Random shutdowns

[fadetoblack2104]

Well I went through this for the last few weeks. Phone started with once a day and by the end of the week it was off more than it was on. This morning, dead. Phone would not power on. Connected to charger. . . no go. Took it back to bestbuy and they are shipping it off. Really hoping its toast and they just give me a new phone. . . LOL!

 

[GingerEffect]

It happens to my Samsung S Vibrant and I *think* I can reliably reproduce the issue, at least on my phone.

Steps:
1. Go to a spot where you know it has failed, for me this is my office because it has bad reception and it seems to only shutdown for me when there is bad reception.

2. Make sure 3G is turned on and open an application that uses data.

3. Wait for the phone to sleep, do not hit the power button or anything to make it sleep (not sure if this step matters)

4. Wait ~30 mins without touching the phone (You can play music with it while this is happening if you want, the music will stop to let you know it's failed)

5. Try to wake up your phone, it is now dead.

I'm not sure this will work for everyone but last night I could reproduce 3 shutdowns in an hour and a half. And reproduced about 7 shutdowns yesterday when my phone only usually shuts down ~2 times a day.

I'm testing out all kinds of software permutations (disabling stuff, installing things like Captivate Keep Alive). Nothing has worked so far, my guess right now is that the problem lies in the Pattern Unlock feature so I have disabled it, I read that on a forum somewhere.

My guess is that if you have too much running in the background it might take up too much cpu or ram so that when the phone tries to come out of sleep it can't get enough CPU power to come out of sleep and therefore gets stuck in a kind of limbo. This theory could then be releated to the SetCPU problem when you set the CPU too low when it sleeps the issue occurs.

Moral of the storey is I have no idea what's going on, but please post if this works or doesn't work. Maybe it will shed some light on the issue, or you can tell me I'm wrong so I can give up.

Luckily I'm not past the 30 day mark and I'm exchanging for a new Vibrant tonight. Wish me luck!

 

[grip24]

Have any of you guys try Captivate Keep Alive app... Is suppose to keep the phone from going to sleep ... I took my back under the 30 days warranty and havent had any issues with the new one . So I didnt get to try it

 

[Simba501]

Have any of you guys try Captivate Keep Alive app... Is suppose to keep the phone from going to sleep ... I took my back under the 30 days warranty and havent had any issues with the new one . So I didnt get to try it

I've seen that someone has said this fixed their problem. A guy over at AndroidForums tried it and stated that he/she hadn't had a shutdown in 4 days. I just got my Captivate and it's shutdown, but in a weird way. After I got off of a long call, signal went to no service, and it went into a repeating reboot (had to pull battery). Have not had an instance today of any shutdown of any sort. I made a note of this app, and will download it the second a random shutdown happens (should one occur).

 

[Verdes8891]

Have any of you guys try Captivate Keep Alive app... Is suppose to keep the phone from going to sleep ... I took my back under the 30 days warranty and havent had any issues with the new one . So I didnt get to try it

My captivate started doing this where it was randomly shutting off 2-3 times a day. I downloaded this application and it has not done it now for over a week

 

[ragnarokx]

Wouldn't your phone not sleeping have an impact on battery life? Has anyone who has used it noticed a difference?

 

[mikeymopar]

Samsung should've figured out by now how to correct these power down issues. You shouldn't need an app to make your phone work properly. Would you buy a car that only makes right turns figuring that eventually you will get to the place on the left?

The tech support people have said that I can't get a replacement phone until their service department deems my phone unfixable. They're on the fourth attempt now at correcting the problem........................I paid for a new, working phone and I'll keep returning it until they get it right or give me a replacement.

If I treated my customer's problems that way I wouldn't have any customers.

 

[cyriene]

I bought a Captivate from ebay a couple weeks ago and have not experienced any random shutdowns yet thankfully.

 

[Simba501]

I bought a Captivate from ebay a couple weeks ago and have not experienced any random shutdowns yet thankfully.

Ditto...got mine a week ago

 

[loraque]

Every electronics device has their percentage of lemons. I too have had zero issues with my Captivate, which as it happens was given to me by Warranty Repair after going through three Tilt 2's due to poor Bluetooth radio sync with my car. And yeah, I am super happy about the swap.

I understand the frustration for those going through the same thing, and I also understand how it can turn you off to that brand... for example, why would I have chosen another HTC device, even if an Android OS, when I am pretty sure it was the combination of the bluetooth chip in HTC phones (or at least the one in the Tilt 2) and my car. However, in this case you may have gotten a bum Captivate... it happens.

But the phone is still a great choice on ATT. I would do it again. If you think it is something in your "environment", then another model (after trying three times in Warranty Repair) might be in order. But if it is just the one device being a pain... give another one a try (if you get that far with the process, which had me angry as well). But anger aside, there is no way a carrier is going to swap out $500 phones without trying to fix it, when the phone is under manufacturer warranty and you are under contract. I was a little disappointed by how much I had to explain each time, but it worked out in the end. Keep your head up.

 

[Verdes8891]

Wouldn't your phone not sleeping have an impact on battery life? Has anyone who has used it noticed a difference?

I havent noticed it not going into sleep mode. I still have it set to go into sleep mode after 2 min of no use. I dont think the application keeps it from not sleeping

 

[Nimocone]

I've been using the Keep Alive program for almost 2 weeks and I haven't had a shutdown issue. The phone still goes to sleep and I haven't noticed an impact on my battery. I have it set down to 80% before it turns itself off.

 

[crzdesi]

I just got a Captivate, unfortunately it exhibits the same problem. I got the phone from wirefly.com and I called them today with the issue. They said that they will replace it as soon as I send it in. Deleted all the downloaded apps and it does the same.

Hope this goes away with the new phone, otherwise I will try the Captivate keep alive program. I love the phone, as long as it stays on. :-(

 

[julie524]

I just got my Captivate on Friday, service started on Saturday and both Sunday and this morning I woke up to find the phone had shut itself off. I understand if it's a power saving thing that it automatically does this, but I am so not a morning person so I need the alarms I set to go off. I turned off the power saving mode so we'll see what happens tonight. It's never turned off during the day though.

If it keeps happening, I'm going to try a replacement. I bought the phone from wirefly.com, but I have the insurance through AT&T, so who do I go to for a replacement? I'm really hoping I can go to an AT&T store and just switch out the phones since I only have a cell phone (no land line).

 

[fldude99]

^^You won't be able to go to a ATT store.
You DEFINITELY need to replace it-not now...yesterday!
Don't do it with insurance..why pay the $125? Replace it on the 30 day return policy. Wirefly should send you a new one without having to receive yours first

 

[tgros]

Shutdowns

I have had my Captivate since August without any shutdown problems until a week ago. Then one morning it shut down 5 times. I installed Captivate Keep Alive and it works, but it does drain the battery. Also, it does not run automatically when I power on the phone in the morning. I have to start it each day.

I don't know whether to call Samsung or AT&T or just live with it. Otherwise my phone is great. Even the GPS works well.

Any advice?

 

[MagickalChilde]

I sent in my Captivate last week to Samsung

Here is their response

Original Problem:
Technical Inquiry
Power
Intermitted Power Down

Problem found:
AUTO POWER OFF W/BATT/TEST CAB
WARRANTY, REPLACE PART

Solution:
Replaced Component

Keeping my fingers crossed that this helps but..

Funny thing is, I bought two Captivates, one for me and one for girlfriend and her phone has NEVER shut off on its own...go figure

OH..and by the way. I used Keep Alive at various settings before sending it in and Keep Alive didn't work for me.

 

[bztips]

I got my phone about 2 weeks ago, worked fine for the first several days. Now I get the dreaded shutdown periodically; sometimes it will go 2-3 days without a problem, then it will shut down 3-4 times in one day.

I've tried most of the recommended solutions -- KeepAlive, turning off the power save feature, (never used Launcher Pro), etc. -- but it still shuts down. In my case, it seems to happen only after the battery charge gets BELOW some undetermined level (maybe around 60%).

I still have several days left in the 30-day window to decide whether to return it for a new replacement. But I really don't look forward to reinstalling all my apps and setting up my home screens again; plus based on what others have said, there's certainly no guarantee that the replacement will be any different.

It sucks that Samsung and AT&T won't properly support their products -- or even acknowledge that the problem exists.

 

[mikeymopar]

Replace it quickly. Mine was beyond the 30 days so I sent it back THREE TIMES to Samsung and they just kept replacing the battery. KeepAlive didn't help. Talked to AT&T about the problem and they replaced the phone even though it was three months old (or should I say new because it spent more time at Samsung and on the UPS truck than with me!). Haven't had a problem at all with the new phone.

Either put up with the shutdowns which could get more frequent or get a phone that works and deal with reloading the apps once.

AT&T isn't the problem, it's Samsung.

 

[bztips]

Replace it quickly. Mine was beyond the 30 days so I sent it back THREE TIMES to Samsung and they just kept replacing the battery. KeepAlive didn't help. Talked to AT&T about the problem and they replaced the phone even though it was three months old (or should I say new because it spent more time at Samsung and on the UPS truck than with me!). Haven't had a problem at all with the new phone.

Problem is I bought this phone from my local BestBuy electronics store and that's where I'd have to return it for an exchange; I've already checked with one of the salesmen, and they're still selling from the same batch of phones they had when I got mine. So I figure the chances of getting a phone that behaves any better are pretty low.