1 potential reason for high battery drain on Bold 99xx
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Hopefully this hasn't already been covered on the forums/blogs - I didn't see anything upon a quick search, but apologies if this is old news.
So I've been battling some stupid and random battery drain lately. Ever since the BB outage, my Bold 9900's been running hot some days, and will drop like 40% battery just sitting on my desk for a couple of hours.
At first I thought it was just trying to pull back-logged data after the outage. But it continued for several days after, constantly polling for data (as indicated by the data arrows flashing every 15 or 20 seconds) even though nothing was coming through. Some days it'd be fine, and some days the battery would die completely by 5pm.
I got fed up and upgraded to OS .439 (was running stock .261), but that didn't really solve the problem. The phone still kept trying to pull data. I was indoors, but in a full-coverage area (Telus H+/ 3G, showing 4 or 5 bars). Wifi, bluetooth, and NFC always off.
Today I learned how to look at the Event Logs on my phone (alt+lglg; thanks, Crackberry forums!). And as it turns out, the log was chock full of GeoLocation events, even though I wasn't using any GPS apps. There were like 50+ events that occurred in less than 40 seconds.
Not sure what is causing the device to constantly look for my location, but it seems to happen both inside and outdoors. I went into Options --> Device --> Location Settings, and under Location Data, selected "disabled".
This seems to have solved that problem, and my event log no longer shows a trillion GeoLocation events. Also, my data arrows aren't flashing all the time now and my phone doesn't feel warm to the touch. Note that this change doesn't eliminate GPS function -- GoogleMaps, websites that pull my location, etc. still work alright as far as I can tell. (However, I'm not sure whether apps like BerryWeather might be affected.)
Anyway, time will tell if this actually helps the battery life, but in the meantime I thought I'd post just in case someone else also has this problem.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.comnetnative and barbarianthemadserb like this.10-26-11 08:31 PMLike 2 -
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The Geolocation events are GPS and cell tower driven I believe. They do not use the GPS if it's been disabled, but will use cell towers and - you have an option to turn that off in your browser settings as well. That's a privacy thing for me. I also disabled my GPS and Geolocation reporting, but I doubt it will improve battery life. I'd look at other things on your BB that may be draining battery. Do you have social feeds enabled?
You can't enable or disable location data if the GPS is off, just an FYI...so I'm guessing your GPS was on?
Cell tower data is ALWAYS ON, no matter what. There's no way to shut that off - it's a federal mandate to have it on.10-26-11 09:25 PMLike 0 -
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I LOVE YOU hahaha, I've done what you said last night and my battery life is better than always.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com10-27-11 11:30 AMLike 0 -
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Here is another observation that might explain the sometimes shocking battery life.
I noticed that sometimes the screen isn't turning off after the 10 seconds it is programmed to do. I had to do a battery pull to get this to work. Obviously if the screen is staying on all the time then that isn't going to help.
Anyone else noticed this happening??10-27-11 01:13 PMLike 0 -
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Yup I second that using wifi most of the time is does make your 9900 battery last longer
Regardless the cellular signal is full bar or not.
I think the Bugs is in the cellular signal management.
I've tried with or without wifi and always found that with wifi , in the same place, I always get significantly better battery life
But then again that defeat the purpose of having a "phone" if we must connect to wifi all the time.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com10-27-11 03:49 PMLike 0 -
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Actually the reason is that wifi is consistant power output from the wifi network. Cell networks, especially GSM networks require the handset to provide various levels of power and the radios in the phone use power differently...Yup I second that using wifi most of the time is does make your 9900 battery last longer
Regardless the cellular signal is full bar or not.
I think the Bugs is in the cellular signal management.
I've tried with or without wifi and always found that with wifi , in the same place, I always get significantly better battery life
But then again that defeat the purpose of having a "phone" if we must connect to wifi all the time.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
PG10-27-11 07:58 PMLike 0 -
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Just popping in to say my battery life is way better/more consistent now after disabling Location Data. I haven't changed anything else, keep SocialFeeds on (b/c I use it), keep GPS on (b/c I'm paranoid I'll lose the phone and have to use BB Protect to locate it).
Nowadays I make it from 8am to midnight easy, with battery life to spare (maybe about 30%-35% left? I no longer check obsessively, because it's reliably lasted well longer than I need it to). No more constantly-transferring data arrows either.
I agree with posters who say WiFi helps battery life a lot. If I had WiFi on all the time, I feel like I could get 2 days' moderate use before having to plug it in. (I rarely leave WiFi on though, because I don't usually have a connection on weekdays, and then I forget to turn it on when I'm home at nights / on weekends.)
So yeah. Upgrade to OS .440 or .439. Check your event logs. Turn off Location Data (or all GPS if you don't use it). Use WiFi if you can.11-07-11 02:05 PMLike 0 -
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i saw this as a battery saver when i had my 9650. will report on battery findings in a day or two..
may not be accurate as i am using a hybrid.11-07-11 02:16 PMLike 0
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1 potential reason for high battery drain on Bold 99xx
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