[Q] Back and Search Buttons Going On and Off - Motorola Droid and Milestone General

My father has a Telus Milestone. Never rooted. He's on AT&T, but has gotten at least one OTA update.
The Back and Search Buttons seem to illuminate randomly sometime after the phone is booted.
They go off when the phone sleeps, and may or may not come on again latter. Sometimes seconds or minutes - sometimes hours. They'll even go on and off seemingly randomly while the phone is sitting on a table.
I've looked for any apps that would use these lights, and we've deleted many un-needed apps/widgets, or things that may start at boot.
Even looked at the logs in DDMS. Did not see anything obvious.
The next option is a Factory Reset, but that seems drastic for a nuisance problem like this.
Has anybody seen this? Any options other than the Factory Reset or Worse, a re-load?
Thanks for any help.

Related

My Kaiser is dying; possibly PointUI/virus related

The following (long!) post was originally posted at the PointUI forum, but I thought it best to cross post it here. I've tried to organize it as best as I can and appreciate those with the patience to read it and the good will to offer help.
------------------------
My AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II) is basically out of commision right now, and I can only track the source of the problems back to the latest update of PointUI (v1.02b, Feb. 4th 2008), as I've done nothing else with the phone since. However, seeing as how I've uninstalled PointUI and the problems persist (and are getting worse), I suspect a virus is afoot, or some other lovely problem.
Since the update, I've experienced the same problems as everyone else on this PointUI thread (system hangs on "running apps" screen and randomly), but in addition to that, several other things. I am running the stock AT&T ROM without the bloatware. These have been my symptoms for the most part since then:
Periodically, animations between menus would slow down considerably and sometimes freeze for a moment, even when I had nothing else running in the background. This would happen for any menu: the cog, the bottom bar, favorites, etc.
The touchscreen would stop working (usually, only within PointUI). This usually happened when animations would slow down, but it would also occur alone, randomly. The hardware buttons would still work during touchscreen failure, usually, but sometimes they wouldn't, and I would have to soft reset.
Sometimes, the power button wouldn't work, and I would press it several times thinking I didn't do it hard enough the first few times. After ~20 seconds, the screen would turn itself off and on. When the screen was on, it would not responding to touches.
The PointUI top bar that appears when using any application would, at random, not work. By this I mean when I would tap it, it's like it wasn't even there -- the Start menu would come down, or the volume control, date/time, etc. depending on where I tapped it. Also, the top right button (red X, or the check mark) would not display correctly in programs or the today screen (a check mark when it should be an X, etc.), randomly, and would not be responsive.
Yesterday (Feb. 23rd), things took a turn for the worse. Here's what happened:
When I started up Tom Tom, the screen went completely non-responsive. Only buttons would work.
After exiting Tom Tom (in an attempt to restart it), the touchscreen would continue not to work, both in PointUI and regular old Windows.
Shortly following this, buttons would stop working, and the entire phone would freeze up. Couldn't turn the touchscreen on and off. I did a soft reset.
During startup, when it showed the AT&T logo, the screen dimmed itself to the lowest brightness setting (it never does this). It would remain this way all the way through the bootup process and into Windows as well, never getting any brighter. Even after going to the backlight settings and increasing the brightness, the screen would get brighter, but would never turn off.
Once in Windows, the touchscreen was completely non-responsive. Buttons would still work, but everything would move really slow.
The screen would never turn itself off. Also, when pressing buttons, the screen would never get any brighter.
After mashing the buttons a bit (in anger, yes, but lightly), the touchscreen alignment application came up, asking me to touch the screen in a few places. This worked.
Then, a call came in. The screen froze during the animation for the notification of an incoming call. Also, the phone started to ring, but within 1 second stopped. However, it would vibrate nonstop (my phone is setup to ring and vibrate at the same time) till the end of the earth!
At this point, none of the buttons would work, not even the power button. Did a soft reset.
This was followed by the same exact symptoms ~4 times (touch screen not working, never turning off and staying at the same brightness level, etc). Outgoing calls would work ok, but each time, a call would come in and freeze up my phone.
Eventually, after several resets, the touchscreen would work without having to mash the buttons to get the touchscreen alignment app running. However, it would still freeze on incoming calls (only).
Somewhere between all the resets, I realized that sliding out the keyboard would never switch the screen to landscape. I can still type and my text would show up on-screen, and screen taps still work properly (even touchflo), but all of this would occur while still in portrait mode.
Lastly, the power button would only work once. It can turn the screen off, but not back on, ever.
Somewhere, between the resets, I uninstalled PointUI, which did nothing. I also tried running Sprite Backup, which would never open (and still doesn't at time of writing)!
Before the PointUI update, none of these symptoms were present (earlier release was v1.01b, used since early January). After the update, they began creeping up, getting worse over time. I have installed nothing else since the update, and have only ever sync'd the phone with my computer to charge it.
Today (Feb. 24th), it started getting a little worse...
When I make calls, sometimes the microphone doesn't work at all. I can hear the person I'm calling, but they can't hear me.
Sometimes, the green phone button won't start the phone application.
Power button isn't turning off the screen anymore at all.
This is the current status of the phone. Weathered, battered and beaten, it marches on, still capable of opening the HTC Audio Manager and playing my MP3's in consolation.
Any help regarding the source of these issues is greatly appreciated.
Some additional notes/summary:
I am running the stock AT&T ROM without the bloatware.
I haven't dropped the phone or let it get wet.
I may hard reset sometime this coming week, probably Monday. The first thing I'll do is reinstall PointUI v1.02b, and maybe TomTom. We'll see how that goes.
You know, the more I read this post, the more it seems like a virus.
Man... just hard reset/flash a new rom and be done with it.
SH4YD33 said:
Man... just hard reset/flash a new rom and be done with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the above was the reason we DIDN'T have WM viruses?
Virus + Hard Reset = Problem solved?
SH4YD33 said:
Man... just hard reset/flash a new rom and be done with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, at least that way you know if its hardware or software related and you stop fighting a losing battle
MM
tsadek said:
I thought the above was the reason we DIDN'T have WM viruses?
Virus + Hard Reset = Problem solved?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I haven't bothered with any of the anti-virus programs out there. Why bother having a constant drain on the system resources when you can do a hard reset, and restore all the cabs & hacks in under 30 minutes?
-Jay
Just an update here, my phone started acting up again ~5 days ago: freezing on incoming calls, not switching to landscape when sliding out the keyboard, never turning the screen off, etc. 3 days ago it got better, and I was able to run Sprite Backup and tried to restore the phone back to my pre-PointUI days. It had to reset, and on that same reset, Sprite didn't run -- the phone just booted into Windows, and all my problems came back.
Last night, I got a call that froze up my phone again. So I reset it, and by surprise, Sprite Backup ran and started restoring my phone. Now it's back to the way it was in January, and everything works perfectly! This backup was made before I ever installed PointUI.
Bottomline, no PointUI, no problem.
However, I should say that with v1.01b, I never experienced any of these issues. Because of my experience, I'm not giving any test versions a try, but I may install 1.03b, when it comes out. Definitely doing another backup before that too.
Thank you everyone.
Sounds to me more like a hardware issue, perhaps with your SD card.
I had the same issues you were havingh, but without ever having installed PointUi on my Kaiser.
I was using Dutty's Rom version 7 with radio 1.27.xx
only installed aps : TomTom and SPB brain training
So it would seem this is a WM or TomTom triggered issue....
My Kaiser just started doing this very same thing today. I'm running the standard AT&T WM6.1 ROM and have been successfully since December 07. I have a 6GB SD card with TomTom on it, also have had no issues until now. Today, the screen didn't switch into landscape upon sliding the keyboard out; the camera freezes and/or is unresponsive; power button doesn't work (on OR off; with or without SD card inserted); couldn't pick up a call earlier today; TomTom freezes when loading; WM player freezes while loading media.... I have not installed any apps on this thing since January. Seems to me like some memory corruption going on, possibly page file related.
I *did* notice that I had about 45MB worth of temp internet files cached and cleaned those up earlier today after these symptoms started. Didn't fix the problem though, but being low on main storage may have contributed to the corruption problem.
I had hoped I wouldn't need to hard reset my phone but here we go....

Ridiculously easy to corrupt settings - Normal?

I was just getting over the initial buyers remorse phase for my galaxy (or in my case, flashers remorse, even though I run stock JPY and it's fine, I have this urge to re-exchange it for a SLOWER stock Vodaphone Australia 2.2 version that's probably more buggy, but at least truly stock), when I drained my battery to 1% to test battery life, and shut it off manually.
On the walk back to the recharger in my room I accidentally turned it back on, and I immediately tried to turn it back off again, without letting it go past the 'GT-19000' logo in fear of the battery draining. It just restarted again and I decided to let it boot this time. Mistake. It then started to randomly vibrate and shut off apps (mainly, my live background, shake them all) left right and center then went straight back into default first-boot menu, like the very day I received the phone, or after a hard reset. The funny thing was, instead of having default values selected, it had the ones I had already put in. I thought it would be fine after that. Wrong.
I tried rebooting it again to see if it fixed itself, and it does the same with the forced closes. I uninstall my background and re-install it, and save some settings. When it boots it restores the live background back to it's stock settings (the live wallpaper I chose is still there, but the settings for it are not).
At this point I'm scratching my head so I uninstall all apps. This time on boot it doesn't throw up "force close" errors, but instead force-closes a single app or service for me on boot, with the one buzz, then three quick buzzes. Sigh... I have to factory reset my phone. One thing that particularly annoyed me was the fact I moved all my apps (AngryBirds ) to my external SD card, yet miraculously, after the reset my phone doesn't seem to think it's there anymore! Another thing I'm pondering is that if I didn't reset my phone like this, would this still have occurred?
Runs perfectly fine after the factory reset, with no errors or anything on boot as of yet. I have been compulsively rebooting it ever since just to find out, LOL!
Is this a 'normal' sort of thing to happen on the SGS, or is just through shear coincidence the combination of me restarting the phone in it's booting phase + the low battery life screwed up some boot settings while the phone was writing to it, or is it some hardware error? I can see this as particularly annoying if it were to happen every month or so. Coming from an old brick phone with something like 8000 messages on it, it'd be inconvenient to say the least to start deleting everything periodically... I guess I can use apps to back-up data when this occurs, but some apps don't even work after it's been erroring out on me. *Pulls hair out*
TL;DR:
Reset my phone while it was booting (still on the GT-I9000 screen) on a low (1%) battery and it broke my phone settings. Forced closes unknown app/service on boot with no 3rd party apps installed, but still boots to home. Force closes 3rd party apps frequently if they're installed. Factory Reset/Wipe. Problem Solved. Annoyed. RAGE.
next time something like this happens use adb logcat to figure out what is actually going wrong
exclamationmark said:
...
On the walk back to the recharger in my room I accidentally turned it back on, and I immediately tried to turn it back off again, without letting it go past the 'GT-19000' logo in fear of the battery draining. It just restarted again and I decided to let it boot this time. Mistake. It then started to randomly vibrate and shut off apps (mainly, my live background, shake them all) ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are not alone . after draining battery , starting it accidently up (drained) in middle of booting , killed it for me, well not killed but wouldnt boot for me and I had to the the factory reset. oh and since the nice bzz ... bzz bzz bzz I hear more often I would like to ( here was I ignored crying about it http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=937938 )
Yeah I'll definitely boot up logcat if it happens again. I'm just hoping this isn't a regular occurrence . As long as I don't do anything stupid like this again, I'm thinking it should be fine.
The third time this happens, it's going back to the service center, so it's got two chances left! Another thing I failed to mention was that it was chewing up like 200mb~ ram with level 1+2 ram cleared, without loading back into the homescreen, before the factory reset. Probably the stupid forced close app/service leaking >.>
Pagot, if that were me and continual factory resets were the only way to fix it (or didn't fix it) I'd flash it back to stock (or just remove root) and return it to the service center if that's an option. Sounds like something got corrupted or didn't get flashed properly. Either way I'd let THEM waste their time sorting it out because no amount of flashing is going to solve a hardware issue if it turns out to be one.
exclamationmark:
(had stock, so just root removing) but I know how our service centers work (and I would have to bring it even to our carrier) they wouldnt even talk to me if I didnt do the factory reset and the first thing they would do "reflash and factory reset"
right now I am not playing on the phone so much anymore. no lust or time so no idae if my apps are still fcing so often . And I installed speedmod and made a backup so I can revert back if something happens. So will see.
Wanted to just write about the battery down +(or) not full boot = corruption

[Q] Woke up to a less functional Captivate..

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I woke up today to see my captivate screen showing blank screen (active black screen with buttons lighted up) being unresponsive. It was on it's charger from the night.
I pulled the battery to shut it down. It rebooted. I thought nothing about it until I tried to use it about an hour later.
I have had it on stock Froyo, with no root. Never have flashed any other ROM besides updates through kies.
Problems and things I've noticed so far:
No puzzle lock screen. Can't find it under "set screen lock". Only None, Pattern, PIN, Password available.
Home button and search button do not function(they light up like they are pressed, but not action occurs in any apps or home screen).
No data. Usually i'd see edge or 3g, but I have no data connection.
Text messages wiped. None available through "Messages"(though call log shows history of messages).
Keyboard was on stock android rather than swype(since changed back to swype).
Holding power button only shows "Power off" option. Before there was at least Airplane mode.
GPS was on(I hardly ever use it).
Location settings seemed to be default("use wireless networks" was unclicked)
Most other settings/app data seems fine.
About phone info:
Model Number: SAMSUNG-SGH-i897
Firmware version: 2.2
Baseband version: I897UCKB1
Kerner version: 2.6.32.9
Build number: FROYO.UCKB1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other related things:
Day or two before I received a text message from AT&T to download Kies and use Froyo(Don't remember exact wording, lost the text message, but something to the effect it looked like a mass mailing text to update to Froyo using Kies). I was already on Froyo(flashed as soon as I found out it was available few months back).
I also got a text message about downloading their at&t app to manage my minutes and pay my bill(also already had that app).
My Captivate would randomly freeze/unresponsive a few times, but I didn't think much of it.
Google Music app seemed to randomly start playing the audio file i paused(just in my pocket, or once when i put headphones in to make a call).
Searching the forums, haven't found too much related.
One thread suggested using "home switcher", which I have tried(both Froyo and regular versions, though can't press home button for Froyo version). Neither seems to know what my default Home App is, but it only sees TwLaucher(I only have TouchWiz).
Tried installing an alternative launcher(ADW,LauncherPro), still no home/search button.
I'm without my computer for the weekend, so I can't backup my files and reset to factory just yet.
Anyone have any thoughts to fix this or know what may have went wrong?
I might finally make the jump to a Custom ROM if it'll fix this.
Yes, you should either flash a custom rom or do a factory reset. I will say an event similar to this, also involving text messaging, is what made me make the leap to Assonance, and then Serendipity, and I haven't looked back.
Sent from a state of Serendipity
At the least, try a master reset.
You're not alone....
Two Saturdays ago, I woke up, grabbed my phone to see what time it was and my phone was going haywire. It as blinking, flickering and rebooted on its own a couple of times...without me touching it.
When I DID manage to access the phone after a reboot there was no connection. I couldn't call, send/receive texts, nor could I access most of the features (during one of the haywire moments, the phone popped open my "Gallery" folder and started running a slideshow and then shut down. Again, all without me touching it!) There was a distinct blue circle with a slash where the 3G bars used to be on the top right corner of the phone.
I did a factory reset and didn't help. Wiped everything off the phone, but the device was still going nuts.
I got the phone in mid-December and have absolutely pampered that thing. Never dropped, never scratched, never abused. So I was surprised when I took it into the AT&T replacement center that the lady told me that my battery was wet! Not the phone, but the battery. Those two white-that-turn-pink indicators are so close to each other on the phone that I can't see how one gets wet while the other doesn't.
So they give me a new phone. One thing I noticed right away was that my data usage went WAY UP with the new device. To put it in perspective, I used 100 mb of data in 29 days and 64mb IN ONE DAY with my new phone. I thought it may be a one-time fluke, but it's not. I am only 10 days into my new month and am already at 164mb out of 200mb in my plan. I have NEVER used 164 mb in the 6 months previous, let alone in 10 days.
Fun's not over yet. I noticed a lot of crashes and "Force Closes" with the new phone too. I didn't even have any apps downloaded yet and things were still crashing. Last night I pull my phone out to take a picture and...nope. Screen was all kinds of whacked out and it crashed. And still does now every time I open the camera function. I managed to get in camera mode fast enough to do a reset, but didn't work. The screen is fine otherwise. So looks like I'm back to A&T tomorrow for another round.
I'm glad you posted this, cause the same morning all this happened -- literally, within 10 mins of me waking up -- my computer (brand new - 2 days old) went berserk and shut off and my stereo started flipping channels, turning the volume, treble, bass up and down..BY ITSELF without me touching ANYTHING! It was pretty freaky. I wondered if I was struck by lightning the night before.http://media.xda-developers.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
I was finally able to get back home today and do a factory reset. This (somewhat) solved the problem. Everything is mostly back to normal(home button and search button work on home screen, lock screen is there).
Lost a couple of game saves as I had no method to pull a save file(was doing adb pull on some known file locations).
I did run adb logcat before resetting, and home button and search button seemed to trigger something, just not follow through(Search button did work in a card game as a forward button and home button worked in the kies app to exit, just never as a return to home button in apps).
I'll be looking to root and flash a custom ROM, especially root so I can do a proper backup in case anything like this happens again.
I just want to say thank you posting in q&a and doing research before and after your flashing started. Then searched after your problem. You're a new member of a breed that are few and far between. I will hit your thanks when I get on my computer, app doesn't have it. You will go far here.

[Q] Deathly crash issue: only solution is factory reset. SERIOUS ISSUE

Okay, I have been having a serious issue with my D3 lately. One time, my phone just randomly rebooted, and then it would get stuck at the red "Droid Eye" screen, where it would be laggy and such after a while. Eventually the screen would time out in like 2 minutes. After it turned off, I could not get it to turn back on. Basically dead, except I could still get notifications and even a phone call. But I could not act on any of them. it's like the phone's heart is still beating, but I can't turn the screen on. I pull the battery and reboot and it does it again. SOMETIMES if I keep touching the red eye screen I can get to get to the lock screen, but the wallpaper won't load and it's basically frozen. I even tried booting into safe mode and that didn't help. I took it to Verizon, they said they've a couple other people with a similar issue on the forums. They did a factory reset, and that has been the only solution to the issue. I have had it 3 times now, and this time I'm sticking with the Blur launcher and keeping only the essential apps installed. I'm assuming this is a software issue, and I'm currently trying to figure out if it is related to a certain app that was installed. Hoping they will fix this with an update! ANYBODY ELSE HAVING THIS ISSUE? if so, any leads on another fix or what it could be?
sounds like a software issue. a factory reset doesn't do anything other than change the software.
I had a similar issue on my droid 1. it was rooted and when I installed a gingerbread from I forgot who, it got stuck at the eye, kept rebooting, and occasionally, i'd get calls and it still wouldn't work. I look forward to root.
out of curiousity, did you have to take it to the store to factory reset or is there an option for it in the bootloader(I know its locked but I have no idea to what degree)
The first time I took it to the store they did it for me, but yeah there's an option in the bootloader. Just took my back to Verizon cuz this was the 4th time it's done it, they're sending me a new one! It's okay, cuz my nice screen open 'click' sound was gone on the keyboard lol

[Q] Input Issues and Data Connection Drops

Hey there.
I have a stock Samsung Galaxy S4 Active on the AT&T network. Recently, I've been plagued by a number of troubles.
Bit of background:
For a while, I had the most bizarre issue: the screen thought I was touching it when I wasn't, near the bottom-middle of the screen, and would attempt to open/click on anything in that area. Often turning the screen on and off would help, for a little while. I was reaching my wits' end, because that would obviously be very frustrating to someone who uses their phone frequently throughout the day.
I thought maybe it had been new software I had installed, so I did a factory reset. Problem remained. I factory reset with NO backups. Problem remained. I updated to 4.4.2 via OTA. Problem remained...
And then mysteriously went away on its own.
I've been working in tech for a decade now, mainly in PC and server architecture, so I know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth - but I also know better than to think a problem that "mysteriously" goes away is gone for good. So the first part of my question: does anyone know what could have possibly been causing this?
I'm not super phone-savvy. I've rooted and flashed a few phones in the past couple years, but I'm by no means developer-level.
---------------------
Which brings me to my next problem... around the time that this issue went away, another one cropped up. Randomly, my phone will stop sending/receiving texts/calls, and the data connection will not function. This will continue until I turn on airplane mode and turn it off--at that point I receive all my missed texts, and it works again... sometimes for 5 minutes, sometimes for nearly 2 days. It's really frustrating. I've tried factory resets, I've tried restoring default APNs... but I'm at my wit's end with this. Can anyone help?
Thanks!
I should add that, with my last issue, it still shows a data connection in the notification bar - but there is none, or at least, no activity on it. It doesn't simply act as if it's in airplane mode and go "wah no data network" as soon as I try using it--it just simply hangs for ~30 seconds, then times out. Messages don't get received, webpages don't load, calls don't get placed, etc.

Categories

Resources