Phone freezes and just rebooted partially on me. Ideas?

[nealoc187]

I've had my Optimus S for 2 weeks as of today and it's on the stock ROM, not rooted or any tampering with it (this is my first smartphone). I've only downloaded a few popular apps thus far (weather channel, barcode scanner, dolphin mini browser, skyfire browser, updated google maps, pandora, etc). Only well established apps with huge numbers of downloads and well established track records.

Anyhow, in the past 2 weeks, the phone has locked up on me 4 times I think I can recall, and then just a few moments ago partially rebooted itself when I wasn't even using it (it was just sitting on the couch next to me as I was watching TV).

I don't remember all the specific circumstances of the freezes/lockups, but one of them occurred a few days ago when I was trying to load a very large thread filled with pictures on another forum. Yesterday also I was trying to start the stock Navigation app while driving, and the phone froze on me again. The other two instances in the past 2 weeks I can't remember exactly what I was doing with the phone (but I was using it, it didn't just lock up during a time of non-use). In all cases I have had to remove the battery and reinstall it to get the phone working again.

Just a few minutes ago I was sitting on the couch watching TV and the phone just tried to reboot all on it's own. I have no idea why. I hadn't touched it for at least 5-10 minutes. I just noticed out of the corner of my eye that the ANDROID startup screen had showed up, but the phone just hung on the ANDROID screen. It never made it to the Sprint logo/startup sound, just hung on ANDROID for a good 2 minutes or so before I finally pulled out the battery to get it unstuck and running again. Before this, I had just been doing some simple web forum browsing and text messaging. I had also checked my battery status a few minutes prior to setting the phone on the couch, and it was at 68%. 10 minutes later, after the failed self-reboot and my subsequent removal of the battery and restarting of the phone, the battery shows as 43%... So I'm thinking some program may have hung up/got stuck in a loop or whatever (sort of like computers do when you try to do some task that requires a lot of processing power).

The only changes I have recently made to the phone were uninstalling weatherbug because I decided I just don't like it as much as the weather channel app, and I moved a few icons around on my homescreen.

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I don't know if this behavior just sort of comes with the territory of smart phones these days, or if this is extremely abnormal or what. This is my first smart phone so I'm not well versed in how often they usually freeze up or reboot themselves, etc.

Edit: 5 minutes after posting this thread - the phone just froze up again. I wasn't doing anything with it - I just went to try to click on the app button (to bring up all installed apps). The phone started responding very slowly to everything i pressed, then basically stopped responding at all. I have not pulled the battery yet. It is still basically frozen, though I tried clicking on the "settings" icon on my homescreen and like 60 seconds after I tapped on it, the setting screen finally tried to open (but did so very slowly) and then an error message popped up about 30 seconds later that reads "Sorry! Activity Launcher (in application Launcher) is not responding - Wait or Cancel (wait and cancel are buttons, I tried clicking each one and neither of them did anything, error window stayed on screen). Now as I have been typing this paragraph, the ANDROID screen showed up again for just a few seconds, then the phone lock slider screen showed up, then it went back to the home screen (without me sliding the slider or touching the phone in any way). Now the phone seems to be responding like normal again... what is going on here?

 

[mxl360]

wipe phone. Use it for a few days and see if it freezes.

 

[trekkie1701c]

I've had issues with Dolohin eating all the CPU and locking up the phone and crashing it. Try removing before you wipe.

Also might try to remove apps one by one before you wipe - sure, wiping may solve the issue faster, but if it's a software issue you'll just have to troubleshoot it again anyways.

 

[gooberlx]

I had issues with either (or both) apps that used 3d rendering and/or gps on my first optimus. Loading google nav would reliably cause the phone to reboot....though it wasn't always immediate. I don't know what the issue was...maybe a bad chip. I exchanged it for a new one and haven't experienced such severe and regular issues since. I've had a couple SD card ejects, but nothing that has caused my phone to reboot.

I suggest you exchange it.

 

[nealoc187]

I may do that. I'm currently uninstalling a few apps at a time to see if i can get the behavior to cease. I uninstalled Dolphin mini browser and still had an issue a couple hours ago, so I went and uninstalled a few other apps, we'll see if I have an issue tomorrow. There has been a major spike in my issues with this phone today. As I indicated previously, until today I'd had I believe 3 freezes and no reboots. in the last 12 or 14 hours or so I've had 3 or 4 freezes, one failed reboot (where the phone tried to reboot on it's own for no apparent reason but stuck on the ANDROID screen) and one instance where the phone rebooted on it's own (just about 2 hours ago). Also got one error box message pop up that I noticed when a phone call ended (the phone call was completed fine, but when the call ended and I put down the phone to end the call, I noticed the error message). The error message said "Sorry! com.android.phone has stopped working." there were two button options - 'force stop' and 'quit'. I clicked 'force stop' but it didn't really seem to do anything. The phone went back to the home screen but the next app i tried to run was the factory Contacts app, which came up with just a blank screen, and then the phone froze. I had to remove the battery.

If I'm unable to find out a cause or discover a solution, I'll be exchanging the phone for another, or perhaps returning this phone all together. I hope it doesn't get to that because before today I have been absolutely in love with this phone.

 

[hamagc]

My buddies kept resetting. Whenever I tried to use mass storage it would freeze and wouldn't install apps from the sd. Did a wipe on it and he hasn't had a problem since.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[Droid Warrior]

Mine is doing same thing, just not as freqently. Like yours, it is both after use, and all on its own.
Cant return mine as it happened just days after the 30 day Sprint warratnty was out.

I hope someone answers your question about this being phone specific, or an Android type thing. This is my 1st Android, so Im still learning about whats considered normal.

 

[Droid Warrior]

wipe phone. Use it for a few days and see if it freezes.

So far Ive seen several say to "wipe" the phone.
Can someone explain just what this means? What all is done during this?
Ive tried reboot, remove battery, and uninstallation of apps manually so far.

 

[trekkie1701c]

Settings -> Privacy -> Wipe/Erase (whatever it is, it's the only option present)

Will warn though that if you have a custom recovery installed this will brick your phone and you should instead wipe through it instead; if you don't know what a custom recovery is, don't worry about it (just don't want someone else finding this post, seeing "Wipe through settings" and bricking their phone)

EDIT: By any chance did you install a task killer? They're highly recommended by basically every "must have android apps" list I've seen, but they will throw your phone's stability out the window unless you configure them properly. If you have one installed I might suggest removing it, as one did cause me issues on my first day with the phone, until someone told me about how evil they are D:

 

[nealoc187]

No, I did not install any task killer.

Since wiping, the phone seems a bit more stable, but I have had 2 freezes in the 2 days since wiping. One occurred while I was loading a page on sears' website, and i realized i didn't have wifi on. So right after I had clicked the link to load the page I went to the homepage and enabled wifi on my widget. I'm not sure if there are some things that this phone cannot handle doing simultaneously or what, but this is the second time that I have enabled wifi whilst loading a webpage and had the phone freeze on me. Once was before the wipe, and once was after the wipe.

trekkie, I noticed in another thread you firmly believe this is an SD card issue. I have the SD card which came with the phone, so this may be the case. BUT I have a question which I haven't seen answered... doesn't the "SD card issue" give some notification of a problem with the SD card? I was under the impression that people with the "SD card issue" get notifications of their SD card becoming unmounted, etc. I have had no notification regarding the SD card in the entire time that I've owned the phone.

 

[hotpinkberry]

Settings -> Privacy -> Wipe/Erase (whatever it is, it's the only option present)

Will warn though that if you have a custom recovery installed this will brick your phone and you should instead wipe through it instead; if you don't know what a custom recovery is, don't worry about it (just don't want someone else finding this post, seeing "Wipe through settings" and bricking their phone)

EDIT: By any chance did you install a task killer? They're highly recommended by basically every "must have android apps" list I've seen, but they will throw your phone's stability out the window unless you configure them properly. If you have one installed I might suggest removing it, as one did cause me issues on my first day with the phone, until someone told me about how evil they are D:

may i ask what is a task killer??

 

[nealoc187]

Well the phone froze on my 3 times last night. Once while I was surfing the web and I received a call (the call answer screen showed up but I couldn't answer it. it just kept ringing and ringing til I took the battery out). Once when I was trying to end a call (the proximity sensor would work to turn the screen on and off, but the image on the screen was frozen (it said my call duration was 0:06 as in 6 seconds, but it was like a 10 minute phone call, so the screen apparently froze 6 seconds in to my call, but I was able to keep talking). Again had to remove the battery. It froze another time while just surfing the internet - had to remove battery.

I've got zero apps installed - this is a freshly wiped phone (wiped it like 4 days ago). I'm going to get a Class 4 micro SD card today. I've got one week left on my 30 day return policy. If the micro SD card change doesn't work I'm giving up on this phone. I've had it with this thing. I love it when it works, hate it when it freezes constantly.

Oh another interesting tidbit of strangeness from this phone. Last night while I was on the phone, I received 2 text messages from someone that I believe were sent on wednesday night, though I'm not sure. The date received on them says January 5th, 1980. I'm not sure what's going on here, when these messages were sent (if they were sent Jan 5th, 2011 and it for some stupid reason says 1980, or if they were sent last night on Jan 7th or what.)

 

[nealoc187]

may i ask what is a task killer??

It's an app that shuts down other apps so you don't have a bunch of stuff you're not using running on your phone in the background. I've seen a lot of sources that say it's not necessary on the Optimus.

 

[CubanoRafter]

trekkie, I noticed in another thread you firmly believe this is an SD card issue. I have the SD card which came with the phone, so this may be the case. BUT I have a question which I haven't seen answered... doesn't the "SD card issue" give some notification of a problem with the SD card? I was under the impression that people with the "SD card issue" get notifications of their SD card becoming unmounted, etc. I have had no notification regarding the SD card in the entire time that I've owned the phone.

My phone had both random reboots and the common SD unmount issue. There was no notification warning when the reboots occured. I did however see 2 messages over the past 20 or so days that my SD card was damaged. Once I replaced the SD card and copied the contents to the new one, I have had zero reboots, freezes, or card issues.

 

[MaXXimus]

My phone had both random reboots and the common SD unmount issue. There was no notification warning when the reboots occured. I did however see 2 messages over the past 20 or so days that my SD card was damaged. Once I replaced the SD card and copied the contents to the new one, I have had zero reboots, freezes, or card issues.

You hit the nail on the head. I believe this has to do with the crappy stock SD card that came with the phone. I had similar issues and installed a new class 4 card and haven't had any problems since. Just make sure you format the new card on your computer before installing it in your device.

 

[kristi]

I had the same exact thing I pit a thread out it's a little older than this one it says "phone restarts randomly" check it out. I got a new ad card and no problems since.