Database Users

Muffled sound on XDAII

Hi All,
I bought an XDAII about 2 weeks ago and am very please with it, however, when I make and receive calls, the sound seems to be very muffled. The people I call also comment that I sound very muffled too. Is there something wrong with it, or is this usual ? I was also wondering if a Radio Stack upgrade may cure this problem.
Here are my current versions etc.
ROM Version 1.03.00 USA
ROM Date 09/24/03
Radio Version 1.05.12
Protocol Version 1337.12
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob.

unfortunately it doesnt.
i know what you mean . . . but i upgraded my radio stack to 1.10 and it's still the same sound
i just hope it's just a setting of how the audio is decoded by the radio (sort of like the nokia setting you can turn on and off (at the expense of battery power) forgot what it's called.
cuz if it's not that, then it just means it's got a lousy speaker hehehe

hehe.. Thanks for the reply mate. At least I'm not the only one with a muffly speaker n mic
Ta,
Rob.

no prob :wink:
i think everybody has the same problem, only they just dont think it's a biggie (or aren't as picky as us) since the audio STILL is intelligible anyways

Has anyone else encountered a problem when either using the phone normally or through the speakerphone option, there is a slight rattling when the volume's set high?
This is quite annoying if common and is something other speakerphone phones seem to suffer from.
Anthony

XDA2 not as good as it looks
Hi there
I have my XDA2 for 5 months and I´m in love with it, whenever one of my freinds mention its faults I get upset :?
But, we all know that the XDA2 is FAULTY big time, sofware not well developed yet, and yes, we think twice about buying software (same apply to hardware)
I have learn how to live with all this, still think that the XDA2 is a top tool for work and everyday life and I hope that other machines come to the market to compete, then we will get value for money

Bad Sound Quality
Hi,
I also bought a MDA II (T-Mobile Germany) some weeks ago. I really like it, but I also think that the sound quality is not the best. There are two effects that annoy me:
1. I can hear a high pitched beep in the speaker, always when the device is switched on (not only when talking on the phone but always if it is switched on). It is not very loud, but I can hear it clearly in quiet environment (my ears are still too good I think...).
2. The sound has to much "base" and to less "treble". Well, you can understand the person on the other end but this is definitly the worst sound quality I ever had on a phone.
This is the only thread I could find discussing this problem, leading me to the conclusion that either most phones are good and I got a bad one or most people don't bother if a very expensive phone sounds like a $5 toy...
Is there a chance to get a better sounding replacement phone or should I learn to be happy with it?
Regards,
Oli

Sounds Rubbish
Hi guys
i noticed the sound isn't as good as the XDA I when playing mP3's or MPG files on it.
does anyone know if there is anything that can be done to correct this ??
other than buying a set of speakers to go with it, doesn't seem much else ! ;(

any solution for this???????

I've got the same problem, however I've noticed that the sound is clear when I use the XDA 2 with my tomtom navigator the voice instructions are very clear, its strange + when I use the speaker phone the other party can hardly hear me.

sorry to tell you this, but i have got mine repaired and strange that they changed the motherboard to get rid of this problem, means it is a mother board problem not speaker or software.

Re: Bad Sound Quality
ruiner said:
Hi,
I also bought a MDA II (T-Mobile Germany) some weeks ago. I really like it, but I also think that the sound quality is not the best. There are two effects that annoy me:
1. I can hear a high pitched beep in the speaker, always when the device is switched on (not only when talking on the phone but always if it is switched on). It is not very loud, but I can hear it clearly in quiet environment (my ears are still too good I think...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The high pitched beep is caused by the poor filtering of the power electronics of the background lightning of the touchscreen. It is worse if the light is set to low. If you set it one or two notches higher, the beep sound will go away (or at least you won't hear it anymore).

Metallic sound from the speaker...

Hi guys.
I have a little audio problem with my Himalaya/i-mate/XDA II/MDA II/Qtek 2020 or whatever you like to call it.
The internal speaker seems to have a contact with something metallic or hard plastic. At the max earpiece volume, when calling, the ringing tone is distorted. When lowering the volume, it does not do this. It seems that, when the plastic membrane is moving, to reproduces the loud sound, it touches something hard and it distorts the sound. Does anyone have experienced this? I want to try to fix this. I paid hard won money for this marvellous device, and I do not want my experience to be ruined by bad audio.
Thanks for the help guys!

Not sure if its the same thing but when i played any sound it crakled a little. Did not bother me until the camera sound went on and off every 1 second. Did a hard reset and seemed ok until it happened again so i did another hardware reset went through all the programs i had instaled until it happened again. So i reset a third time without instaling that program(cant remember the name of it) but it works ok now.

I know what you mean Patrick..and if you hold your thumb over the earpiece it sounds a bit better, though of course muffled.
This is something that does bother me as I sometimes use the loudspeaker call option. Other phones don't have this problem in loudspeaker and it surprises me the II does this, as apart from a slightly rattly volume adjuster the build of my II is significantly better than the XDAI.
Just one of those things we have to put up with in order to have such an otherwise great piece of kit, though I'm equally surprised the manufacturers didn't notice it!
Anthony

Thanks a lot !
Yeah, your description and the thumb thing is exactly what I mean. I wonder if it's the speaker membrane itself or a contact with something? Maybe it could be fixed?
Thanks a lot guys!

It may be a warranty claim, you need full volume when using the speakerphone, get in touch with the service centre.

I have the same exact problem... The sound distorts if you have it set too loud.
I guess it's just the el cheapo speaker or poor design.

Hi guys, i have the same problem and its bugging me alot, any sugesstion or solution???? is it a hardware problem or did we install some software that case this? my XDAII still has warranty do you sugest me to go for service center or just live with this problem.
Thanks

Well Iam not saying its a good thing but Iam happy to see Iam not the only one experiencing this problem with the speaker although I dont own XDA II but XDA IIi or Qtek2020i whatever way you wanna call it. I also wondered if it is a harware problem couldn't we replace the speaker with a better quality one? In my case this jitter mettalic sound does not happen only in speaker mode but also in normal mode as long as the volume is set close to max or max.

My Qtek2020i has the metallic sound only when it's a large amount of humidity and very hot outside.
It seems that the speaker suffer a lot from humidity, it also happen when i keep it in my jeans pocket and i prespire a lot. After half an hour when it dries out, everything is ok.

Damaging speaker of XDA II is as easy as 123? true or false?

Well i think its true. why? read on!
I bought my XDA II a few weeks ago. Its a love & hate machine & i won't get into that. But i think i have damaged the speaker .. as in i can notice sound getting distorted at times. It probably happened when i played this audio file at full volume .. which was actually for less than 2 seconds!! Ever since then, i can tell how the sound from the speaker comes out distorted. Same exact thing happened with my brother, where he played some song at full volume & it apperntly blew his speaker. I've soft reseted the machine multiple times (who doesn't!) ever since but no hard reset yet.
Although my question is .. is it really _that_ easy to blow the speaker?! The device should either have a speaker that can handle the amplification it is being providing, or not amplify the sound to levels the speaker can't handle. Blowing your speaker away on the first attempt to play something loud seems awfully lousy to me from a machine's design point of view.
Has anyone else experienced such problem or know of some remedy? I don't want to open the machine up & get the speaker repaired. Would really appreciate any help on the matter.
Thank you all.

Hi m8. Don't know if you've tried this but I had a problem a while ago where I could not hear any sound at all. I could make a phone call and ther person on the other end could hear me fine but I could not hear anything. I found the way to make it work again would be to squeeze the thing at the top near the earpiece (as if it was a loose connection).
Like I said, don't know if you've tried this but it worked for me. Have you got warranty?

Hey Camel, i have had my sx56(wallaby) all the way apart, and the only thing attatching the mainboard to the speaker are two little spring-loaded contacts, perhaps try tightening the screws on the back of your device (if it's anything like mine), this should make the connection between your speaker and mainboard more secure.
Tim

speaker
hey mate,
yep same thing with mine. now anything above about 50% in a phone call and it's all distorted.
pretty annoying, i've just got to get around to opening it up and checking the speaker contacts/replacing speaker with a spare.
will post results.

Lower volume

Hi all,
I tend to use a BT headset with my Athena most of the time, but today I forgot it before going out! so I had to go back to using the Athena to my ear, not a huge problem with hands my size, however even with the volume down to its lowest it was still way to loud. Does anyone know of a reg hack or small program that will let you lower the volume down to a discreet volume, and not a hands free volume? its not a problem most of the time, but as a paramedic some of my calls can be a little personal. Its just in case it happens again. you can appreciate I'm not in the position to nip home for left items
Many thanks
Jay

responderman said:
Hi all,
I tend to use a BT headset with my Athena most of the time, but today I forgot it before going out! so I had to go back to using the Athena to my ear, not a huge problem with hands my size, however even with the volume down to its lowest it was still way to loud. Does anyone know of a reg hack or small program that will let you lower the volume down to a discreet volume, and not a hands free volume? its not a problem most of the time, but as a paramedic some of my calls can be a little personal. Its just in case it happens again. you can appreciate I'm not in the position to nip home for left items
Many thanks
Jay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I put my fingers over the loudspeakers.... isn't confortable but it works!

I have been thinking about this issue a bit lately myself. My thought is to glue something over both the left and right speaker to completely or almost completely seal it. I might try with different materials and see the effect. May be we can make it almost like a normal embedded earpiece.. just thinking.

eaglesteve said:
I have been thinking about this issue a bit lately myself. My thought is to glue something over both the left and right speaker to completely or almost completely seal it. I might try with different materials and see the effect. May be we can make it almost like a normal embedded earpiece.. just thinking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
i already tried to put tape over the speakers, and can tell you it wont work out. it is like the hole athena will sound, the backcover acts like a speaker. when you tape the speaker holes it sounds a litle bit like it came from a cave, but is still much to loud for a 'private' conversation. i think you have to grab a soldering iron and a resistor, to come to a solution, or someone find a way to reduce the volume by software some more than the volume slider can do.
mad

Buy several cheap sets of earbuds and put them in different locatations where you might need them (car, office, briefcase). Not needing stereo for phone calls, clip off one of the earbuds for easier handling.
Brad

oops!
miterb said:
Buy several cheap sets of earbuds and put them in different locatations where you might need them (car, office, briefcase). Not needing stereo for phone calls, clip off one of the earbuds for easier handling.
Brad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that is a good idea, and one that I have done already. One at the ambulance station, one at home, one in the car, and one in the rig. three ended back at home AHH the price of age! The one in the rig got nicked, so ive put them all back now, but thats why I need the program or hack.
Thanks for the idea's guys, any more?
take care
Jay

eaglesteve said:
I have been thinking about this issue a bit lately myself. My thought is to glue something over both the left and right speaker to completely or almost completely seal it. I might try with different materials and see the effect. May be we can make it almost like a normal embedded earpiece.. just thinking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a good idea, could it be so, that there is a kinds of software, that we can adjust the volumen of left and right speaker, so that we can just use the right speaker or just use the left speaker, what ever. has anybody heard of that kind of tiny little soft ware?

Is there a regestry setting to lower the in call volume on the athena itself, so it would start at nothing?

Any solution on this "problem"? Sometimes my headset runs out of battery.
Regards
Hans

This only seems to be a problem with some of the cooked ROMS. The original WM6 ROM that came with my 7501 had a good low-volume level, but when I switched to AP4 the low-end is what used to be about mid-level before.
It must be either a registry change, or a sound driver.

Or a software that make it possible to decrease the volume more

Sound quality in ear speaker

Hello,
I'm running a X10i since 2 days. I must say that I'm quite happy with it but I have difficulties with the sound of the ear speaker : as the volume is quite low, I have to increase the volume and when I increase the volume higher than 3/4 to full I hear a lot of cracking and popping.
Do you have the same problem ?
BR

On my phone to sound is quite good. I have to volume at max, and dont have any bad sounds, or unwanted noices.

is this while using the bluetooth headset?

Ive not tested it with the bluetooth set yet...
I seldom use that...
So, I think the sound in the phone itself is great.

How's the ringer volume, because I've heard random reports of it being pretty low.

Unfortunately, it is kind of low....
And i noticed when something blocks the speaker, like having it in the pocket, it becomes even lower...
And if in a somewhat noicy area.. Forget about hearing it..

this is currently one of my main gripes with the X10. The earpiece volume on my unit (firmware 1.6) is extremely low. At highest volume I get cracking and popping. If there is even a little background noise it becomes almost impossible to hear through the earpiece. It's getting to the point where the phone is almost unusable in many situations. Also the speaker volume is quite low as well. Miss many calls and notifications even at full volume.

I have just used the BT headset thus far. and the sound quality is good up until I attach them to the speakers.. Then they make a ****t up sound when I change song, or when it is no sound on at all. This does not happen when I connect them directly to the phone.

I’m having problems with the in-call volume on my X10I.
I called orange uk and was told that there have been many similar complaints with this handset on their network.
I was told them that it may be the deal breaker for me and told them i wished to return the handset.
The rep said that the reason the call volume was low was because i was using my old sim and not the one that was shipped with the upgrade.
Apparently there a certain profiles assigned to each sim for each respective handset???
The rep was confident that this would resolve my in call volume issues.
Anyone else aware of this?

Personally I have no problem with the soundquality. My problem is just low volume in the earpiece. Hopefully this can be turned up in updates or custom ROMs.

Earpiece volume is my main issue. However I am being told that it is down to my sim and not a software issue on the X10.
That doesn't sound right to me (excuse the pun) especailly as so many others are having this same fault.
That's irony for you, it works really well at everything else just not as a phone!

Baggyb said:
Earpiece volume is my main issue. However I am being told that it is down to my sim and not a software issue on the X10.
That doesn't sound right to me (excuse the pun) especailly as so many others are having this same fault.
That's irony for you, it works really well at everything else just not as a phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha, yeah well... I can't really say if that's true. I'm gonna try and get a new SIM since mine is like... Two-three years old. But I doubt that the SIM is causing problems like this.

I did get a new SIM with my upgrade, but as i didn't want to be without a phone for Two hrs whilst my services transferred to the new SIM, i just popped in my old one.
I will pop my new one in tonight and post my results.
I'm not confident though.

is it normal to hear own echo during a call?

That depends.. Is the person you are calling in the same room?
I've heard the odd few people mention this but I can't say that i've experienced this.
The volumes that low i probably wouldn't hear it anyway

Am on .16 and the volume/quality is ok if a little quiet, am mostly still getting used to switching back to pda phones from a candy bar phone, they are very different on your ear!

Now i'm on 1.0.14 and i thought upgrading to 1.0.16 may fix my issues but that update is not available for me (Orange UK).

Baggyb said:
Now i'm on 1.0.14 and i thought upgrading to 1.0.16 may fix my issues but that update is not available for me (Orange UK).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think SE said that the .16 update was for certain carriers and not for the phone itself. And since SE refuses to release change logs we'll probably never know.

Okay so I just changed my SIM card with the brand new one that comes with it, and there's no change in volume... Talking to the tech guy he claims that on some phones it actually did make a difference. Hard to say what they're told to say and what actually happens though.

Thats weird, im getting my X10 on tuesday, and I currently have a desire, and the sound volume in the earpiece isnt that high, and also the ring volume isnt that high, I was hoping for better from the X10 ;-(