Rogue Application/Process Discharges Battery (?)

Some of you have seen my earlier posts about how great my battery life is, how stable my PB runs, yada yada. Well, turns out about a week and a half ago, I was on a cross country business trip. Took my PB to watch a few movies, play some games and even rehearse my presentation. PB ran great. Didn�t use it much on the way home as I was just too tired, and I got upgraded to 1st class so I had a couple of drinks and took a nap. Got home and took my PB out of my bag and left it on my desk. I didn�t look but it was about 80% when I departed my connecting airport about 5 hours earlier. Don�t tell anyone, but I left it in Standby mode, I did not shut it down while on the flight.

When I grabbed it the next morning (on Standby all night) and swiped it on, the battery level was at 2%. Yes 2%! I plugged it in with my rapid charger not thinking too much about the drain. However, ever since then, I didn�t even get through a whole day on a charge. In fact, I was losing about 10%/hour. I did the hard reboot, burn incense, pray facing Waterloo, etc. with no improvement. This went on for about a week.

Then 2.0.0.668 was released so I jumped on it thinking it might �fix� it. It didn�t. So I �debricked� it this morning, now back at .358, and it seems fine. So reinstalling took care of whatever was draining the battery.

I noticed it was running hotter when I did use it. I checked available memory/storage and didn�t notice it was any different. I do recall updating some apps from App World just prior to my trip but I don�t recall which ones. So I�m guessing there was some renegade process running I couldn�t stop. Now I wish there was a BB equivalent of Windows Task manager (or even Process Monitor) to see what�s actually running.

I did not wipe it first to see if that alone would work, I went straight to reinstall. I did a full backup before and have not restored the backup. There�s really nothing on it I can�t live without. My movies, pictures, and documents are safely on my NAS. I bridge to my Torch for mail and calendar. Happily, I do see all of my apps in Appworld under Uninstall, including the free games that are no longer free.

Since the debricked worked, maybe I�ll restore the backup after a few days to see if it behaves badly again.

So a rather funny side effect of this is seeing all the apps I've installed and uninstalled since I got my PB last January. Some are really quite trash, some didn't work the way I had hoped. some I simply don't need anymore.

I did install many of the freebies offered by RIM and other vendors but had to think twice about reinstalling them now. Since they still appear on my list, I can alway go back to them if I really feel the need.

Another argument for Battery Guru to help check battery use and status. If there is an app which tells one what app is eating one's battery would some one please post about it. Did you go to the gear-general-application behavior and check behavior setting?

I too was having problems with the batterie and the PB heating up before the upgrade. I though it was my kids playing with the PB. I also remember upgrading an app but can't remember which one. This must be why some are having batterie problems and some not. It's an app. causing the problems, not the upgrade. Something like a virus!!!....but which one? Can someone remember the apps that were recently upgraded. Also RIM must, by now, know what's going on....why are they not talking!!!!!

Originally Posted by bouc01

I too was having problems with the batterie and the PB heating up before the upgrade. I though it was my kids playing with the PB. I also remember upgrading an app but can't remember which one. This must be why some are having batterie problems and some not. It's an app. causing the problems, not the upgrade. Something like a virus!!!....but which one? Can someone remember the apps that were recently upgraded. Also RIM must, by now, know what's going on....why are they not talking!!!!!

Embarrassment probably. ;)

I had severe battery drain too before the upgrade. I traced it to email settings polling too frequently and an aol account that was having password problems. I thought I did upgrade an app but can't remember...Anyone???

Don't leave any android apps running when in standby. On mine, quite a few of them spike the battery usage meter in Battery Guru every hour or so and drain the battery - even when in standby.

Now I completely close down everything android when I want to conserve battery power. Not all androids apps do this btw. For example the Appworld app Yachty just eats the battery and it is a native PB app..

Other that that, I don't notice any battery issues with the recent update.

Battery Guru really helps troubleshoot power hungry apps.

I did a hard reset several times and did not open any applications. Each time starting at 100% charge.

I don't see how BG would help here. I don't need a graph of battery decay. It doesn't show what specific apps are running in the background.

Even my Droid phone has a Task Manager app. It lists every app with CPU and RAM consumption. I can also kill it from there. My 9800 also lists resources used by app.

On the app upgrade, I don't always jump on them when they first appear unless I'm having a problem with the specific app. Once I see one I want/need, I typically upgrade the rest of them. So *IF* it was a specific app upgrade, it may have been released weeks ago and I didn't install it until just before my trip. Since I did a few, I don't think I"ll ever figure out which one it may have been.

Mmm if it is a running process it would have to be an android app.

If you grab an app that reinits android (such as my Overload app in appworld) it should kill any and all running android processes. Might not fix the issue long term but might help diagnose.

There is a simpler android reset utility (old version of Overload) that i put on the forums somewhere if you want to grab it that way.

Ed

BG allows you to make changes and see the results in a couple of minutes. It also allows you to keep an app running to see what effect the app has on battery consumption. OP did not say whether problem is still there. Might look at Advanced App Manager in the BB app world. It probably applies only to Android apps but includes a task killer which might help. Also you can look at Whats Eating Your Battery which is another Android app in the BB app world. Still like Battery Guru myself, a native app.

Per an earlier post, somehow right after the 2.0 upgrade, I did what I thought was a hard re-boot key combination, I believe as it was running low on battery power, and up popped a PlayBook Application Resource Monitor (ARM) which told me exactly what was running, and what it was consuming. But I've never been able to re-create it. Has anyone else seen this on their PB? I know it exists on the Bold 9900 OS 7.1 (unless of course you're on AT&T like me, still stuck on 7.0), but I'm sure it was on the PlayBook.

Originally Posted by jpash549bb

BG allows you to make changes and see the results in a couple of minutes. It also allows you to keep an app running to see what effect the app has on battery consumption. OP did not say whether problem is still there. Might look at Advanced App Manager in the BB app world. It probably applies only to Android apps but includes a task killer which might help. Also you can look at Whats Eating Your Battery which is another Android app in the BB app world. Still like Battery Guru myself, a native app.

Thanks for the leads on the other apps. For now, the problem is solved. Since .668 was pulled, I'm back at .358. Once .668 is re-released (or some higher version), I'll try restoring my backup and see if the problem returns.

Originally Posted by Gooseberry Falls

I had severe battery drain too before the upgrade. I traced it to email settings polling too frequently and an aol account that was having password problems. I thought I did upgrade an app but can't remember...Anyone???

Do you have drawbook installed ?
It made me thinking and the only app i updated this month or so was drawbook, so i uninstalled it and quess, my playbook battery draining is back to normal and no more increasing heat around the BB logo for a couple of hours now ???(sounds silly)
I don't now if it is the app that cause the draining and heat but you can try it if you have the app installed...

grts