10 replies to this topic

[Mordred69]

Hello all.



I am a new CM user. Came from Sense and the latest sense rom I used was Synergy. It is an EXCELLENT mod, but it's WAY too heavy on my phone. Gets too laggy, sometimes it force closed and even random reboots due to memory issues. So, I had Boot Manager (EXCELLENT app, recommend for testing) and installed CM7.1, MIUI, VaelPak and KingsROM. I was very impressed with the performance of CM7.1 and found myself booting to it constantly.

While I love the speed it gives my phone and how it makes it feel, love the theme chooser, the fact that everything in it works (4g even when I don't have the signal here) - HDMI - etc., and had no issues with GPS (I always use TeleNav as Google maps, for some reason, is not entirely accurate in Puerto Rico), I do have a few gripes that, since reading the forums, I found many people have as well. I see I am not alone in it, so I will condense my gripes in this post to see if anyone can help, or point me to the directions where they were already discussed and solved.
1. Battery issues. I have noticed the battery getting hot, and rapid drain for the first 10-20%. When I say hot, I mean 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit.  As I write this, my phone is idle and I just checked it. 103 degrees. Sometimes the phone will give me 10 hours use, sometimes 2. I hardly think this is normal.

2. Lock Screen not working properly. From time to time, I see how the phone does not show the lock screen coming from sleep stage. Have to try it again and a few times for it to finally show.

3. No search for contact on Dial pad. I use this feature constantly, and now I am re-training myself on now to use the contacts app. Is there a way or a mod I can use to bring this back to my phone?

4. Charging issues. Sometimes, my phone simply will not charge. I plug the OEM charger in and sometimes, the charge light starts blinking from orange to green.  The phone reports that the battery is HOT, but the phone is cool, and so is the battery when I pull it. Other times, the phone will simply shut off the charge light and show a question mark on the battery icon. It will not charge. Again, a battery pull will fix this for a day or three.
5. Touch screen going crazy. After coming in from the lock screen, I have noticed that the screen will not register my commands and will go haywire. Battery pull solved this... and this issue is extremely rare (happened once but I saw it reported here somewhere).

So, yes, the mod is awesome and I DO realize that this effort is a free mod, where users should not moan and fuss about the issues they encounter. I respectfully submit this report in hopes that they get fixed. If not, it's OK, because, as it is, this mod is bar none, heads over the AOSP competition - and many SENSE ones too. I just have never had to do so many battery pulld after I left the BlackBerry world... heh.
Cheers and thanks for a wonderful piece of work. This rom is truly awesome and I hope to keep as daily runner for a LONG time.

Edited by Mordred69, 16 October 2011 - 04:48 PM.

[Mordred69]

Will anyone be able to help on this issues? You can add to the list that the phone is not sleeping properly from time to time...

[NobiNobiNoodle]

Well, I was using an older version of CM. I think it was 7.0.3.1It had quite a few problems, and I could never get them fixed no matter how many times I wiped and flashed. I could never get GPS to work, and 4G was pretty hit or miss too.After a few days, I'd have to reboot because of a memory leak or something.I decided to skip the release candidates and wait for this one.This one (7.1) actually fixed most of my problems.I did not wipe anything-but I'm not really sure that always matters.Also, I switched back to Amon Ra.I know that the CM crew tends to promote ROM manager and Clockwork.But if you haven't tried it already, I would try Amon Ra.That's the only thing that I did differently this time, and everything seems to work.Battery life still isn't what I had hopped, but I read somewhere that a new gapps is out, and I'll have to try that.

Oh, about your screen problem. I had it for like a day with 7.0.3.1. I made a video of it,and I'll post it.The screen problem went away and I never saw it again until i upgraded to 7.1.now it's back, but not as bad. It acts almost like there's a static build up in it, or like when your face is sweaty, and you have to dry it off before you can dial.

Edited by NobiNobiNoodle, 17 October 2011 - 01:40 AM.

[Mordred69]

I am using Amon-Ra for recovery. I am liking CM7.1 a lot. My gripes are more like a wish list that I am sure most of us want to see resolved, but as it is, I am happy with it (as a free user that has no right to complain, that is) as it is now.

With that said, is there any way to include, at a mod level, the number search when dialing on the phone screen?

Thank you all for the hard work you put into this.

[rx7ah]

I don't have a resolution for you, but I can give my input regarding these issues and my similar experiences in hopes to get a couple of these solved.

Quote

1. Battery issues. I have noticed the battery getting hot, and rapid drain for the first 10-20%. When I say hot, I mean 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit.  As I write this, my phone is idle and I just checked it. 103 degrees. Sometimes the phone will give me 10 hours use, sometimes 2. I hardly think this is normal.

I haven't had this problem unless the phone is in a location with zero air circulation (**read: mashed under my pillow while I'm sleeping**). Do you have any sort of CPU manager on the phone? This would be my first guess. . .

Quote

2. Lock Screen not working properly. From time to time, I see how the phone does not show the lock screen coming from sleep stage. Have to try it again and a few times for it to finally show.

I have had this exact same problem. The first time I unlock and swipe out of habit regardless of whether the back-light has come on or not. It appears that the back-light begins to come on then, while it is in the process of brightening, the slider reaches the unlock and terminates the back-light process. I will press the lock button again, wait a second or two, press the unlock and move the slider more slowly to give the back-light time to fully come on, and I it comes on like a charm.

I'm not 100% sure if this is the same issue as yours, but I'm training myself to be more patient and move just that fraction slower to prevent this from happening.

Quote

3. No search for contact on Dial pad. I use this feature constantly, and now I am re-training myself on now to use the contacts app. Is there a way or a mod I can use to bring this back to my phone?

I have also noticed this, and it breaks my heart. I'm not sure if it was an older version of CM or a different ROM entirely, but I had formed a habit of dialing the first four-six numbers of a popular contact and dialing from the auto populated name. I miss this, but I am growing used to either dialing the whole number or going to my contacts.

Quote

4. Charging issues. Sometimes, my phone simply will not charge. I plug the OEM charger in and sometimes, the charge light starts blinking from orange to green.  The phone reports that the battery is HOT, but the phone is cool, and so is the battery when I pull it. Other times, the phone will simply shut off the charge light and show a question mark on the battery icon. It will not charge. Again, a battery pull will fix this for a day or three.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely zero input on this as I haven't plugged my phone into a charger in a few months. I bought a 2-pack of 1900mAh batteries (standard battery is 1500mAh) that included a wall charger for about twenty bucks on eBay.

With normal/light usage, 4g off, GPS off (unless I'm using a service that specifically requires it), Bluetooth off, and 3g constantly on with a handful of times searching for service (in underground buildings, through rural areas, and the like), I get about 45 hours from 100% to 20%.
However, if you are truly looking for better battery life, I turned my data off and only used it when I was going to look for something on the net maybe 3-5 times a day, I got 120 hours out of that same 80% of the battery.

Quote

5. Touch screen going crazy. After coming in from the lock screen, I have noticed that the screen will not register my commands and will go haywire. Battery pull solved this... and this issue is extremely rare (happened once but I saw it reported here somewhere).

I have no experience with this issue. I'm sorry.



My tangent:

Holy sweet-nipple-of-a-baby-koala is the boot time improved from 7.0!!!! Every time I replaced my battery in the aforementioned process, it would take about four or five minutes to get a fully functional phone. With 7.1 that boot time is down to under a minute. Absolutely stellar.

Also, I'd like to point out that if you do not frequent these forums or the CM website, you should like them on Facebook or follow on Twitter. This is how I found that 7.1 released, and wow am I happy with it.


Thank you dev's for all of your continued hard work and dedication.

[slippers67]

For the dialer number search give Dialer One a try. Works great, looks nice, and has plenty of options. The built in black theme goes well with cm.

[rx7ah]

Also, after reading about the screen issue, I'm going to try turning my auto-brightness off and report back after a day or two.

[Rev.Death]

You may want to try another Kernel, although the stock Cyanogen one should be stable sometimes a different kernel could fix issues with battery and lock screen problems (at least from my experiences from the past). Tiamat works well!

[Ichisan]

I have been researching this question since Sunday when I first rooted my htc evo 4g with cm 7.1 and tiamat 4.0.8. Why would 40% of my battery be drained by cell Standby but it says 0-1% time without signal and more battery user than the display. I am also curious if people getting 30+ battery life show the same percentages of battery usage. I envy anyone who gets more than five hours of battery life with moderate use.
i am really enjoying having a rooted phone if anyone could help me I would appreciate it. I am tempted to flash radios but I know that a last resort and I am not confident of which to use.

[ailima]

@Ichisan.  I don't know.  I'm interested in why it reports that my Screebl Pro app "used" 67% of my battery in the last 8 hours.  That doesn't make sense to me.  Yes, it continuously polls the sensor but come on!  I'm not sure how accurate those numbers are.

[Mordred69]

@rx7ah,
Thanks for your input! I appreciate the time you took to answer my post. I have a 1500mAh battery (After Market) and just sent for a 2000mAh (Standard size). I DO have all my unneeded antennas off at all times. My battery / power issue has been solved. Read on...

@slippers67,
I think I will give that Dialer One a try. I find myself still trying to dial the first few letters of a name and coming up empty because the CM7.1 dialer does not have that feature.

@Rev.Death,
I think that would be a good option to try, although I found out what the battery / charging issue was. Read about it below.

@Ichisan,
Have you tried conditioning your battery? I get over 9 hours battery life with moderate use. Also, watch what you run in your background. Running many programs that have processes always on will drain your battery.

Couple of pointers for you (if I may):
* Watch what you run in the background.
* Lower polling time for emails (I miss push notifications from my blackberry; email handling will NEVER be like that on androids...)
* Lower brightness. Screen is the biggest battery hog.
* Turn off all your unnecessary antennas.


Takeaway:

The power issue I was having was solved by getting a new battery. My HTC OEM battery seems to be on the fritz. After I switched the batteries, I have yet to see any issues with blinking status lights and / or ghost temp readings... so that can be scratched off my gripes. I should actually have waited to report that issue, as it struck me as odd, but sometimes software will report wrong readings, because sensors may be "misunderstood" if the correct drivers / reading routines are not implemented at program-time.

I will try the dialer suggested earlier and report on it. Even though I hate to run third party apps that should be working on a phone and are native to the ROMS, I still like the search feature enough to spend some processing time and battery juice to get it.

Thank you all for your input, and I look forward to see how it all goes with everybody.