My Captivate Continues Lagging! HELP!

[Razieltov]

I have had the same problems with my Captivate. I was really trying to wait and see if Samsung/AT&T would release Froyo by the end of the year and see if that fixed all my problems, but it looks like that has been put on hold indefinitely. Unacceptable if you ask me.

So I guess I am going to be forced to try to root it and flash one of these ROMs. Cognition that zukie mentioned sounds good. Any other ideas? And just so I can get my terminology straight, a ROM is just another interface, right? It doesn't change the OS, it's still 2.1?

Just for kicks, I made a list of problems I have with my Captivate:


? Major lag and sometimes even locks up for minutes at a time.
? Multiple repeats of incoming text messages, sometimes up to 10 repeats.
? GPS radio comes on by itself intermittently, draining the battery.
? GPS does not work right, sometimes takes 10 minutes to lock onto signal for turn-by-turn direction, then loses signal easily and is not very accurate.
? Battery doesn't last over 10-15 hours even with light to moderate use. Even if I don't use phone at all, battery is dead in about 20-24 hours. A far cry from the up to 300 hours of standby and 5 hours 50 minutes of talk time you say it has.
? Can't connect to AT&T update server. It says "Communication failed." It was able to connect for a few times after I got it, but not since.
? Reboots by itself sometimes.
? When playing music with default player, it always sputters at beginning of songs.

10 to 15 hours? Thats pretty standard. I have never heard of a smartphone last longer than that. How long do you want your phone to last? Do you want it to build you an island and then transform into a jet to take you there? Do you want it to be indestructible? Do you want it to grant you three wishes even if one of those wishes is for an iphone 4? Get extra batteries. Get bigger batteries. 10 to 15 hours is great battery life. Charge the phone up at work.

Get real. This phones have Ghz processor built in. Do you know how fast that is for a device that fits into the palm of your hand. I remember when cellphones didn't even have color screens. Battery technology hasn't improved much since those days.

 

[brian1269]

10 to 15 hours? Thats pretty standard. I have never heard of a smartphone last longer than that. How long do you want your phone to last? Do you want it to build you an island and then transform into a jet to take you there? Do you want it to be indestructible? Do you want it to grant you three wishes even if one of those wishes is for an iphone 4? Get extra batteries. Get bigger batteries. 10 to 15 hours is great battery life. Charge the phone up at work.

Get real. This phones have Ghz processor built in. Do you know how fast that is for a device that fits into the palm of your hand. I remember when cellphones didn't even have color screens. Battery technology hasn't improved much since those days.

OK that's a little uncalled for.

How long do I expect a smartphone battery to last for? How about even 1/10 of the time they claim it should last. Samsung claims up to 300 hours standby, so how about 30 with light use? Does that sound unreasonable to anyone? And yeah, I have had smartphones that have lasted throughout the day easily, including Palms and my two previous iPhones (3G and 4), but no way I'm going back to any of them.

Hey Brian,

Hope that helps everyone. The Rom is all-encompassing. Cognition Rom runs 2.2 as the OS, but also changes the interface and gets rid of all that stupid crapware that no one really uses. If you're a fan of the Samsung widgets, keep in mind you'll be losing them with Cognition. Totally worth it.

As for the battery issues, I've experienced them often. Even with Cognition, I still feel the need to charge my Captivate every day. Also, I decided after posting that I would download a task-killer, as it frequently likes to open apps without my specifically asking for them.
If you want to improve the battery life, perhaps try disabling background data, and turn off notifications for things like gmail and twitter, etc. Facebook app is a big-time battery killer. I don't even keep it on my phone (P.S. I'm aware of the update, but I'm still not happy with it).
Go through your apps and lower the notification refresh/update time (every 12 hours for an RSS reader, for example, instead of every hour).

GPS issues are also fixed in the Cognition Rom, as far as I've been able to tell. It's still not as powerful or accurate as a Garmin or TomTom, but it also doesn't take 20 minutes to get a signal lock anymore. I can usually get it in about 20-30 seconds.

As for the music player, I noticed in 2.1 that the lag was pretty brutal when I loaded my internal SD card with more music. Maybe try moving your music to an external 16-gig (pricey!) SD card. I haven't tried it yet, but once I get some scratch together, that will be next.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the help, Zukie. You've convinced me, Cognition it will be. So Cognition runs Froyo, and not AT&T's bloated version, so does that mean I will be able to use tethering? And if I understand correctly, Cognition already has the lag fix in it so I won't have to worry about that? And if I already use AppBrain, that should backup all my apps, right? Thanks again.

 

[loraque]

Thanks for the help, Zukie. You've convinced me, Cognition it will be. So Cognition runs Froyo, and not AT&T's bloated version, so does that mean I will be able to use tethering? And if I understand correctly, Cognition already has the lag fix in it so I won't have to worry about that? And if I already use AppBrain, that should backup all my apps, right? Thanks again.

Tethering, including wifi AP, yes. Built-in lagfix yes. Appbrain sync... I have had poor results from. If you have paid for an app, the Market will remember. You will still have to go get it again though. Unpaid apps, you are out of luck.

Titanium backup is what you want for backup of apps, and it also comes with Cog, though only the free version. I strongly recommend this first time making the move to a custom rooted ROM, that you make a list of your apps so you can be certain to get them all back the way you like again. Once you are on a rooted ROM, get TitBu installed, and it can do the grunt work going forward.

EDIT- Restoring backups across OS changes is a no-no I recall. Likely you would be doing this manually even were you rooted with TitBu this time.
You get to be the grunt the first time.

 

[zukie8082]

Do you want it to build you an island and then transform into a jet to take you there? Do you want it to be indestructible? Do you want it to grant you three wishes even if one of those wishes is for an iphone 4?

I'm really glad someone else liked that video.

Brian, if you were wondering, the video came out around the same time as the Captivate. Watch it. Many jokes came from here.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg>

 

[zukie8082]

OK that's a little uncalled for.

Thanks for the help, Zukie. You've convinced me, Cognition it will be. So Cognition runs Froyo, and not AT&T's bloated version, so does that mean I will be able to use tethering? And if I understand correctly, Cognition already has the lag fix in it so I won't have to worry about that? And if I already use AppBrain, that should backup all my apps, right? Thanks again.

Brian, you should automatically be able to use USB tethering. I think you can find an app for wireless tethering after you get rooted. If you find that you don't like the Cognition Rom, you should check out the advice below from dmnall (aka Charlie?). That's probably another viable option, although I know for sure that the Cognition Rom is made specifically for the Captivate. Not sure about the Perception Rom.

Anyway, glad to see others are having success with the Cognition Rom.

 

[greasyspoon]

What about a noob solution

Ok, so what if I am a regular guy, who knows nothing about rooting or romming, or really wants to? What if I just want my GPS to work and my phone not to lag?

What's a noob to do?

 

[DroidXcon]

Ok, so what if I am a regular guy, who knows nothing about rooting or romming, or really wants to? What if I just want my GPS to work and my phone not to lag?

What's a noob to do?

Study,, look in my signature below, there is a link to some How To videos specifically for the captivate,, watch them all and ask questions.. After you watch these videos you should be able to feel comfortable trying some stuff out.

i would suggest you watch , how to root 2.1 and the how to rom videos, so you can see how it all works

 

[brian1269]

I'm really glad someone else liked that video.

Brian, if you were wondering, the video came out around the same time as the Captivate. Watch it. Many jokes came from here.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg>

LOL, OK I didn't catch those references but I do remember seeing that video before. And I remember after I saw it I felt pretty good being a former iPhone user that that went to Android. In fact, I had an iPhone 4 that I returned for several reasons, including the antenna flaw, before I got my Captivate.

 

[New Fire Within]

Loving Cognition!

Here's a link to the Cognition instructions/download:

How to: Flash Cognition on your Captivate ? ponack.net

If you're starting out stock, make sure you download the drivers so the Captivate can be recognized by your Windows 7 computer. Also, you'll want to follow the instructions carefully, but don't be fearful about making a mistake. I've made plenty and have YET to brick my phone.

I honestly didn't believe there was a great phone hidden in my Captivate, but there is and it rocks! Rooting it is the only way to find it! Man up and do it!

I finally took the plunge and flashed the latest Cognition! I'm loving it. It is so fast and snappy. I got all my apps and data back via Titanium Backup. It was a breeze with ROM Manager.

Thanks for the link and encouragement.

 

[DroidXcon]

I finally took the plunge and flashed the latest Cognition! I'm loving it. It is so fast and snappy. I got all my apps and data back via Titanium Backup. It was a breeze with ROM Manager.

Thanks for the link and encouragement.

hope you didnt do all apps and all data,,,i did that with my girls phone and after a couple hours it did a FC loop of hell.

 

[New Fire Within]

hope you didnt do all apps and all data,,,i did that with my girls phone and after a couple hours it did a FC loop of hell.

Ugh! That sucks. No, I did just the missing apps and data as per one of the videos in your signature.