Earpiece sound during calls

[squeekster]

I have the Droid Charge.  On some calls, the earpiece speaker sounds as if it is blown out, sort of a "buzzy" sort of sound when the person on the other end talks.  Most calls, the sound is totally normal.  I'm on my second Charge because I thought the first one was defective for this reason.  But since the second one does the same thing, I figure it is probably unlikely that two of them would have the same defect, therefore, not a defect at all.  Any ideas what may cause this and is there a fix?  

[JerryF]

Make sure you have pushed the ear phone plug all the way into the phone's jack plug.  With the Charge it sometimes does not go all the way in unless you really push it hard.  If need be get a hammer.  JUST KIDDING ON THIS POINT.

JerryF

[squeekster]

Sorry, but I was talking about the earpiece in the phone, not one you plug into the phone. 

[#4]

@squeekster Thank you to the community and to you for posting. That is terrible about your phone! When you hear the “blown out” and “buzzy” sounds are you using a Bluetooth headset, a corded headset or just the phone itself? Do you experience these sound defects when listening to music or watching videos? What software version are you running? Have you tried to do a master reset on the device? If not here are the steps to do that:

From the main screen, touch menu tab
Touch Settings
Touch Privacy
Touch Factory Data reset
Touch Reset Phone
Touch Erase Everything

If you do the reset and the phone still has the sound issue. We can have a conversation about replacing it. I hope this helps. Thanks.

SammuelP_VZW

VZW Support

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[squeekster]

"When you hear the “blown out” and “buzzy” sounds are you using a Bluetooth headset, a corded headset or just the phone itself?"

No bluetooth, no headset, just the ear speaker in the phone that you listen to when you are talking on the phone with the phone at your ear.

"Do you experience these sound defects when listening to music or watching videos?"

No, it's not that speaker.

"What software version are you running?"

If you mean firmware, it is 2.3.6

In answer to the reset question, no I haven't tried that.  But as I said, this is my second charge.  The first one I got did the same exact thing.  I have serious doubts that two separate phones would have the exact same problem. Besides, it doesn't do it on every call.  I've narrowed it down to a couple of people I talk to regularly, one of which also has Verizon and a Charge.  Right now the problem isn't all that bad.  A little annoying, yes, but it's something I can live with. My OP was basically to find out if anyone knew what might cause it. 

[elvisruns]

I had my first encounter with something like that.  It happened over this past weekend, and my experience was, while on a call, that there were intermittent electronic beeping sounds of different pitches.  The person on the other end did not notice anything at all.  I've taken/made several other calls since then, and have not had it happen again, but on the call it occured, it was loud/annoying enough that I had to cut short the call.

[pg4rc14]

I am currently having the same problem with the earpiece on my Droid Charge.

It has been happening for the past month or so as well as other problems with it:

- audio and occasionally even video is not transmitted over hdmi

-as music plays whether it be Pandora or the music player there is a slight "ding" that continuously plays during songs making listening to music extremely annoying

-(the same earpiece problem you mentioned) it sounds like distortion over the earpiece and simply hurts the ear when you're on the phone.

I talked to a Verizon Rep today and all he could say is that Samsung is working on a fix.

Meanwhile my ear hurts at unexpected times during calls...

[sshaffer10]

I have had the same problem exactly as squeekster has described for the length I've had my phone 8 months. It has gotten worse recently... to the point that I hear a loud static like noise almost every phone call. The people on the other end cannot hear it except through my mouthpiece. Please let me know if Samsung finds a fix!

[plainv70]

Add me to the list. I think this is the same (long time) problem that has been documented elsewhere in these forums.

My phone was ok when I first got it last June. It was ok when rooted and running Gingerbread. I took it entirely back to stock (wiped everything), did the OTA Gingerbread update and now I get regular clicking, pop like interference on tel calls, especially noticeable when on the speakerphone and using a wired earphones/mic.

Reminds me of a problem with my Logitech Squeezebox internet radio which is clearly a software problem with the internet feed as it happens with only a few streams--and, for example, which has been confirmed by the BBC. I'll bet this phone worked fine, as much as it was tested, at Samsung's labs, etc and, in the rush to market, was not thoroughly vetted in the US.

Instead of the continuous stream of slightly flaky latest and greatest appliances, I much rather wait longer and have tighter engineered and tested products. It appears to me that the priority is on churning the marketplace to generate sales revenue, and hopefully profits, instead of satisfied long term customers; but then that is what a company can do when it has little to no competition in its service markets.

[scman]

Add me.  So Annoying!!! and painful.

[plainv70]

Has anyone noticed if this problem is more or only prevalent when talking to non-Verizon customers?

[android714]

I have the same issue. This is my third Droid charge that were replaced because of other issues. First DC kept freezing all the time even after three factory resets. Bluetooth on the second one did not work and now the earpiece on the phone crackles intermittently when I am on a call sometimes. I am still in my warranty period. I hope Verizon gives me a different model this time.

[plainv70]

I was lucky enough to pass by a corporate store yesterday with some time to spare; so I stopped in and asked for help.  the symptoms are in their customer service/tech support database as an idiopathic problem. lol. They rep (who was 1st class; extra kudos for the no hassle) quickly checked it out and arranged for an exchange. I was in and out in 15mins. Given the other posts on this issue around the net, I am not particularly hopeful, but it would be nice if this does it. We'll see.

[plainv70]

Got the exchange phone and configured it. First impression is that it's better; I'll check back in a week.

[tgbowil1]

I had the same problem with my Charge.  It even made the static noise when the phone wasn't being used.  When powering it off and on it went away.  I went to a Verizon store to discuss this issue and they thought the speaker was going out so they got me a replacement phone.  We will see if the new/refurbished Charge has the same problem.

[soed23]

Having the same problem with my LG Lucid.  Makes no difference who is calling me, and the problem is getting worse.

Took it by a corporate store got no love.  The service rep was skeptical (guess it fell into the "idiopathic" category ) then finally agreed there was an issue; she blew compressed air on the phone, did a soft reset, shrugged her shoulders and suggested that I could try to get it fixed by a third-party vendor because I was one month past the 1-yr warranty expiration (or pay full price for a new phone!).

On-line chat with VZW was also unfruitful.  First she said it was not a known problem (well it is now...) and suggested a Master Reset.  Since she didn't seem to know what she's doing I held back on the reset.  Based on the above stream most tech support folks have no idea what the issue is, and the most direct solution is a different phone...if you can find a decent VZW rep.