[Android General] McMick:
I'm on a replacement Fierce right now. I'd like to share my story and get opinions on what happened:

I bought it from MetroPCS back in March. I immediately rooted it using Framaroot with the Boromir option. It worked great until the middle of June, then it started to act up. At first, the camera wouldn't work (I'd either get a green screen when running the camera app, or a message that said "Couldn't connect to camera"). Later it started to freeze, not boot, boot loop, etc. quite randomly. I found out I was able to stick it in the fridge for awhile and it would behave normally for a short time (when it wouldn't boot, this seemed the only way to get it to do so). Inevitably, though, I had to order a replacement.

As soon as I got the replacement, I went through all the steps again and everything seemed fine. I was able to install all my apps, restart the phone several times, connect to PC, all with no problems. However, later that night, the battery was down to 25 percent, so I stuck it on the AC charger. A few minutes later, it decides to crash and reboot. At first, it showed the battery charging animation, but then the screen went black and the Fierce logo showed up, then it got stuck in a boot loop -- fierce logo, black, fierce logo, black, ad infinitum. At this point I was worried that somehow Framaroot was messing with the thermal management of the phone. I was unable to boot into recovery as well, but it would stay on the boot menu without shutting off, which I found encouraging, at least.

I did the old stick it in the fridge trick, which got me back into the OS. I uninstalled all my apps, and unrooted and removed SuperSU. I rebooted into recovery, did a factory reset, and after that the phone booted once, froze on the Alcatel animation, then shut off. I stuck it on the charger and went to bed.

The next morning it booted normally, but hadn't charged. Everything was working, though. I put it back on the charger and it charged just fine. I decided to call MetroPCS about it but they insisted that it would be another $15 charge to get another warranty replacement (even though I had just picked it up the day before). I asked for another AC charger, figuring it might have something to do with it, and was informed that they don't warranty the charger at all (even though it came in the box with the phone).

Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and retry rooting since no matter what, whether it was a software or hardware issue, it would cost me $15 for another replacement. This time I did the root somewhat differently. I turned on developer mode and USB debugging (though I actually installed the Framaroot apk over wifi through ES File Explorer). When I ran Framaroot, I picked "Boromir" again and the app crashed to homescreen with no error message. Undeterred, I ran it again, and accidentally hit Faramir. It said it rooted successfully, but I didn't want to take chances, so I used the unroot with Faramir option, and ran root with Boromir. But then I figured, eh, why not run both, so I rooted using Boromir first, then Faramir. Maybe that was a dumb idea, but the long and short is, the phone is rooted, I have all my apps installed, and everything appears OK. It charges normally whether on or off now, nothing has frozen yet, and the camera works great. The only problem I've had was that it froze once when I tried to add firewall rules in AFWall+ for Titanium Backup (I hadn't run TB yet). A reboot fixed that and it's been fine since.

I should also note that I've never allowed OTA updates. I checked for one but I appear to already have the final update, M2BUPB0, from December 2013.

If anyone who had the patience to read this whole thing could tell me what the heck is/was going on with this phone, I'd really appreciate some guidance. Do the symptoms I described suggest anything preventable (aside from not rooting at all, obviously)? Did I make a huge mistake somewhere? Does Developer Mode and USB debugging make any difference when using Framaroot? Will using more than one exploit in Framaroot make a difference? Why did the first phone run fine for three months then mess up? Thanks for any advice.