How often does your smartphone reboot itself on it's own?

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,580
10,216
126
Is it supposed to do that regularly? My phone (which arrived Tues, two days ago) has spontainously rebooted at least three times thus far.

Once after pulling out the charger cable, once after finishing a call, once while web browsing, and I think one other time.

Is this normal and expected for a smartphone (buggy kernel?), or is there something defective about my new phone?

Edit: Also, is it normal, if the other party on a call hangs up, for the phone to auto-redial them? That's happened once so far. The phone at the time was just lying on my bed, was not being touched, was not in my pocket.

Edit: Non-rooted/modded, bone stock, Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G.
 
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vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
My Lumia 920 did it sitting on the charger the other day. Except it didn't totally reboot. It hung up trying to load the OS. My iPhone has never done that.
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
My galaxy nexus does it sometimes 2-3 times a day on bad days. Sometimes its not as bad maybe 3-4 times a week.
 

bonkers325

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
13,076
1
0
it use to reboot several times a day when i was trying to undervolt my phone as low as it would go. now i just leave it alone and it doesnt reboot at all.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
240
106
I've had mine since last May - it has never rebooted spontaneously.
 

notposting

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2005
3,498
33
91
My current HTC Trophy I have had for about a year (Windows Phone 7, Droid Incredible/Nexus era hardware) never has. I think the old one I had before breaking it needed one battery pull in 6 months.
 

KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
126
My Blackberry Storm would reboot 20-30 times a day. OG Droid never did, Thunderbolt did about 10 times in a year and my GS3 hasn't yet.
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
359
126
If it's stock, I'd get it replaced.

Sometimes it's also just a buggy conflict between specific hardware and the custom OS (i.e. not stock Android). While each phone (same model) has the same internal hardware, each one is also ever so slightly different, with slightly different performance capabilities. This may be the reason why some stock phones reset and others don't. Usually chips are clocked at a level slightly below what even the worst bin is possible of maintaining, but I imagine those slight issues with certain bins could cause various problems when combined with some code issues.
Generally the bugs just result in certain apps just quitting or the homescreen redrawing, etc.

But, at any rate, probably not a bad bet to see if you can get a replacement. It could also just be a straight hardware fault, like a bad solder somewhere or whatever.
I've had it occur on some past phones, not sure if they were stock at the time. I have had it occur on my Galaxy Nexus, but it hasn't been stock since day one. In my case, I can almost definitely blame it on buggy ROMs. It has happened very rarely, if ever, on my current ROM. Which is definitely out of date and needs updated, would love for Cyanogen Mod to get on the ball and update to 4.2 (they JUST released the official "stable" release, not sure which version is technically is, 4.0.4? or 4.1 perhaps?).

Just got 4.2 on my Nexus 7 and it's awesome. I demand that! But... not stock. I like the customizations made by devs.
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
10,571
3
71
A random reboot? Maybe once over the last 4-5 years? That or I'm imagining things.

-iPhone 3G + 3GS + 4S
 

bigrash

Lifer
Feb 20, 2001
17,648
28
91
I've owned many phone and they have never done that.

It's not usual. Try updating the software or returning it.
 

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
5,530
141
106
SGS II - rarely on stock room. Occasionally on AOSP/AOKP Android (depending on the version, as of late they've been rock solid). I've been running Samsung stock Jelly Bean for a few days now and haven't had a reboot yet.
 

Deeko

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
30,213
12
81
The last phone I had that did that was the Dell Venue Pro, and that was due to a specific WiFi bug that was fixed after a couple of months...so its been awhile.
 
Nov 29, 2003
61
0
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Larry,

I have a GSII on AT&T and had the same problem. Their tech support said that some of the apps running in the background will cause the phone to do that occasionally when they update. Some of them I added, some were stock, so I logged out of mine and only sign in when I want to use them.

That solution didn't fully resolve my issue. It turned out to be the battery. A second call got me to another person who sent me a new battery. The phone hasn't done it since.

AG
 

3chordcharlie

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2004
9,859
1
81
My Blackberry Storm would reboot 20-30 times a day. OG Droid never did, Thunderbolt did about 10 times in a year and my GS3 hasn't yet.

Not sure that's even possible, but I had one of those too. Good god that was a bad device. Then they built an OS that would have made it passable, and it didn't have enough memory to run it!

Probably the absolute peak of 'bad moves' by RIM.
 

Chocu1a

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2009
1,386
79
91
Never. Droid Charge, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3. All using custom roms, no random rebooting.
Sounds like your device is faulty.
 

KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
126
Not sure that's even possible, but I had one of those too. Good god that was a bad device. Then they built an OS that would have made it passable, and it didn't have enough memory to run it!

Probably the absolute peak of 'bad moves' by RIM.

I went through 2 of them. They would just randomly reboot all the time. Once saw it go back to back to back.