iPhone End Call stuck issue

Posted on January 27, 2012 by philip

This is one of those problems that seems to have endless reports, but no clear solution. My phone is an iPhone 4S 64GB running iOS 5.0.1. My carrier is Optus in Australia.

Other problems that occur when the stuck End Call screen issue arises seem to be (for me anyway):

  • No incoming SMS
  • Can’t call out
  • People calling in hear a your number dialling, but your phone does not ring.

I will run through my troubleshooting steps.

Some people believe it is a carrier issue, and you perform a carrier update if one exists. To do so, go to the About screen on the iPhone. Provided you have some sort of data connection, if there is a carrier update available, a prompt will pop up asking you to update. This did not solve my problem after updating.

It can be an iOS issue, but again I am running the latest. You can always upgrade and see if it sorts your issue.

It can reportedly be an upgrade issue, where you have kept the same settings from upgrading phones (ie. you have migrated from a 3GS to 4 then to a 4S). This was not applicable in my case, as I started fresh. You can try to setup your phone from scratch or factory reset. I’m skeptical of this fix, because a factory reset seems to fix everything, but the problem will probably come back due to an underlying issue.

The fix for me was to turn on mobile data, and then turn it off again. I leave mobile data off at all times, because I like to control when and how my data is used. There seems to be a bug with iOS when the phone runs for prolonged amounts of time with no data capability.

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Windows 7/2008 installer does not detect hard drives, BIOS does – hard drives from RAID?

Posted on January 1, 2012 by philip

Spent hours on this one thinking it was a motherboard issue. The fix only applies to a specific scenario.

If the hard drives were used in a RAID array (mine were from an Intel Matrix RAID), then the hard drives are formatted in a way that the Windows 7 installer can no understand.

You have two options:

  • Run an XP installation over the top of the hard drive (yes, XP will be able to install onto the hard drive). You do not need to go through with the full XP install. When files start to copy on the blue screen with the yellow bar, just reset the PC and install Windows 7/2008.
  • Format the hard drives in Linux or similar (put an ext3 filesystem on it). Putting the hard drive into an USB case and formatting it in Windows does not resolve the issue.
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USA – San Francisco

Posted on October 24, 2011 by philip

The inner geek in me loved this place, probably because it is a the tech-hub of the world. Nonetheless, the atmosphere of San Franciso was great because it felt like LA (the people and culture, without being so geographically spreadout) and had the buzz of NYC (without being too busy and hectic). If I had to move to the USA, San Francisco would certainly be on my list.

Fisherman’s Wharf is a cool place to hang out, but it is very touristy. Parking is outrageous, with most places wanting US$45 or more a day. Try to park on the street or just use public transport. Some of the great things to do in San Francisco would be to check out the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, hop on a trolley tram, and visit Golden Gate Park (hop on a segway if you can!).

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Canada – Vancouver

Posted on October 20, 2011 by philip

Vancouver is a great place. The people there are extremely helpful, and go out of their way to assist. I recall once we must have looked like we were lost, and a gentlemen in a suit approached us and asked if he could assist – we were shocked. We were in Vancouver in between seasons unfortunately. It was wet and cold, but not cold enough for snow yet.

Funnily enough, Vancouver was a place where we could actually “normal” coffee, similar to what we were used to at home. The food there was also quite pleasant and tasty to eat, and the random places we ate at were alright (whereas in the US, it seemed to all be of lower standard).

Unfortunately, there isn’t too much to do in Vancouver. We loved Richmond – it felt like they picked up a piece of Hong Kong and dropped it here in Richmond. Take a walk through Stanley Park if you can, and walking along the Sea Wall is a relaxing option after dinner.

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USA – Seattle

Posted on October 17, 2011 by philip

Seattle is a great quiet place to be. It is very much an outdoors kind of state, where you need to take in the scenery. We went across to Mount Olympic to visit the Hoh Rainforest.

We past Fork along the way, which is where scenes from Twilight were filmed. We went up the space needle like typical tourists, and had a great view of Seattle and the surrounding mountains that encompassed the city.

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