Continuous soft reboot cycling when plugged into a computer

[rjax]

Anyone seen this sort of continuous soft rebooting? It's almost certainly an app problem, which I'm trying to narrow down, but it would make my life easier if I don't have to uninstall/reinstall a bunch of my apps to fix this...

I say it's almost certainly an app problem because when I first got my Droid, I could plug it into to a USB port and everything worked like it should. Then I went a couple weeks without plugging into a computer USB port, installed some apps, and next time I plugged it into a USB port, the Droid instantly went into a soft reboot (i.e. it goes straight to the white "Droid" lettering" and I never see the Motorola "bat" logo). Then, shortly after I get to the keyguard screen (no matter if I have it set to do the pattern unlock or the default keyguard screen, and no matter whether or not I unlock the Droid), it soft reboots again, and continuously soft reboots until I unplug the USB cable. Also note, I've only used the stock USB cable, and I've had the problem with both a desktop and a laptop (both with XP service pack 3).

I've tried doing battery pulls, but that hasn't solved the problem either. In fact, sometimes when I restart after a battery pull without my Droid being plugged in to anything, I get the same sort of continuous soft rebooting. However, I can usually stop the cycle by unlocking the keyguard screen (not the case when it's plugged into a computer USB slot.)

I have no problems whatsoever charging the Droid when the USB cable is plugged in with the AC charger, or even when I plug my Droid into a cigarette lighter adapter that has a USB slot.

For troubleshooting purposes, here's a list of my currently installed apps:
Abduction! ; AK Notepad ; Aloqa ; Amazon ; ASTRO ; B-Folders ; Barcode Scanner ; Battery Left ; BeamReader ; Bebbled ; Carrr Matey ; Coloroid ; DC Metro Train Info ; DockRunner ; Documents To Go ; Dolphin Browser ; Download Crutch ; ES File Explorer ; Flashlight ; GDocs ; Gmote ; Google Sky Map ; Google Voice ; GPS Status ; Handcent Sms ; KeepScreen ; Key Ring ; Mileage ; Missed Call ; Mobile Banking ; MotoTorch LED ; Movies ; My Maps Editor by Google ; My Tracks ; No Signal Alert ; Not Call Log prefs ; OpenTable ; PicSay ; Places Directory ; Plink Art ; Ringdroid ; RMaps ; Robo Defense FREE ; Shazam ; Silent Mode Jammer ; Sound Manager ; Spare Parts ; SportsTap ; TTS Service Extended ; Volume Control ; Where's My Droid ; Where ; Wifi Analyzer ; WikiMobile

 

[suzukimethod]

There was a notice on a bug that was floating around (software, they are working on the fix) that had something to do with the notifications in the menu bar causing some error or overload (hence the soft boot). You might experiment with turning off all the SD car notifications (on the droid) before you plug in the USB to see if that stops it, or see if any of the apps you have loaded are set to display notifications in the menubar.

 

[rjax]

Thanks! That would make perfect sense. I had already tried ridding myself of some apps that clearly are involved in startup, but hadn't considered the SD card notification. Do you know where I can turn off the SD card notifications? That option doesn't seem to be in any of the more logical locations.

 

[suzukimethod]

I know you can turn off the sounds of the SD card notifications in the 'sound and display' part of settings...

but that might not (probably wont) fix your problem.

under application settings there is a 'development' menu-tab. and inside there is a 'usb debugging' tab. you might experiment with toggling that to see if that helps.

i was thinking there was a way to completely turn off the SD notifications, (and there very well may be) but i was thinking of the notification tone.

I had the very same issue - and as part of some debugging work associated with some other hardware issues (not related to the notification bug), a dev told me there was an 'internal bug' associated with some software related kinks in the notification bar...

my best (semi-educated) guess is that one of the many programs you have installed has a menu notification 'call' that conflicts with the sd card notification 'call', and the system cant sort it out.

you might try posting your error over at
Issues - android - Project Hosting on Google Code
along with the bugreport log (if you're comfortable with the SDK, if not they can help)

also - you might search that list - someone may have already opened a bug about the issue.

 

[rjax]

Well, the good news is that everything's working as it should be. The bad news is that I'm not sure exactly what fixed it...

I can say that neither turning sounds off for SD card notifications or toggling the 'USB Debugging' setting worked. After I tried both of those things without success, I figured I'd try the 'Unmount SD card' option under the 'SD card & phone storage' option in 'Settings'

Once I did that, everything was fine when I plugged into the computer. Somewhat unexpectedly, I was also still able to access the SD card from the computer even though it had been supposedly unmounted. While the computer had access to the SD card I deleted a couple hidden directories that had been left behind by uninstalled apps. One of those for a lockscreen modifier -- I wonder if somehow losing that from the SD card might've helped. Anyway, then I unplugged from the computer and did a power off and battery pull, then powered back on.

After that, I wish I would have tried plugging into the computer without unmounting the SD card, but I didn't. Instead, I uninstalled SportsTap, since there had been some weirdness reported with it. Then I did what I should have done initially -- plugging into the computer with the SD card mounted -- and everything was still fine. I then reinstalled SportsTap, but haven't been able to recreate what was originally a completely reproducible problem.

So, I wonder if unmounting (but not physically removing) the SD card somehow reset things? Or if one of the other things I did fixed it?

Anyway, thanks again for pointing me in the right direction -- maybe I could have fixed it by uninstalling everything, but this worked out much better.

 

[anorman]

Well,

I just did a search and found this forum, because my droid suddenly started doing the same thing. I have the home dock, and when I plugged it in last night, it just started soft booting itself continuously. I unplugged the home dock from the computer, and it gave me the home screen without issue. I then plugged the phone into the usb charger, and it charged without issue. Obviously, at this point I verified that this is indeed an issue with the droid and a usb tether to a pc.

After reading your posts above, I decided to tell my phone to unmount the SD card. As soon as I told it to unmount the card, the device soft booted. I have not been able to 'unmount' my SD card, as it soft boots every time I try.

I have a second droid, and swapped the SD cards.. the problem stayed with the droid, not the SD card.. I even formatted the offending SD card in the other droid, and then returned it back to the problem droid, and the problem persisted.

I'm going under the assumption now that I have an application on the problem droid that is somehow 'opening' and holding open a file on the SD card and when it tries to unmount the SD card, it soft boots..

I will continue to troubleshoot, and if I find the answer, I will post it here.. If anyone else has further information, please let me know.. I'd prefer not to have to hard reset the phone and start over if at all possible.

- Andre

 

[anorman]

I finally gave up, because my phone started softbooting for no reason.

I did a hard reset. Problem fixed.. Wished I knew what happened, but o well :-(

 

[rjax]

That sucks. I doubt I could have helped you since pretty much everything I knew was in my posts, but if it's any consolation, my Droid hasn't had any recurrences of the issue, so hopefully yours won't either.

 

[anorman]

Not a problem rjax; it was helpful just being able to narrow it down to a specific subsystem, as you pointed me to the SD card; which apparently seems to have been the root problem with me, also.

My droid is working fine as well, so I'm also hoping this fixes it.

Thank you again for all the input and help,

- Andre

 

[kapeman]

This may not be the solution, but it does seem to be a work-around.

Based on this thread: https://supportforums.motorola.com/message/331431

I moved Angry Birds: Seasons from the SD card to the DX's memory and the problem went away.

EDIT: this also fixed the problem I had with not being able to access the USB options from the notifications screen.

 

[Gyptians]

Had same issue on my Incredible. Turned off notification for My-Cast app, which was behaving oddly. Seems to have resolved the issue.

Thanks for the notification info. Wouldn't have thought of it.

 

[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