Instant battery drain on Pre3

[njitipairote]

I had a similar problem. My Pre 3 was at 60 percent and I pressed the power button to sleep the device but the device didn't sleep. I tried sliding the keyboard then the device went to 0 percent battery. I had true 60 percent which went to 0 in less than 2 minutes. I don't use tethering. I use UberKernel with screenstate enabled. I don't use Mode Switcher.

[gbp]

Originally Posted by OfnPanad

I've just had this experience today.

I have an AT&T Pre3 running the stock kernel. I have installed PreWare and turned e-mail accounts to manual.

Patches installed are:
-Govnah, [currently reporting Palm Default, 122.88Mhz, 29C,-81mA,8.28/8.21/8.12, 364/10MB]
although whilst I have been typing this message the CPU Frequency graph shows I have been running at 1.4016Ghz about 50% of the time without me touching the phone. Every time I look at Govnah it seems to settle back down to 122.88Mhz.
-Clock sync (set to every 6 hours)
-GPS Fix,
-EOM Overlord monitoring,
-GNU patch,
-LSDIFF,
-Quiet powerd messages,
-Removed drop packet logging,
-Unthrottle download manager,
-Wifi Fix for Pre3-224

I had rubbish battery life, about 5 hours of decent use. Then I loaded my profile onto a Veer, then when I decided to go back to my Pre3, re-loaded my WebOS profile back to this phone and for some reason the battery life has been much better since.

I was going on a long train journey today and being in contact for texts and calls was more important to me than data. I couldn't see how to turn off all data and 3G (maybe I am being thick) so I installed:

"GSM 3G GPS and Brightness in Device Menu" from PreWare.

I turned off data and left it at "2G-" status and GPS off. Whilst I was waiting for my train I left the Pre3 connected to the car via the proper Palm car kit. I checked the battery every so often whilst listening to the radio and it charged from 81% to 90% then for the last 25 mins kept flicking between 91% and back down to 90%, even when idle with the screen off for almost 10 mins in the middle. Odd but nothing I could do about it.

I completed the first leg of my journey and saw something really interesting so I took a picture, turned data back on and connected to FaceBook. I checked in at the station and posted the picture, then I turned off data & GPS again. Battery was down to 85%.

Got where I was going, so I sent a dozen texts, forwarding and editing them slightly for each recipient, so working the phone quite hard. Suddenly it gave me the low battery warning. I thought it was odd so I turned it off and on again. It gave me the empty battery logo. I had an emergency battery charger on me so I hooked that up and turned it on again. It came on showing 0%. I disconnected the emergency charger and the phone stayed on at 0% (still at "2G-" status) for the next 4.5 hours until I got home! On the Touchstone it went and it took ages to get from 0% up to 14% (about an hour), then the next time I checked it, it was at 100%.

I hope this background, as detailed as I could make it, helps someone work out the cause.

I have a couple of questions if anyone can help....

1) Is there a problem with the "GSM 3G GPS and Brightness in Device Menu" patch? I am reluctant to remove it unless someone can tell me how to turn off 3G etc...

2) Would you recommend any other patches, or removing any of the ones I have?

Thanks

Similar experience. I used the phone for 4 hours with the battery showing 0%. Also I suspect the Dr.Battery app to be wrong. Either its reporting wrong data or its a webOS software glitch. Overall the phone is just great except for the battery life. I am hoping that there will be a fix from homebrew community.

[mivoligo]

I had problem with the battery too. Instant (about 2-3 minutes) drain from 100% to null. Last time happened after I was trying to make a call to someone, but that person didn't answer. So I hang up and left the phone on the table. Phone was fully charged. After maybe 3 minutes the phone gave a sound of dying battery.
Previously it happen when I was downloading some podcast and went out of wifi range.

[checkmate]

Well, it just happened again! 3rd or 4th time now I reckon.
The phone had only been off the touchstone for about an hour this morning when Facebook froze up. After resetting with 'POWER + Ringer Switch x3' I got the 'please charge' symbol. Plugged in to my computer's USB at work and it's taken over an hour to come back to life.
After going through its reset cycle it has shown up as 100% battery!

[somline]

Originally Posted by gbp

.... Also I suspect the Dr.Battery app to be wrong. Either its reporting wrong data or its a webOS software glitch.

To make it clear what dr.battery does: dr.b reports what the kernel gets from the A6 interface/firmware from the battery chip.
I haven't seen the firmware sources of A6 as of now.
This sudden power "drain" is mysterious . Please monitor the battery health each time you get this.
I really hope this is not connected to the sudden health drop to 50% of the battery.

[rcnsd]

my veer is doing something similar. drains about 1% or more per minute.

it started when i first tried the detachable headset and actually used it for a good hour.

i was falling asleep so i wasnt sure if i turned the phone off.. form what i remember i did turn it off.

i left the headset thingy attached with my earphones plugged in

in the morning the phone was hot and the battery was dead.

ive swaped batteries and same thing...

it seems the chip on the right side gets super hot and drains the batter super fast

dr battery say - 500+ ma

when plugged in it is still -90 +

p.s everything was stock until after this started happening.

[g7]

Ok, got this issue for the second time (Owning a pre3 from September, and the battery health is at 93%).

Off touchstone for an half hour, then after closing all the apps I was running and after pressing the power button to make it lock, the screen remained on (but not responding to touch).
After some seconds I got the Low Battery message, and after some minutes I put it back on the touchstone.

Well, it slowly began to charge, until it got 21% (well, the battery was near 80% when the issue occoured).
What I think is: the A6 got mad and thought the battery was 0%. It began to charge, but when reaching 21% the battery blocked it (which should be a good thing, prevents overcharge).

So I needed to fully discharge it (was sticking to 0% for about 5 hours... lol) and now is recharging.

So, if someone else is having this issue: DO NOT shutdown or reboot the phone when the Low Battery message appears. Otherwise the "low battery" icon will show at next boot, and that just makes all the process longer. Just wait until it discharges completely, then begin to recharge it. Or, just use the phone normally, but it may shutdown on you without advice!


Eugenio

[guigui75]

Hi, nobody have the solution for this problem ?
My wife's pre3 has the same issue.
Suddently drain to 30%, and need to be re-charge two or three times a day.
With a really light use (no wifi, no bt, ...)
Afetr a full reboot and new config it was great for 2-3 days, but same thing now ...
Thanks for your help.

Guillaume.

[mazzinia]

Do you have patches installed ?
Uberkernel ?

I have suffered a drain issue only when the bluetooth or wifi stacks ( in a way they are connected ) decided to go nuts and likely keep polling even after the device was powered down.

In other cases I think it's related to some patch etc , or a sum of patches etc... so... did you install anything before the issue started ? ( in the days before)

[somline]

Originally Posted by mazzinia

In other cases I think it's related to some patch etc , or a sum of patches etc... so... did you install anything before the issue started ? ( in the days before)

This thread is not about some drain issue. It's about a sudden drop to 0%. We have seen this issue on the Veer and pre3.

[kbywal]

Had similar issue on my Pre3 two or three times. No idea why this happened (I was able to use my device until the battery was empted). After putting the phone on my touchstone it re-charged back to 100%.

[zhanezeng]

i have similar issue...

i live with my pre3 happily for about 6 months, and typical it can last for one day with modest usage of phone call and internet... with more browsing, I just put it on the touchstone to make sure it has the juice...

then one day, suddenly it is drained very fast, and then I was the first time to notice the idle current is -700mA.. for a 1400mAh battery, that means it will drain in 2 hrs.

I tried a lot things... but eventually I doctored it... and uninstalled all the patches from preware and unused apps... now the idle current (with phone, data on, screen dark) is ~100-!50mA... still seems large to me, but much better now... I would expect the idle current to be less than 100mA..

So it is still a mystery to me which app/patch have caused a sudden uproar of battery drain... or it is the battery itself... i also tried to clean the contact a little bit.

now I am going to slowly add more apps and patches and keep monitoring the idle current...

[baandoptager]

Originally Posted by zhanezeng

i have similar issue...

i live with my pre3 happily for about 6 months, and typical it can last for one day with modest usage of phone call and internet... with more browsing, I just put it on the touchstone to make sure it has the juice...

then one day, suddenly it is drained very fast, and then I was the first time to notice the idle current is -700mA.. for a 1400mAh battery, that means it will drain in 2 hrs.

I tried a lot things... but eventually I doctored it... and uninstalled all the patches from preware and unused apps... now the idle current (with phone, data on, screen dark) is ~100-!50mA... still seems large to me, but much better now... I would expect the idle current to be less than 100mA..

So it is still a mystery to me which app/patch have caused a sudden uproar of battery drain... or it is the battery itself... i also tried to clean the contact a little bit.

now I am going to slowly add more apps and patches and keep monitoring the idle current...

I just got my Pre 3, 4 days ago. I cant go thru half a day even with 3g off and all mails on manual. I doctored it today at 14.30 in the afternoon, charged to 100%. Its not 21.30 and im down to 10% battery. haven't used it at all.

Seriously can anyone help??? What can i do?

[RumoredNow]

Since it is a device made over a year ago it most likely is the battery itself...

Some initial reading: http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-...ry-health.html


Do you have Preware installed??? Application:Preware - WebOS Internals

If not - get it...

Once you have Preware installed search for Dr. Battery Dr. Battery


Dr. Battery will inform you about your battery health. It is probably degraded due to neglect while the device sat idle.

Replacement batteries can be had via eBay/Amazon/etc....

Mugen Power makes extended life batteries that come with a price tag, but are (IMHO) very much worth it.


If it is not a degraded battery there are other things you can do to extend battery run time. However, since you are forcing the Pre 3 to EDGE and have push email turned off - I would suspect the battery health first for the short run time.

[somline]

Originally Posted by RumoredNow

Dr. Battery will inform you about your battery health. It is probably degraded due to neglect while the device sat idle.

Mugen Power makes extended life batteries that come with a price tag, but are (IMHO) very much worth it.

Good advice :-) but if you don't have Preware/Dr.B a shorter way to test the health would be running the battery test from webOS:
Deviceinfo-> Diagnose (from app menu) -> Interactive Tests -> Battery
(Don't know the english words since my is german)
If you get a red state it seems you need a new battery. We suggest mugen.

[RumoredNow]

Originally Posted by somline

Good advice :-) but if you don't have Preware/Dr.B a shorter way to test the health would be running the battery test from webOS:
Deviceinfo-> Diagnose (from app menu) -> Interactive Tests -> Battery
(Don't know the english words since my is german)
If you get a red state it seems you need a new battery. We suggest mugen.

LOL I keep forgetting about the built in Diagnostic. I'm spoiled by Dr. Battery.

[baandoptager]

Thx guys! Appreciate it.

I've done the Webos diagnostic too, now Dr battery.

Here's my info w. 3g/data of, push emails on manual, lowest brightness and no GPS etc.

Temp: 30'/86F
Voltage: 3.79 V
Current: 188.36 mA (Isn't this extremely high or is it just me???) (the lowest has been 155, highest 197)
Health: 1218mAh on both accounts.

[somline]

Looks good. What is the health %?
I expect the Current you mentioned is negative and the device wasn't charging.
1218mAh/188mA aprox 6,5 hours runtime in state on. The device should consume much less when in sleep mode.
You can install Govnah (no over clocking needed) to watch power consumption in sleep mode.
Start Govnah, switch off the device. Wait some minutes and wake device and watch the graph and value.

[baandoptager]

Originally Posted by somline

Looks good. What is the health %?
I expect the Current you mentioned is negative and the device wasn't charging.
1218mAh/188mA aprox 6,5 hours runtime in state on. The device should consume much less when in sleep mode.
You can install Govnah (no over clocking needed) to watch power consumption in sleep mode.
Start Govnah, switch off the device. Wait some minutes and wake device and watch the graph and value.

Health actually states 100%.

I have now done a full secure wipe and complete re-install of 2.2.4 to see if there's a difference and actually weird thing now is that with wifi on, battery seems to be a little better (***!!!). Quite damn strange!!!.

Can't be completely sure just yet, gonna leave it on flight mode over night to see how or if it survives.

[laingman]

So when its draining does it also run hot?