Problem with ringtone on Nokia N91 cutting after a few seconds

patwa_2

I had this problem ages ago and fixed it but I don't remember how.

I had to format my phone this weekend and reset it to factory defaults. I wanted to set it up the way it was before so loaded some mp3's I use as ringtones onto the hard disk, same as before. I set one of them as the default under profiles.

Now, when someone calls, the ringtone plays for a few seconds, then stops. Then the phone says the caller's name (set to yes under settings > call), then again a few seconds later, all whilst there is no ringtone.

From the caller's point of view the phone rings as normal and if not answered goes to voicemail.

Could someone help as to how to fix this? As I said I had the issue before but got it working again.

Thanks.

H.

patwa_2

OK, an update. I fixed the problem but now it's back, so there must be something in the middle that's causing it.

What I did was to re-install the firmware. After this the phone rebooted and I made a test call, Nokia default ringtone rang fine. Then I installed the Talks speech software I used, and did a second test call. Again, ringtone was fine. I then went into Profiles and changed the ringtone to the mp3 i wanted (they were still on the hard drive even after the firmware re-install, and the problem came back. The mp3 would play for a couple of seconds, then the Nokia ringtone once and then silence.

Changed back to the NOkia tone, but now it just rings twice before going silent.

I could attribute it to the caller tune I have with T-mobile, but as I have had that tune for a week now and no problems, it's not that. The problems started after the format at the weekend.

Anyone help with this? Two rings is just not enough to answer a call, and anyway it was working once so it must be fixable.

H.

EDIT: It doesn't seem to matter where on the phone (internal memory or hard drive) I put the ringtone, I even slimmed down the mp3 file dramatically but it still goes to default nokia tone after a couple of seconds then goes silent).

Grrr, it's the same firmware as before, just re-installed so I can't imagine that causing it, it's also the latest firmware that I've had for a couple of months without problems.

patwa_2

Hello,

Well, after a long time, two complete formats, numerous resets to factory defaults and having lost all my contacts and messages since the backups didn't want to restore themselves, I found the solution to the problem, which I will post here just in case it saves others the same hassle.

I had a hunch about the fix to the problem earlier so tried it out when I got back. I thought maybe the phone couldn't decode the mp3 on the fly when a call came in, hence got about two seconds into it and then reverted to the NOkia default tune. But I had other mp3's that worked, so this lead me to have a look at the bitrates for those that did. They were encoded at either 128 or 320kbps. The one I was trying to use was encoded at 292kbps. This is a non-standard encoding, as usually mp3's are encoded at bitrates in multiples of 32, which 292/32 = 9.125 (or more simply in multiples of 8 so 292/8 = 36.5) clearly isn't. I hoped re-encoding the file would work, so grabbed a shareware program called Alt MP3 Bitrate Converter (15 day full trial) and re-did the file at 128kbps which worked. The tune now plays flawlessly and there is little loss of quality.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation, and hope it helps someone in the future. Incidentally, neither Winamp nor my iPod (running Rockbox) has trouble with the files, so I guess it must just be the Nokia firmware which only plays 'standard' bitrate files. I couldn't find any mention of this problem on the net either, but maybe there is a first time for everything.

H.