vB Easy Archive - CDM-8940 "searching signal", won't give me the time of day

Pages: 1

CDM-8940 "searching signal", won't give me the time of day
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: philsnow

So I got this CDM-8940 in august, and was in the middle of a paper deadline, so I didn't give it as critical a review as I should have, so I didn't return it within the 15 days, so I'm screwed and stuck with it :\

Anyway, the problem is that in my office, there seems to be a tiny trickle of signal. When the phone doesn't have signal, it displays that crappy animation and says "searching signal", and it won't tell me the time!! Every phone I've ever had has been able to tell me the time despite having no signal (presumably by keeping a counter from the last time it had signal). In addition, it regains signal every once in a while, then loses it, so over the course of a day at the office, this phone (which I bought based on its advertised battery life) barely lasts a day.

*611 said that this shouldn't be the case and recommended I take it to a VZW store, which I did, but the support person only reluctantly upgraded the software on the phone. I took it home and wrapped it in good ol' aluminum foil, and it *still* searches for signal and doesn't tell me the time. In this event, the support person at the store said that they would ship me a new copy of the phone, so it looks like that's the only thing I can do.

Does anybody know how to get the phone to tell me the stupid time? Additionally, what recourse will I have if the replacement does the same thing? I consider this a serious design flaw and am extremely unsatisfied with this phone.

Posted by: 8910user15650

All the phones I've ever had do the same thing... you can see my list of phones in my sig... what phone did you have before that showed the time when SfS?

Posted by: philsnow

phones i've had:

hm, i started to make a list, but i realize i don't remember model numbers at all. i had the most basic nokia one back in '00, then an audiovox (that made me swear to myself never again to buy audiovox), then an LG (which again, made me swear the same about LG), then this CDM-8940 (breaking my vow, stupidly.)

every one of those phones displayed the time while they had no signal. i must surmise that they kept a timer running from the last time they had service and displayed the time based off of that. if you turned it on in the basement of a 10-story concrete building and it had no signal, it wouldn't display the time at all (guess the battery didn't save the time while the power was off).

i know they all had this behavior because i used all of them in the basement of just such a concrete building over the course of five years, and never encountered the "searching for signal" withholding of the time. i don't own a watch because i've always been able to rely on my phone for the time, even when it didn't have signal.

edit: the first phone was with cingular, and i regret ever switching to verizon