[dstarobin]

I'm sure you've seen this question asked dozens of times already and read dozens of answers. None of it has satisfied me. I'm hoping there's an expert out there who can answer my impossible question.

Upped to a Curve 8330 through Verizon a little over a month ago. A single charge lasted me at least two days under VERY heavy use (browsing, emailing, watching videos -- several hours each day).

After a couple of weeks I noticed that my battery began to fade extremely rapidly. After a full charge it might last 8 hrs. I pulled the battery and things went back to normal (i.e. good battery life). After two days, battery life went to crap again.

I took the phone back to Verizon and they gave me a brand new battery. The device lasted 2 days off a charge with significant use, once again. I was happy. Now I'm sad. My BB battery life is again fading to zero after only 6-8 hrs.

Here's the mystery (that has not been solved by anyone online as far as I can tell):

1. I plugged my BB into the wall last night at 8.
2. I unplugged my BB this morning at 7, fully charged.
3. By 9 the battery was at 80% after 10 mins of video watching.
4. By noon the battery was at 50% after sending exactly 1 email and receiving 4.
4. By 2pm the battery was at 30% after 7 minutes on the phone.
5. By 5pm the battery was at 10% after no other use.
6. I live in NYC and receive 100% reception 100% of the time.
7. I have NO extra applications running (just the default 5 apps i.e. call log, home screen, messenger etc).
8. Bluetooth is disabled, and has never been enabled.
9. The 8830 doesn't have wifi.
10. GPS is set to "911 Only" (probably doesn't even matter)

In summary, I used my BB for less than 20 minutes, and it's dead.

I'm running OS 4.5.0.77.

Can someone PLEASE tell me what the heck is going on here or refer me to someone who can? I've read numerous other stories just like mine and nobody has an answer. A Seido extended battery is just a band-aid for this problem. Could this be a firmware issue? Thanks for your help.

[mbudden]

Wow. That is horrible battery life... The things I can think of is that there is apps that aren't closed that can sap battery life but I don't think it'd sap it that fast. Try closing all apps that are open, that could cause the phone to loose some battery life. When your not using the phone are you putting it on standby by using the mute key? If that doesn't rule out anything then you may need to get a new battery which you can find online for relatively cheep. I bought one on Amazon for 5$ and worked perfect. Also it seems like you don't have the updated OS, I don't know if the OS you have has any problems but you could also update it to v4.5.0.131 for 8330. Sticky is on the top of the forum.

[SofaKingKev]

either you have really bad luck (it happening with 2 batteries) or there is something going on that you have not noticed and/or neglected to mention. the only advice i have is to pick up an oem battery from ebay for about 3-5 dollars, and try it again.

[Username0223]

hi d- as far as any apps being open, i agree with budden. check to make sure you 'close' all apps wen you are done. As for the os, the one you have 4.5.0.77 is the most current os that verizon has...the one budden mention is an 'after market' version. and it will void your warranty with verzion if you change os from the .77 so if you are having issues with the phone, i would deffinately hold off on that if you need to switch out your device with verizon.

[mbudden]

hi d- as far as any apps being open, i agree with budden. check to make sure you 'close' all apps wen you are done. As for the os, the one you have 4.5.0.77 is the most current os that verizon has...the one budden mention is an 'after market' version. and it will void your warranty with verzion if you change os from the .77 so if you are having issues with the phone, i would deffinately hold off on that if you need to switch out your device with verizon.

I didn't know if you had a OS that isn't from the carrier would void your warranty. I had just thought that's if you opened it etc.

[ducatti20]

Is your ringer set to vibrate for emails/messages? My battery is gone in a day if I have vibrate on.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mbudden]

Is your ringer set to vibrate for emails/messages? My battery is gone in a day if I have vibrate on.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I have mine set on Vibrate and never goes onto anything else, and I get a good 2 days out of my Blackberry.

[dstarobin]

All alerts are set to silent. My friend's wife's BB Curve just began having the same problem as well. I've had zero extra applications running for the past 3 days (verified w/ alt+back).

Thanks for your responses. Any other ideas? It seems highly unlikely that so many people have this problem as a result of something they're doing wrong. I can literally charge the BB, leave it alone, alerts off for 8 hours and it's dead. Two bad batteries unlikely as well.

[mbudden]

All I could say is that it might be your phone itself. You could try reloading the OS. But that's only if your up to it. That's always worth a try.

[Blkbear]

Dstarobin,

How long did you charge each battery the first time before actually using the phone?

Sounds like you didn't get a full charge the first time for each battery.

Now if you have ruled out a faulty battery, apps running in the background, and not using the back light/wifi/bt any longer than you need them, you are then left with the need to do a couple of COMPLETE discharge, charge cycles, to get the battery back up to snuff. What this means is you will need to fully discharge the battery (until it can't power the phone any longer), then charge it for 12 to 16 hours (yup no short cuts here), and then discharge it again, and fully charge once more for 12 to 16 hours. You should be good to go after re-conditioning the battery.

If this is too much to deal with, time to move up to a higher capacity battery. You will of course need tp funny charge this one as well. Now might be the right time to buy an external battery charger just for this conditioning task.

[dstarobin]

Bear, thanks for the response. I didn't charge either battery before I used them. I began using the BB as soon as I put the battery in (both times). I never drained the batteries fully. I was under the impression that lithium ion batteries don't need conditioning. Since I haven't yet tried drain cycles, I'll do it. It surely couldn't hurt.

[Blkbear]

This just came to mind, it could be that the charging circuit in the phone has gone bad. Try another phone with the battery and see how long it lasts.

[Blkbear]

Bear, thanks for the response. I didn't charge either battery before I used them. I began using the BB as soon as I put the battery in (both times). I never drained the batteries fully. I was under the impression that lithium ion batteries don't need conditioning. Since I haven't yet tried drain cycles, I'll do it. It surely couldn't hurt.

For the most part they don't, but they do need charged the first time before being used. If I remember correctly even my DS had an insert to fully charge before actually using it the first time.

[kguthrie75]

I am using the same phone and I typically use about 25% of the battery life with decent internet use. A couple of times it has used almost 80% through the day. Making sure I "close" each app when I'm finished using it seems to help a lot.

[VMAN7]

Hey, I'm new to this but I was just reading about this on a different site and the problem was solved for the person. Here's what they had to do:

1. Let the current battery drain down to approx 10 to 15% then plug it in to charge.

2. Remove the battery while BB is plugged in.

2. Then wait 10 seconds and reinsert battery and charge for approx 4 hours.

You should be good to go.


With a Li-On battery there is no memory or charge or discharge cycle to go through. You only need to do a full charge the first time you ever use the battery.

There is some type of feature (in ref to pwr and battery life) in the phone that gets reset when you do this. I hope it helps.

[anonymous394857349875]

I tend to get a full day out of my bb battery and thats heavy usage. I would say at least 1 hour of web, anywhere from 4-10 emails a day. 3-5 Texts a day. 1-3 calls a day at 5 minutes each, and BBM all day long, with vibe on & not in sleep mode, I am always checking the screen too. I have my display timeout set to 30 seconds, backlight is 50% w/autodim. So I guess I get pretty decent battery life, I bet I would get 2 days if I would keep my BB in the holster more lol.

[xliderider]

You might be ruining the batteries by using them heavily (2 days) without an initial charge. It would be better to charge the battery before use, per instructions, then charge the battery before it gets low, e.g. Daily for the first couple of days.

It's better to charge a Li-Ion battery frequently, rather than infrequently while letting it get down low in charge.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dstarobin]

Hey, I'm new to this but I was just reading about this on a different site and the problem was solved for the person. Here's what they had to do:

1. Let the current battery drain down to approx 10 to 15% then plug it in to charge.

2. Remove the battery while BB is plugged in.

2. Then wait 10 seconds and reinsert battery and charge for approx 4 hours.

You should be good to go.


With a Li-On battery there is no memory or charge or discharge cycle to go through. You only need to do a full charge the first time you ever use the battery.

There is some type of feature (in ref to pwr and battery life) in the phone that gets reset when you do this. I hope it helps.

I'll try this before Bear's suggestion since it looks like it requires less planning. Thanks for the advice.

[Blkbear]

With a Li-On battery there is no memory or charge or discharge cycle to go through. You only need to do a full charge the first time you ever use the battery.

There is some type of feature (in ref to pwr and battery life) in the phone that gets reset when you do this. I hope it helps.

This is true, but as you know ... new phone excitement will tend to keep a lot of folks from actually allowing the battery to charge fully the first time.

So if the battery never got a full charge, it will need to go through a charge/discharge cycle to get it where it should be. Way too many people will charge a phone for 30 to 60 mins, and while it might show there is a full charge on the phone, it's not (especially if it was more than 40% low at the time).

[dave_sch.]

I've noticed that when I let my battery go completely dead I will use batterry life quickly after a charge untill I start giving it more frequent charges at a higher battery life.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dave_sch.]

I've noticed that when I let my battery go completely dead I will use batterry life quickly after a charge untill I start giving it more frequent charges at a higher battery life. After charging It frequently I can usaully get 2-3 days out of a battery if I need to.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mobalized]

i text the **** out of my bb and i easily make it through a day on the phone, but if i get down around 60% or so and im near my charger or in the car ill just throw it on the charger.. Glad my battery isnt going that fast

[xliderider]

I've noticed that when I let my battery go completely dead I will use batterry life quickly after a charge untill I start giving it more frequent charges at a higher battery life. After charging It frequently I can usaully get 2-3 days out of a battery if I need to.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Letting your battery go completely dead, or trying to eke out days and days of life out of your battery will eventually result in degraded performance and longevity. It is better to charge frequently then infrequently.

[rocket83]

I'm sure you've seen this question asked dozens of times already and read dozens of answers. None of it has satisfied me. I'm hoping there's an expert out there who can answer my impossible question.

Upped to a Curve 8330 through Verizon a little over a month ago. A single charge lasted me at least two days under VERY heavy use (browsing, emailing, watching videos -- several hours each day).

After a couple of weeks I noticed that my battery began to fade extremely rapidly. After a full charge it might last 8 hrs. I pulled the battery and things went back to normal (i.e. good battery life). After two days, battery life went to crap again.

I took the phone back to Verizon and they gave me a brand new battery. The device lasted 2 days off a charge with significant use, once again. I was happy. Now I'm sad. My BB battery life is again fading to zero after only 6-8 hrs.

Here's the mystery (that has not been solved by anyone online as far as I can tell):

1. I plugged my BB into the wall last night at 8.
2. I unplugged my BB this morning at 7, fully charged.
3. By 9 the battery was at 80% after 10 mins of video watching.
4. By noon the battery was at 50% after sending exactly 1 email and receiving 4.
4. By 2pm the battery was at 30% after 7 minutes on the phone.
5. By 5pm the battery was at 10% after no other use.
6. I live in NYC and receive 100% reception 100% of the time.
7. I have NO extra applications running (just the default 5 apps i.e. call log, home screen, messenger etc).
8. Bluetooth is disabled, and has never been enabled.
9. The 8830 doesn't have wifi.
10. GPS is set to "911 Only" (probably doesn't even matter)

In summary, I used my BB for less than 20 minutes, and it's dead.

I'm running OS 4.5.0.77.

Can someone PLEASE tell me what the heck is going on here or refer me to someone who can? I've read numerous other stories just like mine and nobody has an answer. A Seido extended battery is just a band-aid for this problem. Could this be a firmware issue? Thanks for your help.

You've got something that is turning on automatically and using power. Not to mention some curve batterys are just wierd and or defective. My curve when I got it only lasted about 6 hours on heavy txting and setting up the phone. Bought the seidio 2600 and haven't had a problem since. Extremely heavy usage for about 2.5 days before it dies. I cudnt even guess how many days on light usage.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dstarobin]

The saga continues:

I did what VMan suggested (drain to 10-15%), plug in to charge, remove battery while charging, wait 10 seconds, replace battery and let charge for 4 hrs.

This worked amazingly well. After the battery was fully charged I got a full 24 to 36 hrs use out of it before it was down to 1 bar (~15% life on the meter). I recharged it again overnight and now notice that it's beginning to fade more quickly like it used to. I unplugged it at 6:45a today. It's now 2p and meter reads 50%. I used the phone for 10 mins, watched 7 mins of video and sent 1 email. That's it. There are zero programs running and as far as I can tell there's nothing else on sucking battery power (like rocket suggested). Because the battery pull while charging technique VMan suggested worked well for a day, I have very strong feeling this has something to do with a sensor of some sort that tests the battery life. I'm going to try blkbear's full drain and charge technique.

I highly doubt I got two bad batteries, but I never charged either fully when I got them. Do you think I should ask Verizon for a replacement BB?

Thanks again for the help.