Touch Power code regression?

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by Tim123

I have now bought the official Kobo cover case and after 1 week the battery is still at 92%.

I'm pleased you feel you have a solution. But this feature is not applicable to the 'new' touches which share the same firmware, and I still have awful battery life.

[PeterT]

@Shai-Hulud; is it possible it is how YOU are using the device seeing 3 straight units have had the same issues?

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by PeterT

@Shai-Hulud; is it possible it is how YOU are using the device seeing 3 straight units have had the same issues?

I had 3 units total - one 'old style touch' (which generally had good battery life but had the odd occasion where it would hang going from sleep to power-off and drain the battery), and two 'new' touches which have just had awful battery life from the get-go. Personal usage patterns haven't altered between 'old' and 'new' machines and the number of other people complaining of similar issues means I'm reasonably confident it's not user related

[robko]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

Personal usage patterns haven't altered between 'old' and 'new' machines and the number of other people complaining of similar issues means I'm reasonably confident it's not user related

I just went back through all the current battery threads and from what I counted it looks like maybe a maximum of 5 people reporting severe drain like you and Mrs Often are experiencing. From that and the fact that it's happening to a number of the 5 that have replaced devices (multiple times in some cases) it suggests there is something with content/usage/settings of individual users that's causing the issue rather than a widespread hardware or firmware issue. I think that's why Peter was asking the question. I also see that in another thread that you're trying to come up with a common factor which is probably a good idea. It would suck to have that poor of battery life so I hope something shows up in that list that makes it reproducible by others.

[CroatianFan]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

I've noticed an infrequent but persistent problem affecting battery life on the Kobo touch.

I run the device in Airplane mode with an auto-sleep timeout of 15 minutes and a power-off timeout of 30 minutes. Every so often when either manually flicking the power switch to sleep mode or letting the machine timeout to enter sleep mode, it subsequently fails to enter power-off mode. Furthermore when this occurs and I flick the power switch back on I notice a fair chunk of battery reserve has been eaten up. e.g. Enter sleep mode at 1 a.m. with 94% battery. Resume 7 hours later at 8 a.m. with 67% battery! It's almost as if the machine enters some kind of loop which chews through more power than if it was in true sleep or power off mode. Anyhow the net result is the same: I end up charging every few days if this happens. ... Has anyone else seen this behaviour?

Hi! I had similar problems with poor battery life in my Kobo Touch (purchased in Austria in October last year) after installing firmware 2.3.1.

I managed to solve that problem with simple solution - I turned off automatic Sleep & Power (set to 'Never'), and Screensaver also. After that, my battery lasted some two weeks with at least two hours of reading per day. E-reader was constantly in power-on mode.

Three days ago I installed firmware 2.4.0. Now, it seems to me the battery life is much better now with automatic Sleep & Power turned on, but I need more time & testing to be sure...

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by CroatianFan

Hi! I had similar problems with poor battery life in my Kobo Touch (purchased in Austria in October last year) after installing firmware 2.3.1.

I managed to solve that problem with simple solution - I turned off automatic Sleep & Power (set to 'Never'), and Screensaver also. After that, my battery lasted some two weeks with at least two hours of reading per day. E-reader was constantly in power-on mode.

Three days ago I installed firmware 2.4.0. Now, it seems to me the battery life is much better now with automatic Sleep & Power turned on, but I need more time & testing to be sure...

Thank you for sharing. I wonder! If the battery of my replacement Glo turns out 'bad' as well I'll try switching off auto sleep. I never use that anyway, always put it to sleep with the slider manually. Power off is already set to 'never.'

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by robko

I just went back through all the current battery threads and from what I counted it looks like maybe a maximum of 5 people reporting severe drain like you and Mrs Often are experiencing. From that and the fact that it's happening to a number of the 5 that have replaced devices (multiple times in some cases) it suggests there is something with content/usage/settings of individual users that's causing the issue rather than a widespread hardware or firmware issue. I think that's why Peter was asking the question. I also see that in another thread that you're trying to come up with a common factor which is probably a good idea. It would suck to have that poor of battery life so I hope something shows up in that list that makes it reproducible by others.

Interesting. Thanks for putting some time and effort in! I too am beginning to suspect settings or *something* non-hardware. However we're having trouble finding similarities, plus, it doesn't explain why my old Touch is fine and my Glo isn't/wasn't with the exact same settings and content...

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by robko

I just went back through all the current battery threads and from what I counted it looks like maybe a maximum of 5 people reporting severe drain like you and Mrs Often are experiencing.

I'm surprised it's that few to be honest. It certainly sounds like more but I haven't actually counted myself.

Originally Posted by robko

it suggests there is something with content/usage/settings of individual users that's causing the issue rather than a widespread hardware or firmware issue. I think that's why Peter was asking the question.

Well quite - all questions are legitimate in attempting to solve a gnarly issue by a process of elimination. So let me expand on my reply to PeterT.

1. I've had two "new" touches - can both have faulty hardware? Unlikely though far from impossible.

2. I haven't applied any non-standard hacks. So any peculiar behaviour arising from a specific combination of Kobo supplied settings chosen by the user (e.g. font, justification, page refresh etc) would still be classed as a firmware problem. It's just that the bug will have been found by a user rather than Kobo developers/testers and Beta testers. This is plausible.

3. As Mrs_Often has also pointed out, there is a marked difference in power usage between old and new Touch devices even though they are used/tested in the same fashion. Indeed after setting the same firmware revision (2.1.5) I have fully charged both devices, applied the same settings and the new device will still be dead long before the old one. This kind of scuttles point 2 EXCEPT there is still a slight difference in firmware between old and new touches even at the same revision level. Hence firmware again.

So from my perspective either both new devices are faulty (bad batch?) or there's a genuine power usage issue in the new touch/glo firmware. Now as I've pointed out previously, battery life is number one for me, so perhaps I would notice it more than other users? I don't know - which was why I posted in the first place.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

3. As Mrs_Often has also pointed out, there is a marked difference in power usage between old and new Touch devices even though they are used/tested in the same fashion. Indeed after setting the same firmware revision (2.1.5) I have fully charged both devices, applied the same settings and the new device will still be dead long before the old one. This kind of scuttles point 2 EXCEPT there is still a slight difference in firmware between old and new touches even at the same revision level. Hence firmware again.

So from my perspective either both new devices are faulty (bad batch?) or there's a genuine power usage issue in the new touch/glo firmware.

Ah quite true indeed. I'd not thought of that.

However: that doesn't explain the differences between new version firmware. For instance, davidfor's Glo has perfect battery life, and is surely also using the firmware for "new" devices.

(BTW, my replacement Glo seems to be going in the wrong direction: 100% yesterday morning, 31 hours later it's at 62%.)

[Shai-Hulud]

I guess what needs to be done to answer this problem definitively is find a person willing to sacrifice a week's reading or so that also claim NOT to have a problem with power drain on the new firmware. We'll choose a Project Gutenberg book by mutual agreement, agree a test regime and test. Then I shall adopt their settings in their entirety and they mine and repeat the testing again.

It's long winded and annoying but the only way I can see to eliminate firmware from the equation.

EDIT: Should have said a new Touch in order to eliminate any additional drain from the Glo's LEDs

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

I guess what needs to be done to answer this problem definitively is find a person willing to sacrifice a week's reading or so that also claim NOT to have a problem with power drain on the new firmware. We'll choose a Project Gutenberg book by mutual agreement, agree a test regime and test. Then I shall adopt their settings in their entirety and they mine and repeat the testing again.

It's long winded and annoying but the only way I can see to eliminate firmware from the equation.

A similar test has already been done by davidfor. He used one of VelvetElvis' books and did not experience any battery life problems.

I just realised. There is one difference in settings between my good Touch and bad Glo: I use two different kobo accounts...

I can HARDLY imagine there's a battery drain link with certain kobo accounts, but you can never be sure. Have you by any chance tried to use a different account? Maybe make a fresh new kobo account and log in with that, see if anything changes.

I plan to do that if after 3 cycles or so my bad Glo still is bad.

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

A similar test has already been done by davidfor. He used one of VelvetElvis' books and did not experience any battery life problems.

Typically I saw that after I posted my reply It would still require a complete setting swap between devices before you can say for definite however.

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I just realised. There is one difference in settings between my good Touch and bad Glo: I use two different kobo accounts...

I cannot conceive of how this would alter power usage in the slightest. At the end of the day it's just a slightly different record entry in the sqllite database.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

Now as I've pointed out previously, battery life is number one for me, so perhaps I would notice it more than other users? I don't know - which was why I posted in the first place.

No, the battery life you're getting is wrong and unacceptable. It's not you being sensitive to wanting longer life. For comparison, in my case, using the light all the time, every page refresh, downloading 2 newspapers per day (usually 1.5-2 MB each, so bigger than a lot of books), and sleep only (never off), and 2-3 hours reading/day, I get around 2 weeks. I would consider that a relatively high power use regime so you should be getting more than the 2 to 3 or 4 days you're getting.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by robko

No, the battery life you're getting is wrong and unacceptable. It's not you being sensitive to wanting longer life. For comparison, in my case, using the light all the time, every page refresh, downloading 2 newspapers per day (usually 1.5-2 MB each, so bigger than a lot of books), and sleep only (never off), and 2-3 hours reading/day, I get around 2 weeks. I would consider that a relatively high power use regime so you should be getting more than the 2 to 3 or 4 days you're getting.

Sounds like nice battery life. Any chance you'd be willing to share your exact settings, following the settings menu per point?

[PeterT]

Are SD cards in use? I ask as I know the last time I tried them on MY Touch the unit refused to go to sleep; it would start the sleep process and roughly 60 seconds later would wake up, and then fall back asleep.