I think Verizon's network is causing the reboots

[Chrisy]

I was visiting my mom at work and my Tbolt rebooted. I complained out loud that I need to.exchange my phone. That's when two of her co workers said their phones have been turning on and off once a day or more.

Neither have an Android. One is an older phone.

I really think the reboots are network related and location based. I'm holding off exchanging it.

Any other non Thunderbolt VZW users getting reboots?

 

[Chrisy]

Exhibit B

MegaSoundwave76
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This is so weird. I just got my wife a brand new DInc2 and yesterday she told me it randomly reboot itself also. Not the severity that you Thunderbolt users are going through, but I wonder if it's HTC hardware related. Or some type of VZW network issue (not 3G or 4G but just something buggy). I told my wife to keep an eye on her phone to see if it reboots on her. Definitely keep an eye on your Up Time...

 

[braxtoq]

I agree, I was speaking with a friend 2 days ago and mentioned that my Thunderbolt started rebooting after the update last Thursday and he jumped in and told me his Blackberry and 3 co-workers with Blackberry's all started randomly rebooting last Friday. They are all on Verizon's network.

 

[Chrisy]

Same here! My co workers BlackBerry is having the reboot thing. Just confirmed it!

From another forum:

robrecht
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Date: Feb 2011
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I think there's a fairly complicated interaction between individual phone radios and local towers in the network. Enter a blip in the system, and the phone may reboot trying to restore the connection. Or if the data connection is lost and the phone doesn't reboot on its own, you may have to manually reboot the phone to restore the connection. I suspect the firmware probably tries to reach a happy medium for most phones and towers. Clearly the OTA update caused problems for some of us that weren't having problems previously, but I also suspect it also cleared up problems for others, as it was designed to do. Did it cause more problems for some phones than it fixed for others? I don't think Verizon will know the answer to that until it has enough data to see trends develop over time. Replacing a certain number of phones may help address some of the variables. 4G LTE is still in its infancy as a new technology. I doubt there's one perfect firmware that eliminates all problems for all phones and towers.

http://androidforums.com/2699686-post13.html

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

Well that would explain why I haven't had any issues. As I said in another thread the network here in St. Louis has been rock solid since day one. I have never dropped data connection unless I was in a basement or in the dead zone in my house.

I have noticed that I'm not getting my ridiculous 25Mbps download speeds anymore (only 10-15Mbps now), but that could just be volume at a certain time of day.

 

[Chrisy]

It would explain that yes. It's to do with towers and location. I don't think out Tbolt's are defective or that the OTA damaged them.

I'm waiting out a fix.

In specific spots in my town, I have poor VZW signal. Always have.

 

[braxtoq]

One thiing I have noticed is that my signal seems to be much stronger since the update, and in places where I didnt have a good signal with my previous devices.

 

[motodunner]

Maybe there should be a pole or a thread started to see where people are located who are having the reboot issue.

 

[Chrisy]

Location based poll may be revealing. Good idea.

 

[pheatton]

That would make sense. Since the OTA I have had only at most one per day. Some days it never reboots. The network in Richmond VA is very stable, I imagine its in relation to all the big corps that have their headquarters here. Almost all of them have VZW as their provider.

INFO

 

[lovy]

I was visiting my mom at work and my Tbolt rebooted. I complained out loud that I need to.exchange my phone. That's when two of her co workers said their phones have been turning on and off once a day or more.

Neither have an Android. One is an older phone.

I really think the reboots are network related and location based. I'm holding off exchanging it.

Any other non Thunderbolt VZW users getting reboots?

Im in Brooklyn NY (strong 4G area) and I had them but they stopped, I don't know why but am happy they did.

 

[Chrisy]

Another incident that points to network/tower issue causing reboots. The radio file in the OTA might not be working properly with some towers.

 

[Chrisy]

http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc-droid-incredible-2/81588-random-reboots.html

Random reboots on DInc 2.

 

[ALCingularUser]

I'm in Tuscaloosa, AL, and I had reboots last Saturday night and much of Sunday, but they stopped Sunday afternoon after I pulled the battery. More or less stable since then until today, when the phone has been rebooting like crazy.

But here's a possible wrinkle. We have wi-fi at work, so my phone rarely uses 3G when I'm there, but I've been at home today, where my wi-fi has been down because my U-verse has been out. AT&T just fixed it this afternoon, and now I'm back on wi-fi and haven't noticed a reboot since. So that indicates this is a 3G radio issue of some kind. Perhaps it has something to do with the interaction between the phone's radio and the base stations. I wonder...could it be differences in the hardware used in various areas, or is it as issue with the software loaded into these base stations?

 

[racedog]

Wow Chrisy, that's a really good call! I think you may very well be on to something, especially when reading the link to the dinc forums and hearing about reboots on BB's.

I'm on BAMF 1.6.3 with the upgraded radio and I haven't had a single reboot here but I live in a very rural area and VZW hasn't touched our towers since we aren't scheduled to get LTE until sometime in the next millenium. My wife has the dinc and she hasn't had any reboots either.

 

[Chrisy]

After seeing my mom's co workers non Tbolt, non Android reboot, it convinced me it isn't just out Tbolt and it's not just the OTA update. A quick Google search and I see other VZW phones are rebooting.

So I think either another update will resolve this or maybe a network tweak.

 

[Chrisy]

More reports of random reboots on non Thunderbolt device: DX2

http://forum.androidcentral.com/motorola-droid-x2/86310-random-rebooting.html

http://forum.androidcentral.com/motorola-droid-2/66365-d2g-keeps-rebooting.html?highlight=rebooting

http://forum.androidcentral.com/mot...constantly-rebooting.html?highlight=rebooting

Has to be the network.

 

[FrankXS]

I really think the reboots are network related

I think they are network related too, but that does not necessarily mean the network is the culprit. It could be.

I think it's all about the negotiations that take place between the phone and the network. These negotiations, if they produce erroneous handshake information, can be "fixed" by changing either the network software or the phone software. Doesn't really matter.

Imagine this scenario... the network had bad code so HTC programmed their code to workaround a network code bug, to make the TBolt work. Then VZW corrected the code and the phone quit working. So HTC changed the phone code to make it work again. Being a new technology these changes/bug fixes will continue for a while (maybe a year?) before everything is hunky-dory.

So... as I mentioned in another post, once the network is built out fully (and correctly) and the phones (not just the TBolt) are up to snuff with matching code, everything should be fine. However, you can't ignore the fact that this stuff is unavoidable when you are an early adopter of technology.

-Frank

 

[robrecht]

Same here! My co workers BlackBerry is spot the reboot thing. Just confirmed it!

From another forum:

http://androidforums.com/2699686-post13.html

Thanks for quoting me on this topic. I am certain that Verizon is tracking the geography of these issues closely. There have also been some indications that very high battery consumption may be partly tower related. These problems are not exclusive to our ThunderBolts, but I do suspect that our very high speed 4G data connections are more susceptible to problems when local towers and radios are only slightly out of whack. It sometimes seems as if they have to be finely tuned to maintain high performance. When there's a minor glitch at high speed, you may be more likely to crash. It's more like tuning an engine than just throwing a switch. But I'm no expert--would love to hear BMX's perspective on this.

Thanks, Robrecht

 

[ALCingularUser]

Interestingly, my wife's iPhone hasn't rebooted, at least not that I know of. So it must not be purely a network thing but rather an interaction between the network and the device.

Here's a thought. Could the problem be in one of the preloaded apps and not the OS? If that's the case, then those with custom ROM's that have had VZW's bloatware stripped out shouldn't see reboots. And it could also explain why this doesn't seem to be affecting iPhones, since VZW doesn't get to load its apps on them. I've never touched a VZW BB. Do they come preloaded with apps?