[Galaxy Tab General] VeEuzUKY:
Hi everyone.

Id like to start a thread where we collect, post and discuss all known individual tweaks and changes that can be made to the Galaxy Tab in order to gain performance and stability.

My experience with the Galaxy Tab has been similar to my latest phone, an HTC HD2. When I got the HD2 about one year ago, I positively hated it... slow, unstable, all sorts of problems, lags, crashes... its the way most of the hardware today is released. One year later, my HD2 has become the most amazing machine I've ever owned. From pushing it 1.6GHz stable, to tweaking registry, XML files, services and making everything work well. I remember not being able to watch smooth video on the HD2 to being able to watch flawlessly 720p content and going from the extreme of detesting the phone to loving it.

It was with the HD2 I discovered Android and fell in love with it. Since I have now two HD2s I have one with an SD ROM version of Gingerbread (that I can dual boot still from Windows Mobile) and a Froyo NAND. I run Android on the HD2 much much much faster and smoother than on the Galaxy Tab, that I also hated when I bought it a few weeks and that am starting to like after getting to know it, a new ROM, apps, etc. Even at 1GHz stock the HD2 with Froyo is vastly faster, smoother, more responsive and better to use. The approach d like to do as far as tweaking the Galaxy Tab is the same as I did for the HD2 with Windows Mobile, that is, install the best/fastest ROM I can, delete and remove all stuff I don't need and then tweak what's left.

The tweaks I've done so far on the Galaxy are simple but have made a huge difference. Id like with this thread to be able to collect individual tweaks and post them all here to share with everyone.

Im using Roto JMI Pre-Rooted Firmware v2 which was the main step after getting rid of the stock Samsung Rom that is nothing but a collection of problems.

The first thing I learned with this Tab is that WHATEVER IS ON YOUR HOME SCREENS THAT MOVES, IS BAD! Forget about having ANY type of apps or widgets that do any type of refresh, including stuff running on the upper task bar if they change icons or the move around… that mean a CPU cycle and refresh each time and there goes the tab's performance and battery life. The same goes for any type of Live Wallpaper. Beautiful but deadly. Never touch them!

- So, after a new ROM, the first thing I did was changing the file system to EXT4. This is the SINGLE BEST THING you can do to radically improve the performance of the Tab. Its extremely easy to do and the step-by-step instructions are as follow:

- Make sure you have an miniSD Card in with plenty of available space (it will be used automatically to backup your system during the conversion process)

- Get p1000-mck-r3-ext4-cwm.tar (the EXT4 Conversion Kernel)

- Connect the Tab in Downloading Mode to your PC via USB, start Odin3 1.7 and load the Kernel (click on the PDA button and select the p1000-mck-r3-ext4-cwm.tar and make sure PDA stays ticked after selecting the file).

- UNTICK Re-Partition check box and make sure the only boxes ticked are:

Auto Reboot

F. Reset Time

The PDA tickbox

- Click start and wait for PASS! (it will show highlighted green or Yellow on Odin)

- Now the Tab will restart and get stuck on the Samsung loading screen. This is normal. Turn it off by holding the power button for 5 seconds.

- Turn on the Tab again on into RECOVERY mode (Press Volume UP and Power On at the same time) and the EXT4 conversion will start automatically. The process will take up to one hour depending on how much stuff you have on your Tab. It took about 10 minutes on mine because I have a fresh install of Roto JMI v2.

- Once finished, click "Reboot System Now" (by pressing the power button).

- The reboot may take a while first time so be patient!

- Done!

- After that, the first tweak I did was to get rid of all my favorite widgets that moved around… net meter, news, weather and all these beautiful things KILL the Tab. Equally I had a CPU meter on the tray refreshing every 2 seconds and it took me a while to figure out that was the reason why every 2 seconds the system would stutter, whether watching a movie or browsing the web. So, out!

- Next was to install SetCPU under the ON DEMAND setting, minimum around 750MHz and maximum 1000MHz (unfortunately only with a custom Kernel you can go higher, currently up to 1.4GHz but not full stable and with lots of issues pending so I don’t recommend it)

- My following step was to get rid of the stock Samsung Homescreen (that is a resource hog and slow as hell) and replace it with a new one. I've tried them all and am making no recommendation here but the one that works for me and is by far the best IMO is LauncherPro. This single app makes using the Tab a whole better experience.

- Next was to disable the USELESS and (resource pig) Gallery and replace it with an app called QuickPic that is blazing fast (actually instant) and simply amazing to browse and view all media on the Tab.

- Next was to greatly improve the poor native GPS reception by replacing high performance files and drivers from the Orange Rom P1000JHKA1 that seems to work on all versions of the Tab, as originally posted here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=922692

- With SystemApp Remover 4.12 I have disabled all system apps and services I don’t need (BE VERY CAREFUL AND DON'T REMOVE ROM APPS YOU WILL NEED). I have actually deleted some from ROM (Root access required of course), this includes useless stuff like STK Service starting every time, most of the Samsung stuff that I really don’t care for and just about all apps I know for sure I will never open a single time. Now, its important to understand if these apps are removed they will be removed PERMANENTLY from ROM so to get the back a hard reset will not be enough, you'll have to fully flash the ROM again. For most system apps I don’t use but am not sure, I use a different option and that is to simply disable them. In my case this includes all Bluetooth stuff (I never use it and even if it's off the Services are still running robbing performance and memory) and apps like the built-in Browser, Email and Messaging that suck and that I replaced with better apps. Its always a safer bet, at least initially to disable the apps you don’t need that uninstall them because at least you can go back and change your mind:) This is one area where Id like to learn more. There are many background services that I don’t know what they do and if they can be disabled or not. If someone knows what each one does and the safety of getting rid of them OR NOT, it would be great to post it here!

- Them, with Startup Auditor 2.3.2 I have disabled all unnecessary apps that start automatically every time the Tab boots so I don't have excess applications starting up that are not needed. Some I configured to be killed AGAIN if the system tries to restart them later after the boot-up

- Using Task Manager 1.0.7 and letting always run on background, I have configured all apps that I don’t need running to be auto-killed every time the phone goes to stand-by (screen off). This saves me lots of memory and CPU time on apps that I am actually not using.

- Finally, I monitor what is going on with an app called CPU Usage Timeliness Free 1.7.1.0 and use it to see EXACTLY which applications are using CPU cycles and interfering with performance. With it I have found that on my Tab I have an unsolved problem that is using over 100MB of memory and non-stop CPU usage between 15% and 45% of something called SECURITY STORAGE. I have no idea what it does. It can't be disabled and I don’t know where all the activity comes from. If someone know more about this and how to fix it, that will be great. Most of the performance issues I have on my Tab come from this Service that I don’t know how to tame. Surely, we can find a solution.

The system background services is one area where I'd like to know one by one, what each service does and if we need them or not, if it can be tweaked, disabled or deleted. Below is a complete list of the services I have safely disabled so far that have given me great performance boosts and with no negative issues on the system (IN BOLD), and OTHERS I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT (not bold). Please note these are background services that start automatically. The changes made to the disabled apps/services is that they are reverted to ON-DEMAND so they all still work perfectly.

CALENDAR

CALENDAR STORAGE

COM. SEC.ANDROID.PROVIDERS.DOWNLOADS

CSC

DOWNLOAD MANAGER

DRM CONTENT

EMAIL

GALLERY

GOOGLE PARTNER SETUP

GOOGLE SERVICES FRAMEWORK

MARKET

MEDIA STORAGE

MESSAGING

MUSIC

SAMSUNG ACCOUNT

SERVICE MODE

SNS

WIPEOUT RECEIVER

WORLD CLOCK

Furthermore I uninstalled several of the Samsung Apps I don’t use and STK Service and disabled these system Apps I don’t use (YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THE ONES YOU WANT TO ENABLE OR DISABLE AS YOU MIGHT HAVE DIFFERENT NEEDS):

All Bluetooth Services

All LiveWallpapers Services

Browser

CarHomeGoogle

CarHomeLauncher

Google Feedback

Screen Capture Service

Voice Search

Originally with my Tab I was getting Quadrant below 600 on average. Now, its always over 1900. This is not a "little" improvement, this is amazing upgrading. But id like this to be a starting point to learn and share more ways with everyone we can all share on things we can do to make the Tab as good as it was intended to be for everyone:)

Cheers!:)