Help need advice- what to do w/ pesky nuisance phone?

[poppycat]

Dear informed community of experienced Eris users: HELP!
I am one year into my current two-year contract with Verizon. I've had an Eris since March, with increasing problems. I want to know what you would do here. The symptoms, in short:

-- Its functionality as a phone is hideous. I can answer calls maybe half the time. Calls are usually dropped in the first minute regardless of signal strength. Sometimes the call never shows up, but a voicemail appears from the ether. For a few minutes after any call activity, the phone is totally unresponsive. Actually, one way I can tell a call might be about to happen is that the phone suddenly stops responding. Within a minute or two, a call might show up. If it does ring and I was in the middle of texting or using an app, then I usually cannot answer it. Buttons stop working.

-- The touch screen randomly stops working. Often, only parts of it respond. When using the keyboard, I have to "tap" the screen really hard to get any keys in the bottom row to work. By 'tap' i mean mash my finger into the screen and curse a lot.

-- I would guess that the buttons (physical and on-screen) work about 60% of the time.

-- Verizon already sent a replacement battery after the original one stopped holding a charge. The new battery lasts maybe 8 to 12 hours *if* I don't use the phone for anything other than a FEW text messages.

-- And of course the other typical Eris snags, like lag. Using the Eris reminds me of dialing up at 28.8 Kbps. Remember the bad old days? They're back.

Pulling out the battery (without powering off) and then restarting helps a little. But within a day or so all the problems are back. Verizon is offering to do a hard reset where they reprogram the phone (or something?) while I call from another phone. They said if that doesn't work, they'd send a refurb Eris. I have never had a good experience with refurbished products.

The only other options I can see are rooting or buying a new phone at full price (not much of an option, I can't spend $300 min out of pocket on a new phone right now).
I doubt rooting would help much, as these seem to be hardware issues. I would love to try a different phone, as I'm disgusted with the Eris.

It's great having a smartphone. Especially one that barely can handle SMS and calls. I miss my LG VX 8350. Now there was a phone.

So... I know you all have seen these problems over and over. What would you do?

 

[kobel1up]

Calibrate the touch screen, it may help with the touch part. Now I would say root, I did and it was the best thing for my phone and me. Just do some reading and you will see.

 

[metlcat]

I had the lag and freezing problems with both phone calls and texts, and the random voice mail without the phone ringing. I finally rooted using the one click method and removed all of the bloatware. I also installed AutoKiller and now I haven't had any lag or freezing with calls or texts and the voice mail problem seems to be gone as well. I don't know exactly what fixed these issues, but the combination has been a winner for me. My battery life has also improved using AutoKiller. I get 13-15 hours on my heavy use days and closer to 18 on lighter days.

I don't know about the touch screen problems, but I would try the recalibration like kobel1up suggested.

Rooting is at least worth a try, especially since you can unroot. Also, I'm sure if you complain enough to verizon they'll upgrade you to another phone. I've seen several posts on these forums about people getting a Droid X, Droid 2, or Incredible when they've had enough problems.

 

[poppycat]

Thanks, I think I will try rooting. I've been curious anyway, and being able to un-root feels like a good back-up plan. Plus, I saw in some other threads that rooted phones, when taken into the store, weren't identified as rooted and replacements, er, took place anyway.

 

[bjf88]

Definitely root! It's like getting the phone new guts. I'm on TazzFroyo now, have been for a few months, and love it.
Granted, you should ALWAYS do the proper maintenance. Clear caches (can be done with an app after rooted), call logs, texts, keep you photo galleries not too full, uninstall apps you never use, etc.
As for you touchscreen issues, the only way you'll really be able to tell if it's a hardware issues is to download a drawing app and draw straight lines all across the screen. That will show any flaws in the screen hardware if any. If not, just do a calibration.
Hope this helps!

 

[alprazolam]

Good advice above. You most definitely want to root this phone. It will make ALL the difference. If, you truly do have a defective phone, go ahead and get the refurb. I don't like messing with them either, but it is better than sitting with a new, dysfunctional phone. The refurb may fix all of your problems or new ones may be introduced. In that case, call and ask that you simply be allowed to upgrade. Seems like VZ has been very lenient in allowing people to upgrade from the Eris. At least from reports on here.

The good news is that you will be among some pretty awesome phones when your yearly upgrade date comes up in March. Most of the rumored dates of the beastly 4G phones point to around March of next year.

 

[poppycat]

I do generally try to keep up with maintenance items, like clearing out old stuff. I feel like I came across cache settings once that could be cleared, when I was having SMS crash issues. But with the 2.1 update, the menus rearranged and I haven't found it again. Obviously, I didn't look very hard.

So, I did a G-Sensor and Keyboard calibration, then tested the screen with a paint app, by drawing lines like bjf88 suggested. There is an area near the bottom, just above the home keys (is that the right term?) that is ... reluctant... to take input. It eventually does if I repeatedly draw lines over it, but it's rather random.

Now, for the rooting. *excited*
If nothing works.. March is coming, and those upgrades ! ! !

 

[poppycat]

Soooo... on Friday I went through the steps outlined in this post (Universal 1 Click) to root my phone. It seemed to be successful. Regrettably, I am still having crazeeeee problems with the touch screen, as well as the usual "phone is acting loco crazy mad" issues. Time to call Verizon for the refurb? Or, is there more to rooting to solve phone issues (I suspect there is)? Beyond the steps given in that simple and excellent tutorial, I have not fooled much with it. For funsies, I did download estrong's file explorer, to test whether I could delete bloatware apps -- and I could not delete them. I read up somewhat on rooting, but I haven't tried too much yet. Further suggestions?

 

[Podivin]

I suspect you're in for a replacement from Verizon. Rooting will not fix hardware problems, which it sounds like is what's wrong with your phone. Before returning the phone to Verizon it would probably be wise to unroot it. They may or may not notice, and if they do it may or may not be an issue, but better safe.
You can unroot from here [ROM][10/20/2010]FlashBack21 v1 -Return to Factory Stock - UPDATED - xda-developers

 

[metlcat]

Soooo... on Friday I went through the steps outlined in this post (Universal 1 Click) to root my phone. It seemed to be successful. Regrettably, I am still having crazeeeee problems with the touch screen, as well as the usual "phone is acting loco crazy mad" issues. Time to call Verizon for the refurb? Or, is there more to rooting to solve phone issues (I suspect there is)? Beyond the steps given in that simple and excellent tutorial, I have not fooled much with it. For funsies, I did download estrong's file explorer, to test whether I could delete bloatware apps -- and I could not delete them. I read up somewhat on rooting, but I haven't tried too much yet. Further suggestions?

The screen problem might be something you can't fix. As far as the phone acting crazy, now that you are rooted, try installing AutoKiller from the market. It helps Android do internal memory allocation better. Also, for removing bloatware, check out this post for how to remove things and what is safe to remove. I recommend using Root Explorer for this process.

If this process still does not work and you can't figure out the screen, use the ROM mhotovec linked to and get a refurb.

 

[poppycat]

Thanks again. I called VZW and they've sent the refurb out. *crossing fingers* Now to unroot. Thanks for all your help, advice, and links. I've been reading up on a lot, and learning plenty. You folks rock.

 

[poppycat]

Hm, so unrooting is good so far, but I get to the last step, like so:

Boot into the Amon_RA recovery, Wipe, and then flash the FlashBack21 ROM (of your choosing)

My options are:
- Wipe data/factory reset
- Wipe Dalvik-cache
- Wipe SD:ext partition
- Wipe battery stats
- Wipe rotate settings

I am guessing I should choose the first option for data/factory reset?

 

[poppycat]

Actually, nevermind. Unroot complete! Is there a way to check and make certain it is back to factory and good to ship?

 

[Podivin]

Under 'about phone' all those number there mean something to people - but I don't happen to know what they should be for a stock phone - so I'm no help.
However, you could do this;
Try to boot into recovery, if you can't, that's good.
Also check for an app called Superuser, if you can't find it, that's good also.

 

[poppycat]

Ooooh update!! I got the refurb, and it was the difference between night and day. This phone does things my old one never did (in a good way). All was good.

I stayed a little wary though, because the old one started out okay, too.

Then today the camera stopped working. Just goes to a black screen. Given the way the Eris works, I am guessing this will mysteriously go away in a few hours/days.

OH FOR THE LOVE OF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1BBQ

So anyway, on to rooting again, and shiny new ROMs.

Edit: the battery died 6 hours after I unplugged the phone today. Currently plugged in to charge- But now the camera works again. ::sigh::

 

[ErisUser539]

I had the lag and freezing problems with both phone calls and texts, and the random voice mail without the phone ringing. I finally rooted using the one click method and removed all of the bloatware. I also installed AutoKiller and now I haven't had any lag or freezing with calls or texts and the voice mail problem seems to be gone as well. I don't know exactly what fixed these issues, but the combination has been a winner for me. My battery life has also improved using AutoKiller. I get 13-15 hours on my heavy use days and closer to 18 on lighter days.

I don't know about the touch screen problems, but I would try the recalibration like kobel1up suggested.

Rooting is at least worth a try, especially since you can unroot. Also, I'm sure if you complain enough to verizon they'll upgrade you to another phone. I've seen several posts on these forums about people getting a Droid X, Droid 2, or Incredible when they've had enough problems.

metlcat can you send me the threads about people getting upgraded phones like the Droid X, I was laughing about that last time I swapped the phone I told them they should upgrade me for free and they laughed at me.

 

[metlcat]

It's been a while since people were talking about it, so I don't remember which threads they were in. I believe the gist of it was that you had to catch the right person, and usually it had to be a supervisor that you were talking to. Being nice about it was working well, and if the supervisor you spoke with wouldn't switch it out, wait a bit and call back again to see if you could get someone different. Again, it's been a while and Verizon has changed several policies since then, so this may not work anymore.