[Q] "Invisible" LoS - Samsung Epic 4G Touch

This is really weird.
I know people have been having problems with Loss of Service, but so far, I've only had it happen once or twice. What's really bothering me, is that I've noticed an invisible service dropping problem that's actually way worse.
Twice now, my phone has full signal bars, and isn't roaming, but my wife will come home and say she sent me some texts. Sure enough, no texts. So I reboot, and suddenly I get a flood of text and voicemail alerts. So, not only was I not getting texts, but all calls were going straight to voicemail, as if the phone was powered off.
Has anyone noticed this?
I'm not rooted, no alternative kernel, nothing. I'm completely stock. If this keeps up, I have no alternative but to return the phone. I have a job where I have to be available for emergency alerts, and this is definitely a major problem.
I mean... why would the phone say it has a connection if it clearly doesn't?

Yeah can confirm the same. Its like the phone has los but doesnt realize it.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

This is definitely a problem. It's usually referred to as "Stealth LOS". (or "POOS" but I have no idea what that stands for.)
If you decide to keep the phone, a workaround is to set Tasker to automatically reboot if it senses no signal. It should work even for the stealth cases. Obviously not everyone will feel that they should have to workaround the issue though.

Related

[Q] Can't answer calls sometimes! Really annoying!

Hello everybody,
Everything is fine with my Arc, except for the huge problem that sometimes I simply can't answer an incoming call! It happens like this: When a call is incoming, the phone starts ringing and vibrating as it usually does. However, the screen that is supposed to come up which shows you who is calling and where you can select to accept or reject the call is simply not showing up.
Has anybody experienced this before?
All I can do is slide to unlock the screen and then I'm looking at my home screen with the phone still ringing but no chance to get the call. There is nothing in the notification area or anywhere else where I could answer the call. All I can do is to wait until the ringing stops!! Really really bad behavior.
Furthermore, once the ringing has stopped, there is no information about the missed call in the call log. So I can't even call back the person who called me!
First time this happened I had "Plants vs Zombies" running so I figured the phone wasn't fast enough to switch to the incoming call. But it also happens when the phone is idling.
There seems to be no scheme behind all of this. Sometimes it happens twice in a row, sometimes only once a week.
I got my unbranded simlock free Arc in mid April with 2.3.2 and .181 firmware and applied Gingerbreak for root access. Later I upgraded via PC Companion to 2.3.3. and .145 firmware. But I lost root which I didn't like. So I downloaded the Generic World Firmware .181 and flashed it on the phone. Then used Gingerbreak again and made an OTA update to 2.3.3. and .145 firmware. Now I have root and the latest firmware.
All the while I used Titanium Backup to restore all my data, settings and apps as I don't want to reinstall all from scratch because it would take forever.
With this latest firmware, everything is fine, except for the call problem!
Please help me, what can I do?? I don't want to reflash and upgrade or whatever or lose all my data. I just want my phone to be able to handle calls as it should be!!
P.S.: I used Antek App Manager and frooze (not deleted!) some apps which where uncessesary and running in the background or at startup which speed up my startup time and free ram quite a bit. But I didn't frooze any crucial apps, at least I hope. Only stuff like Chinese keyboard and Let's Golf etc.
Also, if I would have frozen the call handling app or something, I wouldn't be able to accept calls in most cases, wouldn't I?
P.S.: I used Antek App Manager and frooze (not deleted!) some apps which where uncessesary and running in the background or at startup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think you may have answered your own question here...
could be, but on the other hand I only frooze really stupid apps which should not affect any important functions of the phone. Also, if I frooze something important related to calls, why is it working most of the time? This is what I don't get.
Here is what I frooze (most of them just took up space in the app drawer and I don't use them), maybe it helps:
- stock browser (I use Opera)
- chinese keyboard (I'm german and don't need it)
- "Downloads"
- retaildemo
- live ware manager
- fb mediadiscovery
- dlna server
- news and weather
- postcard
- SE setup wizard
- sim toolkit
- sony ericsson sync service
- playnow
- sony ericsson support
- track id
- twitter
- let's golf
- google talk
- sony ericsson sync client wizard
so is your problem solved?
Anything related to google should be left alone news and weather should be fine to freeze or delete but would leave Talk alone, and depending what data from which FW was backed up, might also be an issue.
so I defrosted Google Talk. Anything else I should defrost?
Under "Settings" and then "Running services" I sometimes stop "Timescape Legacy Plugin" or whatever it's called because it takes up RAM. Could this also be a cause but I believe it's only for the Timescape app which I seldom use.
drsoran2 said:
Hello everybody,
Everything is fine with my Arc, except for the huge problem that sometimes I simply can't answer an incoming call! It happens like this: When a call is incoming, the phone starts ringing and vibrating as it usually does. However, the screen that is supposed to come up which shows you who is calling and where you can select to accept or reject the call is simply not showing up.
Has anybody experienced this before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem.
It doesn't happen often but it's really annoying either way.
I barely installed anything off the market and I don't use any sort of app killers/managers.
that's strange because I thought it could be my own fault because I played around and frooze same apps. But it's "good" to know that I'm not the only one.
Do you have any hints about when it happens or when not? Can you exclude anything?
Today, I re-enabled all the froozen apps and then frooze some of them again, according to the thread here on xda. But only apps about which I was really sure.
Don't know how I could test if the error is gone. I mean, have people calling me 100 times and hope it occurs or not doesn't really sound great.
may be there is some problem in your firmware,try some other firmware of other region.................
drsoran2 said:
that's strange because I thought it could be my own fault because I played around and frooze same apps. But it's "good" to know that I'm not the only one.
Do you have any hints about when it happens or when not? Can you exclude anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the weirdest part, the only thing I used that day was Whatsapp.
The incident happened about 5 hours later, I was in a car when my phone started ringing.
I tried picking it up but.. I guess you know the rest..
I was about to buy this phone but now I'm having second thoughts.
@flamez
yesterday it happened to me again. The weird thing is, that my girlfriend said she called me three times but I heard it ringing four times! She claims she didn't call me between her second and her third call! But it definetly rang but I couldn't answer it. Also my other friends say that they didn't call me at this time. Could be someone calling who I don't know at the exact time but the chance is slim I guess.
Also whenever there is such a phantom call, there's not even a hint of it inside the missing calls log. And when this happens, nobody ever leaves a message on my mailbox. Is this the same for you? Could be the person is just lazy but I don't know.
Furthermore, it happened several times to me already and never once a person asked me later why I didn't get their call. Strange, isn't it. It almost seems like that there was no one calling at all!
Now, could it be for some unknown reason that our phones just start ringing as if there is a call but in fact there isn't one at all?! You know, the phone just running crazy and triggering the ringtone? That could be the reason why the "accept call screen" doesn't show up and there's no call log because there is now call!
I know, sounds very weird. But think about it. They could be really "ghost calls".
briggs007 said:
I was about to buy this phone but now I'm having second thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I can tell you that this a great phone and it seems me and drsoran2 are the only ones with this problem..
Guess we just had some bad luck..
drsoran2 said:
@flamez
yesterday it happened to me again. The weird thing is, that my girlfriend said she called me three times but I heard it ringing four times! She claims she didn't call me between her second and her third call! But it definetly rang but I couldn't answer it. Also my other friends say that they didn't call me at this time. Could be someone calling who I don't know at the exact time but the chance is slim I guess.
Also whenever there is such a phantom call, there's not even a hint of it inside the missing calls log. And when this happens, nobody ever leaves a message on my mailbox. Is this the same for you? Could be the person is just lazy but I don't know.
Furthermore, it happened several times to me already and never once a person asked me later why I didn't get their call. Strange, isn't it. It almost seems like that there was no one calling at all!
Now, could it be for some unknown reason that our phones just start ringing as if there is a call but in fact there isn't one at all?! You know, the phone just running crazy and triggering the ringtone? That could be the reason why the "accept call screen" doesn't show up and there's no call log because there is now call!
I know, sounds very weird. But think about it. They could be really "ghost calls".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't think that's it..
It's happened only twice to me over a 2-3 month period and my friends have always called me back asking why I never pick up the phone.
It really just happens about once a month to me, and I can answer the second time they call me right away without any problem.
Are you guys running task killers?
{EDIT - I remember OP saying that he'd frozen a load of stuff.. Suggest that if you're getting this a lot that you un freeze all of it and see how it goes, maybe just freeze the end user apps - like Lets Golf HD at first then build up the frozen apps slowly until you get the problem..}
im_iceman said:
Are you guys running task killers?
{EDIT - I remember OP saying that he'd frozen a load of stuff.. Suggest that if you're getting this a lot that you un freeze all of it and see how it goes, maybe just freeze the end user apps - like Lets Golf HD at first then build up the frozen apps slowly until you get the problem..}
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, as I said before, I'm not using any sort of task killers/app managers.
Today first time i encountered same problem. I have WhatsApp running in background. No task killer, nothing else.
Though i donno how to solve this problem. But i can surely tell how to pick up call in this case.
Just press the power key, this will take phone in locked state, but the call wont be rejected.
now click the home key and you will see the answer key, now slide it, it will slide without problem
it's good news that you found a workaround! I'll try to remember it the next time it happens.
Today, I had the problem again but this time it was different. The slider or the contact picture of the person calling didn't appear, but I could see the number of the person who is calling in the notification bar (not the name, just the number although this number and contact is stored in my contacts).
This happened the first time, all the other times the phone just rang without any hint of who is calling.
It would be nice if we were able to pinpoint a certain event which causes this odd behavior but so far I had no luck. What I'm doing differently since the last time it happened is, that I don't use task killers anymore. But still, it happened again today.
It's difficult to find out what it is when you don't know what causes it and when it will happen. For example, it happened to me today once for the first time in about a week.
in recent days, "it" happened very often to me!
Sometimes, the phone manages to at least show the number of the person calling so that I can call back. But usually it doesn't! The call just disappears into nirvana.
Do you guys remember if the error is associated with a certain amount of RAM left available? In other words, if the available RAM at the time of the incoming call is below a certain limit (which I don't know) the phone can't display the call. When it happened to me today, I had only 90MB RAM left. Maybe the phone can't free up enough RAM fast enough?!
Also the trick, which somebody mentioned a few posts above me, that when it happens you press the power button and then home and then you can slide and accept the call very rarely works!
I'm desperate and don't know what to do about it. I have just finished adjusting my phone to my needs. I linked apps with Link2SD and now have over 100 apps installed and still 215MB left on the internal memory, I have root and the .145 firmware. Everything is fine, except for this error!! It would take ages to restore it to the point where it is now, if it is complety possible at all.
I mean, if a phone can't handle calls, what good is it for?
I had a NEC e616 years ago which frooze while sending SMS or crashed after connecting a call or during a call and other "funny" things, but this was well known for this model.
But we don't have 2004 anymore and I except the Arc to work.
I could send it in on warranty, possibly. But then everything would be erased and it would take forever to get it repaired.
And I'm afraid they are going to tell me that they couldn't reproduce the error (because it happens so randomly)!
Such a nice and beautiful phone if not for this stupid error!
I'm already tempted to get rid of the phone and look for something else. But who's going to buy a phone with a bug which can't display phone calls?!!
I mean, I could reset it and flash the fimware and stuff and then hope. Maybe the error is gone. Maybe it persists and then all my data is gone and I have to start from scratch.
Or it is gone and then I have to start from scratch also!
If I should be forced to do it all over again and have all the work, then I could do it on another phone as well.
The Samsung Galaxy SII is quite ugly, to wide and big but I hope it can at least handle a call?!
Thank you for any help!!
Hmm..
If it happens rarely.. Why don't you sell it off on ebay
If asked about other mobile. I prefer sensation to sgs2. Much better phone function. In fact IMO htc is better than all other androids when it comes to phone functions.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App

Eic 4g Touch Bugs Thread

I'm seeing many users notice different little bugs with the phone (me included) and instead of having multiple threads about it, maybe we can all post it in one place where later the devs can see it and work on them once the phone is rooted etc.. Good idea/bad idea? I come from an Evo 4g with Sense rom so I wonder how many of these might not really be "bugs" but just a different user experience.
I'll start..
Accu weather app not updating location automatically
apk files downloaded from the computer and then transferred to phone are not showing up (unknown sources, usb debugging checked)
No function when touching the clock widget. It does not launch me to alarm, world clock, time etc menu. Maybe this is just a touchwiz thing as I mentioned above, I come from a sense rom.
So far those are the ones on top of my head. As I use the phone more, I'm sure I'll spot more (hope not!).
Anyone else?
Phone dialer issues
I have to reboot my phone from time to time to make a call.
It just says call ended when i try to call out.
When i reboot it works fine for a few hours.
Mentioned above plus the following so far (except reboot for calling issue):
No landscape mode using TW (auto-rotate enabled)
Red LED only available notification color (REALLY?!)
Skype video calling is upside down when using in portrait mode.
Also, phone call is automatically in Speaker mode when calling after making a Skype video call.
*Occasional phone FREEZES. As in, one minute it is okay, and the next minute, you have to do a battery pull. Happened twice since I got it on launch day.
*Browser closing for no reason. Happened 4 times since launch day.
*When plugged in with Samsung charger, phone's screen will act real glitchy
*SWYPE does not work properly, no matter the settings. Have to type normally.
That's all the software bugs I've experienced. Hardware-wise, there are reports of problems with data, 3G, 4G, and WIFI....I haven't seen any word on Bluetooth yet.
Journeyjeans said:
*Occasional phone FREEZES. As in, one minute it is okay, and the next minute, you have to do a battery pull. Happened twice since I got it on launch day.
*Browser closing for no reason. Happened 4 times since launch day.
*When plugged in with Samsung charger, phone's screen will act real glitchy
*SWYPE does not work properly, no matter the settings. Have to type normally.
That's all the software bugs I've experienced. Hardware-wise, there are reports of problems with data, 3G, 4G, and WIFI....I haven't seen any word on Bluetooth yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go exchange your phone -- sounds like a lemon. No other real complaints about freezing or auto-closing apps.
Erislover said:
Go exchange your phone -- sounds like a lemon. No other real complaints about freezing or auto-closing apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, other's have experienced auto-closing apps and freezing. It's in a thread around here or at sprintusers.com, I forget which.
For the first three days I couldn't get data while roaming though the proper settings were checked. Sprint customer care reset my phone and after an hour of waiting it works.
All else its great (except for the above oddities with Touch Wiz) though I haven't checked GPS after encrypting the device.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
humdrum2009 said:
I have to reboot my phone from time to time to make a call.
It just says call ended when i try to call out.
When i reboot it works fine for a few hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you elaborate on this issue?
Also, anyone else having similar issues, please chime in.
Are you seeing a circle with a slash through it (no service) when this happens?
Can you receive calls when this happens?
Do you lose 4G or WiFi? Or is it just Voice/3G?
Does it seem to happen sometime after making a call/text (~30min), or any other pattern you've noticed?
Are you rooted?
If yes, what kernel (zedomax or tanimn/shabbypenguin - trying to narrow down an issue with one of the current root kernels)?
Exchange Appt. Notification Bug
I have had multiple reminders pop up for from my Exchange calendar and i can't seem to dismiss or snooze them from the notification bar. The snooze and dismiss buttons are available but are non responsive. The only way I can get rid of the notification is with the "Clear" button which is for all notifications. Has anyone else noticed this?
Journeyjeans said:
*SWYPE does not work properly, no matter the settings. Have to type normally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this may sound silly, and you may have already checked this, but check your language settings. I've read about some owners that were having problems with Swype discovered that their language was set to Spanish.
Also, on the LED notifications only being Red, I've been playing with an App called Light Flow. I've at least been able to change the notification colors to Blue using this App. Also, the App lets you use "White" as a color, which still shows a Red light, but blinks very fast if some of you prefer a faster blinking light.
I have had the roaming data issue as well. It does eventually work for me though, but on once occasion it took 10 minutes before data turned on after the roaming started. I will try calling Sprint as well.
Wifi signal is bad.. but speedtest says otherwise. I think the issue is with the amount of bars displayed and not the actual signal. I was standing 5 fee fromt he router and still didn't have full bars.
Ive been having problems today with dropping data connection. Toggling 4G off and on seems to restore it even in no 4G areas. I guess it resets the radio or something?
MadFlava said:
Ive been having problems today with dropping data connection. Toggling 4G off and on seems to restore it even in no 4G areas. I guess it resets the radio or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try profile and prl update...
My data did cut in and out till i did the normal sprint updates
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Just got this phone friday. So far the only bugs I am experiencing are roaming in places my evo got coverage and the security draw pattern having a mind of its own making it very hard to unlock the screen. Also the wifi reception is noticeably weaker than my evo
nate420 said:
Try profile and prl update...
My data did cut in and out till i did the normal sprint updates
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive done that already and it didnt help. Thanks, tho.
Luckily, no freezes or crashes here (knock on wood).
what i HAVE noticed is the rotate bug, for instance
when rotating the phone for texting or browsing, you have to kind of
bring it up to your chest @ about a 90 degree angle in order for it to rotate.
calibrated it all correctly & i still have to do that.
this is my first phone from the Epic/Galaxy company so im not sure if that was a problem in the original Epic 4g (non-touch) but it sure is kind of annoying :/
hopefully the dev's can tweak the gyro or SOMETHING.
Poor Wifi/3g Signal
Noticed lower bars on both wifi and 3g...when in same spot on my Evo 4g I had more...might be just how many bars its displaying and not the actual signal...but not for sure...actually went into roaming a few times when with my Evo 4g I never did (even with roaming was set to automatic...now I have it set to sprint only)
Hello. Has anyone tried updating through Kies? I tried and it says that this version of software cannot be updated. I just got my phone today. I did have problems installing the drivers. After I let it install say one or two drivers, one would error out. Once I unplugged it a few times and then plugged it back it, all of the drivers installed.
I hope this doesn't mean that Samsung is not going to upgrade to ICS or else I am taking this back. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" and it won't allow updating with rooting. Thanks for any input and have a great day/night!
analyst28 said:
I have had multiple reminders pop up for from my Exchange calendar and i can't seem to dismiss or snooze them from the notification bar. The snooze and dismiss buttons are available but are non responsive. The only way I can get rid of the notification is with the "Clear" button which is for all notifications. Has anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed this too.
you have to check the check boxes next to the calender item. This is deceptive because the boxes have checks in them. But they should be green and not grey.
hope that helps

[Q] Anyone having random SMS drops?

I'm running Calk's rom with the Rogue Outlaw kernel right now, but it's been happening ever since I first got the phone, even before I rooted. Sometimes incoming or outgoing texts just won't arrive...it's like they just disappear. I don't think it's an LOS issue, because I still have full bars, instead of the "no" circle.
Is this happening to anyone else? Am I just missing something?
Yep, happens to me every now and then, if I reboot the phone, I get them.
Only way I know I get them is I use google voice, so texts come to my phone and my computer. I hear my computer go, and I wait for them on my phone, never show up.
Oh, good call. I've noticed that if I send texts through the google voice app, they always go through, but if I try stock, handcent or Go SMS they just randomly drop, or show up hours later. Called Sprint, and they said that there weren't any service issues.
No idea what's going on, but it's annoying as hell.

JellyBean SMS problem

Hello all. I'm on Stock rooted jellybean and I have been getting this annoying little pop up that stops me from sending any texts unless I click allow after every text, I have noticed it happens when I'm texting 3-4 people at once. I also have noticed that a reboot see to get rid of the message for a while then it starts to happen again. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to permanently get rid of the pop up. I haven't had the time to decompile anything and look but any help would be appreciated. Attached is a picture of the pop up.
You might have too much of a life. Try lessening the amount of life you have and see if it resolves the issue. Until then, ignore your phone errors, because you've got plenty of life to attend to.
Seriously, it's always nice to see errors being reported, because you never know when you will be that person with the error nobody's heard of. Thankfully I haven't had this problem yet, and I've been very active on my phone, as I'm out of town for the good portion of this month. (Verizon has already warned me about data.. :crying
I have the same problem. I went through all the options, didn't find anything >_< its really bugging me right now, I might switch to MIUI because of this

anybody having issues with wifi and mobile data (T-Mobile)

I'm getting tired of it, wifi disconnects and reconnects or flat out doesn't work, mobile data flat out doesn't work most times unless I reboot the phone for either of them to work. I'm rebooting about 4-5 times a day just to get either working. I'm at my wit's end and about to get rid of this thing as soon as I can.
I generally love this phone, but I'm seeing similar issues. WiFi says connected, but I don't get any data. I thought it was my network at first, but noticed other devices working. Tested network while my phone was acting like this, and my WiFi and network were working great.
Separately, my phone sometimes won't dial out. I use Google Voice, so I'm not sure if it's the phone or Google that's not working, but it's very frustrating. The dial screen comes up, then immediately disappears. No errors or anything to indicate that it ran into problems. The dial screen just flashes. Rebooting seems to fix that. But all very frustrating. Especially when I'm trying to call someone while driving. I don't want to have to look at the screen. I want to be able to tell the phone to call and know it's going to do it. Instead, I tell it to call, it confirms it will call, then nothing.
chris.arney said:
I generally love this phone, but I'm seeing similar issues. WiFi says connected, but I don't get any data. I thought it was my network at first, but noticed other devices working. Tested network while my phone was acting like this, and my WiFi and network were working great.
Separately, my phone sometimes won't dial out. I use Google Voice, so I'm not sure if it's the phone or Google that's not working, but it's very frustrating. The dial screen comes up, then immediately disappears. No errors or anything to indicate that it ran into problems. The dial screen just flashes. Rebooting seems to fix that. But all very frustrating. Especially when I'm trying to call someone while driving. I don't want to have to look at the screen. I want to be able to tell the phone to call and know it's going to do it. Instead, I tell it to call, it confirms it will call, then nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm getting the same problems and it's annoying the hell out of me I'm paying this phone off but I'm about to just ditch it buy a pocofone and just pay im this off separately or try to trade it in for a one plus 6T

Categories

Resources