Horrendous Battery Life

**sledge007** · 04/16/2011, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by grndslm

(6) Get the "MultiMod" patch for the browser. After that's installed, you can use the spacebar/period buttons for page up/down. That will save FAR more battery life than scrolling with your finger. If you scroll up one page, you're refreshing the screen like 20 times more than refreshing it once with one button press.

Did not know that....THANKS!

**somline** · 04/17/2011, 02:03 AM

Originally Posted by grndslm

Also... for those suggesting battery programs, they're not extremely accurate, because they're merely calculating an AVERAGE drain, which you can do w/ pencil and paper, as well.

You can watch it jump from over 25% DPH down to 7% and everywhere inbetween.

I think Dr.Battery is not meant in your post (since dr.b doesn't show DPH), so just for info:
in the actual scene of dr.b you see the average drain over 30s calculated by the chip inside the battery.
In the calibrate scene you see the momentary drain reported by the chip. Refreshed every 3s.

**GodShapedHole** · 04/17/2011, 06:32 AM

Another clarification: when I suggested Dr. Battery, I was actually suggesting to calibrate your battery with it because a battery can often show a capacity it cannot actually hold. If you have really bad battery life, you may very well have a defective / deteriorated battery and stand a chance of being able to improve your battery life by amazing margins by buying a new battery for 20 bucks or, depending on how nice your vendor is, getting a replacement. Calibrating will let you find out whether your battery does, in fact, need to be replaced.

(As I said, my friend's battery turned out to only hold ~800mAh and he hasn't had reason to be annoyed by his battery life since he went to O2 and got a replacement)

**uptherams** · 07/06/2011, 12:21 AM

Could this be the powerd sleep/wake problem found on the old Pre? I have about 10-12% drain per hour on a new Pre 2. If I run xterm, press the power button to lock the screen and wait 15 seconds, when I unlock I have LOADS of powerd messages for waking and sleeping (should be one pair). This is what is draining my battery, but I have no idea what causes the sleep/wake cycle! Everything is off etc. Any ideas? Nodoze helps, but isn't really a "solution".

**alan_tammy** · 07/06/2011, 02:48 PM

my pre2 was killing the battery in 10 hours whilst in aeroplane mode, it also had the question marks either side of the your device is up to date notice, i sent it for repair last week and just got it back today restored my apps and ran update the question marks are gone and its been sat on stand by for 3 hours with no battery drain,thats one thing solved just need the ndrive to report the correct possision and ill be all set

**uptherams** · 07/06/2011, 03:54 PM

Alan_tammy, do you know what the problem was? I also have the question marks...

Where did you send it? Mine was from eBay so I don't have any receipts etc, what did they ask for when you sent it for repair?

**alan_tammy** · 07/06/2011, 04:33 PM

rang palm explaind the problem and they said to send to their repair place in maidenhead,i have no idea what the problem was or if it will return but if you have the same problem ring them its free for 90 days after you register the hardware they dont care where you bought it and there all still in waranty so it will only cost p&p via dhl �11

**uptherams** · 07/06/2011, 05:19 PM

Thanks! Do you have the phone number?

**alan_tammy** · 07/07/2011, 03:57 AM

020 7660 0950 palm tech support
palm repair center ashford kent 0871 2000 995
sbe ltd
unit a2
tn23 7sh ashford
hope that helps

**alan_tammy** · 07/07/2011, 04:03 AM

might be some kind of firmware issue for 1 or more components thats causing this problem

**jimijames** · 07/07/2011, 06:02 AM

I know I'm late to the conversation, but I bought a new Pre2 directly from HP and I was getting over 10% drain per hour in airplane mode with wifi off. It would drain the battery sitting on the shelf with no usage.

Called HP tech support (which is easier said than done) and ended up getting a refurb replacement. The new phone is much better... will last for days in airplane mode with wifi on and multiple email accts set to receive email as they arrive. I'm going to frankenpre it soon... I'm glad I waited before tearing into the first one and voiding the warranty.

**uptherams** · 07/08/2011, 06:08 AM

Update: Doctor attempt on first PC didn't get past 9% and left me with ! in a triangle. Doctor attempt on second PC completed successfully, but battery drain is now worse than before (due to being on stock Palm and not customised clocking). Rang Palm support as suggested and will send it back for repair/replacement.

Basically, Doctor didn't solve the problem...

**alan_tammy** · 07/08/2011, 08:01 AM

i would put a note in with your phone expaining the problem or they might just do a factory reset and update and not even check for the problem you sent it in for. mine is back to how bad it was before i sent it in, ill be on the phone again today.
update: phone going back for repair again. tech support said if a phone isnt repaird after the second time they replace it with a new one, they are also collecting it this time so no more cost to me for sending back to repair center

**kulf** · 07/08/2011, 10:48 AM

What about those question marks? I don't get it. Have a pre2 with serious drain.

**somline** · 07/08/2011, 10:56 AM

Maybe someone with that problem can check if he sufers from that "pre can't sleep bug".
Sorry no link to that thread since I'm on the road.

**uptherams** · 07/08/2011, 11:52 AM

At some point I had the "question marks", but when I checked today they had gone back to normal. I had the "pre can't sleep bug" both with and without the question marks.

Alan_tammy: When you say that your phone is as bad as it was before, was it obvious straight away when you got the phone back or did it work fine for a period of time before showing the same terrible battery life? Do you have any idea of what you might have done between it working fine and the battery drain if so?

**alan_tammy** · 07/08/2011, 12:34 PM

it seemed ok for around 4 hours so i just left it on the table with a full battery in aeroplane mode and whent off to bed it was stone dead in the morning thats around 9 hours later,all that i did to it in since getting it back was run the update to 2.1 and restore apps didnt even have preware on it. the question marks havent come back though. maybe just pressing the button to put it to sleep does it

**uptherams** · 07/08/2011, 01:22 PM

Good luck getting it fixed this time. I put a line in about the problem on the paperwork I sent to palm, but I should maybe have highlighted it more... I won't hold out too much optimism for a fix this time round then, although it's good news to hear about the "new phone" after two failed repairs

Something I never tried was whether it makes a difference if you press the power button to send it to sleep or if you simply let the screen timer put it to sleep. I don't have my Pre2 anymore (it's with DHL) - could someone with the "sleep" problem do a quick check? I doubt very much that it will make a difference but it would be great if all we had to do to stop the problem was wait for the screen to go off naturally rather than pressing the power button!!

**kulf** · 07/09/2011, 08:45 AM

Had a conversation with palm yesterday. Complete waste of time.
Currently testing if it's to do with the battery: after a calibration last night, the battery suddenly showed a health of 87% in Dr.Battery (was 97% before).
Just another batch of really bad batteries?

**Midway99** · 07/10/2011, 02:16 AM

yes, awful bat life.

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