Help brand new Galaxy S2 keeps shutting off

[RebeccaMI]

My boss just upgraded to the Galaxy S2 on his Boost Mobile account. He's only had the phone for a few days but is having a problem where the phone shuts itself off and the only way he can turn it on again is to take it out of the Otterbox and remove the battery.

I've looked at a few other threads suggested to me by the forum based on my thread title, but none of them seem to be the exact answer to my question. (For example, there's a few in the GS2 International section, but we're in the USA so I don't know if they're the same.)

I don't think any apps are responsible because the only ones he has installed are major apps like Weather Channel and WordPress.

I was wondering if it might have anything to do with the Otterbox case? Perhaps it's pressing on the power button too much?

He asked me for help, but I'm afraid to do anything to the phone because I don't want to turn his brand new phone into a brick!

 

[HiredxGunz]

Does the phone shut off on its own without the case? If so, its a defective phone. If not, then its just the otterbox case. Weighing down the power button.

 

[dhabell]

I swear this happens to me too. I dont use a case though. Im almost positive its because my jeans are too tight and I smash the power button inadvertently. but i wonder if Im wrong and its something with the phone. My phone had a defective menu button right out of the box so I wouldnt be surprised.

 

[RebeccaMI]

Does the phone shut off on its own without the case? If so, its a defective phone. If not, then its just the otterbox case. Weighing down the power button.

Excellent thought! I'll suggest he try using it for a day without the case. Why didn't I think of that?

 

[halfasked1]

I've had the GS2 for about a week now and it's done that 3 or 4 times. It's extremely aggravating. I have one of those platinum cases from Best Buy since I ordered an Otterbox in the mail. My case isn't anywhere near the power button, so that can't be it. And it's the same issue; the phone turns off and is completely unresponsive until I take out the battery. I'm taking it to the Boost store tomorrow to see if I can get a different one.

 

[t.burninator]

I had been running FI22 until I reflashed FG31 about a day ago and then updated past FI22 to the latest, FL24. Since then I've experienced this really irritating error several times, and I almost never had that on FI22. So I highly suspect this issue is exclusive to the FL24 build.

Your thoughts?

 

[t.burninator]

In the interest of avoiding duplicity, please visit the main thread concerning this issue at:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...32-does-your-samsung-s2-shut-down-itself.html

 

[Codegerm]

t.burninator, you have your font set a little too large don't you think.

 

[t.burninator]

Nope Codegerm, it's my head that's set a little too big when I want people to read something (not the font).

Seriously though, the other thread is more useful than this one:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...32-does-your-samsung-s2-shut-down-itself.html

I was just over on xda-developers and their forum appears to be littered with threads about this problem. I'm back on FI22 and haven't experienced it once. (Woohoo!)

 

[Codegerm]

Well squeeze your head down some. lol

 

[RebeccaMI]

In the interest of avoiding duplicity, please visit the main thread concerning this issue at:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...32-does-your-samsung-s2-shut-down-itself.html

My original post was January 9th, 2013, 01:28 PM. The OP in the thread you linked to is dated February 6th, 2013, 03:01 PM. Last I checked, January came before February in the calendar, so I believe my OP predates the thread to which you linked.

 

[t.burninator]

Thanks for the update. How's your boss's phone? Still crashing on FL24?

 

[RebeccaMI]

Thanks for the update. How's your boss's phone? Still crashing on FL24?

It still crashes from time to time but not as frequently as when it was new back in January. He just lives with it, probably because he doesn't want to send it in and be without it.

How do you know whether it's on FL24, whatever that is?

 

[AlexRayquaza]

Its most likely a memory leak.
Its the most common software cause that causes random reboots and crashes.

 

[RebeccaMI]

Its most likely a memory leak.
Its the most common software cause that causes random reboots and crashes.

How do I figure out if it's a memory leak? And if it is, what do I do about it?

 

[AlexRayquaza]

If it is memory leak, then it'll be very hard to find out unless you know about partitions and logging and stuff.
Fixed are usually sent through official OTAs.
Or maybe a second hand fix.
I fixed my issue through an ota on my phone because Samsung recognized it.

 

[t.burninator]

How do you know whether it's on FL24, whatever that is?

Without having ever met you or your boss or seen his phone, I would be willing to bet $10 that not only is your boss running FL24, but that by upgrading to GC01 his phone will crash much less often - or more likely stop crashing altogether. First I'm going to explain what FL24 is, then why I suspect that FL24 is crashing his phone, and then I'll tell you about GC01 and how to update (please read this carefully because it could fix his phone).

Every time a software update is released for the Android phone, the build number changes. From the factory the Android build number is FG31, then the first over-the-air update is Android build number FH29, then the next over-the-air update is Android build number FI22, and the very last over-the-air update is FL24. So unless your boss gets nagged every 10 minutes to update to the latest software release, he is running FL24 (or GC01 - I'll get to that in a second).

You can identify which Android build the phone is running by going into the Android system settings, scrolling down to "About device", and then look for "Software version". Or at least, that's how you do it on GC01 - FL24 shouldn't be much different.

Now I'll tell you how I know that FL24 is crashing the phone. I know that FL24 is crashing the phone because that's EXACTLY what happened when I updated my phone to FL24. I had been running the previous build of Android (FI22) just fine mind you, and then I finally got around to updating to FL24, and in the first two days of running that build my phone crashed at least 8 times. It's really frustrating to have to pull out the battery just to be able to use your phone. Needless to say, I only ran FL24 for 2 days, and then I wiped my phone back to the factory software and updated back to FI22. Now I'm running GC01, and I recommend your boss do so also.

A thorough search will demonstrate that other people's phones also have this crashing problem, that almost everybody who has a phone that crashes is running FL24, that the crashing problem did not become a widespread issue until immediately after FL24 was released, that some Boost Mobile employees will acknowledge that customers started complaining about their phones crashing immediately after updating to FL24, and that unless your battery is actually defective, upgrading to GC01 will make a phone that crashes on FL24 stop crashing.

So how do you upgrade to GC01? You'll need a computer because it's a several-hundred megabyte download that's not available over-the-air. The official Boost Mobile method is to put the Samsung Kies software on your computer, and then when you connect your phone to the Samsung Kies pc program, it will tell you that the upgrade is available help you do it. The other way to upgrade is to download a "Full Restore" one-click-flash executable following these instructions:

[ROM][ODIN][TAR]SPH-D710BST GC01 (GC01 Modem/Kernel/ROM - Root/Stock)


I HIGHLY RECOMMEND UPGRADING ANY BOOST MOBILE SAMSUNG GALAXY S2 TO GC01. Remember, it IS an official update, however you can't download through your phone - you must use a computer. Back up anything important because the update will erase everything on your phone other than the storage memory (it won't touch the storage).


In conclusion, you should make your boss upgrade to Android "Jelly Bean" GC01, not just because it is more stable than the Android "Ice Cream Sandwich" F-series builds, but because it is a really outstanding version of Android with lots of extra features.

 

[nessaness1]

this is the first time I've posted anything so heyyy lol. Now I've done a lot of reading before I even attempt anything on my phone especially since its new....IS THIS UPDATE PERFORMED ON A NON-ROOTED PHONE??? this is one phone I don't really want to root.

 

[Gendo420]

Rooting is not necessary, as a matter of fact, you would lose root updating it to GC01 anyway

 

[nessaness1]

Sweet. Thank you! Like others with this phone, I've been experiencing the freeze ups and the random restarts. it's ridiculous, I'm even thinking about getting an unlocked iPhone to avoid this. hopefully this update proves to be an improvement.

 

[rockdoctor1]

The GC01 update has solved many evils...all of mine except for the phantom clicks but that is a hardware issue and there is nothing you can do about it short of changing the digitizer board or remapping the buttons at the bottom of the screen. Doing the one click is super easy. The only hard part is getting your computer to acknowledge your phone in serial mode. See the all things rooted subsection for more info for the 1-click updating.

 

[jason504504]

My phone would do that a lot then I rooted and put custom ROM on my phone and it has not done it since just saying