Handset slowdown during the course of the evening?

[Gravitino]

We've run BridgePal for a number of years, and a typical session sees about ten tables. The PC could well be six years old, as is the router and most of the Amazon Fire handsets.

Recently some members have complained about the handsets being slow to respond. Focussing first on the PC, I made sure it had the most up-to-date version of Windows 10 -- it's not big enough for Windows 11, apparently -- and achieving even that was tiresome, due to the need for a plug-in USB memory stick and the upgrade process being trapped in an Undo cycle that, despite it being a known Microsoft bug, I could only resolve by effectively wiping the disk and re-installing Windows 10 and BridgePal software etc.

However I digress. I watched the response times closely at last night's session, and I believe that response times started off OK but gradually deteriorated as the evening progressed. Is this possible? Could our PC be overwhelmed by the accumulation of more and more score data??

I see there is advice elsewhere on this forum about slowdown and poor response times for the keys. One append says: Scroll down the list and tap on "Android System Webview", and then on Uninstall. The problem with the Amazon Fire handsets we use is that they don't appear to have this app, so the option is to install rather than uninstall.

Another append says: To install it, go to the Play Store and search for "webview dev" (including the quotes). Tap on "Install". When I search for  this on the Play store on the Amazon Fire, it doesn't come up with the right app. But if I search for it on the Play store on my Windows PC, it is there, waiting to be installed.

What should I do?

Many thanks for all your help over the years.

Gavin

[johng]

Hi Gavin,

Are you referring to short delays (maybe up to a second) occurring when any key is tapped, not just the OK button, with normal response at the start of the session then getting gradually worse as the session progresses ? If so, then this is the androd WebView bug which appeared in recent versions of that component.

Yes, the posted instructions are for a normal android tablet, not the Amazon Fire which uses its own highly customised version of android. I had a similar query from another user and as a result experimented with my own Amazon Fire tablet (an HD 8 7th generation running Fire OS 5.7.0.0)

The entry for Amazon System Webview on my tablet shows version v100-4896-tablet.4986.127.37, however the option to uninstall updates is greyed out as you say and remains so even if you click Force Stop, clear Cache etc. As it happens, the BridgePal app works fine with this version but I thought I would experiment with trying to update the WebView with a different version downloaded from an apk archive site.

I first tried installing "Amazon System WebView_90.amazon-webview-v90-4430-tablet.4430.91.22.apk", downloaded from https://archive.org/details/amazon-system-web-view-90.amazon-webview-v-90-4430-tablet.-4430.91.22 . This failed to install, perhaps because it's an older version.

I then tried installing "amazon-system-webview-110-amazon-webview-v110-5481-tv-5481-154-25.apk" from https://amazon-system-webview.en.uptodown.com/android/download/101847171 . This successfully installed and BridgePal worked ok without delays.

I then tried a factory reset to see what effect that would have on the installed version. In fact, that restore the Android System Webview to an even older version (v84-4147-tablet.4147.125.93). Again, this worked ok with BridgePal without delays. Finally I tried updating to the V90 apk - the one that failed to install previously. This now worked, presumably because it's a later version than the installed version.

If it succeeds, downloading and updating the apk is much less hassle than a factory reset. However, the other user who encountered this problem was unable to install the versions of the apk describe above, so you may need to go the factory reset route.

I would also suggest disabling automatic updates, though I can't be sure this will prevent updating of system apps such as the WebView. If it doesn't then the only way to prevent updates may be to make sure that the tablet is never connected to the internet, i.e. use a standalone wifi router for bridge sessions and remove any other configured wifi networks. You can disable automatic updates as follows:

- click on Settings
- click on Apps & Games
- click on Amazon Application Settings
- click on Appstore
- click on Automatic Updates and untick the checkbox labelled Enable Automatic Updates

Please let me know if any of the above procedures work for you. Good luck.

John

[Gravitino]

Many thanks, John. With 17 handsets at the club, I'm not sure I can face doing a Factory Reset on all of them, then going through the APK procedure to get the Play Store app etc.

I installed Google's Android System Webview on all of them before I saw your reply. I think I'll leave it at that until after the next session. Last night the members didn't get the hand layouts on their handsets because I reinstalled Windows after uploading the hands to the server; hopefully I've fixed that, so they should see an improvement even if the keystroke response is still slow.

We're still the only club in the area (apart from the odd Brian user) which can display the layouts after each hand is played, so we can feel good about that. Thanks. There's one club in Surbiton which pays the Brian owner some ?5 a session just to do the scoring; they don't have a duplimator, so they can't display the hands; and I suspect that on top of that charge, each time the players enter the scores via their mobile, they incur a small transaction charge which goes to Brian.

It's great to have a free system. It's just a little depressing to discover that the practice of keeping up to date with the updates may not be the right thing to do.

[johng]

I'm not sure that Android System WebView will supercede Amazon System WebView, as the app has a different name.

Regarding updates, I think if you have a stable working system it's tempting fate to apply updates just because they are available. On a personal PC it makes sense because of security fixes, functionality upgrades, etc. but on a dedicated scoring system I think it's best to leave well alone.

[johng]

Hi Gavin,

See this forum post - https://mirgo2.co.uk/bridgepal_forum/index.php?topic=245.msg723#msg723

It confirms that a factory reset solves the problem, providing that you don't allow the tablets to connect to the internet subsequently.

John