Help I think I'm off to a very bad start.

[eslachance]

So I just got my first Android phone, after a year of hell with a 3GS. I thought it would be easy to get used to the Android OS on the new phone - I though it would be SO simple... Little did I know, I still have much to learn. As a little background, I have a Motorola XT720, with Videotron (provider in Quebec).

So my current problem, after only a couple of hours with the phone, is that I may have screwed up the SD Card, and I am experiencing some major issues.

What happened is, I tried copying my 800 MP3 songs to the SD card, using memory card access - that is, when I plugged in the USB I had 4 choices, which were "sync with media player", "portal and tools", "memory card access" and "charge only".

After all songs had transfered, I tried opening the "Music" application, and tried going in Songs... The "Scanning SD Card" prompt appeared, and that is when I made my first mistake: I assumed that the Android OS would be at least as fast as the iTunes application when loading songs. After about a minute of this "scanning" bit, the phone locked, and I was never able to get the thing back online. When pushing the Lock button the screen would remain black but the "hardware buttons" at the bottom would light up.

My second mistake was to shut down the phone the hard way - by removing the battery on the back. When I turned the phone back on, it seemed alright so I went back into the Music app and had the same issue.

I decided that maybe Androids weren't so hot after all, and plugged the phone back into USB, wanting to delete all the music except for 2 files. In the middle of this deletion, I think, is when everying really went to hell. The delete dialog froze, Internet Explorer froze, the phone was frozen, basically everything crapped out. I unplugged the USB, Explorer went back on my computer (windows 7 by the way), but obviously the phone was still messed up.

So I thought that maybe the next step was formatting the SD card and just starting over from the beginning... Unfortunately, that's no longer an option: going in Settings, SD Card, the SD card information is empty and the Format option is greyed out. And since a MicroSD slot is far from common on computers, I don't have any other way to read this card.

Plus, whenever the SD card is in the phone, as soon as it goes into sleep there's no way to wake it up: the screen stubbornly refuses to turn on, only the buttons light up and stay lit. The only way to get anything working is to remove the battery.

I don't know if this is an issue that's more specific to the XT720 or if it's a general Android OS failure, but I must admit that this first experience with the combination is far from optimal. The words "POS" came to mind more than once.

So, how screwed am I? Do I have to go back to the company store and get them to exchange the SD card, or get a different phone, what?

 

[pydave]

You can probably go to the company store and get them to format your SD card for you. A lot of computer shops would have the equipment to do this too. (You only need a microSD-to-SD adapter.)


When you set "memory card access", does the SD card still show up in Windows? Can you format it from there?


You probably want to use Android's format after you format it with a PC.


Oh, and the processor in the xt720 is only as fast as the 3GS, so it's not exactly zippy. I'm a little disappointed in mine (but mostly because Motorola's not releasing any updates... not even froyo).

 

[eslachance]

Hi pydave,

After some random messing around, while on the phone with the support technician at the phone company (while in their store), the SD card came back online (because originally, it did work), I formatted it and I was able to try it out again. Took a few test pictures and a video, everything was good. Then I came back home, plugged the USB cable back on my computer, and tried a different approach: I synced through Winamp, both the app on the phone and the computer.

This didn't go any better: after a dozen songs, it simply stopped copying. A couple of tries of that and bam, the SD card is down again.

I called the tech support line again, the agent on the line gave me an OK to go back to the store and exchange the phone. From what I'm gathering, the largest majority of android users (tech support agent included) are very satisifed with them, so everyone is just blaming a hardware error. So, I'm guessing I have a lemon and that will be fixed as soon as I can go back to the store.

In terms of processing power, I'm alright with the phone, at least it's the US version, not the european one so I'm not *that* worse off

I just hope there was some location where I could get phone-specific applications, things like HDMI mirroring or using the xenon flash as a flashlight, whatever I can get.

 

[solenero68]

Why sync with Winamp? SD card makes music folder and copy songs, create your video folder, create the image folder, in the top bar moves down and put a USB connection and memory card access will be recognized as an external disk, copy everything you want, made ​​this bar just down charging After you have formatted a system restore you should be ok .....

 

[eslachance]

solenero: did you tl;dr my op? You may want to re-read, because that's been covered. But since you didn't read, here's a quick recap: I started by copying my music using memory card access. It crapped out. I THEN tried WinAmp. It crapped out.

I already have an authorization code to exchange the phone, and I'm definitely going to do it tomorrow or wednesday. Today at work I went to see my IT department, thankfully they had a MicroSD to SD adapter so I was able to format the card from Windows. I formatted it from the phone, and then tried again. This time it seemed to work fine - both WinAmp and the Music app can both read the music, I was able to download a couple of games and such.

However, at least once I was unable to turn the phone back on from sleep mode (same issue as before) and when I did a hard reset by removing the battery I got the "Preparing SD Card" message for a couple of seconds. It hasn't bugged out since, but I ain't taking any chances. This thing's a lemon and I'm not going to keep it. Plus, I keep having issues with downloading through wifi, so that's another hit against this thing.

If the new phone does the same thing, you can bet your arse I am going to get them to give me a different model.

 

[Antroide]

The memory card that comes shipped with the phone it's not that good I strongly recommend getting a higher quality micro sd card, I lost mine the original and had to buy a new one then I realize how bad the original micro sd card is, do this and you will enjoy your new phone even better I got a Kingston micro Sd HC (high capacity) from canada computers for $18 i don't think Motorola is giving us a micro sd hc card, i also notice that video playing was lagging a lot and it did not happen anymore with the new card

 

[eslachance]

Hmn. So, little recap of the last few days. Continued having issues with the SD card, Wifi is intermittent, the lights of the hardware buttons keep randomly turning on and off, and I reallyreallyreallyreally hate the fact that Froyo is NOT available for the XT720 and it's crappy 128 internal memory is shit.

After my SD Card debacle, I went back to the Videotron store and exchanged the phone... and started having issues as soon as I connected the phone to the PC. I'm just going to have to convince Videotron to take back this shit phone and exchange it for something that works.

Antroide, perhaps the no-name SD Card is part of the issue. But I cannot accept that a corrupted SD card would completely crap out an operating system, whatever it is. If your brand new PC came with a USB hard drive which, as soon as you copied a couple gigs of stuff to it, suddenly was inaccessible, Windows couldn't shut down or the screen saver would never turn off without unplugging the computer from the wall... Would you REALLY accept it? Especially if you only had, say, 512 megs of space to install ALL your software because you couldn't update Windows to give you the possibility of putting software on that half-working aformentionned USB drive!

I mean seriously, this is bullshit!

 

[eslachance]

Oh heck, Nexus S is coming to canada most likely in the next week or so... I think I'm going to hold on to this POS until they got the Nexus, and then get them to exchange it

 

[dtc_dan]

I have the same freakin' problem since I bought the damn thing! I bought a new SD card... same problem. I never found the solution. This phone is the shittiest phone I ever had. And Videotron's service is really poor. I just went to Ontario for 6 days and it cost me so much for the time I used it.

I'm seriously considering paying the 290$ to resolve my contract and switch to an iPhone. This phone is just a big pile of problems coming in every week. Shame on you Android, Motorola and Videotron!

 

[eslachance]

Dan,

According to what I've been looking at, you have to consider that Videotron is legally obliged to support and FIX your phone for the duration of the contact, so if the phone is defective (which it IS), they have to exchange it. So here's what you do:

Put in a large amount of files on the SD card (like my 850 songs) then delete them, using the USB cable and "MEmory Card Access" mode, from Windows. When the deletion (or the copy) dialog stops working, wait a minute then unplug the USB. This may cause the SD card to stop working (and if it doesn't, try again). Once that happens, call Videotron, say the phone is defective, get them to exchange it. Wait a couple of days and do it again. Lather, rinse, repeat until they finally decide that it might be a good idea to give you a DIFFERENT phone. That's what I'm going to do... as soon as the Nexus S is available

Edit: Of course, make sure that you have the original SD card in there. Also, if you consider that the Nexus S (god I really hope it's available next week at V) has 16 gigs of internal memory, even paying the price difference between the phones will be worth it, since it'll be cheaper than cancellation. Just don't let them add on more time to your contract, get them to CHANGE the phone for the new one and keep the same contract!

 

[Antroide]

Its seems to be not as bad on wind mobile, i had mine for almost a year now and i got used to it's limitations learn my lesson i decided to erase motorola from my shopping list period. i agree is a shitty phone and im glad nexus s is coming, any idea how much will it cost to buy the damn thing, I'm right now on a prepaid plan $45 unlimited everything and don't want to change it. Just want to change phone

 

[eslachance]

I'm thinking that the phone will be in the $500-$600 range, so if you're on a prepaid that'll be a major drawback.

In any case, I believe it's now official that Videotron is getting the Nexus S on April 14th (or, if I'm really lucky, April 7th).

 

[eslachance]

So little update here. It took 4 different people, 2 of them being supervisors, telling me "oh but we can't change the phone, our guarantee doesn't cover phone satisfaction" (obviously saying that "my problem wasn't a defect"), to finally be told by the last guy, matter-of-factly, that I could cancel my contract within 30 days with no fees. I can then wait 60 days then walk into any Videotron store, grab the Nexus S like I was starting a brand new contract (which is technically the case).

So, I'm faily lucky to have figured this out sooner rather than later. For anyone else, if you've got an XT720 and are still within 30 days of purchase... CANCEL THAT SHIT NOW, wait 60 days and then get a Nexus S. Of course, 60 days without a phone... I'm happy I didn't cancel Fido yet.

 

[chaser5708]

bump the hell out of everything you're saying eslachance

its not android or the company i find... its motorola and their garbage phone. i have the exact same problems you're talking about... i thought maybe i was the only one but looking around the internet it seems to be common with this phone

"When pushing the Lock button the screen would remain black but the "hardware buttons" at the bottom would light up."

yep

"Plus, whenever the SD card is in the phone, as soon as it goes into sleep there's no way to wake it up: the screen stubbornly refuses to turn on, only the buttons light up and stay lit. The only way to get anything working is to remove the battery."

same here

"The words "POS" came to mind more than once"

instantly


"For anyone else, if you've got an XT720 and are still within 30 days of purchase... CANCEL THAT SHIT NOW"

i wish i had, but im six months in and its only started happening now.. when i went in they said it was a common problem with the xt720... like another poster was saying its the cheap sd card. but since the PHONE is covered under waranty but the SD card is not its up to me to buy a new one... or as many as it takes... they even suggested it might the sd card reader in which case i would have to buy another sd card any ways to try it out...

completely regret buying this garbage ass phone... if you've just found this site and are thinking of buying the xt720... DONT... i wish i had checked before hand... motorola used to be such a good make...