Random reboots on stock/official carrier ROM(s) - symptoms exactly like with BETA 2.1 ROMs!!!

[Guest Koo-san]

Hi all...first post, but a long time follower of all the developments on here re. the T-Mobile Pulse (in fact it made me purchase one!).

...I've been following all the reports and feedback from people who have changed to ROMs based on the Android 2.1 Beta, and notice that people seem to get these random reboots etc...

Anyway, I have never used any sort of custom ROM (not even the excellent MCR ones!), and have only performed the stock December update as well as flashing AmonRA recovery and Superboot!!! However, I've since left Blighty (UK) and am now in HK, and have just switched to 3HK (no problem as I got my Pulse unlocked beforehand).

However, since I've started using the new USIM to get the service from 3HK (sister company to 3 [THREE] UK), I seem to be getting similar symptons as those experienced by those on the custom ROMs based on Android 2.1, such as:

1. when using apps requiring data seems to increase likelihood of reboot (as have experienced random reboot, then went into call log and then random reboot!)
   
2. reboot problem becomes more "violent" when battery is low (starting from about less than 50%)
   
3. problem does not seem to occur when using WiFi
   
4. tried only using 2G and GPRS data, and seems slightly more stable but still experience random reboots when using data-heavy apps!
   

I've already done a full Wipe using AmonRA and re-installed the December update a few times - but the problem persists. Interstingly though, I was getting Servo non-responds - and the pop-up asking me to FC or Wait before the reboots thing started happening. However since wipe and reflash Dec Update this has gone away (but reboot problem remains!) Strangely enough, but not sure if coincidence, before I got this USIM I was using a pay & go card in HK which ran on GSM 2G only and NO DATA connection and never saw any probs (but could be because never tried any of the apps).

I've also tried cleaning battery contacts and battery itself to no avail (yes I've searched high and low for answers already!)...just in case the phone was experiencing a short or something...

I really hope this doesn't mean there's some kind of widescale manufacturing flaw in these Pulses (...or conspiratorally speaking, a timebomb hardcoded in?) - as my case does seem to be the same as what the guys on custom ROMs based on 2.1 are seeing too (and I've haven't even installed a MCR on this device!).

So apart from sharing these interesting findings, I would like to ask:

1. can different (U)SIMs cause shorts causing the phone to reboot (i.e. flaws in SIM manufacture)? I did read somewhere it used to be a problem on older phones not liking lower voltage USIMs (WCDMA/3G )versus SIMs (GSM/2G)...
   
   
2. does T-Mobile UK (which I had no probs at all on 3G with all the same apps) run on a different UMTS frequency to 3HK? If so, I know the Pulse should be able to handle it, but just wondering if it's weaker at handling one than the other (but shouldnt be the case as Huawei have sold it to Asia as well as Europe and Latin America - unless the radio is slightly different in all the versions???)
   
   
3. I think I read somewhere a fellow member was also on 3HK, so if anyone else on 3HK ever had similar probs?
   

Sorry for long post - and thanks in advance for feedback on this...any discussion can only help us understand this Huawei product, and understand this reboot problem!!! :( Edited May 29, 2010 by Koo-san

[Guest psionandy]

I've had EXACTLY the same problems... with the exception that I've been in the UK all the time using t-mobile and with the stock Rom installed.

I sent mine back under warranty.. and 14 days later got the same unit back with same problem. So its gone back to t-mobile again and in another 14 days it may be fixed.

My guess is some sort of battery/power problem. Using Wifi or 2G it does seem more stable.. and with the data connection disabled he only way i could get it to randomly reboot was to play ball breaker for about an hour...

[Guest Azurren]

One way to confirm it its a hardware bug would be to wipe and install the 1.7 or 1.8 vanilla rom and see if the problem continues.

I know that sending your phone back is probably the last thing you want to do but..

If the phone was incomparable with the frequency then it just wouldn't work.

[Guest thealexweb]

I've had the same problems, T-Mobile has my phone for the second time. They said if they can't fix it this time they'll exchange it.

[Guest psionandy]

One way to confirm it its a hardware bug would be to wipe and install the 1.7 or 1.8 vanilla rom and see if the problem continues.

I know that sending your phone back is probably the last thing you want to do but..

If the phone was incomparable with the frequency then it just wouldn't work.

Good idea... and if you have the recovery image installed then you can always recover your previous set up via a backup/restore. Or re-apply the december update if you want to stay stock (this will wipe the recovery mode though)

The T-mobile UK website has a trouble shooter for the pulse...

The main steps were

Check for damage to screen... did you drop it?

Check moisture detector (white dot inside when you take off the battery cover... if its white you're ok and still under warranty)

full reset... is problem still there?

re-apply december update.. is problem still there?

if that doesn't help bring it back to the shop and get them to send it in for a repair.

[Guest psionandy]

I've had the same problems, T-Mobile has my phone for the second time. They said if they can't fix it this time they'll exchange it.

did they offer a like for like replacement (another pulse) or offer you a pulse mini instead... (which is what they suggested to me)

[Guest Koo-san]

I've had EXACTLY the same problems... with the exception that I've been in the UK all the time using t-mobile and with the stock Rom installed.

I sent mine back under warranty.. and 14 days later got the same unit back with same problem. So its gone back to t-mobile again and in another 14 days it may be fixed.

My guess is some sort of battery/power problem. Using Wifi or 2G it does seem more stable.. and with the data connection disabled he only way i could get it to randomly reboot was to play ball breaker for about an hour...

How long did you have the phone before this started happening? For me I've had the phone since January (so only about 4+ months). And funny how it's only started since I left blightly...what an inconvenience!!!n :(

[Guest psionandy]

How long did you have the phone before this started happening? For me I've had the phone since January (so only about 4+ months). And funny how it's only started since I left blightly...what an inconvenience!!!n :(

I got mine in December.. and had a few random reboots in April... just one here or there so I put it down to just random crashed.

In April it was happening a lot, so I went back to the december update (from 1.8b2).. and then down to a re-install with no additional software. And it finally became so bad it went back into the shop in May

[Guest Koo-san]

I've had the same problems, T-Mobile has my phone for the second time. They said if they can't fix it this time they'll exchange it.

Same question to you thealexweb: when did you get yours, and when did you first see these random reboots happening?

...just wondering if there's a bad batch out there - as I do remember seeing reports that T-Mobile stopped selling them in December 2009, only for them to be sold again come January...(maybe just over-analysing it)...

[Guest thealexweb]

did they offer a like for like replacement (another pulse) or offer you a pulse mini instead... (which is what they suggested to me)

Another Pulse, I still may demand a full refund. Don't accept a Pulse Mini, it's worth less.

[Guest Koo-san]

One way to confirm it its a hardware bug would be to wipe and install the 1.7 or 1.8 vanilla rom and see if the problem continues.

I know that sending your phone back is probably the last thing you want to do but..

If the phone was incomparable with the frequency then it just wouldn't work.

...I know psionandy (who has also responded in this topic) had EXACTLY the same problems as me while on MCR 1.8 beta and went back to the stock December Update - which didn't solve the problem...

...anyway, just to be sure, I've now put my Pulse on both the MCR 1.7 (not 1.8 beta - just to be sure I'm testing a ROM we know is 100% stable) Pulse and Vanilla ROMs posted by Paul back in February. The results are not surprisingly the same as the psionandy - still randomly reboots as I described...

...SO: I definitely think it's a HARDWARE not a SOFTWARE problem now!!!

Hmmm...if only I could buy a totally new battery to test the battery theory (and to make matters worse 2.1 is out now...and I've got this problem!).

People, let me know if other Pulses' start to fail where they used to be rock solid too - could be a general issue with "wear and tear" on the battery...we'll see (with a lot of members probably hammering their Pulses now 2.1 is [Hungarian-wise] officially out!).

[Guest jackwooly]

Having this problem now. Over the last week or so it's been rebooting, some days worse than others and just now I updated to 2.1 and it reboots every minute or so, making the phone unusable. Will have to consider sending it back now.

[Guest Koo-san]

Having this problem now. Over the last week or so it's been rebooting, some days worse than others and just now I updated to 2.1 and it reboots every minute or so, making the phone unusable. Will have to consider sending it back now.

Did you notice it gradually get worse over time? What ROM were you on before you upgraded? When is it most likely to reboot - after/during calls, when using apps requiring 3G data, gets worse during lower battery???

...sorry for asking but some people say it's the RADIO, some think it's a POWER/BATTERY issue (even though I've seen random reboots even when plugged in to the mains!)...so more info on the background to the reboots would be useful to put all our experiences in to context...

...to me, does seem like a fairly common complaint of the Pulse (U8220) - can't believe not more people have gotten together to force T-Mobile to get Huawei to investigate properly...as I'm sure T-Mobile (UK at least) has had a fair few cases of Pulses being sent in for repair for exactly the same problem - only for it to be returned to the owner without being resolved!!! :(

[Guest Accounts]

Hey, you've read my messages already. My pulse has started to reboot randomly again after installing 2.1 official. I am getting a new battery to see if anything changes, will post results when I get it.

[Guest Koo-san]

Hey, you've read my messages already. My pulse has started to reboot randomly again after installing 2.1 official. I am getting a new battery to see if anything changes, will post results when I get it.

...yeah, the more I "play" and test my Pulse - the more convinced that there is some hardware problem (and the more I think it could be a design flaw - as so many people have reported this problem, albeit all T-Mobile UK sourced)...

...like you, I'm currently trying to source a new GENUINE replacement battery (but only seems like eBay at the moment), but as I've experienced random reboot even under mains power (i.e. when using it plugged in via the charger with and without a battery in the phone), I'm not fully confident a new battery will solve it fully [hope I'm wrong though!].

If it doesn't, I think I'll jump ship to HTC... :( (...as the saying goes "you get what you pay for!" - and considering most HTC's are prob double this device!)

Hoping for the best,

Koo-san

[Guest Sl4yer]

I had lots of reboots after installing the December update, usually when browsing. Eventually, I started to get continuous FCs and Market wouldn't work. That's how I found this place! :( My conclusion was that the December upgrade is buggy as hell, but I'm sure not everyone has had the same problems. I flashed to MCR 1.7, and it's been fine for months.

[Guest zerosignull]

looking though the build.prop its got "ro.product.device=Pulse". We had a similar issue with the ROM leak with stability and changing that to "ro.product.device=U8220" helped stability a bit.

[Guest Koo-san]

looking though the build.prop its got "ro.product.device=Pulse". We had a similar issue with the ROM leak with stability and changing that to "ro.product.device=U8220" helped stability a bit.

Interesting feedback there zerosignull. I did try the MCR 1.7 (both Vanilla and Pulse versions) but I still got the same problem (so which 1.7 did you use Sl4yer?) :( ...

Can anyone confirm that the build.prop is set to "ro.product.device=Pulse" in both those ROMs too (apologies, I don't know how to unpack and check the ROMs)? I thought one of the custom ROMs did say U8230 (but not U8220)...

...anyway just to update everyone, I've gone back to my 1.5 Dec update nandroid backup now and made sure everything was restored and working. Then I switched everything off and pulled the battery cover and battery out for a few hours (to try and cool everything down - as the battery & phone have been warm to touch everytime I get these violent reboots!). I have since then rebooted and it's been up for about 8 hrs under light 3G data usage (not for more than longer than 5mins at a time with widgets running in the background) - BUT did get feedback that someone tried to call but couldn't get through :( ...

My next step is to either wait for official stock T-Mobile UK Eclair (but tempted to do the Hungarian version if a lot of people report it is indeed stable - but already have talked to people here who report random reboots back when they updated to 2.1...[confusing I know!])

[Guest zerosignull]

Interesting feedback there zerosignull. I did try the MCR 1.7 (both Vanilla and Pulse versions) but I still got the same problem (so which 1.7 did you use Sl4yer?) :( ...

Can anyone confirm that the build.prop is set to "ro.product.device=Pulse" in both those ROMs too (apologies, I don't know how to unpack and check the ROMs)? I thought one of the custom ROMs did say U8230 (but not U8220)...

Its set correctly in the RBM ROM

[Guest Koo-san]

Its set correctly in the RBM ROM

...yes I guess the Red Bull ROM (the Swiss one, right?) was released for U8230 and is correctly set so.

Maybe the instability of the T-Mobile UK sourced U8220 (Pulse) is because in UK they refer to it as "Pulse" still in the ROMs - is that what we think zerosignull?

If this is the case then surely this problem should only be limited to stock devices running on T-Mobile UK version of ROMs and any custom ROMs with their build.prop set to "Pulse" not the Huawei device number...(in which case an easy fix in a custom ROM :( )

...I will have to experiment further. zerosignull, do you know of any custom ROM which has the build.prop set to "U8220" and that in your experience is very stable (ie. very little reboot and FCs)? Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Guest zerosignull]

...yes I guess the Red Bull ROM (the Swiss one, right?) was released for U8230 and is correctly set so.

Maybe the instability of the T-Mobile UK sourced U8220 (Pulse) is because in UK they refer to it as "Pulse" still in the ROMs - is that what we think zerosignull?

The name "pulse" is just a tag in the build.prop. That tag can be RBM2 etc, etc. The device tag however should, i think, reflect the actuall hardware its running on IE U8220

[Guest not so humble german]

never had reboots with stock december update, 1.7 t-mob style or 1.7 vanilla style from this forum.

And I use a mixture of 3g, 2g and wifi every single day.

[Guest nxsfan]

Good idea... and if you have the recovery image installed then you can always recover your previous set up via a backup/restore. Or re-apply the december update if you want to stay stock (this will wipe the recovery mode though)

The T-mobile UK website has a trouble shooter for the pulse...

The main steps were

Check for damage to screen... did you drop it?

Check moisture detector (white dot inside when you take off the battery cover... if its white you're ok and still under warranty)

full reset... is problem still there?

re-apply december update.. is problem still there?

if that doesn't help bring it back to the shop and get them to send it in for a repair.

Sorry to hijack, I don't have problems with my pulse but I checked under the battery cover for a white dot. Within the usb port there is a red patch which I am assuming is the moisture detector? So this means damage is no longer covered under warranty? What a cop out, I've never used my pulse in fog, let alone rain.

[Guest psionandy]

Sorry to hijack, I don't have problems with my pulse but I checked under the battery cover for a white dot. Within the usb port there is a red patch which I am assuming is the moisture detector? So this means damage is no longer covered under warranty? What a cop out, I've never used my pulse in fog, let alone rain.

Its not in the USB port... its up at the top in the magenta circle. White when its dry... when its wet I have no idea what colour it turns.

[Guest nxsfan]

I suffered from a general comprehension failure there! Was somehow interpreting battery cover as usb cover :(, mine is still white fortunately. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Edited May 29, 2010 by nxsfan