[Q] Fascinate Freezes overnight - Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm running JT's vanilla GB [over Heimdall'ed stock EH03] on my fascinate.
I use my fascinate as my alarm clock, and I woke up this morning to a extremely choppy ringtone. < and that is is the understatement of the day.
Anyway, I try to press "dismiss" to dismiss my alarm, and it feels like the screen is not responding. I press the power button, and it takes probably like 5 seconds to complete the CRT animation. After that, I can see the screen is still on (hard to tell unless in the dark with the AMOLED), and it won't do a thing after that until I 3-button-combo or take out the battery.
As a side note, it was also doing this on my previous rom, SuperClean3 v8.1. One of the main reasons I switched back to JT's vanilla gb.
The first night the alarm worked fine. [2 days ago] Yesterday, I was watching some video files, I pressed the power button, I left for a few minutes, I came back and it was frozen. [Took foreverrrrrr for the CRT turn-on animation, and screen did not respond].
This is really really annoying, and I would really like to find out what is wrong with my phone.
One more thing I should mention.. this same kind of thing happened once in a while on the stock froyo firmware, when I bought it on craigslist. I would come to it sometimes and turn it on, and the lockscreen would show and the touchscreen wouldn't respond. I had to take the batt. out then cuz I didn't know about 3-button-combo.
The USB would only charge and not transfer files and only would charge.
So I sent it in cuz samsung said I had 1 mo. warranty left, and then they said they fixed everything in the ticked, and I got it back and it seemed to work. [the usb file transfer worked..]
So can anybody give me any advice? Like logcat? Would that tell me what is causing this problem?
Any help is appreciated!

---

Are your CPU settings stock? I've noticed the "sleep of death", which sounds similar to your issue, when I was undervolted too much at 100mhz.

---

k_nivesout said:
Are your CPU settings stock? I've noticed the "sleep of death", which sounds similar to your issue, when I was undervolted too much at 100mhz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I will look into this 'sleep of death' thing.
And I haven't edited my cpu settings. I went to superuser to be sure and the only apps listed are Superuser, Terminal Emulator, and Titanium Backup.
So I just went on a 1-hour trip, and when I got to where I was going, this happened to me again. The screen-on animation was slower than a slug on salt. 3-button-combo reset, I let it reboot, and it was fine.
I just got home 1/2 hr ago and it did it again.
Sigh.. well I only have like 2 apps that always run, 3G Watchdog and Equalizer. I've uninstalled 3G WD just to see if it does anything.
Edit: I will install ROM Manager and set the absolute minimum freq to 200mhz, and see what happens. That would make sense if it's messing up at 100mhz when the screen goes off, and then it's not able to think fast enough to up it back to 1ghz.

---

It sounds like it might be an issue with your phone if the problem follows you between roms and your kernel settings are stock. That is unless this is a more common issue with those roms, but I don't think they are. The sleep of death issue that I've run into before is simply the phone refusing to wake up, requiring a 3-button reset/battery pull, so I'm not sure about the slowness to respond before freezing that you've run in to.
I'd try setting the minimum frequency to 200mhz with an app like voltage control (rom manager is for rom flashing, backups/restore), maybe that would help the phone's responsiveness regarding waking up properly. I'm not sure though since when I had the sleep of death issue mentioned before, I just lessened the undervolting I had done and it seemed to resolve it. I don't have much expertise to share on your specific issue though, I'm sorry. I'd almost be inclined to believe that it might be a more phone-specific problem if you're running stock kernel settings on roms where other users haven't reported the same issue, but trying the 200mhz thing can't hurt.

---

k_nivesout said:
It sounds like it might be an issue with your phone if the problem follows you between roms and your kernel settings are stock. That is unless this is a more common issue with those roms, but I don't think they are. The sleep of death issue that I've run into before is simply the phone refusing to wake up, requiring a 3-button reset/battery pull, so I'm not sure about the slowness to respond before freezing that you've run in to.
I'd try setting the minimum frequency to 200mhz with an app like voltage control (rom manager is for rom flashing, backups/restore), maybe that would help the phone's responsiveness regarding waking up properly. I'm not sure though since when I had the sleep of death issue mentioned before, I just lessened the undervolting I had done and it seemed to resolve it. I don't have expertise to share on your specific issue though, I'm sorry. I'd almost be inclined to believe that it might be a more phone-specific problem if you're running stock kernel settings on roms where other users haven't reported the same issue, but trying the 200mhz thing can't hurt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad, I meant ROM Toolbox. It has lots of apps built in including a CPU slider. Anyhow disabling 100mhz did not fix anything. So tonight I will set the minimum frequency to 800 or even 1000 mhz because I want to see if that stops the freezing up. If it does, then I'll know it's a clock speed issue.
I should also mention I sent it in for USB repair. It wouldn't connect to PC, it'd only charge. I also mentioned to Samsung it would lock up every so often from waking up. They upgraded froyo to gingerbread and said it passed all tests, sent it back, I never stayed on the firmware they gave me long enough to see if it froze up.
So on the stock roms, do they underclock the cpu frequency by default??

---

I don't believe that the cpu is underclocked or undervolted by default. I'd try flashing the stock firmware (EH03), and seeing if the issue happens there as well. Although I thought you mentioned it happened to you on superclean before, and I think that's just a modified stock rom? But it would be worth trying I suppose, then you could be sure it's a hardware issue and see about possibly getting a replacement. I'm assuming that you're still under warranty if you've sent the phone back recently enough for them to put gingerbread on it?
Other than that, I can't really think of anything else.. Maybe try jumping on IRC sometime and hitting up some of the people (that are generally more knowledgeable than myself) on there, they'd probably be able to give you a good idea of whether or not it's an issue with your specific phone. Although that's what it sounds like to me, I'm no expert.

---

k_nivesout said:
I don't believe that the cpu is underclocked or undervolted by default. I'd try flashing the stock firmware (EH03), and seeing if the issue happens there as well. Although I thought you mentioned it happened to you on superclean before, and I think that's just a modified stock rom? But it would be worth trying I suppose, then you could be sure it's a hardware issue and see about possibly getting a replacement. I'm assuming that you're still under warranty if you've sent the phone back recently enough for them to put gingerbread on it?
Other than that, I can't really think of anything else.. Maybe try jumping on IRC sometime and hitting up some of the people (that are generally more knowledgeable than myself) on there, they'd probably be able to give you a good idea of whether or not it's an issue with your specific phone. Although that's what it sounds like to me, I'm no expert.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, when I sent it in there was like half a month or so left on the warranty, the person said it expires at the end of this month [Dec] so I figure maybe a day or two.
What's the IRC channel info? freenode?
EDIT: I forgot to ask something. So you are saying, the stock firmware [EH03 or froyo EH09] runs the cpu clock constantly at 1GHz? Even when it's sleeping? Wouldn't that give bad battery life? [lol, speaking of batteries, I just got a new one and it's charging]

---

I had this happen to me 6 months ago. You my friend need a replacement phone. It has nothing to do with the rom/kernal. I tried everything. Sometimes phones just take a crap. Got a replacement. Ran the same thing I ran when it was happening and haven't had a problem since. Sorry to hear. Just explain it it Verizon and see what they do.

---

gotsflat4love said:
I had this happen to me 6 months ago. You my friend need a replacement phone. It has nothing to do with the rom/kernal. I tried everything. Sometimes phones just take a crap. Got a replacement. Ran the same thing I ran when it was happening and haven't had a problem since. Sorry to hear. Just explain it it Verizon and see what they do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is bad news indeed, since I am not even sure how many days I have on the warranty. But I think I will Odin EH03, and then set the alarm tonight. If I wake up and it's done it again, I will call up samsung and tell them and hopefully I have warranty.
But please, tell me, when you tried to turn on the phone did the CRT animation go very slowly? and then when you pressed power, it wouldn't come on again?
Edit 2: alright! I call samsung and I have warranty until Jan 9. Woot.. So I set up an RMA with samsung, I will Odin EH03 tonight. If I wake up to a choppy alarm and a non-responsive screen, I shall send it to samsung ASAP and I hope they gimme a brand new Fascinate. that would be awesome..

---

Nice, glad to hear you got the warranty thing figured out. I was thinking it sounded like an issue with your phone in specific and it sounds like the other poster's experience would suggest that. Hopefully it's an issue that they can replicate and don't give you any issues getting a replacement.
To answer your question, no, the stock kernel settings wouldn't keep the processor at the highest frequency. The only way I can see that happening is if you set the screen-off profile to "performance", and I'm not sure why anyone would do that because it would indeed yield bad battery life I'd think. I'm guessing the stock kernel defaults to an "ondemand"-like profile, where it would scale the frequency according to load and favor lower frequencies or go in to a deep sleep when the screen is off.

---

k_nivesout said:
Nice, glad to hear you got the warranty thing figured out. I was thinking it sounded like an issue with your phone in specific and it sounds like the other poster's experience would suggest that. Hopefully it's an issue that they can replicate and don't give you any issues getting a replacement.
To answer your question, no, the stock kernel settings wouldn't keep the processor at the highest frequency. The only way I can see that happening is if you set the screen-off profile to "performance", and I'm not sure why anyone would do that because it would indeed yield bad battery life I'd think. I'm guessing the stock kernel defaults to an "ondemand"-like profile, where it would scale the frequency according to load and favor lower frequencies or go in to a deep sleep when the screen is off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh. well the reason I asked is because you said this: I don't believe that the cpu is underclocked or undervolted by default.
So this morning, I woke up to my iPod's alarm, which I had set as a backup a few minutes after my Phone alarm should have gone off. I went to see if the phone was frozen, like I was hoping, so that it would reliably broken , but instead it was off. I turn it on, it shows the full green battery.. then it boots up like nothing was wrong. But I think that turning off randomly every night [which I assume it should do every time] is enough for Samsung to realize my phone really is screwed and that they need to do something about that.
So anyway, I printed out the label, packed my phone, and dropped my phone off at the local UPS drop off.
Hopefully I will be receiving some good news from samsung soon [i.e. that they will give me a replacement... ]

---

mvmacd said:
Oh. well the reason I asked is because you said this: I don't believe that the cpu is underclocked or undervolted by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, looking back on that, I misspoke. Technically, UNDERvolting/clocking is just reducing the voltage or clock speed from the "default" kernel settings. So technically, since the stock settings are the "default", they (by definition) would not be "undervolted" or "underclocked". I guess all I was trying to say is that I'm sure whatever the default settings are, they're set for a balance of performance, battery life, and stability. Just because the default max frequency is 1000mhz, doesn't mean that the CPU will stay there, that's what kernel governors are for essentially: to tell the CPU how to scale based on load (as I understand it at least).
Hopefully things go well with the replacement. Just curious, why are you dealing with Samsung directly as opposed to Verizon?

---

k_nivesout said:
Yeah, looking back on that, I misspoke. Technically, UNDERvolting/clocking is just reducing the voltage or clock speed from the "default" kernel settings. So technically, since the stock settings are the "default", they (by definition) would not be "undervolted" or "underclocked". I guess all I was trying to say is that I'm sure whatever the default settings are, they're set for a balance of performance, battery life, and stability. Just because the default max frequency is 1000mhz, doesn't mean that the CPU will stay there, that's what kernel governors are for essentially: to tell the CPU how to scale based on load (as I understand it at least).
Hopefully things go well with the replacement. Just curious, why are you dealing with Samsung directly as opposed to Verizon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I'm not the original owner
2. I'm not a Verizon subscriber. PagePlus Celluar [A verizon MVNO] is my service provider. They have much better plans, including monthly, and prepaid, if you ask me.

---

Kernel issue.
sent from my Sensation XD

---

Yess..
Good news! Got an email saying my phone has been shipped:
Code:
Original Problem:
TECHNICAL INQUIRY - PHONE FREEZING / LOCKED UP - FREEZE/DELAY BETWEEN MENU FUNCTIONS
Problem found:
BAD BGA COMPONENT
Solution:
REPLACED PBA
I guess the PBA is basically the motherboard? I suppose that could have been the cause of overnight freezing, and so my phone should be fixed.
Nice.. Just 2 days left on my warranty. Cutting it kinda close, I know lol

---

Very well done sir
sent from my Sensation XD