Handy Tips

LG Optimus V: How to Set the Clock

2012-03-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

I accidentally dropped my LG Optimus V on the floor. The back cover popped and battery fell out. Thank God! It still works after I put everything together. Wait! Not everything. The clock is actaylly exact 1 hour off. It goes back to the normal time instead of the Day Light Saving time.

How is how I get the time correct.

Press the power button;
Switch on the Airplane mode;
Switch off the Airplane mode;
Wait

Your phone time will be corrected after the service is reestablished.

LG Optimus V: Clean the Screen

2011-10-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

You LG Optimus V screen gets oily after a while. You can see finger prints on it. The easiest way to wipe them off is to use a cloth, preferably, an glass cleaning cloth. Please make sure no window cleaning chemicals.

LG Optimus V: Operating Modes

2011-08-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

Your LG Optimus V has several operating modes that are designed for various purposes.

The first one is the normal operating mode. This is the mode for your daily use. Furthermore, the normal operating modes has 2 sub modes. The Silent mode shuts off the ring tong such that it will not bother others when in the meetings or library. The Airplane mode shuts off the radio and turns your phone into a game machine or an ebook reader. This mode minimizes your phone interference to the airplane electronic circuits. Still I heard travellers were requested to turn their phone off completely.

The second mode is the emergency mode. This mode is really designed for emergency use. It allows anyone to make an emergency call to 911 even the phone was locked by the owner. However, there were reports about the phone stuck in the emergency mode after the urgent incident. But this will not be a big problem as any service provider will help you to get your phone restored. The user guide also specifically says that "Tap Exit on the Emergency Call Back Mode" to exit the emergency mode after the 911 call.

The third one is the safe mode. I believe it follows the same idea of the Windows operating system. Your phone loads only the bare necessary operating softwares when started in the safe mode. It skips loading any apps. With only the operating software, your phone will let you to back step what did. This mode is very useful if you made some installation mistakes or you install some incompatible apps.

The forth one is the recovery mode or bootloader mode. It is for advanced action such as erase all your data, wipe cache partition, or to apply update.zip on SD card when in the process of rooting. This is really not for a regular phone user. You must know what you are doing to use this mode.

LG Optimus V: Check ESN before Buy a Used One

2011-08-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Each cell phone has a unique id programmed by the manufacturer, that is either Electronic Serial Number (ESN) or Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID) depending on the the phone. Please save that number to a secure place right after you get your phone fresh out of the box.

This number is very useful. You need ESN to activate your phone with the service provider before you start to use it. You can also lock that phone if you found out that you lost it. All you need to do is to call the service provider and give them the ESN. This turns that specific phone into a brick. So whoever stole it can't use it.

There are lots of used LG Optimus V on sale online. Some of them marked pretty cheap for quick sell. You must be careful when you buy those. They could be a stolen phone or a phone with service blocked. The easiest way to make sure that the phone is worth the money is to check if the ESN is a good one.

Here are the web sites that you can go to check the ESN numbers.
checkesn.com
checkesnfree.com

Happy checking!

LG Optimus V: Another Way to Reset to Factory State

2011-07-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

I talked about how to reset your LG Optimus V back to the factory state. Here is another way for you to do the same thing. No matter which method you use, please do NOT forget to get your personal data backed up before you do this. Your precious data is gone forever once the whole procedure is completed.

Back up your data;
Turn off your LG Optimus V;
Press and hold the Down volume button, the Home button, and the Power button;
Release all of them when the LG logo is on the screen.

That resetting your phone to the factory state is also called recovery mode but I think it is better not to call that. Recovery mode doesn't tell you that your LG Optimus V will not have your personal data any more.

LG Optimus V: Safe Mode to Recover from Not Booting Properly

2011-07-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

LG Optimus V has a special mode called safe mode. It is designed for your phone to recover from any malfunctions that get your phone stuck in a boot loop. I believe it follows the same idea of the safe mode in Microsoft Windows. Booting into the safe mode, the operating system will not load any applications at start up. So you could backstep whatever you did before the phone got stuck.

Here is what you need to do to get into safe mode.

Turn off your phone;
Reboot it;
Press and hold the Menu key while the Android Logo is displayed;
The main screen should have "safe mode" shown in the lower left-hand corner.

I seldom using this method. I just took the battery out and put it in. It will reboot and recovery from the malfunction. So far nothing bad happened. To the opposite, there was someone who's phone got stuck in the safe mode. (I read this on the Internet). Ironic, isn't it?

LG Optimus V: To Root Or Not To Root

2011-07-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

To root or not to root, that is a question. To answer that, you need to ask yourself why do you want to root your phone and are you tech savvy enough to get your phone rooted.

Rooting is not just follow the instructions you found on the Internet. It involves risk. First, rooting voids your LG Optimus V warranty. Second, your LG Optimus V could get stuck in recovery mode. You end up with a hundred dollar paper weight. Lots of people rooted their phones for tethering. I believe that tethering violates the service terms of most services providers. Some of them even charge $10 per month if you tether.

There are some rewarding features, too. You will get better hardware and software interactions or may be improve your phone's performance. A friend told that you could even get some features not mentioned in the operation menu. However, I see the best feature you will get is that you can install some special applications, such as OS from different phone maker.

All these boils down to what do you need your phone for. Does it really worth the risk? In the case of LG Optimus V, you really don't need to root it if you just want to set it up as a Wi-Fi hot spot. Please keep in mind that you might break your service contracts and terms.

LG Optimus V: What is Rooting or Jailbreaking

2011-07-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

To answer that we need to know what did you get after you spent hundreds of dollars on your phone. I believe lots of smart phone users use PCs. So I will do side by side comparison and contrast between PCs and your cell phone.

Just like the computer hardware you bought, you get the hardware, the phone, the charger, the earpiece, and other accessories. Similarly you also get the software, the operating system, the applications, and games. The only thing you didn't get is the ultimate access. There are some files, parameters, configurations, and etc. that are read only to you, the owner of them. Sounds ridiculous but it is true. It is like you don't have the administrator's privilege of your PC.

Rooting your Android is the same as jailbreaking your iPhone. You take back the control of your phone and get to change your phone to the way you prefer. You could even install a custom version of the Android.

However, rooting is not a risk free task. You could end up a hundred dollar paper weight if you get stuck. Please don't start rooting your phone till you read my next post.

LG Optimus V: Frozen Phone Fix

2011-06-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine just got an LG Optimus V. It freezes several times in the first week. I felt obliged to help him out as it was I who recommended the phone to him.

I got his frozen phone to diagnose what was the problem. To my surprise, it is the same as the "Total Blank Screen" except the screen was not blank. Everything was showing correctly. Even the clock was ticking. The problem is still the same. None of the buttons, including the power button, work. Judging from that, I believed that the phone was actually good. It is the software that hung the phone.

The phone software must be busy doing something and kept trying after it got no answer. I took out the battery with his permission. (It was a new phone with no personal data on it anyway). Everything was alright after the reboot.

LG Optimus V: Reset to Factory State

2011-06-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

After all the fun and excitement, you realized that the modifications and additions you did to your LG Optimus V were not exactly what you'd been dreamed for. Or you want to customize your phone a totally different way. Or you like you phone so much that you want someone else to enjoy it. Whatever it is, you decided to remove all the personal data and the applications you installed on your LG Optimus V. Unfortunately, you pretty much forgot all about what you did and saved. Luckily enough, the LG Optimus V came with a function for you to put your phone back to the factory state.

Before starting removing all the data on your phone, you better backup up them, including the data on the microSD. This procedure could remove all the personal data on your phone. It would not delete the data on the microSD according to the information on the phone screen before step 7. But better be safe than sorry.
Here are the steps to reset the LG Optimus V to the factory state,

Backup your personal data on the phone
Backup your personal data on the microSD
Hit menu button when at the home screen
Tap Settings
Tap Privacy
Tap Factory Data Reset
Tap Reset Phone
Enter your password if required, then tap Erase Everything

Now you got yourself an LG Optimus V the same state as one just came out of the package box. Well, except the "Current system software and bundled applications".

I read something about a phone hangs after step 8. I tried couple of times with my phone and everything was smooth.

LG Optimus V: Target DPCI Number

2011-06-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Target sells LG Optimus V. I was told that you could find the item faster if you have the DPCI number. You could also get the inventory information if you have the DPCI number. I don't know if any of these are true.

Anyway here it is. The DPCI number for the LG Optimus V at Target is, 080-02-0724.

Hope this will help.

LG Optimus V: Wi-Fi Hot Spot Test

2011-06-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

I did not get a chance to test the Wi-Fi hot spot function of the LG Optimus V fully after I got the setup working. At that time, all I did was surfing a couple of pages to see the connection would not drop. The tests were done before I got the "Total Blank Screen" problem. I felt obliged to talk about that first.

We went to a kind of isolated area for a weekend. Everybody got something to do except me. So I got myself a couple hour window to test the Wi-Fi hot spot function of the phone. The area was open and the signal bars were full.

I recorded down the battery level before I began. The setup was easy as I did that before. Everything went smoothly. I surfed to the places I usually go and clicked the links on those pages. Those bloggers should thank me for the extra money they got. :-) Two hours passed pretty fast. I stopped right there and recorded down the battery level at the exact strike.

I got nothing to complain about the whole test. No interrmiten connections, no dropped connections, no delays. Nothing but the battery life. The battery drained from 97% to 23% in such a short time. I don't understand why the big difference between talk time and data time. I also moved around to see the coverage. It covered a circular area with a diameter of about 30 ft. or so.

LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen III The Fixes

2011-06-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

"Blank Screen" seems not a very small problem anymore. I thougt I was done with this topic after "Total Blank Screen I" and "Total Blank Screen II". But, a friend of my who has the exact same phone as I experienced the "Blank Screen" yesterday. The good news is that it can be easily resolved.

He called me and we had a chat. I went through everything I did and diagnosed. He just took out the battery while the phone was still powered on. I do not like that and do not recommend anyone to do that. He put the battery back in after waited for 5 minutes and powered the phone up. It worked.

So now we know 2 ways to fix your LG Optimus V when it goes to a total blank screen,
1. Let your phone sit there and run out of battery;
2. Take out the battery and put back it back in after wait for 5 minutes.

Personally, I don't like the second choice. I don't know if doing that would damage any hardware of your phone. So the first choice is the safe bet. I also believe that all the manufactures should make sure that the phones they made will work after your phone ran out of battery and started recharging.

LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen II The Helper

2011-06-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Before I went home I looked at the phone under the sun and found out that there was some thing kind of visible on the screen. So I did more tests.

The time was actually showing on the screen but I could hardly make it out. So I pressed the power button again and vaguely saw the "phone options" menu popped up. I tapped the "power off" but nothing happened. Actually all three menu choices were not working.

This proved my theory that either the backlit or the backlit control software was not working. And what is more, the touch screen was not functional either.

I called my service provider, got the music treatment, and finally talked to an "experienced" technician. He offered no solution and suggested me to call the manufacturer.

To my surprise, the one feature I dislike the most about the phone, battery life, actually helped out solving the problem. My phone ran out of battery and went to shutdown. This morning the phone revived from the total blank screen after I plugged in the charger and restarted it.

I posted the two ways I learnt to fix the problem in LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen III.

LG Optimus V: Total Blank Screen I The Diagnose

2011-06-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

For a long while, I though the "Blank Screen" was just another wolf coming story. Even now I still couldn't believe that I hit jackpot today. This afternoon my LG Optimus V suddenly went completely blank. I did some checking and here is the report.

My first suspect was the battery as I don't have any confidence in its so claimed battery standby time. All bottom menu buttons lit up when pressed and the phone volume buttons still work and produces sounds. This actually proved to me that the phone was operational with enough battery juice.

Next I tried to see if ringtons woke up the screen. So I dialed my cell from another phone. It rang but nothing shown. This concluded that either the backlit was gone or the backlit control apps was malfunction.

The third task I did was to see if I could shut the phone down. I have remembered the tap buttons' location when I usually turn it off. So I pressed the power button and held it long. Then I tapped blindly at the location where the "Power off" should be and tapped at the location where "OK" should be. This didn't work either.

This pretty much exhausts all the tricks I can think of. I'm going to call my phone service provider to see if they could help me out. Please see the Total Blank Screen II.

LG Optimus V: Awkward Keyboard

2011-06-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have been using the phone for about 4 months now. I like it a lot. Still, there are some rooms of improvement. Longer battery life, for instance, is definitely a much needed feature. Key in information also requries attention.

LG Optimus V came with 2 keyboard apps, Android Keyboard and Swipe. Neither of them works satisfactory for me. Maybe my fingures are too fat. An adjacent key pops up half of the time. I have to instead to bring a stylus in addition to the phone. Swipe, on the other hand, also requires you to stop at the correct place for it to come up with the correct word. That still requires a slim finger.

I now even start to think of writing the keyboard app for my fat fingers. I would like to evaluate other keyboard apps first before this climbs to the top of my to do list.

LG Optimus V: Skype

2011-05-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

It is pretty easy to use Skype on the LG Optimus V. All you need to do is download and install it. The phone dialer will ask you which one you want to use whenever Skype is available.

I don't use Skype very much as it stays running even after are you done with it. It drains you precious battery power. You have to use settings to kill it after every use.

LG Optimus V: Battery Life

2011-05-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

The Optimus V claims to have a talk time of 6 hours and standby time of 7 days according to the spec. It is really not the case, at least for my first battery. My first LG Optimus V battery ran out in 8 hours while sitting on my nightstand even I charged it fully before I went to bed.

I dealt with the vendor several time over the phone and convinced them the guilty party was the battery. Finally, I got a replacement battery. Now that battery lasts about one and half days, still a little far from 7 days of standby time.

There are battery life saving apps to use. However, none of them meets my requirement. The apps change your settings aggressively in order to save power. They turn off some of the features you want, or lower the intensity of the screen, or shorten the time of display on. I'm still searching for an application which could wake me up at a preset time after the phone was shut down.

LG Optimus V: Wi-Fi Hot Spot Setup

2011-04-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

I set Wi-Fi hot spot using my LG Optimus V. It worked. However, I don't need to actually go that route. Nowadays, almost all the places I go have free Wi-Fi hot spot available.

I'm not going to write anything about the setup unless I get a request.

By the way, the MAC address for the Wi-Fi hot spot is the same MAC address you found this way.

LG Optimus V: Secured Wi-Fi Connection Setup

2011-04-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

My friend asked me how did I setup secure connection to my wireless router. It is pretty simple after you find the MAC address.

This is what you need to do at the Wi-Fi router.
1. Make sure you get the encription right;
2. Security System: WPA/WPA2 PSK;
3. Encription TKIP;
4. Your faviorite pass phase;
5. Add the MAC address of the LG Optimus V you found in to the trust station list if you maintain a list.

However, you have to watch the total number of MAC addresses you put in there. It usually has a limit of 5. Your Wi-Fi router will not accept connections that has the MAC addresses of the fifth device.

LG Optimus V: Find the MAC Address

2011-03-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

You do need to know the MAC address if you want to filter the device on your wireless router. So for the LG Optimus V, here is how you find it.

First, you need to run application "Settings";

Second, scroll all the way down to the bottom "About Phone";

Third, tap "About Phone";

Forth, tap "Status";

Find it below "Wi-Fi MAC Address".

Happy finding!