Confirmed temporary solution to game freezing and browser/system lag. Video Added!

Hey guys. I believe that the os21 update has a bad memory leak/background processing management(besides a kernal issue). When playing heavy 3d games like Nova 3 or Sonic, the framerates are really slow or stutter a lot until the games force-close. Well, for the past 2 days, I have not had this issue, both Nova 3 and Sonic play with no stuttering at all, and I have not experienced any more game crashes. My browser also seems much smoother. Please try the two fix options listed below, while noting that the 2nd option seems to work best with mass Efeect, and less "strict" on runnig processes than the first option:

Fix #1- What I did was push the soft reset button on the Prime (using a small paperclip), then waited for the Prime to reboot. Once it rebooted, DO NOT let the Prime load up anything, just immediately go into settings, developer options, select the kill all activities option, then for background processes, select "at most 1 process only" Delete all of your running task managers/task widgets an that's it. Now all of my games run, no crashes, and the framerates for Nova 3 and Sonic is MUCH better.

Fix# 2 - For those still having issues with Mass Effect, this alternate setting will definitely fix the problem. After soft rebooting, go into development settings, and then for background processes, select "at most 1 process only" and DO NOT select kill all processes after leaving them. This setting has been confirmed to fix the Mass Effect issue, as well as all other games while still keeping the Prime running a lot smoother.

Please try using the exact instructions that I have posted, and let me know if this works for you guys. If so, then it proves that the os21 has a memory management issue which is causing all the current issues we are having.

Also, I would like to share this post from Jaycustom, whom has also been using this method for a few days now and enjoying it more than myself lol. He ran a CPU test to test the differences before and after my fix. See his results below:

Default settings said I had about 19 user/ 29 system processes running.
Dev settings gave me 14 user/ 11 system processes running.

Default settings for system memory 600+mb used/300+ free
Dev settings for system memory 300+ used/600+ free
The memory usage was pretty much exactly reversed! So I assume this is where most, but not all, of the performance boost comes from. CPU usage was also lower, not by much though.

See the video that I made (link below)showing me using the default browser, which is now really fast and stable using this method. I also ran Mass Effect 3 and Nova 3 to show that I have no issues playing these games anymore. I used a Samsung Galaxy tab to record, so please re-frame from laughing at the quality of the vid lol! If you guys would like me to try more games/apps, please let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iperCmEH4t4&feature=youtu.be

Thanks guys

mibo666 said:

Nova 3 is still freezing and crashing, frame rate is still same.... I think tehere is no solution untill FailLoft will update the app for tegra 3.

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Sorry to hear that it didnt work for you, but it seems to have resolved the issue for me entirely. I am not exeriencing any more gam crashes or white flashing screens. Are you sure that you followed the stes listed? Waiting for others to rely, but either my Prime just decided to play all my games correctly, or this is "fix" is working for me.

leppie said:

This is not an acceptable fix, it is only a workaround.

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Yes I agree 100%, but it works. At least we can play some of our games/browse without issue until the fix comes out. Did you try it, and did it work for you?

seeknom said:

I'll have to try this out tonight. To clarify, when you say "do not let it load up anything", do you just mean go into the settings as soon as possible and kill things? It must start running services as soon as it boots, no? I guess this just minimizes the "damage"?

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yes exactly.. this is the way it worked for me. Just immediately go into setting, and select the options that i listed. This will only allow the essential programs to run. Please let me know if this works for you. Also, switch the prime to performance for graphic heavy games. Still testing this, but so far I have not have any crashes since applying.

ksharp4444 said:

This solution works well for me. I have been doing this for some time, except I have limited the processes to three. Limiting it to one seems to improve it even better. Widgets seem also to be a drain on the resources and limiting those works well for me. Much thanks for the post.

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Thanks for confirm this. Yes, my Prime is no longer lagging when browsing or crashing during gameplay..the difference is honestly night and day. Just confirms for me that .21 is not handling the background processes, or closing them correctly.

jemberton said:

Hi, I've just tried this and it doesn't seem to have had much of an effect I'm afraid.

In the last 10 mins I've still had two spontaneous browser shutdowns, plus crappy streaming video playback from sites such as bbc iplayer.

The pages seem to load a little faster and scrolling may be a touch smoother but thats about it the best I can say.

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Hey, do you happen to have the sticky player app installed by any chance?

jemberton said:

No I've never used sticky player app.

I've been toying with the idea of factory resetting and trying this. I'll see how it goes tonight

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you shouldn't have to factory reset, that would suck

Can you try the soft reset option again? Once it's done, update the setting as listed and try the Prime on performance mode. If that doesn't help, then you may have a bad app which is hogging on your resources and causing the slowdown/crashes.

ksharp4444 said:

This procedure also seems to improve on the strength of the Wi-Fi signal. At least on mine it does.

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Maybe it's just because the Prime is loading pages a lot faster because there aren't so many things running in the background now. it would be cool though if this also fixed wifi, maybe someone should do a speed test for before and after the fix?

I just tried the default browser again. It does not lag/stutter when scrolling through the pages anywhere near like it used to. it's not as smooth as opera mini, but it's a LOT better than before. Still no game crashes at all since doing this. I can post vids for anyone who would like to see proof after work.

jemberton said:

I was gonna do one anyway, just to start from scratch with a blank slate and get it set up how I want it!

After resetting, and before any apps are downloaded the browser is working much much better once the settings you recommend are applied. Loading and scrolling is faster and there have been no force closes or video hangups.

Cheers, I look forward to this .28 update but thats helped me out a lot in the meantime!

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Great to hear! yes, my Prime seems much quicker with touch inputs, scrolling, gaming and web browsing. Must of been a bad memory issue along with the kernel for .21.