Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick Wall?

[spectre72]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Given the number of Fascinate owners reporting significant problems with their phone, it would be ridiculous to ignore such reports as statistically insignificant. I wonder if anyone (Samsung/Verizon) has done any research to determine whether the problem phones can be traced to a specific manufacturing date, location, or lot number. With the thousands of Fascinate phones sold, and which are still in use by owners who haven't experienced the cited failures, it seems that perhaps defective components were inadvertently installed in a large segment, but not in all of the phones during manufacture.

FWIW, my wife and I both have Fascinates, as well as our son-in-law, and none of us has experienced any problems. We are all running completely stock phones, and compared to most users we probably don't ask much of our Fascinates. We make phone calls, text, some e-mailing, and some web surfing--mainly checking news and weather sites.

 

[Sta11i0n]

We have 4 Verizon phones in the same location right now, 2 Fascinates, a DroidX and a LG the Fascinate's signal strength says -88, the X says -100 and the LG -99 that should tell you something is just not right with the radio in this phone. The X and LG have 4 bars and the Fascinate has 1 bar.

That just means the framwork files on the fascinates aren't translating the signal to bars in the notifications properly. This is why I do not pay attention to how many bars I have, but the actual dBm rating. All any developer has to do is rewrite the code in the framework to say that X amount of signal = X amount of bars. It has nothing to do with the actual signal strenght the phone is receiving.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

[Cory Streater]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

From the random reboots, the frozen screens, missed calls/texts, random screen captures to the poor reception I have just about had it with this phone. I don't know how Verizon expects you to keep this POS for 2 years. I thought my Storm2 was bad, but this thing has about fried my last nerve.

Reply with a list of all 3rd party apps.

 

[astraelraen]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

My wife has a Fascinate, I have a DroidX.

I can tell you 100% that the Fascinate has poorer call reception and GPS than the DroidX. I'm usually hesitant to make absolute statements, but in every scenario when we are togther my GPS and call quality is always better. There has never been a single scenario that I have witnessed where my wife's Fascinate had better call quality/signal reception than my DroidX.

In terms of user interface, Touchwiz on the Fascinate is smoother/faster than Blur on the DroidX. The screen comes down to preference, but the screen on the Fascinate is brighter/more vibrant colors.

I don't use her Fascinate too much and I wouldn't call her an expert user, but she complains about a lot of "bugginess" with her phone that I have not experienced with the DroidX. I doubt from these experiences I will purchase another Samsung phone. I'm kinda disappointed that the next Nexus phone is supposedly going to be a Samsung.

I know people say use CM7 it will fix it blah blah. I actually have been meaning to flash CM7 on her phone, but I just haven't had the time. Also, that will make me have to support her phone if any weird things crop up.

Note to anyone: Don't get a different phone than your significant other as you will have to provide support.

 

[audioguy61]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Love my phone...running Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) with Miui 1.8.19. So fast and responsive. Might wanna check some Roms out. These developers have done an amazing job with this phone.

It would be helpful to know of a thread that really can guide a novice through the flashing process on the Fascinate. I have flashed a de-odexed/de-bloated version of 2.2 when I was still on 2.1 but that was a package that you could just install with Odin. So far when I have tried to flash a zip I have had no luck just a string of error messages when I have tried either the CWM via Odin or Rom Manager from the Market. I have found several threads (one at AC) but no luck so far even though I am very careful to follow the instructions. I would really like to try Cyanogen before I ditch the phone for something else.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[kgk1985]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

yes sir. i was tempted to break mine last night.... the GPS is absolute garbage. they didnt fix it like they said they did... i unrooted mine and its stock again... was trying to use google navi and it said i was 480 miles away from where i was and wouldnt locate me..... and im sick and tired of some letters not working while texting, you have to back out and go back in, then they work fine... and yes, the notorious erratic signal is terrible. i can be sitting completely still and have 4 bars of 3g, then itll drop to 0, then 1, then bounce back and forth.....ZERO reason for it to do that... im gonna give the galaxy s2 a 30 day trial when it comes out. hopefully that doesnt have the samsung signal issue.

 

[kgk1985]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

not to mention the video recording failing all the time.. you have to remove and reinsert the SD card to fix that. its ******ed...only bad thing about samsung is their pisspoor firmware on all their products

 

[THARD11]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Reply with a list of all 3rd party apps.

Adobe Reader
Ace Solitaire
Angry Birds
Bible
Bubble Level
Calculator
Cardstar
Dropbox
Evernote
Fox News
Fancy Widget
Goggles
GPS Speedometer
Jewels
Goolge Music
Napster
Poynt
ScoreMobile
Weather Channel

 

[briguyy]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Given the number of Fascinate owners reporting significant problems with their phone, it would be ridiculous to ignore such reports as statistically insignificant. I wonder if anyone (Samsung/Verizon) has done any research to determine whether the problem phones can be traced to a specific manufacturing date, location, or lot number. With the thousands of Fascinate phones sold, and which are still in use by owners who haven't experienced the cited failures, it seems that perhaps defective components were inadvertently installed in a large segment, but not in all of the phones during manufacture.

FWIW, my wife and I both have Fascinates, as well as our son-in-law, and none of us has experienced any problems. We are all running completely stock phones, and compared to most users we probably don't ask much of our Fascinates. We make phone calls, text, some e-mailing, and some web surfing--mainly checking news and weather sites.

I was having really poor GPS lock times and my back button would seem to have a mind of its own when i was in low signal areas. I put up with this for 9 months of owning this phone until i just couldnt take it anymore so i called VZW and they offered to replace it with a new one. Anyways i got my new one and have had no GPS or back button issues and my reception is great as is call quality. So i would believe the above statement that my phone could have been from a bad lot or just plain out defective. If your so fed up give VZW a call they will offer to send you a new Fascinate or a early upgrade, i decided to save my early upgrade and wait for the Galaxy S2.

 

[kalnel#WN]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Mine seems to be getting worse by the day. It is now dropping Bluetooth in the middle of phone conversations, missing calls, randomly opening apps, force-closing things that worked moments before, refusing to turn off, refusing to turn on, and generally driving me insane.

I've tried factory reset (I'm on ED05), but no matter what I do or load, it turns to crap after about four days.

It's really infuriating, since I never had any major problems before this update.

 

[thornbeck]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

I've tried factory reset (I'm on ED05), but no matter what I do or load, it turns to crap after about four days.

This is interesting that you mention the phone starts acting up after 4 days. I wonder if a cache or something gets corrupt with the image and causes the phone to fail. This could be why VZW is always asking Fascinate owners to do a factory reset. Maybe the internal flash is getting corrupt. If a factory reset clears the issue and it always returns to a failed state, I would think it's a software issue. This could also explain why people running custom ROMs are not having as many issues and love their Fascinates.

- Tim

 

[THARD11]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Got another refurb Fascinate yesterday let's see if this one does any better than the others.

Well things are looking up so far with the refurb it is working with the Bluetooth in my car where the other one would pair but then stop working.

 

[Cory Streater]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Adobe Reader
Ace Solitaire
Angry Birds
Bible
Bubble Level
Calculator
Cardstar
Dropbox
Evernote
Fox News
Fancy Widget
Goggles
GPS Speedometer
Jewels
Goolge Music
Napster
Poynt
ScoreMobile
Weather Channel

Well I don't get to give you my traditional schooling on the use of task managers then

I don't know if any of those apps are "always running apps" but I would try keeping them off your device just to troubleshoot. Fancy Widget falls in that category for sure.

And there is no arguing that the GPS on this phone is abysmal. I love the phone but man are those lock times maddening.

 

[THARD11]

Re: Is Anyone Else About Ready to Throw this Phone Into a Brick W

Well I don't get to give you my traditional schooling on the use of task managers then

Ha ha I have been listening to the Podcast so I knew better. It's funny though every time I take the phone to V store they tell me I should put one on.