[Q]Ram issues Nexus S Jelly Bean! - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

This is my first post on XDA and although i'm not new to the android scene having owned a lot of devices in previous years but I never came down to post queries of my own cause everything used to go real smooth!
I recently got a Nexus S i9020t from a friend and tried flashing a Jelly Bean rom on my device.
No issues so far with everything working with every rom that i've tried...
The only thing that bugs me is the ram.
I've tried several kernels on top of different roms (Matrix, Air (Big-Mem version), Marmite etc.) designed for Jelly Bean but I never to seem get any greater ram than about 150-170 mb even on first boot with no applications installed and when I restore about 50 of my apps through titanium it goes down to 120-150 at max.
I have tried rebooting my device every now and then but the ram leak doesn't get any better.
That way most apps that I run crash my device (im a big fan of chrome on android but the lack of availability of free ram degrades performance)
I've been looking into using different free task managers on the play store but of no use.
Simply put, my question relates to the free ram this device can generate!
Can anyone give me an explanation as to the lack of free ram and what kernel, tips and tricks I could follow to improve it?

You can try flashing a kernel that supports BIGMEM(check the development section). Since you're new you won't be able to post any question regarding said mod. Basically gives you 50mb of extra RAM which, IIRC, takes away from the HD recording portion of the phone or something of that nature. The 512MB RAM sucks, but I never had an issue with it on mine. Then again, I never really ran a lot of applications. Android can handle the tasks on its own and free up memory when needed. But you may face a few launcher redraws now and then.

chronophase1 said:
You can try flashing a kernel that supports BIGMEM(check the development section). Since you're new you won't be able to post any question regarding said mod. Basically gives you 50mb of extra RAM which, IIRC, takes away from the HD recording portion of the phone or something of that nature. The 512MB RAM sucks, but I never had an issue with it on mine. Then again, I never really ran a lot of applications. Android can handle the tasks on its own and free up memory when needed. But you may face a few launcher redraws now and then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah so like you said I did try the Big Mem versions of Air Kernel and Matrix but it was never really of much use. Matrix gives me about 180 mb of ram when the device has no foreground apps running (except the system processes of course) and Air goes to about 140-160 not more.
The thing that I don't get is that this other friend runs Jelly Bean on his Galaxy S with Devil Kernel or something and his free ram is above 190-ish.
Technically both sport the same hardware with a few extras on Nexus S (led flash, lack of gorila glass, NFC etc.) but it really doesn't make sense.
And about those Launcher redraws. Yeah, they've been going really frequent now that I installed and use chrome as my daily browser.
Overall, in my experience I'd say Matrix Kernel would be perfect if it weren't for that Voodoo Colour Mod. It gives a weird hue to my display orangy in nature but Air comes around well in that department.

We all understand what you're experiencing. Basically, our Nexus S devices just are not able to keep up with the ever increasing size of electronic files. Even though it's nice to be able to run JB, it really stretches the Nexus to it's limits. I too am torn, because I love the smoothness of 4.1.1, but to be honest, the phone can handle GB much easier. One other thing, Chrome is a huge consumer of ram ... really too much for the NS. As much as I love my Nexus, the handwriting is on the wall, if I really want to continue to enjoy all the new stuff coming our way.

The colors can be adjusted to your liking. Some kernels have a setting that's not the factory norm(ie Trinity). You also have to keep in mind some of that RAM has to be dedicated to the OS itself. You're gonna have to deal with the fact the phone has a memory limitation on 4.1. Sucks, but there's really not much else you can really do about it.

I could never get above 125MB on GB even with a custom kernel. With only 512MB ram, more than half of that is already used by Android itself, there's not much left for apps. That said, I would remove unnecessary widgets on home screens, install Autostarts, or ROM Toolbox, or Gemini App Manager or other autostart management app and turn off autorun triggers on apps. The less background apps the more rams you can free up. I'm currently running with about 75MB and it's smooth. I set auto free rams to start killing apps if it's below 45MB.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

[email protected] said:
I could never get above 125MB on GB even with a custom kernel. With only 512MB ram, more than half of that is already used by Android itself, there's not much left for apps. That said, I would remove unnecessary widgets on home screens, install Autostarts, or ROM Toolbox, or Gemini App Manager or other autostart management app and turn off autorun triggers on apps. The less background apps the more rams you can free up. I'm currently running with about 75MB and it's smooth. I set auto free rams to start killing apps if it's below 45MB.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those auto triggers you talk of what software do you use to counter those cause I just looked at the cached processes inside the stock Application Manager and it showed a few that always show up when my phone boots. Of those that I usually encounter is Titanium, Maps, Google Search and a two or three more. Killing them doesn't make much of a difference though. Either the ram display at the bottom is screwed or the ram just doesn't go up when I abort any one of them and after a while they again show up. How do I deal with them?

Some general points.
Yes we want more ram. But we want it to use it. Free ram is wasted ram.
Task managers suck. All of them.
Low ram should not crash your device.
Stop worrying about how me free ram you have
Chrome sucks. It sucks on all devices. Sucks on n7. AOSP just runs better.
Want to keep a little more free ram because your device lags when its low on ram. Go to developer options and limit background processes

I'm with al. No point in over-obsessing about it. Cached processes aren't doing anything. They're there for when you want to switch apps for quicker access, which part of the way Android operates. You can limit what starts on startup to increase boot time(probably not even worth it), which I do even though I just said it probably doesn't help much, with a startup manager.

I to am no fan of task killers. I've heard that they can sometimes consume more ram since some of the killed apps will try to start again.
I found the autostarts app very useful. I have disabled around 50% of all auto starts. Mainly for installed apps but also a bunch of system apps. Another useful tool is Auto Memory Manager which sets the ram level where the system kills apps according to their category (e.g. Foregroud, visible, hidden etc). I use the "mild" manager with the level for empty apps raised. I manage to get around 80 MB free when running nothing. However I have a performance ROM which might affect that number.

My Nexus S has been retired a long time now.. I'm currently using the GS3 with lots of rams so it's not an issue for me anymore dealing with low rams... However, same symptoms on the GS3 or any Android phone, the less available rams means more processes are running which can cause slow app responsiveness. Also, some app even runs in the background hogging load of cpu usage, that definitely slows down your phone. I use task manager to kill off those high cpu apps when they go wild. OS Monitor is a good app for monitoring cpu usage... GO SMS Pro is an example app that sometimes persistently consumes 30% - 50% cpu, killling it off makes the phone smooth again.
S-beamed from my GSIII via xda premium

Related

High memory being used.

Hey what's up everyone. Anyone know why there is so much RAM being used on the phone? As soon as I bought the phone without installing any apps, I'll open the task manger and see over 430mb's of memory being used, giving me a little over 100mb's left. I'll run 3 apps, bring it into the 80-90mb's left and the phone gets laggy.
Anyone know why the phone is using so much memory with nothing running In the Task manager? I never see it under 400mb's of use.
Thanks
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Is it the same after a reboot?
For my Sensation, I've noticed that after a few times using it and playing with it, the avaliable RAM decreases even if I have no more than 5 apps running
Rebooting the Sensation gives me fresh RAM.
Also you may use a taskiller or task manager, that will show you much more running tasks than what is displayed by the stock HTC task manager
HTC's task manager is not even showing the right amount of ram. Go into menu->settings->applications->running and look at your ram there.
I just pulled the battery out and turned the phone back on. Says 468mb's are being used. Have around 110 availible.
Borodin, thanks. I'll try that. But I've noticed after 5 apps running. The phone will get real laggy. I came from an HTC HD7 and I loved how smooth it was. Not seeing that in this phone much...but still like it.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
I'm not saying that it's not ridiculous that Sense 3.0 is using that much RAM, I'm just saying that may be we have more mem available then we think.
In my phone right now:
HTC's readings are 438 used/120 free
Android's readings are 253 used/263 free.
Phone definitely needs a make over as Sense is just bogging it down.
Supposedly has something to do with the 2.3 Android system
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Yes I don't know why the two are reporting different amounts. But I have a feeling that the one in the running services is showing the correct value.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
I installed ADW ex & checked a few times to see how much ram I had and it shows a little over 200mb free(in tsk mngr). Not to mention this thing is now snappy as hell.
Sent from my HTC Feeling.
Strange, I can reach a max of 338Mb free (according to a task killer and an external task manager from the market) after a reboot and after having killed all unecessary tasks. I use settings=>apps=>running apps to kill some tasks, and taskiller to kill some other, because both of them don't display all of the running tasks and display some that the other doesn't display.
After two days of (eavy?) use, doing the same trick to kill al unwantesd tasks, I can't go over 200 or sometimes 150MB so I reboot.
Just like most modern os you don't have to worry about memory. Android will take care of it. Also remember, if you're not using the memory its useless. It's better to have 10mb of memory free always as long as you don't notice issues. Apart from apps there are cached apps, buffers and other things loaded to keep the phone speedy. Just don't look or think about it and definitely don't use a task killer.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
.....or at least, use a task killer very carefuly if you use one, set it to ignore all the system tasks, and also all tasks the OS will always keep on puting ON again indefinitly if they are killed, your wallpaper, any media related app, etc
(after each reboot, I have Gmail, the reader, news, weather, facebook, messaging, etc opened in the background for nothing, I definitly prefer killing it as they will start again normaly if I need them)
But right, except for N64oid and Fpse, I have never been bothered by too low RAM on the Sensation. And when that happened on these 2 emulators, it was after 2 days of heavy use without any reboot, so....^^
mobilehavoc said:
Just like most modern os you don't have to worry about memory. Android will take care of it. Also remember, if you're not using the memory its useless. It's better to have 10mb of memory free always as long as you don't notice issues. Apart from apps there are cached apps, buffers and other things loaded to keep the phone speedy. Just don't look or think about it and definitely don't use a task killer.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you 100%, and again with your comment about the task killer. Don't install a task killer, and don't obsess about killing about with the built in task killer. Since 2.2 android has done an amazing job at managing and using available resources. It's pre-loading services and apps into memory to have things launch sooner, etc. When the system runs out of available memory it will kill whatever apps it feels it needs to kill in order to give the smoothest experience possible.
Paging Dr B said:
I agree with you 100%, and again with your comment about the task killer. Don't install a task killer, and don't obsess about killing about with the built in task killer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only reason I have a task killer now is if anything is loading for no reason. With that I found that VTOK & Movies by Flixster were always running & causing the phone to never sleep & draining my battery. They were always listed as in the foreground (along with Tmobile's Wifi Calling & MyAccount apps).
Bloatware!! The sooner it can be removed, the better.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
I've noticed that rosie uses alot of ram on every sense build. But 3.0 is a little over the top. It gets killed quite easily as well after using the xda app, browser, and download manager for example. And then sense has to completely reload... Htc obviously noticed it a little late in the game and was quick to make miniscule changes in a desperate attempt to conserve ram usage. No scrolling wallpaper? On a dualcore 1.2ghz processor? Really? Lockscreen lag? Lag at all? Can't wait fire a cooked sense 3.0 rom. The difference will be tremendous!
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Android is at its most efficient when the memory is being fully utilised. Don't think of memory usage in Windows terms.
crx4xharder said:
No scrolling wallpaper? On a dualcore 1.2ghz processor? Really?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ask and you shall recieve, and that's what HTC just did. The no-scrolling wallpaper is considered a UI feature just as it is on the Galaxy S 2. It's also standard on ADW-EX and Launcher pro. I personally dig the stationary wallpaper.
what have you got so bad against task killers??
You just say "don't use it", without any explanation....
I use one, like I do on my 2 other Android devices, my Sensation is extremely stable, and I don't want to lose fps when I use Fpse or N64oid, sorry to tell you you're wrong: having less than 150MB ram, because many apps are running in the background, when starting one of these 2 emus, makes fps drop, or frameskip less efficient.
Try it yourself if you don't believe me.
i900frenchaddict said:
what have you got so bad against task killers??
You just say "don't use it", without any explanation....
I use one, like I do on my 2 other Android devices, my Sensation is extremely stable, and I don't want to lose fps when I use Fpse or N64oid, sorry to tell you you're wrong: having less than 150MB ram, because many apps are running in the background, when starting one of these 2 emus, makes fps drop, or frameskip less efficient.
Try it yourself if you don't believe me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I don't use emulators. I also don't have a sensation, so I can't comment on gaming on one. I have however played just about every game imaginable on my SGS1 and have never had to worry about closing an app to play any game. The main reason why I tell people like the OP to not use task killers is because they tend to begin automatically killing tasks(the people using them, not the app on it's own), and since the newer versions of android behave they do, those tasks just end up starting again which then leads to an endless loop of task killing, and battery drains for no reason. I also make it a habit of restarting my phones once a day or two, so I never really give the devices to get bogged down with extra crap running. I'm just saying that's my experience. If you like it, then so be it. Kill away.
Another thing you may want to try is, backing out of all of your running apps instead of being addicted to the home button. Home leaves the apps running and using resources; Backing out closes them and keeps the universe in a zen like state. I love the home button, when I know i'm going back to use a certain app immediately. If not then I back out.
allright, I agree with what you say.
Luckilly, I've set my Taskiller not to endlessly kill tasks that always start again (and actually, Taskiller doesn't display them, or don't kill them automatically or in one click on the widget, only if you go to the app itself and select force kill, what I never do knowing they will start again asap).
I mainly use it, from its widget, to kill everything related to messaging, gmail, facebook, reader, tutorial, etc, that tend to start automatically and never stop when I connect datas or reboot the Sensation.
I also most of the time try to back out instead of home button, but for a few apps, it may be loooonng because it will display a lot of pages back before killing the app.
As for newer versions of RAM management, it also depends on the ROM I suppose.
With my stock SFR/Vodafone french ROM, after, let's say, 2 days of use, the RAM goes under 170Mb, even if I close all tasks, I don't know where RAM is drained, I'm pretty sure my stock ROM is responsible for it, so I reboot every day or every 2 days too.

[Q]Do task killers benifit or hurt our sensations?

Theres an insane amount of discussion regarding the need for task killers on android 2.2+ since the newer versions of android have their own managing system for applications in the background. Most people are recommended advanced task killer before they leave their carriers store with their new phone.
My personal experience when using a task killer is it seems to speed up the phone a bit when used, makes my sensation home screen switching smoother etc. Without it, there seems to be a little lag after 15 minutes of decent use.
So whats the real deal ? Do they hurt your phone/battery life or improve it?
There have been many threads regarding task killers. Not just for sensation but android phones. They are worthless.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
The new phone manage memory pretty well but it doesn't hurt to keep a task killer on ur phone just to check once in a while what you have running. I dont have a task killer per say but I use the Go Launcher which in a tab displays all of the apps running, it gives me an option to lock the ones I wana keep running, so Ive check all of my everyday normal stuff, browser, phone, youtube facebook etc. and once in a blue moon I go and kill everything else by clicking one button.
Sense 3.0 stock gave me 80-100mb of free ram (running stock, normal everyday usage)
Go Launcher EX gives me 130-150mb free ram (running stock, normal usage)
Go Launcher tweeked settings and killing extra tasks gives me 190-250mb free ram
Now, that's a lot of free ram, saved cpu cycles and ultimately improved battery life. Thats the only real practical gain... battery life. i mean the phone powerful enough to run all of the tasks of a power user and then some so performance on my sensation is never an issue for me anyway. You load up crazy live wallpapers and 3D animations and such, yea sure it'll get sluggish but killing random tasks will improve the efficiency only by a small margin anyway.
Task killer is like a tune up, once in a while. Or u can just simply restart your phone like my GF does every once in a while.
mobileusman said:
The new phone manage memory pretty well but it doesn't hurt to keep a task killer on ur phone just to check once in a while what you have running. I dont have a task killer per say but I use the Go Launcher which in a tab displays all of the apps running, it gives me an option to lock the ones I wana keep running, so Ive check all of my everyday normal stuff, browser, phone, youtube facebook etc. and once in a blue moon I go and kill everything else by clicking one button.
Sense 3.0 stock gave me 80-100mb of free ram (running stock, normal everyday usage)
Go Launcher EX gives me 130-150mb free ram (running stock, normal usage)
Go Launcher tweeked settings and killing extra tasks gives me 190-250mb free ram
Now, that's a lot of free ram, saved cpu cycles and ultimately improved battery life. Thats the only real practical gain... battery life. i mean the phone powerful enough to run all of the tasks of a power user and then some so performance on my sensation is never an issue for me anyway. You load up crazy live wallpapers and 3D animations and such, yea sure it'll get sluggish but killing random tasks will improve the efficiency only by a small margin anyway.
Task killer is like a tune up, once in a while. Or u can just simply restart your phone like my GF does every once in a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks man very helpful stuff
I never had a need for task killers with any of my Android phones!
bobzoz said:
thanks man very helpful stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NP, also in my opinion an efficient custom rom will do wonders for the Sensation... can't wait for the s-off update from HTC.
dubie76 said:
There have been many threads regarding task killers. Not just for sensation but android phones. They are worthless.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are not worthless if used correctly
I use the stock task manager and watchdog. Helps my battery alot
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
Confusion
I'd stay away from 3rd party task managers if possible. Especially on a phone running 2.3+. The ones given will most likely handle task killing in a more appropriate manner, instead of just bringing things to a complete halt, which can be detrimental for some apps.
There does seem to be a discrepancy between the two task managers on the sensation, though. Like posted above, with general usage and sense the HTC provided task manager shows about 80-100mb free. However, I had a habit of going into settings>applications>running services to see how much RAM was available (stock 2.3 way of task killing - habit I picked up from my Nexus S) and it normally lists it somewhere around 200mb free.
I'm not sure which is more accurate, but I'm betting on the longer method, since it's in the core of gingerbread. Plus, on every past phone I've had if it went below 80mb I would see some significant lag whereas this isn't the case on the sensation. My Nexus S on average had around 120-150mb free, and the sensation has 256mb more RAM. I know sense is a ram hog, but max I see it taking up is 150mb, so 200mb of total free space seems about right.
I beta-test a LOT of apps, and when they hang or otherwise cannot be killed off, a task manager/killer does the job faster than thumbing through the menus to do it. I only use it judiciously, however..to resolve a specific app.
c19932 said:
they are not worthless if used correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is correct. It's an often debated topic, but I've seen the benefits in battery life and data usage when using an app like Autostarts and wise use of a task killer. Till the Sensation is 100% rooted, Autostarts can only be used to a limited extent. But with full use of Autostarts, my use of a task killer is limited, though still worth having.
Here's a portion of a good discussion on the topic and posted by a recognized Android developer who knows the deal.
Yup. Autostarts is a must-have for anyone who wants a longer battery life.
and task killers are extremely useful once you have excluded all the appropriate apps. My mom is smartphone-illiterate, and sometimes she would open random apps by mistake. With a task killer she could end all those process with 1-click before her phone becomes more chaotic (and of course, I excluded all the appropriate apps to begin with)

[CM6.3] Help me recovering more free RAM !

Hi,
I am running CM6.3 and I am reasonably happy abou this ROM.
However, I noticed that I usually have never more than 30-40MB of free RAM.
I have tried using Autokiller Memory Optimizer set to "Strict", but I am going nowhere.
Gapps (8.5MB) and location (6MB) keep poping up, standard Dialer (11MB) is also always up, Gmail (3.3MB) service is constantly up, so is lousy Skype (3.3MB) that I almost never use but would like to have on my phone.
Besides that, I have swiftkey (11MB) services running in parallel...
Any help ?
i try to kill stuff that i dont need like gmail, skype etc. since you dont use skype often maybe you should just kill the process and open it only when you need it. but if the phone runs smoothly, why bother?
oh theres also another solution to the ram managing that is the V6 Supercharger. i have it running on my phone and dont use any other memory freeing/managing apps such as autokiller memory optimizer or advanced task killer.
heres the link to the thread for xt720 i created http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1228224
sometimes the amount of free ram doesnt matter. what matters is the smoothness lol
Just to say that all the above-mentioned services restart automatically after I killed them !
ktylife said:
Just to say that all the above-mentioned services restart automatically after I killed them !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems to be normal. Like mentioned above, try V6 Supercharger. I actually have less free ram now (about 15-20mb), but the device runs like a charm. Try Agressive 1 or 2, and REMOVE ALL OTHER taskkillers, memfreeers etc.
Hi
Wow 10 to 20 memory free that really sucks .
I use estask manager don't like super charge at all.
I running cm7 iceandfire 3.1 I have removed uneeded system apps and I have went to minimod open recovery.
In the memory settings I got it set at gaming it boots start 60+ and up to 90 program memory.
Sent from my XT720 using XDA Premium App
There's a over-time-memory-leak in 6.3. Just restart and for the first day or so its up to about 60 on average, then it slowly goes down to 40/39.
V6 supercharger (Agressive 2 settings) did the trick ! That is, the phone is much smoother... and yes, free memory is not that high, but I don't care; what matters is that it is very snappy and responsive now !
Thanksm,
mchlbenner said:
Hi
Wow 10 to 20 memory free that really sucks .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, not really, free ram is a waste of ram And as with supercharger, it is way more smooth and responsive as with 60-90 megs of ram...
I know that quote, read it somewhere ;-)
And yes, I think since I installed supercharger multi-tasking, it does what the option is entitled. Sometimes free RAM is about 30-40 but who cares,cause it is running really smoothly. Did try the aggressive ones as well but always got back to option 7
MilestoneXT720 - CM 6.3.0 RC3 [FroYo - 2.2.1]
the trick is simple, you don't really need any of those memory killers
if you keep less Widgets in the Launcher
and avoid installing any apps that leaves Resident Memory (services) running
there are a few good games, that i hate, because they leave those damn Resident Memory hog advertising bots in your phone
all they do is constantly check their servers and send you ads, news flash, etc, related to the game.
even when you cancel it or block the adds, the service is still running.
How about using swap mode?last time i try boot5 but it cant run all the game then i try boot2 now i can play samurai vengeance..but this is my amateur opinion..im just a user..
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using Tapatalk

Task killer vs no task killer?

I use a task killer so im curious why some people say not to use them. What are your opinions?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
I personally use them and havent come across suggestions not to, as long as u know what you are "killing" and its not a system process , it should be ok and yes it does free up RAM
I dont use any task killer and Im happy
I personaly would have a task killer one that kills all when idle. and frees up ram due to the fact i like to do cpu hungry tasks often
Ystrem said:
I dont use any task killer and Im happy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, kill the task, and then feed the task killer the battery power saved.
I have tried them and found most of them didn't help much.
cnavi said:
Same here, kill the task, and then feed the task killer the battery power saved.
I have tried them and found most of them didn't help much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here.
I don't use any of them.I used before but i don't saw too much help.Just task killer use cpu more and load ram.I use now just a shortcut of standard runing services default from android.
Don't use task Killers. Android has its own built in task manager Which works far better than 3rd party task killers. All you doing is making android reload everything again. Then you wonder why this app doesn't update in the background or work properly it is your fault. Your killing off the processes. Ram is essentially useless in android if it's not being used.
If you have lets say most phones have 512-1gig of ram. Your phone will never say you have 512 ram full please free up ram. It gets to a certain memory limit like depending on what it was set to and then end the processes automatically by itself. If there are many processes running android will start swapping out processes to replace for the new one. When your playing a game and say oh i want to browse the web to check on some game codes or whatever you can go right back to the game.
What if you want to listen to your own music as well. You can then go right back to the game in the exact spot left off. But if you go I'm kill the game process off you won't be able to do that. Don't press that Clear ram in that task manager you have either. All process will be killed including google services. Which will be reloaded again as well as system processes. Everytime android needs to reload its using more power meaning worst battery life.
The only time you should use a task manager is when there is a rogue application or a memory leak.
Watchdog
I don't use a Task Killer, but I do like Watchdog. It's more of a system monitor and lets me know if any background apps jump over a particular CPU usage threshold.
---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------
There is a free, Lite version if you want to give it a try. Amazon had the pay version as their free app o' the day a while back, and I jumped on it.
market.android.com/details?id=com.zomut.watchdoglite&hl=en
I use to use taskkiller but my phone seems to run the same with or without, so I got rid of it.
exileinoblivion7 said:
I use a task killer so im curious why some people say not to use them. What are your opinions?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont like task killers, if your really desperate for ram and use android, i recommend using the v6 supercharger script made by zeppelinrox. ofcourse the thread can be found here in xda. Iwouldnt recommend task killers for several reasons:
1 they take some ram space themselves
2 they use some cpu thus making ur phone slower
3 they use some cpu thus draining your battery faster
4 they make your boot time on your phone longer because they are being loaded whereas scripts dont have that issue
5 i havent actually seen any propper task manager that has like autokill option and woks properly so you constantly have to press the end tasks button (like on system panel for example) and thats quite boring if your doing it all the time... scripts dont have that issue
Killbynature said:
Don't use task Killers. Android has its own built in task manager Which works far better than 3rd party task killers. All you doing is making android reload everything again. Then you wonder why this app doesn't update in the background or work properly it is your fault. Your killing off the processes. Ram is essentially useless in android if it's not being used.
If you have lets say most phones have 512-1gig of ram. Your phone will never say you have 512 ram full please free up ram. It gets to a certain memory limit like depending on what it was set to and then end the processes automatically by itself. If there are many processes running android will start swapping out processes to replace for the new one. When your playing a game and say oh i want to browse the web to check on some game codes or whatever you can go right back to the game.
The only time you should use a task manager is when there is a rogue application or a memory leak.
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Great job explaining this man, I've been aware that killing apps just makes them restart. I really only kill apps if they are acting a fool.
And to clear things up I don't have a task killer installed, however I do use the one built into the go launcher app drawer to kill apps that go nuts.
I have used the v6 script before, however I recently downloaded Rom toolbox and it let's you adjust minfrees from there. You guys should check it out
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I don't use a task killer. My phone burns less than 1% of battery per hour when idle.
Nexus One on Cyanogenmod 7.1
exileinoblivion7 said:
I have used the v6 script before, however I recently downloaded Rom toolbox and it let's you adjust minfrees from there. You guys should check it out
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
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i have a low end phone, as i ran out of cash after buying myself headphones and an itouch, so i couldnt get the phone of my dreams and had to settle for a really cheap samsung galaxy 3 so i dont have a very wide choice of minfrees i can choose from... i got like 256 ram or something, and i dont use swap because i hate partitioning my sdcard...
im so definitly changing my phone in 2012, im either waiting for the nozumi to come out (huge sony ericsson fan ^_^) or im settling for the HTC gigabeats
Task killers are good when you see a rogue app that is draining a ton of your battery life but aren't good when you use the "Kill All" button. As long as their are poorly developed applications, there will be a use for task killers.
some people will tell you not to use task killers because it inhbits Android's normal functioning by interfering with RAm use, causes things to go wrong, running apps don't use battery, blah blah blah. but there are a few problems with these claims.
First, Android's RAM management is not flawless. no Operating system is. fanboys keep claiming it is yet offer no support for whether a 3rd party task killer is better or worse. in fact, they were all claiming this when Froyo was the latest. but then when Gingerbread came out, one of its new features was better RAM management, which fanboys around the internet praised it for, which means there had, in fact, been room for improvement, which they had been denying for quite some time.
second. there are around 500,000 apps on the market. some are flawed, causing RAM leaks and various other malfunctions that ANdroid can't always handle. a task killer is your best, and sometimes only option in this situation, as you might not reasonably have the option of deleting the app permanently.
third, battery life. it may be true that apps simply being running in the background alone doesn't use battery; I'm not sure. yet what fanboys routinely ignore is, many of these apps don't just sit there waiting to be turned on again. some of them turn on so as to collect user data about all sorts of things, then broadcast it to the developer for various uses. this broadcasting uses your phone's radio even when in the background, and that DOES use electricity - from your battery, not to mention data if you have a limited plan. a very large amount of apps do this, which is one major reason why ICS now includes a data management menu that monitors all apps' data usage, as well as a built in app freezer that stops apps from running until you allow them to again.
I use the one that comes stock, and alathough it frees up ram I dont notice any difference in battery drain (1% per hour) or any difference in performance
Falkner09 said:
some people will tell you not to use task killers because it inhbits Android's normal functioning by interfering with RAm use, causes things to go wrong, running apps don't use battery, blah blah blah. but there are a few problems with these claims.
First, Android's RAM management is not flawless. no Operating system is. fanboys keep claiming it is yet offer no support for whether a 3rd party task killer is better or worse. in fact, they were all claiming this when Froyo was the latest. but then when Gingerbread came out, one of its new features was better RAM management, which fanboys around the internet praised it for, which means there had, in fact, been room for improvement, which they had been denying for quite some time.
second. there are around 500,000 apps on the market. some are flawed, causing RAM leaks and various other malfunctions that ANdroid can't always handle. a task killer is your best, and sometimes only option in this situation, as you might not reasonably have the option of deleting the app permanently.
third, battery life. it may be true that apps simply being running in the background alone doesn't use battery; I'm not sure. yet what fanboys routinely ignore is, many of these apps don't just sit there waiting to be turned on again. some of them turn on so as to collect user data about all sorts of things, then broadcast it to the developer for various uses. this broadcasting uses your phone's radio even when in the background, and that DOES use electricity - from your battery, not to mention data if you have a limited plan. a very large amount of apps do this, which is one major reason why ICS now includes a data management menu that monitors all apps' data usage, as well as a built in app freezer that stops apps from running until you allow them to again.
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Could you please explain what third party task killers do that the Android system manager doesnt do natively?
johnston9234 said:
Could you please explain what third party task killers do that the Android system manager doesnt do natively?
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From my personal experience it doesn't kill some rogue apps that drain my phone's battery life. Occasionally I use the app "GPS Status" to help find my location faster and if I don't immediately kill the app after my location is locked, the app shoots up to 30-40% on Battery Status.
johnston9234 said:
Could you please explain what third party task killers do that the Android system manager doesnt do natively?
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work responsively, to start with. every time i've tried to open the application manager on android, I first have to go through all the sub menus to get to it, then sit and wait for it to slooooooooooowly load up the list on installed apps, then running apps, then click on the app, then wait for it to load that particular app's info, THEN I can force close it.
two, they often catch apps running that the default manager doesn't notice, I presume because their developers code them to be hidden somehow.
so yeah, they're occasionally a valid option to use.
I'm happy with or without task killer )
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(Q)Ram UsaGe

Ive noticed that the ram usage has almost double from GB to ICS (almost the same apps running in both versions).will this cause the mobil to slowdown .
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NatsuIgneel said:
Ive noticed that the ram usage has almost double from GB to ICS (almost the same apps running in both versions).will this cause the mobil to slowdown .
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Albeit GB software was/is very stable and has great performance, ICS is more intensive; for example, in terms of resource usage. As smartphones become more capable, our own applications, as well as the Google Mobile Services (GMS) applications, are becoming more advanced, which means that they require more CPU power, run more network activities and use more RAM, and full hardware acceleration also results in a need to load additional graphic libraries for certain apps, which makes them use even more RAM.
Another effect of the hardware acceleration is that it can make the battery drain faster in some cases. An example of this is video playback, where the hardware acceleration requires every video frame to be run through the GPU, thus making the system use more power than it would have without HW acceleration.
In regards to your 'available' RAM, about a third is used for functions that require a dedicated memory allotment to operate fast enough. For example, this is the case for certain multimedia functions. The remaining space, is reserved for the Android OS. Within the Android OS, functions like the activity manager and Home screen app are running.
When running low on RAM, typically with less than approximately 40MB left, the activity manager will start to close processes according to priority. At first, idle background activities are killed. The last thing to be closed down is the foreground activity.
Processes that are closed will obviously have to be restarted when the user enters the app again, which takes time and slows the system down. For example, when running a heavy game that uses all available RAM, the activity manager will be forced to kill all processes running in the background. This might include vital functions like the dialer and even the Home screen application. When you exit your game, there is a risk that the phone is perceived as slow, since the Home screen app will have to be restarted, just like every other activity you access afterwards.
Another interesting thing is that many apps use slightly more RAM in ICS. For example, the web browser is quite intensive, and uses 20-30MB more in ICS compared to GB. All in all, there are a lot of changes that together result in greater RAM requirements, and resource usage in ICS is heavier on the system compared to GB. However, there should be no cause for concern that this is in fact now the case...
Response from the ace! Its my day .thanks for the explanation sir
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NatsuIgneel said:
Response from the ace! Its my day .thanks for the explanation sir
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium
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You're very welcome, hope that clears things up a bit for you. Also, battery life on ICS is all relative, meaning that nobody's definition of "normal" usage is static or comparable. ICS battery life is great, along with it's ability to cope with RAM usgae, etc. Experiment with it, try different settings, explore your posibilities to make the phone work for you, not the other way around. I'd be happy to help you with any further concerns or questions...
This clears one of my queries about RAM supposed to be 1GB (which should have realized being allocated as dedicated system RAM just as storage of 4GB reserved by system for storage memory).
You mentioned "Full hardware acceleration", question is, is this enabled by default on ICS? cause under "developer options" there is a option for "Force GPU rendering - 2D hardware acceleration" which is disabled by default & has an option to be selected by the user.
Also I have seen under running programs certain apps like "Astrid", "Hotspot VPN" appear (individually as a program) simultaneously in two rows as 1 process & 1 service but with varying RAM footprints, thoughts??
RAD7 said:
This clears one of my queries about RAM supposed to be 1GB (which should have realized being allocated as dedicated system RAM just as storage of 4GB reserved by system for storage memory).
You mentioned "Full hardware acceleration", question is, is this enabled by default on ICS? cause under "developer options" there is a option for "Force GPU rendering - 2D hardware acceleration" which is disabled by default & has an option to be selected by the user.
Also I have seen under running programs certain apps like "Astrid", "Hotspot VPN" appear (individually as a program) simultaneously in two rows as 1 process & 1 service but with varying RAM footprints, thoughts??
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The objective here is let the CPU to do general OS related processing while GPU is doing specific graphic related processing. If you are an Android developer you know that Software development Kit (SDK) is letting you specify whether your app should use GPU if available.
Force GPU rendering is always using GPU to render application graphics regardless of above mention developer options. Even if developers disable GPU rendering for a specific app, still it will use it if you have 'enabled Force GPU rendering' and freed up CPU to do other important work.
As far as the duplicate (but dissimilar) RAM "footprints", I'm not sure why there would be more than one, when typically the two (services and processes) are shown on the same entry. I will see what I can find out about this.
Side note: I received an email from Motorola saying that they have shipped my replacement of my Atrix 2, after bricking from leak #2 testing, so I will be more of a service to this community once I get back the device. Sorry for the side step, just excited...
Apex_Strider said:
The objective here is let the CPU to do general OS related processing while GPU is doing specific graphic related processing. If you are an Android developer you know that Software development Kit (SDK) is letting you specify whether your app should use GPU if available.
Force GPU rendering is always using GPU to render application graphics regardless of above mention developer options. Even if developers disable GPU rendering for a specific app, still it will use it if you have 'enabled Force GPU rendering' and freed up CPU to do other important work.
As far as the duplicate (but dissimilar) RAM "footprints", I'm not sure why there would be more than one, when typically the two (services and processes) are shown on the same entry. I will see what I can find out about this.
Side note: I received an email from Motorola saying that they have shipped my replacement of my Atrix 2, after bricking from leak #2 testing, so I will be more of a service to this community once I get back the device. Sorry for the side step, just excited...
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Noted the response on the first query.
See attached screenshot for the dual (dissimilar) RAM footprints (in this case it's just the "VPN" app.
:good: on the side note
The other thing that has not been noted in here, is that the kernel takes around 200 mb of ram right away on boot. That is why with almost nothing running you only see 800+ mb of "available" ram.
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Apex_Strider said:
Processes that are closed will obviously have to be restarted when the user enters the app again, which takes time and slows the system down. For example, when running a heavy game that uses all available RAM, the activity manager will be forced to kill all processes running in the background. This might include vital functions like the dialer and even the Home screen application. When you exit your game, there is a risk that the phone is perceived as slow, since the Home screen app will have to be restarted, just like every other activity you access afterwards.
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Hi I am on PA atm. I had a horrid experience last night. I was playing Asphalt 7, in middle of an intense race, and then I received a call. but it stayed in game so I paused and then it got frozen of a sort to the tune that I missed the call. this is where I miss the good ol call receive/end keys..
So is there anyway to make sure that the calling function (Dialer?) doesn't get killed at all??

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