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Vario II freezes on T-Mobile 3G


Guest Cowie

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Guest shandar
I'm based in London and also have both the freezing problem and the problems with not always being able to make calls on 3G.

I found that the freezing problem can be avoided if I remember to put the phone into standby when I've finished, but this is not ideal.

Has anyone tried using the unlocking program that also upgrades the radio. Could this fix the issue? I havn't tried this yet may do next weekend.

I am using the patched radio stack and I am still having the random crashes.

What I have noticed though is that every time I get off a flight with the phone switched off in Comm. Mgr. for an hour and switch it back on my VII crashes within two minutes. It does seem to be related to switching carrier and/or band. Thing is, I didn't have any problems with this during the first weeks I had the phone (beginning-middle of december) but when I got back two weeks ago they started to appear.

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Guest stampedingturtle
I am using the patched radio stack and I am still having the random crashes.

What I have noticed though is that every time I get off a flight with the phone switched off in Comm. Mgr. for an hour and switch it back on my VII crashes within two minutes. It does seem to be related to switching carrier and/or band. Thing is, I didn't have any problems with this during the first weeks I had the phone (beginning-middle of december) but when I got back two weeks ago they started to appear.

I too am starting to have lock-ups recently, although I am yet to notice a pattern. Initially when I bought my Vario II from T-Mobile I had a series of lock-ups but they stopped when I replaced the standard case (large magnets). In the last couple of weeks I have had at least 4 hangs, where as the couple of months before I don't remember having 1. I live in a variable 3G reception area and I let my phone go into standby after a couple of minutes.

Further to this my wife has a SDA II (not 3G) and quite often when I ring her I get a "number not recognised" message when I first dial her number. T-Mobile want us to record down half a dozen incidents before calling them back.

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I too am starting to have lock-ups recently, although I am yet to notice a pattern. Initially when I bought my Vario II from T-Mobile I had a series of lock-ups but they stopped when I replaced the standard case (large magnets). In the last couple of weeks I have had at least 4 hangs, where as the couple of months before I don't remember having 1. I live in a variable 3G reception area and I let my phone go into standby after a couple of minutes.

Further to this my wife has a SDA II (not 3G) and quite often when I ring her I get a "number not recognised" message when I first dial her number. T-Mobile want us to record down half a dozen incidents before calling them back.

T-Mobile wanted me to record five postcodes where the Vario II had hung. I've recorded the postcodes and reported them but after all that they still say that they are not aware of any problems with the phone. The last person I spoke to (a rather surly woman) told me that I had to expect the phone to hang when I moved in and out of 3G reception. She said that that's how it worked and I shouldn't expect otherwise. I thought she was joking to start with (which probably didn't go down too well).

I'm also unable to find any pattern. In the run up to Christmas I was having to reset sometimes three times a day. Then over Christmas through until last weekend all was working well (been around various bits of the UK all on auto band selection - no problems). Then last Sunday it all went bonkers again with up to six resets a day. What's going on?

I though that it was just a 3G problem so I've forced it to use GSM instead. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to fix the problem either and I've had half a dozen hangs today!!!! I've now set it to never go to standby to see if that makes any difference (still on GSM only). I even did a hard reset and haven't installed any third party apps in case that might influence things.

What a pain in the behind.

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Guest pd.ryder

My VII continues to be a PITA :)

As Cowie reports there seems to be little notable pattern to it hanging, except that it does it far more frequently when in poor signal areas (which seems to be most places around here :D )

I'm as convinced as I can be that its related to relocating a cell once its lost one. I've noticed many times that the 'G' or '3G' fails to reappear after it has regained some signal and needs encouraging to do so by making it connect to T-Mobile data either via PIE or email.

I'm off work tomorrow so I'll be back on to T in the morning hoping for a solution, or at least acknowledgement of the problem :D

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Guest Quiffster

Hello,

I've been searching around and stumbled on your guys discussion - so I thought I would add my own experience. When you guys say "freeze" - what excatly do you mean?

My experience is that no-one can call me (they either hear nothing, a recorded message saying number doesnt exist, or it goes to voicemail - (in fact sometimes T-Mobile send me a txt telling that a number has tried calling n times - which seems to me that the call gets to them - but not onwards to me)).. Furthermore - at that time - It can take 3 or 4 attempts (sometime smany more) - to make a call. All the time this is happening - the signal bar is normal.

The only pattern I see here (perhaps ??) - is the timing. Yesterday 5th Feb evening - was particularly bad (in Central London) - and I havnt had a problem for ages (since December in fact - when the first few weekes of owning the phone I had the problem continually) - this was in Nottingham.

I thought it was a problem with my handset - but if you guys are having problems too - then I guess its a common problem with either the handset - or t-mobile.

When I first reported the problem - T-Mob sent a txt config that would (apparently) fall back to the old network from 3G if teh signal was bad. This has worked up until yesterday. the only other observation of yesterday (and this may be co-incidence) is that I had the phone switched off (completely off) for about 5 hours while in a meeting.

Any patterns here? Perhaps we each have the problem at the same time?

Steve.

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Guest pd.ryder
When you guys say "freeze" - what excatly do you mean?

I'm referring to the whole device becoming inoperable whilst in Standby mode - press any button but nothing will happen. The only way out of this is a soft reset, ie stylus into the reset hole above the battery cover release catch. I'm getting this 5-6 times a day which is very annoying to say the least.

I think I'll start a Poll later to see just how many of us are having this problem, either Vario II or Orange's M3100. Anyone know what Voda and O2 call their variants as I could include those too?

Welcome to the forum Quiffster :)

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Anyone know what Voda and O2 call their variants as I could include those too?

It's the XDA Trion on O2 and v1605 on Voda isn't it?

Yes a poll would be interesting. It would have to be specific about what actually constitutes 'freezing' - your description to Quiffster was spot on.

Just got off the phone to T-mob. They are saying that it sounds like it's definately a handset issue and that I'm unlucky to have received faulty handsets. They wanted to swap it for another but they said that it might be a reconditioned unit. I'm not entirely happy with that as I suspect that the recon unit will exhibit the same fault, so I'm thinking about it. They also suggested that I take it into a T-Mobile shop and have it sent away for testing.

Oh, and setting the phone so that it doesn't go to standby didn't have any effect either - it still became unresponsive and needed resetting.

On the other hand, it's not needed a reset today, so it might behave if it thinks I might send it off to be prodded and poked :)

Edited by Cowie
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Guest Quiffster

Hi,

That kind of freeze has only happened perhaps once or twice to me (in about 8 weeks).

FWIW:

ROM is: V 1.21.110.3

Radio is: V1.05.05.00

Protocol: 32.36.7010.04H

hth

Q.

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Guest Quiffster

Just to add,

Apart from this connection issue (which I think is actually a problem inherent on 3G networks) - the handset is the mutts nuts. I get download speeds through my laptop of almost 1Mb/s - as fast as my home broadband. And T-Mob are the only outfit doing unlimited data downloads. Their tariff (Web and walk+) compared to Voda (£2 + per MB) is unbelievably good value.

I had an i-mate Jamin before this - which was equally as good - but not 3G. I miss the Intellipad though (not sure if you guys have used it before) - but it was great for 1 finger texting - much better than pull out keyboard / onscreen keyboard (which I think is just about unusable).....

Q.

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Guest pd.ryder

I've put a poll up HERE so we'll see what happens.

I've never put up a poll before and after votong myself, I was expecting to see some results - but there weren't any, only 'You have already voted...'

Hmmm, maybe I did summat wrong...?

[EDIT] The main bulk of the poll has been eaten by data monsters from the interweb. As soon as I get chance I'll rewrite it and repost.

[/EDIT]

Edited by pd.ryder
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I've put a poll up HERE so we'll see what happens.

I've never put up a poll before and after votong myself, I was expecting to see some results - but there weren't any, only 'You have already voted...'

Hmmm, maybe I did summat wrong...?

I can't vote as there is only a vote button showing (no options). When I click on it I get an error message indicating that I'm not using the vote feature properly! Should it show something like "Yes I've experienced this", "No, not a problem" or "Occasionally a problem" etc?

Quiffster, I agree. The handset is fantastic when it all works properly but it's the unreliability that's the problem. It would seem that I can go for weeks with it behaving and then go for several days having to reset it six times a day, missing calls in the meantime. As I use it for my business, I'm a little perturbed when regular clients tell me that they tried calling me but got a message telling them that they've dialled an incorrect number - how many new potential clients don't bother trying again?

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Guest spiderboy

Just wanted to add some more info here. I am on my 3rd VII now and this problem isn't going away in fact it is getting worse. I have spoken to TMob and they just want to keep changing the phone, seems like putting a band-aid on open heart surgery wound to me. I have had a trawl on the net and came across the XDA developers forum where they are discussing the problem of hanging VII too, so it seems universal. They seem to suggest that the problem is with the sim card as the phone was designed for USIM's which is apparently sims for a 3G network and services rather than a standard 2/2.5G SIM. Most posts on there seems to suggest the problem disappears when a USIM is inserted.

I brought this up with TMob and they said that in the UK all phones use the same SIM's there is no distinction. So I asked them to send me a replacement sim in any case to see if that fixes before we change to my 4th phone. I swear I had never had so much issues with a model of windows phone as this one and I have had most of them.

Funny thing is that when you wait for a new sim you loose network as they switch your sim off until you receive the new one. So this morning having no network I put my phone into flight mode. So one would think that that will solve the problem instantly as the phone does not have to connect to the network at all. So I have had it on wi-fi for most of the day (I use it to listen to radio in the office) and guess what it froze up again and I had to get the old stylus out and do another soft reset. So I would like to boards take on this. If it was a network connection problem should the phone have frozen up when in "flight mode"? Maybe this problem is more deeper rooted in the software? What do you guys think?

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Guest pd.ryder

Interesting stuff spiderboy.

You would think it wouldn't be a problem if it were in flight mode. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree :)

Daughter has kept me busy today so I haven't had chance to talk to T again yet.

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If it was a network connection problem should the phone have frozen up when in "flight mode"? Maybe this problem is more deeper rooted in the software? What do you guys think?

I'm beginning to come around to this thought too. What puzzles me though, is how can the thing be problematic from new, then work fine for a couple of months and then start playing up again? My usage hasn't changed, no additional software has been downloaded (though I did get a message appear saying "STK Service Update Successful" - which I assumed was T-Mob doing a service toolkit update OTA) where the main variable that I can't measure is the network.

When I received my second handset and started having the same problems I switched to GSM only and things worked well for a week. I then switched back to Auto band selection and things continued to work for the next couple of months before going pear-shaped again. I suspect that the GSM only test was a red herring as forcing it to use GSM yesterday had no effect and it still kept locking up.

The issue that made me think that the network might be at fault is that when people call the handset during a "lock-up" they tend to get a message stating that they have dialled an incorrect number (something that T-Mobile have assured me is impossible). Does anyone know what might cause this? If I switch off the phone, go into an area with no coverage or even remove the battery without powering down first, my voicemail kicks in. So what the heck is happening that causes my number to not be recognised by the network. It seems a bit chicken and egg - did the network decide that my number doesn't exist and so cause the handset to lock up whilst it tries to negotiate with a base station or did the handset send a signal that somehow un-registers it from the network? I don't have any experience of cellular networks so don't know how these things work but there definitely seems to be something happening that's at least partly network based. This of course may have nothing to do with the handset locking and just happens at the same time or as a direct consequence.

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When you guys say "freeze" - what excatly do you mean?

My experience is that no-one can call me (they either hear nothing, a recorded message saying number doesnt exist, or it goes to voicemail - (in fact sometimes T-Mobile send me a txt telling that a number has tried calling n times - which seems to me that the call gets to them - but not onwards to me)).. Furthermore - at that time - It can take 3 or 4 attempts (sometime smany more) - to make a call. All the time this is happening - the signal bar is normal.

The only pattern I see here (perhaps ??) - is the timing. Yesterday 5th Feb evening - was particularly bad (in Central London) - and I havnt had a problem for ages (since December in fact - when the first few weekes of owning the phone I had the problem continually) - this was in Nottingham.

My problem is identical to yours. I am also in Central London (WC1H post code). Same manifestation, people phoning me get my Voicemail and I often get a missed call text. In other words I have signal but the call is not being connected. I think it occurs when my phone loses signal, on my commute I pass through a tunnel and I lose signal when I am in the lift at work. For some reason although the signal picks back up the voice service does not reconnect. I do NOT get phone lockups but I don't put my phone into standby (screen off) so this might be the difference. Actually for all of you suffering lockups have you tried not letting your phone enter standby?

I called TMob this morning and got a rep who kept insisting that it was because I had no signal at work. She also told me that despite my phone having full bars then I might have no signal. I then told her that it has only been a problem in the last two weeks. At which point she mentioned local mast problems/congestion. I asked her to check my local mast at work and she said there was no reported problems and that I should a few days before phoning back to see if the problem corrects itself.

Perhaps if you phone it will help. I am going to phone back now.

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Actually for all of you suffering lockups have you tried not letting your phone enter standby?

Yes, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I called TMob this morning and got a rep who kept insisting that it was because I had no signal at work. She also told me that despite my phone having full bars then I might have no signal. I then told her that it has only been a problem in the last two weeks. At which point she mentioned local mast problems/congestion. I asked her to check my local mast at work and she said there was no reported problems and that I should a few days before phoning back to see if the problem corrects itself.

Perhaps if you phone it will help. I am going to phone back now.

I've phoned T-Mobile six times on this problem. The first couple of times I was given various excuses before they finally settled on it being a problem with the handset and sent me a new one - same problems. I've done some further investigation on other groups and blogs and found that it seems to be a fairly common problem with this handset. As it stands, the handset is verging on not being fit for the purpose that I purchased it for.

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Guest pd.ryder

I've not allowed my VII to enter standby for 2 days now - no lock-ups at all!!!

There have still been times when its had trouble relocating a cell after losing all signal, but in fairness this has been less problematic too.

:)

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Guest sabrowse
Yes, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I've phoned T-Mobile six times on this problem. The first couple of times I was given various excuses before they finally settled on it being a problem with the handset and sent me a new one - same problems. I've done some further investigation on other groups and blogs and found that it seems to be a fairly common problem with this handset. As it stands, the handset is verging on not being fit for the purpose that I purchased it for.

Couldnt agree more Cowie, I've read other forums etc and many others are having this problem too. TMob as you say jusst want to replace handsets, and havent figured out that it makes bugger all difference...I'm on my 4th and they've all been as bad as each other.

Personally I love the rest of the phone, I just cant live with the phone part of it. Running a business and having customers say they thought I'd gone off the face of the planet when they were told my number was not correct is rather disturbing...I cant remember the number of times it almost ended up going out of a window. There doesnt seem to be a resolution either - we've had these problems for ages and ages...I think I might just sell mine and wait for the next generation, go back to my M600.

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Guest pd.ryder

Day 3...

... still no lock-ups :D :D and considering I was resetting 5-6 times a day, this is miraculous :D

It is eating the battery without using Standby mode at all, but at least it works and actually seems able to switch between 3G & GSM without melting :)

Has anyone else seen this result?

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Day 3...

... still no lock-ups :D :D and considering I was resetting 5-6 times a day, this is miraculous :D

It is eating the battery without using Standby mode at all, but at least it works and actually seems able to switch between 3G & GSM without melting :)

Has anyone else seen this result?

The lockups seem to come all together on certain groups of days (I don't think there is a pattern). I've not had a single lockup in the past two or three days either and haven't changed my usage at all. I also tried not preventing it from going into standby during the recent bad spell of lockups and it made no difference at all - it still locked. When I say all is working well, I'm being relative - it still occasionally refuses to dial (Dialling Joe Bloggs...... ding ding ding - repeat half a dozen times until it connects) and sometimes refuses to let me answer a call (particularly frustrating, especially when in the company of other people). But otherwise, it's doing what it should - however I've been here before.

I have a feeling that all will work properly for a few weeks before the swearing starts again.

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Guest AbsolutNut2007
The lockups seem to come all together on certain groups of days (I don't think there is a pattern). I've not had a single lockup in the past two or three days either and haven't changed my usage at all. I also tried not preventing it from going into standby during the recent bad spell of lockups and it made no difference at all - it still locked. When I say all is working well, I'm being relative - it still occasionally refuses to dial (Dialling Joe Bloggs...... ding ding ding - repeat half a dozen times until it connects) and sometimes refuses to let me answer a call (particularly frustrating, especially when in the company of other people). But otherwise, it's doing what it should - however I've been here before.

I have a feeling that all will work properly for a few weeks before the swearing starts again.

Hi Everyone,

I found this forum as I have just purchased this phone on T-Mobile and have experienced a couple of lock-ups like the ones that you are describing.

I too am not convinced that it is anything to with network issues. I have a possible theory however. Have any of you purchased a new MicroSD card for your phone? I am particularly interested if you have purchased off eBay.

The reason why I am interested is because I have purchase a 2GB Sandisk MicroSD off eBay. From experience I know that there are a huge number of fake memory cards on eBay. The one I received didn't come in official SanDisk packaging and with no warranty information etc - just in an anti-static bag with a free USD card reader. Dodgy MicroSD cards could be causing random problems with the phone. This is quite common actually on all sorts of devices fitted with fake memory cards and COULD be causing system instability.

I will be contacting SanDisk tomorrow with the serial number to see if they can confirm its authenticity.

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts to see how many people have purchased cards off eBay. SanDisk in particular are prone to counterfeiting.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Steve

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Hi Everyone,

I found this forum as I have just purchased this phone on T-Mobile and have experienced a couple of lock-ups like the ones that you are describing.

I too am not convinced that it is anything to with network issues. I have a possible theory however. Have any of you purchased a new MicroSD card for your phone? I am particularly interested if you have purchased off eBay.

The reason why I am interested is because I have purchase a 2GB Sandisk MicroSD off eBay. From experience I know that there are a huge number of fake memory cards on eBay. The one I received didn't come in official SanDisk packaging and with no warranty information etc - just in an anti-static bag with a free USD card reader. Dodgy MicroSD cards could be causing random problems with the phone. This is quite common actually on all sorts of devices fitted with fake memory cards and COULD be causing system instability.

I will be contacting SanDisk tomorrow with the serial number to see if they can confirm its authenticity.

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts to see how many people have purchased cards off eBay. SanDisk in particular are prone to counterfeiting.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,

I got my 2GB card from MobyMemory and I'm sure it's a genuine SanDisk. When I got a replacement handset from T-Mobile, I installed no third party apps and used no memory cards for a period of time to find out if it still locked up. It did. I therefore concluded that the handset will quite happily lock up on its own without additional encouragement. Though of course, if you do have an 'iffy' card, that could be a contributing factor.

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Guest pd.ryder

My 2Gb SanDisk came from MobyMemory too and seems quite genuine.

Like Cowie, I've run with and without it, but it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. Same with 3rd pary apps.

Day 6 now - still free from lock-ups. I'll work on Cowie's theory that this happens in 'batches' and test it by reapplying the Standby mode today.

Fingers crossed...

:)

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Having been an Orange customer I have been stunned by TMobs response to this. I phoned a couple of times last week to flag the problem, then once more to provide the 'evidence' and have it elevated to technical. Since then I have received at least one call a day from technical asking further questions and seeing how I am getting on. The feeling is that they are genuinely interested in sorting this out. Contrast this to Orange where I had a faulty handset and it took me a month of phoning CS every day and having to have a complete rant to get it changed simply because the fault wasn't on their 'list' they read out. Never once was I allowed to speak to technical and every time the CS relayed my info to technical they got it wrong and the answer came back, "have you tried hard resetting?". Gosh, no, I had never thought of that.

Anyhoo they are wanting me to try using it GSM only. My inability to make calls was present at 10.45 this morning on the UMTS network, I then swapped to GSM and it has been making and receiving calls fine. I am expecting a call back this evening, and given past experience I think they might even honour that agreement! If there suggestion is to use it GSM then I might have a word with them about their 3G pocket phone computer not being fit for purpose if it can't be on the UMTS network and make calls at the same time. Of course my problem has been transient in the past and ONLY takes place at my work address. I will also ask about the AKU3.3/WM6 update possiblity.

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Bloody 'ell - the callback came at 6.32! I am literally speechless at how professionally TMob deal with technical issues on their network.

Sadly it would seem there is a local 3G blackspot just where I work, which is most likely causing the issue I am seeing. As predicted using GSM only cured the problem. I am off to download the switching app. Anyone know if I can schedule the GSM/UMTS changeover for work hours only?

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