game lag and pause state

[#1]

hi i am having the same problem with my xperia arc s which i recently bought, one week!! and yet as i start playing a game i got lag and game when to pause state, i have check my OS version which is the latest one. so i am still wondering where is this issue coming. can anyone help me on this?

Phone OS version : Gingerbread 2.3.4

Kernel version:2.6.32.9

Build:4.0.2.A.0.42

[paul4os]

After doing more investigations into why my own games kept randomly going to their pause screen, I believe I have isolated the problem (on my phone running 4.0.2.A.0.58 at least): MCAFEE.

If McAfee is installed, then my games pause randomly. As soon as I remove McAfee my problems disappear instantly and everything is very smmoth and stable. I have repeated this several times and get the same consistent result. Annoying, because I would like to use McAfee.

I even rooted and trimmed my phone down so that it was running the bare minimum in the background (removed Facebook, Facebook inside Xperia, Video Unlimited, Google Talk, and all other junk etc. etc.). This did make my phone seem more responsive, but as soon as I install McAfee my problems in games returned instantly (even with such a trimmed down phone).

Does removing McAfee solve it for any of you who are having a similar problem? (to remove McAfee you can't uninstall as a normal app, but rather have to use the Uninstall menu option in McAfee itself, or if that isn't there then use these istructions: http://talk.sonyericsson.com/thread/26858).

have not tried 4.0.2.A.0.62 yet - wonder if that will make a difference...

[paul4os]

I just updated to 4.0.2.A.0.62 on my Xperia Pro, full bloatware (including McAfee), intentionally installed as much additional cr@p that runs in the background as possible, and activated numerous sync services.

The result: games still enter their pause menus randomly (Asphalt 6, Angry Birds, NFS Shift, Brothers in Arms 2 etc.).

After uninstalling McAfee: problems disappear instantly.

Reinstall McAfee: Problems reappear instantly.

Uninstall McAfee: problems disappear instantly.

I also tried both the bundled 1.x version of McAfee and updating to McAfee v. 2.0.0.312 from the Android Market - it makes no difference.

I hope someone from Sony Ericsson is taking note of this issue and pressuring McAfee to fix this. McAfee are really ruining the user experience of Sony Ericsson phones. I would like some of the security features McAfee are offering, but cannot accept these performance glitches - there is absolutely no reason why McAfee background processes should be causing performance issues, especially given that I have it set to only scan when new app .apks are installed.

[paul4os]

Also being discussed at:

http://talk.sonymobile.com/message/177905

I contacted McAfee about this and they got one of their engineers to send me a custom build which would log the problem - I sent McAfee the logs and they say they are looking into it.

What seems to be happening is that a game requires a lot of RAM and when RAM runs low Android kills background services to free up RAM. Most background services stay dead until you exit the game, but after being killed McAfee tries to restart itself in the middle of the game, hence causing the game to pause. It is easy to see what is happening if you use the CatLog app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nolanlawson.logcat&hl=en

[paul4os]

Here is a snippet of some of the CatLog data that I sent to McAfee when running Asphalt 6:

I ran the catlog at around 19:16 and reproduced the problem again. In

the Catlog log file it seems easy to see the problem of random game

pausing.  The problem is indicated by "HDVD:  Game OnPause" events. These

events are preceded by the Dalvik garbage collector trying to free memory

and killing McAfee. McAfee then tries to restart itself, e.g.:

03-29 19:16:20.667 I/ActivityManager(  239): Starting: Intent {

act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER]

flg=0x14000000 cmp=com.wsandroid.suite/com.mcafee.vsmandroid.Launcher (has

extras) } from pid 3901

03-29 19:16:20.707 D/PhoneWindow( 8422): couldn't save which view has

focus because the focused view

com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftA6HP.GameGLSurfaceView@2b0771d0 has no id.

03-29 19:16:20.707 D/HDVD    ( 8422): Game OnPause

As mentioned, this problem disappears on all games when McAfee is

uninstalled.

[slimshaddy]

hmm so mcaffee is the problem.... it hangs the pc as well

[chanchari]

I got the same problem and I always suspected about Mc Affee.

Following your steps I'll do the same and and I'll comment it on the forum if it works or not.

Thx!

[abhithegodfathe]

Thnx Paul...

your suggestion worked in my xperia V...

enjoying beach buggy without a hitch...

[gamedeveloper]

hi,

   i am a game developer i also face this problam it happen when your wifi is connected to some network, at that time android OS will call an Onpause which pauses every apps and games for a second then OS will call Onresume which make some apps to lag or games to go to pause menu try to turn off wifi or get a better wifi connection