Can an app crash the phone completely so it can't turn on without pulling battery?

andjarnic

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
239
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento area, CA
Hey all,

I had a thread about how my phone has gone "blank" twice.. where no matter what I did, it wouldn't turn on. I had to pull the battery to make it work. I am starting a new thread primarily to ask a slightly different question... is it possible an application on my phone is crashing the entire thing? This morning I had my alarm set on it, and it didn't go off.. so I woke up late. Turns out, my phone wouldn't come on again. It was plugged in to the dock, so it's not as if it was out of juice. I finally pulled the battery again and it went back on.

So, first thing I gotta know.. if you put the phone in the dock.. and the screen goes out (not dead..just goes off after the 1 minute timer), do ALL apps on it stop if they were running (either stop, or "suspend" until the phone is turned back on)? Or is it possible that some apps could be running in the background... well, I am guessing this is possible as the alarm clock is an app and I am assuming it runs all the time in order to check the time and sound the alarm. If I read correctly, everything on this phone is an app, there is no special built-in features like an alarm clock.

So next up is.. as a phone user, let's pretend I am not a developer or very tech savvy... how would a normal user even know that they may have some apps running that could drain their battery? Surely Google/Verizion want as many people buying their phones, including potentially non-tech capable people. I can't imagine everyone that buys an android based phone will need to understand how to kill applications with the task killer (or the built in one in the settings menu). It seems to me that while being able to run multiple apps at once is really nice... it may be the bane of these types of phones if normal users that run a couple apps, then hit the home or back key thinking they are done with it, come to realize it was still running and drained the battery.

A few other threads talk about some way to actually "close" an application. I know how to kill it, but in the Advanced Task Killer app, I see like 12+ apps running that I have to kill, and some like corporate calendar seem to restart on their own. Granted they take so little power to run I would not think they could drain the battery very fast. But there is no way a normal user that comes over from a simple phone is going to know to actually kill applications to make sure they are stopped. I would assume that if Android is to take off and become the next big thing in phones.. there has got to be some way that regular users just know that apps are stopped and not continuing to run in the background draining battery life.
 
OP
A

andjarnic

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
239
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento area, CA
Incidentally, what is the Verzion number to call to get a tech person to help me with this? I can't seem to find the stupid number.. is it *81 or something?
 

ChiliSky

New Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Location
Greenville, SC
I picked mine up Friday morning at 7AM and heading out of state for the weekend, the phone went blank so many times I lost count. It just freezes and I have to pull the battery. I have not added any APPs as yet so why are we having this problem? Is it a software issue or hardware?:mad:
 
OP
A

andjarnic

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
239
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento area, CA
Well, I am going to call Verizon today, I suggest you do the same. I expect that they will have some small percentage of hardware failures of some sort. There are a lot of parts to these phones. IT could be the memory card is bad, the hardware, the software, etc. I would suspect if it was software that a lot more people would have this issue tho. You're only the 3rd person I've found that has it, out of 100's that are posting on this forum, so I suspect we are going to have a difficult time to get this resolved. What I wish Verizon would do is just allow us to replace the unit and they can deal with it. I don't like being a free QA engineer and put out of my way. I love the phone and everything it offers, but am really annoyed that my phone does this. Why should I have to put up with it. Replace it so I can get on with it and not deal with this.

I will call them today, and if they tell me they can't replace it, I am going to return it (I hope I am allowed to return it within a set number of days?), then I'll just go to walmart and get one, or Sears.
 
OP
A

andjarnic

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
239
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento area, CA
Ok..called them.. I am the first one they've heard with this problem. The lady I spoke to was very nice. She basically came to two options. One is to call a local verizon store, talk to them and try to allow them to have me return it and give me another one right there. The other option was them sending me out a new phone, when it comes, they provide a mail-back slip and I send the other one back. The only downside to this 2nd option is I had to pay the full $345 (incl tax) for the phone. HOWEVER, as soon as they get my bad one, they refund it all back. ALSO, I am to use the NEW rebate slip they send out, not the one I got with my phone originally. I chose the 2nd option primarily due to not having to go out and spend an hour or longer dealing with a Verizon store where often times their reps/techs are idiots. I find this in all facets of life.. regardless of comapny/product. Also, I tried taking it back the next day and the store I bought it at told me I had to come back when it was "frozen" so they could try to run some diagnostics on it. Crap really, but w/e. So I got a new phone that should be here tomorrow or Wed at the latest, and sending this one back.

I advise anyone with similar issues, to do the same. I will post another new thread just so someone can find it easier.
 
Joined
Nov 6, 2009
Messages
50
Reaction score
0
There are apps out there that do not support the 2.0 droid which in return can cause your phone to freeze so you'll have to power down or pull the battery
 

Baconstrip

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Messages
69
Reaction score
0
My first droid from best buy was randomly rebooting and crashing constantly. In one day it probably crashed about 10 times. I returned my phone to best buy, they gave me a new one, and it hasn't crashed since.
 

honeylicious13

New Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2009
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Utah, USA
@andjarnic

I have had the same issue with my phone randomly crashing. It seems to happen no matter what apps I have going. I thought it might be WeatherBug since that runs continuously, but I uninstalled it and it still freezes.

I will definitely wait for it to freeze again (shouldn't be more than a day from now), and bring it to the store while it's frozen. Thanks for the tip.
 
OP
A

andjarnic

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
239
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento area, CA
I wouldn't bother waiting.. just return it. It's been a problem for many. I contacted them finally and they sent me out another phone. I had to pay for it until I return the first one (which I still need to do!!), but otherwise they said it shouldn't be doing that.

I expect they will have some problems, they've sold over 800,000 now. As long as they take care of it correctly, that is all that matters.
 

Backnblack

Premium Member
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2009
Messages
11,104
Reaction score
28
Current Phone Model
iPhone 7+ 256gb
The only downside to this 2nd option is I had to pay the full $345 (incl tax) for the phone. HOWEVER, as soon as they get my bad one, they refund it all back..

Never had them do that to me....
 

redruler

New Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
Location
Los Angeles, CA
It's probably a bad batch or something. A lot of people have had this problem including me. My Droid went out about 3-4 times where nothing would bring it back except a battery pull.

The last time it happened I took it straight to the Verizon store and even though I did not buy it there (I bought mine via verizonwireless.com) they gave me a brand new one with no problems at all.

The new one works great, no problems so far.

If anyone has problems they should return it to the store within the first 30 days and they shouldn't get any trouble.
 

cutter

New Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2009
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
I've had the same problem 3 times in the last three days. Glad I found the info here. Mine is on the way back to the store tomorrow.
 
Top