Help A Couple Problems w Amazon S7 Edge

[Puddin422]

My husband and I use Straighttalk and buy Verizon phones to use because Verizon is best in our area. I bought him an S7 Edge on Amazon. If it's okay to post the link, here's the actual phone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CJ3SF02/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

First problem is, he woke up one morning with an SD card error notification of some sort, and then we assume it reformatted his card because it wiped it clean. He's pretty tech savvy, so I'm certain he didn't click anything to tell it or allow it to perform any action. I think he hit cancel or whatever might just close the notice, but it wiped his SD card clean. We just had a baby in May, plus two other kids in sports that he had taken some cool action shots of, and they're all gone. I know this can't be fixed, but is this a common issue with this phone?? I bought him a name brand sd card to prevent dumb crap like this. It was either a Samsung card or SanDisk.

The second problem is that he's not being able to use data while on a phone call. This is not an issue with any other phone I've had on straighttalk, and I've used a sprint based, att, and verizon. Only his new S7 Edge does this. Can this be fixed?

I'm about to buy one, too, so I'd like to know before I do. Any rumored info on an S8??

 

[lunatic59]

Problem #1 ... SD cards are notoriously unreliable, even brand names. While they can be convenient, I would never treat them as anything but temporary storage. They can and do fail indiscriminately, many times without warning. The fact that it had reformatted the card and now appears to be working correctly might only mean that the bad sectors haven't been written to yet. It's also possible to get a counterfeit card, even from reputable online resellers. You can use this app from the play store to check your card's authenticity. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi

Problem #2 ... It has always been that CDMA phones couldn't access 3G/4G data while on a call because of the radio sharing the same frequencies for both. Verizon and Sprint (and their network resellers) all have this problem. As LTE rolled out, this tended to go away because that uses a completely different technology and requires a SIM card, even with CDMA phones. It could be that your husband's sim card wasn't provisioned correctly and therefore his data drops back to 4G, which won't work while making a call.

 

[Puddin422]

Thank you for the replies. I bought the SD card at Walmart, btw. I only bought the phone and a case from Amazon. Are you saying that the card could do the same thing again? It has bad sectors, period, and shouldn't be trusted? I will send him that link. Thanks!

 

[Puddin422]

Can you explain re: sim card wasn't provisioned correctly? In layman's terms please.

 

[lunatic59]

Thank you for the replies. I bought the SD card at Walmart, btw. I only bought the phone and a case from Amazon. Are you saying that the card could do the same thing again? It has bad sectors, period, and shouldn't be trusted? I will send him that link. Thanks!

That's a possibility. It's something we see frequently. That doesn't mean, however, that the card is fine and the problem is something else. It might have simply been seated poorly and a little movement - even from simply cooling down over night or heating up from charging or use - broke the connection long enough for the card to report an error. Without being able to repeat the problem, it could be very difficult to diagnose.

Can you explain re: sim card wasn't provisioned correctly? In layman's terms please.

A sim (subscriber identifier module) card is just a little doohickey (sorry, is that too technical? ) that identifies your mobile account to the carrier when it connects to a mobile network. So let's say a priest, a rabbi and a lawyer walk into a phone store. One buys an iPhone with a contract for AT&T, one buys a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (not the exploding kind) with a contract for T-Mobile and the other buys a pay-as-you-go sim card for a blackberry they bought from craigslist (that would be the cheap lawyer). Then, the priest, rabbi and lawyer all walk into a bar and turn on their phones.

Each phone powers up and connects to the cell tower near the bar. The iPhone reads the installed sim card and sends its identifier over the network. AT&T recognizes it as a valid account number and sends a signal to permit the connection. It also sees that the priest's account includes unlimited data at maximum network speeds, so the iPhone comes online and everything just works. The Rabbi's phone send's out the identifier and T-Mobile recognizes it as a valid account and authorizes its access as well, but the clerk at the phone shop scanned the wrong barcode when setting up the rabbi's account for data so it didn't think there was a data plan associated with the account. The Galaxy S7 could make and receive calls and texts, but couldn't establish a data connection. The Lawyer never activated his pay-pay-as-you-go sim card so when he turned on his blackberry, the identifier wasn't recognized and he wasn't permitted a connection to any of the mobile network even though it was a valid sim card.

The priest had his sim card provisioned correctly.
The rabbi's sim was provisioned incorrectly.
The lawyer's sim wasn't provisioned at all.

That's how it works for GSM networks.

 

[Puddin422]

Thank you so much! Is there something we should do differently to prevent this? My S5 is dying, and I'm going to order an S7. An unlocked phone will come without carrier bloatware, correct? Is there any reason not to buy a new unlocked phone from Amazon vs another option?? I need it to run on Verizon's network. (I use a specific zip code to make sure I get Verizon w straight talk.)

 

[lunatic59]

With Straight Talk (as a Verizon reseller), the phone identifies itself by the IMEI built into the phone and must be activated on the server side for voice, test and 4G data. For LTE you'll need a sim. It should all work just fine unless someone on the carrier side screws up, which is what I suspect has happened to your husband's phone. The easiest fix for that is to request a new sim.

Unlocked phones might not have carrier bloat, but they will have manufacturer bloat. All the Samsung crap will be there, but some people like Samsung's stuff. My wife does, so I just keep my mouth shut.

 

[Puddin422]

I hate it all. I barely like the google stuff being there. His sim was direct from straighttalk, if I'm not mistaken. That's what we usually have to do.

Can you please tell me the hidden differences between the different model S7 that'll work for me? I guess that would be the 930U, 930F, and 930V? I can see side by side specs, but I'm sure there's more I need to know than that.

Thank you so much. My camera is fubar'd on my S5, and I have a baby. I need a new phone asap so I really appreciate the help. It is saving me a lot of time so I can get a phone quicker!

 

[lunatic59]

From what I can see they are all the same phone except for the network they are intended for or sold through.

SM-G930U is the unlocked version of the US model.
SM-G930F is the international version (always unlocked)
SM-G930V is the Verizon version when you buy it at Verizon or with a contract.

If you are planning to use Verizon, stay away from the 930F. It doesn't look like it supports the necessary bands for Verizon's CDMA network. And, I think the only way you can buy a 930V is through Verizon directly or as a second-hand device.

Here are the full spec's for the US models. The 930U isn't listed because it's the generic unlocked model, but it would be the same.