vB Easy Archive - Missing Phone Application Problem, need help

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Missing Phone Application Problem, need help
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Posted by: ladinaeng

Hi all,

Yesterday I performed a hard reset on my Sidekick 2 and when it rebooted my phone dialing application disappeared, rendering my phone useless for making phone calls. I can't receive them either. Everything else is fine with the phone (I can still receive text messages, emails, calendar and to do list works, and all downloaded items have returned).

I called T-Mobile after to report what happened (Tier 2 Danger rep) and was told that I should receive an OTA to fix the problem within 24 hours. Well, I've got about an hour to go on that quoted time. I did call after the 12 hour mark to confirm that I was in the queue to receive the update. The Danger rep who answered at that time said I should receive it by 12:15pm today (just two hours more than the 24 hours quoted by the original rep...no big deal there).

My question to all other SK2 users and those who know the ins and outs of the product is this. I've read on other forums that I could flash the phone using Menu + Shift + X. Would this bring back the missing application or should I just wait out the OTA (if it comes today as quoted)?

Any help or

Posted by: jgeorge

The only way to fix the missing phone icon is through a special OTA that your carrier can set up to fix it (this is the one you're waiting for).

The phone app disappears due to a flash filesystem bug. When this happens, the phone application is erased from the device, and there's nothing you can do on the device end to fix it - when it's gone, it's gone. The OTA update being sent to you will reload the OS on the device, thereby reloading the phone app.

MENU+SHIFT+X in the System Info screen is a common shortcut to clear the flash memory settings of your device. This will reset some basic system settings and clear some settings if they're changed from the OS defaults.

In all brutal honesty, menu+X doesn't really do all that much. Used in conjunction with menu+R and menu+W it will clear out a lot of the user settings in the phone which is nice if you're going to sell the phone or return it under a device swap or some such. However, none of these keys will magically cause your phone to start working again if it's broken.

Joe

Posted by: ladinaeng

Joe, thank you for this information. Unfortunately, the promised update never and still hasn't arrived. I called at 1:30pm this afternoon and was told to give it a few more hours.

What I don't understand is why it takes so long to resolve this type of issue!

Again, thanks for your response, guess I'll be placing another call within the next hour.

Posted by: Chinasaur

Remember, you are NOT talking to a Danger rep. T-Mobile corrals you inside their domain. They might "tell" you that they are Danger, but when pressed, will admit they are the T-Mobile Wireless Data Group.

I don't know if you can get to Danger at all, or talk to them. Unless you visit their lobby and talk to the receptionist

Posted by: ladinaeng

Well, I finally got my update about an hour ago. Longer than the promised 4 - 5 hours promised this afternoon. All is well.

Thank you to all that responded.

Posted by: jgeorge

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladinaeng

What I don't understand is why it takes so long to resolve this type of issue!

Reason begets reason. You asked, so I'll answer.

The reason why these OTA updates have such a variable timeframe is that OS updates are not actually PUSHED to your device, your device CHECKS for OS updates on a regular schedule (though admittedly not that often). The range of times that they give you when you call is largely based on the timeframe that your device *should* check in for an OS update. There are a number of reasons why your device may or may not hit this particular schedule, but here's in a nutshell what happens.

BTW, this is how all OS updates work, the regular ones as well we the special "fix-my-phone" ones.

There's a server out there in backend-land that acts as an OTA server. It stores the actual OS images that get downloaded to the device, and it also contains a table of what the "current OS" is for a specific device type (like "T-Mobile Sidekick II", "Fido Hiptop 1", "T-Mobile B&W Sidekick", etc). This server - in addition to a generic OS type for a generic device type, is also capable of setting a specific OS version for a particular IMEI or range of IMEIs.

When your device is online, it pings this server at a relatively slow pace (once every 1-2 days), there's a random element to it) with a short handshake... The device says "Hi, I'm IMEI# whatever, I'm a T-Mobile Sidekick II, and my OS version is whatever. How'm I doin'?". To which the OTA server normally replies "Youre fine, carry on" and all proceeds as normal.

When an OS update comes out, the OTA server tells your device (at this check-in time) if there's a new OS available. If there's a new update, your device initiates this download and grabs the OS image from the server in the background. It's intent is to get the OS update without really affecting your use of the device. If you drop offline or make a phone call, the download stops for a while, and then resumes again in a little while.

When your device has downloaded all the bits of the OS update and verified that they're not corrupted it will then prompt you to install the update - this is the first indication the device gives *you* that there's an OS update, even though it may have been working several hours in the background.

So when your phone app gets blown away by this OS bug, all the support person does is set a flag on your IMEI that forces the OTA server to tell you there's a new OS to download, even if the "latest" OS version is the same one that your device thinks it already has.

All the support person can do is set that flag. It's up to your device (and a certain degree of randomness) as to when the device will actually phone home and ask for the update. That's why there's no way to force it or not way to make it happen sooner rather than later because it's largely a random check-in that needs to occur.

Regularly scheduled OS updates are relatively rare, so there's not really a motivating factor to make the device check-in for these OS updates more than every couple of days, it just happens that this same process is used in the (reasonably) rare events of recovering a corrupt OS, and that delay seems a lot longer when your phone isn't working, I know.

Joe

Posted by: jgeorge

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

I don't know if you can get to Danger at all, or talk to them. Unless you visit their lobby and talk to the receptionist

He won't let you in unless you have an appointment. :-)

Actually, if you get to the point of getting beyond Tier 2 of the WDG, you actually *do* talk to a Danger rep even though they identify themselves as a carrier rep. Usually this process involves Tier 2 opening a trouble ticket with Danger and then the Danger responding to the ticket, and this is a reasonably rare occurrence when your device is *really* broken.

Joe

Posted by: ladinaeng

Joe,

Again, thank you for that "little" explanation! It was very helpful in understanding how updates such as mine and the regular ones really work!

Have a great week as this day is nearly over!