[ladydi]

As of about a week ago, my blackberry 8800 (t-mobile) started running through it's battery within 8 hours. I had recently installed the google mail app and thought perhaps that was causing it. Then one of my users approached me and said she has to charge her 8800 every 5 hours. Mine is just over a year old, hers is about 6 months old. Then I just got an e-mail from another user with an 8700 saying that her battery keeps running out quickly.

I have not made any changes to the BES (4.1 sp4 for exchange) in months and I restarted it a couple of days ago to see if a refresh would help - it hasn't. Do you think it is just a case of bad batteries? I don't have any new ones on hand to test - they are in the mail, but I thought I would see if anyone else was having any issues. I thought it was odd that we all had the problem at the same time. Do you think it could be a carrier issue? and has anyone else suddenly experienced this?

My experience with BB's, or any cell phone is that the battery slowly degrades. Not fine one day and then suddenly won't hold a charge for more than a day.

[JSanders]

ladydi, here are some battery tips if you have not read...
Battery Use Tips for your Maximum Battery Life | BlackBerryNews.com

For those that batteries that seem to have gone "bad" try this...

Roughly every 30 charges, deliberately discharge your battery to 10-15%, and fully charge to 100% afterwards. This will help maintain the accuracy of the xxx8220;fuel gaugexxx8221; on the device (your battery meter or scale). It has nothing to do with the battery memory (as mentioned, Li-ion batteries do not have memory) but helps maintain the accuracy of the devicexxx8217;s percentage of battery charge left.

[Klotar]

Battery life still seems normal on my 8800, after 15 month's use.

If you escape out of Google Maps (Return key or red Phone key), it will keep running in the background. Outdoors, the GPS will be in use tracking your location, and indoors, cell tower triangulation will be occuring... 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

While it may not account 100% for your (and your co-worker's) battery problem, Google Maps is a battery drainer without a doubt. If after using Google Maps, you use the Menu key (Blackberry logo) and Exit, then it will not run in the background and you should show battery life improvement.

[ladydi]

"Li-ion batteries have a typical life-span of 300-500 charges, which averages out to approximately two years. A Li-ion battery will normally maintain more of a full capacity charge and then xxx8220;quit workingxxx8221; suddenly, rather than gradually becoming worse in performance."

crossing my fingers that the new batteries solve the problem. Thanks!