Issues with 9700

I've had my BB Bold 9700 since Oct 2010, and I'm becoming increasingly irritated at the number of problems that seem to come and go.

* When I call out, I cannot hear the ringing tone; that is, I don't know if the phone is ringing at the other end,
* I cannot receive text messages from non-contacts, not even from network carrier
* The length of message (SMS) is now limited to 70 chars
* Can't upgrade OS - upgrade seems to 'lose' internet connection half-way through using cable connection (cable internet and cable connecting phone to computer). Remarkable, as I can access the internet from the same computer at the same time.

I don't agree wih having to use work arounds - it shouldn't be necessary.

I have rebooted phone countless times, before anyone asks.

So, any tips, anyone?

Network: T-Mobile (UK)

The first two problems are almost certainly carrier related - the ringing tone is an audio stream sent by the network, and unless you have added third party apps there is nothing in the phone which would filter SMS based on your contact list. This would be unlikely to occur as a result of software corruption without other more dramatic symptoms.

Length of SMS - either you have configured your phone to use a multibyte character set (like many far-east languages) or the software is corrupted. Note that you can display latin characters if the MBCS includes them, so you need to check settings (Options / Language and Text) rather than simply look at the characters you see on screen to check this.

Download the OS to your PC and install locally. A pure download-and-save is more tolerant of connection timeouts. Bandwidth sharing by your other internet access "at the same time" may be exactly what is killing the online upgrade process.

Originally Posted by branta

The first two problems are almost certainly carrier related - the ringing tone is an audio stream sent by the network, and unless you have added third party apps there is nothing in the phone which would filter SMS based on your contact list. This would be unlikely to occur as a result of software corruption without other more dramatic symptoms.

Dunno about the ringing tone, but I have been around the block more han a few times regarding SMS. Carrier's tech support peeps have tried sending test messages: although they can confirm they've been sent, I certainly never received them. They say that the phone is the problem.

Originally Posted by branta

Length of SMS - either you have configured your phone to use a multibyte character set (like many far-east languages) or the software is corrupted. Note that you can display latin characters if the MBCS includes them, so you need to check settings (Options / Language and Text) rather than simply look at the characters you see on screen to check this.

Maybe software ain't working as it should. This only happened last night, and I certainly did not change any language settings. That said, I did flip between English, French and back to English in the course of typing a message, using alt+enter. Maybe that had something to do with it?

Is there anyway of restoring the previous settings without resorting to factory settings?

Got the SMS problem fixed.

Go to Settings:
SMS

Message Options

Data Coding

set to 7-bitfor single byte chars, UCS2 for double byte chars

Voila!

A few weeks after I posted this message, I got a replacement phone, but the problem still existed.

It took an hour to deal with this over a landline, but what I had to do was
1) backup
2) wipe
3) restore bits one-by-one.

Works OK now.