Samsung Droid Charge recent update problems!

[onetufferz]

My girlfriend recently got an update for her Samsung Droid Charge and ever since, 3 days now, the phone drains the battery within 4 hours.  Prior to the new update she only had to charge her phonw once a day.  She doesn't use it constantly so we are trying to find out what is going on.  Verizon store told us that "it's normal for the phone to drain that fast", but it didn't do this until the recent update.  Anyone have any answers or similar problems?  She loved the phone up until now.  We tried fixing by taking the battery out and reinstalling to no luck.  Any info would be appreciated.

[DC5_K20Z1]

Turn the screen brightness off completely, same with the browser, turn off all animations, close out all unused apps, force the phone into 3g only, change the screen timeout to 30 seconds or 1 minute and try to change any synching of accounts to intervals of every 3-6 hours. That should help.

[louise3000]

I've done it all.  And now (since the GB upgrade), I get 4.5 hours of battery life instead of four hours.

There is an extremely long list of problems with this phone - and much longer since the GB upgrade, which you can't undo.

Perhaps it's time to join together and complain more "officially" about the "service" that Verizon is telling us is normal and telling us to live with?

Louise

[JerryF]

This is for onetufferz's girlfriend,

Here is another idea because "sometimes" when you update to a new OS the battery guage goes a little wacky.  I have good news for you but first the bad news is that you can only recalibrate the battery guage (batterystats.bin) by rooting and you definitely do NOT want to do that. 

Here's the good news, a couple of BUMP charges sometimes fixes the problem. 

One technique that has gained popularity in the user community is "bump charging." To bump charge the battery in your Charge phone, turn it off completely, and plug it into a charger.  I suggest using the 110 Volt 1 Amp charger that came with your phone.  In a couple of minutes you will see a big green battery on your screen that looks like a flashlight battery.  Just let it charge.  BTW, that battery will disappear but later when the phone's battery in at 100% it will again reappear as if by magic.

When it says 100% DO NOT turn on your phone and DO NOT start using your phone.  Got that...there will be a test later.

Instead, disconnect the charger and immediately reconnect the charger to the phone.  The battery will now accept more charge before again saying it is full. Do it 3-4 times.  After an OS update you might do it 6 times.  This disconnect and reconnect process can be repeated multiple times, each time squeezing just a little bit more into the battery.

For those of you who want more technical info on this go to the URL below OR search for my previous post on this forum using the word  BUMP.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=871051

Hope this helps,

JerryF

PS,  When I BUMP charge I start it before I go to bed. The next morning, while getting dressed and eating B'fast, I do 2-4 unplug and replug cycles becaus it's only several minutes or so between each unplug and replug in.  Saves time overall!!!

[GreenRobot]

Press Settings, About Phone, then Battery use and see if there is something obliviously draining your battery. I found this one this morning. Good bye Vtok not that it even worked anyways. 

[WTTTT]

I noticed this too!  After the update, my battery goes down in a hurry!  I checked the screen shown in the previous post and it showed that Handcent was using up the battery.  Strange since I have only received 3 texts today.  Handcent did not do this prior to the update.  I wonder what is going on!

Another big one that I don't remember from before the update and that is now showing as a big drain is "Cell Standby".

[louise3000]

I have Android System  6%   and another line for  Android OS which is 15%.  When I see the picture of your screen, I'm wondering if something is wrong and this is why my battery life has gone way down. 

I used to be able to get approximately 24 hours on a day when I didn't use the phone much at all, and now, after the upgrade, I'm getting about 6 hours.  But I also see that 21% is being used by Android itself. 

What is the difference between the OS and the System?  And should I have both of them?

Thanks.

Louise

[louise3000]

My phone has gone from holding enough of a charge to take me through the day, to lasting about 6 hours.  I've always kept brightness low, turn off short, etc.

A phone call to tech support resulted in the "explanation" that the upgrade brings so much more in terms of speed and some app improvements, that it simply uses more juice and so I should expect to have to carry a charger around!  The tech was friendly and serious in what to me sounds like a preposterous explanation!

Louise

[WTTTT]

Yeah something is up with this.  Third day with the update and even though I installed Juice Defender last night the phone's battery lasts probably 50% of what it did before.  Others say their battery life has increased though.  I wonder what is wrong?

[moni7831]

I HATE this update!!!!      it hasn't done anything good for me... drains the battery faster AND it's deleted all the contact photos from sync'd accounts!!!   I've deleted those accounts, re-downloaded, redid all the settings, etc... I've tried it all... and NOTHING!!!   the phone's still slow.. only gets service when it wants... etc...

I am NEVER going to get a {word filter avoidance} droid again!!!   I will be switching to an iPhone next!!!!!

[bluestar]

I'm also experiencing the battery drain issue with a decrease in battery life of almost 50%. And this is after doing all the battery saving tricks including bump charging. I wonder why some have increased battery life while others have the opposite.

[WTTTT]

You know I decided to look at some of the posts that claim better battery after this update to see if there are any clues as to why it might be better for them.   I remember seeing some post saying battery improved, but searching now I did not find them.

In any case, I have tried installing Juice Defender now for a couple of days and that does not seem to help very much.  At first I thought, like a couple of posts above, that certain apps or programs were responsible.  That was because when battery usage was looked at there was always something at the top of the list shown as having used a big percentage.  The thing is it is always a different program.  Turns out WHATEVER has been used on the phone, that is what will appear to be the battery hog.  But what is really happening is that any usage at all drains the battery fast.

As an example... Yesterday I had several hours where I did not use the phone.  It was just sitting untouched with the screen off and because of Juice Defender, wifi and data were off also.  JD just wakes up the phone briefly every 15 minutes to check for messages, etc.  When I finally did pick up the phone to use it I was shocked to see that battery level was at 40%.  This was after the phone had been on, but almost 100% unused for 6 hours.  When I looked at battery usage use was:  "Cell Standby" 34%, "Android System" 21%, and "Android OS" 18%.  That is 73% of the use and drained the battery down to 40%.

I then sent and replied to 3 texts, looked up something on Google using the browser, (1 minute tops), and made a 20 minute phone call.  Battery was then at 19%.  All my settings are the same as before the update.  I have automatic brightness and a 30 second screen timeout, and don't play games etc. so "Display" is never one of the top battery users.

This is really bad and much worse than it was before the update.  I did have a hard time coming to terms with battery life, this being my first Android phone, but I just got used to having to charge it every night.  It always made it through the day before this update though.  If I use this phone much at all now, I will be out of juice long before night. 

I was really expecting, given what I had been reading, that this update would help battery life, not kill it.  Very disappointing.

[onetufferz · Accepted solution]

Thanks to all who sent info in on this frustrating topic.  My girlfriend was able to get her phone back to normal after complaining to Verizon customer service and Samsung.  They did it by walking her thru a "factory reset" or hard reset.  Samsung told her to send the phone to them and they would re-flash it but couldn't promise anything!  They were rude and absolutely NO HELP! Verizon customer service walked her thru the process and she was able to reset the phone, keeping the new update intact, and restoring her battery life completely!  She did have to write down the free apps she had to restore them afterwards though.  But the apps she purchased were retrieved thru her gmail account!  Also, Verizon rep told her to only download 2 apps at most a day.  This way you can check afterwards to see if any new downloaded apps are causing a problem and not wondering which one may have done it.  I suggest anyone with this problem, or similar one, contact Verizon Wireless and have them walk you through the same thing. It works and you don't need to give up your phone for 2 to 3 weeks to Samsung!  Also, interestingly enough, Samsung told her they have yet to hear of any problems with the new update!  She told them to go online and read all the complaints!  Kudos to her for speaking her mind.

[#14]

Onetufferz, I am glad to hear that your girlfriend's issues with her Charge were resolved. There is no need to call into technical support to get instructions for the factory reset. Here are the instructions. I would suggest making sure your contacts are backed up to either Backup Assistant or Google first. 

[mixx494]

Had the same problem. My androd OS was at about 65% on the battery meter. This was after the update. They told me to do the factory restet, didn't help. They sent me a new battery, didn't help. Finally, they sent me a new phone (I'm still under warranty). So far, it seems to doing OK. I know battery won't be great, but only 5-6 hours of the not even being used, with wi-fi, gps and mobile data off. Somethings got to be wrong.

[JerryF]

Everybody,

Folks, let's try to be more specific as to what you tried.  Please take more time to tell us what you did instead of so many words of hate for the Charge phone.

That said, did you go to the post by Greenrobot in this thread and do what he said.

Also, you might try going here and doing what this post says except BUMP charge your battery at least 6 and maybe 10 times in a row as described in the two paragraphs that start with the word NOTE:  and the paragraph preceding it.

http://community.vzw.com/t5/DROID-Charge-by-Samsung/Easiest-amp-Quickest-way-to-RESET-your-Battery-U...

JerryF

[jbrookley]

I actually had battery life issue when I first got the update as well (and I had an extended battery).  I used to get about 2 days out of the phone and after the update, I barely made it through 1.  I tried juice defender, uninstalling all apps that I didn't "need" (which is relative, I guess).  Anyway, I wrote what solved my problem in this post:

http://community.vzw.com/t5/DROID-Charge-by-Samsung/Droid-Charge-Gingerbread-2-3-update-schedule/td-...

But here's what helped fix it for me (it was a browser issue, from what I found):

"The default browser seemed to be an issue for my phone lagging a lot (and force closing), as well as draining the battery.  Even if you close it, it must be staying on in the background or something to that effect.  I ended up downloading the mini opera browser and changing the internet shortcut to that instead of the default browser and my phone seems to have sped up and my battery life is doing much better!   i've been using my phone as average amount and I'm still sitting at 87% (with the extended battery) where I was sitting at around 60% or so (since the update).

If anyone else has problems with battery life, can you try this and let me know if it's just coincidence that my battery life is greatly improved or if it is related to the browser?"

[buffsabres]

Hi Folks,

Overall at least for me this update has been decent. I never had any real issue with 2.2 anyways. The only problem that I am having is with 4G hotspot.

I'll explain;  When transmitting around 250-350kb/sec my Droid Charge becomes nearly unresponsive. Typing is a nightmare, and just yesterday I had a call come in and it ended the call without me touching it. I know this is problem because 2.2 never did any of this. You might think its over working the CPU, but the odd thing is (which I do like) it runs much cooler with 2.3.6, does not heatup to the extent that it did with 2.2.

Not to sure what the deal is, it would be nice to have a fix for this, so if anyone knows anything that might help please chime in. If not, SOL probably.. Maybe if Droid Charge gets the IC things will be cleaned completely up.