Database Users

Magician Radio issue

Hi,
I recently had a Magician shipped which seemed fine the first day of use, but at the end of the day, the gsm radio icon showed me a no reception, or 'service unavailable' message...
Now, after upgrading the Rom's (several used) and Radio update to the latest one (1.13 as far as I can see), I don't have any reception or 'service' at all...
The gsm radio always shows the '!' marker...
Anyone any idea where to look?
Loose cable, loose or bad antenna, software/rom issue?
Any ideas are welcome!
This device will be my test-unit for xanadux, but I want to make sure it's functional before testing stuff and debugging things that will never work because of a hardware or firmware issue...
Thanks guys!
Great work, super forum!

this is clearly a hardare malfunction. your device may not be identifying the sim card.

thanks for the quick response, but I don't think it's the SIM-slot that is causing me troubles... The SIM card can be read without any problem, and the pin code is asked and aknowledged by the phone. Once in a while I get coverage, but it always looks like 1 bar maximum, while my Trinity is lying next to it, same operator, and all 5bars of coverage notification are there, so it's not that I'm in a dead zone or black spot where there's no cell coverage at all.
I checked the upper back part (after removing the plastic casing top) and checked where the antenna is connected. Once, while holding and pushing onto the metal part that looks like the antenna extension, I got (just for 5 seconds that is) a connection, and signal level of 1-2 bars, but that dropped and stopped after a few seconds already...
I think it's a connection issue of some kind, internal antenna or the connection to it, but I'm not that keen on taking the unit apart to find out it's not that easy to sort the issue out...
Any help, info, ... can help...
Thanks!

the metal plate just below the top-backside plastic panel acts like the antenna.On top side of it there are two legs which connect to the mainboard.try cleaning the two spots on mainboard and the contacts of antenna.
well, i can say this because i solved this problem once this way.
good luck.

Well, I tried what you mentioned: scratched and cleaned the squares on the pcb, straightened the connecting metal parts from the back plate, cleaned all contacts: no solution...
Any other ideas?
Possibly a sort of switch which makes the device choose between internal or external antenna? What external antenna might fit?
Thanks guys!

Well,
I got my hands on a 'broken' I-mate Jam (got stuck between the car door, screen is totally broken, pcb is fine) and replaced the antenna block: FULL RECEPTION...
at least, for half an hour.. after that: reception dropped, and again left me with the "!" mentioning "no service"
I tried switching the pcb's but for some odd reason, the screen didn't come up good... The backlight didn't turn on and the screen was all striped and smeared...
Is there a difference in pcb versions, connectors, screens?
I thought Magcian = Magician, but now I'm thinking there are different models around there...
Bon... so I'm looking for a pcb of a Qtek S100 now... to switch that one with mine, and see if that helps...
really strange the reception was 'perfect' for about an hour, I even succeeded in making calls with it! No jitter, no drops, perfect reception, and then: BONK, over with it... nothing left...
Any ideas on this one, or any ideas on how to get the I-mate's pcb working in my Qtek?
Thanks guys for the info and help!

[Q] wifi and 4g reception issues after teardown

Hi guys, hoping someone can give me some help with my phone problems.
I have a verizon s4 that was working perfect other than having a cracked lcd. I took apart my phone and unplugged all the flex cables and antenna and removed all the modular pieces on the phone then replaced the lcd/digitizer assembly (didn't use heat). When I finished my repair and put everything back together, the phone appeared to work fine at first, but I soon realised my wifi performance was really bad (1 bar 5 feet from router) and also my 4g was being weird (if it goes under 2 bars, it stops working and eventually after a few minutes shifts to 3g where it does work fine) I took the phone back apart to see if I missed anything, but the antenna are both plugged in properly and all the flex are plugged in.
Does anybody have any ideas?

8
I think I have figured out my problem, but I am not sure how to fix it. Hoping someone can help. I had an antenna contact bent over. When I went to bend it it broke the top portion off.
Any idea on how to fix or replace it? Also where to get a replacement part if needed.

[Q] Nexus 4 GPS not working

So i bought 2 nexus 4's a couple of months ago (cracked digitizers) and replaced the front frame/assembly with some i bought on Ebay.
They work fine except for the GPS. Both the phones are not connecting to the satellites. I downloaded GPS Status and GPS status and tool kit (or something lie that), tried resetting A-GPS downloading GPD data and nothing works.
I use co-pilot offline GPS and the phone is set to devices only to only use the GPS and not data. Co-pilot never connects with gps.
And both GPs status apps are stuck in "looking for GPS location" eternally. With Fix/Sats always staying a 0/0. I use to get 0/26 or something along the lines, but after resetting A-GPS a couple of times it stays at 0/0.
Since both phones present the same symptoms I started suspecting the front frame/assembly and found this : http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/general/nexus-4-gps-fixing-screen-replacement-t2895111
I wrapped the digitizer IC in foil like the guy did and it changed nothing. so i want to try and find some copper tape and layer up the contact points on the back cover in case the antennas don't make good contact. Do you think this might be the problem?
Also i flashed CM 10 on one of the phone in case it was an android problem, but i get the same results in CM.
Any ideas? this is the only thing that is not working on the phones and I would really like to get them working.
Thanks!

fullpampers said:
So i bought 2 nexus 4's a couple of months ago (cracked digitizers) and replaced the front frame/assembly with some i bought on Ebay.
They work fine except for the GPS. Both the phones are not connecting to the satellites. I downloaded GPS Status and GPS status and tool kit (or something lie that), tried resetting A-GPS downloading GPD data and nothing works.
I use co-pilot offline GPS and the phone is set to devices only to only use the GPS and not data. Co-pilot never connects with gps.
And both GPs status apps are stuck in "looking for GPS location" eternally. With Fix/Sats always staying a 0/0. I use to get 0/26 or something along the lines, but after resetting A-GPS a couple of times it stays at 0/0.
Since both phones present the same symptoms I started suspecting the front frame/assembly and found this : http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/general/nexus-4-gps-fixing-screen-replacement-t2895111
I wrapped the digitizer IC in foil like the guy did and it changed nothing. so i want to try and find some copper tape and layer up the contact points on the back cover in case the antennas don't make good contact. Do you think this might be the problem?
Also i flashed CM 10 on one of the phone in case it was an android problem, but i get the same results in CM.
Any ideas? this is the only thing that is not working on the phones and I would really like to get them working.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have same problem, it gets same number of saletites like my nexus 7 2013 but with low signal and fix makes long time.

slydew said:
I have same problem, it gets same number of saletites like my nexus 7 2013 but with low signal and fix makes long time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems it is a grounding problem between the frame, the board and the back cover. Mine is still not working but i had a little success with switching the conductive pads from my old frame assembly. But after a while something must have moved because I am not getting any gps lock anymore. I am waiting on some conductive tape to fix this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/general/nexus-4-gps-fixing-screen-replacement-t2895111/page4
Look in this forum if this seems to be your problem.

LG V20 H918 GPS & Bluetooth issues

Hey everyone, so I have an LG v20 H918 T-Mobile model that came with h91810j stock and I rooted it recently and have twrp installed. So I've noticed that when I connect my phone to any bluetooth device while it's in my left pocket the bluetooth cuts off really bad especially during a workout in the gym which is where it is the most annoying and eventually disconnects. I've also noticed that if I hold the top of my phone while using navigation or leave it on my lap the gps cuts off as well. Is this most likely a hardware issue or can this be fixed with a later update like rooted h91810p or h91810q update (I really don't want to attempt updating to those firmwares until a exploit is found since I don't want to risk flashing it incorrectly and have the rollback feature screw the chances of root/twrp). If anyone has any solutions that would be great! I should also mention I'm currently running latest Megarom and H91810k base and have restored a backup through twrp back to stock rooted and had these issues on both! I also replaced this v20 for one that had the h91810q update without root but the thing is my other phone didn't have these issues and seemed to be more accurate on gps pinpointing my location and worked just fine with bluetooth and never cut off like this. Thanks again!

Rooted 918j and have gps issues as well. No Bluetooth issue noted. Im on latest WETA ROM.
I used to be on Tilde's ROM and had GPS problems as well.

Im on 10j with OvrDrive's rom and no bluetooth issues. GPS I have network and wifi turned off.

Thanks for the response guys, I'll test the roms you guys mentioned and see if the issues are still present and report back if the results are different. I guess worst case scenario I can swap out the phone again for these issues.
Update: So I tried other roms and the problem still persists, I'm going to assume that this is a hardware issue because if I hold my phone right next to my bluetooth headphones and hold the phone sideways with both hands it ends up cutting off bluetooth completely kind of like a death grip so I'm going to exchange it when I get the chance. Thanks for all the help!

Did you replace your plastic trim recently or buy the phone used/refurbished?
I've found that aftermarket plastic trim (e.g. being sold on eBay) might not have the same contacts as original trim. This is important because antennas are housed in the plastic trim (probably because the back of the phone is metal so optimal antenna placement is likely in the top/bottom ends). I figured this out the hard way after replacing the top and bottom plastic trim. After I did this I could not get a GPS lock and BT connection was weak. I looked and found the replacement top plastic trim was missing some contacts and just had bare plastic instead.
After restoring the original plastic trim these problems were fixed. I ended up replacing the bottom trim since it seemed to have all the right contacts and my GPS lock seems a little better.
I was going to make a post on this and post pictures but this is a new account and I'm still not at 10 posts.

Now that you mention it i did replace the back cover but no plastic trims.

If you had better reception before replacing the back cover, maybe it's checking/cleaning the contacts on it.

gsharpshooter said:
Now that you mention it i did replace the back cover but no plastic trims.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I reverted back to 10j because Bluetooth on 10K is spotty for me at least.
My phone has been having weird GPS issues recently where it was starting to take up to 5-10 minutes just to get a lock using GPS only. Using GPS toolbox it is finding upwards of 15-20 satellites but it just won't lock on to them. After switching over to high accuracy mode it was back to locking on almost instantly for awhile and now even that is starting to take longer and longer each day to acquire a lock.

KUSOsan said:
I reverted back to 10j because Bluetooth on 10K is spotty for me at least.
My phone has been having weird GPS issues recently where it was starting to take up to 5-10 minutes just to get a lock using GPS only. Using GPS toolbox it is finding upwards of 15-20 satellites but it just won't lock on to them. After switching over to high accuracy mode it was back to locking on almost instantly for awhile and now even that is starting to take longer and longer each day to acquire a lock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea for me this problem is on both 10j and 10k. I might just swap out the phone just to get this problem resolved.

GPS failed to lock, and what i did to fix it(kind of).

I bought a second handed H918 in Asia and later found out the GPS failed to lock at all. AGPS works, but it is far from accurate and useless for navigation services.
I google a lot of similar issues, some suggested it's a software fault, some have to return the phone to LG for replacement. Since mine does not have any warranty whatsoever, I can only try to fix it on my own.
After I remove the top plastic trim, there are six metal connectors from the motherboard, but only three of them are aligned with a metal content point on the trim, that means only the antenna in the right is in place. I happened to have a dead LG G4 around me, so I pull one of the antenna sticker from its plastic cover (marked P1C 0518 from the top left corner) and aligned it to the top left connector (it is very lucky that the connector in the G4 is nearly the same width, so it only takes a little mod to make it fit). After I cut away all the unnecessary part of the antenna sticker to make it fit inside the plastic trim, it will still block the ir blaster which I will never use, so it is okay for me.
And my GPS is back! signal is strong and very reliable.
But I still have one question unanswered, I have no idea what is the use of that middle antenna. Does anyone have an idea what it does? I can't find any problem not having it. WIFI, BT, LTE all working very nicely.

Type2501 said:
I bought a second handed H918 in Asia and later found out the GPS failed to lock at all. AGPS works, but it is far from accurate and useless for navigation services.
I google a lot of similar issues, some suggested it's a software fault, some have to return the phone to LG for replacement. Since mine does not have any warranty whatsoever, I can only try to fix it on my own.
After I remove the top plastic trim, there are six metal connectors from the motherboard, but only three of them are aligned with a metal content point on the trim, that means only the antenna in the right is in place. I happened to have a dead LG G4 around me, so I pull one of the antenna sticker from its plastic cover (marked P1C 0518 from the top left corner) and aligned it to the top left connector (it is very lucky that the connector in the G4 is nearly the same width, so it only takes a little mod to make it fit). After I cut away all the unnecessary part of the antenna sticker to make it fit inside the plastic trim, it will still block the ir blaster which I will never use, so it is okay for me.
And my GPS is back! signal is strong and very reliable.
But I still have one question unanswered, I have no idea what is the use of that middle antenna. Does anyone have an idea what it does? I can't find any problem not having it. WIFI, BT, LTE all working very nicely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well done! Is there any chance you took any photo's while you had it apart?

I wish I could see it as well. My gps unlocks all the time

If this will help, I upgraded my H918 to the the latest stock 10u firmware and am now running a stock ROM and my GPS gets a lock near instantaneously when on device only. Not sure why but my phone just did not seem to like custom ROMs such as WETA ROM nor the NATF MEGArom when it came to GPS. I'm on ARB1 now so I think my only options now are ALPHA ROM and SUPER ROM so Im a plan on trying those eventually and see if same thing happens.
No clue why this would be as many users for those ROMs running my model reported no issues but just throwing it out there for people having issues.