Acer Liquid Z3 battery drain issue

I am quite disappointed with the following:

About two days ago I decided to switch off my Acer Liquid Z3 after charging the battery to 100%. Now I am not able to switch the phone on in the first instance and when I use the AC adapter to start the phone, the battery shows 1% battery.
The strange thing is that when I leave the phone on overnight (8 hours), the battery only discharges by about 2%. So, assuming the discharge is constant, after two days the battery should be at about 88%.

The other thing to note is that I did a 'update' on this phone before switching it off. But this does not tell me if the update is causing the problem because I did not do this 2-day discharge test before the 'phone update'. Also, the phone is running on Android 4.2.2.

When the phone is plugged into a power source, the cpu jumps and remains on the highest frequency (~1000 Mhz) and when you disconnect the power source, the cpu frequency drops and stays at around ~598Mhz. I don't understand this.

This maybe the last Acer product I buy.

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DrShadow

Hi,

First of all, nice idea to check the frequency, i hope you know there are some mechanisms for checking the power + save battery so when you plug the power, cpu freq can reach max.

Probably someone used your phone ? Anyway, check your usb cable too.

hulahulamutiya

Thanks for the reply.

Noone has used the phone at all for the last two days and it has been switched off for those two days. I have even performed this 2-day battery test twice now to confirm this battery issue. I can confirm that the phone is fully charge to 100% (assuming that Android 4.2.2/battery level software is not lying to me) before the phone was turned off, so I am not concerned about the charging power sources, rather I am worried about the fact that the battery does not last 2 days when the phone is completely switched off. I cannot explain it. I am going to charge the battery to full and remove it for a day and then put it back into the phone. If the battery is almost dead, then there is a battery problem. If the battery is still well-charged, then the phone is drawing current from the battery when it should not be. This is, by definition, a faulty product and I will be asking for my money back.

hulahulamutiya

Also, "i hope you know there are some mechanisms for checking the power + save battery so when you plug the power, cpu freq can reach max", I have never heard of. The cpu cannot be that weak that it needs to max out the frequency to compute battery charging/saving mechanism. The usage is 10% and below. That should be enough reason to shift down a frequency gear. This is probably a software optimization issue though. I might need a software like SetCPU from the Play store. I have never seen that on similar low spec Android devices.

DrShadow

I mean that as power is plugged, cpu freq reach max for performance not for saving battery (ofc you have poweeeer)

hulahulamutiya

OK, that was not so clear. It seemed like a bug because I have never seen a mobile device by default select the most powerful option by default even when plugged into a power source. It would hinder recharging speed. Normally, it's a balanced option. It's very unusual. There should be an option to stop this though. Do you know how to adjust this other than using a cpu frequency control software?

DrShadow

It should be kernel related or related to a config for your governor.

What is your currently used governor ?

hulahulamutiya

According to this software called 'CPU Adjuster' from the Play Store, the CPU governor is currently on 'hotplug'. It is similar to ondemand. I would prefer a governor like lulzactive.

For the battery issue, I think the phone is drawing current from the battery even though the phone is 'supposedly' switched off. This is a fault with the phone. I can't see how the battery could discharge completely on it's own in 2 days.

hulahulamutiya

Ok. I found out what the issue was. The alarm I have set goes off (using vibrate rather than sound) even when the phone is switched off. But here is the kicker -- it never stops vibrating and the screen remains dimly lit. This is what has caused the battery to drain to empty. I even had to take out the battery from the phone because pressing the power button would not stop the alarm. I might need to install another alarm app that shuts off after a certain period. Is this a problem with the android alarm app or the phone hardware or both?

Rantrile

In what country have you purchased Z3? What was the update's name that you have applied?

Z3 is unfortunately seems to be beta-tested not enough prior to release. I for one bought it because it says DTS, but instead of a high-quality sound I get a bad, low-level-even-at-max-volume-settings sound.

In all the movies I always seen DTS so I have imagined that should produce a rich, powerfull and high quality sound. (Nevermind the speaker, I'm referring to the earphone out.)

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