Hello. Im after info on what is considered acceptable battery usage of the A500. I have a A500 (updated to the latest software version) and a series 1 Ipad. The ipad seems to hold its charge for weeks with occasional use without charging however the A500 was fully charged this morning then left on a desk all day and when I went to use it tonight it had lost 50% of its charge doing nothing all day. GPS and Bluetooth are turned off. The battery usage screen says that 48% of battery was used by 'Tablet Idle'. Ive installed a few apps on it but nothing much. Any ideas?
Battery usage
- Thread starter Mattw
- Start date
That doesn't sound right at all. I have the a500 with HC 3.1, and it can last at least 5 days on standby with a little light intermittent usage. Do you have it syncing lots of data (email)? You should also check to see what applications are running. Sometimes apps will use the battery, but their useage will not show up on the battery usage. How long have you had it? I assume it is past the return period from the retailer... could you still exchange it?
Sounds like you have a bunch of jobs doing stuff you don't know about.
Things to check:
Is your email using push or are you polling mail? You want push.
If you have to use pop, is it set for 30 minute cycle or longer?
Set your email to use Imap, and avoid pop3 mail, nothing gets downloaded till you ask for it with Imap.
(Gmail: On the computer, set your gmail account to prevent pop, and allow imap).
Is your wifi sleep policy set to never? Its less battery intensive than letting the wifi sleep when screen goes off.
Do you have social media crapware set to constantly check for updates? (Facehook, Twitter, Linkedin, Skype, Social Jogger, etc...).
Is some auto refresh page left open in your browser? (Google News refreshes the page every few minutes for example).
Tablet Idle is a catch all for things that happen when the tablet screen is off. You have to dig into running applications to see what is really going on. There are a lot of things that come with the tablet that jump into memory and run whether you want them to or not. Most of these can be prevented from doing so by going into Settings / Applications and pressing force stop, and follow that with Clear Data. With out any settings data these things won't run.
I can leave my tablet sleeping for at least two days and have much more battery than you report.
I'd leave it set longer to test, but its too addictive to leave idle that long.
Things to check:
Is your email using push or are you polling mail? You want push.
If you have to use pop, is it set for 30 minute cycle or longer?
Set your email to use Imap, and avoid pop3 mail, nothing gets downloaded till you ask for it with Imap.
(Gmail: On the computer, set your gmail account to prevent pop, and allow imap).
Is your wifi sleep policy set to never? Its less battery intensive than letting the wifi sleep when screen goes off.
Do you have social media crapware set to constantly check for updates? (Facehook, Twitter, Linkedin, Skype, Social Jogger, etc...).
Is some auto refresh page left open in your browser? (Google News refreshes the page every few minutes for example).
Tablet Idle is a catch all for things that happen when the tablet screen is off. You have to dig into running applications to see what is really going on. There are a lot of things that come with the tablet that jump into memory and run whether you want them to or not. Most of these can be prevented from doing so by going into Settings / Applications and pressing force stop, and follow that with Clear Data. With out any settings data these things won't run.
I can leave my tablet sleeping for at least two days and have much more battery than you report.
I'd leave it set longer to test, but its too addictive to leave idle that long.
I've noticed a lot better battery improvement with 3.2....or I just haven't been using it as much which is also very likely. Right now I'm on 16hrs and some change with some light web browsing last night and I'm at 87%. Probably would be higher if I had the wifi off at night. So there's something sucking power down somewhere for the OP.
- Mar 24, 2011
- 15,781
- 1,812
Watchdog Task Manager is another good app for monitoring what's going on.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zomut.watchdoglite&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zomut.watchdoglite&feature=search_result
elsuirad
Senior Member
- Jul 28, 2011
- 284
- 13
I noticed that too.
Currently using Thor Transformer Revolver and my tablet's battery is draining fast.
Before using / installing ROM, I can use it's maximum up to 10hrs the whole day (6AM till 5PM) and now, I can only use until 2PM almost same useage of program.
Is there a big difference in running apps in background and you don't use them?
Is it safe to remove other apps that I don't need (using task killer) not deleting but removing from its Running Services only.
Any recommendations?
What can you suggest?
My A500 Rocks!
Thor Transformer Revolver 3.5 Port v4.1
Currently using Thor Transformer Revolver and my tablet's battery is draining fast.
Before using / installing ROM, I can use it's maximum up to 10hrs the whole day (6AM till 5PM) and now, I can only use until 2PM almost same useage of program.
Is there a big difference in running apps in background and you don't use them?
Is it safe to remove other apps that I don't need (using task killer) not deleting but removing from its Running Services only.
Any recommendations?
What can you suggest?
My A500 Rocks!
Thor Transformer Revolver 3.5 Port v4.1
- Mar 24, 2011
- 15,781
- 1,812
The Product Description for Watchdog says the following if that helps:
Stop blindly killing your running apps. Be smart; manage them with Watchdog instead.
You don't need a task killer. You do need a way to make sure a background app doesn't lose control and eat up your smartphone's CPU resources.
Watchdog monitors your apps and alerts you when one slows your system, allowing you to kill just that single app. Killing apps blindly can cause them to stop working as designed, and most app developers won't even take a bug report from you if you are using a task killer. And since Android 2.2, the kill command works only on background apps, which will likely restart immediately. Having lots of apps running doesn't adversely affect your phone unless they are all doing something. In fact, killing an app and immediately restarting it simply consumes your phone's resources.
Stop blindly killing your running apps. Be smart; manage them with Watchdog instead.
You don't need a task killer. You do need a way to make sure a background app doesn't lose control and eat up your smartphone's CPU resources.
Watchdog monitors your apps and alerts you when one slows your system, allowing you to kill just that single app. Killing apps blindly can cause them to stop working as designed, and most app developers won't even take a bug report from you if you are using a task killer. And since Android 2.2, the kill command works only on background apps, which will likely restart immediately. Having lots of apps running doesn't adversely affect your phone unless they are all doing something. In fact, killing an app and immediately restarting it simply consumes your phone's resources.
(You know what I mean)
- Mar 24, 2011
- 15,781
- 1,812
