Captivate random shut downs

[rbart56]

I've had my Captivate for about 6 weeks and I started having the typical shut down issue....the phone would shut down once or twice, typically within the first 30 minutes of unplugging it from the charger in the morning.  About 3 weeks ago, I started checking my mail and the weather forecast immediately after I unplugged the phone.  That seems to be enough to sufficiently "Wake up" the phone and run down the battery just enough keep it running.  I haven't had a shut down since.  (Knock on wood)

[bassanator]

I have been following this string for several weeks. My captivate has been randomly shutting down consistently several times a day.  It would always shutdown on its own every single night for the last four weeks while sitting idle on the kitchen counter. I went to local AT&T store where I had bought the phone and they hooked me up with an Android specialist tech at AT&T. He was very nice and knew his stuff. He explained to me that many times this is due to corrupt apps and that wiping the phone clean and putting it back to factory settings would fix this problem many times. He definitely knew this was a problem and didn't act as if he had never heard of it. Well, after reading many of these posts I was very skeptical and I told him so. He was very respectful of my concerns but said we needed to do this to make sure it was not a software problem before saying it was a hardware problem i.e. the phone. Well he was right. This fixed the problem. My phone has worked flawlessly for 3 days now. NO SHUTDOWNS.  If this would have been a hardware problem it would have occurred by now. So these corrupt apps can do this. Two other things he had me put on the phone which are very cool apps which I did not know anything about.  One is an app called Lookout. It is an antivirus program which monitors your phone, tells you if apps are safe to download, and will scan your phone for viruses, does data backup, and has a missing device function. It is very cool. The second is called Advanced Task Killer and it makes it very easy to see which programs you have running that will slow your phone down. Too many programs running at one time may cause shutdowns. The other thing is, you will be amazed how many programs you have running automatically that you had no idea were running. I suggest you do a total wipe clean and reinstall to factory settings if you have a lot of apps on your phone and then every time you download an app let the Lookout program tell you that the app is safe. Hope this helps some people. I, just as many on this board, was ready to get another phone and it wasn't the phone at all. It was the software. 

[yohankim]

I notice on my phone that the shut downs usually occur when the battery is charged 90% or higher. Anything below that and the phone seems to stay powered on. I am going to try to switch batteries out and see if it helps. Sometimes when I charge the phone, it never goes to 100%, so I am thinking there may be some battery instabilties.

[bassanator]

You could try the battery change but mine would shut off regardless of the amount of charge. If you have not done the clean wipe and factory reset, you need to try that. Use Lookout to check all app downloads.

[Zandora ACE - Guru]

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bassanator wrote:

You could try the battery change but mine would shut off regardless of the amount of charge. If you have not done the clean wipe and factory reset, you need to try that. Use Lookout to check all app downloads.

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And UN-check the Power Management option in Settings.

[bassanator]

Unchecking the power saving mode in the settings really should not affect the phone turning off on its own. Ever since I did the wipe and reset to factory settings my power saving mode has been checked and the phone works fine. I am not saying this doesn't affect some phones but it doesn't make any difference for me. Mine works fine with it checked.

[spell209]

I was having the same problem, except mine would shut down every time the screen would time out. There's an app called Captivate Keep Alive, and it saved my phone. It hasn't shut itself down since. Fixes it 100%.

[BeenThere2]

I've had my Captivate for about a month and it started shutting down within a day. I read what seems like a hundred messages on the boards about the problem and what to try.  I tried the complete reset that was suggested and that seemed to work for a few days, but the phone was not fully charged during that time. I then charged it fully and guess what, right, it shut off by the next morning.  I ended taking it back to AT&T and they replaced it after I requested they do so. I told them the message boards were full of users who were having the same problem. There was absolutely no problem getting  new phone.  I've had the new phone for 2 weeks now and hasn't shut down once. It has been fully charged several times.  It seems to me you can fool around for weeks trying to figure it out, or just go trade it in, (unless you have had the phone too long already and they won't take it back).  Good luck!  

[MarciL]

I have had my phone since 10/11 and have had the random shut downs since I got it.  I went to the store for a new phone today, and was told to hang on till Friday, that there is some kind of software update.  I will let him update the software on a new phone.  I have tried all the fixes in this thread to no avail.  I willl report back on Friday and let you know what happens. Wish me luck!

[bscode]

Captivate Keep Alive is aimed at people that have already had their device too long for a quick exchange.  Hopefully Samsung comes up with a fix, but for now Captivate Keep Alive has been working 100% for a couple weeks.

[shas27]

I have seen numrous reviews about "Captivate keep alive" in last 10 days. It is working !!

So all of you who have this issue can get the app from Android App store and get out of this problem.

And hope the froyo update which will come before this year end (as informed by Samsung) will have the solution inbuilt.

[jsouza1]

One thing to keep in mind about any sort of "keep-alive" utility is that it will likely have a negative affect on battery life.

I do still believe the problem to be a software issue.  Although my device was affected by the problem for a period of time shortly after I bought it, I have not experienced the problem in a few months now.  The hardware is the same but the software has changed.

[MarciL]

Thanks.  After a month of fighting with AT&T and the store, they finally ordered me a new phone today.  I didn't realize "Kep Alive" was an app, so I just installed it, and am keeping my fingers crossed.  Thanks for the update!!

[lochris]

I've found a solution to the random shutdowns, and that solution is simply the "TASK KILLER" because after a few shutdowns for the past week i wasnt convince that it would be the task killer that was causing the random shutdowns as i've already searched through the internet and every forum there is about random shutdowns with nothing mentioning about task killer being the major cause, so i was persistant went back trying to solve this common problem(with no luck), then after a week or so i suddenly wasn't able to receive any messages as i can only send it, so like every other Samsung Capivate owner out there with little to no issues, i googled the problem(like the random shutdows) read through every forum there is on the internet and finally came across this forum were someone posted that it was the task killer that can actually cause your phone not to be able to receive messages and to fix the problem was to simply take out your sim card, put it into another phone, turn it on(will simply work and show you all the text messages), take it back out from that phone, put it back into your Captivate, and problem fixed, but to make sure that i wasnt going to have this problem again, i deleted the task killer, few days even a week until now, no random shutdowns at all. So with that being said, the problem is the TASK KILLER!!! UNINSTALL IT!!! YOU DONT NEED IT!!!!

[MarciL]

Well I woke up to a phone that was powered off, so Captivate Keep Alive isn't even working for me.   I can't get my new phone soon enough.

[shas27]

What was your seeting for the keep alive. I mean battery %age u have  set for the app.

[MarciL]

I think the setting was at 91%.   I charged it last night, and it is still on.   There is even the Keep Alive icon up top.  Could this be for real? This will be the first app. I install when I get my new phone. :-)

[shas27]

ok.so it mean it is working for you. If the app is on you will see the keep alive icon on the top. for my new phone i had downloaded this app but is not currently using it as i just had couple of shutdowns in last 10 days. So until the phone is working fine i will prefer not to use it. BTW is automatically gets started when you remove it from the Charger. So if you don't want to use it just stop it.

[MarciL]

OK I have had enough!!!!  It just shut down!  And when I started it again..............NO KEEP ALIVE ICON!!

I am soooooooooo done wth this phone!!!!  Any more suggestions!???

[shas27]

Well then in this case wait for your new phone and hope it works fine.

[lochris]

OK for the last freaken time, uninstall your task killer!!!!

[lochris]

Mines hasn't shutdown once ever since I uninstall the stupid task killer

[el bobo]

I downloaded the stock software for the captivate thinking that that it was a software problem when my captivate started shutting down... so i downloaded android 2.1 again but the problem kept occuring :/ ive exchanged it three times cuz i rreally like the phone but now its just frustrating. Each one has the same problem and progressively gets worse by the day.. to the point where it shut down and reboot every 2 minutes.

[jsouza1]

@lochris:

I'm not sure that the task killer is to blame, because my device no longer has the problem and I use the task killer frequently.  In my case, what seemed to solve the problem was disabling the display power management, but this does not seem to work for others.  So I believe that the cause of the problem continues to remain elusive.

[MarciL]

I got my new phone yesterday afternoon and it hasn't shut down yet, same apps installed.  Keep Alive installed just in case.

[Hpd58]

Anyone tried an aftermarket battery?

[Hpd58]

I thought I was somehow doing this. but then it did it sitting on a table. Sending it back this week for a new one. Some say Apps are the issue, if so what Apps are you running that are causing it?

[dolls4too]

I got my capitvate last tuesday i came off blackberries and was patiently waiting for my upgrade, i whought i did a good job researching a phone, wanted an android. Well first few days seemed fine, but starting yesterday when i finally got the hang of this phone and spend contless hours fixing my calander and apps etc it starting shutting off , all day yesterday thanksgiving and today. missed alot of relative calls. when i put the seach into google for captivate shutting off, i got hundreds and hundreds of links, going way back.  so I ask what is the story i got my phone at best buy do i return it for another samsung or give up and is this issue on all androids or just this one. I already tried the fixes of uploading new software, shutting off power management, have an extra abattery and two chargers, so none of that is the cause or solution . so upset and disappointed, in att, samsung, best buy and myself for not catching this prior to purchase. was cosidering a samsung tablet now no way going to get an ipad.

[dolls4too]

ps did i meantion i tried the samsung focus for two days and that had huge issues. prior to this phone. Feel so disappointed .

[TedG19512]

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dolls4too wrote:

...  so I ask what is the story i got my phone at best buy do i return it for another samsung or give up and is this issue on all androids or just this one....

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Well, it took me three phones (all exchanged for new phones within my 30 day trial), but this one has been working flawlessly for about 8 weeks now.  Seems a lot of people go through several before getting a good one because after 30 days, Samsung/AT&T will only send a refurbished phone (not a new one)...and since both AT&T and Samsung don't fully acknowledge the problem or have a solution, they are probably sending out a lot of already defective phones as refurbs.

As for me, I do love the phone and still think it's one of the best out there for the price (heard it's $0.01 on Amazon with a new contract).  The screen is amazing and it's lightening fast now that I rooted it and installed a custom ROM.  Sure it voids my warranty, which will be a concern if this one suddenly starts shutting down, but worth the risk for me to have the latest and greatest (i.e. Froyo, no bloat-wear, and soon (?) Gingerbread which I'll be able to run weeks after general release).  And that brings up a point too:  AT&T and Samsung are notoriously slow at getting their updates out...maybe the slowest of all the carriers/vendors?

But I digress.  If it were me, I'd return it to BestBuy for refund/credit since you're within 30 days of purchase and then go grab one on-line for next to nothing and keep your fingers crossed.  We shouldn't have to go though all these hassles, and according to most sights, it's the minority that are having the shutdown issues.  That doesn't seem realistic, but if it was the majority, there would be a class-action suit by now...or is there one???

As for it being the same on all Android phones, I'd have to say a resounding no!!  Most phones have their own set of issues but most aren't this drastic or insane!