Help Phone Blanks out, have to pull battery to get it to come back

[Ruiner]

Just picked up the Epic yesterday, and already been having issues all day long. The phone has does this about 5 or 6 times today. It will fade away, and when I come back to it a little later to check messages or anything, it will all be blacked out, and nothing will come back. (by hitting the power button) No matter what I push, the screen stays black, and the phone seems like it is off.

(A few times, the lights have stayed on, and the buttons act like they are responding, but nothing works still)


It has also lost signal completely twice today, and I've had to restart it to get signal back. (didn't move)



Any ideas. Going back to sprint today to change it out, but pretty frustrated already.

 

[Iczer]

Just picked up the Epic yesterday, and already been having issues all day long. The phone has does this about 5 or 6 times today. It will fade away, and when I come back to it a little later to check messages or anything, it will all be blacked out, and nothing will come back. (by hitting the power button) No matter what I push, the screen stays black, and the phone seems like it is off.

(A few times, the lights have stayed on, and the buttons act like they are responding, but nothing works still)


It has also lost signal completely twice today, and I've had to restart it to get signal back. (didn't move)



Any ideas. Going back to sprint today to change it out, but pretty frustrated already.

Could be defected, nobody is perfect. Return it if you're worried like you said, not all Epic's have these issues.

 

[SebastianX]

Hey man no cellphone is perfect I'm pretty sure you have a bad unit but this is the first I've heard of that so far so I doubt it's a widespread problem, take it back and get a replacement. Let us know how that goes.

 

[gme109]

Hey man no cellphone is perfect I'm pretty sure you have a bad unit but this is the first I've heard of that so far so I doubt it's a widespread problem, take it back and get a replacement. Let us know how that goes.

In just this forum, we've already seen what could be a handful of defective phones. If this is a microcosm of what's going on with the Epic on a larger scale, its not inspiring confidence in Samsung's quality control.

 

[Iczer]

In just the forum, we've already seen what could be a handful of defective phones. If this is a microcosm of what's going on with the Epic on a larger scale, its not inspiring confidence in Samsung's quality control.

How many people do you think have had defective phones? There may be software not working correctly, but that doesn't mean they're defective.

I hate to break it to some people but this phone was JUST released. Nobody can find every single issue in testing. If you expected a perfect phone, you should have waited a month or two to get the kinks worked out.

Either way, I love this phone and have had no issues.

 

[gme109]

How many people do you think have had defective phones? There may be software not working correctly, but that doesn't mean they're defective.

I hate to break it to some people but this phone was JUST released. Nobody can find every single issue in testing. If you expected a perfect phone, you should have waited a month or two to get the kinks worked out.

Either way, I love this phone and have had no issues.

I don't expect perfection on newly released phone. But some of these issues coming up seem like problems with quality control. Unless some of the phones released didn't get software updates before being shipped.

 

[Adrift]

This is the first time I have read of this behavior, definitely return the device for a new unit.

Please report back with news of how the new unit is doing.

Thanks

 

[HumbledHuman]

Ruiner,

Thanks for the info. Ive had two diff phones get bricked after installing the app Toddler Lock. Even a hard reset with the battery didnt fix the issue. Have you been able to determine which app caused your problems?

 

[jfenton]

Try pushing the little button on the upper right side....

I had two people tell me there phones were locked up and the capacitive buttons weren't working....the screen simply timed out!

 

[matt_valenz]

Factory reset the device via settings>menu>privacy>Reset, don't load any apps and see if it keeps doing this. We have seen isolated reports of apps from the Market causing weird freeze/hang/blackout conditions, especially with thingsa like Ringdroid and Toddler Lock which was mentioned earlier in this string. If the phone is fine with nothing loaded but stocks apps and widgets, then you know that something you loaded is causing the problem and you can slowly add back all of your apps and find the culprit by process of elimination. Don't forget to backup your apps via AppBrain and your other stuff on your SD card or via Lookout, etc.

 

[HumbledHuman]

Factory reset the device via settings>menu>privacy>Reset, don't load any apps and see if it keeps doing this. We have seen isolated reports of apps from the Market causing weird freeze/hang/blackout conditions, especially with thingsa like Ringdroid and Toddler Lock which was mentioned earlier in this string. If the phone is fine with nothing loaded but stocks apps and widgets, then you know that something you loaded is causing the problem and you can slowly add back all of your apps and find the culprit by process of elimination. Don't forget to backup your apps via AppBrain and your other stuff on your SD card or via Lookout, etc.

Hey Matt the problem with Toddler Lock is the screen goes black and is non-responsive including after a hard reset so there is no option to do a factory reset using the steps you outlined above or in the offical Samsung Epic 4G user manual. On another post someone commented that they found a way to do it by unplugging the battery, then holding the volume down button along with the camera picture button and then keep holding those two buttons down and press the power button...eventually you will get the factory reset screen.