Now that you've rooted your phone, one of the best things you can do to your phone is to set up an overclocking app. It not only speeds up the phone, but can actually increase your battery life. It's pretty easy to do, so this guide is intended to be an explanation of what you're doing, rather than just a set of instructions.
What is overclocking/underclocking?
By default the Hero's processor runs at 528MHz maximum, but it is possible to alter this using an overclocking app. Using one of these apps it's possible to run the processor at anywhere from 250 to 740MHz. This affects both the speed and power consumption of the phone.
What are the risks involved?
When it comes to underclocking, there is very little risk. Yes, if you set it too low then your phone will be sluggish when you bring it out of sleep mode, but that’s about it. You can’t do anything permanent.
Overclocking on the other hand is a risk. Not only does running your processor at higher speeds effectively make your phone wear out or ‘age’ quicker (Although underclocking will counteract that somewhat)
However, overclocking also generates extra heat. Electronic components don't like heat, so, especially in a hot environment, this excess heat could potentially damage your phone.
If everything goes as planned, and you watch out for excessive heat, your phone should be just fine. But if you do decide to use an overclocking app, you have to realise there is a risk of damaging your phone, even if it's a very small risk.
To quote Lox:
Why would I want to do this?
When it comes to overclocking, a faster procesor = better performance. Your phone will get things done quicker, and it just feels faster and more responsive over all. Once you've overclocked your phone you wont want to go back
When the screen is switched off however, your phone doesn't need to be running at full pelt. You can run your phone at half it’s regular speed and still handle all your incoming calls/texts just fine.
How does this affect battery life?
When set up correctly, your processor speed will be determined by the screen being on or off. Your phone will use more power whilst being actively used, and less power when the phone is inactive. So if you were to use your phone constantly your battery life would decrease. But given more normal day to day usage, you should see significant improvement. Personally I went from 1 and a bit days to 2 days on a single charge.
What speeds can I/should I run at?
The speeds your hero is capable of running at will vary depending on a few things.
1) Your ROM; using a rooted but otherwise stock ROM will not allow you to overclock. You should be able to underclock, although I have never tried this.
Custom ROMs come with new kernels (drivers) that should allow overclocking (have a look at your ROM’s download page). The minimum/maximum speeds may vary depending on the kernel used by that ROM.
2)The other factor is your phone's processor. Not all processors are created equal, and so your phone may/may not be capable of some of the higher speeds. On top of that, the heat generated by two heros at the same speed seems to vary too.
All heros seem capable of running up to 710MHz. Most (like mine) will crash if you try to run at anything above this. Some lucky hero owners can run at 740MHz. The only way to find out is to try the more extreme frequencies. If it crashes, or gets too warm, switch to a lower frequency.
The speed you can underclock seems to vary as well. It varies depending on the kernel you're running, but on Villain12 I can't seem to go lower than 250-350. Any lower and the phone becomes extremely sluggish when turning on, and the display turns purple. New kernels are coming out all the time at the moment, so it's possible future ones will be able to handle lower frequencies.
How do I set it up?
The two main apps for overclocking are 'OverClock Widget' and SetCPU'. I would recommend the overclock widget, as I've found it to be more stable of the two. SetCPU is more customisable however.
Using OverClock Widget
1) Install it from the market
2) Place the widget anywhere on your homescreen.
Bear in mind when using this app that it will only work if the widget is actually on your homescreen. SetCPU may be preferable if you don't want to use up homescreen space.
3) The SuperUser Permissions app will pop up, click yes to allow the widget root access.
4) Click on the widget and to go the advanced settings
Note: Do not enable 'Auto Startup at boot' when trying out new frequencies. If you picked one that crashes your phone with this ticked, it would crash every time you started the phone.
5) Under ‘Screen On Freq Setting’
Set your minimum and maximum frequencies for when the phone is in use. Setting them both to your highest value will give you the best performance, whilst setting minimum to a lower value will save a little power but your performance will vary slightly as the processor speeds up only when demand is high. As explained before, you will have to experiment to see which values work with you phone and which don't. 710 and below should work fine, anything higher may freeze and require you to pull the battery.
Tick 'Differ Freq Screen Off'
6) Under 'Screen Off Freq Settings'
Set your minimum and maximum frequencies for when the phone is in sleep mode. You want this value to be as low as possible, but not so low that the phone is slow to come out of sleep mode. You will have to find this out by trial and error.
7) Under 'Advanced Settings'
The first few choices are purely cosmetic, so you can play around with that your self.
At first, to check things are working, you may want to have your widget’s update frequency quite high. But once everything is set up, set this low to save battery power.
If ‘Use Your Frequencies’ is unticked, only the default speeds for the hero’s processor will be available (100-528MHz). So tick this option, then click detect frequencies, and you should now have all the options available with your kernel.
You can also pick to use other frequencies, with the ‘Click Here to Define’ option, but there’s not much point doing that. Trust the app to find the best speeds for your phone.
8) Under 'Operation'
Remember, do not tick ‘Auto Startup on boot’. Not until you know which frequencies your hero likes.
Hit Save and enjoy!
Using SetCPU
- Coming soon -
Using CPUSpeed - Work in progress!
This is a new app that I first tried about when it was pre-installed in Villain Froyd builds. So some of the advice here may only be applicable to their ROM. So please, check out your ROM's download page for any specific tips and advice.
Note to anybody using the app in a Villain Froyd release: At least in the first few builds, the Villain team have been releasing lots of different kernels for their phones. As mentioned above, the kernel is what determines the speeds your have available in your overclocking app. So you will have to flash one of their kernels on top of their ROMs before you can overclock. You will have to experiment with different speeds to see which kernel has the right speeds for your phone. But to narrow it down: Every phone seems capable of 690MHz, whilst 720 and 760 will only work if you're lucky. Same goes for the underclocking speed, everyone can do 350MHz, but not everyone's phone can go lower. So 350 - 690MHz is a good choice if you don't want to mess around trying out kernels.
This app is very easy to set up.
1) Under the 'Settings when screen on' heading:
- Set the adjustment method to interactive.
- Set the minimum frequency as low as possible.
- Set the maximum frequency as high as your hero can handle. (If your hero can only do 690 and you see the option 720/750, you're using the wrong kernel and need to go back to the start of this section)
2) Under the Settings when screen off heading:
- Disable 'Use screen-on settings'
- Set the adjustment method to interactive
- Set the minimum frequency as low as your phone can handle. (The same rule applies here, if your phone can't do below 350 and you don't see 350 as an option, you have the wrong kernel).
3) Tick 'Enable CPU Settings'
There are a few things to note with this app:
- With the other two apps, if you set the overclock speed too high and you had the app set to start on boot, your phone would crash every time you switched it on. The only option would be to wipe the phone. In the same situation, CPUSpeed will disable it's self and allow you to pick a lower frequency.
- Always do a dalvik-cache wipe when switching kernels And no, you wont permanently damage your phone by using a kernel that's too extreme.
- Until now, I have always set my min/max settings to the same value. Why? Because I found that the phone would be slow to react and speed up the CPU when I needed it to, which made it feel laggy. However, the new Interactive governor (as opposed to Performance or Conservative) in the Froyd releases allows the phone to increase CPU speed instantly.
What is overclocking/underclocking?
By default the Hero's processor runs at 528MHz maximum, but it is possible to alter this using an overclocking app. Using one of these apps it's possible to run the processor at anywhere from 250 to 740MHz. This affects both the speed and power consumption of the phone.
What are the risks involved?
When it comes to underclocking, there is very little risk. Yes, if you set it too low then your phone will be sluggish when you bring it out of sleep mode, but that’s about it. You can’t do anything permanent.
Overclocking on the other hand is a risk. Not only does running your processor at higher speeds effectively make your phone wear out or ‘age’ quicker (Although underclocking will counteract that somewhat)
However, overclocking also generates extra heat. Electronic components don't like heat, so, especially in a hot environment, this excess heat could potentially damage your phone.
If everything goes as planned, and you watch out for excessive heat, your phone should be just fine. But if you do decide to use an overclocking app, you have to realise there is a risk of damaging your phone, even if it's a very small risk.
To quote Lox:
Lox said:
Why would I want to do this?
When it comes to overclocking, a faster procesor = better performance. Your phone will get things done quicker, and it just feels faster and more responsive over all. Once you've overclocked your phone you wont want to go back
When the screen is switched off however, your phone doesn't need to be running at full pelt. You can run your phone at half it’s regular speed and still handle all your incoming calls/texts just fine.
How does this affect battery life?
When set up correctly, your processor speed will be determined by the screen being on or off. Your phone will use more power whilst being actively used, and less power when the phone is inactive. So if you were to use your phone constantly your battery life would decrease. But given more normal day to day usage, you should see significant improvement. Personally I went from 1 and a bit days to 2 days on a single charge.
What speeds can I/should I run at?
The speeds your hero is capable of running at will vary depending on a few things.
1) Your ROM; using a rooted but otherwise stock ROM will not allow you to overclock. You should be able to underclock, although I have never tried this.
Custom ROMs come with new kernels (drivers) that should allow overclocking (have a look at your ROM’s download page). The minimum/maximum speeds may vary depending on the kernel used by that ROM.
2)The other factor is your phone's processor. Not all processors are created equal, and so your phone may/may not be capable of some of the higher speeds. On top of that, the heat generated by two heros at the same speed seems to vary too.
All heros seem capable of running up to 710MHz. Most (like mine) will crash if you try to run at anything above this. Some lucky hero owners can run at 740MHz. The only way to find out is to try the more extreme frequencies. If it crashes, or gets too warm, switch to a lower frequency.
The speed you can underclock seems to vary as well. It varies depending on the kernel you're running, but on Villain12 I can't seem to go lower than 250-350. Any lower and the phone becomes extremely sluggish when turning on, and the display turns purple. New kernels are coming out all the time at the moment, so it's possible future ones will be able to handle lower frequencies.
How do I set it up?
The two main apps for overclocking are 'OverClock Widget' and SetCPU'. I would recommend the overclock widget, as I've found it to be more stable of the two. SetCPU is more customisable however.
Using OverClock Widget
1) Install it from the market
2) Place the widget anywhere on your homescreen.
Bear in mind when using this app that it will only work if the widget is actually on your homescreen. SetCPU may be preferable if you don't want to use up homescreen space.
3) The SuperUser Permissions app will pop up, click yes to allow the widget root access.
4) Click on the widget and to go the advanced settings
Note: Do not enable 'Auto Startup at boot' when trying out new frequencies. If you picked one that crashes your phone with this ticked, it would crash every time you started the phone.
5) Under ‘Screen On Freq Setting’
Set your minimum and maximum frequencies for when the phone is in use. Setting them both to your highest value will give you the best performance, whilst setting minimum to a lower value will save a little power but your performance will vary slightly as the processor speeds up only when demand is high. As explained before, you will have to experiment to see which values work with you phone and which don't. 710 and below should work fine, anything higher may freeze and require you to pull the battery.
Tick 'Differ Freq Screen Off'
6) Under 'Screen Off Freq Settings'
Set your minimum and maximum frequencies for when the phone is in sleep mode. You want this value to be as low as possible, but not so low that the phone is slow to come out of sleep mode. You will have to find this out by trial and error.
7) Under 'Advanced Settings'
The first few choices are purely cosmetic, so you can play around with that your self.
At first, to check things are working, you may want to have your widget’s update frequency quite high. But once everything is set up, set this low to save battery power.
If ‘Use Your Frequencies’ is unticked, only the default speeds for the hero’s processor will be available (100-528MHz). So tick this option, then click detect frequencies, and you should now have all the options available with your kernel.
You can also pick to use other frequencies, with the ‘Click Here to Define’ option, but there’s not much point doing that. Trust the app to find the best speeds for your phone.
8) Under 'Operation'
Remember, do not tick ‘Auto Startup on boot’. Not until you know which frequencies your hero likes.
Hit Save and enjoy!
Using SetCPU
- Coming soon -
Using CPUSpeed - Work in progress!
This is a new app that I first tried about when it was pre-installed in Villain Froyd builds. So some of the advice here may only be applicable to their ROM. So please, check out your ROM's download page for any specific tips and advice.
Note to anybody using the app in a Villain Froyd release: At least in the first few builds, the Villain team have been releasing lots of different kernels for their phones. As mentioned above, the kernel is what determines the speeds your have available in your overclocking app. So you will have to flash one of their kernels on top of their ROMs before you can overclock. You will have to experiment with different speeds to see which kernel has the right speeds for your phone. But to narrow it down: Every phone seems capable of 690MHz, whilst 720 and 760 will only work if you're lucky. Same goes for the underclocking speed, everyone can do 350MHz, but not everyone's phone can go lower. So 350 - 690MHz is a good choice if you don't want to mess around trying out kernels.
This app is very easy to set up.
1) Under the 'Settings when screen on' heading:
- Set the adjustment method to interactive.
- Set the minimum frequency as low as possible.
- Set the maximum frequency as high as your hero can handle. (If your hero can only do 690 and you see the option 720/750, you're using the wrong kernel and need to go back to the start of this section)
2) Under the Settings when screen off heading:
- Disable 'Use screen-on settings'
- Set the adjustment method to interactive
- Set the minimum frequency as low as your phone can handle. (The same rule applies here, if your phone can't do below 350 and you don't see 350 as an option, you have the wrong kernel).
3) Tick 'Enable CPU Settings'
There are a few things to note with this app:
- With the other two apps, if you set the overclock speed too high and you had the app set to start on boot, your phone would crash every time you switched it on. The only option would be to wipe the phone. In the same situation, CPUSpeed will disable it's self and allow you to pick a lower frequency.
- Always do a dalvik-cache wipe when switching kernels And no, you wont permanently damage your phone by using a kernel that's too extreme.
- Until now, I have always set my min/max settings to the same value. Why? Because I found that the phone would be slow to react and speed up the CPU when I needed it to, which made it feel laggy. However, the new Interactive governor (as opposed to Performance or Conservative) in the Froyd releases allows the phone to increase CPU speed instantly.
