Nook power issues since 1.4

[luminessence]

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Donna-Pilar wrote:

I too am a new Nook owner. I've had mine for about two-plus weeks. The first time I charged it, I got only about a three day "run" before I got the low power warning. But, being a novice, I had spent that weekend upgrading to v.1.4, browsed, searched and purchased some books and looked around at all the features. I had also had the WiFi on and airplane mode off. Soooo, to my surprise, the charge did not last for the 10 days it was advertised to last. The second time, I got just about 7 days. I learned to shut the WiFi off and set airplane mode on. I just had to charge it again last night... 5 days. I'm a little disappointed at the battery charge life and feel B&N misrepresented this feature, but I am happy with the Nook overall. I would like to know how B&N Nook developers can get a 10day charge out of this device. I haven't had an of the "glitches" that some have complained about tho. I don't seem to have a problem with the screensaver and it not going to or coming out of sleep mode. I also get the leather "book" style case for my Nook, and it doesn't appear to be interfering with the unit's touchscreen or power button. I'd still like to know why it doesn't and how I can get 10 days out of a charge tho.

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That may not be a problem with 1.4. There seems to be quite a bit of variation between Nooks when it comes to how often they need to be charged. It also depends on how much you use it. Someone on another forum, who only got about 3 days between charges, contacted B&N about it, and was told that the 10-day figure is for someone using it for an hour a day with Airplane Mode off. I get about 3 days between charges with Airplane Mode off, but that equals about ten hours of reading time for me.

[surfah]

Add me to this list of 'power issues since 1.4'

I've been a Nook owner since April and I've never had power issues until the 1.4 update.

I read for about an hour a day, and would get 6-7 days between charges. Now I'm down to 2.5-3 days and have made no changes in my reading habit, nor using my nook for anything other than reading. The only change has been the update!!!

Now my battery depletes overnight whenever it gets to 40-45% charge.

There is something wrong and I hope B&N tech get on this.

I was very happy with my nook, but my growing frustration will lead me to get another reader.

[W-Tramontana]

Hello, I too have been experiencing this mysterious power phenominom.

I have an extensive background in programming, and would like to suggest that the Android application may be getting stuck in a loop or something similiar.  That would explain why when the nook wakes up the battery drains so dramatically.  I only suggest this because on 1.3 I would only have to charge my nook every few days with data enabled.

I do not use the nook for web browsing.

I do not use the nook for the games feature.

I simply read pdf ebooks I load from my PC to the nook's internal memory.

I have a case, however I usually leave my nook open and just set it down on the coffee table When I am finished with it (I like seeing the random photo it chooses when it sleeps.)

Please feel free to contact me for further information or testing.  As I said I am used to troubleshooting/anticipating software issues.

Thanks.  (Please get it fixed soon!)

[Peachy78]

I'm a little upset. I have had a nook for nearly two weeks and have exchanged it at the store a couple times because of the power issue. I was told at the store to call customer service if the nook was still draining fast and they would send me a new one that was not defective, but when I called them the guy told me that I shouldn't expect more than three or four days of battery life with airplane mode on, even if I was only reading an hour or two in that time, and when I pointed him to the web page on B&N's site stating that the nook worked up to 10 days without recharge with wifi off he said that he would have someone look into changeing that! I can't tell you how upset that made me. That is false advertising. If there is a problem that's one thing, but to tell me that I shouldn't expect the machine to work the way it is advertised to work, it makes me want to march right back to the store and ask for my money back!!!!

I have had my nook in airplane mode, played no games, only had wifi on for 10 or 15 mins to register it, and the battery is draining at about 30% to 40% a day! Frustrating!!

[h2oskierc]

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Peachy78 wrote:

I have had my nook in airplane mode, played no games, only had wifi on for 10 or 15 mins to register it, and the battery is draining at about 30% to 40% a day! Frustrating!!

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Out of curiosity, how many times have you re-charged the battery?  Sometimes a battery can take a couple charge/discharge cycles to attain it peak battery life.

Please note, though, you do NOT want to deplete the battery to the point that your nook shuts down (complete discharge), you should get a warning, and that will tell you it is time to re-charge.

[Peachy78]

Well this is a replacement so I haven't done that yet. I hope you are right and with a few charges it will last longer. The one I had replaced lasted only two days and was draining just as quickly even after a recharge. This one looks like it is at about 3 to 4 days, so we will see if that gets any better with some rechargeing.

[surfah]

Here's something new to add to this conversation. I set my nook down and let it go to sleep automatically (without putting it into standby mode). Then it turned on by itself about an hour later. Nothing touched it. The touch screen lit up and it exited sleep mode.

This is the first time I've seen this, so not sure how often it happens. Could explain power drain.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[sawheeler]

I have been having identical problems.  I am a new NOOK owner, so 1.4 was the first thing I had to do.  I don't have any pre-1.4 experience.

While reading these posts, I have my nook beside me and I've watched it go into sleep mode, come right back out over and over.   Then it will sleep for awhile and the cycle starts over.

I'm hoping the techs at B&N read all of this and have a solution.

[sawheeler]

Hi David,

I've just started experiencing both problems, very fast power drain and waking and sleeping repeatedly.  I don't have any pre-1.4.0 experience to compare witht.  So, here are answers to your questions and a little more.  Hopefully, that will assist in zeroing in on the problem.

1) Had you been previously browsing - NO

2) Had you been previously playing a game - NO

3) Had you been syncing your device via My Library and then exited - NO

4) Is your nook in a case? - YES Lyra cover.  Is there anything in the case that might press against a page button - NO

Additional info

- I just charged it overnight this past Friday 07/16  -  Today 07/20 the battery is at 13%

- WiFi is off

- Airplane mode is ON

- touchscreen timeout - 10sec

- sleep timer - 20min

- I have had the nook for barely one month and I've had to charge it maybe 7 times.

- I am only reading my book

[FrogAlum]

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BNDavid wrote:

Hi All,

Thank you for posting.  Any and all information is appreciated.  From what I've read it would seem as if the device was waking/sleeping.  For the battery to drain this fast it would seem that folks would be able to see the problem occurring.  (waking up from sleep mode once an hour would hardly drain your battery this drastically)

Questions for folks that have seen this problem:

1)  Had you been previously browsing?

2)  Had you been previously playing a game (sudoku, chess)

3)  Had you been syncing your device via My Library and then exited?

4)  Is your nook in a case?  Is there anything in the case that might press against a page button?

I'm curious to understand what other processes might be in play in order to help drill down on this issue.  From what I've read, people were reading and let their device fall asleep.  Please respond either to the thread or to me personally through pm.

Thank you again for your support as we strive to improve your reading experience!

Best Regards,

David

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David, if you are still checking this:

When I had to recharge twice in one day I was reading the Passage, nothing other than reading, no browsing, no syncing...  Airplane mode was on...  Nook was naked, no cover used at the time.

[Michael-V]

@All,

We are looking into this for you.

[MikFinkel]

Hi David,

I have had my nook since December 24, 2009 and I absolutely adore it  

Not so much the battery tho.

I have to recharge on average every 3-4 days with my average reading of an hour or so a day.

If I am reading something really good for the day on a Saturday for instance, I have to recharge by the end of the day.

I leave the Airplane mode on and the WiFi off. All the time. Sleep timer comes on after 10 minutes, the touch screen goes dark after 30 seconds, a 20 second setting would be better for me but that choice is not there. Brightness is at 8% and Auto adjust brightness is off.

I understand that using wireless uses more juice and that is not included in this recharging time. I can spend a couple of hours on wireless in B&N and deplete the battery pretty good there.

After reading a bunch of comments here I must say I have noticed absolutely no change in battery performance thru all the upgrades.

I try to recharge when nook is below 20%. Also when I sidelong I try to fully recharge it once it is plugged into my computer. 

Compared to some of the other popular consumer electronics out there, the nook battery performance is pretty abysmal.

Good thing I love my nook.

On another topic, being able to search by title or author in My Documents would be a huge plus. Even being able to make categories would be an improvement. 

Oh well, I am sure more updates are coming down the pike!

[Nook10522]

My nook was powered at about 85% last night.  Did receive my Wall Street Journal this morning; now it is frozen with the screen saver.  Help power for over 20 seconds.  Nothing.  Is this the new software?  Any ideas from BN.  I have read these entries on the blog.  I don't see any help, except knowing I am not alone.  Not good.  Will try to recharge later, but this is not the help I need. 

ANy other ideas would be appreciated.

[ischreiman]

The power issue just happend to me this morning. When I took out my nook and pluged it into my laptop via USB - nothing.  I charged it on Friday, read for about an hour on Satuday night, and then Sunday night had airplane mode turned off while I browsed for some books. I didn't purchase anything, turned airplane mode back one, put the nook to sleep and have not touched it since this morning. 

The screen saver is on, but it wouldn't wake up. I took out the battery and then replaced it as recommended - no luck. I then tired to reboot with the batter out - no luck.

It's charging now, I guess I'll know in a few hours if it works or not.

[ischreiman]

After charging for near an hour, it starts - Yay!

It now has 30% charge on it.

Question: does this affect battery life? Should I order a new battery?

Thanks for the advice on this thread!!!

[LindaGreff]

I posted about a month ago, because I had experienced the sudden battery drain problem.

Having complained of a problem, I feel it is only fair to let you know that everything is okay. I'm pleased to report that it was a one-time problem.  I am getting my 10-day (approximately) charge on my battery, and everything is functioning perfectly.  I made no changes from the time of the problem.

I don't websurf, or play games.  About once a week I turn on the 3G/WiFi to download my Free Friday books (THANKS B&N!).  When I think of it, I sometimes check the daily -- I should more often, because it is interesting.  I am still using the CityScape screen saver, so it doesn't appear to be the source of the problem.  I let my Nook go to sleep when I am done reading, rather than turn it off or manually put it to sleep.  I have no explanation for the one time problem.

To be truthful, I think my Nook is a hypochondriac.  I read about the problems with the Nook sitting next to the computer, and within hours it suffered the battery drain.  Henceforth, whenever I check out blogs about potential problems, the Nook will be in another room so that it can't get any flakey ideas.  That should take care of any issues. 

[DouglasP]

I have a observation that may help.

I experienced a mystery over night drain from 100% down to 17% for the first time today. I had put my nook to sleep by taping the top button before going to bed. When I got up, about 8 hours later, it was on (showing my wall paper) and drained. This has never happened before even though I have been using 1.4 since it came out, so I started poking around it see what I might be going on and found the following:

If I turn on airplane mode it does not turn off the wifi (if it is on). This can be observed on both the setting page and on the wifi page (which shows the wifi option as grayed out but still on).

Switching to the setting page the wifi can be seen to be switching between connecting and disconnecting, I think this is happening over and over thus the lack of sleep and battery drain.

This behavior stops if the wifi is disabled BEFORE turning on airplane mode.

I still don't know why the nook turned on in the middle of the night but I am fairly certain that 8 hours of turnning the wifi on and off would account for the drain.

Hope this helps the tech people looking at the problem.

Cheers,

Doug

[icebike]

I can't replicate your observations, but then I've only had one rapid battery drain, and that was right after 1.4.  I have no reason to doubt what you saw.

I'm guessing you can't replicate this at will?  It was a one time thing?

Also, FTR, what nook version do you have?  Wifi/3G?  How old is it?

(It might matter because different nooks have different radio chips.)

--- Historically I've been first to point out that turning on Airplane mode also turns off WiFi, and there is no reason to manage them separately.  In light of this, I may have to revise my advice.

Michael-V:  Can you make sure this gets forwarded to the proper people?  I worry it will be missed buried in this thread.

[100kgs]

DouglasP - I'm curious, you say it still shows the wifi on in the settings and if you select wifi from the menu?  Does it also show the wifi icon up in the corner?

If you could reproduce this with video, I bet the devs and the users here would love to see it.