Glo Glo Battery Problems

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I do think our Kobo's would last us longer, but we'd still have a bad battery if it is the battery that is bad. If it's the firmware that messes up something in sleep mode, it would be a good workaround (although I don't like waiting for startup) – but it wouldn't help to find out what's going on.

I know that sleep vs power-off is a highly contentious topic on mobileread. I work purely on results and adopting a power-off strategy definitely extends the battery life for me - much more on the old touch than the new. I originally got involved in these general power discussions because of an observation that occasionally the old Touch would fail to slip from sleep-mode into full power-off mode and when this manifested it would chew through the battery power at an alarming rate. This bug aside, I believe the current poor life in newer machines is down to a bug with power management in the chosen linux kernel for the NEW touch/Glo (the old Touch was for the most part well-behaved).

Suspicions aren't enough of course. The only way we as users are going to know with any certainty is
a) Kobo admits to a problem (more chance of the Pope advocating condoms) b) have a reasonable sized group of us agree to a common testing regime in which both affected parties and non-affected parties with Touches and Glos adopt a common set of settings and test on free epubs. This should at least prove or disprove whether the hardware is at fault.

The biggest problem with b) is finding a statistically significant number of people (especially those unaffected) willing to give up the two weeks or so (2 tests - good settings/bad settings) necessary to do this. End result =

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Very disappointing indeed

I can't help notice though, it's a 24 hour sleep, right?

Yes. With the last reader, I was generally doing a morning and evening battery reading. Unless you mean a constant sleep without powering off?

I think davidfor made a very interesting point. I've seen no (or some) battery drain a couple of times when I had the Glo sleeping but checked its battery within 10 hours. So maybe it's a valid point... something going on after a certain amount of hours in sleep – which is in the firmware for the newer devices. This would explain perfect battery life for older devices ("old"/other firmware), and it would also explain why only some of us with newer devices are seeing the battery troubles (not everyone sleeps their device >10 hours).

Have you tried checking at more regular intervals? If I were you I'd try every 8 or so hours at least during your next battery cycle

It's dead again now (100% full charge to "Please recharge..." in 72 hours.) I will try a couple more things tomorrow. Leaving it on charge all night. Again. It's insane. I've been using Calibre and sideloaded epubs for probably 4 years now, and never ever had anything like this.

PM him yourself! That's how I got some attention

After I finish another test, I most certainly will. Thanks for the head's up.

[moffattm]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

• Feb 24 – 3:00 pm 100%
• Feb 25 – 3:00 pm 54%

Just for fun I charged my Glo to 100% and put it to sleep at 9pm on Monday. At 9am on Tuesday I flicked it on just to see what it was at and it still read 100%. At 9pm on Tuesday evening I flicked it on and it had dropped to 99%. And I noticed that I had left WIFI turned on for the 24 hours that it was asleep.

It would be interesting to see how long it will last in sleep mode but I'm not sure I can leave my Glo unused for that long!

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by moffattm

And I noticed that I had left WIFI turned on for the 24 hours that it was asleep.

When the Kobo enters sleep mode, it would HAVE to turn off Wifi, surely?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

Yes. With the last reader, I was generally doing a morning and evening battery reading. Unless you mean a constant sleep without powering off?

Uhhhmmm, I'm not sure. You mean you had it sleeping, and switched it on in the mornig, checked, put it back to sleep, and did the same in evening right? No off-mode. So two checks in 24 hours. I think it might be worth checking more regularly, to prevent it sleeping >12 (10?) hours in one go. As davidfor mentioned there *might* be something going on after a certain amount of hours sleep. So say, have it sleeping, check in the morning, midday and just before you go to bed, at least?

Having said that, I thought I was getting better battery life doing that. However, my Glo dropped to 0% (Please charge...) last night, giving me only 109 hours (4.5 days) of use from 100% to 0%

I did see a difference this time when I plugged it in though. I made sure I started it up from "Please charge..." to completely empty the battery. I was able to turn it on four (!!) times, so there must still have been a lot of battery reserve left. And when I plugged it in, the percent was actually at 1%, like it should be, instead of 11% or 33% right away like I saw with my first Glo. So. Although I have bad results right now, I'm still hopeful this battery is better than my last... though, actually, 4.5 days... pff that's ridiculous.

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

It's dead again now (100% full charge to "Please recharge..." in 72 hours.) I will try a couple more things tomorrow. Leaving it on charge all night. Again. It's insane. I've been using Calibre and sideloaded epubs for probably 4 years now, and never ever had anything like this.

Nooooo

Originally Posted by moffattm

Just for fun I charged my Glo to 100% and put it to sleep at 9pm on Monday. At 9am on Tuesday I flicked it on just to see what it was at and it still read 100%. At 9pm on Tuesday evening I flicked it on and it had dropped to 99%. And I noticed that I had left WIFI turned on for the 24 hours that it was asleep.

Thanks for doing that. Sounds like my perfect Olde Touch results. I want.

[Mrs_Often]

GOOD NEWS

Sameer has stated our battery life problems are unlikely to be caused by the battery.

Kobo is looking into it.

[Willa]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

GOOD NEWS

Sameer has stated our battery life problems are unlikely to be caused by the battery.

Kobo is looking into it.

Interesting twirls moustache . .

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Willa

Interesting twirls moustache . .

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

GOOD NEWS
Sameer has stated our battery life problems are unlikely to be caused by the battery.
Kobo is looking into it.

Aha this is more promising (the hitherto unconfirmed firmware bug I was looking for?). I just wished they could have been more forthcoming about this beforehand and can but hope they will engage with us more in the future. Being open about problems fosters trust and builds a better relationship based on co-operation. Gosh that sounds rather Star-Trekky doesn't it?

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

GOOD NEWS

Sameer has stated our battery life problems are unlikely to be caused by the battery.

Kobo is looking into it.

Excellent.

I was all but certain that I wouldn't have had *3* bad Glo's in a row. For the time being, I'm having it power off after sleeping 15 minutes, but that's certainly a sub-optimal solution.

Looking forward to a fix.

[moffattm]

Originally Posted by jusmee

When the Kobo enters sleep mode, it would HAVE to turn off Wifi, surely?

That's what I would have thought. I only mentioned it because I have a vague recollection of people talking about older Kobo models and subscribing to magazines. Apparently if WIFI was turned on then they would wake up every so often from sleep mode and check to see if there were any updates to the magazine subscriptions, even if you didn't subscribe to any magazines. At least I think that's how it used to work, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[moffattm]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Thanks for doing that. Sounds like my perfect Olde Touch results. I want.

I left it sleeping over night, making a total of 36 hours sleeping, and it's still reading 99%.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by moffattm

I left it sleeping over night, making a total of 36 hours sleeping, and it's still reading 99%.

Nice. Thanks. So it's not a bug with longer than 12 h sleep then...

[robko]

Originally Posted by moffattm

That's what I would have thought. I only mentioned it because I have a vague recollection of people talking about older Kobo models and subscribing to magazines. Apparently if WIFI was turned on then they would wake up every so often from sleep mode and check to see if there were any updates to the magazine subscriptions, even if you didn't subscribe to any magazines. At least I think that's how it used to work, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct. The old Wifi Kobo (if you left the wifi on and the reader in sleep mode) would check twice in the morning and automatically download any subscriptions you had. I miss that feature . It did have a hit on battery life that would seem to have been more than just from having the wifi on (probably because it had to stay "awake" enough to know when to wake up and check (rather than just waiting for the switch to turn it back on). It used to freak some people out if they had left this feature on and didn't know it and looked at their reader and suddenly it was awake when they had left it asleep the night before.

[moffattm]

Thanks for clarifying that, my memory isn't what it used to be and I just remembered something to do with sleeping, WIFI and subscriptions.