I just reinstalled UT after a huge problem.

Keneda

Yesterday i was browsing with morph, posting some comment here and there, doing so, i noticed that vibration using keyboard stopped working, not only in morph but everywhere, wich i found annoying, i tried some things to make it work again, but didn't succeed.

So i gave up thinking motor was dead or such, and went to sleep since i had to wake up 4 am to go to work. As my phone is my alarm clock, i set up before going meet morphea.

This morning, i woke up at 6h15, and found my phone told me it rang a lot of time in notifications, just after that i listened it ringing another time (important : screen was still on at this time), so i uried myself to go to work... Late, and told me i was so tired that i didn't hear it... A lot of time.

Now this evening, i just wanted to be sure so i ran a simple test, and set an alarm clock, wich fired... In silence, and vibrating !

So that means this morning alarm did the same, and only worked once because screen was ON.

[edited]So i switched channel from stable to RC, and vibrating went back to normal, switched back to stable, still OK.
But still no sound fired with alarm.[/edited]

Now i wonder if i'm the only one experienced such behavior, i never had this since 2015 on this phone.

Also, what could cause this, i'm sure 100% that vibration stopped working and alarm clock sound not firing with screen off are related one way or another, but how ?

Now i'm in a position where i can't trust my phone to wake me up, wich is very annoying...

MrT10001

@keneda Could be your battery failing. It causes all sorts of misbehaviours on its way out. If the RAM or eMMC were failing you would most likely get boot looping at worst and random reboots at least. Also we are having a bit of warm weather were I am and that can cause heating issues, especially if the device is in your pocket or left in direct sunlight that can lead to misbehaving parts.

Keneda

Just tested to change alarm sound and i can't ear any "pre-listening" sound.
And just writing this words, vibrating just stopped working again...

Is my device dying or so ?

Alter

@keneda : That is a super-annoying problem, you don't want to be late at work or such.
I just tested on my Volla Phone/ UT RC. Alarm works (with screen black, but also when on). Don't know the reason for the strange behavior of your device, sorry.

AppLee

Hi @keneda

Sorry you had a stressful morning.
On the bright side you got a couple hours of sleep that's good.

In my experience you shouldn't trust a phone and even less a smart one to wake you up.
The more simple the technology, the more reliable it is (or at least it's an easy fix or obvious when broken).

Now what you describe is strange.
But many things can explain it. My first guess will be a hardware issue, maybe the ROM or RAM getting old and with corrupted sectors.
If it is the RAM it can lead to many strange behavior that should change or be fixed with a simple reboot.
If it's the ROM then some apps will stop working properly until reinstalled.

I know your MX4 is getting old and things can go bad.

I wouldn't throw it away yet, but I'll consider frequent backup and for your alarm to use redundancy.

My guess is just a guess, but given that you had it working fine on OTA-22 it shouldn't be the soft except if you tinkered a bit too much to fix the vibration issue.

It remembers me a time when I was still fresh on Linux. I had my computer running with my distro for a while then I started noticing crashes with Firefox. It was more an more frequent.
I started to question the stability of the software then I noticed other software failing more and more.
After some time I had a kernel panic ; I panicked too but read the message and realized that my HDD was failing an reporting IO errors.
I analyzed my logs, backed up my files and reinstalled on a new disk ; no more crashes...
Software is tricky but hardware is no different and I found several time that bad contacts can make you loose your mind finding a non existing bug in your code.

This long rant is not very helpful but I hope you'll figure it out.
Keep monitoring your phone's behavior and it'll probably be clearer with time.

Keneda

@applee
Well, i believe you didn't see my updates because you were writting this post.
It just stopped working again sadly.
Thanks for your support anyway ^^

AppLee

@keneda
Yes I saw it later but it confirms my hypothesis.
What is strange is that it's the same bad behavior regarding ringtone and vibration.
Does audio works well? I mean listening to music or phone calls.

If audio is fine in general but not for notifications, I bet it's the ROM that is corrupted where the notifications are handled.
Could be many things but an old eMMC with mileage after many updates and probable re-installation of the OS is something plausible.

Keneda

@applee
Yes audio works fine.
And only alarm clock sound is not working, plus vibrations.

Now i wonder how can i know if memory is dying.

But if memory is dying, should changing channel (wich is basically reinstalling without wiping) work, or at least, shouldn't it reinstall on good blocks ?

Now i'm going to try changing channel again, after uninstalling all the apps i use very rarely.

MrT10001

@keneda Could be your battery failing. It causes all sorts of misbehaviours on its way out. If the RAM or eMMC were failing you would most likely get boot looping at worst and random reboots at least. Also we are having a bit of warm weather were I am and that can cause heating issues, especially if the device is in your pocket or left in direct sunlight that can lead to misbehaving parts.

domubpkm

@Keneda You will find a solution with your old MX4, but the risk will always be there of not waking you up in time.. And there you may be putting your job in danger.. The choice seems inescapable: new modern smartphone or classic clock radio ..

Moem

@domubpkm said in I just reinstalled UT after a huge problem.:

new modern smartphone or classic clock radio ..

Or just a simple alarm clock. Those still exist.
Oh, there is another option: a suitable smart watch, such as a Pebble.

domubpkm

@moem Yes

AppLee

@mrt10001 Right faulty batteries can lead to some weird stuff.

@Keneda Ubuntu Touch is an image, so theoretically copied at the same exact location in ROM. But there are mechanism to recover from bad blocks. It's too technical for me at this point.
But the temporary fix that you experienced doesn't match with the ROM idea ; either a reinstall won't change anything or the problems should be random...
Same for the RAM...

@MrT10001 is probably right.

Still it is hard to tell without probing the device and having it monitored...

kugiigi

This is indeed a weird issue especially since it only affects specific components. My MX4 had its fair share of weird issues so I guess it's more prone to these issues. Mine became laggy most of the time and charges for a very long time. I already replaced thr bloated battery but still has the same issues. I only use it for monitoring health stuffs for my father now but so far alarms work fine.

Keneda

@mrt10001 said in I just reinstalled UT after a huge problem.:

Could be your battery failing.

Battery is definetly way too old, i'll try to find a replacement for it to test.

@domubpkm @Moem for now i'll use my spare N5 as my alarm clock, but i'll maybe get a real one yes.

@AppLee what's even weirder is now when i reboot, vibration works for sometime, and then stops working, and everytime it's when i'm writing something in morph (but probably just coincidency)

Keneda

@mrt10001
This is the weirdest thing i've heard about, AND witnessed, in computer electronic.

That was indeed the battery causing all this, i think phoning app was also impacted with some outgoing calls not working (like if call ended in void), latelly.

Well, thank you for the hint, you saved my MX4 from unnecessary recycling !

MrT10001

@keneda Great stuff, Have found that weak batteries cause all sorts of weird issues, probably due to the inability to power the more power hungry components, such as speakers, the buzzer and even the screen with dead touch issues, mainly around the edge.