BlackBerry

[LustForLeith]

First up, this isn’t a moan. I like Blackberry’s (prefer the keypad as I use it for writing) so this isn’t hopefully going to be a rant!

Upgraded to the 9900 in about October last year. I think the phone is great, use it for emails/text/internet browsing and occasional Twitter updates. However, like everyone else I seem to have a problem with the battery!

I can fully charge it in the morning. With occasional use throughout the day (switch off at about nine, put it back on between 12-1 before switching off and putting back on at either five or seven) I’ll need to charge it by nine at night. If not and even in bedside mode, the battery will die during the night. Not ideal if you need it for an alarm in the morning!

The battery is getting worse. There are days where I need to use it at specific times to type up quick articles and I might not be near a source to charge the battery. What I need to do is charge it fully, switch it off and wait until I need to use it before I use it. If not I’m struggling to get what I need done…done!

I’ve taken off the Social Feeds thing and I downloaded some free battery booster ap. These seemed to work a little at first but now I say they make no difference whatsoever to the poor battery.

I’ve also noticed that I’ve had a couple of other faults. One of them is when you send an email (an occasionally a text) you get the tick showing it’s been sent. I’ll check it later and the tick has turned to a cross! I then have to resend the message and it will jump between a tick and a cross until I know for definite it’s been received. I can understand if I wasn’t in a strong signal area but I am and texts surely don’t require a lot of signal. If that’s a technical term..!

I’ve also noticed as well that the phone has switched itself off on occasion (battery life hasn’t died, it comes back on!) and I had a message today about an incorrect sim card. I switched the phone off and put it back on and it fixed this.

Not sure what to do. Should I download this OS 7.1? I’ve taken a break from the work I desperately need it for so in theory I could live  without it for a week or two but do I need to send it away for repair?!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[jeffkinn]

Poor battery life with a touch screen smart phone is a problem that we all have to put up with. It was true of my Blackberry Storm, of my iPhone 4 and my children's BB9900s.

There are a number of things you can do to preserve battery life such as turning down screen brightness, not using vibrate, turning off GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi and not using 3G unless you need to. But these won't cure the problem but merely give you a little extra battery life. Personally, if I am about and about I try and take my Power Monkey with me to re-charge on the move.

https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/primatepower/powermonkeyclassicV2/

All OS updates bring a rash of threads some of which claim that their battery problems have been cured and some that battery has been killed.

As for the other problems, the new OS should/might resolve them but whether you load it or not is up to you.

[pau1j]

Hi LustforLeith.

Firstly, which variant of OS7.0 are you using?
I found 7.0.0.585 to be woeful - I'm currently using 7.1.0.267 (a non-Vodafone release) and this is much, much better.

I can manage 3 days (on at 7am, off at 11:30pm) on a charge with low-average use - mainly calls/text/emails with brief internet sessions.  My phone/battery is now about 3 months old.  No social apps. & no apps left running in background.  3G turned off (not much coverage here anyway).

I'd be dubious about any third-party battery booster app.  None that I've tried have ever seemed to be anything other than snake-oil!

OS7.1 has it's own in-built Battery Saver Mode - not entirely sure what it does but it's probably limited to cutting the screen brightness & disconnecting wifi/3G when not in use.

For peace of mind (no point having a phone that you need to switch off to save for later) how about buying a spare battery?

A genuine JM-1 can be found for less than £10 online (admittedly, you will need to carry a crowbar to remove the 9900's back cover ).

Hope this helps.

[LustForLeith]

Cheers for this. The version I currently have is 7.0.0 (bundle 2406) and I'm going to try and download the latest version when I get a minute. or two!

Another issue I noticed is that I seem to get emails at different times. For instance I got one email yesterday at about 3.30 but when I checked it the email had been sent at 11.30. I had another email later that had been sent earlier and there was tiems last night it was a twnety minute delay.

Quite annoying! I really need the phone to send emails at certain poitns and someone said they didn't receive an email and thought they had perhaps deleted it by mistake. Maybe they never received it in the first place!

[pau1j]

Bundle 2406 = 7.0.0.585 which I found to be far worse than the earlier Bundle 1465 = 7.0.0.296.

How are your email accounts set up?  Is it work-based or a Hotmail/Gmail/Yahoo account?

I find that the native BIS account (mobileemail.vodafone.net) tends to be pretty quick and is pushed immediately to the BB.

For general POP3 accounts it is generally reckoned that RIM servers will check the POP3 web server in cycles of between 2 & 15 minutes (someone else may be able to verify the exact timings).  If you receive a message this is pushed to the BB and the server is checked two minues later.  After a couple of two-minute cycles in which no mail is received, the poll reverts to 15 minute intervals.

IMAP servers (GMail / Yahoo) are reckoned to be the fastest - a matter of seconds before the mails are pushed to the BB.

First thing to try would be a resend of the Service Books - this can often resolve email delays.

To overcome the thought that emails might not be getting through, I have my BB set to BCC all emails back to myself (not just being paranoid , it's so that I can archive in an offline account).

[LustForLeith]

It's just my personal account that's set up. I noticed today that when I send an email it's received but when I check my phone I get the clock thing that comes up as if it's waiting to be sent when I know it's already recevied!

Will try and download the latest OS and if not I'll get in touch with Vodafone!

[pau1j]

Do the Service Book thing first (Email Settings > Menu > Service Books).

And, maybe, a Host Routing Table Register.

(Just takes a few seconds)

Is your personal account with one of the big names (Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail, etc.)?