AT&T Lumia 950s are lemons

[runamuck83]

I have 4 ATT Lumia 950s in my household. All of them constantly reboot themselves at least twice a day. Often times the camera records stuttering video. Apps constantly crash or hang on resume. Windows Hello will randomly just stop working(have to type in PIN ir restart phone to get Hello back). Battery drains at a ridiculous rate during basic usage. Standby battery when phone is completely unused lasts about 1 day. I have already had 2 of these phones replaced by AT&T and they behave exactly the same. Tried installing insider on mine and doesn't make a difference.

I hear there's a mysterious firmware update out there that fixes all these issues. These phones are just brutal and If the firmware does fix these issues ATT should get their @$$ in gear and push it.

In the meantime, I have to listen to my wife complain non stop about how much her phone sucks and I've switched to using a Nexus 5X.

 

[Neill Baldwin]

It's so odd. Hard mine since release day and mine has only rebooted one time. Guess I'm one of the lucky ones cause I really haven't had any problems with mine

 

[runamuck83]

It's just so upsetting. I love Windows Phone and I've owned at least a dozen different Lumia's. None of them have ever been like this... It's just sad

 

[Celticg]

Never had a issue with mines except for the recent update that made the Enter Pin screen lag but that's been fixed. That's some serious bad luck.

 

[maevinj]

I haven't had any issue with mine. Are you using SD cards?

 

[runamuck83]

Originally posted by maevinj
I haven't had any issue with mine. Are you using SD cards?

Just me. My wife and others are not. Doesn't make a difference. I've tried using it without it for 3 days and all the same problems persist.

 

[ashram]

While I have had some issues, it's nowhere near as bad as the op's!

Concerning random reboots, since they are random, who knows how often a phone reboots. I have caught about 3 since November, but truth be told, who knows how often it has actually rebooted.

As for AT&T getting their butts into gear and getting us these firmware updates. I agree. If an update improves performance on a phone that has been on the market a few months, AT&T should provide it, or allow MS to push it within a month if AT&T doesn't. We know the updates improve Bluetooth, video capture and stability, so why do we not have them?

 

[slyronit]

"Concerning random reboots, since they are random, who knows how often a phone reboots. I have caught about 3 since November, but truth be told, who knows how often it has actually rebooted."

Well, if you have Windows Hello, it tells you when the phone has rebooted and asks you t enter the PIN.

 

[saputraj]

I have exactly the same issues. The phone constantly draining power & getting hot. It reboots so often to a point that it is now unusable. BTW, I have already flashed it to the latest Redstone firmware.

I have been using WP since the beginning and never face such issues. In fact, I had Windows 10 mobile installed on my 1520, 930 & M8 and all performed flawlessly.

If others have smooth experiences, I guest that some of the batches must be faulty. I don't believe the OS is the culprit as it runs smoothly on older devices.

 

[CraigCole]

My refurbished AT&T 950 has been MUCH better than the despicable hunk of rubbish they sold me initially. Also, the .107 update seemed to fix myriad issues from unacceptable battery drain and "hot pocketing," to poor overall performance and app crashes.

 

[d1stort1on]

My ATT 950 has been generally good. Some of the problems were things that have been fixed - battery drain, etc. Still waiting on the firmware though...

 

[Dewg]

I've read that ATT branded 950s are starting to get the 107 update. If that's true - once 107 is done applying on your phone, do a hard reset (factory wipe). Backup any data you have that's not on OneDrive already.

While fully charged:

1) Power the phone off
2) Hold down the Volume Down button, and then press Power to start it up
3) When you see the ! mark, release the Volume Down button
4) Press Volume Up, Volume Down, Power, Volume Down

That will wipe the phone and reset it to factory settings. I recommend you do NOT restore a backup, and setup the phone from scratch - it's a pain, I know, but works well for stability.

Once you're at the Start Screen - wait 60 seconds or so - then go into the Store and check for app updates. Let it update - which can take some time as there are dozens to do. Once all the apps are up to date, power the phone down - wait 20 seconds, and then power it back on. Then you can start re-installing apps from your Library that you might need.

Be aware that the phone will be slower initially and battery life will be less the first day, as Windows performs all the optimizations, search indexing, etc. after the factory reset. Charge it overnight and in the morning you'll be good to go!

Enjoy your 950 - with much more stability and excellent battery life.

 

[joymariah041]

i hope the firmware fix you are looking for will get pushed

 

[microsoft111]

I'm on my second 950. I broke the screen on the first one. I got my second one from AT&T asuron insurance service.

Neither one has issue with battery drain or restarting. The only time is has restarted is when I unplug it from the charger in the morning and it says that restarted after an update. I'm love the phone and Windows 10.

I don't know if I'm doing something different but, Hello seems much better at recognizing me. I wear glasses so, maybe it just that I move the phone away from glare or background lights better than I did before.

 

[runamuck83]

I'm on my second 950. I broke the screen on the first one. I got my second one from AT&T asuron insurance service.

Neither one has issue with battery drain or restarting. The only time is has restarted is when I unplug it from the charger in the morning and it says that restarted after an update. I'm love the phone and Windows 10.

I don't know if I'm doing something different but, Hello seems much better at recognizing me. I wear glasses so, maybe it just that I move the phone away from glare or background lights better than I did before.

Windows Hello works fine when it's on. There are occasions where suddenly it will not look for you anymore. (This is on the AT&T Lumia 950). It just prompts for a PIN.

Not sure what the deal is with the reboots, but it's just painful.

 

[jbowyer1]

I have 4 ATT Lumia 950s in my household. All of them constantly reboot themselves at least twice a day.

Like Neill said, peoples' experiences with this phone are quite odd. I've only had two random reboots in two months with my fast ringed ATT 950, Hello always works, and my battery usage averages 5% per hour, so about 20 hours on a charge, plenty to get me through a day.

Could it be something in your environment? Are you on the edge of cell connectivity, with the phone working hard to keep one bar? Do you use wifi at home, and is it 2.4ghz or 5ghz?

 

[mtiede]

My wife's 950 unlocked from Microsoft hasn't rebooted on its own. I wonder if it something that att does.

 

[Jazmac]

This happened for me when I got in the Windows Phone game with the Lumia 900. Couldn't find data for anything. Sent it back, got another. Same deal. Sent that one back got a third and when if didn't work either, an OTA update happened and all was right with the world. Mine came from Amazon. They got their shipment from a factory in Mexico and they had a crazy batch of em shipped to Amazon. It was remedied from what I can remember.

 

[Jeff Merritt1]

I don't want to repeat what the OP said, but I have the same exact issues. Battery life is deplorable...apps won't work, resets...everything. I'm going to do a hard reset in the hopes it helps...

 

[Sunstorming]

I've read that ATT branded 950s are starting to get the 107 update. If that's true - once 107 is done applying on your phone, do a hard reset (factory wipe). Backup any data you have that's not on OneDrive already.

While fully charged:

1) Power the phone off
2) Hold down the Volume Down button, and then press Power to start it up
3) When you see the ! mark, release the Volume Down button
4) Press Volume Up, Volume Down, Power, Volume Down

That will wipe the phone and reset it to factory settings. I recommend you do NOT restore a backup, and setup the phone from scratch - it's a pain, I know, but works well for stability.

Once you're at the Start Screen - wait 60 seconds or so - then go into the Store and check for app updates. Let it update - which can take some time as there are dozens to do. Once all the apps are up to date, power the phone down - wait 20 seconds, and then power it back on. Then you can start re-installing apps from your Library that you might need.

Be aware that the phone will be slower initially and battery life will be less the first day, as Windows performs all the optimizations, search indexing, etc. after the factory reset. Charge it overnight and in the morning you'll be good to go!

Enjoy your 950 - with much more stability and excellent battery life.

This is bad information. I restored from a backup a few times and it has been flawless.