For the legions who are discussing this problem on various forums (speaker goes on automatically with every phone call, speaker does not make any sound, no alarms etc.), I believe the cause is junk ware, specifically car mode and dock mode, which replace your carefully constructed home page with a home page of someone else's choosing (annoying) and in addition mess up the speaker in this way (really annoying). The easiest way to fix this is to call *228 and press 1 to have Verizon reprogram your phone. You have to do this every time it takes over your phone again. It's a pain but it works and is easier than taking out the battery, resetting the phone, and other drastic remedies.
