So I got the phone last Wednesday, immediately installed Apex Launcher and turned on developer mode. Here is the entire account of my ordeal:
Last Friday my phone suddenly suddenly froze. It was completely unresponsive to anything I'd try to do. Then the screen turned off and pressing the power button of course had no effect. I took out the battery and then put it back in, so the phone was able to boot up, but when I'd try to get into the applications menu in a futile attempt to find out what was causing this issue the phone would again freeze. I repeated the process of taking out the battery and putting it back in about 7 times (it could have been more honestly I lost track), and each time I would go into the applications the phone would freeze. A couple of times, the phone would fail to even boot up all the way. It would get to the Sprint Spark splash screen and freeze there. Eventually I gave up and just left the phone on my desk for a couple of hours. When I got back to the phone, it was suddenly functional again. I guess it needed so much time to work out whatever issues it was having. This of course is unacceptable, but I wanted to go to the internet to see what it might have been before sending it back. It does, after all, seem to be a software issue.
Then just yesterday, I wanted to check out some more IR apps so I downloaded the Smart Remote app. I installed it, opened it and blammo the phone froze. I again began the process of taking the battery out, putting it back in, trying to get into the applications menu when the phone would actually boot all the way etc. Then, again I just gave up and left the phone alone and again after a couple of HOURS I came back and its been working fine ever since.
Does anyone know or have any ideas of what caused the phone to freeze? Is there anyway to investigate other than going into the applications menu? I searched for a way to boot the S5 into safe mode but all I could find were instructions for the S4, which doesn't work because the menu button is now reached via a long press and not a dedicated button. My friend said that it sounded to him like the two Launchers on my phone are fighting for device resources, but I do have Apex set as my default launcher so that is weird. Both the Smart Remote and WatchOn apps are Samsung branded and both are the only things that are consistent with my two instances of freezing. The most concerning thing to me is that many people use Apex and among them many use the Smart Remote or WatchOn apps yet NO ONE ON THE INTERNET seems to be having this issue!
Sorry for the long post. Any help would be appreciated as I would hate to be out and about in the city when my phone suddenly decided to freeze.
Quick Update: I just summoned the courage to again try my hand at opening up the applications menu and BOOM freeze.
Last Friday my phone suddenly suddenly froze. It was completely unresponsive to anything I'd try to do. Then the screen turned off and pressing the power button of course had no effect. I took out the battery and then put it back in, so the phone was able to boot up, but when I'd try to get into the applications menu in a futile attempt to find out what was causing this issue the phone would again freeze. I repeated the process of taking out the battery and putting it back in about 7 times (it could have been more honestly I lost track), and each time I would go into the applications the phone would freeze. A couple of times, the phone would fail to even boot up all the way. It would get to the Sprint Spark splash screen and freeze there. Eventually I gave up and just left the phone on my desk for a couple of hours. When I got back to the phone, it was suddenly functional again. I guess it needed so much time to work out whatever issues it was having. This of course is unacceptable, but I wanted to go to the internet to see what it might have been before sending it back. It does, after all, seem to be a software issue.
Then just yesterday, I wanted to check out some more IR apps so I downloaded the Smart Remote app. I installed it, opened it and blammo the phone froze. I again began the process of taking the battery out, putting it back in, trying to get into the applications menu when the phone would actually boot all the way etc. Then, again I just gave up and left the phone alone and again after a couple of HOURS I came back and its been working fine ever since.
Does anyone know or have any ideas of what caused the phone to freeze? Is there anyway to investigate other than going into the applications menu? I searched for a way to boot the S5 into safe mode but all I could find were instructions for the S4, which doesn't work because the menu button is now reached via a long press and not a dedicated button. My friend said that it sounded to him like the two Launchers on my phone are fighting for device resources, but I do have Apex set as my default launcher so that is weird. Both the Smart Remote and WatchOn apps are Samsung branded and both are the only things that are consistent with my two instances of freezing. The most concerning thing to me is that many people use Apex and among them many use the Smart Remote or WatchOn apps yet NO ONE ON THE INTERNET seems to be having this issue!
Sorry for the long post. Any help would be appreciated as I would hate to be out and about in the city when my phone suddenly decided to freeze.
Quick Update: I just summoned the courage to again try my hand at opening up the applications menu and BOOM freeze.
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