Battery drain - Help

[jimmell]

Before I bought my Audiovox SMT5600, I read about great battery life. I'm not seeing anywhere near the claimed life in standby mode. I typically get about 10 - 12 hours in standby before I need a new charge. A few points:

1. I'm not running any apps in the background as verified in taks manager
2. I thought having bluetooth always on was the problem; it's now turned off
3. Backlight and display time outs are set very low
4. I talked to technical service and they said it was a faulty battery, so I replaced it
5. I conditioned the battery before first use as they suggested by fully discharging before charging.
6. IR beaming is set to off.

Anyone have similar problems? What are the chances of it being two faulty batteries? Anything else that could be causing such a drain?

[HalM]

There was a thread over on Howard Forum about this and I have had a similar problem. The forum user said to full drain the battery -via video loop, for example-, recharge with phone turned off, drain again, recharge, etc a few times. Then do a hard reset.

I took a modified approach. I turned the phone off and rechaged it overnight. The next day I would turn it on, plug it in / unplug it several times allowing it to return to fully chaged each cycle. I then did a simple power cycle. This seems to have resolved my issue.

Also, where did you buy the extra battery?

[jimmell]

I'm not even sure how to do a hard reset so I guess I'll have to research that. Does that wipe all of my files clean (wallpaper, audio files, etc.)

The battery was a direct replacement from the Cingular store where I bought the phone.

[jimmell]

Another update - I purchased the media net package from Cingular for unlimited internet access. The little 'G' for GPRS is always on in my home screen display. Is this always attempting to connect to the internet and if so, what is the remedy?

[Mike Temporale]

I'm not even sure how to do a hard reset so I guess I'll have to research that. Does that wipe all of my files clean (wallpaper, audio files, etc.)

Yup. There are two ways to hard reset, the easy way is to look for a program called Clear Storage in the accessories folder of your start menu. That will hard reset your device.

[Mike Temporale]

Another update - I purchased the media net package from Cingular for unlimited internet access. The little 'G' for GPRS is always on in my home screen display. Is this always attempting to connect to the internet and if so, what is the remedy?

Yes. Some application is trying to connect or is connected. You can terminate the connection by press the hang up key.

[jimmell]

Pressing the hangup key does not disconnect it. Pressing and holding the hangup key only locks the phone.

[jimmell]

I tried this:
Settings, Data Connections, Internet connection (currently Cingular GPRS), edit connections, proxy connections. It showed the following - MEdia Net, wireless.cingular.com:80. I deleted it and cycled power - GPRS was not active, but I could not connect to the internet. I had to add this proxy connection back again, cycle power to regain internet access

[HalM]

My understanding is that the G means that GPRS is available in that area. Should not be draining the battery more than normal. Now if you are retrieveing POP3 email evey 5 minutes, then you are draining the battery. That is why the semi-Push from Exchange is so nice. It doesn't try to sync unless notified of new mail.

Again, where did you buy the battery?

[jimmell]

There are two "G"'s on the screen. The first, in the center indicates GPRS is available. The second, to the right near the signal strength indicator indicates it is active. Something is trying to access the net causing the drain.

The new battery came from the Cingular store where I bought the phone.

[HalM]

Wow, I've never seen the second G over the signal strenght icon except when it active. So I agree that you have something trying to connect.

Try the hard re-set as Mike suggested. That should clear out everything. Then start adding, one by one, each app you have installed and see which one is the renegade.

[jimmell]

I'm going to try that but I'd like to copy my phonebook first - it's not on the SIM card. Also, I don't sync contacts with my hotmail account because I didn't want the couple of hundred email accounts I have being added to my phone. Do you know the name/location of the file so I can copy it and then add after I hard reset?

[jimmell]

More on this...it's got to be something in the network settings. A friend at work just got the exact same phone and is seeing the same thing - no way to disable GPRS

[Jerry Raia]

Mine stays on for a bit after I check mail or access the internet but then it clears eventually.

[HalM]

I really understand your concern for data protection. Buy Sprite Backup and then do a hard reset. I think you may be "whistling in the wind" otherwise.