How to unfxor a Verizon ENV2 cell phone?

August 3, 2009 11:26 AM

What demon has possessed my girlfriend's Verizon ENV2 (AKA LG VX9011) and reduced it to a mostly deaf and mute state? How do we exorcise this malevolent presence?

GF carried her phone and a laptop in a large tote bag while traveling this weekend. When she next used it after taking it out of the tote bag, she found she was unable to hear anything when making calls and callers were unable to hear her. We suspect that the laptop jostled into the cell phone and pressed lots of keys and set the phone into whatever "condition" it is in now.

So, here's the current condition:

- Her phone displays, both inside and outside, are fine. All keys/buttons seem to work normally.

- She can make and receive calls, but hears absolutely nothing when either the front or internal speakers (not even rings), and call recipients hear nothing from her phone.

- If she goes into ring settings and asks the phone to play a ringtone, the display will show the ringtone playing, but nothing is audible from the speakers.

- The "speaker" button on the inside of the phone, which normally turns the speakerphone on and off, now does nothing. However, the phone is recognizing that it is being pressed, because the display will light up if it is pressed.

- If she uses the alarm clock function in her phone, the alarm will activate and the alarm *IS AUDIBLE* from the phone, using any ringtone she chooses. So there is apparently nothing wrong with the speakers themselves.

We've navigated through the phone's "Setting" menu tree several times and can't find anything that seems relevant. Verizon tech support via phone call hasn't been able to help us either (the techs just seem to be following a canned flowchart, not applying critical thinking).

We're thinking now that we'll try a "hard reset" on the phone, if we can find a code to do so.

Any other ideas mefites?

posted by de void to technology (10 answers total)

Perhaps the phone thinks it's connected to a headset.
posted by zsazsa at 11:35 AM on August 3, 2009

There's no volume setting on the physical phone?

My own phone has its volume control as a separte physical button on the side of the phone itself, and pressing those buttons is how you turn the volume up and down on the ring tones and any messages. There isn't a way to do it in any "settings" menu.

Maybe there's some button on the side of the phone that affects the volume?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:35 AM on August 3, 2009

Yep, I'll bet the phone thinks there's a headset plugged in. I've had this problem with the LG Dare and brought back two Dares for the problem. When you plug in headphone jacks and remove them, the phone sometimes doesn't realize the headphones are gone and so you can't hear callers and they can't hear you. The last time this happened, my phone fixed itself in a few minutes. I've read other suggestions that say try putting the headphone jacks back in and removing them again, but this didn't help mine.
posted by That takes balls. at 11:40 AM on August 3, 2009

We're thinking now that we'll try a "hard reset" on the phone, if we can find a code to do so.

Tried briefly removing the battery?
posted by effbot at 11:43 AM on August 3, 2009

zsazsa, TTballs:

Headset jack may be a winner. Maybe it's as simple as there is some conductive dirt that got into the jack. Will investigate.

Empress:

There are volume buttons on the phone. Using them does not restore any sound from the speakers, and even if they did work, it would not solve the problem of callers not hearing anything from the phone user (microphone).
posted by de void at 11:45 AM on August 3, 2009

Effbot, forgot to add to my original question, we removed the battery for ~30 mins and then powered back up. No change.
posted by de void at 11:45 AM on August 3, 2009

I had this exact problem with an old Sony Ericsson of mine several years back - the phone thought it had a headset plugged in. The phone needed to be repaired; luckily it was still within warranty.
posted by misskaz at 11:55 AM on August 3, 2009

Open the enV2 and fiddle with the volume buttons. Does it say "Earpiece Volume - Earjack" at the top? If so, then it thinks there's a headset plugged in which is why both speakers don't work. Take a headset and plug it in and out a few times, and that should do it. If you don't have one handy, you can use a toothpick and that should take care of it. If that doesn't work and she's still under the one-year warranty, have her take it into her local Verizon corporate store and they'll swap out the unit (albeit with a refurbished one).
posted by cgomez at 12:28 PM on August 3, 2009

Is it possible the phone has been muted? From the user manual:

"The Mute Function prevents the transmission of your voice to the caller. To quickly activate Mute press the Left Soft Key [Mute] above the internal keypad then to unmute press the Left Soft Key [Unmute] again."

"When the phone is closed, press [OK] [OPTIONS], then press [OK] to [Mute]. To unmute, press [OK] [OPTIONS], then press [OK] to [Unmute]."
posted by geeky at 12:39 PM on August 3, 2009

It was a headset jack issue. We plugged a headset in last night and could talk normally via the headset. Removed the headset and the phone worked normally again. Thanks all!
posted by de void at 7:00 AM on August 4, 2009