Google just can’t catch a break with its new phones. The Pixel 2 XL – and to a lesser extent, the Pixel 2 – has received a lot of flak for display issues. Now Google’s issue tracker is showing us that both phones might be having problems with random reboots, and that’s not a good thing for the users.
If you see the hundreds of entries in the Google Issue Tracker for this specific issue, you will see that the random reboots are probably not isolated issues. And the problem with RMA replacements is that if the issue is internal, the replacements will probably still have the issue.
In an effort to narrow down the issue, an owner named Nader Babbili seems to think that he’s finding headway in looking for the cause:
I KNOW WHY THIS IS HAPPENING!!! It’s from being in a low signal area and LTE – for example when I’m at home on wifi it rarely happens, once I leave my wifi area (low signal area, LTE comes and goes) reboots happen constantly … So I went into Settings -> Network and Internet -> Mobile Network and change Preferred network type to only use 3G = NO MORE REBOOTS!
Can someone else please confirm this?
Obviously leaving LTE off is not feasible, but hopefully it points Google in the right direction for fixing this . ….
And still in a later post:
I’ve narrowed it down even more… the area that it continuously reboots with LTE has a Wilson Cell Amplifier in the area, I got access to be able to unplug it temporarily… and low and behold LTE is on, and no more reboots… so the Amplifier is the culprit… either the phone doesn’t know how to work with a boosted signal or the booster doesn’t know how to work with Pixel…
So it might be possible that the modem of these two phones is causing some sort of kernel panic, thereby causing the phones to reboot. If the issue can be resolved via a software update, one would hope that Google gets around to the solution soon.
[UPDATE] Google has posted in the Pixel Community Forums that it “has identified a fix” and that it will be rolling out in the coming weeks.
VIA: Android Police
