4

My regular uptime on Samsung Galaxy S2 was around 6 days. For the last couple of weeks it is down to less than 3 days. The change was instant, but I was hoping it would come back - it did not. Running ICS 4.0.3 from Samsung. No change of activity - I primarily use my phone to talk, no games, browsing etc. I installed System Tuner, looked in the system log and found this event happening every second or so: "DrReadUsbStatus returns false USB is offline" Similar problem on the internet:

According to some sources, it could be causing battery life issues.

Samsung suggest a hard reset - trying to avoid that at all costs.

Victor Zakharov
  • 185
  • 2
  • 4
  • 12

1 Answers1

3

The error seems like something regular. A Google Search reveals many places it is mentioned (with a logcat), but almost nowhere it is commented on -- except for GALAXY W Constant Error in Logcat (XDA).

A shame they removed the wakelock stats from *#*#4636#*#* service menu (which would have offered you a quick way to check) with Gingerbread and up. You might want to look for some monitor app on the market (there's e.g. SystemPanel which might prove helpful) to figure out what keeps your device awake.

In case this app doesn't provide the required information (I already mentioned Wakelocks being the most probable cause), there's another useful app: BetterBatteryStats (also mentioned in the XDA-Link) seems to bring back Wake-Lock stats. As a short and eased-up explanation: An app might request the CPU not going to sleep, but still not actually use the CPU, though - the Android PowerManager API provides an interface for this). So BetterBatteryStats should help you find the responsible app:

BetterBatteryStats: Kernel Wakelocks BetterBatteryStats: Partial Wakelocks

For reference, here's the link to the BetterBatteryStats Thread on XDA, including the App (and its Changelog) as well as some closer explanation, especially on Wake-Locks.

Izzy
  • 91,166
  • 73
  • 343
  • 943
  • It does not seem like any app is eating battery. I ran a recording in System Tuner, taking samples every 20 minutes for 24 hours; here is what it says: CPU utilization 19m 49s, Android System 8m 59s, Fancy Widgets 3m 49s, System Tuner Pro 1m 39s, System UI 1m 20s, Settings 55s, WidgetLocker 39s, everything else is less than that. Hard to explain, unless there is a hidden process, which it does not show. SystemPanel does not seem to add any useful information to that. Is there a way to repair Android installation somehow, so maybe it will fix this USB issue? – Victor Zakharov Aug 11 '12 at 18:24
  • 1
    I don't think it's really CPU usage, rather some app keeping it alive by requesting "Wake-Locks". I will update my answer now with a few more informations. – Izzy Aug 11 '12 at 18:41
  • Installed BetterBatteryStats - measuring "Other" since unplugged (since 7 h 10 m 22 s) - No Data Connection ratio 100%, no or unknown signal ratio 100%, wifi on 38.1%, wifi running 38%, everything else is less. Kernel wakelocks - no events catched. Partial wakelocks - ConnectivityService count:586, NetworkLocationLocator:89 - is it where the problem lies? – Victor Zakharov Aug 11 '12 at 21:27
  • Update for partial wakelocks - ConnectivityService count:722, seems to be happening quite often. – Victor Zakharov Aug 11 '12 at 22:49
  • The linked XDA article says wakelocks are the most important one when it comes to battery drain (you might want to follow the original post for closer details). Taking the max count of 586+89=675 and divide it by the time given (675/430~=1,5) this means about 1,5 partial wakelocks requested per minute. I'd say your phone hardly get's a chance to go to "green mode" (update: (722+89)/430~=1,9, which means about all 30s!). I'm no expert, but I'd say this is it. – Izzy Aug 11 '12 at 22:52
  • 1
    This also matches with your initial suspection: USB is part of connectivity. Maybe a developer could tune in here and say if ConnectivityService and DrReadUsbStatus belong together? As you're running an official ROM supplied by Samsung, I'd confront the service with these details. They will probably want you to factory reset, so use that chance to tell them they should include Titanium Backup (or any equivalent solution if there is) with their official ROM next time, so you wouldn't lose any data... – Izzy Aug 11 '12 at 22:57
  • I just added a screenshot of BetterBatteryStats to my answer above. The time frame is comparable with yours, but the number of Wakelocks significantly higher. As the screenshot shows, each entry also shows for how long Wakelocks have been hold -- you should check that as well. – Izzy Aug 11 '12 at 23:07
  • Another update - ConnectivityService count:1461, I disabled wifi and left it like that overnight, estimated total runtime increased to 5d+ according to Battery Monitor Widget. DataRouter errors still present. So actually it may be unrelated to battery life issues. – Victor Zakharov Aug 12 '12 at 12:25
  • Total runtime might simply reference time elapsed since it was started. As pointed out above, you should check with activity times reported by BetterBatteryStat. – Izzy Aug 12 '12 at 13:38
  • By total runtime I meant time since last charged + remaining estimate. First is approx. 1d now, second shows as 5d+, so total 6d+ - not bad. Enabling wifi causes it to drop to 3-4 days after 1-2 hours (when estimate is adjusted). BTW, ConnectivityService locks never happened since wifi was disabled (according to BetterBatteryStats). So really it must be something about wifi now. Developer of Battery monitor widget suggested I should research CONNECTION permissions and disable/freeze/remove apps that use it, then re-enable wifi and see if is still eating battery. I'll post an update soon. – Victor Zakharov Aug 12 '12 at 17:43
  • Good idea. Btw: Did you have mobile data enabled during that last test? I mean, if it's some app going havoc as soon as it sees a network would mean this should also happen with mobile data. If it doesn't happen with mobile data, that's another item off the list. – Izzy Aug 12 '12 at 19:31
  • Mobile data is disabled at all times. – Victor Zakharov Aug 12 '12 at 23:03
  • So what happens if you keep Wifi off, but enable mobile data? If this causes the same trouble, it's likely to be some app accessing the network. Runninc ICS, I'd recommend checking the related statistics which were introduced with ICS (still being on GB, I cannot cross-check), which should give you traffic stats down to the app level. Or maybe you remember any network related app installed recently. – Izzy Aug 13 '12 at 06:31
  • Last time I paid 5$ for 30K of data (all of it was local, no roaming) - another reason to keep it disabled at all times. Regarding apps, I am planning to remove all of them that potentially can access the internet, and see if I still have a problem with wifi on, if it's gone, then re-install one-by-one and figure out. A bit of a hassle, but better than doing a hard reset. I think it could be one of the app's updates, cause I specifically removed all newer apps and there is still a problem. Wish they had these stats on wifi as well. – Victor Zakharov Aug 13 '12 at 12:45
  • Ok, so I uninstalled all recently installed applications, but the issue still persisted. I disabled Wifi and the estimated uptime went as high as 7 days. Enabled Wifi - down to 3 days again. Disabled wifi and kept like that for 2 days. Enabled wifi again - 5 days. Now I am getting 5-6 days stable, same as before. Weird, but the issue has been resolved [by itself] for now. Thanks, Izzy. – Victor Zakharov Aug 23 '12 at 13:51
  • Glad to read! Though, 3 days are pretty good for a smartphone in use. With my "productive phone" I lucky to reach the second evening -- but that's probably rather to bad radio reception at work (just staying home, it lasts noticably longer)... – Izzy Aug 23 '12 at 14:10