Unable To Answer Call

[Mike Temporale]

Last night we had the family over for dinner, and just as people started to arrive and everything was getting hectic, my phone rang. The screen showed Unknown/Unknown which tells me that it's a client calling, or a wrong number. :? I hit the answer button, put the phone to my ear, and say "Mike Temporale". Nothing. Not even a little speaker hiss. I turn and look at the handset and it has an error message on the screen which reads "Unable to answer call".

Now I've had calls where one party can't hear the other party, and other weird things. However, I have always been able to answer the calls. I know it has nothing to do with reception, as that area is where my phone usually sits while I'm at home. It's always worked in that location. I'm not sure what happened. Have any of you encountered this error? Any thoughts on what causes it?

[kennyg]

I've had this happen several times on different Smartphones, it happened far more often on my original SPV, still happened often (once or twice a month) on my SPV 100, but happens rarely on my MPX 200 (running 2003). I do software development on mine, so I take my results with a little caution.

Kenny.

[Jerry Raia]

I've had this happen once in a while on my i600. Both with 2002 and 2003 OS.

[Keitaro]

I've encountered this error message one times, in the TGV (high-speed train in France) with my SPV.

[Neil]

This error usually means something bad happend in the radio, rather than the Windows Mobile software. We asked the radio to answer, and for some reason it couldn't.

Later releases of Smartphone will definitely see this less often as the radios have improved software in them too.

Neil

[brianchris]

Although I haven't seen the error when recieving calls, one of the most frequent problems I have with my MPx200 is the error message trying to dial a call. At first, I thought it was signla strength (or lack thereof) related, but after its continued to do it frequently, even with great coveregae, I've realized something else is going on. Now, I believe that's the Smartphone's way of saying the local GSM towers are too busy to handle my call at the moment, as it FREQUENTLY happens around 5pm local time, when everyone's getting off work and making cell calls on there way home.

Any thoughts or ideas to the contrary would be greatly appreciated though!

[Graffiti]

This error usually means something bad happend in the radio, rather than the Windows Mobile software.

Neil's right. Happens every now and then especially during peak hours, and it's not confined to Smartphones. It has more to do with the network than whatever hardware you happen to be holding up to your ear then.

[Mike Temporale]

This error usually means something bad happend in the radio, rather than the Windows Mobile software. We asked the radio to answer, and for some reason it couldn't.

Later releases of Smartphone will definitely see this less often as the radios have improved software in them too.

Neil

Thanks Neil. Is it possible to change the wording on this message? Maybe something like "We are unable to connect to the incoming call due to a network error." or something. Just a suggestion. :wink:

Also, your response leads me to believe that Microsoft didn't code the radio. Is that correct? If so, who did?

[Mr.Phil]

WM communicates through a Microsoft specified API called the RIL, or Radio Interface Layer. Various radio module manufacturers provide the specified RIL API to their radio modules. Different smartphones have different built in radio modules, for example the radio in the Typhoon might have been built by another manufacturer entirely, say Phillips or Siemens.

[Mike Temporale]

WM communicates through a Microsoft specified API called the RIL, or Radio Interface Layer. Various radio module manufacturers provide the specified RIL API to their radio modules. Different smartphones have different built in radio modules, for example the radio in the Typhoon might have been built by another manufacturer entirely, say Phillips or Siemens.

Cool. thanks Mr.Phil. :D

[MKonchar]

Hmmm, I have a hard time believing that a call already coming in could suffer from network congestion...? Every time I get that error (a LOT on my i600 with 2002, but not very often with 2003 now) it seems as though the phone is starting to work very slowly, like when I press "Send" to answer the call and it takes 2 or 3 seconds after that to actually answer! I did notice that this problem seems to have gone away after removing Photo Contacts... :(

[Mike Temporale]

Hmmm, I have a hard time believing that a call already coming in could suffer from network congestion...? Every time I get that error (a LOT on my i600 with 2002, but not very often with 2003 now) it seems as though the phone is starting to work very slowly, like when I press "Send" to answer the call and it takes 2 or 3 seconds after that to actually answer! I did notice that this problem seems to have gone away after removing Photo Contacts... :(

The problem you are describing is related to the photo contacts app. Some of those apps don't work very well with a large database of names to lookup in.

The "Unable to answer call" error that I got was not necessarily due to network congestion. As Neil pointed out, it just means that the radio failed to hand off the call to the phones software.

[beersoft]

when this happens to me its because of the 3 second lag between the phone finding out it has a call and it ringing, 9 time out of 10 its after 27 seconds and the caller has gone to voicemail but my phone still has some stupid ringtone left

later

Owen

msmobilenews.com - its badly written, but its all good fun

[danm_cool]

I had the problem several times. It seems to happen when the person that was calling me hung up just before I have pressed answer button, so there is no call to answer, because it was hang up just a before.

DM

[maxnix]

Had this happen in that while phone was unattended, a call came in, but the phone was frozen dead with the calling number displayed. Had to soft reset my SCH-i600, but lost the number, so it froze before my Call History could record it.