Help Incredible locking up due to 'stuck' process (Verizon)

[StoneDroid]

I own an HTC Incredible that is about 1.5 years old. Aside from a few software upgrade related issues, it's worked nearly flawlessly until now. Now, it's just virtually crashed.

I'm seeking help mainly about which tech support to call. I assume Verizon - my carrier - but I'm not sure. This may be an HTC issue, but I guess Verizon would tell me. (Just trying to avoid waiting in a tech support cue for half hour listening to commercials while I wait.)

Problem: for the last 10 days or so, I've been annoyingly interrupted every few seconds - regardless of process I'm in (txting, camera, email ....) by an error message that pops up: "Sorry. The process com.google.process.gapps has stopped unexpectedly. Force closed."

I'm reasonably sure this issue began when I tried - apparently unsuccessfully - to remove Goggle + app from this droid. Shortly after, I began getting this message. Aside from gmail, there's nothing else Google running on here. After I got it, I removed Google Earth also (which I never use anyway on the droid).

Over the ten day period and now, the problem has become worse, meaning the error msg display frequency has increased, and the msg sometimes just hangs open. I touch "force closed" repeatedly, but it will not close. Today, multiple times, I couldn't even unlock the initial screen by swiping the time band down. And when on, the whole thing would just lock up and refuse to budge. No screen touch or button press would do anything.

Even turning the display off and back on doesn't help. Neither does a hard reboot (remove/replace battery) although the latter seemed to help. At least it hasn't locked up again yet..

So, Verizon support, or HTC?

Any tips or suggestions?

 

[sdrawkcab25]

They will just tell you to do a factory reset (which will most likely fix your problem). but you can try going into your manage applications and clearing the data for the market app, and immediately rebooting.

 

[StoneDroid]

Thanks, SDrawkcab.

I'll explore that manage applications thing. Not sure where it is. (I'm not a power droid user; basic functionality (txt, email, phone, camera) with few apps loaded. So, I haven't explored the back end much.

Question about factory reset. Someone told me that will erase pics in gallery and potentially contacts, yes?

I may be able to move pics via Dropbox (since my USB cable transfer to laptop stopped after last OS upgrade), but not sure how to back up my contacts.

Suggestions?

 

[euph_22]

Thanks, SDrawkcab.

I'll explore that manage applications thing. Not sure where it is. (I'm not a power droid user; basic functionality (txt, email, phone, camera) with few apps loaded. So, I haven't explored the back end much.

Question about factory reset. Someone told me that will erase pics in gallery and potentially contacts, yes?

I may be able to move pics via Dropbox (since my USB cable transfer to laptop stopped after last OS upgrade), but not sure how to back up my contacts.

Suggestions?

Go to the Home screen, press menu, select settings. Select manage applications, then the "all" tab, then find market, click on it and it should give you the option to clear data. If you do that and still have a problem you can go find market again in the manage settings and choose "uninstall updates".

It shouldn't erase pictures but you never know. Its always best to backup anyways. How are your contacts being stored, as google contacts or phone contacts?

 

[StoneDroid]

This is great info. Thanks.

Will go now and explore manage applications, then report back.

Contacts stored as phone contacts.

 

[StoneDroid]

Go to the Home screen, press menu, select settings. Select manage applications, then the "all" tab, then find market, click on it and it should give you the option to clear data.

OK, did that, but problem remains, so ...

If you do that and still have a problem you can go find market again in the manage settings and choose "uninstall updates".

Going back in to market, I find no option for "uninstall updates".

I see buttons for "force stop", "uninstall", "clear data", "move to SD card", "clear cache", and "clear defaults", but none are active. All are grayed out, so nothing happens when I press them.

 

[iowabowtech]

Convert all your phone contacts to Google contacts and factory reset. It's possible an app data clear will help but once you get Google process fails, it typically takes a bigger hammer.

 

[sdrawkcab25]

Factory reset may be your easiest option then. As the others said, backup any files you have stored on the internal memory, they shouldn't be erased but want to be safe. You can export all your contacts to your sd card and import them back after the reset.