Friday 28 January 2011

HTC Desire HD turns itself off: Solved!

I recently bought an HTC Desire HD to replace my iPhone 3GS.
It's an excellent phone in many ways, but has one or two flaws. When on a business trip I set my alarm for the next morning and left it switched on and plugged into the charger. I had never used the Alarm Clock app before.

Since I had been caught out recently by the iOS alarm clock bug on January 1 and 2, I didn't entirely trust that the alarm would go off.

My mistrust was well placed, and it was lucky I set the bedside alarm too, because the phone alarm didn't go off. The phone's power had cut out.

When I turned it back on, much to my dismay the phone kept turning itself off at random every 20-30 minutes and for no apparent reason. I couldn't figure out what was going on and thought maybe it was something to do with a loose connection in the phone or the battery.

I was about to send the phone back under warranty, and thought I should really spend some time to see if I can find the answer before going to the trouble of being phoneless for a few days while it gets fixed.

So I eventually stumbled across the answer on AndroidForums (The link takes you to the main page because I found the post last night and since haven't been able to locate it).

1. Turn phone off and remove the battery, SIM, and memory card.
2. Leave the phone for a minute and put the memory card and battery back in (not the SIM).
3. Turn back on, allow to boot and then switch off again.
4. Take the battery out again, wait a moment and put back in with SIM too. Turn on.

Apparently this type of reboot clears out some files that a normal restart wont, and causes certain programs that are set to start (and that could be the cause of the issue) to be disabled.

I'm not sure if the Alarm Clock was the problem, but it seems a coincidence that this happened after the very first time I had set an alarm on the phone.

Anyway, I found that not only did this simple fix solve my issue and thus prevent me from having to send the phone back, but the Desire HD started working at lightning speed after this!

Result!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have been looking everywhere for a fix to this little problem. Have now downloaded an alarm clock app that won't shut off my phone. Thankyou.

Phil Reid said...

No problem - it took me a while to find the answer so I thought I'd share what I found!

Phil Reid said...

My phone was recently upgraded over the air by Orange, and this issue hasn't happened since.

Fingers crossed!

Anonymous said...

Yup Bud, I had tghe same Alarm Clock problem. Im sure its something to do with it! Ill now will try this. Fingers crossed

Anonymous said...

I have had my desire hd since february 2011 and recently have hadsome major issues with it, sometimes when i get phonecalls it constantly vibrates i have to turn it off and on again to sort that out, downloads apps all by itself, i ended a call today and it randomly started playing music and it was still playing when the phone was off, rings people without actually touching it, crashes all the time and tbf i really hate the phone now, i just want a new phone!

Phil Reid said...

I've added a new post on this topic