Vario II freezes on T-Mobile 3G

[Guest Dr Who]

Well at last it is farewerll to the Hermes. After the fifth replacement and the Repair & Distribution analysing the problem they have identified that this cannot be fixed and they are looking at a recall. I have selected the MDA compact III for now and was promised that when they bring out a replacement for the Vario II in the summer I can have first option at that. That is all I can do for now I guess, but it is more important running my own business that I have a phone that customers can call me on rather than 3G and Wi-Fi to be honest. Good luck to all of you and I will keep a keen eye on this thread to see what happens to the Vario II.

P.S. Anyone want to buy a Brodit Active Car Holder for the Vario II, as I am selling mine one ebay after less than a months use, so still almost brand new, let me know.

Did they tell you what the problem is? I haven't had ANY lockups on my handset so I don't understand how a plain vanilla handset can lockup due to a software issue, otherwise everyone would experience it?

[Guest pd.ryder]

Did they tell you what the problem is? I haven't had ANY lockups on my handset so I don't understand how a plain vanilla handset can lockup due to a software issue, otherwise everyone would experience it?

Dr - do you have any iffy signal areas where you are? My lock-ups seem to be related to being on Standby and then having the VII switch between GSM / 3G / no signal at all and back again. If I stay in one place all day with even half-decent signal, I can be pretty sure I won't get a problem. Likewise if I don't let it go into Standby, no problem.

I just don't know any other way to explain it.

@Spiderboy - what else did they offer you as replacement? I don't fancy the Compact III - no 3G and trying to use a Gb of data over GSM would be a painful experience ;)

Is there any talk of a Vario III with WM6 in the offing? I'm really hacked off about this because I left it & left it before getting the Vario II in the hope that all the problems would have surfaced and been ironed out.

I have sent mine off to Repair & Distribution today and I'm now left holding an extremely horrible Sagem, which is a far cry from a Smart-anything-at-all :D

[Guest sabrowse]

Well at last it is farewerll to the Hermes. After the fifth replacement and the Repair & Distribution analysing the problem they have identified that this cannot be fixed and they are looking at a recall. I have selected the MDA compact III for now and was promised that when they bring out a replacement for the Vario II in the summer I can have first option at that. That is all I can do for now I guess, but it is more important running my own business that I have a phone that customers can call me on rather than 3G and Wi-Fi to be honest. Good luck to all of you and I will keep a keen eye on this thread to see what happens to the Vario II.

P.S. Anyone want to buy a Brodit Active Car Holder for the Vario II, as I am selling mine one ebay after less than a months use, so still almost brand new, let me know.

Hi Spiderboy,

V interested to read your post, I too am at the end of my tether with these lockups, running my own busiess and not having a phone I can rely on.

What did TMob tell you re the recall, they are going to offer this to all VarioII owners over the next few weeks? ie is this a firm decision now...I'm going to call CS tomorrow but would be grateful for any further information prior to my call to them. Also are they offering anything else apart fm the Compact III?

[Guest gurujockstrap]

My Vario II suffered from this problem. Mainly happened when I connected the handset to the mains so it could charge over night. Next morning I'd have to soft reset.

Since flashed the firmware on the phone (1.35, Radio 1.18) and the problem has virtually disappeared. This firmware has been much more stable and faster than the default T-Mobile one before.

[Guest sjeffrey]

My Vario II suffered from this problem. Mainly happened when I connected the handset to the mains so it could charge over night. Next morning I'd have to soft reset.

Since flashed the firmware on the phone (1.35, Radio 1.18) and the problem has virtually disappeared. This firmware has been much more stable and faster than the default T-Mobile one before.

Hi, Where did u get the firmware and how did u upgrade it?

[Guest gurujockstrap]

Hi, Where did u get the firmware and how did u upgrade it?

All the info and files you need can be found over at the XDA Developers forum.

A word of warning though. You can kiss goodbye to your T-Mobile warranty!

[Guest Rob.P]

It's definitely something to do with the network as I haven't had a lockup for the past 2 days straight. This also coincides with the fact that my 3G has been fairly constant, so I'm guessing what ever jiggery, pokery they were doing on the transmitters they've stopped, which is why my phone has been behaving itself for the past couple of days.

Just as a note, my useage hasn't changed so it's not down to that.

[Guest Confucious]

All the info and files you need can be found over at the XDA Developers forum.

A word of warning though. You can kiss goodbye to your T-Mobile warranty!

Just as a note...

I bought an O2 Exec of eBay and used it on T-Mob. I'd flashed it with a hacked Qtec ROM and when ity broke (snapped of the USB connector due to me putting it in my pocket while it was still plugged in one to many times!) I got a quote of £150 to get it repaired by the people that do O2s warranties and just got a replacement as they couldn't fix it in 7 days. They seem to have forgotten to charge me! ;)

[Guest sabrowse]

Well at last it is farewerll to the Hermes. After the fifth replacement and the Repair & Distribution analysing the problem they have identified that this cannot be fixed and they are looking at a recall. I have selected the MDA compact III for now and was promised that when they bring out a replacement for the Vario II in the summer I can have first option at that. That is all I can do for now I guess, but it is more important running my own business that I have a phone that customers can call me on rather than 3G and Wi-Fi to be honest. Good luck to all of you and I will keep a keen eye on this thread to see what happens to the Vario II.

P.S. Anyone want to buy a Brodit Active Car Holder for the Vario II, as I am selling mine one ebay after less than a months use, so still almost brand new, let me know.

Spiderboy,

Any chance you can tell me who you spoke to at TMob? I spoke to Business CS Team 16 and they hadnt heard of a planned recall, or Repair & Distribution.

Ive just called them to ask for a swap, which they have offered, but are digging their heels in about the summer upgrade to Vario III (at which point I'll still be in contract & will have to pay for the upgrade). Will you still be in contract in summer? TMob told me they would only have offered you an upgrade because your contract would have been up.

Thks

[Guest stevem999]

Well mine has been reasonably ok for the last couple of days. I couldn't get a proper 3G signal last night at home - wavering between 0 bars and 1 bar but with the 3G symbol showing - shouldn't this have really fallen back into GPRS 'G' mode?

This morning it had 3 bars but just wouldn't connect to 3G and then it gives up and can't even get a phone signal! It takes either a power cycle or a soft reset to get a signal back.

However on getting to work the signal is rock solid again. I really can't work out if they are mucking around with the 3G network nearer my home (was fine for the first 6 weeks of this year) or if it's my Vario? I'm not on the edge of a signal area!! Why won't T-Mob acknowledge a problem?

[Guest stevem999]

Well, just got off the phone with T-Mob to be told that there is 'outstanding work on the 3G network in my area' - you can read that two ways but what I think she meant that there are known problems and they are working on them. Unfortunately she couldn't give me a timescale for clearing it up. Guess I'll have to keep trying my phone and ringing them back. In the meantime it's back to GSM - oh goody.

[Guest]

Well I've had my shiny new Vario II for 2 weeks now and touch wood have not suffered any of the problems described in this thread. Got all my 3rd party apps installed - SPB Pocket Plus, Diary, Time, Weather, Backup, TomTom and CamerAware (excellent bit of kit!) and it happily switches between 3G and GSM even when in standby, also had no lockup problems. One thing I don't have (yet) is HSPDA enabled on my account, could this maybe be causing the hanging problems?

[Guest stevem999]

It's good to know everyone isn't having grief! What seems to be the problem in my area is that there is some sort of 3G signal that the Vario picks up on but it isn't sufficient to make calls/get data etc. If I switch to GSM only then there isn't a problem at all

[Guest iNdecision]

After experiencing the same issues as everyone else in this thread I decided a couple of weeks back to switch to GSM and didn't have any problems after that. The gripe I have with GSM though is that my phone goes off and checks my email every half an hour so I am constantly missing calls from clients and the boss as they go straight to voicemail. Not a good look at all.

So yesterday I decided to brave it and switch back to 3G, mainly because I get a dodgy signal in my office, but just thought I'd see if things had improved. During the day I had no problems,no lockups, no missed calls, dropped calls or delays when making calls, it was great. But last night at home, my phone lost all signal at about 1am. At 4am I awoke to find my phone had given up searching and was just sitting there saying there was no service. I straight away turned the phone off and on again, and bam, full 3G signal straight away. It was then that the all the drunken missed calls, text messages and voicemails from friends came through! I live smack bang in the middle of London and T-Mobiles 3G signal still seems to be dodgy at the best of times. I can understand the service dropping out every now and then for maintenance or whatever, but for my phone to simply give up looking? That's no good to me.

One thing I did notice is that my phone didn't lock up when it lost signal which it has done in the past. Maybe thats because it just lost signal and didn't actually switch or anything?

I leave my phone on overnight for emergencies and I use it heavily for work calls and email. These issues are getting really frustrating, and I love my little phone! Looks like its back to GSM for now...

[Guest pd.ryder]

Well, I've had more calls from T than I can shake a stick at, including the Repair & Distribution Dept. They are proposing to recall my VII and investigate it further. They also propose to 'update the software' too. I did ask what software they would update, but the poor girl had a t-t-terrible st-t-tutter and couldn't really explain herself too well. The more questions I asked, the more she st-t-tuttered and was really flumoxed by questions relating to ROM updates and if there was one available, why wasn't it available to customers.

My current Version is WM5.1.195, ROM 1.21.110.3, ROM date 06/19/06, Radio 1.05.05.00 & Protocol version 32.36.7010.04H

I'll see what comes back and if the problem is sorted or not. At least something is happening now.

;)

Well, I've got 'my' VII back. I say 'my' VII because the report indicates a replaced motherboard, software update and various tests performed. But it's also a new case, screen and battery cover (I mark my kit with a UV pen) so basically, they've sent me a new 'un.

I've no idea what the 'software update' is all about. All Version data is as it was, with no obvious updates to anything.

No lock-ups so far, but then I'm running a plain device with nothing installed whilst my PC is having a ton of viruses removed (Norton is - it seems - absolute crap!!!)

Fingers crossed :D

[Guest Cowie]

No lock-ups so far, but then I'm running a plain device with nothing installed whilst my PC is having a ton of viruses removed (Norton is - it seems - absolute crap!!!)

I've not had any lock-ups since early Feb and I've not changed my usage at all! It *MUST* be a network issue surely.

Yes, Norton is pants. I've had several customers who've had infested machines and Norton happily reports that all is fine and dandy. I usually use Kaspersky to clean the machine, then recommend that they buy Kaspersky and un-install Norton. It also has a neat feature whereby you can create a boot CD that contains the latest virus definitions should things go pear-shaped. It can be a bit temperamental at installing though, so I'd go for the trial version first and make sure that you're happy with that before shelling out for it.

Cowie

[Guest Rob.P]

Since my last post on this thread, I still haven't had a lock up, so I'm certain they have finished whatever mucking about with the cells in my area they were doing.

Although the cell I'm on when at work still has internet connectivity issues, it'll connect via 3G but can't get anything from the net.

P.S. completely agree about Norton, I advise all of my customers to ditch Norton at first opportunity, I tend to recommend Trend's AV software though.

Edited March 14, 2007 by Rob.P

[Guest pd.ryder]

I can happily report I have had no lock-ups since getting the VII back from the 'vets' ;)

Although, I still have problems with it re-connecting to a cell once it's been without a signal for some time (ie @ work) and it tends to need a 'reminder' through Conn Manager to go find a cell to talk to.

Re Norton: my PC is still in the 'vets' due to some nasties having eaten some of my WinXP's start-up files. I've gotta go through the whole rigmarole of mirroring the HD, reinstalling WinXP and transfering files back from the mirror. Anyone know where I'll find Outlooks pst files inc Contacts data and emails? Oh, and the wife will be gutted if I can't find her IncrediMail files too.

:D

[Guest Dr Who]

I can happily report I have had no lock-ups since getting the VII back from the 'vets' ;)

Although, I still have problems with it re-connecting to a cell once it's been without a signal for some time (ie @ work) and it tends to need a 'reminder' through Conn Manager to go find a cell to talk to.

Re Norton: my PC is still in the 'vets' due to some nasties having eaten some of my WinXP's start-up files. I've gotta go through the whole rigmarole of mirroring the HD, reinstalling WinXP and transfering files back from the mirror. Anyone know where I'll find Outlooks pst files inc Contacts data and emails? Oh, and the wife will be gutted if I can't find her IncrediMail files too.

:D

When the effects of the AVS solution are worse than the effects of most virii what is the point?

.pst are stored in Document and Settings - - Local Settings - Application Data - Microsoft - Outlook and normally everything is stored in the Outlook.pst unless you have renamed it or created other ones.

[Guest pd.ryder]

When the effects of the AVS solution are worse than the effects of most virii what is the point?

.pst are stored in Document and Settings - - Local Settings - Application Data - Microsoft - Outlook and normally everything is stored in the Outlook.pst unless you have renamed it or created other ones.

Thanks Doc ;)

[/stops hijacking thread...]

:D

[Guest Cowie]

I can happily report I have had no lock-ups since getting the VII back from the 'vets' :D

Glad to hear it! I've just had my first lock-up in weeks. All has been working well and I was starting to trust it, then it goes and freezes again ;)

The thing is, I've been using it loads (calls, browsing and even some video calling) and even in the more remote areas of Derbyshire it has performed well. But this last lock-up happened whilst I was sitting behind my desk in a very good 3G coverage area. If I'm now in for a spate of lock-ups (they always seem to come in groups) I'll have to consider dropping the Vario II in favour of my trusty E61.

[Guest pd.ryder]

Glad to hear it! I've just had my first lock-up in weeks. All has been working well and I was starting to trust it, then it goes and freezes again ;)

What a coincidence!

I've just had a series of lock-ups today, after weeks of doing well. I'd put it down to MPanel monitoring software which I installed yesterday. I've removed it again now and I'll see what happens over the next day or two.

Coincidence? We'll see....

[Guest Aidan Bree]

I have had the same lockup problems that people in this thread has decribed. I have had a replacement phone issued by T-Mobile which behaved well for close to a month then the problem reoccured. Yesterday I must have reset my phone at least 5 times when it failed to wake. Today however I havent had to reset at all and I am hoping that I found the solution to the problem.

I spotted in another thread that someone else was having the same problems and suggested that the issue was regarding items on the today screen that were installed to the memory card. I have therefore removed all items from my Today screen other than calendar, messenging and Date.

As I say, all appears to be good. I would have expected a lockup by now. I will keep you all informed of the success (or lack of!).....might be worth trying.

Cheers

Aidan

[Guest Cowie]

I spotted in another thread that someone else was having the same problems and suggested that the issue was regarding items on the today screen that were installed to the memory card. I have therefore removed all items from my Today screen other than calendar, messenging and Date.

As I say, all appears to be good. I would have expected a lockup by now. I will keep you all informed of the success (or lack of!).....might be worth trying.

Thanks Aidan. That's the first thing I tried when T-Mobile replaced my first handset. I ran it 'vanilla' for a number of weeks before it started locking again - that's with no third party software and no memory card installed.

I eventually got sick of T-Mobile saying that there wasn't a problem and ended up popping over to the XDA Developers Forum where I downloaded and installed an 'update' which seems to be working wonderfully well. As the T-Mobile guarantee doesn't seem to be worth much I took the gamble and I have to say that it would seem to have paid off. Everything is MUCH quicker, slicker and no lock-ups yet. I would of course have preferred T-Mobile to release an update (or at least say that they would in the near future). I haven't run it long enough to say that it's definately fixed the problem but it certainly has speeded up the handset significantly.

[Guest Aidan Bree]

Thanks Aidan. That's the first thing I tried when T-Mobile replaced my first handset. I ran it 'vanilla' for a number of weeks before it started locking again - that's with no third party software and no memory card installed.

I eventually got sick of T-Mobile saying that there wasn't a problem and ended up popping over to the XDA Developers Forum where I downloaded and installed an 'update' which seems to be working wonderfully well. As the T-Mobile guarantee doesn't seem to be worth much I took the gamble and I have to say that it would seem to have paid off. Everything is MUCH quicker, slicker and no lock-ups yet. I would of course have preferred T-Mobile to release an update (or at least say that they would in the near future). I haven't run it long enough to say that it's definately fixed the problem but it certainly has speeded up the handset significantly.

Hi Cowie,

I must admit, the prospect of installing another ROM (especially with WM6 available) has crossed my mind as I used to have the same handset on Orange which did not have the same issue. The problem I have is selecting which updated ROM to go with.

I would be interested to know which one you decided to go with and how you got the operator settings for t-mobile installed. I remember doing a ROM upgrade to the XDA years ago and footering with MMS settings for days!

How long have you been trying the new upgraded ROM?

Cheers

Aidan