How I run Android Studio on Old Hardware

Android Studio's system requirements say that you need at least a second-generation Intel Core processor or equivalent to run Android Studio.

I had overheating issues with my Core i5 first-generation laptop. During the initial scanning and indexing phase itself, the laptop would shut down due to CPU overheating.

I managed to solve the problem. I thought I write a blog so that other people who bump into the same issue may be able to fix it.

The first thing I did was a hardware fix. I cleaned the fan and the CPU heatsink, and applied a new thermal paste between the heatsink and the CPU.

This is important - thermal paste facilitates efficient heat transfer between the CPU's surface and the heat sink, enabling faster cooling. After a while, the thermal paste's efficiency decreases, thereby overheating.

Then on Android Studio, I toggled on the Power Save mode. File > Power Save Mode

On Linux, I also actively started to monitor CPU temperatures.

watch sensors

During indexing, whenever the CPU temp reaches about 100 degrees I would press 'pause'. Only after a while when the CPU cools down a little bit, then would I again press 'resume'.

This fixed the initial problems. But again, when I would later go on to run Gradle build, the system would shut down due to overheating issues.

I then increased Android Studio's heap memory size from the default 2GB to 3GB. Help > Change Memory Settings

Also, I opened the gradle.properties file in the root of my project folder.

I added these lines:

org.gradle.daemon=true

org.gradle.configuration-cache=true

org.gradle.caching=true

Still, this is a pain to build for the first time. I have to cancel the build due to overheating, but since I have enabled caching, I can start from where I have left off.

This is cumbersome, but it still gets the job done - Develop a modern android app and install it into a physical device.

Happy Developing!