Develop Bugs

Background-ed app eating CPU resources!

Hi,
We all knew that we should not use task killer to kill apps, because when we hit the back button, the app will not active anymore ... but it will still occupy some memory (RAM).
When Android OS needs more RAM it will remove in-active apps to free some.
Related article: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (GOOD READ)
We should not panic when we see a huge list of apps when we start task killer.
Ok, got it there ...
Now, I installed this app called Quick System Info (FREE):
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/org.uguess.android.sysinfo/
Which you can use to see what kind of processes are still running or apps that are still occupying RAM. It could show you the amount of RAM and CPU resources that are being used by each app.
So, I went to the Quick System Info -> Processes, hit the "menu" button -> Preferences and set like this:
- Update Speed = Low
- Show Memory Usage [checked]
- Show CPU Usage [checked]
- Sort by = CPU Usage
- Direction = Descending
Go back and watch ...
Surprisingly, I saw "Market" app is eating 1% CPU resources once in a while ... again and again ...
Hey, I thought it (Market app) is suspended in the background? I don't have it active, I pressed the back button when I finished with it.
Why is it eating 1% CPU from now an then in the background?
Obviously, this will drain battery power for something that I don't need.
Any thought?
I am now wondering if I install other kind of process monitoring app, and see if the suspended Quick System Info is also eating CPU resources

Why should we not use task killers? I`ve used them on android for the last year otherwise like you say background tasks use resources slowing up the system.
Obviously dont close any system important apps but I`m always closing down background apps that I no longer require.

1% every now and again? I really wouldn't worry about that to be perfectly honest. The impact on battery life will be incredibly small, so much so I doubt you'd even notice if you weren't watching it like a hawk.
By far the biggest drain on battery life remains all of the wireless stuff (wifi, bluetooth and 3G internet) followed closely by the screen itself. Turn those off when not in use and the miniscule drain of suspended tasks won't be an issue.
I'm sure if Google thought suspended tasks would be an important factor in battery drain they would've designed it differently to start with.

Read this article
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
paulruk said:
Why should we not use task killers? I`ve used them on android for the last year otherwise like you say background tasks use resources slowing up the system.
Obviously dont close any system important apps but I`m always closing down background apps that I no longer require.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It does every minute or so, and so far I found only this app (Market).
I just found out this morning before went to work, so I don't have time to inspect more.
Too bad I cannot see CPU TIME (the amount of time the process took 100% of cpu resources).
Noiz said:
1% every now and again? I really wouldn't worry about that to be perfectly honest. The impact on battery life will be incredibly small, so much so I doubt you'd even notice if you weren't watching it like a hawk.
By far the biggest drain on battery life remains all of the wireless stuff (wifi, bluetooth and 3G internet) followed closely by the screen itself. Turn those off when not in use and the miniscule drain of suspended tasks won't be an issue.
I'm sure if Google thought suspended tasks would be an important factor in battery drain they would've designed it differently to start with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

that 1% would be it occasionally checking in with the market to see if any updates have been released for the programs you have installed, so that it can give you a notification when the update is released.
i would imagine that is what it is anyway.
and yes, 1% every so often is negligible, and if you killed just that process, i doubt you would notice any difference.

gogol said:
Surprisingly, I saw "Market" app is eating 1% CPU resources once in a while ... again and again ...
Hey, I thought it (Market app) is suspended in the background? I don't have it active, I pressed the back button when I finished with it.
Why is it eating 1% CPU from now an then in the background?
Obviously, this will drain battery power for something that I don't need.
Any thought?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure about this..
Have you noticed that you will get a notification if there is an update to application that is installed in your phone?
I think the marketplace doesn't have a push notification yet. So it periodically will check whether there is any update to the installed application.

Allright, that might be it ... the Market is checking for apps aupdate.
And most probably 1% is not much (I don't know how to measure this and translate it to battery life time). 1% every minute ... hmmm
1 hour of 1% cpu per minute = X % of battery life.
If we have N processes?
N = email check, weather check, friendstream check, RSS check, whatnot check

I`ll give you an example why I use a task killer.
Sometimes I use an app that goes online every few minutes and notifies me of any updates. I can 100% be certain this app even when in the background uses enough cpu to cause the phone to slowdown. Dont ask me why, maybe bad programming but this is the exact reason why I need a task killer to get rid of it.
Once its gone the phone is fine again. it happends on a few apps I own, so when I finish with them, I kill them.
I wouldnt recommend a task killer that kills everything, you just need to be selective.

That is a perfect example for using task killer
What I wrote in the first post is about using task killer to just kill apps without knowing anything.
In the past, I just select all and KILL ... Then the HTC Sense got reloaded
I was scared it could corrupt my phone ... lol.
paulruk said:
I`ll give you an example why I use a task killer.
Sometimes I use an app that goes online every few minutes and notifies me of any updates. I can 100% be certain this app even when in the background uses enough cpu to cause the phone to slowdown. Dont ask me why, maybe bad programming but this is the exact reason why I need a task killer to get rid of it.
Once its gone the phone is fine again. it happends on a few apps I own, so when I finish with them, I kill them.
I wouldnt recommend a task killer that kills everything, you just need to be selective.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yes thats a bit extreme killing everything.
I`ve also used startup auditor in the past. That stops some apps loading at startup , for example footprints, never use it so I kill it before it gets a chance to load up. Have to be careful what you limit though as some tasks are used by others.

That Startup Auditor is interesting, does it work as expected?
Or you encountered some quirks or issues with it?
Yeah, I don't quite like with the way Android startup (or HTC?), for example: FM radio ... it also started automatically after reboot.
paulruk said:
Yes thats a bit extreme killing everything.
I`ve also used startup auditor in the past. That stops some apps loading at startup , for example footprints, never use it so I kill it before it gets a chance to load up. Have to be careful what you limit though as some tasks are used by others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

gogol said:
That Startup Auditor is interesting, does it work as expected?
Or you encountered some quirks or issues with it?
Yeah, I don't quite like with the way Android startup (or HTC?), for example: FM radio ... it also started automatically after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to work fine, not sure what help it is though hehe, in terms of speed/memory savings. I stop the radio , bluetooth,google talk and footprints. But I also use it to start some apps automatically.
I found this list of what you can/can`t disable. You can still run them after startup, just they wont load automatically when you start the phone.
safe
Google Partner Setup
Network Location (if not using apps which need geolocation regularly. ie. Gmaps, GeoTag, etc.)
Bluetooth Share (if not using BT device)
Email (if not using email service other than Gmail)
Messaging (if using 3rd party sms app, ie. Handcent SMS. or if infrequent texter)
Calendar (if calendar is not used regularly)
Calendar Storage (if calendar is not used regularly)
Voice Dialer (if not used)
Google Talk Service (if GTalk is not used regularly)
Maps (if GMaps is not used regularly)
unsafe
Clock
Media Storage
Android System
Gmail Storage
Sync Feeds
Dialer
System Updater (not sure about this one)
My Uploads (not sure about this one)
Download Manager (not sure about this one)

[SOLVED] Battery Life 100%-0 in 5 hours even with 3500mAh PLEASE HELP!

ONE APP - DROIDWALL
Don't know which rooted app caused it but the 0 in network usage went down to 25% and my phone is dying a lottt slower
FIRST I KNOW IT SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF INFO BUT ITS JUST SO SOMEONE CAN POINT OUT ANYTHING WEIRD OR UNUSUAL
It's too much that I have to worry about my extended battery dying within 5 hours everyday
I'm on SRF 1.2 was on genocide 2.0 now I'm trying the new twilight kernal
when I check the battery usage it saids running 96%
I already know how to manage the GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth or whatever so it can't be those common issues
I even bought Juice Defender Ultimate and still have this issue! Flash and Re-Flashed so many roms and still the same battery issue
What can it be? only thing I really do is use PlayerPro at times, GoogleVoice, Just started using Facebook Messenger, and the basic function like SMS
When I check which apps are running here the list
Advance Task Killer Pro
Superuser Elite
Touchpal 5
Gmail
Market
Titanium Backup
Palmary Weather Pro (Update every 8 Hours)
Fast Reboot Pro
Multi Mount SD-Card
SystemPanel
Audio Manager Pro
Voodoo Control Plus
Auto Memory Manager
SmartApp Protector (Only App I Think Can Cause Battery Drain But IDK)
When checking SystemPanel
CPU is less then 15% on idle and 55-75 when interact
Battery History Total In All Time (From Top To Bottom)
CPU Usage - Android System, DSPPack, Dolphin, GVoice, Sensor,android process media, mediaserver, messanger (I BARELY see the color lines for any of them)
****Network Usage - 1013 (Half Blue Half Red?) What Is That? , 1002 40% Blue, 0 5% blue, android system 3% blue, Dialer, Voice, Dolphin, Facebook Less than 2% blue. PS Since Boot the 0 is on 100% Blue ?
GPS - None
Sensor Android System 75% Blue
Partial Wake Up - Player Pro 15% Blue, GV, 5%
***Other Usage - Running 72.6% Red, Screen on 51.4%, Phone 11%, Wifi On 46.2 Wifi Running 46.1% Bluetooth 4.1%.. Since Unplugged Screen On & Running Is Over 95% Wifi and everything else is 0%

I'd uninstall the task killer and the memory manager.

Something is running your sensor almost all the time. This was a bug in Gallery. Freeze Gallery and a few of those running apps, dump the task killer or freeze it for now (Memory Booster Lite is better). If none of that works then Odin back to stock and start fresh add a few apps at a time until you find the culprit.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

In addition to what was mentioned before, make sure you LOG OUT of Facebook, Lattitude and Amazon MP3. In Lattidude, make sure to select "Do not detect Location" and SIGN OUT. Just exiting those programs don't get you completely out of them. Use Spare Parts to see if your phone is sleeping a few minutes after unplugging from the charger. Usually if the stay awake time is significantly larger than the screen on time, you need to power off the phone and repower back on.

Thanks i'll odin my phone one more time.. and purchase Memory Booster Instead.. Task Killer I use just incase an app wants to "act up" like google voice sometimes so I can "force close" it quicker.
Facebook Don't Have Only Messenger. I'll report back to see what was the cause of the drain

Google voice is a killer for me.
sent from my miui-ified epic

lilhgarcia1 said:
Thanks i'll odin my phone one more time.. and purchase Memory Booster Instead.. Task Killer I use just incase an app wants to "act up" like google voice sometimes so I can "force close" it quicker.
Facebook Don't Have Only Messenger. I'll report back to see what was the cause of the drain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The epic has that built in, hold home.
The problem with task killers and memory mangers, is you can create more problems that you solve.
Basically
Task/Memory Program: Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
and so on..
Let android manage its own memory, or just rely on some settings the dev here tweak for you. You might be creating similar conflicts with the memory settings themselves.

vita10gy said:
The epic has that built in, hold home.
The problem with task killers and memory mangers, is you can create more problems that you solve.
Basically
Task/Memory Program: Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
Task/Memory Program: Why is that running again? Don't need x!
Android: What happened to x? Better fire it up again.
and so on..
Let android manage its own memory, or just rely on some settings the dev here tweak for you. You might be creating similar conflicts with the memory settings themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It don't work like that. I have 5-10 apps that load themselves once into memory as soon as I boot my phone and I use the apps maybe once a month. These were killing my memory and causing apps to do a lot of unnecessary memory swapping and battery killing. The stock task manager ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! It does not pick up half the stuff sucking down your memory. I use Memory Booster Lite (free) to kill all of these at start up. I understand what you are saying, if you keep killing say Maps, iot will keep loading itself and kill your battery. Solution: with the task killer find out what these apps are that keep loading and if they are not used regularly they should be frozen until needed with Bloat Freezer or paid version of Titanium. Task Killers can be an excellent tool if used correctly. I also found out a lot of apps like the stock browser do not release the memory they use. The stock browser can cache 80 MB of memory and not give it back.

kennyglass123 said:
It don't work like that. I have 5-10 apps that load themselves once into memory as soon as I boot my phone and I use the apps maybe once a month. These were killing my memory and causing apps to do a lot of unnecessary memory swapping and battery killing. The stock task manager ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! It does not pick up half the stuff sucking down your memory. I use Memory Booster Lite (free) to kill all of these at start up. I understand what you are saying, if you keep killing say Maps, iot will keep loading itself and kill your battery. Solution: with the task killer find out what these apps are that keep loading and if they are not used regularly they should be frozen until needed with Bloat Freezer or paid version of Titanium. Task Killers can be an excellent tool if used correctly. I also found out a lot of apps like the stock browser do not release the memory they use. The stock browser can cache 80 MB of memory and not give it back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock Task Manager is not what I use to close running programs, but I do use a stock "task killer." You probably already know this, but just in case, go to Menu/Settings/ Applications/Manage Applications and select the "Running" tab. Even though you could kill off an autostarting app such as "Maps" in ATK, you will still find a remnant of it running here. Usually Force Closing it from the "running" tab, stops it from autostarting so frequently. I have found other apps "running" under this tab that weren't being reported in Advanced Task Killer as well. I never had any luck with Memory Booster or any auto task killing apps. The only thing that will definitely prevent apps from autostarting (assuming you don't delete them) is to freeze them with something like Titanium Pro (my favorite).
I do like the quick access of ATK, but I find I get a better control of those few apps with the stock task manager, so I don't use the ATK anymore. Oh, btw, I was thinking about using Dolphin Browser, because the stock one is a hog. What do you recommend on browsers?

I was using Miren for awhile but it won't download on EH17 ROMs for some reason. My Gf really likes skyfire.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

the task killer is gone I odin and re-flashed srf 1.2 with genocide kernal
I see my battery drop 1% every 3-5 minutes I left home at 7:20 am and its 10:39 am my battery is on 42% with only using playerpro
Google Voice is a killer but I used it before I never experience problems this much. Maybe, Just maybe its the honeycomb theme I'm going to do a reset. let my phone run with no apps see what happens and slowly add in the apps then apply the theme and scripts later.

Dungeon Defenders

Not only killed my battery while downloading the needed DLC.
On top of that, my phone was boiling to the touch! And, after all that hassle.....the game lags! Didn't expect bad performance at all
Alright, just to add...
For some ODD reason, the CPU usage on this phone spikes HARD It's usually bouncing around 40-70%, that would explain the stutter in some games. Now to figure out how to fix this problem...

bmxant said:
Not only killed my battery while downloading the needed DLC.
On top of that, my phone was boiling to the touch! And, after all that hassle.....the game lags! Didn't expect bad performance at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed that this phone stutters randomly when switching from app to app sometimes. I notice it happen when I am playing music via Poweramp, and then switch to maps, n when it loads the map, the song stutters hardly. I dont mean it skips a beat or something, it actually breaks the song and make it sound mechanical for a second before resuming the song properly.
Now I don't know if it's the phone itself, an app installed (maybe ram manager?) or just the lack of available Ram on the phone that is causing this, but it's sad and worrying to see a dual core 1.5Ghz cpu stutter under a light load switch. Anybody notice that the free Ram left on this phone is generally alarmingly low, around 130MB left out of 783MB? What is eating up so much Ram on this phone? When I was on the Atrix, I generally still have 300-400MB left free to be used (I dont recall whether it actually has the full 1000MB available or also 783MB though) and I never experience stuttering.
Is this resolution really tasking the CPU? or is it because it has to render these apps to fit properly in the 720P resolution?
p.s. Another game that lags: Jelly Defense, when you have a lot of enemies flowing down the path, it starts getting choppy.

As I mentioned, I'm pretty sure it's the CPU spikes doing it. I have around 400mb free of ram also. I know Dungeon Defenders lags on the Galaxy Nexus as well, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have as many problems. Then again, it was built on ICS
Grab Memory Booster Lite and you can monitor how much RAM is being used as well as the CPU % for each task

Is Dungeon Defenders working for everyone else? I can run it for about 30 seconds and then it just closes. No force close message or anything, it just freezes for a second or two and then disappears.

aquariuz23 said:
Anybody notice that the free Ram left on this phone is generally alarmingly low, around 130MB left out of 783MB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after a thorough freezing, go launcher shows me at ~580M free on a fresh reboot and usually running low 500M free mem at any time, running 510M free right this second. this is with RAM manager, which by my estimates accounts for 5% in that #

scott0 said:
after a thorough freezing, go launcher shows me at ~580M free on a fresh reboot and usually running low 500M free mem at any time, running 510M free right this second. this is with RAM manager, which by my estimates accounts for 5% in that #
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you experience any lags on Dungeon Defenders (if you have it)? Or do some of your games stutter like bmxant's?

RAM usage

I noticed there was a lot of dropped frame rates while playing PUBG. So i quit and shut down all the apps. Ran the optimiser and to my surprise I was not able to get more than 700mb. I ran the optimiser few times. But to no use.
Do you know why this happens? This happens quite often now. The max i get is 748Mb.
I have battery saver mode on at all times that reduces background processes. I also put loads of apps to sleep in the settings. I have Sync switched off. The biggest application i have is PUBG. I do not have any crazy mods or apps that might need certain permissions.
I have nova launcher and i have just added fluid nav with ADB settings.
I have the usual apps like WhatsApp Instagram Skype Twitter YouTube and NO Facebook or messenger.
This started only after the ADB mod. But I don't think it causes this.
I restarted my phone and got back upto 1.3GB but it goes down in few hours.
Any suggestions? I will provide more info if needed. I tried providing as much as possible
Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

RAM BOOST

Hi to everyone. I'm comming from OnePlus 5t and I don't have any experience with "Ram boost" that we have on Oneplus 7t (Settings/System)... Also I didn't find many explanations by searching (neither here on XDA nor at Google search).
So basically, how it work and is there any benefit except gaming, (and I don't use mobile for gaiming) in real life?
I can't recall is it On or Off by default?
And last but not least, how it's effect battery life?
Thank you.

From what I read, it works like windows superfetch.
When ram usage is not taxed, it will fill the free ram with apps it knows you use frequently. Presumably as with windows, it keeps them in an off state, but when you open the app, it doesn't need to load it in to ram from flash storage, so it can load much much quicker.
There won't be any battery drain.
When ram usage is needed by say a game, it'll kick these auto cached apps out.

I've been using the OP7T for close to a month. I've experienced lag while using various apps, and especially when switching between apps. Occasionally the system becomes temporarily unresponsive, and a handful of apps have crashed multiple times. My previous OP3 phone rarely lagged, even if I had tens of apps open. I've been using the RAM booster on the 7T, but today I spent some time removing and freezing apps that were consuming tens of MB of memory in the background.

personally I didn't had any glitch or lag... I didn't saw any different.
But I don't recall is it turned on or off by default.
Anyway thank you both for comments and making it more clear to.