I can't hear you, now.
April 16, 2009 10:40 AM Subscribe
My cell phone has suddenly lost all reception despite being otherwise fully functional. Is there any way to restore it?
A couple weekends ago, AT&T had a local outage in their wireless service. Upon visiting the closest AT&T store, I was told to wait out the outage and see if my phone resumed working then.
It did not. I will occasionally get the AT&T logo, but no bars. Or grey bars instead of blue. Or no 3G or E logo by the bars. One way or another the phone works, but I cannot send or receive text messages or phone calls. When I attempt to make a call or send a message, the phone just hangs and then gives up. No error messages occur.
I have spent 2 hours on the phone with tech support as they sent updates to my phone and had me remove the battery, then turn it back on, rinse and repeat. I spent an hour in the AT&T store after the outage was fixed while the guy at the service desk reset my phone and tried about four different SIM cards before pronouncing the problem to be an issue with my phone.
The phone is a Samsung Sync (SGH-a707). I purchased it in October of 2007. It has never been damaged (except for a couple short drops here and there, which it worked perfectly fine after).
Am I wrong in thinking that it's strange that my phone completely stopped working as a phone at the same time an outage occurred?
Is there anything that can be done, or am I simply out of luck?
A couple weekends ago, AT&T had a local outage in their wireless service. Upon visiting the closest AT&T store, I was told to wait out the outage and see if my phone resumed working then.
It did not. I will occasionally get the AT&T logo, but no bars. Or grey bars instead of blue. Or no 3G or E logo by the bars. One way or another the phone works, but I cannot send or receive text messages or phone calls. When I attempt to make a call or send a message, the phone just hangs and then gives up. No error messages occur.
I have spent 2 hours on the phone with tech support as they sent updates to my phone and had me remove the battery, then turn it back on, rinse and repeat. I spent an hour in the AT&T store after the outage was fixed while the guy at the service desk reset my phone and tried about four different SIM cards before pronouncing the problem to be an issue with my phone.
The phone is a Samsung Sync (SGH-a707). I purchased it in October of 2007. It has never been damaged (except for a couple short drops here and there, which it worked perfectly fine after).
Am I wrong in thinking that it's strange that my phone completely stopped working as a phone at the same time an outage occurred?
Is there anything that can be done, or am I simply out of luck?
Is it possible that your phone has an airplane mode or something that got switched on? I had a Motorola that used to change into airplane mode by itself.
posted by amarynth at 11:32 AM on April 16, 2009
posted by amarynth at 11:32 AM on April 16, 2009
This is very weird. My first thought based on the info you provided was that perhaps AT&T took a radio band off air in your area, but you have a multi-band phone so that shouldn't be the issue. Have you tried a hard reboot, removing the battery? If that doesn't work it sounds like something you'll need to troubleshoot at the AT&T store which I'm sure is staffed with technical experts (I kid!).
posted by donovan at 1:40 PM on April 16, 2009
posted by donovan at 1:40 PM on April 16, 2009
Did a tower (perhaps the only one giving you service) somehow get taken out of service?
posted by IndigoRain at 11:42 PM on April 16, 2009
posted by IndigoRain at 11:42 PM on April 16, 2009
Response by poster: @drjimmy: Would they do this even though it's past the year warranty and past the 30 day return policy and I bought it as Sam's Club?
@amarynth: No, it is not in Airplane mode.
@donovan: Yeah, we tried a hard reboot several times at the store, before they pronounced the issue a problem with my phone.
@IndigoRain: Yes, a tower went down. (Or so they said.) One of the techs on the phone said she switched me to a new tower.
posted by digitaldraco at 12:03 AM on April 18, 2009
@amarynth: No, it is not in Airplane mode.
@donovan: Yeah, we tried a hard reboot several times at the store, before they pronounced the issue a problem with my phone.
@IndigoRain: Yes, a tower went down. (Or so they said.) One of the techs on the phone said she switched me to a new tower.
posted by digitaldraco at 12:03 AM on April 18, 2009
Is it possible the new tower is too far away?
posted by IndigoRain at 1:12 AM on April 18, 2009
posted by IndigoRain at 1:12 AM on April 18, 2009
This just happened to me last night after I dropped my Blackberry. It says "No Service." I've tried rebooting it. I've tried turning the Mobile Network on and off. I've even tried dropping it again. I think we either need new phones or we need to find someone who can fix ours.
posted by quirks at 5:53 AM on April 18, 2009
posted by quirks at 5:53 AM on April 18, 2009
Response by poster: @IndigoRain: I have no way of knowing that I am aware of. I assume the tech re-routed my phone to another local tower.
@quirks: I've heard repairs can be expensive, and as I mentioned to drjimmy, I don't know that mine can be replaced because it is past both the return and warranty periods.
posted by digitaldraco at 11:47 AM on April 18, 2009
@quirks: I've heard repairs can be expensive, and as I mentioned to drjimmy, I don't know that mine can be replaced because it is past both the return and warranty periods.
posted by digitaldraco at 11:47 AM on April 18, 2009
Best answer: As mysteriously as it stopped working, it now works again!
On a whim I took my SIM card out of the cheap GoPhone I had been using, and put it back in my SYNC. It can now text and make calls again.
I have no idea what happened or what changed to make it function properly.
posted by digitaldraco at 7:25 AM on April 23, 2009
On a whim I took my SIM card out of the cheap GoPhone I had been using, and put it back in my SYNC. It can now text and make calls again.
I have no idea what happened or what changed to make it function properly.
posted by digitaldraco at 7:25 AM on April 23, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
The guy at the store already proclaimed it an issue with your phone. Go back and ask, nicely but firmly, for them to give you a new one. Problem solved.
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:06 AM on April 16, 2009