Related
Ok perhaps this might be a question that may not be hontestly answered but, in any case I'm going to replace my sony T610 and palm E2 with one single device. Either the HTC magician (128mb) or Wizard. : D
On the wizard I like the wifi, keyboard, edge, not sure about mobile 5. On the magician I like the smaller form factor, speed, standard sd card, price.
I read in mobile review.com that the performance is not so top with the TI processor turning at 200mhz instead of 416mhz of the magician.
http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review/htc-wizard-en.shtml
So whats your honest opinion, any regrets, are the benchmark tests correct, whats your real life experiences? or too early to tell........... :?
A good question to ask is, do you really need that top performance ? Do you want a device that has good battery life and does the job with good speed 99% of the time, or something that runs out of battery faster but can display one extra line of text 1/100 of a second faster ?
i had the qtek s110, and replaced it with the imate k-jam and could not be happier.
because of the type of processor the mhz is not as important as it may seem.
i use tomtom navigator 5 and it starts much more quickly than it did before, and i can be listening to mp3's and un-install programs without any dropout from the music.
may seem strange examples but they both should me things were better.
also the keyboard is great for me, as i am too lazy to take the pointer out of the unit to type with.
there are teathing problems but that is our fault for being so impatiant
ok, you have a point about that. but what about video playback with TCMP? in the review, the results were poor. It seems my Tungsten E2 has similar results and thats one of the main reasons that i'm changing it, poor video performance.
In the video index test it placed dead last, and almost last for the pocket quake test. Whats your take? Have you been able to get better results?
I've had my MDA Vario (k-jam) for around 12 hours, and i'm so far not impressed.
Video playback is poopants. (Through TCMP and WMP)
You have to perform some voodoo finger juggling to type
I can't get pocketLAN to browse any more than one folder deep on my PC. (this could be a WM5 related issue though, as my MDAc worked fine doing this)
I cant stream any files what so ever. (WMP says 'parameter incorrect' TCMP says 'file not found')
Lets hope i'm blessed with a little more patience tomorrow.
Hi Mogwai,
I had a QtekS100 and an S110 before my Qtek9100. What do I think ? Very nice tool. It's much better than all the other Qtek I had before. Small, great batterie life, keyboard (very cool for SMS or e-mails), all the possible connections (exept UMTS ). However, I have two complains, first, the processor speed, I would really prefer to have a faster processor (It's connected to my laptop almost all the day, so stand by is not a problem for me), Mobile Navigon is not working properly on it... it's a shame I liked my GPS. Then, my second complain is about memory. It would be better with more memory. I'm used to install plenty of 3rd party softwares and it seems that the memory is fast full......
Concerning the movies, I have some on a storage card... it's nice but don't expect to have DVD quality.
To be honest, if the Qtek 9000 has the same quality without these two "problems", I will go for it :lol:
Mav
Hi Mav,
Thanks for your input. Really dont know why HTC did not put the intel 416mhz processor in the wizard, even if it cpu speed was downgraded. If this is truly a replacement for the magician why leave out something as important as performance for battery life?
I saw the pics of the HTC prophet floating around and it claims to have the intel processor with all the features of the wizard less the keyboard and the magician form factor, THAT would be the phone to have, but not sure if its coming out any time soon, or if it really a new model!
As I am new to ppc's is the wifi surfing experience anything related to surfing on a pc?
mogwai
OK Further to my experience yesterday, i have this to add.
This device (MDA Vario) is so unstable, its unreal.
If i start to stream radio over the 'net through WiFi then do anything else, the audio skips. The loaded MSN, audio skips, stops. device hangs.
Battery Out.
The amount of times i've had to pop the battery in the space of 24 hours is insane.
I'm very very tempted to use my '7 day cooling off period' with T-Mobile, and send the phone back.
Mogwai said:
ok, you have a point about that. but what about video playback with TCMP? in the review, the results were poor. It seems my Tungsten E2 has similar results and thats one of the main reasons that i'm changing it, poor video performance.
In the video index test it placed dead last, and almost last for the pocket quake test. Whats your take? Have you been able to get better results?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not tried quake, and video playback is ok but not a main requirement for me so i'm not so bothered.
one thing i forgot to say between the two, is wifi is great for me and of course the s110 or other versions of it do not have wifi.
Whats not stable the OS? or perhaps there is not enough juice to keep the apps running at the same time. Hope its not an issue with this model. So far leaning towards the wizard, but there may be the S200 or prophet out soon, beginnnig 2006, which seems to have it all! except the keyboard.
Mogwai,
I'm not sure if it's me or not.
I've come from the MDA compact , so maybe i'm expecting too much, but it seems my Vario (k-jam) is very sluggish. I've installed all the apps i used to use on my MDAc.
SPB pocket plus / psshutdownXP / TCMP to name a few...
It's just not performing as well as i hoped.
If i'm on the internet (WiFi), flick out the keyboard do some browsing then flick back and load MSN... it seems to struggle.
I've tried to play videos in TCMP, playback was VERY poor, then the unit hung.
It then seems to get very sluggish and halts.
I can't put up with this every day.
I'm hoping someone will tell me some of the apps i'm using aren't optimised for WM5 and thats the problem.
gazzrenn said:
I've tried to play videos in TCMP, playback was VERY poor, then the unit hung. I'm hoping someone will tell me some of the apps i'm using aren't optimised for WM5 and thats the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also an MDA Vario owner and while not having all the apps installed that you have, I can confirm that TCMP playback is absolutely fine on my phone.
I don't have a lot of extras installed except for MS Voice Command, Total Commander, PHM Registry Editor and TCMP.
So I guess it's one of your 3rd party apps hogging the CPU. Also, did the soft reset button not work (instead of pulling the battery out in an earlier post).
Cheers,
Andy
Andy, were you playing the file from the phone storage or from an SD card? I was playing from the phone memory, having not bought a card yet.
As a side note, i've taken SPB pocket plus off there which helped a bit, it does seem less sluggish.... and if i'm honest Andy, i didn't know about the softreset button! :roll:
I'll test playback again.
gazzrenn said:
Andy, were you playing the file from the phone storage or from an SD card? I was playing from the phone memory, having not bought a card yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From an SD card (1GB Sandisk if that helps)
gazzrenn said:
As a side note, i've taken SPB pocket plus off there which helped a bit, it does seem less sluggish....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I haven't tried using that app then - I might have just thought the phone was crap
gazzrenn said:
and if i'm honest Andy, i didn't know about the softreset button! :roll:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:lol: :lol: :lol:
I do wonder if there's more to come from TCPMP yet, too: I don't know if the OMAP 850 2D graphics accelerator is supported natively, and if it isn't then it should be possible to push the graphics faster...
So far, I like the device with the caveat that activesync refuses to work with Symantec Security Agent. (Getting rid of that and using Windows Firewall poses no problems...)
I tried my "standard" pocket video test today, the matrix revolution trailer. Average speed in TCPMP 0.7 was 139.32%, 33.44 fps, 571kbit/s from a 24 fps 410kbps file.
Seems to work well
chiark,
Could you try and play that file again from the phone storage?
Video playback on my device (from internal storage) is just hopeless
That is from internal storage - I don't (yet) have a mini-sd card...
Just in case it's something to do with the file, here's the file I use:
http://www.pocketmatrix.com/multimedia/downloads/matrix-rev.ogm
As soon as I get a mini-sd card, I'll benchmark that too to see if it makes a difference.
Are you using TCPMP 0.70?
gazzrenn, I've downloaded this Matrix trailer and run it offf my 1GB miniSD card and it runs perfectly (and is actually quite a good demo of fast moving video on the phone - thanks for the link chiark).
Cheers,
Andy
Sorry, I just noticed you also posted benchmark results. I've done likewise from my miniSD card:
Average speed in TCPMP 0.66 was 142.09%, 34.10 fps, 582kbit/s from a 24 fps 410kbps file.
Hi all,
Pretty much got this thing working OK now. I do have a few 'issues' which maybe you could help with:
1. Speed is just about bearable except in one case: It takes 6 seconds (!!!) to switch between keyboard and transcriber when in notes (or any other program needing input). This makes it nearly unusable for me Any ideas what might be causing this?
2. I really miss the old WM2003 functionality in phone of clicking the left d-pad to access speed dial and the right d-pad to access histroy. Is there any way of restoring this funcionality?
3. This is probably a silly one but hte camera seems to default to landscape mode. I find this hard to use. Is it possible for it to come up in portrait?
Hope you can help.
Regards
Neil__C said:
Hi all,
Pretty much got this thing working OK now. I do have a few 'issues' which maybe you could help with:
1. Speed is just about bearable except in one case: It takes 6 seconds (!!!) to switch between keyboard and transcriber when in notes (or any other program needing input). This makes it nearly unusable for me Any ideas what might be causing this?
2. I really miss the old WM2003 functionality in phone of clicking the left d-pad to access speed dial and the right d-pad to access histroy. Is there any way of restoring this funcionality?
3. This is probably a silly one but hte camera seems to default to landscape mode. I find this hard to use. Is it possible for it to come up in portrait?
Hope you can help.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that switching between different text entry types is PAINFULLY slow. I thought it was a problem with mine, in fact I was thinking of doing a hard reset to try and fix the problem. I'll wait on that now.
Yes the camera is in landscape mode. It took me a few days to get used to it, now I don't even notice it.
its purely down to the slow cpu. if you clock the chip to 252mhz, its a lot quicker.
quite frankly, there is no excuse for HTC to use this cpu in the latest products. everything else about this device rocks! my first pocketpc was 200mhz like what? 5 - 6 years ago?
(im not trying to start a flame war)
Cant say i've noticed speed to be an issue, but then again, i'm used to using the xda exec. I've had my prophet for 5 1/2 hours now and i'm loving it - sooo much quicker than the exec.
I've not noticed the slowness changing between input types either, but i'm sure in time i will.
What rom are you running? mine is the i-mate jamin :
Rom : 1.0.9.25 WWE
Date : 09/01/06
Radio : 01.14.20
Protocol : 4.0.13.25
ext rom : 1.0.9.114
Only one issue i've noticed, the loudspeaker on the back is piss poor - it distorts even when i receive a text message
Cheers
Paul
Same software here exactly. This thing isn't massively slow, it just manages to lag enough on just about everything to be irritating to the point that I'm about to get shot of it
Regards
input methods
Switching between input methods is painfully slow for me as well. I also occassionally have the problem where an alternative input method (such as the phone pad, or the keyboard for CE Star) fails to appear at all, and instead I'm given the standard virtual keyboard.
Re: input methods
Zoltair Wright said:
Switching between input methods is painfully slow for me as well. I also occassionally have the problem where an alternative input method (such as the phone pad, or the keyboard for CE Star) fails to appear at all, and instead I'm given the standard virtual keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Overall I'm really happy with my Jamin. I came from using a Jam. The battery life is great compared to the Jam, especially while using WiFi. At this point the only thing that bothers me as far as speed goes is the text entry method change everything else is fine.....However, I have done all the reg hacks for speed improvement and installed the overclocker app which I only use with video or on some really heavy web pages,Skype etc. With this device it is really worth the time and effort to do the tweaks. The easy way is to get Tweaks2K2.net, it is a program that will do the reg tweaks for you.
everyone raves about the battery life. i get average 5-7 hours of usage which is around 2 hours more than my original jam. the sad truth though is that if you put the same 416mhz intel chip in the jamin as the jam, i bet that the battery life would mirror that of the jam. ie, the effectively half cpu speed is what gives us all the extra batt life.
i want to test my jam clocked at 200mhz for a week, would be interesting to see what happens. should i get another couple of hours, then... i will be very angry
This is probably a silly one but hte camera seems to default to landscape mode. I find this hard to use. Is it possible for it to come up in portrait?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks at digital camera on my desk... Now what would I do if I wanted to take a portrait shot with that? Turn it on its side perhaps? Sorry, but come on.
Used omapclock to get up to 264Mhz, runs much smoother now.
Major problem for me in the ear piece speaker volume Not even half as clear as my SDA.
MS Voice Command is the program causing the text input method box to be really slow. Does anyone know a work around?
I too find the phone app lacking. Coming from a Treo600, i found very usefull the 4 assignable d-pad shortcuts.
That is right:
MS Voice Command is the app that does the 6 seconds pause on switching text input methods. Also cleaning the registry with SK Tools had this effect on my wizard (the Wizard has the same problem). One thing worked for me:
I did a backup with Spb Backup, made a hardreset and restored the backup. Text input change speed was back to normal (<1 second). Try it, maybe it will help.
But a warning: Spb Backup isn't as reliable in restoring your messages as Sprite Backup is. So to go the safe way make a backup with Sprite Backup, too, so that you can restore the Spb Backup without text messages and can separately restore the messages only from the Sprite Backup.
Post here whether this has worked for you!
Greetings
I think I'm going to leave well enough alone for now. MS Voice can wait until the next ROM upgrade which i've read should be coming any week now :roll:
Hi. I've had my Cingular 8525 since mid December or so, but I haven't really done much as far as customizing it or adding apps. I added PocketPuTTY and ended with that. I just bought a 1GB micro SD card, so I'm more comfortable loading things up.
First, though.. I love the look of the default green HTC theme - I'd searched for this and how to load it before, but I didn't find it for the TyTN... I think I found it for the wizard. Does anyone have a copy of this that they can post? Also, I'll have no idea how to install this... any links that would help, or posted guides, would be great!
Second, I've had the 1GB SD card for a little over a week now; I bought a 1GB card instead of a 2GB card as I heard the Hermes doesn't work very well with a 2GB card - that it slows considerably. I've noticed since adding the 1GB card that my 8525 slows down to a point where I have to reset it; I never noticed this before. Any ideas? I haven't been running more programs, and I've only 56MB of storage used on it for mp3s/pictures.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
Sorry to bump, but this question should probably go here also:
I've read a tad about loading other ROMs, and it seems like the South African ROM on this board is pretty popular. I can find threads as far as how to install it, I think, but what benefits does it provide?
Thanks.
The theme should work on the Tytn as well as the Wizard. You can download a HTC green look alike theme from the MS Windows mobile web site.
The green theme may be on your device. When you select Start-Settings-today is there a Windows green theme there? My 8525 had them on there..
As for the SD card. Yes it is a hit or miss issue with them. You sort of need the darn thing for storage but they will cause the device to hiccup... When that happens I usually just pop out the card and pop it back in and it seems to like it better.
Just don't install apps to the card that run in the background and try to write or will force a write to the card on wake up. For me it weather radar, I used to store it on the card and that caused the thing to freeze up like crazy, moved it to main storage and its is better.
As for ROMs I would stick with the one you have now from Cingular. In order to get that ROM on your device you have to downgrade the bootloader to 1.04 then flash the ROM. If mess up the bootloader your phone is dead or bricked as folks here will call it. There is not way to recover. So there is an element of danger downgrading the bootloader. There has not been a good way posted yet to downgrade or to change a ROM with the 1.06 bootloader on the 8525. So I am waiting on that to happen before I take the plunge..
Remember to check the wiki for Hermes folks - link at top of page.
The Green theme is on this page I think:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_Dialers
Mike
duman95 said:
. There has not been a good way posted yet to downgrade or to change a ROM with the 1.06 bootloader on the 8525. So I am waiting on that to happen before I take the plunge..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simply flash your 8525 with the 1.30 Cingular ROM which has 1.04 bootloader...It's on the wiki and FTP site.
HTC TyTN green theme attached:
also have a noobie hermes question..
i currently have the 8125 and was thinking of getting the 8525 in about a month..
anyone else upgraded from the 8125? is it worth it?
i fiured the extra cpu power would allow much more programs to run better?
and will the same programs i use on 8125 work on 8525?
thanks
I just thought I'd give a quick update: I took the dive this morning and am now running the South African ROM. It was much easier than I thought, but also much more time consuming (waiting for things to complete).
Everything seems to be great so far, but I just now noticed that I can't get onto the internet. I guess I'll play with that later.
I think the most immediately exciting thing for me was seeing the default HTC look when I loaded the ROM. Thank god, no more of that ugly Cingular stuff! It does seem a bit snappier also, but I haven't gotten online to load many things yet.
@HLSniper
Look forward to hearing your findings on the ROM...expecting my 8525 this week and looking for the most current stable and efficient/fast ROM. Thanks for your time.
Regards.......
P.S. would you mind posting the ROM version info so I can find it easier...I would like to try it out as well, thanks again.
kwues said:
@HLSniper
Look forward to hearing your findings on the ROM...expecting my 8525 this week and looking for the most current stable and efficient/fast ROM. Thanks for your time.
Regards.......
P.S. would you mind posting the ROM version info so I can find it easier...I would like to try it out as well, thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure; I found the ROM in this thread. Made my first few calls with it loaded since my last post, and I can honestly say that call quality has improved; maybe I'm just having a lucky day with service, but it is definately better today (with the new ROM) than yesterday. I can't speak for stability yet, but it's definately faster than the default that shipped with my 8525.
I'm still trying to figure out the internet issue, but I'm almost certain it's my own foolishness to blame for that.
edit (addition):
I forgot to mention this: when loading the ROM it gave me the default HTC theme, which I personally prefer. This was meant for a model (like the TyTN) that has a video camera on the front, though; when dialing to make a phone call you see a 'video' button that wasn't there with the default 8525 ROM. I'm not sure yet if this can be removed or not. Personally, I don't care as long as things work... but it may annoy some people.
guyver2077 said:
also have a noobie hermes question..
i currently have the 8125 and was thinking of getting the 8525 in about a month..
anyone else upgraded from the 8125? is it worth it?
i fiured the extra cpu power would allow much more programs to run better?
and will the same programs i use on 8125 work on 8525?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made the upgrade from the 8125 to the 8525 and love the new device. The major benefit is 3G speeds where available (about 4 to 5 times faster than Edge). I don't notice that much difference in processor speeds, because I was overclocking my 8125, but the 8525 is very fast. All the same programs I was using on my 8125 work on the 8525 except the overclocking program. The 8525 also has a few other hardware improvements especially the scroll wheel on the side for faster movement on any screen. Especially if you have 3G coverage I would encourage the upgrade...if you don't have 3G coverage I might advise you wait for a little price reduction from Cingular on the device before you change.
dwcliff703 said:
I made the upgrade from the 8125 to the 8525 and love the new device. The major benefit is 3G speeds where available (about 4 to 5 times faster than Edge). I don't notice that much difference in processor speeds, because I was overclocking my 8125, but the 8525 is very fast. All the same programs I was using on my 8125 work on the 8525 except the overclocking program. The 8525 also has a few other hardware improvements especially the scroll wheel on the side for faster movement on any screen. Especially if you have 3G coverage I would encourage the upgrade...if you don't have 3G coverage I might advise you wait for a little price reduction from Cingular on the device before you change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for that info....
so there is no way to overclock the 8525?
ims ure the price is still ridiculous on this phone but ill be eligible to upgrade next month so ill see what that offer is they offer..
i might sell my 8125 to make this purchase a little easier
Alright! Just to finish up the thread and avoid scaring new users away from ROM upgrades, the South African ROM is working great for me now. After loading it I had no internet access, but following the setup information in Cingular's support area got me going wonderfully.
All is well, and thank you to everyone who tried to help out!
HLSniper said:
Second, I've had the 1GB SD card for a little over a week now; I bought a 1GB card instead of a 2GB card as I heard the Hermes doesn't work very well with a 2GB card - that it slows considerably. I've noticed since adding the 1GB card that my 8525 slows down to a point where I have to reset it; I never noticed this before. Any ideas? I haven't been running more programs, and I've only 56MB of storage used on it for mp3s/pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to also remember that the "x" button on pocketpc's just minimizes the app, so even if you think you're not running too many apps, they will still start to stack up. You should get a task manager program that allows you to see what's running and actually close apps. Personally I use Wisbar Lite, but it's not free and there are a few free alternatives out there.
I've been a long term HTC fan, having had a Cingular 8125 for over a year. I just got a TyTN and immediately added a 2 G micro SD card and then loaded that up with software: uBook, NewsGator Go for blogs, Egress for podcasts, SBSH Weather, and MortPlayer. It was very unstable, freezing about half a dozen times a day. Doing a little research, I found that the presence of a micro SD card was implicated in freezing. Freezing is where the phone part of the TyTN continues to work (green light continues to blink), but the Windows part is locked up. I've removed the weather and Egress items from the Today screen, and so far that's reduced the freezes to once a day.
I would like the Hermes to be as reliable as the wizard which went weeks without me resetting it. I'm currently on ROM 1.18.255.3. Is moving to a new ROM version likely to fix this freezing problem? Are there people out there using a 2 G micro SD without a freezing problem? I understand there's a new ROM due out at the end of January, should I hold off till that comes out?
I mean to add that I have a HT636 serial number in case it is hardware related.
Aha! evidence indicates micro card
By removing various software from the today screen, there was no reason for any software to look at the micro card. The phone had not crashed, and yet the file manager showed that the micro card was not present.
But this stinks, I got the phone so it would hold a gigabyte of stuff, mostly podcasts.
At least can feel confident in the problem. Any chance it could the SANS micro SD card?
Not sure why your file explorer is saying there is no micro-sd card.
I use the same card as you and do not have as many hangs as you.
Some things to be aware of.
Best practice suggests putting in main memory anything that is used on the today screen or by phone application. In other words anything the device would need on coming out of sleep mode is best placed in Main memory.
Everything else can be placed on the SD card.
If you do not use push email you should carefully apply the "fake server" trick
You probably are, but you must use a task manager (say magic button or the like) to properly shut down applications.
I personally steer clear of today plugins that automatically connect to the net for data - e.g. weather/traffic/news type programmes.
Mike
Thank you for your ideas.
I guess I was spoiled by the 8125. Perhaps that it uses the regular SD instead of the micro-SD is the reason. All my apps on the 8125 were on the storage card, and I didn't force applications to quit.
I guess I just need to accept that the TyTN is more touchy about the card and try working around it.
Thanks for the feedback.
I did the same as you, added a 2 gig card from the start. I have journal bar running for weather and news, loaded in main memory, everything else is on the micro SD card. I had the same lockups as you are seeing but it's not the microSD in my case.
I found that the phone "wakes" often for calls, notifications etc. while in it's holster. When it wakes all keys are "unlocked" and subject to getting pressed. From this forum, I applied all the patches and tweakes like Auto-lock on power up, PTT button re-mapping, and many registery tweaks for bluetooth accys.
Mine almost never hangs now. The main culprit now seems to be when connecting/disconnecting it to a charger sometimes turns off bluetooth or hangs the unit, but it's intermittent.
Overall I'me very happy now, till "Kaiser" comes out...
Thank you for the info. I'm going to move the sensitive applications to the main memory. Do you think the ROM version could be contributing to the failures? I have 1.18 and I believe there is an official 1.35 out that is later.
Thanks
Another Way to Speed Up your Hermes
This Might Help You Making Performance of your Hermes Better
WM5_Tweaks_Performance
Espacially by:
Enable FileSystem cache
Increase FileSystem cache
Increase FileSystem filter cache
NOTE: These Tweaks Helped Me ALOT.....
Thanks for the ideas about tweaks. I'm going to see how stable I can make it before applying any of them.
applied all of them and it does seem significantly faster now.
I'd definitely recommend the ROM upgrade, I have never experienced the silly lock ups that I used to since.
I just experienced my first freeze on my Vario II (UK).
I got the phone on saturday, and used it for the first time as an alarm clock yesterday and everything was great (sunday I forgot to turn it off silent - boo that you have to remember).
This morning my alarm didn't go off, when I woke up the phone had frozen and wouldn't display anything - but the light was still flashing. I haven't got a MicroSD yet.
Would I have the latest ROM as I have only just got the phone? If not, how do I upgrade or find out what version of the ROM I have?
i am on the std rom released by imate in australia 2.3 i think. i have used many including xdaII and the universal.
the current hermes is the most reliable, most stable, and most amount of uptime with the best battery life, so overall i am very happy.
by the same token, i have been here long enough to know exactly what needs to happen to totally rebuild these devices from the basic rom to a device that works efficiently.
it is vital that you apply all things that are required or used during the initial startup, including things in the startup directory, and on the today screen to be present in main memory.
i have also found that icons on today or in start menu that are loaded on an sd card can slow the device down.
having memory readers on the today screen, reading the SD card memory isnt good either.
using and going through a lot of the registry hacks are useful, but not necesarily for the speed, hangs, but for functionality.
also, custom applications that are installed on the sd card i move out of the program directory to a sub directory called custom apps. this is simply to ease the speed of opening, and when i open custom, i accept a minor second or two delay rather than immediate.
i did have (not recently) have problems with the system loosing the sd card directory, which a soft reboot fixes. which is all the more importance of hiding the icons and applications from day to day interaction that use the SD card.
you can also look at reformatting the card.
i also did find that doing a full back (SPB) and doing a restore speeded up the device noticably.
there may also be speed issues if you dont synchronise regularly, and the notifications queue on previous devices also caused problem, but havent found much here.
doing other simple stuff like error reporting, disabling bluetooth auto beam is also a good start.
using ring tones or themes that are on the sd card are also not as reliable than locating in immediate ram.
so rule of thumb, you need to be able to boot up and use your device completely independently of your SD card, and only access the storage card for apps that you call for, and for data that isnt needed immediately on boot up, to store songs, files, documents and related types.
hope it helps. but in answer to your question, if you can get a more updated rom, you will definitely get a benefit, but quantifying the benefit is hard. new roms are released for a reason, so consider them seriously.
that said, if you dont need to wait for a supported rom rather than crossing platforms, this is always difficult and should only be done with extensive knowledge. as such, i dont have that many problems i cant overcome, and so am waiting for the official imate rom to be released....
hope it helps with some ideas and areas to consider
S.
ben2004uk; have a read of the wiki, it's all there should you wish to upgrade. It is fairly simple.
Freeze's gone
Ok, I feel a lot better. I've moved the one critical today add-in (weather) to main memory. I've only occassionally accessed the external storage. But with that configuration I now was able to go about 5 days without a freeze!
So I conclude that the storage card is not waking up quick enough or something like that. Other people have said it, but don't put any "always running" or "today related" software on the storage card.
I'm still on 1.18 ROMs, but I think I'll hold off for a while before upgrading. I just don't feel like rebuilding the machine right now.
how to determine ROM versions.
ben2004uk said:
I just experienced my first freeze on my Vario II (UK).
I got the phone on saturday, and used it for the first time as an alarm clock yesterday and everything was great (sunday I forgot to turn it off silent - boo that you have to remember).
This morning my alarm didn't go off, when I woke up the phone had frozen and wouldn't display anything - but the light was still flashing. I haven't got a MicroSD yet.
Would I have the latest ROM as I have only just got the phone? If not, how do I upgrade or find out what version of the ROM I have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me the longest time to find this as the wiki did not address it. go the start menu, then settings. Then click on the system tab at the bottom. Select the Device Information control panel. Now go to the TyTN wiki: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_Upgrades
and review your options. At Feb 1, 2007, 1.35 appears to be the latest official one.
Hi all,
A few of us on the SD card list thread have tried this and it seems to be stablizing things....the theory as we are working with now is that the problem is due to a power control issue in the Samsung drivers for the phone, not especially in the card itself.
No ill effects have been reported as of yet, and the battery life seems to be on par with before the switch was made. It is a simple fix, and can be reversed easily.
I ran the phone for 2 months without a card, and with these keys toggled, it is actually FASTER than it was. I don't fully believe it, but it has been over a week and rock solid.
First off, you need to dev unlock your phone. See the thread here for simple and complete instructions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=938106
Next off, you need to toggle the following 3 registry keys in the Registry Editor provided in the above post:
The keys have to do with MMC (internal memory) power management.The big speed improvements is in games/apps (Fruit Ninja opens and operates leaps and bounds faster than it did when the phone did stock!)
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Drivers>SDCARD>ClientDrivers>Class>MMC_Class>DisablePowerManagement (Change to 0)
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Drivers>SDCARD>ClientDrivers>Class>MMC_Class>High_Capacity>DisablePowerManagement (Change to 0)
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Drivers>SDCARD>ClientDrivers>Class>SDMemory_Class>DisablePowerManagement (Change to 0)
One point of note here, do not be afraid if the phone locks up the first time soft resetting after these changes, mine did and it was fine after a battery pull.
Also, I would be interested to hear any theories about why this one made such a big difference when it seemingly affects only the internal storage. Maybe because the two storage devices are "bridged" by WP7?
Comment below with your experiences please!
If this gets enough test results, we will submit it to Microsoft. Thanks!
As I already mentioned:
Up to now I just did the SD card registry hack. The device is now stable for over 3 days, longer than ever before.
Battery life wasn't noticable affected, lasted for around 40h with moderate usage (thumbs up indeed).
In fact without this registry hack I wasn't able to get down to an empty battery without those reboting/dataloss issues.
But I need some more days, then I will change the MMC registry key also.
No speed improvements mentioned up to now.
I applied the hack to all three keys. So far, it is much less laggy. Not sure if that will return after 4+ weeks as before, but here's a pretty cool side effect:
After the hack, my screen does not stop responding to touch when the phone is placed on my desk or a soft surface, like a couch cushon. It was getting really annoying because I often place mu phone on my desk during the day for easy access, but every time I tried to onlock it, it would not respond unless I picked it up. Sometimes, it's nice to leave it lying down and operate it. Couldn't do that before, but I can now! WooHoo! Thank you for this.
I'll report back if it starts up again in a couple weeks.
Sent from my Focus WP7 using Board Express
Whoa! I just tested this and you are correct! More proof that the Samsung power drivers are full of problems. Who would have thought?
For testing purpose I changed the MMC Keys also and made some Videos (no I won't upload them). There were absoluteley no differences in app loading times (ok, i know the longer loading apps are pretty much all stored on the sd card, ) and also not in overall performance, although this isn't provable easily.
I changed the keys back to normal, but kept the sd card key change to 0.
I address the positive speed effects to sdcard key for now. Perhaps i will make some tests without any reg change in the next few days.
Still stable as hell!
Edit: Damn I forgot to test the not responding problem (even though i didn't notice it that often and badly)
Sebo1985 said:
For testing purpose I changed the MMC Keys also and made some Videos (no I won't upload them). There were absoluteley no differences in app loading times (ok, i know the longer loading apps are pretty much all stored on the sd card, ) and also not in overall performance, although this isn't provable easily.
I changed the keys back to normal, but kept the sd card key change to 0.
I address the positive speed effects to sdcard key for now. Perhaps i will make some tests without any reg change in the next few days.
Still stable as hell!
Edit: Damn I forgot to test the not responding problem (even though i didn't notice it that often and badly)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I mentioned above, I'm hoping it's not just a result of resetting something and it still returns in a few weeks. Although, the thing about the screen touch response not working when laying on something is COMPLETELY GONE! That alone is worth the setting change. It really was annoying for me the way I use the phone. Thank you to eveyone involved in finding this setting.
PS: From my perception, I don't believe my battery is behaving any differently. Although, I would imagine if it were scientifically tested, it surely would be using slightly more juice. But it still had the normal amount left in the evening, and I probably used it slightly more testing it out. Maybe getting the screen to perform better uses less power?
For the sake of completeness: I set the sd card key back to 1, and I do not experience any slow down in overall performance or in app loading times. Still I cannot reproduce any of those not responding issues you mentioned.
For today and tomorrow I will stay with this setting an will wait for a random reboot. Let's see what and when it happens.
tried this with a 16gb class2 sandisk... loaded it up to 9.25 left and the reboot monster came... but it was weird... it would rebllt like every 30 sec with no loss then poof all lost...then rendom self reboot all mem would reappear and start the reboot process all over.... now it didnt do this till it was unplugged.... plugged in it was fine... reformatted... re set up did the tweak... loaded and the same as before... so for me no... but im going to test it with another card on the list... heres to hoping....
but it does fix the sitting on the bed and unresponsive gimmick.....
So would this be worthwhile even for someone without an sdcard? For the screen response issue i mean. It's so annoying haha.
edit: Screw it i went ahead and did it hah. It def fixed the touch screen responsiveness issue!
Which cards?
Can you guys post the specific SD cards you are testing this with. I am curious to see if somebody has tested it with the Sandisk class 2 32gb card. Thanks.
knwldg0010 said:
Can you guys post the specific SD cards you are testing this with. I am curious to see if somebody has tested it with the Sandisk class 2 32gb card. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sebo's testing with a SanDisk Class 4 32GB card which ended up being more stable (before it failed and before he tried the registry stuff) than the Class 2s from Sandisk.
Based on what you have read, would it be best to get rid of the class 2 32gb card or wait to see if there is an actual fix? Since this seems to be a power issue based on the fix, does it really matter what class it is then? Thanks.
knwldg0010 said:
Based on what you have read, would it be best to get rid of the class 2 32gb card or wait to see if there is an actual fix? Since this seems to be a power issue based on the fix, does it really matter what class it is then? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something to keep in mind is that this registry hack is relatively new. Some people managed to go for weeks without issues on an unmodified WP7 with a card. It's entirely possible that these hacks are just a stopgap, or a reset, and actually *fix* nothing.
Theoretically, the card shouldn't matter. If I hadn't locked my 32GB Class 4 Kingston to my old (bricked) Focus, I would try it with the current one and see if doing the registry tweaks fixes the slow sync issue on it. Someone in the SD Card List thread claims to have done the registry tweaks and it ended up failing badly too with a 16GB Class 2 Sandisk. However, the 16GB Class 2 Sandisk is one of the more reliable ones (without tweaks) through the limited testing this board has done, so it's possible he has a bad card.
In brief, it shouldn't matter (within reason) what brand/class/capacity you use. If this tweak is the real deal, it should work, especially if your only concern is random reboots. However, you still would want to avoid cards with extremely high class ratings at typically their random read/write is slow (which the most common usage of the storage in WP7). In terms of performance, there's no guarantee as to what these tweaks will do as the only consistent change has been that phones that would constantly reboot due to their cards aren't (yet).
However, to answer your initial question, I don't believe anyone has tested a Class 2 Sandisk 32GB card. I wouldn't put too much faith that your card will have the exact same results as Sebo's class 4 because we aren't certain what the cause is. We believe it's power, but we're not 100% sure. If you're already using the card in your phone, you don't really have much to lose. If you're not using it yet, then you only have something to lose if you, like me, don't have a Nokia/Symbian phone that you can use to reformat the card if it fails.
Good post fishface.... That's where most are thinking its a fix.. This is just a theory right now.. That's why there's another post wanting testers... my find was it did fix the sensitivity issue...theres no doubt on my end.. But card wise my 16gb class2 SanDisk worked before I tried this until I hit 15gb used... Then it went goofy... I tried it 5 times.. Same thing. Just about 15gb used was where the instability happened. Soon as the reg hack hit I read thru it.. I love reg edits.. Made my Omnia 2 &hd2 quite decent phones... That's when I saw the mention of others thinking this too.. So I took my 16gb class2 SanDisk that I freshly brought back to life, and decided to test it out... I posted the results before... Plugged in no issue.. Unplugged it went goofy at 12.7 used... I was stable at that point before without the edits... Not saying it doesn't help but it made mine worse... I'm still going to try other cards though .. I do think there is something to this... I might try different scenarios of the edit... What's it going to hurt..i mean were here for the same goal to help find a solution... Well except the lurkers..you all know who you are..lol. But again. Great post fishface...
Thanks for all of the info. I guess fix is the wrong word to use, but i was just trying to get an idea of what others have done. Whenever i would pass the 10gb mark, mine would do a full wipe after a couple of restarts. I still have my 32gb card in my phone, because there really is no point of taking it out and possibly loosing it. Plus i was hoping an official fix would come out so i could just apply the patch. I have been waiting to see when the MS update would come out so i could do a full backup before running test. Thank you for your help.
anyone tried messing with block sizes? Default is 128. I'm wondering if maybe your sd card has trouble with that block size its causing the lagginess. Who knows lol....
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
Also I'm still using my 32gb Kingston class 4. I have all 3 keys set to 0. And its still going strong other than that one reset I had. MMC block size 128 sd block size 128. If my sd card can't handle that large of a block size I would have instability.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
Anyone know if this also fixes the song stuttering issue? That's definitely power related since it only happens in the last couple of seconds of a song if the screen is off. One you turn it back on, the music plays perfectly.
jeffgeno said:
Anyone know if this also fixes the song stuttering issue? That's definitely power related since it only happens in the last couple of seconds of a song if the screen is off. One you turn it back on, the music plays perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had a chance to test that yet but I'll post if I have any issues
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
I'm stuck. Made it through the first three downloads and have my phone unlocked.
Followed Registry Editor link and downloaded RegistryEditor 1.1.0.0.xap. My computer will not open up this file because it doesn't know what program to use, so I tried to download it straight to my phone and my phone says it doesn't support xap. What steps am I missing?
How do I get into the registry to change the three tabs?