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[TIPS & TRICKS] Common ICS problems

Common ICS Problems
If you plug in USB while your tablet is asleep you will have a SOD​
Installation Problems
Install tips from tlb1961 here and lyricalpapa in post #3
Try not to use any backup's as they cause many problems.
Make sure your using CWM 5.5.0.4 Beta 15 (comes with the nvflash in TeamDRH ICS thread)
On your first boot let it sit for 30-60min (the longer, the better) and then reset.
If all else fails try this
Th3DmaN's G-Tablet Tools for anyone who is having trouble connecting and flashing their G-Table
Speed Problems
Different launchers such as Apex or Nova or any compatible launcher may or may not increase smoothness. There is no problem with installing them on top of the stock launcher as only one launcher runs at a time.
Battery and Power Problems
Your tablet went to sleep and wont wake up, try pushing the power button a couple of times and wait 5 seconds inbetween presses.
Your tablet has completely frozen, try pushing the power button for 30+ seconds. If that doesn't do it, you can leave your tablet alone for a couple hours and try again (may or may not work) or you can wait till the battery dies or if your impatient you can open the tablet up and press the internal reset, it looks like this. Here are some helpful pictures and a video for opening it up. If you have no reset button you will need to disconnect the battery, here's what it looks like. If you do get a SOD do this to help the developers.
Connection & Browser Problems
WiFi not working, try to "forget" the WiFi and re-enter your password. Also can try resetting your router or changing the security. Some say ICS does not like high channels.
If your having market errors, try force closing and clearing the cache in settings\apps\all. If that doesn't work then find every market reference and force close then clear the cache and reset.
Your computer doesn't recognize your tablet, you will need MTP drivers read the ICS rom page again. For Windows XP you need to disable debugging. For linux try Th3DmaN's guide.
Adhoc does not work with this build.
Stock browser seems to lock up after a bit. Possible fix is to disable java. Thanks plastikman
Screen and Sound Problems
1080p on H/W? Use Handbrake and import this profile. Here's the high profile settings for 720p, for those wanting the best quality.
Videoplayers such as MxVideo player, can play H/W video but the sound will need to be changed to S/W.
Icons and text too small? Try using this guide. CAUTION Changing the DPI really messes with the Market.
DSP Manager has been causing slowness/audio problems. Try stopping it to see if that's the problem. You can delete it safely if causing problems.
Game and Apps Problems
Alot of games and apps are not updated for ICS yet so they won't work correctly.
Hulu flash hack here. It should work. Anyone with Hulu can you post your results.MAY NOT WORK ANYMORE
Bypassing Exchange Security Policy try this
Connecting the ICS Mail app to Microsoft's Cloud hosted Exchange services check here
Gamepad support - follow jazzruby's guide here
Miscellaneous Problems
Errors popping up constantly, you need to reinstall again and make sure this time you erase everything.
Nandroid backups, you need to follow this guide
Important Notes
The SOD (sleep of death) we talk about is when the device goes into a sleep mode and there is absolutely no other way out but by pressing the internal reset. This is also called a kernel panic.
We are always talking about roms on Bootloader 1.2 unless specified.
When installing or removing things from the system, it is always a good idea to reset and clean the cache, clean the dalvik cache and fix permissions.
USB problems sometimes are caused by your own computer, you may have to restart/change USB port/change USB cables/check your USB drivers
Windows 7 is the implied OS most are working on, if you have different then ask.
IF I'M MISSING SOMETHING PLEASE LET ME KNOW

Stuff that WILL cause a SOD (sleep of death) causing you to push the internal reset
DON'T DO THESE
If you plug in USB while your tablet is asleep you will have a SOD
If you do get a SOD please do this so the developers can help.
Use the reset button
Don't power the tablet off at all, just use the internal reset button
Don't touch the tab or do anything but logging into adb.
If for some reason you can't open adb, you can use terminal on the rom
At the prompt type:
Code:
su
Hit enter and then
Code:
cat /proc/last_kmsg
If this doesn't work, the easier way is to access it is with a root explorer by going to /proc and then copy last_kmsg to /sdcard (rename to last_kmsg.txt or zip it up in a file).
Copy and paste the results to a paste bin and post the link. If you don't know pastebin then just post the last 10 lines or so.

tlb1961 install guide
Howdy all,
Glad to hear most are having good luck with this newer revision. To those seeing odd issues after install, I would suggest start over from scratch and clean out the gTab prior to reinstall including repartition the internal SDCard. Run the ROM for a bit before installing anything else. If you have a lot of media files on an microSD card then let it sit for a little while. Once the ROM is running smoothly you should then apply the latest the3dman GApps package.
I know it's tempting to try and hang onto old configs and settings, but it will give you a better experience in the long run if all old data is cleared.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lyricalpapa installation essentials
Here's some things I do that work for me:
1. Give my tablet time to boot - let G-Mail, Google Maps, and the other apps load in, talk to the mail server, etc. I watch the activity in the "broadcast" symbol and wait for the browser widget to display its bookmarked pages.
2. Follow the dev's install instructions and @serialplague's FAQ - goes without saying.
3. Have Patience - I give the cache driver's balancing and optimising routines time to do their work after I load a ROM, plus any time I add/remove apps or any time I make changes to the settings. Remember this is a Beta Test ROM and not a snapshot image of a fully tested, optimised, and balanced ROM that you would get if you were to buy a new ASUS Transformer or whatever.
4. Use the apps the Dev's gave us with the Beta ROM - I use the Elixir app regularly to check if the CPU and I/O activity levels have dropped down to near 0% for both. I check them after installing my ROM's, etc. (I also now use the Diagnosis app thanks to @oldtimer)
5. Remember the G tablet only has 512M DDR-2 RAM on board and was built to run with a 2.2 Froyo ROM, a cadged 2.6.32 kernel, and slow generic drivers. Google's minimum published specification for a system running Honeycomb or newer is a Nvidia Tegra-2 processor and 1G of RAM. So the challenge is to modify and tune the 2.6.39 kernel drivers and the ICS ROM to live within the available 512M RAM.
6. edit-no longer needed
7. Killing unnecessary apps sometimes frees up enough memory to stop the CPU and I/O churning. But I have to be careful which apps I kill using an app like Advanced Task Accelerator - it can shut down necessary services - although Android will usually restart them automatically (and kick up the CPU and I/O activity while doing so)
8. Remember that Google Apps come with a high overhead price - the standard Viewsonic set-up for the G tablet does not include GAPPs, and it runs very fast. The same for many other tablets that don't have a Tegra-2 and 1G of RAM. Game players might want to experiment with not loading GAPPs. In the past I've done this by downloading all the apps that I was interested in from GAPPs, then copying them all out to my PC using the "adb pull" command ("adb remount" to get in as root). Then I wipe and reload the ROM without GAPPs, and use "adb push" to put the apps in the right directories. Then on my G tablet, I find the apps using Root Explorer and "click" on them to install them.
Lyricalpapa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

How do I stop my tablet from downloading every app I have ever owned or used from the market when I log into my android account.
I suspect I am doing something wrong because the tablet is very laggy with ICS.

When you first install it will ask you if you want to use your backups, just uncheck that. Or you can let it sit for awhile, 30min to an hour, it sucks but once everything calms down its much better.

Android Keyboard
Good men of this forum,
It seems that with the new ICS rom, I am having issues with my android keyboard. If my tablet is vertical, I have the dialpad-looking keyboard with what seems to be Japanese characters on a few buttons. When my tablet is in the horizontal orientation, the keyboard disappears completely. I have searched the popular forums here and with Google. I'm terribly sorry if I have missed a tip somewhere.
I used the flashing procedure on the TeamDRH website to the letter, and I am no stranger to flashing custom ROMs to android devices. The keyboard continues to work beautifully under Froyo and Gingerbread ROMs, as well as the earliest beta of ICS. I only seem to have an issue with this version of ICS.
I'm also getting frequent Google Apps errors about the services stopping. After signing in with my account, Market crashed and disappeared from my apps menu altogether.
It seems that I have a fairly unique problem. I'm a linux sysadmin and I'm very handy with the command line if you need dmesg or kernel output.
Thank you in advance.

I've heard a couple of people are having problems with the GApps, have you tried installing with the lite 7b GApps?

No Luck
Thanks for the reply!
I have tried both the full and lite versions of 7A and 7B for this ROM with no luck. When I perform a first-time boot of the tablet after a ROM and Gapps, the very first message I encounter is "Unfortunately, the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped" for any version of Gapps, and it continues to pop up every several seconds that the tablet is in use.
I have also tried installing the ROM without Gapps at all and the keyboard is still nowhere to be found. Odd that the keyboard works in the first beta (1E), but this ICS (2B) is much faster than the old one
If anyone has a link to download the ICS Preview 2A instead of 2B I would be interested in trying it out, the links on TeamDRH's website all point to 2B now.
Other useful info: I know for certain that I am running the 1.2 bootloader and I'm using the newest Clockworkmod v5.5.0.4 Beta 15. I like to re-format before every flash to ensure a clean start.

Thats very odd it sounds like the download may have been corrupted. I've seen it happen a couple of people.
I still have 2A and some previous ones, kinda a catalog lol, just PM if you want to go that way.

I'm a newb
Thank you very much for the help you've provided me.
I tried downloading 2B a few more times with the same issue :/ so strange. Unfortunately for me, I am below the 10 post minimum to allow PMs. It's kind of ironic actually, I've been a member for years and always found my answers without having to ask because xda is wonderful about providing info
Thanks again.

Sent ya an email
simplyphp has a great writeup on an installation method you could try his way

SUCCESS!
Using the simplyphp method you referred me to, not only does the 2A ROM work, but the newest ROM and Gapps as well! I must admit that I'm a little embarrassed that I can't actually identify the original problem, but I believe it has something to do with my installation of Clockworkmod. I got it from a forum here that is trustworthy, but it didn't seem to work exactly as I needed it until I installed it with nvflash. I also had a strange problem with the first flash (out of the two that I am supposed to do) in that it wouldn't boot all the way into the TnT factory OS and was in an endless reboot. I simply turned it off, booted into APX mode once again, and continued with the listed steps and it worked flawlessly. I would thank simplyphp but I can't post on development threads yet!
So thank you and have a "Thanks!", I hope I've contributed to your wealth of knowledge on troubleshooting.

Choose and mod/deploy tablet for kiosk mode in grater volume

Hi there,
I'm not sure if this is the right subforum, but I have kind an unusual question
I'm looking for Android Tablets that I can use in Kiosk-Mode (as Info-Screen or custom input panel) on public places and without possibility for daily maintenance at location. My needs are:
1) Device must be able to boot up when power gets plugged in (so it comes back after power outage or whatever)
2) I must be able to gain root to enable real kiosk mode (kill android UI process - haven't found another reliable way), reboot the device programatically and enable/disable adb via tcp for remote maintenance
3) Once I set up one device, I must be able to clone it to a batch of others (e.g. via custom recovery) - ideally without even having to complete the initial welcome setup crap on each device
4) It should be 7", not more than 200 Eur and available in huge volume for at least half a year after I go for it
Hardware performance and features aren't critical. Just running a simple WebApp on it... It should have W-LAN
Both Nexus 7 have met all those needs and I am pretty happy with these devices. I have more than 30 devices running 24/7 for more than 2 years now. None failed, few displays start ghosting, but most are pretty fine.
However, Nexus 7 aren't available anymore in huge volume
I don't have huge experience in modding/developing android devices and never had others than Nexus in my hand. I really don't know where to start to find a new device that meets those needs.
And yes, in case you're wondering, they get enclosed in a case so just the screen is accessible.
I'd be happy for any hints that push me in the right direction

Well you can try to find or outsource some Galaxy Tabs, from the second generation upwards, either Tab 2 or Tab 4. But if not, you can go for some cheap tablets from some shops like MediaMarkt or DoMo. I don't know from what country you are so it's hard to recommend. Cheers

S5 glitching in and out of monitor mode? or just a patchwork mess?

Im new to all this so pay no attention if its nonsence...
My S5 G900f has a qualcomm snapdragon chipset, that doesn't support monitor mode, which i believe means that it doesnt support packet injections or packet capturing (driver related?)
using the dsploit.apk for things like session hijacking, replacing web page images of a target and using script 'injection' to inject custom java script into a target web page, all sounds like things you'd need monitor mode to do. and if it is then i was able to do it with my S5.
I dont know a lot about coding or how it all fits together and communicates with the hardware, so i may sound completely stupid, but this has done my head in for ages, so why not get it out there.
1. when i attempted to upgrade from my first custom rom, i had a bit of trouble, softbricked my phone and then flashed the two roms in various, alternate, wipe, format and install combinations until it finally booted to set up, and i stopped panicking. but this caused features from the first rom to appear within the second rom.
ie: 3minute battery mod was installed through a add-on zip along with the first rom and nothing to do with the second at all.
2. inconsistencies within the file system, like file names that were apps included with the first rom.
3. dsploit.apk was bugged and crashed every 5 or 10 minutes. then would seem to glitch or stutter for a couple seconds before correcting its self and accomplishing its pen test.
4. i also remember watching green text in the terminal as it failed to connect or ID some part of the system but continued to retry in quick succession until it glitched and worked. (i think this was a similar type of app i was trying out at the same time but instead of GUI stutters, i could see the text rapidly stuttering and glitching.)
4. the dsploit.apk worked for me back then, even though it was temperamental. ive downloaded the apk a couple times since with various roms and ive got no where with it...
was thinking maybe different aspects of the two roms had been filed or grouped together and created unstable triggers within the software, allowing it to briefly communicate with the chipset. i may be way off, but ive been sat here waiting for someone to solve this issue forever, i thought id share my thoughts, on the off chance it turns out to be something and i can finally get my S5 into monitor mode without OTG cables and other unwanted auxiliary components.
thanks in advance
G Carter

Do a clean install of you ROM, and please, don't panick. If you want to have a good time flashing ROMs and stuff, panicking is the last thing you want to do, it will cause stress and stress can lead to not being careful enough so stuff like this happens, well, always, if you are experiencing issues do a clean install. Just boot into recovery (I recommend TWRP) and wipe everything except external sd. Open ADB and sideload the ROM (or, if you have enough memory on a flash drive, plug it into your android and flash it from there) and then Google Apps.

Tricks to Make Your Android Smartphone Run Faster

Tricks to Make Your Android Smartphone Run Faster
Is Your Android Smartphone isn’t as Fast as it Should be: Here’s 10 steps on how to fix it.
In this fast generation, no one wants a slow phone every one want way to Make Android Phone Run Faster. When you first get your Android smartphone, it seems to work very well, things are fast and fluid responsive. But few months down the line, things started slowing down, many of us now have to settle for one as the hardware grows older, storage space run out, the number of bugs add up and reason for the problem is almost too simple to be true: your Android smartphone does not have the same settings, space and apps it had a when you first got it.
Most Android smartphones are prone to slowing down over time. However, this issue is not unique to Android. Device running iOS also encounter the same problem. The good news is that you don’t have to accept a slow Android smartphone their are way to make Android phone run faster.
Below are tricks and hacks we believe are efficient and effective to make Android phone run faster if you are experiencing a slowdown with your Android smartphone.
You haven’t got enough space
If you want your Android smartphone to run fast, then you’ve to do away with some stuff and junk files eating up space. Delete some apps, text messages, music and videos.
The Version of your OS met be out of date
One of the reason why you may experience slow down with your device is not because it’s old but because the running version of OS is outdated. If your smartphone supports the newest version of OS, updating should make things run faster.
You haven’t turned off your phone for a while
If your phone as being active and on for days without turning it off there are every possibility that this may effect to smooth running of the phone. Turning off your smartphone for a while is good. This will clear up things and shutdown some apps running at the background.
You’ve have too many apps
Too many apps mean too many apps eating up space that will enable your phone run properly. If you are pushing your phone memory to the limit, it’ll slow down. Try uninstalling some app or delete them completely.
You’ve got too many apps running
If you’ve too many apps open and running, there is high chance that your phone will slow down. Tap the minimize button and close all the apps by swiping it to the right side. That should free up some capacity.
You haven’t cleared your cookies for some time
Remember not clearing up your cookies for a long time takes up a lot of space. Clearing them up and staring over again should help make your Android phone run smoothly and faster.
Wipe Cache Partition
The cache partition on your phone contains temporary files which is different from your phone’s actual app data so it’s a good idea to get rid of the cache file every once in a while. Doing this will not only have your smartphone run faster but will also free up some storage. To clear up the cache files, you’ll have to enter your phone recovery mode. Once you’re there, find and select the ‘wipe cache partition’ option and just reboot.
Overclock your Android device
If you’re not satisfied with the overall performance of your smartphone, you can also overclock it. Many manufacturers maintain a low clock speed in order to minimize heat and extend your phone’s battery life. If you have a rooted device or are willing to root it, you can overclock it using an app like SetCPU. It’s not a straightforward process so be sure to follow proper guidelines and proceed with caution.
Too many app trying to access your location
Turn off your location to free up your C.P.U. to do that go-to Setting>Location and swipe the Turn on/off left to turn your device location off.
Do a factory reset
Sometimes, there are just too many things to take care of on your phone that you should just do a factory reset. It’s easier than cleaning up your device and getting rid of all the junk on your phone. By doing a factory reset on your Android phone you will wipe out all files, settings and data on your phone so make sure you’ve done a proper back up of all your files, app, data and settings before embarking on doing a factory reset.
The list above doesn’t necessary fixed up the problem. However, if after carrying out all of the steps and you still experience same problem, if your phone is still within warranty take it back.
Have you experience the same problem with your phone? How did you solve it? Share your experience and how you solve it via the comment box below.

"Snapshot", "Save State" or "Clone" of Android OS

I'm working with around 100 Android Devices at work and on a weekly basis, I have staff coming to me advising their devices have bugs (calls drop, audio drops, poor battery, buggy performance, laggy performance, etc...). Often, the way to resolve these issues is to just factory reset the device (restore a zip) and then set it up as a new device. This is a bit of a pain because I have a bunch of settings I need to input each time and install some apps.
Thinking of how virtual machines work is there a way to create a saved snapshot or a saved state or clone of an Android device in a finalized working state and "flash" that state to other devices so I don't need to go through the entire format and reset of each device?

rcanpolat said:
I'm working with around 100 Android Devices at work and on a weekly basis, I have staff coming to me advising their devices have bugs (calls drop, audio drops, poor battery, buggy performance, laggy performance, etc...). Often, the way to resolve these issues is to just factory reset the device (restore a zip) and then set it up as a new device. This is a bit of a pain because I have a bunch of settings I need to input each time and install some apps.
Thinking of how virtual machines work is there a way to create a saved snapshot or a saved state or clone of an Android device in a finalized working state and "flash" that state to other devices so I don't need to go through the entire format and reset of each device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you think google has made such a weak system that anyone could with great ease copy the entire system to another hardware, whether physical or virtual?
Without root you won't do anything like that, and on a modern device even root won't help.

A bit condescending on your first statement there but I appreciate the reply regardless.
If it's not doable then suggestions are welcome on how to make the process more efficient if anyone has any.