View Full Version : A possible lead on the mysterious battery drain problems
roger_27
2010-03-26, 02:35
I dont install much, aside from 5 games, I really only have 5 apps installed. the only ones from extras devel is fmms, and fmms sharing plugin.
I know it happened right after I installed the sharing plugin. it doesn't sit well. anyone else experience this? I hate to do it (because now I have to set it all up again) but I think I'm gonna uninstall fmms and see if that improves the battery. you can't uninstall the sharing plugin without uninstalling fmms apparently :(
the battery gets to 3/4 by noon time AND IM NOT EVEN USING IT! it's in stand by the whole time.
this can be pinpointed right back to the day I installed the sharing plugin.
if this works, then maybe I will have solved the mysterious battery drain problem people are experiencing. I distinctly remember not having this problem until I installed the sharing plugin. I'm not accusing FMMS but more a possible bug in the OS.
Alex Atkin UK
2010-03-26, 03:52
That may be one cause, but unfortunately there wont be a single reason for battery draining problems.
I for one had my battery drain 50% overnight last night and I can only think it was because I left the web browser open on this very forum. The N900 was even in offline mode!
Any device that has the users doing the quality control will have this problem, its another reason Apple keep their store closed up tight, so they can fully test an application before putting it live. Its the price for freedom.
But all the more so its very much appreciated that you report your own experiences with battery drain, so that everyone knows which bits of software may be problematic. I have said before that I usually keep the web browser closed when not in use as it does seem to be a battery hog even in the background.
i think i have the same problem. so i have just uninstalled the fmms. if i dont come back, feel free to pm me asking is there is any change.
regards
I've also experienced the battery drain problem. I went to my parents cabin where they don't have even a proper gsm signal available. I noticed that my battery was running low very quickly. I thought it was because of the low signal so I decided to turn the device completely to offline mode. It had no effect whatsoever to the rate of the drainage.
I don't have fmms installed, never had.
My brother has also experienced the same problem. And I think it was before he even decided to start using devel and test repos.
I think this problem doesn't have anything to do with devel or test repos software, neither low signal levels. I think it's some major bug within the OS that's triggered randomly. Usually reboot is enough to stop the drainage. Sometimes it feels like the drainage starts right after the reboot!
That may be one cause, but unfortunately there wont be a single reason for battery draining problems.
I for one had my battery drain 50% overnight last night and I can only think it was because I left the web browser open on this very forum. The N900 was even in offline mode!
It is a bug 9566 - https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9566
Look like it is fixed in PR1.2 (coming sooon).
What fixed my battery bug is turning off wifi everytime i dont use it.
6 hours total when its on. 24 hours or more when turned off.
Thank you very much!
I only connect to wifi when needed.
Have uninstalled fMMS, which I wasnt using right now btw, I think my battery life is better now.
weymouthstan
2010-03-28, 21:37
Just in case this helps someone...
After a reboot yesterday morning, my N900 started eating the battery at a ferocious rate.
Turns out it had spontaneously turned off 'power saving' in the advanced settings of wi-fi properties. No idea why.
Turned it back on, and everything's back to normal.
WS
Hi
Where do I find "advanced settings" within settings?
Thanks
weymouthstan
2010-03-29, 22:57
settings / internet connections / connections
select your wifi connection
edit / next / next / next / advanced / other
set power to 10mw and power saving to on (max)
yes! thanks. the rabbit hole goes really deep.
threr should be a per connection and a default config.
settings / internet connections / connections
select your wifi connection
edit / next / next / next / advanced / other
set power to 10mw and power saving to on (max)
This has no big sense - Nokia people explained in some bug report that this value is a MAXIMUM power value. That means WiFi chip usualy runs on low power. But sometime it is needed more and if you restrict WiFi by 10mW then you have a less stable wiFi connection.
The reason for this option is regulatory - in some countries it is required to have not more than 10mW.
weymouthstan
2010-03-30, 22:33
This has no big sense - Nokia people explained in some bug report that this value is a MAXIMUM power value. That means WiFi chip usualy runs on low power. But sometime it is needed more and if you restrict WiFi by 10mW then you have a less stable wiFi connection.
The reason for this option is regulatory - in some countries it is required to have not more than 10mW.
It was my 'power saving' setting that changed itself when I had the problem. Turning that off definitely sends the power drain off a cliff.
In the early days, there were anecdotal reports that the 10mw 'Power' setting was more battery-friendly.
I've had mine on 10mw since I got it in October, so I can't really comment on drain there, except to say I've had no problems connecting.
WS
less stable means that you might get more corrupted packets and actually you end up draining your battery because your connection takes couple of seconds longer to transfer data. Bit same as when you need cpu power it should be delivered immediately but at idle it should throttle down.
But still. If it helps then leave it as it is :)
weymouthstan
2010-03-30, 22:50
OK, I'll try life at 100mw for a while and see if I'm missing out... :)
WS
Hmm, I'm bumping this topic.
I've been having a similar issue with random battery draining but it has nothing to do with the browser. I can see that my processor usage randomly goes up to 5-10% after I've used the phone for calling or listening to music, and drains the battery in a couple of hours. This happens very randomly. Like yesterday I surfed on the web and listened to music but the processor stayed at 0%. Before I went to bed I sent one SMS and after that the processor usage got up to 5% and stayed there until battery was dead. I'm still yet to caught the process that's doing this.
Would this be caused of the bug 9566 (https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9566), or is it something else?
ive installed wifi switcher and used it to kill the wifi when not using it
this seems to off helped alot
ive been using wifi alot latley instead of my 3g and it seems that when wifi has been used it seems to affect the battery quickly even if you disconnect
using wifi switcher for the time being seems to of helped my battery drain
figgefred
2010-05-01, 10:27
can only confirm, when using wifi switcher does really save alot of battery. the device doesnt look after wifi spots to connect to.
I have actually another weird phenomena with battery drainage. when i turn my device off it atually discharges quiet much during the night like 10-15 percent. i thought when the device is off its off? even if its required for some process that still continues when the phone is off, 10 percent is a lot. someone experience this too?
something similar happened to me with the program for listening pandora or something like that, do you have it installed?
my battery drains without using the fone ! 7 hours and the battery is dead ( while its on stand-by ) no wi fi no 3g ....
That may be one cause, but unfortunately there wont be a single reason for battery draining problems.
I for one had my battery drain 50% overnight last night and I can only think it was because I left the web browser open on this very forum. The N900 was even in offline mode!
Any device that has the users doing the quality control will have this problem, its another reason Apple keep their store closed up tight, so they can fully test an application before putting it live. Its the price for freedom.
But all the more so its very much appreciated that you report your own experiences with battery drain, so that everyone knows which bits of software may be problematic. I have said before that I usually keep the web browser closed when not in use as it does seem to be a battery hog even in the background.
what browser did you used?
crasbelize
2010-06-21, 15:40
settings / internet connections / connections
select your wifi connection
edit / next / next / next / advanced / other
set power to 10mw and power saving to on (max)
Thank man...this worked...so some reason mine was on 100mW! no idea how that happen....
My battery is not draining overnight anymore....:D
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=54462&page=5
One known power drain bug using catorise et al. - use conky and check what hildon-desktop is doing. Note that the issue is not with catorise - it simply triggers a hildon-desktop bug https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10412
some builds of fmms drain the battery
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=54462&page=5
One known power drain bug using catorise et al. - use conky and check what hildon-desktop is doing. Note that the issue is not with catorise - it simply triggers a hildon-desktop bug https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10412
what is it supposed to do?
mine sais: PID 1199, CPU% 17-20, MEM% 4.8
looks normal to me. is it normal?
anandv76
2010-06-21, 16:36
it also helps to install auto-disconnect and not have auto-rotation enabled in the phone app. i am currently on the third day having made these changes a few days back and i normally used to run out between 36-48 hours...havent had a chance to test this over a few charge/discharge cycles but seems to have improved a fair amount...
what is it supposed to do?
mine sais: PID 1199, CPU% 17-20, MEM% 4.8
looks normal to me. is it normal?
If hildon-desktop is running at 15% or such (actually higher than 5% IME) then you have an issue. When it is high like that try in X terminal killall hildon-desktop and watch what it runs at once it auto-restarts. Should settle to below 1%. Let us know...
HA
If hildon-desktop is running at 15% or such (actually higher than 5% IME) then you have an issue. When it is high like that try in X terminal killall hildon-desktop and watch what it runs at once it auto-restarts. Should settle to below 1%. Let us know...
HA
its fine now - i realized that it was that high all the time out of a sudden.
a restart fixed the problem.
that happens quite a lot, that the cpu load goes up for no (obvious) reason and stays like that. if i didnt have the coumem-applet or the systeminfowidget installed, i wouldnt even notice and wonder why my battery drains so fast.
I just ran the killall command and mine has settled to below 1% too... Quite annoying that it gets stuck high :/
Remember that one can vote to increase a bug's prominence..
HA
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