How to Reflash Your Motorola Device

Comment

Comment by Dan Champion on September 22, 2011 at 2:25pm

Scott,

  Yes I believe you are correct. When we had all our phones through Sprint, they had a 3 day turn around in house plus shipping. Still took two weeks, we gave all those back to sprint and purchased all new phones through another party and they have a 10 day now.  I think that Motorola has different plans for different providers. So, good thing I keep 4 exra phones.

Dan

Comment by Scott Pickles on September 22, 2011 at 1:14pm

Dan -

Is it possible that the turn around time is dependent upon your level of service agreement (i.e. bronze/silver/gold)?

Regards,
Scott

Comment by Dan Champion on September 22, 2011 at 7:40am

 

07/08/2011       RMA requested and product shipped out ---

07/28/2011  The following products have been shipped from our repair facility on

08/06/2011   Back in our hands.

 

One product, that wouldn't reboot.  They don't tell you if you needed new parts, so I just assumed they were reflashing them.

  When I had the sprint version of the phone it had a warranty with a 3 day turn around guaranty,  These however do not. I think it is 10days.  

 

Yep just verified that on the Motorola site. Turnaround time: 10 BUSINESS DAYS; does not include shipping time to/from Service Center.

Thank you for your comments and good instruction, I will definately call Karla  when the next phone comes in.  :)

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

 

Comment by Scott Pickles on September 21, 2011 at 4:11pm

Dan - 

Have you been able to gain any visibility into why your devices are out for a month at a time?  They shouldn't be gone more than 1.5 to 2 weeks unless parts are on backorder, or if they are waiting for several units to make it through the repair process and ship them back all at once.  While reflashing does bring with it the requirement of having to reinstall software, VPN Systems is currently investigating whether or not custom imaging similar to 'slipstreaming' in the Windows world is possible.  Perhaps we could create a reflash image that already carries with it installed software, requiring that a customer simply activate the phone and data plan, pair a printer, and you're back in business.  I'll keep you posted as we make progress in that regard.  As for the device repairs, I know it's hard to swallow, but Motorola is offering products that are on the cutting edge of technology and development as it pertains to mobile devices in the enterprise environment.  They partner with other hardware providers for components, much like the car industry.  So it's difficult to keep pace with the requirements for each of the sub-components.  I can tell you that the much anticipated OS releases for the ES400 and MC65 platforms will bring better performance and stability from a software perspective.  This in turn should result in not taxing the hardware as much.  You are wise to keep the spares on hand, and if there is anything we can do to assist with troubleshooting before sending it off to service, be sure an let us know.  Some resources for you and your team:

 

585-624-8365, option 2 - Call technical support and have Karla open a ticket for you (currently M-F 8-5 EST).

support@vpnsystems.com - Email technical support.

http://www.youtube.com/user/VantagePointNetworks - Another repository of the mobile computer videos that SK2 has posted.

 

Regards,
Scott 

Comment by Dan Champion on September 21, 2011 at 3:16pm

Scott,  

Thank you for the great answer. I am suffering from having to own and pay monthly subscription rates for 4 xtra devices just to keep my fleet running, and at any given moment, I have 2-3 out to motorola for repairs. They always come back flashed and reset, so if doing this would save me from having to wait the full month turn around on these phones, that would be great.

  Our normal symptoms are any of the following. 

Won't stay running,

rebooting intermittantly during the dayon its own,

wont reboot at all or power back up,

locking up,

display problem,

cycling through screens as if someone is making choices.

 

Each of these ended up with an RMA and a fix, but the turn around time is bad... almost a full month.

I would love it if this reflashing would be the way to at least try before sending it away for a month. They always come back reflahed anyways.

 

Comment by Scott Pickles on September 21, 2011 at 12:53pm

Dan - 

 

Reflashing a device is often a resolution to some of the glitches that you refer to, but I always try and exhaust all other steps prior to reflashing a device.  By simply reflashing it, we often times resolve the problem, but at the same time we lose any symptoms and/or diagnostic information that might point to what caused the issue in the first place.  It is also often times considered the dividing line between a software issue and a hardware issue.  If you were to relfash a device and the symptoms don't go away, it is then more likely to be attributed to hardware in which case an RMA is necessary.  A couple of examples that I have seen recently are devices that do not successfully calibrate their screen, and some Verizon customers that get an error message stating that their username and password are incorrect when making a data connection.  The reason why the latter is specific to Verizon is the fact that Verizon has no requirement for a username or password to make the data connection, unlike AT&T and T-Mobile.  I suspected that the hardware (i.e. cellular radio) was defective and that it was sending mal-formed tcp/ip packets out, and as a result Verizon's system was responding with that error message.  The device in question was confirmed to have been defective, as the RMA resulted in replacing the cellular radio card.  As you pointed out, there is a new version of the OS that is due out at the end of this month.  However, due to the fact that upgrading the OS wipes the device clean, we're going to proceed with caution and in a controlled manner with any such updates.

 

Regards,
Scott 

Comment by Dan Champion on September 21, 2011 at 8:06am

Is this a necessary step, or is this to solve certian problems.  I had heard Motorola had a new version of the es400 software that was coming out in the fall that took care of some of the glitches that we were having with the phones. Is this the answer to that?  Thanks for posting this.