-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
Help Phone Shutting off randomly?
- Thread starter cryptarc
- Start date
-
- Tags
- samsung captivate
Dr.GreenLeaf
Lurker
I am experiencing the same issues with mine. Spent a good three hours on the phone with at&t, and warranty company. Am waiting for replacement. Lets hope this one works right!
Timelord83
Lurker
I purchased my Captivate From The ATT store on Saturday 2/12/2011 at roughly 2pm and by 8pm it was randomly shutting off.. While connected to the charger off the charger... no matter what it was randomly shutting down. so i uninstalled all my apps and still no joy.. called Samsung they want me to contact a service tech and send the phone around. so i used the code form previous posts and reset it and we will see how it goes this time with nothing but an alarm set from the default android OS. if it shuts down even once its going to be swapped tomorrow.. i am very disappointed in this phone. i am comming from an iPhone 3gs and apple may suck at least it stays on all time till the battery dies. i'll update this after tomorrow.
Jack45
Android Expert
First, welcome!
This problem won't disappear. It may hibernate, but it'll show up again. Let me make this simple:
Exchange it at the store. Now.
Timelord83
Lurker
UPDATE: phone made it through the nite. Woohooo activated swype this morning before work its back random power offs. Disabled swype shes rock solid exchanging later today
gcobb
Android Enthusiast
I was on the phone a total of about 10 minutes before they agreed to ship mine.
droid'newbie
Lurker
You all are ATT/Captivate users... any history or comments regarding the "other guys" over at VZW with the Fascinate? I've had close to the same experience as alot have talked about... the working fine until the 2nd full charge, and then just shutting down for no reason. I haven't rooted the phone, the only apps are standard everyday apps, and I didn't even install a task killer, just use the task manager that was pre-installed. Any clues?
sremick
Android Expert
Makes sense, since this is the "Captivate" forum.
Well, you could try asking in the Fascinate forum. Chances are, if someone owns a Fascinate, they aren't here.
Samsung Fascinate - Android Forums
droid'newbie
Lurker
Oops... Didn't even look at the forum I was in. Just did a thread search for "random shutoffs".. My bad.Contacted Samsung, they had me do a hard reset, no biggie, backed everything up and reset it, it still powered off later that day with no 3rd party apps installed.
Called them back and they want me to ship it in, they do not do replacements...
the Genius said "If it is shutting itself off, then something is wrong"
like friggin' Duh Idiot!!! and said they don't replace phones only repair them, so I said I would call ATT, he said to tell thenm that Samsung would not replace it only repair it for them too... Friggin Call center in Indoa, what A-Holes!!!
Pissed, I called ATT and once they got my IMEI # they said they would replace it (got my Captivate back in August 2010)
Awesome!
Called them back and they want me to ship it in, they do not do replacements...
the Genius said "If it is shutting itself off, then something is wrong"
like friggin' Duh Idiot!!! and said they don't replace phones only repair them, so I said I would call ATT, he said to tell thenm that Samsung would not replace it only repair it for them too... Friggin Call center in Indoa, what A-Holes!!!
Pissed, I called ATT and once they got my IMEI # they said they would replace it (got my Captivate back in August 2010)
Awesome!
I got my refurbished phone this weekend. I thought id share my follow up experience, and its not good.
I've had my replacement phone for two days and about an hour after AT&T gave me a follow-up call to make sure everything was working fine; I got a random shut down.
So, it took 6-days for my replacement to show up. My GPS takes longer to lock, but when it does its more accurate. Once I had to re-start my phone to get the Wi-Fi to work and twice in the first 24 hours of having the phone, it has shut off while at >50% battery.
So, seems my refurbished phone has more problems including the same problem I returned my original phone for. So, I guess im calling AT&T tomorrow for a 3rd phone.
P.S. The IMEI on my replacement phone is within the affected range. I can't figure out how to confirm the manufacture date, however, there is a "10.09" on the refurb sticker under the battery.
I've had my replacement phone for two days and about an hour after AT&T gave me a follow-up call to make sure everything was working fine; I got a random shut down.
So, it took 6-days for my replacement to show up. My GPS takes longer to lock, but when it does its more accurate. Once I had to re-start my phone to get the Wi-Fi to work and twice in the first 24 hours of having the phone, it has shut off while at >50% battery.
So, seems my refurbished phone has more problems including the same problem I returned my original phone for. So, I guess im calling AT&T tomorrow for a 3rd phone.
P.S. The IMEI on my replacement phone is within the affected range. I can't figure out how to confirm the manufacture date, however, there is a "10.09" on the refurb sticker under the battery.
Dante04SRT
Well-Known Member
I bought my Captivate brand new about 2 weeks ago from AT&T. It had an IMEI outside of the bad range and it showed that it was mfgr'd in mid-Dec 2010. According to info found on XDA, the shut down issue "officially" was limited to phones made BEFORE Nov 6, 2010. I'm here to tell you that this is NOT the case. My phone started having shutdown issues the first day. I returned my original phone 3 days later and got another (from a busier AT&T store; hoping that it would have a newer mfgr date).
My new phone had a sticker on it of 1/27 and didn't have any issues with the shut off. My advice, if you are still in the 30 day window and are getting the shutoff problem, take it back to AT&T IMMEDIATELY and get a brand new replacement - Don't be afraid to ask if they'll get you the 'newest' phone they have in stock - The 2011 made ones don't seem to have this problem anymore.
If you're outside of your 30-day window, I'd go into AT&T with some of these forum posts (and the XDA post showing the official Samsung bulletin) and use that as a tool to get them to replace your phone for free. Remain calm, explain your situation and show widespread proof of the problem and you might get lucky and get a replacement that will NOT have the problem again.
My new phone had a sticker on it of 1/27 and didn't have any issues with the shut off. My advice, if you are still in the 30 day window and are getting the shutoff problem, take it back to AT&T IMMEDIATELY and get a brand new replacement - Don't be afraid to ask if they'll get you the 'newest' phone they have in stock - The 2011 made ones don't seem to have this problem anymore.
If you're outside of your 30-day window, I'd go into AT&T with some of these forum posts (and the XDA post showing the official Samsung bulletin) and use that as a tool to get them to replace your phone for free. Remain calm, explain your situation and show widespread proof of the problem and you might get lucky and get a replacement that will NOT have the problem again.
Where is this Samsung Bulletin? I search but haven't been able to find it.
Any one got a link to it?
Dante04SRT
Well-Known Member
Here's where I originally found the information - It looks to have been editted recently but you will still be able to find reference material there.
At&t captivate shut down press release - xda-developers
I can't remember where I found the "official" Samsung Bulletin #, but if you talk to Samsung tech about it, they can reference the bulletin via the #. It would appear that not all of the techs know about it; yet.
Hi all,
After following this thread for a few months now, thought I'd throw in my own experience with the random shut-offs.
Got my Captivate in October. Worked beautifully until Thanksgiving weekend when the shut-offs started happening, on average 3-4 times a day. I tried the various suggestions on the forum (turn off power management, set wireless on all the time, etc.). Finally downloaded CKA,which worked fine but as others have mentioned, degraded my battery life significantly.
About 2 months ago, I stumbled upon an article having to do with battery management & CPUs on Android devices (sorry i don't have the link), so I tried a little experiment. And I've discovered that by having a Live Wallpaper activated, I've eliminated all random shutoffs 100%. My last random shutdown was late December.
Now, I know Samsung and AT&T have come out and said this problem is a hardware related, though they don't say what. What does this have to do with my little epiphany above? Apparently there are 2 CPUs on the Captivate (actually in most smartphones): the Samsung Hummingbird ARM cortex that powers Android and another one by Infineon which handles all cellular activity. In standby mode, the latter is suppose to be 'active' or 'awake' in order to receive phone calls/messages. At this state Android is suspended, for power conservation. If the network chip is defective and not staying active, then it makes sense that the phone would power down, since there is no cpu activity registering. Which is why having wireless on or power management off temporarily fixes the problem, until you don't register any activity there.
However,if a live wallpaper is set and the phone goes to sleep, there is a low percentage of amperage still running on the device, so I suspect the phone would not power down.
Now,I'm no hardware expert (I'm just a humble application developer) but so far I've rotated through several of the installed Live Wallpapers and have yet to have a random shutdown. It's going on almost 2 months now.
By no means am I trying to discourage those with problems from getting a replacement phone. And I'm sure there are those who have an aversion to the live wallpapers. Just wanted to share my theory and experience with what's worked for me.
Anyhow, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
After following this thread for a few months now, thought I'd throw in my own experience with the random shut-offs.
Got my Captivate in October. Worked beautifully until Thanksgiving weekend when the shut-offs started happening, on average 3-4 times a day. I tried the various suggestions on the forum (turn off power management, set wireless on all the time, etc.). Finally downloaded CKA,which worked fine but as others have mentioned, degraded my battery life significantly.
About 2 months ago, I stumbled upon an article having to do with battery management & CPUs on Android devices (sorry i don't have the link), so I tried a little experiment. And I've discovered that by having a Live Wallpaper activated, I've eliminated all random shutoffs 100%. My last random shutdown was late December.
Now, I know Samsung and AT&T have come out and said this problem is a hardware related, though they don't say what. What does this have to do with my little epiphany above? Apparently there are 2 CPUs on the Captivate (actually in most smartphones): the Samsung Hummingbird ARM cortex that powers Android and another one by Infineon which handles all cellular activity. In standby mode, the latter is suppose to be 'active' or 'awake' in order to receive phone calls/messages. At this state Android is suspended, for power conservation. If the network chip is defective and not staying active, then it makes sense that the phone would power down, since there is no cpu activity registering. Which is why having wireless on or power management off temporarily fixes the problem, until you don't register any activity there.
However,if a live wallpaper is set and the phone goes to sleep, there is a low percentage of amperage still running on the device, so I suspect the phone would not power down.
Now,I'm no hardware expert (I'm just a humble application developer) but so far I've rotated through several of the installed Live Wallpapers and have yet to have a random shutdown. It's going on almost 2 months now.
By no means am I trying to discourage those with problems from getting a replacement phone. And I'm sure there are those who have an aversion to the live wallpapers. Just wanted to share my theory and experience with what's worked for me.
Anyhow, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Jack45
Android Expert
First, welcome!
Very interesting first post.
Why do you believe there is the need for a low percentage of amperage to run on the device when a live wallpaper is in use but the phone is asleep? Does this design place the wallpaper in a ready state so that it performs its live action immediately upon waking? Also, as CKA degrades battery life significantly, is it a truism that live wallpapers affect the battery to a lesser degree, even though they're doing their thing with the phone on and, as you've stated, generate a bit of activity when the screen is off?
Very interesting first post.
Why do you believe there is the need for a low percentage of amperage to run on the device when a live wallpaper is in use but the phone is asleep? Does this design place the wallpaper in a ready state so that it performs its live action immediately upon waking? Also, as CKA degrades battery life significantly, is it a truism that live wallpapers affect the battery to a lesser degree, even though they're doing their thing with the phone on and, as you've stated, generate a bit of activity when the screen is off?
@Jack45,
Regarding the live wallpaper, in my research, the active live wallpaper is set as a service, which keeps it running in the background, even with minimal amps consuming power. Which makes sense to me, since you do not want to have to 'redraw' the animation again from scratch once the phone 'wakes up'. In contrast CKA seems to do the same thing in that it keeps some action (polling?) running in the background but it doesn't have as well designed power management as the live wallpapers (sorry, no offense to the developer!).
Again, I could be completely off but it's the only explanation I can come up with as to why the live wallpapers have 'magically' resuscitated my Captivate. And I was not about to give up and go back to my previous iPhone!
Regarding the live wallpaper, in my research, the active live wallpaper is set as a service, which keeps it running in the background, even with minimal amps consuming power. Which makes sense to me, since you do not want to have to 'redraw' the animation again from scratch once the phone 'wakes up'. In contrast CKA seems to do the same thing in that it keeps some action (polling?) running in the background but it doesn't have as well designed power management as the live wallpapers (sorry, no offense to the developer!).
Again, I could be completely off but it's the only explanation I can come up with as to why the live wallpapers have 'magically' resuscitated my Captivate. And I was not about to give up and go back to my previous iPhone!
Jack45
Android Expert
OK...
1. Are there services other than live wallpapers that could / should accomplish the same, or are the others sufficiently benign as to not generate any activity?
2. Regarding redraw, do static pictures require redraws, too, or do animation re-draws require more oomph, thereby becoming a somewhat active, while-it-sleeps service?
1. Are there services other than live wallpapers that could / should accomplish the same, or are the others sufficiently benign as to not generate any activity?
2. Regarding redraw, do static pictures require redraws, too, or do animation re-draws require more oomph, thereby becoming a somewhat active, while-it-sleeps service?
Using my best educated guesses, since I do not develop for Android:
1) The other Android services (at least what comes out of the box) all accomplish similar functions but all require some connection either via cellular or wifi in order to be 'active', I believe. Otherwise, they are benign, for lack of a better word.
2) For live wallpapers, the service has to also be able to keep management of state, in order to know where the animation was before the phone is put in standby, which is what i mean by redraw. Static wallpapers, though using the same service engine, just needs to release any resources using cpu when put to 'sleep'.
So I guess the answer to your questions are 'Yes, I think so'.
1) The other Android services (at least what comes out of the box) all accomplish similar functions but all require some connection either via cellular or wifi in order to be 'active', I believe. Otherwise, they are benign, for lack of a better word.
2) For live wallpapers, the service has to also be able to keep management of state, in order to know where the animation was before the phone is put in standby, which is what i mean by redraw. Static wallpapers, though using the same service engine, just needs to release any resources using cpu when put to 'sleep'.
So I guess the answer to your questions are 'Yes, I think so'.
Jack45
Android Expert
>>> 1) The other Android services (at least what comes out of the box) all accomplish similar functions but all require some connection either via cellular or wifi in order to be 'active', I believe. Otherwise, they are benign, for lack of a better word.
OK
>>> For live wallpapers, the service has to also be able to keep management of state, in order to know where the animation was before the phone is put in standby, which is what i mean by redraw. Static wallpapers, though using the same service engine, just needs to release any resources using cpu when put to 'sleep'.
Hmmm. My initial response is: why would the animated wallpaper care where it was before the phone is put in standby? For example, if grass is swaying who cares where the blades were in the scheme of things when the phone was put to sleep, or who cares where the leaf was in the water, etc. It's not that it matters if the grass or leaves lose their place! But that's me. Maybe Samsung thinks its important. Their decisions (or, rather, indecision) regarding unrelated issues have stymied me, too.
In any event, it works for you and that's good. I do have a "warning," though. In other situations the random shutdowns have hibernated for a while only to re-emerge at will. I hope that won't happen in your situation.
Thanks for your explanations. It's been a pleasure reading them and, again, welcome! Good to have you on board.
OK
>>> For live wallpapers, the service has to also be able to keep management of state, in order to know where the animation was before the phone is put in standby, which is what i mean by redraw. Static wallpapers, though using the same service engine, just needs to release any resources using cpu when put to 'sleep'.
Hmmm. My initial response is: why would the animated wallpaper care where it was before the phone is put in standby? For example, if grass is swaying who cares where the blades were in the scheme of things when the phone was put to sleep, or who cares where the leaf was in the water, etc. It's not that it matters if the grass or leaves lose their place!
But that's me. Maybe Samsung thinks its important. Their decisions (or, rather, indecision) regarding unrelated issues have stymied me, too.In any event, it works for you and that's good. I do have a "warning," though. In other situations the random shutdowns have hibernated for a while only to re-emerge at will. I hope that won't happen in your situation.
Thanks for your explanations. It's been a pleasure reading them and, again, welcome! Good to have you on board.
Hi everyone,
I too am having random shutdowns with the Captivate. I bought my from amazonwireless in late Jan. The phone started shutting down within a few weeks. Like many others at first I thought it was me turning it off accidently. ATT won't do anything cause I bought the phone from amazonwireless. I called amazon and they sent me a replacement no problems, except if there is anything to the manufacture date thing the replacement is still defective. I just got the replacement today and have not had any issues yet. I am concerned I am going to get in this circle of replace, wait, replace, wait, until they won't replace anymore, then what, I am stuck with a defective phone? I asked amazonwireless if they could make sure it was manufactured after Nov but they said they can not guarantee the manufacture date of the replacement. I really like the phone, but I am so discouraged.
By the way, I noticed the Software Launch versions refereneced in the "Samsung internal Buletin". Supposedly SW-Ver i897UCJF6 is expected to have the issue and SW-Ver i897UCJH7 is supposed to be OK. Well, 1st phone is i897UCJH7, replacement is i897UCJF6.
I too am having random shutdowns with the Captivate. I bought my from amazonwireless in late Jan. The phone started shutting down within a few weeks. Like many others at first I thought it was me turning it off accidently. ATT won't do anything cause I bought the phone from amazonwireless. I called amazon and they sent me a replacement no problems, except if there is anything to the manufacture date thing the replacement is still defective. I just got the replacement today and have not had any issues yet. I am concerned I am going to get in this circle of replace, wait, replace, wait, until they won't replace anymore, then what, I am stuck with a defective phone? I asked amazonwireless if they could make sure it was manufactured after Nov but they said they can not guarantee the manufacture date of the replacement. I really like the phone, but I am so discouraged.
By the way, I noticed the Software Launch versions refereneced in the "Samsung internal Buletin". Supposedly SW-Ver i897UCJF6 is expected to have the issue and SW-Ver i897UCJH7 is supposed to be OK. Well, 1st phone is i897UCJH7, replacement is i897UCJF6.
Dante04SRT
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
I too am having random shutdowns with the Captivate. I bought my from amazonwireless in late Jan. The phone started shutting down within a few weeks. Like many others at first I thought it was me turning it off accidently. ATT won't do anything cause I bought the phone from amazonwireless. I called amazon and they sent me a replacement no problems, except if there is anything to the manufacture date thing the replacement is still defective. I just got the replacement today and have not had any issues yet. I am concerned I am going to get in this circle of replace, wait, replace, wait, until they won't replace anymore, then what, I am stuck with a defective phone? I asked amazonwireless if they could make sure it was manufactured after Nov but they said they can not guarantee the manufacture date of the replacement. I really like the phone, but I am so discouraged.
By the way, I noticed the Software Launch versions refereneced in the "Samsung internal Buletin". Supposedly SW-Ver i897UCJF6 is expected to have the issue and SW-Ver i897UCJH7 is supposed to be OK. Well, 1st phone is i897UCJH7, replacement is i897UCJF6.
Goto Samsung.com and register your phone - That will give you the MFG date. If it was mfg'd in 2011, you're most likely ok - My current phone falls within the range and it is 100% fine.
Murphys_law
Lurker
I love/hate my captivate, i just got it last saturday(6 days ago) and its been randomly shutting off for 4 of those days, at first i thought it was me pressing the power off in my pocket but it did it this morning on my desk, i guess im going back to bestbuy/att today when i get off
UGH! Had my new captivate for 2 months now and it just had it's first random shut down. I charged it up full while the phone was off turned it on and then went to sleep. When I woke up the phone wouldn't. It happens again and off to the AT&T store I go .
edit: just happened again after like 20 minutes of being idle, off to AT&T I go, gonna bug them and see if I can switch to an inspire or an Atrix instead of another captivate that will in all likelihood have crappy GPS and turn off on it's own.
.edit: just happened again after like 20 minutes of being idle, off to AT&T I go, gonna bug them and see if I can switch to an inspire or an Atrix instead of another captivate that will in all likelihood have crappy GPS and turn off on it's own.