1. jgrobertson's Avatar
    I have a new AT&T (carrier unlocked?) Priv that suffers from the short battery life and very hot running syndrome that many have reported.

    I have found that a significant contributor to this problem on my phone comes from apps that use the accelerometer chips and logic for tilt, compass, motion etc. AT&T will replace my phone if this is a defect but before I do that I want to be sure if it is with my specific phone or just part of the design.

    I am asking for one or more of you with Privs to do a test similar to what I have done (below) and report what you find.

    My test (after a factory reset and only this and gmail installed: Install CPU X application. Then open the Compass (from three dots menu) and go through the calibration exercise of swinging it around in figure 8 pattern while pointed to the sky. Best if this is done outside.

    Then observe the Compass needle. On mine it jumps around many 10 to 100 times a second - with is lying flat on a table. Also open the sensors tap and select orientation. On mine, the Azimuth, Pitch and Roll number are changing again 10 to 100 times a second. Also, while running this test last evening outside it got so hot that I could not touch the BB logo on the back. Of course the battery ran down very fast, likely about the 1 to 2 hour rate.

    If your phone is stable in this test then I have a bad phone. If you see the same as I, then either the application CPU X or my phone is bad. Note: I tried several other compass applications that after calibration (as above) they were reasonably good but they responded slowly.

    Thank you in advance.
    05-26-16 07:07 AM
  2. FF22's Avatar
    I see a few apps named CPU X. Who is the developer?

    And, let me ask, are you near sources of magnetism? High tension power?
    05-26-16 08:55 AM
  3. artemis-kun's Avatar
    Agreed with F2, though I just tried the one from Pacific Developer, as it looked to be the same one you use, based on the description of steps. Anyway, while I'm not trying the calibration thing, since I'm in my office, I definitely notice that the 'compass' in this app is useless at best. I rotated my priv 360 degrees, and the 'compass' hardly moved at all, and when it did move, it moved very spastically.

    Compared to the app I've used for compass and GPS stuff for years, GPS Status & Toolbox by MobiWIA, that app shows my compass responding flawlessly as I rotate my priv 360 degrees, so based on that, I'd say this app is pretty garbage.
    05-26-16 09:08 AM
  4. peninha's Avatar
    I've posted this on another thread, and it worked for me. Go to (display / adaptive brightness) and turn it off, give the phone a reboot and if it's the same issue i was having you will notice immediately that the phone will start to function normally. I'm waiting until the next update to turn it back on to see if it's a hardware or software issue.
    05-26-16 09:34 AM
  5. jgrobertson's Avatar
    I see a few apps named CPU X. Who is the developer?

    And, let me ask, are you near sources of magnetism? High tension power?
    I took care to test it while away from interference sources. No appreciable difference.
    I experience the heating and rapid battery drain without that application so even if it is bad, it is not the source of my root problems.
    05-26-16 09:43 AM
  6. jgrobertson's Avatar
    Agreed with F2, though I just tried the one from Pacific Developer, as it looked to be the same one you use, based on the description of steps. Anyway, while I'm not trying the calibration thing, since I'm in my office, I definitely notice that the 'compass' in this app is useless at best. I rotated my priv 360 degrees, and the 'compass' hardly moved at all, and when it did move, it moved very spastically.

    Compared to the app I've used for compass and GPS stuff for years, GPS Status & Toolbox by MobiWIA, that app shows my compass responding flawlessly as I rotate my priv 360 degrees, so based on that, I'd say this app is pretty garbage.
    I tried the GPS Status & Toolbox and that performs well. However the phone still gets hot when I leave it open for a few minutes but not as much as when I was testing outside yesterday.
    05-26-16 10:00 AM
  7. artemis-kun's Avatar
    I tried the GPS Status & Toolbox and that performs well. However the phone still gets hot when I leave it open for a few minutes but not as much as when I was testing outside yesterday.
    Hmm, well at least that rules out any kind of hardware problem with your accelerometer. In terms of trying to isolate the issue, the next things to try is see what's using up your battery. You can see what's using it in the Battery settings page, either from the Settings app -> Battery, or you can tap the battery icon directly after you two-finger swipe open the notification tray. That'll give you an idea as to what's eating it up, or should at least point you in the right direction.

    If that doesn't give you a clear idea, then the next thing I'd try doing is to see what's actually using your CPU with an app that shows you that kind of info, my preferred app for this sort of thing is 3c's System Tuner, open the app and go to the Tasks screen, by default it will hide system and kernel apps, so tap those buttons so you're able to see absolutely everything, and then I'd change the sort method from CPU time to either Total CPU Time or Used CPU %, either should give you a clear answer as to what is eating up your CPU time the most. Once you've got the bad app isolated, if you can get rid of it, do so, and if it's a system app that you can live without, disable it.
    FF22 likes this.
    05-26-16 11:15 AM
  8. FF22's Avatar
    Just curious - which cpu X app you were using.

    Also, as suggested check the battery status. Also, you can test the sensors using Blackberry Virtual Expert from the Playstore.
    05-26-16 12:09 PM
  9. FF22's Avatar
    Hmm, well at least that rules out any kind of hardware problem with your accelerometer. In terms of trying to isolate the issue, the next things to try is see what's using up your battery. You can see what's using it in the Battery settings page, either from the Settings app -> Battery, or you can tap the battery icon directly after you two-finger swipe open the notification tray. That'll give you an idea as to what's eating it up, or should at least point you in the right direction.

    If that doesn't give you a clear idea, then the next thing I'd try doing is to see what's actually using your CPU with an app that shows you that kind of info, my preferred app for this sort of thing is 3c's System Tuner, open the app and go to the Tasks screen, by default it will hide system and kernel apps, so tap those buttons so you're able to see absolutely everything, and then I'd change the sort method from CPU time to either Total CPU Time or Used CPU %, either should give you a clear answer as to what is eating up your CPU time the most. Once you've got the bad app isolated, if you can get rid of it, do so, and if it's a system app that you can live without, disable it.
    Are you using the free version or have you purchased one of the upgrades, if you don't mind my asking.
    05-26-16 12:15 PM
  10. artemis-kun's Avatar
    Are you using the free version or have you purchased one of the upgrades, if you don't mind my asking.
    I'm using the free one on the Priv, since the vast majority of what System Tuner can do is useless on the Priv without root, but I do have the paid version of the main app as well for my other Android devices, and I absolutely love the level of control the app gives you over literally everything in the system. I don't really use the paid features at all, I mostly paid for it because it's cheap, and I've used it for many years now, and figured they deserved my money. But, even only as a task manager, it works really well, and even in its neutered state, can still give you a fair bit of info about what's going on inside the device.
    FF22 likes this.
    05-26-16 01:07 PM

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