Help Droid problems... Where to begin!

[stf85202]

DROID PROBLEMS..... WHERE DO I BEGIN!
Picked up the phone three weeks ago with the greatest of expectations. Wanted an iphone for years but did not want to move from Verizon. Finally I saw Droid as the answer. Prepaid for the phone from Best Buy and picked up early the morning of the first day. I had them install the plastic screen guard..... WHICH may be what is leading to a lot of the touch screen and proximity problems.

Here is what I have experienced thus far:
Very poor battery life. Have to re-charge some times twice a day.
Battery door falls off frequently.
When on a call, frequently the screen goes black and cannot get it to wake up to either open up the on screen key board so I can put in my pin for e-mail..... or to hang up after the call.
Constantly have to push the on -off button on top... to get the screen to shut off or to turn on.....and frequently have to search to find the top of the phone from the bottom to locate the button.
Signal strength compared to other phones I have used is not as good
ONE BIG PROBLEM.....The phone frequently "pocket dials" the last call I just logged off from!!.
Touch screen... especially the for symbals at the bottom are not responsive to touch.
Other minor irritating problems but not as important.

Tomorrow.... I am back to Best Buy to give the phone back and got my old phone re-activated..... It worked for the past two years with NO PROBLEMS..... and it was one of the FREE LG phones from Verizon.

Verizon has a great network... ultra reliable but they and Motorola really blew this opportunity to one up the i-phone.

STF 85202

 

[regulatre]

When I am done with a call and the screen is black and won't display the hang-up button, I've found that pressing the camera button with my pinkey immediately wakes up the screen and the hang-up button is there waiting.

It's a band-aid, but hopefully it reduces your stress level a little bit as it did mine

For the pocket dialing:
I use a snap-in hip holster (hated having phone in my pocket). And I'm religious about hitting the power button (to put screen in sleep) as soon as I'm about to holster the phone.

Not trying to downplay your frustration, just wanted to provide a few of my own solutions to help others

 

[stf85202]

Day two and three from my previous blog.

Today... When I took the DROID out of my pocket ...while traveling down the highway I discoverd that the cover to the battery was missing...... I searched eveywhere for it and finally found it under the drivers seat in my car. This is now the fourth time (4... times), that the cover has dropped off !!

On advise from others who have posted their ideas about how to fix this patethic excuse for a phone /GPS/entertainment center....etc... I removed the battery and waiting about 5 minutes then replacd it............. with no noticable improvement of any of the problems I continue to experience....

After a two day trip out of town...just arriving back home and STILL experiencing all the same kinds of problems continuing from my last dialog......... TOMORROW AM I will be headed to Best Buy to TURN THIS PIECE OF JUNK IN and replace it with a REAL PHONE....

stf85202

 

[ggp]

I'm sorry you're so frustrated with your phone. Many of your issues have been discussed here in the Moto Droid specific forum. These issues do not happen to everyone, and it's unfortunate that you have multiple issues. I personally have only had one issue, with a loose battery door, which I have since fixed, per a video I found here in the forum. Additionally, Verizon Wireless technical support can advise you on fixes, or determine if your phone is a lemon, in which case it can be replaced with a new phone within your first 30 days, or a certified like new replacement during the remainder of your warranty.

Most of us Droid users truly enjoy our phones, and some may take offense to your classifying the phone as a pathetic excuse of a phone.

Nonetheless, a Droid is not for everyone, but it's sad... granted, a new phone should not have so many issues, but your problems are not insurmountable.

If you'd like help, please freely post in the moto droid section, there are LOTS of people here with experience that will gladly help. If you need to gripe, well, you may not find many sympathetic ears here, as many of us passionately support all things Android, even if they are not yet perfect.

 

[loonymike]

what I did was take a piece of paper fold it in half slide it under the battery and put the cover back on. It should be real nice and tight.

 

[colnago]

Why would you have your phone in your pocket, while driving, and not expect anything that "can come off" to "not come off"?

As stated, all of your issues have been posted numerous times in this forum...you may want "to start with the Search function".

 

[syntrix]

Why would you have your phone in your pocket, while driving, and not expect anything that "can come off" to "not come off"?

As stated, all of your issues have been posted numerous times in this forum...you may want "to start with the Search function".

this!

I even have a hello kitty sticker on my battery door and mine has never come off in my pocket. Maybe it's the hello kitty sticker?

 

[colnago]

That's because you used the Zagg install, complete with the solution on your fingertips and the squeegee...that kitty ain't goin' nowhere!

 

[syntrix]

Zagg on the battery door? LOL

 

[jlawson]

For those of you happy with your phones -- wish I was one of you!

In two weeks I've had two Droids -- wishing, hoping I just had a dud. No such luck. The only problems listed that I haven't had are the loose battery cover and the pocket dials (I don't put it in my pocket). But BOTH phones have had the same issues, mainly the screen freezes and the frequent DROPPED CALLS and MUTED CALLS (yes, I've read the threads -- no fix). So don't rag on him for being unhappy with a quirky phone, just be happy you got one of the good ones.

 

[syntrix]

2nd post, yay! Just sayin!!!

 

[regulatre]

Dropped calls, muted calls, two different phones? The common thread here is your calling area - sounds like a problem with one or more towers in your area. If you call Verizon they're usually very receptive about this type of problem.

 

[jlawson]

Nope. I've been on Verizon for years. And I travel. It's the phone. Same problems, different states.

The problems are discussed on this site and on Motorola's forum. The most consistent assumption is that it's a touchy or faulty proximity sensor. The Motorola site advises locking the phone (turning off the screen) once the call is placed, and then turning it back on once the call is ended. This is also supposed to help with the screen freezing problem. Makes using the phone a bit of a hassle. I'll try for a couple more days before I give up on the Droid. Plenty of other problems, though -- screen locking while the alarm is going (argh), poor voice dialing, weak reception.... And yet there are features I love enough to keep me hoping I can make it work, but if it drops another call from a critical client I may end up smashing it first.

 

[colnago]

... So don't rag on him for being unhappy with a quirky phone, just be happy you got one of the good ones.

Not raggin on him for being unhappy with the phone, raggin on him because he has a phone with "search" as the focal point, developed by a company whose sole existance was based around "search", yet here we are seeing yet another thread about the same issues.

I feel you on the phone and its reception issues. I gave up after (2) Droids myself. The phone has a lot to offer, and I never had any of the issues posted, though I do think that people go a little hard installing unproven apps from the market, developed by lord knows who, and expect everything to work flawlessly....then they blame all the issues on the phone. Go figure.

I myself will give the GSM version a shot to see if reception fares better, then maybe my battery won't drain from full charge in 4 hours while I'm in a weak reception area...which is under 2 miles from VZ store.

 

[jleejordan]

let's be fair, there's no really great phone that came out great. they all have a bleeding edge period. here's a few things though

#1. i have to charge mine once a day. not bad at all. if you think the iphone's battery life is better,you're sorely mistaken. try turning the brightness down. i'm fine with mine on the lowest setting. keep in mind that the screen has almost 3 times the pixels of a 3gs, so it's not even in the same ballpark as far as the amount of info it processes to make all the high def greatness happen. also use can use the great power widget that comes on the phone and just turn off gps/bluetooth/ and wifi when you're not using it. no smartphone/pda has GREAT battery life. you just need to tweak your settings.

#2. the battery door is a fluke. mine has absolutely no problems and i've had it off at least a dozen times.

#3. the screen not waking up after a call is annoying. hopefully it'll be fixed with the update. i just use the camera button. it only happens in daylight for me though.

#4. i got mine on release day and have never made a "pocket call". i have never had a problem with the virtual keypad in portrait OR landscape mode. i also have never had a problem finding the power button. that's not the phone's fault.

#5. what's wrong with the reception? i have absolutely no problems with reception.

however, it sounds like you just got one of the many first-batch-lemons. that's why you don't buy phone's from best buy. a verizon store is much more apt to just switch the phone out for you. problem solved.

 

[stf85202]

test

 

[stf85202]

Follow up to my previous post. Still have not had time to get back to Best Buy to return the Droid.

I am no novice when it comes to cell phones

 

[colnago]

...#5. what's wrong with the reception? i have absolutely no problems with reception...

It would all depend on where you lived wouldn't it? That said, I live in an area where I can get a solid signal a few blocks away, yet while lying on my desk, the phone will completely lose reception for short periods of time. While at my mom's house, her block is a low signal/dead zone, and there are multiple spots around town where I get little to "no" reception. This in the Balt./DC corridor, 2 miles from VZ store? I think its a Droid issue, as this happed with "both" Droids I had 39/09 and 44/09 mfg dates.

 

[colnago]

...Great Idea someone had for putting paper under the battery lid. ...

That's not the fix for it. Had you searched (with Google maybe? Google phone? Synonymous with search?) you would have found a better, more permanent fix:


http://androidforums.com/how-tips/20335-battery-door-replacement-do-loose-cover.html

...and you really don't need to change your font, we can see your posts.

 

[noonehereyet]

Enough with the GIGANTIC BOLD text.... we are all here for a purpose and if this thread isnt serving a purpose other than this i'm going to close it....

 

[jlawson]

...
#5. what's wrong with the reception? i have absolutely no problems with reception.

however, it sounds like you just got one of the many first-batch-lemons. that's why you don't buy phone's from best buy. a verizon store is much more apt to just switch the phone out for you. problem solved.

Regarding reception: The location certainly can be a factor, but there have been plenty of complaints on the different sites about the Droid's signal strength. We've several Verizon phones in the house; the Droid is the only one with a reception problem.

Regarding "just a lemon:" I was certainly hoping that was the case when I traded in my first. Seems like there must be more than an average number of lemons if I got two out of two (both from an official Verizon store). If I hadn't found so many folks on the forums with similar issues I might have thought I was just extremely unlucky. Ah well. I'd certainly like Verizon to have a good IPhone competitor. Glad it's worked for some of you. Not me.

 

[colnago]

Regarding reception: The location certainly can be a factor, but there have been plenty of complaints on the different sites about the Droid's signal strength. We've several Verizon phones in the house; the Droid is the only one with a reception problem....

I'm trying to wait and see if the firmware update fixes (doubtful, but you never know). Otherwise, I'll pull the trigger on a GSM version.

 

[928gt]

STF 85202,

Your solution is so simple and would probably have been quicker than all of your posts. You either have a defective phone OR the "wet glue" application of the screen protector has made it a defective phone.

Get off the internet, drive to Best Buy, get a replacement phone AND DON"T LET THEM PUT A SCREEN PROTECTOR ON IT.

Use it for a few days without adding and loading a bunch of crap on and in it and then post back your results.

 

[jlawson]

STF 85202,

Your solution is so simple and would probably have been quicker than all of your posts. You either have a defective phone OR the "wet glue" application of the screen protector has made it a defective phone.

Get off the internet, drive to Best Buy, get a replacement phone AND DON"T LET THEM PUT A SCREEN PROTECTOR ON IT.

Use it for a few days without adding and loading a bunch of crap on and in it and then post back your results.

What's with you guys who feel you need to make personal attacks in your responses?! STF 85202 is mad at his phone, not at you, and he has a right to be.

And if you've read the thread you should be aware it's not the apps. I've had more problems with both my Droids than he has and I haven't downloaded any apps.

By the way STF 85202, I DO use a screen protector; it's an official Droid gel screen protector -- no wet glue, it just lays on the screen. I've removed it since I'm not likely to keep the phone anyway. I can't imagine that will solve all the problems, but I'll let you know if that helps.

 

[stf85202]

Thanks for your input....

This will be my last post as I am returning the Droid