HTC Radar battery drain

[Pietpeer]

I recently bought a HTC Radar and I love the phone. One of the reasons is the terrific battery life. Or, that was a reason. Recently my battery life has dramatically diminished for a reason I cannot find. I used to be able to do 2-3 days with a battery, and suddenly I am down to 10-12 hours (and that?s not making calls, opening websites etc.). I don?t know what the cause is; I haven?t changed any settings, all I can remember doing is updating my phone via Zune. I however don't know how that could be the culprit, No errors came up during or after the update. To ? unsuccessfully ? find the problem I have tried the following:

1. First, I checked for software updates via Zune. None are available (I am at OS version 7.10.8773.98, firmware version 1750.0602.40504.61).

2. Although I didn?t change any settings after updating I tried to set screen settings to medium, set e-mail synchronization to each half hour, disable wifi, location and more of these standard tips. This helped nothing (I tried them separately).

3. I turned off all background activity of my apps and I got rid of any live tiles for apps. When this didn?t help I removed all apps that run in the background (and that do not have the option of turning off the background activity). Unfortunately, also this didn?t help.

4. I - of course - tried switching my phone on and off. I also tried a hard reset. This had no effect.

5. Finally, I tried to roll back my phone software to the one restore point I have. Unfortunately I got an error in the process, indication that a roll back was not possible because it wouldn?t be compatible with my phone anymore (code 801812E0).

This last option unexpectedly greatly increased my battery life. I thought I was there, but I discovered this was only due to the fact that my SIM card was still locked and I had no mobile connection. After putting my mobile (and data) connection back on my battery life is back to its poor self, not making it till the end of the day (without making calls or visiting websites). Because my battery was good without the connection I assume it?s not a battery problem (i.e. hardware) but that it must have something to do with my mobile/data

So, I've been trying for quite a while and with no success. I'm lost at what to do next. Any help would be most appreciated.

 

[agbva]

I recently bought a HTC Radar and I love the phone. One of the reasons is the terrific battery life. Or, that was a reason. Recently my battery life has dramatically diminished for a reason I cannot find. I used to be able to do 2-3 days with a battery, and suddenly I am down to 10-12 hours (and that?s not making calls, opening websites etc.). I don?t know what the cause is; I haven?t changed any settings, all I can remember doing is updating my phone via Zune. I however don't know how that could be the culprit, No errors came up during or after the update. To ? unsuccessfully ? find the problem I have tried the following:

1. First, I checked for software updates via Zune. None are available (I am at OS version 7.10.8773.98, firmware version 1750.0602.40504.61).

2. Although I didn?t change any settings after updating I tried to set screen settings to medium, set e-mail synchronization to each half hour, disable wifi, location and more of these standard tips. This helped nothing (I tried them separately).

3. I turned off all background activity of my apps and I got rid of any live tiles for apps. When this didn?t help I removed all apps that run in the background (and that do not have the option of turning off the background activity). Unfortunately, also this didn?t help.

4. I - of course - tried switching my phone on and off. I also tried a hard reset. This had no effect.

5. Finally, I tried to roll back my phone software to the one restore point I have. Unfortunately I got an error in the process, indication that a roll back was not possible because it wouldn?t be compatible with my phone anymore (code 801812E0).

This last option unexpectedly greatly increased my battery life. I thought I was there, but I discovered this was only due to the fact that my SIM card was still locked and I had no mobile connection. After putting my mobile (and data) connection back on my battery life is back to its poor self, not making it till the end of the day (without making calls or visiting websites). Because my battery was good without the connection I assume it?s not a battery problem (i.e. hardware) but that it must have something to do with my mobile/data

So, I've been trying for quite a while and with no success. I'm lost at what to do next. Any help would be most appreciated.

You gave a hint-it might be related to the cellular connection. Can you ask T-Mobile if there was a change at the local cell tower? Perhaps it was down for maintenance and you are running from one more distant, which eats battery power. Are you seeing the same number of bars and connection type (3G, 4G etc) on the phone as you did before?

 

[jimski]

Definitely sounds like a data connection problem. Try this; fully charge your phone "before" going to sleep, and then set your phone down for the night. Don't touch it and note the time you set it down. When you pick it up in the morning, check your battery percentage (in BatterySaver). Now, next night repeat the exact same test, but this time with data turned off. Set it down and wake it up at about the same time. Also set it down in the same place in the house. Compare your results.

Your worse case should be about 15% overnight, but with all you BGTs removed, etc., something around 10% would be right.

Assuming your drain is much higher (as you have explained) with data on, it is either your data connection, your SIM card, or a defect with your device cellular radio. As you have discovered; Live Tiles, Background Tasks, Location, etc. have very little to do with battery drain.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[Pietpeer]

Thanks for your reply jimski, I'll give that a try. I've also asked HTC for assistance and their first hunch is that it could be a dodgy SIM card that the phone keeps trying to connect with. Sounds like a possibility (especially after a software update), so I've ordered a new one and I'll try whether that helps. I'll let you whether the overnight battery test points anything out.

 

[Pietpeer]

Well, the SIM card wasn’t it so after a short discussion with HTC (their customer care is excellent, I cannot say anything else) my phone was sent to a repair shop. And lo and behold, it now turns out that the battery was dead. I have a new battery and all seems fine. After a couple of charges the capacity is picking up. I never had a battery die so fast on me, I hope this was an incident.

 

[xilammalix]

I put my radar on airplane mode to charge it faster. 1/2 the charging time than when the data/cell is active.
I work at t-mo alot of the times when phones do that is a SIM card problem, I suggest you go get yourself a new SIM card, its free and it can't hurt...

 

[O.f.f.r.o.a.d]

It happened to me three times and I had to "reformat" this thing anew. Each time the problem was solved but I always wondered as to why it was happening in the first place... after being very methodical in the way I installed apps ---taking a few days inbetween installs to detect any problem--- I found that the Facebook app from MS was the culpript. Without it my Radar can last days on a single charge.