Dell Venue 8 Pro Battery Drain, Support No Help

it's because the device is prevented from entering connected standby due to faulty drivers (usually). Microsoft requires that connected standby can't consume more than 5% over 16 hours (I think). Running battery and sleep study reports I see that I lose 20% over 6-7 hours because the device never actually sleeps, it's constantly active. powercfg requests shows that in this case Intel SST Audio is blocking attempts to enter standby. Usually this is because you're playing nusic but the same happens after a fresh reboot. Now, you're supposed to be able to override this behavior using powercfg, but in my case it doesn't work. This issue has been around since clover trail (search the ThinkPad tablet 2 forums) and also happens on my miix 2.

The only work around so far is to mute your sound (yeah) which finally lets your device enter standby. This actually dropped my battery drain to <1% over a couple of hours. You can automate the mute process using tasks, but that means your device will always unmute when exiting standby.

The only real solution is a driver update from either intel, realtek or dell. this has nothing to do with our devices and has been well documented on numerous different devices and systems going back to clover trail. So yeah, since this bas been known for almost 2 years now, I'm not holding my breath.

My sleep study doesn't indicate that specific problem. But surely there is some solution? Can I disable connected standby (since Dell support can't get that feature working, it seems)? Even just normal sleep states would be fine.

It is a shame this is an issue. I don't even need 8-10 hours of work time. But I certainly need to be able to have over 24 hours of sleep with the availability to do SOME work afterwards.

Sorry for the rant. Just annoyed that the failure of a basic feature is crippling an otherwise wonderful device.

run the following to get a brief report on usage and potential issues:

powercfg energy

powercfg requests (to show anything that blocks standby)

If your battery is draining overnight, it's most likely caused by the device not actually entering connected standby.

I also got the battery drain problem of my Dell Venue 8 Pro in sleep mode. I've set the device to automatically go to sleep when not in use for 10 minutes, every night the device will lost around 50% battery for 7 hours. Even I press the sleep button and let the device sleep, problem still exist.

In the morning I can feel the device getting warm at the back side, just like it has done some heavy work during sleep mode. I've already downloaded the most updated driver, BIOS (v.2) from dell support page but it doesn't help.

Don't know if any other user also get this problem, and if there's any workaround.

Thanks!

There is an intel chipset driver update posted a couple of days ago I just found on the support site.  I just loaded it on my venue 8 pro and will monitor the battery over the next few days.. hopefully it is indeed a chipset driver causing the leakage during sleep.

I read a report that the Bios V3 on the Dell Support page fixes the "warm back" issue.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/dell-venue-8-pro?driverId=C7Y36&osCode=WB32A&fileId=3323793706&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI

Did you guys see that in Windows 8.1 simply dragging a metro app off to bottom no longer quits the app? Now you have to drag it down, pause with it half-way off the bottom, and wait a few seconds for the reduced window to rotate, literally turning its back on you as if disgusted, and shut off?

I can imagine that if metro music or video applications specifically are not being fully shut off, especially if they are connected to a source over the local network, like a media server, or over the net, that might prevent connected standby and be connected to the audio driver.

even when I manually close that the video app, i still got exactly the same Intel audio preventing to sleep issue

looks like I still need to mute to let the device can enter sleep mode

Hi, Ricky. It was an idea. :emotion-18:  At least you've found a solution that works for your tablet in the short run. Lots of other devices, including the Lenovo and Samsung laptops and tablets with connected standby, are having similar issues. If this is to be solved, I feel it's drivers and not user education that will do it.

I think OEM can do nothing if other brand tablet has the similar issue.

Hopefully it's a design faulty, and Intel can release a fix for it

THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO THE PERSON THAT SAID THEY DO NOT WANT TO RMA IT//WARRANTY WHEN STILL NEW AND ALSO RELATIVE TO POSTS ABOUT CHARGING WITH BACKUP

I know my response is rather dated, but when you have a severe battery drain issue, just return the unit for an exchange where you bought it.

I know some people mite not have bought it at a "brick" joint, but you should always try to buy your etoolz online, but at a local store for pickup, so you can check it all out and within that window of time offered, return for refund or exchange.

BBuy locally tried to send stuff back for warranty reply, but I always point out the fact it's still under returnable terms, so I can either get a refund or return/exchange and not mess around waiting on my gear.

There are also other ways to buy an other "new" tablet and "exchange" it//the old one also thereby bypassing all stops and go's and getting your new tablet replaced.

I'm always plugged in or on an external battery pack//backup battery pack on DV8Pro anyways, so battery life for me is always longterm.....

For those of you finding you aren't able to charge your via backup battery pack due to cable issues, remember you need a "dumb" usb//"charge" only cable or dumb dongle that makes your cable ""CHARGE ONLY"",,, then it will always charge via any usb powered source.

For example for you that don't understand fully, sometimes devices such as rechargeable peripherals like keyboards and mice and all kinds of non pc devices that now use what appears to be a data cable but is only a charging cable, which does not allow throughput of data due to the fact it's sole purpose is to CHARGE a device, that cable will work.

Like some small radios and bicycle lights and other devices now come with "USB" enabled recharging, and the cables look just like a data cable and will fit a fone, phablet or any standard mini usb plug, those cables are usually CHARGE ONLY, and this is what you need to add to your DV8Pro so it will charge universally bus wise.

RE:  firmware/driver updates.

A few months ago (10/2014), I factory reset my DV8p due to a Windows update that would not uninstall (KB2919355).

I just noticed that the battery was draining 25% overnight in Sleep mode (75% @ bedtime; 50% in the morning; ~ 8 hrs later).

Looking online, I did not find any specific solutions.  I looked at possible firmware/driver updates, but there weren't any that adjusted the chipset or mentioned a specific fix.  However, I read a post where someone stated that they did all the Windows Updates and did not have the issue.

Therefore, I did all the Windows Updates except the following:

KB2919355 (low keyboard volume/sound)
KB2887595 (no wifi following airplane mode)*
KB2903939 (no wifi following airplane mode)*

I made the above unwanted updates HIDDEN (right-click on them and chose HIDE UPDATE).  *NOTE:  I had this wifi issue before these updates, too.  Since people claim online that these two updates are also the cause, I decided not to install them.  The manual fix for the wifi issue is to come out of Airplane Mode and to then go under PC INFO (use right charms and go to SETTINGS) and click on Device Manager.  DISABLE and then RE-ENABLE the network adapter.

All in all, aside from two "Windows Updates Failed To Install" errors (had to wait for the tablet to revert to pre-install and install a few at a time vs. 10-12), it took about a two hours to install all the Windows Updates from 2013-2014.

The battery drain this morning was 3% on Sleep mode overnight (~8 hours).  99.5% down to 96.5%.

Has anyone finally found a proper solution to  this issue. The same is happening on the Venue 11 Pro. I  can't believe that Dell hasn't officially fixed the connected standby issue by now.