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Help Evo Rebooting on its own

Im going to sprint now, nothing was running, gps is always off, it just rebooted again while playing homerun battle 3d, never had a problem with that game up until this point
 
so I was taking a nap and my phone was vibrating ever 15 secs, My phone keeps rebooting. did several battery pulls. and then it stopped. Ok I am almost over this phone
 
my phone seems to only reboot when I am playing a game or using an app, sometimes the game or app will go for a while, sometimes its right away when it reboots, today I was playing atomic bomber and got through 8 waves, then just rebooted, back to sprint tomorrow, at this point I do not know what they can do, the phone as it self seems to work fine, but its pointless to have an android phone if I can not dload games or apps, what do you guys think? whats sprints next move, they already reset the phone twice, what else can they do? what do you think is causing it?, keep in mind, nothing is running in the background, gps is off, I am up for any solutions you may have
 
Follow Up 2:
Have had my replacement EVO for about 3 weeks now without incident. Before I was constantly testing theories as to what (app, hardware, etc) might be the cause. Since I've gotten the replacement I've been working it pretty hard with wi-fi, gps, Angry Birds :-), etc... and so far (fingers crossed) not one hiccup of any kind.

After spending a good month trying to figure the reboot thing out, with a pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth, my advice is - if you can get it replaced - save yourself the heartache. Sprint and hTC were both very helpful with this. Sprint especially. Apparently this is a slightly newer version of the phone. Only time will tell if all is well, but I'm ever hopeful.
 
scaudill said:
...Apparently this is a slightly newer version of the phone. Only time will tell if all is well, but I'm ever hopeful.
Click to expand...

Know for sure:

Settings -> About Phone -> Hardware Information -> Hardware version

But even some people with hardware version 3 have reported the rebooting problem, so who knows?
 
I went to sprint again today for the 4th time, and they did the same thing, hard reset, it did nothing. She told me since it happens when an app or game is dloaded, they could not give me a replacement, and that android is open source, and to be careful

I called sprint this afternoon, told them the issue, told them I want a replacement, since they have no black evos in stock, they are sending me a brand new white one!, I was very pleased and surprised, since they normally send refurbished phones, sprint customer care was much more helpful then the sprint store
 
just got my second phone back from the HTC repair center with a new main board and new speakers. Activated it on wednesday and today it did the reboot twice. One time it happened when I was on the phone with HTC. I am ready to drive 300 miles to the HTC repair center and not leave till both my defective EVOS are fixed
 
My replacement phone has rebooted three times in the past 5 days! It worked 100% perfect for the past month. What gives? I don't understand what is changing that is causing this to happen?!! I hadn't done the latest update in fear of that being the cause of the problem. I figure I have nothing to lose now. I'm going to apply the update and see if the problem stays the same, gets worse, or goes away.
 
Took mine in yesterday to a Sprint repair facility, they did a hard reset but before they did it rebooted. After the hard reset the associate played a youtube video for 5 minutes and said it seemed fine. I told him I was going to sit for a bit and play with the phone and so I played another video and 3 minutes later it rebooted. Seems to happen when phone is over 36 degrees celsius and processor is pushed a little hard... I could push it as hard as I want if I have it in front of my A/C vent while in a car but if I let it warm past 36 degrees it will reboot whether playing a game, surfing the web, or while in navigation mode... Hopefully the replacement phone I get won't have the same problem. Should be here tomorrow or the next day...
 
According to Good and Evo task killers have been known to lead to the Evo rebooting, probably due to careless use of them.

Note well:

Supermauro said...
My Evo started rebooting itself several times a day after I installed task killer, and stopped rebooting itself after I uninstalled it, also it made my Evo freeze one morning causing the alarm not to go off and I almost got late to work.
Click to expand...
Maybe this is why this is so hard to pin down. NOBODY here has mentioned task killers, but that might account for the random nature of who gets reboots and who doesn't. Read that linked article above to see for yourself.

Another comment there indicates that I might have caused my own problems by breaking Android Market by overzealous use of TasKiller. I was careful not to kill apps that obviously are part of Android core, but it still broke Market and now I can't do anything but wipe the phone back to factory to start over again. WOO HOO! Fun and games.
 
There are a lot of us opposed to task killers in Android.

At one point, I used them - but life improved when I stopped. When we went to from 2.1 to 2.2 (Froyo), there were notes and warnings that the task killing protocols in Froyo had changed. Some devs answered that call and claim to have fixed their task killers - whether or not they did any good is anyone's guess.

~~~~

As far as running nothing in the backwrong - incorrect.

Here's an under-the-hood snapshot of the services that might be running at any one time - note that I'm only running one or two actual apps at this point (warning - very boring Linux process dump occurs here):
View attachment sample_of_stock_evo_processes.pdf

So - it's really impossible for us mere users to correlate what we think might be running to what might be running - and causing the problem.

~~~~

Hardware version is faulty?

I dunno - for what it's worth, I'm at rev 0002 hardware, over 60 apps installed. I used to have the reboot problem - first month I had it - but after the first update, and I re-installed my apps - no problems. (Yeah, lucky me - not trying to rub it in - my point is that correlating to a hardware rev might not be the way to go.)

~~~~

Android is open source and therefore unstable.

Hogwash. Where's my revolver?

~~~~

What can cause an Android phone (read: specialized Linux) to reboot?

OK, some of this answer is _known_ for a _certain fact_ -- which part might apply to each of you we'll have to zero in on:

  1. Faulty hardware:
    • One of your onboard chips is bad - handset replacement is required. The common culprits here would be memory or power-supply related.
    • Your SD card is - or has gone - flaky. If you've been mounting your phone as a USB drive, and just unplugging it without doing the eject/unmount thing (because many people think that's ok because stuff works when they skip that step), then you've been playing Russian Roulette. You might have an error on your SD card such that some data an app is using (or an SD-card installed app) that is otherwise ok is now being sent to screwball-land: garbage-in, reboot-out. You can actually fix this doing the appropriate first aid/cleanup on your SD card - I recall more than one person solving their reboot problem this way.
    • You have a faulty USB cable. This could cause reboots while plugged in - and if that's happened, then that _might_ (I say might) have included some shorting that could've degraded your main board hardware (first bullet point above).
    • Faulty battery. C'mon - on a new phone, I totally doubt it - but it's possible. If you've been in and out of your case or doing battery pulls and have problems - now's the time to clean your battery contacts. Might not help, but it couldn't hurt when chasing something this nefarious.
  2. Poor application software - VERY POOR:
    • I'm unqualified to say what the state of the software developer's kit is like (the tools the devs use) for Android - but it's not uncommon for devs to cut corners - especially the less-experienced ones.
    • It's next to impossible to find The Silver Bullet - that one app that we can agree causes reboots - because of the old Firesign saying: two wrongs don't make a right - but three do.
    • Some combination of apps and background services CAN lead to a system fault that would cause a reboot. Taking just me as but one case - I have over 60 apps installed. Who of us mere users has about a man-year to put together a survey and correlation matrix to zero in on the problem? Not me.
    • About the only thing you can do to narrow this one down is painful - but insanely effective: remove your apps, run your phone stock. If it reboots and you've got a clean setup, the phone's defective, take it back. Otherwise - install one app, run a day or two, confirm no reboots, install the next app - lather, rinse, repeat. If it's app related, you WILL find either the offending app - or - will have an app that is unhappy with another.
  3. Unstable operating system:
    • Android 2.2 on the Evo is well-designed and stable. The large number of people without the reboot problem proves that out.
  4. Dirty and tangled caches and data areas, unique to Android:
    • A big culprit. These get cleaned up when you do a factory reset. Many have solved their reboot problems following this backup/reset/restore procedure. Again - it's not The Silver Bullet that will kill monster - but has worked for some people. (I'm reading lately this hasn't worked for many of you, so I'm not posting without reading - I'm just putting this out for those that haven't tried it you - because it has worked for some people. See: http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-support-troubleshooting/141369-how-fix-froyo.html

OK - that all said, I totally empathize and sympathize with each and every one of you having this problem.

I can't say that I expect this post to be totally helpful per se, but maybe we can use this info together to take a sorta engineering or sorta systematic, step-by-step approach and see if we can collaborate until we narrow in on a fix for this very terrible problem.

I'm up for it, we've solved other big problems in this Evo forum this way before, and I'm pulling for you guys.

I'll agree in advance that this should be Sprint/HTC's job - but we know that can be hit or miss - and users pulling together is what we do best around here.
 
Now for something completely practical.

There's a tool in the market called aLogcat (free, Market). It can be a little hard to use - but - it gives a running, real-time readout of the internal system logs.

When apps are going nuts, errors will be logged and you can use that tool to check the logs. You'll have to be a dev to figure it out - but - look for entries in RED beginning with [E] as in ERROR.

These entries will contain info useful ONLY to devs - but they'll give an app or process name and that can be helpful.

I once had a rogue app that caused all sorts of nonsense with my phone - one of bubble-level things. Turns out it somehow decided that my 4G radio needed to be toggled on and off about a 1000 times a second - caused no end of trouble until I used that tool to track it down.

It's worth a shot.

Note that from it's menu, aLogcat has an option to Pause the display. Trust me - you'll absolutely want to use that so that you can take your time and scroll back to see what up at any point in time. Log entries come babbling out fast and furiously - trust me, you'll be using Pause.

If you seen something really bad - lots of red ink, for example - in your log file, then you can use this tool to mail that log snapshot to yourself - and then to the dev if you've found a rogue app - or can copy and paste parts here and I'll (and probably others) will be happy to walk us all through what those logs are telling us.

No guarantees - but hey, it's worth a shot if you're just slightly patient enough to try this approach.

Cheers!
 
I'm also surprised at the lack of anyone reporting that Sprint has "reprovisioned" their phones.

At least one user here, Rangergrrl, had patiently tried all the right stuff including numerous factory resets. Being persistent, she found just the right tech at Sprint - who performed this task, and her problems disappeared.

Maybe somebuddy knowledgeable can tell us what "reprovisioning" is - all I know is that it's a software/firmware something, and solved a problem that a factory reset could not.

Saved her from unnecessarily trading in good hardware.

Just tossing this one out there for you.
 
EarlyMon said:
...I can't say that I expect this post to be totally helpful per se, but maybe we can use this info together to take a sorta engineering or sorta systematic, step-by-step approach and see if we can collaborate until we narrow in on a fix for this very terrible problem.
Click to expand...

That's what I tried to do over a month ago. Unfortunately, most posts were of the form "My Evo reboots. HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPP!!" which doesn't provide much to go on. I don't know how people expect to figure this thing out without some sort of systematic approach to eliminate the unlikely and narrow in on the likely cause. Even the support personnel gave wildly varying answers and levels of help.

Unfortunately, the only entity who really knows the percentage of people with any given problem is the carrier, but the carrier has a vested interest in keeping this information to itself in order to avoid scaring away new customers. Most of the posts about any product are complaints rather than compliments, so it's tough to gauge how widespread this problem is from outside the walls.

I slammed the brakes on my purchase of an Evo when I learned about the reboot problem and the fragile charging port. Both issues at first glance smacked of poor quality control. The charging port can be maintained by not abusing the phone and using a different charger than supplied. If the reboot problem can be narrowed down to something quantifiable and controllable I'd consider an Evo once again.

Or maybe I'll just dither around until the Next Great Phone comes out.
 
boteman, I wouldn't hold up your purchase based on these problems, there are for more people with no reboot problem and I have yet to see the charging port issue. I personally am very hard on my phone and the charging port works fine. Also, I know A LOT of people with Evo's and not one of them has had either of these problems except my partner and his reboot problem went away on its own after a week or so as did mine.
 
boteman said:
That's what I tried to do over a month ago. Unfortunately, most posts were of the form "My Evo reboots. HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPP!!" which doesn't provide much to go on.
Click to expand...

I've noticed you and others trying to solve this systematically - rowdymoose suggested it a month before you first posted in this thread for example - that was then, this is now, let's give it all another shot.

If you read this thread carefully, I believe you'll find packets of users clustered over various updates and issues over time.

This is not a hidden design problem being swept under the rug, per your suggestion on 10-1.

This is a exposed problem that seems very much not design-related - each non-phone-exchange solution showed in those cases it was some implementation problem and each phone exchange that did succeed showed that the design was fine and the hardware was faulty.

My numerical points above cover all generics, and now we need only try zero on the specific to solve it this time.

In my opinion.
 
I've had a randomly re-booting phone for a month. It started when I would use Google's turn by turn navagation but no other program. Then it progressed to any application that I used for an extended period of time like a game or watching my slingbox. Then it finally would do it in the middle of a phone call. I've had this phone since day one and never had any problems with it. So I tried to start insolating the problem. Replaced the extended battery that I'd been using with a standard battery. Didn't help. Removed all my system apps, Juiceplotter, setcpu, etc., didn't help. Finally did a hard re-set, still didn't help. I personally believe that it's a temperature sensitive hardware component. Anyway I took it in to Sprint and the tech "played" with it for 20 minutes and "couldn't find a problem" and gave it back to me. I told him that the phone was unuseable and that I needed a replacement. He replied that he wanted me to leave happy and so he simply gave me a brand new phone out of the box. Other then having to reload all my apps for the third time I'm very happy with the service I got from Sprint. But I keep "looking over my shoulder" wondering if the phone is going to re-boot! After you have a randomly re-booting phone you're never comfortable about your phone again.
 
I think it is related to the temperature of the battery. It happens to me almost every time when the battery is over 103 degrees and I am playing with the phone and inside a building when it could be roaming. It is random to my knowledge, but it happens more when I play Angry Birds...
 
uffal said:
has anyone tried this:
...
(originally found here: HTC EVO 4G:FIX FOR EVO GPS REBOOT (fixes Hero as...)

I just tried it, but it seemed to help a number of people. We'll see if it helps me :/
Click to expand...

Not everybody on the linked thread was helped by it, plus one poster raised concerns that it might disable some functionality of the phone.

Nobody explained what that sequence does, just said "do this". So what, exactly, do those steps accomplish?
 
boteman said:
Not everybody on the linked thread was helped by it, plus one poster raised concerns that it might disable some functionality of the phone.

Nobody explained what that sequence does, just said "do this". So what, exactly, do those steps accomplish?
Click to expand...

There was a known issue where the GPS hash table (essentially - data storage) got corrupted such that use of maps or nav functions would cause erratic reboots.

Those steps take you into a special service menu where you can enter the GPSCLRX - aka GPS CLeaR X (where X = hardware registers and firmware locations outside the reach of a hard reset).

The fix was arrived at by some collaboration of Sprint and HTC as I recall - and I actually had the Very Original link posted somewhere, where this straight dope came from Sprint's support people on their site - but - I can't find it with google because months later - it's all over the place in second-hand form.

So - I can only offer that I'm perfectly trustworthy on this.

I recall no issues where this degraded a phone at all.

I recall issues where this didn't clear the problem.

And - don't expect it to work if your particular reboot problem isn't tied to GPS/nav/maps (and with all the location stuff running, it's hard for many users to tell).
 
Ok just got done reading most of everyones replys about the rebooting. I have had mine since Monday of last week and not one problem until today. And with mine it rebooted than acted as if I pressed the power buttom to awake it. I have 003 with 2.2 and have no more than 20 apps but the fact is I have never turned off my all time mobile data so there for I know what the problem is. Its is definelty the battery becauase my phone was reaching temps above 104 and thats when it did. I put the phone down let it cool off and turned off live wallpapers and it has not done it since. I had also just turned on the Galaxy live wall paper for the first time while charging the phone. Its the battery temps simple as that.
 
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