Samsung

[Jenski]

I purchased a Samsung Monte on Sunday from the VF shop in Wolverhampton, upgrading from a Sony Ericsson W890i that kept crashing. I am on Pay as you go and I have had my SIM for about 5-7 years and have had no SIM problems before now.

I started using the Monte and kept receiving the same text multiple times. I have noticed a few topics on this forum regarding people having this problem on recent Samsungs (e.g., Genio) and have followed the instructions in these threads as close as I can, but it isn't solving anything. This is a timeline of what has happened to date...

1. Upon swapping the SIM and starting up the phone, I soon received a text from my mom (also on VF pay as you go), which i kept intermittently receiving again and again. I later had a text from my friend which kept doing the same thing - in fact this one i kept getting copies of this days later!

2. I looked online at the VF forums and found people with recent Samsungs having the same probs. Followed the instructions that the VF members in these threads.

3. One VF guy suggested a manual roam. Tried this and it didn't solve anything.

4. Looked on another thread; someone else said to do *#105#, and if the date nearest the top of the screen is today's date then it should be OK. It took a few tried to get through, but the date in question wasn't that day's date (4th May). The forum guy suggested to perform a battery pull with taking the sim out and putting it back in. This only temporarily fixed the situation until the next day.

5. Once I received a multiple text on the next day (5th), I checked *#105# again and it had the 4th's date. Did a manual roam again and tried *#105#; I also realised that any "*#..." type network actions almost always fail simply saying "Network Error."

6. That evening I tried my mom's SIM in the Monte, tried *#105# and *#1345# on it and they both worked fine first time round, leading me to suspect a SIM problem.

7. I tried my SIM in my old Sony phone and *#105# and *#1345# again which both worked fine first time round. So perhaps it's a problem whereby my SIM and the Monte phone don't like each other.

There is also an occasional problem that crops up occasionally on the Monte, saying that the SIM has been removed and that the phone must restart, before doing so automatically.

Understandably, I am completely flummoxed by this problem so please, any advice would be appreciated. Would I be best off getting a new SIM with my number transferred over? Or is there anything I can do?

Many thanks in advance.

[BenJ]

Hi Jenski

Thats quite a thorough troubleshooting exercise you have gone through.

You have isolated the problem down to either being a SIM issue or a handset issue.

My best suggestion would be to try a new SIM card in your phone, if there is still a problem then we know the phone is faulty, I would suggest in this scenario to take it back to the store.

Let me know how you get on

BenJ
eForum Team

[Jenski]

Thanks for your reply, Ben.

I have already tried the SIM in my old phone and tried to replicate the known issues which caused no problems and I tried my mom's SIM in the Monte and tested it the same with 100% success, so it's just my SIM and the Monte that don't seem to like each other.

It's starting to get really frustrated now coz I've never heard of a particular phone not liking a particular SIM!

Thanks again.

[Dave]

Hi Jenski,

The test of your Mother's SIM in the Monte pretty much confirms what I'd have suspected, which is the SIM itself being the reason.

Like any electrical component, a SIM card is prone to both the natural ravages of time and he fact that technology advances. It sounds like in your case the SIM, for one of these reasons, is not recognised by the newer handset.

To get a new PAYG SIM card, just fill in the request here, and when the new card arrives, you can test that it is recognised straight off, and then contact out PAYG team on 2345 and they can sort out transferring the number to the new SIM for you.

DaveN

eForum Team

[Jenski]

I'm going back to the VF shop in Wolvo on Saturday anyway, so I'll ask to get a new sim there with my number and sim stuff transferred over.

The weird thing is that calls are working pretty much fine!

Anyway, thanks for all the help Ben & Dave.