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Help Verizon Galaxy Nexus constantly crashing, rebooting, frustrating

encina1

Newbie
Aug 3, 2010
22
0
I own a Galaxy Nexus from Verizon that I picked up when it was first available last year. A few bugs, but not like what I am experiencing now. I saw some of this in the Known Issues thread, but does it apply here?

My phone, for the past week, has been constantly rebooting itself. Non-stop. Sometimes it will reboot several times in a row. It is annoying, but was even more annoying when it rebooted itself all night, thus not sounding off my alarms in the morning so I could get up for work.

The phone will sometimes freeze, and it makes no difference what I am doing with it. It will usually reboot when just sitting there doing nothing.

One day, it rebooted, and I got this message that I should not turn off target, as it was downloading software. It had this Android-looking screen, this one. But the build date was Jan 24, 2012.

After the first time of this, a screen it stayed on all day, it went to a blank screen. I tried re-starting it, but nothing. I removed the battery, re-started it, went to this screen again. Then blanked out, nothing.

Sometimes it will reboot constantly and I remove the battery to make it stop. Sometimes it works, but then it will reboot again later in the day.

When it does start up, the battery gauge is all messed up. Even though it was on full battery before, the battery will show as half full upon reboot. And then the battery goes up from there. Or it will drain immediately.

I am also seeing that the battery won't charge at all when plugged in. It will continue draining. If I reboot and then plug in, or just turn it off, it will charge the battery. But very slowly.

Upon one of its reboots, the phone wiped all my widgets off my screens. It kept the apps, but the widgets were gone!

I removed a few apps I had installed since its last OK state, but that didn't solve the problem.

The phone is not rooted, and is still on Android 4.0.4.

I am sure it's done other things, but not that I can remember now. If I do remember, I will post here.

Help!
 
One other issue I just saw today is that it will go into recharging mode without being plugged in. I have it set up so that when plugged in and charging, it goes into clock mode. The clock has just started itself while I am not plugged in, and the battery icon at top shows as recharging even though it is clearly not. I clear the clock, and a minute later it will just go back to clock mode. And then it froze.

Is this a Google software problem? Is it a Verizon software problem? Is it a Samsung hardware problem? Is it an app thing? Is it a virus, perhaps?
 
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It definitely sounds like something wacky. I'd make sure to back up what you can, and then do a hard reset. Don't load anything for a few days, let it stay completely stock (re-sync your google acct for contacts would be about as far as I'd go), and see what happens. If all goes well, slowly start installing things again one at a time, and give some time between if possible, see if it narrows down what might be causing it. If, even after a reset with nothing loaded it continues, then it's probably a device issue and I'd see about getting it warrantied.
 
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Thanks for the advice. Two questions now. One, since I am hearing about this JB update possibly coming to the Verizon GN soon, shall I just wait to see if that clears anything?

Two, and more importantly, if I reset it to factory settings, will I need to go back to Verizon to get it attached to my account/phone number, or will it be easy for me to do so?

Thanks.

P.S. I've backed everything up, including SMS, so I am prepared to rest if not for the account connection part.
 
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Thanks for the advice. Two questions now. One, since I am hearing about this JB update possibly coming to the Verizon GN soon, shall I just wait to see if that clears anything?

Two, and more importantly, if I reset it to factory settings, will I need to go back to Verizon to get it attached to my account/phone number, or will it be easy for me to do so?

Thanks.

P.S. I've backed everything up, including SMS, so I am prepared to rest if not for the account connection part.

second question first. No VZW phone link won't change its "hard" based on the phones IEM# and sim card.

What will happen is EVERYTHING on the phone cleared including the "SD" card mount. It will be back to the day you walked out of the store with it, minus being linked to your Google account(until you turn it on and sign in)


First question, "generally" updates only make things worse if there are issues. I would try my best to clear up the problem (either reset if it works or new phone) before the update (which is probably 30-60 days out still)
 
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second question first. No VZW phone link won't change its "hard" based on the phones IEM# and sim card.

What will happen is EVERYTHING on the phone cleared including the "SD" card mount. It will be back to the day you walked out of the store with it, minus being linked to your Google account(until you turn it on and sign in)

I am confused. When I walked out of the store, the SD card was mounted. So now it won't be?

First question, "generally" updates only make things worse if there are issues. I would try my best to clear up the problem (either reset if it works or new phone) before the update (which is probably 30-60 days out still)

That makes sense. I will back up the last bits tonight, then reset to factory settings.
 
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whatever happened to your phone? I'm starting to get similar experience (ie random powerdowns). The phone has been pretty good from release day, just the past month it's started to the shutdowns, I'm wondering if the factory reset did any good? TIA!

No clue. It just started on its own. I will do factory reset and see what happens. I will come back with results after this weekend.
 
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I am confused. When I walked out of the store, the SD card was mounted. So now it won't be?

What he meant was that the "SD" partition will also get wiped out.
The GNex doesn't have a true SD slot, so it mimics a SD card by allocating a part of your internal memory (32GB for VZW/Sprint GNex) as a pseudo SD card.
When you factory reset, that will get wiped too. But it will stay 'mounted'.
 
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I would like to say that I was having the same problem where my phone would randomly reboot at any given time for no apparent reason. Most of the time I wasn't even using it, but I could tell because the google apps become enabled again when the phone reboots.

I unlocked my bootloader (which wipes the phone with a factory reset) and loaded the new jellybean leaked update. I have had zero problems since then. I'm not sure if it was the factory reset or the update. Perhaps a combination of both?
 
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I stopped the installation of all apps automatically, and only have basic apps, and ones I knew were working fine. The phone restarted only once, and that was during an app update. I can forgive that one, but I shouldn't.

Since this morning, it has not rebooted again. I will give it a few days, then start adding more apps, and see what happens.
 
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Four days or so without a restart. I do have a weird battery issue that is not a problem for me. Every once in a while, the phone will come on and show as charging, when there is nothing plugged in. The battery drains normally, but it shows as charging.

But no restarts.

I added music and videos last night, so far that has not caused any problems.

I will add a few more apps tonight and see how it goes. I have my eyes on either:

- Llama, but only because I had two power apps running at the same time. I had forgotten about the first one. But I removed that previously and still had restarts.

- Handy Apps, only because that was the last app I added before the mess began.

- PhotoLocker, only because that was one of the last apps I installed before the mess began.

- General software problems. But I have gone back to the OS I had previously, 4.0.4, and no problems.

- Battery? Since the battery is acting weird still, but no restarts, can I place the blame on it? Should I buy a new battery and test it out?

That's where I am now. I will continue playing with it and see where it goes from here.
 
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Update: I took my phone to factory settings. I downloaded apps one-by-one. I removed all media. I added then removed then re-added apps. My phone was fine for a few days, then started crashing and rebooting again on its own. Sometimes constantly. It would not charge when plugged even after rebooting, so I had to turn off and charge that way.

I was left with one option: test the battery. I needed a bigger battery anyways for this trip, so I am giving it a try. I just got it, so I'll update when I have had it for a few days. Hopefully this will solve my problems.

I will not make any further changes until I am comfortable with the phone as is.

Cheers.
 
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I said it once and I'll say it again: I used to have this exact problem. I have flashed the Jelly Bean leak and since then I have had zero issues with restarts.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...e-jellybean-leak-coming-soon.html#post4936329

Those are my instructions for installing the leak. If you need anymore help feel free to ask me!

Let me stress that you don't have to root your phone and you can always re-lock your bootloader after you're done! There are no negative side effects to having it unlocked. :)

Alternatively you can always wait for the OTA...latest in the rumor mill is that it'll happen this week. Who knows?

Edit: The cheers makes me wonder if you're from the UK. I'm not sure what build the phones use there but in that thread I'm sure you can find the OTA for Jelly Bean if it exists. If not then I would highly suggest flashing a stock JB rom of some sort.
 
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New battery installed. One day later, this phone will just not stop re-starting itself It was so good this morning, but even the battery was not lasting as long as it should have. As I sit here watching it, it is restarting itself for the 10th time in the last two hours. Nice.

Done with this. Back to Verizon to get it switched.
 
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I said it once and I'll say it again: I used to have this exact problem. I have flashed the Jelly Bean leak and since then I have had zero issues with restarts.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...e-jellybean-leak-coming-soon.html#post4936329

Those are my instructions for installing the leak. If you need anymore help feel free to ask me!

Let me stress that you don't have to root your phone and you can always re-lock your bootloader after you're done! There are no negative side effects to having it unlocked. :)

Alternatively you can always wait for the OTA...latest in the rumor mill is that it'll happen this week. Who knows?

Edit: The cheers makes me wonder if you're from the UK. I'm not sure what build the phones use there but in that thread I'm sure you can find the OTA for Jelly Bean if it exists. If not then I would highly suggest flashing a stock JB rom of some sort.

Nope, not from the island. I am Stateside.

Someone up above said that just waiting for the upgrade would just pile problem on top of problem. That I need to fix it now before upgrading the OS. Is that not the case?
 
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