Troubleshooting the Android Emulator

Question

When starting up my emulator at home, the emulator takes forever to start. Sometimes it does not start. If the emulator starts, it is hit or miss if I get a network connection. When it does finally start, and I do get a network connection, it is incredibly slow.

I have the same set up at work, and the emulator flies. It is a joy to work on it, while at home it is a borderline nightmare.

My work computer and my home computer are both Windows XP. My home computer has 8 gigs of ram, while my work computer has MUCH less. My home computer has plenty of more processor.

What should I look for in comparison or analysis in getting the emulator at home working better?

Answer 1

First step: I would update the Google SDK. The latest SDK introduced snapshots. This means you don't have to wait on the emulator to boot the next time you cold start it. Instead it'll load right where you left it when you last closed the emulator.

I'm not sure why your home computer is performing less than your work computer if it has better hardware. My (new) desktop is running the newest i7 processor (8 cpus, HOWEVER: the emulator only runs on ONE cpu. So your clockspeed is what matters here, not how many cores you have. Does your home pc have a slower clockspeed than your work?), 8 gb ram, and a SSD and the emulator runs much faster than my laptop (last gen i7 with 4 cpus, 4gb ram, no SSD. But my desktop has nearly twice the clockspeed as my laptop). My guess would be the clockspeed.

Answer 2

Check your CPU model. If you're running Windows XP, it's likely that you have an older CPU that doesn't support some hardware virtualization features. For example, Intel's Extended Page Tables (EPT) are a feature that could account for the performance difference.

Anandtech has an excellent, techincal intro to the topic. Basically, pre-EPT page table lookups require a flush of the TLB, which is incredibly costly. Later hardware accelerates this process.