Slow X51v

[Mark Kramer]

I've had my X51v for about 4 months now, and I have installed the latest ROM upgrade. In comparison with my old Toshiba e755, this new device, touted as a having a much faster processor, is S-L-O-W. I have checked again and again to make certain the processor is running at max speed, and it is. Everything is slow, but I particularly notice that when I am switching programs, or even just switching screens within a given program, this sucker just crawls. I've tried killing all other apps to see if the few programs open in the background are causing this, but this seems to have no effect. Anyone else out there have a similar experience..or better yet, a solution?

[Mahstah]

The reason that your device seems slow is because of the new hardware requirements of the operating system and the way it manages information. Pre-WM5 devices used RAM to store data and installed programs. They used ROM to store the OS image in case of a hard reset and for a small amount of nonvolatile storage. They required backup batteries which, if drained, resulted in complete loss of data in RAM and an effective hard reset.

Windows Mobile 5 remedied the problem by using RAM in a manner similar to more robust OSs for temporarily storing programs while they run. It uses ROM to store data and installed programs, or expansion cards which are nonvolatile too. ROM is slower than RAM, and when a program executes it gets copied to RAM rather than running directly from RAM as you are used to. This is why the X51 has such a slow startup time, OS components are being copied to RAM.

My X51v takes longer to soft reset than my desktop computer, my X5, or my X30. It is faster than the 400 MHz X5 for application response time but slower than the 624 MHz X30.

The upgrade to the X51v is for the much better screen, security, and data retention in case of battery loss.

[Mark Kramer]

Thanks for the informative response. I am not surprised that none of this was mentioned by Dell in their promotional copy. I guess you can't sell a PDA if you advertise it as having the latest and slowest OS around. BTW, how do you know all this? You obviously are more than a casual observer of the PDA world.

[l0l]

Hi Mark,

Mahstah explained precisely how the RAM & ROM work in WM5.

In your 1st post, you mentioned "Everything is slow ... notice that when switching programs, or switching screens within a program ... crawls ... tried killing background apps ... no effect", appears slow indeed.

I loaded Excel, Word, PIE, Power Point, Windows Media, & fill them w/ data (Office apps only).
• The loading (from ROM to RAM) takes about 2 to 3 sec (will be less for program w/ smaller footprint).
• When I switch apps (within RAM), it take less than 1 second.
• Free ROM 188.77 Mb
• Free RAM 16.41 Mb
• X51V
• WiFi on, responding to this post.
• All my programs are installed on the SD card.

When the program is loaded (Settings/System/Running Programs), you should be able to switch quickly because they are already in RAM. I'm not saying you've defective RAM chips. I'd expect your Axim to achieve similar results based on the above scenario. Nevertheless, the test should be sufficient for a simple "speed" comparison.

It's definitely worthwile to compare your Axim side by side w/ a similar model. If you find your "speed" slower than a lower end Axim, call Dell ... warranty issue.

Check your free RAM & ROM too, & free them up as much as possible. Install programs on SD/CF card if you need too.

[nadoj]

Originally Posted by Mark Kramer

I've had my X51v for about 4 months now, and I have installed the latest ROM upgrade. In comparison with my old Toshiba e755, this new device, touted as a having a much faster processor, is S-L-O-W. I have checked again and again to make certain the processor is running at max speed, and it is. Everything is slow, but I particularly notice that when I am switching programs, or even just switching screens within a given program, this sucker just crawls. I've tried killing all other apps to see if the few programs open in the background are causing this, but this seems to have no effect. Anyone else out there have a similar experience..or better yet, a solution?

This sounds a lot like my problem. Once on, it does fine but when waking up, it is like booting a computer. It seemed to wake instantaneously until I decided to install some programs. With a few, I got error messages about "may not view properly because it was made for a prior operating system" (or something close to that) This Dell crawls compared to my Palm Tungsten E, although I'd never go back! I read this thread but I am thinking it seems more program related, I just can't see the processes like in Windows XP.

[Mahstah]

Check out this hack to speed up WM5.

http://www.tweaks2k2.com/howto/viewtopic.php?t=74