Epic shuts off by itself, then won't turn on without Battery pull?

[dfine1966]

I bought my wife an Epic 4G on October 1. Everything seemed fine with it, except battery life has been real terrible, she lite to moderate use. But I told her for a smart phone, and that type of use(checking Facebook and email all day on and off) that 8 to 10 hours of use is a little on the low side, but still somewhat normal. But now a new problem has happened. This morning her phone shut off all by itself. I know it was on, because I turned it on for her to check and see if she had any updates to her programs. My wife doesn't like to go on the market to check these things. There were two updates, K-9 email and Battery Indicator Pro, so I updated both of the programs. The phone was working fine after the updates. She left to go to work, and went to make a call, and it wasn't working. She hit the power button on the phone and nothing. She came back running into the house to tell me their is a problem with the phone. I tried it myself, and sure enough, it wouldn't turn on. I took off the back and pulled the battery. Put it back in and the phone turned on with no problem. Now what do I do? I have 11 days left for the 30 days. Should I wait a few days to see if it does it again? Is the battery life that bad also? I have an EVO, with more use and I can go at least 12 hours of moderate use.


Will Sprint exchange for another one, especially if they might not be able to recreate the problem?

Thanks.

 

[Skunkape60]

I had the same problem with my epic but it was happening when one of the apps I had kept forced closing. After I removed the offending app it hasn't happened again. Is it possible one of the apps forced closed while the phone was left unattended? My epic has had problems running several of the apps from the market and once the problem apps were removed problems with the phone went away.

 

[dfine1966]

I had the same problem with my epic but it was happening when one of the apps I had kept forced closing. After I removed the offending app it hasn't happened again. Is it possible one of the apps forced closed while the phone was left unattended? My epic has had problems running several of the apps from the market and once the problem apps were removed problems with the phone went away.

What was the problem app that caused your problem. The only apps that were open at the time was market, K-9 email and Battery Indicator Pro. K-9 and Battery Indicator Pro were the ones updated right before this happened. The update caused the crash? Do I see if it happen again in the next week before taking it to Sprint. I have only 11 days left in the 30 days.

 

[signothefish]

This happens to me often, but then it powers back on afterward. I don't have K-9 nor Battery Indicator Pro.

 

[shaunpeezy]

i had the problem too. its really not that big of a deal as it rarely happens.

if it happens more than 5 times a week id say take it in. because mine used to happen often maybe 5 times a week max and its never happened again yet

 

[caliskimmer]

I had a similar problem, but the problem was that sometimes I'd turn the Epic screen off and then back on, and it would freeze. No fix without a battery pull. However, it hasn't happened to me mom's Epic which seems like it's a remote issue.

 

[ThomasT626]

I had the exact same thing happen. I was past my 30 days, but bought insurance. First they tried a battery swap. Didn't fix it, so they replaced the phone with a new one. Funny thing is though, when they first brought it back to me, it wouldn't turn on and the guy did a battery pull and said it seems to be working now, so just give it a shot. Well I was back at the store in about 45 minutes for a new one. But since you're within your 30 days just request a replacement, they should give one to you if I'm not mistaken.

 

[fareal]

Its happened to e a few times as well. Usually the icons at the bottom of the phone remain lit when this happens but screen is black and unresponsive. Battery pull and restart fixes it. I think this is a software issue, don't think new hardware will solve it.

 

[kenjancef]

Its happened to e a few times as well. Usually the icons at the bottom of the phone remain lit when this happens but screen is black and unresponsive. Battery pull and restart fixes it. I think this is a software issue, don't think new hardware will solve it.

EXACT same thing happened to me this past Saturday. Screen was black but the icons at the bottom were lit, kept pressing the power button but it was dead. Did battery pull, hasn't happened since. Getting me worried...


Ken

 

[dfine1966]

It happened again this morning. My wife turned on the phone, check out her email and Facebook, then went to get ready for work. She went back to check the phone again, and the same thing that happened Tuesday, happened again today. The screen was black and power button unresponsive. The lights for the keys were on though, just like everyone else. Pulled the battery and it worked again. I called Sprint Tech support to ask them and also document that I was trying to trouble shoot the problem. They said to try a hard reset of the the phone from a cold boot. Press volume button down and hold, hit power button once and wait for screen to come up to see clear storage. Should put it like you just got the phone. She told me if this doesn't work, to take it to the Sprint store and they could either give you a new one or the could reflash the software. There is a possibility that the last software update could have not gone in properly. I did ask could syncing facebook or google in the beginning at startup, could that cause the lockup, and was told it could, but they haven't even heard of this problem with the black yet. I still have 9 days left, so I am going to do some trouble shooting this weekend, and if I can't fix it, it will exchange it.

 

[Skunkape60]

It happened today on my Epic...

 

[Skunkape60]

I thought Lookout was causing me a few issues and k9 kept forced closing. So I removed them both and it seemed to have worked for several days. But it seems I spoke to quickly as the issue seems to have come back today.

 

[shaundizzle]

this is just normal on the epic. theres not much you can do but cross your fingers.

maybe root it, cause i havent had the problem for almost a month now. since about ive been rooted. you can always restore it

 

[kenjancef]

So it happened again this morning. Just finished reading a text, put the phone down. Literally a minute later I forgot I had to send an email, picked up the phone, and couldn't wake it. Had to pull the battery.

I am NOT liking this....

 

[dfine1966]

The question is this a software or hardware issue. Do we all have something in common, ie: same software installed. My gut is that a program running in the background, that all of us have, is causing this problem. The question is what program is causing this, that we all have. I still think it has to do with syncing with Facebook or the syncing process. I am just throwing out some bones. I know Sprint has no idea what is causing this, or even that there is a problem. If enough people report this problem, maybe Sprint will look into it. I myself, this weekend, will do a hard format, to see if it corrects the problem. If not, I will go to Sprint and see if there techs have any answers.

 

[kenjancef]

I went further and just wiped my phone clean. All I have running is TweetDeck and I set up my Exchange email, nothing else. I'll see how it goes...


Ken

 

[potatoboy]

This has happened to me twice. If my memory is right, the first time it was shortly after I had gotten the phone and hadn't installed anything new.

 

[Donmeister85]

Hmm.... So my phone just shut off by itself today. Was reading up on some AC on my PC and listening to music on my Epic when all of a sudden, the music just stopped. I was like... "Maybe a bad track? I just put this music on yesterday." Pressed the standby button and the thing was just DEAD. I'm like WTF... Pulled the battery and it powered back on. I'm back to listening to music now. I've still got a few more days to return it. I love the phone, I just hope that I don't start having more serious problems later on down the road ya know? Anyone else have this happen to them recently?

 

[Skunkape60]

I took my epic to the sprint service center and they tested my phone and found nothing wrong other than much of my phone memory was being used up by cookies, cache and internet history. I haven't had this issue since this morning and mine was getting so bad I was having to pull my battery 3 times a day. keeping my fingers crossed....

 

[SntaCruz83]

Just wanted to join in on this thread as I'm having this issue intermittently. The one thing I have noticed that hasn't been mention yet, is that when I hit the power button the screen works, it just doesn't light up. Meaning, i don't think the phone is actually freezing, the display just isn't working.

When I hit the power button (as I normally would to bring up the screen lock), even if the screen isn't lit up, I can' feel the tactile feedback as I enter my unlock pattern. From there, I hold the power button, and press on the screen where I remember the "power off" option to be, then press where i expect the "Yes" confirmation to be, and my phone shuts down properly.

I'm not sure if this really helps any, but thought it was worth mentioning.