Thursday, June 30, 2011

LG Optimus V: Frozen Phone Fix

A friend of mine just got an LG Optimus V. It freezes several times in the first week. I felt obliged to help him out as it was I who recommended the phone to him.

I got his frozen phone to diagnose what was the problem. To my surprise, it is the same as the "Total Blank Screen" except the screen was not blank. Everything was showing correctly. Even the clock was ticking. The problem is still the same. None of the buttons, including the power button, work. Judging from that, I believed that the phone was actually good. It is the software that hung the phone.

The phone software must be busy doing something and kept trying after it got no answer. I took out the battery with his permission. (It was a new phone with no personal data on it anyway). Everything was alright after the reboot.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

LG Optimus V: Reset to Factory State

After all the fun and excitement, you realized that the modifications and additions you did to your LG Optimus V were not exactly what you'd been dreamed for. Or you want to customize your phone a totally different way. Or you like you phone so much that you want someone else to enjoy it. Whatever it is, you decided to remove all the personal data and the applications you installed on your LG Optimus V. Unfortunately, you pretty much forgot all about what you did and saved. Luckily enough, the LG Optimus V came with a function for you to put your phone back to the factory state.

Before starting removing all the data on your phone, you better backup up them, including the data on the microSD. This procedure could remove all the personal data on your phone. It would not delete the data on the microSD according to the information on the phone screen before step 7. But better be safe than sorry.
Here are the steps to reset the LG Optimus V to the factory state,
  1. Backup your personal data on the phone
  2. Backup your personal data on the microSD
  3. Hit menu button when at the home screen
  4. Tap Settings
  5. Tap Privacy
  6. Tap Factory Data Reset
  7. Tap Reset Phone
  8. Enter your password if required, then tap Erase Everything
Now you got yourself an LG Optimus V the same state as one just came out of the package box. Well, except the "Current system software and bundled applications".

I read something about a phone hangs after step 8. I tried couple of times with my phone and everything was smooth.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

LG Optimus V: Target DPCI Number

Target sells LG Optimus V. I was told that you could find the item faster if you have the DPCI number. You could also get the inventory information if you have the DPCI number. I don't know if any of these are true.

Anyway here it is. The DPCI number for the LG Optimus V at Target is, 080-02-0724.

Hope this will help.

Monday, June 20, 2011

LG Optimus V: Wi-Fi Hot Spot Test

I did not get a chance to test the Wi-Fi hot spot function of the LG Optimus V fully after I got the setup working. At that time, all I did was surfing a couple of pages to see the connection would not drop. The tests were done before I got the "Total Blank Screen" problem. I felt obliged to talk about that first.

We went to a kind of isolated area for a weekend. Everybody got something to do except me. So I got myself a couple hour window to test the Wi-Fi hot spot function of the phone. The area was open and the signal bars were full.

I recorded down the battery level before I began. The setup was easy as I did that before. Everything went smoothly. I surfed to the places I usually go and clicked the links on those pages. Those bloggers should thank me for the extra money they got. :-) Two hours passed pretty fast. I stopped right there and recorded down the battery level at the exact strike.

I got nothing to complain about the whole test. No interrmiten connections, no dropped connections, no delays. Nothing but the battery life. The battery drained from 97% to 23% in such a short time. I don't understand why the big difference between talk time and data time. I also moved around to see the coverage. It covered a circular area with a diameter of about 30 ft. or so.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen III The Fixes

"Blank Screen" seems not a very small problem anymore. I thougt I was done with this topic after "Total Blank Screen I" and "Total Blank Screen II". But, a friend of my who has the exact same phone as I experienced the "Blank Screen" yesterday. The good news is that it can be easily resolved.

He called me and we had a chat. I went through everything I did and diagnosed. He just took out the battery while the phone was still powered on. I do not like that and do not recommend anyone to do that. He put the battery back in after waited for 5 minutes and powered the phone up. It worked.

So now we know 2 ways to fix your LG Optimus V when it goes to a total blank screen,
1. Let your phone sit there and run out of battery;
2. Take out the battery and put back it back in after wait for 5 minutes.

Personally, I don't like the second choice. I don't know if doing that would damage any hardware of your phone. So the first choice is the safe bet. I also believe that all the manufactures should make sure that the phones they made will work after your phone ran out of battery and started recharging.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen II The Helper

Before I went home I looked at the phone under the sun and found out that there was some thing kind of visible on the screen. So I did more tests.

The time was actually showing on the screen but I could hardly make it out. So I pressed the power button again and vaguely saw the "phone options" menu popped up. I tapped the "power off" but nothing happened. Actually all three menu choices were not working.

This proved my theory that either the backlit or the backlit control software was not working. And what is more, the touch screen was not functional either.

I called my service provider, got the music treatment, and finally talked to an "experienced" technician. He offered no solution and suggested me to call the manufacturer.

To my surprise, the one feature I dislike the most about the phone, battery life, actually helped out solving the problem. My phone ran out of battery and went to shutdown. This morning the phone revived from the total blank screen after I plugged in the charger and restarted it.

I posted the two ways I learnt to fix the problem in LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen III.

Monday, June 13, 2011

LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen I The Diagnose

For a long while, I though the "Blank Screen" was just another wolf coming story. Even now I still couldn't believe that I hit jackpot today. This afternoon my LG Optimus V suddenly went completely blank. I did some checking and here is the report.

My first suspect was the battery as I don't have any confidence in its so claimed battery standby time. All bottom menu buttons lit up when pressed and the phone volume buttons still work and produces sounds. This actually proved to me that the phone was operational with enough battery juice.

Next I tried to see if ringtons woke up the screen. So I dialed my cell from another phone. It rang but nothing shown. This concluded that either the backlit was gone or the backlit control apps was malfunction.

The third task I did was to see if I could shut the phone down. I have remembered the tap buttons' location when I usually turn it off. So I pressed the power button and held it long. Then I tapped blindly at the location where the "Power off" should be and tapped at the location where "OK" should be. This didn't work either.

This pretty much exhausts all the tricks I can think of. I'm going to call my phone service provider to see if they could help me out. Please see the Total Blank Screen II.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

LG Optimus V: Awkward Keyboard

I have been using the phone for about 4 months now. I like it a lot. Still, there are some rooms of improvement.  Longer battery life, for instance, is definitely a much needed feature. Key in information also requries attention.

LG Optimus V came with 2 keyboard apps, Android Keyboard and Swipe. Neither of them works satisfactory for me. Maybe my fingures are too fat. An adjacent key pops up half of the time. I have to instead to bring a stylus in addition to the phone. Swipe, on the other hand, also requires you to stop at the correct place for it to come up with the correct word. That still requires a slim finger.

I now even start to think of writing the keyboard app for my fat fingers. I would like to evaluate other keyboard apps first before this climbs to the top of my to do list.