phone all of a sudden keeps turning off and on

[nacho220]

My phone all of a sudden keeps turning off and on over the weekend. It has probably done it 3-4 times so far. It has not done this at all since I got the phone. I noticed though today it did it when I picked it up at work when going on break. When it turned back on a screen came up with what seemed like a tutorial for "voice search" and the voice search app seems to have been installed on my phone. I do not recall that app being on my phone before it turned off. I knew I saw that this would be an update with 2.2, but I have Droid X, stock 2.1. When I go to appbrain it also does NOT say "installed" (I haven't synced with App Brain since a few days ago), so that leads me to believe, no, it wasn't on my phone before it turned off. I'm guessing maybe that is why it turned off, it automatically updated my phone and added that? Seems kind of strange though. Then sitting here, before I typed this post, it restarted again. But nothing popping up once it turned back on. So that prompted me to make the post to hear what other folks are experiencing. Any suggestions? I wouldn't mind calling Verizon tech, but they would probably just send me another phone, and while I hated having to switch out my LG Dare when I had a problem cause then I had to re-set everything up....its a BIG pain to re-set up these Android phones. Especially when it comes to reinstalling all my apps (I have over 200 apps). There should be a much easier way to just copy the entire phone and settings, etc over to a different phone. Anyways...thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[Nadious]

Mine has started doing it today. I found out what was wrong. It appears that if I take the phone and hold it upright (vertical) and lightly shake the phone, with the screen facing slightly at an angle towards me, the phone reboots. I can pretty much make it reboot on will now using this method. I'm not sure if you are having the same issue (maybe want to try it out), but it is DEFINITELY a hardware related issue with my phone.

I'm gonna have to get it replaced. I have made it reboot 10 times in just a few minutes.

 

[Yourrid]

mine keeps freezing, and then the screen goes black followed by it not responding.

I have had to take the battery out twice tonight and have never had to do that before...

WTF Motorola?

 

[Nadious]

Ok, this is crazy. I made it reboot all last night by lightly shaking the phone. I wake up this morning to try to do it again... the phone won't reboot.

What the heck!?!??!!

 

[nacho220]

I haven't had success with the slight shaking and rebooting (that is a good thing I would presume though, lol!) It hasn't turned off and back on since I posted this last night, until now. So I dunno.

 

[demonhawk1313]

Noticed mine reboot by itself last night as well. Mine did it while sitting on my desk. I looked over and the boot animation was on the screen. This was just after 11PM EST. I wasn't able to use any data services until I rebooted manually even though it showed 3G. Nothing came up on the screen and I don't think anything new is installed. Hoping it was just something with their system. Maybe they were checking the OS version of the phones, lol.

 

[Nadious]

Did a factory reset today... and still getting the same thing. It HAS to be something hardware related. I'm currently looking into getting it replaced.

 

[aminaked]

Try booting into safe mode. If it doesn't have the problem, you know it's being caused by one of your apps.

If it still has the problem in safe mode, do a factory reset.

If it still has the problem after factory reset, return the phone.

 

[djbis]

See threads about "Crashing".

 

[nacho220]

How do you boot into safe mode on the Droid X? How would I tell which app it is? I have many apps and I guess it could be caused by one...I'd be great if there was just a way to tell which app. I guess thats certainly wishing though, lol.
I'll check out the threads on crashing too. It has done it a few more times since I last posted...and it just did it twice today within 4 hours or so.

 

[nacho220]

I booted into safe mode as someone had suggested. They said that if while in safe mode it doesn't crash it is a problem with one of the apps. So far, so good, no crashing ... but which app?!?!

 

[Nadious]

Well, the more I mess with this issue, the more it become evident to me that this is a hardware related issue and not software. (Unless, someone can make me understand why I can force my phone to do a reboot during the boot up phase by doing just a little mild shake on the phone...)

This thing has a mind of its own. I can go over 48 hours without a single reboot, but then just like that... I can get 4 - 6 reboots in just 10 minutes. I have found that having my phone in a case (no matter what kind) increases the chances that it will reboot. As long as my phone stays pointing FACE DOWN (the top of the hump is pointing to the floor), I have no issues. But, any time that I have my phone right-side up (say like slipping it in my pocket) and I move the phone around, there's a great chance that the phone is going to reboot.

Twice this weekend, I woke up to find the phone was turned OFF, from where I left it charging the night before. The phone was on both times when I connected the charger to it and on Saturday night, I cut the phone on Sunday morning (because it had cut off during the night) and found that the phone did not charge at ALL. Sunday night, even though it was off this morning, the phone at least DID charge.

I love this phone. I've been very impressed with what it can do, but the unstability of the phone is really starting to frustrate me. The phone rebooted TWICE on me this morning on the way to work. (Three times, if you count the time it rebooted when I tried to take it out of the case.) I really want to believe that this is a software issue that will be addressed in the next update, but I don't understand how I can make this phone reboot during the boot process, but just holding it up right and doing a gentle shake on it.

I can't keep it in a carrying case, because that make it reboot even more. But, if I put it in my pocket, I have to make sure that it is pointing down. And... both times it cut off on me, it was laying flat. To my knowledge, I'm the only person that seems to be having these specific problems. I wanna replace the phone, but it is through my job and we deal with a rep (because we are government employees) and that means I will have wait a few weeks to get a new one in. Plus, all the horror stories I have read about the replacement phones not working, having issues out of the box, yellow tinted screens, etc. Part of me is waiting to see if this new update will fix anything (though, I am already running the 2.2. leak... if the update is even any different...)

I don't know... but I just want a stable phone back. It didn't start doing this till after a couple of weeks of me having the phone.

 

[nacho220]

@Nadious I hear your frustration. As an update to my situation, and drawing connection to your situation... I mentioned I booted it into safe mode for several hours. No crash. I am back to no safe mode and so far it has rebooted (or crashed, however we are explaining this) at least 3 times. So, Nadious, it sounds like we are having similar issues. However, the gentle "nod" or "shake" of the phone doesn't have it rebooting for me. It just seems to reboot randomly. I also did not have any charging issues so far. :: fingers crossed ::

I'm guessing it might be an app issue at this point. Although many people are reporting similar problems...I think that probably would be the case. Or maybe it really isn't. This also started happening to me a little over a month of having the Droid X and no such problems. I have a large number of apps and it would be tough to figure out which app it is, however I am really hesitant because it is going to take a long time to re DL all the apps and reset up my phone to what I have on it, and the way I have it now. I wish everything could be transferred over from phone to phone, not just contacts and stuff. I'd rather wait the few weeks maybe, try to locate the app that may be causing the problems and also by then it looks like 2.2 will be updated on the X and we can go from there. I'm not that knowledgeable on coding and processes on these phones or anything, but if it is an app, I was thinking that it might be that at some point two (or more I guess) apps are running in the background at the same time that clash with one another thus causing the reboot. That sounds like it makes sense to me. But like I said, I dunno, just trying to think in laymens terms I guess, ha!

Anyone else with the problem? Ideas?

 

[nacho220]

Well. Needless to say I have not found the app because after adding to this discussion and few other crashing threads...my phone has rebooted no less than 5 times in a few hours. Now it just froze, with the screen locked but the screen isn't timing out. None of the buttons do anything, literally locked. I tried to get my case off and pull the battery, but before I could do that it rebooted again. Wow, I guess I can turn this post into a play-by-play at this point. As I'm typing this the screen just froze again, this time while viewing a list of apps. Just keeping track of whats going on and posting here in case it helps others.

 

[nacho220]

Since my last posts on these "crashing" threads, my phone has rebooted a few times. One thing I noticed is that when it "crashes"/reboots it doesnt reset the phone-up timer...so I guess it isn't fully turning off and on. I was going to try to pay attention to that and see when it reset, if it did, while I was in safe mode. It never rebooted while in safe mode, but then again, as I just mentioned, I guess I wouldn't have known by looking at the phone up timer. Anyways....I thought that those of us that are having these "crashing" problems might be able to exchange their list of apps? Since it looks like it might be an app issue, maybe if we see that we all have certain apps, that we can determine that they might be the cause of it. Anyone share their app list on Appbrain? That'd be an easy way to do it -- just post your Appbrain app list.
Just a thought....