Battery draining after losing signal - Galaxy S III Q&A, (US Carriers)

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.

Related

[Q] Cell Standby??

So ive had a look around and there are no sgs2 threads about the cell standby
Basically, my cell standby sits at "100% time without a signal" no matter what i do.
I have tried changing the network mode to GSM only, WCDMA only and Auto but to no effect. its not taking up a HUGE amount of battery (6%) but its slightly odd...I remember on the hero going into the *#*#4636#*#* menu and adjusting from there used to work but doesnt save on the gs2....also on the hero that figure was down to around 2-3% time without a signal
phone was bought from o2 but is now on t-mobile after being unbrandi-fied / generic firmware-fied and rooti-fied
Thoughts?
Same here.
100% without signal, yesterday was 97%. However, I'm making calls, and receiving calls without problems.
Bought from UK (Handtech) and used in Saudi on Mobily network.
Been 4 days so far, and none of my contacts reported not being able to reach me.
thannks for your response, would be interesting to see what every1 else is experiencing....
I have not had problems with receiving / making calls but it does seem strange that it is so high
Do this, after turning on the phone, put it in flight mode for 15 sec. Should fix it, at least until next reboot
My cell standby is at 3%
icezar1 said:
Do this, after turning on the phone, put it in flight mode for 15 sec. Should fix it, at least until next reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, will try that and update....
winwiz said:
My cell standby is at 3%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
care to elaborate on your network / coverage / area / 3g/hspa on/off and if its set to Auto/WCDMA/GSM
Uodated to KE2 and signal loss was at 0% for a couple of hours, until I took a one hour nap, in flight mode. When I went back to normal mode, signal loss was at 17%.....
tamarian said:
Uodated to KE2 and signal loss was at 0% for a couple of hours, until I took a one hour nap, in flight mode. When I went back to normal mode, signal loss was at 17%.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for ur update! Input is appreciated, I have not updated to the latest firmware so I can't comment...will do wen I get time tho and see if its made a difference!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

[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.

Average Battery life?

trying to gauge what everyone is getting out of a full charge.... display on auto, 3g on gps on, normal usage.
DualSportDad said:
trying to gauge what everyone is getting out of a full charge.... display on auto, 3g on gps on, normal usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've yet to have a normal day since I can't put it down for long, except I did leave it alone yesterday for 12 hours with gps, bt and wifi on (wifi connected, bt not connected) and only lost 12% battery. I then picked it up and spent most of 4 hours messing with it and browsing the internet on wifi and lost another 40%.
yeah wifi on makes the battery last a lot longer. i can't connect to wifi at work cause our system blocks gmail and my phone won't syn and it keeps trying and really starts sucking the battery down.
I can't kill this thing. I don't have 4g here, but wow, I use my phone allot, and it goes all day every day!
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

[Q] Cell Standby while having no reception

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

Not just another "battery issues" thread

I have been meaning to post in here about how great my battery life has been, especially after seeing all of the threads complaining about it. I have been going home after a 9 hour day with 70-80% and even with extreme use, I have had no issues.
That being said, today my battery drained inexplicably fast for no reason. I checked my background apps and closed a few, but the battery drain persisted, so I rebooted.
Anyone else having this issue or know what causes it? This is the first incident I have had in almost a week. The last app I launched before this happened was Inrix traffic. Battery life has been beautiful, otherwise.
greyhulk said:
the battery drain persisted, so I rebooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the fix I use. I now call my 920's battery life non-deterministic. It's great, except when it's not. When it's not, even if it looks like it should be because nothing is running, a reboot fixes it. Until the next time.
I would be shocked if there weren't an OS update to fix whatever process is going rouge and running away with the battery. Because it's something in the OS. Or at least its something the user cannot remedy, short of taking off and nuking the site from space.
I've noticed this a lot too. I killed a whole load of background apps and the battery life got a lot better. Then it got much worse again.
I believe my main problem is that I live in a low signal area. So I drain the whole thing in about 10-11 hours, even when out working the majority of the day.
One thing I have found is that the radios in the handset are very badly shielded compared to my previous handsets. This does mean that I can hear when the phone is sending out signals/utilising the radios. It does this a lot, even when it does have signal. It must consume a massive amount of power.
I get roughly 5-6 hours or so. Charger I bought on Amazon no longer does the trick (it's one that plugs into the cigerette lighter in your car and two USB outs). I have to bring with me the power cord and an inverter to keep it charged up so it makes it through the day.
I've got NFC and Bluetooth turned off, Wi-Fi on and the phone set to 3G mode. I get pretty solid battery life out of it.
When I feel the back of the phone getting warm, I reboot and it's good for awhile. I too would be surprised if there isn't an OS update to fix this issue.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I am heaving same issue with battery. Phone worked fine first 10 days and it started to be warm on the top back. Life of the battery can not last a day and i am a heavy user.
As somebody mentioned in comment to turn off this and that- i don't think so. I did not buy phone to keep everything off on it.
If in airplane mode. had couple pictures and few other things, this is what you get out of your battery.
mileruma said:
If in airplane mode. had couple pictures and few other things, this is what you get out of your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent. I'll just keep my phone in Airplane mode all the time! What was I thinking, leaving the cell radio on?
I've just had 2 great days life out of mine. Off charge at 6am and currently sat at 58% at 4pm. I've been streaming a podcast from the internet via bluetooth for 90 minutes and I've been tethering too, as well as all the usual stuff, so it's not like it's been sat idle all day. I've even been using Nokia Drive to get to work this morning (I teach at many different schools) whilst streaming media off the web and bluetoothing it to the stereo and it's not hit it bad. Seems very power conservative where internet streaming and GPS is concerned.
I have battery level for WP8 installed and it has a graph so you can see when the battery level is dropping off. I've noticed solid battery drain from running the Audible app which continues after the app is closed. Rebooting solves this. I have been working in an area with excellent signal recently though, that may have made a big difference. I get 9-10mbps on HSPA at the moment. I do, of course, have NFC turned off.
Hopefully Portico will be here soon and solve some of these power problems.

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