Battery life on new phone

[Guest straymuffin]

Hello people! 8)

I'm a newbie with a wee question...

I got a MPx200 yesterday and charged it up for the 2.5 hours stated in the manual before using for the first time. I spent a few hours setting it up and installing stuff whilst linked to my pc and all seemed fine.

Went to bed with the phone still showing 80% charge on the battery, but awoke this morning to find it dead. Less than 24 hours. :?

I just want to know if this is normal? I have read that some batteries require charging and decharging a few times before they 'settle in', is this the case with my MPx200 or is it a duff battery?

I've looked at other posts here and read about the problems with charging via usb, but I charged with the mains charger. I've also read about the battery life being shortened by poor reception...if this is the cause then I may have to get rid of my new phone. :cry:

Right now I'm charging it again to see how it goes a second time, I'd appreciate any comments you guys have to make.

Thanks. :P

[Guest Wyreless]

I just got an MPX200 myself and am appalled at battery life. Im not even getting a full 8 hrs. Yes, I am in a bad spot for TMOBILE , in my house, but 8 hours? Fortunately I am lucky to have many phones to chose from, but since TMOBILE dropped FREE Internet Access on their PrePaid and PostPaid plans (in USA), the MPX200 was about to become my new Promary Rig (The way it is setup the FREE WAP Access for TMO still works!!)

So, the short question is, am I basically seeing the way it is?

[Guest jcjdoss]

What you both may want to consider is where you got the phones from. If you got them on ebay you may have had some guy flash the rom without a full battery. Try flashing the rom yourselves with a full battery.

[Guest Wyreless]

Thanks for the reply. I should have stated that I have not reflashed the phone and that it is still running WM 2002. Under System Info I have

Version 1.0 Build 13485

If that helps anyone to provide anymore input.

While I have the attention of an experienced user, I cannot see a way to do a mass delete of either SMS's or of Contacts without 1 by 1. And to save everyone some typing of the famous "RTFM", I did download and and read the .PDF manual on Adobe. I will say, they didnt publish any prize winner there.

[Guest beersoft]

Ok,

things to check when your battery life sucks!

1) you have charged for 16+ hours using the wall/mains charger, yes we know li-ion batterys don't have a memory but they still need conditioning

2) your not connected to the internet constantly - having the phone check for email every 5 mins is going to kill the battery, the phone is still only rated as having 3 hours talk time, so each minuite that you use makeing a call is the same as 20 - 50 minuites of standby

3) your not running any battery intensive apps like most games or media players, those apps keep the screen/backlight on and use alot of cpu cycles even when 'sleeping'

try all of those tips and you should get better standby time

later

Owen

[Guest dapunk]

does anyone think that the MOTOROLA OEM battery gets better life than an aftermarket one? i posted a topic about this and no one has said. i have an aftermarket li-ion battery and it sucks, i want to buy an OEM one but not until i confirm people get at least 1 day of standby and average useage out of it.

can you confirm???????? :P

[Guest Godfather]

When I got my MPx200 about 6 months ago, I noticed that that battery did suck and I also got like 8 hrs and wouldn't last a day. I didn't do much talking either. I was also in a bad area where signal was low around 1-2 bars and some spots none. So I looked in the settings of the phone and I changed the preferred band from Auto to 1900. After that my battery lasted around a day and a half. I think when you in a bad area and you have a low signal the phone continuously searches for better signal. But now I use Cingular's network on my phone and I get a better signal and it can now last 2 days. The better the signal the longer the phone will last, cause the phone won't have to put all it's power in getting a strong signal I guess. Hope that helps.

[Guest gravity]

My MPx200 has gone 5 days on standby, my phone also never survived overnight without a charge at first, but about 2-3 months on it's got a very good battery life. What you also might want to check and make sure is that your'e not running any power intensive apps in the background. One thing I always do is ensure that I'm not running any apps that don't need to be running. If it's still got crap battery after all that, I'd fully charge it and do a hard reset.

[Guest dapunk]

gravity and godfather: thanks for the info. i too am in a somewhat fringe area for tmobile so i will try the 1900 band thing as i am on auto now. and it is also nice to know you guys seemed to get better performance over time. i am beginning to experience this too after just 3 days. i have gone all day today and i am still at about 75% this evening, gonna go all night and see where i am in the morning.

thanks all :P :D

[Guest ShinyBill]

I still can't make my mind up about the battery... A couple of weeks ago I installed the first version of the WM2003 ROM, and my battery life dropped to about 4 hours max, but then I 'upgraded' to the latest version of WM2003, and my battery lasts a lot longer! Overnight last night it lost only 3% of its power!

And I've already had one duff battery replaced under warranty - if it wasn't for the fact that the MPx200 reigns supreme I woulda given up on this phone long ago.

@Wyreless: I can't remember exactly in 2002 but I think you go to Show Folders highlight the folder you wish to erase, then press Menu -> Delete SMS Messages :P

[Guest bassplayinuk]

I just did a hard reset on a fully charged battery, as stated elsehwre in the forums, and problem solved.

[Guest Wyreless]

When I got my MPx200 about 6 months ago, I noticed that that battery did suck and I also got like 8 hrs and wouldn't last a day. I didn't do much talking either. I was also in a bad area where signal was low around 1-2 bars and some spots none. So I looked in the settings of the phone and I changed the preferred band from Auto to 1900. After that my battery lasted around a day and a half. I think when you in a bad area and you have a low signal the phone continuously searches for better signal. But now I use Cingular's network on my phone and I get a better signal and it can now last 2 days. The better the signal the longer the phone will last, cause the phone won't have to put all it's power in getting a strong signal I guess. Hope that helps.

Excellent recommendation. I also thought about that and one step further was to change the Network Selection Option from Automatic to Manual as well under TELEPHONY-NETWORKS -NETWORK SELECTION (automatic or manual) That also would wear out a battery constantly deciding what network to use, especially in a Bad area. My area is EXACTLY as you described. While TMOBILE is great in most of the Balkt Wash Market, my Bedroom is the Bermuda Triangle, 1-2 Bars MAX. So we shall see if these 2 changes make a difference. 7-8 Hour battery life Reminds me of my First $1300 Motorola DPC900, I was "cool" but do not miss the 8 Hour Battery Life!!

So I guess this means one day you will come to me and ask me a favor and I must comply huh?

[Guest Godfather]

lol, ya I guess so. I'll keep that favor in my back pocket when for when I need it. Ya, I remember those Motorola phones. Them big boxy phones that weighed a ton and wouldn't even last a day, sometimes half depending how you used it, and I carried a spare battery at times to, those batteries were huge. I'm sure most people had spares. Also the LCD screen with yellow characters, sometimes I couldn't tell what the hell it was saying. lol Those were the days!

[Guest hbk5585]

I completely agree on changing the settings of the band of the phone from Automatic to one of the other settings (1900 or 900/1800). All I can say is wow...I used to be getting so-so battery life (15 hrs stanby), now after having the phone on all day after changing that setting my phone is still at 80%, and that is after about an hour or two of the media player and games. I say before trying anything else, try that.

Hbk5585

[Guest dapunk]

@Wyreless: i think the selection about the automatic to manual is not about the netwotk but in the settings for phone settings where you can specify the BAND from auto to 1900, particulalry if you are on tmobile and are in a fringe area. that way you wont be wasting battery looking for a network that you dont have as most of tmo is 1900

cheers