topic Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!? in Other/General

is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:05:30 GMT

Hi everyone,

I really appreciate my xperia arc s because of the style, the monitor, the camera and the price but it has some problems that I would like to solve (or otherwise acknowledge that I can't do anything about them).

One of it is that my arc s is very slow! Especially when i press the "home" button.
This is what happens almost everytime:

it takes from 10 to 60 seconds to go back to the home and have it working at 100%. It's not so much time but it always happens!

I have android version 2.3.4 (I'm afraid to upgrade my arc s to ICS because of the battery consumption)

Memory free space is 48 MB on internal memory and about 2 GB of a total of 8 GB on my SD.

I have some apps always running: Avast, 3G Watchdog, Widgetsoid, delayed lock and easy battery saver. I like them, I would like to keep them running if the problem is not caused by them.

Is this normal? Do you have a clue? Do you need more informations?

Thanks

Ixion07

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:51:03 GMT

BASED on ME, that is not normal.. Arc S is "Lightning Fast" device. have tried fixing it with pc companion or SUS?

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

Uliwooly — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 16:02:58 GMT

The problem could be too many heavy apps running, or a lot of widgets. But most likely the problem are those apps

you do NOT need any

antivirus

taskillers

battery apps

ram apps

they drain a lot of power, and create a LOT of issues, yes even the battery apps drain power.

Don't forget to mark the Correct Answers & Helpful Answers

unrelated topic, if you have some time please check this thread

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/44888

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

Uliwooly — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 16:04:10 GMT

You can read about it here

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/android-wakelock-api-bugs/

Android apps that use power control APIs are often 'battery killers,' oh the irony

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/64061-api-glitch-may-explain-fast-draining-phone-batteries

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120613HuSmart

Don't forget to mark the Correct Answers & Helpful Answers

unrelated topic, if you have some time please check this thread

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/44888

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:31:46 GMT

Thank you for you help guys.

I had tough days and I had no time to worry about my Arc S. Unfortunately the problem is still there.

I unistalled everything that was unuseful as you suggested. Now i have 4 games, evernote, some social and instant messaging, shazam, swiftkey and other few apps (no antivirus, no task killers, no battery apps, no ram apps). I think that if I should remove some more it would be better to bring back to life my old nokia

I even changed my micro sd: the one that was together with the phone was 8GB class 2, hence, I replaced it with a new 32GB class 10 one. This change improved the performance of my smartphone but it didn't solve the problem.

In conclusion, at the moment my Arc S still often has slowness problems but it goes back to normal condition faster. They're really annoying.

I think I'm going to reinstall the OS... First question: is there anything else I can try before reinstalling the OS?

Second question: Gingerbread or ICS?

Third question: is there a trustworthy app that can measure the performance of my smartphone?

That would be useful to make a comparison between my current performance, my performance with reinstalled OS and performance of other people's Arc S.

Greetings

ixion07

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

Q2000 — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:26:35 GMT

From what i can see in your notifcation bar you must be running lots of non standard background apps that arent preloaded with phone. There are some apps that run on boot that are taking your memory. I have about 180meg+ after boot. You should go to settings / applications / running services and stop apps (after boot i usually end apps such as facebook / update centre / video unlimited / setup guide which frees up more memory usually brings it up to about 190meg free, if you could get images of your running services be handy. Apps that run in background eat memory, facebook eats a lot.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

system32 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:11:17 GMT

I would recommend ICS, as you can get a lot of free ram and space using the "Disable" feature it provides in the settings menu. I have disabled almost a quarter of all apps and my phone is pretty quick.

Also, you need to be quite strict about what you keep on your device, for example consider using the Wikipedia web page instead of the application.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:06:37 GMT

That was an old screenshot, at this moment I don't have antivirus, task killers, battery apps, and ram apps anymore.

Talking about RAM, at this moment I have 194 MB used and 66 MB free. I'm far far away from your 190 MB free!!!

I'll end some apps and see how my smartphone will behave after that. Thanks

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:09:14 GMT

Thanks, I keep trying to solve the problem with gingerbread but if I'll fail I will follow your advice and install ICS.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

system32 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:03:50 GMT

Ok, btw i'll just let you know that I haven't noticed any difference in battery consumption with ICS.

Here is a screenshot that shows how much ram you can free up with ICS:

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:21:26 GMT

Ok... maybe I'm wrong about it... but in my experience total RAM is a fixed value... Why my used+free RAM is 250 MB while yours is 340 MB??? O.O

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

system32 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:41:52 GMT

Yours is 250..? That's weird, I would definitely do a repair or update through PC companion.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:30:20 GMT

Here a screenshot! (I'm sorry it's in Italian)

As you can see I have more free RAM than a few ours ago (it was 66 MB this afternoon!) and at the same time my total RAM increased from 250 to 286 MB!

I really don't understand how it works...

I had to remove my favourite app (Swiftkey) because it was very heavy (23 MB) but please don't say I have to kill whatsapp!

PS: I already see the effect of more free RAM... now performance is good!

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

system32 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:03:59 GMT

Bizarre, you might gety even more if you restart the phone. i.e. turn off and on.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:03:55 GMT

I restarted my phone and killed some services. This is the result:

As you can see my total RAM is 289 MB now.

If you look at the specifications, total RAM should be 512 MB, isn't it?

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

Q2000 — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:22:54 GMT

The reason the amount of ram varies is because the android operating system alocates as required so the amount of free user ram goes up and down. The android operating ram allocation is hidden as it not seen by the normal android running process app.

Total ram is 512mb but usually os takes 200 which makes total memory capacity of 300 meg minus 140 meg for apps such as keyboard, facebook, and crashreport etc.

Its like the fact that the phone has 1gigbayte of internal storage but the user can only see 300/400 meg as total capacity as the other partion is hidden its the same with the android os memory use.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

ixion07 — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:23:10 GMT

Thank you Q2000 for the explanation!

My phone was perfoming good after freeing some RAM and I decided to upgrade it to ICS as system32 suggested.

Now I have about 98 MB of free RAM and I don't know what to do to free more MB!

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

system32 — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 20:46:47 GMT

Well, first of all, is the problem fixed? i.e. is it faster?

If so, don't worry about freeing up ram.

If not, then go to Settings > Apps > All

And then sytematically go through and Disable all the apps you don't need.

For example I have disabled,

Everything related to Facebook (Can just use the webpage version If you only use it occasionally)

AlloCine

Digital Clock * 2 (Widgets)

Google Maps (I use Sygic)

Street View

Home screen Tips

Retail Demo

Setup Guide

Timescape

Talk

Live wallpapers

FUN&Downloads

Chineese Keyboard

CANAL+

System Games * 3

LiveWare Manager

Gmail (I use the default Email client)

Google Play Movies (Back up photos b4 disabling this) You can still use the Xperia Gallery!

And many more.

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

system32 — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 20:49:58 GMT

This app is extremely helpful too, and best of all, it's tiny ; )

(It clears up old cache files)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tritop.android.SLWCacheCleanerWidget&hl=en

Re: is it normal that my ARC S is so slow!?

Uliwooly — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 20:53:22 GMT

great suggestions