Kyocera Brigadier Display breaks down roughly once a week. Only a Factory Data reset can repair it.

[WesleyK]

Once a week, roughly, my Kyocera Brigadier display goes to sleep and only a hard reset can bring it back up. I replaced 3 phones with Asurion and they all do it. I found a fix, resetting the phone to factory settings, including full data erase. Then it works for about a week. Another thing that makes it work is swapping the Launcher in Settings/Home to the Free Win 8 Launcher (only one that works). That launcher can bring up the display once it goes to sleep but no other. Have tried Next, Go EX, etc. No luck. Anyone seeing this as well?

This is driving me insane.I've tried to call tech support at Verizon for a couple of days with no luck. Yesterday I was on hold fol almost 30 minutes listening to their muzak then I was disconnected. Today, almost like clockwork, the phone screwed up again. I'd drive down to the Verizon Store and ask Support there but it's late and I have to get to sleep so I can go to work tonight. I need the phone so I'm firing off the factory reset now so tomorrow morning what is the point of going to Verizon when it will work ok? Like Asurion Tech support they will scratch their heads and tell me the phone works and they can't do anything until it messes up again.

I was very happy with my Casio Commando 4G LTE but when it was damaged in a machine I contacted Asurion because I pay for their insurance. They couldn't give me another Commando. I had no choice but to get this phone. Saddest part of this story, I love this phone. It is awesome EXCEPT for this display nonsense....sigh.

Sorry for whining. I'm a little frustrated.

--Wesley

[vzw_customer_support]

WesleyK,

I'm sorry to learn that this issue has become routine for you. It certainly shouldn't be that way. When did this first start occurring? You mentioned the display going to sleep and then not being able to bring it back up. Have you noticed if this occurs when you put the screen to sleep (power button) or when your display settings times out?

AndreaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[WesleyK]

Hello and thank you for the reply. This happens regardless of how the phone goes to sleep. It can timeout on its own or if I put the screen to sleep, it won't come back on when this problem starts.

One thing I do see occasionally. Not often, but sometimes when I try and hit the power button to wake up the phone the home screen will come back up but it blinks back and forth between a still image of the home screen (non-responsive) and the Stock background image.

That is one other thing I wanted to mention. It might be a result of the hard reset, when I hold the power button to restart the phone so I can access the phone, everytime the background image is changed back to the default blue water and sunlight background image. I don't know if this is related.

Lastly, when the phone is asleep and I can't wake the display, I don't think the phone itself is frozen or locked up. If I have my Bluetooth earphones on and the Audible app running I can hear the narrator without a problem. I can also use the button on the headset to start and stop the audiobook without a problem. I wanted to mention that in case it was relevant

--Wesley 

[WesleyK]

A quick clarification. I re-read this and it might appear to someone that the phone does this all the time. It does not. The phone works great for roughly a week and then this problem appears. Then I have to do the factory data reset to fix the problem and then the phone works great again, well....for roughly a week.

This started from the first phone I got from Asurion. 3 days after I activated the phone it happened. I called Asurion's tech support and we were not able to fix it. They sent me a new phone. Ditto with that one except that it lasted maybe 5 days before it started. I called Asurion and after trying to fix it they once again sent me a new phone.  I am on the 3rd phone already.

Quick note: Once, and only once so far and on the last phone Asurion had sent me before this one, I was able to fix the problem by utilizing the Settings Reset. I didn't have to do the full data erase with the factory reset but it only worked that one time so far and it fixed the problem for only about an hour.

[vzw_customer_support]

I appreciate all of that information, WesleyK. Because this happens about once a week, troubleshooting may be difficult. Every time you have done a factory reset, have you uploaded your applications and information right away? Since this has happened with all of your replacements, we want to ensure there is not a third party factor that is affecting this. If you have confirmed this is not third party related, you would need to speak with Asurion's technical support.

AndreaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[SherrieO]

This exact same issue is happening to my husbands Kyocera Brigadier!  It's almost every single Sunday like clockwork.  You can't get it out of sleep mode without a hard boot. We did a factory reset on the original phone, we've hard booted and that brings it back but if you let it go to sleep you can't get it out of sleep mode without holding down the power button along with volume up.  He's getting his third phone tomorrow.   I really hope someone figures out what is causing the issue because the phone works great in between these incidents and it's extremely inconvenient.

[Ov3rwatch]

Exact same problem here. I have had this phone exactly 1 week tomorrow and love it. vibrant screen, loud speaker, its great and suddenly today it started doing this. exactly as you described. no matter how the phone goes to sleep this problem occurs, one way or another. upon hard resetting it, its back to the greenish blue sunlight through water background. havent tried hard restoring it yet but apparently im going to have to which sucks. I need this phone for work 24/7. Loved my Casio Commando before it, but the thing just got so slow i couldnt do anything. I would prefer that over not operating.

[edjo71]

I have a brigadier as well...just connected it a week ago since my commando 4G was getting slow. I don't know if it was related to this but I see the once a week thing and was wondering about it...yesterday which was about a week of having it the phone just rebooted and started from default settings which I had to start over with everything again...I didn't even touch the phone or made it do it...I don't have the phone sleep problem but if it keeps rebooting on it's own then I'm gonna be kissed...Didn't know if it was an update for the phone or what but I lost alot of stuff on it...hope this phone isn't just problems because I do really like it since I need a rugged phone

[Ov3rwatch]

After investigating it further, it looks like the issue is in the ROM from Kyocera not the device itself (physically). When first booting up i went into settings and activated developer tools. locked and unlocked quickly and the screen came back up with the prompt "Unfortunately, com.android.systemui has stopped." (you can do this part without dev tools by the way) Well, that is very unfortunate since it makes the phone unusable. Now with developer tools on i can see that when the device goes to sleep, com.android.launcher (the home screen) is writing its settings to the config file for com.android.systemui so it can return to the home screen properly when you wake the device back up from sleep, the problem is that something causes the launcher to crash in the middle of writing to this file. The conclusion i came to after some toying is that this configuration file gets corrupted by that, so when the com.android.systemui goes to use it, it crashes because the file doesn't work and it doesn't know how to continue. Now when you hard reboot the device it runs an initial test (to figure out why the device was powered off incorrectly) it detects the corrupted file and replaces it with the default configuration file. This is why you lose your wallpaper mixiMZR settings and your choice of keyboard after the reboot, however this file only holds up until the launcher crashes again which restarts the cycle. I cannot explain what causes the launcher to crash in the first place starting the problem rolling, but i will continue to monitor my device to see if i can pinpoint it.

I can only see 3 options here. Kyocera can either fix their buggy ROM, keep needlessly replacing devices, or us as users can root our devices and install a ROM that actually works. Personally if the first option doesn't happen ill likely root & ROM it because i don't want to continually deal with these issues, but i find it a bit ridiculous that that even has to be an option with a phone less than a week old (especially since it would void my warranty and my verizon insurance!). Root & ROM should only ever be a choice not a necessity. Verizon Wireless Customer Support If we could forward these findings to Kyocera somehow that'd be great.

[WesleyK]

Yes, I do remember seeing this com.android.systemui error several times. I forgot all about it until I read your post.

I've been trying to track down the reason for this nonsense and the only thing I've noticed, and its a stretch I know, is that the last time the display went on the fritz it did it rather quickly. I mean that once I did a factory reset the phone would be OK for about a week or so, give or take a couple of days. Well, barely two days after the factory reset I had plugged in external Sony Microvault USB/microUSB 32 GB drive to backup a few things. Well, after a long copy of about 8GB the app I was using to copy the files froze and the display was doing its nonsense again. This led me to believe that maybe having a microSD card plugged might somehow cause trouble? I really hope not because I love to have a lot of audiobooks with me and the internal storage is simple too little.

Either way, since that last factory reset after the Sony Microvault incident, I pulled the 32GB microSD card I had installed. I am using only the internal storage right now and I'm about 4 days in......I'll know soon if it helps.

Oh wait, I almost forgot. On one of the earlier Brigadiers they sent me I noticed that a launcher was able to fix the display but the display only comes on if I set that as the default launcher. It is called "Launcher 8 Free (fakeWP8) and you can find it at Google Play. I tried several other Launchers but this was the only one that would work. Kinda sucks because when trying to see if a launcher would work I found Go Launcher EX and I really like it.  I can't stand Windows 8 or its layout so this just isn't an option for me.

postscript: FWIW, as others have mentioned, I also really like the phone when it works. In between the display problems the phone is great and I especially love the sapphire screen. My Commando 4G was working great but it finally encountered something it couldn't handle. I dropped it at work (the millionth time) but this time I kicked it accidentally and the cleaning guy was in front of me with a large commercial buffer. The phone got jammed between the frame and spinning disc and it cracked it. I had not choice but to give it up. The 1st Commando was slow but the Commando 4G was pretty good. The Brigadier, when it works, is the better phone though....

[Ov3rwatch]

Yeah i have developer tools enabled with system Log displaying atop everything im doing at all times (can get a bit annoying lol) so my hope is that im looking at the device and the logging when the failure occurs, so i can see it however i have full system logging enabled so even if i don't catch the initial failure it should be saved to a log file which i can access from developer tools on my PC. im hoping to catch the original cause for the screw up but its tedious considering i have no idea when the issue will arise.

[WesleyK]

I was thinking over the weekend, perhaps if we could list some of the apps we use the most? Maybe this could help point the finger toward a certain app that might be causing this?

I realize it might not be an app causing this exactly but a particular app might cause a condition that causes the screen code do become corrupted as Ov3rwatch pointed out.

Obviously, I understand this could be looked at as an invasion of privacy so I hope no one feels pressured into posting this info.

I use Audible the most. Literally every day. To give an idea of how much I just got the badge for finishing 5 books in a week.

So, my main apps:

Audible

Dictionary.com (Premium, the paid version)

Google Maps

FX File Explorer from NextApp, Inc.

Gmail

The email app that came with the Brigadier and it has my Yahoo Email Account setup

Chrome Browser

My Verizon Mobile

Wifi Analyzer from farproc

Amazon (The main app, I haven't had stuff like Amazon Apps installed when this started)

I have other apps obviously but these I use the most and they have been in play since this all started with the 1st Brigadier I received. Also, I use apps like the Go Launcher EX and several themes for it as well as icons and fonts. They are recent though....

I don't know if this helps and I know I might be trying to pick fly crap out of pepper but it has been almost a week since my last "reset" and I feel the hammer floating over my shoulder, waiting to give me a smack.

--Wesley

[GalaxyClass]

Wesley, most of the time it's an app or apps that are controlling some part of the phone OS system files and could give anyone problems. Apps can be good and work together or go in their own direction and cause trouble. I try not to ever install an app without watching how my phone works for the next few day and in different modes of use. Also never install  apps you really don't need. Try to run as few as possible, less problems and better battery life will result. Your idea is a good starting point so give it a try.

[WesleyK]

Hello GalaxyClass, I try to keep my installed apps simple as you suggest but to be honest, I get lazy and complacent sometimes.

Since this display problem started I've been keeping things neat and simple.

A quick update: I pulled the 32gb microSD card when I factory reset the phone this last time on Tuesday 10-21-2014 and I have been using only the internal 16gb storage. If the phone makes it into tomorrow without screwing up the display again then it will be the longest any of the Brigadiers have gone.

[WesleyK]

I spoke too soon. I had to go out for the afternoon and I was stuck without a phone until I got home. Once again the display won't wake up unless I force a hard reset by holding the power button for almost 30 seconds or whatever it is.

Once again I have to factory reset the phone?!@#?!@#!

Come on...this is wrong. Just plain wrong.

FWIW, since the last factory reset I haven't had the microSD card put in so it isn't related to that at least....sigh

[WesleyK]

I mentioned before that the fakeWP8 Launcher would work in waking up the display.  I just found a "Locker" for the GO Launcher EX that I have been playing with lately.

I installed the "Star Trek LCARS Locker Alert" app from Justin Fisher and when I switched the default locker to this one it was able to wake up the screen.

Unfortunately, I don't think it works unless you install the Launcher first and then this Locker.  Personally, I like the default Locker that the Brigadier comes with but I think I'll use this until Kyocera updates the ROM for this phone. I only hope it doesn't take a year.

I'll post if I find something new. Oh yes, I put the 32 GB microSDcard back in since it didn't help a whit.....

[GalaxyClass · Accepted solution]

glad your up and running again, & here is Kyocera tech link if needed. I would be looking for some possible updates for lock problem and maybe even new flash firmware down the road. But first shoot them off an e mail about your little bug, they may have a fix.   http://www.contacthelp.com/Kyocera/customer-service

[WesleyK]

Thank you for the link GalaxyClass! I was thinking about doing that very thing next.

Please, I encourage everyone who is having this problem to contact Kyocera.

Maybe the Verizon Support Crew can as well?

[GalaxyClass]

One can only hope on VZW one Wes.

[WesleyK]

Ok, it appears ad if I have a fix. It isn't pretty but I've managed to sort of "reset" the phone.

I was digging thru the developer options and I decided to try switching runtimes. I switched from the dalvik to the art runtime and the phone started what it called "upgrading all apps". It took a little while the switch to art but when I went back to dalvik because I was annoyed by a blinking red outline that occasionally appeared around the edge of the display when using intensive apps.

Regardless, I noticed that the default locker now worked normally again. I think it rewrote the display file and repaired it.

Problem is that I can't test this fully until the phone screws up again.

FWIW, to turn on the Developer Options you must go to menu > about Phone > and tap on the Build Version 7 times. Might have been 5 but just keep tapping and you'll see it telling you how many more times you need to tap it.

Hope this helps...

[WesleyK]

I'm waiting for the phone to mess up again to test and see if this fix works reliably. I forgot the day but looking at my previous post I see that it was on the 30th that I repaired that video file.

As it stands, my last factory data reset was on 10/21/2014 @ 10:48 according to Settings>About Phone>Status>Last factory data reset and wow, just above that it shows my uptime  I didn't notice it was up that long consecutively. Figuring the hours..... I power cycle the phone in over 12 days. My Commando 4G record was much, much more....but it's a start. FWIW, my Commando had one stretch that lasted over 5 months IIRC.

Regardless, has anyone successfully used the 'fix' I described above? I'm curious to see if it worked for everyone.

See ya later...