LoS / Screen Flicker / Lock-Up / Severe Battery Drop @ Reboot - After GB27 Update

[drk65]

While I've seen posts with similar symptoms on the Sprint Community forum, those users were running ICS. I began experiencing this issue about 2 weeks after the GB27 update (and continue to experience it, even after a factory reset, flashing back to FL24, then doing a completely clean, stock update back to GB27). I'm going to paraphrase the description I found on the other forum, since it is so similar to mine.

My E4GT has been losing its signal completely, shutting off randomly, and dropping battery levels from 60% to single digits very quickly. When the signal is lost, I haven't been able to get it to come back unless I restart it (which by the way drains the battery to zero). I let it sit awhile to see if it would come back, I've turned on airplane mode and turned it back off again, etc. It won't come back until a restart. And when I restart it, I can only get it back on if I plug it in and the battery which even when fully charged drops to nothing.

I have tried 3 different batteries (2 of which have "the spin"), as well as removing the SD card, wiping the cache, and even doing factory resets (twice), but nothing seems to help. The pattern I'm noticing is that this is only happening when I'm on 3G (not WiFi and no 4G here) and running something that relatively CPU/Memory intensive, like streaming video with the SlingPlayer or Sprint TV apps. It also seems more prone to happening as the battery level gets into the mid-levels (60% - 40% and lower). After I see the circle with diagonal line take the place of the phone signal icon and see 3G disappear, that's when things go downhill, fast! Usually, the next thing that happens is that both the screen backlight and softkey lights begin to flicker. If nothing further is down, the phone will lock up and generally shut down by itself within the next 30 seconds or so. If it doesn't shut down, it will probably freeze with the screen on, requiring either a long press of the power key or a battery pull. I have noticed that I've been able to hold off the shutdown, by quickly turning 3G data off or going into Airplane mode, then waiting for a while. I'm wondering if this is a temperature issue, because I've been tracking that as well, and see it spiking during the LoS and lowering when coming back out of Airplane or turning data back on.

I'm looking for any comments, thoughts, guidance, and recommendations for tackling this issue, as well as wanting to know if anyone else is experiencing similar problems after the GB27 update. The strange thing is that everything seemed to be working smoothly for a week plus after the update. However, I'm also wondering if I wasn't running many streaming/CPU intensive apps during that time. For the last two days, I've purposely not done any streaming and the phone seems to be working quite well, with good battery. However, I'm also running on WiFi at home and this issue only seems to rear its ugly head when I'm running on 3G.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to provide as much info and background as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a link to a thread on the Sprint forum addressing similar issues, with no clear resolution... Sprint Community: Random shutoffs, loss of signal, severe battery drop

 

[anon(680971)]

I'm going with Ditto. Tried doing a list of things like turning off Google Now, not disabling a bunch of bloatware apps I didn't use, and brightness is at 0 with a black background and any app I can being dark theme. Generally all apps are turned to manual sync except for Gmail and ones that don't allow me to chance background syncing. I did the factory reset when all that didn't work, it gave me a boost for about 6 hours, then I got the battery drain, rebooting, and the worst thing, the lock ups when I'm in the middle of typing or doing anything really. None of it has helped and I have gone through multiple batteries including a few brand new OEM ones. So any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

 

[Tobias Mann]

I was having a similar problem with the Virgin Mobile Galaxy S2 - E4GT I did the kies update first day I had it. I had a heat problem as well as a huge battery problem before I did a factory reset, installed Juice Defender, and Tweaked Tasker. I don't have any trouble with random reboots but battery is still pretty bad. I have pretty colorful backgrounds though. I get about 8 Hours total battery life each day. My screen seems to be the worst using 66% of my battery every day. I assume this is related but because I wasn't using ICS for any amount of time I can't tell.

 

[drk65]

Rob & Tobias... I'm the original poster above... and I have been down the very same road as both of you... even including more obscure things like Juice Defender (Ultimate is awesome), no syncing, shutting down Google Now, etc, etc... Having not seen any responses to my post, I posted my issues in another thread (link below) and here I'm going to copy what I posted there, earlier this week. I truly hope this is a REAL FIX for you guys. Even if you had/have other batteries, if you used them while running that CRAP ICS update, I (personally) think it did damage to them, as it did to my stock battery. So, take my info for what it's worth, but I've been GOLDEN for a week now... and the only "FIX" has been my New Samsung Stock OEM Battery! --- Best of luck to you both!

Original Post in other thread: After seeing my original battery experiencing "The Bulge", I purchased 2 new batteries (non OEM) on Amazon. While they were better than the original, I also used them throughout the whole ICS debacle, which I believe created problems for those batteries, as well, which also both now experience "The Bulge". So, after experiencing major LoS and Battery drain issues detailed above, I bit the bullet and as a last resort ordered a new Samsung OEM E4GT Battery (luckily found on eBay for $10).

"Eureka"... My E4GT Lives Again! --- After receiving the new battery on Friday, I put the phone and new battery through its paces this weekend. I experienced zero Loss of Signal, no screen flickering or freezes (even when the battery was down to under 20%), no massive percentage drops and/or random restarts. Finally, I don't EVER recall my original battery lasting as long as this one is now. I played a 4-hour round of golf yesterday, running the GPS for that entire time and using my Golf Range Finding app, and finished my round with 71% battery still remaining. Previously, I would have had to change my completely depleted battery mid-way through the back nine on the course.

If you do ONE THING before giving up on your E4GT... Buy a brand-new, good, (OEM preferable) battery! --- This single $10 purchase has just held me off from even thinking about going to an S4 or HTC One until much later this year!

Link to other similar forum thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sp...drain-samsung-galaxy-s2-jellybean-gb27-2.html

 

[m_leflore]

I just ordered two batteries last week. I can't wait to get home and see what happens with them. Apparently the "OEM" aspect is key. I have had 2 sprint brand batteries that kind of sucked. I'll try to give an update tomorrow on my new OEM battery experience.

 

[drk65]

I just ordered two batteries last week. I can't wait to get home and see what happens with them. Apparently the "OEM" aspect is key. I have had 2 sprint brand batteries that kind of sucked. I'll try to give an update tomorrow on my new OEM battery experience.

Best of Luck with the new OEM battery. Here's a screen capture of my battery stats from this past weekend... 31+ HOURS! --- While I didn't have a tremendous amount of usage, the best I could generally hope for in the past was about 16-17 hours under similar conditions. --- Hopefully, you'll be experiencing the same results very soon!

 

[kdloo7]

I'm waiting on my Galaxy S2 to arrive in the mail (Virgin Mobil). This is my very first Smart phone, and am hoping that you all can give me some tips to avoid a lot of the problems that you seem to have with this phone. I have a little tech knowledge, and am upgrading from a standard cell phone, so kindly use terms that this dummy can understand. I would greatly appreciate any advance warnings or ideas that you can give to get me started into the 21st century! TIA!!

 

[grenefroggie]

I can't speak for the non-Sprint E4GT owners, and I only owned a E4GT for a short time running only custom ROMs, but has any tried the Sprint signal optimizer feature? I don't know much about it, but the constant loss of signal is either a hardware issue, a some software playing some nasty games. I haven't researched the topic, but it was just a thought.

 

[cyberdman]

Sprint signal optimizer - what a freaking joke! I have tried it and know a few others that have. The consensis is that it totally sucks, doesn't work right and absolutely destroys your battery. Seriously, the single dumbest app to ever be created. It doesn't actually optimize anything at all. All it does is controls Wi-fi and tries to think for you by enabling it whenever it senses a wi-fi hotspot is in range - whether you can log into it or not. How stupid is that? I think Sprint realized that their network totally sucks and is the worst and tried to create an integrated app to hope to keep customers from leaving because their network sucks to make them think it is better than it is. I've been with Sprint for 14 years, but other than the huge employee discount I get, I am really lately asking myself why I'm still their customer. I really don't need unlimited data - I mean, what good is it when you can almost never use it. I'd rather have a fast and speedy reliable data network that works almost anywhere.

Sorry about that ... </rant off>

 

[Golfdriver97]

I'm waiting on my Galaxy S2 to arrive in the mail (Virgin Mobil). This is my very first Smart phone, and am hoping that you all can give me some tips to avoid a lot of the problems that you seem to have with this phone. I have a little tech knowledge, and am upgrading from a standard cell phone, so kindly use terms that this dummy can understand. I would greatly appreciate any advance warnings or ideas that you can give to get me started into the 21st century! TIA!!

Welcome to the forums!

Since it is arriving in the mail, I need to ask is it a new device? If so, it should be already programmed with the latest stock ROM, so there really shouldn't be any problems with it. It is going to take some getting used to, but to help with battery life, put your brightness at a comfortable level for you. Other than that, play with the phone, have fun, and give us a shout if you have questions.

 

[Tina Byrnes]

Ok. So I have been having the IDENTICAL problems. Mine eventually got much worse, started happening at about 80% of battery usage. At any rate, my son has the exact same phone so today i tried his battery. My phone seems to be back to normal. My dad has the same phone he had a prong that supposedly was bent and had to be replaced. He sent his in and paid the $50.00 deductible. I've ordered a new battery and am hoping I don't have the same issue in a week. Did you notice a short-lived improvement after you tried the new batteries? If so, I'll just send mine in now.

 

[Carlos A P da Natividade]

Happens to me the same problem. Started suddenly after installing a custom ROM. The flicker begins, and then the unit turns off. When I reconnect the charger, it will continue to operate on a battery level slightly below what was.

 

[drk65]

Ok. So I have been having the IDENTICAL problems. Did you notice a short-lived improvement after you tried the new batteries? If so, I'll just send mine in now.

Tina, I am the person who started this thread back in April, as well as reporting my problem being solved in early May (see above). As we are now in mid-July, I am happy to report that I am still extremely satisfied with the performance of my E4GT. I am 100% convinced that the new Samsung Battery solved my problems, not only with battery power, but more importantly with phone operation and software stability. It's now almost 4PM here and my battery sits at 83%. As far as random reboots are concerned, I couldn't tell you the last time it happened... because I don't believe it has happened... since installing the new battery.

I hope you find the same positive results... Good Luck!

 

[theoysta]

I just started having the same problem with my Sprint E4S2. Actually about 6 months ago, I first started having that problem where the menu key keeps automatically firing in poor service areas, which is literally everywhere! Then a few days ago, my phone battery started draining while on the charger and the following day just stopped charging in general, unless I wrapped the usb cable tightly around the length of the phone to get a connection. I have tried multiple cables including the supplied Samsung one, my old BB cable, and two generic micro usb cables. Yesterday it seemed to be getting better as I didn't need to wrap the usb cables as tight to get a connection. But today the phone says it is charging but the charge meter just stays at around 5% and the phone won't turn on. Unfortunately Sprint doesn't offer early upgrades like Verizon or ATT did so I guess I'm screwed and unless taking it to a Sprint store today fixes anything, phoneless for a year because I am not paying 500-600 bucks for another one of these pieces of crap.

 

[Nitin008]

i am new in these stuff dont know what you guys say JB and gb27 rooted, but i have a problem i use 2 phones, 1 is samsung phone galaxy S2 and another is small phone samsung pocket. both are kool phone but i use samsung pocket while traveling and to make call stuff. i have done updates i use few apps but after a month its start automatically reboot i dont know why and i dont know how to stop this. so i take out my battery and left it. but i need my phone back bcoz lots of contacts and important stuff for office use are there. i need help plz. It should be on for 10 sec and then reboot. there is some way that i can get my phone back .