Help!!! Does anyone know anything technical about fixing smart phones??????

Hi, just wondering if anyone knows about fixing software issues on a smartphone (samsung galaxy s). My phone whichI bought 2nd hand on ebay UK is now acting totally demonic if I use it for longer than 5 minutes. As I brought it from overseas I am unable to get customer support here for it as they claim the software is different to ours. The silly thing randomly turns on airplane mode, moves applications and opens applications that I haven't opened and won't let me take control of it....until it has had at least 10minutes to rest...then the process starts again! So if anyone can help me I'd be really grateful as it is a great phone if only I could get full use of its features. Thanks

Wow that is bizarre! I don't know anything software wise, but it almost sounds as though it is overheating. Can you turn the screen brightness down? And maybe your hands are too hot lol. Other then that I don't know.
Christian

My guess is it's not a software issue but a hardware problem due to use of inferior chips or other components. You may have a counterfeit Samsung. I'd take it to a Samsung dealer and see if they can tell whether it is genuine.

it isn't counterfeit as I have taken off the back cover which reveals all the samsung identity codes,showing that it is an English model and even the store where it was originally purchased in the UK (this can be obtained by looking up the code on line through this link.):http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_Series
The long list of product codes at the bottom of this page shows that my phone came from the UK Car Phone Warehouse (it's code is: GT-I9000HKDCPW).

I originally thought it was due to overheating, so I took off it's protective case but this made no difference. However I ended up ruling out overheating as the cause by a chance discovery. I force stopped and cleared the cache of the app which seemed to set the problem off in the first instance (Aldiko ebook reader which came with the phone from it's factory settings). This is one of the features I LOVED about the phone..that I could read ebooks on it. I then turned off phone and rebooted it and it behaved after that. To test the heating theory I downloaded the app Angry Birds and played it for 20 minutes non stop (well okay...it IS addictive :-P) and my phone didn't misbehave at all. I reactivated the ebook reader a few hours later and bingo...the problem recurred...so I once again force stopped it and cleared its cache!

I then downloaded Kobo ereader....this also caused the same problem to occur on the phone within minutes of trying to read an ebook!
What I discovered last night was that the ereader seems to store files in the SD card, BUT I have NO SD card in there as I have removed it....so I think there may be some sort of muddle with the way the ereaders store books on the phone making them think they are in the SD card when in fact they are not. Fragmentation issue perhaps??? Dunno! I have also performed a full factory reset and removed all the data I had on it and this didn't help either. So far the only thing that prevents the problem from happening is not using any ereaders . I suspect it is a software issue. By the way its previous owner had updated the operating system to the official version of Gingerbread xxjvo (2.3.3).
Does anyone know how I could get the phone to save ebooks to the internal memory? Since I have no SD card installed I am surprised they are saving to: /mnt/sdcard/books/insert name of ereader here

So, anyway of changing SDcard to internal memory so I can see if that sorts it!

Thanks to everyone who has offered help..it is much appreciated

Hi Jools, I have the same smartphone and the same Android operational system. I also have three ereaders: the original Aldiko, a free Aldiko that I downloaded from Android market which is much better because it's up to date and have more features (I couldn't update the one that came with the phone) and Kindle for smartphones. All work very well.

Your problem looks like memory related. Why don't you reinsert the SD card to see if the random behavior is solved? I'll try to take out my memory card and reproduce the same behavior, but not today, it's one in the morning and tomorrow is working day.

Thanks for that KJM I did have the memory card inside the phone (a 4g one) when the problem first started. My daughters boyfriend suggested I take it out before doing a full factory reset. I did the reset which automatically deactivated the original Aldiko ereader. The phone worked fine without the memory card, until I reactivated the ereader . As soon as I agreed to the Aldko licence agreement and opened the book that came with it, the phone started going crazy on me again.

I am shocked nobody offered the obvious suggestion, spank it.

hahahaha I have already tried that cfpuf! However the phone is like me, it seems to love it! Therefore it plays up all the more JUST to earn a good spanking so the only way to cure its bad behaviour is via the technical route, which of course I know nothing about!! And the problem is definitely something to do with the way the downloaded files are being stored, which is making the hard drive go loopy when I open them!!

My guess is it needs the card to track your progress in the books you read. SD cards are relatively cheap. Maybe you need a new one?
Christian