Samsung Note 4: incoming calls garbled, speaker phone fine

[Note4me]

I have a Samsung Note 4 (which I love). For two incoming calls lately, while the caller can hear me just fine, on my end the sound is badly garbled. If I switch to speaker, the garbling goes away. Is there a fix for this?

I can't find the reply button? Found it.

*Reply button missing again... Windows 10, ugh.

Okay, the only thing I could think of that I did differently before the issues started was install Malwarebytes. So I googled it plus sound issues, and ta da! It *has* caused issues on computers at least. So I have uninstalled it, and will update if the issue is resolved. It would definitely explain why it is intermittent. It happened again today during a telemedicine appointment after not having an issue in days. ARGH. Hoping and praying this is the fix!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Do all calls over the main earpiece sound that way, or only certain calls? If it's all calls, then the earpiece speaker might be faulty.

 

[Note4me]

Well, now the reply button shows up...
I can't find the reply button? I'm winning today ... So far, it was only on the two calls, yesterday and today. The one yesterday was very bad, but it would clear up enough for a few seconds that we arranged to have them call me back the next day. The call today was fine. Today's other call cut out about 20 minutes into the call, same come and go garbling, and then I decided to try the speaker phone and that worked. Both calls were business calls (pharmacy and insurance). I haven't had an issue on any other calls.

 

[Note4me]

So far, it was only on the two calls, yesterday and today. The one yesterday was very bad, but it would clear up enough for a few seconds that we arranged to have them call me back the next day. The call today was fine. Today's other call cut out about 20 minutes into the call, same come and go garbling, and then I decided to try the speaker phone and that worked. Both calls were business calls (pharmacy and insurance). I haven't had an issue on any other calls.

And thank you .

 

[B. Diddy]

Might be a little hard to troubleshoot, since it seems intermittent. If it becomes more frequent, see if it also happens in Safe Mode: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/de...galaxy-note-4/safe-mode-samsung-galaxy-note-4

 

[VidJunky]

While I agree that it would be very difficult to diagnose for two random calls your result raises questions.

Has the phone been dropped, damaged or subjected to any physical stress that you're aware of? The Note 4 has a wired earpiece with a very small connector so it is less likely that a portion of the plug came out as its size kind of makes it an all or nothing connection. A simple test would be to play something on the device and then hold it in different positions to see if any position causes the speaker to stop working. The Note has a pretty high IP rating so I wouldn't think there would be anything touching the speaker but it could be possible that it is on its way out. It is 6 years old.

If it turns out to be the speaker throw the device away and go get another. I kid but looking at this video the earpiece speaker is buried in the device and is ridiculously hard to get to. See marker 5:56...
https://youtu.be/ZND9Q73wjr8

Barring physical issues with the speaker. Could there be something in the environment that could have caused this. These devices do everything they can to block out interference but they can't account for everything and actually FCC requires they must accept interference while not causing any. Sounds crazy but... Part 15 of the FCC rules, which governs unlicensed devices, incorporates a fundamental tenet of U.S. spectrum policy: an unlicensed device must accept interference from any source, and may not cause harmful interference to any licensed service. Anyway, were you in a particular area when these instances occurred? Was there a washer running, microwave, dishwasher, neighbor's shortwave radio? A time of day? Any correlation you can think of?

 

[Note4me]

Hmm. Yes, it fell about 3 feet onto a laminate floor, but that happened several days to a week before this issue, and it was dropped 3 feet previously (same spot- yay, cats) about a month ago and cracked the bottom left hand corner of the tempered glass cover, but not even badly enough that I felt the need to change it. I was at home when the speaker issue happened, and we are rural (farming community), so nothing new, except with the remote possibility of shortwave radio use or testing, considering the current corona virus panic. I will try it in safe mode and see if it will reproduce.
I Just can't think of *anything* that has changed...
Gosh, I don't think I want to take on disassembling this- I've taken a camera apart to clean a lens, and the dash of a minivan to replace a clock lightbulb (talk about poor design, lol) but yeesh. The sad part is, someone stole my phone about a year ago, and this IS my "new to me" phone. I haven't even finished finding and installing/changing all the tweaks I had done to my old phone... :/ Then again, if I run out of projects while we're "at home"... .

Thank you so much! I will try to update and let you know if I find an issue, or if I need to replace the phone after all.

 

[Note4me]

Reply button is back, lol.

Okay, the only thing I could think of that I did differently before the issues started was install Malwarebytes. So I googled it plus sound issues, and ta da! It *has* caused issues on computers at least. So I have uninstalled it, and will update if the issue is resolved. It would definitely explain why it is intermittent. It happened again today during a telemedicine appointment after not having an issue in days. ARGH. Hoping and praying this is the fix!

 

[Note4me]

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/124251-crackling-audio-when-malwarebytes-is-enabled/ This is one of the forums about it.

 

[VidJunky]

Thank you for keeping the thread updated. This may help the next person and it gives closure to your issue.