Problems with fascinate: do I undo an update? (if so, how?)

Question

Hi,
1. My phone intermittently does not always do a screen time-out after 1 minute, as set (I just rechecked the serttings and they haven't been changed) which has made it run down its battery multiple times. This never happened in the past. It just went three minutes without timing out. Grr.
2. Lately, photo messages won't send, although text ones do, but the phone doesn't even say that the message failed. Instead it lists the current time as the time the photo was sent. For example, I "sent" some photos on Saturday 5/12 at 10:10am. When I check the message string, it lists the photo as having been sent today at 8:48. It is not the availability of a good signal, unless there's something wrong with my signal strength indicator.
3. I assume this is a carrier problem rather than a phone problem, but my device has not given me notification of voicemails until hours later. I thought someone had blown me off, but they had in fact left a message.
4. Reeeeeally irritating: when I try to shut off the phone, it takes a screen shot instead. So when it's doing this (like right now) I can't turn off the screen, and since the screen isn't timing out, I'm just running down my battery.
5. Longstanding problem - the phone mutes itself if I let my cheek get too close to the screen. The "mute button" is NOT lit, and though I can hear the other person, they cannot hear me even if I turn the mute on and off. The volume bar is set at maximum. Doesn't matter how full the battery is. I have not noticed this happening when the phone is on speaker, but I don't always want to have it in speaker mode.
6. Longstanding problem #2: like numerous other people's Fascinates, my phone sometimes sends callers straight to voicemail without ringing. Way back when I got the phone, the tech support guy said it was due to the signal. Maybe there are temporary instataneous signal fades that don't register, but this has happened even when I've been somewhere with a good signal.
So are some of these due to the last software update? I had not noticed the first three problems prior to the last upgrade  on Feb 15, Android 2.3 update (not that I send a whole lot of photo messages). If so, how do I change it back? I have the unlimited messages family plan. I am at home now with 4 bars of wifi. I have already tried removing the battery, *228, and software update - "no new software update available".  The photos which were "sent" on Saturday 5/12 at noon are still listed  as sent with the current time/date 9:06am 5/16).

Answer 1

I have tried removing the battery, and *228 reprogramming (both 1 and 2).  I guess the original post was too long.
I have not tried the factory reset, at least not since I noticed the problem sending photos this last weekend. It did go through a factory reset about five weeks ago - I had lost all my contacts (still have no idea why that one happened). How often does a factory reset need to occur, anyway? Hopefully not more often than once a month :-P
The muting thing just happened again on my last call.
Another quite minor annoyance which is new is that when the phone is turned on, it starts on page 7, but all the icons I usually use are on page 4. I know, I know, it's an easy fix to migrate  those icons to page 7. But still.