Why does my Eris Stink!

[Angelak11]

Im so sick of my HTC eris. I have had so many problems with it since feb(when i got it) and verizon will not give me a different phone for less then the full retail price. i am on my 4th eris, which is refurb. I type blind, meaning i will have the keyboard up and typing and no letters show up till i take the keyboard down. the phone constantly tells me it cant connect with my hotmail emails. Does anyone else have problems with their Eris? I have had many others such as freezing, no notifications and such. Am i the only one with these issues? The lady in the tech portion of the verizon store basically told me i was crazy because she had the phone and she never had a problem... GAHH

[Joe_Evaristo]

No, you're not crazy. On other forums, people are reporting the same thing: Verizon telling them that others aren't having issues with the Eris, even though it's not true. It's not hard to run into other users reporting that same response over here: http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/

It's a shoddy product, and HTC is supporting it far less than Verizon is. About all you can do is keep getting refurbs and hope you get a good one. I'm on my first refurb, and I haven't been hit with any hardware-related bugs. Only problem I have is that HTC broke some MMS functionality in their last update in July, and they refuse to fix it. Simple lesson for us: never buy HTC phones again.

One question, though: do you have a task killer installed? Some users are reporting problems like the ones you've listed as being caused by apps such as Advanced Task Killer. If you have one, try uninstalling it and rebooting the phone, and see if your Eris improves its performance. If you browse this thread, you'll find users reporting your problem and indicating that getting rid of their task killer helped: http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/18334-task-killer-apps-truth.html

Task killers aren't necessary on an Android phone.

[infiltwb]

The eris began having major problems when the eclair rollout hit. The phones hardware can not support it. Verizon knows about the problem, as does HTC, as ive had techs from both tell me that device was a major headache for them.

[TheGreatOne]

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infiltwb wrote:

The eris began having major problems when the eclair rollout hit. The phones hardware can not support it. Verizon knows about the problem, as does HTC, as ive had techs from both tell me that device was a major headache for them.

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No wonder why the phone was discontinued so fast!

[jenkies]

It may not be the best but there are ways to increase the performance in your eris. You can go to xda developers.com and other websites where you can read up on more of this kind of stuff. Don't be to disappointed. Im still on my same eris going on 7-8 months now. It is a low end droid so to expect it to have droidx qualities is unrational. Im not saying you are that is just the attitude of some eris owners. Some people just want something for nothing and when something better comes out they look for every excuse in the book and will drag you into their freeloading schemes. There are people who will help you understand and tweak your phone with and without having to hack your phone to do so. The bad verizon service and htc service you may or may not have experienced is inexcusable. All I can say is I've had to learn and dig for help with my phone but it has been worth it. However I can't blame someone for wanting something better and faster, as long as they buy it instead of crying and whining to try and get what they want at someone elses expense. Hope I helped.

[juicy_j]

I've had it since January.  I'm on my 4th Eris, too.  My screen freezes and makes me miss important calls.  Then it stays frozen for up to 2 minutes so I can't call back immediately.  I can't text right back either.  It just freezes up alllllllll the time.  Most recently, it restarts on its own when I click on certain links from the internet.  It powers down all the time on its own.  It also 'reboots' on its own showing the black HTC screen.  Of course, I never have these issues when I go to the store for repairs.  I'm sick of paying a bill on a phone that doesn't even work.  They won't give us a discount on a newer phone or at the least move up my date to get a new-every-two.  Verizon's customer service has been sucking lately...and they don't care.

[ToddG]

I've had my ERIS since Feb. and I am waiting on a replacement (should be here today 9-15) from Verizon.         About a week or so ago it started LOCKING UP/ and when I go to type something the curser flies all over the screen.   

   When I went to my Verizon store the guy who helped me said he's been hearing about this same issue with THE ERIS.                         He ordered me one and I was out the door.

   Over all I have been happy with the ERIS up until now.     My expectations are that once I get this replacement my problems will be solved.

[groovel76]

Seriously you guys should listen to jenkies and check out XDA.

I bought my Eris in November. I loved it but it just started getting slow and I got tired of having to click on Advance Task Killer because of apps running rampant in the background.

For Example: Amazon mp3...really. You're running in the background. I've never run this application yet I'm having to kill this app several times a day. What could this thing possibly need to run in the background for?

After my phone developed the lovely habit of freezing and preventing me from answering a call/silencing my ringtone during an incoming call, I had had it. There has to be something better than this. Sadly Verizon and HTC are no longer supporting this phone so I couldn't expect a solution from them.

So I took my friends advice and gave XDA a look. It has been the best thing I've ever done with this phone. I'm now running 2.2 on my phone. It is so much faster. I had to give up Sense but that turned out to not be a huge deal. I had to purchase a couple $2 apps to make up for the loss. Again, not a huge deal.  [Edited to comply with Terms of Service] Currently I'm running KaosFroyo V34. This guy is working wonders.

Shoot me a PM if you'd to know more about my experience or just google 'eris xda forums' and look for kaosfroyo

[Joe_Evaristo]

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groovel76 wrote:

Seriously you guys should listen to jenkies and check out XDA.

I bought my Eris in November. I loved it but it just started getting slow and I got tired of having to click on Advance Task Killer because of apps running rampant in the background.

For Example: Amazon mp3...really. You're running in the background. I've never run this application yet I'm having to kill this app several times a day. What could this thing possibly need to run in the background for?

After my phone developed the lovely habit of freezing and preventing me from answering a call/silencing my ringtone during an incoming call, I had had it. There has to be something better than this. Sadly Verizon and HTC are no longer supporting this phone so I couldn't expect a solution from them.

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While the Eris is a {word filter avoidance}
, the problems you listed were likely caused because you, "click on Advance Task Killer because of apps running rampant in the background." Task killers cause sluggishness in phones, and they waste your battery--you shouldn't be using one.

Also, those apps aren't "running in the background." At least, not exactly--Android doesn't work the way Windows does. Those "background tasks" are merely in merely, not running, so they can be launched faster later. There is no harm to an app being in memory, it uses the same amount of battery whether memory is empty or used. Here's what an Android developer has to say about it:

"A common misunderstanding about Android multitasking is the difference between a process and an application. In Android these are not tightly coupled entities: applications may seem present to the user without an actual process currently running the app; multiple applications may share processes, or one application may make use of multiple processes depending on its needs; the process(es) of an application may be kept around by Android even when that application is not actively doing something.

The fact that you can see an application's process "running" does not mean the application is running or doing anything."

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

Task killers should only, without exception, be used to close apps that are imparing system stability--and then the app you closed should be deleted and the task killer not used again until you get another badly coded app. Using task killers for any other purpose will harm your phone and diminish battery life. This is why Google has gutten the functionality of task killers in Android 2.2. ...you mentioned running a 2.2 ROM, so those task killers are extra useless to you: they can't close apps.