[Non-Touchscreen Windows Mobile Other] Smartb:
Samsung Jack i616 - Can't Hear Calls - Callers can't hear me

I was scanning the xda-developer site as I have both a TytN II and a BJII and thought do I bother telling my story or not - I figured if I can save someone else the hassle, the Major headaches, the time and the Expense it is worth it. So hear goes, get a coffee and put your feet up as this is a long story. If you just wanna know the outcome and solution skip to the end..otherwise just settling in for the story.

Like many of you I bought an BJII from a well known Chinese Mall(PM) and at the same time got it unlocked. I got the phone home and immediately upgraded it to the Fido WM6.1 official rom as I had been using 6.1 on my Tytn II forever without any major headaches. This was my first mistake. (actually my 2nd the first was buying the dam phone in the first place). Right after the upgrade, after making a call, the caller could not hear me and I could not hear them. Only a Hard reset(HR) fixed the problem. After the reset, I then proceed to install some smartphone apps, (sda application unlock, MoDaco smartphoneGpsActivator, MS smartphone GPSID, Garmin Mobile XT etc) after installing my seventh app I decided to make another test call. I encountered the same problem, so I set about uninstalling one app at a time to see which one was the culprit. This did not work and only a HR would fix the problem. This nonsense installing, hard reseting went on for about a week.

Frustrated I took the BJII back to PM, but the dude did not want to give me my money back - he claimed because I had upgraded to 6.1 any software upgrades regardless of whether it was an official rom or not was not covered under warranty. At this point I was not sure whether I was facing a software issue or a hardware issue. Anyway, I took the phone home, and this nonsense with the phone and calls went on for weeks. The last straw for me was being in the mall with my wife and she's calling me and I did not hear the phone ring. Was she mad or what? So to prove I was not dodging her and eying up the babes I got her to call me while I had the phone in my hand and sure enough the phone was ringing, but there was no sound. We did this 4 times- I switched the phone on & off each time - so another HR - problem goes away.

I am Hugely frustrated by this point , however, I set about reinstalling my apps - as a side note one of the apps that I wanted to install was SPB backup 2 - BJII didn't like it so I could not use it hence having to reinstall each app everytime 1 by 1 after a HR. Anyway, this demon possessed phone would at least 3 times a week need to be HR. I was so frustrated that I decided to try the At&t rom,(Mistake #2) it crashed in the middle of the upgrade and bricked the phone. It would not turn on period. Now before you start, I am not a newbie, I have been messing around with windows smartphones and pocketpc for years - in fact my first pocketpc was a compact and it was grey scale, my first ever pda was a Psion, so I know how to flash phones, and cook my own roms.

Anyway, I took it back to PM and the dude wanted to charge me $150 bucks to fix it. I walked out the shop and tried another vendor he said that he would reflash it for $50. He had the BJII for 3 days and in the end could not fix it.

I took the BJII back to the original guy, I tell you I am a pacifist but I am ready to kill at this point and we almost get into a fight as I was wholly convinced at this point that it was a hardware issue. He refused to send it back to Samsung as he reckoned they would charge me an arm and a leg to fix it as they would know straight away that this was a software flash that went wrong. In the end he said that he could fix it for $80 bucks- given that I wanted this phone and I wanted it working(it is great for messaging) I said fine. Yes he did get it working, but had to install a new logic board(motherboard). Thankfully he also installed WM6.0. I decided to leave well alone this time and just install my apps. I have had the phone back for 2 weeks now and have been using it everyday and have had none of those call or sound issues.

I suspect that there is a serious problem with the 6.1 upgrade and it has nothing to do with application unlocking the phone or any other 3rd party software. No presenting any keys in any combination is going to magically fixed this call issue - so please don't be fooled. My advice if you want it, is to Not upgrade to 6.1 at all. WM 6.1 offers some nice features, but not enough to go through this amount of headache, frustration and money.

Anyway peeps Happy New Year.

And avoid WM6.1.

Smartb