[luc-mobile]

Maybe I should post this in the 8110 section, but I mentioned it there and didn't get much attention. I would like to get as much input as possible.

I had been using a Curve for more than a year and NEVER had it crash and reboot on me, ever, except a couple of times when I tried to play big AVI movie files without any conversion. No surprise.

Then I bought an 8110 Curve that came with a 4.3 firmware. It seemed stable, but kind of old. There are new applications out there that won't run on 4.3. I actually saw it reboot maybe a couple of times in two days, but at first I thought it was Google Maps, an application that I didn't leave running all the time on my Curve (the 8110 has a GPS chip, the 8300 doesn't). After those two days, I upgraded this 8110 to OS 4.5.0.110.

It seemed OK with 4.5.0.110, but it rebooted a couple of times over the course of a few days, I think less than a week. I had never seen a BlackBerry crash like that, out of the blue, but a couple of times over the course of a few days didn't seem like a big deal to me. I wasn't very happy with the battery, though, so I upgraded it to 4.5.0.124.

I had two problems with 4.5.0.124: no support for Portuguese (that sucks in a SureType device) and the reboots became more frequent. After 10 days or so, I got another unofficial firmware upgrade: also 4.5.0.124, but with Portuguese support. So I wiped the device with JL_Cmder and installed this other firmware, but the reboot problem didn't get any better. In fact, the device seems stable for around 12 to 24 hours, then it begins to reboot every few hours, sometimes every few minutes. Sometimes, twice or three times in a row, even before the boot sequence is completed. Maddening.

This a Brazilian phone. It is unlocked and running on Claro, my current carrier. But it was originally from Vivo, another Brazilian carrier. So I went to that page at blackberry.com with all the official firmware and found 4.5.0.81 for Vivo.

This time, I was more careful. I wiped the device with JL_Cmder and installed 4.5.0.81 from scratch and nothing else except my old contacts, Auto Text entries and browser bookmarks. I didn't install anything but the standard applications, not including DocumentsToGo, and didn't even import old messages and memos.

It was left like that for 48 hours. This time, it took 15 hours for the first reboot to happen. Then another one a couple of hours later, then nothing. It seemed more stable. After 48 hours, I felt confident and imported all my old data and installed all the other applications. Then it took two hours to reboot on its own again. And now, 24 hours later, I woke up and it has rebooted 8 times already over the course of 5 hours, including a double reboot (rebooting even before the previous reboot is completed).

I went to bed very late yesterday, I almost get no mail during the wee hours and I noticed that it is more stable when it is not receiving messages or otherwise not doing anything, at least apparently. It does reboot when left alone and my mail is quiet, but that's very seldom. It really seems to happen more often when new messages are coming (I hear the sound) or when I am browsing the Web or listening to music.

I bought this device from someone else, it's second hand. The person who sold it to me said it was just one month old, and he was selling a few other items in a forum, seemed like he was having financial troubles. I can't tell whether it was indeed just one month old, but I can attest that the device is in remarkable mint condition. Not a single scratch or smudge, nothing. I got the whole box/original packaging and the accessories were even better, like they had never been touched. The wire on the headphones looked like it had never been unwound. There were no signs of previous use of the earpieces whatsoever. The only vestiges of previous use were a few personal pictures (typical Facebook stuff), a handful of MP3 files, contacts in the address book and two weeks' worth of entries in the phone call history. I have the previous owner's full name, address, some bank account data and I know that he hangs out in a couple of forums regularly. I don't think he is a thief, everything seems legit (just in case someone here is wondering). But I don't know if there is any warranty on this unit. I just contacted him to inquire about the warranty, but haven't got a reply yet. I just wrote him, 5 minutes ago.

Even if there is still some warranty on this unit, that is not a compelling option. Claiming a warranty is very complicated here in Brazil. I will have to send the entire box/packaging to the one and only authorized shop in the entire country (just look at the size of Brazil on a map), pay for the shipment, then wait 30 days for an official appraisal and reply. Then maybe another 30 days to get a new device if they approve the replacement according to their criteria, whatever they are. I also have to deal with the possibility of not having any warranty at all on this device for some reason. I need to check if the previous owner still has the proof of purchase.

So, putting aside the idea of claiming a warranty, what do the sage fellow forum members suggest that I do to try to make this BlackBerry work as expected? Anything I still haven't tried to confirm that this device is indeed defective or not?

Many thanks in advance. This problem has been causing me a lot of distress.

[jsconyers]

Is there a media card in the device. It's been known that when upgrading to 4.5, the media card causes reboots.

[luc-mobile]

Yes, it has an 8 Gb media card inserted all the time except when I do firmware upgrades. But so did my Curve with 4.5, and it never crashed.

I just removed the card, let's see if it makes any difference.

[jsconyers]

This link may clear some things up.

http://www.blackberryforums.com/medi...t-reboots.html

[luc-mobile]

That is a lengthy procedure. Instead of going through it right away, I'll just leave the media card out for 2 or 3 days. If the phone doesn't reboot anymore, this is it. Then I'll have to hunt the rogue file that is causing it.

If this proves to be the problem, I will be very happy. I really like my Pearl. On the other hand, I'll be mad at RIM. What is so difficult about making decent media indexing software?

Thanks, Achmed. Deep down, you're a nice guy.

[jsconyers]

Haha, I hope it works for you

[luc-mobile]

Well, I've been doing some more experimenting since yesterday and have made some new although rather vague discoveries. They involve some bad news and some good news, too, hopefully.

The bad news: I removed the media card yesterday, around lunch time. Some time later, the BlackBerry rebooted. And it rebooted again about an hour later. I woke up this morning, still not using the media card, and the BlackBerry rebooted FOUR times in less than 10 minutes. So the interesting tip suggested by jsconyers didn't work at all.

The good news: I don't think there is anything wrong with the hardware on the phone, and here is why: it ran stable for 15 hours with the radio turned off.

I removed the media card yesterday, in the afternoon. A couple of hours later, the BlackBerry had rebooted twice already, so I decided that the media card had no relation to the problem. In fact, I really have the impression that it always happens when the BlackBerry is receiving email. So I decided to turn off the radio and leave it "disconnected" all day and night long. Guess what: it didn't reboot not even once in about 16 hours. And I didn't just leave it there, doing nothing. I played two games for at least half an hour, then I left the BlackBerry playing some music, then I made it play two videos, 22 minutes each, and it did not reboot even once. This morning, I woke up and checked the uptime and could verify that the BlackBerry had not rebooted during the night.

So I turned the radio back on. Sure enough, it began to download messages and bang! rebooted in less than 10 seconds, right in the middle of the downloading. When it was done rebooting, it immediately resumed downloading, a clear sign that it hadn't had the chance to finish the first time around. Then I was reading a message when it rebooted on me again. Then I was trying to download a picture attachment in another message and it rebooted again. Then I read another message and got another reboot. Four reboots this morning in less than 10 minutes.

Therefore I conclude that the hardware is not defective. It has to be some software flaw related to the downloading of messages, or else it wouldn't be so stable when the radio was turned off.

Well, maybe not downloading messages specifically. Maybe it has to do with Internet connection. So I am starting a new experiment now. I wondered what would happen if I disabled all mail boxes entirely and tried to use the Internet with other applications. Half an hour ago, I deleted the account that was receiving the most email. So far, so good. I am receiving mail on the other accounts and the BlackBerry hasn't rebooted yet. I have work to do now, but will browse the Web a little in the afternoon. And the other email accounts are still active. I intend to delete one by one if the BlackBerry reboots again. Let's see.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[zocster]

So you mean turning radio off in the manage communications bit, or the profile setting you have 'phone only' ... I would like to know your outcome keep us posted please.

Edit lol that sounded stupid just realised that profile is nothing to do with radio. Anyway sounds like your radio is dodgy? not sure how to fix it on BB I used to play with a lot of radio firmware on a winmo but hmm not a BB sorry.

[luc-mobile]

I turned off the radio in the Manage Communications app. As a matter of fact, it later occurred to me that I could have simply disabled data and kept the phone functionality only (you didn't say it quite right, but I know what you mean). But then I had deleted one of the mail accounts in my blackberry.com login page already, so I just went on with that approach.

Maybe it was for the best. It seems to be working. The phone didn't reboot at all in the last 12 hours and a half, exactly since I deleted that account. It was the busiest one. I went back to my blackberry.com login page and enabled the account about an hour ago. The account has received two or three messages and the BlackBerry hasn't rebooted yet. The reason I didn't celebrate or post the results here is that the account has been very quiet since I enabled it again. I still want to see what is going to happen when it goes back to its usual very busy self.

Yes, I'll keep you posted.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[luc-mobile]

Things have gotten worse. I enabled that busy mail account again and the reboots came back a couple of hours later.

So I disabled it again. But the reboots didn't go away.

So I deleted another busy mail account. No dice.

I disabled all data service and kept the phone functionality only. It still rebooted twice in less than 10 minutes.

I enabled data service and deleted all mail accounts. It kept rebooting, even more frequently than ever. This time, it seems to prefer to reboot when I'm using the browser. Sometimes, not using the browser, but whenever it crashes while I'm looking at the screen, the blue indicator on the top right is sure to be flashing indicating Internet activity. It never reboots when I'm playing a game, listening to music or watching a video with the radio turned off.

So the problem really seems to be related either to the radio or Internet use, but heck if I know WHAT in the world is wrong with this BlackBerry. I'm not sure I still I want to know. I am sick of it. I put my money on a paper weight, pretty simple. Game over.

Thanks for listening.

[zocster]

hmm just out of curiosity can you just load the english version? without additional languages? Give it a go may be it is the language pack.

[luc-mobile]

Tried that already.

Originally Posted by luc-mobile

I wasn't very happy with the battery, though, so I upgraded it to 4.5.0.124.

I had two problems with 4.5.0.124: no support for Portuguese (that sucks in a SureType device) and the reboots became more frequent. After 10 days or so, I got another unofficial firmware upgrade: also 4.5.0.124, but with Portuguese support.

[zocster]

well sounds more some lose wire somewhere, when I had my hermes, I had to replace the flex cable to stop it from rebooting, etc cutting on voice conversations, I know it's hard for you to get warranty but it may be your best bet sorry to say.