Device is very laggy even with plenty of memory left

[stephdogg]

I have the LG MyTouch (e739), and out of the box it is pretty laggy. Yes, I downloaded a few apps, but I put the larger ones onto the SD card.

I have 437MB of Internal storage left. (I should mention that I rooted the device and deleted some "bloatware"). But, I noticed that I usually only had 50mb or so of ram left. Why is that? I really don't do much on my phone.. and rarely have multiple things running. But, when I go to my storage settings, and click on the "running" apps tab.. there are a BUNCH of apps there. WHY are these running? Sometimes they are apps that I have not opened in days? Anyone have any advice?

 

[nickdalzell]

what are the specs and version of Android? some run faster some don't. is it rooted? if you go a lot of apps installed yes many of them do run in background even if not launched. is your GPS, 3G and such on? are notifications and sync enabled?

FYI having less memory on these devices is apparently a good thing. it says so in a sticky and is part of the memory management. it's quite normal to have around 35MB or less remaining.

 

[stephdogg]

Version 2.3.6, yes it is rooted, and this happened while on 3g/4g or wifi. Bluetooth and gps are off.

 

[nickdalzell]

do you have setCPU installed or another CPU speed adjusting tool?

 

[stephdogg]

I have no idea what that is. What do you suggest?

 

[nickdalzell]

since you are rooted you can install SetCPU and change your processor speed from on-demand (where it slows down during idle and speeds up during use) to steady (fixed speed regardless) and use the maximum CPU speed available to your device. this will improve speed, reduce lag (although i have only had lag up to 2.2 and not 2.3 myself) but will come at a cost to battery life.

SetCPU is free on the Google Play Store.

EDIT: also i recommend turning off auto application sync in settings, and turning off notifications inside your apps if they post notification alerts to you status bar and make noise (usually if you're using Facebook, Gmail or Yahoo! Mail)

 

[stephdogg]

Hey thanks a lot I'll check out that app but the store says it's $2... Didn't see a free version. Can you elaborate on the sync settings for me? Sorry I'm a blackberry user of like 5 years do this stuff is new to me.

 

[nickdalzell]

of course. if you go to settings-->accounts and sync-->auto-sync

auto sync is normally on by default, this is how Facebook, Gmail and other apps use notification ringtones to alert you to new posts, email ,etc. you can turn auto-sync off so if you're in a low signal area or you're charged for data, it prevents data sync and use until you manually launch the app via the icon. i prefer auto sync off since it saves battery and reduces CPU hog.

when sync is doing its thing when turned on, you'll see a 'refresh' style icon in your status bar indicating a sync in progress. this can, during the duration of a sync, slow your device down--even more so if it's a low spec device such as a budget Android phone (think Net10, Virgin, Tracfone). these sync operations usually happen every few minutes so you will notice extreme lag if it happens during, say, a game. turning off auto-sync will prevent that and allow you to check notifications by loading the app itself.

 

[Metroid Prime]

Clearing the cache on a lot of apps and stuff can help too.

 

[nickdalzell]

pressing 'back' key instead of the 'home' key to back out of an app many times will close an app instead of leaving it running, also minimizing CPU stress