Android Emulator so slow that i can't use it

Question

Android Emulator takes from 15 to 20 min to start up and mostly crash thereafter on my Laptop no matter what kind of Android mobile or setup Im using. Im one a total lost on what i could do to make it run on a usable level.

Im running it in windows 8 on my labtop with 8 gb ram and a AMD quad-core on 1.6 GH.

Answer 1

This also happens to me when trying to run a full-spec device. I lower the specs and resolution quite a bit since I don't even have enough memory to allocate for a 1GB ram virtual device.

The first boot will take some time. You can configure your emulator to use snapshots which will speed up the boot time considerably. Look into running the x86 image which will increase the performance of your emulator. Keep in mind if you have any armeabi-targeted binaries, they will not work (not an issue for most people).

Answer 2

Make sure you've installed the "Intel x86" system image for the API level platform you're using and then make sure your emulator is using that in the CPU/ABI dropdown in its configuration.

That will speed it up significantly over using the ARM image.

The only other thing you can try is to use snapshots, then you'll only have to sit through the long start up once. Snapshots have always been kind of glitchy for me though and I've stopped trying to use them, which reminds me, if you are using snapshots, try turning them off, that might help too.