Help Photon Turning off by itself, battery removal required to turn on?

[svenb352]

Hi all,

First of all, I LOVE this phone. I just returned my Evo 3D for it and I am confident I made the right choice. The battery life is awesome and it really is a great piece of hardware.

My issue, however, is with the phone randomly shutting down (no shut down animation or anything). It just completely shuts off after not using it. It seems completely random when this happens. It has not happened if the phone is plugged in, but if it is idle it turns off.

I got the phone Sunday. It happened once then, three times Monday, and yesterday it happened four times back to back. I figured I got a bad phone so I returned it to Best Buy and got a brand new one. I performed a restore from Google, set up the phone all over again, and it seemed fine. Today it did the shut down thing once.

I am assuming this is a software glitch (or at least I hope it is) or I have an app causing it (not sure how to check).

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? It's a huge pain in the butt to have to take the entire battery door off each time this happens (as you all know, the battery door isn't the easiest thing to get off, especially when you have a case that is also a pain to open).

Anyone have any thoughts on this or can you point me in the right direction? After doing a search on Google there are a few forums where people have also reported this.

Thanks !

 

[PyroSporker]

My issue, however, is with the phone randomly shutting down (no shut down animation or anything). It just completely shuts off after not using it. It seems completely random when this happens. It has not happened if the phone is plugged in, but if it is idle it turns off.

I got the phone Sunday. It happened once then, three times Monday, and yesterday it happened four times back to back. I figured I got a bad phone so I returned it to Best Buy and got a brand new one. I performed a restore from Google, set up the phone all over again, and it seemed fine. Today it did the shut down thing once.

I am assuming this is a software glitch (or at least I hope it is) or I have an app causing it (not sure how to check).

Are you possibly in a really low signal area?

I'm guessing it is an application or software problem. Can you factory reset without restoring from Google and before loading any applications and see if the problem still occurs? That seems like the best way to determine if it is a software conflict or bad application.

I'd also recommend making sure your PRL and Profile are up to date.

 

[Bandage]

I agree that it may be an app that is causing the issue. I've had one reboot since purchase, and it was while selecting a wallpaper from Zedge to view. Haven't had any other reboots.

 

[doneve141]

I too have had this happen. I got mine on Monday and have loaded and unloaded a bunch of apps. I had the shut down that required the battery pull. I also saw a battery drain before it. Since then I have had random reboots. 4 tonight. I pulled the battery after the 4th. For what its worth I too use Zedge although I haven't used it yet with this phone. I was using live walpapers and some other things that I know could be contributing to the battery issue. Its not my first Android device, I just want to find my limits.
I did find a battery mode in the settings. I plan to try it tomorrow at work. 12 hour shifts, my phone sits and all I do is receive because I'm not supposed to be on it except on breaks.
Completely love the phone.

 

[doneve141]

Phone still rebooting. I uninstalled Zedge. We shall see if that has anything to do with it.

 

[doneve141]

Not Zedge, It just rebooted. I guess I'll have to try to factory reset it. I don't mind trying new things but redoing everything not so much. Rooted my last phone and played with roms. I got fair at doing it but it still took a few hours each time. Got to go to bed tonight. I'll try to post later if I come up with anything.

 

[neboo11]

I had the same issue with my phone before I installed any apps. I went back to Best Buy and got a new one.

 

[PyroSporker]

Not Zedge, It just rebooted. I guess I'll have to try to factory reset it. I don't mind trying new things but redoing everything not so much. Rooted my last phone and played with roms. I got fair at doing it but it still took a few hours each time. Got to go to bed tonight. I'll try to post later if I come up with anything.

I'm still curious, as I asked the original poster; Do happen you live or work in a really low signal area that could coincide with the shutdowns?

Yeah, it really is a major annoyance to have to redo everything more than once. A waste of hours indeed. Maybe it is worth the trade off to get to the bottom of the restarting problem though? And think of the bonus, if there is a common thread here you might be helping others get to the bottom of their restart problems too?
Sorry I'm not trying to be annoying or a pain, I'm just trying to make light of the situation since I can't really help much.

 

[Bandage]

I'm still curious, as I asked the original poster; Do happen you live or work in a really low signal area that could coincide with the shutdowns?

Yeah, it really is a major annoyance to have to redo everything more than once. A waste of hours indeed. Maybe it is worth the trade off to get to the bottom of the restarting problem though? And think of the bonus, if there is a common thread here you might be helping others get to the bottom of their restart problems too?
Sorry I'm not trying to be annoying or a pain, I'm just trying to make light of the situation since I can't really help much.

How would signal strength or lack thereof cause reboots? I'm asking in earnest mind you...for I don't see a correlation between signal strength and the OS / software.

Educate me...

 

[PyroSporker]

How would signal strength or lack thereof cause reboots? I'm asking in earnest mind you...for I don't see a correlation between signal strength and the OS / software.

Educate me...

I wish I could educate, but I have no answers to give. I'm as much in the dark as you are. I'm just trying to help out and I'm merely entertaining a wacky hypothesis. Hypotheses tend to be wrong more often than they are right and I'm very prepared for that truth.

Low signal strength is at least something that can be ruled out if they can provide some base information. I'm not really trying to draw any correlations here, merely trying to rule out low-signal strength/a bad tower as a contributing factor.

Sidebar for Bandage, I'll spare anyone elses eyes the wall of text:

Spoiler

Evo 3D: phone shuts off when there is no signal

15 Page thread in the Captivate forum about random shut downs:
http://androidforums.com/captivate-...hone-shutting-off-randomly-5.html#post1560655
http://androidforums.com/captivate-...hone-shutting-off-randomly-5.html#post1607199
http://androidforums.com/captivate-...hone-shutting-off-randomly-6.html#post1706930

LG Optimus S: Poor Signal Strength and Battery Overheating

G2: xda-developers - View Single Post - My phone keeps randomly shutting off. Ideas?

My thunderbolt just shuts off by itself. - Page 2 - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

Samsung Galaxy S - Phone Randomly Shuts Off

G2 Desire Z:[Q] Phone powers down and won't turn back on w/o pulling the battery - xda-developers

Treo Specific, but some saw an improvement when they put a paper shim under their SIM card (ensured constant contact of the card to the hardware).Phone Randomly Shuts Off - PreCentral Forums

Samsung Galaxy S(Vibrant, Fascinate...) Shutting Down Randomly Fix

61 Page thread on XDA for the Galaxy S specifically phones on Bell/Rogers/Telus service with low singnal strength
[Q] Why my Galaxy S locks up?! (Comatose Syndrome on going investigation) - xda-developers

The list can go on and on (google search). In none of these cases is low signal strength really the ultimate cause/answer, but it CAN be a factor in cases. It could even be locale or even tower specific. There is a great application called OpenSignal that EarlyMon has had success using to identify towers in problem areas which can be checked by Sprint and verified if they need maintenance. I'm sure he can drop some knowledge in that area if it is ultimately required.

Brainstorming and testing different hypotheses is always a great idea when problem solving. Who knows maybe I am way off base here, but I am willing to accept that.
Your Zedge problem was a great idea, but it doesn't look like it fits all cases. Just like my low signal idea will not fit all cases.

P.S. This one probably shouldn't need to be mentioned, but anyone with restart problems make sure you do not have a third party/downloaded Task Killer installed. They sometimes tend to cause some system wide problems, one of which can include random shutdowns and rebooting.

 

[ercnan]

New here and first post, but I picked one up on Tuesday morning, loaded it from Google which loaded everything I had on my DroidX, and have had no issues with it doing anything like what is mentioned here. No issues at all actually. Not much help, I know.

 

[sambo57u]

are you all using SD cards? Sometimes formatting issues lead to reboots
when device accesses something on SD. Reformatting solves it. Just a
hunch.

 

[svenb352]

Hi all,

To answer the question about low signal area, no I am in a full six bar coverage area with great data service too. I don't use an SD card, and I exchanged my first one for a other one. This new one bas done the reboot thing twice. I may do a factory reset after all. Very, very frustrating. Love this phone but yeah - random battery pulling reboots suck.

 

[tbhausen]

I've had mine since the 29th and it did this for the first time today. Interestingly, I reformatted the SD yesterday after uninstalling Motorola Media Link from my host PC, and the phone "went dark" while connected to PC via USB and set to mass storage mode.

I'm not too concerned, and don't think this is a phone-by-phone (e.g. exchanging phones won't help) issue. I'm sure we'll track it down and a fix will come.

 

[doneve141]

Factory reset doesn't work. Played with the battery modes. Every thing works fine in performance mode. Apparently its s glitch with the battery saving modes. Thats what I've found with mine today.

 

[PyroSporker]

Factory reset doesn't work. Played with the battery modes. Every thing works fine in performance mode. Apparently its s glitch with the battery saving modes. Thats what I've found with mine today.

That could be plausible. A few of the threads I read for other phones from other manufacturers had some problems with battery saving modes. You might be on to something. If a few more people find improvement then you may have found the trend.

 

[JackG058]

Factory reset doesn't work. Played with the battery modes. Every thing works fine in performance mode. Apparently its s glitch with the battery saving modes. Thats what I've found with mine today.

That's interesting about the battery modes. Is it consistently repeatable, i.e. you go to night mode and it shuts down, back to performance mode and it stays up, every time? Or are we talking strictly intermittently? My experience is that intermittent is the worse possible answer. You never truly know you have a fix then, unless the pattern is at least fairly regular.

 

[doneve141]

I wont be able to truly try it out again until I go back to work next week. I didn't have the problem until I was at work with my phone sitting idle most of the day. That said if it is the fix than others may be looking for answers as I was and getting that out will help them. I found that answer late morning and didn't get off work until 7 pm. It set idle for around 8 hours. To me that was a good find. I tried the nighttime(the default setting) and Maximum before trying Performance.

 

[doneve141]

I know I said I wouldn't be able to truly test till next week. I'm sitting at my computer watching my phone reboot every 5 minutes now. I removed my sd card and it continues on. I think I will be going by Sprint later today.

 

[doneve141]

Does anyone else use Google Voice? I just found a text recieved through Voice that looks like a line of code. It was recived about the time this all started for me. I installed Voice last night after I got home and just uninstalled it. I'll have to let you all know how it works out. Even if it works was it the text or Voice?

 

[davidcline]

Had a "blackout" yesterday. Was looking at something on the phone...hit the temp powerdown and set the phone down. When I picked it up a few minutes later and hit the power key....BLACK...NOTHING. Instead of taking out the battery I plugged the power cord in and it acted like it was charging....I then could hit the power button and it restarted as if it was completely powered down.

Today...it just went dark again....I hit power button and nothing....I plug the power chord in and it indicates charging....and it shows only 5% power!

So sounds like a FAST power drain of some kind??

Don't think I will return the phone yet....sounds like a software problems somehow???

DC

 

[Bek]

Had a "blackout" yesterday. Was looking at something on the phone...hit the temp powerdown and set the phone down. When I picked it up a few minutes later and hit the power key....BLACK...NOTHING. Instead of taking out the battery I plugged the power cord in and it acted like it was charging....I then could hit the power button and it restarted as if it was completely powered down.

Today...it just went dark again....I hit power button and nothing....I plug the power chord in and it indicates charging....and it shows only 5% power!

So sounds like a FAST power drain of some kind??

Don't think I will return the phone yet....sounds like a software problems somehow???

DC

I would strongly suggest that you get some diagnostic apps that can show you what consumed your battery. There are some apps out there that are notorious for not allowing the phone to properly sleep, using data in the background, etc., that all contribute to battery drain. This is not necessarily unique to the P4G either.

First check your Battery Usage stats under Settings. Compare your awake vs uptime values and if they're almost identical, then there's a sleep/wake issue. Spare Parts is a great 3rd party app that can also assist in diagnosing app/battery usage issues.

 

[doneve141]

My phone has been fine since uninstalling Voice. I think there is more than 1 issue here. I didn't have Voice installed when the power downs happened yesterday and they stopped after changing the battery management setting. Today it has been fine since removing Voice.

 

[svenb352]

My phone hasn't rebooted since yesterday. So far only twice. I did change the battery mode to Performance mode (since this thing's battery is awesome anyway). Let's hope I don't see any future reboots.

Still best phone I've used on Sprint. I like it a lot better than the Evo 3D.

 

[davidcline]

DID IT AGAIN! I recharged it all the way to 99%...put on a market battery indicator....I used it until it was around 93% and then set it down. When I picked it up to use it and power it up it would not come on...had to reconnect the charger and it shows only 5%!!! Something is draining the battery big time...or something is wrong?

I should try one thing...all three times this has happened...it was after I set the phone down on the top case of my running laptop....is there anyway the running laptop could drain a battery? It has not happened anywhere else?

dc