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

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.

__________________
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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

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

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

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:



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.

Last edited by PyroSporker; August 4th, 2011 at 03:39 AM.

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

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

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

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.

__________________
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There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.

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

glaves123

My phone did this twice today, I haven't had time to check for any reasons why but it is doing exactly what is being described in this thread (going black and not allowing me to turn it back on without removing battery). Specifically it seems after I leave it idle for at least 30 mins or so

JackG058

I've got Voice and I haven't seen this issue. A couple of days into ownership I was getting a big battery drain, so I did a factory reset. Much better battery life and am very pleased so far with the device. Only other issue remaining for me is sometimes the screen won't blank out when I'm on a call with the phone pressed to my head. That issue is highly intermittent too. To me, it sounds like you may have a defective phone. No matter the build quality or manufacturer, there unfortunately are always going to be some defects that slip through quality control.

tbhausen

There's a fix for this in testing which will be pushed to us next week. Details here:

Photon - Sprint Official Known Issues - SprintUsers.com

svenb352

This posting made my entire day - thank you so much tbhausen

jpk36

Happened to me yesterday 6 or 7 times in an hour. Seemed after booting, if I put one edge of the phone down on the table and let go, the jolt of it hitting the table would cause the phone to shut off, as you all described.

All I did to fix mine was to fold a post-it in half (double thick paper) put one end in the center of the battery and wrap it the long way around the center of the edge farthest away from the battery contacts. This way the double thick paper gives a slight sideways push to the battery when replaced in the phone which makes a tighter connection with the electrical contacts. Worked like a charm and haven't had a problem since. Hopefully it does for you too.

PyroSporker

What good news for those dealing with this issue!
Out of my own curiosity and for the benefit of others I wish it said what the actual problem is instead of just describing the symptoms and saying that it will be fixed. My inquiring mind needs to know, even if it is some deep OS issue that I won't understand.
I also hope this fix works for the majority of people. Sometimes a common symptom can be caused by different things (though this seems pretty specific), or the problem can be multi-faceted. Oh well time will tell, hope the OTA comes soon for you guys.

Bek

Why wait? Just upgrade the leaked MR yourself:

MoPho MR3 address sound issues and more!!! MIRRORS FIXED - xda-developers

I did it last night right after I picked up my new Photon. Didn't take very long at all.

glaves123

just returned for an exchange, doesnt seem like enough people are experiencing this to justify waiting for some potential software fix so i'm going to assume its a faulty unit, though clearly it is more than just mine

YodaDroid

What applications are you running? What settings do you have on?

Damar1979

I too experienced the photon do it's own reboot.. while trying to post on the phandroid app. then decided to do a battery pull an hour later, and next thing I know was flooded with a ton of messages all at the same time. hopefully this will be something that is a one time deal, or at least minimal.

fusQer

I too have had the battery removal necessary issues. I purchased the phone Aug 1 from Sprint.com. FWIW, the problem hasn't come up again in the past 36 hours.

doneve141

Been a good day on reboots. I had none. Work day so my phone sat while I worked. Battery mode on performance and Voice uninstalled. I may mess with Voice tomorrow again.

SporkLover

Sleep of death. I have it too, not as frequent, no pattern that makes sense.

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Wolfedude88

I'll make this short and simple for you. The cause is simply a software issue that is only affecting a handful of phones currently. I have had mine for a couple of days and already have had three reboots. I have zero apps installed, ZERO. All I have done to my phone is use the web, text, and calling. I have been busy.

Once was at work with low signal(which should not matter anyways), once at my parents, and once at my house, both which get me almost full bars there.

I did a factory reset after the second one and pulled battery which I shouldn't have needed to anyways since I haven't even installed anything but figured it wouldn't be a problem since all I would lose was call log and text messages.

So bottom line it seems this is just a software bug, common in new phones and software updates. Hopefully this is widespread enough where they push an OTA fast.

Sorry for everyone that is experiencing this and lets hope it is resolves soon enough.

PyroSporker

I know all this, I've been following the issue. I need details man, details!

doneve141

I installed Voice last night and charged during the night. The reboots started as soon as I got up and pulled it off of the charger. I uninstalled Voice again. Sprint visual voice mail here I come. When the software update comes out I may try again. I just don't have the time to work around it. I need stability out of my phone. I love so many things about it that it is worth a little hassle though.

bad1550

How do I reset phone without removing battery?

Just picked up Photon today from Radio Shack and now its shut down and charging it does not help.

Also, if I have to remove battery, how do I do that.

Thx

JackG058

Is it just the install of Voice that you saw the reboot from, or are you using Voice once installed? I have it installed but don't really use it much, and I'm not getting the reboots. I'd be willing to make a few Voice calls for you though, if that is where you are experiencing it, to try and duplicate.

From instructions I found, begin to pry off at the two bottom corners. You'll basically then just work it off from bottom to top. Just do it patiently, with slight pressure as you pull. Work it lose. When replacing the cover, again start at the bottom and just press down on the sides working up again. It'll snap into place in various spots.

tbhausen

Only the one "went dark" episode here. I use Voice all the time; it's where my VM's go so I doubt that's the issue. Even if it is, a fix will come due to the GV integration and Sprint and Google's mutual involvement. I have faith in this.

doneve141

I had it set up to be my voicemail provider. I don't think the problem is on all phones.

svenb352

Ever since I changed the battery setting from the managed one to the regular one I haven't had a single boot down.

The problem I am having now is with AmazonCloud. I am not sure if these are related or not, but if I am streaming music through the Cloud I can get through between 3 and 6 songs before it will just stop. It then may or may not boot back into the app when I push the wake button. If it does it may say the app will force close, or it will just stay black and not turn back on. Again, similar issue with the whole freezing/power down thing and it does require a battery removal to reboot.

Anyone else having this?

Spolzie59

I have experieinced the phantom Photon turning off issue. My service provider has not yet heard of such an issue but when I called Motorola 800 734 5870, they owned up to an issue. Accordingly there is no ETA on the hotfix but at least they are working on it. As far as removing the battery. They called this practice similar to a soft boot and it only partially recyles the phone. They suggested to take battery out too but to hold down the power button for 15 seconds, again with battery removed. They said this will not lose any profile custom settings. Good luck...

bcrsr

I did a factory reset and changed the battery plan to Performance and have not had this issue since. I agree 100%

Damar1979

I tried that, changing the battery plan to performance.....and it still shut down on me twice. Hopefully Motorola can issue a fix soon. Otherwise, awesome phone!!

whttigress

The battery is such a pain to remove. When I have this problem I am able to boot it back up by plugging it into the charger and pressing the power button. Fortunately my phone only does it every 2-3 days. I have the no audio on calls much more frequently, and it is a real pain to be rebooting and calling people back all the time.