What do the replacement phones look like?

[tigris]

I have the annoying silent bug, and I have been contemplating about asking for a replacement because I read on this forum that they give out phones which other customers have returned.

I have taken good care with my phone (no scratches, etc) and I don't want to send this one in for a one that doesn't look like new and still has a chance of having the bug.

What do the replacement phones look like? Do they have any sign of use?

 

[Jmtegra]

My refurb looks brand new.. Wouldnt be able to tell it was used if you didnt already know.

 

[Cajun83]

My refurb looks brand new.. Wouldnt be able to tell it was used if you didnt already know.

I was about to post....


"It BETTER look brand new". lol...

refurb or not, I wouldn't accept a phone from ANY company that looked like it had been abused.

 

[Jmtegra]

Id be more worried about getting a refurb with the silent call issue rather than if its scratched up or not. I dont think they would send anything out with obvious cosmetic defects.

 

[laurentypo]

Looks new... has the silent bug

 

[Cajun83]

Looks new... has the silent bug

nice... lol

 

[xx_bishop_xx]

Mine looks newer than the "new" one I originally purchased. No silent bug!, but 2.1 bootloader 1.49.

 

[thenestor]

What do the replacement phones look like? Do they have any sign of use?

I think they replace the housing (and top layer of the screen, if necessary) on all refurbs before sending them out, because they truly look brand new.

My refurb does not have the silent issue, and I think that's because I got it the second week of May, before most of the other silent phones were sent in for replacement. Sorry to say it, but: You snooze, you lose. (At least until they identify the problem and truly rectify it.)

 

[laurentypo]

My 1st phone didn't have the silent bug. It just wouldn't call people when I pressed their number, or it would call the wrong person--like completely wrong. I would click "Mom" and it would dial "Vet." It also would list callers the wrong way. It would says "Dad" and be the phone number for a friend of mine. It was wacky.

 

[surgeon0214]

I feel bad for y'all who need my replacements, I must be lucky cause I haven't gotten a single bug/any lag

 

[tigris]

OK. I asked for a replacement. Thanks for the info.
I hope I get one that works.

If the one that comes doesn't work, I will keep asking for replacements until I get one that works. I won't have much to lose, except for the 20 minutes I need to spend on the phone.

 

[Lagos]

Can someone clear up for me what exactly the silent bug is?

From what I've been reading, it seems like a software issue that should be fixed with either a factory restore or a future update of the android os. Not a hardware problem that would be somehow solved by getting a new phone mailed to you.

OK. I asked for a replacement. Thanks for the info.
I hope I get one that works.

If the one that comes doesn't work, I will keep asking for replacements until I get one that works. I won't have much to lose, except for the 20 minutes I need to spend on the phone.

 

[tigris]

The silent bug is this:
When you answer a phone call, you completely lose all audio, so you can't hear them and they can not hear you. This happens randomly, maybe once every 10 calls.
The only way to fix this is to hang up, reboot the phone (which takes 2-3 minutes), and calling them back.

Just imagine how annoying this is. Hanging up on someone and calling them back after a few minutes. Especially if the call is important to you.

Factory reset does not fix this. (I tried it)
Software patch should be able to fix this, since we didn't have this bug before the 2.1 upgrade.

I would have waited for the patch if they announced a date for the patch, but they made no official announcements, and I can't wait for something which may or may not come.

The reason for getting a replacement is because some phones have this bug and some do not.
There is a chance of getting a working phone by getting a replacement.

 

[thenestor]

Can someone clear up for me what exactly the silent bug is?

From what I've been reading, it seems like a software issue that should be fixed with either a factory restore or a future update of the android os. Not a hardware problem that would be somehow solved by getting a new phone mailed to you.

It's precisely because a factory reset doesn't fix it (and yet some phones never get the bug) that we have to assume it's hardware-related. It's the reason I got a replacement, and my replacement has never done it. Longest I went without the silent bug on my previous phone was about one week. It's been almost six weeks since I got my replacement, and for two of those weeks I was running the exact same software with the exact same settings (after that I rooted).

 

[andrizoid]

My 1st phone didn't have the silent bug. It just wouldn't call people when I pressed their number, or it would call the wrong person--like completely wrong. I would click "Mom" and it would dial "Vet." It also would list callers the wrong way. It would says "Dad" and be the phone number for a friend of mine. It was wacky.

mine did that for a little while too. that was after i leaked though

 

[Lagos]

Factory reset does not fix this. (I tried it)
Software patch should be able to fix this, since we didn't have this bug before the 2.1 upgrade.

Thats exactly my point. If the problem only happens once in a a while, is fixed with a reboot, and didn't happen before 2.1, then it is a software issue.

I know this is a really annoying bug to have, and that for some people the problem SEEMS to have been fixed with a replacement phone, but at the same time we have people here who are on their 5th phone and claim some type of verizon conspiracy is to blame.

Im willing to bet that the reason it happens for some people and not for others might have something to do with the apps people have installed or if the did/didn't root their phone.

I'm not trying to start a flame war, just pointing out that most people are needlessly getting replacement phone after replacement phone mailed out to them.

 

[tigris]

If you think getting a replacement is needless, what other way are you suggesting?

 

[Jmtegra]

Thats exactly my point. If the problem only happens once in a a while, is fixed with a reboot, and didn't happen before 2.1, then it is a software issue.

I know this is a really annoying bug to have, and that for some people the problem SEEMS to have been fixed with a replacement phone, but at the same time we have people here who are on their 5th phone and claim some type of verizon conspiracy is to blame.

Im willing to bet that the reason it happens for some people and not for others might have something to do with the apps people have installed or if the did/didn't root their phone.

I'm not trying to start a flame war, just pointing out that most people are needlessly getting replacement phone after replacement phone mailed out to them.

Im pretty sure its hardware issue, The bug did happen before 2.1 just not nearly as often, Its definitely not 3rd party apps because it happens when the phone is at all factory settings. Root and unrooted people are having these problems. The reason some people are getting sent refurbs with this problem is because it would take weeks of testing for just one phone to see if it has the bug. Maybe they would activate the phone and the silence would start right away or maybe it would take 3 weeks. They test the phone quickly and if it works after a hard reset they are going to send it out as a refurb. They know just as much about this problem as we do.

 

[laurentypo]

It's precisely because a factory reset doesn't fix it (and yet some phones never get the bug) that we have to assume it's hardware-related.

This isn't true. As a person who has to listen to her software programming husband, I hear it all the time. If software is downloaded incorrectly, there is an error with the coding, which will not be fixed with a factory reset or turning the phone off and on. All software works differently, even if it's on the same hardware, because every computer chip can be a hair different, even if they are supposed to be the same.

Verizon claims that many Eris' did not download the software correctly. If this is true, that would explain why some have the bugs and some don't.

Yesterday my Eris wouldn't make phone calls at all, even if I restarted it. If I dial a # or click on a contact, nothing happens. I tried taking the battery out, too (as they suggested at Verizon). No luck :/ Hope today is better. I'd like to be able to use my phone as a phone.

 

[Lagos]

If you think getting a replacement is needless, what other way are you suggesting?

Well at this point, just wait for your replacement, but if that doesn't work
talk to verizon and ask them to upgrade you to a different phone that doesn't have this bug. Either that or wait and see if the software patch that someone posted about is really coming.

 

[Lagos]

Im pretty sure its hardware issue, The bug did happen before 2.1 just not nearly as often, Its definitely not 3rd party apps because it happens when the phone is at all factory settings. Root and unrooted people are having these problems. The reason some people are getting sent refurbs with this problem is because it would take weeks of testing for just one phone to see if it has the bug. Maybe they would activate the phone and the silence would start right away or maybe it would take 3 weeks. They test the phone quickly and if it works after a hard reset they are going to send it out as a refurb. They know just as much about this problem as we do.

It just seems like a common software issue that plagues all phones.

It could be something that happens when the phone receives a call from a number that ends in a certain pattern, or a number that is linked to a facebook account, or a phone number that has a corrupted profile picture...etc... the possibilities are endless, and thats what makes bugs like this difficult to track down for software developers. If the problem was hardware related (meaning the hardware failed), then it would happen all of the time, not just every other call or something that is fixed with a reboot.

 

[thenestor]

Verizon claims that many Eris' did not download the software correctly. If this is true, that would explain why some have the bugs and some don't.

You're forgetting that this happens to rooted phones too. They've flashed new copies of the software, often many times. Are those downloads always corrupt? Also, for leakers this happened on leak 1, leak 2, and leak 3. If it happened to a particular device on one of the leaks, it happened to that same device on all three of the leaks. If it never happened to a particular device on leak 1, it never happened on leaks 2 or 3. Each of those leaks was a separate download, and some of us actually go to the trouble to verify the MD5 sum of every download (which indicates if it's corrupt). So our own empirical evidence suggests that it depends on the phone itself, not just the software.

That being said, I still believe they can "fix" it with software, because the software can be designed to catch the error and either a) warn the user, or b) automatically reboot like it does on the G1. However, since they've been testing Android 2.1 on this device since at least mid-February (when leak 1 was created) and still haven't come out with a fix for it, I think it's silly to continue "waiting for a fix" if you have a phone that doesn't work.