Droid 2 Global Battery Life

[ExodusC]

Minimum usage test on the stock battery:

I rooted, installed AutoKiller and set it to the Optimum preset. I ran buryboi's awesome bloatware removal script , but manually put back BatteryManager (so I can see usage stats). I have GPS/BT/WiFi/Push all off (unless needed). Brightness is always at 25%. The only Android widget I'm using is PowerControl, and I have SimiClock with the weather and battery indicators on and one SimiFolder - otherwise my homescreens (LauncherPro Plus) are blank. Battery manager is set to Nighttime Saver.

This time I did just about nothing on the phone. Made two calls, checked Facebook once, installed a screenshot app. Results: 100%->15% in 1 day, 18 hours, 11 minutes since unplugging from the wall. dancedroid

I am about to backup my FissionROM install and install the stock (rooted, deodex, and zipaligned) ROM from Fission ROM Manager.

I'll run the bloatware removal script and such, and see if I get a difference in battery life.

Maybe I should just go complete stock and the re-root myself? Any suggestions?

 

[speltrong]

I am about to backup my FissionROM install and install the stock (rooted, deodex, and zipaligned) ROM from Fission ROM Manager.

I'll run the bloatware removal script and such, and see if I get a difference in battery life.

Maybe I should just go complete stock and the re-root myself? Any suggestions?

I haven't tried Fission yet. It's a corporate phone, so I was even wary of rooting it, but there was something about seeing Skype and Blockbuster always popping up that just pissed me off. I guess it just depends on what you want to do with the phone. I'm a pretty light user, and was getting annoyed at being a slave to the charger when I know full well I wasn't doing anything that intensive. Rooted stock minus most of the MotoBlur stuff seems to be doing me just fine now that I got my battery drain under control. z4root was incredibly easy to use to do the initial rooting, ROM Manager was a good buy so I could back up my rom in case I jacked something up. Guess it depends on what you want to do w/ the phone as to whether it's worth having a custom ROM.

 

[ExodusC]

Okay, first of all, I guess I'm not going back to stock. Verizon's terrible backup assistant got stuck at "Connecting to server" for twenty minutes before I finally did a battery pull. I'm restoring my FissionROM backup.

I really would like to see if someone with FissionROM can revert to stock and do the bloatware removal, then compare battery life. No one has confirmed or denied FissionROM being the possible culprit.

Either way, I know getting barely 8 hours of idle time with my phone isn't acceptable.

I am about to backup my FissionROM install and install the stock (rooted, deodex, and zipaligned) ROM from Fission ROM Manager.

I'll run the bloatware removal script and such, and see if I get a difference in battery life.

Maybe I should just go complete stock and the re-root myself? Any suggestions?

I haven't tried Fission yet. It's a corporate phone, so I was even wary of rooting it, but there was something about seeing Skype and Blockbuster always popping up that just pissed me off. I guess it just depends on what you want to do with the phone. I'm a pretty light user, and was getting annoyed at being a slave to the charger when I know full well I wasn't doing anything that intensive. Rooted stock minus most of the MotoBlur stuff seems to be doing me just fine now that I got my battery drain under control. z4root was incredibly easy to use to do the initial rooting, ROM Manager was a good buy so I could back up my rom in case I jacked something up. Guess it depends on what you want to do w/ the phone as to whether it's worth having a custom ROM.

Your previous post proved to me that the Droid 2 Global can pull over 24 hours of very light use. Mine cannot pull more than 14 hours of almost absolutely no use-- the vast majority of that time is completely idle with almost all connectivity turned off, as well as the screen, and the CPU maximum underclocked to 300MHz with the screen off.

I absolutely need to figure out the issue. Classes start tomorrow, so I'm going to need to have access to my phone for a long span of time, and I won't have time to stop and charge.

Anyone else want to try to figure this out for the sake of everyone with terrible battery life?

EDIT: Okay, I've just found something interesting. After wiping the phone and reverting to stock, when the phone was powered down, the battery indicator read 50% while charging. When I booted into the stock ROM, I appeared to have about 50% battery (but we all know the stock icon is NOT accurate). Now, when I reverted to FissionROM, it detected 20% battery.

So, what do you think is really happening here? I can tell you now.

I loaded the battery into my original Droid, booted it up, and checked the percentage.

Guess what? The Droid reads 60%.

I am now almost certain FissionROM is the culprit here. This needs to be brought to AngDroid's attention.

EDIT 2: I'd love it if someone could help attempt to replicate this with their Droid 2 Global running FissionROM and another device that uses the same battery.

I can also confirm it is NOT the battery. I have tested this with three batteries, one of which I know for a fact works great, as it's the battery from my original Droid.

I've also PM'd AngDroid hoping he will take a look at this. It seems like a rather serious issue.

 

[speltrong]

@Exodus: Few things that may help you out:
- When I first got the phone and had abysmal battery life (6-8 hours on a charge doing nothing), I tried cycling the battery a few times. I drained it down to 10%, charged it to 100%, unplugged, pulled the battery, waited a few minutes, dropped it back in, repeat. I think it got more accurate after doing that four or five times.

- I didn't do a definitive test, but it felt like backup assistant was eating more battery before I went through the reg process and set it up. It wasn't set up when I got it from my company (not sure how they got past that), and it kept pinging the server trying to connect. Once I finally relented and set it up, it seemed to stop eating any CPU cycles. All of my contacts are on an Exchange Server, so I'm not sure if those even get backed up... that might be why it's not doing anything. I don't know how it works, but I wonder if it's possible to keep all your contacts in Google instead of on the phone itself, and if that will stop it from syncing so much. Just thinking (typing?) out loud.

- Before I got this phone, I had an iPhone3G. I got about 4-6 hours on a charge when 3G was on all the time. Once I started managing that (a complete and utter asspain because I couldn't simply install a widget - I had to dive six menus deep every time I wanted to switch it... thank you, Apple :icon_evil, I was able to get about 12-16 hours on a charge. If you're doing a whole lot more than me (maybe widgets or apps or something), once you get a decent baseline battery charge, you may want to investigate a 3G on/off widget (if such a thing exists for Verizon)

- I don't know if this helped the battery life, but I just remembered that when I was trying to work it out, I forced the phone to be CDMA only instead of CDMA/GSM. This is in Settings->Wireless and Network Settings->Mobile Networks->Network Mode->CDMA. When I travel overseas, I'll have to remember to turn Global back on.

That's all I can think of for right now. I'll post more as it occurs to me.

 

[ExodusC]

@Exodus: Few things that may help you out:
- When I first got the phone and had abysmal battery life (6-8 hours on a charge doing nothing), I tried cycling the battery a few times. I drained it down to 10%, charged it to 100%, unplugged, pulled the battery, waited a few minutes, dropped it back in, repeat. I think it got more accurate after doing that four or five times.

- I didn't do a definitive test, but it felt like backup assistant was eating more battery before I went through the reg process and set it up. It wasn't set up when I got it from my company (not sure how they got past that), and it kept pinging the server trying to connect. Once I finally relented and set it up, it seemed to stop eating any CPU cycles. All of my contacts are on an Exchange Server, so I'm not sure if those even get backed up... that might be why it's not doing anything. I don't know how it works, but I wonder if it's possible to keep all your contacts in Google instead of on the phone itself, and if that will stop it from syncing so much. Just thinking (typing?) out loud.

- Before I got this phone, I had an iPhone3G. I got about 4-6 hours on a charge when 3G was on all the time. Once I started managing that (a complete and utter asspain because I couldn't simply install a widget - I had to dive six menus deep every time I wanted to switch it... thank you, Apple :icon_evil, I was able to get about 12-16 hours on a charge. If you're doing a whole lot more than me (maybe widgets or apps or something), once you get a decent baseline battery charge, you may want to investigate a 3G on/off widget (if such a thing exists for Verizon)

- I don't know if this helped the battery life, but I just remembered that when I was trying to work it out, I forced the phone to be CDMA only instead of CDMA/GSM. This is in Settings->Wireless and Network Settings->Mobile Networks->Network Mode->CDMA. When I travel overseas, I'll have to remember to turn Global back on.

That's all I can think of for right now. I'll post more as it occurs to me.

I've done virtually all of these tweaks.

That's clearly not the problem. FissionROM is not properly reading battery levels on my device. Like I said, the stock ROM detected the battery having around 50%, the Droid 2 Global when powered off detected 50%, and the original Droid detected 60%.

FissionROM detected only 20% battery.

I'm fairly sure the problem lies with Fission and not the battery or power settings.

 

[speltrong]

While we wait for someone else to pipe up who doesn't mind swapping out ROMs, do third-party apps like SystemPanel Lite just draw info from Android's battery levels (in Fission's case, incorrectly) or do they give a more accurate account?

Guess it doesn't matter since the phone will probably freak out and shut down at 5% even if it's a fake 5% and may not try to charge it past 100% even if it's only really at 60%, but I'm curious.

Also, was the Backup Assistant problem the only reason you went away from stock?

 

[ExodusC]

While we wait for someone else to pipe up who doesn't mind swapping out ROMs, do third-party apps like SystemPanel Lite just draw info from Android's battery levels (in Fission's case, incorrectly) or do they give a more accurate account?

Guess it doesn't matter since the phone will probably freak out and shut down at 5% even if it's a fake 5% and may not try to charge it past 100% even if it's only really at 60%, but I'm curious.

Also, was the Backup Assistant problem the only reason you went away from stock?

I haven't tried other apps; I assume they all draw directly from what Android reports.

I want to discharge the battery on Fission completely, then put the battery in the Droid and see what it reports.

I hate the stock ROM. I love vanilla Android. I want to use Fission, but the battery issues needs to be examined and/or fixed first.

Sent from my Droid 2 Global using the DroidForums App.

 

[speltrong]

I haven't tried other apps; I assume they all draw directly from what Android reports.

I want to discharge the battery on Fission completely, then put the battery in the Droid and see what it reports.

I hate the stock ROM. I love vanilla Android. I want to use Fission, but the battery issues needs to be examined and/or fixed first.

Sent from my Droid 2 Global using the DroidForums App.

Found this: Issue 93 - fission-rom - Droid X Battery Remaining incorrect Vs. Overclock App(s) Profile Settings - Project Hosting on Google Code - looks like some apps might draw battery info from other sources.

Afraid I'm not going to be of much more help - hope someone fixes that issue for you.

 

[ExodusC]

I haven't tried other apps; I assume they all draw directly from what Android reports.

I want to discharge the battery on Fission completely, then put the battery in the Droid and see what it reports.

I hate the stock ROM. I love vanilla Android. I want to use Fission, but the battery issues needs to be examined and/or fixed first.

Sent from my Droid 2 Global using the DroidForums App.

Found this: Issue 93 - fission-rom - Droid X Battery Remaining incorrect Vs. Overclock App(s) Profile Settings - Project Hosting on Google Code - looks like some apps might draw battery info from other sources.

Afraid I'm not going to be of much more help - hope someone fixes that issue for you.

That's quite possibly the same, or a similar issue. I'm now almost certain there is a bug in the FissionROM code for reading remaining battery life.

I'm going to continue to investigate the issue as far as testing the batteries in my Motorola Droid after they have been "fully discharged" by the Droid 2 Global. Then we'll know for sure.

I hope AngDroid will get my PM or read this post soon so we can get a more definitive answer on the issue.

At this point I might give stock one more chance, just because I need the better battery life.

Sent from my Droid 2 Global using the DroidForums App.

 

[evanlec]

Interesting...yes please do investigate this further...I dont remember if my battery life was bad with stock rom because I didn't use it for very long before I switched to Fission. But I would be interested to know if there was a battery level reading bug in Fission...that would explain a lot.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App

 

[speltrong]

Just noticed something odd. I turned off my phone last night when it read as 5% so it wouldn't die overnight (1 day, 18 hours on that charge!). This morning I plugged it in without turning it on, and the battery icon showed 30% and charging. Thought that was weird, so I turned the phone on, and the battery indicator after it booted said 5% and charging. I'm using the stock ROM with bloatware removed (and BatteryManager enabled)... maybe it's not Fission... maybe the hardware or Froyo (or a combination) is giving inaccurate readings?

 

[ExodusC]

Just noticed something odd. I turned off my phone last night when it read as 5% so it wouldn't die overnight (1 day, 18 hours on that charge!). This morning I plugged it in without turning it on, and the battery icon showed 30% and charging. Thought that was weird, so I turned the phone on, and the battery indicator after it booted said 5% and charging. I'm using the stock ROM with bloatware removed (and BatteryManager enabled)... maybe it's not Fission... maybe the hardware or Froyo (or a combination) is giving inaccurate readings?

Now that is odd. Still, you managed almost 48 hours on one charge, while it seems Fission users cannot hit even 24 under any circumstances.

I'm still thinking Fission might be the culprit.

Sent from my Droid 2 Global using the DroidForums App.

 

[sixstringedmatt]

Im really thinking about going to a rooted stock condition bc of battery life... an extended battery is on the way but im thinking fission is the culprit... barely any use today and in 10 hours it was at 20% however, I hate the stock os... any options other than titanium pro to freeze apps? Im afraid of renaming or moving apps due to the chance I really screw something up.

I really hope this device sees more roms ported over... miui was fast and great on my battery on my droid1...sigh

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App

 

[ExodusC]

Im really thinking about going to a rooted stock condition bc of battery life... an extended battery is on the way but im thinking fission is the culprit... barely any use today and in 10 hours it was at 20% however, I hate the stock os... any options other than titanium pro to freeze apps? Im afraid of renaming or moving apps due to the chance I really screw something up.

I really hope this device sees more roms ported over... miui was fast and great on my battery on my droid1...sigh

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App

I really might have to go back to stock, and I HAVE the extended battery.

I love everything about Fission, but with battery life like this I don't think I can do it.

 

[sixstringedmatt]

Exodus...your news makes me sad.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App