Develop Bugs

Could someone clarify "Partial Wake Usage"?..

Guys,
We all know about the "magical 4636 menu" which provides a lot of interesting information as well as battery usage history. Now, talking about Battery, there is a submenu which is called "partial wake usage". I have googled a lot (both on XDA and beyond) and still could not find any exact explanation on what _exactly_ that thing was
Everyone is writing smth like "well, if you see some app there, that means that it doesn't let your Desire to sleep... err... "completely".. but the phone is not "fully" awake either.. err.. yeah..."
So, if someone could clarify this, I would be very grateful. What interests me exactly is:
- if I see (for example) MortPlayer app on top of the "partial wake usage" list - does that mean that the app was ACTIVELY running in background even when the display was off?
- if yes, does that mean that my device consumed just as much power as if it was awake, "minus" the energy consumed by OLED screen?
- so, "partial wake" mode itself - how is that defined? Does "partial-wake" equal "fully-actively-running-device-but-the-screen-does-not-consume-power"?
- when listening to mp3 (with the screen off) - is that "partial wake"?
Thanks in advance.

erm.. anyone?...

Maybe this help!
Hi mate,
I'm no expert on Android or anything but will share what I thought partial wake option shows from my own experience.
I was using Seven to get my hotmail push to my Desire and I was getting very poor battery life from it.
when I checked via the battery history I had to select from the top drop down list "partial wake usage" and "since last unplug" from second drop list.
and it clearly showed 70% of my battery was getting used up by seven. so I uninstalled it right away.
after that now I'm getting almost 2 days worth of battery life while on the other hand before I was running out of battery before even 18 hours.
seven was a beta software and unapproved as well, so I guess it will cause the problem.
So basically the partial wake usage menu shows you what app you or the system running even when your display is off.
now the reason I think it shows other app on the list bcoz of Android's nature of always connected to net. like Android system, maps, facebook and stuff.
which keeps updating behind if you run them once after you unplugged and got out of them by pressing home button.
Also remember by the second menu gives you option to select either "since last unplugged" or "total since boot" or "total in all time" so obviously a lot off app going to show up on the list.
and yes playing mp3 with screen shut is consider partial wake usage as my cube player shows up on list.

PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK means that the CPU will continue running in sleep mode only the Screen and the Keyboard will powerd off
FROM ANDROID API-DOC:
*If you hold a partial wakelock, the CPU will continue to run, irrespective of any timers and even after the user presses the power button. In all other wakelocks, the CPU will run, but the user can still put the device to sleep using the power button.
wake-locks are needed for some apps who have timers or counters in backround etc. 'cause without the cpu the timer will not work

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/PowerManager.html
Not recommended to keep CPU running unless you really need it - kills power efficiency by stopping CPU sleep modes.
I have a notification widget on the task bar to access the Testing menu since the first week which allows all those stats and more. I found about a week back that the application WorldWideTime had 99% battery usage as partial wake since the last unplug with over 6hours devoted to it and the next highest being Android at 2s of use. I rarely used the app -> Uninstalled.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

Thank you for your replies!
I have noticed that after listening to mp3 using MortPlayer (the screen is off, device in pocket ) it appears on the partial_wake_usage list. So, this means that when I am listening to mp3 via MortPlayer, the CPU stil runs as if my Desire was fully awake.
Does anyone know how that is with the original music player?

I can't answer your specific question, but any music player running when the screen is off must be using an awake lock to keep the CPU running. Same as any browser/application which is downloading content. Without the CPU running, such tasks won't be possible. There is power saving with a partial lock, as other unused hardware is put to sleep.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

th3 said:
I can't answer your specific question, but any music player running when the screen is off must be using an awake lock to keep the CPU running. Same as any browser/application which is downloading content. Without the CPU running, such tasks won't be possible. There is power saving with a partial lock, as other unused hardware is put to sleep.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that clarifies a lot!

Partial wakelock with Palmary Weather
I am sad to report this but the awesome weather app J
(Palmary) is unfortunately taking up the largest majority of partial wakelock on my Desire Z. Looks like I need to uninstall it.

th3 said:
I have a notification widget on the task bar to access the Testing menu since the first week which allows all those stats and more. I found about a week back that the application WorldWideTime ........... -> Uninstalled.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, would you like to share please

gnocchi_ny said:
I am sad to report this but the awesome weather app J
(Palmary) is unfortunately taking up the largest majority of partial wakelock on my Desire Z. Looks like I need to uninstall it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Palmary, without the widget, as my primary weather app. I have it set to manual refresh and I have no problems at all. Unsurprisingly.

SousukeUK said:
Hi mate,
I'm no expert on Android or anything but will share what I thought partial wake option shows from my own experience.
I was using Seven to get my hotmail push to my Desire and I was getting very poor battery life from it.
when I checked via the battery history I had to select from the top drop down list "partial wake usage" and "since last unplug" from second drop list.
and it clearly showed 70% of my battery was getting used up by seven. so I uninstalled it right away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just uninstalled Seven...still in beta btw. I was using it to sync Hotmail since it syncs junk mail as well. Anyway, only found out about this wake lock stuff. Went into spare parts and saw that Seven was taking about 70% also. Charging now...hopefully this will solve my battery issues...tried everything else.

How to stop running unwanted background stuff.

Is there an app or something that actually tells me what is running I. The background? I'm currently using automatic task killer but I feel that it only kills somethings and not all.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

try system panel. or taskiller

Why do you want to kill the apps? Android will stop them for you if it needs the memory. Hitting the back button at the bottom of your phone should exit you out of the app you're currently in.
What do you have running in the background that's killing your phone so bad?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Autostarts is a good paid app. Prevents certain apps from ever starting automatically.
Sent from my FROYO'D EVO using xda app

Love autostart.. cheap and on cm6 with stock root I hit 1903 on quad. Also I removed alot of stuff. Almost barebones then installed my 28 apps. Still get average 1800s. +1 for autostart.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

atypical1 said:
Why do you want to kill the apps? Android will stop them for you if it needs the memory. Hitting the back button at the bottom of your phone should exit you out of the app you're currently in.
What do you have running in the background that's killing your phone so bad?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can back out to exit but doesn't shut down the app when you are done with it. Stays in the background. Developers need to start putting close or exit on apps to close and shut down the app instead of leaving it in background. There is 3 parts.. background..foreground.. and cached..
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

atypical1 said:
Why do you want to kill the apps? Android will stop them for you if it needs the memory. Hitting the back button at the bottom of your phone should exit you out of the app you're currently in.
What do you have running in the background that's killing your phone so bad?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The back button closing apps is a large myth for most apps. Some are coded that way but not all. As for the other post about AutoStarts, it is a great app for root users. Just be careful. However, 2.2 is great by itself about managing apps and resources on its own without a 3rd party task killer. I use AutoKiller to tweak Android's own task manager to kill off items sooner. Just because you see an app running does not mean it is using battery or hogging resources. Android is not a Windows device.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.

Well the reason I'm asking is because, I am rooted with 2.2 But I still get horrible battery consumption. I thought it might have been all the background apps still running or on standby. I used taskkiller myself but i really don't see a difference.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Good info on the back button. I always thought that worked for some applications. I don't see how force closing an application can be good for your phone though anymore than force closing a program is great for your computer. But I'm not totally familar with the OS on our phones.
But my understanding about the OS is that it will shut down apps on it's own in case it needs the memory right? And, to your points just having apps open won't necessarily drain the battery.
OP, how's your reception. It's also my understanding that having poor reception will drain your battery worse too. Are you running GPS, wireless, or services that use those resources?

Not at all, I don't even have Bluetooth on. And using system tools I can see that before killing any background apps the phone is using 63% memory when killing the apps its reduced to 42%
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

autostarts + system panel + juice defender
Take a little time to learn how they work, one you get them set up you'll be a happy camper.

nebenezer said:
autostarts + system panel + juice defender
Take a little time to learn how they work, one you get them set up you'll be a happy camper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for system panel. This will tell you not only what processes are running, but will also tell you how much battery and CPU they use (and have used over the past X hours). It's invaluable when trying to find the rogue process that's sapping up your battery.
Sent from my blah blah blah blah

I don't know why there should be any problem with killing an app or service through the app manager. I do it frequently. At first I did encounter unexpected results but these are less now as I become more familiar.
I wondered, though, is there a preferred order of stopping and clearing data/cache through the app manager (in 2.2)?
I didn't know there was background/forground/cache difference: in froyo, it appears to me that app manager shows all of those under "running"--is that correct? Also, you can look at services. If a service (calendar, talk, etc.) is running, for example, it could be an obvious thing to stop if you aren't using it. You will see if you log out of the service first, and then check the service list, that it might remain running.
I think when you re-start the device very little starts with it. You can use that as a baseline.
Playing games online realtime is probably the biggest power hog I've found. I sometimes cannot play for even 15 min.
Other days, the device holds juice for more than 24 hrs.
The signal strength seems to be the main variable in my experience. The phone signal strength makes a difference, so does 3G, and 4G even more. It's like there's a threshhold or a revolving time--sorry, I don't know the right term here--but the device goes round and round searching if it thinks some signal is out there or if you trigger an app that calls for it. OTOH, once the device really finds nothing at all it drops everything. It shuts down entirely and you get really great battery life

[Q] ET4G: Initial Quirks - any suggestions?

Hey everyone,
Wondering if anyone has some across (and found a solution for) the below quirks I've discovered with my otherwise amazing phone.
1. Audio volume lowering when headphone jack is inserted. This is frustrating while driving, as I use my phone's audio output via an AUX cable.
2. Voice Search: "Set Alarm" voice action does not work - try it, you'll get a blank screen. My best guess, something conflicting in Samsung's native Alarm app.
3. Battery issues. I'm coming from an Evo so I get very used to the color coded battery power indicator icon. Can anyone explain why my Android OS seems to be occupying anywhere between 40-70% of the phone's battery use? I have all background data services disabled, but am using Samsung's native mail app w/ Exchange Activesync (which I read may be a culprit).
My anecdote is today when I rebooted my phone at seemingly 40% battery life, upon restart it started giving me the angry popup of "low battery status". This was after about 3 hours of heavy use. Do I need to juice defender this puppy?
The native Gingerbread power manager makes it more difficult (for me) to accurately gauge battery life since it shows aggregated data per each charge disconnect, versus when the phone is from full charge to none. Any third party apps that can help me better assess A) Battery usage and B) true battery life?
Thanks!!
(PS. Sold my Evo today, need to update my sig...)

Bump
Sent from my Samsung Epic Touch 4G using the XDA mobile app.

i get the blank screen while trying to do voice command: set alarm. i thought it was due to unnamed rom. the only relevant google search returns this page.

better battery stats app will help you assess your usage better... you may want to look into kobridge's tweaks, or just undervolt/under clock... that'll help extend battery life a lot... I get about a day and a half out of mine with no tweaks or undervolting on mijjahzs goodness rom so I'm pretty content... as to the voice search issue I would suggest just flashing the svoice ported from the gs3 that's in our apps/themes forum or baked into a few roms these days... its not perfect but it will search Google, open apps, and set an alarm!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Cpu usage red

My cpu usage seems to be going up to red very frequently. Ive recently switched over to golauncher as my home screen and ive noticed cpu usage to have started to peak much more often. When its still green according usage timelines ( the app i monitor it with) the system and transitions run much smoother on all apps including the launcher itself. When it gets red however it tends to become very glitchy... pressing *#*#3646#*#* on the dial screen and then browsing through my cpu usage, i noticed that android system was all the way up in red , and amazingly htc sense which is supposed not to even load up now coz its not the default launcher comes in second :s any one have an idea what is happening? How do i fix it?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

[Q] Is ICS on HOX killing apps for no reason?

I have found that my One X often kills apps I have running when I press the power button and put it away for more than a few minutes. I know Android will try to reclaim resources starting with background apps but this is killing the app I am currently looking at.
I have almost nothing else running and my system normally has 200-300 mb of available memory so it is a very unexpected behaviour. A typical example is I have something like firefox displaying a page. I read a bit then press off. I come back 10 minutes later and it needs to restart and reload the page. With previous phones the app would still be in the foreground the next time I turn it on and unless I navigate away it would stay that way.
I have a nexus s running ICS and that does not happen.
I have a desire running GB and is doesn't hapen.
I have a desire running Froyo and it does not happen.
Is there any way to force a less aggressive memory management on HOX?

There is an option for this, in settings > developer options, furthest down under apps section, first one; "Don't keep activities" check if it is enabled.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

.. also beneath it, there is a restriction "Background process limit", it may also cause immediate kills if "no background process" is set
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Thanks for the suggestions but those were set normally.
Tried using the built in browser instead of firefox and the problem was significantly reduced. It seems the system has a bias against non google apps. Even so - this HOX is behaving different in this respect to my other phones. It is my expectation as a user that if I am doing one thing, that thing should still be there the next time I look at my phone.
Something on the device may be leaking and the result is this need to stop stuff. My money is on sense ( mainly because of the observed ripple/flicker on the home screen ).

I've noticed same with my new one x it seems over eager killing all apps even sense launcher.
settings are correct but using chrome I don't dear open anything else for fear of it closing chrome and having to log back into everything, sometimes its as bad as just answering call or replying to a text message and its been killed
just as annoying it even kills launcher if I press home after using an app for more than a few minutes I get the please wait spinner while it has to load launcher
had ICS on desire HD and on zoom tab... this is not how it should work can't believe a phone with more memory and designed to run ICS is having to kill everything when DHD runs perfect
annoying little thing that is so far ruining what is otherwise an amazing phone

Seeing the same issue on my One S.

This happens with Dark Meadow. If the screen times out, or you hit the lock button, the game kind of "crashes". Not sure if this is the One X killing it or whether it's how the app is coded.
It's irritating anyway ><

Applications with a notification icon have not this behavior. Is there a possibility to set a higher priority to applications without root?

I'm having the same problem.
With cm9 @ Desire Z, I could, say, restore my 3000 sms within GoSMS (which takes a while) and meanwhile do whatever I wanted with the phone, eg. browsing, texting and so on.
With the H1X, after a certain time, the apps gets killed/suspended and therefore anything that happened within the app - which is pretty annoying. Any solution in sight?
H1X @ ARHD

I get this too. Annoying.

ViaraiX said:
I've noticed same with my new one x it seems over eager killing all apps even sense launcher.
settings are correct but using chrome I don't dear open anything else for fear of it closing chrome and having to log back into everything, sometimes its as bad as just answering call or replying to a text message and its been killed
just as annoying it even kills launcher if I press home after using an app for more than a few minutes I get the please wait spinner while it has to load launcher
had ICS on desire HD and on zoom tab... this is not how it should work can't believe a phone with more memory and designed to run ICS is having to kill everything when DHD runs perfect
annoying little thing that is so far ruining what is otherwise an amazing phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sense launcher closing is not cos of the over-aggressive app killing. It's cos the system needs more RAM, so closes Sense since it's not directly in use right now. I do notice that some apps are getting closed after a period of inactivity, probably a default ICS setting that we can tweak when kernels and ROMs get more mature releases

I'm suffering from this defect as well. It's frankly astonishing that this phone behaves in this way. Really makes you wonder if anyone actually uses the phones before releasing such junk. What use is such fantastic hardware if it performs so badly in real use conditions. Every time I press home, loading. Try to run some javascript Web pages then go send a text, then back to browser and all tabs have to refresh. Mine is going back if it doesn't get fixed pretty quickly as it's practically unusable in this state. Battery is unsatisfactory as well. 2 hours on battery, screen on for an hour, 57% left?! What are they thinking seriously

harryshepard said:
I'm suffering from this defect as well. It's frankly astonishing that this phone behaves in this way. Really makes you wonder if anyone actually uses the phones before releasing such junk. What use is such fantastic hardware if it performs so badly in real use conditions. Every time I press home, loading. Try to run some javascript Web pages then go send a text, then back to browser and all tabs have to refresh. Mine is going back if it doesn't get fixed pretty quickly as it's practically unusable in this state. Battery is unsatisfactory as well. 2 hours on battery, screen on for an hour, 57% left?! What are they thinking seriously
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your battery is that bad you have a bad app running rampant or your battery is faulty.
For everyone else, even in settings if "Don't keep activities" is unchecked, try checking it and unchecking it. I read that sometimes it is still set to "Don't keep activities" even if it is unchecked and checking and unchecking it could solve the problem if this is the case. Doesn't hurt to try.

Hopefully one of the devs will make a Rom/kernel with better oom adjustments... I'm hoping.

the multitask implementation on this phone is terrible. I was using runkeeper, stopped to check something in my settings during the ride, phone closed the runkeeper application deleting my ride. It is getting annoying ...