Cingular cell phone service - Seeking a solution to the Treo 650 reception problems

Author

Seeking a solution to the Treo 650 reception problems

rev_maynard3@hotmail.com

2006-06-16, 10:33 pm

Hi All,

I've been a Cingular user for a while with no real complaints.
Coverage has been good and customer service has been decent. At work I
was recently "upgraded" to a Treo 650 -- I love the device itself; it's
a little bulky, but not the end of the world.

I've found however that, compared to my old phone, all of us who have
new Treos (with the latest firmware / OS) have TERRIBLE reception /
call quality. This seems to be a well documented issue with many
people so I won't ask if anyone else out there is having the same
problems as I am.

What I'm curious about is if there's a SOLUTION to the problem. Is
this a case of an underpowered transmitter / receiver? Is the antenna
somehow defective? Is there some sort of problem with sensitivity to
ambient EMFs / RF interferance? Could a software update help?

I've looked and looked online, but I haven't found anywhere where
people have been able to resolve their Treo-specific issues.

Thanks!

-Maynard

John Navas

2006-06-16, 10:33 pm

On 16 Jun 2006 20:08:03 -0700, rev_maynard3@hotmail
.com wrote in
<1150513683.768790.126780@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>:

>I've been a Cingular user for a while with no real complaints.
>Coverage has been good and customer service has been decent. At work I
>was recently "upgraded" to a Treo 650 -- I love the device itself; it's
>a little bulky, but not the end of the world.

But a bit buggy, an uncompleted work-in-progress. Pity.

>I've found however that, compared to my old phone, all of us who have
>new Treos (with the latest firmware / OS) have TERRIBLE reception /
>call quality. This seems to be a well documented issue with many
>people so I won't ask if anyone else out there is having the same
>problems as I am.

I don't think it's that bad, but there are indeed some problems.

>What I'm curious about is if there's a SOLUTION to the problem. Is
>this a case of an underpowered transmitter / receiver? Is the antenna
>somehow defective? Is there some sort of problem with sensitivity to
>ambient EMFs / RF interferance? Could a software update help?

In my opinion only a serious software update is likely to help, but I
think that's unlikely, since the manf seems to have moved on to newer
devices, as per SOP.

>I've looked and looked online, but I haven't found anywhere where
>people have been able to resolve their Treo-specific issues.

I think you should assume that WYGIWYEG (what you've got is what you'll
ever get). Welcome to the world of paying for the privilege of beta
testing. Personally, if I had one, I'd demand my money back.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

Jeffrey Kaplan

2006-06-17, 4:33 am

It is alleged that rev_maynard3@hotmail
.com claimed:

> I've been a Cingular user for a while with no real complaints.
> Coverage has been good and customer service has been decent. At work I
> was recently "upgraded" to a Treo 650 -- I love the device itself; it's
> a little bulky, but not the end of the world.
>
> I've found however that, compared to my old phone, all of us who have
> new Treos (with the latest firmware / OS) have TERRIBLE reception /
> call quality. This seems to be a well documented issue with many
> people so I won't ask if anyone else out there is having the same
> problems as I am.

I don't have another Cingular phone to compare against, but I've not
had any such problems. The only places I've had reception problems
with my Cingular Treo 650 is in places where +everyone+ has reception
problems.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

Peter's Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord, #66.
My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who
watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for
fingerprints then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that
sequence will trigger the alarm system.

rev_maynard3@hotmail.com

2006-06-17, 4:33 am

I wish that were true in my case. There are 6 of us who all have
recently received Treo 650s and we've all experienced some degree of
the same result. We all have received a consistent message from people
on the other end of the line that we're "breaking up" or sound like
we're "in a tunnel"... not to mention all the dropped calls.

But I'm not trying to blame the hardware or carrier or location. I'm
looking for a way to either better shield my phone from whatever is
making it so flaky, boost the signal transmit strength (or receiver's
sensitivity), or look for some sort of hack for the firmware... I
guess. I'm obviously not sure where the problem lies, but hoping that
someone has a bit more intimate knowledge of the phone's inner
workings... especially compared to other GSM units.

Thanks to all who have replied thus far...

Maynard

Jeffrey Kaplan wrote:

>
> I don't have another Cingular phone to compare against, but I've not
> had any such problems. The only places I've had reception problems
> with my Cingular Treo 650 is in places where +everyone+ has reception
> problems.

RobR

2006-06-18, 10:33 am

Some phones have good RF, some don't. I don't think software or
a simple hardware fix is going to help much of anything. Manufacturers
need to design their phones with good RF in mind from the start.
I'm afraid you're going to have to learn to live with it or get another
phone. I ended up going with the HP 6515 for a PPC which has ALMOST
as good RF as my Nokia 6620. It has other problems (and is already
obsolete, the 6915 ships any week now if it's not delayed again), but
there is no perfect PPC type device out there. The Cingular 8125 is
supposed to be pretty good, but I wanted the built in GPS of the
6515. As far as RF though, there are better choices than the 650 for
a PPC type device. I know you're probably stuck with whatever
your company standardized on, so that's probably not helpful
either.

< rev_maynard3@hotmail
.com> wrote in message news:1150520690.169063.32740@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>I wish that were true in my case. There are 6 of us who all have
> recently received Treo 650s and we've all experienced some degree of
> the same result. We all have received a consistent message from people
> on the other end of the line that we're "breaking up" or sound like
> we're "in a tunnel"... not to mention all the dropped calls.
>
> But I'm not trying to blame the hardware or carrier or location. I'm
> looking for a way to either better shield my phone from whatever is
> making it so flaky, boost the signal transmit strength (or receiver's
> sensitivity), or look for some sort of hack for the firmware... I
> guess. I'm obviously not sure where the problem lies, but hoping that
> someone has a bit more intimate knowledge of the phone's inner
> workings... especially compared to other GSM units.
>
> Thanks to all who have replied thus far...
>
> Maynard
>
>
> Jeffrey Kaplan wrote:
>
>

rev_maynard3@hotmail.com

2006-06-18, 10:33 pm

I'm not holding my breath waiting for a software update from Palm --
these issues aparently go back to the launch of the 650 (2004?). Over
at TreoCentral.com I found a 31 page discussion covering the topic:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/s...36&page=1&pp=20

The general consensus seems to be that the out-going reception problems
are the manifestation of a poor quality microphone (using a Bluetooth
earpiece corrects the muffled audio issue to a large degree) and/or a
problem with the background noise filter / DSP (when people are in
noisy environments their voice degrades to a "digital jumble" on the
other end of the line). Without being able to crack the case and swap
out the microphone or get a software update specifically for the noise
filter, I can't say one way or the other.

Does anyone out there have the specs on the Treo's transmit / receive
sensitivity or "power" level? Also, when I look on Palm's website, I
see that the current version of the software for unlocked GSM phones is
1.20 whereas the latest for Cingular specifically is still 1.17... am I
correct in assuming that my Cingular phone is 3 software revisions
behind "current"?

Thanks,

Maynard

RobR wrote:
> Some phones have good RF, some don't. I don't think software or
> a simple hardware fix is going to help much of anything. Manufacturers
> need to design their phones with good RF in mind from the start.
> I'm afraid you're going to have to learn to live with it or get another
> phone. I ended up going with the HP 6515 for a PPC which has ALMOST
> as good RF as my Nokia 6620. It has other problems (and is already
> obsolete, the 6915 ships any week now if it's not delayed again), but
> there is no perfect PPC type device out there. The Cingular 8125 is
> supposed to be pretty good, but I wanted the built in GPS of the
> 6515. As far as RF though, there are better choices than the 650 for
> a PPC type device. I know you're probably stuck with whatever
> your company standardized on, so that's probably not helpful
> either.

Stuart

2006-06-18, 10:33 pm

You might want to look at a software package to fiddle with the mic and
speaker gain:

http://www.everythingtreo.com/d/rev...iew-2005090627/

I think they have a 30 day demo or something so you could see if it has any
effect...

Seemed to work for me so I forked over the $$$ to support it.

< rev_maynard3@hotmail
.com> wrote in message
news:1150680617.753903.153470@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> I'm not holding my breath waiting for a software update from Palm --
> these issues aparently go back to the launch of the 650 (2004?). Over
> at TreoCentral.com I found a 31 page discussion covering the topic:
> http://discussion.treocentral.com/s...36&page=1&pp=20
>
> The general consensus seems to be that the out-going reception problems
> are the manifestation of a poor quality microphone (using a Bluetooth
> earpiece corrects the muffled audio issue to a large degree) and/or a
> problem with the background noise filter / DSP (when people are in
> noisy environments their voice degrades to a "digital jumble" on the
> other end of the line). Without being able to crack the case and swap
> out the microphone or get a software update specifically for the noise
> filter, I can't say one way or the other.
>
> Does anyone out there have the specs on the Treo's transmit / receive
> sensitivity or "power" level? Also, when I look on Palm's website, I
> see that the current version of the software for unlocked GSM phones is
> 1.20 whereas the latest for Cingular specifically is still 1.17... am I
> correct in assuming that my Cingular phone is 3 software revisions
> behind "current"?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Maynard
>
>
> RobR wrote:
>

rev_maynard3@hotmail.com

2006-06-19, 4:33 am

Thanks for the link Stuart -- what settings did you end up using for
the mic and earpiece? Also, there seems to be an "automatic" setting
that the software defaults to, how did that work for you?

Thanks again,

Maynard

Stuart wrote:
> You might want to look at a software package to fiddle with the mic and
> speaker gain:
>
> http://www.everythingtreo.com/d/rev...iew-2005090627/
>
> I think they have a 30 day demo or something so you could see if it has any
> effect...
>
> Seemed to work for me so I forked over the $$$ to support it.

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