Phone buttons won't beep when connected.

[BUTCH1]

Hello all, my wife has an LG 450 flip-phone, weird situation with it, after the call connects you can't use the keypad. She can't re-fill her minutes because when the T-mobile automated system says "press 1 for English" there is no tone. Tried crawling through the users manual but have not seen any setting that controls this, any ideas? (besides upgrade from the Barney-Rubble special LOL).

 

[shabby]

Put her sim card in your phone and fill up her minutes, then get her a new phone.

 

[Fardringle]

On the phone, open the menu, go to Settings, then go to Audio & Ringtones, then go to Keypad Tone, and then Volume. Turn up the volume to the desired "beep" level. Under the Keypad Tone menu, you can also go to Sounds to change the sound that the phone makes when the buttons are pressed.

 

[Mike64]

On the phone, open the menu, go to Settings, then go to Audio & Ringtones, then go to Keypad Tone, and then Volume. Turn up the volume to the desired "beep" level. Under the Keypad Tone menu, you can also go to Sounds to change the sound that the phone makes when the buttons are pressed.

But that'll just make the phone itself "beep" (monotonically) when the keys are pressed, not affect its (in)ability to transmit DTMF tones, won't it?

It sounds like the OP's wife's phone is just malfunctioning, although I guess there's a chance a different setting got inadvertently changed. My own "Barney Rubble special" (a Samsung SCH350) lets you choose between "normal" or "long" DTMF tones (in the "call settings" menu.) Just on general principle, I set it to "long" immediately after activating it so I don't know if it really makes a difference, but looking for a similar setting is worth a shot...

ETA:

Tried crawling through the users manual but have not seen any setting that controls this, any ideas? (besides upgrade from the Barney-Rubble special LOL).

It's not clear to me exactly which menu the setting is under, but check out page 52 of the phone's manual (at least the version of it I found here), where it refers to a setting called "Send DTMF Tones". If that somehow got switched to "off", that's the problem... If that doesn't work, I think shabby's solution is your only alternative...

 

[isekii]

easier to just replace than to troubleshoot more than likely.

 

[BUTCH1]

But that'll just make the phone itself "beep" (monotonically) when the keys are pressed, not affect its (in)ability to transmit DTMF tones, won't it?

It sounds like the OP's wife's phone is just malfunctioning, although I guess there's a chance a different setting got inadvertently changed. My own "Barney Rubble special" (a Samsung SCH350) lets you choose between "normal" or "long" DTMF tones (in the "call settings" menu.) Just on general principle, I set it to "long" immediately after activating it so I don't know if it really makes a difference, but looking for a similar setting is worth a shot...

ETA:
It's not clear to me exactly which menu the setting is under, but check out page 52 of the phone's manual (at least the version of it I found here), where it refers to a setting called "Send DTMF Tones". If that somehow got switched to "off", that's the problem... If that doesn't work, I think shabby's solution is your only alternative...

That did it!, thanks!. Don't know how DTMF got switched off anyway, wife is not one to dig into menu's and such, guess they don't spend much time developing the software for a #35 phone LOL, at least it's theft-proof, I've seen homeless people with a better phone than an LG 450.

 

[Mike64]

That did it!, thanks!. Don't know how DTMF got switched off anyway, wife is not one to dig into menu's and such, guess they don't spend much time developing the software for a #35 phone LOL, at least it's theft-proof, I've seen homeless people with a better phone than an LG 450.

Glad it worked - we "Barney Rubble specialists" have to stick together, after all.

Mine is in fact a Walmart PP $10 special that I managed to talk a CSR into re-activating just around the time VZW started really cracking down on PP phones on postpaid plans... For a long time I felt almost silly pulling it out in public, but at this point it's so outdated, the looks I get seem to suggest that people aren't wondering why I "haven't gotten with the program" anymore, but what possibly-special-sneaky reason I have for using it. Meanwhile, the actual reason I've held off from a smartphone for so long thing is the SCH350's "quick search" feature that lets me pull up phone numbers very quickly and easily with one hand, not to mention that I can usually go 2-3 days without having to recharge it and can buy OEM replacement batteries for like $2 on Ebay.:biggrin:

 

[BUTCH1]

Glad it worked - we "Barney Rubble specialists" have to stick together, after all.

Mine is in fact a Walmart PP $10 special that I managed to talk a CSR into re-activating just around the time VZW started really cracking down on PP phones on postpaid plans... For a long time I felt almost silly pulling it out in public, but at this point it's so outdated, the looks I get seem to suggest that people aren't wondering why I "haven't gotten with the program" anymore, but what possibly-special-sneaky reason I have for using it. Meanwhile, the actual reason I've held off from a smartphone for so long thing is the SCH350's "quick search" feature that lets me pull up phone numbers very quickly and easily with one hand, not to mention that I can usually go 2-3 days without having to recharge it and can buy OEM replacement batteries for like $2 on Ebay.:biggrin:

Exactly, with a tiny screen and little CPU power needed these little guys can go for days without needing a recharge. I'm currently using a phone that's EVEN CHEAPER, a Samsung SGH-T139 but since I got an LG 450 for free I'm going to up-grade to that. The Sammy's have a nasty software bug that makes the phone flash "555" across the screen and it's not repairable nor is there a reset. It may never go bad but if it does your fucked as you cannot retrieve your contacts. It's capable of 4-5 days without being on a charger and it's tough as nails too. Yea, I've been called the "Cro-magnon man" by people who see me use it, but I see them hauling around their chargers as their "mobile tablet that makes calls" seems to never last a full day without more juice than it's battery can supply.

 

[Mike64]

Yep, my only real regret about the SCH350 is that it was so low-end even in its prime that the bitpim programmers never bothered to add support for it. (I actually bought it just as a last-resort backup phone, until I discovered the "quick search" I now don't want to give up...)

Of course it's annoying that I can't swap another phone onto that line until I'm ready to ditch it entirely, since VZW "fixed" their online ESL switcher to recognize the phone for the never-used-on-a-prepaid-account device that is a lo-o-ng time ago now. Way back when, I pretty blatantly appealed to the sympathy of "tech" rep (who was glad to be dealing with someone who wasn't entirely clueless) to get her to reactivate it since it had once been, albeit briefly, active on my account already before the switcher was programmed to recognize it, but I very seriously doubt they'd let me get away with that again...

 

[BUTCH1]

Yep, my only real regret about the SCH350 is that it was so low-end even in its prime that the bitpim programmers never bothered to add support for it. (I actually bought it just as a last-resort backup phone, until I discovered the "quick search" I now don't want to give up...)

Of course it's annoying that I can't swap another phone onto that line until I'm ready to ditch it entirely, since VZW "fixed" their online ESL switcher to recognize the phone for the never-used-on-a-prepaid-account device that is a lo-o-ng time ago now. Way back when, I pretty blatantly appealed to the sympathy of "tech" rep (who was glad to be dealing with someone who wasn't entirely clueless) to get her to reactivate it since it had once been, albeit briefly, active on my account already before the switcher was programmed to recognize it, but I very seriously doubt they'd let me get away with that again...

There will always be cheap options available though, the industry realizes a certain segment of the people do not care about apps and games and just want a phone that is simple to learn and operate. I'm not dissing the smart-phone one bit as there are certainly tons of very useful app's that people need and use every day.