TBolt bricked after software update

Question

Hi All:  I'm a newb to Android--migrated from HTC TP2/Windows 6.1 just 4 days ago.  Early this morning I got a notification about a software upgrade from Verizon.  Selected okay, watched the progress of the download bar for about five minutes.  Phone then apparently started installing the upgrade as another progress bar appeared and completed.  When it finished, phone powered off.  Turned on and showed the first HTC screen.  After about 20 seconds it powered off again.  Turned on and showed first HTC screen.  After about 20 seconds powered off again.  You get the idea.  This went on 10 or 15 times until I removed battery.  Turned back on and same on/off sequence repeated indefinitely.
Called VZW tech support in hopes I could save my settings/customizations.  No dice.  They had me do a hard reset.  Unfortunately, after that, the same on/off sequence started up again.  They said there was nothing else they could do.  Since I hadn't had my phone for 14 days, I was told to contact my vendor, which I did.  They're sending a new phone due to arrive Tuesday.
FWIW, I had installed only seven apps on the phone:  Juice Defender Ultimate, Juice Plotter, AppsInstaller (not yet used), AutoKiller Memory Optimizer (not yet used), SeePU (not yet used), and Advanced Task Killer Pro.  In case it matters, I installed AutoKiller Memory Optimizer simply because it was recommended during the install of Juice Defender as an additional battery saver.  Its blurb indicates that one of its features (setting minfree values) only works with rooted phones, however my phone was not rooted nor do I have any desire to do so.
My questions are (1) what did I do wrong if anything, and (2) I'd like to keep my phone up-to-date, but I'm understandably reluctant to allow another of these upgrades in the future lest I wind up with another doorstop.  Are there any other options for updating firmware that are less risky?
Thanks for any help/suggestions you all can offer.

Answer 1

HighPeaks wrote:
Thanks for the response Wildman.  At the time of  my firmware update, I had only used ATK to manually kill some bloatware tasks.  It wasn't set up to autokill anything.  I hadn't done anything yet with Autokiller Memory Optimizer. Whether it might have been running in the background or not at the time of the update, I don't know.  I'll definitely check out System Panel and thanks for the link to it.
As for not giving the update enough time to complete, I let it go to the initial HTC screen-power off-back to HTC screen-power off, for at least six or eight times (probably about 8 minutes) before pulling the battery.  It didn't just sit on the HTC screen for a long time.  If it had, I would have let it cogitate for a while.
Once I receive a replacement phone on Tuesday, I'm sure I'll get a request to do another firmware update, and I'm a little nervous about that after the first crash.  This time I'll definitely stop any app killers beforehand, but are there any other processes I should kill off or watch out for?  This is a total newb question, but If I brick another phone, is there any way I can go to a Verizon store and get things flashed there instead of having to return it to the vendor yet again?  Much as I like this device so far, having to return another phone would really start getting tedious.
Thanks again for your help and advice.
verizon won't ever flash updates, etc. all they ever do is offer replacements, and since you bought it somewhere else, you will likely be stuck going through that vendor. it could just be bad luck. these things have issues sometimes....just like all electronics. if i were you, i would activate your new device when you get it and search for available updates before you customize it and download any apps. after it's activated and up and running, go to menu, settings, software update, check new. it is possible that they will ship you a new tbolt that already has the most recent firmware on it. if not though, and it does show an available update, it is up to you as to whether or not you want to install it. if the phone worked fine without it, i wouldn't. that last update didn't really improve anything on the tbolts that already worked just fine.