IAcer Liquid Gallant Duo (E350) will not retain time zone after power off

doubleknee

Hi, my E350 has a French SIM in slot 1 and a UK SIM in slot 2.  I use the phone in France on the Orange network for SIM 1.  When I power the phone off and then on, the time zone is always reset to GMT +0:00 even though I have set it to GMT +1:00.  I've tried every combination of automatic date and time (network, GPS and off), automatic time zone, manually selecting time zone and even swapping between 12 and 24 hour format.  I'm unable to use the alarms reliably as a result and all my messages are wrongly timed.  Am I missing something here?  Is anyone able to offer advice, please?  

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Have you tried to switch off both "automatic date and time" and "automatic timezone" and set the timezone manually? Does the problem still happen after power off and on?

 

Thanks ! 

doubleknee

Hi acero2013, yes I've tried that combination and that does not work either.  With all automatic settings set to off and the time zone set to GMT+1 manually, the phone reverts back to GMT+0 after a power off and on.  To be fair, it is not always reproducable with a short off/on cycle but happens every time if left off overnight.  I don't know what else to try.

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Thanks for your reply. Please can you do a little experiment? Could you please swap the slots in which the SIM cards are, i.e. place French SIM in slot 2 and a UK SIM in slot 1, and let me know if you can still see the problem?

 

Many thanks in advance

 

doubleknee

Hi acero2013

 

Thanks for the suggestion.  I swapped the two SIMs back and forth several times and it didn't change the symptoms at all.  However, I've noticed that with both Auto Date/Time and Auto Time Zone (ATZ) set to 'Use Network', when I power the phone up, the greyed out 'Select Time Zone (STZ) shows GMT+0:00.  If I then uncheck ATZ and then re-check it, the STZ then updates to the correct GMT+1:00.  I even tried setting the STZ manually to something bizarre like GMT+8:00 but it was still reset to zero on power off/on.  This happened with SIMs in either position.  When powered on, it's as if the phone 'forgets' to check that it needs to look at the network Time Zone until it is reminded manually.

 

Strangely, the phone remembers the time zone when I use system 'Schedule power on/off but not with a manual off/on.

 

Thanks.

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Thank you very much for your detailed feedback.

 

Please could you clarify some additional questions?

 

1) when you swapped SIM cards, and placed the Orange France SIM card in SIM card slot #2, did you set the Auto Date/Time to off and uncheck the ATZ?

 

2) do you see any problem when you disable the UK SIM card (by unchecking the SIM card in SIM Management settings)

 

Thank you in advance

doubleknee

Hi acero2013

 

Thanks again.  Your question 1: yes I did that with no change in symptoms.

However, using the SIM enable/disable function in SIM Management, as per your suggestion, I've found there's no need to power off/on to reproduce the symptoms!  So here are the results from no power cycling, ATZ off, ADT off - just turn SIMs on/off:

 

SIM 1            SIM 2             Time Zone

FR ON          UK ON          set to FR using ATZ on/off

FR OFF            “                FR

FR ON              “                FR

    “                UK OFF        FR

    “                UK ON          resets UK

    “                UK OFF        UK

    “                UK ON          UK

    “                UK OFF        UK

FR OFF              “              UK

FR ON                “              resets FR

FR OFF              “              FR

FR ON                “              FR

    “                UK ON          resets UK

 

.....and before you ask:

Repeated with ATZ switched on = exactly same result.

Repeated with ADT set to network = exactly same result.

Swapped SIMs over and repeated all tests = exactly same result.

 

Each time the TZ changed in the above tests, it took place within about a second with the message 'restricted access changed' appearing momentarily in the top bar.

 

So basically, the dual SIM phone appears to be unable to handle SIMS from different time zones!  Does this data shed any more light on the problem?

 

Thanks for your continued interest!

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Many thanks for your detailed feedback. It is very useful indeed. Please could you confirm the build number on your device? You can find it in Settings > About Phone > Acer Android Version.

 

Thanks in advance!

doubleknee

Model number E350

Android version 4.0.3

Baseband Version Acer_AV041_MT6575_E350_1.000.22

Kernel Version 3.0.13

Buold Number Acer_AV041_E350_1.000.22_EMEA_FR

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Thank you for all your feedback.  To summarise the behaviour of the device, we can say that it is configuring the time zone accoring to the last SIM card that registers on the network, regardless if the auto time zone and auto time & date settings are on or off.  This is not the expected behaviour because the device should take into account these 2 settings to set the time zone value.

 

For the time being, I would suggest that while you are in France, you place the French SIM card in the SIM card slot #2 (first one starting from the left) because the SIM card in slot #2 is the last one to register on the network.

 

Important note:

If a SIM card does not have a PIN code, it will automatically regiester on the network. If the French SIM card doesn't have a PIN code, but the UK SIM card has a PIN code, then the French SIM card will register first in the network, regardless if it is placed in SIM card slot #2.

 

In other words:

If your UK SIM card has a PIN code enabled, then please activate a PIN code for the French SIM card too. 

If your UK PIN card does not have a PIN code enabled, then you don't need to activate a PIN code for the French SIM card.

 

Hope it makes sense!

doubleknee

Hi acero2013, thank you for all of your help and suggestions.

 

Firstly, neither SIM has a PIN code enabled.  Secondly, although your explanation sounds plausible, the symptoms occur regardless of which slots I put the SIMs in.  As I live in France permanently, I prefer to have the FR SIM in slot 1 anyway so that I can use those features not available via slot 2.  My UK SIM is for more occasional use and visits to the UK (I have a very, very cheap UK contract which I refuse to give up!!).

 

The only remaining test I'm trying concerns the network to which the roaming UK SIM connects.  The signal is poor in my house, but available networks are Bouygtel, Orange and SFR.  My FR SIM is tied to Orange (but will allow connection to SFR - Bouygtel is 'forbidden') and the UK O2 SIM seems to prefer Bouygtel.  However, I noticed once that when the symptom did NOT occur, the UK SIM initially locked onto Orange first but changed to Bouygtel a few minutes later.  I haven't been able to reproduce that yet as the 'Mobile networks', 'Network operators', 'Select a network operator' will not allow me to fix the UK SIM to Orange.  I'll try it in a better Orange signal area and keep you posted.

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Thank you. 

 

When you say that you prefer to have the FR SIM in slot 1 so that you can use those features not available via slot 2, please can you clarify which features you are referring to? Normally you should be able to access the same features regardless of the slot number in which you place your SIM card.

 

Regarding the manual network selection procedure for the O2 UK SIM card, do you see any message when you attempt to register in Orange France network? If the device can't register on the network, it may be because there is no roaming agreement between O2 UK and Orange France, and the Orange France network rejects the registration attempt.

 

Thanks

doubleknee

Hi acero2013

 

Hmm, maybe I'm mistaken.  There's very little documentation available for the E350 but I thought I had read somewhere that SIM1 provided all features of 3G etc whereas SIM2 did not.  Perhaps I''m confusing this with the feature that when one SIM is in use during a call, the second cannot receive calls or whatever.  Can you confirm that there is no difference between the slots?

 

As for manual network connection with the UK SIM, I've not yet successfully connected to anything other than Bouygtel. The phone tries to connect to another selected operator for 30-40 seconds during which it shows 'registering on .....' during which it cannot be interrupted, but then just shows the screen of selection again with Bouygtel remaining connected.  So no message.  I don't understand why I cannot make an alternative manual selection as I've actually seen the UK SIM connect automatically to SFR and Orange, but only briefly.  I believe O2 has a roaming agreement with all three operators.

 

I just swapped the SIMs - UK in 1, FR in 2.  Powered phone up and watched it boot.  For about 2 minutes, neither SIM registered, then the FR SIM2 registered to Orange and immediately, the time showing at top right corner deducted an hour.  UK SIM2 did not successfully register for another minute when it found Bouygtel and no further time change.  After another couple of minutes, the UK SIM switched to Orange all by itself but only for a minute then it switched back.  Time still wrong.  This was with ADT and ATZ set to network.  I had to reset the TZ to GMT+1 as usual.  So the TZ reset in this case seems to have been from the first SIM to register and not the second.

 

I'll keep trying different things but I think this is unfixable.

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

You can configure the SIM cards as you prefer with the options available under SIM Management settings. You can modify the configurations in both SIM cards at any time by using the SIM management setting options, without having to swap the SIM cards physically.

 

Regarding the UK SIM card, from your description it seems that it is always the last one to register on the network, because it is roaming back and forth between different networks (from Bouygues Telecom to Orange and then back to Orange). As mentioned, the "use the network time zone" feature doesn't work on the device, and the time zone is set according to the SIM card that last registered on the network.  This means that the time zone value "GMT+0", stored inthe UK SIM card, in most cases will be the one configured on the device, because the UK SIM card will be taking more time to register on the network.

In short, if you don't use the UK SIM card while you are in France, I would recommend that you disable the UK SIM card using the option available in the SIM management menu. In this way, you will avoid the time zone changes dictated by the UK SIM card.

 

Hope it makes sense, thanks

doubleknee

Hi acero2013

 

Thank you for all your help on this topic - just a shame that the phone doesn't quite perform to spec.  In most other ways, it's a great phone and I'm really pleased with it.

 

Yes, I'd agree with your description of the roaming SIM behaviour, but as I need the UK SIM for inbound calls in France, I've found a reasonable workaround.  I've installed an app called Event Manager which I've set to silence my phone automatically overnight so I need to power off and on far less frequently. At least it allows me to use the alarms!

 

Thanks again for your time and effort,

Doubleknee

 

acero2013

Hi doubleknee,

 

Thank you. I'm glad that you have found a reasonable workaround and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to help you further.

 

Thanks,

 

acero2013

logan82

hello,

i have the same problem with my liquid e2 duo.
i dont have a pin on my tanzania sim card. How can I set the Pin?

But I think this timezone bug (it resets to GMT+1 ever couple hours on my phone) is a general issue on all acer dual sim phones. so it might be good if you provide a setting, which sim card is used for timezone setting.

And more: if i set automatic time zone to no, the phone should not change the time zone in thousands of years.

acero2013

Hi logan82,

 

You can set the PIN in Settings > Security > Set up SIM card lock.

 

Are you using 2 SIM cards on your device? If so, which country does the second SIM card belong to?

 

Thanks

 

acero2013

logan82

My first sim card is from tanzania. My second is my normal sim card from germany. 

but I tried also the other way around - same issue.