WM 6.5 Memory Management app killing - Solution

[Guest Marcin T.]

Hi!

Unfortunately I WAS one of those "sad" users, that always had problems with multitasking in their i900 pda's. I've also noticed that users that have many other devices like HTC HD2 with plenty of RAM, suffered the same problem - WinMo app killing issue. I've decided to do my best in terms of solving this annoying situation. It looks like, that I've came up with an idea, that works for me!

I've tried to use Chainfire's AutoClosePatch v1.1 to solve my issues with app auto killing in my i900 but it didn't help. My level of irritation has increased to maximum level when I was driving in my car with navigation turned on, received a phone call, which came up at front of WM GUI, because ma navigation was currently not navigating me to my destination point, cause I've stopped at nearest parking lot. After I've ended my phone call, I wanted to continue my trip and I've noticed that my navigation software was just killed my WinMo. Imagine my "happy" face at that time :D

I've tried many roms, WM 6.1 (OFFICIAL/Cookers), WM 6.5, WM 6.5.3, and I've noticed that it is not dependent on rom version.

I've also find some time ago an article, where peoples also tried to fix the same issue also with little success - some of them accomplished, some of them not.

Let's get to the point [as I see it :D]

WinMo apparently has a limitation of running maximum 32 processes in background (I read about it, I didn't came up with this by my own).

Many people said, that their WinMo was working fine, till their installed their favorite apps. I've researched this particular situation by myself.

I've made a list of processes at start up that are present after HR (Hard-Reset), and all those additional processes that came up after I've installed my apps. My research showed, when I made my WinMo "ready for my every day usage", I was running 8+ sometimes even 12+ processes in background. Most of them were created by my phone suite (Inesoft Phone, which in standard configuration runs somewhere around 6 processes), it's easy to guess that my WinMo quickly ran out of processes slots, not RAM! To minimize the possibility of running out of process slots, I've also deleted from Windows/StartUp, bt_notification.lnk (which gives me additional +1 slot).

I think You get the picture by now. At this point I've no problems with apps autokilling. I've constantly running repllog.exe (Active Sync - Exchange Server), palringo.exe (Palringo IM Software), tasks (My Tasks management), outlook/messaging (depends which was last opened), s2u2 + ilock2 (S2U2 locking software), mortscript.exe, inesoft callerID (but only this one! - by default Inesoft makes them more, which can be disabled by settings in this software). These processes runs all the time. In addition very often I run in addition another 2,3 or 4 applications in background and NO APP KILLING ISSUE!!!

I'm not using any additional task managers, I think that default windows task manager is doing it's job, and this solution gives my +1 slot because for example Showcase runs in addition 2 processes - GUI when You run it by shortcut and showcase background task that is launched every time.

Analyze Your processes that are running in background and see for Yourself, if You can reduce them a bit, and keep running all the time those, that You need the most! And this point, when I'm writing this post, I filled my RAM, so I have somewhere around 20-25MB free and all those processes that I've mentioned before running + navigation software in demo mode (takes 10MB of RAM) + data connection enabled all the time 24/7.

Just for the record, I'm currently using OCK's ROM - WM 6.5.3 Build 23118.5.3.6 (posted 12th May 2010) - Ultra Lite Version with Titanium enabled and CComm (newest) in addition. I've modified this rom, because in default, it has 6MB of pagepool. System responsiveness was far to low for my preferences, so I've increased page pool to 12MB (I reduced my program memory by another 6MB) and everything works great.

Check this out by Yourself!

I hope that You didn't fall asleep somewhere around half of this post and my English didn't hurt You too much ;)

Regards!

[Guest bigfoune]

thank you for your very interesting information...

[Guest xylograph]

Very nice read !

I'm very interested in how you changed the pagepool of a rom ? Is this possible with all roms ?

Thanks.

[Guest chandanbs]

@xylograph... +1 too..

Hi Marcin T, how did you manage to change the pagepool size of OCK's 23118 rom?

[Guest andrew.mazlim]

Interesting info! Well done!

You may need to write down a nice tutorial for this...

Edited August 12, 2010 by andrew.mazlim

[Guest Marcin T.]

Ok so I'm going to start from beginning :D

1) Download .exe with rom from OCK's site;

2) Download/Launch Pako777 EXEcutor v3.05;

3) At the first screen there is a bold string EXE_firmware - click on the "..." on the right and select Your downloaded .exe ROM file;

4) Click on the GO button, which is located at the bottom of the app, at the end of the process it should display "Disassemble successful";

5) On the top, click PDA, then on the lower tabs - OTHER, highlight "PDA > OSnb_XIP_IMGFS" and select at the right menu, near bold "PDA" the ".." button;

6) On the new window, select Your new extracted pda.bin which should be located in the directory, which has same name, as file that you have selected before (.exe);

7) When You have selected proper pda.bin, mark squares at OS.nb, XIP, IMGFS, then click "GO" button bellow;

8) This operation could take a while if it's successful, You will see a popup witch "Operation is completed ... ", click OK;

9) Select at the left side (highlight) PagePool, on the right there will be a window with bold XIP.bin, click on the "..." button on the right and select Your freshly extracted XIP.bin from the previous process.

10) At the bottom You will see how much PagePool is set by the cooker. This ROM (as many others) have 6MB PagePool, which You can change by simply setting the proper value from the list at the right. I've never tried setting this above 12MB.

11) After setting desired value, click "GO" button :D

12) If everything is alright, "Operation is completed" popup will be displayed, which You should confirm with "OK" button;

13) Select from the menu on the left "XIP -> OS.nb", then in the window on the right, select proper path to Your updated XIP.bin, and OS.nb which was extracted at the beginning of the process ("..." buttons);

14) Click "GO" button on the bottom, it should display "Operation is completed" popup window.

15) From the list on the left, highlight "OSnb > PDA", then select Your newly created OS.nb which MUST contain the DATE and TIME when You created it!

16) From the list below, select Your device which is in this case PDA.bin (i900 Omnia), and click "GO" button.

17) Newly created PDA.bin also MUST CONTAIN DATE and TIME signature, when You performed last operation.

Now the risky part (*joke*) - Flashing the ROM to Your phone

I use MS Windows Vista, but this app is also available for Windows XP, i mean GrandPrix 1.6.4 (Vista in my case):

1) click on the "LOADER" button and select the eboot file located IN THE DIRECTORY WHERE YOU PERFORMED YOUR ROM EXTRACTION;

2) click on the "PDA" button and select the file WITH PROPER TIME SIGNATURE, for example PDA_100812_151228;

3) select the checkbox (which is by default selected) - Start downloading immediately to flash Your ROM without further notifications;

4) Click "DETECT" button to start flashing after Soft-Reset of Your device and prey ;)

I think that's all :D

!!! I'M TAKING NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGING YOUR PHONE IF SOMETHING SHOULD WENT WRONG !!!

But I've done this XX times and sometimes even 5-6 times a day when I was fighting with autokilling issue so it's 99,999999999% secure.

Regards!

Edited August 12, 2010 by Marcin T.

[Guest bigfoune]

great job!!marcin! thx again

[Guest xylograph]

Thanks Marcin for the 'pagepool tutorial'

I have tried to change the pagepool of some of my personal favorite 6.1 roms (KC 6.1 21001)

It seems the .Xip file of this rom is not readable by executer.

For other roms it seems to work though :D

[Guest Pigot]

Ok so I'm going to start from beginning :D

.../...

!!! I'M TAKING NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGING YOUR PHONE IF SOMETHING SHOULD WENT WRONG !!!

But I've done this XX times and sometimes even 5-6 times a day when I was fighting with autokilling issue so it's 99,999999999% secure.

Regards!

Many thanks,

I just try this solution with steff195 24623 normal Rom and the result is really impressive. But, I've only one issue: I've only added 4 MB to original Page Pool parameter (12 instead of 8), and I've lost about 10 MB with same configuration (same apps at the same places, same parameters, etc.)..?

Any idea? :D

Regs, Thierry

[Guest Marcin T.]

My ROM with 12MB Pagepool gives me 92.66MB of AVAILABLE memory, which is of course distributed between running applications. I do not know if You have in mind the amount of memory that a single application takes from Your available ram, for example. repllog.exe (always took 300kB, now it takies 800kB of memory), or do You have in mind that Your amount of AVAILABLE memory was for example 98.66, and it should be now (with 12MB of pagepool) somewhere around 92.66, and You dropped from 98.66 to 88.66.

Please describe Your problem precisely. I'm no cooker but I will gladly help if I came up with any ideas.

My response may be delayed because I'm leaving today, but I'll try to look here in free time.

Regards!

Edited August 14, 2010 by Marcin T.

[Guest andrew.mazlim]

Anybody done that, folks?... And do you think, a nice 12 PP is the best choice?

[Guest mowinnie]

Thank you Marcin T for sharing your perception. I could never do those steps in the tutorial. If possible upload the files you flashed your omnia with please. Thanks.