Google's Nexus 7 tablets dying early, possibly due to cheap memory

[MangoPowah]

Bought mine in October, and it's still alive, thankfully. However, it began lagging pretty bad, and even had random reboots since 4.2 rolled around. Lags when switching users, and sometimes just lags whenever it feels like.

 

[JasW]

Bought mine in October, and it's still alive, thankfully. However, it began lagging pretty bad, and even had random reboots since 4.2 rolled around. Lags when switching users, and sometimes just lags whenever it feels like.

The article the OP posted has an update buried in the middle, pointing to a comment to the article in which an app developer identifies the actual problem and offers a fix.

 

[cdf3]

The article the OP posted has an update buried in the middle, pointing to a comment to the article in which an app developer identifies the actual problem and offers a fix.

The fix is not something the majority of users can't figure out.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

The article the OP posted has an update buried in the middle, pointing to a comment to the article in which an app developer identifies the actual problem and offers a fix.

Soooo...based on this, can I assume if I bought my Nexus 7 *before* August of 2012 (My Google Play receipt is from July 14, 2012), that my device is not affected by this bug? I ask because I actually bought it as a gift for my sister and brother in-law, and just curious if I check it out the next time I visit them (they're probably not tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot on their own)?

Of course, I'm sure I'll check it anyway...

 

[Unicorn Rancher]

I love this quote from one of the comments.

" Recover from this involves button holding / restarting voodoo"

I see him standing there, with his Nexus 7
flailing his arms & hands,
tears running down his cheeks,
I can't do it,
I can't do it,
its a button, a button
For God's sake I'm only human, it's a buttooon.

How does he get to work each day.
What kind of work can he be expected to do?

The kind of work robots are too smart to do.

 

[jerrykur]

Wow things must be bad at Apple to stoop to using proxies to spread fud

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

[steve1time]

I've had mine since the first week it was released, I've used it heavily every day, I mean heavy too. Hope I've not just jinxed it, lol. I use this nexus more than my laptop, I was away from it yesterday and I missed it sooo much, needless to say, today I got it back and I'm complete again.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[retsaw]

Soooo...based on this, can I assume if I bought my Nexus 7 *before* August of 2012 (My Google Play receipt is from July 14, 2012), that my device is not affected by this bug? I ask because I actually bought it as a gift for my sister and brother in-law, and just curious if I check it out the next time I visit them (they're probably not tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot on their own)?

Of course, I'm sure I'll check it anyway...

No, I think he has got at least the start date wrong. I ordered mine a day or two after it was announced and mine was affected by this bug, not all sold during that time were affected though. Though after installing the update, and using Forever Gone to fill the free space and auto-delete the files used to fill it, there isn't a whole lot of lag, there is some occasional lag, but not all the time and not enough to be particularly bothersome.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[jpash549]

Going to the reference got the following advice.

1.) Verify the issue
Download AndroBench and run it, if your "Random Write Speed" is below 0,20mb/s, you're probably affected.

So I did and got a number 69.16 IOPS(4K). Multiplying 4000 times 69.16 I get about 277000 which I compare as 0.277 Mbs to his 0.2. So maybe my device is not affected. But it is still pretty slow. It is an ME 370T bought last August. Anybody else got numbers?

from a BB Playbook or HP Touchpad or N7

 

[repligation]

My Random Write Speed has stayed at 0.35 MB/s (around 91.88 IOPS(4K)) over the last three days. The SN for my device begins with C9 which I believe indicates it was manufactured in September of 2012. I have not experienced any performance issues.

 

[cookdav]

For those of you suspecting that there is permanently something wrong with the behavior
of your system, or that it's hardware seems 'broken', I have 2 suggestions:

[1] Read this article: Nexus 7 problems: What users complain about most | Digital Trends

[2] Try this (it may seem 'scary', but I've needed to do it and done it successfully a couple of times now):
You can return your Android device to the original state it was in, the day you first got it. You'll then
have to re-acquire your apps. But all your app-ownership info, etc, etc, is cached in
the cloud under your Google 'account' identity, and everything should sync back to
the desirable state.

[I'm forgetting the exact way you do this...someone here will chime in. Or just
Google 'reset Nexus/Android to factory conditions')

 

[lmvine]

Going to the reference got the following advice.

Anybody else got numbers?

Mine was .51 Mbs 132.42 IOPS (4K).

 

[Max1001001]

I noticed that my Nexus 7 seemed to be running slower so I checked that gosh darn ?Google Currents? & sure enough it had re-enabled the background sync thing (maybe about the time of the latest Play Store update?). I disabled that & now it seems to be back to normal.

 

[DirkBelig]

If there is anything less helpful to people experiencing problems than the juvenile, snotty, "My [whatever] is fine. lulz," response, it's not coming to mind at the moment. People aren't making their complaints up. Do you jokers go to medical forums and burp, "I feel fine. You can't be sick," too?

Last weekend I was about to hurl my N7 (received 7/2012) off the 14th floor balcony of my hotel as it would refuse to respond to touches, apps would freeze, and it generally ran like a pig. It's been VERY slow to charge (more in a moment) and generally sucking AND blowing. This was a tablet that people used to oooh and ahhh at for it's slick greased grease performance. It ran fine with 4.1.2, but 4.2.x has always been problematic; currently on 4.2.2. with faux123's mainline kernel, loaded in hopes of fixing problems to little effect. Right before 4.2.2 was released, I was so sick of the lag in 4.2.1 that I reverted to 4.1.2. and while I missed the later version's features, it was slick as the day I bought it.

Doing some research I discovered that when it gets to less than 3GB free space, it can bog down. So I deleted the Game Informer app and it's porky 400+MB issues, Next Issue (which sucks on Android compared to iOS), and weeded out the ancient back issues Play Magazine was hording. Then I ran LagFix Free to ensure TRIM was set and Forever Gone (SD Card Cleaner) to overwrite and clear every free block. (The last took easily an hour to fill ~7GB space.) After these actions, it's not a total disaster, but it's still exhibiting stuttering on the home screens and in browser scrolling. I've cleared the Cache and Dalvik in recovery as well. I've run AndroBench and it appears to be fast enough.

More problematic is the tendency (I think) of Bejewled Blitz to cause an AudioOut_2 wakelock which will drink the battery down if you don't go and manually force close it (I have an End All Processes widget from System Panel I run after a session) and today a awoke to find my N7 dead when it was fully charged last night and at 85% when I turned in. It has been charging for six hours now and is at 62% charge, so that bug appears to be in play as well. (The same chargers will fuel my Nexus 4 from empty in 3 hours.) This is my go everywhere tablet, but it's getting to be a drag and inconvenient.

I'm monitoring battery drains with GSam and can't spot any obvious vampires. I don't have any auto-refreshing widgets like time/date/weather - just the analog clock. OTOH, I've got all sorts of crap on my N4 (running faux's kernel) and I get great battery life. Not sure what the N7's problem is, but there's a problem. I've also disabled Currents entirely; I use other RSS readers.

 

[Aquila]

If there is anything less helpful to people experiencing problems than the juvenile, snotty, "My [whatever] is fine. lulz," response, it's not coming to mind at the moment. People aren't making their complaints up. Do you jokers go to medical forums and burp, "I feel fine. You can't be sick," too?

I think the point of those comments is that it's not the Nexus 7 as a concept that has issues, it's individual devices. Trying to push down the misconception that they're all junk because a few people have issues with theirs is probably useful, even if not articulated perfectly.

 

[ohmslaw]

DirkBelig, I certainly believe you and others are having problems. I'm one of the "no problems here" posters. It was a knee jerk reaction to the article where someone named Dustin Early said he could not find one person who was not having problems with Nexus 7. What kind of a stupid statement is that? How hard did he look? Anyway that's what caused the reply.
I certainly hope you find a solution to your problems and that the experts on the forum can be of assistance. Good luck.

 

[return_0]

If there is anything less helpful to people experiencing problems than the juvenile, snotty, "My [whatever] is fine. lulz," response, it's not coming to mind at the moment. People aren't making their complaints up.

Well, considering it was from an Apple website, there was good reason to think it was made up.

Sent from my pure Google Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[di3cbl]

Well, considering it was from an Apple website, there was good reason to think it was made up.

Sent from my pure Google Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

The article was first posted by androidandme http://androidandme.com/2013/06/opi...from-the-best-to-worst-tablet-ive-ever-owned/

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[repligation]

The article was first posted by androidandme One year later, the Nexus 7 has gone from the best to worst tablet I’ve ever owned | Android and Me

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

To me this thread and the original article illustrate a general fundamental difference between iPhone and Android users: User Experience.

Apple's goal is to produce a user experience that is easy and non-technical or uncomplicated. Anything less and the customer takes it back to the Apple store (Much like our expectations for cars now). The trade off is that you get a reliable yet limited and vanilla experience.

Originally, Android was better suited to people who don't mind looking into things a little deeper on their own when there is a problem with the trade off that you get a more flexible user experience with more possibilities.

My opinion is that Android has mostly caught up to Apple in reliability while maintaining its variation in user experience. Issues like this one just underline how far Android has come.

 

[shady28]

This is the thing that turns me off to most current 7" android tablets. They are decidedly low end. No matter how you slice it the Nexus 7 is a $200 tablet, that savings came from somewhere vs say an iPad Mini. Most likely it came through lower quality control and slightly cheaper components (like, cheaper flash). The Nexus 7 is also almost a year old now.

What I have really been wanting is a truly high-end 7" tablet with modern components and performance.

Something with a Nook HD 1440x900 7" screen (or better), a Tegra 4 or a Snapdragon 600/800, 2GB of RAM, with a micro SD slot and premium build for ~ $299 base price would be right.

Instead, for the past year we've been getting more sub $200 7" tablets that are mostly inferior to the now 1 year old Nexus 7. Witness HP's recent entry, and the Asus MeMo. The only ones investing in this segment seem to be Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

They are all going to get squashed if they wait until the iPad Mini goes retina with an A6.