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Non-Rooted Phone Performance Questions/Opinions/Experiences

ToxicToastKatz

Android Enthusiast
Oct 3, 2009
365
37
Aurora, IL
To all:

I'm hoping to get a little insight here from the members of the community that have devices that are not rooted, or from members that have experience prior to their rooting. Before I go into my questioning, I do want to preface this by stating that I have considered rooting my phone in the past, and have even tried (but failed) using the PreKitchen. Since then, I have made a definite decision that I will not be rooting my device. I have done TONS of research and reading on the topic, have asked and have had answered a lot of questions, and I've just decided that I do not want to do it. Yes, I understand the pros of doing it, I just choose not to. That being said, I would respectfully ask that those who take the time to respond to this post, please don't suggest rooting.

Ok, so I've owned the Hero since October, and for the most part, it has performed only marginally. The quirks, odditys and underperformance issues I have experienced are nothing different from what has been talked about on this board, or others. Some issues, however, have been persistantly bad, even after the "typical" troubleshooting methods have been used. Additionally, some of the things I've seen my device do haven't been talked about, or at least not in great detail, by many people. Some of the issues that I am experiencing, I am hoping that 2.1 will cure, however, I've come to a breaking point where I don't want to wait it out for the upgrade to finally release, only to find out that it didn't help. I've talked to Sprint Advanced Tech Support a few times and they seem to believe that it's a faulty device. Whether or not that is their response because they are stumped, or if the device actually IS faulty is what I'm hoping to figure out. They have agreed to send a replacement device to me, so I'm trying to get a feel for what to expect. Below are some of the issues I'm experiencing:

1. Wifi will not stay connected 85% of the time, despite a strong signal.
2. Apps take quite a bit of time to respond. The phone, however, does not seem to lag all that much. Screens respond pretty quickly and swiping is pretty smooth. Apps just take quite a bit of time to open/respond, even if still in "running" mode in the background.
3. Browser and other data requesting apps take quite a bit of time to get data, despite a strong EVDO signal or strong Wifi signal.
4. The phone's antenna seems to be weak. I can barely get a signal in my office (a one story building, sitting close to a window) and I'm in a heavily populated city. I've never had a hard time getting any less than 3 bars on any other Sprint phone in this location. Additionally, in areas where reception should be strong, I've found my phone switching between 1x and EVDO for data, and Roaming for voice.

There are other miscellaneous issues as well. I also want to stress that all of the typical troubleshooting methods have been done. I hard reset the phone last week and cleaned house, and am still seeing these issues. Prior to hard resetting, I had around 25-30 MB of free space on the phone. After the hard reset, I'm around 75 MB of free space, so that doesn't seem to be an issue. Text messages are cleared off the phone as they come in and program caches are cleared out daily.

As for the signal issues, that's something I can't figure out, and neither can Sprint Tech Support, which is why I'm getting the replacement.

My questions to the community are these:

1. I know that some of the issues I have listed are common among Hero users, however, does troubleshooting (clearing caches, texts, etc) solve the issues, or do they persist?
2. Has anyone had signal/data speed issues?
3. For people who have had replacement devices for issues similar to these, did the new device work better, or is this just a function of the device?

One of the main reasons I ask these questions is because if this is going to continue to be an issue from device to device, there is no need to waste time continually swapping phones. I think at that point, I'll just have to wait for 2.1, hope it resolves the issues, and if not, cross that bridge at that time.

I've expressed concern to the Sprint reps about receiving a refurb device. They had stated that it isn't up to them what gets shipped, however, they did advise that if a refurb was shipped, to send it back and go to a repair center to return it (in hopes that they have new phones on hand). I'm truly hoping that this is an issue with my device and not the Hero itself.

Anyway, any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.
 
I have also decided against rooting my phone at this time. Mainly because I am not having any problems with performance of my handset. I do go into location services daily and turn those off an on AND reboot my handset every couple of days. I am not sure you would consider my phone to be 100% responsive, but I am happy with it. Not sure how responsive you expect your phone to be.
some of the issues I'm experiencing:

1. Wifi will not stay connected 85% of the time, despite a strong signal.
2. Apps take quite a bit of time to respond. The phone, however, does not seem to lag all that much. Screens respond pretty quickly and swiping is pretty smooth. Apps just take quite a bit of time to open/respond, even if still in "running" mode in the background.
3. Browser and other data requesting apps take quite a bit of time to get data, despite a strong EVDO signal or strong Wifi signal.
4. The phone's antenna seems to be weak. I can barely get a signal in my office (a one story building, sitting close to a window) and I'm in a heavily populated city. I've never had a hard time getting any less than 3 bars on any other Sprint phone in this location. Additionally, in areas where reception should be strong, I've found my phone switching between 1x and EVDO for data, and Roaming for voice.
1 - I have WiFi on all the time and never have a connection issue. At home it stays connected 100% of the time. Also while I am on a open campus with WiFi I am connected 100% of the time. (Does not include when phone is sleeping as I do not have my Hero optioned for that at the time)
2 - example?
3 - just because you have strong signal does not mean that you have quick connection. Have you done some speed tests? While I am at home on my WiFi I pull data down much faster than evdo.
4 - Never had a problem with signal - in fact I seem to get superior coverage at home in my basement than I did with Verizon

My questions to the community are these:

1. I know that some of the issues I have listed are common among Hero users, however, does troubleshooting (clearing caches, texts, etc) solve the issues, or do they persist?
2. Has anyone had signal/data speed issues?
3. For people who have had replacement devices for issues similar to these, did the new device work better, or is this just a function of the device?
1 - I do not notice a difference clearing data, however I do after turning off and then back on location services
2 - no
3 - have not replaced so can not answer that

While I am looking forward to the 2.1 release I am happy enough with 1.5 and how it works on my device. The one nice thing about 2.1 when it does finally come is that it will be like having a new phone again....
 
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I have also decided against rooting my phone at this time. Mainly because I am not having any problems with performance of my handset. I do go into location services daily and turn those off an on AND reboot my handset every couple of days. I am not sure you would consider my phone to be 100% responsive, but I am happy with it. Not sure how responsive you expect your phone to be.

1 - I have WiFi on all the time and never have a connection issue. At home it stays connected 100% of the time. Also while I am on a open campus with WiFi I am connected 100% of the time. (Does not include when phone is sleeping as I do not have my Hero optioned for that at the time)
2 - example?
3 - just because you have strong signal does not mean that you have quick connection. Have you done some speed tests? While I am at home on my WiFi I pull data down much faster than evdo.
4 - Never had a problem with signal - in fact I seem to get superior coverage at home in my basement than I did with Verizon


1 - I do not notice a difference clearing data, however I do after turning off and then back on location services
2 - no
3 - have not replaced so can not answer that

While I am looking forward to the 2.1 release I am happy enough with 1.5 and how it works on my device. The one nice thing about 2.1 when it does finally come is that it will be like having a new phone again....

Thank you kindly for the response.

With regards to my first bullet points:

1. I continually leave Wifi on as well, and mine drops all the time. At work, I'm told I have a wireless router/access point right above my head in the ceiling, however, my IT guy says the signal is sometimes suspect. That being said, I don't put much stock into my Wifi issue at work, however, at home, I get the same behavior and the signal is strong as can be (I use an AppleExtreme using Comcast as my ISP; even w/ my old NetGear router I was having the issue).
2. With the apps slow to respond, for instance, I can go to check my email (Gmail) by tapping the icon on my home screen. The tap will register and the icon will highlight green. It stays highlighted green for 2-3 seconds before opening up the application. If that were the extent of it, that would be fine, as that's not unacceptable in my book. However, it "opens" Gmail by sticking on a white screen for a good 7-10 seconds before displaying the messages in my inbox. I attempted to show a friend an email that was sent to me and he couldn't believe what he was seeing....it just hangs, and hangs and hangs, and this is with plenty of memory available.
3. I agree with you on the signal v. speed correlation, however, I can run SpeedTest while on both Wifi and EVDO and get pretty darn good results (frequently pull 2500-3000mbps on Wifi at home and EVDO varies greatly from 600-1200mbps) and still have data services take forever to load data.
4. This is where I'm suspect that the device is faulty. I have been with Sprint since 2003 and have owned 4 or 5 different devices. Never have I roamed with their service unless I was going downstate (Central Illinois) where there were spotty areas in the farm areas. I live in the 2nd largest city in the state (next to Chicago) and have never had issues before.

I haven't yet tried the "Location Services" troubleshoot, as I guess it's worth a shot, but your lack of signal issue sounds to me like I may just have a lemon on my hands. Thanks for taking the time to respond, and I'd love to hear more people's thoughts.

As far as 2.1 goes, I can't wait for it, but 1.5 is fine for now, as long as everything is working as it should.
 
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I also been contemplating deeply about rooting my Hero and I think I'm leaning towards not performing this. I've been having slight lag issues but I usually somewhat fix this by clearing cache in managing apps and rebooting. More is of course desired on the performance side but I think I can wait for the 2.1 update next month.
 
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I would like to comment and hope to help...

1st, it would sound from your descriptions that the problem is the handset. I have my phone the same amount of time, no problem at all with WiFi connections from one floor to another in my home with a pretty weak signal, it still works pretty flawlessly. I have 40 apps loaded plus the stock apps and have no lag or memory issues. I multi-task with apps and no issue. I have put the phone through some trials and never a problem. I run it stock and have not rooted it (Yet! - lolz)

At times, there have been some lag issues, depending on what they are, there are some helpful threads here which alleviate much of them without sacrificing usability of the handset. Soft booting (Power Off & On) the handset might help if there is a hung app, it has happened. I came over to the HTC Hero from a Palm and was programmed to power down my handset nightly, sometimes, doing a battery pull during the day to unfreeze the WinMo OS/App... but after losing my conditioned response, I tested this intentionally and ran the Hero for two weeks straight, not shutting anything down, not using an app manager, etc., and all things worked well actually.

Android does a pretty good job of things. Of course, when I install a new app, I run the app & phone through some ringers to make sure it is playing nicely and if not the app gets deleted. The clearing of caches will definitely help the phone SEEM to work better cause it frees up some memory but of course this will get reclaimed as apps load the caches again, just as it is with any good house keeping, it's worth doing every once in a while for a better overall experience.

Signal Data issues??? Via WiFi or OTA Sprint Carrier Network? But no, not really, only the EvDo thing... but I get decent signal if not better than my last handset. Jsut never get the REAL EvDo speed (I never exceed 1,000 Kbs D/L) but it works just fine.

All in all, I would say not to be overly concerned about getting a refurbished phone as the one you have isn't working well to begin with. What really - have you to lose at this point? I would go that route and see what happens. you might be happy and get rid of all your problems instead of wanting to hold onto a NEW but malfunctioning unit.

Hope this helps somewhat... Let us know how it goes.

Happy Trails!
:cool:
 
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Coolone and Buckethead:

Thanks for the input. I'll try to update this once I get the new device and get it setup. UPS states it'll be here tomorrow. After talking to a few more Sprint Tech reps and a guy at a repair center, I'm fairly certain that it's definitely the device. I'm hoping they are all right and that the device works as it should.

The signal issues and app loading lag, along with the Wifi loss of connectivity, they stated they have seen before with other customers. After the replacement was given, the customers have confirmed that the new replacement device has been trouble free. Hopefully this is the case for me :)
 
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Just to update for all who may be interested/experiencing something similar.

I received my new device yesterday via UPS. The phone was a refurb. After talking to a few people over the weekend, I was assured that a refurb doesn't mean "someone else's damaged phone", but instead, pretty much a brand new phone with the exception that it has been opened. Either way, I received it, inspected it, and have no further qualms about it. No physical blemishes, so as long as the hardware works, I'm good.

Anyway, got it activated and set up to my liking, so we'll see how it works out. So far, in the 12 hours or so I've had it, it already seems to be working better than the first one. First off, my signal went from 0 bars (with the old device) to between 2-3 bars in my office, so that's an improvement right there. Speeds seem to have increased (using Speedtest.net) and overall responsiveness is quicker (with the same amount of available memory). My "People" updates (facebook, pix, etc) seem to be actually updating and things just seem to be working as they should. Granted, it's been 12 hours, so we'll see if it keeps up. The Wifi seems to keep disconnecting though. When I went to bed last night it was connected, and now this morning it wasn't. I have the Wifi Sleep Policy set to "Never". If that's the only thing not working, I'm happy.

I'll update if anything else goes on for all interested....now to get my new MSL to change the Slot Cycle Index again so I can answer a darn call before VM.
 
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Just to update for all who may be interested/experiencing something similar.

I received my new device yesterday via UPS. The phone was a refurb. After talking to a few people over the weekend, I was assured that a refurb doesn't mean "someone else's damaged phone", but instead, pretty much a brand new phone with the exception that it has been opened. Either way, I received it, inspected it, and have no further qualms about it. No physical blemishes, so as long as the hardware works, I'm good.

Anyway, got it activated and set up to my liking, so we'll see how it works out. So far, in the 12 hours or so I've had it, it already seems to be working better than the first one. First off, my signal went from 0 bars (with the old device) to between 2-3 bars in my office, so that's an improvement right there. Speeds seem to have increased (using Speedtest.net) and overall responsiveness is quicker (with the same amount of available memory). My "People" updates (facebook, pix, etc) seem to be actually updating and things just seem to be working as they should. Granted, it's been 12 hours, so we'll see if it keeps up. The Wifi seems to keep disconnecting though. When I went to bed last night it was connected, and now this morning it wasn't. I have the Wifi Sleep Policy set to "Never". If that's the only thing not working, I'm happy.

I'll update if anything else goes on for all interested....now to get my new MSL to change the Slot Cycle Index again so I can answer a darn call before VM.

Sounds like your original handset was causing alot of your issues, glad to see the new one seems to be working out. I rooted my phone over the weekend but had used it un-rooted for the previous 3 months. The things that helped the performance of my un-rooted phone were:

1. Clearing cache from applications every few days or so.
2. Keeping the update frequency on widgets and apps (weather channel and mail for example) to as long as I was comfortable with. 2 hour updates really helped my battery life as opposed to having those applications updating every 15-30 minutes.
3. Restarting my phone when things seemed to get really laggy and/or slow. This seemed to help quite a bit.

Hope those few tips will help you enjoy your new phone a little bit more.
 
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First off, I have not read any previous responses to your post (I'm at work), so I hope I don't a dead horse here.

I notice a decent amount of lag when one or more of my 10-12 text conversations get anywhere from 100-150. After deleting any conversations which are over 100, and after a fresh reboot, things improve quite a bit. Keep in mind... This thing is essentially a computer which needs to be rebooted from time to time.

I have not encountered any of your WiFi or 3g speed/connectivity problems that you have. In my opinion, this sounds like a bad antenna.
 
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First off, I have not read any previous responses to your post (I'm at work), so I hope I don't a dead horse here.

I notice a decent amount of lag when one or more of my 10-12 text conversations get anywhere from 100-150. After deleting any conversations which are over 100, and after a fresh reboot, things improve quite a bit. Keep in mind... This thing is essentially a computer which needs to be rebooted from time to time.

I have not encountered any of your WiFi or 3g speed/connectivity problems that you have. In my opinion, this sounds like a bad antenna.


Thanks for the input...from everyone! That's why this place is great!! :)

I unfortunately think I may have spoken too soon. Shortly after I wrote my last update, I was checking a message on the phone when it suddenly reset itself. After it came back on, it couldn't establish a mobile data connection. Terrfiic! I had to reset it AGAIN to establish one.

Maybe this just isn't the phone for me. I'm going to give it a few more days and if it continues, I'm going to have to have a chat with another Tech rep and decide my next step. I guess it's going to have to be "try ANOTHER Hero" or just simply cut my losses and move on. Sadly though, I can't say that there's another device on Sprint that suits my liking/needs. I know that WM will no longer be an option after a taste of Android, however, Sprint currently doesn't have anything on their roster that tempts me with the Android OS. The Moment is not my style, as I need something sleek, and don't like a hard keyboard. If Supersonic/Nexus One drops soon, I would consider going to one of those, even if it meant paying full price. I'd much rather just have my current device work as it should.

I just don't have the time to put into fixing something that should just work
 
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Thanks for the input...from everyone! That's why this place is great!! :)

I unfortunately think I may have spoken too soon. Shortly after I wrote my last update, I was checking a message on the phone when it suddenly reset itself. After it came back on, it couldn't establish a mobile data connection. Terrfiic! I had to reset it AGAIN to establish one.

Did you get a bunch of Force Close messages upon reboot? If so, you may have been over the 70 app limit prior ro doing your factory reset. If you have over 70 third party apps, you will not be able to get a 3g or any kind of signal. Is this a possibility?
 
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Did you get a bunch of Force Close messages upon reboot? If so, you may have been over the 70 app limit prior ro doing your factory reset. If you have over 70 third party apps, you will not be able to get a 3g or any kind of signal. Is this a possibility?


No, nothing like that. I've been pretty active (both posting and following) on the forums, and have pretty much ruled out or troubleshot each potential cause of any problem I've had with the device. With my original device, there was approximately 30-35MB of available space and was seeing problems. After hard resetting, I didn't install all of the apps I had originally, and had between 70-78 MB available space. I currently, on the new device, have 70 MB available space and nowhere near 70 apps. I clear caches and texts out daily.

Maybe I'm just unlucky :(

It's pretty frustrating, that's for sure.
 
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No, nothing like that. I've been pretty active (both posting and following) on the forums, and have pretty much ruled out or troubleshot each potential cause of any problem I've had with the device. With my original device, there was approximately 30-35MB of available space and was seeing problems. After hard resetting, I didn't install all of the apps I had originally, and had between 70-78 MB available space. I currently, on the new device, have 70 MB available space and nowhere near 70 apps. I clear caches and texts out daily.

Maybe I'm just unlucky :(

It's pretty frustrating, that's for sure.

Wow! That is crazy! So this is a new device that just took a dump?
 
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Wow! That is crazy! So this is a new device that just took a dump?


I wouldn't say it "took a dump" completely, but it just doesn't SEEM to be functioning on all cylindars. For one, it keeps dropping Wifi after a certain period of time (and the setting for Sleep Policy is set to "Never"). The speeds, using speedtest.net in EVDO coverage vary so greatly, but rarely get above 500mbps (700 is the lower end of EVDO as I understand it....this morning in my office, I clocked a whopping 72 for download), and then there was the inability to even get a mobile connection earlier this morning.

I'm going to give it a bit more time to make a final determination, but what seemed to look promising, is now looking a little bleaker performance-wise.
 
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I wouldn't say it "took a dump" completely, but it just doesn't SEEM to be functioning on all cylindars. For one, it keeps dropping Wifi after a certain period of time (and the setting for Sleep Policy is set to "Never"). The speeds, using speedtest.net in EVDO coverage vary so greatly, but rarely get above 500mbps (700 is the lower end of EVDO as I understand it....this morning in my office, I clocked a whopping 72 for download), and then there was the inability to even get a mobile connection earlier this morning.

I'm going to give it a bit more time to make a final determination, but what seemed to look promising, is now looking a little bleaker performance-wise.

I'll run a speedtest at my house tonite. You should feel lucky that you get a signal at work lol. Sitting here in my office, i have NO service. Im in the middle of a school, lol. I'm curious to see what I get for speed at my house.
 
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Sorry to hear about all your troubles. You are definatly having a different experience than I am having with my Hero. Maybe you just got a few bad ones.

Have you tried useing toggles for your WiFi and Data connections? I know this won't improve your signal but it will def. help if you're having battery issues. I have my phone using no data or WiFi unless I need it and turn it on. I've only seen it randomly reboot 1-2 times in the 2 months that I've had it too. Also I don't know if it makes a difference, but I've never used more than half the available memory. I use internal memory widget to keep track of that.
 
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Sorry to hear about all your troubles. You are definatly having a different experience than I am having with my Hero. Maybe you just got a few bad ones.

Have you tried useing toggles for your WiFi and Data connections? I know this won't improve your signal but it will def. help if you're having battery issues. I have my phone using no data or WiFi unless I need it and turn it on. I've only seen it randomly reboot 1-2 times in the 2 months that I've had it too. Also I don't know if it makes a difference, but I've never used more than half the available memory. I use internal memory widget to keep track of that.


That's one of the biggest anomolies with my device as well. I've got GPS AND Wifi toggled on all the time. I never turn either one off. All of my "data" updates (Facebook, Twitter (via Touiteur, not Peep), Weather, etc.) are set for either the most frequent option or close to it and I've never had an issue with battery drainage. Every once in a blue moon it'll drain quicker than usual with all settings staying static, however, 98-99% of the time, I can get a good 15-18 hours on a single charge with those settings (using the Seidio 1500 battery, not the 3500).

As an example, I just now turned on my device to check something, and it's no longer connected to my company's Wifi connection. This is basically what I've been experiencing since October. The few techs I've spoken to have stated that they've never had issues, or anyone complain of this happening. Now if this were only happening at my work, I wouldn't be too concerned because my IT guy has stated that our wireless connection is a little spotty where I sit in the office (even though noone else w/ smartphones has this issue around my cube), however, it happens at home regularly as well, even as it sits less than 5 feet from my router.

This is definitely beyond puzzling, and definitely getting more and more frustrating. :(
 
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That's one of the biggest anomolies with my device as well. I've got GPS AND Wifi toggled on all the time. I never turn either one off. All of my "data" updates (Facebook, Twitter (via Touiteur, not Peep), Weather, etc.) are set for either the most frequent option or close to it and I've never had an issue with battery drainage. Every once in a blue moon it'll drain quicker than usual with all settings staying static, however, 98-99% of the time, I can get a good 15-18 hours on a single charge with those settings (using the Seidio 1500 battery, not the 3500).

As an example, I just now turned on my device to check something, and it's no longer connected to my company's Wifi connection. This is basically what I've been experiencing since October. The few techs I've spoken to have stated that they've never had issues, or anyone complain of this happening. Now if this were only happening at my work, I wouldn't be too concerned because my IT guy has stated that our wireless connection is a little spotty where I sit in the office (even though noone else w/ smartphones has this issue around my cube), however, it happens at home regularly as well, even as it sits less than 5 feet from my router.

This is definitely beyond puzzling, and definitely getting more and more frustrating. :(

Is it at all possible that your WiFi at home has some sort of an "idle timeout" period? I cannot recall if my router at home has such an option, but I suppose its possible.

Download the app "WiFi Analyzer" and see how strong your signal is. Maybe there is another SSID broadcasting which is stronger than your preferred network. If this is the case, your phone might be struggling to decide on which network to connect to.
 
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Is it at all possible that your WiFi at home has some sort of an "idle timeout" period? I cannot recall if my router at home has such an option, but I suppose its possible.

Download the app "WiFi Analyzer" and see how strong your signal is. Maybe there is another SSID broadcasting which is stronger than your preferred network. If this is the case, your phone might be struggling to decide on which network to connect to.

I will certainly give that a go at lunch. I'll let you know how it works out/what I find.
 
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How'd you end up? Conflicting SSIDs?? Poor signal?


Messed around a little last night. Was in meetings all day today, however, everytime I've checked today, it's on EVDO and then switches to Wifi after I turn it on.

I, of course, made this happen by setting the preference for Wifi Sleep Policy to "When screen is turned off" so it makes sense that when I turn the screen on/wake it up, it would be in EVDO and then switch. The odd thing is, when I had the sleep policy set to "Never" sleep, if it went out of Wifi it never connected again by itself.

That being said, if I have to leave the sleep policy set like it is now, where it shuts off when the screen is off, and it reconnects by itself without fail upon wake-up...so be it. I can live with that if it maintains a working condition like this.

I'll report back after I get a chance to mess around and pay a little more attention to it.
 
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For anyone interested, here is just a follow up after a week of using the replacement refurbished phone I was sent:

The Wifi issue with the sleep policy seems to be working. For whatever reason, when it is set to "Never" sleep, it still disconnects and never automatically reconnects. I always have to reconnect it myself. When I leave it set to "Sleep When Screen Turned Off" it disconnects as it should and reconnects after it is woken up. Not really sure why that is, but it suits me just fine because it does in fact reconnect every time.

The signal, while still doing odd things at times, has definitely increased since the first phone. I still see the signal waver back and forth at times, but I get at least 2 bars, for the most part, in my office where the first device would give me zero. I've spoken to a few other Hero users that are Sprint Techs in the store and they have the same behavior with the signal going back and forth, however, agreed that my first phone must have been defective, as they have never had the roaming issues I was having.

The data connection also still goes back and forth between 1x and EVDO every once in awhile, but not as much as before. Again, the techs have stated they've noticed the same thing on their devices. The speeds, however, seem to have increased, as it appears I am seeing more consistency with obtaining EVDO speeds, as opposed to 1X. FWIW, my first device had the "visual bug" where it stated it was getting "Rev. 0" speeds in the About Phone section of the settings. This phone properly states "Rev. A". I know HTC has stated that it was a visual bug only, however, this makes me skeptical. My first device also had the "HTC" backing, where this one has the "With Google" back. Again, I never thought there was a difference, and there very well may not be, but it's awfully coincidental.

The overall responsiveness of the device also seems to be quicker. Not just "laggy" quick, but he apps opening up as well. There are times where it takes a few seconds to open an app, but nothing like I was seeing.

The old phone is being sent back today, as I'm sold that this one is going to work out well. I was VERY worried about getting a refurb, but let me tell you, as it's been stated in another thread, a refurb is essentially a brand new phone (likely better as it's been remanufactured by hand and most likely more closely inspected). I eyed the hell out of this thing for any physical imperfections and it's flawless.

I can pretty safely say, my Love/Hate relationship has pretty much been restored to a Love/Love relationship with the device again.
 
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