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Iphone crashing and Genius Bar experience

docal97

docal97

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 28, 2006
815
60
Southampton
So I have been experience freeze-ups and crazing on my 3g. I have read many others with similar experiences, but i don't live too far from an Apple store so I figured why not let them check it out and see what they say.

So the Genius, who was a really nice person, does a hardware diagnostic test on my 3g, and says no hardware issues, but that there was a low memory error message. He said that it was from having so many Apps installed on my device. When i open them throughout the day, he told me they use up the phone's memory, and this is why the unit crashes and freezes. In fact, he says that he had the same issues himself, but after a full restore, and with selective installation of a few Apps, his phone isn't crashing any longer.

I had thought that Apple wouldn't allow programs to run in the background, but even though they are not, he said the programs latch onto existing memory and just don't always release it when the program is closed, similar to a laptop or desktop. The Genius told me to restart the phone at least once a day.

I hadn't considered this, but if the memory issues are true, then it could be a problem for the future, unless a future software update corrects the memory usage and allocation on the phone.
 
If that IS a problem.. then it will most likely be taken care of in 2.1 (as a lot of people have complained and I'm sure Apple has noticed). When exiting an App, although it takes a little more time, you can hold down the 'home' button until the home screen shows and that fully shuts down that App.
 
Well i have between 10-12 at any one time. I don't use them all every day by any stretch. But when the Genius saw 3 or 4 pages on my phone, he was like "oh my" like I had too many programs on the thing. So I got the sense, and he admitted to me, that the more programs that were on the phone that were being used, the memory issues that I mentioned above became a real factor.
 
I get a freeze-up about once every other day. I have TONS of Apps installed and the longer my phone is on with more and more usage I see a buildup of lag in my Contacts window and later I see lag in simple Home Window gestures. These Apps are surely not "releasing" the memory they are consuming. It is causing the 2.0 software to crash much more frequently upon increased usage. I simply restart once midday and make sure to power down or restart at night... That works for now. But Apple really NEEDS to get this taken care of.
 
I have noticed that when I let it run for a few days and just sleep it, things do get a little buggy, like email that keeps checking for email but not downloading any, or other crashing apps. For the last week I have been shutting it off about once a day, and I get no problems.
 
Memory Leak

I've been having my phone crash 3 times since the 2.0 upgrade and had to restore it each time. There has been talk of a possible memory leak that might be contributing to crahes and overall sluggishness of the software.

I sure hope Apple gets this resolved soon.
 
docal97 said:
So I have been experience freeze-ups and crazing on my 3g. I have read many others with similar experiences, but i don't live too far from an Apple store so I figured why not let them check it out and see what they say.

So the Genius, who was a really nice person, does a hardware diagnostic test on my 3g, and says no hardware issues, but that there was a low memory error message. He said that it was from having so many Apps installed on my device. When i open them throughout the day, he told me they use up the phone's memory, and this is why the unit crashes and freezes. In fact, he says that he had the same issues himself, but after a full restore, and with selective installation of a few Apps, his phone isn't crashing any longer.

I had thought that Apple wouldn't allow programs to run in the background, but even though they are not, he said the programs latch onto existing memory and just don't always release it when the program is closed, similar to a laptop or desktop. The Genius told me to restart the phone at least once a day.

I hadn't considered this, but if the memory issues are true, then it could be a problem for the future, unless a future software update corrects the memory usage and allocation on the phone.
Click to expand...
As much as I want to believe these "geniuses", I have little faith in anything they say. Only thing I'll do is nod as they replace my stuffs with something that work.
 
I had mine swapped out today. They plugged it in for the diagnostics and it reported back app launcher crashes and at the bottom in big bold letters said "THIS IPHONE IS UNRESPONSIVE." I was like, jeez, where's your bedside manner? Any who, here I am, new phone (with a lot less scuffs and scratches) and resyncing everything. Already had it crash once during this sync, but it came right back, unlike the previous unit which would hang for hours on end. I could have always restored the previous device, but that would mean redoing all my settings and data in 3rd party apps.
 
I do think some of the phone's are really defective, but the more I use my phone, and read these forums, the more I am convinced that most of the problems that people are experiencing are software related.
 
As an update to my previous post, I think this one may be worse! I rebooted it after installing all my apps again just to clean everything up and start fresh and it did it off a simple power cycle. Restoring now.

Plus, this one has light leak. Motherlover.
 
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