Need advice on new phone; Hermes is done.

[branden7]

Well my phone is completly white screened. I took it apart and messed around in there but I couldn't get anything going on. even with it apart i really couldnt get it to stay solid for more than 15 seconds. Either something else it wrong, or I just don't have the technical ability to fix this.
Not sure..what I am sure of is that I really don't feel like after spending 300 bucks on a phone I should have to be messing around with something like this after 6 months. So on that note I think I am going to be saying goodbye to HTC or at least this model. Does anyone have any suggestions on some other solid phones that have some of the same functionality as the hermes but are a bit more reliable, especially for the money spent.

Thanks for any advice.

[MiSSigNNo]

a bad experience is not enough to categorize this...

I'm having a really bad experience with my HTC Universal, and still I giving it a go. But I won't recommend you more any HTC If you don't really like going into new roms every while... I think this is the "nice" experience of having one of this :)

[branden7]

I like playing around with the various ROMS...I don't like having to take the entire phone apart because of what is quite clearly a design flaw. I was just hoping someone could point me to a similar phone that was a bit sturdier and didnt have this massive design flaw.

[branden7]

Quick Bump...anyone have any suggestions? I need to get this replaced...I feel funny without my phone.

[arghness]

Sorry, this isn't a phone recommendation, but if you feel that you have invested quite a bit of money in something that may get lost, stolen, or break, you might want to consider getting your next phone insured.

I have received replacement handsets under insurance for both Nokia and HTC without quibbles.

[branden7]

Yes good Idea. Unfortunatly AT&T does not insure this particular phone (or at least didnt when i bought it). Probably because it breaks a lot.

[ryaske]

im pretty sure this is your first htc phone. Im pretty sure its even your first windows mobile phone, and that you did not buy it new.

If you had other htc phones, you would know that this hardware is High Tech (htc = high tech corp), and pretty much the most advanced stuff you can get these days. Things can and do go wrong, its true about anything thats complicated.

If you had other windows mobile phones, you would nkow that they are very stable with their core programming. BUT, for speed, customizations, cool toys, etc .. one had to spend time pasting together the components and making it work.

Finally, if you had bought this phone new, your problems would have been covered under warranty. If your not the type to fix things yourself, get it new, dont take it apart, and demand you get what you paid for. Also, just because a few apples have gone bad, does not make the entire harvest bad! My 8525 has experienced mroe parking lot drops than I care to admit, and she is still treating me very well!

Good luck with your new phone. Weigh the pro's and con's a little mroe carefully next time!

p.s. at&t nor cingular will insure pdas anymore, because of their high replacement and repair costs, not their failure rates! Plus customers can simply "think" something is wrong, and insist on a brand new replacement under insurance. That gets very costly! I used to work at an at&t authorized dealer a few years ago and these were the reasons I received from North-east regional sales mangers. If you want to protect your investment, there are plenty of third-party insurance agents you can go to privately

[branden7]

I can't believe you spent all that time with that message and managed to completly miss my entire point. I don't care what anyone says, this is a design flaw plain and simple. It has nothing to do with the fact that this phone is the "pinnacle of technology" or whatever. It's just an internal design flaw. It has nothing to do with me tinkering around with it, it has everything to do with poor design.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough on this point...I like everything about this phone except for this massive design flaw that makes the phone useless. I was asking for people to give me opinions on a similar phone that was designed a bit better.

Thank for for spending 10 miutes of your life telling me about technology, insurance issues, and how to choose the right phone for my technological abilities. Unfortunatly I didn't ask for any of that information.

[ryaske]

not to worry sir, im a very fast typist. Took 4 minutes at the most.

The point is, any phone you get, even non-wm, do have the potential to have a problem. Either you avoid it completely by buying a different phone (impossible), protect yourself against it, or expect it something to happen and have a plan in place (insurance). Doesnt matter what new OS you move to, you WILL have problems if it is 50% as customizable as Windows Mobile/HTC is.

I was happy to spend another 2 minutes with this post, so no sympathies are required this time around :D. Good luck to you

p.s. to answer your original question .. a phone you will not likely have a problem wit his a Pink Motorola Razor. Given you can't do 10% what you can with any HTC phone .. but much less agrivation for you (that is what your looking for, isnt it?). If it ever develops a white screen, have the manufacture replace it. Thats the beauty of a warranty (and is "Getting what you paid for" (thats what your looking for, isnt it?))

[Ziggy-Inti_United]

for it's price a razr v3i is worth to buy now...still can play MP3 and have a memory expansion slot...not too bad for a cheap phone rite?and yes, you dont have to flash your phone every once in awhile...hehe..

ps. i'm a happy hermes100 official rom user...with a signal issue coz sometimes it just wont receive calls...OMG where's the stable radio???hehhehee

[branden7]

Jesus I feel like i'm talking to a brick wall. The problem is NOT the software of this phone..it is a physical design flaw. I don't have any problem with the ROM, with flashing the ROM, with WM6, WM5, WM20058349209, or whatever. My problem is that the ribbons and the way they connect in this phone are flawed, and I was hoping someone knew of a similar phone that did NOT have this DESIGN FLAW. The white screen issues is NOT a software issues from what I can tell, it is a design flaw. I don't know how else I can say that to make you understand what I'm trying to get across here.

[tora201]

Design flaw? No white screen of death here mate. Perhaps it is just a design flaw in your particular batch of phone, no? As for recommendations, you could always get a Sony! :-)

[earbuckle]

Jesus I feel like i'm talking to a brick wall. The problem is NOT the software of this phone..it is a physical design flaw. I don't have any problem with the ROM, with flashing the ROM, with WM6, WM5, WM20058349209, or whatever. My problem is that the ribbons and the way they connect in this phone are flawed, and I was hoping someone knew of a similar phone that did NOT have this DESIGN FLAW. The white screen issues is NOT a software issues from what I can tell, it is a design flaw. I don't know how else I can say that to make you understand what I'm trying to get across here.

I've read this thread and I have owned and used (and, yes, burned lots of ROMs) my Cingular 8525 for about a year. You keep saying "design flaw" over and over without explaining the problem. Something about a "white screen" comes through, but you are not making your case. Exactly what failure are you experiencing and why do you think anyone else is having the same problem? I have had half a dozen cell phones and this is my second smart phone (first was a Treo 650). I've also had myriad other Palms and Psions. All have been amazing for their time. None has failed me, including the cingular 8525. Of course, I haven't taken it apart 8-)

A "design flaw" implies that many or most samples will have the same problem. Please try to convey what that problem is. I'm curious.

[galaxys]

my thoughts exactly since there are at least a million hermes out there without design flaws...

[branden7]

Well consider yourselves lucky then.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163

Heres a few other people that have had the same problem, and a very good explanation of the problem and causes.

I guess maybe I'm just that 1 in 10,000 guy thats having this problem, but it seemed from this and others posts that it was pretty widespread.

[Azurael]

HTC build quality does seem a bit suspect, IMHO...

The slide assembly on my Hermes gets really loose unless I take it apart every few months and tighten the screws up, plus, the whole thing is a bit creak and cheaply made to start with.

And I've just realised my last PPC to fail completely was also built by HTC, an iPaq H3870...

[dogeatdog01]

id wait for the ultimate 9502

[mrxroe]

HTC build quality does seem a bit suspect, IMHO...

The slide assembly on my Hermes gets really loose unless I take it apart every few months and tighten the screws up, plus, the whole thing is a bit creak and cheaply made to start with.

And I've just realised my last PPC to fail completely was also built by HTC, an iPaq H3870...

are you serious? c'mon, how many phones have you evr owned? I have had the displeasure of owning MANY MANY phones, ALL of which broke, had sucky reception, screens cracked by themselves, and GOD FORBID you dropped it on concrete twice! the Hermes is the HANDS DOWN toughest phone i have ever ever seen. I have dropped in water, onto a deck from 16 feet, on concrete dozens of times, flashed ROMs, installed hundreds of 3rd party apps, ETC...... AND it still goes on strong after 2.5 years. The ONLY problem I have had is the USB gets loose, and needs to be treated carefully. But for the price, and the fact that i have not needed to replace it over and over again (like ALL my other phones) has made it the best phone HANDS DOWN I have ever used, PERIOD.

PS IPAQ is MFG by HP not HTC??? and you say every few MONTHS, this means if you did it twice , you already owned it longer than most phones last.......... go but a nokia and DONT FORGET THE INSURANCE, you'll need it.

[mrxroe]

Well consider yourselves lucky then.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163

Heres a few other people that have had the same problem, and a very good explanation of the problem and causes.

I guess maybe I'm just that 1 in 10,000 guy thats having this problem, but it seemed from this and others posts that it was pretty widespread.

OH and you.... seems you found the solution just fine, NO? geesh stop flamming these nice people and go to the thread you posted , and fix your darn phone...

[Neyo]

Well my phone is completly white screened. I took it apart and messed around in there but I couldn't get anything going on. even with it apart i really couldnt get it to stay solid for more than 15 seconds. Either something else it wrong, or I just don't have the technical ability to fix this.
Not sure..what I am sure of is that I really don't feel like after spending 300 bucks on a phone I should have to be messing around with something like this after 6 months. So on that note I think I am going to be saying goodbye to HTC or at least this model. Does anyone have any suggestions on some other solid phones that have some of the same functionality as the hermes but are a bit more reliable, especially for the money spent.

Thanks for any advice.
my 8525 from o2 is stuck on windows mobile

[Neyo]

Well my phone is completly white screened. I took it apart and messed around in there but I couldn't get anything going on. even with it apart i really couldnt get it to stay solid for more than 15 seconds. Either something else it wrong, or I just don't have the technical ability to fix this.
Not sure..what I am sure of is that I really don't feel like after spending 300 bucks on a phone I should have to be messing around with something like this after 6 months. So on that note I think I am going to be saying goodbye to HTC or at least this model. Does anyone have any suggestions on some other solid phones that have some of the same functionality as the hermes but are a bit more reliable, especially for the money spent.

Thanks for any advice.the flexcable is bad

[rosebud]

One of my colleagues had the same problem, unpluged the flex cable cleaned the screen connector plugged it back in, worked fine.

[Azurael]

are you serious? c'mon, how many phones have you evr owned? I have had the displeasure of owning MANY MANY phones, ALL of which broke, had sucky reception, screens cracked by themselves, and GOD FORBID you dropped it on concrete twice! the Hermes is the HANDS DOWN toughest phone i have ever ever seen. I have dropped in water, onto a deck from 16 feet, on concrete dozens of times, flashed ROMs, installed hundreds of 3rd party apps, ETC...... AND it still goes on strong after 2.5 years. The ONLY problem I have had is the USB gets loose, and needs to be treated carefully. But for the price, and the fact that i have not needed to replace it over and over again (like ALL my other phones) has made it the best phone HANDS DOWN I have ever used, PERIOD.

PS IPAQ is MFG by HP not HTC??? and you say every few MONTHS, this means if you did it twice , you already owned it longer than most phones last.......... go but a nokia and DONT FORGET THE INSURANCE, you'll need it.

I've had many, many phones over the years, many bad ones, and many good ones. I've got Nokias with black and white screens that still work like new despite years of abuse. I've also got modern Nokias (like the 6230) who's build quality is an utter joke. Then again, my girlfriend has had my old 6233 for almost a year now, and every other phone she's mistreated has fallen apart within months, so they can't all be that bad. My N80 is a bit suspect, but it's not as creaky as the Herm. Also, my Hermes gets two bars of signal where my K800i got full signal, so I don't think the radio is particularly fantastic either... The call quality is very good, much better than any of the tinny, orrible SEs I've had (most of which seem to be better at picking up background noise than my voice!), but it's never going to rival Nokia's landline-like voice call quality.

My dad's Glofiish X800 seems much better built than HTC products, but then again, they've completely messed up the ROM to make it somehow feel painfully slow despite the hardware specs being a little better than the Hermes.

By the way, the iPaq H38xx was an HTC-built product (http://www.pdastock.com/Compaq-iPAQ-H3870-H3875-HTC-Rosella-511.html). Do some research before telling me I'm wrong in future, mmkay?