Droid 3 locking up

[CompleteIdiot]

Hi All, Thanks in advance for any helpful information you give me. It is greatly appreciated.
My problem is that I sold my fully functional droid 3 to someone on ebay.
He received it, gave me great feedback - that basically he was very happy with his purchase but now he has sent it back to me for a refund claiming that it keeps freezing up.
I have my suspicions as he informed me that he has now preordered a razr (going from memory - but not an important detail). My guess is that he tried rooting the phone or installed a buggy app.
I have not yet received it back but would love to get you expert thoughts on what I should check for when I get it back.
I no longer have a Verizon account to activate the phone on.

 

[guidot]

Look for Superuser in the apps list. Other than that, it wouldn't show anything if he unrooted and did a factory data reset.

 

[CompleteIdiot]

Thanks for speedy reply

My guess is that he will have reset it. Have you ever heard of this issue on the Droid 3?

 

[guidot]

If it was fine when you had it, there's no specific reason it would start. My first D3 was garbage, but the replacement works great.

 

[CompleteIdiot]

Thanks Guidot, if anyone else out there has any insight on this issue PLEASE comment.

 

[NoBloatware]

Hello Complete Idiot, I hope that you get the same phone back that you sent!

There are a lot of things that could cause reboots. Luckily, my Droid 3 seems to never reboot although things were a bit dicier before the latest Gingerbread update. Like I said, any number of things could cause this problem. For example, it could be something as simple as a bent battery connector pin. Get the phone back and test it out. Maybe there's nothing wrong.

 

[CompleteIdiot]

Update

Thanks for that. I don't think it is rebooting thought, I received an email describing ai a little more detail exactly what was supposed to be going on with the phone. He said that the touch screen would just cease to work and that the keyboard would still function. After a manual reboot it would work for some time and then repeat...?

 

[NoBloatware]

Thanks for that. I don't think it is rebooting thought, I received an email describing ai a little more detail exactly what was supposed to be going on with the phone. He said that the touch screen would just cease to work and that the keyboard would still function. After a manual reboot it would work for some time and then repeat...?

Who knows what he's doing wrong. If he's using a bad charger or long USB cable it could cause the phone to act funny. Maybe he's installed some crazy software. First things first, just make sure that you get the same phone back that you sent him.

 

[CompleteIdiot]

The phone arrived today, i am going to make sure I closely video me opening the box just in case it is wrecked. Then i guess a trip to the verizon store to see if they can check it out for me. I will check the apps for superuser and let you know later. Thank you both for your help.

 

[aristo1963]

CI My 2 month old D3 is getting replaced for this very issue.It will be fine then the screen just locks up,the keypad will let you scroll to the power off to let it reboot.It has done this once or twice a week since the 17th(figures) day I had it.The issue that really has pissed me off though is the sound just cuts off sometimes making the phone useless.

 

[xaelith]

I had this exact issue, myself. I even went so far as to search for the issue here on the forums in the hopes someone had found a workaround with no luck. The most frustrating thing about the problem was that it was intermittent. Some days, I could go a whole day without issue. Others, it would start five minutes after using the phone first thing in the morning, and would not respond no matter what I did until I got so frustrated that i'd do a battery pull and reboot, only to have the touchscreen become non-responsive the next time I tried to use the phone. I will admit, the problem wasn't as frequent after the OTA, but still enough of a problem to be annoying.

My first time taking it into the Verizon store, I checked to make sure I was having a problem, but every time they would look at it, it would start working again. I waited for a few minutes at the store, and would get it to have the issue only for the problem to suddenly and mysteriously disappear once I got the attention of the sales clerk. The most frustrating thing about the whole ordeal, though, was the guy said "according to Verizon policy, unless we see the problem for ourselves, there's nothing we can do." Fortunately, I had better luck the second time, and was able to get a replacement.

I'm very careful with my electronics. Since switching to Verizon, every phone I've owned has had at least a hard cover. The D3 I'm using now also has a screen protector, and will be receiving a zagg invisible shield as soon as I have the money. I make it a personal rule to never intentionally do anything that will void the manufacturer's warranty at least until after the warranty has expired. As an example, I didn't root my D1 untill I was up for my upgrade, and won't be rooting this phone until this time next year at the earliest. And since switching to the Android platform, I only download apps using the market app on a stock device.

Long story short, I'm afraid I have no idea what caused the problem, or any solid way of fixing it. All I can suggest are a few temporary workarounds I figured out while it was happening to me.
1. After turning the screen on, try unlocking the phone until the screen turns itself off.
2. If step 1 fails, slide the phone open to expose the keyboard, wait for the screen to turn itself on, then try unlocking the phone again.
3. If that doesn't work, slide the phone closed, press the power button rapidly for several seconds, then repeat step one.
4. Usually if I got this far, I just did a baterry pull, but you may want to try combining steps 2 and 3 first (keyboard exposed, press power button repeatedly, then try unlocking).

On a good problem day, I never got further than step 2, and it'd work on the first or second swipe at that. On a bad day, I'd end up pulling the battery 3 or more times in the day, or just go the whole time without using my phone, all the while wanting to chuck the thing as hard as I could against the wall or ground. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), this problem seems to be pretty rare so far. I hope the OP and others who are having this problem find something that sheds light on the issue, so others will not have to deal with the same headache.