If you've purchased a Treo recently from Cingular and are having problems, read this post...
Two weeks ago I took the plunge and purchased the Treo 650 from Cingular. I don't have to repeat the many glowing reviews this device has received. What did it for me was knowing that there would be a Wi-Fi plug-in available later this year. Here's one that's on the way.
The first week with the Treo was mostly positive. Syncing is a challenge with any device, particularly if you are a Mac user. PalmSource gave up supporting Macs last year, so I had to go to a third party to get software to sync my calendar and contacts. As a Mac user, I'm accustomed to these little exercises.
After about a week the troubles began. I would go to dial a number and the phone would reset on me. Just like that. The screen goes black and then it boots up again. For a moment there I had a flashback to my Windows Me days.
To make matters worse, the voicemail phone number would change on me randomly, displaying everything from international numbers to a string of zeros.
So I went to the Cingular and PalmOne Web sites and found nothing of help. There was clearly a software glitch - perhaps a conflict between the SIM card and the Palm OS. This is in many ways the worst possible problem, because it falls in between the cracks of the device manufacturer and the carrier. In fact, when I finally did get ahold of Cingular, they initially told me that I had a faulty device and that I should return it.
Then I discovered Treo forums here and here. And I quickly realized that I wasn't alone. Between the forums I estimate that I have found close to a hundred people who have buggy Treo 650s. Granted, it's very hard to tell what's a legitimate bug or software conflict or naive user, but based on reading these countless postings, I can't help but think that Palm and Cingular rushed out this handset a bit too quickly.
One user goes to Cingular the other day and finds that corporate has sent an email to all dealers telling them that the SIM card is causing problems. The dealers have been sent a stack of Axalto SIM cards to exchange with the existing Gemplus SIM cards.
So once I heard this I went over to my local dealer and was met with a blank stare, until I found the manager who just happened to have read the same email that morning. They swapped the cards and the problem went away, sorta.
I had to go home and do a hard reset, that is, erase all the settings and software I had set up, and the phone worked again. Needless to say, I was relieved, until I ran a sync operation and all the old files and settings were pushed back onto the Treo. Suddenly, the same old problems came back to life. Once user on the forum said I need to reinstall my backup software as well (which for me meant reinstalling two applications all over again). Instead, I tried to remove just the backup files and this seemed to do the trick.
It has been three days and I've only had on random reset.
I've been in touch with PalmOne PR and hope to have more information soon. What I want to know is this:
1. How severe is this problem? How many people need to be changing SIM cards?
2. Why didn't PalmOne and Cingular notify everyone the minute they discovered this problem? How many people right now are waiting on hold with Cingular cursing their Treos?
3. Did Cingular pull the Treo off its Web site yesterday because of this problem or because of supply shortages? They'll probably say it's because of shortages, but I can't help but wonder.
Anyway, I hope this isn't a big problem, though it certainly has been a big one for me. And I'm still wondering if I should just return the thing the get on with my life (I've wasted a good 10 hours on hold, at the dealer, and futzing with the device). But, most of all, I hope other frustrated Treo users out there read this post and get to their dealer if they're having problems.
Russell Shaw is a specialist in mobile computing, telephony, networking and covers these fields regularly for numerous print and online publications. Russ writes the popular IP Telephony blog on ZDNet and contributes regularly to The Industry Standard blog as well. Author of seven books, Russ' latest book is Wireless Networking Made Easy.
John Yunker is president of 
1. Gabriel Hauser on February 25, 2005 11:55 AM writes...
A question to John: now that a few more days with the new SIM card have passed, do you believe that simply asking for the Axalto SIM card will prevent the problem from happening? Is it safe to get a 650 these days?
Permalink to Comment2. John Yunker on February 25, 2005 12:03 PM writes...
My understanding is that Cingular will soon be shipping all new Treos with the new SIM cards. However, I'm also reading a rumor on the forums that there is OS patch on the way as well. If this is case, I would definitely wait. But I hope to hear more from PalmOne on this shortly.
It's a real shame because overall I really like the Treo. I want to love the darn thing but have been pretty soured on it lately. And it seems to me that the whole mess could have been avoided had Palm and Cingular simply held up the release a bit longer for more testing.
Permalink to Comment3. Mike on February 25, 2005 2:07 PM writes...
I had the same problem a day in to owning my treo. I put it down to installing the Java app available as mine reset only happened after I had installed solitaire, the jvm and one other app I can't recall now (all of which came on the cd with the treo or were linked from it). After I hard reset and started with another user (to stop it loading the same things again when I synced up) and installed only what I wanted, the problem was fixed. I've had 1 or 2 resets at bizarre times since then. I'm fully expecting a patch to the dodgy software on this great phone. The sim card thing seems to be a red herring.
Permalink to Comment4. Louie Locke on February 26, 2005 10:40 AM writes...
Glad I found this post. I too love/hate my new Treo 650. I've had similar problems, resets when I try to make or answer calls, when I try to get Cingular voice mail, it dials Sprint???
Permalink to CommentI'll be checking with the retail store when I get back to the states and see if they can get the sim card issue dealt with.
5. Barry Meskin on February 26, 2005 12:02 PM writes...
Treo 650 and cingular !
I too have had the Cingular phone for 2 weeks, and almost 50 self resets and freezing problems continuously, daily. Voicemail and contacts horrible too. In fact, pathetic. I am a Mac user, and also like to have SIMPLE, PAIN FREE phone, pda. I have had NOKIA for 7 years before this, and 100% FLAWLESS.
What is up with Palm and/or Cingular ??????????????
Permalink to Comment6. Randall Sidlosca on February 27, 2005 12:09 AM writes...
Well, it is good to hear that others have had the same problem that I have had. I purchased the Cingular Treo 650 a week ago and it has frozen and powered down every day I have used it. I have called Cingular Customer Service at least three times and they just tell me that it is a hardware problem. They say they will ship me a new Treo, but it is on back order at least a week. What am I to do????
Permalink to Comment7. Sian Tan on February 27, 2005 10:35 AM writes...
John,
You are not alone.
I bought an unlocked variant of the 650. I was previously a fan of the 600. Never had problems like I had now with it rebooting all the time.
AT&T/Cingular wants to charge $20 for a SIM card replacement.
Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) in Europe is even worse. Not only do they want to charge you $24, I had to suffer the indignity of being told that "we are not interested in your problem".
I have since fired off some rather incensed emails at PalmOne.
In my opinion, such an oversight is criminal on their part.
Funny thing is, they say that 32k SIM cards work fine. Well, I've got one in my phone from T-Mobile. AND I've done a hard reset, deinstalled all apps from my desktop, deleted the folders, reinstalled them and I am still having the same problems.
I think PalmOne has a lemon on their hands. I hope a software patch comes soon, like in a week.
Permalink to Comment8. Peter on February 27, 2005 12:01 PM writes...
I had a similar frustrating experience with the Treo 650 -- seemed that any time my device would access GPRS network and do a 'power save', it would freeze (requiring a soft reset) or become unbearably slow.
Permalink to CommentI did the hard reset and created a new 'user' for the device so that I wouldn't sync anything over. This helped but the problems persisted. Finally I called the B2B Customer service line and they offered to replace the device.
So far - resets are rare (only with 1 app which does corporate email) and I haven't seen a freeze or dropped call since. Haven't replaced the SIM card (I just checked and it's a G-card).
I may have to call in about that.
9. Robert on February 27, 2005 12:33 PM writes...
I bought an unlocked Treo 650 and subscribed to Cingular service, Same problem as described above_resets when dailing. I am now overseas and about to subscribe with a provider in Israel. Hopefully their SIM card will be trouble free, and I can use the phone. Will wait 'til return to U.S. to trade Cingular Gemplus card for Axalto.
Permalink to Comment10. Jon on March 1, 2005 12:16 AM writes...
I've been having problems with my 650 going into a soft-reset loop every time it gets in range of my Parrot CK3100 hands-free kit, despite installing all upgrades for both.
I've checked and yes, I have the dreaded "g" SIM card. I'm gonna swap it out and see if it makes a difference.
Anyone have a similar experience/any suggestions?
Permalink to Comment11. Alan on March 1, 2005 3:26 PM writes...
Bought my Treo two weeks ago and development soft reset symptoms about a week later. Cingular guy actually read me their internal bulletin off his computer (pointing to the sim card issue). I had the g-card. He didn't have an Axalto card for me so sent me to another store. They installed the A card and so far no problems at all. They are also being shipped 32k cards as another standby option.
Permalink to Comment12. Gabriel Hauser on March 2, 2005 12:28 PM writes...
John, have your heard back from Palmone? I was planning on ugrading my 600 to 650 but was waiting to hear your verdict...
Permalink to Comment13. HRL on March 2, 2005 2:59 PM writes...
I write PalmOS reviews and articles for a national magazine I was sent two loaner Treo 650s by palmOne's PR firm for review. The SprintPCS phone worked perfectly. I was also sent a Cigular branded version (before it went public.. and had both at the same time for a few weeks) that was screwed up right out of the box.
Any time I punched in a number with the dial pad or keyboard, and hit dial, the phone crashed and rebooted. Any time I called it from any other phone and hit the answer button, it crashed and rebooted.
Frustrating? You bet. After wasting hours trying to figure out what was wrong with it, and talking to the PR firm, who had no clue, I figured out the only way to dial someone was to put their name and number into the contact list, select and dial it from there. Doing that, the phone didn't crash. But there was still no way to answer a call without it crashing..
And yes, like Treo Central and others have reported, the Voicemail speed button dialed a long string of zeros 0000000000000000000 and reached SprintPCS Voicemail, on a Cingular phone!!.. How that's even possible, I don't have a clue. It must have bee haunted. Posessed.. call an exorcist..
They swapped it out for another Cingular Treo 650.. I knew it was physically a different phone since the bluish faceplate around the screen didn't have "Cingular" tattooed on it, but they put the same freakin' SIM card (yes.. GemPlus).. back into it, so it had the same phone number, and all the same problems. I reported this and again was told "We've heard from ONE other person they're having similar problems but don't know what the cause is. It could be a ROM problem."
So I continued on with the SprintPCS phone which worked perfectly for six weeks. I was going to write a comparison review, but had to shelve it, since the Cingular phone was all but unusable as a phone, except as a PDA / Web browser / camera. Those features worked fine.
Minutes ago, I got the Treo Central newsletter in my email which detailed this problem.. weeks after I had reported it to the PR firm before the Cingular version of the Treo 650 was even released!!..
So you who have the early Cingular phones with the GemPlus SIM card have my sympathy for the crap you've had to go through with this nonsense.. how do these even get out of the factory with these kinds of problems on board??.. What happened to QAing new products like this so these kinds of problems never make it into the hands of consumers who laid down a considerable chunk of their hard-earned cash??..
Permalink to Comment14. Josh on March 3, 2005 3:40 PM writes...
I'm on my second problematic Cingular Treo 650. The first one was problematic from the start. It kept getting stuck in a reboot loop of death which I finally determined was being caused by some very common third-party software. It took me a few days to get the thing working pretty well from a software point of view when it developed an inexplicable hardware problem - the shift key locked up. The store eventually expressed a willingness to exchange the whole device; however, they didn't have any in stock and they wouldn't special order one. After days of going from store to store, I was finally able to have the unit replaced. Within 12 hours, the new one got all mucked up...freezing and rebooting without explanation. The web doesn't work, the $80 bluetooth headset doesn't work. I've invested a great deal of time, money and energy in this thing and it's just not worth it. I will be returning mine this evening.
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