power off issue

[JRUSS]

So, I am on my 2nd backflip now and have been experiencing the same problems.
It always seems to happen when I'm trying to reply to a text message.
And it always seems to happen when I hit reply and flip the shell open to use the full keyboard. All of a sudden the phone will power off to a black screen and then instantly vibrate and show the white M screen with the blur icon.
Then it will bring up the last known notification items like I never cleared the notifications.
I already tried to reset my last Backflip to defaults and the same thing happened. Now it's happening again. I haven't even had a chance to send the old one back yet.
This doesn't happen everytime either... of course.

Are others experiencing anything similar, or is it something I'm doing?
I don't think I'm hitting the power button. And even if I did it shouldn't reboot it without warning. It would just put it in a standby state I would imagine.

Any advice?

Thanks.

[ATTDroids]

[TechN9ne1730]

Its a wide spread issue. You can find many reports if you search the forums.

Try a factory reset and see if that helps. If that does not help, return it again, or get a replacement from Moto.

I am on my second backflip, and still have had the problem, but it is very very rare now, as compared to my first one.

[JRUSS]

Thanks for the heads up.

So, I think I've narrowed it down to the battery and the battery cover.
It started powering off fairly regularly this last weekend when I was in Atlanta. So I did some amateur troubleshooting.
It seems that when the phone is "flexed" a certain way, then the battery loses contact. The battery cover is flimsy and doesn't hold the battery in place securely. And what's more disturbing is that the phone doesn't "flex" much if at all to make this happen.
Seems to be a hardware issue, imo.
Not sure how Motorola plans to fix this issue.

[JRUSS]

Ok, so I'm on my 3rd backflip now. My old one got so bad that it was just rebooting when i would place it ever so carefully on my coffee table. Very very frustrating.
I've had task killers to free up lingering processes, etc. thinking that maybe something was causing it to hang up and reboot. Nothing worked.

So, I've had this new one all of 2 days and no issues yet. *knock on wood*

I will keep everyone posted.

[Zarathustra]

Good luck!

[TJames]

It is most definitely a battery issue. I've had this problem a couple times on my backflip. Somehow the battery becomes "loose" and you have to take it out and reset it in its spot, put the battery cover back on and it goes away. Quite annoying... not sure what to do about it. Has only happened to me twice, and after fixing it both times it hasn't happened in over a week. My 30 days is up in three days... I really love this phone though.

[stuchu]

I have had the same issue. I could force a reboot by putting slight pressure on the keyboard area.
After some discussion in the Motorola support forums a manager suggested placing a business card in the battery compartment. I didn't have a card of the right size so I got a piece of paper and folded it once and placed it in there. Now if I try to place pressure on the keyboard to force a reboot it does not do so and I haven't had the problem since. I suggest trying this out even though keeping a piece of paper in your phone will be a pain.

[JRUSS]

I might give this a try shortly. I'm on my 3rd backflip now and was still seeing the same issues.
Yesterday I had AT&T enable a brand new SIM card to see if that alleviates anything.

[Dr_Doug]

I used the piece of business card fix after dropping the phone on a brick floor. Was rebooting every i put it in my pants pocket, now seems to have same stability as before the drop. Pay attention to avoid covering any of the little copper "back is on" contacts when you put in your piece of business card, might keep the phone from booting after reinstalling the cover. I have had the phone since the month introduced, upgaded to 2.1 in January. Had been trouble free other than this incident. I don't know what I'll do at upgrade time, got an iPad for Xmas, afraid I drank the coolaid.

It is most definitely a battery issue. I've had this problem a couple times on my backflip. Somehow the battery becomes "loose" and you have to take it out and reset it in its spot, put the battery cover back on and it goes away. Quite annoying... not sure what to do about it. Has only happened to me twice, and after fixing it both times it hasn't happened in over a week. My 30 days is up in three days... I really love this phone though.