[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] SevenFactors:
I recently got a like new second hand Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-I8530.

- The phone is carrier/SIM unlocked. I currently am using it with SIMPLE MOBILE

- When I got the phone it already had Android version 4.1.2 installed.

- I don't install a lot of apps nor do I fall for the trending apps.

Since I got the phone these are the apps I have installed.

Xabber & ChatSecure: Both are "almost" the same thing just different look. One does MUC better than the other.

DoggCatcher

TWIT Pro

Skype

Swype+Dragon

Twitter

Wifi Analyzer

Barcode Scanner

Bank Of America App

ConnectBot: I downloaded this to make sure that the phone wasn't rooted. I only seem to have $. When I type "su" into local I get: su: uid 10134 not allowed to su. This is enough to let me now that the phone is not rooted.

DuckDuckGo App

Firefox

Google Voice

Greenify: I installed this to help me manage the phone's RAM for issues I will describe below.

Nova Launcher: Installed for same reason as Greenify.

OpenVPN Connect

PlayStation App

RealCalc

Running [Nike App]:

||I updated all the stock apps those of Google [e.g. google maps, google search, etc] as well as those Samsung apps that needed updating like Samsung Push Service.

Now this is what's happening to my phone

Sometimes while using the phone this will freeze/lockup yet the ongoing activity stays active. For example, if the freeze/lock happens while I'm watching a downloaded video podcast then I wont know till after I press the volume button or a softkey. We could argue the the press of the button is what caused the phone to freeze but these apps/features are designed to allow you to turn the volume up and down or stop video playback and/or exit application as your own will. Anyways, once the phone freezes I have to either: let the phone mitigate the issue and prompt me with a message acknoledging that said app is not responding with options to report, wait & ok [this can time 1+] OR I just force restart the phone by holding the power button.

The above has happened to me mostly during downloaded video playback but it has also happened while steaming youtube videos, using Firefox, as well as, during a phone call. For the phone call case, this happened right when I press the home button to bring me back to the locked screen. I wanted to access my contacts. No button was responding, yet phone call connection very much stable. Good thing that it wasn't someone I wanted to hang up to. :p

To make things more fun, I sometimes get the following error. This error happens out of nowhere.

[RST_STAT = 0x00000008]

Android logo with a voice cloud thing which inside has a loading loop but this is not looping.

Then it says: KERNEL PANIC UPLOAD MODE

This is very annoying for this automatically render the phone as unreliable. Nothing more would suck than to miss important call just because felt like going into a panic attack. [insert Dream Theater's Panic Attack song here] :silly:

What I have & have not done to this phone

I've not rooted, not even the attempt to.

I did disabled almost all the stock Samsung apps. I see not need to use them sign my soul away with the another devil when I already have with Google. Moreover, the system does allow me to disable them.

ChatOn

S Planner

S Planner Widget

Samsung Account

Samsung Apps

Samsung Backup

Samsung Backup Provider

Samsung Broswer Sync

Samsung Calendar Sync

Samsung Setup Wizard

And the rest of the like.

I did not disable those apps which names are follows:

com.samsung.app.playeradyui

com.samsung.InputEventApp

and the like.

I did disable widgets that I would never use. Widgets like: live wallpapers or weather. For weather I use Google search.

In further troubleshooting my phone I did re-enable all of the stuff I had disabled. To be honest. The Kernel Panic error happened more often during the period in which the above apps widgets were disabled. Now the phone still locks up and the kernel panic has happened only once.

Given that the phone freezing/locking-up is very similar to low RAM availability/management is how I arrived to installing:

Greenify: Said to be very good for RAM management [sadly it requires root]

Nova Launcher: For its said priority on speed & performance without eating too much resources

Questions

During my research I've ran into a vast sea of technical knowledge regarding custom ROMs to how to gain root access in my phone [source being this very forums]

Rooting

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1809784&page=1

Custom ROM

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=39769056&postcount=75

Even information about a firmware update. This info is always accompany with a region/country. I have no idea how to find out my phones country.

http://www.tsar3000.com/Joomla/inde...laxy-beam-firmware&catid=57:how-to&Itemid=104

- Would doing any of the above help me fix my ongoing phone issues: Kernel panic & phone freezing/locking up?

- Would rooting the phone knowing that something is wrong if the kernel be a good idea?

- How do I know if my phone has the latest firmware?

I've read and also told to replace the kernal. To which i said "huh?"

My kernel version is 3.0.31-928810-eng se.infra@SEP-130 #2 some more stuff and the the date Tue Feb 5 21:42:02 KST 2013

I've been told to clear the system cache in recovery. How would I do that?

I read that, in the case of other phones models, that reflashing the stock ROM could help. When I got my phone it already had android 4.1.2 & why would I want to bring it back to gingerbread. For what I've read, the Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-8530 originally came with gingebread and later on Samsung released an update which brought it up to Jelly Beam.

Miscellaneous

I could tell my pnone was not rooted because Greenify nor Nova Launcher could gain root access. What drove me to doubt this was the fact that under BUILD NUMBER it displays "test-keys"

So it is: GT-I8530-eng 4.1.2 blah blah then it ends with test-keys.

I've not been able to find anything related to "test-keys" in Android as the operating system. I've only been able to find articles dealing "test-keys" with android app development.

Furthermore, if i were to try to check for a system update I get the following message [perhaps this is the starndard message for when there is no new updates for your system]

I go to system settings > about phoone > software update then I press Update

Software Update

Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available.

Please excuse the long first post. So much research has left me in "information overload"

Thanks