1. Xterra2's Avatar
    Unfortunately, the good battery performance I had last night after uninstalling MeterBerry seems to have been a fluke. This morning I'm down 12% in exactly two hours, which is 6%/hour. This is while doing nothing with the phone except carrying it, no background apps running, and solid -77 dBm signal. If other days are any indication, it'll get worse as the day goes on.

    I did learn that because I bought this phone through Customer Care, I get 20 days from the date of delivery, rather than 14 days. So I have until the 20th to return it. T-Mobile is not at this point receptive to doing a handset exchange over the battery life issue. So unless the replacement battery turns things around, which I'm not optimistic about, I'll be returning the 9900.

    Thanks to the OP for starting this thread, and to everybody else for sharing suggestions and experiments.
    Had your issue before - bad battery life no matter what I did, it would be bad I had a korea/china battery so I exchanged for a japan/indonesia battery and my battery issue is a thing of the past
    Return your battery no OS or settings can give you a good battery life from a bad battery
    12-13-11 10:04 AM
  2. ubizmo's Avatar
    Had your issue before - bad battery life no matter what I did, it would be bad I had a korea/china battery so I exchanged for a japan/indonesia battery and my battery issue is a thing of the past
    Return your battery no OS or settings can give you a good battery life from a bad battery
    My battery is Japanese. That doesn't make it immune to defects though. Maybe the replacement will get here today, so I have a few days to see how it runs.
    12-13-11 10:31 AM
  3. gadgetier's Avatar
    Ubizmo, seems you have come to the end of the road with your experimenting! I would hope that this whole issue is down to a batch of poor grade battery's sent out with these phones. (im still waiting for my replacement from Vodafone UK, but Im accustomed to there terrible customer service after 3 years).

    I know a handful of people here in the UK that have got the 9900 and regret there choice as they are all having battery problems, the worst case one of my friends 9900`s lasts 4 hours on a charge.

    there are just to many people having this issue for it not to be addressed.

    as long as I am tethered to my wi-fi at home my charge cycle is lasting 14-15 hours, unfortunately I work 12 hour shifts so I come home with a flat battery and that involves riding my motorbike on a motorway in the cold dark winter we are having, dont know what id do if I broke down or worse, it would prove pointless owning a mobile phone.

    Rgds all.
    12-13-11 10:44 AM
  4. ubizmo's Avatar
    Ubizmo, seems you have come to the end of the road with your experimenting!
    I have, except for popping the replacement battery in, if it gets here in time.

    unfortunately I work 12 hour shifts so I come home with a flat battery and that involves riding my motorbike on a motorway in the cold dark winter we are having, dont know what id do if I broke down or worse, it would prove pointless owning a mobile phone.
    Yes, that's exactly how I feel. I could carry batteries and try to make sure I have a charger available at key points, but that's more than I'm personally willing to put up with. As it is, I already find myself "rationing" my use of the phone, knowing that if I actually use it much, it'll fail even sooner.

    I'm back to 7%/hour, without using the phone at all.
    12-13-11 11:33 AM
  5. Thud Hardsmack's Avatar
    I have, except for popping the replacement battery in, if it gets here in time.



    Yes, that's exactly how I feel. I could carry batteries and try to make sure I have a charger available at key points, but that's more than I'm personally willing to put up with. As it is, I already find myself "rationing" my use of the phone, knowing that if I actually use it much, it'll fail even sooner.

    I'm back to 7%/hour, without using the phone at all.
    Anybody who says you didn't give it "the ol' college try" hasn't been paying attention. Hopefully that incoming battery solves your problems with that handset. By the by, did you ever give 7.1 a spin to compare battery drain with it? I don't remember you posting that you did.
    12-13-11 12:26 PM
  6. ubizmo's Avatar
    Anybody who says you didn't give it "the ol' college try" hasn't been paying attention. Hopefully that incoming battery solves your problems with that handset. By the by, did you ever give 7.1 a spin to compare battery drain with it? I don't remember you posting that you did.
    I did, yes. I didn't notice much difference. I've tried 7.1, and a number of flavors of 7.0.0, including hybrids, which is what I'm running right now. I see small differences that could well be just random fluctuations.
    12-13-11 12:33 PM
  7. Thud Hardsmack's Avatar
    I did, yes. I didn't notice much difference. I've tried 7.1, and a number of flavors of 7.0.0, including hybrids, which is what I'm running right now. I see small differences that could well be just random fluctuations.
    That covers the bases, I believe. On the bright side, this thread has a few nuggets for anyone looking into what might help them out if they experience any high drain issues.
    12-13-11 01:01 PM
  8. azie's Avatar
    I ordered the 1400mAh battery. I hope to have it asap. I am willing to give it a try and after that, if i am gonna have the same issues, i am gonna give up on 9900.
    12-13-11 02:38 PM
  9. gadgetier's Avatar
    I installed battery watch after seeing it mentioned on page 15 or 16, thought it might be interesting.
    well I find it hard to see any connection but today ive got 14 hours and still have 41% remaining.

    Ive had a few very short calls, 10-15 BBM`s and 3-4 txt`s oh and 6-7 emails and browsed for a few minutes, but a few days ago I couldn't get 12 hours out of it on standby alone.

    apart from deleting a few apps, installing battery watch and a few charges using the 9300 wall charger I cant think of anything that would have caused this sudden increase in battery life.

    I can only think its down to the battery, it must have been defective in some way and has slowly re-energised itself fully.

    im convinced its down to the batterys, I recall my Bold 9000 took a few f/ware updates before it had the really good battery life it ended up with and the same with the 9700 so I guess it could be how the phone and its hardware are instructed to make use of power but in this instant (current 9900) my power consumption has just based on today nearly doubled.

    explain that ??
    12-13-11 05:30 PM
  10. Minarets's Avatar
    I installed battery watch after seeing it mentioned on page 15 or 16, thought it might be interesting.
    well I find it hard to see any connection but today ive got 14 hours and still have 41% remaining.

    Ive had a few very short calls, 10-15 BBM`s and 3-4 txt`s oh and 6-7 emails and browsed for a few minutes, but a few days ago I couldn't get 12 hours out of it on standby alone.

    apart from deleting a few apps, installing battery watch and a few charges using the 9300 wall charger I cant think of anything that would have caused this sudden increase in battery life.

    I can only think its down to the battery, it must have been defective in some way and has slowly re-energised itself fully.

    im convinced its down to the batterys, I recall my Bold 9000 took a few f/ware updates before it had the really good battery life it ended up with and the same with the 9700 so I guess it could be how the phone and its hardware are instructed to make use of power but in this instant (current 9900) my power consumption has just based on today nearly doubled.

    explain that ??
    After market battery or stock jm1?
    12-13-11 07:47 PM
  11. ubizmo's Avatar
    I can only think its down to the battery, it must have been defective in some way and has slowly re-energised itself fully.

    im convinced its down to the batterys, I recall my Bold 9000 took a few f/ware updates before it had the really good battery life it ended up with and the same with the 9700 so I guess it could be how the phone and its hardware are instructed to make use of power but in this instant (current 9900) my power consumption has just based on today nearly doubled.

    explain that ??
    It's very strange, isn't it? You started this thread, on Dec. 3, and I started spamming it not long after. Now your battery has seemingly spontaneously righted itself. Maybe there's hope for mine. Could it take over ten days for a battery to figure out what's expected of it? I don't know.

    I do know that battery behavior can be strangely erratic. Last night I was thrilled to be getting 2.3%/hour. Today, with everything the same except the time of day, it was back up to 7%. Explain that!

    A while back, before getting the 9900, I tried an Android device, the LG G2x, for just over a week. Battery life was about the same as what I've been getting with the 9900, except for one day. On about the third day with the device, a Sunday, the battery seemed to be immortal. I browsed the web, read Kindle books, downloaded about 42 MB of podcasts and listened to them, and had plenty of juice left when I went to bed. After that one day it was back to the phone being dead by 5 pm, with much less use.

    Maybe it's better to use the phone normally or even heavily and let it run low under actual battle conditions, rather than keeping it idle so much and just checking the battery again and again. I don't know why that should matter, but none of this makes sense anyway.

    Anyway, I'm glad to hear that your battery turned the corner!
    12-13-11 07:51 PM
  12. bboy2143's Avatar
    I ordered the 1400mAh battery. I hope to have it asap. I am willing to give it a try and after that, if i am gonna have the same issues, i am gonna give up on 9900.
    What's the difference with a 1400mAh batt than the regular battery that the 9900 has
    12-13-11 08:27 PM
  13. azie's Avatar
    What's the difference with a 1400mAh batt than the regular battery that the 9900 has
    normally, 170mAh+. maybe a better cell. we shall see!
    12-13-11 10:20 PM
  14. laserjeff's Avatar
    2) I exhausted the battery to 100% and the let the phone die and turn off. Ten I charged the battery to 100% and let it charge for an extra 30 minutes at 100%. An electronics expert said this procedure "trains" the battery and is a good thing to do about once a month...
    This is totally false information for Li-ion batteries and only applies to older Ni-MH batteries. I would only ever do this to train your battery meter and not your battery itself. But you shouldn't really have to do this. Also I would stop it before it shuts it self off. Although phones are set to auto shut off before a battery is totally discharged, I wouldn't let it go all the way to 0%. Would plug it in around 1-5%. Fully discharging your battery will rapidly decrease its life and capacity.
    blackmoe likes this.
    12-14-11 12:18 AM
  15. Rootbrian's Avatar
    This is totally false information for Li-ion batteries and only applies to older Ni-MH batteries. I would only ever do this to train your battery meter and not your battery itself. But you shouldn't really have to do this. Also I would stop it before it shuts it self off. Although phones are set to auto shut off before a battery is totally discharged, I wouldn't let it go all the way to 0%. Would plug it in around 1-5%. Fully discharging your battery will rapidly decrease its life and capacity.
    Exactly. That "expert" was no expert at all. Now if they actually tried that on their own Li-ion batteries, they'd realize how much capacity was lost afterwards. You could do that with an LED or mini incandescent bulb and it'll be completely drained. It was a stupid mistake I made with my battery pack on my netbook's.
    12-14-11 12:34 AM
  16. elie.bim's Avatar
    Ok guys! So I get about 16-18 hours on my Verizon 9930, which is updated with the latest OS and is on GSM and not CDMA. I have the network setting at GSM/UMTS with 3G/2G mode enabled. The phone generally stays on the 3G signal, however Digicel has horrible coverage so it's usually searching for signal...actually, quite constantly...I imagine these can eat at your battery life?

    I have the AP News app, SocialScope, Accuweather, Vlingo, Rollercoaster, Zombies app, Dropbox and 4 other apps...which I can't quite remember...installed. I use SocialScope and AP most frequently.

    I receive constant BBMs so I'm always replying to them, emails, notifications from SocialScope as well as a few scattered Facebook notifications.

    I also use the touch screen interface more than the trackpad. However, when my phone is on a strong 3G signal, my batterly life is significantly reduced...around 12 hours.

    No, I don't use any Nokia chargers or changed anything with the device. Oh...my bold is manufactured in "Mexico 5" if that's any help to you guys.
    12-14-11 01:08 AM
  17. laserjeff's Avatar
    Li-ion batteries have no memory, they can be charged whenever you like, as much or as little as you like.
    To clarify i meant when "re-training" your device's battery gauge. As this can actually get out of sync after extended use and as your battery's capacity slowly decreases. Which typically takes years.
    12-14-11 04:04 AM
  18. cwoodffr's Avatar
    My observations....after much fussing with meters etc. I am on 7.1 but have run every leak since the launch of the device. I have seen no difference in going from one os to the next. I think when people do its a placebo effect. There are just too many variables impacting things and so people latch onto the idea that their update is giving them better or worse performance.

    I am religious about not running anything background. If I install and app and it doesn't shut down (stays resident) I delete it.

    Running radios off and doing nothing I saw around 1.5%. If you light the screen or do other stuff it will get to over 2.

    Regular operations with 3G, BT and wifi on saw anywhere from a low of 4.2 ish to over 10.

    I think what you are seeing is a normal device in this case. I believe battery chemistry will give you slightly better or worse performance. With normal use I unplug at 6 am and when I shut down at 11 I am at about 20%....which is acceptable. If I need to stretch a day I will run 2G. Based on being connected to wifi at home and at work this does not impact speeds whatsoever. I am trying a full day on 2G today just to see where I end up.

    I do not believe that with normal configurations of H+ and wifi and BT that 1.x is possible. There is no pixie dust here. The device draws and needs a certain power level in a base configuration. The battery in a healthy state can give a certain amount.....it simple math. While I can't explain the miraculous 1.x ..... I don't believe it. If it were possible others would be seeing it.
    12-14-11 06:20 AM
  19. ubizmo's Avatar
    User Error!

    Oh good grief.

    I thought I had checked and double-checked everything. I really did. Last night, I was fiddling with the Options>Device>Application Management screen. I hadn't noticed that it was possible to scroll horizontally to get a real-time reading of CPU usage. I thought I had deleted all apps that I didn't need and wasn't using, but there was one left on there: EveryLock! I had tried it on my 9780 for a while, then uninstalled it. When I reinstalled apps on the 9900 I must have installed it without even thinking, because I haven't actually used it. And it doesn't have an icon, so I paid no attention.

    To my astonishment, when I went to the CPU usage screen, EveryLock was near the top of the list. In fact, the only thing that was using more CPU than EveryLock was Home Screen! EveryLock had used more CPU than Messages or Browser or anything else. Even in real time, just sitting there doing nothing, the app's CPU usage was fluctuating between 4 and 6% of CPU! So of course I deleted it.

    I took the phone off the charger this morning at 6:10. It is now 8:20, and the battery is at 96%, so under 2%/hour, without much use (one short phone call and one email read). And the last half hour of this time has been in my office, where reception is dodgy. And 4G has been on the whole time.

    I can't believe I missed this!

    I'm pretty sure this solves my battery problem. It may be of little use to anyone else, but at least it shows that much can be learned from that CPU usage screen.
    12-14-11 07:23 AM
  20. emirozmen's Avatar
    Spoke with Rogers today. Corporate Account rep is sending me a new battery. He said to try it although he is expecting the same results...anywhere from 5 -15% battery drain per hour. He confirmed rim is aware of this and is supposed to be sending an appropriate fix sometime before the end of the month.
    I wonder if this really is a software issue
    12-14-11 08:54 AM
  21. azie's Avatar
    I am 100% sure this is not a software issue.
    What do you expect from RIM? To tell you that it is an engineering error? )

    Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk
    12-14-11 09:03 AM
  22. ubizmo's Avatar
    I am 100% sure this is not a software issue.
    What do you expect from RIM? To tell you that it is an engineering error? )
    It's a fact that the 9900 is more demanding than previous generation Bolds in terms of processor speed and screen size. I don't know if the touch screen is itself a greater power drain, but I wouldn't be surprised. And it's fact that the 9900 has a weaker battery than the 97xx. So those facts alone predict less time between required charges.

    My guess is that RIM decided that the minimum acceptable battery performance is to go a full day on a single charge, but not have to charge more than once. Since the 97xx was able to go well into a second day, and in some cases beyond that, on a single charge, they figured that less battery life would be acceptable as long as it was a whole day's worth, i.e., 16 hours or so. People should expect to charge smartphones at night. The trouble is, a lot of people aren't getting that minimum. In some cases, it's because people got used to being able to use certain apps in certain ways, without having to worry about battery depletion. There was power to spare. So people got used to having their social feeds update frequently, to take one example. That's much more likely to lead to a problem on the 9900.

    I think there's a software component too. If there's no 3G signal and the phone drops back to 2G, how often does it check for 3G? Each time it checks, it drains the battery. This is controlled by the software. It actually wouldn't be a bad idea to let the user select a radio profile: aggressive, moderate, or conservative, based on how often the device looks for 3G and wifi.

    The real error is to design a device that entices the user to want to do more with it, without powering it accordingly.

    If there were a thicker, "Hummer" model of the 9900, with an 1800 battery, I bet a lot of us would have bought it instead.
    12-14-11 09:42 AM
  23. emirozmen's Avatar
    Update: I did a reset before turning the radios off, to get a fresh baseline. They have been off for an hour. The phone has just been sitting on my desk, screen darkened. I haven't touched it, except just now to check the battery level.

    One hour in this state drained the battery 3%.
    Tried airplane mode right after a full charge. I get 0.3%. I lost 2 percent in 7 hours and that was amazing. Wish my battery with usage was this awesome lol
    12-14-11 10:14 AM
  24. howards's Avatar
    I wonder if this really is a software issue
    I forget how to get to that CPU usage screen. Where is it located? Thanks.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    12-14-11 10:36 AM
  25. emirozmen's Avatar
    I forget how to get to that CPU usage screen. Where is it located? Thanks.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    Options>Device>Application Management. Swipe two-three tabs
    Or you can universal search Application Management.
    howards likes this.
    12-14-11 10:39 AM
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