Yep, agree with your plea to Nokia. I can also confirm that large chunks of Nokia has seen this article and the comments. And that a firmware update for the N86 is close (days, rather than weeks).
How to: Optimise the Nokia N97 (v12)
slitchfield wrote:Yep, agree with your plea to Nokia. I can also confirm that large chunks of Nokia has seen this article and the comments. And that a firmware update for the N86 is close (days, rather than weeks).
Thanks for the reply Steve - it's appreciated.
Never was I more pleased to hear a Firmware update was coming out soon than this, in fact even more so than the early N95 firmware, pre RAM paging etc. which was bad, but I reckon, not as bad as the current N86 flaws (Nokia, if you are reading this, feel free to also see my complete list of Bugs/Issues with the N86, in another thread on here - Part 1 of the site's N86 review)
BUT, just to warn those expecting a myriad range of fancy new features to come with the next impending firmware update, let me say this to them...
My guess is that it will include virtually NO new fancy options or items, as this really will be a major bug fix firmware, would be my guess.
But if so, let me just also say that in the case of phones that are really buggy early on, these are the very BEST Firmware updates you can ever receive *lol*
I only hope, and repeat the plea to Nokia, as has Steve, that they fix things overall, so that C: storage does not constantly get used up by application update downloads. Fix it please Nokia so that E: is used, or we are given a CHOICE for EVERYTHING we download. Else a firmware fix incorporating these newer updates into ROM memory is merely a very short term fix every single time, until another newer version of Maps, N-Gage, Email, Messaging, Quick Office, etc etc, gets launched, and we would then be right back to square one.
I hope I'm explaining things correct for them here, and that Steve doesn't mind me re-flagging up this major flaw in Nokia's current limited hardware (RAM) / coupled with even worse Software policy problem that newer N devices have.
Bad enough that C: is limited nowadays hardware wise.
But made a hundred times worse by a poor SOFTWARE policy whereby certain apps get installed into C: without any option or choice on the part of the user, to make this far more pronounced.
Cheers Nokia, if you intend to at least fix this.
And thanks again Steve for the reply.
Couple of things I would add to the original post. The first is to Hard Reset your phone (pre v12 FW install ideally) to maxmise C: drive free space and then re-install averything you need keeping in mind the advice in the post.
My second addition would be remembering to set everything to store to the E: drive wherever possible. Examples would be messages and other settings in Settings / Phone / Application sett.
The reason there is so little space left on the N97 C: drive is that the N97 C: drive is only 73MB whereas earlier phones like the N95 8GB had a 133MB C: drive and that's quite a difference.
Well, thanks to all the complaints that have been written about the N97, I must say that since I got mine last week, it's actually exceeded my expectations by quite some margin.
I was honestly expecting it to be an unuseable dog, but still got it as Vodafone's selection of Nokia handsets at the moment is nothing short of pitiful.
I'm not saying the N97 it fault free, far from it in fact.
I am willing to accept though, that this is Nokia's first foray into both qwerty AND S60 5th edition on an NSeries device.... and you were expecting the firmware to be bug-free? Come on.
mbrett wrote:Couple of things I would add to the original post. The first is to Hard Reset your phone (pre v12 FW install ideally) to maxmise C: drive free space and then re-install averything you need keeping in mind the advice in the post.
ALL my replies here are in relation to the N86 (which I brought up in this thread earlier, but I am aware it's an N97 thread, I just raise the N86 because it's wholly likely that the issues and conditions apply interchangeably to both).
So just to say, that on this point, a full firmware re-install did not do ANYTHING to reset my C: memory on my N86, because of the User Data Preservation it includes.
I suspect a format with the *#7370# FULL WIPE code, MIGHT clear this up, but thus far I have not tried. Certainly however, just a Firmware re-install alone, didn't actually have any effect on my C: thanks to UDP doing it's job well, as it was intended, So bear this in mind folks, you might have to also try a Format Code reset too afterwards.
mbrett wrote:My second addition would be remembering to set everything to store to the E: drive wherever possible. Examples would be messages and other settings in Settings / Phone / Application sett.
As I posted earlier though, this is not a full fix, by any measure.
Because as my post much earlier indicated, for everything that has had the decency to ASK me where it wants installing, I have indeed, always chosen E:
The problem I highlighted, is that due to those programs that DO NOT given you a choice, and INSIST on installing to C: only, without any dialogue prompt even, this then means that your C: memory WILL continue to fill up, and explains why mine is now at a critical 12.2MB, even though I have installed EVERYTHING to E: that at least asked me.
Nokia Maps Update, Quick Office Update, N-Gage Update, Messaging Update, Email Messaging Data Store etc... All of these go to C: only, and as a result, in no time at all, you will end up with no room on your C: drive, even if you follow yours (and my own) advice, to install everything that at least gives you a choice, onto E:
So I was highlighting the issue that as certain apps do not even give you a choice, until that behaviour and policy is fixed, then you will STILL run out of room on C: no matter what you do.
mbrett wrote:The reason there is so little space left on the N97 C: drive is that the N97 C: drive is only 73MB whereas earlier phones like the N95 8GB had a 133MB C: drive and that's quite a difference.
Exactly - and again a point I highlighted higher up/earlier.
Not only is it bad enough that Nokia have now drastically cut back on the Free RAM/Internal Memory on their newer N series handsets, they make these matters ten times worse, by having a situation where numerous patches, downloads, and updates, ONLY get installed to C: no matter what you do.
But hey, the more people that complain about this, or flag this up, the more chance Nokia might actually do something to change this behaviour, at least on a SOFTware level, as it's not as if they can HARDware fix out CURRENT phones retrospectively.
It MIGHT however, make them think twice about this stupid HARDware policy, for subsequent N Series devices though, and give us a proper, usable amount of Free Ram and Internal Memory on future releases.
I bought my N95-1 on the release date and you wouldn't believe how buggy it was back then.
After it's release, i had more trouble with the N95 than the N97 on it's release.
The N95 also had a MAJOR hardware flaw, much bigger than the flaws in the N97.
The slider of every early production N95-1 broke, and the whole screen fell of!!
(Anybody remembers these slider problems, phone simply fell apart)
After my 3rd replacement N95 this was all fixed, the software took 4 / 5 months before it run without to much errors.
I'm only a bit disappointed with the hardware/performance of my N97 device. Let's hope this changes when v20 comes.
Steve thanks for the article and Happy new year to all posting and reading here.
I read all of the the 35 posts here as of today; true their problem (Nokia) is that installs, on certain apps go to C rather than a choice to mass memory, and I agree that why pay �350($500) for a phone that isnt operating correctly or actioning slowly its main selling points !!
Well this worked for me - DEFRAG, I like everyone one here couldnt wait to get my hands on my new N97 - within a week, i wished I'd waited 2 more months being contract free and got the 3GS.
So one day i sat here on the laptop and thought why not defrag the drives - its worth a shot. my main problems were prior to defrag - 1. open text widget - screen half froze, showing background wallpaper and text box. 2 tried to access any widget full stop took an eternity to open and then generally froze. 3. tried to scroll up and down on screen online or widget, no movement or eratic - AARRGGHHHH
So defraged both drives restarted phone and whey hey its works like a dream.
give it a shot.
cheers and happy new year