The oddest phone fault?

[Loose rivets]

I have an old Nokia - don't know the model, but one of the first with a small vaguely colored screen. It's heavy, and its menu system is tiresome, but guess what? People can hear me, loud and clear. Every time. Some of the skinny things my kids get sound like they're transmitting on a point frequency - a technical impossibility - but they end up sounding like they're in a tin can with the output of a compressor stuck in their ear. You'll gather I approve of phones that you can communicate with.

Anyway, mine failed to alarm me one day. I tested it a dozen times or more. It failed each time. Pulled the SIM, left it off for a day to see if it needed a rest, nothing helped. It was an ex-alarm phone. For a couple of weeks I used it as a...........phone.:rolleyes: Then it started.

The alarm went off. I stopped it. It did it again. I put it to Snooze, and that worked. Off, Alarm. alarm Off, Didn't matter it just kept doing it. And then I noticed the pattern.

All of the false alarms were in clusters - just like when I was testing it. A day or so, and I'd have another half-dozen goes. Just the same as the bogus alarms now. I swear, even some of the times seem familiar.

Can it be that the phone, or something, has stored every attempted setting, and is playing them back now? Spooky. But I just don't think it's random.

Yes, I'm quite sober.

[Keef]

Haunted, you think?

My inclination would be to pull the SIM and the battery, and leave it for a bit.
If it remembers the date and time when you power it up again, you haven't left it for long enough.

That should clear the memory of anything untoward. If it misbehaves after that, then look for a second hand one of the same model on Ebay :)

[Loose rivets]

I think, but am not sure if I had to put the time and date in again. One will perhaps try again. However, the odd alarms are becoming rare.


The other clue was, when going to Organizer - Alarm. It would always show the time and cursor...one could put the time straight in. When it went all peculiar, the same key sequence offered ON OFF. This has now gone back to normal.

If it was any other piece of electronic equipment, I'd give it a good talking to, but I think a phone would be immune to that:}

[srobarts]

You could try a factory reset if the menu has that as an option, that ensures that all areas of the memory are wiped and default settings restored. Save all your numbers to the SIM first of course!

[Loose rivets]

Sounds like a good idea.


Save all your numbers to the SIM first of course!

Have no idea how to save to sim., is there a generic answer that would apply to such an aged Nokia? I was aware that I would have to do this if I swapped back to my even older phone. Never throw anything away.




I noticed several of these phones lying about abandoned in a rellies place. One might drop a hint or two.

[srobarts]

You should find the info in the manual, which you can download from the Nokia.co.uk website. I seem to remember some early Nokias saved to the SIM as a default you could change the setting to save to the phone memory. A few years since I've had a Nokia so brain cells a tad rusty!

[Loose rivets]

I had a look through the on board menu system, and there doesn't seem to be much of a technical nature at all. I'm fairly sure that it doesn't carry the numbers across normally, cos I recall having to do all mine again.


Trouble is, now I'm retired, I have no time at all. Is it supposed to be like this? I'm thinking of selling my SB800 flash for example, cos the manual is bigger than the camera's. Problem is just fading brain cells I guess.

[Basil]

LR,
On my Nokia you go:
Menu - Phone book - Copy - From phone to SIM card

[Loose rivets]

Oh dear:( On reading your post, full of anticipation, I dashed to the east wing, ascended the servant's staircase to the technology center and repaired to the modern technology suite. Hands trembling, I went to the menu structure of my aged Nokia, but alas, the nearest offering was for a longer string...along with a reminder to keep it taught.

One supposes that One will have to invest in a new phone. Re-entering the numbers won't be too bad, as four out of my seven friends won't take my calls anyway.;)