Hello friends,
I have a i9500 which is exactly 2 years old and - with this age - ran out of warranty here in Thailand already.
A while ago, from one day to another, my Bluetooth reception dropped dramatically. It was not a slow process of decreasing reception. It was one day ok and the next day very bad.
Usually, you have a range of let's say 5 to 6 meters when you connect to a (in my case) Bluetooth headset. Suddenly, the range dropped to 30 centimeter! Then I realized that the WiFi range also decreased.
So, what to do? First, I changed ROMs, but nothing helped. I did factory reset, wiping, and so on. Nothing helped. I checked the internet and didn't really find answers. One blog talked about faulty Bluetooth chips. So, I went to the Samsung service center. But they only wanted to replace the motherboard which should have cost me around 5300Thai baht, which is around 150Euro or 175USD. Regarding the age of the phone, that was a no go.
So I started to check for a new phone. But somehow, I didn't want to accept that I don't have a choice. Besides that I am on a tight budget, I wanted to find out what is really the reason for this.
Suddenly I ran into a blog which showed some components of the S4 and that the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antenna(s) are packed under a flap after you remove the back cover. It says something about cleaning the antenna under the flap as a last resort. So....I thought... Bluetooth, Wi-Fi. Sounds like my problem. As I don't have the according tools and skills, I took the phone to a small phone shop. First, the guy didn't want to believe that I ask him to clean the antennas, but he agreed though.
I came back 40 minutes later and we checked everything together.
Result: PROBLEM SOLVED
Back at home I made more tests with my Wi-Fi reception and the range of Bluetooth and I have to say: as good as new!
All this cost me only 300Thai Baht = 8Euro = 10USD
So... Before you throw your S4 away or sell it because you have similar problems, try this small surgery.
I hope this helps some of you guys.
Kind regards
Dirk
Related
#1 - I purchased my wizard the first hour it was out on Tmobile. That first day I had a problem connecting to wifi and the Tmobile rep told me that my unit was defective. I told him that I was sure it was a settings problem and he told me that I couldn't receive any more tech support until I got a new one. Sure enough, my new one had the same problem since it was a settings problem.
#2 - I would have to realign the screen several times a day.
#3 - For some reason, Tmobile could not obtain an sim unlock code so they offered to replace it. I had been in a car accident where my wizard went flying over 30 feet but still worked fine. Due to the scratches, I decided to take them up on the offer instead of using lokiwiz.
#4 - To hear out of the headphones, I have to constantly press on the jack to make a good connection. I tried several different headphones all with the same result.
#5 - This unit is on its way to me. I hope I can keep this one longer than a month.
I've been very careful with my Wizards. I've never dropped one (except the wreck, and it still worked fine). Am I just unlucky or is this somewhat common?
Jeez man, feel sorry for you. Would have been going spare by now. Touch wood my first is fine and dandy.
I've had a Universal for about a year and a half (maybe two) now and have become really, really reliant on it. I used to complain a lot about its sluggishness, low voice call quality and huge size, but now that it's got a problem I can't live without it!! "Normal" cellphones are a huge downgrade!!
I dropped my Universal without its case some weeks ago, and the battery cover, battery and sim card all flew away in the hard floor. When putting everything together again, it feels a bit loose, and the red thingy that holds the battery in place is not nearly as stable now. But what happens now is that, at random intervals, I get an "Invalid or no simcard" message and cannot use the phone features. If I turn the radio off then on, it sometimes works again but sometimes doesn't. I've used it as a phone for a day working perfectly and then I begin to get the message again. I sometimes get it right after turning on the device.
I tried stiffening the device with a miniscrewdriver but I cannot get to the screws that are loosened. I also tried other things believing the problem was the physical contact of the Simcard with the reader. Unfortunately the problem continues.
I live in Mexico but will be travelling to America June 21 through 29. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it? I'd also be willing to pay for a repair assuming I can send the device by FedEx from Mexico now, and get it back to my hotel late June when I go to America. Does anyone know a repairshop which might do that? Thanks a lot!
Hi everyone.
Seems this forum has at least a couple of people taking their Prophete apart (as I do) and collecting some hardware know-how.
I have two Prophetes (XDA Neos to be correct) with different problems.
I start with the history (how it comes) and will end with what I know know and where I do not get any further currently:
Prophete #1:
5 years old from O2 germany contract, G4 device (Rom versions to be posted on request, device is at home...). Was broken twice (no booting any more) during warranty and the got wet when I was hiking only with a shirt in a thunderstorm. No warranty of course, but device dead ;-( And nobody would repair it - not even for money. Pissed off from O2, but whatever...
So I found here somewhere the Maintenance Manual and disassembled the thing, dried everything and had to buy a new battery and since then it more or less works fine. The battery I was able to re-animate by charging with Laboratory power supply - The Prophete seems to go dead below a certain voltage and does not even try to charge the batt any more...
For a while I had strange illumination effects - screen fixed very bright with one half even brighter and bad color contrast - possible to work, but ugly. This disappeared slowly after 2 more years...
Then I had this well-known dead speaker-thing (dirt in headset socket) - also long time ago repaired.
But now (over the last 2 years, increasing lately a lot) I have this strange scratching noise on the main speaker. It was supposed to be a bad speaker why I bought on ebay a defective second Prophete (to be discussed below) and switched speakers - booth are fine in #2 but scratching in #1. The trick with some cardboard under the speaker cover also does not work reliably and not at all in last months.
What I found last time I took the device apart is: when I leave a finger nail thick gap between the front cover and the housing frame in the lower half of the device, then everything is fine. But that is unsatisfactory to work with a semi-disassambled phone!
I guess, it has to do with some hair-break in a connection on the mainboard or something with the contacts between the different boards (spring contacts for grounding?) or with the headphone socket.
DOES ANYONE HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THAT SCRATCHING NOISE and can help? Where should I search?
Device #2:
Bought 1 year ago as broken. Has a crack in the touch screen, but the screen responds fine and precise all the way down to < 1mm from the crack. After cleaning the screen and the front cover, the device started to work again (touch was inop. when I got the thing).
WLAN is dead. BT seems to work.
GSM did work fine. So the device got my wifes new mobile phone. And after 3 months it started to refuse contact to any GSM network.
If I search for networks, it lists all the providers around in germany, but when I have it connect to one, it times out. So I think the Radio (GSM) system is still working (at least receiving network names, tuning right frequencies etc.), but not correctly.
I did reflash the radio ROM, but no success so far.
Sometimes after cold boot, the telephone app in general and the settings specifically are very irresponsive (long answer time, complete WM crash, whjatever). Thus I consider reflashing the entire device.
Q:
- what are good radio and WM(best: 6.1 GER) ROMs to try? (No flashing experience so far)
- what are typical GSM and WLAN failure mechanisms of the Prophetes (bad solder points, bad spring contacts etc.) - i.e. where to look?
I could even consider a "make 1 good out of 2 broke" - action - but I am afraid, that booth devices have a somehow mainboard-located problem.
Thanks for any helpful comments!
Torsten
thats easy men...just take out the LCD from prophet 1, and also Put to Prophet 2.
search in youtube for prophet disassembling...take care
ps: check The LCD Code (some prophet make different LCD)
Hello. I want to start off and say that even tho i used a lot of phones Samsung fits me bets. With that in mind i want to tell the story of my broken s4 i9505. I bought it new and used it about 2 years until i got and iphone 5s. The phone remaind in a drawer with the intention of selling some time but forgot about it, then i used the phone once a week or so paired with moto 360 because iphone could not connect and used the watch only for time .(bluetooth worked fine remember this). Anyway i decided to sell it and i had all my apps and accounts in there so i thought the fastest way was to factory reset it and make it fresh so i can sell it (rom was not stock at the moment, i have no ideea what rom it was). I sold it to a friend that told me he wanted to pair something with it thru bluetooth and bluetooth didnt work...i sayd that it wasnt possible because all i did was a factory reset and that couldn't damage anything. Things got worse as the phone was charging very very slow and if it got over 90% baterry would not respond to anything (red led at 90% and got to green when full but still no response from phone) and the only thing to do is to remove battery. Then i took the phone back, got it a new battery but that didn't changed anything, took it to some repairs shops that didn't ever hear about this problem, i had it chance the software but that didn't do anything. The problem i suspect it is and i saw a few other posts online was the bluetooth module would stop working for some reason and do this to the phone. Currently i don't know what to do with it and i don't want to sell it just for part for 50 euros or so. Also i read that the bluetooth module can't really be changed as a spare part because it's part of the motherboard and that means almost all the phone. Phone is in mint condition, i didn't damage it before the sell , the buyer didn't damage it or messed with the rom...Another thing i noticed is that in settings under bluetooth address says unavailable. Can someone please help me ? I can provide more information about serials and stuff if needed. Also wi-fi doesn't work now.
Mine also show unavailable under Bluetooth address, but it works.
Are you currently on the stock rom?
Yes is stock. Android version 5.0.1 I9505XXUHOJ2. If i toggle bluetooth on says starting bluetooth then after 5 seconds it disables. I guess the problem is from hardware not software. So fast battery drain is not normal something is using a lot of energy.
As far as I know, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules are in the same physical chip, therefore something might be physically broken. Here's a clip I came across while trying to fix my phone's Wi-Fi and I think it's exactly what might fix yours. (Should be very cheap to do too.) I think basically what he's doing is putting some flux on the board then reflowing it with the hot air gun.
Before taking that step, be sure to exhaust the possible software fixes. I'm not sure, but updating the bootloader and modem MIGHT fix it.
My wi-fi started working again it just took a while but the bluetooth does exactly the same as in the clip so maybe that's the problem. I don't understand why does so glue over it make it work...also for me it's hard to turn the phone off because the screen goes black but the blue led still stays on and the only way to turn it off completly is to take out battery. Maybe this will solve the battery problem aswell ?
Alright long story short broke my screen, didn't want to buy a new phone, bought a for-parts Z3Z, was ready to swap the battery and screen over to the components then I realized the motherboard is the first thing to come off anyway, so I just swapped the motherboard from my old phone to the rest of the components from the new one. So I did that, yes all cables and everything are connected. But my bluetooth range is like 10 feet through air and won't go through a piece of cardboard or whatever at 1 foot. The GPS takes forever to lock and loses signal every couple minutes for a while.
I assume the antennae for BT and GPS are both on the motherboard that we know was working fine in my old phone (really well actually!), so what's the deal? Any ideas? It's making my phone almost unusable.
Also, wifi seems like MAYBE but not definitely it's been affected... I used to get 2 bars in my car in my garage at least, now I lose the connection the second I close the garage door behind me. It's weird how like all the antennas except the actual cell antenna don't work....