I'm using Gingerbread 2.3.5 and the ZSJPG Baseband modem.
Using the phone in GSM mode with an Edge connection, the battery drains sometimes less than 1% an hour in standby, but if I switch to WCDMA mode with a HSDPA connection, the battery level drops dramatically and the phone struggles to last a day in standby.
When I switch mode, the phone doesn't normally get a HSDPA connection and still operates mostly on Edge due to a poor 3g signal.
Is this the reason for the battery drain, and does this mean that in a good 3g signal area, my battery life will be just as good as using the phone in GSM mode?
Thanks.
Related
Hey guys,
I flashed cm7.1 rc1, it's cool but I found the cell standby cost 40%, and phone idle also takes a lot of juice. My previous rom is arhd 1.10, on which the cell standby only takes 4%. I'm on the virgin's network in Canada. The virgin is acquired by Bell and of course it's using bell's network.
Is this network HSPA only? So in the *#*#4636#*#*, can I set the network mod as WCDMA only? Or by toggling 2G/3G to 3G only? Not sure if this will save some battery?
Switching to 2G only should save you a bit of battery. However, by far the best way to save battery is to switch mobile data off completely when you're not using it. I do this and my battery loses only 2 or 3% on standby overnight.
Switching to 2G wont work as Virgin Mobile/Bell does not have a 2G network backend like rogers or fido only 3G/4G so switching to 2g would make you have no service.
Yes. Virgin/Bell only use 1900MHz, the PCS band for their mobile communication, both voice and data.
In my opinion, use 3G only will save some power because the phone won't scan 2G frequency range. Moreover, setting the band as US band also will limit the scanning scope to save power. But after one day using, I didn't find much enhancement on battery life.
Ah, didn't know that. My apologies.
geeti said:
Yes. Virgin/Bell only use 1900MHz, the PCS band for their mobile communication, both voice and data.
In my opinion, use 3G only will save some power because the phone won't scan 2G frequency range. Moreover, setting the band as US band also will limit the scanning scope to save power. But after one day using, I didn't find much enhancement on battery life.
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Click to collapse
They act trully. Use 850/1900, bands ( for get the band number ) also if your in a area of low to no signal it kills battery becuase the phone is continues to serch for a signal almost as bad as call for battery. Also give you phone a week to calabrate your battery
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA Premium App
if not just calibrate your battery I switched back to android revolution just cause i couldn't deal with the terrible camera app in cyanogen mod. And now display is back to my number one battery killer.
this is a "feature" of CM7.1, i found too
Yes, I also conclude this is a feature of AOSP.
I thought this battery use is a transient value for each process on battery draining, but now I found this is an accumulative statistics. The cell standby and phone idle's high usage make sense.
In the stock firmware, the fact that display always takes majority of the juice doesn't make sense actually, cuz the screen isn't always turned on.
Hi guys,
I have a Nexus One purchased from Google last year. I only started using 3G this month with Vodafone Australia. My battery drains ridiculously fast on 3G compared to 2G. On HSDPA("3.5G") network with everything off (including data) it uses 5-10% per hour standby. On 2G it drains less than 1% per hour. Using a battery monitor app I can see that 2G draws less than 10mA while 3G draws 25-100mA.
Since on 2G battery life is very good this should not be a problem with any software running in the background. I also tried the following with no help:
- Dial *#*#4636#*#*, set to WCDMA only instead of WCDMA preferred, and select radio bands to AUS BANDS
- Upgrade radio to the latest Korean version
- Force the phone to use UMTS instead of HSDPA network by editing build.prop
I tried both the stock 2.3.4 ROM and the latest CM nightly, but the problem persists. I really want to take the full advantage of 3G and leave it on all the time so this is very frustrating to me. I can use Toggle2G to automatically switch to 3G when screen is on, but that's not what I really want. I know although 3G uses more battery it should not be that dramatic. After all the specified standby time on 3G/2G are 250/290h by Google. With 3G my phone won't last even a day purely on standby.
I also wonder if it can be a problem with the network. My signal strength on 3G is around 2 bars - not particularly bad. It almost never loses signal. If anyone can post a ROM/radio from Vodafone Australia for me to try out that would be greatly appreciated too.
Thanks all!
2 Bars of Signal strength might be one of the reason that battery is drained faster. As the signal is not that strong enough, it keeps searching for stronger signal and results in faster battery consumption.
Personally the radio version '5.12' wasn't satisfactory. I prefer 5.08 version. (Signal strength, speed, battery...)
I recently upgraded from CM 7.0.3 to 7.1.0 RC1 and noticed battery life is much better.
So I am going to suggest a few things you might want to try:
- Downgrade the radio to 5.08
- Full wipe and flash CM 7.1.0 RC1 (or a different custom ROM)
- Try a different kernel (I personally like Cyanogen kernel though)
- Uninstall Task Killer if you have one installed.
zephyr18 said:
2 Bars of Signal strength might be one of the reason that battery is drained faster. As the signal is not that strong enough, it keeps searching for stronger signal and results in faster battery consumption.
Personally the radio version '5.12' wasn't satisfactory. I prefer 5.08 version. (Signal strength, speed, battery...)
I recently upgraded from CM 7.0.3 to 7.1.0 RC1 and noticed battery life is much better.
So I am going to suggest a few things you might want to try:
- Downgrade the radio to 5.08
- Full wipe and flash CM 7.1.0 RC1 (or a different custom ROM)
- Try a different kernel (I personally like Cyanogen kernel though)
- Uninstall Task Killer if you have one installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi zephyr, I previously had CM 7.1.0 RC1 with radio 5.08 and the Cyanogen kernel but the problem remained. I also tried to put my phone near the window, where it has 4 bars signal, but the battery drained just as fast. Thanks for your suggestions though.
I know T-Mobile in the states screwed up something on their network a few weeks back. In doing so, it caused massive power usage on devices when using 3G/4G. I wonder if Vodaphone Australia did something to their network as well...
http://androidandme.com/2011/08/news/is-t-mobiles-network-killing-your-battery/
install current widget, and take logs of your current draw in mA during idle to see what's going on. do an overnight test, then during the day. post your logs.
So I just stumbled across this thread. I've been having the same issue on my Desire, it started suddenly a couple of weeks ago. In 3G mode my phone drains about 120mA. In 2g it drops down to 4-8. I've eliminated all the usual suspects by doing a factory reset (using the CM7.1.0RC but have also tried the latest nightly build), so no apps running in the background, and tried different versions of the radio. I am also with Vodafone in Australia. One thing that I have found is that if I go into Phone Info I can force the phone to make an EDGE connection by choosing the "AUS2" frequency band, and with an EDGE connection I get the good battery usage. But if I choose "AUS" or "AUTO", the phone makes an HSDPA connection and this drains the hell out of my battery.
Just wondering if the OP has had any joy with this?
stanleyguan said:
Hi guys,
I have a Nexus One purchased from Google last year. I only started using 3G this month with Vodafone Australia. My battery drains ridiculously fast on 3G compared to 2G. On HSDPA("3.5G") network with everything off (including data) it uses 5-10% per hour standby. On 2G it drains less than 1% per hour. Using a battery monitor app I can see that 2G draws less than 10mA while 3G draws 25-100mA.
Since on 2G battery life is very good this should not be a problem with any software running in the background. I also tried the following with no help:
- Dial *#*#4636#*#*, set to WCDMA only instead of WCDMA preferred, and select radio bands to AUS BANDS
- Upgrade radio to the latest Korean version
- Force the phone to use UMTS instead of HSDPA network by editing build.prop
I tried both the stock 2.3.4 ROM and the latest CM nightly, but the problem persists. I really want to take the full advantage of 3G and leave it on all the time so this is very frustrating to me. I can use Toggle2G to automatically switch to 3G when screen is on, but that's not what I really want. I know although 3G uses more battery it should not be that dramatic. After all the specified standby time on 3G/2G are 250/290h by Google. With 3G my phone won't last even a day purely on standby.
I also wonder if it can be a problem with the network. My signal strength on 3G is around 2 bars - not particularly bad. It almost never loses signal. If anyone can post a ROM/radio from Vodafone Australia for me to try out that would be greatly appreciated too.
Thanks all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Juicedefender Ultimate, it shuts down data when not in use. I see 1-2%/hr max when used with a good kernel.
ctfrommn said:
Try Juicedefender Ultimate, it shuts down data when not in use. I see 1-2%/hr max when used with a good kernel.
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Click to collapse
Alas it's not the data, this happens even with the data turned off. It's something to do with the baseband connection.
It's not data here either.
This just started happening on my 100% stock unlocked N1 about 2 weeks ago. (ATT)
Most of the time at work I'm on WiFi, yes the signal (cell) is very bad in my office. Has been for a long time, something else is strange.
No extra tasks running, nothing new installed.
Gets piping hot when on the charger - sucks juice like crazy when off.
Checked data log - nothing unusual transmitting...
What sort of area do you operate your phone in? My phone used to drain like mad inside my house (perth- vodafone) and in areas with spotty coverage. In my house my reception would be on the very edge of 3g with no bars and EDGE, constantly switching between the two. Do you have your wifi policy set to on while sleeping? Provided you aren't out and about all day, that would help, though i assume if you've had the phone that long, youd have changed the wifi sleep policy by now.
My wifi is always on - never has changed.
It gets hot at home where there is good reception and at work where there is crap.
I've had the phone for over 1.5 years and this just cropped up.
I rooted my wifes N1 and she doesn't have any issues...
liam.lah said:
What sort of area do you operate your phone in? My phone used to drain like mad inside my house (perth- vodafone) and in areas with spotty coverage. In my house my reception would be on the very edge of 3g with no bars and EDGE, constantly switching between the two. Do you have your wifi policy set to on while sleeping? Provided you aren't out and about all day, that would help, though i assume if you've had the phone that long, youd have changed the wifi sleep policy by now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also in Perth, on Vodafone. I get a pretty decent signal strength at home, and it seems to be happening to me wherever I go, unless I'm "lucky" enough to get an EDGE connection. This started overnight, almost exactly two weeks ago. I've been speaking with Vodafone about this at length but not really getting anywhere. Yesterday they swapped my SIM but it didn't make any difference.
Yep, wifi is set to never sleep.
I bought a prepaid SIM card from another provider a few days ago. I only get a UMTS connection with them, but still the current drain when idle is what is considered "normal", 4-6mA.
One thought I've had is that maybe I never had an HSDPA connection before but recent network upgrades have meant that I'm suddenly getting one. Still, 125mA is way too big a drain and seems to indicate something wrong with the phone.
The last test I can think to do is to swap SIM cards with a friend who is on a third network, who gets an HSDPA connection. He has a Nexus One and gets very low current drain. At least that way I can be sure of whether it is or isn't the network. We're doing that tomorrow so stay tuned
Hello,
I've been doing some tests and I can prove the 3g circuit of our T's is draining too much battery.
You may think this is a placebo effect but it's not. Numbers are numbers:
- With 3G ON (and no switching only 3g mode) - screen on time it moves within 1:15h - 1:55h
- With only GSM (2g) - screen on time goes easily to 2:45h - 3:20h
The same happens if Wifi is ON, screen on time is the same as with GSM.
The difference in my opinion is huge, I though android version could be the root of the problem but after upgrading to 4.3 (stock version) I experience the same results.Maybe is my phone that has a faulty 3g circuit but if not, I don't understand this as 2g & 3g are supposed to have the same power consumption.
gpuig said:
Hello,
I've been doing some tests and I can prove the 3g circuit of our T's is draining too much battery.
You may think this is a placebo effect but it's not. Numbers are numbers:
- With 3G ON (and no switching only 3g mode) - screen on time it moves within 1:15h - 1:55h
- With only GSM (2g) - screen on time goes easily to 2:45h - 3:20h
The same happens if Wifi is ON, screen on time is the same as with GSM.
The difference in my opinion is huge, I though android version could be the root of the problem but after upgrading to 4.3 (stock version) I experience the same results.Maybe is my phone that has a faulty 3g circuit but if not, I don't understand this as 2g & 3g are supposed to have the same power consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am noticing the same, on WiFi i can reach 5 hours of SOT. On 3g only 2. And im using 3g almost all the time. It got worse in 4.3 btw on 4.1 i could reach 2,5 hours and longer standby times
3g is a Battery drainer since ever
Spot on. I haven't heared someone that stated 2g time same as 3g. On The contrary
Sent from my LT30p using xda app-developers app
Moon_Fire said:
Spot on. I haven't heared someone that stated 2g time same as 3g. On The contrary
Sent from my LT30p using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
That's the thing. If 3G drains that much battery then I was thinking on developing an app that will do the following:
If screen is on -> connect 3g
else connect 2g
It's very simple and it will save battery time. While screen is off, 2g is actually enough, push notifications aren't that heavy
Sony's STAMINA mode doesn't help me due it disconnects data traffic so I miss all push notifications...they should implement that out of the box, or Google instead...
However, I couldn't find a way using android api to switch network mode...you can switch off the data traffic but not its mode, weird :S anyone knows?
The smart radio feature of Gravity Box will switch to 2G after you turned off the screen and back to 3G when you turn on.
sent from my Xperia T using Tapatalk
I know that Cricket is part of the AT&T network but im having problems with my unlocked international version of the s6 (SM-G920i) . Yesterday i installed the sim card But i have low signal strength (2 bars) on the Network mode.LTE/WCDMA/GSM. this is the only mode that gives me 4g and it drains battery really fast; last night it drained about 20% of battery without any activity. WCDMA/GSM mode gives me a high signal strength But my internet is H+ instead of 4g.
how do i fix it?
is there something im doing wrong?
Hi all,
My battery drains by 5-10% per hour when mobile network is on and only by 0.5% per hour when I'm in flight mode.
My Note 5 is AT&T (US) branded but I'm using the T-Mobile (US) network. I always have relatively low connectivity, like 1-2 of 5 bars.
The battery drain has always been pretty bad, so I'm actually not sure if it's gotten worse recently.
Is it likely a bug or is it normal when the phone is "desperately" trying to keep the connection to the network?
The thing is, I have WiFi 99% of the time and I rarely receive phone calls or SMS. It would be ideal if I could use WiFi calling/SMS with turned off mobile network whenever I'm in WiFi and mobile networks only when there's no Wifi. However, that doesn't work as I have a AT&T phone in the T-Mobile network.
What would be the easiest path to solve the battery drain?
Thanks a lot!
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