Database Users

XXLRG, German ICS tests with several setups

Hello all,
Following XDA for years, but wasn't posting that much. My apologize for that, trying to give my contributions now
So, to start, hereunder, a sum up of my recent tests over last German ICS rom, Stock XXLRG.
======================
This is the second version of this post, taking in account various comments so far.
Firtsly, this is aimed to share my feelings about my own experience. Hope this could help anyone in anything. Nothing more
Accordingly to Roy_W, I provide which I will call my "test phase" description at the end of post, as simple infos for you to better make your opinion according to your own use. It is not about precise calculations & results, but about comparing the same things.
Hope this helps.
======================
Tests
1. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel, No root
2. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel + Root + remove some samsung apps.
3. Stock LRG + Speedmod 3-7 + remove some samsung apps
4. Stock LRG + CF-Root LRG + remove some samsung apps.
Impressions
1. In my opinion, do not use this setup. Rom feels very laggy, many little freeze here and there but the must annoying is the battery drain and heat while wifi download.
I think this is due to screen ON + heavy download (1GB+, games like Max Payne or Nova)
Pen is not well reponsive also.
Note : Except in test 3, there should be no difference with pen responsiveness between 1,2 and 3. but that was the case to me. Dunno why ^^
2. Starting to feel better, due to the removal of some Samsung apps (Rooting should not have this kind of effect .
Complete list of removed applications at the end of this post.
The phone is more responsive, lesser lags, but other things from test 1 (battery drain, pen responsiveness) remains the same.
3. Very good setup.
Lags are mostly gone, and Pen responsiveness is far better.
Don't know if Speedmod have done some special work for that, or is just due to his overall tweaks. I think it is also related to Samsung S-Suite updates. (look at test 4)
Good battery, feels like it could be better but mostly due to Samsung Roms than kernel. With normal use (sms, few calls, internet, XDA app , new review, some always active sync like Weather, Gmail, Talk, ...), you can easily achieve 2 days (48h) before running out of juice.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (maybe related to samsung apps that were removed)
But, bluetooth was not working and since it is a must have for me, I needed to go to test 4.
4. Currently in test. Don't have my bluetooth headset with me, so this test will be updated tonight or tomorrow for feedback about battery, bluetooth and other.
So far, overall responsiveness of the phone is ok, but not as good as with Speedmod.
Maybe a placebo ( ), but I always felt that Chainfire's kernel is behaving a little better than stock one even if the only difference is root rights.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (maybe related to samsung apps that were removed)
Samsung Removed Apps
Always doing this since my GS. It always make the system smoother to me. Can't tell about battery save.
- All Hubs (Reader, Music, ...)
- All apps related to hubs. (Zinio, Press reader, kobo...are examples of ones eating too much storage space).
- the big one : Samsung social Hub (2 apks)
- All stock live wallpaper (storage space eater)
I did not removed the Kies apps, since there were never launched, do not bother me and was having some weird warnings about missing apks while trying.
I advised to keep All Share (which is functionnal and useful for cross hardware connection) and Samsung Apps (but deactivate sync from app settings)
Go also for setting, and deactivate Wifi sync for system updates (About Phone -> System updates).
I did not test NOTECore kernel which has good feedback (3.1 version) because of the bluetooth not working.
Test Phase
Mostly due to my work, I have quitely the same daily use.
- Kernel were flashed the morning, at full charge, with cache/dalvik cache wipe.
- Only 3G, no Wifi/GPS/Blutooth. Auto Brightness, no added/removed apps (except for tests cases above).
- Betterbattery stats, stock battery monitor and Go power master for battery monitoring
- Facebook sync off (for battery save)
- Gmail sync on
- Google+ sync & Instant Upload off (for battery save)
- Weather sync every 4 hours
- Samsung apps sync off (for battery save)
- 1h call
- Gtalk & Whatsapp always connected
- No Flash installed (feels like I should mention this)
- No kills or memory clean
- Fixed wallpaper (for battery save) & lesser lags for screens transitions and opened drawer using NOVA.
What I take into account while making my opinion about battery :
- screen on time versus battery lost for the same period of time. Having used different 720p androphones, I have my own appreciation of that.
For 2000mah full charged batteries in my use with full stock, 2-3h screen on time is really bad, 3-5h should be considered as a good average, 6h+ is a dream.
GNote has a 2500 maH battery, so I have my expectation and maybe that's why I feel bad battery bahaviour when it won't hurt you at all.
- if apps were differently used by me according to their respective impact on battery
- if the basic services of Android are stable towards battery (custom kernels often reduce that )
- any wake locks
- if battery seems not affected by side-effects like mentionned above, then wait for one week of use before stating.
What I take into account while making my opinion about smoothness:
It is about shutters between screens transition, apps transition, feeling about time for the usual apps to be launched, multitasking...nothing more that a simple user feelings
Bests

thanks for the tests... but we prefer the wiping tests... just kidding...

thanks for the info,
which method do you use to remove these apps please ?

Haha..only wipe caches & dalvik from speedmod and CF kernel. I won't take any rosk from stock kernel
For system apps removal, jusy need root and titanium backup
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

CF-root and stock kernels are identical. No tweaks. Nada. Just root and Clockworkmod recovery.
So, how can the phone lag with stock kernel and be OK with CF-root ???
Placebo ?

Maybe related to the init scripts. For sure the main thing is the root with this kernel but wihin these tests and also for all samsung devices I had with Cf, it were always behaving better.
As I also said, should be related to samsung apps removal, especially the hubs.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

Phenryth said:
Hello all,
Following XDA for years, but wasn't posting that much. My apologize for that, trying to give my contributions now
So, to start, hereunder, a sum up of my recent tests over last German ICS rom, Stock XXLRG.
Hope this helps some of you.
Tests
1. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel, No root
2. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel + Root + remove some samsung apps.
3. Stock LRG + Speedmod 3-7 + remove some samsung apps
4. Stock LRG + CF-Root LRG + remove some samsung apps.
Impressions
1. In my opinion, do not use this setup. Rom feels very laggy, many little freeze here and there but the must annoying is the battery drain and heat while wifi download.
I think this is due to screen ON + heavy download (1GB+, gamers like Max Payne or Nova)
Pen is not well reponsive also.
2. Starting to feel better, due to the removal of some Samsung apps.
Complete list of removed applications at the end of this post.
The phone is more responsive, lesser lags, but other things from test 1 (battery drain, pen responsiveness) remains the same.
3. Very good setup.
Lags are mostly gone, and Pen responsiveness is far better.
Don't know if Speedmod have done some special work for that, or is just due to his overall tweaks. I think it is also related to Samsung S-Suite updates. (look at test 4)
Good battery, feels like it could be better but mostly due to Samsung Roms than kernel. With normal use (sms, few calls, internet, XDA app , new review, some always active sync like FB, Weather, Gmail, Talk, ...), you can easily achieve 2 days (48h) before running out of juice.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (also related to samsung apps that were removed)
But, bluetooth was not working and since it is a must have for me, I needed to go to test 4.
4. Currently in test. Don't have my bluetooth headset with me, so this test will be updated tonight or tomorrow for feedback about battery, bluetooth and other.
So far, overall responsiveness of the phone is ok, but not as good as with Speedmod.
Should be related to various tweaks, and ChainFire always aimed to provide his kernels, with Root and few tweaks.
I had GS, GS2, and CF kernels were always really nice for those looking to a Rom not too far from Stock, but with some performance tweaks and root.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (also related to samsung apps that were removed)
BUT, having some troubles with NOVA with this setup. Several freezes, and needs to restart the launcher.
I think it is related to root access which needs to be set again coming from Speedmod to CF. Will keep you informed.
Samsung Removed Apps
Always doing this since my GS. It always make the system fly
- All Hubs (Reader, Music, ...)
- All apps related to hubs. (Zinio, Press reader, kobo...are examples of ones eating too much storage space).
- the big one : Samsung social Hub (2 apks)
- All stock live wallpaper (storage space eater)
I did not removed the Kies apps, since there were never launched, do not bother me and was having some weird warnings about missing apks while trying.
I advised to keep All Share (which is functionnal and useful for cross hardware connection) and Samsung Apps (but deactivate sync from app settings)
Go also for setting, and deactivate Wifi sync for system updates (About Phone -> System updates).
I did not test NOTECore kernel which has good feedback (3.1 version) because of the bluetooth not working.
Hope this helps.
Bests
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got to be honest I disagree with a lot thats written here.
Point 1 :- Why shouldn´t we use this set up??You might have or had problems but a lot of other users don`t,me being one of them.I have had NO laggs,my battery doesn´t heat up that much with WiFi,nothing freezes and the battery life is 100% top,all what you did in Point 3 with usage I get in Point 1 plus a few hours more.
Point 2 :- Once again I disagree,I´ve had no problems what so ever,only rooted for a few extra apps and removed NONE of the Samsung apps,still fast and smooth.Battery life still top,even upto 3 day usage depending on what I´m doing.
Point 3 and 4.....can´t say anything about these points because I won´t go this far,why should I ,everything is super fast,no laggs,a lot less battery drain:good: no need for any mods.(bluetooth also works )
Maybe I´m one of the lucky ones with a good Note :laugh:but this report won`t help me,maybe a few with problems.

Hi I think you don't agree wih my report cause of different perceptions between you and I.
Battery perf is linked to what is acceptable or not for both of us and also from various comparison through many flashes since GB.
And for sure, Linked to the type of use we both have.
It is the same for smoothness. I must say I am very sensible to lags and freezes even milliseconds one For instance, I am so maniac with it that I can detect a lag in a movie while no one noticed around me.
Plus, you can tell about many things to explain mobile OS perf and I will not accept this since I can not accept that a phone running a spec near to a PC ones, suffers such perf issues.
The best example is the smoothness experienced with my nexus with Jellybean against ICS. It is day and night.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

Thanks OP for the comparison :victory:

Good initiative from OP for the comparison. Each person use the Note in a different way and will have different results surely from OP. But the main point of this thread was to give us a basic idea on the different setups OP has used. Thanks!

Thanx for making thread with detail study, thogh i can not be agree with many of statements.
Here something i like to say
- There is nothing much difference between test 1 & 2 except you have Root and removed some applications.
So does it mean
*Rooting can improve performance - I dont think so
*Removing application just making space on system ROM, so does making room on system ROM, can increase performance? I dont think so
many application you have removed may not be activated on start, naturally that doesn't have any relation with performance, b'coz it just occupy space not RAM
Now some application which may have enabled on boot, even that gives you temporary extra RAM, As android itself have LMK(low memory killer) which auto kills background applications which is not in used - LRU(least recently used), and when there is enough RAM available, even you exit from applications it remains in background for quike reopening, that is basic android mechanism. So if your aim to remove some application to make available more RAM, it won't be fulfilled, b'coz that application will be replaced by recently used application by users till android system dont sense as RAM is full. (you ca test it - when you have many applications removed, sure you will have much free RAM on boot, but if you look again after 15 min of play with device, it will be again full, same as who dont have remove blotwares, so wat benefits we got by removing those?)
Yes atleast i can say applications which was running in background for some time can consume little juice, but if you believe me, my experience is it can save maximum 3-4%(of full cycle) nothing more than that. But performance? I dont have any logic to believe it.
-I can't comment on test 3, as i have never used any custom kernel, and leaving your opinion untouched.
-Again between 2 and 4
yes you have also not tested much, but somewat if your opinion goes in favor of 4 (as you said in 1&2 responce is not good but in test 4 you saying it is OK) then if i am not wrong chainfire himself said, his kernel is complete stock (minus mmc_erase_cap command +root+su binary+CWM)
so in that case your opinion may not be placebo?
Anyway dear don't feel bad. appreciate your workout, but some points which i said dont favor me to agree completely.
Regards

I think my note must have been XXLRG when I got it but after trying to do some rooting things and bricking it, then finally loading XXLR1 (ICS) It is working great with no lag or freezing what so ever. Also have scored up to 4050 on Quadrant!

Da mOnKeY said:
Got to be honest I disagree with a lot thats written here.
Point 1 :- Why shouldn´t we use this set up??You might have or had problems but a lot of other users don`t,me being one of them.I have had NO laggs,my battery doesn´t heat up that much with WiFi,nothing freezes and the battery life is 100% top,all what you did in Point 3 with usage I get in Point 1 plus a few hours more.
Point 2 :- Once again I disagree,I´ve had no problems what so ever,only rooted for a few extra apps and removed NONE of the Samsung apps,still fast and smooth.Battery life still top,even upto 3 day usage depending on what I´m doing.
Point 3 and 4.....can´t say anything about these points because I won´t go this far,why should I ,everything is super fast,no laggs,a lot less battery drain:good: no need for any mods.(bluetooth also works )
Maybe I´m one of the lucky ones with a good Note :laugh:but this report won`t help me,maybe a few with problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with this post. I didn't recognize any of the problems stated in the 1st option. I am currently running stock everything after having tried several different combinations of ROMS/Kernels.
There is also a lot of missing information in relation to what exact tests were performed and how they were measured : Whats apps were running at the time, were Wifi / GPS / Power Saving active, what was the state of the battery, how was "lag" measured, what brightness setting was used, Was a good 3g station nearby or was the telephone continually searching for a stronger signal, etc etc etc , The list could go on eternally.
As for anything batttery related, I do not understand how tests can be performed that have not been run over a relatively long period.
There are far too many parameters and options possible, that it would appear that the tests are merely personal interpretation.
I appreciate that you have taken the time and effort to do the testing but I am not convinced that the results can be treated as anything other than one persons thoughts at a given time.
I think that you can only perform these kind of tests when they are performed "identically" on a device that is reset from scratch and that the tests performed are measurable with precise calculation rather than the human eye/sentiment.
It is an almost impossible achievement outside of a qualified environment with a very strict set of controls.
Can the results be reproduced, is there any possibility that the results could change, would a third party be able to reproduce the same results ?
Unless of course detailed results and calculations are actually available, in which case it would be very interesting to be able read them.

Hi Dr. Ketan. Again, thanks for your guide, test 1 & 2 was done following it
Do not worry, I won't feel bad about your feedback, as for the previous one.
For sure, I think you and Chainfire knows that type of things better than me (no needs to tell why ^^), just reporting here my feelings over my tests.
*Rooting can improve performance - I dont think so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think the same.
*Removing application just making space on system ROM, so does making room on system ROM, can increase performance? I dont think so
many application you have removed may not be activated on start, naturally that doesn't have any relation with performance, b'coz it just occupy space not RAM
Now some application which may have enabled on boot, even that gives you temporary extra RAM, As android itself have LMK(low memory killer) which auto kills background applications which is not in used - LRU(least recently used), and when there is enough RAM available, even you exit from applications it remains in background for quike reopening, that is basic android mechanism. So if your aim to remove some application to make available more RAM, it won't be fulfilled, b'coz that application will be replaced by recently used application by users till android system dont sense as RAM is full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removing samsung apps does not affect that much battery, but smoothness. I certainly wrongly express myself.
Maybe CF kernel has nothing to do with it since I was always flashing this and removing the hubs (especially the social one) together.
But fore sure, since my galaxy S, even on the S2, and now on the NOTE, doing this does increase system smoothness.
I do not know that much about Android memory system managment, but the first time I've done this was because I was sick about seeing these services running in background, even without ever launching them once and it does consume memory.
Yes atleast i can say applications which was running in background for some time can consume little juice, but if you believe me, my experience is it can save maximum 3-4%(of full cycle) nothing more than that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you without any problems
You know the deal, 1% here and there...at the end, it saves some battery.
I will update my post, but I can now say that Speedmod provides better battery than Stock/CF, looking at my battery stats for today.

Roy_W said:
I have to agree with this post. I didn't recognize any of the problems stated in the 1st option. I am currently running stock everything after having tried several different combinations of ROMS/Kernels.
There is also a lot of missing information in relation to what exact tests were performed and how they were measured : Whats apps were running at the time, were Wifi / GPS / Power Saving active, what was the state of the battery, how was "lag" measured, what brightness setting was used, Was a good 3g station nearby or was the telephone continually searching for a stronger signal, etc etc etc , The list could go on eternally.
As for anything batttery related, I do not understand how tests can be performed that have not been run over a relatively long period.
There are far too many parameters and options possible, that it would appear that the tests are merely personal interpretation.
I appreciate that you have taken the time and effort to do the testing but I am not convinced that the results can be treated as anything other than one persons thoughts at a given time.
I think that you can only perform these kind of tests when they are performed "identically" on a device that is reset from scratch and that the tests performed are measurable with precise calculation rather than the human eye/sentiment.
It is an almost impossible achievement outside of a qualified environment with a very strict set of controls.
Can the results be reproduced, is there any possibility that the results could change, would a third party be able to reproduce the same results ?
Unless of course detailed results and calculations are actually available, in which case it would be very interesting to be able read them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many good hints in your posts.
For sure, I've made my tests with some knwoledge about that, and trying to be in the same scenario each time.
I will update my post towards the parameters activated and other you stated.

Thanx
yes custom kernel may have improvement, b'coz that is made for that purpose, and we know developer adds some tweaks to improve performance. though i have not tested it, i can be agree on that point. but i have not make review just b'coz i have not used.
Regards.

Phenryth said:
Many good hints in your posts.
For sure, I've made my tests with some knwoledge about that, and trying to be in the same scenario each time.
I will update my post towards the parameters activated and other you stated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Phenryth,
I look forward to your results, the basic idea of what you are doing has the potential of becoming a very interesting article.

These are tests without any statistical significance.
So in the end your heart or gut decided.

Everyone has there own view on how their phone should perform. If you are happy with it then there is no need to change it. If not then this guide provides some tips on how to improve it.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

To me for the first time ever since the ICS was introduced the 1- setup is absolutely the best I have tried, and I did try all four of them including removing Samsung bloatware.
The touch response is super sensitive, the pen works not just perfect but it also marks when in a diagonal position something never happened before, my one and only complain is the same one since seven months: the lag which comes when opening the Contacts application for the first time ,which is absolute outrageous other than that I am satisfied.

[Q] Full stock n9005 - Hotplugging misbehaving, cores stuck online (2 or 4)

Hi,
Anyone been keeping an eye on hotplugging on the n9005 ?
Mine is still unrooted, so I'm talking 100% vanilla Samsung configuration...
I use Android Tuner's online core notifications to keep an eye on this, there are other apps that can to this as well.
At some point, after a few hours of uptime, sometimes only after quite a many (20h+), I just notice that it will never drop below 2 or 4, never had it lock on 3 minimum, so can't comment on that scenario.
Once this happens, it's impossible to get back to single core even on very low load.
Also when leaving the device doing nothing, freq. drops to 300MHz and still 4 cores remain online.
There is obviously an impact on battery drain as well.
Only way to get back to normal is to reboot...
JP.

I've noticed the opposite issue, two cores just going offline forever until I reboot the device.

So that would point to obvious hotplugging issues, except if you ran into thermal throttling, maybe.
Were you running some heavy stuff when this happened ?
JP.

i tested it out of curiosity using the widget in system monitor app.
i have exactly the same issue as SentinelBorg above. the two cores go offline and never come back online until the next restart.
very wierd.

Well for the very least we can conclude hotplugging is flawed in the current firmware ...
As soon as we get a proper recovery (nandroid restore that don't bootloop) I'll start working on an improved kernel, this is just not acceptable for a top notch 700€ pricetagged device
JP.
Send from my Note 3 (n9005)

Latest case ...
Send from my Note 3 (n9005)

Again ...
Send from my Note 3 (n9005)

You're on full stock. Doesn't that mean you have no options regarding CPU government?

nakedtime said:
You're on full stock. Doesn't that mean you have no options regarding CPU government?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, so I cannot do anything about this misbehaving, except reboot.
I want to know whether this is something others observe as well.
The thing is, if you're not looking at it, you won't know it's happening, cause who really keeps an eye on online cores all the time ? I do as I do kernel coding and as such also work on governors, which make me look at stuff like that.
If this happens of yours, you'll just have a hotter Note 3 with less lasting battery without knowing why, or worse without knowing battery easily could last longer if that was fixed.
This clearly is a bug in the current firmware, since as you correctly stated, being full stock unrooted, I can't be influencing this in any other way than applying load to the CPU which is clearly not the case as you can see in the screenshots... and it just happens randomly.
Once I start on a Note 3 kernel that will be in the top list of things to take care of.
JP.
Sent from my SlimBean 4.3 build 1.8 / Yank555.lu CM10.2 kernel v1.6g-beta4 (Linux 3.0.99) powered Galaxy S3 i9300

I would have gone with the N9000 if I knew how to develop a kernel. BIG.little sounds like so much fun to dev on.
PS
Have you found any Info about the thermal throttling? I'd love to be able to manipulate the temps for less heat when over clocking.

I was actually not going to get any more Samsung device because of crappy open source support they (in fact don't) give
I ended up going for the note 3 because of the specs and exactly because it was the Qualcom and not the Exynos version and a one time offer I could not refuse, but I will go nowhere Samsung's own super secret Exynos CPUs ever again unless they change their policies, which I doubt.
I just do hope I won't regret my move...
JP.
Sent from my SlimBean 4.3 build 1.8 / Yank555.lu CM10.2 kernel v1.6g-beta4 (Linux 3.0.99) powered Galaxy S3 i9300

exactly the same here, after a reboot everything is back to normal
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2

Happened again after ~10h uptime while watching a live video stream...
Cores went to a steady 4 online, load was unchanged over a longer period (~45 mins of video stream over WiFi).
This makes little sense, hotplugging is flawed.
JP.
PS: Still stock unrooted.
Send from my Note 3 (n9005)

This is still happening for me, reboot solves it. Running 4.4.2 and thought this should be solved by now.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Stock kitkat XXUENB3, unrooted. I have a similar problem when all of the sudden all cores are stuck online with core 1 and 2 stuck at 1958 mhz and core 0 and 3 scaling normally just not going offline. A reboot fixes the issue untill it happens again randomly. This is my last Android device and I had gs2,gnex,n4 and now n9005.

I've rooted and when the issue happens, disabling mp decision and enabling it again fixes the issue so this means that hotplug doesn't play well. Maybe a custom kernel will fix this issue.

ciprianruse88 said:
I've rooted and when the issue happens, disabling mp decision and enabling it again fixes the issue so this means that hotplug doesn't play well. Maybe a custom kernel will fix this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, long time I've open this thread
Indeed, on TW I used to do just that, "pkill -9 mpdecision", which killed the daemon and it respawned and all was back to usual.
I've since then moved to CM11, and this never happened again ever since, so I expect this to be a TW related issue, since mpdecision had the same MD5 signature in CM11 as on my stock 4.3 TW ROM.
And it looks like if the problem still persists on KK TW...
But it's certainly not a kernel related issue, as I've use my own kernel on JB TW, where this happened as well, once I went CM11, I ported my kernel to CM, and as I mentioned, never happened ever since.
Might be TW messing with DVFS (for benchmark cheating and maybe other things...).
Maybe worth trying to use Wanam's Xposed Module and disable ROM DVFS.
JP.

2 cores always online and the other 2 always offline= Dual Core
Ok guys I have experienced the bug with 2 cores being always offline which basically makes your Note 3 a dual core phone many times in the past untill I found what caused this! Even firing up Antutu the cores are still 2 and not 4 online! So yeah at first a reboot was an easy and effective sollution but that was not enough so I devoted 2 days trying to find out what caused this. Guess what? The problem was inside one of Samsung apps, specifically the bloody S-Finder app! I can reproduce the bug 100% whenever I want so I am very sure about it! Also I have tested this on 2 other Note 3s (n9005) and I noticed the same bug , with 4.3 and unfortunately now on 4.4.2!
Steps to reproduce it:1) Fire up S-finder 2) Search any app and launch it or even without launching just only by typing on the search bar the phone enters into dual core mode(!) after few seconds 3)Now this is the critical step, remember now the phone is already having only 2 cores enabled so if you press the home button then you are stuck with the buggy dual core mode!!! So this is how you end up with only 2 out of 4 cores working!
The sollution is of course to reboot the phone but another more faster and specific sollution is to close the S-Finder with only this (correct) way: while you are on the S-finder app close it by simply pressing the back button untill it exits completely and you are out to the menu. Incase you are not in the S-finder app then you must check if the program is shown in the recently used apps(longs pressing the home button) then tap on it to open it and then close it by hitting the back button." Don't close/kill it from the task manager or from the recently used apps, only close it when you are inside of the app and hitting the back button!"
Synopsis All in all, the culprit at least on my case is the S-finder app in which when it is used it somehow forces the phone to get into dual core mode and it stays like this because you forget to properly close it after the search is done. The sollution is simply closing the S-Finder gently/properly by using the back button from the inside of the app and not with any other way.
I don't know if this is truly a bug of Samsung or just a sneaky way to increase/improve the battery life at the expense of performance but I surely know that many people have this issue without even realising it!
I said too many things so that I can give a detailed review on this bug, I hope I have expressed it clearly and not to confuse you!
I think it is a very serious issue and it should be fixed as well as inform people about it!

SAVVAS. said:
Ok guys I have experienced the bug with 2 cores being always offline which basically makes your Note 3 a dual core phone many times in the past untill I found what caused this! Even firing up Antutu the cores are still 2 and not 4 online! So yeah at first a reboot was an easy and effective sollution but that was not enough so I devoted 2 days trying to find out what caused this. Guess what? The problem was inside one of Samsung apps, specifically the bloody S-Finder app! I can reproduce the bug 100% whenever I want so I am very sure about it! Also I have tested this on 2 other Note 3s (n9005) and I noticed the same bug , with 4.3 and unfortunately now on 4.4.2!
Steps to reproduce it:1) Fire up S-finder 2) Search any app and launch it or even without launching just only by typing on the search bar the phone enters into dual core mode(!) after few seconds 3)Now this is the critical step, remember now the phone is already having only 2 cores enabled so if you press the home button then you are stuck with the buggy dual core mode!!! So this is how you end up with only 2 out of 4 cores working!
The sollution is of course to reboot the phone but another more faster and specific sollution is to close the S-Finder with only this (correct) way: while you are on the S-finder app close it by simply pressing the back button untill it exits completely and you are out to the menu. Incase you are not in the S-finder app then you must check if the program is shown in the recently used apps(longs pressing the home button) then tap on it to open it and then close it by hitting the back button." Don't close/kill it from the task manager or from the recently used apps, only close it when you are inside of the app and hitting the back button!"
Synopsis All in all, the culprit at least on my case is the S-finder app in which when it is used it somehow forces the phone to get into dual core mode and it stays like this because you forget to properly close it after the search is done. The sollution is simply closing the S-Finder gently/properly by using the back button from the inside of the app and not with any other way.
I don't know if this is truly a bug of Samsung or just a sneaky way to increase/improve the battery life at the expense of performance but I surely know that many people have this issue without even realising it!
I said too many things so that I can give a detailed review on this bug, I hope I have expressed it clearly and not to confuse you!
I think it is a very serious issue and it should be fixed as well as inform people about it!
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Click to collapse
Yes. I've did the exact same thing and cpu was dual core but after I've reset mp decision I couldn't reproduce it anymore. Good catch!

Yank555 said:
I use Android Tuner's online core notifications to keep an eye on this, there are other apps that can to this as well.
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Click to collapse
How did you enable the online core notifications in Android Tuner?

I9505 lollipop laggy

I have an I9505 running lollipop and struggling to address intermittent lag.
Broadly speaking the phone starts off working well, snappy.. but after a while can start to lag. By this I mean a press on the home button may result in a 20s+ delay for the task manager to come up. Switching a task may be slow, the keyboard may take 10-20s to appear, the screen may be mostly blank for a while. It doesn't crash, and does "come back" but it's nearly unusable. Usually once switched to a task and settled down scrolling is ok. then it may work just fine, snappy for a while
I don't see oddly high figures in the various stats I can see - cpu time isn't excessive. memory is harder to interpret and at times I do see kswapd busy just after a wakeup.. so my suspicion is it's a memory leak but one I can't prove
I've tried alternative kernels - hulk, imperium, and they don't appear to help matters at all.
The lollipop build was clean & Current firmware is I9505XXUHOD7, BTU
I am rooted and have progressively disabled various packages I don't use in an effort to lighten the environment
I've disabled animations (a cause of memory leaks in 5.0.1, though supposedly not affecting samsung touchwiz)
I am a software engineer and very familar with better battery stats, gsam, even a quick peruse through dumps via adb yet still haven't got to the bottom of my issue. I'm also very aware there's little in the way of solid facts to help debug a problem in this posting......
The next step is going to be a strip back - clean install, slow addition of apps. In the meantime can anyone identify any issues they've seen with any particular apps?

planetf1 said:
I have an I9505 running lollipop and struggling to address intermittent lag.
Broadly speaking the phone starts off working well, snappy.. but after a while can start to lag. By this I mean a press on the home button may result in a 20s+ delay for the task manager to come up. Switching a task may be slow, the keyboard may take 10-20s to appear, the screen may be mostly blank for a while. It doesn't crash, and does "come back" but it's nearly unusable. Usually once switched to a task and settled down scrolling is ok. then it may work just fine, snappy for a while
I don't see oddly high figures in the various stats I can see - cpu time isn't excessive. memory is harder to interpret and at times I do see kswapd busy just after a wakeup.. so my suspicion is it's a memory leak but one I can't prove
I've tried alternative kernels - hulk, imperium, and they don't appear to help matters at all.
The lollipop build was clean & Current firmware is I9505XXUHOD7, BTU
I am rooted and have progressively disabled various packages I don't use in an effort to lighten the environment
I've disabled animations (a cause of memory leaks in 5.0.1, though supposedly not affecting samsung touchwiz)
I am a software engineer and very familar with better battery stats, gsam, even a quick peruse through dumps via adb yet still haven't got to the bottom of my issue. I'm also very aware there's little in the way of solid facts to help debug a problem in this posting......
The next step is going to be a strip back - clean install, slow addition of apps. In the meantime can anyone identify any issues they've seen with any particular apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should add that I did previously use CM12 and that left a little laggy too, though not tried CM12.1 . The two factors holding me back - a) better/reliable camera in TW b) Beep'n'go - love the app. works everywhere unlike every other loyalty card app I've tried (uses proximity sensor pulsing, Samsung TW specific)

planetf1 said:
I should add that I did previously use CM12 and that left a little laggy too, though not tried CM12.1 . The two factors holding me back - a) better/reliable camera in TW b) Beep'n'go - love the app. works everywhere unlike every other loyalty card app I've tried (uses proximity sensor pulsing, Samsung TW specific)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
try to disable swap devices, if there is any. If I know well, stock Lollipop ROM uses compressed swap devices in memory, like in stock KitKat ROM (zram).
In a terminal/shell:
- List currently used swap devices:
Code:
cat /proc/swaps
- Switch to root:
Code:
su
- Disable swap devices:
Code:
swapoff /dev/swapdevice
or if you have Busybox installed:
Code:
busybox swapoff /dev/swapdevice
Where /dev/swapdevice is the swap device/partition, which you want to disable.
It's the best to do this in some kind of init.d scripts before the system starts.
I am on still KitKat+rooted, but this should work on Lollipop, too.
Good luck!

planetf1 said:
The next step is going to be a strip back - clean install, slow addition of apps. In the meantime can anyone identify any issues they've seen with any particular apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is the best thing to do. I suffered a weird wifi issue that no else had. A fresh/clean install of the same lollipop ROM and kernel fixed it. Haven't noticed any apps causing lag on lollipop.

G2 D800 Lagging, running absurdly slow?

Hi, so I've had my G2 D800 model for a while (about a year or two), and for the most part, it's been an excellent phone despite being 3 years old now. Never had any slowdown problems, and it's always performed well in games and in general.
But just recently, about a week ago, it just started lagging out and being very, very slow.
For example, if I'm watching a YT video through the app, if I rotate the screen, it takes maybe 5-8 seconds to actually rotate. Also, in a lot of circumstances where the keyboard has to pop up, it just freezes the app until the keyboard pops up maybe 10 seconds later.
It's also just laggier in general in most apps, scrolling through FB or Twitter freezes nearly every second when I'm scrolling. It's generally unresponsive and sometimes just freezes outright. It also acts this way on the homescreen, and in most everything else.
The most annoying part, however, is that sometimes the devices just doesn't turn on for sometimes up to 15 seconds after pushing the power button (and it usually just refuses to turn on when using my knock code).
The odd part, however, is that once it's actually in something like a game, it performs perfectly fine.
I've played a number of Cardboard games, as well as games like Nova 3, and it performs perfectly.
I've also ran multiple benchmarks (Geekbench, 3DMark, etc), and it scores around where it should.
Info about the device:
LG G2 D800
Stock Lollipop 5.0.2
Software Ver. D80030f
Kernel Ver. 3.4.0
Rooted
TWRP Recovery installed
XPosed Lollipop installed
G3 Tweaks installed, a number of tweaks applied
Everything else is stock (homescreen, etc)
What I've tried/checked:
Checked memory usage during "lag sessions", rarely dips below 300mb free
Changing minfree values through Rom Toolbox (tried every preset, as well as setting everything to the max to free as much as possible)
Rebooting (affects nothing)
Checked CPU speed with Rom Toolbox (is at max, and does achieve the max speed of 2265 MHz. Setting it to performance mode/setting the min speed to be 2265 MHz has no effect, but reduces battery time)
Changed default cache sizr (tried every preset from 128kb to 4096kb. With multiple benchmarks, the optimal value for r/w bounced between 512kb and 4096kb, currently on 4096)
Things I have not tried (that I am aware would possibly have an affect):
Changing anything in the kernel tweaks/build.prop
Completely wiping, reformatting, and reinstalling (I really would rather avoid this if possible, as it would take a while to get everything back to what it is now, and it was a pain to upgrade to Lollipop in the first place)
I am unaware of anything else I could try to fix it, which is why I'm here
So, does anyone know of any other solutions or things to try? This has made my phone very unreliable, even for phone calls and messages, which is a problem.
Thank you for your time and help!

Jtpetch said:
Hi, so I've had my G2 D800 model for a while (about a year or two), and for the most part, it's been an excellent phone despite being 3 years old now. Never had any slowdown problems, and it's always performed well in games and in general.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
First thing i need you to try out is this custom kernel : http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g2/development/lp-5-0-2-kernel-3-4-107-dorimanx-1-0-lg-t3102512
Then install greenify, and hibernate all the unnecessary apps.
This should solve the issue.

iubjaved said:
Hi,
First thing i need you to try out is this custom kernel : http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g2/development/lp-5-0-2-kernel-3-4-107-dorimanx-1-0-lg-t3102512
Then install greenify, and hibernate all the unnecessary apps.
This should solve the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply!
I'll try out greenify, though there aren't many unnecessary apps running (i uninstalled all the bloatware first thing, when I rooted).
And about the custom kernel, it's something I've never tried, so I have a couple questions.
Will it wipe my device, or break TWRP, root, or Xposed? (Sorry, didn't see the answer on that forum)
Will a TWRP backup I make be able to fully restore my device to it's current condition?
Is everything that is supported on my device be supported with that kernel? (Apps, etc. Don't know a whole lot about how kernels work, so I don't know)
Thank you!

Jtpetch said:
Thanks for the quick reply!
I'll try out greenify, though there aren't many unnecessary apps running (i uninstalled all the bloatware first thing, when I rooted).
And about the custom kernel, it's something I've never tried, so I have a couple questions.
Will it wipe my device, or break TWRP, root, or Xposed? (Sorry, didn't see the answer on that forum)
Will a TWRP backup I make be able to fully restore my device to it's current condition?
Is everything that is supported on my device be supported with that kernel? (Apps, etc. Don't know a whole lot about how kernels work, so I don't know)
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Even you uninstalled bloatware, the apps you use daily could be running in background and taking all those rams. So whenever you play a game or dont use a certain app, just go to greenify and hibernate. Since you have xposed installed, you can do more than that such as u can stop sync , etc.
About the kernel, it has a ram management settings and cron task.
Ram management dont need to be altered. It has some preset profile so if you seek performance, just choose performance or if u need battery , select battery profile etc.
Cron task is useful because it will do alot of things automatically. For example, it will release ram at certain amount of time from the apps , it will restart google play service since that could be an issue , etc.
All you need to do is take a nandroid backup just to be safe. Then download Dorimanx Ota from playstore and it will detect ur device and show u which version of kernel is available. Then download that, go to recovery, flash it, and you will see three app installed : Synapse -- will give you all the details of ur setup including cpu speed, temp etc for monitoring purposes
Dorimanx settings - this is the main settings of the kernel. You will see a P icon on top, tap it and choose your desired profile.
Color management : It is as the title says, just leave it be.
Then use your device, check your ram and report back. Hopefully it will resolve your issue.

Wow. Dorimanx did a lot more than I was expecting.
Downloaded the app, downloaded the kernel, flashed it no problem, went through and checked out synapse.
Went into the Dorimanx settings, and set it to the "Performance" profile.
Immediate improvement.
The whole phone seems a lot more snappy, and I switched back and forth between a 1080p60 YT video, facebook, and twitter with absolutely no problem.
Free memory when idle (no apps open) stays around 1gb; it used to be about 500mb before.
Tested a few games for the heck of it, and it actually seems to have improved game performance somehow. (It seems to have overclocked my CPU to 2.5ghz, though, so that makes sense.)
Temps stayed at around 58-60c while running a few Cardboard apps, so it seems fine.
Thanks for the help iubjaved! This has fixed my issue and then some! Ah, the wonders of the Android dev community.

Jtpetch said:
Wow. Dorimanx did a lot more than I was expecting.
Downloaded the app, downloaded the kernel, flashed it no problem, went through and checked out synapse.
Went into the Dorimanx settings, and set it to the "Performance" profile.
Immediate improvement.
The whole phone seems a lot more snappy, and I switched back and forth between a 1080p60 YT video, facebook, and twitter with absolutely no problem.
Free memory when idle (no apps open) stays around 1gb; it used to be about 500mb before.
Tested a few games for the heck of it, and it actually seems to have improved game performance somehow. (It seems to have overclocked my CPU to 2.5ghz, though, so that makes sense.)
Temps stayed at around 58-60c while running a few Cardboard apps, so it seems fine.
Thanks for the help iubjaved! This has fixed my issue and then some! Ah, the wonders of the Android dev community.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries, happy to help. I gave you advice based upon my experience using all those .
Feel free to post in XDA if you need any sort of help, you will find many that will give you insights and stuff to solve your issue.
GL :good:

Android 10 stable UI lag

Hi,
I've noticed a UI lag when switching between apps or transitioning from an open app to home screen. This didn't happen in the Android 10 beta rom. Anybody have the same issue? I clean flashed the stable android 10.

I can confirm this issue in the stable release. But I would like to add that this lag was already in the beta release and is in my testing not app specific. I would clear the cache and make a reboot.

Go into developer options and disable the three animation types. Everything runs MUCH faster with them off.

Floridaplur said:
Go into developer options and disable the three animation types. Everything runs MUCH faster with them off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, and while it does suppress animations, it actually feels less polished. And anyway, it does not resolve the UI lag which is really visible when using th app switcher. It's dropping below like 10fps. As if some gfx acceleration was disabled or the phone was completely overwhelmed

Anyone found a fix? I experience the lag every once in a while, though it's prevalent enough to be annoying.

I am having this literally every time i use the alt-tab like feature. Oneplus managed to **** up the one thing (butter smooth) Google has been bragging about for several versions ???

A simple fix would be toh format device once, as I have clean flashed and I don't face any lags

Dissable ram boost in system settings

fress said:
Dissable ram boost in system settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having random lag too. I'l try to disable RAM boost and is if it helps.

fress said:
Dissable ram boost in system settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesn't change a thing. (and am wondering it would. This feature is supposed to make smoothness (even) better, not worse)

Turn off auto brightness .. maybe it can help

I have been reading up on the A10 stable release posts and I saw a lot of people mentioning the issue that you are talking about here.
Many of them suggested a full format. So basically setting up your device as a new device.
I cannot confirm if this works for everyone but a lot of people are saying that after a fresh install they are not facing any issues.
All of the points mentioned above are just what I read from xda and op forum posts. I personally have not made the switch yet and probably wont be doing so soon.

Hey guys. I encountered the same problem on my Nokia 9. Not quite sure why this error doesn't get noticed by more people.
I think I fixed it for me though.
In my case it seemed that the OLED always on screen (which shows notifications and the time) was the problem in my case. It would always show that there are notifications even if there weren't any and that started adding up. So while the rest of my phone ran buttery smooth, the notification bar and lockscreen began looking like a Diashow. 2-5 fps sometimes. What I think is happening is that all these notifications are buggy and the always on screen can't get rid of them.
So my fix was turning that off and then restarting my phone. Since that everything runs smooth again.
If there is another thread I should post this to please tell me but I only found this one.
Hope it helped.

maxsak said:
Hey guys. I encountered the same problem on my Nokia 9. Not quite sure why this error doesn't get noticed by more people.
I think I fixed it for me though.
In my case it seemed that the OLED always on screen (which shows notifications and the time) was the problem in my case. It would always show that there are notifications even if there weren't any and that started adding up. So while the rest of my phone ran buttery smooth, the notification bar and lockscreen began looking like a Diashow. 2-5 fps sometimes. What I think is happening is that all these notifications are buggy and the always on screen can't get rid of them.
So my fix was turning that off and then restarting my phone. Since that everything runs smooth again.
If there is another thread I should post this to please tell me but I only found this one.
Hope it helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the issue is just : it's a ****show of awful coding, optimisation and non-existent testing. If manufacturers' programmers put in half the effort debugging their software we as "powerusers" at xda/reddit/... put twisting our brains in and out trying find correlating explanations and workarounds as to why we get UI lags or other absurd bugs (like 5GHz wifi not working anymore) on the 10th ****ing iteration of Android, we wouldn't have all of this. It all boils down to the general idea that because it is consumer grade product, quality check is just a non-subject. Apparent quality is just enough at product launch, and further updates (if they do get round to releasing them) can brake everything without manufacturers being held accountable.

The update showed up on my phone on the 25th, but, I'm NOT updating. 9 is too damn stable for me, & I don't see any "features" in 10 that will benefit me.

After reading all this i am not going to update to 10. Yet happy with 9.17.
Tmob unbranded dual sim op6t.

Narrowed down some parameters
I have the OnePlus 6, and have similar issues, that include swapping apps being slow, but not just the swapping of apps, any app that has typing in it, seems to DIE when I start typing. Maybe this is a google keyboard issue or something? I notice the issue most in the Microsoft Teams mobile app. It also tends to only happen when at least 2 apps are open, if it's on it's own, it seems to do fine.
This might just be coincidence but I went into dev settings and turned on "strict mode" and now I can't get it to lag like it previously did.
I just looked at my running services (dev options > running services) and saw that my Bluetooth was using 2.2GB of ram, and youtube was 1.7GB of that. I toggled bluetooth off, then back on and it reset this. I have not modified the strict mode setting above... still have not had any lag, will update this thread if I do get more lag.

MightySashiman said:
I think the issue is just : it's a ****show of awful coding, optimisation and non-existent testing. If manufacturers' programmers put in half the effort debugging their software we as "powerusers" at xda/reddit/... put twisting our brains in and out trying find correlating explanations and workarounds as to why we get UI lags or other absurd bugs (like 5GHz wifi not working anymore) on the 10th ****ing iteration of Android, we wouldn't have all of this. It all boils down to the general idea that because it is consumer grade product, quality check is just a non-subject. Apparent quality is just enough at product launch, and further updates (if they do get round to releasing them) can brake everything without manufacturers being held accountable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lagging issue I've seen many reporting in xda on the stock rom OOS 10.3.0. But 5GHz is working as expected. I can confirm it because I'm using 5GHz WiFI now and then

adondriel said:
I have the OnePlus 6, and have similar issues, that include swapping apps being slow, but not just the swapping of apps, any app that has typing in it, seems to DIE when I start typing. Maybe this is a google keyboard issue or something? I notice the issue most in the Microsoft Teams mobile app. It also tends to only happen when at least 2 apps are open, if it's on it's own, it seems to do fine.
This might just be coincidence but I went into dev settings and turned on "strict mode" and now I can't get it to lag like it previously did.
I just looked at my running services (dev options > running services) and saw that my Bluetooth was using 2.2GB of ram, and youtube was 1.7GB of that. I toggled bluetooth off, then back on and it reset this. I have not modified the strict mode setting above... still have not had any lag, will update this thread if I do get more lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After a night/day of normal testing with this, where I would normally have issues, I have not had and of the lag I mentioned above. This seems to have fixed some things. So, I would suggest that you first check to see what running processes are using all the ram, and then turn on strict mode in dev settings, if that doesn't solve your issues. I also have Ram Boost option turned off.

I experience the FPS drop quite often after the update. It's especially noticable when scrolling pages, switching between apps, pulling down the upper panel. The slowness seems to disappear temporarily after closing all apps. But I can't say that some particular app causes the lag.
UPD: A simple test to recreate the problem. I push the square button to switch between apps. Start swiping finger left-right and watch the animation smoothness. After 5-10 seconds comes the wave of low FPS, which lasts for a couple of seconds. Then the process repeats. The slowness doesn't seem to depend on some exact apps that are open.
UPD2: Well, I've just found out that the problem isn't constant throughout the day. There must be some connection to applications running in the background or something like this.