Phone acting stupid

tallbump · December 13th, 2011, 08:58 PM

Ok, this is my wife's second phone. VM just snet her a new one a few weeks ago due to difficulties she was having.

Problems she is currently having:

-When trying to open up an app, for example facebook or yahoo, it will go to a black screen for a bit, then open the app

-Sometimes it just flat out freezes up

- A few times a day it will restart itself

-Starting getting notification that memory was low.

-Just today it deleted all of her pics on it's own.

-When turning phone sideways or right side up, sometimes (often) the display will not correct itself.

Some details.

There is an 8 GB card. All apps that can be moved have been. Although, it says it's a 7.41 card with 7.17 available.

Sunday I removed all apps, reformatted the SD card and put the apps back on.

The wife is getting ticked and is ready to throw the phone.

Phone is not rooted and won't be.

Help please

AndyOpie150 · December 13th, 2011, 09:13 PM

Try pulling battery and holding power button for 30 sec. Then reinstall battery and power up.

If that doesn't work. Go to menu/settings/privacy/factory reset. This will wipe all user data from the phone,all apps, all there data. This is kind of a last resort before resorting to exchanging it.

tallbump · December 14th, 2011, 05:47 AM

What does pulling the battery and holding the power button do?

AndyOpie150 · December 14th, 2011, 07:52 AM

In reality it just releases the energy stored in the capacitors.
For some reason it has a tendency to fix a lot of different performance issues. I don't know how it works, but it does.
I've seen it work more times than not.
For the issues your having it might not.

brotherswing · December 14th, 2011, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyOpie150

In reality it just releases the energy stored in the capacitors.
For some reason it has a tendency to fix a lot of different performance issues. I don't know how it works, but it does.
I've seen it work more times than not.
For the issues your having it might not.

Capacitors can store a charge for years. The best way to make sure there is no residual juice in them is to discharge them. With a trace charge in the capacitors, any volatile memory may hang on to bad data. By discharging the capacitors using this method, you ensure that there are no stray 0's and 1's floating around in your phone's memory. That means when you do power it up, it will run the pure code, with no junk artifacts in RAM. The same methodology applies to PC's, but you have to disconnect the PSU. I've done this to fix a wonky BIOS, and it works. This is very subtle stuff, but you'd be surprised how effective it can be.

AndyOpie150 · December 14th, 2011, 08:23 AM

Thanks brotherswing. I'll have to link members to your post any time I'm asked that question again.

tallbump · December 14th, 2011, 08:33 AM

Ok, that makes sense. Remember I had said this was her second phone. This was a replacement sent to us by VM under warranty, so of course it didn't come with a new battery, I had to swap if out of the old phone, along with the SD card.

Could this be causing some of these issues?

AndyOpie150 · December 14th, 2011, 08:44 AM

The uSD card wouldn't be an issue.
The battery could though.
I've heard of some getting a bad battery every now and again.
If problem still persists after doing both things ^^, then you can exchange the battery.

Petrah · December 14th, 2011, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brotherswing

Capacitors can store a charge for years. The best way to make sure there is no residual juice in them is to discharge them. With a trace charge in the capacitors, any volatile memory may hang on to bad data. By discharging the capacitors using this method, you ensure that there are no stray 0's and 1's floating around in your phone's memory. That means when you do power it up, it will run the pure code, with no junk artifacts in RAM. The same methodology applies to PC's, but you have to disconnect the PSU. I've done this to fix a wonky BIOS, and it works. This is very subtle stuff, but you'd be surprised how effective it can be.

This is the most comprehensive answer to that question yet. Thank you SO much for explaining it in such detail!!!

brotherswing · December 15th, 2011, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoNameFace

This is the most comprehensive answer to that question yet. Thank you SO much for explaining it in such detail!!!

Your welcome. I used to teach A+ Certification classes at my local community college, and I sometimes fall back into lecture mode!

tallbump · December 19th, 2011, 01:34 PM

Ok, so, yeah, that didn't work. Phone still locking up. Just got a call from the wife, said it was locked up for about 15 minutes. Also, frequently having a problem with apps saying they are not installed.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I believe the apps she is having problems with are on the SD card.

Can a card go bad? It had been working fine to our knowledge. I am not sure but I think that is the PNY brand, 8 gig

brotherswing · December 19th, 2011, 02:29 PM

Yes, very much so. It's just like ram failing in a PC. Not common, but very possible. You ought to give this a try, it will help determine if the SD card is really the problem.