List of droid charge problem encountered so far

Have been using the droid charge for more than a month. I have to say this is a nice phone but with lots of problems. I thought it may be useful for both Verizon/Samsung and the users to start a list of droid charge issues we encounter during daily usage, this may help to solve some of the most complained issues. Here are some that I found:

1. Unexpected reboot with no reason;

2. Screen lock-up during web browsing--need to remove battery to restart;

3. GPS takes very long time to pin down its location, sometimes takes as long as 10-mile highway driving;

4. Black screen when using camera flash, needs to remove/reinsert battery;

5. Sometimes the phone complains "no SD card inserted", but after removing battery and restart, the file system problem goes away;

6. Sometimes needs to toggle airplane mode to get 4G connection;

7. Sometimes it takes ~1 minute to load the application list after tapping the Application icon at the lower right corner of home screen;

What else?

Accepted answers

unknown

Thank you for posting your comprehensive lists of the issues you are having. Verizon Wireless is working tirelessly with Samsung to resolve these issues. Please stay tuned for software updates to resolve some of these issues. Thank you.

All comments

GreenRobot

tzhou wrote:

1. Unexpected reboot with no reason; I have only had two reboots in almost 2 months
2. Screen lock-up during web browsing--need to remove battery to restart; Nope
3. GPS takes very long time to pin down its location, sometimes takes as long as 10-mile highway driving; Not that bad
4. Black screen when using camera flash, needs to remove/reinsert battery; See link below
5. Sometimes the phone complains "no SD card inserted", but after removing battery and restart, the file system problem goes away; Nope
6. Sometimes needs to toggle airplane mode to get 4G connection; Yes I do this to
7. Sometimes it takes ~1 minute to load the application list after tapping the Application icon at the lower right corner of home screen; Nope, but I use Launcher Pro

What else?
http://community.vzw.com/t5/DROID-Charge-by-Samsung/Camera-flash-kills-shuts-down-and-locks-up-Droid-Charge/td-p/569034

nbg2

I had a couple of reboots when not expected in the space of a month. Happily, the Droid Charge reboots very very fast. I used to have to wait 10 minutes for my Blackberry to reboot. As for the other problems you mention, I have had none with my Droid Charge. But here are some irksome issues about the Samsung Droid Charge that you didn't raise:

1- Samsung MediaHub doesn't permit HDMI out. What is the point of an app by Samsung on a Samsung device that won't work with a hardware feature built into the phone. HDMI out was one of the two reasons I picked the Droid Charge over the HTC Thunderbolt.

2 - The other (MAIN) reason I picked the Charge over the TBolt was battery life. What I now find is that if I kill apps running in the background that I don't need, shut down 4G and limit myself to CDMA, shut down GPS, reduce screen brightness and stop syncing I can eke 12 hours out of the phone. But what I end up with is a phone that has telephony, limited web browsing and non-push email AND NONE OF THE GOODIES THAT MADE ME WANT TO BUY A 4G LTE Android phone. Yes, the Charge does seem to have better battery performance that the HTC Thunderbolt (and perhaps the LG Revolution), but it still isn't adequate. So, how about a REAL solution to the battery drain problem! ONE SOLUTION WOULD BE FOR SAMSUNG OR VERIZON TO PRODUCE A RECHARGEABLE HOLSTER OR A RECHARGEABLE CASE LIKE THE ONES PRODUCED BY POWER-SKIN, INC. FOR SOME OTHER DEVICES.

TXWJ

1) Charge will reboot by itself. It does this 1-2 times a week, not nearly as much as the Thunderbolt was doing (10-15 times a day)

2. Sometimes it just hangs up on a screen

3. Does not download emails and I have to reboot it to pick them up.

4. Does not always want to play nice with Ford Sync, getting it to stream audio is sometimes a challenge and then other times it does not want to connect to make a call.

5. There are many apps that are not supported which suprises me on such a new device, you would think that it would be able to handle netfilx and others. It is the best device they sell right now.

unknown

colfrmb2

I had the Tbolt for a couple of months. Went through a couple of them to the point where I wasn't even bothering to personalize my rings, etc. I noticed similar issues as you are describing for the Charge...rebooting spontaneously, GPS not locking on, calls dropping,etc. I started living with the Tbolt in spite of its quirks although I would get really mad when my phone would reboot during a business call. But last week I went out of town and the GPS didn't work at all. Not at all. I went into a Verizon store and the store manager said "oh, it should always say searching for GPS because it is always searching..." RIght. And he was "surprised" that my phone reboots itself. After staring at my phone for a while, he did suggest getting another phone to which I readily agreed.

Oh, my gosh, I had to laugh when he told me that he would NOT ship me a phone to my hotel or the office where I was working and I would have to wait until I got home because "these are very expensive phones". (who paid for the dang thing? I know who - me!) I asked if I could call tech support to get this resolved and he said no that I would need to come into a store and they would go through the whole trouble shooting process again with me. UGH!!!

So when I got home, I went straight to a Verizon store and I let them have my phone while I browsed the store and they said they would get me another phone - a different phone - a Samsung Charge which they said would be HUGELY better. I had the extended length battery on the Tbolt and they gave me a comparable battery for the Charge. It comes to my house tomorrow and I hope it is okay. But I have to laugh because many of your gripes were mine with the Tbolt.

So... is it the newer versions of the Android OS or the 4G network? Certainly two different manufacturers would have the same bugs in their logic. My original Droid didn't have these problems except I dropped it in water and it died. But that was a good phone compared to the Tbolt.

NoqturnalX

SammuelP wrote:
Thank you for posting your comprehensive lists of the issues you are having. Verizon Wireless is working tirelessly with Samsung to resolve these issues. Please stay tuned for software updates to resolve some of these issues. Thank you.

Good Luck, As for the Guy who had the TBolt. Sorry to hear that dude. My sister just picked one of those up and she loves it. No problems yet. I have had my Charge since last Wed and love it as well. But unfortunately for me mine came with a bad battery which I got replaced today. The battery had difficulty maintaining a charge so it'd die within 6 hours with very little use. My sister's Thunderbolt outlasted my charge lol. But now that's all resolved I have a new battery and am getting better battery life out of it. Sometimes there's a bad apple in the fruit basket and with the pressure these OEM's feel to push out more of these phones maybe some thngs get rushed or things that barely pass QoS wich should call for a re-check get by unnoticed.

I did notice something interesting though today while I was in Koreatown. There's 4G but no 3G. They have a CDMA network (where I was at) but no Ev-DO networks. SO my choices were just CDMA & LTE. If I locked my Droid Charge into CDMA Only (Where i'd assume it'd pick up the Ev-DO 3G network) it would only place calls. No internet connectivity. Weird. First time i've ever seen that. Maybe it was the heat. It was pretty hot out today

HoustonHeart

My first unit was quarked. It wouldn't charge or hodl a charge. Replaced it and all is fine. THe other family models are ok (knock on wood).

My second unit I got is fine. It has rebooted before the manually applied EE4 update a coupel times on me. Nothing major. I get strong 4g/3g connectiosn in the main areas, except in bad general cell areas. Now I actually get better phone reception, and chance of 3g in those areas over my old Droid 2 global which got nothing at all out there.

GPS is ok. It is better then my Tom Tom which I hated becuase all 3 models I tried took several minutes at times to lock the satellite, the phone seems to grab it within 15 seconds.

Like most droids, I HATE THE BLOATWARE.

stonleet

1. Unexpected reboot with no reason; Yes this has happened to me a few times normally inside an application.

6. Sometimes needs to toggle airplane mode to get 4G connection; Yes, I've seen this.

7. Sometimes it takes ~1 minute to load the application list after tapping the Application icon at the lower right corner of home screen; also the home screen takes a bit to load up the more icons you have on it and the other pages.

What else?

8. Doesn't stay connected via bluetooth to Ford Sync (disconnects after 1 minute)

droidorbb

Hi. I hope this is true. I have been holding on to my Blackberry Tour because the Droid Charge seems to have so many issues, like what has been listed here. The Blackberry required far fewer steps to accomplish the most simple of tasks. I had to take my battery out at least 3 times today after trying to take photos.

One issue I didn't see listed, that I continue to experience is that sometimes when I call out I can't hear the phone ringing or any type of noise indicating it is connected. yet, it is ringing on the other end to the person I called. They can't hear me, and I can't hear them, yet we are connected.

Once I am past my 14 days from purchase, what are my options to return the phone for full money back? How long do you guess until Verizon resolves these many issues?

ccvine

Purchased 2 Charge phones

After about day 7 had an issue took phone back and they gave me a new one

2 days later while on the phone received a LOUD AIR HORN SQUELCHING SOUND and could no longer receive or make calls. All it would do is make the noise when you tried to call out or receive a call… took into verizon who said that was the first time they had seen/heard that noise on the charge, they checked all settings pulled battery put back in and it worked..

4 days later while on the phone received the LOUD AIR HORN SQUELCHING SOUND AGAIN this time I am not pulling my battery it’s going back I have 1 day left of my 14 days and getting rid of it. And to top it off, my husband who had not had any problems with his did tonight, we were on the phone and guess what we received a weird noise and he could hear me but I could no longer hear him, he called his daughter and the same thing he can hear her but she cannot hear him, I called verizon who checked his phone line and could not see a problem but did document it, we had him pull the battery and presto it worked, I’m sorry but this is ridiculous.

For the money we are paying for these phones we should not have to keep pulling the batteries.

Griff5561

Concur with nearly all problems described by author. Last night had to pull battery to end call since icons were totally unresponsive. Device seems to be increasingly lethargic responding to touch.

thoruton

Purchased Phone at the beginning of June and I am currently on my 4th Phone!!! It keeps losing connection. Phone and Texting continue to work but loses the 3G or 4g at one point in Vegas. At first it would just need a soft reset now with the last 2 it lasts 2 weeks then justs will stop working. Many hard resets and a new Sim card and still same issue. So last time they tell me they will give me new phone, I consider the Revalution but they will not credit me the price difference or exchange any of the accessories so I now sit waiting on a trouble ticket to see what they find.

Also find this phone loses calls and much less reception then my original phone, people complain about it phasing in and out. I asked why there wasn;t a trouble ticket done after phone 3......no one knows. Not happy .

wcadwell

1- will be talking to somone and call goes dead but is still connected.. i.e. i can't hear them they can not hear me. have been to store 3x in a wk because of this. they updated, totally reset and now have me a warrantied replacement on way.. (i am unhappy i paid 300 for a phone and the warranty replacement is a refurbish not new one and i have to wait a week to recieve it unless i choose to pay for shipping).

2- will reboot at times on its own

3- will not accept touches at times and other times goes bezerk from screen and app to screen and app on its own.

wcadwell

2- will reboot at times on its own

3- will not accept touches at times and other times goes bezerk from screen and app to screen and app on its own.

DJP

1. The battery life of the Droid Charge is terrible. I have tried all of the suggested fixes and the battery still won't last more than 8 hours. I had a Motorola Droid before and used it the same amount. The old phonse would last at least a day with the original battery.

2. The massive amount of pre-installed bloatware makes me never want to buy a Samsung again.

3. The battery life is terrible in the Droid Charge (I am saying it twice becasue it is that bad).

gemro311

I'm on my 4th Charge ..yes I was totally frustrated and was ready to make a switch to not only another phone..but leave Verizon altogether .. But they worked with me to resolve my issues...data issues , reboots etc.. This 4th phone has been as I originally thought it would be ...

As far as all the Crapware on here..yea its pityful....but its VERIZON doing not Samsung.. think about it ..all the galaxy android phones on T-Mo and Sprint all running plain Vanilla Android ...none on VERIZON . I spoke to a Samsung marketing person and she told me flat out it was VERIZON ...think also about what they did with the Fascinate...They pit Bing on it.

Battery life on here is about 15 hrs...Can your laptop do that ? Don't think so.

I don't know what apps you have or what's running in the background... if you are having that many concerns I suggest you talk to Tech and see if they can help..Nicely !
.

HollyLouise

It seems common contributor(s) for me when the rebooting happens:

1) phone is hot!

2) my connection is precarious. Just returned home after traveling a long time in many areas with often tenuous connectivity.

3) When using Google Maps.

Either 2) or 3) but in any case, the phone becomes hot in my hands. Phone gets hot, I assume, when I'm asking it to do "a lot" while connectivity is poor or weak, or when it is just plain hot... currently it is 103 degrees and I was outside for just a few minutes looking at a website video clip, the unit froze on the page, I could not exit or do anything, and suddenly the phone rebooted itself. (Fully charged battery, btw.)

Note: Change since arriving home, my city how has 4G, but this was rarely the case while traveling this summer.I have a great connection at home. However, since 4G I'm noticing it takes longer to render the screen when I go to list apps or go from screen to screen.

This same problem, plus the phone going black and requiring battery-pull to fix was an issue with my first Droid Charge. This camera problem has not recurred since phone was replaced.

Elitist_Jerk

In this thread: Android OS problems.

Missing from this list, droid charge specific problems.

dabricks85

I TRULY BELIEVE THAT LAST UPDATE REALLY DID SOMETHING TO THE AUDIO, CAUSE IT DOES DROP ON ME TO I CAN HEAR WHO I'M TALKING TO FINE BUT THEY CAN'T HEAR ME ON THE OTHER END THEY SAY IT'S LIKE I'VE HUNG UP ON THEM OR IT GOES SILENT ON THEY END, AND IT DID MAKE A VERY STRANGE SOUND ON ME A COUPLE OF TIMES I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING I DISCONNECT AND TRY TO MAKE ANOTHER CALL AND THE SOUND STAYS THE SAME ONLY WHEN I TURN THE PHONE OFF AND REBOOT IT THAT IT DOES OK BUT THIS IS GETTING VERY TIRED SOME, I TOOK IT TO A COUPLE OF STORES HERE IN TALLAHASSEE AND THEY SAY I HAVE TO BRING THE PHONE TO THEM WHEN IT'S MAKING THAT NOISE OR GOES SILENT BUT WHO THE HELL KNOWS WHEN IT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO ME I MEAN **bleep** I MOSTLY USE MY PHONE AT NIGHT AND IT DOESN'T HAPPEN ALL THE TIME, THEY KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON I JUST HOPE IT DOESN'T TAKE THEM TO LONG TO FIX THIS PROBLEM CAUSE I REALLY DO LIKE THIS PHONE

crashma920

My issues:

Bluetooth disconnects
Phone drops from EVDO multiple times a day
Modem sounds with incoming calls intermittently. Does not correct until battery pull.
Power cycles
Drops calls
Voicemail indicator disappears and doesnt vome back until battery pull.. Then shows date 12-31-2004 for the voicemail
Call waiting doesnt work intermittently

i've had it replaced 3 times and want out of android itself. VZW tells me I can get another replacement due to issues not being known. I've also had the SIM replaced twice. I'm frustrated and fed up.

LOUcifer

I'm on my 3rd Charge!! I have lost ALL faith in this phone AND Verizon to provide their subcribers with a functional consumer product.

I have decided to have Verizon WASTE hundreds of $$$ on shipping costs and equipment costs and just have them replace this crappy piece of equipment until they realize they spent WAAAAAAAAYYYYY more $$$ in equipment and shipping then just replacing my phone with a different model.

I have also expressed my disgust and dissatisfaction of this unit on multiple sites in an attempt to warn others from making the same mistake I made by purchasing the Samsung Charge.

I have already dissuaded 3 co-workers with iPhones away from this phone and away from Verizon due to Verizon's arrogance and refusal to admit there are obvious operational issues with the Droid Charge and Verizon's inability to make their subscribers happy and provide their subcribers with quality customer service or quality equipment.

It is all a matter of time before I cancel my 6yr stint with Verizon and go with a carrier that is more willing to satisfy their customers.

thecybernerd

Totally agree this phone is a piece of **bleep**! I am on number 4!

Elitist_Jerk

LOUcifer wrote:
I'm on my 3rd Charge!! I have lost ALL faith in this phone AND Verizon to provide their subcribers with a functional consumer product.

I have decided to have Verizon WASTE hundreds of $$$ on shipping costs and equipment costs and just have them replace this crappy piece of equipment until they realize they spent WAAAAAAAAYYYYY more $$$ in equipment and shipping then just replacing my phone with a different model.

I have also expressed my disgust and dissatisfaction of this unit on multiple sites in an attempt to warn others from making the same mistake I made by purchasing the Samsung Charge.

I have already dissuaded 3 co-workers with iPhones away from this phone and away from Verizon due to Verizon's arrogance and refusal to admit there are obvious operational issues with the Droid Charge and Verizon's inability to make their subscribers happy and provide their subcribers with quality customer service or quality equipment.

It is all a matter of time before I cancel my 6yr stint with Verizon and go with a carrier that is more willing to satisfy their customers.

Maybe you should buy an iphone yourself.. it might be easier for you

Verizon is a wireless provider, they don't make the SAMSUNG charge.. so when you switch carriers remember don't buy SAMSUNG because they don't work for you. Also try to call SAMSUNG and see if they will give you an HTC phone for your warranty replacement.. please report back your results

crashma920

I've written an email to vzw about this and have requested to get out of this device. I've been told that they will replace it with the same device. Theyve told me that this phone has no known issues and to stop looking for issues. I feel that I paid good money for this phone and pay $130 for 1 line. I should have a working phone with minimal issues. If I have multiple duplicatable issues something should be done besides throwing me another pos refurbished phone that has the same issues!

Aqua009

I've been having with the SD card (32 GB) that came with the phone. I had to re-format it twice and now it won't reformat at all.

AntonioC_VZW

dabricks85 wrote:
I TRULY BELIEVE THAT LAST UPDATE REALLY DID SOMETHING TO THE AUDIO, CAUSE IT DOES DROP ON ME TO I CAN HEAR WHO I'M TALKING TO FINE BUT THEY CAN'T HEAR ME ON THE OTHER END THEY SAY IT'S LIKE I'VE HUNG UP ON THEM OR IT GOES SILENT ON THEY END, AND IT DID MAKE A VERY STRANGE SOUND ON ME A COUPLE OF TIMES I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING I DISCONNECT AND TRY TO MAKE ANOTHER CALL AND THE SOUND STAYS THE SAME ONLY WHEN I TURN THE PHONE OFF AND REBOOT IT THAT IT DOES OK BUT THIS IS GETTING VERY TIRED SOME, I TOOK IT TO A COUPLE OF STORES HERE IN TALLAHASSEE AND THEY SAY I HAVE TO BRING THE PHONE TO THEM WHEN IT'S MAKING THAT NOISE OR GOES SILENT BUT WHO THE HELL KNOWS WHEN IT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO ME I MEAN **bleep** I MOSTLY USE MY PHONE AT NIGHT AND IT DOESN'T HAPPEN ALL THE TIME, THEY KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON I JUST HOPE IT DOESN'T TAKE THEM TO LONG TO FIX THIS PROBLEM CAUSE I REALLY DO LIKE THIS PHONE

Hi dabricks85,

I understand your discontent. I would be frustrated if my phone did not perform as expected after a software update. As per your post, the audio issue you're experiencing is sporadic and does not happen all the time. My resources indicate that performing a Droid Charge Factory Reset has resolved similar issues for other customers after a software update. Please follow instructions on the link provided to perform a factory reset as it may resolve the issues you are experiencing.

Please keep in mind that performing a hard reset will remove ALL data including the Google account, system data, application data, application settings, and downloaded applications.

dabricks85

THANK YOU I'M WILLING TO TRY ANYTHING AT THIS POINT , I'LL REPOST IF IT WORKS OUT FOR ME

dabricks85

1 QUESTION THO DO I NEED TO REMOVE MY SIMM CARD BEFORE I DO THIS FACTORY RESET ?

dwanger

I have replaced it 2 times already and they sent me 3 replacement which I am not going to accept because it is refurbished and not new. This was within 14 days of my last new replacement. I have been offered another phone with a $60 credit, but I want a 4g phone and there is nothing that currently competes with the package if it actually worked.

First phone. Horrible reception for phone and data in my house. Showed no service. Terrible reception on all of the phones in a part of Austin that I frequently go to as has the current one.

Second phone. Better service, but not as good as my old voyager. Wouldn't connect to my computer or to my TV.

Third phone. Screen flickers. When it is powered off cannot repower up unless you keep taking the battery out and trying it several times. Screen flickers after password, bad service again, not quite as bad as the first. Still cannot connect to TV but can to computer.

And tech support says they are so sorry, haven't heard of any problems. . . .

All that being said, when it works, I love it.

crashma920

Thats exactly it. The phone works great... When it works. Its about 75% working time 25% defective. I figure for such an expensive phone and an expensive plan that the ratio should be much much less!

TominqueBo_VZW

Hello dabricks85,

You do not have to remove the sim card before you complete a factory reset. Please keep in mind this step will erase everything on the device so please back up prior if desired. Please let me know if you have any additional questions and or concerns. Thank you.

tcgkikid

I keep losing my 3G/4G on my Samsung Charge. I've taken it in to the stores and after they spend a good amount of time on the phone with Tech Support, I just get told they haven't heard of this (yet I see it on here from others...) and that I need a factory reset..... But I'm having to do this every few days and its quite annoying! I am lucky that I have at least had the chance to get my pics off the SD card but I am going all day with no data/internet/ability to download text pics. I pay for this!

Tired of having to re-download all of my apps. They told me the problem may be when I move between 4G and 3G areas but I am not doing a factory reset of my phone every time I leave town. Ridiculous!

It also will reboot randomly, mostly in the middle of the night, waking me up, annoying.

The screen will be unresponsive to touch.

The camera will not turn off, gets stuck (in functioning) camera mode but will not leave the program by hitting Home, back, will not turn off, etc until the battery is removed.

I have also noticed that this phone gets horrible 3G reception in my house where it was not so bad with my last phone, the Motorola Droid. Phone ususally has to be placed in the window to send data or get messages. Didn't have this problem before.

My screen flickers... a lot.

My phone will also send old text messages to friends.... usually around 2 in the morning. They are messages I sent days or weeks before. Friends are growing impatient with this issue haha.

There's all the problems off the top of my head!

unknown

Aqua009 wrote:
I've been having with the SD card (32 GB) that came with the phone. I had to re-format it twice and now it won't reformat at all.

Thanks for posting. I can understand why you are having issues with your card. Have you tried a different SD card in your phone (besides the one that you have reformatted twice)? Thanks.

crashma920

Now on number 4. Just activated this one last night. Will not take a charge while talking on the phone. Overheated and burnt my leg while it was on the charger and I was talking. I understand a phone gets warm when you're talking and charging, but it should not burn my leg. Burns through batteries quickly. I've tried two batteries and two chargers. Same thing happens. Unbelievable! Verizon has nothing but good to say about this phone. I have lost patience and refuse another replacement for the Charge. Don't stick me with a 5th Charge, don't downgrade me to the Revolution and screw the Thunderbolt and all its glitches. Get a stable phone!!

TGDB

1. Slow. There is almost always considerable lag in everything I do. I have tinkered with other peoples "less advanced" android devices and they are formula 1 race cars compared to this thing.

2. Locks up frequently.

3. Horrible battery life. With minimal use I often have to recharge my phone half way through the day if I want to make it to bed without it dying on me.

4. Double texts. I often receive double text messages and I have heard that I sometimes send them too.

5. Outdated version of android. 2.2.1? This is supposed to be the latest greatest phone, why is it running on such an outdated version of Android? There is an unofficial release of 2.3.4 floating around on the internet but I am not really excited to void my warranty. When is Verizon going to get the official version distributed?

6. Volume settings change themselves. The system volume (clicks and startup sound) keeps turning itself all the way up. Very annoying. The in call volume kept turning itself way down making it hard to hear people when I first answered calls. Also annoying.

7. Phone gets hot. I will notice my phone getting hot just sitting in my pocket when I am not using it. And it gets really hot when charging, especially in the car.

8. Takes forever to restart.

9. GPS takes forever to acquire position, if it ever does.

10. Email does not push through to phone. I did a factory reset and it worked for about half a day, then it quit pushing again. I only receive email when I open the app and manually refresh my inboxes.

WCMack

Perhaps you should take it back and get a different phone. Droid Bionic perhaps?

LenaA_VZW

Thank you to the community for the information provided.

crashma920, I understand your discontent with the Droid Charge. We recommend not making calls while the device is charging which will cause the battery to overheat. Verizon Wireless is working with Samsung to resolve these issues. Please stay tuned for updates to resolve some of these issues. Thank you.

thestand

Ran into a new problem...

While in a phonecall and I have to input numbers, I hit the DialPad and the screen shuts off. If I move the phone the screen will reactivate for about 1 sec then shut back off. I can't even input a number before the screen shuts down. Called tech support and got a new phone today and it does the same thing. Was on the phone with Samsung and they said that there may be a problem with the screen and the proximity sensor.

droidcharge1996

Constant reboots, Phone resetting itself, Poor battery life, Dropped calls, Screen flicker.

yourbrokenoven

The screen locks up frequently, but I simply mash the power button to turn the screen off, then mash it again to turn back on and it becomes responsive again. It's not that bad of a bug as your version.

But man, the GPS. I can almost never get a GPS fix. Google maps is practically useless. Clear skies, and it just sits there jumping around. My original droid pinpoints the location almost instantly. I've tried toggling off and then on the three location services in various combinations, and I've even tried pure GPS, and it will simply not find my location unless I drive around 20 or 30 minutes.

Sounds very similar to the problems plaguing earlier samsung android phones. I thought they'd have that bug fixed by now. Lesson learned. Avoid Samsung phones. They make decent televisions, though.

stevecohanv

My Samsung Charge has worked prettly flawlessly. However, I am also experiencing call problems. I can hear the other party but they cannot hear me. They do hear weird noises from my phone. This usually occurs after speaking for a long period of time. I tried hanging up and redialing but that did not cure the problem. I perform a restart that takes care of the issue.

Jromomam

This phone does not maintain a data connection. My wife will be surfing away on her droid 2 and my phone is a brick. I love the idea of the phone but it is a the worst piece of technology I have ever owned. I am frustrated. I want out.

AntonioC_VZW

Jromomam wrote:
This phone does not maintain a data connection. My wife will be surfing away on her droid 2 and my phone is a brick. I love the idea of the phone but it is a the worst piece of technology I have ever owned. I am frustrated. I want out.

Hi Jromomam,

I understand your discontent; I'd be frustrated if my phone didn't connect to the internet. Try Removing and Re-inserting Sim Card as this has resolved data connection issues for other customers. Keep us posted.

chrismachowski

That will not work as I have done that many times now and cleaned the sim per tech support. The first time this happened as well as the reboot problems, screen problems, call problems battery problems and many more, they sent me another phone after of course telling me that it must just be me. Now I am having the same problems 2 months later. I cannot keep logged on to the internet because connection problems and I will be sitting in down town Dallas TX where it is 4G. When my phone does a reboot it will take sometimes 30-40 min to restart. This morning it took 37 min to restart. When I am dialing a phone# the screen freezes and I have to wait before continuing to type in the #. It really is frustrating because I am an otr driver and the maps and gps is how I get around but I can't use it if the phone reboots like it has been 4 and 5 times a day. Somebody needs to fix the problems. I am ready to cancel service with them because of all the problems that I am having. There is really no point of paying for service you can hardly use.

macsac

I was wondering if anybody has tried rooting their phone and solved most of the their problems. I do realized I will void my warranty or even render my phone useless if i did this but iam running out of options for right now.

JeffCinVA

We have been with ZVW for more than a decade now and my wife with her Samsung Charge is ready to quit on them immediately. She relies on her phone as much or more than most. She is now on her second Charge and it is worse than the previous. She has many of the same problems as a previous poster with no end in sight. For $300 this is insane!

Any suggestions?

1. Dropped calls.

2. Random reboot.

3.Sudden battery drain

4.WiFi weak. I can be 10 feet away from an access point and I only get 1 dot of strength.

5. Wireless data connection all over the place. I can have 3G then drops to 1X. I reboot then I have 4G.

6Takes as long as 10 secs to respond after starting an app or trying to make a call.

OVERit

I wish I were your friend and you could have steered me away from this awful phone and verizon. I changed because my family was on verizon. I have wasted so much time and too many trips to the verizon store making them address issues becasue I can't call or call and people can't hear me or they get a static or the call is garbled or it sounds like I'm calling a fax number. I'm on my 2nd Charge, unfortuneately had to pay another $100 for an insurance replacement and this phone sucks just as bad as the one that was stolen.

OVERit

Who wants to do a DROID charge factory reset all the time so we have to continually reset our phones to work the way we want them to work. I saved 6 months to get a smart phone and paid too much flippin' money for this phone to warrant a stop to the nearest Verizon store because my phone's not working right. time and time and time again.

loudclutch

I hate the Samsung cahrge Too...

Well I purchased my Charge on the 4th of July to be grandfathered on an unlimited data plan. We combined 2 lines from ATT with 2 exisitng with Verizon and added 1 more line for a total of 5 phones. ~ $325 per month.

My timing was very bad as the only 4g phones were the Thunderbolt and the Charge. After comparisons I chose the Charge for $300 + accessories including a doc with spare battery. All in over $400 on this phone.

My $400 has got me:

About 2 weeks of initial satisfactory service. Just long enough to get thorught the exchange period. Huh!

The timing of features and phones are orchestarted to get the most out of the current shoppers and sweeten the deal for future customers, current customers seem to be stuck once you sign and Verizon seems fine with poorly performing products disgruntled customers as long as there is lots of contract time left.

After 2 weeks I noticed the GPS was taking longer and longer to get a lock. This feature degrated to the point today where we use my son's Droid X. It has a newer OS and is a reliable phone.

Then I noticed the network drops. I kept getting errors that the netwotk was unavailable. Huh!

I'm conected according to the icon. At first turning off the data and then turning it back on would work. Then I had to resort to toggling airplane mode. Now I need to reboot sometimes multiple times and even then a data connection is not a givin.

Then there are the phone calls where I answer and I can hear the caller but I'm dead to them. This is less frequent but ever as much frustrating.

Then came the freezing and locking up which can only be remedied by removing the battery.

My Charge has degraded in 4 months to a dumbphone. I need to borrow my son's phones when I need a smart phone.

I have reset to factory defaults 3 times and each time the same sequence unfolds. Gradual degradtion to an unusable point.

I tired to wait out the vaporware that is Gingerbread for Charge hoping that bug fixes would be made, then, yesterday my phone spazzed on GPS, data and then locked up again. My son's Droid X got us to our destination but it became clear the Charge has to go. Today I called and accepted the warranty swap out, and I expect the delivery on Monday. I'm not too confident that this is the proper course of action but I do need a functioning phone.

Worst phone ever...

pjohanna

It is amazing that everyone is going through the same thing and VZW doesn't come up with a reasonable solution other than sending refurbished products that were sent in for the same reason. It is a vicious circle of rotating trash amongst us.

droidsw

No, what is amazing is that this thread could have been about the Droid X, X2, Thunderbolt, Bionic, etc.

These issues cross manufacturer and phone model lines and I have friends who had Android phones on other carriers, so the common denominator is the OS.

I still have my Droid X, but I will be looking at other non-Android options come upgrade time.

Doesn't help you with your Charge.

Jeremyfl

Figured I would chime in with my issues. I received this phone after having my HTC Thunderbolt replaced about 9 times (constant reboots), Verizon finally let me change to a different model. At the time I believe this was the only other 4gmodel available, what a mistake should have kept the Thunderbolt! Ok my issues;

1. Crazy things when I charge my phone. It will call my voicemail randomely, change my settings, turn bluetooth and wifi on, it changed my keyboard, amd just today it started deleting pictures.

2. This phone is slooooowwwwww! Takes forever to load an app if it loads.

3. Constantly freezing and crashing. It does it all the time could be trying to text, use camera, view pictures, make a call, etc etc"

4. Battery life is horrible, if I turn off the data connection i can get through the day. But if I do that why have a smart phone and pay for internet?

5. Data connection is gery unreliable. I lose 4g and even 3g constantly.

6. GPS is pretty much non existent, by the time the GPS is located I have already arrived at my destination.

It seems every Android based phone I have had has had some type of major issue! I am also getting very fustrated with Verizon itself, anytime I speak with customer service it is the same routine; restart phone, remove sd card, remove sim card, hard reset, factory reset, remove apps. I actually had a rep tell me one time that I should be doing a factory reset once a month. Excuse me I should have to wipe out my phone once a month and reinstall everything, that is ridiculous.

Something has got to change!

manleys

You are right, but instead of pulling the phone from the market they lowered the price to $9.99 and decided to flood the market with them, My 3G HTC Incredible was so much faster than this phone that it is just silly. I lost my Incredible so I decided to "upgrade". Ha, joke was on me.

And yes, have experienced everything you mentioned plus I forgot to mention the screen now changes brightness settings on me at random. I set screen brightness then go to an app. 5 seconds later I can barely see screen so I have to navigate by memory and get to brightness setting and it is set way down. I did this 5 times last night before it decided to stay. WTH?

I also agree that if the phone doesn't work like advertised from the factory, wiping a phone once or twice a month is NOT the answer. And don't tell me to turn this or that off or to reset this or that or not use this or that. Those are band aides that get you by until they replace defective equipment, unfortunately the refurbished Charges they send you are just as defective...so now what?

Jeremyfl

I had no idea they lowered the price to $9.99, to me that is an indication that they know this phone is a piece of crap. I just got off the phone with Verizon and they are sending a replacement charge,will take 5 days wth. I told them that I had about 8 HTC thunderbolts before they acknowledged the problem and let me change model. That will not happen again, I will be contacting the FCC!

Sent from my iPad

Kanderson009

well I have all the same problems listed and just spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to get a different model and brand. But no luck. They are sending out a new one tomorrow. I will wait a week or two and call them again to try and get it replaced the phone with a better phone from different brand!

I have a feeling that even with a new phone, it's the actual model and brand doing this. I don't think this is just my phone, unless 90% of the phone off the factory are defective!

I just want a new phone!

ninjuh

I'm having pretty much all of the same issues and my Droid Charge was a replacement for my Thunderbolt issues. I agree, I should've stayed with the Thunderbolt regardless of how Verizon states that their "refurbished devices go through a 100 point inspection" - this tells me Verizon's satisfaction with their own phones is complete trash.

I bought my way out of my old contract and renewed early because I had a DROID2 Global that had constant issues and was replaced about 12 times. At this point, I purchased my Thunderbolt. I didn't have a problem until around November when it would eat a battery within an hour. It needed to constantly be charged. So they sent me this Charge (which I didn't want).

Here's my issues:
1. Texting concerns: When I start texting someone, it locks up and sometimes force closes. Other times, I'll be in the middle of texting and it'll start inputting random words but keeps the original I typed. Other times, it'll just error out when I try to send it.

2. Audio Quality: I was quite pleased with the back speaker - thought it sounded pretty good until a few days after getting it. Now the sound quality is choppy and sounds like the speaker itself blew just from using the speakerphone functionality.

3. Media Player: Running the media player is like nails on a chalkboard. I can't ever change the audio settings (audio effects) and it seems to like force closing itself. Freezes, lags, and skips in songs that were purchased (good quality)...

4. Cellular Connectivity: When I'm at work, I have 4GLTE with no problem. It's a constant connection. At home, it switches to 3G and has full service, then switches to 4G with full service for no apparent reason. I noticed this problem was also affecting calls and data connectivity. I thought turning off the 4GLTE/CDMA mode would help and just leaving it on CDMA mode but now the data connectivity has become unstable and often at times freezes the phone when opening the browser. Not to mention, now that it's on 3G where I have FULL SERVICE even with 4G I'm dropping calls left and right. People are complaining that I'm breaking up and I'll notice the phone has switched to 1X or even no indication of service at all. "BOOP" is all I hear - then it auto-redials. I'm also getting a lot of notices from friends/family/coworkers/bosses/etc that when they call it'll go straight to voicemail but I have full service.... A lot of times, I have 0 missed calls. It doesn't make sense to me.

5. Connecting to a PC: The USB connection is faulty. Often at times it doesn't even notice it's been plugged in. I have to restart the phone and that won't help it either.

There are quite a few more but I don't want to rant and rave on here, I'll save that for the technical representative I speak with later on this evening when I'm out of work. I've never had this many problems with a device within such a short time frame.

Resolution: Verizon, it's simple... stop pumping out crap that you state is a "100-point inspected device" that's "Like New" when it doesn't meet standards... and fix this issue. I'll be calling them later tonight cause I'm tired of having this phone and I've only had it for about 2 weeks. If I can't text, use data, or talk on it... why have service with a company that can't follow their 100% Satisfaction Guarantee?

Jeremyfl

So received my new/refurbished phone yesterday. Activated it around 6:30pm or so so far it has been dropping data connection. The problem when charging occured again. This is suppose to be a brand new/refurbished phone that has been quality checked, umm yeah sure!

So I go to the Verizon store to see what they can do, the rep accesses his computer and says we need to do a master reset/restore. I explain again I just received, activated, and have had the phone less than 24 hours! He says well we have to do this, I kindly explain no I do not! Again less than 24 hours.

I have been with Verizon a few years, my wife just upgraded (yesterday) to an iphone 4s, i have had 2 bad models of phones, and I pay them about $200/month! I demand this to be fixed, I suppose my only recourse is to file a complaint with the FCC!

kj1060

Count me in on the static when receiving calls. Not exactly the best first smartphone experience.

joejr

They wouldn't send me a NEW phone. They said all they can send is a refurb.

Ann154

That is standard policy. Your phone is also now a used phone. So they send certified pre-owned replacements.

JerryF

EVERYBODY,

I just scanned all 7 pages of posts want to ask you to try the following and tell me if it helped.

Leave the phone on and remove the battery for 15 minutes then put it back in and start the phone. Plug in the charger. Next, re-boot you phone THREE MORE times in a row. Continue leaving the charger plugged in and test the various "things" that were causing your problems. If the phone now works, at the minimum, go get a NEW battery. By the way I do hope you have both GB 2.3.6 and the latest FP1 update installed on your Charge phone.

If this does not fix your phone think about how the owner of the BlackBerry shown below fixed his or her problem. JUST KIDDING on this idea but a little humor sometimes helps.

JerryF

Squeekers

For whatever it may be worth, I seem to have fixed the intermittent staticy, broken speaker sound on my phone (or improving it drastically at least) by putting a check mark on "noise reduction" under call settings. It wasn't checked before.

srdean37

I couldn't agree more! The phone is aptly named as it seems all I do is charge it. I've taken it to the local Verizon store three times. Even after shutting down programs running, it's just as pathetic. I'm told that's just the way it is; it wasn't designed well. Well, I didn't expect it to be worse than the Droid Incredible (or "Not So Incredible" as I called it). I am thoroughly disgusted. I'm stuck with this phone until December 2013 so I guess I have no option but to buy an extra battery--yet more funds out after paying a good price for the phone even with a contract and buying a charger I can plug the phone into when I'm at a restaurant instead of having to look for an outlet, which was getting embarrassing at one or two of my regular hangouts. I actually started looking in to getting an additional phone from AT&T.

RedneckDad

My Droid Charge worked great at first.

With each software update, it seemed to encounter new problems.

Now,

a)I lose my Data network completely for long periods.

b) My data won't download, even though I have 4G service.

c) My phone will freeze up when I am calling.

d) The contents of my contact list will disappear.

e) The bluetooth will randomly not transmit to my car system.

f) It will take 5+ minutes to find GPS location, even out in the open.

g) About every third call drops, usually not completely, just my outgoing voice transmission.

The problems are becoming more frequent, and the problem (c) is almost a few times a day.

I hate this phone, and if Verizon does not figure out a way to fix it, I am moving myself and my family as the contracts expire. Verizon used to be consistently good and address problems when they knew of them, but they must have known of this one for a while.

Verizon_Support

Wow RedneckDad. It definitely sounds like you've had more than your fair share of trouble with the Charge. I want to fix this for you, because I truly don't want you and your family to leave us. There's a few things that come to mind to resolve the trouble you've described:

1) Check to make sure you have the most recent software available. There's been a lot of great updates meant to resolve many of the problems you've described. http://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/devices/index.html?p=5642&m= and select "Software Update" to see what the latest version is and how to update your device.

2) Enable Data on the Charge by following these steps: http://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/devices/knowledge_base.html?id=42397

3) Make sure you don't have any battery saver, task manager, or antivirus applications installed on your device. Although these programs sound helpful, many of them actually change the internal settings on your device and can cause a wide variety of difficulties like you've mentioned. If you have any of these apps, remove them as soon as possible by going to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications and then tap the app and uninstall.

4) If all else fails, we may need to reset the device to clear out any corruption that is causing the trouble you've described. Steps to reset the phone can be found here: http://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/devices/knowledge_base.html?id=42407

^JenniferH_VZW

RedneckDad

Thanks. See below.

MrsMeyer

I have had nothing but problems with this phone since getting it a few months ago. A few of them are things that have already been listed in the original post. And the fact that the battery lasts about four hours whether I'm actually using the stupid thing or not. Now, possibly because it has to be plugged in to a charger about four times a day, it is getting to the point where it will no longer stay plugged in without a fight... if the table gets nudged, the charger plug falls out of the phone.

When I took it to the Verizon store, I was told in effect, "Why do you think so many of them are available refurbished?"

GREAT! That was helpful. And then I was offered an $80 device to serve as a backup charger away from home.

Thanks for nothing...

MrsMeyer

I could have written this post myself. And I was told pretty much the same thing.

"Disgusted" is the word.