BlackBerry

[BADDAB]

We currently have 55 Blackberry Bolds (all on same OS). About 6-8 weeks ago a number of them started to display “SIM Card rejected” messages randomly, throughout the day and night. Taking the battery out and restarting the device temporarily resolved the issue but the problem generally returns and rebooting is not always fixing the issue. In these cases leaving the unit alone for a couple of hours or overnight seems to get it working again.

We now have approximately 20% of our phones regularly getting the error message. Looking around at other internet forums, this seems to be a frequently reported problem on a number of networks and Blackberry devices but not with Bolds! Alas the resolution to the problem isn’t posted and I can only assume that its still occurring.

The phones were purchased over a year ago, and our users are split over two locations – 40 miles apart. Users in both locations are affected, but its not everybody in any location. We have also seen an increase in “SOS” coverage - often in areas where we know we have ha good signal, so we suspect the issue is related.

In order to find the fault, we have undertaken the following (all on one individual user)

We have swapped the handset, same OS, Sim and SD card;

Deleted the BES account and recreated it;

Yesterday, we were advised to use the phone in 2G mode, so we are waiting on those results today.

We are now looking to update the firmware to the very latest version, but are reluctant to embark on that exercise until we are confident that this will resolve the issue.

What’s interesting is that only some phones are exhibiting the issue – given all the phones we have are currently on the same version of firmware it would sort of imply that they should all go wrong together.  Can't believe that 20% of our Sim’s have suddenly gone wrong, so we are ruling out a Sim card replacement.

Thoughts or inspirational guidance would be most welcome. As it stands, we do not seem to be getting anywhere fast.

[BADDAB]

Is there an issue with Blackberries roaming on Vodafone?

The behaviour is suggesting that as you move between cells or connect to different WIFI networks we seem to get the error appearing.

[pau1j]

BADDAB ... with 55 BBs, you've certainly got a good sample to be testing with. I would have thought you'd have a fair bit of clout with Vodafone (who really should be sorting this out for you).

Like you, I can't see 20% of SIMs (or phones, for that matter) faulting at the same time. Surely, this would point to a network problem?  Have you checked whether the two locations your users are in have any active network faults?

The only time I've seen a similar problem (Bold 9900 : network dropped to SOS in an area of good coverage) I simply turned off the radio (mobile network).  As soon as I switched the radio back on, the coverage was back to normal.

For diagnostic purposes you could try the following:

Run in 2G only (or 3G only if you know the coverage is there to cope)

Run in Manual Network selection

Swap faulting SIM/device with non-faulting one (assuming you have a SIM/device that you know has never faulted)

I can't say I've ever had any issue with handover (from one cell or wifi network to another).

[BADDAB]

55 phones doesn't get you that much clout! To be fair you also need to give them a fighting chance at fixing it. Given the random nature it could be a number of things. On the plus side we have updated the OS on 15 of them and have deconfigured a wifi network that spans both offices. I think the variable nature of the symptoms relates to some of our users having wifi turned off. If you turn it on, I suspect we would get the same problems. Problem seems to be linked to Wifi and roaming. Given that it's not being reported on a large scale, I suspect it's a local config issue that is causing us issues when the users move around the network.

[Lee]

Hi there BADDAB,

Thanks for your posts about this. It's really got me given the random nature of the query.

To cover all bases I've checked the local sites for your profile postcode. If you need me to check other areas then let me know the full postcode and I'll happily see if I can find any localised issues.

I don't think it's a network issue given the random nature but I'll check anyway.

Both sites that serve the area for 2G and 3G are working perfectly in the last hour so I've checked the stats for the last 24 hours and there's nothing untoward.

Cheers,

Lee

[7ony]

I have been having this issue as well. All phones started doing it, at random.

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/BlackBerry/SIM-Not-Allowed/m-p/1056725#M57281

Technical support not taking it serously. I was told that the message is the same when you try to insert a SIM from another provider. They have network unlocked two of our phones for testing and it seems to working so far, so we may need to unlock the rest on our account.

They have definatly changed something on the network that's making this happen.

[Wayne]

Hi 7ony,

I can see that Lee has responded to your other post here

Thanks

Wayne

[BADDAB]

Thanks for the update - thefull  postcodes are TN1 1NX and DA9 9AS.

In terms of progress, we have managed to update half the fleet of phones to the new version of OS. All users are back on 3G. Since the weekend we havent had a repeat of the SIm Card rejected message - but its to early to say if we have fixed the issue.

Can somebody let me know what the difference between the bundles 3049 and 2949. Bolds seem to take different bundles depending on their age.

[Simon]

Hi BADDAB

Thanks for your reply. I'll answer both this and your other thread here so it keeps it all tied up together.

I've checked the network in the postcode areas provided and traffic is passing through the local cell sites as we would expect. There are no faults or planned maintenance in the areas.

In response to bundles query, this is firmware related, not so much in the actual OS but things such as languages, keyboards, menu options that may appear on later handsets that are not on earlier ones. This should have no bearing on the SIM errors received.

In relation to the WiFi info, again this should have no bearing on receiving 'SIM Card Rejected' messages. Now that you've updated all of the OS's and so far fingers crossed they appear OK hopefully this should resolve the issue. If you do encounter any further difficulties now please let us know.

Thanks

Simon

[7ony]

BADDAB,

This can't be an OS or even a hardware issue. We have various phones with varying OS versions any they are all doing it. Even the phones that are over two years old, that has worked flawlessly, until now!

This is defiantly a network issue.

As mentioned in the other thread, all phones have been 'network unlocked' and all seem to be OK now for over a week.

[7ony]

Spoke too soon...

The user was in the office, connected to a sure signal box this time. No idea how long it was like this for, or even if was like this before he got to the office. Again, the only way to get it to work was to put it in standby to re-initiate the SIM.

[spike_001]

hey guys,

My Blackberry has just done what you have all gone through. It was wierd as I was just talking to my mum and about 5 seconds into the conversation it went off and came up with Sim Card Rejected and SOS. I turned off and on and phoned her back and it did it again. I tried a couple more times and gave up. I re-botted the handset by taking out the battery and so far it is working but is this a network problem or a blackberry problem?

Thanks guys

[BADDAB]

Hi, We have installed a new OS on 45 of our Bolds and haven't seen a repeat of the Sim card rejection error. We installed bundles 3049 and 2949. Depended on the age of the berry on which one to install. Can't swear that the OS fixed it as we disabled the wifi that we had set up for the berry's at the same time. Proof will be when we turn the wifi back on. That said, I can't see why it should cause a problem. On the plus side - the new OS does appear to have fixed an issue that we had with roaming overseas, (berries seem to stop working in Europe, flipping them into 2g used to get them to work again). So in a nut shell, the update appears to have cleared our issue. It's half way through the second week (so still early days), but none of our users have had a repeat of the problem. Will be interesting to see what happens when we invoke the wifi again.

[BADDAB]

All the Blackberry's have now been updated with the new version of OS. There hasnt been a repeat of the SIM card rejection error in the past two weeks and we have seen the devices roam more effectivly whilst overseas.

Turning on our hived WIFI to about 10 users tonight, so we will see what happens. Cant see that this can be the isue - but hey you never know.

[BADDAB · Accepted solution]

Redeployed the Aero hive network to the berry's. All of them seem to be working correctly and we are not seeing any network issues. It would appear that the OS upgrade fixed the issue. As to what caused it in the first place is a complete mystery.