Acer Iconia A500-too many windows

maxxrocket

Member
Feb 5, 2012
1
0
I am along time android phone user and have recently purchased an Iconia A500. While web browsing, a recieve a message that i have too many windows open. i know how to correct this on my phone, but how do close them on my tablet?


Thanks
 

Spider

Administrator
Staff member
Mar 24, 2011
15,785
1,813
Hi Max, welcome to Android Tablets and congratulations on your new Acer. I'm going to move your thread to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 Forum for you. That way, the folks most familiar with your tablet will be able to help you out. Good luck!
 

lfom

Senior Member
Developer
Sep 12, 2011
1,386
239
Sounds really weird as the built-in browser on A500 uses tabs and not windows... Are you using another browser? Maybe you have some kinda of malwarre or trojan horse?
 

frnkws

Member
Jul 30, 2011
184
20
Does it mean too many tabs open?
If so, what browser are you using?
If it is the stock browser then simply click the tab and then the x in the right corner, just like on a computer.
 

Androidfonefan

Senior Member
Jan 14, 2012
474
49
Try downloading a task killer from the market and kill everything. Then try the browser again.

Sent from my VTAB1008 using Android Tablet Forum
 

Icebike

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,523
186
It simply means you have too many tabs open. There is a limit, It varies with page complexity.

Use the x on each tab to close them. The tabs appear at the top of the screen.

Now if you run the browser using that Slide In Quick Controls thingie, it can be tricky to know how many tabs you really have
open because tabs are never shown. (This quick control is in the browser Settings under LABS).

This is the Quick Controls option:

$quick_controls.jpg

I find this option one of the most irritating things on Honeycomb, and I never use it.

But if you do use it, slide your finger in from the right or left edge, and look at the "stack of pages" icon that shows up in the blue semi-circle.
If that gets too high, you can't open any more pages. You have to close some.

To close them you use the X (below the plus) to close them one at a time.

And, NO do not install a task killer. There is never a need for a task killer in Android since version 2 came out.
 

Douvie

Senior Member
Jun 10, 2011
1,030
71
It simply means you have too many tabs open. There is a limit, It varies with page complexity.

Use the x on each tab to close them. The tabs appear at the top of the screen.

Now if you run the browser using that Slide In Quick Controls thingie, it can be tricky to know how many tabs you really have
open because tabs are never shown. (This quick control is in the browser Settings under LABS).


If that gets too high, you can't open any more pages. You have to close some.

To close them you use the X (below the plus) to close them one at a time.

And, NO do not install a task killer. There is never a need for a task killer in Android since version 2 came out.

Yes that thingy is most annoying! I never use it. I don't use task killer either.
 

dave_w_h

Member
Jan 8, 2012
15
0
I am curios what is wrong with using a task killer. Does it have the potential to damage the unit in some way? I am a new user and trying to understand the ins and outs of the OS.
Thanks Dave


Sent from my A500
 

Icebike

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,523
186
Task killers can actually increase battery drain, and they are a poor way to control apps.

First, task killers were just totally in-appropriate for the topic of THIS discussion thread (too many browser windows open).

In general, as the linked article above indicates, they are not necessary and in most cases cause more battery drain than they cure.
A task killer won't harm your device, but it won't help it either, and it won't make it run faster, and it won't extend your battery life.

This is because Android is VERY good at managing memory, and just because you see 20 or 30 apps are "running" doesn't mean they are doing anything. They may be taking just a tiny tiny amount of memory to listen for a specific event (a press of the volume down button, a tap on the sholder from the TCP stack that the mail server has something to send, etc.)

The rest of the app is paged out, or just marked as a memory block that can be discarded when memory is needed for other tasks. When you launch a new program, Andorid finds room for it by searching unused memory, then if it can't find enough unused, it searches for pageable blocks and dumps them. It knows it can get rid of all but a tiny nugget of your Weather app, when you open a browser, or email, or game.
It keeps just enough to restart the paged out apps so that it doesn't have to start totally from scratch.

Now add a task killer to indiscriminately start shutting things down. Now when something is needed it has to start totally from scratch.
For instance, a system timer triggers and says time to check the Weather. The OS sees the timer trigger, and looks around for the app that it is supposed to tap on the shoulder to do the weather update. But its not there. It was killed. Sonofa*****! That task has to be restarted all over again. So the OS has to load every thing from memory or the sd card, set up all its network connections again (which means firing up the radios, logging in, sending requests and waiting for the reply.)

The upshot is more battery usage. Missed events. Stuff that just doesn't work.

I think the article is fairly well written, and pretty accessible. Try giving it a read. There are many more like that one on the web. Even when task killers DO work, they save at best only a few minutes of battery life.

If you have a bad app, that is using a lot of battery, get rid of it, and find a better app, or send an email to the developer.
 

Douvie

Senior Member
Jun 10, 2011
1,030
71
I noticed somethings about "windows" as mentioned above. I believe "tabs in the browser" was meant. I downloaded the yahoo mail app - seems to work great. However, if one was not careful the yahoo app just keeps opening new tabs in the browser. I think this may be a problem.
 
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