Have you ever have had your beloved Nokia N97 start to act up and not listen to your commands as quickly as you would like? If you’ve experienced these slow-downs in your phone, then rest assured, you are not alone and there are ways to boost the N97’s energy so it can behave like the premium flagship phone Nokia intends it to be. Though Nokia has released a firmware update that nicely patches up the initial problems these issues still arise due to the low hardware restrictions on the N97. First, we will look at what causes these problems, and then we’ll look at a couple of applications that can solve these problems.

As most of you know the Nokia N97 operates on the Symbian OS and while this is one of the simplest and cleanest operating system, it has some quirks that the Symbian Foundation has failed to address. However, it seems that Symbian has attended to these problems for their future iterations: the Symbian^3 and Symbian^4. Getting back to the S60 operating system, when you open a program it will open up background processes for so the program becomes fully functional. However, when the program is closed it doesn’t fully shut itself off and leaves behind ‘traces’ of itself so that it may load up faster the next time the user opens that certain program. Such programs include: the menu system, messaging, contacts, clock, logs, etc. The N97 also automatically starts these programs in the background when a phone is booted up. Ending these programs will benefit your N97 by making it run smoother, make it less crash-prone (especially while using a demanding app like the internet browser), and preserving battery life. We will show you ways to fully terminate these programs.

Here is how you can maximize performance on your phone:

1. You can restart your phone. This is the simplest way to release all the memory and boost your phone’s performance. However, some shortcuts in life –especially this one- should be avoided as much as possible. Symbian automatically starts the above stated applications in the background and you’ll be back to ground zero as soon as you know it. Also, restarting the phone does no good to your battery life as the startup drains a lot of juice out of the poor thing.
2. Download Handy Taskman. This software by Epocware/Paragon Software comes in real handy (pun definitely intended) in closing those applications running in the background. This serves as a much more power powerful task manager than Symbian’s skeletal Show/Exit task manager. Just click on Optionsà Close All and poof watch the RAM come back from those unused background tasks! Other goodies such as bookmarking fav. Applications is also present. You can evaluate the software for 14 days and buy it ($14.95) after that period. The link is provided below.
   
   

   See what Symbian doesn't want to show you!

3. Download RAMblow. This is a neat new program by CellPhoneSoft. It not only terminates all the unused background applications, but also the unused cached tasks – like the menu tasks. Other features include the MemoryBoost option and an option to schedule automatic clean-ups. You will definitely see a lot of free ram after running this simple application. This application is also available for an evaluation basis of 14 days. If the price of Handy Taskman will set you off, this is an excellent alternative. You may buy it for $4.95. The link is provided below.
   

   Kill RAM, Rambo style!

4. Restart the phone when before charging and run these applications. We know this maybe contradicting the first point, but you’ll soon see the logic in this. Restart your phone before you put it on charge (preferably at night) so you won’t have to worry about battery problems. Once the phone has restarted wait a couple of minutes and then either use RAMblow or Handy Taskman to terminate all the automatic programs that start up (ie, messaging, clock, etc.). Now, you shall have free RAM of no less than 45-55MB on your N97 and this will let your phone run smoother throughout the day!

I hope this was beneficial to you and hopefully your Nokia N97 will be a crash-free device for the rest of its duration with you!

The links for the two programs:

Handy Taskman (Free-to-try, $14.95 afterwards): Website

RAMblow (Free-to-try, $4.95 aftwerwards): Website

*There is also a free alternative called JBTaskman, but it is not recommended because you will have to know exactly what you are doing when using this application. The link, to download it at your own will, is here.