Root Way to fix random boot restarts?

[cakalala43]

Ive had a reoccurring issue since before i rooted that's incredibly inconvenient...

My phone, sometimes unwarranted and sometimes when really hot, will shut down entirely and then restart. I've googled extensively and i've found absolutely nothing about it...

I've tried to isolate the issue, and i've found that it might have something to do with the battery (because mainly, when it boots back up the battery is nearly 20% lower than before. Also, the heat is directly from the battery.)

Can anyone (more fitting in this field...) please help me solve this issue?

Thank you very much!

 

[dragonhart6505]

Replace the battery?

 

[cooldudezach]

Agreed, sounds like a bad battery.

 

[cakalala43]

I'd love to... Except there are none available online...

Any help on THAT? haha

 

[rbheromax]

its not battery. its thermald
its the temp control system of android. it'll throttle cpu if too hot. but it seems yours reboots instead of throttling. i had hell today with a custom kernel on my mom's s3 and fiddling with thermald (about 20 reboots in 30 min).

 

[Wpz2000]

I suspect your radio is going to maximum power for extended periods in trying to acquire a signal. Try putting it in airplane mode when you feel the temp rising and the battery capacity falling. Leave it off for 10 minutes to see if the phone cools down and the battery power remaining stops dropping. You can also check Sprint's coverage map to see if you are at the frindge of their coverage.

At my apartment, my coverage is good and my phones (all the smartphones I have ever had) remains cool and battery lasts a long time. At my work, my phones always heat up and battery drains in a couple of hours because we are in a fridge coverage area.

If this is indeed the problem, there isn't much you can do except to go to wifi when in this area, but at least you know what the problem is.

 

[laszlomdq]

I've been having the same problem, you can check the thread I started in the Awe General forum. So you said that you had the reboots even before you rooted the phone? In my last post I wrote:

"Update: My son got his brand new Awe for Christmas and while I wanted to root it with him right away I decided not to, or at least for a while. He has been using it a lot and especially playing games for the last three days and so far he didn't experience a reboot yet. Is it possible that the problem could be the rooting of the phone?"

My phone gets too hot too when I lightly use the 3G.

 

[dragonhart6505]

I'm not entirely sure what's up with that to be honest. I game HEAVILY on my Awe and ive been testing out trying to reproduce these issues with the stock kernel while rooted and unrooted with some pretty intense games (Nova 3 and COD: BOZ) and can play for more than an hour straight with no problems other than a bit of heat and that even isnt even a problem for me. My battery and cpu temp dont seem to rise any higher than about 65

 

[antipasta]

My brother, my girlfriend, and I all bought this phone and all use it similarly and live in the same area

Of our 3 phones, only my girlfriend's exhibits this reboot issue. It's pretty random when it happens, but at least twice happened when we were hitting device storage writes hard (downloading music via google music), and once the phone entered a boot loop when picking up a call.

We exchanged the rebooting phone and now all 3 phones are fine.

This is all circumstantial, but it does seem like this is a hardware issue that requires an exchange.

 

[cakalala43]

Perhaps the ZTE AWE is manufactured in different locations then shipped out the same, or perhaps they rely on different infrastructures while building them.
I know that Apple and some other companies make their devices age quickly so that you are more prone to buying a new one in two-four years, and this usually leads to a few being shipped faulty.

All i know is that if i stick to my original charger, and keep the charge above 30%, this doesn't happen often.

 

[dragonhart6505]

Perhaps the ZTE AWE is manufactured in different locations then shipped out the same, or perhaps they rely on different infrastructures while building them.
I know that Apple and some other companies make their devices age quickly so that you are more prone to buying a new one in two-four years, and this usually leads to a few being shipped faulty.

All i know is that if i stick to my original charger, and keep the charge above 30%, this doesn't happen often.

+1 So much this. A good idea to keep the phone charged, also not on the charger all day (like me) its bad for the battery and the phone as a whole

 

[cakalala43]

I found and solved the issue!

I feel like an idiot for not remembering that I had this same issue years ago with my droid2 global!!! The battery moves ever so slightly inside of the phone... Specifically when I was playing music... Which caused the device to disconnect from the three prongs on the battery. I'm just guessing that because this is a short, the electricity inside the battery jumps and loses some potency.

To fix this issue, simply wedge a tiny bit of paper in between the battery at the bottom of the phone (pushing the connection upwards and securing it.).
Haven't had a reboot since. Just be careful not to use an excessive amount of paper and blocking the ventilation.

 

[dragonhart6505]

Glad you got it worked out.
Thats really an odd issue. My battery fits snug as a bug in a rug. I cant move it even the slightest. Not a jiggle or nothin. Wtf ZTE?

 

[cakalala43]

It's actually a common issue with phones...
Here i thought it was a technical issue, and i even jumped to the conclusion of the phone overheating... But the funny thing is, when the electricity jumps from the battery, the prongs literally become a heater. That's how heaters work (although i think there's a difference between DC and AC, but i digress...)
It's really easy to mass-produce products and have 1/100th of them come out slightly longer or slighty shorter in some way or another. It's all quality control, so higher end companies have it happen less.

 

[cakalala43]

Glad you got it worked out.
Thats really an odd issue. My battery fits snug as a bug in a rug. I cant move it even the slightest. Not a jiggle or nothin. Wtf ZTE?

I'd also like to add that i would (in retrospect, it should have been obvious...) only have a random reboot when i was playing something from the speaker. It was just enough vibration to jiggle the battery. Of course, I'm not denying that i should probably buy a new one or replace the battery, it's just a matter of dealing with the cards you're dealt in the cheapest way possible

 

[laszlomdq]

I found and solved the issue!

I feel like an idiot for not remembering that I had this same issue years ago with my droid2 global!!! The battery moves ever so slightly inside of the phone... Specifically when I was playing music... Which caused the device to disconnect from the three prongs on the battery. I'm just guessing that because this is a short, the electricity inside the battery jumps and loses some potency.

To fix this issue, simply wedge a tiny bit of paper in between the battery at the bottom of the phone (pushing the connection upwards and securing it.).
Haven't had a reboot since. Just be careful not to use an excessive amount of paper and blocking the ventilation.

I took the cover off and try to move the battery around and it doesn't move at all. I'm sorry but I don't think that is the issue for the reboots. If it was, how do you explain the chain of reboots after the first one?

 

[cakalala43]

I'm suggesting that you just try the fix.
It's a little more complicated than just a loose battery and more along the lines of securing the connection from the battery to the phone.

I thought it was a little too simple, and i was at the point where my phone would restart 4-10 times a day. But as soon as i put that wedge in, it hasn't rebooted since.

I'm curious if it will work for you! Keep us updated!

 

[laszlomdq]

I'm suggesting that you just try the fix.
It's a little more complicated than just a loose battery and more along the lines of securing the connection from the battery to the phone.

I thought it was a little too simple, and i was at the point where my phone would restart 4-10 times a day. But as soon as i put that wedge in, it hasn't rebooted since.

I'm curious if it will work for you! Keep us updated!

My plan was to exchange the phone over the weekend, if I don't I will give it a try. Who knows, maybe the new phone will experience the same random reboots. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Wpz2000]

The terminals connecting your battery to the motherboard is spring loaded. If it is working properly, it would take a very large impact to have the spring terminal bounce off the battery contact. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, it could, but usually with an older phone where the spring is losing its strength or bounce. On a new phone, it would probably have to be a manufacturing defect for this to happen.

To check the contact, remove the battery and use a small object to push the contact inwards, you should be able to push it in a couple of millimeters or just under 1/8 inch. When you release, the contact should spring back out. Bounce the contact a few times to see it is 'hugs' the object you are using to push it in. If it does not, then the contact is defective and your paper wedge will only work for a little while.

 

[cakalala43]

I contacted VM about this issue, and a connectivity issue (People were calling and going to voicemail without my phone ringing, i usually had full bars during...). After attempting to reset my phone connection a few times, they sent me a new ZTE AWE free of charge. If your phone is having an issue with rebooting randomly, i strongly suggest calling technical support.