Although the Treo 700w was the best phone I ever had (kinda wish I’d kept it), its memory was anemic, with less than 25 MB available for running programs. And, after running for a while it would sometimes get down to 7 MB.
While the Treo 700w memory doesn’t represent all Windows Mobile/Smartphone devices, all such devices do tend to suffer memory loss with use. So, in this post I’ll cover a few tips for freeing up their memory.
An easy way to free up memory is to select Settings from your Start Menu, then select Memory. Once this settings screen is up, select the “Running Programs” Tab and it will show what programs you have running. You may be surprised at the number of running programs (once you have launched that never really became closed). Within the Running Programs Tab, you can select “Stop All,” which will close all running programs and free up a good bit of memory for you.
Another easy thing you can do is just soft-reset the device. While it is possible to soft-reset the device while it is running, it is Far Better to turn the device off and wait 5-10 seconds before soft-resetting. This is especially important for Windows Mobile 5 devices, because it allows the system time to write data from RAM into Flash ROM and to flush the registry and databases back into ROM. I typically soft-reset once every other day, but many people do it daily, and there is nothing wrong with that, and it could be advisable (depending on your memory situation).
There is also some third-party software that helps with freeing memory and with cleaning out your Pocket Internet Explorer cache and temp files. One that is particularly good is SKtools, which comes with a memory-freeing utility that will clean up your RAM. I used this utility often on my Treo 700w, and it often recaptured as much as 2 MB (sometimes 4 MB), even when no programs were running (it cleans out the “residue” programs leave behind after closing). SKtools also enables you to clean your internet cache. MemMaid is another good utility for this.
Hopefully these tips will help you keep your device performing at its best.