How do I make my phone stop sucking?

KarsusTG

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 27, 2010
Messages
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I picked this phone up based on this forums recommendation and it was fantastic for a good while. It's an S7 Active.


What it is doing:

Extremely sluggish.

Sometimes you swipe right to unlock the phone and it will just have a pop up that says "System UI has crashed"

Often (daily, sometimes several times a day) you will try to unlock it and about the 4th character input to the password it will freeze, the screen will go black and you have to start over. It does this 8-12 times before it finally lets you put the entire password in and open the phone.

It has had a lot of updates over the last few months, and like windows update it is seemingly unstoppable. Just yesterday I was on the phone and mid call it hung up and the screen went blue and started a system update... How do I stop this?

It's battery drains FAST. 10 minutes of email will drain 8-15% of the battery depending on the signs in the sky, the alignment of the stars and the moon phase...

It gets HOT. Especially if I have it streaming youtube over bluetooth or something similar. Never too hot to touch, but quite warm. It has never swollen or anything like that.



What I have done:

Factory reset the device and re-updated it to current.

Removed everything I could that I don't use. Admittedly I only use youtube, audible, waze, and the phone functions. And sometimes the smart tools functions, but rarely since I broke my last phone with a forklift... And the one before that with a Clauser machine. And the one before that with a hot tub.

Removed it from it's case so it could cool easier.


Is there any hope? Should I just commit to getting a new phone?
 
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I picked this phone up based on this forums recommendation and it was fantastic for a good while. It's an S7 Active.


What it is doing:

Extremely sluggish.

Sometimes you swipe right to unlock the phone and it will just have a pop up that says "System UI has crashed"

Often (daily, sometimes several times a day) you will try to unlock it and about the 4th character input to the password it will freeze, the screen will go black and you have to start over. It does this 8-12 times before it finally lets you put the entire password in and open the phone.

It has had a lot of updates over the last few months, and like windows update it is seemingly unstoppable. Just yesterday I was on the phone and mid call it hung up and the screen went blue and started a system update... How do I stop this?

It's battery drains FAST. 10 minutes of email will drain 8-15% of the battery depending on the signs in the sky, the alignment of the stars and the moon phase...

It gets HOT. Especially if I have it streaming youtube over bluetooth or something similar. Never too hot to touch, but quite warm. It has never swollen or anything like that.



What I have done:

Factory reset the device and re-updated it to current.

Removed everything I could that I don't use. Admittedly I only use youtube, audible, waze, and the phone functions. And sometimes the smart tools functions, but rarely since I broke my last phone with a forklift... And the one before that with a Clauser machine. And the one before that with a hot tub.

Removed it from it's case so it could cool easier.


Is there any hope? Should I just commit to getting a new phone?

Have you installed a battery health app? The power pack could be fine. But if it's failing (say, it lost a lot of its peak capacity), it could cause a number of issues. It's why Apple started throttling CPUs on phones if the battery degrades too much... because it's typically better to reduce demands on the battery at the expense of performance than to trigger sudden restarts and other issues.

If not that, I'm not sure what else you could do -- you wiped the software clean.
 
Send it my way and get something you actually like. :D

But seriously the S7 Active is just over 2.5 years old now and while the Snapdragon 820 that powers it is still a relatively nice SoC (I have an LG V20 with the same 820 in it, works fine) but because of the age of the non-removable battery you're not going to be able to do much about that at this point in time. It IS possible to replace the battery but by the time you get the device open - if that's done without destroying the display assembly - putting it all back together again reliably and being able to use it just means that after the time it's lasted you are actually better off looking into getting a new device nowadays. A modern Li-Ion battery has a roughly 18 to 24 month useful lifespan and depending on your charging patterns that can be reduced significantly so yeah, the battery being ~3 years old now means there really ain't much you can do with that.

As for software updates, Samsung has never been all that great about them on their devices so what you've been getting are security patches with the monthly updates that Google pushes out to OEMs as part of the Android Open Source Project, not actual OS upgrades of any kind. The Galaxy S7 Active won't go any further than Nougat for sure but that's still a very useful OS really.

Anyway, yes I'd say it's time for a new device, but again if you're gonna toss it or part with it I'll pay shipping. :p
 
Have you installed a battery health app? The power pack could be fine. But if it's failing (say, it lost a lot of its peak capacity), it could cause a number of issues. It's why Apple started throttling CPUs on phones if the battery degrades too much... because it's typically better to reduce demands on the battery at the expense of performance than to trigger sudden restarts and other issues.

If not that, I'm not sure what else you could do -- you wiped the software clean.

I just installed "Battery Health Pro" and it said it was good. 4.013v @78% and 32.2c although it jumped to 32.7c just in the time I had it open hehe. Then it got stuck in an endless loop of "Change who can change settings such as bt on the phone"
 
Send it my way and get something you actually like. :D

But seriously the S7 Active is just over 2.5 years old now and while the Snapdragon 820 that powers it is still a relatively nice SoC (I have an LG V20 with the same 820 in it, works fine) but because of the age of the non-removable battery you're not going to be able to do much about that at this point in time. It IS possible to replace the battery but by the time you get the device open - if that's done without destroying the display assembly - putting it all back together again reliably and being able to use it just means that after the time it's lasted you are actually better off looking into getting a new device nowadays. A modern Li-Ion battery has a roughly 18 to 24 month useful lifespan and depending on your charging patterns that can be reduced significantly so yeah, the battery being ~3 years old now means there really ain't much you can do with that.

As for software updates, Samsung has never been all that great about them on their devices so what you've been getting are security patches with the monthly updates that Google pushes out to OEMs as part of the Android Open Source Project, not actual OS upgrades of any kind. The Galaxy S7 Active won't go any further than Nougat for sure but that's still a very useful OS really.

Anyway, yes I'd say it's time for a new device, but again if you're gonna toss it or part with it I'll pay shipping. :p

Ya, I don't know. I just looked and it has Android 8.0.0, Samsung Experience Version 9.0, and kernel 3.18.71 Really, I wouldn't mind removing that samsung crapware.

As for it's charging patterns, it spends about 50% of it's life on a wireless charging stand on my desk or in my car. Usually I take it off and hide it in my gauge cluster when I am out of the car unless I need it on me for some reason, but generally I don't carry my phone on me anymore. Many days I am on campus or at work for about 12 hours of the day and it's just sitting there in the gauge cluster.
 
Wireless charging, well there ya go. Older devices like the S7 Active would get very warm during a wireless charging session and lithium ion batteries can't tolerate heat buildup so that actually causes the battery to lose lifespan more than plugging in does. and for the record when I say lifespan I mean lifespan of the battery cells as measured in years not on a per-charge basis.

While it is entirely possible to charge the S7 Active in that respect I would highly recommend you not use it anymore but at this point the battery cells are so old I suppose it's not going to do anything but make it die that much faster.

And while we are now in the fall and winter period of the year, if you had been leaving that phone in your vehicle during the spring and summer months and even the early fall the heat buildup inside the car was just another nail in the coffin so to speak. Lithium ion batteries simply cannot and do not tolerate heat, it causes them to die (again I'm talking about overall lifespan as measured in years) much more rapidly than they would if you kept them cool or typically room temperature and charge them with a traditional wired charger.

Newer charging technology like Quick Charge 3 & 4 as well as some improvements to Qi wireless charging get the job done without increasing the temperature of the battery cells but the S7 Active being as old as it obviously doesn't support these newer standards. There's really not much that can be done for it unless you're willing to pay somebody to disassemble it and do a battery swap in terms of battery life, but if you want to make it last a bit longer I strongly recommend you stop using the wireless charger and just plug it in.

Also it can be usual to stop charging the device at roughly 80 to 85%, and there's proven sciencea behind this idea because of how lithium ion cells are charged and how they work. My LG V20 gets charged to 85% and then an app I use call AccuBattery notifies me that it's charged up to the limit that I set and then I unplug. The science behind all this shows that I can expect the lifespan of my battery to be almost double based on this practice.

Anyway I'm sure you'll figure out what to do, but at this point a new device with a fresh batteries will probably be the best course of action for you.

Also: keep the brightness turned down as low as you can tolerate it on any device because the biggest power drain on a smartphone is the display brightness unless you're playing games all the time which is even worse because then you got the power drain from the CPU and the GPU couple belong with the high battery drain because of the display brightness.

I keep my V20 at roughly 40% unless I'm in direct sunlight where it's required that I push it to 80 or 85 but I never max out the brightness, there's never any place that needs that much.
 
My old phone was a S7 (regular) on Verizon. The battery died a few months back but since it was a personal phone, I could afford to have some down time on it and just use my work phone.

When I got around to dealing with it - internet consensus was to replace the battery. Yes, it was sealed but if you have some tools and willing to do some surgery, the battery replacement procedure wasn't too bad at all. Will it still be as waterproof as it was before? Maybe but probably not ... but hey, at least I can still use it if I need to.
 
I just installed "Battery Health Pro" and it said it was good. 4.013v @78% and 32.2c although it jumped to 32.7c just in the time I had it open hehe. Then it got stuck in an endless loop of "Change who can change settings such as bt on the phone"

Well, 78 percent means you've worn it down a fair amount, and it's low enough that it could be responsible. It's hard to imagine what software would be doing this based on both the pattern of behavior and the factory reset.
 
Ok, thanks guys. I am just going to be an American and buy another one. I might just buy a navigation device and go back to a flip phone.
 
Depending on what you require there's surely something out there that can fit the requirements, and probably at a decent price too. If you decide on that final outcome on that S7 Active, let me know. ;)
 
Stop buying Samsung phones. The new phones may be better but everyone I know with a 7 or older has the same problems. I have yet to see a Samsung phone that's a year or two old that isn't a complete dumpster fire.
 
A Galaxy S9 regular edition lags like shit too. My Essential Phone with last gen hardware is easily smoother than it. You expect the S7 to be not laggy? Don't get a Samsung unless you want to spend extra and get at least 4GB of RAM.
 
Thanks guys, I ended up getting a more appropriately "me" phone. The Cat S61. It's a much older cpu, but seems faster and I don't think I will break this one.
 
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Thanks guys, I ended up getting a more appropriately "me" phone. The Cat S61. It's a much older cpu, but seems faster and I don't think I will break this one.
Hopefully you’re going to utilize most of those extremely niche features to help justify the cost. Otherwise I would’ve just bought a OnePlus 6 and shoved it into one of those overly protective Otterbox like cases. Would have cost probably half what you paid for that Cat phone and would have better specs.
 
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Hopefully you’re going to utilize most of those extremely niche features to help justify the cost. Otherwise I would’ve just bought a OnePlus 6 and shoved it into one of those overly protective Otterbox like cases. Would have cost probably half what you paid for that Cat phone and would have better specs.

I have been finding myself using the flir camera more than I thought I would. It definitely helps isolate trouble spots. Honestly, the screen is REALLY good about rejecting crap inputs when it's wet or dirty too. Most phones usually just kinda goes crazy when there is water drops on such on it or you are trying to use it with wet/dirty gloves.

But primarily I got it for the really loud speaker phone and the ability to drop it on concrete without worrying too much about it breaking.
 
You could try an iPhone. I’m curentoh rocking a 6S Plus and it’s still buttery smooth and fast (don’t get anything below a 6S though). Zero issues ... and no bloatware. I mean ... what do you have to lose to try it? You said your alternative is going to be a GPS device and a flip phone.

Edit: Noticed you bought that insanely overpriced phone. You could’ve gotten a much better phone and an Otterbox or Lifeproof case and still had tons of money leftover.

I have been finding myself using the flir camera more than I thought I would. It definitely helps isolate trouble spots. Honestly, the screen is REALLY good about rejecting crap inputs when it's wet or dirty too. Most phones usually just kinda goes crazy when there is water drops on such on it or you are trying to use it with wet/dirty gloves.

But primarily I got it for the really loud speaker phone and the ability to drop it on concrete without worrying too much about it breaking.
Most cases can be dropped from much higher up without issues too.

Anyway, I’m glad you found something, but sheesh.
 
Stop buying Samsung phones. The new phones may be better but everyone I know with a 7 or older has the same problems. I have yet to see a Samsung phone that's a year or two old that isn't a complete dumpster fire.

This here, Samsung has such craptastic phones, and other products. I am on a Samsung products boycott for the last 4 yrs.
 
Sounds like OP phones is defective. Those symptoms not normal. Good luck with the new one OP.
 
seems pretty normal for Samsung's TouchWiz.


Yep. Samsung phones always turn to complete crap after a year or two. No amount of factory resets fix the issue on any of my relatives or friends phones that use Samsung. IDK why they keep on buying them every time they get a new one...
 
Yep. Samsung phones always turn to complete crap after a year or two. No amount of factory resets fix the issue on any of my relatives or friends phones that use Samsung. IDK why they keep on buying them every time they get a new one...

For some reason a factory reset fixed mine so I don't know.
 
His headphone jack. But the question should be what does he have to gain from it.
Not having to factory reset to get his phone speed back and frequent updates? Based on his use preferences, he could get by with a used 6S or 6S Plus with a headphone jack and rugged case and it’d still be very fast ... and he would’ve saved about 600 bucks.
 
This here, Samsung has such craptastic phones, and other products. I am on a Samsung products boycott for the last 4 yrs.
I bouhbo the original Galaxy S. Luckily I learned my lesson early...
 
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