Phone reboots when plugged into computer

[gjb172]

Give the man a cigar...

sivs422 is right on for me too. In my case it was Pandora...

Hi. I've got a (stock) Droid X which has "rebooted" a few times when connected to my PC (Win7 Pro x64). Today was the last straw. Googling, I found this thread and one other. After reading, I may have fixed the problem. In short, after removing running apps from the SD card, I can no longer induce a reboot by connecting to my computer. I speculate about the cause of this below.

First, a clarification ... The "reboots" I saw were only partial. The phone jumped directly to the Droid logo, but did not show the Motorola logo (which I see after power cycle). I also do not have the "random reboot" problem many have complained about. Lastly, I have USB debugging enabled for EasyTether.

Separately, my computer does not use Motorola software. I use built-in drivers from Win7 Pro x64 and can access the SD card on my Droid X without trouble now. For reference, in Device Manager, I have (with warning/exclamation point) "Other devices --> Motorola ADB Interface." Its device status (under Properties) says "The drivers for this device are not installed." and "Manufacturer: Unknown."

From these two threads, it seemed that the SD card could be a problem (though it may not explain everyone's trouble). Some (see other thread) suggested that unmounting the SD card could prevent the reboot.

When attaching the phone to my computer via USB (without reboot), the following events seem to happen:
1a) USB Connection (status bar)
1b) Connecting USB for Mass Storage (little window in bottom half of screen)
2) USB debugging enabled (status bar, only if not enabled)
3) Preparing SD card (if SD card was mounted by Droid)
4) USB debugging connected

When detaching USB from the computer, the following events occur (also status bar):
1) Debug icon disappears
2) USB icon disappears
3) Preparing SD Card

It is clear that the SD card cannot be mounted simultaneously by the Droid X and by the USB-connected Win7 x64 PC. After the most recent uninvited reboot, I realized that (a) Angry Birds was installed to the SD card and (b) Angry Birds had been running in the background when I connected the Droid to my PC.

Through application management, I moved the SD card applications back onto the phone. Since doing so, I cannot reproduce the reboot (with or without EasyTether service running). Hooray!

Two thoughts ... Firstly, it is not obvious to me that the phone actually reboots. The "reboot" brings up the Droid logo only. After power off/on cycle, I usually see the Motorola logo first and the Droid logo second. Is it possible that this is actually just the Droid software layer restarting rather than the entire phone?

Secondly, a possible explanation is that this reboot occurs when applications are running (probably in the background) from the SD card. The SD card is clearly unmounted immediately upon connection, which might crash the background process. If this is true, perhaps the software resets to accommodate the crash. This may explain what many have reported ...

Some posters have said that the reboot only happens once (the first time). This makes sense if any and all processes that require the SD card are killed by the reboot. Upon restart, there would be no process left to crash (unless the offender auto-starts).

Some have also suggested that a factory reset may remedy the issue. If the factory reset shuts off all the apps currently using the SD, perhaps that's how it works? If this explanation is, in fact, true, it begs the question: why does Android let this happen? If I understand correctly, the UI + apps run in user space on non-rooted phones. Could the SD mount/dismount be triggered hardware and thus operate with higher privileges?

At this point I'm speculating and you're probably exhausted. Hopefully this account makes some sense and actually helps somebody else through this problem. Given that it seems to have fixed my phone, I felt compelled to report this here. Thanks!

 

[obutto]

fixed with update

 

[Kaos2flo]

Well I just experience this problem too. Happen 2 times in a row just like the op. didnt happen the 3rd time though. I hope update fixes this.

 

[Chris1980]

My girlfriend has the same problem. Hers is completely stock. It happens whenever she plugs it into the computer or her car radio, which has a usb port. It originally prompts her to connect but then reboots. After the reboot, it works fine.

 

[flash24]

After the update, I plugged in my Droid to my computer and it didn't reboot

Sent from my DROID PRO using Tapatalk

 

[rocket_girl]

After the update, I plugged in my Droid to my computer and it didn't reboot

Sent from my DROID PRO using Tapatalk

After the update, my random reboots are crazy, both while plugged in to USB and not (sigh).

Sent from my DROID PRO using DroidForums

 

[magdiel1975]

random reboot

I'm having the same problem when I plug/unplug my droid x from the computer, but I do not have any apps installed on the sd card, so I don't know what else it could be.

 

[gottcha]

My droidx has been doing this!! I haw been taking pics for work and transfering the to the comp. Mine reboots (goes to the moto screen then the droid screen) it has also rebooted after 5 min of being connected to the comp which is very irritating!!! Anyone figure this out yet?

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[georgenazar]

How to fix automatic reboot on Droid X when USB is plugged in

The answer is so obvious when I tell you, you are going to laugh. DEFRAGMENT YOUR SD CARD. It is trying to access your SD card and is timing out because the data is all over the place. Do not tell me that because SD cards do not need defragmentation. I took out my old sd card and put in a blank fresh one and had no more problems. Then I reloaded all my data that was on the other card and it laid it down in an organized fashion that is quickly accessible.

Please let me know if this works for anybody else.

 

[gottcha]

I formated and reinstalled my data on me sd card then defragged. It will still reboot the phone but its only after its been hooked up to the pc for about 5 minutes. Then it unmounts my sd card and sets all my ring tones and notification sound to default!!! So I have to reset them everytime.I unhook my droidx.

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[gatesdroid]

I had the same problem with my Droid X continuously rebooting (even during calls :icon_evil.

I had begun to think something had to be wrong because of the over abundance of apps I had downloaded (nearly 300). So, this weekend, I did a hard reset to factory specs on the actual Droid X (deleted ALL user data), but the problem still continued.

After finding and reading this thread, I realized, I had not done anything to the SD card. So, I backed up the critical files on my SD card, then unmounted SD card, then reformatted SD card.

Now the problem seems to have been fixed.

Thank you all for helping get me to the solution! dancedroid