HTC EVO Battery Drain Signal Fix

[gator352]

I'm getting descent battery life. I turned off the "talk" application, turned off "Friend speak" and removed the homepage linked to it. Set email to download once a day, turned brightness down by a 1/4. Set to use wifi when at home. All this made a world of difference. I can use my phone a full day (16 hours) with moderate use. I'm not talking marathon phone calls or internet use, but just moderate 5 to 10 minute calls and browsing the web when I needed to.

I also tried the CDMA (plr) trick and it didn't hold. But if that is a problem, I'm sure they will put out a fix. Gotta look at it this way, the EVO (and other newer) smartphones use data like never before and is always connected to retrieve that data. Retrieveing that data uses power at the expense of the battery (unless plugged into a wall socket). A faster phone with more horse power (cpu, ram, etc.) is going to use alot more power to function than a phone at slower speeds. They can implement power saving features to a certain extent but the more they add, diminishing returns will follow suit. So they implement only enough features to get X amount without making the phone downright usless (slow, sluggish). We all want more power...uh uh uh, but for that power, comes a price.

Now, I wouldn't doubt that maybe some EVO's came with bad batteries. It happenes. For people getting HUGE power drains might want to go to a sprint store and ask/beg for a new battery to see if that might be your problem. If not, start cutting down on the services by limiting them to see if that makes a difference.

[gbh]

I believe there is something wrong with particluar EVOs, and I don't think the battery itself is the issue.

I have two EVOs. Mine and daughters. They came with different part number batteries.

As of today, they are configured identically, and running the same set of services. Her has always drained from standby MUCH more quickly than mine, and in general, more quickly (requiring at least two charges per day). But, just using standby is what I'm using to try and characterize the issue.

Her phone is warm to the touch, mine is not. This is key. Why should a standby phone be warm to the touch? I have tried swapping batteries, and her battery works fine in my phone. Not warm to the touch during standby. My battery in her phone is warm to touch during standby. So the issue CAN NOT be with the battery.

Using the "Running Services" monitor I can see both phones are running the exact same set of services. As I mentioned earlier, both phones are configured identically.

I can only conclude there is some issue with her phone hardware that causing it to ALWAYS be warm to the touch, and thus burn the battery more quickly.

I'd be interested in knowing if people with battery drain issue also have EVOs that always feel warm to the touch, even during standby.

Thanks.

[gator352]

The radio might be polling constantly instead of intermittently causing it to be warm. I would go to sprint and see what they can do for you.

[johnnychimpo]

@ gbh, Did you get that network app and check if its defaulting to gsm auto prl and switch it back to cdma auto prl?

[gbh]

Originally Posted by johnnychimpo

@ gbh, Did you get that network app and check if its defaulting to gsm auto prl and switch it back to cdma auto prl?

Eu

Yes. Did that on both phones with no real noticeable effect. One other interesting fact. I just checked data usage on sprint.com. Mine was at 90M since 6/5. Hers was at 2.5G! This is pretty much impossible unless the radio is always doing something, which could explain the warmth. She is gone right now but I will investigate further when I can hold the phone later today.

[ivan1.ruiz]

task killers are great to manually shut things off but thats it

[RockSta®]

My phone gets warm....battery is horrible.....i tried, my old touch pro 2 battery, same issue.......im convinced its the phone and not the battery....

[JaxChris]

Found mine was set to GSM Auto. I've already gone through and turned off every integrated service and hardware feature that isn't needed. Turning stuff off got me from 10 hours to 37 hours of use on a charge. Let's see if this GSM thing does anything to improve battery uptime.

Btw, turning off Google location services and your GPS saves a TON of data usage.

[rkiechle]

Very strange results today... i have tried numerous things from the gsm change to the battery charge to the disable most every auto sync....
today i have been using the phone for camera and surfing only and have been using pretty heavy for last 3 hours and i am 9 hours since charge and still have 60% battery left.. i seriously can not figure this out... phone is hardware version 2 and is not warm... but to go from 5 hours max on a charge to this amazing performance..(granted no phone calls and almost no texts) but if this battery life continues i will be a very happy camper.....

[dakidobf]

DOn't think anyone is lying on here because what would be the point, but I don't see how anyone could get more that 12 hours of battery life out of this thing with any kind of moderate usage.