[pollis559]

Good to know its not just me with wildly varying max capacity figures post update (1300-1430mAhs).

Last week I did get 1 day 12 hours out of my Lumia 800 with mixed light use.    Up from around 22 hours. 

Great I thought. But after the next recharge the Battery Saver page said only 22 hours.  

As time passed it raised this estimate but this was no good as I needed to know when to plan a recharge. 

Has anyone else done a hard reset post update and got better battery life (with 3G on before & after)?  I want to avoid another hard reset or a 2nd RTM as I love the phone.

Cheers

[danielpholt]

That would be me. I upgraded the firmware, then a week later gave it a hard reboot. 36 hours later and my battery life has improved, although i have taken 3G off. Figured its going to be a drain whatever happens until Nokia patches it. 

[IMNdi]

Yes, I read your post but didn't point to it because the original question was whether or not the jumping-around-capacity bug was fixed by hard reset - not the drain itself (If I read that correctly). Other people have reported 3G drain on new phones that come with 11500 or whatever that lates firmware is and they are as factory default as a phone can be.

I think the battery total capacity might jump because it's being calculated - in which case it would jump more for people using various chargers. I only use one, and charge like clockwork most days and I see no jump whatsoever. Well, I do, but it's under 30 mAh. So far. Right now it's 1438 versus yesterday's 1441 - but one can't expect precision anywhere near that by any measurement. The very best we can hope for is 1% during discharge, for the very latest in battery management. That's 14-15 mAh in linear discharge scenarios. Charging? Who knows.

Edit: in theory, if it's being calculated, it should be fixed by hard reset or deep cycle (Run until off, full charge cycle using the supplied correct charger).

[jragar]

my phone states capacity as 1138..... on .11500. On 3g lasts about 9 to 10 hours, ridiculous.

taking it to a nokia care point now, hopefully it will be replaced.

[IMNdi]

Please let us know how that works out, there are like 50 people here who want their 3G. BTW, did you try a hard reset first?

[jragar]

---

IMNdi wrote:

Please let us know how that works out, there are like 50 people here who want their 3G. BTW, did you try a hard reset first?

---

I'll be mainly going to them based on my battery not charging up to the maximum - highlighted by the fact that it lasts hours - and friends of mine last days.

Tried hard reset. Several times.

[bbuckle]

I bit the bullet and did a hard reset.

Initially signs were encouraging, with the battery now purporting to last over 1 day (first time I have seen remaining battery life measured in anything other than hours). However, after 7-8 hours of very light use, I had the heart back on my battery indicator.

Annoyingly, I waited for the battery fix rather than exchange my phone, now I am out of my 28day 'no-quibble' period and must send it away for repair... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I've been with a crippled phone since December 3rd, and I've now had enough. I have given my supplier, and through them Nokia, one more chance to fix this and then I will just ditch it and put Nokia and WIndows Phone behind me and move on to something actually fit for purpose.

[danielpholt]

I fear I'm in the same boat. My battery was brilliant after i did the hard reset. 15 hours after taking it off charge it was down to a 64%. However, after 8 hours last night it was at that level. I took a nap 12 hours after taking it off charge, and it was on battery saver mode. It died sometime between 11am and 2pm as my alarm didn't go off.

I think, ladies and gentlemen we just have to accept that the battery is all over the place. I for one, will not be using Nokia again unless this situation is resolved quickly.

[Henk2304]

Since the 11500 update I got mixed results on battery life. Usually I got more than 24 hours after charging but sometimes not more than 12 hours. Last week I didn't pay attention and at the end of the day the only thing I saw was the picture of an empty battery with an red bottom. I charged the phone (it took a while to come alive) and since I can use the phone for more than 2 days (not very heavy use) and still have 33 % or so left. At the moment 91 % after charging 7 hours ago and 1 day and 1 hour left. I do switch it off during the night when it is not charging. I have 3G switched off since where I am most of the time there is hardly any 3G coverage.

[IMNdi]

Yes, I noticed that too, and suggested it above. I noticed that after full cycle battery was better. Could be a calibration issue with on-battery chip.

If only it were that easy.

[Vortx]

After reading some of your comments, I decided to do some testing.

I let the phone to drain the battery and switch itself off. After that, I charged it overnight and unplugged it fully charged at 8AM and switched off. At 9AM, I slipped the SIM in and turned 3G and data tranfer off, leaving only WiFi on. I made some calls that day (15-25 mins), sent some msgs and emails, browsed some web, played some games (average day-to-day use, i'd say). It lasted 1 day 9 hrs, which was so unbelievable that I cancelled RMA for my handset... for now.

The following day, I charged it full and turned the 3G and data tranfer on. It lasted 1 day 1 hour of fairly average use. Not so bad.

Today the same, charged it overnight, unplugged it and turned 3G and data transfer off to see, if it'll last as long as it did 2 days earlier with the same settings. It seems it won't I barely used my phone today. Battery Saver info: Remaining battery: 76%, Estd. time remaining: 18 hrs, Last charge: 8 hrs ago.

[IMNdi]

Thank you for that, Vortx, I was planning on doing that myself today.

That settles it then, it's not the battery that's going bonkers, it's the software that calculates capacity, at least in your case (and mine - I drained it after update once, forgot a game running, and got better life than most here).

I wish I could say good news, if draining the battery until empty wasn't bad for it.

As for battery life estimate, just ignore it. Really. Inherently, all software can do to estimate autonomy is extrapolate from capacity to drain. These things work very well for constant drain apps, like a flashlight or a camera, fairly well for laptops (where it does 10W idle and 20W loaded and life is 4 hours) and poor for phones (that go from 30 mA to 1000mA). My advice is to just ignore it. Take my 20 years of programming into account when I say this: The only people who get any useful info from that indicator (assuming it's good and bug free) are the ones that have very, very light use every day. Few calls and SMS only, mail and so on. As soon as you fire up a game or browse the net for extended periods (over 30 mins) those figures mean nothing.

The reason for the odd jump is because when phone is empty/reset/first powered, it uses factory estimates. As soon as you start random draining it's gonna miss. Again, assuming perfect code. What with Nokia's driver for battery losing count and various loads and whatnot, it's gonna miss by many hours. Since you powered 3G, it has since dropped the estimate to match the higher consumption rate.

And finally, don't go frowny face for getting 74%. Drain is very high when phone is unlocked versus locked. Assuming 2 days standby, that's 1450/48h=30 mA. For 8 hours 8%, that's 1% an hour, an average drain when locked and on 2G of 14.5 mA. When phone is unlocked (with light to low and black screen) it jumps to 150, that's five to ten times the drain. Do even light stuff and it's up to 200 or more. On anything other than low light setting, it's going bonkers with dran.

It's normal to get from 9-10% in 8 hours sleep to 25% awake, even with "light use". It's not yet a sign of battery decay. Not that I'm saying it isn't decaying, it probably is, but the only way to see what is really going on with capacity you have to either see how long it takes for it to shut itself off with same use every day or use the posted above in the thread battery drain app to compare cycles. I have also noticed that the time between the battery low warning (15%) to shut-off varies greatly day to day.

I wonder if this is a Nokia problem with the driver or if we simply have a bad battery chip. They say software is good. Could be a bad batch, we should have seen a torrent of upset customers by now if this were a global software issue.

Do keep us posted.

[bbuckle]

interesting stuff, but unfortunately my battery indicator seems to be very accurate (as I am a light user). My phone has said 'goodbye' to me so many times now I'm starting to get a complex. The red-bottomed battery is also a familiar sight.

I suppose it is not an unreasonable assumption to make that the majority of users have a single issue and a smaller number have multiple issues, though as its the same phone that is somewhat odd and points to component failure or even rogue software and/or settings.

Fortunately my supplier is sending me a replacement so i will be able to have a direct comparison between my current poor performance and the (hopefully!) improved operation of the replacement.

[hubrad]

Hi all,

How do you do a hard reset? Can't seem to find it in the User Guide.

Also does that mean having to reload all the apps and such, or is it just picture/contacts type content that needs reloading? Or even better nothing?

[bbuckle]

go to settings, then 'About' then click on the 'reset your phone' button and follow the prompts.

You will lose everything, but will be able to reinstall apps from the windows live web site.

Make sure you back up any other files that you wish to keep as you lose everything.

[TanelLass]

Had some pretty dreadful battery experience in the past 2 weeks of ownership or so - averaging at about 8-10 hours even at simple idling!

So today I decided to investigate this problem and tried to do a hard reset (Already have the recent update installed). 

Earlier today the battery saver screen estimated a battery life of about 10 hours from full. Now it is at 1 Day and 15sh hours. It has  been about 4 hours since I charged the phone and the screen shows 90% (1 day and 12 hours) remaning with light use and 3G and all of that off. So far so good! I would recommend anyone having battery problems to try this method after the recent update.

I will report back if the situation should noteworthily change..

[jpow]

unfortunately, i've tried that too... stlil failing miserably.

i've realised the only thing that works consistently well for me is to switch off 3g.

With 3g ON, i can drop 2-3% just typing a few messages in Whatsapp.

[Aslan93]

the reset works(unless you restore your phone from a backup straight after it) however it only works for a short time, i did mine a couple of days after the update came out and it was perfect at first! Seriously i use my phone quite heaviliy and have loads of emails, calendars and stuff like facebook and vkonatkte syncing in the background all the time and im on three so my 3g is always on and after the reset it showed me it charged to 1440 mah and lasted almost two days! Considering i spent most of that time in a place with bad signal thats amazing.

anyway now its been a couple of weeks and my lumia shows 1100 mah as max capacity and only charges to about 1060..

on many phones (for this one i use my experience with the n9) a software update doesnt stick very well what helps is reflashing the phone. or hard reset but that obviously failed long term.

I have heard of people reflashing the lumia so i know its possible.. people here should look into it and give it a try. On my n9 btw, all the user data was kept exactly the way i had it after the reflash and all my issues (and the n9 had loads) were gone. That was more than a month ago and the phone still works perfect. Now obvioulsy they are different phones with diff OS but giving it a try wont hurt. Oh also it helped my iphone so you should defenitely go for a reflash, i know i will as soon as i get some time and a windows pc

[jpow]

Hi Aslan,

can i check:

1. When you are using 3g + loading an app that uses 3G, what is your Current discharge rate?

You can see your current discharge rate under diagnostics, which you can access by pressing ##634# in the dial screen.

I know for me, my current discharge rate goes up to 500-600ma, when I have 3g ON and im loading an app that uses data (eg. Whatsapp).

at 600ma, the phone would barely last 2 hours.

Thanks!

[boobele]

I can confirm this, if

- 3G is ON: discharge is about 600-670 mA (!!!)

- 3G is OFF: discharge is about 180 mA