Help My Phone has locked up

Not sure how to describe the symptoms properly.  Well coming home from work I was trying to hook up to the bluetooth in my truck which has worked well before.  Started having issues with hooking up and then somewhow muted the mic while on a call.  I was using speaker phone and confused at what was going on.

I left work and was reading about dropped calls on the forum and sure enough it seems to have happened to me now.  The phone is only a week old and now this happens.... hope i didn't get in over my head with a device I don't know enough about. 

So it started with the problem of the bluetooth connection and then when i got off the phone i noticed it took a bit to return to the home screen.  I tried to go to my contacts screen and it went to a black screen.  Tried the phone part itself and the same thing.  Each time I would hit the return button or the home button it would take me back out to the home screen.  I tried turning the phone off using the power button and then back on.  Tried going to my contacts and the phone and nothing.  I can't turn the phone off or get anything now    All that is happening is the return button and the other button (can't remember the proper name) are lit up and the phone is unresponsive to anything.  I have not had a chance to back anything up yet as last night was the first time I downloaded kies to hook up my phone and put some videos on it.  I don't have many contacts in the phone yet but was more looking to save some text messages that I have already accumulated.  Is there any way to do this?  I'm thinking I need to reset the phone from one of the ways listed over the forum here but don't want to do any damage in the process.  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the reply casz. I tried the soft reset (holding the volume up and power button for five seconds). This helped a bit. I have some use back of messaging and can make a call still. Intermitent issues with calls being dropped still.

I'll try taking the battery out for a bit to see if that helps. What would that do? I'm still on a big learning curve with these devices. Every day a little more am i learning. :-)

Oh I get it.  Thanks for the tip.  I tried it late last night and seems like it helped.  I don't know what caused it but hope it doesn't happen again. 

I have been reading and trying to learn about all the functions and features but there is a lot of information out there and I'm sure I have missed some of it along the way.

Thanks again for the help.

I don't recall getting any of the apps just before this happened.  I only have about 8 and try to use only the ones that I read about on this site and know that other people are using.  Kind of scared to be the first one or one of the first ones to use an app. 

I did get one of the apps just a day or so ago and maybe it has played with the phone a bit.  It was an app for battery booster.  Trying to conserve so it does not run down as much.

Seems I'm still having problems.  The phone does not lock up completely anymore, but I drop calls (not even using blue tooth).  Its like my service just gets lost.  Then I can't even text sometimes.  It freezes up on a black screen.  Then I can't get to the phone either to make a call or anything.  I'm a bit unsure how to even describe it.  Seems like one minute it works and then a few minutes later it starts having a mind of its own and I can't do anything with it.  Tried the soft reset, removing the battery a couple of times.  Something going on but I can't seem to fix it.

Thanks Casz,

I was thinking about what you said about some programs not playing well with others and decided to try that route.  I uninstalled the one program and it seems that my phone has returned to normal operation since then. No more locking up and dropping calls or freezing while trying to open messaging. 

It appears that the one program was somehow causing me all the problems.

I also took your advice and tried Apndroid and you were right, really easy to use.  I think the colour scheme of the button (green versus Orange) works backwards for me showing when it's on or off but it works like a charm.  I used to charge overnight and need to charge again in the evening.  I added the Apndroid app and just went for two days with moderate use and didn't have to charge. 

Question about that app though, if we use it we can set it so that we still receive regular text messaging.  I'm thinking that picture messaging uses data to transfer the message and file?  I tried to send one and it would not go through until the turned the app off.  Would that affect receiving a picture message as well? I'm assuming it does but just wanted to clarify.

Thanks for the help.

Lorsban,

Thanks for the reply. I'm curious though how do you get those attachments after the fact? A friend sent me a picture and it just says dowloading. How would i refresh and get it downloaded to my phone?