C500 Keeps Crashing/Freezing

[Guest Duddyroar]

Here's the rub.

I've just purchased an SPV C500 from a friend, it was on Orange (obviously) and I'm on O2, so I got the phone Application Unlocked, installed the Cert.cab and used the SPV-Developer SIM Toggle program to unlock the phone. So far so good.

However, in the first morning of use the phone crashed about five times. Four of those times were when I was carrying out simple tasks like navigating a menu or writing a text (nothing processor heavy basically) and no other programs were running in the background. The fifth time it crashed without me actually doing anything. I thought it best to 'hard reset' the phone, so I did that last night. I didn't have to install anything else as the phone thankfully remained unlocked. The phone appeared to be pretty stable this morning, but it's crashed once, turned itself off once and has frozen once (the main section of the screen froze but the info bars at the top and bottom of the screen operated as normal - very strange). I hard reset the phone again (losing all the of O2 settings I'd painstakingly manually entered the night before). It's just crashed again. I've not installed any programs on the phone that could render it unstable.

To say I'm annoyed would be an understatement. I seem to be getting conflicting reports about the phone - some people swear by it and say it's never crashed on them, but others seem to be having the same problem as me.

I'm running the latest operator ROM, by the way.

Any ideas?

[Guest Duddyroar]

It's just crashed on me again. This time the 'home' and 'back' keys won't work, so I'm stuck in text messaging mode.

ARGGGGGGH

[Guest drblow]

Unforunately I have never experienced my c500 behaving like that. It has crashed a few times, but not to the extent you describe. I don't know for sure, but I'd have to say it sounds well & truly knackered if you have done a hard reset & it has no effect. You are sure it was a full hard reset you did? Did you use the 'clear storage' option in accessories? You could maybe try the full hard reset by holding in keys when starting up - I'm not sure what keys off the top of my head, but it's in the typhoon forum.

[Guest Duddyroar]

I've only ever used the 'software' method of hard resetting the phone, just done the 'button press' method and will let you know what happens.

[Guest Transform]

thats the one i would try because it resets absolutely everything

[Guest Duddyroar]

The 'proper' hard reset didn't work - the phone crashed again.

I've reloaded the ROM to see if that will work.

Edited June 24, 2005 by Duddyroar

[Guest Duddyroar]

Well, I flashed the ROM and within a minutes of turning the phone on, it crashed again.

My only option is to send the phone back to orange, which I guess is going to cost me upwards of £40.

[Guest usdiver]

I've seen the e200 crash a few times but the c500 is supposed to be one of the best and most reliable. Don't know what to tell you except to give HTC Europe a ring at 08712230217 and tell them the problem. You may be out of luck as far as warranty goes due to the app unlocking and any other bits...but you might be ok, I don't know how that works. If you've done a hard reset then it sounds like a true fault. Question is though, did the phone behave like that BEFORE the app unlock or anything, or only after you did what you did? It won't cost you anything to talk to them and at the worst case scenario get an estimate price of repair in the event it isn't covered...Then you may find out that it's the phone and they will fix it for free. Either way, it would be best to find out, then to decide whether to get it fixed (if it does cost you), or to just cut your losses and get another phone. I too am on o2 and haven't had a problem at all with mine (knock on wood). But I have heard you have to be really careful with a lot of 3rd party software. Good luck

[Guest Duddyroar]

The phone was crashing before the app unlock so I can only assume it's a hardware problem. It's also randomly turning itself off and when you try and activate certain things (like the camera) it tells you there was a device failure. Buttons also randomly fail to work as well.

May well give HTC a call...I only paid £25 for the phone so even if the repair is £40-£50 I've still got a bargain. However my mate says he'll give me my money back if I like.

[Guest usdiver]

go to this site http://www.htceurope.com/ or give the number a ring. You want to speak to Tim (really helpful) they will want to know the imei number and will let you know if it's in warranty or not as well as tell you if the problem will cost you or not to get it fixed, or may want you to send it in before they can determine if it's a warranty claim or not. Either way you have nothing to lose. Worst case if the guy says he'll give you your money back then that'll work too. But give HTC a shot anyway. I can honestly say they've got really good cs. :) Please let us know how you get on though. Hope this helps

[Guest Duddyroar]

Thanks for the advice, I will defo get in touch with HTC. My mate says he will refund the money if I want him to.