Root Root, bloat, and hardware issues

[RTDub]

Hey gang, first post, long time lurker.

I will try to keep this brief, as it seems to be a unique case.

Details: HTC Incredible, Froyo 2.2, rooted, bloat was moved by following JonAmerica's well-written article.

Prominent (and most-used) apps: Lookout, Digital Clock (alarm), Euchre (Free), Cribbage Pro. Other apps installed, but not many.

Symptoms: Phone doesn't just shut down, it goes from on to off in a blink. Cannot reboot unless battery is removed/reinserted. Boots back to occasional wavy video, and a finger sweep to the next screen trails the existing screen on the left-hand side. Phone forgets time and date, no service or sporadic service.

Received the phone in Feb 2011 and rooted shortly thereafter. Not an app-heavy user, this phone ran flawlessly until yesterday (May 11, 2011), when it was consumed by the soul of Satan himself. No changes were made in the past two weeks aside from updates, the most recent being Lookout when I was able to keep the phone on and had service.

Took it by a store, but I am convinced that technical advice from store employees is best taken with a grain of salt. Tech said Lookout was likely the cause, but find this hard to believe as it has performed without a hitch since I got the phone.

Called tech support, and after troubleshooting apps and existing functionality on the phone, determined a reset would be worth a try. Root apparently disables this feature, so I unrooted (thanks Doug Piston) and was able to do a factory reset.

This morning, I am no further in solving the problem(s), which leads me to believe this is hardware and unrelated to rooting. This is after factory reset, no additional apps being installed. Verizon is sending a replacement (I have no complaints about Verizon's phone support), but my question is...

Could rooting have caused this dramatic decline in the phone's overall health? If it behaved erratically over a period of time, I might understand, but it was like a curtain went down. The phone has never been dropped or submerged in any liquid.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ctc]

Hey gang, first post, long time lurker.

I will try to keep this brief, as it seems to be a unique case.

Details: HTC Incredible, Froyo 2.2, rooted, bloat was moved by following JonAmerica's well-written article.

Prominent (and most-used) apps: Lookout, Digital Clock (alarm), Euchre (Free), Cribbage Pro. Other apps installed, but not many.

Symptoms: Phone doesn't just shut down, it goes from on to off in a blink. Cannot reboot unless battery is removed/reinserted. Boots back to occasional wavy video, and a finger sweep to the next screen trails the existing screen on the left-hand side. Phone forgets time and date, no service or sporadic service.

Received the phone in Feb 2011 and rooted shortly thereafter. Not an app-heavy user, this phone ran flawlessly until yesterday (May 11, 2011), when it was consumed by the soul of Satan himself. No changes were made in the past two weeks aside from updates, the most recent being Lookout when I was able to keep the phone on and had service.

Took it by a store, but I am convinced that technical advice from store employees is best taken with a grain of salt. Tech said Lookout was likely the cause, but find this hard to believe as it has performed without a hitch since I got the phone.

Called tech support, and after troubleshooting apps and existing functionality on the phone, determined a reset would be worth a try. Root apparently disables this feature, so I unrooted (thanks Doug Piston) and was able to do a factory reset.

This morning, I am no further in solving the problem(s), which leads me to believe this is hardware and unrelated to rooting. This is after factory reset, no additional apps being installed. Verizon is sending a replacement (I have no complaints about Verizon's phone support), but my question is...

Could rooting have caused this dramatic decline in the phone's overall health? If it behaved erratically over a period of time, I might understand, but it was like a curtain went down. The phone has never been dropped or submerged in any liquid.

Thanks in advance.

Since you've "unrooted" and factory reset the phone but you still have the same issues, I'd say it is a hardware issue. If you root your replacement phone you should be fine. Rooting isn't risk free but I've been rooted for at least 6 months without any issues.

 

[RTDub]

New Incredible arrived this morning, overnight as promised. Firewall here at work prevents me from downloading the appropriate wares to get this thing rooted, so will be doing it from home tonight (and sticking all of it on a flash drive). It sure seems like hardware - after unrooting and going back to stock on the old one, it still behaved erratically. New one = glorious.

 

[RTDub]

Rooted the new Incredible, and it seems to be working fine. Battery life much improved, however there is a new minor issue. When adding a Widget to any screen, the top four options are not actual widgets, but what appear to be buttons with a modified hexadecimal tag.

A circled down arrow with tag #a5ff0000
An x with tag #ff000000
A white bar with an x in it, tag #ffcccccc
An circled up arrow with tag 80.0dip

Anyone come across this, and if so, how to remove it? I checked the /system/app directory to be sure I didn't remove something I'm not supposed to or that I left something behind in Operation Bloat Removal.

 

[Rob.G]

Rooted the new Incredible, and it seems to be working fine. Battery life much improved, however there is a new minor issue. When adding a Widget to any screen, the top four options are not actual widgets, but what appear to be buttons with a modified hexadecimal tag.

A circled down arrow with tag #a5ff0000
An x with tag #ff000000
A white bar with an x in it, tag #ffcccccc
An circled up arrow with tag 80.0dip

Anyone come across this, and if so, how to remove it? I checked the /system/app directory to be sure I didn't remove something I'm not supposed to or that I left something behind in Operation Bloat Removal.

I have seen this when you remove or move too many apps/widgets at one time. There are 2 ways to fix this that I know of.

1: move all the apps back to their original spots, then move only one at a time and after moving each one, go back to your Home screen to allow the Sense to update.

2: Easier, but requires setting up your homescreens again. Go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Running. Scroll down to HTC Sense and Clear all of it's data. This will force Sense to re-read the apps/widgets and update the list automatically. Again, you will lose your homescreen setup, but it is quicker.

 

[RTDub]

I have seen this when you remove or move too many apps/widgets at one time. There are 2 ways to fix this that I know of.

1: move all the apps back to their original spots, then move only one at a time and after moving each one, go back to your Home screen to allow the Sense to update.

2: Easier, but requires setting up your homescreens again. Go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Running. Scroll down to HTC Sense and Clear all of it's data. This will force Sense to re-read the apps/widgets and update the list automatically. Again, you will lose your homescreen setup, but it is quicker.

Solid. Totally worked. Thanks, man