[hairychad]

PortaPow is the cure... Also had the benefit of being able to charge via the USB socket at work without being promoted of security violations.

Note, the issue existed in WP8 and is not new in WP8.1.

[RevoMikey101]

I do seem to remember a trip to center parcs in January and the trip left my battery low but i didn't think anything of it. I think it must have existed in wp8 too.

[beachedwhale42]

Well that's good. I have nothing against charge-only cables, and it's probably a good idea anyways, but it's just frustrating since my current setup worked on my Galaxy Nexus. I try and show off the Lumia whenever I can (people take notice of a shiny red non-iPhone/Android), but stuff like this just makes it harder to convince people that it's able to compete head-to-head.

[trwrt]

Shorting the data pins together tells the phone it's on AC power and to draw as much current as it wants. If you've got a 2.1A charger that should be fine as it's the equivalent of charging your battery from 0->100 in about an hour which the phone would never ask for, so plenty of overhead. I've heard there are other ways for the charger to communicate to the phone how much current it's able to source but I've never actually witnessed it work with any of my (oddball) assortment of phones, maybe it's just an iPhone thing or something.

[realwarder]

Shorting the data pins together tells the phone it's on AC power and to draw as much current as it wants. If you've got a 2.1A charger that should be fine as it's the equivalent of charging your battery from 0->100 in about an hour which the phone would never ask for, so plenty of overhead. I've heard there are other ways for the charger to communicate to the phone how much current it's able to source but I've never actually witnessed it work with any of my (oddball) assortment of phones, maybe it's just an iPhone thing or something.

There are about 8 different methods used to indicate a high powered charger is attached, but the shorted data pins is the most universal.

[hairychad]

8.1 update 1 will give us the option...

[eepyaich]

Did this problem exist on WP8 as well? Like, is this a new thing with 8.1 that maybe the Cyan firmware will update?

I'm pretty certain I've always had this problem. Cyan just gives the phone the chance to tell us the charger it's going slowly...

I'm awaiting the arrival of a portaPow cable today and hope this will finally allow me to charge the phone while driving!

[hairychad]

It won't be cyan, it'll be Update 1 next week...
WP8.1 Update brings USB condom feature

you've not wasted money on the PortaPow cable as it's a faster charge still (apparently) and if you've got the cable it means you don't need to go to the settings.. but with Update 1 you'll get the option to to in and alter this so it may fix the issue

[eepyaich]

I got the PortaPow today and it certainly seems to do the job, which will be great as I've got a long journey on Monday (before, I'll be able to install Update 1)!

[beachedwhale42]

Looks like Update is going live today. I'll give it a shot tonight if I can and see if it will do charge-only mode in the car (AND give me a full amp). I'm doubtful since there's no connection on the other end (my Galaxy Nexus showed AC connection instead of USB despite the slow charging), but we'll see.

[beachedwhale42]

Updated to 8.1 Update 1 DP. That USB condom isn't in there :'(

Edit: Maybe it's only available with Cyan FW and 8.1+?

[RevoMikey101]

Crap update really. You can put your tiles into folders but that's about it. Waste of 30 minutes.

[beachedwhale42]

Seems about right. I still haven't seen the IE updates yet. Nothing feels worse, so that's good, and I like the fact that I can get updates (unlike where I was on Android). Sounds like I still need to buy a cable.

[RevoMikey101]

The cable is worth it. I am sick of crap updates with WP though. I have 4 months left of this crap os and i am leaving WP behind for ever. I resented having to wait for basic things like separate volume controls, rotation lock and the USB condom. The WP os shouldn't have been released without this basic stuff. ms are just sh1t.

[beachedwhale42]

Most updates have been useful. A few haven't, but at least they haven't made things worse (I'm looking at you Android 4.3). At least WP 8.1 is now (mostly) on par with iOS and Android....I no longer feel like I'm missing things.

[RevoMikey101]

I guess I feel aggrieved by the app situation too. I get sick of seeing a decent app advertised only to find its available on google play and ios store. I donk know if its down to Microsoft or developers not wanting to go on WP but either way it sucks for consumers.

[beachedwhale42]

Yeah, but I've started to see more apps for WP as of recent, whether they be first party or good third party. It depends on your usage, but I know I'm able to do everything on my 920 that I want (except Google Hangouts, but I only have a few friends that use it.....it's not as much of a deal-breaker as the nice camera and offline GPS were). Plus, I really do love the hardware.

In other news, I finally broke down/got off my lazy **** and ordered a PortaPow cable. I also looked at the MediaBridge one, but the PortaPow looked like a higher quality cable. It should be here Monday, and I'll be sure to post back with (hopefully confirming) results. For science. Really just so some random person searching the internet for this can see a whole thread of "yup, PortaPow solved it".

Edit: Wow...it edited b u t t. Incredible.

[hairychad]

Ironically PortaPow sell the cable as Android cables ;)
I linked the thread and they know the issue so maybe they'll update their information... Hehe

[trostuff]

I am still on Windows Phone 8.0. The Here Drive + battery drain has always been an issue. Even with WiFi, Bluetooth, and all background apps turned off, AND a 2.1 amp car charger, you WILL drain the battery faster than it can charge. I was actually hoping with fingers crossed that 8.1 would magically fix this, but it looks like 'No.' It's quite embarrassing that my Lumia 920 lasts only over an hour from fully charged to completely flat WHILE IT IS ON CHARGE in the car. It's quite a problem especially now while we are on road trips, and we are forced to use (gulp) my wife's iPhone for GPS. More embarrassing, we can use her iPhone TomTom, Bluetooth hands free, while on charge and it stays at 100% the whole time! I'll be interested to know if there's an alternative GPS for the Lumia that DOESN'T drain the battery so quickly...

[aikidaves]

Um, I'm surprised at how many of you have this problem. My 920 is fine running Here Drive + while being charged by my $10 Wal-Mart double USB plug. Keeps my phone charged at 100% AND charges my wife's iPhone 5 at the same time. I did have to do some tweaking to fix the battery drain problems with DP 8.1 a while back; maybe that's the difference? Here's my list of things to to try; note that when I was tweaking I only got to Step 4 (which didn't actually make any difference, all the improvements were in steps 1 to 3).

My list of steps to correct battery problems:

1. Reboot.
2. If not better, soft reset, maybe a few times.
3. If not better, go into Battery Saver, Usage, and see if it's one or a few apps. Uninstall/reinstall may fix. Also, check what you're allowing to run in background, check your settings and turn off background things you don't need, uninstall apps you don't use, etc.
4. If not better, hard reset with restore.
5. If not better, hard reset with setup from scratch.
6. If not better, Nokia Recovery Tool to go back to 8.0 and start over.
7. If not better, might be a hardware issue.

[hairychad]

I found a difference actually in my dual socket so PortaPow is only one option if you need it....
My dual socket is 2A and a 2A Apple port... The Apple has data hence the issue and I never tried the normal cable before ordering PortaPow.
My standard Nokia cable maintains charges my phone while bluetoothing music and satnavving on the 2A socket (non Apple).
This is a cigarette adapter.
1020, 8.1.

[Paul Verizzo]

8.1 update 1 will give us the option...

Not on mine. Perhaps because my 810 will never get past Amber?

[Paul Verizzo]

The cable is worth it. I am sick of crap updates with WP though. I have 4 months left of this crap os and i am leaving WP behind for ever. I resented having to wait for basic things like separate volume controls, rotation lock and the USB condom. The WP os shouldn't have been released without this basic stuff. ms are just sh1t.

But it's here now. So what about last month? I hated so much about my 810 when I got it a year ago. With the improvements, mostly 8.1, I love it. MS does seem to be working hard at making the OS better, about as fast as they can. Weighing out the phones, the ecosystems, the costs, etc. WP gets my vote.

Don't forget, every phone make/model and OS has its problems. Some may matter to you, some may not.

[hairychad]

Not on mine. Perhaps because my 810 will never get past Amber?

Yeah this never arrived.... Odd...
If you use the recovery tool to get to a different version/region wouldn't you get black then cyan (eventually)? - distracting this thread

Strange that the condom feature didn't arrive though... Update 2 I guess!

[sdreamer]

Just had a trip the other day. Still had massive power drain. One thing to note, the drain was apparent after about an hour. At this point the phone was almost way too hot to touch. Obviously most gadgets these days have fail safes that stop charging when it gets too hot to protect the battery. It was so hot my touch screen was acting up (I couldn't touch it in some cases or it would register a bazillion phantom touches). I've had this problem on the 920 since I've gotten it. I did have a previous 920 that didn't seem to have it. In fact I was able to use it on battery alone and it only drained like 40% after a 2 hour drive. I think I had my data off at that time though. Might be interesting to see how it goes totally offline.