HTC Titan II drops cellular data connection randomly

[DrDon995]

Unpredictably, my brand-new HTC Titan 2 will drop it's data-thru-cellular connection. Only ways to get it back are to reboot the phone, or cycle Airplane Mode on, then off.  Luckily, I can switch on WiFi at home and it'll do it's data stuff that way. But when I'm away from WiFi (whether I have WiFi on or off) it just randomly loses the data connection and won't get it back.

Phone calls and text messages are unaffected. 

[undisputed n00b]

Does it completely lose cellular data or do you drop down to a lower cellular data connection? I have a Nokia lumia 900 and I drop down to "4g" from LTE constantly and the only way to get back LTE is to turn airplane mode on and then off or restart my phone.

[DrDon995]

It loses it completely. Anything that requires a data connection.. from the browser to the HTC Hub.. throws up an error message saying its unable to connect. 

Yesterday was strange. It lost the connection just about every ten minutes until around 2pm. It stayed connected from then until just a few minutes ago (5:30AM). 

But, no, it dumps completely except for phone and text messaging. Rebooting the phone or cycling Airplane Mode is the only way to get it back.  I'd pull the battery, but it's hard to get to. Reseated the SIM card, too.

Side note.. odd that the phone came with a pre-installed micro SIM card. Had to fish that out of there and take the phone back to get a regular SIM. 

[jyarnold]

I have same issue.  Typically every 10-20 minutes I lose data and need to cycle radio and I went thru THREE Titan lls and all the same issue!!!  I filed a case with HTC but they are not admitting anything, claim they are testing and it's been nearly two months.  ATT will need to give me a new phone as I work from phone and as much as I love the Titan II I can't rely on it.  Please file a case with HTC about this

[DrDon995]

Guess there's no need in getting another phone, then. Sad. 

FWIW, I did try a factory reset and that held for about 6 hours, then it was back to every 10-to-20 minutes.

[maurobecerra]

Does your has a gps position inakron, OH when you are indoors?

[DrDon995]

Tried a new SIM card, yesterday. Same issue. 

Looking to see if AT&T isn't doing some sort of upgrade work. The phone does not seem to lose its cell data connection overnight. 

[lantern20]

Same problem for me.  It shows I have 2-3 bars of 4G, but no data connection.  Cycle airplane mode it will reconnect and be good for a few mins.  Usually have to do it a few time until a good data connection is maintained.

[DrDon995]

Curious if this is local or widespread. I'm in metro Detroit..

[lantern20]

Philly suburbs

[DrDon995]

There goes THAT theory. 

[Auburngrads]

Same thing in Dayton OH 

[DrDon995]

Replacement unit is on the way. That'll tell us SOMEthing. 

[aside96]

*SIGH*  I'm also having the data drop and the Akron OH issues...

It's gotta be AT&T's service, rather than the phone... I started with a Lumia 900, had the random connection drop problem,did the firmware fix with no change, so I turned it in for a replacement Lumia... but the second one was still getting the random connection drop (kind of a pain to discover that you haven't been receiving email or txts for an unknown duration). So I returned the second Lumia to the AT&T store and got an HTC Titan II... I hadn't left the parking lot when I discovered that the Search hotspot on the phone doesn't reliably respond. But when I walked back in the store reps started grumbling about how maybe it was me, what with this being my third device, and that they weren't sure I could turn one in again... so I should just work with it. And now it frequently says it can't run some app or another because there's no connection. Most recently, it insists that I'm in Akron OH when I try to use Maps.

[DrDon995]

TRY THIS: 

Go to Marketplace under the HTC tab and search for HTC Connection Setup. It's free. Install it and run it. It will find your provider and your phone. If they're properly listed, hit "Continue" and let it do whatever it does. In a few seconds, it says "connection setup has configured your phone for AT&T. 

I did it 7 hours ago and it hasn't dropped the cellular internet yet.  Just the same, if you want to hold off and see how I do, I WILL report back. Right now, it's lasted longer than any time period except right after I restored to factory. That night, it went 14 hours without losing it. 

Any change I'll post. Fingers crossed. 

[DrDon995]

Now past 24 hours and counting with no cellular data drops. Even drove around, last night, to make sure I was changing cell towers. Always made it fail, before. 

[DrDon995]

Aaaannnnd.... it's dropped it. Lasted about 40 hours.  Not bad. But not it.

[JM64]

Had the same issue with mine, sent it in to HTC, they repaced the main board, waiting for it to arrive back to test.

[McHale72]

This "issue" is an AT&T "feature" and how they handle calls and data.  Without fail, anytime I get on a phone call, my phone goes from 4G (in reality it's 3G-HSDPA but AT&T has all displays showing 4G now...whatever) to G or Edge.  I've had this issue with every smartphone I've ever owned and I usually buy 2 a year.  Your phone is fine, the network is not.

[DrDon995]

Tend to agree.

On my second Titan II and it also drops cell data, though not as frequently.

BUT.. this one just randomly reboots and gets stuck on the "Rethink Possible" screen about every third reboot. Very hard to get it out of that. Three minutes of holding the power button seems to do it. 

Have not installed Connection Setup on this one, yet. Giving it a few days before IT goes back, too. 

[DrDon995]

Well, the replacement phone bricked. The random reboots got more and more frequent. Now, it freezes at the "Rethink Possible" screen. About 1 out of 10 tries I can get it to boot all the way up, but it'll reboot itself, again, before I can do much of anything else. I keep trying to factory reset it, but it won't stay up long enough for me to get to the screen that does that. 

I had the prior Titan 2 all boxed up ready to send back. Good thing I didn't. Dug it out and set it up, again. 

Now here's the interesting part.

I'm in FL for a couple days and my first Titan II is working flawlessly. No cellular data drops of any kind. So far. It even falls back to LTE and back to 4G.  In Detroit, that guarantees data failure. Not here. 

If it starts dropping once I'm back in Detroit, I think we'll have our answer.

[McHale72]

Take the sim out then power it up.  When it's powered up, put the phone in airplane mode.  Now power it off, put the sim in, power it back up.  Now take it out of airplane more.

Welcome to my world with the HTC Surround *AND* HTC Titan.

My next phone will be a Nokia.

[DrDon995]

Wow. How DID you figure that one out?

Will do once I'm back in Michigan. In FL, I'm having no issues on the first II. The replacement bricked (as outlined above) and is headed back.

Much thanks

[McHale72]

With my surround.  

It will reboot when in poor coverage areas and get stuck in a boot loop.  Before throwing it up against a wall, I pulled the SIM out and popped it into another phone.  I then powered the Surround back up with no SIM and it came right up.  But when I put the SIM back in, boot loop.  I then figured out I could boot it up when Airplane mode was turned on with the SIM in.  

So, that will get you through the issue.  Once you know the trick, it's not a big deal.  But again, my last HTC units were my Titan and Jetstream.  I will not be buying another HTC unit ever and that is hard to say when I bought several HTC devices a year since the original HTC Canary. So I'm really rooting for Nokia now.

Good luck!

-Mc

[DrDon995]

A whole week in Florida and my original Titan II didn't hiccup once. Up 24/7 and being used as a WiFi hotspot unless I was traveling. (Which, by the way, is a helluva feature. It's fast enough to stream HD movies to a Smart TV)

(the replacement phone they sent me has been shipped back, totally bricked)

Anyway, no sooner had I landed in Detroit than it started losing its cellular data connection, again. 3 times, so far.

Am currently applying McHale72's fix to see if THAT helps.

But it's apparently something that's different in Detroit's 4g implementation from Tampa Bay's.  

[McHale72]

To throw this out there, if my HTC Surround is in a couple specific places in my house (lower level, office) the phone will reboot almost like clockwork. Has NO problem any other place in the house or outside. I suspect it's an issue with the poor signal strength.

-Mc

[DrDon995]

Do note this is a different issue. The HTC Titan II is dropping its cellular data connection, regardless of signal strength or tower proximity. The phone sits on my desk with all 5 bars lit. Right now, I can pick it up, hit the browser and surf the web. In ten minutes, it will have lost that ability, requiring Airplane Mode to be cycled on then off. The phone does not reboot. (the replacement did, but that's another issue). 

Again, my phone does not reboot. Phone and text functions remain active. Cellular DATA disappears requiring the cellular radio to be cycled. 

[DrDon995]

McHale72's fix doesn't work for the data-dropping issue. 

Now that I'm back in Detroit, the HTC Titan II drops its cellular data connection just as it did before. Random intervals, always requiring a cycling of Airplane Mode.

Interesting that this happens in Detroit but not in Tampa. 

[McHale72]

It's not supposed to fix the dropping connection problem.  I have that issue with every phone I have (I cycle between about 6 phones currently in the Chicago-land area).  It's AT&T's crappy network.  The Airplane Mode is to get you out of a boot loop only.  Sorry if I didn't clarify.

[DrDon995]

Sorry I wasn't clear. You were. I just thought I'd try it to see if it rectified this problem as well. 

Not sure "crappy network" is really at fault as the phone performed flawlessly.. even beyond expectations in Florida. And my wife's 4G phone has zero issues here in Detroit. Just something quirky somewhere that only affects the HTC in certain towns. The trouble is figuring out if the issue is with the handset, the network or Windows.