Help, technical gurus - please

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I recently bought a TyTNfor almost $900 including a 2 GB expansion card. Despite dozens of hours of trying to get it to work correctly, I find th TyTN almost intolerably buggy.

Specifically:
1) the phone loses connections frequently -- much worse than the Cingular 8125 or my old Treo 650.
2) numerous application programs either crash the device or do not run properly -- specifically, the Audible.com player, the the automated download feature or of Audible Air, most of the SPB utility applications, SBSH Weather (VGA Icons), SBSH Ilauncher and others.
3) the battery life absolutely sucks. I get less than eight hours of operation -- with very few telephone calls. I do have Microsoft push e-mail turned on. However, this ought to work -- for God's sake, or what's the point?
4) the screen/stylus requires re-alignment at least twice a daily..

Is there anyone out there who can help me and walk me through the installation of a new ROM, or some kind of update that makes this device work in a tolerable manner?

I would be very happy to pay you for your consulting time. Otherwise, I want to try to get HTC to take this buggy phone back for a full refund and I will go back to using my old Treo 650.

Many thanks for your attention and future help.

ROM version 1.18.255.3
ROM date 07/22/06
Radio Version 1.03.03.10

Once I hear that you have alignment problems, then, from what I hear you have bad luck since you have one of the firt TyTns out there. I heard that HTC replaces these units. It hapens to be a common problem on the early devices.

I have my MDA Vario II (a variation of a Hermes) and till now 4 days long extremely happy with everything.

Originally Posted by natgoldhaber

I recently bought a TyTNfor almost $900 including a 2 GB expansion card. Despite dozens of hours of trying to get it to work correctly, I find th TyTN almost intolerably buggy.

Specifically:
1) the phone loses connections frequently -- much worse than the Cingular 8125 or my old Treo 650.
2) numerous application programs either crash the device or do not run properly -- specifically, the Audible.com player, the the automated download feature or of Audible Air, most of the SPB utility applications, SBSH Weather (VGA Icons), SBSH Ilauncher and others.
3) the battery life absolutely sucks. I get less than eight hours of operation -- with very few telephone calls. I do have Microsoft push e-mail turned on. However, this ought to work -- for God's sake, or what's the point?
4) the screen/stylus requires re-alignment at least twice a daily..

Is there anyone out there who can help me and walk me through the installation of a new ROM, or some kind of update that makes this device work in a tolerable manner?

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Well, I am sorry you are having these problems. I don't think most of them are a Tytn problems in general.

1) First I have heard of this. I have had the Tytn for a month now and don't have that problem. I move in and out of a 3g area and whether on GSM or UMTS, call quality has been great (better than my Wizzard in fact). Maybe your problem is a SIM issue since this phone is not supported by your carrier where you others might be? I went and got a new SIM when I got mine so I don't know if that could be an issue or not.

2) I don't use many apps. I do use SBSH Weather v1.3.3 (regular icons) and it works well. No issues at all, updates just fine etc. I thought the VGA icons were for devices with a VGA screen (Universal for example). To the best of my knowledge the Wizzard, Tytn etc are not VGA devices so I don't think it helps to use the VGA icons, and who knows, maybe it could cause an issue on a non-VGA device. I have heard that SPB has issues. Slingplayer also works well for me, streaming video runs great.

3) I get ~3-4 days out of the battery if just used for calls, weather updates, and light browsing. Heavy UMTS browsing or streaming cuts that down significantly to 24-36 hours. I don't use push mail so don't know there, but there might be a config setting that is causing your device to get polled too frequently. I do know that one time I went into the phone menu and Band page to set Band to UMTS only. I forgot I did that, left a UMTS area and the phone went into constant network search mode instead of switching to GSM. That drained my battery in something less than 8 hrs.

4) I also don't have this problem. There are many reports of this problem though and the only fix I am aware of is a replacement.

Bottom line is I suspect you have a bad phone (reception and alignment issues) as well as setup issues or program conflicts causing your apps problems.

try to upgrade to the lastest rom!

Originally Posted by natgoldhaber

I would be very happy to pay you for your consulting time. Otherwise, I want to try to get HTC to take this buggy phone back for a full refund and I will go back to using my old Treo 650.

I would love to take your money, but I think you should take it back and get something else. Maybe even a Treo. The reason I say this is because the TyTn is just not ready for Prime Time unless you are a power user or someone who doesn't feel the need to complain because it doesn't work properly. Power user go around these issues and figure out the problems.

This is no way an insult to you, it's just that if you can't deal with the problems, and you need to rely on a phone/pda, and email is very important to you maybe even go as low as to get a blackberry. In the meantime I personally would keep the TyTn and explore it and fully understand how it works. When you are ready to dive in and start using it as a "power user" then you will no longer need to worry about it's faults.

This is coming from 2 years of experience with the O2 Xda IIs. Which was the buggiest pocketpc phone that ever came out and today is one of the top, mainly due to the fact that once the ROM is hacked the development efforts go up considerably and you see increased productivity and usability.

But if you need the money, just get a refund.

Sorry about my blunt response, but I had a friend who I converted from a palm to a Blue Angel. He didn't like it so I got him into a wizard. He curse at it for a while, then he started loving it after a few weeks of using it. Now he would never go back to a Palm or a Treo or anything else. I got my TyTn only last week and have cursed it to hell and back several thousand times. But this is just the way it goes when you're one of the early adopters. Especially when the phone is not commercially available to the US and Canada.

Time heals all.

Fully agree with you axiom, the most sincere response you could have given him.

I also come from the BlueAngel and was one of the early adopters, now running helmi's 1.32 rom, that's why I truely understand what you mean

Thanks pof for backing me up. I am also still using my BlueAngel with with the 1.32 rom but primarily in my car for navigation. This way I don't have to spend another few hundred dollars on a Nav system. And it really bothers me when tomtom loads faster on my BlueAngel then it does on my TyTn, but then I am hopeful that the TyTn will prevail when the time is write and all our heads are in the right place.

As always, everyone is welcome to post their problems, concerns, and findings and I am always pushing people to hang in there because "I know" there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for all the thoughtful replys - but....

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Perhaps this is a device that is a little too early for me. But I will not return it. I love the speed of the Cingular 3G network. And I am blown away by how well Exchange/Outlook push works. I would never go back to a Treo or to a Blackberry.

I was rather hoping someone may have an idea about an improved ROM. I did have a direct conversation with HTCEurope's tech support office. They said they were well aware of the problems with applications, especially with the Audible player. They wistfully referred to the folks in Taiwan creating a new ROM - any month now.

I hoped that one of you might feel that a beta Cingular or other ROM might fix some or all of my problems. And I hope that someone could talk me through the installation. I hope that is true.

Many thanks.

[QUOTE=natgoldhaber;1027597]I hoped that one of you might feel that a beta Cingular or other ROM might fix some or all of my problems. And I hope that someone could talk me through the installation. I hope that is true.
QUOTE]

Oh please don't install the cingular beta ROM. Infact, as much I enjoyed using it for testing purposes, the last thing you want to do is start pushing ROMs. I am also waiting for a newer ROM, I was one of the first along with pof and others who installed the cingular roms and found some harsh truths, and some benefits. However, I went back to the dopod rom, with a radio update from the cingular rom. And this was a journey in possibly bricking my unit because going back from the cingular to one of the other roms is a chance and you need your original rom to go back.

If you must pursue upgrading your ROM, please keep a few things in mind:

1) And very important: If you don't know what you're doing, you could brick your unit.

2) A rom upgrade is only as good as the comments it has received from the users on this forum.

3) Most users who use the newest roms are, in most cases, advanced and understand that there will be problems.

4) Once you have started to upgrade your rom, you will be doing it all the time and be ready to reinstall your apps and settings.

If this is all ok to you and you have a back up phone, that you can use while you play with your TyTn, then go ahead and try the Dopod, Imate or TyTn rom. Look through the wiki and you will find all the information you need.

READ EVERYTHING FIRST, THEN START YOUR JOURNEY. The worst thing is having someone tell you "Do a search", or "RTFM", or "Read the wiki". People will respect you more and will be willing to help you more if your questions legit and the wiki can't help you out.

To start you off, I would suggest the Dopod ROM, with radio 1.16. This should take you about 1 hour to update. Then if you're not satisfied with this, then go to the TyTn or the IMate.

I hope this helps, and I have never seen anyone ask for money on here to help our fellow users and if they have, then shame on them. We are all here to learn and teach, this is what makes us a community of excellence.

I hope this helps you and many others on this board. Until the next rom, or hopefully the successful hack of the TyTn rom... Long live xda-developers!

axiom: I took part of your last comment and updated the upgrading FAQs with it