Charge dropping 3G service: "Network not available"

[dave44052]

Well verizon called me today and said samsung is.trying to come out with new software for the charge but they wont say when that will be. So my choices are to wait or switch to the revalution. They wont give me the bionic... i think the revolution is lower quality phone than the charge. Does anyone have any exsperience with this phone?

[jlstifel]

I'm really confused about why I'm having problems and I wonder if someone can set me straight.

I just moved and gave up my Comcast wireless Internet service and was trying to decide between keeping my Sprint cell service with a "non-smart" phone which made crystal clear phone calls and did also allow me to brows the Web in a slow and limited way.

I needed to have my own independent Internet access since where I live now does not offer any kind of service. I decided to go with Verizon due to their good reputation and purchased the Samsung Droid Charge due ot the good rating given it by CNET.  I elected to use the "Hotspot" capability of the Droid phone for a wifi Internet connection. I thought I was all set to go. I've only had the phone for two weeks now.

In both my old home and new residence (less than 5 miles apart) I had problems from the get-go with both a very garbled phone usage where I could not hear the person I was calling, nor their recordings/voicemail and they could not understand me or any voicemail messages I left for them. My Sprint service was always crystal clear, so I was surprised and brought the phone back to the salesman for help. Of course, in the store their signal was powerful so I couldn't duplicate the problem and tech support reported that they found no problems with my service and that my area has solid 3G signals.

In addition to the poor phone service, in both locations, the hotspot wifi connection was also iffy and slow. Sometimes I get error messages that the web site I want is not responding (which includes the Verizon web site) or that there is no network connection. When I try to view a very tiny video, it is so slow that it interrupts every few seconds to fill the cache, I guess, and then I need to hit the play button for it to continue. It is about the same experience I had when I had dial-up service.

The saleman reformatted the phone and installed new software to try to remedy the problem. The phone calls seem a little more clear, but I don't use the phone often so it's hard to test, but the wifi service on my laptop continues to be slow and irratic to the pont where it's as useless as it was when I had dial-up so any idea of using real video or downloading music seems like that would be utterly impossible. Sometimes I have the same problem with the phone, but it's the laptop I want to use and don't seem to have these options at all. I have lost my connection in the middle of doing my banking on my laptop, also, and it really buggered things up for me.

They say that 4G is on its way in my area, but after reading the problems others are having, I wonder if that will make things better or worse. I wonder if I should have stayed with Sprint where I had great phone service and I wonder if I have to live with this 2 year contract if I am not getting the services I paid for. Based on my research Verizon is supposed to be the best service.

Can anyone either advise or encourage me?

Thanks.

Judi 😕

[dave44052]

What im about to say is only my opinion
If i only had the phone for a.few xays and could get out of my contract I would switch to Sprint. Verizon 4g network is JUNK. Yesterday not service for hourssat on hold for 1/2 hr for them to tell me it down. They text me tons of crap but can text us that the service is down. There customer service has gone to hell. My phone has been junk from day one. Load screeches during calls. Internet dropping in and out while im not moving. And i cant see what im writing because the format is.screwed up cant see the screen. Nothing but junk. And if you just signed up they took the unlimited internet away from you. So all the time i have.spent reconnecting and entering the same info over and over would have cost me a fortune. Only good thing is.i still have unlimited internet eventhough its inconsistant.

Dont know how much more.of this i.can take. They wanted me to switch phone but wouldnt let me go to the bionic so i decided not to change. From what i have.read all there 4g phones are having issues. That tells me they have either gave the wrong data to the phone companies or there network is screwed up.

This i.cant see this i apoligize for any screw ups but its out of my control. Anyone else having problems seeing what they are typing???????

[Davidoo]

I don't have the problem seeing what I am entering.  Never had that happen.  I do have the continuous loss of data connection and it seems to be getting worse.  I had long periods of no data yesterday.  I figured there was an outage but didn't have the energy to call and check.  The other phones are no better, especially the Bionic.  At one point I was considering paying full retail for the Bionic just to get rid of the Charge.  I figured I would wait to make sure it wasn't having the same issues.  Glad I did.  Look at the Bionic pages and you'll see the same crap we're going through.  I was in a VZW store on Saturday just looking around while my wife was shopping and talked to one of the reps for a few minutes.  He said the Bionic has more problems than the Charge.  They recently forced him to get the Bionic (probably a policy to make sure the sales people have the latest phones so they can talk about the benefits to the customers).  He wished he had the Charge back as he liked the feel of it better, the screen is better and the data connections are about the same.  We're (those of us who signed contracts) basically just screwed and forced to pay full price for something that doesn't work.

[jlstifel]

Thanks to all for your candid responses. Today is day 14 from the date that I bought my Droid. I really don't know where the problem is but now I'm concerned that I'm locked in for a 2 year contract and I won't be able to find out if things would have been better with Sprint.

Since the salesman reformatting the Droid Charge and installed new software the phone calls are more easily understood, but not really clear like they used to be Sprint. But, it seems that no matter what I do, when I use it for the Hotspot on my laptop it keeps disconnecting or it can't find the server or the web site isn't responding... just a lot of error messages. It's reallyl bad when I'm in the middle completing an important form and it drops the connection.

Also, I'm supposed to be able to get movies and all kinds of video but I can't even get through one of the tiny news spots which I used to be able to watch through Comcast. These are just tiny and shouldnt be a problem, but they are slow like when I had dial-up service and they keep freezing up and the cache fills and then I have to hit the play button for it to continue.  I can't imagine how they can tell me that I can watch movies and videos and music when I can't ever watch a tiny video through without constant freeze-up.

If I can't use the Droid Charge for a hotspot and hope to actually be able to reliably use the Internet from my laptop what can I do? Anyone have a suggestion?  I lookded at the MIFI and it has bad reviews.... and I looked at the extender and it has mostly good reviews for phones but I can't find out if it helps with hotspot connection. When I looke at the connection it says it's at 54 Mbts, which is the same as it said when I had Comcast high speed. When I had Comcast high speed wireless, it was very fast at the speed, but at the same reported speed with the hotspot from my Droid Charge, it's really poor. I don' t know what the number means if the connection is so slow and unreliable. I should be able to play a tiny news video without it freezing based on that reported speed, but I can't.

From what I"m reading here, regardless of whether the company is delivering what I thought I bought or not, I'm still stuck with this unacceptable service for 2 years? Is that how it works?

I wish I had gone back to Sprint. My Non-smart Lotus cell phone was crystal clear and I was able to do email and brows the Web. I don't know what to do, but I'm going to go to the Droid class they are having locally next Sunday and I'm going to discuss this with my salesman.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Juidi 😕

[sewlady]

This is for anyone who might have a clue...

I've had my Charge since July 1 and NEVER saw a "network not available" message. 

All of a sudden, in the last 2 days, I have been seeing this message often.  What's up with that??? 

Should I call Verizon & complain?  In my last call to them, I asked why I didn't get 4G when they had just sent me an email saying that I now 'should' have it.  The tech person I talked to said he wanted to reset my phone (thereby losing all my settings, yada yada).  I decided NOT to do that.  In another 3-4 weeks, I talked with another tech person and they said, No, I really DIDN'T have 4G yet.  Well, I was glad that I hadn't gone through all that resetting stuff.  Sheesh.

Anyway...now that I'm getting the "network not availble message, I don't know what the best course of action should be.  I mean, when I get this message, I can't even make a phone call! 

Suggestions welcome.  And desired.

TIA,

Connie in MI

[JerryF]

Connie,

First and foremost it can be the Verizon network acting up.   Give it a day or so to start working properly again or call and ask.  If you know which Verizon tower you use drive to within 100-200 yards of it and try to connect.

Also, if you have ANY battery saving APP installed uninstall it and this is especially so for the APP Juice Defender (JD).  JD kept me from accessing the 3G/4G network so I uninstalled it and that fixed my problem.  It was an EZ fix.

Did you install any new APP a day or so before your problem.  If so uninstall it.

BTW, it is VERY easy to go back to The Market and reinstall any APP you previously installed.

I'll see if I can come up with any other ideas.

37 to 31, what a game!!!

JerryF

PS, you were smart to resist this constant thing where they want you to RESET your phone.  All they are saying is that, "I don't have a clue what to do."

[jlstifel]

Connie,

I use my Droid Charge as a "hot spot" for my laptop and Nook.  I have gotten those "Network not available" messages on both my phone and my laptop. One time I realized that I had just received a phone call and my Droid did allow me to answer... but apparently when I hung up, it did not reconnect the "hot spot" for my laptop to be able to re-connect with the Internet and I was getting the message for my laptop. I've gotten it also on the phone but don't recall if it was related to this particular situation. When I hung up form my call and selected the WiFi again, it was okay again.

I'm still having problems besides that though and I went to a Droid class today and asked my salesman if MiVi would improve the situation for me so that I can get more speed from my laptop and he said he didn't think so. I've gotten YouTube links which I could not watch from my laptop but I could watch using my Droid phone. Go figure that one out!!!!

I am hoping that we will get 4G in my area soon and this problem will go away...  I have my fingers crossed!

When the companies make all the claims they do when they advertise their products, they make the public expect to get what they are advertising. When we don't get it, we get upset. Maybe "truth in advertsing" would be a good idea so that we only expect what they can really provide to all of us.

I've decided that if I need to view videos for any reason, I"ll use my phone instead of my laptop.. I have 2G on each of them and I don't use it all, but I'll use the phone instead of the slow, dial-up-slow hot spot connection on my laptop.

Hope that gives some insight...

Judi

[JerryF]

Connie,

Like WTTTT said in the above post, I always leave WiFi off unless I am specicically using it and then I turn off the Mobile Data.

Remember you can always do a SOFT reboot and you will NOT lose anything in your phone.  To do this remove the battery for a minute or two, reinsert the battery, and restart your phone.

I'm betting that your area is having a problem with the cell tower signal.

You probably already have these settings but I thought I would mention them anyway:  Menu>Settings>Wireless & Network and touch Mobile Networks.  Then choose Packet Data, then System Selection, and CDMA mode and Automatic for a 3G only network.

JerryF

[WTTTT]

There is another thread discussing the possibility of a Gingerbread update to this phone that will fix this issue.  Never seems to happen though.  The only way I avoid the issue is to leave WiFi off all the time.  My phone does not so much seem to lose or drop the network as much as it will not reconnect after being connected to WiFi or after using a battery saving program like Juice Defender.  I will sometimes use WiFi at home on the weekends and if I do not remember to turn it off before restarting the phone when leaving home, I will have the issue when I get to work where there is no WiFi.  Then I need to turn off WiFi and power off and on the phone to get the connection back.  It has been like this from day one and is 100% consistent.  Can't believe Verizon and or Samsung can't fix it.