HTC TyTN II Annoyances

[Guest chucky.egg]

Quikc question for everyone...

Has anybody actually reported their particular issue to HTC?

I've seen a couple of "I hope HTC fix this" posts, but they won't if you don't tell them its happening!

[Guest Sonicr360]

Thought I would just add to the list, although to be honest, they are just minor problems for me

1) Holding down OFF/On will put the system into a full reboot (or reset). I recall someone mentioning this before. But if you just simply press the off/on button, it keeps the phone on, but in a standby mode. Still allowing you to send / received calls ect

2) Screen is impossible to read in the daylight - shame really, but cant be helped - something to be looked at in the future

3) Looking for a LARGE Micro card - only got a 512MB - anyone know where to get a larger, better, cheaper one

4) Car cradle or car holder - need this for GPS / phone being charged

5) When finishing a call, the screen seems to "lock". Pressing the OFF button and ON button seems to bring it back to life.

Other than this, still say its a fantastic device, especially with everything that comes with it. I was also a sad muppet because I did read the ENTIRE manual page by page, and uncovered alot of features and functions that helped solve other issues (wifi turned off for example), battery performance.

Thanks

[Guest chucky.egg]

Some of these are not problems:

1. Long-press for fully Off, short-press for Standby is the correct behaviour for PocketPC

3. Your memory card is "small" (try mobymemory)

4. You want a cradle (dont know of any yet)

Can we stay on-topic and concentrate of issues/annoyances

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

RE: The standby of death issue with the Tytn II. It happened to me 3 times since last Wednesday. I got the phone lunchtime on Wednesday and charged it I had no data connection setup at this time. On Thursday I took the phone in to my service provider and had them setup a data connection. Thursday night I charged it, Friday morning after a few successfull power ons mid morning I had a random Standby of Death I reset and had no further SODs, the next time I charged it was Friday night.

This charge carried me through the weekend untill Monday afternoon when I had another SOD I reset and had no further SODs - I charged the phone again on Monday night then on Tuesday mid morning I had another SOD - I reset and have had no further SODs I am planning to put the phone on charge again shortly.

I am starting to wonder if resetting the device clears the possibility of having an SOD as I seem to have had 1 SOD every charge since Thursday and none after a reset - if this is correct then doing a reset after a charge might clear the possibility of having a random SOD on that charge. I am going to test this theory of the course of this week and report back.

[Guest evad]

3) Looking for a LARGE Micro card - only got a 512MB - anyone know where to get a larger, better, cheaper one

http://www.ebay.co.uk of course - I've got 2GB card delivered yesterday for mere ~£17 (incl. postage)

[Guest Phil_UK]

Hi

I am starting to wonder if resetting the device clears the possibility of having an SOD as I seem to have had 1 SOD every charge since Thursday and none after a reset - if this is correct then doing a reset after a charge might clear the possibility of having a random SOD on that charge. I am going to test this theory of the course of this week and report back.

This is all well and good but no one else seems to have experienced this problem on the Kaiser so far.

It does sound as though your phone may be faulty.

The Kaiser out numbers the Toshiba G900 by many more units sold I would imagine in the first week of release for each of them, yet on the G900 the wide spread problems of standy of deaths was very quickly picked up on due to many many people reporting this problem, including myself.

Unless it proves to be a wide spread fault (seems unlikely) then you must consider that your phone is faulty and you shouldn't have to be second guessing what triggers or stops it. Do yourself a favour and get it changed is my advice ;)

Regards

Phil

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

http://www.ebay.co.uk of course - I've got 2GB card delivered yesterday for mere ~£17 (incl. postage)

You can get a 4gb SDHC card from expansys for £ 15 inc VAT & Delivery becuase they have a £ 10 off for every £ 20 spent untill 4th October see here http://www.hotukdeals.com/deal/43045/expan...10-off-20-spend The card itself costs £ 20.95 inc VAT + Delivery so the total order comes to £ 25.00 less the £ 10

[Guest Webreaper]

http://www.ebay.co.uk of course - I've got 2GB card delivered yesterday for mere ~£17 (incl. postage)

Be a bit careful with ebay and flash memory. I bought a 4GB extreme III CF card last week and found it was a fake.

http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-SanDisk-Extre...000000001456539

I ended up buying one from Play.com in the end (who were £5 cheaper than the one on eBay anyway). Same situation appears to be true for SD cards too, so you might want to buy from somewhere else.

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Fake-MicroSD_W0Q...000000003628424

If you're paying by Paypal anyway, use the Expansys £10 off deal and get it through them, then you know it's genuine.

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

Hi This is all well and good but no one else seems to have experienced this problem on the Kaiser so far.

It does sound as though your phone may be faulty. The Kaiser out numbers the Toshiba G900 by many more units sold I would imagine in the first week of release for each of them, yet on the G900 the wide spread problems of standy of deaths was very quickly picked up on due to many many people reporting this problem, including myself.

Unless it proves to be a wide spread fault (seems unlikely) then you must consider that your phone is faulty and you shouldn't have to be second guessing what triggers or stops it. Do yourself a favour and get it changed is my advice ;)

I seriously doubt that I am the only one with the problem so far... I am the only one admitting to the problem but I doubt that this problem is only affecting my phone. It has only happened 3 times each time after a charge but not after a reset. It may happen after a reset during this week I don't know. It is not *that* bad some people may already be prepared to just reset the phone once every day or two then it seems to work after that - I mean without resetting the phone directly after charging as they will have no knowledge of that particular theory. The G900 seemed to be worse by all accounts.

EDIT: BTW I am charging from the AC Adapter not via USB and am letting the device switch itself off after 2 minutes, I also had the identification screen on at startup - if your charging from USB and turning the device off yourself then it may or may not happen to you.

Edited September 12, 2007 by Nick Le Lievre

[Guest evad]

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Fake-MicroSD_W0Q...000000003628424

If you're paying by Paypal anyway, use the Expansys £10 off deal and get it through them, then you know it's genuine.

Thanks for that - mine came yesterday in original (?) packaging, nothing raised my suspicion, and I've thrown package away - so I can't directly compare it with clues in reviews you mentioned. Card also worked well straight away in both Kaiser and my laptop through adapter, so maybe I have fake indeed, maybe not - but it works well so far, so I'm not bothered.

Btw, I always buy memory cards from ebay (SD, miniSD, four microSDs, Memory Stick Micro), as they are really cheap, but all of them worked very well so far...

[Guest ipgenie]

I tend to agree with Phil.

I have been following quite a few reviews on the Kaiser and your post is the first I've heard of someone haveing a SOD problem. I've had mine for a week now and I use it enough to charge every night and sometimes durring the day. It is often (but not always) on when charging. At night I charge it with the wall adapter and at work I use the usb cable when I need to charge. I am constantly turning it on and off to read email, browse the web, messaging, navigation, etc etc and have not had it hang up even once. I've done only two soft resets in a weeks time when installing software, but none were related to the phone or software misbehaving. I am very impressed with the device and like it better than my old HTC Prophet. I use it a lot and don't stand a chance of going three days on a charge like you are able to do. (I'm just glad I can make it through one day most of the time!)

If it were mine I'd be sending it off for replacement.

I seriously doubt that I am the only one with the problem so far... I am the only one admitting to the problem but I doubt that this problem is only affecting my phone. It has only happened 3 times each time after a charge but not after a reset. It may happen after a reset during this week I don't know. It is not *that* bad some people may already be prepared to just reset the phone once every day or two then it seems to work after that - I mean without resetting the phone directly after charging as they will have no knowledge of that particular theory. The G900 seemed to be worse by all accounts.

EDIT: BTW I am charging from the AC Adapter not via USB and am letting the device switch itself off after 2 minutes, I also had the identification screen on at startup - if your charging from USB and turning the device off yourself then it may or may not happen to you.

Edited September 12, 2007 by ipgenie

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

I tend to agree with Phil.

I have been following quite a few reviews on the Kaiser and your post is the first I've heard of someone haveing a SOD problem. I've had mine for a week now and I use it enough to charge every night and sometimes durring the day. It is often (but not always) on when charging. At night I charge it with the wall adapter and at work I use the usb cable when I need to charge. I am constantly turning it on and off to read email, browse the web, messaging, navigation, etc etc and have not had it hang up even once. I've done only two soft resets in a weeks time when installing software, but none were related to the phone or software misbehaving. I am very impressed with the device and like it better than my old HTC Prophet. I use it a lot and don't stand a chance of going three days on a charge like you are able to do. (I'm just glad I can make it through one day most of the time!)

If it were mine I'd be sending it off for replacement.

If you read this http://www.htcwiki.com/page/Known+Issues?t=anon admittedly for the Hermes aka Tytn it recommends to power down and power up AT LEAST every 2 to 3 days to achieve predictable system performance. By powering up and down I guess they mean a reset. In which case doing a reset after every 2 day charge cycle might not be such a bad idea it might just solve the issue I`m having. If you find that your getting to 3 days on 1 charge then a reset might be called for anyway. How long does it take to reset each morning to ensure that you won't have the SOD problem that day. I think it exists and is part of normal operation of the device.

Edited September 12, 2007 by Nick Le Lievre

[Guest Phil_UK]

Hi

If you read this http://www.htcwiki.com/page/Known+Issues?t=anon admittedly for the Hermes aka Tytn it recommends to power down and power up AT LEAST every 2 to 3 days to achieve predictable system performance. By powering up and down I guess they mean a reset. In which case doing a reset after every 2 day charge cycle might not be such a bad idea it might just solve the issue I`m having. If you find that your getting to 3 days on 1 charge then a reset might be called for anyway. How long does it take to reset each morning to ensure that you won't have the SOD problem that day. I think it exists and is part of normal operation of the device.

I really can not see why people would have similar lock up issues and hide the fact by not admitting it. Your phone sounds faulty, it isn't a typical problem or problem reported by anyone else as far as I know.

The Tytn is a completely different phone, about as different from the Tytn II as it can be, using Windows Mobile 5 and different hardware. You can't make comparisons.

If you really want to believe we are all suffering from 'standby of deaths' but are not telling anyone, and so you believe it is a common fault meaning your phone is not faulty, I guess we can't stop you ;)

Regards

Phil

Edited September 12, 2007 by Phil_UK

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

Hi

I really can not see why people would have similar lock up issues and hide the fact by not admitting it. Your phone sounds faulty, it isn't a typical problem or problem reported by anyone else as far as I know.

The Tytn is a completely different phone, about as different from the Tytn II as it can be, using Windows Mobile 5 and different hardware. You can't make comparisons.

If you really want to believe we are all suffering from 'standby of deaths' but are not telling anyone, and so you believe it is a common fault meaning your phone is not faulty, I guess we can't stop you ;)

I think its good practice to reset the phone AT LEAST every 2 to 3 days as my previous post suggests. In fact resetting it every morning would be a good idea to ensure "predictable operation" maybe you don't have the SOD, but maybe its not a good idea to not reset the phone at all attempting to use it for days on end expecting reliable performance. I for one will now routinely reset my phone every morning based on the information I provided earlier. How much of a hardship is resetting the phone, you have to wait for it to go through its startup routine and re-enter your PIN and thats it - big deal. It takes more time to boot your PC every morning. Don't you see now how not resetting the phone regurarily could contribute to unreliable performance and the SOD could be a symptom of this. I don't think it is device specific but relevant to all PocketPC devices that run Windows Mobile in general.

Edited September 12, 2007 by Nick Le Lievre

[Guest Webreaper]

I think its good practice to reset the phone AT LEAST every 2 to 3 days as my previous post suggests.

Do you mean do a hard reset every 2-3 days??!? Why on earth would I want to do that?

I've spent 18 months running WM5 which is so flaky I've had to hard-reset every 3-4 days, but even then I'd sometimes run for 5 days or more without hard-resetting. With the extra memory in this device, and the improvements to WM6, I see no reason why I shouldn't go 2-3 weeks (or longer! I hope) without hard-resetting.

Hard-resetting is something that should only be done when either a) you install new software ;) the phone starts behaving unreliably or c) the phone crashes. I, for one, would not expect b or c to happen every 2-3 days.

[Guest Sonicr360]

No No No ! Not a "HARD" reset! A reset! Think of it as a "reboot". If you hold down the POWER Button for around 5 seconds, you will get a warning message that power will be turned off and you may lose data if you have not saved.

Just click YES

After a few moments, hold the power button again and let the device reboot (or reset itself, whatever preference you wish to use).

This is not a hard reset.... just a normal reset like most PDA's ;)

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

No No No ! Not a "HARD" reset! A reset! Think of it as a "reboot". If you hold down the POWER Button for around 5 seconds, you will get a warning message that power will be turned off and you may lose data if you have not saved.

Just click YES

After a few moments, hold the power button again and let the device reboot (or reset itself, whatever preference you wish to use).

This is not a hard reset.... just a normal reset like most PDA's ;)

What I specifically mean is pop the stylus into the small hole on the underside of the Tytn II and press in - it resets the device and "Smart Mobility" screen is shown along with the Rom info, then the HTC logo appears after that the Windows Mobile screen then you have to enter your PIN to reconnect to your network.

Does holding the power button for 5 seconds do the same thing? or is that another type of reset. What I`m referring is a soft reset I think.. I would of thought a hard reset means clearing the ROM back to factory default - can you even do that on the Tytn II?

Edited September 12, 2007 by Nick Le Lievre

[Guest Magxs]

Pressing and holding the power button will turn the device off. This is not a standby - you won't receive phone calls or anything. It is like taking the battery out.

When you turn it back on, the device boots. All your saved data and installed applications will still be there.

Using the stylus to press the button in the little hole at the bottom does the same thing. This is generally called a soft reset.

A hard reset is, as you said, clearing the memory and resetting the device back to factory defaults. All information (except on memory card) will be lost. Every device can do a hard reset.

[Guest Sonicr360]

To clarify

Holding the power button in for 5 seconds or more, brings up a warning the device is going to power off. when you click YES it turns off.

When you switch the power button on again (say 3 or 4 seconds), the HTC Smart Mobility screen appears, the Rom version, then the WM screen, then eventually the TODAY screen.

The HARD RESET, will erase the system and place back to defaults. I certainly hope that is not what you are trying to do, because I do not believe HTC would even say this.

Also, for record.... pressing the power button off for less than a second keeps the phone on, turns the screen off.

Pressing the power button back on, returns it to the today screen.

This is how I use the phone, and does not stop me making / receiving calls.

Does this help?

Simon

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

No one teaches you how to use a PocketPC device *properly* so when you have to "soft" reset the device becuase the device failed on you in some way its a bad thing... it may mean you have missed calls ie the SOD. However if you use it properly and soft reset as mentioned every morning for example then its not bad is it a good thing and should prevent frequent system failures such as the SOD and others.

I think some people confuse the soft reset with the hard reset becuase usually they have only ever reset the device when its failed on them in some way so its like a hard reset to them... I don't know if it says in the instructions to reset it everyday but I think its wise.

[Guest Sonicr360]

Well I was sad enough to read the book, but I do not recall anything saying about this. But for issues, performance or crashes, you dont have much choice ;)

[Guest Manni01]

If you could just tell me where I can get it from?

If you follow the link to the TCPMP benchmark results http://blogs.shintak.info/articles/11359.aspx, at the bottom of the results page you have a link to each test file in blue on a green background (it just says XQ, HQ, etc...). It would be great if you could the test XQ one (I said HQ by mistake). That's VGA @ 1500kb/s.

If you click on it, it will play it, so you have to right click / save target as...

[Guest Manni01]

If you could just tell me where I can get it from?

If you follow the link to the TCPMP benchmark results http://blogs.shintak.info/articles/11359.aspx, at the bottom of the results page you have a link to each test file in blue on a green background (it just says XQ, HQ, etc...). It would be great if you could the test XQ one (I said HQ by mistake). That's VGA @ 1500kb/s.

If you click on it, it will play it, so you have to right click / save target as...

[Guest Nick Le Lievre]

Well I was sad enough to read the book, but I do not recall anything saying about this. But for issues, performance or crashes, you dont have much choice ;)

I don't know if its reasonable expectation for us to expect a device as powerfull and complicated as the Tytn II running an advanced OS like Windows Mobile to run more than a day or two between soft resets. I think its perfectly reasonable for us to reset the device every morning which in effect switches it completely off and on again. I think doing this will mean that the device can be used reliably day in day out and at what cost? You have to reenter your PIN everyday, its like turning a normal mobile phone off and on again everyday which you wouldn't do but lets not forget this is not a normal mobile phone its far more complex.

[Guest kapot]

Seriously, I think you got faulty device (hardware) ... or your ROM is messed up ... or you have installed incompatible applications ... or you have misconfigured your setting.

I dont experience that problem (soft reset every now and then), and I dont tell lie (why should I?) ...

So far, my TyTn II is runing fine ... *knock*knock*knock* ... Everything works fine as expected.

I dont know, maybe that's me ... for example, I dont set password ... and I know there is a bug with it.

I use everyday for browsing internet. Yes, after office, back to home, I choose to lay down in the couch and browse the internet using TyTn II rather than sitting in front of my deskop ;)

And I use 3G all the time (have unlimited data plan) rather than WI-FI (I have WI-FI also at home and it is running fine with TyTn II) because the HTC Streaming Media does not work with WI-FI (and this is a known issue, limitation).

At few occasions, the device was very busy and looked stuck / stopped .... but I waited and it was fine. That was caused by IE trying to pull heavy web page.

But, never need to soft reset ... again, *knock*knock*knock*

And of course, the GPS is running fine too, with the TomTom 6.0.32 from the Kaiser CD. ... last time, *knock*knock*knock*

I don't know if its reasonable expectation for us to expect a device as powerfull and complicated as the Tytn II running an advanced OS like Windows Mobile to run more than a day or two between soft resets. I think its perfectly reasonable for us to reset the device every morning which in effect switches it completely off and on again. I think doing this will mean that the device can be used reliably day in day out and at what cost? You have to reenter your PIN everyday, its like turning a normal mobile phone off and on again everyday which you wouldn't do but lets not forget this is not a normal mobile phone its far more complex.