[HOW-TO] Battery saving tips

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rand33099

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2010
84
13
I read on a prime forum before that putting brightness in super ISP mode and then turn brightness all the way down did better than 30% in normal ISP mode. Has anyone tried that?
 

d14b0ll0s

Senior Member
Sep 4, 2011
1,213
448
This is how brightness is governed on the Infinity, so I'll try that just after praying for the rain while running circles around the bonfire ;)

I can see only one reason for this trick and this is a workaround for fooling smartdimmer, which is an obsolete one now, as we have the real solution.
 

Fabipro

Senior Member
Feb 7, 2011
307
26
Augsburg
Have a look at this screenshot.

I think the 1500 MHz are running to much and that on all 4 Cores!
Something big is wrong here. The keyboard is doing hard to load the Tab while using it.

I didnt play anything in this time. Only surfing a little bit, facebook, Twitter and News.
And that in BALANCED Mode!


Hope for help and suggestions.
Thx
FAbi
Gesendet von meinem ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T mit Tapatalk 2
 

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tha_kreature

Senior Member
Jul 5, 2012
168
51
I've noticed that with the tablet docked my battery monitor numbers make no sence. I suspect the fact that tablet goes in and out of charge state is the reason.

Anyway, when trying for example OpenGarden to connect to my phone, and then giving up and packing it up, I notice 4 hours later it has used 60% of the doc, and 20% of the tablet (80% left on tab, 40% on doc) and they were both fully charged before I started.
Something seems to hang/be left behind and the tablet got very warm. Warmer than my looped antutu tests infact.

Smells like the basic idea of android is to blame here. I really wish they'd just nix that and let me choose between going back out of a program and closing it. Much faster and easier way to make sure what you want is running and not everything else.
 

tha_kreature

Senior Member
Jul 5, 2012
168
51
I've been doing some more tests and OpenGarden is my problem. If I disable wifi and enable bluetooth it goes into action.
Then it will prevent the TF700T from sleeping and the cores go in 1.5 GHz mode. No other mode is used if I reset stats before testing.
Leaving it for 30 mins with lid closed (docked) gives 30 mins in state 1500.
It gets quite hot, especially in a sleeve.

Enabeling wifi again and disabeling bluetooth makes OpenGarden enter stopped state, but it is still loaded and TF700T now goes into 1300 state. Still a insane power consumtion when it should be in deep sleep.

Can someone else verify this ?
I use CPU Spy to check states.
 

jtrosky

Senior Member
May 8, 2008
3,901
1,153
I would guess that there is some app that is running in the background that is causing such high CPU usage. If my tablet is not being used, it stays in Deep Sleep most of the time.

If you would reset to factory defaults, I'm sure you'd go back to "normal" CPU usage... It would be a good test regardless (just back everything up, just in case).


Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
 

tha_kreature

Senior Member
Jul 5, 2012
168
51
I would guess that there is some app that is running in the background that is causing such high CPU usage. If my tablet is not being used, it stays in Deep Sleep most of the time.

If you would reset to factory defaults, I'm sure you'd go back to "normal" CPU usage... It would be a good test regardless (just back everything up, just in case).


Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

Start by just rebooting. Then only run the cpuspy app to check and reset counters.
Next, leave it for a while and see what the stats say afterwards. If it's normal it's one of the apps he normally uses that is to blame and doesn't shut down properly. Just like my OpenGarden app.
 

Ausmike

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2011
96
8
NYC
Start by just rebooting. Then only run the cpuspy app to check and reset counters.
Next, leave it for a while and see what the stats say afterwards. If it's normal it's one of the apps he normally uses that is to blame and doesn't shut down properly. Just like my OpenGarden app.


I have used "cpuspy app " > excellent tools .... for 'tweakin' some 'faulty' apps
I also use BATTERY Indicator PRO ... from Apps store . both well worth the price!

Cheers
Hope this is helpfull> click thanks
 

Jotokun

Senior Member
Apr 23, 2011
785
228
What is everyone getting as far as mA drain? A few days ago I received my replacement Infinity, and its battery life seems terrible compared to the first one, about 4 hours screen on time in balanced mode from only web browsing. I got 7 hours once, but there was a good amount of video streaming and I know the Tegra 3 is much more efficient while viewing video so I dont really count that.

It looks like I'm getting -287 idling on the home screen and -993mA during web browsing. Just want to figure out if the battery is still calibrating, I have a rouge app or something's wrong with my tablet.
 

d14b0ll0s

Senior Member
Sep 4, 2011
1,213
448
What browser are you using? Does your battery get hot? There were some reports that stock-based browsers were having some issues recently.
I was normally getting around 15%/hr drain, which would be probably around yours. After the last update Battery Monitor Widget is going crazy with the stats, but I guess the drain stays quite the same, so around 7 hrs browsing.
 

Jotokun

Senior Member
Apr 23, 2011
785
228
What browser are you using? Does your battery get hot? There were some reports that stock-based browsers were having some issues recently.
I was normally getting around 15%/hr drain, which would be probably around yours. After the last update Battery Monitor Widget is going crazy with the stats, but I guess the drain stays quite the same, so around 7 hrs browsing.

Dolphin. It does get a little warm around the upper left corner after a few pages, at least more so than my first one. I'll give a few others a try and see how they do.
 

d14b0ll0s

Senior Member
Sep 4, 2011
1,213
448
I know it may not be the solution for every-day use if you need flash, but give Chrome a try for a full battery cycle and see what's the difference.
 

Jotokun

Senior Member
Apr 23, 2011
785
228
Swapping out Dolphin for Chrome pushed me to about 5 and a half hours screen on time. Figured it might be something like that, although now I have to hunt for a better browser since Chrome has that nasty habit of not rendering anything you'd need to scroll to get to until you've started scrolling. Thanks for the suggestion.
 

silverball.slayer

Senior Member
Jun 28, 2011
156
9
What is everyone getting as far as mA drain? A few days ago I received my replacement Infinity, and its battery life seems terrible compared to the first one, about 4 hours screen on time in balanced mode from only web browsing. I got 7 hours once, but there was a good amount of video streaming and I know the Tegra 3 is much more efficient while viewing video so I dont really count that.

It looks like I'm getting -287 idling on the home screen and -993mA during web browsing. Just want to figure out if the battery is still calibrating, I have a rouge app or something's wrong with my tablet.


Wifi seems to suck A LOT of the battery even if it's idle. If I'm playing a simple game, there is no way that wifi should be using more battery than almost everything else combined. Unless the battery stats are incorrect....

Rob
 

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  • 39
    As some of you have been complaining about your Infinity's poor battery life, I thought we should start a thread on getting more out of its battery. I invite you all to share your experiences, hopefully we could come to sth helpful together.
    Perhaps when the development's carried on further by more XDA developers, we can split this to stock ROM and custom ROMs, as probably the latter will have more of these already included.

    1. Arguably full charge and discharge does nothing good on modern Li-Ion batteries and it's rather advisable to keep it balanced - discharge a little, don't push it with charging all the time (however in case of the Infinity, as with many other devices, the charger will just stop consuming energy after [almost] fully charging your device). There is one reason for doing a few full discharges and charges however - so that the battery monitoring apps/widgets can learn more about your battery's life and power consumption.

    2. Monitor your battery life and monitor it wisely (don't use power-consuming apps and widgets). I personally like Battery Monitor Widget, as it gives you mA and % / hour (either drain or charge), which is pretty cool, as you can see how much your usage exhausts your battery in real time. This way I've found out that switching the WiFi off while reading books actually gives me battery drain closer to 10%/h than 15%/h etc. You can see some other in this apps thread. Try different apps and see what fits you best. Don't rely on system battery usage stats, see what other apps show us and what apps and processes drain the most of your battery, show most wakelocks, etc.

    3. Use as low power mode as you need (administered most easily through ASUS/Android notification bar on the bottom of your screen). There are three power modes:
    • power-saving (keeps your CPU at 1 GHz according to some apps, 500 MHz according to others) <- can give you up to 2 additional hours
    • balanced (keeps your CPU at 1,5 GHz)
    • normal / performance (keeps your CPU at the highest speed - in stock kernel 1,7 GHz for the 1st core and 1,6 for the others)

    You have to try these for yourself. Most games run well on balanced, but may sometimes need the performance mode (keep in mind that overheating your CPU and GPU may cause the clocks to actually slow down). You may also find yourself happy with the power-saving mode, which really helps your battery to last longer, but I've noticed issues with some apps while running it (problems with pdf rendering, for example), as it probably changes more than just the CPU clock speed, but also the system behaviour. I hardly ever leave the balanced mode, mostly when curious about benchmark results ;)

    There are also different CPU governors in Android/Linux kernel, which you can change if you are rooted, but perhaps leaving the default "interactive" one on should serve you well (you can also try "conservative", but it has been argued it doesn't save your battery so well in the long run).

    (if rooted) You can also use CPU management apps like SetCPU, create your custom profiles or use the default ones according to your needs (for example ).

    4. In ASUS setttings switch on both power-saving options at the very bottom of the list (WiFi and dock deep sleep [the former is the same as choosing "never" in WiFi advanced settings]).

    5. Keep the screen brightness as low, as you can. It's better to adjust it manually through the notifications bar or a widget than to switch auto-brightness on (some recommend LUX app, personally I had problems with it trying to outsmart me when I was doing some manual changes). I like to keep it around 30-40% indoors during the day and 0-10% at night.

    6. Switch WiFi off when you don't need it, unless you need it on constantly.
    For me, it sometimes also helps organise my work too, when I don't get constant notifications or when I'm not eager to browse the web all the time, when just reading something and taking notes.

    7a) (if rooted) Make your device fall into really deep sleep...

    Add these to your build.prop file (see the thread on tweaking):

    ro.ril.disable.power.collapse=0
    pm.sleep_mode=1

    7b) ...and make it scan for available WiFi networks less often, for example every 180 seconds (same as above):

    wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=180

    8. (if rooted) Switch off all the apps you don't need that auto-start on boot with a program like System Tuner.
    (f not rooted) Use auto-killer for the apps you don't need (if rooted you can do the above two together as well).

    You can also deactivate unused apps (settings -> apps -> [select app] -> deactivate). Remove bloatware, too (see the first few posts).

    9. Adjust your minfree values, so the low level system task killer will take care of the apps running in the background for you (see the thread on tweaking). You can try with different settings and see what's better for you. Some apps drain your battery life even when you don't use them, while others don't and it's better to leave them in the memory than run them all over again every time. Do some tests and see what's best for you, if you have time for it.

    10. Switch auto-syncing apps to lower values when possible (sometimes PUSH is better, sometimes worse for your battery life).

    11. Keep it simple. Too many funky animations, floating wallpapers, lots of nice widgets will make your battery drain really fast.

    12. Try different custom launchers, you can set more UI behaviour rules in these (see this apps thread).

    13. Use a dark wallpaper and dark themes / night reading modes (see why).


    PS JuiceDefender reported to having disabled deep sleep, so stay away if possible.
    Hotmail app has been said to trigger wakelocks, while overriding system wifi sleep when screen is off, so keep that in mind if you want better battery life over constant e-mail syncing.

    Hit [THANKS] if it helps.
    5
    First of all, thanks to d14b0ll0s for yet another great write up. I am one of those concerned with the battery life of the Infinity. Though some review says it got up to 9-9.5 hours with BALANCED mode I believe is the mistake. By using Power save mode, I think we can potentially get to that level but still hard.

    My system is NOT rooted, but I have noticed significant change in my battery life so far with following:

    1. Balanced Mode to Power Save mode.

    This gets me like extra 2 hours or so. WIthout this change, 5-6 hours for my usage and with this it goes up to 7-8 hours screen time.

    2. Under Wi-Fi Setting change Use wifi during sleep mode (mine is in Japanese so exact wording may be different) to never. Default setting was always. Prior to this change, I lost quite bit overnight unplugged; however, after the change it loses negligible amount.

    Now rather than these, I am trying to play around with Juice Defender, which was recommended by d14b0ll0s in best application list he created. I have initially downloaded Juice Defender Free edition, and noticed may be minimal gain over #1&#2 already instituted. But concept was great. So I ended up purchasing Ultimate edition, which allows us to control when to turn of WIFI per individual application based without Root i.e. while reading PDF I don't think I need WIFI connection.

    https://play.google.com/store/search?q=juice+defender&c=apps.

    I am still tweaking and playing with Juice Defender, but I am certain without change in #1,#2 (which are actually taken care by Juice Defender in its own way), I can gain same battery life and my hope/guess is I can get even more battery life.

    So in conclusion, for those not rooted try Juice Defender (at least free version). I will let you all know how the ultimate version does in next couple days.
    2
    Thanks

    I would also add that it's good the deactivate unused apps/widgets (settings -> apps -> "select app" -> deactivate)
    it's only possible for apps which cannot be uninstalled
    2
    I also had problems with network location draining battery. The problem seemed to be a bug in google maps. You have to once enable the location settings in maps so you can get to the configuration menu and then disable location refresh settings.

    This worked for me and now I can safely leave the tablet in sleep mode without loosing any battery during the day. I can also use network location in apps that need it (leave network location enabled in system settings).

    Hope this helps. :)
    2
    "I would love" to not have to re-root and reload all my apps, too bad unlocking voids the warranty, thus no nandroid. Even with Titanium it is a PIA. Your reply of wiping is about as good a reply that Best Buy Geek Squad or the Manufacturer gives. Maybe a "not-thank you" button would be appropiate as well.

    The other suggestions on here (like the Auto Airplane Mode App) are helpful and the reason why XDA is better.

    Wow, sorry for trying to help. I'm sorry that you don't like my answers, but you seem to not want to really find out what the real problem is. You also seem to want to blame the Location services service for being the problem, yet nobody else has that problem.

    My point is that there is some app causing your battery drain - the fastest and easiest way to determine which app is causing the problem is to start fresh and a) see if the problem still exists and then b) start re-installing apps slowly and monitoring to see which app is causing it.

    Auto-airplane is not a solution to your problem - it is a workaround that will also cause you to lose functionality.

    But, regardless, since it seems that you are really not interesting it getting to the root of the problem, since it's too much work, good luck - I will not bother you any more!

    Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2