Database Users

Swapped my Wizard for a Universal: power button confuses.

Hi all. My friend and I have swapped our phones. He wanted something more pocket-friendly and more like a phone, whereas I wanted something with a bigger screen to sling in my bag - so it seems like a good compromise.
However, the way the Universal handles power/standby and the backlight seems quite different and it's baffling me. I'd appreciate some help getting my head around it.
On my Wizard, after I'd got it all figured out, I would just pull it out of my pocket and press the power button on the top to instantly turn the display and backlight on and see what was on the screen. Then I'd press the button again to turn the display and backlight off and put it back in my pocket. While in my pocket like this, all buttons except the power button were locked, yet it would still receive calls and get my e-mails and texts: ideal. If I wanted to shut the whole thing down I would *hold* the power button and it would shut down completely.
Now I've got the Universal. Pressing the power button seems to have the same effect, but holding it now turns the backlight off. Here are my questions:
1) Why would you want to do that?
2) Why is there a separate backlight button too, if holding the power button toggles the backlight?
3) How can I turn the device fully off (apart from removing the battery temporarily)?
4) How do you generally use *your* Universal? Do you just close the screen and toss it in a bag/pocket? Or do you leave it in tablet mode and press the power button?
Thanks for any thoughts!
- Si

Re: Swapped my Wizard for a Universal: power button confuses
Wow, your friend sure got ripped off. I came from a Wizard myself, the Universal is a much more refined machine. I will try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge.
1) Why would you want to do that?
I have no clue, I wonder why there are so many backlight options.
2) Why is there a separate backlight button too, if holding the power button toggles the backlight?
Same answer as above :lol:
3) How can I turn the device fully off (apart from removing the battery temporarily)?
I've never had to fully turn it off, even in the factory manual they don't tell you. They give you a run around answer I'll quote here,
"Power button: Press and hold to turn the screen backlight on and off (you can also do this using the screen backlight button see page #9 & #17) When you close the lid the screen goes off; if you leave the lid open, the backlight will time out and then the screen will switch off. A single press of the power button will turn the screen on or off. The phone is turned on at startup, after the SIM pin is entered. If the screen goes off, the phone will still remain connected."
4) How do you generally use *your* Universal? Do you just close the screen and toss it in a bag/pocket? Or do you leave it in tablet mode and press the power button?
Becareful closing it and tossing it in your bag, the screen likes to make contact with the keyboard leaving marks on the keys and screen ( ) People usually put a small screen wipe rag in between the screen and keyboard before closing or get a silicone case. I have the silicone case, when I'm out it's in my hands since I'm not a belt clip person or in my pants pocket when it fits :wink: The only time it's in tablet mode is when I'm surfing the net or playing a game; I don't like to leave it in tablet mode as it exposes the screen to accidents.

My friend is pretty happy with the Wizard - it suits his needs better and it is amazing what a difference the 'compactness' makes if you use it mainly as a phone rather than a PDA.
Okay, so it seems you can't turn the Universal off. I always plug my phone in to charge at night, so I'm not worried about that.
I was really impressed with the ruggedness of the Wizard. The screen never got any scratches on it. I wish they made iPods out of the same material!
When you use the Universal as a phone, do you tend to use it closed? I feel sort of silly holding a chopping-board sized slab up to my ear. Maybe I'll get a Bluetooth headset

Izzard-UK said:
When you use the Universal as a phone, do you tend to use it closed? I feel sort of silly holding a chopping-board sized slab up to my ear. Maybe I'll get a Bluetooth headset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, I've only used the Universal's earpiece once or twice. It's too big to hold up to your ear for talking. When sitting at your desk, or when you're playing with it, people are always giving you the "Wow!" look but when you have it up against your ear as a cell phone they laugh...and laugh :lol:
I always use a bluetooth earpiece/headset. I have either my Bluespoon AX2 or Motorola HT820 with me at all times. Bluetooth is a must! I rarely use the Wizard's earpiece either, always bluetooth on the Wizard as well.

question about power button

I accidently dropped my phone earlier today, now the power button doesn't have the click like the other buttons on the side of the phone. Anyone else experience this problem and come up with a solution to it or am I just **** out of luck?
thanks

I fix phones as a sort of living and the only times ive seen this happen is when someone drops it and the switch is out of place (and has snapped off)
in your case, if this has happened then you wouldnt be able to turn on/off the phone... is this the case?
another reason is the way the switch is.... its a plastic tab that sticks out where it makes contact with the rubber bit that you press
sometimes if that tab snaps alittle but is still intact, you'll lose the clicky feeling but still have full use of it.
the only other way is that the tab has gone in when you dropped it and does not come out as much as it did before. again, this would still work but sometimes if it has gone in too far, then you might find slight movement will switch the phone on/off

i can turn it on and off, its just really sensitive, and i can press the case above the power button and turn it on and off, i have to push a bit harder to do so but it is noticable. it is as you described in the last part of your post, is there any way to fix that? without tearing apart the phone and voiding any warranty that it might carry?
also my wifi doesn't seem to be working, but that problem started before my phone was dropped, it'll see the network yet it won't connect, it keeps trying to use cingular's service, that i don't have.

Random vibration??

The past few weeks I've been noticing that my DHD often vibrates at random times, when it should not do this at all.
It just vibrates (in stby mode), nothing else but I always think I'm getting a call or a text, which is pretty annoying.
Sometimes it vibrates just once, but also sometimes it vibrates 3 times, very fast and hard. Last night it even woke me up...
Anyone having the same issue?
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

Had this today when I bought it out of standby. Thought I had a text or email or something but there was nothing. Never noticed it happen when in standby though.

This happens regularly on mine too! its frustrating! you think you have a call or a message but you dont! :s

Its probably caused by your signal going from hspa (3.5g) to 3g to gprs
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Isn't this called Blackberry syndrome? Imagining your phone vibrating, just so you can check it!
Seriously though, I dont have this on my DHD. It was present on my Hero though. I think its your phone getting lonely because your not using it.

If you press the volume rocker right in the middle it will vibrate 1 time and sometimes it will do 2 quick vibrates following the first one. This is probably not related to your case but it fits under the random vibration for other that might not know about it.

I noted you get a vibration when you signal goes out, and when it comes back again.

it does happen on mine too...
but i think i know the cause... its usually after using the volume buttons when it does it
but after installing CM, it doesnt do it anymore... i think its something to do with stock ROMS (mainly sense)

+1 more for that, i thought i was going mad when i first noticed it, but after reading this im feeling a bit more sane,
stock rom btw

Mine does it too. I'm using Custom Modaco Rom. When I go to unlock the phone it vibrated but not all the time. Never in my pocket though. I thought it was 3g watchdog playing up but other people getting it too so not that. It did it just now reading these posts hope it doesn't get worse.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Mine does it too. Got used to it now though.

Mine does this, but I know when it does it and why.
Usually it's either when unlocking the phone, or pressing the power button to lock it.
The reason why? It's because I have fat hands and accidentally press the volume down button when using the phone, causing it to go into vibration mode (which makes the phone vibrate once to let you know).
It's confusing, but entirely my own fault.

That's kinda diffirent from what I'm having. Mine does this without going into vibration mode or anything elsr for that matter. It just vibrates, even when locked and when the screen's off...
Just noticed that it does indeed have something to do with the volume buttons. Just lock your phone, press down both of the volume buttons, unlock it and then you will feel the 3 vibrations

I've noticed mine vibrates when launcher pro crashes, happens while i'm listening to music and try changing the volume sometimes, every time it happens the next time i unlock the phone launcher pro has to restart.
Although I have noticed it some times vibrates when I try to lock or unlock the phone and accidentally hit the volume buttons, not sure what happens there though.
EDIT: Just been trying to lock and hold one of the volume buttons, I've noticed it locks up for a second or two, so it's most likely something crashing I think.

Really sorry to bump a thead from a few weeks ago - but has anybody had any luck with resolving this?
This is the only thread I could find on the matter, and it's becoming a big annoyance for me. It's NOT when I go into vibration mode or anything, it can be anytime - even when the screen is off.

matthiasdeblaiser said:
That's kinda diffirent from what I'm having. Mine does this without going into vibration mode or anything elsr for that matter. It just vibrates, even when locked and when the screen's off...
Just noticed that it does indeed have something to do with the volume buttons. Just lock your phone, press down both of the volume buttons, unlock it and then you will feel the 3 vibrations
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried this and you're right - the three vibrations. Perhaps it's by design but I can't see why.
Anyway it's nice to know how to do it on purpose; mind you I used to get it all the time with my old cheap case, with my new case it's never done it "by itself". It seemed a bit odd but I assumed the case was "pressing" both volume buttons when on standby from time to time (makes sense).

I've noticed when i'm putting the phone in my pocket (or out), i tend to grab it on the top with the volume buttons. And yes, it does vibrate when i accidentally press them.
Try it yourself.
Regards, clumsy long fingered dude.

Mine used to do this as well. It would be sitting on the desk not touching anything, screen off and it's just idling doing nothing on stock sense rom, then it would just vibrate randomly a few times. It was a bit spooky and it kept doing it randomly :/
It has since stopped doing that, no real reason I can see why, I have flashed LeeDroid but it stopped randomly vibrating before that.

I'm on AR HD and it's still doing it.
I'm not too bothered, but a fix would be nice.

If I keep randomly pressing buttons on the phone, it will make random vibrations. Sometimes one, two or three. I don't have to press the power button, the phone screen can be turned off, and the phone doesn't go into silent/vibration mode either.
I just played about with the volume buttons now and I got a bit of lag on my phone, lasted for about 15 seconds then went away...

[Q] G1 Car Phone Power on USB

I'm building a simple G1 based solution to track my car using the phone's GPS capabilities.
Basically, the desired solution is that the G1 is wired to the car's accessory power system, and when the car is either started or the key is in the accessory position, the phone will be turned on and report its GPS coordinates occasionally.
I have most of the pieces put together for this... A G1 running cyanogenmod 6.1, a hacked up car charger that I can wire directly to car power, and some preliminary test software.
My problem, is that the phone doesn't automatically power up when plugged in. The problem scenario will be something like:
1) Car turns off
2) Phone goes on battery power.
3) I go on vacation and don't drive the car for two weeks.
4) Phone battery dies at some point.
5) Restart the car.
6) Battery starts charging. Phone never turns on. GPS tracking does not resume.
Any ideas on how to work around number 6? I don't supposed there's a firmware mod or something that changes the power-on behavior?
All ideas (even crazy mechanical ones) are welcome.
-Paul B. Davis

This is just an idea, so don't read too far into this...
How willing are you to modify the phone?
Here's why:
Ok...When you push the power button, it completes a circuit, causing the phone to power on.
1. Mod the phone, with a relay. This relay would switch one time per power cycle. Allowing for a quick one time completion of the power circuit, forcing the phone to power on when the car does. ...Turn the car off, the relay clicks again, turning the phone off. (Set the power button to turn off when pressed instead of sleep.) ..You could also go as far as to use a software mod to have the phone start a macro when the power button is pushed. This macro saves current state of whatever is running, then powers off. there are paid apps to do this BTW.
2. Set this program you will be using to autostart with the phone.
Viola... Problem solved. ...Easier said than done, I know. Just a thought though. Great idea BTW.

G1 Car Phone Power
Easer said than done.
Is a bit of an understatement.
even takeing off the case and seting up a relay onto the on/off button would not be a very neat solution. As a ciruit connected simply to the on/off button would not know the current state of the phone .
Is it off yet? is it on yet.
And simply checking the charging current would not reliably tell you if the phone is on or off . So you would need to find a power pin on the processor tracks that is held to vcc when the phone is on.
Hope this gives you some ideas.

This turned out to be an interesting project (and a PITA). I'll post pics at some point before I permanently deploy.
What I ended up doing was sort of splitting the difference on the relay issue.
As you suggested, I ultimately could not find anything approaching a software/firmware based solution for power-up on charger connect. To solve this problem, I took the phone apart until I got to the front button panel, and soldered small leads to the two sides of the power switch.
This was a particularly harrowing solder job, because the power switch conductors are actually tiny copper plates sealed into a flexible film. To get at them you have to partially dissect the film, remove the top half of the power's membrane switch, and then solder to the tiny plates without melting the film.
Anyway, once the leads were in place, I reassembled the phone. This was also a slight PITA because the front panel is engineered with no free space and now has to accommodate the new leads coming off the power switch.
After reassembly, I found a cheap timed relay circuit board that trips its relay for a variable length of seconds or minutes, and then goes dormant until being de-energized and then re-energized. I wired the relay to the power leads in parallel with a momentary power switch, wired the relay circuit to car power, set the circuit to 10 seconds, and it worked perfectly. Phone turns on every time.
It's not entirely deterministic, but I'm OK with it. Realistically, when has your phone ever NOT turned on when you held down the power button for 10 seconds?
The other half of the project was to catch the charger disconnect (car turning off) and power down. This was far simpler to implement, as the phone is rooted and I have access to everything I need to shut off.
I created a simple BroadcastReceiver that catches ACTION_POWER_DISCONNECTED and runs this little block of code to turn off the device:
Code:
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su -");
java.io.OutputStream os = proc.getOutputStream();
os.write("reboot -p\n".getBytes());
os.flush();
os.close();
I haven't tested it extensively, but it seems to work as expected every time.
I could make this a little more deterministic by creating a service that watches the charger connected state and initiates a shutdown when it notices a state change to "disconnected," but it's not clear to me that a BroadcastReceiver is any more unreliable than a service that can be pushed out of memory.
I loaded it all up into a little plastic case, and it seems to work pretty well, so far.
-PBD

After taking the phone out of standby, screen becomes unresponsive.

This happens often, but not every time.
I press the power button to put the phone into standby.
I press it again to take it out, the screen turns on, I try to press the unlock jog or any of the buttons along the bottom - nothing.
I noticed sometimes if I'm quick, it begins to animate the jog, or I get a vibration from a button along the bottom, but then it goes unresponsive.
Putting it back in/out of standby fixes it most every time.
Any ideas?

I have this same problem. Usually worse the longer it was in standby. Helps somewhat to reset the phone once a day, and also use a task killer program to kill apps you arent using.

I ended up taking the phone back to the store and they replaced it with a brand new one. The new one works flawlessly. Also, my wifes had been working since we got them saturday without issue too.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

Seems to happen to me sometimes right in the morning when I take it out of the charger... a bit annoying but nothing too serious