Help To Anyone Experiencing Problems With ANYTHING

[paddylaz]

I figured this was worth making a new topic about as although it seems incredibly simple, from what I've seen on this forum, A LOT of people seem to be having troubles that disappear once they do this.

Basically, if you have a GS2, and you have upgraded the firmware at any point in time, and you are experiencing problems OF ANY NATURE - try performing a hard reset (with 'format usb' option ticked). From the replies I've got from various people, it seems to do the trick.

To do this, go to settings/privacy/factory reset (tick the usb thing too)

Now I know this is very obvious, and I also know that this forum is full of some very sophisticated programmers who I'm sure are excellent at creating their own roms/custom firmwares/getting your gs2 to make the coffee/ and all sorts of wonderful mods.

But there are also a lot of less techno-minded people who still love their gs2. I had a plethora of problems including dock icons changing by themselves, visual glitches, lagging, and low light issues with the camera. I did the hard reset and 99% of them have gone. I'm not a programmer but came to a conclusion that remnants of the old firmware were probably conflicting with the new firmware. By doing a hard reset, I retained my new firmware but I guess flushed out the remnants of the old. My GS2 is now working almost perfectly.

Don't flame me for this post if it sounds either primitive or condescending....but seriously, the amount and sheer DIVERSITY of different problems that I had makes me think that this is what is causing perhaps 65/70% of any problems reported on this forum.


ps. obviously it will erase everything on your phone, so backup

 

[Hawker]

I figured this was worth making a new topic about as although it seems incredibly simple, from what I've seen on this forum, A LOT of people seem to be having troubles that disappear once they do this.

Basically, if you have a GS2, and you have upgraded the firmware at any point in time, and you are experiencing problems OF ANY NATURE - try performing a hard reset (with 'format usb' option ticked). From the replies I've got from various people, it seems to do the trick.

To do this, go to settings/privacy/factory reset (tick the usb thing too)

Now I know this is very obvious, and I also know that this forum is full of some very sophisticated programmers who I'm sure are excellent at creating their own roms/custom firmwares/getting your gs2 to make the coffee/ and all sorts of wonderful mods.

But there are also a lot of less techno-minded people who still love their gs2. I had a plethora of problems including dock icons changing by themselves, visual glitches, lagging, and low light issues with the camera. I did the hard reset and 99% of them have gone. I'm not a programmer but came to a conclusion that remnants of the old firmware were probably conflicting with the new firmware. By doing a hard reset, I retained my new firmware but I guess flushed out the remnants of the old. My GS2 is now working almost perfectly.

Don't flame me for this post if it sounds either primitive or condescending....but seriously, the amount and sheer DIVERSITY of different problems that I had makes me think that this is what is causing perhaps 65/70% of any problems reported on this forum.


ps. obviously it will erase everything on your phone, so backup

Ok, I can sort of understand your reasons behind this approach, but it is somewhat of a sweeping statement to say if you have ANY problem at all, do a factory reset! Its a bit of a "sledgehammer to crack a nut" approach.

Any problem should be posted up here and discussed first. We are a helpful bunch, by in large!
Many problems have already been discussed here, with perhaps a simple solution.

And dont forget, a factory reset is no guarantee. Its not a magic potion that solves all problems.
A factory reset would be a LAST RESORT, if all other suggestions failed, or there is no other alternative.

 

[paddylaz]

I see your point, but I never said it was a 'magic potion', or anything like that. All I'm saying is I have encountered a lot of people plus a few on this forum with gs2's and this seems to be an effective method.

Obviously there is an infinite number of potential problems that could affect a gs2, the reason why i gave the topic the 'to anyone who has a problem with anything' title was simply a mathematical one - i'm off the opinion that say, 60% of people who upgrade the firmware on their new gs2, encounter problems, and then post on this forum, can have said problems rectified using this technique. I therefore figured in terms of sheer numbers it would be worth trying to get everyone to read about it.

A large volume of people who get onto this site are probably people who don't register, who don't post, but simply people who take the wrapping of their new gs2, upgrade the firmware, encounter a problem and hit the internet to get a quick fix from someone in the know. Those people will prob then not come back onto it again. I had to say 'anything' simply because the problems I had were incredibly diverse and didn't seem to be related to each other. - i.e. my dock icons kept changing, and simultaneously my camera froze when focusing in low light.

Also, in terms of you describing the technique as a 'last resort' kind of thing, well I think that's arguable. It might be a last resort when you've got all your data, contacts, music etc on the phone already.
But if you've JUST got your GS2, and you've done what I and I'm sure most people would do of even intermediate techno knowledge, which is to upgrade to the latest firmware, then there's no reason why you can't do it. You're not losing anything because you haven't put anything on the phone yet.

If it was just me benefiting from this technique, I would probably stay quiet about it, but it seems to be working for most people I've suggested it to, so thought I'd share.

 

[skimminstones]

To be honest its a bit silly to be telling people to factory reset their phone if they have a problem of "any nature at all"

You apparently started this thread for the less technically minded members, those members probably wont have backed anything up then so youre telling them to to totally wipe their phone everytime they have an issue, however small?

Of course people are welcome to do that if they wish but its one hell of a step to take for what could be very simple issues.

 

[paddylaz]

To be honest its a bit silly to be telling people to factory reset their phone if they have a problem of "any nature at all"

You apparently started this thread for the less technically minded members, those members probably wont have backed anything up then so youre telling them to to totally wipe their phone everytime they have an issue, however small?

Of course people are welcome to do that if they wish but its one hell of a step to take for what could be very simple issues.

Did you have trouble reading my post?

I think I quite clearly state that this is FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE UPGRADED THEIR FIRMWARE AND SUDDENLY START NOTICING PROBLEMS.

Obviously, it follows then that this is something you do ONCE, to get rid of the remnants (or whatever it actually is) that is causing the glitching. It follows that this is not something you'd repeat (Unless of course you upgraded to ANOTHER firmware and had ANOTHER onslaught of problems appearing out of nowhere.)

In terms of your comment about backing up, i do actually state at the bottom that they should do this very thing.

Seriously mate, if you're going to take time to write something like that I'm assuming you'd bother to actually read my post.

 

[skimminstones]

Basically, if you have a GS2, and you have upgraded the firmware at any point in time, and you are experiencing problems OF ANY NATURE - try performing a hard reset (with 'format usb' option ticked). From the replies I've got from various people, it seems to do the trick.

This to me does not read as if you have issues immediately after upgrading anything. It says to me if you have issues of any kind at any time.

But you know, if you want to use lots of capital letters to show youre angry then knock yourself out.

 

[Slug]

Cool down people, please. I see enough drama down the hall in the GNexus section.

Paddylaz actually has a good point. A reset is something we tend to avoid at all costs because of "inconvenience". However it is the absolute best way to ensure that any and all crud is flushed from the system. Enabling Google Backup in Settings/Privacy will eliminate much of the hard work of reconfiguration too.

 

[paddylaz]

All that matters, and it is clearly communicated, is that if you are in the category of people who are:

1) GS2 owners AND
2) Who have upgraded their phone AND
3) Since said upgrade, have witnessed technical problems of some kind manifesting in some way.

Not angry, but not really sure how to spell it out any easier. I hope the nice checklist above makes it better.

Re: Slug: Yeah sorry will cool down no worries