Related
Ok guys, been a long battle. I spent a combined four and a half hours on the phone with sprint yesterday morning. We did soft resets, hard resets. We checked ESN and other numbers I didn't know existed. We checked towers as well.
And after all this, I still have issues making calls. When I go to make a call at home, it automatically disconnects even though I have full bars and my data is working. I also cannot receive calls, as everyone texts me saying that it is going straight to voice mail. I only really go three places.(work, home, gf's place) The problem occurs at both my place and work. However, it doesn't seem to happen when I am on the road, and it only happens sometimes at my gf's.
I took the phone to Sprint with a ticket number given to me by a second tier manager? The sprint store rebooted my phone a few times, tried to make a few calls. Of course it works. So their rule is, if they cannot replicate the problem, they cannot help.
So I guess I am asking what you guys would do. The only two option I see are:
1. Buy a used EVO and finish out my contract(14months) hoping nothing goes wrong with it.
2. Take the early penalty, close my account and go to Verizon like the rest of my friends whose GPS's and calling "just work".
I would hate to leave sprint cause they have the best unlimited deal out there. But this is the second "top of the line" phone I have bought with them that has been a disaster. And both of them seemed to work flawlessly for the first couple months I had them.
By the way, I am on stock EC05, and I have been ever since it EC05 came out. I am not rooted or anything. It was working fine till about Friday.
Do you have TEP?
Wow, try taking out the sd card and use the phone to make a call. SD cards can make the phone do some funky things. If that works; then put it back in, connect the phone to your computer, copy all the contents to your computer; format the sd card and copy the contents back to the sd card.
change to sprint only network (settings - wireless networks - mobile networks - system select .. choose sprint only)
uninstall app 3rd party applications; perhaps something running is the culprit
If still no joy; I would root it and try a custom ROM. Maybe a file got corrupted at some point and that is causing the disconnections.
I really like the one I am on, its worked beautifully.
I'd be happy to help you through the root process if it gets to that point.
Good luck
It doesn't matter whether I have it or not, they rebooted the phone, brought up the dialer, made one call(he might have made two, one of the other people was talking to me) and sent me on my way. If they can't replicate the problem, then their policy is to not do anything. I even asked them if I could make a video of it first hand when I get home, and they basically said that won't change anything cause they have to be able to replicate the problem first hand.
jdelano said:
Wow, try taking out the sd card and use the phone to make a call. SD cards can make the phone do some funky things. If that works; then put it back in, connect the phone to your computer, copy all the contents to your computer; format the sd card and copy the contents back to the sd card.
change to sprint only network (settings - wireless networks - mobile networks - system select .. choose sprint only)
uninstall app 3rd party applications; perhaps something running is the culprit
If still no joy; I would root it and try a custom ROM. Maybe a file got corrupted at some point and that is causing the disconnections.
I really like the one I am on, its worked beautifully.
I'd be happy to help you through the root process if it gets to that point.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try SD card when I get home. I don't have any third party apps, as the technician on the phone hard reset my phone like 3 times. I tried every custom rom, and I even tried to go back to DI18. All of them had the same problem, so I am guessing it is hardware related. Again, data is working correctly, just seems to be something with the calling hardware.
swanysto said:
It doesn't matter whether I have it or not, they rebooted the phone, brought up the dialer, made one call(he might have made two, one of the other people was talking to me) and sent me on my way. If they can't replicate the problem, then their policy is to not do anything. I even asked them if I could make a video of it first hand when I get home, and they basically said that won't change anything cause they have to be able to replicate the problem first hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have TEP - don't even bother with taking to the store any longer. Just complain enough over the phone and you should be able to get someone to send you a new one.
bjhill2112 said:
If you have TEP - don't even bother with taking to the store any longer. Just complain enough over the phone and you should be able to get someone to send you a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I cannot really wait for them to send me a phone. I need to get something today, as this phone is also my work phone. Customers do not like going straight to my voicemail :/
After a tech on the phone with Sprint screwed my phone up even worse, had me stuck in an activation loop. He told me to bring it to a Sprint store. Well this was at night so I Odin'd to stock DI18 and let it do the OTA and that cleared up the loop. It may work for you and save you grief.
Do you BONSAI?
DDTM is not on is it??
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I've heard of similar things. I helped someone troubleshoot the problem and came up with it had to be the tower. They called again to customer service and of course they said that nothing is wrong with the tower. I think that they called again to make a report to check out the tower near their house. They did that a few times. I don't know how long it took to fix the situation. I do notice lately that, even though signal strength was okay before, it's better now.
If you have another sprint phone, if you activate it, does it do the same thing? This might be one of those instances that if you complain enough, maybe they might give you one of those devices they have (I forgot what it's called) that you hook up to your home internet and it acts like a mini tower at home. I've heard of stories that after enough complaining enough, they'll just give you one. If the phone still does it then it's the phone that's flaky.
When you talk to someone, make it clear you use this phone for work and if people can't reach you, you will lose clients. If you start losing clients because of this then you will be forced to go to another carrier. If they say you'll have to pay etf then tell them you won't because it isn't your fault that you can't make or receive calls at work and home.
This phone or their equipment or service isn't working properly and you're losing customers because of this.
Here's another idea. Find someone else that has sprint. Have them go by your work and home and see if they can send or receive calls. If they can then its your phone, if they can't then it's the towers.
swanysto said:
I will try SD card when I get home. I don't have any third party apps, as the technician on the phone hard reset my phone like 3 times. I tried every custom rom, and I even tried to go back to DI18. All of them had the same problem, so I am guessing it is hardware related. Again, data is working correctly, just seems to be something with the calling hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I'd be flippin out if it were me. That has got to SUCK!!
I bought my s3 in March of this year, and everything was working just fine until May. It's an awsome phone and I love it. However, since May, my phone no longer connects to 4g EVER and the 3g comes and goes and never stays connected for more than 10 minutes while in use. I've NEVER even come CLOSE to reaching my plans provided 2.5GB of data, so I know that's not the issue. The phone has never been dropped, or wet, as I am always very delicate with my phones. I have never placed it too close to the TV...
I contacted Boost mobile. They gave me a long list of things to try. I have tried EVERYTHING: making sure the mobile networks is checked, preferred network setting CDMA/LTE, soft reset, clear browser cache, update PRL, profile update, software update, firmware update, ##72786#, and even did a factory reset. Nothing helped. Boost said there was nothing else they could do for me, and that I needed to contact samsung.
Samsung said the only way for them to find the problem is for me to send them my phone, and wait 2 to 4 weeks for them to revise it and send it back. That's not an option as I need my phone monday through friday for my job. (UPDATE: I got so irritated with this problem that I went ahead and bought an LG Volt, since I didn't have the money to buy another galaxy. It's nice but I don't like it as much. I'm still afraid to send the Galaxy into Samsung. They have expressed to me that if they can't find an issue(just my luck), or if they find the issue to be my fault(IE I put the phone too close to a credit card magnet or some dumb crap like that), then they will charge me not only for the parts and labor, but for the return shipping... and we all know that they'll charge me way more than the phone is worth.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and if there's anyway to fix it without having to send my phone in to samsung? I have been told, also, that I could try reflashing the phone to it's original firmware and software, but I am afraid of screwing the phone up since I've never done anything like that before.
Thanks!
First off, Welcome to the forms.
Secondly, you came to the right place. On this form you'll find crazy people like me who like to do custom flashing updating all the technical stuff. And then there's section of the form where people just want a normal phone and just want the basic troubleshooting tips. As with any user will have to search through the forms because there's a high likely chance that someone already has or had your issue just at different time.
There could be multiple reasons as to what you're experiencing. First off I think you should confirm and verify that you will do live in a good 3G or 4G location so that any further test can be actually validated. Secondly if you're not being able to connect to data it seems that you need to reactivate your phone by getting back on the boost/Sprint network. A full factory restore with data wipe and then updating over the air with firmware, PRL, reboot should work. Make sure you are set to use LET, under mobile data, and that you have enabled Automatic connections to the tower. Reactivate the phone again, if still not connected, reboot.
If you're still not having connection and I think you probably need to do a reflash via ODIN. This is pretty much what Samsung would do I'm except they have their own proprietary tools. Here on XDA we just have great developers.
Good luck.
Thanks button if this helped.
ChocaHermosa said:
I bought my s3 in March of this year, and everything was working just fine until May. It's an awsome phone and I love it. However, since May, my phone no longer connects to 4g EVER and the 3g comes and goes and never stays connected for more than 10 minutes while in use. I've NEVER even come CLOSE to reaching my plans provided 2.5GB of data, so I know that's not the issue. The phone has never been dropped, or wet, as I am always very delicate with my phones. I have never placed it too close to the TV...
I contacted Boost mobile. They gave me a long list of things to try. I have tried EVERYTHING: making sure the mobile networks is checked, preferred network setting CDMA/LTE, soft reset, clear browser cache, update PRL, profile update, software update, firmware update, ##72786#, and even did a factory reset. Nothing helped. Boost said there was nothing else they could do for me, and that I needed to contact samsung.
Samsung said the only way for them to find the problem is for me to send them my phone, and wait 2 to 4 weeks for them to revise it and send it back. That's not an option as I need my phone monday through friday for my job. (UPDATE: I got so irritated with this problem that I went ahead and bought an LG Volt, since I didn't have the money to buy another galaxy. It's nice but I don't like it as much. I'm still afraid to send the Galaxy into Samsung. They have expressed to me that if they can't find an issue(just my luck), or if they find the issue to be my fault(IE I put the phone too close to a credit card magnet or some dumb crap like that), then they will charge me not only for the parts and labor, but for the return shipping... and we all know that they'll charge me way more than the phone is worth.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and if there's anyway to fix it without having to send my phone in to samsung? I have been told, also, that I could try reflashing the phone to it's original firmware and software, but I am afraid of screwing the phone up since I've never done anything like that before.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could definitely flash the stock ROM and kernel to your phone via ODIN. However, the safest and most foolproof way to do this would be to download Samsung's KIES software here: http://www.samsung.com/ca/support/usefulsoftware/KIES/JSP
Once in KIES, you would plug in your phone to the USB port and, if needed, download any drivers for your phone. Then, you would follow this path: Tools --> Firmware Upgrade and Initilisation. This will give you a warning that you will lose all your stored data on the phone, and will offer you to make a backup -- a very limited backup -- of information on your phone. If you don't have any worthwhile information, I'd skip the backup and go right to stock ROM restore.
Hope this helps.
tO rcatank, I have already done all of those things. I have a new phone (which I don't like as much) that is connected to 4g almost always.
Higgs_Boson said:
You could definitely flash the stock ROM and kernel to your phone via ODIN. However, the safest and most foolproof way to do this would be to download Samsung's KIES software here:
Once in KIES, you would plug in your phone to the USB port and, if needed, download any drivers for your phone. Then, you would follow this path: Tools --> Firmware Upgrade and Initilisation. This will give you a warning that you will lose all your stored data on the phone, and will offer you to make a backup -- a very limited backup -- of information on your phone. If you don't have any worthwhile information, I'd skip the backup and go right to stock ROM restore.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I download KIES onto my computer or the phone? The phone already has something called "KIES Air" on it, is that the same thing? And then one I download the KIES software and hook up my phone and go through the prompts you've provided, it does the rest itself?
ChocaHermosa said:
tO rcatank, I have already done all of those things. I have a new phone (which I don't like as much) that is connected to 4g almost always.
I download KIES onto my computer or the phone? The phone already has something called "KIES Air" on it, is that the same thing? And then one I download the KIES software and hook up my phone and go through the prompts you've provided, it does the rest itself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Kies Air is not the same thing. To do a stock restore, you have to hook it up to Kies on your PC via USB. Follow the steps I showed you, follow the steps on the screen, and Kies will take care of the rest.
Higgs_Boson said:
No, Kies Air is not the same thing. To do a stock restore, you have to hook it up to Kies on your PC via USB. Follow the steps I showed you, follow the steps on the screen, and Kies will take care of the rest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on this
Higgs_Boson said:
No, Kies Air is not the same thing. To do a stock restore, you have to hook it up to Kies on your PC via USB. Follow the steps I showed you, follow the steps on the screen, and Kies will take care of the rest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, thanks very much! One more question though... does it matter that the galaxy is no longer activated? I mean, obviously to test it to see if it works I'd have to re-activate it. But for this process, does it need to be activated?
ChocaHermosa said:
Ok, thanks very much! One more question though... does it matter that the galaxy is no longer activated? I mean, obviously to test it to see if it works I'd have to re-activate it. But for this process, does it need to be activated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without it being activated, I don't think you'll be able to receive data of any kind. In order to test 4G capabilities, you are probably going to need to reactivate.
But, to restore it via Kies, no activation is necessary.
Hi everyone,
I'm the new owner of an unlocked T-Mo D851, and will be using it on AT&T. I bought the T-Mo version instead of the ATT version due to the unlocked bootloader and better Dev support. Love those Devs!
I figured I'd post a thread with the things I learn along the way, to help others that might benefit, particularly since I'm joining the G3 community long after the novelty has worn off. Folks like me that join have a lot of past experience to review here, and so much is out of date it can be intimidating, particularly when our new device acts a lot different from our old one. I hope this thread helps someone, but at minimum it will serve as documentation for me to refer back to, should I need that. I'll include links where appropriate.
I'm an intermediate level flasher, having worked with maybe 6-8 other phones/tablets. So, I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to have an ego to bruise. My most recent phone was a T-Mo Galaxy S4. But I dropped it, and cracked the screen, just a few weeks after getting it all settled in with a nice 5.1.1 GPE ROM. Sigh.
I got the phone a few days ago but have just gotten around to working on it.
On day 1 I charged it up, skipped setup (touch corners, upper left, upper right, lower right above the softkeys, lower left above the softkeys... took 10 tries or so!), and connected the wifi (no sim card inserted yet). It immediately found update 20E (it shipped with kitkat). I let that update, but was surprised it didn't find the current 20G update. I want to make sure I start with the latest firmware/modems etc. installed.
In this thread, helpful user @mitbit2k3 pointed me to the online LG site that lets you download the LG Mobile Support Tool. It also gives instructions for installing the PROPER PC connection driver for the phone which works, versus the default Win7 driver that doesn't work for the purposes of the update. With proper driver installed, and with USB connection in the right mode (follow instructions to set the phone USB settings), I got up to 20G stock.
I exercised the phone a bit (still without SIM card) and made sure everything worked... cameras, GPS, wifi, etc.
Then I figured it would be time to install TWRP and take it from there. Much to my surprise, you need to root this thing FIRST. Even with an unlocked bootloader, you can't just fire up ODIN and flash TWRP.
I did my research on the forum and through Google... with all the versions of software since release there were numerous descriptions of how to root the thing, some of which were outdated. For me, on 20G software (5.01 Android), this worked fine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LGG3/comments/3n0nk1/new_super_easy_oneclick_way_to_root_g3/
it references back to XDA of course:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g3/general/guide-root-method-lg-devices-t3129197
From this I learned to review the top level LG G3 subforums, not just the T-Mobile XDA subforums!!
OK, that rooted me just fine and installed SuperSU. I was able to use the "first way" which is super simple.
With that done, I was able to install TWRP. I went straight to the source for it:
https://twrp.me/devices/lgg3tmo.html
I used the "dd" method which involves running ADB on the PC. I use a version that is a "Minimal ADB and Fastboot" that works fine... I used it to mess around with my Shield tablet previously, so I was familiar with it. Basically you run the minimal ADB through a desktop icon, and it loads a command line interface. You type ADB Shell after plugging in the phone to the USB cable (it has to be on, developer options enabled, debugging enabled). Then you type the commands listed on the TWRP site. Pretty soon TWRP is installed.
Next I had to figure out how to get into download mode. Yeah, yeah... power plus volume down... been there done that, but on the LG you have to boot with power/down, then when the LG icon comes up you release for a second, then press the two keys again, then at the next screen tell it you want to wipe the phone, and confirm this again on the next screen. THEN it finally boots into TWRP. Kinda scary. And getting the keys right takes some practice.
Once in TWRP, I backed everything up (including EFS partition) to an external SD card, just in case I messed something up. I had previously erased the SD card from within the phone's SEttings/Storage mode, to make sure it would be able to be accessed. No problem.
So now I've got a rooted phone, with TWRP installed, and the next step is to figure out what I want to do ROM wise. I wish there were a 5.1.1 GPE stock + LG Camera ROM. But I haven't found one. I like plain ROMs. The default stock ROM, even if it were debloated, its a bit annoying to me (and just 5.0.1) so I'll probably move to BlissPop or Slim something, but I will research around.
It's time to stick my SIM in and see how the phone does on AT&T. I'd like to get a baseline before I go ROM-hopping.
I will say that on stock ROM, with no SIM but WIFI on, the standby power drain on this thing is incredible. It went overnight (7 hours) and was still reading 100%. A whole 24 hours in, it was only a few percent lower. Of course, I hadn't attached any Google accounts, so the phone was truly idle, but it's very impressive nonetheless.
Stay tuned. I'll be updating this as I go along.
OK, I'm a few hours in.
No problem with my ATT SIM card in the phone; the phone was purchased unlocked and everything hooked up fine as soon as I entered in the APN information for ATT (which you can get from here).
The phone gave me a warning about WIFI Calling invalid SIM; I went into the settings and turned off WIFI calling, since I'm on ATT and only T-Mo offers it.
One other problem I haven't sorted out yet is that I get a text each time I reboot the phone, apparently my phone is sending a text to a very long address 060504071000004163.... and the text I get back is an error message that this isn't a valid number. Not sure how to turn this off. Annoying, but once per boot won't kill me until I figure it out. Google will likely be my friend. EDIT: I think this relates to T-mo visual voicemail. I went into the T-Mo Visual Voicemail app and I immediately got another one of these texts. Time to remove this app...
Meanwhile I notice the WIFI reception of this phone is much stronger than the S4. On the other hand, it seems less likely to drop a weak WIFI in favor of a stronger one... I have several access points around my house, and I've found I've needed to switch them manually now and then. Haven't had to do this on the S4.
I'm also struggling to get restores to work from my Backup Your Mobile app. I moved the backup onto an SD card in the G3, but the app isn't recognizing it. Uh oh. That's got my MMS/SMS/Call log backups. So, I've still got things to work on.
I gradually entered my various Google accounts, and let Play Store download the updates needed for all the apps. I've got about 75% of the apps I use re-downloaded.
I've got one "serious" problem in that the Play Store says the ATT Visual Voicemail app, which is a cornerstone of how I use the phone (because it transcribes voicemails into readable text), isn't compatible with my phone. That's crap. It worked fine on my T-Mo S4 (running a generic GPE edition). I'll probably have to sideload the app, but it's annoying that it's locked out.
Making progress.
I still couldn't download the ATT Visual Voicemail app from the Play Store, and went stir crazy trying to find it on my S4 (which is rooted, so I should be able to find it, but...). I went haring off in lots of directions, including making a full apps backup with Helium, but then the G3 won't restore without using the PC app due to changes in 5.0... which is weird because my S4 (which is running a 5.1.1 GPE ROM) restores fine. I don't have the PC app installed so I tried using Backup My Mobile... but then eventually figured out that on the S4, with ES File Explorer, I not only had Root Explorer OFF (didn't know I had to turn it on), but it's easy to find apps with the APP Library. Once I found the app there, I uploaded it to my Google Drive, then downloaded it from there onto the G3. It installed fine.
I used System App Remover (which requires root) to get rid of all the T-Mobile specific apps and that annoying Lookout security program. Bah! This cured that spurious text message I get with each boot. It was definitely due to the T-mo visual voice mail. Problem solved!
In using the phone, I'm a bit bummed because it didn't occur to me that a big part of my bigger screen as compared to the GS4 would be taken up by the softkeys on screen. The S4 has a physical home button and capacitive keys to either side. So, my screen isn't effectively much bigger, when I account for dedicating some of it to the buttons. You can make the buttons autohide, apparently. One issue is I use my phone in landscape much of the time, and the buttons don't rotate to the new "bottom" of the screen when I rotate. Gotta figure that out.
This morning I installed the PC Helium App so I could enable backup/restore access on the G3. That worked fine, but Helium on the G3 still doesn't detect my external SD card, in order to restore from it. I could manually copy files over to the internal Carbon folder, and restores from there worked fine. Still, I'm not sure why I'm having so much SD Card angst. I know things change each version of Android wrt SD cards... maybe something is fixed in 5.1.1 (as I had on my S4) that is broken in 5.01 on the G3.
So, I've got some tweaking to do from here. The phone is basically set up and working fine except for some straggler apps that I won't bother with until I need them, with one major exception: I need to go in and set up Light Flow. That app is a big part of how I manage notifications on any phone...
If you rooted your phone, then download and run the SDFix app from the Play Store. Apps will then have the ability to write to the external SD card...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dsd+card+fix+kitkat&pcampaignid=APPU_1_bJMtVsTJBoKajwP4noeABw
... and yes, it also works w/ Lollipop.
redduc900 said:
If you rooted your phone, then download and run the SDFix app from the Play Store. Apps will then have the ability to write to the external SD card...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dsd+card+fix+kitkat&pcampaignid=APPU_1_bJMtVsTJBoKajwP4noeABw
... and yes, it also works w/ Lollipop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll give this a whirl!
EDIT: WORKED LIKE A CHARM. Thanks again! And thanks for the link, because there were several SDFix apps. The link made sure I got the one you intended.:good:
OK, I'm in a pretty good place after making some changes. Still plenty to tweak though.
First, I decided to abandon the stock Home launcher. It was a bit annoying with little UI tweaks LG made that make it just not how I expect it to look, but the kicker was that in landscape mode, the titles of the icons were not readable... they were mostly cut off. I use Rotate (Ultimate Rotation) so pretty much every screen including home is rotatable. But LG Home maintains in landscape mode the little dots representing the various home screen pages... these take up just enough room so that things get squished a bit and the titles cut off. Couldn't figure out how to disable that, so just bailed and installed Google Now Launcher which fixed me right up. That fixed the look and feel of the home screen, the apps drawer, and even reverted settings to the normal views I'm used to.
The only problem is that it kills double tap to sleep... or at least reduces the footprint of the double-tappable area to the notification strip at the top. Sigh. In another thread someone mentioned using Greenify to fix it. I'll try that when I get a chance.
Another weird thing I've got going on is that when I connect via Bluetooth to my car, it starts playing music. See this thread. That's pretty annoying... for now I deleted the default music that was playing, and with an empty directory nothing plays.
I put on a screen protector last night. I got the 0.2mm iCarez one. I performed the application in a steamy bathroom after running the hot shower for a bit, per some tips over in the Accessories thread. I left the backing on, positioned the glass on the screen, taped one side for the "hinge method" after getting it perfectly aligned and accounting for the eventual loss of thickness of the plastic underbacking, cleaned everything one last time with the alcohol wipe, peeled the backing, and plopped it on starting in the center. Got it perfectly positioned and no major bubbles. There were a couple of "spec sized" non-uniformities but they were gone by morning.
I'm gradually setting in... Still lots to play with.
I've noticed the WIFI, while it gets good reception, is a bit sluggish to drop a weak connection in favor of a strong one. Anybody got a tweak for that?
Frankenscript said:
I've noticed the WIFI, while it gets good reception, is a bit sluggish to drop a weak connection in favor of a strong one. Anybody got a tweak for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this app for WIFI management. I have tried several and this is the best I have found. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.WifiManager I agree completely that the wifi in the phone is very slow to drop a weak signal and grab a stronger one. But with wifi manager you can play with the sensitivity. Good luck.
Will do. Thanks for confirming it's not just me. Also on another note I just found the LG keyboard has lots of settings for customization. Not bad. May keep it!
Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk
TL;DR
Moto Z2 Play - XT1710-07
The phone recognizes the SIM card but there is no signal (no service). Tried several things, including flashing a custom ROM. I'm considering buying a new motherboard and changing it myself, but first want to know if anyone knows more about this issue or has an idea/suggestion.
Edit: As an added bonus, something that only now I realized. Now when I charge it, it gets EXTREMELY hot. Like I-can't-even-use-it hot. I used to use the phone while charging all the time, but now I can't even hold it. Seems like the problem is when it tries go past 80% charge. It gets super slow, keeps trying and gets hot. Now I don't know if it's a software problem caused by the various flashings or if it's something that would remain even after swapping the motherboard.
Edit 2: I did a full discharge of the phone and recharged it while turned off. It seems to have normalized the battery problem
Edit 3: RIP. I tried to remove the screen before deciding about buying a new board. In the process, I ended up tearing the digitizer flat cable apart. Now I don't think it's worth it buying both a new screen and a motherboard.
The full story and things I've tried
My phone was working all nice and dandy until it stopped having signal/service. Wifi works normally, but anything related to the SIM card doesn't, like phone calls or mobile data.
A list of things I've tried somewhat in order (both of time and of complexity):
* My SIM in another phone: it works normally, so the problem is not the SIM itself
* Another SIM in my phone: it doesn't work, so the problem is definitely the phone
* Using the second SIM slot
* Changing "Preferred Network Type" between the available ones (4G, 3G, 2G, including Enhanced 4G LTE Mode on and off): this one and the next two items don't really make sense to me, since these options seem to be only related to mobile data (4G/3G internet) connection, not to phone calls which is also not working, but I tried them anyway
* Manually selecting the network: Errors with "Selected network unavailable" and, after trying to register for a while, toasts another error saying "Can't connect to the network, try again later"
* Manually selecting the APN: Tried both selecting between the two options available and manually adding an APN by googling the correct info for my carrier
* Simply booting into fastboot and restarting bootloader: a video on YouTube claimed that it was a temporary solution and that I'd need to do it every time it lost signal. But it didn't even work the first time
* Disabling CQATest and then restarting bootloader (and also clearing its data/cache and removing its permissions): a lot of videos on YouTube claimed this was a solution, including for other Motorola phones. Apparently CQATest prevents the phone from working properly in some scenarios. But I think only when you de-google your phone? Not sure. All I know is that it didn't work either
* Using the phone connected to the wall charger: I think this was another YouTube suggestion, and it actually worked for a few minutes. But I guess it was just a coincidence, as it never worked again
Now for some more... "forceful" attempts:
* Factory Reset: Not sure where I saw this suggestion, but it was pretty much the next logical step. Gathered courage, backed up all my data, etc, aaand... nothing again
* Flashing another ROM: Guess it was here at XDA that I read that it was a problem with Motorola's stock ROM. That, paired with my belief that it could still be related to CQATest being installed, I again gathered more courage to flash a custom ROM. I chose LineageOS and found out that it was no longer supported, but decided to install the last official release. I also read that the problem was the Pie modem firmware, so it all seemed to be going fine since the last official release is Oreo 8.1. I flashed it and BAM it worked! ... for a few minutes and never again. I messed around with LineageOS, tried some of the previous things again, but nothing.
Then, I tried to restore my TWRP backup but it didn't work. So I searched a bit more and downloaded the Stock Pie ROM, flashed it, and closed the bootloader. And then I realized the restore probably didn't work since my backup was made using Pie and my phone was on Oreo. Maybe some files/partitions were missing? Also, when I was creating my TWRP backups, I tried creating a full system image backup but it kept erroring. Only later I realized the problem was that the USB Drive was FAT32 and the full system image was bigger than 4GB. Oh, well, now I know.
So now that I'm with my phone pretty much back on square one, I take it to an authorized repair shop. The clerk said that it was a common problem, and that sometimes it could be solved "by software" and that they'd try that. The other option was to change the whole motherboard, which they didn't do because it was "not worth it" and "almost the full price of a new phone". After two days, my suspicions were confirmed: they didn't fix it with their "by software" attempt. At least I didn't have to pay anything.
When I got the phone back, I put the SIM in again and it showed the icon as if there was signal. But when I tried to call someone, the signal disappeared again. I tried searching a bit more, went through all pages of Q&A here at XDA forums and there were like 3 posts regarding loss of signal. All without any response. On YouTube, I found some videos offering a suspicious .bat file. Upon inspection, it merely erased the modemst1 and modemst2 partitions and then wiped user data and cache. I tried it, nothing to lose. Also didn't work.
Now I'm contemplating a few options:
By watching some disassembly videos, I saw that, when opened, the phone has some parts that act like antennas. I thought that maybe those were not properly connected to the board? Maybe they got dislodged during a fall? Seems unlikely tho, since they are screwed in. I searched for a new motherboard to buy and it's a reasonable price. But I'm afraid it'll have the same problem (or develop it in a short time) since I can't find anywhere what the true cause of the problem is.
Another option is to just give up, buy a new phone and use this one as if it was a "small tablet" lol
So, do you guys have any other suggestions or ideas as to what might be the problem? Maybe a tip like "solder a wire to this spot to create a make-do antenna"? I don't really know where else to search.
If not, thanks anyway for those who read it all
Hi there!
So, my brother got this model back in 2019 iirc, it has worked great so far until he changed to the note 10 and my father got the first one as his "new" main phone, it has been working fine so far until today, it rebooted into this mode (i assumed it was the recovery, where it shows "Reboot","Wipe data" and "Connect with MiAssistant"), apparently my father did not touched the phone to do that.
So, that being said, i am 99% sure the hardware buttons are overused so those are just malfunctioning, and since the warranty is already voided due to the 3 years that have passed since the device was purchased, im no longer able to repair it via official repair department or something. Is there some sort of tool like ifixit ones i could use to fix this or is it better to just get a new phone? i would like to get some data back like whatsapp history so he wont lose that much information, is there a workaround for that?
edit: i cant get away from that mode, everytime i reboot the phone it gets stucked there, even inside it i see that the options are selected on their own without me selecting none of them, im just trying to avoid the wipe data one so i can still get something saved
akirapearl said:
Hi there!
So, my brother got this model back in 2019 iirc, it has worked great so far until he changed to the note 10 and my father got the first one as his "new" main phone, it has been working fine so far until today, it rebooted into this mode (i assumed it was the recovery, where it shows "Reboot","Wipe data" and "Connect with MiAssistant"), apparently my father did not touched the phone to do that.
So, that being said, i am 99% sure the hardware buttons are overused so those are just malfunctioning, and since the warranty is already voided due to the 3 years that have passed since the device was purchased, im no longer able to repair it via official repair department or something. Is there some sort of tool like ifixit ones i could use to fix this or is it better to just get a new phone? i would like to get some data back like whatsapp history so he wont lose that much information, is there a workaround for that?
edit: i cant get away from that mode, everytime i reboot the phone it gets stucked there, even inside it i see that the options are selected on their own without me selecting none of them, im just trying to avoid the wipe data one so i can still get something saved
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Volume up is stuck, repaire service can change it