Only started happening recently and it's quire perplexing to a (relatively) new user to smart phones.
Boring background that might be needed.
The phone was purchased from Fry's Electronics and activated on the Verizon network February 5th, 2012. Within a month of owning it, it took a 3-4 foot tumble into a brick floor(tragic moment in my life). This removed a chip from the lower left corner of the glass screen, but as far as I could tell, it was purely aesthetic. Due to the lack of insurance ownership, I just dealt with it. 4 to 8 months ago from this date(19th of March, 2013) I dropped it a second time from a similar height onto concrete(another tragedy). This left a "tree" of cracks through the glass, starting on the lower edge in the middle, 4 "branches" emitting from the source. If held in power-up landscape mode, the cracks slightly resemble a bird silhouette. Again, no noticeable damage other than of the screen. The touch-screen capabilities worked just as well as they had before. The only thing worthy of mentioning would be a slight clicking or tapping noise resonating from near the SIM card holder. Somewhere in the time period between the 2 drops, a system OS update occurred, updating from preloaded 4.0 ICS to 4.1 Jelly Bean(forgive the lack of 3 digit versions).
Now for the meat.
Within 1 or 2 weeks from today's date(March 19, 2013), I have experienced strange happenings with the phone. It seemed to turn itself on or off at times, without me even touching it. Sometimes, it just loses its capability to recognize the 4G or 3G network, although I imagine this is sort of normal due to my mother's phone(same model) having this issue as well. Within a time span of a week, though, the incidents increased in regularity and strangeness. For a while, my phone believed it was a tablet. At least, that's the only reasonable explanation I have for it. When at the lock screen, or any of the home screens, I could turn the phone 90, 180, or 270 degrees in any direction(rotating) and the screen would change to adjust. Before a week ago, the phone would simply just stare back. This is also currently the case with my mother's phone. I say it acted as a tablet because her tablet(ASUS Transformer TF300) will do this action by default. This behavior has stopped now though. My phone also lost the ability to properly detect a charger of any sort. The battery icon would randomly change from charging to discharging and back again, with no interaction from my part. There was a time where it would not accept a charge from a wall port either, but only when the phone was on. If it was off, then it would charge just fine. Sometimes, however, when I plugged in the charging cable with the phone off, it would decide to boot. And I mean a full boot, the Google logo, the flashing Google "X" thingy, and then to a homescreen, in where it would no longer charge. This seems to have gone away. The phone is still confused about its charging port though. It also was no longer recognizable via USB to my PC. Luckily, the phone will(most of the time, considered "reliable") still take a charge despite the icon lying to me.
Now cut to less than a week ago, this past weekend. My phone was dead and I was charging it via my PC. When I glanced at it, it was at a strange screen with the Android mascot and a green arrow encasing the word "Start" with something about "Downloading now." Through some research, I have found out this is called "ODIN Mode." I have no idea what it is for, but I do know how to force it on this particular model of phone, though I knew none of this at the time. I simple removed the battery and continued charging, booting it later on without flaw. I thought nothing of it and moved on, figuring it was an update of sorts that would come back if needed. Soon after that, I noticed more oddities with the phone. As of right now, whenever the phone receives a connection from a battery, it will automatically boot into ODIN mode. This is without me even touching ANY buttons. I remove the battery, wait for any amount of time, and plug the battery back in and presto. I am greeted with the familiar face of Mr. ODIN(that's what I call him now). Pressing the power button once boots up the phone normally, as it should. However, when I want to turn the phone off for whatever reason, it acts up. After holding the power button for 2-3 seconds, and confirming(twice) that I would like to power the device down, it proceeds as normal. Then, after it is completely shut down, within 10 seconds it boots back up into ODIN mode. This means, in order to turn my phone off, I have to either suffer from a hard shut off(battery remove when booted) or shut it down normally, then remove the battery either before or during ODIN mode. This is a slight inconvenience. A recent example is I went to a party and shut off the phone to save battery since I had no charger with me and I might have needed it after the party. So I shut it down and put it in my pocket. Several minutes later, I feel it vibrate and check it. I try unlocking it, try booting it, nothing. It died. Mr. ODIN drained my battery without me knowing, turning it into a shiny brick made of synthetic material. Despite all that is said, as far as I know, it is just an inconvenience and not some drastic or live-threatening anomaly that needs to be cured with utmost urgency, but still worthy of a looksy. The current plan is to(eventually) take it to the Verizon store and have them officially look at it, although I doubt they will do anything with it in its current condition, cracked screen and whatnot. This can wait a bit tough. In the mean time, any input, possible fixes, patches, similar stories, pity parties, or anything else are appreciated. I will try to keep up to date answering any questions or replying to any comments worthy of replying to.
Forgive the (possible) lack of information, slight humor that might be ill suited, the overuse of parentheses, and the massive text block that is this post. I hope that's enough information to start with at least.
Cheers.
Boring background that might be needed.
The phone was purchased from Fry's Electronics and activated on the Verizon network February 5th, 2012. Within a month of owning it, it took a 3-4 foot tumble into a brick floor(tragic moment in my life). This removed a chip from the lower left corner of the glass screen, but as far as I could tell, it was purely aesthetic. Due to the lack of insurance ownership, I just dealt with it. 4 to 8 months ago from this date(19th of March, 2013) I dropped it a second time from a similar height onto concrete(another tragedy). This left a "tree" of cracks through the glass, starting on the lower edge in the middle, 4 "branches" emitting from the source. If held in power-up landscape mode, the cracks slightly resemble a bird silhouette. Again, no noticeable damage other than of the screen. The touch-screen capabilities worked just as well as they had before. The only thing worthy of mentioning would be a slight clicking or tapping noise resonating from near the SIM card holder. Somewhere in the time period between the 2 drops, a system OS update occurred, updating from preloaded 4.0 ICS to 4.1 Jelly Bean(forgive the lack of 3 digit versions).
Now for the meat.
Within 1 or 2 weeks from today's date(March 19, 2013), I have experienced strange happenings with the phone. It seemed to turn itself on or off at times, without me even touching it. Sometimes, it just loses its capability to recognize the 4G or 3G network, although I imagine this is sort of normal due to my mother's phone(same model) having this issue as well. Within a time span of a week, though, the incidents increased in regularity and strangeness. For a while, my phone believed it was a tablet. At least, that's the only reasonable explanation I have for it. When at the lock screen, or any of the home screens, I could turn the phone 90, 180, or 270 degrees in any direction(rotating) and the screen would change to adjust. Before a week ago, the phone would simply just stare back. This is also currently the case with my mother's phone. I say it acted as a tablet because her tablet(ASUS Transformer TF300) will do this action by default. This behavior has stopped now though. My phone also lost the ability to properly detect a charger of any sort. The battery icon would randomly change from charging to discharging and back again, with no interaction from my part. There was a time where it would not accept a charge from a wall port either, but only when the phone was on. If it was off, then it would charge just fine. Sometimes, however, when I plugged in the charging cable with the phone off, it would decide to boot. And I mean a full boot, the Google logo, the flashing Google "X" thingy, and then to a homescreen, in where it would no longer charge. This seems to have gone away. The phone is still confused about its charging port though. It also was no longer recognizable via USB to my PC. Luckily, the phone will(most of the time, considered "reliable") still take a charge despite the icon lying to me.
Now cut to less than a week ago, this past weekend. My phone was dead and I was charging it via my PC. When I glanced at it, it was at a strange screen with the Android mascot and a green arrow encasing the word "Start" with something about "Downloading now." Through some research, I have found out this is called "ODIN Mode." I have no idea what it is for, but I do know how to force it on this particular model of phone, though I knew none of this at the time. I simple removed the battery and continued charging, booting it later on without flaw. I thought nothing of it and moved on, figuring it was an update of sorts that would come back if needed. Soon after that, I noticed more oddities with the phone. As of right now, whenever the phone receives a connection from a battery, it will automatically boot into ODIN mode. This is without me even touching ANY buttons. I remove the battery, wait for any amount of time, and plug the battery back in and presto. I am greeted with the familiar face of Mr. ODIN(that's what I call him now). Pressing the power button once boots up the phone normally, as it should. However, when I want to turn the phone off for whatever reason, it acts up. After holding the power button for 2-3 seconds, and confirming(twice) that I would like to power the device down, it proceeds as normal. Then, after it is completely shut down, within 10 seconds it boots back up into ODIN mode. This means, in order to turn my phone off, I have to either suffer from a hard shut off(battery remove when booted) or shut it down normally, then remove the battery either before or during ODIN mode. This is a slight inconvenience. A recent example is I went to a party and shut off the phone to save battery since I had no charger with me and I might have needed it after the party. So I shut it down and put it in my pocket. Several minutes later, I feel it vibrate and check it. I try unlocking it, try booting it, nothing. It died. Mr. ODIN drained my battery without me knowing, turning it into a shiny brick made of synthetic material. Despite all that is said, as far as I know, it is just an inconvenience and not some drastic or live-threatening anomaly that needs to be cured with utmost urgency, but still worthy of a looksy. The current plan is to(eventually) take it to the Verizon store and have them officially look at it, although I doubt they will do anything with it in its current condition, cracked screen and whatnot. This can wait a bit tough. In the mean time, any input, possible fixes, patches, similar stories, pity parties, or anything else are appreciated. I will try to keep up to date answering any questions or replying to any comments worthy of replying to.
Forgive the (possible) lack of information, slight humor that might be ill suited, the overuse of parentheses, and the massive text block that is this post. I hope that's enough information to start with at least.
Cheers.
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