Why does DROID stay on when I turn it off?

[TJM]

I have a couple of questions. 1) I turn the power off and charge it. It says "Droid" and then screen blackens and then shows the dot security pattern I set up and it stays on. Why does it take so long to shut off and at times not at all? Is this normal? 2) I have a security app on my phone. I also installed the task killer and am always making sure everything than can go off is off, but I am assuming the security app does not. Otherwise, why would my battery go down 20% in 1/2 hour even if I don't touch it? Is it a good idea to get another spare battery, or what? Is this normal? 3) I have a few games I play and they seem okay at the beginning of play. After I have played a couple of them after about 20 minutes or so they start to lag and not be quick as it was. They drag - is this normal? Is this the app and not the phone? I would appreciate any helpful comments on the above.

 

[djh074]

well,i think I can answer the first question for you. the phone is always on when plugged in. so even though u turn it off, if u plug it in it will turn back on.

 

[natediddy1120]

I read the read the Motorola Droid User Guide and it says that the device is "always on" during charging, cause i always wondered that same thing...it just kept coming back on if i turned it off while charging! but i would suggest uninstalling the task killer, and the security app...these things do seem handy and useful, but the truth is that the Android platform handles background running programs VERY well, it pauses them if not reopened and it uses NO energy in the background. Theyre paused until you open them back up. A lot of problems come from task killers. And as for the security app, there are no known viruses/spyware/etc. among the Android platform whatsoever from what Ive read and learned about it...so these security apps are basically useless and just a way to adveritse from within the app. hope this helps man!

 

[djh074]

I think he means the unlock security program. I use it and like it. dint need other people going through my phone! absolutely correct on the task killer, it is unnecessary and can cause problems.

 

[TJM]

Thank you guys so much for your help - you guys are great and so knowledgable. :icon_ banana: I will uninstall the task killer and the security app. I will, however, keep the dot security though. I agree that I don't want people opening up my phone.
Is it normal while I am using my Droid (ie: email, etc.) and I am on for awhile my screen darkens for a minute or so before it comes back to bright, and will do this several times about every 5 minutes or so?

 

[djh074]

it might actually just be the light sensor. is your screen brightness set to auto? if so, just putting your hand in front of the sensor, or turning, whatever, could change the screen brightness. just a thought.

 

[Martin030908]

Anti-Virus apps will drag your phone down and are not needed since there are no confirmed Android viruses.
Task Killers can cause more harm then good. If you must keep it, don't let the task killer run in the background, use it only for manual 'kills'.
The 'dot pattern' you mentioned is the pattern lock that is on the native OS, so you can't uninstall it anyway... only disable it
The Droid's sensor will adjust the screens brightness based on ambient lighting. Could just be your hand that 'blocks' it for a second, or the way light reflects.... not much you can do there.

 

[TJM]

Thanks, I appreciate your help. :yr1:

 

[Jonny Kansas]

The Droid's sensor will adjust the screens brightness based on ambient lighting. Could just be your hand that 'blocks' it for a second, or the way light reflects.... not much you can do there.

Well, you CAN disable auto-brightness and set it to a level that you like, but auto-brightness works so well, that it actually DOES save battery. I turned it off, thinking that I didn't have a need for it to every get really bright, and set the slider almost all the way to the left...think I even just put it all the way to the left for a while.

When checking battery use percentage of "Display" having brightness not auto and down, Display used a considerable amount more battery than when I turned auto-brightness back on for a while. Can't remember the exact numbers, but I know it was a difference of at least 10-20%, enough for me to decide that auto is the way to go.

In the end, it's all about your own preference. If you'd like the brightness to stay the same all the time, disable it.

I know that, if your screen has a lot of white on it, sometimes it seems like the sensor reads that and cranks the screen brightness up even more. I've noticed that while using DroidLight [the Moto app to use the flash as a flashlight] as well.

 

[New2u]

The Droid's sensor will adjust the screens brightness based on ambient lighting. Could just be your hand that 'blocks' it for a second, or the way light reflects.... not much you can do there.

Well, you CAN disable auto-brightness and set it to a level that you like, but auto-brightness works so well, that it actually DOES save battery. I turned it off, thinking that I didn't have a need for it to every get really bright, and set the slider almost all the way to the left...think I even just put it all the way to the left for a while.

When checking battery use percentage of "Display" having brightness not auto and down, Display used a considerable amount more battery than when I turned auto-brightness back on for a while. Can't remember the exact numbers, but I know it was a difference of at least 10-20%, enough for me to decide that auto is the way to go.

In the end, it's all about your own preference. If you'd like the brightness to stay the same all the time, disable it.

I know that, if your screen has a lot of white on it, sometimes it seems like the sensor reads that and cranks the screen brightness up even more. I've noticed that while using DroidLight [the Moto app to use the flash as a flashlight] as well.

This actually is not an accurate statement. While the auto light sensor does a good job at keeping the light at what you need it to be to look at the screen it unfortunately does not save battery compared to keeping it down. If you were using the screen for the "exact" same amount of time, one using a 25-30% setting and one using auto, the auto will always be higher.

Leaving it on it my experience, it will usually fluctuate between 40 and 65% brightness, nowhere near where i keep it. On average in a room with florescent lighting it stays at around 45-50%. For those who say, psh 15-20% is trivial when it comes to saving battery, it is not. My average battery will last now, anywhere from 12-20 hours. Thats moderate - heavy usage of the device.

If your using your droid with a usb charger into your computer, and you shut it off, it will not come back on. It will just charge like that. I'm not sure if that's intentional, so you can actually charge it faster, or not, but so far i'm sure that it works. If your using the wall chargers, it will only restart if you shut your droid off.

Taskkiller's "can" be useful to have, but don't leave them running in the background. If your going to have it, make sure that itself is one of the things you terminate. Keeping it on, and killing apps that don't need it, can cause weird things to happen on your phone, that's why most say just to uninstall them. I find them useful on a daily basis. I don't so much use it for memory management, but to kill apps that are stuck, or ones that will drain the battery. (Most have their own opinion about this, merely stating mine)

20% drain on a battery in 30 minutes is bad. Don't let anyone tell you it's normal. (I doubt anyone on here would) If you've used a task killer and made sure the task killer and all other programs were killed, and the only thing left running was the security program, then there are 3 possibilities. One is that the security app is the problem. Second is that using the task killer, one of the programs got stuck and is eating battery (it does happen). Third, you just have a bad battery, but if you stop using the security and everything is normal after that, i doubt this is the problem.

It can be good to have a spare battery if your on the go and don't always have access to a charger. My normal day is spent around computers and power outlets, so i don't ever have to worry about charging it. Some users on here spend all day outdoors doing stuff, so for certain people it's a nice thing to have a spare battery, just in case.

In your game situation, i haven't played many games, probably only about 4-5, and none of those games ever dragged after an hour or two of playing them.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Just stating what I saw. This was not too long after I first got the phone, so I was using it VERY heavily, but I live in a mobile home with minimal lighting, so it's very possible that my brightness just happened to stay down towards the bottom of the spectrum. Like I said, I'm not sure whether I originally had it all the way down or not.

As for the original topic of this thread...I know that I've shut the phone off AFTER plugging it in to charge with the wall charger, and it stayed of for a while, but it seems like I was just restarting it for some reason or another, so I can't say whether it would've come back on after a while or not...

 

[TJM]

Again, thanks! :greendroid: