Faint ringing HTC One

If you think it's something Verizon added, just disable all the Verizon apps and see if it continues. Of course, it could also be some other app you installed, so you may want to uninstall those one at a time to find the app.

The first time it happened I had not installed any apps. I only had the phone for a day. The second time I had disabled all the verizon apps that verizon allows. I did try shutting down apps when it made the ringing but none of them stopped the ringing.

Then it's not anything that Verizon did. Unless it has something to do with the CDMA radios.

It may not be anything with verizon, I was just looking at what was common between the DNA and the ONE. I'm going to try one more exchange from a different store to see if maybe there was a bad lot. If it happens again after the exchange I will probably switch to the Droid Maxx.

isuguitar12

My wife and I have both had this happen with our HTC Ones that we have only had for 5 days. It happened to both of us multiple times in low signal areas. The only fix that we have found is to restart with the fast boot option off. If the fast boot option is on, the ringing persists after restarting. It isn't affected by any changes to the notification/alarm/phone volumes. This is very annoying and I don't have much hope for a real fix since they evidently have no fix for the similar HTC Droid DNA problem. We will probably return these phones and wait our contract to switch carriers.

Shaken

Is this problem seriously persisting into the One?!

So I picked up mine on the 22nd, and just now it started doing this to me. The issue persisted through a reboot, and only after reading a comment in the DNA thread (after searching for the issue on Google and finding that thread) I was able to get that ringing to stop by placing a call.

I do not get a great signal here in my office, but I've never had this issue before. Yesterday was my first day in the office and I did not have the issue at all until this morning.

So far my experience seems to point towards the low signal Verizon/HTC theory, but I'll keep and eye on it and disable fast boot next time if it occurs again.

Shaken

isuguitar12 wrote:
My wife and I have both had this happen with our HTC Ones that we have only had for 5 days. It happened to both of us multiple times in low signal areas. The only fix that we have found is to restart with the fast boot option off. If the fast boot option is on, the ringing persists after restarting. It isn't affected by any changes to the notification/alarm/phone volumes. This is very annoying and I don't have much hope for a real fix since they evidently have no fix for the similar HTC Droid DNA problem. We will probably return these phones and wait our contract to switch carriers.

Just curious... are you turning the fast boot option back on after you clear the issue? When you turn that off does that option re-enable itself?

isuguitar12

No I haven't turned it back on. I only tried turning the fast boot off after the ringing continued after about 4 reboots. After switching that off and restarting, the ringing stopped and I haven't touched that option again. Mine has not started ringing since doing this but my wife's One has so I don't believe it is a fix but a way to stop it.

DLAnderson

Is this problem seriously persisting into the One?!

Yes, it appears so. My wife just picked up a One 5 days ago. Today had the ringing problem. Called me for help and it went away. I'm waiting for it to reappear to trouble-shoot, but by day 14 I have to decide if we stay with HTC or move on. A real pain considering how long we waited for the One in the first place.

>>Edited to comply with the <<

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Same problem here. Low Signal Area, Verizon, htc One causes faint ringing to start and it doesn't stop until I make a call or receive a call. I can turn the phone off and on again and it will continue ringing. It is unrelated to ringtone or volume settings. I just exchanged my phone today for another htc one, so we'll see if it happens on this phone. I swear I have the worst luck with phones... the last phone I tried to buy brand new a year or so ago was a defective microphone Galaxy S3.

I just exchanged for my third phone. I went to a different store this time to see if I could get lucky and get a non defective unit. I have also emailed HTC in an attempt to let them fix the issue. I think everyone who has the problem should email HTC, when I emailed them they were unaware that there was even a problem. It might open their eyes to the problem with the DNA and the ONE if they get an influx of emails.

Well, my replacement (brand new phone) is already ringing. So two defective phones!? I didn't download a single app... i didn't even get to send a text before it started. I was on sprint(way too slow) just waiting for htc one to hit verizon... made the switch to verizon and get this!? So now my choices are to try to get out of verizon and go htc one on AT&T, or I can pick a different phone on verizon. This stinks.... my wife's argument for me to get an iphone is unfortunately making more sense everyday.

I picked up the HTC One on August 22nd and today it started ringing faintly just like the other posters described. Right during the middle of a business meeting. I also read through the eight pages on the Droid DNA forum about the same issue. My wife has a Droid DNA for seven months now and has never experienced this issue. For me only placing a call to the phone stops the faint ringing. If it happens again I'll try disabling the fastboot option to see if it helps.

As I said, my replacement phone is having the same ringing problem. Last night my phone was completely off, yet it was ringing in the middle of the night (woke me up four times). I will be taking my phone back today and switching to AT&T instead. Too bad I've been with Verizon for five days now, because if it was within three days I wouldn't have to pay the activation fees when I close my account. What a bunch of crap.

I also have been experiencing this issue - it would appear to be something with the firmware potentially - i have only had the phone for 5 days and i would not expect this issue to appear so soon after purchasing. It surprises me that Verizon has been so mum on this issue - no explanation, no follow up, no fix in sight. Verizon Wireless at least acknowledge that you have an issue and are working on a fix. Perhaps they are just ignoring it to boost HTC One sales.

Just like they locked the phone down and bloated it with Verizon software that is useless, forcing applications on us that just run in the background without any permission - its no wonder that there are issues.

isuguitar12

I agree with the worrying lack of response. I have gotten different responses from Verizon support. In a chat session, it seemed that this was a known issue and they were working on it, but when I called for tech support it seemed that it was unknown. I was transferred to an HTC representative and opened a support ticket so hopefully we hear something soon. I don't have a lot of hope since the Droid DNA has a similar problem with no fix over the last 5 months. I waited for this phone for so long and it is disappointing to have to deal with such a dumb problem now.

I've had my HTC One for about 2 weeks now and about a week ago the phone starting "ringing" very faintly in the earpiece. I rebooted the phone and it went away. Today, low and behold, the faint "ringing" started again. I had read up on the faint ringing issue on the HTC DNA and didn't see a fix. In that forum one person said they thought Facebook app caused it. The only program I downloaded so far was the Facebook app so I thought we could be on to something. When the "ringing" started today, I went into my application program to see which programs started up about the time the ringing began. Facebook was one of the programs recently started however when I stopped the app the "ringing" continued. I disabled HTC Services also but no change. Instead of rebooting the phone, I followed someones suggestion (from the DNA forum) which said to start a call then end it. That worked and the "ringing" went away. The noise is very faint and doesn't match up with the pre-installed ringtones as far as I can tell. The problem seems to be on two HTC phones (DNA and the ONE) and both happen to be on Verizon...so, not sure what is causing it. I agree with someone above who said to disable the Verizon apps once it starts to see what happens...I will do that next time.

P.S Both times I was in the same low signal area

Root cause investigation -- perhaps if we identify some common operating parameters among those affected then it can help VZW/HTC determine a root-cause and find a software/systems/engineering solution.

I'm really interested to get this phone, but this potential issue is freaking me out. I'm counting 8 different individual cases so far, and the thread isn't even that old (not counting all the DNA occurrences).

To analyze the root cause from a correlation standpoint, if we: a) consider that it doesn't happen on other carriers' devices and b) identify differences between phones from various carriers then two are areas come up (perhaps more also):

1) installed carrier software

2) radio hardware/software (which could also interact with apps)

The radio access networks and freq bands are different between carriers, e.g. GSM, CDMA, UMTS, LTE, etc.

HTC's VZW radio implementation is different from Moto's, Samsung, etc. (which is why, if it's carrier radio related it's possible for HTC to have an issue when Moto and Samsung don't).

For example, it could be something like: with a weak signal strength the phone power amp has to transmit at the max level and when the phone is just sitting their it has to periodically probe the access channel (or something like that) and the high current through the switching power supply inductor is magnetically coupling to the speakers (which may have very high sensitivity for boomsound efficiency).

Can we see whether everone who suffers from this has some common operating parameters with their radio (Network) parameters?

Go to settings --> About phone --> Network and report your Signal Strength and Mobile network type.

For that matter, we should ask anyone who has the HTC One and doesn't suffer this problem, "what radio operating parameters do you have"? Of course as demmo pointed out with the SIM card issue: If they don't have the ringing problem then they are probably not paying attention to this thread :smileyhappy:.

Can anyone think of other possible common or differentiating operating parameters to consider?

I spent about an hour on the phone earlier today with HTC - noone is aware of the issue there and I expressed many people here complaining of the faint ringing issue. I then called Verizon and went through their support channels only to be reconnected with HTC to go over the issue.

One thing that is very obvious here is that two HTC devices - the HTC one and the DNA are experiencing the same issue. It would appear that this issue is related to Verizon and their version of code loaded on to the phones. If you search the internet you only see issues on the Verizon versions of these phones. The support person from Verizon suggested i change device to some other phone. How does that fix an issue that seems to be pandemic on two devices. One user above states that this could be a low signal issue, in older phones there used to be an audible alert that you could activate to warn you when you are out of coverage or very low - both questions I posed to HTC and they expressed that there was not this feature. Couple of things that HTC did say is to perform a factory reset on the phone and see if that fixed the issue, having performed this on a phone i have owned for just 7 days seems to be something that should not have to be performed.

In the Verizon HTC one - on the left hand side of the phone there is a tray for the SIM card - you will see a pin hole next to it. HTC recommended removing the SIM card and reseating. This in itself would not in my opinion cause these random issues.

The phone tends to do this randomly and when in good coverage area with full bars. Having spent an hour on the phone with HTC i am concerned on two fronts: 1. There have been no reports of this problem, 2. Verizon needs someone to recreate the issue, express that there is infact an issue, 3. Provide either a work around or provide a fix that will stop this problem.

For what it's worth

Android Version 4.2.2

Software 1.10.605.8

Not Roaming

Signal Strength -102dBm

Mobile Net Type 1xRTT

Not a cell phone techie so not sure what else to add that is pertinent.

@Azz316 thanks -- that's interesting. For example, my HTC TB shows:

Signal Strength -88dBm (4 bars).

Mobile Net Type LTE

So, your signal strength compared to mine is 10^(-14/10) = 0.04 or 1/25. That means your power amplifier need to transmit at 25x higher power.

Of course, your results are only one sample (I would like hear from the other 7 cases on this thread).

It also would be interesting to know if the buzzing goes away when you are in a higher signal strength location.

Have had my one for about a week and it started doing it 2 days ago. I noticed it only does it if my phone is picking up a bad signal. It has done it 3 times in the past 2 days and all three times I had only 3g coverage. I also believe that the the radios in the one are bad because places that I would get great coverage with my motorola razr hd and samsung galaxy s4 I on get 3g coverage on the one. I think verizon needs to address this issue because it seems to be something on there end because none of the other carriers are having this problem. I will be going to the verizon store and getting me a new phone just to see but i doubt that will solve the problem. Also mine stops when i place a call or get 4g coverage back so that is why i think it has something to do with the coverage. Anyone else think this.

@gambrej,

When it's having the ringing problem, can you temporarily put your phone in "Airplane Mode" to see if it goes away?

This is another way to see if it's related to cellular radio, and if so, possibly weak signal strength, which is correlated to high cellular power amplifier output power and, in turn, high current from the power supply, which can couple to the speaker.

I will try that as soon as it does it again

Looks like I spoke too soon about my wife's Droid DNA phone never having experienced the issue. During this weekend, her phone has experienced the faint ringing issue twice. I don't understand why during the previous eight months she has had the phone the issue never happened until now. My wife and I are very unhappy about the way Verizon is handling this.

Was it during a low reception time? We're

trying to narrow it down

Sent from my HTC One on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network

I changed the Sims card in mine and that seems to have done the trick for

now

Erik2013

I'm having the same problem with my One. It's actually my second One. Exchanged my first this afternoon after the people at the Verizon store had no clue (they heard the sound too) what was going on. My signal strength is fluctuating between -101dBm to -105dBm and my mobile network type is eHRPD here at home. It was also doing it when I was in town running errands today. So, I'll check the next time I'm out and it starts chirping at me. I'm hopeful we're onto something here since Verizon appears to have no answers. :smileyhappy:

Erik2013

One more thing to add: my first phone (HTC One) was doing it this afternoon while at the Verizon store and had 4 bars.

Azz316 - It's possible my wife's Droid DNA phone started faint ringing in a low reception area but I don't know for sure. Both times she was out running errands in a different town. After getting back home she gave her phone to me while it was still ringing and asked me to fix it. In my case when my HTC one phone started ringing, I think I had good reception all cases.

Started doing it again this morning while on the charger. I turned Airplane mode on and it kept "ringing". I disabled almost every running application I could and no change. I turned location services off...no luck. I went into ringtones and the ringtones sound AND the faint ringing is still going in the background. Turned vibration mode on and off etc. Nothing worked. Again I had to start a call, then end it to make the noise go away.

Specs for RANDOM64 this time

Signal Strength: RSRP(dBm) -102

Mobile Network Type: LTE

Different from last time

rickyp271

I have also experienced this ringing.Just got the phone 5 days ago.Started doing it when I was in a low signal area.When I made a call the ringing stopped.Also did it with the phone off.

On my third phone now from a completely different store and it has the same problem. I have a few days left before my 14 day return limit is over. I'm seriously considering getting a different phone. The only problem is I don't think any other phone compares to this one. I don't know if I should roll the dice and let verizon or HTC fix it. Looking at the DNA problem doesn't give me a whole lot of hope.

Considering this problem has been around since December of last year (2012) and exists on two devices, I doubt it will be fixed anytime soon (if ever). Between that and some other problems I've experienced with the phone (ex: HTC Blinkfeed's Facebook authorization scheme is completely broken), I wish I'd gotten a Galaxy Samsung S4.

Has anyone else got a new Sims card. I had them change my Sims card and the

problem has not happened again. Even when I have low signal it is working

fine now. It had been 5 days since I got the new Sims.

All 3 phones I have tried have had different sim cards. The DNA owners have tried new sim cards and it hasn't worked for them. But maybe there are a bunch of bad sim cards floating around. Keep us updated if this keeps your phone from ringing. Mine only seems to do it at work since I'm in such horrible coverage. But it's consistance in that it does it atleast once a day at work.

There was one spot where mine was doing it every time and since the SIM

exchange I have not been able to duplicate the problem. Went there twice

over the weekend and phone never made the noise and it kept good signal

where as I was only getting 2 bars on 3g in the area now getting almost

full bars on 4g in the same spot. Still not sure if this is the issue but I

did have my phone on 4G LTE and switch to global once I got the new Sims. I

will switch back to 4g lte and go back to the spot and see if my coverage

is affected.

@Azz316,

I think you have the most compelling debug result so far: If the ringing occurs even in "Airplane" mode, then that suggests it is *not* related to low signal strength (which was an inverse proxy for Power Amplifier level, thus battery current pulses coupling to speaker). If more folks would confirm this I think that would be helpful -- ruling out the radio can help focus on other issues. We don't want to be barking up the wrong tree.

What I suggest to try next is: While it's ringing, start shutting down serivces one by one to see if one of them is correlated to the ringing (when you re-start the phone these services will automatically start up again).

Do:

Settings --> Apps --> Running

Now choose one and hit "stop". Keep going until (hopefully) the ringing stops.

If the ringing still doesn't stop after shutting down every possible process/service then I think it's a bad power supply design. Otherwise, if you can trace it to a particular app process/service then maybe they can find a software solution.

For a root cause, we're hopefully looking for some type of process or service which periodically causes the phone to draw a lot of current from the power supply which is magnetically coupling to the speaker. For example, anything which requires a big memory access is going to use a lot of processor and memory interface I/O may do it. On the other hand it may be unrelated to any process/service and simply it could be that in standby mode where there is only small standby leakage currents to the apps processor and memory that the switching power supply is operating in an extreme discontinous mode (which is a high efficiency low battery current technique), with very low average current but short high peak currents (which are more likely to magnetically couple to the speaker). This is kind of supported by the reported behavior that when one starts a phone call, the ringing stops (it could be greatly increasing the average current and moving the supply operating region out of this extreme discontinuous mode).

If it is a signal issue, that could also explain why only Verizon phones have this issue, due to the frequency differences in their LTE radios.

In my post above I mentioned I closed all but one or two running applications when it was "ringing" and nothing changed. I believe the only application running was the HTC Sense Input process/service which didn't have the close option.

I put my old Sims card I had in the phone back into the phone and went to

the spot where I had issue and low and behold it started doing it again.

Started faintly ringing and I was getting poor service. I made a call and

it stopped. Turned the phone off took old Sims out and replaced with new

Sims card. Powered back on and got good connection, almost full bars 4G

stayed in the area for about 20 minutes to see if anything was going to

happen nothing. Took the Sims out and replaced with old Sims and about 5

minutes later poor coverage and ringing began. Made call to stop. Repeated

the second step and issue stopped. Maybe there are some bad Sims going

around not sure but mine seems to be fine with new Sims can't say for sure

but it seems like it could be the issue.

I have been working with HTC on this issue - i called them and opened a ticket and I suggest that all of the people who are experiencing the same issue do the same, for a couple of reasons:

1. It documents to Verizon that you have been experiencing an issue and the date at which you reported the issue.

2. It documents to HTC all of the issues that you have been experiencing - the more there are, the more likely action will be taken in a decent amount of time.

I want to share with you the last correspondence that I have with them:

I am sorry to hear that turning off fast boot did not resolve this. I would like to try running the phone in safe mode which disables all third party apps as they could cause this. You can put the phone in safe mode by either press and holding on the power key until a phone options menu comes up (should take about 5 seconds) and then press and hold on the restart option until an option to restart to safe mode pops up(should take about 3 seconds), or by turning off fast boot, power he phone off, turn the phone back on and hold the volume down button once you see the HTC logo, you need to continue pressing the volume down key until you reach your home screen where the words "safe mode" will be displayed in the bottom left corner of your screen. I also would like you to obtain a new sim card from Verizon and have them reprovision your network account. You should be able to have both of the done in a corporate Verizon store. Please reply to this email to let me know how your phone is working after these steps are taken.

This is prior correspondence:

Thank you for replying. I'm seeing, in the link that you provided that a number of people in that forum had this issue, even on different phones but on Verizon. I'd like to know if you've tried turning off fastboot and then seeing if your phone still makes the noise? To turn off fastboot go to Settings>Power>and uncheck fastboot. Then power the phone off/on and use it normally. Let us know if this has any affect on the noise that you've heard from the phone.

I have not had the constant ringing issue as of late, i have had my phone in very fringe areas of coverage even down to one bar.

I will update once i have more information to share.

Keith,

Excellent incident management approach on your part along with apparent favorable resolution. I'm convinced enough to (finally) go pick up this phone. I hope others on the thread along with the OP will try this solution and report back.

Wanted to add that I Also turned fastboot off on my phone as well and with

new Sims seems to have done the trick no more issues so far and it has been

5 days.

Just wanted to chime in that I've had it happen twice on my HTC One... And I've had fast boot turned off since day one (I got mine on release day), so I really don't think it has to deal with that. And yeah, I got the sound to go away by rebooting the phone (again, that worked because I had fastboot off). As for the when it happened, I can't remember what I was doing when it happened the first time, but the 2nd time I was driving around the Twin Cities with my friend (I believe from the Mall of America to Minneapolis), so I don't know what to think.

Not sure if it's worth noting, but I did get a new Micro SIM when I bought this phone (they wouldn't let me use my old Micro SIM from my Galaxy Nexus because that one didn't have NFC built into it). Any suggestions on what I should try, outside of just getting a new SIM?

The problem analyzing the ringing, is that once it starts ringing nothing can stop it but making or receiving a call. The ringing would always start for me within 20 minutes of me sitting at my work desk in the morning (low-signal at work). If I didn't make a call or receive a call it would still be ringing when I get home. When I wanted to show Verizon the problem, I would sit at my desk (ringing would start), then I would turn my phone off.... after work I would drive to verizon and turn the phone on... it would still be ringing for them). But over a weekend where I don't go to work... It would never START ringing. It would ring all weekend if I never made a call from the last work day... but the ringing only STARTS when I'm at the low signal area at my work desk. Airplane mode, shutting down apps, etc never mattered once the ringing starts... its more about what causes it to start.

The ringing got so bad for me on my second phone that even when the phone was completely off (the ringing started...so I turned the phone off), it would still ring periodically on its own WHEN THE PHONE WAS OFF! If the phone had been ringing and I turned it off, I could make it ring by tapping the power button (not hold it down long enough to turn the phone on).

On my second phone, I made the exchange at 8pm and at 8am the next morning I sat at my desk and the ringing imediately started. I never downloaded an app, changed a setting, or even sent a text message.

I switched to HTC One on AT&T and things are working perfect for almost a week now. That is the only solution I could come up with.

krubby

Between all the various posts on this thread and on the baord, this phone sounds like a piece of junk. gaps in the frame, radio issues, faint humming.

I would lean towards the droid Maxx or droid X or Gs4 over this thing.

Mickfo... I just wanted to narrow things down a bit more. There were some people in an XDA thread suggesting it might be from overheating the device (which would be far more common in lower signal areas when more power is being sent to the radio). Since it was so reproducible for you, do you know if the device was always quite warm when it happened? If not, I'm completely sold on it being a radio issue (whether it's hardware/software, I wouldn't be able to tell yet). Thanks in advance!

Just joined to share my experience with this issue. I've had the HTC One since it launched on Verizon and this issue has occurred to me a handful of times. Each time I was at work in a low-signal area. My phone will typically jump from 4G to 3G to 1X to no data signal throughout the day until I leave the building. The ringing has never happened to me outside of work.

I've spoken to both Verizon and HTC technical support. The Verizon rep said that HTC is working on a fix, but HTC doesn't seem to know much about it. Like another user above, the HTC representative asked that I try putting the phone in safe mode in case a third-party application that I installed was causing the issue. The next time the ringing occurred (about 30 minutes ago), I rebooted into safe mode and, to my dismay, the ringing started back up again about two minutes later. Rebooting back into normal mode, the ringing again started about two minutes later. A third reboot, again into normal mode, has stopped the ringing for now.

I haven't yet tried playing with the fast boot option like others have been discussing.

@dsblade, @CalebSpronk, the next time it happens, can you try "Airplane" mode and report back? I think this will help discriminate whether it's due to signal strength, etc. because "Airplane" mode turns off the radios, right? For example, if the ringing *does* occur while in "Airplane" mode, then I think we can conclude it is *not* a radio related issue, whereas if turning on "Airplane" mode causes the ringing to stop, then I think we can conclude it *is" a radio related issue.

Almost anytime we go indoors (especially deep inside a building like at work) our receiver signal strength is going to drop, and the RF power amplifier has to transmit a higher power signal to reach the cell tower.

I'll give it a shot. I'll also make a small note that there is an option to play an alert when roaming, but I've had that disabled and my phone never actually starts roaming.

@dsblade, I just saw Mickfo's reply in which it not only occurs in Airplane mode, but also when the phone is shut off (bizarre)!

This suggests that it is not related to radio, right?

To my understanding, the only actively running circuitry when the phone is *off* (and not charging) is the battery monitoring stuff (charge level, temperature).

On the other hand, when the phone is shut off, the power supply can still have residual charge (bypass capacitors), which eventually leak off. There could be a small bypass cap which leaks quicker than a larger one and the charge-sharing between them causes current to flow and if it's in the speaker power supply, it could resonate and create ringing. But eventually, the charge should leak off and so if it's related to this, the ringing should eventually stop. So, if it's making a ringing sound *while the phone is off*, then I would try to keep it in that state and see if it eventually goes away, which suggests it's a power supply related cause.

While I know it can happen while the phone is off, I'm still guessing it's a radio issue:

1. The noise goes away when you turn the device off WHILE having Fast Boot turned off. Note that just having Fast Boot turned off won't keep the ringing from happening, it only aids once you finally do a reboot or shutdown.

2. My guess is that when the device is turned off with Fast Boot on, it's not really fully off. I wouldn't be surprised if the radios are one of the few things still remaining on. I'll admit that this is speculation being as I don't know what's actually happening when the device is off with Fast Boot on.

3. Just because you turn airplane mode on while it's already ringing doesn't fix the problem doesn't necessarily mean it's not a radio issue. Maybe the radio is stuck in a certain state that won't be fixed until a certain signal is sent to it (such as the new call signal or full restart signal). If you know of an area where you can reliably reproduce the noise, I'd love to see if turning on Airplane Mode BEFORE the sound starts would keep it from happening. Being as I was driving (and can't remember exactly where) when it happened to me, this is a bit unrealistic for me to test at the moment.

@CalebSpronk In response to your third point, my phone is in the exact same location every day. However, this typically only happens once a day (or every other day). It seems impossible to predict when the ringing would start.

HighDesert

As another data point, just adding my experience of this issue, FWIW:

It's happened to my HTC One twice, both times in relatively weak signal areas...or at least after/when passing through weak signal areas.
Both times I was able to stop it by rebooting with fast boot off (after I discovered, on my own, the necessity of disabling fast boot)
Being in a weak signal area hasn't necessarily started the ringing. That is, after I stopped the ringing (by rebooting) I was later in an area that had only 1 - 2 bars of signal...and it didn't start ringing.
It's been 3 or 4 days since it last did the faint-ringing thing.

Not helpful to troubleshooting, but kinda funny:

When I first experienced this I was parked at a gas station. I heard faint ringing that went on and on. Because it was faint I figured it was a land-line phone ringing inside the office...and I wondered if the gas station folks were going to answer their phone...and wondered why their phone was ringing that long.

While I was driving I had my vehicle sound system cranked up so I didn't hear the ringing except when I parked and turned the music off.

BTW: When is Verizon going to start an HTC One Forum??

Just in case some missed it...Airplane mode did not affect the ringing. Also, it also goes away when starting a call (pressing green call), then immediately hanging up...if that helps any.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.andirc.lteonfoff&hl=en

Yes! Download the LTE On/Off switch:

From there, run it, and near the bottom there should be a dropdown (it'll currently say "CRMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA/LTE")... try selecting different options and seeing if that helps. I'd love to know if just switching networks helps. Each time, let it take 30 seconds or so to take effect. If none of those options work, try the "Turn off radio" button. Kinda doubt that would work do to the airplane mode thing, but it's worth a shot.

And thank you for dealing with that ring temporarily! :smileyhappy:

Well, switching to "LTE, CDMA" then toggling the radio power (to force an update, in my mind) didn't help. Also tried this with CDMA only, LTE only, and a couple others. I have to run to a meeting, but will keep it ringing in my headphones (stashed away) for a while. I'll check back later for any further suggestions. We'll also find out if it fixes itself.

So I downloaded the app LTE on/off. Turning off the radio during the ringing had no effect. Switching to any of the CDMA/LTE/GSM auto crap had no effect. Switching to GSM only made the ringing stop, then switching back to LTE, CDMA the ringing didn't return. The phone does give you a notification sound when switching to GSM only and back. Does this confirm that it's something with the radio or is it software related?

I'm pretty sure that means it's for sure radio related (definitely what we were expecting, but still nice to know). As for whether it's the hardware or the software, I think that's still up in the air. But still... SOME progress :smileyhappy:

Dang, I really wanted to say I was just going to keep only LTE on for the foreseeable future, but you can't even make/receive calls with just the LTE radio on. I should have known that ... but you CAN send and receive texts. Maybe I'll just have to change my voicemail message to text make sure to leave a message (which I'd get through Google Voice), or text me for a week or two...

@CalebSpronk, to me all the macri results (along with dsblade and Azz316) show that it's likely *not* radio-related.

What's your reasoning that it is radio related?

I think the radio-related investigation was a sensible tack because celluar radio (and associated access sw) is one of the differentiating factors of the VZW HTC One (vs. other carriers 'Ones which don't seem to exhibit the problem). However, maybe we should try to think of other specific sw differentiators.

I can confirm that switching to GSM only does stop the ringing and switching back to the default (or any other) does not cause the ringing to return. Also, the ringing does not time out after about two hours.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/misc-android-phone-chat/81804-subtle-ringing-silent-mode.html

@random64, I agree it didn't seem radio related when switching to any combination of LTE/CDMA/EvDo as that doesn't clear the ringing (or just turning the radio off for that matter). But, after figuring out that switching to GSM only does clear the sound, I can't imagine that this wouldn't be at least somehow related to the radio... Also, it is these multi-band radios that are different from the other HTC One's out there (where it contains LTE, CDMA, EvDo, GSM, and WCDMA to get all Verizon's bands and enough international bands to roam overseas). Of course, this exact radio is probably put in other Verizon headsets, so this is really all speculation.

On a separate note, this doesn't seem to be just HTC and Verizon related... I just found an article detailing the exact same thing on Sprint's Kyocera Echo Android phone... and it does appear to be radio/dialer related:

There they stated that setting the phone to only Sprint's network fixed the issue (so no roaming). I had roaming turned off on my phone when it happened (I think so at least), so I don't think it has to do with that... but definitely think it's got something to do with the handoff between frequencies.

@dsblade, thanks for your ongoing observations.

@CalebSpronk, I appreciate you sharing your reasoning and insights. So, changing radio-mode effects the ringing -- so it's radio-mode-switching-related, though not necessarily radio-interference as a direct cause (which is what I was assuming, but which is de-bunked by the fact that the ringing can persist in Airplane mode (where the radios are supposed to be shut off). I think the radio-mode-switching relationship makes sense from the standpoint that it would be specific to VZW than other carriers. On the other hand, regarding your speculation (which I agree with) it's also just as likely that that specific radio chipset combination and access software is specific to HTC One and DNA, which are the only VZW phones which seem to have the issue.

OK, it happened again last night, had full 4G LTE so probably not a low reception problem. Anyway, like MACRI mentioned earlier...I went into my MOBILE DATA option in SETTINGS and went into PREFERRED NETWORK and switched it from GLOBAL to GSM/UMTS...the "ringing" went away (it did not go away when I switched to LTE/CDMA).

Even though you had a full 4G connection, I'd still lean toward the issue being with the radio switching modes/bands and the software controlling these changes. You could've been switching towers or the radio software may just do some background scans/updates that are transparent to the user. For obvious reasons, if the issue we're seeing is indeed related to the radio changing modes, then the issue would be most prevalent when the device has little to no signal.

What surprises me the most in all these discussions there has been no apparent response from Verizon as to this issue. This shows me really either they are blind or just don't care to provide an explanation or reasoning behind the issue.

As I have said in previous postings - if everybody who has this issue calls HTC and opens a ticket and also calls Verizon to complain about the issues they are experiencing then we may be able to move the mountain so to speak. Dealing with Verizon is painstaking and all they do is read from a script or in the case of Hardware issues transfer you to HTC.

As no other carrier appears to be having issues like this - the problem in my opinion comes down to custom software version Verizon has loaded on these phones. Software controls hardware.

Not sure if this is still the case, but I know that with Android the signal bars used to show the CDMA connection, even if you were on LTE, so the full bars may not have necessarily been indicative of your true LTE connection. When verifying signal strength, it is always best to go into the about phone section and get the dBm.

@keithrlewis,

My speculation is that these forums are deployed by VZW simply as a way for us to solve each others "User Error" problems wherever possible to limit the traffic to customer service (CS) at VZW and/or HTC. It makes sense from the standpoint that anything that can get solved without going to CS leaves more CS capacity left to deal with real issues, and it can be even quicker than trying to go through CS. However, I don't think these forums are used by VZW to expose/elevate real issues, though I don't understand why they don't at least monitor the "Unanswered questions" ( Perhaps it might be more effective if posters would tag their issues with (device_problem) or something which flagged VZW that it's more than a "User Error").

So, instead of doing the most effective thing (as you did) for a device_problem, which is to open a trouble ticket with VZW and HTC, I'm afraid too many people assume CS *is* monitoring these forums and going to proactively find a solution or communicate one or something.

There is supposed to be a new version of software coming out For the HTC one.

Take a look at the article..it's got some interesting information about versions

I have read multiple sources stating end of September

Sent from my HTC One on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network

Yes, you are absolutely correct about this site. The only time the CS reps who are on this site visit a thread is if it is marked as a question, and none of the replies have been marked as an answer.

I just got off the phone with verizon and I was advised to go into the settings for mobile data, open up data roaming and allow access for all trips, uncheck play sound when roaming, and select global mode and this would take care of the problem. The rep told me that this was the fix for the problem according to something he read. He also said the only time you need to take the phone out of roaming is when you leave the country. So, I will try this and report back.

Macri - Thanks for the info and that's awesome. I'll implement the fix on my HTC One and wife's Droid DNA. It never occurred to me until you mentioned it, but is the faint ringing the sound that occurs when the "Data roaming sound" option is checkmarked and the phone connects to a roaming network?

I honestly don't know if the data roaming sound is the one we are hearing. My phone wasn't even allowing for data roaming, but I did have the sound box checked. Hopefully this works.

I have had the roaming sound disabled and that didn't prevent the ringing. However, I did not have my settings to allow access for all trips. I'll try that and see if it helps.

On my phone the "Deny data roaming access" was selected, so the phone was not set up for data roaming either. I still implemented the work-around, so we'll see what happens. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

It's always worth a try but everything I have seen about this does not point to this as being the solution.

CalebSpronk wrote:
Mickfo... I just wanted to narrow things down a bit more. There were some people in an XDA thread suggesting it might be from overheating the device (which would be far more common in lower signal areas when more power is being sent to the radio). Since it was so reproducible for you, do you know if the device was always quite warm when it happened? If not, I'm completely sold on it being a radio issue (whether it's hardware/software, I wouldn't be able to tell yet). Thanks in advance!

Overheating was something i considered as well, so I checked it one time when the ringing started and my phone was not hot at all on at least one occasion.

gettinganswers

Add me to the list. Sound asleep last night at 1am and my phone starts ringing. I'm pushing buttons, turning volume down, powering it down and back on and it keeps going. my lady is bolting up in bed and everyone is getting mad as hell. This morning turned it back on and it was still doing it. Had to restart the phone to get it to stop. And believe me it is NOT faint when you are sleeping. I will try the roaming settings, to see if that works but I have a feeling this will be one of those things that will continue to haunt us!