Hermes freezing

[nikoleman]

Hi everybody!

First of all sorry if there's already a thread for this kind of freezing but i havent found answers.

My HERMES freezes completely, won't let me access screen, power button or any other function. It just gets stuck in what i was doing (mainly today screen).

Only way to make it work is to soft reset it. Is this a common problem?

Now as i write i realized the phone ain't working, now i recall i saw a blinking NOGSM when reseting!

I got this unit from a guy in the UK, it's weird because i remember it worked when i first tested it. Then i sold it to a guy and this guy claimed problems, could it be something to do with the sim card perhaps? Can it be a hardware problem?

Haven't got a clue. I appreciate your help!

[DmytroL]

I've seen people reporting similar problems when an old SIM card is used - so the owner might want to replace his old SIM with a new one, if that's the case.

Also, check if the SIM fits securely into its socket. I was having a problem with the radio suddenly turning off just yesterday, and it seems to be gone after I cleaned the SIM's contact pads and re-inserted it firmly.

Regardless, I suggest the "standard" troubleshooting be performed - that is, disabling automatic ActiveSync via the fake server trick, making sure today plugins are installed to the main storage (and not to the SD card), checking the registry for invalid entries etc.

Overall, most freezes are because of software, not hardware. Today plugins are known to cause freezes, as well as poorly cooked ROMs. If anything else fails and the freezes are not clearly related to GSM/SIM, try reflashing the phone with an official ROM image and run it for a week or so without installing any additional software. If the freezing persists, then it might really indicate a hardware issue :(

[nikoleman]

thanks a lot for your reply DmytroL, that was really helpful ill let you know if replacing sim works when i actually have another sim to test it!

[DmytroL]

Keeping my fingers crossed, as in my case, SODs (standby of death) disappeared exactly when I replaced my old SIM that dates back to 2001 with a way newer one. I've had only a single radio crash since then, which I'd attribute to the Phone Today plugin. At least, no radio crashes since I've disabled that plugin. The battery drain has also decreased significantly.

I really hope the old SIM was the root cause of all this nightmare. Time will tell...

[nlel]

Yes you are right I had the Standby of Death SOD this is when the phone fails to come out of standby with a power button press. This issue only affects some people on some networks. I'm not sure if its a network problem or a software problem but as only a minority of people have it, I suspect its mainly a network problem there is a software solution.

The solution is to change the phone settings band option from auto 3G/2G to either 3G Only (WCDMA + UTMS 2100 in Europe) or 2G Only (GSM) depending on your requirements.

Also read this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=540943&highlight=standby&page=2 where the resolution was also to get a new SIM.

Obviously this only solves the problem when the crash is because of the sim and/or settings which impact the sim. To rule out a software cause its best to start with a hard reset.

[nikoleman]

The solution I found was removing the SIM card for it to work properly. I kept on reading and apparently the radio chip is sometimes badly designed (probably from a bad batch) and heats up more than it should causing it to fail. That is why it worked at the beginning and then froze after a couple of minutes. Solution to that was either paying twice of what the phone cost me to get a replacement board or actually earning money by selling the phone for spares!! For my shame in this forum i did the latter :( Anways hope the experience helps!

[nlel]

The solution I found was removing the SIM card for it to work properly. I kept on reading and apparently the radio chip is sometimes badly designed (probably from a bad batch) and heats up more than it should causing it to fail. That is why it worked at the beginning and then froze after a couple of minutes. Solution to that was either paying twice of what the phone cost me to get a replacement board or actually earning money by selling the phone for spares!! For my shame in this forum i did the latter :( Anways hope the experience helps!

Maybe you could of just replaced the SIM itself with a new one, as sometimes that solves the SOD problem when adjusting the settings which impact the SIM ie setting 2G or 3G only from AUTO doesn't.

[nikoleman]

i´d tried it with 3 different sims and no change in the results!

[nlel]

i´d tried it with 3 different sims and no change in the results!

I guess you didn't have the chance to set it to either 3G or 2G only from AUTO 3G/2G, on my network I have to do this to avoid SOD regardless of SIM. The default phone options result in SOD on a regular basis, now with 3G only (WCDMA + UMTS 2100) = Zero SOD and a totally stable phone.