Database Info

Aluminum locking case

Ran across this today searching for cases for the Epic. Anyone using one? Its interesting in that it locks the slider during normal use and hinges open if you want to use the keyboard.
http://www.pdair.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=10100000_10000000_11001061&products_id=31414

Now this looks like quite a nice case for functionality.
Now if they just took off the whole part in the back for the clip and form fit the corners a bit more and offered it in more colors that'd be nice.

This may be the best thing I can do for now, I have been scouring for a jelly case to slip over the epic, since I never use the keyboard

Now, if somebody has the ability to cleanly cut aluminum and wants to sell a matched set consisting of this case with a hole cut in the back for the hump on the extended battery the other guy is selling to poke through... (strokes credit card and sighs)
It's hard to tell from the pics... does the case snap onto the lower half, or does the phone just rest inside?
How firmly does it secure the phone when the case is closed? Does the power button still cause the two halves to separate a little, or are both held firmly in place from both sides?

bitbang3r said:
Now, if somebody has the ability to cleanly cut aluminum and wants to sell a matched set consisting of this case with a hole cut in the back for the hump on the extended battery the other guy is selling to poke through... (strokes credit card and sighs)
It's hard to tell from the pics... does the case snap onto the lower half, or does the phone just rest inside?
How firmly does it secure the phone when the case is closed? Does the power button still cause the two halves to separate a little, or are both held firmly in place from both sides?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are videos on you tube. The bottom looks like a very snug press fit. Top must be looser to allow for the hinge to work.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

...
I had a similar case for my old HTC Titan. I LOVED it. Being a pretty serious phone abuser, that case kept my phone together!
-Rob

I used to have a similar case for my Treo and they are extremely well made. I irregularly dropped my phone from about 5 feet in the air onto hard linoleum and it never suffered any indignities. These come in both black and silver so if you want a different color you would want the silver so you could send it out to be powder coated.
I just ordered one.

Mine came last night.
The good: locks the slider firmly closed. No wobble or "play" at all when pressing the power button. Phone easy to remove (for GameGripper purposes).
The bad: Feels terrifyingly slippery compared to the Seidio ActiveX. Obstructs "slide down" gesture for notifications.
The seemingly fatal (a big one): my "back" fake hardkey keeps randomly going berserk... but ONLY that specific one. The foam in the top half seems to be confusing the capacitive sensor.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Update: I've had the 'search' fake hardkey freak out a few times on me, too.
Another problem: it's definitely affecting reception. 4G and GPS barely work with the case in place.
Sigh. So close. So agonizingly close. It's awesome to not have the phone shear and jiggle apart every time I hit the power button, and the fact that it allows the phone to be easily removed for the Game Gripper without really compromising the slide-out keyboard's usability is very cool.
I'm really convinced that this case went straight from plastic prototype to mass production before anyone actually tried to use it in an area with 4G service, high humidity (presumably what's screwing up the foam and touchscreen), and who didn't just assume that the GPS was dysfunctional because Samsung sucks.
Sigh. Too expensive to throw away, and really nice in ways that ultimately don't matter because the touchscreen-button problem makes it totally unusable

The plot thickens: more touchscreen observations:
* Oddly, there's NO FOAM around the lower part of the screen where the phantom-pressed fake hardkeys are.
* Last night, it went completely berserk with phantom button presses on cue when I rubbed the latch a certain way.
This suggests that the problem's root cause might extend to the electrical conductivity of the case itself. It's strange, because I wasn't able to find reports of the same problem for users of Monaco cases for other phones (like the Droid). Lots of complaints about signal attenuation, but no reports of touchscreen problems.
I'm seriously tempted to buy some liquid electrical tape and coat the inside of the lid to see whether it helps. The problem DOES seem to go away when the lid is no longer in contact with the screen. However, if it's happening because the sensor is acting kind of like a Hall Effect sensor and the case is acting like a Faraday cage, nothing short of making the case (or at least the top lid) out of plastic is likely to fix the problem. Still, it's worth a try since I really like the case itself, and my alternative is to basically chuck it.

Update: as an experiment, I wrapped black electrical tape around the bottom lip of the top part. It helped a lot. I think I might have also found a contributing cause: cat fur. I think wisps of cat fur might be bridging the metal case & screen and carrying static electricity to the sensor. Oddly, though, some of its *worst* back-arrow spasams have occurred with the phone laying on the desk, untouched, 3 feet away.
I'm still trying to think of a good way to plastic-coat the case without making it look bad & get a nice, even black rubbery coating on it.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

How thin is it compared to the other plastic cases?

Very interested in getting the Monaco Aluminum Case, which is very similar to this one. My last concern, how thin is it compared to Seidio Innocase Surface?

[Q] Loose Battery Cover?

My battery cover is a little loose all of a sudden. at the bottom it now moves a little. When I squeeze (lightly, normal use amount) the phone at the bottom kinda clicks. Anyone else have this issue?

Yes. I called HTC and they're replacing it. But for now what you can do is put paper inside the case
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

Yeah, several other people reported this problem on a Dutch forum. People should not open the backcover unless they really have to. After opening the cover a few times the cover is getting loose and starts to crack when you press it.

okay so I have the same problem, should I be worried or is it just the case with all sensation handsets ?

Take the cover off and press the battery. I think that's what it is...or maybe both.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

secano said:
Take the cover off and press the battery. I think that's what it is...or maybe both.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that's it, the battery is fitted normally, and I've just tested it with battery removed, it does the same thing, I should mention that it isn't really that obvious, but it's an annoyance nonetheless, such an expensive phone to have a glitch like that.

can anybody confirm that it does loosen after some time of usage, I mean did it came like that out of the box or was it getting loose with time?

I just noticed this on mine this morning , will steal a new cover soon

****ttttt let me check mine lol

...same here, at the right bottom corner!!!!
...and I agree, tooooo expensive phone for such a glitch!

Spekko said:
I just noticed this on mine this morning , will steal a new cover soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went to a tmobile store to see if they'll let me switch. The rep told me thy they can't switch cuz its an htc problem. Then he got curious and pulled out his sensation to see if his had it...
He looked so sad lol I just got off the phone with htc and my replacement cover is shipping soon and if the second one is defective then I have to send in my whole phone so they can check it out. You guys should call htc I'd you already haven't

I fixed mine by adding some paper to the back.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1215096

Hey first post here! Signed up just to have my say on this issue, just as i did with the android central forum.
Also posted this on the android central forums...
Got the creaking here also, definitely a design flaw. Being obsessive with my devices i couldnt live with it!
I do not recommend putting paper in the cover to fill the gap, as this is just expanding the cover further making it even MORE loose when the paper is not in there. Also i wouldn't recommend it because the paper pushes the back cover out a little more, you may loose a connection for the ground. Which is the little metal springy thing, half way up the right hand side. Obviously its not a good idea to 'push' the cover further away from this ground spot. I have heard that people have had issues with screen responsiveness due to a static build up from not grounding properly.
What i did to fix this problem was a bit of a kitbash of sorts.
Mine was creaking on the bottom right area, like most. The problem is there is too much play between the little black catches on the battery cover and the latch on the handset. Instead of filling up the gap between the phone and the cover (Ala paper, card in the cover) I closed it!
What you need to do is get some very thin plastic film. Like that on kids toy packaging etc. Not the thicker stuff though. This stuff would be under 1mm thick. It came as a viewing window in the box my new wallet came in. So you can sorta imagine what im talking about.
I cut a piece about 10mm long and as wide as one of the two little black catches. I applied a VERY thin coat of super glue to one end of the film. Just enough to cover the area under the catch. Then i carefully placed the film with the superglue on it under the catch, and then quickly applied some pressure to it with some tweezers. Then i carefully cut the excess off with a pair of finely tipped nail scissors.
The result is that it now PULLS the screen/phone INTO the cover more by making the little black catch thicker. Not the opposite (paper method), which pushes the cover out, creating a further problem of adding more paper under the cover over time as the cover expands/loosens to compensate. Not to mention a possible grounding loss and resulting damage.
Hope this helps some people that have had multiple replacements or could not be bothered replacing for such a cosmetic issue. (Like me). It definitely works, just got to get your surgeon on and be accurate with your placement of the film.
Apply this to what ever side creaks the most, and bam its gone. Nice. Solid phone... again.
If anyone wants more specific details etc, im all ears.
Regards,
Matt.

MrSoulSOng A video explaining this fix would be appreciated ^_^ cuz I didnt buy my phone from here and I still gotta wait for about a month to send it to the shop to fix or get a replacement

...just an update...after buying new back cover from no1tech (that was month and a half ago...) there's no loose spots, no creacking...!
Very satisfied now I am. Finally phone feels and looks like it should be - beast in compact housing!

I have the very same problem too. VERY annoying

well I had the same problem however what i did was that on the back cover inside of it I put some black electric tape on to the sides that creak (next to the sides and the clips) and when I put the cover back on there was no creaking at all. figured it wont interfere with the single because people put cases on the back all the time plus its electric tape meaning it'll prevent from short circuits and I don't think there should be any overheating issue as its a very small quantity.

concerning the bt and wifi death grip

forgive me if it has been posted over and over again, but after some time now, has any1 actually found a real fix? from last year's thread till now, some say it's software some say hardware, some say hard case solves it but some says aluminium foil does it. some even say by simply turning on best wifi performance, it will solve it.
some others say flashing a custom rom fixes it. so what is the actual fix? tomoro im going to buy aluminium foils and run it all over the antennaes behind my back cover and see if it helps..
i've tested my sensation, yes death grip is there, but not as terrible as people had it before.
here's my test results :
ROUTER : ASUS N53SV (use connectify)
OS : WIN7 HP
distance from router, 2metres, but blocked with a wooden door (those thick and hard type).
normal holding position : full bar
cover the antennae : 4 bars (- 1 bar)
cover the antennae with 2 hands : 3~4 bar
scenario 2 : distance : 10 metres (blocked by walls and doors) (went to different room on the same floor
normal holding position : 4 bar
cover with 1 hand : 2 bar
cover with 2 hand : 1 bar
considering the fact that im using my laptop to emit wireless signal, this is not bad at all. but im still trying the aluminium foil fix tomoro. will report back
do post your methods of fixing here if you have it thx

Every smartphone has a deathgrip issue and to be honest, it doesnt affect me so much. When i cover with my hand the antenna positions, signal drops 1 line, maximum 2, but like i said, that's normal. Had this problem with 3 different phones, and i think its a general smartphone issue. In many cases people like overreacting.
But hey, thats my opinion!

i've tried my damndest to find this death grip and i just cannot...i run a speedtest and completely cover every single part of the phone with both hands and i still manage to get a 10Mb throughput...so i just don't get it

Have you got a dual band router, if so that's probably why you cant find it.

Death grip affect all of the Sensation phones whether people admit it or not. The back cover is part of the antenna, so covering it with your hand WILL drop the signal. I find it is worse with wifi. No software will fix it, no tinfoil will fix it, no ROM will fix it. Just don't clasp your hands fully around the back cover and its not a big problem.

the_scotsman said:
Death grip affect all of the Sensation phones whether people admit it or not. The back cover is part of the antenna, so covering it with your hand WILL drop the signal. I find it is worse with wifi. No software will fix it, no tinfoil will fix it, no ROM will fix it. Just don't clasp your hands fully around the back cover and its not a big problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that said, some people dont experience it at all. there's a couple of youtube videos proving that. they cover the entire backside of their phone and there's no signal loss..

Fix your antennas!

After taking apart the GPS antenna module(led flash cover), cleaning the antenna contacts on the cover and spring clips on phone, and SLIGHTLY bending the spring clips out for improved contact with the cover the GPS lock was back to being less than 10 seconds for initial fix and instant refix.
With such an improvement I decided to do the same procedure to the other 2. The antenna under the battery cover(clean and bend spring contacts out alittle), and the one under the sim/sd card cover(clean and bend spring contacts out a little). My WiFi signal is definitely much better at distance! Bluetooth is better as well!
It is not difficult to do at all, and the results are immediate and VERY noticeable.
Search YouTube for desire hd/inspire 4g GPS antenna cover removal so you don't f it up. Hardest thing is getting GPS cover off, and it takes all of 5-10 minutes!
Good luck all.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA

Thanks. This actually increased the speed of my stock inspire and battery life.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA

GPS FIXED!
I wanted to bump this thread, as I ended up finding this solution on another forum. I have almost always had issues getting my GPS to lock. I tried all the software based fixes, but none of them seemed to really work. I opened my antennae, cleaned/bent the pins, and now I get INSTANT GPS lock (without any software fixes installed). I strongly urge anyone with issues to try this.
Another alternative is to solder a new antennae:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1318892

yes it is a good thing to clean the contacts and rebend them for additional contact force. That ghetto wire solder job that the person did in your link is only a hair above trying to get a gps signal while hopping on one foot. There is quite a bit of calculations that have to be done to choose antenna length and thickness in respect to the frequency it operates on. What this user did was just pick a random length of wire and connect it, and poorly soldered at that (they probably have a coat hanger coming out of their tv). This type of modification is a TERRIBLE idea and should be avoided at all costs.
But as I said, what the OP did in this thread with the cleaning, this is a good idea.

what did u clean it with?

Im looking at the silver led cover and im like how the hell you take that off I know like something needle nose pliers.

I basically just scraped the metal until it was shiny. A fine steel wool would work, or even sand paper. You just want to get any gray stuff off.
CYRAXDroid said:
Im looking at the silver led cover and im like how the hell you take that off I know like something needle nose pliers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do it from the inside .
Summary: You are going to remove the battery and then It should reach back to where the plastic cover is. From there you can push (from the inside) the plastic peach and then slide something under it to keep it propped open.
1) Remove your battery
2) You need to prop the plastic piece up from the inside of the case. You could bend the tip of a knife, or whatever.
3) You slide the "prop" inside the battery slot and you want to line it up under the plastic piece around the light.
4) From there you can "push" it up and slide something under the edge to keep it lifted (I used guitar pics). You probably want to use a couple to work your way around.
5) Remove it from the battery facing side first.
Once you have it off it should be obvious where the metal pins are. Bend them upwards, and scrape/clean them off if there is any discoloration.
Putting it back together is a little tricky. Be careful to not break any of the snaps .
Thank me if this helps!

Well I didn't do it but still thank you for posting that info
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using xda premium

[Q] Unable to acquire GPS lock [4.0.4 Stock / CM10]

I have been having some problems with GPS recently - I can "see" satellites in GPS Status, but they seem to remain in the "ephemeris" (yellow) stage and with the signal bar being near-empty. I'm not getting a fix on any of the 16-22 satellites I can see. On the few occasions that it DID work (this was a few weeks ago), it was VERY spotty and only worked for a minute or two. I tried flashing CM10 (probably should've done that a LONG time ago), but it was to no avail and I'm having the same problem. GPS Status has been trying to get a fix while next to my bedroom window for about 45 minutes and it's getting ridiculous.
When closely examining the GPS Status "main" view, I see a fair number of satellites clustered at 0 degrees North.
Is my GPS fried?

Try the GPS patch from the aroma installer Boombah created in the dev section. It always locks with ease for me after flashing it
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Sent from my Skyrocket i727 running MIUI v4.1
-----------Nexus 7 running AOKP M1-----------

Mike on XDA said:
Try the GPS patch from the aroma installer Boombah created in the dev section. It always locks with ease for me after flashing it
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Sent from my Skyrocket i727 running MIUI v4.1
-----------Nexus 7 running AOKP M1-----------
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already had that, it didn't seem to help. But, I'll humor you. Which build would you recommend?

hmmwhatsthisdo said:
I already had that, it didn't seem to help. But, I'll humor you. Which build would you recommend?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by build? What rom combo or which agps patch? I haven't used agps patch from its original thread but used the one found in Boombah's 1.57 release from the aroma installer
This thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1732304
If that doesn't help I would take a look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1438129
^^haven't used it from this thread because it was easy enough just to flash the one in aroma, so I can't note whether it was effective or not
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Sent from my Skyrocket i727 running MIUI v4.1
-----------Nexus 7 running AOKP M1-----------

This is most likely a HW problem - might be as simple as GPS antenna contacts not touching well. Search for the solution, you should find it.
No amount of SW flashing cures a HW problem. All the "GPS patches" can only make it lock faster by providing better aGPS data (almanac and ephemeris) faster and get more accurate time. The "patches" don't influence signal strength at all. So if someone is writing that he has close to none signal strength - all the "patches" can be skipped.

hey OP, i think i have the same problem. my phone is unable to lock onto any satelites. when i have GPS status open, it's able to see some satelites, but it's never able to lock on to any of them and the status remains yellow. i've left GPS status on for over an hour and i have yet to lock onto any satelites. i've attached a screen shot of what I see on GPS status. like jack said, it's probably a hardware issue. did you find any clues on how to fix this yet?

I have a feeling this might be a hardware issue, seeing as how my mother's SR does just fine. I'd RMA it again, but... let's just say my experience with RMAs through AT&T have been less than stellar.
Is it possible to fix it w/o voiding the warranty?

since it's a HW issue, we're probably gonna have to open up the phone if we want to fix it ourselves, which would probably void your warranty. do you have any ideas as to what might have caused the issue for you? I'm not sure when mine stopped working, it was definitely working before though. I recently replace the lcd myself since it broke after dropping my phone, and my warranty was already up, so I'm not sure if I messed something up while replacing the LCD or if it was from the fall, or if it stopped working due to something else..
does anyone know what the GPS unit looks like?
i found this, but this is for the i9100, not sure if it will be the same for the i727

It's the same for I777, and this pin needs to have a good contact with this pad. Bending it outwards a bit and cleaning the pad with alcohol for better contact should do the trick.

Holy thread necromancy, Batman!
I just got around to opening the phone and trying to fix it. It works BEAUTIFULLY now.
I used these parts:
A small Phillips screwdriver - not quite sure what size, but a fairly small one should do.
A few lens wipes (the alcohol-soaked and foil-packed kind, not the microfiber ones)
A small flathead screwdriver
A thin, bevelled plastic card - If you have a guitar pick, these work MUCH better. Spudgers are awesome too.
Here's what I did:
Remove your case (if necessary), your battery cover, battery, microSD, and SIM.
Unscrew all 7 screws under the battery cover. 5 are on the top, two are just below the battery slot.
Use a guitar pick, spudger, thin non-PVC card, or other soft bevelled edge to separate the rear bezel from the rest of the phone. Do NOT use a non-bevelled-edge PVC card, screwdriver, or other metallic implement. You'll scratch something.
Once all the clips are popped, the rear housing should lift right off.
Open the lens wipe packet, and gently wipe ALL of the gold plates and springs in the housing and on the mainboard. I think there were a total of 5 or 7 plate/spring combos. Do NOT rub against the spring, only in the direction the spring points.
Use a jeweler's screwdriver to GENTLY bend the springs up just a hair. Put the screwdriver under the top end of the spring and lift SLOWLY and EVENLY across the left and right parts of a spring. You shouldn't go farther than 0.5mm (about 1/64th of an inch)
Once you feel satisfied, make sure all ribbon cables are seated evenly and put the rear housing back on. It should fit securely and no clips should be left un-popped.
Put all 7 screws back in. Tighten them AS TIGHT AS SAFELY POSSIBLE! Pay special attention to the screws next to the SIM and the top mic.
Put the rest of the parts of the phone back together, and use GPS Status from the Play Store to verify GPS is fixed.

hmmwhatsthisdo said:
Holy thread necromancy, Batman!
I just got around to opening the phone and trying to fix it. It works BEAUTIFULLY now.
I used these parts:
A small Phillips screwdriver - not quite sure what size, but a fairly small one should do.
A few lens wipes (the alcohol-soaked and foil-packed kind, not the microfiber ones)
A small flathead screwdriver
A thin, bevelled plastic card - If you have a guitar pick, these work MUCH better. Spudgers are awesome too.
Here's what I did:
Remove your case (if necessary), your battery cover, battery, microSD, and SIM.
Unscrew all 7 screws under the battery cover. 5 are on the top, two are just below the battery slot.
Use a guitar pick, spudger, thin non-PVC card, or other soft bevelled edge to separate the rear bezel from the rest of the phone. Do NOT use a non-bevelled-edge PVC card, screwdriver, or other metallic implement. You'll scratch something.
Once all the clips are popped, the rear housing should lift right off.
Open the lens wipe packet, and gently wipe ALL of the gold plates and springs in the housing and on the mainboard. I think there were a total of 5 or 7 plate/spring combos. Do NOT rub against the spring, only in the direction the spring points.
Use a jeweler's screwdriver to GENTLY bend the springs up just a hair. Put the screwdriver under the top end of the spring and lift SLOWLY and EVENLY across the left and right parts of a spring. You shouldn't go farther than 0.5mm (about 1/64th of an inch)
Once you feel satisfied, make sure all ribbon cables are seated evenly and put the rear housing back on. It should fit securely and no clips should be left un-popped.
Put all 7 screws back in. Tighten them AS TIGHT AS SAFELY POSSIBLE! Pay special attention to the screws next to the SIM and the top mic.
Put the rest of the parts of the phone back together, and use GPS Status from the Play Store to verify GPS is fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..hahahah Seems unbelievable. But it works....)
Thanks a bunch !!!!! THANKS A BUNCH !! ! !