Theory on Magnets and my HTC Sensation

I was pretty upset when my barely 4 months' old HTC Sensation 4G started going bonkers while I was crossing the road to Sephora at Jalan Bukit Bintang. Yes, I remember vividly the moment(s) my phone started to crash every time I tried to use it. Knowledge that my phone did not have warranty and the not-so-recent discovery of the Lelong seller's absconding, which resulted in many police reports lodged against him despite his reasons given (robbed of his stock) and promises made (of paying everyone back in due course), did not help in dispelling my sorrow.

Whenever I flicked between the 7 home screens, my phone would freeze, become unresponsive and the screen will go blank white with only a green "htc", and subsequently the "loading" screen pops up. This "crashing" sequence would repeat every time I try to access a feature - which was more than 10 times in less than an hour. 

The swirling screens animation seemed to be the common tipping point in the crashes. This continued for about 3-4 days after the first occurrence. By the looks of it, it really seemed that my phone was pretty much condemned and that I would eventually have to revert back to using my trusty old orange brick (which still serves as my alarm clock every morning!).

I started to think about what could have caused this sudden turn for the worse. Figured that the elimination method would lead me to the probable cause of this issue. Only three ideas came to mind:

1. Too many apps installed
2. Accidentally dropping phone on concrete floor
3. Frequent close contact with my new Cath Kidston bag (Christmas gift from abroad)

As for my installed apps - yes, I do have a lot! Five and a third screens full... However, the last app I'd installed was UNO and that was many weeks before the troubles started. Therefore it was highly unlikely that that could be the cause of the phone problems.

I had, during the fifth day of Chinese New Year, accidentally dropped my phone on the concrete ground while stepping out of my car. Thanks to the flowery silicone casing, there weren't any scratches and the phone functioned fine right after the fall and many days afterwards. I would think that if the fall was the cause, I'd be having the malfunctioning way earlier than it had emerged. Nevertheless this could actually contribute to the malfunctioning.

Therefore the only option left was my bag. The phone pocket is sewn right underneath the magnetic clasp, therefore every time I took it out or kept it, the phone would need to brush past the magnetic clasp. I'd been using the same bag day in day out since the first day of Chinese New Year - which was was on 23 January 2012. My phone started going bonkers on 1 February 2012.

I found a thread on how I might be able to fix this problem, but I don't have the guts to do such drastic manipulation of the my phone's hardware yet.