My Inc is Dead

[laurel25]

Well, I guess it's not technically "dead" since it is still kind of alive and stuck in a permanent reboot cycle. So I guess it's like the phone equivalent of a zombie. Last night I was looking at a couple of webpages and the phone suddenly rebooted. It had been doing this sporadically over the last few weeks and I'd kind of figured out that it was happening when the battery started to get warm (around 95 F). Sometimes it would be fine after a single reboot and sometimes it would get stuck in a reboot cycle, but pulling the battery always fixed everything. I'd been toying with the idea of a factory reset, but just hadn't gotten around to doing it (I have a 7 month daughter, so I don't have a lot of spare time). Well, this time the battery pull didn't fix it and I couldn't even get it to do a factory reset. I called tech support and the guy had me try to do a reset again (holding down power & up volume buttons) and it just kept cycling. So now I have to get a replacement tonight and go through all the hassel of setting everything up again because I wasn't rooted (no time with above mentioned baby) and hopefully I don't lose too much stuff. I am really, really frustrated right now! aarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!

 

[rugbyua9]

Ouch... probably a glitch in your stock kernel. But nothing fixable unless rooted. Sorry to hear that.

 

[bkorver]

couple things...

1) Try leaving the battery out for 5 minutes or so and try it again.

2) Once you put the battery in, then try to boot in recovery (Hold the volume down rocker while pressing and releasing the power button. Don't let go of volume down until the screen turns on in recovery.) You can then use the volume buttons to navigate the menu and power button to select. You obviously want to factory reset here...

 

[laurel25]

couple things...

1) Try leaving the battery out for 5 minutes or so and try it again.

2) Once you put the battery in, then try to boot in recovery (Hold the volume down rocker while pressing and releasing the power button. Don't let go of volume down until the screen turns on in recovery.) You can then use the volume buttons to navigate the menu and power button to select. You obviously want to factory reset here...

I left the battery out last night a couple different times for longer and longer periods of time (longest was about an hour) and when I'd put it back in it would just go into the reboot cycle again. BUT, I didn't try to boot in recovery mode, and I'm going to try that now. Thanks for the idea - maybe this will work!

 

[StorminDT]

sounds like it is developing the same symptoms mine did.

Check the replacement refurbs carefully!!! Verizon does not test them well at all. I have had 3 refurbs and they all had problems.

 

[Jude526]

Not al refurbs are bad. I have an incredible from retention because I had serious Bb issues and they let me into the incredible. It is perfect ! And I recommend to the OP to take the replacement. It won't be that much of a hassle to get your stuff back onto the phone. Once you have your gmail account set up it will do its thing. A good thing to have though is the back-up assistant cause it will transfer over your contacts. You will have to install special apps again but that is really easy and takes no time. I know you are stressed for time with your baby, try doing it when your little one is sleeping or if you can watching tv. A little inconvenience for a well working device is worth it. There is something going on with your current Inc and sounds like a defect to me. I know it is frustrating, but your refurb should work just fine. good luck

 

[laurel25]

I was able to boot in recovery mode and do the factory reset and now the phone is sitting at the "Activate you phone..." screen because my office is in the basement of the building I work in (they always shove us IT people off in the worst areas!) and I can't make or receive calls from my desk. So, I'm hoping that I'll get a chance to run outside and I can activate and see what happens.

<<Edit - I don't know why the Verizon tech support guy didn't suggest booting in recovery mode. >>

 

[bkorver]

Good luck... at least you have us! ;-)

 

[laurel25]

Well, the Verizon tech guy I talked to on Monday night didn't know what he was talking about, so when I got to the store to get a replacement last night, the kid working told me he couldn't replace it and Verizon would have to do it. He also wasn't able to get my phone activated, even though I'd gotten it to do the factor reset. At this point I was angry and called customer service and was put through to tech support. The guy who helped me was able to get it activated and commended me on being able to boot in recovery mode and get the factory reset to go through on my own (THANK YOU bkorver & Android Central!!!) and said that most people wouldn't have ever have known to do something like that. So as of now my phone is working, but last night when I was setting it back up (have only added 3 of my apps back and was just getting the basic settings the way I wanted) the stupid thing rebooted 3 times and the last time got stuck and required a battery pull. I don't know how hot it was because my battery app is one that I was waiting to install, but it didn't feel very warm at all. I'm convinced this is a hardware issue and not an app or software issue, but I'm going to give it another week or see and see how things go. At least I have a working phone (for now).

 

[StorminDT]

my refurb #3 is in the same state. Light use of email, text etc is fine. Heavy use for about 10 minutes will make it start resetting. Sometimes I can get it to come back ok after a 10 minute battery pull. Other times it is so hosed up it requires a factory reset/reload.

Verizon has agreed to replace with a NEW phone. Waiting to see if they try and push another model. Overall I really like the Inc. My first one worked great for the first few months.

good luck.

 

[ic3pO]

Could possibly be a battery issue? Try a different battery...

 

[laurel25]

I actually have three batteries - the stock one and two 1800 mah batteries from HTCExpress and it happens with all of them. I think it's a hardware issue since it seems to happen when I'm doing something like webbrowsing or playing a game and the phone starts to warm up. Generally it happens once the phone reaches about 95 F, but since this is far short of the 120 F temperature that should induce shut down (from what I've read), it seems like there's something else going on.

 

[StorminDT]

Had the best sign yet of temp related today.

Light use, then phone sitting, rebooted itself.
came up, sat for about a minute, then rebooted again.
rebooted about 8 times at the htc splash screen.
pulled the battery cover, held it against the ac vent in the car.
rebooted a couple more times while against the vent, then came up fine.

done this on 2 different batteries.