me, it's bad for the life of tour battery to let it drain completely, just Google Li-on battery life, recommendations and u can read for yourself lol
ashclepdia said:
letting your battery die completely is not recommended no matter what you've been Told
Li-on batteries were designed to last longer when you don't let it die completely
start charging around 15%-10%, 5 is pushing it cuz its most likely gonna shut down before you see 5, trust me, it's bad for the life of tour battery to let it drain completely, just Google Li-on battery life, recommendations and u can read for yourself lol
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Yeah I know you're not *supposed* to let them discharge all the way but sometimes you have to and sometimes it just happens. For instance, my extended battery that I just did a re-cal on the other day has been sitting at 1% for the past few hours and is currently reading 1day 12 hours of uptime. (I shut it off the other night though and it is still discharging from its initial charge that I did the re-cal on.) So if I would have recharged it at 5% or whatever, I would be losing a decent chunk of available battery because android thought it was empty when it really wasn't, thus skewing the battery's voltage window.
Maleko48 said:
Yeah I know you're not *supposed* to let them discharge all the way but sometimes you have to and sometimes it just happens. For instance, my extended battery that I just did a re-cal on the other day has been sitting at 1% for the past few hours and is currently reading 1day 12 hours of uptime. (I shut it off the other night though and it is still discharging from its initial charge that I did the re-cal on.) So if I would have recharged it at 5% or whatever, I would be losing a decent chunk of available battery because android thought it was empty when it really wasn't, thus skewing the battery's voltage window.
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Click to collapse
that will only happen with extended batteries or one of those "Chinese", aftermarket batteries
regardless, battery life of Li-on batteries will decrease from letting it completely discharge, the more times you do it, the less your battery health will be.(BTW when do you "have to" let it discharge completely? , I'm not "calling you out or trying to "make you look stupid" or anything, I'm just curious what you meant by that?)
when I say 15-5% don't look at it as when Android reports that percentage, the x2 will, NEVER show an extended battery percentage correctly no matter how many times you "calibrate" that's just how it goes, it doesn't realize there is a higher capacity battery in the device larger than 1500mah, what you wanna do is use a battery voltage widget to monitor battery left, when it starts to get around 3500mV is when you are gonna want to charge I believe, (I think that 3200 is completely dead, and 4200 is topped off)
also,, wiping battery stats is a useless practice, not long ago I believe a Google developer wrote about why it's useless, apparently battery stats only has to do with the battery use settings stats about which apps have used which amount of battery. the battery stats gets reset/wiped EVERY time you get to a near fill-full charge (hence why the battery use graph resets itself when u almost fully charged, if you stop charging around 60-70% it wont reset)
reference:: http://rootzwiki.com/_/articles/wiping-battery-stats-is-pointless-says-google-r316
ashclepdia said:
that will only happen with extended batteries or one of those "Chinese", aftermarket batteries
regardless, battery life of Li-on batteries will decrease from letting it completely discharge, the more times you do it, the less your battery health will be.(BTW when do you "have to" let it discharge completely? , I'm not "calling you out or trying to "make you look stupid" or anything, I'm just curious what you meant by that?)
when I say 15-5% don't look at it as when Android reports that percentage, the x2 will, NEVER show an extended battery percentage correctly no matter how many times you "calibrate" that's just how it goes, it doesn't realize there is a higher capacity battery in the device larger than 1500mah, what you wanna do is use a battery voltage widget to monitor battery left, when it starts to get around 3500mV is when you are gonna want to charge I believe, (I think that 3200 is completely dead, and 4200 is topped off)
also,, wiping battery stats is a useless practice, not long ago I believe a Google developer wrote about why it's useless, apparently battery stats only has to do with the battery use settings stats about which apps have used which amount of battery. the battery stats gets reset/wiped EVERY time you get to a near fill-full charge (hence why the battery use graph resets itself when u almost fully charged, if you stop charging around 60-70% it wont reset)
reference:: http://rootzwiki.com/_/articles/wiping-battery-stats-is-pointless-says-google-r316
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Thanks for pointing that out. I regularly swap between my standard and extended batteries (both straight from VZW) because I'm always out and about and have used re-cal's to keep the perceived percentages from being skewed since I like to know how much life I have left in my phone so I know if I am gonna be able to find my way home or not, lol. (I ride my bike far and wide.)
I remember reading a while back that every time you un-plug your phone from a full charge that battery bin file gets re-written as 100%. So regardless of what android reports, yes, you will always get to use your battery until it is fully dead, but when swapping between two different capacities of batteries the reported percentages get skewed. And as I mentioned before, more often than not I am far from home on a bicycle in a city I only know a fraction of, and many nights somewhat inebriated, haha. I <3 my android, but it can certainly be a lot of work to keep up with.
Maleko48 said:
Thanks for pointing that out. I regularly swap between my standard and extended batteries (both straight from VZW) because I'm always out and about and have used re-cal's to keep the perceived percentages from being skewed since I like to know how much life I have left in my phone so I know if I am gonna be able to find my way home or not, lol. (I ride my bike far and wide.)
I remember reading a while back that every time you un-plug your phone from a full charge that battery bin file gets re-written as 100%. So regardless of what android reports, yes, you will always get to use your battery until it is fully dead, but when swapping between two different capacities of batteries the reported percentages get skewed. And as I mentioned before, more often than not I am far from home on a bicycle in a city I only know a fraction of, and many nights somewhat inebriated, haha. I <3 my android, but it can certainly be a lot of work to keep up with.
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trust me, I know exactly what you're talkin bout
except mostly riding buses/trains for mE
I have two standard and one extended, I always use the extend first since it will never report correctly when I'm out, then I switch to the standard ones so when they are running low, I KNOW when they will die lol
same here, wifes x2 battery last 2 days..awesome

Battery draining within hours.

I have a extended battery. I usually get 2 days use on a charge. about a week ago I cannot make it thru a day. The battery is only about 6 weeks old. I tried another battery and same thing. I use task killer and app cleaner and have restarted several times. When I look in battery usage is shows the Android OS using 24% Display 26% and phone idle 24%. I did update all my app and this seemed to help just a little. Anyone have any suggestions before I return my extended battery or do a factory reset. tks in advance.
have you tried draining the phone completely till it shuts off, then plugging it in and letting it charge to 100% with the phone powered down?
Battery instructions say NOT to every let battery drain to 0. So not sure I should try that.
cdenloe said:
Battery instructions say NOT to every let battery drain to 0. So not sure I should try that.
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That is about the life that I get on mine on a bad day. Now that you have had the phone for a while, more than likely, your battery has not changed but you have installed more apps which are draining you battery even faster. You shouldn't use task killers either, they screw with the roms built in memory management. However, if you must, then use "Task Manager" the built in stock task manager to end apps. Also i agree that you should completely discharge your battery and then let it recharge completely without turning it on and without using it.
PS: You have a nice avatar. Conservative til i die
cdenloe said:
Battery instructions say NOT to every let battery drain to 0. So not sure I should try that.
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This is not true. The phone has its own power management. When you reach 0%, the battery has still at least 3100mV (on mine it's more than 3200mV).
Li-On and Li-Pol batteries are designed to operate between 4300 and 3000 mV when they reach more or less, than they are damaging.
So you can charge and discharge your phone everyday between 100 and 0%, without any battery damage.
Other thing is Android power management, every time you wipe battery stats or restore backup, or you spend some time in recovery, Android doesn't know, how much capacity is remaining and you need to make more charging cycles, to teach it again and get full capacity from battery. I still don't understand this kind of management in Android.
I've tried all the battery stuff. No dice still discharging fairly quick. In the Battery Usage section It still showing Android OS using around 39 to 40% usage all the time. I have done a full factory reset on the phone 2 days ago and still same.
I noticed, you are using the task killer, stop using it, you have probably loop of killing and starting of some services. Task killer kills, android starts, again and again...
I have uninstalled task killer restarted the phone and still got the high Android OS usage showing.
You won't notice any difference immediately, make one discharge, charge and discharge cycle and you'll see.
Do NOT discharge the battery completely. Over discharging Lithium ion batteries can be harmful to them. Here's a great article going into probably a little too much detail but it gets the point across: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
As far as your problem goes it may be an issue with the phone itself I've seen a couple photons that needed to be exchanged due to issues that sound similar to yours. If it's doing the same thing on a different battery I'd take your phone into a sprint repair center, you could also try a factory reset if you have not already done so. If your only seeing this behavior with your current battery then I would return it or request a warranty replacement.
I have a extended battery. I usually get 2 days use on a charge. about a week ago I cannot make it thru a day. The battery is only about 6 weeks old. I tried another battery and same thing. I use task killer and app cleaner and have restarted several times. When I look in battery usage is shows the Android OS using 24% Display 26% and phone idle 24%. I did update all my app and this seemed to help just a little. Anyone have any suggestions before I return my extended battery or do a factory reset. tks in advance.
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root your photon (if not already rooted) and download battery calibration from market, also after rooting go to android development and download th3bill's extended battery mod
schale01 said:
Do NOT discharge the battery completely. Over discharging Lithium ion batteries can be harmful to them. Here's a great article going into probably a little too much detail but it gets the point across: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
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Omg... Read that article again, and check, how much voltage is in the phone battery, when it reaches 0% ;-)
peetr_ said:
Omg... Read that article again, and check, how much voltage is in the phone battery, when it reaches 0% ;-)
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Yes, there is an additional reserve that the Smart chip will protect by turning off the battery once it reaches the "0% mark". The Smart chip will also continue to drain the battery further past the 0% mark eating into this battery reserve. Now one full discharge like this probably would not hurt the battery as long as the battery is recharge within a reasonable amount of time. However it certainly does nothing to benefit the battery health whatsoever and it is never recommended to let a battery fully discharge. There are some practices of only charging the battery to 75%-80% that can improve battery life, but individual run time will be sacrificed. My recommendation is if the battery is under 65% than to charge the battery if it is possible to do so.
After doing a factory reset the same problem remained. Sprint exchanged the phone for a new photon. Put my extended battery back in and so far no problems at all with the exception of not being able to join my contacts with my FB contacts.
I have been discharging my Photon and previous phones to 0-5% at least 3 times for a week and did not find any difference in capacity, compared with the new battery. Lasts from the morning to the evening. If I should charge it on 65%, then the phone would be unusable for me.
Like Schale said it could be an actual phone issue, but i highly doubt it. I would try some things before assuming its a problem with your phone. Do this... Also this assumes you are unlocked or at least rooted.
1: Factory reset so to start fresh with no crap applications (task killer apps do more harm than good, as do most battery saver apps)
2: Drain battery till the phone shuts itself off (Dude what right about it reserving a certain amount of juice to not cause damage)
3: Charge to 100% (Dont use the phone during this time.)
4: Use a battery calibrator app (rooted) or recovery (unlocked) to wipe the battery stats.
5: Drain power as fast as possible till phone shuts off
6: Charge to 100% (Again, dont use the phone during this time.)
You can now use the phone how you normally would. If you don't notice a drastic increase in battery after discharging and recharging three or four times over the next few days, I would be comfortable in assuming it's a phone problem. Good luck!

[Q] Not using/charging battery for awhile

I have a fairly new S3 galaxy I got as a gift last week. I'm going to army basic training next month, which last about 10 weeks, so I will not be able to use my phone for at least 10 weeks. I was wondering if my S3 battery will be screwed up if I don't use/charge my battery for at least 10 weeks. I tried to do a search, but couldn't find anything. I'm a bad searcher
I remember if you're not going to use a phone for awhile, you should fully discharge the phone before not using it for awhile, but then I hear it's bad for the battery to be drained down to 0%, so that's a bit contradiction.
This isn't a big deal, since I could always buy a spare battery after training, but just curious to know what happens to the battery if not used for a long time period.
Charge the battery at full level and take it out of the cell phone when you leave, thats what i do.
Batteries can get ruined at low levels and at full level out of the phone it will discharge very slowly
0mega007 said:
Charge the battery at full level and take it out of the cell phone when you leave, thats what i do.
Batteries can get ruined at low levels and at full level out of the phone it will discharge very slowly
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This is completely wrong!
If you won't be able to use your phone and you want to preserve your battery in good condition, you should discharge it at level between 40-45% and leave it that way.

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