Acer Liquid Z3 battery drain issue

hulahulamutiya
hulahulamutiya Member Posts: 7 New User
in 2013 Archives

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.

Answers

  • DrShadow
    DrShadow Member Posts: 7 New User

    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
    hulahulamutiya Member Posts: 7 New User

    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
    hulahulamutiya Member Posts: 7 New User

    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
    DrShadow Member Posts: 7 New User

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

  • hulahulamutiya
    hulahulamutiya Member Posts: 7 New User

    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
    DrShadow Member Posts: 7 New User

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

     

    What is your currently used governor ?

  • hulahulamutiya
    hulahulamutiya Member Posts: 7 New User

    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
    hulahulamutiya Member Posts: 7 New User

    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
    Rantrile Member Posts: 6 New User

    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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