Solution for Galaxy SII SGH-i777 4.0.4 update issues

An update to my post on fixing my GSII problems by disabling AT&T apps:  After a nearly a week, the phone is mostly stable.  I have seen 2 sleep death episodes, and one may have actually been my fault - battery usage has been so low recently that I forget to charge the phone, and the battery may have died a natural death during the night!  But the other was the classic sleep of death, so the problem is not completely gone.

On the bright side, I have never, since buying the phone 14 months ago, seen such good performance and low battery drain as I see now.  Apps are very snappy, and a battery at 100% in the morning will drop to around 70% at the end of the day with my normal usage pattern.  I used to charge it at every opportunity.

I certainly wish I could count perfect behavior, but I don't think we're there yet.  I'm considering making a daily habit or restarting the phone each morning, to see if that helps.  I remember it being a good idea on older, less stable versions of Windows.

In any case, be sure to disable the apps referenced above, and at least the "AT&T smart wifi" app".  Like others, I am appalled that AT&T produces something so detrimental to the phone experience, then has the gall to force it into the OS, and subsequently seems clueless that it is a huge source of problems.  It really motivates me to pursue a Nexus phone from Google next time around.

Ok, tried a few, including the AT&T Smart WiFi app, but that didn't work. It failed a few hours later. So, then I went after the rest. Noticed that the permissions of a couple included "change wifi state". Got those disabled and matched what you had and now it's gone almost a day without a "sleep death". Thanks for posting this. I was about to get rid of the phone.

I posted this idea a week ago.  Here's a followup report: better, but not a satisfactory solution.  Here are some details I posted in another discussion on this forum:

"I am about to give up on 4.0.4.

The reliability of my phone is critical for my job!  If I miss a call at the wrong time, it will cause me and others big problems.

I've spoken to tech support twice, and done the following:

• Removed all but the most benign apps.  No improvement.
• Factory reset. No improvement.
• Disabled AT&T apps (I was the one who posted the suggestion a week ago).  Big improvement, but the phone is still not reliable.

I'm now seeing only the "sleep of death" issue.  The symptoms are: the phone sleeps with plenty of battery charge remaining.  When I try to wake it, no response.  When I try to restart it by holding the power button for 10 seconds, the battery charge icon shows a completely drained battery, and the phone won't start.  But if I plug a charge cable in, after a few seconds, the battery icon will show a significant charge and I can start the phone.

The "sleep of death" is happening up to twice a day, but usually once or not at all.  Still not good enough - woke up this morning and found the phone dead, and immediately was concerned I had missed a call from my job.

I've had the SGH-i777 (AT&T GSII) for more than a year, and love the device.  Unlike many, I'm not an AT&T basher.  I've had a wireless contract for 17 years, and have always been pleased.  But this is unacceptable, and the lack of any sense of urgency on the part of AT&T is disturbing.

Next option is root/ROM.  I have no desire to do this, as it is time-consuming and has its own problems.  But I have no other ideas, if AT&T doesn't step up their customer support.  And if I have to solve the problem on my own, I will have no interest in continuing my contract with AT&T.  Seems the trend is purchasing a phone outright and using an MVNO - so be it."

Hi, I have been using a brand new Samsung Galaxy S2 since April 2012. My phone had many problems such as GPS not working, freezing and it was replaced in September 2012 by AT&T with a refurbished device of the same model. The new phone also had problems such as freezing or default apps do not respond and closed, even though the GPS was working most of the times. Then I installed this new 4.0.4 update hoping that would solve the problems. However, the problems still exist. Sometimes the phone keeps shutting down by itself, sleeps to death, freezes and so on. I had another Galaxy S2 of AT&T with the similar problems too.

Whenever I called AT&T, the customer service told me that there is no reported problems or known issues with Samsung Galaxy S2s. I think this is not true, as I see many other customers are having similar problems. This phone was advertised as a great phone, but I think it has a lot of unsolved problems. 

Today, the customer service is sending me another Galaxy S2 and I am not hopeful at all. I am tired of using this phone and I will never buy another Samsung phone.

Update: The phone i777 I received from AT&T today also has the similar problems. It looses data connection or gps in the middle of the city for no reason. After restarting it, the connection works again at the same location. What a great phone.

I had similiar problems on my SGH-i777 after the 4.04 update. I am not sure if this will work for you but I seem to have had success by doing the following.

1. going into the developer menu and restricting the number of applications that run in background.
2. going into the developer menu and checking the box that forces applications to close when I exit them (btw...the developer menu is a part of the settings menu.
3. doing a battery recalibration. You can do that by: a) shutting down the phone, b) charging the battery to 100% with the phone off, c) removing the battery from the phone for 3 minutes and d) replacing the battery back into the phone an restarting it. (Note that you will need to do steps 1 and 2 listed above any time you do a phone shut down.)

This seems to be working for me.