I wanted to share the importance of a hack discussed here on the forum and hope it can help everyone which has similar problems.
When I received my 6700 I was having the same problems as you guys such as missed calls, unexpected backlighting, unstable OS etc.
Where I live is about 45 minutes from NYC where EVDO is operating so everyonce in awhile I would see the EV and no signal to 1xrtt and 4 bars in the top of the phone. This switching concerned me because it eats up resource in the OS.
Why this phone feels the need to go to a non signal on EV is a serious problem with the radio programming. This fluctuation (if you guys have this) will cause other stabilty issues with the phone.
After doing a search on the EV fluctuation I found a monster post by elkay which explained step by step how to fix this problem.
Quote:
I would put these in the tips and tricks section, but that thread is going to get long and these two questions are already far too common, so here's a thread with a quick answer that will be easily SEARCHABLE (hint, hint!).
To do this, you will need your MSL, which only Sprint (or your provider) can provide you. Open up the phone app and dial ##778# (PST). You will be asked to enter your MSL. Enter it, and you will be brought into the provisioning of your phone. From the top left, select Modem Settings. On this page, your Slot Cycle Index (SCI) is how often your phone polls the tower for incoming calls, etc. This value is 1.28 seconds multiplied by 2^value (i.e 0=1.28 secs, 1=2.56secs) with 0 fastest, 7 slowest. The default is 2, but lowering it to 1 hasn't noticeably affected my battery life, and roughly 2.5 second (SCI 1) response time is far more reasonable than roughly 5 seconds (SCI 2).
Also on this page is your preferred operation mode. The Default is Automatic, which is the best available mode (EV that will roll back to 1X when EV is unavailable). There are times when you might be in a fringe area and your mode may cycle frequently and this can seriously drain your battery. Setting this to HDR will force EV-DO only if you demand an EV-DO connection. Changing this setting to CDMA Only will force the phone to ignore an EV-DO tower and maintain only a 1xRTT connection.
After doing this a few days ago this made a dramatic positive impact on the phone. In fact it is so dramatic it feels like a different phone. Since doing exactly what elkay explains in the post (including SCI to one)my battery time has increased between 30-40% and I have no unexplained backlight issues. The OS is more stable and faster because the resource is no longer dedicated to finding EVDO. It charges faster as well.
Of course if you live in a EVDO area disregard this post.
As soon as EVDO becomes available here in NJ I will then go back to automatic but if it is not available then there is no reason to confuse the OS with finding EVDO when there is none.
Actually the radio should be programmed to only switch to EVDO when the signal is greater than 1xrtt (this isn't that hard). I hope this can be addressed in the next update. Elkay's post should really help those on EVDO fringe areas as well.
What did you change the setting to? HDR? How will this conflict with the "always on" tweak if you have activated it? I've seen this posted before but I like my EV to always be on...
This hack is a bit weird, I did it a month or so ago and can report long term. Changing the slot index does help and doesnt seem to lower battery life.
Changing to 1x also helps a ton, but I did change back to automatic and find that I never get the EV symbol, even when I am downtown in an EV area. Im wondering if there is some kind of permanent change?
I would expect HDR Only to cause problems. This phone needs both 1x and EV-DO (HDR) to juggle data and phone calls (which always take place on the 1x carrier).
I am sort of surprised that calls work at all with "HDR Only" selected, but anyway, it is not advisable to use that setting unless you want your PPC6700 to act as a pure data device and you are blanketed with EV-DO coverage.
"CDMA Only" is fine for those in a 1x/EV Ping-pong situation, and Automatic is the right choice for the rest of us.
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