J2ME start-up/splash screen blank screen issue

Hi developers, i am programming a small canvas app for Nokia S60 and Symbian devices. My issue is that when i start up the app on the Symbian device it shows a blank screen for roughly 5 seconds, either black or white before loading the app which i have programmed a small splash screen in. I believe this is built in to allow for an app to use a custom image for a startup screen/splash screen. I am using the Nokia-MIDlet-Splash-Screen-Image: suppress manifest attribute currently and yet this still happens, based on the S60 load time i know that it is not the fact there is a delay due to initializing classes, i have forced the majority of my initializing calls into when my custom splash screen is showing to avoid any blank screen delays. Any idea why the suppress attribute is not working? i will note that there is no issue on the S60 devices, believed to be because this attribute is for Symbian 3 and up.

Can anyone help in removing the blank screen altogether or at least lowering the time it is shown?

Any ideas for problem are very much appreciated
Thanks in advance

Hi Magicake,

If you use the Nokia-MIDlet-Splash-Screen-Image: suppress attribute, no default or custom start-up screen is shown. If you use a start-up screen it remains visible until the MIDlet is running and its UI is set visible. So if the application is showing a blank start-up screen for some reason it is still shown as long as you get to the point when you set your screen visible.

What if you use a default start-up screen, does it work and is the loading delay time the same?
On what devices are you facing this issue?

Some pointers on making your on splash screen.

First, keep the MIDlet constructor and startApp() as lite as possible.
Second, load only the resources and classes you need to draw you splash screen and render it to the screen.
After that load the rest of the resources. This enables the application splash screen to be quickly displayed.

-tiviinik

I will suggest to use - Nokia-MIDlet-Splash-Screen-Image to set a custom Image - as your splash screen and let the midlet load in background.
If this does not work on old devices, then in StartApp() - just load the splashscreen from resource and set it to display - before starting to load rest of resource and launching other larger classes.

Thank you to you both for your help on this, the issue was that i was loading a large class and so before it had a chance to show this black screen was shown. The issue is now fixed by (as recommended) putting in a small class for the splash screen and showing the other class once it has finished loading. This is my only option to keep the application consistent on both S60 and on the Symbian devices. It works and that all that matters. So once again thank you to tiviinik & Ekta for your help/suggestions
Magicake