Breaking news: MS Mobiles reports a fix for the TyTN II may be available as soon as next week. Read more...

Breaking news: All About Phones also confirms update is coming. Read more...

Welcome

Welcome to HTCClassAction.org. This site is intended to spread awareness about the issues with recent HTC Smartphones and PocketPCs, and gather information for a possible class action lawsuit against HTC. That class action lawsuit will be a last resort and is still far off, hopefully we can raise awareness and publicity high enough to convince HTC to solve these issues without a lawsuit. It has however now been over six months since the first affected device was released, and as of yet, HTC has done nothing.

Now, if only HTC would release an official statement promising to give these issues some serious attention, none of this would be necessary, and everybody wins. After all, all we want is use our devices to their full potential!

What is this all about?

The latest SmartPhone and PocketPC devices from HTC (High Tech Computing) are supposed to be the most powerful devices on the market. And in theory, they are indeed real powerhouses of mobile technology. There's a catch though: HTC has neglected to include the necessary drivers needed for the devices to come to their full potential.

It has come to our attention that pretty much everybody reading or writing about this, and HTC themselves as well apparently, are misunderstanding at least part of the issues, causing them to state things that are simply not correct or not very relevant. To clarify some of these things, we have set up a Misunderstandings page. Please read that page before writing anything about these issues.

What does this mean?

This means our really expensive HTC phones (the TyTN II is about $700) are grossly underperforming. In fact, in many things, these devices operate even slower than HTC's (and competitors') two years older models - see the videos under navigation for demonstrations, especially the TomTom video (TyTN II vs Magician) is a terrific example.

The drivers (small pieces of software that govern your device's hardware) in question are responsible for all drawing operations. This means absolutely everything having anything to do with putting something on your screen is affected. This includes normal programs, video playback, games, taking pictures, etcetera. If it's on your screen, it's affected. This makes the devices feel really slow and unresponsive.

There is also a problem with the touchscreen driver, which predates the driver issues mentioned above. This issue comes down to your device slowing down to a crawl whenever you touch the screen. This is really apparent when you are playing a video and use an onscreen slider to adjust the volume, for example. When doing this, the video will as good as halt.

You can compare the experience with running your Windows computer in "safe mode" with the default "VGA driver".

Which devices are effected by this?

At the time of this writing, to the best of our knowledge, all HTC devices based on the MSM7200 and MSM7500 chipsets from Qualcomm are affected. None of these devices seem to use the hardware acceleration provided by it's ATi Imageon based technology, or the QTV or Q3Dimension technologies. These devices include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• HTC TyTN II (MSM7200), also known as:
  • HTC Kaiser
  • T-Mobile MDA Vario III
  • AT&T; Tilt
  • Vodafone v1615
• HTC Touch Dual (MSM7200), also known as:
  • HTC Nike
• HTC Touch Cruise (MSM7200), also known as:
  • HTC Polaris
  • O2 XDA Orbit II
• HTC Wings (MSM7200), also known as:
  • HTC S730
• HTC Titan (MSM7500), also known as:
  • Sprint Mogul PPC-6800
  • Verizon XV6800
• HTC Vogue (MSM7500), also known as:
  • HTC Touch P3050 (this is not the normal HTC Touch)
  • Sprint Touch
  • Verizon Touch XV6900
• HTC Libra (MSM7500), also known as:
  • HTC S720
• HTC Iris (MSM7500), also known as:
  • HTC S640

For the complete listing, see the Affected devices page.

As this affects all HTC devices based on the MSM7200/MSM7500 chipsets, you might reach the conclusion that it is a problem with the platform or chipset. This is however clearly not the case, as HTC's competitors have no trouble getting all of this working right, and fast!

Update January 23, 2008: Several readers have informed us that the HTC Athena (X7500, X7501, Advantage, T-Mobile Ameo, Dopod U1000) is suffering from the same issues (lacking drivers). However, HTCClassAction.org can neither confirm nor deny that this is the case at this time.

Buyer's remorse?

An often heard response from affected devices' users who do not use their devices for multimedia and do not see the issues, is that we know what we were getting into, the TyTN II was not marketed as a multimedia but a business device, etcetera.

Let us point out that the above is simply incorrect. The affected devices have indeed been advertised as rich multimedia experience devices. Maybe not all of them, but as they all use the MSM7200 and MSM7500 chipsets, their capabilities are the same. See the Misadvertising page for more details.

For the best example how this also affects business users, see the TyTN II vs Magician TomTom video.

What can be done to correct this?

Contact HTC support by phone or e-mail and let them know you want these issues corrected. Contact your mobile service providers and let them know you want these issue corrected. Sign the petition! For the complete list of what you can do to help and how, see the What you can do page.

For some tips on things you could tell HTC (and your provider's) support to further our cause, please see our What to tell HTC page. Just asking for drivers will probably not help.

So far, HTC has given different responses. One support department will say they are not aware of the issue, other support departments will say they are aware of the issue, but need more reports coming in to be able to 'escalate' the issues to higher priority. So keep phoning and e-mailing in. See the Responses from HTC page for more details.

To make one thing clear, HTC does know about these issues. The support departments may not, but you can be sure the technicians and engineers who were a part of the creation of these devices know. These are not things you forget to do. Any technician or engineer involved with such a thing knows what drivers are and what they are needed for. They know they didn't put them in!

Update January 17, 2008: Suddenly, not 24 hours after this site was launched (and links sent to HTC) and only mere hours after our first press coverage (Tweakers.net (Dutch)) a new type of response from HTC surfaces, asking for more details (on the video playback issue only). Coincidence? We think not. The weird thing is, while some people have gotten that response by e-mail, at the same time, some others are still getting the "we don't know what you're talking about" response. See the Responses from HTC page for more details.

Update January 17, 2008 #2: A very interesting new response has just surfaced! One HTC support employee has stated that an internal e-mail has just gone around saying they are sorry about the issues (apologies seem to be getting more frequent in their replies) and a fix is forthcoming fast, so watch the HTC e-Club. Apparently he also let the February ROM update slip again. He also let slip the update will likely come with WM 6.1 - which would be awesome, if it's true. He still requested more reports and videos, though. In the meantime, some other people have again let us know that they are still getting the "no patches planned" response.

Could it be we are having the desired effect? We can only hope. Now if only HTC would release an official statement, we could all 'go home'! We have not interpreted this as the final word (yet), as so far this seems to be an isolated response.

Update January 20, 2008: One person reported HTC support telling him an update would be released within a week. Let's wait and see!

Update January 20, 2008 #2: Another report has come on from that HTC support has said an update will be released January 28, no further details.

Update January 20, 2008 #3: One HTC support employee has stated that he guarantees they are working on fix for the video issues. It is unclear if by video issues only video playback is meant or the complete video driver package.

Update January 22, 2008: Several new responses from HTC support have stated "This is issue is known by HTC and is being addressed by HTC in Taiwan" and "we can assure you this is being addressed at the highest level as this is a widespread problem" and similar other wordings.

Update January 22, 2008 #2: DailyTech's coverage of this issue includes an alleged official response, stating they indeed "do not use ATi's Imageon video acceleration hardware" and a totally mindboggling "These devices do still provide a rich multimedia experience comparable to that of most smart phones and enable a variety of audio and video file formats".

The complete statement and our response can be found near the bottom of the Responses from HTC page, as it's too long to completely put on this already lengthy page. The short of it is that it seems the individual who wrote that article is making some assumptions himself, and the actual statement is tricky and not verified to be official. Just go read it on Responses from HTC page!

Updates January 22, 2008 #3

Interesting (older, yet significant) press release from HTC added on the Misadvertising page.

One of our readers who is a heavy business users has contacted both AT&T; and HTC telling them his intent to return his 300 Tilts and take his business elsewhere. He reports he ultimately got a response from one of HTC USA's Vice Presidents who stated "we are working on a fix and believe it will be ready for release sometime before april".

Another reader has informed us that after complaining to HTC support today about the slow video issues, the HTC employee actually answered with "the reason your TyTN II is slower for video than your MDA is because the TyTN II does not have video acceleration". After some more nudging, he sneaked in: "So what you are telling me is that HTC, in an effort to cut costs, sold me a device that's worse in some things from a device that's 3 years older?" to which a "That is correct" reply followed. Really, this would be funny if it wasn't so sad!

Yet another reader got HTC support to actually confirm that a) the ATi Imageon hardware is there, b) it is not disabled, and c) all it needs is a software update. You can find that reader's own transcript of the conversation on the Responses from HTC page.

Updates January 23, 2008, #2: One reader has sent us word that he contacted HTC support and got their default new statement as response. After he asked for clarification they told him that their R&D department is still working on it. This may indicate that the official HTC statement does not actually rule out the promised patch. See the Responses from HTC page for further details on this response.

Updates January 23, 2008, #3:

A Sprint customer sent us a reply that HTC support told him to take his issues to Sprint. However, he did also state "Hector, we are constantly striving to improve the functionality of our devices. In this case, by resolving the issues mentioned in your email by updating your phones operating system.".

Another reader got told by HTC support that the "MSM 7200 chip in these phones do not have the Imageon portion" and "no driver will be released".

See the Responses from HTC page for further details on this response.

Updates January 29, 2008:

A new official statement has been released by HTC, saying they do intend to fix some issues with future patches, but none relating to the video issues. They are pretty much saying we should buy their next product to get these functionalities working. Right, HTC. We're really going to shell out another $1000 and hope you will deliver on your promises this time? See the Responses from HTC page for further details on this response.

In the meantime, we have gotten an HTC support response saying they themselves find the official statements weird, as R&D in Taiwan is still working on it a patch will definitely be released. See the Responses from HTC page for further details on this response.

Due to all the attention this page has been getting, CoreCodec did an early release of the new version of their CorePlayer Mobile product. They have graciously provided us with some licenses to test it out, and it significantly improves video playback. We were able to play a normal 700mb one hour TV show episode with little issue and a 350mb one hour TV show played absolutely perfect. Our tests show roughly between 25% and 100% improved performance, depending on the video. The interesting thing about this is, that they use QTV, a Qualcomm technology, to improve the video playback! Begs the question why these devices do not use QTV in this way out of the box...

Engadget had a poll about how HTC handled the driver issue. The results: out of 14379 votes, 10787 (75%) voted negatively towards HTC. Maybe it's time for HTC to realise they are not handling this right!

Updates February 14, 2008:

It has been a long time since we updated (two weeks ago), so let's first explain why and how this is. First off, this is partly a time issue. You wouldn't believe how many e-mails we get every single day, and we read them all. There really hasn't been much interesting information since two weeks ago up to yesterday. In general, all responses were ones we had seen before. We would also like to take this oppertunity to say "thanks" to everybody who has sent us e-mails, and "sorry" to most of you to whom we did not reply (again, time). Your actions are appreciated! On a side note, we have specifically enjoyed all the recorded HTC support calls. A fair portion of these were downright funny even!

Then there's the issue of the lawsuit. We had found a pointman to handle the US side of things, and this worked well initially. However, it now seems that he has abandoned us, this sets us back a bit. We were pretty much waiting on response from the lawyers, see what they think, and adjust strategies accordingly. As you understand this has now become a bit messed up.

On to the good stuff!

There is a game out there, Astraware's Broken Sword, which strangely seems to ignore the whole touchscreen issue. Using the stylus doesn't seem to slow down this game at all. Some investigation turns up that this game is SDL based and underneath that uses GAPI, and it's own GAPI driver at that. It seems that the 'fix' is somewhere in the SDL layer though, as putting the GAPI driver that comes with this game in a place where other games will use it seems to have no effect on those games, as far as we've tested. This is all still under investigation, but it sure is interesting.

WMExperts posted a really interesting Q+A session with an insider at (we suspect) Qualcomm or HTC. It seems to imply that neither HTC nor Qualcomm had 'bad intentions' in this whole situation. We'll let you make up your own mind as there is little we can comment on this. A must-read article!

A new response has surfaced, apparently from Peter Chou himself (CEO of HTC). This response states that HTC hopes to release a fix before the end of March.

It needs to be noted that we have received more responses in the past month alledgedly from Peter Chou, some of which could not be verified at all and some obviously fake. We are trying to verify this response is genuine, before we make a 'big thing' out of it. HTC support itself is still giving us the same answers they always have: the official statements, they don't know what we're talking about, there is no such issue, no fix is planned, etc. Same old same old.

However, it also needs to be noted that we have been forwared this and similar responses by several different people over the last few days, as far as we know, before they were posted on a public board. This would point slightly in the direction of a genuine reply. Ofcourse, we sincerely hope this is the case.

Update February 14, 2008 #2: We can verify with very high certainty that one of the e-mails in question, stating the hope for a driver release before the end of March by Peter Chou did indeed originate at HTC Taiwan. See the Responses from HTC page for further details.

Update February 18, 2008: Fudzilla states that Dr. Florian Seiche, vice president of HTC Europe, confirm video drivers being on the way. See the Responses from HTC page for further details.

Updates February 21, 2008:

Touchscreen As earlier reported, some games from Astraware do not seem to suffer from the touchscreen issue. One of our sympathizers has had a conversation with people involved with the development of those games, and it seems that nothing 'special' is done to prevent this issue. Why these games do not seem to suffer from the issue and most other applications do, is still a good question, to which we currently have no answer. They must be doing something right! Earlier thoughts about it being related either to their own GAPI or SDL layer have been refuted, nor do these games interface with the touch drivers directly.

Both DailyTech and Engadged Mobile report the coming update will not contain drivers, but other software fixes and tweaks. See the Responses from HTC page for further details.

Updates April 3, 2008:

HTC fails to deliver any update. March has come and March has gone. We haven't seen any update from HTC, and we doubt you have. Ofcourse nobody really expected them to contain the missing graphics drivers, but it would have at least been interesting to see what it did have. Probably not much to anybodies surprise, absolutely nothing happened. After all that has happened, does anybody out there still believe anything HTC says?

Top hacker throws her weight in with porting the driver. One of the most legendary hackers in the PPC community, who has previously already been an invaluable source of knowledge and assistance for others trying to port the KS20 drivers, seems to be playing a more active role in the whole porting process now.

Aside from her, a few others (one specifically) are also making progress in the porting of the KS20 drivers, reaching milestones that had not been reached before.

Note that these hackers are not really competing, and you might find them discussing the 'problem of the day' if you walk into the right chatroom at the right time.

P6500 may contain good drivers, hackers request ROM dump. It seems the P6500 has reached the hands of several reviewers and some less public figures. It looks like the P6500 may have the needed drivers. If it does, the porting process would likely be a lot easier than for the KS20, as (a) the KS20 drivers have some of their own problems and (b) more importantly, the platforms are likely more similar.

One person has been so kind as to release a partial ROM dump of the P6500, but sadly enough those who are trying to test them on for example the TyTN II, need some files from other parts of the ROM. The original releaser no longer has the device in his posession and therefore cannot release the missing parts.

There is already one person looking into retrieving the missing parts, but more 'sources' are always welcome. If you have a REVIEW EDITION of the P6500 in your hands and don't mind doing a bit of work to support the effort, contact us ASAP!.

Update April 28, 2008: HTC has told PhoneNews that the update is still coming, but denies it will do anything with 2D or 3D graphics (surprise?). What it will do exactly, and how it will be spread (carrier provided or cab) is also still not clear.

Update May 9, 2008: MS Mobiles reports a fix for the TyTN II may be available as soon as next week, and it will include graphics drivers. It will only be for non-branded devices and only for the TyTN II - not the other similar devices like the Touch Dual and Cruise. We are quite confident that if this is true, the hackers over at XDA-Developers, PPCGeeks, etc. will be able to port the fix to at least some other devices. At this time the news remains unconfirmed by any other source than MS Mobiles, and though it would be great if true, it is HTC we are talking about, and they are now legendary for promising one thing and delivering the other. There is nothing more to say than "we shall see".

Update May 10, 2008: All About Phones [Dutch] also reports they were told by HTC there will be a ROM update for the TyTN II. From the page (translated from Dutch to English):

Q (All About Phones): What about the driver/rom-update for the TyTN II and other pda's by HTC ?

A (Mark Moons, HTC): I can confirm we will release a ROM-update for the TyTN II this month which will solve and improve most issues. This will also be a 6.1 update so the TyTN II will be completely up to date. I cannot confirm this for other devices.

All About Phones [Dutch] also states a source close to both All About Phones and HTC claims this update will contain hardware-accelerated drivers. According to that source, HTC has finally licensed it from Qualcomm.

What about this lawsuit?

This site has been created because HTC so far has done nothing. We hope this site will get some publicity and more people will be aware of these issues. The more people who know, the more people who can contact to HTC and their mobile service providers. The more people who contact HTC, the higher priority these issues will get. The more people who contact their mobile service providers, the more chance there is the providers themselves will complain to HTC. If that happens, you can be almost sure HTC will correct this issue.

However, there must always be a backup plan. For if the above doesn't work, we are still stuck with underperforming devices. This is why we are investigating a possible class action lawsuit against HTC. This will again raise public awareness, and maybe, just maybe, we can force HTC to take action this way. See the lawsuit page for more information on this. Note that if you are a lawyer we can most certainly use your help on this as well!

Ultimately though, this site is about getting the issues resolved, and publicity is the best way to do that right now. If a class action suit is required to get that far, then that is exactly what we plan to do.

Update January 29, 2008: A point man for handling the US lawsuit has been selected. More information coming soon.

Update February 14, 2008: After a good initial start, it seems the US pointman has abandoned us...

In closing

Those who have bought any of these new HTC devices need to be aware that they have been suckered! They have sold you a grossly underperforming device, easily outperformed by devices that cost less than half. So far, HTC seems not to care, but you should! Unsucker yourself and do something!

As a final note, you are advised to read all the pages under navigation / HTCClassAction.org, as they contain additional information not mentioned in this 'summary' page.