Related
No one has brought this issue up as far as I know but I am on my 2nd Focus and 2nd battery and having what i believe to be heat related lock ups.
I reformatted tried with fresh phone not even signed into a Live ID and I can duplicate this issue about 90% of the time. I make a phone call and stuff it in my shirt pocket with a jacket on. It will lock up with the Samsung Logo and be hot to the touch. A battery pull is needed to reset and the battery is extremely hot. When I reboot the battery life is drastically diminished.
I am not using an SD card and replicated the issue with or without apps. The only way I can keep it from locking up is on my hip in a case. I can only imagine how the summer will be if I am having the problems now in the winter.
ps I kept my Touch Pro 2 and currently My Moto Droid in my pocket without issue.
Bizarre. I've never experienced that issue before. My Focus usually stays pretty cold actually.
Maybe yours is defective? It's possible.
No issues with the phone getting hot, or even warm, for me.
2 phones and batteries. I thought I would just put it out there to see if others were having issues.
I've noticed my phone getting a little warm while playing Crackdown but it never got slow or locked up ever.
When I download many songs from Zune or play a long game it gets pretty warm but it has never been "to hot" to hold and never crashed.
Deadem said:
It will lock up with the Samsung Logo and be hot to the touch. A battery pull is needed to reset and the battery is extremely hot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also had this problem, i just had this happen for the first time today. I was using my phone earlier in the day, all of a sudden I felt it getting warm in my pocket. After I pulled it out, it was stuck on the samsung logo and warm to the touch. Pulling the battery and resetting does nothing. I keeps booting to the Samsung logo and never proceeds further. I have even left it off for a few hours and attempted to power it up again: still no luck.
I am unable to hard reset the phone.
I called my local AT&T store before they closed, they agreed to replace it tomorrow :-\
I am having so much buyers remorse. I would have returned it but it happened on my 31st day. I went through 2 phones and batteries and I still get the problem. If I talk on the phone or surf the net and stick it in my pocket the phone is toast until I realize it and do a battery pull. If I wait too long the battery is pretty much drained.
I don't ever think I will buy a Samsung again. WM7 is lacking but I knew what I was getting into but from the memory card debacle and the Samsung Boot menu the phone is crap. Hell we can't even set it down flat on a surface and use the tough screen properly. Beautiful screen but all other hardware is crap.
I also noticed a pretty hot Samsung Focus in my pocket today. After turning off wireless search it got cold again.
I have experinced the heating up issue. It happens a few times a week. I kind of think it could potentially be dangerous because of the battery. Samsung should have a recall or fix for free.
ppyy said:
I have experinced the heating up issue. It happens a few times a week. I kind of think it could potentially be dangerous because of the battery. Samsung should have a recall or fix for free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they start blowing up they might issue a recall, but until bodily injury (and getting sued for real bucks) is on the table it is probably cheaper for them to replace or fix them.
Samsung got a ton of bad press for the GPS woes in the Galaxy S line of phones and didn't do a thing about it.
The SD card thing is weird. MS could have revoked their Windows Phone 7 compatible seal of approval but didn't probably bc it was a launch device and didn't want to piss off Samsung. Rediculous.
MS and Intel went through the same thing with the 'Vista Certified' thing. They let big names do what they want because either way they are getting paid for the licences.
my focus got warm when playing Need 4 Speed Undercover from start to finish in 1 sitting lol but my Nexus One,Palm Pre,and iphone would get hot after playing for that amount of time too. It just depends on what u are doing and how long u are doing it imo.
I did make 1 hour call on my Focus and it doesnot seem overheating...
Alson runed the Harvest for harvest and it was fine...
Seems like when,i use my phone between 20 30 min intervals it gets real hot in the back. I have a case and the whole case gets hot.
Today while listening to pandora for 45 mins while cutting my hair it just turned off. Phone was hot....
Anyone else with this issue??
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I don't have a case but I ran pandora for 2 and half hours today and the back was still cool to the touch.
I haven't had any issues with this. Used the sirius/xm app for about 2 hours and it wasn't even warm.
mine actually gets really hot as well. i used google navigation for about 30 minutes today and the back got really hot, mostly at the bottom half of the phone. i have a incipio feather case and the case got warm as well. i haven't had the overheating affect any performance issues though but am a little worried that it's getting so hot. are you going to bring yours in to have it looked at?
jlai said:
mine actually gets really hot as well. i used google navigation for about 30 minutes today and the back got really hot, mostly at the bottom half of the phone. i have a incipio feather case and the case got warm as well. i haven't had the overheating affect any performance issues though but am a little worried that it's getting so hot. are you going to bring yours in to have it looked at?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, used navigation for about 20 minutes and the phone was very warm.
im not sure what to make of this. the first day i had the phone, i had a missed call, and the phone got pretty warm in my pocket.?!?!?! later, talking on the phone and it got to be almost HOT.
yesterday i had a couple of 20 minute browsing sessions and the phone just got good and warm. but it dosnt seem to effect permormance at all, and the battery isnt draining too fast or anything, so im not worried about mine at this point.
nope mine is always cool as a cucumber
Mine gets warm/gentle hot when browsing or doing any stuff that needs data transfer over 3G/H.
Have a movie going on (from SD) for ~2 hours now, and it is still cool.
Having come from the N1 where this was a constant issue I can tell you it is due to placement of parts. The CPU sits immediately behind the lower part of the phone. Heavy CPU use will result in a hot phone.
Also keeping it in your pocket will heat it up too. Body heat and background processes that use the CPU.
It is only and issue if you are very hot for a long time. Can result in reboots and crashing.
The back of mine did get rather warm in the car after using Nav for ~30 minutes, however this doesn't seem any different than what my old Tilt did and is normal for smart phones.
If your phone does actually get hot enough to power itself off, then I'm guessing either you've got it in a very poor case (or warm pocket with no ventilation), or it's defective.
Pandora alone shouldn't be enough to make the phone hot. I'd suggest try running it with the phone sitting on a table and no case. If it still gets hot after 20 minutes, exchange it. If it doesn't, get a new case.
I also have the feather incipio case. It got so hot it crashed.... Nice case but worried if it keeps getting hot it may, cause, life of phone to, be a lot shorter!!!
If it happens again I'm going to take it to ATT.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
My Atrix that I exchanged today was getting warm alot also. Shoot the one I'm using now is warm. I figured the phone just has that problem. I have a friend who complain of theirs getting hot. Neither of us have experienced the shut down issue though. And I get it just from browsing the web!! I would have expected Motorola to discover this temperature problem during testing. They probably decided "it's not extreme, so we'll still sale a couple million." Heck Apple HAS BIGGER issues with signal problem & they are still selling like Red Lobster's biscuits.
ronj1986 said:
My Atrix that I exchanged today was getting warm alot also. Shoot the one I'm using now is warm. I figured the phone just has that problem. I have a friend who complain of theirs getting hot. Neither of us have experienced the shut down issue though. And I get it just from browsing the web!! I would have expected Motorola to discover this temperature problem during testing. They probably decided "it's not extreme, so we'll still sale a couple million." Heck Apple HAS BIGGER issues with signal problem & they are still selling like Red Lobster's biscuits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, the bottom of my phone gets warm from just browsing, which I'm not used to at all. However, it's good to know that I'm not the only one, although I wish none of us experienced this.
I seems when im only using edge 3g or hsdpa it gets hot ....not when using wifi
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
same here. whenever browsing over data it is getting really hot.
INFUSE overheating HELP
So I got a replacement infuse and still I have the same problem temperature on it gets really hot. I haven't let it to hot mainly because I don't have a case or cover on it.... it only gets that hot when using it while charging and its not the battery. The hottest points are the SIM card and top right corner on the back....any help would be appreciated
yea im overclocked soooo i kinda expect some heat +(wile useing my custom webtop it gets real warm and sometimes the setcpu -cpu temp alarm goes off too but i havent had it ever reboot on its own i generaly just pull the batt for a few min and its all good
us-alienv4UL /OC1.3V2.0{webtop2sd(fixed}CWM5.0.2.3atrix4.1
my atrix gets a lil warm and i do have a case i listen to pandora and internet radio all the time for well over two hours! my mom has an atrix also and she has a otter defender and ours gets about the same temp with heavy use with no issues at all
@1ghz and undervolted I'm sitting at 140 degrees running gps
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Hot
Same thing... I am using Faux's 2.0 kernel. Using Antutu CPU Master Free for now to adjust speeds. I've seen the temp @ 41C a couple of times. I have the profile set to powersave with a min of 216 and max of 1300.
I have not had any shutdown issues but, I do have an issue with my widgets disappearing on me randomly.
I saw another thread about the phone getting hot but couldnt find it.. so im making another thread
When i play certain games the phone gets very hot near the top left.. both sides.
When i take the cover off the back i can smell something.. its not a burning smell.. iv never smelt something like this before.. its like a really.. really weird liquorice smell.
Iv downloaded some temperature apps but none of them give the correct reading.
The game i was running is "Dungeon Hunter".. i even ran an old snake game (the ones from old nokia phones) and even then it got really hot. Though most of the games i play on it the phone doesnt get hot.. just warm-ish
So i was just wondering what temperature app should i use and does your phone get really hot/ weird smell coming from it?
Thanks!
ps: even though the phone is cool now i can still smell it
mine2gets reli hot, even the footy game crashes
Im really thinking of sending this phone back now.
The smell i get off of it is not normal at all.
I get scared of the phone overheating/ burning when playing games etc..
and again.. after 1hour the phone still smells the same..
My phone got pretty warm when I played some zombie hunter and browsed the internet. After an hour the area around the lense and the screen were very warm. Though I wouldn't say they were uncomfortable to use because of it.
As for smell, apart from the new phone/plastic smel, I didn't notice anything.
My advice: if you notice weird behaviour you think can be traced back to heat, give it back. Otherwise, trust the built in safety stuff.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
were you charging the phone at the time? cuz mine gets hot when playing games with it being plugged in. there was once when the temperature shot up to 50 degree C which quickly went back to normal range after unplugging the phone.
sckc23 said:
were you charging the phone at the time? cuz mine gets hot when playing games with it being plugged in. there was once when the temperature shot up to 50 degree C which quickly went back to normal range after unplugging the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasnt charging my phone at the time.
also the battery is fine it doesnt get hot at all.. its just the top left of the phone.. where the CPU is?
Does any one have or know of an app that shows the correct temperature of the phone/ CPU?
bump
again.. any one know of an app that gives an accurate reading of the CPU temperature?
My phone got pretty hot earlier, I was playing angry birds whilst plugged in, the screen was getting very hot, the top in particular.
I use a hard-ish gel case. The one with the kick stand
It's normal for phones (especially thin ones, where the back is plastic) to get hot during heavy CPU intensive use. This is very common when charging also. As a general rule of thumb, it should never exceed a heat you can't hold. So if you are finding it really too hot to hold or uncomfortable I would definitely take it back. Otherwise, as long as it doesn't exceed 40/50 degrees, it's likely ok.
However no phone should be smelling like that! I suppose a new plastic smell might occur if it's brand new, but certainly not as you describe.
PS: Just a thought... do you have a case on it? Often, a plastic / gel case can make the phone a lot hotter and I suppose that could also be the source of the smell?
its normal to get hot whilst charging tho, i guess the phone has safty measures if it gets too hot.
Maybe its more of software fix for games rather than hardware problem, just like my pc graphics card that used to get very hot and force a restart but once a software update (firmware) came out and installed it was fine.
The CPU is probably specced for like 80C, heat shouldnt be a problem unless you place in 40C sunlight or something.
The smell is of course another matter.
I didnt have any case on it.
Iv returned the phone for now and i might wait for the iphone5
Don't get me wrong.. i love the phone but it shouldnt be getting that hot/ smell coming from it when hot.
Who knows.. i might rebuy the phone later.. but as of right now my mind is set on waiting for the iphone5.
Thanks for your help anyway =)
Did you ever smell SGS1?
If you did, is it same kind of smell or not?
It smells too really weird if you take the back cover off, really not a big issue I think.
I have the same problem when I played the Pro evolution soccer. After 3 minutes, the zone of the virtual direction pad was very very hot. I think it's a problem when we push hardly on a very thin screen multitouch like GS2. It's really a serious problem. Anybody can verify? I think this should be a sticky topic!!!!!!!!!!!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
hakkinenvthh said:
I have the same problem when I played the Pro evolution soccer. After 3 minutes, the zone of the virtual direction pad was very very hot. I think it's a problem when we push hardly on a very thin screen multitouch like GS2. It's really a serious problem. Anybody can verify? I think this should be a sticky topic!!!!!!!!!!!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was it the top end of the phone? If so then that's where the CPU is, so its got nothing to do with a thin multitouch screen. That area is bound to get hotter than the rest of the phone.
Problem is that everyone got their own definition of "hot". I mean, even my computer monitor is "hot" at the top and bottom while its cold at the center (backlighting heat it up). It doesnt hurt its function the slightest. Electronics do this, plain and simple.
I find it very hard to believe that Samsung could have missed heat dissipation issues, unless they never tested their own phone for a single minute.
murklor said:
Was it the top end of the phone? If so then that's where the CPU is, so its got nothing to do with a thin multitouch screen. That area is bound to get hotter than the rest of the phone.
Problem is that everyone got their own definition of "hot". I mean, even my computer monitor is "hot" at the top and bottom while its cold at the center (backlighting heat it up). It doesnt hurt its function the slightest. Electronics do this, plain and simple.
I find it very hard to believe that Samsung could have missed heat dissipation issues, unless they never tested their own phone for a single minute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it was the top left end on my phone. I quitted the game as soon as I realized that the phone was burning really really hot, in 20 minutes before I have to turn it off. I can't imagine a phone can be "hot" like that, it's unacceptable. Try the game Pro evolution soccer and you'll see. I'll try some more games to verify
The phone feels hot (well hotter then you would expect) when I am playing game, browsing webs or charging it. I am a little bit concerned but decided to keep the phone which is such a powerful mean machine and too good for me to let go.
I hope they do honour the two years manufacture's warranty if the phone does melt in the future.
hello1122 said:
The phone feels hot (well hotter then you would expect) when I am playing game, browsing webs or charging it. I am a little bit concerned but decided to keep the phone which is such a powerful mean machine and too good for me to let go.
I hope they do honour the two years manufacture's warranty if the phone does melt in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't any problems when charging it, browsing web or playing some light games, but try to play an "extreme" game like Pro evolution soccer and you'll see
hello1122 said:
I hope they do honour the two years manufacture's warranty if the phone does melt in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use a custom rom or root your phone it will void your warranty so you will be left with a very nice £500 melted slab.
Problem is that everyone got their own definition of "hot". I mean, even my computer monitor is "hot" at the top and bottom while its cold at the center (backlighting heat it up). It doesnt hurt its function the slightest. Electronics do this, plain and simple
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that electronics get hot but atleast a screen has air vents and because its much bigger it can spread the heat around the product.
Did you ever smell SGS1?
If you did, is it same kind of smell or not?
It smells too really weird if you take the back cover off, really not a big issue I think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never owned the SGS1 but at first when i bought the SGS2 i did smell it every now and then when it was warm but it didnt smell of nothing.. though when it got really hot it started to smell.
its amazing how ive played with my phone to death the last 3 days and never got hot. Maybe a little warm but nothing uncomfortable. Maybe the first batch had some defects or something but mine is running perfectly. Only problem I am having is all these damn warning signs that popup.
I've noticed that the device is pretty hot. I'm not sure, which is why I want to verify this with you.
I've used the "Battery Indicator" app which shows that the temp is 34-37 Celsius.
Does that seem about right?
Thank you
yep that's perfectly normal : )
drm111 said:
yep that's perfectly normal : )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Cause it always feels hot in my hand....
Could it be that I'm just hot (cause the weather here is hot as well)?
What would be too hot ( I mean what temperature ).
I've had the phone restart itself twice yesterday after getting too hot (don't know the temp it was at though)
matanc1 said:
Really? Cause it always feels hot in my hand....
Could it be that I'm just hot (cause the weather here is hot as well)?
What would be too hot ( I mean what temperature ).
I've had the phone restart itself twice yesterday after getting too hot (don't know the temp it was at though)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
34-37c is absolutely normal. Its quite cold where I am atm, and the battery is 37c.
You've also no idea that the phone restarted due to heat. I've gone through 5 replacements now for various reasons, and they all got pretty warm under use. However one of them got stupidly hot, so hot you couldn't even hold onto it without hurting your hand. Thats why I got that one replaced.
And yes, if the ambient temperature is hot, it'll make the phone feel hotter aswell.
None of my GSII's have ever restarted on their own though. Could've been due to an app/widget though.
There has been 2-3 threads on this, one of which I created myself.
It's normal for the device to get quite hot, especially around the camera at the back and the screen near the top of the phone when gaming or watching videos over wifi. It shouldn't get so hot it can't be held though. It also doesn't help if you have a case on the phone, especially a thick gel-type one. I'm currently looking for a thin perforated cover, like the official Samsung one, but unlike that one with protection for the top and the bottom of the device. I suspect these holes will help with heat dissipation.
The phone has inbuilt safety for overheating I believe, although mine has never gotten hot enough to activate it. The phone will shut down if it thinks any more heat will lead to damage.
Pagnell said:
There has been 2-3 threads on this, one of which I created myself.
It's normal for the device to get quite hot, especially around the camera at the back and the screen near the top of the phone when gaming or watching videos over wifi. It shouldn't get so hot it can't be held though. It also doesn't help if you have a case on the phone, especially a thick gel-type one. I'm currently looking for a thin perforated cover, like the official Samsung one, but unlike that one with protection for the top and the bottom of the device. I suspect these holes will help with heat dissipation.
The phone has inbuilt safety for overheating I believe, although mine has never gotten hot enough to activate it. The phone will shut down if it thinks any more heat will lead to damage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
Was just about to ask about the case, since I bought a black gel one.
So do any of you know of a case that won't affect the heat ( a lot )?
I am honestly afraid to walk with the device without a case so that I don't break the screen (or scratch it) or break the phone in half (it looks so delicate!)
Like I said, the perforated covers look the best for preventing heat build up, although the official Samsung case doesn't protect the top or bottom corners, which perversely are the most likely parts to be damaged if the phone is dropped. I'd like to get hold of a cover that looks like that but with all round protection.
But, is it also "normal" that the phone gets incredibly hot when you play music with headphones on?
I seem to have experienced all the issues everybody went through (except for the shutdown) but nobody ever mentioned music (i am talking about 3 minutes playback not hours!)
Anybody with the same issue?
Take the back case off and smell near the top left of the phone..
When mine got hot a weird smell came from it.
It's probably worth checking with something like osmonitor that you haven't got a stuck task.
A few times mine has got really hot and it was a process using 96% cpu...
Most recently it was SocialHub which I don't even use! Had to reboot the phone to stop it as it wouldn't die.
I also had extremal heating in that area while playing angrybirds and after I move app from SDcard to internal memory - All comes OK. So I suppose it is because your apps ar data (music etc) located on SD and some of them due to speed limits heats during work. (it is in addition to WiFi and other network activity). Cause when I plug SD into comp by adapter and perform long file framsfer it also heats
So is this thing hotter than the original Galaxy S? I can live with the phone at that temp, but any higher is questionable.
It will shut down if it gets to hot. And I guess it takes quite a bit because a few months ago on engadget.com I saw some video of an iPhone a palm phone and I think a nexus one on a grill to see which one will either break or shut down first. And after like a minute on a grill it finally shut off. So I wouldn't worry about it unless its so hot u can't hold it. Once with my evo I was using 4g GPS Bluetooth. And charging the phone and it got up to around 115° (around 46° in celcius) and was fine. I shut it down tho when I noticed it got that high tho haha
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Mine (running XWKE7) went to 50 c when gaming "we rule" in game hub with charger plugged in. No external SD installed though.
Also keep in mind that fatter phones have more space to dissipate the heat. This phone is thin thin. That heat has to go somewhere! That's why I want a case that vents
Sent from my mobile phone using Tapatalk
Only charging... No more words to say...
Swyped from my overclocked GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
I think my phone is sometimes very hot.But after I have ROM KE7 I think is better.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
as soon as I start playing "real football 11" i can essentially cook an egg on the phone. Other games are fine though
Could it be due to the installation of overclocking apps? Didn't notice it was this hot during my first few days of usage.
In the first few days after I got my SGS II the phone went really very hot every time I charged it or when I played a game or even when I watched a movie.
Since I use Lite'ning Rom and banned some system apps the problem vanished.
So for me it seems to be a software-sided problem.
First and foremost, I don't promise this will fix anything as it has only worked for myself, but let me share my experience/journey and see if this can help at least another person in the same boat as I am.
If you do not want to read the entire story, feel free to skip to the break below.
Back story:
I got the phone in Hong Kong back in November. It's a 505 H815TR. (Don't ask me why I ended up with a Turkish phone, I have no idea)
The phone worked fine for about two weeks, then it would one day start to restart randomly. It also started happening more and more frequent, and the phone might fail to boot at all.
Sometimes it would just freeze on a screen and there'll be artifacts like the GPU overheated. When that happens the phone wouldn't even respond to a hard power-off (holding power for 4 seconds+) and I'd have to take out the battery.
Unfortunately for me, I have since went overseas and LG would not honour the motherboard swap. I also didn't want to sell this otherwise great new phone to another unfortunate soul either. So I'm stuck with the few hundred bux worth of not-quite junk. Determined to not let the money go to waste, I still tried to use it as a daily driver but it had gotten so bad at one point that I had to keep taking the battery off and restarting every few minutes during a meeting like an idiot.
So I tried upgrading the firmware, in hopes that it'll at least improve the situation. It was the 20c firmware. I used LGUP to upgrade it and it got better, if only for a while.
I thought, hey it ran better! Maybe I can stick it out, and sucker up the less frequent restarts. It will run okay for a week or so with occasional restarts. Then it suddenly got bad one day I opened up Maps for navigation. It would suddenly go back to a few restarts an hour.
At this point my hypothesis is that apps/sensors that would require a hike in power can trigger the crash. (duh!) So I turned off Bluetooth/GPS/disable every other app that I can think of. While it help a BIT, it certainly did not alleviate the problem. It had only gotten worse as time goes.
A few weeks went by, 20d came around. Hoping situations would improve, I upgraded the phone.
The problem got WORSE. I thought that's weird, the new version should have came with optimizations and gave less work the phone - hence it should freeze less. Puzzled and disappointed, I flashed back to 20c and was prepared to bite the bullet and accept it as lost cause. To my surprise however, when 20c finished generating cache and booted up, things started looking better again. It would run a few DAYS without problems. I got even more confused. If the problem was purely triggered by spikes of load, going back to the old firmware should have little to no effect. Something else must be going on. Before long, the problems came back and I'm plagued by the restarts again.
I came up with 2 possible hypotheses:
1 - It had something to do with cache
2 - It had something to do with Doze optimizations
Number 2 was easy to test. I went to settings and ignored every possible optimization (****ty UI on that screen by the way. It takes forever to scroll to anything and the checkboxes don't save until you exit the menu. When a restart hits before I exit the menu all progress is lost and I had to start from beginning :crying: ). I ran for a few more days and it seemed to have little impact.
So I was fairly confident at one point that it had to do with cache. Unfortunately, the G4 (at least my G4) does not have an easy access to erasing cache (which was incredibly annoying LG!). The so-called stock recovery only has an option to wipe the phone and obviously I didn't want to do that. I also did not want to temper with bootloader for the same reasons aside from the risk of bricking the phone. I had remembered that when I upgraded the firmware the cache gets wiped and it'll be regenerated on first boot. So I thought I'll just flash the same firmware and I'll be done! To my demise, apparently flashing the same kdz does NOT trigger the cache generation process. What I had to do was to flash 20d, boot that, and flash 20c again.
Things started to look better here. It ran fine. It did not crash for about a week or so. I thought it was a fair compromise. I can deal with a quick refresh(flashing 20d and then 20c again) once a week. Whenever I see signs of the restarts, I would quickly refresh when I got home that evening and it will be good for a week or so. Here I was ready to finalize my theory until...
It crashed. Soon after one of my routine refresh. I thought this was interesting? If it had to do with some kind of cache buildup, surely it would not crash right after a refresh? What's weirder still was it stopped doing that after 2-3 times. Something ELSE MUST be contributing to this. What else was related to the process of cache generation that could affect the stability of my system?
Here ladies and gentlemen, is what my little pea brain have came up with, through trial and error, no engineering background, limited tech knowledge, and limited common-sense:
It had to do with the activity of the CPU; or more precisely, it may have to do with the extended heating process that caused some component around the area to change in some kind of state, and thus improving the stability for a duration until it gradually changes back with time.
Engineers are probably laughing at me right now. I know it probably makes no sense, but it's the best that I can come up with. So I come to you guys, maybe some may help shed some light on this issue that plagues those of us who are stuck with the problematic phones that are not eligible for exchanges/repairs.
Anyway, to test my theory out, I downloaded some kind of stress tester from Google Play (I used StabilityTest v2.7)
I would wait until the phone starts restarting again (and it will, and when it does happen the stability dropped SHARPLY, from no restarts to maybe 2-3 an hour).
Then, I would run StabilityTest. I chose the classic stability test, and just let it run.
The first time it ran, it did not survive the first 10-15 mins. The phone would restart, and I would try again.
This time it ran for 2 hours without restarting (double the time needed for generating cache twice on my phone). I manually stopped the test and started using it normally.
Lo and behold! It was rock solid stable! No crashes, no matter what I did! Wifi, bluetooth, GPS, games, maps, youtube,... all of the above?!
And it would stay this way for me for about 2 weeks. When the phone starts restarting again, I would run the stress tester for a couple of hours, and it would be stable again.
I have since tried the 20d firmware, which also ran fine. I also flashed 20e yesterday, and so far it has been very smooth. I have tried various amounts of times like 1hr, 3hrs, 10hrs, but it would seem that going longer than 3hrs have no impact on the interval between restarts. So personally I find 2hrs will last me 2weeks or so and that works best for me.
I may not have completely solved the problem, and I still don't understand why it works, but it is sort of working for me.
And I hope it would work for you as well!
So here you go! And thanks for reading this unnecessarily long post!
TL;DR
Summary - I have found that by putting the cpu on load for an extended amount of time will dramatically increase the stability of the problematic phone. Here's something you can try:
Disclaimer: I do not guarantee this will work on your phone. I am no engineer. I take no responsibility if it causes any problem on your phone or if it explodes. That being said, it has worked for me. Please try at your own risk!
1. Make sure the area is well ventilated, the phone has sufficient battery or is charging.
2. Download and run "StabilityTest (ROOT Optional)" from Play Store.
3. Run "CLASSIC STABILITY TEST"
4. Let it run for at least 2 hours. If your phone restarts during the test, try again.
*However I would keep an eye on the temperature. I normal at around 50-60 Celsius.
5. It SHOULD be okay now. Depending on how bad your particular problem is, you may have to repeat this process every week or two. Experiment with different load times and see where your sweet spot is.
Thanks,
cbpneuma
Thanks for writing up your experience and theory. I wonder if the additional stress load is generating a large amount of heat that is curing some type of mechanically related electrical fault like a cold solder joint or marginally loose connection.
Some people bake or freeze their phones once the phone is continuously bootlooping so that they can get it to boot up and stay operational long enough to pull their data off the phone.
LG should take responsibility of their shoddy product and replace all affected serial numbers now without questions or provide a 3 year extended warranty.
Wow
That's great TC.
This is the first real lead that anyone has made ( to my knowledge)
And may be why LG is quiet on the cause of the hardware failures
Similar heading would help red ringed Xbox 360 and yellow light ps3's back in the day
cbpneuma said:
Engineers are probably laughing at me right now. I know it probably makes no sense, but it's the best that I can come up with. So I come to you guys, maybe some may help shed some light on this issue that plagues those of us who are stuck with the problematic phones that are not eligible for exchanges/repairs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not laughing if anything your patience and dogged determination is inspiring.
Great write up
I have found out something !!!
After 6 months of use of my LG G4 H815 S/N 509 Germany... When I put it over heavy load and let it heat up pretty well ( about 70-80 degrees Celsius ) I used to take the back cover off !!! I smelled it several times through out this period !!! And guess what I used to smell ??? The smell of flux !!! which shouldn't be there... I used to work daily fixing Mobos and PCBs so I know how flux smells like !!! My theory is that there is an excess of flux with the solder on the board and as we know flux helps solder to melt at lower temps, so at certain high temps on the G4, flux is slightly boiling... which is causing these fumes ( no smoke though !!! ) !!! Which could cause either of both:
1. An isolation if flux wastes get between the solder and the PCB !!!
2. If solder is deforming or melting which might cause loose contact between the components and the PCB !!!
How to fix this, it is all about burning the flux away without causing damage to the mobo :
1. Heat the hell out of your LG G4 while it is sitting still on a table !!! ( AND I REPEAT, SITTING STILL !!! NOT MOVING AROUND !!! )
2. The better solution would be to fix it like we fix GPUs !!! And this will burn the flux away so the solution should work...
a. Disassembled your LG G4 and remove your mobo.
b. Turn on your oven and heat it to 200 Degrees Celcsus .
c. Place your mobo on the Aluminium foil stand onto a cooking sheet or Aluminium foil with the EMI shield Up.
d. Once Oven has reached the 200 Degrees Celsius... place it into the Oven and bake it for 7 min.
e. When time up, leave the Oven door opened and the it stand or cool down for at least 60 min. (but I recommend you wait 120 min. to be on the safe side !!! ). Do not touch it or move it or eat it ( LOL, that sounded dirty... ) !!! Be patient.
f. Finally, reassemble your G4 and turn it on !!! It should work fine now !!!
Don't attempt this fix unless you are aware of what you are doing !!! And only if LG refused to fix your precious device !!! Don't attempt to fix it if you lack the required experience and skills !!! Learn how to do things first...
" DISCLAIMER: "
I am not responsible of any damage you cause to your device, yourself, your surroundings... or even your entire god damn country !!! LOL... I am not responsible if you cause a thermonuclear war or get the USA and Russia into war trying to fix your device !!! So please be aware of what you are doing and be careful !!!
BTW I hear a weird sound ( similar to spinning HDD if you ever heard one ) coming from the SoC area on the LG G4 when I put it under heavy load !!! I wonder if it is normal or due to the loose contact which usually causes similar sounds to come out of electronic components !!! Does anyone else hear that ??? Is it normal ???
( btw before you start saying that, I know smartphones don't have HDDs !!! I was just describing the sound !!! )
Just a comment... flux does not actually lower the melting point of solder, but rather helps it to flow better to the metal traces of the components and printed circuit board.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_(metallurgy))
In high-temperature metal joining processes (welding, brazing and soldering), the primary purpose of flux is to prevent oxidation of the base and filler materials. Tin-lead solder (e.g.) attaches very well to copper, but poorly to the various oxides of copper, which form quickly at soldering temperatures. Flux is a substance which is nearly inert at room temperature, but which becomes strongly reducing at elevated temperatures, preventing the formation of metal oxides. Additionally, flux allows solder to flow easily on the working piece rather than forming beads as it would otherwise.
The role of a flux in joining processes is typically dual: dissolving of the oxides on the metal surface, which facilitates wetting by molten metal, and acting as an oxygen barrier by coating the hot surface, preventing its oxidation. In some applications molten flux also serves as a heat transfer medium, facilitating heating of the joint by the soldering tool or molten solder.
cbpneuma said:
First and foremost, I don't promise this will fix anything as it has only worked for myself, but let me share my experience/journey and see if this can help at least another person in the same boat as I am.
If you do not want to read the entire story, feel free to skip to the break below.
Back story:
I got the phone in Hong Kong back in November. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting. Keep in mind that almost all of the bootloop problems are fatal - the phones won't boot up unless placed in a freezer, and eventually many of those phones won't boot up at all, even if placed in freezer. And the oven method doesn't provide for a long term fix.
For most of us, once it starts to bootloop, the phone is basically dead.
kwarwick said:
Just a comment... flux does not actually lower the melting point of solder, but rather helps it to flow better to the metal traces of the components and printed circuit board.
From Wikipedia...
In high-temperature metal joining processes (welding, brazing and soldering), the primary purpose of flux is to prevent oxidation of the base and filler materials. Tin-lead solder (e.g.) attaches very well to copper, but poorly to the various oxides of copper, which form quickly at soldering temperatures. Flux is a substance which is nearly inert at room temperature, but which becomes strongly reducing at elevated temperatures, preventing the formation of metal oxides. Additionally, flux allows solder to flow easily on the working piece rather than forming beads as it would otherwise.
The role of a flux in joining processes is typically dual: dissolving of the oxides on the metal surface, which facilitates wetting by molten metal, and acting as an oxygen barrier by coating the hot surface, preventing its oxidation. In some applications molten flux also serves as a heat transfer medium, facilitating heating of the joint by the soldering tool or molten solder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably misunderstood me... But it is okay !!!
Flux helps the solder to melt faster ( not lowering the melting point of solder ) cuz it allows better heat transfer... It also helps soder to better stock to the PCB and the terminals of electronic components !!!
Flux with solder works like oil when you want to fry potatoes... It will make them get cooked faster !!! Without oil they will take longer time !!! I hope you get my point....
starfcker69 said:
Very interesting. Keep in mind that almost all of the bootloop problems are fatal - the phones won't boot up unless placed in a freezer, and eventually many of those phones won't boot up at all, even if placed in freezer. And the oven method doesn't provide for a long term fix.
For most of us, once it starts to bootloop, the phone is basically dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like this more because of the **** implementation of CPU, since I disabled 2 main cores almost 3 or 4 weeks ago my phone is running pretty well and I'm even on a custom ROM.
Adam Myczkowski said:
I feel like this more because of the **** implementation of CPU, since I disabled 2 main cores almost 3 or 4 weeks ago my phone is running pretty well and I'm even on a custom ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was your phone doing before you disabled those two main cores and do you feel any performance decrease with them disabled?
divineBliss said:
What was your phone doing before you disabled those two main cores and do you feel any performance decrease with them disabled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wasn't completely dead, it was booting up sometimes, rarely but usually in the really low temps, I tried baking the mobo, worked for few hours and phone died, I put thermal pads on all the components what made pressure on them pushing them apart into the processor, phone worked, but again in REALLY low temps if it got up to like 27•C the phone constantly rebooting. ( I was on stock Marshmallow btw ). Then I found this reddit thread about disabling big cores, somehow it worked. Works only on 5.1, just saying. Anyway even though I disabled only 2 cores, the phone have been booting up only on 1 (WTF), what made it really slow and laggy. Fortunately, if you root your device you can enable all 4 cores in device manager. Or if you have H815 with unlocked bootloader as I do, you can flash any AOSP, CM, AOKP etc based ROM, with root and enable all for cores as well, I don't feel that big difference since I'm on pure android really. I already found a bug that disabling 2 cores is causing, on SUPERXE AOSP ROM this is somehow causing lockscreen settings to crash as I am not able to have any screen lock, weird bug... I didn't try any other ROMs.