When it comes to the HTC ThunderBolt, probably our biggest gripe is the spate of reboots. Look down, and, yep, there it goes again. It's one thing if it's a hacked phone with nightly builds -- and another if it's a stock consumer release.
But the good news is that some whiny blogger whined about it on Twitter, and Verizon responded with what you see above. Not that we had any doubt that HTC and Verizon are working to squash a bug or three, but it is nice to see it publicly.
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39 Comments
I'm happy to say I never experienced any reboot issues on my Thuderbolt. I've been running the OTA update when it was first leaked out.
It's the new radio that does it...! I went back to old radio with new software and it stopped
Phil, do you happen to have any task management apps running? If you do, you may want to try removing them.
I have a Droid 2 that would randomly reboot quite often, until I stumbled onto a forum claiming that the behavior was the result of task/battery managers. Sure enough, I had Advanced Task Killer installed, and I have not had any random reboots since I removed it. I miss the slightly longer battery life I was getting with the task killer, but I don't miss the reboots and system lockups - I guess it's the price you have to pay for a stable system.
If you know anything about Phil, its that he HATES task killers. 99.99999% sure he hasn't changed his mind on task killers.it.
I can confirm that I don't run task killers and I've seen the random reboot issue, even if not very often.
I've had a reboot or two, but it' s very rare, thank goodness not every day like some people are experiencing.
Still I'm glad they are working, the one definite reboot I had was when I was driving and using my phone as a GPS, very bad timing.
I've used my phone as a GPS since and not had the issue.
I hope the solve it soon, for all those who have quite a few reboots.
I'm aware of the reboot problem, but at a glance the title makes it seem like they will be putting out a revised Thunderbolt (a la TB2) already. :)
Good thing the reboot deal is getting the attention it needs though.
Bigdav1178 that's a misconception, if you think task killers save battery..
I have to disagree. I ran the mentioned task killer for about 4 months until removing it about 2 months ago. I have not made any drastic changes to my usage or configuration, yet I've seen about a 2-3 hour reduction in my available battery since removing ATK. 2-3 hours may not really seem like a lot of time, but when you struggle to make it through the day on a charge, 2-3 hours can be a world of difference.
I had mine set to very aggressively kill tasks, so perhaps that is why I'd seen a noticeable difference. I regularly see apps running that haven't been used in some time, or never actually started; however, they would not be there when I was running the task killer (Poynt is an annoying one that does this often; no widget or background task, but it still runs constantly).
Something is wrong with your phone then. Either an application you have installed, or less likely, something with the Android operating system itself. Task Killers only kill the app causing the problem, it doesn't fix the problem. I suggest you turn off that task killer, and check your battery usage in settings:
Settings > About Phone > Battery Use
Any app that is using way too much battery compared to the others is probably the cause. If that doesn't work, try the AC forums and ask in the section for your phone.
If your apps were behaving properly, killing tasks would actually kill battery, as it would waste processing power to restart those applications when they are needed. Additionally, in Android having apps loaded in memory but not running uses the same amount of battery as having that memory free to begin with, so you might as well let those apps sit in memory, ready to go, and let Android close the app when it needs the memory for something else.
Funny, they didn't seem to care about the Droid Incredible's reboot issues until almost a year after launch.
My phone has only rebooted once since I did the update last week. My biggest problem is still the same as before the update. My phone burns through battery life like a Ford Excursion burns through gasoline!!! It sucked when I first bought it, miracously got better and then got much worse than it was before. I took my phone off of the charger today at 9:05 am and it is now at 80% (9:57pm) and will probably be struggling for life by noon. I know its a smart phone but that is just insane. Help us with this issue Big Red/HTC.
Have had the TBolt since day one. Never a random reboot on either the stock ROM or the DAS BAMF ROM I've been running for several weeks now. Been trying a few custom kernels too. I am also running the "new" radio, but it's the one that was leaked a few weeks ago, not the one via the OTA. Battery life is just barely acceptable, though.
My Nexus S and Galaxy S i9000, both on CyanogenMod 7.0.3, on the other hand, randomly reboot once per day. Very annoying.
I've had one since the update, but I think it was because of Music Beta. None before or since.
Since Verizon pushed their update, my tbolt has a mind of its own. Rebooting itself @ least three times a day... took it into Verizon they accused me of rooting my phone, noted it in my account (right) and sent me on my way. Beginning to wonder if rooting it would solve this problem... Any thoughts?
My thought is that the people you talked to at Verizon need to learn how to find out whether a phone is rooted or not. But for the time being I wouldn't root it, take it back in and walk them through the steps on how it isn't rooted.
Dude - complain to corporate about that - why do you pay a premium price for cell phone service for lousy service?
Not had an issue with mine even with the update, however, had three DXs that rebooted a lot and wife had a D2 and it would just shut down. Thank God I don't either of them anymore. Got wife Dinc 2 and she loves it. I much prefer HTC myself had the original Dinc wish I had kept it. TB working great!!! By the way since update which was couple days ago my TB seems to be getting better battery life.
I wish they would address the random reboots of the Droid X.
Our test units didn't do it, but as soon as a coworker bought one it reboots 7-8 times a day...Usually when he's trying to show me something...lol
Please HTC and Verizon:
Fix battery issue and GPS location accuracy while you're at it!
I used to get accuracy within 2-10 meters with my D2, now on my Tbolt it is usually 1600 meters! How useful can a GPS be when it is off 1600 meters! I recently got the Tbolt and did not use my GPS prior to the OTA so I do not know if it was a pre-OTA issue.
WOW. VZ jumped on that situation with a sense of urgency. My EVO gives me random soft reboots. HTC Sense takes a dump randomly too. It hasn't become a problem yet, but it's enough to make me want whatever the next NEXUS phone is...
I have never had a random reboot that I am aware of, either before or after the update. FWIW.
No reboots at all
HAHA! Im sure some of those twitter reps know who Phil is through the blogoshpere so that way they responded to him. I've asked about 4x's already since last night and none of them have gotten back to me. Also, even though i have a warranty, i dont want to return my phone just to get a refurbished (pre-owned moderately fixed some time ago in the past) phone just to have the same problems if not more. I like knowing that at least this is the only thing wrong with my phone and that im the only owner that it has had.
I contacted Verizon and they said they have never heard of the issue, so they sent me to HTC support. HTC is aware of it and said to go to the VZW store and they would give me a new replacement phone. Of course, Verizon would never do that. They told me I would have to take a refurbished one. We all know how that would work out.
Neither would be an acceptable solution, though, as it is not a hardware problem.
I have been trying for over a week to get this new update. It seems that I installed that leaked RUU that was released a few weeks ago so right now im running 1.13.605.7, which I guess is the updated that verizon officially released.
I do get the occasional reboots, but not something that happens on a daily basis.
I am unrooted, running stock.
So far, even with all the problems I am digging the phone.
Mine hasn't rebooted since the OTA, did happen few times before, only about 1/10 of amount my droidx rebooted though so still alot happier.
The ThunderTerd is the worst example of a half baked device. It seems like it was doomed from the start. Delayed on release, battery problems, I believe it had OTA issues, now this.... Geez. The more time they have to dedicate to resolving this devices issues, the less time they have to dedicate to updates to other devices like the D2, DX, Incredible/2, etc., etc.
This is getting really frustrating... Five more reboots today and three back to back to back. I am getting two to six a day. I am about to huck this phone out the window. I hope something is done about this soon.
Anyone notice it only happens when the AC power is connected? Granted with this phone that may be always.
I've only experienced the random reboots once or twice...noticed it happend yesterday actually. MY issue with this update is now my STOCK messaging app freezes then force quits! everyday, at least 5 times a day. this NEVER happened with my TB until I updated.
Interesting. I just contacted Verizon Support and they are unaware of any such issue.
They transferred me to HTC support, who is aware of the issue and says to go to the Verizon store and they will replace it with new hardware.
Of course, Verizon insists that any new hardware will be [Certified Like] new.
I had just bought a Thunderbolt about a week ago, and from day 1 it was rebooting. It's worth noting that it immediately updated, so I'm not sure if it's due to the update or not...
I called Verizon, they claimed there was no such issue.
I called htc, they claimed the issue existed and I was supposed to return the phone.
After raising quite a lot of hell, being that my phone was only a week old. I got it returned and now am unsure if I should get another Thunderbolt and wait for a good update, or get a different phone...
Either way, nothing I did resolved the issue. Factory reset, no applications, reseating battery; nothing.
It's really annoying, because aside from that issue, which mind you is a huge issue, the phone is absolutely awesome.
My new Thunderbolt (purch. May 9) began dropping 3G and randomly rebooting on the 15th day after purchase, making it unreturnable for another model. A hard reset and holding out from loading new apps did not correct problem. Refurb sent to me. It rebooted less than 2hrs after activation and continues to do so. Also, power button on refurb is hard to press and lacks spring-return action of my brand new model. Verizon will call to re-check it's status in 48 hrs and I will request refurb #2. I'm frustrated, but have done this drill before; I was sent 4 replacement "Certified" EVOs from Sprint before receiving one without very noticible problems. And still, it's lighting on the bottom 4 buttons wasn't uniform, but I accepted it and sold on ebay. Please check your refurbs over well! And unfortunately, keep at it until you receive one with no problems. Seems that's our only viable option w/o rooting or buying out of contract. And fyi, it seems (I asked Verizon yesterday) the 3 replacements in 90 days rule no longer applies. So we can't even choose an alternative device after getting 3 bad refurbs. All cell companies are horrible :( Just imo, Verizon is the least horrible of the 3.
I've absolutely solved my Thunderbolt random reboot problem. I'll cut through all the long, boring details, and start here: I was eventually lead to a jpg photo file on my SD card that was corrupt. Both my pc and my Mac had a hard time deleting it from the card without just doing a reformat, but I eventually managed to copy off all my files (minus the corrupt photo file), reformat my Sd card and recopy the files back to it. I also had to hard reset (to factory) the Thunderbolt. I loadad all apps I've ever used and have run the phone hard for over 3 days...NO MORE REBOOTS! If anyone suspects they may have the same issue, it's important to factory reset the phone too because it will keep cached info about the card and the phone may continue to reboot even with a new or reformatted card. I'm not sure the details of why this happened, but I just have to share it after going through 3 phones with the same problem and Tech support unable to offer a solution besides replacing phones. But this definitely was my random reboot problem. Please let me know if this fix works for anyone else.
How did you find out which jpg was corrupt? and how did you find out that it was a jpg that was corrupt?
Someone please tell me I haven't made a mistake and that one day soon I will be happy with my HTC Thunderbolt.
A little background....this is my first smartphone (got tired of being made fun of with my old flip phone)I bought it the day it came out here 3-17-11. The only problem I had with the phone was me not knowing how to use it so I took it in to Verizon two weeks ago for a little support and the salesperson took the phone in the back room for longer than I was comfortable with and when I inquired as to what happened to my phone that person came back and said that my problem was probably with my Google account. I figured stupid me knew more than they did so I left. Ever since then and not before that visit my phone reboots, ah probably five times an hour, just too many times to count. Every time I try to make a phone call it stops so I have to manually reboot it before it will dial. It did not have this problem before I took it to Verizon and I don't want them to touch it again and am wondering after reading some of these comments if they could have done a factory reset so something and never told me?
Other than not having a phone to use when I need it, it is a damn neat phone and I want to keep it but can't put up with this. Any advice, please.