My Nokia is misbehaving

alphabyte

alphabyte

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I'm having an odd problem with my cell phone, and wondering if anyone here has exprienced something similar and perhaps has a solution, or at least an explanation, for me.
I have a Nokia N73, and am using it on Vodacom top-up. If the keypad is locked and the phone is idle, then the screen display lights are off. Pressing any keys has no response and the screen remains darkened, unless the right combination for keypad unlock is pressed, then the display lights up. An incoming voice call or sms also lights up the dislay. At least, that's how it always has been...
Lately, every now and then, with the phone not in use, the screen suddenly lights up, before darkening again after the usual time-out period. Sometimes this may happen a few times in an hour, other times it'll go for hours with no misbehaviour. Occasionally the phone even reboots, and comes back on still with keypad locked.
Now for the really odd-ball thing - my wife's phone, also a Nokia, has started doing exactly the same thing, although not at the same times.
I've been conjuring up various theories, like the fact that the battery is old, and maybe unstable? Or someone close by sending out bluetooth signals - although both phones have bluetooth disabled.
Any other theories? (anyone saying format C:, install linux will be shot at dawn...)
 
abzo said:
I know what the problem is...you're using a Nokia!
Click to expand...

+1

Nokia Symbian OS is full of nonsense, until Nokia stops using Symbian im not buying another Nokia, its bad enough I got a Nokia already that complains about memory all the time! Yet I have 2GB free space
 
alphabyte said:
I'm having an odd problem with my cell phone, and wondering if anyone here has exprienced something similar and perhaps has a solution, or at least an explanation, for me.
I have a Nokia N73, and am using it on Vodacom top-up. If the keypad is locked and the phone is idle, then the screen display lights are off. Pressing any keys has no response and the screen remains darkened, unless the right combination for keypad unlock is pressed, then the display lights up. An incoming voice call or sms also lights up the dislay. At least, that's how it always has been...
Lately, every now and then, with the phone not in use, the screen suddenly lights up, before darkening again after the usual time-out period. Sometimes this may happen a few times in an hour, other times it'll go for hours with no misbehaviour. Occasionally the phone even reboots, and comes back on still with keypad locked.
Now for the really odd-ball thing - my wife's phone, also a Nokia, has started doing exactly the same thing, although not at the same times.
I've been conjuring up various theories, like the fact that the battery is old, and maybe unstable? Or someone close by sending out bluetooth signals - although both phones have bluetooth disabled.
Any other theories? (anyone saying format C:, install linux will be shot at dawn...)
Click to expand...

Is it on the latest firmware? They do reboot when they loose signal. Try a full format. Google is your friend. Or take it to your nearest Nokia Service Center.

Venomous said:
Which nokia?
Click to expand...
Did you read the post? :-)
 
Last edited:
+1, check if you have the latest firmware installed via Nokia OVI Suite, if you do Google for instructions on how to do a hard reset for your particular model. Make sure you backup your stuff before doing any of this.
 
The N73 is a pretty old phone by today's standards. I (used to) love Nokias but most tend to develop some sort of terminal software issues about 1 year and 9-11 months in (basically just before upgrade time lol) so I reckon it's time for a new phone.
Dropped calls, random reboots, issues like you're describing, random lost signals just tend to happen once a phone running Symbian software gets long in the tooth. It's just time for a new phone man.

And I'm not just your everyday Nokia Naysayer, I've been a Nokia man all my cellphone using (since 1996) life before my current droid so I have some experience with these things and half of my phones have developed old age issues like these especially if the phone was running Series60 software.
 
Last edited:
Okay guys - time for some feedback. Firstly - thank you to those who supplied meaningful suggestions, it's much appreciated.
What I've tried:
- new battery - made no difference
- reset phone to factory settings - made no difference
- loaded latest version for firmware - made no difference
- wiped all the old data from the phone (reloaded Contacts from PCSuite backup) - made no difference
- new sim card from vodacom, with sim-swap - made no difference

Now it gets more interesting...
- new sim card from CellC - no more reboots! Unfortunately a sim-swap is not practical as I'm on a Vodacom contract. So on to the next step.

After a lot more Googling, I eventually found that the culprit is 3G. In network mode settings one has the option of UMTS or GSM or dual mode. Changing this to GSM has solved the issue completely. Okay, I'm aware that UMTS (or 3G) is the later standard, but seeing that I use the phone only for voice calls and SMS's, and not for surfing, email and downloading, this is not a problem for me.
It remains a mystery, since I've been using the phone for a number of years with no hassles, why this problem should now suddenly surface. I can only guess that something in Vodacom's network has changed?
[Aside: new sim card plus sim-swap at Vodacom: R60. New sim card plus sim-swap at CellC: R1!]
 
Oh wow...that's really odd. Thanks for the feedback though and I'm glad you were able to give your good old Nokia a little more time.
 
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