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Help Signal drops completely - HTC Desire S

I got my desire s 3 weeks ago from t-mob, and it instructed me that updates where available when I first booted it. I'm not sure if that was an update to 1.47 or some other update. The new on's just arrived so I'll refuse the update this time and see what occurs. T-mob have been great (emailed on wed night and already have replacement.). I'll feed back what I've got later on.
 
Hi all,

O2 contacted me today in response to my complaint email.

Just to recap, i updated the software in sept, got the problems with the phone calls etc, but decided not to send my phone off to repair or anything.

In my complaint email i pointed them to this thread, and told them HTC are aware of the issue.

They called today and offered a replacement phone (i can choose off their website). They said HTC have confirmed 'some' phones are having issues, but cant guarantee when a fix will be ready.

I haven't had to raise my voice once, speak to a manager or anything. the calmer you are with them, and the more reasonable you are, the more likely they are to help you out.

So now i need to check how the sensation is performing against an iphone 4.

Good luck to the rest of you guys!
 
I have been suffering from the same problem since updating my desire s about three weeks ago.

I've just got off the phone after speaking to an o2 supervisor who confirmed to me that they are releasing an update to fix the problem on the 14th October. As they are working on the update they are no longer accepting phones to be swapped for ones with the pre-
update software.

Hopefully this will work and fix the problem!
 
Sorry to hijack this thread but i have an incredible s and that has the same problem and it's not just me..
It's not a permanent fix but i have downloaded an app called signal reset which turn's on airplane mode for a few seconds when it detects there is no service and resets the signal.
it does a great job and notifys you when it has so you can see it's working..
hope this is some help..
 
fridaycider said:
Sorry to hijack this thread but i have an incredible s and that has the same problem and it's not just me..
It's not a permanent fix but i have downloaded an app called signal reset which turn's on airplane mode for a few seconds when it detects there is no service and resets the signal.
it does a great job and notifys you when it has so you can see it's working..
hope this is some help..
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the info Fridaycider. I no longer have a Desire S, so can not try the app, but it may be a short term fix for others, untill a fix comes out. Which hopefully will be 14th Oct, as LizzieR has posted. Thanks also LizzieR for posting and letting us know.
 
Hi.
I was having this same problem so I sent my Desire S to service. I got it back couple of days ago and noticed that I still get the no service problem.
I have the 1.47.401.4 version which seems to be the reason to this problem. Reverting back to previous version sounds good but since I only have had the phone for about two months I don't want to void the warranty.

I live in Finland and have a local operator called Saunalahti. Should I contact the store I bought the phone from and/or HTC about this problem?

About the update LizzieR talks about, is it only for O2 customers or can I also get it when it's released?
 
downloaded "signal reset" too, that seems to be a temporary fix, it works well. I'll hang on until o2/htc bring the promised update out, if it doesnt arrive, i'll probably roll the firmware back.
 
mc.crab said:
Hi.
I was having this same problem so I sent my Desire S to service. I got it back couple of days ago and noticed that I still get the no service problem.
I have the 1.47.401.4 version which seems to be the reason to this problem. Reverting back to previous version sounds good but since I only have had the phone for about two months I don't want to void the warranty.

I live in Finland and have a local operator called Saunalahti. Should I contact the store I bought the phone from and/or HTC about this problem?

About the update LizzieR talks about, is it only for O2 customers or can I also get it when it's released?
Click to expand...

If your local HTC customer 'service' is anything like here in the UK, you'll be wasting your time. Take a look at the downgrade instructions and see if your operator has software in the list of RUUs (Remote Upgrade Utilities).

As for voiding the warranty, I still think it's a joke that HTC expect us to keep the warranty intact in case something goes wrong with the phone, when it already HAS gone wrong with the phone and they've not been able to fix it.

Otherwise you'll have to ask your operator when their latest software update will come out. O2 will only be rolling out their own branded version of HTC's update, and every network will presumably be doing the same.
 
I've just registered here to say thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread, it's been very helpful.

I contacted O2 last week and they offered a replacement DS (the guy wasn't aware of this problem). I explained all the issues and mentioned this thread and explained that a replacement would still have this problem if it shipped with the latest update installed. He couldn't guarantee that the phone wouldn't have the latest update applied but said he would put a note on my order requesting the previous software version.

I wasn't too confident and fully expected my new phone to arrive with the latest update. Luckily I was wrong and it has just arrived and is running version 1.31.206 so hopefully the problems will have gone. I included a note with the returned phone explaining the issues and with a link to this thread. I don't know how I will know when it's safe to run an update, I'm thinking I probably won't bother.

Thanks again all, good luck getting yours sorted.
 
Hi and welcome @rf9

Thanks for posting and letting us know how you got on.

You must have been extreamly lucky in getting one with the old software on as from what we have seen they usually come out with the new software installed.

I would definetly hold fire on any updates untill they have been out for a good amount of time and no one has reported any problems.
 
@schnide
I looked at the list of available RUUs but none of them was for the operator I'm using.
I think I'll ask the operator about the update and if they are aware of phones losing signal.
 
@mc.crab

You could try using a generic HTC ROM, although I've seen reports of problems using the very earliest one at least on Desire S's that came with HBOOT 0.98.0002 on them. I'd suspect that 0.98.0000 phones would be fine but again I'm not fully qualified to comment. It's not irreversible, but it's also not covered in my guide and may cause minor heart problems if found by accident :)

Can anyone else suggest an RUU that's likely to work on mc.crab's phone?
 
@schnide
I downloaded signal reset and it seems to work fine so I think I'll wait for the update.
If the available Ruu's don't match with my phone I'd rather wait than try something that might work. I don't want to end up fixing something that I might not be able to fix.
 
an update on my progress - i phoned o2 every lunch time and had to listen to the same 3 crackly take that songs on repeat for 20 minutes each day, got pretty wound up at them for never ringing me back, fobbing me off about what i now know was windows phone software (thanks to whoever it was who pointed that out - massive help) and without having to send my phone in for repair, or take it to an o2 store, but simply by ringing 5 days on the trot with the same complaint, and pointing out each day that i was being promised call backs from managers which werent happening, and fobbed off about the software updates, they offered to send me a replacement desire s but couldnt guarantee what software would be on it. i pointed out this wasnt acceptable unless they can guarantee the old software will be on it, which they were somehow unable to do, so i asked for a replacement phone. an htc sensation arrived the following day. job done. (also still enjoying my month's free line rental from the first complaint)

be persistant, the calls to o2 are free if you have the time to do it, remind them that the problem is the software not the phone, refuse to send the phone back to them for 'repair' and you should hopefully get somewhere.

best of luck

eddy
 
Hello,

I found this thread a little too late, having already been through the factory reset/return for repair process with HTC after my Desire S had all the symptoms discussed here, obviously with no result! It's taken me ages to read through all the posts, but you guys seem to have put in some sterling effort, thanks to you all.
I had an online chat with HTC today but got nowhere, denied any knowledge of the problem, that's pants! I gave them rubbish feedback, so am awaiting the call from a concerned customer service manager :rolleyes: .I bought my phone 2nd hand and is on SIM only contract with o2 so have no recourse there. I did try to phone o2 however to confirm the planned software update on the 14th reported here, but the guy I spoke to denied any knowledge of it, so will have to wait and see. Meanwhile I've downloaded the signal reset app to see how that goes.
This is my first smartphone and I guess I picked the wrong one. It's a great computer and camera, but useless as a phone, which is surely its prime function.
 
Hi all,

I went down the path of complaining to Consumer Direct, who in turn contacted O2 who then rang me. To cut a long story short, after 4 days they, that is O2 and HTC admitted to a problem.

It resulted in me getting a new Sensation, which I am well pleased with.

O2 did tell me that HTC would be letting them have a software update to start testing on the 19th Oct, but not for general release.

When I collected my Sensation from an O2 store in Leicester it was interesting to see on my reciept it had been treated as, I quote, a "high level complaint"

To be honest, right from the word go I cannot fault O2's help towards me.

Stu
 
Hi Everyone,

I'd just like to say a big 'hello' and a thank you to all the people on here for their perseverance into getting to the bottom of this problem and insight in explaining it to the rest of us. I too have had this problem for a while now with my Desire S that I bought back in June and it's really starting to grate on me.

I see that most of you are O2 customers with the odd person on Orange. I'm with Virgin Mobile UK who 'piggy-back' onto the T-Mobile Network and so for all intents and purposes I've got a T-Mobile Desire S which (bugs aside) is still by far the best phone I've ever owned.

However; My phone updated itself a while back to the 1.47.351.2 ROM and since then I've had repeated issues with signal drop-outs and phone calls diverting to voicemail. More annoying for me though being more of a 'texter' is that a full day's worth of text messages will often all arrive at once in the early evening but all time-stamped from throughout the day!?

I've noticed that the phone does behave better if it is powered off and back on again each day but I'm loathed to do this slow, annoying process; especially when I didn't have to do it before the dreaded update.

Before my HTC I had an O2-branded Nokia N86MP and before that a Nokia N73 and To be fair they both used to get a bit sluggish and twitchy if they were left on for a few weeks without being powered off. As a result of that I simply used to switch them off each night. First thing in the morning when their alarms woke me up I simply chose 'Switch phone on' at the on-screen prompt and hey-presto I was up and running. Unfortunately, as I found out the hard way (after being late for work a couple of times) for all their fancy technical wizardry HTC Phones' alarms don't work at all if you power the device off as they don't seem to have a 'deep sleep' power-saving mode like even the most basic of Nokia handsets do. :mad:

Anyhow, I'm going off on a tangent a bit there. Basically I'm wondering if I could please get some advice on what to do with my Desire S now? Should I:

a) Sit it out and wait for Gingerbread 2.3.5 to come from Virgin OTA. 2.3.6 seems to be out in the wild too but seems to be causing issues for Nexus One.

b) Get in touch with Virgin Mobile and go through the futile steps of Factory Reset, SIM swap and eventual handset replacement.

Approaching HTC directly seems like a dead end too so I'm just hoping that 2.3.5 should be about any day now. Are there any fresh rumours out there please?

Many thanks.
 
Been using my old Wildfire hoping HTC/Orange would release a new software version so I can actually get some use out of the Desire S.
I decided to call Orange yesterday who suggested switching networks to T Mobile in the hope that would improve things.
Wrong!
T-Mobile signal was worse than the Orange signal, dropping off all the time.
I'm currently using the signal reset app which works but a little too often for my liking which confirms the fact that my signal is rubbish.
I'm also concerned that Ill loose signal half way through a call even with the signal reset app working.
I explained to the guy at Orange that the problem is with the software version 1.47 and asked if he could he tell me when HTC/Orange would be releasing the next version.
He claimed they weren't aware of any problems or updates, this was even after speaking to two senior tech guys who were sat next to him at the time.
So.... I've had a new sim card which didn't improve things, I'm not prepared to do the factory restore because I know this wont work and Orange couldn't guarantee what software version would be installed if I sent the phone for repair......and they dont even acknowledge there is either a problem or a new software version coming out to fix the problem.
Great!
 
Hello again,

Looks like it may be Google itself who is to blame for the signalling issues we're all experiencing as here is the feature list for Android 2.3.5 from this site:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread Coming Out of Oven on Monday

************************************************************
The 2.3.5 release will activate secure element of the Near Field Communication (NFC) chip on the Samsung Nexus S 4G, expectedly making Google Wallet work.

Apart from that, several bugs are also fixed by the update, and two new features will be added:

  • Fixes for signal reception issues
  • Widget for 4G settings
  • Teletype (TTY) support
  • NI push support
  • NFC secure element
************************************************************
That article was from back in July and as I've said above 2.3.6 is in the wild (albeit with reported bugs) so hopefully we'll see some sort of update from our UK Mobile Network Providers soon...
 
Hi all. Im having the same issues with my desire s, so after reading this thread i phoned virgin this morning to see if i could shed any light on the issue, after being passed from person to person i eventually spoke to a helpful chap who said a new update would be issued "within the next few days", i dont know if he just said this to make me feel at ease for a few days, or if its true. Anyhow, i asked if i could be compensated in any way,due to the fact that i didnt want to send my phone off for 'repairs', and i wasnt overly keen on the other handsets virgin have to offer (no sensation), so he kindly reduced my next 2 bills by 50%! (
 
Hi LizzieR, no sign of the update you were promised by o2 today? Did you get the name of the supervisor you spoke to?
The signal reset app seems to be an effective temporary fix, and by the frequency it bleeps at me shows that my phone is still losing signal many times a day.
 
Even using signal reset didn't fully work for me.....Texts not coming through straight away.

My sim is currently back in the HTC Wildfire I had before and working fine.

I got a call back from Orange yesterday who told me they cant tell me when the new software update will be released which suggests to me that they do actually know about the problem and the potential fix update.

They asked me to try my sim card in another Orange phone over the weekend to prove one final time that its definitely the phone at fault.

On Monday they will be calling me back to see what happened and if its proven that the Desire S is at fault theyve said they will swap it for another phone (any type any make).

Honestly can't fault the CS I've had from Orange about this.

What phone would you guys go for?

I really like HTC's but I don't want to have the same problems again.
 
I'm running software 1.47.61.1, it came with the phone from Orange about a month ago, and I don't appear to have any problems. Aside from occasional late SMS. (but I've had that with all phones for last 12 years).

I know this might not seem constructive, but sometimes knowing what DOES work assists in diagnosing what is causing something NOT to work.
 
I spoke to o2 yesterday because there was no sign of the update, apparently they were promised by htc/android that the update would be out on the 14th but they have not received it yet and htc is being slow to release it. As they cannot guarantee a date for when it will be released they are now offering to swap the affected phones for refurbished ones with the correct software (although of course it remains to be seen whether the one I receive will have the old working software on it). The man at o2 also hinted that if the refurb phone also doest work they will consider giving me a different new phone.

I am due to receive my refurb phone on Monday so will update again then!
 
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