Droid crashed now acting funny and dropping calls??

[bevelman]

I have had a phone for many years now and recently upgraded by Black Berry to get a Droid and talked my wife into leaving AT&T and coming over to VZW.

So here starts the problem and my thread will have multiple questions because i'm kind of a noob when it comes to 3g? What is it.. and are the droids using it to talk or just for data? Both phones will sit on 3g with lots of signal untill a call comes in or is placed then the 3g dissapears and the signal goes down to only a bar or two?

The second part of this is my wife's droid crashed while in the home sreen.. no response from any key or power button. Had to pull the battery. Ever since that happen the unit continues to drop calls.. usually only allowing a 10 second call each time? The data has been working fine but now today i noticed it's not connecting up like it should "facebook" "media market center" Just says error in communicating?

I'm beggining to think something happened to it after that hard crash because the other droid even though it has low signal works just fine at home? I have not dropped one call and all email data seems to work quickly and flawlessly.

I did bring it in yesterday to VZW yesterday but sadly i ended up with a "new girl" She did the *228 and then stated she would flash it. End result was it already has the most up to date software on it and she would put in a service ticket for my area?

I'll try again tomorrow and ask that they replace the phone.. it's still well with in the first 30 days.

Any other thoughts??

Thanks to all.. very awesome site.. i'm glad i stumbled across it

 

[3devious]

My husband's Droid has bever done this. You might want to think about going to Verizon again and requesting a replacement.

 

[smurfh]

So here starts the problem and my thread will have multiple questions because i'm kind of a noob when it comes to 3g? What is it.. and are the droids using it to talk or just for data? Both phones will sit on 3g with lots of signal untill a call comes in or is placed then the 3g dissapears and the signal goes down to only a bar or two?

3G is referring to data only. Verizon uses CDMA for their cell phone technology, and right now Verizon has 3 different types of CDMA technology they user on their phones. 1XRTT (or commonly know just as 1X) is the voice technology that's used when you go to place a call. 2 Bars should actually be ok. 1 bar is cutting it close to a dropped call.

3G refers to their EVDO technology which stands for EV= Evolutionary DO=Data Only. Now, currently verizon has deployed the latest in EVDO called Rev-A. Now a lot of this is techie mumbo jumbo to be honest, but your phone if you have a 3G signal uses EVDO for your droid's data, and 1X for your voice calls. This is why it switches like that. So the switching is normal, although usually (unless you area is heavily used for cell phones) EVDO runs on the same tower with 1X and the signal should be close to the same.

The second part of this is my wife's droid crashed while in the home sreen.. no response from any key or power button. Had to pull the battery. Ever since that happen the unit continues to drop calls.. usually only allowing a 10 second call each time? The data has been working fine but now today i noticed it's not connecting up like it should "facebook" "media market center" Just says error in communicating?

I would call Verizon's technical support instead of going to the store. There is , unfortunately, only so much they can do in the stores. Call 611 or 800-922-0204 and speak to a customer service rep and tell them you think you have a warranty issue with the phone crashing. They will send you out another one and if you want it over night instead of 2 day shipping, you can actually request that, although i think there is a charge to overnight the phone to you. When you get the phone, they will have a prepaid shipping label in the box that you just put your phone in it and ship it back. Be sure to read all the instructions that come in the box. The battery you keep as well as your battery door. You only send back the phone. They are very friendly here. I would especially tell them you went by the store and they looked at it and attmpted to "flash" the phone.

Also, being that you are within your 30 days, you may be able to get it swapped out at the store. I'm not saying that isn't an option, i just know from prior experience that you get less hassle if you call customer care then if you go back in the store.

Hope this all helps! Glad to see you're at Verizon, and glad to see you're here and with a droid!!!

Droid-Rocks!

 

[bevelman]

Thanks for the wonderful posts... I did attempt to go into the store **big mistake** Once they hear you went online or called CS-Sales for the phones you have they decide they can't help you. I know that would be the case if you went through a third party **walmart** However I didn't. So i called verizon it's self and man it's like night and day.. so pleasent ready to help. Tried a few different things with tech support both didn't work. So since it's with in the 30 days they will ship out another new droid and we'll send this one back.

Really REALLY hope the second one works perfectly.. it will be tough to keep my wife on board if it isn't.

I asked about the 1x vs 3g transmitting from one tower. They were didn't really know what to say on that and why the signal drops so badly when i go to place a call? We are in a smaller town here in Michigan so i would think that the towers would be transmitting both? It does go from five bars of 3g down to 1 bar of 1x. Luckly my phone holds it.. my wife's did but now won't.

I'll post with an update.. hopefuly thursday

 

[3devious]

I asked about the 1x vs 3g transmitting from one tower. They were didn't really know what to say on that and why the signal drops so badly when i go to place a call? We are in a smaller town here in Michigan so i would think that the towers would be transmitting both? It does go from five bars of 3g down to 1 bar of 1x. Luckly my phone holds it.. my wife's did but now won't.

I'll post with an update.. hopefuly thursday

You might want to think about testing some things out for your signal while using data. While making a voice call the 3g/EVDO situation is almost insignificant (as per the explanation that was provided to you by Smurfh.) Unless it is dropping your calls or giving you poor call quality, you might want to focus on the towers' effects on data.

You could also be experiencing that anomally if the towers are those that Sprint allows Verizon to use. While both are CDMA, I get the impression that they use different parts of the spectrum.

 

[smurfh]

To break it down, 1X (which is what you use when you are talking on your phone) with Verizon uses the 800MHz Spectrum. Like a cable modem for internet, it uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). To put it simply, everyone talks on the same exact frequency at the same time almost. So, imagine if you will, you're in a crowded ball room, and I am on one side of the room, and you are on the other side of the room. Lets say for instance there is no one else in the room with us. I could probably use my regular inside voice and talk to you with no problems. This would be like having 5 bars or being really close to a tower. Now imagine, same ball room, i'm still on one side and you are on the other. This time though, there are 50 people in the room. Well, now using my inside voice along with everyone else using their inside voice, i might not be able to hear you very well, so my signal (me talking to you) to noise (the other people in the room) ratio would be low. This is what would cause your bars to go down on your phone because your phone is having a harder time talking to the tower because so many other people are chatting it up on the same frequency. Now with those same 50 people in the room, you are the tower on the other side of the room, and i move to the middle of the room, even though those 50 people are talking, chances are you can hear me better. This makes my signal strength go back up.

I know this can be a little bit confusing, but this is, and pardon me saying so, a very run down version of what CDMA 1X is like. Obviously verizon has several frequency's that they use, but in your case, there might not be as much activity on 3G (EVDO) than on 1X (Voice) network so your signal to noise ratio on the 3G network is higher. Because EVDO is a data only network, the traffic that is going across is a lot less compared to a voice network.

Not saying that a Sprint tower couldn't conflict with verizon, but Sprint towers use the 1900MHz spectrum so they are a lot higher up. Again, it's still possible but a lot harder because they are spaced out further. Sprint also uses a CDMA network.

Also, keep in mind that the 1X network can handle data, but at a much slower rate. This means that if you can't get a good signal with 3G, your data connection will still work on 1X but that uses up more traffic (more noise) on the 1X network and can cause your signal strength to go down based on how far you are from the tower.

Hope i didn't get too technical, but i hope this helps clarify the difference between the 1X and EVDO a little bit more and how CDMA really works.

If you have more questions, please let me know!

 

[3devious]

That helped me a lot anyway. Out here in the DC area, Sprint hasn't been very impressive so I always thought that when I was getting less reception in an area that I knew was originally set up by Sprint, I thought that it was because of some sort of lack of optimization or something.