Help 4.2.1 has screwed my phone

[brandonnash]

Posted this on a 4.2.1 thread on another forum and it seems there is either no answer or they don't know what the answer is.

Since the sprint 4.2.1 update my phone's performance is horrible. To start off I have lost about 100 mb of memory when I clear everything with advanced task killer. Before the update I don't think I would ever get much below 200 mb available even when running things like GTA vice city. Now it sometimes dips below 100 even when I am not running anything.

Some of the cosmetic changes aren't bad but they don't make up for the poor performance. Even now as I am typing this I have a slight lag. My screen randomly comes on now. I can be sitting with my phone on a table beside me and it will just turn on. Sometimes once, sometimes over and over when I turn it back off. Battery is draining quicker also.

My biggest gripe is the camera. The way they have the menu set up is horrible but even worse than that is the performance. Fast shutter is non existent anymore. I can click 2 pics (very slowly) then on the third it freezes anywhere from 30 seconds to just completely locks up. This is after I have cleared the memory to try and give some extra wiggle room. The video camera is about the same. It records OK but with some lag at points but when I try to stop, it locks it up for more than a minute each time if it doesn't completely lock up. This has been a huge pain the past couple days because I have tried to take pics or video of some of my kids school activities and have missed a lot of it.

I am running stock 4.2.1 from sprint. Haven't rooted and would prefer not to if at all possible. Any help?

 

[trophynuts]

you could try doing a factory reset.

 

[brandonnash]

If it puts me back to 421 no thanks. Just wondering if anyone else has had and remedied these problems.

 

[trparky]

There's a known memory leak in the system_server system process that causes the memory of said process to eventually eat up all of the RAM of the system. Android 4.2.2 is supposed to fix this issue. Widgets on the lock screen makes the issue worse.

If you root the phone there is an app an the Play Store called Lockscreen Policy that you can disable the camera and one other widget that seems to make the issue worse.

 

[Yurij]

Task killers is not a very good solution.
Unused ram is wasted ram on android

http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care

 

[What'sAndroid?]

you are going about this all wrong. Don't worry about your RAM usage. Your solution is going to be a to do a factory reset. This will wipe all your settings and app's. And make your phone brand new again. If you are still having issues after that then there is something bigger going wrong and you should probably take the phone into sprint and get a new one under warranty if you are still qualified.

 

[Ciggy]

Don't use a task killer.

For the camera, the menu takes a little getting used to but it makes things go much faster. Don't use the icon in the bottom right to change settings just press anywhere on the screen and then slide to whichever menu option you would like. Much faster than entering a settings menu when trying to take a quick picture.

 

[brandonnash]

Task killers is not a very good solution.
Unused ram is wasted ram on android

http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care

you are going about this all wrong. Don't worry about your RAM usage. Your solution is going to be a to do a factory reset. This will wipe all your settings and app's. And make your phone brand new again. If you are still having issues after that then there is something bigger going wrong and you should probably take the phone into sprint and get a new one under warranty if you are still qualified.

Don't use a task killer.

For the camera, the menu takes a little getting used to but it makes things go much faster. Don't use the icon in the bottom right to change settings just press anywhere on the screen and then slide to whichever menu option you would like. Much faster than entering a settings menu when trying to take a quick picture.

My thing with the ram, and I have heard this since my first android phone, is that I don't need the task killer, all the ram isn't used, etc. If you can try running a lot of apps. Fill as much up as possible. Then try running an app that takes up a lot of ram. Then, using a task killer, kill everything but the high demand app. When I do this I can tell a huge difference in what I am running and not just on this phone. I use the grand theft auto example. Running it for prolonged periods can make it start going very slow. Killing everything but that makes it run fine. No placebo. Its sometimes to the point of a game or app being unusable and then its back to normal once those hogging the ram are killed.

The camera menu I can see as being easier to use and more on the go convenient. That isn't where my problem is. Its the performance. Before the update I could snap 30 pictures in a few seconds (5-10). Now, even with memory free, i can only take 2 pics in around 5 seconds then the phone locks up for 30 or more seconds.