How to "Fix" the 50% dreaded bug issue on almost all android devices.

[vmanisme]

I made a post about LG Ally having this issue a few days ago and I've done heavy research on this issue since then and found that pretty much all 2.1 devices have this issue. Yes google is aware of it and I've seen topics where verizon and htc said that they were aware of it too and all 3 companies are working to fix it and push an update. I tested a "fix" to this issue and it seems to work. I don't know if it's permanent but so far my Ally is not showing this issue so let's get to fixing. 

Here's the link to my LG Ally topic it has another fix there too:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Android-Devices/Why-your-LG-Ally-has-horrible-battery-life/td-p/210036

How to find out if your android device has this:

--Go to [Settings>About Phone>Battery Use>Cell Standby (if you don't have cell standby in there than you don't have this issue, but if you do doesn't mean you have it, keep reading)>if your time without service is above 50% than you have the bug.]

The fix that I've been testing:

--Open dial pad and dial *#*#4636#*#* (If Testing menu doesn't come up than click "Call" and it will come up)>Go to Phone information>Scroll down and you'll see preferred network type>click it and switch it to GSM/CDMA auto (PRL)

Now your issues should start going away and the time without service will slowly start decreasing. For the first few hours my time without service stayed at about 11% but than dropped to 0% in 24 hours.... You might need to do that step a few times before your phone makes that option a default one. Your phone might try to change preferred network type so check it every 2-3 hours on the first day.

[blackmetalbuick]

Hmmm I tried making this change and my time without signal actually went up. Default setting was CDMA Auto (prl) right? I put it back on that for now. I was only at 12% before so I guess that's ok.

[fezzik]

You know I went ahead and did this even though my time without signal was 8%.  I am intrigued and pretty much try anything that helps battery life.  I find all the little hidden features fascinating. 

[vmanisme]

I included instructions on how to test if you have the issue so if u did it without having issues don't tell me that it used more battery you weren't suppose to do it. And I'm glad it helped to those it helped

[islanded]

Thought I'd add something to the mixture and hope it helps diagnose/fix the 50% bug issue. Here goes:

First I tried the 'fix' you listed on my LG Ally.

--Open dial pad and dial *#*#4636#*#* (If Testing menu doesn't come up than click "Call" and it will come up)>Go to Phone information>Scroll down and you'll see preferred network type>click it and switch it to GSM/CDMA auto (PRL)

That did not change anything after 6 hours. Tried 3 times with no result.
Turned the phone off and on...still no result.
Then I switched to 'Airplane' mode'.
Turned the phone off for 5 minutes.
Turned the phone on.
Checked Settings/Battery use/Cell standby.
Time without signal was 42% NOT 50%
Checked again at 1 hour intervals.
Time without signal 4 hours later was 18%(before going to bed for the night.
Left the phone on and NOT plugged into the charger. Battery level at that point was 80%.
When I got up the next morning the time without signal was 1% and the battery level was 78%

That is a dramatic change from before.
I've been watching the battery level all morning through normal use including 1 hour of Pandora radio, 15 minutes talk time and some texting. Although the battery level has gone done I do notice that if I'm not using anything on the phone the battery level barely changes.

I hope this helps.

[fezzik]

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fezzik wrote:

You know I went ahead and did this even though my time without signal was 8%.  I am intrigued and pretty much try anything that helps battery life.  I find all the little hidden features fascinating. 

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My phone has been holding at 0% time without signal and my battery has gone down considerably slower even though I wasn't having that issue and I have been playing with other settings today to see what they do.  LOL. 

[blackmetalbuick]

Yeah I think the Airplane mode on/off trick is the best thing so far, it does the trick and doesn't involve changing any settings in hidden menus.

I've done the Airplane mode thing and installed Advanced Task Killer and set it on the most aggressive setting. My phone now says 1 day 9 hours and 39 minutes since unplugged from the charger and I'm at 27% battery. Made a few phone calls today, used Google Maps and GPS to navigate to a restaurant, checked Facebook multiple times, and sent a few texts, so the phone got some moderate use today and I still have 27%. Much better.

[fezzik]

Advanced Taskkiller like all the task killer apps will eventually cause you problems.  Note the use of will not might.  When you start having issues you can't explain and you try everything and it won't fix it uninstall taskkiller.  Problem solved.  That is the reason that anytime people have odd issues the first question that is asked is do you have a taskkiller.  Sure it saves batteries for the breif period it doesn't render your phone useless but the inevitebility of problems makes the battery saving a non benefit.  Who knows you may be part of the lucky 1% who never downloads any of the apps that have conflicts with taskkillers.  If so why not just get a feature phone?

[mtgirl12]

I did this process two days ago and it worked great, but now my cell standby time is creeping up to 50% again (or above even).  I re-checked the settings and they are still set to the changed ones.  Suggestions?  I love this phone but am really starting to hate the battery life issues.

[fezzik]

Which method.  I would imagine the airplane mode is a temporary fix.  Something about it resets the radio apparently.  With the *#*#4636#*#* method you need to keep checking it.  I have 2 issues with it though.  First it does take several attempts before the change sticks.  Second since there appears to be no GSM radio I can't see why this is an advantage at all. 

I have searched and searched for anything that would explain why this is there and why I can select it on my Incredible but not on my Dad's Moto DROID.  Is it possible that the Incredible does have a GSM radio?  I can't select a band it force closes on me so I have to assume it doesn't however if you change it to CDMA/GSM AUTO and ping it apparently it does seem to find GSM signals.  That is intriguing and a little disturbing.  Intriguing because if it is there and inactive then there is a way to activate it and in theory you could use the phone on any network.  Disturbing because there is no mention of it anywhere and no way to choose a band.  That disturbs me as well because the choosing the band thing, which I could do on my dad's Moto Droid had options for Wimax, several versions of CDMA and all the current itterations of GSM including the new TMobile signal.  How cool would it be if you could unlock GSM on this phone and use it on literally any network.  I guess it doesn't matter the main advantage we have is the network but if the phone is completely unlockable it makes it that much more valuable. 

[vmanisme]

Yeah I found that interesting too. Lg ally was suppose to be lg alohs and now aloha is gonna be an ATT phone which is GSM so maybe they have a global antenna in the phone. There is a sticker placed where the sim card would of went if this was global phone so who knows what's under the hood. Guess we won't know until there's a root for it

[fezzik]

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vmanisme wrote:
Yeah I found that interesting too. Lg ally was suppose to be lg alohs and now aloha is gonna be an ATT phone which is GSM so maybe they have a global antenna in the phone. There is a sticker placed where the sim card would of went if this was global phone so who knows what's under the hood. Guess we won't know until there's a root for it

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I wondered about that on this one as well.  This one was so close to someother code name which came out somewhere else.  I think it was overseas.  And there are red stickers that don't seem to cover anything but I wondered about the plausibility that a sim slot might be hidden in there somewhere.  Especially after seeing that it at least to me seems to receive GSM signal on a phantom GSM receiver. 

Something to ponder. 

[mtgirl12]

I changed the preferred network type to what was suggested (GSM/CDMA auto {PRL} ) and it decreased the cell standby for about a day and a half, and now it has gone back up to right around 50%...it has stayed at 49% for the past few hours, so does that mean it is fixed or does the bug/issue still exist?

[fezzik]

Does it still show that CDMA/GSM is selected?  It took several attempts for mine to stick.  But then again I have a different phone.  Mine is the Incredible.  On mine Call Standby doesn't even show time with out signal anymore because i am never without signal now.  And Call Standby went from being the top battery drain to being half that of the top resource drain which is now Android System.  However, it seems Android system is drawing more power than it used to so I am going to have to check on why that might be because it doesn't include anything that should have been affected by this.  However, it might have been affected by some of the other things I played with while poking around.  Maybe some of the modem settings since data seems to be part of the issue.  Either that or since other things have gone down it just looks like it is using more battery.  I will look last I saw Calander was my biggest battery drainer.  The Sense UI Calander widget apparently causes more frequent syncing.  I may have to go back to the Android Calander widget cause I don't think it used as much.  Might be an interesting test anyway. 

My thoughts.  Sorry. 

[fezzik]

For what it is worth, I just noticed my phone was set in GSM Auto instead of CDMA/GSM auto and I seem to have suffered no ill effects.   Infact if anything I have had increased performance.  Although everything shows I am opperating on CDMA networks.  Odd i think. 

Also though on that screen I see my GSM is showing in service and has signal information.  You know like there is signal.  I wonder what that means.  I kind of wonder if maybe there isn't some kind of LTE support built into the phone after all in which case it could be flipped on by mid next year.  I kind of doubt it but kind of wonder at the same time because it really doesn't make sense.  It isn't mentioned anywhere.