RAM Issue - Is 147 MB correct ?

[Guest donatesko]

Hi all,

I am having problems with my liquid since yesterday (bought it two weeks ago). A short while after rebooting (between 1 and 5 minutes) it freezes and reboots automatically. I get different types of erorrs (different processes are not responding e.g. com.google.android.gm, com.android.mms not responding, com.android.phone, camera).

I was not sure whether it was a hardware or software problem. On the one hand I updated and installed different types of apps in the last days. On the other hand, the phone fell out of my pocket yesterday night. Damage is minor (very small crack in the plastic case on the bottom left side).

Since uninstalling the most recent apps did not help, I did a clean boot/hard reset but the errors are still there, although less severe. Now it depends on the apps that are running (gmail makes it crash, same for sms notifications)

I then installed a system information app from the market. Although I thought the Liquid had 256 MB RAM, it says I only have 147 MB RAM. Is this normal ?

I also noticed that the cpu sometimes clocks down, but that might be normal (like speedstep on desktops I guess).

The phone is not rooted yet (Firmware 1.6; baseband A1-01.02.01; kernelversion 2.6.29; Acer_Liquid_1.002.02_EMEA_GEN1). But if the Ram and cpu do not seem to be the problem, I was going to give it a try. If it is a hardwareproblem, then i presume it would be safer to just send the non-rooted device back and hope to get a replacement.

Thanks in advance. Much appreciated.

[Guest maxisma]

147 MB are normal ;-)

[Guest three_pineapples]

That seems like it could be a ROM issue. 1.002.02 EMEA GEN1 is very old! I got my phone in the first week and it came with 1.002.05

Recently 2.000.16 was leaked.

It might be worth flashing to that and seeing if it improves (be warned flashing can kill your phone if it messes up. Also, don't use windows 7 to flash a new rom! that said, i've only heard of one person killing their phone from a flash, and that was due to them pushing the power button on their phone during the flash process...so don't touch the phone! ;) )

If you flash though, you can't go back to the original rom very easily.

It might be best to install lickonns recovery image, make a nandroid backup and then just install the boot.img and system.img files from a newer rom (even 1.008.00 would be fine, search the forums for them). This way it is possible to go back to your original by restoring the nandroid backup, though i'm not sure how you get rid of lickonn's recovery image for warranty purposes!

Rooting won't help your problem though!

[Guest Angio]

I have 164 but its a custom rom, and yes 100 plus is normal

[Guest RazorICE]

147 is fine, makes me jealous, only have 114! ;) But yeah, not sure about your problem, what apps did you install and did you tinker with any of the stock apps?

[Guest donatesko]

Thanks everyone for the info and advice.

I did not thinker with the stock apps on purpose. But I am still going to try do an update. The problem still persists and a RMA because of the RAM is clearly no option.

If I found a solution I will surely post it.

147 is fine, makes me jealous, only have 114! ;) But yeah, not sure about your problem, what apps did you install and did you tinker with any of the stock apps?

[Guest drigerott]

download free memory from market...

it shows: maximal memory detected on your phone:147mb

and not 256mb !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all ram app shows that....

something strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you use the same app on nexus it shows: 512mb... (with kernel hack)

Acer Liquid have or don't have 256mb of ram?

Edited February 7, 2010 by drigerott

[Guest donatesko]

It might be worth flashing to that and seeing if it improves (be warned flashing can kill your phone if it messes up. Also, don't use windows 7 to flash a new rom! that said, i've only heard of one person killing their phone from a flash, and that was due to them pushing the power button on their phone during the flash process...so don't touch the phone! ;) )

I have downloaded all the necessary files and apps to upgrade and did some reading. The constant reboots of my device make me somewhat reluctant. I am afraid to mess up....

I did get the log files of my device and noticed something disturbing with the hardware graphics acceleration

02-07 13:24:18.644 I/SurfaceFlinger( 3512): SurfaceFlinger's main thread ready to run. Initializing graphics H/W...

02-07 13:24:18.644 E/SurfaceFlinger( 3512): Couldn't open /sys/power/wait_for_fb_sleep or /sys/power/wait_for_fb_wake

02-07 13:24:18.714 W/SurfaceFlinger( 3512): couldn't grant gpu core to pid 3512

02-07 13:24:18.714 W/SurfaceFlinger( 3512): couldn't grant gpu core to pid 3512

02-07 13:24:18.714 E/libEGL ( 3512): h/w accelerated eglGetDisplay() failed (EGL_BAD_ALLOC)

02-07 13:24:18.724 W/HAL ( 3512): load: module=/system/lib/hw/overlay.salsa.so error=Cannot load library: load_library[984]: Library '/system/lib/hw/overlay.salsa.so' not found

02-07 13:24:18.724 W/HAL ( 3512): load: module=/system/lib/hw/overlay.salsa.so error=Cannot load library: load_library[984]: Library '/system/lib/hw/overlay.salsa.so' not found

02-07 13:24:18.724 W/HAL ( 3512): load: module=/system/lib/hw/overlay.qsd8k.so error=Cannot load library: load_library[984]: Library '/system/lib/hw/overlay.qsd8k.so' not found

02-07 13:24:18.724 W/HAL ( 3512): load: module=/system/lib/hw/overlay.default.so error=Cannot load library: load_library[984]: Library '/system/lib/hw/overlay.default.so' not found

02-07 13:24:18.724 I/SystemServer( 3512): Entered the Android system server!

02-07 13:24:18.734 I/SystemServer( 3512): Starting Entropy Service.

02-07 13:24:18.734 V/RandomBlock( 3512): reading from file /data/system/entropy.dat

02-07 13:24:18.734 V/RandomBlock( 3512): writing to file /dev/urandom

02-07 13:24:18.734 V/RandomBlock( 3512): reading from file /dev/urandom

02-07 13:24:18.764 V/RandomBlock( 3512): writing to file /data/system/entropy.dat

02-07 13:24:18.764 I/SystemServer( 3512): Starting Power Manager.

02-07 13:24:18.774 I/SystemServer( 3512): Starting Activity Manager.

02-07 13:24:18.824 E/MemoryHeapBase( 3512): mmap(fd=28, size=14680064) failed (Invalid argument)

02-07 13:24:18.824 E/MemoryHeapBase( 3512): error opening /dev/hw3d: No such file or directory

(or should I have used CODEBOX ? Sorry then )

Should I still try the update (because this could be a softwareproblem). Or does it look like a hardwareproblem ?

[Guest drigerott]

download free memory from market...

it shows: maximal memory detected on your phone:147mb

and not 256mb !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all ram app shows that....

something strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you use the same app on nexus it shows: 512mb... (with kernel hack)

Acer Liquid have or don't have 256mb of ram?

can some one explain?

[Guest 5Strogino]

can some one explain?

Oh. It's very easy to explain)))

AT start value of RAM memory spent for:

- radio-band module

- bluetooth matrix

- os bootloader

Rest of RAM is visible to user and applications

p.s. There are kernel hacks to get a few memory free. Cause HTC programmers (and Acer too) coded some sections to round memory value. If in kernel will be exact value of smi_size (not rounded) - more memory will get free.

Long thread to introduce problem: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=564975

Edited February 8, 2010 by 5Strogino

[Guest drigerott]

Thanks man ^^ i understand now ^^

[Guest xfs]

In the dmesg-output of the boot you can read the following:

<6>[ 0.012200] Memory: 232MB = 232MB total

<5>[ 0.012246] Memory: 150204KB available (4336K code, 4990K data, 144K init)

[Guest chingy1788]

speaking of ram issues

I notice my friends HTC magic (288MB and yes, i know 288 > 256)

usually runs with about 100 - 120 mb of free ram on start

and my acer liquid runs with around 20 - 40mb of free ram on start...

His magic also runs Android 1.5

does android 1.6 use a lot more memory than 1.5 then?

[Guest xfs]

speaking of ram issues

I notice my friends HTC magic (288MB and yes, i know 288 > 256)

usually runs with about 100 - 120 mb of free ram on start

and my acer liquid runs with around 20 - 40mb of free ram on start...

His magic also runs Android 1.5

does android 1.6 use a lot more memory than 1.5 then?

As I understand it this is no issue since the system will close/sleep the applications it needs to for freeing ram when you use an application that uses more ram then is available/free.

However do I wonder how the system, radio and kernel can use ~100mb that is not available later on for the applications. Seems like a lot of ram that could be possible to free. 100mb is a lot of ram...

[Guest mirox3m]

As I understand it this is no issue since the system will close/sleep the applications it needs to for freeing ram when you use an application that uses more ram then is available/free.

However do I wonder how the system, radio and kernel can use ~100mb that is not available later on for the applications. Seems like a lot of ram that could be possible to free. 100mb is a lot of ram...

The apps are actually using these 100 mb of RAM, although you consider them lost. Android as an OS is not a native OS but running on Dalvik virtual machine.