yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Fpad77:
Going back to my original point RE: bandaid fix is like I've said they've exacerbated the issue, we've had to live with it, and a 'fix' knowing the issue is actually still there is tainted somewhat. Don't get me wrong I'll be happy to get the update but I can also understand on the flipside why that would not be enough for some people to be fully happy with.

2 weeks is a pretty good turn around time, but it seems like they were aware with the issue before (or just before) release, not to mention the cross information about stock being flashed with the update already that is leaving actual owners out in the cold.

And also, about the communication between samsung/google and consumers, normally I'd agree with you, but to me this is too serious of a situation to not be completely open. At the moment I can't switch mobile data on, make a call properly, general usage without the volume effect happening. I don't know if you have one, or have seen this in action, but when it happens it actually makes the whole phone go slow and unresponsive, when I switched mobile data on I almost couldn't get back in the settings to turn it off!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
I'm actually in complete agreement here - a lot of people at the moment are basing complete opinions on a volume fix that has been implemented by a modder, who has already admitted that this is not the final volume bug fix and is in no way meant to be construed as such.

That being said, the volume fix that he has put into his own mods is supposedly one that is currently in testing. If this is the case, and the final fix is not much more than this...it is just the 'band-aid' patch that some of us always thought it would be.

But we won't know for sure until the official patch is released, so I think discussion is fine but people shouldn't be making definitive statements about this one way or the other.

And I'm also in agreement here - this problem should never have come into contact with customers in the first place. To make matters worse, from what we have heard from retailers talking about their receiving of stock over the next few days, Samsung may have implemented a fix in new stock arriving that hasn't been pushed out to the rest of us.

If this is true (and I'm not saying that it is), then this is yet another bad move. If Samsung are in fact applying a fix to undistributed handsets, surely this means that the patch is ready for primetime. In that case, we should also receive the patch, since we're the ones who are actually being affected by this problem.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Luxferro:
People tend to think it is a band-aid fix if the problem still occurs in the bootloader, and they only patched it in the kernel like Paul O'Brien has said.

If this is true, and how it was patched, then I tend to agree it is a band-aid fix.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] CanaganD:
Band Aid fixes! argh!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] juicytuna:
If they can fix the issue in the kernel then they should be able to fix at the bootloader too.

They are probably prioritizing a kernel fix and may eventually push out a boot loader fix. We can only hope.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] neovisage.HD2:
that's why this week is the last week with GN for me I'm really feed up with all this situation and for sure I will never ever back to smashing company! the best way if we are recall the handset! Let's give the handset back to originally purchased shop. Big No No No for Samsung! they really can't treat us like that, we are really hard working people and we are deserve a good quality products for the money what we spend!why pay £530 at least for the faulty GN? for some of us on pay monthly contracts this phone will cost over the contract period even more! where is the point? recall the GN to the shops, maybe then sam**** will see us?!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] CanaganD:
Lets be clear:

I'm a professional software developer (as a lot of us are), but I am also versed in eletronics and radio equipment (Industry Canada issued callsign: V**CMY). I can definitely say right now, that from the symptoms presented, it IS a hardware design flaw. No one worth their salt in eletronics engineering or software development for that matter would dispute this.

Issues like this happen often with lesser manufacturers (Chinese based designs for instance) due to their inexperience with RF sheilding and avoidance of using RF conductive paths. For instance, the length of a wire can determine which frequency it can be susceptable to... ex: a wire at 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 the wave length of the target freqency, is a wire that is able to pick up more noise on that frequency. Which is why, if you measure the antenna on your FRS radio and multiply it by 4 or 2, you get approximately the wavlength of the 460MHz spectrum

Since it's CLEAR that this is a hardware problem. The software fix will always be a bandaid solution and nothing more. The software fix may be so clever or so efficient that the hardware faults will never be noticed again, but I'm highly skeptical that this would completely disappear.

The only reason a software fix is occuring instead of a PROPER hardware fix is cost. Samsung is a ruthless company that squeezes margins and conducting a launch of this magnitude then to retrofit a recall to all phones AND new phones is significant. Just look at Apple, they released a $3 bumper and that was already far less costly than total recall (heh heh... total recall...)

As I posted 20 entries back in this thread, the software fix would be to manage symptoms by tracking the 'stale' volume level, whether or not the phone is operating on 2g 900MHz, duration of the volume press (symptoms indicate very short down press interval) and if the volumedown button is being rapidly pressed beyond human capability.

Due to the requirement of the OS to know when it is in 2G and also in 900MHz mode, and to handle volume events at the source, a change to the kernel is necessary (which is why Google in involved, as they know the Kernel inside and out).

If in some strange way this issue is software related, Samsung would only need to update their drivers or OS/Hardware interfacing code. But no, instead the Kernel needs modification so that Samsung knows some mitigation parameters from the phone so that it can 'bandaid' it.

This is my PROFESSIONAL opinion. And if you ask another software dev, I'm sure he'll agree 90%.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] pukemon:
and samsung is a korean company. if anybody knows koreans, well you know koreans. ;)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] IvanDobskey:
Been told by O2 that my Nexus will be out for delivery on Wednesday. They have also told me it is from a new batch and will not have the volume bug :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
oh the volume bug that O2 haven't heard anything about? :rolleyes:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] IvanDobskey:
Well, this is the first time they have actually acknowledged the volume bug and I have asked them a couple of times now. It seems they are happy to admit now there is fixed stock :rolleyes:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] declanh:
Belfast O2 shop had also heard nothing of the issue. Further they told me they had not sold a single galaxy nexus because their tarrifs were overpriced (ie much more expensive than online GN tarrifs)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] IvanDobskey:
Yeh, I thought the contracts were massively overpriced for the Nexus on O2. This is why I bought my phone outright at a discounted £395 through retentions :) Going to be using an £11 per month (also discounted) sim only O2 deal in it. Works out a lot cheaper.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] nookcoloruser:
What's this band aid fix I'm hearing about in this thread?

I dont understand, how is raising money for starving Africans via an overblown international concert going to fix my bloody phone ?

;-) j/k
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] FISKER_Q:
You're not trying to suggest that it would've been called back if it was anyone else? What about the original Nexus One from HTC? Humongous issue with the multi(dual)touch controller where it would "mirror" the tracking if fingers crossed eachother, also seen in rotate multitouch controls from which Google had to remove the functionality in Google Maps on the Nexus One because the touchscreen wasn't reliable enough, did HTC recall then? Nope.

Then there's Apple's Antenna woes, so they did offer people a free case, but again another hardware issue, and couldn't be reasonably fixed with software either, any recall there? Nope.

Compared to these issue the volume bug is absolutely nothing, and can be for the huge majority of all use cases be fixed with a simple patch, and given that there is reportedly a new radio firmware accompanied with the update, it may even fix the socalled bootloader issues as well.

I would gladly phone Samsung and say, That i would gladly suffer this "issue" if i could get my Nexus Galaxy even just a week earlier, it's an insignificant issue, for basically all consumers it is fixed by the update, the update could potentially fix it on the bootloader side as well.

But even if it doesn't the radio shouldn't be active then meaning that close proximity to a frequency while in bootloader mode is required, heck the movies we saw they couldn't even be 5 cm apart until the issue disappeared.

Boo hoo, i'm more pissed that my GN is almost delayed a month here, partly because of this issue.

Not at all, all it has to know is how to handle volume events, it does not at any point in time need to know when it is in 2G or in 900MHz mode, infact having logic that would look for those parameters would defeat the purpose as it would still be affected by, albeit limited in range, outside interference.

If you don't check for any of that the fix always applies and will never be subject to neither local or outside interference.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] MatthewPL:
I have a favour to ask of people who order their (future) Galaxy Nexus on Amazon(.co.uk). Could you make full tests of this phone (checking interference in bootloader, performance/battery life in 2G). It would help me a lot to decide to buy this phone or not. Thank you.

@oscillik (down): ohhh... sorry about that, I didn't know. But you know what my point is.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
it's already been determined that WiFi being on or off has absolutely no bearing on the fault at all.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Denonite:
Has anyone else experienced the bug when connected via Bluetooth?

I had not had the issue before but Sunday was using the phone connected to a pair of Motorola S9 Bluetooth headphones while washing the car. around 5mins in the headset started beeping and the volume went to zero as if someone was pressing the volume down button. I paused the music and pressed the volume up on both the phone and headphones but could not get more than half volume an had to go to a pair of wired phones. Disconnecting the headset and reconnecting seemed to fix it. I've used this headset with three other phones and never had an issue
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Luxferro:
Helps if you say where you live, and who your cell carrier is.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] nookcoloruser:
Yes, happens in Bluetooth for me. I can't even use my phone to listen to music. At this rate I would have been better upgrading my phone this year to a block of wood.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] kristovaher:
A new day, still no official fix. Part of me hopes that Google will also release additional fixes to other aspects of the phone with the update, otherwise it makes no sense why the fix is taking so long -if- Samsung is already flashing the devices since last week with the fix according to Handtec.

I've not been hit with the volume bug often and it does not happen at all in E (Edge) mode for me, but it does happen on G mode. Would just love to get rid of it finally and through official, warranty-supported means.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] darkoroje:
Calling the volume bug "absolutely nothing" is totally unjustified. This bug renders the phone unusable.

Let's compare this to the iPhone 4 antenna grip situation. In that case the CEO of Apple and other top executives came out and talked about it, and Apple allowed everyone who bought the phone to return it or get a free case. On the other hand, we have no acknowledgement from Samsung regarding the volume bug other than one Facebook post. We do not know what Samsung is doing with phones it has recalled and no idea what the fix is. We have to rely on a custom ROM or boot image provided by a third party to test the fix. There are many Galaxy Nexus owners who cannot use their new phones and there is no apology from Samsung. From a customer perspective that is totally unacceptable and we should not be defending Samsung and Google on this forum.

Having said all that, I agree that whether the problem is fixed in bootloader or not is not important. The phone's radio is off in bootloader mode so there is no possibility of interference. What is important is that the problem is fixed when Android is running.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] kristovaher:
I updated the original post to add details about Samsung Distribution holding shipments, rumours about devices being flashed and MoDaCo volume bug fix.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
Except that this issue should never have affected handsets that got to market and in the hands of customers.

Meanwhile, we still wait for the fix...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Vash63:
I can't remember the exact timing but I'm pretty sure Apple didn't acknowledge the issue until weeks later when it was clearly apparent that it couldn't be fixed with software. In this case it has, and the software is probably still undergoing testing, or if it ends up that some parts of the fix are on lower level hardware that can't be OTA flashed they might still be considering how to get them flashed or exchanged.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bleets:
erm...

yeah but took apple ages to say anything on the matter and when they did they said there was nothing wrong with the phone while still offering people cases to resolve the issue (and for people who dont want cases, oh nevermind theres nothing wrong with it anyway!)

So don't use the antenna iphone issue as an argument because that was such a mess they refused to accept existed. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Duddyroar:
This post should be linked to from the first page of this thread. It will save a lot of needless moaning and griping.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ErGo_404:
The fun part is altough they did say there was nothing wrong with their design, they were very proud to announce that the iPhone 4S had a new antenna design.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] M2281088:
I am awaiting the sarcastic Nokia comments. Did anyone see their little dig at Apples iPhone 4 arial issues ?

How do you hold your Nokia?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
Nokia aren't immune to defects. The Nokia N97 had two - GPS issues (which I believe were due to shoddy GPS aerial) and camera lens cover causing nasty scratches on the glass.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] saquib:
And the HTC Sensation had 'death grip' issues with wifi dropping to zero when in landscape. And also issues with screen not responding due to a grounding issue.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...ing-touchscreen-issues-heres-a-potential-fix/

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1111443&page=22
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] davej777:
Debouncing is quite different to filtering invalid short pulses. With de-bouncing you have an actual user event and need only ignore the fake pulses occuring after the event. The event is your timing reference - once you detect the input changing, you just ignore it for 20ms or so. Assuming that the volume button is wired to the keypad controller on the OMAP, that is exactly what it does. (The rest of this post will follow that assumption.)

The debouncing is handled via a hardware timer in the keypad controller. There is no way to modify this to detect a continuous button press - you can't re flash the controller, it's all hard silicon. The problem is still the "soon after a button press" part. We don't know if there ever was a real button press - in a noise-free environment with just a bouncing button, you do know that the first change of input was a real button press.

Hence, we can't rely on the built-in hardware for our fix - this must be handled by the CPU.

This would require careful tuning of your interrupts-disabled timer. You want to know if an input ends early - if you disable the interrupt for a long time (eg. 50ms), then re-enable it later, you have no idea what the input was between those two times. All you can say is that, the button was "pressed" when the interrupt was first triggered, and either still down or back up when the interrupts turn back on. If it is still up, you don't know if it is a real user input or just a fresh noise pulse. In this case you might as well just increase the hardware debounce timer. If you set it to 50ms, you will be limiting the interrupts to a manageable 20Hz.

Ideally you should set the debounce timer to a nice sane value (like 20ms), and on receiving an interrupt, set your hardware timer (but don't disable interrupts) for something like 100ms. When the timer expires, if no keypad changes took place (ie. no interrupts received), then you can assume it was a real event. An actual button should stop bouncing within the 20ms, while (if it is not real) you likely will get a couple noise pulses within the 100ms window.

I'm hoping that Google's fix is something like the latter. Unless I am missing something, that fix would be the most robust. The former would be more battery-friendly, but it might not reject all noise pulses. The volume might slowly creep down during a long call from the (say) 1 in a 100 noise burst that makes the cut.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] FISKER_Q:
Well that's true, i'm just looking at it in a much broader perspective, and technically speaking only the phone component of the phone would be totally unusuable :P

Actually, as already noted by another guy, it did take quite some time(not sure of the exact timeline) for them to actually admit the issue, and not only did they not admit the issue to begin with, but their CEO Steve Jobs was sending inappropiate and downright "taunting" mails to people with the issue. I think we all remember the "Hold Differently" motto that arised from Steve Jobs' response to his customer telling him that he was simply holding the phone wrong. When they finally "admitted" the issue they claimed it was another issue and it affected other devices as well, and technically that was a lie.

They may be right in the fact that covering a phone's radio will always have an effect on the radio signal, but that still wasn't the issue with their device, the issue was that holding on that specific point on the phone (not even nessecarily covering it) would cause the radio signal to deteriorate or even fail. Same symptom, different problem.

As for them "allowing a refund", the reality is that they probably wouldn't have had a say in the matter if they actually tried to deny a refund based on a product being faulty, neither would Samsung of course.

I'm not trying to defend Samsung here, i'm just saying that he was blowing the issue out of proportions, atleast in my opinion, and i would honestly still have wanted the phone, even if it meant relying on my old phone to make calls just until it was fixed. Of course, some people also trade in their phone, so i guess nomatter what there will always be a atleast one with the issue on a more "permanent" basis, atleast until the fix is applied.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rs20:
Yes, I'm not defending the bug at all, just the fix :). Even worse is the lack of communication from Googsung.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] M2281088:
Typical, I try to inject some much needed humour in to what has become a rather stuffy thread, and it gets taken seriously.

No manufacturer is immune to "bugs" but sometimes you just have to laugh at what the competition will do to highlight them.

It could be worse, at least the CEO of Samsung isn't sending sarcastic messages to affected users.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Chirality:
Just don't inject humor that way.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
Sorry, I guess I didn't really get it :(

You're right though, at least a megalomaniac isn't personally emailing some of us telling us that we're calling people wrong.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rs20:
That's true, I guess I did gloss over the dissimilarity of debouncing and noise rejection there. But I think we're both agreeing on the core point -- just because the software is groaning under the strain of spurious events now, doesn't mean the software can't be quite easily modified to, for example, sample the voltage on the button pin at a rate of 500 Hz and check for 75 consecutive 'button-down' pin states, i.e. 150 ms. That would be debouncing, and noise rejection combined with a massive confidence of 1 in 2^75 (assuming that the noise is evenly distributed between 0 and 1, which seems like a worst-case scenario.) That's 1 in 3x10^22. Vastly more reliable than a hard drive! As I said before, it ain't pretty, but I invite anyone to explain what's wrong with this trivial solution. I expect Samsung will have done something "even" more intelligent.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
I think something even more intelligent would've been actually testing this phone in it's launch territory before launch and sorting this problem out before customers bought it :p

(sorry, I won't be forgiving Samsung / Google of this)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bushbrother:
I guess the real question is why have Samsung or Google not given an official release date for the fix, I think everyone accept that bugs happen, but people are getting unhappy at the silence ...

Also I really want to know if my pre-order is affected or not, there is just no information out there, and its not the fault of the retailers or distributors, its the fault of the manufacturer.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tom369:
It took them about 4 weeks and there was an official press event as you might remember. This is logical: before a serious company issues a serious statement, a serious testing must have been done. It takes time. I *myself* prefer other phones than iPhone but I have to admit one thing: Apple behaved quite good on this matter, they held the press conference and explained it. They didn't say: "there's no problem at all".

I encourage everyone to watch first minutes of Apple's video once again because it shows very good how this sort of case is handled. This is not to discuss how well/not well Apple dealt with the issue (personally: I didn't buy it). I hope Samsung comes with similar, official statement (I don't expect them to hold press event, though) but I expect it no sooner than in a week or two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diuQJ3-ZHsw
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
Unfortunately for you, so is this.

O2 don't know their arse from their elbow, and as such this statement you've had from an O2 technical team guy can only be filed under the same hearsay as everything else.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rbs_uk:
If they placed a huge first order, of course they are not expecting any new stock as they still have old one.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bleets:
i saw somebody mentioning nokia's somewhere...i think that's a tad unfair! I've not had a single problem with any of the 8 nokia's i've owned over the last decade! Even the poor quality micro USB connector on N900's was fixed after people with dev handsets found they were falling out.

The 1 issue i did have dead pixels on my 6500 classic...which actually righted itself after a couple of months of turning the handset off and on several times a day! (the incredible self repairing screen!)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] oscillik:
I'm sorry to have to disagree with you, but having the CEO of the company emailing people and telling them that they're "holding it wrong", does not constitute

1) Handling the matter seriously

2) Handling the matter well.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bobbysixkiller:
bit of a big cry?

i just spoke to some and was given information, i believe it, whic bit do you doubt?

---------- Post added at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 PM ----------

a fixed new batch... the chap i spoke to said they would ship with the fault