ZTE freezing up

[That Tuning Guy]

It's happened to me twice now. My ZTE Valet screen won't come on and the only way to fix it is to take the battery out and restart it. Even if I hold down the power button it won't restart. I'm wondering if this is or has happened to anyone else.

 

[bummpr]

Yes, it has happened to me at least once a week for last month or so. I do regular clean-up of cache and memory. My power button is also flakey...often does not give me a click feedback when I press it. I fear it will not be a long-lived device for my Tracfone/Android experience.

 

[pa_cap]

My first one froze and even after removing battery, replacing and going into reset mode per rep (Power + Volume UP(?)+Home button) would show a non-responsive screen.
Tracfone exchanged this unit for a new one and the replacement only froze once in about 1 month (may have been my fault-was in pocket of tight jeans). Removing/reinserting the battery solved the one-time problem.

 

[That Tuning Guy]

Well, at least it's good to know it's not just me!

I too try to keep my phone "clean" and I had an app that shuts off the screen with a button on the screen. I deleted that thinking maybe it was the problem. We'll see...

 

[echristopherson]

I've had my phone since Christmas but have only had this problem for the last week or so (during which it's happened twice).

I had recently installed JuiceDefender Plus; now I've removed it and will be watching to see if the freeze happens again.

Is there a name for this sort of freeze?

 

[That Tuning Guy]

Mine did it again a couple days ago now. Took the battery out, fired it up and all was well. Annoying but easily remedied.

 

[echristopherson]

I've had my phone since Christmas but have only had this problem for the last week or so (during which it's happened twice).

I had recently installed JuiceDefender Plus; now I've removed it and will be watching to see if the freeze happens again.

Is there a name for this sort of freeze?

Just FYI, I've been without JuiceDefender (Plus or any variety) for about a month now and haven't had any of those freezes since.

 

[bummpr]

After more than 2 months of no freezing, I woke up this morning unable to start my ZTE Valet. I probably have not added any new apps during this time period...just normal app updates. I also do regular Clean Master scans to clean out old files and cache.

I tried to hold power button down for 5-10 seconds to see if this would wake up the phone but the only remedy that works is to pull the battery. (I wonder what folks who have non-removable batteries do in a situation like this?)

I'm getting more disgusted with frail, quirky hardware and software with TracFone Android offerings and their refusal to allow even decent alternatives with the BYOP program.

 

[Unkn0wn0ne]

It's happened to me twice now. My ZTE Valet screen won't come on and the only way to fix it is to take the battery out and restart it. Even if I hold down the power button it won't restart. I'm wondering if this is or has happened to anyone else.

Amazingly this has not happened to me in 2 months of usage once. I wonder if your batch happened to be bad, or if there is some software issue.

 

[Unkn0wn0ne]

Everyone: As a tip, Hold down the home button for a few seconds to get the 'recent apps' menu and close down apps you don't need anymore by sliding them off. I've been doing this the whole time I've had the phone and had no issues like you guys, while my mother's phone can sometimes freeze if she has to many apps open in the background.

 

[2BitGary]

This has happened to me twice now in the past week. I've had the phone for less than two months. My lg800 would do this alot, I like tracfones service but am getting fed up with the phones they offer.

 

[catapp]

This happened to me (2nd time - first was in April) -the phone would not turn on -black screen. I tried various button hold combinations - nothing worked. While I was trying to open it (to pull battery) using screwdriver for leverage it turned on.

 

[dave61430]

I use Battery Doctor and One Tap Boost to keep things running clean. These are icons on the home screen. No freeze problems but sometimes after about a week of not being charged battery will lose power over night and turn off even though it started off with 50% or more charge.

 

[pa_cap]

This has happened to me twice now in the past week. I've had the phone for less than two months. My lg800 would do this alot, I like tracfones service but am getting fed up with the phones they offer.

Since I started using Clean Master, there have been no 'freezing' issues.

 

[bummpr]

Since I started using Clean Master, there have been no 'freezing' issues.

Running Clean Master on a daily basis did the trick for me too.

 

[catapp]

Well, my phone did it again last night - would not turn on. This time I had to pull the battery.
Those suggestions for apps to fix freezing problems -I just want to clarify - what do you mean by "freezing" ? My problem is phone will not turn on - black screen. I would not call this "freezing". I call it "not turning on".

 

[jjfriede]

I've had the same thing happen on mine. The phone would freeze up so bad that even though it was on, It was so locked up that it didn't even register that i pushed the power button to turn the screen on. After removing a lot of the apps that run in the background all the time I haven't had any problems since. I got rid of my weather app that constantly displays the weather in the notification bar, facebook messenger, and all the battery saving apps i've been trying. You can find the apps that run in the background constantly if you do a reboot and then go into settings, apps, and swipe to the 'running' section you'll see all of the apps that are running and how much memory in MB they are taking up. After removing a lot of offending apps my phone seems to be performing a little better.

I guess the point is, is that the Valet has about 1/6 the processing power and RAM than let's say the Galaxy S5 so it's hard on the phone for there to be tons of apps that it has to run in the background so I suggest that you try removing some apps that show up as running in the background via the tool in settings and see If your problem persists.

People earlier suggested using battery saver apps and cleanup apps but you have to be careful on which ones you use. There are a lot of apps the claim to free up your ram by constantly killing apps that run in the background but they can cause a lot more harm than good. First of all, installing such an app just adds another process that your phone has to be constantly running in the background which to a point is bad for your battery life and overall performance, especially on a low end phone. Secondly, the android operating system will cache recently used apps in any free RAM that is not being used so that app can be loaded more efficiently and a lot quicker when you open it again. However, android will also kill the cached app from RAM as needed If you don't have enough RAM to run the app you are currently launching. Due to the nature of the Android operating system, apps that constantly clear your RAM can actually hurt the performance of your phone by clearing those cached apps that allow those apps to be opened more quickly and efficiently so your phone has to go through all the work of loading it from the disk again. For these reasons I do not encourage anybody to use those kinds of apps.

On the other hand, there are apps like CCleaner that do not constantly run in the background but give you tools to keep your phone's storage. Cleaning up your phone's storage regularly (but not excessively) will possibly fix problems with crashing and improve your phone's performance.

If removing apps that bog down your phone and clearing your caches with a safe tool like CCleaner does not make a difference in your phone's performance and your phone is still constantly locking up, one of the things you can do is either reset your phone to factory settings.

I hope I helped!

 

[catapp]

Thanks for your suggestions. However, I have very few apps on my phone. It is just too slow and too small. I use my tablet (s) for apps. I may try CCleaner.
I don't want to reset to factory settings because people have said you lose the connection to Verizon and Tracfone is a nightmare to work with to fix it.

 

[2BitGary]

I too keep the apps on this phone to the bare minimum. Mine has froze where the screen was on, I could press the power button and the screen would go off, but nothing would display and I could not do anything. The other time the screen would not come on, but it seemed like touches were responding.

Maybe when we get root, we can disable some of the ZTE apps, and solve this problem.

 

[HeartsGirl]

I am having the same problem. It's beyond frustrating to have to take off the hard case, then take the back to get the battery out, then put it back in to get the dang phone to turn on! I have only had my phone about a month and this issue has happened more times than I want to talk about. Every time I think it's finally "fixed" and I wont have the problem again, it happens again. :-(

The eBay seller I bought it from (brand new) did send me another new ZTE Valet but I kept hoping this one would finally get the bugs worked out it and start working right. I have Clean Master and BlueBox on my phone and keep it cleaned up so I don't know what is causing the problem. Guess I am going to have to cave and move to the new phone which means starting over. <sigh>

 

[2BitGary]

I installed greenify, an app that will shut down other apps. It so far has kept my free ram at around 100M, usually I'll see less than 40M. Time will tell if it will make a difference. This app works better with root, but it does its job even on non-root devices.

 

[Kivalina]

It's happened to me twice now. My ZTE Valet screen won't come on and the only way to fix it is to take the battery out and restart it. Even if I hold down the power button it won't restart. I'm wondering if this is or has happened to anyone else.

happening on mine as well. I am very angry it is getting worse

 

[2BitGary]

Since installing greenify, and adding all nonessential apps, I have not had any issues. Try it and see.

 

[dave61430]

It's happened to me a couple of times. Did it last night, the phone rang but no screen. In the car I use BlueTooth only, I have the feeling it that might have worked. Maybe they will come up with a fix. My battery was at about 60%.

 

[HeartsGirl]

I'm still having this issue too even after switching to the new ZTE Valet replacement phone I was sent. I have tried everything mentioned here and it still will not power on at times until I take the battery out, then put it back in. It doesn't happen as often with this new phone but, it should not be happening at all!

I am seriously looking for another smartphone that doesn't have this problem. I know I'll have to pay more than the $50 I paid for this one. It will be worth it to not have to worry about it powering on. I have seen some good deals on other phones with more options and larger screens. I always read the customer reviews and more than 90% of them are positive.