Weird battery life problem

[lowlife]

Oddest thing just happened to my 3G iPad. I have the unlimited AT&T plan and always have full bars. I unplugged my iPad at around 7:00 this morning. I get to work and fiddle with it for maybe 30 min. The iPad has a home right next to my computer in my office. I leave it there from about 8:00 to 12:30. When I turn it on to check this forum I notice that my battery is down to 51%. What the heck?

Nothing was running and I have my own locked office so no one messed with it.

Even more interesting it is now down from 51 to 49 while I am writing this post??????

 

[NumbLock]

I wonder if you have something stuck running in the background. Try a restart?

 

[john]

I was going to ask about a reboot too. I'd wonder if remaining battery was the same when you turn it back on.

You may have answered this, when you said full bars (because it seemed like you were talking about ATT/3G, but are you sure it was reporting fully charged when you left your house?

Regards,

Either way, I'd reboot and watch your battery life VERY closely, if it happens again, take it to an Apple store.

Regards,

 

[Edlex]

It's pretty much my morning ritual to restart it every day. Guess I'm just used to it with my palm pre.

 

[lowlife]

I did a restart and that seemed to have fixed it.

@John I had full signal on 3G and full battery. I will be monitoring this real close.

@edlex I am going to have to pick up that habit. I wish there was a way for it to automatically do this.

The last thing I added to my iPad was the cloud browse app. I wonder if that caused the issue? Apple did warn us against flash....

 

[lowlife]

I spoke to soon. I am down an additional 9% from my last post. I guess it full restore time.

 

[Edlex]

I did a restart and that seemed to have fixed it.

@John I had full signal on 3G and full battery. I will be monitoring this real close.

@edlex I am going to have to pick up that habit. I wish there was a way for it to automatically do this.

The last thing I added to my iPad was the cloud browse app. I wonder if that caused the issue? Apple did warn us against flash....

I found that cloud browse to be real buggy plus you really can't use it at 2x anyway. I socked it away until it gets a serious ipad update.

 

[rowan]

You know that 3G sucks battery life, right? Why not turn off the 3G and see if it drains as fast with just Wi-Fi left on?

 

[largefarva]

You know that 3G sucks battery life, right? Why not turn off the 3G and see if it drains as fast with just Wi-Fi left on?

It shouldn't drain it nearly that fast. If memory serves me correctly, the 3G should give about 9 hours of constant use at 50% brightness.

To the OP.....9% drained in 20 minutes is way too fast.....might want to take it in to get it checked out.

 

[AbblePC]

Something else to think about...

I know most of you got your new iPad and on first power up had a little less than or at 100% charge. You may have even noticed it lasting longer on this 100% charge than on any other since then.

The thing is and this is directed at all i devices ( as well as others, but this is Apple specific for now), but the 100% charge is typically what people will see reached and unplug the device to continue using it or stow it away for a little while. That's all fine, its 100% charged but not fully trickle charged. The truth is within the charging cycle to be a Full cycle considered by Apple, would be that 2 hours after it reached 80% to get 100% of the charge cycle.

So the 100% doesn't always mean its exactly that, at least once a month give a deep cycle charge to keep your iPad battery healthy and charge two hours beyond. An all night charge will suffice, unless you only gave it 4 hours charge time overall, I'm talking to you night owls!

So, to see this information in Apples light, head on over to this link for charge cycles and while your at it, you can check this info for getting good battery life.

For those technically inclined, you may already be aware or have other spiffy information than explained here, but this is for those who would rather stick to keeping their iPads healthy but without that engineering degree behind it.

 

[Sincere11105]

I would try a restore. I heard it helps the battery life. I have to try it on my ipad wifi. Even though I don't have a problem with battery

 

[lowlife]

YAY, the problem seems to have stopped. I just reset the iPad then drained the battery. After a night of charging all is well.

It does bring to light a frustration as a windows user. NO TASK MANAGER....

 

[gentlefury]

YAY, the problem seems to have stopped. I just reset the iPad then drained the battery. After a night of charging all is well.

It does bring to light a frustration as a windows user. NO TASK MANAGER....

Well, unless you jailbreak the iPad there is no need for a task manager since it will only allow one non-system app to run at a time. If you are jailbroken you can install SBSettings, it includes a task manager that lets you kill any running applications and clear memory if anything is somehow persisting after close.

 

[lowlife]

YAY, the problem seems to have stopped. I just reset the iPad then drained the battery. After a night of charging all is well.

It does bring to light a frustration as a windows user. NO TASK MANAGER....

Well, unless you jailbreak the iPad there is no need for a task manager since it will only allow one non-system app to run at a time. If you are jailbroken you can install SBSettings, it includes a task manager that lets you kill any running applications and clear memory if anything is somehow persisting after close.

Good point. This is a one task at a time device. The reason that I want a task manager is because I felt that something was running in the background as Numlock suggested.

 

[deoknam]

Thanks for the sound advice!