Help every boot like first boot, force closing apps, and can't hard reset

[antilochus90]

Phone locked up the other day, so took battery out to reset it. Now every time I boot the phone it is as if I was booting it for the first time (asks me to select language, date/time, sign into Google account, little mainscreen "helper", etc.). All of my apps are uninstalled, however none of my pictures are deleted, even when I try to hard reset the phone. Additionally, after a brief period of use, almost all apps need to be force closed. Only way to get them working again is to reboot phone, which takes me back to square one. System is 2.3.6 and have never tinekered with anything. Would appreciate some advice.

 

[quantumrand]

Well that's a new one. It sounds like something is probably defective, likely the system partition of the internal storage.

You mentioned you've done a factory reset, but have you tried doing a factory reset from Recovery Mode (and using recovery to wipe the /cache partition as well)?

You can also try updating to 4.0.4. If it's some sort of software configuration issue, the update might correct it. Alternatively, if there's some sort of hardware issue, the update could fail and leave the phone unable to successfully boot.

In all likelihood, you'll have to get a hold of Samsung and make good on the warranty.