UPDATE: I got my MotoE mainboard replaced from Rhidham Service Centre Calicut, it took around 3 weeks for the replacement to arrive. They did not ask for any more details as its a known problem for the service guys. Even though it was a once rooted phone, had no issues with the service centre. No more restarts. I gave it to the service centre when there was just 2 more weeks for warranty to expire, as I noted some comments that even after replacement, the issue has started again for a few users.
So, the point is don’t waste your time trying to install 3rd party software or wait for the warranty to expire. Just get the board/power switch replaced in warranty. Its a hardware problem that got triggered after a period of use which is present in the initial batches.
Moto E for what its worth was supposedly the best Mobile in the value for money category. I got it on launch day from Flipkart and was pretty happy about everything except for 2 major limitations. 1) Lack of auto focus camera, yet there is enough resolution but you can’t use the camera as a scanner because there’s no auto focus. 2) No USB OTG , something which I wanted for all my experiments.
Now to the restart issue. It started after the KitKat 4.4.4 update and I happen to be one of the first to receive the update. Nothing was wrong during the test phase. Then I got this idea of rooting, yes you can do it officially which is a great thing. You get a message stating that Motorola is not responsible on bootup and everything was fine. Then all of a sudden I started encountering frequent restarts at random. There was not a single automatic reboot till or after the update. It looked weird for phone that was supposed to be “Made to Last. Priced for All”
First I suspected 3rd party apps, that too with rooting. I did a hard reset and still there were reboots. It used to happen while unlocking and tried changing from pattern lock to number lock to just plain slide, but invariably the reboots happened sooner or later.
Then on searching the net I reached this thread. Yes the problem was not mine alone, many many users having the same problem. The exact reason is still not known but it was found that restart happens when power button is pressed to turn on the phone from sleep mode. It happens one or 2 seconds after power button is pressed so I initially assumed it happens when when we are unlocking. Thanks to forum members we have a temporary solution using tap tap app, which lets you unlock the phone using proximity sensor. Just tap the sensor area twice and the phone powers on.
To keep track of the reboots I have started using Reboot Logger.
In a recent forum posting somebody has indicated that if wifi tethering is enabled there’s no issue restart issue even with the power button. Too strange and too bad that Motorola is not able to solve this problem since the first report in July.
I assume the problem is there only for the initial batches as a friend of mine whoc bought it recently, even with the latest update has absolutely no issues.
Here’s the Quora link on the same issue http://www.quora.com/My-Moto-E-automatically-restarts-What-can-I-do-What-are-some-service-centers-in-Chennai-that-will-claim-its-warranty