My phone was bricked. Then unbricked. And repeat. Help?

ohioDroid

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Long story short: My phone sometimes when turning on doesn't turn on, doesn't reach the Motorola M logo, acts as though it's bricked. And sometimes it doesn't.




Long story long:


I did the 2.1 manual update last week. I am not rooted.About the same time, I updated to the newest edition of myLock. I noticed an odd issue, that when I slid the keyboard on the Droid open, sometimes the phone didn't unlock, instead it just sat there, appearing asleep. I'd have to hit the power button (to put it to sleep) and again (to wake it up) to get it to work.

Figuring it was a myLock issue, I contacted the Developer, we exchanged some logs and stuff, Dev seemed to think it was a speed issue on my phone, that the phone reacted too fast, something with Helix Launcher, and myLock didn't get a chance to unlock the phone.

I normally use Helix Launcher, always running Handcent and k9mail, with the Power control, Calendar, Weather & News, Pandora, RockOn3 and Finance widgets, with App Organizer icons.

The freezing issue got weirder a few days ago. Sometimes the phone would reboot itself instead of freezing.

This morning, it froze, and I couldn't unfreeze it. I pulled the battery and restarted. Only, the screen was black. I could tell the screen lit up, but the Motorola M didn't come on, my bootanimation didn't come on, it didn't say DROID or anything. I tried many things, like recovery booting, running with a charger, someone else's battery, etc, nothing worked.

The appearance was that it was bricked.

After about 7 hours of trying this on and off, suddenly the phone booted up okay. Sweet. I uninstalled myLock right away, thinking it was the issue. Then a few minutes later, it froze in the same way and again wouldn't turn on. I persisted and after a few tries, it booted up okay.

Now, it seems like the phone will freeze and lock up randomly if I change the screen orientation or if I slide open the keyboard. It's inconsistant. After it freezes, sometimes rebooting will work, and sometimes it will appear bricked.

The myLock dev recommended I try a factory restore, but I wanted to get opinions here first on the matter (also, I've never done a factory restore, so I don't know how to back up my apps or whatever).

Help?
 
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ohioDroid

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Okay. Let's play 20 questions.

If I do a factory wipe, what do I lose? I don't know much (anything) about it.

I assume that my contacts are stored online with Google, and that nothing would happen to my SD card, that I'd just have to reinstall all my apps.

Is that correct?

I have ADB set up on my computer. Is it possible to back up my apps and then easily restore them?
 

R1Lover

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you don't loose anything.....

wipe... wipe.... wipe...

you can re-install the apps from the market, or give it a few hours and it will do it by itself.
 
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ohioDroid

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you don't loose anything.....

wipe... wipe.... wipe...

you can re-install the apps from the market, or give it a few hours and it will do it by itself.

Are we talking the factory reset from the Privacy Settings Menu, or from Recovery Mode?

EDIT: I tried the Factory Reset from the Privacy Menu. It rebooted right away! But then, during the initial walkthrough it goes 'okay, slide your keyboard closed' after entering my gmail account info. And then it froze again, same way as before. I'm trying to get into the recovery mode now if I can, to try that...
 
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ohioDroid

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After another 15 tries I got it to reboot into recovery mode, and I did the wipe to factory settings. Again, going through the setup procedure for android, as soon as I have to slide the keyboard to keep going, the phone freezes...

Is there any other kind of reset I can do? Or is the next step to stop by the Verizon store?
 

DigiK

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I'd flash a stock 2.01 .sbf image with RSD Lite and see what kind of results you get. If you still get problems after that, it's most likely hardware related.
 
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ohioDroid

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I'd flash a stock 2.01 .sbf image with RSD Lite and see what kind of results you get. If you still get problems after that, it's most likely hardware related.

Is there a tutorial here on how to do that? I did a search but everything that came up was for rooted users and ROMs. I'm not rooted.

Also, if that involves putting the phone in any sort of mode, that's kind of difficult, as I have keep pulling and re inserting the battery in an attempt to MAYBE get the thing to boot.
 
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ohioDroid

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I followed the instructions exactly. RSD Lite said it checked and it was a successful flash.

And it still won't boot up properly.
 
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ohioDroid

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I stopped by the Verizon store today. They said that because I've had my phone longer than 30 days they won't give me a new one, but will give me a refurbished one.

So I've got it and have been reinstalling apps. I dunno. I feel like I SHOULD be satisfied, they got me a new phone and helped get it set up all quick like, but I find myself being critical.

lol, the keyboard on mine had bumpy keys that made them easy to feel, this one is all flat. But! It works. That's the important part.
 
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