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Official known Bionic problems reported from Verizon

I think you were reading three messages that I wasn't.

The first statement was that Motorola/Verizon has no idea what the problem was and recommended that the other person drop the Bionic.

My response was that they did know what the problems were, the tower-side seemed corrected, and the Bionic-side seemed corrected after 5.9.901. There are four possible courses of action (listed).

There was then a response from a person running 5.9.901 that he no longer had any data drop problems. This is consistent with the thread when I asked the experience of all people running 5.9.901. The response was a total of two data drops since installation from everyone who responded.

Here's my GUESS ... Motorola/Verizon is on a three-month update cycle and can't release anything faster than that. If that is true then that would mean the corrections in 5.9.901 will be delivered in 5.9.902 on March 15.

If the original person must have a reliable connection today then either install 5.9.901 of return the Bionic.

... Thom
 
Thom Little said:
I think you were reading three messages that I wasn't....

Where do you get the information that this is not going to be resolved for another four months?
Click to expand...

Go back and read my post again. That is *not* what I said. What I said that I bought the Bionic, had data issues, exchanged it - and, had I not exchanged it, right now - four months later - these problems have still not been officially solved. So, for me, exchanging in October was a smart decision.

What I then said was that I cannot believe that it will be another four months until a solution is delivered, but there is still no guarantee that 901/902/whatever that is currently being tested will be accepted by Verizon for OTA, and, knowing that it takes weeks to fix and re-test a new update, it *may* be many weeks before an update is delivered.

That user who just purchased has to decide on his own if the Bionic is worth however long that wait will be. It seems that it will be very soon, but neither you nor I know that, and the 14 day exchange period goes away forever if you let it.

I generally counsel people against installing unofficial updates, based on my last Android phone. I bought a Droid Eris in early December 2009, and shortly after HTC promised an update to Android 2.1 (it had 1.5) in the first quarter of 2010. The first quarter came and went and it wasn't until May that the update was released. Meanwhile, plenty of people went and installed some leaked releases (the last of which ended up being the official release), but also ended up with phones that could not be rooted when the engineering bootloader was leaked shortly after. Those of us who waited for the OTA also had the bonus of being able to root later, since the OTA did not update the bootloader. (Eris users with the leaked installs eventually were able to root a few months later when an exploit was found.) I think it's safer and better to wait for official updates.
 
If you check my edited message you will see that the sentence in question was edited out. Reason ... I re-read your message four times and concluded it could be interpreted at least two different ways.

Leaked releases are an individual decision. I am running 5.5.893 with original SIM card. If a person has a Bionic and can't turn it back and must have reliable data then every indication is that 5.9.901 is a lower-risk installation then any other leak we have seen (simply because it was sent directly to many people's phones).

My point to you was that the original message said Motorola/Verizon had no idea what the solution was and I and another person disagreed with that assertion. Neither one of us told the other person to install 5.9.901.

... Thom
 
Austin224 said:
Thank you all for your insight.

If i did return this phone.. what better options are out there? (if any)
Click to expand...

I bought a galaxy nexus on 12/15 at full retail. I made the mistake of listening to others who suggested that moto would fix the bionic problems and didn't return it in the 14 day period.

my galaxy nexus has been 100% reliable and it holds a solid 4g data connection where my bionic cannot. oh, and not one BSOD either. I am very happy with it.
 
doogald said:
Go back and read my post again. That is *not* what I said. What I said that I bought the Bionic, had data issues, exchanged it - and, had I not exchanged it, right now - four months later - these problems have still not been officially solved. So, for me, exchanging in October was a smart decision.

What I then said was that I cannot believe that it will be another four months until a solution is delivered, but there is still no guarantee that 901/902/whatever that is currently being tested will be accepted by Verizon for OTA, and, knowing that it takes weeks to fix and re-test a new update, it *may* be many weeks before an update is delivered.

That user who just purchased has to decide on his own if the Bionic is worth however long that wait will be. It seems that it will be very soon, but neither you nor I know that, and the 14 day exchange period goes away forever if you let it.

I generally counsel people against installing unofficial updates, based on my last Android phone. I bought a Droid Eris in early December 2009, and shortly after HTC promised an update to Android 2.1 (it had 1.5) in the first quarter of 2010. The first quarter came and went and it wasn't until May that the update was released. Meanwhile, plenty of people went and installed some leaked releases (the last of which ended up being the official release), but also ended up with phones that could not be rooted when the engineering bootloader was leaked shortly after. Those of us who waited for the OTA also had the bonus of being able to root later, since the OTA did not update the bootloader. (Eris users with the leaked installs eventually were able to root a few months later when an exploit was found.) I think it's safer and better to wait for official updates.
Click to expand...


So what phone are you waiting to upgrade to doogald? I'd figure you have a gnex by now or something. I agree with you on waiting for the official released ota updates, I'm waiting for this next .902 update then I'm thinking about finally rooting my Bionic. Just bought a droid x off ebay for 80 bucks which I'm gonna practice rooting on, I've never rooted before.
 
Austin224 said:
Thank you all for your insight.

If i did return this phone.. what better options are out there? (if any)
Click to expand...

There are three contenders. They each attract a different audience. They obviously have something different to attract different people. You can't take the advice of anyone.

You need to go to the store, handle all three, judge the limitations of each based on how you use the device, and pick the one that suits you best.

Your original message where you said you had no data connection for the first few hours and after a few battery pulls you were in business frankly does not compute.

If you were going to stay with the Bionic the first question I asked was what version you were on ... you should be on 5.5.893 and if you aren't then you are on 5.5.886. 5.5.893 solved many but not all of the problems. You should upgrade to it.

You can hold down Volume Up/Volume Down/Power until a menu appears and then disappears. When it disappears release all three buttons and it will be rebooting. This is the same as a battery pull followed by power on.

Someone suggested you check the seating of the SIM card and SD-Ext card. If they are not firmly and squarely seated you can have "odd" problems.

If you are on 5.5.893 and the only problem you are having is data drops then it is probably solved with 5.9.901 or 5.9.902. (They also might be working on your local tower.) Maybe you can wait. Maybe you can't. Maybe you are willing to try the unsupported 5.9.901. Maybe you aren't.

I suggest that you have to decide weather you want to be involved with any of this stuff. If the answer is no then go back to 3G and wait a while.

... Thom
 
I have now spent nearly one year with the Droid Bionic. It has now been replaced 2 times, due to poor functionality.
I have a replacement coming from Verizon but opted to call Motorola to see about getting a different model. I was told that I could not get a different model from the Bionic. The representative acknowledged that the Bionic has had many problems with functionality but still would not offer a different model, only offering to repair the one I have. I have a new replacement coming!
I offered to take an older model, just not a Bionic. The answer was no.
I will now be posting on EVERY website I can find that Motorola does not stand behind their poor models and does not offer customers service.
All I asked for was for the company to stand behind it's product and make amends when it is inferior...even if that meant I got an older model. I paid $250, with a contract, for my phone and it is poorer quality than my work flip phone.
Next time, I will return to the Iphone.:mad:
 
I got the Bionic the day it came out (way short of a year ago) and it had problems for a while. It was THE flagship 4G phone at Verizon and ran into all the problems with their brand new service first.

System release 5.9.902 fixed the vast majority of the remaining issues. What version are you using? Many of them seemed to be dealing with handing off from 3G to 4G and 4G to 3G.

These problems were experienced in all Verizon 4G devices and not just the Bionic.

I advised my customers for months to not convert from 3G to 4G because the reliability was so bad. These are people who had to have a reliable data contact from their truck to their home office.

I believe the reliability is finally there with some pockets around the country where it is still shoddy.

The vast majority of the Bionic users have an experience similar to mine.

There were three who visited here who were physically incompatible with the Bionic. One of them would enter something on the keyboard and additional characters would be inserted. If he handed it to another person who entered exactly the same thing the extra characters would not be added.

So what kind of problems are you having?

... Thom
 
Yergtm,
I had the same experience as you. I also called Motorola support and just wanted them to stand behind their product, and customers. No can do. Like you, my only option was to send in my phone for repair, meaning I would be without for the 2 weeks or so it took to turn it around.

And I knew they wouldn't be able to replicate the issue while they had it, because mine is sporadic. So, certainly it would be returned as "functioning according to specs", and then I look like someone trying to milk the system.

I'm in it with this one until next May. :(
 
yeah, it sucks. even with .902. the phone is still a POS.

one thing that really upset me was that 902 wouldn't take backups. titanium and sms backup wouldn't restore my apps or messages.

every time i try verizon there phones sucks. and now that i've actually decided to stick it out since i'm a traveling man. i'm finding out that there coverage isn't all that great as every one claims it is.

seriously thinking of going back to sprint. i've had software glitches but NEVER hated there phones. in all reality. sprint covers just as much as verizon. it's just in different areas that verizon don't cover.
 
So even though this thread hasn't been posted in, in awhile I thought that I would share a few of my problems so as to warn people to possibly stay away from a couple apps. I downloaded juicedefender, worked great and I really love the app. Only one problem after running it for not even a day my screen turns on for a few seconds and then off again, for absolutely no reason. And it does it ALOT. So the only fix is to get rid of that app sadly. Anyways there is one more app and I believe it's called easy battery saver. That app works AMAZING as well but I got the same problem as I do with juice. So other than that my bionic is awesome and I'm happily awaiting the ICS release unless I decide to use one of the leaks.
 
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