4.0.4 Update

[Peacen1k]

Same here. AT&T's 4.0.4 update is a complete failure.

Didn't look like AT&T was going to do anything about this for a while (or at least not till next year) so I went ahead and rooted and flashed SuperNexus. Stable, no bloat, and better battery life. What's not to like?

 

[iN8ter]

Welcome to Android.

Please factory reset after every update.

You're welcome.

Sent from my AT&T Skyrocket using Tapatalk 2.

 

[shannonkish]

Thanks.... we've been doing this for a while.

 

[nonie]

Welcome to Android.

Please factory reset after every update.

You're welcome.

Sent from my AT&T Skyrocket using Tapatalk 2.

What does the factory reset do after a update? Does it stop all the problems with battery issues and hanging up and all the problems everyone is having?
Does the factory reset delete all apps contact etc that I have loaded?

 

[Peacen1k]

Welcome to Android.

Please factory reset after every update.

You're welcome.

Sent from my AT&T Skyrocket using Tapatalk 2.

Does that fix AT&T software bugs?

People who did reported less frequent sleep-of-death occurrences. That's just not good enough for me. If I was going to do a reset (with all the associated work to restore functionality) I might as well root and flash.

 

[archittech7]

Sounds like everyone is finally getting to my world. I've been having this problem since the ICS update from GB. I even tried 2 factory resets. I was hoping the 4.04 update would have fixed that issue, but it's still there. I'm thinking the only hope is to root it to JB or back to GB.

 

[mviglesias57]

You might try disabling any apps you have running in the background to see if that helps. I installed Task's JB ROM on my phone, and it had the "sleep of death" problem at least once a day. I had Juice Defender running, so I disabled it. No more "sleep of death"...

 

[barotropic]

I think I've fixed my Galaxy S2 problems! It has been completely stable, very responsive, with great battery life for 4 days.

After the 4.0.4 update, I saw the all the problems being described here: spurts of extreme battery discharge, spontaneous reboot, but most often "sleep of death". After the "sleep of death" episode, the phone indicates the battery is dead if you hold the power button. But usually, as soon as you plug in the charger, the battery indicates less than empty, and the phone will boot.

Per AT&T's advice, I removed lots of apps (mostly geeky, system-oriented apps). No luck. Then I did a factory reset. Better, but no luck - still saw "sleep of death" occasionally. Unacceptable, as my job depends on the phone.

On a hunch, I tried something else: disabled all the AT&T crapware apps, being specifically concerned about "AT&T Smart Wi-fi".

Background: I remembered that several months ago I saw this app in the Play store, and it looked useful. I installed it, and my phone became unreliable. I didn't recognize the problem immediately, because I suspected my new SD card was the culprit. After two weeks, I uninstalled the app, and the phone became stable again. A few days ago, I noticed "AT&T Smart Wi-fi" came along with 4.0.4 as a system app, so I disabled it and the phone has been great since.

Actually, I disabled most of the built-in apps (you can't uninstall them, unfortunately), but I suspect the Smart Wi-fi app was the culprit.

 

[enjoylife949]

Thanks for sharing this information. It is funny that right after I read your post yesterday there was an update for AT&T Smart Wi-Fi

 

[Peacen1k]

I'd still keep it disabled if you don't get the sleep-of-death anymore. That app is about as useful as a virus.

 

[nonie]

Thanks for sharing this information. It is funny that right after I read your post yesterday there was an update for AT&T Smart Wi-Fi

I assume this is one you downloaded from app store.

 

[Dr Triffid]

For the first time since before Christmas, I am posting with a GSII in hand ? since the update failed and hosed my handset.

I downloaded the update and went through the steps, but on the actual firmware update screen, the progress got to 60 percent, the progress bar stalled, and an "update is failed" message appeared. After the restart, I didn't notice anything immediately wrong, but the phone started crashing twice a day and when I tried to use the camera ? which went black and started spouting error messages ? I knew the li'l buddy was in trouble.

First stop was AT&T, which quickly informed me that my handset was out of warranty and that they would be happy to point me in the right direction toward making an insurance claim.

I replied that I really didn't want to pay a $200 deductible for the failure of an update that was sent out while the phone was out of warranty.

But I didn't have to update, they countered.

The fact that the phone was interrupting whatever I was doing on it every 15 minutes to inform me that I needed to complete an update could be construed otherwise in some circles, I noted.

Well, let's try a factory reset ? and then another factory reset, and possibly a third.

What about the two factory resets I've already tried this evening?

You probably did them wrong. You need us to guide you.

Later ...

Well, it looks like there is something wrong with your phone. You really should talk to the insurance people.

Why don't I talk to your supervisor?

Why don't you try talking to Samsung? It's their update, not ours. See what they say and then call us back.

Sooo ... I tried Samsung and went through two more factory resets. But even though I had registered the phone on their site the day I bought it, they said it was still under warranty and I could still send it to them for repair. That was Dec. 24. I shipped out the phone on Dec. 26 and it returned to my porch this morning.

Samsung said the camera definitely was hosed and the LCD was not getting a proper charge. They replaced the camera, screen and an unspecified component, while also performing a software update that was not described. The version is still 4.0.3, but I did notice that when the phone is shut off and plugged in, it beeps for a full battery charge. I don't recall that happening before.

I'm not inclined to try the update again, as for the past week-and-a-half, I was forced to use an old iPhone 3G. I don't think I could go through that again.

 

[maxud]

thank you barotropic,
I was starting to feel hopeless until I saw your post. I have disabled all ATT crapware, keeping the fingers crossed.
Will update back in a week. I pretty much had black sleep of death once a day.

 

[nonie]

Dr. Truffle, good to know Samsung came through for you. So the update caused all your problems?

 

[Dr Triffid]

Oh, yeah. It's working fine now. It's just like when flashing a custom ROM ? stopping halfway through for whatever reason will cause bad things to happen.

One day later and I have everything back to the way it was on the phone, but now with a 64GB microSD card I received for Christmas. Just like with the 8, 16 and 32GB cards, I feel like I could never fill something that large.

 

[natehoy]

4.0.4 was causing my wife's s2 to lock up when idle as well. She missed a number of calls, reminders, etc.

Factory reset did not help.

Based on recommendations from a couple of xda threads, i disabled something called at&t smart WiFi, and a bunch of at&t crapware as well.

It's only been one night, so time will tell.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[maxud]

thank you barotropic,
I was starting to feel hopeless until I saw your post. I have disabled all ATT crapware, keeping the fingers crossed.
Will update back in a week. I pretty much had black sleep of death once a day.

It has been 3 days and the phone just works, no more lockups.
This is awesome and kind of pathetic. I am extremely happy about the fact that the phone works as it suppose to, instead of locking up.
Another side issue that was resolved is my battery life. With previous 4.0.3 my battery life would be 6 hours, with Android os consuming large percentage of battery life.
After 4.0.4 upgrade, I am back to having ~50% left at the end of the day.

 

[natehoy]

Update... Currently two full days since disabling the at&t crap, no lockups and battery life is reportedly much better.

My wife is very happy that she can actually leave Wi-Fi on without the battery being zeroed out in a few hours.

This should never have been an issue, but I'm very happy ICS has such an easy way to disable the crapps.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[barotropic]

An update to my post on fixing my GSII problems by disabling AT&T apps: After a nearly a week, the phone is mostly stable. I have seen 2 sleep death episodes, and one may have actually been my fault - battery usage has been so low recently that I forget to charge the phone, and the battery may have died a natural death during the night! But the other was the classic sleep of death, so the problem is not completely gone.

On the bright side, I have never, since buying the phone 14 months ago, seen such good performance and low battery drain as I see now. Apps are very snappy, and a battery at 100% in the morning will drop to around 70% at the end of the day with my normal usage pattern. I used to charge it at every opportunity.

I certainly wish I could count perfect behavior, but I don't think we're there yet. I'm considering making a daily habit or restarting the phone each morning, to see if that helps. I remember it being a good idea on older, less stable versions of Windows.

In any case, be sure to disable the apps referenced above, and at least the "AT&T smart wifi" app". Like others, I am appalled that AT&T produces something so detrimental to the phone experience, then has the gall to force it into the OS, and subsequently seems clueless that it is a huge source of problems. It really motivates me to pursue a Nexus phone from Google next time around.

 

[natehoy]

Another day, another lack of problems since the crap was disabled. The very first sleep-of-death and the phone is going cyanogenmod. I'm just looking for an excuse to vanilla it.

One advantage the s2 had over my phone (a thunderbolt on Verizon) is that when the thunderbolt reboots, you're looking at a minimum of about six or seven minutes and a good twenty percent of charge. So at least it starts up quickly.

But that's no consolation when you've missed an important call or text, of course.