Cingular 650 and 64K SIM

**ZBoater_wn** · 02/21/2005, 01:41 PM

I got off the phone with tech support, and after a lengthy wait, here is what the woman told me - they received an email this morning confirming that there is a compatibility issue with the Treo 650 and the new 64K Cingular SIM which affects 25-33% of deployed units. Symptoms are:

1. Corrupted VM number
2. Random resets and resets when dialing or receiving calls
3. Screen unresponsive to user input.

Solution? New SIM. She suggested I go to a Cingular store to get it replaced. I dont know if they have the older 32K SIM, but I am on my way there now and will report back my findings.

**lep354** · 02/21/2005, 02:18 PM

When I got my Cingular 650 the first day they were available at my Corporate store, the tech (who I trust explicitly and reads this forum) just used my old 32k sim for the new Treo. No issues with voicemail# or resets when on calls. Has worked flawlessly from the get-go. He didn't even offer to replace it with the 64k sim; I am glad he didn't!

**TonyH** · 02/21/2005, 02:23 PM

That's good to know. Does this affect only the T650, or other phones with the Gemplus 64K SIM? I have four SIM cards like that one.

**jalbert** · 02/21/2005, 02:38 PM

no problems here and I've only used my old 32k sim

**umcp** · 02/21/2005, 03:01 PM

i'm glad i read this post because i was about to go to cingular to get a 64k card.

is the only difference a bigger phone book?

**lep354** · 02/21/2005, 03:27 PM

I'm not sure and I was tempted to go 64k sim as well... but if it ain't broke, don't fix it"!

**RobM** · 02/21/2005, 03:33 PM

I have the 64K sim in mine and the only thing I have had in common is the fact that I had no phone number in on the voicemail. I added a number to voice mail and now everything is fine. I have not had any of the other issues that you report as of yet. I also upgraded via the Palm way (not from scratch) only because I was too lazy to reload everything all over again. So far, no major issues ( a couple of minor things that a reinstall took care of) but so far so good.

Time will tell...so far it has been about 3 weeks and going strong.

rob

**abacusnw** · 02/21/2005, 04:40 PM

Just got my GSM 650 and it came with the 64K sim. I called and asked why I can't use my 32k old sim and was told by tier 2 tech that the 64k sim contained info to connect using new protocols and that it would give better connectivity. But , I could use the old if I perfered.

I too had the VM number problem, but the workaround was easy and I weas told that it will take a firmware change to correct the proble.

Also, while not within the parameters of this string, I had to do 3 hard resets before the phone would work. Prior to the resets, everytime I tried to answer a call with the middle button, it soft reset. Phone works flawlessly now and a nice upgrade from my old 600.

**iomatic** · 02/21/2005, 04:49 PM

Weird. Weird, because after numerous hard resets, I got a replacement with the same SIM and the second one has been working flawlessly. Flawlessly, I mean, it's been (over?) a week with third-party apps, HotSyncs, SD Card access, GPRS/EDGE, Versamail, Web access, roaming (albeit only to a neighboring-local state), Bluetooth headset (HBH-660) etc., and I'm telling you ZERO reset problems. Well, except when VoiceDial had the '2MB dynamic memory required' error message, which required a reset, but c'mon� no crash or anything.

Everyone say, "hmmmm�"

**ZBoater_wn** · 02/21/2005, 04:50 PM

Well, I came back from the store. If you think its painful to deal with Cingular on the phone, try going into one of their stores.

Anyways, I got the new SIM, but they gave me another 64K one. They said they dont have the other ones. Weird. So far I've powered off the phone 3 times and every time the VM number holds.

I am cautiously optimistic. We'll see. I'll try to refrain from using PXAClocker and overclock this puppy to 600Mhz for a day or two, you know, to make sure it works and all...

**GIS_guy** · 02/21/2005, 05:09 PM

64k and almost 2 weeks and not a problem here.

**vzar** · 02/21/2005, 06:13 PM

Same here. Almost 2 weeks and no prob with the new 64k sim card. The only issue, but no big deal. Every time I end a call using my bluetooth headset, my wallpaper disappears until I switch to another page then come back and it re-appears.

**mboni** · 02/21/2005, 06:23 PM

As the OP stated, only 25-33% of deployed phones have the issue.

My original unlocked GSM phone clearly had the issue, with a soft reset very shortly (30sec) after I turned on my phone.

My replacement phone arrived today, and it appears to be functioning perfectly.

I think the answer is obvious. If you can't get Cingular to replace the SIM, then have PalmOne replace the phone. They handled my complaint quite nicely, and overnighted me a new phone and a shipping label to return the original one.

**ZBoater_wn** · 02/21/2005, 08:58 PM

Update: If turned on/off the phone several times, including a couple of soft resets (messing around with listing all apps in Cleanup). VM number is still there. The field was editable after one of the reboots, but it still kept the correct number. Knock on wood. Still cautiously optimistic.

My wife's phone started acting wiggy. Resets for no reason, resets when dialing, resets when receiving calls. I KNOW she doesn't mess with her software (she is a doctor but a complete computer noob). I did a backup, hard reset, and restored. The MemoDB did not want to restore. I went to her PC and set the memo conduit to overwrite the Palm, and got some hotsync error that the NotePad app was not compatible with the database. WTF??? I did it again, and the memoDB restored fine (she has a LOT of stuff on her memoDB). I again updated the backup on the SD card for the "next" time I need to restore. Her phone is fine now.

Weirdness.

**TonyH** · 02/21/2005, 10:03 PM

There goes another happy Treo 650 family. Good for you.

Why can't the Treo 650 just give an error message instead of going into resets when phone calls come in?

**Darkmeth** · 02/22/2005, 05:00 AM

Originally Posted by TonyH

There goes another happy Treo 650 family. Good for you.

Why can't the Treo 650 just give an error message instead of going into resets when phone calls come in?

That would very well put Microsoft out of business.

**ZBoater_wn** · 02/22/2005, 09:08 AM

Update: RATZ!!!! VM number got corrupted AGAIN!! I guess that 64K Smartchip ain't so smart. I wonder if the fix will be a completely new SIM or a firmware update on the Treo.

Geeeeezzz...

**Treobangla** · 02/22/2005, 09:47 AM

Keep changing SIMS, I just changed both SIM and phones sets twice, both 3rd and 4th phone fo me and my wife worked fine. Just changing the SIM may not work always.

**fkjr2** · 02/22/2005, 10:15 AM

So I have the 32K GT SIM card that I have had for 2 years now.....could this be why my device soft resets with outgoing and incoming SMS's ??

Also, my device locks up when an alarm goes off and wakes the device - it takes a few seconds and sometimes needs to go off before I can gain control again.

**ZBoater_wn** · 02/22/2005, 10:23 AM

I asked the guy at the store for a 32K SIM, and he said they didnt have any, and that they wouldnt use it for a Treo anyway. Not that the guy in the store is the definitive answer on anything, but it makes sense to me that a newer device would benefit from the newer chip, although in this case I feel like a beta tester....

UPDATE: I found this interesting thread in howardforums.com

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...hreadid=574251

It seems that there are two versions of the 64K smartchips out there - one made by a company called GEMPLUS (your SIM number will end in G), and that these are causing the problems.

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