1. LatinoLoco24's Avatar
    Hey guys,

    I have tried doing some searches on the forums with regards to the following questions, but I see many conflicting responses. I am hoping to get some clear answers as I am new to the BB family (Torch) and want to take care of my phone as best as possible. I appreciate you taking the time out to reply to these questions, which are probably old and redundant to some of your pros

    1. What exactly is the difference between a soft and hard reset? (some say that a hard reset is actually a "data wipe" while others say it is simply a battery pull.

    2. If the hard reset is simply a battery pull, does that battery pull need to be done with the phone ON (as many suggest) or OFF...or does it not matter, as long as the battery is pulled, it constitutes a hard reset?

    3. Are there any chances of damaging the phone by pulling out the battery while it's on?

    4. When should a hard reset be done? In other words, should I do it when the phone freezes up and/or errors occur or is it good practice to do it every now and then to optimize the phones performance?

    One last question(s) with regards to the ALT+LGLG trick

    5. Is it safe to clear the information kept there, if so, how often should I do it? What exactly does this do anyway? In addition, I notice that if I go to options in that menu, it allows me to access "information", "warning" and "Debug info"...will clearing the "Event Log (Information) page clear everything or do I need to go into the other two subsections and manually clear there as well?

    Thank you again and I'm sorry if this isn't threadworthy.
    01-09-11 01:27 AM
  2. glamouriss's Avatar
    Let me see if I can help you out a little bit.

    1) A soft reset is simply pulling the battery while a hard reset is completely wiping the phone.

    2) Different people have different opinions on this; I usually do it with the phone on. When I used to work for Big Red, they taught us to have the customers do it with the phone on. I'm not sure what difference it makes.

    3.) There is no chance of damaging the phone by pulling the battery with the phone on, only a loss of data if you are doing something that you did not save.

    4.) Hard resets really only need to be done when you are experiencing a software related issue, if you have never done it before I suggest calling into Tech to have them walk you through it and let you know if it's a good idea for your problems. If your phone freezes a simple battery pull should help. I pull my BB battery at least once a day just to optimize performance, have been doing it since I had a 8330 so it might just be out of habit, I'm not sure if it really makes a difference with the Torch since I just got it.

    I'm not 100% sure about the 5th question, hope someone can help you out with that!

    Happy Bbin'.
    01-09-11 02:32 AM
  3. homer1475's Avatar
    LOL 2 noobies helping each other(well that's what CB is for, help)but some of the information above is not correct.

    Soft resets are when you press and hold the alt + shift + del keys, or use any third party app that says they simulate a battery pull. A hard reset is when you actually physically pull the battery. Has absolutely nothing to do with wiping and reinstalling your OS.

    A battery pull resets the device and any memory it has in cache or leaked memory from poorly written apps. A soft reset will also clear leaked memory. The main difference is(think in PC terms since your BB is basically a hand held pc)hard reset(battery pull) would be like pressing restart, while a soft reset would be similar to putting it into sleep mode.

    A hard reset(actual physical battery pull) should be done with the device on and powered up. I'm not totally sure if the same result will come if the device is powered off, have always just done it with the power on since that's what I was told many years ago.

    Hard resets should be done when ever a soft reset doesn't resolve the problem. Used to be when ever there was an issue with a BB you pulled the battery. Now with the torch I only pull the battery when a soft reset(alt + shift + del) doesn't resolve the issue. Also whenever you reinstall/install an OS, install (some) apps, and any theme, a battery pull is required for things to look and act right.

    There is no fear of damaging anything when you do a battery pull.

    The event log is perfectly fine to clear although not needed(most people don't even know that screen exists). Whenever there is an issue with your device the techs will look at that screen to try and diagnose what happened.

    Hopefully that helps with some of the BB terminology and practices.
    Last edited by homer1475; 01-09-11 at 07:16 AM.
    fass and glamouriss like this.
    01-09-11 07:13 AM
  4. NoahFecks's Avatar
    Actually, a soft reset is rebooting the phone with alt+right shift+delete or using an app to reboot the phone, and a hard reset is a physical battery pull. They should only be necessary when you are experiencing errors or slowness, regularly scheduled resets are totally unnecessary.

    EDIT: Geez, walk away from the computer for a minute before hitting "post reply" and someone writes a novel ahead of you. HAHA!
    Last edited by NoahFecks; 01-09-11 at 07:22 AM.
    01-09-11 07:19 AM
  5. volcano55's Avatar
    Cool I've learnt some new things too. Thanks to the above posters.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    01-09-11 07:29 AM
  6. homer1475's Avatar
    EDIT: Geez, walk away from the computer for a minute before hitting "post reply" and someone writes a novel ahead of you. HAHA!
    I didn't think it was a novel, just a short pamphlet on BB 101.
    01-09-11 07:32 AM
  7. mandrew120's Avatar
    Nice, this info is useful, thanks.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    01-09-11 11:19 AM
  8. LatinoLoco24's Avatar
    Thank you guys. Very much appreciated.
    01-09-11 11:43 AM
  9. glamouriss's Avatar
    LOL 2 noobies helping each other(well that's what CB is for, help)but some of the information above is not correct.

    Soft resets are when you press and hold the alt + shift + del keys, or use any third party app that says they simulate a battery pull. A hard reset is when you actually physically pull the battery. Has absolutely nothing to do with wiping and reinstalling your OS.

    A battery pull resets the device and any memory it has in cache or leaked memory from poorly written apps. A soft reset will also clear leaked memory. The main difference is(think in PC terms since your BB is basically a hand held pc)hard reset(battery pull) would be like pressing restart, while a soft reset would be similar to putting it into sleep mode.

    A hard reset(actual physical battery pull) should be done with the device on and powered up. I'm not totally sure if the same result will come if the device is powered off, have always just done it with the power on since that's what I was told many years ago.

    Hard resets should be done when ever a soft reset doesn't resolve the problem. Used to be when ever there was an issue with a BB you pulled the battery. Now with the torch I only pull the battery when a soft reset(alt + shift + del) doesn't resolve the issue. Also whenever you reinstall/install an OS, install (some) apps, and any theme, a battery pull is required for things to look and act right.

    There is no fear of damaging anything when you do a battery pull.

    The event log is perfectly fine to clear although not needed(most people don't even know that screen exists). Whenever there is an issue with your device the techs will look at that screen to try and diagnose what happened.

    Hopefully that helps with some of the BB terminology and practices.
    I'm not really a noob but thanks anyways.

    I never learned about the first thing, and the way myself and my friends and customer service used that verbiage is different, but good to know that around this forum the terms are used differently.
    01-09-11 01:16 PM
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