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Author Problem: People are unable to call or sms me even though reception is good!
kristaga
R520
Joined: Mar 12, 2002
Posts: 141
From: Norig/Norway
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Posted: 2002-07-23 21:33
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Hello!

I have a major problem with my phone. Sometimes (completely with no reason at all) it refuses to accept calls. My phone looks as usual (good reception, also GPRS-network as usual), but people calling me get the message "phone is either turned off or outside network reach"

Even SMSes are not coming through. I have to restart the phone to make it accept calls again, with no apparent change on the phone.

I hope someone can help me. It is very annoying to have a phone that never can be trusted to be online.

My phone: Ericsson R520m
Software: R3B006 prgCXC125347 ..._TAE
Hardware: KRC 114 1474 R2C
Date:     01W36
Network:  Telenor (Norway)

Thanks.

Kr.A.


[ This Message was edited by: kristaga on 2002-07-23 20:42 ]
mruane
T610
Joined: May 08, 2002
Posts: 56
From: New Zealand
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Posted: 2002-07-23 21:58
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You have hit what I believe is a really serious fault in both R520 and T68 that have the Data Comm | Pref. Service option set to GPRS and GSM. After a variable period of time these handsets simply forget to renew their Cell Switch registration and are effectively disconnected. Its as though they go into sleep mode and forget to wake up. As soon as you make a call or send an SMS they will renew their registration and start receiving calls (and SMS) again - until they fail the next time. You will notice when it happens by the volume of SMS that comes in after you have finished a call after a period of not making or receiving any calls.

I have had contact with a number of others who have exactly the same problem and the workaround appears to be to set the Pref. Service option to GSM Only and let the handset go into GPRS mode by itself when it needs to. Of course it takes longer to get a connection and but that seems like the only way to ensure you are still "on air".

This is a really insidious fault because the handset looks normal in all respects and you don't know you have a problem until you ring your own phone and don't get an answer.

Cheers Mike
Brimme
P900
Joined: May 18, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Netherlands Amsterdam
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Posted: 2002-07-23 22:08
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I have the problem also very often . but i dont't think it is GPRS since i never have it on. and still i'm sometimes unreachable even when my phone say it has full signal. very strange does anyone els have this problem ?
P900 + P800 + K700i + T68i+ HBH-60 + ms duo128
jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
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Posted: 2002-07-23 22:15
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I had the same problem with my old T68m - couldn't receive voice calls or SMSes sometimes. After a few turns to the repair shop I finally got it repaired. It was an amplifier to the antenna that was broken. N700 or something like that was the name of the circuit that was replaced. Afterwards the phone worked perfectly.

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mruane
T610
Joined: May 08, 2002
Posts: 56
From: New Zealand
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Posted: 2002-07-23 22:58
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Hi Jas

Just confirm for me would you. You have GPRS enabled and your Data Comm | Preferred Service set to GPRS and GSM and you would occasionally not be able to receive calls but after the service centre visit, it was all fixed, right?

Would you still have the service centre docket explaining what they did? If you can find that, it would be very helpful because I cannot get any sense out of the service centers. Unfortunately as soon as they remove the SIM card and reboot the T68m(i) the problem clears. So identifying the specific unit that failed would be very helpful. So are you sure about the N700 reference?

Cheers Mike
luguff
T610
Joined: Jan 17, 2002
Posts: 68
PM
Posted: 2002-07-23 23:18
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Can anybody explain this to me?
How come my phone works absolutely perfect where ever I am (US, UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden, etc.), ie. roaming works without any problems, the subscription works flawlessly with my operator when in their networks.
However, I'm currently in South Africa, still no problems, but I'm now using an MTN SA subscription and the phone works as it should, except for at my hotel. GPRS works fine, the phone shows full coverage, but I can't receive/make any calls.
Right, had this been an issue of GPRS and GSM, I doubt the phone would work so perfectly well at all other locations. I rather think there's somthing wrong with the HLR, at least in this case.
How's it for you other guys? Does your phone stop working at different locations, or is it always the same?
BTW, I've heard of this GPRS and GSM issue before, don't really know what it was all about though.

Cheers!
New Beetle
Z200
Joined: Jan 11, 2002
Posts: 133
From: NW England
PM
Posted: 2002-07-23 23:36
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same problem with my first 2 T68 phones, now on my 3rd! The quality of these phones sucks!
jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
PM
Posted: 2002-07-23 23:46
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Hi Mike, I don't have my T68m anymore (upgraded to a T68i) so I can't check the settings, but I am pretty sure they were as you wrote. Let me tell what other problems I had: When I made a call, I often had to try 3 times before I got to 'connecting', sometimes up to 10 times. And the signal strength indicator would then often fluctuate heavily. The problem got worse and worse, but the repair people thought it was a network problem at first... My collegue also had the same problem, and got his fixed too.

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jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
PM
Posted: 2002-07-23 23:58
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Hi Mike, (cont.) I an not sure about the name N700, but the technician who finally repaired the phone said this: The t68 can transmit at several different strengths (power levels). If you are close to the basestation, a weak signal (low power) is enough, and if you are far away your t68 must use more power. The circuit that was broken was the one controling this power. That should be sufficient information for a technician to understand that circuit I mean.

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Froddan
P900
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: > 500
PM
Posted: 2002-07-24 00:07
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Yep, all the above mentioned probs are familiar...
I've had 3 different phones (T68m), 4 different softwares, and always
the same problems...
Can't connect to network, not receiving calls/sms, shuts off by itself.
I'm currently on R2E SW, and this is the best version so far, but still
these problems occur about 10 times a day. VERY annoying.
The SC says it's network related, but I've tried my sim with a
Nokia 6310 and it worked like a dream. So it can't be network related.
This is a real big flaw in what could have been a perfect phone.
I've read somewhere that this is a "normal" behaviour for the E-son
phones, could someone with a long history of E-son phones correct me
if I'm wrong?
It's really a shame on such a great looking and advanced phone...
jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
PM
Posted: 2002-07-24 00:32
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The memory of the dictionary is not shared with the rest of the memory, used for images, ring signals etc. Actually, there is no way of telling how much dictionary memory there is left. The only way that you find out that you are out of memory is that the words that you add wont stick.

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jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
PM
Posted: 2002-07-24 00:39
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In my case it was a hardware problem, not a firmware problem. I did some tests on how often I missed a call, and even posted the results to esato. I think it was 30% missed calls or something like that. After the repair it was 0% missed calls. My collegue had the same problem. They refused to fix his phone until he copied the list of problems I had compiled.

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jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
PM
Posted: 2002-07-24 00:42
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Sorry about the dictionary memory post, it was from another subject. I would remove it if I could, but I an accessing using wap.

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jas
K600
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: 240
PM
Posted: 2002-07-24 00:48
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@ froddan: The missed called problem that I experienced with my t68m prior to its repair was much worse than anything I ever experienced with my t28, so I wouldn't say it is an Ericsson problem that you should put up with. A called missed rate of 30% is totally unacceptable for any mobile phone, I think.

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Froddan
P900
Joined: Jan 18, 2002
Posts: > 500
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Posted: 2002-07-24 00:49
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Thanks Jas, I'll tell that to my SC. But still, could three different phones
have had the same fault in hardware? If that's the case, I would advice
SE to look over their manufacturing process...
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