vB Easy Archive - SE W810i with a blinking white screen

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SE W810i with a blinking white screen
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Posted by: Oski

I'm very disappointed about this but I just purchased the SE W810i yesterday afternoon from a Cingular kiosk in a local mall, brought it home, charged it up for a few hours, played with it for about 5 minutes and got the blinking white screen of death. I am unable to stop it or turn it off and as I am typing right now it is still blinking away.

I guess I should have been forewarned when the first W810i that the kiosk rep activated WSOD'd (just the white screen without the blinking on and off). I had to wait over an hour for them to get me another W810i (they had to go to a Cingular kiosk at another mall to get it because they ran out of stock). It was nice that they went to these lengths to get me another W810i. But it still sucks, because I waited all that time and the phone is still defective.

So the ironic thing is that my husband and my son have been happily messing with their brand new LG phones that we got at the same time (LG CU500 and LG C225 respetively) while my W810i is blinking away like a beacon.

So what is my recourse? I do plan on taking it back to the kiosk today. I am leaning towards getting the LG CU500 (or the little Pantech flip) and forgetting about the W810i, or do I risk getting another one? I heard that I'm only allowed one return (for a different phone) during the 30-day period, so is it dicey to get the W810i? Am I stuck with it if I get it? What happens if it WSODs again, will Cingular keep letting me exchange it within the first year until I get one that is not defective, or will they direct me to SE for repairs? Has anybody heard of any major problems with the LG CU500?

Thanks for listening... I am truly bummed...

Posted by: VTECaddict

cingular will exchange it by mail after 30 days up to the end of the first year of ownership.

Posted by: koao

The major factor of the WSOD is not you, not the phone, but simply Cingular firmware and Cingular service.

So it is Cingular's fault.

Posted by: guapinoy

as far as the cu500 though...have had no problems with it and LG doesn't usually get the White Screen of Death usually a Sony Ericsson thing.

Posted by: ckryt

Thank Cingular Crapware - why don't you just unlock and unbrand and have stable SE firmware

Posted by: _-^Snow^-_

Just be glad that the Sony battery in it did not catch on fire... You gotta love Sony quality.

Posted by: davistld01

Just bought a credit from Wotanserver... I'm going to debrand mine tomorrow night, and avoid all the drama.

Posted by: alohajeff

It's not just Cingular firmware that has issues. My unbranded and unlocked w810i is currently out of commission, WSOD. In my searches I've come to realize that Sony firmware is just NOT reliable. And it is not just the w810 (and w810i) models, it runs across almost their entire line of current phones. Some owners are reporting that even after they de-brand and unlock their phone it still crashes from time to time. If you want all sorts of snazzy features SonyEricsson defintely offers them, if you want a rock solid and reliable phone I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

Aloha

Posted by: ckryt

Quote:

Originally Posted by alohajeff

It's not just Cingular firmware that has issues. My unbranded and unlocked w810i is currently out of commission, WSOD. In my searches I've come to realize that Sony firmware is just NOT reliable. And it is not just the w810 (and w810i) models, it runs across almost their entire line of current phones. Some owners are reporting that even after they de-brand and unlock their phone it still crashes from time to time. If you want all sorts of snazzy features SonyEricsson defintely offers them, if you want a rock solid and reliable phone I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

Aloha

What FW were you using? The R4DB005 version has been VERY stable for me. I have noticed that most of the newest problems (WSOD) are with people that didn't buy their phone unbranded and unlocked to begin with. Another common reason has been because people are using the latest FW, which has proven to be a bit buggy (I believe that is also the version Cingular chose to use). People are starting to revert back to the R4DB005 and are happy again!

Posted by: Cardiff Giant

wow i thought it was only the w600 that was plagued by this. Not good!

Posted by: Oski

Hi folks,

Thanks for all your suggestions. Just want to update you on what I did. I took the w810i back to the Cingular kiosk yesterday and exchanged it for the little Pantech c300 flip. They didn't have another w810i in stock and I didn't want to wait. I decided not to go for the LG CU500 because it felt kind of big to me. I realize that the Pantech is a step-down from the w810i, but I figured that since it is so cheap (49.99 after $20 rebate), I can always use it as a backup phone in case I want to buy an unbranded w810i later on. You should have seen the horror on the Cingular guys' faces when I chose the Pantech

. They tried to steer me to a SLVR and the Samsung D807, but I didn't like those designs.

By the way, I heard from the guys at the kiosk that my w810i was the 3rd return that they've had on this phone, so mine was not the only one. They must have received a bad batch or something.

So far I've been playing with the Pantech, and using Media Net with it (I kept the Media Works package that I ordered for the w810i). Everything seems to work as advertised, not too fancy but it has a good number of features, and it seems to be pretty stable. So perhaps I'll stay with this little phone until I'm lured by Sony Ericsson again! I will keep looking at this forum and the SE forum for all your helpful posts. Now I have to find out how to get a data cable and put MP3s on my husband's LG

(BTW, Cingular video is pretty cool on the LG.)