Pocket PC - crappy standby time?

[Frangible]

I have a Palm V (old greyscale unit) and a Toshiba e330 Pocket PC, not exactly a new unit, but pretty modern with a 300mHz CPU, WM2002, color display etc.

Well, as a test I left them both off the charger for a week. At the end of the week, the Toshiba which started with a full charge, was almost completely dead and had to be recharged to be used. I never used it once and it did not get turned on accidentally.

The Palm V on the other hand was still at 100% charge.

Do all Pocket PCs have such horrible standby times?

My roommate has a newer Palm, a Tungsten, and it lasts under a week like my Toshiba does.

Why?

If it's off, the color screen ain't drawing any juice.

 

[Leright]

pdas (and full size computers) have a cmos chip to store info when the unit is off. Since this info changes dynamically (time and date, for example) or changes by user adjustments, a simple ROM chip cannot be used. CMOS chips must be refreshed with electricity when the unit is off, whereas ROM chips do not. The newer pdas have much larger CMOS chips than older ones, so they need more power to keep the data from being erased when the machine is off.

 

[Zardoz]

pdas (and full size computers) have a cmos chip to store info when the unit is off. Since this info changes dynamically (time and date, for example) or changes by user adjustments, a simple ROM chip cannot be used. CMOS chips must be refreshed with electricity when the unit is off, whereas ROM chips do not. The newer pdas have much larger CMOS chips than older ones, so they need more power to keep the data from being erased when the machine is off.

True, but not really for PDAs. PDAs really don't turn off all the way. they have to keep track of dates/appointments and the like, so they can alert you of an event. some PDAs will even wake up for a min. to do daily maintenance. CMOS/BIOS do not take that much power to hold info, and much less power then the daily maintenance that most PDAs do.

 

[Canon]

This is an interesting topic..

I havn't observed the true rundown time (in standbye mode) of my Tungsten E but I left it at my Dad's place when I was down there for the weekend and it sat for around two weeks or so before I got it back and put it on the charger. I didn't even try to turn it on when I got it (didn't want to go through the hassle of reloading all the data/apps) but to my surprise when I turned it on after charging it actually still had all the data.

Zardoz would you be able to link to some info about this "daily maintenance" that PDAs do? I havn't heard this before but it sounds interesting, I wonder what it's doing during this time...

 

[Frangible]

I don't doubt the PDA has to do daily maintenance, I've seen mine do it briefly sometimes (at midnight), but why does that alone suck the battery down on the newer units, while the Palm V's still is at 100%? It has to do daily maintenance too.

Is the Palm V the last PDA that can last over a week on standby?

 

[Zardoz]

I don't really have a link, but have seen my unit power up and back off (about 3 or 4 secs if that long). Frangible I get about 4 days on mine (Dell X50v) if I don't use it. I know that older palms get a longer time, but that is a much different system, and has far less power requirements...

 

[Frangible]

I don't really have a link, but have seen my unit power up and back off (about 3 or 4 secs if that long). Frangible I get about 4 days on mine (Dell X50v) if I don't use it. I know that older palms get a longer time, but that is a much different system, and has far less power requirements...

Sounds like it would be a good idea if Microsoft had support for a special maintenance mode in hardware then for power savings, because as apples and oranges as pocket pc vs. palm may be... if my Palm V is still 100% after a week of nothing but standby + maintenance, and my roommate's Tungsten is 0% after a week of nothing but standby + maintenance, and maintenance is doing the same damn thing on either unit, there's something very wrong.

I mean, 4 days? My cell phone lasts longer than that on standby, and it's doing a lot more than moving PIM entries around at midnight.

 

[EquaLiZr]

Im pretty sure all pocket pc's do some sort of maintenance that you cannot shut down unless you alter the rom.

Ive heard of people keeping it off and beside them and it turns on and does something then shuts off again.

when you shut it off, it doesnt actually shut off, it goes into standby mode. The only time it is truly off, is if you do a hard reset and leave it there.

Windows mobile 2005 is supposed to change this but will also make the boot times much longer as a hard reset would. (comparable to a soft reset load time)

 

[Vexorg]

Windows Mobile 5.0 will still keep your PPC on standby if it's not in use, but the major change is that instead of storing files in RAM, all of the RAM will be used for program memory and files will all be stored in ROM. It'll only need to reset if the battery runs out, but if it does, none of your data should be lost.

 

[Canon]

Yea palm is moving this way in some of their new PDAs I believe as well. That's a good point. I mean we have way more storage space on these new PDA devices these days.

I mean heck my Tungsten E has 32mb of memory (to store data/programs in) but those old Palm Vs only had 2 MB didn't they? That's got to be one of the other large power drains on the newer units.