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Help Emergency calls only... until battery pull

M

Marrr

Newbie
hello everyone,

i've had my Galaxy S2 since the end of May and had no problems with it. I'm on H3G (Three).

Via Kies I updated to PDA: XWKF4 PHONE: NEKF2 CSC: H3GKF1 a couple of weeks ago, no problems at all. In fact, the browser seemed a little bit more responsive and perhaps battery life was a bit better - everything working as it should.

Came home from work yesterday, wanted to make a call... Emergency calls only. Didn't worry about it much, just assumed network problem or in one of those random blackspots and used the landline and didn't think much more about it.

This this morning, same problem (phone been turned off all night). Rang 3 customer service, they checked a few things, make me pull out the SIM card and battery. Everything working again. Great... just a glitch. Then, 20 minutes later... Emergency calls only again.

And that seems to be the pattern. Wifi is fine, if i turn the phone into flightmode and back out it does nothing, the signal is not restored. Turning off the phone using the button does nothing to fix the problem, it takes a battery pull to get things working again.

I can't even text or make a call, let alone browse the web when the phone is in this state.

anybody else had this problem?

and i don't think i've changed anything or installed anything stupid, but is there anything basic i can check that i might have done or is it a trip back to the shop?
 
Thanks for the suggestion Trick... Turns out (despite calling customer service) that this is a network problem in this area. There were several irate customers in the 3 store this morning. Shame they didnt think to put it on the website, would have saved me a trip!
 
Hi, are you still having this issue? I'm with T-Mobile and also since upgrading through Kies i'm having the same issue, seems to happen overnight, twice now it's been emergency calls only and unable to connect to any network, the search function shows all available networks but i'm unable to connect to any until I have pulled the battery out for a few mins. I have spoken to T-Mobile and they can see me on the network but I cannot make or recieve calls.

Any advice would be great.
 
So its not just me.... makes me feel a little better but annoyed all the same! Suppose it gives me a reason to always have it at hand :-) like I need an excuse but seriously who wants a phone that appears to be on but isn't really?! As an ex Htc desire owner thats another thing in favor of Htc... sigh, Samsung/T-mobile (in my case) need to get on top of this.

Switching to flight mode doesn't... am rebooting now as we speak who knows how long its been off on this occasion!!!
 
Again, this is not a solution but may help with the early warning system:

If you download Hullomail, it will tell you when people are getting your voicemail without leaving a message.
If you get an alert like that, and you have full signal - you know you've got an issue.

That's how I found out my last network had coverage that didn't really work for me.
 
Same thing again this morning, hasn't done it for 5 days, phone was on and connected sent a text message then it changed ti emergency calls only, sms was not received! Flight mode doesn't fix the issue, however switching the phone off (leaving battery in) for a few mins did fix the problem. I live in an area that has sketchy T-mobile coverage but superb Orange signal, wondering if the issue is caused when auto switching networks. when I spoke to T- mobile they were showing me on orange, I'm now at work which receives both orange & T-mobile yet I'm auto connecting to orange?

Might try hard selecting T-mobile and see if it happens again.
 
One more observation, when I go into mobile networks it seems to take ages to search, probably around 1 min, before the update i'm sure it took a lot less, around 15-20 secs, could anyone check this on their device and see if it takes the same amount of time.

I also carried out a factory reset on the device after the software update, this was because when I used the phone to check for updates it kept coming up with a message saying something like 'Samsung account already loaded' the reset fixed this problem. Would T-Mobile have to resend some sim card settings to me so I can use orange after a factory reset?
 
I used to be on a network using the O2 network.

It seemed to take an age to switch between 3g/2g and was inactive for unacceptably long periods* during those times.
When it swapped between masts, it also seemed to take an age to become active again - i.e when travelling in the car, you'd lose signal from one mast (call would drop) then you'd look at your phone which would be full signal (locked onto next mast) but it wouldn't let you call for a long period*

*a 'long period' is (IMHO) over a minute.
 
Hi all,

I just wanted to add my voice to this conversation, as I had a nice new Samsung GS2 delivered on Tuesday and unfortunately have already had this same issue happen twice to me. Sure enough, removing the battery and then restarting the phone always works.

Like vessy I am on T-Mobile, but I have pretty good coverage where I am. I do notice that when this "blackout" happens, if you try to change provider in the phone settings, it instantly (as in no delay at all) says cant connect, please try again later. So there is definitely something up!

As part of my efforts to resolve this, I have today upgraded the firmware to the latest version (Kies says PDA:KF3 / PHONE:KE7 / CSC:KD1 (CPW)) and I have also told the phone to not automatically search for a network, but to always use T-Mobile. Pretty much everywhere I go has good T-Mobile signal so I don't see this as a problem if it works ok!

I shall report back later with my findings :)
 
I'm having the same problem on orange its a pain in the ass!!! cant be bothered phoning orange because they will just send me a new and it will just happen with that like it has happened with my previous 3 galaxy s2's. Surely its a bug with the orange software.
 
Hi all.

I can confirm that hard selecting T-Mobile has stopped this happening, i'm guessing that if you are with Orange then hard selecting them should also stop the issue. Mine only did this after upgrading through Kies to KE7.

I'm hoping that when KG3 is released this will fix the issue.
 
Hey guys, I'm having this exact issue in Canada on the Bell network. I feel your pain! This is an extremely annoying problem. I too have sketchy coverage in my area, and I find toggling flight mode on and off works for me. I've already replaced SIM card once to no avail. I phoned Bell support yesterday and they told me all the usual stuff (take out your sim and reinsert it, and then do a factory reset.) Did both but didn't help. I find if I have this message on phone and move to another location (like take a drive somewhere, it will fix itself. So it's gotta be a glitch in cell tower selection/firmware on the phone. If anyone else has any other info on this please post!
 
Hello,


I had an intermittent problem where my Galaxy S2 was disconnecting from the network and showing 'emergency calls only'. The solution was to remove the SIM, reinstall and cover the SIM with sticky tape to keep it in place. The SIM must have been moving causing a network disconnect.


Hope this helps.


Regards,


Nick
 
Emergency Calls Only message can sometimes be fixed by doing simple or basic trouble shooting like power cycling, manual network selection etc. I just had the same issue and was able to fix it by doing those things.
 
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