Galaxy S battery life?

SaiyanZ

SaiyanZ

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I've been having a problem with my Galaxy S the last week or so. The battery life has gotten really bad. It can be fully charged before I go to bed at night and be dead in the morning 6 hours later. I was late for work 2 days in a row because of this as well. No wake up alarm because phone dead.

I did some research and it seems that this can be caused due to a poor signal. i.e. the phone switching from Edge to 3G to HSDPA all the time.
I'm guessing that it is most probably that the Virgin Mobile signal has gotten bad in my area over the last week or so.

What is the best fix for this?
- I could use an Edge only profile and switch to 3G when I want to use the net.
- Or there is some other more convenient way?

I have no active applications running and am on Android 2.1. Not sure if Android 2.2 has a fix for this but will install it next month. My battery normally lasted for a full day and I used to charge it for a couple of hours in the evening.
 
I usually put my phone in flight mode, saves quite a bit of battery at night when im asleep. You can try forcing the phone on EDGE, it will help a bit as well but to me its too much effort to keep on switching, unless you can find a widget that switches between the two. Should be fairly easy to develop something like that as well. Check the market, im sure you will find something there.

My battery lasts about 2 days max, on android 2.3.3
 
Certain apps chow your battery, like TaskOS. Install that and not even Advanced Task Killer on Autokill-CRAZY can save your battery life.

Since you have no apps, your battery might be stuffed?
 
My Galaxy S lasts about two days if I don't use it too much (a few google talk messages and a few phone calls). I only use 2G (GSM only), only switch to 3G and use GPS if I want to use navigation. Wifi I use when I'm at home, otherwise Wifi is switched off.

Edit: android 2.2
 
SaiyanZ said:
I've been having a problem with my Galaxy S the last week or so. The battery life has gotten really bad. It can be fully charged before I go to bed at night and be dead in the morning 6 hours later. I was late for work 2 days in a row because of this as well. No wake up alarm because phone dead.

I did some research and it seems that this can be caused due to a poor signal. i.e. the phone switching from Edge to 3G to HSDPA all the time.
I'm guessing that it is most probably that the Virgin Mobile signal has gotten bad in my area over the last week or so.

What is the best fix for this?
- I could use an Edge only profile and switch to 3G when I want to use the net.
- Or there is some other more convenient way?

I have no active applications running and am on Android 2.1. Not sure if Android 2.2 has a fix for this but will install it next month. My battery normally lasted for a full day and I used to charge it for a couple of hours in the evening.
Click to expand...

What apps have you installed/updated in the last two weeks?
Do you leave your Wi-Fi on when there's no wifi network as that can make your phone poll all the time and use a lot of battery.

There are a few other things that could be the cause but an app is probably the culprit.
 
If you goto settings, about phone, battery and then select battery use, you will get a breakdown on what % what app use of the battery since last charge.

What is using the battery the most?
 
Elimentals said:
If you goto settings, about phone, battery and then select battery use, you will get a breakdown on what % what app use of the battery since last charge.

What is using the battery the most?
Click to expand...

Display followed by Cell standby. Both around the same. Display a little higher. No apps open.


SomeoneEls said:
What apps have you installed/updated in the last two weeks?
Do you leave your Wi-Fi on when there's no wifi network as that can make your phone poll all the time and use a lot of battery.

There are a few other things that could be the cause but an app is probably the culprit.
Click to expand...

No wifi, bluetooth or apps running.

I switched it to "WCDMA only" this morning and it seems to be lasting. 80% level after 5 hours (including a 5 minute call and a few sms's)
I'm sure it's network issues. Just wish the phone would stop searching for a better signal when it's in standby mode. That's what kills it at night. Looks like WCDMA only mode will make it last longer though so will see.
 
SaiyanZ said:
Display followed by Cell standby. Both around the same. Display a little higher. No apps open.
Click to expand...

This is after how many hours, its ok if Standby is the same as display for about 10 minutes after charge, if its after 3+ hours you have a problem with the radio. Esp if you used the display for about 5 minutes in that time.

Edit: Found a couple of places where Galaxy S users had an issue with battery draining over night, all was caused by low signal strength. Some suggested forcing phone to 2G and leave Wi-Fi turned off.
My guess is find a rom or update to 2.3. It sounds like the same problem I had with DHD on CM7, I found another radio image on XDA to flash and that solved my problem.
 
Last edited:
Elimentals said:
This is after how many hours, its ok if Standby is the same as display for about 10 minutes after charge, if its after 3+ hours you have a problem with the radio. Esp if you used the display for about 5 minutes in that time.
Click to expand...

This^

Right now i last charged my phone at home and i am at 90% Display and 7% Cell Standby.
 
Elimentals said:
This is after how many hours, its ok if Standby is the same as display for about 10 minutes after charge, if its after 3+ hours you have a problem with the radio. Esp if you used the display for about 5 minutes in that time.

Edit: Found a couple of places where Galaxy S users had an issue with battery draining over night, all was caused by low signal strength. Some suggested forcing phone to 2G and leave Wi-Fi turned off.
My guess is find a rom or update to 2.3. It sounds like the same problem I had with DHD on CM7, I found another radio image on XDA to flash and that solved my problem.
Click to expand...
+1 ya display should use most of it. Mine usually sits at around 75% display on if I leave wifi by mistake or 85-90% if it's not
 
With a bit of browsing every day and few minutes of calls I get about 140 hours out of my SGS battery. Very very impressed.
To clarify, wifi, bluetooth, GPS and 3G is off. Only EDGE.
 
Ok, so I last charged 3 hours ago. No calls/sms's/browsing. Breakdown of use is as follows:

Cell standby: 42%
Display: 27%
Phone idle: 27%
Android system: 3%

O shucks...lol..display just shot up to 40% while typing this. It is now higher than cell standby at 30%.
 
SaiyanZ said:
Ok, so I last charged 3 hours ago. No calls/sms's/browsing. Breakdown of use is as follows:

Cell standby: 42%
Display: 27%
Phone idle: 27%
Android system: 3%

O shucks...lol..display just shot up to 40% while typing this. It is now higher than cell standby at 30%.
Click to expand...

Like I said with 5 min use and 3 hours running your display should be about 70+% standby should be at 4% and idel + standby should be about the same + - 10% difference
Have you set your phone to use Edge only?

I did note in the Android Forum someone post a link to the SGS 2.3 Update rom.
I dont know what your skill level is, but if it was me I would try that next.
 
Update: I changed the profile to GSM only. Last charged over 18 hours ago and it's still on 67%. So will easily get over a days use from it. So looks like the battery does drain extremely fast when the 3G signal is poor.
 
First check what apps you have in the background and get rid of unnecessary stuff (Settings -> Applications -> Running services)
No need for those task killer apps.

Charge your phone fully. Then switch it off and charge it to full while it's off. Switch it on again. That should get the battery up to a full charge.
It might help to let the phone 'die' from low power first.
That should get the battery calibrated correctly.

You're using a stock firmware I take it? So that shouldn't be the problem. Just some early 2.2 firmwares had battery problems if wi-fi was left on.
 
Maddmatt said:
First check what apps you have in the background and get rid of unnecessary stuff (Settings -> Applications -> Running services)
No need for those task killer apps.

Charge your phone fully. Then switch it off and charge it to full while it's off. Switch it on again. That should get the battery up to a full charge.
It might help to let the phone 'die' from low power first.
That should get the battery calibrated correctly.

You're using a stock firmware I take it? So that shouldn't be the problem. Just some early 2.2 firmwares had battery problems if wi-fi was left on.
Click to expand...


I have the following running services:

wwsStartService
OmaDrmConfigService
GTalkService
SnsService
Swype

Which of those can I end without messing up the phone? I do use swype but not sure what the others are for. Probably can end the GTalkservice as I don't use that stuff.
 
You can end the GTalk service permanently by opening up the GTalk app, disabling auto sign-on, and signing out.
Doubt those are causing any battery issues thought, they're standard stuff.
 
Maddmatt said:
You can end the GTalk service permanently by opening up the GTalk app, disabling auto sign-on, and signing out.
Doubt those are causing any battery issues thought, they're standard stuff.
Click to expand...

My battery is fine now. I just went 40 hours and still 20% left. Time to charge :)
 
I just went for 10 full days on my SGS battery!
Didn't use the phone much though - a few calls, bit of browsing and wifi. Still impressive though.
 
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