slow unusable nexus s

Question

Samsung Nexus S, android 4.3.1, cyanogen 10.2.0-crespo, usable memory: 383MB

I have this mobile for three years now. The phone seemed to work okay until ICS and it started to get worse with Jelly bean. Now-a-days the phone is really slow and it is mostly unusable. It becomes more unusable when enabling data/wifi. I assume many apps are sent the broadcast message at the same time and they are all trying to perform updates at the same time.

I used to have Watchdog app and for quite a long time I have been monitoring cpu utilization and load average and found it to be high at most times. Until one day, I spotted the available memory was close to zero. Then i assumed the cpu is performing a lot of wasteful GC at most times. Later, I spotted more occurrences of memory plummeting to zero. I noticed that the garbage collection kicks in when I view 'My apps -> Running' and I am not sure whether it happens often enough to make the system performant.

In order to debug, I decided to reduce the number of apps and started uninstalling many of the apps including watchdog but that approach has not solved the problem. I have installed cyanogen updates and that has not solved the problem. I did notice the phone is much faster with the default apps from cyanogen. after installing gapps.zip, android installs more apps based on purchase history and the phone becomes slower. also the phone seems to be faster on restart and after a few days of uptime, it has less memory to work with. i believe there may be a memory leak and not enough memory to launch new apps and does wasteful GC work.

the ways I realize the phone to be slow are 1. when looking at running apps, android seem to be killing many non-foreground apps as I notice status 'restarting' 2. when i use the button on my microphone, the beep to the interrupt arrives either too late or it is completely missed. 3. if i come out of an app to the home screen, I can notice trebuchet initializing

guys, can you please offer some suggestions to debug the issue?

Thanks

Currently installed apps

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<AppListData>
  <App appname="Amazon" pname="uk.amazon.mShop.android" size="5316335" sizeString="5.07MB" date="23/04/2013" time="1366738427171" />
  <App appname="Amazon Kindle" pname="com.amazon.kindle" size="23581179" sizeString="22.49MB" date="21/04/2013" time="1366570897904" />
  <App appname="App List Backup" pname="com.brandao.applistbackup" size="2304027" sizeString="2.20MB" date="01/04/2014" time="1396383102282" />
  <App appname="App List Backup" pname="com.punsoftware.backup" size="378902" sizeString="370KB" date="01/04/2014" time="1396382887244" />
  <App appname="Barcode Scanner" pname="com.google.zxing.client.android" size="668224" sizeString="653KB" date="21/06/2013" time="1371836472245" />
  <App appname="BubbleUPnP" pname="com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp" size="3957649" sizeString="3.77MB" date="13/03/2014" time="1394747887162" />
  <App appname="Bus Scout" pname="eu.asteryx.transportlocator" size="1681662" sizeString="1.60MB" date="26/10/2013" time="1382772788648" />
  <App appname="ColorNote" pname="com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note" size="859481" sizeString="839KB" date="27/04/2013" time="1367058968594" />
  <App appname="English" pname="livio.pack.lang.en_US" size="14437111" sizeString="13.77MB" date="26/04/2013" time="1366978486863" />
  <App appname="Facebook" pname="com.facebook.katana" size="17040328" sizeString="16.25MB" date="19/07/2013" time="1374218323740" />
  <App appname="Gmail" pname="com.google.android.gm" size="4253876" sizeString="4.06MB" date="21/04/2013" time="1366552277742" />
  <App appname="Google Play services" pname="com.google.android.gms" size="12235141" sizeString="11.67MB" date="21/04/2013" time="1366552139811" />
  <App appname="Google Play Store" pname="com.android.vending" size="6951714" sizeString="6.63MB" date="01/08/2008" time="1217592000000" />
  <App appname="Google Search" pname="com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox" size="15140947" sizeString="14.44MB" date="01/08/2008" time="1217592000000" />
  <App appname="Journey Pro" pname="com.navitime.journeypro" size="9248795" sizeString="8.82MB" date="21/04/2013" time="1366582802991" />
  <App appname="Klipsch Control" pname="com.outsidesource.klipschcontrol" size="1133885" sizeString="1.08MB" date="06/02/2014" time="1391648578499" />
  <App appname="Maps" pname="com.google.android.apps.maps" size="7231300" sizeString="6.90MB" date="21/04/2013" time="1366552318711" />
  <App appname="Music" pname="com.jrtstudio.music" size="1015725" sizeString="0.97MB" date="13/12/2013" time="1386910689644" />
  <App appname="Pink Floyd" pname="com.pinkfloyd" size="802578" sizeString="784KB" date="29/09/2013" time="1380469681247" />
  <App appname="Pink Floyd Lyrics" pname="com.burke.pinkfloydlyrics" size="789866" sizeString="771KB" date="29/09/2013" time="1380469799724" />
  <App appname="Planning Poker" pname="com.ubxd.poker" size="106737" sizeString="104KB" date="29/04/2013" time="1367230918208" />
  <App appname="Pulse" pname="com.alphonso.pulse" size="9143806" sizeString="8.72MB" date="21/04/2013" time="1366570526289" />
  <App appname="Silent Time" pname="com.QuiteHypnotic.SilentTime" size="83997" sizeString="82.03KB" date="22/04/2013" time="1366618039740" />
  <App appname="Skype" pname="com.skype.raider" size="17600039" sizeString="16.78MB" date="31/05/2013" time="1370024457835" />
  <App appname="Sound Sleep (MT)" pname="imoblife.mtsoundsleep" size="16695081" sizeString="15.92MB" date="02/06/2013" time="1370209484511" />
  <App appname="SwissArmyKnife" pname="com.digital_and_dreams.android.swiss_army_knife" size="761305" sizeString="743KB" date="22/04/2013" time="1366644512928" />
  <App appname="Titanium Backup" pname="com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup" size="6155960" sizeString="5.87MB" date="13/07/2013" time="1373670423283" />
  <App appname="YouTube" pname="com.google.android.youtube" size="7754318" sizeString="7.40MB" date="06/02/2014" time="1391648972286" />
</AppListData>

System information:

u0_a41@crespo:/ $ uname -a
Linux localhost 3.0.101-Cyanogenmod-g7421011 #1 PREEMPT Mon Dec 2 14:43:29
PST 2013 armv7l GNU/Linux

u0_a41@crespo:/ $ free -m
             total         used         free       shared      buffers
Mem:        392408       377584        14824            0         1180
-/+ buffers:             376404        16004
Swap:            0            0            0

u0_a41@crespo:/ $ ps
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
root      1     0     584    448   ffffffff 00000000 S /init
root      2     0     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kthreadd
root      3     2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S ksoftirqd/0
root      6     2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S rcu_kthread
root      7     2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S khelper
root      8     2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S suspend
root      9     2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S sync_supers
root      10    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S bdi-default
root      11    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kblockd
root      12    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S khubd
root      14    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S cfg80211
root      15    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S cfinteractive
root      16    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S rpciod
root      17    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S khungtaskd
root      18    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kswapd0
root      19    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S ksmd
root      20    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S fsnotify_mark
root      21    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S nfsiod
root      22    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S crypto
root      37    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kapmd
root      38    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S pvr_timer
root      39    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S sec_jack_wq
root      40    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/38-sec_head
root      41    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/167-fsa9480
root      42    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock0
root      43    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock1
root      44    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock2
root      45    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock3
root      46    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock4
root      47    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock5
root      48    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mtdblock6
root      49    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S spi_gpio.3
root      58    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S f_mtp
root      59    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S file-storage
root      60    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/308-mxt224_
root      61    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/173-k3g
root      62    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S gp2a_wq
root      64    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/172-s3c-sdh
root      65    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S binder
root      66    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S krfcommd
root      67    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mmcqd/0
root      68    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mmcqd/0boot0
root      69    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S mmcqd/0boot1
root      70    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S dhd_cfg80211_ev
root      71    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S dhd_watchdog
root      72    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S dhd_dpc
root      73    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S dhd_sysioc
root      74    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/334-cypress
root      75    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S max8998-charger
root      76    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S irq/39-max8998-
root      77    1     512    304   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/ueventd
root      78    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S yaffs-bg-1
root      79    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S yaffs-bg-1
root      81    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S jbd2/mmcblk0p1-
root      82    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S ext4-dio-unwrit
root      83    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S jbd2/mmcblk0p2-
root      84    2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S ext4-dio-unwrit
system    86    1     924    220   ffffffff 00000000 S
/system/bin/servicemanager
root      87    1     4128   512   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/vold
audit     90    1     976    296   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/auditd
root      91    1     9916   904   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/netd
root      92    1     960    244   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/debuggerd
radio     93    1     7160   996   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/rild
system    94    1     50844  34260 ffffffff 00000000 S
/system/bin/surfaceflinger
root      95    1     291036 12620 ffffffff 00000000 S zygote
drm       97    1     10404  952   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/drmserver
media     98    1     38252  3228  ffffffff 00000000 S
/system/bin/mediaserver
install   99    1     952    316   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/installd
keystore  100   1     3292   648   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/keystore
gps       101   1     26124  1980  ffffffff 00000000 S
/system/vendor/bin/gpsd
shell     104   1     848    212   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/sh
root      105   1     588    32    ffffffff 00000000 S /system/xbin/su
root      115   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kauditd
root      116   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S pvr_workqueue
system    368   95    471676 107716 ffffffff 00000000 S system_server
u0_a39    446   95    369460 70424 ffffffff 00000000 S com.android.systemui
radio     564   95    351644 28920 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.android.phoneu0_a13    572   95    318548 16920 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.bel.android.dspmanager
nfc       580   95    321468 15204 ffffffff 00000000 S com.android.nfc
theme_man 589   95    314312 14152 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.tmobile.thememanager
root      677   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S loop0
root      678   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kdmflush
root      690   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kcryptd_io
root      691   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kcryptd
root      692   2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S ext4-dio-unwrit
nfc       694   95    317504 13424 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.android.nfc:handover
u0_a48    788   95    314072 13252 ffffffff 00000000 S com.android.smspush
u0_a49    2181  95    361244 24236 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.google.process.gapps
u0_a49    2204  95    352248 17264 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.google.process.location
root      3158  2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S flush-179:0
u0_a1     3844  95    325584 19564 ffffffff 00000000 S android.process.acore
root      17538 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/u:3
root      21485 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/u:1
u0_a24    22634 95    321564 32460 ffffffff 00000000 R
com.android.inputmethod.latin
root      23014 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/0:2
root      24625 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/u:0
root      25153 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/0:0
root      25948 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/u:2
root      26130 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S kworker/0:1
root      26146 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S flush-31:4
root      26147 2     0      0     ffffffff 00000000 S flush-31:6
wifi      26386 1     3252   908   ffffffff 00000000 S
/system/bin/wpa_supplicant
dhcp      26418 1     952    440   ffffffff 00000000 S /system/bin/dhcpcd
u0_a66    27191 95    352376 50764 ffffffff 00000000 S com.facebook.katana
u0_a41    27231 95    310040 27240 ffffffff 4011f6f0 R jackpal.androidterm
u0_a41    27247 27231 848    468   c0040f64 4002fef8 S /system/bin/sh
u0_a67    27258 95    0      0     ffffffff 00000000 Z ogle.android.gm
u0_a49    27275 95    439248 26740 ffffffff 00000000 S
com.google.android.gms
u0_a17    27356 95    313376 24288 ffffffff 00000000 S android.process.media
u0_a41    27388 27247 1172   460   00000000 4004215c R ps
u0_a41@crespo:/ $ uptime
up time: 10 days, 21:42:08, idle time: 07:47:10, sleep time: 10 days,
07:34:03

u0_a41@crespo:/ $ df
Filesystem               Size     Used     Free   Blksize
/dev                   191.6M    64.0K   191.5M   4096
/mnt/secure            191.6M     0.0K   191.6M   4096
/mnt/asec              191.6M     0.0K   191.6M   4096
/mnt/obb               191.6M     0.0K   191.6M   4096
/mnt/fuse              191.6M     0.0K   191.6M   4096
/cache                 469.5M    89.6M   379.9M   4096
/efs                     6.8M     4.6M     2.2M   4096
/system                503.9M   380.8M   123.2M   4096
/data                 1007.9M   483.1M   524.8M   4096
/storage/sdcard0        13.3G     5.6G     7.7G   4096
/mnt/asec/imoblife.mtsoundsleep-1    17.0M    16.0M     1.0M   4096

u0_a41@crespo:/ $ cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
18:       4434  s3c-uart
22:       4434  s3c-uart
28:          7  s3c-uart
30:       5924  s3c-uart
33:    5651790  s5p_vic_eint  acc_int
34:        237  s5p_vic_eint  proximity_int
38:      88976  s5p_vic_eint  sec_headset_detect
39:         19  s5p_vic_eint  max8998-charger
43:     106060  s5p_vic_eint  modemctl_mbox
44:          0  s5p_vic_eint  pn544
47:          2  s5p_vic_eint  modemctl_bp
50:          0       VIC  s3c-pl330.0
51:          0       VIC  s3c-pl330.1
52:          0       VIC  s3c-pl330.2
58:        179       VIC  System timer
61:   16928706       VIC  rtc-tick
78:     341601       VIC  s3c2440-i2c.0
83:     535608       VIC  s3c2440-i2c.2
88:          0       VIC  s3c-udc
90:    8682840       VIC  mmc0
92:     354172       VIC  mmc1
95:    3416889       VIC  onenand
97:     247260       VIC  s3cfb, s3cfb
101:       3249       VIC  s3c-fimc0
102:          0       VIC  s3c-fimc1
103:          0       VIC  s3c-fimc2
104:          9       VIC  s3c-jpg
106:    1490590       VIC  pvrsrvkm
109:   45691172       VIC  s3c2440-i2c.1
110:          0       VIC  s3c-mfc
112:     854208       VIC
130:    1695299       VIC  mmc2
157:          0       VIC  debug-signal
164:     156714  s5p-eint  bcmsdh_sdmmc
165:          3  s5p-eint  bt_host_wake_irq_handler
166:       1912  s5p-eint  gpio_keys
167:         21  s5p-eint  fsa9480 micro USB
169:        197  s5p-eint  gpio_keys
170:        155  s5p-eint  gpio_keys
171:       3738  s5p-eint  akm_int
172:          0  s5p-eint  s3c-sdhci.2
173:       9764  s5p-eint  k3g
174:        105  s5p-eint
308:      41106  s5pv210-eint-group  mxt224_ts
334:       1347  s5pv210-eint-group  cypress-touchkey
FIQ:              fiq_glue
Err:          0
u0_a41@crespo:/ $ netstat -an
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address          Foreign Address        State
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:48308 ::ffff:173.194.41.162:443TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:52519 ::ffff:31.13.72.81:443ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:41936
::ffff:173.194.66.188:5228ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:48137
::ffff:173.194.41.142:443ESTABLISHED
tcp6       1      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:50009 ::ffff:173.194.41.132:80CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:35612
::ffff:173.252.102.16:443ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:192.168.0.6:52520 ::ffff:31.13.72.81:443ESTABLISHED

no_usage_memory

Wyzard · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-25 04:10:56Z

I have one of these phones as well, but I don't use it as my primary phone anymore. Honestly, the device has been over run by today's software. Apps keep evolving to make use of the more powerful hardware available and these older devices just can't keep up anymore. I still use my Nexus S as a play device for my kids. It has a very bare minimum installed and is still frequently low on or out of RAM. The 512 MB total RAM available isn't enough by today's standards. With the aggressive nature many apps have to keep themselves running, killing them doesn't do much good and even Android's memory management can't keep up.

I see you don't have a lot installed either as you've been removing things during your troubleshooting, but some of those apps that are left can be pretty weighty and run in the background most if not all the time. Check the Show Cached Processes as well as Running Apps and you'll likely see what else is hogging your memory.

i have upgraded to cyanogenmod version of kitkat for crespo. i have not installed gapps and i use amazon store for apps and occasionally try some .apk files. the phone is much faster and responsive and i have mostly around 100MB free. kitkat OS developers really have spent some time to be nice with old low-memory devices developer.android.com/training/articles/memory.html — Rag, Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 11:34

alx1xla · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-24 15:48:51Z

1

There RAM usage seems a bit disturbing. I try to see to it that it has a min. of 15% - 30% free space.

There is a bit of a lag on our crespos. But, that relates to how many Apps are executed from Internal Memory and / or USB Storage.

Did you try moving Apps in and out of your Internal Storage. However, RAM is needed immaterial to your App's location.

Did you try any options, as yet?

answered Sep 24, 2014 at 15:48

alx1xla

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