[Q] Possible Broken Antenna - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I noticed the long antenna to the right of the battery directly above the sd card is torn above the screw all the way threw the tape and antenna. I tried searching to find out witch antenna that is but cannot find anything. The damage pretty much makes the antenna worthless I would imagine. Its only connected from where it is attached to the board to in between the screw and the little rectangle shaped hole above it, so not much use. Im kinda thinking its my WiFi antenna because its been really wonky lately, but could just be my router getting old.
Can I get a replacement, or will Sprint still fix it (I am still paying for the total equipment protection) even though the EVOs are EOL? Since its a hardware issue should I unroot my phone back to stock or will they not mind?

Related

Where is the antenna part?

Hi, My phone is having very bad reception, and I tried the 3 radio roms.
Tmobile, HTC and rogers.
The Tmobile one seems to work better, But, when i go inside a build, I lose everything.
and standing near a window doesn't help either.
Can somone with an 8125 or 8525, tell me if the reception was better with those phones?
I used to have those 2 phones, and I always got reception inside a building.
I want to know if it's the Radio rom or a hardware issue.
Maybe, I need to replace the internal antenna?
any help would be great.
I use tmobile, and I live in manhattan
Thanks
it sounds like the phone itself since you tried different radios, I flashed just about every rom I could find and always had about the same reception. I wouldn't know where to find new parts though. I've seen dead dashs on ebay for parts.
thanks,
I got the phone used, and i want to know which part in the phone is the antenna,
it could be damaged.
It runs across the top of the phone, the top two screws on the back cover (the ones with the rubber plugs over them) actually hold it in place. It has a small prong on it that you can bend slightly if it isn't making good contact with the circuit board.

[Q] Signal drop (phone network, not wifi)

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.

[Q] Wifi ERROR

On my HTC Vision/G2, the wifi module seems to be loose inside. If I turn on wifi it just turns itself off after not communicating with the module/antenna. Wrapping the phone on a table seems to fix the problem temporarily. Is there a ribbon cable inside or something that could be breaking down? The wifi module works when it is connected, but after moving the phone it will seemingly lose connection. This is especially annoying because I tether with the phone all the time and usb tethering doesn't work on the android tablet I own (or probably any android device).
If anyone has any ideas, I'd be willing to listen. I don't really want to spend $100 or so to replace this phone right now. Its a little long in the teeth sure, but I'm on the broke side for a few weeks/months here. I was thinking I could take it apart and find what's wrong with it. Just seems to be a bad connection....
I had something simular happen on an old phone and hate to be the bearer of bad news but it ended up being a bad smd part. Maybe try flashing another radio etc and keep your fingers crossed but my experiance was a bad smd chip.
Sent from my G2 running the random rom of the day.

[Q] Removing the flash storage chip

Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
ucof said:
Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really can't see this being successful, sorry. I'm fairly sure the chip is soldered down, and the chances of damaging the chip are very, very high if you want to try and get it off.
If the phone didn't come into contact with water a JTAG recovery might be possible. It may not get the phone working again but it could get your data back. Alternatively companies like DriveSavers have an excellent reputation for getting data off flash chips, but it'll cost you in the region of $400 - $1400 (I got a quote a month or so back, when I thought my HOX was finished.)
I really wouldn't recommend trying to remove the chip though. You could do irreparable damage to the chip, which would render it completely unreadable.
ucof said:
Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try first change the battery to see if the phone will start again it is the cheap way and most secure
de4life - thanks, I've had a quote for data recovery from Kroll. They want £95+ to look at it and provide a list of what can be recovered and then between £195 and £395 for actually recovering it for me. Far too expensive!
As for JTAG, there's been no water damage whatsoever; I've had a quick Google and it says this is more for Routers. How could I do it to my phone? Im not fussed about getting the phone working again, just want the contents of the flash storage back.
Thant - alas, the was the first thing I tried. New battery has made no difference. Which is annoying as her old Desire Z showed the same symptoms, we bought a new battery and its works again. She's currently using that until we decide what to do.
ucof said:
de4life - thanks, I've had a quote for data recovery from Kroll. They want £95+ to look at it and provide a list of what can be recovered and then between £195 and £395 for actually recovering it for me. Far too expensive!
As for JTAG, there's been no water damage whatsoever; I've had a quick Google and it says this is more for Routers. How could I do it to my phone? Im not fussed about getting the phone working again, just want the contents of the flash storage back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First thing's first, if you do go down the data recovery route try to avoid companies that charge any type of analysis fee. Kroll are a well known company but I've not heard much good things about them. I went through an extensive search of companies when I thought I'd killed my HOX and found DriveSavers were the best in terms of reputation, and they don't charge a fee to look at the phone. They are very expensive though, perhaps more so than Kroll, and you have to send the phone to the States which is daunting and costly in of itself (I assume from your £ quotation that you're UK based?).
It's good that there's no water damage. It's difficult to say what can cause the motherboard to suddenly stop working like that, but it's unlikely there has been a serious short circuit that could have affected the memory chip. Have you tried dissembling the phone completely and putting it back together? It may sound ridiculous to even try it, but when one of my older phones suddenly died I managed to get it working by taking it apart and then just putting it back together again. There are a lot of connections within the HOX motherboard framework that could easily have come loose. You might already have done this, but just a thought.
In terms of JTAG, it can be done on mobile phone motherboards with the right equipment. It's usually used for soft bricked phones to reset the software back to its original form if it's been corrupted, but I have seen cases where hard bricked phones were brought back to life using this method, including the HOX. It's not really something you can do at home (not cheaply, anyway) but there are companies that provide this service. One of the more popular services is here: http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/htc-one-x-jtag-brick-repair/ - I believe they post on here from time to time as well. Again, based in the States, but significantly cheaper than data recovery and as far as I've heard very professional. I don't know of any mobile phone JTAG services in the UK, though they probably do exist.
Keep in mind the data chip on your phone is likely fine. Even if the motherboard has stopped working, the memory chip itself is unlikely to be affected and will still contain all of your data - albeit in a scrambled form. If you send it out to companies then they can potentially damage the chip beyond repair, if you go down the route of sending the phone out to repair/data recovery companies I would urge extreme caution. If it's still on the chip the data itself isn't going anywhere. Take your time and make sure you're sending your phone to the right people, because one false move and your data is gone for good.

[Q] need help imporving signal

hi i do a lot of driving and more often than not im having times where im losing signal for over an hour which in my opinion is unsafe. my question is will changing the baseband of my phone help to increase or at least offer me an opportunity to decrease these dead-spot areas? im currently (as of 3 days ago) running cm12.1 with baseband n900tuvucnb4. if so can someone point me in the right direction as to where i can find a solution
When I got my new-to-me N3 it had terrible reception - around 10dBm worse than my N3. I had a hardware problem. You may too. If you're on warranty, just bring it in. Otherwise, the antenna signal wire in the phone sometimes goes wrong (usually because someone mashed it down on its connector off-center). It's under the antenna plane (or whatever you call the inner cover beneath the battery door). Undo the tiny Philips head screws, pop the cover off, pull the old cable off (straight up from the connectors) with needle nose pliers or tweezers. Pop the new one on (make sure connectors are lined up exactly. Reassemble. Done. Signal still not as good as my trusty old N2, but only 2 to 4 dBm down (which is quite a bit) which I attribute to our not-that-great antenna. But it now works OK.
Failing this, there's a Wilson in-car signal booster which works quite well. but the phone has to stay in the car dock (there's an antenna coupler that works a bit the way wireless charging works).

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