Most of these sound like network issues or derivatives of network issues.
1. Power down the phone
2. Remove the batter door and battery
3. Remove the SIM card
4. Keep the SIM card out for a minimum of 30 seconds but I would suggest at least a minute
5. Put the phone back together and power it up
See if that helps.
You mentioned it crashing during activation. You didn't do a *228 on the Bionic did you? You should never do that on a 4G phone, The steps above accomplish the same thing (forcing the phone to disconnect and re-register with the network).
When i first activated the phone it sat there with no signal with a blinking triangle for like 10 minutes.
If you try to *228 the phone it says the phone was activated by the sim card. It wont let you call it. I didnt know that at the time with LTE phones, but now i do. Ill do what you said above and report back.