Signal problems - standard Orange SII - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm having problems with my Galaxy SII, on Orange in the UK. There are huge problems with the signal. Bear in mind I have recently bricked the phone, but resurrected it with a short stay in the airing cupboard.
With the SIM in, I can get a decent signal at first, but this then drops away to nothing, pretty quickly. Sometimes, I don't even get the signal.
However. with the SIM out, I get a full signal for emergency calls. At this point, it looks like a network issue, with patchy signal.
However, I then swap the SIM over to my HTC Desire, and get a reasonable signal sitting at 2 bars now. Same is true outside where I had 4 bars on the HTC, and nothing on the Galaxy.
Any thoughts on this one? I am a bit frightened of calling Orange as I no longer have my insurance with them, and their repair department is a bit unprofessional - last time I called them, they started making an insurance claim on what was a warranty issue without even telling me, until they told me about the excess I would pay.
I'm running Gingerbread.BVKI3, version 2.3.4.
Thanks.

Bobzilla said:
I'm having problems with my Galaxy SII, on Orange in the UK. There are huge problems with the signal. Bear in mind I have recently bricked the phone, but resurrected it with a short stay in the airing cupboard.
With the SIM in, I can get a decent signal at first, but this then drops away to nothing, pretty quickly. Sometimes, I don't even get the signal.
However. with the SIM out, I get a full signal for emergency calls. At this point, it looks like a network issue, with patchy signal.
However, I then swap the SIM over to my HTC Desire, and get a reasonable signal sitting at 2 bars now. Same is true outside where I had 4 bars on the HTC, and nothing on the Galaxy.
Any thoughts on this one? I am a bit frightened of calling Orange as I no longer have my insurance with them, and their repair department is a bit unprofessional - last time I called them, they started making an insurance claim on what was a warranty issue without even telling me, until they told me about the excess I would pay.
I'm running Gingerbread.BVKI3, version 2.3.4.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
flash another modem , i recomand xxki4 , via CWM . use search button and type : modem , click on first link and you will find a lot of modems.

OK, got to the next stage of things - I can't flash a new modem using Odin, as my phone isn't recognising. Not even without Odin. I am getting the MTP connection come up on my phone, and it is charging perfectly well, but I can't get any access to it on the computer, not even as an external drive. Is this potentially a phone problem, or is this a software/drivers/hardware problem? I don't recall any permanent problems before it got bogwashed (occasional connection issues, but easily solved by disconnecting and reconnecting). If it is a phone problem, are there any fixes? I just want to flash the modem, not do a whole system reflash. The external and internal SD cards are still working fine.
And I will need step by step instructions to achieve this. Whilst I am good with computers, I tend to leave my phones alone to avoid invalidating warranties and the like.

Related

[Q] Dropped calls in the last month

I have had this problem for about a month now. Until then (from July last year) everything was fine. I dial, and then phone says "Dialing" for approximately 2 seconds, and then says "Call Ended".
This is driving me crazy. I got a new SIM card because I read somewhere that the SIM card may be the problem. But it didn't help.
Once or twice have I had the situation where it says dialing, but never seems to dial, stays there for a long time, and then disappears.
The thing that I've also noticed is that if I go away from my home it does not fail.
This weekend I drove approximately 40 miles. I made maybe 20 calls because I was testing my phone. Every one was successful.
It seems that if I leave this particular area it works great. As soon as I get close to my house again, failed calls.
Any suggestions? it seems like a network problem, but my wife's phone never fails here. It is a different phone by the way.
I have seen a few posts about this, mostly in the T-Mobile vibrant forum, but no real solution, except getting a different brand. My experience with it working better away from my home leads me to believe it is a network problem, but after reading that people have had 3 different replacement phones, 4 different SIM cards, etc. I'm beginning to think that this phone has a serious problem.
Yes, although I said it once already, THIS IS DRIVING ME NUTS!
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
I have found this happens on all makes and models, etc. I sell cell phones for a living (worked for a couple carriers, both GSM and CDMA). There are many causes, making a cell phone call is a super complicated operation. Most likely, your home tower is experiencing on a regular basis very high traffic loads or has some other issue. Luckily, for you, it is in all likely hood simply an outbound issue and will not and does not affect incoming calls, etc. Sadly, you just need to sort of live with it and accept that (no matter the carrier, btw) there are going to be issues like this.
Moved of: Samsung Vibrant > Vibrant General
To: Samsung Vibrant > Vibrant Q&A
Please put your questions to: Vibrant Q&A
I know that a call will failr every once in a while, but I have 1/3 to 1/2 of my calls failing, and it never used to happen. I have thought that maybe this area has high traffic. Although you would think the network would be good here, since there is a T-Mobile store within a mile of my house.
And I never had a problem in 6 years, until the last month or so. And my wife's phone never drops calls here.
I will continue to try and figure this out.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am trying to think of any changes that I have made to my phone recently, anything.
Thanks.
rblancrt said:
I know that a call will failr every once in a while, but I have 1/3 to 1/2 of my calls failing, and it never used to happen. I have thought that maybe this area has high traffic. Although you would think the network would be good here, since there is a T-Mobile store within a mile of my house.
And I never had a problem in 6 years, until the last month or so. And my wife's phone never drops calls here.
I will continue to try and figure this out.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am trying to think of any changes that I have made to my phone recently, anything.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm new here and I came here after replacing my phone 3 times for the same thing + not being able to receive calls.
Sometimes the wife would call me and the phone won't register the call and I’ll receive the VM and hour later!
Lord knows the grief I get when I don’t answer!!!
I’ve replaced SIM 4 times; TM has done “trouble ticket” to check the towers! (Notice the s in tower)
It seems it’s just this phone, I’ve used her Garminfone and worked fine.
Used her old G1 and also worked fine!!!
I’ve since rooted and used a ROM to see if that helps!
One thing for sure, these “cooked up” ROM’s that are available here are 10 times better then the crap that most manufactures puts out!
I will never buy a Samsung phone again!!!

[Q] No Signal (problem persists even after ROM reflash)

Dear all,
I have a Legend with S-ON (1.01), and I used fake-flash to change ROMs. The mobile phone has been fine with a custom ROM for more than 3 months now.
Suddenly, 3 days ago, the phone rebooted while browsing settings and when it came back on, the device could not recognize the SIM card or connect to the network and get a signal.
The problem is weird because the device (a) can find networks if I search for them, (b) can make emergency calls, (c) connects normally to both wi-fi and the SIM 3G internet but does not:
- get signal (always zero lines)
- recognize the sim card (always asks me to rescan for new contacts, and the process fails)
I tried wiping everything, I tried reflashing, I tried flashing another ROM. The problem persists.
Would flashing a new RADIO potentially help? It is the only thing I have not tried.
I am really at a loss here. The device did not fall down, or had a knock or any other user damage. The problem started suddenly and i can'f find a way out of it.
Anyone who manages to find me a solution gets a paypal beer
PS: Something important is that the phone DOES know that SIM card is there, and DOES partially recognize it: I am asked to put my SIM card PIN, which is accepted correctly.
Hey
What I'd do:
1.)Try the SIM in another device - could be a SIM problem...
2.) As you are 1.01, there is no risk in Warranty repair, so unroot and send back to shop if the sim proves OK in another device..
Probably a stupid suggestion but i had at one point no service when my battery cover was not on...
When i was rooting mine, i kept the battery cover off because i was stuck so many times in the middle of running step 1... so never bothered putting the battery cover on...
after i succeeded in rooting, i still saw no service... but as soon as i put the battery cover on , i was able to pick up the network
@QkSi1ver: The Legend's antenna is located in the battery cover, which is why you would have had no reception with it removed.
LeifAlbor said:
@QkSi1ver: The Legend's antenna is located in the battery cover, which is why you would have had no reception with it removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which could be the reason for the SIM problems : if it is not set correctly it can't communicate proper with the mobile , that's why it asks for searching for contacts ( I had a similar problem a few months ago )
no network signal!
QkSi1ver said:
Probably a stupid suggestion but i had at one point no service when my battery cover was not on...
When i was rooting mine, i kept the battery cover off because i was stuck so many times in the middle of running step 1... so never bothered putting the battery cover on...
after i succeeded in rooting, i still saw no service... but as soon as i put the battery cover on , i was able to pick up the network
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don´t believe it! first of all, thank u kindly for ending my nightmarish odyssey through expert forums across the globe!
that just did the trick, uber cool! and yet it sucks, because i wasted most of my sunday and half of today to solve this, wondering why nobody even mentioned connection probs.
maan, i´m tired, i´m going to bed!

[Q] Samsung S3 I9300 Signal Issue. H/W or S/W Issue.

My girlfriend has had a Samsung S3 (I9300) for a couple of months and has had no issues with it however she dropped it and broke the LCD . I ordered a replacement screen (Front glass, LCD, and digitizer) from eBay and fitted this without any problems. I tested all functions on the phone and it seemed to be working okay. The same evening my girlfriend went and run the update and went from 4.0.4 (I think) to 4.1.2 since then she has complained about signal issues which I have now witnessed myself. I wished she had waited a bit longer to make sure the phone was working fine before doing any updates as now I am not sure if this is a software related problem or hardware. There is no way to revert back to the older version to confirm software. I know one option on the software side would be to root it and install a customer rom but I have never done this before and even though reading through the forums the process seems to be easy I am a bit reluctant to do this just now.
The signal indicator sometimes shows a circle with a line through it, sometimes it shows a grey triangle with no bars in it and other times it will show a bar or two and even a full signal. I have noticed even without a sim in it that it can show a couple of bars of signal. I have not got this confused with the Wi-Fi signal. When trying to send text messages or make a phone call the following errors come up “Not registered on network” and “No signal found for mobile network”
Below is what I have done/checked so far
I have restored the phone to factory settings but as explained before this will only restore to 4.1.2. This time the only apps on the phone are stock apps, no additional apps have been installed just encase a third party software may have caused issues.
Her sim will work in any other phone. I have an S2 and have ported my number over from a normal sim to a brand new micro sim to try in her phone. Both of these phones are on O2.
I have made sure the IMEI number is correct and matches what the phone came shipped with.
I have double checked the APN details and these match what my S2 has. Although I am pretty sure this is only for internet and MMS and would not affect SMS and phone calls.
After check over the settings and restoring to factory settings I have fitted a replacement antenna which I also got from eBay. I doubt I have damaged the mainboard as all other functions on the phone work fine. (Touchscreen, Cameras, Sound, Wi-Fi)
For some reason I can get the phone to work at my house on both GSM (2G) and WXCDA (3G) although it seems to be more stable when it is on GSM. As soon as I leave my house and go into town (approx. 2 mile away) or over to my girlfriends (approx. 20 miles away) it will stop working. I have gone onto the O2 website and entered both of our post codes on the O2 network coverage checker and this reports that there are no services down in our area and that we should have a good signal.
I have come on this forum for some advice and hopefully someone can recommend what I could do next. I have had a little browse on the forum already but is there something I have missed? Should I root the phone and install a customer rom? If it was caused by the official update is there an a hotfix of some sort coming soon? Or is this a genuine fault with the phone? If it is a fault with the phone and it has not be caused by me I could try sending it back to O2 (where the phone was purchased from) or Samsung seeing as I can’t see any warranty seals so think I would get away with this.
Thanks in advance for any responses I get to this and I am sorry if I have rambled on and provided info that is not essential.
Flash O2 stock rom via Odin .
If that does not fix it its a hardware repair job and you will be refused warranty as you have self repaired .
jje

[Q] Phone Calls do not connect

Hi All,
I've been a visitor to XDA for couple years now and greatly appreciate the people who post here who have helped me to custom my Galaxy SI, SII & SIII with generally no issues. I've had my SIII for about a year and a half now running CWM & CF root with either Darky's ROM or a Nightly build of Cyanogen Mod.
Since moving to a new house (few weeks ago) the signal on my handset drops as I make/receive calls. I assumed initially it was just the signal in the area and as I had been running a non-stable build I flashed a full release to be certain. I chose Delta ROM initially but have since flashed Darky's, Delta (again), Cyanogenmod (Nightly, stable, unofficial 11), multiple different Modems when running CM (area specific, model specific & the emergency one for EFSv2) and followed the guide to reset to stock (unroot, official recovery, reset counter & stock ROM) none of which has helped.
To be specific, I can use the Wi-Fi, 3G, send texts and use apps which use 3G to send texts (MightText); which to me (Novice at this stuff) seems to indicate that the 2G & 3G functions of the phone work. Yet still as I make a call, or receive one, I do not hear ringing, person speaking or any form of buzzing; this applies if I use the phone as normal, the speaker phone or a handsfree set.
Roughly 30 seconds into the call the network drops (signal bars go empty), the phone call displays 'Out of Network Area' or some such, the call ends and the phone returns to the home screen where roughly a minute later the network reconnects and I can use 3G again, send texts etc. as above, except still cannot make calls.
I don't know if it has any bearings but on Cyanogenmod the time before the network drops is around the 45-60 seconds mark, all other ROMs disconnect at around the 30 second mark and my GF has an S4, on O2 as well, and the signal on her phone has been temperamental lately, but has not shown the same problem, she is running Stock firmware without root etc.
If I had to replace a component instead of sending off to service centre, how difficult would that be?
Thank you in advanced,
Martin
If it still has the same issue with full stock rom then it's hardware, motherboard/antenna etc. Unless you often dismantle and successfully reassemble mobile phones it isn't recommended to try yourself.
Samsung give two year limited warranty, worth trying with service centre after resetting counter.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
boomboomer said:
If it still has the same issue with full stock rom then it's hardware, motherboard/antenna etc. Unless you often dismantle and successfully reassemble mobile phones it isn't recommended to try yourself.
Samsung give two year limited warranty, worth trying with service centre after resetting counter.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeee I had a look around alot of forums for similar issues but could only find posts where there was no signal at all or playing up due to modem etc.
In desperation I opened dialogue with an O2 Guru who said hardware, but just seemed very coincidental to have happened when we moved =/
Thank you for confirming though worth a shot!
Martin
You moved so you may not have the same signal strength .
You need to work out if it is the network or the phone .
Try another phone in your location with your sim .
Test your phone next to an O2 mast .
Wipe phone flash stock rom for your network and test .
JJEgan said:
You moved so you may not have the same signal strength .
You need to work out if it is the network or the phone .
Try another phone in your location with your sim .
Test your phone next to an O2 mast .
Wipe phone flash stock rom for your network and test .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The O2 Guru I spoke with said the signal at my home address should be OK, my GF has an S4 on O2 and although a bit crackly, her phone functions works and I have my SIM in a temp phone, a Galaxy Ace, which has also been working fine in the area.
It's a good idea to test closer to a mast, I don't know where the nearest one is to be honest, is there anywhere I can find this out?
My phone is currently flashed back to stock, that's recovery, ROM, counter, modem (I believe) etc. followed this guide to do so:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2323847
What boggles me is that the phone is able to send texts, use 3g and search for different networks to 'register' etc. but the phone call disconnects. I would have thought that the same component which connects to network to send texts would connect to make calls? Is it possible that where I am in a weak signal area, the phone has damaged the component by increasing the gain by too much/for too long? If so is that because there was custom software or would the settings for this component be the same as stock?
Bit concerned about sending it off and the possible questions/costs associated with this sort of thing. This is the first time I've had a phone which has a hardware fault, all the other times a phone has played up its usually due to the software which can be flashed using any number of methods found on this site.
What a frustration, sorry to ask so many questions, just at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it now!
Thanks,
Martin
In a weak signal area your phone has to output 10x the signal strength to maintain voice call, which it probably didn't have to before. Data and text use much less power, hence why they still work. To test just find somewhere with full bars strength, maximum ASU value in settings, about, status.
It sounds like a high resistance gap somewhere, it gets hotter during use until it breaks the connection - then cools to join again.
Just make sure you describe the fault correctly and it should be repaired.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
It's a good idea to test closer to a mast, I don't know where the nearest one is to be honest, is there anywhere I can find this out?
GOOGLE O2 network check see O2 forums .
Modem
ReFlash modem pls

Just Got The S4, Can't Make Calls

I just got a brand new S4 two days ago, and I have been having a problem where I cannot hear the person on the other end of the phone.
I can hear the pushing of the numbers on the keypad fine, but no ringing or anything whatsoever. I have even had someone claim they called me and it never showed up on my phone. The device isn't rooted or anything.
This is the third phone this has happened with: It started with my LG Versa in '09, then my Thunderbolt and now this. As soon as I get the phone too! Nothing helps, not even a battery pull. If I am having this problem within the first few days of having this phone, shouldn't I expect this to be a reoccurring problem on all of my phones?
Why does this happen on every Verizon phone I've owned?
Crappy Cell Area???
Scray XXI said:
I just got a brand new S4 two days ago, and I have been having a problem where I cannot hear the person on the other end of the phone.
I can hear the pushing of the numbers on the keypad fine, but no ringing or anything whatsoever. I have even had someone claim they called me and it never showed up on my phone. The device isn't rooted or anything.
This is the third phone this has happened with: It started with my LG Versa in '09, then my Thunderbolt and now this. As soon as I get the phone too! Nothing helps, not even a battery pull. If I am having this problem within the first few days of having this phone, shouldn't I expect this to be a reoccurring problem on all of my phones?
Why does this happen on every Verizon phone I've owned?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you just live in an area with ****ty Verizon coverage??? I've never found one, but they do exist. Perhaps you need to check out another carrier?
Scray XXI said:
I just got a brand new S4 two days ago, and I have been having a problem where I cannot hear the person on the other end of the phone.
I can hear the pushing of the numbers on the keypad fine, but no ringing or anything whatsoever. I have even had someone claim they called me and it never showed up on my phone. The device isn't rooted or anything.
This is the third phone this has happened with: It started with my LG Versa in '09, then my Thunderbolt and now this. As soon as I get the phone too! Nothing helps, not even a battery pull. If I am having this problem within the first few days of having this phone, shouldn't I expect this to be a reoccurring problem on all of my phones?
Why does this happen on every Verizon phone I've owned?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like he said above I haven't found too many areas where Verizon gets bad service. They are out there though.
Call them have them check your zip code and they can tell you right away if its them or not. Then yea maybe look into another carrier if u had too. Although if big red isn't getting you good service... Chances aren't to good someone else will do much better
Sent from my unknown using Tapatalk
I can think of a few things that can cause this.
-First of all is the coverage, it could be that the place you're living at has ****y Verizon coverage.
-Secondly it could be the SimCard, "There are two typical causes; the first is physical damage to the card itself, while the second is a mix-up with your account causing a failure while provisioning the SIM card. Assuming you are on Verizon, the SIM card is responsible solely for authorizing LTE access, and so physical damage may simply result in a loss of LTE connectivity. It's unlikely to cause problems with 3G/voice connectivity. You may take a severe battery hit as your phone continually tries to connect to a network that it can't connect to, so switching off LTE in the meantime might be a good idea.If the problem is on the network side, things are different. Your phone will likely connect to LTE, however it will fail the recurring automatic network authorizations Verizon has in place. This means that every few minutes, following an authorization failure, the network will kick you. The time between failed automatic authorizations seems to be vary between six and twenty minutes. Failed authorizations can also result in a loss of signal due the radios drawing an unusually large amount of power and briefly shutting off, even if the network doesn't kick you. When this happens, your phone will lose all network access (that means LTE/3G/1x), however it will immediately start to re-acquire its signal and you'll be able to connect without issue. These authorizations also often take place when initiating data usage or placing a call. You may fail these authorizations as well, and it's extremely frustrating when this happens. Dialing a number or opening the browser will leave you with no signal for up to thirty seconds." (noted that this is a quote from someone else in another forum)
-Last but not least, the way your house is built. Sometime housing can be built in a certain way that cancel out cell phone signal (like at the place I work at. As soon as I walk in my phone signal go from 4g to 1x).

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