The incessent vibrating and restarting device...

From my last post - on OS X Tiger, I mentioned something about some cable which I purchased wrongly.

Here's the story. If you have been following my posts or at least have met me recently, my latest phone in my ever increasing collection of over 50 different phones (no... I don't have all of them... I have OWNED them, its the past - and yes... I am should I say - a cellular phone freak) is the Sony Ericsson S700i.

Ever since my ownership of the phone, it has been giving me plentiful problems, from non-stop restarting to self vibration for no apparent reason. What I did was to send it to my faithful Sony Ericsson Service Centre in Berjaya Plaza and the kind Technical Supervisor would help sort it out for me.

After the first software upgrade, the phone did it's crazy antics once again. Annoyed, I decided to return to the service centre and requested for a change of phone - which they happily did for me.

Its been quite a number of months since I had this phone. After the software upgrade and the swap of phones, it still has its crazy antics. According to my pal at the Service Centre, he mentioned that the fault lies with the network operator's SIM Card - Maxis. I then decided to purchase a prepaid card from a different network operator and ONCE again it did it's vibrations and restarts.

I have given up. According to Soo Jin, since I have changed the SIM card, changed the phone and did the firmware upgrades, the only thing left to be changed is ME! Obviously, there's nothing I can do about that. The solution? Live with it.

It's been months now and this annoyance has got to stop. The restarts and vibrations are getting on my nerves. The worst bit of this is that it restarts whenever I receive an SMS or a phone call, rendering the idea of having a phone for communication completely USELESS!

After tracing back, I did notice one thing. After swapping the unit with a brand new one, I never actually upgraded its firmware. The firmware was only upgraded on the older unit. In my opinion, its not Maxis' fault nor is it me, its the PHONE! It's the PHONE's firmware!

After so long, there has to be a few versions of the firmware released by Sony Ericsson. To remove the hassle of having to go down to town every few months to get my phone upgraded with the latest firmware, I decided to use Sony Ericsson's Web Update service which allows end-users to perform the update by themselves - the catch? You need some form of a data cable.

On the day which my dad purchased OS X Tiger (refer to my last blog), my other reason for going down to Low Yat Plaza was to purchase this cable which supposedly allow me to perform the upgrade.

The cable cost me RM85 bucks - which was hefty but since it was going to save me from all the trouble of getting to town simply to get my phone's firmware upgraded, it was well worth it.

I brought the cable home and logged on to SonyEricsson.com to begin with the firmware update. After an hour and a half getting the cable installed, getting to the right site and getting everything configured, the procedure failed - the reason, WRONG CABLE! - ARRGGHHH!

I decided to return to Low Yat Plaza and asked for a change of product; but before doing so, I started Googling for information on this supposed "end-user performed firmware upgrade". It turned out that I need a specific docking station or a cable with some speaker stand which I do not have. With the specific product models in hand, I left for Low Yat and informed the sales personnel who sold the cable to me of my recent adventure with the WRONG CABLE.

The docking station turned out to be RM 230! What a slap on the face. As the shop had a no cash-refund policy and I have no other products to purchase from that shop, I had no choice but to purchase the product.

Earlier today, I went to the shop and picked up the docking station (they didn't have it in-stock the other day) and topped up an additional RM 140 (they gave me a RM 5 discount).

I am now at a pretty popular Hong Kong styled restaurant in Low Yat Plaza. The upgrade was finally completed just minutes ago. I'm now with an RM 225 docking station which I would treasure for some time; and hopefully, with all the trouble that I have gone through, these the phone's crazy antics will finally end...

If you have a Sony Ericsson and requires a firmware upgrade, you know who to consult :)