EVO/Android Issue

Download an app killer, try to lower your screen's display intensity, go to your settings, and make your phone check your email once a day rather than every 15 minutes, etc., etc.

 

There's a battery usage screen, which I only know how to access through SwitchPro, it tells you battery usage by application or system and it charts it out for you, it's amazing...

I don't quite know how to access that page manually through settings... someone else can chime in

 

I don't recommend Task Managers or App Killers, they tend to be resource hogs (processor, memory, and battery). I would try turning off background data, and change your battery mode to the maximum battery saver. If those things don't noticeably improve your battery life, then you might want to get the battery replaced or look into buying an extended battery.

EDIT: If you turn off the background data, you will have to manually fetch your emails. If you get important and timely emails often, turning background data off might not be in your best interest.

EDIT 2: Here's an article with some more tips. http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/20-tips-to-improve-htc-evo-4g-battery-life.html

 

that is not normal... again someone can help with the battery usage screen, it looks something like this...:


here are a few things that helped me get better battery life
1. google maps and GPS thing is a huge juice sucker, you want to go into google maps app, and log out of 'latitute', otherwise it'll keep sending information on your where-abouts
2. not sure if this works for EVO, but find a dark background, screen display is a huge waste of battery, so find something dark; in the case of my Nexus S, it's AMOLED screen, an unlit (black) pixel is a pixel off, thus using less battery
3. screen brightness, I find automatic brightness works fine, though you may consider 70% or 30% brightness

 

SwitchPro is a widget, I think it's 0.99
Froyo is android 2.2

current newest version of android for phones is 2.3.4 (gingerbread)

you can find out what version you're using by: settings, about phone, and reading the Android Version

 

There's also an app called Juice Defender. It basically turns off any radios (wi-fi, 4g, gps etc) after a period of non use. I'm up to 2x the normal usage now.

 

menu>settings>wireless & networks>mobile networkS>uncheck always-on mobile device. Saves battery and hasn't had an adverse effect on my phones performance as far as I know.

 

Root your phone and install MIUI.

Granted, you'll lose WiMAX connectivity, but you'll gain so much more that you won't care. My phone on MIUI easily goes a full day + more on a charge, and unlike other people I don't waste my time turning radios on and off - I just leave everything on. Plus it is so good looking.

If you don't want to make your phone awesome, then you can try the following steps:

1. Turn WiFi on and keep it on. Don't ever turn it off. Use WiFi as much as possible -- if you have a hotspot you can connect to, connect to it.
2. Go into your WiFi settings and make sure WiFi sleep policy is set to "never".
3. Turn down your screen brightness as much as you can. Screen is one of the biggest battery drainers.
4. Don't put too many widgets on your home screens, especially the ones that need to refresh.
5. Don't have too many accounts set up. You'll pay a price for having Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, Gmail + Two work email accounts all syncing constantly in the background on your phone.
6. Don't use animated wallpapers. They consume power unnecessarily and are gimmicky.

P.S. Dark background is useless on an LCD screen. Those only help with AMOLED screens like the Samsung phones have.

P.S. (2) DO NOT USE APP KILLERS.

 

I've had my EVO for a year now. Task killers haven't worked since Froyo

You should have figured this out months ago.

With the latest updates its supposed to help with battery life. As of right now the Display is consuming most of my battery life.

 

No no no no

Do not attempt to root a EVO 4G with gingerbread.

It isnt possible yet.

 

Yeah, I noticed he had Gingerbread after I posted that. But I left it on there anyway, because MIUI > *.

 

I have an HTC Thunderbolt that gets lots of complaints about battery usage. I turned down the screen and added Juice Defender and now I get acceptable battery length, even leaving GPS on and using lots of 4G LTE (after all, 4G LTE is why I got the phone). I charge over night, and usually get at least a full day charge. One other tip, get a external recharger (I got a rechargeable Trent 5,000 mAh powerpack) that you can use to recharge the phone (or other devices) in an emergency. Peace of mind for $70.

 

Señor River, have you read your manual for these potential issues and troubleshooting?

I know it's unusual for most peeps to have done so, but the answer could be in your manual. Give it a check. It wouldn't hurt. You'll probably learn some other things about your phone that you didn't now before in the process.

I always wondered why people suggest jailbreaking and modding and rooting devices as a way to fix them... I understand, but I probably don't agree...

Good luck getting good help, RR.

 

HTC doesn't use AMOLED screens so changing your background to a darker color will not help with background whatsoever as the there is a still a backlight.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install a task killer, that is beyond pointless, and if anything, you're killing your battery since every time you kill an app, you're just restarting the process (Which is why you always see it come back up, and kill it again)

What you need to do is monitor what app is consuming the most CPU. Download Watchdog task manager (it's not a task killer, unless you specifically kill a process that's consuming battery)
Watchdog will give you alerts on what apps misbehave, I've had this program identify culprits before. I once caught PowerAmp using about 50 percent of my CPU.

Change your account update settings to something like once every 4 hours or so. (e.g Facebook, Twitter, linkedin, etc)

Change brightness to something lower, you don't have to turn GPS off, as GPS being on doesn't do anything if a program is not using it. However, if you see that your GPS icon is on and blinking, there is an app that is trying to use it.

HTC phones can sometimes lose battery when turning off, usually what this is indicating is that your battery is not calibrated correctly. If you're not rooted, I'm not sure you can resolve this.

If you're rooted, there's wonderful things you can do. I used to have an HTC Thunderbolt and pulled in about 15 hours a day with heavy use. Root your phone, put it on MIUI, or CM7. Basically something that isn't using HTC Sense. Download SETCPU, with this program you can set profiles so that your phone doesn't consume much power when the screen is off, or when you're in a call, etc.
Also for rooted users you can reboot into recovery (clockword), and wipe the battery stats. Prior to doing this, you're going to want to "bump charge", this is a big issue with HTC phones. Your battery stats are lying to you. Bump charging is where you charge to 100 percent, unplug from charger, turn off your phone, and charge to 100 again. (You'll notice your phone won't stay at 100 when you turn it back on). Once you do this, wipe your battery stats, reboot your phone, leave it unplugged until it fully dies, and charge until its full. Your battery will now be calibrated.

You also might want to run the Super Charger script, which enhances the way Android handles memory.

Oh, and since you have an EVO, turn off 4G. Wi-max sucks anways

 

The manufacturer, is not your friend.

 

Clockwork*