HTC handsets hit by grip of death Reports of problems with HTC handsets continue to flood the web, with its flagship One X dogged by various Wi-Fi woes and the One S becoming disorientated when struggling for a data connection. HTC's quad-core powerhouse, the One X, is said to have been struck with its own grip-of-death problem. Users report experiencing …
I was having huge problems with my HTC phone (the Desire) including it being unable to receive phonecalls. When I emailed HTC giving details and asking for help, they just replied back saying "as I understand you do not use our device any more. Please do not hesitate to contact us in future if needed."
Nice.
But then, a few days later, they rang me. And they suggested that they don't recommend using SIM cards that are more than 12 months old.
I'm sorry... what ?!
My SIM card was about 2 years old, but, come on... Are they making this stuff up ?
Hands up anyone who has renewed their mobile phone contract, and the provider has sent out a new SIM card for exactly the same number ? It just doesn't happen.
So, who knows, perhaps the HTC One problems are caused by the same ridiculous problem.
While the suggestion is perhaps a tad silly, it's not unwarranted. It is plausible for the SIM card to have compatibility issues due to it's type/age or simply from worn contacts or similar.
But it falls into the same category as "have you tried turning it off and on again?" or "have you tried a different charger/battery?" really simple to tests/methods to try and eliminate a problem.
AFAIK Most networks will usually provide a new SIM for the same number without too much fuss, the new one becoming active once you put it in your phone and the old one then automatically being deactivated. I've certainly done this once or twice before due to faults or problems.
"Hands up anyone who has renewed their mobile phone contract, and the provider has sent out a new SIM card for exactly the same number ? It just doesn't happen"
In this case it's more than likely, because the One X uses a micro SIM. I upgraded and had a new SIM sent out as part of the deal. Otherwise I'd have had to take a SIM trimmer to my old SIM and there's a good chance I would have destroyed it :)
Also I know of another One X user who had similar problems (wifi signal attenuated) but they admitted sitting on the phone and squashing it. I have noticed there is some movement when the phone is squashed like this (front to back) so I have been careful not to stress it!
"Hands up anyone who has renewed their mobile phone contract, and the provider has sent out a new SIM card for exactly the same number ? It just doesn't happen."
Always happens for me, for example at work we use Orange as our provider and whenever a new phone / Blackberry / whatever is sent out to replace someones old one it comes with a new SIM and they always say to use the new one rather then the old one. The just deactivate the old SIM and activate the new one with the same number. If i get a handset upgrade on my personal mobile contract this has happened for at least the last two or three changes.
I must admit it's not common knowledge about possible SIM compatibility issues with phones but as a matter of course I always ask my network operator to send me a new SIM when I upgrade my phone and they are more than happy to do so. I only found out by having a phone that struggled to stay registered on the network, it wasn't until I got a couple of levels deep in technical support that I was speaking to a proper techie and she explained the nuts and bolts of SIM cards (she did sound quite hot on the phone, so she kept my attention through the whole 45mins I was on the phone, the only time I can talk to a strange woman on the phone without my wife getting suspicious).
Actually Orange always give a new SIM for EVERY new phone I have. I also work in IT and all our phones are with VF and they always send us new SIM's whenever there is an issue as they also say an older SIM can have negative effects on newer phones.
I can't comment on the support side of things as I buy mine through a contract and IF I ever get an issue I just call Orange and have a replacement within 24 hours.
As for the One X I have had no issues at all. People need to remember that there will always be issues in all hardware. Apple or HTC or Samsung. Nobody can produce perfect items 100% of the time. Stuff goes wrong people, That's what warranty's are for. Stop moaning about it and just send it back.
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I'm the first to criticize the One X when it comes to the horrendous build quality of early release stock. It took 4 swap outs from 3UK before I got one that was of a reasonable build. Issues included Gorilla Glass not fitted correctly, yellow spots visible on the screen where there was a glue issue, discoloured displays. Finally got a later revision and the only issue I noticed early on with all of them was that the signal strength did not seem as high as on my previous Desire. After a software update this problem went away.
So far though I have had no issues with 'grip of death', wifi or laggy games. Happily in the situation where I now have no issues after some initial pain, the joys of the early adopter I guess!
I've had similar problems with my N1 in that after some time of operation (minutes to hours), the touch screen registration becomes bogus, in that touching some part of the screen well above the bottom soft keys will still activate them. This was supposed to be fixed a long time ago, but it has been a continuous problem for a couple of years now. The only solution (temporary at best) is to reboot the phone (giving it the 3-finger salute). If that was not happening, I would be 100% satisfied with this Gingerbread OS system.
I've had my One X since it came on the market and aside from 3-4 crashes (reboot, followed by an offer to send crash info to HTC) it has worked flawlessly. No Wifi-issues, no GSM/UMTS issues, no battery issues. Oh, and silent means silent - no shutter sound from the camera in silent mode - as it should be.
Quite possibly the best phone I've ever owned!
"I've had my One X since it came on the market and aside from 3-4 crashes .... Quite possibly the best phone I've ever owned!"
Sheesh, is this the standard of performance that Android users expect? That's the best you've ever owned? My Lumia, running WP7 of course, has never crashed. Never. Not once. My HTC before it was the same. This is over about 18 months of WP7 devices.
"Sheesh, is this the standard of performance that Android users expect?"
Well that's normal for just about any phone. Even very basic Nokia feature phones crash once in a while. Android phones crash once in a while (though my Desire HD has been much more stable since I upgraded to CyanogenMod without HTC Sense), iPhones crash once in a while. Maybe your windows phone is the one in a million that doesn't, but just about any computer device crashes once in a while, it's their nature.
I agree, being deadly serious when I say my microwave crashed about a month ago, left it unplugged for 10mins and earthed the case, worked fine again after that. It's the nature of electronics, all it takes is for something daft like to many ions in the air proceeding a storm or maybe you put the wrong leg in your trousers first in the morning, who knows.
My old Nexus S has been chugging along flawlessly since the day I received it. It crashed once, forcing a battery pull after I installed a flaky VPN app. Other than that, I think it's only even been turned off once or twice and rebooted once after the ICS upgrade.
I still think that most of the problems you hear about (or experience) with smartphones, whether Android, iPhone, WinPhone, Blackberry, etc. are actually caused by apps.
The "spinning out" issue sounds suspiciously like the issue that occured on the Galaxy Nexus (ICS) when it was first released - it hadn't been fully tested on the 2G 900MHz GSM networks and when switching from a 3G band to the 2G one, it went crazy, vibrating and becoming totally unresponsive so that the only thing that fixed it was a battery-pull. The problem was patched pretty quickly though...
I've had a HTC handset for about 8 months. Last month, it developed a fault with the front facing sensor, called HTC customer services at 10am on Thursday. It was collected 5pm that day by UPS. I received it back at 10am on Monday. Best customer service I have ever received, especially as I'd purchased through a third party.
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