Typical Issues in New 4G Area? - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

I live in Salina, KS, and although the city as not been announced by Verizon to have 4G as of yet, I have had 4G service for about 2 weeks now I believe. I have been having some signal issues where the phone will have solid 4G with very fast speeds, and then later when I wake up the phone it will go from 4 bars of 4G to dropping signal entirely. Not just 4G but complete signal loss, hollow triangle. Then takes it anywhere from 20 seconds up to a minute to reestablish a connection. It seems that if I have the phone set to CDMA only, I do not have these problems. Is my Nexus' LTE radio having issues, or is it a result of Verizon testing 4G in a new area?
Edit: Forgot to include that as a result of this, horrendous battery life.

I have a logcat here if it would be helpful to anyone. Now that I'm watching it with a logcat it's not doing it (go figure). But I started a logcat and reset the radio with airplane mode. There are a ton of generic failures. If anyone would be so kind to take a look and see what they think, it would be greatly appreciated.
I see a bunch of "GENERIC_FAILURE" on the GSM radio, but I'm not experienced enough to know what most of it means.

Related

[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.

[Q] How's your signal strength? [LTE]

Hey all,
I'm curious to how your reception is on the VZ GNex. I still have my Rezound here and it seems like I'm getting about -20db worse on the GNex compared to the Rezound. I'm curious - has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks,
Super
yeah, and it is killing me. In the same spot in my room I had my rezound, I had MUCH MUCH better signal strengh. I could keep 4G all day, which is why I switched from sprint to verizon. Thunderbolt, Droid Bionic, Rezound, all worked fine. The GN looses 4G consistantly. This might be a deal breaker for me. I am going to try a custom rom in a min when it finishes downloading, but I doubt that will help. Also am on 4.0.2.
on the thunderbolt there was a setting that allowed us to change when it "lost" 4G signal. I.E. it would allow the phone to pick up a weak signal. Does anyone know if there is a setting like this? I know the signal isn't weak in my house from the previous phones, so it is either a setting like this, or the GN has a really crappy radio...
The 3g and 4g on my Nexus is very bad and not even usable. It is either dropped or barely working. Without wi-fi my phone would have been useless today.
If this isn't correct quickly I will have no choice but to go back to my Thunderbolt which was great!
Service at my apartment just sucks but it's getting the same reception as my OG Droid
I had a rezound and was certainly getting a better signal, 2 things I noticed on the rezound was the battery door actually had antenna relays in it, and also there was 3 settings on the rezound for network performance (performance, normal, and battery saver)
I get horrible signal strength in spots, like on my way home from work there are several short distances where it just drops the signal all together.
At home, my phone seems to just drop connection completely and it's having a hard time picking it up again. Noticed this morning it had been without network access all night. Rebooted it and everything was OK (strong signal) in the exact same physical location.
does any body know how to update roaming with this phone I tried *228 but that didn't work
I am having similar issues in regards to network dropping out. I can understand why 4g would -being limited coverage and all- but 3g should seamlessly pick up where it drops off, plus my voice signal is much lower -100dBmw vs -85/-90dBm which I got with my OG Droid.
jnyce87 said:
does any body know how to update roaming with this phone I tried *228 but that didn't work
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Click to collapse
You can't update roaming on LTE devices, as the sim card automatically does it. What you can do is a "sim reset" type thing.
Power off, and leave your sim card out for like 5 minutes. Put it back in and turn on the phone. According to multiple sources, this will cause the sim to have to re-register on the network, thus refreshing/updating your privs.
Rezound is way better reception wise. Matter of fact, the Rezound is better at a lot of key things! Ima give this a chance but I gotta say I miss my Rezzy!!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
WOW.... my Nexus data was very bad and almost unusable, but now it is fixed!
I didn't want to, but I did a factory data reset and it resolved the data issues. Everything is solid connections now and holding steady. Before the signal was bouncing all over the place.
Give the factory data reset a try if you are having issues. Yes you have to start over but it's better than having a phone that doesn't work.
Phew... now I am happy again! I really thought I was going to have to go back to my Thunderbolt.
OK. I did some digging. I recommend all users download an app called sensorly. It would appear that the reported signal strength by default is 4G. Currently, my 4G is is teetering at -100dBm to no signal and that shows on my phone as no bars. However, I discovered that my 3G is at -90 dBm (excellent coverage). From what I have researched it would appear that the phone has issues handshaking between 3G and 4G which I am sure will be corrected in an OTA update.
If I go to Settings-Wireless & Networks-More-Mobile Networks-Network Mode-CDMA/LTE and switch to CDMA only my bars come up and my dBm appears normal in settings.
I am pretty confident this is a LTE/3G handshake issue. Just like when you leave your home and you are still barely connected to wifi and the phone doesn't know what to use, so all of your apps fail trying to connect. I think it is just the same.
Anyway, I hope this helps others. It has made me less neurotic finding this out.
I had the rezound and returned it because of the headphone noise. Got the nexus and it gets terrible signal and speeds where the rezound was great. Called Verizon and they are sending me another Rezound and told me it shouldn't have the audio problems. We shall see. I just know that the nexus is unusable in my house due to reception.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[Q] Anyone else's Nexus take a long time to get data connectivity?

Like the title states. When I was doing the initial setup with the phone I actually had to connect it to wifi since the 3G connection hadn't been established. Roughly 3-4 minutes before it connected. Same issue across roms and even the leaked radio. This happens during android os startup and airplane mode.
Maybe I'm spoiled but my OG droid data connection was usually established within 30 seconds. The Droid Razr I was "renting" was the same way.
Is anyone else's LTE nexus this way? Is this another quirk of the phone. Or do I have a defective radio?
Mine takes maybe 30 or 40 seconds for a 3g connection. Way way longer than my Sprint phone does.
Try changing to cdma only, instead of cdma/lte, see if that helps. its possible the phone is looking for a 4g signal first, or if its too weak to connect, then reverts to 3g
I've found personally, that initially, turning off/on data, both 3g and 4g take longer to connect, but if left on and running, it switches back and forth as necessary & quickly
When I switch to cdma only, it takes a long time to connect . Same when I switch back to lte.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I live in a strong LTE region running the leaked 4.03 radio. Where the signals are strong, eg in the middle of a street, the radios are great. But surprisingly, this combo experiences 3G+4G holes where my Sprint phone works fine on 4G.
Switching WiFi to strong 4G signal seems to take 20-30 secs.
Switching from no signal reception to good 4G signal seems to take well over a minute.
Btw, not sure how long it takes to switch to 3G. It does happen when I enter buildings but I am not watching the signal indicator change.
dynamicpda said:
But surprisingly, this combo experiences 3G+4G holes where my Sprint phone works fine on 4G.
Switching WiFi to strong 4G signal seems to take 20-30 secs.
Switching from no signal reception to good 4G signal seems to take well over a minute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've been using the leaked radios for a bit, and have had significantly faster switching wifi->4g, its almost instant now, and even for 2-3 bars. No signal->4g does take me a bit too tho.
As for Sprint, they have different antennas, and could be covering different areas, and on different towers than verizon
I've noticed the slow switch on both 3g and 4g. This includes switching from 3g to 4g and vice versa. Inside buildings or in the streets, it doesn't seem to matter.
The city I live in was one of the test markets for 4g, and I can get a 4g connection pretty much everywhere but the outskirts. 4g speed tests aren't in the wow factor like the Droid Razr, I mostly manage 10-12mbps down and 1-6mbps up.
I think I'm going to take a little trip around my local Verizon wireless and hit their test units to see if the same thing happens.

[Q] Data sometimes drops altogether [Verizon LTE/3G]

Hello,
I have a Verizon edition of the Galaxy Nexus, and both my initial phone and my warranty replacement have had the same issue: specifically, they both will occasionally drop all data, be it 3G, 4G, or EDGE. Occasionally they will even drop voice signal altogether. (I've also had the second phone reboot randomly - not often, but it did when I tried to use Wifi Tether, for instance).
This does not happen everywhere, but since my job takes me all over town it happens a reasonable amount, (and notably, not with the Sprint EVO 4G work phone I have). I am based in Sacramento, CA.
My phone is rooted. I have heard that the phone may have issues with switching towers? It is able to reclaim a signal reasonably quickly once it drops, (10-15 seconds) although sometimes I have to do nonsense like switch in and out of airplane mode to force it to grab a 4G signal.
I'm coming up on my return and refund period within a day or so and would like to know if I should dump this phone for an HTC Rezound, or if this is something I can fix by installing the 4.0.3 leaked software.
Thanks in advance for your help.
I know that there is a newer base band you could try flashing, and 4.03 might also fix some of your issues, but be aware that you are pretty much beta testing new technology.
I've never had voice drop on my GNex, but I will occasionally have a drop of data. I believe in my case it is because I am on the cusp of 4g coverage at home, so sometimes it will (barely) connect to the 4g tower, and then disconnect and go back on 3g. When I'm at work and I have solid 4g coverage this issue doesn't present itself.
To remedy the situation temporarily I just switch to CDMA when I'm at home, and if I am in an area where there is 4g and I want faster connection speed I'll re-enable LTE. I know this sounds like a ridiculous solution, but I love my GN too much to return it...again, we are early adopters of new technology.
Only 0.6% of android users are even on ICS - all of this technology is very new.
I believe as Verizon rolls out 4g to more areas that currently only have 3g coverage we will see less and less drops in data (greyed out bars). Hopefully Google/Verizon/Samsung will improve on the radios, etc and make things more smooth for us.
As far as wifi tether goes, I know they JUST got it working on Galaxy Nexus recently, and it is still in beta phase, so I wouldn't count on it being bug free...I had a reboot once when using the beta 10 version, so I don't think what you are experiencing is all that uncommon.
I had a similar issue but only when I was in 4G coverage. I would randomly completely lose signal for about 30 seconds and then it would come back. Usually happened quite often..about 4-5 times an hour. I ended up taking it back for a new one and a new SIM card and haven't had that issue since.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Questions about 4g!!!

So my area is scheduled to get 4g the 17th but I had a few questions about 4g...
First of all how do you tell if you have a bad lte radio? Does it just not connect to 4g or does it do something else? I've been testing to see if I got it yet everyday and it hasn't popped up even once yet so I'm not sure if I might have a bad 4g radio or not
Second of all how long does it take for 4g to pop up after switching to cdma/LTE? does it usually connect to 3g first or just go to 4g?
And thirdly if I have a poor 3g signal (says about 80-90 dbm but my 3g speeds are usually around 200-400 kbps), does it tend to carry over to 4g? (just as in slower speeds than if you have a decent 4g signal)
Hello.
To answer your question about the lte radio... If you aren't sure if your area has 4g and are trying to test by turning it on or off I think your best bet would probably be to ask someone else (who has a 4g phone) if they are obtaining the network. If possible, you could go somewhere you know for certain has 4g (if theres anywhere remotely close) and try it there. I doubt you have a bad radio if your 3g signal is working, have you flashed any roms or are you running stock? If you think the radio is bad you could always try and flash the most recent ones.
The time it takes to switch from cdma to cdma/LTE is almost instant. When you do so your blue 3g bars disappear and it turns grey. After no more than 5 or 10 seconds it will connect to 4g (if its available) and display the blue bars. If you're in an area with both 3g and 4g the phone will automatically connect to the 4g first if it can.
In my personal experience I've noticed that if you're in an area with bad 3g reception the 4g will be about the same give or take a little. I also believe that even if you have poor 3g and 4g the LTE will still have a higher data transfer rate.
Moonkae said:
Hello.
To answer your question about the lte radio... If you aren't sure if your area has 4g and are trying to test by turning it on or off I think your best bet would probably be to ask someone else (who has a 4g phone) if they are obtaining the network. If possible, you could go somewhere you know for certain has 4g (if theres anywhere remotely close) and try it there. I doubt you have a bad radio if your 3g signal is working, have you flashed any roms or are you running stock? If you think the radio is bad you could always try and flash the most recent ones.
The time it takes to switch from cdma to cdma/LTE is almost instant. When you do so your blue 3g bars disappear and it turns grey. After no more than 5 or 10 seconds it will connect to 4g (if its available) and display the blue bars. If you're in an area with both 3g and 4g the phone will automatically connect to the 4g first if it can.
In my personal experience I've noticed that if you're in an area with bad 3g reception the 4g will be about the same give or take a little. I also believe that even if you have poor 3g and 4g the LTE will still have a higher data transfer rate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for...I know a couple places not too far that have 4g for certain, and as for comparing to other 4g phones to see if they have 4g I can probably just check the local Verizon store
I'm definitely hoping for at least 5 mbps download for LTE speed, which I'm sure is fairly easy to get, I can't stand average 3g speeds of 100-500 kbps and maybe 1 mbps if I'm lucky
I'm supposed to be getting 4g officially here tomorrow so hopefully it all works
Thanks again

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