Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

Was having a few comas after 3.1.2 but let my iPhone totally drain the battery and it seems to have fixed it

If you are still having problems on 3.1.2 try this

turn up the brighness on your phone to full, turn off auto lock and play some heavy app/videos until you get the battery low warning

keep pressing the on/off button to bring up the low battery message until the phone goes totally dead then leave it for a few hours checking now and again that there is no sign of life

then fully charge the phone and in my case it cleared the problem

I guess that you could take the battery out too if you are feeling brave, as this seems to be another thing like not being able to roll back your software that Apple don't encourage.

It has made me wonder if the support guys who were 'fixing the loose wire' were just disconnecing the battery to fix the problem.

The phone seems better now but I do seem to be
getting more O2 G3 drop outs than I used to and have had the problem of video controls not commng up when playing some videos. These are only small problems though compaired to the month of hellsh comas.

After Reading about the snow leopard update deleting user accounts as well then it has made me very untrusting of Apple updates and downgraded my opinion of Apple from better than MS to an alternative to MS. At least on windows machines you have better roll back support.

I hope Its just a blip on the Apple history but I fear, if they don't open up to being more friendly to rolling back machines and better explanations of updates and problems, that it might be the start of a tragic slide in Apple quality as they get bigger.

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind.

As for Apple vs. Microsoft...

1. I'll avoid making any Sidekick jokes

2. Time Machine offers awesome rollback, better than anything from Microsoft.

3. The Snow Leopard bug is dire, but apparently very rare--I don't see it as part of a trend, and certainly not equal to the stability problems faced by my Windows friends.

4. I DO however see iPhone OS starting with 3.x as more serious--this product has been an unusually bad patch for Apple (GPS issues still unresolved? random lost app data every time I restore?) and I'll be nervous about the data on my iPhone for some time. Once bitten, twice shy. Still... worse than the Sidekick, Zune and Windows Mobile problems? Probably not. I'd give a lot for a phone that didn't have these 3.x issues... but I would NOT give up my iPhone... that's asking too much

We're paying the price for an OS that's young and growing--and possibly adapted to other/tablet devices. I can't wait for it to settle down into a more stable groove. Things have been somewhat painful in the meantime!

I'm trying the battery drain thing, have nothing to lose. I'm all crossed, fingers, legs, eyes, arms, toes. this is just too dang depressing.

Just chiming in to say that I'm still enjoying a problem free phone since upgrading to 3.1.2 the day it was released. Haven't had a single coma/hang or connectivity issue.

Well, to all those people saying "just upgrade, it will solve your problems" - you are wrong.

I did the upgrade to 3.1.2 the other night and it crashed part-way through the install. Not happy Jan !!! Anyway, did a complete restore and it all came back. But, it did take a while, and I had ahard time remembering where all my Apps went on each page.

Upside - it gave me the excuse to cull many unused Apps.

Anyway, I still get the coma (NOT comma), but I am not complaining. I have the phone on silent all day, so not fussed if I miss a call. As somebody pointed out, if an application is running the whole time (ie, dont let it go to sleep), its seems to be OK. Mine sits in a desktop stand/charger all day.

The coma only started happening again when I turned on PUSH notifications, so I have turned this off again to see if it helps.

Well, from Oz, good luck to you all.

I still love my iPhone and look forward to the next iteration of hardware and software.

NaturalElement wrote:
Apple specifically states that the 3.1.2 update fixes the problem so I don't know what everyone is complaining about now that the update is out. I just updated tonight, but I have already noticed a much more responsive phone.

just update like a normal person and be happy.

3.1.3 update made my phone act JUST LIKE THIS

watch the video and ask about why people are wondering if it will cure their phone.. immediately before the update, my phone was working faster than ever, but coma crashed every 2 days.

it was the 'oh cool a new update ; ok' effect that got the majority of us into this discussion.. a rare minority of iPhones do not get along with some part of the firmware upgrade process that may or may not have much to do with the particular upgrade; my phone was iZombie with 3.0 and 3.01, than with 3.1, COMA was added in.. i reverted to 3.01 so i could have a functional phone.. than i accidentally upgraded back to 3.1 4 days before 3.12 came out; coincidentally that was the best my phone ever worked other than the two comas.. than when i put 3.1.2 on to cure the coma; it gave me back the zombie! phone was an ipaperweight.

So in desperation i invented a harsh upgrade method; force-quit iTunes mid-install; put phone in DFU and re-install.. cured the zombie 100% and the 3.1.2 already fixed the coma. I used this twice (3.1 and 3.12) to cure the zombie effect shown in the movie.

-awr

andrewwynn wrote:
3.1.3 update made my phone act JUST LIKE THIS

3.1.2 is the latest version, and it fixes the coma bug, period. The link you gave for your video is a broken link (host not found).

my phone was iZombie with 3.0 and 3.01, than with 3.1, COMA was added in.. i reverted to 3.01 so i could have a functional phone..

If you had problems with 3.0 and 3.0.1 then those problems have nothing to do with this thread and the 3.1 upgrade and may or may not have been fixed with 3.1.2. This thread is specifically about the "coma" bug that was introduced with 3.1 and CURED with 3.1.2.

than i accidentally upgraded back to 3.1 4 days before 3.12 came out; coincidentally that was the best my phone ever worked other than the two comas.. than when i put 3.1.2 on to cure the coma; it gave me back the zombie! phone was an ipaperweight.

So in desperation i invented a harsh upgrade method; force-quit iTunes mid-install; put phone in DFU and re-install.. cured the zombie 100% and the 3.1.2 already fixed the coma. I used this twice (3.1 and 3.12) to cure the zombie effect shown in the movie.

To summarize: 3.1.2 fixed the coma problem, which is what myself and NaturalElement have been saying. The other problems you mention where there on your phone in 3.0 so they have nothing to do with the 3.1.2 update.

yea, this thread is getting muddled by all kinds of off the mark posts.

so, the question, after a couple of days with 3.1.2 around is: did it actually fix the coma issue?

I kept checking this thread but once 3.1.2 was out people who'd been along complaining about it for a month (including myself) just disappeared, posts on the specific issue became very rare and i took this as a good sign. so i updated to 3.1.2 today (I had rolled back to 3.0.1 before). install went smooth, phone is alright. it's only been a couple of hours so can't really tell yet.

but it would be nice if people who'd been along all those weeks would chime in with their experience with the fix. or is everyone laying low to see how others do?:) i wouldn't blame them. i made the jump though. God forgive me.

I'll put this out there for everyone to consider... my 16G 3G model was swapped out by Apple early on after the update as it was experiencing "issues" and has since been performing well ie no comas. However two days ago I began to experience periodic data outages where i couldn't retrieve mail off the server (I use Gmail) and subsequently the data for stocks and other apps began to fail until I had no data for a few hours. Thinking it was more of the same I hard restarted and let it sit and a few hours later after another restart it was back up and working. This has happened twice since the update.

2nd day on 3.1.2. All good

AT LAST!!!

tottoroo02 wrote:
but it would be nice if people who'd been along all those weeks would chime in with their experience with the fix. or is everyone laying low to see how others do?:) i wouldn't blame them. i made the jump though. God forgive me.

I've been on 3.1.2 for 3 days and have had no coma issues at all. Everything running smoothly.

Another thing, when people post saying things work/don't work after "the update" it would be very helpful if they say which update, 3.1 or 3.1.2, otherwise no one knows which update you're talking about!

I notice that virtually everyone is discussing the freezes and "coma" with the 3G phone, but the 3GS has similar issues. Andrew, unfortunately the instructions you gave for your "crash install" only appear to be relevant to the 3G. I've tried it a number of times without success. Even the steps you describe are slightly different: onscreen boxes have different wording and the instructions when to plug in/unplug the iPhone seem inconsistent.

Has anyone found any new success restoring from a different computer than the one normally used?

Yeah I think people are laying low, I started having comas than i reloaded 3.1.1 with the as new phone settings, i have not have any comas since. I am really hesitant about applying this new update because of all the problems i am reading like the apps crashing etc, etc etc.

Message was edited by: hothydrant

This phone is virtually unusable. I have had coma problems since late August (with 3.0). Had the HW replaced once. I have tried a wide set of configurations to try and isolate the problem. At one extreme, I have had:
1) E-mail and calendar synced to work Outlook Exchange server (via push), second sync to Comcast e-mail, contacts synced to iMac iCal, lots of applications, Outlook running many filters.

and at the other
2) Repaved iPhone. Nothing but Comcast mail, no other apps but out of the box

In between, I have tried all variations - eliminating Outlook filters, eliminating "push" for anything, syncing Outlook only, and not Comcast, reloading every app from the iTunes store.

I have repaved this thing at least 20 times since late August. At an hour each time, this is getting to be a pain. I can't count on it for business essential functions (work e-mail and calendar).

I know at least 10 others who have this problem with 3G or 3GS iPhones -- this is prevalent -- yet nary a word from Apple on how this is being addressed.

I was a Mac person from 1985-1999. Went to PC, then back to Mac after 1 Vista experience. But this has tainted the Apple glow for me.

If you are thinking of getting one of these, hold off until this is fixed. When it is in coma iterations, you can't even call on the thing.

Yikes!
Very unhappy in MN

after draining the battery, i synced. Coma tose. today, i decided to power the comaphone brick with the top button, where it sez to slide to power down. after bringing it back up, unconnected, it's now fine for 5 hours. i'm doing cartwheels.