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Help Question about task managers and battery

gbenj

Well-Known Member
Apr 8, 2010
222
35
NY
Just want to ask a quick question to clarify something.

Theres obviously a question about the effectiveness of task managers, especially with regard to their possibly adverse effect on battery life.

I have a task manager installed, but dont have it set on any autokill function. I use it once in a while to kill an app that shouldnt be going, or one that I suspect is preventing my phone from going to standby.

Am I harming my battery life at all by having it running but not killing processes in most cases?

Thanks
 
You do not need task killers. Here's a fairly good and clear explanation of why:

Why Automatic Task Killing is a Bad Idea | android.nextapp.com

Why Automatic Task Killing is a Bad Idea

Many products on the Android Market which include task management functionality support a feature known as "automatic task killing". Such programs will automatically kill running tasks at regular intervals, typically on the premise of extending battery life or saving memory.

The problem with automatic task killing is that it does not provide any benefit.

As previously discussed in the Task Mangement Section, the Android operating system knows how to manage memory. It automatically loads processes into memory and unloads them as required. Android will strive to always use as much of your device's memory as possible, and this is a good thing: empty memory is wasted memory. Do not be concerned if your device does not show much memory available. If the application you are using requires more memory, other (background) applications will automatically be removed from memory.
Non-running applications which are residing in memory also don't use any battery power. It takes the same amount of power to store "nothing" in memory as it does to store "something" in memory. It does however take power to periodically kill running applications. It also takes power for the operating system to react to a condition where very little memory is in use and attempt to preload new applications into it (Android isn't expecting sudden large increases in the amount of free memory).

There is a case where automatic task killing does actually work. If you have a badly designed application that runs in the background and needlessly consumes CPU, automatic task killing will likely end it and cause Android to preload some other application instead. Chances are the other app won't be as poorly written and will consume fewer resources, thus extending battery life. SystemPanel solves this problem with the monitoring service, which allows you to see what applications are consuming excess resources, and then either uninstall them or report the undesired behavior to their developers such that they may correct them.

Manually using the "End All" feature of SystemPanel to emulate automatic task killing is an equally bad idea. The "End All" feature is best used if you're having trouble with your device and are uncertain of the cause.
 
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Thanks for the responses, but thats not really my question...I understand and have read all of that before. What im saying is if I have the task manager installed and running, for the every-so-often occurrence that I need to kill a specific app manually, is that doing any harm to my battery life.

I DO NOT have it set to autokill and I DO NOT use the 'end all' or 'kill all' function with any regularity.
 
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I really didnt intend on starting a discussion on the effectiveness of task managers, just wondering if the people who are against using them cause they affect battery life negatively feel that having it run but not actually kill anything with regularity (only used for killing a renegade application here or there thats preventing the phone from going to standby) is going to be giving me worst battery life than if I didnt have it installed at all.
 
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I really didnt intend on starting a discussion on the effectiveness of task managers, just wondering if the people who are against using them cause they affect battery life negatively feel that having it run but not actually kill anything with regularity (only used for killing a renegade application here or there thats preventing the phone from going to standby) is going to be giving me worst battery life than if I didnt have it installed at all.

you're right, i didn't read closely enough. i'll delete my post. sorry.
 
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Thanks for the responses, but thats not really my question...I understand and have read all of that before. What im saying is if I have the task manager installed and running, for the every-so-often occurrence that I need to kill a specific app manually, is that doing any harm to my battery life.

I DO NOT have it set to autokill and I DO NOT use the 'end all' or 'kill all' function with any regularity.
It depends on the particular one you're running and how it polls data.

I am in no way affiliated with SystemPanel but I have seen it's use and can say that even though it's actively monitoring and capturing historical data it DOES NOT affect battery life.

Your question is completely dependent on the task killer you're using.
 
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It depends on the particular one you're running and how it polls data.

I am in no way affiliated with SystemPanel but I have seen it's use and can say that even though it's actively monitoring and capturing historical data it DOES NOT affect battery life.

Your question is completely dependent on the task killer you're using.

For me that would be ""process manager lite" ProcessManager Lite - Android app on AppBrain

anyone have any experience, good or bad with that one? I like the widget alot

Edit: also gonna give systempanel a try, see how I like that
 
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download the app called system or system control

/thread

good to see after 12 hours you finally are coming to your senses now

Why dont you search for "system control" in the market and see what you come up with...

sure, "System" comes up with the paid app, along with a couple hundred others, so forgive me if I couldnt tell which app you were talking about with your not so helpful response.

next time if you're going to interject please do it without the ambiguity, thanks
 
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