[Q] Signal drop (phone network, not wifi) - HTC One X

Hi,
I have had my HOX for 3 weeks now and since yesterday (so, not a new thing), I keep losing the signal in my appartment, in some places outside. Oddly enough, signal is OK (tho just 3-4 bars) in my office.
1. Could this be related to the WIFI antenna issue even tho it's not WIFI issue? In other words, is there a chance that by fixing the WIFI antenna issue, I can get solve this?
2. If not, what are my other options? The garanty is already voided so I cannot send it to HTC for repair (voided by an "unofficial repair center" after the screen got smashed by dropping it from like 1m... - it's very possible that the fall or their repair broke something else, but the repair was already 2 weeks ago)
Thanks for your help!

First thing I'd ask is are you rooted? Have you been playing with radios recently?
If not, the next thing I'd look at is trying to find someone else with a micro-sim, and asking to borrow it. If they still get a good signal on their network on your phone, it might be your sim card. I had a faulty one once which just started dropping network like you describe. It can happen.
If their sim card also shows poor reception, you might have an aerial issue caused by the unofficial repair centre opening the phone up. (Although from the feedback on the WiFi issue thread HTC have worrying repair standards too).
If you can't find another micro-sim, just try finding someone on the same network. This phone (when working) has excellent network reception (better than my previous Desire S) so if a side-by-side comparison shows a big difference in signal strength, again I'd think about getting the sim replaced.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.android.telnet&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImRlLmFuZHJvaWQudGVsbmV0Il0.
If your replacement sim still has the same problem, then I'd consider opening the phone up as per the video guide in the WiFi Issue thread in the general section. Seems to be quite easy if you are careful. It is unlikely that the same aerial for the WiFi is also the 3G one, but I've looked at the tear down pictures, and can't read chinese! If i find out which one it is, I'll update this post. If not, just check all the connections.

Hi,
I have also been having this network drop issue but only near my office. The reason I think is that my office is between two towers and every now and then it tries to balance the traffic on the networks and hence keeps disconnecting devices from one to connect to the other one... However, I have cut out my normal sim into a micro sim and that was done by the guys at the shop from where I bought the device and they had said that if there are any issues, then please order a proper micro sim and use it....
I think that might also be the problem.....

levtrp savans
All,
After checking that my SIM card wasn't in cause (used a friend's HTC One X to test my SIM card and test with his), I broke open the case and saw the problem.
The problem is the damn design of those antenna contact! I saw probably around 10 of those small metal piece that are supposed to be a bit "up" and somehow touch the contact area on the back cover.
I found that 2 of them (in two different pairs, they all seem to be in pair to create a closed circuit I suppose) were a little bit lower than their counterpart, so with a flat screwdriver, put them upright, closed the case and voila, I am enjoying network with full bars since yesterday.
If the issue comes back (and it probabl will, if they got bent the first time it probably means that the metal already was bent beyond its elastic deformation area), I'll probably end up buying a soldering iron a add some patch of silver to increase the height of the contact zones. That's .... just lame I am sure they had a good reason to do that, but seriously!?
Guillaume

Glad you got to the bottom of it. Yeah I think the design choice is forced from having the main body of the phone slide in at an angle into the outer case. If the two parts just clamped together like a more traditional phone build, then they perhaps could have used a different approach.
I'm putting off opening mine up (I have the dreaded WiFi drop issue) as my current case puts just enough pressure on the screen to act like a permanent squeeze, halting my problem.
Would be interested to know if the problem reoccurs like you said it might. Keep us posted.

Related

[Q] Radio/Antenna Repair Issue

Dear folks,
One night I reached out my hand while sleeping, touched a glass of water (which fell over) and my Galaxy Nexus GSM got wet. In the morning I dried it (*no* hair dryer, just a vacuum cleaner and a radiator), and it still works like a charm. With few exections: Almost no signal anymore. Most often no signal, sometimes weak signal, rarely full H+ speed.
In my flat I have no radio at all (-110db if that matters). No speech, no data.
Outside I may have luck, I may not. Sometimes I get almost full HSDPA+ as stated, but most of the times with "standard" covering just no signal or a really really weak one, where my old HTC Hero (T-Mobile H2 Touch) and my work phone (Nokia 31xx) have full(!) radio signal. Embarassing.
Speaker was damaged, too. So was the USB port (not charging when switched on, no sound, wrong headset recognition).
I decided to repair it myself. I did this before many times with my old Nokia 3310, and ifixit.com suggested, it's not that hard. So I went to eBay and bought a new speaker part (that more bulky part at the bottom of the disassembled phone).
Well, this fixed the speaker/headset and the USB issue. Hooray! But my radiosignal was still bad.
So today, I replaced the antenna mainboard (L-Shaped). Well, this fixed… nothing at all. I still got bad radio (at least it's not broken down completely). Now I wonder: What could I do next? Flasing radio firmware has no effect either (I think, I tried three or so). Is it really because it got wet? Sth else to replace?
I'm looking forward to any suggestions on what to do next. If you need any information, just ask.
Thanks in advance.
I'm sorry I can't provide pictures atm, but I only wrote 5 posts or so.

N7100 overheating with wifi dropout - hardware problem

I did a search and most of the Wifi problems seem to describe knox security and bootloader issues.
Here, I wish to describe/discuss what seems to be a hardware problem in my n7100 note 2.
This occurs with stock and dr. ketan rom on 4.4.2 even with wifipatch applied (technically not needed).
OS 4.4.2
boot loader: n7100ZSUFNL1 (I believe this bootloader should be ok - correct me if I'm wrong).
model GT-n7100
ISSUE
- the wifi icon doesn't turn on or wifi drops out when the system is running hot. This happened the first time after I flashed a ROM/upgraded and I thought it was a ROM issue.
- however, more recently, I have managed to keep the wifi signal absolutely stable when i open up the back cover and run a fan blowing on the back/cpu area at the top back of the phone around the camera area.
- with fan cooling => completely stable
- without fan cooling => drops out when system under load or randomly.
for some reason, omega rom had a problem for me where it kept disconnecting irrespective of the heat
I have seen discussions of our phone overheating but this seems to be a hardware problem with the wifi module.
I presume that there may be micro fractures with the wifi chip solder (seems to be a theme in electronics) that may be causing wifi problems with overheating.
This happened with an iphone 4 voice audio processing chip once for me and the "online community" had figured out a fix by taping in a "pressure mount" for the chip.
//blog.lovefone.co.uk/iphone-4-faulty-microphone-audio-chip-problem
Any suggestions on taping in a heatsink or pressure against the wifi module?
Help would be appreciated. Just adding to the knowledgebase in the community.
When Samsung adopted RoHS some range of devices plagued with badly soldered BroadCom chips. I personally know one S3 and two Note 2 (one is mine own) with all the same problem: no WiFi from time to time and likely no BT too.
I paid ~100 euros to change the main board with BC chip guaranteed working about half a year ago.
Thanks for the quick reply and confirmation.
After ordering a new midframe; playing around with screws and disassembling it a few times; it does feel like a solder joint/connection issue.
I haven't heard much feedback from the net on this problem which is why i raised it.
Others on the net have mentioned loosening the screws securing the motherboard down. I will try that as well but I presume that with a loose solder joint; overtightened screws may warp the motherboard just enough for the connection to flake out.
THanks again.
PS - if anyone else has the same problem/suspicion; please chime in.
So, in follow up.
Adding aluminum tape to the wifi chip didn't seem to work. I took it off and reseated the midframe where the antenna is located.
Still was getting dropped wifi.
Disassembled; took a small screwdriver and gently lifted the wifi contacts from the motherboard up so that it makes better contact with the midframe.
Seemed to help.
It's definitely hardware. Whether it's a problem with the WIFI chip or with the antenna; i don't know but it's somewhere along that line.
Crazy hardware gremlins

Nexus 5X service manual?

Is a service manual for the Nexus 5x available?
Long story short, I was having a problem with my camera, so I whacked the phone on the palm of my hand a couple times (yeah, that might help! [lol]) and after that I lost the network (no bars at all, just a blank triangle always) and nothing I have tried has been able to bring it back.
I am on t-Mobile running 7.1.1.
I cleared the cache, tried different combo's of network settings (2G, 3G, 4G LTE), rebooted in safe mode, replaced the SIM card and tried everything else that I could find in various threads. Nothing works.
I've opened the back of the phone previously to replace the glass (as a glass+frame module) and everything worked after reassembly. So I am willing to reopen the case and poke around but I don't know what to poke at.
So maybe a manual will help or else if anyone has any help they can offer, that would be super!
No one able to offer any help or ideas?
Well I'm thinking maybe the antenna connectors are not so much connected after you tapped the phone. I found this thread which talks about the location of antenna connectors on the back of the phone.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/help/lte-antennas-located-t3234795
ifixit has good information on it.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using XDA-Developers Legacy app
When I looked at the antenna connections with a magnifying glass, I could see that (using the same orientation as the photo you point to) one of the two prongs at the top right was bent and the single one below the top right two was also a little bent.
I stripped the phone down to the mainboard and straighten out both bent prongs. They looked pretty good to me under the magnifying glass. I also spent some time looking around these areas and at the other antenna prongs. Everything seemed to be in good order, as far as I could tell.
Unfortunately for me, the phone still doesn't get network or GPS connections.
I either need to find someone capable of testing these connections or a new mainboard or maybe phone back.
Thanks.
P.S. Here are some photos of the damaged antenna prongs before I fixed them as best a s possible.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3aloIK_2QNdX3ZaZGtTdWpqZjg
Any more ideas friends?

USB port and the story about a really bad replacement part

ok, after nearly 5 years of using, i had have problems with the USB port of my N7000.
It was impossible to get a good power contact during recharging my battery.
So i ordered a replacement part for it. So far, so good.
But after replacing, i have only Edge (G2) and no G3/Umts any longer!
Have compared the new one against the old one twice but with the same result.
So i looked into the WWW and found different replacements with the same problem!!!
It looks like, that it is impossible to get the old original quality.
Ok, ~7$ is not expensive, but anyhow! Now i can charge but not surf in the net.
~34KB/s is 10 times less than with H+:silly:
I think, it seems to be a plagiarism with really bad quality.
So be careful if you will buy some (declared as a "original"!) replacement part.
I'm guessing Samsung (or the distributor) does not make the parts anymore so to keep with the demand there are attempts to create more of it by other opportunistic companies.
When replacing the connector you may have bent the connectors for the antenna or forgot to connect them. Check you motherboard brass connectors's health and the celular antenna's cable if it is connected right.
I think this phone being forgotten as so many dev leave and for the part replacement might be non ori at all. Within 5 years I got 4 times replacement for USB port & 3 times internal spraker, normally I let the phone repairman do at phone shop nearest my home. Lately they give discount for regular customer. Speaking about regular customer it also means this phone has nearly R.I.P as I always change the same part of replacement. Last week the 4th times USB replacement. What to do as I am unaffordable to buy new phone.
What are you doing with your phone bro. For all this time I have replaced the usb connector once and the display and this is my only repairs for this phone.
I ran into the same issue.
To my knowledge, there are at least 4 different revisions of the USB charging PCB. Some are incompatible with the device you own, because of regional differences between devices.
I had to buy two, one from china, one locally from a smartphone repair shop owner (cool guy!), as the china one didn't work. Only 1 or 2 bars GPRS when standing right next to the cell tower.
With the one bought locally, I have worse reception than with the original part, but it is very much acceptable and works in at least 90% of all areas I'm in.
Both replacement parts have different model numbers than the original one that was built into my note originally. Some sellers have pictures of another model number, so it suggests, that there at least 4 versions out there.
To further elaborate on my findings:
Two times so far, I experienced one very weird and almost esoterical bug.
This happened both times after reasonably long uptimes on bauners NightOwl 7.1.2 ROM (some version released early 2018).
I have the reception indicator once in the status bar at the top of the screen and one time in the notification area. For some weird mysterical reason, it can happen, that both of these indicators develop their own interpretations of the signal. It might happen, that the status bar will say e.g. H and the notification area will report something like E. The other way around it might happen as well. Telephony is not possible in such situations.
It is very weird and some online searches suggest, that this might be the note itself, not the software. It seems like several of samsungs devices are prone to this problem, not only the n7000. A reboot solves the problem, but I wanted to point this out as I thought the notification area signal reception indicator would merely mirror the status bar reception indicator, that is definitely not the case, so you might want to check for both signal indicators to be more certain about your issues. I'm sure nobody expects this, so a quick heads up.
Greetz

GPS not working

I bought a supposedly new HTC 10 off ebay a few months ago, and just realized on a recent trip that location service is using only wi-fi & cell. Once I am out of signal range, I get no location data, and GPS not working.
The phone came S-OFF and running WWE software, which I have changed to US unlocked using RUU, currently running 2.51.617.32, baseband [email protected]_76.02_F.
From a previous contact with HTC, they told me the serial number is that of a Sprint phone. I am assuming that this is a refurb of some kind.
I have installed GPS Status and tools, and the app can see the satellites, but cannot get a fix. Hardware check says that the sensor is OK. I have cleared AGPS and that made no difference.
Changing data from 3G to LTE to Auto, or on & off (per a couple threads at xda) made no difference.
I am unsure what to do next. Phone works well otherwise. Would flashing a Sprint radio help? perhaps a different kernel?
Any advice appreciated. TIA.
I had this issue after a battery replacement. Essentially this thread worked for me. Once the HTC 10 was opened up and the rear casing removed, there's a v. small copper prong located next to the headphone socket and it needed a bit of careful prying so that it could make contact with the back plate of the phone once rehoused.
So it could be that your new phone off ebay is a refurb and has been previously opened?
I would try a Sprint ROM before opening it.
dwgallery said:
I had this issue after a battery replacement. Essentially this thread worked for me. Once the HTC 10 was opened up and the rear casing removed, there's a v. small copper prong located next to the headphone socket and it needed a bit of careful prying so that it could make contact with the back plate of the phone once rehoused.
So it could be that your new phone off ebay is a refurb and has been previously opened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
finally found someone with some 10 repair experience haha. I just noticed my GPS won't lock, assuming it's due to screen/battery repair. I have over 5yrs phone repair experience, so salty i am in this spot.... But I have been many times with HTC repairs, and eventually figure out hte querk. Any other insights? I opened it up yesterday and couldn't get a lock still even without back frame shell on. I then noticed the top pin above the headphone jack was depressed most likely due to prying when opening, i carefully bent up and it didn't break, now making connection with back cover frame but still no gps lock.... also try reconnection of the top daughter board flex where hard gps chip lives....
Update: Twas the pin at top, and flashing RUU that got me up and running GPS again! woohoo!
Thanks by the help!
The last week I change the battery and I lost the GPS signal. After reopen the phone, the GPS pin it was in bad position. After move the pin, the GPS it is working again!

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