Pantech Phones’ Troubleshooting Worked For This Caregiver

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It’s been a tough week for me in more ways than one! My poor little grandkids have been hit by a nasty tummy bug (NOT the swine flu, I’m happy to say 🙂 ) I always hate to see one of the little ones in misery and it was multiplied by three this week! THEN they decided to practice what we preach by sharing – the tummy bug – with me! NOT fun. Mine was mild but still misery-inducing!

On top of all that, I ordered one of my favorite new smartphones last week since my poor Pantech phone kept dropping calls. As a caregiver on call from a variety of directions, I depend on my cellphone and need to know it is at least 75% reliable (Be honest, is there ANY cellphone that is 100%!!! Not in my price range and hand size!). My cellphone was dipping down to 30% and I was eligible for a cheap upgrade. I loved my Pantech phone and wanted to get another. It fit my hand well, was easy to use, and I would then have had two cellphone batteries. I would have LOVED that.

Well, so much for that plan. They were out of the new ones so I had to go with refurbished ones (used ones that have been spruced up). The first one thought it was from Europe and neither AT&T nor Pantech could fix it so back it went. The second one dropped calls worse than the one I was replacing. Literally. EVERY 4 seconds! It’s in the box heading back on Monday.

At that point I gave up and switched to a NEW Pantech phone, the Matrix Pro . It worked well, but when I tried to sync it to my computer to get my contacts, etc., it thought it was a cable modem instead of a cellphone. Talk about identity crises. All these cellphones seem to share in that problem! Two very helpful employees at AT&T couldn’t figure it out. My last hope was back again to Pantech.

FINALLY I found someone who had heard of this issue and knew just what to do. Just in case any of you ever run into it I am sharing the information here. I couldn’t find this info ANYWHERE on the net and wanted to make sure it was out there for other poor sufferers like me.  To sync my Pantech Matrix Pro , he told me to go to:

• START SETTINGS
• CONNECTIONS
• MODEMLINK – Make sure that was INACTIVE. Sure enough, when I checked, it was showing active. Once I changed it to INACTIVE it worked! YAY! I can’t tell you how relieved I was.
• I also checked the one other concern he mentioned, that the USB to PC box was check marked. In my case, it was so I didn’t have to do anything there.

My new cellphone is now working great , complete with all the info I need when caregiving away from home, at the hospital, traveling, etc. The joys of technology once again have simultaneously bit me and encouraged me mightily this week!

Speaking of the joys of technology, this is a great time to remind us all to do our monthly tech chores such as:

• Make a computer backup of any important documents, including photos of grandkids, music, medical bills for aging parents, etc. Whether you do online backups or backup data on an external hard drive or USB stick, it’s vital to do this regularly! I’d always rather spend the time making these backups than have it crash big time leaving me with the much more time-consuming and frustrating dilemma of having to fix my computer!
  
• Make sure all important programs are fully updated – including browsers, operating systems, security and antivirus software, etc.
• Run any and all antivirus protection software as well as whatever spyware removal program you prefer, such as Norton Internet Security or PC Pitstop (I also like to run SystemWorks One-button checkup on a regular basis to keep things humming along smoothly)
• Defragment your computer
• Weed out any unnecessary programs and documents and archive such things as your Outlook email files

Well, that’s my saga of going from woe to rejoicing. My Pantech phones have taken me from the pits of despair to the valley of successful cellphone calling, my computer is beckoning for me to follow my own advice as I make my own computer backup and my tummy is again ready for a yummy piece of chocolate cake. I hope your week went better and that your cellphones as well as that of your aging parents are working great – at least 75% great.  🙂