Treo 650 phone turns off constantly

**eben333** · 01/16/2006, 06:50 PM

Hello everyone. Did a quick search of the forum but didn't see anything so here it goes. I have a Cingular Treo 650 phone that worked perfectly until last week. For some reason, the phone function will turn itself off (like if you held down the far right switch) by itself. I turn it back on and about 30 sec to few minutes later, it goes off again. Other functions seems to work fine.

The weird thing is when I am at home, most of the time the phone will stay on. When I am driving around or out and about it will turn off constantly. It's totally random it seems. Sometime I stay at one place for 30 minutes or more and it stays on. Sometimes it goes off constantly and I have to turn it on for 30 minutes or more. It even turns off on a middle of a conversation.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Do you think it's the phone or the service? Any thought as to what I should do next? Any help is appreciate. '

Ben

**MadlyAlive** · 01/16/2006, 06:51 PM

What steps have you taken to resolve the issue? Soft Reset? Hard Reset? Have you installed any new software recently?

**eben333** · 01/16/2006, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by MadlyAlive

What steps have you taken to resolve the issue? Soft Reset? Hard Reset? Have you installed any new software recently?

Thanks for a quick response. I have not done anything new to the phone at all. I have doen soft resets several times and even took out the battery a couple of times and let it sit and it did not fix the problem. Also, I have noticed that once in a while, when it goes to turn off the phone, it goes in to soft reset on it's own. It only happend a couple of times so far.

My last resort is to wipe the phone clean and resync the data but I have not done that yet. I thought I'd check in here first before doing that.

Thanks.

Ben

**MadlyAlive** · 01/16/2006, 07:03 PM

Well, I personally don't have Cingular or a GSM phone (I'm CDMA - Sprint). You may want to wait and see if anyone else has had this issue with GSM and/or Cingular.

If you do a hard reset do not sync your old user id folder. Go ahead and do the hard reset and rename your user folder in Program Files\PalmOne\ and then resync. Start fresh like you just had the device and then go through and reinstall all of your apps. If possible only install one at a time and see how things go throughout the day and then do another. Maybe you can narrow it down to an application that is loaded on your Treo.

Hope this makes sense!

**alokeprasad** · 01/16/2006, 07:23 PM

You probably need the new SIM tray.

http://supportcingular.atgnow.com/cn...s/KB53306.html

**dogmommy73** · 01/17/2006, 10:52 AM

I have had this problem also for the past few months. My Treo 650 is Cingular, with the Cingular 1.17 software update installed, Hardware A. This is annoying when playing a game or looking at a document.

**Varrus** · 01/17/2006, 02:47 PM

I notice mine does that when the battery is extremely low...I'm too lazy to check but I assume there is a feature somewhere that says 'turn off phone on low battery'...or if there isn't its just something that happens.....at least I know what causes it so I can live with it....in your case if there indeed is such a feature maybe you can turn it off...

**eben333** · 01/19/2006, 12:37 AM

Originally Posted by aprasad

You probably need the new SIM tray.

http://supportcingular.atgnow.com/cn...s/KB53306.html

Problem solved. You, sir, are a life saver. I looked at my phone and sure enough I have the old SIM tray. I ordered one from your link just in case but I wasn't convinced. So, I slipped a sliver of paper between the SIM card and the tray and the problem never happend again in 2 days. Thank you so much for this suggestion. I will replace the tray when the new one comes.

Ben

**alokeprasad** · 01/19/2006, 09:19 AM

I wonder why it started happening suddenly. How long have you had the phone?

**KMeloney** · 01/19/2006, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by eben333

Problem solved. You, sir, are a life saver. I looked at my phone and sure enough I have the old SIM tray. I ordered one from your link just in case but I wasn't convinced. So, I slipped a sliver of paper between the SIM card and the tray and the problem never happend again in 2 days. Thank you so much for this suggestion. I will replace the tray when the new one comes.

Ben

Glad it worked, Ben! This was my immediate thought, too (was able to solve a friend's same problem this way recently).

I think that often times when the Treo gets a bad rap it's because of issues like this -- ones that are completely and easily correctable, but ones that you might not know how to diagnose unless you come across a forum like this.

Just think about how many people who you see writing "I'm on my 4th Treo..." who probably had a problem like this. Amazing.

Glad you took the time to ask about the issue and then implement the solution, Ben!

(Just had to get that off my chest.

)

-Kirk

**brianarodgers** · 01/19/2006, 10:13 AM

Wow, glad to find the answer to this problem. I have an unlocked Cingular phone (T Mobile Customer), and it appears this solution is only if you're a Cingular customer. Anyone know if you can replace the SIM tray WITHOUT being a Cingular customer?

**madas** · 01/19/2006, 10:41 AM

I have the same problem. I don't think mine is related to my SIM though. I recently travelled abroad and due to roaming I wasn't using GPRS. I had no issues with the phone for three weeks. I arrived back in the US, and the issue is happening again, and i'm using GPRS again.

**alokeprasad** · 01/19/2006, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by brianarodgers

Wow, glad to find the answer to this problem. I have an unlocked Cingular phone (T Mobile Customer), and it appears this solution is only if you're a Cingular customer. Anyone know if you can replace the SIM tray WITHOUT being a Cingular customer?

Use some pieces of paper behind the SIM to have the same effect as the ridge on the new tray.

**RickLaw** · 01/19/2006, 11:19 AM

I think what Madas (no reset abroad) is probably signal strength related.

Over in Europe, my phone worked a hack of a lot better also since they have GSM everywhere. In the US (NJ area) where Cingular is not so hot, my phone experience hanging often.

**madas** · 01/21/2006, 09:08 AM

I don't see how the signal strength would caues the phone to actually shut off. Besides, its happening at home (and elsehwere) where I always get full service.

**jgm** · 01/21/2006, 09:43 AM

Mine seems to do it when the temperature outside drops quite a bit. It will reset as soon as I go outside or if I pull it out of my pocket when outside. After a couple of days though it seems to become accllimatized and very stable until the temperature goes and stays up for awhile then goes back down. Paper shim didn't seem to make much difference.

**madas** · 01/21/2006, 11:28 AM

I ordered a new sim tray (for free) from palm directly. I'll see if that makes a difference. I'm convinced thats not the problem tho, i think its something else in Software....but I don't have anything new or unusual.

**madas** · 01/21/2006, 11:30 AM

I do notice it happens when I have chatteremail open. But this is the only app i use that frequently connects and disconnects to GPRS. Anyone use that and having the same problem?

**madas** · 01/25/2006, 07:01 AM

I got my new SIM tray and have so far had no problems. Its been two days now.

I guess it wasn't directly related to the GPRS, but maybe that made it a little more sensitive to the vibrating SIM. I guess it worked in the UK as maybe my UK SIM is a slightly different size. Either way, it works! - Thanks Palm!

**ghost1** · 02/02/2006, 04:12 PM

Mine has turned itself off several times since I got it two months ago. I highly doubt there's a hardware problem. I imagine maybe the red phone button is being pushed while the phone is in it's carrier. Maybe. But I cannot imagine why Handspring would make a phone that turns itself off so easily. I mean, I've never intentionally turned off a cell phone. Some years ago, one of my previous cell phones was dead for three days, and I thought I needed a new battery. Somebody suggested holding down the red key, and it turned back on. I don't understand why that function would even be built linto a phone. But anyway, are there any hacks or software out there to prevent the Treo from accidently turning itself off?

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