Uni speed and ROMs - JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General

We use the Universal for speech systems for people with disabilities. However the speed of the device is marginal for us, because the system itself uses a massive (30%+) fraction of the processor time even when the system is at idle.
I've just been asked if using any alternate ROM images might help speed the device up much, and I haven't got a clue. Help!
Does anyone know if any of the ROM images that are out there makes a significant difference to the speed of the universal? Is there a ROM image around which completely removes all phone functionality (not all our users use the phone)?
I'd be very grateful for any guidance, before we start trying ROM images at random...
Stuart

Hello, first of all, -and I'm not sure about this- I think that the ROMs images are not available at this site's FTP anymore.
Then, if you can have a ROM, prefer the "plain vanilla" ones, unless you might need several extra programs, if you need speed, you need a light and simple ROM, there are several of them, from Helmi's, to Ivan's and others that I just can't remember now, look out in the posts and find a stable one to use, test it with your app until you think is the right one.
Alternatively you can increase your CPU's clock, but this drains the battery faster, a solution for this might be to install a larger battery, your use of the uni might permit all of these things.
I haven't tested any custom ROMs, but I have a friend with a uni that has installed in its uni a Helmi's ROM, I saw it, it seems quite speedier than my T-mobile one, he told me that the voice tags call fuction didn't work and something else, but, was it faster indeed.
bye

stuartaw said:
We use the Universal for speech systems for people with disabilities. However the speed of the device is marginal for us, because the system itself uses a massive (30%+) fraction of the processor time even when the system is at idle.
I've just been asked if using any alternate ROM images might help speed the device up much, and I haven't got a clue. Help!
Does anyone know if any of the ROM images that are out there makes a significant difference to the speed of the universal? Is there a ROM image around which completely removes all phone functionality (not all our users use the phone)?
I'd be very grateful for any guidance, before we start trying ROM images at random...
Stuart
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried to kill useless proggy at startup???
if you want i may be able to make a clean rom for you...
actually try increasing the pagingpool a simple hexedit on existing roms (wm6 section of this forum look for helmi's kitchen)

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
fallenczar said:
have you tried to kill useless proggy at startup???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried killing everything I can. The processor is occupied by one thread within devices.exe; and I can't really kill that process... Everything else had minimal/no impact.
Stuart

What application are you using to identify process usage? 30% sounds very high to me.

PaulMdx said:
What application are you using to identify process usage? 30% sounds very high to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The remote tools in Visual Studio. Shows 1%-4% processor usage at idle for other PDAs, 30-35% for TyTN and Universal (the only 2 HTC machines I had access to). I used the kernel tracker thing to track execution, and it was one particular thread in devices.exe which was both busy, and also, sometimes, thrashing around at <100 micro-s frequency.
This figure does fit with our other experiences. The particular speed problem we have is with a library which is spec-ed to work on any machine with 400Mhz+ processor. Works fine on other machines, including some quite old PDAs, but has 'issues' due to slow processor on the Universal and is simply unusable on the TyTN.
I couldn't find anything I could do to improve this in RAM - and a colleague asked if any of the alternate ROMs might help - and I've haven't got a clue, but hoped someone might know if any of the ROMs are visibly faster.
Stuart

Have you tried changing the default clock speed?
Hi Stuart,
I think there are a lot of applications out there which allow you to overclock and change the clock speed of Xscale CPU's. Things like XCPUScalar 2007. If you look at this thread(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=304786)you should be able to find some useful information regarding scaling the CPU speed, hope this helps.
Will.

Related

Perhaps a stupid question: why should I upgrade?!

Hi,
now this may sound really stupid to most of you since you are all very eager to have the newest ROM on your XDA's, but I don't really get it. My O2-XDA was always working fine, and when I read some topics here, I got the idea that I was missing something.
So I upgraded my device to radio 4.21 and ROM 3.17.03 but I don't notice any difference. Also, no programs have been added (except for the wireless modem application), and the ROM still comes with useless stuff like the Action Engine, which is useless since O2 Netherland is taken over by Telfort and it doesn't support it anymore. O2 England has a newer ROM version to offer, I might try that, but...
Why would I?
I have read countless topics on upgrading, also on upgrading the XDA to WM2003, but why? It's always "it works great!!!" or "I can't get it to work!!!" but the real difference (except the feeling of having the newest ROM in your device) is never explained.
So, someone, tell me what I'm missing here?
programs made for wm2003 dont always work on ppc2002
like voicecommand from ms
this is likely to become a bigger and bigger problem as time goes by
I agree with you on there is no BIG motive for upgrade. The only noticed differences are:
1. SMS better handling
2. GPRS "Always on" feature, but it's not that fancy except if you keep MSN messenger on (who does this ??!! :shock: ).
3. MIDI files for ring tones (never worked for me tho :evil: )
Rudegar said:
programs made for wm2003 dont always work on ppc2002
like voicecommand from ms
this is likely to become a bigger and bigger problem as time goes by
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true, but if you don't need these s/w you shouldn't sacrifice the stability. However, will this amount of experience in this forum it's not that complex any more.
1. SMS better handling
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you explain this to me?
Because my XDA already has GPRS always on (and you're right, who does that ).
Chances are I already have the better SMS handling, but didn't notice it? What is the exact difference?
Capt. PV.
I'd probably apply the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' rule if I were you.
I upgraded my XDA (and recently did a full hardware upgrade to an i-Mate / XDA II) because there were features I wanted (such as wireless modem) for a particular purpose, but I doubt I'd have upgraded if that weren't so.
If you're comfortable with your baby as it is, (and aren't slave to a constant compulsion to pull things apart to figure out why they work) don't mess with it. :roll: .
SMS has character count. GPRS always on is very useful when you are actually trying to do something with it. If you want to continue using old software that's fine. Same reason not to upgrade from DOS 6.1. But personally I like getting software and installing it without worrying about whether my O/S is new enough. Some of us just like to experiment too.
We also live in the hope that bugs and nuances will be fixed with each O/S release and service release. If you believe the XDA is without nuances in its original form then you don't use it enough.
If you cannot think of any single reason to upgrade - then don't.
SMS better handling also includes the 4 buttons in the dialog upon recveiving the SMS so you can call/delete/reply immediately instead of opening the Inbox item. This is plus the character count and the auto-name-insert feature after the first 3 letters.
The GPRS always on feature saves the time to get attached, but if this time is less than 3 seconds and usually the s/w is connecting automatically then it's not that issue (at least for me) as I noticed that making/receiving phone calls is faster when GPRS is off (I might be wrong tho ).
I notice you are running the standard O2 setup with the latest rom and radio stack 4.21, if you go to the rom kitchen you can still cook the same rom but you can add a whole bunch of programs to the unused space in your rom area, if you dont mind losing the bloated O2 auto setup and use the developers setup you will have even more free space. These programs are instantly available, use no ram unless running and make the xda a much better pda/phone.
Captain Pervert said:
So, someone, tell me what I'm missing here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Pocket Quake II doesn't run on PPC2002 :twisted: "due to a bug in the Operating System" so other software may also not work. The second important thing is Media Player 9 installed (with codecs).
do people really play quake 1 and 2 and other fps on their pda's ?
or is it just to impress people ?
because i've messed around a bit with quake1 and feel like a handicap'd zombie trying to gain any kind of control over the game
compared to how i can do it on a normal pc
imho then the controls of pda's dont mix with fps that well
the whole aiming thing require one to use the pen and i just cant do that fast or precise enough for gaming

looking for CPU software to slow the CPU down, SAVE BATTERY!

Has any one got a link for a freeware program to do throtterling of the CPU as in not always running at 400Mhz? I've seen a few more complex ones that you have to pay for but they do all sorts of things? I am thinking of giving it a go and the whole point of Intel developing the XScale chip is because it's able to Scale down the speed (Hense the name) this saves a lot of battery life apparently...
Any ideas?
Downclock your processor will not take a lot saving your battery life (about 10%).
Use XCPUScalar for your Xscale cpu,it let you choose 100-200-300-400-472 Mhz mode.
Regards
Double post
thanks for the reply unapproachable2kx I will take a look into that program... Great work...
Hear is a direct link for any one that would like to look it up as well
http://www.immiersoft.com/
does the program expire at all? has any one done any testing of just very basic PDA work as in address lookup, phone number lookup and that sorta stuff and seen how much extra battery like they can get out of there PDA?
Is there any programs that can automaticly scale the speed of the CPU acording to CPU load that is freeware? Will Microsoft be implamenting CPU scaling in the Second Edition of there 2003 OS? still can't belive that its not a built in feature if the CPU's where designed to scale acordingly...
Does no one else know of any others that can scale the CPU speed according to usage? ass well as the software being freeware?
The Xscaler prog is not free.
This is
http://elevatedstudios.com/pocket/
Thanks for the link xda-rocks, Have you had any trouble using this software on the XDA II, I see they give you a bit of babble about you may have to do hard resets and stuff like that.... Have you had any problems as yet... I have never used any CPU throterling software and am just wanting to play around with it a bit..
Do you notice a extended battery life if you use this software at all?
No probs so far, but haven't really had time to try it - only just installed myself.

Re:Best software for WM5.0 to date...by far!!

Re:Best software for WM5.0 to date...by far!!
Hi all. I cannot take credit for the best bit of software I have come across since purchasing my Jasjar. All credit most deservedly goes to sub69 for pointing me in the right direction. 8)
Read this thread to understand why:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=30412
Like most people on this forum, I joined xda-developers to solve my own problems whilst trying to help others solve theirs if I am able. I've been cursing left right and center for 3 weeks now about the performance of the Jasjar even though i still love the device. However one of my big complaints related to memory usage/leakage as I believed it affected the jasjars performance and through many trials and errors and lows, I almost sold it due to feeling I was not getting what I paid for. I felt that the jasjar was slow and underperformed.
I retract all former negative comments I made in relation to it being slow. Whilst looking for a simple application (with a small memory footprint) that would close all running apps without the rigmaroll of hunting down the 'settings' tab .I tried several different programs and all fell short in one way or another...till now (including Wisbar Advance 2.4.1..., Spb 3.0.1 and MagicButton (small footprint))!
Sub69 pointed me in the direction of GSPocketMagic and claimed it was the most stable program he had tried. Thought I'd give it a go too. Am I over the moon that I did.
This software does EXACTLY what it says it does.....well for me anyhow. :lol: Even better, it very much appears to have ironed out alot of my performance/speed issues with the jasjar! It has sped up browsing of the O/S and access to applications and gives me greater control of navigation in a simple manner. For me it has been Rock solid. I've only been testing it for about 5 hours+, but it hasn't slowed down once and has not dropped below 12MB of Program memory (I started with 27MB) & it maintains its speed whilst I upurposely ran 12 programs simulatneously (including video, music, photo slide show, word mobile, powerpoint, resco radio etc..)and then connected to wi-fi, surfed the net (faster I might add -not the loading of new web pages, but of cached ones) and posted on this forum. Almost Everything has improved by at least 30% or more (speed gain) and whilst I still get some jerking in high res 640x480 vid playback, it too seems more stable.
I don't understand how this has happened. All I had previously installed was TCPMP and Resco radio ! :?
Bearing in mind I had even overclocked my jasjar (no longer needed) with PocketHackMaster 2005, which, for me, did not yield results as favourable as this has.
The only logical conclusion I have been able to come up with is that GSPocketMagic has overridden some default settings/application that was somehow holding my Jasjar back! Overridden a bug in other words & this seems possible as it loads first after a soft reset, therefore taking precedence over anything else that may have usually performed some of its functions. Anyway that's just a theory.
For anyone like sub69 who have experienced relatively few problems with their universal, you might not notice any difference, but for anyone who is still suffering performance issues, I urge you to try this. You have nothing to loose & no of course I don't work for the company. I've just had to wait 3 weeks to start seeing the manifestation of the beast I believed the Jasjar was supposed to be. :lol:
Sorry about the long post people, but I've shared in alot of the misery many of you have been complaining about & at £700 it's about time we got some positive results.
thanks again to sub69. 8)
I can confirm that this programme is small and perfectly funcitonal for closing apps. If you're battling with PocketPlus for some reason, then this is definitely the way to go.
So do you have a URL where I can download it from?
Just have a look in the original thread he mentioned ;-) it´s
http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1276
- SUperbowl
Joe you could have opened the topic that was suggested
http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1276
good luck
Hi, is it possible to use it without replacing the current Today page and Start Menu?
Which CAB file do I install?
Yes, there's an option to set the 'click' to open the "Start Menu" (the default is "Menu") You could then set "Tap & Hold" to close all tasks or maybe to open the GSPM++ Menu.
I use "GSPMagic.xscaleE.cab" for the english version.
Here you go. A bitmap to use instead of he built in WM2002 windows flag.
CJSnet said:
Which CAB file do I install?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GSPMagic.xscaleE.CAB for english on JJ
Sub69, nice start button, now the flawless look sets it off
sub69 said:
Here you go. A bitmap to use instead of he built in WM2002 wibdows flag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do I put this? The current program's bitmaps are all together in one file.
Are other people finding this program somehow magically overrides some settings or bugs?
Do I have to keep closing tasks to keep up good performance?
This is the only button you can change as far as I know. Put it anywhere, and on the Basic tab of the GSPM++ settings screem, choose Bitmap as the Image, and browse to the saved .bmp
I don't have to keep closing tasks, but mackaby may have a different opinion on this, as he was having more problems with the JasJar's performance in the first place?
CJSnet said:
sub69 said:
Here you go. A bitmap to use instead of he built in WM2002 wibdows flag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do I put this? The current program's bitmaps are all together in one file.
Are other people finding this program somehow magically overrides some settings or bugs?
Do I have to keep closing tasks to keep up good performance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put in anywhere you like, then go to the menu: start-option-setting. Change to Bitmap and point to your new start menu bitmap.
The less programs you keep in memory, the better the performance, so close your apps instead of building up in mem.
Ok Sub69, you where there just before me.......tnx for the nice bitmap!
WM 2005 was supposed to deal with this issue. But I find that the build in close button of WM 2005 does not close at all. Amazing MS didn't find a solution for this problem yet.
The great thing about GSPM is that it also closes the phone application, where Magic button cannot deal with this properly.
sub69 said:
I don't have to keep closing tasks, but mackaby may have a different opinion on this, as he was having more problems with the JasJar's performance in the first place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quite true, that was the case for me, but no more. It doesn't really matter wether I close down applications or not, my speed is always up, unless I run videos at the same time in windows media player and TCPMC (that was accidental by the way).
Like I said, it's worked for me, and I had performance issues. If you don't have any, maybe you you won't see any improvement in performance, but it is still a very useful and stable application.
Oh, don't get me wrong it definitely speeds things up a bit for me too. It's only when you mentioned it that I really noticed though. I've been installing and uninstalling so many different things it's hard to keep track of what might be making a difference!!
Anyway, it's the best task manager I've used on my JasJar, and the performance boost is a welcome bonus!
Two Soft keys issue is back!
Small problem, some of us have noticed that the 2 soft keys keep dissapearing and reappearing after soft-resets. I thought I had this sussed last night, but I was wrong. It's my only issue with this software but not enough to put me off it.
mig31 suggested we might contact the developers of the software, as they would more than likely be able to fix this quicker than we could. I second that.
Gotta work at the mo, but unless someone else is willing to get in touch with the developers of GSPocketMagic, I'll get around to it in the week and post the outcome of our communications. Otherwise, all's well with this app. :wink:
I just wish I cud understand why (and if) it speeds up the device, even if u dont close apps. I'm a bit dubious if it's actually doing anything otherwise, without some benchmarks :S
if anyone finds gs++'s source code, please pm me.
V
I noticed that the 2 bottom soft keys disappear when you click "Close all". May be there is a way to add this in the "Exlude task Close" somehow

9 mnths on what is the definitive best ROM out there guys?!

I'd love to know what is the best of the best . . .
have use the O2, Qtek and Dopod but not on the same versions but I would say that Dopod's latest version works really well for me.
could you te me why?
I switched from T Mob Bloat Rom to the Qtek one.
I'd be interested to hear why you think it is so good.
Anyone else got a fave??
lr
I have been using an O2 Rom from the beginning of the year, and it is so very slow.
So I am rather keen to know what would be the best upgrade too.. Cheers!
looking in the other forum it looks like the dopod is quite good - again no friggin idea why!!!!
well for starters, they do not install a lot of aditional items. The only item installed is Voice Commander and that also is removable. In fact, when you do a hard reset and let the configuration run, you get almost 39mb of ROM space which is a lot in my opinion. Uninstall the Voice Commander and you get some more if you want to. There aren't even any additional themes like those installed on the iMate.
pretty kool - isn't voice commander any good then?
well its not too bad. supposed it can read your unread sms but i have yet to test it out.
though some like microsoft voice command as it announces who is calling.
i guess at the end of the day, it depends on what you need.
From my point of view, Qtek-9000 rom (whitout ext rom loaded) is the best one. It's light-weight, compact and fast enough than others. With some registry/memory tweaks, this is the fastest rom i ever used.
ranju said:
From my point of view, Qtek-9000 rom (whitout ext rom loaded) is the best one. It's light-weight, compact and fast enough than others. With some registry/memory tweaks, this is the fastest rom i ever used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you share with us what are the tweaks that you used?
Find the CAB attached. A restart is required after the installation.
The tweaks included in the CAB is mostly collected from the internet. But carefully tuned to get the best performance from Qtek-9000 (ROM). Universal has only 64mb RAM so that I tuned the registry to balance max free memory and best performance.
You will have an option (Settings>System>Power) in the processor tab to set the speed either Standard or Turbooooooooooooooo!
Turbo provides more processing speed but drains your battery toooooooooo!
Enjoy! :lol:
what does turbo mode do ??? it does not change cpu speed, so , what does it do '???
thanks
And please do post a list of the tweaks you have in the cab. I thought I could choose which ones to run but I guess not.
If I uninstall your cab with it revert to the previous registry entries?
adolfotregosa said:
what does turbo mode do ??? it does not change cpu speed, so , what does it do '???
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Standard behavior of the XScale processor is to run in dynamic mode, which means CPU usually tooks less power and switched in hi power mode only when an application asked it. But in Turbo mode, it runs in hi-power mode always and as a result you are getting better performance.
Ranju: is it for T-mobile only? I tried to install it (Qtek 9000) but it was neglected. (can't install it). Can the tweaks be manually done? If so: what are they?
ok but that implies changing the cpu speed and that isn't happening
Had to restore my backup... I removed the cab, which didn't unistall it completely. Tried to run it again and it wouldn't install (because it never removed the files it put in during the 1st install).
I like what you did, and I would kill to have a UI to pick and choose the changes I want applied. Right now there's not even a list of what's in there, which is why I tried to remove it in the first place.
It's a nice enough idea though.
ok ,it does not change the speed but picodrive runs MUCH smother !! i'll try to do this "feature" with XCPUScalar2006_v2.98 so i can use "speedstep" to save battery

My phone moves slawly

i have Flashed my rom with the ROM Black diamond 1.3
i have notice that my phone moves slawly
if i jump from option into the others he gives very very slawly reaction
is there is solution to make it faster ?
or new rom ?
thanks for the help
I know I'll catch a little flak for this, but here goes:
I do not recommend loading WM6 on your Wizard.
I know, I know. It's fun, etc. to hack your phone, and I'm not saying don't hack it. Load different builds of WM5, and you'll see some dramatic increases in speed. Most WM6 builds (remember, I said MOST) will slow down your wizard. The bulkier they are, the more likely you'll see a slow-down. The processor in a Wizard just isn't that fast, compared to most phones that have come with or been officially updated to WM6. HTC's official stance was to pass over the Wizard for the upgrade, in spite of the clamor of Wizard owners.
I've had considerable luck just streamlining my Wizard's WM5 by turning off lots of useless features (menu animation? WTF?) and by overclocking it, but not too aggressively.
At the end of the day, it's really up to you, and there'll be lots of people who disagree with my position.
BTW, here's what you can do with a streamlined WM5, a few freeware apps (rlToday, Mortscripts, PaulyA.com Vista Dialer, etc.), and one pay-for app (Wisbar):
Hello thanks so much
Atlest you did answered i really appreciate your help
if i back to the WM5 can i still connect with wirless?

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