Next up…..the HTC / WP7 Mute Bug
Err, Houston, I think we have……another problem. What I thought was a one off freak thing that happened on a phone call a couple weeks ago seems to be a genuine bug, sigh, at least on HTC WP7 devices. I was on my Surround with my nephew (and his iPhone) about two weeks ago and in the middle of the conversation suddenly he could not hear me.Throughout the call the reception was perfectly crisp and clear. Being a new phone, I immediately assumed I did something wrong, so while he was at the other end doing the, hello…hello thing, I toggled the mute button on/off, I tried turning speakerphone on/off and I even cycled the volume up/down. But nothing. We were in the process of building him a new MacBook online so we needed to continue the conversation. I hung up and called him back but when he answered, he still could not hear me. Via text, I instructed him to call me and when I answered, same problem. My end of the conversation was muted. I finally powered off and on and when I called him back, everything was fine for the next 20 minutes of conversation. I am not a big phone call person, maybe one a day average, but I have made and received more calls with this new phone, averaging maybe 15 per week since launch day, and this is the only call that has exhibited the unusual loss of microphone. During other calls I have toggled speakerphone on/off, looked up dates on my calendar and done other things, none of which affected the conversation in any way. So with all these other successful calls I wrote this one incidence off as an anomaly, that is until today.
In another MD thread here discussing dropped calls, or more specifically the lack of dropped calls with WP7 devices, a couple users have acknowledged issues regarding mute.
sm0keydabandit wrote:
I’ve got a surround and i haven’t had any dropped calls but my goddamn microphone keeps randomly shutting off until i do a battery pull, probably like once every week. I’m not the only one this happens to either. great call quality but that doesn’t help me much when they cant hear a word i say…
and Charles followed up with:
For the user with problems with the mic getting muted, there is a similar known bug on the Focus in which the mic gets muted after you unplug standard headphones. To fix it, plug them back in and out. The issue does not happen with the phone factory “hands free” headphones+mic.
So is there a bug involving mute and dare I say, HTC phones, or at least the HTC Surround. I did experience something similar to what Charles is referring to above yesterday when I plugged in wired stereo headphones for the first time. Sometimes, while listening to a song, if I plug in the headphones the volume will go down to 0 and the phone will set to vibrate. Turning off vibrate and raising the volume restores the sound. And when I unplug the headphone the music will pause requiring me to to tap play again to resume the song. But I am not aware of the phone muting when unplugging the headphones. After last night’s experience I had a 40 minute conversation today with no muting (and no soft resets this week). I also just tried plugging/unplugging my stereo headphones repeatedly and then using TellMe to verify my mic was working and I had no issues. so not sure if the two issues above are related.
I am suspecting that the mic dropping out during a phone call is another “HTC exclusive”. I would like to investigate further, but HTC’s Support Forum’s have been down for many days, at least from any of my machines. Makes you think they don’t want anyone talking about these issues. Well that’s not gonna happen. So, while I know everyone wants to wildly defend their new shiny WP7 phone, if you have experienced muting on your phone during a call or otherwise, please share your experience here so we can do more work for the WP7 Test Team and get this bug stamped out. As usual it would be helpful providing the normal stuff; phone model, start or middle of conversation, frequency and how you resolved the issue.
UPDATE: HTC Forums and Customer Service are back up. Sent a request to CS and they replied with a pleasant, meaningless message telling me to soft reset if it happens again. Thanks for nothing. Read through the HTC Forums and found at least one other Surround user who had the mute issue so I started a new thread explaining the bug and pointing to Mobility Digest for more details. Nothing yet.
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Gremlins I tell you, it’s those dang gun Gremlins
Probably some kind of Google attack, paid for by Apple.
should have got the samsung focus, operation has been flawless
Jimski – You complain so much! All you do is blog about your issues with your phone and WP7. It would be more constructive for you to contact a central point i.e. a Microsoft support site or HTC support site to report these issues so that they can be appropriately addressed and resolved. Why not do some legwork and locate all of support sites for this platform and then blog it so that all of the readers can be informed and have direction on where they can voice any issues that they experience with their mobile device?
But then who would be around to identify and help to fix all the alleged HTC bugs. There have been some associated reports relating to the Focus, as reported in both the alarm and dropped call threads, so nothing is perfect. And I don’t really want to be around when Focus users start to dig past the 8GB onboard memory and rollover into their add-on SD cards. Long term I think that problem will always be there.
I will reiterate that I love my Surround. The speaker on it is sensational, despite what the critics say. What did they expect in a 5.5oz. phone; a 200w Yamaha Amp with 5 speakers. Really! Compared to my Fuze and Tilt2, this phone is light years ahead. The alarm bug is a nusiance, but I stopped relying on Windows alarms about 5 years ago, so nothing lost. And as noted, my mute thing happened one time out of about 50-60 calls calls and 15 hours of conversation. But I will not defend a platform or product to protect it if something is wrong with it. Full disclosure is my only rememdy. If I screw up, I take my whacks, and make sure I don’t do it again. Should be the same for HTC and Microsoft.
I have been putting this phone through an accelerated usage lifecycle since launch day, with screen on about 7-11 hours per 18 hour day, going through a minimum of 2 full battery charges, so my usage has been anything but typical. When I find a quirk, I attack it, try to reproduce it, and then try to find a solution so others won’t have to deal with it. If I didn’t press every button and try every option I might also be able to claim, “operation has been flawless”, but that’s not what I do. So I am more likely to find things than others. And I am loving every minute of it.
@Just Visiting: Sorry that you perceive this as complaining. Again, I am really enjoying my new WP7 phone. And the last thing I want to do is bring bad press to this bright and new platform. But pushing problems under the rug and denying they exist is not a solution. Sharing one’s experience is. I tried gaining some knowledge from HTC’s support forums, which I did often with my Fuze and Tilt2, but they don’t seem to be working. Don’t know about you, but any calls I have ever made to AT&T, for example, regarding a phone in the past has resulted in, “let’s do a hard reset”, which is not a solution.
I and 100,000 other HTC users could just keep quiet about these things and maybe send a couple emails to customer support and maybe something wll eventually get addressed, although every email explantion will be a little different, so it will be hard for anyone, or more likely an automated email reader, to compile this info and develop anything meaningful. Or I can get a dozen or so like minded people to share a similar experience, compile the info myself in a logical manner, and forward the results to HTC, Microsoft, AT&T, and whomever else will listen. My objective is not to badmouth or complain, although I can’t help it when a little sarcasm slips out. It’s to find the truth and then followup, as you suggest. But if only two out of 100,000 are experiencing this problem, then maybe AT&T is right and all I need to do is hard reset. Oh well.
OK, so as noted the HTC Support Forums are down, so no way of knowing if anyone is having any problems, but if you want to keep your HTC issues private, you can contact email support here; http://www.htc.com/us/support/e-mail.
And nothing in the Windows Phone system related to phone muting or alarm freezes, at least nothing relevant to Windows Phone devices, but if you want to ask Microsoft Answers a question you can do it here; http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/newthread?forum=windowsphone7
And I couldn’t find any simple way to contact Microsoft directly, but you can go to this page and click the appropriate links; http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/contact-us.aspx
For AT&T users, you can start here: http://www.att.com/, but you will need to login in order to get to the support forums or the contact us page.
And for T-Mobile, the HD7 forums are located here: http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/HTC-HD7/bd-p/HTC_HD7,
@jimski
Please keep giving us the information the way you do. IMO you use your phone the way a majority of us do and you write about your experiences in a non BS manner. Your insights are right to the point and very informative. I will be getting my next upgrade in Feb next year and the more I hear about each WP7 phone; good or bad, the better. It really helps me make an educated decision about what phone I want to choose. Keep on complaining lol, because it will be the same thing I would complain about if I had the phone. Don’t be sorry for writing.. IMO the more the better!!
@Dom: Thanks. Be assured that I will speak my mind when I find it necessary. I would love to say everything is peachy, but when it’s not I feel obligated to to explain why, and sharing my personal, factual experience is the best way I know to do that. BTW, I still think HTC makes the best hardware and if I had to replace my device tomorrow, I would buy the exact same phone. Software can always be corrected.
Actually, that happened to me on Day 1. Got the Surround on 11/8, took it home for set up, tried to call the husband and he couldn’t hear me. Tried again, same result. Called him on the land-line. Then again on the cell – nothing. Called my mom, nothing. Called HTC for FSM’s sake and they didn’t have a clue. Went back to the store (calling hubby again on the way; nothing). Called the sales rep – you guessed it, RECEPTION. Murphy’s a downright bastage I figured.
It hasn’t happened to me since, but now I’m hearing these rumblings. I’m hoping it’s simple…
@MartiM: Thanks for the detailed (and funny) explanation. Yes, I too have a long and frustrating relationship with Murphy. Has a knack for popping up when you least desire. Interesting that your problem cleared up without (I assume) a power off/on cycle. That’s 3 Surrounds so far. I suspect that this issue, and possibly the alarm issue, are related to code that HTC added for sound enhancement. All HTC devices have options for Dolby/SRS via plug in headphones. Hopefully Microsoft will get on their case and correct this stuff in the first update, labeled as various bug fixes. You know they will never admit these problems existed.
Jimski,
First, you can’t call this “the WP7 mute bug” when it is an HTC hardware problem.
Second, after owning the Fuze and Tilt2, you should’ve learned your lesson. I also had those, as well as three others before that by HTC. After disappointment and problems year after year, especially the last few when HTC chose to limit the hardware (no 3.5mm audio) I vowed to avoid HTC at all cost. Got the LG Quantum for me and Samsung Focus for my wife- couldn’t be happier and have had zero problems. Also loving LG’s unique app offerings, and of course the AMOLED screen on the Focus is awesome.
But you can keep on thinking HTC makes the best hardware, probably too busy dealing with issues to notice anything else.
Seriously, make your next phone a non-HTC, you’ll experience the quality you’ve been missing.
@KCMatt: Thanks for the response. I used that heading to get feedback and determine if it is in fact an HTC “only” bug. Almost convinced of that now and I promise I will change the headline once I am thoroughly convinced. Oh, and I am also 99.999% certain that this is a software issue, not a loose wire or overheating mic.
Regarding hardware, I don’t think the 3.5MM jack missing was an HTC decision, but instead something the carriers controlled. And a feature missing is not a hardware flaw. Its a business decision. Hell I can say that the Focus and Quatum are flawed because they don’t have a sensational slide out speaker or the Focus and Sourround/HD7 are missing that slide out keyboard goodness. HTC provided a viable workaround, despite the carriers, and that’s good enough for me.
Maybe I am just lucky, or careful, but all my HTC devices, including PDA’s, have never had a screen issue, button issue, battery issue, hinge issue, GPS issue, reception issue, speaker or mic (physical, not software related) issue or any of the other things that can go wrong with device hardware. So until I do I will still tout HTC’s strong, rugged build and selection of quality components. And all the people on eBay who have purchased my old, but well cared for devices, share my sentiments.
The important thing is that everyone has the option to choose their device, for whatever reasons they may have. And that’s a good thing.
@jimski: Nope, no power down/up. I’ve done that since (darn WP and it’s lack of a task killer anyway), but yeah, it just poof decided to work when I took it back. 🙂 Machines have feelings too.
And I haven’t been able to duplicate the alarm problem others are having.
@MartiM: Thanks for the clarification. What’s interesting for me is at the point you had your problem (hours after unboxing) I assume that you had loaded no 3rd party stuff, even additional apps from HTC, which sort of eliminates that as a possibility. Interesting that you can’t recreate the alarm bug though. That’s good for you. Still can’t send HTC a Support Request (error on send) to direct them to this and the alarm links. Maybe tomorrow.
And I agree completely on the machine feeling thing. In a previous life I was a packaging mechanic and people swore that I could talk to the machines. When I calmly walked over to them they would stop misbehaving. Maybe someone will prove my theory that they exist in some alternate dimension. Watch out for Arnold.
Since we are in the mood of sharing issues. I have one with my focus that has been repeating quite frequently. The issue is with the marketplace. When I browse a list of apps and scroll to the end of the list, marketplace crashed and the only way to get out of it is to press the Windows button, then tapping on the marketplace icon again will only get you back to the home screen after marketplace tried to load. I was able to repeat the issue on the LG Quantum. Anyone else has the same issue?
@adp: Yep, can confirm the same thing happens on my Surround. The last time it happened I refused to reset (the only way to get Marketplace back) and after several hours I noticed the photos in my People hub were limited to “only” Facebook contacts, with white squares where the other photos should have been. After resetting all was good again.
Tried it tonight and did not get the Marketplace freeze until I scrolled the second filter (new) in news& weather, a prettly long category with 200+ entries. As noted, going back in to Marketplace brings up the loading screen and then kicks up back to the Start screen. But after resetting I went back in to Marketplace and scrolled through several categories, including news & weather, and could not get it to lockup again. So this is another issue where the cache, or buffers, or whatever get filled over time (my last reset was about a week ago).
Sad that it’s a problem, but glad it’s not specific to HTC devices, although everyone else will deny that it has ever happened to them. That of course will be because they; a) never go to Marketplace, or b) they are resetting their phone for other undisclosed reasons so the buffers are never full. Thanky you for sharing.
@jimski I *may* have connected to Facebook and Twitter, but I can’t recall now. I don’t *think* I loaded anything else. Since it was straight out of the box, it was still pretty cherry.
I’ve been resetting once a week, just as a matter of course to clear memory out. It’s not a big hassle, and might save me a little frustration.
We just got my wife a new HTC Surround on Sunday, 12/12. Last night, 12/15, it started the mute all calls problem too. After googling the problem, I found this thread. After reading through it, she powered off and back on and now it is fixed. Just wanted to add one more HTC user with a problem in case someone from HTC is actually monitoring this.
@EdB: Thanks for posting. The more we hear from Surround owners the more validity this problem has, meaning someone may take a look at it. The good news is that it has not come back on my device, nor anyone elses as far as I know. But it still should not have happened and can rear its ugly head at a most inopportune moment in the future, like while trying to dial 911!
I have started a thread in the HTC forums here http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/windows-phone/f/104/t/8171.aspx. If you are so inclined, and this goes for anyone who has experienced this issue, you might want to comment which adds credibility to my comments. As it’s apparently a rare occurance, the more examples the better for the folks at HTC to figure out.
i have a Focus and the other day i experienced the no mic issue after unplugging the headphone. i was not on a call but i was trying to use voice recognition and it would not register any sound. a soft reboot would fix it and replicated the issue several time by plugging in and out the headphone.
however today after reading this post, i tried it with a different headphone and i could not recreate the no mic issue.
My son is having the same mic problem with his Surround-just wanted to document here in case it helps! Thanks for the suggestion to turn off/on-that worked…this time…
@Liz: Thanks for the feedback. Has only happened to me twice in 3 months so not bad, but not good either. If it does not get patched in this first update, will be time to turn it up a notch.
@jimski: This is unrelated, but how’s your data usage? Any significant increase?
Averaged 1.5 to 1.7GB per month for the first two months which was a significant increase for me (averaged between 250 and 400MB with WM). But I attributed that to; downloading lots of apps, getting Zune Pass and streaming/downloading songs, and playing, playing and more playing with the phone. Also 3 email accounts, 2 weather apps, Beezz, Facebook and other stuff constantly updating.
A day or two after the start of my most recent cycle I turned on WiFi 24/7 (tried MicroCell but it was not working out for me), mainly to increase data transfer speed, as I have an Unlimited plan, so no data cap worries. WiFi use is mainly while at the house which is a good part of the day. Speed boost from 1400 Kbps to around 7800 Kbps, with very little battery drain using WiFi. As of today; 17 of 31 days into cycle: 470MB of 3G data. About 100MB was just the first two days of the cycle (no WiFi) so I am guessing about 800MB this month, with WiFi on all the time (except maybe when I know I will not be in WiFi range at all).
This morning I turned off ALL Microsoft feedback, because it seemed like my data usage jumped quickly over the past three days even though I have not really been out much and WiFi has been on. Might just be paranoia with everything I have been reading. Again, not worried about the amount of data, but if I am sending Microsoft 10-20MB/day, that has to be a hit on my battery. My average upload speed over WiFi is 800Kbps, Can’t get a reading over 3G but my guess is it is much slower.
Wow there’s like 8 of you?!!
I love my HTC. Somethings better somethings worse than my iPhone.. I sell them both/ use them both.
I stumbled across your garbage…
@Nada: Hey I love my HTC Surround also, and wouldn’t trade it for anything. And my last 6 phones and 3 PDA’s have all been HTC, so it’s not as if I don’t like or have faith in the company. But this issue is real. It has happened to several people, including me twice, with very similar circumstances. That tells me we are not imagining this issue. The only thing we know for sure is that it is happening to Surround’s. Not certain of it is an issue with the other HTC WP7 devices. I have posted this issue in the HTC Support Forums and have not heard from anyone.
If you have a Surround, it will inevitably happen to you as well. Hopefully HTC understands why it is happening and it will be corrected with the first update due out next month. Because it’s so random there is no way that I know of to recreate the issue which makes it even more of a mystery. If you do have a Surround be sure to check back in when your phone goes on mute in the middle of a phone call.
Add me to the list of users experiencing the random muting problem on the HTC Surround (at least twice). I joined your HTC thread:
http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/windows-phone/f/104/t/7778.aspx
Thanks for the feedback. I did read your HTC Forum comments earlier today. My confidence is not high, but just maybe this problem will go away with the Microsoft February (hopefully) update. Of, course HTC will never admit there was ever a problem so we will have to wait and see if it ever rears it’s ugly head again.
I have had my HTC surround phone for about two weeks, it has muted on me 5 times. I found that when the keypad doesn’t make the noise when I tap on it, that it’ll be mute if I try to make a call, or answer one. The alarm doesn’t work either. Very frustrating. Only way to get it to work is to take out the battery and put it back in. I think I’ll be going back to my blackberry.
@crenee: If you are unhappy with it but would still like to have a Windows Phone, I would suggest replacing it with a Samsung Focus. The Focus does not have any of the issues mentioned. It appears the issues mentioned are HTC specific.
Sorry to hear of your troubles crenee. Surprised that you have to remove the battery (which sucks BTW). I have only done that once. Typically a power off/on cycle does the trick for me. And if for some reason you won’t power down, plugging into the charger for a few seconds then unplugging toggles something that lets the phone cycle. Interssting on the keypad feedback sounds. I keep my volume up to hear alerts when the phone is out of reach and the beeps from the keys got me to turn that off on day one. Sure wish they included haptic feedback for key presses.
As adp notes, the alarm and mute issues appear to be exclusive to HTC devices, mute more specifically to the Surround. But every device has experienced some little bugs, mostly around sound (alarms, mute, no sound, stuttering). I am really looking forward to the pending update (any day now) and hope that all or most of these issues are resolved. But if not, I guess we just need to turn up the heat a little more. We are in v1.0 so hope you don’t give up on WP7 altogether.
@Jimski: Thanks for your reply on my thread (http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/windows-phone/f/103/p/8763/38723.aspx#38723).
To all those nay-Sayers – go and enjoy your phone. We’re here to report on legitimate bugs/malfunctions. When I make a purchase – I expect something to work – I don’t expect to spend dozens and dozens of hours sitting trying to make it work (and I am very technically inclined). It’s reassuring hearing of other peoples similar experiences reconfirming the issues I’ve been suffering from. My HTC Surround is going back to the store today – I’m going to do a swap out on a new unit – HOPING that I just a a dud unit.
@jeremy. That’s absolutely right.. My Google results for this problem redirected me to this exact page.
@jimski.. Thanks for starting the thread
For most of you t might be a random issue but for me its been hanging around all the time with headset on..
Sometimes I wake up in the morning and take a call only to be not heard/muted at the other end.. Please keep posted
Mine is a HTC hd7
i just tried to make a call on my HTC 7 pro – twice, the person called could not hear me. only a reset was able to solve the problem. this is the first time i had this problem and i have the phone for two weeks now. i hope this will be fixed somehow since that is really annoying when you call someone you don’t know that well.
@Martin: wait… besides from your problem, how did you get the 7 pro and which carrier are you on?
I’ve experienced the muting problem. I have an HTC surround and I had to do a soft restart in order to get the phone functional again. Overall the sound isn’t as great as they make it out to be. Other problems I’ve seen do involve my non HTC stereo headphones. With the headphones plugged in the volume decreased and finally went to vibrate. It would not let me increase the volume until I took out the headphones. This has happened once. The other strange thing that happens almost everyday is the alarm doesn’t sound after I hit the snooze. When this happens I have no sound until I restart the phone. I’ve returned this phone thinking it was defective and got a new one….. Same exact problems with the new one……
I have had the same issue with my HTC Surround muting during calls. It has happened at least 3 times now since I purchased my phone on January 17. At first it happened with my mom (iPhone user) so we joked about a Windows/iPhone issue. Then it happened again with my brother, and then with my fiance. I can’t find any consistency with time of day, length of phone call, or anything else that might indicate what’s happening. I’ve been in communication with the HTC support team, and while we haven’t come to an answer yet, they have been extremely responsive and seem interested in solving this issue. In fact, they gave me the link to this thread to read. I’ll work with them in sharing the info about my phone, and all I can hope is that we get this solved! I’m loving everything about this phone so far, so I would hate for this issue to come in the way of keeping it. It’s just extremely frustrating, especially when it happens mid-conversation. I can only imagine this happening during an emergency situation.
Glad to hear I’m not alone, and let’s hope we can help HTC figure out a way to fix this issue!
@Kara: Thank you for the detailed info and sorry that you are one of the many experiencing this frustrating, unimaginary problem. Glad to hear someone (HTC) is taking this seriously. In another thread, someone with a lot more knowledge than me suggested the problem has to do with HTC using an outdated ROM on their production releases of WP7 phones. Have no way of verifying this but it may explain why this is an and HTC only problem. Don’t know if the pending WP7 update will address this and other HTC issues but I remain hopeful. But it may take a new ROM build to make everything right. Hang in there.
I have a WP7 and I am having the same problems with the mute button it s really anoying but other then that I love the phone
I have samsung omnia 7, and am having the same issues which r discussed above, call drop issue occurs once in a while, but issue with marketplace is quite alot, it stuck in the middle of apps search and kept loading and going back to main screen.
Hope this sort of issues r rectified in upcoming wp7 update.
Damm, thanks god that not only me who get this issue,
I got this problem in my HD7 too, my conversation say “hello, hello” and not heard me when i plug in headphone, this is a terrible issue.
I bought my HTC sur. the day befor christmas eve. After about three weeks I started having the mic mute problem. Did the soft reset and worked fine for a week or two. Then it started to happen at least once a day. I then returned the phone to the ATT store i purchased it from, they replaced it with a new surround. Two weeks later the same problem started with the new phone. It the stoped untell last week, i took the second phone to the ATT store since it was more than a month old they did a waranty replacement. Which ment they would mail me new phone rather than just give me one of about 100 they had right there in the store. Well I got home to day to find my third HTC Sur. on my door step. I opened the box put in my Sim, powered up, and made a call. And you guessed it, mic was muted, now after not one or two but seven power cycles still no mic. I love every thing about these phones except this one thing. And this is a big thing i need a my phone to be a “PHONE” before anything else, without a mic it is anything but.
I hear ya. No promises but I am hopeful that the firmware update allegedly coming with the NoDo update, in about two weeks, will put this issue to bed. But then again, HTC has yet to admit this is an actual issue.
I have an HTC HD7 and have the same problem. Calls mute all of a sudden and I have to power off/on to get it back. This is so patehtic this happens atleast once in two days for me
Third occurrence of random muting on my HTC Surround on Tuesday, April 5th. I think I’ve gone a month or so between occurrences. My favorite was the one that happened when I was on line with an AT&T rep. Assuming that this problem will be fixed by the NoDo update, when the evil AT&T finally deigns to release it, it would seem that AT&T is putting themselves at risk by allowing this critical flaw to remain in place. (Emergency calls, etc. as mentioned above.)
I have had this issue with the Dell Venue Pro, and some others have reported it in the following site:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1024462
I have the same issue as that person reports it. I can accept incoming, and make outgoing calls. The issue is the mic part doesn’t work … don’t know if it is muted but muting it, unmuting it has no effect if those on the other side can hear me. The built in speaker is also not outputing sound from the other side as well increasing the volume seems to have no effect as well … just dead silince and both ways. Now switching to the speakerphone seems to allow two way communication. This is definately an OS issue as this works sometimes and other times it doesn’t … hardware faults tend to be an absolute error all the time. I think the OS is sending the wrong signals to the hardware, although from the UI perspective all settings would appear normal.
Strange for the issue surrounding the surround seems to be only effecting the mic, whereas the Dell Venue Pro is effecting both the speaker and mic, I heard the HD7 is also having the same issue as the DVP intermittently. Microsoft has been very open so far, but they have been cautious when it comes to bad news effecting the WP7 OS I hope they can explain this problem and have a solution for it. It could be simply a firmware issue … Microsoft has controlled the spec of this OS so rigidly … maybe all the mics are the same across the WP7 phones and so it could be a firmware thing or again it could just be software glitch wherin the phone thinks there is a headset plugged in when their isn’t … maybe Zune is the culprit seeing I usually have Zune playing some music when this occurs and I unplug my the headset. Don’t know don’t care, I am an end user so MS needs to make this go away.
I hate to double post, but I have just confirmed that this issue is a glitch of some sort relating to software sensitivity in terms of detecting whether a headphone is attached or not. If the WP7 OS thinks a headphone is present, then all the signal output goes towards to the headphone jack … which is a desired outcome in any circumstance. The issue is that the software thinks there is a headphone attached when the headphone has been removed.
In an electronic system, the mechanical actuations cause signal bouncing. These signal bounces take some x interval of time to come to a stable state. The detection system (whether hardware or software) is to sample the signal for an x amount of time to see whether the signal is Hi (connected) or Lo (disconnected) then make a final output as to the state of that switch/ connector. An edge detector/ interrupt/ comparator is required so that sampling doesn’t occur all the time but only at the specified instance of a signal change.
Now here is the bizarre glitch … WP7 properly recognizes when a headphone is disconnected because it pauses the music which was playing … but it does not change the output mode nor the input mode (mic) every time. Basically it changes it sometimes and doesn’t some other times. So I think the software detection works as it should but doesn’t change the state as it should their is a glitch there.
I’m just making an educated guess, but MS has to run with it … is it the OEM partners or the OS … what is causing the state of the mic to be locked once a headphone is removed (at least with the DVP in my case). Can you guys with the surround try to connect the headphone and remove it while experiencing the mic issue … would like to see if powering off is the only solution for the HTC surround.
@Mohamed: Thanks for two informative posts. As noted in my article, on phone calls the Surround will randomly mute during the call. The speaker will continue to work but the user at the other end won’t hear anything I am saying. Only remedy I have found has been a power cycle, but would be interested to see what would happen if I plugged in headphones during a muting event. Hard to be prepared for that though. And no way to force the problem. I don’t make many calls so this only happens to me every few months. But for users that might make/receive a dozen calls a day, this could be a fairly regular occurance.
Regarding headphones, or anything I plug into the 3.5mm jack, like a set of powered speakers, often enought to be a problem the volume will roll up to full volume (30) and then roll back down to 0.Trying to manually raise the volume will just make it go back to 0 again. This usually happens if I plug/unplug while music is playing. Another anomoly is that often after plugging in regular headphones, Voice Command will activate asking if I want to call a random name, all while the music continues to play. Pausing the music before inserting/removing the plug usually (but not always) eliminates any trouble.
Just tried with music playing and headphone in, if I pull the plug the music will pause. If I start the music again and plug back in the music transfers (no pause) to the headphones. The anomolies don’t occur everytime, but will sneak up on you. Plugging and unplugging about 30 times only resulted in one Voice Command glitch, but no volume fluctuation. But I did do a factory reset a week ago so maybe it did something. I also did not reinstall Attentive Phone, an HTC app that is rumored to be a problem child. No updates yet (AT&T).
Guys. This has been fixed in my fone HD7 with the wp7 update2..
This update was rolled out on April 1..
We had marketplace access for around three days and suddenly Microsoft bitches have again taken it off our Zune .. For those three days I was able to purchase thru my India based CC on PC. App market however has never been available in India .
Thanks again for the post and hope this update comes to your fone too very soon..
Same hope about marketplace in India.. 😛
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you got your updates. But as this is an intermittent problem, how can you be certain that is has been resolved. Did Microsoft or HTC state that they have corrected the issue. I don’t get/make that many phone calls, and a call has not muted since, well the last one. But its going to take some consensus before I put this one to sleep for good. great hearing that it may be resolved though.
And sorry that Microsoft is playing games with your Marketplace. Just turn the dang thing on already and stop playing games, so that users in India (and many other locations) can start playing games.
Hello Guys,
Has anyone else got the HTC HD7 Update Vish is talking about. I havnt got it yet and am expecting it badly..
I hope Microsoft has not blocked me. Because i used the German VPN Hack to get my NoDo Update
Im shit scaredddd
HI I have a WP7 HTC Surround and I am going nuts 1st off it has an alarm bug my alarm never rings it goes on vibe by itself then I have the mute that goes on by its self also the only way to get it off is to restart the phone then sometimes when I restart the phone it gives me a black screen that says connect to pc so tried connecting it numerous time but nothing works so then I need to do a factory reset and this happens at least twice a week and the mute is the worst I am always scarred that it’s going to go on when i am on a phone call sent the phone twice to htc all they do is a factory reset so it’s good for 2 days and then it all starts again. The rest of the phone great but theses bugs are not worth having this phone if you can’t even make a phone call :0(
Wow, sound like you have a lemon and they owe you a replacement at this point. Only other thought is you are loading the same app(s) that could be contributing to the problem. Any possibility of that?
Nop I don’t have any apps with all the factory reset i don’t even bother downloading any at this point. The funniest part is that it’s actually a replacement unit the 1st one add the mute bug 2 weeks after I purchased it so they switch it for a new one ASSAP but this one is actually worst and now they won’t change it
To all the previously mentioned commentors. Blogs may be significantly much better to learn when you can maintain Your comments uncomplicated and to the level. No-one likes to go through giant feedback once the concept could be conveyed using a not as long remark
Yea this is happening to me alot. For the past week no one can hear me. I did a hard reboot and i got ONE call where i was able to talk the next phone call…nothing. So safe to say HTC SUCKS.
In the past months
I had problems in calls frequently, like I can hear the caller, but he cannot! and the solution was always a hard reset..
Two days ago ,I’ve got new problems : During calls, I can’t hear,and they can’t too, when I try to listen to music > no sound .. and the strange thing that i cant lock the phone! every time I lock it it keep light up and back to lock screen not to off screen!
I tried hard reset, soft reset, return to factory and delete all my data!!! no result. Suddenly everything is just fine.. no problems.. 3 or 4 ours the problems show’s again!
My htc hd7 volume up key is not working, is there any app to set volume up?
Guys. With the 7322 update this issue was fixed, but I again faced this issue until I had to get my phone installed with a fresh copy of Schubert from HTC service center. But I faced this issue again after changing a few setting on my phone today to my dismay. So I sat back and tried every option.
I figured out something that may eventually be a fix for most of the users here..
Go to ease of access and turn off ‘TTY/TDD’
Random muting will be moat probably when you turn it on to Full..
Guys, This bug was fixed in the update right after the NoDo update
But due to hard resetting, the setting went back to before.
I got my phone software reinstalled all fresh with the new Schubert ROM from HTC Authorized Service Center
But I again faced this issue after fiddling with a few settings on my phone today.
I just couldn’t bear it any longer so I tried all the settings and found the answer to a similar problem most of you are facing.
Random Muting is a result of turning ‘TTY/TDD’ to Full under ‘ease of access’ setting. Turn it back to Off to be heard when in the call. This worked in my case, and will definitely work in case it is the same reason why your phone goes wildly mute during calls.
I’m just hoping it fixes issue with most of your HD7 or other HTC handsets with Windows Phone Software. That’s why I took the pleasure of coming back to this forum and reporting these leads.
Remember:
TTY/TDD: Off
That’sallFolks
-Vish
Not sure why my posts don’t show up here.. 🙁