My HTC Sensation Nightmare

Introduction

My HTC Sensation (A touch screen smartphone running Google's Android OS if you're not already familiar) has been a complete nightmare since I bought it in 2011.   It turns itself off so often (and seemingly at random) that it just cannot be relied upon.  HTC, the manufacturer, has been completely uninterested in actually trying to debug and resolve the problem.  I've had better support from authors of £3 apps in the Google Play store than I have from the company that sold me a £500 phone.

The story

I bought my HTC Sensation in late June 2011, shortly after it was launched in the UK.  It cost me £465 and was was bought "SIM Free" - in other words it isn't locked to, or branded by, a network operator.

My previous handset was a HTC Hero that was frustrating because it was slow, and because of the 9 months it took HTC to produce the promised upgrade from the Android version 1.5 to version 2.1.  Despite that I decided to give HTC another chance and bought what was, at the time, their top of the range handset.

At first my new HTC Sensation was lovely and worked very well but after three months it started turning itself off at random.  At first this happened when it was in my pocket but soon started happening when it was in use (web browsing, phone calls etc).  I thought it was a silly bug from an App I had updated so I undid all the App updates I had done in the last week.

That didn't resolve the problem, so I contacted HTC technical support.  A new battery was suggested, but I was told I would have to buy it myself.  After escalating this to a Tech Support Care Manager, a replacement battery was sent out free of charge.  This didn't resolve the problem and the random turn offs continued.  Several other debug steps were considered, but none of these resolved the problem either.

The only solution HTC would offer at this point was a repair and before that could be done I had to do a factory reset of my handset to see if that solved the problem.  The fact the Care Manager wasn't sure if this would solve the problem was a clear indication that the bug wasn't understood or diagnosed; just that this was the next option on the script.  I refused to do this because:
1. HTC wouldn't guarantee it would resolve the problem.
2. HTC wouldn't guarantee a reset would prevent the problem happening again.
In other words they had absolutely no idea what the problem was and how to resolve it.
Also I wasn't happy about the repair, because it wouldn't involve me having MY handset repaired, I would just be sent someone else's faulty handset as "Refurbished".

Performing the reset, then restoring my Apps and data from backups was likely to take at least two evenings.  This is time I could better spend doing other things especially if there was no indication whether it would be successful in resolving the problem. 

I should say that, in fairness, the HTC Care Manager was courteous at all times despite my frustrations and I feel she did everything HTC's policies allowed her to do.  Unfortunately those policies were pretty useless when it came to resolving this problem.  No effort was actually made to debug the problem and find out why it happens.


The turn offs manifest as the screen suddenly going blank.  It isn't the normal graceful shutdown triggered from the power button; but it isn't as instant as removing the battery, as the backlight sometimes lingers for just under a second after the screen goes blank.  This would rule out either the handset shutting down for reasons like a low battery; or a mechanical problem with the build quality that is not keeping the battery in place.  This is clearly a fault with the firmware, something that is reinforced by the battery usage tool.  After each random turn off happens there is a gap in the battery usage, preceded by a flat line.  I should note that so far these turn offs have only ever happened when the phone is battery powered, not when it is connected to a power source.

I have included three screen grabs below:

The first shows the battery level flat line, then after the first turn off the battery remaining shows a very sudden and steep drop, followed by a further sudden turn off (which happened while the device was booting up again).  Once turned on the second time the remaining battery charge leaps up significantly despite not having been connected to any external power source.

The second shows the battery usage flat line, then a gap when it turns itself off.  Once turned back on again the battery level has dropped significantly but then flat lines for a significant period.

The third happened the other night and shows it turning off about an hour into a phone call.  The gap is one of the biggest I've seen - but the only thing it was doing was a phone call.  Once turned back on the battery usage flat lines for a long time.

My theory is that the Android system process that monitors battery level, that should be running all the time, somehow stops or is interrupted for a significant period.  When it starts running again it thinks that the battery level has dropped a relatively long way in a time period of less than a second.  It extrapolates this into a usage rate that will flatten the battery in only a few more seconds - the OS Kernel goes into a panic and turns the phone off immediately in a defensive move.  I'm not sure this is entirely accurate but since I don't know how the Android system works, especially with HTC's customisations, it is my best guess.  My theory is supported by:
1. The "Time on battery" in the battery usage tool often being understated significantly.  For example I take it off charge when I go to work in the morning, but by the time I go home in the evening (and have had a couple of turn offs during the day) it is reporting a time on battery of only three hours.
2. The battery tool sometimes shows a "Refresh" button at the top but not all the time almost like it doesn't always know when it should be updating itself.

Other steps taken to solve this include:
1. Refreshing the battery by running it to zero and fully charging from the mains.  Doesn't work as on more than one occasion I've had the phone turn itself off repeatedly on the day immediately after the refresh!
2. Only charge the phone from the supplied (5V 1A) mains adaptor, not the USB socket (5V 0.5A) on a computer.  This did reduce how often it happened but didn't eliminate it completely.  It also means that now I cannot connect my phone to my computer at all because doing so (even when fully charged and/or only for a short period) causes many turn offs for the next day or two.  This further confirms that there is a big problem in the way the handset tracks battery charging/usage if it cannot cope properly with USB charging.  My HTC Hero handset was charged from a USB socket for 2 years without these kind of problems.
3. Reformat the SD card.  No change
4. Update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).  No change.

Unfortunately the problem cannot be recreated on demand, and after a reboot the handset flushes its activity logs so I cannot find out what was happening at the point the handset turns itself off.


Either way this is a serious bug that should be investigated and resolved not just ignored in the hope that if someone resets their handset enough or gets a reconditioned one through a "repair" the problem may not reoccur.

This isn't the only serious problem I've had.  Another happens if I am listening to music and using the Google Maps app for directions and traffic updates while driving only for the music to suddenly stop with the handset flashing up an alert about the SD card being suddenly ejected.  The SD card slot is inside the phone so there is no way it could have been ejected - at least not when I'm driving!!  Like the sudden turn offs this bug cannot be recreated on demand, but it does seem to happen only when Google Maps is running.


This all sums up why I consider my HTC Sensation to be the worst £500 I have ever spent.  I don't hold out much hope of it being fixed now as the handset was launched 12 months ago so I doubt HTC even support it now (this isn't as silly as it sounds!).  In the 12 months I've owned it I've had one incremental update, and one major update.

I don't know what my next handset will be, but I do know it will not be a HTC handset.  If you are considering a HTC handset yourself, I strongly recommend you look elsewhere.  Life is just too short to waste on buying HTC.

References

Some links that you may find useful:

HTC Forums: Automatic shutdown for no reason

HTC Forums: Random Restarts

T-Mobile UK Support Forums: HTC Sensation Keeps Turning Off By Itself 
Note: At time of publication this link wasn't working but it appears to be a fault on the T-Mobile website.



HTC's repair service featured on BBC TV's consumer affairs program "Watchdog":
HTC: is their customer service 'quietly brilliant'?


Someone who had a terrible experience with HTC's repair service, and many comments from others who found the same:
HTC Repair Complaint – My Customer Service Nightmare