Can you hear me now?

[Nidaja]

Except, I can hear THEM, they can't hear me.


This has been an non-reproducable issue since the 18th. Doesn't matter who initiates the call (me or them), whether I'm inside or outside, using speakerphone or not.

I can hear the other person just fine. My voice either drops off at some indeterminate time during the call, or right away when I answer the phone.

I've called CS 2x about it, and have gone to the store that I bought the phone from 3x.

Once, I was told that the SIM was bad; it was replaced.
Another time, I was told that the phone wasn't registered (I assume they mean the SIM wasn't registered)

Yesterday, I was told that Tech support does not have documentation that this is a known issue. I was asked to reset the phone from the power off menu, and then they "did some things on their end".

Wondering if others have had this issue?

Obviously, if it continues I will return the phone and get a replacement. I don't like not "trusting" my phone to live up to being a phone though :'(

 

[prim8]

I would exchange the phone as I haven't read any other reports of this happening and it hasn't happened to me or either of the other two people I know with Thunderbolts.

 

[lovy]

Except, I can hear THEM, they can't hear me.


This has been an non-reproducable issue since the 18th. Doesn't matter who initiates the call (me or them), whether I'm inside or outside, using speakerphone or not.

I can hear the other person just fine. My voice either drops off at some indeterminate time during the call, or right away when I answer the phone.

I've called CS 2x about it, and have gone to the store that I bought the phone from 3x.

Once, I was told that the SIM was bad; it was replaced.
Another time, I was told that the phone wasn't registered (I assume they mean the SIM wasn't registered)

Yesterday, I was told that Tech support does not have documentation that this is a known issue. I was asked to reset the phone from the power off menu, and then they "did some things on their end".

Wondering if others have had this issue?

Obviously, if it continues I will return the phone and get a replacement. I don't like not "trusting" my phone to live up to being a phone though :'(

No I don't have that issue.

 

[chrisp95]

Same Problem Here

I've been having the exact same problem. Been working with Verizon on it and I've figured out more about when it occurs


As far as why it's happening and what particular calls it's happening with, we haven't figured that out.

On random calls, both to AND from Verizon cells, non Verizon and also landline phones-- occasionally the other person can't hear you, but you can hear them fine-- as was mentioned

The mic seems to cut out when the screen on the thunderbolt goes to sleep mode-- Sleep mode automatically happens when the phone is put to your ear to prevent accidental button pushes, but if my thunderbolt is put into speakerphone mode before the screen goes to sleep mode, the dropout won't occur. Sound WILL drop out in speaker phone mode when sleep mode is activated (after 30 seconds I believe I have my phone set to). Although, if I continually touch the screen to keep it active- the sound won't cut out.

It's weird, because the problem will occur 5 or 6 times in a row-- both to and from the other phone. I've called other phones just afterward and have had it happen, or not happen. It seems to be totally random. One of the phones I've had it happen with was even another Thunderbolt.

One thing that seems to fix it temporarily is doing a soft reboot-- but I'm certainly not going to settle for having to use my phone like that on a regular basis.

I upgraded on release day from an Incredible (obviously with no problems like this) and had my Thunderbolt for 5 days without any sign of this problem and then it happened 5 or six times that day. Have worked with fairly knowledgeable national Verizon techs for several hours over the span of the past week--

We've tried darn near everything-- full resets, complete app wipes, 4g network resets from the national tech center-- you name it.

At about the 1 week point from purchase, I exchanged it for another new phone (no it wasn't a refurb, and NO, I will not accept a refurb-- I NEVER received a phone that worked and am certainly not settling for a used one.)

I got the new phone, new battery, new memory card-- the only thing not exchanged was the sim card, which I was assured couldn't cause the problem.

One day later, it started happening again. -- again with the resets and app wipes. Still the same. I kept it a few days in the interest of trying to work out more info on when it's occurring. I'm going to return it again tomorrow and have them give me a new sim card this time... There's very little mention of this problem online, but the odds of me getting two defective phones in a row-- it's just not possible. It HAS to be the sim card.

What a shame-- The phone's great. I love it and this really needs to get worked out. If anyone hears anything about a fix or a cause, that would be great.

 

[chrisp95]

update

Spoke with our local Thunderbolt 'expert' today... He's responsible for handling all tech issues with the Thunderbolt and documenting all problems with this particular phone and coordinating nationally with Verizon and HTC to ensure everyone has the same info on problems and solutions with the Thunderbolt. This was an issue he hadn't heard of yet.

He had the techs do some sort of special reset of my account where they copy my account info, clear my account and reload the info into it from scratch. If I understand it correctly-- no old account info/settings, ect are connected to the phone when it's reprogrammed. Hopefully, something in the way my account was set up was interfering with something that's taking place on the Thunderbolt but not on my old Incredible. It would likely be something to do with the 4G settings.

Only data is transmitted through 4g. Calls go on the 3g network so my theory is that the problem is possibly occurring when a 3g call is made or is answered when some sort of 4g data transmission or synch is taking place on the phone at the same time. This is only MY theory-- not theirs and there's probably no way to easily substantiate that. Obviously this problem is a very rare glitch and is not characteristic of the Thunderbolt in general. It's just something to do with my account when paired with the Thunderbolt-- assuming this reset worked. We'll have to see-- As I said before, I went 3 or 4 days when I first got the phone without an occurrence so we'll just have to see.

I should have gotten the technical name for the reset/account wipe, but the impression I got was that it was something that your average tech doesn't know about or doesn't do.

I DO know that after my phone was reset it was showing my location as Pasadena, California instead of Akron, Ohio for several hours. Turning on location settings and even gps wouldn't correct that, but I was told that it was normal and would straighten itself out in several hours-- which it did.


Regardless of the cause, 4G has always worked great on the phone and the speed is outstanding in our area. The free wireless hotspot feature (until May 15th) is unbelievable. I've never seen download speeds anywhere close to this one any computer I've ever used-- wired or wireless, and I built computers for a living in the past. I downloaded a 1.36 GB tourent file on my laptop through the 4g hotspot in less than 5 minutes one night. We have the fastest tier of Warner Cable's roadrunner service and the average download speeds I've been seeing for 4g are at least 10 times faster than roadrunner's wired speed.

When I ran dlsreports.com speed tests over 4g, the gauge usually maxes out at the top of the gauge (10Mbps). I've used other speed tests that max out at 20Mbps and at times the speed maxes out for those tests as well. I realize this is faster than the service is supposed to support and it will probably be limited in some way in the future.

 

[chrisp95]

Went a couple of days without a repeat, but had several occurrences today. I'm probably going to try one more phone exchange tomorrow. A couple of the mic drop-outs occurred on calls to/from Verizon reps.

If another phone doesn't correct the problem, I'm going to have to switch back to my incredible-- I've been avoiding installing any apps to the Thunderbolt while we're trying to fix this, and it's becoming too inconvenient. I'm paying for the phone to use the apps, not to be a 'test case'.


Nidaja-- did you get anywhere with yours?

 

[FrankXS]

Went a couple of days without a repeat, but had several occurrences today. I'm probably going to try one more phone exchange tomorrow. A couple of the mic drop-outs occurred on calls to/from Verizon reps.

If another phone doesn't correct the problem, I'm going to have to switch back to my incredible-- I've been avoiding installing any apps to the Thunderbolt while we're trying to fix this, and it's becoming too inconvenient. I'm paying for the phone to use the apps, not to be a 'test case'.


Nidaja-- did you get anywhere with yours?

I just tested mine and it was okay. I called it, kept talking until the screen timed out and it went to sleep. Kept talking and all was still okay.

However... I have seen this problem before on, are you ready for this... a Palm Treo. In that case what would happen is this... pretty much the same as you described and that I tested, with one exception... on the Palm Treo, I found out that it was not the actual going to sleep action that caused the voice dropout. It was the *notification beep* of another incoming caller having left a voicemail that caused it. I turned the incoming call VM notification sound off and the problem cleared, until they fixed it with the next OS update (Windows). Turns out they were all like this.

Any chance you might fit into that scenario? I didn't test for incoming calls and notifications.

If we could narrow down all the variables, I wouldn't be surprised if they all are like this.

-Frank

 

[Nidaja]

Chrisp95, I sent you a pm.

 

[brett328]

I had this problem with a palm treo too. I figured out that it was happening when it was syncing with google while I was on a call (email, calendar, etc.). 3G cant handle simultaneous voice and data, and I've noticed that VZW still isnt officially touting simultaneous voice and data over 3G. Saying something to the effect that although possible, it was not up to their standards to fully endorse that functionality. Once I disabled the syncing on my treo to manual only, I had no more voice problems. The only difference was I had audible dropouts on the callers voice as well as my voice when the situation occurred.

Try this, turn off all auto syncing, background syncing and see if you can reproduce the problem. If not, I think its obvious. A possible workaround is leaving the syncing locked off, and adding the HTC widget "sync all" to your home screen. This way you can just tap the button when you wake the phone, and all is synced in a few seconds, and no voice interuption.

post back your results, very interested.

 

[BoNg420]

I have this problem as well.

A person calls, they can't hear me, I call them back and they can't hear me. Usually this will only happen on an incoming call first. Then the following call out will sometimes work or not work. Doing a reboot works to fix it.

Also I use google voice, sometimes when a person calls it says unknown caller to accept press 1 to send to voicemail press 2, the phone does not respond to any button pressses and I have to restart.

I also have another problem.

When I am in an area that doesn't have 4g or a weak 4G and sometimes excellent 4g, I get no 3G or 1X. That's not all, I can be sitting in my house where I get excellent 4g and signal and I get the data drop. NO DATA AT ALL. The only usual way to fix this is a restart as well. This happens to me at work too, I don't get the greatest signal here, but with my incredible I always got data connection.

I have called at least 4 times to *611, I have taken the phone in to verizon store, the person their messed with my phone like 20-25 minutes and it was fine for a couple days, then happened again. I called back and got a new replacement phone and still have the same problems all this week just as with the other phone. So I am thinking its the following, bad/weak antenna(s), software problem, or Verizons network, but the data problem is weird that I don't get 3g or 1x when there is no 4g.

 

[chrisp95]

I just tested mine and it was okay. I called it, kept talking until the screen timed out and it went to sleep. Kept talking and all was still okay.

However... I have seen this problem before on, are you ready for this... a Palm Treo. In that case what would happen is this... pretty much the same as you described and that I tested, with one exception... on the Palm Treo, I found out that it was not the actual going to sleep action that caused the voice dropout. It was the *notification beep* of another incoming caller having left a voicemail that caused it. I turned the incoming call VM notification sound off and the problem cleared, until they fixed it with the next OS update (Windows). Turns out they were all like this.

Any chance you might fit into that scenario? I didn't test for incoming calls and notifications.

If we could narrow down all the variables, I wouldn't be surprised if they all are like this.

-Frank

Hi Frank,

I think more than a few people would be having the same problem if it was something as simple as a phone setting, especially since pretty much all the settings on my Thunderbolt are default, or at least common changes (ie-- turn off keyboard sounds, ect)

I don't expect the average owner to have this problem. From what I understand, this is very isolated and probably connected to some setting/problem with my Verizon account

 

[chrisp95]

I had this problem with a palm treo too. I figured out that it was happening when it was syncing with google while I was on a call (email, calendar, etc.). 3G cant handle simultaneous voice and data, and I've noticed that VZW still isnt officially touting simultaneous voice and data over 3G. Saying something to the effect that although possible, it was not up to their standards to fully endorse that functionality. Once I disabled the syncing on my treo to manual only, I had no more voice problems. The only difference was I had audible dropouts on the callers voice as well as my voice when the situation occurred.

Try this, turn off all auto syncing, background syncing and see if you can reproduce the problem. If not, I think its obvious. A possible workaround is leaving the syncing locked off, and adding the HTC widget "sync all" to your home screen. This way you can just tap the button when you wake the phone, and all is synced in a few seconds, and no voice interuption.

post back your results, very interested.

Thanks for the input. That sounds reasonable, the only problem would be -- I think a huge number of Thunderbolt owners would be having the same problem and that doesn't seem to be the case.

However, the synching when paired with something weird with my account does sound like a reasonable cause. I'll mention it to the techs and such. It's certainly something to try at some point. The phone hasn't done it at all today-- which makes it difficult to determine if or when a solution works.

Also-- I've had this happen through 5 or 6 calls to and from someone over the span of a couple of minutes and you would think the phone wouldn't be synching over that entire period of time.

 

[chrisp95]

I have this problem as well.

A person calls, they can't hear me, I call them back and they can't hear me. Usually this will only happen on an incoming call first. Then the following call out will sometimes work or not work. Doing a reboot works to fix it.

Also I use google voice, sometimes when a person calls it says unknown caller to accept press 1 to send to voicemail press 2, the phone does not respond to any button pressses and I have to restart.

I also have another problem.

When I am in an area that doesn't have 4g or a weak 4G and sometimes excellent 4g, I get no 3G or 1X. That's not all, I can be sitting in my house where I get excellent 4g and signal and I get the data drop. NO DATA AT ALL. The only usual way to fix this is a restart as well. This happens to me at work too, I don't get the greatest signal here, but with my incredible I always got data connection.

I have called at least 4 times to *611, I have taken the phone in to verizon store, the person their messed with my phone like 20-25 minutes and it was fine for a couple days, then happened again. I called back and got a new replacement phone and still have the same problems all this week just as with the other phone. So I am thinking its the following, bad/weak antenna(s), software problem, or Verizons network, but the data problem is weird that I don't get 3g or 1x when there is no 4g.

Now that you mention it, I have had a couple of weird 'not connected to the network' occurrences. It's not enough to be a problem and it seems like that happened here and there on my incredible. Someone suggested rather than rebooting the phone, to put it into airplane mode and then turn off airplane mode and have the phone reconnect to the network-- that's always worked for me, including on the Thunderbolt.

 

[chrisp95]

Update

The verizon tech I've been dealing with just called-- A group of out of state techs are working on the problem with my account-- that is to say, assuming it's account related. They don't have official word of this being an issue in general with the phone.

Also- he just had another customer just come into their store with the same problem. The problem has only happened to her with regards to calls to and from one other phone. The problem was able to be repeated at the store, which is good news as far as trying to sort out the problem.

He wants me to drop my phone there Monday and the other customer will as well and the tech is going to match them up against his Thunderbolt in an effort to find some commonality between our two phones that doesn't exist with his. I referred him to this thread, as well.

 

[chrisp95]

Also- I have to say I'm very impressed with Verizon's service and the dedication that's been demonstrated by all the reps, both at the store and nationally, with respect to my problem. It's such a stark contrast to the crappy service I always received with Singular ''COUGH" AT&T

I'm sure they would have tried to convince me I was holding the phone wrong or something subjective, which wasn't their responsibility- then happily charged me a restocking fee when I finally returned the phone in disgust.

 

[PorscheGuy]

I'm glad that it isn't just me! I have this issue with my TB as well and it drives my GF crazy when I talk to her because she keeps having me repeat stuff all of the time. Unfortunately my experience at the VZW store was horrible as the guy was absolutely no help, said everything sounded fine to him when all he did was make a quick test call and then tried to sell me a new 4G MiFi.

Just some info in case it will help:

My phone has the same issue as yours with people on the other end having problems hearing me/cutting out, I have tried doing a factory reset already and refused to do it again, I am in Temecula, CA, my PRL is 15011, I came to VZW from Sprint and ported my number (so no old account info lingering in the system) and my SIM Card is still the one they gave me when I bought the phone which is an old one with the date of October 2010 stamped on it. Also I was the first person in the door on launch day and the girl at VZW did *228 and *22899 a couple of times each which I've heard can damage the SIM Card.

On an off-topic note I see that you're in Akron. I just moved out here from Canton, OH a few years ago and I miss Ohio every day!

 

[chrisp95]

That's interesting...I did a *228 on the first phone but it wasn't until after the problem manifested. Someone at Verizon mentioned to me that the thunderbolt doesn't use *228. I would think it would be fairly common for owners to naturally do that update as we've been trained to do it periodically with verizon phones. There'd probably be a slew of problems if it damaged thunderbolts. It looks like I'm waiting until Monday for more info

 

[Nidaja]

Chrisp95, please check your PMs

I'm in Ohio too! Cleveland area. So...is THAT the problem? lol. The Ohio curse??

 

[PorscheGuy]

You should be fine as the *228 problem was fixed almost immediately on launch day, and for all I know it might have been fixed by the time I got mine since I'm on the West Coast which could explain why she tried it multiple times. If you call *228 now it just beeps and hangs up and won't let the call go through.

 

[twofast]

hi guys i have the same problem i live in cleveland also but i had 4 droid x before this and had the same problem with them also verizon switched me to this thunderbolt hopeing this would fix the problem im a truckdriver and i travel all over the city and it happens everyware some day are better than others but the problem on happens when i call other verzion cell phones never happens to a land line or another carriors phone like at/nt or rebel this is so anoying