Why is our battery being wasted by cell standby?

[anrichardson]

This what I did. I turned airplane mode on and it will immediately turn wifi off, but just turn it back on. So you have wifi on in airplane mode. I will have to get back to you on the cell standby fix.

Edit: when restarting tablet it turns wifi off so have to keep turning on wifi. I did this test with my phone the only difference was I did a battery pull to reset my phone and there isn't even a cell standby in the list.

So I am going to try and leave tablet off for awhile since we can't do a battery pull.

Edit#2: Keeping the tablet off for while doesn't reset it, but i'm trying to kill the battery completely. But I havenotice the cell standby time drop from 31% to 29% in about 30mins. But hopefully wants the battery completely dies, it will disappear.

 

[chili_red]

I just confirmed with a member over at Slatedroid that has a Xoom and is a dev that his also has the "cell standby" process running, and is also eating up a lot of battery life. So this isn't just a device or Acer issue, it's more of a Android issue.

 

[chili_red]

Tablet has been rooted, and used "Root Explorer" to rename the phone and telephony apks so they would not load. So far everything is running stable and I haven't seen the "cell standby" process running at all. Will let it sit for awhile and see if that helps battery life.

Update:
Not much of a test yet but I put it to sleep at 1115 it's now 1330, the battery was at 91% it's now 90%, will put back into standby and check again in a few more hours.

Update2:
Now at 1812, almost 7 hours on standby the battery is at 82%, this seems to have helped with battery drainage and I'll be watching it for a few days.

 

[anrichardson]

I also tried "disabling" the phone.apk and telephony.apk, in SystemApp Remover but didn't help cell standy, but deleted the the apk and no longer an issue. will see how long i can get now.

 

[dan776]

So the only solution is to root? Wish there was a less risky way to turn off an unusable service... plus, with a new device like this, I want to keep my warranty intact just in case there's a design flaw... knowing my luck, the USB port will fall out seconds after I root the unit.

 

[Jovian]

I called Acer and spoke with someone in their tech support, and they never heard of this issue and said I was the first to call. I told him that I participate in a forum where several people have called on this issue. He tried to resolve the issue by trying to get me to recallibrate the battery. I asked how will recalliberating a battery going to resolve a feature taking up battery useage? He then said to call during regular business hours when they have a level 2 person available. What a bad experience. I would return this machine and buy something else, but other machines have their own issues and if I call their tech support I'll probably get the same guy or someone sitting next to him.

 

[Jovian]

After a bit of googling it appears it's an android flaw. I am finding quite a number of posts on different forums about this issue. I came across a fix for the Nook, but it involves rooting and running a script. I am going to dig deeper and see if there is a fix that doesn't involve rooting, I don't trust myself to get that right and screw up my machine.

 

[anrichardson]

I bought this already knowing I was going to take it back. I want to try the Asus. I do like what it has to offer other then the weight. I intend to buy the galaxy tab in June.

But will be testing the battery after deleting the two apk's.

How do you recalibrate the battery? If the tech guy wanted you to. I use a rooted app the will do that but not sure how do it stock.

Sent from my DROIDX using Android Tablet Forum

 

[Raven312]

I followed someone's advice and put it in airplane mode. The cell usage had disappeared for awhile, but now it's back. Not as high as it was but it's there now.

 

[MetaMs]

I also have the problem with battery drain by "cell standby." I know this has been mentioned on forums for the NI Adam tablet also. As far as I know the only fix they found involved rooting the Adam. (I was on PO2 for an Adam and canceled.) I will also call Acer support so this issue is on their list.

P.S. I tried the Airplane mode/turn wireless back on and the battery drain actually got worse. (

 

[Garemlin]

I really hope we get a fix for this. Right now cell standby has used 42% of my battery. Looking at the other top consumers it is display, android OS, wifi and tablet idle. Which is exactly what they are on my Xoom.

 

[Raven312]

I watched a video review from MobileTechReview.com and they mentioned this in their review. They mentioned a couple of things that have been brought up in threads here, which I thought was interesting.

 

[Garemlin]

Hey guys check out my thread here: http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...-issue-i-think-i-may-something.html#post83205

 

[MetaMs]

i called Acer support this morning to inquire about the cell standby problem. The person I spoke to had no clue. Then she said it was normal. When I disagreed she finally said she would "note" it in the records.

I also asked about how to use the navigation. I admit that I'm confused about the whole GPS thing. I have a TomTom and use it frequently, but this is a whole new animal. I can't figure out if it needs WiFi to work or not. Neither could the support person. She finally said she'd have to transfer me to the "software" department because she didn't have any answers. When I was transferred to software, I was informed I'd have to pay for them to "set up" my GPS. WTH? What's to set up? They kept talking about my service provider, even after I repeatedly told them this is a WiFi only device. There's little to no info in the user guide on the GPS.

Can anyone explain to me how this is supposed to work? All I get is 'searching for GPS.'

I'm not so happy about being told I have to pay for someone to provide info when they failed to include the info in the manual.

 

[Manshow]

The GPS issue is coming up from multiple users. Either the hardware is not sensitive enough to see the satellites consistently, or there is a bug in the OS. I have 5 more days to see verifiable proof of which it is before my return window runs out at Best Buy. If it's verified to be an OS issue, I can wait, but if it's hardware or unknown in the next 5 days, I'm afraid the A500 is going back until I have a solid answer. The weak GPS and malfunctioning compass just make too many apps useless.