Massive Dilemma...Looking for Helpful Input

[eygraber]

For the past 3 months my OG Droid has been slowly becoming more and more unuseable. I use Peter Alfonso's GPA for my ROM but it only prolonged its life by around a month. I am desperately waiting for the Bionic and have no other phone to use until its release. If I were to buy the Charge next week (the latest I can wait is August 4th ) would it be better to buy it from Verizon or Wirefly? From what I understand Wirefly has a 3 month return policy, but I always feel more secure buying from Verizon, even though they only have a 2 week return policy. Any input on what the best thing to do is? Also, has anyone ever successfully returned a phone to Verizon past the 2 week mark for a phone of equal value?

 

[rkeller62]

I guess my question is what you mean by unuseable. Is it suffereing some type of hardware problem or are you just tired of it?

 

[eygraber]

The main problem is responsiveness. Sometimes I feel as if its just an old CPU lagging, sometimes I feel as if the digitizer is broken or something with the screen, and sometimes I feel like its both of those (CPU and screen). I can't use the on screen keyboard because anything I type on its left side just presses the "a" and anything on the right presses "k". Everything opens slowly and processes even slower. I probably would be able to get better results if I would wipe and cache, but there's just one problem. I have 9 innings Baseball on my phone, and for some odd reason they don't offer a way of saving your info anywhere but in the phones internal memory. So until I figure out how to get it out of there or they update the app I don't want to lose all my data for the game. It seems stupid but I've invested too much time in that game to see it all go to waste

 

[Tyyyy]

So when you switch phones, aren't you just gonna lose it all anyways?

 

[stfoley23]

So when you switch phones, aren't you just gonna lose it all anyways?

Guess he didn't think of that part haha

 

[rkeller62]

So when you switch phones, aren't you just gonna lose it all anyways?

Excellent question.

If you did not do a full wipe before loading GPA that could be causing some of your issues. If you are running rzrecovery instead of sprecovery try wiping cache and dalvik cache and see if that helps at all. You won't lose your app data.

 

[eygraber]

Excellent question.

If you did not do a full wipe before loading GPA that could be causing some of your issues. If you are running rzrecovery instead of sprecovery try wiping cache and dalvik cache and see if that helps at all. You won't lose your app data.

I could try that. What I used to do was make a nandroid backup of my ROM, and that saved the app data. However, if I do that then I can't restore my game unless I restore the old backup. I guess I should value normal phone use over a stupid game anyways. I'm gonna do that and see if it helps. IF it doesn't then I'm still stuck

 

[eygraber]

Guess he didn't think of that part haha

lol I've definitely thought of that. I'm guessing that whenever they update the app to allow for external storage of data, I'll update the app on the OG Droid via wifi (that is possible without service on the phone, right?) and transfer the file or whatever it is they use to the new phone

 

[bworley50]

For the past 3 months my OG Droid has been slowly becoming more and more unuseable. I use Peter Alfonso's GPA for my ROM but it only prolonged its life by around a month. I am desperately waiting for the Bionic and have no other phone to use until its release. If I were to buy the Charge next week (the latest I can wait is August 4th ) would it be better to buy it from Verizon or Wirefly? From what I understand Wirefly has a 3 month return policy, but I always feel more secure buying from Verizon, even though they only have a 2 week return policy. Any input on what the best thing to do is? Also, has anyone ever successfully returned a phone to Verizon past the 2 week mark for a phone of equal value?

Buy a Droid 2 or something on EBAY

 

[eygraber]

Buy a Droid 2 or something on EBAY

I would but the cheapest working one is $80. Too expensive if I (hopefully) will get the Bionic sometime soon

 

[fatpomp]

I could try that. What I used to do was make a nandroid backup of my ROM, and that saved the app data. However, if I do that then I can't restore my game unless I restore the old backup. I guess I should value normal phone use over a stupid game anyways. I'm gonna do that and see if it helps. IF it doesn't then I'm still stuck

Why don't you use Titanium backup to back up your app data?

 

[eygraber]

Why don't you use Titanium backup to back up your app data?

So I made a backup and wiped data and cache maybe 30 times. Didn't help at all. So I restored my backup. I would use Titanium Backup but if I want to restore it on the Bionic wouldn't it need to be rooted?

 

[kca2000]

So I made a backup and wiped data and cache maybe 30 times. Didn't help at all. So I restored my backup. I would use Titanium Backup but if I want to restore it on the Bionic wouldn't it need to be rooted?

Yes, i believe Titanium backup requires root to use it. You wont have this option immediately when the Bionic comes out, but it will happen.

Have you tried anything else besides GPA? I tried it for a few weeks but found it a little sluggish compared to the other ROMs ive tried. Ive tried most of the OGD roms out there, I would look into Project elite or Liquid, Or go back to a froyo ROM instead of gingerbread.

Also are you running the stock kernel? Or the one that comes with GPA? Ive found that a 1 ghz kernel seems to work best when running ginger bread. If your still running stock, this could explain why it feels unresponsive.

As far as returning a phone after the 14 day period to verizon, you might get away with a day or 2 if you dont take no for an answer but i wouldnt count on more then that.

 

[drewfus0929]

As far as returning a phone after the 14 day period to verizon, you might get away with a day or 2 if you dont take no for an answer but i wouldnt count on more then that.

I had the Eris for 31 days, and then the Incredible came out. I went back in to see if they'd allow me to switch, but no luck. It took two weeks of calling customer service to find a sympathetic CSR/manager combo that were willing to over-ride it. I wouldn't count on being able to return it after the deadline.

 

[eygraber]

Yes, i believe Titanium backup requires root to use it. You wont have this option immediately when the Bionic comes out, but it will happen.

Have you tried anything else besides GPA? I tried it for a few weeks but found it a little sluggish compared to the other ROMs ive tried. Ive tried most of the OGD roms out there, I would look into Project elite or Liquid, Or go back to a froyo ROM instead of gingerbread.

Also are you running the stock kernel? Or the one that comes with GPA? Ive found that a 1 ghz kernel seems to work best when running ginger bread. If your still running stock, this could explain why it feels unresponsive.

As far as returning a phone after the 14 day period to verizon, you might get away with a day or 2 if you dont take no for an answer but i wouldnt count on more then that.

I have tried a few more such as BB, Project Elite, and cyanogenmod. However, I liked the vanillaness of GPA the best. I'm running V .03 of Pete's 1.1 ghz SV kernel that he made specifically for this build of GPA. I'm fairly convinced at this point that the issue is hardware (and with planned obsolescence this isn't that far-fetched...after all I did get the phone a whole 1.5 years ago).

I had the Eris for 31 days, and then the Incredible came out. I went back in to see if they'd allow me to switch, but no luck. It took two weeks of calling customer service to find a sympathetic CSR/manager combo that were willing to over-ride it. I wouldn't count on being able to return it after the deadline.

That's what I was afraid of

 

[kca2000]

I have tried a few more such as BB, Project Elite, and cyanogenmod. However, I liked the vanillaness of GPA the best. I'm running V .03 of Pete's 1.1 ghz SV kernel that he made specifically for this build of GPA. I'm fairly convinced at this point that the issue is hardware (and with planned obsolescence this isn't that far-fetched...after all I did get the phone a whole 1.5 years ago).



That's what I was afraid of

Just a shot in the dark but not all phones can handle a Super low voltage Kernel. Ive also found that as the hardware ages certain kernels become to much for the phones hardware.

Example. When i first started with kernels i was able to run SV kernels. Then my phone started acting up. So i moved to an LV kernel, and now a medium voltage is all i can run. Try switching to Chevys 1.0 medium voltage to see if this helps. It might buy you another month if anything. If that does not work it might be over for the phone.

Also, dont use Titanium backup if you dont NEED to. I found restoring apps with data causes more problems then it solves. Especially when switching to a different ROM. Just install fresh from the market.

Lastly, what recovery are you using? Clockwork? Rzr? Or something else?

 

[eygraber]

Just a shot in the dark but not all phones can handle a Super low voltage Kernel. Ive also found that as the hardware ages certain kernels become to much for the phones hardware.

Example. When i first started with kernels i was able to run SV kernels. Then my phone started acting up. So i moved to an LV kernel, and now a medium voltage is all i can run. Try switching to Chevys 1.0 medium voltage to see if this helps. It might buy you another month if anything. If that does not work it might be over for the phone.

Also, dont use Titanium backup if you dont NEED to. I found restoring apps with data causes more problems then it solves. Especially when switching to a different ROM. Just install fresh from the market.

Lastly, what recovery are you using? Clockwork? Rzr? Or something else?

I think with Pete's kernels SV is standard voltage (which I assume is the same as medium). I'm using Clockwork

 

[kca2000]

I think with Pete's kernels SV is standard voltage (which I assume is the same as medium). I'm using Clockwork

Still worth a shot maybe. Different devs has different meanings for the kernels. Wiping with clockwork never worked well for me. RZR does though. It has a "Wipe all" option which is really nice when doing a triple wipe. (I wipe 5x myself, 8x when switching from froyo to GB) Other then that pal im out of options.

For the record here is my current setup and it works amazing. Quick and STABLE. I also get about 20 hours out of the battery with Medium to heavy useage.

RZR Recovery
PE 6.5 Final
Chevy Med 1.0ghz
Custom Theme

Best of luck

 

[eygraber]

Still worth a shot maybe. Different devs has different meanings for the kernels. Wiping with clockwork never worked well for me. RZR does though. It has a "Wipe all" option which is really nice when doing a triple wipe. (I wipe 5x myself, 8x when switching from froyo to GB) Other then that pal im out of options.

For the record here is my current setup and it works amazing. Quick and STABLE. I also get about 20 hours out of the battery with Medium to heavy useage.

RZR Recovery
PE 6.5 Final
Chevy Med 1.0ghz
Custom Theme

Best of luck

I tried it with your setup and a few variations, some of which made it run slightly more fluidly, but at the cost of running hotter. And either way the responsiveness issue remained. It seems that I'm screwed

So now the question is is it worth it to get the Charge from Wirefly and hope that they get the Bionic sometime in the next 3 months, or should I wait as long as possible and then get it from Verizon?

 

[milkshed27]

I unfortunately understand your situation since I'm an on and off World of Warcraft addict. From what I've been told, if you go over the 14 days it can be overridden at a Managers discretion but it would take a very good reason and lots of persistence. Have you looked at getting a phone at Costco? I believe they have a 90 day return policy as well.

In the mean time, I'd try and rule out that the problems you're having aren't because of a bad install with your current ROM and kernel. What I would try and do is make a nandroid backup of your current set up. Make a Titanium backup of all your apps + data and more specifically 9 Innings Baseball. Pick a different ROM and kernel. I have had great results on Simply Stunning with a JDLFG lv kernel at 1.1ghz. In recovery wipe data/factory reset, then go into the partitions menu, format boot, then format system, under advanced menu wipe davlik cache. These wiping steps are very important and I've found that I get much better results when wiping this way.

With a fresh ROM skip the Goggle sign-in. Go to settings>privacy and uncheck automatic restore. Go into settings>applications check unknown sources. Then, install Titanium and restore app + data for 9 Innings Baseball ONLY. Then restore all other apps but just restore the app itself with NO data. Restoring apps with data can cause all sorts of problems and conflicts as kca2000 mentioned. Also, you can try a lower speed kernel or a higher voltage. I've used kernels before that have caused weird behaviors on my phone such as random reboots, music from my SD card skipping when ever the screen was on and my phone becoming extremely unresponsive and slow. Forgive me if you've tried all of this before, I don't mean to come off as condescending.