Help, can't boot into recovery with phone off

[redcat22]

I have a CPO Tbolt and was able to root the phone. I have 4EXT installed and i can use it to get into recovery with the phone turned on. I can't, though, boot into recovery with the phone off. It's like the volume down button doesn't work. I'll hold vol down and power button and nothing happens until i let go of them, then the phone will boot as normal. I really want to flash ICS but am hesitant because of this problem. Any ideas?