Samsung Galaxy S II

digiman

Is anyone else noticing a lag of about 2 secs when you press the home screen button for to go back to the home screen. Iv the phone for over a month and it wasn't there at the start. Its really annoying me at this stage. Anyone know of a fix?

Wetbench4

Hi all, just rooted my phone(first time with an android and first time rooting), using this 3 part video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjncd6RcYss

I would like to extend the battery mainly, so my question is, what do i do and where do i go next???

Edit:Oh and how do i get rid of the annoying warning triangle when the phone boots.

Thor

Hmm, I don't suppose anyone has a spare USB OTG cable from the GS2.

Ordered one from Hong Kong but it won't get here for another 2-3 weeks.

Thor

digiman wrote: »

Is anyone else noticing a lag of about 2 secs when you press the home screen button for to go back to the home screen. Iv the phone for over a month and it wasn't there at the start. Its really annoying me at this stage. Anyone know of a fix?

I'm using go launcher, Its much better than touchwiz if you ask me. Also extremely fast and customisable aswell.

Kenny Logins

Thor wrote: »

Hmm, I don't suppose anyone has a spare USB OTG cable from the GS2.

Ordered one from Hong Kong but it won't get here for another 2-3 weeks.

I ordered 2, about a week ago.

Thor

Wetbench4 wrote: »

Hi all, just rooted my phone(first time with an android and first time rooting), using this 3 part video
'Removed video from quote'

I would like to extend the battery mainly, so my question is, what do i do and where do i go next???

Edit:Oh and how do i get rid of the annoying warning triangle when the phone boots.

You can always undervolt the cpu, Some users on XDA-Developers are doing it and seeing some very good results. Although i probably won't do it because the battery life is perfect for me at the moment and will be getting the battery case aswell.

As for the yellow triangle. This little guide was copyed from XDA-Developers.com, So thanks goes to pulser(Creator of VillainRom) over there.

Getting rid of the pesky yellow triangle (without jig)

Some users reported issues in getting rid of the yellow triangle without using a jig. If you used ODIN to flash a custom kernel, then you will have the yellow triangle. Getting rid of this is fairly easy to do.

First of all, ensure you see the app "CWM" by chainfire in the list of apps. Without this app, these instructions will not work. Download the XWKF1 Cf-Root v4.0 kernel (which you can get from http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...83&postcount=3), and unzip and untar the zImage, using 7zip, and then put the zImage file into the root of the internal SD card.

Now turn off the phone, and boot to download mode. (volume down + power + home), and flash the stock kernel to the device as a kernel. This will remove the yellow exclamation point.

Now, open the CWM app, and select "Flash Kernel". In the list of files, select the zImage file you placed onto the SD card. The phone will reboot, and you will have CF-Root, but without the yellow triangle

Thor

Kenny Logins wrote: »

I ordered 2, about a week ago.

emm Cough sell me one cough cough!!!;);)

OneWayBet

eamondunphy wrote: »

i'd like to flash a different rom but a few things scare me.

the main reason i havent flashed the rom is i cant seem to find meteors rom anywhere online.
i'd obviously need this incase i had to return the phone if it suffered a hardware fault.

i currently have 38% battery left and it's been off charge 10hrs now, i have used the web browser for about an hour but have facebook and emails running in the background, ive made a few calls and been texting and using whatsapp most of the day.

does anyone know where i could get the stock meteor rom so that i could have it as back up for if i flashed my phone??

I bought mine on eBay, it was stock Meteor with KE2 firmware. I was getting about 24hrs out of the battery but last night I debranded and flashed up to KE7. After 24 hours I still have 43% left This is with the phone offline for about 7hrs, wifi off during work but online with 3G all day and active usage with screen on for a couple of hours.

Wetbench4

@Thor, thanks but where am i looking for the CWM app? The only new app i see is the superuser one. In superuser i have no apps in the app list. Pardon my noobness

captain_boycott

Thor wrote: »

Your using Vodafone specific firmware, So you need to install another rom before installing CF_Root. Something like KE7 or KF1, Then you can install CF_Root and then install the new rom.

ok - I installed KE7, then the CF_root, and finally VillianROM 1.4. All seemed to go ok, and I get the VillianROM when booting first time.

However when I go to settings/about it tells me I am still running KE7 - is that normal?

I was doing a restore within CWM - thought this was just to restore user settings but apparently it restores the old rom!!

Thor

captain_boycott wrote: »

ok - I installed KE7, then the CF_root, and finally VillianROM 1.4. All seemed to go ok, and I get the VillianROM when booting first time.

However when I go to settings/about it tells me I am still running KE7 - is that normal?

yeah, That is your kernel version, Mainly because you installed KE7 version of CF_root. You could upgrade to KF1 now if you like

Enjoy the rom, Also download VRtweaks which is right here on the villianrom site http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/4570-(updated)-VillainTweaks-v1.3.1-(29-May)

Once you have that installed, Install anything that say fix, Make sure to always say yes to the reboots aswell. Maybe even try out the CRT-Off animation as its pretty slick.

Thor

Wetbench4 wrote: »

@Thor, thanks but where am i looking for the CWM app? The only new app i see is the superuser one. In superuser i have no apps in the app list. Pardon my noobness

Ah no worries, Only learned how to do all this last week. New to android myself.

As for not seeing the CWM app, Make sure you have installed CF_ROOT that correspond to your current rom.

Also check down the bottom of the application menu as it might even be there. even if its alphabetically sorted.

If you still can't find it, Let me know and i will look into it more, Pm me if you can't find it.

maninaskirt

marathont wrote: »

I must be missing something really obvious here, but can someone tell me how to view or download attachments in the email client on the galaxy s2 (not gmail).

I can see the attachments, but cannot find any options to view it or download, tried clicking everywhere, long press and menu button. Thanks.

I had to download an app from the market called "download all files" its free and it worked for me, hope that helps.

Thor

captain_boycott wrote: »

ok - I installed KE7, then the CF_root, and finally VillianROM 1.4. All seemed to go ok, and I get the VillianROM when booting first time.

However when I go to settings/about it tells me I am still running KE7 - is that normal?

also forget to note, Make sure you install Basedband KF2 if you have not aready done so.

Installing the baseband is pretty much the same and installing the CF-Root, But you have to click on phone and not pda in Odin. That's it.

eamondunphy

Thor wrote: »

I'm not 100% but im pretty sure that you are allowed to flash any rom from samsung and returning it wouldn't be a problem.

As long as you can return it with stock rom then you shouldn't have a problem, But to be honest, Its pretty hard to brick the device, Flashing is pretty straight forward. There are plenty of guides on how to do it, I'm sure you already know but if you feel the risk is too high. Remember Samsung sent the GS2 to a developer of the cyanogen mod so they could port it to the GS2. If they wanted to they could have locked the boot loaders but they didn't. I'm convinced Samsung are for custom roms!!

To that end, If you are still unsure, Send me a pm if you have any trouble and i will help the best i can. That's goes to anyone who needs help flashing the SGS2, I must say I'm loving the VillainRom and would suggest anyone with this phone to put it on there phone.

as far as i know, flashing a rom will void your warranty with meteor unless you reflash the meteor rom before returning it... i'd like to find the the meteor rom somewhere so that i could reflash back to it incase i do have to return the phone

flashing does seem fairly straightforward but just to be sure, i dont have to root the phone first do i?? i'd rather stay away from rooting if possible.

thanks for the offer of help, if i decide to flash i'll probably ask for your help!

Thor

eamondunphy wrote: »

as far as i know, flashing a rom will void your warranty with meteor unless you reflash the meteor rom before returning it... i'd like to find the the meteor rom somewhere so that i could reflash back to it incase i do have to return the phone

flashing does seem fairly straightforward but just to be sure, i dont have to root the phone first do i?? i'd rather stay away from rooting if possible.

thanks for the offer of help, if i decide to flash i'll probably ask for your help!

No worries man, If you do flash it in the end, Definetly let me know, Will gladly help out.

Also, I believe the warranty is with Samsung and not meteor, They like every other mobile provider just send the phones to 'The mobile phone repair company' in Sandyford, Only takes 3 hours for them to fix nearly every problem as long as they have the parts in stock(Which they normally always do)

You can always bring it directly to them yourself. But probably best to bring it to meteor first, As they may just give you a replacment.

Wolflikeme

Flashed with VillainRom 1.4 today and using GO Launcher as per Thor's recommendation.

So far so good. GO Launcher is excellent!!

Also downloaded and installed vr tweaks so the browser's working perfectly again (I installed VillainRom 1.4 yesterday with the same browser issue).

Using Set CPU too to slightly underclock to conserve a bit of battery - just to see how it goes really!

eamondunphy

OneWayBet wrote: »

I bought mine on eBay, it was stock Meteor with KE2 firmware. I was getting about 24hrs out of the battery but last night I debranded and flashed up to KE7. After 24 hours I still have 43% left This is with the phone offline for about 7hrs, wifi off during work but online with 3G all day and active usage with screen on for a couple of hours.

how exactly did you debrand? what rom did you flash to?

have you got the meteor rom backed up anywhere by any chance?

Zagato

@conor.hogan2

I know that I hadn't been having as much trouble with the battery as you, but maybe I don't have the same amount of usage.

Yesterday I rooted, flashed VillainRom 1.4, and have found an app (which requires root) called bloat freezer, it allows you to freeze apps, stopping them turning on (like wifi sharing, social hub and basically all the bu!!$^!t I don't use) You don't remove them and so if any of them cause any problems to the working of your phone, you can just unfreeze them

I know Titanium Backup Pro does this as well, but bloat freezer is a lot cheaper, and I don't really want the added features of Titanium tbh

I'll let you know how I get on with the battery life;)

I do appreciate that you might be reluctant to root given your thinking of sending the phone back

BenEadir

Hi all,

I'm a long time SGS user but coming to my wits end with battery life. I'm getting about 7-8 hours of average use out of it and that's with a fairly lean Rom (Darky's 10.1 RE) on board and all the bloatware removed.

Have been waiting to see how the SGSII is going down and whilst the initial reviews were stunning actual user experience seems generally disappointing, mostly in relation to battery peroformance.

Has anyone here moved from an SGS to the SGSII and if so can you do a bit of a user comparison?

After battery performance the next most important thing for me is GPS performance as my SGS had a lot of early problems with same and whilst it's OK now I'm really hoping the SGSII has nailed the issue.

Regards,

Ben

FYI my battery performance today

Thor

BenEadir wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm a long time SGS user but coming to my wits end with battery life. I'm getting about 7-8 hours of average use out of it and that's with a fairly lean Rom (Darky's 10.1 RE) on board and all the bloatware removed.

Have been waiting to see how the SGSII is going down and whilst the initial reviews were stunning actual user experience seems generally disappointing, mostly in relation to battery peroformance.

Has anyone here moved from an SGS to the SGSII and if so can you do a bit of a user comparison?

After battery performance the next most important thing for me is GPS performance as my SGS had a lot of early problems with same and whilst it's OK now I'm really hoping the SGSII has nailed the issue.

Regards,

Ben

FYI my battery performance today

While i can't speak to the preformance of of the SGS1 battery and gps as i never had one.

The gps on the SGS2 is fantastic, Haven't had a single issue with it, Connects in under 30 seconds indoors, Usual about 5 seconds.

The battery life is mainly down to the terrible stock rom on it, Once you flash a better rom(VillainRom) the battery life is incredible!!

omb0wyn5ehpij9

I am considering changing from an iphone 3gs to the SGS2, but the talk of how bad the battery is is really putting me!!

super_furry

How does it feel in hand? I had a Galaxy S but didn't like the fragile, plasticky feel and got rid of it for a Desire HD.

lewis

super_furry wrote: »

How does it feel in hand? I had a Galaxy S but didn't like the fragile, plasticky feel and got rid of it for a Desire HD.

I was looking at one in CPW and I have to say it does feel good in the hand, the need back in ten time better than the SGS1, it does`nt feel like its going to slip out of your hand, but its ugly as fup, lol.

conor.hogan.2

Zagato wrote: »

@conor.hogan2

I'll let you know how I get on with the battery life;)

I do appreciate that you might be reluctant to root given your thinking of sending the phone back

Ah nice one, I'll look forward to hearing if it improves much.

I wont be paying for any app to freeze other apps, you can just rename the files after you have root iirc.

The phone is fantastic, most people are getting fantastic battery life tbh - a few people arent, as the rom definitely doesnt help.

Breezer

Flashed VillainROM 1.4 yesterday, battery seems a lot worse than stock KE7! I was very impressed with Villain on my old HTC Hero. Maybe I just need to calibrate it. Hope so anyway...

conor.hogan.2

Breezer wrote: »

Flashed VillainROM 1.4 yesterday, battery seems a lot worse than stock KE7! I was very impressed with Villain on my old HTC Hero. Maybe I just need to calibrate it. Hope so anyway...

Crap (probably does need a calibration though), how did you find ke7 as opposed to ke1?

eamondunphy

@conor.hogan2

did you hear back from vodafone yet??

i wrote to meteor last night and got the below response earlier today

i bought the galaxy 2 over the phone so will ring meteor tomorrow if i get a chance

"Hi

Thanks for contacting us.

There may be a fault with the battery, you will be required to return the phone as soon as possible to get a replacement. You will need to verify where you upgraded your phone if it was in store you will need to return the phone to the store and if you upgraded over the phone, please contact our Sales team to discuss your options. They can be contacted on 1800-777-085 until 7pm Monday to friday.

I hope this information is of some assistance to you."

conor.hogan.2

Vodafone didnt get back to me,no, and the shop in swords never answers the phone either.

Breezer

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Crap (probably does need a calibration though), how did you find ke7 as opposed to ke1?

Mine came with O2's customised KE2. I only used it for about 2 days before the flickering backlight bug drove me to debranding and upgrading, so it's hard to make a comparison, but KE7 seemed a bit better.

eamondunphy

im not sure what to do. phones been unplugged for 9hrs so gar today, ive used the browser on the phone for only about 10mins today but have made a few calls and text and ive 72% left, in a way that sounds good to me.

but i know if i want heavy usage i wont get more than the 6-8 hours, im in two minds.

conor.hogan.2

Ye, with any usage i cant get much over 10 hours.

I dont feel like walking down, giving them my phone for a week and then getting it back with them saying its fine…. If only they would respond to the email and give me some reason to bring them the phone.

Eamondunphy - can you post up how long your screen has been on for? its in about phone, battery usage and click on the display. Thanks.

captain_boycott

having flashed to KE7 and then to Villain1.4 (thanks Thor!) , I am amazed, I just cannot run down the battery! How can software make such a difference to battery consumption?

I've played mp3 podcasts for about an hour, been on wifi for several hours, plus a few phone calls and periodic checks on email and google reader during the day...Started with a full charge at 7 this morning, still at over 40%.

Its like a different phone since I moved off the stock rom. (and I suspect I would squeeze another day of heavy use from the phone by disabling 3G/Wifi when not in use, and freezing the Samsung apps).

eamondunphy

the display has only been on for 1hr 55mins, ive not done much besides texts and calls today. only spent a few minutes this morning using the browser. ive used the phone less today than any other day since i got it.

in your battery usage, does it say "wifi sharing"?
ive never seen this but alot of people online who have battery problems say "wifi sharing" is eating alot of their battery. some people think ids a virus and others think its an app using it

conor.hogan.2

ye wifi sharing is a big problem - its only 3% today but it can be 10-15%.

Ye today ive used it the least - but still 65% after 6.57.

eamondunphy

i dont know if you've seen the review for the phone on techradar, but they mention the phone would need to be charged every day unless its used only for calls and texts, this has me thinking that my phone might be normal.

have you tried it for a day or two without any internet usage, if its still dying on the first day, you know you've defo got a faulty phone

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review?artc_pg=9

conor.hogan.2

I trust engadget more who said they got over 24 hours with push notifications on and 12 hours of actual usage.

So I dunno.

I could/should do a test with no wifi and just normal usage otherwise and see.

smcnena

After hearing all the good reports about flashing with custom rom on this thread, I am thinking of going for it myself. As this is my first android phone and being new to flashing custom rom's.
Is there anyone here who is on the 3 network that has gone through the process?
What settings do I need to remember after I flash the custom rom?
How do I know what version to flash with?

Baseband Version : I9100NEJKD5
Kernal: 2.6.35.7-I9100XWKE1-CL181974 root@DELL103 #2
Build No: GINGERBREAD.XWKE1

captain_boycott

SC20110622-220055.jpeg

Zagato

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Ah nice one, I'll look forward to hearing if it improves much.

I wont be paying for any app to freeze other apps, you can just rename the files after you have root iirc.

The phone is fantastic, most people are getting fantastic battery life tbh - a few people arent, as the rom definitely doesnt help.

twas 70c and it is pretty handy to be able to unfreeze a couple of apps it turns out I really do need!

Battery life is no at 35% after 15hrs -not terribly heavy use (no gaming today) but data on all day, wifi when at home, gmail + Push Exchange account + another email syncing every 15mins, Twitter and Facebook syncing every 15mins, and I have Talk,Viber and Whats App connected all the time (don't know if they use much battery though)

I'd say I would probably have been at 20-25% before changing the ROM and freezing the apps.

I haven't properly calibrated the battery yet -haven't checked how to do it tbh, but I did wipe the battery stats after flashing, I was at a random battery level at the time though

ferrigan101

eamondunphy wrote: »

the display has only been on for 1hr 55mins, ive not done much besides texts and calls today. only spent a few minutes this morning using the browser. ive used the phone less today than any other day since i got it.

in your battery usage, does it say "wifi sharing"?
ive never seen this but alot of people online who have battery problems say "wifi sharing" is eating alot of their battery. some people think ids a virus and others think its an app using it

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

ye wifi sharing is a big problem - its only 3% today but it can be 10-15%.

Ye today ive used it the least - but still 65% after 6.57.

Was just wondering about this! My battery is fine at the minute with some medium usage getting about 20+ hours out of it. But that drops down to about 15 hours or less if I'm out and about and using twitter/internet/whatever.

Battery was 100% charged at 10 this morning and at 49% now, but haven't had any heavy usage today. Stats are;

Android Os 35%
Display 28%
Wi-Fi Sharing 11%
and a few other things making up the rest.

Was reading this and it seems to be a bug on the ke2 and ke7 firmwares, are you guys on either of them?

Will try freezing the Wi-Fi sharing thingy and see if it makes much of a difference.

Edit - Should've said I'm running
PDA : I9100XWKE7
PHONE : I9100XXKE4
CSC : I9100CPWKD1

conor.hogan.2

No I am on ke1, thats very high android usage too which may be a rogue app from what I remember.

I might flash this weekend, but I would need to give it a few hours unless I can borrow a windows laptop.

unklerosco

If u wanna keep the phone as stock as possible and increase battery try this (as mentioned earlier in the thread) (U'll need to root the phone first)

Using titanium backup ive frozen just the samsung hub apps and wifi sharing and Im getting nearly 48hours without charge from my battery on KE7, I cant complain at all

I've done it, I got 3 days on a single charge over the weekend... Easily getting 2 days per charge and I use the phone quite a bit as it's my work phone.. Tis great!!

ferrigan101

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

No I am on ke1, thats very high android usage too which may be a rogue app from what I remember.

I might flash this weekend, but I would need to give it a few hours unless I can borrow a windows laptop.

Yeah, will need to investigate further!

bennyx_o

bennyx_o wrote: »

I bought one on Vodafone bill pay from Carphone Warehouse and it's unlocked.

After picking one up through work.
Yep I can confirm they are unlocked through vodafone on bill pay.

Is it worth getting a generic rom to loose all the vodafone branded crap?

Zagato

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

No I am on ke1, thats very high android usage too which may be a rogue app from what I remember.

I might flash this weekend, but I would need to give it a few hours unless I can borrow a windows laptop.

If you can get a windows laptop, then you could always consider just doing the available update via kies which I was offered the other day (kies for mac won't allow you to upgrade the firmware)
I think it was KE2 (or maybe KE4)

At least that would keep it official

the varg

First time android user with the SGS2 & love it, but twice now I have gone to unlock it with the keypad & numbers 7,8,9 are missing! Only solution is to remove the battery and turn on again

Anyone out there have this problem?

K09

Hi,

I am a beginner to the android phones and am planning on getting the Galaxy S2.

As a complete beginner I trawled through this thread and made a couple of notes that a new user may need to do...

Is the below correct and anything else that should be added to this list? Thanks!!

1/ Root Phone
And reasons to Root

2/ Update(Flash) Firmware to latest version - KE7 using Kies or Odin

3/ Use DoubleTwist to sync itunes music, photos etc

** ROM is the actual operating system? phone comes with Gingerbread. Am I correct on this? And KE7 is a version of Gingerbread??
Can change to other ROMS incl. VillianROM, cyanogenmod, etc. Is this the best way to boost battery life?

erie

K09 wrote: »

Hi,

I am a beginner to the android phones and am planning on getting the Galaxy S2.

As a complete beginner I trawled through this thread and made a couple of notes that a new user may need to do...

Is the below correct and anything else that should be added to this list? Thanks!!

1/ Root Phone
And reasons to Root

2/ Update(Flash) Firmware to latest version - KE7 using Kies or Odin

3/ Use DoubleTwist to sync itunes music, photos etc

** ROM is the actual operating system? phone comes with Gingerbread. Am I correct on this? And KE7 is a version of Gingerbread??
Can change to other ROMS incl. VillianROM, cyanogenmod, etc. Is this the best way to boost battery life?

flashed with villainrom 1.4 lite 2days ago... amazing battery life to say, thy use launcherpro to manage yr home screen brilliant and beautiful...

BenEadir

erie wrote: »

flashed with villainrom 1.4 lite 2days ago... amazing battery life to say, thy use launcherpro to manage yr home screen brilliant and beautiful...

Try Go Launcher. Free (from the market) and better IMHO. I've had both.

Ben