Database Users

Devices gets slow

Hello all,
I experience the following problem with my Tytn (gory details about versions and so avail upon request): With age the device got slower and slower to the point that now e.g. ActiveSync times out if the device was not soft-reseted for a long time.
Still, even after a soft-reset the device feels sluggish and unresponsive -- compared to what it used to be.
Granted, it has a boatload of software installed but the "slowness" got worse w/o adding new softw.
IIRC from the old PPC days the old WinCE used to suffer heavily from memory leaks, and the only way to recover from that was to hard-reset the device.
My question is:
- Did anyone else have this experience ? Is it a known problem ?
- Is it actually a appl problem and not WM5 related ?
- Does a hard-reset and restoring from backups solve the problem ? Or do I neeed to hard-reset and install the software all over again from scratch ?
TIA,
Florian
P.S. Sorry I don't have some "hard facts" (mem usage/whatnot), so far it is just an empirical observation

When I originally got my device I tried installing a load of software and this seemed to eventually break the device. It does start to perform slower the more you mess with it. I upgraded the firmware and was careful about what I installed and the device works great now.
If you performed a hard reset and re-installed your applications, you would notice an increase in speed. I recommend the latest firmware also.

i have just replied to similar comments that may help here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=291882
rather than retyping. the bare device works really really really good, so it may relate to your apps. install standard released apps, with care, and do backups regularly to restore if necessary.
also, i have found in the past that large volumes of contacts and large amounts of diary syncs does slow all devices down. one poster said he had over 1000 contacts and wanted to know why phone calls were slow to start (caller id and searching duh...)
so watch what you install, and only install what you really need
install anything that is needed on bootup into memory
hide icons point to your sd card
dont have sd card readers on the today screen
follow the registry hacks and use them
dont install today screen stuff to sd card
accept that the sd card may be disabled or fail on occasion, thus you dont want your device functionality tied to it otherwise card fails, device fails
manage your synchronisation of data
there is soooo much more. make sure you are on the latest released rom for your device. ensure your sd card does have fast read and write ability...
read wiki, do some research. all else fails, HARD RESET and see if it runs at normal or good speed. then test each and use each app carefully, using a backup app to restore as you need to.
this is m$, and i equate wm5 to windows 95, we are a long way from xp status, so play nice, be gentle, and manage the apps you install, they way you install them, and the data u need.

HTC TD2 freeze problem since WM6.5 upgrade

Since upgrading my TD2 to the official WM6.5 ROM issued by HTC I have had problems with the handset freezing; the only remedy has been to remove the battery and switch back on. At first I thought it was a hardware fault but a friend's phone has also started doing the same since he upgraded. This never happened previously and only happens every ten days or so.
Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

I'm having the same problems mate. My TD2 on 6.5 freezes spoaradically - I'd say at least twice a week, and the only solution is to remove the battery.
I've been trying to link the freeze with a particular program or app but the phone has frozen at varying times and in many cases whilst no apps are running!
I'm waiting for upgrade on my contract as I've had it with this TD2 and especially WinMo. I mean, how can WinMo store all saved words in SMS on RAM only for it to be wiped after every restart/soft reset?! Why? Argh!
I'm going for the Hero next, and see how nice Android plays!
Good luck with your query...
Mo

miker1892 said:
Since upgrading my TD2 to the official WM6.5 ROM issued by HTC I have had problems with the handset freezing; the only remedy has been to remove the battery and switch back on. At first I thought it was a hardware fault but a friend's phone has also started doing the same since he upgraded. This never happened previously and only happens every ten days or so.
Has anyone else experienced similar problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it do this without the mem card installed?

Exactly the same is happening here and the same on my friend's TD2. We have never tried WM 6.1, the first step after purchasing the phone was to upgrade to stock WM 6.5 ROM.
I tried to disable the weather animation on home screen but this doesn't help. My friend has disabled HTC sense and his phone has not frozen after one week. We will have to wait another week or two to proof that this could be the solution.
I hope that Touch Flo is not the cause of this malfunction because WM6.5 UI is very ugly.
I don’t know if the mem card could cause this issue but using the phone without mem card is simply not an option for me. The phone memory is too limited.
My friend also raises this issue on HTC support but so far HTC is ignoring the problem. The only bright word from HTC support was that they will investigate this issue (after many words on how to flash, reflash and hard reset ...).
I really hope that the solution for this very inconvenience will be find out soon.

My TD2 also freezes often compared to Win 6.1 where it almost never froze. I also hope that HTC will make some kind of service pack for Win 6.5 as it doesn't work that well at the moment.

pa49 said:
Does it do this without the mem card installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not tried it without the memory card, but I need the card for storage. Never froze prior to 6.5 upgrade.

miker1892 said:
Not tried it without the memory card, but I need the card for storage. Never froze prior to 6.5 upgrade.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not suggesting that anyone uses the device without a mem card! You are missing my point.
Phones that freeze do so for a reason and it's necessary to eliminate possible causes.
Some two years ago I did extensive testing on this subject when the same issues arose around another make and model of phone.
One thing I found is that it is possible to induce instability of handsets when mem cards are used (abused?) in certain ways.
My TD2 used to freeze when I first got it and it has also done so with a number of cooked ROMs. With my current ROM it never freezes and there are no instability issues.
I strongly suspect poor coding of apps and lack of thorough beta testing. Isn't it strange how some apps have been around for years and you can rely on their worth?
Installing to mem card causes issues as well as cards that have installed apps being reused after cooked ROM flashing and previous settings and fat tables being left on the card.
Also when power is low mem cards draw large currents that the battery may not be able to give. They are very power hungry. I took this up with Sandisk Tech Dept and they politely told me that the info on current draw under stress (usage) was not for public access!
So my answer is keep your ROM light (no manila or after market 'front end'), minimise card usage by installing all you can to phone mem, reformat afresh with every ROM flash and keep your battery as highly charged as possible at all times.
Some say 'yes but I do all those things and I never get freezes'. That's fine but no help to those that do.
There really is only one way to find out and that is to take a little time and try it for yourself.

Large address book combined with bad 3rd party program
On my Tilt2 I found that applications like Fring could freeze the phone. After a few tries, I decided not intall that anymore (and Fring might have fixed it by now, but I can't afford to try, because uninstalling required a hard reset).
The phone originally came with HTC TouchFLO, but I switched that off, since it just made everything more difficult to reach. And sometimes the fhone became unresponsive, slow or totally frooze. After I disabled it by using the Windows Today (6.5 or classic) after which I only had about 2 freezes in 1.5 year.
Now I finally upgraded to the latest official ROM for the phone, which has HTC Sense on it. After everybody saying how great Sense was, I gave it a try. It worked reasonably, until I started playing with the Favorites in the Peoples tab. After each new addition (I tried 3) I had to restart the phone, and after restart it still hung up.
I happen to have a quite large address book that I synchronize with ActiveSync. I think I'm starting to see a pattern, where several applications - Fring, Sense, etc - just cannot handle large address books.
By the way, to disable Sense, first switch to the Windows Default (= WinMo 6.5) Today screen, and do a soft reset to get rid of Sense background processes. If you want to use the WinMo classic Today screen, then you can do that after the reset. Directly trying to move from Sense to WinMo classic resulted in another freeze. After disabling Sense, I haven't experienced a freeze, (yet !!!).

^^Try a custom rom,Sense works fine on those as the ROM is highly modified with few errors now.

X2 beware it CORRUPUTS memory card content!

People beware!!!
This failure X2 corrupts memory cards!
Completely corrputs the content!
Sooner or later you’ll also encounter this –
confirmed by many other users!
So if you still decide to use this unreliable piece of failure,
be sure to make backups!!!!

doministry said:
People beware!!!
This failure X2 corrupts memory cards!
Completely corrputs the content!
Sooner or later you’ll also encounter this –
confirmed by many other users!
So if you still decide to use this unreliable piece of failure,
be sure to make backups!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed,
I lost 7Gb aprox of very valuable stuff, like source code, documentation, photos, charts, music, software, video, backups, and so on..
I think i may found the pattern (kind of) because after the first corrupted memory it happend to me seeeeeveral times...
Its like if i start an app (lets say a game) that uses a lot of resources, the game is laggy and somehow it closes OR you use another app on the same time that is installed on the SD, like they crash by sharing some kind of resource... im not quite sure but at least two times after "playing" (i quote it because its mega laggy) i saw my Program Files folder EMPTY...
At least this time it doesnt f*** the whole card..

i wonder why OP hasnt posted a single good thing bout x2
i owe it and im quite satisfied with it it hass some things that need to be fixed but otherwise i like it
the only problem i have with it is that loses the sd card sometimes but as i read its the card problem (default one that came with it) its class2 (cheap $#"$#!%%&Z&#&"%%""% provider)

indycar: You are terrible wrong! The card problem issue is the X2 problem NOT card! I try a lot of cards (differents manufacturer, size, class). The point is, that X2 automatically turn off card when you stand by device and it turn on when you wake up X2 again. I´m thinking, that this should be a "feature" to increase power managing capabilities...

indycar said:
i wonder why OP hasnt posted a single good thing bout x2
i owe it and im quite satisfied with it it hass some things that need to be fixed but otherwise i like it
the only problem i have with it is that loses the sd card sometimes but as i read its the card problem (default one that came with it) its class2 (cheap $#"$#!%%&Z&#&"%%""% provider)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I wrote many good things about it before.
With a decent firmware it'a decent device and the best choice!!!!!!
But current firmware is a massacre confirmed by all users so no reason for good words....
The memory card problem is completely independent from the card, happened to me with both cards!!!

Another victim of memory card corruption. the whole content of the memory card just dissappear like*poof*. and the symtoms looks the same. system became incredably laggy all of the sudden. reboot the device and "watch your past disappear" (adapted from STFirst Contact when Borg Queen says "Watch your future ends")...
Ben

the weird thing about my card is that only SOME things disappeared, i had several folders on my card little by little they disappeared but the files that werent in folders stayed and never got deleted, thought the card itself did not gain/lose any memory.

my card is fine .. nothing happened

You corrupted people should try some file recovery software to recover your card content. There are plenty of free recovery programs on the internet. You'd have to stick your card into your computer and run the software on the disk. Report back if you get it to work because if could help others.

ring-bearer said:
You corrupted people should try some file recovery software to recover your card content. There are plenty of free recovery programs on the internet. You'd have to stick your card into your computer and run the software on the disk. Report back if you get it to work because if could help others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of my content was backed up so I will not hassle with this.
However I would love to know how to eventually format the card to
to not to slow it down...

This whole X2 case reminds me of N97 when it was introduced. Truly 'spooky' phone

My card is also from today one of those who messes up. My files does not get deleted but when browsing the card from the phone it sometimes contains perhaps two out of the folders, sometimes the files is there (i guess) but folder and file names seams renamed. A look at the card on my computer shows every file/folder/file name intact.

Guys,
You who had the SD-card corrupted, did you install any applications on it that you use frequently?

hertell said:
Guys,
You who had the SD-card corrupted, did you install any applications on it that you use frequently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you might have read, my card only looked corrupted in the phone file explorer but yes, I installed every application on the card. Most used is S2P and Pocket player and of course all my music used by the apps mentioned.
If running S2P listening to music,the app suddenly halts. I then shuts S2P down and starts file explorer to see what happened the card looks partially deleted or all folder and file names corrupted (mounting the card on PC shows no errors at all).
In the beginning I had Outlook save incoming mail on card but as the card disconnects outlook creates a folder, Storage Card in root of phone. That creates a problem when the phone mounts the card again since it gets named Storage Card2 instead. That messes up all short cuts created by me or phone to the applications installed at the card.
I use card pre packed with phone and I see no reason to try another since others here reports no difference when replacing card.

hertell said:
Guys,
You who had the SD-card corrupted, did you install any applications on it that you use frequently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The moment my card got corrputed
I quit using X2 completely.
I've seen no sense in further struggling and
I also have no time for that.
Why the question?
MR2 also screws it?!

TLDR: Don't install programs or attachments on your storage card.
I am now 100% certain that power management is behind the disappearing storage card issue, and is a culprit in a number of other bugs. It looks like when you put the device into standby, it switches off power to a number of components.
It's easy to see what happens with the storage card if you use SPB Mobile Shell. There's a handy shortcut under Tools - Browse Files - Storage Card. If you put that shortcut on your home screen and come out of standby, you'll usually see the icon return to the default unassigned shortcut. After anywhere between a fraction of and many seconds, the SD card icon will reappear.
Seems like some genius engineer at Foxconn, not knowing much about WinMo or stuff in general thought he was being very clever by saving what, 10mA? in shutting it off. Think of all those extra minutes of standby time saved.
I too suffered from a corrupted FAT, but thankfully all I really lost was MP3s I already had elsewhere. Since I figured out what's going on, I've had no trouble whatsoever. It does of course mean that I've had to make yet more compromises in the functionality of the device. The key is to make sure not to install programs on the storage card, or if you must, make sure the phone doesn't go into standby while running them. Also, don't choose to store email and MMS attachments on the card, or you'll get the Storage Card2 problem.
Stupid power management also explains these other things that have been bothering me, and many of you:
Notification sounds and lights not working properly.
Sporadic checking of email.
Custom ringtones disappearing (Hint: put them on main memory).
The phone randomly freezing when trying to work with Bluetooth car kits.
Presumably Sony engineers are aware of this, because if they aren't, God help us. I'm guessing that power management is such a low level issue that it's very difficult to fix with firmware if at all. That being the case, I'm not confident this phone will ever work properly and has most likely sounded the death knell for me for both Sony Ericsson and WinMo.

@bedlam_au
You may be right about power management.
That may be the answer.
Before my card corruption when I was entering SlideView
I always saw it REFRESHING media content,
like looking for it again and again....

have you tried it?
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\State\Suspend]
"shc1:"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\State\Resuming]
"shc1:"=dword:00000000
We have been testing it with my friend for a while (since 24th of april) and he hasn't got any storage card problems after applying this *.reg. He had them every time before that.

@ultrashot: I think you've done it! Changed those keys and didn't even need to soft reset. I've been checking all day and haven't seen the storage card disappear once. Presumably it's going to stay that way.
Does someone feel like making up a cab for this? It'd make many people's day.

bedlam_au,

Thoughts on DVP crashing issues

I've had the phone for about a week now, and it's been really crash-prone and unstable for the first couple of days. I previously had an HD7 for 4 weeks, so I immediately set up my DVP like I had the HD7 set up.
It was so buggy, I hard reset at least a couple of times in those few days. My most recent hard reset was on Sunday, and lo and behold, I didn't experience any crashes for 4 days!
That started me thinking. The difference between the previous hard reset and the current hard reset was that I hadn't loaded many apps or any mp3s yet - so I loaded the same amount of MP3s as I had before (about 8gb) and immediately any new programs started crashing! In fact, I think just about anything that wrote to the disk exhibited errors, from newly downloaded and installed apps to existing apps which does disk I/O. The marketplace crashed all the time while downloading or installing apps.
My best guess as to the cause of the issue is that the SD card is corrupting data. As long as you are using the internal storage, everything runs fine - but once data is written to the SD card, things are getting corrupted. I'm not sure about this, it's just a guess.
At the OS level, the internal storage is combined with the SD card into a single logical disk - AKA JBOD in RAID terms. I'm not sure about the OS-level algorithm it uses to determine whether or not to save to internal vs SD card, but my guess is that it writes to the internal first, then when that is exceeded, it writes to the SD card. Even after removing some MP3s, I still had crashes, so I'm guessing that it doesn't overwrite the same sectors that previously held data until all the "fresh" sectors have been used (ie it was still writing to the SD card).
If this is the case, then the culprits could be either A) Dell's crappy SD card drivers corrupting the data or B) a crappy quality SD card corrupting the data. Given their recent QC issues i'm inclined to think it's B - but I hope it's A because that would imply a software fix as opposed to having to replace hardware.
Either way, I'll write a program to test my hypothesis: It'll create a test files of a specific size and then read them back and check that the test data is correct.
Thoughts? Has anybody else noticed similar behavior after filling up their storage?

I suspected the SD card as well, which is why I included the remaining storage space in the options in the poll at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=891295
That being said, some others have said that doing a system reset on their phone did not fix the crashing problems. There are 2 major unknown variables here of course - when the phone is using the SD card vs. internal memory, and whether everyone is experiencing the same type of crashing.

pjfan75 said:
I suspected the SD card as well, which is why I included the remaining storage space in the options in the poll at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=891295
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there were multiple causes for the all the crashes people are experiencing - most likely the SD card may be responsible for some of those, while other issues are causing more crashes.
Impossible to tell at the moment, though. But perhaps the reason why people associated wifi with crashing was that they were using the wifi to load more data than they were over 3G?

I've thought about the apps too. AP mobile is one that is involved on my list. Shazam, yelp, where, are others. I an make my hd7 crash with each of them. However, that does not eliminate sd card. Optimal read/write access speed will probably impact crash, lag, and performance.

Based on this thread it sounds like it's probably more of a driver issue.

alodar1 said:
I've thought about the apps too. AP mobile is one that is involved on my list. Shazam, yelp, where, are others. I an make my hd7 crash with each of them. However, that does not eliminate sd card. Optimal read/write access speed will probably impact crash, lag, and performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used those apps on the HD7 and I don't think they ever crashed it - not nearly as often as the DVP crashes.

zaijian said:
But perhaps the reason why people associated wifi with crashing was that they were using the wifi to load more data than they were over 3G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That and also at a much higher rate than 3G typically.

zaijian said:
Based on this thread it sounds like it's probably more of a driver issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if I would agree with that. I would hope that drivers would be the same on all devices. To have 1 fail and 20 not fail....is it driver? I would be curious to know what the failure rates would be. Sure we see alot of complaints here on this forum....but there is not a whole lot of traffic about failure of the DVP. All in All, I'm happy with the DVP. I also have a HD7...and I'm happy with that. I have them both sitting here...and when I make a decision to use a phone of my choice...I've chosen the DVP.
With all things being equal, if I get into a fight, the DVP can be used as a weapon.

I've used up quite a bit of storage but the only time I seem to get a crash is when I enable WiFi, otherwise my DVP seems to run stable.

efjay said:
I've used up quite a bit of storage but the only time I seem to get a crash is when I enable WiFi, otherwise my DVP seems to run stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same results, I went crash free for 2 days without WiFi I wanted to test it and turned it back on and it crashed within a few min.
I have a replacement coming from Dell but I doubt they will have it fixed. I'm hoping it would be something that can be fixed by an update.

Mine crashes too!!
I too am experiencing many of the issues that have been posted on this forum (crashing w/wo wifi, while in MP, or when an app needs data from the internet). Twice I have reached in my pocket, hit the power button to bring up the lock screen and nothing happens - just a blank screen. Hence had to pull the battery and reboot.
A couple of other things I have noticed that I am not sure I have seen on the forums. Does anyone else have a DVP where the top left edge and the bottom right edge are not flush with the bottom of the phone? It is slight, but I noticed it on day one. Also, I have a heck of a time with the accelerometer sticking. Sometimes it refuses to go back into portrait mode. No mater how I turn and twist it (360 deg).
Anyone else experience this?

I used to use the power button to get to the unlock screen, but after fumbling with it a few times in the dark, I switched to flipping out the keyboard, which does the same thing. And while it did often take multiple presses of the power button to wake the DVP, I have never had to pull the battery.

I've had the DVP since November 8th, and had it crash on my severely enough for a battery pull maybe 3-4 times tops. This is both on the "engineering" phone and the "retail" phone. The only difference I have with you guys - and this is pretty significant - is that I hacked my SD card pretty much within the first couple of days of getting it. I've upgraded to a SanDisk class 2 16GB.
Now, I haven't particularly filled it up; in fact, I have tons of space free. But, I'd like to set some facts straight:
1) The DVP has no internal storage. Just a few megs (~16MB or so) just so the OS can run if you pull the SD card. Nothing new here; we've seen this during the first days of the SD card hack thread.
2) If you fill up your storage, and applications request for IsolatedStorage, the request will most likely fail if you have (close to) zero storage free. If applications don't check for that, it will probably crash. I don't know if this is necessarily happening, since I don't have a crashing device to observe this behaviour, but that's one hunch. Some of you have said that the HD7 did not crash when you filled up the storage, which might throw my theory out the window.
3) The SD card used in the DVP is also a SanDisk - I tend to trust them with storage reliability. If it is indeed a driver issue, then Microsoft might have some share in the blame as well - MS writes drivers for the OEMs for WP7.
What we need to do is scientifically reproduce the issue. Instead of general data corruption, another thing to check is to see what happens as storage gets filled up.

kltye said:
What we need to do is scientifically reproduce the issue. Instead of general data corruption, another thing to check is to see what happens as storage gets filled up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I attempted to do just that - I wrote a storage test app and ran it on my DVP, and it encountered no issues.
The app wrote test data, filling up 95% of available free space (around 13.3GB), then read it back in and verified the data. I'm now fairly confident that it's not the SD card or the storage drivers that are responsible for the crashing.
I did however, encounter issues trying to download the Rise of Glory game. I had turned wifi off, but it's large enough that it requires wifi or sync in order to download and install. Once I turned wifi on and retried the download, the phone crashed on me.
Let's see if we can verify the wifi + marketplace issue:
1) make sure phone wifi is off
2) connect DVP to computer, run Zune
3) via zune sync, verify that you can install a large game or app on your phone. It has to be one which you haven't downloaded before, as I don't think you can force zune to reinstall an app it knows you already downloaded.
4) disconnect the phone
5) verify the game runs correctly
6) uninstall the game on the phone
7) turn phone wifi on
8) go into marketplace on the phone
9) reinstall the same game and see if you have any issues with marketplace while downloading (freezing/hanging/etc)
10) if everything's still ok, verify that the game runs correctly

@Zaijian
I tried reproducing your flow on my DVP and it didn't crash. But, what is strange is mine freezes (only twice so far) @ random right after playing and trying to get to some other app or switching between app. This tends me to side on the memory as being the culprit or some other component being the culprit. Most likely could be memory related and how WP7 manages to kill an app. Is there a memtest kind of thing we could run on this DVP?

I wrote a wifi transfer testing app and ran it overnight - it transferred 4GB over my wifi (from my desktop to the phone) correctly and without incident.
So, i've confirmed that:
A) there's nothing wrong with writing a single large file to the file system
B) there's nothing wrong with transferring data over wifi
My next tests will be:
1) simultaneously writing multiple large files to the file system
2) simultaneoulsy writing files to the file system and transferring data over wifi
3) some sort of memory test to see if memory is getting corrupted

WiFi seems to be the issue
Not much question that mine locks up when WiFi is turned on. I have been experimenting with this issue for the past few days and while having WiFi on causes random lock-ups, not having it on makes it run without any issues.
Fortunately, most of the areas I use my phone have good 3G coverage so WiFi acting up is not a deal breaker but I certainly hope they are able to fix this with the impending update.
One consideration is could there be an app we all have that uses WiFi that is causing trouble? Has anyone had issues with this from a fresh device? I seem to recall having it lock up early on before I put many apps on it.

jetjockgordo said:
Not much question that mine locks up when WiFi is turned on. I have been experimenting with this issue for the past few days and while having WiFi on causes random lock-ups, not having it on makes it run without any issues.
Fortunately, most of the areas I use my phone have good 3G coverage so WiFi acting up is not a deal breaker but I certainly hope they are able to fix this with the impending update.
One consideration is could there be an app we all have that uses WiFi that is causing trouble? Has anyone had issues with this from a fresh device? I seem to recall having it lock up early on before I put many apps on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My problems seem to occur when I'm going through the marketplace and downloading via wifi.
I verified with my test app that wifi can transfer a large amount of data without errors. This leads me to believe that the wifi itself is not the cause of the issues, but that wifi in combination with other factors may be the cause.

zaijian said:
My problems seem to occur when I'm going through the marketplace and downloading via wifi.
I verified with my test app that wifi can transfer a large amount of data without errors. This leads me to believe that the wifi itself is not the cause of the issues, but that wifi in combination with other factors may be the cause.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought so too but I left the WiFi on and rebooting without accessing Marketplace has been causing lockups as well. In fact, I just noticed it was locked up after a reboot 10 minutes ago and, sure enough, I left WiFi on. I didn't so much as unlock the screen after the reboot although I have also had it lock up while accessing Marketplace.

jetjockgordo said:
I thought so too but I left the WiFi on and rebooting without accessing Marketplace has been causing lockups as well. In fact, I just noticed it was locked up after a reboot 10 minutes ago and, sure enough, I left WiFi on. I didn't so much as unlock the screen after the reboot although I have also had it lock up while accessing Marketplace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll test using wifi simultaneously with local disk I/O and see if that causes errors.

SD card issue fix - Need testers!

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?