# Battery Life Recommendations



## chiosu (May 28, 2012)

So I've had my Charge for about a year now, and like most of you I am constantly looking for ways to make it better. A few months ago, I had my phone running great with excellent battery life (after 16 hours of moderate use I still had 66% left). Over time, it has just been getting worse and worse. I've been consistently updating my rom/kernel/the stuff I need to in order to stay updated.

I know there are things I can do to improve my battery life. I'm lazy though, and I don't want to have to toggle data on and off whenever I need it. I also don't want a battery saving app like Juice Defender or something similar. What do you all recommend? I basically want to do whatever I can to optimize my battery life under these conditions, because I know there's some way out there that will give me the numbers I want. I am currently running Tweaked 2.1 with the 5/24 PBJ kernel. I calibrate my battery every month or so and whenever I get a new ROM (maybe I'm doing it incorrectly so if you have tips concerning this that might help too).

Any advice whatsoever will be appreciated. Thanks!


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## shrike1978 (Sep 2, 2011)

Basically, just the standard stuff. Undervolt as much as you can, reduce the screen brightness, reduce the number of things it's checking in the background, and make sure it's entering deep sleep. This phone has been out a year now, and if you've had it that whole time with the same battery, it has probably lost at least 20% of its charge capacity...probably more. 20% capacity loss a year is under ideal conditions, and since we aren't able to keep our batteries under ideal conditions, we're probably looking at something closer to 30% loss in the real world.

Also, FYI, that standard battery calibration procedure doesn't really do anything. The discharge/charge cycle can _maybe_ help a little, but wiping battery stats is beyond pointless, as explained by Google engineer Dianne Hackborn in this post: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105051985738280261832/posts/FV3LVtdVxPT


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## imnuts (Jun 9, 2011)

Stop flashing stuff constantly







If you allow your usage to settle down to a "normal" day, your battery life should even out. If it is still bad, check to make sure your phone is sleeping properly when you aren't using it. If it is, then it is possible that the battery capacity is reduced and you may need a replacement to get back your original battery life.


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## p2kmafia (Jan 9, 2012)

the other day my phone was dying and I was out at a party and I underclocked to 800mhz and 3 days later I forgot that I had underclocked it and haven't changed it. running at 800mhz uses so much less battery and my phone still works flawlessly. Although for games I recommend overclocking it maybe use tasker


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## chiosu (May 28, 2012)

imnuts said:


> Stop flashing stuff constantly
> 
> 
> 
> ...


When I said flashing consistently I didn't mean too often haha. But how can I make sure my phone is sleeping properly? I will definitely get a replacement battery if I need to but I want to make sure this one is still usable first. Thanks for your response!


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## p2kmafia (Jan 9, 2012)

chiosu said:


> When I said flashing consistently I didn't mean too often haha. But how can I make sure my phone is sleeping properly? I will definitely get a replacement battery if I need to but I want to make sure this one is still usable first. Thanks for your response!


download cpu spy and let it run for a day and the "deep sleep" area should have the largest percentage of consumption.


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## chiosu (May 28, 2012)

p2kmafia said:


> download cpu spy and let it run for a day and the "deep sleep" area should have the largest percentage of consumption.


Thanks for your help! I'll definitely try this and report my findings.


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## aaronDroid80 (Aug 18, 2011)

I'm kind of on the same position. Today, after about 5 hours of not using my phone (from the time it was unplugged), my battery was at 80%. Biggest offender, cell standby at 37%. At the end of the day it averages out to around 20%. Last week, something wasn't right with the Google sync service, and it took my phone from fully charged to 60% in 2 hours. I'm thinking that a new battery may be in order.

Sent from my Tweaked Charge using RootzWiki.


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## p2kmafia (Jan 9, 2012)

I get roughly 10% discharge per hour running on 4gLTE with moderate usage and like 2-5% discharge per hour on standby


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## CalPolyRock (Dec 6, 2011)

I've been using BetterBatteryStats and I randomly enter a problem (not every day, but sometimes multiple times a day) where a RXNET_MSL_LISTENER_WAKELOCK Kernel Wakelock consumes up to 90+% of the timeline. It prevents any deep sleep and essentially keeps the phone awake, quickly draining the app. The only way I've found to fix this is a reboot.

There's no BetteryBatteryStats KB article regarding this wakelock. This only seems to have happened starting with FP1 (stock or PBJ). Any ideas what app is causing this Wakelock?

Do an internet search on RXNET_MSL_LISTENER_WAKELOCK and you'll find a few logs containing it, at ~0% usage, but that's about it. I'm trying to find out the cause.


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## Cookemandan (Nov 13, 2011)

Ok I have to ask what to do if your Charge is bone stock and only went to deep sleep for a fraction of the time over night and was was 100mhz most of the time 90%+? I was rooted at one time a few months ago but had a bad cwm restore and got scared!


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## chiosu (May 28, 2012)

So far Deep Sleep is the major component in CPU Spy, which is reassuring. I have also underclocked down to 800 mhz to see how that impacts battery life. I unplugged my phone at 9:15AM and now it's 10:50AM and I'm at 95% without really doing much on it. Maybe it just needs to settle into its normal routine with all the new settings. I'll keep updating this thread with new information as I come across it. Thanks for all the help so far, and if any of you have additional feedback I'd be happy to try anything to boost my battery life.

Does sqlite do anything for battery life?


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## craigsouthwick (Jan 4, 2012)

chiosu said:


> So far Deep Sleep is the major component in CPU Spy, which is reassuring. I have also underclocked down to 800 mhz to see how that impacts battery life. I unplugged my phone at 9:15AM and now it's 10:50AM and I'm at 95% without really doing much on it. Maybe it just needs to settle into its normal routine with all the new settings. I'll keep updating this thread with new information as I come across it. Thanks for all the help so far, and if any of you have additional feedback I'd be happy to try anything to boost my battery life.
> 
> Does sqlite do anything for battery life?


If you overclock and/or undervolt you might try SetCPU which has profiles. Currently I am testing a very simple 2 profile system. Screen on - 100 to 1200 smart-ass governor v2. Screen off - 100 to 800 powersave governor. In theory this shouldn't matter much since the governor should handle frequency ramping but maybe it does. So maybe I get performance when the screen is on and powersavings when off.

If you decide to undervolt what I discovered is that since I seldom use the higher speeds (1000 and up) undervolting there wasn't worth much. I focused on the lower frequencies (100 to 400) where my CPU is a higher percentage of time.


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## p2kmafia (Jan 9, 2012)

As far as I know profiles perform horribly on our device and not at all. Could have changed but I doubt it.

Also sqlite has no impact or negligible impact on battery life but a nice speed boost if you ask me


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

I've used several ROM's, none of which significantly improved battery life for me. And I agree with the original post: I don't want to have to jump through hoops to save battery life.

But I have found the best battery life solution ever: I never leave home without TWO spare batteries. And I always have enough juice to get me through the day. I don't even use a car charger anymore. Yeah, it's a little bit of a hassle, but not too bad. The freedom is well worth it!

Sent from my SCH-I510 using RootzWiki


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## jco23 (Dec 10, 2011)

another tip is to check and see how many apps you have and which ones are constantly hitting your mobile data connection. on wifi, I can get 2 days with moderate usage. on 4G, 20 hours (~5% battery drain per hour).

other factors beyond your control are the signal stregth and data outages. on the FP1 kernel (in my experience), there is no difference between 3G and 4G in battery use.

you could also turn off autobancground sync, but then you would not get any notifications (but you'll still be able to access data when needed).


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## JihadSquad (Nov 2, 2011)

jco23 said:


> another tip is to check and see how many apps you have and which ones are constantly hitting your mobile data connection. on wifi, I can get 2 days with moderate usage. on 4G, 20 hours (~5% battery drain per hour).
> 
> other factors beyond your control are the signal stregth and data outages. on the FP1 kernel (in my experience), there is no difference between 3G and 4G in battery use.
> 
> you could also turn off autobancground sync, but then you would not get any notifications (but you'll still be able to access data when needed).


How would you check that?


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## 666 (Aug 31, 2011)

How do I go about undervolting or underclocking?


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## Brewer (Dec 29, 2011)

666 said:


> How do I go about undervolting or underclocking?


If you're on stock fp1 kernel you can do it thru tegrak. It does it thru modules but honestly you're better to use a custom kernel that allows it. Get pb&j (if you don't already) and use an app like voltage control or setCPU. I use voltage control personally. You con change Tue voltage/clock speed. Its pretty intuitively laid out.

Advice I'd offer whenever you mess around with this is never set the changes to run on boot until you know your settings are stable. Also go small incriments, make sure its stable before making more changes. I've seen people randomly try different settings; it doesnt help you to know what your phone can do lol.

Sent from my SCH-I510


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## jco23 (Dec 10, 2011)

JihadSquad said:


> How would you check that?


just go to settings -> applications -> running applications.

for me, for example, scorecenter, espn fantasy baseball, and facebook are always running. not sure why the first need to be running all the time, but killing them is not a permanent solution as they keep coming back. but uninstalling them would.

also, Droidwall is great for blocking certain apps from hitting your data connection that don't need it like angry birds.


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## chiosu (May 28, 2012)

Just to update, I underclocked to 800 and my battery life has improved over the last week or so. I am consistently looking for ways to increase my battery performance and if I figure anything else out I will let you all know, and please let me know!


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## benbrokaw79 (Jul 27, 2012)

chiosu said:


> I calibrate my battery every month or so and whenever I get a new ROM (maybe I'm doing it incorrectly so if you have tips concerning this that might help too).
> 
> Any advice whatsoever will be appreciated. Thanks!


 http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/battery_calibration


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