[ghpk]

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks for the help. The phone was rooted successfully and I used Link2SD (plus) to move part of the apps to the SD card. The phone has otherwise been working fine. But - The phone has slowed down a lot !

Help, pls.

searched last few pages, sorry I was not able to find which phone model you are referring for.
As the phone is rooted now, you should install, Greenify, and select all apps which you don't need to sync continuously, it will hibernate all the apps which you select, freeing up more RAM to be available for use with active apps.
Do not Hibernate apps like Gmail, whatsapp, etc which are needed by most users 24x7.
Then using any Root explorer, I prefer es file explorer remove Bloatware Apps (if any) from /system/app
to optimize more, you can install any root based startup organizer, Like the option available in ES Task Manager, and remove apps which you don't actually need after reboot, like maps, pic editors etc, this would lessen the burden on RAM, making it smoother.

Let me know your phone details, will help you squeeze more juice of your old device.

Originally Posted by bluevolt

My 1.5-year-old(bought in Sep-2014) HTC Desire 816 has become a bit sluggish these days. I don't have any games installed, neither I use any unnecessary apps. Even the camera/Whatspp lags.

Desire 816 has 1.5 GB RAM and Qualcomm MSM8928 Snapdragon 400 Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A7 Processor. I believe this configuration is decent enough even in today's time for basic phone use of calls/fb/whatsapp/camera/etc use.

Should I do a factory reset on the phone?

Factory Reset would only make your UI fast as stock for few days, once you start installing and using all the app you use regularly, phone would be back into sluggish state again, please refer to my reply above and see if you can root the device and optimize it to serve you, the way you want it to.

[condor]

Originally Posted by ghpk

searched last few pages, sorry I was not able to find which phone model you are referring for.

Let me know your phone details, will help you squeeze more juice of your old device..

Thanks, @Ghpk. It is a Samsung Duos S7562

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Does that really matter when the speakers are only six inches apart? I think... no.

I also think that nobody would want to listen to music on the mono speaker, and that adding another one probably wouldn't make the quality any better. There are headphones.

It does matter. To some. Especially for people who listen to their music in bathrooms/bed rooms. Sony had some good models, earlier. Recently, have NOT seen much. Front firing, stereo speakers are best. As use cases of camera have reduced with advent of smart phones, the same can be said about walk-mans.

[arvind71181]

Sorry for the repeat question but my 3 year old Note 2 is very laggy and I want to root it and install a custom ROM, probably resurrection remix. I look up on the net and am confused with so many options available on the net. Any help please? Thanks

[mukul32]

Originally Posted by arvind71181

I am assuming we would need to root the phone before installing this. Any pointers on how to do that? Mine is running on Android Kit Kat 4.4.2

Nah, manually rooting separately isn't required for flashing a recovery via Odin. Root access would be required if you were to flash the recovery from the phone itself. And flashing a recovery via Odin is as easy as peanuts. Just make sure you have Kies (NOT Kies 3) installed on your PC (for the phone's USB drivers), and download Odin v3 from here, and the Philz touch recovery in .tar format from here.
After opening Odin, click on AP (PDA in older versions) and select the .tar md5 recovery file.
Reboot the phone into download mode with USB debugging enabled (power off, and long press vol-,power,home together), and connect it to the PC in download mode itself, and it should detect the device.
If it does not, try a separate USB cable. For me, the stock Samsung cable never worked. I used my Sony Xperia USB cable for this. Or maybe try rebooting the PC or with another machine.
Once it detects the device, UNCHECK the option "Auto Reboot" in Odin (IMPORTANT!). This is because if we select auto-reboot; after flashing the recovery it will auto-reboot into the stock firmware, and reflash the stock recovery while at that. And it would seem as if the flashing process didn't work at all. (I learnt it the hard way ) If you don't select auto-reboot, the device will stay powered off, and you must then boot straight into recovery (press and hold vol+, home, power together). It will then boot into Philz Touch, through which you can install the ROM and Gapps zip files in a couple of minutes' time.
Preferably, keep the files in the SD card and not internal storage, although internal stoage also is okay. Also, Philz has a one-click wipe in the option "Clean to install new ROM" so that you won't need to wipe the system, cache and Dalvik separately.
Hope it helps.

I look up on the net and am confused with so many options available on the net. Any help please? Thanks

As for the options, it is only a good thing. The Note 2 is an extremely popular device with custom modders. There are basically two types of ROM's available: The modded stock firmwares (Touchwiz based, have the S-pen features intact, and run on the same Android versions as the stock firmwares do), and the actual custom ROM's (Latest *stock* Android, S-pen features won't work, usually use CyanogenMod source). The modded stock firmwares are usually debloated, deodexed and customised versions of the stock firmwares with probably new utility apps, such as dialer, calendar, gallery, etc from newer Galaxy phones. But ultimately, their base is the same old stock firmware, and hence they don't behave much differently from what the stock firmware does with time and heavy usage.
The AOSP based ROM's on the other hand are fully diferent ROM's with a separate source code and all, and hence are lighter and much snappier. They are also naturally a lot more popular, and get updated far more often.
And actually, among everything else out there, Resurrection Remix is by far the best there is. They come with an insane list of features, are well designed, quite stable, and don't advertise the maker everywhere, unlike in Bliss ROM's or AICP, for example. You ask for anything a stock Android device ever had, you have it. Active Display, Button mods, on-screen buttons, heads up customisations, all CyanogenMod and Paranoid Android features, and what not. Also, their kernels are very good. No heating and charging problems usually. here is the official XDA thread, just in case.

PS: Quick tip- Use Google Now launcher instead of the stock Trebuchet in these ROM's, for the complete authentic Nexus experience.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

It does matter. To some. Especially for people who listen to their music in bathrooms/bed rooms. ... ... ...

I guess you are right. I would just about never listen to my phone's speakers, but I suppose many do --- and speaker quality from tiny devices has improved a huge amount over last twenty years so, whether it is mono or stereo, there is probably not really any excuse for the tinny speaker on the Play X, which is only really good enough for speakerphone, not music.

Play X is the low[er] budget model, but my wife listens to her Asus tablet, and that sounds much better and was half the price. Do the higher-price Moto Play models come with better speaker[s]?

I posted above on getting sound of a more audiophile-approvable nature out of the phone. It could even be the source for speakers --- but that is not carry-around portable, and nobody is going to wear a pair of HD600 'phones in the bathroom!

I'm getting itchy to root my Play X. It is a combination of wanting to fiddle with it, and wanting some of the advantages eg getting rid of ads, custom recovery with nandroid backup, Titanium backup, maybe even a custom rom. It is still only weeks old, though, and if the worst happens, neither I nor my wife will forgive me! The phone model is relatively new, and the Marshmallow upgrade is fairly recent. On the one hand it may be better to wait until the developers' work is more mature: on the other, the XDA threads get longer and longer and harder toi read.

[ghpk]

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks, @Ghpk. It is a Samsung Duos S7562

S7562 becomes very laggy over the time when you have apps and data within those installed Apps.

check XDA it has lot covered for this popular device already.

[condor]

Originally Posted by ghpk

S7562 becomes very laggy over the time when you have apps and data within those installed Apps.

It is better now. Moved whatever else I could move to the SD card.

However, new problem with my Xperia S. Phone was freezing, taking time to open any thing. At this time, if I press on any number to call, the dialing will start after more than a minute.

[mukul32]

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks, @Ghpk. It is a Samsung Duos S7562

Assuming that you are still running the stock ICS firmware, there is a much better CyanogenMod 11 ROM for that device on XDA. There was probably nothing in Android as light and fast as stock Kitkat, and the overall performance of that ROM, (as seen on a friend's phone) is very decent; a far cry from the laggy and bloated Touchwiz ICS. Plus, a whole lot of additional features: lockscreen widgets, google now, daydream, better multitasking, and all the Cyanogen features as well, including Apollo and DSP manager. Here's the XDA thread of that build.

[Thad E Ginathom]

General question from a Microsoft-free zone...

Almost all the articles and threads on unlocking, flashing, custom recovery, custom rom, etc have instructions which are Windows based --- but come down, in the end, to adb and fastboot commands.

I assume that issuing these commands at a "C:>" prompt is essentially no different to doing it in a Linux terminal. Of course, Windows graphic front ends are out, but, at the basic command line level, everything is the same.

Geeks and wizards out there: am I right about this?

[babhishek]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

General question from a Microsoft-free zone...

Almost all the articles and threads on unlocking, flashing, custom recovery, custom rom, etc have instructions which are Windows based --- but come down, in the end, to adb and fastboot commands.

I assume that issuing these commands at a "C:>" prompt is essentially no different to doing it in a Linux terminal. Of course, Windows graphic front ends are out, but, at the basic command line level, everything is the same.

Geeks and wizards out there: am I right about this?

no not exactly the same, adb commands are identical but some commands need to be replaced with their linux unix counterparts
by the way are you getting drivers to recognize the phone?
else its better to borrow a windows machine and do this

[ghpk]

Originally Posted by condor

It is better now. Moved whatever else I could move to the SD card.

However, new problem with my Xperia S. Phone was freezing, taking time to open any thing. At this time, if I press on any number to call, the dialing will start after more than a minute.

have you installed greenify, seems you might have hibernated or moved a system app needed for phone dial function.

As mukul32 has linked, I would certainly urge you to use cyanogenmod on the device, it would be best way to let this mobile run few more years.

Originally Posted by mukul32

Assuming that you are still running the stock ICS firmware, there is a much better CyanogenMod 11 ROM for that device on XDA. There was probably nothing in Android as light and fast as stock Kitkat, and the overall performance of that ROM, (as seen on a friend's phone) is very decent; a far cry from the laggy and bloated Touchwiz ICS. Plus, a whole lot of additional features: lockscreen widgets, google now, daydream, better multitasking, and all the Cyanogen features as well, including Apollo and DSP manager. Here's the XDA thread of that build.

Thanks for listing, somehow I never checked about it would be available for 7562, I am sure you post would give other 7562 users a reason to keep this phone in working order.

[condor]

Originally Posted by mukul32

Assuming that you are still running the stock ICS firmware, there is a much better CyanogenMod 11 ROM for that device on XDA. There was probably nothing in Android as light and fast as stock Kitkat, and the overall performance of that ROM, .. .

Thanks for the thread and your response to my query. The S7562 is still on stock firmware. Considering the points you have mentioned, here, do I still need to look at CyanogenMod 11 ?

Originally Posted by ghpk

have you installed greenify, seems you might have hibernated or moved a system app needed for phone dial function.

I dont think system apps can be moved using Link2SD. The improvement in response has been without any reverse move of any app.

Originally Posted by ghpk

As mukul32 has linked, I would certainly urge you to use cyanogenmod on the device, it would be best way to let this mobile run few more years.

Will do this, if required

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by babhishek

no not exactly the same, adb commands are identical but some commands need to be replaced with their linux unix counterparts
by the way are you getting drivers to recognize the phone?
else its better to borrow a windows machine and do this

Drivers has not been a problem so far with the Mi (I think I rooted the Defy+ under Windows) and I have not explored far yet, but "adb devices" recognises my phone, or at least the existence of the device. I can start a shell and look around.

[mukul32]

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks for the thread and your response to my query. The S7562 is still on stock firmware. Considering the points you have mentioned, here, do I still need to look at CyanogenMod 11 ?

Well, I would seriously recommend you to install it as soon as possible. Here's a demo video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5DuwCKSMj4

(The phone boots up at around 7.30, so you may wanna skip till then)
CyanogenMod 11 is seriously leagues ahead of the ancient Touchwiz ICS in just about every way.
Only, the build may have bugs, though I don't think they would be major ones; would recommend you to check the OP of the XDA thread I linked to.
Either way, it will still be a much better experience than ICS.