EVO V (3D) 4G Activation Troubleshooting Thread

[Antiochus]

Hi Guys. I posted this elsewhere but wanted to post here as well because activating this phone can cause severe headaches.

Making this thread so that all tips and tricks for activating the phone can go here. I suspect there will be more traffic on this topic as more phones make it into customer's hands. Hopefully, the Virgin branded phones will not have as many issues.

What we know.
Activation can be a headache with many calls to customer service. Sometimes the phone will fix itself and work after a battery pull. Many times it won't.

What I suspect.
If you let Radio Shack set up your phone, the phone's profile will appear on your Virgin Mobile account. If you don't complete the activation at that time, it seems like the phone can't connect to your account. I think swapping back to a previous phone and then activating may be a work around but I came in from boost and don't have an old VM phone. Also, the website won't allow me to attempt a swap from the EVO. Perhaps someone can test this.

What we can try.
EPST Menu Reset- Dial ##25327# and from the menu, select "reset"
Some have had success with this.

Battery Pull- Take out battery. Wait a while (have heard anywhere from 20 seconds to 20 minutes) Some have had success with this.

Factory Reset-
Turn the power off.
Hold the Volume Down button
Press and hold the Power button until the device turns on
You then get a menu that has Factory Reset in it
Scroll down with the Volume Down button and choose Factory Reset and press the power button. It then takes you back to how your phone was when you first opened the box. Any personal info or apps will be wiped from the phone. (Do not know if this has worked for anyone. I confirmed that this does reset the phone to factory but I don't have a decent enough signal at work to try the activation)

Manual Programming- From the Keypad dialing ##3282# will activate the EPST programming menu. You need a password to open the menu in edit mode. I do not have the password. Perhaps can be obtained from CS or Tech support) The Sprint version of the EVO 3D has instructions for manual activation. Confirmed that this menu exists in the EVO V 4G. Can choose "View" but as stated above, you need the password for "Edit".

Dialing ##786# gets you the Reverse Logistics Support Menu. This also shows "reset" and cancel as options. Web info suggest this is a Hard Reset code. Confirmed that the code works. Unconfirmed results of using it.

Update 1:
Radio Shack activation seems to be a common denominator for those having activation issues. Just don't let them activate your phone. However, I suspect that having any retailer activate the phone is a bad idea. So even if you get your phone from Best Buy or elsewhere, JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU GET HOME before you activate it. DO NOT even let them open your box and MAKE SURE you tell them up front that you will be doing the activation at home. Otherwise, they may start the activation before you realize they are doing it.

Update 2:
Do not use Wifi before you successfully activate the phone. May cause 3G data connection problems.

[mfrerkes]

What we can try.
EPST Menu Reset- Dial ##25327# and from the menu, select "reset"
Some have had success with this.

Radio Shack activation seems to be a common denominator for those having activation issues. Just don't let them activate your phone. However, I suspect that having any retailer activate the phone is a bad idea. So even if you get your phone from Best Buy or elsewhere, JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU GET HOME before you activate it. DO NOT even let them open your box and MAKE SURE you tell them up front that you will be doing the activation at home. Otherwise, they may start the activation before you realize they are doing it.

I bought mine at Radio Shack. The guy could not get it to activate and seemed clueless about what to do after that.

I took it home and did the ##25327# RESET trick. It has worked flawlessly ever since.

One other point to add: If you have WiFi on during the initial activation, you may experience difficulties sending text messages. I could receive (but not send) them. Once I turned the WiFi off, however, I was able to do both.

[tcross8361]

Can't you just tell them you'll activate it yourself? Nobody is offering any kind of discounts that require activation right?

[mfrerkes]

Can't you just tell them you'll activate it yourself? Nobody is offering any kind of discounts that require activation right?

You can -- and should -- do that. Sometimes these sales reps, while meaning to be helpful and courteous, start doing things without really asking...or insist on activating the device anyway. Like the OP said earlier, these guys will start scanning barcodes without your knowledge, which begins the activation process.

[VMisCheap]

Bought one today (At Radio Shack), before I realized it the guy was trying to activate the phone. It told him I would do it. Of course It would not work, so he called them and they supposedly activated it over the phone. Still did not work. He sold it so me and told me to leave it off for 25 minutes then turn it on and it will work. Unfortunately it didn't. (Suprise!) So I tried to activate myself on VM website and no joy. Called VM and they said the phone swap was never submitted and that was the problem. So he swapped phones told me to pull the battery for 20 minutes and wait. Then it should work. (Here goes nothing...) Will update. It did work.

[mfrerkes]

Bought one today (At Radio Shack), before I realized it the guy was trying to activate the phone. It told him I would do it. Of course It would not work, so he called them and they supposedly activated it over the phone. Still did not work. He sold it so me and told me to leave it off for 25 minutes then turn it on and it will work. Unfortunately it didn't. (Suprise!) So I tried to activate myself on VM website and no joy. Called VM and they said the phone swap was never submitted and that was the problem. So he swapped phones told me to pull the battery for 20 minutes and wait. Then it should work. (Here goes nothing...) Will update.

Do the ##25327# trick. Nothing I tried worked until doing that.

It says right in the instruction manual (nobody ever reads) to do that after activating the phone online. This was VM's way of throwing us curveball, I guess.

[JK2012]

Here's how my somewhat painless activation went:
(made sure Radio Shack did not open my box)

Start charging EV
Turn off old phone (OV)
Do phone swap procedure on VM web site
Turn on EV
EV says "hands free activation" in progress
Fail, no connection
After tapping OK, tries and fails a couple more times
Cancel out of that, EV does some phone set up stuff
Do step 4 from EV Basics Guide (##25327# reset)
Activation successful!

Not sure why they bother with that "hands free activation", because how can it connect and do what it needs to do if there's no connection?

[twelfth]

I managed to discover the cause and fix for the HTC Activation issues on Virgin.

Here's the copy/paste from my how to that I posted on the Virgin Mobile USA Facebook page.

---

Since I had been without a phone for the better part of a day and didn't get a response in 14 hours regarding my issue, I decided to be bold and try a few things. Fixed the issue myself.

If you got bitten by the HTC Activation Bug... the fix is actually fairly simple. It's just frustrating because nobody seems to know how to try to fix it. "Try a few things and it should work."

Virgin reps, PLEASE pass this around to everyone so that they can help other people fix the activation bug. There will be no need to replace phones as a result of this issue.

If:

You try to activate the HTC EVO while your old phone is still powered on, it may fail the activation. Disable your old phone (power off, pull battery), do the swap in your account, wait until you get the email that says the swap is successful and THEN put the battery into the HTC EVO to do an activation. Yes, I know, this means no playing around with your new toy until you're ready to activate it.

If:

You were unable to do an activation due to an error like: "vDC has stopped unexpectedly. Would you like to tell HTC?"

Stop trying anything else. The phone is fixed in a state due to a bad attempt at activation that it could not complete. If you continue to try to Update Profile in Settings, you will continue to get the same error message. If you try to manually activate via Settings (Activate This Device), it will give you the error message saying to call 611 or the 800 number for customer services.

You will need to do the following:

Go into Settings (Menu, Settings), Power > UNCHECK "Fast Boot"

Power off the device. Pull the battery. Put the battery back in after a few minutes. Before you power the device on, hold down the volume down button and keep both the power button and volume down button held down.

You will boot into HBOOT RECOVERY. There will be a menu with 5 options. "FASTBOOT, RECOVERY, FACTORY RESET, SIMLOCK, IMAGE CRC"... Press the Vol Down button twice to highlight "FACTORY RESET" and tap the power button to select it.

You will be doing a full factory reset on your phone.

When it reboots your phone will attempt to auto activate... and this time it should succeed.

[aml1025]

I managed to discover the cause and fix for the HTC Activation issues on Virgin.

Here's the copy/paste from my how to that I posted on the Virgin Mobile USA Facebook page.

---
.

I've been following along in amusement lately as you and a few others run rings around the Social Media Team on VM's Facebook page. Thought for sure you were already posting here, though!

Anyhow, way to go in finding a consistent fix - it sounds like there are many happy EVO V owners because of you!

[Antiochus]

Thanks. Going to update the OP and give you credit. Every bit of knowledge on this issue may save someone a headache.

Never mind. Won't let me edit the post again.

[mfrerkes]

Do step 4 from EV Basics Guide (##25327# reset)
Activation successful!

That's what did it for me as well. This seems to be the easiest, most sure-fire way to get this phone activated.

[Antiochus]

That's what did it for me as well. This seems to be the easiest, most sure-fire way to get this phone activated.

I think it depends on the specific reason why your activation fails and most folks don't really know at the time. This was the first fix I tried and it did nothing for me after countless efforts. The Factory Reset is what finally got me up and running. However I am glad if having all these little tricks (hard to call something listed in the manual a trick, but hey, who reads manuals? lol) in one place can help save some people a big headache.

[mfrerkes]

I think it depends on the specific reason why your activation fails and most folks don't really know at the time. This was the first fix I tried and it did nothing for me after countless efforts. The Factory Reset is what finally got me up and running. However I am glad if having all these little tricks (hard to call something listed in the manual a trick, but hey, who reads manuals? lol) in one place can help save some people a big headache.

That's why Howard Forums is so useful. People post their tricks so that we're not stuck dealing with VM's lousy customer service and overwhelmed technicians. Even the guy at Radio Shack was clueless about the activation hang-up issue.

Most people don't look at the included manuals when opening the package, but if you look on the front cover of the Evo's manual, it says: "To activate see page 9." I think the process in activating this phone has been changed up from what it was for the Intercept, Optimus V, or Triumph. Those phones had the "Activate" icon you pressed once the ESNs had been swapped.

[twelfth]

I've been following along in amusement lately as you and a few others run rings around the Social Media Team on VM's Facebook page.

Ugh. God. WHERE DO THEY GET THESE PEOPLE?

I nearly punched my screen when I saw that dumb ***** Yesica tell a woman the pricing of the iPhone when she posted asking WHAT THE SPECS WERE. They can't even be bothered to read the context before copyspamming their usual "email me at ignoreme at thevirginretards dot net and I still won't be able to help you" spiel.

[prepaiduser]

i spoke to 3 different reps and none could activate my phone. last rep told me to call back as there was an issue with the transfer. tried all the tricks posted and none worked either