So many problems, don't know where to start! Have I got a duff phone?

[Guest Tink_Jane]

My SanFran has been difficult since I first got it back in January. Battery never lasts more than a day, pictures I take are warped (they look like they've had a special effect done on them), the photos I do manage to take disappear from my phone, music I put on the SD card randomly disappears, the phone now doesn't even recognise that the SD card is there, the whole phone randomly locks and won't do anything until I disconnect the battery, when texting it sometimes stops halfway through my text and the screen freezes and then I can't do anything with the phone (can't even turn it off and on again) and a host of other things. Some of these problems could be caused by a faulty SD card but not all of them - could a phone just be generally duff?! (what they used to call 'lemons' when cars had lots of faults!) It is still under warranty but the screen is cracked and even though the phone had all these problems before the screen crack, that's just my word against theirs and I assume they will say my warranty is voided, do you think? I went into the Orange shop about the battery issue when I first got it and they clearly couldn't care less - they said "oh it's because you have a lot of apps on it" but all I had was Facebook! They said that all the Orange bits running in the background were what was using my battery up but everyone else with an unhacked phone has these Orange apps too and their batteries last longer than mine.

I just don't know what to do next as the phone is unuseable. Is there any point in taking it into the shop? Should I just cut my losses and buy a new one? (am reluctant to have this phone again but maybe I was just unlucky with that one as everyone else sems to love it). Or could the SD card be responsible for all these problems and I could try getting a new one of those?

Sorry for all the questions in one post!

[Guest t0mm13b]

My SanFran has been difficult since I first got it back in January. Battery never lasts more than a day, pictures I take are warped (they look like they've had a special effect done on them), the photos I do manage to take disappear from my phone, music I put on the SD card randomly disappears, the phone now doesn't even recognise that the SD card is there, the whole phone randomly locks and won't do anything until I disconnect the battery, when texting it sometimes stops halfway through my text and the screen freezes and then I can't do anything with the phone (can't even turn it off and on again) and a host of other things. Some of these problems could be caused by a faulty SD card but not all of them - could a phone just be generally duff?! (what they used to call 'lemons' when cars had lots of faults!) It is still under warranty but the screen is cracked and even though the phone had all these problems before the screen crack, that's just my word against theirs and I assume they will say my warranty is voided, do you think? I went into the Orange shop about the battery issue when I first got it and they clearly couldn't care less - they said "oh it's because you have a lot of apps on it" but all I had was Facebook! They said that all the Orange bits running in the background were what was using my battery up but everyone else with an unhacked phone has these Orange apps too and their batteries last longer than mine.

I just don't know what to do next as the phone is unuseable. Is there any point in taking it into the shop? Should I just cut my losses and buy a new one? (am reluctant to have this phone again but maybe I was just unlucky with that one as everyone else sems to love it). Or could the SD card be responsible for all these problems and I could try getting a new one of those?

Sorry for all the questions in one post!

Question - Are you using the ROM that came with the handset that you've been using since January? :)

Generally speaking, ROMs that are branded and made by the mobile provider are generally full of junk and do little for you in the long run.

Speaking of battery life - generally, batteries on smartphones last a day (if you have wifi on, if not, it should get at least 3 days out of it)

The Camera pictures that appear warped - its a sign of a mis-configured ROM so to speak - quite literally,

In a nutshell, I am advising you to upgrade the ROM which will debrand, and de-junk it full of Orange bloatware.

Edited August 31, 2011 by t0mm13b

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Yes, I am. I was going to hack/update/whatever-you-call-it the phone but I thought there woudn't be any point if the whole phone was faulty. I know the Orange ROM isn't popular but surely it can't be responsible for all these problems (and, similarly, a new ROM can't solve them), can it?

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Oops, sorry, I didn't see the rest of your post so replied too early :)

So the warped pictures could really be to do with the ROM?! Gosh, that's interesting, I assumed it could only be a physical fault with the camera.

Re. the battery - my husband uses his the same as mine and his lasts for 2-3 days, as opposed to my 12 hours or so. Can I ask a potentially stupid question?! Is the phone using the internet even if I'm not actually 'online' at the time? ie. if I'm not looking at a website, does it still have a data connection? I ask because my 100MB free internet only lasted a week recently even though I didn't use the internet any more than usual, whereas it was lasting me the whole month a while back.

[Guest t0mm13b]

Yes, I am. I was going to hack/update/whatever-you-call-it the phone but I thought there woudn't be any point if the whole phone was faulty. I know the Orange ROM isn't popular but surely it can't be responsible for all these problems (and, similarly, a new ROM can't solve them), can it?

Few bits of info required before for you to decide take the plunge.

Go into Settings > About Phone -

Can you tell what does the 'Baseband version' say? :)

[Guest t0mm13b]

Oops, sorry, I didn't see the rest of your post so replied too early :)

So the warped pictures could really be to do with the ROM?! Gosh, that's interesting, I assumed it could only be a physical fault with the camera.

Re. the battery - my husband uses his the same as mine and his lasts for 2-3 days, as opposed to my 12 hours or so. Can I ask a potentially stupid question?! Is the phone using the internet even if I'm not actually 'online' at the time? ie. if I'm not looking at a website, does it still have a data connection? I ask because my 100MB free internet only lasted a week recently even though I didn't use the internet any more than usual, whereas it was lasting me the whole month a while back.

No problem! :)

Yes it does require data connection :)

There's a lot of apps out there that can chew up the cap limit on the bandwidth, perhaps without you knowing about it :)

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Baseband thingy says P729BB01. Firmware versions says "2.1-update 1".

[Guest t0mm13b]

Baseband thingy says P729BB01. Firmware versions says "2.1-update 1".

Mea culpa! Was asking for the wrong field :)

It's 'Build number' on the very bottom of the screen page in Settings > About Phone.

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Build number is OUK-P729BV1.0.0B08 - though I did expect it to say "666" and thought that might explain a few things :)

[Guest t0mm13b]

Build number is OUK-P729BV1.0.0B08 - though I did expect it to say "666" and thought that might explain a few things :)

:)

Ho okie. That's one question answered - you're using one of the rare types of Blade that has OLED on it - how serious is the crack on it? :)

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Never heard of OLED - is that good or bad?! :) The crack is big - right down the full length of the screen but doens't bother me and doesn't seem to affect the touchscreen.

[Guest Tink_Jane]

I just Googled to find out what OLED is and found this:

• If your Build Number is OUK_P729BV1.0.0B08, you have the TFT Version.
• If your Build Number is OUK_P729BV1.0.0B05, you have the OLED Version.

So doesn't that mean that my phone is TFT and not OLED...? Sorry - I'm just adding extra questions now :) This might not make any difference to what you're advising me to d, of course, just thought I ought to check. Thank you so muhc for your help, it is greatly appreciated!

[Guest t0mm13b]

I just Googled to find out what OLED is and found this:

• If your Build Number is OUK_P729BV1.0.0B08, you have the TFT Version.
• If your Build Number is OUK_P729BV1.0.0B05, you have the OLED Version.

So doesn't that mean that my phone is TFT and not OLED...? Sorry - I'm just adding extra questions now :) This might not make any difference to what you're advising me to d, of course, just thought I ought to check. Thank you so muhc for your help, it is greatly appreciated!

Okie - no problem :)

Right - Here's the glossary and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - linky.

Make sure you have backed up your contacts - if you're using Google sync, well and good. For SMS - look in the market 'SMS Backup+' and install it. Then use that to backup your text messages if you so wish.

Double check on this part that you have the Windows drivers installed - ie Does your computer recognize your handset when plugged in? :) If not, proceed to install the ADB drivers from here on this linky.

To get you started to upgrade your handset - Check on this linky. Scroll down to the section 'Gen1 to Gen2 All-in-one custom rom upgrade TPTs' and pull down the file 'CyanogenMod 7.1 RC1 Gen1 to Gen2 Upgrade TPT', the file you're looking at to download is 'cm-7.1.0-RC1-Blade-TPT.zip'.

Now, with your handset plugged in with the cable into the computer and the handset is recognized. Unzip the file and copy it across to the sdcard, you should have a folder in the sdcard called image.

Now, proceed to switch off your handset - wait for a few seconds. Hold down Vol + and the Menu key, and switch on. Let the upgrade take process and it will reboot - you should be seeing a big Android robot on the screen and then shortly after you should be seeing Android on a skateboard with CyanogenMod on it. :)

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Wow, that's fantastic, thank you! And lovely idiot-proof instructions too, just what i need :) I was going to have a look at how to install a custom ROM later, since you recommended it, so that's brilliant, Thanks so much. I will try it out later and report back.

[Guest t0mm13b]

Great! Looking forward to hearing progress report on it. Please do let me know how it goes - I will help you along the way if things does not turn out as expected :)

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Thank you so much! It may be a few days though - might have to wait til kids are back at school so I can have some peace and quiet to try it :)

[Guest Pia23]

I got a phone replaced by ringing up, they sent a new handset out the very next morning and told me to give the courier the broken phone. So basically, they only took my word for it that it was broken, at no point did they specify it had to be in good condition! So if you rang up based on the faults you have, no doubt they'd send another. You could always say "what crack??" Lol.

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Oh that's very interesting, Pia!! I might try that first... thank you!

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Jut a thought - could all these faults be caused by a faulty SD card? I took my SD card out and it started behaving once the card was out. It could obviosuly be the reason why it loses photos and music and it could perhaps be responsible for the warped photos, do you think? I'm not so sure about the phones sluggishness and random freezing up though. I've ordered a new SD card to see if that makes a difference (though will do the ROM install as well).

I did ring Orange and they said they could only help if I got the screen repaired first from their recommended company, but I'm not going to do that as it probably wouldn't cost much more to get a new phone).

[Guest t0mm13b]

Jut a thought - could all these faults be caused by a faulty SD card? I took my SD card out and it started behaving once the card was out. It could obviosuly be the reason why it loses photos and music and it could perhaps be responsible for the warped photos, do you think? I'm not so sure about the phones sluggishness and random freezing up though. I've ordered a new SD card to see if that makes a difference (though will do the ROM install as well).

I did ring Orange and they said they could only help if I got the screen repaired first from their recommended company, but I'm not going to do that as it probably wouldn't cost much more to get a new phone).

Thats interesting... :blink:

Have seen a thread discussing about the type of sdcard used that can cause the handset to mis-behave...

Okie...

Suggest this - make a backup copy of the contents of the sdcard and then reformat it in Windows, and pop the sdcard in to see if that has made any differences. If not,no matter as you are ordering a new sdcard anyway. :)

[Guest jeorge]

Hi Tink_Jane , I have the same phone running the same rom & firmware , It ran ok straight out of the box with the orange bloatware on it .I have now removed most of it though & it runs great,you can remove most of the orange apps without installing a new rom.

You need to root your phone first with z4Root (i done a permanent root ) see here- http://android.modac...es/page__st__40

Now you can use Root App Remover (available from the market ) here- https://market.andro...e=search_result

I used the Root App Remover (vip) version ,(really easy to use)

it allows me to put the apps in a recycle bin with the option to restore them,

so i can make sure there's no affect on the phone & then permanently delete them from the recycle bin later after testing the phone for a while.

(there's a list of stuff to remove on the site somewhere)

I found it ,have a look at the orange apps to remove here:

http://android.modac...eginners-guide/

If you use z4Root & Root App Remover,you wont need the guide in this link just the lists of orange apps to remove.

Dont forget lots of apps will continue to run in the background even though you have closed the app,this can use battery life ,So get yourself a free task killer from the market

& you will be surprised at whats left running in the background ,I had a BBC news app but uninstalled it cos even if you killed the task it would automatically restart itself a few minutes later to update the news .

I may install another Rom when i get bored with it ,to get rid of the orange boot screen which is the only orange thing left on my phone

B)

Edited September 2, 2011 by jeorge

[Guest Tink_Jane]

Thanks for that, jeorge! Is there any advantage to doing what you suggest over installing a whole new ROM? (other than it being easier to do)

[Guest jeorge]

Thanks for that, jeorge! Is there any advantage to doing what you suggest over installing a whole new ROM? (other than it being easier to do)

Just easier i think ,Im a newbie when it comes to modding phones so i like to take one step at a time & learn as i go ,my san francisco is only a month old so i dont want to do too much to it until im pretty sure it has no faults ,so i can restore all the orange apps easily if i need to return it .Ive messed about with pc's for some years now ,so im sure before long ill be wanting to mess about with the san francisco & maybe install a new rom.

At the moment its running great without the orange stuff on it ,

I think as you say the advantage is that its very easy to do & for me it means i can easily restore the orange stuff if i need to return the phone(or delete it permanently) ,and its a great place for a beginner like me to start .

Id change the sd card first as you say it seems to be the main problem .

With the cracked screen & you being unable to return the phone to orange i think id be very tempted to follow the guides on here & try a new Rom.

:D

Edited September 4, 2011 by jeorge

[Guest Tink_Jane]

OK, so I installed the new ROM and have tried it for a few days and I love it!! Thank you so much, everyone on this board but especially t0mm. The phone started to behave once I realised that my SD card was faulty - I replaced the card and the phone worked fine! Installed the new ROM too and battery is a little better. I got 17 hours out of it but did expect a bit more - that was when using only wifi and using the phone for maybe 2 hours of that time.

Thankyou so much again to everybody - you've saved me from having to buy a new phone!

:D

[Guest t0mm13b]

OK, so I installed the new ROM and have tried it for a few days and I love it!! Thank you so much, everyone on this board but especially t0mm. The phone started to behave once I realised that my SD card was faulty - I replaced the card and the phone worked fine! Installed the new ROM too and battery is a little better. I got 17 hours out of it but did expect a bit more - that was when using only wifi and using the phone for maybe 2 hours of that time.

Thankyou so much again to everybody - you've saved me from having to buy a new phone!

:D

Great to hear the news! :D

Glad you're having fun with it now :)