Develop Bugs

[Q] Hello Android Community. A few questions here :)

Well, ill start off by saying "Im james! "
I recently made the switch to android because i absolutely love the capabilities and the functionality. I got myself an Incredible. Rooted and and installed Redemptive revolution and got sucky battery life. Then yesterday it starts raining and gets really cloudy. I lose my 3g coverage about an hour into the storm. Im guessing this is normal? Well i decide to install Myn's two point two, with kinxklick's LV kernel in an attempt to get better battery life.
My current standing: Im running Myn's 2.2 with LV kernel and my 3G is still timing out and crappy. My brother's Dx gets Fair signal during the storm, should i be worried about my phone? Ive wiped several times and i still get like 60 kbps down while he gets above 400 kbps.
So my questions are:
1. Is there something wrong with my incredible? Or is the X's signal generally better then the HTC's?
2. What ROM and kernel combination would give me the best battery life?
Its at :
Android System: 70 %
Display: 16%
Cell Standby: 14%
During the time writing this, my 3G has dropped at least 6 times. Is it normally like this during cloudy rainy weather?
Thank you in advance, and i Love the site by the way!

Did you update your prl? *228

bilbobrian said:
Did you update your prl? *228
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Yepp, both 1 and 2 at least a dozen times.
Still gets crappy internet service. Ive also reflashed to myn's about 3 times.

jamespweb1503 said:
Yepp, both 1 and 2 at least a dozen times.
Still gets crappy internet service. Ive also reflashed to myn's about 3 times.
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Was this happening before you rooted your phone and installed a different ROM?
Sent from my other girlfriend, according to my current girlfriend.

The Incredible generally displays fewer bars of service than other Verizon phones, but it's still getting the same signal. I can sit right next to my dad with his Droid, I'll have 1 bar and he'll have 4, but we both have the same dB for signal. And it never loses 3G unless I'm in a well-insulated building. I might suggest exchanging your phone as it sounds like you may have a defective antenna.
Sent from my ADR6300

RMarkwald said:
Was this happening before you rooted your phone and installed a different ROM?
Sent from my other girlfriend, according to my current girlfriend.
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It happened in the duration of me having the redemptive revolution Rom. Then it just went psycho.
raptir said:
The Incredible generally displays fewer bars of service than other Verizon phones, but it's still getting the same signal. I can sit right next to my dad with his Droid, I'll have 1 bar and he'll have 4, but we both have the same dB for signal. And it never loses 3G unless I'm in a well-insulated building. I might suggest exchanging your phone as it sounds like you may have a defective antenna.
Sent from my ADR6300
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I was thinking about doing that, because my download speed wont pass 200 kbps and its annoying the hell out of me! Its going on and off 3g all the time, so its killing my battery too.

Incredible 2 antenna weak?

Hi all,
Got an Incredible 2 a few days ago. So far so good *except* the antenna seems weak compared to my original Moto Droid1. With my original droid i almost always had 4 bars at home, in office, etc. With this phone im lucky to get 3 bars, often only 1 or 2. Anyone else have this issue? Its got me pretty worried and consideringreturning ...
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

i agree.. when compared to my previous phones, i feel like i am getting much worse reception.

Will this lower reception also affect data speed?
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

the reception might be the same and how it calculates the bars may be different. do you have any other reason to suggest your getting less signal other then the bar display?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

Ooh that's interesting. I'm only judging by the bar display. I sort of hope that you are right.

You could have a point there OneStepAhead. I Google'd "Droid incredible signal strength" and found many people commenting that the bars seem to have next to nothing to do with actual performance, eg making calls and sending data with virtually no bars worked fine. That's been my experience so far as well so I am going to ignore the bars for a while and just see if it hangs in there. Given this very common issue with the first version of this phone and the excellent reputation it had despite it, it'll probably be OK.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

Even though the bars seem to jump around more and seem to not be as strong as my previous phone, I'm actually getting faster data speeds on it when I do a speed test.

Don't look at the bars in the status bar go into the setting menu and goto about phone and look at signal strength there that is accurate not the bars at the top for example my dinc 2 is one bar right now at -80db and my coworkers Droid x is four bars at -83db so technically I am getting better signal
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App

Thanks for the comments. It's true, the bars jump around like crazy but don't have much to do with the signal strength readings in the system. In fact, sometimes the bars go up and signal strength goes down. Seems I'm pretty much always between -70 & -80. Your input makes me feel a lot better about this phone because it was the only thing making me nervous.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

the less negative the better the reception, correct?

The Elixir app has a little widget that shows the "percent" of cell signal you're getting. So it's not a db measurement, but perhaps something they calculate from that measurement. That'd be an easy way to see the number of bars and a percentage measurement at the same time. Sounds like of like what Apple said back during Apple's antennagate, where the bar algorithm was supposedly off.

Astromech said:
The Elixir app has a little widget that shows the "percent" of cell signal you're getting. So it's not a db measurement, but perhaps something they calculate from that measurement. That'd be an easy way to see the number of bars and a percentage measurement at the same time. Sounds like of like what Apple said back during Apple's antennagate, where the bar algorithm was supposedly off.
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right, that is why I suggested the theory of the bar algorithm being off as its apparently happened before. Let's hope that's the case!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

bik2101 said:
the less negative the better the reception, correct?
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Im not positive on that, i assume there is a sweet spot somewhere. Im guessing once the number gets low enough the signal strength is no longer good. Im just basing that on cable modem technology which should be between -15 and +10 if i remember correctly. too far on one side is not good. Surely some XDA member can shed some light on this?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

I have a Dinc2 as personal phone and OG Droid as the work phone, just sat it next to each other they are both at -70dbm and speedtest gave approx same speeds

hmm so from my observastions, i'm getting at abotu -90 to -100 pretty much wherever i am. this is not a good thing right?

I was at a friend's house last night. My phone had almost no signal (and therefore barely worked) but neither did a friend's blackberry on at&t and another bb on tmobile. I was at about -97 or so. Typically I'm between -70&-80 pretty much independent of number of bars showing. Last night I guess we were all basically in a dead spot.
That aside, just tried wifi on this phone last night and was blown away by the speed. It doesn't even come close to comparing to my ogDroid which took forever to ping. I never used wifi on that phone cuz it was actually slower than using 3g!
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

Apples antennagate actually effected call quality I owned an original incredible and the reception and call quality seem to be a bit better on the incredible 2
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App

OneStepAhead said:
right, that is why I suggested the theory of the bar algorithm being off as its apparently happened before. Let's hope that's the case!
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And what I'm saying is that if the Elixir measurement or that of another app says you have, say 60% signal, but you only have 1 bar, at the least you'd be able to ignore your bars as irrelevant and rely on your percentage figure until such time as they release a fix for the superficial bar issue. Annoying, but a workaround.

Good tip on Elixir. Its %s seem to coincide for the most part with the bars. I made a call from Costco today with zero bars and it sounded fine. So I think i'll ignore all the bar stuff and just make sure it keeps working fine. My guess at this point is it will be perfectly OK.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

I recently upgraded to a Dinc 2 with misgivings due to reports of weak signal. Last week I drove from Salem (Oregon) through the coast range to Tillamook, down US101 to Lincoln City and then back through the coast range to Salem. Carried and compared a Blackberry Bold 9650 and Dinc 2 (Verizon).
Whenever I stopped and compared the dBm on the two handsets, the readings were within 2-4 dBm, despite the Dinc 2 signal bar showing half or less bars than the BB.
It makes me agree with abqslim's post that the signal bars on the Dinc 2 have little to do with signal strength.

What rom has the best radio? Or what rom gets the best service from experience?

I've used many roms so far and my current one is cm7 nighty 99, and I know I don't have service in my school, even next to a window... the previous rom I had was incredible HD 1.0 which I had a bar and service in my school. Ill know when I have the best service is when I know ill have service in there, and yes everyone with att has complete full bars, but thats besides the point. I truly don't mind changing roms, and I'd rather right now so I could care less to upgrade the radio so how about some input guys?
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App

ROMs don't effect real signal strength. There can be variations to how each rom reports signal strength, but the actual signal isn't determined and can't be enhanced by the rom. For example, I've seen one rom constantly bounce around, displaying 1 bar for -90dbm and 3 bars when the dbm was -100+, where another rom was more consistent, but the true signal strength was the same between the two. Probably one just averaged more when determining what to display.
I've battled with low signal strength for the past 2 years on Verizon. Tried every trick in the book, and nothing did a thing. The only thing that helped was getting a network extender.

Hmmm... interesting. Then what do you think could have given me signal in my school versus this current rom which gets nothing?
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App

Nvm stupid question
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App

What radio do you have.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App

x Eacott said:
Hmmm... interesting. Then what do you think could have given me signal in my school versus this current rom which gets nothing?
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App
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Not a stupid question at all.
As a matter of fact, ROM's will not affect your TRUE signal strength, but I have tried Sense and AOSP ROMs on the Inc1 and its readout 'bar' wise did change between both styles of ROM.
More then likely its a reporting issue on the Dinc2 - which means nothing really.
If on AOSP you should be able to change the bar readout to -dbm readout which will be more accurate.
The true question is this...have you been measuring by dbm in 'about phone'?
And the real money maker...Are you able to make and receive calls? Is data speed an issue?

Did the official Verizon 4.04 update help your cell signal?

I realize the release is brand new and has already been pulled but I'm curious to find out what people will think after using it a few days. Have you encountered any improvement or degredation in call quality, data quality, battery life? Sorry about the number of choices but some people think polls are skewed for a result and always say I should have had this or that as an option so I tried to think of as many options as possible since I can not add more choices after the fact.

Battery life hasn't improved for me but could be the rom I'm on (patient Zero )
I don't lose data as much now but still to early to tell. Appears better.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Subjectively, seems worse to me, but better handoff to 3g.

Same reception as FA02/FA02. Quicker handoff though. Favors 3G over 4G.

Battery life hasn't really improved nor dbm's. One thing I did notice was 3G to 4G handoff was quicker.

akademix said:
Battery life hasn't really improved nor dbm's. One thing I did notice was 3G to 4G handoff was quicker.
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Doesn't data have nothing to with dBms?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

wyattyoss said:
Doesn't data have nothing to with dBms?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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er...what?

wyattyoss said:
Doesn't data have nothing to with dBms?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Lolololol
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

I notice that the screen on mine is much more sensitive to touch. That was my biggest issue before so now I'm happy!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

patalo said:
I notice that the screen on mine is much more sensitive to touch. That was my biggest issue before so now I'm happy!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Ditto on that as well. Very sensitive. My 4G is the same as my Razr Maxx and D4. Cross Fingers!

I noticed I had 4G in an area I couldn't before, other than that nothing really changed for me. One of the guys I talk to on G+ says that he never got 4G in his house before and his wifes Rezound always did, but since updating the radios last night he gets 4G inside his home.

I'm still getting random drops from 4G, but the passing off onto 3G seems to be a lot faster. Also I noticed that I get more bars in area where I had less (ex. 2 bars of 4G is now 4 bars of 4G), but still had the same dbms.

Subjectively I feel it helped tremendously. Haven't had a single data drop all day when before I would get several drops a day. I also have better reception.
Why did it get pulled?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I've been on 4.0.4 for months now but I did flash the radios from the official update and my signal is better.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

No noticable difference for me. Although my house is right across the street from an LTE tower in a park.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

So far I am disappoint.
While the hand offs are faster I'm connected to LTE a lot less now...and previously it seemed that signal in my area was improving ><
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

wyattyoss said:
Doesn't data have nothing to with dBms?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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dBm is how strong of a signal your phone is getting. (if you want a higher dBm hold it higher/different ) That should be more dependent on hardware than software though, what's sometimes more important is the Signal to Noise Ratio and the Carrier Interference & Noise Ratio (SNR & CINR). Which is basically how easy your phone can hear the tower.
It's like trying to yell across a room that is full of drunk people, whoever you're talking to may be able to hear you yelling but they have no idea what you're saying. Same way for cell phones if you're in a very crowded area.

Something you guys may want to look at. So I was going to test the radios today. I sat here on lean kernel and AOKP and was getting between 86-89dbm of 4G with the new radios which was better but I figured what the hell and flashed the IMM76K build and now I get 71-74dbm with lean kernel. I don't know if everyone is going to see results like this but it is definitely worth a shot if you are seeing low dbm with the new radio.
Speedtest is now giving me 20mb down when the highest I could get before was 12. I know this sounds to good to be true, so don't believe me if you think so but I am just reporting what I am seeing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

I'm not surprised the results are mixed but I was hoping for better.

Radios
For some reason my signal starts off really bad then goes back to normal. I have noticed it favored 3g more so than 4g. Normally on my drive home from work, as soon as i hit the highway it hits 4g, i was a good 10 miles down the road, still showed 3g, so toggled lte off then on and boom back to 4g, albeit weak for a minute then back to normal. Speed tests show slightly faster, but that's negligible for me. Could just be network congestion at the time the other tests were run.
On a side rant i did notice something slightly strange. Installed bamf 1.25 simultaneously on my nexus (had since launch date) and a certified pre-owned replacement for a friend, which of course was freshly rooted by me si the "sd card" was empty other than the roms, and the fresh phone blazed through the installed about 30 seconds quicker than mine and also rebooted faster. I clicked both phones at the same time, both using 5.8.0.0 touch recovery. Nothing to do with the radio, but felt like sharing. Guess i might completely wipe my phone and see if it speeds her up!

My Experience with Latest Radios (VZN FF02/FG02)

I know there is a thread for the latest system update but I thought we should have our own thread to discuss radio experience.
For me it's nothing short of amazing! I am such a happy camper right now. I work in a brick building and I could hardly ever hang onto a 4G signal. I would say the phone was staying in 3G 90% of the time and 10% 4G.
Flashed the latest radios and over the last 4 hours I have had a solid 4G signal all day! I can finally use my 4G signal at work! It's been horrible because we don't have wifi in my building. I have heard that handoff between wifi and 4G is quick but I havent been able to test yet.
How's everyone else's experience?
I say go flash this now! http://rootzwiki.com/topic/33228-jro03o-radios-for-toro-ff02fg02/

Nice. Thanks for the quick link. Didn't have to read through the other forum to find it. At work downloaded the zip on my phone, flashed through cwm and boom. New awesome radios
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

That's all I have to say about that. I know speed test is not reliable but its something.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Damn! Especially that large of a jump! I haven't even done a speed test...I'm just glad to be able to even grab 4G haha

Everything is so much snappier now. My signal strength stays at four bars constantly too.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I unfortunately didn't get any speed tests from 4.0.4 radio but I did do the latest from 4.1.1.
Not sure if I should be happy or sad?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Got a nice signal bump in my house, went from 2 to 4 bars... awesome.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Very, very happy with the new radio release.
I was one of the many unlucky Nexus users with the 4G/radio drop, and had been resigned to using strictly 3G in order to simply have a usable phone outside of being on a WiFi network. For such a good phone, this issue had me literally hours away from finally returning it back to BB since it is w/i the 30 day return window and getting a new phone altogether.
After flashing the radios this morning, I have had no signal drops, constant 4G and no delays or hiccups of note. Whatever they fixed, hopefully it remains!

pwrmedia said:
Very, very happy with the new radio release.
I was one of the many unlucky Nexus users with the 4G/radio drop, and had been resigned to using strictly 3G in order to simply have a usable phone outside of being on a WiFi network. For such a good phone, this issue had me literally hours away from finally returning it back to BB since it is w/i the 30 day return window and getting a new phone altogether.
After flashing the radios this morning, I have had no signal drops, constant 4G and no delays or hiccups of note. Whatever they fixed, hopefully it remains!
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Click to collapse
Yep, these are the radios it should of shipped with out of the box! I've been struggling with similar issues for almost a year!

I usually get a good signal in the building where I work and at home. I've flashed the new radios and haven't noticed any huge improvements. Nothing is worse either.

I flashed the new radios, too early for me to tell since where I am in NYC I always got 4G, but I just tried a few speedtests lucky if I get 5 Mbps
I don't think I have ever seen anything higher then that unless I am on wifi, how do you get such great speeds.

I just think the new radio show more bars but they didn't increase my signal or anything...
its -100dbm and I have full bars all the time

I live in reno nv so not very many people on the network as compared to NYC.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Nothing changed for me at all. I've always had a good signal going back to 4.0.2.

No noticeable change of anything here.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

pwrmedia said:
Very, very happy with the new radio release.
I was one of the many unlucky Nexus users with the 4G/radio drop, and had been resigned to using strictly 3G in order to simply have a usable phone outside of being on a WiFi network. For such a good phone, this issue had me literally hours away from finally returning it back to BB since it is w/i the 30 day return window and getting a new phone altogether.
After flashing the radios this morning, I have had no signal drops, constant 4G and no delays or hiccups of note. Whatever they fixed, hopefully it remains!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wanted to echo what you said. I was in the same exact boat! I haven't used 4G in months because I would loose data constantly and people would tell me that when they called it would go into fast busy. I am now hitting 24 hours on 4G after the radio update and not a complaint! I certainly hope this is the fix:good:
Side note: I haven't noticed an increase in signal but as long as my data stays I don't care.

I've had a big jump in speed. I live just outside a 4G area and before these radios I would get about 2 bars and of was alright to use it, but used WiFi most of the time. Now I would rather use my 4G because its faster than my WiFi, lol.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I had a good first day with it, it seemed to hold signal at work better (which it usually drops in certain areas of building a bit). Still same visible bars and such...I'm not prepared to declare it better yet, but am optimistic that it will be an improvement for me.

Everyone has LTE phones here in LA no 30mbps for me.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Same old same old for me. Constant data drops... 55 percent without signal time. usually 44 percent without signal on the older radios (house is built like a bomb shelter, literally) so if anything, its worse now.
bah humbug