Evo slow down?

[sethpcs]

Android 2.1 (at least on the Evo) randomly starts various application, even when not requested by the user. By default, Android does an OK job of killing tasks, but it uses a fairly conservative approach. Apps are aloud to run longer that you might need just in case you need them again. At one point, I had 39 apps running, must of which I did not start. And those were just apps. There are a lot us services that run in the background as well. From time to time (especially if you have recently opened a lot of applications), Android can slow down considerably. This is due to the fact that it's task-killing rate is conservative.

I use Advanced Task Killer because you can set use it's widget to manually kill all tasks, or you can set intervals for killing tasks. You can also kill tasks when the screen is turned off. It even has its own "auto-kill level" which allows the app to more aggressively kill background tasks. Finally, you can exclude certain task that you want to leave alone. There are even more advanced task management apps that allow you to kill services too, but that can be a bit trickier.

The point is that Android CAN manage tasks by itself, but it may not get the job done for some of us. Luckily, we have a lot of options.

 

[wrxdrunkie]

Ya it looks like I might be one of those people.

The only I was able to get 200+mb free was to launch on a "clean" scene with NO widgets or apps, which is pretty boring, I did not think widgets would bog down the system that much.

 

[VKitty]

Right, so what do you do if its not killing them efficiently. Or if its not killing the ones you want to kill? For example it loads Sprint nav on start up, and if you use sprint nav, then close, it will still run in the background, and still drain your battery.

Not sure but the devs say that it closing apps is not a good way to work in a mobile environment.

We did not want to require that users close applications when "done" with them. Such a usage pattern does not work well in a mobile environment, where usage tends to involve repeated brief contact with a wide variety of applications throughout the day.

 

[wrxdrunkie]

So how common is it to have in the 200mb range of free ram?

I am sitting at about 140mb free right now.

 

[ronron23#AC]

I hover around the 210-240 range when running apps. After I kill everything after a fresh reboot, I sometimes get upwards to 280mb free.

For those sitting on low numbers of ram, what apps are you guys running actively?

 

[wrxdrunkie]

Right now I have 124mb free:

I have the clock widget up, the music widget, engadget widget, bookmarks widget, people widget, some settings widgets, friend stream, and the news widget. I also have app icons on the desktops.

When I click task manager:

I am running Internet, Music, Messages, news, ATK, I have auto-kill on conservative right now (seeing if that helps)

 

[Ponic]

I hover around the 210-240 range when running apps. After I kill everything after a fresh reboot, I sometimes get upwards to 280mb free.

For those sitting on low numbers of ram, what apps are you guys running actively?

Wow, man, 280mb? I've never seen more than 200mb, and I'm pretty sure I've only gotten there about twice. I typically hover around 140mb with just clock widget running. Weird.

 

[trooper54]

I mean see for yourself. Attached are simulated apps that i would use day to day. I opened and used each app for a few seconds like i would if i were really using it. Also notice the available mem with all apps open and all apps closed... Granted those are mostly lightweight apps. Also i dont have any news widgets or twitter or anything like that running all the time. I kill them, then click on the widget from my screen when i want to use it.

[EDIT]
Keep in mind that i kill all tasks after i finish doing some thing. And even when i had all those tasks open, my interface is still smooth.

How do you exit out of apps normally? do you hit home? or back until you reach to home screen. The latter is what you should be doing.

 

[Ponic]

Ok, after messing around with task killer settings, I see how you're getting 250mb free all the time. I didn't realize it hid certain running processes.

 

[trooper54]

yea, depending on your task killer it will hide or not hide certain tasks. I unhid everything, and then re hid things that looked like htc/android system tasks. Basically i killed everything, it restarted sense and my screen, and then i hid those processes that were booted up. (anything i didnt know what it was) And yea, its working fine =) no complaints.

 

[xorbe]

How are you guys checking the free memory amount? Mine is starting to feel sluggish after 5 days, will power cycle tonight.

 

[trooper54]

How are you guys checking the free memory amount? Mine is starting to feel sluggish after 5 days, will power cycle tonight.

see pictures posted on previous page.

 

[scotth45]

Try system panel I had issues with atk