BlackBerry

[deejayburnout]

Evening peeps

Everyone knows the 9900 has terrible battery life but I think mine is even worse.

When I first got the phone, the battery would last the day and by 10pm it would have 15 - 20% left, which I was happy with however thing changed.


An average day for me means the phone Is off charge at 6am and that around 12pm my phone has to go back onto charge as its usually around 30 - 35%. Might not sound to bad but my phone sits on my desk and does nothing. I don't do much on it upto that time, read a few emails or send a text. If I use it heavly like I do at the weekend reading forums/ social networks and videos, I'd be luck if the battery still has a charge at 12noon.

Tried loads of OS version, official Vodafone and some leaked 7.1 and not much better or worse.
Tried wiping my device and only having basic apps installed and it only gets slightly better.

Beginnning to think that my battery has gave up the ghost. Is that possible after 5 months. I know batterys last an average of 1000 charge cycles and I must plug it in 3 to 4 times a day, maybe it had enough.

Not sure if it that or a faulty battery.

Anyone else had this issue.

[James]

Hi deejayburnout,

To be honest it does sound like either your battery is faulty or you have a lot of applications downloaded that is using up your battery power.

However, as you mentioned you have tried different OS versions it sounds like it is more to do with the actual battery as apposed to the phone.

As the battery is covered under the warranty I would recommend sending the phone away for a free of charge repair where this can be assessed by one of our engineers.

Alternatively you can also purchase a new battery from a 3^rd party.

James

[deejayburnout]

Done as you said and purchased a 2nd battery from eBay, that arrived Thursday. Been using it since this morning and straight away I notice a big improvement. Used the phone as normal today and still had 54% left at 4pm when I went home after work. Been using it prettty hard tonight and only just had to put it on charge.

Looks like the battery has had it.

As the battery is under warranty, where do I sent it to get it replaced?

Cheers

[James]

Hi deejayburnout,

To be honest if we look at this for you we will need to send the entire phone away for repair so I would recommend speaking with Blackberry directly to see if they will be willing to simply exchange the battery for you.

James

[deejayburnout]

Need to send the device back in for repair as it has 3 problems now

[deejayburnout]

My beloved 9900 has now developed its 3rd problem over the last few days.

Problem 1

The battery is useless, it doesnt last long. An average day for me means the phone Is off charge at 6am and that around 12pm my phone has to go back onto charge as its usually around 30 - 35%. Might not sound to bad but my phone sits on my desk and does nothing. I don't do much on it upto that time, read a few emails or send a text. If I use it heavly like I do at the weekend reading forums/ social networks and videos, I'd be luck if the battery still has a charge at 12noon.

Check out the screenshot for my awesome battery life.

Problem 2

The screen has dust in it. The top right hand side to be exact. it is exactly inline with the volume up button.

Problem 3 

The microphone is very quiet. Been speaking to a few people over the weekend and they have been saying that i am hard to hear and muffled. Done some test phone calls to family from my phone and the wifes phone and the house phone and my 9900 is always quieter.

Think its time to get it sent back in under warranty and get all the problems fixed.

I presume its the same as usual and that i take it in store and they send it away.

[pau1j]

deejay ... not really an answer to your questions, but I can give you a comparison with an almost new battery (my 9900 is about two weeks out of the box).

I have deleted most of the serious battery-hog applications (social feeds, facebook, twitter, etc. as I don't use them) so when my BB is not being used it is genuinely not being used.  I upgraded to 7.0.0.585 (although, battery-wise, I'm still convinced that .296 was better) which has the 'feature' of never giving 100% battery for more than a minute or two ... it much prefers the scenery at 92%!!

In standby (switched on but locked or in holster) I reckon on 2-3% battery drain per hour.

On a phone call (with a bluetooth earpiece), I reckon on 10% per hour (I had a solid two hour call last week which dropped the battery from 25% to 5%).

On a call (the old fashioned way, with the phone to my ear), I reckon on 20% per hour (surprised by the difference, but I had a 15 minute call this evening that dropped the battery from 29% to 24%).

While browsing internet or emailing / texting hard (so the big difference is the screen being on) I reckon on 20% per hour drain.

Overall, tinymeter gives my average at around 5-7% per hour ... so I struggle to make two full days between charges even with a new battery.  I will be trying a leaked version of OS7.1 soon as it is supposed to be more battery friendly.

[Dave]

Hi deejayburnout,

Spot on - you can send it away via the store or follow the directions in James's link earlier in the thread which covers all the available options.

pau1j - Battery life for a modern smartphone has risen, but so has the power consumption, even without those apps you say you've removed. What you're describing - up to 2 days between charges - is not that unusual at all.

Please also keep in mind that we cannot support leaked versions of firmware and installing one would invalidate the warranty.

Dave

[deejayburnout]

Its going in today as it locked up this morning and took 6 battery pulls before it would work again.

Defo something wrong the hardware.

[pau1j]

Dave ... don't get me wrong, I'm reasonably happy with two days (my point was that the previous OS version gave slightly better life & did not have the bug where the display drops from 100% to 92% almost immediately).

I was also trying to give deejay a bit of a comparison so that he could decide if there was something serious wrong (sounds, now, like that's the case).

I have friends with Iphones (4 & 4S particularly) that have to plug in almost every time they pass a 240v socket ;-)
(all the time protesting that the phone is so good it has changed their lives!!)

[deejayburnout]

Thanks for the help

Been living with the battery problem for a while and it was beginning to become a big pain. With the microphone packing in, that was the last straw.

kinda stops becoming a phone if I cannot talk on it.

Dropping it off today at my local store for repair.

[johnnydepp]

improve battery life of Blackberry Bold 9900

turn off Wi-Fi, when you click on the clock at the top, remove the check box from Wi-Fi.

To turn off GPS, go to Options>Device>Location Settings

Vibration will decrease the battery life as it uses the battery to vibrate. Using sounds will help maximize battery life

for duration of battery, that can vary as applications running, screen brightness, network coverage and other factors can alter this.

[pb3000]

The most my battery has lasted, from full charge to completely dead is around 32 hours. This is with the phone locked throughout, having made no calls or used any of the apps, with the brighness at 30% and GPS and Wifi switched off.

Is this the typical  benchmark for the 9900? 

[pau1j]

pb3000 ... what about 3G?

(Unless you're very close to a mast) The phone will use considerably more power to hunt & hold on to a 3G signal than a 2G (GPRS/EDGE).

You might also find that some apps are running in the background (eg. Social Feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

32 hours isn't bad ... Yes, the battery is too small - I think everyone accepts that but you have to remember this is a powerful phone (even doing nothing, it's using a sizeable amount of power).  And who is the comedian at RIM that suggests 12.8 days on standby?  Vodafone helpfully converts this as 307 hours.  My suspicion is that these figures are for the phone switched off!  (A Blackberry will never be 100% off unless the battery is removed ... it's just in a, sort of, standby mode.)

Anyway, I've just checked my battery ... off charge at 1000 Sunday (12 hours, mostly holstered), 16½ hours Monday (admittedly low use as I was in one meeting after another) & 11½ hours (so far, again low usage) Tuesday = 38 hours and battery is showing 20% remaining.

So I guess I might make 50 hours on full standby (holstered).  But what's the point in that?!  

(Running OS 7.1.0.267 with no social media apps, 2G only, wifi on when required, bluetooth on 100%.)

[DaveCD]

Hi pb3000

Thank you for your posts and it is awesome to see you here.

The demands of modern day life have caused the mobile devices to evolve quickly, accomodating email, internet and many other aspects at your fingertips, to do this larger processors and hardware have had to be developed and this means more power is used, unfortunately the development of the batteries has not developed as quickly.

The use of 3G signal also uses more of the phones capacity drawn from the battery and this means many devices need to be charged on a much more regular basis.

There has been some great support provided by our excellent community members and if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to post back.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

eForum Team

[deejayburnout]

Got my phone back after a week away and they had to replace the handset. Brand new one back. They also replaced the battery and what a difference now.

Battery lasts all day easily, draining at 1.8% per hour when not in use. Defo had battery issue and seems to be gone now. Could have been the hamdset but we eill never know.

Cheers Vodafone. One happy customer here.

[pb3000]

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pau1j wrote:

pb3000 ... what about 3G?

32 hours isn't bad ... Yes, the battery is too small - I think everyone accepts that but you have to remember this is a powerful phone (even doing nothing, it's using a sizeable amount of power).  And who is the comedian at RIM that suggests 12.8 days on standby?  

(Running OS 7.1.0.267 with no social media apps, 2G only, wifi on when required, bluetooth on 100%.)

---

Thanks for your reply paul1J,

I will have a play with 3g switched off. The figure I quoted is with no apps (other than the mandatory ones) running in the background. I've actually uninstalled Twitter, Faceboo and the social feeds following research on this forum and others.

I noticed you are running OS 7.1, which allegedly improves battery life? I'm awaiting its official release by Vodafone. I own a Samsung Galaxy S2 as well, and I remember that a software upgrade significantly improved battery life.

Yes the official RIM specifications for the Bold 9900 threw me as the phone lasts nowhere neear 12.8 days on standy. I did notice tellingly that RIM suggests switching the phone off when not in use in their tips for extending battery life

I certainly reassured, having read your post, then I don't have a faulty unit or battery.

[pau1j]

RIM are absolutely right ... the battery will last much longer if the device is switched off!

7.1.0.267 is definitely an improvement over 7.0.0.585 which, I think, is still the Vodafone official release (personally, I never liked this one - it seemed to create more problems than it resolved). However, it's a close-run thing with 7.0.0.296 (the OS my phone came with out of the box).

It's not perfect but, on balance, 7.1.0.267 does have a few extra features that give it the thumbs up.