01 February, 2012

Some issues I encountered with my Android Phone

English: see filename. Taken with Canon EOS 50...Image via Wikipedia01-Feb-2012

After rooting my Samsung Galaxy R phone, and my daughters' SE Neo V and LG Optimus SOL phones, I played a lot with my SGR, installing, evaluating and uninstalling all those free and not-so-free apps from the Android Market, and from the Android Black Market, if there is any color to it, and after many days, and still not tired myself, the phone seem to have been caught in some cycle of self-reset.

I cannot use it anymore, and I have to take out the battery just to stop it from its endless, useless, cycle.

I read through the forums, and I came across some articles saying that it can be due to Dolphin Browser HD, which, incidentally, I have just installed.

I uninstalled it without hesitation, and it worked. Or so I thought.

Half a day passed, and the excruciating self-reset cycle resumed.

So what now?

I decided to remove SPB Shell 3D, or what's left of it after I switched and tried LauncherPro, ADWLauncher EX and GO launcher EX, and not without a reason: it seems slow to 'rebuild' the pages, or the panels, after going to home screen, coming from some applications or screens.

And I thought that also fixed the problem. But it didn't help. SPB Shell 3D isn't the culprit, and to my relief, because I like SPB's products, then in Windows Mobile, and now, in Android phones.

What could really be the problem?

Not really knowing what the problem is, I went to desperate modes, and when I searched on self-reset problem for the android phone, I came across the many others who lament the same sad story, their own, and what was the last resort? factory reset.

And with a rooted phone, that recourse is STRONGLY NOT RECOMMENDED.

So the problem was aggravated, knowing that something could probably help, but at the same time, that step cannot be taken. And no, I didn't force the issue, I didn't do factory reset.

I calmed down a bit, and I observed the phone, and I was able to catch the error msg being thrown out before the screen blacks out, and it has something to do with Activity Android System being non-responsive, and what's more, it is when the phone is completing the indexing of the SD card.

The process error, and the media card scanning process, finally  brought me to some other forums, who not surprisingly, are also swamped with many users and android phone owners who experience the same: issue with the SD card media scanning process, which is just when the phone executes its self-reset.

What was the thing being observed? moving the apps from the phone to the SD card, or having some corrupted media files (video, mp3, etc).

I didn't have problems with my media files, but I have been, like a child freed into a mysterious playground, installing and installing and installing apps, one after the other, as much as my phone memory and external card can take... or so I thought.

So with each brief moment that my phone stays alive, first, I uninstall those that I believe were installed simply by impetus, not need. Then, I moved many apps from the SD card, back to the phone.

After moving about 15 apps, the phone showed some stability, and a longer 'up' time. Then some 10 more, and the phone has snapped out of its self-reset limbo.

I continued to move more of the apps back to phone, until finally, the free space was about equal, both for the phone and the SD card. And it's not even the external SD card we are talking about. It's the phone internal SD card.

Summary:

  1. Android Phone entered into self-reset cycle; have to remove battery to turn off.
  2. Uninstalled Dolphin Browser HD; momentarily gave relief, but self-reset resumed.
  3. Uninstalled SPB Shell 3D, but problem still persisted.
  4. Uninstalled other 'unwanted' apps, many apps.
  5. Finally, moved remaining apps from (internal) SD card to phone.
  6. This is what solved the problem.
So what's the message? Moderation. Actually, it is a kind of caveat, and a caveat emptor, this Android Phone. But I still choose it over the iPHone.

Till then!
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