In British Columbia, we have a HANDS-FREE set of rules that came into law a few months ago. For the majority of us (full license drivers), it meant we must use a hands-free (a.k.a. blue tooth) device to answer or place calls on our cellular phones while driving. Reading or replying to TEXT messages is still a NO-NO but this blog is not about that portion of the new law- it is about bluetooth and a problem that can affect your blackberry
This last week, I got into my vehicle and turned on the Visor mount bluetooth before starting out. I heard the connection beep and thought all was fine. Away I go to start work for the day still thinking all is fine.
Calls are comming in which I answered via my visor mount bluetooth- All still appears to be fine.
I tried to make a voice-dial call via my visor mount bluetooth- All is NOT fine. The call did not go out. The nice -sexy voice did not ask for my command. Something is wrong!!
I pulled over and looked at my cellphone. It is a blackberry- ( the reason for this blog ) and it says "Initilizing....please wait"....so I waited..and waited..and waited but nothing happened.
"Oh", I thought.. maybe the bluetooth needs to be charged (even though I had not received the sexy-voice reminding me that the battery was low). So I charged the bluetooth that night and started over the next day.
Hmmm.. maybe I should try a test call before I head out.
Guess what?? Same problem.
Ok.. let's try my earpiece bluetooth which is a great stand-by unit. Same problem.
Now I have gone into FULL investigator mode and need to find the answer as there is no way I want to be caught making calls while driving and adding $185.00 fines to my budget. It is bad enough we have toll bridges but that is another story (see our previous blogs).
Today- in full- 100% investigator mode with a "geek mode" add on, I took on the problem as I was not about to go to the local cell provider store and be made to feel silly if the problem is simple.
I checked all my settings. Yes- voice dial is active.
I check to be sure that bluetooth was in sync (paired) and it was finding the correct one.
I deleted the bluetooth settings and paired it again. Still no luck!! What else could it be?
Two hours later, a light came in in my head. Could it be that the battery in my two year old blackberry was too weak.
Simple test for that- plug in the power and see if it will work that way.
Answer- NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Hmm.. what else. It is not a bluetooth device problem. It is not a power or setting problem. What is left.?
Click!!. Since it is not hardware (covered all that above), then it it must be either software or the phone has just bit the dust. For the sake of the pocket book- PRAY for software- PLEASE!!!
I then went to http://www.blackberry.com/update (I suggest you write the URL down if you are using a blackberry) I hit the CHECK FOR UPDATES button and let it do it's thing and............. YES!!!! there are updates and they are SOFTWARE updates.
Follow the instructions; read the prompts and be ready to plug in your blackberry when it says to. Well, the long and short of the next 45 minutes is.. the latest software update not only fixed my voice dial problem but also updated a lot of other programs at the same time.
You will notice, however, (at least I did) that the first voice dial call took a bit longer as it had to find the Address book but that took all of maybe 10 seconds. After that- status-normal.
I hope this helps a lot of blackberry users that have had the same problem. I noticed on some forums that many people had this problem but nobody seemed to have an answer.
D.M.(Riun) Lawrence
President
Golden West Investigative Group Ltd
http://www.bcinvestigator.com
Investigative and Personal Security Products Div.
http://www.globalpisupply.com/
