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Help Phone Shutting off randomly?

I fully agree that Samsung needs to address this issue quickly. However, what company do you know that is "morally" obligated to keep you happy? How many companies release duds on us and move on while leaving us holding the bag, so to speak? Yes, you are correct in that companies will try to keep you happy because, as you've said, we vote with our wallets. But when companies realize it will be a losing battle to make you happy but it'll cost them a bundle of money, they will vote with THEIR pocketbook and leave you high and dry. Samsung, being Samsung a world-wide conglomerate couldn't care less if our Captivate's product lifecycle ends tomorrow because they are too busy making new models and, unfortunately, too many of us have too short of memory. Do you remember the whole iPhone 4 antennagate just a few months ago? Everyone seems to have forgotten about it and iPhone 4s are still selling well. We hear all the time about the poor service on AT&T and iPhone problems, iOS4.2 problems... etc etc etc, but people keep on coming back for it. Hell, even Apple admitted about the antenna problem but ordered 21 million iPhones for 2011 from their Chinese suppliers because they know people will still buy them. Samsung knows that even if 5 thousand people are angry at them for the Captivate problems, 10000 more people will still buy their phones. Yeah, I'm guilty of it too. I bought the Instinct when Samsung dumped it on us with its buggy OS. After 2 updates to fix the problems (and creating new one in the process) they pretty much kicked it to the curb and came out with Instinct II and Instinct HD. The lifecycle on those phones lasted about a year before Samsung gave up on them too. I swore I'd never buy another Samsung product.... but (sheepishly grinning here) I ended up getting the Captivate (because I don't like the iPhone and Steve Job's incessant arrogance) AND the Galaxy Tab. Yeah, I'm pissed off about this problem, but they still got my money. LOL.
 
After talking to a bank loan officer today about refinancing my car I didn't think I could get any more depressed and cynical. I was wrong ;o.
 
Wow, we're going off-track on the topic of this thread.... LOL.

So far, problems I've discovered with MY Captivate phone...

1) It powers off on its own when on a fully charged battery. CKA keeps it alive.
2) If running on battery (even with CKA) AND I use the ALARM, the phone powers off on its own randomly.
3) The volume setting for NOTIFICATION resets on its own back to default level of about 30% after receiving text messages. I haven't been able to confirm how many text messages received triggers the volume to drop back to 30%. I did notice that if I check my data usage by sending *3282# (send) then the volume drops back to 30% from 100%.
4) GPS satellite lockup time varies greatly. I've discovered that by using GPS STATUS app and deleting the cached GPS data and reloading the A-GPS data manually just prior to using GPS program (like Google Map) the satellite lockup seems to be faster than just letting the phone find the satellites on its own. I think the Almanac and Ephemeris Data isn't being stored in the phone's memory like it should.

Just my 2 (more) cents worth of rambling....
 
1, 2, and 4 I can verify with my *old* unit. 3 I'll take your word for. This newer unit, received New Year's Eve I think, has been perfect. Same as the other guy's experience. We'll see if it lasts.

What do you mean off topic? Samsung's rationale behind fixing or not fixing this issue is a bit on topic, you just have to take a right at Tangent avenue.
 
I had a chance to check out my co-worker's Fascinate today and do a side by side comparison. Surprisingly, the Captivate was faster on 3G data download than her Fascinate on Verizon (shock! I was surprised!). Her phone's signal was pretty strong and on mine, it was showing only 2 bars. But I was able to access websites on my phone browser faster than she was. Her GPS was way off. I held my phone next to hers activated Google Maps simultaneously. My phone showed my location dead-on (took 12 secs to lock on) but her's showed off by about 1/4 mile. I left her phone on receiving the satellite data to see if the accuracy improved. It didn't, but she didn't care because she said she doesn't use GPS on her phone. (Only facebook was important to her! LMAO)
 
I think I found reason for shut downs.My wife and I went skiing today in area with bad ATT coverage. Both of our phone switched off. Serial number of mine is newer than hers and not part of this notice.
I will try to contact Samsung and see what they have to say about this.
 
a2gtinut said:
I think I found reason for shut downs.My wife and I went skiing today in area with bad ATT coverage. Both of our phone switched off. Serial number of mine is newer than hers and not part of this notice.
I will try to contact Samsung and see what they have to say about this.
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Hmmm... interesting observation. Here's a quick way to check to see if signal drop causes the phone to power off on its own. Place the suspect phone in fully enclosed METAL box. The box can't have any opening and it has to be all metal (steel). That will effectively block cellular tower signal from reaching your phone thus making it look like to your phone that its in poor or no coverage area. You might want to leave it in there couple of hours to let any programming error manifest itself, if any. Your battery will deplete down faster than normal (because your phone will try to reach-out-and-touch-a-nearby-celltower with higher RF power output so try this test with a FULLY CHARGED battery.) If your phone powers off on its own in that condition, well, then maybe we're starting to isolate a possible cause of this random shutdowns.
 
I'm having the same issue. Has anyone tried to replace their Captivate under that AT&T/Samsung memo that went out? I'm well past my 30 days, so i guess it won't hurt to try, but is this memo real?
 
CrashingTiger said:
I'm having the same issue. Has anyone tried to replace their Captivate under that AT&T/Samsung memo that went out? I'm well past my 30 days, so i guess it won't hurt to try, but is this memo real?
Click to expand...

The memo is real and I just got my replacement unit however the phone was slightly scratched so they are sending me another one.
 
SamsungCaptivated said:
Hmmm... interesting observation. Here's a quick way to check to see if signal drop causes the phone to power off on its own. Place the suspect phone in fully enclosed METAL box. The box can't have any opening and it has to be all metal (steel). That will effectively block cellular tower signal from reaching your phone thus making it look like to your phone that its in poor or no coverage area. You might want to leave it in there couple of hours to let any programming error manifest itself, if any. Your battery will deplete down faster than normal (because your phone will try to reach-out-and-touch-a-nearby-celltower with higher RF power output so try this test with a FULLY CHARGED battery.) If your phone powers off on its own in that condition, well, then maybe we're starting to isolate a possible cause of this random shutdowns.
Click to expand...

You have a fully enclosed, metal box laying around at your house? ;)

Oh, yea, they used to make lunch boxes like that ;p.
 
LOL.... actually, I do. I have several fully enclosed metal box that my Fossil watches came in. The metal boxes were too nice to throw away so I kept it. I haven't thrown my phone in the box to test out the no-signal killing the phone issue. Besides, I don't think that's the problem anyway. I was in a restaurant tonight and there was absolutely no signal inside the building. I was trying to use the internet to look up info and noticed no signal showing on the bar at all. I also kept getting the "no data connection" warning on the screen. I also couldn't place a call. Talk about a blackhole for cell signal!! I was in the restaurant for about an hour and stepped outside after I was done. The phone was still on and I was able to get 1 bar of signal! LOL.
 
jcollake said:
Well, only time will tell, but it is a pretty good sign... What about that other poster here who got his replacement about the time of mine? Yours still good? I imagine so, else we'd hear.
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Yep - still rock solid stable with zero shutdowns since the replacement.
 
jcollake said:
Well, only time will tell, but it is a pretty good sign... What about that other poster here who got his replacement about the time of mine? Yours still good? I imagine so, else we'd hear.
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I don't know if I'm that member but I got mine in December and 0 shut downs so far, made it 220+ hours before I manually turned it off because it was going slow (though it was actually my internet that was slow not the phone), right now sitting on 120 hours. With out CKA set to like 65% I don't think I ever made it past 48 on my old captivate.
 
I went to the local AT&T DSC today and told them that my phone is off half the time I pick it up and told them that I read online they were replacing these and the girl there said they had just come out with an app to fix this problem so instead of replacing my phone they just installed Captivate Keep-Alive! :eek: I told her that would surely reduce my battery life and she said it would not and that it would just keep the phone from turning off. Why do I not have a great feeling about this? Could this really be the new official fix? I found it fairly humorous so I let it go but I figure I'll go back next week and demand a new phone on the grounds that my battery life is reduced. Thoughts?
 
Hello everyone. I just called AT&T tech support and amazingly, the lady looked up and found the info about the Captivate phones powering off issues (she also noted there is a memo about the GPS issues and she said she was aware of lawsuits regarding the GPS issues... LOL). She wrote a note in my account to replace the phone and told me to go to the nearest AT&T corporate store and swap it out. She told me to the tell the store clerk to LOOK up my account notes and replace the phone. The account note specifically mentions about the Captivate phone's random powering off issue and in my case, the note says to replace customers device with a new phone. I called the nearest AT&T store and the first thing the clerk told me was that she has the Captivate phone herself and that "not all Captivates have problems." I told her I agree but mine does. I asked her to verify she had a new one in stock and she seemed to hesitate at first, put me on hold, then came back a few minutes later and her tone changed. She said, we have a new one and we will swap it for yours. LOL. Maybe they got tired of hearing about the powering off problem.... LMAO
 
SamsungCaptivated said:
Hello everyone. I just called AT&T tech support and amazingly, the lady looked up and found the info about the Captivate phones powering off issues (she also noted there is a memo about the GPS issues and she said she was aware of lawsuits regarding the GPS issues... LOL). She wrote a note in my account to replace the phone and told me to go to the nearest AT&T corporate store and swap it out. She told me to the tell the store clerk to LOOK up my account notes and replace the phone. The account note specifically mentions about the Captivate phone's random powering off issue and in my case, the note says to replace customers device with a new phone. I called the nearest AT&T store and the first thing the clerk told me was that she has the Captivate phone herself and that "not all Captivates have problems." I told her I agree but mine does. I asked her to verify she had a new one in stock and she seemed to hesitate at first, put me on hold, then came back a few minutes later and her tone changed. She said, we have a new one and we will swap it for yours. LOL. Maybe they got tired of hearing about the powering off problem.... LMAO
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Was your phone within the 30 days? Or have you had it longer. I've had mine since 11/22/2010 and was wondering if I could do the same. I talked to some guy at Samsung and he said (get a load of this):
1) Not many people are really experiencing the problem
2) The internet forums on this are really making a big deal out of nothing and freaking everybody out about it.
3) It's only customers who flash their phones to Froyo that are experiencing the problem (I did). Keeping it at 2.1 will eliminate the problem

So is it worth my time and effort to get a new one? Or just use Captivate Keep Alive? Also, I bought mine on wirefly so could I still go thru AT&T? Thanks!
 
I'm having the same prob as everyone else, phone shuts off randomly after periods of non-use. I've received my refurbished phone that was manufactured on 8/29 (original was early July). My question is, what all do I include in shipping the original back to ATT...just the original phone or do I include earbuds, charger, etc.? Thanks.
 
Hi tosberg, my phone is within the 30 days return period. I still have a week left to return the phone under the 30 days exchange policy. Because I'm within the 30 days, I could have returned the phone even if there was nothing wrong with it. However, my point in the post above was that AT&T is aware of the powering off issue and GPS problem with the Captivate phone. Seeing that they are aware of a defect in the phone, I would surmise that they would be more willing to replace this particular phone after the 30 days because they are aware of a defect. Also, I bought my phone through AT&T and it comes with 1 year manufacturer warranty on the phone. I don't know if AT&T will automatically honor manufacturer warranty on a phone that wasn't bought from them; they may refer you to Samsung for warranty claim. Now, since you put Froyo OS in your phone, you may be out of luck in getting any warranty work done on it since it isn't manufacturer "defect" per se; they will most likely argue that you updating the OS with the unapproved/unofficial OS is what caused the problem to occur. My phone was suppose to be one of the latest phones manufactured. It came with all the updates from the factory pre-installed but still suffered random shutdowns. I do use CKA and my phone works perfectly with it. I did also have GPS problems initially but for some reason, now my GPS works perfectly. I get consistent lock-on within 15 seconds and it's dead-on accurate. I was going to return my phone for a new one but since the only problem I have is the powering off problem which has since been "fixed" with CKA, I'm going to keep the phone. The AT&T tech support placed a "note" in my account to replace my phone because of the powering off issue and since that note directs AT&T to replace it, I am going to hold off and use my phone for a year under the warranty period, then just before the warranty runs out, I'm going to AT&T service center and tell them to look at my account note and replace my phone with a new one. LOL.
 
Newmant said:
I'm having the same prob as everyone else, phone shuts off randomly after periods of non-use. I've received my refurbished phone that was manufactured on 8/29 (original was early July). My question is, what all do I include in shipping the original back to ATT...just the original phone or do I include earbuds, charger, etc.? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I think its a one-for-one swap. You may want to send them back all the original items as long as it's one-for-one. If they didn't send you earbuds, for instance, don't send them back yours.
 
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