Hello,

This is my first Android phone, and I don't know anyone else that has the Prevail yet. I do have a cousin that wants to get one, but I told her to wait for the new Android being released by Boost. Reason being, mine freezes up and frustrates me, and now I wish I had waited for the new Android.

Is it normal for it to freeze up? I used Odin on it, EE14 rooted with CWM. Beyond that I use Link2SD to have apps automatically save to the SD card, and both partitions on the SD card are FAT32. I also have Titanium Backup on it.

The freezing issues... sometimes, when trying to go to the browser, it will vibrate once, pause and then vibrate 2 or 3 times more before going back to the homescreen. I think it's because it's not getting a 3G signal at that time, but I'm not sure. Turning it off and on usually helps. It'll sometimes just freeze when first starting a level on Angry Birds as well. Apps that I used earlier in the day will just open to a black screen later.

It's also just shut itself down out of nowhere. Recently, I was just going to the next homescreen over, not by swiping but my pushing in the lower right corner of the screen (on the dots) and suddenly it went blank and I got the Samsung logo.

I usually try to go to the task manager and make sure apps are closed, and then I go under the RAM manager, hit level 2 and clear memory. I figured that should help it run better, but is it possible that is causing issues?

Before I contact Samsung, I'd love to find out more about this. Is this just how this phone can be, or did I get a dud? Any tips on optimizing it even more, or how to make it run better?

Thanks for any help, sorry this post is so long.

 

Thanks for the reply. So, I know I'll sound like a noob but... how do I reboot into recovery? And how do I do a hard reset?

 

So, I'm still having the same problems and I'm starting to wonder if it's just defective. I cleared the cache and did a hard reset, still having that same vibration, pause, two more vibrations and then the app closes issue. So, I used Odin again and went back to ED13 stock, let the system download the OTA update, only downloaded one little game. It's still doing the same thing. The phone is not rooted or anything, I wanted to see if it would have the same issues before rooting it. I can't tell what is causing the problems.

I called Samsung and they had told me to do a hard reset, which I knew wouldn't help but I did it anyway. They also sent me a UPS label to send it back to them. Does anyone know if they'll be able to tell that the phone was previously rooted? It's now at EE14 stock, but I was worried it would leave some sort of trace behind of what was done to it before, which would void the warranty and I'd have to pay for the repair.

I did read around and find other people with Samsung phones, different models like the Galaxy S, having this same problem. They were thinking it was due to the update to Froyo 2.2, but that can't be since we are all using that version and no one else is really reporting this problem. It must be a hardware defect of some sort.

I hope I'm not messing it up further by using Odin to completely reset it multiple times.

 

I'm hoping they replace the phone and not just "repair" it. I had planned on doing another factory reset before sending it back in. Do you think I'd need to reformat the SD card even though they want me to send the phone back in without it? They said to just send the phone in, not the battery, SD card or battery cover even.

Also, what is the normal temperature for the battery in this phone? I downloaded this app called AndroSensor which shows the battery temp, and it's at 99.5 F right now. I've seen it up to 101, is it overheating?

If it is, I'm going to have to call Samsung again and have them add possible overheating to the RMA, and then I'd have to send the battery and charger back in.

 

Yeah, I am more than a little pissed, though I didn't buy it new. I paid $120 for it on ebay, and it was already rooted and had been factory reset. The bloatware was already removed, it worked very well when I got it. I had link2sd going and apps were going to the partioned SD card, I had quite a lot of apps and always made sure I closed out of everything before opening up something else. But then I decided that I wanted to start it all from scratch and used Odin to go to EE14 rooted with CWM and that special kernel. Then I tried shabbymod but didn't really like it, so I used Odin again to go back to EE14 rooted.

That all shouldn't have caused my issue, but who knows, maybe it did. Or maybe the battery really is overheating. I called Samsung and made sure all the problems I am having are noted so that they know what they are looking for when they get the phone in for repair. I also told them it is possibly overheating, so now I am sending back the battery as well as the charger.

I'm hoping I just get a new phone, and I asked what exactly they do when they get a phone back in for repair, but the phone rep wasn't sure. It's going to suck going back to my old phone (a Sanyo Incognito) while waiting for this one to get fixed/hopefully replaced.

Oh, and I don't blame the seller, he's been really nice. Sent me the original receipt when I asked, just in case I needed it. He also said he didn't have the problems I am having. As it turns out, Samsung didn't even want the receipt.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. I've bought phones (not smartphones though) off ebay in the past and never had a problem. Never doing that again.

 

I thought that using Odin to go back to unrooted stock would also change the kernel? What I had done was download the Odin file with EE14 rooted that comes with ClockworkModRecovery and Hroarkernerl from the forum here. When that was having problems I went back to ED13 stock and let it do the OTA update to EE14. And then when I was still having issues I used Odin again to go to EE14 stock.

The only time, that I know of, that the kernels would have been changed was during the first time I used Odin. Wouldn't using Odin again to a completely different version change the kernel back to stock? If not, that might be the problem, but also I don't want to send it back to Samsung with a different kernel on it in case they see that and say I voided the warranty.

How can I check which kernel is on the phone now?

 

From what I read in the Odin forum, I think the kernel file is inside one of the .tar files. I used all 3 .tar files each time I used Odin.

Mine says Kernel version 2.6.32.9 which I the stock kernel, I believe.

So, no luck in fixing it there, but at least that makes me feel better about Samsung seeing that I messed with this phone.

 

Me too, I'm not going to mess with it anymore and I'm just going to factory reset it and send it back in to them. At least the shipping is free.

I'll come back here and update this thread when I get the phone back.