Help Prevail turns itself off regularly. Any ideas?

[gretschdrum]

Hi Folks,

I've had this Prevail since mid-August and now it's starting to turn itself off regularly. It started a few weeks ago. It would turn off once or twice a week. Recently it started turning off once per day. Now it seems to be turning itself off twice a day. I just turned the phone on an hour ago and it turned itself off already. I pulled the battery this morning and restarted. We'll see if that helps any.

I run this phone VERY lean. I use very few apps and the phone is NOT rooted. I have a task killer installed and it runs regularly.

Is this problem caused by the Gingerbread update?

Anyone have ideas on how this can be corrected?

Thanks!

 

[Kcsuper]

sounds to me like a faulty battery (overheating which causes phone to shutdown via safety feature). I'd say buy another battery but keep receipt and see how that works out.

 

[chadb740]

That's odd. I just went to check my text messages and my phone was off also. I have dropped my phone multiple times though. I was getting (frequently) an error message that said "unable to charge, non supported battery). I am using the battery that came with my phone. I just rooted my phone (and my wife's) last night thanks to u guys. I had spent probably 12 hours trying to root it with the KMS exploit with no luck. Looked in the forums last night and found one that worked right away the first time. I did freak out when I saw the words "Deleting all yo $hit" The name of the exploit (or whatever the proper name is) is Prevail-Replenish-NEW-OCR. zip Thank u 2 whoever created that.

 

[Bandaid]

gretschdrum, Have you ever tried a factory reset? Example: Settings/Privacy/Factory data reset?

You’ll lose your apps if there not backed up. But its worth checking into before getting a new battery.

 

[gretschdrum]

That's odd. I just went to check my text messages and my phone was off also. I have dropped my phone multiple times though. I was getting (frequently) an error message that said "unable to charge, non supported battery). I am using the battery that came with my phone. I just rooted my phone (and my wife's) last night thanks to u guys. I had spent probably 12 hours trying to root it with the KMS exploit with no luck. Looked in the forums last night and found one that worked right away the first time. I did freak out when I saw the words "Deleting all yo $hit" The name of the exploit (or whatever the proper name is) is Prevail-Replenish-NEW-OCR. zip Thank u 2 whoever created that.

Thanks for the reply. I have not dropped the phone....yet. Pretty remarkable considering I'm coming up on six months of usage. In fact, this phone has been babied about as much as possible.

Bandaid, I have everything backed up so if this continues happening that will be my most likely next step. I will say however that the phone does get warm occasionally. I won't say hot but noticeably warm. I pulled the battery out again today and then restarted. So far, so good. Also, it has NOT gotten too warm after this restart.

 

[Khudzul]

Do you have a case on this phone ? If you do try removing it, some times the case will cause the power button to stick causing the phone to reboot.

 

[trenchkato]

My phone has been doing the same... no idea what is causing it

 

[kolosus]

I had my phone do that after about two months of owning the device. I Odined back to stock and let it run for a bit. It still did the same. I called Boost and told them the problem. They told me to call Samsung as it was a hardware issue... they did make me do some checks. Samsung asked me to send them the phone. They sent me a UPS label. I found a box and mailed it to them. They mailed it back. Total turn around time (UPS out and UPS in) about a week.

On the paper work they mailed back with the phone it said that the PRL or something wouldn't update. I guess the phone kept rebooting since the update wasn't taking.

I did switch back to my older handset while my Prevail was in transit. I switched back and forth. Switching reset my billing cycle date and I didn't get any credit for my shrinkage status.

Good luck.

 

[Kcsuper]

that's weird about the shrinkage thing cause boose it usually awesome with customer service to me.

 

[goddamn11]

I am also having this maddening problem which has only occurred since the update. There aredays when my phone will reboot up to 12 times a day! It seems like about 1/3 of the time when I get a call or a text the phone will freeze for a few seconds and reboot. I did notice even before the reboot got insanely crazy that the battery was getting very very hot, for no reason, I would feel it burning my leg in my pocket.

I'm not sure if this is related but immediately after the update I was unable to send or receive mms until boost sent a reprogram code and had me remove the battery for 5 minutes. I can't remember for certain but I do think that this is when the constant rebooting started. The phone has never been dropped or wet and it had only reboot itself maybe 3 times since purchase date in august, now it is nearly unusable(hard to answer a call when it rings and reboot right away).

I hope that boost reads this because two of my friends wanted to buy this same model phone and get boost accounts but I told them what problems I have had and how frustrated I have been and the lack of customer support and how boost seems to try their best to avoid communicating with its customers. There you go boost, you lost two customers because of your lousy support and I will probably be closing my account too despite the shrinkage making the monthly cost only $40 next month, but I can't really use the phone so i can't justify giving boost any more money.

I also want to say for all members who are considering boost that they are HORRIBLE customer service, I have never received a call back from them through the whole blackberry ordeal and I never did get it fixed. Instead I bought a galaxy prevail. I wonder if this is how they think they can get customers to buy more phones from them? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, its not going to happen, I will dump boost.

 

[Koumajutsu]

I had problems like this when I first got my Prevail. I solved it by getting a belt-clip for it.
It turns out I would manage to hold down the power button in my pocket. That would cause it to shut down or reboot depending on how long it was pressed.

I'm not suggesting that everyone else is pocket powering, just that sometimes the solution seems completely unrelated

 

[goddamn11]

Through no help from boostmobile whatsoever, I have fixed this problem by removing outlook security. My phone has returned to its original speediness and hasn't been overheating or restart for over 12 hours, so i am reasonably certain this was the cause. I had no issue with lookout security until the recent android update.

My Acer iconia also was running lookout security and running real sluggish, removed lookout and voila! If the Acer iconia, with 1ghz Tegra2 and 1gb ram, was bogging down from this app I can only imagine how overwhelmed my primitive Samsung prevail kept up or worked at all lol.

If you are experience freezing and random reboot and happen to have lookout mobile security try removing it.

 

[gretschdrum]

It's been about 5 days since I pulled the battery and fortunately there have been no new turn-offs. Every time I feel the battery get warmer than usual I'll either take the case off or hold it in front of the air vent in the car.

Thanks for the tips folks. I'm feeling like the battery could indeed be the root of my problem.

 

[jediroadkill]

Thank you for the tips. I have been having the same problem everynight lately. I have not had this problem till the last week. When one of you posted about the PRL not updating I tried to manually update it. It said that it updated. I will try this tonight and see if my phone turns off. If this solves it then I will post how to update the PRL. Other notes:

Rooted with android 2.3.5
GINGERBREAD.Ej06
Hardware version M820.07
and has a rubber case (my phone has never over heated)

 

[DaisFlaque]

Hey I had the same problem and fixed it myself a month ago with out another problem.
First I rooted with shabby, then went to Odin for some more magic (CWM 5.), NEXT get file expert, open file ex and the first page is your internal. Go find your battery and find the temp cut off.

 

[az4x4runner]

Hey I had the same problem and fixed it myself a month ago with out another problem.
First I rooted with shabby, then went to Odin for some more magic (CWM 5.), NEXT get file expert, open file ex and the first page is your internal. Go find your battery and find the temp cut off.

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I found it while searching.

I do not completely understand these instructions. I am looking for what my phones shutdown temperature is. Where might I find this information? The phone is rooted and I have browsed through many of the system directories and searched Google for hours looking for this information.

Thanks...

 

[Boostermike]

Well I am bringing this back to life.

My phone is doing the crazy turning itself off thing.

As it will do it when not plugged in and charging, but just sitting on a table top I know it is not the power button being hit by accident.

It will also do it when in my shirt pocket and almost anyplace ells.

But I'm sure it is not due to the battery over heating. I do have the issue of it stopping charging sometimes in my car, when using the GPS and a navigation app. But unless I am using an app that needs the GPS, I keep GPS turned off. Also when it does that, it does not shut off, it just stops charging.

Come to think of it I do not think it has ever turned itself off when plugged into either a A/C charger or car charger... ????

When it has turned off I know it has done it with the battery almost full... Or about midway, or getting low. Like say 93% or say 60% pr like 34%... So I know it is not doing so due to low battery.

I have tried manually rebooting a few times a day to prevent it, but that has made no difference.

I just tied doing a manual update on the PRL, and profile. Both updated OK. I will see if that fixes it.

I also have Lookout on my phone. I will remove that and see if all gets better, as mine also get real slow from time to time.

I will let everyone know.

Please if you have had this, and found a fix. Come back and tell what you phone was doing. And how you fixed it.

 

[Raipier]

Mine has been doing the same thing for many months. I have had my Prevail since it first came out 2 years ago though. I haven't done a factory reset or changed the battery, so I'm not sure if either of those would fix it.

My solution though is getting a new phone, so that I can have more memory....LOL.

 

[Nomad1]

Well I am bringing this back to life.

My phone is doing the crazy turning itself off thing.

As it will do it when not plugged in and charging, but just sitting on a table top I know it is not the power button being hit by accident.

It will also do it when in my shirt pocket and almost anyplace ells.

But I'm sure it is not due to the battery over heating. I do have the issue of it stopping charging sometimes in my car, when using the GPS and a navigation app. But unless I am using an app that needs the GPS, I keep GPS turned off. Also when it does that, it does not shut off, it just stops charging.

Come to think of it I do not think it has ever turned itself off when plugged into either a A/C charger or car charger... ????

When it has turned off I know it has done it with the battery almost full... Or about midway, or getting low. Like say 93% or say 60% pr like 34%... So I know it is not doing so due to low battery.

I have tried manually rebooting a few times a day to prevent it, but that has made no difference.

I just tied doing a manual update on the PRL, and profile. Both updated OK. I will see if that fixes it.

I also have Lookout on my phone. I will remove that and see if all gets better, as mine also get real slow from time to time.

I will let everyone know.

Please if you have had this, and found a fix. Come back and tell what you phone was doing. And how you fixed it.

I have the exact problems on this Prevail, sorry to tell you I've yet to resolve it other than trying one of the members deleting "Lookout ". Shut won't hurt to try.
There is an app on Google play called "Battery Booster" that has great benefits on notifications of overheating,, both by audio and on screen . The app has a multitude of user set interface and definitely works well on the Prevail.
This may not solve the problem but hopefully helped somewhat.
BTW, the apps free! Good luck