topic Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this? in Android

Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 13:19:01 GMT

I received my Galaxy S4 on 27th April.

Two weeks ago all in call sound went. Movies, games and music worked fine but I cant hear caller and caller cant hear me.

I checked volume (d'oh), reset the phone, factory reset the phone and reflashed stock firmware. Still didnt work.

I sent the phone back to O2 and it was repaired (by Chris apparently). I was informed of the repair steps and the phone was back to me working within the week.

I checked it and everything was fine. Re-installed my Apps and everything was fine for a week or so.

Now the same thing has happened. No sound in call but fine everywhere else.

I've logged it with O2 again and its going back in to be repaired.

I'm not a phone noob and but I've not flashed or rooted or dropped this one! I've kept it on stock and have searched the internet and forums but cant find any solutions (so far just reboot / WCDMA only / Noise Reduction Off).

I cant believe I am the only one experiencing this and why wasnt it fixed first time?

O2 have been pretty good to be fair but if this repair doesnt resolve it I will expect a new phone not a third repair!

Any thoughts?

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Bambino — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 13:47:55 GMT

If you say that everything was fine for a week or so, then it obviously had been repaired, but as the fault has reappeared. I don't think you can blame O2 for that. I believe you have to give O2 three repair chances before you can ask for a replacement.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 08:53:11 GMT

I guess if you consider repairing it by replacing a faulty part with another faulty part then yes it was repaired.

I'm not unreasonable but I do use my phone an awful lot and I cant be the only person experiencing this problem on the S4.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

perksie — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 12:44:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I guess if you consider repairing it by replacing a faulty part with another faulty part then yes it was repaired.

I can't believe you think they would have fitted a part knowing it would fail, these things happen.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:37:10 GMT

I dont believe that they knowing replaced it with a faulty part.

What I mean is that whatever the fault was with the original part in manufacture was also present in the replaced part. Unless a different part was the reason for that faulty parts failure.

Put it this way. The second time the fault happened I did what O2 said they would do. Reset phone, Factory Reset, Flash Stock.

When I went to Factory Reset I got the Android error "No Command"

Surely if it had been flashed (as I was informed it was) this would have been noticed.

I am not a trained O2 technician and I spotted this. This says to me that it wasnt tested thoroughly before dispatch.

I like O2 and they did a good job the first time round, albeit the fault rearing its head again, but its extremely frustrating to have to resort to a backup phone and having to setup my phone again within a matter of days.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:51:50 GMT

Okay, I am going to assume that when you put it onto loudspeaker you can hear the caller and they can hear you? have you tried this?

Go to SETTINGS, then ACCESSIBILITY, scroll down to HEARING and make sure "Turn off all sounds" is UNCHECKED. See if this helps.

Now...something that "might" work! Get the headphones that came with the phone and plug them into the phone. Make a call, you should be able to hear the other person and vice versa. End the call and remove the headphones. Now try making a call normally. Does it work?

I believe this was a problem on the SG3 so it wouldnt surprise me if the same problem has arisen on the SG4

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:55:25 GMT

have you tried the good old Samsung sensor test to see if the mic and earpiece are working?

Step 1) Press your phone icon like you’re about to make a call

Step 2) On the keypad press *#0*#

The phone will now run through a series of tests including testing the earpiece and mic (I believe). This should rule out if its a hardware issue or not!

Oh...when the problem is occuring, does a battery pull resolve the problem?

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 09:06:55 GMT

Thanks for the help and suggestion PapaDug.

- I've checked accessibility settings to no avail.

- The in call mic doesnt work whether its in Normal, Speaker or Headphones mode

- The *#0*# you suggested brings up a screen of buttons and the receiver button and speaker buttons both make appropriate sounds. There isnt a mic button and it doesnt run through tests. You have to click them.

Finally, no a battery pull doesnt solve the issue.

If it had been a setting on the phone I would have expected to have been told this by O2 rather than them saying they "fixed" it.

Thank you for your help, but I think its going back for a HW fix.

😞

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 09:18:15 GMT

Ah well, it was worth a try!

It sounds as though its definitley another hardware error then Possibly the motherboard.

Its now going to have to be down to you to either allow O2 to repair the phone again or stand your ground and ask for a new phone.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 10:40:58 GMT

"Ah well, it was worth a try!"

and was much appreciated.

Its going back tomorrow morning... but not sure I'll be patient enough should a third repair be necessary.

Other than Kies ... can anyone recommend a decent app (and app data) backup?

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:53:56 GMT

Okay so the phone went back to o2.

Got a call from the technician saying No Fault Found. I explained what the problem was and he went away, flashed the phone and returned it. Exactly what I've done both times.

So I've had the phone back a week or so and havent installed anything related to calls or the speakers. Guess what ..... The in call volume has gone again.

This is the third time.

I've just been on O2 chat to Sagar and he suggested buying an O2 Pay as You Go phone.

PARDON! I'm on a 2 year contract spending over £50 a month and this is the best advice they've got!

Can anyone on hear please suggest how I escalate this as I am really not happy with O2's customer service or technical aptitude.

Each time the in call volume goes, it goes in for repair. They find nothing wrong, even though I've proved the issue in store. They flash the firmware and nothing else (allegedly) and it works again ... for a week.

This is a £500+ device and this wouldnt be acceptable for a TV or Car .....

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

perksie — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:11:59 GMT

I understand that after a third repair for the same issue they will offer you a replacement phone.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

jonsie — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:14:42 GMT

You might want to make an official complaint to the independent complaint review service here:

O2 | Complaint

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:18:34 GMT

"I understand that after a third repair for the same issue they will offer you a replacement phone."

Even though they stated No Fault Found (even though I proved there was a fault?).

"You might want to make an official complaint to the independent complaint review service here:

O2 | Complaint"

Thanks for the link ... I may well do that.

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 10:40:43 GMT

I've had the same issue too.

I just got my phone back from Samsung yesterday after them taking two weeks to fix it. And guess what. The same fault has occured again less than 12 hours after I got it back. Now I have to send it in for repair again. That's going to be a whole month with no phone. 😞

Did you get yours fixed in the end?

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:42:25 GMT

I'm going to revive an old topic to speak in-depth about this issue. I've scoured the web to find an answer to this problem and not many people seem to have one solution. People seem to have one of two underlying faults.

The first fault is relative to the headphones being plugged in (the headphones icon shows at the top of the phone when they're not plugged in) and this can be worked around simply by using the app SoundAbout. If this is your issue download the app and follow the instructions in the SoundAbout forums to overcome this. They also do a widget to help toggle your headphones.

The second fault (the one I'm faced with) is a little bit of an unknown and seemingly a software/network fault. Having spoken with David at SoundAbout, he has said that this issue occurs on both Verizon and Sprint networks, but can be worked around in the mobile networks menu or going through various prompts from the providers to update the phones to accept communication from the cell towers to solve the sound issue.

Now, I have not seen anything from O2 detailing this issue and frustratingly one of the simple fixes that came in the form of old firmware on the S4 was to switch to WCDMA, but the latest firmware doesn't have this option, and switching to 2G only doesn't do anything either. The question I have is, does anyone know anything that I don't to solve this problem?

Also, before anyone asks. My speaker and headphones work fine, my earpiece also works when doing the #*0*# debug mode, so to me this seems as if this isn't a hardware fault, so there MUST be a way to solve it, I just want to know how?

Re: Galaxy S4 - In Call Sound gone. Anyone experiencing this?

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 11:58:50 GMT

Reviving your revived topic haha.

Have you managed to find out a solution for the problem? I've been looking everywhere on the net for answers but having no luck. Some say it could be apps eg. WeChat/Viber causing this software glitch. I don't want to send the phone off to Samsung for repair and be told they can't reproduce the problem

Thanks!