8800: Network Connection Drops
 

I have a first generation Blackberry 8800 from Rogers. The unit has been working flawlessly until the last 2 weeks. Lately, I've been noticing that my connection to the EDGE/GPRS network has been dropping. I wireless reconcile manually and the arrows do not indicate communication between the network as usual, i cannot send/receive pins and messages, i cannot connect to anything which obviously requires a connection to my carrier.

When this happens, I simply remove the battery and this somehow kickstarts everything to return to normal. The funny thing is nothing indicates i've lost the connection until I start wondering why I cannot surf, send messages, reconcile. That's when it clues in to me. The signal bars show full and it states EDGE but just no connectivity.

I wiped the handheld and reloaded the handheld code already. After 1 day, it happened again! Anyone experiencing this with their 8800??

I just asked this same question a couple of hours ago.hehe

Here is the reply I got. It is much better than taking out the battery.

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ion-issue.html

Two other things.

First, when I have a signal problem, sometimes simply turning the radio/wireless Off and back On fixes the problem. It's faster than the [Alt][Shift][Del] trick, and a LOT faster than a Battery Pull!

Second, I reinstalled an app (I think it was Google Maps) recently, and for some reason the Permissions got screwed up. My BlackBerry would work fine, but once I tried to use Google Maps, I would still have EDGE and get email, but none of my apps that needed a network connection worked. When I finally figured out what app was causing the problem - and I KNEW GM was well behaved - I checked out its permissions and found both Company and Carrier Network were set to Deny. Once I changed it to Allow, everything worked fine! Note that normally this won't happen - you'll be asked how you want it set the first time you run it. I think it had to do with the way I restored data / reinstalled GM, which was anything but normal!

Turning the wireless antenna on and off doesn't fix the problem for me. I checked the permissions for Google Maps and Gmail and they are as follows:

Gmail 1.1.0
- Connections: Custom
- Interactions: Custom
- User Data: Allow

Google Maps v1.5.3
- Connections: Custom
- Interactions: Custom
- User Data: Allow

Wirelessly posted (8700c: BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Did you expand connectios? Highlight it and hit [Space] to see details.

Update: Removed both Gmail and Google Maps and the handheld still seems to hang the network connection after long periods of inactivity. For example, I go to sleep and wake up in the morning with no new emails. Do a reconcile now, no directional arrows indicating communication! Remove the battery, pop back in, emails come flowing in!

Going to try another test! Wipe handheld, reload the handheld code, don't install Gmail or Google Maps at all and see what happens. Maybe the existence of those apps prior to removal somehow caused the freeze to happen still?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107 UP.Link/6.2.3.15.0)

My 8800 has dropped it's network connection AGAIN! No Gmail or Google Maps installed! This was just after a java loader wipe and handheld code reinstall this morning too! So I think this effectively rules out the Google apps causing the problems. I noticed my 8800 wasn't wirelessly reconciling so I tried it manually. No change. Clicked on my WAP Browser and it immediatelt awakened the unit and emails began pouring in. I'm ready to return this unit at this point. Anyone have any luck with consistently keeping the device up without connection loss??