[DISCUSSION] Android OS (Kernel) Battery and RAM usage - ZenFone 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey there!
I have a ZE551ML (2.3GHz/64GB/4GB). Like most of the Zenfone 2 users, I have had two major issues on this phone. The battery drainage and the RAM leakage, both caused by the dreaded Android OS.
Earlier we blamed it on the 5.0 Stock Lollipop firmware, hoping it will get fixed with Marshmallow. But now on the beta MM, I continue to have the same issues (I cleaned flashed).
But thanks to Marshmallow's new Memory manager, I saw that the kernel has taken up almost 1GB of the RAM. (For comparison, the OnePlus One MM drains around 200MB). And I'm sure, whatever causes this to happen is also the culprit behind the Android OS battery drainage.
Now maybe, we could blame it on the Intel CPU, since most apps are optimized for Snapdragon devices. But then, wouldn't it affect all the Zenfone 2s with Intel CPUs? Why is it that some have excellent kernel performance?
Since I'm not a developer, I couldn't dig more into the situation, but I hope some developer will see this and help us out. It's a wonderful phone except for the Kernel hogging up the battery and the RAM.
That's all folks!

I leave stock for CyanogenMod about 1 month (right before beta tester receive MM test) and I think kernel isn't a big problem. The problem is the UI. And it bloatware. I have to disable almost every bloatware (since I didn't root)
Android 5.0 itself having memory bug that using a lot of RAM for animation, turn off transition animation in developer setting to mitigate this problem, and it can be fix with an optimize. But I don't know why ASUS don't fix it.
And another RAM hogging is ZenUI Launcher. A lot of useless function that you don't really need, and it may use up to 300mb of RAM. And it may make kernel use more RAM. Try to use a different lightweight launcher for a while (1 day or maybe few day).
When you reboot your phone, ZenUI Launcher using 30-40mb of RAM, but the more you use, the more it hogging your RAM. You can really tell it by using for a while and after running some casual apps like Facebook or Messenger, ZenUI launcher will have to reload everything, and gaming, it usually have to reload the game when I have to listen/make a phone call or reply a message.
Sometimes you receive some warning/suggestion like: "Something leaked? Protect your privacy now!", and this is the most useless and tricky function when it suggest you to install CM Security or something Security which is actually quite useless and it may/will steal something from your phone.
I'm using CyanogenMod, and it kernel source provided by ASUS. And developers make it great. There are some bugs, but acceptable and usable. When I go to CM, I could play games and use Facebook or do something elsse at the same time which I couldn't do at stock.
ASUS could make their phone better, but no, they have to sell something, and it's the next generation. The Zenfone 3. They have to make people thinking: "My phone is slow, I have to buy a new one, and yeah, I like this ZenUI, and Zenfone 3 is here, price also pretty good, I will get that Zenfone 3".

Related

Memory consumption with lollipop

My lollipop experience is this: battery life seems OK but less than I was getting with the elementalx kernel, the sound stutters especially when the screen is locked. Its pretty random but the buffer is underrunning at times. Which leads me to what's bugging me the most. With KitKat and the same apps installed I was getting roughly 800mb-1gb free of memory. With lollipop it starts out OK at boot but quickly starts eating up ram like candy. I've had Pandora force close in the background which is probably why I'm getting sound stutters because something is using memory and force closing services in the background. I'm using apex launcher and that constantly has to reload to. Before it very rarely reloaded. Also various widgets are having their services killed and I have to go and manually restart them. I've gone from 1gb free typically to like 3-400 mb free. Does L really use that much more ram? Also what about the damned "focus" on battery life they claimed? Its definitely worse here. Looks like this update was half baked if you ask me. I'm at least not getting horrible fps in games like some are claiming. And yeah the YouTube bug is really random and annoying. Anyone else have low memory issues??
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app
Same issue. But found the soultion
Facing the same issue. But what i came across is that maximum people who updated to lollipop via OTA are facing these.
Others who have side loaded it or flashed the new lollipop image are all fine. There are bugs in lollipop but atleast they are not facing the terrible issues like us. That battery life is insane , i cant use it as my daily driver with such pathetic battery life. But people who have updated it other than OTA are infact getting better battery than KitKat what Google claimed it to be.
Also the memory issue. Yes this is the main problem what we all OTA updaters are facing. This is called memory leak. I founded it over here. Few developers have explained it in detail - You should have a look.
They have suggested for a clean install of lollipop by complete flash or a factory reset. I have not done it yet. Too lazy to get the backup and all.
But have to try it as we are left with no other option. Check out this link for memory leak - tinyurl.com/pmjlol2
If you decide to install it yourself, use one of the current builds instead of the factory image. Google has pushed a few revisions out.

A discussion about RAM

Let me preface this by saying that this is in no way a device comparison thread.
Now that that's out of the way, I want to talk about the RAM. We have 4GB. I have noticed that if I have a web page open in the browser I can go back to it at any time without it having to reload. This is killer!. I have been wanting that for so long. My Nexus 6 can do that up to a point, but even it will start refreshing after a while. I have yet to see the Zenfone 2 do it once. The frustrating thing is, I have a GS6 also and it will do that after only a few apps are opened. It's one of the things I really hate about that phone and which makes it irritating to use.
Here's the thing: Both the GS6 and Asus are running earlier versions of Lollipop, before the memory issues were supposedly fixed. I'm pretty sure that Samsung just has some super aggressive memory management going on. But why doesn't the Zenfone 2 suffer from the memory leak? Why is it not having the same RAM issues that the Nexus 6 had on 5.0? I suppose Zen UI could have something to do with it, but none of the other OEMs have been able to fix the RAM issues with their overlays. Is it just the sheer amount of RAM that makes it less noticeable?
Sound off. Either way, I'm thrilled with the performance of this phone.
My zenfone 2 is getting delivered today. I'm VERY much looking forward to Android 5.1 on it. When my Nexus 5 went from 5 to 5.1, it was sooo much better. I'm expecting the zenfone 2, s6, etc, to see similar improvements.
nathan118 said:
My zenone 2 is getting delivered today. I'm VERY much looking forward to Android 5.1 on it. When my Nexus 5 went from 5 to 5.1, it was sooo much better. I'm expecting the zenfone 2, s6, etc, to see similar improvements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5.1 Made my Nexus 6 a totally different phone. But the Zenfone 2 is really solid right now. While I'm sure that 5.1 will only make it better (especially the "all cores at once" change), I have zero complaints about performance with this phone.
Combination of Clean Boost thing, as well as a massive amount of RAM.
When I'm idle, I hang around 1.3GB RAM used. I can leave a ton of stuff open in the background for immediate opening and I still only hit around 2.5GB RAM usage. I imagine playing huge games will eat up the rest. The management along with the amount is what makes it so smooth and easy to multitask.
Zenfone 2 will soon get a 5.1 upgrade with a 64 bit os which will make the device a god Eagerly waiting for the 5.1 upgrade. The only thing i wish for is to see some Aosp roms like cm, pa on this device.
Mrinal Roy said:
Zenfone 2 will soon get a 5.1 upgrade with a 64 bit os which will make the device a god Eagerly waiting for the 5.1 upgrade. The only thing i wish for is to see some Aosp roms like cm, pa on this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where has ASUS said 5.1 upgrade will bring 64bit OS?
Mrinal Roy said:
Zenfone 2 will soon get a 5.1 upgrade with a 64 bit os which will make the device a god Eagerly waiting for the 5.1 upgrade. The only thing i wish for is to see some Aosp roms like cm, pa on this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Razr-i has a CM (port) rom out.. Only thing I've done with it so far is pull a few apks (ex: calculator) and binaries (ex: htop) off of it
I can totally notice the ram leak, my ZF2 ram idles around about 2+gb out of the box. Because it has so much ram you will not notice it.. my nexus 6 with the ram leak patch idles at 1.3gb.. I can only imagine the beast of a fine this will really be.. But I cannot complain, my ZF2 was free thanks the North America launch event asus gave away the 64gb model.
It is possible they included a patch for the memory leak prior to release of their phone. Either that or it some how doesn't apply to the intel atom processor and how it may handle ram.
Strange... I'm on the 2 GB version, and I have constant problems with apps getting closed, presumably due to swapping. Sometimes it gets so bad that even opening Chrome will close out every other app. Normally, I can't seem to keep more than a couple apps open before they start getting swapped out - maybe Hangouts and my podcast app. Is anyone else seeing similar behavior, and/or have a workaround? The "boost" function doesn't seem to do much to help.
dustbuster said:
Strange... I'm on the 2 GB version, and I have constant problems with apps getting closed, presumably due to swapping. Sometimes it gets so bad that even opening Chrome will close out every other app. Normally, I can't seem to keep more than a couple apps open before they start getting swapped out - maybe Hangouts and my podcast app. Is anyone else seeing similar behavior, and/or have a workaround? The "boost" function doesn't seem to do much to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted? I got rid of all the bloatware, installed greenify, disabled a bunch of non essential apps from starting using auto-start, and I'm not having any issues at all. I have the 2 GB version as well.
Unlocked, Insecure boot, rooted, all the junk uninstalled.
1.0GB RAM usage after the phone being on for ~16 hours.
151MB Cached
2.6GB Free
See attachment
With messaging, books, and email open...stock. There is still a memory leak issue, the only thing is with the 4 gig version you have so much available most cannot tell a difference.
Kernel has KSM support, and init scripts reference a missing init.ksm.rc.
Per https://source.android.com/devices/tech/ram/low-ram.html, the normal settings are:
write /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/pages_to_scan 100
write /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/sleep_millisecs 500
write /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/run 1
Personally, I don't have any complaints about battery life on the zf2, so ymmv with drain from ksm.
Normally saves around 100-150MB, a few times upwards of 300MB. But regardless, this bandaid will not help if you're still barely afloat even after discounting cache.
Can either unpack boot.img and modify the ramdisk (now that bootloader can be unlocked) or use an app / init.d script.
Kernel Adiutor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grarak.kerneladiutor works well
dustbuster said:
Strange... I'm on the 2 GB version, and I have constant problems with apps getting closed, presumably due to swapping. Sometimes it gets so bad that even opening Chrome will close out every other app. Normally, I can't seem to keep more than a couple apps open before they start getting swapped out - maybe Hangouts and my podcast app. Is anyone else seeing similar behavior, and/or have a workaround? The "boost" function doesn't seem to do much to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I face the same problem.... Asus needs to fix it soon.....
After rooting and removing crapware, I see apps getting closed down after opening 2-3 other apps. Really annoying, and not something I'm accustomed to coming from the OnePlus One, Nexus 5, or even the Nexus 4.

Fake 4 GB of RAM or am I doing something wrong?

Hi everyone, I'm new here, and this is my first post.
Unnecessary Information:
I'm not actually new to this site, since I've got huge amounts of help in the past thanks to the guys here. I am creating this thread because I looked up on these forums and couldn't find a post about my concern.
You see, I'm a Zenfone 2 64GB/4GB 551ML owner and I'am pretty happy with it. The bloatware was not a big deal to me since it can be removed easily, and some ZenUI apps are quite nice though. Sometimes, I wish ZenUI was a little bit more alike to pure Lollipop in terms of UI and UX with those smooth and beautiful animations included, but anyway, that's not the point of this thread.
Actual post:
I am here to ask any of you, ZF 2 owers if you have experienced disappointment when it comes to performance of this cheap little monster. This phone is amazingly fast (for the price) and smooth (most of the time) but there's something that bugs me quite a bit: those so-called 4 GB of RAM seem to be non-existant. I mean, come on! Zenfone 2, you have 4 GB or RAM, behave like so!
When I finally let go my anxiousness of having about 2 GB or free RAM at max (I might yet flash CM 12.1 or something to remove some bloatware apps completely to ensure I get 2.5 3 GB of free RAM), I notice this guy does not keep apps on RAM cache, I have like 3 open apps and when I open a fourth one and get back to the first one BOOM!, the cachè clears itself and have to open it again. It is not actually a big deal since it takes about 2 seconds or less to open the app again from the Recents screen but COME ON!! You have 4 GB for usage!!
I watched a video on Youtube of a dude testing the ZF2 endurance and it kept open like 5 games, kinda heavy games like GTA San Andreas, Nova and some Zombie ones of which I forgot the names. I even noticed the RAM management was better on Performance Mode but even then, it doesn't keep many apps open, more than 6 apps open mean one of the apps must be opened again. :s
Question:
So, is this a common problem? Am I the only one? Is this not a problem?
Thank you in advance. Regards!
It's probably auto start manager cleaning up apps
Yes this is annoying, auto start manager closes apps that are not set to "auto start". To fix this you either set the apps you want to keep in the background to "auto start" or disable (freeze) the auto start manager.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk
Interesting...
Thank you for your replies.
I'm gonna test it today if it is the problem and post an update about it.

Ram usage of redmi note 8 pro miui12

Hello I have a redmi note 8 pro and recently updated to miui12..before on miui11 I had no issues like lagging and stuttering while using the mobile and also in background running apps out of 6gb 4gb used to be free but after updating to miui12 I have been facing issues like stucking while using apps and the most shocking and upsetting me is only 2gb is free out of 6gb and am unable to get where the other ram is being used..please help to find me where is my ram being used so that I can stop them from being. And yes even after I close all the background running apps it still shows only 2gb free out of 6gb.please help
with the stock launcher i'm experiencing the same problem. using a third party one (lawnchair in my case) the ram usage is the same as on miui 11.
olivrd said:
with the stock launcher i'm experiencing the same problem. using a third party one (lawnchair in my case) the ram usage is the same as on miui 11.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the only solution to tackle the issue is to use third party launcher or wait until xiomi releases another update? And also is dual apps working on the third party launcher? Coz back then when using Nova launcher dual apps didn't work for me.
akshay914 said:
So the only solution to tackle the issue is to use third party launcher or wait until xiomi releases another update? And also is dual apps working on the third party launcher? Coz back then when using Nova launcher dual apps didn't work for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't know if that's the only solution, i've never actually used the system launcher and the dual apps stuff, i've only tried it (the launcher) when the miui 12 came out to check the new options/animations and yes, it slows down the overall experience (at least in my case).
anyway, the os still has its bugs, but they'll eventually be sorted out in the future. in the meantime, you can always report bugs directly to xiaomi via their community app.
olivrd said:
don't know if that's the only solution, i've never actually used the system launcher and the dual apps stuff, i've only tried it (the launcher) when the miui 12 came out to check the new options/animations and yes, it slows down the overall experience (at least in my case).
anyway, the os still has its bugs, but they'll eventually be sorted out in the future. in the meantime, you can always report bugs directly to xiaomi via their community app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why but still my whole ram is being used without any apps opened in the
It`s supposedly better to keep frequently used apps in ram so it does not have to be loaded into memory every time you use it as that uses more cpu and take longer before you can accesses the app, unused ram is supposed to be wasted ram the android system will adjust itself if you want to run a game that requires a lot of ram anyway, That`s what i read anyway when i looked into how android handles it`s memory.
I use to clear the ram when i original bought the phone but i stopped doing it and it`s working fine, no problems though i am a lite user.
Anyway mine show 3gb of 6gb free.

[ROOTED] Android 11; how to install older version of google maps?

rooted/magisk samsung S21+ ...stock rom
stock version of google maps removed with titanium backup.
trying to install many different old versions (in the 9.x and 10.x range) just says 'app not installed' ...what the hell is going on here?
Android 11 scoped storage perhaps.
Try coping it off another device running on R with ApkExport then transfer it to the victim device.
11 just sucks elephant balls bad
scoped storage? sounds like got some searching to do.. i also have a rooted LG V30 that i could maybe grab stuff off of. thatd be my only other play to make though..
sraenn said:
scoped storage? sounds like got some searching to do.. i also have a rooted LG V30 that i could maybe grab stuff off of. thatd be my only other play to make though..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're stuck with scoped storage with/after Android 11. It's not fully active on Android 10, at least with older apps. My old copy of WPS office app runs fine on Q. I will continue to test my N10+/Q vs my N10+/PIE variant to see it's effects if any. So far it hasn't raised its ugly head on the Q variant, but I have played with it more then a few hours.
If you could use a rom version of Q or Pie that be best.
Workarounds for it on 11 exist to some extent but without apps coded well with special permissions it will make them useless. It's already causing issues with photo apps (even on Pixels), file explorer apps, any apps that needs access to large user databases.
Do a Google search for scoped storage sucks.
Let me know how Android 11 works for you, good or bad.
Typical battery life on my Pie variant are as follows with a 4300 mAh battery:
7-12%@hrSOT typically 8% for browser and 11% for web vids.
>.5%@hr with tap on AOD at night with cell/internet not disabled.
The Q variant seems to be better or similar but haven't ran it long enough to really know for sure. It's running cool though and not using excessive CPU cycles. Both are optimized almost the same including a package disabler. Q seems a bit snappier, but it's a fresh load vs a 1.5year old load with heavy use.
crap. that kinda sucks. honestly the battery life on my phone is doing well, granted i dont have much on it and the heaviest use it sees is watching youtube (vanced of course). maybe its time to look around for a good android 10 rom, eh..
sraenn said:
crap. that kinda sucks. honestly the battery life on my phone is doing well, granted i dont have much on it and the heaviest use it sees is watching youtube (vanced of course). maybe its time to look around for a good android 10 rom, eh..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can find a good Android 10 rom, flash it, not losing hardware functionality. That's a tall order. The cam and display firmware will likely be the most troublesome aspects as the stock rom was built on Android 11.
After you clean up the bloatware Samsung usually builds good stock roms. Problem is Google only gives so much leeway to vendors modifying whatever base Android version it's running on.
Android 11 is a mess, Samsung had limited options and couldn't clean it up completely without disabling major "improvements" that are core elements of that OS.
The base Android OS is off the rails, dragging down Samsung with it.

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