[Q] Android Diagnostics software for unstable system troubleshooting? - General Questions and Answers

Hi folks,
I put a thread in the Samsung Tab 2 forum, but actually this is a more general question so might better be answered here.
Short story: I've got a Tab 2 10.1 that crashes all the time, and has for the last 8 months or so. I've tried using custom ROMs instead of stock firmware, which improved the situation a bit, but didn't cure it outright. I've also done the Odin-to-stock procedure, again without any joy. The thing just crashes every few minutes of use, even doing things that are very basic like rearranging the home screen. Certainly at least once in every half an hour. It's super annoying. Reminds me of a PC with glitch memory or corrupted hard drive.
I've used StabilityTest. It crashed a few minutes in but didn't really report what had happened.
What I'd really like is a low level diagnostic that I could flash like a recovery, so the whole Android could be exercised thoroughly with good logging, independent of the main OS.
What is the best utility for tracking down possible hardware problems?
Marc

Related

Poll: How Often Do You HR Your Phone?

Just wanted to see where I'm at on the scale
As rare as possible.
Do not forget, PocketPC is a kind of PC and it depends on you how much you waste your OS etc.
To be completely honest, I have my HTC Cruise for 3 months and I had Qtek8310 smartphone previously for 2 years - and I did no HR yet.
Simply - not needed
Almost never. Only to install new ROMs but then, I don't do that often, only when there's a significant improvement. I never had to HR to fix a problem, there are usually other ways. For the matter, I never had to reinstall Windows to fix a problem and managed to keep it stable for years before moving on to other OSes.
Cheers!
Frequently/several times a year. Not necessarily to load a new ROM, but just to get back to a clean(er) state from playing around with various apps and settings.
just whenever i flash a new rom
Between occasionally and rare. Depending if there's a really good ROM or I was testing a lot of programs.
JwY said:
Between occasionally and rare. Depending if there's a really good ROM or I was testing a lot of programs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About the same for me when I had my 8525 and have not flashed my Tilt yet.
bapssystupr3m3 said:
just whenever i flash a new rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here...just when flashing new OS Rom's.
occasionally. i always test out programs a lot and most of them leave unwanted files around here and there. using pocket mechanic isnt a good idea for me. cos i jus want a fresh start again to keep ma elf going as flawlessly smooth as possible.
I have my Cruise for 3 month and...no HR.
Maybe in the future if a better Rom appears
@+
Couldn't agree more
ayyu3m said:
occasionally. i always test out programs a lot and most of them leave unwanted files around here and there. using pocket mechanic isnt a good idea for me. cos i jus want a fresh start again to keep ma elf going as flawlessly smooth as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
except I'm formatting every couple of days, I love the fresh start
I choose "Rarely - Only When I suffer Serious Problems", but usually I also flash a new ROM in such a situation.
Worth pointing out that a hard reset is not the same as a soft reset.
Soft reset - when something hangs and you want to reboot and not lose settings
Hard reset - causing the phone to reinitialise internal memory; loses settings, triggers an initial setup routine to calibrate screen, enter owner details, etc.
For me, I only do a HR when I update the ROM, which has been exactly twice. Thus the options in the survey don't fit - "Occasionally" seems to imply that people that only HR to update a ROM do it fairly often!
I tend to do a hard reset about every three months or so. I also try out different apps here and there, and they usually leave things behind that clog the phone up after enough time has passed by. A hard reset keeps memory high and the OS running smooth.

Help analyzing ramdump.log

I have not been having these ramdump.log (essentially random rebooting) for some time, and whilst i've noticed that some apps seem to cause this process, I have not installed anything new for a while, other than updates to existing apps.
I have once again started to get these upto 3 times per night when the device is in deep sleep. Interestingly, each morning when I turn on the device, wireless internet is switched off (option unchecked), and I have to go into the settings and re-enable it.
Someone previously suggested that maybe it's faulty RAM in my TF? But how would I know that is not just a random guess? Also, my partner also has a TF, hers is the B70 (one of the lucky ones that are able to be rooted), and she gets ramdump.log on the same ROM (Prime with stock kerne), so it's perhaps less unlikely that both tablets have bad RAM? My TF is a B50.
Appreciate if anyone can help identify the issue from these 2 ramdump.log (I had 3 during the night!)
Thanks!
http://db.tt/0PB5lILB
http://db.tt/DDBzVKO9
I've been having the same problem for the longest time, and it always comes and goes at random. It seems to be a common problem that gets resolved with an RMA, but given the inconsistency of the problem between ROM updates, and the fact that I seldom see RAM go bad I refuse to mail it in before doing a proper memtest (which for now I am not sure if there is an option for that).
It seems to me that the transformer just has a very picky kernel.
Currently on Prime 2.0.7, been having this issue since I first started using it at 1.9.1. Wipes temporarily alleviated the problem, except for one time that I used the wrong kernel.
I'm the same... Some days nothing, then others 3 within an hour! I found an application for stress testing, and I'm running it overnight.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.into.stability
Been going for an hour now with no issues with cores or memory, so maybe it's just some kernels don't like some devices? It's really annoying.

[Q] "Retroactive Bricking" or "spontaneous" hardware fault?

PSA: *This will be crossposted in xda HTC One X and HTC One X+ forums, I hope cross posting is allowed, haven't seen it mentioned in rules.*
Hi all,
Quick disclaimer: I've been lurking parts of xda now and again for a couple years now, have flashed a couple of phones and tablets now and again for mainly practical reasons, recently getting more interested in it as a ""fun" interest or "hobby".
SO: I am very aware that this is my first post, the rules, search function, etc. ..
BUT: After extensively searching both google and specifically xda to help me resolve this issue *myself*, I decided to create an account and post. I'm sorry if this Q should have been put in the newbie thread, my assessment was that it probably has no place there.
ALSO PLZ NOTE: What was meant to be a succinct summary and question somehow turned into a condensed but complete rundown of events, so here is a...
TL;DR:
- Replaced HTC One X+ display/digitizer unit myself, ran fine for 5 weeks.
- Then: flashed twrp 2.7x or 2.8, not sure anymore, before installing Android HD Revolution 33.1 by mike1986, and following the official instructions, which ran great for about week until my phone spontaneously BRICKED THE F*CK OUT COMPLETELY.
(yes, true brick, paperweight, robot-corpse, whatever)
=> Question: IS "RETROACTIVE/RETROGRADE BRICKING POSSIBLE/A "THING"??
If so, what could I have done wrong? (POSSIBLY something to do with a bootimage of firmware that I was sure I had the up to date version of... dunno though).
=========================================================================
About 6 weeks ago:
- Cracked the display of my HTC One X+ badly by dropping it onto concrete-type floor at a rave/party
=> Decided to try and replace it myself, researched for a good while (talking several days here, 90s/00s kids),
=> Decided to replace the display/digitizer unit myself to save money and gain knowledge.
Repair process was challenging and nearly as nerve wracking as playing the WSOP (not kidding, have played it three times), had an issue immediately after putting it back together where it suddenly wouldn't charge AT ALL anymore (NO LED), and overheated, and had unusually fast battery drain of its remaining charge (which never ran out completely before resolving that issue, since I kept turning it off whenever possible).
=> Took it apart and put it together again XX times until realizing the power switch flex cable kept slipping out of its two (jawbone?) connectors during putting it back together (I was doing something wrong with the flex positioning).
=> This resolved the issue.
=> Felt like a hero and that I win at life (since this phone has a rep as being hard to meddle with, and this was my first time even opening, let alone taking apart a smartphone).
=> Continued joyful phone shenanigans for over one month.
=> THEN: Decided to root it, mainly because there was a particular app I wanted that required root ("Quick reply for Whatsapp/Pushbullet", for the curious).
My previous, very limited rooting/flashing experiences =
- Google Nexus One (CWM/Cyanogen) a few times, years ago
- Galaxy Tab 10.1 (CWM/Cyanogen 10.1 ages ago, TWRP/Omnirom Kitkat 4.4.4 recently) a couple times.
So, did my research (or so I thought..?) for this particular custom ROM, decided to go for Android Revolution HD for HTC One X/+ 33.1 by mike 1986 (because it looked fckin awesome, and it was, while it ran) and loved the sh*t out of my "new" phone for about a week. Especially the vastly improved battery life seemed almost surreal, a big deal for a fixed-battery phone.
Then, ONE FATFUL EVENING in a bar, I remember looking at my phone and seeing 35% left, (days before it would've been an amazing 70-80% on an avg. day), which may not be relevant as it was my birthday, so had been using it a lot that day => may be a moot point
- Next time I looked at the phone ( < 1 hour without active use for sure) it was dead.
"Hmmmm," thought slightly drunk me. Whatever, charge it later, weird sh*t happens.
- Got home later, charged it over night after booting it with usb cord attached (mains).
Seemed normal, I even set an alarm.
=> Alarm never rang because it was in a powered-off state again come morning, despite all-night charging.
=> It booted to HTC logo. Seconds later, it turned off again. Held down power again, all I saw was the soft touch buttons flashing red a few times. After this it unexpectedly became (or was secretly crowned):
!! COMPLETE AND UTTER FCKNG KING BRICK OF BRICK COUNTRY AND ATTACHED TERRITORIES !!
No power on with or without volume up/down held for whatever amount of time;
No charging, no heating up when "charging";
No LED in any colour or flashing frequency, ever;
No response after hours and days of charging on different USB cables on PC/wall socket;
PCs and laptops don't register a sign of anything when it penetrates their port parts, etc etc...
...
.Even that semi-mystical bright-light-exposure-while-charging "light sensor manipulation" thing (which apparently worked for a lo of people with similar issues) did nothing for the cause.
Promotion: *Paperweight status successfully acquired.* Yay.
=====================================================
Now, obviously my first thought was that the power flex that gave me trouble during display replacement probably slipped again., somehow (I had taped it down solidly I thought).
=> SO I opened it once again, flex position seemed ok, but I wasn't sure of its functionality as it did look kind of battered from the somewhat unprofessional repair I had conducted on it (which I openly admit to, though I really did try my absolute best).
- Spontaneously took mainboard/battery combo to a local independent phone/accessory shop after being told they'd take a look for free
(I was in there was in there buying a microsim adapter so I could use my ancient Nexus One, since my GF has my old S2 now, which she kindly offered back, but its hers now, so nah. Great phone though.)
=>Shop's advice echoed my thoughts: Flex cable may be screwed, I may have damaged it by bending in the wrong direction/too often, and that damage somehow didn't manifest until much later. I didn't mention the recent rooting + flashing as I deemed it irrelevant at the time.
Their secondary thoughts: Battery or mini-usb port fukt, (which would require soldering, which they don't even offer).
=> SO, feeling confirmed in my layman's assessment, I cheaply got a pristine new replacement flex on ebay, double checked all videos/tutorials, implemented the damn thing with considerably more skill/experience and even higher anticipation. What happened next was shocking:
Absolutely nothing, obv.
=> Did an additional epic f*ckton of internet/forum research, found similar problems and some resolutions, but no real answers, probably because my main problem translates to a kind of hybrid question.
So here I am now am with my core question:
Is it possible to FULLY brick an HTC/any smartphone but not become aware of this until one week later, when the device dies OVER ONE WEEK of reliable and amazing performance?
(and if yes, what aspect/stage of the flashing process is this likely related to?)
If the answer is NO, it must be a hardware fault with probability rank (I think)
:
1.) Battery dead for whatever reason
2.) Mini USB OR mainboard/integral component (equal rank as not sure), possibly caused by incompetent repair, but why or how would this express itself over a month later??
3.) Other, which I'm not aware of.
While researching new ROMS for the N1, I realized that I may have messed up on the "bootimg part" of the flashing process of the Revolution ROM, a part I found v. confusing in the instructions, even after rereading them many, many times. It was about the most recent firmware, which I was pretty sure I had anyway, since it was unrooted before and I do remember installing some firmware updates over the air.
I still did my best to follow the instructions though.
=> Maybe this has something to do with it, i.e. the hardware can't accept a charge because the software allowed it to become too uncharged (a fairly paradox concept to me, but apparently it can happen. Guess it's like a BIOS-type thing).
Thank you for anyone who read this far!
As it stands, I refuse to give up hope so soon after experiencing that rush of having fixed it myself.
Any specific or general help, tips, hints, pointers, replacement phones (One M8 or S5 plz., Iphones will go straight on ebay) would and will be greatly appreciated!!
The obvious choice is to get a new battery and see what happens, but I'm not sure if I wanna sink any more money into this phone, only to later find out the mainboard is at fault (not worth the money replacing), AKA "get a new phone without a contract", which would more than suck for me financially atm (Im ignoring my N1 here, which I love, but don't wanna be stuck with, esp. as it has the standard-issue broken power button (which I actually had repaired once under warranty, back in the ol' days of yore some prefer to refer to as 2009.
So guys: What's my move, if there is one, besides going to a local/online service centre (I live in Germany btw.) and probably paying unproportionate cash money to even have it looked at?
Cheers, thanks, merci, danke
PS: Just saw the polling function, so I attached one just for the hell of it, to see what happens (never used one before).
If you feel both qualified AND so inclined as to pass judgement on this here serious business, please indicate what you think may be the cause of my issue.
*BUMP 1*
Come on guys, I know it's a wall of text, but can't someone at least answer the TL;DR?
=> Is is possible to flash a custom rom which then (possibly because of improper installation) causes the phone to brick about a week later?
Simple question surely!

Aging or a software problem?

My Note 10.1 is extremely slow recently. I mean it can work normally for half an hour and then hang for a minute or not allow me to turn the screen on for 30 or more seconds. Is this because of age? Is the flash inside degraded to a point it slows everything down or maybe clear new ROM will fix this? I am asking because I am not exactly sure I will be able to load a new ROM on it (the recovery is a bit broken, but it will probably be possible through Odin). If it is happening to other old, heavily used Note 10.1's I will just leave it as it is, instead of risking of breaking it completely. So, how are your good old Note 10.1's behaving lately?
One replace battery if you think thats at fault .
Two wipe and install stock rom via Odin .
Nand / flash should not degrade in such a short time .
It took me a while, since I use the tablet very rarely and have gotten used to it's slow downs but I have solved the problem - it was caused by the kernel it had. Changing the kernel to a new, stable one solved the issue. The tablet is still a bit slow, but no longer hangs for 30 seconds like it used too. Thanks everyone for help.
Magnesus said:
My Note 10.1 is extremely slow recently. I mean it can work normally for half an hour and then hang for a minute or not allow me to turn the screen on for 30 or more seconds. Is this because of age? Is the flash inside degraded to a point it slows everything down or maybe clear new ROM will fix this? I am asking because I am not exactly sure I will be able to load a new ROM on it (the recovery is a bit broken, but it will probably be possible through Odin). If it is happening to other old, heavily used Note 10.1's I will just leave it as it is, instead of risking of breaking it completely. So, how are your good old Note 10.1's behaving lately?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I experienced the same problem until recently with my GT-n-8010, when it still was under the official 4.4.2 firmware. I also thought about an age problem, but it was definitely not. I've been trying for the last four days the CM13 BETA developped by senior member Lirokoa - everything is explained in this thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-10-1/development/rom-lollipop-t3269375 - and it's just as if I had gotten a brand new device, so it really was a software problem, not a hardware one. I advise you to try it too, you should not regret it

android phones seem to lag right after warranty expires. 3 phones did it already

so my galaxy s7 phone did it recently
exactly after one year warranty just expired the phone became painfully slow
it was a brand new phone sent from samsung as a replacement for my broken phone replaced under warranty
had zero problems for a whole year and i mean zero like no issues with speed or freezing at all
never dropped or dipped in the water to test the water resistance
always in a case since day one. no crazy apps. actually same exact apps that i have on all my phones.
no new apps were installed before slowdown
i already deleted some apps. cleaned up app cache individually and reset cache from boot screen
tested in safe mode and still slow
im not sure if the update was installed recently or not but the slowdown happened about 2 months ago. was there a tmobile update at that time?
im not really sure.
but this is the third phone that did this.
galaxy s5 that i also bought brand new for a year was well maintained and had no problems
that phone actually started lagging really bad and shutting down multiple times a week or restarting....
before that galaxy s3 did same thing. after exactly a year it became ridiculously slow for absolutely no reason
i install all the apps i use right out of the box. change all the settings to what i want and dont really make any changes after and it usually very stable for about a year
is there an app that i can use to troubleshoot?
or an app that will show me what component is slowing down the system in real time?
obviously something is slowing down the OS, theres gotta be an app that can trace the faulty app or file or component
i cant be the only one who noticed that
is there really no way to pinpoint what is slowing down the phone?
why do i have to reset everything every time it gets slow
isnt there an app that can diagnose what is loading up the system?
this phone is painfully slow suddenly with no apparent reason
Have you been able to view the CPU activity and the RAM allocation?
I am not sure how to do this, but if possible, it might reveal what is happening.
I would try disabling some of the applications one by one. First suspects would be:
1. Facebook
2. Google Play Store.
3. Youtube.
Disable one, then try the phone. If still the same, disable second and try etc.
Jim.
How is your device storage. Once you use more then 50% device storage android starts to lag. It's an issue with the OS.
device storage has always been about the same since brand new. which is about 80% on average.
doesnt safe mode disable all non stock apps? i tried safe mode with same result
windows has a resource monitor that helps alot but i dont know if android has any monitoring app that could help troubleshoot this
Samsung devices are known for getting laggy over time, try a different phone next time, in the meantime, do a factory reset and start fresh.
fuzzysig said:
device storage .......................... about 80% on average.
............................................
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is very suspect to me, but I am only a beginner.
Given zelendel's post about (re 50%), I would investigate further. Did you note his credentials?
What does all that data consist of?
What is the total storage capacity of the phone?
Perhaps some of that storage capacity is used as "swap" memory? Just guessing...........I am extrapolating Linux terminology here.
about 10-15 gigs of that is music/videos for airplane or when i have no internet. its been there since i got the phone
other things come and go like downloads documents videos images
im surprised theres no apps to troubleshoot the phone lagging when theres so many people having that problem and the best solution is to just reset the phone. which should be the last resort
if resetting the phone works most of the time then there should be an app that could look for conflicts as it runs in the background.
fuzzysig said:
about 10-15 gigs of that is music/videos for airplane or when i have no internet. its been there since i got the phone
other things come and go like downloads documents videos images
im surprised theres no apps to troubleshoot the phone lagging when theres so many people having that problem and the best solution is to just reset the phone. which should be the last resort
if resetting the phone works most of the time then there should be an app that could look for conflicts as it runs in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on the amount of storage in your device that could be a lot.
Resetting the device wipes things. You really can't find an issue if the only issue is storage space. So here is a test. Remove stuff from your device. Give yourself a clean start and then go from there. Adding stuff slowly until it slows down.
I have had dozens of devices and the only time they ever got slow was due to getting low on phone storage.
This even encludes a 5 year old Samsung that I have that is as fast as the day I got it. Mind you there is nothing on it but some games for a kid. I even disabled all of Samsungs crap they install that slows a device down.
Could also be stuff acting up in the background
Run a log cat and see if anything is hanging.
cool thanks ill try that
got my internal memory to under 50%
reset cache again
deleted few apps and moved alot of them to SD card and cleared cache for those too
heres exactly whats happening
theres a delay for every action
2 wifi seems to drop in and out now since it got slow
3 facebook and browser wouldnt load anything on wifi
but as soon as i switch to data it works
i have to restart the phone alot now and close all apps multiple times a day to get them to work
also running safe mode had no effect on speed
i dont know when the last update was from tmobile but it might have been due to crappy update im not sure at this point
i got the phone last end of summer and it worked flawlessly every single day up until last 2 months exactly when warranty expired
how does samsung find faulty hardware when i send it in for service?
do they use an app?
ok this is getting ridiculous.
the phone wen to complete ****
facebook doesnt load posts unless i restert it by closing the app
phone just feels very slow overall.
constantly lags hangs. and in general just completely crappy performance slowly degrading.
i dont know why suddenly it started happening just like my last 3 phones
after about a year theres always a sudden decrease in performance and things start bugging and lagging etc
so theres no way to figure out why its slow?
isnt there some hardware tests or system scan or something that can help point to the problem?
Sorry to read that you are still having this problem Fuzzysig.
Did you try any of the suggestions in my post #4 and/or in Zelendel's post #10?
If so, which ones did you try and what resulted from those changes?
fuzzysig said:
so theres no way to figure out why its slow?
isnt there some hardware tests or system scan or something that can help point to the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I was a Samsung user too and faced the same problem.
I went through various threads which gave me multiple solutions: rooting, removing bloatware, cpu monitoring and many more.
None of that worked. The phone was so slow that it was not usable.
Ultimately I had to throw it and buy another phone.
Then I noticed this is not just me, all Samsung users face the same problem even the flagship users.
I swear I'll never buy a Samsung phone and never let anyone buy one.

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