Just a generall question about ram. - Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I use a task killer, one named system. But basically, when i use my phone for couple of hours, there always is at least 44mb of ram left,
now what i was wondering, is this the set amount of ram left free by the android inbuilt task killer??
And if this is yes, can it be changed?

what are you using the task killer for?
Google: "why not to use task killer android"
I only use one to kill frozen apps :O
but for your question,
my ram has been down to 24mb before - so 40mb must not be the minimum.

brandon1108 said:
I only use one to kill frozen apps :O
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Click to collapse
+1 to that comment.

Well "system" also doubles as a monitoring thing aswell, so i firstly got it
to monitor my device usage to see where most battery was going.
I use it to kill frozen apps yes, and if my phone gets laggy sometimes i kill all tasks except the excluded ones.
Also sometimes use it for a reset, as the phone takes so long to turn off and bac on, it quicker to just kill all apps and let it reboot while still being on. But never seen my phone go below 44mb.

Related

Task killer/battery life

Ok, so there are task killer threads that lead me to believe that they a are a waste of time by and large, and that android automatically sorts things out. Those same posts also point out that task killers are an extra drain on the battery having to start applications over again uses more battery than leaving something dormant in the background. These posts are not the thoughts of one person but unanimous to those threads. All very well, but then there are the battery saving threads that say to close down all applications that aren't being used to save additional battery??? Again this is the view of everyone in those particular threads, so is there any chance of getting the two camps to FIGHT! And then I can decide which I shall choose to do!
For info I currently have task killer and use it all the time and get a full days use out of my battery which is good because I cane the hell out of it! But If I could improve it that would be good. I have however this afternoon decided to not use task killer for a few days and see how I get on. But an explanation would be good from both sides.
I never use a task killer and get 2 or 3 days use out of of my Desire. No point in a war just use your Desire for a week without a task killer and then a week with. I am pretty sure you will just find the task killer slows things down and doesn't improve battery life. You will not find any of the ROM chefs using a task killer either!
HI
I was reading one of those posts this morning and decided to uninstall task-killer.I have to say that after half day of heavy use my device started to be so laggy it took contacts or calendar 5 seconds to open!then I checked running processes and pretty much everything I was playing with was still running.memory dropped to 10MB and device became unusable.cannot say battery use has improved.I think it was the same.
But my task-killer is back up and running.
I must say that I am new to Android.I was using WM for long time.I can cook my own ROMs so I am not a noob but I know very little about Android.so if anyone knows what could be the reason of this huge slowdown I will be grateful for explanation.
And one more thing that needs to be said...
My device is rooted and I am using a2sd too.
polystirenman said:
HI
I was reading one of those posts this morning and decided to uninstall task-killer.I have to say that after half day of heavy use my device started to be so laggy it took contacts or calendar 5 seconds to open!then I checked running processes and pretty much everything I was playing with was still running.memory dropped to 10MB and device became unusable.cannot say battery use has improved.I think it was the same.
But my task-killer is back up and running.
I must say that I am new to Android.I was using WM for long time.I can cook my own ROMs so I am not a noob but I know very little about Android.so if anyone knows what could be the reason of this huge slowdown I will be grateful for explanation.
And one more thing that needs to be said...
My device is rooted and I am using a2sd too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may like to read this:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
dhiral.v said:
You may like to read this:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well.i did read that before.that is why i do not understand why my phone was so slow.they are claiming that android should close apps by itself to reclaim memory.but in my case that wasn't true.everything was running and nothing was getting closed by system.
Here's another good read:
Google and Cyanogen comments imply task killer/manager apps are pointless
Both Dianne Hackborn and Cyanogen say Task Killers are useless, even developers of these apps concur. You should listen to them, I guess they understand juuust a little bit more than we do what Android is about.
pascanu said:
Here's another good read:
Google and Cyanogen comments imply task killer/manager apps are pointless
Both Dianne Hackborn and Cyanogen say Task Killers are useless, even developers of these apps concur. You should listen to them, I guess they understand juuust a little bit more than we do what Android is about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would like to believe it.i was so excited when i saw a post saying that i should get rid of task-killer.but as i wrote before after half day of heavy use(my phone is new so i play with it a lot :-D ) without task killer my phone was soooooo slow i couldn't use it anymore.today i had task-killer back on the phone and all day no slowdown what so ever.i don't understand that.i am starting to think it is related to A2SD and memory being relocated to SD card.
I also agree that taskkiller (the way it works for WM) is not good for android, because android has a better memory management...
but there is another flavour of taskkiller in the market... which are based on this:
How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller
Unfortunately, your phone needs to be rooted before you can use that method.
If you worry about memory remember that the worst kind of memory is...free memory ! Because it's not being used. Obviously ram gets reclaimed and freed when it's needed.
As said in a couple more redundant threads, there might be a rogue app which you are better off closing because it stays in the background wrongly eating cpu cycles, but this is very very rare. Otherwise I think it's just the usual placebo effect...
andycted said:
If you worry about memory remember that the worst kind of memory is...free memory ! Because it's not being used. Obviously ram gets reclaimed and freed when it's needed.
As said in a couple more redundant threads, there might be a rogue app which you are better off closing because it stays in the background wrongly eating cpu cycles, but this is very very rare. Otherwise I think it's just the usual placebo effect...
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Click to collapse
Have you read the link in my previous post?
ANOTHER thread about this... There must be plenty of threads on this now, but I'll just once more give my impression.
Personally I have had HTC widgets like NEWS or MAIL or CALENDER hang or crash on me and I could not restart them unless I restarted the phone. In this case an app killer was ESSENTIAL. I don't believe you need to leave the app killer running always and kill every single task when your done, but its essential to have one installed so if a widget hangs (as has happened quite a few times on the Desire) you can kill the hung app without having to try a 5 hour shut down(another desire issue) and battery removal.
Also... after 2 days use of many apps and camera use and internet and youtube app etc, your internal RAM will be about 50mb available to programs. yes, android is supposed to kill stuff as it needs, and Im sure it does, but 50mb free memory compared to 150mb the lag is VERY obvious. So I do tend to kill tasks like camera and youtube etc if I have not used them in a day and my phone seem slaggy. the phone definetly runs faster then. Thats just a fact. So the internal android task killer is not as efficent as you'd like to think. Android 2.2 runs 450% faster than 2.1 so maybe then no lag will EVER be noticable. I'll still keep a task killer installed though in case widgets crash or hang.
I found my battery most efficient with this setup:
- Installed Advanced Task killer (free)
- Security level: High (it doesn't show system apps)
- I have put all frequently using apps on ignore list: ATK, Messages, BatteryTimeLite, Internet, Weather, Clock, Calendar (so Android manage with those apps)
- Auto kill Level: Safe
- Auto kill Frequency: 2 hours
With that setup battery lasts almost half time longer than without TK or with killing all apps when screen goes off. Also I don't have any force closes / lag.
Never experienced lag at 100 or 20 mb free.
mcgon1979 said:
but 50mb free memory compared to 150mb the lag is VERY obvious.
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Click to collapse
The amount of free memory doesn't necessarily have anything to do with lag.
As Android does not use virtual memory (unless you've hacked in swapper, which is a bad idea anyway), it will attempt to make best use of available memory which may mean keeping recently used items in memory, and thus "consuming" free memory. However, if those items are not actively processing, they should not be consuming CPU cycles and therefore consuming little to no power.
As far as a running system is concerned, having lots of free memory just means that it is being underutilized.
I don't kill tasks and my phone never lags - that's just a fact too!
Regards,
Dave
boge said:
I also agree that taskkiller (the way it works for WM) is not good for android, because android has a better memory management...
but there is another flavour of taskkiller in the market... which are based on this:
How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller
Unfortunately, your phone needs to be rooted before you can use that method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using this method it is possible to make the native task killer a bit more aggresive. I did some experiments with this on the HTC Hero and it just might have improved speed slightly but at the expense of stability.
"Normal" task killers are completely pointless but if people want to use them why not? It they want to sacrifice both battery life and performance by using one surely that is their choice. Whatever the experts says will not convince them.
I suppose you could use one to kill the very occasional hung app. i.e. Once every few days, but most people seem to use them constantly and totally indiscriminately.
1. About Cpu: get a task manager with cpu monitoring and verify for yourself, frozen applications in background don't do anything.
2. About memory: If an application needs 10 MB it just uses 10 MB and couldn't care less if there are 11, 100, 1000 MB free. The only moment you COULD see a tiny slowdown is the instant it needs 20 and there are only 10 available, but the system is quite good in managing that, and freeing resources (there are six levels of memory cleaning which progressively remove unused applications from the background)
3. If you stop monitoring memory usage, stop worrying about the system, you'll find out it manages itself perfectly and you enjoy the phone a lot more.
Interesting article about installed apps and a battery.
http://blog.gsmarena.com/android-handsets-batteries-should-last-for-more-than-a-day-google-says/
"...Page accused the installed apps of causing the problems and claimed that software running in the background exhausts the battery quickly...."
Interesting article about installed apps and a battery.
http://blog.gsmarena.com/android-handsets-batteries-should-last-for-more-than-a-day-google-says/
"...Page accused the installed apps of causing the problems and claimed that software running in the background exhausts the battery quickly...."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as said in the post above, get a cpu monitoring task manager and see for yourself if you have something wrong. Personally I don't have any.
Also watch battery history which tells you if the phone doesn't manage to go properly to sleep (partial wake)
regarding that article, iphone users get way less battery time and they don't even have multitasking...
-------------------------------------
Ipad's dont have "Spell Check" thery have "Replace" built into Safarii adn it wokrs just fineq!!!
I personally installed auto memory manager, an app that configures android's internal task killer. Its not a task manager by itself, uses android's task manager. You can set the limits in MB for all the app categories android has.
I was using it in my hero as well and found it really useful. Before having it installed, after some time my free memory was ~50mb, thus my phone was sometimes lagging. Now its always above 100mb and no lag at all

[Q] Could someone clarify?

Okay, so I hear in FroYo that you're not suppose to kill and end tasks? Does that means services as well? And if I wasn't suppose to kill them, then wouldn't that make my battery life worse because of all the things running in the background?
TIA
Sent from my Epic 4G
You shouldn't use a task killer in any version of android from Froyo on, froyo handles its memory management extremely well when left alone, using a task killer could result in apps constantly opening and closing in the back ground, which would use a lot of battery .
Texted while driving
Alright. I got rid of my task killers. Is ending services fine though? And what about the task manager that the phone provides? (I'm guessing the second one is a no?)
And what other precautions should I take for battery (other than having low brightness, of course)
Sent from my Epic 4G
Only use the one built into the touchwiz framework if you have an app running out of control hogging resources.
If you're looking to improve battery, I strongly suggest Juicedefender with ultimatejuice, I have almost tripled my battery since I started using them.
Texted while driving
063_XOBX said:
Only use the one built into the touchwiz framework if you have an app running out of control hogging resources.
If you're looking to improve battery, I strongly suggest Juicedefender with ultimatejuice, I have almost tripled my battery since I started using them.
Texted while driving
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Just got both. What do you reccomend I put the aggressiveness on?
Sent from my Epic 4G
I keep it on custom and 15 minutes every 2 hours.
Texted while driving
063_XOBX said:
I keep it on custom and 15 minutes every 2 hours.
Texted while driving
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, I'm a bit confused. What do you mean 15 min every 2 hours? Like I can only put my frequency to 15 min OR 2 hours? Sorry if I seem stupid lol
Sent from my Epic 4G
Data on for 15 minutes every 2 hours.
Texted while driving
063_XOBX said:
Data on for 15 minutes every 2 hours.
Texted while driving
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured it out
Thanks for everything.
Sent from my Epic 4G
I use the Advanced Task Killer for Froyo. Several apps I have like the Weather Channel and stock browser lower my available memory to a minute amount of what it was at boot up and do not reload if killed.
BONSAI 4 and loving it!
kennyglass123 said:
I use the Advanced Task Killer for Froyo. Several apps I have like the Weather Channel and stock browser lower my available memory to a minute amount of what it was at boot up and do not reload if killed.
BONSAI 4 and loving it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The amount of memory available on your phone is supposed to become low. Apps are stored in memory when not being used. This does not take battery and allows the program to start in a faster fashion then otherwise.
Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk
I'm sorry guys, but the information given in response here is really dangerous. Yes Froyo, and all versions of Android have built in memory management. HOWEVER, it is the job of the application developer to use the proper calls and closes to make sure the application isn't holding onto resources when in a background state. This is NOT always the case, and is constantly overlooked on all OS platforms, especially with how fast application development is happening on mobile platforms.
YMMV, when and if you should be using task killers.
linuxmotion said:
The amount of memory available on your phone is supposed to become low. Apps are stored in memory when not being used. This does not take battery and allows the program to start in a faster fashion then otherwise.
Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it's not. There is only 337MB of RAM available of which about 150 is used by system. If I keep loading apps that stay in memory when not being used I will have no resources or memory available for additional web pages or other apps. Why should the Weather Channel app load 50 MB of memory and stay there if I use it twice a week? When an app is closed I want it out of RAM. I can wait the 50 milliseconds to reload if I want to use it again.
BONSAI 4 and loving it!
Here we go again another argument of task manager for android
For me i use advanced task manager to kill some apps to speed up my phone a little and also use it to switch between programs that are already open where as if you try reopening some programs the restart,
I also ignore apps that i need to open and stay open like beuatiful widgets, word games to get more reliable notifications and widget locker.
I freeze with titanium some services such as drm and sns...
Free RAM is wasted RAM. Unless your trying to track down rogue processes, task killers are totally unnecessary.
http://lifehacker.com/#!5650894/and...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
mattallica76 said:
Free RAM is wasted RAM. Unless your trying to track down rogue processes, task killers are totally unnecessary.
http://lifehacker.com/#!5650894/and...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like to save some for a rainy day
mattallica76 said:
Free RAM is wasted RAM. Unless your trying to track down rogue processes, task killers are totally unnecessary.
http://lifehacker.com/#!5650894/and...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What that article hints at but doesn't exactly explain is that due to how the Dalvik JIT works, killing those apps that aren't actively consuming CPU will cause worse performance over the long run. The JIT has to spin up everytime the app is loaded - if it is already in memory then it's already optomized.
At least that's my understanding! I could be totally talking out my arse
EDIT:
Here is its straight from the Dalvik lead dev.
Well don't know about performance but yesterday killing apps with ATK Froyo especially the browser, I came home with 62% battery left. Today had about the same use but disabled ATK and never used it and came home with 31% battery left. ATK is doing something for my battery and will give up apps loading quickly for battery life any day.

[Q] task killer....yea, or nah???

I had it on my first epic and liked it but some say to stay away from it, if i dont use it is there a better safer app or not to use 1 at all and manually stop programs. i c there is a paid and free 1. i guess the free 1 has adds but i didnt on mine??
Nabisco_12 said:
I had it on my first epic and liked it but some say to stay away from it, if i dont use it is there a better safer app or not to use 1 at all and manually stop programs. i c there is a paid and free 1. i guess the free 1 has adds but i didnt on mine??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Leave it alone. Android 2.2 + manages tasks for you. Task killers cause instability. Just use the built in task killer on our phones.. (hold the home button and press task manager)
Yeah really shouldn't have to be killing things that often and if you do ever need to that's why there's a built in task manager.
qbking77 said:
Leave it alone. Android 2.2 + manages tasks for you. Task killers cause instability. Just use the built in task killer on our phones.. (hold the home button and press task manager)
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Click to collapse
No matter what people say, there are programs that are not handled properly by Froyo's built in memory handler. If you use a task killer to kill autoreloading tasks (like MAPS for google navigation) then you are causing battery drain by you killing them and then them reloading. If you know what tasks are reloaders, then you can select them to be ignored by the task killer. Some programs hog phone RAM and do not release it like the stock internet browser. Knowing this, I use the Advanced Task Killer for Froyo to kill the browser and make more RAM available for other things.
So yes, use it BUT with proper knowledge of when and how.
Watchdog FTMFW (look it up on the market). Had their widget on my homescreen pretty much from the day I started using Android. Old-style task killers are BS.
If you use the back key or pre-designed exit key, you will close apps properly and they will only rarely reappear. It's part of the Andriod design.
kennyglass123 said:
So yes, use it BUT with proper knowledge of when and how.
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Click to collapse
Yes, this is important. In general, don't use them, but some people don't code their apps right.
Typed by a man standing on a toilet, eating a bacon sammich.
Nay, but as stated some apps just suck, I always take the time to test the app...
Sent from my MyFrankenstein EC05OCE using XDAPA...
I will throw my 2 cents in here for good measure. As far as I can tell, my setup appears to get me generally better battery life than the rest of users, so I believe that qualifies me to comment .
I have used and tested Task Killers since I got my Epic, my first android phone, this passed November. Yes, I still use one. It's called Advanced Task Killer. It's free, and it's simple. As mentioned in a previous post, and by myself many times before, certain tasks will reload with impunity no matter what you do. Aside from freezing these services, which may result in instability in certain instances, you can't stop this. And continually causing them to restart will drain more battery rather than saving any. Which brings me to my main point:
NEVER USE AUTO-KILL! Simply use a task killer widget to "clean up" before you lock your phone, nothing more. If you use it in this way, like me, you'll see battery improvement. Just also ensure to set certain system services to the ignore list to avoid issues.
Cool thanks guys ur input helps alot!
If anything, best bet is a memory tweaker. like "autokiller memory optimizer." I'm sure thats what your looking for =) it's not a task killer.
i used a task manager/killer back in the G1 1.5 days but nowadays android does a much better job of managing memory so a task killer is really not needed anymore in my opinion.
I've used for months without any problems.. I don't kill the essential processes.. just the apps.
Web browsing is MUCH faster if I kill apps before going to the web. It gives more free RAM to cache pages.
Has anyone had any luck with Startup Auditor since Froyo? It doesn't seem to actually do anything when comparing the disabled programs in its list with what is "running" according to the phone Manage Apps setting.
rando991 said:
Has anyone had any luck with Startup Auditor since Froyo? It doesn't seem to actually do anything when comparing the disabled programs in its list with what is "running" according to the phone Manage Apps setting.
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Click to collapse
I'll almost guarantee you that they are just restarting. Thats why taskkillers dont work in 2.2.x, because it just "restarts" them.
[sig]Typed by restless thumbs, that are too tired to help hold my bacon sammiches[sig]
Thanks, that's what I thought.
rando991 said:
Thanks, that's what I thought.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, google removed the code for taskkillers in froyo.

How do I stop apps auto opening

The title is basically the question, im fed up of alot of programs auto opening on my android phone, it takes battery and is slightly annoying receiving notifications off apps i dont really care about such as the NFL game tells me about small things in the NFL, im in the UK, i dont care.
If you argue that it doesnt take alot of battery currently have 117mb free ram, (2 secs later) killed all my selected apps now have 201mb free so im using 80mb of ram on apps im not using. Ive made 2 or 3 phone calls today no more than 30 mins long altogether and ive lost 55% of my battery since about midday, which is when i unplugged the phone.
And I think all these apps are the problem so how can I stop them from auto opening, please help
Search the market for startup cleaner
Sent from my A101IT using xda premium
yusuo said:
If you argue that it doesnt take alot of battery currently have 117mb free ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More free RAM doesn't really equate to longer battery life or lower power consumption.
Better search for auto starts, this asp shows you the conditions an asp can turn back on and you can bin it off, Facebook for example had like 8 conditions, from full to medium battery life, on charge and change in network....... Use it
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
rootSU said:
More free RAM doesn't really equate to longer battery life or lower power consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's still no reason for most of this apps to use RAM. Apps like facebook and skype shouldn't be actice without user permission. Without login they are complete useless.
I'll try Startup Cleaner, thx.
It's how android works and what RAM is for. There is always a reason.
Sure if someone doesn't use Facebook, it should be uninstallable, but its not and its not causing any harm
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
The problem isn't that apps start when I turn on the phone its that even after i use task manager to close they keep reopening and use over 100mb of ram, earlier I checked and only had 78mb ram available.
This must have an effect on battery to some degree i want to kinda ban certain apps from running in the background unless i specifically tell them to
RAM doesn't use more power, the more its used, no.
You don't need a task killer. You do not need to obsess about RAM. Forget about RAM and enjoy your phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
rootSU said:
RAM doesn't use more power, the more its used, no.
You don't need a task killer. You do not need to obsess about RAM. Forget about RAM and enjoy your phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you reply but its not really an answer its more of a contradiction, what I was asking is how to I stop apps from auto starting and eating up RAM, regardless of how long the phones been on
...and I'm telling you its a pointless, unecessary waste of time. Also it is not possible. Autostarts as already mentioned is the closest you'll get
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
I also turned off the autorun permissions of a lot of apps, for 2 reasons: 1) a device that is smooth sooner after booting, using less cpu cycles/power. 2) preventing Sense from reloading due to RAM shortage and have smooth multitasking.
1) Android loads a bunch of apps to the RAM that have the autorun permission, until it thinks it is "enough" and useful to you. No matter how many apps you have installed, the amount of free RAM is always about the same, just the number of "unwanted" apps in the RAM differs. Removing the autorun on boot permissions prevents the loading of unnecessary apps that will immediately be removed from the RAM the moment you start the browser/a game, saving cpu cycles=power. So for me there is no point in loading them in the first place, because I am never going to use them (right away). I want the apps that don't to any syncing loaded on demand.
2) I hate slow multitasking and I hate it even more when Sense reloads because it got kicked out of the RAM after each time I press HOME.
I use 3G Watchdog (~12MB RAM), Unlock with Wifi (~8MB), Whatsapp (~15MB), Handcent SMS (~18MB), Droidstats (~13MB), Extended Controls (~12MB), Battery Monitor Widget Pro (~13MB). Okay, I maybe could delete some of them, but these app are "OK" to me, because I use them actively or just need a background service to operate normally.
With Gemini I disabled apps like Facebook, a screenshot tool (just load when I want to make a screenshot..), various public transport planning tools, etc from autostarting.
No joy moment: after using the Facebook app (market version), it may take up 50+ MB and it will not be closed when I start another RAM intensive app, because it is a high priority service. Result: Sense gets kicked out of the RAM. Or, when the situation is somewhat less critical: multitasking is as good as unusable: switching between apps makes them load over and over again, because app2 kicks app1 out of the RAM and vice versa, causing unnecessary lag. Therefore: when I am done with facebook, I close it, then STAY the hell closed It may only autostart when it receives a push message. In that case it is nice to have FB already in RAM when I tap the notification.
Why do even some games have background services, or the Engadget app, or .. , or... all eating precious RAM. And yes, I know, once IN the RAM they eat no battery, but they DO eat battery when the app loads itself back in the RAM when it thinks it needs to, after it got kicked the moment I decided to so something else.
Hmm, spent way too much time to try to explain my frustration Oh and by the way, I have a Legend, but the basics are the same of course.
Dwnload an app called internet commander from the market. It shuts off the internet when your screen turns off but still let's you get calls and texts. I've got my phone , rooted of course, clocked to 710 and my battery will last for days.
Sent from my Eris using xda premium
I just re read your post, that won't help with apps but it will help save battery. And when you turn your screen on the internet kicks right on instantly. Good luck
Sent from my Eris using xda premium
yusuo said:
The problem isn't that apps start when I turn on the phone its that even after i use task manager to close they keep reopening and use over 100mb of ram, earlier I checked and only had 78mb ram available.
This must have an effect on battery to some degree i want to kinda ban certain apps from running in the background unless i specifically tell them to
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The guys here have already suggested you use a certain program from the Market. Have you tried it?
Regarding the whole RAM consumption issue, Android has its own built-in memory management system that ensures that there's always enough RAM for an app whenever it needs it, even if the memory manager shows like 40 MB free. Basically it "ejects" all background, unused apps, from memory making room for the foreground app which needs it most. If for some reason you need to fiddle with that, you can try using the V6 Supercharger script. I find it suitable for my needs but YMMV. It's completely reversible, so if you don't like it you can uninstall it just like that.
P.S. - I agree with rootSU, the ammount of free RAM has nothing to do with battery consumption. If you suspect that an app is draining your battery, check Android's battery statistics to find the culprit.
TVTV said:
Regarding the whole RAM consumption issue, Android has its own built-in memory management system that ensures that there's always enough RAM for an app whenever it needs it, even if the memory manager shows like 40 MB free. Basically it "ejects" all background, unused apps, from memory making room for the foreground app which needs it most. If for some reason you need to fiddle with that, you can try using the V6 Supercharger script. I find it suitable for my needs but YMMV. It's completely reversible, so if you don't like it you can uninstall it just like that.
P.S. - I agree with rootSU, the ammount of free RAM has nothing to do with battery consumption. If you suspect that an app is draining your battery, check Android's battery statistics to find the culprit.
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I respectfuly disagree. Android built in ram management is just silly. If I open xda app for example (it could actually be any app for that matter), reply to a few posts, read a few more and close it, why does it need to stay in ram? It reloads anyway when I run it again after I've closed it (using the back button or the actual exit command in the app itself). Why does the camera app need to stay in the background after I just shot a few photos and closed it? Because I may or may not use it again in some time? It's rediculous. And the whole theory that ram management doesn't require any power/cpu usage, how do you guys think all those apps get killed? Android will power?! No, kernel scans all running apps and kills the ones based on built in heuristics so it also reads them first. So that doesn't require any power/battery? Awesome if it's true! Although I wouldn't bet on that. And all this fuss just because you may or may not launch the same app sometime during the next day/week/month/year or it'll eventually get killed? Now that's just plain stupid. I get apps that need services like widgets, push notifications etc. but random apps like root explorer, xda app, titanium, youtube etc. which are opened specificly by the user shouldn't be in ram just for the sake of it after they're closed. I closed it, meaning I don't need it anymore. And I don't need the kernel to scan all apps and running services every time I launch an app so it could provide the free ram that app needs. Consumes cpu time, battery, i/o ... every piece of hardware actually just to free some ram that shouldn't be occupied in the first place. Every app that I ever opened on my phone got loaded almost instantly and that's just after phone had been booted. So after that it should stay in ram so I could open it in a blink of an eye instead of instantly? That's just funny.
Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud so don't flame me immediately. There probably are apsects of it that I didn't mention here or am not aware of. And I'm not saying that I'm right and you guys are wrong, I'm just saying what I know and think about this subject.
-. typewrited .-
PlayPetepp, while it might be true that the OS allocates (thus use) some resources to memory maintenance, the impact on battery life is negligible. In the Android OS, apps in memory are ordered according to priority and state, so the OS always knows which apps to kill first if it needs to make room in RAM, without much of a hassle. The only bad consequence of this system seems to be the fact that once the memory fills up, the launcher may lag or even be evacuated from memory. But, as i've mentioned in my previous post, there are ways to prevent that, either via scripts or, if you know what you're doing, via editing system files.
So the OS doesn't need to scan anything as it keeps everything in memory again? Seems like an endless loop. Open, sort, kill if needed, reopen, sort again, kill ... to what end, constant unneccessary multitasking that user is unaware of? I really don't see any benefit of that system and am only seeing the downsides. I mean, who needs every app they ever run remain in ram even if they close them after using? And then opening another app and "waiting" for whatever needs to be closed to get it running. Sure you can mess with the scripts (init.d, init.rc, etc.) but the underlined conditions stay the same. I hope I'm making sense here. Or am I fighting against windmills.
I just figured out that I strayed from the topic of this thread so won't be continuing this discussion if it's considered offtopic.
-. typewrited .-
Stop looking for excuses for poor multitasking in Sense 3+ roms
erklat said:
Stop looking for excuses for poor multitasking in Sense 3+ roms
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Hello again nice to see you here
Here's an interesting article on what I was talking about. Sense 3.5 doesn't need that many mbs of ram to work smoothly. After booting and setting everything up I have 150+ mb free. That should be enough for decent multitasking but all those apps not getting killed when you close them are eating too much. Can anyone explain in detail what hidden app, perceptible app, backup app and heavy_weight app means? I've been googling this for a week and can't find any decent explanation.
@PlayPetepp - I think i have already said (in my previous post) that the OS does indeed use some resources for managing the memory, but they are negligible in terms of their impact on battery life. IMHO, the only thing a 3'rd party memory manager (task killer) WILL do is improve lanuncher responsiveness (lag) as the lag does increase when free RAM drops under a certain limit. Thus used wisely, a task killer can improve responsiveness, but battery life... very little, in rare cases (it does the opposite, most of the time).
Regarding the so called "memory slots", here's an excerpt from this article:
FOREGROUND_APP: This is the application currently on the screen, and running
VISIBLE_APP: This is an application that is open, and running in the background because it's still doing something
SECONDARY_SERVER: This is a process (a service that an application needs) that is alive and ready in case it's needed to do something
HIDDEN_APP: This again is a process, that sits idle (but still alive) in case it's needed by an app that's alive and running
CONTENT_PROVIDER: This is apps that provide data (content) to the system. HTC Facebook Sync? That's a CONTENT_PROVIDER. So are things like the Android Market, or Fring. If they are alive, they can refresh and provide the content they are supposed to at the set interval. If you kill them, they can't of course.
EMPTY_APP: I call these "ghosts." They are apps that you have opened, but are done with them. Android uses a unique style of handling memory management. When an activity is ended, instead of killing it off Android keeps the application in memory so that opening them again is a faster process. Theses "ghost" apps use no battery or CPU time, they just fill RAM that would be otherwise empty. When this memory is needed by a different application or process, the RAM is flushed and made available for the new app. To satisfy the geekier people (like myself) Android does this by keeping a list of recently used apps, with the oldest apps in the list given the lowest priority -- they are killed first if RAM is needed elsewhere. This is a perfect way to handle 'ghost' processes, so there's no need to touch this part
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RAM Manger

Is there such thing? Because i have all my apps closed, yet even ones i haven't opened in forever are using ram. If i remember correctly RAM should only be taken up by active/running programs.. Is there a way to close these all down and keep them from auto restarting without me? Like i know if you stoped facebook it would open back up once you open the app.. but anyways, any way to do this? Im tired of having like 1gig of ram used at all times.
ReapersDeath said:
Is there such thing? Because i have all my apps closed, yet even ones i haven't opened in forever are using ram. If i remember correctly RAM should only be taken up by active/running programs.. Is there a way to close these all down and keep them from auto restarting without me? Like i know if you stoped facebook it would open back up once you open the app.. but anyways, any way to do this? Im tired of having like 1gig of ram used at all times.
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Freeze them with titanium back up and defrost them when you need em
Flashing zips in rehab!!
Robalboa said:
Freeze them with titanium back up and defrost them when you need em
Flashing zips in rehab!!
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Nonrooted and i dont want to do something so extreme =p or will advanced task killer just solve my issues?
ReapersDeath said:
Is there such thing? Because i have all my apps closed, yet even ones i haven't opened in forever are using ram. If i remember correctly RAM should only be taken up by active/running programs.. Is there a way to close these all down and keep them from auto restarting without me? Like i know if you stoped facebook it would open back up once you open the app.. but anyways, any way to do this? Im tired of having like 1gig of ram used at all times.
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No, actually it's more efficient to keep programs you have recently used in RAM until you need the RAM for something else. It takes time and energy to copy an app from storage to RAM, if you run the app again and it's already in RAM that's time and energy you don't have to use again. If the app isn't running it doesn't take CPU cycles or power for it to just sit there. If you have 2 gig of RAM and you are using 1 gig, you still have lots of RAM left anyway. The most efficient thing to do is just let the OS kill apps when it decides it needs the space.
That said, if you want to clear the RAM here's how:
Hold down the Home button to bring up the task manager, Tap on the Task Manager button (bottom left) Press Clear memory.
That will clear all inactive (and some active) processes from RAM. Many of them will just reload anyway, but it temporarily reduce the amount of RAM being used. This won't speed up your phone or save battery. The only time I've found this useful is when there is a misbehaving app, then I can kill it this way without restarting the phone.
I was wondering for benchmark relsted stuff.. sometimes my scores low and sometimes high. Idk why. And I'm trying to find cpu friendly widgets that won't hamper my phones speed but no luck so far
poit said:
No, actually it's more efficient to keep programs you have recently used in RAM until you need the RAM for something else. It takes time and energy to copy an app from storage to RAM, if you run the app again and it's already in RAM that's time and energy you don't have to use again. If the app isn't running it doesn't take CPU cycles or power for it to just sit there. If you have 2 gig of RAM and you are using 1 gig, you still have lots of RAM left anyway. The most efficient thing to do is just let the OS kill apps when it decides it needs the space.
That said, if you want to clear the RAM here's how:
Hold down the Home button to bring up the task manager, Tap on the Task Manager button (bottom left) Press Clear memory.
That will clear all inactive (and some active) processes from RAM. Many of them will just reload anyway, but it temporarily reduce the amount of RAM being used. This won't speed up your phone or save battery. The only time I've found this useful is when there is a misbehaving app, then I can kill it this way without restarting the phone.
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What this guy said
poit said:
No, actually it's more efficient to keep programs you have recently used in RAM until you need the RAM for something else. It takes time and energy to copy an app from storage to RAM, if you run the app again and it's already in RAM that's time and energy you don't have to use again. If the app isn't running it doesn't take CPU cycles or power for it to just sit there. If you have 2 gig of RAM and you are using 1 gig, you still have lots of RAM left anyway. The most efficient thing to do is just let the OS kill apps when it decides it needs the space.
That said, if you want to clear the RAM here's how:
Hold down the Home button to bring up the task manager, Tap on the Task Manager button (bottom left) Press Clear memory.
That will clear all inactive (and some active) processes from RAM. Many of them will just reload anyway, but it temporarily reduce the amount of RAM being used. This won't speed up your phone or save battery. The only time I've found this useful is when there is a misbehaving app, then I can kill it this way without restarting the phone.
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+1

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