SOS: Desire HD battery and signal problems

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agantuk

Forerunner
First things first: I have only a background of Nokia phones, so have no clue if certain things are supposed to be the way they are.

That confession out of the way, I have been using my Desire HD for more than a month now, and strongly feel that something is wrong with either the model or my phone.

PROBLEM 1: BATTERY LIFE

My usage:
  1. Push mail enabled over WiFi, 24 hours. Don't have a data (GPRS / HSPA) connection
  2. No calling, no SMS, no gaming, no other apps, no fancy homescreens, nothing else at all
With this usage, my phone survives for around 20 hours + 3 grace hours - when it is huffing and panting about only 5% battery and has the WiFi auto turned off.

Is the battery life really this bad, or is it just my piece? To be honest, my 1.5 year old Nokia 5800 still gives 5 days backup with this usage - no kidding (to be honest, I don't even have an usage).

PROBLEM 2: ANTENNAE

This comparison is purely in terms of my Nokia as a reference.

I have a home WiFi set up with the router in one of the bedrooms not in the straight line of sight. I barely receive any signal on my Desire HD once I am out of the room, about 5 feet away from it. I am however able to work perfectly fine with my Nokia and on my laptop, to the extent of playing video directly over the router (@ ~10 Mbps).

Similarly, when it comes to catching the GSM signal, the signal just drops in some locations inside my house, whereas it is fine with both my Nokias. All are on a Vodafone connection, and the signal is actually pretty good in my area.

Now, have I got a defective piece? Do I need to go check with their support?
 
My phone is about 2 months old. Would be turning 2 next week. Never fell or anything. All I do is charge it, which itself takes quite some time. I use the USB charger from my desktop
 
I dont own it, but AFAIK thats the standard battery life for mid to high end Android phones

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

As you are coming from Nokia, yes the battery and reception of Android phones in general seems to be worse
 
^ Hmm, is that the case even with my usage? I don't even use it for calls or anything. Just WiFi drains the whole thing so soon?
 
agantuk said:
^ Hmm, is that the case even with my usage? I don't even use it for calls or anything. Just WiFi drains the whole thing so soon?
Click to expand...
Now, this is complete speculation, but WiFi does drain a lot of power.

And your phone has a power draining screen too.

So, if you get any significant number of mails, reading/responding to them will also use up the battery faster.

But yeah this much is for sure that WiFi + Push mail will drain your battery quite a bit. Esp. since it is unable to get a good signal. That means the WiFi radio is running at full power
 
mehrotra.akash said:
But yeah this much is for sure that WiFi + Push mail will drain your battery quite a bit. Esp. since it is unable to get a good signal. That means the WiFi radio is running at full power
Click to expand...
Thats something I missed. Sounds plausible. I probably need to switch the thing off for a day and see.
 
Take your phone of wifi.. Turn off all background things like push/notifications. Just keep your phone on and connected to your cellular network and put it in standby. You should only lose 1-2% batt every hour on standby. Anything more than that then something is running in the background using up battery.
 
go to your android browser, then to settings and then to enable plugins option.

select on demand, if you havent ever changed it, it should be at always on by default. the flash plugin used by the browser runs in the background using up extra battery juice and keeps the processore running. changing it to on demand, will disable its usage while on standby and ur standby time battery usage will become minimum..

regards,

Vrishi
 
op..the desire HD as it is, is notorious for a poor battery life primarily because of that puny battery that HTC decided to bundle with the phone. But more importantly wifi drains a lot of juice & the fact that you have got 24/7 push mail on isnt helping either. Your battery life seems at par with most DHD users but can be appreciably improved by a) properly calibrating the battery (search XDA forums for the complete procedure) and b) use a software like juice defender.

On your more pressing issue of signal attenuation, it seems to me that you need a new version of the radio. Are you on 2.2.1? if not I advice you to update pronto. In case you are, then you can take the rooting way but that would void your warranty. So I suggest you take your phone to the HTC service center in the case of being on 2.2.1.

Regarding the wifi strength make sure not to hold the phone using the death grip. (PS wifi chip is behind the battery compartment). In case its not the death grip issue, then mate you have a faulty wifi chip & should visit the nearest HTC service center. on my DHD i never get less than 45 mbps connectivity on a 54 mbps network.
 
devvfata1ity said:
op..the desire HD as it is, is notorious for a poor battery life primarily because of that puny battery that HTC decided to bundle with the phone. But more importantly wifi drains a lot of juice & the fact that you have got 24/7 push mail on isnt helping either. Your battery life seems at par with most DHD users but can be appreciably improved by a) properly calibrating the battery (search XDA forums for the complete procedure) and b) use a software like juice defender.
Click to expand...

I plan to test this WiFi off mode this weekend. The (lack of) battery life has been troubling me no end.

On your more pressing issue of signal attenuation, it seems to me that you need a new version of the radio. Are you on 2.2.1? if not I advice you to update pronto. In case you are, then you can take the rooting way but that would void your warranty. So I suggest you take your phone to the HTC service center in the case of being on 2.2.1.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I am already on 2.2.1 via the OTA update that I received earlier last month. When you say a new version of the radio, are you by any chance talking of firmware? My understanding was that it's a hardware thing.

Regarding the wifi strength make sure not to hold the phone using the death grip. (PS wifi chip is behind the battery compartment). In case its not the death grip issue, then mate you have a faulty wifi chip & should visit the nearest HTC service center. on my DHD i never get less than 45 mbps connectivity on a 54 mbps network.
Click to expand...
Yea, I checked that thing about the WiFi chip being in the battery (and GSM next to the SIM). I hold it like at the bottom - the cup hold as they call it, still face this issue. I have doubted a faulty chip, but looks like I now have to make a visit to the service center.
 
agantuk said:
I plan to test this WiFi off mode this weekend. The (lack of) battery life has been troubling me no end.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I am already on 2.2.1 via the OTA update that I received earlier last month. When you say a new version of the radio, are you by any chance talking of firmware? My understanding was that it's a hardware thing.
Yea, I checked that thing about the WiFi chip being in the battery (and GSM next to the SIM). I hold it like at the bottom - the cup hold as they call it, still face this issue. I have doubted a faulty chip, but looks like I now have to make a visit to the service center.
Click to expand...
since you are on 2.2.1 official OTA i would advice against rooting as it will void your warranty. But through rooting you can flash a new radio firmware which might solve your network attenuation issue.

In all likelihood you have a faulty wifi chip & I strongly suggest you to visit the nearest HTC service center & insist on a replacement. Just make sure before visiting the service center that you contact the customer support via e-mail as this will generate a ticket no for you with which you can create an escalation with HTC in the case that the service center doesnt give you the expected service.
 
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You have to have a data connection if you want to use your DHD one full day. Wi-fi + push mail = Epic battery usage. You seem to be getting good juice out of it. I remember having 35% battery life one night with the wifi on and the next day I had to miss my morning gym because the phone got switched off and the alarm never went on (maybe around 5-6 hours). I still have my push mail on but on EDGE and I manage to get a days usage with around 30% remaining in the bucket. So I definitely do not think you have an issue there. BTW, I hate using juice defender as it keeps toggling the data connection and you end up with as many balance left notification (on airtel). Next time a call comes you first need to close all those balance popups before you can accept the call.

The wi-fi is also a known issue with DHD. Although your signal strength is low it still works though. But yes the chip it uses is definitely inferior to the ones you find in the cheapest of the Nokias.

Regarding the GSM signal strength I do not have much idea but I would suggest you to check the signal strength in dbm rather than looking at the bars. On the DHD you can find the same under settings --> about phone --> Network. Not sure about the Nokias though. Also are you facing issues like call drops, missed calls, bad reception, etc? If not I won't worry much.
 
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