no good battery life in CM7 build 6

[Redflea]

CM7 comes with a modified power control widget that has a button that turns off the 3g radio. Its a little icon the looks like 2 arrows pointing away from each other

So that would stop the phone "hunting" for a 3G connection in a weak signal area, and phone calls/texts would still come through on 1X?

Nvm...just tested it...setting 2G allows calls, turns off 3G radio. The 1X icon didn't appear in my status bar, but a call I made went through.

Inerestingly, the 2G/3G switch in the Notification Power Widget in CyanogenMod settings is disable and can't be selected for inclusion. Seems like the same functionality, is it a bug that it's disabled there and available in the Power Control widget?

Also, is there any way to access the settings in the Power Control widget other than by creating a new instance of the widget and adjusting the settings while creating that new instance of the widget? Once you have created the widget its settings become inaccessible unless you create another instance of it...

You're confusing 3G/2G/1X (which is purely data) with the voice network. Some newer phones can do Vo3G (voice calls over 3G), but ours cannot. Turning off 3G is basically disabling all data. The 2G/3G switch is basically saying "use the slower 2G network for data instead of the newer, faster 3G network."

In a perfect situation, you have 2 icons in the top right showing signal... 1 will show either 3G or 1X, which shows that you have a data connection. Then there are the bars, which show your connection to the voice network.

Airplane mode turns of ALL antennae. That includes 3G, wifi, and voice calls. Turning off 3G will simply turn off data, and switching from 3G to 2G will use a slower data connection, which is supposed to save some battery life.

Thanks...DOH! I knew that (or thought I did).

So when I turn on and connect to a wifi network, all mobile data (3G/1X) is turned off automatically, right? (Not the same result if I used the power widget icon w/the two arrows, one pointing up, the other pointing down to turn off 3G, which would turn off 3G but keep 1X on)? The main reason to use the 3G off option would be when you are in a weak 3G location and don't have wifi but still want some data connectivity w/out killing the battery trying to find/keep a 3G connection. Have I got that right now?

Also, we don't have a 2G option on our phones, do we? I actually thought that we only had 3G or 1X...if we use the 2G/3G switch in the power widget is it actually switching between 1X and 3G, or doing nothing, or ?

 

[havens1515]

1) Yes, when you connect to a wifi network, it disables all mobile data (3G/1X)
2) The power widget icon with the arrows turns off all mobile data as well. The other option, "toggle 2G/3G" which is grayed out, would turn off 3G, but keep 2G on. I don't know if it would keep 1X on.

I think you are right, in that our phones do not have a 2G option, which is probably why that option is grayed out.

As far as turning off the data, you would want to do this in an area where there is weak or no data connection. If you leave it on, it will continuously search and kill your battery fairly quickly.

For example, I go camping out in the middle of nowhere for a week every summer. When I go this summer, I will probably turn off my data because there will likely be no data coverage out that far. I could put it on airplane mode, but I do occasionally get enough signal to text, so I usually keep that on (even though it will probably drain my battery more when I DON'T have signal.)

 

[loki993]

Would that update do any good even if someone doesnt use wifi? I keep mine turned off.

 

[thefigaman2]

okay i have been using juice defender, and as for battery life it made my battery 1.84 times better... however, i have had nothinggg but problems with it!!! i even upgraded to Ultimate, hoping i could resolve these annoyances. First off while using it i never seem to get texts on time, i have been getting them a half hour later from when pple send them. second, i have the settings to leave the data and 3g alonee, but it always seems to be turned off when i unlock my phone, then it takes about 2 mins to restore it orrrr i have to reboot my phone. third, it will randomly turn off everything while im using my phone. i am veryyy frustrated with it and sadly considering to remove cm7 untill they figure out a way to make battery life wayyy better

 

[Montecarlo97z]

okay i have been using juice defender, and as for battery life it made my battery 1.84 times better... however, i have had nothinggg but problems with it!!! i even upgraded to Ultimate, hoping i could resolve these annoyances. First off while using it i never seem to get texts on time, i have been getting them a half hour later from when pple send them. second, i have the settings to leave the data and 3g alonee, but it always seems to be turned off when i unlock my phone, then it takes about 2 mins to restore it orrrr i have to reboot my phone. third, it will randomly turn off everything while im using my phone. i am veryyy frustrated with it and sadly considering to remove cm7 untill they figure out a way to make battery life wayyy better

at the end of the day post a screen shot of your battery stats