Chinese Phone DOA

[WillyHeckaslike]

Two days on charge and zilch! So I took the plunge and carefully and nerve-wrackingly opened up the phone.

I was expecting something to give and crack but I took my time probing and prising here and there using plastic (and only plastic) spatulas that I bought for the job. I also had to buy an intricate screwdriver kit for this type of work with the right bit for the two minuscule screws which have to be removed before prising can begin. The combined cost of the tools I think came to around and possibly a bit less than £5. A sigh of relief was breathed when I eventually managed to separate the back of the phone from the main body and screen without any damage but I still had a feeling that my luck was out with this phone and that even a new battery would not cure its woes. But before buying a new battery it made sense to first try to revive the original and this is a two-stage process if you approach it right. Yes, flashing it with a 9-volt battery is one of the options but that in itself is not without risk of underlying if not immediate damage to the phone's battery which is less than half of that flashing voltage as is the same with most if not all current smart phones - mine is 3.85V. So before attempting to go down that route the safest and therefore the best and first option is to try ye olde Rover battery reset trick. That is simply to disconnect the battery and then reconnect it again after waiting a few seconds or a bit longer if need be. That is what I did and????

EUREKA!

It sprung into life and it is on charge now but I will wait until it is fully charged before I clip the phone back together again. Thanks for all of your posts and support with this and hope this might be of help to anyone who faces this type of problem in future.

Edit: This post was not intended as a "how to" but just in case it is used for reference to open this type of phone it might be worth adding that the sim card tray must be removed before prising begins and try to avoid prising at any weak spots in the back cover where there are cutouts for buttons and connectors etc..

[Dallas]

Yay! well done.

[The Rovering Member]

I bought an Umidigi Z2 Pro earlier in the year. It seemed a nice phone & worked fine for a few weeks when all of a sudden the microphone stopped working so l could hear whoever was on the other end of a call but they couldn't hear me. That is still the situation so for calls l've returned to my old phone which normally has to be on charge permanently which was the reason for the new phone. I'm still running the Umidigi on a new SIM I got on a deal with 100 gig of data, a bit overkill but better too much than too little but as l still hadn't given up my old contract l can still run the two phones, the new phone was running both until the mic' went AWOL. I much prefer the new phone for surfing the net & use it for that at present though the screen is pretty sensitive & the other day as l moved my finger a list dropped down & before it disappeared just as quickly, l caught one line which said the mike was blocked. I haven't been able to retrieve that particular list in settings or anywhere else & am now unsure whether it's a fault or a function l may have inadvertently activated. The Google assistant will not respond either. Videos/YouTube is still audible though another fault is the small lead you use to connect a jack to the phone via the charge socket (no inbuilt jack socket) appears to have packed up too, unless that's the phone as well. I have no way of testing it as the socket is different to our other phones.
There isn't much on the net but microphone problems do seem to be a thing with these phones and there seems to be a download you can use but it sounds very technical & dicey, l've seen reference to bricking your phone. A factory reset is an option of course.
I bought it via Amazon but haven't done anything yet as l'm also wondering about the wisdom of sending it away & having no money & no phone. I'm not sure where Amazon stand in this situation, whether as a retailer or a selling platform. I do like the phone though the camera quality doesn't appear to be as good as the reviews would have you believe. It's well within warranty & l'm not losing any sleep over it but l need to address it sooner rather than later.

[Nick Greg]

Bought a Ulephone Power 2, 2 years ago. £145. Battery lasts forever and does everything the old Samsung did. Okay camera not quite as good but seriously £149 against probably £450 plus or more for a Samsung? No brainer for me. Some of these budget phones are just fine for everyday use.

[WillyHeckaslike]

Some say that every cloud has a silver lining which when it happens I guess could be summed up in one word as serendipity. Although I'm fairly new to buying mobile phones from China I quickly realized that the UK market is not always properly catered for in the charger department. In fact not one of my 3 phone purchases has come with a 3-pin charger for the wall sockets we use here in the UK. Two came with European 2-pin chargers which would be useless without a 2 to 3 pin adapter and the listings for those two phones did not have a UK option to select for the type of charger. The one purchase that did have a UK option for the charger was the stolen Blackview P2 but guess what? The UK option when it arrived was simply a 2-pin charger supplied with a 2 to 3 pin adapter lol. A bit of a work around and a compromise at best.

It would be much better to have a 3-pin charger which is less cumbersome and easier to use and fits flusher to the wall socket with a firmer connection. And you can acquire such a charger here in the UK which is fairly generic for many current mobile phones. Old Tightus was quite impressed when I returned from Poundland with a 3-pin charger sporting 2 usb charging ports. Click

After asking where I bought it he asked how much ... and he nearly fell of his chair when I told him.

Disclaimer! This charger is rated at 5V 2.1A. It is fine for the mobile phones that I will use it with and many others but maybe not all. So please check your charger specs for suitability before buying and using.

[Lancpudn]

Good news about the phone springing back into life.



Speaking of mobile phones the chap across the back was telling me this morning that he sold his phone on Wednesday on that Shpock site to a chap for £200.


He came & paid him the £200 in cash & left. when he went to put it in the bank the following day they said every £20 note was counterfeit
He's not a happy chappy.

[WillyHeckaslike]

Originally Posted by The Rovering Member

I bought an Umidigi Z2 Pro earlier in the year. It seemed a nice phone & worked fine for a few weeks when all of a sudden the microphone stopped working so l could hear whoever was on the other end of a call but they couldn't hear me.

My gut feeling is that you might have inadvertently activated this function. You can mute the mic on my phone too but only when a call is in progress, the option only appears on screen at this time. So the next time you have a call in progress have a look at your screen to see if a mic symbol is showing and if it is try touching it to change its function.

Originally Posted by Nick Greg

Bought a Ulephone Power 2, 2 years ago. £145. Battery lasts forever.

I've had many rechargeable batteries fail over the years but I too have had one for years which seems to break the mold. It powers a Pifco torch which still has the original filament bulb and I think we bought it over 3 decades ago in the 80s. It won't have been that cheap then either and it rarely gets used but no matter how long it is left discharged and abandoned it has never failed to recharge and give service when needed.

Originally Posted by Lancpudn

Speaking of mobile phones the chap across the back was telling me this morning that he sold his phone on Wednesday on that Shpock site to a chap for £200. He came & paid him the £200 in cash & left. when he went to put it in the bank the following day they said every £20 note was counterfeit He's not a happy chappy.

You highlight a situation which could help others who might be thinking of selling a mobile phone Ian. In effect it could be said that the phone has been stolen and it is possible to get such a phone blocked if its IMEI number (or numbers where there are more than one as tends to be the case in modern multi-sim phones) is known. So when selling a phone it is advisable to keep copies of its IMEI's in case of this type of event or problem and perhaps your neighbour might still have this as an option if you mention it to him.

[The Rovering Member]

Unfortunately the call mute isn't the problem.
l wish it was.