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I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm.
You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.
I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).
I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.
Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate?
That's a good point. Mine has never gone below -86dbm either. It fluctuates between -86 at it's best and -106 at it's worst.
Ill keep an eye on this with my phone
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I have no experience with cell phone radios so take this with the appropriate helping of salt.
Most radios have input protection that attenuates any signals greater than a set maximum level to prevent damage to the radio. I'm guessing the Fascinate reports it's receive signal level post input protection. It appears you just discovered this threshold for the Fascinate. Honestly, -86 dBm is plenty of signal, anything more is just for show
Again, I'm only speculating here.
Martian21
Interesting theory. I have emailed Verizon support as well. Hopefully, I will get a technical response and not a canned response from them.
With mine, it only fluctuates in -5dBm increments lol. I thought it was a litle wierd. I've seen -86, -91, -96, -101, and -106 lol.
As far as what the OP is talking about, my BB Tour (alltel) is the same way. It won't ever display anything lower than a -80.
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
shazbonk said:
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking about this the other day. Is it possible "time without signal" is simply a poor translation? The reason I ask this is when taking my phone off the charger overnight, I went directly to this setting to see what it reported. The phone reported having been unplugged for 2 minutes and already showed 5% TWS. I had been looking at the phone the whole time and didn't see it drop at all. What I did see is it going from 3G w/ arrows to 3Gd. So maybe this percentage isn't time without signal but rather time not active (i.e. 3G d).
I agree w/ the 3g d, I did not update to DI01 yet and it said I have 20% TWS throughout the day, but the phone didnt make a no service sound.
On my drive home everday I pass a Verizon owned tower.
I've stopped at a liquor store about 200 yards away from it and they maximum signal my Fascinate would pull down was -86dBm (4 bars as well).
My Cell Standby is usually around 11%.
Battery life of my Fascinate is very good.
xliderider: Any news/word from Verizon on this? What kind of Network Extender do you have? Got a brand/model #? Been thinking of picking something up like this.
So it isn't just my phone. My Fascinate goes from -86 to -106 as well. I had my Droid and Fascinate sitting next to each other, both reporting 4 bars. I went into status, and my Droid's signal strength was -77. The Fascinate was at -86. It's gotta be capped.
You're holding it wrong.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
You are probably right. With 4 full bars I can't get better than -86
I've been having the same problem...I was told by Verizon that it just has a "weaker" antenna. I go throughout the day with about 20% TWS. Never had that with my other Verizon phones.
do you get dropped calls or otherwise poor service?
I am returning my incredible due to dropped calls (while at home) using Verizons network Extender. I have had the incredible since April 29th (I believe that was the first day it was released). I have had the signal boosted twice by Verizon but still can't get close to 40' without dropping. One thing I noticed on the incredible while in the same room with the Extender is it would read let's say a -86dbm before placing a call then when placed and on the Extender network the signal would automatically go to -56dbm (stronger signal than -86dbm) and then back up after my call. What I saw was the Extender wasn't active until you make a call... Having said that, I am hoping the Fascinate will be better than the inc was... I will let you know when the Fascinate gets to me Wed or Thursday.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Got the Facinate a day early : )
So far it is defiantly working better than my Incredible on my verizon network extender!
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Mines 0%
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Sounds like it could have the same problem that affected the Vibrant. It NEVER showed higher than -81dBm, and would often reflect no signal (-0dBm is spectacular but it really means no signal within the Android system). Now with the update it reflects up to -51dBm like it should for GSM/WCDMA with Android and doesn't drop to -0dBm anymore. This of course effected the bars, often dropping to no bars or 1. Now after it's been fixed, plenty of bars and proper -dBm readings.
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 know with my droidx, i got fabulous cell reception and signal. Motorola is known for it. when i had my samsung with the same provider, i had crappy signal..
what do you think? good cell signal?
Mine is fantastic. One dropped call, and I was in a tunnel.
-95 dBm instead of -110 on my HTC Hero (I live in a terrible signal area)
For me the signal is terrible when go to my office. Most of time no signal.
I'd changed from telco companies and all they worked perfectly I got no complains about it.
Sent from my MB860 using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
I've noticed a small increase in reception from my iPhone 3G, but not that much of a difference. In some of my classrooms, I used to get no signal on my iPhone, but I get one to two bars on my Atrix. I haven't been reverted to EDGE yet, though, so I'm not complaining.
Works fine for me
Works well for me. Got crappy reception in my office, but that has been consistent between phones, so no biggie.
No dropped calls and I lose signal in one building I rarely go into but it has a sheet metal roof and walls and no one gets reception in it.
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I'm quite satisfied, I've been in a road trip with a guy whose phone was an iphone and our reception was the same or even better
I've been getting better signal on my Atrix then I got on my iPhone 4 especially in areas with weaker signal.
Im haven't had a single dropped call since I got my atrix compared to the lg expo I had previously. I must say that I've had such good reception I'm impressed!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Signal is great everywhere than my office building. I'm very happy with the call quality, which beats my nexus one's.
Sent from my Bell Atrix using XDA App
I am very impressed with the reception I get with this phone. I too live in a terrible area when it comes to cell coverage and this phone seems to be doing a better job than the past 4-5 devices I've used.
Most samsungs were close to unusable where I live.
At work I have a very poor signal indoors (-100 to no signal). With my BB 8900 if I walked out to the door I could make a voice call. However with my Atrix I kept dropping calls after 30 sec or so. I got a microcell to fix that problem.
I am having a reception issue. My Motorola Atrix shows 3 or 4 bars and suddenly drops to 1 or no service for a second and goes back up to 3 or 4 bars.
I live in NYC and never had this problem with my Samsung Captivate. Most of the time the phone does not even show the full 5 bars, mostly 3 or 4 and occasionally 5
Its usually only one bar several feet away from my router any ideas?
I'm not far from my router either and I find it hit or miss most days. The iPhone gets perfect wifi reception. Waiting and hoping for a fix.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Same here, wifi reception is terrible compared to other phones i've used.
I have the t-mobile version and I can just barely get the signal of a G router through a cinderblock building about 40 feet away....so I think mine is fine. I'm gonna assume all three of you have the NS4G?
Meh, it's the same for me coming from an EVO.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
Same here. Where I normally sit in my living room is no more than about 20 feet from the router and my phone will get 2 wifi bars at most then completely drops the signal for no reason. Even at work I'm about 3 feet from the router and I get 3 bars at best. I had more no reception areas with 2.3.4 but I notice a lot more 3 bars to no connection when sitting in the same spot with 2.3.5.
Going to go to the Sprint store after work and see if I can get a new phone. It will be interesting to see how they handle this being a new customer that bought one of their premium phones. I like the phone itself but this newish issue of good signal to none is annoying.
*update*
Took my phone to the local Sprint store and they duplicated my poor signal issue. They said they wanted to clean the wifi antenna which I knew wasn't going to do anything but I let them work on it. Come back to pick it up and they said no change after cleaning the antenna and would order a replacement phone that would be in by Friday. As much as I liked my phone rooted its issues like this when I'm glad its not and can drop in for service issues without having to restore my phone back to stock.
bmwjnky said:
*update*
Took my phone to the local Sprint store and they duplicated my poor signal issue. They said they wanted to clean the wifi antenna which I knew wasn't going to do anything but I let them work on it. Come back to pick it up and they said no change after cleaning the antenna and would order a replacement phone that would be in by Friday. As much as I liked my phone rooted its issues like this when I'm glad its not and can drop in for service issues without having to restore my phone back to stock.
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Let us know if the replacement has the same issues or not.
The wifi on my phone is fine.
MaxCarnage said:
Let us know if the replacement has the same issues or not.
The wifi on my phone is fine.
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Click to collapse
I think it will be better since the wifi reception slowly got worse over the last week and a half. Now its started to do the grey bars of reception so its seeing a signal but nothing is getting transferred and I am also getting "no connection" errors when going to the market and sometimes when using the browser. Hopefully the replacement will last till the next Nexus comes out. I don't see myself leaving the Samsung platform though because I've yet to use a phone with a display like this Nexus S.
I noticed this issue and it coincided to when I started to try new roms, now I am using blandroid, but I will try to flash other roms, maybe is a wifi module issue.
I get only the two lower "bars" being at 30cm from my router. :S kinda worries.
It is sad, my fiancees ipad gets 3/4 bars (sometimes a full 4) and while i'm in the bed next to her my ns4g get s 1 bar max... and we are one room away from the router in an apartment.
same deal here. my evo4g gets 2-3 bars. my nexus after 2.3.5 gets 0-2 bars in my bedroom only 20 ft and one wall away from the router.
I am inclined to think maybe is a module problem, as before it used to work perfectly.
I get crappy wifi too. I'm about 20ft from router and it struggles. My ps3 is fine though.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
All of my devices have great reception as opposed to my nexus. These past 2 days have been awful
There is definitely some issue with wifi/3G reception of Nexus,as I see dozens of thread here yelling out its incapability.
I hope they will fix it soon.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
So I've had the phone for 2 weeks now, and I finally activated it yesterday. To my dismay, I am not getting reception in the common areas of my house. I'm on T-Mobile and their coverage map says that I should be getting "Good" reception in my area. But it seems like the reception just goes in and out. If I am using my phone in my hands while sitting on the couch in my living room, I get no reception. However I left the phone sitting on the couch and went to get a drink, and when I came back I had received 2 texts. Wtf?
The same thing happens in my room. When I'm leaning against the stairs to my loft bed, I get no bars. However, if I move literally 6 inches to the left, I get 3 bars to full reception. What's the deal?
And when I say I get no reception, the phone is showing a "hollow" triangle, like with black as it's background. Is that normal? On my old phone that ran ICS (CM9), when I had no bars, it would show a gray triangle with a little X in it. I was getting this hollow triangle when I had no SIM card in it, so I thought it was odd that it shows the same thing when I have no reception.
Any ideas anyone?
I've noticed that the reception on this device can take a nosedive when it is held. And yes, when you have no reception it is normal to show the hollow triangle.
aron7awol said:
I've noticed that the reception on this device can take a nosedive when it is held. And yes, when you have no reception it is normal to show the hollow triangle.
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Huh, thanks for the reply. I'll try holding it differently. And thanks for letting me know, I wasn't sure.
I've been having the same problem. I drop signal a lot even when its just in my pocket. I'm starting to think the radios in the N4 just suck
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
lowrider262 said:
I've been having the same problem. I drop signal a lot even when its just in my pocket. I'm starting to think the radios in the N4 just suck
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
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I think I would have to agree with this. It's so weird. Like sitting in the same exact spot, I can go from full signal to no signal in a matter of seconds. It's really actually beginning to get in my nerves, and I'm wondering if I have a bad unit.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
From past experience with TMo, 2 year subscriber from 2003-2005, and just signed up for the $30 Monthly plan, their coverage just plain sucks. I'm in a good coverage area according to their map too but I get 1 bar in my house, -109 dBm (measured with Network Signal Info) while my Verizon phone gets -60 dBm, and full bars. I took my phone outside and I had to walk half a block towards the main street before I got a decent signal, -90 dBm and was even up to 3g data speeds, no HSPA+. However, this is still an improvement from my previous experience with them as I used to have to take my phone a mile up to the Interstate to get a signal (I live in a medium sized city by the way mentioned in a TMo commercial). I'm looking at purchasing a signal booster but haven't decided if I want to go that route or just switch to StraightTalk running off AT&T's network and see if its any better.
I should also mention that at work, in a different town, inside my office I get crappy reception, 1-2 bars but if I go out into the hallway 5 feet away I get 4-5 bars. The signal strength fluctuates all the time so not sure what is going on, maybe a lot of interference from wireless devices.
kzoodroid said:
From past experience with TMo, 2 year subscriber from 2003-2005, and just signed up for the $30 Monthly plan, their coverage just plain sucks. I'm in a good coverage area according to their map too but I get 1 bar in my house, -109 dBm (measured with Network Signal Info) while my Verizon phone gets -60 dBm, and full bars. I took my phone outside and I had to walk half a block towards the main street before I got a decent signal, -90 dBm and was even up to 3g data speeds, no HSPA+. However, this is still an improvement from my previous experience with them as I used to have to take my phone a mile up to the Interstate to get a signal (I live in a medium sized city by the way mentioned in a TMo commercial). I'm looking at purchasing a signal booster but haven't decided if I want to go that route or just switch to StraightTalk running off AT&T's network and see if its any better.
I should also mention that at work, in a different town, inside my office I get crappy reception, 1-2 bars but if I go out into the hallway 5 feet away I get 4-5 bars. The signal strength fluctuates all the time so not sure what is going on, maybe a lot of interference from wireless devices.
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with my previous phones I never had an issue keeping a signal (s2, amaze, sensation, g2x, gnex) but with my N4 I can't even keep edge for too long without it dropping. and I get the gray signal bar thing a lot too. aside from that i love this phone its perfect but its just not worth it if im at risk of missing callsthinking about trying ST at&t or maybe trade someone on cl for a note 2.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Yeah I almost always get the gray signal bars. It seems like edge takes forever to kick in. When it finally does it's reasonably fast (at least compared to my old Virgin Mobile phone that averaged 10-15kbps on a good day) but it just takes absolutely forever.
But for example, right now I'm sitting in the dining room in my house. The signal bars are hollow. A couple of minutes ago, I went to the kitchen, set the phone down on the table, and when I came back, I had gotten a text message! I just can't comprehend this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
are all of you using tmobile? anyone on att straight talk have issues?
kcls said:
Yeah I almost always get the gray signal bars. It seems like edge takes forever to kick in. When it finally does it's reasonably fast (at least compared to my old Virgin Mobile phone that averaged 10-15kbps on a good day) but it just takes absolutely forever.
But for example, right now I'm sitting in the dining room in my house. The signal bars are hollow. A couple of minutes ago, I went to the kitchen, set the phone down on the table, and when I came back, I had gotten a text message! I just can't comprehend this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
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are u on stock? i recently flashed project cold fusion (cm10 based) and i immediately noticed my signal both WiFi and data/voice were stronger (or showing more bars anyway). i wont be able to fully test this theory till tomorrow at work, where my signal has been dropping like crazy on stock ROM. but its something to consider trying if u havent already
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
I've noticed these issues in areas with low Tmo reception. One minute the phone will have 3 bars and the next it will be the hollow triangle. I don't have any of these issues at my house because I get a very strong edge signal.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T
Mine is strong wherever I go. From my college to home I get no less than 2 bars. I live in a small town in NC.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
lowrider262 said:
are u on stock? i recently flashed project cold fusion (cm10 based) and i immediately noticed my signal both WiFi and data/voice were stronger (or showing more bars anyway). i wont be able to fully test this theory till tomorrow at work, where my signal has been dropping like crazy on stock ROM. but its something to consider trying if u havent already
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Yeah I'm on stock. I was planning on flashing ParanoidAndroid this weekend though, I'm REALLY hoping that improves things. This is just so frustrating.
sporez said:
I've noticed these issues in areas with low Tmo reception. One minute the phone will have 3 bars and the next it will be the hollow triangle. I don't have any of these issues at my house because I get a very strong edge signal.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T
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I'm new to GSM. Is E or H better in the statusbar?
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kcls said:
I'm new to GSM. Is E or H better in the statusbar?
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H is better. E means you're on edge (2g) which is slow. When you're on H you should be getting at least 3g speeds and sometimes much more.
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Ugh. I've only seen H for a short time last night. I get E pretty much all the time. Just another reason to hate T-Mobile and this phone now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
I'm on AT&T, using a MEdia Net plan and have been getting weird connection drops on HSPA+. I haven't ever seen the phone go on EDGE, so I can't comment about 2G connections.
It's seems like the phone just drops a connection randomly and frequently. I can't even stream NPR anymore. On WiFi, the connection is flawless. I didn't have his issue a week ago, and I've flash many different ROMs since then. I not sure if this is a modem issue or an AT&T network issue. My account still shows that the N4 is recognized as a plain old dumb phone, so I don't think that they've restricted my access, but knowing AT&T, any annoyance is possible.
kcls said:
Ugh. I've only seen H for a short time last night. I get E pretty much all the time. Just another reason to hate T-Mobile and this phone now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
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T-Mobile does suck when it comes to hspa coverage. They have soooooo much edge coverage. Unless you are in a city you're quite likely to be on edge.
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My connection isn't great inside my house, but is LTE quality a hundred yards from my house. Still get better in house reception than the ATT iPhone 5 living here. If there are a lot of tall buildings around and you live in a solid structure your signal will suffer.
MrSmileyJr said:
are all of you using tmobile? anyone on att straight talk have issues?
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I used to have T-Mobile but switched to straight talk and don't have any issue. According to T-Mobile coverage map, I should have sorry voice coverage and excellent data coverage yet it was the other way around. I dried then the other day and love having a constant signal now! T-Mobile just sucked where I lived, AT&T/straight talk is awesome
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I'm definitely getting worse reception on the Nexus 4 in my home than I did with my Nexus One. I have a weak signal at home, but the Nexus One was able to hold onto it. The Nexus 4 goes in and out. The Nexus 4 is also worse in other places that I regularly go, which have weak signal. I've missed quite a few calls, in the couple weeks I've had the phone. That pretty much never happened with the Nexus One.