Battery draining problem and my solution. No reset needed - it's the INTERNET EXPLORER!

[w_byrnes]

I have overall excellent experience with my white 920.

The battery life was not great in the first few days and then it started to sustain longer and longer until last week. I could feel that the phone got hot and the battery drained very quickly. I made sure that I turned off all apps and closed down all connections (blue tooth, wifi, nfc and etc) but it did not help. Sometimes it could last two days and others, only a few hours.

I eventually found the cause, of my phone at least. It was the "Internet Explorer". If I browsed a web page with auto refresh function, for example, AAPL: Summary for Apple Inc.- Yahoo! Finance, even I closed it using the back button, it still functions in the background and the constant refreshing drains the battery. A power-off-and-on would not solve the problem since after the phone restarts, it remembers the last active webpage and it will keep refreshing and draining the battery. What was the solution? To close a web page properly, you close the tab first and use the back button. This has solved my problem perfectly. As long as I close all the tabs before exiting internet explorer, the battery always works fine. I can also replicate the draining problem by leaving one of those page on.

So far, I had all the four famous problems and three have partially been solved including the battery one. I had the black screen during a call. A blow on the proximity sensor solved it. I had dust piled up on the front camera. Blowing air throw the earphone with a compressed air can solved it mostly. I then used a small piece of tape to cover the earphone outlet and it seemed to work fine so far (I seldom use an earphone). The only remaining problem is that the brightness does not work perfectly. It is not a big deal compared to the other three. So overall I am happy.

 

[zack251]

I also found when phone getting hot it drained the battery. It also means that an app is not closed properly. The other day I installed and ran Skype. I closed the app by pressing the back button as usual but somehow Skype still ran in the background and the phone got really hot. I battery was down 40pc in an hour! I removed the Skype and battery is back to normal.

 

[Yev91]

I get huge drains with Baconit when in class, I guess its a sign...

 

[w_byrnes]

So both IE and Skype could be running in the background without you knowing it.

 

[denzilla]

Internet Explorer might be what draining your battery, but its pretty much random for everyone. Just yesterday I went to take a leak @ 9:35am and my 920 battery drained like **** till I restarted the phone. I usually don't urinate @ 9:35am so I figured that was the root cause....

 

[LazySunday]

Internet Explorer might be what draining your battery, but its pretty much random for everyone. Just yesterday I went to take a leak @ 9:35am and my 920 battery drained like **** till I restarted the phone. I usually don't urinate @ 9:35am so I figured that was the root cause....

LOL's

 

[w_byrnes]

Internet Explorer might be what draining your battery, but its pretty much random for everyone. Just yesterday I went to take a leak @ 9:35am and my 920 battery drained like **** till I restarted the phone. I usually don't urinate @ 9:35am so I figured that was the root cause....

:grin:

That could be easily fixed: plug the charger in when you take a leak next time.

 

[conanheath]

I also found when phone getting hot it drained the battery. It also means that an app is not closed properly. The other day I installed and ran Skype. I closed the app by pressing the back button as usual but somehow Skype still ran in the background and the phone got really hot. I battery was down 40pc in an hour! I removed the Skype and battery is back to normal.

So I guess Skype is still a problem? MS really needs to get on the ball with some updates. I'll even take updates with problems. Anything just to prove they are in fact doing something.

 

[realwarder]

So I guess Skype is still a problem? MS really needs to get on the ball with some updates. I'll even take updates with problems. Anything just to prove they are in fact doing something.

Skype is certainly far from 'the' problem and shows no specific characteristics to make it worse than anything else.

I have wondered about IE myself as clearly the task never terminates even when you back out of it.

I was trying to find a javascript counter that simply added a number each second to see if it really ran in the background or was suspended.

 

[TK2011]

How do you guys know IE task is not terminating?

 

[jimski]

Not sure of how WP8 is working with the 920, but I tried that exact test, keeping the maximum 6 tabs open in IE (a variety of sites, some that auto refresh) on my 900 a few months back. Comparing to my baseline (with no tabs open), no difference in drain.

Easy to prove. Fully charge your phone "before" you go to sleep. Take it off charge and power cycle the phone and make sure no tabs are open (there shouldn't be any after a power cycle). Go to sleep. When you wake up, note the battery drain, and time. Repeat the next night, this time opening 6 tabs first. Compare results.

I would do it but I don't own a 920.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[w_byrnes]

How do you guys know IE task is not terminating?

You can first close down all tabs and back out from IE. Enter IE again, open a web page that auto refreshes and back out without closing the tab. The auto refresh page needs to be the last web page before backing out. You can now start to track how the battery exhausts for an hour or so. Then you can open IE again, close the tab(s), and then back out. Then track the battery for another hour. You should see a big difference.

Another proof is that when you open IE again, you will see the auto fresh page, take yahoo finance as an example, actually shows the current stock price not the one you checked an hour ago. This means IE was active even you thought you backed out.

Occasionally, IE auto fresh may malfunction so you may need to run the test a couple times or try different page.

 

[TK2011]

You can first close down all tabs and back out from IE. Enter IE again, open a web page that auto refreshes and back out without closing the tab. The auto refresh page needs to be the last web page before backing out. You can now start to track how the battery exhausts for an hour or so. Then you can open IE again, close the tab(s), and then back out. Then track the battery for another hour. You should see a big difference.

Another proof is that when you open IE again, you will see the auto fresh page, take yahoo finance as an example, actually shows the current stock price not the one you checked an hour ago. This means IE was active even you thought you backed out.

Occasionally, IE auto fresh may malfunction so you may need to run the test a couple times or try different page.

FWIW, I ran a quick test yesterday and did not see any change in battery life. Maybe it wasn't a right web page to test..

How do you know the stock quote was not updated fresh just as soon as you opened your IE? Just trying to understand how you came to conclusion that it was running in the background.

 

[w_byrnes]

> I ran a quick test yesterday and did not see any change in battery life. Maybe it wasn't a right web page to test..
Make sure that the auto refresh page is the last page when you exit IE.

> How do you know the stock quote was not updated fresh just as soon as you opened your IE? Just trying to understand how you came to conclusion that it was running in the background.

It took a few seconds to be updated. When I opened IE, the screen is in a solid view (nothing is being updated) and the time index next to the stock price is current time. My other evidence is that ever since I closed the tabs every time I exit IE, the battery problem is gone. But I understand that the cause could be different for others.

It is also possible that the auto refresh function is stopped after hours.

 

[realwarder]

I stopped all tabs last night but still lost 20% battery so it made no difference here.

 

[w_byrnes]

I stopped all tabs last night but still lost 20% battery so it made no difference here.

Sorry to hear that. It must be something else for you. It may not be a bad idea to send it to Nokia Repair for a check. I almost did that when the dust in the front facing camera made it useless. Nokia will email you a shipping label and it is all free. It may take a couple weeks which is really painful.

For those who are interested in testing it, you can also use this url: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba. It seems to be constantly reloading.

 

[realwarder]

Sorry to hear that. It must be something else for you. It may not be a bad idea to send it to Nokia Repair for a check. I almost did that when the dust in the front facing camera made it useless. Nokia will email you a shipping label and it is all free. It may take a couple weeks which is really painful.

For those who are interested in testing it, you can also use this url: NBA on Yahoo! Sports. It seems to be constantly reloading.

The same phone is capable of using 0-1% power overnight. It depends on what mood it's in.

 

[sueha]

I made a test yesterday. How long does it take to kill my battery? My 920 gave up after 38 hours!!! And I used it a lot in that time! IE, Baconit, Games and WhatsApp! I switched on most of the background tasks and am using the 3G network (dont have a 4G data plan). But I have to admit that this is my 2nd Lumia 920. Nokia replaced my first one because of the battery

 

[pdskep]

I have overall excellent experience with my white 920.


I eventually found the cause, of my phone at least. It was the "Internet Explorer". If I browsed a web page with auto refresh function, for example, AAPL: Summary for Apple Inc.- Yahoo! Finance, even I closed it using the back button, it still functions in the background and the constant refreshing drains the battery.

There's your problem, quit looking at Apple stock. You phone is punishing you!

 

[socialcarpet]

I love these threads where people think they've solved the battery "issue".

I'd say just try to be patient and have faith that Microsoft will get it resolved, whatever "it" is. They are well aware of the complaints and I'm sure they are working diligently on a resolution.

FWIW, not everyone is experiencing these issues. I haven't had any battery trouble. In fact, my battery life, at least the indicated battery life is fantastic now. If I put my phone on battery saver and use it only lightly during the day, which I sometimes do, I have around 90% still left by dinner time, which is even better than my 900 did.

I keep Wi-Fi on all the time because I have many places I can use it, I keep location on, I keep Bluetooth off, super-sensitive touch off. Brightness set to low or medium, 4 email accounts, one set to sync hourly, one syncs every 2 hours, the other two set to sync manually.

Even with moderate to heavy use, it is very rare that my battery runs out before I can get home to charge it. My phone also does not get hot (it may get a little warm if I am playing an intense game for more than an hour, or if I watch a 2 hour movie on Netflix, but thats it. I also use Internet Explorer all the time and leave multiple tabs open.

I'm not sure what else to say about the battery "issue". I'm sorry some people are having problems, but I do not believe for a minute that it is the norm to have trouble. I'd be willing to bet most people have results similar to mine, they just don't bother to post on a forum about it.