What's new
DroidForums.net | Android Forum & News

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Did I get a Droid 2 Lemon....So Frustrated

stewielouie86

New Member
Hello All,

I am a new poster because after searching forums and articles, I didn't find any mention of some of the issues I am experiencing with my Droid 2. I got a Droid 2 the day it came out. I have had nothing but problems since. At this point, I would not recommend the phone to anybody so I thought I would come here before I get off the Droid bandwagon and on to the iphone's. If you have solutions to any of these problems please let me know, I must've gotten a lemon or something. Any and all info/advice is greatly appreciated. I am not trying to bash the Droid because when it works, it is awesome. But I needed to vent my frustration and ask for help/advice

Here are my symptoms:

1) Battery Life: I have upgraded to an extended battery now which works great....but before I did I tried everything to get better battery life, task killer, no task killer, I always made sure my gps, wifi, and bluetooth were turned off. I changed to a static background, turned down the screen brightness, I did all of these at the same time and let the phone it and it would have a red battery bar within 6 hours with minimal use, just a handful of texts. I read more articles, forums, instruction manuals than I care to remember and nothing worked so I accepted defeat and shelled out another 70 for an extended battery within a month of purchasing the Droid.

2) Glitches: If I type something into the google search app, when it goes to bring up the internet it says an error has occurred and gives me the option to force close EVERYTIME. After I force close i simply press search again in the google app and the internet launches fine the 2nd time EVERYTIME.

3) My Physical Keyboard no longer works: This phone has experienced no abuse. It worked fine, then I went out of the country on vacay so I turned the phone off and it sat in my book bag for 5 days, when i went to text someone after re-entering the US it double typed a lot of letters (especially t and i) and ignored spaces.

4) when I press the lock button then press it again to unlock my phone it takes 20 seconds or so of black screen for the unlock slider to finally pop up (70%) of the time.

5) The Phone does not charge in the car dock on a summer day when using the phone as a gps.

6) I have tried for 2 days to download a non-free app. I have a checkout account but it kept saying loading but would never load. It finally did right before I started writing this

7) Can you put movies on these? I don't see why not, I have 6GB free and tried to add inception (~1.5GB) and it said it did, yet I can't find it anywhere.

8) No recent Destination feature in the Google maps navigation. It looks like it tries to pull up your recent spots but then flips to the map view.

9)The camera sometimes will not take a picture. It will open and I can look at recent pics but when you press the shutter button nothing happens.

10) when I get a text it shows in the notifications bar, i pull the bar down, read the text and go back to home. 2 seconds later I get another notification that i have a text, I open it up to read it and it is the same message (not a duplicate but I have problems with that too...see next)

11) I receive a lot of double texts and send a lot. I get a send error message a lot and when I resend people say they get two so I am getting false error messages.

12) About once every week or 2 I get a twitter alert that I have 3 new messages, when I open them to read them they are the same ones I have had for a year but it keeps notifying me that they are new messages.

13) I also used to have a lot of problems with it freezing forcing me to do a soft reset (specifically associated with the car dock) but also trying to use apps that have always run fine. That seems to happen less now.

Questions:
1) I have only downloaded apps through the apps store which I assume is safe and everything there has been screened. Is that correct?
2) I went app crazy when I first got the phone, is it possible that i cluttered the phone with too many apps or downloaded a bad app that could be affecting the overall performance of the phone?
3) Is there a decent free navigation app?
4) Would you recommend a Hard reset?
5) are these common problems?

Thanks!
 
The only issue you have that I would consider common is the camera issue because I've read that problem from others.

I myself have had none of the problems you've listed.

You said you put a movie on the phone but you can't find it. How did you get it there? It should have shown you a destination. Check the sdcard for a download directory. I have at least 6 movies on mine and they all play fine.

A hard reset would be the suggestion of a Verizon tech so you might as well give it a shot.

Good luck.
 
Answers to your questions first.

1. No, there is NO screening process. That's the beauty and the bane of the Android market. Anybody can make an app and put it on the market. Just because it's on the market doesn't mean it's safe/good for your phone/.

2. Absolutely. In fact, I'd bet money on it. Auto polling/syncing in ANY app can kill your battery QUICKLY if it's set too high. Running those radios takes a lot of energy. I'm at 26.5 hours unplugged with moderate use and have 40% of my (extended) battery left. You can take a look at my battery life thread for some tips on how to prolong your battery. Edit: Go into battery manager, it shows you what's used how much battery since the last time you unplugged your phone. What are the highest users?

3. I dunno, the stock google navigation app works great for me.

4. From the issues you're having, I'd recommend a factory data wipe as well as an SBF. I'd also say you should uninstall any apps that you can live without before you do this. When you re-sync your google account, it will automatically download the apps that you have now, they're synced to your account. If one of them is causing you problems, you obviously don't want this to happen. You can start adding them back one at a time, to see if they cause you issues.

5. 1 and 4 are both common problems. Both at least partially caused by all the Blur running in the background. 5. isn't really a problem so much as the basic design of batteries. When batteries get hot, they discharge faster (they're less efficient) AND charge slower. Chances are good that your car charger is supplying around 500mA of power, about the same as a USB port. Your phone gets hot when you use the GPS, that uses a lot of battery. It gets hot when it's charging. It gets hot when it sits in the sun on a sunny day. When you combine the three of those, with a weak charger (the phone accepts up to roughly 850mA for fast charging) it just won't charge. It's not an issue with the phone, ANY phone will be like that. 7: Yes, you can, I don't remember what formats, though. You'll want to make a folder on your SD card called "media" or something similar and put your movies in there. They should show up through the gallery or file manager. 10: has happened to me several times, couldn't fix it, no matter what I tried, but an SBF and factory data reset cleared it right up. 11. Is related, and is fixed the same way. 13. Again sounds like you've got a crApp somewhere that's messing you up. Uninstall everything you can live without, backup your data, and do a wipe/SBF. Don't forget to clear your cache too. At the end of that, your phone will be in factory new state. That should clear up your issues.
 
Battery life is what it is. It's just the way smart phones suck up juice.

On # 5 are you saying that it charges fine in the Spring, Fall, and Winter?

In regards to downloading and the Market, did you ever go into your settings/applications/manage applications/market and clean data and cache?

Have you cleaned any caches?

Googles Navigation app works great for me.

I'm just looking at some of the things that I find a bit odd, that can be fixed but most people don't do a lot of maintenance to their phone.

However the physical keyboard not working, that's an issue. Instead of just doing a factory data reset do a hard factory data rest.

1. Turn the Droid 2 off. If it’s frozen and you cannot turn it off, pull and replace the battery.

2. Open the keyboard and press the X key while pressing and holding Power. The device will power on. Keep holding the buttons down until a yellow triangle appers.

3. Press the Search key on the keyboard (magnifying glass).

4. Use the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons on the side of the phone to select the Wipe data factory reset option. Use the Camera key to confirm it.

5. Tap wipe data/factory reset then tap OK.

6. Highlight reboot system now is highlighted then tap OK That will bring you back to the way your phone was when you first got it.

Don't load any apps for two days. If that physical keyboard isn't working, you have a warranty. Use it. After two days start putting apps back in and see if it doesn't perform better. Do not put in any task killers of antivirus. If you start having issues don't wait until you have a ton of them before seeking help.

By putting in the apps slowly you will be able to see which app was giving you an issue.
 
Wow this forum is great. I didn't expect so many answers so fast!!!

I transferred the movie to the phone by putting the Digital copy of the movie in windows media player then syncing just the movie. It took about the right amount of time for a movie that big to download and said it had finished syncing....however when I looked on the phone it wasn't there (checked the SD Card too).

I think I will try a hard reset tonight. What is an SBF? Can you provide me with instructions (or a link) on how to perform the Hard Reset/SBF or a link?

I am clearing out the apps that never get used as well as the ones that look shady. Thanks for all your help!
 
hookbill are those instructions for a hard factory reset and SBF? I have never cleared caches or data but will definitely do so in the future.
 
The only consistent issue I've had with my Droid 2 is not receiving Gingerbread.

Any other problems I've come across I've been able to fix myself one way or another. In regards to battery life:

-GPS can always remain turned on. It isn't put in use until an app that requires it is opened.
-WiFi uses less power/battery than 3G

Also, why did it cost you $70 for the extended battery? Did they up the price? When I bought mine I paid $49.99.
 
I think you're right actually, I forgot that I got the cardock at the same time and I think it was 80 for both which sounds about right
 
Ouch, that sounds torturous. Definitely try a factory reset, and if you're experiencing hardware issues (physical keyboard, etc) definitely investigate a replacement at your local VZW store.
 
I transferred the movie to the phone by putting the Digital copy of the movie in windows media player then syncing just the movie. It took about the right amount of time for a movie that big to download and said it had finished syncing....however when I looked on the phone it wasn't there (checked the SD Card too).

All you have to do is open your SD card on your pc, it shows up as a removable drive, and drag the movie onto it, or copy and paste.


Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App
 
Back
Top