Article on making 911 calls on the EVO

One help to track this problem MAY be users location when it's turned off...So, if you've had it reboot during a 911 call, where were you?

The Dorian said:

Lol do you guys just call 911 for any random junk?

I've never dialed 911 in my life...

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If that was your ass in your profile pic you would probably be calling 911 a lot!

Just another conspiracy by Apple to knock the Evo back a notch!!!

ibleedbloo said:

When you dial 911 does it use the GPS? I have had my phone reset several times when I have made a phone call when I was using navigation.

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That was my first inclination too when I heard of this problem. Maybe you have to have the GPS radio on, or maybe it needs to be off? Or maybe there is a Location setting that needs to be toggled in order for all criteria to be met for a 911 call? It could also be a software problem, where an app is interfering? Maybe people with task killers are accidentally killing essential processes that are needed for dialing in an emergency? It could be ANY number of variables.

This kind of media reporting is how a contained grass fire turns into a forest fire.
I'm from Minneapolis where this video is from and that channel, rather all of them in the metro area, are big iPhone fans. I saw many many iPhone stories, and never one for the Evo until now that there is a "problem". I know it is a side issue, but I think it is a factor (Or maybe I am just biased since I have an Evo?)

lamboh said:

Smart Phone Fails Some Customers In Emergencies | KSTP TV - Minneapolis and St. Paul


i hope th OP didnt get banned resulting from this post...he had something going too

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Yea it's possible as I've had my phone reboot on more then one occasion mid call. 98% sure however that the OP didn't actually have this happen to him and just made it up. He loves to make up outlandish stories to continually rip on his phone. He was on number 6 last time I checked...

It's not like android understands its 911 and stabilizes the operating system during the call. At least my evo reloads in like 30 seconds. My palm pre has spontaniously restarted mid call as well and WebOS takes a solid 5 min to reboot! Imagine THAT during a 911 call.

Just tested in Alaska and it works just fine... I feel safer now

PyroSporker said:

I'm from Minneapolis where this video is from and that channel, rather all of them in the metro area, are big iPhone fans. I saw many many iPhone stories, and never one for the Evo until now that there is a "problem". I know it is a side issue, but I think it is a factor (Or maybe I am just biased since I have an Evo?)

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Oh no, its the media reflecting the larger society as a whole. To them there is the iPhone, and then everything else. I get asked two questions regarding my phone. "Is that the iPhone?", and much less frequently, "Is that that 'Droid thing'?"

I just dialed 911 but did not press send. It brought up 9-1-1 Emergency and a picture of the Geico Gecko with the Face book logo in the corner. Very weird.

djrottweiler said:

Just tested in Alaska and it works just fine... I feel safer now

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How'd ya 'test' a 911 call? Did you dial 911 and tell the operator that you were just testing if it worked on your cell phone?

I guess I should have added, last time I called 911 from a landline here in San Jose it took about 2 minutes for me to get an operator. This makes me glad I have firearms to protect myself.

ive never got a random reboot and im not rooted and on my phone 20/7 (gotta sleep ya know)

I don't believe it's because they were dialing 911. Before I rooted my phone and installed a custom rom, I was having an issue when I would call someone and my phone would just reboot by itself. I alot of other people were complaining about this this as well. Seems like bad timing. So that's why I have guns and custom roms. lol

I was in a car accident (everyone is fine) about three weeks ago. Had to dial 911. I connected just fine. Phone does go into some sort of emergency mode for about five minutes like previously posted. I thought I might look it up but forgot all about it.

erichg1000 said:

Using voice for 911 is so outdated. There should be an app for this. lol

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Texting 911?

thread moved to proper section. thx

marctronixx said:

virtually all handsets have to be able to make 911 calls.

handsets go into a emergency mode sending GPS location to the PSAP's who field calls in that area. some handsets must be soft reset to get out of this emergency mode so what you saw was completely normal.

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Yep...I dialed 911 for the first time on New Year;s Eve after I was jumped while walking home at 4:00am. I had the Palm Pre phone then, and it too went into "emergency mode". It placed the call, though...and I hope my EVO doesn't fail on me if I ever have to dial 911 again.

Here are a few more people that have had 911 issues with the HTC EVO.
HTC EVO 4G:Can't dial 911 from the HTC EVO...HTC EVO 4G:Call 911 Phone Will Shut Offcalling 911 crashes my HTC evo 4G, every time - Sprint Android Forum

meyerweb said:

I think anyone who uses a smartphone that allows software to be added has had their phone reboot unexpectedly.

But if you've had two phones in a row reboot this way, I think you should look at what software you have running on it. Spontaneous reboots are usually caused by some kind of software conflict.

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Yea my Evo may have rebooted one time since I have had it on release day.

ThatNewAndroidGuy said:

Texting 911?

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It's coming. "Next-Generation 911" will provide this service, some counties are already using it. You can also expect, with next gen 911, to be able to use skype webcam calls also. (That, though, has brought up issues of other proportions -- people calling and getting on cam to commit suicide or commit a murder while someone watches)

As far as some of the other questions regarding 911, I can try and answer them as much as possible, as I make the maps for my Parish/County's 911 systems. All phones, even those without GPS on them, can locate the call by the use of triangulation of 3 local towers in the area. Even if your call gets cut off, they will dispatch the authorities to the area. All cutoffs/hangups are treated as endangerment to the person calling, as if they are being held hostage and can't talk.

Example of triangulation in use: We've tracked down a kidnapper by locating the phone by entering the phone number and it triangulating it's position. We've also busted a lot of young teens thinking it's funny to call and hang up, playing pranks.

Even though its a inconvenience for a phone to cut out during a call ... you can plan on them responding no matter what. Anyways, hope that clears up some questions yall had. 911 call systems are crazy in what they can do/plot on a map.

Even if your call gets cut off, they will dispatch the authorities to the area.

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Even though its a inconvenience for a phone to cut out during a call ... you can plan on them responding no matter what.

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That's only if the call actually goes through. If the phone reboots before the call is placed, they have no idea you called. From what it sounds like, when you hit send, the phone activates the emergency mode and activates the gps. It sounds like when the gps is activated, this is when it reboots, so the calls might not even go through.

And just an FYI, DON'T try to test your phone out by calling 911, then hanging up. They will send someone to your location, and it's illegal to call 911 when you dont have an emergency. That is why this issue is a big deal for me, as there is no way to test to make sure my phone will work correctly in an emergency. I'm going to give it a week or so to see is sprint/htc puts out a statement or an update. If not, I'm seriously thinking of returning the evo for the epic. I cannot imagine being in a situation where I need to call 911 to save my life and my phone reboots.

I just read this thread and I think you guys are right on with a bug in the active GPS functionality during the voice conversation causing the phone to reboot.

It made me write about a similar issue when I'm using the CadioTrainer application and its active GPS functionality. If I get a voice call while this program is actively running in the background and using the GPS feature then after 5-10 minutes of the voice conversation my phone will reboot every time.

Link to the thread...
http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g...oot-when-voice-conversation-5-10-minutes.html

Just for the record, it's not illegal to make a test 911 call. I'm a network engineer by trade, specializing in voice. I just wrapped up a 3month overhaul of our e911 system (assigns locations to ip subnets or switches, and sends the location data to PSAP's (Public Safety Answering Points) around the country based on the location of the phone). Because it's all IP based, for test calls I just add a /32 subnet for my desk phone, updated the location for each call and I dial 911 dozens of times -- each location needs to be tested.

Don't hangup (which for whatever reason is the instinct that most people have when accidentally dialing 911), and if you accidentally hang up make sure you answer if/when they call you back to prevent a dispatch.

To make a test call, some municipalities are pretty strict about giving them a heads up first while some don't care at all. When in doubt, look up your local police department number and call and say that you've got a new cell phone and there are numerous news stories about a bug in this phone model that reboots the phone when 911 is dialed. Tell the person that you won't feel safe until you make a successful test call. They'll either tell you to go ahead and dial 911 or they'll ask for your name and the expected number of calls so they can alert the folks answering the 911 calls that you'll be placing a test call.

At that point, just dial 911 and when prompted "911 - what's your emergency" or the similar prompt --- just say "This is not an emergency. I'm just making a test call."

You can also confirm the name, number, and location info that they're seeing. Some folks require you to tell them what they should be seeing and they'll confirm it. Some just read it all to you. I've only run into 1 PSAP agent who was a total dick and refused to give me the information and refused to confirm what I told him it should be -- think it was Manhattan but can't remember.

The bottom line is that you pay your taxes and are afforded the services offered by the PSAPs (fire dept, police dept, ambulance, etc). If it takes a test 911 call for you to feel confident that you're getting the service that you're legally due -- so be it and they understand that.

that's my 2 cents anyways,
will

Well. I regret reading this article. I sat here thinking geez... ppl call 911 a lot n I never have. Lol. Well my fiance was driving n we were rear ended at a red light. Were fine.. but it made the 911 call fine. I was using gps nav and a few other things. It connected okay but five mins later after thr emergeny mode went out my mom called n I answered... talked for one min before the phone restarted. I have never had a problem with my phone rebooting while on the phone.

Edit: Actually its been messing up and freezing n being sluggish since. Odd.