Help Photon Turning off by itself, battery removal required to turn on?

[Super Noob]

Has anybody shot video of this actually happening? I'd like to see it actually happening, just out of my own curiosity.

I think you would have to shoot video 24 hours a day, or at least waking hours, because I haven't found any rhyme or reason to this happening. I don't even have to be using it for it to happen, like I said, it can be sitting on a coffee table and it does it.

 

[drexappeal]

I think you would have to shoot video 24 hours a day, or at least waking hours, because I haven't found any rhyme or reason to this happening. I don't even have to be using it for it to happen, like I said, it can be sitting on a coffee table and it does it.

Yeah, I'm figuring that, but there are people that have reported multiple loops over and over, so I was just curious if anybody had a short video of it actually looping like that.

And the issue with not being able to turn the phone on, without a battery pull, I"m sure that can be shot on video easily...prior to even doing the battery pull.

 

[hellaskan]

Hi guys, I'm new.. -waves-

Just wanted to say that I picked my Photon up on Saturday and have had mine turn off no less than 7 times.. twice while fully charged and on the charger, sitting still, with nearly full bars.
The first thing I did once it turned off initially was to update the PRL/Profile/Motorola software.. fine, seemed like a logical first step.

No help. The phone turned off again and again since. Never in a roaming area, never because it was dropped, nothing. It turned off last night while I was at the gym and it had been off the charger for less than 1 hour.

I just got off the phone with Sprint customer service, they made an appointment for me to take it in. So I'll update tomorrow with anything I find out. I asked the lady if she had any calls on the Photon for this issue, she said there are no records of it.. any of you call in to complain? Surely the 30 or so of us here can't be the only ones with problems.

 

[doneve141]

Still not having any problems. Just loving my MoPho.

 

[hellaskan]

Update-

Phone has turned off a few more times since I last posted. No rhyme or reason why. On the day I posted above, I called Sprint to complain about the phone, the polite lady on line told me to take it in for service..okay, whatever. I do ask her if she's had any calls or complaints on the Photon, she tells me there are non reported, lies or otherwise, that's what she tells me.

I go in for "service", and some young kid asks me what's wrong, I tell him it has turned off a bunch of times. He turns it off, checks the battery -visually-, shrugs and then puts it back in. Turns the phone on, checks the software date, says "looks right, okay, I'll make this one down as defective". He has done NOTHING in terms of actual testing.
So I call Best Buy and they tell me I have a 30-day return policy, okie doke, will do. It's only been 6 days in total with this phone so far. This morning, I take my Photon off my car charger (fully charged) and walk into work (4 bars), place it down on my desk and 10 minutes later, it goes from full battery to red dead and off again. I don't know why this keeps happening, but it does. I plug it back in and the battery goes full in about 15 minutes on the charger.. I am wholly confused.

If I can, I might just grab a Samsung Galaxy S2 today, as I am traveling soon and cannot afford to have my phone die while in transit.

 

[drexappeal]

Update-

Phone has turned off a few more times since I last posted. No rhyme or reason why. On the day I posted above, I called Sprint to complain about the phone, the polite lady on line told me to take it in for service..okay, whatever. I do ask her if she's had any calls or complaints on the Photon, she tells me there are non reported, lies or otherwise, that's what she tells me.

I go in for "service", and some young kid asks me what's wrong, I tell him it has turned off a bunch of times. He turns it off, checks the battery -visually-, shrugs and then puts it back in. Turns the phone on, checks the software date, says "looks right, okay, I'll make this one down as defective". He has done NOTHING in terms of actual testing.
So I call Best Buy and they tell me I have a 30-day return policy, okie doke, will do. It's only been 6 days in total with this phone so far. This morning, I take my Photon off my car charger (fully charged) and walk into work (4 bars), place it down on my desk and 10 minutes later, it goes from full battery to red dead and off again. I don't know why this keeps happening, but it does. I plug it back in and the battery goes full in about 15 minutes on the charger.. I am wholly confused.

If I can, I might just grab a Samsung Galaxy S2 today, as I am traveling soon and cannot afford to have my phone die while in transit.

And you're assuming that there might not be any defects on the SGS2? I honestly wish I could tell you why you're having the issues you've been having or why the phone dies the way it does, for you.

I personally haven't had those issues, so I couldn't even begin to imagine what that's like. Nontheless, if it were me, I'd just go in and exchange it for another with Best Buy again. The risk of a newly released SGS2 having other problems are higher than getting another MoPho that's hopefully not defective and it's a phone that's been out for 1 month already.

 

[trmac01]

My advice: go get a new phone! I did and have my new Photon for a week and have not had a single shut off, battery pull, or random reboot. My first Photon shut off the first day I got it, thought it was battery, then the random reboots started and the battery pulls got to the point where I was doing them over and over again through out the day. Went to Best Buy, returned within the thirty days (it actually did a random reboot while the rep was looking at it) and my new Photon has been great, only fix I can find so far...

 

[doneve141]

I agree with the others, exchange it for another. We just got our 2nd update and the problem seems to be with the first batch of phones. My 2nd is a week old and I haven't had any problems, SOD, random reboots, or battery drains. I read it said in one of these threads that bugs are the price for owning bleeding edge tec. I agree with that. I rooted my last phone for performance. This phone blows it away with out doing anything to it. If you need something tested and true than get a phone that has been out long enough to have the bugs worked out.
Not an insult to you friend, just reality. New phones are known for bugs. It takes months for us consumers to find the ones that the manufacturer couldn't find and then to send out the fixes.

 

[simcha]

I've had this, my third Photon for one week now and it has none of the issues the last two had. I returned the first Photon within 24 hours because it went into the "sleep of death" (a.k.a. SOD) every time the screen switched off. That was a truly horrible experience. The second Photon didn't have that issue at all. After a week it went into a death spiral reboot loop after having the hotspot and usb tether connected. After a while in that loop (rebooting over and over again) it displayed an error screen that said, "The modem hasn't powered up. In recovery mode" or something to that effect and it wouldnt' ever move on from that screen. I went to Best Buy last Saturday and exchanged it for the current third one.

So far, I've had no complaints with this, my third Photon. It rocks. The only thing is that the battery life isn't as good as my first two. I think I'm using it more though, so that would make sense.

Now as far as the claim by a Sprint employee in a store or online or over the phone that this "Sleep of Death" issue isn't a "known issue" is complete and utter B%#S^&t. I hate to report that this isn't surprising. Sprint often denies that any issue is a "known issue" until they are beaten over the head with it by hundreds or thousands of angry customers. It's typical.

I suggest that instead you go to the Motorola Owner's Support Forum for the Photon 4g. Motorola knows that this is an issue and it has an entire thread devoted to the issue.

Go here for the discussions: https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/google-android/photon4g?view=discussions

Go here for the specific thread on "The Sleep of Death": https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/56291?start=0&tstart=0

Oh, and keep exchanging phones until you find a good one. That will force Motorola to take the hit instead of you taking the hit. Something tells me that they know there is a bad batch or two out there and that they haven't issued a blanket recall because these issues don't affect all Photons.

So, exchange that Photon!

And I would avoid that Epic Touch 4G until Samsung has proven that there aren't any serious hardware issues or software issues and that they will actually support the device. I learned my lesson with the Samsung Epic, the worst phone ever supported by the worst mobile phone manufacturer ever. That's my opinion, not necessarily fact. LOL

 

[gss4w]

I got the Photon when it first came out and I had the "unable to make/receive" calls problem where the phone had to be rebooted every day to fix it. I did not really notice the "sleep of death" problem while I was worried about the first problem. I considered exchanging my phone, but I was pretty sure it was a software problem so I just waited for an update. Since the first update came out that problem seems to have been solved.

But during the past two weeks I started noticing the "sleep of death" problem where every now and then I'd go to use my phone and it had just turned off and I had to pull the battery to restart the phone (even when the battery was fully charged). On Tuesday of this week the problem happened 3 times in one day so I went to my local Sprint store to try to get an exchange. When I got there in the evening I was told that the technician was gone for the day and that I would need to come back later for them to troubleshoot the phone.

Of course it's not a problem I can easily reproduce so I'm curious what sort of troubleshooting they do and if anyone else who has done an exchange has had them do troubleshooting steps.

Secondly I don't really want a new phone if it's actually a software problem that will be fixed some day with an update. I've already downloaded a bunch of software, music, etc. So it would be a hassle to set up a new phone if I don't need to. However, if my phone's hardware is actually defective then I do want that works.

Anyway I haven't had the "sleep of death" problem since Tuesday. But I also set up Google Voice integration on Wednesday. And then today I applied the latest update. If I start having the problem again I'll probably go back and try to return my phone again.

Also for people who have said that Sprint doesn't acknowledge the problem, when I showed up at the store and started to explain the problem to the person working there it seemed like he had heard it all before but he was pretending that the experience I was describing was new. I'm guessing the sales reps are probably told not to tell customers that lots of people have problems with a phone.

And as many problems I have had with this phone, I still think it's great when it works (which is most of the time) and I like it a lot better than the Palm Pre that it replaced.

 

[hellaskan]

Okie doke.. while at Best Buy today, returning my phone for a Galaxy S2.. it turned off on the salesman.
Just laying on the desk, simply blacked out again, had to remove and replace the battery to get it to come back on. I felt good knowing he witnessed the issue first hand.

So anyhow, I have the S2 now, feels very light compared to the Photon -honestly, at first grab, I rather preferred the way the Photon felt.. which is more sturdy.
Still trying to get used to the keyboard, which so far I really don't like. Too many "switches" between to use punctuation and numbers.

i'll let you know if I have any problems with this one.
I will say that i went from a slider -Samsung Moment- to the Photon, and the Photon's touchscreen was easier to grasp than this S2's touchscreen.

 

[jimbeav]

I too had the Sleep of Death issue, while hoping for software updates to fix it I waited 20 days and dealt with 3 battery pulls per day. Finally exhanged the phone for a new one. Zero battery pulls in 20 days!!!

To the best of the salesman's knowledge (went to 3 different Sprint stores to discuss it) it is a hardware issue. I had the battery tested on the bad phone and it checked out OK.

My advice to anyone with the issue, just return it.

 

[Frisco]

I too had the Sleep of Death issue, while hoping for software updates to fix it I waited 20 days and dealt with 3 battery pulls per day. Finally exhanged the phone for a new one. Zero battery pulls in 20 days!!!

To the best of the salesman's knowledge (went to 3 different Sprint stores to discuss it) it is a hardware issue. I had the battery tested on the bad phone and it checked out OK.

My advice to anyone with the issue, just return it.

Welcome to the forums, jimbeav.

You played it smart by going to more than one outlet seeking the remedy you wanted. Many users take the word of the first floor rep they encounter, which can be a mistake as they are not all as well informed as others.

Glad you got your issue resolved.

 

[cdogg334]

New to the forum, hi guys! Sorry to post on a dead subject but I just got my photon from a guy that works at a sprint store and was selling this phone because he bought it and never got the chance to useit and he fell in love with his EVO....but has anybody found a fix? I'm not sure what a sprint store will say if I try to exchange my photon seeing how I never actually bought it from sprint, it was through a private seller. Is it worth a try you think?

 

[rubing]

HEY EVERYONE! I have been living with this sleep of death problem since i bought the stupid phone. I never returned for a new one b/c i do mission critical stuff and can't be without a phone while the return is being processed...and i'm too way too indignant, lazy, and cheap to setup a temporary replacement phone. Also when people ask me about my phone I love telling them that despite it's sleek appearance it's a piece of crap motorolla and advise them never to buy anything motorolla BUT ALAS, I have solved this issue of the sleep of death at least for my phone. For a while I bought into the low signal ideas, but saw those theories crumble on many an occasion that the phone shut-off with reasonable signal strenght. The one common factor I have found to the 'random' shut-offs was that the phone was in close vicinity to a high powered electrical device. For example I use some powerful amplifier/computer setups at work...and when my phone is resting on or near this device is when the sleep of death is likely to occur...repeatedly. Similarly if i'm at home and rest my phone on my home stereo it will also be prone to 'random' shutoff. So this issue seems to stem from some type of sensitivity to electro-magnetic radiation or electronic noises.

 

[KOLIO]

HEY EVERYONE! I have been living with this sleep of death problem since i bought the stupid phone. I never returned for a new one b/c i do mission critical stuff and can't be without a phone while the return is being processed...and i'm too way too indignant, lazy, and cheap to setup a temporary replacement phone. Also when people ask me about my phone I love telling them that despite it's sleek appearance it's a piece of crap motorolla and advise them never to buy anything motorolla BUT ALAS, I have solved this issue of the sleep of death at least for my phone. For a while I bought into the low signal ideas, but saw those theories crumble on many an occasion that the phone shut-off with reasonable signal strenght. The one common factor I have found to the 'random' shut-offs was that the phone was in close vicinity to a high powered electrical device. For example I use some powerful amplifier/computer setups at work...and when my phone is resting on or near this device is when the sleep of death is likely to occur...repeatedly. Similarly if i'm at home and rest my phone on my home stereo it will also be prone to 'random' shutoff. So this issue seems to stem from some type of sensitivity to electro-magnetic radiation or electronic noises.

You may also want to check the battery for a tight fit.Some early PHOTON users reported the battery was moving around ever so slightly,but,enough to cause a disconnect/blank screen.

If this is the case,just wedge a small piece of paper between the battery & the pocket,opposite of the battery connection.

 

[joephoton]

Hi, yeah, first post. And I know it is a thread barely alive, but

I hesitated to buy a Photon (which I did 26 hours ago) because the internet is (still) screaming with woes of dark despair over such issues as the Sleep of death, random reboots, battery drains, and dropped calls.

I haven't had any of these problems in my short time as a photon user. I am just wondering if there was ever a fix for these issues, or did they just go away after early batches of bad phones were returned/stomped on/trashed?

 

[drexappeal]

Hi, yeah, first post. And I know it is a thread barely alive, but

I hesitated to buy a Photon (which I did 26 hours ago) because the internet is (still) screaming with woes of dark despair over such issues as the Sleep of death, random reboots, battery drains, and dropped calls.

I haven't had any of these problems in my short time as a photon user. I am just wondering if there was ever a fix for these issues, or did they just go away after early batches of bad phones were returned/stomped on/trashed?

random reboots have been around still. I've seen it happen every now and then, after I turn GPS on and use nav, but sleep of death/battery drains/dropped calls...I haven't seen many complaints about those in recent history. Many of the early updates resolved those issues.

And those that had been experiencing certain issues still, their problems went away after a hard reset.

 

[Xenic]

my phone rebooted while I was typing this.... It's good for 3-5 a day. Can't stand this thing anymore. I will never buy another Motorola.

 

[joephoton]

my phone rebooted while I was typing this.... It's good for 3-5 a day. Can't stand this thing anymore. I will never buy another Motorola.

Did it just start doing this or has it been doing this for awhile? How long have you had the phone?

 

[Xenic]

had it since week after launch, been doing it since Nov

 

[drexappeal]

had it since week after launch, been doing it since Nov

Do you leave GPS on all the time?

 

[joephoton]

My question would be : what fixes has Xenic tried since November, if his/her phone has been rebooting multiple times a day since then?

 

[lmr105]

I have the phone for about 3 weeks and like the phone, great features and comfortable to use, but random shut off is a puzzel and pain. The phone went into a continuous on/off reboot so took it for service and they pulled the battery. Now it just shuts off when ever it wants to; sitting unused, while useing phone, while doing a search. I am in a good signal area and typically do not use 4g unless downloading go save battery drain. Appreciate any assistance to fix this.

 

[KOLIO]

4100996[/URL]]I have the phone for about 3 weeks and like the phone, great features and comfortable to use, but random shut off is a puzzel and pain. The phone went into a continuous on/off reboot so took it for service and they pulled the battery. Now it just shuts off when ever it wants to; sitting unused, while useing phone, while doing a search. I am in a good signal area and typically do not use 4g unless downloading go save battery drain. Appreciate any assistance to fix this.

WELCOME TO ANDROID FORUMS!

Check my post in this thread (#116,loose battery fix).
Hopefully this is the simple solution to your re-boot issues.