[Q] Frequent, Random Crash-Reboot

[TheAutonomousGeek]

In the last few days my S5 has started just locking up briefly and then rebooting. It doesn't do it from a particular app, only when using the camera, or any other specific symptom I can find. It will even lock up and reboot during a reboot sometimes. It's happened running various unrelated apps that don't have anything (apparent) in common, when running no apps, when closing apps, and when sitting all by its lonesome next to me while I'm doing something else entirely.

When it started I was running Safestrap with AllianceROM 1.1 installed on the boot partition. I wiped and installed AllianceROM 2.0 and it still does it. The only change I can think of that happened anywhere around the time the problem developed is I replaced a broken charging port cover (can't imagine how that would have messed anything up.)

One common symptom that may or may not be helpful: during the short unresponsive time during the crash before it reboots, one or two lines of "static" a few pixels tall running horizontally across the display will often (but not always) appear. It's happened when using the phone, when not using the phone, and during reboot from a previous crash. It's crashed while rebooting prior to the Safestrap screen displaying. It crashes and reboots with and without the SD card installed.

At this point I'm thinking the phone is just plain broken (still under warranty) and a replacement is in order. So my questions are:

1. Anyone seen this before and know a fix?
2. Is there anything I'm overlooking and should test before pursing warranty replacement?
3. Is there any reason to avoid a replacement unit (ie. would a new phone resist root/safestrap/etc)?

Thanks.

 

[c4manceph]

Sounds like you've covered everything but one.
Try returning the phone to stock and see if the problem persist. If it does then phone is ready to be exchanged.
If not, you'll know it is something other than a hardware issue.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

Sounds like you've covered everything but one.
Try returning the phone to stock and see if the problem persist. If it does then phone is ready to be exchanged.
If not, you'll know it is something other than a hardware issue.

Yeah, I suppose I ought to do that just to be sure. But to be absolutely certain that would require Odin'ing back to stock to get rid of the root, Safestrap, and all the trimmings, right?

So I need a nandroid backup of my current image so I can resurrect that if it doesn't work so I have a phone that only annoys me intermittently while I wait for the replacement. While if that does solve the problem I need my Titanium Backup files so I can gradually restore my apps/settings after redoing all the root, Safestrap, and custom ROM work.

Am I missing anything?

 

[c4manceph]

This is the method I would use to return to stock:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2784880

Sounds like you've got it covered.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

Thanks. That link mentions repartitioning as being optional... under what conditions would it be advantageous? Is it just one of those "if you wanna be absolutely sure" things or are there cases where the partitioning has been changed and needs to be reset?

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

New symptom: twice now the phone has rebooted into Odin mode with the message "Could not do normal boot, mmc_read failed".

Doesn't look good... at least I've been able to reboot the phone to the OS each time. Once it even did it itself.

 

[RyanThaDude]

Sounds like internal memory failure. Do your best to ODIN back to 100% stock & do a warranty return.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

I've been back to stock for a day without any spontaneous reboots.

I figure the next step is to root, install Safestrap, and then flash the AllianceROM and not restore my Titanium backups except those that are absolutely necessary (and taking a nandroid backup before doing any of those). Let it run for a day or two like that, see if the reboots stay gone and then slowly restore the backups a few at a time to see if one of them causes the problem to return.

 

[c4manceph]

Thanks for the update, I wondered if you were having any luck.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

I'll keep this updated just in case anyone else has the same problem, so they can have a better idea how to resolve it.

Currently I've been running AllianceROM 2 for about 10 straight hours with no misbehavior. From stock I installed towelroot, Safestrap, then flashed the ROM according to instructions. Once that was loaded and the Play store done downloading everything I shut down, backed up via nandroid, and then used Titanium Backup to restore some key apps and data. Actually I restored more than a few, but not close to all. With the backup if the problem returns I have a clean restore point to use for a more conservative approach.

My plan going forward is that if nothing else goes wrong, I'll restore a few more backups as I need the related app, and after a week or so if things don't fall apart I'll go through and delete the entire contents of the Titanium Backup folder and re-backup the apps as they are in a stable state. Whatever was causing the problem seems to have died in the repartition/odin-to-stock/root-and-return-to-custom, or it's lurking in one of the unrestored backups.

Fingers crossed.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

Aaaaand just had a spontaneous reboot. Second time it's done it while scrolling the newsfeed in Facebook. (First time was pre-wipe to stock.) It's possible I just didn't have the restored stock version running long enough since this took over a day to happen.

So I'm restoring the backup and not restoring any of the Titanium Backup stuff. If it still reboots on its own after this, I'm considering it hardware and pursuing a replacement.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

There's been another spontaneous reboot. At this point I'm pretty comfortable calling it a hardware failure. I believe the absence of reboots while the phone was Odin'd back to stock was a fluke and, had I given it enough time, I'd have seen a spontaneous reboot there as well. I'm going to forego testing this theory to expedite a resolution to the problem.

So my next step is to call Verizon and start the ball rolling on a warranty replacement. I'll Odin the phone back to stock just before turning it in, until then I'll let it run (as much as it does) the way it is.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

The warranty replacement was easy. Went over the steps I'd taken (leaving out all the bits about root, custom Roms, and so on since it's none of their business) after spending about a half hour on hold between the initial customer support person and the actual phone tech guy. He kept saying, as I was telling him what I'd done, "yeah, that's what I was going to recommend next". Set me up for a replacement, next day air, and that's what I'm running now.

Wiped the old phone back to stock via Odin, set up the new one and restored every backup I wanted from Titanium backup. So far, no problems.

It's kinda neat how they send the replacement phones. No back cover, no battery, nada. You take all the stuff out/off of your old phone, use it to finish up the new one, and you're done. Put the old one back in the package, slap the return label over the previous label, and send it on its way. (Be sure to go to a FedEx store or something where you can get a receipt and so on to PROVE you sent it in case it gets lost, or you're paying for a new phone.)

It's clearly not a new new phone, it's a refurb, but aside from some minor scratches on the screen that a screen protector would make invisible, it's essentially new.

 

[TheAutonomousGeek]

Still no sign of a spontaneous reboot, looks like this is fixed.