Moto Smartphones Forums

After what my phone did last night and this morning i decided to start a thread where user should post the crashes of their Z8 trying to be the more accurate possible about details.
And please post about strange behaviors and strange experience about using the phone.
All this made not for the fun of complaining, but to help motorola/sendo programmers to know where problems are.

Crash playing music.

Yesterday I started listening to an album - standard mp3s, 192kbps - for about 10-12 minutes with the bundled Motorola S9 bluetooth hearphones.
Bluetooth was set with powersaving option checked and not visible mode.
I had to pause and resume playback about 5-6 times; the last time it didn't resume; opened the phone and only the upper bar was visible, with the rest black. After pressing some buttons it returned to Home, but was not possible to to anything. Opening and closing the phone caused the openning slider sound to play, so the phone wasn't feezed. After a while the "restarting Home" message appeared on the right but nothing happened.
Could not turn it off. Had to take out the battery.

-I used the phone for about 45minutes as a gprs modem connected to my computer, played abit with contacts, and made two short calls  before the situation above happened.

Motorola Z8 - Tim - set in italian language-
Version :
ESP00_U_46.03.63G_00000328
espoo_uiq_31_200648_2249C2_F_20070723
Moto_build: 2249C2_...

Battery and boot problem.

Made a full recharge yesterday afternoon. I used the phone as reported in the previous post (internet connection, calls, music-crashed) and then left it on and didn't use it anymore, and the battery indicator was on 2/3.
At about 6 o'clock this morning it started complaining that the battery was low with a loud sound (even if it was on vibrate) and the battery was on 0/3. It lasted about another hour, enough for the alarm to ring, then turned off.

I put the original charger in and left it charge for about an hour, the charging led was on, nothing on the display, then tried to turn it on. I could not turn it on. Swapped out/in the battery, motorola logo, then the operator splash screen, then nothing, it turned off. Swappen out/in the battery with the charger out, nothing again. Even tried with the SIM card out a couple of times it displayed the battery indicator only in the corner but did not boot. Did the motorola/operator splash another time, but died.
Then it booted, asked for the sim, restarted in normal mode, put the charger in and now it is charging. Could call and it seems to work normal now.
I'll let it complete the charging then try to turn off and on to see if it is ok now.
Of course all of this isn't not normal.

Update: booted correctly now.

Motorola Z8 - Tim - set in italian language-
Version :
ESP00_U_46.03.63G_00000328
espoo_uiq_31_200648_2249C2_F_20070723
Moto_build: 2249C2_...

I've had mine reboot itself twice now in the last day or so. On both occasions it has been when turning on the S9s.

The inbuilt media player is needing a proper seeing to as it is frankly not as good as it really should be. I'm getting a bit fed up with the phone and wishing sometimes I'd taken the N95 instead. The hardware design of the Z8 combined with what I perceive as the better interface - UIQ - is what tempted me in the first place.

I'm still having not much luck playing back some MP3s. Media player says corrupt, but LCG Jukebox which I installed will play them fine, as will my mp3 players, pcs etc.

Also had media player report "general error", then complaining about the memory card being inserted and removed or something. It goes round every song with the same error. Usually fixed by rebooting.

There's a 10 out of 10 phone trying to burst out here somewhere. But the Media player seems to be the real stumbling block right now on "the multimedia monster".

Hey guys,

On the flip side of things I've had my z8 now for about a month and apart from the security flaw i addressed in the 'Bugs' section I've had no crashes or hang up's. The media player is a little slow but i dont get any unexpected quits, the headset works perfect, battery life is pretty decent after two drains, all the media I put on the phone it will play no problem. Overall I'm very happy with the phone and can't understand how others are going wrong-I'm assuming we all have the same firmware as moto have not released an update yet?
I'm currently in talks with motorola regarding various issue's (not related to this) So it wouldnt do any harm copying some of your problems in an e-mail to my contact-see what they think.

Fubar: English language pack
Version: ESPOO_U_46.03.44G_000002d2
espoo_uiq_31_200648_2249c2_c_20070709
Moto_build: 2249C2_...

Now that's interesting. I have different versions:

ESPOO_U_46.03.1AG_0000024b
espoo_uiq_31_200648_20070619
Moto_build: 2238C1_...

Camera and photos.

Yesterday was in Pisa and was doing some photos. Like it did a couple of other times, after I started the camera and pressed the shutter it displayed a "No memory" error. Changing the setting to use internal memory does not change anything. To fix needs a restart. Happened with the previuos microsd (twinmos 1gb) 2 times, and this was the first with the new sandisk 2Gb.

After that i made some pictures, opened one, rotated to the right, saved the changes, opened full size...bang black screen with only the lower buttons visible. Pressed the red button, wen back yo home, pressed the media button and returned to the black screen. Had to take out the battery. Restarted, did the same thing with another photo, it did the same thing, but after some playing with various buttons i could gain the control over the phone.

I decided to put some order on the new photos. I decided to move them with the file manager instead of media gallery cos it is faster, moved them from internal to external, the opened some that needed to be rotated, rotated, saved, 3 o 4 of them.
Opened the media gallery, opened the photos, some were rotated and some none...and one photo that i opened 1 minute before now is corrupted....

Patience is running out... :-(

Motorola Z8 - Tim - set in italian language-
Version :
ESP00_U_46.03.63G_00000328
espoo_uiq_31_200648_2249C2_F_20070723
FLEX VERSION: UCSUOMITIMITR2S618_IG0
DSP VERSION: 52040000
B. P. VERSION: MODEM4_U_40.08.74R
MPR: 7
NPR:3
Moto_build: 2249C2_F

USB connection.

Connected the phone this morning to download the photos made yesterday, copied from the microsd to the computers connected via USB with the "external memory" profile (third option in the USB connection menù, sorry reverted to italian so don't know its name in english). Everything OK. Made a couple of calls.

Went to work, downloaded swissmanager 1.6, connected the phone to the computer to USB hub, frontal crappy and standard USB port was always giving an unknow device error, the phone was saying "charger in" but the battery meter was not blinking.

Turned off, turned on, now working.

Motorola Z8 - Tim - set in italian language-
Version :
ESP00_U_46.03.63G_00000328
espoo_uiq_31_200648_2249C2_F_20070723
FLEX VERSION: UCSUOMITIMITR2S618_IG0
DSP VERSION: 52040000
B. P. VERSION: MODEM4_U_40.08.74R
MPR: 7
NPR:3
Moto_build: 2249C2_F

Photo corruption.

It just killed another photo. I uninstalled some application (expecially shozu that uses always ram) to se it helps, entered the media gallery, went into the photos, opened a folder, opened a photo, rotated it, saved. Now the photo is corrupted.

Ok, i'm not going to rotate anymore a photo since it seems such a difficult task, but this should be working.

getting tired.

Generic Error.

It's a very busy day  :(
Sent a SMS (single, under 160 char). While i was there i checked for emails, connected via gprs Wind connection, while downloading gave a program closed error (don't know wich program). Read the 2 mails, the gave another program closed, went to Home. The upper bar (signal - battery etc) was missing. Pressing the home button did nothing. Then a big "Generic Error - not specified" came out. I pressed the world, it flashed a bit but remained.
Had to take out the battery since it was not shutting down.

After reboot the new email icon was there even if I already read the messages, after i went in the inbox e re-opened the emails it disappeard.

Music again with S9.

Went for a walk, decided to listen to some music. Activated the bluetooth (same settings as in a previous post). Turned the S9 on, connected hfp, ad2p and avcrp, opened media gallery, selected an artist and started to listen.
After about 30 seconds stopped, looked to the phone, was in the Home.
Went back to media, opened another artist, 30 seconds and then back to home.
Turned off the phone, it reconnected to the S9 - funny thing is that first it say connected hfp-a2dp-avcrp and then said disconnected but it really is connected.
Started the same music as the first time, and now it is working.
S9 battery is at full charge.

Side problems with S9 (that i never had with Z3 phone):
-some times it connects hfp ad2p but not avcrp, so no sound from the headset, and usually needs a restart to fix
-at least 3 times it asked again to enter the bluetooth code 0000 to connect properly.
-usually the first time i press the pause button on the S9 it sound like it is pausing and then goes on, so i have to press it again.

The latest posts are a "realtime" experience of the latest 2 days. I have to restart or take out the battery at least a couple of times per day when i'm luky.
I'm going to wait for the firs firmware upgrade, that i hope comes early, a complete reset of the phone and then see if it works fine, otherwise i'll go to the motorola center and have it changed even day per day if needed. I spent more than € 450 for a cool phone, not for having headaches..

After the latest craches of yesterday (crached after closing a call) I decided to reset the phone.  Went to the master reset option and at the reboot i choosed english instead of italian.
I tried doing everything possible with the phone, mail web music all together. Was stable, almost perfect, apart that when listening to music a surfing causes the music the skip a bit when loading. Only weird thing was that i could not save the images after modifying them.
This morning tried the take some photo. At the first photo the "No Memory" error appeared, tried again, same thing, activated the videocam, crashed and rebooted.
Tomorrow I'm going to the motorola center and having it replaced or repaired.
Very sad.

Hey Neil,

Grim reading, you are certainly having your share of bad phone.
Looks like you have tried every angle to get it up and working.

Mine is still away at Motorola for repairs.....Maybe they are scared to give it back,in case they still have not solved problems...ha ha.

I'm sure these are firmware bugs and will get sorted but still they should not release such an unstable phone....it is extremely bad advertising.

Fonein, could you let us know what firmware you get in your phone when you have it returned to you?

I brought the phone this afternoon to the biggest motorola center in italy. They told me that the new package will be here in 2 days.
Good service, let's see if the new one works fine.

In the latest days I've decided to not use anymore the Z8 and started to use seriously my HP 6515 - I was using it only as GPS system and occasionaly as a phone, and I have from months now... And I discovered that it supports stereo bluetooth, and the S9 work fine (have to configure two separate profiles to use it as handfree device).
I'm playing a bit with the windows mobile phone, and apart the big dimensions and no key lock and battery life isn't stellar I think that it really is a good device.
Sometimes i think that maybe a MotoQ 9h could have been a better choice instead of Z8...but I hope that the new phone can change my mind.

I'm not really in the "brand loyalty" thing, but I haven't considered any sony or nokia symbian phones because all the motorola I used satisfied me, and it is an american brand. I hope that all this can make me say how good motorola warranty service is  ;)

Come back with same as  "st3ph3n" posted for his...

ESPOO_U_46.03.1AG_0000024b
espoo_uiq_31_200648_20070619
Moto_build: 2238C1_B

Flex Version
UCSU0MIVFUKR2S618_IG0

So don't know what mine was before I didn't take note... duuhhhhh!

At bottom of report sheet it said problems down to software, updated...
but looks like old firmware to me??

Buzzing is still there, but have loaded up all data again and haven't had crash......YET>

I don't think they done anything to be honest......I think it will go back again.

maybe the only software  fix they have for the moment is to downgrade the firmware...
maybe it's more stable


mine is going to be changed, so i think that it could be the same firmware as the older one

Yes, the firmware is exactly the same, but this phone works.

Finally i can say that i have a new phone, it's almost a month that i boght it and now i can use it.
In three days not a crash or reboot.
There are issues, but these kind of issues is what can normally can be expected by new phones, but now i can call, email, listen to music without crashing.

After i'll get some practice with the phone we will look closer to them.
For the moment, just waiting for the new firmware.

I agree with you, my phone was returned (same phone but with what was reported as "software update") with what appears to be older firmware but since return I have not had one crash at all.

Makes you wonder what they did????   ??? ???

Very strange indeed. Maybe they just need a good thrashing every now and then?

It's quite weird - some people have different functionality problems than others. For instance not everyone has had the MP3 playback problems that I've been experiencing. I'd imagine that there's been 2 firmwares releasead - one with improved functionalities but crashed, and then the stable one that has some known issues.

Can't wait for the first proper firmware release as I've just bought an A2DP/AVRCP compatible car kit that I'm hoping to stream things too.

There's three different firmwares which are known to be available in the UK.

Vodafone have the eldest firmware

O2's is a couple of weeks newer, but not a lot

Expansys / other SIM free retailers have the newest.

Motorola are testing a firmware update, but I have no news as to when this will be available, or which networks it's going to be available on...

If it doesn't solve the problems then I could well be forced to take the thing back to Vodafone and complain. I believe there is enough grounds for the so called "Multimedia monster" to be swapped for something fit for purpose.

There's a great phone trying to burst out like Alien somewhere!