Samsung Galaxy S2 (tips & tricks)

[Olexijl]

Samsung Galaxy S2:

Tired of Galaxy S2 battery drain?

The following instructions are for your Galaxy S2 only! Warning, if you do that you will loose your warranty!

However it will make your S2 have less battery drain.

Please flash a new Siyah Kernel for Galaxy S2 via Odin

Odin (Samsung flashing tool): Odin v1.85

How to flash Kernel via Odin:

• Download Odin and unrar it
  

• Download the tar file from here (Siyah-v2.5.2.tar). Do NOT unrar it
  

• Shutdown your Galaxy S2
  

• Go to "Download mode" by pressing HOME + VOL DOWN + POWER button at the same time. After getting warning message please press VOL UP button
  

• Launch Odin with admin rights
  

• Go to "PDA" and choose your Siyah-v2.5.2.tar file
  

It should look like this (old screenshot).

• please connect your phone now via USB
  

• now press Start and wait. After successful reboot of your phone disconnect the phone from your PC
  

Your phone has been successfully rooted! ^_^

Now download the following app (do not install it from android market, since it is not free there. The following download is free however):

AnTuTu CPU Master Pro (CPU adjustments tool) (apk, requires root):

Site: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/55089648/

Sharecode: /c231.apk ^[?]

How to install the app:

• go to "Settings/Applications" and turn the "Unknown sources" option on
  

• please connect your phone to USB again
  

• download the CPU Master Pro apk file (if not already done)
  

• Open explorer and go to your connected phone. Make a new folder named "apk" on your external sd card there and copy the apk file inside
  

• disconnect your phone and go to your personal data in there
  

• Open the folder "apk" and install CPU Master Pro
  

Now you can make adjustments to your Galaxy S2 CPU.

How to make adjustments to the CPU:

• go to CPU Master Pro app. Allow the "root access".
  

• Under "Main" you can set the CPU Mhz settings. The default setting is between 200 Mhz (doing nothing) and 1.200 Mhz (if you are playing some 3D graphic game)
  

• Please set under "Main" the min Mhz at 100 Mhz value (thanks goes to the new Kernel otherwise not possible), the max Mhz should be set at 800 Mhz value. Set the "Scaling" value from "ondemand" to "smartass v2" (only available in the new Siyah Kernel)
  

• Apply the new settings. Do not forget the "Set on boot"...
  

Now the battery drain should be much improved.

-------------------------------------

Update (13/01/2012):

Siyah Kernel in the current versions is not recommended to flash. You would have problem, because the max value with "Set on boot" value in CPU optimization tools (like popular SetCPU) would not work correctly. Using the old Siyah Kernel 2.5.2 fixes a part of the problem.

The other part: SetCPU in the current version is not recommended to use.

It can adjust your CPU, and if you have proper Kernel the "Set on boot" value works just fine. However, if you wanna revert the values to stock by disabling "Set on boot" and rebooting just after, this do not work well. The values (min + max) are reverted to stock by doing so, but they are wrongly displayed as if never reverted.

To counter this point i suggest to use "AnTuTu CPU Master Pro" (already mentioned for download).

-------------------------------------

For advanced users:

If you ever want to change a Kernel, please be sure you have one with CWM 5 (ClockWorkMod Recovery 5) built-in. That's because CWM 4 has some problems while backup / restore process (not all subdirectories are in the backup included, so not all are restored).

The Siyah Kernel 2.5.2 has CWM 5 included. One of my favourites is the CF-ROOT Kernel in one of the latest builds for Gingerbread (Android 2.3.5 / 2.3.6). It has CWM 5 as well.

[marshall39]

You can also disable 3G if you don't need it , but flashing a new kernel and Set CPU is also a good trick.

I use the speedmod kernel from Hardcore (XDA develloper) , last nignt I've unplugged my phone from charging before going to bed and this morning (8 hours after) my battery was still at 100%.

The main thing is how your kernel handles deepsleep mode.

[Tweety.Abd]

• Please set under "Main" the min Mhz at 100 Mhz value (thanks goes to the new Kernel otherwise not possible), the max Mhz should be set at 800 Mhz value. Set the value from "ondemand" to "smartass v2" (only available in the new Siyah Kernel). Apply the new settings. Do not forget the "Set on Boot"
  

But that's degarding the phone's performance from 1.2 GHz down to 800 MHz? Is there a way to make it to hit 1.2 GHz when required? And how can I overclock the phone? Thank you so much for this thread, very informative. :)

[Olexijl]

• Please set under "Main" the min Mhz at 100 Mhz value (thanks goes to the new Kernel otherwise not possible), the max Mhz should be set at 800 Mhz value. Set the value from "ondemand" to "smartass v2" (only available in the new Siyah Kernel). Apply the new settings. Do not forget the "Set on Boot"
  

But that's degarding the phone's performance from 1.2 GHz down to 800 MHz? Is there a way to make it to hit 1.2 GHz when required? And how can I overclock the phone? Thank you so much for this thread, very informative. :)

That's called underclocking to save battery life. You can set max. value to 1.600 Mhz to overclock it. That's called overclocking.

Not recommended are values like 100 Mhz min and 200 Mhz max (maximum underclocking), that will stop your phone from functioning till next reboot.

[Tweety.Abd]

• Please set under "Main" the min Mhz at 100 Mhz value (thanks goes to the new Kernel otherwise not possible), the max Mhz should be set at 800 Mhz value. Set the value from "ondemand" to "smartass v2" (only available in the new Siyah Kernel). Apply the new settings. Do not forget the "Set on Boot"
  

But that's degarding the phone's performance from 1.2 GHz down to 800 MHz? Is there a way to make it to hit 1.2 GHz when required? And how can I overclock the phone? Thank you so much for this thread, very informative. :)

That's called undervolting to save battery life. You can set max. value to 1.600 Mhz to overclock it. That's called overclocking.

Not recommended are values like 100 Mhz min and 200 Mhz max (maximum undervolting), that will stop your phone from functioning till next reboot.

So what are the pros and cons of overclocking? Would the performance gain be considerable or barely noticeable and is it worth overclocking? And the minimum should be kept at 200 MHz, and the maximum to 800Mhz or 1.2Ghz or 1.6Ghz at max, am I correct?

[Olexijl]

• Please set under "Main" the min Mhz at 100 Mhz value (thanks goes to the new Kernel otherwise not possible), the max Mhz should be set at 800 Mhz value. Set the value from "ondemand" to "smartass v2" (only available in the new Siyah Kernel). Apply the new settings. Do not forget the "Set on Boot"
  

But that's degarding the phone's performance from 1.2 GHz down to 800 MHz? Is there a way to make it to hit 1.2 GHz when required? And how can I overclock the phone? Thank you so much for this thread, very informative. :)

That's called undervolting to save battery life. You can set max. value to 1.600 Mhz to overclock it. That's called overclocking.

Not recommended are values like 100 Mhz min and 200 Mhz max (maximum undervolting), that will stop your phone from functioning till next reboot.

So what are the pros and cons of overclocking? Would the performance gain be considerable or barely noticeable and is it worth overclocking? And the minimum should be kept at 200 MHz, and the maximum to 800Mhz or 1.2Ghz or 1.6Ghz at max, am I correct?

First you should decide for yourself what you prefer:

1. underclocking to save your battery life

2. overclocking to be able to make maximum of your CPU

If you prefer second, please do this for limited time otherwise you risk CPU damage. You can set max. to 1.600 Mhz, but there are no noticeable speed change in the normal usage. You battery would need to charge every 4 - 5 hours.

If you prefer first, you would not damage anything, but keep in mind that low max. value would stop your phone from functioning. So no reaction unless you restart your phone. In this case you may charge battery every 2,5 - 3 days.

Recommended underclocking : 100 Mhz min. - 800 Mhz max. (those have been tested that functionality do not suffer, but battery would not need to charge that often)

Overclocking is not recommended forever! For limited time only.

[Tweety.Abd]

First you should decide for yourself what you prefer:

1. undervolting to save your battery life

2. overclocking to be able to make maximum of your CPU

If you prefer second, please do this for limited time otherwise you risk CPU damage. You can set max. to 1.600 Mhz, but there are no noticeable speed change in the normal usage. You battery would need to charge every 4 - 5 hours.

If you prefer first, you would not damage anything, but keep in mind that low max. value would stop your phone from functioning. So no reaction unless you restart your phone. In this case you may charge battery every 2,5 - 3 days.

Recommended undervolting : 100 Mhz min. - 800 Mhz max. (those have been tested that functionality do not suffer, but battery would not need to charge that often)

Overclocking is not recommended forever! For limited time only.

Thanks for the information :) I'd like to know about the factory setting of Galaxy S2, what are it's default clock speeds and what benefits other than the more battery life will I gain by installing a 3rd-party ROM. I'm sorry if I'm being dumb or annoying, it's just I'm new to all this things and I'm very much curious to know about it, and additionally, it could help other people having the same questions as well.

[Olexijl]

As for default settings i refer you to Post.1:

The default setting is between 200 Mhz (doing nothing) and 1.200 Mhz (if you are playing some 3D graphic game)

The current CPU state is always depending on situation. CPU in Galaxy S2 can "recognize" what you are doing at present time. If you are calling somebody, you do not need much speed - go to 200 - 300 Mhz. If you play some "Angry Birds" from android market - a game with graphics - go to 1.200 Mhz.

I am also new to all that, but i googled a lot and found necessary info. Besides on youtube you can find some great videos.

To flash new kernel does not mean automatically you completely replaced your Android OS. A kernel is component of a ROM. You can flash a ROM completely (new customized Android OS, new firmware + new kernel) or just the new kernel only.

The kernel offers new functionality, but does not replace the GUI (look and feel of Android). A customized ROM contains the kernel, but if you do not flash it just after flashing ROM image, the GUI would change, but not the required functions. That does mean for you, the system would not be rooted and becomes unstable.

You can imagine a ROM like a new Skin to Windows 7, with the only difference that in Windows 7 you do not need to replace kernel to use skins. Only some files need to be patched.

[vfusion]

Check out these free Android utilities:

NetQin Mobile Guard: http://www.netqin.com/en/guard/

NetQin Mobile Security: http://www.netqin.com/en/antivirus/

NetQin Mobile Manager: http://www.netqin.com/en/manager/

[Olexijl]

Check out these free Android utilities:

NetQin Mobile Guard: http://www.netqin.com/en/guard/

NetQin Mobile Security: http://www.netqin.com/en/antivirus/

NetQin Mobile Manager: http://www.netqin.com/en/manager/

Thanks. That is useful for other smartphones. Samsung Galaxy S2 has his own "optimization" built-in. Just press "Home" long and press

"Task-Manager". Optimize your RAM and close opened tasks.

[RadioActive]

That's called undervolting to save battery life. You can set max. value to 1.600 Mhz to overclock it. That's called overclocking.

Nice guide, but what you described is the process of underclocking which is using lower clock (speed) than the default value and it's the opposite of overclocking.

Undervolting on the other hand is using lower voltage setting than the default value, which also can be used through SetCPU.

I got my SGS2 last night and here's what I used through SetCPU in case someone is curious:

- Underclocked to 100Mhz~1000Mhz (I felt 800Mhz is a bit on the low end in terms of performance, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

_ Undervolted to 1075 @ 1000Mhz

[Olexijl]

That's called undervolting to save battery life. You can set max. value to 1.600 Mhz to overclock it. That's called overclocking.

Nice guide, but what you described is the process of underclocking which is using lower clock (speed) than the default value and it's the opposite of overclocking.

Undervolting on the other hand is using lower voltage setting than the default value, which also can be used through SetCPU.

I got my SGS2 last night and here's what I used through SetCPU in case someone is curious:

- Underclocked to 100Mhz~1000Mhz (I felt 800Mhz is a bit on the low end in terms of performance, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

_ Undervolted to 1075 @ 1000Mhz

Thanks for correction. Actually 800 Mhz has been tested by a friend of mine. He claimed that it is the best setting for performance/battery balance.

[RadioActive]

Thanks for correction. Actually 800 Mhz has been tested by a friend of mine. He claimed that it is the best setting for performance/battery balance.

I'm currently testing setting at 100~800 but I haven't tried any 3D games yet.

Here are the voltages I'm using now:

800MHz @ 1025

500Mhz @ 925

200Mhz @900

100Mhz @900

And I did a stress test and it seems stable. I tried lowering the 100/200 but the device kept freezing even though I've read some people managed to get it to 775.

Anyways, just thought I'd share my findings, good luck.

[KotaXor]

I am facing problem installing Copilot in S2, some help would be appreciated.

Unable to download maps for my location...version of copilot is 8.2.0.368.

Thanks in advance.

[Olexijl]

Copilot? For USA or Europe? Premium?

Current version is 9.1.0.203...

Copilot Live v8.2.0.368:

Site: http://www.mediafire.com

Sharecode: /?c05np334lzeiiiy ^[?]

Check the file for viruses. I am not the uploader of the link. Do not forget to turn "unknown sources" on...

[KotaXor]

Copilot? For USA or Europe? Premium? Current version is 9.1.0.203... Copilot Live v8.2.0.368: Site: http://www.mediafire.com

Sharecode: /?c05np334lzeiiiy ^[?] Check the file for viruses. I am not the uploader of the link. Do not forget to turn "unknown sources" on...

Never mind, got it to work by replacing the maps from another phone to SII.

Now working fine. Thanks.

On a side note: Which is the best tweak for slow connecting GPS? any recommendation?

[Olexijl]

Never mind, got it to work by replacing the maps from another phone to SII.

Now working fine. Thanks.

On a side note: Which is the best tweak for slow connecting GPS? any recommendation?

Slow connecting GPS? What do you mean?

There is a tool called GPS fix in the market. It's free. Launch it, let it fix your GPS sensors, go and start your navi software.

Link: https://market.andro...ch_result&hl=en

Description:

GpsFix helps to decrease the time required to obtain a position fix.

It keeps GPS/AGPS receiver turned on until location is fixed.

It is useful when your navigation app says "waiting for location" too often.

Even with this 4.2 rating it is good app. Using it in Germany very often.

Try this one: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.Double.FasterFix

You need root+busybox for it.

[KotaXor]

Never mind, got it to work by replacing the maps from another phone to SII.

Now working fine. Thanks.

On a side note: Which is the best tweak for slow connecting GPS? any recommendation?

Slow connecting GPS? What do you mean?

There is a tool called GPS fix in the market. It's free. Launch it, let it fix your GPS sensors, go and start your navi software.

Link: https://market.andro...ch_result&hl=en

Description:

GpsFix helps to decrease the time required to obtain a position fix.

It keeps GPS/AGPS receiver turned on until location is fixed.

It is useful when your navigation app says "waiting for location" too often.

Even with this 4.2 rating it is good app. Using it in Germany very often.

Try this one: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.Double.FasterFix

You need root+busybox for it.

these fixes doesn't seem to be of much help..

Any way, just flash my kernel with speedmod and so far, for the past 24hrs...battery consumption is greatly reduced without the need to set CPU speed.

Thanks to xda developer for this great kernel.

Though I get an exclamation mark on reboot, that should not be a problem as I don't shut down my phone..LOL

But if there is a tweak to solve this, I would still like to gave it a shot...

[Olexijl]

HowTo get rid of the yellow triangle and reset the flashing counter!

Every time you boot your Galaxy S2 up, you'll see the yellow triangle. This happens only, if you have ever used Odin to flash a new custom Kernel on your system.

Besides, if you enter the Odin "Download mode", the counter tells you exactly, how many times you flashed something on your phone.

The following instructions are for your Galaxy S2 (GT-9100) only! Warning, you may damage a bootloader, so the phone won't boot anymore!

However if following instructions proper, all will go just fine.

Special Bootloader Patch (for Android 2.3.4 +):

http://dl.dropbox.co...9648/cpatch.zip

(Password: sgs2patch)

MD5: 804AB995C970CFF63D3B923E75EDA4F8

How to get rid of this:

• You need a tool called USB Jig. You can get USB Jig on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co..._pr_product_top (even when it is written, that it is not for Galaxy S2, this is the "right thing". Tested by people) or Ebay (search link) or (Item Nr: 220905752777)
  

• execute cpatch.zip to unpack the files
  

• Shutdown your Galaxy S2
  

• Go to "Download mode" by pressing HOME + VOL DOWN + POWER button at the same time. After getting warning message please press VOL UP button
  

• Launch Odin with admin rights
  

• Go to "PDA" and choose your GT-I9100_counter_patch.tar file
  

• choose "Phone Bootloader Update" in Odin
  

• please connect your phone now via USB
  

• now press Start and wait. After successful reboot of your phone disconnect the phone from your PC
  

• Shutdown your Galaxy S2 again
  

• put the Jig inside, the "Download mode" should appear. The message that the counter was reset to Zero should appear as well. Put the Jig away and shutdown the phone.
  

Your phone has now no yellow triangle + counter reset! ^_^

[Olexijl]

@KotaXor: give this tut a try and send me feedback.

[Olexijl]

Very useful to read about bootloaders: http://www.xda-devel...on-ki-firmware/

[Olexijl]

Any way, just flash my kernel with speedmod and so far, for the past 24hrs...battery consumption is greatly reduced without the need to set CPU speed.

Thanks to xda developer for this great kernel.

Important Kernels

CF-ROOT Kernel: http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1103399

SpeedMod Kernel: http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1182498

Siyah Kernel: http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1263838

How to get rid of the exclamation mark. How to flash kernel.

[KotaXor]

Very useful to read about bootloaders: http://www.xda-devel...on-ki-firmware/

Hey, thanks for the head-up....I had managed to remove the exclamation mark using this:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14283369&postcount=2

Back to using SpeedMod Kernel.....which is working good.

[Olexijl]

Very useful to read about bootloaders: http://www.xda-devel...on-ki-firmware/

Hey, thanks for the head-up....I had managed to remove the exclamation mark using this:

http://forum.xda-dev...369&postcount=2

Back to using SpeedMod Kernel.....which is working good.

That is quite working. But this DO NOT FIX THE COUNTER! So i cannot recommend this way. Please look at my tut for the exclamation mark removal. You need to buy the jig for this.

Important: please tell me if this works for you!

[KotaXor]

I know it does not reset the counter, but that is secondary.

Not intending to get the jib to reset counter.