Is my Pre 2 dead? Call Failed / No Service on Page Plus

[Dr. Aquafresh]

O.K., here's the situation. I'm at work, and I hear a noise from my phone that I've never heard before. I pick up the phone, and it says battery low, will shut down soon (paraphrasing). So, while attempting to shut off wi-fi, and data, to conserve power, the phone just shuts off. I also notice that the battery is quite warm. My phone has never failed to last a whole day, on a full charge, in the 6 months I've been using it......and yesterday it was dead by 2:00 pm.

I get home and throw it on the TS, and in 15 mins or so it turns on and continues charging. I get a full charge in a few hours, and take it off the TS. About 20 mins later, I notice the battery going down pretty fast, but don't think too much of it. I then go to send a text message, and after a few minutes, it's still not sent. So I close the messaging program and try to make a call. I get a "connecting" prompt, but the call never connects, and then I get a "call failed" : "no service" message. While attempting to call, I can see the Verizon Wireless banner (I'm actually on Page Plus) alternating between VW and Searching... , but it always goes back to VW and I get a few bars of reception. The battery seems to be draining quickly due to the constant searching for a signal.

I've done every kind of reset / restart / battery pull. I even doctored the phone last night, while waiting to call Page Plus today. The phone just will not make an outgoing call, or connect with 3G. Page plus tried a few tricks today, that they said sometimes work, but nothing worked.

Is my phone just dead? It's only 6 months old, and still looks brand new. Is there anything else I can try?

Should I buy another Pre 2 for $62? Should I get a Pre 3 for like $100 more? Should I dump WebOS and get a Droid 3 or Incredible 2? I'm back on my Pixi Plus for now.

Any help, or suggestions, are much appreciated.

Edit: Just to add, the phone is completely stock, with no patches or homebrew. I just have a few apps that I've had for months.

[vgg]

Have you checked the state of your battery There are several homebrew apps that coud help you with this. I personally use dr-battery or you could try swapping out your battery with a spare to see if the problem still persists?

[RumoredNow]

You also need to check and see what is running in the background that is sucking up battery...

Do you have Xterm to run the "top" command?

Or you could get the JsTop app out of Preware to do the same thing. Sounds like something is not shutting down properly and that is causing the battery drain.

Also the unexpected hard reboot may have deleted all your Page Plus setup as the phone loaded default settings once it powered up again. (It restored itself after a power state crash).

[Dr. Aquafresh]

I don't think my main problem is the battery right now. My main problem is that my phone will no longer connect to Page Plus's network. Page Plus uses the Verizon pre-paid network, which is very good in my area. The phone is set up for Page Plus right out of the box, because it uses Verizon's network. If the phone can't connect to the network anymore, I don't really care if the battery works correctly.

I'm pretty sure the battery is draining because the phone is constantly searching for the network, which it's not being able to connect to.

[RumoredNow]

Makes sense on Network search and battery drain.

Guess maybe I had the cart in front of the horse.

So what does Page Plus say?

Have you gone through the initial Page Plus setup again on your own?

[Dr. Aquafresh]

Originally Posted by RumoredNow

Makes sense on Network search and battery drain.

Guess maybe I had the cart in front of the horse.

So what does Page Plus say?

Have you gone through the initial Page Plus setup again on your own?

Page Plus was actually pretty good on trying to help me. They even tried switching my phone # to a native (non Verizon) Page Plus phone, making a phone call, and then switching it back to my Verizon phone. They said sometimes that works. It didn't in my case. The P+ rep even had me manually program my phone for P+.

Where I'm getting stuck, is that my phone will not call out. Out of the box, with no paid service, the phone can usually call out to Verizon customer service, make an emergency call to 911, or even call *22890 to program with P+. Mine just won't make an outgoing phone call anymore.

I'd really like to know if it's dead before I : A) buy a new one, or B) decide not to buy a new one, because the new one might die in 6 months too.

[chaloots]

I've just recently been experiencing a similar problem. I too am a PagePlus user.

The "3G" icon has been MIA from the top right of my Pre 2. Signal strength and battery indicators are there but no network. It still reads "Verizon Wireless" on the left.

One of the built-in diagnostics came up with "modem" as the most likely culprit. Not knowing what else to do, and having just read this thread I figured 'why the heck not?' and called Page Plus. Hold time wasn't too long before a rep came on who furnished me with a remote number as well as some instructions on removing the battery and reinstalling it after 5 minutes. Oh, he also reminded me that my device isn't on Page Plus' support list.

The fix didn't work; there's still no 3G up on the top right but at least I know that there are people with pulses at the other end.

Saw a related modem thread here corrupted modem, fixed but am gunshy of doing any more messing with this new device.

In any case I'm sorry to hear about your issues. Hope they get resolved to your satisfaction.

[Dr. Aquafresh]

Originally Posted by chaloots

I've just recently been experiencing a similar problem. I too am a PagePlus user.

The "3G" icon has been MIA from the top right of my Pre 2. Signal strength and battery indicators are there but no network. It still reads "Verizon Wireless" on the left.

One of the built-in diagnostics came up with "modem" as the most likely culprit. Not knowing what else to do, and having just read this thread I figured 'why the heck not?' and called Page Plus. Hold time wasn't too long before a rep came on who furnished me with a remote number as well as some instructions on removing the battery and reinstalling it after 5 minutes. Oh, he also reminded me that my device isn't on Page Plus' support list.

The fix didn't work; there's still no 3G up on the top right but at least I know that there are people with pulses at the other end.

Saw a related modem thread here corrupted modem, fixed but am gunshy of doing any more messing with this new device.

In any case I'm sorry to hear about your issues. Hope they get resolved to your satisfaction.

Hey thanks. I was trying to flash the modem as directed in that other thread you posted, but I am getting stuck at step #4 (ModemFW Flash - WebOS Internals). I can't get the mv command to move the modem file to the temp folder of the phone. I'm getting an 'mv' is not recognized as a command error. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I can usually follow directions.


If you are just missing the 3G symbol, but actually have network (phone/text) access, then you would just need to turn data on. It's in the dropdown menu in the phone dialer.

[GMMan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Aquafresh

Hey thanks. I was trying to flash the modem as directed in that other thread you posted, but I am getting stuck at step #4 (ModemFW Flash - WebOS Internals). I can't get the mv command to move the modem file to the temp folder of the phone. I'm getting an 'mv' is not recognized as a command error. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I can usually follow directions.

You should be doing this from the installer ramdisk, and using Novaterm for the terminal. 'mv' should be recognized, because it's a built in command to most shells.

[Dr. Aquafresh]

Originally Posted by GMMan

You should be doing this from the installer ramdisk, and using Novaterm for the terminal. 'mv' should be recognized, because it's a built in command to most shells.

Ha ha.....I don't know what any of that means. I was just following that modem flash guide on webOS Internals. I was trying to use Novacom, as it said you could use that, and it came with the webOS SDK.

Is there a guide or anything for using ramdisk and Novaterm?

[GMMan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Aquafresh

Ha ha.....I don't know what any of that means. I was just following that modem flash guide on webOS Internals. I was trying to use Novacom, as it said you could use that, and it came with the webOS SDK.

Is there a guide or anything for using ramdisk and Novaterm?

See the resource list in my signature. Novaterm is at C:\Program Files\Palm, Inc\terminal\novaterm.bat on Windows and just enter 'novaterm' on other operating systems.

[chaloots]

Originally Posted by Dr. Aquafresh

Hey thanks. I was trying to flash the modem as directed in that other thread you posted, but I am getting stuck at step #4 (ModemFW Flash - WebOS Internals). I can't get the mv command to move the modem file to the temp folder of the phone. I'm getting an 'mv' is not recognized as a command error. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I can usually follow directions.


If you are just missing the 3G symbol, but actually have network (phone/text) access, then you would just need to turn data on. It's in the dropdown menu in the phone dialer.

Data is on and has been on ever since the 3G icon went byebye.

Postscript to my previous muscling in on your thread: the 3G icon is back, alive and well on my Pre 2. At first I thought its disappearance was the result of my installing a slew of Homebrew apps via Preware. They have since been deleted/removed but the issue of the modem and missing 3G icon persisted. Tried flashing the modem (hope the terminology on that's right)-----it didn't work either.

The "fix" was WebOS Doctor. It was a large-ish Java file which got my Pre 2 back up and running. A word of warning if your issues are still with you and you're contemplating a similar solution: depending on your carrier there's more than one version of Herr Doctor. Getting the correct version of the software is crucial.

[Dr. Aquafresh]

Originally Posted by GMMan

See the resource list in my signature. Novaterm is at C:\Program Files\Palm, Inc\terminal\novaterm.bat on Windows and just enter 'novaterm' on other operating systems.

Well, just an update.

Thanks for pointing me towards Novaterm. I was looking in the WebOS folder in Program Files(x86) instead of the Palm, Inc folder in Program Files. Anyway, I did the modem reflash, and it didn't solve the problem.....so I just ordered another Pre 2 from Amazon for $59. I hope I get more life out of this one than my last one.

Do you think anyone would buy a "broken" CDMA Pre 2, where everything works but the radio/modem? I was planning on selling it on Ebay "as is". Maybe someone could use the screen or something.

[imfallen_angel]

have you guys tried using the phones on airplane mode to see if the power drains happens?

[Dr. Aquafresh]

Originally Posted by imfallen_angel

have you guys tried using the phones on airplane mode to see if the power drains happens?

It never occurred to me to try that, because if I can't get the phone to make or receive calls, then what's the point?

[imfallen_angel]

Originally Posted by Dr. Aquafresh

It never occurred to me to try that, because if I can't get the phone to make or receive calls, then what's the point?

Just a question of process of elimination. Since it's mentioned that the phone/battery appears to overheat, it would be better to see which process might be causing it.

As it's been mentioned that a doctoring appears to have helped, it still would be worthwhile to see the power usage, in case the reason might be unexpected.