Hermes keeps disconnecting - SOLVED

[Marsbar]

Note: see the fourth post (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2569125&postcount=4) for info on how I fixed this.

My Vario II (now on Three in the UK) has, for the last month or so, begun to disconnect at random intervals. It will be working happily in a full 3g signal, then it will suddenly bring up the "no connection" !x, which will then turn back to 2g and then 3g.

It's not the network - I have a PAYG Three sim which I used to check for coverage before I signed up for a contract, so I put that in my old e61 and sat the two connected side-by-side and it doesn't have any of these problems.

It's a complete pain because on the days when it happens more often it destroys the battery life, anything down to about 4 hours in a full 3g signal, as well as stopping any chance of push email working properly.

I've tried several radio ROMs and none of them make any difference; I've also tried switching back to a known-good ROM which I know used to work fine, so I'm pretty sure it's a hardware issue.

Does this sound like the "dying radio" problem other people have talked about? Or is it likely to be a dodgy connection in the phone?

Ta!

Geoff

[Marsbar]

My Vario II (now on Three in the UK) has, for the last month or so, begun to disconnect at random intervals. It will be working happily in a full 3g signal, then it will suddenly bring up the "no connection" !x, which will then turn back to 2g and then 3g.
I think I may have fixed it: a couple of months ago I reformatted the microSD card after some file corruption and I told it to use FAT32 (since I assumed that would be better); however today I found a post on the web (on this site?) somewhere (which I can no longer find, argh!!) which suggested that might cause some problems. I wish I could find it now because there must be something about the type and size of card (it's only a 1GB) because FAT32 is obligatory on SDHC cards, yes?

Anyway, I've reformatted as FAT16 with a single FAT (http://tinyurl.com/6pdhtx suggests the increase in speed is significant) using mkdosfs for windows (http://www1.mager.org/mkdosfs/) and had no dropped connection since. I'll keep an eye on it but I'm thinking that may have been the problem... is this a known issue?

Is there any reason why FAT32 on a (non-SDHC) micro-sd card would cause the radio malfunction? A power drain issue maybe?

Anyway, like I said, I'll report back in a few days.

Edit: it just dropped out. Back to the drawing board.

[Marsbar]

I think I may have fixed it: a couple of months ago I reformatted the microSD card
Stuff that. I just watched it drop out while the SD card was removed completely so it can't be SD related.

:(

[Marsbar]

My Vario II (now on Three in the UK) has, for the last month or so, begun to disconnect at random intervals.

An update for anyone experiencing this problem.

In desperation before I bought a new phone I took this one apart (first level only, I didn't dare take apart the slide because last time I did that - with an SGH D600 IIRC - I couldn't get it back together (!)) and reseated everything I could see, as well as giving it a damn good clean with a can of compressed air and some (dry) cotton pads.

I also used a small flat-bladed screwdriver to prise up the SIM contacts just in case they had, over time, become too flattened to make a consistent contact.

Since then (two days ago) my phone hasn't dropped out once. It's been connected through IMAP IDLE all day and battery readings are dropping less than 4% per hour (which is better than I've ever had it with push email turned on)

I'm somewhat annoyed I did both things at once because now I'm not sure which solved it. I'm inclined to believe it was the SIM contacts because I can't really see how cleaning the phone would make a difference, unless it had managed to get something metallic in there. I do feel better about it being clean though :)

I suppose it's possible that having gunk around the chips might restrict the airflow (there was a lot of crap in there) and therefore produce problems but, like I said, I don't see it.

Hope this helps someone else with this problem, anyway.

[MikeChannon]

Useful info - good to get your follow-ups

For clarity: this isssue is related to random loss of network connection and excess power drain.
It is not the random power loss issue where the entire device switches off.

Mike