[nikgilbe]

Hi folks. I upgraded to the first beta of os2 and all was working ok, considering. However, this morning, something started causing constant battery drain (from fully charged to 30% in a few hours with no use). I've got battery guru installed and could see a constant 2w or so being used. I was on the verge of downgrading when I saw the latest release appear, so I've now upgraded. Unfortunately, no difference. I've since tried a security wipe, again no change.

Now tried a downgrade, but as I'm registered for the Dev beta, it only gives me 2.x.

After all this, with no apps open, my PB is sitting there chewing up anywhere between 1.6 and 2.0W constantly. The only time this stops is if I put it into standby, and after a couple of minutes it reverts back to draining the battery.

Has anyone else seen this, or any suggestions where to look before I try a downgrade back to 1.07xx ?

Thanks

[peter9477]

Hmm... I responded to your PM before I saw this thread, but I'll respond again here since something about how you're describing this makes me wonder...

I thought at first you meant it was using 1.6-2W in standby. From the above, however, it sounds like you mean it uses that when just sitting there with the screen on, doing nothing.

The screen actually does use lots of power on its own (well, with the backlight included). My PlayBook sitting here, with backlight on 50%, is using 2.3W. As noted in my article on power consumption, the range is about 1.7W to 3.0W by just changing the backlight level (ignoring for now the effect of auto-dimming and room lighting).

When you say it stops if you go into standby, but "after a couple of minutes it reverts", I think you're getting caught by the fact that the OS updates these readings only every two minutes (actually about ever 122 seconds but who's counting?). You won't see the value change more often than that except when changing between charging and not-charging, or while it's on the charger when it's every 30 seconds or so.

So, possibly, there's no real problem here... a normal, functioning PlayBook should be using nominally 2W when doing nothing (somewhat sadly, but if they picked a less power-hungry screen maybe we'd all be complaining that it looks washed-out or dim or something).

[nikgilbe]

Thanks for the reply Peter. I definitely had a problem yesterday, with the battery dropping from full to around 40% in a couple of hours, with the PB in standby. Unfortunately BatteryGuru wasn't running at the time.

Even after a couple of restarts, the battery was still draining. After a security wipe, upgrade etc. things are back to normal. I didn't really realise how much just the screen on it's own uses.

Do you know of any plans for basic memory/cpu utilisation tools ? Things that my BB has had for a long time now. Might there be ways for a third party developer to do this do you think or would that be something RIM would need to do ?

Thanks again

[Donnee]

mine was doing something similar, no idea what was causing it as i dont have battery guru, but for a few recharges it was going from 100% down to 10 in about 4 hours, then it seemed to just fix itself... No new apps, licenses accepted and nothing deleted, rather strange

Have updated to the new version and no problems so far, but will have to wait and see

[meltbox360]

Really strange. I'm on the latest non-beta and the same thing is happening. Just went from 50 to 18% in an hour. I read a few things online but that's insane. Also things seem a little more laggy at times. Some flash video started playing at around 4fps after watching it for 20 minutes. All started with playing deadspace.... Hmmm I do wonder whats causing it though because its a huge problem now. This new update messed something up and really didn't improve anything as far as I can see. Maybe a few things are marginally better but its not worth this huge drain.

[crimson621]

I began experiencing this problem a few weeks ago, shortly after upgrading to the Beta. My battery began draining at an alarming rate; at one point I had to charged to 70% and less than 2 hours later (of no use!), it drained completely. Once it was drained, it would not power back on. So if you're experiencing this issue, I strongly suggest not letting it drain to 0%. Tech Support walked me through multiple trouble shooting steps, none of which worked. I had to ship the device to them for repairs, although I think they just sent me a new one.