vB Easy Archive - What is it with CINGULAR TREO 650's???

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What is it with CINGULAR TREO 650's???
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Posted by: CrunchDude

Alright, so I get my girlfriend a Treo 650 for Verizon and I fell in love with it after watching her play around with it, so I got one for myself on Cingular.

The first Treo I bought had a little background noise. Whenever I placed a call with it, you could hear what my girlfriend described very well by calling it "audible air". I noticed it when nobody was talking as well as during a conversation.

So I get a warranty replacement shipped to me overnight. This one didn't seem to have as much of a noise problem but it made a "clicking noise" every time the screen turned off when on a call. Very annoying and distracting. So much for Treo #2.

Off we go, ordering another replacement (this is Treo 650 #3). This one did not even dial out except when you put it on speakerphone.

Dialing ANY number resulted in complete silence and by accident, I found out that you could make a call, but only on speakerphone.

So I call again and have it escalated from the warranty department to something like the PDA Data Devices Specialists or whatever they're called. The nice lady promised me to send me a BRAND NEW Treo in the box with all the accessories. I thought, great. Well, let's just say that Treo #4 did not exactly perform so great. Unpacking it and all excited, but also a bit weary because of all the other problems with the other Treo's, I make my first call. Great, I thought, the noise issue wasn't there. Then,

it also did the little clicking noise whenever the screen went off during a conversation (see Treo #2). This one was worse, though, because for whatever reason, the screen came on and off, faithfully annoying the hell out of me by giving off this clicking noise with the screen also distracting me by turning on and off.

Having said all of this, my girlfriend's Verizon Treo 650 HAS NONE OF THESE ISSUES. In fact, it works perfectly. I also have a Sprint Treo 650, which I am selling, which also HAS NONE OF THESE ISSUES. No noise of any kind, no clicking, no problems dialing out, etc. And ALL these Treo's are the SAME MODEL, just on different carriers.

What is going on here? I have the latest firmware on all of the Treo's by the way which makes no difference. So I guess I'm going to call the warranty department AGAIN today to get YET ANOTHER Treo. I don't get it, why is it that FOUR Treo 650's on Cingular are crap and the Verizon and Sprint ones work just fine?

I've never had this many issues with any cellphone and I've owned quite a few. PLEASE help me if you have any ideas.

Posted by: garthzoman

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrunchDude

Um, everything you have described is exactly how the Cingular 650 on the latest firmware works properly.

The screen flashing on and off was part of the last firmware update, which I hate also. It is VERY annoying if you're talking in a dark room...mine has the staticy noise too. I should have learned my lesson with Ipods which is to stay away from firmware updates. In any case....another situation where you need to purchase a 3rd party application to keep the screen shut OFF during calls. I purchased Treoguard, but the screen function only works when it feels like it, so I still face the same problem. If the issues you raised bother you that much, it sounds like you should just get your money back and stay away from the Cingular smartphones.

Posted by: braincell

I haven't had too many problems aside from the fact that when I am talking to someone I can hear my own voice repeating through their phone as well on a delay. Quite annoying and distracting. Don't know what to tell you other wise.

Posted by: GJMOO7

I guess it's the GSM network and CDMA is just clearer and better.
That's why i gave up on GSM,TDMA,and IDEN.

Posted by: kagekouen

If can ask, when you're on the Cingular T650, how bars of connection are you getting?

Posted by: CrunchDude

Quote:

Originally Posted by GJMOO7

I guess it's the GSM network and CDMA is just clearer and better.
That's why i gave up on GSM,TDMA,and IDEN.

I highly doubt that as I had NO such issue with my old Nokia 3650.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kagekouen

If can ask, when you're on the Cingular T650, how bars of connection are you getting?

I am getting 4 bars which is the max on the Treo 650 I believe. Excellent reception usually everywhere I go. Why do you ask?

Posted by: kagekouen

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrunchDude

I am getting 4 bars which is the max on the Treo 650 I believe. Excellent reception usually everywhere I go. Why do you ask?

My Cingular T650 was crap until I got the select network hack, which solved all of my sound issues.

Posted by: CrunchDude

Quote:

Originally Posted by kagekouen

My Cingular T650 was crap until I got the select network hack, which solved all of my sound issues.

Oh really? That sounds interesting!! Can I ask where you are located? I am currently on Long Island, NY. Does it have to do with the Orange and Blue network selection? How would I get the hack? And I'm wondering what network selection would have to do with a sound problem...

By the way, I got my FOURTH warranty replacement in the mail today. I haven't even opened it up yet. I'll try it out tomorrow. Cingular sure is amazing with sending Treo after Treo after Treo...

Posted by: TheLurker

My 650 does not have any of these issues; I'm using a Jabra bluetooth headset however.

Posted by: the_passenger

the bluetooth implementation in the Treo650 (firmware/hardware) is crapiest I've ever seen. When I talk on the phone using the Treo bluetooth headset, it has so much static. Holding the phone closed to my headset, then the problem goes away. But come on who would buy a bluetooth headset to hold the phone next to it when talking? Changing the headset to a motorolla and it still produces the same problem.

Posted by: CrunchDude

Well, well, well, opening up that latest warranty replacement was another disappointment. Hah...Boy! So does anyone know what the Siemens SX66 is like? They offered to upgrade me to that one for free!

Posted by: dawaits

I have experience using the Siemens SX66 with Cingular and it has many problems.... Dropped Calls, poor battery life, troule with Bluetooth, etc...

Posted by: CrunchDude

Oh really? Is there ANY phone that will work with Cingular???

Posted by: dawaits

I just got my Treo 650, so My jury is still out on it.
Other than that, I haven't used there Blackberry products or the Audivox phone.
So, I am not the expert on all the offerings, but for the SX66, I would say go for it if you like, but expect many of the same problems.

Posted by: pa555

I'm here looking for a fix for a friends 650 and thought I would tell you I have the Audiovox SMT 5600, it works great with no problems so far going on 4 months now.

Posted by: bizwarrior

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrunchDude

I highly doubt that as I had NO such issue with my old Nokia 3650.

I am getting 4 bars which is the max on the Treo 650 I believe. Excellent reception usually everywhere I go. Why do you ask?

You have been posting everywhere. I thought you said that one of the replacements worked ok in another post somewhere? You keep wanting to discount the GSM possibility. Here is an article on problems with GSM on some phones, posted by someone else, I wish I could remember his name for credit purposes:

http://www.edn.com/article/CA498768...xt=buzz+and+gsm

The reason the network select might help is that it would change you to another frequency thereby solving the problem.

Posted by: CrunchDude

Quote:

Originally Posted by bizwarrior

No, actually, the first one that I originally complained about works best out of all of them. As for the network select hack, can you PM it to me? I am going to give that a shot. What firmware version do you have, by the way?

Also, would you happen to know anything about the SX66 or the Audiovox SMT 5600? Thanks...

Posted by: bizwarrior

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrunchDude

Here is the page with the network selects hacks on it, just download:

http://www.hively.com/selectnetworkhack/

Given how many phones you have gotten I cannot imagine they could all be bad. Try selecting the 1900 towers and see if you still have the problem. I have more 1900 towers in my area than 850 and so I have no problem going to those towers, hopefully this is the same in your area.

The only other thing I can think of is that it is some new hardware issue. Even though a phone looks the same on the outside, maybe HTC has gone to some new circuit board and is more sensitive to the 850. An analogy of this could be the xbox in the sense that it has had many different boards inside, but the average person would not know this unless they wanted to mod it. You have to know what series board you have if you want to mod it with a chip. Well, I guess I am getting off topic there, just try the 1900 frequency and see if that eliminates the problem. Hopefully you have not discovered something new that a lot people are going to have to deal with in the future.

As for your other questions, I will have to come back later to answer them as I have to go.

Posted by: CrunchDude

Quote:

Originally Posted by bizwarrior

Bizwarrior,

Thanks very much for your help! Ahhhh...I think I figured out what the problem with all of the Treo's was and you seem to be correct in thinking that it was, in part, a GSM issue. Before the Nokia 6620 and the Treo 650, I had never owned a phone that supported the 850MHz band. In reading through several other threads, many people evidently notice a difference as far as how much "noise" is generated when on 850MHz as opposed to when they're on the 1900MHz band. I didn't know that 850 was so "noisy". It also makes perfect sense that my old Nokia 3650 did not give me that problem as it did not support the 850 band. Both the Treo 650 and my Nokia 6620 do and they both have the noise issue. This thread, in particular, was a good source of information for this:

http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=572382

The latest firmware, however, seems to have to do with the screen flashing issue. Every single one of the replacement phones had that problem (the screen going on and off throughout a conversation as well as an annoying click being generated every time it turned on and back off). They all had V1.15-CNG, whereas my original Treo had V1.04, which was the only Treo that did NOT have that flaw. So I guess I'll go back to that one and maybe forcibly lock on to 1900 towers. Boy...