[boss_hog]

My wifes 9810 was terrible on the battery. I bought the phone and a new "oem" battery from evilbay. Figured it was a fake because it charged kind of fast. Ordered one thru att. Now it takes forever to charge and die.

[Pete6]

My wifes 9810 was terrible on the battery. I bought the phone and a new "oem" battery from evilbay. Figured it was a fake because it charged kind of fast. Ordered one thru att. Now it takes forever to charge and die.

A good point. My 9810 battery failed soon after I got. There is a simple test to see if your battery has one particular fault.

Remove the battery and run your fingers over the large flat surfaces. If these feel like they have bumps or a swelling then the battery needs replacing.

Other things can go wrong with batteries but this is a surefire check that the internal cells are failing. Even a small thickening of the battery spells doom sooner or later. The fault is that battery life is much reduced.

I replaced mine with a Genuine BlackBerry battery from ebay. The new one works fine.

[hubermania]

> With only 5 RIM apps running this has to be the microcell.

Switch Applications is not the be-all, end-all of finding background tasks. To do that, you need to get into the JVM engineering screens. My task switcher shows the usual 5 RIM processes plus EveryHour and LinkedIn. However the JVM Engineering screen shows many, many more processes that I often forget are running:

Assistant (PageOnce)
BatteryEx50 (two, actually)
CBP (sideloaded Call Blocker Professional)
berrybuzz
berrypopup
berryweather
com_worldmate_bbtravel_wmli
slacker_radio
NobexRadio710
VlingoForBlackBerry

The above list doesn't even include BlackBerry Protect backups or Slacker station caching which run once a day while I'm on Wi-Fi. Either one of those could cause a quick drop in battery level, though they usually run overnight when my phone is on the charger.

[Pete6]

> With only 5 RIM apps running this has to be the microcell.

Switch Applications is not the be-all, end-all of finding background tasks. To do that, you need to get into the JVM engineering screens. My task switcher shows the usual 5 RIM processes plus EveryHour and LinkedIn. However the JVM Engineering screen shows many, many more processes that I often forget are running:

Assistant (PageOnce)
BatteryEx50 (two, actually)
CBP (sideloaded Call Blocker Professional)
berrybuzz
berrypopup
berryweather
com_worldmate_bbtravel_wmli
slacker_radio
NobexRadio710
VlingoForBlackBerry

The above list doesn't even include BlackBerry Protect backups or Slacker station caching which run once a day while I'm on Wi-Fi. Either one of those could cause a quick drop in battery level, though they usually run overnight when my phone is on the charger.

I too think that this is microcell releated. I am currently trying to prove this by eliminating all other possibilities.

I do not reccomend that people access the engineering screen since a wrong couple of keystrokes can do lots of damage. Many others here on Crackberry fee the same way.

On the other hand it will show, as you have demonstrated, everything that is running on the phone. For use only in desperate times, I feel.

[BigBadWulf]

A skim through the Event Log (alt L G L G from the home screen), should also give you a good idea what processes are running. May even make clearer what the issue is.

[troshs]

The 9810 has a faster processor than the 9800 so for sure it will chew through its battery more quickly.

OS 7.1 is a lot better than OS 7 for battery life. At least that has been my experience. I am running .391 which was officially released by Rogers, Canada. I am very happy with it.

My battery lasts the whole day and sometimes two but I don't use the phone very much and only have Berry Weather as an app that uses the web outside of my control. I also live in a high signal area.

Right, that I did forget about. I'm on AT&T and was told .378 was the best update. Is Rogers release just about as good?

[Pete6]

Right, that I did forget about. I'm on AT&T and was told .378 was the best update. Is Rogers release just about as good?

I never really compared the various versions. That seems to be a 24/7 job. I just went for the release that others on these forums seemed to think worked best.

When I'm looking for stuff like this I use advanced search for the OS version I'm interested in or, in the beta OS forum, where I search for the phone model in question.

Like many things here you need to wade through a fair amount of errr, not very interesting or relvant posts to get to the crux of the matter but, ,391 got virtually no negative posts and, for me, it seems to be working well.

I used to install just about every leak when it hit the web but now, RIM seems to often release leaks with more bugs than it fixes. I guess that newer phones have more comples OSs and, when you fix it in one place it breaks in others.

Unfortunately there is no cut and dried answer here.

[tsells]

Right, that I did forget about. I'm on AT&T and was told .378 was the best update. Is Rogers release just about as good?

I have used both .378 and .391 (my current OS). They are both good ones with no glitches. I do feel that I have a better signal with .391, but it's negligible at best.
(And you might want to stay away from any of the .4XX builds as there are mic problems in certain regions with ATT.)

[crackcookie]

Stop checking the battery analyzer so much and enjoy the phone. It makes no difference if you get 2%/hr or 4%/hr, as either one will get you through an entire day.
Close all apps after you are finished with them and put the phone on a charger every night.
A full day's use on your phone without a charge is way better than any Android or I-Phone can do.

I hate when people say this because it is false. If your berry is used in the way people use droids it would die just as fast if not faster, that is if it even has the apps to be used.

Anyway, we got a berry for what it is and good battery life is expected, so, my suggestion would be to either warranty replace or consider getting a new type of phone.

[Pete6]

I hate when people say this because it is false. If your berry is used in the way people use droids it would die just as fast if not faster, that is if it even has the apps to be used.

Anyway, we got a berry for what it is and good battery life is expected, so, my suggestion would be to either warranty replace or consider getting a new type of phone.

Suppose that it is not the phone and not the battery. Gonna look pretty silly then...

I think that a careful elimination of what it is not is more likely to yield a meanungful result.

[crackcookie]

All I am saying is this, BB has had the title of best battery, but that battery was NEVER that amazing when you compare it to comparable products. The problem was, BB was never comparable in terms of usage up until now, and its battery life is sputtering.

Bigger juicier screens, richer media, an abundance of apps. Yes BB has had efficient email, but when you get down to the nitty gritty of phone usage, it comes down to having a large screen almost always on. And I felt that this generation, with larger phone sizes and screens, BB had battery life just as good if not worse than some of the competition.

[Pete6]

There are two other things to try that you cannot do on any other phone, I think.

1). Enable Auto On/Off. This is an unique BlackBerry feature that allows you to power down the phone (no phone calls). Mine is set to do this from 11Pm till 7Am daily. This is the system default. Battery life is enormously helped by this and I do not get woken up by cold callers at night.

2). Use the BlackBerry pouch/holster that was supplied with the phone. Why? There is a magnet inside the pouch that activates a sensor inside the BlackBerry and shut down the CPU leaving just the radios working. Calls, BBM, Calendar alerts, email and other messages come in as normal and you can even set the ringtones to be different or louder/quieter for most things whilst the phone is holstered. This really is a true BlackBerry unique feature that saves huge amounts of battery life.

No other phones have these features, only BlackBerrys.

However I remain convinced that this problem is as I outlined earlier and lies with the microcell.

[tsells]

However I remain convinced that this problem is as I outlined earlier and lies with the microcell.

FYI, I use the AT&T microcell (because one room in my house has very bad reception) and I get a solid day + on a battery charge using 7.1.0.391 (It's rare that the phone goes on the charger with less than 25-30% left at night). I actually do not see any worse usage at home (with microcell on) than when traveling. I leave wi-fi on almost all the time and leave bluetooth on almost all of the time. I do use a magnetic pouch as you describe.

[Pete6]

FYI, I use the AT&T microcell (because one room in my house has very bad reception) and I get a solid day + on a battery charge using 7.1.0.391 (It's rare that the phone goes on the charger with less than 25-30% left at night). I actually do not see any worse usage at home (with microcell on) than when traveling. I leave wi-fi on almost all the time and leave bluetooth on almost all of the time. I do use a magnetic pouch as you describe.

It remains to be proven whether the microcell is the culprit here but I think that it probably is.

The microcell works over the user's internet connection and has to be in regular if not almost constant connection with the "mother carrier network". Since the OP lives in a remote location, I wondered if the internet connection might not be making its required contact with its home network. It could also be that the carrier has been doing maintanence and has taken components out of service.

Without being on site and have the full co-operation of the carrier and at least one other "known good" phone to hand this, is impossible to diagnose positively at long distance.

[go1ndr]

> With only 5 RIM apps running this has to be the microcell.

Switch Applications is not the be-all, end-all of finding background tasks. To do that, you need to get into the JVM engineering screens. My task switcher shows the usual 5 RIM processes plus EveryHour and LinkedIn. However the JVM Engineering screen shows many, many more processes that I often forget are running:

Assistant (PageOnce)
BatteryEx50 (two, actually)
CBP (sideloaded Call Blocker Professional)
berrybuzz
berrypopup
berryweather
com_worldmate_bbtravel_wmli
slacker_radio
NobexRadio710
VlingoForBlackBerry

The above list doesn't even include BlackBerry Protect backups or Slacker station caching which run once a day while I'm on Wi-Fi. Either one of those could cause a quick drop in battery level, though they usually run overnight when my phone is on the charger.

Huber: how do you get to the JVM screen? The Alt LGLG doesn't work on my 9810 for some reason. Thanks!

[go1ndr]

Everyone, here's my 2 cents worth: I've been running .378 on my 9810 since .378 came out and it's outstanding in everyway (and I understand that .391 is as well)! I use a 3G MicroCell from ATT as well, at my house, which as I've posted before, is in a very good signal area, but for some reason there's not much signal in and around our house. That said the Microcell did the job. However, I'm seldom at home during the day and mostly at my office in downtown Ventura, CA and have great coverage there. I mention this because, I use my phone for countless emails, texts, calendar entries, and browsing and my battery is awesome.
Example: yesterday I received and sent over 150 (honestly) emails due to some HOA stuff I'm involved in, and sent countless texts with pictures attached from some HOA contstruction being done, and at 9pm last night I still had 42% left on my battery, which i unplugged at 6AM that morning. Today, another busy email day, it is now 4pm and I still have 66% left. I think that all of the seasoned gurus on here have said the same thing--enjoy your phone and don't worry about the battery. If it runs low, plug it in and if you can't plug it in, carry a spare battery that you can put in it, in an emergency. Unless you are getting excessive drain of 25% or more an hour, I wouldn't worry about it.
With regards to the post about iPhones and Androids being better with better batteries, I do not believe it as I have many people that work for and with me that have those phones-with the same issues as we have. Don't believe me, check the posts on here in the other areas under "other">android/iPhone/Windows Phone, above on the page. Enjoy your phone and what Blackberry is and if you really don't like it--get something else. I for one love it!
Thanks!

[tsells]

Huber: how do you get to the JVM screen? The Alt LGLG doesn't work on my 9810 for some reason. Thanks!

Be very careful if you do go to the engineering screen. It's not for the average user, as things can easily be screwed up.

But to get to the event log, hold ALT button with left thumb while typing lglg. It should work every time.

[go1ndr]

Thank you! I can see how someone could screw a lot of stuff up there!! LOL
I looked though it and like the average user, didn't have a clue what it all was, so I used the faithful back button to escape out and probably won't go there again
I actually tried it a couple of times before but it didn't work, but this time it did. Must be the holding the ALT button with the left thumb part-LOL. Have a great evening and thanks again!