Motorola V557 Troubleshooting

Note: This troubleshooting page covers only the V577 model of the phone. Earlier and later models may behave differently.

Your phone will not turn on.

Your battery may not be properly connected to the phone. Check the battery connection points to make sure that the connections are not obstructed, and then make sure that the battery fits into its slot without issue. You may want to reference our battery installation guide.

Make sure that the issue is not the charger. If your charger's head or the charger socket is dirty, try cleaning it out with a tissue or Q-tip. Try using a different charger to charge your phone if that charger is still not working after beaning cleaned.

The battery may have been dropped, soaked in water, bent, leaking acid, or otherwise rendered unusable by age. It must be replaced with a less damaged battery. Instructions to do this can be found in the battery guide.

The button may not be working properly. Check to ensure the button is not jammed. If not jammed, the connection to the button from the logic board may be in need of repair or replacement.

The phone's logic board may have suffered damage. If this is the case, you'll need to repair or replace this component. We recommend you use our logic board guide.

Can you hear me now?

You may be in an area with poor reception.

Your antenna may not be properly connected, or may be damaged. Try looking at or cleaning out the connecting point to the antenna using the antenna installation guide.

Your phone has been turned from a flip phone into a brick, or at least won't close all the way.

If your phone has an external case that covers the interior screen and keyboard, it may be preventing you from closing it all the way. Simply remove the case to reduce it to its original size.

Your phone tends to "stick" open or closed. This may result from too much friction in the phone's hinge, or may be the product of the hinge breaking all together from abuse. You may need to replace that part of the casing to properly fix this issue.

If the case is bent or cracked in any way, this may affect how the phone closes (among other things). The case itself may need to be replaced to correct this. Depending on what part of the case is damaged, looking at the rear casing or faceplate guides may help you determine what needs to be fixed or replaced.

You keep trying to enter numbers but nothing is happening

Your phone may simply be locked. Try to unlock the phone accordingly.

One or more keys may have become jammed. The easiest fix for this is to look at our phone keyboard installation guide.

The possibility exists that if you can't input numbers via the number pad, then there may be a break in the connection from the keypad unit to the logic board. This is relatively unlikely, but if it happens you'll need to look into repairing the connection. You can open up and look at the connection yourself using our phone keyboard installation guide.

You can barely make out what it says in a well lighted area, or can't read the screen at all.

If there is no evidence of physical damage to the screen, then the back light for your phone may have broken. It can be replaced.

The screen itself may have cracked or broken in some way. The screen may need to be replaced before the phone is usable again. For instructions on how to replace the screen, see our screen installation guide.

There are several possible connection issues for each screen. If the hinge is also damaged, then the wires that run from the logic board to the screen may also be cut. Alternately, the wiring that runs to the back light may have been cut. The cable that runs to the main screen is quite large, and a quick inspection with help from our screen installation guide should be able to tell you if the connections are working properly.

You turn your phone on, but it refuses to stay on for very long.

Batteries like those used by this model of phone tend to hold less of a charge after about 300-400 full charge- cycles. If your phone isn't holding a charge for as long as it used to, this may be normal. Your battery may simply need to be replaced with a newer one. See our battery installation guide for details on how to do that.

If your battery isn't the issue, the problem may be with a bad connection within the phone that causes it to use more power than normal. A short across something other than the logic board might cause this to happen. We recommend checking connections to the battery for frayed wiring.

When you try to use the camera, you can't get pictures of anything, or can't even take pictures.

The lens on this phone is slightly recessed into the case, which allows it to be covered or blocked easily. First check that your fingers aren't in front of it. If that isn't the issue, try cleaning it out with a cotton swap or a soft fabric.

If your camera simply isn't working at all, it may not be connected properly to the logic board or battery. To check the connections, reference our camera guide.

The camera lens or flash may be damaged in some way. Check the lens and flash for external damage. They may need to be replaced.

You can hear them but they can't hear you, or vice versa.

Reception is often the reason that they can't hear you. Check both of your phones' receptions to ensure that the call is actually going through.

Make sure your volume isn't turned all the way down for calls.

Something may be in between you and the speaker or microphone, muffling sound. Check by blowing air into them to remove dust, but avoid doing so while still on the phone with someone.

The speaker or microphone on one end may simply be broken, and needs to be replaced. The microphone is located on the logic board, and replacing it is beyond the scope of existing guides at the time of writing.

You can't tell that a person is calling you unless you're looking at the phone when it happens.

If your ringer is turned all the way to silent, you won't be able to tell when you receive calls.

If you can hear the ringer when the phone is open, but not when closed, it is because the external ringer speaker is broken or disconnected.

If all of the ringer settings except the vibrate setting, then the vibration unit may be damaged or disconnected. You can access the vibration unit by following the camera installation guide. The unit is adjacent to the camera.

If there is simply no ring or vibration when your phone is receiving a call either when closed or when open, then it may be that the connection to the logic board between the vibration cell and ringer speaker had been severed.