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Tech Support: Plug in the Peek, stop getting e-mails?

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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009 edited
     
    My wife headed to the store this morning and since her Peeks battery was running low she took mine. I plugged hers in to charge and it seems that doing that caused hers to stop receiving messages. She had just received an e-mail at 8:43 this morning and nothing afterwards. When she got home she said she had sent a few messages asking about things we needed from the store. I didn't receive any of those so I unplugged her Peek, rebooted it and the messages came in. The first message she had sent was at 9:14am when she got to the store. So, there were no messages received between 8:43 and 9:14 (the same time that her Peek was plugged in to charge). Is this a known bug? Is it a coincidence? If it is a bug, how do we fix it? Seems every time we need to use our Peeks to talk back and forth something goes wrong and one of them needs to be reset to start receiving messages again (although at the time we have no idea that something is wrong so if it is an important message it could be hours before we find out about it). Kind of defeats the purpose behind using these to communicate.
    • CommentAuthoratvk55
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    half the things out there don't work, when they're plug for charging.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    Everything I've got works when being charged so I don't think that is a standard practice for electronic devices of this nature. Also, if that is in fact the case for the Peek, then it should be stated somewhere.
    • CommentAuthoratvk55
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    yep!
    • CommentAuthoraustinm3
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    I still get emails just fine when my Peek is plugged in.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    Mine, for the most part, works while plugged in as well. I'm just trying to find some reason for why when me and my wife actually need to really get ahold of each other, one of our Peeks has an issue that requires them to be rebooted. If there were some way of popping a message up on the offending Peek that said, "I've got a problem, reboot me!" I wouldn't be as bothered. But when you have someone sending you a time sensitive e-mail ("I'm ready to be picked up", "I'm at the store, do we need any...", "Should I cut the red or blue wire?") and you don't receive it until you reboot (although you have no indication that they sent you an e-mail or that there is a problem) it gets a bit annoying. The "I plugged in the Peek and it stopped" was one idea I had as to why this might be happening, so I thought I would ask.
    • CommentAuthoratvk55
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    what ver of software do you have?
    sometimes its best to stick with old then new.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    1.09.15
    • CommentAuthorbradn
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    @Eric when I plug mine in (back in the laundry room) I don't get a very good signal there. It may be not getting good signal there .. so until you move it out of that spot it doesn't get any mail? Just a thought, how is the signal when it's plugged in?
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    I wish that were it brad but my signal is great throughout my house.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     
    Any ideas from the people who actually work for Peek?
    • CommentAuthoratvk55
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     
    hey guys, i emailed and text my daughter while i was in the schools parking lot-no answer-went to her class room and the moment we step out of her class room the red X was replaced by the green antenna. being in the wrong place is not going to work.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     
    Yeah, if I didn't have a signal, I wouldn't expect to receive e-mails (same as a phone not getting a call if there is no signal). Both of our Peeks show full signal strength in my house.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009 edited
     
    Happened again... Plugged mine in last night before bed and got up this morning and noticed no e-mails after 3:13am last night. I knew something was wrong since I have the Facebook update app and I should have had several updates between then and now.

    Wife was headed to the store so we started our now common ritual of: Send each other a test message.... wait.... no message received... recycle power.... wait.... wait some more while 50 messages come in as it catches up from where it last stopped receiving messages (which in my wifes case was 2 days ago)... get frustrated beyond belief and discuss tossing them in the trash and going back to our cell phones... wife leaves for the store not knowing if hers is actually working yet as mine continues to flash/vibrate/sing about the rest of the e-mails come in... ten minutes later I get my wifes message that hers is working

    Yeah... if the service doesn't improve on these soon I think we will be looking for something different. While the Peek support workers are friendly, their product is not very reliable at this point. Looks like I may need to head back to Amazon and edit my original review.

    edit: should mention that my wifes wasn't even plugged in and hers stopped working 2 days ago.
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      CommentAuthortmel
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    @Eric - Hows the coverage in your area?

    http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    @tmel - My house is in the dark green section of that map.... which means the best according to their legend. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the whole city is listed as "Best" for the most part.
    • CommentAuthorgabe
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    Eric - what's important on the coverage map is that you choose the "data coverage" tab. The default tab is voice coverage which is not relevant to your data only Peek.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    Yeah, I forgot about that... shows me as EDGE/GPRS covered.
    • CommentAuthorgabe
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    That's perfect. GPRS is what we use.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    Any ideas? It happens pretty frequently... as in 3 times a week if not more.
    • CommentAuthorgeekyj
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009 edited
     
    I'll preface this by saying I'm in a very good coverage area.

    When I first got the Peek I would charge it and keep it on my desk when I wasn't actively using it at home (ie, while I was sleeping). I would charge it in the evening, verify it was charged before I went to bed (then unplug it from the charger), and I would get up the next morning and I would have my emails, but the battery would be in the red range! (and I would only be getting a few emails at night, maybe at most....5?).

    Upon investigating further I found out I had a "hole" in coverage just because of the way my house was laid out. The location was kind of near a window but not really. But I would unlock it and put it on the desk and half to full signal would be down to just the antenna showing green, and even at times, the dreaded red X-but upon picking it up again, it would go right back to having better signal.

    So I moved the charger to a shelf on the other side of the room-and the signal stayed good, and I would get up in the morning and my battery was a notch below the green, but nowhere near red anymore.

    The only thing I can think of is that when you're plugging it in and setting it down, perhaps you're going to no signal or very low signal?

    I'm hoping maybe what I experienced may help as a possibility.....

    (The only reason I explored it, by the way, is that I'm a Ham Radio Operator, so radio waves and stuff like that fascinate me, and like my handheld radio which in some parts of the house gets into the local repeater great, and in others I'm all static, I figured the Peek would be like a cellphone with the signal bouncing around stuff in the house.....and if it was having problems communicating, it would have to retry and retry and retry-eating the battery...)
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    Thanks for the idea geekyj. I've actually wondered that myself, but every time I've checked the signal strength it is at full or close to it. However, on my Peek I've noticed my battery does drain pretty fast so who knows. I'll try putting it in a different location next time I charge it. My work Blackberry uses T-Mobile as well and never has any issues but it shows data as using EDGE and gabe said the Peeks use GPRS. Other odd thing is, my wife and I plug them in to charge side by side and it is pretty random as to who's Peek is going to have a problem.
    • CommentAuthoratvk55
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    geekyj, thanks for the explanation that makes sense.
    • CommentAuthorgeekyj
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2009
     
    Eric: One thing I notice also is sometimes the "signal meter" doesn't always update. I would set it down, wait 30 seconds and then hit the 'back' button to relight the screen without moving the peek on the surface (and tried not to keep my hand next to it too much, which could affect the signal also) and then I would notice the signal meter was way lower.

    I rarely see a 'full signal' in the house anyway, but the next notch down isn't bad. But if its way low, figure the transmitter has to be cranking trying to communicate sending emails, and/or trying to find the tower again.

    I tested both with the leather case I have with it and without-the "exposed area" in the top must be where the antenna is because that wasn't a factor in either case. Since it isn't, I leave it in the case to protect it when its not in use.

    You'd be surprised though how much a signal can vary just with a few steps though :) It will be interesting to see if it changes in the winter with trees losing leaves and stuff as well. I tend to notice better signals on my Ham Equipment in the winter as well since my main antenna has a tree kind of blocking it in one direction in the summer months. From what I've gleaned about radio theory cell signals seem to get blocked a lot more than lower frequency stuff as well. They don't nearly "bounce around" like a FM radio signal would.
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      CommentAuthorEric
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2009
     
    Actually, I probably wouldn't be very surprised by the weird things signals do. I'm a signals analyst with the military and have also done a lot of testing with cell signals as well in my current assignment. I'm trying a few things to see if it is a signal issue but nothing is pointing that way at the moment. Thanks for the ideas though.
    • CommentAuthorgeekyj
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2009
     
    Ah, then your level of expertise....exceeds mine. I'm just a casual study :)
    • CommentAuthoratvk55
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2009
     
    can we replace the antenna with something else for a better signal

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