Rising number of T-Mobile iPhones hit with 'blue screen of death' reboots

Posted:
in iPhone edited July 2015
In recent days a growing number of iPhone owners on T-Mobile U.S. have been impacted by seemingly random crashes and reboots, without any clear indication as to why or how to solve the problem, according to reports and comments on social media.




Typically the problem manifests with an iPhone briefly flashing a blue screen before resetting, according to anecdotes shared with AppleInsider, as well as posts on sites such as Twitter and MacRumors. This can happen as frequently as every 10 to 30 minutes, even if a phone isn't actively in use.

Some users have reported that disabling Wi-Fi Calling can fix the so-called "blue screen of death," while others have scored success with a hard reset, and at least some T-Mobile support staff are recommending the latter option. An AppleInsider contact had no luck with disabling Wi-Fi Calling and ultimately had to get a replacement phone.

So far neither Apple nor T-Mobile staff have come up with a definitive explanation. One theory has involved memory problems, but if so it's still unknown why only T-Mobile subscribers would be affected. One possibility is that the issue involves LTE, as some Engadget readers have managed to temporarily fix their phones by disabling VoLTE (voice over LTE), or simply shutting off LTE entirely.

Affected iPhone models include at least the 5s, 6, and 6 Plus. The issue is also impacting multiple versions of iOS 8 through iOS 8.3.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30

    Not likely to be VoLTE either, or Verizon phones would be affected too.

     

    Not to mention the 5S wouldn't be affected.

  • Reply 2 of 30

    I've had the blue screen problem with Three in the UK. It seems to be when I'm doing intensive tasks. Ive had it a few times when quickly scrolling through WhatsApp messages after i'd clicked play on a video or audio link.

     

    Personally I find it hard to believe this is a carrier issue, but what do I know!

  • Reply 3 of 30
    News flash: It's not just on T-Mobile, I use AT&T and my device has rebooted a few times as well.
  • Reply 4 of 30
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,927member
    BSOD-gate. I hope they find a root cause soon.
  • Reply 5 of 30

    I was hit with this on my T-Mobile iPhone 6. Started Wednesday morning -- with my phone just sitting on my desk, unused, I would see it flash a blue screen and reboot every 15 minutes or so. 

     

    I did a Reset All Settings. Didn't fix it.

     

    Tried turning off Wifi Calling. Also didn't fix it.

     

    Finally did the hard reset (home button/sleep button) Wednesday night, and haven't had the problem since.

  • Reply 6 of 30
    [B][SIZE=7]FIXED[/SIZE][/B]

    I was hit with the same bug. First, I performed few hard resets, this did not help. I then reset my network setting thinking that might fix the issue, nope. I then deleted one of the games I had and re-downloaded from the cloud and problem solved.

    Have not experienced any more BSOD.

    My guess is that somehow rearranges the memory ????

    Don't know, I just know how I fixed it.
  • Reply 7 of 30

    Getting a BSOD on an iPhone is truly some sort of sick karmic joke, by the way. I remember when we Mac users used to smugly ridicule Windows users for the same.

  • Reply 8 of 30
    konqerrorkonqerror Posts: 685member
    Quote:



    Originally Posted by BurntHombre View Post

     

    Getting a BSOD on an iPhone is truly some sort of sick karmic joke, by the way. I remember when we Mac users used to smugly ridicule Windows users for the same.


     

    Steve Jobs writing a NeXTSTEP app that talks to a Sybase database: 

     

    Tim Cook gets his Apple Watch shipped on time? Oh wait...

  • Reply 9 of 30
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,442member

    Maybe t-mobile pushed an update that had the problem. Carriers do send out their own updates.

  • Reply 10 of 30
    mystigomystigo Posts: 183member

    My daughter's phone was doing the same thing. Just rebooting periodically. Two or three times a day. We are on AT&T. She cracked the display on it so when we told them about the rebooting issue at the Apple store, they just replaced the whole unit (we still had to pay for the cracked display though).

  • Reply 11 of 30
    magman1979magman1979 Posts: 1,301member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post

     

    Not likely to be VoLTE either, or Verizon phones would be affected too.

     

    Not to mention the 5S wouldn't be affected.




    I'm willing to bet this is a botched carrier settings update that got pushed to the devices. A few years ago when the iPhone 5 was launched in Canada, it initially came with a botched carrier setup, which was causing bad battery drain and reception issues... Rogers released an update after almost a month, and that solved most of the problems then.

  • Reply 12 of 30
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 2,029member
    The question is why it is blue. I'd think that the Apple engineers would realize the bad ju-ju that a blue screen gives :)
  • Reply 13 of 30

    Contrary to how Android apps are liberally disseminated and downloaded for God knows where, how does Apple vet their/our apps?

     

    This phenomena  seems so sudden that possibly some nefarious malware has taken a foothold?

     

    I have never experienced this behavior on my T-Mobile  5S ( watch now start as "Murphy" gets wind of this).

     

    But I am one those who's are not running hundreds of apps/games on mine. 

     

    Any way to determine commonality among the affected devices?

  • Reply 14 of 30
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MagMan1979 View Post

     



    I'm willing to bet this is a botched carrier settings update that got pushed to the devices. A few years ago when the iPhone 5 was launched in Canada, it initially came with a botched carrier setup, which was causing bad battery drain and reception issues... Rogers released an update after almost a month, and that solved most of the problems then.




    Probably. I always worry a bit when I see those.

  • Reply 15 of 30
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,954member

    Probably. I always worry a bit when I see those.

    Yeah, I always give those notifications a sideways look before tapping "update".

    Nothing yet, 2 iPhones 5 on T-Mobile
  • Reply 16 of 30
    zroger73zroger73 Posts: 787member

    My AT&T iP6 has rebooted a half dozen times for no apparent reason over the last couple of weeks. No new applications, no iOS updates, no carrier updates - seemingly nothing has changed.

  • Reply 17 of 30
    Getting a BSOD on an iPhone is truly some sort of sick karmic joke, by the way. I remember when we Mac users used to smugly ridicule Windows users for the same.

    "We"? Nice try.
  • Reply 18 of 30
    My wife was having the same problem. I restored he phone after a backup. The carrier file is what's causing it. The problem hasn't happened again. I think a re download of the carrier file is needed.
  • Reply 19 of 30
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    "We"? Nice try.

     

     

    That was in OS X. :)

  • Reply 20 of 30
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    "We"? Nice try.

    Sorry, I mean we subset of fanatical Mac users. I'm now a reasonable-minded Mac user, but it wasn't always the case.

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