Amaze troubleshooting steps ... before the ol' factory reset

[ChromeJob]

Though some of the T-Mobile support reps are eager to have customers factory reset their phone when other mundane troubleshooting fails to resolve an issue. I like to think this is sometimes just a time-saver utilized to get the customer off the phone, at least for the 72 hours or more that they urge the customer not to install or update apps from the factory image. ("And call us back if this doesn't fix it, heh heh....")

Their tech support reps have documented procedures which might help in some cases. Certainly, they're less painful than the complete baby-and-the-bathwater ordeal of a full factory reset.

Post-ICS Amaze Memory Clear utility
This is relatively new as of this writing. Apparently the ICS update failed to clear out some old application install files, and this utility takes care of that. It's presented as a way to clear up slow performance, restarts, bad breath, just about any reported ills, but the most I noticed was that my downloaded/installed application store went from 1.2 GB down to 782 MB where it was under Gingerbread.

Wipe cache partition (Recovery)
I've done this, and depending upon the application, it may clear out temporary settings or cached information. It should not delete user data. I don't know if this is something that should be done a few times a year, or simply to delete settings or temporary data that may be interfering with some functionality.

Booting in Safe Mode
This is purported to boot the phone in "pure OS" mode, not loading third party plug-ins or services. I actually did see some of my third party monitoring apps come up, so prior to doing this, I'd turn off any non-HTC or Android OS utilities you have installed. ... I can't find the doc, so here's the instructions I repeated in a discussion topic:

Basically, hold the power button, and on the pop up select restart. After the restart, when the screen turns on, press and hold the volume rocker down (decrease volume) until the lock screen appears; "Safe Mode" should [be] annunciated on the lower left. (updated 10/2012 based on HTC support)

When all else fails and you've lost hope....

Amaze master reset (resetting via Settings menu)
Amaze master reset (with hardware keys) (used if the phone is frozen or won't boot properly)

Miscellaneous references
Device hardware instructions (ICS)

Other documentation....
Clearly, some of this is written for tech support reps' reference, and T-Mobile has shared it with users. Cool. One article in particular has a good illustration of the Ext-MicroUSB cable supplied with the Amaze versus standard MicroUSB, though their claim "you should not use MicroUSB cables" is not corroborated by the HTC literature. :-\

 

[jarochos]

Yep I guess by now every HTC amaze owner can work on t Mobile tech support since we do this almost every other week lol

Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(645875)]

I have an email direct from HTC that says to use a micro USB for a secondary car charger. I was trying to order the special cord and they said, nope, use a micro.

 

[ChromeJob]

Surprised they didn't try to sell you the C C500 99H10273-00 car charger with the correct plug.

I use a Motorola charger that gives my phone up to 650mA of charge, which is sufficient to run Waze or Google Navigation and still top off the battery (other chargers allow the battery to slowly drain). I don't like the flimsy connection of a MicroUSB, but I manage in the car. It was roughly US$6 compared with the $20 or $30 for the C500.

 

[Holly_G]

Hello, I tried doing this but "safe mode" never appeared on my screen. My problems is that every time I click the home button or leave an app or browser the white screen with the HTC logo comes out. Then it loads for like 10 secs and it goes back to normal. But its every time. How can I fix this? The t-mobile customer care person told me what you said, that I had to do a factory reset but I didn't go for that. I would appreciate your help! Thanks

 

[ChromeJob]

Hello, I tried doing this but "safe mode" never appeared on my screen. My problems is that every time I click the home button or leave an app or browser the white screen with the HTC logo comes out. Then it loads for like 10 secs and it goes back to normal. But its every time. How can I fix this? The t-mobile customer care person told me what you said, that I had to do a factory reset but I didn't go for that. I would appreciate your help! Thanks

They seem to have disabled safe boot in ICS, I can't reproduce it either.

I've seen this behaviour you describe when there are widgets or other add ons interfering with Sense.

Try these:

Create a new Skin, and with no widgets on the home screen. Run this for 1-2 days.

If no joy, uninstall add ons and apps, most recently added first.

// Posted from my Nexus 7 with the Android Central app //