Dalvik cache takes 20 - 30 seconds to clear

[PPCGeeks4ME]

I recently noticed that my battery life is significantly worse than what I'm used to. Around the same time, I noticed that clearing the Dalvik cache now takes 20 - 30 seconds when it used to take only a few seconds. (If I clear it again immediately after clearing it I don't see this problem, obviously...but after a few days of usage the Dalvik cache gets really big again.)

I'm wondering if this could be a sign of problems. This has persisted over multiple ROM, radio, kernel, and PRI flashes. I have not tried installing apps one-by-one to see which is causing the problem, because that would take a while. Is the always-full Davlik cache a clue that could help me find what's hogging the battery?

Or maybe my battery is just getting older, and the Davlik cache thing is the result of a new feature in one of the new updates. I don't remember my exact flash history, but right now my software history says (ignore sig, I haven't updated it):

Android 2.2
Baseband 2.15.00.11.19
Kernel 2.6.32.27-netarchy-toastmod-4.3-cfs-havs-more-sbc
Build MikFroYo v4.1 - Logical Sense
Software 3.70.651.1
Browser WebKit 3.1
PRI 1.90_003
PRL 60674

I've changed all of those things except Android and Browser since I first noticed the Dalvik issue and poor battery life. My hardware revision is 003.

Thanks to anyone who can help me better understand this issue.

[lkillen]

The size of the DVM is directly dependant to the number and type of apps and frameworks you have on your phone. Apks are precompiled with the JIT and stored in the DVM. This makes the phone run much faster with less battery and memory drain (optimized).
Apps with heavy graphics will surely fatten the cache. But a big DVM will improve battery life as opposed to the alternative.
My cache was pretty fat and took sometime to clear but after I stripped down my phone, the DVM shrank with it. Today, I installed a different kernel and while doing so, clear the DC and it cleared instantly. But I had deleted a lot of the bloatware that came with 3.7 including that Nova game. Hmmm.... that may be the one

I could also imagine the HTC made a more intense optimizer in order to make the phone run faster and leaner. That woudl result in a bigger DVM.