Database Users

Can you be to close???

Hi quick question than I am sure one or manny of you can answer for me I work with in 200 metres of the cell mast my HD2 uses I get all the time full gsm signal but very patchy and battery wasting Hsdpa signal have tryed all raidios am using 2.1050.08_2 atm with same result so my question is can you be to close to a mast to get good "H" signal??

Grantzxr said:
Hi quick question than I am sure one or manny of you can answer for me I work with in 200 metres of the cell mast my HD2 uses I get all the time full gsm signal but very patchy and battery wasting Hsdpa signal have tryed all raidios am using 2.1050.08_2 atm with same result so my question is can you be to close to a mast to get good "H" signal??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There can be problems of being too close to one transmitter.
If you are directly underneath the transmitter, it is possible you will lose signal as the transmitter is designed to radiate outwards and not up and down.
The most common problem is, if you are very close to one transmitter, you can be out of range of the other transmitters that make up the local cell, so during times when there is heavy usage, the transmitter you are close to, may be at or near full capacity and your phone cannot connect to another mast within the cell area, so your signal may get weak until capacity is free again.
Under normal use, in standard mobile cells, one phone call may be split and routed between three or more masts even if you are stationary. This is to maintain signal at all times.

Grantzxr said:
Hi quick question than I am sure one or manny of you can answer for me I work with in 200 metres of the cell mast my HD2 uses I get all the time full gsm signal but very patchy and battery wasting Hsdpa signal have tryed all raidios am using 2.1050.08_2 atm with same result so my question is can you be to close to a mast to get good "H" signal??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you get paid enough for the occupational hazard

[Q] G2 High Cell Standby - Radio Issue?

So far I'm really happy with my G2!
I'm in Milwaukee where we have H+ coverage. I'm getting around 12hrs from the battery with moderate use. I don't think this is terrible, but the "cell standby" uses 40-60% of the battery!
I did some research and found the "WCDMA Only" setting. That brought the "time without signal" down to around 30% from around 60% but I don't like the idea that if I leave WCDMA coverage I'll miss calls etc...
So, my questions is - Is it possible that this is an issue with the radio firmware? It seems to be unnecessarily switching from EDGE to 3G/H+ since if I force WCDMA only, it maintains connection.
Any ideas?

I suggest you change your setting to WCDMA Preferred.
That, obviously, will cause the phone to connect to the faster network if it's available, and if it's not, will connect to the slower EDGE networks.
Having -50dB HSPA at school, and marginal HSPA at home, this works great for me.

Sometimes there will be a handover to 2G even if a 3G signal is reachable. Possible causes are sudden increases in utilization of the 3G by other users or attenuation for other reasons. Setting WCDMA-only prevents the radio from performing battery-draining tower searches, but like you said there is the problem of occasionally not having any coverage at all.
This is a problem with T-Mo US's network. You can see symptoms of it on other devices (particularly so with the Nexus One).

How do I find this setting and set it?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

SuperDave81 said:
How do I find this setting and set it?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open dialer and enter *#*#4636#*#*. It's in the first list item.
Edit: I see your location is Bay Area. I find that T-Mo 3.xG coverage is pretty lacking out on the edges of suburbia (think the hilly areas east of 680).

I have high Cell Standby as well. I checked it's details out and it claims that 50% of the time, my phone is without signal. Check this by going to:
Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby
It will tell me that 50% of the time, I do not have cell signal. I compared this to my brother's Vibrant and his is at 0% signal loss. Definitely something wrong here because my cell standby usage is twice as much as my brother's (we live in the same household so location shouldn't matter).

jashsu said:
Open dialer and enter *#*#4636#*#*. It's in the first list item.
Edit: I see your location is Bay Area. I find that T-Mo 3.xG coverage is pretty lacking out on the edges of suburbia (think the hilly areas east of 680).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And how do you un-do this if it does not work out?
NM! I figured it out~!
Edit: figured out how to change this setting. But when I set it to WCDMA at my office I get 1 to no bars And the internet is slow. I do have a H and it is using HSPA.
If I set it to GSM only I get 3 to 4 bars, mostly 4 bars max. And then I am on Edge, and the internet is a bit faster.
I am just wondering why the coverage sucks so bad for 3g? When the maps I can find seem to show good coverage. When I am out and about I get good bars on HSPA, but inside it just sucks.
I am in Houston, area code 77009 :/

jashsu said:
Open dialer and enter *#*#4636#*#*. It's in the first list item.
Edit: I see your location is Bay Area. I find that T-Mo 3.xG coverage is pretty lacking out on the edges of suburbia (think the hilly areas east of 680).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this info

Weird, I just checked my G2 and I have 0% time w/o signal.
I live in Houston, TX and this is a combo of downtown and my house.
Botched setting in the phone?

i got 14+ hours the other day, but did notice that my cell standby has been very high.. when i checked... 44% of the time is without a signal (not sure how that's calculated) as I rarely ever see signal loss.. except for an hour out of the day I go into airplane mode at the gym because i have 0 cell coverage there. But I just changed to GSM Auto (PRL), i'll see if anything changes tommorow.

SuperFly03 said:
Weird, I just checked my G2 and I have 0% time w/o signal.
I live in Houston, TX and this is a combo of downtown and my house.
Botched setting in the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you think this is a botched setting? This is exactly what it should be like. You don't want any signal loss.

jashsu said:
Open dialer and enter *#*#4636#*#*. It's in the first list item.
Edit: I see your location is Bay Area. I find that T-Mo 3.xG coverage is pretty lacking out on the edges of suburbia (think the hilly areas east of 680).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting trick. Changed my settings from GSM only to WCDMA only. My "time without signal" dropped from 50% to around 35% so it helped a bit, but not completely. On top of that, I noticed that my signal was a lot weaker and would drop more frequently so I had to switch back to GSM only.

Stryder5 said:
Why do you think this is a botched setting? This is exactly what it should be like. You don't want any signal loss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant on the OP's part.

I don't think it's a botched setting.
I just wonder if they have the phone is jumping between bands too frequently and unnecessarily. In my house the phone constantly jumps around from H-G-E suggesting that it's dropping signal and switching bands. However if I force it to WCDMA it never loses signal.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Puzzling coverage...

I'm on the Three network, have an unlocked HTC desire HD with 17 m2 radio.
Normally I get terrible signal in the flat that i live in, its a granite building in Aberdeen. Occasional the signal is around 1 bar, sometimes grey, and most of the time its X.. (no service), but i still manage to get 3G or H. When looking at the APN settings and specifically at available networks when doing a manual search, next to 3 is a green star which I assume means it's connected to 3 mobile network. But sometimes i get amazing signal, full bars, which puzzled me! so I looked at the available networks and next to 3, there was no star, so i tried calling a number and it rang and came through. I also tried using mobile internet when in this "good coverage" state, and google would not load (G is displayed in the notifications bar). After a while, the bars would drop to 1 or grey, and i would then get H or 3G, and google loads again. What's going on? and how can i take advantage of this when i have no signal.

try and find the app called open signal maps
that can be used to see where the signal-towers are
and how good the signal is
or use this site and search your adress
http://opensignalmaps.com/
sincere regards,
blokhoofd

The antenna is really wierd.
Normally I only get 2G connection.
But if I completly take my hand off the lower cover and lift the phone up a bit for a better signal, I get a 3Mbps connection, though as soon as I lower my phone back to normal the 3G signal is completly gone or gets really bad (zero bars and lower than EDGE speed)!
The antenna in this phone sucks really bad, my old Nokia phone atleast had a stable connection.

This is very bad news... I was considering DHD, but if there are isseus with gsm signal than I am really worried... Is it also happening on the stock ROM?

As long as network coverege is good you should be okay.
I swaped my SIM card with a friends and with better coverege, 3.5G worked good (solid 2Mbps), only slight drop if SIM cover is completly covered, which doesn't happen in normal use.
I just can't understand how I can get such high speeds with my SIM while on a badly covered area. haven't tested how well other devices pick up the 3G signal (my old phone wasn't 3G yet)
I'm still using stock ROM btw.

Have you tried a different radio?
People are reporting different results with them, so might be an idea to play around and see if anyone of them works better for you

I've tried the new Orange radio and I'm getting better signal, although threes coverage isn't great I would expect the device to seamlessly change between 3.5g and gprs but it doesn't it'll get stuck on hsdpa network until the x appears and sometimes it'll go to gprs and go back to three bars. Before it would be on x all the time and that's probably why the battery was quite ****. 3g doesnt penetrate buildings very well and I live in a granite building so would explain why I get better gprs signal. I just wish the antenna was smart and changed seamlessly.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

So annoying dhd still not selecting the next best connection just no service but if I select to detect network automatically it connects eventually
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Wifi's effect on Battery life.

So, is it harder on my battery to be connected to wifi or not? TIA

No offense, but you start question threads on a development forum that are easily answered with google. A thread should only be started when all resources have been exhausted and the answer can't be found elsewhere.
Wifi effect on Battery life with android
good day.

No, it's not. 3G uses more battery, especially when the signal is fluctuating all over the place.

I'm actually a perfect candidate for this, as in my apt, 3G signal is rather weak. I'm gonna leave the wifi on and see what happens.
I've been getting GREAT battery life with stock Voodoo and no wifi at all, just GPS turned off except when Im using it, and now I'm gonna try with wifi on at all times at home, and at work, and see what happens.
I'll report back tomorrow after work.

I can verify that having wifi on in low 3g areas helps tremedously. At work I get 1 bar and it fluctuates between 1x and 3g so I have wifi enabled all the time. After being in the office a majority of the day for about 8 hours I'm down to about 75% when I leave. If I leave wifi disabled and rely on 3g I'll leave with about 49-55%. It's the same at home except it is 1 bar of 3g so battery drain isn't that bad. I use a program called y5 that enables and disables wifi according to location. It uses Cell towers instead of GPS so not too bad of a strain on battery. YMMV
jv

johnnyv5 said:
I can verify that having wifi on in low 3g areas helps tremedously. At work I get 1 bar and it fluctuates between 1x and 3g so I have wifi enabled all the time. After being in the office a majority of the day for about 8 hours I'm down to about 75% when I leave. If I leave wifi disabled and rely on 3g I'll leave with about 49-55%. It's the same at home except it is 1 bar of 3g so battery drain isn't that bad. I use a program called y5 that enables and disables wifi according to location. It uses Cell towers instead of GPS so not too bad of a strain on battery. YMMV
jv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll go further than that. Even with a strong 3G signal at work having Wifi on uses less battery then 3G only on my stock (waiting for the right Froyo) Fascinate. With my crappy 3G signal at home there is no question like previously stated.

[Q] 24A/12B modem issues,weak signal on 3G GSM

I have VS980 outside the US, set to GSM/UMTS and my signal goes as height as 2/5 most of the time, rarely 3/5 and the highest I've seen in 4 days was 4/5, all in different places. I experience no disconnections and the network speed is just ok , goes up to 5700down/1300up which is almost regular speed I was used to get with my xiaomi mi2s.
So can it be just a wrong presentation of the signal strength when on GSM network?
Can I flash radio from D802?
Thanks.