Database Users

Poor/intermittent Signal - so far so good solution

There are a few thread's already on the site about signal problems with the X1 however many are quite old and I thought a specific one with a (so far so good) solution would be welcomed.
Many people have had problems with their signal being lost or being poor and there are posts on the Vodafone forums, here, as well as many other sites and many suggest they have contacted SE without much success. Mine got so bad I was ready to give up the phone and go to N97.
I had some advice from someone at a local friendly phone store about what may be the problem and he suggested (to stop me claiming on my insurance I'm sure) changing the connection settings so it only looks at GSM.....
.....I did this three days ago and since I have had no loss of signal and my signal strength has been better than ever.
To do this:
Start > settings > comm manager > settings > phone > band
Select your network type : GSM
Not sure of the significance of this change (from auto) but its worked wonders for me
Phone:
O2 UK, R3A, xperiatweak, mms changes, Dashwire, advanced config, spb galore
Good luck and I hope this works for you (let me know how it goes)

Found the same problem when I first received the phone, I too changed the band to GSM, mainly to save battery usage as 3G wasn't needed and noticed the signal is A LOT stronger...
Not noticed any downsides to disabling 3G either as my internet browsing is still very fast using Opera Mini.

maybe a stupid question: with 3g disabled, can the phone still lock in HSDPA?

i dont think so
in theory when its connected to 3g it should still have a gsm link as backup to switch to if there is a problem

still working
A week in now and the signal is still without problems and I've found the battery life of the phone is at its longest since I got the phone at the end of last year
In answer to other posts - I've remained connected to O2 UK Mobile WEb (GPRS, 3G) despite selecting GSM only

This is useful only if you don't need 3G or 3.5G... If your 3G coverage is ok, there is no trouble either... There is a huge change depending your operator and your location

i did this for a couple days and had to switch back. i've NEVER been able to connect to 3g (i have an X1i in america where the X1a is sold), but upon applying this change of setting i couldn't get HSDPA anymore and all my internet/data activities was like creeping death. i could only connect to Edge, which is practically unusable

asayamalaka said:
maybe a stupid question: with 3g disabled, can the phone still lock in HSDPA?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope! but its going to use EDGE which is also pretty fast.u probably wont notice the difference on a smartphone anyway.

achmed20 said:
nope! but its going to use EDGE which is also pretty fast.u probably wont notice the difference on a smartphone anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol are you kidding? when i'm on edge i might as well be tapping morse code across two cans with a string between them. everytime i pull up google maps on edge i might as well pay a homeless guy to steal me map pages, it would take a lot less time..... HSDPA is the complete opposite for me, everything loads almost instantly

Idea: 3G/EDGE Auto Switcher

Hey guys, I'm by no means an Android developer, so I could never make my idea a reality. But do you guys think this would be possible?
THE IDEA:
A small program that runs in the background, switching the network between HSDPA and EDGE. It would default to EDGE while idling, but activate HSDPA when a user-defined program is run (such as Opera, google maps, marketplace, etc). This way, you can idle on EDGE (and save power), but still have the speed of HSDPA when you need it!
I have no idea if this is even remotely possible so please don't flame the noob

I don't know if you searched the forums...but this was 4 threads down from yours. Don't know if it answers your application or what not...also try out Juice Defender
EDIT: oh hi from OCN

bloke226 said:
I don't know if you searched the forums...but this was 4 threads down from yours. Don't know if it answers your application or what not...also try out Juice Defender
EDIT: oh hi from OCN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea already tried it But I still have the OCN mentality of "the pursuit of performance".. in this case, the pursuit of battery performance
Juice Defender does not switch between EDGE/3G based on the applications you're running AFAIK

I kinda had the same idea as you so last week I created a topic on the Nexus One Themes and Apps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=678227
Feel free to join the discussion

I believe 3g uses less power while idling than edge
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

r34p3rex said:
Yea already tried it But I still have the OCN mentality of "the pursuit of performance".. in this case, the pursuit of battery performance
Juice Defender does not switch between EDGE/3G based on the applications you're running AFAIK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear ya about the performance. I guess I read your post too quick and missed the part where it would be application based. I can't think of anything on the top of my head that can do that, it would be difficult I would imagine...

I think there are a couple problems here
1) the "context switch" (if you will) from Edge to 3G and back devours battery
2) its slow, so you grab your idling phone to figure out the nearest Starbucks and you miss your exit while it jumps from Edge to 3G

I know on the google api it isn't possible to do this, but I don't think that isn't the problem.
At the moment you have 3 options. GSM only, WCDMA only and GSM/WCDMA. Whenever you switch between the 3 of them, the phone will lose signal for 10 seconds before it can find the best network. So the switcher here is not the best as you will lose connection, and what if you are downloading something at the same time...
What you need is when the phone is on GSM/WCDMA that it knows the best network to pick from depending on the phones lifecycle. GSM/WCDMA loses battery power because it always tries to find the best network to connect to, so for example if you are on GSM it will constantly try to find a 3G network etc (as far as I understand it).
What we need is the ability for the phone to stay on GSM when the phone is idle and then when the phone is woken up to automatically start to search for a WCDMA network and then gracefully switch over like it does now. For this I have no idea if it is possible as I don't know how the scanning of the network works. If it is possible then that would be wicked. But this is what we need.

crachel said:
I think there are a couple problems here
1) the "context switch" (if you will) from Edge to 3G and back devours battery
2) its slow, so you grab your idling phone to figure out the nearest Starbucks and you miss your exit while it jumps from Edge to 3G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS.
It's the switch between the two that really eats battery. That said, I'm pretty sure you can do that with Tasker already.

Check out Chainfire's app http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=807989

frustrated with hd2 losing signal

I have trying to use the HD2 over the last 3 days and getting real problems with intermittent signal loss.
I know i have low signal from the mobile operator in some parts of my home but that has never been a problem with other HTC phones i used before. If the signal was too weak it would just drop out but come back if i moved a bit.
With the HD2 once the signal indicator turns red it stays that way even if i move to a strong signal area.
The weird thing is sometimes i would leave the phone sitting in one place with four bars and then minutes later it would show up with no signal and i can't receive calls.
Even stranger is that in all these cases where there is no apparent signal, all i need to do is press the send button to try making a call and the signal "magically" re-appears and all is fine. I've tried at least four differnt radios as well as the energy ROM ... no change.
Any ideas ? this is reaallly frustrating!!!!!!

do the problems resemble what I experienced here?:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6808114#post6808114

ieh said:
I have trying to use the HD2 over the last 3 days and getting real problems with intermittent signal loss.
I know i have low signal from the mobile operator in some parts of my home but that has never been a problem with other HTC phones i used before. If the signal was too weak it would just drop out but come back if i moved a bit.
With the HD2 once the signal indicator turns red it stays that way even if i move to a strong signal area.
The weird thing is sometimes i would leave the phone sitting in one place with four bars and then minutes later it would show up with no signal and i can't receive calls.
Even stranger is that in all these cases where there is no apparent signal, all i need to do is press the send button to try making a call and the signal "magically" re-appears and all is fine. I've tried at least four differnt radios as well as the energy ROM ... no change.
Any ideas ? this is reaallly frustrating!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
reijkelhof said:
do the problems resemble what I experienced here?:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6808114#post6808114
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
change radio ROM, well experiment with several of them by trial and error (read the sticky/tutorial first).
OR
buy an indoor signal booster.

Well, regardless of the radio version ive had really odd intermitant service.
the best way ive found to help this is turn off 3G / HSDPA
Doing this forces the device to remain on GPRS, it means the battery lasts a hell of a lot longer and it doent drop the connection every time the device feels like trying to connect with HSDPA or drops it for no apparent reason.

reijkelhof said:
do the problems resemble what I experienced here?:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6808114#post6808114
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it seem that you were losing data connection .... i'm a lot worse off ... i lose data AND voice .. all connectivity ... so i don't receive calls
as i said the weird thing is as soon as press send to initiate a call,cthe signal bars come back and everything works fine!!

as i said, stop 3G from working, when switching between the two due to what ever reason the HD2 decides to drop it will kill your connection, voice and all until it switches back. there is an issue with 3G and im wondering if its everyone or just folk using TMOUS radio and thus recieving the extra RAM

To disable 3G/HSDPA to test,
Open Comm Manager and click on Phone (not the on/off switch) to go to phone options. Scroll to bottom and select BAND. Switch network type from Auto to GSM.
3G/HSDPA is only needed for internet surfing. Time, weather, stock updates and email downloads don't really benefit from it. So turning it off this way will make these type data connections go through the EDGE network which is plenty fast enough for it. When you need to surf the net, go back and switch it to Auto and you will get 3G or faster speeds for that.

Phantoms said:
To disable 3G/HSDPA to test,
Open Comm Manager and click on Phone (not the on/off switch) to go to phone options. Scroll to bottom and select BAND. Switch network type from Auto to GSM.
3G/HSDPA is only needed for internet surfing. Time, weather, stock updates and email downloads don't really benefit from it. So turning it off this way will make these type data connections go through the EDGE network which is plenty fast enough for it. When you need to surf the net, go back and switch it to Auto and you will get 3G or faster speeds for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree. My emails have timed out using edge.

same prob here
nrfitchett4 said:
I disagree. My emails have timed out using edge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hello im having the same problem..no voice or data i push my send button an then i get signal,my wife has a hd7 and my son has a hd2 they will have 3 to 4 bars and i show no signal.push talk and i get 1 to 2 bars.
have you found a fix?

You could always try a signal booster on eBay for like 5...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

If its just 3G then its probable just T-Mobile or then again a Hardware/Firmware issue
try a different ROM, Radio

I have this same issue I running a T-Mobile USA (using radio 2.12 but then again it was doing it on 2.15 as well) and it just drops all connectivity and says no service I have to search the network again.
My phone is unlocked I don't know if that might have anything to do with it as well

I've had this problem on my HD2 since i got it.
Edge (E), works but slow as all get out. 2-4s ping times or time outs. 3G (and when i say 3G i mean when it says 3G in the status bar) doesn't work at all. HSDPA (H) works great, WHEN it stays that way, which it doesn't.
It can switch between 3G to H every 10 seconds.
And i'm using it for tethering primarily, which makes working painful. Lose your VPN and SSH sessions constantly. Some days it's ok. But most, horrible. btw, i'm in the Denver area.
I've tried stock roms and custom roms (primarily Energy). All radios. Nothing fixes it!
This is the only thing I don't like about my HD2 and/or t-mobile. And it's a whopper. I'm almost ready to get another phone or carrier, depending on what's causing this.
-Tony

ncohafmuta said:
I've had this problem on my HD2 since i got it.
Edge (E), works but slow as all get out. 2-4s ping times or time outs. 3G (and when i say 3G i mean when it says 3G in the status bar) doesn't work at all. HSDPA (H) works great, WHEN it stays that way, which it doesn't.
It can switch between 3G to H every 10 seconds.
And i'm using it for tethering primarily, which makes working painful. Lose your VPN and SSH sessions constantly. Some days it's ok. But most, horrible. btw, i'm in the Denver area.
I've tried stock roms and custom roms (primarily Energy). All radios. Nothing fixes it!
This is the only thing I don't like about my HD2 and/or t-mobile. And it's a whopper. I'm almost ready to get another phone or carrier, depending on what's causing this.
-Tony
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 4 HD2's with one having the problem you describe and have come to the conclusion it's a hardware issue. Probably a cold solder joint on the antenna lead.
In WinMo or Android the signal bars jump all over the place but the signal level in 'about phone' shows a constant signal even though the bars show nothing. I don't drop to many calls but miss more than a few incoming. I travel for 5-8 hrs in the same area everyday and very familiar of good and bad areas of reception. I have tried stock/cooked ROM's/Radio's with no noticeable difference.
I'll probably send mine in to HTC to be looked at.

[Q] xperia x2 module SL4

hey there
i just got back my x2 from service (sent there cuz battery lasts 1 day !!! - in standby) well i got it back and here are the results:
problem wasnt found
reset software module SL4
battery test - ok
now id like to know what the lollypop is that module SL4

indycar said:
hey there
i just got back my x2 from service (sent there cuz battery lasts 1 day !!! - in standby)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what SL4 is.
But a day is absolutely normal for a phone with HSPA enabled and activsync connection turned on all the time.

1 day with only
winMO
3G off
sound n vibes off
no panels slideshow whatsoever
and u say 1 day is normal

indycar said:
1 day with only
winMO
3G off
sound n vibes off
no panels slideshow whatsoever
and u say 1 day is normal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is relevant on the consumption side is 3G/push email/data exchange and (obviously) apps stuck @100%.
Everything else will not change greatly the battery performance

everything is set to power savings whatever i could find here on xda forums and few tricks up my sleeve
ohhh 1day is when my phone is just turned on no calls made/recieved screen in
standby and full gsm signal

I get almost 30 hours 3g,calls (4h) without charging,no majour mods done,upgraded to latest firmware and sd card fix.
THERE IS something wrong there,if you dont talk or play with the phone it (airplane mode) it should last 2 nights,mine did so.

mrqro said:
THERE IS something wrong there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily.
The battery performance is strongly depended on the network conditions.
And this not means just 3G v.s 2G, or good/bad reception conditions.
There are many other variables: the 3G type (plain UMTS, HSDPA 1.8/3.6/7.2/more, HSUPA and so on), the 2G type (plain GSM, the number of GPRS timeslots enabled, the coding scheme used, the presence of EDGE and it's different revisions) and so on.
This is still not enough, you have to consider if your GSM network is on 900 or 1800 band, and you have to take in account different performances if the BTS (or nodeb) are built by one producer rather than another, and its firmware revision.
All in all you can compare the performance only if you are living in the same place and you are using the same provider.
Just for example, my Milestone (with it's intitial FW) was lasting in about 6h if used on a Vodafone network (optimal reception, high speed network), but was lasting in more than 24h if used on the Three network (average reception, older HSDPA protocol).
Same as above, years ago, my P800 (a 2G only phone) was lasting in 3/4 days with Vodafone, a mere day with Wind

battery issue is solved but im curious what is that module SL4
because thats the only thing they changed (reset) while my x2 was on service

indycar said:
battery issue is solved but im curious what is that module SL4
because thats the only thing they changed (reset) while my x2 was on service
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you solve the battery issue? And what's the battery times now?

i sent it to service and they
tested the battery ---> batt ok
reset module SL4 (still dunno what that is)

Cell reception killing my battery, flash radio?

I've got the same tmobile SIM card in my HD2 now that I had in my unlocked iphone, with the iphone I would get 2 bars average and loose about 5% battery in 8 hours. on the HD2 I get anywhere from no service to full bars. It's killing my battery, I'll loose 50% battery in 8 hours while I'm asleep, with wifi off. battery usage says its the cell service thats using it all. Should I flash to a different radio or what? thanks. I've tried different roms, no difference.

You can try different radio, that does help. If you have your phone in a poor reception area where it needs to constantly check for a better signal that will drain your battery as well, if that is the case you can just try toggling off 3g and that will extend your battery life.

SpiderVenom said:
You can try different radio, that does help. If you have your phone in a poor reception area where it needs to constantly check for a better signal that will drain your battery as well, if that is the case you can just try toggling off 3g and that will extend your battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually have data off, it drained 50% while data was turned off. is there some info I can find on which radios are better for certain networks or areas maybe? the only thing I can think of is turning airplane mode on, I don't know what will happen to texts and voicemail though while airplane mode is enabled.

I don't really use airplane mode but I think your calls will go straight to voicemail and your texts won't go through until you turn airplane mode off. Not 100% on that though. as far as radio info you can check the master radio thread on the windows sub forum here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=611787
Most people say 2.15 seems to be best. If nothing helps I'd suggest going back to wm and seeing what the drainage is like on that if it is still that bad it might actually be your battery itself.

SpiderVenom said:
I don't really use airplane mode but I think your calls will go straight to voicemail and your texts won't go through until you turn airplane mode off. Not 100% on that though. as far as radio info you can check the master radio thread on the windows sub forum here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true. Airplane mode makes your phone a glorified MP3 player.

thanks, I've currently got 2.15.50.14, I guess I will try Leo_RADIO_2.14.50.02**
what are all these radio downloads in that thread? whats the difference between the first set of links and the links I quoted below? are the links at the top and below compatible with the 1024LEO? thanks.
Leo_RADIO_15.37.50.07U_2.10.50.08_2 (from KR_1.74.911.2): MegaUpload - 4Shared - RS (Mod edit - added 04/21/10 by Digital Outcast)
Leo_RADIO_15.36.50.07U_2.09.50.29_2 (from TMOUS_2.11): MegaUpload - RS (Mod edit - added 04/21/10 by Digital Outcast)
Leo_RADIO_15.34.50.07U_2.08.50.08 **(from TMOUS 2.09): MegaUpload - RS
Leo_RADIO_15.33.50.07U_2.07.50.27 **(from TMOUS 2.07): MegaUpload - RS
Leo_RADIO_15.??.??.??U_2.06.50.23 **(from TMOUS 2.05?): MegaUpload - MediaFire
Leo_RADIO_15.29.50.07U_2.06.50.04 **(from TMOUS 2.02): MegaUpload - RapidShare
Leo_RADIO_15.28.50.07U_2.05.50.11 **(from TMOUS 2.01): MegaUpload - RapidShare
Leo_RADIO_15.36.50.07U_2.09.51.03 **(from HTC **1.72): MegaUpload
Leo_RADIO_15.31.50.07U_2.07.51.05 **(from HTC **???? ): MegaUpload - RS
Leo_RADIO_15.30.50.07U_2.06.51.07 **(from HTCWT 1.61): MegaUpload - RapidShare
Leo_RADIO_15.28.50.07U_2.05.51.05_2 (from HTC ** 1.48): MegaUpload - RapidShare
Leo_RADIO_15.26.50.07U_2.04.50_22_2(from HTC ** 1.43): MegaUpload - RapidShare
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

As long as its a x.xx.50 radio its compatible with our tmous hd2. Flashing a x.xx.51 radio will make it a paperweight..
Swyped from my Cyanogenmodded HD2

ok, thanks again, just flashed Leo_RADIO_2.14.50.02**
I read in another thread to let the battery go through 3 cycles before flashing to another radio, any word on this?

Gabe3 said:
ok, thanks again, just flashed Leo_RADIO_2.14.50.02**
I read in another thread to let the battery go through 3 cycles before flashing to another radio, any word on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's so you can best judge the effect on battery life, but flashing radios consecutively won't hurt your phone

I still seem to be going from full bars to no bars in my house where as my iphone would be steady at 2 bars. I guess I'll see how much drain I have tonight.

if data is turned off, am I still using either a 2G or 3G network for calls? I'm wondering if seeing full bars is the edge network, and then seeing no service, or 1-2 bars is the 3G network, perhaps its still switching between 2G and 3G networks even though data is turned off?
if this is true, things would make sense cause my iphone couldnt get 3G on tmobile.

This is a know problem with the network, not data dropping, when the phone is locked, aka sleep mode. The only thing you can do is go to settings, wireless and networks, mobile networks, uncheck mobile network first, and change network mode to GSM only. Until someone with the knowledge to do so can find a way to fix whatever is wrong in the us **.**.50.** radios, were sort of out of luck. If you have your APN set correctly, you will get the same data stream as you did on the iPhone, unfortunately edge. Emails will sync, weather will update, and facebook all that will work, but slowly.

the new radio didnt help my battery life, going to see if using 2G only helps, even though I have data off.

I am experiencing problems with this also, I can confirm that switching to 2G does stabilize it however I am still experiencing problems with signal drop. It is very annoying. I'm hoping a dev puts more attention to this than ROM making at the minute. When I get some spare time I am going to look myself.

upsmanraz said:
This is a know problem with the network, not data dropping, when the phone is locked, aka sleep mode. The only thing you can do is go to settings, wireless and networks, mobile networks, uncheck mobile network first, and change network mode to GSM only. Until someone with the knowledge to do so can find a way to fix whatever is wrong in the us **.**.50.** radios, were sort of out of luck. If you have your APN set correctly, you will get the same data stream as you did on the iPhone, unfortunately edge. Emails will sync, weather will update, and facebook all that will work, but slowly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any mobile network first option

Gabe3 said:
I don't have any mobile network first option
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about the misleading entry, when you go into setting, then wireless and networks, uncheck the checkbox next to Mobile network. Once the check mark clears then go just below to Mobile networks, and change Network mode to GSM only. As of now, this is the only way to eliminate the dreaded cell standby eating away your battery from trying to re-connect to the cellular network.

I enabled use only 2G networks, with data off. only used about 8% of my battery while the phone was idle for 9 hours. with use only 2G networks disabled, I would use about 50% battery in 9 hours while I was asleep. so I guess my theory is fact, even with data disabled, its still switching between 2G and 3G networks because my house is in a poor 3G area. my signal goes from 2-4 bars now too. It hasn't lost signal yet cause its not trying to connect to 3G