28 replies to this topic

[pihx]

Well, seems i have done something that give me much better battery then before. I will try to write down what i have done and what might have been causing worse battery.

First, my phone is rooted using Gingerbreak. Then i used Titanium Backup to uninstall all kinds of LG apps i don't use, like Weather, Finance, Carhome etc. I did this days after i got the phone so it's a while since then. So over time i did these things....

I installed all sorts of task killers and free system monitor apps to see what was causing bad battery. I had also installed juice defender and a program called CPU Tuner that adjusts CPU after battery life, so it uses less CPU as the battery get's lower. None of this was working and i was getting worse battery if anything. 10 hours of idle and the battery was down to 75%

So what i did 2 days ago, was buy an app called System Panel by NextApp which is a resource monitor tool that can record what is going on in the background without using much battery. Next i started uninstalling apps like CPU tuner, Juice defender and even Titanium Backup. Then i kept moitoring use and noticed that the Battery widget was always using the CPU a little bit and also Email, so i removed the Battery widget and closed the Email task. I then charged the phone fully and went out to do some business. When i got home like 5 hours later, to my surprise, the phone was at 96% battery. It has used almost no battery even though i had used the camera and taken 3 pictures, made a couple of phone calls and had 3G enable (data was disable though). So i looked at the records of the monitoring from SystemPanel and after i uninstalled TitanumBackup, removed Battery widget and killed Email, the CPU activity was much lower, and only thing using CPU was background system files.

So now, after 21 hours, my phone is at 80% battery after light use and it's only draining very slowly. I've made phone calls, used camera, used Wifi, used Market to update apps and download and install apps.

I highly recommend you remove battery widget and any other LG widgets or apps that you really don't need. It seems there is nothing wrong with the phone itself, it's a matter of not using bad apps or widgets that is draining the battery. I am very happy now with my battery use. And if you have 3$ to spare, i can highly recommend System Panel.

If you want to know anything, just ask.

[mertzi]

pihx, on Jul 4 2011, 10:08, said:

Well, seems i have done something that give me much better battery then before. I will try to write down what i have done and what might have been causing worse battery.

First, my phone is rooted using Gingerbreak. Then i used Titanium Backup to uninstall all kinds of LG apps i don't use, like Weather, Finance, Carhome etc. I did this days after i got the phone so it's a while since then. So over time i did these things....

I installed all sorts of task killers and free system monitor apps to see what was causing bad battery. I had also installed juice defender and a program called CPU Tuner that adjusts CPU after battery life, so it uses less CPU as the battery get's lower. None of this was working and i was getting worse battery if anything. 10 hours of idle and the battery was down to 75%

So what i did 2 days ago, was buy an app called System Panel by NextApp which is a resource monitor tool that can record what is going on in the background without using much battery. Next i started uninstalling apps like CPU tuner, Juice defender and even Titanium Backup. Then i kept moitoring use and noticed that the Battery widget was always using the CPU a little bit and also Email, so i removed the Battery widget and closed the Email task. I then charged the phone fully and went out to do some business. When i got home like 5 hours later, to my surprise, the phone was at 96% battery. It has used almost no battery even though i had used the camera and taken 3 pictures, made a couple of phone calls and had 3G enable (data was disable though). So i looked at the records of the monitoring from SystemPanel and after i uninstalled TitanumBackup, removed Battery widget and killed Email, the CPU activity was much lower, and only thing using CPU was background system files.

So now, after 21 hours, my phone is at 80% battery after light use and it's only draining very slowly. I've made phone calls, used camera, used Wifi, used Market to update apps and download and install apps.

I highly recommend you remove battery widget and any other LG widgets or apps that you really don't need. It seems there is nothing wrong with the phone itself, it's a matter of not using bad apps or widgets that is draining the battery. I am very happy now with my battery use. And if you have 3$ to spare, i can highly recommend System Panel.

If you want to know anything, just ask.

80% after 21 hours that is sick! i want to try all that too. do you have paid version of titanium? cause i wanted to see if it worked and was able to restore so i backed up the stock app appadvisor and then uninstalled and when i tried to restore it didn't work. titanium freezes, but i dont have the paid version.

[pihx]

No i only had the free edition. I never needed to recover a program so i had no need to get the paid version, and actually i think Titanium is one of the causes of bad battery, so i uninstalled it. You only need titanium backup to uninstall LG apps, and i even think there are other programs that can do the same.

[noein]

I must have a quite different type of usage because what you described to me I see as common sense.

I thought everyone knew by now not to use task killers or battery optimization programs since they'll do the opposite.
Instead, you should use an app like watchdog (~ system panel) and see which the misbehaving apps. Or load monitor for instance.

This has been said countless times, even got its own article @ lifehacker!

Here's some more tips:

- Only turn on wifi, sync, 3g, gps when needed
- Use a red background
- Create a setcpu profile to lock in your min freq when screen is off (until there are a ROM with decent governors)

Edited by noein, 04 July 2011 - 01:02 PM.

[pihx]

noein, on Jul 4 2011, 13:00, said:

I must have a quite different type of usage because what you described to me I see as common sense.

I thought everyone knew by now not to use task killers or battery optimization programs since they'll do the opposite.
Instead, you should use an app like watchdog (~ system panel) and see which the misbehaving apps. Or load monitor for instance.

This has been said countless times, even got its own article @ lifehacker!

Here's some more tips:

- Only turn on wifi, sync, 3g, gps when needed
- Use a red background
- Create a setcpu profile to lock in your min freq when screen is off (until there are a ROM with decent governors)

Well, this is my first Android device which i've only had for over a month, so i've just been living and learning. We ain't born geniuses, eh?

It's true that task killers do more harm then good, but it's good to have an app that can kill apps too.

-Most if not everyone know that turning off 3G, wifi etc saves battery, but my phone was eating battery even with them turned off, so is the case with others in here.

-Why use a red background? Is a red pixel more efficient? Doesn't that depend on types of screens? Like AMOLED is supposed to use a black one, since it uses less power.

-I tried CPU Tuner, which is similiar to SetCPU, but free, and i found it did more harm then good, because when it wasn't set to a high performing governor, the phone was sluggish and slow in response and games were unplayable.

Bottom line is this, i managed to get my battery life from using 25% battery over 10 hours idling with 2G to using 20% battery over 21 hours in use and idling using 3G antenna without any impact on how i use the phone.

Here's a screenshot taken just now with battery at 76%

[spyb0y]

pihx, on Jul 4 2011, 16:37, said:

Well, this is my first Android device which i've only had for over a month, so i've just been living and learning. We ain't born geniuses, eh?

It's true that task killers do more harm then good, but it's good to have an app that can kill apps too.

-Most if not everyone know that turning off 3G, wifi etc saves battery, but my phone was eating battery even with them turned off, so is the case with others in here.

-Why use a red background? Is a red pixel more efficient? Doesn't that depend on types of screens? Like AMOLED is supposed to use a black one, since it uses less power.

-I tried CPU Tuner, which is similiar to SetCPU, but free, and i found it did more harm then good, because when it wasn't set to a high performing governor, the phone was sluggish and slow in response and games were unplayable.

Bottom line is this, i managed to get my battery life from using 25% battery over 10 hours idling with 2G to using 20% battery over 21 hours in use and idling using 3G antenna without any impact on how i use the phone.

Here's a screenshot taken just now with battery at 76%

great I`ll try this too let you know if it works for me!

[mgregor]

So to resolve battery problems i need to buy SetCPU and disable unused widgets? And that's all?

Edited by mgregor, 04 July 2011 - 01:57 PM.

[mertzi]

not having 3g enabled all the time is not an option for me as i need the push function for whatsapp and gmail. but anything else to increase the battery life is welcome.

when you're talking about the battery widget, do you mean the widget just to see how much battery remains or what?
when i go to manage applications and "running" there's one called just "battery", is it the same?

[spyb0y]

mgregor, on Jul 4 2011, 16:56, said:

So to resolve battery problems i need to buy SetCPU and disable unused widgets? And that's all?

you can download titanium backup (free version) from market and simply uninstall those widgets you don`t need/use....but that`s not all, there are more tweaks to reduce battery consumption:

1. disable data network (enable it only when you need to, same for the wi-fi)

2. disable auto sync (sync manually from time to time when you need)

[spyb0y]

mertzi, on Jul 4 2011, 17:14, said:

not having 3g enabled all the time is not an option for me as i need the push function for whatsapp and gmail. but anything else to increase the battery life is welcome.

when you're talking about the battery widget, do you mean the widget just to see how much battery remains or what?
when i go to manage applications and "running" there's one called just "battery", is it the same?

yes...it`s the same as I just uninstalled it and the widget from home launcher it`s gone....

[pihx]

I did not uninstall the Battery widget, i just stopped using it by removing it from the homescreen. But uninstalling it is probably better anyway.

You do not need to buy anything to get better battery, it's just that i bought a program called System Panel because it was recommended to monitor the system and help find apps that are causing much use of battery. It helped me monitor my system so i am happy i bought it.

I also read about Optimus 2X user saying the CarHome application was causing lot's of battery drain for him because it was using sensors when it shouldn't have. I uninstalled CarHome from my phone a long time ago so i can't tell if it's the same on Optimus Black.

[pihx]

This is a free system monitor app so you don't need to buy anything to record activity in background https://market.andro...re=related_apps

[noein]

pihx, on Jul 4 2011, 14:37, said:

Well, this is my first Android device which i've only had for over a month, so i've just been living and learning. We ain't born geniuses, eh?

It's true that task killers do more harm then good, but it's good to have an app that can kill apps too.

-Most if not everyone know that turning off 3G, wifi etc saves battery, but my phone was eating battery even with them turned off, so is the case with others in here.

-Why use a red background? Is a red pixel more efficient? Doesn't that depend on types of screens? Like AMOLED is supposed to use a black one, since it uses less power.

-I tried CPU Tuner, which is similiar to SetCPU, but free, and i found it did more harm then good, because when it wasn't set to a high performing governor, the phone was sluggish and slow in response and games were unplayable.

Task killers harm because they kill apps.

Indeed, AMOLED should have a black background because black = no pixel turned on, hence battery-saver.
However, LCDs are not like that and using a red background should help because the color red in the visible light spectrum is near to infrared, so in comparison with other colors of the spectrum it has a higher wavelength, lower frequency and lower energy.

SetCPU is useful for profiles, don't tinker with governors just yet. The best stock governor is Ondemand so until you have a custom kernel (give me some time) with Smartass or Interactive, stick to Ondemand. So navigate to profiles section, create a profile for screen-off locked at minimum frequency.

Finally, I recommend watchdog over system panel, it's more accurate.

[pihx]

noein, on Jul 4 2011, 17:39, said:

Task killers harm because they kill apps.

Indeed, AMOLED should have a black background because black = no pixel turned on, hence battery-saver.
However, LCDs are not like that and using a red background should help because the color red in the visible light spectrum is near to infrared, so in comparison with other colors of the spectrum it has a higher wavelength, lower frequency and lower energy.

SetCPU is useful for profiles, don't tinker with governors just yet. The best stock governor is Ondemand so until you have a custom kernel (give me some time) with Smartass or Interactive, stick to Ondemand. So navigate to profiles section, create a profile for screen-off locked at minimum frequency.

Finally, I recommend watchdog over system panel, it's more accurate.

Yes task killers harm, i agreed with you, but what i meant was having an app that can kill battery eating tasks, like System Panel and Watchdog do. If a task/app is using up too many resources, you need to kill. I'll quote Watchdog's description "Watchdog monitors your apps and alerts when one loses control, allowing you to kill just that single app"

So what i mean is, automatic task killers = bad, being able to selectively end task = useful.

Regarding governors, CPU Tuner was on auto so all it was choosing was profiles. There was no messing with governors from my side. I was going to check out SetCPU but it has no free trial and the feedback for the paid version wasn't very positive.

[noein]

No-Frills CPU is a free alternative to SetCPU!

[pihx]

I'm up to 44 hours now since last charge and phone is at 66%.

I don't know what the hell i did, but it seems to be working very well. This is very light use, just so you know. I haven't been playing games or listening to music or browsing much with 3G, just once in a while.

It just crossed my mind that when i uninstalled CPU Tuner, that it left the phone on some powersaving profile or somthing, but the phone seems to be fully responsive and the CPU seems to go up to 1Ghz when i scroll something, but it seems to stay at 300mhz alot when not doing anything else the having screen on.

[yeomond]

uninstalled the LG widgets (and more) you mentioned in the first post but still shitty battery life. i only have a few widgets, and the system panel app aint helping (the top apps they show using up CPU is only consuming less than 2% CPU after half a day of monitoring)

[mertzi]

noein, on Jul 4 2011, 20:22, said:

No-Frills CPU is a free alternative to SetCPU!

description from market: "It needs to be running a CUSTOM ROM (an example is the famous CyanogenMod) with kernel frequency scaling enabled". have you tried it and know that it works?

[mertzi]

Pihx is your phone still rooted or did you unroot after all these procedures?

i might be imagining but it feels like the phone acts a little weird rooted. i've left my phone at home today to see how much battery's left without any usage.

now that i'm getting more interrested in optimizing the battery time i'm getting pissed of on all those apps that lack integrated exit function. i mean why not? in windows when i'm done using a software i close it as i know i'm not going to use it more that day. take google maps for example, why does it have to autostart when the phone is powered up? i want to have maps on my phone but i use it like maybe once a month, so it's really annoying that it runs in the background and i don't want to manually force stop it everytime the phone has been powered off. is it because of how android is built that so few programmers don't put an exit function in their apps? of all the apps i use i think there's only 2 or 3 that i can choose exit in and they close and stops running in the background.

[pihx]

yeomond, on Jul 5 2011, 11:48, said:

uninstalled the LG widgets (and more) you mentioned in the first post but still shitty battery life. i only have a few widgets, and the system panel app aint helping (the top apps they show using up CPU is only consuming less than 2% CPU after half a day of monitoring)

When i monitored mine, none of the apps were using more the 0.5% when just idling. You should measure when you are not using the phone.

As has been pointed out before, it's ok to have apps running in the background in memory, as long as they are idling and not using CPU. That is how Froyo works so you can launch an application quickly. There are lot's of apps "open" on my phone but i still get good battery because non of them are using any CPU or maybe 0.1% over a whole day.

To Mertzi: My phone is still rooted and Superuser is running in the background. I did however uninstall Titanium Backup because i felt it was keeping the CPU active too much. Maps is open for me and it use like 1 minute of CPU time in the background over a day, so as long as you have GPS and location data turned off, Maps should not be a battery eater.

Btw, phone is getting lower now, 36% charge left after 2 days 7hous and 30 minutes.