How do I keep my outdated smartphone alive?

[intirb]

I've got a 3-year-old smart phone (the LG Viper), and it's starting to act up.  Things like.. freezing, extremely slow processing, restarting occasionally on its own.   Is there anything I can do to prolong its life?  Something like.. a very lightweight android OS for old phones? 

I think the newer software is just too much for it to handle, but I'd be fine with outdated software that could just check email and display maps/directions.  I looked but I couldn't really find anything online - does anyone have experience with this or recommendations?

Thanks!

[kudy]

Have you tried a simple factory reset? Sometimes that can clear up some/all of the issues you listed.

[YK-Phil]

Doing a hard reset would do the trick. If you only use your smartphone for email, light browsing, directions, un-install all other apps you don't need. I still use my old iPhone 3G on wifi, and all my apps work fine.

[Daley]

Wipe to factory and start fresh. As for alternative ROMs, there's nothing mainstream known, as neither CM nor XDA-devs have bothered supporting it.

[Susan]

I've got somewhat the same problem. My 3.5 year-old Galaxy ace only has a memory of 150 MB. Next to the standard apps that this phone has, I've only got room for a few more. Whatsapp seems to take more and more space with every update, so I can only install 2 other apps next to it. But it's getting slower and slower, so I will try the hard reset next time I think.

[train_writer]

second the hard reset as a start.

I have an almost 6 year old smart phone, yes, SIX years old. But once I went to a -Dutch- 'nerd forum', I figured out I can hack the hell out of it and now it does exactly what I need and want and doesn't allow needless e-mail checks* nor facebook
- Whatsapp
- Public transit websites
- A fast google search, but I have to delete search history after 3 searches
- GPS and nokia maps**
- I can call and text
- The battery lives up to 4 days without replacement

* I do use my work phone for e-mail when I am out of a laptop over 20 hours
** No longer updated so I do understand the OP. This WILL be a pain soon

[zolotiyeruki]

You also have the option of buying a higher-end older phone for pennies on the dollar.  I'm running a Galaxy Captivate that's probably 5-6 years old, but it has a CyanogenMod build that works pretty well.  I got it off bookoo for $25 last fall.

[cerebus]

I have to be honest, it is very difficult to make do with a phone that is now seriously outdated because the smartphone operating systems have gotten so far advanced, and the hardware has developed at greater than Moore's Law paces, so a certain processor speed and ram amount is a minimum. I think this trend will now begin to slow down as all of the big leaps have been made.