DX Reboot problem

[calguy19]

I have a Droid X. About every 2 days, it spontaneously shuts itself down, then automatically reboots itself. The phone is just sitting there when it does this - not using any app at the time.

The current thinking is some app is doing this. I'm running ATK, with autokill set for every half hour, but that didn't help (or hurt).

I have a lot of apps - several news and weather apps that run all the time, to receive updated info automatically.

Is anyone else having a similar problem, and have you narrowed it down to some particular app. I definitely do not want to do a full factory reset, re-install all the apps, and update all the various information. I could delete apps in groups to try to track it down, but that is also very time consuming - delete a bunch of apps, wait 3 days and see if the phone reboots, and continue that process until I track down the offending app (assuming it is just one app that is causing the problem).

Anyway, has anyone run into this problem and made any headway?

TNX

 

[spaz33g]

you should get rid of the task killer, the autokill is hindering the os's ability to properly manage itself.

 

[calguy19]

Problem was already occuring without using ATK. I tried enabling it, setting up ignore list, and then setting periodic autokill to try to resolve the problem, but none of that changed anything.

Nobody has reported similar problems with ATK on market comments.

Called 611 tech suppt - they also suggested some app is causing the problem.

I'm new to this site and discovered this post was on droid 2, so I went to DX section and reposted there, to target more appropriate audience.

 

[gsdreams]

I can tell you right now that ATK will kill your battery. The quick way to find out if it is an app is to hard reset the device and see if the problem still occurs.

 

[calguy19]

Not necessarily true. My battery monitor shows ATK is only using 4%. Even my wifi is using 5%. Display using 38%.

Hard reset not a good solution. Successful or not, I'd have to reinstall ALL my d/l'ed apps and fill in ALL the forms, stock portfolios, etc. And even if that does make the problem go away, where am I? I still don't know which of those apps is the culprit, and I like my apps. I only want to remove the bad one.

The solution for tracking down the problem is a binary search. Delete half the apps, see what happens. Keep deleting half the remaining apps until the problem goes away - then I've narrowed it down. Replace half the deleted apps until the problem returns. Continue this binary search until the culprit is located. Still a lot of work and a pain in the butt. Easier if someone on this forum already has the information. That's what users forums are for.

I'm on a lot of other user forums, and when I track down the source of a problem and its fix, I post it, so other folks can benefit. Motorola and Verizon are not much help on technical issues. Even the Droid "operating manual" sucks. Let's face it - we're all on our own, running with a "beta" technology

 

[gsdreams]

I've actually tested that with atk and battery life both on an ally and my d2. I haven't tested it on my d2g yet. Its due to the way it operates. In and of itself it doesn't use a lot, but in the way it manages tasks it does.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[calguy19]

You guys are drifting off topic. This thread is about why my DX shuts down and reboots about once every other day, not why my battery life suddenly went south (which is didn't).

ATK was an EXPERIMENT to see if killing unused apps would make the problem go away. It didn't. The originally posted problem on this thread is WHY DOES MY PHONE SPONTANEOUSLY SHUTDOWN AND REBOOT EVERY TWO DAYS?

I suspect one of my apps is doing this, and I'm looking for info from other DX users. Anyone else experiencing this kind of problem? Anyone successful in tracking down the cause or the cure?

 

[kingsway8605]

Android skins (Motoblur, Sense, TouchWiz, etc) cause the reboots. A lot of people mistake the skins for being just an alternative launcher when they are in fact a custom rom. The custom rom/skin and the app coded/tested on stock android clash. It is similar to a blue screen on windows. The droid x is locked so true stock roms do not exist.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[calguy19]

Don't know what this means - I don't have a custom ROM or a custom "skin", whatever that is.

I sent a "Report Bug" to ATK last night (it's part of their app). It automatically includes the equivalent of the blue screen of death debug log. Heard back this AM - they claim it's a hdwr problem in some batches of DX's and gave me the URL to a MOTOROLA USERS FORUM.

Called Verizon. They are sending me a replacement DX free of charge, should arrive tomorrow (Thurs). Will transfer over to that phone and check it out.

 

[Xplorer4x4]

Not necessarily true. My battery monitor shows ATK is only using 4%. Even my wifi is using 5%. Display using 38%.

Its not the ATK itself is killing the battery, its what ATK does that kills the battery. Certain apps are just going to end up relaunching themselves, which is going to use more battery then if they were left alone to run in the background.

As for the restarts, everyone else I have seen on the forum with the issue RMAed there phone and there new one did not have the same problem..

 

[calguy19]

xplorer -

That's what I wound up doing - new phone should arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping the new one works ok. This is about my 5th phone since I first jumped into smartphones in January - long and ridiculous story. Includes a T-Mobile phone that would drop off the 3G Network everytime I drove to my local coffee shop and I had to reboot each time to recover, and a DX with a bad audio jack.

Why do they knowingly sell phones with these problem?

Anyway, since the ATK autokill didn't resolve the problem (remember, it was just an EXPERIMENT), I turned off that feature..

Just to be clear - you're saying that all the victims of this defect reporting on this forum who returned the phone for a replacement were relieved of that problem with the replacement? You also said that problem went away - was it replaced with a different problem?

 

[kingsway8605]

Don't know what this means - I don't have a custom ROM or a custom "skin", whatever that is.

I sent a "Report Bug" to ATK last night (it's part of their app). It automatically includes the equivalent of the blue screen of death debug log. Heard back this AM - they claim it's a hdwr problem in some batches of DX's and gave me the URL to a MOTOROLA USERS FORUM.

Called Verizon. They are sending me a replacement DX free of charge, should arrive tomorrow (Thurs). Will transfer over to that phone and check it out.

You do have a custom rom. It comes preinstalled on all droid x's. Almost all apps are written and tested to run on Android. Your phone is running Motoblur, which is based on Android but has been slightly tweaked (things like the lockscreen, the music player, the settings, syncing capabilities, etc). Whenever an app runs into one of these slight tweaks you will get a reboot. There is nothing you can do about it. My droid 2 is the same way, most htc phones do it too, never used a samsung but I am sure they suffer as well.
Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[Xplorer4x4]

xplorer -

That's what I wound up doing - new phone should arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping the new one works ok. This is about my 5th phone since I first jumped into smartphones in January - long and ridiculous story. Includes a T-Mobile phone that would drop off the 3G Network everytime I drove to my local coffee shop and I had to reboot each time to recover, and a DX with a bad audio jack.

Why do they knowingly sell phones with these problem?

Anyway, since the ATK autokill didn't resolve the problem (remember, it was just an EXPERIMENT), I turned off that feature..

Just to be clear - you're saying that all the victims of this defect reporting on this forum who returned the phone for a replacement were relieved of that problem with the replacement? You also said that problem went away - was it replaced with a different problem?

I don't think they knowingly sell bad devices..every time some one like you or me on my last phone, makes a warranty return it reduces the amount of profit. I say reduce because considering what we pay in mark up, I bet they could still make a profit on the dx for example if every dx on the market was rmaed. Of course then no one would but moto but you catch my drift.

Now I can't give you acurate figuers when it comes to succesful returns but I did see 2 or 3 people who said it fixed there reboot issue. Now I can confirm sometimes a rom can be the culprit. On my last android I used the preclair rom almost as soon as it was released. The first version and second ran fine. V3 caused me reboots like you described. V4 did to I think. V5 fixxed it. Returned in v6 untill I one day had to sbf. I flashed preclair v6 again and restored my apps with titanium backup and never had reboots again on v6. If the reboots happen again on the new dx, maybe try sbfing and reflashing. Perhaps in my case it was a bad flash.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[calguy19]

That brings up a question, and maybe some other folks are curious about this. Can any of you guys who root your phone, put in major mods, etc. answer -

If an app is running into the OS causing a reboot - shouldn't this happen when the app is actually being actively used, and it is being exercised fully, and not when it is sitting quietly in the background? Why does an app sitting in memory and just occassionally doing whatever it does trigger the reboot, rather than when all the functions of the app are being exercised? Second question - if an app is bumping into the OS, why does it take several days for this to happen? Whatever the app is doing, it does it many times every day. Why doesn't one of the "OS bumps" occur relatively shortly after the phone boots up?

Can't really fix as problem if you don't know the details about what's causing it.

 

[Snow02]

The DX/D2 reboot issue is a problem with motorola's froyo build. There was a leaked version of froyo with an updated build that did not suffer from reboots. Gingerbread is reboot free as well.

Bottom line, if you're having reboots, upgrade to gingerbread. Nothing else will fix it.