Database Users

Endless reboot...

Hey guys,
I've been lurking here ever since I got the incredible. Unfortunately, this is the first time I needed to post and it's bad news. My Incredible is rebooting more than 20 times a day, and I mean that not counting the reboot loop it gets stuck in. I have wiped the phone clean, started to go through the start up wizard, and it rebooted there, so I know it's not an bad app. It has rebooted randomly, though not as bad, before I rooted, so it's not that. I live in southern california and I get good service at home so I don't think it's the same problem as those incidents in south carolina. Does anyone have an idea what it could be? I'm running out of solutions and ready to just drop the phone, eat the ETF and go to sprint. Thanks in advance for the help.
Kiyoshi

I would flash it back to stock take it to verizon and show them what it is doing and have them send you another one, I brought mine back for the unresponsive screen issue and they said it was going to take three weeks for me to get another one but I received it 4 days later. so before switching to sprint and paying a big ETF I would try the above first. but if all else fails to ease the pain a little and not have to pay such a big ETF get a crappy verizon flip phone that you can activate on the line use it for a day or two then cancel your account. you will only pay a 175.00 ETF vs a 350.00 ETF. just a little round about way to "stick it" to the man.

Also, does downgrading and unrooting get rid of the wireless-n mod? Just downgraded and was in the wizard and right when I tried to connect to my network, it rebooted.

That's funny I just flashed it back to stock so I could do that. The problem is that I bought it from best buy in april and did not buy the extended warranty ( of course not, damn waste of money). IIRC, verizon does not honor warranties bought from a different store, correct?

twisted origin said:
Also, does downgrading and unrooting get rid of the wireless-n mod? Just downgraded and was in the wizard and right when I tried to connect to my network, it rebooted.
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Click to collapse
if you reflash the stock ROM it wipes everything including root and wireless N, only reflash stock if you want to return it to the store otherwise you will have to go through the sd card root process again.
twisted origin said:
That's funny I just flashed it back to stock so I could do that. The problem is that I bought it from best buy in april and did not buy the extended warranty ( of course not, damn waste of money). IIRC, verizon does not honor warranties bought from a different store, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure if verizon won't exchange it, I think that there is a year warranty on the phone standard and extended warranty is only good for after the manufacturers warranty runs out. I would check with BB first and if they won't exchange it take it to verizon and see what they say, BB is an authorized verizon dealer so I would imagine that verizon will honor the warranty. but there is only one way to find out. Good Luck.

ok, so I took it to verizon today, and luckily for me it was rebooting away right after the CSR personally factory reset it. I actually was happy it did, too. She was so smug, telling me that I should have been using a task killer and that maybe I didn't factory reset it correctly. She starts it up and was giving me a "haha that's how you do it" look, when it rebooted on her. She battery pulled it, and then it went into a reboot loop on her. Her smug look was replaced by a look of defeat. It was worth the fact that I couldn't get it to stop rebooting for five minutes after that.
I then called 611 and they said they had a replacement for me and that it would be at my doorstep in two days. Evidently, they keep a separate stock for warranty issues. Well anyways, thanks for the help and I'll have an incredible back in my hands soon

Have u tried going into airplane mode and see if it does it? Just curious.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Haha I just read Ur last post, I find it funny cuz I work for Verizon also and man u would not believe how many reps say u need a task killer, dumbasses.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Yes, keeping it in airplane mode definitely helped. With that in mind, I might have an idea of what happened to my phone and potentially to other phones that have had this problem. I ordered the seidio 1750 batt. when I first got my phone, so I have been using it pretty much since the beginning. As you may know it can get unusually warm when in use. I would frequently use it when I'm at work to listen to podcasts and would keep it on the car charger while in use ( I work at a landfill doing gas monitoring, engineering, etc. so always in my work truck). That is first time I could recall a reboot occurring. I don't know how the internal layout is made up, but perhaps the radio or whatever else related received damage due to overheating. Oh well, already received my new incredible and I now have a battery charger so I will avoid charging and using at the same time. You guys are probably saying "Uh, yeah, of course that will happen, dumbass" but I've never had a problem with my other phones.

A GPS fix that actually worked for me!

I got a replacement phone!!.....no more problems. I bought the vibrant the first day it came out and the Gps never worked. I tried every fix posted here, flashed different roms, went up on rooftops, etc, it would never get a lock. I called Tmobile customer service last week as I was finally fed up and told them I had a faulty GPS on the phone. They said that qualified as a defect, and as my phone was still under the one year manufacturer warranty, they happily sent me a new handset which I received yesterday. The gps works quite well right out of the box, also the phone seems faster and has no gallery lag like my last one. I can't speak as to the quality of the gps which is of great controversy here, but i'm happy to have it working at all, and fairly accurate so far it seems. I highly recommend to all of those folks out there with non functioning gps....just get a new phone....this is not a cheap device and should function as intended.

Did you flash your phone back to stock before returning it? Just wondering... I've seen some talk of t-mobile not caring about flashed phones, and I'm thinking of having mine exchanged for the same reason.

I got a replacement phone too. Manufactured in November. GPS works without any problems both when I tried it stock and with Nero 1.0. No more ****ing around with it for me!

I have not flashed it back to stock. Tmobile hasn't said anything about rooting and flashing roms voiding the warranty, so I don't think it will be a problem.....I hope

How would I be able to tell the manufactured date on my phone? I dont have it here with me, but just I know when I get home...
Is it possible to attempt to replace the phone within the first year of purchase??
I got my Vibrant at Best Buy.. would I have to go to Best Buy or T-Mobile??
I seem to get some GPS locks and correct positioning ONLY when I use both GPS & Network location options... sooo I'm assuming my GPS doesnt function properly right..?? My GPS alone should be able to locate me right??

I just got my phone replaced through insurance about a week ago and noticed a increased gps lock right away

If you have the update(which everyone should have by now) and gps isnt working still, then yea I would say call it in and get it replaced. I have mine that I got when it first came out and after the update(but then this was also after flashing each and every rom/leak/etc that i went back to stock), gps works fine for me.
Just remember, dont place the phone near any large metal, or magnetic objects, this throws the compass off. And try to be in view of as much sky as possible. Being in the shadow of a building will distort the signal and throw your location/accuracy off.

perron-
You should definitely be able to get decent accuracy/locks/location from the GPS just by itself. Using wireless networks can sometimes help enough that it masks the fact that your GPS performance is sub par. I never have the "Use wireless networks" box checked as it doesn't seem to improve my GPS's performance, and sometimes it seems to hurt it. Use an app like GPS Test to get an idea of how well the GPS is functioning, and make sure you have the wireless networks option turned off.

A quick question---Don't you get a refurbished phone if you get your current phone replaced? That is the way it has always worked with me for the last 13 years with TM. Perhaps you received a refurbished phone mfg in Nov. I am still having GPS situations and have thought about asking for replacement but am concerned that I would receive one worse than what I now have, including hard locked buttons.

They will give you a "new or like-new" phone. Mine was new but it wasn't in a retail package.

my manufacture date is 7/21/2010
my gps seems to work just fine. Thats with wireless networks not checked. sometimes i cant get a lock in a building, but thats not a huge deal for me. My gps stays connected when i get a singal, doesnt wander off the route, and seems to be fairly accurate, within a few feet. I got the phone oct 22, from radio shack.
Just used the GPS Test App;
Indoors
in view 12
in use 5
30ft
Outdoors
in view 12
in use 8-10
18-20ft

I got my replacement Vibrant last week. It was a new phone, complete with original box, battery, two back covers, headphones, instructions, usb cable, charger, and SIM card. GPS works now, locks in seconds and doesn't jump around anymore. I Odined my old phone back to stock, put it in the new box and sent it back to T-Mobile. I kept everything else.

i got my phone from tmobile off contract in august and my gps works but not very well. do i qualify for a replacement?

EDIT: Crap. Never mind, just realized you wrote "original box". I'll call for replacement. Nothing to see here. Move along...lol
monstah_rain said:
I got my replacement Vibrant last week. It was a new phone, complete with original box, battery, two back covers, headphones, instructions, usb cable, charger, and SIM card. GPS works now, locks in seconds and doesn't jump around anymore. I Odined my old phone back to stock, put it in the new box and sent it back to T-Mobile. I kept everything else.
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Click to collapse
The one you got, was it on a white box and wrapped in a carton-with-a-window or was it a full retail box?
I received one from insurance (Asurion) and was in a white box and indeed was refurb but all accessories in the box, including both back covers and all (was replacing a Nexus One). Got it replaced by tmo bcause the screen was greenish, and received the replacement one in an identical box, from the same address in TX, no accessories but I'd swear is new, not a single sxratch in the battery area - a telling sign (on the IMEI label under the batt says 10.07 so I assume us the nfg date). The IMEI in the box matched on both phones.
My GPS jumps all over the place, so if you definitely got a retail one, I'll ask for warrabty exchange.

I had gotten a replacement not to long ago was in original box sealed
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

barmanham said:
I had gotten a replacement not to long ago was in original box sealed
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Thanks. Based on both of your posts just called, and will get a replacement. Didn't give me any trouble at all when I asked for a replacement. However, the guy said he had no idea if I would get a new or a refurb... will call tomorrow and whine just in case.
Sent from my Ideos S7 using XDA App

engineer14 said:
i got my phone from tmobile off contract in august and my gps works but not very well. do i qualify for a replacement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should. They sell it. They must guarantee it. Call their cust service. Your IMEI is the key.
Sent from my Ideos S7 using XDA App

mine came in the little white window box, no backplate, battery, or anything else. Maybe it's a refurbish...I don't know, however, it works perfectly and looks brand new.

jstein222 said:
mine came in the little white window box, no backplate, battery, or anything else. Maybe it's a refurbish...I don't know, however, it works perfectly and looks brand new.
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Just like mine #2 (current). Looks and feels new. GPS jumps around when you are static? And have you used the samsung gps reset app thing?
ty

jstein222 said:
mine came in the little white window box, no backplate, battery, or anything else. Maybe it's a refurbish...I don't know, however, it works perfectly and looks brand new.
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Click to collapse
Yup, that's how mine came. Manufactured in November and appears to be new in ever respect.

[q] sprint service rep messed up my phone!

so I took my epic to a sprint store to get a new screen. got it back and turned it on. found out they deleted a few games and my task killer. and for some reason, my phone could not get an service whatsoever. it says I am in roaming with no bars and I know that's wrong because I get full bars in my house. also, I cannot send or receive calls or texts. after n hour on the phone with sprint, they couldn't fix it and they finally just switched my service to an older phone. I will go to a sprint store at a current date but I'm on vacation and don't have a chance to go to the store.
so, any ideas what mightve happened? and ideas how I should go about talking to sprint to get this issue fixed?
thanks in advance.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

We will need to know more about the phone. Are you running stock ROM or not? Are you rooted? I am guessing that since you took it into the store that you were running it stock and unrooted. Give us some more details and we might be able to be more help.
It looks like you might need to factory reset, but you can d/l a backup program to save all the .apks for the apps you have gotten from the market, or you can root the phone and get a better backup program. I would not recommend using clockwork recovery as, I believe, it will back up everything and might just restore the phone to its unusable state. That being said it couldn't hurt to try Clockwork recovery and if you just have to wipe the phone again you can.
It's really annoying when you take a phone into Sprint and they just make matters worse. One time I took a phone it for an issue with the screen and they actually broke the screen further and then refused to figure out a way to fix it.

I'm rooted and I'm running the latest epic experience based off of dk28. was not able to odin completely back to stock before taking it to the store. they never said anything about it being the wrong firmware.
when I returned home, it was too late to actually do anything about the issue, so I called tech support. the woman worked me through some tests and nothing indicated what was wrong and therefore there's no solution to it. she finally just said that its a hardware malfunction, which it could be. only way to get that fixed is to go to the sprint store whenever I'm able to, which might not be for a while.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Yeah I don't think it's a hardware issuer personally. If you haven't tried wiping the phone and starting fresh that would be my first step. The fact is that if it's hardware you will end up with a fresh phone anyhow, so why not factory reset the phone and see if it fixes the problem...also maybe uninstall the last few apps you downloaded. They might be messing with your radios.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Did they choc the screen? If stop I guess it's possible that they messed up your radios at thst point.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I actually think this is a hardware issue. Better flash back to stock before you bring it in for any issues or they can deny your replacement. Sprint corporate repair centers have advanced testers specifically for signal related issues and without an antenna it will fail for sure. You may want to explain the issue started when your screen was replaced.
When they replaced the screen they may have screwed up the antenna internal. Generally, a tech will not do anything with the firmware/software when they are fixing hardware so I am not sure what happened with your apps.
Also, the part was likely harvested from another phone... If they brought the antenna from the other phone it could be defective (which is possibly why it was there to harvest from). It's also possible that your antenna is not actually in your phone.

wait I thought if you were within your first year they had to give you a new phone anyway?
I would definatly be raising a stink! Look you paid good money for the phone and hopefully you paid for insurance. dont let them give you second rate service. Go ask for a new phone and just transfer all your stuffto that one.

boominz28 said:
wait I thought if you were within your first year they had to give you a new phone anyway?
I would definatly be raising a stink! Look you paid good money for the phone and hopefully you paid for insurance. dont let them give you second rate service. Go ask for a new phone and just transfer all your stuffto that one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not if he rooted and flashed a non apporved update and they see it
GituSum Epic

As stated above, odin to stock, and ***** till its resolved. IDK if another sprint store is an option, but that can help, also calling into tech support and getting an appt with the repair center seems to help. Was just in today and should be getting a 'replacement' Monday, I have a purple line of what appears to be stuck pixels along the bottom or left side of screen. First sprint store, the brilliant techs tried to tell me it was a 'cosmetic flaw' and that they could fix it for 35 bux, knowing I have TEP... got home, called in, tech support guy was really cool, and also noticed that 35 bux applies to people w/o TEP, the only way money would be involved would be water, loss, etc... got an appt for today, and yeah... hoping the replacement is new... but whatever. Anyways, you have a 500 dollar phone, don't take any BS... the first guys even said to call sammy for a warranty.... idiots.

thanks for all the replies.
part of the tests included doing a factory reset. and that didn't work. I can't believe that doing a repair could completely mess up my phone even more. of course I'll ***** and complain until I get my way. I'm used to it with sprint.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

They probably didnt reconnect the antenna. I had to get my 3.5mm headphone jack replaced on my epic and when the sprint rep handed the phone back, I went outside and couldnt get any signal whatsoever. I immediately took the phone back and the rep reconnected the antenna in a matter of minutes.

dee32181 said:
They probably didnt reconnect the antenna. I had to get my 3.5mm headphone jack replaced on my epic and when the sprint rep handed the phone back, I went outside and couldnt get any signal whatsoever. I immediately took the phone back and the rep reconnected the antenna in a matter of minutes.
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Click to collapse
this sounds almost exactly like what I'm experiencing. as soon as I return home or find spare time, ill go back to sprint and see if they can reconnect the antenna.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Definitely could be a simple issue with the antenna being plugged in. If it was reset already then its likely not software BUT... they will not replace it if it needs to be replaced if they notice that its rooted.

I had same issue after camera button failed. Antenna wasnt put back on properly. I had crazy signals.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

So you haven't tried odin yet...? Just a fw? What if your modem is just buggy...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

boominz28 said:
wait I thought if you were within your first year they had to give you a new phone anyway?
I would definatly be raising a stink! Look you paid good money for the phone and hopefully you paid for insurance. dont let them give you second rate service. Go ask for a new phone and just transfer all your stuffto that one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. Sprint doesn't HAVE to give you a new phone. Its a fix/replace policy and if you don't have insurance it will cost you $35. That's a recent policy change. You can go through Samsung if your looking to excersise your one year warranty...but good luck on a rooted phone.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

unfortunantly, my laptop is down right now. so I cannot odin back to stock. no, I've never had this problem before and judging by a few others, it seems that this is a common problem.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Quis89 said:
Wrong. Sprint doesn't HAVE to give you a new phone. Its a fix/replace policy and if you don't have insurance it will cost you $35. That's a recent policy change. You can go through Samsung if your looking to excersise your one year warranty...but good luck on a rooted phone.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will disagree with you, I do beleive that within the first year of you buying that phone they have to give you a replacement, But I will research this further and post my results.

I'll help with the policy, If you don't have a service and repair plan, or TEP, then they will charge you 35 for a repair, regardless of if the phone is in warranty or not. 35 bucks includes everything except board damage, phone coming in the store in two pieces, or liquid damage. I.E. something that can't be repaired anyway by anyone, I.E damaged beyond repair.
If you have the service plan, then you don't get charged the 35 bucks.
If the store can't fix the issue, they order a refurb phone that usually shows up in one/two business days at the store or to your house, your choice.
The only time you get a NEW phone is when you've had the device for less than 30 days, you can return it any time in that period or get it swapped out for a new one if there is a issue and the store can't fix it. You can return it for any reason as well during this time.
Anyway, like everyone stated, the issue with the phone is that the antenna is probably not hooked up. It's at the bottom of the phone, and is connected with a cable that has two connects on it, one at each end, at the antenna and at the main board. One or both of them is off the phone, and that could be fixed by anyone with a screw driver and a butter knife in about 5 minutes.

hdnet1 said:
I'll help with the policy, If you don't have a service and repair plan, or TEP, then they will charge you 35 for a repair, regardless of if the phone is in warranty or not. 35 bucks includes everything except board damage, phone coming in the store in two pieces, or liquid damage. I.E. something that can't be repaired anyway by anyone, I.E damaged beyond repair.
If you have the service plan, then you don't get charged the 35 bucks.
If the store can't fix the issue, they order a refurb phone that usually shows up in one/two business days at the store or to your house, your choice.
The only time you get a NEW phone is when you've had the device for less than 30 days, you can return it any time in that period or get it swapped out for a new one if there is a issue and the store can't fix it. You can return it for any reason as well during this time.
Anyway, like everyone stated, the issue with the phone is that the antenna is probably not hooked up. It's at the bottom of the phone, and is connected with a cable that has two connects on it, one at each end, at the antenna and at the main board. One or both of them is off the phone, and that could be fixed by anyone with a screw driver and a butter knife in about 5 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that stinks if i buy a almost 600 dollar phone and say 2 months goes , if they send me a refurbished , im gonna raise a stink.

New phone from Tmobile?

So I have one of the original Vibrants from last summer when they first came out. It doesn't matter what I do to the phone, update, root, rom, the gps signal always sucks and never works very well when using it as a gps to navigate somewhere as it always loses signal and the gps stops working.
My question is do you think its worth it to put it back to stock and call Tmobile and complain and see if they will send me a new one? Do the new ones still have the GPS problems? Thanks in advance.

I did that a few weeks ago. They said it was a known problem and that they wouldn't give me a new one. I told them that my volume buttons was loose and then they sent me a refurbished one. Don't tell them your phone is rooted.

No I won't tell them it was rooted at all. I just want the damn GPS to work, it was sold to me on the basis that it had gps and it doesn't even work so it pisses me off.

Tell me if it works then I might do the same.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I had the same issue with GPS on an early Vibrant. I don't have a T-mobile contract, I just use a prepaid T-mobile voice sim with data via wifi (I have a CLEAR hotspot).
I expected T-mobile not to do anything without a contract, but to my surprise they easily agreed to an exchange. The rep went through a check list asking me if I had upgraded to the latest firmware and tried the Samsung app that resets the GPS. I said yes, and the next thing on his checklist was authorize the exchange.
It took 3 weeks for them to process my return and get the replacement to me. I don't know if its new or refurb. I had to send it in without battery, cell sim. ,memory sim or back, and they sent me back the same thing in a non-descript packing.
Again, I don't know if its new or not, it looks mint. The tag inside lists "STA 11.05" which I assume means its manufactured in May 2011, which again would indicate new. (There is also a bar code that says 10.08 on the tag, so I could be wrong).
Now to the bottom line. After a day of testing I only see a marginal improvement in the GPS sync time, but I may not have tested enough yet to know. I'm running stock 2.2 KB5. Besides taking a long time to sync, my old one would occasionally hang when the gps was in use. Too soon to know about that with the replacement.
My experience tracking the replacement through T-mobile was dismal. Eager to get it back I sent it fedex overnight. They promised 7 business day replacement and I "chat"ed with them every other day for status. They basically had no information including confirmation that they received it . All they could do was have me refer to my fedex delivery receipt. As they missed deadlines they made up stories, and unabashedly contradicted promises I could paste in from the earlier "chats". Escalating to supervisors was no better. Basically, until they actually shipped the return after 3 weeks they had no information that it even had arrived.
If you have a contract they may have better return processing options. I had to deal with the pre-paid rules.
Right now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. If the 11.05 date is real, I would hope that it doesn't have the bad solder connection that people have been hacking. I suppose I could try one of the other rom's that some people say work better with gps.
I'm also tempted to try and bypass customer support and write to some higher management at T-mobile to complain. I paid $500 for the Vibrant without a contract. If anyone has a contact I would like to hear about it.

But do the new vibrants have the gps fixed?????

kmandel said:
Again, I don't know if its new or not, it looks mint. The tag inside lists "STA 11.05" which I assume means its manufactured in May 2011, which again would indicate new. (There is also a bar code that says 10.08 on the tag, so I could be wrong).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is that the phone was originally built in Aug 2010 and refurbed in May 2011.

That cracks me up, "its a known problem, sorry you're screwed" if its a known problem... shouldn't it get fixed??
Imagine if other things worked like that too. Like when toyota had that brake problem lol
Vibrant
rom: project-v
kernel: bali 1.8.6UV
launcher:adw

xxcaponexx said:
But do the new vibrants have the gps fixed?????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine works fine after I got a replacement. I get about 6-8 locks within 3 or 4 seconds and tracks my movement just fine.

Definitely ask for a replacement. I bothered them a couple times, told them I did everything, gps restore, factory reset, blah blah blah, and that it's never worked. I even told them I was rooted so I could try different roms to see if I could get the GPS to work and he just said that it was dangerous to root my phone and that I would have to return it to stock when I sent it back. They did a warranty exchange, so asking for that would help. They also sent me the replacement first and then I sent them back the old one. GPS works awesome now, within 10 feet. I've even locked on to 11 of 13 birds before. I don't always get a great signal but it is 100x's more usable than before.

Get Rom Manager Premium
Use it to put the project V Rom on your phone along with the gps fix and then come back and tell us how much you gave EDT and some of the other guys around here for helping.
I couldn't get mine to work for the longest time either but it's working great now. I don't know, about battery life, but otherwise the thing is smooooth and fast.

Wow, so after all the crying on these forums you guys are going with a carrier again huh? Cry, cry, cry but let's all conveniently forget not getting any updates.
Guess the good news for me is, I'll never get to see all the *****es on here whining again. As I'll be in the unlocked phone forum enjoying any and all benefits many months ahead of time.
It's unbelievable.
Some of you will never, ever learn.
#Neveragain 2, coming soon to a forum near you.

^wait what???

pitbull010 said:
^wait what???
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I am just as confused brother.

I definitely don't want what he's on.

Warranty replacement
tony yayo said:
Definitely ask for a replacement. I bothered them a couple times, told them I did everything, gps restore, factory reset, blah blah blah, and that it's never worked. I even told them I was rooted so I could try different roms to see if I could get the GPS to work and he just said that it was dangerous to root my phone and that I would have to return it to stock when I sent it back. They did a warranty exchange, so asking for that would help. They also sent me the replacement first and then I sent them back the old one. GPS works awesome now, within 10 feet. I've even locked on to 11 of 13 birds before. I don't always get a great signal but it is 100x's more usable than before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same experience with a replacement phone, received the replacement the next day without paying for expedited shipping. The GPS has been working well, but only since I upgraded to Project V.

I got a replacement about a month ago from my original release device. GPS is much improved, but still not perfect. Fast locks, but using it for driving is still pretty hit and miss, there's just less miss. Still kind of irks me, but I guess this is as good as it gets.

my screen is cracked, though it still works fine. do you think this excusse will work in order to get a new phone? I got my vibrant the day it came out, so the gps has always sucked, though i don't use it all that often to be that much of a problem...
would love to hear what you guys think
thanks in advance!

Totally disappointed with Tmobile. Will not make the same mistake again!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

T-Mobile has released an update fix for GPS problems on their Vibrant phones. Please search for it online. I tried this and my GPS works great now.

Atrix Fingerprint and Camera issues --- ATT says too bad, so sad

I've had my Atrix for about 6 months and suffered through the normal issues without complaining (occasional random reboots & lockups, flaky fingerprint scanner, etc).
Recently my fingerprint scanner stopped working completely. In the past I've been able to get it started again by removing the battery, that doesn't help anymore -- it's completely dead. I've see some posts about cleaning the scanner pad, I may have to try that.
Additionally I now have a black spot in my photos and videos. There's apparently some debris under my camera lens; the spot moves around but it's always there.
I called the ATT handset warranty center expecting them to swap it out for a refurb unit; this isn't ideal but better than what I have. Instead here's the answer I got:
Fingerprint Scanner: "Motorola tells us this isn't a warrantable concern, you have alternate methods to unlock your screen". You can call Motorola directly to see if they'll do anything for you.
Debris inside the camera lens: "Oh, that voids your warranty." I advised the lens is a sealed unit and the debris must have been in there since day one. Their argument is that since I just noticed it now (i.e. it just loosened up and moved into an area where it's noticeable) it is not a warrantable concern and by the way it also voids my phone's warranty.
I'm floored by both answers and pretty shocked. The customer service agent was very matter-of-fact and I know she's reciting the company line.
Anbody have a similar experience?

buschman69 said:
I've had my Atrix for about 6 months and suffered through the normal issues without complaining (occasional random reboots & lockups, flaky fingerprint scanner, etc).
Recently my fingerprint scanner stopped working completely. In the past I've been able to get it started again by removing the battery, that doesn't help anymore -- it's completely dead. I've see some posts about cleaning the scanner pad, I may have to try that.
Additionally I now have a black spot in my photos and videos. There's apparently some debris under my camera lens; the spot moves around but it's always there.
I called the ATT handset warranty center expecting them to swap it out for a refurb unit; this isn't ideal but better than what I have. Instead here's the answer I got:
Fingerprint Scanner: "Motorola tells us this isn't a warrantable concern, you have alternate methods to unlock your screen". You can call Motorola directly to see if they'll do anything for you.
Debris inside the camera lens: "Oh, that voids your warranty." I advised the lens is a sealed unit and the debris must have been in there since day one. Their argument is that since I just noticed it now (i.e. it just loosened up and moved into an area where it's noticeable) it is not a warrantable concern and by the way it also voids my phone's warranty.
I'm floored by both answers and pretty shocked. The customer service agent was very matter-of-fact and I know she's reciting the company line.
Anbody have a similar experience?
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I have stuff under my front facing camera ,it looks like dust and it is very noticeable. The camera on the back i can see a smudge that is under the lense. You can see it when you go to take a picture. It was caused when i was at Red Lobster, my dad spilled water on my phone and the water leaked under the glass but now it is all gone and it has left behind dust. I have also been experiencing the screen doing things by itself , uncontrolable movement causing me to have to lock and relock the device for it to become usable again. I called ATT and told them everything and NONE of the water circles that determine water damage have changed colors , they are all white. Att said it would cost 150$ for a new phone. Basiclly with me paying 5$ a month for insurance for my phone and then when i have a problem it costs 150$ for a new one? or even a used one i don't see the point in having insurance !

firefox3 said:
Att said it would cost 150$ for a new phone. Basiclly with me paying 5$ a month for insurance for my phone and then when i have a problem it costs 150$ for a new one? or even a used one i don't see the point in having insurance !
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Not any more. Check with AT&T again. The warranty cost went up a month or so ago, and the deductible for the Atrix is now $199. I think it went up in October if I remember correctly.

yea my fp scanners dead

This is why I don't bother with buying insurance on my phones anymore. Most of the time you're just paying a monthly fee for nothing, and when something does go wrong, you get screwed anyway.

CaelanT said:
Not any more. Check with AT&T again. The warranty cost went up a month or so ago, and the deductible for the Atrix is now $199. I think it went up in October if I remember correctly.
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They just dropped the atrix 4g down to a tier 2 device so the deductible is $125 now according to at&ts website.
I've switched back to my nexus one for now because my atrix was giving me too many issues. 4-5 battery pulls a day because of screen freezes. Touch screen firing erratically, overheating and shutting down, random reboots, wifi unable to connect unless I restart. It occurs regardless of what rom or kernel including stock everything (it started before I started flashing so I actually thought it was stock issues). Debating which course of action to take with it but I don't have insurance and its bootloader unlocked which may or may not cause issues if I go to Motorola (always a case by case basis i suppose)

lostinbeta said:
I've switched back to my nexus one for now because my atrix was giving me too many issues. 4-5 battery pulls a day because of screen freezes. Touch screen firing erratically, overheating and shutting down, random reboots, wifi unable to connect unless I restart. It occurs regardless of what rom or kernel including stock everything (it started before I started flashing so I actually thought it was stock issues).
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I've never had such a thing happen to my phone.
knock wood.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

lostinbeta said:
They just dropped the atrix 4g down to a tier 2 device so the deductible is $125 now according to at&ts website.
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I stand corrected! Funny how they changed the Atrix back after only a couple of weeks. Wonder how many people were stuffed with the $199 in that time period!
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/en_US/pdf/wireless-phone-insurance-deductible-schedule.pdf

CaelanT said:
I stand corrected! Funny how they changed the Atrix back after only a couple of weeks. Wonder how many people were stuffed with the $199 in that time period!
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/en_US/pdf/wireless-phone-insurance-deductible-schedule.pdf
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I still would never pay 125 for a new atrix ! i would rather buy a nexus s ! or save up for a galaxy nexus

firefox3 said:
I still would never pay 125 for a new atrix ! i would rather buy a nexus s ! or save up for a galaxy nexus
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Interesting, but I certainly wouldn't take a rebadged Galaxy S in preference to an Atrix, even if they were released at a similar time!

CaelanT said:
I stand corrected! Funny how they changed the Atrix back after only a couple of weeks. Wonder how many people were stuffed with the $199 in that time period!
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/en_US/pdf/wireless-phone-insurance-deductible-schedule.pdf
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Click to collapse
Thanks for linking the document. I only knew the information because a few days prior to reading this thread I was looking up insurance information for a friend of mine and I happened to look down in curiosity to what it would be for the Atrix. I didn't have time to find it and link it when I replied here though.
AT&T is shifty!

just call back in, say you are having constant reboots and force closes, tell them you did a hard reset, still no change, and they should send you out a warranty unit
once they get your unit back, they won't actually use the phone so there's no way to tell there aren't resets [and besides, you will send it to them in a factory reset anyways so it will load up with a blur sign up menu]

firefox3 said:
I still would never pay 125 for a new atrix ! i would rather buy a nexus s ! or save up for a galaxy nexus
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Ya - well hopefully this never happens to me...bet the galaxy nexus can't run my laptop dock and multimedia dock.

I thought it was common knowledge that AT&T sucks. Send your phone to Motorola, they will fix it. AT&T is full of **** saying moto says its not covered by warranty, why would they tell you to contact moto directly then!! AT&T can blow me, they charge for premium and give sub standard.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

Sass86 said:
I thought it was common knowledge that AT&T sucks. Send your phone to Motorola, they will fix it. AT&T is full of **** saying moto says its not covered by warranty, why would they tell you to contact moto directly then!! AT&T can blow me, they charge for premium and give sub standard.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
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Motorola will fix my device for free?
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firefox3 said:
Motorola will fix my device for free?
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Depends on if they consider the problems to be fixable under warranty. A lot of companies try to weasel out of it though. If your device has scratches, dents or dings they might try to say you dropped it and that caused the problems. Or if you are bootloader unlocked they can claim you voided your warranty because you may have installed software that jacked up your phones hardware. I don't know how Motorola is with this, and you won't know unless you submit it for warranty repair and find out.

firefox3 said:
Motorola will fix my device for free?
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Sry for the late response. I'm saying I unlocked my bootloader, reflashed stock gingerbread firmware, then sent in my atrix for repair of digitizer and fps for free.
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