Failure to Activate?

[rtpnc6]

Tech support spent around 30 minutes with me last night getting my phone activated. The first problem was that the SIM card wasn't registered to my phone number (administrative issue at the store probably). Once that was solved, the phone got activated, but the #832 call didn't succeed. So, I was told to pull the battery (boy is that thing in there tight!), pull the SIM card, wait 5-10 seconds, and then put everything back. The #832 call then worked.

[curtterp]

I wonder if the activation server is a 386 running at 8mhz with DOS 3.1 sitting in a room out in Southern California where the power outage is.

Just a thought

[leonj710]

did it activate yet?

[Ann154]

See this thread.

http://community.vzw.com/t5/DROID-BIONIC-by-Motorola/Back-on-the-air/td-p/660607

[Laytimator]

4 hours and counting and still no activation.  I'm just about to lose my patience with this $300 brick.

[gerio]

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Laytimator wrote:

4 hours and counting and still no activation.  I'm just about to lose my patience with this $300 brick.

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I was gonna write about this later, but really quick, are you in an area that doesn't have 4G yet?

Take it to a store and have the tech (if they aren't doing this already) take your SIM card and insert it in an established 4G phone, such as the HTC Thunderbolt. That's how they activated mine after 24 hours of failed activation attempts. I went to the store to activate another phone on another number, and they hurried to a corner where they had set up 3 demo Thunderbolts and calling the 40-some-odd Bionic buyers having the same trouble to come in. It took 3 minutes for my SIM to activate in the TBolt, then another couple of minutes to activate my Bionic.

My buddies were brainstorming this issue last night until midnight, they were telling me and one of them thought of this idea. NO sooner had they tried and it worked than another store in a nearby city called and offered the same suggestion. They think that the phone is looking for a 4G signal during activation and won't revert to 3G on its own. Once it's activated, you can set the phone to not look for a 4G signal, but you can't get to that point during the activation process.

That's all I have time for right now, but I hope that works for you. Yeah, it makes no sense, it's clumsy, and should have been foreseen. Well, my week had way bigger issues than this, so I'm no worse for the wear.

Good luck, Geri O

[curtterp]

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gerio wrote:

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Laytimator wrote:

4 hours and counting and still no activation.  I'm just about to lose my patience with this $300 brick.

---

I was gonna write about this later, but really quick, are you in an area that doesn't have 4G yet?

Take it to a store and have the tech (if they aren't doing this already) take your SIM card and insert it in an established 4G phone, such as the HTC Thunderbolt. That's how they activated mine after 24 hours of failed activation attempts. I went to the store to activate another phone on another number, and they hurried to a corner where they had set up 3 demo Thunderbolts and calling the 40-some-odd Bionic buyers having the same trouble to come in. It took 3 minutes for my SIM to activate in the TBolt, then another couple of minutes to activate my Bionic.

My buddies were brainstorming this issue last night until midnight, they were telling me and one of them thought of this idea. NO sooner had they tried and it worked than another store in a nearby city called and offered the same suggestion. They think that the phone is looking for a 4G signal during activation and won't revert to 3G on its own. Once it's activated, you can set the phone to not look for a 4G signal, but you can't get to that point during the activation process.

That's all I have time for right now, but I hope that works for you. Yeah, it makes no sense, it's clumsy, and should have been foreseen. Well, my week had way bigger issues than this, so I'm no worse for the wear.

Good luck, Geri O

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You have got to be{word filter avoidance}
me. You mean that the Bionic will not activate unless you are in 4g land? 

What about the people that want to buy it and not have 4g anywhere near them......

EPIC FAIL VERIZON

[droidsw]

The techs that were able to come up with the solution are to be commended. So many times, the personnel at the stores are (no offense) clueless. Kudos to them this time.

And one has to wonder if service providers go through test activations beforehand, or if these new devices show up sight unseen.

If the latter is true, that needs to be changed.

[gerio]

Or the folks that buy the Bionic online?...

I agree, that's a mighty big ball to drop...

However, there's not been a huge uproar over it... Yet

Then again, I wonder how many people even know that the phone exists yet...

Kinda makes you go "hmmm.... ".

Anyway, I'm enjoying this one in the meantime.

Geri O

[gerio]

And to DSW's point, is it even fathomable that the activation routine was not checked for 3G compatibility? Apparently, HTC did... )

Yes, as I have mentioned, there is a really good bunch o' guys and gals at my local store. We are fortunate, no doubt.

Geri O