Root Question about OC'd roms

[cmotion]

I had a few questions about ROMs that come already overclocked. I'm currently running KaosFroyo v.30 which I believe is OC'd to 710. Does this mean that it is constantly running at 710? (while sleeping, etc.) I am using SetCPU to set up some profiles in case that is correct, to give the phone a break and for better battery life. I was also wondering when setting up the "main screen" of SetCPU-- at first I had 710 as my max, 528 as my min. Am I, in essence, underclocking by not having both values set to 710? I thought about it and figured that, while the screen is on and I'm doing things on the phone, I might as well have both the minimum and maximum at the highest value I want the phone to run at, does that make sense? Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Frisco]

When we install an app such as SetCPU, we are allowing for the app to detect the highest value that the kernel has been coded to accept, if such a value has been coded into the kernel.

If we decide to go higher, we'll likely cause the CPU to freewheel and the device will crash or freeze up.

That will also happen if the kernel has not been coded to a value that the auto detection thinks it sees. That happens often, as the max value is often on the slider before we have a chance to change it the first time it's run.

We need to make informed decisions about what values to have SetCPU work for us.. especially the max, no matter the kernel's coded overclock speed.

 

[scary alien]

cmotion,

No, the phone won't constantly crank at the maximum speed unless you have performance mode set (I'm pretty sure). Your on-demand setting will allow the CPU to scale up to the maximum clock speed you've set depending on the demand placed on the system. Lower demand, lower clock speed required.

Any settings that you use that are below 528MHz would be underclocking since 528 is the base clock rate of this phone's CPU. Underclocking will save on battery life, so, well though-out setCPU profiles can make a world of difference in the rate of battery consumption. Your mileage, of course, will vary depending on your usage.

It took a couple of weeks before I realized that Ivan's Eris Official 1.0 came overclock at 710MHz o). It was suggested (by CaddyMan, I believe) that I run System Panel to verify what was going on.

This was actually pretty enlightening since I could watch what speed the phone was currently running at (or at least as recently as System Panel was able to sample the clock speeds). Sure enough, this ROM was already overclocked and I was none the wiser (and haven't really deviated from 710MHz anyway).

Anyway, by just having System Panel running and by changing what was (or was not) running in the background, I could watch the load on the CPU and what clock speed it was cranking at. When I knew that something I launched was still doing stuff, sure enough, the clock speed was at its max. When there was not much going on (i.e., idling), you would be able to see/watch the clock speed drop to whatever you had your min. speed set to in setCPU. You can't, of course, see what its doing while the phone is sleeping, but you can obviously infer that things will underclock per your profile settings.

A simple but valuable tool that reinforced things for me.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[doogald]

cmotion,

No, the phone won't constantly crank at the maximum speed unless you have performance mode set (I'm pretty sure). Your on-demand setting will allow the CPU to scale up to the maximum clock speed you've set depending on the demand placed on the system. Lower demand, lower clock speed required.

Any settings that you use that are below 528MHz would be underclocking since 528 is the base clock rate of this phone's CPU. Underclocking will save on battery life, so, well though-out setCPU profiles can make a world of difference in the rate of battery consumption. Your mileage, of course, will vary depending on your usage.

It took a couple of weeks before I realized that Ivan's Eris Official 1.0 came overclock at 710MHz o). It was suggested (by CaddyMan, I believe) that I run System Panel to verify what was going on.

This was actually pretty enlightening since I could watch what speed the phone was currently running at (or at least as recently as System Panel was able to sample the clock speeds). Sure enough, this ROM was already overclocked and I was none the wiser (and haven't really deviated from 710MHz anyway).

Anyway, by just having System Panel running and by changing what was (or was not) running in the background, I could watch the load on the CPU and what clock speed it was cranking at. When I knew that something I launched was still doing stuff, sure enough, the clock speed was at its max. When there was not much going on (i.e., idling), you would be able to see/watch the clock speed drop to whatever you had your min. speed set to in setCPU. You can't, of course, see what its doing while the phone is sleeping, but you can obviously infer that things will underclock per your profile settings.

A simple but valuable tool that reinforced things for me.

Hope that helps a little.

Excellent post. I'll also add that if you do install SetCPU, there is an info page that shows you how long the phone has run at each clock speed from 19200 to 864000. Right now my phone says:

245760: 2039445
480000: 1065103
528000: 45086
604800: 160202
710400: 995886

(The rest of the speeds are all 0.) This tells me that all of my profile settings are working as I expect they should be.

 

[scary alien]

Excellent post. I'll also add that if you do install SetCPU, there is an info page that shows you how long the phone has run at each clock speed from 19200 to 864000. Right now my phone says:

245760: 2039445
480000: 1065103
528000: 45086
604800: 160202
710400: 995886

(The rest of the speeds are all 0.) This tells me that all of my profile settings are working as I expect they should be.

doogald, thank you very much! This is very useful and helpful information indeed.

 

[cmotion]

Thanks everyone for the helpful info! There's such a wealth of information and helpful people on this forum-- since rooting I no longer have "(insert-newest-android-phone)_________ envy". I'm happy with my Eris, and it's incredibly fun (as well as time consuming) trying out all the amazing ROMs that devs work so hard to put out. I just installed System Panel and have been monitoring things in there. I know that the android operating system does a good job of closing out of things and I don't want to start another task killers debate, but there are some "Active Applications" that are running, either in the background, foreground, or as services that I never use and am wondering if I should just kill them. I use Handcent, but it always says that the "Messenger" app is running in the foreground. Would killing that have an effect on receiving text messages? Also, the News and Weather widget that is included in some ROMs... I never use that. Is it necessary that it is always running? I probably just shouldn't even worry about things like that, as long as my phone is running smoothly, right? Anyhoo, I was just kind of curious about those applications that start themselves up when I have no need for them (as far as I know).

 

[doogald]

Also, the News and Weather widget that is included in some ROMs... I never use that. Is it necessary that it is always running?

Funny - I noticed this myself yesterday, despite the fact that i had deleted the widget from my home screen. However, I was running a ROM that comes with a specific launcher as a default, and it had that widget installed, but I was using a different launcher.

I already had the Home Switch application, so I was able to use that to launch the other home screen replacement (ADW), remove all of the widgets, and then pressed home to go back to Launcher Pro Plus. If this sounds familiar to you - if you installed a ROM and then replaced the home screen with something else - and you know that you are not running the News and Weather widget, you may want to try the same. If this is the same as your experience, even if you stop the task using System Panel it may start right back up again.

 

[cmotion]

Doogald, that does indeed sound familiar as the ROM came with ADW and I downloaded LP. Went back to ADW, actually removed everything from the homescreens, back to LP and just did a reboot. That took care of the News and Weather widget-- the Messenger program is still running in the foreground, and the Gallery showed up now too. I think I probably just shouldn't worry about it unless I have problems with my phone lagging, which I don't. Thanks for the tip!