Root ZTE Blade memory question.

[marco772]

Hi,

I have a rooted ZTE Blade/San Francisco running 2.2 but am blighted by its low internal memory.

I have Apps2SD installed, but have reached a point where, for every largish app I put on I have to uninstall another to keep the "low memory" notification away. It drives me mad!

According to Apps2SD, my Phone Only space is 208.12MB with only 29.74 available (having just uninstalled a few things). I DO have a micro SD card of 8GB though and that has 4.74GB free.

My actual question is, if I were to buy a 16 or even 32GB micro SD card, would this solve the low space issue or make no difference at all? As I understand it, even if you DO move an app to the card, part of the internal memory still gets used and this is where space is tight.

I'm therefore inclined to think it'll make no difference and would rather not spend

 

[ExtremeNerd]

It makes zero difference. Even with Apps to SD, there is still a small part of each app which remains on internal memory. Having a larger SD card will not help you at all.

On your second question, if you update to a newer (an typically larger) firmware version, that will likely LOWER the amount of internal memory you have. This is a hardware limitation, not a software limitation.

 

[marco772]

Damn, I thought as much. So, basically, my phone has a somewhat pitifully small internal memory and I'm stuck with that problem unless I upgrade. Hmm, maybe I should treat myself...

 

[El Presidente]

Which root method did you use? Did you TPT? If not, the TPT will alter the partition sizes, but I'm not sure if it amends the data partition.

I know for the gingerbread ROMs you need to TPT so if you're looking to go for GB, you'd need to do it anyway and it is ultra, mega easy (I actually just did it on Mrs Presidente's old handset last weekend) and is done in seconds.

 

[marco772]

To be quite honest, I don't remember! I used an online guide that a trusted geek friend linked me to. I used the same guide ages ago to up it to GB but it didn't work and I freaked out and undid it all. I later found that it was because I had neglected to move across the google settings thingie, so I was missing a load of stuff. I kind of chickened out after that and settles for 2.2.

I THINK this was the guide I used but it's been updated a bit since I last saw it!

How to install Android 2.3 & 4.0 on the Orange San Francisco / ZTE Blade / ZTE Libra U-V880 from scratch

Does that all look right to you should I decide to try for 2.3 (surely it wouldn't run ICS?!)?

If it looks okay then I may try it. Wpould be nice to have the black bar along the top. It's the little things...

 

[El Presidente]

There are ICS ROMs available, not sure how well they run as I'm just on CM7.2 at the moment. The phone is unused at the moment, so I plan to have a install one of the ICS ROMs at some point to see how it runs.

That guide looks ok, but it has Gen1 & Gen 2 instructions on it so doesn't say which version you're on unfortunately .

Download Mr Pigfish, that should tell you what Gen the handset is and what we can try from here.

 

[marco772]

Ah, have done Mr Pigfish already and I have a Gen 1, so would need to follow the guide that updates to Gen2.
I'll probably go for the Gingerbread update first off, I found one called RLS7 which I assume will be correct? (as you may well gather, I only vaguely know what I'm doing with all this!).

I'll follow the guide and see how I fare, will probably have to wait for Tues as that's my day off and I don't want to rush it!
Will be interested to hear how the phone copes with the ICS rom though.

 

[El Presidente]

If you're going to make the switch, here's the download & process I used: Gen1 to Gen2 TPT Upgrade - xda-developers

Like I say, it's a spare phone so if things go pear shaped, it's not a massive issue. I might even give one of the ICS ROMs a whirl tonight.

 

[El Presidente]

Well it's fast, no doubt about that, it's much, much slicker than GB. However, I cannot for the life of me get the Gapps package to install. It's getting late now, but I'll probably try and install one of the play.apk files using the in built file manager, or alternatively push it via adb.

It's getting late, so that will probably be tomorrow now. Either way, I'll keep you posted.

 

[marco772]

Hi, thanks for the updates. In the end I followed this guide,
How to install Android 2.3 & 4.0 on the Orange San Francisco / ZTE Blade / ZTE Libra U-V880 from scratch

and installed the GB ROM on it.
It seems to work fine. My main bug bear with it is that, although it was initially perfect. After I turned it off and on again, a green line has appeared at the top of the black status bar (see photo). This is most annoying as it spoils the look somewhat! Any idea what the cause of that might be?

The ROM I flashed was Swedish-Snow-RLS7.

I think I may skip trying ICS on it as all I keep reading is that various apps won't function and even you seem to be having a few probs with it (and, unlike me, you seem to know what you're doing!).

Any ideas on the green line issue would be a help though. I don't really want to reflash it as I'm not sure how (I assume I would just follow Page 4 of the guide and remove the existing ROM and the follow the steps with a newly downloaded one?).

Thanks again,
Mark

 

[marco772]

Was going to post a photo of said bar but can't see how to do it on here! But it's thin and the same green as the wifi icon and runs from the top left corner along about half the screen.

 

[marco772]

Ahh, another thing is the messages make no notification sound when I get a text now! Hmmm...

 

[El Presidente]

Was going to post a photo of said bar but can't see how to do it on here! But it's thin and the same green as the wifi icon and runs from the top left corner along about half the screen.

Sounds like a brightness or more likely a battery bar? It's there on some CM ROM's and is turned off somewhere in the settings. Not sure where for your specific ROM though, sorry!

Re the messages, if you head to Messages -> Settings are notifications turned on? I've had that issue with a few ROMs, the volume is full, but notifications via the messages app are turned off.

 

[marco772]

Thank you Sir! You are a legend and, boy, do I feel silly now. yes, it was indeed a battery bar. A new one on me!
The notification sounds was an odd one. If I turned them on from within the native app it did nothing, but if i enabled it via the Sounds menu in Settings then it suddenly worked!

Now I just need to head over to Google to find out how to turn off the notification sounds for the email and I'll be golden!

How's the ICS working? I wouldn't bother if it's less that 100% functional as this is my main phone for now!

 

[El Presidente]

I was messing about with that and sticking CM9 on my tab at the same time so haven't really had much of an opportunity play. It seems good and relatively stable, but still not attempted any fixes for Play yet.