Possible soluition to fix 60mA: Enable GPS and wait for full sync

Help! SOS!

Dear everyone!

This issue is killing me. I am using MDJ FroYo HD
v4.6, and cookie rom on EU HD2. I have tried all the 'solutions' mentioned in every forums but still have the issue. This is the main reason I don't want to go to nand. Although MDJ's rom is perfect it is not reliable with this issue. Fast reboot is a temporary solution, but cant monitor drain 24/7. Had 60Ma all night long, battery got depleted. Not a good thing to start the day with... Couldn't find a rom without the issue so far.
Got a couple questions:

Do stock phones with android have this issue?
Do HD2s with nand roms have this issue?
Why is this happening to meeeeee????

What I have tried:

bt/wifi off-on
no wireless conn for locations
booting with bootloader
removing app responsible for syncing contacts with fbook
no taskkillers
disabled led notifications

and so on...

hlvl said:

- enable GPS module in settings
- open Maps and wait for it to find where you are located
- go back to homescreen and put phone to stand by
It should be fixed now to 5-7mA current.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Huh, this is uncanny. I've just tried this on Rafdroid (NAND-based HD build) and have found the same - once maps has pinpointed the current location, battery drain drops to 5-7ma. Until now I've only been able to get that with GPS,Wi-fi, and 3G turned off. Need to do more testing to see if this is continues, but so far it looks good.

Thanks Hlvl - really well spotted.....

60mA battery drain fix...

I was having 60mA current drains in standby across many builds, tried lots of things but the thing that fixed it and brought my drain down to 6mA was this:-

In WM Before starting Android turn off all your radios, GSM, Data, Bluetooth, Wifi etc (or just enable flight mode), wait 10 seconds then start Android... Sorted!

Worked for me with at least 3 different buils I have tried since..

ROM: V1.66 WWE Radio:2.15 Operator: O2 UK

Lawl, this is starting to turn into some hocum tradition on how to achieve 5ma standby.

The bluetooth toggling worked for me.

I can get current down to 3mA in standby with MDJ FroYo HD v4.6, using just a stock 3.14 WWE ROM/Radio. I have a Kingston 8Gb class 4 SD card - which I thinks can make a big difference to your power use in Android.

Before I boot into Android I let WinMo boot fully (I tried the fast switch apps but this seemed to cause file corruptions and weird things in WinMo), then exit from SPB shell, WkTask etc. I make sure the phone and wifi are off, then hit the start menu hardkey (to light the key's LED) then quickly run CLRCAD & HARET before the key LEDs go out. I have no idea if this makes any difference but it has become routine now.

On a fresh android build it usually takes a few reboots to acheive 3mA, but this is without any app killers or setcpu being used. If I have the phone active i.e. not in airplane mode, current draw is 6mA in standby.

The only issue I've noticed is in the power consumption report, where the screen seems to take 70% of all power used. In previous builds it was android system taking 70%. This doesn't seem to effect the overall battery life much so I've put this down to an error in how this build reports power use?

The only thing that worked for me was using Setcpu.

I had a big battery drain in standby. And i installed setcpu.
Set by profiles that when screen is off. The cpu must lower down to 245 mhz.

and now i can do a complete school day with a bit of texting and gaming with 75% left when i'm home.


All the tips i have tried. Non of them worked.

So big bless to this program.

Too bad none of the moderators feels the need to make a sticky with this information.

The reason for the ~60mA drain is the phone not going into deep-sleep state.
(Mainly through a bug with the use of the GPS)

Fact is: Once you start an app that makes use of the GPS in any way, your phone won't go back to deep-sleep when you lock it -> 60mA drain.

Solution:

Manually turn off GPS everytime after (which sucks big time)

or

Get tasker from the market, and create a new event (on display off), which turns off GPS.
(You can also create an event to turn GPS back on, when unlocking the phone, but this led to random freezes on my phone, on unlocking, being called etc. so I would not recommend it)

You will no longer experience the high battery drainages. I have roughly 60 hours of standy with this solution.

I think this is the fifth time I write this solution!
If mods would want to keep the build-threads clean in any way of these questions, why not make a sticky with this? This is, I'd say, the most common question in these forums.

Greets,

From one of DarkStone1337 posts:

---------------------------------------------------------------
Lets see how many people will ignore this...

To fix high power drain / usage in standby (60mA or 70mA) disable 'Use wireless networks' in Settings>Location menu. You will now get 7mA or less constantly. I discovered this as the main culprit last night. Also works in other builds.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Its all starting to look very "location based". My theory is that Android is constantly trying to work out where the phone physically is, using the cell network, WiFi or GPS and its sometimes turning a wireless link on that isn't being turned off again - hence the high standby current. What I haven't worked out is why this isn't happening all the time, why rebooting usually fixes it when it does happen, why what happens in Windows Mobile before Android boots seems to affect it.

My guess is a driver bug in the Kernel that isn't fully initialising the device component or all its variables - i.e. unitialised variable bug.

The other thing is that could be happening is a driver bug is hogging the CPU and the CPU can't power down fully - hence setcpu forcibly slowing the CPU when the screen is off apparently "fixing" the problem as well.

The other thing I have seen are badly written interactive applications continuing to use CPU time after you've switched back to the home screen - hence task killers sometimes helping with high standby current drain problems.

Any thoughts anyone?

MCSCHMIDD said:

Too bad none of the moderators feels the need to make a sticky with this information.

The reason for the ~60mA drain is the phone not going into deep-sleep state.
(Mainly through a bug with the use of the GPS)

Fact is: Once you start an app that makes use of the GPS in any way, your phone won't go back to deep-sleep when you lock it -> 60mA drain.

Solution:

Manually turn off GPS everytime after (which sucks big time)

or

Get tasker from the market, and create a new event (on display off), which turns off GPS.
(You can also create an event to turn GPS back on, when unlocking the phone, but this led to random freezes on my phone, on unlocking, being called etc. so I would not recommend it)

You will no longer experience the high battery drainages. I have roughly 60 hours of standy with this solution.

I think this is the fifth time I write this solution!
If mods would want to keep the build-threads clean in any way of these questions, why not make a sticky with this? This is, I'd say, the most common question in these forums.

Greets,

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I've just had a high power drain in standby that lasted two days - GPS hasn't been enabled at all so that can't have been the problem. No amount of switching to flight mode, turning wireless connections and and off or killing apps would fix the problem. But a reboot did.

Android was reporting that the display and/or cell standby was using most of the power during this time - even when the display was never on.

I think there are multiple battery drain problems going on, the GPS bug is just one of them.

If you are using the SD Card builds, i have found a solution to high battery drain in android.

Go to your windows mobile OS and turn on airplane mode. This will disable data and radio. Then reboot. When your phone boots into WM, quickly enter the windows menu and scroll up and down until the boot lag is gone, then run android before your WM has a chance to fully boot or enter sync

this will result in 5-7 ma drain everytime

jogden said:

If you are using the SD Card builds, i have found a solution to high battery drain in android.

Go to your windows mobile OS and turn on airplane mode. This will disable data and radio. Then reboot. When your phone boots into WM, quickly enter the windows menu and scroll up and down until the boot lag is gone, then run android before your WM has a chance to fully boot or enter sync

this will result in 5-7 ma drain everytime

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I love how people are using absolute unqualified statements like "every time". Jogden wasn't the only one in this thread dealing in such absolutes. Obviously various people are still having issues even after following these various suggestions.. so these clearly ARE NOT definitive solutions, so step selling them as such.

As for me, I had the 60mAh problem at first after trying to use Android, but then the problems went away (seemingly from using the "put WM into flight mode first" trick). Everything was perfect for a week or two, idling at 4-8mAh. Then all of a sudden i'm back up to 60mAh idling having made NO changes. It's baffling; and to this point no amount of finagling has allowed the problem to go away. Frustrating.

For me too this is what's preventing me from going to a NAND build. I need to be able to switch back to WM 6.5 in a pinch if I'm away from a charger, and notice the bad battery drain...

(This is with MDJ 4.6, both with default kernel and hastarin 8.6 kernel.)

prag16 said:

For me too this is what's preventing me from going to a NAND build. I need to be able to switch back to WM 6.5 in a pinch if I'm away from a charger, and notice the bad battery drain...

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

There is no extra batt drain with nand. With GPS enabled I'm always at 1-3 mA. I doubt wincrapo is doing better than those numbers. Using MDJ CM 7, of course.

instead of task killers , i use autokiller memory

it tells the android system how much of free ram it wants and android frees it for you, experiment with different values

i use high values of course, never failed me once

award winning app, so much better than task killers, anyday

"The Case of the 60ma Drain" - I am convinced this mystery hasn't been solved

Here are some clues as to who the suspect is!

1.) disabling "location based on wireless networks" resets/fixes the problem for some.
2.) turning bluetooth on/off resets/fixes the problem for some.
3.) different radios reset/fix the problem for some.
4.) booting android before windows fully loads fixes/resets problems for some.
5.) it is 'probably not a process' that can be seen: some report 'seeing a process' that is running when they've got the drain, but others don't see same process or later report that process wasn't the problem after it.
6.) some say booting android when windows is in airplane mode resets/fixes the problem.
7.) some say just "rebooting over and over" so that it works for awhile, until you have to repeat fixes/resets the problem.
8.) some (me) have to disable "location based on wireless networks" AND reboot.
9.) some say "disabling background data" in Settings --> Accounts & Sync, then re-enabling it and 'rebooting,' plus letting the phone settle for a few minutes fixes/resets the problem.
10.) some say "not using task killer apps" in android fixes/resets the problem
11.) some say booting windows, then locking screen and waiting for keys to go dark, then unlocking and booting into android immediately fixes/resets the problem.
12.) some say opening maps in android and allowing gps to get a full lock then fixes/resets the problem.
13.) some say using 'setcpu' to lower the cpu to 245mhz when screen off fixes/resets the problem.

Here is some testimony by a witness:

gary.henderson@gmail.com said:

Its all starting to look very "location based". My theory is that Android is constantly trying to work out where the phone physically is, using the cell network, WiFi or GPS and its sometimes turning a wireless link on that isn't being turned off again - hence the high standby current. What I haven't worked out is why this isn't happening all the time, why rebooting usually fixes it when it does happen, why what happens in Windows Mobile before Android boots seems to affect it.

My guess is a driver bug in the Kernel that isn't fully initialising the device component or all its variables - i.e. unitialised variable bug.

The other thing is that could be happening is a driver bug is hogging the CPU and the CPU can't power down fully - hence setcpu forcibly slowing the CPU when the screen is off apparently "fixing" the problem as well.

The other thing I have seen are badly written interactive applications continuing to use CPU time after you've switched back to the home screen - hence task killers sometimes helping with high standby current drain problems.

Any thoughts anyone?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Here is what a silly man who came upon a crime scene said:

SOUNDS LIKE: Communications between OS and Radio are getting endlessly repeated because something doesn't 'acknowledge,' and what is not 'acknowledging' seems to be in the OS (the OS is getting the info, but not correctly telling the Radio that it got it.) A 'form of acknowledgement' can be FORCED onto the radio by distracting the Radio with a user-request to turn on/off another radio component like bluetooth or wifi (maybe radio is dumb and stops barking if you throw it a bone to fetch, which the radio treats like a "good boy" acknowledgment). A very loud 'form of acknowledgement' might be to disable "locations based on wireless networks" but sometimes the 'barking' is too loud for the radio to hear you, unless a reboot is also done.


Here a typical victim cries out for justice:

prag16 said:

Obviously various people are still having issues even after following these various suggestions.. so these clearly ARE NOT definitive solutions, so step selling them as such.

As for me, I had the 60mAh problem at first after trying to use Android, but then the problems went away (seemingly from using the "put WM into flight mode first" trick). Everything was perfect for a week or two, idling at 4-8mAh. Then all of a sudden i'm back up to 60mAh idling having made NO changes. It's baffling; and to this point no amount of finagling has allowed the problem to go away. Frustrating.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Here is what the Mayor was heard to say about the job the police are doing:

PoisonWolf said:

Lawl, this is starting to turn into some hocum tradition on how to achieve 5ma standby.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Here another victim shows anger that a criminal is allowed to roam free:

RicarduZonta said:

Dear everyone!This issue is killing me. I am using MDJ FroYo HD
v4.6, and cookie rom on EU HD2. I have tried all the 'solutions' mentioned in every forums but still have the issue. This is the main reason I don't want to go to nand. Although MDJ's rom is perfect it is not reliable with this issue. Fast reboot is a temporary solution, but cant monitor drain 24/7. Had 60Ma all night long, battery got depleted. Not a good thing to start the day with... Couldn't find a rom without the issue so far..)

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Heres two leads the least technical of the detectives is following up:
1.) "My guess is a driver bug in the Kernel that isn't fully initialising the device component or all its variables - i.e. unitialised variable bug."
2.) "Communications between OS and Radio are getting endlessly repeated because something doesn't 'acknowledge,' and what is not 'acknowledging' seems to be in the OS"

It will be very interesting day when this mystery is solved. I love a good mystery and I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHODUNNIT DARNIT!

I had the same issue with my HD2,with MDJay Desire HD built 4.6...Few days after instalation,phone couldnt managed to stay below 60mA even when i turned airplane mod..but after many tries,i finally found a solution..all u need to do is to disable all data in Winmo first..the easiest way to do that is to turn on airplane mod,after that u need to reboot phone and before Winmo manage to finish booting again,u need to quickly run the Android shourtcut on ur screen ( if u're using Energy Rom,like i am,that whould be easy and u dont need to make one ) and phone will restart and boot android..everything after that worked like a charm..power consumption is now from 5-7mA in idle,when screen is off and i'm able to get 20-24 hours of heavy usage..hope this will help..

I can't for the life of me say what causes Android to change between using 5-9mA in standby and 60mA+ in standby.

I thought I had solved this yesterday with the 'enable flight mode in WM' solution. Indeed, I enabled flight mode, set the Android loader to boot in 3 secs after WM had initalised and sure enough - 5-9mA in standy in Android.

Now, the next day - 60mA in Android standby again. Nothing's changed at all.

I'll keep messing about but this is clearly a problem underneath the hood somewhere along the line and is without a doubt the one MAJOR flaw left in running Android on the HD2. WM6.5 is a necessity for those of us that are away from chargers for a long time & need to ensure enough juice to actually make calls on our journeys home!

Let's keep messing about and post results here. There has to be a solution.

I've done some tests to try and replicate this issue with some interesting results. It looks like it is GPS under Android that is the culprit.

My test & results regarding the 60mA standby high battery drain in Android -PLS READ

^New thread!

i found a solution posted here that worked for me.
i used Exceller's dual boot and my standby drain was around 5ma.
im using mdj's 4.6 froyo build