DS Battery life in sleep mode

Scottish

I just bought a DS Lite, and it is lovely.

But something is worrying me. I only have Mario Kart, and I don't use the online much at the moment. But I charged it fully on Tuesday, have played it a few times but when I opened the lid this morning and played one game, the battery went. Seems very short to me - am I missing something? I thought the DS was supposed to have a better battery life than the PSP, but it lasts way longer than this.

When I close the lid to go into sleep mode, do I then have to turn it off? The green battery light stays on all the time when I just close the lid.

Retr0gamer

Scottish wrote:

When I close the lid to go into sleep mode, do I then have to turn it off? The green battery light stays on all the time when I just close the lid.

There's your problem right there. Sleep mode still uses battery power, just slightly less than when the DS is turned on completely. It's no surprise since your DS has been constantly on since Tuesday.

flogen

Aye, sleep mode is really just so you can stop playing for a few minutes, even hours; it's not to be left overnight
(I closed mine and completely forgot one day, woke up the next morning with a dead battery, but worst of all when I put animal crossing back on I had to listen to a 20 minute moan from that bloody Resetti fella in AC:WW )

Scottish

Bit dissapointed with that, tbh. The PSP can be left in sleep mode for DAYS.

Ah well, still love the little thing.

BTW is Animal Crossing worth getting. It just seems a bit, well, twee and embarrassing. But everyone raves about it, and the online line thing sounds interesting.

Retr0gamer

Scottish wrote:

Bit dissapointed with that, tbh. The PSP can be left in sleep mode for DAYS.

Ah well, still love the little thing.

BTW is Animal Crossing worth getting. It just seems a bit, well, twee and embarrassing. But everyone raves about it, and the online line thing sounds interesting.

The PSP sleep mode isn't the same as the DS one. The PSP sleep mode saves state to the memory card or some internal flash memory, not sure which, sdo doesn't need to use battery power.

i_am_dogboy

Scottish wrote:

BTW is Animal Crossing worth getting. It just seems a bit, well, twee and embarrassing. But everyone raves about it, and the online line thing sounds interesting.

There are a few questions that need answering....

Do you like to trample on neighbours flowers?
Would you like to walk around in a self made tshirt with a cock on it?
Would you like a flag with the design above?
Do you like to hit people with bug catching nets?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then you'll definitely like the game. There's lots more to do in it, but I've found it to be most fun when I'm just running around in a friends town being a twat....i'd wholeheartedly recommend it if you plan on going online-the online play is actually pretty damn fantastic. As a single player game, the cube version is better I think.

Also if you don't know anyone who has the game, there are a good few people from this board who play so you could drop into their town and partake in the usual shenanigans....

I've absolutely no input with regards to the battery life issue.

Kimbot

The DS is suppose to last *upto* 7 days in sleep mode!!

Jimi-Spandex

I remember my ds slept for five days once. I completely forgot about it. I found it in the middle of a battle in Mario & Luigi.

But to answer your question, the DS's standby is a bit more like just pausing and turning off the screen. It's only really good for short term. Except in odd cases like above.

Oh is it just my ds or does everyone else still hear the music when playing a gba game and closing it?

Retr0gamer

Jimi-Spandex wrote:

Oh is it just my ds or does everyone else still hear the music when playing a gba game and closing it?

In the word of Mr. T: 'You a crazy foo!'

Actually have never tried it

tba

theres no sleep mode for most gba titles

Kenny_D

Sleep mode is required for the alarm though. I leave mine on overnight because the alarm wakes me up in the morning. If you turn the power off on the ds the alarm wont work but I still get loads of play time out of it between charges. I have it a week and have only needed a recharge once. Playing on it quite a bit and leaving it in sleep mode every night. Seems like good battery life to me

flogen

GStormcrow wrote:

Sleep mode is required for the alarm though. I leave mine on overnight because the alarm wakes me up in the morning. If you turn the power off on the ds the alarm wont work but I still get loads of play time out of it between charges. I have it a week and have only needed a recharge once. Playing on it quite a bit and leaving it in sleep mode every night. Seems like good battery life to me

Well the alarm probably isn't too demanding on the battery; considering it's just a clock (which runs in the background on your DS anyway... even when it's switched off).

As for AC; yeah it's a good game, pointless but fun... I like it when my neighbours ask me to come up with a new catch phrase for them and I get them to say something rude; it's completely immature but nothing gives me the giggles like seeing a happy giraffe come up and say "Eat my..." well, you get the idea.

Spuddie

How many hours extra of battery life has the ds lite compared to the original ds ?

ps. Has anybody else noticed when you turn on your ds lite with mario kart in it , when starting mk ,mario says " here we go " instead of the normal kart reving noise ? or is it just me ?

1huge1

the ds lite has the same battery as the orignal

there is no difference except fot the looks

justfortherecor

1huge1 wrote:

the ds lite has the same battery as the orignal

there is no difference except fot the looks

Not true. I dont have the booklet in front of me but the battery life has been improved. I think its upto 15hrs now, most certainly an improvement on the original. Changable brightness settings are also a difference from the original, a stronger hinge, a re-positioned mic as well.

zilog_jones

The battery could be the same, but the electronics are probably a lot more efficient, especially regarding the screen backlight circuitry.

Having the brightness and volume up high will probably give shorter than the stated battery life. Using headphones might also improve life (dunno if the built-in speakers need more amplification than headphones).

Also, Scottish - if you never charged the DS since you got it, there wouldn't have been much charge in the battery in the first place - Li-ion batteries are normally charged to about 30-40% from the factory. Also, IIRC they don't reach their maximum capacity until a few cycles of charging/discharging.