700p MR Temporarily Unavailable

Updated Post (June 14, 2007)

We continue to investigate the Sprint Treo 700p MR installation issue reported by some customers and have been collecting phones from customers for analysis, as well as rerunning our suite of update tests on another large sample of phones to try to reproduce the issue. We would like to provide an exact date for when the MR will be reposted, but we aren't able to at this time. Also, we still aren't able to estimate when the Verizon Wireless Treo 700p MR will be available for download.

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We're sorry, but the Sprint Treo 700p maintenance release (MR) is temporarily unavailable. We have received isolated reports of an installation issue that causes the device to continuously reset when applying the software update, so we've removed the update from our site. We're investigating the issue and will make the Sprint Treo 700p update available again as soon as possible. We know this has been a frustrating process for customers and apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused.

If you have experienced difficulty with the maintenance release installation, please contact us so we can work with you to resolve the issue: 866-750-7256.

We don't have a target date for when we can make the Treo 700p MR available for Verizon Wireless users.

Also, we currently don't have plans to issue a MR for other carriers because the ROM software already contains many of the features that are included in the Sprint and Verizon Wireless updates (e.g. many of the Bluetooth improvements and MP3 playback).

Paul Loeffler - Palm, Inc.

Updated Post

This is an installation issue and it is evident immediately during the installation of the MR to your device. If you have already loaded the MR successfuly to your device, you are good to go.

Comments

[LNDSHRK]

Paul,

Even if the Sprint MR goes swimmingly, and mine did - it now introduces "new bugs" into the 700p - I've only seen one to date, but it's sort of a doozy - any system sound is accompanied by a tone from the earpiece. Also the system sounds (like a message double beep) no longer sound the same. The volume is ramped no matter what you select for that option. What this means is that when the phone is set to "silent" it no longer is, and when it is set to "ring" the tones aren't as clear as before. Consider it a "lose-lose".

Jim Conforti

[theyams]

I tried the update on the first day that it came out and had a whole slew of problems trying to install it, but "fortunately" the upgrade died during the process and never finished, so my phone was still usable, although it would crash when trying to hotsync again. Did a Hard reset and ran the MR (which I downloaded before it was taken down) with no problems. Did the hotsync and reloaded most of my programs back on the device. Most things seem to be working fine, although a couple of problem apps (Mundu, SplashPhoto) before are still having issues. Will try to do a clean re-install later.

[Sean]

When will the update be available again. I've been waiting for this for a long, long -- long time now.
Every time I use my Treo, which is several dozen times a day i now wish I would've went with Blackberry. All my friends and colleagues who use a blackberry do NOT have these issues. C'mon Palm, how about a little customer loyalty satisfaction. I've been using Palm products since 1998.

[RE]

The MR made all my text blurry so I called Sprint. Sprint told me to call Palm and Palm told me to call Sprint. Finally, I canceled my account and picked up a Blackberry.

[John O]

Just the facts.
I followed the instructions to the letter.
Tried MR 1.10
52 minutes to download
I did not do the SD card option.
It shows 1.10 on the phone.
Most basic features work no noticable improvement in functionality of BT. Although the power bar and signal strength indicators on my Toyota Prius hands free display do work now.
On demand and My Treo selection in programs cause the treo to reset. I'm not sure how to reload On demand as it does not seem to be on the OEM CD.
I run a clean phone with 80% free memory. Just a habit from the 650.
I do use the On demand for weather. any suggestion on how to get it back?

[tracerrx]

Update worked: Sort of, used hotsync method, got endless loop, performed hard reset, lost call waiting, performed hard reset again, and all is good.

This is the way the phone should have function 13 months ago...

Interesting to note, the MR does NOT restore Palm Backup correctly, and I had to re-install it several times before I was able to get a sucessfull install.

[Lucky]

I've tried re-doing the MR to see if it would fix the plethora of problems it caused on a relatively normal 1.08 version, and it of course won't let me.

Will the new MR (if we ever see one) be able to correct the problems that those of us that are "good to go" are having?

[Michael]

I have decided that since palm isn't going to fix the issues with the 700P on other carriers (ie. canadian ones) that i'm going to return this defective junk palm calls a phone and get a black berry.

[k.k.]

jesus...
my treo went into the reset-loop.
then I retry to apply MR, and now it's bricked.

guys, do not retry to apply MR. it only makes things worse.

[EMTDave]

After reviewing all the posts and lack of information from Palm, I will definitely NOT install the 'new' MR (whenever it finally arrives) until after several days of watching this blog for other people's experiences... Can't afford to brick the phone or suffer any of the other nightmares, even with all the reset and bluetooth issues. Nobody within ~180 miles to fix/replace immediately if it did die.

Losing Faith...

PS: Sprint is absolutely no help. Called Sprint Cust Service to ask what they're going to do about the 700p, got sent to Tech Support, who transferred me to Palm Tech Support, who said it was a Sprint problem and transferred me back to Sprint Cust Support, who told me "We don't just replace phones for anyone who calls in" and suggested I do a face-to-face with someone at a Sprint Store (2.5 hrs drive, 1 way) and THEY might do something for me - like replacing the 700p with ANOTHER 700p (oh, and by the way, pay the insurance fee to get the replacement phone...) Two hours of telephone pain... - On a scale of 1 to 10, I give a negative 10. Not exactly working to solve the problem or keep customers. I've got 4 phones on my plan and it would cost me about $1000 in termination fees to get loose of this Tar Baby. Almost might be worth it... (Le'me see, new iPhone $500, three other phones ~$200, lose Sprint $1000. Gettin' real close to being a workable deal...)

Don'tcha just LOVE a good Service attitude...

[Roger Moore]

Just wanted to say, I have written some pretty harsh comments lately on why this MR has not been available! I just want to say to the person(s) reading these that I am sorry! If this Treo 700P MR is the most important thing in my life, I must reflect and examine myself. I do want to have my phone work right and I am sure you are all working hard to get it done, if not than you have to live with yourself. If you are all doing the best you can .... THANK YOU!and please forgive my stupid comments of the past! (you do not have to post this, it is for the people that work hard and read these comments)

[-drew-]

I've been fairly satisfied w/my Treo 700p (Sprint). I had only noticed prior to the update that Blazer takes a while to exit and pTunes skipped a lot. Other quirks were mostly visual preferences and such.

I grabbed the MR and couldn't update through USB. This may blamed in part to a recently discovered poor USB connection w/my cable (I'm not sure how that happened). I ended up downloading the SD version and it installed without a hitch. It did take a bit longer than advertised - 40 minutes or so.

The only other info that may need to be said is the SD card seems a bit similar to how "autorun" works in Windows. I only noticed because I accidentally knocked my SD card out later (first time, really - believe that?) and when I popped it back in, I received the setup for the update. Oddly enough it went through when I said yes and didn't reject it because of a version check.

In any case - I got the SD version to work twice in a row.

I haven't noticed a lot of changes. Blazer does exit more quickly. The interface may be a *little* bit snappier. I did lose some of my preferences but they were easily fixed. pTunes still skips. I'm not sure if this is correlating at all w/when my inbox connects to sync data w/my e-mail server or not.

I do find my 700p a bit of a mediocre device, though. I used to own a SCH-i730 when I had Verizon and the screen was beautiful compared to my 700p. It also seemed to have a better selection of less expensive (or free!) multimedia and entertainment software. I ditched it after I found the Sprint SERO plan.

This phone works fine for me, though.

[Bob]

I have to say two things after reading this:

1) I'm glad I stuck with my Treo 650 and never advanced further down the Treo line. The 650 worked great. The newer phones...apparently not so.

2) I'm glad that Sprint is releasing the HTC Mogul (aka PPC-6800) in a rumored 2 weeks so I can get the heck away from the Palm line once and for all while sticking with my dirt-cheap Sprint data plan.

[ryan]

I installed it, and it works fine...EXCEPT...
even with the sound off, i still hear phone beeps. Also, the 5-10 second lag when launching blazer FREAKIN SUCKS!
Other than that, bluetooth works well, and my treo seems to be a little more stable.

PLEASE PALM...since you already pulled the update, while you are working on it, fix the LAG when launching blazer, and fix the phone beeps that occure with system sound ON and OFF.

THANKS!

[Adam]

I'm not looking for a complete MR as I am fairly happy w/ the performance of my Alltel 700p, except for the Bluetooth. You list many upsupporeted Bluetooth Car Kits for all carriers but once the update is installed the Audi, BMW, Toyota (which I need)Lexus & Mitsubishi car kits (and a couple of aftermarket kits) will be supported for Sprint. How can you say the Alltel ROM software contains the improvements in the Sprint & Verizon MR when the MR will clearly make Verizon & Sprint Bluetooth superior?

[Dr. T]

Update. I received a new phone from Palm (I had the 1108/108 issue) and was able to load the MR in 31 minutes. So, yes there probably was some incompatibility issue with third party software when others have tried to install the MR without hard or system reset first. On the other hand, there is some legitimacy to the idea that not all Treo 700p were created equal. Aside from the 1108/108 issue, my previous device already was able to give me a list of "recent apps" when I push the "home" button. This ability was apparently not available to others prior to the MR install. In any case, there is definitely room for improvement at Sprint as well as at PALM. I am definitely excited with the involvement of Elevation Partners as "it can't hurt" at least.

[Reggy]

Time to review the beta testing program. I don't understand even after you claim to have beta tested this release, how your engineers could have screwed up this badly?

[Gary LaPointe]

Been using it for several days and as I don't have a single complaint so far. It's working great!

Thanks!

I hope you get the installer working for the rest of the group soon!

[James]

I applied the MR update after a hard reset, via SD. The whole thing took about 30-40 minutes.

Overall, the patch has greatly improved my phone's performance; I can now comfortably navigate email, switch between apps, although switching out of Blazer still has a bit of lag. It has even improved my phone's communication with PowerVision (Sprint broadband), though the phone "stutters" when leaving/entering areas of spotty coverage. Overall I feel like I now have a usable phone.

I did notice that text appears to flicker in and out of phase; it's slight, but certainly noticeable. This is a new "quirk" that wasn't evident before the MR, and I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this.

[Andy]

Google Maps also forces a reset. Ugh.

I presume your fixed version will overwrite the version I've installed, or at least I hope so..

[Scott]

The MR installed OK, but now I have these beeps before any other sound - even in silent mode. Between the reset loops that some people are experiencing and these beeps that rest of us have, you can't say that this MR is "good to go"! With all the delays and carrier testing we had to wait through, this MR should have been PERFECT! I could understand if some little bug reared its head only after DEEP use - but these problems are blatant and not isolated. Why didn't palm catch these things right away? It's not like they are hidden problems!

[Scott]

Any word on a fix for the MR problems (the beeps)? I like the MR results except for the beeps. Having a phone that can never be in silent mode is not an option for most of us. You could never get away with selling the 700p (pre OR post MR) if you actually advertised some of the horrible problems it has but you (and your carriers) leave the problems out and keep selling these defective products and fixing them with even more defective MR's. What's next? Another broken fix? A trade in program? What? Because now I have a phone I can't take to work with me for fear of it making unwanted sounds and I'm stuck in a contract so I can't get a new phone yet.

[Greg]

When this MR is re-released will the problem with the tones be fixed (along with the obvious other thing to be fixed - and by that I mean the looping). And, not that the question hasn't been asked already, but 1) When can we expect it to be re-release (at least an estimate) and 2) When can we expect it for Verizon (again, at least an estimate instead of just saying what amounts to "I don't know"). For as much complaining goes on on this blog (me included), at least Palm has given its customers a place to be heard and for that I say a big "Thank You" to Palm. If you start using this blog to communicate more effectively, giving us more substance in your updates I think you'd see the negativity drop off (at least a little). Good luck with your work guys. Here's hoping it all works out and we can put this all behind us and move on with what was (and still should be) a respectable company/product.

[Grrrrr]

Something to think about: All the bad publicity and negative feedback you see on this blog is from Palm CUSTOMERS and SUPPORTERS... at least we care enough to bash Palm. I feel bad because most people aren't posting simply because they have already decided that Palm is a dinosaur. We (your base, your faithful) is all you have left... don't discount our frustrations and blow us off with non-updates and double talk. Tell us why the MR went bad, why it wasn't thoroughly tested when you had ALL that time to do so, when the MR will be released for Verizon, why the other carriers don't need an MR update even though you say they should be up to date yet run an a system older than the fixes for the problems... You have a great forum to communicate with your loyal customers (we're mad because we once loved Palm and we want that love affair back)... start using it.

[Eric]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but having customers install what they think is a MR to fix their phones, only to find it causes problems, then having those customers call Palm to tell them exactly what went wrong... isn't that using your customers as unknowing Beta testers for the MR?? Isn't that why this was delayed so long... for the TESTING??