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VERY Rapid battery drain, since earlier (3rd time) hang today, anyone else?

I wrote about my recent 2.70 hangs, today, which also precipitated a huge battery loss, the last one, in particular (abrupt drop 20->10, subsequent warning).

So, after the 10% warning, I rebooted my 945 (again, 2nd time today), and put it on the charger, and let it sync/charge to 100% (that was about it, no updates).

Now about 4 hours later (almost exactly), I'm at 42%, for some reason that escapes me (it's just been monitoring my OHR and movement today, no GPS, etc).

I have Pulse-Ox off, and Bluetooth I only enable when I go to sync with a mobile device.

I never set up WiFi, intentionally, because I had intended to be able to use the watch for a week (say 12 hours of GPS, and the rest of all OHR and steps, only).

This was actually working great, until 2.70, at which point I was getting 5-6 days, for the couple of times I'd charged it, instead of 7-8.

Now, apparently, I'm going to be getting maybe 4-6 hours/charge?

I have one external widget (a "fields display for activities such as cycling, walking"), and one external watchface, the SAME ONES I've had, since I got the watch, in very early July.

I can't remember the last tweak I've made (such as when altitude is collected at the start of an activity), but it's been at least a couple of weeks now.

I'm baffled, and I guess I'll recharge, again, and contact support, not sure what else to do.

Has anyone else seen such an ABRUPT drop like this (and hopefully solved it)?

I'm not exactly "excited" about resetting the watch, as I spent a good 2-3 hours, creating custom activities and such, tweaking fields, the whole bit, it was pretty extensive (and as mentioned, not changed, in a good long time).

I did reset my VA3, about a year ago, and tried the "file backup" method, but it failed to recreate most of my customizations, for whatever reason (I followed the Garmin instructions, to-the-letter). So yeah, a full reset isn't exactly desirable, I REALLY wish Garmin would just add a mechanism to back up the settings/current-data, to simplify a reset, if required (for some unknown reason)...

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

It's possible the new update isn't playing nicely with the watch face. I would delete that first and see if that's the culprit. If it is, notify the developer.

Just read the other thread. When you say the BT connection hangs there, are you referring to phone? Is the drain turning this hang up?

0 topcaser over 5 years ago

Please download my watchface Blink and activate the option to show the number of minutes in high power mode. You should end up with around 70 - 110 minutes per day. Otherwise the watch don't switches to low power mode. The difference is: in high power mode the display of your watchface is refreshed every second versus every minute.

0 pgrey over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Sorry, I should've been more explicit, but yes, it's hanging (those 3 times in the other thread), after I go to the quick-settings, and "click the select button", for BT. It's only 3 times, but it was zero, until about 10 days ago.

I have no known updates (face/widget/other), recently (since 2.70), I checked both my activity widget and watch-face, they were last updated on 8/11/19, and 6/23/19, respectively.

I recharged it partway (managed to get to 50%), before going for a quick 40 minute fast walk, this evening. About an hour after I got back (maybe 2 hours total, from the 50% charge), it flashed 10%, and then maybe a minute after that (I was going to shut it down, in the next few minutes, at that point), it registered 0%, and is now hung, again, with a "power symbol" displayed in the center of the screen (it hung as I pressed the "select button", to turn it off).

I plugged it back in, 25 now, but it's just sitting at that same screen, no response from any button (I've tried >= 20 second presses, on each, a couple times each on the power/select buttons).
So, yeah, things aren't looking so good, at this point....

0 pgrey over 5 years ago in reply to pgrey

Okay, so that's weird.
I left on the charger, overnight, with the "power symbol" in the center of the screen.

Today, I restarted it (worked, this time, as opposed to yesterday, after charging for 25-30 minutes), and it seems to be "back to normal", whatever that is.

I don't exactly even remotely "trust" it though, at this point, given that I haven't changed ANYTHING, it just hung those multiple times, went into "extreme battery drain mode", and now it's "just fine"?

How do I know how likely it's not going to just do this again, say tonight, in the middle of a 40+ ride, it doesn't exactly "inspire trust" in reliability...
Part of me wonders if I have a defective battery, or chip, that's just going to really tank in a few days or a week, and if should just return it now?

I sort of poked around the OS, on the watch, looking for some sort of logging, but I sure didn't see much, at least in terms of "OS issues" logging? topcaser Have noticed anything like this, or does it have to be in a "developer mode"?

Thanks for the responses, BTW, everyone, I have to admit, this has been a pretty frustrating experience, after having my VA3 be "appliance like", in terms of reliability (the battery in it was slowly degrading, but 2+ years on).

Hmm, I found the (hidden for some reason, on my watch) event logs.

The "media app" threw a bunch of "Pause Error 14" codes, during this timeframe (and at others, just not as many sucessively).
The HWM process threw a few "HWM WICE" values, too, in a row(6), but these look like regular log lines.

If someone has a pointer to the event values (hopefully w/o installing a full developer-kit), I'd REALLY appreciate it!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to pgrey

pgrey said:
I don't exactly even remotely "trust" it though, at this point, given that I haven't changed ANYTHING, it just hung those multiple times, went into "extreme battery drain mode", and now it's "just fine"?

I agree. Since it comes and goes and there's no known trigger, I suggest contacting Garmin and requesting a RMA to exchange your watch. I've found calling support as opposed to email is obviously faster, but it's also easier to explain the issue.

0 pgrey over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I returned it (I had bought at REI, since the price-difference was "nominal" at the time).

I'm reporting back now, but I now have a "very positive 945 experience", a completely "flip" from my first 945, after about 6 weeks with the "new - from return 945".

This 100% fixed my "battery issue", I haven't seen a problem, since, and about fixed my "one off HR issues", about 90% of the time (except say on a 50mi ride, on a 40' day, it still struggles, if I don't have a sleeve covering it).

I'm now able to go 6-8 days, with say 3-4 x 2-4hr rides, and 3-4 x 30-90minute walks (all GPS), with zero battery issues. This is probably how the watch "should work", in terms of battery life, and it's NICE.

So, if anyone else is seeing this "VERY rapid battery drain" (full-drain in hours), or the "big, HUGE swings in HR accuracy", I'd highly suggest returning/exchanging.

Update, 3 more months along: New watch is still working perfectly, in terms of battery-life!

Apparently I just got one with a bad-something (battery, chip-solder, chip, etc), the first one, that performed so poorly.