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Hi all,
over the last 2 weeks i have noticed my diamond getting pretty damn hot on random occasions and really chewing through the battery, i have run task manager when this occurs but no process is shown using alot of CPU.
I have read alot of threads on here descibing similar symptoms, some are just people who have wifi on or using CPU intensive applications, this i expect. But a few other users have described symptoms similar to mine where they are not using the phone and nothing appears to be running.
I am getting the problem with both my original HTC battery and the 3rd party spare i brought.
From reading the board the only definite cure seems to be a hard reset.
What im really after is any suggestions you people may have that can help me determin the actual cause of the problem, for example is their any software that will log CPU usuage over time or other diagnostic ideas.
thanks for your time
checking email regularly?
rumpleforeskin said:
Hi all,
over the last 2 weeks i have noticed my diamond getting pretty damn hot on random occasions and really chewing through the battery, i have run task manager when this occurs but no process is shown using alot of CPU.
I have read alot of threads on here descibing similar symptoms, some are just people who have wifi on or using CPU intensive applications, this i expect. But a few other users have described symptoms similar to mine where they are not using the phone and nothing appears to be running.
I am getting the problem with both my original HTC battery and the 3rd party spare i brought.
From reading the board the only definite cure seems to be a hard reset.
What im really after is any suggestions you people may have that can help me determin the actual cause of the problem, for example is their any software that will log CPU usuage over time or other diagnostic ideas.
thanks for your time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you might wanna check if you have the automatic mail checking feature on? Because I noticed that whenever I let my phone automatically look for email quite regularly (i.e. every 5 or 10 mins) it drains more battery then when you set it to check email every 2 hours for instance. Well that's what has helped in my case...hope this helps...
I have looked at my mail settings and my mail checks every 2 hours, i have had it set to 2 hours since i had the device (6 months) but this rapid battery drain has only started occuring in the last 2 weeks.
In that time i have not installed any new software, so am at a loose end as to the cause of the trouble
Hello,
I did had the same symptom : worked really good for 6 months (battery lasted for 30h +-) and in one time, battery was sucked out in 8 ! I did buy a new one (900mah) and it did the same. The only solution I find was to buy the 1350mah (htc) one and from this moment it last more than 2 days without any problem.
Also, I use G-light in place of the standard windows function and from this moment I really had a difference (from BatLog I went from 142mah to 123mah).
Hope it help (yeah I know: buying a bigger battery is not fun but for a device at this price, it's not so much...)
costp said:
Hello,
I did had the same symptom : worked really good for 6 months (battery lasted for 30h +-) and in one time, battery was sucked out in 8 ! I did buy a new one (900mah) and it did the same. The only solution I find was to buy the 1350mah (htc) one and from this moment it last more than 2 days without any problem.
Also, I use G-light in place of the standard windows function and from this moment I really had a difference (from BatLog I went from 142mah to 123mah).
Hope it help (yeah I know: buying a bigger battery is not fun but for a device at this price, it's not so much...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the feedback, i will order a new battery and give it a try, at the least it will prove if the problem is hardware or software related.
today my phone still has 63% battery since i removed it from charge at 11pm last night. The fact that the problem is intermittent is making it very dificult to diagnose.
Today I noticed my wi-fi drains battery as hell, it was lie 60%+ of battery down in less than 40 minutes. In the past it was like 40% max. The PowerGuard's current meter did not show anything alarming. So the problem seems to be hardware.
Already backed up and hard resetted. The phone is under warranty and so is battery; sending it to service to get it fixed.
Or, I missed something and I can fix it?
Hey,
Yeah I'm currently experiencing the same problem.. I tired just about everything from battery fix cab, radios, to roms. I even got the orginal extended battery. The battery worked really well for like 2 weeks and then it started to drain really fast as well.. My cousin have the same phone as me HTC Diamond, and his battery is verry good.. It can last a whole day with heavy usage no problem. Where as my 1340MAH battery would only lask for 14hrs max with heavy usage, and when we switch the battery same stuff happens... His battery on my phone drains quickly and mine last long on his phone...
So I came to the conclusion that it's definitely a hardware issue.
For those without battery problem, how much usage do you get out of a battery and what kind of things do you do with the phone? I'm just trying to gauge how bad my batter is. It will last about 8-9 hours, but that's with hald of that time spent on the internet on either 3g or edge. I've only had the phone for about a week so it's hard for me to compare it to anything else.
other little things like disabling autobacklight and disabling 3G will help as well.
rgds
One of the things you might want to check is if your phone is constantly trying to switch from 2g to 3g or HSPDA. This constant searching for a "faster" signal can make the phone quite hot and drain the battery quite quickly.
I had it on my diamond when I used to live at my old place as it was right on the edge of a 2g/HSPDA and the phone was constantly trying to get a decent HSPDA signal. The battery would last maybe half a day if I was lucky. Since moving to a decent 3g area, the battery now lasts me a good 2 days on nomal usage. This is with the original battery.
jfran said:
other little things like disabling autobacklight and disabling 3G will help as well.
rgds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a good tip to save battery power which is something we all have to do, but i do not think its the cause of my new found rapid battery drain.
The last 6 moths i have been getting around a day to day and a half rom the the phone. now on random occasions ot will get real hot (like the gps/wifi is on or like the cpu is flat out) and the power goes in a few hours.
this is fine if its daytime and catch it but a few times its gone from 100% to 0% overnight and i have woken late for work.
Graffen said:
One of the things you might want to check is if your phone is constantly trying to switch from 2g to 3g or HSPDA. This constant searching for a "faster" signal can make the phone quite hot and drain the battery quite quickly.
I had it on my diamond when I used to live at my old place as it was right on the edge of a 2g/HSPDA and the phone was constantly trying to get a decent HSPDA signal. The battery would last maybe half a day if I was lucky. Since moving to a decent 3g area, the battery now lasts me a good 2 days on nomal usage. This is with the original battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
interesting, i will leave the phone on 2G for the next few weeks and see if i experiance the rapid drain, maybe i am on the edge of a 2G 3G nexus, as i do get a fairly weak signal here (2 bars 3G and full bars 2G)
thanks for the suggestion
rumpleforeskin said:
interesting, i will leave the phone on 2G for the next few weeks and see if i experiance the rapid drain, maybe i am on the edge of a 2G 3G nexus, as i do get a fairly weak signal here (2 bars 3G and full bars 2G)
thanks for the suggestion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From you last sentance it does sound like it the 2g/3g switching that is cauing your problems.
i have this issue too.
my phone will drain ~5-7% every hour in standby. and when wifi is on it drains 2% every minute even staying on the home screen and me not doing anything on the phone.
from reading this thread, i can see that this is definitely not normal. looks like i'm headed for a dreaded hard reset...
Good day to all. At first sorry form my eanglish/
I have a same problem with diamond. It is overheating while charging at standby (battery temp. is about 50 C), and if it charges by USB, the battery temp is about 46 - 47 C. The phone's fly mode is switch on. HTC service couldn't answer me smth. But it says that same problem have 2 diamond from 1000, and only way to resolve problem is a change of mother board. in Russia it's about 250 euro.
And one more notice, which battery temp is 46 or 47 C, charging automaticaly switched off... Phone heating, but battery is not charging !!!
i've resolve problem...but don't know how i did it. I try to recharging stock acc. while 4 or 5 cicles, and today i have workable Diamond.
not discharge
not overheating
it's so strange, but it works
Hi all, I just got my HTC Pure over the weekend and I had a question from those with more experiecne.
First I know (or I think) that the battery life will improve over the next week or so as the battery gets used and charged. Today however was an issue. The phone came off the charger this morning at 100% and then went to work. While at work there is absolutely no signal in the building. (never has been) The only time it was on the network was a 1 hour lunch, and then light internet use for approx 25 minutes this evening. That is all, no calls, nothing, and it had 19% battery left in only 12 hours off the charger.
Again, I am sure that it will improve, but the question is ... does being off the network (GSM) drain the battery faster? Does the phone use a lot of charge "searching" for signal?
I am sure that there are a lot of things that I could do to extend battery life, as a work around (no bluetooth, plug it in to the USB on the computer at work, turn off 3g etc) but I was just curious if someone in the know on how the network and battery use go together if the dead zone is the biggest problem.
Thanks
Not exactly scientific results, but before att put decent coverage in my neighborhood, the battery seemed to drain a lot faster. I guess turning it off would help, but down to 19% that quick just seems ridiculous
cmstackar said:
Not exactly scientific results, but before att put decent coverage in my neighborhood, the battery seemed to drain a lot faster. I guess turning it off would help, but down to 19% that quick just seems ridiculous
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny enough it is my wifes first smart phone. I was just looking at it to change some things to better suit her needs. When I opened the task manager I discovered that a) the programs would only minimize when the X button was pushed, not close and b) windows Live messenger was loaded. I would guess that even though she was not signed in on live messenger it could have killed the battery. Gonna make a couple of tweaks to ensure that it does not fire up again, and see what it looks like tomorrow.
So today was better, but she seems to have had intermittent service. Her media net indicates that it was connected all afternoon. She burned through 40% battery in the AM and only 18% in the afternoon.
I would imagine that the location services for the weather on the sense home screen as well as possibly push email running out of control searching for the signal. I will turn things off 1 at a time until I find out what is driving the battery loss.
Is there any software to monitor battery use and what was using the battery? There is in android.
O.k. continue to have issues with this phone.
Tested last night. Charged to 100% and then light use. Approx 10% down after 3 hours.
Set commmanagerpro to turn off the data and phone radio during the hours my wife is at work. She called today and the screen is showing that the phone radio is off, but it has lost 90% in less than 4 hours. She also said it is hot.
Maybe her purse is somehow turning the screen on? Would the screen being on without any radios cause the phone to plow through battery?
I am gonna try a battery monitoring app and see if it will tell me anything. Its freekin weird.
What radio version are you running?
You may want to consider flashing to a different Radio ROM.
try to see if there are any TSR, residente program, active, maybe be the the problem...
as far as radio versions the 4.49.25.91, for my exprience run far...
you can try to swcht to other radio version...
I am using the AT&T stock radio. I flashed to the energy ROM, but the battery issue is so extreme that I doubt that the radio or the ROM are the driving factor.
She does have 3 magnets in her purse. 2 magnetic catches on her side pockets and 1 on her wallet. While I could not reproduce the device turning on by itself from the magnets, that does not mean that it is not.
The other thing is that there was some warning on the screen about the GPS signal. I imagine that is a side effect of turning off the radios, but maybe not. Is the GPS always on normally? Would a GPS pop up cause the screen to stay on for possibly 3 hours.
This afternoons test will be having her leave her phone in her jacket pocket rather than her purse. We will see how it goes.
saunet_ptg said:
try to see if there are any TSR, residente program, active, maybe be the the problem...
as far as radio versions the 4.49.25.91, for my exprience run far...
you can try to swcht to other radio version...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will look at that radio. I doubt its a program since I had no problems with it at home last night. It has to be environmental. My money is on the purse, but we will see. I'll post later and let you know what we came up with.
There was a few days ago where she lost 60% of her battery in the morning but only 12% after lunch, so that convinces me that it should be something that we can identify and work around.
Energy's ROM may have included the radio.
I had horrible luck with .91 and flashed back to .17.
Symptoms of a bad radio are rapid battery drain and device heating up.
Also, if the device heats up, it will no longer charge until the battery cools down.
If you have AGPS enabled, that was likely your error message when you turned off the radio.
A couple of pointers;
Make sure you monitor which programs are running as you may just be minimizing instead of closing.
Check your power settings and make sure to turn off screen after X minutes
make sure all updates (weather, e-mail, stocks, etc) are set to every hour.
Bruce Inman said:
Energy's ROM may have included the radio.
I had horrible luck with .91 and flashed back to .17.
Symptoms of a bad radio are rapid battery drain and device heating up.
Also, if the device heats up, it will no longer charge until the battery cools down.
If you have AGPS enabled, that was likely your error message when you turned off the radio.
A couple of pointers;
Make sure you monitor which programs are running as you may just be minimizing instead of closing.
Check your power settings and make sure to turn off screen after X minutes
make sure all updates (weather, e-mail, stocks, etc) are set to every hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your advise. The biggest area of opportunity from your list for me is the Radio I think.
The rapid discharge of the battery due to a bad flash, would that be location specific? The rapid drain only seems to happen in a spot where she has no signal (thus the reason I programed it to turn off the radio in those hours)
The running program should no be an issue. To prevent that, as a matter of standard setup for my phones, they have a small script that soft resets them every morning a 4am, so that they are fresh and clean for the start of the day.
As for updates, I have adjusted everything that I can, and some did not have any effect (mostly because the radio was off, can't save much more than that).
I do leave the bluetooth on all day. That should not be draining the battery in 3.5 hours though. I have read a lot of the battery life threads and many of the ideas would cripple the phone, and I am not going there. Sure maybe I don't need weather updated every 30 minutes, but I want me email when it comes in, not once every few hours. I also don't want to have to push 20 buttons each time I want to make the internet work. Its this kind of usability that sells iPhones... I hate them, but they really do just work... and my wife wants a phone that you don't need to be an expert to use.
boufa said:
Thank you for your advise. The biggest area of opportunity from your list for me is the Radio I think.
The rapid discharge of the battery due to a bad flash, would that be location specific? The rapid drain only seems to happen in a spot where she has no signal (thus the reason I programed it to turn off the radio in those hours).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know how to view your radio version? Its listed on the bottom of your phone when you reset, the 3 numbers that display, R is the radio version.
You can go to the radio thread and flash another version, just keep testing different versions until you get one that works well. Radio ROMs will not overwrite your data.
Radio's are definitely location specific in regards to region and carrier.
Borderline coverage is a major battery killer, but you're disabling the radio, which should resolve that issue...
G-Profile is a nice app that allows you to set what type of connection and when.
Bruce Inman said:
Energy's ROM may have included the radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine didn't and I used the May 1st update. Still Stock.
If no signal is happening in the building, I would think it's the various things continuously trying to run, like Email, GPS etc. Constant failed attempts to update your phone's apps would definitely drag the battery down in a hurry. I have my email set to 3 hrs. updates along with weather updates. Nothing I do is so important at this point in my life that faster than 3 hr. responses are required. I also don't use things like Tweeter and FaceBook so those aren't constantly eating my battery. I get about 1.5 to 2.0 days from my battery currently.
Here is the current (no pun intended) testing results...
This AM 3.5 hours used 100% of the battery (in the purse)
This PM 4 hours used 21% of the battery (in the jacket pocket)
Gonna try to leave the phone outside of the purse all day friday and see what the results are. Then see how it works around the house on saturday, in a standard limited use type scenerio. Then Sunday put it into the purse and see if it becomes an issue again.
If all of this works out that the purse it the problem, then I will start tweaking it out, and changing radio's etc to get the max I can out of the battery.
boufa said:
Here is the current (no pun intended) testing results...
This AM 3.5 hours used 100% of the battery (in the purse)
This PM 4 hours used 21% of the battery (in the jacket pocket)
Gonna try to leave the phone outside of the purse all day friday and see what the results are. Then see how it works around the house on saturday, in a standard limited use type scenerio. Then Sunday put it into the purse and see if it becomes an issue again.
If all of this works out that the purse it the problem, then I will start tweaking it out, and changing radio's etc to get the max I can out of the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So today we left it out of the purse. Here is what we got...
On the table next to the computer, so confirmed that the screen is NOT activating at all. Phone radio off, data off.
AM... used 40% in 4 hours.
Better, but still not good. Gonna try to ensure that the email is set for longer, currently it is set for 10 minutes, and then try to turn off a-gps and the regular gps and make sure that those things are not killing the battery. Then flash a new radio. We'll see how that works next week.
First, test it and watch it over normal, with signal, average 4 hours at home this weekend. I think it will do great... meaning that it is the purse, or the environment that is causing the problem.
I don't know if anyone is following my personal drama, but maybe it will come up in a search some day and help someone.
Here is the saturday update.
Took the phone off charge at 2am and looked at it at 11 am this morning. Used only 2% in those 9 hours. So it is definitely NOT a defective device, or battery. (it actually charges up in only a couple of hours)
So looking into the profile schedule manager that I installed, turns out it has not been running. So the whole purse/no purse thing may be horse hockey still. Monday I will be setting it manually to airplane mode to verify that it holds a charge, then finding a new program to do the scheduling. (looking into phonealarm)
If the radio was on, at full power searching for a signal, it would only last approx 4 - 5 hours at best. So it makes sense that this is what is happening.
Hey guys,
I would like to make your situation easier, so you don't have to read like 1000s of forum threads to get information I'm giving you here. These are the issues I faced with my incredible s, and the so called solutions.
The device:
Stock EU htc incredible s/ htc droid incredible 2 on Gingerbread. NO software mods at all.
According to my knowledge the same applies to the htc desire s and the htc desire hd as well. Most of these problems come forward after updating to gingerbread. If you are still on froyo, I wouldn' recommend updating.
1st issue. High standby drain.
According to Currentwidget and battery monitor my incredible s doesn't have lower battery consumption in standby than 38Mah.
Solution:
Drain readings are corrupted, there is a bug involved.
In reality You only have around 5-6Mah drain in standby.
Proof.
Left phone in standby for 2 days without messing with it, ended up with 40% left.
So if you have a minimum of 40Mah drain for two days. (48hours x40Ma=1920Ma) The battery's capacity is no more than 1500Ma, so it's obvious that standby drain readings are corrupted.
IGNORE drain readings!
2nd issue: You take it off the charger and it's 95%
Some say that phone charges till 100% than shuts charging down till battery reaches 90%, than charging starts again.
Some say our Lithium battery cannot get charged till 100% which is normal. This is the reason our device doesn't show % in notification area.
Solution: Ignore battery monitor, use inbuilt battery charge indicator, and be happy.
If you want to test battery life, start test at 90% and your test won't be corrupted.
3rd issue: Dialer using too much battery.
This might to be a bug as well. Still to be confirmed. The dialer doesn't use that much of power it only gets stuck in built in battery use indicator giving false drain data.
Some say it doesn't stop using proximity sensor after being in a call, hence the big drain. Incredible s's proximity sensor is visible during call, check it in the dark, it blinks. After call it stays inactive. So the dialer using it 24/7 seems to be a false statement.
4th issue: Declining calls in pocket.
When taking or declining a call, you swipe vertically on the screen. If you have your phone in your pocket with the screen facing your body, you can easily take or decline some calls when pulling out. This is more likely if you have a pocket made of thin material.
Solution: Put your phone in your pocket with the battery cover facing your leg. Don't worry about bumping into like a table corner and smashing your screen. Our gorilla glass is almost indestructible. Using a pouch or cover does the trick as well.
Not sure why htc is so obsessed with the vertical answer procedure. With horizontal swipe we wouldn't have this problem and users have been complaining about this since the desire came out.
5th Issue: Wifi disconnects when signal low, but still would be fine under froyo.
Connection gets disconnected when signal is 86db or lower.
This is a gingerbread related problem, htc cannot do anything about it.
No solution just yet.
For those who complain about battery life, I am on gingerbread with loads of apps installed and with very heavy use 3hours of display, wifi, skype,internet browsing I can use the phone for 12 hours. With moderate use min 2 days.
Battery saving tipps:
-Don't let google and htc sync. It uses lot of data and battery resources.(I don't like my sensitive data to be copied on their servers anyway.) Sync with your pc regularly.
- If u use data for e-mail and weather sync, use Gsm only mode, you don't need that much of speed for those, turn WCDMA on if u need it for skype, etc. Hspda and 3g are big battery killers.
-Everything on manual sync. There is a sync all widget in sense to use. U can hit it anytime you want to.
-No live wallpaper
-Hotspot uses excessive amount of battery. Use it on charger only.
-Screen light to be turned down. Use Screen filter app nighttime.
-Turn wifi and mobile data off when not in use, so phone can sleep properly. (wifi timeout app)
-Turn off wireless network positioning.
-Keep bluetooth off when not in use.
-Select short screen timeout like 15s.
-Screen on time is the main culprit in appalling battery life. Use your watch to check time rather than turning the screen on.
-If u struggle to find 3g or Hspda for data or network itself, change provider, because no matter what phone u have, u will have this problem. Try to find spots in your flat with better signal for data. Searching for network uses a lot of battery.
-Try to charge your phone from 0% overnight with the phone off for a couple of times (8-12hrs)
-When gps is on it doesn't mean that it uses battery. If you see the sattelite icon blinking or just on, that's when it uses battery, a significant amount of battery.
-Consider buying the official extended battery available in US (droid incredible 2 2100Mah), coming to EU soon. I wouldn't recommend buying the unofficial ones just now.
Obviously if you apply some of these battery life will be better. If you apply all of them, battery life will be exceptional.
Hope I helped.
Have fun guys!
Hi!
Thanks you for this! I buy my incredible s a couple of days ago, upgraded instantley. I met most of these problems and now I am happyer with my phone knowing these.
Could you give link to the battery you wrote about???
i appreciate what you're trying to do - but if you are going to follow all those steps you might as well have bought a nokia 3210
"Use your watch to check time rather than turning the screen on"
i mean.... really??
As I said, you don't have to follow all the steps.
You might face conditions when you need every drop of your juice, so it's good to know how to get the most out of your battery, isn't it?
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA App
IncredibleSSS said:
Hi!
Thanks you for this! I buy my incredible s a couple of days ago, upgraded instantley. I met most of these problems and now I am happyer with my phone knowing these.
Could you give link to the battery you wrote about???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.bargaincell.com/-p-509714.html
It's for the droid incredible 2, but thats equivalent to Incredible s.
Sorry if this seems sarcastic, but if you're gonna buy a smartphone and turn everything that makes it a smartphone off, then save yourself a few hundred quid and buy a Nokia 1100
I use mine to sync everything and anything I want, and don't worry about it, as long as it lasts the day, which it does, I'm happy.
Clivectmob said:
Sorry if this seems sarcastic, but if you're gonna buy a smartphone and turn everything that makes it a smartphone off, then save yourself a few hundred quid and buy a Nokia 1100
I use mine to sync everything and anything I want, and don't worry about it, as long as it lasts the day, which it does, I'm happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you misinterpreted what the op said. He is just stating what you could do if you found yourself in a situation where you had to maximize battery usage. Obviously most of us are around an outlet or usb plug most of the day so that we can charge the phone often.
Thanks for the info OP. I just wish that current widget would show us the right info. Or some other app :/
Thanks for the info OP. My buddy has had endless problems with his Incredible. I'll Chrome to Phone this thread and send it to him!
sdxda said:
Thanks for the info OP. I just wish that current widget would show us the right info. Or some other app :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not the apps fault, the phone just reports wrong. So any other app should also fail.
@superman, perhaps a faulty app is causing the problems
Wifi issue should be resolved with the ota update.
However there is a network at my workplace which I couldn't connect to. I guess it is some kind of wifi repeater, it doesn't look like an actual wifi router. There is no cable connecting to it. Apparently I can connect but I get 0 signal next to it. Others can connect with full signal. Any idea?
RicarduZonta said:
Hey guys,
Our gorilla glass is almost indestructible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the glass on my phone broke on the third day falling face down from a a height of about 1 feet. so is it a gorilla glass or normal?
Not trying to be rude or anything but thought some other members would find what I have to say useful (I hope!)
Not everything you say is true.
RicarduZonta said:
Put your phone in your pocket with the battery cover facing your leg. Don't worry about bumping into like a table corner and smashing your screen. Our gorilla glass is almost indestructible. Using a pouch or cover does the trick as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is FAR from "almost" indestructible. Some people also say it's impossible to scratch it, yet mines been scratched (this AND nexus one) It's nice glass but indestructible? I think not, not even "almost"
Oh the guy above me also had his cracked!
RicarduZonta said:
Battery saving tipps:
-Don't let google and htc sync. It uses lot of data and battery resources.(I don't like my sensitive data to be copied on their servers anyway.) Sync with your pc regularly.
- If u use data for e-mail and weather sync, use Gsm only mode, you don't need that much of speed for those, turn WCDMA on if u need it for skype, etc. Hspda and 3g are big battery killers.
-No live wallpaper
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Live wall papers do eat your battery, but it's almost close to nothing. I've read that whatever uses more than 2% of your battery will be displayed in the "battery usage" I've used live wallpapers and it's never even shown that. (I think it also depends on what kind of wallpapers you use though.. let's say you had one that interacted with you) perhaps that might drain more battery.. but who turns on their phone to play with their wallpaper lmao
I've tested and disabling google sync barely makes a diff. I also don't think it uses a lot of data. I don't completely disagree with you though, manual sync is probably a better idea. On the other hand, I don't really think Hspda/3g are big battery killers, I notice that if you use the browser, the battery drops quick. Let's say you used "gsm" / "2G" and the webpage takes longer to load whereas 3G would have it loaded within seconds.. Which would waste more battery? I'm not 100% sure but I'd say just keep 3G and turn on 2G if you're not doing anything else with your phone. To my surprise, 2G is horribly slow.
RicarduZonta said:
-Screen light to be turned down. Use Screen filter app nighttime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completely false. This is only a cover on top of your screen. It doesn't change the power being outputted to the screen. If you look at what RogerProdacter is making, you'll see that he's trying to modify the phones brightness output.
RicarduZonta said:
-Select short screen timeout like 15s.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disagree again. It's really up to user though, that's insane. I'd be pissed if my phone kept shutting off in 15s! What you can actually do is turn off the phone yourself or get something like Lock screen widget which instantly turns off your screen. Two reasons it's better - You don't have to worry about the timeout - you shut it off sooner than 15s.
RicarduZonta said:
-Screen on time is the main culprit in appalling battery life. Use your watch to check time rather than turning the screen on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's crazy.. You're saying that for us to check battery life/uptime we should use our watches? That's insane! That's a lot of effort to keep track JUST for your battery. Is it worth it? (I wouldn't think so.. but it's up to whoever uses it lol..)
RicarduZonta said:
-If u struggle to find 3g or Hspda for data or network itself, change provider, because no matter what phone u have, u will have this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what kind of world you live in, sounds way too good to be true. Just instantly change providers eh? Where I live.. that's not really easy to do. I'm sure most people getting cell phones would have enough common sense to pick something that works in their area anyway.
Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.
Yes! I've had my N1 since January 2010. I stayed stock until recently when I installed CM 7.1 RC1 shortly after it was released. Battery life had always been great, both stock and under CM7, especially with SS4N1. Then, a few days ago it just fell off a cliff. I now get only about 7-8 hours, even with little to no usage. Before I'd barely lose anything if the phone wasn't being used (a percent every couple hours).
Now the Nexus One Battery Calibrator application shows a drain of ~200 mA or more constantly.
I've been tearing my hair out for the last few days, uninstalling apps right and left, trying in vain to figure out what's causing this. I even considered a full wipe and reinstall of CM 7, thinking that some system setting somewhere had gotten horked.
I've always had WiFi set to never sleep, since I'm usually either at work or home. I've also had preferred network type (*#*#4636#*#* -> Phone Info) set to "GSM auto (PRL)" for months.
I've not made any other changes I can think of that would've had such a drastic impact on power consumption. I didn't track all the app updates that happened around the time it started, so I suppose it could be one of those. But I've uninstalled just about everything and it's still happening.
I have the same issue! Just in the past week or so. I have about 50% battery then a hour or so later it's dead! I was going to get a new battery today but maybe it's a CM7 issue. I use the nightly as soon as they hit the mirror.
An update on this... There may be a big issue going on with T-Mobile or some recent update:
http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-g2-users-suddenly-suffering-from-huge-battery-loss/
Looks like other users on different phones have the same issue!
Thanks for that article, Lost Dog. Makes me feel a bit better. At least I know I'm not just going nuts.
My phone still has increased battery drain even if I put it in airplane mode though. It helps, but it's still much faster than before. This makes me really puzzled as to what the cause could be. How could the cell network still be causing increased drain if the phone's completely disconnected from it? Some sort of configuration information it received that persists even after the cell radio is turned off? EDIT: I may be wrong on this one, see below.
Last night I tried a complete wipe (using Temasek's full format "Format-signed.zip" first), and re-installed CM7.1 RC1 completely fresh. I installed only the minimal Google applications and a couple crucial tools (my password safe app). However, I'm still getting the same quick battery drain today.
I hope we (or T-Moblie) can figure out how to fix this. It really cripples my phone as a useful tool to have such short life!
EDIT: I'm going to try a workaround I've seen mentioned in comments on the TMoNews and Phandroid articles about this: limiting the cellular connection to 2G/EDGE only. It seems to have made a significant difference so far. I may have been incorrect then about airplane mode not having an impact. I'd only been checking current drain with the N1 Battery Calibrator app, and never left it in airplane mode for long. Anyway, I'll post back later this afternoon with results.
Ok, so switching to 2G-only for the cellular connection seems to have made a HUGE difference. The drain rate seems to be back at around what I'd expect. Everything else I left exactly the same (WiFi on, GPS enabled, same applications, etc.)
So, I'm starting to suspect something may be up with T-Mobile's 3G/3G+ service in some areas that's preventing phones from idling properly.
Anyone else want to give it a try?
Interesting, I'll switch over to 2G only and see how that affects my phone.
I've gone as far as wiping everything and that didn't help so if it really is a t-mobile issue then that would shed some light on the situation.
I see the same trend when switching to 2G only. Very steep power usage with 3G then a dramatic decrease in the discharge slope in 2G.
T-Mobile has an issue. The trick will be getting someone there to listen.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Here is my screenshot. You can clearly see when I turned on 3G. Dramatic difference. Looking on the T-Mobile forum there are many people seeing the same issue but there's mostly finger pointing and speculation as to the cause.
nir0th said:
Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.
ricky9237 said:
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm skeptical. If it were the Maps 5.8 application that was preventing the phone from idling correctly, or transmitting tons of data, wouldn't we expect it to happen regardless of whether the phone was using the 2G or 3G radio connection? Sure, there might be a slight difference in the drain rate, but we'd still expect to see it in both cases. And yet the accelerated drain is alleviated completely by using only 2G. I have the Maps 5.8 application and can fix the problem by using 2G only. That indicates to me it's not an issue with the application.
I'll try uninstalling Maps tomorrow (I'm using CyanogenMod, so it's possible to remove it completely). Then I'll put the phone back on 3G and report back on what happens.
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
Glad I saw this thread. My wife and I both have N1s and have each been noticing unusually fast battery drain just in the last 3-4 days.
Last night I charged both phones to the same percentage, turned off 3G on hers and let them both sleep for a while. The phones are configured pretty similarly (stock, latest Maps installed, similar push settings etc). After about an hour and a half, my phone had lost 11% of its charge and hers had only lost 2%. That's enough of a delta for me to point to the 3G usage as the culprit. I guess I will be leaving my phone on 2G when I'm not using it if I am going to be away from a charger for a while.
It's NOT the Google Maps update.
Well, I did my experiment yesterday to rule out the Google Maps 5.8 update as the cause of this issue.
I'm running CyanogenMod so it's possible for me to uninstall Google Maps completely, not just the updates. I did so on Saturday night. Still set to 2G only, I removed my phone from the charger Sunday morning. A few hours later I enabled 3G. Later that afternoon I turned 3G off again.
I think the screenshot speaks for itself. Again, this is without Google Maps installed at all.
I asked around this weekend, and my friend's wife (also here in Portland, OR) is experiencing the same issue on her G1 on T-Mobile. Reading online I've heard about the problem affecting the MyTouch 3G, the G2, and many here with the Nexus One. The common elements seem to be: T-Mobile 3G service, particular models of phones, and some particular geographic areas.
Bottom line (IMHO): T-Mobile has a problem with the configuration of their 3G service in some areas, and it's preventing many phones from being able to idle/sleep properly, resulting in huge battery drain.
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
keenerb said:
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
Deliamber said:
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a G2.
2G has been much better than 3g, but still probably only 3/4 of my former battery life, optimistically. I checked "Use 2g networks only", same as everyone else. The graph above is a little misleading, since I really saw better battery life, that initial flat and quick drop actually averages out to "decent", rather than "horrific.
At the "Pulled SIM and SD card" mark I re-enabled 3g, so the drain afterwards is still 3g related.
Pulling the SIM doesn't disconnect it from the radio tower, you can still make emergency calls/etc. so it has to maintain a connection I suppose.
Twice I hard-reset the phone, pulled out SD and SIM, and still had huge huge battery drain. Powertutor said IDLE draw was 1437mw on average, no SIM, no WIFI, just sitting there on my desk.
In Airplane mode it'll last for days...
Wannagotopopeyes said:
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not familiar with Tasker. However, maybe it's just disabling cellular data use, not actually disabling the 3G radio? From what we've seen it appears the problem is very low-level, perhaps something to do with basic communication/negotiation between the cell radio in the phone and the towers, as there's no indication of particular application activity or significant data transmission that the Android OS is aware of.
In the T-Mobile support thread there are reports that T-Mobile is now acknowledging there's an issue with changes to their HSPA+ network in some areas.
I've had 3G off all day and my battery life is back to normal. I'm at 87% after at least 6 hours on battery. Yesterday I was down to less than 50% by this time. Luckily, I am able to be on Wifi at work so I don't have to deal with EDGE speeds, which make the Baby Jesus cry.
deliamber, you probably noticed this already but I'm also in the Portland market. It's gotta be a network issue.
I'm having the same issue on my N1 (I'm around the Portland area myself)
I did everything as well, 2g is the only thing that saves me..
Can't wait for a fix!
Hi
Can see a number of threads about short battery life, none quite match mine:
When I got the phone about 6 months ago I took it abroad with me in the first few weeks. Battery life with normal usage was about 24 to 36 hours with fair use.
Dropped the phone, back came off, battery fell out and gold contacts got damaged.
Ordered replacement OE battery from Amazon. Looks identical to original. Battery life as before, for about the first two weeks. Then got worse and worse until down to about 4 hours. Sent it back, replaced. Replacement is going the same way.
Haven't done anything with the ROM, it's all as it originally was, albeit I've installed more apps since it was new.
Battery meter thing built into the phone (in Settings) shows nothing remarkable.
What is odd, and coincidental: if I leave the phone next to me in the house, it won't always pick up emails on ActiveSync (Exchange) unless I activate it (e.g. bring it out of power down mode). At which point you can see it's dropped Wi-Fi. The icon has gone. A second or two later it reconnects (though not before it's used some 3G data - 3G is OK upstairs, barely a signal downstairs as we live at the bottom of a hill so often drops to "G") and then brings down the emails.
This means it churns through 500MB+ of data over its own 3G connection in a month even if I don't take it out of the house, and even when Wi-Fi is available to it, it chooses not to use it. Wi-Fi reception is pretty poor, compared with e.g. our laptop (that shows excellent strength downstairs, phone shows one bar). It did not do this when I first got it. Curiously my old HTC phone did this too, it struggled to switch properly between its own 3G and Wi-Fi and just got stuck on one or the other. We are in a weak signal area.
Are these things related?
Has the phone become faulty? (Bearing in mind battery life much better with the original one)
Is it just a duff batch of batteries and I should send the battery back for a refund, and get one somewhere else?
Thanks
Mark
Typical behavior for a counterfeit battery but the other symptoms suggest that something got damaged and is stressing the battery. Try re flashing the phone. A sudden loss of power could potentially damage some system files.
Thanks rogem_kk - can I just clarify, when you say "reflashing the phone" do you mean resetting it back to its original state (I'm guessing there's a key sequence you press, I can look in the manual to find that out) or completely reloading the OS?
As regards "sudden loss of power" sadly this happens quite often, because the phone crashes now and again and I have to take the battery off the back and put it back in again. The Android OS seems able to be completely taken down by a failing application (I think Flash movies on web pages are the main culprits) quite readily but I'd got very used to that since my last phone was a Windows Mobile one (the old one not the new one) which had the stability of a damp cardboard box in a strong wind.
I mean wiping it clean and installing the ROM from scratch. Factory reset only removes your data and does not restore/replace system files.
Now may be a great time to flash a custom rom, if it all goes well then do a back up with Nitrality app or similar, while you're at it try out a modem i9000 ZSJPG, you can flash it separately via ClockWorkMod, doubled my battery usage with it, great reception & coverage, that way if you at least get a genuine SGS battery you'll get the most from it.
If you're unsure of flashing you'll need to get reading in the rom section, not too hard to learn.
Many thanks.
Down to 3 hours idle time now - it drops by the day.
Have emailed Samsung on the off-chance they can identify a counterfeit battery from the serial number, so I'll see what they say. Could make for an interesting exchange with Amazon (direct, not via a reseller or third party).
Argos appear to be the "official" resellers for Samsung products in our area but they don't actually sell batteries. As otherwise I'd be tempted to buy one there on the basis that it ought to be genuine, and compare. But haven't rebuilt the phone yet, waiting to see what Samsung come back with.
Hmmm...
"Problems like this, although seemingly severe, can occur when the
Android software on your phone becomes out of date. You can update the
software by simply downloading our Samsung Kies programme. Follow the
link below and choose option ‘save’. Then for safe installation of the
drivers, once save is complete, turn your computer off for a few minutes
and reboot the PC. Once fully loaded again, without opening any
applications on the computer, simply connect your phone to the PC with
the USB lead, and your phone should be automatically set you finish the
installation of Kies. When Kies loads and finds your device, you should
be offered an update that will iron out these issues.
If you require any further assistance, please contact Samsung again and
we will be more than happy to help."
I had one of those so called 'original batties' it was a load of rubbish. Still using original one but its no holding charge for as well after a year of use. Maybe time for a real replacement...
dtmark said:
Hi
Dropped the phone, back came off, battery fell out and gold contacts got damaged.
What is odd, and coincidental: if I leave the phone next to me in the house, it won't always pick up emails on ActiveSync (Exchange) unless I activate it (e.g. bring it out of power down mode). At which point you can see it's dropped Wi-Fi. The icon has gone. A second or two later it reconnects (though not before it's used some 3G data - 3G is OK upstairs, barely a signal downstairs as we live at the bottom of a hill so often drops to "G") and then brings down the emails.
This means it churns through 500MB+ of data over its own 3G connection in a month even if I don't take it out of the house, and even when Wi-Fi is available to it, it chooses not to use it. Wi-Fi reception is pretty poor, compared with e.g. our laptop (that shows excellent strength downstairs, phone shows one bar). It did not do this when I first got it. Curiously my old HTC phone did this too, it struggled to switch properly between its own 3G and Wi-Fi and just got stuck on one or the other. We are in a weak signal area.
Are these things related?
Has the phone become faulty? (Bearing in mind battery life much better with the original one)
Is it just a duff batch of batteries and I should send the battery back for a refund, and get one somewhere else?
Thanks
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgive the curtness of the email, am at work typing one handed while chowing down lunch
First point - you dropped your phone. I know that the new battery went okay for a while but is it possible that the phone itself may have been damaged?
Secondly, Email on Activesync over 3g will absolutely smash the hell out of your battery. Especially if you have push email going. Is it on push or is it set to check every so-and-so amount of time? Too short a period will kill the battery. The "Stock" email app that comes with Gingerbread 2.3.3 or lower seems to be just a big hog over push (for me at least). I also recommend changing the email "Amount To Sync" to a shorter number of days and set the amount of data to a lower value than stock (ie, "Headers Only" or 50k or something) so you download attachments on **your** terms.
Thirdly, you state you're in a poor reception area. This will most definitely affect the battery as the phone on a low signal or zero signal will waste battery trying to reconnect to the tower. Check your "Cell Standby" and see how muck time without connection you have. If it's anything above nothing, it's draining your battery. I recommend flashing a new modem (you'll need to investigate which one is good for your region/country/carrier) through ODIN (or Heimdall). Be careful when doing this and make sure you read up on the hows and what-to-do and what-not-to-do before you do - there is a (small) chance of you killing your phone and I do *not* want you to come back onto this thread and say it blew up (I want you to say "YAY THANKS WOGFELLA" ) Doing this voids your warranty so only do it if you either don't care or you really really want to fix your issue (and by default you don't care)
Fourthly, your wifi coming on and off - go to your Wifi settings, press your menu button and click ... advanced? Can't recall exactly (on ICS now). From there you can set your "Wifi Sleep Policy" to either "Never" or the other option that I can't recall. The default is set to turn the Wifi off when screen is off which of course means you lose your Wifi connection. **For your Email issue, try this first.**
Fifthly, your Wifi signal being weak in your display does not *always* equate to an actual poor connection. Sammy does many great things, but he does mess about a bit with icons and funny business. Check step four above and if you get bad Wifi reception when the phone is off (or while using it) then try messing about with your Router settings and also with the settings on your phone (take notes before doing so, I'm just throwing you ideas here....don't come back to me and ask me how to reset your router settings either!!!)
If that doesn't help then try flashing a custom kernel (kernel controls the Wifi). As above, doing this will void your warranty.
Sixthly, you say that everything was hunky dory and then went haywire. I reckon there may be an app doing funky things.
Try installing CPUSpy from the market and check to ensure your phone is going into decently long periods of "Deep Sleep"
Also, try installing the below app from this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
You're looking for high "Wakelocks" which will impact on your phone being awake instead of...well, asleep...when the screen goes off. Awake phone = cpu processing (even if it's not doing anything) = battery drain. Use Chamonix's recommendations on what is classed as a high amount of wakelock.
Facebook 1.7 for example, keeps the phone awake while checking notifications that just plain ain't there. For me, once I wiped this app, I regained about an extra 2-4 hours per day in use.
Seventhly, look over this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=939752
Has a heap of tips that helped me (before I got sick of stock Sammy and jumped to CM7 and then ICS)
Eighthly, and this is one that probably doesn't need to be said - cycle your battery and (controversial) bump charge. I mean, let the battery drain fully. Take the battery out for 5 mins. Put it back in and see if it turns on, and if it does repeat. Then fully charge to 100% and then unplug and plug back in. If your phone is already rooted then you can also wipe Battery Stats from Recovery.
Lastly - have you tried factory resetting your phone? It may wipe whatever it is that's making your phone freak out (if not the email) and you can start again. If you find that the battery goes bananas again after installing that app, you've found your issue.
So...to sum up:
Check your phone contacts.
Check your Wifi sleep policy.
Check your Email update rate.
Check the length of time you have the sync set for,
and the amount of data per email downloading.
Check to see if you are going into deep sleep.
Check to see if there are any apps holding wakelock (and bugger them off)
More extreme:
Factory reset.
Mess with your router settings if your wifi signal is still weak.
Very Extreme.
Flash Modem
Flash Kernel.
One thing not specified: What version Android are you running? SGS comes from Eclair up to (once Cyanogen and TeamHackSung get it rolling properly) Ice Cream Sandwich.
Hopefully *SOMETHING* in the above helps you.
Good luck!
Thanks for taking the time.
Sorted out the Wi-Fi sleep issue, CPU Spy showed the phone was going into deep sleep when idle, so no "smoking gun" discovered with that.
Reset phone, and set it back up again with basic email and no new installed apps. Have left it on default (minimal) donwload settings. Had already got rid of Facebook.
Battery life is better. Have begun reinstalling a few apps now and keeping an eye on it.
Will report back - thanks again all.
dtmark said:
Thanks for taking the time.
Sorted out the Wi-Fi sleep issue, CPU Spy showed the phone was going into deep sleep when idle, so no "smoking gun" discovered with that.
Reset phone, and set it back up again with basic email and no new installed apps. Have left it on default (minimal) donwload settings. Had already got rid of Facebook.
Battery life is better. Have begun reinstalling a few apps now and keeping an eye on it.
Will report back - thanks again all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No dramas - just be careful as CPU Spy will show length of time in deep sleep but a high proportion of wakelocks won't really be detected and those wakelocks are the ones that smash your battery when sitting "idle"
As you have reset then I think you need to let your battery calibrate first (let it drain fully and recharge fully a few times and that's all you can do if you haven't rooted your phone)
.. one more update..
Battery life is better, but not much better. It still won't last a day without charge even with very light use, 7 hours is about the maximum. I'm certain it used to be better than that when I got it e.g. it survived a whole day on holiday using email and maps quite a bit.
Have changed to 3 from O2 but will have to revert back as 3 doesn't get a signal at all downstairs in some parts of the house. Does mean the phone is going on and off network a lot at the moment.
I reverted to Samsung to tell them their link didn't work and they have sent a link to an authorised dealer for parts if I wanted to buy another battery. I'm all for buying the real thing which is why I bought an (apparently) OE one from Amazon which was about £16 not the £5 that some were.
However this is, er, forty four pounds for a tiny little battery.
http://www.4mysamsung.co.uk/cgi-bin/product.pl?PID=2986318&brand=&model=galaxy s&part=
They also sent links to repair centres.
Now I plugged it into charge earlier, and even after 8 hours, it was dead. Plugged it in again - beeps once as normal - nothing on the display - still not charging. Take battery out, put back in, repeat. Charging now.
Might make you wonder if that part of the phone got damaged e.g. the "socket" where the mini USB thing/charger goes in, but, it's always worked before. It doesn't for instance fail to detect if I plug into the PC and it's never done this before either.
Given how much the battery is and the fact it might be getting to the point of dying altogether I wonder whether to just get a quote for repair and go that way for certainty.
One might have thought it's as simple as: take the thing somewhere and have the battery tested to prove one way or the other.. but I'm really not sure where would do that other than the repair place.
I'd be prepared to try replacing the OS as suggested, but it does remain the fact that the thing worked better when I first got it and even after a complete reset it's still playing up so I feel a sort of mental paralysis over what's best to do now
I'll have a look at the wakelocks thing next when it charges again. If it charges