Stability on Centro

Summary:

Apt crashing centro from time to time?

Stability on Centro

Anonymous (208.48.231.x) 29 Jul 2008 19:36

I'm having some stability issues on my Centro since I've installed APT, the three last applications I've installed in a LONG time were:

MassDL, EasyCalc and APT.

Sometimes when I click on the APT icon the device resets, which makes me think the issue(s) are APT-related.

Question is: how to debug/troubleshoot these? I've tried FlushDB and other similar tools, ResetDoctor or whatever it's called, but haven't really found anything useful, so how can I take it to the next level?

Re: Stability on Centro

Pgr 30 Jul 2008 17:13

The next level of understanding what's going on in your Centro is reading this:

http://www.hobbyistsoftware.com/InsideYourTreo/notification-speed.php

and playing around for a while. application conflicts usually (but not always) occur when you have two apps hooking the same notification, and one is doing something unexpected for the other…

About discovering the problem, you have to try to isolate a specific situation where a crash always happens. Sometimes it's not easy.

Apt has so many ties to so many notifications that it requires some specific troubleshooting: Apt per se is pretty stable, but you can configure it do things that work wrong with other apps. If possible, try starting from a simple, stable, Apt configuration, and starting adding new triggers once every couple of days, to see which ones are causing trouble.

If the crash is always when starting Apt I would try deleting Apt's DB and starting from a fresh one - your can be corrupted for some reason.

I hope this helps!

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (208.48.231.x) 30 Jul 2008 17:56

I've also noticed that when pushing (on my centro) the side button (below volume) and the "center" button, it disables aptlite 1.2 (without reset), is that the intended behavior?

Re: Stability on Centro

Pgr 30 Jul 2008 18:22

No, it's not intended… :-)

There's a problem which I call ADI (Apt disables itself) that we know about, but haven't been able to figure out exactly when and why it happens. Perhaps your case can help solve it, if it's reproducible on other devices…

Re: Stability on Centro

jibanes 31 Jul 2008 03:40

I've also noticed that deleting APT-db from time to time speeds up the centro considerably, for a little while…

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 03 Aug 2008 09:59

@JBlanes

I will try that on my wife's 650, the thing preventing me fixing these disabling problems is that I can't reproduce them at all.

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 03 Aug 2008 11:22

No, I can't get a disable with side + center buttons pressed together.

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

Pgr 31 Jul 2008 11:02

This is strange. Apt is very stable and trustworthy. Of course it can be used to cause chaos in your Palm (that's up to you as a user), but this sort of thing with Apt-DB problems is not usual - it can happen, but I've never heard of anyone having regular problems with it.

There must be something weird happening with your Centro…

Re: Stability on Centro

jibanes 31 Jul 2008 13:28

Really the centro is perfectly fine, besides the numerous issues of APT disabling itself or causing the device to reset from time to time when clicking on the apt icon, or simply by slowing down things drastically to a point where you have to wait few seconds to see something appear on the screen. But when I delete apt-db it's fast again, and the resets only happen from time to time. I have only 4 applications on my centro, I kept it pretty clean on purpose.

I've removed MassDL which also seems to have helped in a good way. Is there any way to prevent APT from disabling itself or to set an alarm to reenable it when it loses its mind?

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (208.48.231.x) 31 Jul 2008 17:22

So, you'll find this funny, I've received my registration key for Apt today, and proceeded with the removal of APTLite, as said, the device should reset itself after removal, and the only time when it should have reset itself, well it didn't so I had to take the battery out. heh.

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (172.170.18.x) 31 Jul 2008 18:15

sounds like you may have a prob w/your AptDB; in the past I've seen such probs respond to deleting AptDB & recreating it - do write down the settings that you have first.

Maybe that is why you got the strange behavior.

technical1

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (208.48.231.x) 31 Jul 2008 19:30

Here's a 100% reproducible example:

If I go to APT, select the Khroma theme White on Black (that's the last one from the list), then the device resets (and if you have APT enabled on reset, welcome the reset loop, hope you've installed NVBackup first :)

Can you guys repro that too?

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (208.48.231.x) 31 Jul 2008 20:36

Also, what's the best way to prevent APT from disabling itself and/or restart it (from an alarm?) every day at a certain time?

Re: Stability on Centro

technical1 01 Aug 2008 04:09

You can avoid the endless loop by going for a warm/safe reset, pressing the NavUp button until the 'gas guage' stops & after the Access Powered screen starts, then change the setting in Apt…

Having said that, the white on black Khroma theme does seem buggy… & WILL cause that loop you mentioned & I had to do a hard reset…. & warm/safe reset didn't work…. Pent, I hope you are watching, for this Khroma theme issue & for …

an old spectre that reared its ugly head on my CENTRO, a favorite of yours, Pent: I have had major probs w/Full Screen per-app lock. Naturally, I have Apt 1.2 & when trying to avoid having to enter letters for a password for CallRec 6, I tried a full screen lock. For most releases I tried, it caused crashes, that gave the following error message: " System Compatibility.c. Line 64: invalid card # " … every related app sees the card properly & when I change away fm the offending trigger releases for CallRec, or change to partial screen locks… no prob. Some of the offending Full scr lock release triggers were Option+ Hrd1 & Let+ letter held (how's about Opt plus Letter held?) & crashes occured usually on pressing the Option button.

Sometimes having two release triggers made for crash, but Center was usually good!!!, at least when it was 1st release trigger…. Full scr lock DID work w/volume down, but NOT NavD + NavR in combo….

Also, a strange thing… Crash Pro reported that it was 'garbage characters' as the name of the app that crashed, & it also trashed my contacts file ContactsDB-PAdd, but I have backups for that too…. inserting garbage characters into Field Names in contacts… arggghhh!!!

I hope the fact that it is now August 1st means that you have charged up those batteries & can address these issues on Centro… the White On Black, hard-reset-causing Khroma theme & of course the Full Scrn lock issue….

Happy August…

technical1

I've switched to the historically safer partial screen lock & this seems to be OK, at least in the combination of the two triggers I am using…. ;-)

Last edited on 01 Aug 2008 04:15 by technical1 Show more

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 01 Aug 2008 18:18

Hello, I was away for a week or so (not something I like to announce on the internet :-)).

Unfortunately I have no way of testing anything on the Centro. I tried B&W theme on Tx without problem and have not had problems with
full-screen lock on TX either.

Best I can do really is add a warning about both issues on the Centro in the Apt UI.

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

technical1 03 Aug 2008 19:13

Pent,

I did get probs w/White On Black on my TX…. as well as nasty endless loop on my Centro…

If you want, I can provide you w/which release triggers caused the probs. BTW, do you know any programmers w/Centros, or who work w/the Treo line? ;-)

@ jibanes, as a rule of thumb, Apt cannot affect itself… therefore, I don't know if it is possible to have Apt start itself… Pgr? can you weigh in on this?

technical1

Last edited on 03 Aug 2008 19:15 by technical1 Show more

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 03 Aug 2008 19:24

Ah, on TX ?

Well if it's a general problem with those two then I will remove them from the distributed pdb.

I have no idea why those two in particular would cause problems, it's just a question of copying colour values. Odd.

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

jibanes 04 Aug 2008 03:48

Pent,

Only White on Black causes problems, not Black on White, please don't remove Black on White, it works perfectly on my centro and that's the one I use. The other one, although "Black on White" is the one causing issues.

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 04 Aug 2008 09:36

Okey dokey.

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (172.131.117.x) 04 Aug 2008 14:43

jibanes,

you realize that you said that Black on White is not a problem in the top of your msg & then that it is on the bottom.

I'm guessing that the culprit on your Centro is White On Black, like it was on mine….

technical1

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (208.48.231.x) 04 Aug 2008 20:08

Oops good catch, I was obviously more tired than what I thought when I wrote this.

Yeah, White on black is the culprit. You are right.

Re: Stability on Centro

hezahonker 13 Aug 2008 01:15

I, too, have the stability issues on the Centro. I absolutely love this app in spite of this. I am loosing Apt when I create a couple of tap points on my Propel Launcher screen, most likely a problem with my configuration of Propel's blank plugins causing a conflict. At any rate. I have also created a "default" finger swipe from right to left to call Back. It works great, but when I turn off my Centro Apt is disabled. I noticed this consistently happening after I applied my new stroke (in default) and tap commands (in Propel). I do have frequent resets so that concerns me. Unfortunately, this seems to happen after I have been farting around a lot creating combinations to test out the app. The controls work but Apt doesn't like me fiddling too long or doing too many things. I will keep a log of my resets and see if I can give you more information in the future. At this point, the only other setting that is touched in Apt is my number 4 hard button to call recent apps with a setting of 7. When I have this setting exclusively (meaning I remove all other settings in Apt) I don't loose Apt and the resets subside greatly. It seems as if the more complex my settings the more I have problems. I would love to kick the socks off of the app and really open it up to see what it can do, but the device becomes too unstable with the resets.

Last edited on 13 Aug 2008 02:18 by hezahonker Show more

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (172.132.18.x) 13 Aug 2008 06:47

hezahonker,

Not to sound glib, & I have mentioned this b4… but.. try copying all of your Apt settings to paper, then delete your AptDB file & recreate the settings by hand. Sometimes you can have corruption in the Aptdb file & that bad stuff can be stuck in memory, laying in wait to cause unexpected problems. So maybe delete that file, & soft reset your device & re-enter your Apt entries, even if there is only one thing you are replacing, whatever was corrupt in memory can be affected by that, so delete, recreate & soft reset should clear that out.

I recently added a bigger SD card & on reset I got orange logo, blue logo & scrn to show me that my Centro is connecting the phone & then it happened all over again, until I did a hard reset & then it only went thru that process only once… so I obviously had something stuck in memory somewhere way deep in the system & clearing things out can fix corrupt memory probs…

BTW, elsewhere in this forum, Pent, the author of Apt said that he is getting the Centro simulator, so we can look forward to more Centro focused results…I love this app & am still learning fm what others say/add here… so, stick to figuring Apt's fine points, & inner workings, it is well worth it!!! btw, how long have you had your Centro? Got mine end of June.

technical1

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (64.252.69.x) 15 Aug 2008 01:14

Yep, thanks for the advice. Actually I have done already. Have narrowed down my finding to power off. I have read the other threads about REM. Waiting patiently for more findings via Sim. Thanks to Pent.

Got the Centro a couple of months ago after being a very long time user of WM. Love it. Thanks.

I have totally tried every trigger and have fastly become well acquainted with APT. It is very easy to use and I can't number all of the things I can do with it. Brilliant!

Hezahonker

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 13 Aug 2008 20:05

Thanks for the feedback. Apt is pretty stable as far as resets go on most devices so I expect there's just one or two little Centro peculiarities we need to track down.

I have the Centro simulator working, but for these occasional reset type problems it's difficult for me to pin down since I don't use the simulator through the day. I will try your Back swipe and the recent apps (is it with a press-and-hold ?) on the sim to see if I can get some crashes.

As far as the disabling goes, if it's not related to power-off, could you please try the squeak diagnostic tool I mentioned on the thread about disabling ?

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

Anonymous (64.252.69.x) 15 Aug 2008 01:19

Hi Pent,

I have indeed narrowed it down to power off. Thank you for your patience as I need time to discern what was happening. All my test lead back to power off for sure. In terms of crashes. I feel that apt is still pretty stable. My crashes occur when I am moving in and out of Apt repeatedly after trying triggers and playing around with it. On one occasion it crash after i "go to" an ap to test the settings but that was the only time. Let me know what you need I am a seasoned WM moderator and capable of testing on a clean device if you need.

hezahonker

Re: Stability on Centro

Pent 16 Aug 2008 16:40

I think I've fixed at least one cause of crash-on-startup and also fixed the problem with Menu->Apt->Remove on Centro today.

The device disabling on sleep is fixed too, possibly another disabling cause too.

So hang in there, help is coming in September :-)

Pent

Re: Stability on Centro

hezahonker 18 Aug 2008 19:50

Thanks Pent. I see that the full version is here. I am looking forward to trying in september!