Workaround for HTC Hero battery life issues discovered
By Donald Melanson 
posted Oct 29th 2009 5:26PM
posted Oct 29th 2009 5:26PM
Well, there still isn't a fix for the problem some people seem to be having with receiving text messages on their HTC Hero, but it looks like a workaround has been discovered for another pesky issue that can put a strain on the phone's battery life. Apparently, the phone has a bit of trouble going back into sleep mode after you send a text, or after you simply turn on the phone and immediately disable the screen without any activity. While some fairly elaborate fixes were tried by some users initially, it looks like the simplest actually works the best: just don't use the default SMS app to send texts. Instead, you can use a third-party app like ChompSMS or HandCent, which apparently have no problems letting the phone go back to sleep after you send a text. Of course, an official fix would still be the best but, in the meantime, you can hit up the link below for all the necessary details on making the (hopefully temporary) switch.[Thanks, Sean]
still not as cool as the iphone.
I agree, just get the iPhone and users don't have to deal with this problem.
and you are not as cool as the Hero....
riiiiight, the iPhone doesnt have battery life issues at all...
/iPhone owner.
stop feeding the trolls, tiki.
Dude...my moms 3GS only lasts a couple of hours and she gets so pissed cause she misses so many calls. I'm getting her the DROID when my T-Mo contract is up.
iKurt XII)
You mean, they can't deal with such problems because the platform is closed.
I'm glad my 3GS isn't the only phone with random bugs here. It's humbling that even the Hero has some minor issues. I would get the Hero (the squarish one, the Sprint one is ugly) if I didn't have the iPhone.
My GF's 3GS battery only lasts for 2 or 3 hours and she doesn't do anything with it. I have push, BT and WiFi turned off and she still needs to stay near a charger to use the phone. I keep telling her to send it back but so far she hasn't.
Dude, if you like Iphone? Stick with it! I don't need to know your fu$%ing opinion... c'mon, get real!
Coming from an Iphone user...
@laxfan0930 We all know you can't do that on an iPhone is does not support flash.
excellent.
I like this phone from what I've seen so far.. I would trade my BB Tour for it in a second
don't dude . . i did, i'm regretting it. getting the droid when it drops.
Unleash the Hero within you !
ya taaaaaaaaaaaa!
I know! I know! How about an F'ing android 2.0 release now!!!!!!! :)
Not yet .... Patience Grasshopper.... You ought to wait till 3.0 Flan
Ive pretty much given up on HTC after going through 5 Touch pro's on manufacture defects. Now I got me a hero that cant hold a charge due to it not sleeping. Ive had it since Sunday and its getting progressively laggier by the day. Not sure when this supposed 2.0 update is coming. Im not to confident it will be enough to keep me on the Hero. But if it doesn't get here b4 my 30 days is up im switching to Verizon - Droid. Im new to the android world and its 1000x better than winmo. Anyone have any thoughts on the phone becoming laggy and Sense rebooting I could use some help in my decision.
iPhone or DROID.
I think it pretty much adds up to either device at this point. :/
Android doesn't come with a task killer. Try Taskiller to end unnecessary tasks. When you press the Home button, it just minimises your current task instead of ending it!
But I heard that task killer is causing some issues on Hero.
even before I did the handcent fix my phone was easily lasting a day. after the fix, it lasts almost two days without a charge. i don't have any significant issues with it and after the iphone, it's the best phone i've ever owned. hated my blackberry. also, after the handcent fix, the battery lasts longer than my 3g- and wifi- disabled iphone did.
You need some good apps to manage the phone , advanced task manager can close programs running in the background that you don't need (since you dont have an exit option for most)
Also power manager pro can really save battery life. You just have to find the right apps and tweaks and it will be fine.
Killing tasks only causes problems when you kill tasks that you shouldn't be killing. Just be careful and don't do anything stupid.
Just get taskkiller and when you get a text and you want to shut the phone off. Kill the task!
It seems to work for me.
But i dont get many texts in a day so.
But i work a ten hour day a work and i listen to music on my ride into work and i have two 30 min breaks and i use it the whole time on wifi and then i still have 80% left.
Fighting back a comment about Steve Jobs, a penis, and your mouth.
I just got mine the other day and seems fine to me. but yeh for some reason picture messages arn't being sent. ill test a few more thing with my rommmate's phone
What size images (MB) are you trying to send over the picture mail client? I know it can't handle the max file size the camera is capable of taking.
@cocoviper
they are 2mp images; transferred from my iphone onto the htc.
my roommate saw a picture i took of him while at pax and wanted it.
so i tryed sending it to him twice and both failed.
seems i can receive picture text from other people in a test i did 20 mins ago.
Does it fail outright or does it try to send for a long time but never finish?
Wow, this news is quite old. HTC Source posted this up almost two weeks ago. http://htcsource.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=770&Itemid=50
yeah this is really old news. i think engadget's trying to stir the pot.
htc used the iphone battery icon on the image in their blog.
seeing that made me go " er... uhh..."
That's not HTC's blog.
Oh. hmm. well cant edit my comment
Who cares if it's old - it's still relevant. Lots of people don't know about this problem and are wondering why their Hero battery life sucks. I think a major tech blog like Engadget should post about it so more people know about it. :P
So, is the text issue a Sprint network problem or something with HTC?
It's an issue with HTC's native messaging client. They will likely address it in an update but until then just use a different messaging client from the android marketplace.
It is an issue with HTC's message program, the message sent event timer is not being triggered properly, the phone stays on thinking that the text message has not been sent yet when it was.
HTC
Wow engadget... posting "news" for a work around that has been known for two weeks. I applaud you for keeping us informed.
Would you like some cheese with your whine?
handcent's interface is better than the default, anyway. after installing it (and turning off the default) i can go about 80% longer without recharge than i could before.
Man this is killing me. Hero, Moment or Pre??
hero with android 2.0
pre, got mine last week and lovin' it!
I don'y know how you feel about T-Mo or 3.5mm adaptors but my 3 month old MT3G runs plain Donut like a champ. The battery lasts a day and a half easily.
Here's hoping Eclair is in my future...
These are the instructions I posted just in case someone needs them:
1. Hard Reset (menu/settings/security/Factory data reset) I don't think this is necessary as I didn't do a reset on two of the phones, but I dont know what you have installed.
2. DL Handcent (Market/search/Handcent SMS)
3. Install Handcet
4. Open the stock message app (in the application folder)
5. Hit menu (on the phone) and choose settings on the screen INSIDE the APP
6. Make sure no notifications are checked
7. Remove Message icon from desktop
8. Reboot
9. Open Handcent
10. In the popup window it will ask To make default (may or may not happen)
11. Make sure the arrow is green for default
12. Select Handcet
13. Set your settings how you like inside Handcent (Menu on phone/settings on screen)
14. Go Home
15. Hit your People button
16. Select a contact and hit the send message icon.
17. Select Handcet as default like before. (This may or may not popup)
18. Reboot.
19. Now all should be fine.
I've only had the phone for a day so bare with me on this.
4. Open the stock message app (in the application folder)
5. Hit menu (on the phone) and choose settings on the screen INSIDE the APP
6. Make sure no notifications are checked
so i hit menu, then settings, then scroll to apps, then select messages?, and then select force stop?
it would help me a lot for a bit more detail on how to turn off the default messaging app.
as i said only had this for a day.
well, at least getting text messages to work properly is completely simple :|
I tried this and dont like the other sms programs and they mess with my visual voicemail
So i just taskkill before I shut the phone down.
@husher the instructions are for when you are inside the HTC messaging app.
@husher....
1. Open the stock message app, either on your desktop or in the app folder. I don't know what you have installed where.
2. Hit menu on the phone once the messanger app is open. This will pop up the menu of the MESSAGE APP!!!
3. Select Settings in the Message App. (the message app settings)
4. scroll down to notifications and make sure this ISN'T checked. (not sure where it is in the menu as I haven't opened up that app in weeks.
Pretty straight forward and I don't know how to say it any easier... The reason you do this is because if you don't both handcent and message will send you duplicate notifications of incoming texts.
Anyone know why android applications don't come with [x] close button and/or don't shut down completely?
Example: I click on "voice search", then hit cancel, but it still shows up in task manager? Shouldn't it exit completely?
They dont exit , they are made to run in the background, you need taskkiller or advanced task manager , it has a widget you press that kills the apps in the list you select.
@digitallysick, we know that they are made that way and they dont exit the first time just "minimize", his questions is why. i would like to know too.
I have this phone and I frequent www.sprintusers.com often. Some people have this problem, but not everyone. I, for example, do not have this issue.
I have had an Hero since june and never ever had any of these problems.
I also know at least 3 other people who have this excellent phone and I have never heard about these supposed bugs.
The battery is not a record holder but the phone itself is tops.
If you haven't purchased a Hero yet, or already did at best buy... here is a $50 off coupon good for this week. I just had best buy price match two phones and am $108.25 richer. I am sure if you go to a sprint store they will price match as well... HTH. So for 129.99 the phone is a pretty good deal. The coupon is here on the last page. Print it and go get your cash!!!
http://image.emailinfo2.bestbuy.com/lib/fef41d77766c04/m/2/ESE_20091028_RZ_Core_Coupons.pdf
you're the man! i'm proud of sprint for doing this, but it makes sense...
just couple more days till i get mine..
ANd people were expecting something good?
haha shitty iphone!
oh wait... !
This POS looks exactly like the Windows Mobile "Smartphone" I had in 2003. You know the one where once the battery died you lost all your data and had to re-sync.
My HTC Windows Mobile phone has the same issue. It is really annoying. It receives a text, activates the touch screen. and sometimes calls the sender, all while it is in my pocket. Next thing I know.... I hear someone screaming hello for my pocket. I had blamed WinMo, but maybe it is HTC.
hancent is working great for me but unfortunately facebook integration is keeping it awake 100% too. =/ hoping for fixes in the eclair update.
When I hear htc I think Hyundai.
When I hear apple iPhone I think Acura BMW lambo etc,.
Anyone else?
wow, acura. you might as well throw hyundai into that mix since it would represent about a 1% increase in the astronomical range of affordability you're presenting with that list.
Before this fix i was getting 4 hours of battery life before going in red, now it is as 10, and when i say 10 thats with hardly any useage, like 10 texts 10 minutes of browsing and 20 minutes of talk, and phone is dead in 10 hours!~ And i am not dumb my GPS Wifi and Bluetooth were off.
I had this 3 weeks and it's very capable and very nice, but the battery life is not acceptable, i am tearing apart my room looking for my BB Pearl so I can have it reactivated. I will give it a few months before I buy a new device like this again. I would much rather have a little bigger device with a much bigger battery.
I don't have issues playing videos via the YouTube application. However, does anyone have video playback issues from the internet or applications. Specifically speaking I have the NBA Game Time application which has video highlights. My Sprint Hero will not play them. Sometimes the audio loads, but no video. I have tried over the mobile network and wifi and neither works. Am I just suppose to wait until they update the flash player? Why would NBA digital put an app out that can't be used fully?
"just don't use the default SMS app to send texts."
This is ridiculous. Is it HTC's fault or Android's fault? I hope it's not Android's problem.
took long enough to post this...
So what's the deal, is the whole pathetic battery life issue just with the Sprint HERO? All i heard was rave reviews of the jay leno model and it's been out for quite awhile...
BATTERY BATTERY BATTERY.
Users must be allowed to close every application if they desire without having to resort to stupid task management applications. I am still shooked that google thought this was a good idea. I am assuming this would be ok if we had the technology to pack 2X the battery power we have today, but not cool idea with in todays world.
Running application on the background is wasting about 30% extra of battery.
I still can't figure out why goggle thought this was a good idea
Seriously.... everyone moaning about TasKiller and not being able to close Android apps - do you even know how Linux works? Do you know that the scheduler doesn't run apps in the background, but hibernates them whenever they don't need CPU time.... it's not like Windows where more tasks = more CPU cycles, they just sit there and wait until they need to use cycles.
Have as many apps open as you want, if they're non-interactive apps that aren't doing any processing then your battery life will not change. It just means they open up a bit quicker when you next need them.
When are they going to fix EMAIL on WiFi. You can not sign up on Yahoo email through WiFi.. ok..no big deal, do it on the sprint network.
But you can not even download/view email on WiFi after you have it configured.
My IPOD 2.0 does it Yahoo email just fine on WiFi
Ok. I just got my hero. Could somebody explain what exactly this battery issue is and how can I tell if I have this issue?