Forma Battery tanking?

Scaledish · 03-19-2020, 04:28 PM

As many of you know, I just got a forma. I understand the light bands, but my battery stinks. with wifi off, in about 2 hours of reading, I lost 20% of battery. that's worse than my phone.

. I use caliber, although not vigorously, just to put tor.com books on. so far I have only charged through my computer, to 100%. I HAVE NOT "repaired the device" as Microsoft suggests when I plug it in. I have not done a factory reset today, however yesterday after making a mistake getting pb chess, it had to repair its self, and that triggered a reset. even before that, the battery drained fast (wifi was on then). any ideas? I am on the latest firmware according to kobo sync.

TD;LR kobo forma battery issues

10% a hour
wifi is off
factory reset due to error yesterday
still had issue yesterday
Barly use calibre (most books from overdrive)

any ideas?

Dr. Drib · 03-19-2020, 04:34 PM

If you put too many books on at once, the battery (on any ebook reader) will drain fast as it attempts to index the titles.

How many titles have you put on - total?

Scaledish · 03-19-2020, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

If you put too many books on at once, the battery (on any ebook reader) will drain fast as it attempts to index the titles.

How many titles have you put on - total?

7

NiLuJe · 03-19-2020, 04:51 PM

Don't trust/worry about the actual value shown in the battery gauge, it's mostly wonky in various circumstances.

Worry about the actual runtime, which shouldn't be drastically different than that of any other eReader

EDIT: Provided nothing stupid is running on your device.

Scaledish · 03-19-2020, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Don't trust/worry about the actual value shown in the battery gauge, it's mostly wonky in various circumstances.

Worry about the actual runtime, which shouldn't be drastically different than that of any other eReader (EDIT: Provided nothing stupid is running on your device).

what are stupid things i could put on it? currently to my knowledge, it is stock, however there could be leftover from my old pb chess install. I will charge tonight and track the read time

Dr. Drib · 03-19-2020, 07:21 PM

Perhaps there is a possibility one of the 7 is not indexing?

rashkae · 03-19-2020, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Perhaps there is a possibility one of the 7 is not indexing?

Kindle forums are *that* way.. Kobo's don't index.

That being said, it's very possible for a process to get stuck at full cpu utalization, and since there is no user accessible process monitor, the only indication of this you will see is unusual battery drain. The first thing to try is simply to reboot the device. press and hold the power button to force a shutdown. And turn it back on. (you will know you succeeded by the booting up dots/circles.)

John F · 03-19-2020, 08:10 PM

I thought you needed to go through a couple of charging cycles to calibrate the battery meter?

davidfor · 03-19-2020, 08:48 PM

Just to be clear, way in the past Kobo would claim 60 days of battery life for some of the ereaders. Then they claimed 30 days for the later devices. Now, the claim "weeks". From memory, the Aura ONE was the last one that used the time and it was the latter.

The original claims were based on 30 minutes of reading. So, the claimed battery life means 30 and 15 hours. Using the latter, 10% is 1.5 hours. That is worse than what you are seeing, but, it depends on what you are doing.

If the only thing you are doing is reading, then it isn't good. But, the more you turn the page, the faster the more power is used and the faster the battery is used. If you sit there paging through the library, it will use a lot of battery. What you read will have an affect on the battery life. Reading comics will probably use more power as the graphics have to be rendered and the pages are turned more often. And a faster reader will also run the battery down faster.

Other actions such as when new books are added will use a lot of power. Each book is read to get the metadata and update the database. That is going to be CPU and disk intensive, so adding a lot of books in one hit will use a lot of power. That's the only impact using calibre will have. But, odds are it will roughly balance out as when you have the device connected to add the books, it is charging the battery.

As @NiLuJe said, you need to use it and learn what the battery usage is like when you are just reading.

rashkae · 03-20-2020, 03:42 AM

Forma Battery life has been *way* better than 10% an hour for me. Though I think, besides turning off wifi, the single biggest variance will be how bright you have the light.

Poppaea · 03-20-2020, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scaledish

7

Depends on how big a book they are, too.

I just got a new (to me) Neal Stephenson which has 17.3 MB. It's fiction, one map, one picture. Another one by Stephen Fry has not a single picture but 17.8 MB and my cookbooks go up as high as 220 MB. Where old editions of Harlan Cobens "Myron Bolitar" had 0.3 MB the new ones have 4.4 MB. Mind you, none of them has a single picture or map that could cause this.

Like othes have said, it could be a mixture of big books, wifi on, playing with it a lot because it is new to you...

Another thing: Are you sure you are on the latest firmware? IIRC there was a firmware with a shorter battery life.

Scaledish · 03-20-2020, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Depends on how big a book they are, too.

I just got a new (to me) Neal Stephenson which has 17.3 MB. It's fiction, one map, one picture. Another one by Stephen Fry has not a single picture but 17.8 MB and my cookbooks go up as high as 220 MB. Where old editions of Harlan Cobens "Myron Bolitar" had 0.3 MB the new ones have 4.4 MB. Mind you, none of them has a single picture or map that could cause this.

Like othes have said, it could be a mixture of big books, wifi on, playing with it a lot because it is new to you...

Another thing: Are you sure you are on the latest firmware? IIRC there was a firmware with a shorter battery life.

according to sync, yes, but I heard that that might not be correct always. it is 4.20.14622

patrik · 03-20-2020, 11:08 AM

My old Aura HD had an amazing battery. I actually never charged it (on purpose) since it got charged enough due to my many Calibre-connections.

It's maybe 40% of what it used to be today, but it's still better than my Forma.

I hope the trend to go "light & thin" will end soon... (or maybe graphene batteries will make it a mute point).

stumped · 03-20-2020, 12:45 PM

i always re-charge before it even gets to 50%
the way the world is now, a charged, and functioning reader, with plenty of books, is all you may have to preserve your sanity in social isolation if the internet shuts down

i see netflix has agreed to reduce streaming quality all across Europe - is nothing sacred ?
surely the powers that be could have shut pornhub instead and left us with some quality movie streams

[ & the pornhub fans could, like, use their imagination instead - worked when I was young

]

JSWolf · 03-20-2020, 12:59 PM

I'll change my H2O sometime this weekend so I can update the firmware. I always charge before doing the firmware/patches.

03-19-2020, 04:28 PM	#1
Scaledish A friend Posts: 134 Karma: 1152040 Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Somewhere in boston Device: Kobo Forma	Battery tanking? As many of you know, I just got a forma. I understand the light bands, but my battery stinks. with wifi off, in about 2 hours of reading, I lost 20% of battery. that's worse than my phone. . I use caliber, although not vigorously, just to put tor.com books on. so far I have only charged through my computer, to 100%. I HAVE NOT "repaired the device" as Microsoft suggests when I plug it in. I have not done a factory reset today, however yesterday after making a mistake getting pb chess, it had to repair its self, and that triggered a reset. even before that, the battery drained fast (wifi was on then). any ideas? I am on the latest firmware according to kobo sync. TD;LR kobo forma battery issues 10% a hour wifi is off factory reset due to error yesterday still had issue yesterday Barly use calibre (most books from overdrive) any ideas?

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03-19-2020, 04:34 PM	#2
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,611 Karma: 60184181 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	If you put too many books on at once, the battery (on any ebook reader) will drain fast as it attempts to index the titles. How many titles have you put on - total?

03-19-2020, 04:51 PM	#4
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	Don't trust/worry about the actual value shown in the battery gauge, it's mostly wonky in various circumstances. Worry about the actual runtime, which shouldn't be drastically different than that of any other eReader EDIT: Provided nothing stupid is running on your device.

03-19-2020, 07:21 PM	#6
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,611 Karma: 60184181 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	Perhaps there is a possibility one of the 7 is not indexing?

03-19-2020, 08:10 PM	#8
John F Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,003 Karma: 71261339 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo Clara 2E	I thought you needed to go through a couple of charging cycles to calibrate the battery meter?

03-19-2020, 08:48 PM	#9
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Just to be clear, way in the past Kobo would claim 60 days of battery life for some of the ereaders. Then they claimed 30 days for the later devices. Now, the claim "weeks". From memory, the Aura ONE was the last one that used the time and it was the latter. The original claims were based on 30 minutes of reading. So, the claimed battery life means 30 and 15 hours. Using the latter, 10% is 1.5 hours. That is worse than what you are seeing, but, it depends on what you are doing. If the only thing you are doing is reading, then it isn't good. But, the more you turn the page, the faster the more power is used and the faster the battery is used. If you sit there paging through the library, it will use a lot of battery. What you read will have an affect on the battery life. Reading comics will probably use more power as the graphics have to be rendered and the pages are turned more often. And a faster reader will also run the battery down faster. Other actions such as when new books are added will use a lot of power. Each book is read to get the metadata and update the database. That is going to be CPU and disk intensive, so adding a lot of books in one hit will use a lot of power. That's the only impact using calibre will have. But, odds are it will roughly balance out as when you have the device connected to add the books, it is charging the battery. As @NiLuJe said, you need to use it and learn what the battery usage is like when you are just reading.

03-20-2020, 03:42 AM	#10
rashkae Wizard Posts: 1,277 Karma: 5935030 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Aura HD	Forma Battery life has been way better than 10% an hour for me. Though I think, besides turning off wifi, the single biggest variance will be how bright you have the light.

03-20-2020, 11:08 AM	#13
patrik Guru Posts: 684 Karma: 4568205 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Kobo Forma	My old Aura HD had an amazing battery. I actually never charged it (on purpose) since it got charged enough due to my many Calibre-connections. It's maybe 40% of what it used to be today, but it's still better than my Forma. I hope the trend to go "light & thin" will end soon... (or maybe graphene batteries will make it a mute point).

03-20-2020, 12:45 PM	#14
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	i always re-charge before it even gets to 50% the way the world is now, a charged, and functioning reader, with plenty of books, is all you may have to preserve your sanity in social isolation if the internet shuts down i see netflix has agreed to reduce streaming quality all across Europe - is nothing sacred ? surely the powers that be could have shut pornhub instead and left us with some quality movie streams [ & the pornhub fans could, like, use their imagination instead - worked when I was young ]

03-20-2020, 12:59 PM	#15
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,727 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I'll change my H2O sometime this weekend so I can update the firmware. I always charge before doing the firmware/patches.

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