A VZW macro-antenna was recently placed on the building across the street from where I work, and for the first week after I returned from Christmas vacation, I'd have a solid 3-4 bars all day long. Since doing more extensive ROM/kernel modifications to my phone, I notice that my reception will jump around a lot... 4 bars, 1 bar, 3 bars, 2 bars, 4 bars, 1 bar, etc.
Using a signal widget confirms that it does actually vary quite a bit... such as suddenly dropping from -86dmb to -106dbm, then bouncing back to -86 without the phone having been moved.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this or have any idea what might be causing it and what I could try to alleviate the issue? I suppose I could go back to the adrynalyn's 12/12 test kernel (the one that came with DJ05), but as I'm currently using both Voodoo lagfix and sound, I'd really rather not have to do all that.
Currently using Superclean 0.9, JT's 1/23 voodoo5 + lagfix + sound. Thanks in advance for any assistance!
I dont have exact DB measurements but I can tell you that just sitting at my desk at work my 3G connection speed varies from 1mbit to 10kbit in about 4 seconds sometimes. The network just dies. It slowly builds back up to 1mbit and then dies again. Pandora streaming is annoying.
edit: after 4th try of *228 option 2 i now am getting better signal and 1.8 down and .6 up....maybe verizon was having issues in my area and now they have it fixed...we shall see
xlinth said:
edit: after 4th try of *228 option 2 i now am getting better signal and 1.8 down and .6 up....maybe verizon was having issues in my area and now they have it fixed...we shall see
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I have had problems using that kernel (Superclean 0.9, JT's 1/23 voodoo5 + lagfix + sound.), with my cell signal dropping out entirely at random times.
Once I went back to the previous kernel I was using, everything was fine again.
How long have you been using your current kernel?
Im using adrynalyns latest i think ...with voodoo and voodoo sound fix...for about a week now....i've tried just about every kernel i could find but still had the same problem. *228 has done the trick so far......my signal is low but is constant....its no longer dropping to 2g at least.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I thought the 3g to 1x problems got fixed with DL09 (stock rom) but it still appears to be a problem when I get in a low coverage area. My friends HTC Eris with the same low coverage still maintains the 3g while my Fascinate starts to switch to 1x and won’t grab 3g until a reboot or at least 3 bars of coverage are present. I tried *228 several times with no luck. Any ideas?
Related
I am sitting right next to someone with an older Droid 1 and they have 4 bars of signal strength while my Fascinate blinks between 1 and 2 bars. Is this normal?
The signal strength is definitely weaker on the Fascinate that it was on my D1. Not happy about it... Moto has always had the best reception IMO.
Have you done any side by side speed test?
I have the DX and I'm having the 3g->1x problem, and even when I'm on 3g it's garbage compared to a co-workers Eris. I'm thinking about switching to the Fascinate... but idk if it's any better.
I'm kicking around the idea of adding a second line to test it out or something to give it a shot.
matthewsh said:
I am sitting right next to someone with an older Droid 1 and they have 4 bars of signal strength while my Fascinate blinks between 1 and 2 bars. Is this normal?
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The comparison is useless unless you're looking at numbers, not bars. Bar scaling can vary.
Sent from my Fascinate using XDA
Not all phones are created equal, and this is an instance. However if you want to look at it from the other point of view, the Fascinate is pumping much much less radiation into the side of your head when you are using it
I'm in the same boat as the OP, my wife has a droid 1. Her phone gets more bars than me, but our speed tests are identical.
You really need to compare actual signal levels, not bars.
Menu -> Settings -> About Phone -> Status.
Signal = Lower number is better (i.e. -78 is better than -95).
So you mean higher number is better...
NKT said:
You really need to compare actual signal levels, not bars.
Menu -> Settings -> About Phone -> Status.
Signal = Lower number is better (i.e. -78 is better than -95).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Well yes. But you'd be surprised how many people are confused by negative numbers
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
In my case the DX is definitely the worse off the of the 2. I spent at least an hour testing speeds with the speedtest app and tethered, the Eris beat the DX every single time by a large margin, say 20%. The DX ALWAYS showed more bars but was still much slower.
Really starting to erk me...
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Edit: Did another side by side of the signal strength using the method posted above, DX is down by 3-4 db on average. No voyeur that is a big difference or not, then again in my case it is.
minr necro here
ive just got a fascinate, got the wife a d2
i noticed the sf will go from 91-106 and the d2 stays @ 93
side by side, not moving
can a software update fix this?
love the phone, but when i tether it loses connection because its unstable
the d2 does not, or hasnt yet
I have testest my dx against my girlfriends sf and the SF Always beat it.
I have not once dropped a call and the interwebs never fails , yet my phone is on 1-2 bars and then no bars.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
The DJ05 update fixes the signal strength reporting, and the changes will likely be in the Froyo update when it gets here. As far as I know, the only problems are with the display and reporting of the signal, not the actual connection.
imnuts said:
The DJ05 update fixes the signal strength reporting, and the changes will likely be in the Froyo update when it gets here. As far as I know, the only problems are with the display and reporting of the signal, not the actual connection.
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+1 to the signal display being the only problem. I routinely make and receive calls with no bars, and my data connection RARELY goes to 1x. DJ05 seems to help, but I don't know that it fixes it completely. Coming from an iPhone (signal? what signal?) and then a Droid X (Droid 1x? Droid X Doesn't?) this phone is head and shoulders above either.
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.
I have downloaded both Real Signal and Signal Status from the market. I keep having issues with my data not working(it's been ongoing since I got the phone.), so I wanted to know what my actual dBms were. But for some reason, on both apps, the highest evdo reading I get is about -3 and the lowest is about -30. But I don't know what that means in terms of real signal as everything I can find on google and that I understand, it should be between -60ish and -115ish but I have never seen those numbers on the evdo side. Am I wrong? I understand that it is the same dBm as 1rxtt, and I know they are different tech, but I would think it would be similar any way. However, I don't know antenna tech at all. So that's why I posted the question here. I have done a google search with no real relevant results, but I didn't search XDA specifically, as I thought if there were any relevant results they would have popped up in my google search. And all the relevant postings that I came up with said the same as my assumption. That signal should be between -60ish and -120ish.
Thanks again for all the help, you guys are awesome.
1 bar ~ -102 to -120 dBM
2 Bars ~ -93 to -101 dBM
3 Bars ~ -87 to -92 dBM
4 Bars ~ -78 to -86 dBM
5 Bars ~ -40 to -77 dBM
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I was able to hunt down that chart (Granted it was for a BB, however I would imagine the info would still roughly apply to any device), but I was not able to locate any real description of bars vs dBM. However, from what I've read before, just because you have a lower dBM (IE: -40) doesn't really mean you're going to have full bars/better service. I could be wrong, but from most of what I've read over time showed it was only a very vague correlation.
Do you get intermittent loss of data where only the right arrow under the 3G icon is active? That happens to me frequently as well and I have to go in and out of airplane mode to reconnect. Some of us think Blur causes it.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
Granted, I only kept the stock rom for about 3 days before I installed a custom, blur-less rom. However, I seem to recall having some data issues while using the stock rom. I donno if it was part of blur or something else causing it. However ever since I've flashed to a new rom I havent had a single issue.
I've been having issues with data like this, too. I have put an Airplane toggle widget on my home screen just for this. I am near Fort Collins, CO, but I guess it looks like people may have narrowed it down to ROM issues and not location or Verizon.
Maybe they'll fix it when they roll us out to Gingerbread.
silverfang77 said:
Do you get intermittent loss of data where only the right arrow under the 3G icon is active? That happens to me frequently as well and I have to go in and out of airplane mode to reconnect. Some of us think Blur causes it.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
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Yes. It happens quite frequently, and an airplane toggle usually fixes it.
-Gilgamesh- said:
Granted, I only kept the stock rom for about 3 days before I installed a custom, blur-less rom. However, I seem to recall having some data issues while using the stock rom. I donno if it was part of blur or something else causing it. However ever since I've flashed to a new rom I havent had a single issue.
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I have wondered myself if it wasn't blur issues. It freezes all the time, and fiancees Ally doesn't have the freezing problem and general laggyness. And I know hers only has a slow 600 Mhz processor and is just a budget smartphone.
-Gilgamesh- said:
I was able to hunt down that chart (Granted it was for a BB, however I would imagine the info would still roughly apply to any device), but I was not able to locate any real description of bars vs dBM. However, from what I've read before, just because you have a lower dBM (IE: -40) doesn't really mean you're going to have full bars/better service. I could be wrong, but from most of what I've read over time showed it was only a very vague correlation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then should it be possible for me to hit single digits? I don't recall ever having a lower signal than -30 and it stays typically in the -8 to -20 range. When I was at about -100 cell service, I was at about -8 to-10 evdo. So something still must not be right with my phone. right now I am at -76 cell and -2 to -4 Ev.
I am seeing the same thing on my phone. I have ~87dBM cell service, and ~7dBM for evdo. I have always understood Verizon's voice and data network to be separate, I suppose this just goes to confirm that.
Here's a way to confirm if it's a problem with Blur, as opposed to VZW's network. Is there anyone who had this problem on the D2 with the stock ROM and then had the problem completely disappear (or at least reduce in frequency) after switching to Liberty ROM, or one of the others?
All my issues dried up when I flashed a custom rom.
I work in the industry. A -80 is generally the number you want to shoot for as far as having a good usable signal. Anything higher would be even better. Although once you get past -50 or so the signal is kind of hot and may cause issues. Anything lower is a bad signal (-90/-100) and would also cause issues.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
I had 3g issues with the droid 1 and cyanogen but Never with blur or liberty/droid 2 from the same house. I have noticed some "cell standby" signal loss on liberty but never really bad like some cyanogen builds..don't overclock and see if that helps.
Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
I have given this modem several chances and it has disappointed me everytime. I consistently get 300 kbs less at home on my Airave on 3G. Out of the house it stops downloading in the middle. Speed is up and down. I lose internet off and on. All on 3G. 3G icon sits there but no blue arrows flash. Sometimes I have to toggle airplane mode several times to get 3G going again.
The only good thing I have found is that I can connect to 4G in my living room consistenetly where the EC05 modem was hit or miss. So if you use 4G all the time this may be a good modem for you. for 3G...throw it out.
I had problems with 3G (dropping out and not coming back) and GPS lock when I first flashed the EE03 modem. Second time around GPS locked and I haven't had the dropped 3G issue since that first flash. Not sure what's up with that, you'd think the problems would be consistent. However, im prolly not the best gauge as I have Wifi everywhere I go. I use 3G sparingly. I haven't compared speeds between the two modems though.
kennyglass123 said:
I have given this modem several chances and it has disappointed me everytime. I consistently get 300 kbs less at home on my Airave on 3G. Out of the house it stops downloading in the middle. Speed is up and down. I lose internet off and on. All on 3G. 3G icon sits there but no blue arrows flash. Sometimes I have to toggle airplane mode several times to get 3G going again.
The only good thing I have found is that I can connect to 4G in my living room consistenetly where the EC05 modem was hit or miss. So if you use 4G all the time this may be a good modem for you. for 3G...throw it out.
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p3dr0maz said:
I had problems with 3G (dropping out and not coming back) and GPS lock when I first flashed the EE03 modem. Second time around GPS locked and I haven't had the dropped 3G issue since that first flash. Not sure what's up with that, you'd think the problems would be consistent. However, im prolly not the best gauge as I have Wifi everywhere I go. I use 3G sparingly. I haven't compared speeds between the two modems though.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, that's why I gave it the best test possible with an Airave. I get 1.8Mbs with EC05 and 1.5Mbs with the EE03.
3g signal and strength seems a little stronger for me but not by a whole lot. I've been running it without any issues.
3g drops constantly with ee03. Can't wait for a stable gingerbread!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
EE03 speed up my connection quite a bit. No issues here, and paired with SRF 1.1.1, my phone is extremely fast.
I'm fine with it. Little difference
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
For those with EE03, does it write/change your Wimax settings. I changed a bunch of mine while using ED05, namely the min signal strength toconnect. Default was like -89 and I lowered mine to -94. Def able to connect more, but if it doesn't... u can just watch the bat guage spin. Just wondering if increased performance with the new modem may be due to tweaking the settings.
I had changed my 3G extensions... blanked them all out. They got set back to default while flashing a ROM. Never got a chance to evaluate a difference. Are the ports/proxies set up the same with EE03? Maybe try blanking the 4 entries and see if that helps.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
No changes, just flashed the modem.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
No way I love the ee03 modem. I used to have a lot of emails that I would send hang for the longest time. Haven't had a problem at all with ee03 modem. Also 3g speed is so much faster for me as well. Just my opinion.
Sent From My Evo Killer!
kennyglass123 said:
I have given this modem several chances and it has disappointed me everytime. I consistently get 300 kbs less at home on my Airave on 3G. Out of the house it stops downloading in the middle. Speed is up and down. I lose internet off and on. All on 3G. 3G icon sits there but no blue arrows flash. Sometimes I have to toggle airplane mode several times to get 3G going again.
The only good thing I have found is that I can connect to 4G in my living room consistenetly where the EC05 modem was hit or miss. So if you use 4G all the time this may be a good modem for you. for 3G...throw it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever seen this behavior on eb13's and ec05's modem? I have and also dk28's modem. I have this pop up from time to time on various rom/modem combinations and I'm starting to think its some sort of RIL bug or 3g handshake bug, maybe even some sort of permissions bug (really I have no clue tho).
I see this happen from time to time. I'm in a spot that always has 3g, but what happens, it just sits there loading, all the while my 3g icon is dormant, doing nothing. Then out of the blue it goes to 1x and starts working, but only with 1x, then when its done loading whatever, it will bring 3g back and it may or may not repeat the same thing again when I try to pull data. Note; occasionally it will retain 3g, but be hexa slow.....1~10kbps slow.....ouch, that's slow.
That was why I spoke of a modem binge in some other threads. Originally I thought it was sprints network taking a dump in my hand(set). Now after seeing an evo getting 3g right next to me, while mine was stalling and eventually dropped to 1x and also trying every decent modem. I have to believe the problem is in my phone some place.
Only thing I have recently discovered to work is to fix permissions in rom manager, I don't use rom manager for anything, except fixing permissions. The only reason I even tried fixing permissions in rom manager, was after fixing permissions in cwm (3.0.0.6) my phone would (sometimes) get stuck in a boot loop and the only way to fix it would be to clear cache and dalvik cache or restore a backup in cwm. However this modem bug/issue still pops up from time to time, mostly when the phone has been sleeping for 10minutes or more.
I actually think the ee03 modem is pretty good. Just my problems are not.
i wouldnt know lol ive been stuck on dk28 since the usb ports on my laptop are broken
I'm unable to connect to GPS and I don't like how switching from WiFi to 3g necessitates me enabling airplane mode
Sent from my fully armed and operational epic battle station
@Epic4gee...Yeah, I got those symptoms but only going to the EE03 modem. Maybe it is a tower/modem issue for me. But the biggest thing is that it is slower on an Airave which should be the best connection I could get with a 30Mbs broadband connection. I could pass off the connection drops as Sprint but not the speed difference.
Yeah 3g sucked for me too
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
I'm calling malarchy on this thread since this morning I was getting 1.2 mbs/s on 3g, 7.45 mbs/s on 4g and 17.07 mbs/s on wifi with multiple attempts. I think like all devices thios varies by region, modem software and device hardware. It'll never hit that venn diagram where all 3 circles coexist at their highest points. I was probably in some mecca of coverage this morning.
The Root said:
I'm calling malarchy on this thread since this morning I was getting 1.2 mbs/s on 3g, 7.45 mbs/s on 4g and 17.07 mbs/s on wifi with multiple attempts. I think like all devices thios varies by region, modem software and device hardware. It'll never hit that venn diagram where all 3 circles coexist at their highest points. I was probably in some mecca of coverage this morning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you put the EC05 modem back on and test it in the same area? You will get about 200-300 kbs more in speed on 3G. I consistently tested this on the fastest connection possible, an Airave with Broadband 30Mbs connection. EC05 is faster, EE03 connects to 4G better in low signal areas.
kennyglass123 said:
Did you put the EC05 modem back on and test it in the same area? You will get about 200-300 kbs more in speed on 3G. I consistently tested this on the fastest connection possible, an Airave with Broadband 30Mbs connection. EC05 is faster, EE03 connects to 4G better in low signal areas.
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Click to collapse
I have 4g in my city, why would I ever use 3g unless I really had to? My 3g has always been jack unless in specific circumstances. I've actually noticed it to be zippier while lacking the download test results.
pjames said:
i wouldnt know lol ive been stuck on dk28 since the usb ports on my laptop are broken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
christ man...i think i could negotiate a flash off a laptop at bestbuy/staples/officemax if i was that screwed
go get a library card or rent/buy a friend for a minute
hell go rent a laptop from rent-a-center for a week
i see people give away p3/p4 computers on craigslist like they are going out of style...oh wait...they are...but hell they still do work
consider broadening your horizons just slightly past your own living room
thats all i'm sayin
hell take a walk onto a college campus and have a seat or a high school
people will help you...you just gotta ask
I see a major improvement in the signal with the ee03 modem. I live in portland, and went from 2-3 bounding bars to a steady 4. My 4g still disconnects in my apartment, but it is stronger than it was outside my building.
What's the best reliable.modem.for use with aTt? I'm having service issues at a location.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
I'd also like to know. I'm currently on LA6 and it works, however there is still something left to be desired because my coverage is really patchy.
I'll try some other modems out and see. BTW I'm in the northeast.
I'm in Chicago. would also like to know of the best modem..but i'm running the new miui beta 4 rom. this thing is beautiful. tied for best with PA
In Chicago Also....For me, by far it's LR1.
Also I get the best results using the 'phone' apn Internet setting
Hey so I'm stuck at pepboys getting an oil change (terrible service btw...but wrong forum.) Anyways, I've had intermittent cell phone and data reception here in Boston MA using LA6 for the past few weeks. Choppy voice calls and extremely flakey reception (for instance no phone reception while watching the fireworks last night on the Charles River.)
While waiting for my car I decide to surf the interwebs-of course. My signal bar continuously jumping from H to 3G to E and "page not available" from my browser. If I did get service it was very slow. I decided to try out a new modem. I managed to download LB2 and install it. I'm very happy to say my internet is startlingly faster and my reception indicator has stayed at H the whole time!
YMMV but I'm happy to report this might be the holy grail for me! I'll update my post when I get more time with it at home where I have had very consistent crappy reception.
Weird thing is my status still shows the same signal strength though...But the speed difference is definitely not just in my head. However, I can't say if the reboot didn't also play a role in my reception.
UPDATE: Besides the fact that I sat at Pepboys for 1 hour and 45 minutes for a simple oil change that I had an appointment for, I am completely stoked. I'm home now, a place where with LA6 I got nearly zero data reception, and I just pulled up the full desktop Amazon site in a few seconds on LB2! This is fantastic!