Develop Bugs

Anyone else have horrible Wifi range?

With my Epic, i'd always get 2 out of 3 bars for wifi in my room.. i'm only getting 1 bar for wifi in my room

Hmm, I guess i'm the only one

have you noticed difference in speed between the two?
I'm on the fence right now as to whether to go trade the MoPho in for a Sammy. Last Sammy I had was the Moment, so you can understand the hesitation...lol.

yeah i did notice the fact that my bars are lower than usual

it's on par with my previous E3D's and NS4G, not like that's any compliment.
This thing is killer at locking onto even a weak 3G signal though.

I noticed it too, I usually have 3 bars wifi with my old epic 4g but now on 2 to 1 bar?

I am as well... I had to go right beside my router to even connect.

I wonder if there is a battery-chugging mode like on the E3D...I'm not sure if that was HTC's idea or not. Hard to tell, looked like a optional stock component. It helped a ton, but, at the expense of your battery.

bars dont really tell you much...
this has been well documented that cellphone manufacturers are always changing how many bars = how many dB.
It's annoying, to say the least.

If I am not mistaken the epic 4g only had a wireless G card where epic touch 4g has an N card. If you are broadcasting both aka your router has N and G then its going to auto connect to the N signal. N is faster but has a shorter range.

Zzim said:
If I am not mistaken the epic 4g only had a wireless G card where epic touch 4g has an N card. If you are broadcasting both aka your router has N and G then its going to auto connect to the N signal. N is faster but has a shorter range.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost everything you just said is incorrect. The Epic 4G supports 802.11N, and one of the primary functions of 802.11N besides increased speed is increased range. Every new standard of 802.11 focuses on improving both of these.

Mine seems to be as good as the EVO

I am having the same issue... Sitting in my living room I have full signal with my Evo... 1-2 bars with the SG2.
Sent from my Epic 4g Touch using XDA Premium

Mine is showing 1bar and my wifes EVO is show 3 so I did a speedtest and the results are amazing 18down 4up for the E4GT and I didnt waste my time testing the EVO.

Same here, used to get three bars in this room with OG Epic, now only 1. Not worried about it though because the up/down speeds are right on.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Someone already said this here but I think it needs to be restated. Just because you only have x amount of bars means next to nothing. Do a speed test and see what the difference is. Different companies will show different amount of bars for different amounts of signal strength (which can be very misleading). What really matters is your signal strength in dB, not your bars. If your EVO gets the same down and up speed as your E4GT, you probably have similar signal strength with your wireless connection regardless of how many bars you see.

mine is a lot better than my nexus s. about 4x better in fact.

Same here
But i did a sppedtest and it is a great connection 18 up 8 down these bars dont mean much

Same here. I'm one room over from my router and I only have 1-2 bars. My EVO3D has full.

I think they put the wifi radio in the bottom... When i cup it the signal goes down
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Wifi radio strength

Anyone having weak wifi radio where I get full bars with the e3d I get one bar on the epic touch and the speed are on half compared to my e3d any one else having this
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I have the same problem
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

same problem,,,

I got time warner 20mbps down and 2mbps up. I only get one bar on wifi signal but i get full 20mbps and 2mbps up. i only used to get 7mbps with my og evo

Same problem
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Same problem. Mine cuts on and off every few minutes

Ditto.....

Ditto
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

it is better than my EVO with CM7 but it is a little weak

No problems with mine. Rock solid!!! I can go to the end of my driveway and check the mail which is over ~125'

You can not look at the amount of bars you have. What do the bars mean? ! You have to actually look at the speeds if they have not changed then you have nothing to worry about. One bar on this phone might be the same as three bars on our old phone.
But if it's not working correctly all together then that is something ole' Sammi needs to fix.
Kiki
Sent from my hand crippling Epic 4g Touch

Same problem here. If I am in the front room mine won't even connect to the router in the other room most times. Hope this gets fixed in a update.

You might check the galaxy s2 forums over at androidforums.com; I remember when i was following the gs2 that there were some issues with wifi; not sure if htey were resolved. Generally folks loved the phone nad thought the gps was decent; but there were one or two threads on wif. Not sure if they figured it out...

Same issue here. My laptop and my EVO3d have FULL bars while this phone is hovering back and forth between 2 bars and none. The connection even drops. It has a horrible wifi signal, even at work.
Maybe I will switch to the iPhone 4... they have the wifis.

Im thinkin just the bars are not what your used to seeing, mine always shows 0-2 bars but the connection is always solid.

I have a nexus s 4g. I think Sammy makes some weak radios. I have the same problem. OG evo works fine.

digweed4me said:
I got time warner 20mbps down and 2mbps up. I only get one bar on wifi signal but i get full 20mbps and 2mbps up. i only used to get 7mbps with my og evo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah same here TimeWarner is good here. I had the nexus S 4g a week ago and that phone could not lock into a wifi signal even standing in front of the router so as much as i like it i said goodbye and hello Epic touch 4g even on 1bar its blazing fast.

I have the same issue, but I think it's also more of the signal indicator making it worse in your head...as it does mine! I'll hold a wireless signal at good strength but the WiFi icon has no bars...just the dot at the bottom! I did to some "field" tests in my driveway and yard with my Toshiba netbook, iPod touch, and ET4G; the netbook definitely had the best signal at a distance, the iPod in second, and the ET4G in VERY close third. Anyone think there could be a firmware fix or is it just a bad radio?

I read in two separate places that the fewer bars were due to a linear formula used to calculate them, which was not a standard in the industry.
When decibel levels were compared, they were about the same.
I don't know how true that is.

I guess that's possible but then what do you need to have FULL bars? I am sitting right next to my router and I only have 3 bars... Maybe I need to shove the Router antenna up my phone's mini port

[Q] Poor cell signal- often roaming

I've had the E4GT for less than 24hrs, and biggest issue is the less than splendid cell reception. Sitting in my living room i used to get 2-3 bars- this thing constantly throws into roaming. I updated my PRL, Profile, and Firmware. Didn't know what the latest PRL was that was out.
I know this thing has only been out a few days, so i understand some bugs. Is anyone else having signal issues where they didn't before?
I'm really trying rock this for a couple days stock before i root the hell out of it, lol.
Thanks for any input. Link me to resources if you like, i have no issues reading up on my own if this is a common issue.

fattmann said:
I've had the E4GT for less than 24hrs, and biggest issue is the less than splendid cell reception. Sitting in my living room i used to get 2-3 bars- this thing constantly throws into roaming. I updated my PRL, Profile, and Firmware. .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto! I even have an Air Rave and reception is poor.

I am running into the same situation. It keeps on switching between roaming and normal for no reason. I usually get pretty good reception in my room. It will sit there at about 2-3 bars reception, few minutes later its roaming. The phone hasn't been moved at all.

This happened to me 20 minutes after I got it on Friday but after a reboot it was fine. No problem since then. I assumed it was a network issue.

Same issue here, even with Airave (evo next to SG2 has better signal)

Huh, I'm getting better reception than my Evo 4G. The Epic Touch now works in my condo elevator at basement garage level where the Evo would consistently drop a call.

has anyone did a signal strength comparison instead of bars. they may have different values per bar on different phones.

Returns are warranted?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

I wonder if there is a difference in radios or something. My experience tells me that this radio is finicky as heck, and I don't know why.
Is there a way to find out if Samsung used different parts or suppliers to make the Epic Touch?
I remember HTC doing this with their phones, and some would be fine, and some would not (different issue each phone, lol)

Mine was doing the same i switched the phone to only go on sprints network and has been fine. I rarely need true roaming but it would go into roaming even when sprint service was available.

I think Sprint may be doing network upgrades/maintenance. The same phenomenon occurs on my Epic 4G Touch and multiple Nexus S 4G's. I'll see signal jump from -106 dBm to -76 dBm and in some places go into roaming. Nothing to worry about as long as it works. They may be upgrading equipment to support EVDO rev B hopefully.
I get much better 4G reception on the E4GT than the NS4G, FWIW.

My signal isn't as good as my photon was better then my evo 3d. I usually don't roam much. Trust me when I say this, reception could be worse lol ill deal with it!!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

I hope the poor signal has to do with upgrading to EvDo RevB on Oct7

Thank God I am not alone. My cell reception too is finicky. In places my old evo (which my girl use now)have weak signal my epic touch would roam in and out. Sometimes it won't leave roaming even after I get to a known good reception area. Only a reboot would kick it back to sprint network. I read somewhere that calling sprint and having them reset my phone on their end might help. I am going to try this out as soon as I get home.

Very crappy signal.. (different from LOS)

Is this an issue for anyone else?
I just switched over from Evo 3D. And in my living room, where I used to get 2 bars on Evo, I get absolutely 0 on this phone. It goes in and out of roaming like 100 times while I'm there. And in the basement, where I used to get at least 1, I get roaming at all times.
Is there a fix for this?
(I searched on the 1st two pages of this section, and found nothing.)

arozer said:
Is this an issue for anyone else?
I just switched over from Evo 3D. And in my living room, where I used to get 2 bars on Evo, I get absolutely 0 on this phone. It goes in and out of roaming like 100 times while I'm there. And in the basement, where I used to get at least 1, I get roaming at all times.
Is there a fix for this?
(I searched on the 1st two pages of this section, and found nothing.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see the same signal strength on both phones. You should check with your local Sprint people for getting a refund or something.

This phone's reception is way worse than the evo 3D.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Try calling Sprint and having them do a profile reset on their end and then update your PRL and profile while in your home. It helped me
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I can't compare to evo3d, but compared to evo 4g this phone is far worse reception. Also, wifi reception is at least as terrible. At is, assuming the DB levels and bars both correlate to the real signal level. I often send and receive calls with 0 bars. It makes no sense, but i've learned to live with the concept that 0 bars on an samsung epic 4g touch does not mean anything.
If you are roaming however where you previously got 2 bars.. well.. thats a different story. Try turning off roaming and see if you can't dial out.

i feel ya. both me and my father got new epic touches and i at least really love the phone.. but ... the 3g at least signal strength is subpar.
where i was getting -78 db on a moment
and he was getting -71 db on an evo
we are both hovering around the -101 db mark at home.
poor.
very sad because other than the poor signal strength outside of major areas these things blow my mind.

arozer said:
Is this an issue for anyone else?
I just switched over from Evo 3D. And in my living room, where I used to get 2 bars on Evo, I get absolutely 0 on this phone. It goes in and out of roaming like 100 times while I'm there. And in the basement, where I used to get at least 1, I get roaming at all times.
Is there a fix for this?
(I searched on the 1st two pages of this section, and found nothing.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take it into Sprint store. They will do a test. My first SII ET had some other bug. I had very poor reception and very slow internet.

Yep. My speeds suck on 3g. Works great on 4g
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

speedy0339 said:
This phone's reception is way worse than the evo 3D.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am finding exact opposite results.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

if i lean forward on my couch, I get 1 bar sprint, lean back, nothing, unless i force roam to VZ, i get 2-3 on that... anyways, reception is about the same as for the OG epic for me, the 4g is way better for me though, I was in my work parking lot and got 13 megs down... but 4g is so spotty here I rarely turn it on. Anyways, with the Network Vision thingy going on... I suspect some crazy signal drops/increases coming...

10-13Mbps download speeds on full bar 4G at home. No LOS, Not a single issue with this phone. Battery life is amazing. I am finding it hard to be on the forums because everyone is complaining about something. Bad 3g...blame the IPhone for that. My 4G has gone up by 5+Mbps. I did the 4G signal hack that I did on my Epic and it only got better. I guess I need to go chill in the Nexus forums until people get their issues worked out. Its probably a voltage increase when phone is idle that will fix LOS issue
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

True cause of "signal" issues

Has anyone read this article? Very informative.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5254/investigating-the-galaxy-nexus-lte-signal-issue
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

interesting read.
For a long time people have blamed their handsets for problems when the truth is there are always a lot of network issues out there at any given time.
Simply blaming your handset and assuming the network is 'great' because it has full bars or a good db is not the way to go.
Bars or db ultimately mean nothing, they do not mean you will get good speeds or in some cases to be able to make a call, in my experience its rare that the handset is to blame

True.
I had the RAZR before my phone. I would bet that the RAZR wasn't showing the correct signal strength and this is what a lot of people are comparing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

aye it would be interesting if someone ran some speed tests on the two devices side by side to what what the speeds v coverage were like

edit

jimdurt said:
They still have some issues to work on. My OG Droid gave me a better signal at my house on 3g. At least measuring the db strength. I dont have 4g here so the measurement in db strength should be sufficient to accurately see which phone has better reception.
Give Google time. They have the right hardware. Just need to get the software tweaked a bit more.
My wifes DroidX consistantly shows -93dBm with 3 bars of 3g service, while my GNex bounces a little more between -120dBm(most of the time) to -93dBm(rarely)
Even with no bars and @-120dBm, i get 600kbps download. Thankfully i have 18mbps download service through ATT Uverse wifi.
I do have to mention, my service improved ALOT from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At -120 on 3g your lucky to anysort of dl

My 3g/4g signal has never been better. This phone is twice as good as my incredible.
WiFi signal strength does seem to be a little less strong but nothing horrible. Now I wish they would figure out why the OS won't go to sleep.

Well, Verizon resolved all my Nexus, CDMA, and LTE issues for me in one fell swoop. They called me yesterday and told me that they couldn't provide me service at my house and recommended I switch to a different carrier.
I was with them for less than three days. Brought my Galaxy Nexus and wife's temp phone back to the store, then went to the Apple Store to get my wife an iPhone 4S on AT&T with the plan to stop at an AT&T store to get myself a Skyrocket. While standing there playing with the 4S waiting for a sales associate, I got the warm fuzzies from back when I used the iPhone and decided to get one for myself as well.
It was a fun year with Android, but looking back at how I spent yesterday debating if I was going to keep the GN with all its issues, I think I made the right call for me.
I also forgot how much better GSM is than CDMA. I have full bars in my office, whereas on Sprint and Verizon the phones were struggling to hold onto a 3G connection. Amazing difference.
Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread for a moment. I truly hope that this is an issue that can be fixed with software; it seems like poor reception has become a hallmark of Samsung phones and I haven't seen a software update yet that makes a notable difference. We'll see what Sammy and Verizon come up with.

i can understand the signal strength display not being accurate but explain this...
for one, the signal strength on this Nexus is always 1/2(or more) then what i had on my Thunderbolt or Rezound at any given time/place.... which apparently is explained above.
what isntvexplained is this... my Thunderbolt was able to download fast, but not nearly as fast as my Rezound. on the R, i was able to download 1GB in roughly 5 minutes. ive tried downloading the same file(s) from same location various times(test) on this Nexus and it always takes 30 - 40 minutes.
so if the signal strength isnt being reported accurately i can accept that.... but what about the significant difference in data speed?
i also want to note that on my Reound, whenever i played a track in Google Music it started up right away and could jump/skip forward in a track without delay...
now on this Nexus, theres always a delay before the track starts & when you jump/skip to. buffering b.s.

Your Rezound probably already had the music cached.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

You guys also have to keep in mind that the LTE network slows down the more people that use it. When it was first intro a year ago, it was STUPID fast. Like 50mb DOWN. I remember my Droid Charge hitting low 40's in May. Now that there is a plethora of phones that have LTE and a lot of people using it, the network will be slowed. It still beats the hell out of any other network.

I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp

Grannypotts said:
I’m glad somebody posted this.
I did a little experiment in my office this morning with three Verizon LTE phones:
1) Samsung Charge
2) HTC T-Bolt
3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
With all three phones laying side by side, I opened up the same “Network Signal” app. All three phones we ranging in the -85 to -100 dB strength. There was no phone that clearly had a better or worse signal.
However, the Samsung Charge was showing 4 out of 5 “bars”, the T-bolt had 3 of 5 while the Nexus has a whopping 1 out of 5 bars. Amusing since they we all reading between -95 and -90 dB at that moment.
One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA. I can’t speak for the T-bolt, but I could have sworn I saw the Charge at -95 / -100 dB and still reporting LTE Net. Type.
So, food for thought. Hopefully this “update” that Verizon is working on isn’t anything more than a recalibration of the “bars” indicator.
-Gp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.

One thing I noticed different though, is that the Nexus requires at least -85dB before it will connect to LTE. Anything less, it switches to CDMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have -86dB with 3 4G bars as I write this. I know that's not much of a difference from the -85dB, but I thought I would just mention it. Also, I've had -93dB with 4 4G bars (no picture of that though).

Syn Ack said:
There needs to be some kind of way to trick the OS into thinking it actually has the real signal so it will stop switching between 3G and 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 30,000 foot uneducated view is simply that the calibrations for the Nexus require a stronger signal to both acquire and then maintain an LTE data connection. These calibrations probably could be tweaked, but at what cost? I suppose (assuming my theory is correct) the decision came down to a flaky 4G or a solid 3G... and Verizon chose the stronger connection over the faster one. Do you blame them?
However, when I do get a solid 4G connection... the speeds are stupid fast.
On my lunch break today:
30.6M down
15.7 up