[cre8tor]

I got my Blackberry Bold 9650 less than 2 weeks ago at a Verizon corporate store. It was supposedly brand new so I'd expect the standby battery time to last at least a week especially for a new phone. Last night my battery power was at around 80%. When I woke up today it was at 25% and I left no apps running except the ones that run by default (Phone, Browser, Blackberry Messenger, Home Screen, Messages, Clock). There have been other times when this new phone went through such an overnight battery drain. I don't believe this is reasonable. Does this happen to anyone else?

I am suspecting 3 possible causes:

1) A calendar appointment alert went off about 2 hours prior to discovering the phone so it's possible the red indicator LED light was blinking for a period of time and that could have used up battery time, sound reasonable? Not just the LED light, but this alert could have kept the BB screen lit for a long period of time. Anyone?

2) I just discovered the Clock app can be closed. I had it on all night. Does anyone think the Clock app being on all night could drain the battery power?

3) The workers at Verizon could have just given me a refurbished phone with a used battery but passed it off as new.

Again, does anyone else experience such a battery drain overnight? If this is normal, what could I do other than to set the auto off-on feature?

[DX9]

Yes the clock killed it

[Fubaz]

I got my Blackberry Bold 9650 less than 2 weeks ago at a Verizon corporate store. It was supposedly brand new so I'd expect the standby battery time to last at least a week especially for a new phone.

Your battery will last a week with it not doing anything
2-3 days out of a battery is normal.
Some power users charge every night.
How was your service the night it drained?

How was the battery prior?
How long is it lasting you during the day?
How long is it lasting you now?

Was this just a one time occurrence?

[BergerKing]

Most likely there was a signal problem while you were sleeping. Weak signal will pull your battery down in short order. Do you have any BBM groups? Someone could have run an upgrade and sucked the life out of your battery. BIS may have been down in your area. I'd recommend you charge while sleeping to prevent just to cover yourself.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[cre8tor]

How was your service the night it drained?
How was the battery prior?
How long is it lasting you during the day?
How long is it lasting you now?
Was this just a one time occurrence?

Service was fine last night, I had no problems. I never really paid particular attention to this so I don't know if the battery drains overnight like this all the time, but I do know it's happened a few times before. During the day, the battery seems fine, it's not draining extraordinarily fast. During the day I dismiss all calendar or email alerts promptly and I make sure all unused apps are closed. So this definitely happened overnight. That's why I'm leaning to the explanation that an app may have caused it. I never really believed the clock would drain the battery, I guess I'll leave it off. I was kind of leaning to the explanation that an undismissed calendar or email alert would have caused it (by leaving LED and screen light on for period of time).

I've never heard that a weak signal could drain a battery. Anyway there wasn't a weak signal by the time I went to sleep. I don't believe I have any BBM groups - I just have one guy as a BBM contact. Do you think he could have done anything to drain the battery?

[harley1rocker]

I got my Blackberry Bold 9650 less than 2 weeks ago at a Verizon corporate store. It was supposedly brand new so I'd expect the standby battery time to last at least a week especially for a new phone. Last night my battery power was at around 80%. When I woke up today it was at 25% and I left no apps running except the ones that run by default (Phone, Browser, Blackberry Messenger, Home Screen, Messages, Clock). There have been other times when this new phone went through such an overnight battery drain. I don't believe this is reasonable. Does this happen to anyone else?

I am suspecting 3 possible causes:

1) A calendar appointment alert went off about 2 hours prior to discovering the phone so it's possible the red indicator LED light was blinking for a period of time and that could have used up battery time, sound reasonable? Not just the LED light, but this alert could have kept the BB screen lit for a long period of time. Anyone?

2) I just discovered the Clock app can be closed. I had it on all night. Does anyone think the Clock app being on all night could drain the battery power?

3) The workers at Verizon could have just given me a refurbished phone with a used battery but passed it off as new.

Again, does anyone else experience such a battery drain overnight? If this is normal, what could I do other than to set the auto off-on feature?

ive gotta battery outta a 8350i,if it will fit you can have it

[cre8tor]

I tried this again last night. I made sure the battery was charged 100%, then left it overnight. This time I closed the Clock app. I did not touch the phone for 12 hours, no incoming/outgoing calls, etc. I checked the battery after 12 hours and it was at 50%. Is this unusual to have the battery half-drained after doing nothing? There were 2 undismissed notifications - 1 calendar appointment alert and 1 email alert. Those had been on the phone for a few hours but I noticed that the red LED wasn't flashing when I picked up the phone and the screen was not lit either - so it's hard to believe that these could have contributed to half the batterry loss but it's still possilbe.

Another thing is that I have Wi-Fi enabled. Although there are many connections available in my area, it doesn't connect to any one of them (because they are secure connections & I don't have the WEP key to connect). Perhaps I should try disabling the Wi-Fi completely?

Does anyone have any other feedback? If someone has a BB Bold 9650, can you try it yourself? Charge it to 100% before going to sleep, then check how much battery power is left when you wake up, without using the phone either to call or to browse the internet.

It would be most helpful to me because I still have time to exchange this I believe...

[Laura Knotek]

Why don't you leave it on the charger while you are sleeping? You cannot overcharge lithium ion batteries.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[cre8tor]

I do plan to do that but I just got the phone and I want to check to see if I didn't get a defective phone. According to CNET this phone should have 312 hours of standby time. For me, only 12 hours and half the battery is drained.

I am about to leave right now to go to the Verizon store and tell them about this and see if they can do anything....

[kat89447]

I know that if you have it set to "global" it will drain the battery faster. Bluetooth and wifi will affect the battery as well.

[cre8tor]

I know that if you have it set to "global" it will drain the battery faster. Bluetooth and wifi will affect the battery as well.

Can you tell me where in the options do you see the "global" setting? I'll see if I have that checked.

I just came back from Verizon and the rep gave me a new battery. He also mentioned that leaving Wi-Fi enabled will drain the battery faster even if you aren't connected anywhere (since it'll keep looking for a connection). So I've disabled Wi-Fi. I never did have the Bluetooth enabled.

Another thing he mentioned were some of my apps. I have some news apps like Time Magazine and The Hockey News where news is constantly updated. These apparently update themselves in the background even if you don't have the apps turned on. So I went into their settings and turned Auto Update off (by default they're on).

So far everything seems reasonable. He did mention that I should disable my GPS setting in the Options when I'm not using it but I'm going to hold on that recommendation until I test the above first. I use the GPS frequently so I don't want to keep turning it off and on in the Options all the time. I also thought that the GPS isn't being used unless a GPS app is actually turned on (could be wrong, we'll see...)

Finally he told me to install an app called Quick Pull, which simulates a battery pull without actually pulling the battery. It supposedly schedules routine battery pulls however often you want. I'm not sure exactly how this would help my problem but I'm willing to give it a try...

[GTWalling]

When you put the phone down for the night are you putting the phone into Standby or just letting the screen and keys dim. The phone is still active and will not go into Standby on its own. To put the phone into Standby press and hold the mute key for a few seconds. This will also lock the keypad. This will reduce power consumption.

[cre8tor]

I've been just letting the screen and keys dim. I have a Blackberry Bold 9650 and it has its own Lock key at the top which is different than the Mute key. I thought that this simply locked the keypad but if it saves power consumption I'll give it a try.

I'm going to hold on installing the Quick Pull app because I see several negative reviews about it. I'm hoping that disabling the Wi-Fi and turning off the Auto Update settings on certain apps will make the difference.

[Laura Knotek]

Rather than using an app like QuickPull for a soft reset, you can hold the alt, right shift, and del keys simultaneously and your device will reset.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mb55]

From my experience, I would bet that it is caused by an app running some background tasks. You may want to list out all the apps you installed ever since you get your phone.

One of the symptoms of a background task draining the battery is that the phone or battery will feel hot or warm.

Pulling out the battery now and then kills off any apps running in the background until you activate them again.

[trucky]

I do plan to do that but I just got the phone and I want to check to see if I didn't get a defective phone. According to CNET this phone should have 312 hours of standby time. For me, only 12 hours and half the battery is drained.

I am about to leave right now to go to the Verizon store and tell them about this and see if they can do anything....

That 312 hours of standby time quoted is under ideal conditions, best possible environment and would probably never be duplicated in real life. The carriers want you to use those numbers to compare between different models and phones and I doubt that few, if any, ever achieve those kind of numbers.

[JRSCCivic98]

What apps are installed on this BB? You're leaving the most important part out. Do you have any apps that poll the GPS chipset for whatever reason. A quick killer is either backlight or GPS chipset being kept primed constantly. Weather apps usually can be set to poll GPS for location services and the update interval is set so low (30 min) that priming the GPS every half hour will eat away at your battery a good amount.

Some 3rd party themes will also kill the battery quicker. There are other things, but you either need to provide more detailed info about your phone/apps (like OS version and such) before we can formulate a proper answer.

[MJG196]

My guess is that you were looking at too much porn. Try putting the phone down for a few minutes and you should see some improvement.

[bry360]

To me, it's the same as any other Blackberry, its how you use it and how its set up. Some days my batter is almost dead before 6 pm because I use it heavily for work. But on the weekends I can keep it away from the charger until the next evening because I dont use it so much for work. It's all in the person and how you use it, but sometimes the case could be that it's a faulty battery.

[cre8tor]

Well it happened again even with a brand new battery. At midnight I made sure it was at 100%. At about 2 pm the next day, it is at 55%. Half the battery has been drained again. I had disabled Wi-Fi and disabled Auto Update for all the apps that update in the background. I only received 6 emails in that time period. Does anyone think I have a defective phone? I'm wondering if there's anyone else who could test their Blackberry, charge up to 100% before they sleep, then tell me what the % is the next day after doing nothing with it.

I'm going to try one more night, this time disabling the GPS before I sleep and perhaps remove a few programs. I'm reluctant to believe that will make a difference. The original phone I just had, the curve 9330 (which I exchanged for this Bold 9650) went an entire weekend losing just one battery bar and its GPS was enabled.

When I press the Menu/Blackberry button and keep it held down, I thought it showed all the apps that was running. I guess I was wrong. Perhaps I will install the Quick Pull app now to kill off any apps running in the background. As lak611 mentioned in a previous thread, will the soft reset work as well? (hold the alt, right shift, and del keys simultaneously)?

[cre8tor]

What apps are installed on this BB? You're leaving the most important part out. Do you have any apps that poll the GPS chipset for whatever reason. A quick killer is either backlight or GPS chipset being kept primed constantly.

Some 3rd party themes will also kill the battery quicker. There are other things, but you either need to provide more detailed info about your phone/apps (like OS version and such) before we can formulate a proper answer.

I'm using a Blackberry Bold 9650. For operating system it says v5.0.0.975. I'm not using a 3rd party theme (just the default one from Verizon). The phone is practically brand new (got it around 2 weeks ago) and the battery itself I got a brand new one put in yesterday from Verizon. This battery drain appears to be abnormal for a new phone and a new battery. Again, can anyone else test it out on their device for a night?

The GPS apps I have installed are Waze, Trapster, Blackberry Maps (came with the BB), and Google Maps. But I was under the impression that these don't use the GPS chip unless the app is actually turned on, was I wrong? If they do, should I simply disable the GPS in my options before I sleep? Or do a "battery pull" through the Quick Pull app every night?

By the way, I know that the actual battery standby time will be less than 312 hours. But to have half the battery drain in one night is just like the old fashioned cell phone I had for 5 years. Battery kept draining so much in one day so that's why I even got the Blackberry...

[cre8tor]

I know that if you have it set to "global" it will drain the battery faster.

Ok, I found this setting under Options -> Mobile Network. Under Network Technology it was at Global, but I've now changed it to 1XEV (the other option GSM/UMTS did not work). Hopefully this will help too...

[gardengnome]

-snip-

Another thing is that I have Wi-Fi enabled. Although there are many connections available in my area, it doesn't connect to any one of them (because they are secure connections & I don't have the WEP key to connect). Perhaps I should try disabling the Wi-Fi completely?

-snip-

this. if it is not connected to a wifi, it is trying to connect and that runs down the battery very fast. check off the wifi, when you are not connecting/using it and you will dramatically increase battery life.

[JRSCCivic98]

How are you carrying this BB around? I have a feeling it could have been your network settings. I forget about those as I always set my global phones to just CDMA. However, it's possible you could be lighting up the screen if the phone is in your pocket and not in sleep mode.

BTW, you might want to dim the backlight some. The level at 100 is not needed. Set it to 20 or 30 max and that will also improve your battery life.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mb55]

From the perspective of a BB app developer, some apps you have installed was not developed properly and running some background task.

One way to trouble shoot (but not fool proof), is if your device is running on OS6, go to Applications, you will see a list of ALL applications installed. You can select one by one and scroll down, and see the CPU utilization % as well as the Resources used for Now, Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week.

If any app appears out of the ordinary, that should be the app that is draining your battery!