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Old 12-05-2005, 04:52 PM   #1
mzini
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Default So how about THIS for a problem...

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I switched several weeks ago from the 7290 to the new 8700c... absolutely love it. Then, I get this today...

I'm sitting in my office working and I realize that I haven't gotten any emails through my blackberry in a while... I notice that the signal bar has changed from my normal 'EDGE' to 'GSM'. At this point I begin thinking "oh great... here we go." So, I send myself a test email from my computer. It doesn't come through to my blackberry. If I try to send an email from my blackberry, it just sits on the "waiting" icon and doesn't send. If I try to get on either of the browsers, I get "You are in an area that currently cannot handle data." Keep in mind I live right outside the city of Pittsburgh... I've always gotten 100% signal no matter where I go (on EDGE too), and I've been a blackberry user for over a year and a half now. I also, obviously, tried rebooting my blackberry several times (even removing the battery)... and it always powers up with the same thing... just GSM.

I put a call into Cingular and they transferred me to the blackberry support team, and the tech who helped me couldn't figure out what was wrong. She checked my account - everything was good. She checked the service logs in my area - everything was good. She wrote up a report and sent it off to some advanced technician team or something... who knows how long this will take. Now I'm stuck with a blackberry that is only working as a phone. This is ticking me off. I use my blackberry constantly all-day for work.

Anyone else ever experienced something like this?
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Old 12-05-2005, 05:45 PM   #2
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Yes happens to me a lot for some reason, but it is always fixed when I turn wireless on and off. Try sending the service books again to your device...
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Old 12-05-2005, 05:47 PM   #3
uswest33
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Yes, I experienced the very same problem last week. All I did was turn the unit completely off and remove the battery and then place it back in and it has been fine ever since. Hope this works for you.
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Old 12-05-2005, 06:04 PM   #4
richard371
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This happens to a lot of my users on 72xx's. I find that if I use wirelss reconsile it does not happen.
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:07 PM   #5
mzini
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Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice. Only problem is... how can I can I send the service books to my unit since I don't have any data connection. I have tried powering off my unit and rebooting it, removing the battery, and turning the wireless on and off more times than I can count and always get the same old ugly "GSM".

Is it possible it could be a tower issue? The reason I say this is because I drove 25 miles tonight for a client meeting, and my device went back on the EDGE network, and was on it the whole time I was there. When I came home again, it went back to the GSM. I am in a very largely populated area, and the technician on the phone said that the computers were saying that everything was fine in my area. She also went and checked to see if they had any other calls like mine but there weren't any.

Any input? This is so frustrating.... I wonder how long this is going to be like this. Its now 9:00PM and it started doing this around 2:00 this afternoon (at least that is when I noticed it).
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:23 PM   #6
trstack
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If you're "sitting at your desk" why don't you just sync via the desktop manager which will automatically load any service books?

When out of the office, the ole "turn wireless off/turn wireless on" trick get's me a data connection 99% of the time.
Good Luck...
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:31 PM   #7
likefre
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mzini
Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice. Only problem is... how can I can I send the service books to my unit since I don't have any data connection. I have tried powering off my unit and rebooting it, removing the battery, and turning the wireless on and off more times than I can count and always get the same old ugly "GSM".

Is it possible it could be a tower issue? The reason I say this is because I drove 25 miles tonight for a client meeting, and my device went back on the EDGE network, and was on it the whole time I was there. When I came home again, it went back to the GSM. I am in a very largely populated area, and the technician on the phone said that the computers were saying that everything was fine in my area. She also went and checked to see if they had any other calls like mine but there weren't any.

Any input? This is so frustrating.... I wonder how long this is going to be like this. Its now 9:00PM and it started doing this around 2:00 this afternoon (at least that is when I noticed it).
My guess would br that this is a tower issue..since it works 25+ miles away from where your at...if you want you can file a report at
http://support.cingular.com/cngapp/s...ustType=AttInd

good luck!
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:32 PM   #8
mzini
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I just synced it all a little bit ago and it didnt have any effect on it... I didn't realize that syncing it pulled down the newest service books. I also did turn the wireless on and off when I was out at my meeting to see if I stayed on the EDGE network and sure enough I did.
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:34 PM   #9
likefre
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mzini
I just synced it all a little bit ago and it didnt have any effect on it... I didn't realize that syncing it pulled down the newest service books. I also did turn the wireless on and off when I was out at my meeting to see if I stayed on the EDGE network and sure enough I did.
also try with data tech support chat and explaine to them the situations...
here's the link
http://support.cingular.com/cngapp/support/index.jsp
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:41 PM   #10
mzini
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I just filed a report. I'll check the chat out too. Thanks Likefre... once again, you come to the rescue!
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Old 12-05-2005, 09:49 PM   #11
likefre
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mzini
I just filed a report. I'll check the chat out too. Thanks Likefre... once again, you come to the rescue!
good luck!..please let us know what happens
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Old 12-05-2005, 11:36 PM   #12
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I also had this same problem the first day I picked up my 8700c. Talked with one of Cingular's chat techs...waste of time. Spoke with a tech the next morning at 1.800.331.0500 and explained my problem...showing GSM at times then EDGE. She said that I needed the free data package added back on to my account. It was an option that was removed when they switched my phones the night before. When she told me that she added it back on, it immediately went from GSM to EDGE and has been great since. I cannot remember the exact name she gave for the data package but it is free and runs a little slower than EDGE...GPRS I think. Hope this helps.

Shane
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Old 12-05-2005, 11:56 PM   #13
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Reset your device by hitting alt cap del at the same time. fixes mine. it's a soft reset. not data loss
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Old 12-06-2005, 08:18 AM   #14
mzini
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Last night, around 11:30PM, all of a sudden my blackberry instantly switched back to EDGE and all of my emails from the day starting coming through. I definitely think it was a tower issue because I have a buddy who just picked up an 8700c several weeks ago as well, and he lives not even 10 minutes from my house.... last night I got a text from him saying "do you have signal my berry switched to GSM tonight and I have no data." lol.... well, it works now

Thank you all for your help!


Mark
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Old 12-20-2005, 12:40 PM   #15
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It is most certainly a tower issue that you were having. I had the worst experience ever with Cingular's tech support, at all tiers. My BB's (7290's) would switch from GPRS to GSM around our office location when we first got them. I called and spoke with Cingular bus. reps. and tech support people for over 2 months. I would tell them that a tower had to be down because of the characteristics of my situation and they would check the system and say nothing seems to be wrong. Finally I told them that I would drive around and find the tower that was down. I did. When I called back to tell them where the tower was they said again that nothing was wrong. I finally had a meeting with my bus rep, the I.T. Director, myself (systems analyst), and the Regional Manager for Cingular. I convinced them that it was in their best interest to fix the problems. They finally gave me the number to the engineers that ride around and check for these types of problems. Come to find out, surprise! the tower in question was indeed down. You see, the tech guys would check the tower and it would report that service was fine. This was true, FOR GSM/VOICE! NOT FOR DATA! I have had 17 BB's running on a BES since that day and have not had problems until today when I noticed my new BB (8700) was switching back and forth from EDGE to GSM which had me concerned that I was not switching to GPRS. My BES was showing that the 7290 users were getting emails in this area so they had to have been on GPRS. Why was mine not switching to GPRS too? I don't know and I don't care enough to ever speak to another person at Cingular. Lucky for me my BB switched back to EDGE sometime this morning and I am going to pretend that whatever the problem was it will never return; I feel fairly certain it is a network/tower issue. Many times these on again/off again situations are from Cingular having network load balancing issues and are usually worked out fairly quickly. This is the same situation as happened in this area after Katrina hit the Gulf (We are located in Alabama). Regardless, it is best to report the problem and then hope that more of you are complaining so that it will be recognized as a problem and fixed. I have discovered that it is not that Cingular doesn't have a good network, it is that the line of people they have answering phones could care less if the network is running and most of them are clueless about it all anyway. I think Cingular has been aware of this problem and that is one of the reasons for merging with AT&T Wireless; They need their customer support. At any rate, Cingular does have the best coverage and I will be sticking with them for a long time; I think, maybe, possibly.
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Old 12-22-2005, 11:13 AM   #16
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Default GSM- EDGE problem

Here is my story of GSM-EDGE problem. This all happened at me desk where I have had EDGE service uninterupted since I bought my 8700C.


I have owned my 8700C for a few weeks and this problem just started.
I noticed that I had e-mails on Outlook that had not shown up on my 8700 so I took it out to take a look. The service in the top right corner showed GSM not EDGE as it had from day 1.

I turned off the Wireless and turned it back on and this fixed the problem. A few hours later... same thing. Turning the wireless off and on fixes the problem and I am not moving the BB - this is all in my office so that rules out a signal issue.

I am not happy that I could be out and about expecting to be notified when an e-mail comes in and the GSM could pop up and I would not be getting any e-mails. I do not want to have to keep checking my BB and turning the wireless on and off to fix it.

Is this an issue anyone else is/was having? I am hoping it is temporary but it has been 2 days of this now of having to turn it off/on.

Thanks,
John
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Old 12-22-2005, 11:22 AM   #17
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This is most likely a tower issue. Cingular is making changes to their towers to support UMTS and you will experience intermitent loss of data capability while they make the changes. You are lucky in that you only lost for small periods. I lost for several days in my area. To test that, the next time it happens, don't do anything to the device, hop in your car and drive for at least 20 miles so you get to a different tower and see if the EDGE comes back on its own. In my case it was all the towers in the Riverside, CA area and once I went to the adjacent town (Corona, CA) EDGE service would reappear. By the way it took several calls to Cingular tech support before I got someone to acknowledge that the towers were undergoing changes. Their tech support is not local to you so they don't have a clue what is happening in your area unless they do a search on your zip code.
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Old 12-22-2005, 11:34 AM   #18
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Thanks barjohn,
I was confused (not the first time) because the issue occured in a spot ( my desk) where I had always had EDGE and that EDGE would return after an on/off cycling. If the tower was an issue would I not have a problem accessing EDGE at all and the cycling would not help?

THe GSM pops up and then will go away and back to EDGE after the wireless on/off cycling.

Is this the same problem you had John?

EDIT: also as it is cycling it goes from : GSM- edge- EDGE. I don't get the lowercase edge. oh well. hopefully it will work itself out. I just sent a service book again.


By the way..thanks for all you contribute to the forum, I have learned alot from you and others by reading your posts as a newbie to BB.

John

Last edited by johnfromphilly; 12-22-2005 at 11:41 AM..
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Old 12-22-2005, 11:54 AM   #19
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In my case, only physically moving the device would restore the service, but it may be that the service is not going down except intermitently in your case, unlike my case where it was down for days. Once you lose GPRS, i.e. data I'm not sure what it takes to restore a data connection other than some kind of request from your handheld. Since the handheld no longer has a data connection it can't send data requests like a registration request. In my case moving the unit and a physical handoff between towers may be enough to restore the data connection. I don't know. If someone that knows how the unit triggers a request for a data connection can chime in here please do. I know when you only have GSM you have no data connection. Without some event triggering a request like turning radio on & off or changing towers I'm not sure if it can reestablish data connection on its own.
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Old 12-22-2005, 12:44 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barjohn
In my case, only physically moving the device would restore the service, but it may be that the service is not going down except intermitently in your case, unlike my case where it was down for days. Once you lose GPRS, i.e. data I'm not sure what it takes to restore a data connection other than some kind of request from your handheld. Since the handheld no longer has a data connection it can't send data requests like a registration request. In my case moving the unit and a physical handoff between towers may be enough to restore the data connection. I don't know. If someone that knows how the unit triggers a request for a data connection can chime in here please do. I know when you only have GSM you have no data connection. Without some event triggering a request like turning radio on & off or changing towers I'm not sure if it can reestablish data connection on its own.

I just don't see why it is loosing the connection in the first place when signal strength is great and it is in a historically good EDGE area.

Thanks John,
JP
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