A staple cured my cell phone

[Darrell KSR]

Just in case this ever happens to you.

When I'm in my car, I am always speaking on bluetooth/speakerphone. I have some wired and wireless (bluetooth) headphones I often use when I am at home and use those to speak on my phone. I don't often use my phone as, well, a regular phone where you just hold it up to your face and talk. But I do occasionally.

In the last week or so, I have had people complain about not being able to hear me. (Usually that's a plus). They have taken off their own bluetooth headset, put on speaker, etc., and it didn't change. I have changed my phone to speakerphone, and they hear me then fine. So, weird. I called them back on headphones, and they hear fine again.

I used my phone's voice recorder to record myself speaking with just the phone, then the speaker, and I heard what people hear--practically nothing on the regular phone, and fine on the speaker.

So it's a one-trick pony problem.

I tried going into my settings and unclicking the box for background noise suppression. Didn't help. (Somebody said that would work).

Did not want to do a factory reset, which somebody else said fixed their issue.

Looked and found the tiny microphone hole at the bottom of the phone. Now, somebody said that the microphone hole could be plugged or blocked with something. Somebody else said, "no, can't be, because his speakerphone is working." The first guy said that speakerphones sometimes use the "other" microphone in a dual stereo microphone setting.

I figured it was worth a (careful) shot.

Took a staple, broke off the bended edge and it was straight. Carefully inserted it, moved it around a little, pulled it out, and saw a smidge of something come out.

Tried the recording test again--it worked. So whatever that little smidge of something was, was enough to cause the problem.

WARNING before you try it--there were some that said to be very careful if you do this, somebody thought there might be a membrane or something there to make the phone waterproof, etc. Also, the recommendation was a needle or a pin, which would be stronger than a staple (I was slightly concerned that the staple might break, but was very careful with it).

My failsafe was that I may be in the market for a new phone anyway, so it would not have been a catastrophe had it not worked--but I'd rather slog along with this phone if it's working. And now it is.

[suncat05]

Darrell, do you have a little dark cloud over your head that follows you around too? LOL!

[Darrell KSR]

Man, you'd think so sometimes, Suncat.

[BigBluePappy]

Just a regular Joe Btfsplk.
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[blueboss]

Just a regular Joe Btfsplk.
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Thanks Pappy!!! Just the other day I was wondering what the black cloud guy's name was from Lil Abner..

I kept coming up with Darrell but I knew that wasn't it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Darrell KSR]

Hey, it cured the cell phone. Now I just have a hairline crack in the screen.

I actually have that horrible insurance on it I ought to drop. It's the one you pay like $180 a year, and if you use it, it has like a $150 or $200 "deductible."

I guess I ought to consider it, but the hairline crack isn't very noticeable. It's apparently on the outer glass, does not affect the digitizer, and it's been this way for months.

[Darrell KSR]

Fwiw, the staple cure seems to be a permanent fix.

Still have the hairline crack, but it's fine, and hasn't affected anything. Knocking on wood there.