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Help Talk me out of taking this phone back. I'm right on the edge.

A.Nonymous

A.Nonymous

Extreme Android User
I'm more pissed with this phone than I have been with any other phone I've had. I'm right on the brink of just taking it back.

I got the phone Monday over lunchtime. I was thrilled at the 4G speeds. Loved the red buttons (red is my favorite color) and was very happy with it. Had heard bad things about battery life though.

Tuesday - First day with the phone. Worked beautifully. Ran the battery down to 0 just to see how long that would take. I got about 14 hours out of it. I was overall happy with the battery.

Wednesday - Woke up and pulled the phone off the charger. It's on wifi at my house so I didn't notice until I got home that the phone is locked on 1x. Will not go to 4G. No matter what I try, I can't get it on 4G or even 3G. I restarted the phone. I shut the phone down. I pulled the battery. None of this worked. Once upon a time on my DInc, I had to toggle airplane mode so I tried this. When I did that it didn't work. I restarted and the phone completely reset to factory defaults. Now, it is only connecting to 3G. I could not be more pissed right now. I've spent an hour doing everything I know to do on a brand new phone and it will not connect to 4G data. I'm very tempted to run down to the store, hand them the phone and go back to being happy with my DInc2. I don't need this kind of headache just to get 4G, but I'm not burning an upgrade for another 3G phone.

Someone talk me off the bridge here.
 
Let me talk you off the edge.:D Verizon is currently experiencing a nationwide 3g/4g data outage.:mad: It isn't your phone, at least not this time.
 
Sorry, I read your post like three times before I replied and still missed that part:o. So you mean it did a factory wipe and you had to reactivate it? If that's the case, I'd go for a warranty replacement. A battery pull shouldn't cause that. I don't have a rezound, I'm a GNex guy, but I haven't seen that happen anywhere on any phone.
 
There was a new ota software update for the rezound a few weeks ago. Maybe that's why the phone reset? Just a guess.
Since the reset, has everything been working OK?
 
I'm not sure why it would restore itself, unless as someone else pointed out, it was performing an update. I've heard it happen a couple of times, but I've only seen maybe 1-2 people report that particular issue. Are you still experiencing 4G issues or has that resolved itself? You can also review one of the stickies posted above about the 4G switch toggling itself off and performing a shutdown/reset. All else fails, I'd take it back to the Verizon store and make them give you a NEW replacement. If anything it's just a problem with that particular unit and not the phone's design itself.
 
While I can't speak of any of the issues you're facing, I can try to talk you out of returning the phone.

Presumably you paid $100 for the phone, which right off the bat is an amazing price for a top of the line phone. The build quality is great. You get sweet headphones. It has the best display on the market. An excellent camera. And a great processor.

I think the form factor is just right too. While it could have a bit larger screen, and be marginally thinner, I think the phone feels great in your hands. Much more comfortable than the Razr and more solid than the GNex.

On the software side, I really like Sense. I have historically been a Moto guy with ADW Launcher to make the phone look cool and run the way I want. But, I'm really happy with Sense. What's better than the barrell roll? And HTC has great widgets. It's super user-friendly and all around I think it's great software.

So, you're getting all this for a fraction of the cost of its direct competitors. If I were you, I would give the phone a few days to see if it resets again. That's really unusual and would be cause for concern if it happens again. But, I bet it'll be a one-time thing.

Good luck, and keep us posted on what you decide to do...
 
Similar experience.
I was GREAT on the standard battery, but then I went and got an extended with the current sale. For some reason, after I put in the extended, my phone wanted to re-validate on the network (what I know now) and it kept boot looping.

Check out this in regards to boot looping - looks like it might be a software issue that might be fixed in the near future (yep, I meant all of those vague items).
How To Fix The HTC Rezound Infinite Boot Loop Yuki says…

So - if you can't get it to boot up well after it drains the battery completely (same here - just doing a restart doesn't seem to cause this), power off, pop the SIM out, boot up, change to 4G, power off, pop SIM back in, and then boot up and you'll be fine.

The boot looping that it does is INCREDIBLY and EXTREMELY frustrating (and that's coming from someone with the temperment to do tech support to middle aged ladies on PDAs who haven't used computers before :p). It also scares the living daylights out of you thinking the phone is actively damaging itself or showing damage it somehow has received.
It does not seem to actually have any damage, just a minor/major software issue.

If you continue to only pull 1x, or after getting 3G/4G back it keeps dropping you over and over - call Verizon and tell them you tried to dial *228. Get them to replace your SIM (they believe *228 damages the SIMs) and you'll be fine after that. Oh, and I recommend against *228 - not only is it unnecessary, but enough questions are floating about if it damages your SIM, better of not doing it.


I hope this helps.
I LOVE the Rezound and believe (even with the detriment of Sense UI) it is the best phone on the Verizon network currently. No-one else has a combination of items like the phone, the rest all specialized in different areas. If the Galaxy S II was on Verizon - then we would have a valid challenger :)

(shame on them for putting a SAMOLED [not plus/advanced/etc] screen on the Nexus!)
 
I didn't have to reactivate, but it wiped all my apps and brought me back to the setup wizard again. Since I'm using 2 factor authentication on my GMail account, this is a huge PITA. I'm still in the 14 day period so I haven't rooted therefore I didn't have a Titanium backup to fall back on which made it even more of a pain. It did show the logo on the screen that it shows when it's updating. Maybe that's what happened and it was just a perfect storm thing. I'm not happy with it at the moment. It's 1500 local time and the battery is dead. I've been off battery since about 0800 this morning. To be fair, I was rebooting repeatedly, downloading a crap ton of apps on 4G, jumping from 3G to 4G and doing battery pulls so it may not be the best test.
 
A.Nonymous said:
I didn't have to reactivate, but it wiped all my apps and brought me back to the setup wizard again. Since I'm using 2 factor authentication on my GMail account, this is a huge PITA. I'm still in the 14 day period so I haven't rooted therefore I didn't have a Titanium backup to fall back on which made it even more of a pain. It did show the logo on the screen that it shows when it's updating. Maybe that's what happened and it was just a perfect storm thing. I'm not happy with it at the moment. It's 1500 local time and the battery is dead. I've been off battery since about 0800 this morning. To be fair, I was rebooting repeatedly, downloading a crap ton of apps on 4G, jumping from 3G to 4G and doing battery pulls so it may not be the best test.
Click to expand...

That sounds like you got the OTA update. Not sure, but I don't believe it's the phone. It could be but it would be a one of a kind issue and exchanging would be good and probably not happen again. If you do that at a VZ store, make sure they do the OTA update before they give ya the phone.
 
Just to be absolutely sure make sure you are on LTE/CDMA under preferred network mode in your settings.

Also check out mybackup pro (free version) and you can back up your apps without rooting.
Also if you still have issues after a few days I'd say go back and demand a replacement phone to see if that helps. Could just be a case that you got a lemon, it happens.
 
pank said:
Just to be absolutely sure make sure you are on LTE/CDMA under preferred network mode in your settings.

Also check out mybackup pro (free version) and you can back up your apps without rooting.
Also if you still have issues after a few days I'd say go back and demand a replacement phone to see if that helps. Could just be a case that you got a lemon, it happens.
Click to expand...

I've got MyBackup Pro, but hadn't configured it. You can't back up all your app settings unless you've got root. I haven't rooted yet as I'm still in the return window.
 
A.Nonymous said:
I've got MyBackup Pro, but hadn't configured it. You can't back up all your app settings unless you've got root. I haven't rooted yet as I'm still in the return window.
Click to expand...

That hardest thing I have getting over are my Text messages. It sucks setting up your home screens again, but you haven't lost anything. Your apps should reinstall automatically. Try SMS Backup+ free in the market. It will back up your SMS messages to your gmail account.
 
Lomallin said:
If you continue to only pull 1x, or after getting 3G/4G back it keeps dropping you over and over - call Verizon and tell them you tried to dial *228. Get them to replace your SIM (they believe *228 damages the SIMs) and you'll be fine after that. Oh, and I recommend against *228 - not only is it unnecessary, but enough questions are floating about if it damages your SIM, better of not doing it.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, how is *228 damaging SIMs? And what are other options to activate your phone than *228? Thanks!
 
Smokey Joe said:
Just out of curiosity, how is *228 damaging SIMs? And what are other options to activate your phone than *228? Thanks!
Click to expand...

There is an active debate whether or not it truly damages your SIM or it screws up you phone. But regardless it's still not necessary and one good idea for people having issues is to pull their SIM / put back in and then reboot. Never hurts and I've seen some people say that doing that actually forces the PRL to update.

Just Google *228 not good for 4g phones

One topic below.
https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/768573
 
A.Nonymous said:
I've got MyBackup Pro, but hadn't configured it. You can't back up all your app settings unless you've got root. I haven't rooted yet as I'm still in the return window.
Click to expand...

I still do a backup of all my apps and purposely leave the rooting options off. That way it does back up my apps so if I have to do a hard reset I can easily restore them (even if it doesn't have the data it's better than downloading them all from the market IMO).

If you ever do use MyBackup make sure you make the backup directory on the ext_sd (that is the actual SD card). If you don't do that the backups are stored on your internal card and if you hard reset you lose all of your backups.
 
pank said:
I still do a backup of all my apps and purposely leave the rooting options off. That way it does back up my apps so if I have to do a hard reset I can easily restore them (even if it doesn't have the data it's better than downloading them all from the market IMO).

If you ever do use MyBackup make sure you make the backup directory on the ext_sd (that is the actual SD card). If you don't do that the backups are stored on your internal card and if you hard reset you lose all of your backups.
Click to expand...

Why would you not back up the app data if you're rooted? I don't get that. It's a pain re-configuring all your apps from scratch. You always have the option to just restore the apk and not the data.
 
I'm back out on the ledge with this phone. The battery died at 1615 today. By dead I mean 1% won't even power on when you press the power button dead. Today I did a lot of streaming straight from my phone to my BT headset like I normally do. Tuesday I got 12 hours but didn't do any of said streaming. Wednesday the battery died at 1500, but there was a data outage so the phone could've easily sucked juice flipping between the two. Today it's dead at 1600. It's on a very short leash and if the battery life is similar to this tomorrow, it's going back to the store.

The thing is, I really, really, really want to like this phone. 4G speeds are amazing. I love, love, love, love, love Sense 3.5. Love it. The phone is very snappy and never lags. The camera takes awesome pics. There are so many things about this phone that I absolutely love, but I've grown used to running around not worrying about whether my battery is going to die, not carrying around a second battery and not having a bulky extended life battery in my phone.
 
Do you leave 4G on all the time. I have read that it can be a battery killer (non phone specific, in general). I see a lot of folks turn it off unless they need it (downloading something big, video chatting, etc) to save battery. Just a thought.

BTW look for a PM from me shortly
 
pupkact said:
Do you leave 4G on all the time. I have read that it can be a battery killer (non phone specific, in general). I see a lot of folks turn it off unless they need it (downloading something big, video chatting, etc) to save battery. Just a thought.

BTW look for a PM from me shortly
Click to expand...

I do. My philosophy is why have fast data if you don't use it. I know people who turn off 3G on their smart phones and turn off mobile data and background syncing to save battery. But when you do that, you have no smart phone so I don't get it.
 
I agree with you, but if your phone is going to be in your pocket for an extended period of time why not just turn off 4G to save yourself the battery life? Personally, I only use 4G when I am downloading files off the marketplace or streaming video, for general web surfing and email, etc I just use 3G (this coming from a person that has an extended battery).

Recently I having gone through three android phones (Galaxy SII Skyrocket, LG Nitro HD, and this Rezound) and this Rezound is by far the best phone of three (and the most inexpensive by $100 USD!!!). The screen quality is second to none, photo text messages don't come in as a freaking slide-show (REALLY!? Who thought that up.), the headphones that come with it are really nice and phone itself just silly fast. I know a lot of people hate, but I also love the Sense UI, it feels more luxurious than all the other custom UI's the other phones I tried out had.

All of these 4G phone are notorious for using up your battery like it is going out of style. I don't know much about the current crop of 4G cell phones, but I would imagine the only one you might not have that issue with is the Razer Maxx (I think it is called).
 
If you can't deal with bad battery and don't want to get the extended take the phone back asap.

Phone is awesome, battery sucks.
 
I have found if I keep switching from "CDMA only" to "LTE and CDMA" so I use less battery, that it has issues reconnecting, and will temporarily lose data, it seems not to like that switching. I was just shutting off mobile data when I wasn't using it, but then I couldn't get emails. So far, the best (free, non-root related) technique I have found is to get the free version of Juice Defender off the market. I set it on aggressive, then set it to turn on data ever 30 minutes so I can check email, and sure enough it works!
 
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