Maybe I can help you get to the bottom of this problem you are having. I've read a number of your posts, and you've been able to clear problems by doing the factory data reset, but problems keep coming back. Unless you have suddenly encountered a hardware problem, then this is probably an issue caused by an app. The app may be incompatible with ICS on the a500, or it may just have some other problem. It could be that there is something unique in what you are doing with the tablet, like the number of files, or certain types of files you have. It could even be one of the builtin apps delivered in the flexrom with ICS. It's possible to isolate the source of the problem regardless of the cause, and the following should help you do that.
Just forget about all that theory for a bit, and do the following to learn more about what your tablet is actually doing when you are having problems.
First, install Watchdog Lite (
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS56b211dC53YXRjaGRvZ2xpdGUiXQ..)
Open it up, and just use the default "moderate" profile.
Click on the CPU tab at the top right, and then check the "Real time CPU" box (upper left).
Look along the righthand side of the window. There you will see CPU usage percentages associated with each app currently residing in memory. You can also see memory use in MB. Ignore the memory use for now.
Most of the processes will be sleeping in the background, and not using any or very little (0.01% or less) CPU. Some may occasionally jump up and use just a little CPU for a second, and then fall back down. Just ignore all of those, they are not using any significant amount of resource, and so are not a problem.
Now look a little closer at the left side where the process names are listed. Each will state whether it is running in the foregound or background. Processes you are actively using are in the foreground. Processes you are not currently using sleep in the background. That's OK, and is actually a good thing. The more the merrier. These will activate quickly when needed, and actually reduce your overall CPU usage.
At or near the top, you should see the Android System and Watchdog processes. Android System should typically show less than 3% CPU usage. Watchdog will show a little more or less, depending on whether or not you are scrolling around in the Watchdog window.
Anything else that is persistently using CPU above 5-10% should be looked into. If something jumps up and does that for just a second, and does not keep popping back up, that is not persistent, so you can ignore it. I'm refering to processes that camp on the CPU, and stay near the top with a high percentage. If you see a process or processes running much more than that, such as 30% or more while you are in the watchdog window, you have found a real problem, and you may have to update the app, learn how to close it down properly to prevent background CPU usage, or get rid of it.
If you are not seeing CPU problems, which are the most common trouble maker on Android, then you can also open up Watchdog and use it to help you find memory leaks in apps. You do this by selecting the CPU tab again, and then selecting the settings button (bottom bar, 3 vertical dots). Select "sort" (rightmost button), and then "sort by mem." See what floats to the top. If you see apps using 75-150MB, and possibly a bit higher, that may be normal. If you see an app using 300-500MB or more, you need to determine whether that is valid or not. The point of this memory analysis is to detemine if you have something leaking memory badly. Some apps may reasonably use more memory, but if you see some simple app using half a Gig, and growing somewhat quickly, that's probably a leak, and the app should be updated to pick up a fix, or removed.
When you are done with the memory part of the test, be sure to change the sort back to CPU, because that's really where most Android bottlenecks occur, and where you typically need to look.
I keep the Watchdog widget on my home screen. It samples background CPU usage and shows that on the widget, so when I start seeing slowdowns, I just glance at that or tap on it to open the main app. Watchdog will monitor your system while you use it and report processes that use more than 40% CPU while in the background (default profile). It will tell you which processes are doing this. Such processes are a problem that you must deal with, or your tablet will become sluggish and not do what you want it to.
Watchdog does not alert on foreground processes, and that is by design, because you typically want foreground processes to use as much CPU as is available, to get the work done quickly. Some services or widgets will run in the foreground and evade Watchdog reporting, so there can be problems there that you merely have to look for manually. When you encounter problems and you do not see a Watchdog alert, open Watchdog to determine if there are foreground process problems also.
Note that Watchdog sleeps most of the time, and only wakes up occasionally to sample CPU usage. The Watchdog CPU usage you see while monitoring CPU in real time does not happen in the background, because the window is not being updated, and the sampling is much less frequent.
Please let me know if you have questions.
