TFP's Reliability - Do You Trust Your Device? - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Hello all!
Kind of a mild question, and potentially not needed, but I thought I'd post anyway...
Last night I had a force close during a short short paper that I was writing and lost it. While this wasn't a significant loss, it made me question the reliability of the TFP. Though this might be a cause of Office Suite itself, I am just concerned because I often get force closes from several operations doing the simplest of things. I have run fix permission both in cwm and rom manager (even though they probably do the same thing).
Do you trust your prime with your work? Have you experienced any nightmareish force closes?
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

Force close is a software issue on app side. Probably not optimized for ICS yet since its so new and so few devices have it yet. I trust the prime with my work. No real horror FC stories yet. It might be good to do periodic save points on papers n such for situations just like you described. But app FC is not caused by prime hardware.

I trust my Prime in the sense that I trust code compiled will be O.K. and not a bitswapped mess.
I don't trust my Prime in the sense that the WiFi signal sucks versus the TF101, and in this building, we are lucky to be able to use anything without an Ethernet jack :-o.
Most of the stuff I use for "Work" runs below Android, like Vi IMproved, OpenSSH, and tmux. But I have rarely had issues with apps crashing, save Google Music and the stock browser!

Considering mine just irreversibly bricked itself while sitting on a desk doing absolutely nothing, no, I don't trust it at all.

Yes. I did a factory reset after the ICS and firmware updates and everything now has been rock solid.

Related

Why is everything so unstable?

This is my first entry into the Android tablet market and I love the Transformer Prime but are things supposed to be so unstable?
My browser crashes, flash locks up, the camera locks up, the task manager stops for no reason etc... Is it the tablet cpu, the OS or the applications? Do people with other brand tablets have the same issues?
Don't mean this to be a rant but after running Linux of the desktop for the past 8 years, I am a bit shocked at how so many things just don't work as intended.
Stability depends what version of firmware you're running. If you're not already on .15 then you may be experiencing major known issues with the tablet and stability.
Otherwise, perhaps some apps are a bit slow, which is being detected as a potential crash. Try sticking performance mode on and selecting 'Wait' when an app hangs next time. I get this with the stock browser a lot, but Chrome Beta (and other browers) are much better. There are a lot of threads here with people rooting for their favourite one.
As for the 'task manager stops' issue, I've never had this so can't comment? What exactly happens?
I wouldn't compare my tablets stability to a mature desktop platform like Linux, but I can't remember being truly frustrated with it except for the reboots on older firmware - and I use mine 5+ hours a day...
The software isnt perfect yet. There are still some issues with ICS and still some with asus adapted it. And i think there is also some room for improvement for the gpu drivers which will come from nvidia.
Everything is new with the prime. New chip, new OS... Things will only get better
Did you do a hard reset after upgrading to ICS from HC? My prime was buggy as all hell until I found someone mentioning to make sure to do a hard reset after upgrading and I tried it and made such a difference it was unbelievable. Every once in a while things crash but it was a night and day difference.
I don't know if you have to do it between patches (I didn't have to after the first hard reset) and it'd amaze me if you did have to, but it seemed to be required for the 3.x -> 4.x upgrade.
I didn't have much on the tablet so I decided on a full reset, redid my settings and added back the few apps I had put on it and everything is 100% better. Thanks for the suggestions! Maybe the HC to ICS upgrade and all the firmware updates over the past few weeks might have mucked up some stuff.
The bad thing about android is its open source and not everything is going to work as great as we hope out of the box
The awesome thing about android is its open source and nearly everything can be tweaked or "made better" by communities like this.
Stock web browser sucks. Theres lots of other web browsers on the market, many for free. give em a try see what works best for you with relation to speed, features, etc.
Stock launcher, in my opinion, is VERY laggy on the home screens. I use ADW now, no lag, works well for me. YMMV, try different launchers see what works best for you.
Do some research into task killers, there is a HUGE debate as to weather or not they help or hinder. The stock asus task killer is very laggy IMO. There are otheres out there but really i just stick to closing apps as im done with them (select the recent apps button, swipe the apps you want to close to the right of the screen to close them)
Overall this tablet has a HUGE potential however there will be some time before we see a huge amount of stuff for it development wise, we JUST got a unlock for the bootloader, Android for tablets is still pretty new, give it a little time. Good luck!

New .21 update, how much better has it made your Prime?

For me the update, while only 24 hours old, has made a world of difference. Gone (so far) is the browser constantly crashing, the random reboots, and the wifi signal dropping randomly. I already loved the Prime, even with those faults, knowing that at some point a ROM or one of the updates would fix those problems. This seems to have done it.
My company is on the verge of purchasing them for all of our consultants, and I had been telling them to wait a bit, I think now I can move forward with the purchase. My question is, has it made the rest of you as happy?
Interesting. What industry are you in? Im in healthcare under IT and theres only 2-3 people with company Tablets ..though they are I-pads =(. I would love to see more tablets bieng productive in the business world and pushed into them as well. THe Prime is good start with the keyboard dock and processing power.
For business consultants wouldn't it be better to have a tablet that has built in data plans? I'm guessing they'd be traveling around a lot, and to assume everyone has available wifi for them is a but presumptuous.
Unless everyone also has a dataplan smartphone for tethering !
For me it has made it much more reliable and stable. I made it through a whole day at school as a laptop replacement. Used Overskreen browser (awesome), pdfs, TED, youtube, gmail, 8tracks, music apps. Everything worked together and it never froze or crashed.
new update has made my prime that much better than the competition.
Better here too, only problem i get is browser lag. Its not totally gone, but its noticeably better to the point where its almost not bothering me now.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Completely fixed my screen tearing problem, and haven't had any browser problems yet. But I have had one random reboot since the update.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
AnFreud said:
Completely fixed my screen tearing problem, and haven't had any browser problems yet. But I have had one random reboot since the update.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me, I was scared thinking on the .14 random re bot comebak!!
Much, much better. Screen tearing completely gone, no random reboots yet and gps is working again. Browser is much better, only get the wait or close message once in a long while.
Sent from my SGH-I717M using XDA
my prime used to just bob my knob. now it tongues the testes while it bobs the knob. so much better.
am i the only one who had a gmail problem?
i couldn't find anyone having problems with gmail... it would open and i could see the emails... but wouldnt respond to my touch... all i know is the new update fixed that problem... amongst everything else.
After the update I feel it more smooth overall. So I am happy enough with it now that I ordered a leather case for it
They updated the Asus timeline live wallpaper
They added some animation to each of the "scenes" like sun shafts and birds flying toward the sunset one on the Dusk scene.
aawshads said:
For me the update, while only 24 hours old, has made a world of difference. Gone (so far) is the browser constantly crashing, the random reboots, and the wifi signal dropping randomly. I already loved the Prime, even with those faults, knowing that at some point a ROM or one of the updates would fix those problems. This seems to have done it.
My company is on the verge of purchasing them for all of our consultants, and I had been telling them to wait a bit, I think now I can move forward with the purchase. My question is, has it made the rest of you as happy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Browsing seems really smooth now and the Splashtop Streamer works very nice as well. Also we probably got the free 8GB AsusWebstorage. And I am sure there is still lots to find. I'll let you know later
Stability really has improved a lot with this update. My browser would crash QUITE frequently before, and I had a few, albeit not many, random reboots. I've used my Prime quite a bit since the update and I haven't witnessed either of those two things yet. The browser is faster and more responsive now than ever before.
market not connecting
Light browser lag yes, and google play/market is not picking up connection...
I've actually had one reboot since updating. I never had any problems with the previous firmware at all. Hopefully that was a one off..
Prime isn't rooted and hasn't been tinkerer with at all
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA
Definitely has improved my experience. No more screen flickering. Some "wait/close" popups with the browser, but not nearly as many as before. In fact, I don't recall having one at all today. Things seem smoother to me. I look forward to the Prime just getting better and better with future updates.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA
After update, i have been noticing that leaving the TP off and later when I pick up the TP, it feels a bit warm on the right upper side top. Also notice that the battery has gone down much quicker as well when just turned off. I don't have much installed, as I just got the TP last Saturday.
Maybe I will just do a hard reset.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
So far with the new firmware I have had the Prime just shut off once and then refuse to start up until it is plugged into charger.
I do experience the occasional hang up on the stock web browser, but everything else seems to be running smoothly so far.
I am hoping that I no longer experience random reboots or the tablet just shutting off because whenever I do I can't get the tablet to start up again until I plug it into the charger.

[Q] A question for those who have unlocked their Prime.

My Prime has been less than what I expect of it, the browser is really awful at times. It's useable, but that's it. It crashes far too often (both on .21 and .28) even after doing a factory reset (on both versions). Also random reboots if something unexpected happens.
I don't need to RMA my Prime for these issues because as far as I'm aware, this is normal behavior and is a software issue.
However, I can't even RMA if I wanted to. A while ago my sister pushed my tablet off my dresser, causing it to hit the corner and make a nice dent on it. So I'm going to assume that ASUS will mark my tablet as CID when I send it in. (Sister has mental health problems, for those who would ask.) If anyone is even reading this far into this, would ASUS still RMA my tablet? Or am I just screwed?
Question for the unlockers who didn't want to read all of that.
Does unlocking the Prime and installing a different ROM and using the custom build.prop and other tweaks solve all the problems that the Prime has with the browser and overall usability? Does this make it smoother and faster?
I don't know is it solves" all" the problems, but if you choose the right ROM it is very smooth and solve the browser crash problem.
cam30era said:
I don't know is it solves" all" the problems, but if you choose the right ROM it is very smooth and solve the browser crash problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "all" problems, I absolutely mean software related. I'm mainly concerned for the browser crashing/lagging/stuttering, since it's the most used app on my Prime. The UI in general is smooth, but sometimes it hangs from the Play Store and other background processes.
Khyrdantai said:
My Prime has been less than what I expect of it, the browser is really awful at times. It's useable, but that's it. It crashes far too often (both on .21 and .28) even after doing a factory reset (on both versions). Also random reboots if something unexpected happens.
I don't need to RMA my Prime for these issues because as far as I'm aware, this is normal behavior and is a software issue.
However, I can't even RMA if I wanted to. A while ago my sister pushed my tablet off my dresser, causing it to hit the corner and make a nice dent on it. So I'm going to assume that ASUS will mark my tablet as CID when I send it in. (Sister has mental health problems, for those who would ask.) If anyone is even reading this far into this, would ASUS still RMA my tablet? Or am I just screwed?
Question for the unlockers who didn't want to read all of that.
Does unlocking the Prime and installing a different ROM and using the custom build.prop and other tweaks solve all the problems that the Prime has with the browser and overall usability? Does this make it smoother and faster?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think unlocking can help, but it's a risk and a very hard decision.. if you happen to unlock, i can recommend this ROM, smooth as silk...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1674827
if you're rooted, search up Browser2Ram for the TF201.
It works only for stock browser, but I can guarantee that it almost 100% gives you what browsing should feel like with almost no stuttering or any force close.
99% of the problems you stated will disappear if you load the right ROM. As skarfreak stated in post 4, go with Androwook. I have tried ALL other ROMs, and is is the best all around. I actually went back to using the stock browser now. Since you cannot RMA, you might as well take it into your own hands to make your device better.
jaycustom said:
99% of the problems you stated will disappear if you load the right ROM. As skarfreak stated in post 4, go with Androwook. I have tried ALL other ROMs, and is is the best all around. I actually went back to using the stock browser now. Since you cannot RMA, you might as well take it into your own hands to make your device better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, thanks! Seems like the best choice to go with. It really sucks that a $650 device isn't as premium as the price tells me it should be, but neither was my phone until I installed a custom ROM.
It pains me to say this, but Android device manufacturers need to step up the quality.

Curiosity: Did the I/O issues come with ICS

Just out of curiosity:
When the prime came out it was on GB. None of the reviews I read back then before buying, or can find now, mention any kind of ANR, hangs or other issues most likely caused by the poor I/O performance.
Is this just down to every single reviewer getting lucky, shady reviewing practises, or were the issues introduced with ICS?
Anyone have a prime back then care to comment?
Actually Prime never used GingerBread it was originally shipped with HoneyComb. As to the I/O issues can't really say with complete certainty ICS is causing them. It's more likely that since ICS was much newer and significantly different under the hood when compared to HoneyComb the I/O just hasn't been properly tuned up yet.
fatski said:
Just out of curiosity:
When the prime came out it was on GB. None of the reviews I read back then before buying, or can find now, mention any kind of ANR, hangs or other issues most likely caused by the poor I/O performance.
Is this just down to every single reviewer getting lucky, shady reviewing practises, or were the issues introduced with ICS?
Anyone have a prime back then care to comment?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mean Honeycomb. I had one. I can tell you that it seemed rather sluggish in general. To the effect that typing on the keyboard even lagged pretty badly. I was very disappointed, the prime not being at all what I had pictured in Tegra 3. From my point of view ICS was a great improvement all around. That said quite a few things are still extremely disappointing. I/O performance, wifi reception, wifi b/t dropout... all the common stuff. Most of which I believe to be hardware related. Anyways, if your rooted there is a method in the development section that you can use to downgrade to Honeycomb and get your own take on it.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
I can actually say that when I flashed an pics rom on my evo 4g and on the iconia a500 both had weaker wifi reception. Pretty sure that it is related to ics
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Oops. Yeah, I meant honeycomb :O
I know I could downgrade to check it out myself, but I'm lazy and was just curious.
fatski said:
Just out of curiosity:
........
Is this just down to every single reviewer getting lucky, shady reviewing practises, or were the issues introduced with ICS?
.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess I must be like all those reviewers cause mine works great. Not even sure what people are talking about on IO issues. I've only had it a short time. took it out of the box, did clean full install of .28 and have not seen any of the issues other report. Wi fi was weak at first but a quick week to my router fixed it. Just turned off mixed mode and that cured it I get 20 to 25 Mbps consistently.
I my be lucky but I can only repot what I've seen.
Yeah, my wifi is fine to be honest. I was definitely getting i/o based issues, especially when updating stuff from the Market, but I've pretty much solved those with various tweaks from here.
It just seemed strange to me that I didn't see a single review which so much as mentioned it. I understand most people on here are on here because they are experiencing issues, so it's not a good sample of all Prime owners, but stuff like the Browser ANR's do seem so widespread I would have thought at least a couple of reviewers would have mentioned it.
fatski said:
Yeah, my wifi is fine to be honest. I was definitely getting i/o based issues, especially when updating stuff from the Market, but I've pretty much solved those with various tweaks from here.
It just seemed strange to me that I didn't see a single review which so much as mentioned it. I understand most people on here are on here because they are experiencing issues, so it's not a good sample of all Prime owners, but stuff like the Browser ANR's do seem so widespread I would have thought at least a couple of reviewers would have mentioned it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may not see browser ANR's because I have never really used the built in Browser. I've been using Chrome and it seems to be working well for me. About the only time I use the built in browser is when I need Flash (which is rarely) which will not work in Chrome. BTW, when google released Android 4.1 (which has Chrome as its default) Chrome lost its "Beta" status for us too. I'm pleased with it.
You should read Anand's review (or watch the video), he doesn't call it IO issues, but he doesn't describe issues that we've come to associate with IO issues.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5163/asus-eee-pad-transformer-prime-nvidia-tegra-3-review

Jellybean Vs ICS

I've been waiting to see how this Jelly Bean update is working out for people. I'm unlocked and rooted very close to jumping in.My biggest gripes has been the browser ANR's and sub par Wifi. However I'm good with my Prime for the most part...Which is why I've been reluctant to flash new any of the latest Jelly Bean Roms. I'm aware I can NFlash and revert back ((I think) but prefer to get the feedback anyways.
I know there's a few forums about what people think since the update but this thread is basically to see who updated to Jelly Bean and wished they stayed on ICS because they have new issues, or just hasn't noticed much of a difference. Moderators feel free to fix anything I may have missed since its a poll.
Thanks
I had many many browser ANRs on ICS and after moving to CM10 they are all gone . As you are unlocked I think you should try it by yourself if it fits you (do nvflash before just in case). Wifi seems to me unchanged (ie not better).
Sent from my Transformer Prime
My Prime never had that much problems to begin with, but sometimes I had some ANR and my Wifi didnt download stuff fast and sometimes disconnected, but rarely. Since JB I never got ANR and in the beginning I was getting some reboot, I still have an issue with my ADW Launcher it was working correctly before update, but now sometimes icons are weirdly displayed, but I blame them cause now its listed as incompatible and before it was listed compatible with the Prime. Yesterday I installed Bards Tale and downloaded the 3.5 Gig version and the download of tha additional data was very fast.
SO overall my tablet is better with JB
I'm not fully satisfied with the actual upgrade process as it bricked my Prime. But I am satisfied with Asus RMA service who fixed it very quickly (at no charge).
JB itself seems slightly snappier, but not significantly so. Also what I'm seeing may be more the factory reset and less the actual Project Butter. And it feels like they slightly shortened some animation times (something I already did on some phones before, by using Settings -> Development options), which of course makes it feel slightly faster. Google Now is a bit lackluster so far, but it's not something I intended to use anyway. Voice-based keyboard is a nice touch, and great that it works offline, but more gimmicky than useful to me.
There's nothing really wrong with it so far though. In that regard, I'm satisfied with the update and don't need ICS back. However, judging from the lack of real improvements, I think I'm not going to update my S3 to JB any day soon - I'm not missing out on anything really, and don't want to risk any compatibility issues.
Sjaakbanaan said:
I'm not fully satisfied with the actual upgrade process as it bricked my Prime. But I am satisfied with Asus RMA service who fixed it very quickly (at no charge).
JB itself seems slightly snappier, but not significantly so. Also what I'm seeing may be more the factory reset and less the actual Project Butter. And it feels like they slightly shortened some animation times (something I already did on some phones before, by using Settings -> Development options), which of course makes it feel slightly faster. Google Now is a bit lackluster so far, but it's not something I intended to use anyway. Voice-based keyboard is a nice touch, and great that it works offline, but more gimmicky than useful to me.
There's nothing really wrong with it so far though. In that regard, I'm satisfied with the update and don't need ICS back. However, judging from the lack of real improvements, I think I'm not going to update my S3 to JB any day soon - I'm not missing out on anything really, and don't want to risk any compatibility issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Prime on JB is way faster. But, JB on my S3 is amazing. So smooth. I'm running AOKP and i dont regret it.
I appreciate this. Especially since I had forgot where I had read somewhere else about some of the apps aren't compatible..Yet. Overall per the poll though I, MOST ppl are happy with the update. I'm considering figuring out how to flash this NVflash to be able to give this a shot and revert back if I'm not happy. I actually flashed CM10 art 1 point but didnt like the fact it didnt stream audio via HDMI.
I also just read the WIFI Tether is not working with Transformer Prime? Is this true for anyone else..That would be a deal breaker for me. I like having WIFI wherever I bring the tablet.
Keep the feedback coming!
I also just read the WIFI Tether is not working with Transformer Prime? Is this true for anyone else..That would be a deal breaker for me. I like having WIFI wherever I bring the tablet.
Wifi tether does work with jellybean I use it when I'm out to play the shadow gun beta you have to have internet connection.
I absolutely hate the JB update After flashing and doing the factory reset, there is noticable sluggishness on the launcher and app drawer without forcing GPU rendering. Feel like the whole point of "Project Butter" is that it should just work.
The onscreen keyboard responsiveness is awful and a huge step back from ICS. I'm no longer able to touch type quickly as trying to do so on JB will result in many missed characters. I became proficient at typing on the keyboard, I shouldn't have to step back in order to just be able to type words without missing characters.
Losing the ability to use my synched bookmarks from Chrome is a pain in the neck.
Game performance is hugely impacted by JB on the Prime. GTA3 is pretty much unplayable on JB!
Looking now into unlocking and flashing to an ICS rom as I feel like my tablet is now in the worst state it's ever been. The stability of the browser is great don't get me wrong but for all of the functionality I've essentially lost to get that, it just isn't worth it.
My prime experience with jelly bean has been great. Not perfect, but in comparison to ICS, it has been great
Well, when I updated to JB with a locked bootloader and lost root, JB wasn't all that great: still some ANRs and a lot of lag. I just recently unlocked, regained root, and installed all my mods: since then JB really is a godsend. Browser is ridiculously quick and scrolling is unbelievable (browser2ram). Overall feel is definitely improved.
Biggest gripe is the HDMI out got porked, and the backspace issue isn't fun either. But dear lord it's so much smoother than ICS (all my animations are set to .5x), in all respects. Still lags when installing apps, but doesn't come to a halt like ICS.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
good info! Also seems ppl are more happy with the update by the poll. I guess I've been paranoid for nothing. Although I can also see why it may still be a good idea to have NVFlash.
Lyvewire said:
good info! Also seems ppl are more happy with the update by the poll. I guess I've been paranoid for nothing. Although I can also see why it may still be a good idea to have NVFlash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same boat. Thanks for the thread.
no doubt, JB is better (especially HB) :angel:

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