Samsung Impression Forum

Occasionally, after sending maybe 300 messages or so, it does not send it anymore.  Instead, it gets stuck on the sending part and ends up as "message failed".  I usually turn off the phone and turn it on again to "reset" it, I guess, and then messaging works again.  Has anyone run into this problem? Or is it just me?  If so, please help.

I know exactly what you mean. I go through the exact same thing.

Well I take it since you sent 300 messages you probably received 300 messages. Might have something to do with your message capacity is full and time to clean out.

i have the same problem but i never save my messages so i never have neaer that many in my inbox or my sent box

Yep, I'm having the same problem.

ya my g/f and i are havin the same problem. i usually have to restart my phone every other day. i send/receive maybe 30 texts a day. my inbox/sent box has maybe 50 texts in each and i have the same problem. it's kind of annoyin especially when it won't send when you are exchangin messages w/ someone. then you have to restart, then wait for it to initialize.

My suggestion to all those having messaging problems is to call ATT tech support. They are the only ones that are going to resolve your issue. It could be a bad phone, something to do with your connection with ATT, or possibly a bug. But since most people do not have this issue it must be something else other than a bug. Wait to long to complain to them and you will end up with a refurb. Tell them while you are within 30 days so you can get a new phone.

And according to ATT you are supposed to restart your phone everyday. Just letting you know.

ive read about this on other help forums forthe impression apparently from what i can remember at the moment its one of the downsides of the impression i beleive its a bug or soemthing

Both Impressions I have had have done it, so I'm just going to say it's a bug. Happens to me atleast once every hour or two.

I believe ur messages might be too large...meaning the phone can support up to 500 messages or a cetain limit in KBs, and i believe u are supassing the KB limit on ur phone...And yes u should reset ur phone atleast every other day, i do it everyday cuz i use my phone till the battery dies everytime...At the very least if my phone gets any unsightly scratches on it, i can send it back by using this as an excuse...heck i might even get one with the software version Goat and Kitty have GRRRRRRRRRRRRR no im not jealous or anything  >:( lol.

this is definitely not the case, the size of txt doesn't have anything to do with it. Whenever this happens (as it does very frequently with me since i txt like a beast) exit and try to send texts to other ppl. It still wont let you. After you get the send error you cannot send anything to anyone. I know this is an old post but this is just killin me..

Your phone can only hold so many messages. That includes incoming and sent. Lets see if we can diagnose this problem or if it is that the messaging memory is full. The next time this happens to you please go menu/settings/memory management/used space/messaging In the top right corner select the drop down arrow and select text message. See if you are at your limit. You are allowed a total of 500 messages stored on your phone.  And that includes inbox, sent, outbox, and drafts together.

thats the first thing i checked, last time that it happened i restarted my phone and checked the memory. I couldn't have more than 200 total at the time.

I definitely know what you're going through, this bug KILLS me. And it doesn't have to do with the size of the message or how many texts are on your phone, the bug just happens randomly. I know this is a bug, just not a well known one. I do know though that whenever this happens to me and I can't send text messages, if the "Low Battery" message pops up, my phone locks up and I literally have to take out the battery and put it back in for it to start again.

I called ATT, but that was as good as eating dirt. I don't think many people encounter this bug, so I don't think Samsung is doing anything about it.

When it happens see if you can use the internet if you have a data plan.

what is the difference?

internet still works just like everything else on the phone, just tried it out. its just the fact that i can't send the message and any other message after that...then i have to turn it off, turn it on, then wait for it to initialize the whole message system. and I have the newer version of the phone software too.

Contact ATT and let them know. I think it is more with your connection with ATT and not the phone itself. Sometimes they have to redo your connection on their end.

nope, i contacted at&t, and the lady burned through like all her troubleshooting and she said its not a problem they're aware of, but i'm sure its just a bug with the phone. it probably won't happen to you unless you text constantly.

i get this problem maybe once or twice a day. i can still go on the internet (:

Im on my 3rd impressions phone from att and all have had the same problem. I have to reset phone 4-5 times a day to be able to send text messages. After the second phone i did some checking and found out the problem is common but haven't found any solution. I keep clearing the text message memory but it doesn't help. Has Samsung acknowledged the problem and are there any fixes/patches/firmware on the way?

Surely that must be caued by some weird combo of flaky phones/towers/connections. My wife had it happen once, and one time I couldn't text my sister, but I could text anyone else fine. I don't know if that counts or not.

Not sure as I have never had the texting bug in either of my 2 phones.

I have been having this problem alot lately like 3 to 4 times a week my phone will not send a text message to anyone it just says "sending" or whatever then fails and i have to restart my phone then it works fine.  It suck thinking about getting a new one but i dont want to loose all of my games.

hey guys i am just wondering how many people have the text bug on their samsung impression

I dont but I only have 200 txt per month

You did not clarify what the textbug is.

the text bug is where whenever you go to send a text and at first everything is fine... but after a while the phone will no longer send texts/ mms/ or do anything data related.  however you still can make calls.  also when this happens you cannot delete messages.  also when you scroll to the bottom or top of the screen to the end and it "bounces back" ... well sometimes it stops doing this as well

I said me only because I experienced the forever "sending" status... Hopefully this doesn't happen again.  I am starting to become disappointed with this phone.  How can they sell something for $400 with so many issues?  This isn't the first "bug" iv'e experienced...

Just remember,you have 30 days return policy, with most companies. If you decide too many bugs,take it back. Quig

lol my 30 days are up... however i would have just got another impression most likely... but... i noticed something... it happened to me today right after it switched from storing text's on the sim card to storing texts on the phone memory...

^ what did you notice...?

First time today...

First thing I noticed was that I could no longer "throw" a list... how you can slide your finger past the edge of the screen and it keeps going, that stopped working. Then I got to the end and, as was mentioned, it didn't bounce back. It just left the blank space displayed. I had no data signal at the time but could place calls fine. But the data issue was due to where I was, nothing with the phone.

Also have this issue..  Have to power on/off my phone to reset the text messenging about 2-3 times a week as it suddenly will stop sending and receiving them.  After the restart it works fine, but its annoying to have to keep doing.  Would also like to hear of any solutions to this problem........

And how many with these issues have contacted ATT to let them know and try and fix the issue?

I just got an Impression as a replacement for my LG Vu that blew up for the forth time and I've already had this issue. Sometimes you try to send to someone and the "sending" seems eternal. It just sends and sends and sends without end until you cancel it. Restarting the phone is the only way to solve the issue. I'm planning on calling ATT about it.

ok did you get them all replaced in the same month? which month? i got my first impression the week of its launch and i did have the bug i got it replaced a few months ago twice and both phones havent had the bug. They fixed the bug on may 20 all impressions made after that date dont have it. Get it replaced a few more times, you probably got the ones that were made before that, it wasnt an over the air fix it was a manufacture fix.....

Easiest way to figure this out. If you got the texting bug or not.

menu/settins/phone information

Check your software version. Newest is A877UCID3. There have only been this firmware and the one before May.

and there is the answer to your question, replace the phone if you dont have that firmware get it replaced again until you get that firmware. The third time you replace it you can also get another phone that has similarites (hardware,pricing ect.)

Happens to me as well, exactly how others have described. Anyone know of a fix yet?

I have this firmware and it still happens to me.

I didnt think the newer firmware had anything to do with it. I am still convinced it is your connection with ATT.

I have great 3G signal. Never have an issue surfing the internet either. Once a day or if I am lucky, once every other day I have to restart the phone. It's so annoying.

Thats not the type of connection I meant. I had same issue with internet when I first got my phone. Once or twice a day I had to rboot phone. ATT reset my connection in their servers somehow and I have never had an issue since.

NOT SO SURE I GOT MY SECOND IMPRESSION WHICH WAS MADE IN OCT,2009 AND STILL HAVE THE TEXTING ISSUE

would just like to add my 2 cents.

I've had the phone for 2 weeks and this has happened twice i believe.  Definitley happened once.  Restarted the phone like i read about on here, and after the phone was restarted the text went through instantly. 

Only thing different from my issue was that I only had about 30-40 texts all together stored on my phone..

what gives?

Dont be so excited with the caps please. I didnt think the firmware had anything to do with it. As I stated before. If you have the texting issue please contact ATT. The more that contact them the quicker this will get fixxed.

Just curious. Trying to figure this out. People that have the texting issue.....Do you have an unlimited data plan also? And how many bars do you have in your area? By chance during the day does it ever go to no bars?  And I am not talking about 3G. 3G has nothing to do with texting.

i think i might have this thing and i have the new one so im gonna see if it does it again, and if so, i'll call them. ive only had this for a week or to, and today i tried sending a message and it took forever, so i turned it off, turned it back on, and it sent. o.O but i haven't had any troubles besides that :)

So do I. The oddest thing about it is that while it's "sending" a text that gets locked up, I can send texts to other people and they go through. Just not the text that gets "caught" for whatever reason. I really need to find the time to call ATT. Tried once, waited on hold for 45 minutes and had to bolt. Guess I'm just putting of that hold time...

Exactly. Thats why I dont think it is a problem with the phone. ATT loses your text message somehow. Same thing that happened to me with my internet connection when I first got my phone.  Tell them you read on a forum that they need to take you out of their network and put you back in. I know it sounds like bullshit but it might work.

joined for just this problem actually. it seems when ever i get this bug the bars on my phone go from 1ish to 3-4. and this bugs persist until  the phone is restarted. i drive 100 miles to goto school and have had this bug when i left and was still there when i got to school.

size of the text is irrelevant. how many text you have is irrelevant but i have never had it happen with a completely empty inbox/outbox. however clearing it out does not resolve the bug.

i have gone though two impressions and both had this bug. i will be going to get a new sim card tomorrow to see if this fixes the problem as it is the only common factor i can see since i have gonna though different locations, phones, and size of texts.

I am going to go through my story again. Hoping that someone tries to get ATT to do this for them and make attempt to stop the texting bug.

When I first got my phone I was going fishing alot. And where I fished there was a very faint data signal. Somedays nothing at all. But anyways after leaving fishing and coming home to a 3G area I was unable to log onto the internet. I had a full signal but it would just hang forever. Sound familiar.  If I would reboot my phone all would be fine.

This was happening about once a day. Not 100% positive if it had anything to do with going to an area with no signal or not.

So I read on the net about someone having a similiar problem. And this is how he fixxed it. He called ATT and got through with their tech support.  Seems they removed him from the server and then put him back in and all was fine again.

I contacted ATT about my problem. Got a tech rep on the phone. And went through the story.  He said he would do the same thing for me. He made me pull my battery while phone was on. He then said he took me offline and then put my service back on and hoped that would fixx my problem. Gave me a service ticket number to call back with and the problem would be looked into. I NEVER had that issue again. And it originally happened everyday for a month.  I wasnt doing alot of texting at the time so I dont know if my texting was doing the same thing.

This issue sounds very familiar to your texting bug. I am not familiar with what could be causing this issue.  But I dont believe it is actually the phone itself.  I am on my second impression and I DO NOT have the texting bug.  Alot of impression owners do not have the texting bug.  Maybe ATT is giving a limited bandwith.  Or maybe they are giving us a signal  that doesnt reset properly when you leave a signal area and return. Who knows....maybe it is ATT's way of trying to limit the number of texts going through their system.

But this is why I ask everyone with the bug to read this. Please contact ATT and ask them to do the same thing. Hopefully we can find a resolution to this issue.  But everyone has to contact ATT when they have this issue and try to get it fixxed. Its obviously getting a new phone doesnt fix this issue. Many have tried. So it either has to be with your connection with ATT or even possibly your sim.  We have to work with ATT to let them know of this issue and get the correct resolution.

alright thanks agoat, will get my connection reset today and my sim replaced tomorrow and let yall know how those go

well, i have never had this problem.  However, I reboot daily and clear out my messages at about 100 (200 if you include sent and received).  Ive had the phone about 2 months.

I also ask those with the problem.....have you deleted your sent messages? Some people tend to forget those and just delete inbox.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely mention that.

this dosent happen to me... whenever it cant send a text... it cant sent a text to anyone at all...

yes, i just hit the delete all button, doesn't change anything

Make sure you are hitting delete all in the sent messages as this is different than the inbox. That is probably what you meant. Just making sure.

oh no, sorry. what i ment was that when i go to delete messages i goto the messing center scroll down goto delete by folder and check the all box.

I just called AT&T with the same problem
I spent a day without being able to send out any text
and I don't txt from my phone much.

Basically tech support told me to turn off my cell and not to restart it
until he re-set the txt feature on my phone...

I restarted it and I was able to use my txt again
I asked if this was a one time thing or if I was going to be dealing with it
for the life of my contract with them. >:(

He assured me that it would not happen again....I will post here if anything else comes of this.

WooHoo!!!!!  Thanks Isketch. See I keep trying to tell everyone the issue is not with your phone but with ATT servers. But rarely does anyone listen. This is eaxtly what they did to my phone 6 months ago when I kept losing internet connection.

Please let us know that the problem doesnt come back. And everyone please do the same.

So i have to call att and tell them that i have to reboot my phone twice a day because of this, and they will make it so it never happens again?

That is what I have been telling you...yes. Isketch did it so hopefully his phone will be fine.

hmmmmm we shall see... cuz my fone does it a lot since i text like all day so there should be obvious results but im lazy so ill tell u how it goes when i come around to doing it lol.

http://www.samsung-impression.org/index.php?topic=1803.0

Goat, here's the update...I called AT&T and the first lady I got really didn't do much except tell me that the nearest cell site by my house is deteriorating and set up a "call back" the next day to see if I was still having problems with my internet/data connection. The next day the same thing happened - it was still cycling endlessly so I made another call to AT&T (someone from AT&T did call me back from that "call back", but I missed the call). This time I got a man and after explaining the problem to him, he ran diagnostics and checked my connection and status from his side to make sure everything seemed to be working ok, which it was. I then mentioned to him about having the connection reset because of what you mentioned and he went ahead and did it...so far, after 2 days - NO PROBLEMS...woohoo!!! (He did mention that resetting the connection was a "last resort" thing that they do. He called it "re-registering" the device. All he had me do was power the phone off, no battery pulling though)

Its been more than a few days and my phone is working great
just thought I should update 8)

 :o Just now i was trying to send a picture message and it just said sending.... and it wouldn't send and after a while i tried pushing the end key and pushing cancel and it wouldn't work! So i had to take the battery out and turn it back on... Has this happened to any 1?

Well it was easy all u have to do is tell at&t about it and they reset some stuff on the network and now i have no problems. They told me it should be fixed for good. I did a Technical Support Chat but u can also call. Here's a link to the Tech chat. U got to sign in though.

https://www.wireless.att.com/olam/dashboardAction.olamexecute?target=TC

Hope this fixes your problems. ;)

Again. The Goat hates to tell everyone I told you so....But......I told you so. Text bug is not an issue with phone. 4 people now do not have to live with the text bug.  All it takes is a simple call or in Hayden's case an online chat.

Yup all is good. Sorry agoattamer for posting that post. Forgot to see if people found out how to fix it.

Man it happend again. I guess ill contack at&t again

Doh! :-X  Yes you better.

Well the person told me since i still have the 30 day period i should get a new one. So you might have to have somone else try to call at&t. I have a question though. If i turn in my phone will i get cought for putinmg on games and useing the master key and stuff. If i take off all the games and put all of it back to normal will the find out some how.

Do a master reset if you want to feel safer.

Does that get ride of everything. Any traces of me messing around with the phone.

I called in yesterday and the guy I talked to said he took me off the server and put me back on.  Didn't help, had the same issue last night.  Pretty frustrated.

Call them again. It has solved the problem for a few. Worst case they send you a new phone and maybe give you money off of your bill.

Will do... thanks.

How come my old phone didn't do this anyway??

might have something to do with the IMEI codes or how they put you in the server. Maybe they are doing something that they dont want to get out. I don't know. ::)

Well i got a brand new impression now ;D. All they did was take out the battery and sim and gave me a new one. They didn't do anything else. But just in case do a master reset.

this is so weird. i don't really have a problem with this "text bug" (cept when I forget to shut off my phone before bed).  but my family has had no problem whatsoever and they don't restart it before bed. idk maybe im crazy  ::) but im sure this works, i just don't feel the need to turn in my phone yet, I love the little buddy.

Well i still get the the same thing with a new phone. Ah well, i still love this phone. Maybe in the future theyll put a update to fix it

Then call ATT again and have them check if you need updates or if they can take you out and then reregister you again. It is not the phone.  It has to do with the network.

My chat with AT&T:

It has been a solid three days and I haven't had the problem again.  Thank God.  Plus I got my unlock code.  You just have to be firm with them.  Honestly, you probably know more than the first level tech guys.

ima copy exactly wat u said bigjp

So how much is ATT charging us to fix this issue? LOL. You are correct bigjp64. Most of us probably know more than first level tech support. But if we have to lead them by the hand to fix this issue then we will do just that.

They only read from a book. If we can get enough people to call on this and hopefully this fixxes the issue for you then ATT can pull their head out of the rear and be able to fix this for everyone when they call with this issue. 

Please let the forum know if your issue comes back. But 3 days does sound promising now.  ;D

I'm chatting right now and they're slow at replying.

Ok so they said they took me out of the server and put me back in and made me do a master reset. So now we wait about 4 hrs and see how i went.

Ok... So 1 hr later and it happened again.

and now another hr later and it happened again! this just made it worse!!

Ok now i'm pissed.  After I talked to AT&T I went four days without the text issue, and today I have had it happen twice, so now I don't really know what to do.  I could complain again but I don't know if it will help.  On the bright side, I have noticed getting a much faster GPS fix recently.

Yes I got that faster gps fix too. But they need to get this text message issue fixxed. Obviously it has something to do with their servers because it was a temporary fix. I wish they would tell us the truth.

I found this forum searching for info about the texting problem on the Impression. I've talked to AT&T and Samsung about it. It amuses me that they both say the haven't heard of this issue when in my search I found a discussion about this very issue on the AT&T forum..

http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=samsung&thread.id=72708&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

and even found discussion about it on Samsung's site on a "check out our new phone" info page on the impression, which has a place at the bottom to post reviews...

http://www.samsungusanews.com/2009/03/samsung-impression/

When I had the lady at Samsung on the phone, she said she'd never heard of this problem and only had the T-9 problem with the virtual keyboard documented. I think I convinced her this was not the same problem.

I'm on my 3rd phone and the problem has followed. On the Samsung site where you can register you phone, when you type in your IMEI # it displays the manufacture date beneath it. Just to have some info posted related to dates, here's the dates of my three phones.

1st phone (new out of the box on Oct. 15th)
mfg. date 9-23-09

2nd phone - reconditioned (I was outside my 30 day window...long story)
mfg. date 4-16-09

3rd phone - reconditioned (only had it a week)
mfg. date 11-9-09

I've been watching the phone closely and comparing it to what other people have posted about the problem. Here's what mine does....

We all know that the first 30 incoming messages go to the SIM and then starting with message 31 they start saving on the phone (all outgoing appear to only get stored on the phone) There's no way to change the setting for the first 30 going to the SIM.

Today, as soon as I received incoming message #30, my very next message send attemp put the phone in the 'sending..sending...sending' mode that I had to escape from, with my message getting dumped in the outbox and not sent. I could call up existing received messages and attempt to reply, but those attempts would just get dumped into the outbox. If I tried to create a new message, I could type the message but when I hit the "Send to" button nothing would happen so I couldn't assign it to anyone.

I left the phone in this mode (didn't power down and re-boot) and started looking at other functions that people have complained about while having this problem.

The phone still makes and receives calls in this stuck mode..

As far as receiving messages... I called someone and told them to wait a couple of minutes and then send me a text and I backed out to the home page and put the phone down and let it go to sleep...and waited and watched the phone. (I have it set to play a sound and vibrate when a message comes in) After a couple of minutes, I see the screen light up, no event window, no sound, no vibration, nothing but a momentarily lit up home screen for about 5 seconds (like it does if you hit a button when it's locked and asleep) and it went back to sleep. I went to messaging and there was a new message in my in box, which I could open and read. This was incoming message 31 and when you select 'More' one of the options is "Move to SIM card" so I know this new message was saved on the phone. So in this stuck mode, you can still receive new messages, you just won't know you got them unless you look. I tried to send a reply, but to no avail, it just immediately went to the out box.

I tried to delete my inbox messages, but it only said  'deleting...deleting...deleting" and never deleted anything, so in this mode you can not delete messages.

Others have mentioned that in while in this stuck mode (before re-booting) that they can't get out on the internet. I was able to go out on the net, went to google and did a search that came back with results, so it seems my internet is fine.

Another problem mentioned is the alarm clock not working while in this stuck mode. So, I set an alarm for 5 minutes away, made sure I had a sound selected for the alarm and made sure the volume was all the way up, and waited and watched. The alarm did in fact go off, the screen lit up desplaying the alarm, BUT the phone produced no sound. Not sure if it would have vibrated or not since I only had it set to play the melody. My guess is it wouldn't have vibrated. So...unless you're awake and looking at your display, your alarm clock wouldn't wake you up...which I guess it wouldn't need to if you were awake and looking at your display....

Everything else I tried to do seemed to still be working. One simple power down and everything is back to normal again. Tomorrow I plan to call Samsung again (1-888-987-4357 as the admin guy posted over and over again on that samsung site in the link above) I'll try to get past the phone answering person to get to someone technical. I'll post what I find out. However, I have my doubts that it's the handset that is the problem. If it were, it seems that in the process of trading out phones you'd eventually get one that doesn't have the problem. It's almost like those of us that have the problem just have it, regardless of what Impression phone you have in your hand. But I've been an AT&T customer for a long time with this same number and never had this problem with my Motorola V3XX. It seems like it it were some kind of connection problem between AT&T and Impression phones that we'd all have the same problem.

The fact that the trigger seems to be hitting 30 incoming messages saved to the SIM and then having to change the save path to the phone makes me think it's a handset issue, maybe software or firmware in the phone itself.

What I don't know at this time is once you get past the 30 message mark and re-boot, does everything work OK after that until you reach the maximum number of stored messages (whatever that is)? I didn't have one problem at all until that 30th message came in.

Sorry to be so lengthy but if we all keep sharing and diagnosing when and how and what's going on when this happens, maybe we can all start calling Samsung or AT&T and pushing harder for them to fix it.

I agree.  We do need to push harder for them to fix it.  I posted earlier today that I had the problem twice already today after not having it for four days.  Well make it three times now (I have been texting a lot though).  The thing is with my phone, it would just get stuck on 'Sending' until it said 'Sending failed' or whatever it says.  I didn't notice any other problems.  But the third time today, it did what yours has been doing.  It immediately went to the Outbox, and there was a bunch of other random quirky things.  So that was weird.  But I might call Samsung now, since I have yet to do that.

AT&T told me:
Mary Rich: These phones need to be powered off and back on >during the day daily<. Just power off then back on.  Our systems send out updates to the phone and the SIM card daily and like a computer the device needs to be powered off and back on when the signal is good to get the updates loaded to the device.

Mary Rich: If the device is left on for a long time it also casuses the device to loose contact with the towers. The signal gets weak and can also cause the phone to stop working correctly. By rebooting the device the phone will send out a strong signal and the memory is refreshed much like a computer.

Which means the problem supposedly isn't a problem. Except if you text more than what someone who doesn't usually texts texts.

Well when I recently called ATT they gave me an update. And I power my phone off everyday at least once. So their line of bull saying we will get updates if we power off is just that. A line of bull.

And I for sure power off my phone every day.  Actually, I end up doing it every couple hours, especially if I have been texting a lot.  And I think the whole power off thing is stupid anyways.  I had a Blackjack II before this and I never powered it off.  Like maybe every two weeks and it was always just fine.

I think it is ATT's way to say there are issues and that is the only thing that helps.

Lol they gave me the update too and i saw that power on/off thing too but still have the bug.

The strange thing is I have never had the texting bug. And this is my second phone.

My 1st phone started with the problem the first week I had it. I went back in and they said they had never heard of that problem. I didn't do it much, only once or twice a week, but I don't text a lot. My kids are grown and out on their own so what texting I do is usually with them. Anyway AT&T's first attempt at solving my problem (at the store) was to removing texting and data from my account and then add it back. This was at 3 weeks into the new phone. Things were fine for a week or so, and then we hit the Thanksgiving holidays and the problem occured a few times over the holidays. When I went back in I was out of my 30 day window and they sent me to the service center and they traded my phone out. No one told me in the process that they could only trade me with a reconditioned phone. I wasn't too happy about getting a reconditioned phone, but decided if it fixed the problem I could live with it. That phone had the same problem and I was really bummed out when I logged on to the Samsung site and plugged in the IMEI number to find out the phone was about 5 months older than the one I originally purchased.

This last time back, I told them if I couldn't have a new phone, then I wanted on at least as new as my original phone. I took them to the Samsung site and made them bring out a handful of reconditioned phones and we plugged in IMEI numbers until we found one newer than my original. I work for a low voltage electronics contractor doing fire alarm, sound systems, nurse call etc. and I know for our products 5 months can make a big difference in board components, software and firmware, especially with new products. So I wanted the newest phone I could get out of them.

I'm happy with the phone, except for the text problem of course. I didn't want a iphone, for me, I don't need all the stuff that comes on them. The Impression is a good fit for me. I plan to use some of the info on this board to do some minor mods to it, like upping the volume a little, particularly on the bluetooth audio level.

I agree with what Agoattamer said in another post about having to hold the tech support people's hand trying to get them to do things. We're kind of being their quality control group I guess, but the more accurate and specific info we can give them to work with the more likely they are to nail down the problem.

As I mentioned earlier, it was when I hit 30 incoming messages and the phone had to make the decision to stop saving messages to the SIM and start saving them to the phone that it stumbled and the messaging program crashed. I didn't have any problem up to that point, and I didn't delete the inbox so I can let the messages build up to see if the problem comes back and how often.

Maybe, since it is AT&T, it depends on where you live and how much the signal towers are used. So since i live in a big city I have to restart my phone like every hour at least :-\. And i also noticed that its true that when the bug happens and you get a text message the phone just lights up but doesn't ring or vibrate. So you can tell when it happens to you if your just texting and have your phone out next to you and it doesn't vibrate or ring.

So when is ATT gonna start paying us for quality support?  ;D

Amen!

And you are lucky you don't have the bug Agoat.  This also proves that this is likely not a phone issue, rather something with AT&T, since not everyone gets it.

Exactly. Even if we replace our phones we still dont have it. But those that do still have it even after replacing their phones. And that says it all right there.

You don't ever realize I'm so pissed!  Fourth time today!  The problem is I lock my phone after I send the message so I have no idea it didn't send so I wait for an hour for a response only to unlock the phone to the 'Sending failed try again?' message.

And this is likely unrelated but I just got a text, slid open the phone and the screen went pink for a couple seconds before it showed me the notification.  What the frick something is wrong.

I think you need to call ATT and ask them to reset your connection again and see if you have missed an update also.

Yeah I am definitely going to do that tomorrow.

Be nice but get some satisfaction. We need answers.  8)

Yeah lol the first time I called i could tell the lady was getting really frustrated with me, but I was kinda mad because she didn't know squat.  So i called back and tried to be nicer.

Same thing happens to me! I lock it and then 5 mins later im like why havent they replied and it says "sending failed"  >:( and i also have to restart it like 4 times a day or more!

I called Samsung today to talk about the text issue. He did find me in their system from my last call. I explained everything I had noticed so far and explained that this phone was a reconditioned one issued only a week ago All he did was walk me thru a master reset, not from the menu, but with the SIM and memory card pulled and using the 8 digit code. I didn't want to because I knew even though I had my contacts backed up on the SIM that I'd have to sit there and restore all the group assignments and phone number types (cell, home, work, etc) for every contact and get all my personalizations back like they were. I did it just so he could document that I did it, and I have absolutely no expectation that it will help. I'm sure they did a master reset before putting the phone back in service. He said if the problem persisted I could send the phone in to them for diagnosis. Not sure how that would work, not dealing with AT&T I'm sure he meant just send the phone in and do without a phone.

As soon as I hung up with them and got my phone back to a comfortable setup, I entered myself as a contact and started sending myself text messages to get 30 in my in box. Of course they were all 4 to 6 digit messages. I was sure when I hit 30 I'd have the problem again...but didn't. So I thought size might matter.....(rumor has it that it really does...) so cleared the messages, created a full page text to send and then kept forwarding it to myself until I had 30 regular sized messages in my in box. But, kept right on going, no problelm. So then I'm mad because the phone ISN'T going into Send limbo. Then I got amused realizing that I had sat there at work and texted myself over 60 times...how pathetic is THAT! So I cleared it all out and forgot about it....for the moment. Maybe it didn't screw up because all 30 messages were in the same 'session', maybe it's not so related to the magical 30 on the SIM card number. Maybe it has something to do with not turning off the phone everyday, last time during regular use it took about 3 days to hit 30 and then go to sending limbo (don't laugh, I know some of you send 30 messages every 30 seconds lol) Would be nice if we could figure out a way to force the phone into sending limbo mode on purpose so we could tell the guy on the other end how to recreate it. But it would be our luck he'd have a phone that didn't have the problem.

I do agree with the comment earlier...EVERYONE that has this issue needs to call Samsung and AT&T and politely get our issues on record. We need to call enough to make it a searchable documented problem in both Samsung's and AT&T's tech database. If they start getting a bunch of calls and start to realize people with this problem are searching the net and starting to all group together, maybe they will realize they have a problem that needs attention. I think part of the problem is as soon as we start talking text problem, they look in their records and see the T-9 problem and immediately assume that's what we're talking about and start going down that road with it instead of realizing this is a whole new problem that needs to be noted.

Also, all this discussion about this problem makes this forum more likely to be found by people goolging 'Samsung Impression text problem' or something similar, so maybe we'll get more people with this problem in one spot.

Hey Goat tamer,
    It seems to me that perhaps the issue is location oriented. Why not start a thread on where people are located, and if they have the textifreeze syndrone or not. If diverse enough, it could give a clue.

We can try that. Whatever it takes to get this fixxed I am all for it.

Well, the problem I've been having with my phone is that when I send text messages it says that the message was not sent but people receive them. I guess it could be the network, cause I'm using my phone in Venezuela now with a local carrier, but when I use it in the US and don't have that problem.

I like the text bug/location thread. Might be a common area thing. I also wondered if maybe AT&T had a run of problem SIM cards. I got a new SIM card when I got the first new phone, and have since got them to replace the while I had the second phone as a diagnostic attempt, and still had the problem even with a new SIM. But then again, the new SIM came from the same store as the first SIM. I have thought about getting a new SIM from AT&T thru the mail from somewhere else to see that makes a difference.

On another note, got a followup survey email from Samsung about my recent call. I plan to wait to see if I still have the problem before responding there. If I still have the problem (and I don't know why I wouldn't) I'll comment more about it there just as another avenue to provide some info in writing to them about our problem. I haven't lost my cool  in any communications with them, I'm not one to do that anyway. But I do want to make sure they know this problem exist and isn't going to go away until someone digs into it and comes up with some kind of resolution.

When I was with T-mobile about 6 years ago I had that issue with them. I was using a pcs-1 simcard and it wouldnt let me send texts till I got a new one.

Along the same line my simcard is not ATT but a cingular sim card.  Maybe that is a factor also.

I didn't know there were still Cingular SIMs out there.

When I asked for a new SIM the guy at the store said he was 100% sure the problem I was having was not SIM card related, but said he had no problem giving me a new one just so I could have the peace of mind knowing that we tried it. I'm not sure if he knew what he was talking about, but obviously I still have the problem with the new SIM.

I keep wanting to think it's something in the phone like a corrupt text application, particularly since the phone has other issues when it happens, like the alarm clock, no going off and not being able to delete messages. But if the problem WAS in the phone, the odds are that people that don't have the problem that have replaced lost or broken phones or traded in for some reason would have probably eventually received a replacement phone that did have the problem. AND no one that has the problem has ever solved it by trading phones. So unless either of those scenarios is blown out of the water, it does seem to point back to the network. But it seems like that would make it an area related problem, you know, like every Impression connected in a given area would have the same problem. If it were an individual connection thing, seems like all the removal/re-add to the networks they've been doing would be fixing it on an individual basis.

Man, this is screwy. Sooner or later I guess we'll find the common denominator in all this.

I am sure there are plenty of people out there with cingular sims. I wont turn it in because I have features like being able to turn my data off with it or just use edge instead of 3G. They do make a difference.

So why exactly does the thread say "Issue has been solved"?

Well it was solved for a couple people. But the issue re occurred on one phone. Maybe I should change it to a possible solution.

Could the bug maybe be realted to the age of the phone/firmware? In one of my phone calls to AT&T she said she was only finding documented text problems of the  T-9 problem, and that was only associated with phones that were released after a particluar date, in April I think?

Just wondering if when the phones were purchased might be useful info to collect to narrow down the source of the bug.

In a general google search today using various search words and phrases (using samsung, SIM card, bad SIM card, text problem, Impression, AT&T etc) I ran across some comments about being able to receive texts and not send texts on some other phones, with the problem ending up being the SIM card. All indications of our problem seem to point away from the actual phone and towards the AT&T connection, and the SIM is a big part of that connection. I speculated earlier about maybe a bad batch of SIM cards, another speculation is maybe not so much 'bad' SIM cards but maybe newer SIM cards that might have newer updates that cause some kind of compatibility issue with the Impression.

My phone did it again last night. I immediately looked at my message count. I only had 17 messages in my inbox, nothing large, nothing with pics or attachments, only simple one screen messages ranging in size from 4B to 103B. So that blows my theory about it having something to do with the transfer of the path from the SIM to the phone at 30 messages, and indicates it probably doesn't have anything to do with size or the SIM card nearing capacity of the area where it stores those 30 messages (as opposed to quantity).

Why in the heck are Samsung phones programed to save the first 30 incoming texts to the SIM anyway? In case my phone crashes and nothing is retrievable from the phone memory, at least I could say "Gee I'm lucky I still have my contacts saved on my SIM, oh and those first 30 incoming texts from last week that I responded to a long time ago, I'm so glad I still have THOSE!" Makes no sense. I could understand having room for 30 on the SIM, for messages that I choose to put there manually, but that should be strictly my choice.

You know I think they gave me my old SIM back that was in my Motorola V3XX when I upgraded. It was a 3G SIM but a couple of years old. As a trouble shooting option I might go back to the store and see if they can make that my active card again and try that SIM in the Impression.

I checked my FW. I have that, yet I still experience this bug.. Quite often actually....

In order to further test the "memory" theory, I disabled saving outbound texts. Still get thoes problems. My incomming texts range from 54 to 160KB.. So that can't be the issue....

What was the "possible" solution to this?..

i've had this problem for awhile after about a wk or so of att tellin me to try things and call me back they finally decided to replace the phone havent gotten it yet, but one rep. did say something about the memory and connection with them. they tried to connect to me and had trouble till i rebooted my phone. that makes me think its something with them (thats been said before in this thread)  but i just wanted to put what ive been told so far. btw i have the latest software version on my current phone.

On my phone after I experience this "bug" I found that anything that uses the accelerometer lags horribly; Maybe that's a clue towards the cause of the problem? Does anyone else have lag issues after you can't send a message?

Lags browsing pictures and using the Tumbling Dice application until restarted.

Possibly when making the connection the phone gets stuck almost like if you ever had a webpage on the internet hang on you. And it really eats up your memory. And rebooting the phone refreshes your memory.

I've had the phone a week, have had the bug two or three times.  I just contacted chat support, and pasted in the paragraph that JP had.  They re-registered me, and asked if there was anything else I could do for them.  I said, "I know a lot of Impression owners are experiencing this.  It would be nice if you could highlight this issue and solution in your database.

Larry replied, "we are aware and working on a permanent fix."

Now, of course that could be one of their, "click on this comment if the user says such-and-such," but maybe something will come of it.

That is the first time a rep has responded that they are aware of the problem. Usually the only problem they know about is the older T9 bug which was fixxed with the newer firmware. I sure hope they get this fixxed for everyone. Other than this issue this has to be the least buggy samsung touchscreen phone out there.

i got this textbug yesterday. another thing to note: when my phone couldn't send texts, it also wouldn't let me call. whenever i tried to cal someone, it would immediately say call ended. i called tech support and they took me off of the servers and readded me. since then it has been working but i'm sending it back for a new one since it hasn't been 30 days since my date of purchase just to be safe.

Unless you are taking it to the store they are only going to give you a refurb through the mail. Also those with the issues have tried getting new phones and it still exists. So trading your phone for a refurb with the same issue isnt very smart.  I am telling you it is not the phone.

I guarantee I can put my simcard in your phone and it wont get the text bug.  It has to have something to do with the sim card or their network connections.

In my last call to AT&T I spent a while on the phone with the first woman that answered, she knew her stuff, actually listened to me and was coming back with questions that confirmed she was listening instead of just reading out of the book. But she couldn't come up with anything we haven't tried.

I asked her about versions or release revs of SIM cards, she searched and did find a little info about version 11.11 and 11.14 SIM cards and issues unrelated to the Impression or our problem, but that did tell me they do make minor adjustments to the cards and track them with numbers. I still think if they could give me a slightly older version SIM card it might fix the problem. But I'm sure they go thru SIM cards so fast all they have in the store is the latest and newest cards and have no way to take you back to an older one, and no way to test or know what version any card is. To the folks in the store, the division is 2G 16k cards and 3G 32k cards, and a 3G card is a 3G card, if it says 3G they are all identical. I don't believe that. As long as 3G cards have been out, I'm sure they've tweaked them a number of times to be more user friendly with and keep up with all the new phones that they have to support as they come out. They probably don't pass this info downstream but I bet some engineer type person somewhere up the line unreachable by us has info on every change made.

Anyway, I asked the lady about updates that I read about in this or another post, where the tech noticed on his screen the user needed updates and sent them, and the user got a black phone screen that said On Off and had to reboot. I also mnetioned that other users have called in and asked about that and were told by the tech that they didn't know anything about doing that. She explained that there are three teirs of techs and what you get when you call is a teir one tech. If they can't fix your problem they are supposed to send you to a teir 2 tech. She did send me to one and the difference was night and day. He was a very technical guy, for a change I felt like I was talking to tech support, he was determined to figure it out, but wouldn't entertain the idea of it being a SIM card problem or shed any light on my questions about release versions of SIM cards. His final decision was it must be an issue with the Impression phones in general. Even after explaining to him that only some Impressions had this problem and that no one that had it had ever resolved it by trading phones, and no one that doesn't have the bug ever acquired it by replacing broken or stolen phone he still said he thought it was a phone issue. That's where we disagreed and politely parted ways. At this point I'm not sure what a teir three tech could do, I didn't think to ask to speak to one, but I assume it's probably basically getting passed on to a supervisor.

Everyone with the problem please continue to call. The more of us that call the more this issue gets logged in their system and the more likely they are to research it and find a solution.

i just got my phone yesterday for Christmas and its amazing but then the text bug happened and i just thought it was a fluke so i started reading on here like usual and searched and found this, while reading how to maybe fix my text bug since it had hung up again for the second time this day in a maybe 4 hr time period. so the phone was still on hadn't been restarted or the anything and i hadn't tried resending the texts that wouldn't sent. i made a new text and texted somebody and it went straight through and the 2 that didn't i could delete so for now i think its working. but from what ive read goattamers theory sounds the most likely.  and sorry for a jumbled post im kinda distraught upon finding this bug.

How often does this happen to u people? Because I think its happening to me more and more often.... It happens like every hour..! >:( >:( >:( >:(

This may be useless info, but figured I'd post it just in case. I've been researching SIM cards. Here's what I've found so far...

There's a 20 digit number on the SIM card. The first 8 digits contain some useful info. The current 3G SIM cards are 8901 series (1st 4 digits) the older ones were 8931. In the 8901 series that we currently use, there are three groups, 89014102, 89014103, and 89014104. (These first 8 digits are generic numbers, but the last 12 are specific to your card and you shouldn't share these)

The 89014103 cards are made by a company called Gemalto and the 89014104 cards are made by a company called Oberthur.

I found some discussion that the 89014103 card causes a problem in the Samsung C417 phone, works for a while and then says "Insert SIM". I know this doesn't really apply to us but it indicates a possible communication problem with that series card.

I haven't been able to find out what the difference is between the 4103 and the 4104 card is but I know my card is a 89014103 card. I'm gonna stop by a couple of AT&T stores in the area and see if any of them have the 4104 card available.

Always useful info. This may have something to do with the problem. Those with older cingular cards have no text bug. Those with another carrier have no text bug. So it very well could be incompatible sim cards with the phone. Anything you find out please post.

We can check info about our sim. Mine is the old cingular sim. Go to the service menu by typing in this code like you were making a phone call.

*#197328640#

Hit 1 for debug screen
Hit 7 for sim Information

This is what mine says

sim phase : 0
card capability : USIM
EF_category : USIM
sim_PB : 0
usim_global_PB : 1
usim_local_PB : 0
first_inst_class : GSM

How about someone with the bug, a new sim card, and has a data plan and give me your results. See if there is a difference.

Agoat, I have that exact same information and I have the bug with a somewhat new (got it 1-2 years ago) 3G sim card.

I have a 3G simcard and the text bug and I have the same thing as you agoattamer

Except for one line, mine is identical to that. The only difference is...

EF_category: 15

My 3G Sim is a month old.

And of course, yes I have the bug.

Mine is that same as Agoattamer's and is only 2 months old

So I guess that really iosnt going to tell us anything. I was looking at ebay last night. You can buy new sim cards for just a couple $. And there are still many with the congular name on them.  Almost worth it to buy a new card and take it to the ATT store and tell them to activate it because of the texting bug and they probably would for free.

Hi all. This is my first post here. I've been lurking since I got my Impression on the 23rd and there is some great info here that has been really helpful.

I'm not entirely convinced that I'm having the same text bug as everyone is talking about, but here is what is happening:

Every once in a while, starting over the weekend, when I try to send MMS messages (pics or ringtones), the message will say sending for a second, then dump to the outbox and site there for a few minutes. Eventually I get a "Sending Failed" message. Regular SMS texts still seem to go through, as does phone and internet. I haven't noticed any strange behavior associated with the errors.

Usually, if I open the message in the outbox and hit send again it goes through, though on a few I had to completely redo the message several times to get it to go out. Never rebooted the phone though.

As far as messages go, I have 30/30 on the SIM, 144/500 on the phone. Auto delete is set to "Oldest When Full".

I usually have very good signal, both voice & 3g.

Like I said, not sure if this is the same issue, but thought more info might help.

Ya I have a Cingular sim card and the text bug so there goes that theory. The problem also occurs before the phone trys to connect to the network to send out the text that fails. I've noticed a few times now that my phone does not ring when it gets a text on some text and every time it has done that I'll go to send a text and the phone will not send the text when the previous text I sent went through. So the problem happens at random points and not during the sending of the message like some of us have thought. What this means who knows. All I know is the theory of old sim cards and new sim cards is now busted with me have a cingular card and the problem.

Well that leaves 1 option. ATT and their network settings.

This is long guys, I apologize in advance...

This is a strange way to start a post, but if you read further it will make sense….

1 = A = Axalto
2 = D = not sure (possibly Giesecke & Duerient) (of Germany)
3 = G = Gemalto
4 = O = Oberthur (of France)

On one side of our SIM cards is the 20 digit number. Most likely the first 8 are one of the four listed below (the last 12 digits are specific to your card)

8901 4101 #### #### ####
8901 4102 #### #### ####
8901 4103 #### #### ####
8901 4104 #### #### ####

Notice the 8th digit, 1, 2, 3, or 4.

On the other side of the card there’s another number with a letter in the middle. If you have on older Cingular card, this number may be 63698A 1002, but the newer 3G cards will have 71234 (older) or 71247 (newer) for the first 5 digits, then a letter (A, D, G or O), then four more numbers like 2024, 3024, or 4024.

Notice the 8th digit of the 20 digit number (1, 2, 3, or 4) coincides with the letter on te back (A, D, G or O), and also the first digit of that last 4 digit number.

Example, if you have a 8901 4103 #### #### #### on one side of the SIM card, the other side will be 71247G 3024.

What this means….

My very old and deactivated Cingular card is 4101 card, I still have the credit card sized card it snapped out of. That card says Axalto on the corner. Axalto was a company that made that SIM card. In 2006 Axalto combined with Gemplus (another SIM card company) and became Gemalto. AT&T has three or four companies making SIM cards for them. This keeps the price competitive, and if one company stumbles financially or structurally or technically, they have the others to fall back on. No doubt that AT&T provides the performance specs to these companies for the SIM card, but the cards from the different companies are not 100% identical. Even looking at the footprint of the copper pads that make connection in your phone (6 points of contact), they all connect in the industry standard positions, but the layout and shape of the copper pads varies from company to company. (to see what I’m talking about, click here, kind of dated info but lots SIM card pics)

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/FreeRunner_unable_to_work_with_3G_SIM_cards

Most likely, the micro components in the card are laid out differently from company to company, but the functionality of the cards should be the same. BUT, in the world of transmitted radio frequencies, one card can work fine in one model phone, and have issues in another phone, simply because of environment, such as proximity to the battery, or the transmitting antenna (which now days is inside the housing), or small magnetic fields generated by the circuit boards in the phone. Working with RF, it can be that way. It could be something as simple as copper tracing on the SIM card intermittently being exposed to some radio wave or magnetic field that it doesn’t like if conditions are just right (possibly causing the text application to crash), where as a different companies SIM card might not have that issue since they route their copper traces in a different path on the card.

One example of this I found in an iphone discussion. The end users figured out that with the G card (Gemalto), they were having low signal and connection issues, but switching to the D card they got stronger 3G connection and faster internet speeds. 

Oh, a quick note about the 2024, 3024, and 4024. I found somewhere on the net that the first number indicates the Vendor, and the other numbers are the version. My old Cingular card was 1002, made by Axalto and was version 002. Looks like any new card you get from AT&T now is version 024.

I got a new card when I got my phone, it was a 4103 card and 71247G 3024. I did get the store to replace the card once, but the new card I got was the same series. So, I know I have a Gemalto card in my phone.

Armed with all the info above combined with info from our current thread on what areas of the US have the problem and what areas don’t, I got a wild hair. Using Yahoo maps I randomly selected three AT&T stores in Pennsylvania, one in York, one in Allentown, and one in Chambersburg. The bug doesn’t seem to be a problem there, so I called these three stores and got them to tell me the 8th digit in the 20 digit number, the letter on the back and the 4 digit number following the letter. Here’s what I found.

York, PA – 4102 series, the letter on the back is “D” followed by 2024
Chambersburg, PA – 4102 series, the letter on the back is “D” followed by 2024
Allentown, PA – 4104 series, the letter on the back is “O” followed by 4024

So, based on those three calls, it looks like these areas are not getting the Gemalto card, but cards made by Oberthur and the D company (whoever that is). SO, I stopped by my local AT&T service center to talk about it, thinking these guys know their phones and surely know their own AT&T SIM cards…and all they guy wanted to do was trade my phone again, and said as far as they know AT&T makes the cards. It amazes me that we, the end user general public, can get on the internet and google a few times and gather more information a product than the people selling and servicing it know.

Anyway, the new SIM cards he had at the service center were 4104 cards, unlike my local store that only has 4103 cards that I’ve been running so far. So I did get them to swap my SIM card out for a new Oberthur 4104 card. Will it solve the problem? Don’t know yet, I’ll post again after trying it for a while, and I have my fingers crossed, but I’m not sure I have my hopes up.

Now, all that said, I noticed in the “Text bug/Location” thread we now have a new user, Fowarek, in Allentown PA that has the problem, along with other people he knows in his area. This could blow holes in my theory. But what I’d REEEEEAAALLLY like to know is what SIM card Fowarek has in his phone, as well as his friends that have the problem there. If his card is a 4103 series with a G on the back, we may be onto something here.

All of this SIM info research may prove to be a waste of time if it’s proved that there are people with 4103 cards that don’t have the problem, or 4102 and 4104 cards that do, and if so what the heck, at least it’s one more thing eliminated from possible causes. At least we’re kicking this around and trying to work it out.

And after all that, SamsungImpression11's post above about having the old Cingular card and the bug kinda screws up my theory too....

But now we know more than we ever wanted to know about SIM cards... ;D

Well those with cingular cards have been with ATT longer. Or at least that sim card has been activated longer. Maybe they are activating them differently now.

This is just me spewing some thoughts but to me, when the phone gets into the "sending" mode it's like this.

I work with computers all day, ACAD, WORD, EXCEL. You know how programs have .dll files, and sometimes different programs share common .dll files. Lets say you're running a program and somehow between the communication between your application and Windows a .dll fill will get corrupted. Your application will still run, but some of the functions start acting weird, like drop down menus stop working. Rebooting the computer reloads the .dll files (or whatever system file got corrupted) and everything is fine again.

To me that's kind of how the phone acts. It's like some kind of handshake either between the phone and the card or the phone and the network, goes sour and causes the text application to get corrupted...OR some operational files that the text application depends on. It still functions, but is crippled. Whatever files it depends on, apparently the alarm clock uses those files too, because in that mode, it gets screwy too. And, rebooting the phone reloads whatever is corrupted.

One thing the guy at the service center wanted to do yesterday is find an alternate text message center address..you know, instead of +1312314981. He looked and thought there was one, but he couldn't find one. From what I've read, that number comes into play when sending texts but not receiving.

Well mine is 4103 and I do have the bug.

You know, I thought at first someone with the old Cingular card blew my theory, but my old Cingular card is a 89014101, which actually says Axalto on the big card it came out of. And the 4103 cards are made by Gemalto, which as I mentioned is a company formed by the combination of Axalto and Gemplus, soooo in theory some of the same technology could be there in both the old Cingular and the 4103 Gemalto cards. But the fact that Agoattamer has an old Cingluar card and doesn't have the problem kind of messes that up....unless they had multiple manufacturers back then too.

I did send a message to Fowarek in Allentown asking him what card he has. If he comes back and says it's a 4102 or 4104, the whole theory is toast.

I guess now that I have the 4104 card in my phone I need to get in a text battle with my kids and see if I can generate the problem.

OK, my card is a 1404.  Just so you know. It is white with an orange stripe that says 64ksmartchip and cingular under neath that.

And just to let you know my card came from Radio Shack in York.

Also here is my card on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-New-Cingular-Sim-Card-64K-Never-Activated_W0QQitemZ280422736270QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPDA_Accessories?hash=item414a7f618e

Funny thing is the seller of this card is local to my area also.

And of all the cards on ebay this is the only listing for this card.
(http://i.ebayimg.com/15/!Be360dwBmk~$(KGrHqEOKikEr)1lGcrKBK+D01t-j!~~_35.JPG)

My OLD Cingular 1401 card is in fact old. I don't even remember exactly how old. I had it in a Motorola V180, and then later bought a V3XX and moved it over. It's at least 4 years old, maybe 5. It says 64k smartchip on it, and even though it doesn't say so I'm pretty sure it was a 3G card since towards the end of the life of my V3XX I added data to my plan and could get on the internet. But since it was so old, I opted for the new card.

I really don't expect my 1403 theory to hold water long. Sooner or later I expect that someone will look at their card and post saying "I have a 4102 or 4104 and I have the bug"

Well, so much for my 4103 theory. Fowarek responded back saying his card is a 4104. And he's in Allentown and has the bug.

Tuesday I put a 4104 in my phone and it hasn't done it yet, but now I'm sure it will eventually. Probably more likely after two or three days of not powering down daily. I did send a text to 10 of my contacts saying I needed a text frenzy to test things with the new SIM card, and they all bombarded me with texts. I answered every one, about 50 or 60 that all came in over 4 or 5 minutes and the phone performed flawlessly. By they way I found out doing that that the maximum number of contacts you can put in the "To" line of one message is 10.

Again, were back to AT&Ts network settings. We're pretty sure it's not the phones since no one has fixed or picked up the bug by trading phones, and it looks like the SIM cards from various manufacturers isn't the problem either. Their network is about all it can be.

My daughter's SIM card is 8901 4104 "o" and it has the text messaging problem.

also - It's 10:30 am local time, and she is just now getting her Happy New Year messages sent last night. Why the delay ???

I had a delay on my texts too. and i got a new possible solution to the problem: Change from AT&T.

Well thats always an option. But if you go with verizon you have to get a smartphone because their non smartphones cant run any third party apps or games.  You can go with T-mobile but I dont even think they should bother making a map. LOL.   Im not sure about sprint what their phones can do.

This week I am going to put something that looks official together and send our reportings to ATT. Hopefully we can get something going.

thats a great idea goat. im new to the forum and i just got my phone for christmas. im glad to know im not the only one having this issue. please keep us updated with results from ATT

Tonight, I called AT&T.  I talked to one stupid costumer service representative, one stupid tech support representative, and one even stupider tech support supervisor.  No one answered any of my questions regarding this, or any other questions I had.  Here is my mission for you.  Call AT&T at 1(800) 331-0500.  Ask for tech support, then ask for a supervisor.  Tell them about this issue, and then ask for a software update.  The idea is to pretty much to use AT&T's costumer support as a petition.  If enough people call, they might get us what we want.  If you prefer to call the CEO, Mr. Randall Stephenson, then call 210-821-4105 (headquarters, press 6, ask for Mr. Stephenson's office).  With your help, we can improve this phone.  

--Benblb

lol look what they told me on the chat:
Att: I do apologize, but with the Impression's, this is an issue. There is not anything that can be done about it other than to power the phone off and back on to resume the messaging.

Me: Oh...

Att: There is no recall on this phone and the only way I know this is because I have a co-worker that has the same phone and hers does the same, and we have had many customers with the same issue.

Me: So we just have to live with the problem?

Att: Yes, sir, I am sorry, we have tried exchanging the phones and the SIM cards and they all continue to do the same thing. You will just have to power it off and back on when this happens.

Me: Oh. Is anything being done to fix this problem?

Att: We have not been notified of anything at this time, Mr. Garcia.

They are so full of bullshit. I feel for you impression owners that have this issue. But it really upsets me when ATT says it cant be fixxed. Why? First not all of us have the bug. Also the eternity didnt have it and the solstice didnt have it. So what did they change between the models. Might be something stupid as the position of the sim card in the phone. Magnetic fields might be interfering with it. Who knows.

And for them to say deal with it means this phone is done with ATT. I'm sure they have plans to discontinue it real soon. They just don't care.

I support my phone and like it very much. But everyone that has this bug should tell ATT to shove it and give you a phone as good or better than what this phone is supposed to be. And no LG junk. Trust me. They cant even set permissions on that phone to use gps and the filesystem with third party apps. For all the trouble they should give everyone a nexus or a tilt2 for the same plan.

You're right! I should call them and tell them to give me a better phone if they're not going to fix the problem! Or give me free money? I don't think they would  >:( but they should!

Like I previously said:  Call At&T and complain to the CEO.  He is the only one who can really do anything. 

He actually answers ur calls?

Nope, but you get a manager of his staff who handles concerns.  You will be transferred 4 times until you finally speak to someone important.

UPDATE: I was put through to the office of the president of AT&T and spoke with a very nice woman who said she would have one of her specialists call me within the next 24 hours to work with me one on one to resolve the issue.  During this call, I scored their direct number!  It is 1(800) 498-1912.  Tell them about the issue, and if we get enough people to call this specific office, the problem will be fixed.  Make sure to tell them that you have already spoken with tech support, even if you have not.

Also, the number I previously posted is wrong.  I fixed it though :)

UPDATE: I was put through to the office of the president of AT&T and spoke with a very nice woman who said she would have one of her specialists call me within the next 24 hours to work with me one on one to resolve the issue.  During this call, I scored their direct number!  It is 1(800) 498-1912.  Tell them about the issue, and if we get enough people to call this specific office, the problem will be fixed.  Make sure to tell them that you have already spoken with tech support, even if you have not.

Just now been reading on and catching up on this forum, I didn't realize so many people have a this problem....but mine phone isn't just texting. It does some weird stuff sometimes, like frezees up. Once in a while I'll go click on my contact just get a locked screen that turns pink. It happen so rarely that it doesn't bother me too much, I just restart the phone and it works again.

Ive seen the pink screen flash sometimes when idk what i do but it never stays. And also i noticed that when u get the bug u can't delete contacts from the phone. Idk about from the SIM.

Oh good, so I'm not the only one. (I mean not good, but ya know) I have had that pink flashing screen too.  Once it stayed on for a solid 5 seconds.  I have noticed it a couple times when I receive a message and slide open the phone at the exact same time.  It also seems to happen occasionally right before I get the text bug. So idk, i have yet to call AT&T again.  But I will soon and let y'all know how it goes down.

UPDATE: I have called AT&T and they offered me a replacement pretty much just to shut me up.  I have agreed, so I will let you all know if my issue is fixed.  If anyone is going to call AT&T in regards to this, call the office of the president:  1(800) 498-1912.  Ask for KEVIN HICKS.  Tell him about this problem.  He is the representative helping me.  This will make the issue widely known with one person, giving it better chances of being fixed.  Once you ask for him, you should have no problem getting through.  If he does not pick up, leave him a message with your phone number. 

Do you think this could be a good person to start by sending all the facts from this thread to?

???  What do you mean ???

Sending him the list of the amount of people on this forum that have the issue compared to those that don't. Maybe it will wake them up of the seriousness of this issue. I put it all in an email and was going to call ATT to see who I can send this to that will actually read it.

Yes.  I believe this would be a great idea.  His name is Kevin Hicks, he is a specialist for AT&T's office of the president.  Call and get his email.  When you call ask for him, he will probably not be there now, but definitely leave a message.  If someone picks up, just ask for his email.  If no one picks up, call and press 1 when it asks you for an extension.  His extension is: 47144.

Has anyone had their SIM card replaced?  A tech told me getting a new SIM might do the trick.  I got a new one on Wednesday and have yet to experience the problem again (I used to get it about once a day, so fingers crossed its gone).

Pshhh...that's just what they tell you to shut you up.  I may try though.

so i called att today finally cuz the text bug was getting really bad i would constantly have to restart my phone and so far its been okay so im hopeing that resetting me on the network fixed the problem ill let u guys know in a few days

About changing SIM cards and phones AT&T told me this

Call the office of the president and ask for KEVIN HICKS.  Their number is 1(800) 498-1921.  You can call and ask for him, or you can dial his extension which is 47144.  Tell him that costumer service told you this.

eww resetting the att connection didnt help i still have the bug might call them again later

I have this too.

Another quick note about SIM cards.... a while back when I was on my SIM card kick I switched from my original 4103 G card to a 4104 D card, and even went to ebay and bought and tried a 4102 D card. I hoped that even though people with all three numbers were reporting in as having the bug that MAYBE different SIM cards would work better/worse based on network connections in different areas of the country.

Wasted effort, I've now tried all three cards in the Houston area and still have the bug regardless of which SIM card I had activated.

I've often wondered if some upper lever tech at AT&T that knew what he was doing had two phone numbers, one known to have the problem, and one known to not have the problem, could he go into their system and compare every setting and connection parameter that it's possible to compare and see if there's something different between the two.

On a side note, most of the info I found on SIM numbers I also posted on the AT&T forum. I had a moderator send me a private message to refrain from posting proprietary information. I messaged him back to explain everything I found was from simple google searches and was out there on the net if you dig deep enough and put the right words and numbers in your search string.

I posted there just to make sure there was active discussion about this right there under their noses on their own AT&T forum.

Thanks for all the input mckpaul. Proprietory info?? Does ATT have a clue? I need a new job. I wonder if they are hiring.  ;D

Has anyone had good luck talking to this Kevin Hicks guy? I have been through two impressions, new sim card, and having my connection "reset" and my messaging still gets hung up every now and again.

On the other hand, I just talked to customer service today and told them I was on my second impression, and just got a new sim card, and had my connection reset previously. So they looked into it and said my sim card # and imei numbers didn't match what they had in their system. So they corrected that in their system. I will continue using my phone and will keep you updated on if my phone still gets the messaging bug.

-Cameron

I have talked to him and he has really helped me out.  Try calling him.  Tell him that you have been through a couple and see what he says.

OK, I have another possible solution for everyone. Although you may feel that the impression is the only phone with this issue I am finding it is not. Seems phones are getting stuck trying to send text messages by 3G. Even widndow mobiles phones. And a possible fix for them is to send text messages by gsm only.

I havent dug too far into the internals to look for a perfect adjustment just for text messages but some can try this.

Go to your admin menu
*#6984125*#

Select 'Network and call settings'

For some #3 might be 'network mode' and #4 might be 'network order'. And some will not have 'network mode' because of newer sim.  I have 'network mode'.

If you have the text bug and you have 'network mode' select it.  Put a tick in GSM only and hit select. This will turn your 3G off so if you have a data plan you may not want to do this. If you dont have data this will not hurt anything.

If you dont have 'Network mode' select 'Network order'. You can try this if you do have 'network mode' too as it wont hurt and can only help. Put a tick in GSM first and hit save.

Will changing the mode from 3G to GSM only affect picture messages too, as they use the 3G network?

I assume it would, and not sure as to what the actual speeds are, so how much slower would a picture message be on GSM compared to 3G?

That is the whole point as to have the message sent over edge instead of 3G. (http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/Agoattamer/awcrap.gif)
It wont make that much of a difference for just messages. I am trying to fix the text message issue.

The only people that might not want to change to 'gsm only' are those with a data plan in a 3G area. But then again this is only temporary to find a possible fix.  You can always change back.

I didn't work. I've only tried it for like 1 day but it got stuck twice I think or maybe im just impatient with this bug so i turn it off when it's just a problem with the signal. So i guess ill be sure by like tomorrow since i can't text all day anymore cause I got new classes with meaner teachers and they don't let me text during class lol
Edit: It didn't work.  :'( :'( :'(

Hey Agoattamer, do you think switching it to network mode and then switching it back could reset anything and make a possible fix? Or do you think that is not possible? I guess I could try it and let you know lol. I just want to make sure I can get it back because i have a data plan :)

-Cameron

I did what you said Agoattamer and under network order it says GSM first or WCDMA first. Will it hurt me if I do GSM first? I have a data plan, but I still am receiving a 3g signal after I selected GSM first. Just thought I would let you know!

Everything can be changed back easily as you change it now. GSM first should not hurt anything.

I have been dealing with this same problem for months now. For the last few weeks been doing the whole run around with at&t and samsung. They have sent me 2 replacement phones that still do the same thing.  I have to call their 800 number yet again first thing when I wake up so that they may send me a whole new make and model of phone.  From what I have been hearing from both ends of the fence is that they are not aware of this problem, I have sent them links to both this post and even the 6page long one on at&t's very own site. But just to let you all know, we have to do something more I guess to open their eyes to the fact that this is a major problem and its with more than just one or 2 people who are having it.

Some rep from ATT chat told me they knew about the problem and were doing nothing about it.

Its odd. Some people with the new HD2 windows phone have the same sms  issue all over the world.

interesting side note to this text bug. today i had the text bug again, this time though before it happened i was listening to music through my bt headphones and was annoyed that for some odd reason it would only play one song then stop. i had to press play to make it play the next song in the list. meanwhile, my woman was texting me and when i replied, the text bug happened and my text wouldn't send. after resetting the phone, however, both problems were solved. i recieved the text during the playback of the 1st song, before the music bug (as i shall dub it) happened. wonder if they are somehow related, in which case, would point towards a hardware issue. considering the music player is not connected to texting or the 3g network. maybe its a bluetooth bug. anyone else have bt active when the text bug happens? i could be way way WAY off, but their appears to be more issues with my phone at least. got the number to call to replace it, but unfortunitly i have to wait for the woman to be over so i can use her phone to call since i need info and access to my phone during the call. (according to ATT rep)

Wonderful, guess we have another mystery to add to the problem. That's the way I feel about the alarm clock issue, that when the phone is in that text limbo mode that the alarm clock has issues as well, lights up the screen when a scheduled alarm goes off but the phone makes no sound or vibration. I makes you think it's a hardware issue since the alarm (like the music player) isn't realted to texting. I do know I physically checked the alarm clock issue while in the text limbo mode a couple of times, but I can't confirm if that issue is present every time the phone gets in that mode.

But then if it were a hardware issue, getting a replacement phone would fix it...maybe not with the first replacement, but eventually. It's almost like several applications that are running kind of semi-crash. If it's not the actual phone, but the connection or network settings with AT&T, (more speculation here) what bad data is the AT&T network sending the phone causing the applications that were running fine to suddenly stumble? As another member pointed out, it doesn't appear to be an 'action' that we are doing that triggers it, like sending a text. The phone can just silently and randomly go into that limbo mode on it's own. The phone does check in with and exchange info with the network regularly, so maybe during one of those occasional handshakes with the network some corrupt data is sent to the phone? Who knows....

interestingly enough, i had the alarm issues this morning. not quite the same as yours, but close. when it went off, the slider to send it to snooze mode wouldn't respond, finally it did a couple minutes later. when it went off the second time, i couldn't get it to stop at all. not even the end call button would end the alarm. this is usually followed by my morning text to the little lady, low and behold, bugged and not sent. perhaps iphone data is slipping into everyone elses data streams causing these random problems. i only speculate this because of Agoat saying the text bug is not impression only and has been reported by users of other phones, including windows smart phone users. has anyone heard of iphone users having any of these issues? aside from the typical iphone issue, purchasing and owning. (i kid i kid)  ;D

My work iphone i used to have did this as well now that you mention it. when it freezes, you can't send or recieve calls or texts until you restart it. other people i know with an iphone dont have the problem but mine was not a 3gs either

Im on my third impression now and I still have the texting bug. This phone also likes to randomly restart and freeze. My first two never did that. I must be having bad luck :(

You are having ba luck.

As I said earlier there are many phones having this text bug issue I have been finding out. No one has figured it out yet. HTC is even working on it for their smartphones. They think it has something to do when your phone switches bands and gets stuck. One second you are on 3G+ then it shifts to 3G and when you go to send text it tries to send over edge or something like that.

How many people without data switched their 3G off like I asked earlier and still have the problem? I think I only heard one response.

Agoattamer, you are still talking about the GSM first right? How does that turn 3g off? I just turned my newest phone to GSM first. And today when I was typing out a text it randomly restarted on me. Like I just mentioned, this is the only one that restarts on its own, the first two did not. I have not gotten hung up on trying to send a text message yet but that is probably because it restarts on its own!!

-Cameron

The real test is for someone with the correct sim that will allow you to turn off 3G with network mode.

Well I have a little update. As I said in the other bug thread, my wife & I both have Impressions bought on the same day at the same store with the same series sim card. She has the bug, I did not...until the other day.

I don't text nearly as much as as my wife does, so it took a while to build up messages in my phone. The other night I was sending a text and got the message the my sms was full, so I deleted everything, sent & received. Continued texting with a few messages and all was fine. The next day I was texting my wife quite a bit, and BAM couldn't send anything, had to reboot. Since then I haven't had a problem, but haven't been texting heavily.

On her end, she went roughly 2 weeks without having a problem and then started having the bug again. We are going to switch phones (but keep our sim cards) for a few days to see if anything happens.

Maybe if we all made a petition and sent it to samsug mobile. If there was a way to only make the phone send messages over the GSM 900 band, the problem would most likely be solved for most. ATT uses the 900 band in most of there towers in the US. But honestly, i dont see an end to this problem in the near future.

I wouldn't mind a petition, but I doubt Samsung or AT&T would pay much attention to it.

I just got this phone yesterday, and ran into the problem today, less than 24 hours after I got it.  :(

Also, has it been proven/disproven whether or not the bug happens if you keep your messages under 30?

i can say it has happened to me after emptying my received and sent messages. so, yes it does. at least for me it did.

If you dont have the data plan......if you have the text bug......and you cant get to network mode by going to the admin menu.......try this. Posted by another member. Will turn 3G off on your phone. Maybe staying in the edge connection state will stop your text bug.

I tried #*0523#, but it didn't do anything. After a bit of testing, I figured out that the code is actually *#0523#.

I did it, and will see if I get the problem again, but I'm not sure if doing that did anything. Even after restarting my phone, it says 3G+ at the top...

I should have checked on my phone first. This is just another backdoor to the service menu. Sorry for posting it.

Easier to just to use this code.    *#197328640#    then press 1 for debug and you are at the same place.

So does it actually work? Because it seems like it hasn't disabled my 3G.

I am not sure exactly what it does. When your phone is idle it can be in one state. When you send a text message it may change to another state. t maight be that your phone sits in 3G state but the text causes it to go to a gsm state to send it.  I am not sure. I am just trying everything I can think of to help get this problem fixxed. Everything is just a test to see if it helps.

The only way to really turn off 3G that I know is on the admin menu using 'network mode' which many do not have on their newer sim cards.

Yeah I know. And the amount of effort you've put into finding a solution is amazing, especially when considering that you don't even have the problem.

Back on topic. I haven't had the problem so far, but that's not saying much since it doesn't occur that often..

Update: A day since I've changed the setting and I'm still bug free. :) This is looking good so far.

i noticed this problem but did what you did and didnt think anything of it

For the most part I have keep up with this tread. I have tried the different methods of trying to prevent this bug.

When I first bought the phone a couple months ago I received a new sims card with it and one of the first things I did was disable 3g (GSM only) because I heard it preserves battery life if not in use (I don't have a data plan.) and Network mode does show up in the service menu for me.

Since then I tried switching to specific GSM bands (I don't know much about but most didn't work)

Also I clear my texts almost every day. I don't think I've been over 300 a day or even close counting all sent and received.

With all that said I still have the issue just as frequent. I mention this as in hope it could help to finding the cause.

I haven't experienced this with any other phone I have had but at the same time I always did a contract upgrade to get discounts on phones and they would always send a new sims card, my last phone, a palm centro did have an identical sims card though.

Try the thing *#0523# code method that Agoattamer posted. It's worked for me so far...

I too just went and did the *#0523# menu and changed the state to GSM. I will let you know how it works. But yeah for me it still says 3g+ even after doing it.

-Cameron

Correct. That doesnt turn 3G off. I cant explain it. But your phone connects in one state and then may switch to the other. This may be where the impression is getting stuck. Just means it will connect first with gsm.  Who knows but its worth a try.

Well so far so good!!! :)

Hey, Goat just a quick note- my wife's Eternity & now Impression had &have same bug, 2 Eternity phones then replaced with Impression now in process of 2nd Impression being shipped. Have had 5 or 6 sim cards each. We have same plan both unlimited text her no data me unlimited data. I don't have bug. We have been in system since Suncom. So go figure, I don't think it's the phones I'm betting on system bugs. Later--- 

i'm in the business of lookimg for a new phone, and the impression looks like a great phone, if this truly is the answer to the problem can you guys keep me updated on whether or not the bug comes back?  it seems as though this might be the answer and if so ill be ;D

how about this....if you have tried the code and it seems to be working can you tell me if the phone is worth it

Really, it comes down to how important the OLED and physical keyboard are to you. The screen is absolutely stunning, and the keyboard is convenient if you text a lot. The touchscreen is responsive and the UI is really good for a touchscreen phone. The best thing you can do is to go to an AT&T store and try it out hands on. I definitely don't regret my purchase.

yes i loveeeeee all of that.....i have already seen that but is the code the solution to the texting bug, if not is the phone still worth it

It seems like it so far. But if it's not, then it really depends on how much you text.

i text a average amount, but not hardcore.  I don't have to pick the phone now but in a week or so, will you do me a favor and update each day if the code really works????
Thanks

anybody have an update whether or not the code works?

They are updating for maybe those that tried it. Relax. Its been happening for months with some. But not all have it.

i just joined and have been following this whole thread....i have ordered the phone, but plan on returning it....anybody know if samsung plans to adress this problem

ihatethebug is my bro incase we have the same ip

is the bug still not present and the code still working??

getting my impression tomorow!!!!seems like the codes working ;D anyone else thinking otherwise???

may someone please tell me if the code is still working.....

I haven't had a problem yet, but there haven't been enough people to confirm it to see if it works for everyone or not.

how long have you been using the code and how frequently did you have the problem before the code

I got the phone a week ago, and it happened to me twice in the first day. I put the code in I think 5 or 6 days ago and haven't had the problem ever since.

thanks for  the input, would you keep me updated please. seems to me like a fix, what about you

I tried the *#0523# code and I do still have the problem.

u sure? did u turn off the 3g

I am trying this *#0523#. and changing state to GSM mode as of Feb 12, I will post back in week or 2 to let you know if this works cause my impression would do this at lest 2 times week, Long as I can receive Phone calls make them and play Dinner dash text with no problems I be all for this this fix

I am still having the issue as well. It does seem like it helps though because it happens less often, about every 3 days instead of about twice a day. Even turning on and off airplane mode does nothing to help. I cannot delete any text messages and pressing the shortcut button does not do anything right now. I tried changing the state again and still nothing.

Yea i noticed that putting it on GSM only from the admin menu makes it happen less ofter. Plus it gets better signal :D

Hmm, maybe there's two things that cause the bug, and the GSM only fixes one of them? It's weird because mine has been working perfectly since I made it GSM only.

I too did the GSM only and like the others of you I have noticed that it occurs less. It still occurs but maybe about every 2 days instead of everyday when I had it on the other setting. Hope this information helps. Would be nice to have it fixed  ;)

-Cameron

Well people I have some sort of the same issue with my HD2. Many have exactly the same issue. There are too many bands and the phone gets confused. It definitely has something to do with this. It sets idle in one band to conserve energy then depending if you connect to the internet or send an sms it switches. And here is where it gets stuck.

Yes, I'm positive I followed all directions correctly. I even took it a step further and restored the original settings and followed the steps again and I do still have the problem. A couple people mentioned that it happens less, I don't see any improvement.

for all the people who say it happens less frequently if you restart your phone like your supposed to every night..(props to agoattamer :) ) will this problem be fixed or is the three days without the problem with restarting your phone every night

Hmm, I turn off my phone at nights and keep the messages below 100 and the code worked for me... I forgot to mention that.

seems like this bug will never be solved, decided to go for the mythic, but if the bug is solved in the next thirty days i will return and get this phone

 it did the send fail once so far since i changed  it to GSM, I want to say it less frequent but i cant be sure it only been a few days

Well u know what if i restart my phone twice a day guess what??! omg text bug! so yea... doing what im supposed to dosent really help there huh??

it is less frequent but still there, I emails samung about this and they gave me canned response of "we dont know when and if this will be address"

I've also been doing the limbo since I got my impression a month and a half ago.  I've done all the "patches" suggested but to no avail.  One thing I noticed tonight while it was limboing was the backlight came on when a text was received, it just didn't tell me i had a text until i reset the phone.  I sorta think that means that the phone realized it was being told something, but there was a bad transfer. Hopefully someday can figure something out.

I did fix the issue with my HD2. It seems on it the sms messages were being sent via gprs(voice).  I was able to change the settings for text to gms(data). I havent had the text bug on it for a week after 2 weeks of hell. I am going to look around in the settings to see if there is a way to change sms to gms on the impression. Seems mms messages are already sent via gsm already.  I will update if I find something.

Right now for those having the issue check you sms center address.
menu/messaging/messaging settings/text message/text message center/sms settings

My Center address is +13123149810 
Anyone having the issue have a different center? If you do write it down and try this one.

Hello all, we have had 2 phones of multi brands since Suncom the wife's phone is the only ones that have this bug we have had Nokia,Motorola & Samsung units her phones started the bug on the Motorola with Cingular then on Nokia 6555 continued through 2 eternity phones and  1 Impression 2nd Impression was delivered 2/11/10 so far so good. All minor glitches have been cured by once a day restart. Knock on wood maybe this phone will make it. Personally I don't believe it's a phone problem I think the network is over loaded & has a bad case of (need an infrastructure upgrade) flue. Later---

You think the network has the iphone flu?

Hey Agoattamer. I have the same center address as you. And I have the texting problem still too. Let me know if you find out anything more about changing sms to gms. Thanks!

-Cameron

I searched all through internals and service menu but found nothing.

we have 2 impressionsone is mine and the other is my girlfriends,...she has to reboot her phone atleast once a day,...ive never had to reboot mine at all,...ours were baught at the same time...hmm...

im just glad luck was on my side when ine was assigned to me...lol

Goat both our phones have same address as you so I don't know. The wife ain't throwed hers at me yelling fix it so must be still working ok. Maybe AT&T goofed & gave her a good unit. As to the flue, its caused by a bug right? btw we are on 3G+. I didn't find any thing in the menus or internals on a way to shift to gms. Later---

I can chime in with my experience real quick.

My lady friend has an Impression and it suffers from the text bug as well. I can state that she lives in a GSM only area, still has the problem, when in a 3g area, still has the problem, it's pretty much everywhere we go.

She also has two other phones, some samsung flip phone, and a Blackjack I, neither of those phones have a problem with sending SMS when her SIM is in it.

I also have or have had a Motorola q9h, iphone 3gs, Nokia e71, Nokia n79, SE w580i, SE w760a, BJII, HTC TILT, HTC 8525, Moto v3xx, Nokia 6030, Nokia e62, and some others. The only phone that has exhibited this problem with sending text messages, is the Samsung Impression. So Samsung needs to figure out what the problem is, because it's damn annoying.

Sorry if mentioned. I notice when the glitch occurs regarding the texts, I tend to receive a text with the loudest sound volume even though I had it set at 1. Pushing buttons doesn't silence it neither. If I try to send a text immediately afterward, it will not go though thus forcing me to restart the phone. Also this occurred when I couldn't copy a contact from my sim to the phone.

If all of this is really caused by the iPhone straining AT&T's network, then I wouldn't mind ATT losing the exclusivity. :P

It would be interesting to see if anyone has the phone on a different network and whether or not it has the bug.

And just as an update, ever since I did the GSM thing, I've been bug free...

Life was good until the night before my 30 day return window. Out of the blue, the phone will not send text messages through the physical keyboard. Some indicated the problem was with the soft/virtual keyboard and the t9 action, but I don't use it and I checked just in case. Even taking out the battery and sim for some time, I can't get it to send at all. It simply says service unavailable. For a time, I couldn't even make call now that is sporadically working, even though sometimes it indicates emergency calls only.

It could be the AT&T service, but I am in my house where I have sent many texts before. i cleaned out all the old messages to no avail. I am desperate. Contacted Wirefly, they assure me they'll send a new replacement phone, but there is no exchange window... you get what u get.

Any suggestions?

I would say call someone in your area that has AT&T and see if they are having the same problems. Maybe its just a network issue in your area.

I've been doing this for a day and it seems to be working, just clean up your inbox and sent folders regularly, or just stop depending on text and call the person like you wouldve done 5 years ago, it's still faster.

neither one worked for me...

*Sigh* Almost two months after fixing the issue, it's come back to me. The bug came back two nights ago, and since then I've had to restart my phone twice. It seems like it shows no mercy. :(

same here .. sux !

I like the phone in general but this is starting to annoy the crap out of me.  I actually seem to use my phone more for messaging than I do for talking, so having to reset it almost everyday, at least once a day, for this issue is beyond irritating at this point.  It's been a problem for months now with no solution in sight so unfortunately I think I'm just going to have to get a different phone..  >:(

Have you attempted any of the fixxes posted in this thread? Have you contacted ATT at all to try and get a resolution?

Hey Goat talked with a Att Tech at noon today about ongoing text bug with wife's phone when the plan records were pulled up they didn't have her current sim or phone on the list. After I gave Tech the correct numbers Tech reconnected her phone in the system. Warranty is sending her a refurb any way with a new sim. When phone gets here we are going to Att Co store and get them to install & activate phone & sim together at store by a co rep will post back on whether this helps or not. Later---

I think that is most of the problem. ATT does not do good records. When I first got my phone they had my phone info wrong. IMEI code was wrong. They reset me in the system with all the correct info and I have had no issues since with data dropping or text bug.

so any progress on this issue? i just read the entire thread.

i believe what i have seen is related - some times text acts strangely but the worst is the alarm. without warning it will do as others described with texts - it lights the screen but not vibrate or ring. I use the phone alarm to wake me up for work every day. today neither mine nor my wife's alarm worked and we were both over an hour late to work because of it. turning phone on and off fixes this and strange text issues for a random length of time. Phone also randomly turns off some times.

i will try to get ATT to update our IMEI info - samsung is clueless about this one (or doesnt care).

just spent well over half an hour on the phone with ATT.  i had them verify the IMEI numbers and SIM numbers for both mine and my wife's phone. I then had the level 2 technician send out the network reset to both our phones where it says "Power on/off" on the black screen. Hopefully this will help some.

i talked at length with her about the people on this thread and all we have tried to get this resolved. she was nice and understanding but not helpful. had never heard of the problem, and would not provide a way to elevate this issue to someone's attention. basically said i would have to have the phone replaced on warranty (which doesn't help) to have it tracked. if enough people had warranty replacements for the same issue noted 'in the system' they would (somehow?) notice the trend and maybe then they might do something about it  :-\. I explained that the problem is unlikely to be noticed in these trends because we know different phones do not fix it and it can manifest itself differently so would be reported differently. she offered to conference in someone from warranty or Samsung but I'm sure it would still be all the same conversation. i doubt this will be solved because the phone is now so old...

I will let you know if my phone seems better after the reset.

To have any chance we all need to organize to make sure the right person (and only one person) gets flooded with our calls and sees that they are all the same problem. a poster had some presidents phone number - that could work, but still may not get us noticed. if you want to try the same woman i spoke to, she said her name was Annette Dunbar.

my best guess is to organize a written report and request for investigation written by the posters of this thread and send that (with all our names some how) to the president guy. sort of like a petition.

other than that Im out of ideas.

anyone up for organizing this so we have a prayer? PLEASE?

thanks to everyone for your efforts

Getting a new phone under the warranty. I doubt it fixes anything, but at least its another phone on the list.

Well so far so good on the Wife's replacement phone, knock on wood. We had it started at an AT&T co. store just like it was a new account with a new SIM and made sure the rep logged all info correctly she ain't cussed at me about it for 2 weeks now, So maybe?
Later---

hey MASTERgoat first time poster here,

i tried reading as many pages of this as i could so i'm not sure if this has already been stated, but. The bug just happened to me, this bug happens a lot to me, and I could successfully make a call but the messages would still never send.

Now this is the important part: every time i turn my phone on and off after the text bug i get a waiting screen that says "Messaging Initializing". It does the . . . . thing the same as when you are sending a message. Usually i have to try to open my Messaging twice and go through the "Messaging Initializing".

So my real question is: is there any way to manually start the "Messaging Initializing" waiting screen i found.

Keep trying until it actually stops initializing.

I'm sorry i wasn't clear enough. The initialization is how it gets fixed. So, is there any way to manually start it?

ps: the text bug happened to me again. I have 3G service and I could search the web through media net. Also I could make phone calls. And for some reason my messages are not deleting at all. I know I didn't have that many messages either.

Sounds like you have other issues with your phone. The message initializing has nothing to do with text bug. And the text bug will not cause this.

I recommend you do a master reset.

I think what keedycolin is getting at is when the phone is turned on, before it is fully loaded, and you try to access "Messaging" an "Initializing..." screen appears until the phone is fully loaded. Does anyone know of a way to access this without having to fully turn off/on the phone? I doubt that there is a way but it would speed up the process of resetting the messaging function and restore the ability to send/receive messages.

I have been experiencing the text bug for awhile now too. I bought the phone sometime in May 2009. Has anyone heard of a fix for this bug yet? It's not too much of an inconvenience but the problem should be addressed.

Hey everyone! I have been reading all these replies and had the same problem to. I called ATT today and talked to them for about 45 min. I made sure they knew that everyone has been having this problem and asked if a network reset would help. Okay first:

I had the Samsung Blackjack 2 Before I got this phone which was a couple of days ago and I just used the SIM card i used for my blackjack for this phone. I asked if they could clarify my IMEI number and it was off, they said it was because it hasn't updated yet. They told me to switch SIMS with the one it came with.

Second: Again I told her that everyone is having this issue and asked if anyone else has called in about this. And she looked it up and said that a lot of people were having the same problem aswell, she said that in May 2009 they updated the software and said it was supposed to fix the problem, I got my phone new a couple of days ago and still had the issue. I told her a lot of people are still having it.

When I told her that it was fixed, she looked into the log more and told me that having T9 on was also the issue. She said when T9 is on, then the problem happens. So I have turned my T9 off and have been texting all day and have not encountered the problem yet. So this might be a fix, also I want to know if this is the real issue, are you guys all using T9? or is it on? It might be a fix. :)



EDIT: Okay... I just had the problem happen... So forget everything I mentioned :) They are calling me back tomorrow, and I will tell them that it was a whole different issue.

Actually the T9 thing was a whole different problem. If I remember correctly, the phone would crash if you pressed "I" followed by a space when you had T9 on. The May 2009 update that the AT&T rep was talking about fixed it, but the bug that's mentioned in this thread is entirely different.

Thats what I was thinking, but I went over and over and told her about the bug. I hope i didn't waste 45min on the phone just to go over a whole different problem.

EDIT: Okay... I just had the problem happen... So forget everything I mentioned :) They are calling me back tomorrow, and I will tell them that it was a whole different issue.

any new news?

First, a bit of background.
- My Impression was brand new (upgraded on 5/4/10)
- The fake internet settings are implemented
- The removal of access to AT&T Data bloatware is implemented
- The text inbox and sent messages contain under 50 each
- The text outbox is empty
- I have never activated T9 (I didn't even know how to do so).

My phone froze sending a text once last week, and I didn't think anything of it.  Then, it froze again today and I decided to see if there was a solution, so I stumbled upon this thread.  I decided to take goat's advice and request a re-registering of my phone, so I went onto the online chat to get this done. 

Below is what was said, whereas "ME" represents my side of the conversation, obviously.  I only edited out personal information related to my name, account, and phone number.  Everything else is copy/pasted.  Enjoy!


Welcome to AT&T Technical Support Chat. My name is 'Keir Horton' and I’ll be happy to assist you today.
ME: Hello, I am having issues with the text freezing. I read online that AT&T needs to re-initiate my account
Keir Horton: Hello, how may I help you regarding a text bug?
ME: er re-register
Keir Horton: I apologize that you are having a problem with your device freezing while text messaging. I will be glad to help resolve your issue today.
ME: I have only had it since two Tuesdays ago, and it's froze twice already
ME: I had to turn off and turn it back on to get texts to work
[Long, boring account verification process . . .]
Keir Horton: Do you currently have the device with you at this time?
ME: yes
Keir Horton: Are you only experiencing the issue with your device freezing when sending or receiving text messages?
ME: sending, I tried to delete the outbox contents, and would still freezw
ME: A new phone isn't going to be a solution, it's on AT&T's side
Keir Horton: The service doesn't cause the device to freeze. The issue would be with the device software.
ME: ok, flash the software update then
Keir Horton: Touch screen devices will normally experience a issue with the screen display freezing.
Keir Horton: Is this is only time that you experience a issue with the device freezing?
ME: twice so far, and 200 others have mentioned the same issue
ME: Chat InformationWelcome to AT&T Technical Support Chat. My name is 'Lance Barkster' and I’ll be happy to assist you today. Lance Barkster: Hello. How are you today? Doug Plooster: Fine Lance Barkster: According to your pre-chat survey: "I am having a problem with the texting on my phone. About once or twice a day I send a text message and it hangs on the 'Sending' screen for a couple minutes then says sending failed. In order to send any more messages I have to restart my phone." Is that correct Mr. Plooster? Doug Plooster: Yes it is. Also, I contacted you yesterday about the same issue. They had me do a master reset on my phone which they assured me would fix the problem, even though I was pretty sure it wouldn't. And today, I had the same problem again. The message stuck on 'sending'. Lance Barkster: I apologize for this inconvenience, but I will be happy to assist you with that today. Have you noticed any particular pattern with the problem, such as the same number your texting or certain time of the day perhaps? Doug Plooster: No, it appears to happen randomly. Lance Barkster: Do you always have adequate signal strength when this occurs? Doug Plooster: Yes, it happens even when I have full bars and 3g. Lance Barkster: It appears that this may be a problem with many of the Impressions. I'm checking now to see if there has been an official product advisory sent out about this problem. Thanks for your patience Mr. Plooster. Doug Plooster: Ok thanks. Doug Plooster: Also, I have read on many forums that people call in with this particular problem and have the connection reset (or the device 're-registered') on your end and that solves it. Might that work? Lance Barkster: I located some information that may be relevant here: Some customers who have purchased the Samsung A877 have found their handset occasionally locks up and/or resets when using the device with T9 predictive text mode turned on. This happens in the following scenarios: When using the virtual keypad in landscape mode for SMS - with T9 on. When using the physical QWERTY in landscape mode with T9 on - except for SMS, i.e. MMS or when entering a contact. Doug Plooster: The last sentence says "except for SMS". So I don't think that is the problem. Plus I never have T9 on when this happens. Actually, I never use T9. And FYI, I am pretty sure this has been fixed in Samsung's new firmware. I can't reproduce that problem. Lance Barkster: You are probably correct. It appears that this is an older product advisory listing. Would you be willing to swap this for another Impression or would you rather try a different model? Doug Plooster: Here's the deal. I have read about lots of people having this problem. Some people even exchange their phones for new ones multiple times and have the same problem with them all. I also talked to Samsung, and they are adamant that the problem is with the connection on your side, even though it may show no problems. The people I have read about managed to get the tech guys at AT&T (i.e. you) to reset their connection (or 're-register' their device on the network) and that fixes the problem every time. So could we just try that please? Lance Barkster: Sure, no problem. Let me know when your phone is off and we will try that to see if it resolves the problem. Doug Plooster: Ok it is off. Lance Barkster: You can turn it back on now and try sending a text message. However, since it appears that the problem is sporadic, it may send out ok right now. Thanks. Doug Plooster: Thank you very much. Doug Plooster: I have one more request. I will likely be traveling to another country in the next couple months, and was wondering if you might be able to supply me with the lock code so I can use the phone overseas? Or if not where can I get it? Lance Barkster: I will need to submit a request for you to have that unlock information sent to an email address of your choice. Were you able to send a text message out? Doug Plooster: Yes it is working good right now. Thank you again for that. Lance Barkster: Okay. If you would like to request the unlock code, what email address you would like it to be sent to? Doug Plooster: [my_email] Lance Barkster: Thank you. Please allow 2-3 minute while I work on this. Thanks for your patience. Doug Plooster: Thanks Lance Barkster: Your unlock code request confirmation number is [**********_*******] . Please allow 48 hours for this information to be delivered to the email address you provided. If you have not received an email after this time frame, please chat back in for further assistance. Do you have any other questions or concerns that I can assist with today? Doug Plooster: No I don't think so. Thank you for your help. Lance Barkster: Thank you for visiting the AT&T Live Support Chat. It has been my pleasure to assist you today. We appreciate your business with us here at AT&T. Please click the button to end your session. Feel free to fill out the chat survey that appears which is based on this chat experience. Thank you for choosing AT&T as your wireless carrier. Have a great day. A customer satisfaction survey will automatically appear when you close the chat window and we appreciate your feedback.
ME: check the history log, please
Keir Horton: Do you use T9 predictive text on your device?
ME: I've not turned it on, unless it is set on default
Keir Horton: We receive notification regarding known issues with a device from the manufacturer and our Warranty Department.
ME: I do not want a new device, I am happy with this new one
ME: I will not sacrifice my new phone for a refurb
Keir Horton: Some customers who have purchased the Samsung A877 have found their handset occasionally locks up and/or resets when using the device with T9 predictive text mode turned on. When using the virtual keypad in landscape mode for SMS - with T9 on. When using the physical QWERTY in landscape mode with T9 on - except for SMS, i.e. MMS or when entering a contact.
ME: yes I read that on the website
Keir Horton: Are you experiencing the same issue?
ME: At least 4 users said the re-register helps with the same issue
Keir Horton: Are you experiencing the same issue?
ME: yes, I said my text froze twice in a week
Keir Horton: I'm asking if you are experiencing the issue on your device when using the device with T9 predictive text mode turned on or when using the virtual keypad in landscape mode for SMS - with T9 on? If so, we have been advised by Samsung that you will need to turn off the T9 mode on your device to resolve the issue and that Samsung is working on a update to resolve the issue.
ME: I never turned on T9, unless it is default
ME: I don't even know where it's located at
ME: but simple answer, my phone doesn't predict what I typed from past texts
Keir Horton: I will send a link from the device tutorial so that you may verify if T9 is currently active on your device.
Keir Horton: Please click here.
Keir Horton: Were you able to verify if the T9 is active on your device?
ME: it was on Abc mode
Keir Horton: Thank you for advising.
Keir Horton: Is the display cracked or bleeding?
ME: no
Keir Horton: Has the handset been dropped, damaged, or exposed to extreme temperatures?
ME: no
Keir Horton: Please remove the battery with the phone powered on to perform a Second Level Reset and check for liquid damage. Once you remove the battery from your device, you will need to verify the color of the small square.
ME: it is still white
Keir Horton: Thank you for advising.
Keir Horton: Please reattach the battery and power on your device.
ME: ok done
Keir Horton: Please verify if you are still experiencing the issue on your device.
ME: I've been texting while typing here with no issues so far
ME: before the reset
Keir Horton: Thank you for advising.
ME: another issue is that the processor doesn't keep up with the keys I press, and misses one or more
Keir Horton: If you continue to experience the issue on your device, you will need to contact our Warranty Department to replace your device or you may return the device at the point of sale within the first 30 days of purchase. Please contact our warranty service center at 800-801-1101 for assistance with replacing your phone or with questions about your replacement phone. Their hours are Monday-Friday: 7:00 am to 11:00 PM, Saturday: 9:00 am to 7:00 PM, and Sunday: 12:00 PM to 9:00 PM.  All times are Eastern.
ME: so you re-registered the phone?
Keir Horton: I had you perform a soft reset on the device, due to the device is not experiencing a issue with the connection to the network which is the reason that we re-register   devices to the network. Your issue is with the device software, not the network.
ME: This sounds close to my issue:
ME: the first 30 incoming messages go to the SIM and then starting with message 31 they start saving on the phone (all outgoing appear to only get stored on the phone) There's no way to change the setting for the first 30 going to the SIM. Today, as soon as I received incoming message #30, my very next message send attemp put the phone in the 'sending..sending...sending' mode that I had to escape from, with my message getting dumped in the outbox and not sent. I could call up existing received messages and attempt to reply, but those attempts would just get dumped into the outbox. If I tried to create a new message, I could type the message but when I hit the "Send to" button nothing would happen so I couldn't assign it to anyone.
ME: I delete most of my messages that I don't need, is probably why it only happens every 4 days
Keir Horton: The information that is provided regarding the devices are reviews from some user's, not information provided by Samsung or AT&T,
ME: the website I read this on says it could be a tower issue
Keir Horton: If you continue to experience the issue on your device, you may exchange the device at the point of sale with the receipt, or you will need to contact our Warranty Department to order a replacement device.
ME: replacing doesn't seem to correct the issue
Keir Horton: We have completed the troubleshooting steps on the device to resolve the issue, if not, your device will need to be replaced.
ME: I am not going to replace this phone, I've been using AT&T phones for 4 years and never had this issue
ME: it has to be a software issue
Keir Horton: I am glad that we were able to assist you with your issue regarding your device freezing when sending text messages from your device by performing a soft reset on your device. You will need to contact our Warranty Department to order a replacement device or exchange the device for a different Impression at the point of sale. Is there anything else technical that I may assist you with?
ME: either the phone or AT&T side
ME: Tell Samsung to release the locked backgrounds, they stink
Keir Horton: The issue would be with the device, not the service on the device. We troubleshoot the issue on the device to verify if the issue may be resolved or if the device needs to be replaced in which we have completed the necessary troubleshooting steps on your device.
ME: I read where people go through 3 phones with the same issues, that tells me it's not the phone
Keir Horton: Is there anything else technical that I may assist you with?
ME: ergo, troubleshooting the wrong hardware seems logical
Keir Horton: I have advised you that this is a known issue with the device in which Samsung is aware of and are working on the update to resolve the issue. This is not a issue that is caused by the AT&T service, it is a software issue on the device. Is there anything technical that I may assist you with other than this issue?
ME: we already know the "master key" to add games from a computer, but how do we get rid of those annoying icons on the main screen or at least "reassign" programs to them?
Keir Horton: I would recommend that you contact Samsung for further assistance regarding reassigning programs to the icons on your device. The number for Samsung is 1-888-987-4357. They are open Monday - Friday: 9 am - 8 PM EST and Saturday: 10 am - 7 PM EST. The web address is http://www.samsungusa.com .
Keir Horton: Is there anything else technical that I may assist you with?
ME: I guess that's all I have a question about. I hope this corrected the issue.

Lol, like I've said before, the T9 issue that they have in their database is a completely different issue. If the bug occurs enough to bother you, I would just trade it in for a different phone if your 30 days hasn't expired.

I've had the problem for a few weeks now.

I called AT&T, and they reset my IMEI code, and it seemed to fix the problem for about a day, then this morning, it happened again.

I'm about to throw this phone out a window, I'm a huge texter and this isn't good. I don't know where else to go.

Can't we figure out what's causing this? Can't we get a tech or somebody to figure out? We're not making any progress at all.

After I did the reset mentioned in the online chat above, my phone froze again today!  So that obviously isn't the solution for the issues!

I happened upon another Impression user while waiting in line at a fast food joint.  I asked her if she had the text issue and she said she had too.  She's had hers over a year she said, and she doesn't power it off everyday like AT&T expects us to do. 

In my post above, the AT&T moron said that touch screen phones tend to freeze.  This is bull, as I used the HTC 8525 for almost 2 years without the touch screen freezing on me, nor has the text bug happened on it ever! 

My synopsis: there must be a software incompatibility in the phone!  Either Samsung's programmers need an education, or the phones up with a glitch in AT&T's servers.  Either way, a new phone isn't going to solve the issue, but different software enhancements should be the answer.   

As for the other idea posted a while ago, I'm not too familiar with the SIM cards varieties.  However, there may be an off chance that Samsung tested the Impression using an older SIM card, thus no text issues on their end so they sent the phone to distribution that way.

I just got off the phone with Samsung.  The moron wants me to send in the phone to have it investigated.  I told the rep that it is my only phone and can't send it in.  I told him that I have the master key and could do it myself, but he ignored (didn't respond to) that idea, saying I have to send it to them.  Maybe calling a different day and a different rep will be successful, I hope.

I forgot to mention in the last post that on this third freezing, I tested a few things:
- I could not delete the attempted text, that is now stuck in the "Outbox"
- I could not access stored inbox messages to reply via text
- I could not get the "Messages" icon on the menu to open at all
- I called another cell phone sitting beside me:
  - My phone sounded like it connected to the other, but it went to voice mail;
  - Then, the same phone called me, the call was connected & I could hear the person on my side, but I                was not heard on their side.

I'll call AT&T sometime today and talk to them again- demand a fix.

I can be bitchy when I want to.

Four days later, and my phone is froze trying to send a text.  This is really annoying having to power cycle a brand new phone!  None of my other phones had this issue, so my feeling is that it's a software issue, either on AT&T or Samsung's side.  I don't buy their "power cycle daily" technique to fix this; we deserve something permanent, not a temporary fix!

My second online chat with AT&T techs:

Welcome to AT&T Technical Support Chat. My name is 'Maren Miller ' and I’ll be happy to assist you today.
Maren Miller : I apologize that you are having trouble with your SMS. I will be happy to assist you with that today . . .
[Much shorter account verification this time at least.]
Maren Miller : What happens when you try to send a message?
ME: I am still having issues with texting freezing. This has been done last time I wrote AT&T: remove the battery with the phone powered on to perform a Second Level Reset. Please reattach the battery and power on your device.
ME: it is stuck on the Message Sending screen
Maren Miller : You can try to process a Master Reset if all of your information is nacked up.
Maren Miller : *backed
ME: I feel that the software needs updated, not downgraded
Maren Miller : Doing a Master Reset is not downgrading your software. It is setting the device back to manufacturer settings and can clear any information that may be clogged.
ME: I've only had the phone since the 3rd, and it was stuck on the Message Sending 4 times already
Maren Miller : Would you like the information to Warranty Exchange?
ME: Over 200 people have experienced this error, so it can't be the phone itself
ME: it's not the hardware, but the software
ME: only one person said that re-registering the IMEI kept his phone from the text locking
Maren Miller : I do not have a software upgrade for the device. You can contact the manufacturer to see if they have an upgrade you can use.
ME: I called Samsung, they want me to send the phone to them
Maren Miller : By removing the battery while the phone is turned on, you are re-registering the IMEI. You can either send the device to Samsung or you can replace it through our Warranty Department.
ME: I don't want to replace the phone, it is brand new and not refurbished
ME: the person on the message board said that the AT&T rep removed the IMEI from the computer and reentered it, that seemed to fix his phone
Maren Miller : I can remove the device from the network, force updated downloads to it, and then place back on the network, but it sounds like that has already been done. However, I am happy to do it again.
ME: that may work, try that for now
Maren Miller : While the phone is turned on, please take out the battery. I will let you know when I need you to turn it back on.
ME: I am having trouble getting the back off now
ME: ok the battery is out now
ME: Keir Horton: I had you perform a soft reset on the device, due to the device is not experiencing a issue with the connection to the network which is the reason that we re-register devices to the network. Your issue is with the device software, not the network.
ME: So is a "soft reset" the same as re-registering the IMEI?
Maren Miller : Go ahead and put the device back together and place a test call out please. Once you have done that please try your text messaging again.
Maren Miller : Yes sir it is.
ME: the text issue happens after 3 or 4 days later, not instantaneous
ME: but I did make the call and a text just now
Maren Miller : Then we really have no way of testing the issue. You shouldn't have any more trouble out of the device. If the problem persists, I would recommend replacing the device.
ME: I still believe the software is the cause, either Samsung or their programming doesn't work on the towers correctly
Maren Miller : The only people who are going to be able to direct you for a software update, is Samsung.
Maren Miller : May I assist you with anything else today?
ME: the rep did the same thing for me last week, and the text still froze
Maren Miller : Samsung will have any software updates that are available for your device.
ME: I wish that the text freeze would quit, over 200 other users have the same exact issue, so that tells me it's not the hardware, but the software
ME: even a total stranger I just met at a restaurant had the same issue as me
ME: Samsung doesn't want to cooperate with the consumers
Maren Miller : I completely understand your frustration,  . If you look on the Samsung website you may find a software update. Unfortunately, we do not have access to the updates.
Maren Miller : We can only manipulate issues with the network.
ME: You could get your techs to request the Samsung OS and have your techs figure out the bug in it
ME: I even found the OS online, just downloaded it today, but I don't know how to upload or use it
ME: A887UCHL6 and A887UCIB7 are the file names
Maren Miller : If you could contact Samsung at http://www.samsung.com/us/support/faqs/supportFaqsMain.do you are given an option to chat with one of their representatives.
ME: I did 4 days ago, they won't online chat about mobile phones
Maren Miller : If you choose the contact us link,. you will be given the contact and email information to get in touch with them as well.
ME: I doubt it would do much good, the phone's been out at least 6 months and the issue has been around since then I bet
ME: the person at the restaurant said she had it over a year, and still the correction isn't found? Sounds like Samsung doesn't care to me
Maren Miller : Sir, I truly apologize for what is happening. If I had the resources to fix it, I would in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the software updates, nor do I have the training on how to use them. the only thing, I can suggest is to keep contacting Samsung until you either get a response or until they can't stand to hear from you anymore.
ME: It is not a touchscreen issue, as the other rep suggested -- I had the HTC 8525 and it's touch screen didn't freeze ever.
ME: I'm sure they have a handful of people writing them, but most likely think it's a fluke
Maren Miller : Sometimes persistence pays off.
ME: I'll try, but big businesses don't listen to one consumer
Maren Miller : They do if you keep writing to their Customer complaint department.
ME: is there any way to remove the Samsung OS and put in an android software?
Maren Miller : Yet again, I don't have that information. I don't know what you can do with the device or its software.
ME: if it wasn't for the stupid $30/month data plan required for any smartphone, I would have went with the Tilt2
Maren Miller : I truly apologize for this inconvenience,  . May I assist you with anything else today?
ME: unless you have the personal phone number to a Samsung exec, then no
Maren Miller : I wish I did.
Maren Miller : Thank you for visiting the AT&T Live Support Chat. It has been my pleasure to assist you today. We appreciate your business with us here at AT&T.

Were did you find the firmware ???

I didn't actually find the firmware, but ThroughHymn did; all I did was download it.  The page is www.samsung-impression.org/general-samsung-impression-discussion/really/msg22615 if you want to get it yourself.  I have no idea how to incorporate it into the phone, so if you do this, it is at your own risk!! 
If by chance you are a programmer and do test it out, please inform me and the rest of the board how to do so!

AT&T sent me a new phone, and it's working great so far. There's something different about it- the buttons are more responsive and are easier to press, and it's faster when using the keyboard. No text problem nor T9 bug. No alarm clock bug either.

I also checked the serial, and it's above my old phone. Looks like Samsung did fix it somehow on the newer phones.

Solution: get your Impression replaced!  ;D  :)

what is the new firmware of your phone? menu/settings/phone information

Ok, it JUST happened AGAIN.

I was emailing a pic msg to my own email account. It was still in my outbox. So, I did not delete ANY msgs. I rebooted. Tried to resend the same msg. NADA! Tried again. NADA.

I then went ahead and delted all msgs from the inbox and sent. I resent the msg. NADA. I decided to write the msg over and resend the pic to my email. It sent. I checked the sent msgs and my email account. GOT IT.

So, I went to my outbox to delete both msgs. I could only delete the one I JUST sent. The original is STILL in my outbox, greyed out. I cant delete it.

Any thoughts?

Oh, my firmware is the same as Goats: A877UCID3.

Oh, wait a minute. I just picked up my phone and unlocked it. Apparently the msg in the outbox was sent.  Yup, its in my email, too. This is REALLY wierd. Any thoughts on this? Has this particular incident happened to any of you?

I am not quite sure if I should go ahead and get a replacement (it is still w/in my 30 days), or just keep it and deal with it. I REALLY love this phone, except for this.

I just sent Samsung a message on www.samsung.com/us/info/contactus.html#.  Here is exactly what I wrote:
I hope they reply to my question.  I wrote one about a week before, with no human response!

I actually did find a reply to my first question, buried in my email box.  Here is what they said:

When i first got the phone everything was fine had no know problems with the thing.  Maybe about a month ago i started having the text problem where it wouldn't send or for that matter nothing for text would work.  The phone works and everything else but nothing text related.  So have been doing what everyone else does reboot.  Seems the last few weeks it's been happing alot more.  Well just the other day i remembered this and thought i might be because memory or something gets to full, so before the text problem happened i emptied my folders and not but a few text after this it did it.  So it's nothing to do with folders being to full.  So called att they say they are not aware of this problem but sense phone is still under warranty they would replace.  Have my new phone in hand(got it today) Has the same firmware as my other(was hopping there was diffrent firmware for em) o well will let everyone know if problem continues.

I am going to visit an AT&T device depot tomorrow and see if they can reflash it or whatever they have to do.  However, I will not relinquish my brand freakin' new phone to them no matter what . . . unless it is a brand new Impression BUT definitely NOT a refurbished one!  Even if it is a new one, I still am hesitant as I pimped out this one with games, wrote a few notes on their internal notepad, and added a few apps to it already.  (Editing the data connection is simple, so that's not a huge fiasco.)

I will report with what they say the next day, most likely. 

Any word on the FW update? I'm on my 2nd Impression and still have this problem.

Went to the AT&T device center today.  The supervisor has no idea how to install the firmware onto the Impression.  He also has no idea about the special box, nor about any of the firmwares found online.

He did mention that Samsung will give AT&T the release  of the update over-the-air on the 28th or 29th.  He found this info on Samsung's website.

Hmm, sounds like Samsung has finally bothered to fix the firmware. Looks like all of the requests to AT&T and Samsung to fix the software worked. :)
If what the supervisor said is true, then we only have a few more days left until the "cure".

O, now I am confused. When the new FW comes out, just HOW do we get it on our phones?

Well he said over the air so u would go into setting and click software update.

I had the Supervisor view this website and my posts on the "Really" thread.  He had never heard of the Z3X Box, as he doesn't do software editing there.  My understanding is that they only replace devices on-site, provided that they are in warranty (so the customer doesn't wait to get a new device mailed to them).  He shown me this link: www.samsungmobile.co.uk/support/softwaremanuals/softwareUpdate.do about the firmware update information.  Also, he gave me a phone number of a local person who is an expert mobile phone repairer; I will call him today to see if he has worked on the Impression, or at least knows how to install the firmware.

Also, Samsung replied to my online comments about the texting problem.  Here is what they said:
To which I responded:

Woohoo!

Could it finally be true? Someone on the ATT forums posted that they were told the same thing.
That means..today or tomorrow it'd be sent out over the air? I think we're all getting our hopes up too much now hahaha.

Yea :). It is finally gonna happen.

I just dont see it happening today or tomorrow

Well nothing happened today... So now we'll see about tomorrow lol

I called the mobile phone expert today.  All he did was warn me of installing firmware downloaded from the internet, saying it could have a virus.  He also mentioned that he hasn't heard of the Z3X Box, too.   So, he wasn't much of assistance to this idea.
I wonder what goat-boy is doing?  I haven't read anything from him in a while! 

/twiddles thumbs

Yeaahhh

I'm really fed up with this texting issue; it happened again today without me noticing it! 

About 2 hours after my last text, I received a voice call.  About a minute into the call, there was a weird screech and I couldn't hear the person as it seemed like their side was muted . . . but the connection didn't end, so I pressed "end".   A minute later, the same person called again; this time, I could hear them but I wasn't heard.  I ended the call, and tried to send them a text about the phone issue.  Accessing Messaging from the menu, a text thought to be sent was still showing on the "sending . . ." screen 2 hours later.  I figured only that text was pending, so I tried to send one to the recent person, but it wouldn't send either.  So, I ended up power-cycling the phone yet again.

Just installed this software, it doesn't work on the Impression.  Back to the drawing board! :(

That sux. I still havent gotton an update.

While I experience the text bug that is the original focus of the thread and I have the old firmware version U3 or whatever it is, I experienced a more important text bug recently.

Last week my phone stopped showing the 3G icon and instead always showed E. Turns out it was my SIM card. So I went in and got that replaced, 3G is back. After that, for three days I could send texts but would not receive any replies. I thought people were just mad at me or busy or something. So last night I restarted my phone and bang, 15 messages came in from the past three days.

I don't know what caused this and it seems to be resolved now but be on the lookout!

Oddly enough, my phone often shows the "E" [Edge] with 0-1 bars, but the texts still are sent.  It seems that going from "E" to "3G+" for three days finally causes the error.  I dunno, if it's that or something else. All I know is that it's not the T9 issue as I never activated it, nor do I use the on-screen keyboard.  Additionally, I doubt it's the touch-screen freezing, as the screen still accepts finger presses and other programs can be accessed. 

Here are some questions for you:
1) Do you power off/on the Impression daily?
2) How often did the text freeze before the SIM card replacement?
3) When exactly was the SIM card replaced? 
4) How many texts daily [total for inbox & sent: 0-15, 16-50, 51-99, 100+]?
5) Does the "Edge E" ever appear after the SIM card replacement?
6) Have there been any other errors after the SIM replacement?
7) What is the normal signal strength/bars on the phone?  (Is it used in rural, city, or suburban areas that fluctuate the signal bars, or show changes from "E" to "3G"/"3G+" on the screen?)

This is THE most annoying problem in the world, I've gone through 3 impressions from AT&T trying to fix the issue, but of course the same problem with the not sending messages on all 3 phones. I just called Samsung today and asked if there was a fix and all they instructed me to do was to do a full reset which still didn't fix anything. When I called AT&T they said this want a "know Issue." BS. Every forum I've been to for this phone has members with issues like this. I get the feeling its a hardware issue that would require every phone to be recalled and Samsung obviously doesn't want to deal with this. I really have no idea what the next course of action is going to be for me. AT&T won't credit me with money towards a different phone and Samsung wants me to send my phone in for repairs, and that's not gonna happen, so this leaves all users in a hard place. Hopefully it is a software issue that can be patched, I have no idea so this is just my 2 cents. Whatever, this is the last Samsung product I ever buy.

1. No, usually let it go as long as I can so maybe once a week?
2. It seemed like the text freeze happened every 250 messages or so before the SIM card replacement.
3. The SIM card was replaced on the afternoon of May 26.
4. This varies, some days I have zero, other days I will have 100-200
5. Edge will appear, usually if I'm in a low signal area like a basement, but texts still send and receive as you noted.
6. I haven't seen the text bug after the SIM replacement or any other errors other than the one I mentioned before.
7. Normal signal strength is very good, usually full bars at home, generally good when I go into the suburbs.

Goat's in the hospital!  :(
http://www.samsung-impression.org/samsung-impression-announcements/%27%27%27agoattamer-sick!!%27%27%27%27/ (http://www.samsung-impression.org/samsung-impression-announcements/%27%27%27agoattamer-sick!!%27%27%27%27/)

Interesting points to note, thanks for the reply!

I'm no expert on software or programming, but it seems that the switching from E to 3G+ to E to 3G+ to E (etc.) creates the text bug.  

*Breaking news*. . . While reading this response, my phone did the text bug as I was watching it!  I sent the text and slid closed the keyboard as usual.  This time, I am in the basement of my house diagonally below a small window [whereas usually the bug happens at work while on break].  Anyway, I moved the phone vertically (instead of in the landscape mode) about 5 inches max, and the icon changed from 3G+ to E in 2 seconds flat.  Strangely enough, the phone keeps saying "Try again?" instead of not sending the text.    I pressed "No" and tried to send it from the Outbox and it still will not send.  I guess it's time to power-cycle once again! :(  I'm starting to think I should try "disabling 3G" as was described on another thread, if that doesn't help I will be very ticked off!

FYI:
- I have exactly 24 texts stored in the Inbox & 11 texts stored in the Sent folder.  
- Others have mentioned that it only happens when the battery isn't showing full bars, but I just took it off the landline (AC) Samsung OEM charger 20 minutes earlier, after a 4 hour charging.

Well what do you know... Goat was right all along lol.

  Just curious, which part are you referring to him being right about?

i just got the phone and i have the texting bug.

any solutions yet?

If this is a bug what would happen if maybe you re-wrote the Samsung impression text messaging code(if you could find the genuine code first)and maybe replaced or just changed a certain part of the code? I know this may sound crazy but maybe it would work?

who knows.
i contacted AT&T and they asked for my IMEI # and they said they took it out of the system then put it back in (or something like that) to refresh my account (i guess) and i still get the bug every now and then. I also had the Pantech Impact before the impression and i exchanged phones thinking it was just the phone that had problems.
but nope AT&T is starting to piss me off.

The text bug got me again today!  This time, I noticed that I had 26 Inbox texts, 3 Sent texts, and "lucky number 30" was the one that was to be sent, but was saved in the Outbox.   I wonder if setting the phone capacity beyond 30 would stop the issue, if anyone figured out how to do that yet?

I decided to put more fire up Samsung's a$$ again.  This is outright disturbingly poor customer service!  

gathering still no over the air update has been released, saddening only reason i hate this phone is this bug

After sending the same note twice, I got another reply.  The first time, I got a canned reply, so I copied my entire comments and used a new subject name.  So, it looks like they are underacheivers, as they are yet again stalling another month, whereas they said it would be out at the end of last month! 

Come to reality and realize there will be no update. Amazingly it has made it over a year old and no update for the text bug in that time. It will not be long before the phone is discontinued. I can almost guarantee that there will be no update.

What happens when the phone is discontinued. Do we get new phones ???

I echo AGoat.. 

Samsung is usually in the business of providing NEW PHONES as updates.  They figure you want an update, buy a new phone. 

This is THE BEST non smart phone out there, BUT is will still not get an update.  It will be obsolete soon, so they figure why waste the money/time.

Only if you BUY a new phone  ::)

im planning on buying this phone this week for $130.. when exactly do u think that they will discontinue it?   ???

There is no way we would know this. Who knows....it may go for another month or another year. It actually was a very good phone despite the text bug. It probably depends on what ATT still has in stock.

What do you guys think? I have about another 8 months to go till my contract expires with my Lg vu. Its touch screen has been kinda not responsive lately. For example, often when i type, the touch screen thinks i hit a different key on the other side of the keyboard or something. I could get the samsung impression for $130 after rebate. What do you guys think i should do?

This question is off-topic, but I will give a quick reply.  I upgraded to a 2-year extension at Best Buy for the Impression for free.  If that is what you want to do, and are willing to power on/off your Impression if you are a heavy texter, that is the way to go!

This question is off-topic, but I will give a quick reply.  I upgraded to a 2-year extension at Best Buy for the Impression for free.  If that is what you want to do, and are willing to power on/off your Impression if you are a heavy texter, that is the way to go!
[/quote]

Thanks   :)

I've gone to ATT for my texting bug twice...and each time they gave me a new one. I've had three samsung impressions and each has had the same problem. It's soooooooooo annoying! This is the perfect phone for me...I just hate the stupid turning it on and off waiting to text.

I finally had enough with the phone and the text bug so i sent it in after my 3rd replacement and asked for the Pantech Impact instead. Hopefully it will actually work

Text bug appears to be system related not entirely phones fault,wife's phone started this mess on Motorola which was up graded to a Nokia 6555  thru 2 Impressions all had text bug. WE took third Impression to AT&T corp. store not reseller and had them replace and register new Sim card,register replacement Impression & completely restart her system ID. It has been 2 months and no problems yet (knock on wood) so I would call this a AT&T system problem. Later---

Exactly my point. If you have the bug no matter what impression you put your sim card in you will have the bug. If you don't have the bug then any impression you use will not have the bug.

Well I wrote Samsung yet another message on their site.  Here is their reply:
On a different note, while out shopping at a mall near Pittsburgh, I stopped into an AT&T store and asked more questions about the Impression errors.  The representative at least recognized that the text bug was  reported, unlike other AT&T store reps.  However, he first stated that it may be a memory issue, but when I continued about how my Impression would go from 3G+ to E to 3G+ etc., he backpedaled on that statement.  Next, he said to contact Samsung, and I told him Samsung is lazy and has been giving me (and most likely other customers as well) the run-around.  Then, I demonstrated the memory recovery program I found and about 2688b of memory was restored only. 

After that, I started asking about an update or firmware for the poor quality sliding qwerty keyboard.  He did mention something interesting: even the Apple Iphone 3G had the same "issue" of pressing the space bar twice results in a period displayed, which occurs on the Impression as well.   [Sidebar: Come to think of it, the Iphone doesn't have a slider qwerty, so he must mean the onscreen keyboard.]  To that he said it was hardware issue, not software.  I then said not all devices have that problem, as my HTC 8525 didn't have that poor of a keyboard; I rebutted that it must be software error, as the button wouldn't know what to display without the software, so he conceded on that point. 

My overall analysis: he at first appeared to be all-knowing, but it turns out to be all hot air, as he doesn't stand by his words when challenged.

Hey, what do you expect from a in-store salesperson?

I haven't had the text bug for 3000 texts so far...

Slightly off-topic, but maybe good for a laugh or two.
To which I replied:

Just a follow-up, I did write the BBB today.  I am tired of this BS!  I hope the BBB can light a fire up Samsung's execs when Samsung sees that I request $500 to each owner of the Impression within the one year warranty!

Woot! Go Impressive! ;D

I have had my phone for a year in August. I see the problem sometimes but I think it's the network. Sometimes if I just quit trying to send a message that won't send, and leave it in my Outbox. I can go back to it like 5 or 10 minutes later and it will send just fine. So it makes me believe it is a network issue. I mean if AT&T wants to give me $500 bucks for all the troubles I am in a situation where I could really put that money to good use.

Go get 'em BBB!!!

While this is an EXTREMELY late reply, (sorry :() Goat previously said that the error was probably caused by a faulty "switch" between data modes.

I got a phone call from AT&T's rep on Thursday, but I was at work so I couldn't answer it.  After voicemail tag, he called again Friday.  However, in the middle of the call the signal mysteriously was lost and by the time he called back, my break was over.  Before the line disconnected, he seemed to be looking at the account to see if I could get a different phone (other than the Impression). 

I didn't really get to my point of getting the errors fixed; he just presumed I wanted a different phone and not ask what solution I really wanted.  I will have to wait until Tuesday to tell him the whole story, and to see what can be done for the Impression users.  The following is all that the BBB website would allow me to write:

I just got off the phone with the AT&T rep who called me following my BBB report.  I tried to see if he would get on Samsung to get the firmware out quickly, but all he wanted to discuss was replacement devices.

For new Impression owners (within 30 days of purchase, possibly 60 days if the rep is lenient) under the "buyer's remorse", they could opt to give an LG Vu Plus, which is what I ultimately selected.  If you ask for the same price paid for the Impression, they will do so -- but only if asked.  They will ship it free, but the user will have to pay to ship the Impression back.  The shipping is like $7 or so with USPS, so not that much of an expense.  If this is your case, write to the BBB.org and file a complaint, to possibly get this "offer" as well.

For those with the Impression older than 30-60 days my advice is to keep writing Samsung, as AT&T's motto is lay down and play dead.  Try to keep the comments to Samsung respectful (although they don't deserve it); well okay, use clean wording at least!  The only other option is to get that "SPTBox" (or another similar box) and get the firmware out to have the resident hackers here alter it. 

Good luck, and a fond farewell my fellow Impression users.  It is still the best darn (non-smartphone) device I've seen, it's just too bad that Samsung is incompetent in the programming department!  I will try to check the forum here on occasion, but I won't have the Impression in hand to do any testing.

Sorry to see you go. I will work hard to make sure we get the firmware. Farewell, friend!

Goodbye, Impressive! Hope you like your new phone! You've been lots of help; defiantly come back and tell us how you like it.  ;D

I sent Samsung one more message on their website just now.   I wonder if they will have the decency to respond to it?  Time will tell!  If they do, I will post the response here as well.  Onto my message to them:

Obviously, they are either morons, or illiterate!  They can't deduce that I am getting rid of the Impression from what I said?  The last paragraph says I give up on Samsung, yet they want me to continue to favor them?  Then, it's the same BS questions as their reply a month ago!  If anyone here finds fixes for the three errors, I may buy the Impression again.

I just read that the LG Vu Plus was released in June.  It is only about a month old, so it may not have any support (a.k.a. hacks) for it yet!  I just hope that I can USB the jar/jad files to it, like I can with the Impression!

It's an automated message. Samsung is stupid.

thats an issue with the phone, everyone who txts a lot gets that, just like me...theres nothing to fix that...so just do what ur doing nd turn off ur phone everytime that happens, i got used to it...u should too lol

Hi all, I've had the text bug for some time now. It seems to get progressively worse (meaning I have to restart it more often).  I have called ATT and they say that they have fixed the problem that my phone was having.  They had me turn it off, then they said they updated it or something, then turn it back on.  This fixed  the problem for about a week.  Now it is getting worse and worse. 

Thought I'd show that I contacted ATT and the bug didn't go away.

Surprisingly, I got the LG today (a day after the rep talked to me)!  I will start a new thread, if anyone wants to hear about it, I think it will go in the off-topic area. 

Take care my Impression friends! 

I wrote Samsung one last time, with my original comment at the bottom of the quote.  This is my last "dis" of Samsung for this issue, and they don't seem to understand the English language at all!  Unless it's their attempt at sarcasm, but I don't know which:

I still waiting for this fix I find it annoying as hell but, if this bug isn't fixed between now and the time i can get new phone, I wont be buying a samsung phone again, I will probably buy some Android based phone tho

try this and please reply your results after a few days of use: go into the admin settings by dialing *#6984125*#  then the last option is feature settings, then the last option again is DRM master reset, the phone will reboot pretty quickly after clicking this.

I know that doesnt sound like it would be a logical fix, and maybe the full master reset i done had something to do with it, but all i know is i use to have to reboot my phone 4-5 times a day and since i done a master reset then a DRM master reset i havent had a problem with this bug. at least not yet.

k just did that DRM reset...will post back if and when the texting issue occurs again

thanks, cause im really curious. i have 2 other friends that own this phone and i told them to do it as well so ill find out if it worked for them as well.

I've done this before.

I've gone through about 2/3 bill cycles without text bug (I text about 200-600 texts each cycle.)

Well today has been a pretty light texting day for me but i havent hit the bug yet and sent+ received is at 208 right now. usually for me that would be at least 2 phone reboots or so. if it isnt a permanent fix its still a whole lot better then without doing it.

Thanks for the help on this Reamer. I would like to hear more opinions from others with this problem if they put the effort forth to do both resets. You would be a hero to many if this does work.  ;)

k so i did the DRM reset yesterday...my post is a couple above
but just now, I am currently having the text bug...its not sending
gonna restart the fone

guess it didnt work for me

well thats disappointing. it could have (though i dont see how) something to do with the master reset i done before the drm reset. i havent heard about my friends having problems... yet, but i havent had it either since the other day and im not power cycling it at night either.

welll now it would seem my impression has started shutting off for no reason now.... and what exactly does the DRM master reset do? Is like to wipe all my setting/files on the phone or something?

It doesnt wipe any of the settings. DRM stands for digital rights management. Im not 100% what its doing on our phones but I dont see how it could be related to your problem. I wouldn't have posted if i had any problems myself but I told two of my friends that also have this phone and they haven't had problems at all. Including the text bug. My friends didn't do full resets on their devices like i did either. But if it comes down to it you may want to backup your data a try that.

 well i do have the text bug it was ok for while but it seem to be starting to do it alot more frequent lately. And I  have another  8 month before i  due for upgrade and, I don't  really wanna  wind up pay for  new phone full price.  specially seeing i want android based phone

About the only thing i know to try is backup your data and do a full master reset. then use your own discretion for the DRM master reset. like i said my friends didnt do the full master reset but i did and ive been bug free ever since ive done it. cause the first time it happens again im doing the drm master reset again and if it hits after that im switching to another one of my phones but so far its been flawless.

 keeps  us updated on how long you been free of this bug

Its pushing 6 days and still hasn't happened yet. Haven't heard from my friends and I told them the next day after I had done it since it would have normally already happened by then. Even if it happened now and only done it every 6 days it would be nothing compared to what I was going through.

don't the survey results come out to quite a bit over 100%? how can that be accurate?

HUH?!   88 + 8.8 + 3.1 = 99.9 < 100

87.8%+8.8%+3.4%=100%  ;D ;D ;D ;D

yah that drm thing didnt help it went one day before it  bugged up

Have you ever done a hard reset before with the code *2767*3855# ? thats the only other thing i done, but like I've said before, my friends didn't.

NOTE: THIS WILL RESET ALL DATA SO BE SURE TO BACKUP ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS AND FILES AND TYPE IN THE CODE WITHOUT YOUR SIM OR SD CARD IN THE PHONE.

ya i called samsung and the told me to do the same thing so i backup everything and tried gona report back  with status on  bug

Not even 24 hours after I did the master reset and the DRM reset the phone  got hit with the text bug. I guess during the week Im gona call at&t up and see if i can get them to let me change my phone now instead of wait to my upgrade is due, cause this is ridiculous this happening like every 24-48 hours, with the added fun that the phone randomly shuts off  too.

Well, after 10 days I got bit in the ass by the bug. I done the power cycle and now I'm going to see if it'll go another 10 days before hitting again. I'll post back whenever it hits again. Sorry it didn't go longer then a day or 2 for you.

I used to have text bug everyday. Did master reset (for the color scheme thing), then did DRM reset just to see what would happen.

Bug free for about a month or two.  ;D

Guess its just random between person to person. I went 10 days, your going 2 months, and fails for everyone else. haha.

I got the Impression just over a month ago. I wish I had known about this issue beforehand. My phone freezes up when I launch the camera. It freezes for about 30 seconds and then automatically reboots. Then the camera works fine. It has only frozen on me once while texting. It also froze on my once when I launched MediaNet.

So, I took the phone back to AT&T. They gave me a new phone right there in the store, since it was less than 30 days. After a couple of days, the same issues came up with the replacement. I went back to the AT&T store and they told me that since I was past the 30 days since receiving the original phone, I would have to deal with the AT&T Warranty Department. After explaining the problem with them, they were going to send me a refurbished phone. They also told me that since it was past the 30 days, I could not return the phone for a switchout to another model.

Well, I am not a happy camper with AT&T. I have been using the same service for years from when they were Bellsouth Wireless, then Cingular, to AT&T Wireless. I also use them for my internet service.

Time to start rethinking about who I am spending my money on.

Wow. I haven't had any of the problems you are having. But i agree about AT&T. In October when my contract is up I am definitely going with either T-Mobile or Verizon. I'm jumping on the Android boat and to get one through AT&T, you might as well get the iPhone... and I'll be damned if I do that. Haha.

Had the phone since January, used the slide out keyboard, and have had this problem from day one.  Recently began using the virtual keyboard for about a month.  Have ahd to turn it off about 3 times since then, as opposed to the at least 5 times a day with the slide out keyboard.

I will test by going back to the physical keyboard and see what happens.  I fear that the same problem will persist.  Another problem I had with the physical was when a lot of characters were in a text, it began slowing down the display rate and missing characters that id type.  The space button became especially troublesome, randomly not putting any spaces or adding double spaces, making for a confusing text.  The virtual keyboard shows no sign of slowing while typing, and only messes up because I'm not crisp at typing with it yet.

If the same problems persist I'm going to go O_o at why I bought a phone specifically for the slide out keyboard, which I loved barring those few drawbacks, when all I use is the virtual.

Update to follow: Physical keyboard test, commencing.

have been experiencing the same exact problem whalterman.  Would like to hear the results of your testing.

Depending on which keyboard, I don't see how it could change the outcome, but it never crossed my mind cause I've been using the virtual keyboard the whole time. I'm use to the Eternity so it was natural for me to use it with the Impression. You maybe onto something with this.

I use the physical keyboard amost 100% of the time.
I get the text bug every couple of weeks.
Hmmm....

And I never used the physical keyboard to text message. Always the touch screen.

To those that may be curious to which keyboard I use (virtual or physical)...I use the physical keyboard.

And like I said before:

I use the physical pad mostly I randomly use the touch screen depend on how lazy I am.

Out of curiosity I wonder how many people have the impression unlocked, cause I couldn't get at&t to let me upgrade my phone with out paying full price for new phone, I just unlocked my phone and since then  phone been bug free but then maybe it just in my mind that that fixed it, but then since then i also added  and removed games from my phone too.


As for firmware updates for the phone there they are handled by the New PC Studio from Samsung. and If when you go to upgrade the firmware the server wont connect it, just means there is no firmware update. Which is what i found out when AT&T told me to do this thinking there was firmware update and digging around on the web

Either way I going android once it upgrade time, anyone know if the Samsung captive has limit on ring tone sizes?

I have an unlocked Samsung Impression. Told them I was going overseas for business trip.

talked to warranty again today to see if i could switch to the new vu.  They had me do the reset settings from the settings menu, and wait to see if anything happens.  Thats a different approach since the last time I talked to them so maybe they are trying something new...or just running me in circles :-\ 

(http://www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/farnsworth.jpg)

Good news everyone!

I've been suffering with the text bug for over four months, since I got the phone. Every day, at least 3 times, ranging up to 7. It was honestly burdening my everyday life. And yesterday, I believe I've fixed this specific bug. By unlocking the phone. I haven't had the problem since.

Contact AT&T and tell them you're going overseas and that you need your unlock code. They'll give you a 7-9 digit code, and some bullshit on how you need to put a new sim card in for overseas, etc. Write down that code and forget everything else they tell you. Go on your Impression, go to Dial, and type in:

#7465625*638*YOUR UNLOCK CODE HERE#

Your Impression will then prompt it's been unlocked, and bam, no more bug!  ;D

Maybe it is a coincidence. I unlocked my phone 3 days after I got it, and had text bug almost everyday since I got unlimited texting 'till about a month or two ago.

yah that is why I asked if people phones were unlocked or not, Cause ever since I unlocked my phone 3 weeks again I have not had the problem. Im hoping this is what fixed it, that or is has something to do with the fact I been using the touch screen to txt lately as opposed to  the keypad.  Either way I been free of the bug since I did the unlock so I hoping it gone

I have my phone unlocked and I rarely get the text bug. I can't tell for sure because I don't text as much as I used to but it's safe to say I haven't had the text bug for a while.

Yeah, this was completely pointless.  They sent me another "fixed phone that doesn't have this problem." I may see how many I can exchange between now and January 7th when my warrenty ends. I'm on number 3 now.  ;D

So has anybody else tried calling AT&T and telling them to unlock the phone? Encouraging that both of you have had good results but before I call them I'd like to hear some more input from other people on here.

I called 611 and got the unlock code, my phone is now unlocked.

This is just be but since day one of getting my impression Ive had the text bug. and i had to turn off my phone and restart it about 3 times a day. i go back to the AT&T store where i live and i get the same phone brand new like i did before and the same thing happened again. Ive tried taking out my battery and turning my phone off and then back on but nothing works, not for me at least.

I've had to turn my phone off and on more times than I can count! I also had my phone replaced 3 times within the warrenty period which was useless. Will try the unlock code next. This is such a terrible bug of the phone/service that it really makes you rethink your decision to get it. Otherwise I love this phone, especially the keyboard since I text a lot.

I've been struggling with this problem for over a year since I got the phone. I called today for the unlock code and unlocked my phone. I will let you guys know the outcome in a day or so because I always have to restart my phone 3-6 times a day already.

i unlocked my phone almost immediately after i got it and i still have the texting bug atleast once or twice a day...

      Ok so i have the texting bug :'(, ive owned this phone for over a year and im a heavy texter, and lately it seems like i restart my phone over 10 times a day and im very fed up with it, to the point of wanting to smash my phone with a hammer. There has been no serious damage to my phone, ive only droped it once or twice, but that seemed to not effect anything. ive had this problem since day one, but at that time i was restarting it once every 4 days or so and thought nothing of it. At my house i average at about 4 bars, and always have 3g coverage. i dont have a data plan. i have not contacted At&t with my problem yet.

    My phone is a refurb. Im almost positive that it does not have to do with the number of texts on your phone, because i delete all Inbox, sent, outbox, and drafts once an hour to help reduce my phone from freezing, it does not seem to help however. also when i send the message and lock it the screen stays lit for an extended period of time and the arrow pointing to the lock button does not move like it usually does. When it freezes i cannot send any messages to anyone, and lags really terribly. Also it does not allow me to delete the message i was sending or any other message. Occasionally when it freezes it will scroll down to the bottom of the screen but not bounce back like it usually does it will just show the white background. There is no specific time that this happens, it happens at completly random times. Ive toyed around in the internals, but havent tried anything serious because im afraid ill brick it.

Ive read this entire thread, does anyone know of a permanant fix? im about to just spend the money and get a new phone becuase i still have another year to go before an upgrade.


here is my phones info
Im located in Oklahoma if that helps you figure out if its in only in specific locations
software version: A877UCID3
sim card # 4104
Need anything other info?

I have the exact same problem but worse, mine freezes and i will only have about 15 messages in my inbox, and about 15 in my outbox so a total of 30 text in my phone, and it still freezes and the text are very short and simple, nothing big that takes up alot of space. Have and solutions been found, or any efforts towards fixing this issues because im about to change to a new phone company because i feel at&t should be handling this issue and they have just been running me in circles, and im not happy about it.

Unlocking my phone did not work. I still have the problem.

As previously stated, I continue to experience this problem and find this entire situation to be absurd.  We paid good money for these phones, with the expectation that they would work correctly.  If the manufacturers and carriers are going to hold the consumers to these multi year contracts, they should at least be held accountable for the quality of the product they are selling.  In this case it sounds like Samsung just doesn't want to deal with an issue on (what they probably consider) and "older" phone.  I'm not eligible for an upgrade until February, and was strongly considering the new Samsung Captivate (Droid!) as a replacement.  I'm having second thoughts now, as my confidence in Samsung has significantly waned.  Too bad....

Great. Just great  :-\

oki yah unlocking the phone was what stopped the bug it was that i was using the touch screen  98% time lately that stopped it soon as i started using the keypad its stated happen frequent again., really shitty bug that niether AT&T or Samsung want to own up to.

Wait...so you experience more text bugs when you use the touch keyboard or when you use the actual, physical slide-out keyboard?

Here's a summary of my problem (so far):

Have the text bug, use physical keyboard, unlocked.

Didn't have text bug for two months...but got the dang bug last night!

At least we can get a refurb when ever we want for the first year :)