Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

Count me in for coma mode on 3.1.2.

I had the issue on 3.1 since first moment after upgrade. Then a short period of relief after 3.1.2 update, then coma mode AGAIN.

As many of you, I agree that this reduces A LOT my loyalty to Apple. I caught myself staring at my wife's Sony Ericsson dumb phone imagining "Wouldn't be great to unlock my phone and use it immediately instead of waiting 20 seconds for it to wake up?".

This is unacceptable. Apple, please fix this problem.

[ ]'s
Salvador

Sergio O Salvador wrote:
Count me in for coma mode on 3.1.2.

I had the issue on 3.1 since first moment after upgrade. Then a short period of relief after 3.1.2 update, then coma mode AGAIN.

As many of you, I agree that this reduces A LOT my loyalty to Apple. I caught myself staring at my wife's Sony Ericsson dumb phone imagining "Wouldn't be great to unlock my phone and use it immediately instead of waiting 20 seconds for it to wake up?".

This is unacceptable. Apple, please fix this problem.

[ ]'s
Salvador

this sounds more like the 'zombie' vs 'coma' problem; if your phone wakes up but has a long delay, it's a zombie vs coma problem; 3.1.2 does fix the coma problem, but not the zombie problem; that however is not inherent in 3.1 or 3.1.2 or 3.0; i had the zombie problem with ALL 3.XX firmware, and was able to eliminate it with 3.1 (with coma) and 3.1.2 (no coma); my phone works perfectly right now (other than the restore from backup sadly did not restore a LOT of my application data; i lost many hours of input in one of my programs).

if your phone is just 'slow responsiveness' it's just a matter of getting it to do a clean install of 3.1.2 and it will be ok, i promise; my phone had the same problem with each install of 3.xx starting with 3.00. I was very unhappy when my 3.1 which worked great but had coma locks, i upgraded to 3.1.2 and the coma went away and i re-acquired the zombie.

if your phone acts like This Movie (hyperlink) you have the zombie not coma problem and it can be resolved, and will not likely be resolved by any soon to be released firmware update (i don't believe it has anything to do with the firmware).

Had a comatose iPhone this morning. Charged it overnight, like every night, got up this morning and grabbed the phone to check for new email...blank screen, won't wake up. First thing I thought was the battery was dead because I hadn't seen this since 3.1.2. Pressed home, nothing, pressed power, nothing. Finally had to reset (home/power), phone came on and battery was at 100%.

But when you say "a clean install of 3.1.2", you mean a restore from last back-up, or restore the phone as a new phone to iTunes?

[ ]'s
Salvador

Despite 3.1.2. The coma's are back. Wished I stayed with 3.0.1 which was working fine.

Oh please Apple have a good look into the coma bugs because it s*s!

This is getting really annoying. Funny thing is that my GF's and sons iPhones aren't having this problem. We all updated at the same time. I'm afraid to update to 3.1.2. What new surprises?

Sergio O Salvador wrote:
But when you say "a clean install of 3.1.2", you mean a restore from last back-up, or restore the phone as a new phone to iTunes?

[ ]'s
Salvador

neither; there is no official way to perform a clean install of firmware on an iPhone from a consumer's standpoint; that is exactly the cause of these griefs. (the 'coma' situation does seem to be an actual bug; they changed code and results are different); however, the zombie effect happens on 1000s of phones all over the world, my contention is specifically because of the way installs via iTunes are not complete. (and the utter lack of control).

I'm going to do an experiment to see if i can bring back the zombie and eliminate it once more (that will be three times); i have at least 20 installs of 3.xx (mostly 3.1, but 2-3 of 3.0 and 3 or so of 3.01 and 2 of 3.1.2, and the ONLY time of all 20 times that the install 'took' and the phone worked properly was when either iTunes or the iPHone crashed during the firmware upgrade, and the following DFU install was performed; it worked flawlessly (of course the 3.1 version still had 'coma' so it crashed about every 30 hours; that was FAR more useful than the ipaperweight of when the thing is 'iZombie'.

I never did a complete restore of all apps the last time 'cause i didn't trust it would work, and my most recent 'backup' doesn't have half of my application data so i have to restore anyhow. I'll post results as they come.

-awr

quick update; the first 'go' at restore of 3.1.2

ok; about 8 minutes for the phone to 'do it's part' before restart. here goes nuthin'.

oh interesting; another secondary 'progress bar'; now i'm at activation.

it's taking at least another 2 minutes before showing up in iTunes.. now 'carrier update'; it's been about 12 minutes into the install. setting up as a 'new phone'.

activated. badda bing; no major hangups.

m.me settings installed

gmail settings installed.

i played with the phone for about 20 min on/off and no 'zombie' i was getting a little concerned.... then i realized an important difference: i never did the second restart after the phone carrier update... i rebooted and within 3 sleep/wake cycles it took 3 attempts to swipe the unlock.

I'm not having a reliable, repeatable iZombie just yet, but it didn't always kick-in right away (that's the infuriating thing as many of you know!).

i rebooted and immediately can't unlock. i went to do a home/sleep reset and it took a screen shot! right now i hit the home button and the home screen came up with a keyboard! that's a new one! I can even type! (i took a screen grab to send to bugreport)

trying to grab the photos into iPHoto; the phone shows up but doesn't show any photos.

i still can't get that reliable zombie, but it clearly had issues like i'm used to seeing when it kicks in 'full power'. So.. off we go: DFU mode.. sending data... force-quit iTunes... re-DFU (make sure your screen stays black when iTunes sees it (and in my case; no serial number shows; i think that's the dead-ringer giveaway that DFU is successful). I personally would never do a firmware upgrade not using DFU; seems to increase the odds about 1000% of success!

timeline for install:

Tminus:30: starts black screen w/apple
0:00: apple with progress bar; restoring iPhone sw progress in iTunes
4:00: past half-way point; iTunes says 'verifying and now 'restoring';
5:00: iPhone shows 60% or so progress
6:00: iTunes still says 'restoring'; iPhone about 75%
8:00: iPhone reboots.
8:30: progress dialog for a few seconds and now the plug into iTunes screen
9:30: iPHone shows up in iTunes
10:30: iPhone activated.
11:30: power down
11:50: power up

about 30 sleep/wake cycles and various screen flipping maneuvers with no sign of iZombie, so i'm going to do a full restore from an OLDER backup (my latest backup was missing tons of data; hopig to recover some of my dozen or so hours of lost info from the incomplete backup).

i'll post follow-up to see if zombie returns of course.

I wish that was the only the problem, it's one of many.

so holy WOW did i EVER give myself the zombie bug! i had a total iPaperWeight today! i couldn't make/take calls; couldn't restart, couldn't unlock, couldn't go to sleep, it was amazing!

So; now time to re-do the steps above but this time starting with the phone in DFU. I did by the way find the best DFU instructions on earth; Right Here (hyperlink).

I'll be back.

-awr

ps: the biggest 'ouch' was the 6-8 minute restarts; maybe even longer!

Message was edited by: andrewwynn

Andrew, have you tried doing a re-install of 3.1, followed by 3.1.2?

OK, it has been a few weeks now on 3.1.2. Comas have not returned. Thank goodness! (I never did anything special—no reinstalls or reverting to old versions—I just toughed it out until 3.1.2 and then installed it.)

Best of luck to anyone who still has the problem. I feel your pain!

It was one thing to have the "Slide Screen" freeze on 3.0.1, then it was another to have the coma bug after updating to 3.1.2, but now it's a completely inexplicable travesty altogether that after a coma and attempted reset, the phone doesn't boot AT ALL!! The silver apple comes up for a good 5-10 minutes, then is overlayed by the silver "progress wheel", and the phone crashes and tries to boot again (REPEAT.)! It had been a 30-minute ordeal tops until now; I've been waiting for almost 3 HOURS now!! WTMFH??!

After upgrading my iPhone 3g to version 3.1.2, I always get random freeze on my iphone. what's goin on with this latest version, I expected it to be better not to be worst. If there is any solutions please do advice.

I have found that if I turn wifi off, my phone never freeze. When wifi is on
I get random freezes when the phone reaches new wifi-areas. I can confirm that
this is not realated to my iPhone. A friend of mine bought a new iPhone 3G
last week with an other carrier and no apps. He has exactly the same problem, i.e. he has to turn wifi off when he leaves home. Come on Apple!!!! This is serious! Fix it!!!

Hans