I've already contacted AT&T about a replacement under warranty, but I thought I'd see if anyone has run across similar issues. I haven't seen this specific set of issues in other threads, but please point me there if I've missed one.
Yesterday, my 920 suddenly started taking several seconds to wake when I hit the power button. At first, I thought there might be an issue with the button because a friend just had the power button go bad on his 920, but it is definitely not a button issue on my phone. After that, the phone started hanging up while trying to open just about any app from Xbox to email to messaging. It flips to a loading screen and then sits there for a long (sometimes short) period of time and then just goes back to the start screen. The only app I could (most of the time) get open was the phone app, but I couldn't do much with it beyond call someone in my history or dial with the keypad.
Also of note...
The phone got hot a couple of times (as it is prone to do on a good day), so I turned it off for a while and started it up hoping it would be fixed. No such (permanent) luck.
And, the screen brightness sensor seemed to be on the fritz. In sunlight, it stayed really dark. In doors, it was plenty bright, but the buttons did not illuminate (indicative of the sensor being ignored or not working).
So, here's what I tried to do to fix it...
1) Turned the phone off and then back on. This didn't seem to consistently fix anything. It might have started working "normally" for a brief time, but then would go right back to the slow-to-wake and apps-not-loading symptoms.
2) Soft reset the phone. Again, this didn't consistently fix anything. I'm pretty sure that it did go back to normal a couple of times this way, but not every time.
3) Last resort... Reset the phone. This was actually a royal pain for a couple of reasons.
First, I couldn't even get the settings app to open for a long time. I caught it once while it worked and got it to start. I was worried about trying this at all because it might get hung up while restoring and then I'd be really stuck. Which leads me to...
Second reason it was a pain. It DID get stuck restoring. I've been lucky that my 920 hasn't needed a restore until now, so I hadn't run into the issues that I've read about (and experienced) since. I left for an hour or more and came back to see the gears turning. I looked at the sticky post here in the forum and started to install the necessary software to try and fix it. I also read a post elsewhere about some combo of plugging it in and buttons to mash that might get it working again. While downloading the software, I tried the button / plug thing (I don't think successfully) and I think I was the beneficiary of coincidence and the phone came back to life!
This was good news, so I put in my MS ID info and got it rolling again. Initially, it seemed to work! But that was short lived.
So, at this point I decided that I'd try to get it replaced because I didn't know what else to do. I will say that I really despise the way AT&T deals with warranties (I'm sure I'm not alone). I stopped by the biggest corporate store in town and was immediately told to call the warranty department. Nothing they could do for me in-store. They are perfectly OK with their customers being without a working phone for several days. For some people I know, this would be a deal breaker, but luckily I have options. Also, when I called the warranty department (which I will say took no time at all, but it was Sunday) they offered to ship a new phone for arrival in 4-6 days for free, but had the nuts to ask me to pay $15 for 1-2 day shipping. I quickly squashed that charge. I would have held a serious grudge on that one the next time my contract came up. Enough AT&T bashing (all the carriers are horrible in their own way)...
In the end, I'm not entirely sure what could have caused this and I'm not exactly sure why this might not be software related and not the phone. It almost seems like there is some process or app hanging up in the background, but I don't know how that could suddenly happen. If it were the last OS update, I would have expected this to happen immediately, but it didn't. As for apps causing it, the only app I have installed in the past few days was the Nokia Conference Beta, but I never even ran that. I even uninstalled it (with no success) and it wasn't re-installed when I restored (still no success).
Anyway, if my long, drawn out description makes any sense to anyone, let me know what you think. My biggest fear is getting a new phone and having the same issues if this somehow gets restored in the same way.
Thanks...
Yesterday, my 920 suddenly started taking several seconds to wake when I hit the power button. At first, I thought there might be an issue with the button because a friend just had the power button go bad on his 920, but it is definitely not a button issue on my phone. After that, the phone started hanging up while trying to open just about any app from Xbox to email to messaging. It flips to a loading screen and then sits there for a long (sometimes short) period of time and then just goes back to the start screen. The only app I could (most of the time) get open was the phone app, but I couldn't do much with it beyond call someone in my history or dial with the keypad.
Also of note...
The phone got hot a couple of times (as it is prone to do on a good day), so I turned it off for a while and started it up hoping it would be fixed. No such (permanent) luck.
And, the screen brightness sensor seemed to be on the fritz. In sunlight, it stayed really dark. In doors, it was plenty bright, but the buttons did not illuminate (indicative of the sensor being ignored or not working).
So, here's what I tried to do to fix it...
1) Turned the phone off and then back on. This didn't seem to consistently fix anything. It might have started working "normally" for a brief time, but then would go right back to the slow-to-wake and apps-not-loading symptoms.
2) Soft reset the phone. Again, this didn't consistently fix anything. I'm pretty sure that it did go back to normal a couple of times this way, but not every time.
3) Last resort... Reset the phone. This was actually a royal pain for a couple of reasons.
First, I couldn't even get the settings app to open for a long time. I caught it once while it worked and got it to start. I was worried about trying this at all because it might get hung up while restoring and then I'd be really stuck. Which leads me to...
Second reason it was a pain. It DID get stuck restoring. I've been lucky that my 920 hasn't needed a restore until now, so I hadn't run into the issues that I've read about (and experienced) since. I left for an hour or more and came back to see the gears turning. I looked at the sticky post here in the forum and started to install the necessary software to try and fix it. I also read a post elsewhere about some combo of plugging it in and buttons to mash that might get it working again. While downloading the software, I tried the button / plug thing (I don't think successfully) and I think I was the beneficiary of coincidence and the phone came back to life!
This was good news, so I put in my MS ID info and got it rolling again. Initially, it seemed to work! But that was short lived.
So, at this point I decided that I'd try to get it replaced because I didn't know what else to do. I will say that I really despise the way AT&T deals with warranties (I'm sure I'm not alone). I stopped by the biggest corporate store in town and was immediately told to call the warranty department. Nothing they could do for me in-store. They are perfectly OK with their customers being without a working phone for several days. For some people I know, this would be a deal breaker, but luckily I have options. Also, when I called the warranty department (which I will say took no time at all, but it was Sunday) they offered to ship a new phone for arrival in 4-6 days for free, but had the nuts to ask me to pay $15 for 1-2 day shipping. I quickly squashed that charge. I would have held a serious grudge on that one the next time my contract came up. Enough AT&T bashing (all the carriers are horrible in their own way)...
In the end, I'm not entirely sure what could have caused this and I'm not exactly sure why this might not be software related and not the phone. It almost seems like there is some process or app hanging up in the background, but I don't know how that could suddenly happen. If it were the last OS update, I would have expected this to happen immediately, but it didn't. As for apps causing it, the only app I have installed in the past few days was the Nokia Conference Beta, but I never even ran that. I even uninstalled it (with no success) and it wasn't re-installed when I restored (still no success).
Anyway, if my long, drawn out description makes any sense to anyone, let me know what you think. My biggest fear is getting a new phone and having the same issues if this somehow gets restored in the same way.
Thanks...
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