Startup items.

[jungleexplorer]

The apps that showes to be hogging the most system resources on my phones is the stock Google services and ATT bloatware. Of the other apps on my phone the biggest offender is Facebook which came on the phone.

I have totally different apps installed in the A500 as it is mostly a toy for my 11yr old to play angry birds and Minecraft on. It seems to work fine for games, but trying to type on it in a browser is like watching paint dry. When you start to type it works fine, but the more you type the more it slows down until it reaches a point that it totally freezes up.

My S2 I777 was really bad until the 4.1.2 update. It got a little better after that but still froze up on occasion. When I bought my I727 skyrocket, it came with some other rom on it called CyanogenMod. The phone would not even connect to the AT&T network. I found a stock rom and flahsed the phone with it and then upgraded to 4.1.2 through Kies.

The I727 is my main device now. The main non stock apps I use are Aquamail, Camscanner, Weatherbug, Firefox, Waze, Android Forum, aCar. I have no games on my phone.

 

[dan330]

maybe you can try a 3rd party keyboard.. see if that can help.

i really like swiftkey. i think there is a free trail version of it on the market.

Facebook... i do not use..
but have read other complain about its bad behavior. there are other options from 3rd party.



PS.. will you send some of that fresh wild pork meat to the member that helps solve your issue for each device?? does not hurt to ask.

 

[lunatic59]

The apps that showes to be hogging the most system resources on my phones is the stock Google services and ATT bloatware. Of the other apps on my phone the biggest offender is Facebook which came on the phone.

The only practical way to eliminate the bloatware is to root. That's just the nature of a subsidized phone. Unlike PC's where you can remove the bloat that it ships with (because you have administrative privileges from day one) a standard user can't remove system installed apps.

I have totally different apps installed in the A500 as it is mostly a toy for my 11yr old to play angry birds and Minecraft on. It seems to work fine for games, but trying to type on it in a browser is like watching paint dry. When you start to type it works fine, but the more you type the more it slows down until it reaches a point that it totally freezes up.

I have an Acer T101 which is for all intents and purposes identical in spec to the A500. I have it rooted and running 4.3 with Swiftkey and the keyboard lags like crazy. I don't do a whole lot of typing on the tab, but when I do it's very noticeable. Perhaps a very basic keyboard replacement would be more efficient. It's not a big issue for me and I prefer the features of Swiftkey.

My S2 I777 was really bad until the 4.1.2 update. It got a little better after that but still froze up on occasion. When I bought my I727 skyrocket, it came with some other rom on it called CyanogenMod. The phone would not even connect to the AT&T network. I found a stock rom and flashed the phone with it and then upgraded to 4.1.2 through Kies.

The I727 is my main device now. The main non stock apps I use are Aquamail, Camscanner, Weatherbug, Firefox, Waze, Android Forum, aCar. I have no games on my phone.

I have an i777, too and never saw any performance issues that I could notice, even when running unrooted stock. Is it purely performance that is the issue, or is it behaving oddly and "glitchy"?

 

[jungleexplorer]

maybe you can try a 3rd party keyboard.. see if that can help.

i really like swiftkey. i think there is a free trail version of it on the market.

Facebook... i do not use..
but have read other complain about its bad behavior. there are other options from 3rd party.



PS.. will you send some of that fresh wild pork meat to the member that helps solve your issue for each device?? does not hurt to ask.

Thanks. So, facebook huh? I will get rid of it as I do not have a facebook account. It just came with the stock rom.

Hey, if you are in Abilene, just come on over tommow and you can have all of the smoked hog meat you can eat. I have all the ribs and shoulders in the smoker right now. I smoke them a littte first and then rap them in tin foil so they are air tight and slow cook them for 10 hours. When they come out they are juicy and the meat falls off the bone. These hogs are were all Sows off a game ranch and were nice and fat. They are going to be sooo good! Having a big party tomorrow. Come on by if you are around here. I mean it. And this goes for the rest of you too. I am not as bad I sound if you meet me in person.

 

[dan330]

abilene from dallas... cant say I can make that trip! but thanks for the invite!

that is a lot of meat for a party!!!! going to be a huge bash!

 

[jungleexplorer]

The only practical way to eliminate the bloatware is to root. That's just the nature of a subsidized phone. Unlike PC's where you can remove the bloat that it ships with (because you have administrative privileges from day one) a standard user can't remove system installed apps.



I have an Acer T101 which is for all intents and purposes identical in spec to the A500. I have it rooted and running 4.3 with Swiftkey and the keyboard lags like crazy. I don't do a whole lot of typing on the tab, but when I do it's very noticeable. Perhaps a very basic keyboard replacement would be more efficient. It's not a big issue for me and I prefer the features of Swiftkey.



I have an i777, too and never saw any performance issues that I could notice, even when running unrooted stock. Is it purely performance that is the issue, or is it behaving oddly and "glitchy"?

I tried rooting once on a cheap Sharp phone using Super One Click. It ruined the phone. After a hard reset and unrooting the phone I got it working but could never get the wifi to work again, it was permently damaged. I know a lot of people root their phones, but after that experience I don't feel comfortable doing it again.

I wonder why these Acer tablets are having such a hard time with the simple task of typing?

As far as the I777 goes. It works okay. The main problem was multitasking to fast. Say I was looking for something in a browser and then wanted to check the weather on weatherbug and then got a text and tried to respond to it. As long as I did these things slowly it would do fine, but I tired switching between aops too fast it woud freeze. Also, turning the GPS would freeze the phone up up unless I completely restartes the phine first. If I did not restart the phone before turning the GPS on it would never link with the satellite s and just keeo trying until it locked the phone up. Bluetooth was horrid too. It would lose contact with my Voyager Pro HD all the time and Google Voice would never work over BT, not even in 4.1.2. Trying to use Voice to Text over BT would not work and would usually lock the phone up requiring a reboot.

The GPS works much better on my I727 but I still have problem with V2T over BT, although it does work about 50% of the time. The I727 works much better then my I777 did but it has problems with becoming laggy. Actually it seems that when it is alseep that the memory gets full. So much so that the ringtone and notification tones lag at first and are kind of choppy or echoes if you will. I only had it for a couple weeks so I have not seen a pattern to the problems other then the ringtone issue. It has frozen up multiple times since I have had it requiring a long press in the power key to reboot the phone. I have found that when the phone starts to lag, if I run a memory cleaner right away it will not freeze up. At these times I have check under the running application in settings and found that the Google services, ATT apps and google play to be consuming the most ram.

 

[Rukbat]

Also, ram memory is volatile, which means that it requires a constant charge to store data.

Errr, no. It means that when power is removed (when you turn the phone off), data is lost.

It takes more power to keep a larger amount of ram memory in use

Again, no. Dynamic RAM is refreshed constantly, one "block" (as defined by the individual hardware) per cycle - regardless of whether anything of use is being stored in that block or not (every bit in any given amount of RAM is either a 0 or a 1 - what it means depends on how the system is using that particular byte at that particular time). So whether you have one small app in RAM, or 99% of RAM is filled with apps, if the RAM is dynamic, it takes a certain amount of power per cycle to refresh it.

Static RAM doesn't need refresh, so no power is used to "keep data" in it. Power is used to keep the RAM running but, again, whether a particular bit is part of an app or part of unused RAM, it's still a 1 or a 0, and the RAM in the device is consuming the same amount of power.

(I've only been designing systems for 40 years, so I may not know as much as you do, but the first system I was in charge of designing, in 1978, is still running now in 2014, so I must know something.)

 

[lunatic59]

I tried rooting once on a cheap Sharp phone using Super One Click. It ruined the phone. After a hard reset and unrooting the phone I got it working but could never get the wifi to work again, it was permently damaged. I know a lot of people root their phones, but after that experience I don't feel comfortable doing it again.

I think the combo of a low end phone and a generic kernel were the source of your rooting problems. Really the S2 and the Skyrocket are very easy to root safely, but I can understand anyone's desire not to root. There is always some risk involved with is a piece of expensive kit.

I wonder why these Acer tablets are having such a hard time with the simple task of typing?

It's not the typing per se. It's all the features with a soft keyboard. Spell checking, prediction, character mapping, etc. Add to that multi language support and a keyboard can tax a device more than some apps.

As far as the I777 goes. It works okay. The main problem was multitasking to fast. Say I was looking for something in a browser and then wanted to check the weather on weatherbug and then got a text and tried to respond to it. As long as I did these things slowly it would do fine, but I tired switching between aops too fast it woud freeze. Also, turning the GPS would freeze the phone up up unless I completely restartes the phine first. If I did not restart the phone before turning the GPS on it would never link with the satellite s and just keeo trying until it locked the phone up. Bluetooth was horrid too. It would lose contact with my Voyager Pro HD all the time and Google Voice would never work over BT, not even in 4.1.2. Trying to use Voice to Text over BT would not work and would usually lock the phone up requiring a reboot.

The GPS works much better on my I727 but I still have problem with V2T over BT, although it does work about 50% of the time. The I727 works much better then my I777 did but it has problems with becoming laggy. Actually it seems that when it is alseep that the memory gets full. So much so that the ringtone and notification tones lag at first and are kind of choppy or echoes if you will. I only had it for a couple weeks so I have not seen a pattern to the problems other then the ringtone issue. It has frozen up multiple times since I have had it requiring a long press in the power key to reboot the phone. I have found that when the phone starts to lag, if I run a memory cleaner right away it will not freeze up. At these times I have check under the running application in settings and found that the Google services, ATT apps and google play to be consuming the most ram.

I've check and in fact Google services and play do consume a good bit of ram. I kind of would expect that on an Android phone, though since it is what is handling the lion's share of services. As for the GPS issues, if you have location enabled apps, it may be what is causing some of your lag. The i777 was notorious for having poor GPS performance. While I wouldn't say abysmal, it certainly isn't stellar and of all the phones I've owned it is by far the fussiest with getting it to see the satellites. I've not had any of the AT&T based apps on my S2 for a while and when I use it, I don't see any lag and I can't remember it ever locking up. I would be very suspect of some of those AT&T apps.

That said, my wife has an S3 and my son has an S4 both completely stock and neither has complained about problems like that. It could be that the S2 is reaching a performance threshold for today's app demands. :dontknow:

 

[jungleexplorer]

It could be that the S2 is reaching a performance threshold for today's app demands. :dontknow:

Well, maybe. But my S2 has gotten better and better with each android update. It is actually useable to some extent now, where as it was really unstable when I first took it out of the box. This is why I say Android is a platform in development. In my experience I have watched it improve from very glitchy to a lot less glitchy over the past two years.

 

[John Bean]

This is very odd; I've been a user of Android since 1.5 and I agree the very early versions were... well, a bit "unfinished" to say the least. But until I bought my Nexus 4 last year I was still using a Motorola Milestone with Android 2.1 on a daily basis with no significant issues. The Nexus 4 (and my Nexus 7) with KitKat are not in the slightest unstable.

Now as a long time Windows user (and developer in a previous life) I find Windows (7) more glitchy than KitKat (and much more gitchy than the Linux desktop I prefer to use), so I'm having a hard time working out what it could be that is making your experience incompatible with my own. I don't disbelieve anything you have written, I just can't find any intersection with my own experiences over the years.

There has to be a reason for it but it isn't what you keep assuming, that it's all down to Android being unfit for purpose. If that was true I'd be seeing the same thing. But I don't, so it's not.

 

[jungleexplorer]

There has to be a reason for it but it isn't what you keep assuming, that it's all down to Android being unfit for purpose. If that was true I'd be seeing the same thing. But I don't, so it's not.

I never said Android was "unfit for purpose". I said that it is a platform in development. The same could be said about any other OS. The tech world is in a perpetual stage of continuous development. Why everyone on here gets their tail feathers all in a ruffle because I say this show not a little bit of fanaticism. When everyone is willing to look at any other possibility other then Android itself, suggest bias to me. I firmly believe that perfection in the tech world will never and can never exist because all technology is created by humans which are imperfect by nature and therefore incapable of producing perfection. Since I hold nothing sacred when it comes to technology, nothing is off the board for consideration when it comes to troubleshooting. While Android may be a decent OS, it is far from perfect and anyone that would suggest that it is, is only showing their own bias.

I my own experience, I have used 5 different Android devices. I experienced significant problems with all of them from the start. The only thread tying them together is the Android OS, so by simple deductive reasoning the OS is a good suspect. Now many arguments can be made that the hardware of each device might be at fault, but the truth is that an OS is created for the purpose of running hardware and not hardware to run an OS. So, if there were harware incompatiblity issues, the fault would still fall on Android. In my case different apps have been used over the course of two years and the problems persisted over multiple devices regardless of which devices or apps were installed. Once again, deductive reasoning would suggest that the common thread between all these factors is the OS and that would be the first suspect as to the cause.

Having said all this, I just want to make it clear, I am not saying that Android is bad OS. That fact that I have chosen to use Android as my OS of choice for my mobile devices should be enough to convince any reasonable non fanatical person that I like and prefer Android over iOS or Windows phone OS.

The bottom line is I cannot explain why my Android experience has been so difficult and yours has been an absolute utopia. I will say that I have done hundreds of searches and have found thousands of other people that share all of the same problems with their Android devices as I have had. If you do not beleive me, do a google search for any one of the problems I listed and watch your computer overheat and melt trying to process all of the results. Android is not perfect, but that is not say that it is not useable or better then the alternative.

 

[funkylogik]

Tbh i think youre seeing "feathers ruffled" where they actually arent lol and that makes me think that youre posting what you do in an attempt to ruffle said feathers
To me it seems like you are the narrow minded one in this thread and you prejudged us as being fanboys and expected a huge backlash which, as you can see, just hasnt happened.
Everyone here wants your experience of android to be as smooth as ours, we're here to help, not to defend android

 

[lunatic59]

...I just can't find any intersection with my own experiences over the years ... If that was true I'd be seeing the same thing. But I don't, so it's not.

When everyone is willing to look at any other possibility other then Android itself, suggest bias to me ... I my own experience, I have used 5 different Android devices. I experienced significant problems with all of them from the start.

Everyone here wants your experience of android to be as smooth as ours, we're here to help, not to defend android

We are all working with anecdotal evidence and have no actual technical "proof" one way or another. I've used many many Android devices beginning with Cupcake and while each release has shown specific improvements, they also have their own set of issues. I don't think anybody is claiming that Android is perfect, but it should be a very usable mobile OS without facing the problems you seem to be having.

There is another common denominator besides the OS, JE ... and that would be you. That's not an accusation by any means. What I am saying is twofold. First, you may be using a specific set of apps that just don't seem to play nice together, and two, you have a much lower tolerance for device performance or conversely a much higher expectation of performance.

Honestly, the i777, i727 and A500, while capable devices, are older with specific known hardware issues that have impacted user experience.

As Funky pointed out we are all just trying to help you optimize your user experience with your devices and Android versions.

Maybe if we approach this from a task-based perspective -- you tell us exactly what you want your phone to do, how you want it to do it and the areas you wish optimal performance -- we can instead of trying to get your existing devices to work as best they can, we can recommend a phone that would fit your needs.

FWIW, I agree with you that Android (and all operating systems) are works in progress and have room for improvement. The problem for developers is that as consumer expectations and technological platforms change, they try to adapt the OS while still being able to release it in a commercially practical time frame.

 

[codesplice]

I never said Android was "unfit for purpose". I said that it is a platform in development. The same could be said about any other OS. The tech world is in a perpetual stage of continuous development. Why everyone on here gets their tail feathers all in a ruffle because I say this show not a little bit of fanaticism. When everyone is willing to look at any other possibility other then Android itself, suggest bias to me. I firmly believe that perfection in the tech world will never and can never exist because all technology is created by humans which are imperfect by nature and therefore incapable of producing perfection. Since I hold nothing sacred when it comes to technology, nothing is off the board for consideration when it comes to troubleshooting. While Android may be a decent OS, it is far from perfect and anyone that would suggest that it is, is only showing their own bias.

To be fair, you did come to "Android Forums" instead of a more generic "Mobile Phone Forums". Whether it's correct or not, I think a little bit of fanaticism, brand loyalty, or bias should be expected. Bearing that in mind, though, I hope that there aren't any here who would argue that Android has reached its peak and doesn't have any further progress to be made. There are still plenty of things about the OS that need to be improved, bugs to be squashed, and additional features to be added.

So, if there were harware incompatiblity issues, the fault would still fall on Android.

Sort of. The responsibility for hardware support and compatibility falls on the individual OEMs (Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc) instead of the Android project as a whole. OEMs are responsible for the drivers and any software needed to power their hardware. This, of course, doesn't change anything about your complaints - they're still valid, regardless of who is to "blame." With that in mind, though, I've had much fewer issues out of my various Nexus devices than with any of the other Androids I've toyed with over the years (GS2, Atrix, etc - though with the notable exception of my wife's new Moto X).

Having said all this, I just want to make it clear, I am not saying that Android is bad OS. That fact that I have chosen to use Android as my OS of choice for my mobile devices should be enough to convince any reasonable non fanatical person that I like and prefer Android over iOS or Windows phone OS.

I'm sorry that more of the responses you've received haven't been keeping this important detail in mind. The very fact that you are here shows that you're interested in improving your experience instead of giving up and jumping overboard. :thumbup:

 

[dan330]

from what I gather so far... his one point of concern is the typing lag.
if we can concentrate on this issue and fix it... it think it might also reduce other issues.

as long as the device has at least the minimal hardware: multi-cpu and 1GB of RAM.
typing should not lag so much as to cause issues with usability.

I remember when I had the HTC EVO (original).. using Google voice.
the keyboard lag was unbearable when the system RAM was full.
I had to ROOT.. and run a ROM with memory manager that kept RAM available.
so that cache could be bigger.

the EVO is very old and little RAM to start with: compared to devices today.

don't they have apps that help to optimize the free RAM space?
anyone remember some good ones?

 

[funkylogik]

I recommend the App Cache Cleaner widget for when the keyboard feels laggy :thumbup:

 

[davoid]

I think that instead of being concerned with memory usage, you might be better off finding which apps are using the most cpu cycles, as this is more likely to be the cause of your device slowing down.

Try using CPU Usage & Process List Viewer, as it lists the apps and processes in order of cpu usage so you can immediately see the biggest offenders.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.vviki.android.SysLoadLogger&hl=en

You can tap on an individual item and select to kill that app and see if it stops your phone from slowing to a grinding halt.

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

don't they have apps that help to optimize the free RAM space?
anyone remember some good ones?

I recommend the App Cache Cleaner widget for when the keyboard feels laggy :thumbup:

^^^^ isn't this the same line of thinking as using task killers?

 

[funkylogik]

Nah app cache cleaner just clears app cache and i dont recommend automating it, cache is there for a reason, just use the one-tap widget when things feel bogged down. 9/10 the widget has turned from green to red :thumbup:

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

Nah app cache cleaner just clears app cache and i dont recommend automating it, cache is there for a reason, just use the one-tap widget when things feel bogged down. 9/10 the widget has turned from green to red :thumbup:

Sounds similar to the OP's problem when RAM is full. This thread discouraged micromanaging how the system handles memory. But it's okay to micromanage how an app fills its memory?

 

[dan330]

I was more referring to adjusting where android ... starts to kill off apps.
set cache size...

an app that changes the limits of how/when android's internal memory manager starts to free up RAM for cache.

this might require ROOT... I think for an app to change these settings.


also if you are rooted.. then you can also try running plain android. no OEM skins.
that also frees up some resources.

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

first.... you are comparing oranges to pineapples. you are trying to peel a pineapple like an orange. stop. stop trying to think android is like DOS/Windows.

2nd... android uses resources and releases resources differently. android will handle it all for u. it is very good at handling it. it wants to load in apps into the background. things back there are not active unless it needs to update something or the user needs something form it.

3rd... if you uninstall or freeze on app so that it will not take up resources.. android will just find some other app to load into memory.

4th... don't even try to use task killers apps.. android versions 4.2 and higher don't need your help with this.

5th.. best advise.. you need to just STOP thinking about the memory and resources on android. just use the device and enjoy.

I'll just borrow your quote then dan.

 

[funkylogik]

Sounds similar to the OP's problem when RAM is full. This thread discouraged micromanaging how the system handles memory. But it's okay to micromanage how an app fills its memory?

Yeah you could be right man but ive always thought it was certain apps causing the problem, not the OS

 

[Slug]

This thread discouraged micromanaging how the system handles memory. But it's okay to micromanage how an app fills its memory?

It's a quick, easy and safe way to diagnose one possible cause of the symptoms i.e. an app that is not correctly purging its cached files. It only affects the app(s) involved, and the cache(s) are freshly rebuilt the next time the app is run.

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

It's a quick, easy and safe way to diagnose one possible cause of the symptoms i.e. an app that is not correctly purging its cached files. It only affects the app(s) involved, and the cache(s) are freshly rebuilt the next time the app is run.

I wasn't necessarily calling it a bad idea or that it's a bad thing to do. But rather pointing out, that it seems like an extension of task killer logic.

Clearing cache isn't something someone should do all the time. Cache will need to be rebuilt later, slowing performance. Just like killing an app will cause the need to load it back into memory later. So similar to the above reason, using a task manager can be a valid option.

We shouldn't tell the OP one thing is bad, but take the next step and call it okay. At least not without telling the OP why.