Database Users

WiFi dissapointing

Went into college today for the first time with my new HD. Two of the folks in my class have iPhones.
Anyway, from the start of the day, the colleges wifi was coming and going on my phone, the signal strength was barely registering and I could not browse at all. I went into WiFi advanced settings and set power to full, this made little difference.
Both my friends with iPhones were able to browse happily.
I'm now home and deciding to check out performance here. I've just gone back into WiFi - Advanced, made sure power was at "Best Performance". My battery is at about 70%. All I'm getting is 3 bars of signal strength, varying from about 50-60% signal.
Here's the problem, I'm only sitting literally 6 feet from the router. I'd call that f'n lousy.
My laptop shows a connection signal strength of 100% / Full Bars / 100%.
So WiFi signal strength is lousy at College and lousy here at home. Is there anything i can do ?

I experience exactly the same reception quality with my HD. But for what its worth, this is exactly the same performance I got with my Touch Pro and my TyTn II before that.

.....mmmm yes I had a tytn and it was bad compared to my great xda2i...
I wonder if it is something a radio update could solve? i'm getting my HD thursday!!

If you plug in your headphone, does the signal strength improve?

exe said:
If you plug in your headphone, does the signal strength improve?
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Click to collapse
No, and I even tried connecting to external power. made no difference. I also notice that if I tilt the HD a bit this way and that the signal drops even further. I have had it here at 15-20% while sitting 6 feet from the Router.
This to me is a deal breaker, I dont think I can live with this. Its bloody awful, and I hate the way it kept dropping the wifi connection in college.

Hmm not sure of the problem, my Wifi signal strength is pretty much equal to my PCs, im 20 feet away and get 80%.

I've never been able to get reliable wifi on my Tytn. Sad to hear the problem persists in a handset I was considering moving up to.

I'm satisfied with the signal strength. Yes, it is weaker than on my netbook or my notebook, but I use the "Best Battery" mode and I get around 80% signal strength 15 feet away from my router.

Ugh say it ain't so.

I use the WiFi to listen to internet radio around the house.
I've not experienced any problems even when upstairs at the furthest distance from my cheap-n'-cheerful Netgear router. At this range, the signal will have to pass through several brick walls.
Having discovered the signal strength readout in the settings, I notice that it does not read very high, but this doesn't seem to adversely affect the performance.
As far as I am concerned, the WiFi is "fit for purpose" and doesn't seem to differ much from my laptop.

Maybe your wifi is defective... Mine works fine with walls between me and the router, my TyTN II also has no problems, my old TyTN used to drop the connection as soon as it connected, was useless for wifi.

Hmm
I'm sorry to say that my wifi on the HD works fantastic. It even picks up wifi networks my netbook deosn't. I use it all day long at home then connect when at work.
I don't care what the signal strength is in various rooms I just get on with it. Having said that its 3 or 4 bars in all the rooms so all good here.
What sort of Routers are you having problems with?
H

Hmm
I'm sorry to say that my wifi on the HD works fantastic. It even picks up wifi networks my netbook doesn't. I use it all day long at home then connect when at work.
I don't care what the signal strength is in various rooms I just get on with it. Having said that its 3 or 4 bars in all the rooms so all good here.
What sort of Routers are you having problems with?
H

I'd like to hear from ppl who have tested the device within a weak WiFi zone such as my room in college.
My experience was that it drops the network. Literally would drop it as soon as it had connected. I was nearly crying. In the same place, my laptop and my mates iPhones work grand. So maybe some of you could test it in weak zones.
To those of you defending it and saying its fit for purpose, please dont forget how much we paid for this thing. I would have expected decent WiFi. It clearly isnt! Another thing that dissapoints.
Regarding what kind or routers I'm usin, DLINK, Netgear and I aint got a clue what they run in college. But thats not the point, the point is that in my place of work, the only device that does not work at all is my VERY EXPENSIVE Touch HD. Everything else (laptops, iphones, other phones) works. That makes me kinda sick

I've had very good signal at home and at work where its a big building. I think something might be wrong with yours try to have it exchanged.

I don't have the device, but on my Artemis I can select how good the wifi works, either auto, battery optimized or full power. Whenever I select full power it gets a better signal. Maybe you have such an option on your device too?

I have connected to about 4 different WIFI routers without problems.
The furthest was about 50 meters away with solid walls... Perhaps there is a fault with your HD? Consider returning for a replacement and see if it's any better.

objective opinion
theoretically, Touch HD's (and most of the HTC's phones) should have weaker wifi performance than iphone. Performance = throughput and/or ability to lock onto signals and/or range.
reason: touch hd uses TI (Texas Instrument)'s wifi chip, lab testings shows about 12 mbps
iphone uses Marvel wifi chip, lab testing shows 18 mbps.
TI chip is much cheaper in price than marvels, that's the reason why HTC chose them.
that being said, i have seen weak wifi signals in my house, where it would see the AP, but can't associate (at certain spots). but for me, once it associates , it will lock on pretty well. wifi through put is definitely weaker than iphone, despite the CPU advantage -> 528 MHz, vs. iphone's downclocked 400 Mhz (from 667MHz)
also, your school would uses enterprise AP, so it's either cisco or aruba. but it should not make a difference. the immediate remedy for your HOME, is to go into the router's console and change the channel away from the default 1, 6 or 11. those three channels have the most interference, because most ppl don't bother change them, so your neighbor would be on those channel too.

Mine seems to work 'ok'...
I live in a 100+ year old house, so the walls are pretty thick!
If I'm in the bedroom furthest from my router, my laptop gets a weak signal - and my HD does too (just about enough to watch YouTube with only a very occasional break)
So it certainly seems no worse - and considering that HD have squeezed a laptop into the size of a flattened fag packet, I'm happy enough with that

gt112 said:
I'd like to hear from ppl who have tested the device within a weak WiFi zone such as my room in college.
My experience was that it drops the network. Literally would drop it as soon as it had connected. I was nearly crying. In the same place, my laptop and my mates iPhones work grand. So maybe some of you could test it in weak zones.
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I don't exactly have that situation but:
- I use a US Robotics access point
- When sitting 6ft away from it, I get near ~100% signal strength, as you would expect
- Through some walls I get only a very slight decrease in signal strength
- My phone often picks up access points that my laptop (macbook pro, has quite reliable wireless) in other homes which are separated by thick concrete walls and easily 30 to 60 feet away
- At the office I can use my wireless outside, if I'm at least close to the building
- So basically it works as efficient as the wireless on any decent notebook I've used, which usually have stronger and better powered receivers than phones
gt112 said:
To those of you defending it and saying its fit for purpose, please dont forget how much we paid for this thing. I would have expected decent WiFi. It clearly isnt! Another thing that dissapoints.
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True, you must expect nothing less than good performance, and as stated by many people, you can also expect the HD to offer that performance, it is simply there (well on the average HD). Something must not be working right, either the radio version, glitchy software, or in the worst case, the hardware is faulty, it happens on the best devices. If your wireless receiver has a hardware fault causing it to conflict you will see these drops as the device randomly disables en reenables all the time.
I'd suggest making use of your warranty while you still can.

no stable 3g connection

any1 els having this problem where it constantly switches from 3g and edge my g1 has a stable 3g but the nexus jus keeps losing it

Once mine locked on to 3G it has stayed on 3G. T-Mobile just launched 3G in my town before Christmas, not that it matters.
However, it is not as fast as AT&T 3G here.

I too have problem with 3G here the signal strength seems too low like 2 bars but on Nokia n900 i get like 4 bars even n1 seems switching back n forth between edge and 3g. while n900 stays 3G all the time at same place..
I will try this device for week and see if the problem is everywhere or something with tmobile network or else i have it send back.

theres a huge thread going on now on google about this issue. Hopefully they address this soon. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=0bd8ccd4799040c2&hl=en

This happened all the time on my G1.
Perhaps it is Tmo.

As a comparison, what are peoples experiences in the UK with 3G?
This might help determine if it is a phone or network issue.

I'm having the same problem. I have a T-Mobile Touch Pro2 and a nexus one. the Touch pro2 holds on two bars of 3G while the N1 switches to EDGE. Sometimes it starts to hesitate between EDGE and 3G causing apps to say "connection problems". It seems that in order to feature a long battery life, it favors EDGE over 3G and the threshold for 3G is too high.
Where there's strong 3G footprint, the N1 shows full bar, but somehow it doesn't seem as fast as it should be (7.2 Mbps) although the fast processor and rendering compensates for that.
Hope they fix that soon. It's most likely a software problem. I recall the iPhone 3G suffered from a very similar issue when it was first released.

Im having this issue.
at 1st i thought it was only me, until i saw the post on Gizmodo. and looking at this link " http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=0bd8ccd4799040c2&hl=en&fid=0bd8ccd4799040c200047c99c44ddfe6"
it looks like alot of ppl are experiencing this issue. Im at work and ive always had full 3g bars with my MT3G, and my Nexus One keeps going in and out of it.. for the most part it stays on EDGE.. GRRRRR hope it gets fixed with a firmware update.

Anyone in UK with this issue?

I to am experiencing this issue in Florida
When I do tests from speedtest app I can get decent downloads anywhere from 500-900kbps, but upload somtimes is pitiful..often less than 100kbps.
I have also noticed that when I check my phone status and look at the network connection, it fluctuates between UTMS and HSDPA.
I have found that when I plug my N1 into the wall charger it seems to hold onto 3G much better along with better speeds. Not a solution, but maybe a clue to understanding cause?

saint327 said:
I have found that when I plug my N1 into the wall charger it seems to hold onto 3G much better along with better speeds. Not a solution, but maybe a clue to understanding cause?
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Have you tested plugging it in in various parts of your house or where ever you are plugging it into to see if it helps the reception situation?
I really hope they get this figured out soon. I am holding off on hitting that Place order button until it's all ironed out. It's definitely a test of my will power. I was going to order it last night until I started seeing this issue crop up all over the place...

elkavayo said:
I'm having the same problem. I have a T-Mobile Touch Pro2 and a nexus one. the Touch pro2 holds on two bars of 3G while the N1 switches to EDGE. Sometimes it starts to hesitate between EDGE and 3G causing apps to say "connection problems". It seems that in order to feature a long battery life, it favors EDGE over 3G and the threshold for 3G is too high.
Where there's strong 3G footprint, the N1 shows full bar, but somehow it doesn't seem as fast as it should be (7.2 Mbps) although the fast processor and rendering compensates for that.
Hope they fix that soon. It's most likely a software problem. I recall the iPhone 3G suffered from a very similar issue when it was first released.
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Click to collapse
I find that the threshold for 3g is better balanced than on my htc magic. On the magic it was all too often to have one bar of 3g and not be able to download anything, timing out with connection errors. Nexus one works much better at low bars but also switches to edge/gprs when it's needed. I am on voda in uk from a house with fairly spotty 3g. So, for me I get a more consistent connection than with my magic.

vas41 said:
I find that the threashhold for 3g is better balanced than on my htc magic. On the magic it was all too often to have one bar of 3g and not be able to download anything, timing out with connection errors. Nexus one works much better at low bars but also switches to edge/gprs when it's needed. I am on voda in uk from a house with fairly spotty 3g. So, for me I get a more consistent connection than with my magic.
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Perhaps this is true, but I have also been reading about people with G1s (and one guy with a TP2) that consistently get better reception with their old phones over that of the nexus. This is the part that disturbs me the most.
Maybe it's a power management issue which may be highlighted by the fact that plugging it in seemed to help?

rossiscatch said:
Have you tested plugging it in in various parts of your house or where ever you are plugging it into to see if it helps the reception situation?
I really hope they get this figured out soon. I am holding off on hitting that Place order button until it's all ironed out. It's definitely a test of my will power. I was going to order it last night until I started seeing this issue crop up all over the place...
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I've tried it both unplugged and plugged in in the same location. Haven't tried other power outlets/locations in home. I fall into the category of those who had a G1 and got solid 3G at the same location.

Anyone tried it plugged into a wall socket with one eye closed standing on a chair with the phone up your arse? Works like a dream.

vas41 said:
I find that the threshold for 3g is better balanced than on my htc magic. On the magic it was all too often to have one bar of 3g and not be able to download anything, timing out with connection errors. Nexus one works much better at low bars but also switches to edge/gprs when it's needed. I am on voda in uk from a house with fairly spotty 3g. So, for me I get a more consistent connection than with my magic.
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Based on my experience, I'd have to disagree with you with respect to the Nexus, although you compare it to a phone that I do not have. More often than not, when Nexus has 1 or even 2 bard of 3G the link is totally unreliable and in most cases the application ends up showing a message box that says "no connection available: retry" (not exact wording), unless it switches to EDGE, there's no guarantee data will be exchanged with the cloud. On the very same spot, at the very same time, Touch Pro2 is able to maintain at least 2 bars of 3G and download speeds of 600 Kbps, while the Nexus is forced to 130 Kbs.
I drove today 25 miles (office to home) checking the nexus behavior, and only in very rare instances was able to keep full bars of 3G, in places where I know the 3G is strong.
I have also not seen the Nexus connecting through HSPA, only EDGE or UMTS, but I don't blame Nexus for that. It could be that this area has not been upgraded, in spite of T-Mo announcement that 100% of its network was HSPA.

rossiscatch said:
Perhaps this is true, but I have also been reading about people with G1s (and one guy with a TP2) that consistently get better reception with their old phones over that of the nexus. This is the part that disturbs me the most.
Maybe it's a power management issue which may be highlighted by the fact that plugging it in seemed to help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might be the guys with teh TP2 ;-) and I can confirm that.
Honestly, it's frustratig for all of us that jumped into the Nexus bandwagon after all the hype and big expectations, but I'm not too concerned about it. The iPhone 3GS went through almost the same situation verbatim when it was launched. I'm pretty sure this is a software issue and can be upgraded with an OTA patch. I'd say that it's in the best interest of all the parties involved (Google, HTC, T-Mo) to resolve the issue quickly and avoid the media backslash.
Now I may be wrong, and it could be a hardware issue, and then I guess Google will be seeing a lot of returns.

elkavayo said:
Based on my experience, I'd have to disagree with you with respect to the Nexus, although you compare it to a phone that I do not have. More often than not, when Nexus has 1 or even 2 bard of 3G the link is totally unreliable and in most cases the application ends up showing a message box that says "no connection available: retry" (not exact wording), unless it switches to EDGE, there's no guarantee data will be exchanged with the cloud. On the very same spot, at the very same time, Touch Pro2 is able to maintain at least 2 bars of 3G and download speeds of 600 Kbps, while the Nexus is forced to 130 Kbs.
I drove today 25 miles (office to home) checking the nexus behavior, and only in very rare instances was able to keep full bars of 3G, in places where I know the 3G is strong.
I have also not seen the Nexus connecting through HSPA, only EDGE or UMTS, but I don't blame Nexus for that. It could be that this area has not been upgraded, in spite of T-Mo announcement that 100% of its network was HSPA.
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It does not indicate on the notification bar when it connects to hsdpa, but if you go to settings, about phone, status you will see it show any one of the following: gprs, edge, umts, hsdpa. BTW my htc magic never showed hsdpa, always stayed on umts (when in 3g), not sure if this is because of the difference in notification between 1.6 and 2.1 or whether the nexus one really does connect at higher speeds than magic. I also have another phone on the same network in my household, which is a blackberry bold 9700 and it gets similar reception to nexus one, alternating between gprs/edge/3g in my house.

I am having this 3g/edge problem aswell, i am also not able to be on wifi and 3g at the same time.

Blueman101 said:
I am having this 3g/edge problem aswell, i am also not able to be on wifi and 3g at the same time.
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When you connect over wifi the phone disconnects from the mobile network (gprs/3g) and instead uses wifi connection. It is not possible to be connected to both.

signal strength

I live in lakewood, CA and the coverage map of T-mo says my place is Excellent. However, the signal strength is -82dbm on a desk near window. Today, I was driving to Fullerton. Every time I stopped at a red light, i checked the signal strength and it was at most -78dbm.
I found some posts of nexus one owners saying the signal strength is around -57 to -70 dbm when not holding.
does G2 have a weak receiver or is it just mine?

I wish I had signal strength as good as yours. I've never seen mine go above -90dBm!
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I think its gotta be yours. I live in sammamish (washington state) and at one time I got to -50. I probably average -75.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I've gotten to -59 before and quickly decided to do a speed test. Using the speed test app, I get crazy numbers, I did a web based speed test and I got speeds (don't remember) but on a scale it said I was much faster than Sprints 4G network. Loving it.

What the... I'm at -89dBm with a full five bars. This is my second g2 and the first one was the same.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Same.. -85 dbm full five bars.. -113 dbm at 1-2 bars.

From my very unscientific experiments
I fired up my G1 tonight and installed the Mobile Signal Widget (handy widget, free on the market).
G1:
Sitting on my desk or being held in my hand, the signal reads -99 on UMTS. Very solid reading.
G2:
Signal reads -91 to -93 on HSDPA, then occasionally 'drops' to UMTS. Signal tends to show around -93 to -99.
These readings fly out the door when I pick it up and hold it like I did the G1. Within seconds, the signal drops to -101, shows no signal, then drops to either EDGE, or at an extreme, down to GPRS then goes back to EDGE, usually leveling out from -95 to -101.
Putting it down almost instantly sees the signal strength go back up to -97 and reestablish the UMTS or HSDPA connection.
I don't have the internal pictures or design plans for the phone, but it almost seems like HTC did the Apple iPhone 4 antenna treatment to the Vision/G2 and is using the casing as part of the antenna.
EDIT: ...Or put it in a bad place. I noticed that the signal drops mainly when the lower left hand of the phone is held/covered. Holding it by just the sides and making sure the bottom of the phone (area that has the trackpad) is not covered or being touched causes a much smaller drop in signal. Holding it by the top corners results in next to no signal drop.
Allegedly, TMo is having nation wide issues with the HSDPA side of the network according to the report of someone in the TMo forums (claims to have been told this by a CS rep, so take it with a grain of salt).
So while I don't think the G2 has a worse receiver, it does appear to suffer from bad antenna placement, which can look like a bad receiver. This may or may not be an issue for someone as YMMV depending on usage patterns, bluetooth headset usage, and so on.
As for the main status bar indicator, don't be fooled. TMo tweaked the signal display to show only H, E and G. Install that widget and watch it, I bet your phone switches between HSDPA and UMTS a lot, and the main display never changes from H.
I call this a bit of weasel marketing. They make this big deal about the new network and speeds and their flagship phone supporting it, but configure it so that it only reports the HSDPA side of the network when it's connected at anything faster than EDGE. Makes me wish for a way to track over time just how much time it spends using the UMTS protocol vs HSDPA.
I hate to say it, but returning this phone is looking like a better idea more and more...

You're retarded. HSPDA is 3G.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

joebobjoe said:
You're retarded. HSPDA is 3G.
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Fine, if you want to split hairs, I've corrected my post to reflect the correct terminology (UMTS vs 3G).
It doesn't change the fact that the Froyo install has been modified
It doesn't change the fact that it's verifiable with the free utilities on the market
I can't think of a single reason that the '3G' indicator in the OS would be removed except to 'hide' the fact that the phone isn't always using the HDSPA protocol, which is being bandied about by TMo marketing as one of the reasons to buy a G2. I don't expect a phone to have a rock solid connection 100% of the time, it's next to impossible. But I also don't expect a device to have been modified in a way that is misleading and doesn't show the actual protocol the phone is using.
My post was to add my findings about the subject of the phone having a poorer receiver than earlier phones, such as the G1 and the N1, and along the way I found something I thought was interesting enough to add to the post. Pardon me for not being specific enough at 3 in the bleeding morning.
Next time, try responding without the personal attack or apparently not even trying to reproduce what I have found to see if I'm making things up, OK?

jdc said:
Fine, if you want to split hairs, I've corrected my post to reflect the correct terminology (UMTS vs 3G).
It doesn't change the fact that the Froyo install has been modified
It doesn't change the fact that it's verifiable with the free utilities on the market
I can't think of a single reason that the '3G' indicator in the OS would be removed except to 'hide' the fact that the phone isn't always using the HDSPA protocol, which is being bandied about by TMo marketing as one of the reasons to buy a G2. I don't expect a phone to have a rock solid connection 100% of the time, it's next to impossible. But I also don't expect a device to have been modified in a way that is misleading and doesn't show the actual protocol the phone is using.
My post was to add my findings about the subject of the phone having a poorer receiver than earlier phones, such as the G1 and the N1, and along the way I found something I thought was interesting enough to add to the post. Pardon me for not being specific enough at 3 in the bleeding morning.
Next time, try responding without the personal attack or apparently not even trying to reproduce what I have found to see if I'm making things up, OK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry.

joebobjoe said:
I'm sorry.
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Accepted, mentally listing this as water under the bridge and moving on.

[Q] Anyone having signal issues?

I just picked my new Fascinate yesterday and have been noticing something strange. I routinely have a very low signal with 3G and WiFi in places I've always had a great signal (or so I thought). Just to get it out of the way, I am not using any kind of case and I have already done a *228 update.
For example, tonight I put my Fascinate, a friend's Continuum, and a friend's original Droid in front of me on a table to compare their 3G signals. The Droid reported 4 bars, the Continuum 2 bars, and my flickered between 0 and 1.
At home, my "old" Omnia 2 routinely got 3-4 bars (still does even though it's deactivated) and my gf's LG Ally gets the same. However my Fascinate gets 1-2, sometimes dipping to 0.
Oddly, I have the same issue with my WiFi signal. At home my PC and laptop have a full strength signal while the phone is lucky to have a that first dot and maybe a bar. At work, I can walk within 4 feet of my Wireless-N router and still not have a full signal
Now everything *seems* to work so I'm hoping it's just an algorithmic display issue, but I have gotten a "Network Error" message a few times. For good measure, I'll probably pop into Verizon to compare my signal to the various displays there.
My question is: Is this a general Fascinate issue? Do I have a lemon? Should I just hope 2.2 is magic?
Thanks

same problem here.
I'm really hoping this gets fixed with 2.2.

I've had two fascinates now, and they've both had really poor signal strength compared to any other phone I've used or seen. Was at lunch the other day with a friend with a Droid 1, and I was getting 1 bar, he was getting 4. At home, it's consistently 1 to 2 bars at best, and I live less than a mile and a half from the nearest tower.
While I don't drop calls, I think it's pretty clear that the phone has a particularly week antennae design.
Since you say you just got the phone, I assume you haven't rooted and played with other roms yet. But in case you have, I noticed a significant drop in signal strength, both cellular and wifi, using JT's DJ05 rom. And it was more than just a display issue, since the wifi connection would repeatedly drop - even in the same room as my router. Switched to the stock DJ05 and I was back to normal (if you consider 1 to 2 bars normal).

Just wanted to follow-up on this. After a week of comparing signals to every smartphone I ran into, I came to the conclusion I either had a lemon or the Fascinate had serious engineering issues.
I went back to my local Verizon store and compared my phone's signal strength to all the Android phones in there, including the other Fascinates. Every phone was between -73 and -86. My phone never got any better than -101. So they swapped phones for me (new one out of the box) and this one performed like all their other phones in the store. I am now enjoying my old, normal, strong signal strength and my battery is still at healthy 80% after several hours of use, even a little wifi usage.
Moral of the Story: Check your signal strength (on any phone) against the phones in the store before you leave and don't be afraid to demand a new phone if you have that sort of concrete data to back it up!
Sent from my SCH-i500 Fascinated using the XDA App

DI01 has a signal reporting bug that is fixed in DJ05/DL09. With DI01, the best I got was -86dBm, and the jumps did not really seem to make sense. After going to DJ05, the reported signal goes up to -50dBm or so and moves in a logical direction (go inside, signal goes down) where before it would just move randomly. It is possible that there was also bad hardware, but I'd guess that it had more to do with the crappy software Samsung provided.

Interesting. I've not had any ambition to root/flash my Fascinate (I swear I did it weekly with my old Omnia 2) so for whatever it's worth, my experience was always with the stock DI01.

Hopefully you won't have similar problems after we get the maintenance update, whenever that may be.

G2 signal attenuation - any better?

I briefly had a G2 and quickly returned it to T-Mo and stayed with Verizon due to the signal attenuation issues I had. Additionally, I saw numerous posts about this on AF, XDA, T-Mo Forums and a few other places I cannot remember. My question is, have the software updates that have been pushed through helped this problem any? I really liked this phone, aside from the signal problems and now with it being free through the 20th at T-Mo, I would like to give it another shot, but not if I am going to have more problems.
For those who are wondering what I am talking about, the G2 issues I (and many others) had were similar to the problems iPhone 4 users had where the signal dropped down to very low or nothing by simply holding the phone. I could sit at my desk and watch it go from an H with full bars, then drop to E, to no service, then it would gradually return when I placed it back on my desk.
Additionally, the reason I made a post about this is that the forum topics about this seem to just have stopped, nobody really seems to be screaming "it's fixed!!!" So just trying to get some input as to whether it really is fixed.
Thanks for your input!

ive noticed this as well. It usually happens when I surf the web. No idea? It is annoying but it won't cause me to send it back. I love it too much compared to all the others i've gone through. I'm sure they will isolate the problem and it will get better. (here's hoping)

Never had any places on the phone that I touch where signal will just drop, though out here in the middle of practically nowhere my signal will randomly drop sometimes regardless of what I'm doing with the phone.

I think I suffer from this as well. It constantly drops my data, especially at my house. If I set it on my desk with mobile hotspot it works great, and I'm not touching it so I may have issues with that

I've yet to have this happen. Constant h in my status bar and signal is strong.
Probably a defect phone?
Sent from my Pear phone.

It happens. It happens with every phone, including the G2. It just depends on where the antenna is and how it's held. You can play around with attenuation by enabling dBm signal strength in CM.
To enable it, go to Settings > CyanogenMod Settings > User interface > Status bar > Check Show dBm.
dBm is measured in negative numbers. A higher (less negative) number indicates higher signal strength.
-80dBm is stronger than -100dBm for example.

This is actually a non-issue.
Explanation:
The phone actually picks up signal BETTER than other phones... especially when the signal is weak. The effect that you are seeing is actually the reception returning to a *normal* level when you happen to be holding it in some particular way.
I have two phones; an HTC DREAM and an HTC VISION. Sitting on my desk at work, the DREAM will show 0-1 bars, but connected, the VISION will show 2-3 bars. Holding both in my hand, the DREAM will continue to show 0-1 bars, the VISION will drop to 0-1 bars and both will read the same dBm. Same signal when held, the VISION is just more sensitive (i.e. sensitive in terms of able to hang on to a weaker signal, not sensitive in terms of flakiness).
In contrast to apple junk, the apple junk actually has the antenna wrapped around the outside of the phone. When you hold it in your hand and the signal drops, it isn't suffering from attenuation, its being GROUNDED OUT.

dhkr123 said:
This is actually a non-issue.
Explanation:
The phone actually picks up signal BETTER than other phones... especially when the signal is weak. The effect that you are seeing is actually the reception returning to a *normal* level when you happen to be holding it in some particular way.
I have two phones; an HTC DREAM and an HTC VISION. Sitting on my desk at work, the DREAM will show 0-1 bars, but connected, the VISION will show 2-3 bars. Holding both in my hand, the DREAM will continue to show 0-1 bars, the VISION will drop to 0-1 bars and both will read the same dBm. Same signal when held, the VISION is just more sensitive (i.e. sensitive in terms of able to hang on to a weaker signal, not sensitive in terms of flakiness).
In contrast to apple junk, the apple junk actually has the antenna wrapped around the outside of the phone. When you hold it in your hand and the signal drops, it isn't suffering from attenuation, its being GROUNDED OUT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whatever the cause is, the phone was unusable when I held it in my hand normally. The only semi-fix was to hold the phone at the top near the earpiece, which was uncomfortable...or never touch it.

miller7796 said:
Whatever the cause is, the phone was unusable when I held it in my hand normally. The only semi-fix was to hold the phone at the top near the earpiece, which was uncomfortable...or never touch it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like you just have a poor signal or faulty phone to begin with. I don't have that issue at all. In fact this phone seems to hold a data connection in weak areas better than my previous android phone did. If yours was that bad then there was something horribly wrong that warrants replacement.
You may also try CM7, it seems to keep a signal even better than my current ROM does. Not sure why, maybe it's just a placebo effect.

Humm, no issues with Wifi, H or G3 dropping, Bell network though, BUT when I switch from H/ G3 to wifi, if I am on bluetooth, it gets all garbled and I have to hangup call. I would think a location issue or some form of interference you guys are having.

KCRic said:
Seems like you just have a poor signal or faulty phone to begin with. I don't have that issue at all. In fact this phone seems to hold a data connection in weak areas better than my previous android phone did. If yours was that bad then there was something horribly wrong that warrants replacement.
You may also try CM7, it seems to keep a signal even better than my current ROM does. Not sure why, maybe it's just a placebo effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, I'm positive that the sentiment is that the radio hardware does suck and there are definite attenuation challenges. I've now verified this through a myriad of different Desire Z's here.
At my work desk I get HSPA and HSPA+ speeds at times. However holding it drops it down so there are 0 bars and it stays on HSPA, drops to 3G with no bars, back up to HSPA, etc... lots of unnecessary band switching whereas other handsets will not do this. They'll get a lower signal/dB all together though. And their attenuation is a lot less.
If you hold the phone upright the reception is much better. Drop it down and hold it in landscape mode and there is an immediate drop and sometimes it begins switching bands depending on the service area you're in. It can be quite annoying being right on the cusp because that's a huge battery killer.
I really wish there was at least some modest software fixes to accommodate for this flaw. I know that much can't be done hardware wise at this point but I think some improvements should be attainable through updates and optimizations. Hears to hoping because I love my Desire Z!!

bongd said:
Nah, I'm positive that the sentiment is that the radio hardware does suck and there are definite attenuation challenges. I've now verified this through a myriad of different Desire Z's here.
At my work desk I get HSPA and HSPA+ speeds at times. However holding it drops it down so there are 0 bars and it stays on HSPA, drops to 3G with no bars, back up to HSPA, etc... lots of unnecessary band switching whereas other handsets will not do this. They'll get a lower signal/dB all together though. And their attenuation is a lot less.
If you hold the phone upright the reception is much better. Drop it down and hold it in landscape mode and there is an immediate drop and sometimes it begins switching bands depending on the service area you're in. It can be quite annoying being right on the cusp because that's a huge battery killer.
I really wish there was at least some modest software fixes to accommodate for this flaw. I know that much can't be done hardware wise at this point but I think some improvements should be attainable through updates and optimizations. Hears to hoping because I love my Desire Z!!
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Click to collapse
I agree. I experience this the most when I browse the web since I usually browse with the keyboard open.

There is a SIGNIFICANT amount of drop in Wi-Fi signal strenght whem the keyboard is open and your hand is covering the left side (top for portrait). However when the keyboard is closed and you cover the TOP again the signal drop is maybe by 1 bar....
As far as 3G/4G to EDGR drops are concerned.... that can be taken care of... if you go into radio diagnostics (*#*4636#*#* > Phone information) and selecting WCDMA ONLY...... this will prevent phone going into EDGE if minor fluctuations occur in the cell signal. Mind you, this option is only useful if you are in a GOOD 3G/HSPA+ coverage area....
Cheers

funkadesi said:
There is a SIGNIFICANT amount of drop in Wi-Fi signal strenght whem the keyboard is open and your hand is covering the left side (top for portrait). However when the keyboard is closed and you cover the TOP again the signal drop is maybe by 1 bar....
As far as 3G/4G to EDGR drops are concerned.... that can be taken care of... if you go into radio diagnostics (*#*4636#*#* > Phone information) and selecting WCDMA ONLY...... this will prevent phone going into EDGE if minor fluctuations occur in the cell signal. Mind you, this option is only useful if you are in a GOOD 3G/HSPA+ coverage area....
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just remember to change it back to allowing Edge if you are going to travel outside the 3G/HSPA area.

I have noticed this since day one. It was very obvious at weak signal locations such as were I work. Inside a steel building with 20 machines running on 480 volts. I have enabled 180 degree rotation in CM settings and have used it this way so much that I have no doubt that the signal is reduced when the phone is held the "normal" way, in either hand. If I hold it upside down, trackpade at top, then it is fine.... also if the H signal is strong, more than 2 bars.. then it doesn't matter how you hold it.
I have compared this to my G1, that I still own. And the problem is that the G2 seems to have trouble switching from weak H to weak E and I can replicate a loss of signal everytime. I mean that an"x" Is displayed over the signal strength meter. And I can not make calls. This never happened on the G1. I have even disabled the ability to use H and it solved the problem. So then I took the htclib_ril.so from the G1 and used it in the G2. This didn't seem to change much.... So I believe that it IS a problem with the radio, or a problem in the librilswitch.so that does not get referenced in the G1 build.prop. But is in the G2...
If anyone knows how to make adjustments to when the phone switches from H to 3G to G to E I would really like to know. I think it could be the solution we need....
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

When I check my phone it always say HSPA and never HSPA+ whats up when will I know if I'm on 4G I'm in a 4G market Philly!!

I received my G2 yesterday, and it is a lot better at handling a signal when you hold it in your hand. There's still a slight drop in reception when you hold the phone, but more of what you should expect to happen rather than a complete drop down to the dreaded X. Still testing it out a for a few days before deciding to drop Verizon, but I sure do like that I can talk and use data at the same time on the G2.

I've had this problem with my new G2. With either the stock ROM or CM 6.1.1 when I hold it the signal drops. This is a non-issue in areas where there's good coverage, but at my house where the signal is quite weak this usually means the difference between signal and no signal. If I don't hold it the signal improves. My Cliq gets better signal here than my G2 does. Also, the Cliq doesn't suffer any noticeable signal issues when I'm holding it.
It's funny, as I go about my daily routine with my G2 instead of my Cliq, I notice these things. I get much weaker signal in certain areas with my G2 where I got acceptable signal with my Cliq.

trees247 said:
When I check my phone it always say HSPA and never HSPA+ whats up when will I know if I'm on 4G I'm in a 4G market Philly!!
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Click to collapse
I don't believe there's an HSPA+ icon. Just H.
Try using the Speedtest.net app to check your speeds. There's no HSPA+ on my network but I still get decent speeds. I just wish coverage was better so I wouldn't switch bands and lose signal all the time. The radio hardware on the G2/DZ sucks!

dhilberg said:
I've had this problem with my new G2. With either the stock ROM or CM 6.1.1 when I hold it the signal drops. This is a non-issue in areas where there's good coverage, but at my house where the signal is quite weak this usually means the difference between signal and no signal. If I don't hold it the signal improves. My Cliq gets better signal here than my G2 does. Also, the Cliq doesn't suffer any noticeable signal issues when I'm holding it.
It's funny, as I go about my daily routine with my G2 instead of my Cliq, I notice these things. I get much weaker signal in certain areas with my G2 where I got acceptable signal with my Cliq.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only option I have found yet,(limited time to tinker) is to turn on 180 degree rotation and hold the phone "upside down" it seems to work every time.... So when I am in a place that has weak signal and I need to use data, I flip it around, and it works fine.... I know this is lame considering I paid so much for the phone but.... it does work.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App