Database Users

Losing signal on my Nexus S

Hey everyone,
I just bought a refurbished Nexus S for $200. I thought it was a pretty good deal. Loving the phone so far. However, last night I lost data services. The signal bars which is normally green was "greyed" out. I tried the web browser, twitter and nothing was working. Eventually I got data back in about 30 mins or so. I didn't think anything of it. Well, it happened again today. Signal bars were greyed out again. I have less than 14 days to return/exchange my device. Should I exchange it? Is this a known issue with the Nexus S? Just an FYI, I have 2 lines and data is working fine on my BlackBerry.
I'm running stock OS, 2.3.6
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Hate to break it to you but one of the few bad things about this phone is its reception. Check what radio version. Your on. If it doesn't say ke1, go on peter alfonsos web site and download the ke1 radio and flash it through cwm. See if that helps.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

I'm assuming that requires me to root the phone? So if I choose not to root my phone I'm going to have this ongoing issue?

rooting and installing this radio won't necessarily help. I have the I9020A with the newest radio and i do have this problem sometimes - I'm losing signal and it recovers in random time. the weirdest thing is that I can find my network when I'm searching manually for networks. You are on rogers (based on your avatar), so i can only guess we have the same model. My brother has the I9020A also, and he has similar yet different problem - when he lost signal due to no reception areas, he has to go into airplane mode and back to normal to recover the signal. he also has the newest radio (UCKF).
You should also notice that rooting your phone will make you lose your warranty, and i guess that also the the right to exchange it.

Yes the model I have is the same as your brother's. I know in general Samsung has bad radios. Is it because it's made by Samsung or is it particular to the Nexus S? I have been reading the same issues with the Galaxy Nexus, so I'm guessing it's Samsung.
I don't plan on rooting it because I know it will void the warranty and I won't be able to return/exchange it.

i have same case , which is , when i am back in my room ,away from streets and lots walls for signal to go through , 3G signal is **** , however, you can switch it to 2G signal in order to no to miss any phone calls and SMSs. but , you Internet speed will greatly reduced ... like max 8 kb/s

RushAOZ said:
Hate to break it to you but one of the few bad things about this phone is its reception. Check what radio version. Your on. If it doesn't say ke1, go on peter alfonsos web site and download the ke1 radio and flash it through cwm. See if that helps.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how can you recommended a radio for a NS4G when you don't even know what phone he/she has ........
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

Rem3Dy said:
how can you recommended a radio for a NS4G when you don't even know what phone he/she has ........
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a she and I have the I9020A.

qtwrk said:
i have same case , which is , when i am back in my room ,away from streets and lots walls for signal to go through , 3G signal is **** , however, you can switch it to 2G signal in order to no to miss any phone calls and SMSs. but , you Internet speed will greatly reduced ... like max 8 kb/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should see if your phone is set to wcdma/gsm mode. My room is a inner room also and when it loses 3g signal, it jumps automatically to gsm mode (internet speed is not an issue, WI-FI FTW ).

Rem3Dy said:
how can you recommended a radio for a NS4G when you don't even know what phone he/she has ........
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I do have an ns4g and since these forums aren't seperated by model its easy to see why I would make the wrong recommendation. What are you following me around? Instead of being a troll why don't you post something useful and try and help the op bud.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

What Radio do you currently have?
I usually had this problem and I had to go into mobile network settings, uncheck 'Data Enabled' and select 'Network Operators' until it found my carrier.
Have you tried checking the Airplane mode and disabling again?
If you dial *#*#4636#*#* when this happens and you go into phone information, do you see it connected?

Aaaargh fecking signal!!

Why does my phone show full signal yet all apps that use mobile data either run shockingly slow or not at all!! My steam app is constantly reconnecting yet signal is constant! In BBS it's showing i have good signal for a matter of minutes and is mostly showing poor or unknown signal nearly the whole time the phone is on!
My set up is the latest AOKP rom and faux's kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

nuclearmonkeyuk said:
Why does my phone show full signal yet all apps that use mobile data either run shockingly slow or not at all!! My steam app is constantly reconnecting yet signal is constant! In BBS it's showing i have good signal for a matter of minutes and is mostly showing poor or unknown signal nearly the whole time the phone is on!
My set up is the latest AOKP rom and faux's kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be you only have full bars of 2G data speed. You are either being throttled for excessive use from your carrier or your carrier only has 2G speeds where you live. Where I work the entire county only has 2G Edge speeds from AT&T even though their coverage map shows 3G for the area. Check your data type and speeds with an app like Network Signal info.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.android.telnet&hl=en

Happens to me a lot as well. I show full 4g and yet everything times out and wont load because data is so slow. I'm also in a good coverage area where i get 12-14 Mbps speed with other phones and when this one is acting normal.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

The towers you are connecting to are probably overloaded. Thin of them as a wireless access point at your house with 1 internet line. If too many connect to and use that line, the connection gets slower. Would be nice if cell providers posted tower stats in your area. Would save a lot of angry calls

stretched said:
The towers you are connecting to are probably overloaded. Thin of them as a wireless access point at your house with 1 internet line. If too many connect to and use that line, the connection gets slower. Would be nice if cell providers posted tower stats in your area. Would save a lot of angry calls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think in my situation it is not this. My wife has an HTC one s and my brother a sgs2 and they will have great data speed while i have dead slow even though we are on the same carrier and in the same room.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Got the same problem
My pbone is acting wired showing full signal but no traffic gets through
Also sometimes the signal just greys out and i dont get any connection until switching flightmode and back
Im at aokp to... Maybe its relaxed to the rom
Im on Stock kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

MoooN said:
Got the same problem
My pbone is acting wired showing full signal but no traffic gets through
Also sometimes the signal just greys out and i dont get any connection until switching flightmode and back
Im at aokp to... Maybe its relaxed to the rom
Im on Stock kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happened to me on stock, cm, aokp, and now pa. I don't know what it is. I just hope an update will fix it.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Glad im not the only one suffering.. I didnt really have the problem on stock so much.. just since unlocking and flashing new roms.
To the person who mentioned carrier throttling, its certainly not that as one minute i'll get full speed and the next (youtube for example) will just stop and start saying no signal retry and then if i turn the phone off and back on again it will work. How can a carrier throttle you when you only have a 2Gb usage limit and then they charge you afterwards that makes no sense.
Also its not a 2G problem as Signal checker shows 3G and also now EE all around my area. Besides my wife's S3 on the same network is getting full speeds where im not or anything even though im apparently at full strength H
I hope this gets sorted soon as its also affecting calls.. I'll have what looks like full signal while playing a game then suddenly a text to say someone tried ringing me like 3 minutes before!!

probably switching from HSDPA to HSPA+.
did you notice a H on top of your signal bar, that switches to H+ when the lag is over?

I have had this problem for a long time, since I got my Galaxy Nexus and now again on my Nexus 4, and finally got so fed up that I have been testing it all day and getting screenshots ready to make my own post about this so I am pretty relieved to see this post!
I live in Philadelphia and use T-Mobile. I have had T-Mobile here for years and never had this problem before. When they upgraded to 3G I had amazing speed boosts and when they did HSPA+ it got even better but that was on a G1/G2. On my Nexus phones the internet is damn near unusable in center city but what is so odd about it is that in my Google searches about the problem I can only seem to find posts raving about T-Mobile in the city and how Philly keeps getting improvements including the new improved 1900Mhz HSPA+42 but I have never even seen my Nexus 4 on the +42 network the best it goes to is +15 and even that makes no difference because the internet is so slow and unrelaible that unless I am on Wifi, my phone just sits in my pocket useless.
I'm really at my wits end about this and no one, Google or T-Mobile seems to take responsibility or have any advice on how to fix it except the pointless factory reset.
I've seen a brief mention on XDA about a fast.tmobile.com APN and I changed to that and I'd like to imagine that it showed some type of improvements but certainly not with data speeds/latency/integrity of connection. If anything, it may have improved signal 'strength' (used lightly because regardless of what my strength is listed as the connection sucks.
To be clear, I am connected to HSPA and HSPA+ when the connection is being used, like it should, but these are the best speeds I managed to get throughout the day today as I moved around campus trying different spots.
Please, someone have advice!!

Could it be kennel related? Did you guys try just being on stock ROM?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

ftarules said:
Could it be kennel related? Did you guys try just being on stock ROM?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using the stock kernel, stock radio although not the stock ROM. I am pretty sure I had this problem before I rooted (I say pretty sure to be conservative with my answer since I am not 100% sure but I am definitely 90%)
Is anyone confident about their knowledge regarding APN settings? I have seen like 15 different configurations for T-Mobile's APN and have no idea which one to try and would prefer not to just go through them one by one -- I've got things to do!

ftarules said:
Could it be kennel related? Did you guys try just being on stock ROM?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again.. I'm pretty sure i didn't have this problem while on stock but i could be wrong. My GNex was exactly the same. And I'm on orange UK so completely different network to the T-Mobile USA so surely can't be random that we're both having the same problems
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I had the same slowness over cellular, 9kbps or so. I changed APN's, rebooted and just got 2463kbps.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1791526

drdjr said:
I had the same slowness over cellular, 9kbps or so. I changed APN's, rebooted and just got 2463kbps.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1791526
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will this only work for at&t users though?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I'm on stock 4.2.1. Phone is rooted and boot loader unlocked. For about two days now I'm having signal drops from 4bars, then greyed out 4 bars and jumps between H to 3G. Settings for LTE revert to WCDMA every time I lose reception. Also dialer crashes/ force closes if I have an incoming call and sends all calls to voicemail. I can dial out but at the end of my calls when I go to hang up I see the popup that phone process crashed.
My carrier is Bell Canada and the phone worked fine for about 10 days before this started happening.
Any tips or advice to help me out is appreciated. Thanks.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Bump.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[Q] .48 radio breaks H+ in 4.2.2?

I'm not sure if this is covered anywhere. It's not a huge deal, but it is a little slower. My phone never goes into H+ with .48 radios on 4.2.2. All else is fine, but is this a common thing?
Also, I can still see the LTE option, isn't that supposed to be gone?
I'm on T-Mobile, if that matters.

z0mbie112 said:
I'm not sure if this is covered anywhere. It's not a huge deal, but it is a little slower. My phone never goes into H+ with .48 radios on 4.2.2. All else is fine, but is this a common thing?
Also, I can still see the LTE option, isn't that supposed to be gone?
I'm on T-Mobile, if that matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the LTE setting is still there, but it wont stick afaik.

z0mbie112 said:
I'm not sure if this is covered anywhere. It's not a huge deal, but it is a little slower. My phone never goes into H+ with .48 radios on 4.2.2. All else is fine, but is this a common thing?
Also, I can still see the LTE option, isn't that supposed to be gone?
I'm on T-Mobile, if that matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it wasn't only me! It happened to me today. The data was so slow!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Ah, okay. As far as H+ being dropped, hopefully I'm not the only one. Maybe there's some APN settings I can put in to hopefully change that as signal drops seem far less often so far.
Edit-
Freaking 5 minute limit. Sucks that I was inactive for so long with this account -.-
Glad I'm not the only one!
I'm getting about half the speed with H as I got with H+. I'll leave it like this for another day or so probably to see signal in other areas(Mostly work, where signal dropped every few minutes before), but if I decide to switch back to .33 radios, will there be any issues?

The 4.2.2 update didn't exactly break H+ for me, but I am definitely experiencing data "stalls" I guess you could say. Randomly when browsing the web, or doing anything using data it'll just stall... Sometimes for up to 30 seconds. I did experience the same with 4.2.1 but it now seems more noticeable (could be placebo). I have no problem with signal and get great data speeds when it is working right. I always have full bars while at home since I live about 200 yards from a T-Mobile tower. Kind of annoying tho.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

I noticed the data stalls twice so far, Once during a speed test and another while looking around in the playstore. It showed was connected but the arrows disappeared and nothing was going on.

Is this just stock ROM's or something?
I'm on a custom 4.2.2 ROM (Xylon and was on CM10.1) and .48 radio, H+ is working for me.
Your APN settings are correct?

A stock rooted 4.2.2. Figured I'd give it a try before I flash ParanoidAndroid. I was on Xylon 4.2.1 before I went to 4.2.2, but I figured I'd give stock a try. And as far as I can tell, yes. APN settings are right.
I tried flashing back to .33 radios, no luck. Maybe I'm missing something in the APN, or it's ROM specific.

[Q] Bad T-Mobile Signal, Anything I can do?

So, I have a Nexus 4, and T-Mobile ($30/month prepaid). I live in the south-western part of PA. I'm in my house currently, and have full bars, no problems there.
I was at work earlier (inside), and had no signal at all. Outside I have like 1-2 bars, sometimes. I'm in the same town too, and the area seems to be in a more elevated area as well.
When I tried searching for mobile networks, I did notice AT&T showed in the list, but not T-Mobile. Perhaps this means AT&T has better coverage in my area than T-Mobile? Is there anything I can do to improve signal on my-end, like flashing different basebands? I was on the latest (.48 I think) earlier when I experienced this, but I flashed down to .33 now. Still full bars in my house, but I'll have to wait till tomorrow to verify if it actually changes anything.
I like T-Mobile, so I would prefer to keep using their service, but I do need some kind of cellular at work :/ I don't think AT&T offers anything like T-Mobile's $30/month prepaid plan either, for that cheap anyway.
Edit: T-Mobile's Coverage map shows green for my entire town and neighboring towns, for 2G/Voice.

espionage724 said:
So, I have a Nexus 4, and T-Mobile ($30/month prepaid). I live in the south-western part of PA. I'm in my house currently, and have full bars, no problems there.
I was at work earlier (inside), and had no signal at all. Outside I have like 1-2 bars, sometimes. I'm in the same town too, and the area seems to be in a more elevated area as well.
When I tried searching for mobile networks, I did notice AT&T showed in the list, but not T-Mobile. Perhaps this means AT&T has better coverage in my area than T-Mobile? Is there anything I can do to improve signal on my-end, like flashing different basebands? I was on the latest (.48 I think) earlier when I experienced this, but I flashed down to .33 now. Still full bars in my house, but I'll have to wait till tomorrow to verify if it actually changes anything.
I like T-Mobile, so I would prefer to keep using their service, but I do need some kind of cellular at work :/ I don't think AT&T offers anything like T-Mobile's $30/month prepaid plan either, for that cheap anyway.
Edit: T-Mobile's Coverage map shows green for my entire town and neighboring towns, for 2G/Voice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try these APN settings http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2236735
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

If that don't work then call T-Mobile and ***** them out for poor signal coverage

Modem flash to .33 nor the APN settings helped; still a pretty bad/no signal :/
Under About Device, I think my signal is like -80 or something; I've seen it go higher and lower, and I still had a connection though. Any ideas?

Did you contact T-Mobile yet? Maybe they can get you a signal booster.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Another option if you're running a touchwiz rom is to use wifi calling.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

Been wondering same thing lol
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

[Q] LTE preferred

I have huge LTE issues. The coverage where I live is amazing, but my phone will not prefer LTE no matter what I do. Does the phone software just suck or is there something I can do?
LTE only - works, but then I cannot make or receive calls. All other modes will prefer 5.9 bars of 3G over 5.8 bars of LTE. Which doesn't make any sense.
Btw I am on CloudyPro II but I don't think it is a ROM issue because I never had had the phone prefer LTE even though I have almost max LTE everywhere.
I have also tried with fast dormancy enabled and disabled. It makes no difference.
Is there a way to make this phone prefer LTE?

Same problem here. Even though i got 4g on my place, it will connect on edge or 3g. Sometimes i got no signal at all. I dont have thos problem on JB. Im on rooted stock KK international. Is this a kernel or baseband issue?
Sent from my LG-D802 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

jefbeck said:
Same problem here. Even though i got 4g on my place, it will connect on edge or 3g. Sometimes i got no signal at all. I dont have thos problem on JB. Im on rooted stock KK international. Is this a kernel or baseband issue?
Sent from my LG-D802 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... I had the same problem on JB stock...

Another thing that I noticed is that if I for instance set this phone to LTE/GSM/WCDMA it will go nuts. Sometimes changing between H and 3G almost every second. Just back and forth.
It is almost as if this phone will poll the network several times each second and then prefer the strongest signal while completely disregarding data speed.

First, why are creating new threads when already exist similar topics? Do you read old topics? Maybe it has contained answer
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2474244
Gnarfsan said:
Another thing that I noticed is that if I for instance set this phone to LTE/GSM/WCDMA it will go nuts. Sometimes changing between H and 3G almost every second. Just back and forth.
It is almost as if this phone will poll the network several times each second and then prefer the strongest signal while completely disregarding data speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And what could it possibly do? You prefer it to connect to some 5miles fay away LTE cell only if it's speed is faster but your modem will then constantly drop packet and reestablish connection to drain the battery? Or should phone grab a nearest and most powerful signal from 3G cell?
And third, wait for Kitkat, it contains a newer 190084 baseband, maybe it will relieve your pains
Then again, why do you complain here instead of going straight to you operator office? It surely is their fault to tweak their cell wrongfully. We can't change their settings
---------- Post added at 04:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 PM ----------
Almost forgot, read this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2660471

Billy Madison said:
Then again, why do you complain here instead of going straight to you operator office? It surely is their fault to tweak their cell wrongfully. We can't change their settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried with different basebands and in case you didn't read my first post I have full LTE signal (6 of 6 bars) if I force it to pick LTE only. If I don't, it will pick 6 Bars H/3G.
I have also tried many different ROMs and I have checked the settings of the Sim card. It is set to prefer LTE.
Btw, did you read the last post in the thread that you linked to?

With LTE i get a ping of 34 ms and 15/5 Mbps. But the phone will pick a HSDPA connection with 47 ms ping and 6/1 Mbps.
And I am on the stock KitKat baseband but like I said I had the same issue on JB
If I force it in my office downtown I get up to 70 Mbps. And as soon as I switch back to default settings (if I boot) I go back to good old HSDPA if the phone is in a good mood. Otherwise I get 3G.
Sent from my LG-D802 using xda app-developers app

I have the same issue, I don't get why WCDMA preferred exists and not an LTE preferred (in *#*#4636#*#*). I'm running stock everything, only thing I've done is rooted, and I'm updated to the lastest firmware with Knockcode that T-Mobile pushed out.
Best way to discribe it is the phone gets "stuck" on whatever band it falls on. If my LTE is weak, it will fall back on 3G or 2G and just stay there - it seems like networks aren't prioritized. The phone should (in a perfect world) look for 1) LTE, 2) WCDMA, and then 3) GSM in that order and only pass one over if weak or doesn't exist, and should it pick up a higher ranked connection it should switch back. It seems the LG G2's just don't... If it falls back on 2G it's perfectly happy staying there until force it back to something else (default mode LTE/GSM/WCDMA) and it's rather annoying. LTE only is viable only when T-Mobile enables VoLTE on the G2's, but as of right now it stops all calls from happening, and I can't even change my phone to only use LTE/WCDMA, because where I work we just got a tower upgrade to LTE and they took the 3G offline, so calls still won't go through since it has to fall back to 2G.
I'll give Samsung some credit when I had my S3 and S4 on AT&T they would always follow the pecking order of what I stated above (in a perfect world) and I never had an issue, but the G2 blows the S4 out the water in performance in my opinion.