Man The Battery Life Is Crummy

[fightingdreamer88]

Only had my GP2X for a few days but already I'm seeing first hand a machine that struggles with battery life. I can't help but wonder if perhaps it was worth making it a little bulkier so it could take 4 AA batteries as opposed to 2. My question is, with GPH claiming that they can improve battery life with firmware updates, can we ever expect a significant improvement from what we've got right now? Carrying extra batteries is the obvious solution but if I were to go on a 3 day road trip or something like that, I'd have to carry a ton!!

 

[saehn]

Only had my GP2X for a few days but already I'm seeing first hand a machine that struggles with battery life. I can't help but wonder if perhaps it was worth making it a little bulkier so it could take 4 AA batteries as opposed to 2. My question is, with GPH claiming that they can improve battery life with firmware updates, can we ever expect a significant improvement from what we've got right now? Carrying extra batteries is the obvious solution but if I were to go on a 3 day road trip or something like that, I'd have to carry a ton!!

Are you using >2100mAh rechargeable batteries?

 

[fightingdreamer88]

The 2500mAh batteries that came with the system.

 

[saehn]

I could be wrong, but I think I remember people saying that the included batteries weren't that great.

Would anyone with experience care to comment?

 

[ruckage]

Only had my GP2X for a few days but already I'm seeing first hand a machine that struggles with battery life.

How long are the batteries actually lasting? This would give an indication as to whether you have crappy batteries.

 

[Tobriand]

I think the batteries that weren't that great were the alkalines that were originally packaged with it (which lasted all of half an hour, if you were lucky).

On 2500mAh ones, you should be looking at 3 or 4 hours for most things, although if you're overclocking, or using the speakers (as opposed to headphones), this drops considerably. Shouldn't ever be less than 2 hours though, iirc.

Also, be sure the batteries are fully charged. Some older speed-chargers seem (and I stress, *seem*, since I've not researched the actual technical wossnames) to charge based on a predicted maximum charge batteries could hold when the charger was made. So on a very particular elderly charger, you could end up with, say, 1800mAh in a 2500mAh battery. I think. Certainly my old charger used to take 1 hour to charge no matter what I was charging (well... 2 if I filled all four slots, but that's the same thing), and there was no appreciable difference in terms of how long batteries lasted over about 1600mAh.

 

[craigix]

If you have an old charger charge the batteries twice.

 

[Alex.]

using the speakers (as opposed to headphones), this drops considerably.

The speakers take such a large toll on battery life?

 

[jimid2]

I honestly don't see this system as being that bad in terms of battery life. I use 2500MA Nimh Energizers that I power up on a "trickle" (slow) charger that came with them, and I get 3-4 hours EASY with EMUs running overclocked at 240MHz... With four pairs that I charge four at a time, I'm never without batteries and I have no problem with the life... The GP2X gets pretty much the same battery life as a PSP, as far as I can tell, with the added advantage that AA batteries are cheaper and easier to use than the PSP's proprietary battery.

 

[Tobriand]

using the speakers (as opposed to headphones), this drops considerably.

The speakers take such a large toll on battery life?



If you're to believe DaveC, then yes. He gets, iirc, just over 3 hours on a full set of 2500s, which ain't that great since others are getting up to 5 hours on the same batteries. In the thread some months back where we were all having a row over whether battery life was awful or acceptable (with most saying acceptable and DaveC and a couple of others, awful), it surfaced that most of us either turn the sound off, or use headphones, where he uses the main speakers.

However, I don't know whether he tried using headphones or sound off, or whether anyone tried using the speakers to actually find out a real difference in battery draw.

Personally, I'm quite happy with the 4 hours or so I get, since I've no problem with carrying an extra set or two of batteries around with me . Although I *do* need to replace some of them, since they've been in use for about 7 years now, and some are starting to leak lol!

 

[Orkie]

I get about 4 to 4.5 hours from 2500s with speakers. DaveC tends to exaggerate things hugely so I guess his battery life isn't as bad as he says

 

[Laser]

I found the batteries that came with the GP2X worked better after a couple of full discharge-charge cycles. (This is not unusual.)

Measuring the "dead" batteries showed that one of each pair tends to die before the other. Using a device to completely discharge the cells, then using a charger to charge each cell independently shows up which ones have similar characteristics. It's best to pair the most similar ones together. I do this with all my batteries for any device and get good results.

 

[Zeladin]

I usually hit about the four hour mark. Did you charge them first out of curiosity - also can psp/ds really last a three day road trip without charging? According to wikipedia the ds lite has 5-8hrs on the highest brightness setting...(And if you can charge a psp/ds then you can charge AA's). Three sets of two gives you about 12hrs depending on what you're doing on the Gp2x...

It's not brilliant, but not bad enough that I would start a thread about it. Of course not being a hard core marathon gamer, poor battery life wouldn't affect me as much - poor standby/storage time would be more of a problem...

 

[DaveC]

If you're to believe DaveC, then yes. He gets, iirc, just over 3 hours on a full set of 2500s, which ain't that great since others are getting up to 5 hours on the same batteries. In the thread some months back where we were all having a row over whether battery life was awful or acceptable (with most saying acceptable and DaveC and a couple of others, awful), it surfaced that most of us either turn the sound off, or use headphones, where he uses the main speakers.

I get under2 hours with 2000 MAh batteries. I always use the speakers, and I have the volume turned up so I can hear it. I never use headphones so I don't know how long the batteries last with those.

 

[Tobriand]

Ok, I remembered incorrectly. But I got it right that you got much worse battery life than the ret of us!

 

[Alex.]

He uses 2000mAh as opposed to the 2500 which seems to be the average around herethough. It also depends how old the rechargeables are. Mine are 2500mAh, but I used them intensively for a good 3 years now, so their lifetime deteriorates slightly with each cycle. They last more than two hours though.

 

[cbox]

I have 2300 mAH batteries and they last between 3 and 4 hours.

 

[Lobo]

I have 4 pairs of 2500 mah rechargable batteries (2 pairs of Duracell and 2 pairs of Energizers) and I can tell you that I don't think I've EVER gotten to 4 hours with any of them. I nearly always play with sound OFF and I don't usually overclock above 200.

I think it's entirely feasible that some GP2X just "eat" more energy than others.

 

[PokeParadox]

You might need a better charger... I realised my own charger wasn't as good as I'd though when my batteries ran out, while I was visiting my dad. He put them in his charger and they lasted much longer.
I've since bought a new charger and my batteries are giving more reasonable times

 

[Alex.]

I think it's entirely feasible that some GP2X just "eat" more energy than others.

That is entirely possible. We know that there are extreme cases where certain units only last 30 minutes, and there's no reason not to suppose that some units are mid-way.