Why orange can suck my balls (help?)

Jono

Jono

Jono

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Location
Northallerton/Harrogate
Hi,

I managed to smash the screen of my HTC desire yesterday. Today I got my replacement from orange. It doesn't seem to want to work properly.

It's constantly losing signal. IF i can make a call, it then miraciously reports it gets full signal - then I receive a bunch of messages that have been sent (assuming someone's sent them of course) while I've had no signal.
As soon as I get off the call I gradually but quickly (over about 30 seconds) lose signal again until I have nothing. I can't recieve calls either - apparently I'm not available according to Mrs Orange.

I've never had a problem with signal with my old phone before - I don't live in a massively built-up area so it's not that... but it seems I can only get a signal when I MAKE the call.

Orange have kindly closed their utterly useless call centre until 8am, so I'm kind of stuck...

Does anyone know what might be causing this or if there's anything I can do about it. I really can't be doing without a phone all weekend. To say I'm annoyed is a massive understatement.

Some daft bint from the call centre told me to try switching network operators then she'd call me back (couldn't use a landline) but of course she couldn't call me back because my phone loses signal... and that was about 9:40pm. But yay, they've all gone to bed now. Barstewards.
 
Hmmm may or may not have fixed this... via the test menu :)

Edit - no i have not. Balls.
 
Yes it is - should it be?
I also tried the *#*#4636#*#* dialler menu option and set it to GSM auto (PRL) (or GSM/CDMA auto (PRL)) options and they don't seem to want to work :(
 
No. Change it to WCDMA only. Will probably sort your problems.

EDIT: Yes Orange DO suck monkey balls. Never again will will I get a contract with such scum sucking arse bandits. I had to root and reinstall a Froyo mod just to get rid of all Orange's badness that comes with any Orange handset. :rolleyes:
Runs much smoother now. :D

Good luck.
 
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Take it to bits (SIM and battery out), then turn it on and factory reset it. Doesn't really matter which order.

If it's still doing it after that, it's faulty. You shouldn't have these issues with the default settings so I doubt it's anything like that.

SlugForAButt said:
No. Change it to WCDMA only. Will probably sort your problems.
Click to expand...

That isn't much of a solution though.
 
Yes it is Robbo. If he's in an area where his signal is flip flopping around between signals he'll have a problem.
If you honestly think that you should take it to bits and then return it like Robbo said then you are sadly going to be disappointed. And I'll guarantee that Orange Indian support will advise you to try changing to WCDMA only too.
Try it before you decide your phone is faulty (when it's probably not).

Robbo said:
You shouldn't have these issues with the default settings so I doubt it's anything like that..
Click to expand...

I did, and guess what sorted it?
 
He shouldn't need to do that though, it should work?

Don't you need GSM in certain areas? Isn't that the whole point of it? Turning off the switching can save power if you ALWAYS have a 3G signal, most people don't.

Factory resetting it could help, it's a fair suggestion.
 
You have more flexibility if you set it to both. But I'd try selecting WCDMA only first.
Chances are it'll work.
If neither signal is particularly strong it'll frig around between them both otherwise.

Factory reset is a last resort really.

EDIT: Obviously try changing to GSM if you still have no joy but really only use factory reset as a last resort.
 
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SlugForAButt said:
I did, and guess what sorted it?
Click to expand...

It hasn't sorted it though, you've just turned off the GSM option. I don't consider that a solution. It worked perfectly for him before, why doesn't it now?

SlugForAButt said:
Factory reset is a last resort really.
Click to expand...

It's a replacement phone, it's likely got nothing on it. A factory reset is dead simple so it's hardly as drastic as a 'last resort'.
 
(Standard disclaimer - i work for Orange Technical, my thoughts are my own etc...)

Despite what SlugForAButt is saying you should leave it on auto mode in 99% of cases, the handset knows best as it can see the radio signal levels. If the handset has issues then get it replaced but leaving it on WCDMA only isn't a fix and it's wrong to say this is standard behaviour - it's broken. This issue isn't always switchover, it happens for other reasons too which is why I am suggesting you get the handset replaced. If you're having big pauses in signal I'm putting my money on broken radio or you're missing a SIM update regarding the 2G network share.

Sorry for the crap CS :/
 
Result, they're sending me a desire HD, since they don't have any normal desires in stock.

Now I just need to know what nice things to put on it.
 
That might not be a result, depending on a few factors.

The battery is going to be considerably worse and it's a lot bigger if you have small hands.
 
Myshra said:
(Standard disclaimer - i work for Orange Technical, my thoughts are my own etc...)

Despite what SlugForAButt is saying you should leave it on auto mode in 99% of cases, the handset knows best as it can see the radio signal levels. If the handset has issues then get it replaced but leaving it on WCDMA only isn't a fix and it's wrong to say this is standard behaviour - it's broken. This issue isn't always switchover, it happens for other reasons too which is why I am suggesting you get the handset replaced. If you're having big pauses in signal I'm putting my money on broken radio or you're missing a SIM update regarding the 2G network share.

Sorry for the crap CS :/
Click to expand...

Sorry for hijack but is there somewhere to find out where orange are having technical issues? I've had no signal at home for the last week with either of my orange contract phones. However both are fine when out of my local area, so I'm guessing somethings wrong with my local mast.

Constant texts of missed calls/ texts taking forever to send receive/ zero data coverage etc.

My next step?
 
We arn't quite that open yet :( CK88 phone up 150 - they have access to the same data that the network team does and it shows everything from mast incident history to power levels and expected coverage (real coverage, not the crap maps I promise). It's likely either the mast is down due to either powerout or the site has been relocated. It's much more often it's the former rather than the latter but the only way to check is with 150.

I lost my mast about a year ago and was out for 10 days - sometimes incidents are tough to fix or for pretty bizarre reasons (landlord lost the key to the top of the tower where my site was located so had to get a lock smith out etc etc...). I appreciate that I'm asking you to inform us about our own network but the more calls we receive about a particular outage the higher the priority becomes (or rather, the more we shout at NSN to fix it).

Edit: TBH the twitter feed for orange cs is actually pretty awesome and manned by a time of great helpers who used to be call centre based but were promoted to help customers in a different way - you might want to try that. http://twitter.com/orangehelpers/
 
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Robbo said:
That might not be a result, depending on a few factors.

The battery is going to be considerably worse and it's a lot bigger if you have small hands.
Click to expand...

It is a bit bigger, but I don't mind the battery life so much. IF I'm not using 3g/wifi out and about (which I seldom do) then it seems ok. And it can be no worse than my last battery, which lasted about 30 mins when doing anything with those radios turned on.

It's definitely bigger, though. And I don't like the way the camera doesn't allow it to lie flat, but other than that I"m quite pleased.... or certainly not displeased.

At least it's not dropping signal ;)
 
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