SPV M500- seemingly endless list of problems

[Guest Hax]

You can use Windows Movie Maker to rotate avi clips - and it doesn't do a bad job of it either!

As for needing the phone switched on/plugged in for alarms to work, that's certainly not the case for me - both myself and my girlfirend have M500's and we both use them as our alarm clocks. There are some nights where my phone is charging and her's isn't and vice versa. But, whatever, without fail (so far) our alarms have sounded every morning since we got them.

I use SPB time for my alarms and my girlfriend simply uses the built in clock and alarm functionality. Both work without problem.

[Guest pdaxtras]

You can use Windows Movie Maker to rotate avi clips - and it doesn't do a bad job of it either!

As for needing the phone switched on/plugged in for alarms to work, that's certainly not the case for me - both myself and my girlfirend have M500's and we both use them as our alarm clocks.  There are some nights where my phone is charging and her's isn't and vice versa.  But, whatever, without fail (so far) our alarms have sounded every morning since we got them.

I use SPB time for my alarms and my girlfriend simply uses the built in clock and alarm functionality.  Both work without problem.

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Hax, the movies are in mp4 format from the m500, can you change them on the device somehow?

Also is your screen set to time out or does it stay on all the time?

[Guest Hax]

Hax, the movies are in mp4 format from the m500, can you change them on the device somehow?

No - you can't as far as I know - but if you download the DivX codec, that should let you play with them - although you may need to get the editing version as opposed to just the player - I've already bought the full sutie so I'm not sure what the minimum is that you would require. That said, you can download a trial version of it to see! :)

Also is your screen set to time out or does it stay on all the time?

My screen is set to time out. But, that said, I normally adjust/check the alarms before getting into bed and then plug the phone in and hit the power key to turn off the screen before going to sleep.

EDIT: Hang on - I'm talking rubbish - just used my work PC to try my above advice about downloading DivX to play MP4's and it doesn't work.... Hmmm... must be soemthing else I have installed on my home PC then! Nero 6 Reloaded definitely supports MP4 playback - so maybe the codec's simply been picked up from there for me :s

I'll try and investigate some more for you!

Edited August 22, 2005 by Hax

[Guest ian_dazookeeper]

i had problems with my, hard resetting, and locking up for no reason, i took back to Orange shop and they just swapped it there and then no questions, not a problem with new one so far ...... :)

[Guest confused and hungover]

i had problems with my, hard resetting, and locking up for no reason, i took back to Orange shop and they just swapped it there and then no questions, not a problem with new one so far ......  :)

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the same problems as i listed? thats only the second phone with the same problems, that i know of.

[Guest jarold]

the same problems as i listed? thats only the second phone with the same problems, that i know of.

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My wife just had her first lock-up, removed the battery & the phone did a hard-reset - boy is she pissed! 1st day out of the office using the M500 as her organiser and there goes her confidence!

Will encourage her to persevere but if it happens again its back to the shop (8 days is the limit for swaps is it?)

[Guest confused and hungover]

Will encourage her to persevere but if it happens again its back to the shop (8 days is the limit for swaps is it?)

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in holland yeas, maybe orange UK has different policy... i think it's 5 days by law in england

[Guest BoooDave]

I just thought you might like a giggle at my expense.

[slightly disgruntled M500 owner]

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I might have been gigling if it weren't for the fact mine only turned up about 4 hours ago and I'm already seeing problems with it switching on and off randomly! lol

Other than that tho I'm fairly impressed so far.

I'm not stupid, and I expect it to have problems, but I hope I don't get probems that cause lock ups and hard resets....I get enough of those kind of annoying problems with my stupid Acer PDA!

[Guest scottt]

Go into setting in the camera settings - capture mode - capture format - and you can change from mp4 or jpg avi.

I have had spv, moto200, xda(work) c500 Blackberry(work) and now M500 for about 2 weeks and I have to agree this phone and what it can do is out of this world.

I used to spend hours and hours editing xml for home screens for the smartphones so I could get everything on my screen that I needed, with this beast and some today plugins you can do it in a few hours and its easly changed.

The only 2 things that it lacks is built in wifi, I use bluetooth for my home pc connection and it works fine but wifi would be good to get networks when out and about, I know you can get a sd card wifi but changing cards about all the time seems like a lite bit too much bother,

The other being able to plug in a hard drive, if I could plug in a hard drive (some of the slim ones are not much bigger than the M500) then I could have all my music and movies with me when I travel, or the hard drive could be mounted in my glove box ,etc etc

[Guest confused and hungover]

The other being able to plug in a hard drive, if I could plug in a hard drive (some of the slim ones are not much bigger than the M500) then I could have all my music and movies with me when I travel, or the hard drive could be mounted in my glove box ,etc etc

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now thats a nice idea....

[Guest Simonedwards]

So, having had my M500 for three weeks, I can go along with most of the problems you've had. Favourite at the moment is having to soft reset to get the GPRS to reconnect...sometimes...and sometimes not!

Loving all the other stuff, and I reckon easier to use than my mates TREO650.

A few problems with Orange though. There seems to be a couple of people on 156 who now how the thing works, one being a chap called David on "Level 2 Support". He actually has one and reviews software so seems clued up. Another employee told me, during a rant about the GPRS thing, that I couldnt reject the phone because "If you check your contract, we are only obliged to provide you with a telephone, the fact that it has email is incidental" Well he has a future in PR!

The nearest Orange shop hadn't even seen one when I went in to see them to get a car charger lead. It was like the second coming when I got it out to show them. They even called the duty manager. Because of course they are all fully trained to help us with problems! Then couldnt tell me if there was a compatible charger lead in the range and when I asked if they could call technical support they said they didnt have one. Excellent. Went to T-Mobile, bought it from them!

Has anyone got any Parrot CK3100 experience with the M500 yet? Thinking of the car kit but reluctant to until I know for sure it is working.

And finally, did you know that Orange can't supply spare styli. Good eh.

[Guest Tech]

If walk past it and cough, it hard resets itself.

[slightly disgruntled M500 owner]

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LOL!!!! you made my day matey LOL.... nice! :) maybe you should threaten it...

I was impressed Orange released M2000/M500 together BUT no WM5!!!!! you would expect from C550 there would be but oh no

I'm waiting for (all of a sudden!) the M5000 which is due to release in November with WM5, bluetooth, wireless, 3G and many other things

still - the whole idea was to have a smartphone but a PDA style type device ;) but i guess im not fussed now

but yes... interesting.... nice

[Guest gpz1195]

I'm sorry to disagree but the M3000 that Orange aren't releasing is by far a better phone/pda

i really hope it's just a one off... it's such a cool phone, and if i get a string of dodgy one's, orange don't have anything else that comes close that i can swap with.

ah well, we'll wait and see eh?

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[Guest w411y]

The nearest Orange shop hadn't even seen one when I went in to see them to get a car charger lead. It was like the second coming when I got it out to show them. They even called the duty manager. Because of course they are all fully trained to help us with problems! Then couldnt tell me if there was a compatible charger lead in the range and when I asked if they could call technical support they said they didnt have one. Excellent. Went to T-Mobile, bought it from them!

And finally, did you know that Orange can't supply spare styli. Good eh.

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I can add to that too. Went into my Orange shop as Ive lost the aerial cover on my M1500. Showed the guy and asked "Any chance of an aerial cover for this?" n he said, "What the hells that? Do we sell them here?" so i said "Orange, uh.. yer mate!" so he replies "Wait there Ill ask someone now!"

Not the first time Ive had trouble with the Orange shop. Tech will be here agreeing now before long :)

[Guest gibster]

Ok….

I went to orange Saturday morning armed with my phone, it’s box and all accessories. I explained to a rather dim looking girl with a very short attention span exactly what the problems were I had been having with the phone. She took it off me to have a look, fumbled around with it for a minute or so then asked me how to turn it on.  :shock:

I told her again about how it hard resets itself at random and how it no longer has an SMS inbox or the ability to send or receive text messages. She said

”so the main problem you are having is that you can’t send a text”?

I said “um, no… the main problem is that it hard resets itself.”

“so it switches itself off”? she said.

I took a moment to explain what a hard reset is at which point she became distracted by something shiny so I just left it. she said it was OK and that the could exchange the phone. they didn’t, however, have an M500 in stock. She said it would be better for me if I called my insurance people as they could exchange it in 4 hours. I said that yes, I had already done this but they could only offer me a reconditioned phone and that I didn’t want this as my phone was only 14 days old, what I actually wanted was a NEW phone. “oooooh, but we don’t do that”. Said the orange lady as she watched two pigeons fighting over a crisp outside the window. “orange only ever replace phones with reconditioned units”. I said that this was just not acceptable to swap my brand new phone which has been faulty since I got it, for some dodgy old second hand phone which has probably been dropped down the toilet.

I asked her what Orange’s DOA period is, she said 48 hours. I told her that that was bo**ocks, that under European law there is a 5 day period in which I can demand an refund or brand new replacement, and under Dutch law this period is debatable up until something like a year (I need to check that). She didn’t hear any of this as she was listening to a conversation between 2 gay men in the corner of the shop, arguing about the new Samsung ladies phone. :exclaim:

I asked to speak to the manager. To be honest, I think she was pleased to get rid of me.

The supervisor guy came over, he was the one who signed me up for this phone in the first place, he was very reasonable and explained that oranges DOA period is actually 8 days, but as I was now reporting it on the 14th day, I was only entitled to a refurbished unit. At this point I new I had them, I asked him to check orange CS records for my account and sure enough, it was logged that I had reported this exact fault the previous week, (good bless my drunken Sunday morning urge to call people), therefore within the DOA period by one day  :D 

They had no choice but to exchange the dodgy phone for a brand new unit, in its box with all accessories. I was well chuffed, and I felt I was on a roll, so I brought up the subject of dust under the screen of my C500…. I pick up a replacement C500 tomorrow.

By the way, the replacement M500 works perfectly… none of the problems listed above have occurred yet, and this one just kinda feels different, like its better put together, the stylus slots into the side with a satisfying clunk, the battery cover stays on better and the ‘on’ button makes a little click when pressed. 

Anyway, long story over. I’m gonna get back to my Harry potter book.

Cheers

C&H

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dude!!! you are a full on comical genius!!!! i especially like the punchline about the harry potter book!!! ;)