I finally found the solution for Sprint Instinct web browser crash. The browser would work some sites but it would crash on a number of websites (like http://www.wsj.com/, http://www.nyt.com/, http://www.imdb.com/, http://www.wikipedia.com/).
I tried clearing browser cache, cookies, history and updated data profile without any luck. I even reset the phone which deleted all my contact information and email accounts and custom settings. Almost everything was reset except the browser which still maintained bookmarks confirming that phone reset doesn't reset the browser.
So I called Sprint's tech support number (888-211-4727, you can't do *2 from your phone because it will be restarted during the following process). After 15 minutes of hold, I spoke to a real nice lady. She tried updating my data profile from her end but that didn't help. I asked her to reset my phone to factory settings because I wanted the browser to be reset.
So here are the steps to fix the browser crash. You have to do a Master Reset on your phone
(CAUTION: your phone will lose everything and it will be back to manufacturer's default settings).
- Enable mobile sync on your phone and verify that all your contacts are backed up on Sprint's website. You can check this by logging into your Sprint account on the website. This way you will not have to load them again manually.
- Call Sprint tech support (888-211-4727) and explain that your Instinct browser crashes on some sites and you need to do a master reset (RTN) on your phone.
- They will ask you to dial ##786# on your phone and will give you a six-digit code to enter.
- You need this six digit code to do the master reset.
- Then follow the instructions on the screen and it will reset your phone and power cycle it.
- It will then activate your phone (mine only took a few minutes, the tech support lady mentioned that it could take upto 4 hours!)
- I then tested the web sites and browser was no longer crashing!
- I then enabled mobile sync on the phone to download all the contacts automatically from Sprint's website to the phone.
- After this, many of your applications like TV, Visual Voicemail, etc. will upgrade on first use (this is not new upgrade, you already had them before the reset).
- Interestingly, the phone maintained my Weather locations and the first item in the Navigation favorites list even after the master reset! But it did lose my browser bookmarks confirming that the browser was reset.
During the conversation, the tech support lady mentioned that Sprint employees can't buy the Instinct phones yet so they are learning from customers because they don't have the phones to try out on! She also offered me 10% service discount OR one time discount of $70 (I have been with Sprint since 2000!). She was very patient and I asked her to put this solution in the system for Instinct browser crash so hopefully others won't have to go through the struggle of figuring out the solution.
UPDATE: It has been 6 days since then and the browser hasn't crashed yet! I have tried decent amount of browsing to test it out. The slow load on some sites is still present though (processor might be the bottleneck here in rendering the web page but who knows)
UPDATE2: On 7th day, the browser crash problem has returned. This confirms that Sprint Instinct's browser is buggy!
UPDATE3: I did a master reset again and this time it is going strong even after 2 weeks. I have made sure that I don't download any Java apps (other that Opera Mini 3.1 and Google Maps) on it this time. My phone shows memory used as 6.4M (6.6M after July 30th software update) at the moment.
8 comments:
I wished they'd hurry up and let the employees have them already so plenty of them can experience the "joy" of useless browsers and maybe something will finally be done about this.
This is not the end-all fix all. The browser still blows goats, and still hangs on many sites.. it's quite worthless.
I agree, mine worked for five days and is now locking up. Swapping for a new phone would only be a temp fix.
Any word on the firmware update?
http://www.fi-w.com Simple mobile site. Crashes EVERY time. Bad news.
http://www.fi-w.com does not crash the instinct browser every time, or at all. It throws an HTTP 502, a server side error likely resulting from its failure to recognize and redirect the Instinct browser's User Agent string.
Try directly visiting http://www.fi-w.com/fiw/FiwHome
It looks great, right down to the favicon. And hey, the DOW is up!
http://www.fi-w.com/fiw/FiwHome crashed my browser.
ha i got the phone on the 19 yay sprint made me feel spcial sent me a "Special email" to get it and well like we all know it blows i have hit lost of sites even simple sited likes www.craigslist.org crashes almost every time but if i google it then link off google i get in till like 3 pages down then it just shuts off and im back to my speed dial (Uhh no not gonna call the GF and tell her im looking at porn) thats another thing almost every porn site i hit has no issues hmmm makes ya wonder huh ? and opera has nothing for us it looks great but there is no virtual keyboard grrrrrr!!!
I just called Sprint tech support about this problem and the girl I spoke to acted as if this is something she had never heard of. She said that my phone's browser crashing (blinking and then going to speed dial) was a rare occurance. I kindly disagreed and offered to email her a link to this page, but she declined. She finally told me to just go to the store and get a new one.
The internet was one of the main reasons I bought this phone. It is straight up defective and at the very least, Sprint needs to acknowledge the problem. I feel like I've been sold a bill of goods. I'm paying every month for something I'm not getting. ARGGHH!
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