Higher power levels require more battery power; a low or weak battery may not be able to deliver. If you can swap batteries or connect the phone to a power source, try the call again.

To prevent this problem from cutting you off from the world, keep a spare charged battery on hand, as well as a cable that you can use to connect your phone to your car battery or home charging station.

Weak Or No Signal At Home

A building’s walls, ceilings, and floors can all affect signal strength. Cell phone manufacturers and service providers recommend moving to a window or external wall, or even outdoors, if you’re getting a weak signal. While this may be simple to do, it’s far from convenient, particularly in bad weather. It may also be difficult to change locations if you need to discuss something you can’t move along with you, such as a file on your computer. If you expect to use your cell phone at home on a regular basis, and your cell phone supports it, consider springing for an external antenna that plugs into the phone. A phone-based antenna will significantly increase signal strength, although it will also confine you to a single location for using the phone.

If freedom of movement is important, a better solution may be a cell phone repeater/amplifier system, which allows you to use your cell phone anywhere in your home. This system works by using an antenna placed outside your home. The antenna connects to a repeater/amplifier, which rebroadcasts the signal through a small antenna placed inside your home. With this system you can use your cell phone anywhere within your home and be assured of getting a good quality signal. The disadvantage of these systems is the price, which currently starts at around $400.

For a solution that is cost effective and still allows you to retain some degree of mobility, consider a system that allows you to connect your cell phone to your home’s landline phone. With this system you can use any home phone, including cordless phones, to answer or initiate cell phone calls. You place the cell phone in a docking station. A phone line runs from the cell phone docking station to your home’s phone system. You can place the cell phone in almost any location in the house that has good signal strength, and access it from any corded or cordless phone. Keep in mind that you will still be using your cell phone’s service plan, which may have different rates than your landline phone service.

Home cell phone integration systems are available from a number of providers. Many systems are available for well under $100.

Long Delay When Receiving A Text Message Reply

This could of course be a consequence of messaging with a slow typist. But the more likely cause is a network issue.

You will most often notice slowdowns when you and the other party are using different networks. The extra transfer time required to move data between multiple networks can result in delays. These delays are often even more apparent when you’re messaging with someone in another country. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do except be patient.

Text Messages Dropped Or Duplicated

Sometimes text messages seem to get dropped or are sent and/or received multiple times. This is another problem that most often occurs when messaging with someone on another network. It also seems to frequently occur with service plans tailored to prepaid cards.

This is another case where there’s not a lot you can do except be patient or resort to a different type of communication. Most service plans offer no guarantee that text messages will arrive in a timely fashion, or even that they will arrive at all.

Mobile Phone Turns Off Unexpectedly

One common cause for this occurrence is a weak battery. Most phones have the grace to give you some type of warning before they shut themselves off, but if you happen to be doing something else at the time, you may miss the warning. Try changing batteries or connecting the phone to a charger. If you find you’re charging the battery often, and not using the phone often between charges, it may be time for a new battery.

Another common cause is a loose SIM (subscriber identity module) card or dirty contacts on the SIM card or phone. Most phones won’t work if the SIM card isn’t properly seated, although some will allow features that aren’t radio-related, such as calendars and address books, to work. Use an eraser to clean the contacts on the SIM card and the phone. As long as you have your eraser out, check the battery contacts, too. (This last task may or may not be applicable, depending on the battery type.) Reseat the SIM card after cleaning the contacts and try the phone again.

If you’re having these problems with a Treo 650, contact the manufacturer. Palm recently replaced the SIM trays with a new style that is more rigid and less likely to cause contact issues.

Email Error Message

In most cases if you try to send an email and get an error message, it means your ISP is trying to prevent its email service from being used as a spam relay point. In essence, your ISP doesn’t recognize your phone device as part of its network.

There are two common ways of dealing with this issue. First, contact your ISP to determine whether your outgoing mail server requires SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) authentication. If it does you will need to add this configuration information to your phone’s email client. Each phone and email client uses its own way to do this, so we can’t provide step-by-step instructions, but the information should be included in your phone’s documentation. Generally speaking, look for an advanced setting with an option such as ESMTP (Extended SMTP), My Server Requires Authentication, or Use Authentication. When you find the right screen, enter the username and password for your email account. The next time you try to send email, it should go through without a hitch.

Another way to correct this issue is to use your mobile service provider’s outgoing mail server (SMTP) to send mail. Contact the provider for the necessary configuration information.


RIM BlackBerry Problems

Network Feature Not Provided

Sometimes if you try to make a call, you might see an error message that reads, “This network feature is not provided on your service.” You will see this error message on the BlackBerry 7250 and BlackBerry Handheld Software 4.0 if you dial a number that includes a special service prefix that your service provider doesn’t recognize. If you entered Yes in the Restrict My Identity field of your handheld’s Phone Options screen, when you place a call, the device will prefix the number with #31, instead of the correct #30 prefix.

To correct this problem, select No in the Restrict My Identity field and then manually enter the prefix *30# before the number you want to call.

My Number: Unknown.

BlackBerry handhelds read the SIM card to determine their phone number. SIM cards have two storage locations for phone numbers, called slot 1 and slot 2. BlackBerry handhelds expect to see a single number in slot 1. If your SIM card was programmed incorrectly or the SIM is from another cell phone, the phone number may be stored in slot 2. If this occurs you might see the message “My Number: Unknown” when you try to access the phone menu. Contact your service provider to reprogram the SIM.


Palm Treo Problems

Can’t Browse The Web

This problem can occur on Treo models 180 through 300. As of Sept. 22, 2005, the Blazer 1.x and 2.x Web browsers included with early model Treos and the Palm VisorPhone stopped working due to a technology and security issue with the proxy servers the browsers use. Later versions of the browser are not affected.

A free replacement browser, Eudora Internet Suite, is available from QUALCOMM:

www.eudora.com/products/unsupported/internetsuite. Browsers are also available for a fee from other third-party sources.

Instead Of Dialing, Phone Screen Displays

Have you ever tried to place a call and found the Treo smartphone has almost immediately returned to the Phone screen without dialing the number? This usually means that the network you’re trying to connect to is too busy to accept any more calls. You can confirm this by checking the signal strength. If signal strength is adequate to make a call but you see the quick drop and return to the Phone screen, then it is indeed a network traffic issue. There’s nothing you can do but try again later and hope to hit the network at a quieter time.

by Tom Nelson and Mary O’Connor