My T-Mobile Vario II ate my hamster

[Guest dskeeles]

I see the bugs/issues thread has been locked now (I'm afraid I've been off the forum for several weeks, and am pretty out of touch), so I thought I'd just have a quick rant:

Currently, my Vario II is piling unrelenting love and unforgettable joy upon me, in the form of:

- The keyboard sometimes becoming completely unresponsive, including softkeys, but not buttons; sometimes it comes back, sometimes not

- The backlight occasionally flashing off and then on with consequetive keypresses

- The lack of keyboard buffer meaning that it misses odd keyboard presses every time the CPU goes under load, meaning I get typos anywhere from every 40th, to every 2nd, word.

- CAPS lock inverting, so a "C" ends up representing Caps Off

- Function/CAPS becoming confused, such that it can take 20-30 keypresses and fiddling to get it back into lowercase text mode

- Bluetooth switching itself off for no reason

- Being unreachable for incoming calls, quite a lot

- *NEW* : The buzzer switched on, and refused to turn off the other day, until it vibrated off the end of the table and fell to the floor. Never seen a cat so scared!

- *NEW* : It decided to dial "Unknown" number today. Pressing the END key had no effect, and neither did turning the phone off/on

- *NEW* : ActiveSync is starting to ignore Tasks syncing between the two devices, even though I cleaned out and refreshed the PIMs recently

- Skype is now more reliable; meaning it still requires a memory flush, and then will load 1 in 4 times

- Just hanging. 2-3 times a day.

Add to this T-Mobile's wonderful service:

- Orb streaming video over WCDMA still working for 30 seconds at best, unless you're standing still in an area with excellent coverage. When it might last a few minutes.

- The CSAs repeatedly telling me that the Vario 2 update was right there on the website. Of course, it wasn't.

- Being advised to switch my lovely HSDPA device to GPRS mode, to avoid it crashing/locking/being unable to get a data connection

... although I do still like them a lot, overall.

I expect many of these are old hat, but I have been away - sorry if I'm repeating much of this! Most of these have been long-standing problems for my phone - but they've been brought to the fore by the continuing absence of a firmware update from TMO, and my renewed need for a device that actually improves productivity.

Anyway, I've decided there's nothing for it but to call T-Mobile and get into a replacement cycle. I'm hoping that after three or four, they might offer me a different phone....

:-(

[d]

[Guest Whitster]

- The backlight occasionally flashing off and then on with consequetive keypresses

- The lack of keyboard buffer meaning that it misses odd keyboard presses every time the CPU goes under load, meaning I get typos anywhere from every 40th, to every 2nd, word.

- CAPS lock inverting, so a "C" ends up representing Caps Off

- Function/CAPS becoming confused, such that it can take 20-30 keypresses and fiddling to get it back into lowercase text mode

These problems annoy me a lot as well.

But you said there's a Vario II software update? Is that just somewhere on the T-Mobile website?

[Guest dskeeles]

These problems annoy me a lot as well.

But you said there's a Vario II software update? Is that just somewhere on the T-Mobile website?

No, there isn't one... that's the problem. Most other operators and HTC themselves have released improved firmware in the past few months, but not T-Mobile.

If you want, there is a version of firmware that will give you an unbranded interface AND SIM unlock your phone (see other posts). I haven't done this as I may want to return mine, and it invalidates the warranty.

(d)

[Guest pd.ryder]

My VII has been experiencing / has experienced most of the problems you list.

My biggest gripe is that whenever I lose signal / service it seems reluctant to reattach to the network when the signal improves. This can also cause the whole device to lock up especially when in Standby mode, requiring a soft reset several times a day.

I've had the 'run it in GSM mode' bit from T-Mobile and although I've had fewer freezes, it still occurs and I'm convinced its related to signal loss. I've had it replaced once already and I've had it less than a month. I can't see the point of another replacement because this one has exactly the same issues as the last one, which seem to be the same issues as everyone else.

Its a real shame. It is a wonderful device but just doesn't seem to want to do what it says on the tin. I can't quite grasp whether Orange's M3100 or Vodaphone's particular versions users are having any / all of these problems - some of O's are posting problems with signal loss and problems making & receiving calls periodically. I can't decide if this is a Hermes problem or a T-Mobile problem.

I hope my hamster's hungry... :)

[Guest dskeeles]

Well, I received my Nokia E61 on Vodafone on Friday... so far it's been reasonably steady, although I haven't added many third-party apps yet. I have noticed that with Good Messaging installed (essential for me), it's reporting out-of-memory errors if I open a couple of other apps plus a few web pages; not promising!

Anyway, I'm transferring my PIM functions to the E61, and then sending the Vario2 back to TMO for a refresh. Hopefully they'll magically provide the firmware update that is unavailable for download, it'll be more stable, and I can switch back. The Vario2 hardware is definitely more usable, with the softkeys, nicer keyboard (although the audible click is distracting to others in a meeting), scroller, and touchscreen.

For hardware that's stable, usable, and can run 10 major apps without the user even noticing, it seems there's still only one P910i. I'll see how I get on with the E61 and replaced Vario2, however.

[d]