[Q] I9505: No WCDMA/LTE after phone damage & repair - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello,
I had my phone water damaged and repaired, but now my WCDMA/LTE doesn't work and I have some suspicions they had a faulty repair on my phone. Here's a timeline of the events to understand why"
1. Bought I9505 (I live in europe, hence the european version). All worked fine, had HSDPA (no 4g when I bought it 2 years ago, since my carrier didn't support it yet).
2. Did a small dent in the phone's screen (cracked glass in the upper corner, near proximity sensor, tiny piece of glass missing [1mm], but touch screen worked fine)
3. Dropped it in water while on vacation. Quickly took out battery, bought a bag of rice and held it in rice for ~20h, hoping the water would be absorbed.
4. Next day I fully charged then turned on my phone, it was connected to 3g, I was receiving facebook notifications, my mother called me at one point and ringtone was working. The only problem: touch screen didn't respond at all so I couldn't answer or unlock my screen.
5. Took it to a local service, they changed my screen (and did a full reset on my phone that I wasn't asked permission for - that I didn't understand why, but I thought who knows, maybe they needed it for the screen change). However, I wasn't upset since I was more interested in getting my touch screen to work, and it did.
6. HERE's THE PROBLEM: yes, they fixed my touch screen, but now i have to use it only in "GSM only" network mode, since the others don't work: whenever I choose any of the other options ("WCDMA/GSM, WCDMA only, WCDMA/GSM/LTE"), I lose signal completely, and I get "Not registered on network" message when trying to call. I should mention that APN setting are correct and I tried the SIM in another phone and it worked. I also tried another SIM in my phone and it didn't work.
7. Somehow I thought it might've been the water damage and I was ok (although upset) with it. But I searched the internet for answers since I thought maybe I'd fix my phone due to a software/bad config problem. I used ODIN to flash different versions of official firmwares with no success.
8. HERE's WHY I'm SUSPICIOUS: I found some piece of information that said the LTE/WCDMA(data) module is embedded in the display, not in the motherboard. Upon further research, i found the USSD code *#2663# that tells me the display is from a SGH-I337 (S4 model used in the US). Thus, if the data module truly is embedded in the display, that would render my data service useless, since the US frequency is not the same with EU frequency.
What do you guys think ?
Is it truly the display's fault or did I get erroneous information regarding the WCDMA/LTE ?
Am I entitled to negotiate with them because they put an incompatible component on my phone for a partial refund or is this my phone's fault ?
Is there any way to force the frequency somehow so my phone works (rooting & modifying some modem files maybe) ?
I'm sorry if I had some presumtious/loaded questions, but it's all information that I had from the internet.
Thank you for your patience to read all of this.

Do us a favor please? Enter download mode (Volume -, Home, Power) and read off the model number listed there. Reason being that I suspect your phone was totally replaced, with an AT&T model.

Did that just now, the product name says GT-I9505. The IMEI is also the same as before (checked with the product packaging it came with when I bought it). Could they have any way to overwrite this stuff ? Because your knack is not unfounded - under the battery, the IMEI/SN sticker seems to have been peeled and re-glued since it's wrinkly and misaligned.
Worst part is they're authorized Samsung service partners, that's the reason I went to them and not another service. (I can find them on the samsung website, when looking for service locations)

It sounds like they simply moved your motherboard into an AT&T midframe. I'd take it back to them posthaste and have them fix it properly. Because LTE isn't working, and it was before they did their work, they are responsible.

Related

Repaired HD2, now no signal, can't find any networks

Hiya, I've got a HD2 with a couple of problems.
My brother had it as contract upgrade from his iPhone 3G back in February, and it was fantastic for around a month. As he never needed the insurance on his iPhone, he didn't take it out on his HD2, and you know whats coming don't you? It fell from his pocket and cracked the screen pretty badly.
As he didn't want the hassle or expense of fixing it, he went back to the iPhone and left the HD2 in a drawer. I found it a couple of weeks ago and asked what he was doing with it, he said I could have it if I got it fixed. The digitiser was the only thing wrong with it, so I took it to a local phone repair shop. After a week away having the glass replaced, I picked it up today and have found a couple of problems.
1. The phone can't find any networks.
I know its locked to O2, but with my O2 SIM card in it, it won't find any networks (the signal strength icon is the phone mast with an exclamation mark). Manually or automatically searching doesn't make a difference.
2. The Volume buttons don't work
They don't seem to make any difference to sound levels when pressed, and they seem harder to press than they used to be.
Now, I think the second problem would be fixed with a simple take-apart-put-together job, but I'm more worried about the first problem. Why would the phone lose the ability to find a network? When the digitiser is replaced, does the antenna get removed? Could it be that it hasn't been reattached properly?
I'd take it back and get it fixed properly.
Found no networks: I don't know the Hardware of HTD2 explicitely in its assemling process so I can just guess:
For my Touch diamond I got the problem that the antennacable (a tiny internal coaxial cable) was unplugged. That may be the problem here, too if GSM-Antenna is softwired in HD2.
Or try a hardreset (probably reflashing)
to get to the screen you have to strip every last part of the hd2. hunt down the official assemble disassemble video.
your problems have all the hallmarks of assembly errors. an antenna cable gets tugged when you close the case, volume buttons get caught, etc etc
id take it back and have them look at it again.
samsamuel said:
to get to the screen you have to strip every last part of the hd2. hunt down the official assemble disassemble video.
your problems have all the hallmarks of assembly errors. an antenna cable gets tugged when you close the case, volume buttons get caught, etc etc
id take it back and have them look at it again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with that. And most likely they will do that for free as it was their fault (if its an assembly error)

touchscreen dead?

the touchscreen element of my [email protected] has seemed to stop working.
I think that another point of the screen is in contact becase when i have got to work (through squeezing certain areas of the screen and then letting go) it seems to show the same as doing a two finger touch (zooming etc)
anyone else had this and do you think it's covered under the 12 month warranty?
there's no scratches on the screen at all or obvious defects
same proBlem here ..
My HD2 showed an expanding darkblue hint of colour (somewhat the same when you press very hard on a lcd) from where I pressed, just only once. Few days later the touch was failing randomly, increasing day after day.
Thought it had to do with al the radio- spl- hspl- and rom-flashing that I was trying on my device.
It didn't give me too much trouble untill it completly vanished in a matter of 5 minutes.
I had it laying on a table, responded to an incoming sms, placed it back on the table, about 5 minutes later I got another sms, but all the touch was gone so never ever read that message.
Was able to put everything back to original (SPL + Radio + ROM), went to where I bought it and 2 weeks later I could pick it up again with the screen replaced and also HTC-Service installed the new update that was released (the Dutch version) while my HD2 was being repaired.
My touchscreen digitizer failed a couple of months ago. Apparently it was common in earlier models. A quick google search (other search engines are available ) will reveal a few horror stories about how HTC had rushed the development of the capacitive touchscreen and rushed it to market, with loads of devices being returned due to this very same problem. It is covered by your warranty though, which you should find is 24 months and not 12.
HTC were really helpful with me actually. It took a while to get back, but they give you a ticket number so you can track the progress all the time, from receiving your device, testing, repairing, sending back etc. And they even send a UPS courier to you to pick it up from you. You will need your serial number and IMEI when you call, and they'll ask you to package it up in suitable packaging, such as the box it was received in in the first place. They'll only need the actual phone itself, so you can remove your battery, sim card, memory card, battery cover etc. They just need the front bit, so the rest of the box should be empty, apart from your receipt of course, which needs to be a maximum of 2 years old and if it has a name and address on, it needs to be yours, as, if you bought the device second-hand, the 2 year warranty is non-transferable. It is only valid for the original purchaser.
Hope this helps. Also remember to revert to stock rom and spl if you've flashed hspl and a custom rom as your warranty will be deemed void. I know it's not a nice thing to have to send your HD2 away, but I had no choice and it's all back in one piece and working perfectly now.
Good luck.

[Q] Emergency Calls Only (AT&T / Sprint hardware replacement)

After my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 screen cracked I figured that buying a new screen on eBay was the best course of action to take to fix the phone. While browsing for the best screen I came across a cheap listing of a Samsung Galaxy S4 already assembled screen (apparently the unit was DOA but the screen worked). Naively I thought buying this listing would be most convienent: all I had to do was switch out the internals and I would have a working phone and screen without having to take out the hairdryer.
It turns out, however, that I mistakenly bought the SGH-I720 model. There are several differences between the I720 model and the I1337 model. The external loud speaker from AT&T, for example, does not fit the I720 model. The digitizer touch component (located to the left of the battery) is constructed differently. The back casing (the plastic mold covering the internals) will not fit on the I720 model because of this digitzer component. Oh, and apparently I do not get any GSM service from my AT&T carrier.
The rest of the phone works perfectly though. Wifi, bluetooth, the camera -- etc. Everything else that was transfered over with the main motherboard works.
I suspect it's an antenna issue. Obviously, right? I do get some service though! I just have limited GSM connectivity. Is this because of a carrier lock? The key difference between the I720 and the I1337 is the bottom part of the phones (underneath the loud speaker). It appears that the I720 model has two antennas whereas my I1337 phone only has one. I'm assuming the I720 is capable of GSM connectivity (it says so on the product page) and therefore believe that the GSM antenna (on the right of the battery) should work. I also believe that it is properly working. Why else would I have signal (albeit weaker than I'd typically expect -- but that could be because I haven't fully constructed the phone and the case isn't on etc, etc.
So my question is: does anyone know how the carrier lock works? Does Sprint have it hardwired in the phone or is it purely software? If it is a software thing than I shouldn't have an issue -- I do, after all, have an AT&T phone in a Sprint body. Does anyone here with better technical expertise know why the bottom half of an I720 phone is simply incompatible with a motherboard from I1337? For testing purposes I connected the antenna from the motherboard in the I720 to the bottom half of the broken I1337 phone. I still get service but again -- limited connectivity and emergency calls only.
Any help? I'm thinking I should just cut my losses and buy a new screen and just manually replace the screen on the I1337 but I'm sitting on a working front end to a I720 and I really really want to make this work.
EDIT: I realize that it's L720 and not I720. Oops.
But here's an update: I moved back the motherboard from the L720 to the I1337 (where it came from originally). I just plugged in the screen from the L720 so that I could see what was going on (the I1337 screen is flat out broken). TURNS OUT that I don't get service period from the I1337 model! Which hopefully means that a) I'm not connecting something right or b) it's a really simple software issue that you guys know how to fix?
I did try calling 911 and I did hear a voice on the other side very briefly. I immediately hung up. So I have a feeling that my phone is connected to a network but isn't being properly recognized. Is there an emergency number that I could call to test my phone (that's obviously not 911)? I just want to hear a reocrded message or something that gives me a set of instructions...
You cannot use the L720 for any network other than Sprint in the USA. You have to call Sprint to unlock it internationally and then enter a gsm sim while out of the country and only then can you use it. There are several threads that explain all of this already. Just a suggestion but don't call 911 and hang up.
Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 2
Dude, I'm confused... You have an L720 logic board inside of an I337 body or is it the other way around?
Sorry for the confusion. I have the logicboard of an I1337 (AT&T) inside of the body of L720 (Sprint). The only Sprint components of the phone are the body, the LCD / digitizer, and the small electronic board found towards the bottom of the device (one end of the antenna is connected here . . . the other end on the logic board). See my attachment to get an idea of what I'm talking about when I say "bottom of the device."
Regarding using the L720 in the US with other networks: I understand that the L720 is locked to the Sprint network. However, I have an AT&T (I1337) logic board. Where does the lock come into play? If the lock is software based... it shouldn't be an issue. If the lock is hardware based but isolated on the logic board... it shouldn't be an issue.
same issue
Any luck resolving this issue?

Signal issues after changing motherboard

Hi to all,
after change motherboard of my n910f (so it became a n910T), carrier signal became very weak, in every places.
Tried with 3 different bl\cp (for 910T). Also the newest. Tried with 3 different ROMs (1 MM 2 Resurrection). Checked the 2 wires inside. Tried SIM with other cells.
I'm afraid have touched something that broke some antenna, or so. It is very strange.
WiFi goes very well, as the rest. Only no signal, just a little.
Any ideas ?
I am facing similar issue, in my case i replaced the broken display. I get the full coverage only when i am in an OPEN area but other than (at work, at home) my phone is struggling to connect to network and people get "phone is switched off" message when they try to reach me. To troubleshoot the issue, i even replaced the SIM thinking it may be due to bad SIM card but no luck. Now i am suspecting that the latest firmware update from Samsung may have caused it. I am going to try out some custom ROM (i am on stock ROM until now) to see if it was indeed the samsung push that caused it.
Will post an update soon.

"No service" on notification bar. (J500FN) [Solved]

Hi,
Yesterday, I used the phone like normal(little bit of listening music and media etc) and drained the battery, so it shut down. Connected the charger fairly later and it started charging. In a few hours switched it on and saw that there was this white stop sign on the notification bar. Figured it might be a matter of a reboot since things like that happen from time to time. When rebooted in the morning the sign was still there.
I tried all the firmwares from Sammobile available for the region and nothing got it away, tried LineageOS and then used SmartSwitch to restore the thing.
I also got to the ServiceMode using dial code:
Code:
*#011#
and it says there that:
Code:
MIPI DEVICE FAIL. DEVICE MID=0x20c, PID=0x008
Googled a bit and it seems that the easiest way to fix this is changing the motherboard.
Some more background if it matters: the device asks for a sim pin and hasn't been dropped. Just happened out of the blue.
Solved
Hi again,
I managed to fix the issue. Seems like this is a common problem but I didn't find anything on why it happens or is, just some sites I personally haven't heard before had some same content how to fix the J500M but the same chip was faulty on the J500FN.
What I did was: re-heat the chip shown on the pictures a bit with a hairdryer that had a really small radius(kinda like put a cone on it because didn't want to heat the whole board up). And that seemed to do it. It probably will break again, since it was and is still faulty and for that reason broke on the first place. Also if you're advanced enough you can try to solder it, but that seems to be for the professionals really.. One little connection in the wrong place and you fry the damn thing!
The safe bet is to replace the motherboard(which I don't currently have money for) but that does the trick for me now. Also if your warranty still lasts you might wanna take it to the Samsung Service shop where they should replace or re-solder the chip safely onto the mainboard for free. Or change it alltogether.
What also sealed the deal for me was that the grille that was on the opposite of the chip what was faulty had this weird burn-mark thingy on it, so thats why the whole thing happened..
The pictures of the faulty component: Thegsmsolution.com
I hope that anyone who struggles in the future with this (or in the past and still hasn't found a way to fix it) can fix it now.

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