Problems with HP Pre3 locking up

[cgsolano]

Hello there,

I received my Pre3 from the UK a couple of weeks ago. It took me a while to get it ready (I am very picky about this) and I have started heavily using it this week.

Even though I think it is a sweet phone, I have some issues...

1. The phone, after extended periods of time of inactivity (i.e. when I put it on the nighstand and go to bed) just locks up on the black screen, the notification on the gesture area blinking and the only way to get it to work again is to either a) take the battery out or b) do the triple-toggle procedure (power + 3 toggles on the sound switch at the same time). This is driving me nuts. Today, I've already 3toggled my phone 3 times because of such lockups. Any clues?

2. Battery life seems to be 24 hrs --which seems to be bad compared to my previous Symbian phones. My guess is the use, obviously, but I also heavily used my Nokia e63 and this didn't seem to be a problem.

webOS 2.2.0 Build 3171

Anyone can shed some light?

Cheerio,

cgsolano

[nikipod]

Originally Posted by cgsolano

Hello there,
I received my Pre3 from the UK a couple of weeks ago. It took me a while to get it ready
2. Battery life seems to be 24 hrs --which seems to be bad compared to my previous Symbian phones. My guess is the use, obviously, but I also heavily used my Nokia e63 and this didn't seem to be a problem.

I'm afraid I can't be much help aside from saying that 24hrs battery life is pretty good for a smartphone. I think your expectations might be a little high, transitioning from a device such as the e63- the Pre has a large high resolution touch screen to power, alongside a backlit keyboard, and true multitasking.

How long does it last? A full 24 hours, or 12+?

[bigcatny]

I've been using mine for a few weeks and don't have the lockup problems you describe. That said, I find the phones work well with an occasional reboot. To that end I use a program called "reboot scheduler" which is available free from preware. Seems to prevent any slowdown or lockup problems for me.

did you install any patches or do any mods. There may be a problem with one of the things you installed.

And I have to agree that comparing an E63 to a full fledged smartphone is only bound to give you disappointment and is not a fair comparison. It's like expecting the same gas mileage from your AMG Mercedes and your Honda Civic. Just two different beasts although they both drive you around town just fine.

[cgsolano]

Well, I ended up doing the unthinkable... Resetting the phone. Unfortunately, the data I had entered into Safebox and Checkbook was lost --which I guess is not a huge deal. All of my other stuff came from Outlook.

So, after the AppManager restored my apps (which I think is a sweet functionality!), I did not enable Outlook/Exchange sync. And you know what, I am thinking this is the culprit to my Pre 3 locking up. So far so good, and I have re-enabled some services like Facebook and still no lock ups.

Are there any reports of issues between webOS 2.2 Build 3171 and Exchange? I do use this functionality for work. Heavily.

Also, what's going on with the HP/PALm webOS Account? I created one and have no capability of backing up my data there. There's nothing in there other than 3 options (reset, webOS Dr and something else). What gives?

[cgsolano]

UPDATE!

So, after resetting my Pre 3, I disabled all OTA updates (i.e. Exchange, FB, etc). I slowly started activating them, starting with FB.

Before I activated it, my phone was running fine with no lock ups. After activation, it did lock up once. So, I changed the parameters on FB to sync MANUALLY. Problem solved. The phone never locked up again. In fact, it did wake me up this morning :-)

So, I am thinking that, whenever the phone is always connected to the Internet, something happens and it just locks up. Having FB on demand is no big issue for me. In fact, that's the way I like it and have been dealing with it since I started FB mobile with my Nokia e63.

Now, I will re-enable Exchange and see what happens. That one I need to be on at least every 15mins or so since I use it for work --Calendar, Tasks, Email.

Also, I noticed a DRAMATIC increase in battery life. Having always-on connectivity really kills it. Without always-on, I am sure the batt can last, at least, a couple of days.

Cheerio!

[geekpeter]

patches for me was a big thing, some just dont like others being around them, so just turned soem on/off that messed with similar things and found my phones back to working well with no hiccups and ive managed to get 3 days of normal/light use and im on 37% battery (recharging now).

The performance got a lot better when i installed the mode switcher and set up some useful battery saving modes for times i KNOW i wont or cant use the phone, i always turned the phone fully off when not using but after this i can safely use standby mode.

[cgsolano]

UPDATE!

So far so good! I have been able to reactivate all of my online accounts (3 Gmails, 1 Yahoo, 1 Facebook, 1 Exchange). I think the secret here is not having the phone hanging from the Internet at all times. I did experience a lock up yesterday, but what a difference from 5-6 lock ups per day!

So, my Exchange from work syncs Calendar, Tasks and Email every 15mins. Everything else is "on demand" or manual. Perfect.

Now, I do have a question... I am managing my Contacts through one of my Gmail accounts. I noticed that even if I have a manual update on my Gmail account, Contacts get synced or updated without me triggering or starting any manual update. I noticed this when I modified a contact on Gmail (added a pic) and then, without me doing anything, the pic just showed in my Pre3 after a while. Can anyone explain this?

[rumz]

I have a UK Pre 3 running on T-Mobile, and it has only locked up like this once. My brother also has a UK Pre 3, and he says he has lockups 2-3 times a day.

One thought: I'm almost always on a wifi network, except during the drive between the office and home, for the most part. The time it did lockup, I was away from wifi access. Maybe something to do with T-Mobile's edge connection in correlation to the demand for data when the device is trying to sync / update? My brother did mention that his phone yesterday said it was syncing to Facebook for an awful long time.

I'll have him tweak his account settings to sync manually and see if that reduces his lockups.

(I'm only aware of being able to change this setting within e-mail-- are there other places in webOS where there are settings for how frequently the device syncs?)

[rumz]

Anything new here? Fiddling with mail / account settings hasn't made a difference in my brother's lockups. I continue to only have them on rare occasions when I'm away from a wifi connection. (Yesterday it locked up twice in a row while out to eat-- I had loaded the Facebook app, tried to use "places"-- the app didn't seem to be able to use the GPS-- and then set the phone down on the table with the keyboard open. I repeated the same procedure w/ Facebook after a reboot-- same results, it locked up again).

However, my brother's still locks up several times a day, he says he doesn't use the FB app. *shrugs*

Still running webOS 2.2.0. Haven't seen a 2.2.3 update for the UK Pre 3.

[eKeith]

I am also experiencing identical lock-ups several times a day. I do have 2G and WiFi constantly ON with both my Exchange and Google accounts set for Push Mail Delivery.

I will experiment with having only one wireless connection ON at a time...

[rumz]

Yeah, I'm still experimenting as well. I've installed a patch to disable the light sensor from adjusting the screen brightness (since it seems to go wonky at times, sometimes almost completely black)-- I don't expect this to fix the problem, but since it only happens when the screen is off, I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

One other user suggested that the issue was caused by an old app that, while marked as compatible with the Pre 3, might be causing problems. Perhaps I could start a new palm profile and see if a clean slate works better.

Another person said that doctoring their Pre 3 with the AT&T doctor did the trick -- but I think they had an AT&T Pre 3. I'll have to look into doctoring possibilities...

Also, if anyone knows how to access the phone's logs to see if there's any info that could be gleaned, that'd be great. I have Preware installed but have no idea what other apps might exist for reading logs or where those logs might be located on the Pre 3.

Edit: found Lumberjack for monitoring system logs. Will report back if I find a consistent error or activity that coincides with lock-ups.

[tomassplatch]

I also experience lockups while the phone is sleeping... at least once a day! I doctored already and didn't help. Sending the phone back to HP

[johnj2803]

maybe this is just the european pre 3's? Havent experienced any lockmups on my att branded pre 3 on 2.2.3

[K0s]

Actually have Pre 3 Att, and this guy are freezing.

[everythingsablur]

Originally Posted by tomassplatch

I also experience lockups while the phone is sleeping... at least once a day! I doctored already and didn't help. Sending the phone back to HP

Some people have noted that they increased to minimum CPU speed using Govnah to prevent the "sleep of death" from happening. Give it a try. Moving up one bin to 245 MHz has a really minimal impact on battery life at idle.

[leonkehoe]

Doctor it.

Battery life? Welcome to a real smartphone OS, they use a lot of juice.

[rumz]

Originally Posted by everythingsablur

Some people have noted that they increased to minimum CPU speed using Govnah to prevent the "sleep of death" from happening. Give it a try. Moving up one bin to 245 MHz has a really minimal impact on battery life at idle.

Thanks-- I'm giving this a try. I don't have lockups very often, but my brother has them frequently. (We were both in the same location for 2 hours and his locked up three times while we were there, while mine locked up once. Though I was using mine more during that time.)

[kingka]

when i charge my pre through USB. after about 20 mins the screen is blank. and the only way to get out of it is to unplug it from charging. annoying. started happening this morning.

[eKeith]

I took my UK Pre3 to Miami for almost 2 weeks and did not experience a single lock-up. I had WiFi and mobile data (2G) enabled continuously and did not moderate any of my online accounts [1 Exchange, 1 Gmail, 1 hotmail, Skype, facebook].

My previous lock-ups seemed to have occurred only when I was not on Wifi but only on spotty 2G. Thus I believe my Pre3's lock-ups are related to a poor data (speed) connection...

[rumz]

Originally Posted by eKeith

I took my UK Pre3 to Miami for almost 2 weeks and did not experience a single lock-up. I had WiFi and mobile data (2G) enabled continuously and did not moderate any of my online accounts [1 Exchange, 1 Gmail, 1 hotmail, Skype, facebook].

My previous lock-ups seemed to have occurred only when I was not on Wifi but only on spotty 2G. Thus I believe my Pre3's lock-ups are related to a poor data (speed) connection...

I tend to agree. Changing the minimum speed to 245mhz didn't do anything to help-- I locked up a few times yesterday when I was on EDGE only without a wifi signal. Still, strange that it only happens when the screen is off / phone is idle.