• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Second Droid, muffled voice, Verizon troubleshoot, and another question.

screw3d2

Lurker
Feb 14, 2010
4
0
Hello everyone me again!

First of all let me say that I got this phone because it is a dream-phone for me, a perfect multi-media, open-source phone, however there comes the problem, as a phone, luckily i was not until lately very fond to talk to people, I always preferred texting, but lately, because of my work, I have to talk to a lot of people and nobody can hear me.

This IS my second Handset, I should say that first of the bat.
I got a new phone as a replacement, I bought my original back in January, and had to return it, within 3 weeks, the GPS would never lock on my position, it would force-close apps randomly and oftenly, and none of the people i talk to on the phone could hear what I was saying.

So the first issues got resolved with my replacement, now i get apps force-closed here and there, but not as often, and GPS still does not lock my position past 300 meters most of the times, but I can manage as long as I can see the map, however, the voice "muffled", "far away", or talking with the "speaker" system on keeps, and actually has gone worst.

On top of that, i have an accent, since my native language is not english, and just makes it worst.

I talked to verizon for a third replacement, before the warranty on my replacement phone is void, but they told me hands down, "no can do sir".

I went to motorola to try and get an answer on this singular problem, and I have found numerous forums on this same topic and realize that I am not alone in this issue, however Motorola did not deem to respond to my requests, which i somehow understand, but not entirely.

So anyways, if anyone here actually had that problem before, and has been fixed for him/her, I would gladly accept the answers, im getting tired of this problem, but there is no way out, other than buying a new phone full retail value, or getting out of my contract from verizon (with a penalty of over 200 dollars if i am not mistaken) which is a no-no!

That was my first question, now i hope not to break forum rules, but if so, admins just let me know and ill make a new thread for it.

Second question:

How can i make the download appllications folder go to the home screen?, i know about folder organization applications, but in the first phone i tried it, and it was kind of messy, folders that i wanted to delete, i could not. And some other problems that I do not recall atm.

How can i make the application quickpdf (native to droid to open adobe acrobat docs), to multitask, since sometimes when im reading on the train certain document or book, i want to activate pandora, or pick up a phone call, but when i return, i have to go to the internet browser>donloads>zzz.pdf, and remember where i was cut off if i picked a phone or text message?

Thanks in advance, I love my Droid. Keep it up Android!
 
The muffled voice may have to do with how you hold your phone. On the top of the phone, on the rubberized part on the back there is a tiny little opening, maybe 1mm long and it almost looks like a defect. That is the second microphone used to help cancel background noise. If you cover that up with your hand it can cause your voice to sound weird.

2n24vww.jpg
 
Upvote 0
for your muffled issue, 1st of all, call in to Verizon Wireless technical support. Not sure if you heard "no" from a store or from them... perhaps they were saying "no" to a brand new phone, but as long as you're under warranty for 1 year from when you first bought it, it can be replaced with a refurbished phone for things like this.

And just an idea for a work-around in the meantime would be to use a bluetooth headset, thus bypassing the Droid microphone.
 
Upvote 0
When you are talking on the phone, make sure that the phone is against your face, and the the bottom of the phone that you speak into is close to your mouth. basically, make sure your holding the phone exactly as you should. It has to do with the noise canalization in the phone. If i am talking to someone on a droid, and they are holding the phone incorrectly (ie. using their shoulder to hold the phone while talking). * also in the call settings, you can try un-checking "voice privacy". Not sure, but that may help also. Please post back if these things help!
 
Upvote 0
for your muffled issue, 1st of all, call in to Verizon Wireless technical support. Not sure if you heard "no" from a store or from them... perhaps they were saying "no" to a brand new phone, but as long as you're under warranty for 1 year from when you first bought it, it can be replaced with a refurbished phone for things like this.

And just an idea for a work-around in the meantime would be to use a bluetooth headset, thus bypassing the Droid microphone.


Hi thanks for the reply I appreciate it.

First, I get a "no" from the verizon customer service (not technical support) on the phone, then I went to the corporate store in Manhattan, just to be told the same: "I am sorry you are having this issue, but the replacement phone has been sent, and we can not offer you a third replacement.." not in those words, but that kind of sums all of it.

Fun fact, when I was speaking to verizon customer service on the phone, the same person told me a lot of times, that i sound "muffled", or to please get closer to my phone.

When I asked them if i can roll back to my old phone they said " ...you can go back to your old phone, if you still have it with you.." (too bad I gave it to my wife, right after I got my Droid), and then when I asked them if I could switch for another phone, they told me basically "yes you can, but you must pay full retail price, or wait 2 years (or one, can not remember correctly) for your phone to be upgradeable"

I will try to call VZW Tech Support sometime this week to see what kind of response i will get this time around.

Second: I do use a bluetooth headset for making the phone calls, it is a stereo bluetooth sony, which yes it almost completely fixes the issue, but sometimes, I either forget to charge it, bring it, etc.


@bowerman:

Thank you very much!

I tried it, and, for in-house call, it made an improvement, but just as my wife said, there is/was not too much trouble when i was making/receiving phone calls in the house, the problem comes when i am usually in the train, or at my workplace (it is a noisy place); however it was better than usual, so the real test will come tomorrow while im on the train, when usually i get the important phone calls. ill post tomorrow to tell you guys how it went.
 
Upvote 0
GOOD NEWS I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION.
thanks to another online forum.
https://supportforums.motorola.com/message/163406#163406

My wife has taken back her phone 4 times now to the store and got another brand new phone and nothing fixed it. This is because all the phones at that store came from the same batch or date manufactured.
Some dates are effected while others are not.

The problem is with the Noise Cancelation Device.
On the back at the top of the phone, above the camera is a little rubber strip cover. This is glued in place but with a thin knife you can easily and carefully remove this.
Behind it is a little metal strip that looks like the strip inside of a bus fuse. This strip spans across a little hole. This is the Noise Cancelation Device. This metal strip vibrates with background noise and tells the phone to cancel it out. The problem is some of them are too sensitive and cancel out your own voice.

The solution is to take a small piece of paper and push it under that metal strip in the hole so that it pushes slightly on the metal strip. This will stop it from being able to vibrate, thus deactivating the Noise Cancelation Device.

You may now here some background noise as if you were on a phone without this feature but you should hear the voice perfectly clear. I just did this this morning and it works perfectly.

Warning. This is probably technically a breach of your warranty. That is the reason for the paper instead of just taking out the metal strip. You can remove the paper before sending the phone in for service or replacement and no one will ever know that you messed with it.

Customer Service and Tech Support from Verizon or Motorolla will not give you any help. They will only replace your phone, and if it is past 30 days they will only give you a refurbished phone. This MAY solve your problem if the phone they give you is from a batch that works, or it may not. But they will not tell you how to fix it, cause they dont want you playing with it, and they wont fix it in the store because then they cant get their money back from motorolla either if they mess it up.

The real problem is that they have not communicated to the CSRs that this is the issue, and only have told them to replace the phone. When you have got 4 phones all with the same problem, the CSRs like anyone else with common sense come to the conclusion that it cant be the hardware and then they have no solution for you.

Verizon and Motorolla need to recall all phones from these batches and anyone who is having this problem should be send a pretested phone from a good batch. OR they should simply release a patch that disables the Noise Reduction Software. Until then a tiny little piece of paper will work.

They were 1.5 hours away from me mailing this back in and going to US Cellular. Good luck everyone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ggp
Upvote 0
I'm so glad to hear this fixed the issue for you! My husband has the same problem on his Droid, and we've just been dealing with it, waiting for a software update. So I tried this... but I can't determine where this hole is relevant to the metal strip? I couldn't tell if there was a hole under the strip. I stuck a piece of paper in the bigger of the two gaps under the strip but it didn't do anything. Do I need to have the paper thicker, like fold it do you think? Or am I in the wrong spot?

eta: are we talking about blocking the hole that nstallion has pictured above?
 
Upvote 0
My $.02: I HATE talking on my Droid. I can rarely hear others, and most of the time, no-one can hear me.

I called VZW tech quite a few times about this issue, and the latest party line is that voice quality problems are a "known issue" and that v 2.2 will address it.

FWIW, my job issued me a Blackberry 9000 (on AT&T), and the voice quality is crystal clear. At this point, I'm ready to ditch the Droid and get a BB.

--Seth
 
Upvote 0
Droid has some of the best sound and i think out performs the two different BB's i had.
Keep calling VZW tech an they will replace it if it cannot be addressed. Do you have the TEC coverage? No charge replacements for defects, no time limit.

My $.02: I HATE talking on my Droid. I can rarely hear others, and most of the time, no-one can hear me.

I called VZW tech quite a few times about this issue, and the latest party line is that voice quality problems are a "known issue" and that v 2.2 will address it.

FWIW, my job issued me a Blackberry 9000 (on AT&T), and the voice quality is crystal clear. At this point, I'm ready to ditch the Droid and get a BB.

--Seth
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones