New blackjack owner, problems aplenty.

[Guest SuperD117]

just got a blackjack 2 recently, (just last sunday actually) and have soo far been habing some issues.

1. battery life so far for me has been terrible. it cant even make it through 8 hours of texting and occasional video and GPS use (the video and GPS use totaled less then 30 mins) about 200 text messages we're sent/recieved in that time period.

2. so far for me signal strength has been horrendous, it has excellent coverage outdoors but even when i go inside my house it drops down to 2 bars, also when i go into my school i lose all connection even when im only 10 feet inside the building. (i live in phoenix, not the hills)

theres a few other little things, but if i cannot resolve those two issues i'll be returning the phone and going back to T-mobile. which with my old phone (motorola V3x) worked everywhere and had battery life to spare. thanks you soo much for your time and help.

[Guest su6oxone]

Go to:

3G band select

The switching between EDGE and 3G is one of the biggest battery drains on any phone. Use this shortcut to select just "WCDMA" which will be 3G. Battery life ought to improve substantially. I was streaming YouTube nearly continuously for about 4 hours on a long bus ride and it still had enough juice to make some phone calls (albeit, short ones).

just got a blackjack 2 recently, (just last sunday actually) and have soo far been habing some issues.

1. battery life so far for me has been terrible. it cant even make it through 8 hours of texting and occasional video and GPS use (the video and GPS use totaled less then 30 mins) about 200 text messages we're sent/recieved in that time period.

2. so far for me signal strength has been horrendous, it has excellent coverage outdoors but even when i go inside my house it drops down to 2 bars, also when i go into my school i lose all connection even when im only 10 feet inside the building. (i live in phoenix, not the hills)

theres a few other little things, but if i cannot resolve those two issues i'll be returning the phone and going back to T-mobile. which with my old phone (motorola V3x) worked everywhere and had battery life to spare. thanks you soo much for your time and help.

[Guest Worm6226]

Make sure you stop/exit any GPS program when done with it. If it is still running in the background it will drain the battery very quick. I had the same issue because I backed out instead of exiting.

[Guest SuperD117]

ok sweet, i'll keep both those in mind to help battery life.

any way to help signal strength in buildings though?

[Guest Worm6226]

any way to help signal strength in buildings though?

Can't help you there, but if you notice the signal is less than other phones on the same network then you may want to contact that provider, they may have to replace the unit. Invite someone over with another BJII and see if their signal is any better than your unit.

[Guest SuperD117]

Can't help you there, but if you notice the signal is less than other phones on the same network then you may want to contact that provider, they may have to replace the unit. Invite someone over with another BJII and see if their signal is any better than your unit.

i actually tried using my motorola V3x in the same place with the same sim card (its unlocked) and had 1 bar where the BJII had nothing.

i was under the assumption that the "sar" ratings we're more or less a indication of well the phone could pick up a signal, is this true or am i wrong? because the V3x has a sar rating of "the Motorola Razr V3x has a digital SAR rating of 0.13 watts per kilogram." and the BJII is at "the BlackJack II has a digital SAR rating of 1.2 watts per kilogram."

[Guest thelostsoul]

With regards to battery life, let me just say this:

3G and GPS are complete battery killers. Bluetooth can drain it considerably fast too.

On the other hand, using only EDGE and no other wireless systems, the device will last forever. Also, you can lower the brightness on the power screen: Press and hold the "CV" button on the bottom, then scroll down and lower the "Display Brightness."

[Guest eman006]

Go to:

3G band select

The switching between EDGE and 3G is one of the biggest battery drains on any phone. Use this shortcut to select just "WCDMA" which will be 3G. Battery life ought to improve substantially. I was streaming YouTube nearly continuously for about 4 hours on a long bus ride and it still had enough juice to make some phone calls (albeit, short ones).

Tried doing this but when I tried to execute, I got the following message: "Unable to set band selection".

Any solution or reason why this might be happening?

Thanks.

[Guest ohsig]

Tried doing this but when I tried to execute, I got the following message: "Unable to set band selection".

Any solution or reason why this might be happening?

Thanks.

I was able to create the BandSel.lnk and switch to GSM850 without any issues. Now when i try to change to any other band selection I get the error "Unable to set band selection". So I stuck on GSM850 at the moment.....any ideas why this is happening? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I guess I am doing something wrong with SDA App unlock. I ran the PC based exe again, app unlocked the phone and it allowed me to swap bands again with no issues (without the SDA recommended reboot). So the real question is, how do I confirm that the app unlock is taking hold and doesn't need to be run everytime I reboot the phone? At the very least I know the work around but clearly I am missing something here.....back on blazin 3G so I am happy yet a little confused.

Cheers and thanks for helping a noob!

Edited May 5, 2008 by ohsig

[Guest nfrederick]

Works like a charm :D