Poor Vodafone Network Signal Strength - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, I live in the UK near London. I've just upgrade my Nokia N8 to a Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505). I was on the Vodafone network with my N8 and I am still on Vodafone with my S4. I never had a problem with the network signal strength with my N8, but the signal strength is very poor to non-existent on my S4. I have seen on other threads in this forum that you can flash the modem on the Galaxy S3 to improve signal strength. Please can someone advise me on the possibility of improving my S4 in the same way, or could I just have a defective phone or SIM card? Thank you.

Bump. I take it that nobody has had an issue with poor signal strength with the S4?
Should I presume that my phone or SIM is at fault?

Hi I have noticed it is a little weaker then s3 but not sure if that is software or hardware issue
Sent from my XT890 using xda app-developers app

Has anyone tried flashing the modem on the S4 yet?
Does anyone else consider their signal to be weaker than their previous phone?
I love my S4, but if I am unable to reliably make and receive calls I will have to consider getting something else.

Related

[Q] Using i9505 on Bell Canada

Hi all.
I originally purchased my Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 in the UK where I was using it on LTE with absolutely no problems.
One thing led to another and I'm now living in Canada, and using my i9505 on the Bell/Virgin network. The phone connects to the 3G network just fine, but does not connect to Bells LTE network here.
Having done some research, I'm led to believe that this is due to the fact that the i9505 does not support the 1700MHz network for LTE, although the similar i337 model does.
I've read a number of topics that state it may/may not be possible to unlock this banding on the i9505, but have not been able to find any conclusive answer on whether it's possible, and if so, how to actually do this.
Any help or suggestions anyone might have would be incredibly appreciated, as I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering this.
Thanks in advance!

Note 4 exynos LTE problem

does anyone have this problem? i have a friend in the same room with lg g3 on his hand connected with the 4g lte. i have my note 4 with lte capable sim but i got only h+. i really hate this feeling that the g3 beats my note 4 in connectivity issues.. any help will be much appreciated. btw im from philippines and my carrier is smart. tia.
I thought the Exynos CPU wasn't LTE capable? I thought that's the whole reason why the US (which is where I live and LTE is abundant and a big selling point) variant's all use the Snapdragon CPU.
If I'm right, then your phone can't use LTE because it doesn't have the proper hardware. It wouldn't matter if you put in a sim capable of LTE. It would be like having a WiFi router that's capable of a/b/g/n/ac and trying to use a phone only capable of seeing a/b/g signals. The router (the cell tower) would be putting out all signals, yet the phone would not be able to see the n or ac signals.
Another thing is that you may need to have your provider register the phone's IMEI. I had this happen with my old phone, which was LTE capable, but it only got H+. Turns out that the ATT guy didn't register the IMEI, so ATT thought I was still using the phone prior, which was an S2 and wasn't LTE capable. The was basically a cap on the account preventing me from getting lte.
no sir.. Exynos variants are also LTE capable.. I have my LTE in some open roads when i ride the bus.. but my confusion is that my friend and i was in the same room but he has lte in his g3 (he also have the ip5s but sell it which also have lte in that room) while my note 4 only reached the h+.. it hurts actually.
Well I am on 910C, and I have a pretty good coverage in 4G. I didn't notice any difference when I transit from my Note 2 to Note 4, it is the same reception I have been getting..
well, its hard to accept things in here but I think I cant do anything about it. Thanks btw.
rexxar31 said:
no sir.. Exynos variants are also LTE capable.. I have my LTE in some open roads when i ride the bus.. but my confusion is that my friend and i was in the same room but he has lte in his g3 (he also have the ip5s but sell it which also have lte in that room) while my note 4 only reached the h+.. it hurts actually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok. I misunderstood your initial post and I thought I read somewhere that the Exynos version couldn't work with lte.
Stupid question, but are you both on the same carrier? If so then I have no clue why one phone would get lte and the other not. Unless the G3 has a better antenna or something.
---------- Post added at 04:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:57 AM ----------
rexxar31 said:
well, its hard to accept things in here but I think I cant do anything about it. Thanks btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May be the only thing to do unfortunately lol
spexwood said:
Oh ok. I misunderstood your initial post and I thought I read somewhere that the Exynos version couldn't work with lte.
Stupid question, but are you both on the same carrier? If so then I have no clue why one phone would get lte and the other not. Unless the G3 has a better antenna or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes we have the same carrier which is SMART. All the difference I know is that his sim came from a smart plan while mine does not. I just bought it from a smart store. I think it wasn't the problem anyway but i cant think of any differences. He has iphone5s before he got the g3 and also got 4g in that room.
I got the same problem as you, and Samsung confirmed that my device has radio defects. And soon I will get the replacement.
FUXAS said:
I got the same problem as you, and Samsung confirmed that my device has radio defects. And soon I will get the replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I should go to my carrier because it is a part of my carrier plan. Thanks.
i check my friend's signal and i found out that it has -93dbm and 49asu and having lte(his phone was an lg g3) and mine has -63dbm and 25asu (galaxy note 4) but doesnt have lte. which signal is better? i dont have any idea in here.. thanks.
rexxar31 said:
i check my friend's signal and i found out that it has -93dbm and 49asu and having lte(his phone was an lg g3) and mine has -63dbm and 25asu (galaxy note 4) but doesnt have lte. which signal is better? i dont have any idea in here.. thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If possible swap sim card with your friends sim card, easiest way to isolate problem.
i never tried to swap sim card with him but i already tried another LTE sim card but the result is the same. did you think my note has a problem.? im going to attach pictures. mine is the ss and the picture from camera is the g3. we are in the same room as well.
Can you post this two screen shot,this is mine.
no problem. this is mine. I already checked if the LTE is enabled but got no luck. :crying:
Buddy, I sent you a pm.
Your device is defect, i've returned a 910C with a problem like this, no calls possible in 4g3g2g and 3g2g auto mode, extremely unstable lte and umts data connection, etc. unusable. They swapped the motherboard, i think, because of a better asv group for cpu now and a resetted knox and custom counter. IMEI is still the same. Well, now everything works, i've stable lte and umts and i calls work.
pappschlumpf said:
Your device is defect, i've returned a 910C with a problem like this, no calls possible in 4g3g2g and 3g2g auto mode, extremely unstable lte and umts data connection, etc. unusable. They swapped the motherboard, i think, because of a better asv group for cpu now and a resetted knox and custom counter. IMEI is still the same. Well, now everything works, i've stable lte and umts and i calls work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am really going to report this to them because it gives me too much inconvenience.

[Q] Horrible Coverage

I recently switched from an iphone 4s to the new galaxy s5 and the side by side comparrison for signal is terrible ( same network with rogers) my old iphone never had a problem and the s5 is ****e! i have taken the s5 off searching for the lte network because i dont have it where i live with no improvements. is there anything internal i can do or get done to the phone to improve signal? Rogers has absolutely no answers for me!
thanks in advance
I don't think it's because it is s5 necessarily ) I have full all the time with 3g and 2 lines all the time with 4g/lte
Maybe u have aluminium case? Or give it a try with software update... Flash newer bootloader and radio... Or factory reset
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app

Note 4 SM-910C horrible LTE

So I picked up a Note 4 model SM-N910C which is the exynos octacore WITH LTE. I am using it with Tmobile USA in Chicago. I get horrible horrible LTE signal. At my apartment I get .53 dl and 3-4 Upld.
When I first got it I went to about phone and it had arab emirates firmware lollipop. Ive tried at least 2 others and still get crap signal. i had a similar issue with a phone before and I fixed the issue by getting into a secret menu and messing with the lte and prl settings. This phone will not let me do that though. Do I need to flash a different radio? What can I do? I am doing the KIES recovery/reset as I type.
I'm facing the same problem here. I have a SM-N910C from mexico but the original carrier, Telcel, didn't provide android 5.1.1 so I flashed a rom from another country. The problem is that now my signal is really bad, when I'm lucky I get two bars but most of the time is just one or none. I can still receive and make calls outdoors but I loose service as well as data almost inside any building. I was wondering if I can solve that with some configuration or reflashing the radio but I'm not sure.
Could please anyone provide some help and guidance?
Thanks!!

Poor network on WCDMA

I bought a brand new galaxy s6 edge dual sim-9287 from Hong Kong. I have good network signal on 2G network but the WCDMA/3G. network reception is not good on my 9287 phone while there is good WCDMA network in my old galaxy S4. I am using the phone in Africa.
I have flashed several modems.bin and factory reset but nothing improved.
Any advice is highly appreciated, please.
gachana said:
I bought a brand new galaxy s6 edge dual sim-9287 from Hong Kong. I have good network signal on 2G network but the WCDMA/3G. network reception is not good on my 9287 phone while there is good WCDMA network in my old galaxy S4. I am using the phone in Africa.
I have flashed several modems.bin and factory reset but nothing improved.
Any advice is highly appreciated, please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's odd that I know the answer to this question from a vastly different device. Back in the early 2000s before modern androids I used to get phones from China. Cdma phones that didn't take sim cards. But used UMTS. This isn't a bootloader/modem issue and that's why you haven't been able to solve it. It's a radio issue. Older phones use radio bands, your devices radio is for the wrong country.

Categories

Resources