[Q] Very poor signal on my Desire *newbie - Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey,
I have recently got a HTC Desire from Three. The signal in my house is extremely poor without any obvious reason. My girlfriend has an iphone from Three but she always has more signal than me so this would suggest that it's not the strength of the signal but instead, my HTC Desire.
How do I boost the signal I receive on my Desire?
Thanks.

How do you measure the signal strength?
Do you have issues with callings, or do you just look at the signal indicator symbol.
Do you know if 2 bars on the iPhone are equal to 2 bars on the HTC Desire?

UpSpin said:
How do you measure the signal strength?
Do you have issues with callings, or do you just look at the signal indicator symbol.
Do you know if 2 bars on the iPhone are equal to 2 bars on the HTC Desire?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply.
Calls drop mid conversation. I often receive texts that I have a voicemail when I've not been on the phone (presumably when the other person tried to call the phone was on zero signal). Signal strenth goes up and down with no obvious reason.
I don't know how many bars on the iphone equal a bar on the HTC Desire but my girlfriend has no issues with calls being dropped whilst in my house so this heavily implies that whatever a bar is worth, her connection is better than mine.
The HTC Desire is a nice phone but It's going out of the window if it can't make or receive calls consistently

Hi mate.
I am also on 3 with the desire. Wife on 3 with iPhone.
Our signals appear to be comparative wherever we are.
Have you checked that the Sim is seated properly? (Power off, battery out, Sim out, then reverse)

Related

Desire - T-mobile signal problem

I have just got my desire on T-Mobile, and am happy with the phone. But the signal strength both on my wifi and phone signal is very week. I was originally on T-Mobile for many years and never had a signal problem at home, so I tried my sim in an old Nokia and I am getting full bars, in my desire it fluctuates between 1-3 bars. I also have an N-router set up and get perfect coverage right across the house with all my wifi devices, but not the desire, even if I am only a few feet away from my router the best I can get is about 50% strength.
Is there a problem with the firmware, or do I have hardware issue, any comments welcome.

Defective Radio

Sitting at my desk in central London, I get 4-5 bars of gprs signal only, no 3g whatsoever. If I set it to "WCDMA only" in settings then it will sit without a signal all day.
I put my SIM back in my old phone (HTC HD) and it gets 5 bars of HSDPA at around 3mbps in the exact same location. If the signal is so good why can't the desire even detect it?
Same story at my house, old HD gets 4-5 bars of H while the desire fluctuates between 1 bar of H and 5 bars of gprs.
Do I have a faulty unit or is just the limitations of the desire's radio hardware?
Does anyone on O2 in London get a decent signal comparable with their old phone?
dickson123 said:
Sitting at my desk in central London, I get 4-5 bars of gprs signal only, no 3g whatsoever. If I set it to "WCDMA only" in settings then it will sit without a signal all day.
I put my SIM back in my old phone (HTC HD) and it gets 5 bars of HSDPA at around 3mbps in the exact same location. If the signal is so good why can't the desire even detect it?
Same story at my house, old HD gets 4-5 bars of H while the desire fluctuates between 1 bar of H and 5 bars of gprs.
Do I have a faulty unit or is just the limitations of the desire's radio hardware?
Does anyone on O2 in London get a decent signal comparable with their old phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im on tmobile and im my expericence its the other way round, when i had my old hd, id struggle to get 1 bar hsdpa but on my desire i get 2 or 3 bars all the time, maybe u should try a new radio
AndroHero said:
im on tmobile and im my expericence its the other way round, when i had my old hd, id struggle to get 1 bar hsdpa but on my desire i get 2 or 3 bars all the time, maybe u should try a new radio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wasn't aware there was a newer radio, I've had the 1.21 OTA update which I thought contained a radio update as well. I used to flash different radios on the old HD but it never made such a drastic difference as either 5 bars of 'H' or not even detecting the 3g network at all.

[Q] HTC Desire's 3G signal is much weaker than 2G

HTC Desire's 3G signal is much weaker than 2G.
I am at home, HTC Desire only has 1 to 2 levels of 3G signal, but full signal when turn to 2G. I use same SIM card on my Samsung i8000, 4-5 levels (5 is full) when in 3G.
How to fix the 3G weak signal of HTC Desire?
scott4 said:
HTC Desire's 3G signal is much weaker than 2G.
I am at home, HTC Desire only has 1 to 2 levels of 3G signal, but full signal when turn to 2G. I use same SIM card on my Samsung i8000, 4-5 levels (5 is full) when in 3G.
How to fix the 3G weak signal of HTC Desire?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted? If so, try flashing a different radio version as this can improve 3G speed and signal strength as well as Wi-Fi performance, and battery life.
MasDroid said:
Are you rooted? If so, try flashing a different radio version as this can improve 3G speed and signal strength as well as Wi-Fi performance, and battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have tried different versions of radio, no luck. which version of Radio is the best ?
2G has a greater range than 3g, I think.
When I'm in the middle of nowhere I always get a 2G signal even if I know there is a 3g tower closer than the 2G one I'm connected to.
I generally get better signal with 2G most of the time.
mercianary said:
2G has a greater range than 3g, I think.
When I'm in the middle of nowhere I always get a 2G signal even if I know there is a 3g tower closer than the 2G one I'm connected to.
I generally get better signal with 2G most of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey guy,
You didn't read my first post carefully.
---------------
HTC Desire's 3G signal is much weaker than 2G.
I am at home, HTC Desire only has 1 to 2 levels of 3G signal, but full signal when turn to 2G. I use same SIM card on my Samsung i8000, 4-5 levels (5 is full) when in 3G.
How to fix the 3G weak signal of HTC Desire?
sorry,
phones perform differently, also some phones give you a misleading scale on the signal level, there is no industry standard as to what signal level 4 bars is afaik. manufacturers have been known to fudge scales of all sorts on their devices to make it appear better than a rival product.
try to get both phones to report signal level in dBm to compare accurately.
I also get relatively poor 3g signal with my desire compared to some other phones i have had...looking at bars, have never compare dBm.
scott4 said:
Hey guy,
You didn't read my first post carefully.
---------------
HTC Desire's 3G signal is much weaker than 2G.
I am at home, HTC Desire only has 1 to 2 levels of 3G signal, but full signal when turn to 2G. I use same SIM card on my Samsung i8000, 4-5 levels (5 is full) when in 3G.
How to fix the 3G weak signal of HTC Desire?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bars are no way to tell how strong the signal really is, since i flashed the latest radio i have a decent 3g connection without any bars.
If you already tried different radios there is no way to fix it, different devices will preform differently under the same conditions, nothing to do about that.
TheGhost1233 said:
Bars are no way to tell how strong the signal really is, since i flashed the latest radio i have a decent 3g connection without any bars.
If you already tried different radios there is no way to fix it, different devices will preform differently under the same conditions, nothing to do about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which radio you use regarded as decent?
32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27, but please understand that that will mean nothing for your situation.
TheGhost1233 said:
32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27, but please understand that that will mean nothing for your situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is what I am using. no good.
By the way, to all.
What I mean 3G signal is for voice. the reception is poor for phone call in 3G, it sucks when doing phone calls, but no problem in 2G. I place my SIM card into Samsung i8000, reception is strong and phone call has no suck at all.

[Q] how is Signal strength on the VZ version ?

For those of you with the verizon version of the nexus how is signal strength (4g, 3g and call) compared to otther phones (such as razr and rezound). Over at phandroid folks seem to be saying that 4g is a real issue (very weak signal) and perhaps a few dropped calls.
The Razr definitely had better signals overall. I always had full 3G bars and strong 4G at work. Now I have 2 bars of 3G.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
really bad compared to my droid charge. Almost -20dBm less wherever I go
Any other happy owners of the verizion version care to chime in ?
Its definitely worse then the Droid X, but it looks much worse if you just compare bars. I compared them side by side:
Droid X - full bars, 90dBm
Galaxy Nexus - 2 bars, 93dBm
I have a Charge and will be getting the Nexus tomorrow. I will do some side by side comparisons. It would be nice to hear more comments from others...
Looks like a bar less but so far reception hasn't suffered.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Coming from the Rezound, the signal is terrible on the Nexus.
At my house I used to get full bars and 4G on the Rezound, I now get 2 bars max and 3G only.
I can get a 4G signal for a couple minutes after rebooting but it never stays.
-100 to -120 dBm ans 2 to 23 asu.
Everything else is great about this phone.
I've only had Verizon for a week, but I have a different experience than most here.
I got the Rezound last Friday and got the Nexus early this morning. With the Rezound I couldn't maintain 4G at my desk at work beyond 1 bar (it could hold 1 bar, but moving from my desk would drop me to 3G)...but I dropped in on work today (even though I'm on vacation) and at my desk I was blasting 3 bars of 4G.
At home it's about the same. Either way, it's better than AT&T =P
i dont know about DB (which is really the only thing that matters) but in a low signal area of my office building i show less signal than my droid incredible did.. again this is only bars NOT db... not sure the difference there.
Ive only had the Nexus today but so far signal has been great 3/4 bars all day and lightning speeds. I get the speed in my sig (+/- 5/10Mb/s) at my house.
The difference between db and bars is that db has meaning and bars do not. So any comparisons of I had x bars on this and x bars on this have no real meaning as they are not a set measurement.
In myexperience, I'm seeming to hold a solid 4g signal slightly better than my thunderbolt did. Never had real trouble with signal in general with either here to judge performance in low signal areas. However, I would have issues getting 4g at all at home with the thunderbolt while I haven't had any yet on this tiny sample size of one evening...
Razr had excellent signal and call quality in my house (friends phone) not quite as good compared to my wifes Htc Evo on sprint.
I had just got done playing with the Rezound for 4 weeks until i switched to the Sgn today, Rezound and Sgn are about even in this area of Wi... Signal is basically zero in my house, matches the Rezound dead even.
I have faster 3g internet (Sgn) than my wifes Evo on 4g with Sprint. But i dropped calls with the Rezound where the Evo and Razr held strong...
Dont quite understand the towers up here, I have faster internet than sprints 4g service, But signal and call quality are better on my wifes Evo on sprint
Razr has better signal and call quality compared to the Rezound and Sgn...
Sorry if this is confusing, Im sleep typing.
I'm actually a bit confused as to whether the signal is awful or just not super duper. From the mobiletech review it sounds passable but some folks seem to be having a miserable experience.

Low signal on hox

Today I noticed that the signal on my hox is worse than on my old desire. On places where my desire got constand hsdpa the hox switches constantly from hsdpa to 3g with less signal bars. Anyone else with this problem ?
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Same here, I now have to go outside my office to be able to make calls that dont drop. With my SG2 would get full bar in my office, but with HOX only get 2bars
Yup mine seems the same, stumbled upon this thread looking for a solution so hopefully someone who has some success resolving the issue will be able to help.
I'm having this issue too, hopefully when s off has been achieved we will be able to flash different radios it has fixed this issue on all of my previous phones.
My phone also seems to have a somewhat weaker 3G reception than my SGS-2, although they both act in the same way in regards to switching between 3G and H+ all the time. I think this can be corrected partly via software updates since the wifi reception is much stronger on the HOX than any unit I ever had before. It is the same "antenna" the receives both signals isnt it?
Mine seems to get faster 3G speeds than my Gnex and GS2 (unless my network has improved in the past 2 week)
But phone signal is far worse, especially since the 1.28 update... I'm not getting signal now in places where I used to always get signal
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
My data speeds have dramatically decreased after the latest 1.28 update - quite dissapointing! I have no use for better signal if the data is worse lol
Have been lurking on here for a while now and noticed a few threads and comments about reception on the One X
I am in the same boat, was using a Desire S and now a One x and noticed there is a distinct difference in signal level between the two. Not just the signal bars (desire s has 4, One x has 5) but the dBm levels too.
I would say that 80% of those that have had the update and posted about signal have said that it has improved, regardless of carrier they use.
I went into the store where I bought mine from (ThreeUk Retail shop) and they were going to swap it out there and then for me but the handset on display (working demo) had a similar level to mine, so seemed pointless as Im guessing that all/most of the units are like this, it isnt an isolated case.
So, im not sure what to do now. I have just swapped my main number to Three (and its now my only number). Im without coverage far more than I used to be with Voda, or with Three using the Desire S.
Three shop says they have a 28 day policy for faulty handsets, I hope that the update is out before that so I can see for myself.
Brilliant handset though…. screen is lush, using the phone is a pleasure…. just brilliant.
Steve
I am noticing far worse signal on my handset than previous handsets , an awful lot of the time my handset switches between t-mobile and orange , whereas previous handsets were solid t-mobile all day , and also the data speeds are worse. I am not very impressed as the 1.28 update appears to have made this worse, and its an unlocked generic variant in the uk if thats of any help
cheers
james
My signal is loads better.
Before the update I couldn't sit on the sofa and make a call I would get 3bars then nothing.
Now I'm a fairly constant 4 bars sat on the sofa.
I'm on Tesco (so O2) I was going to take the handset back before the update.
Battery seems twice as good on a completely different note.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I have had a similar experience as descb600f. Prior to 1.28 my signal would drop regularly. After 1.28 I am finding it is far better, regularly seeing 3 bars, where before it would continually switch between 0 and 2 bars.
WiFi reception is great, puts my Desire to shame!
So which is it, does 1.28 make signal alot better or not? And what about actual call quality, its one thing getting 3 bars but another if calls are choppy
I do have to agree with the signal/Wifi issues on this device.. I came from a Nexus S (GSM model) and I used to get good HSPA/UMTS signals on that device, I also have a Wifi network setup in my house, it covers most of the house and some of the backyard.. However when out in the backyard the One X seems to drop the connection to the Wifi network, however my old Nexus S still has atleast 2-3 bars of Wifi connectivity and constantly keeps the signal/connection.
Has anyone else had issues like this with Home Wifi networks not getting as great a signal as other devices?
If I hold the One X in one hand and the Nexus S in the other and move away from the Wifi Access Point, the One X drops signal strength a lot quicker and the Nexus S keeps connection/signal a lot further away..
Bit dissapointed with that, and hope it's some how able to be fixed with software/firmware upgrades in the future?
Also I noticed the One X seems to switch between H/3G (HSPA/UMTS etc) quite a lot more than the Nexus S does, same network, holding both in same spot..
Apart from these minor issues and the screen flickering issue I'm more than happy with the One X..
Tondern said:
I think this can be corrected partly via software updates since the wifi reception is much stronger on the HOX than any unit I ever had before. It is the same "antenna" the receives both signals isnt it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi and 2G/3G are two different chipsets and different antennas.
I have also notices dropsin the last 3 days, including hours with no reception at all
Need to switch from 1.26 to 1.28 soon to try it...
I should say I live in an area with only 2G reception and we sit in a dip partially hidden from the transmitters.
We can only get O2/Voda (orange/TMob if I just want to live upstairs in a corner of the house) and since the update I now have no issues with reception just like I used to.
1.28 has resolved my issues.
On the wifi front
I live in an old stone cottage with timber frame extension (wifi b/g can't make it thru our internal walls in the old part of the house), I have the N wifi router upstairs in the extension and have no issues with losing WiFi either (didn't have issues before 1.28).
Hope this helps people, I realise some may say it has got worse but for me the difference is night and day making the phone completely fine.
I just found an old 3 SIM (from a dongle) and popped it into my desire s and placed both by the window running Network Signal App for 30 minutes.
Both were attached to the same tower and the HOX was getting between -89 and -91 dbm, the Desire a consistent -75dbm.
Just hope that Three shake their touche's and get the update approved ASAP…. im quite a technical guy, but the idea of rooting and doing the update myself gives me the shakes…..
Steve

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