Anyone know where the cell antenna is on the AT&T (I747) S3? I know the white wire that connects to the board in the bottom right, that runs to the top of the phone is the WiFi, but does it also handle cell reception?
The black plastic internal chassis on my SIII is cracked and broken towards the bottom, just above the USB port the chasis is split in half with a crack running top to bottom. There are 3 copper spring connector points on the motherboard that touch the black plastic chassis in 3 points, and I'm thinking the cell antenna is embedded in the plastic, and since it broken in hand at the bottom near these connection points, it explains my cell signal issue.
Phone was working fine, but pulled the phone apart to replace the camera, and now I can't connect to cell for voice or data. Odd part is that it shows bars, but they never turn blue to give me an actual connection. Wifi is working fine.
I'm thinking I need a new chassis. I had bought one on eBay, but with it on, reception was a hot mess. Put the old broken one back on, and it worked fine.... until the camera repair when it finally broke completely.
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I acquired a broken touchscreen Tilt2 and repaired. All worked well until attempting Wi-Fi - signal very very poor Only a 1-2 bars in same room as router and almost nothing between walls. The wifi antenna is located on the cover below the keyboard. You need to take the four small torx screws out and use a non-marring pry tool to lift cover off (better directions elsewhere). There are two tabs that contact PCB - they were not making contact at all. There is a little slot in the case next to the USB connector .... looks like on mine someone else may have inserted something in the this slot (maybe the micro SD card?). I replaced the screen without full case assembly, the rear cover void stickers were still intact so I know it didn't happen from my or another's dis-assembly. I bent the tabs (carefully as I read they break easy) reassembled and now get excellent reception FYI under the top speaker assembly is two other antennas for Cell Radio and GPS with the same type contacts if having problems with either of those. Hope this helps out someone, saw a lot of similar wi-fi problems in the posts but not much on location/repair of antenna. Good Luck!
Hey guys, just got my DInc2 Monday and found that the signal strength was no better than the Eris I had before it. The problem with the eris was that there was nowhere to connect an external antenna. After messing around with my new DInc2, and reading this forum, I found that by using the antenna that I bought for my eris: http://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Electronics-Trucker-Mirror-Antenna/dp/B001DTZ25A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323615483&sr=8-1
and the passive antenna adapter
http://3gstore.com/product/1691_passive_antenna_adapter.html
that I never could get to work to boost my eris' signal, I was able to DRAMATICALLY increase my signal and data speeds!!!
I have the antenna pointed in the general area of my closest tower.
I cut the end off the adapter, and stripped the wire. I then slid the wire into the antenna contact on the PHONE SIDE...not the cover. I went from 2 bars of signal and an average of -95dbi without the antenna, to a STEADY 3 bars and an average of -86dbi with the antenna. The back cover has to be off for this to work, so it's only a fix if you are at home, or somewhere stable where you can just connect it and set the phone on a table somewhere.
If anybody knows where I can pick up some kind of small alligator clip or ANYTHING that would allow me to more permanently attach the antenna while I'm at home, I'd love to hear it. I think if I had a better connection between the phone and the antenna, the signal would be that much better.
Here are the speedtests I took this morning. The first three are without the antenna, and the 2nd three are with the antenna
Antenna fix
You could get a spare back and drill into the area where the connections are and solder the wire to the contacts on the back.
Try it with the stock antenna intact. If the signal is not better, interupt the trace of copper for the stock antenna.
Enjoy...
Poking around in the back of my phone, I pulled off a tiny rubber cover located just above the SD card slot. Just underneath is what appears to be an antenna port. I have a Wilson antenna that I used with an old flip phone from back in the day, but the adapter I had did not fit. I ordered this one off of E-bay: Wilson 359909 Antenna Adapter LG, Motorola, Samsung,HTC (160641678739) - even though it did not explicitly state it would work on the Dinc2. In the meantime I spliced off the end of the adapter I already had and put the exposed wire in the antenna port. I noted an immediate increase of signal strength of -5dbm. Unfortunately, the ebay adapter arrived and it also does not fit. I think if we could find the right size adapter, we could drilll a hole in the back of the cover and it should seat nicely. Anyone have any thoughts?
I see that port. I didn't get any signal at all when I put my wire into it though. Anybody know what this port is for if not for an antenna? I find it hard to believe that nobody has noticed this before.
I find it hard to believe that nobody has noticed this before.
I agree. Maybe wishful thinking got the best of me!
I just hope there's something to this!
I shoulda thought more before posting. There is no doubt in my mind that I got a signal increase with the external antenna as compared to the last signal reading prior to taking off the cover (and having no signal at all).
Question is - could I have inadvertently touched something else in addition to that port?
At work till tomorrow afternoon and will retest then.
It IS an antenna port
I have attached pictures of the "setup", and a screen shot displaying my dbm's with the cover off and the antenna attached. Cover on signal status was -96 dBm and with the antenna attached it was -87 dBm.
Hopefully this will get someone a lot smarter than me interested in figuring out what kind of adapter would work on this port.
Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!
View attachment IMG_20111215_105537.bmp View attachment 2011-12-15_11-06-09_540.bmp View attachment 2011-12-15_11-07-26_527.bmp View attachment screenshot-1323982757531.bmp
Umm i get 2meg download speed with no app and the back on. Remember the phones internal antennal is actually the back door of the phone. Did you do those first speed tests with the back on? Try flashing a new radio. The newest one ending in .1111 is great!
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App
Thanks for the advice! I flashed the .1111 radio a couple days ago and have noticed that the dead spots on my 1.5 hour drive to work have gotten shorter and my average dl speeds have increased from an average of .5 Mbps to about 1.2 Mbps
My hope is that with the right adapter, I could plug in an external antenna (pictured in my previous post) and cause those dead spots to disappear all together.
By taking the back cover off and plugging the bare wire of the adapter into the port directly above the SIM card slot, I get better reception than I had with the back cover on. Problem is, it's a very precarious connection. I think if I could find an adapter that actually fit in that port, I could drill a hole in the back of the cover and plug and unplug as needed.
I broke the connector on the motherboard by the SIM card where the white antenna wire connects to the board. It just broke right off trying to disconnect the wire. My question is, is this wire important?
I am not even sure if it's for wifi, cellular or an antenna for both.
powerserge1 said:
I broke the connector on the motherboard by the SIM card where the white antenna wire connects to the board. It just broke right off trying to disconnect the wire. My question is, is this wire important?
I am not even sure if it's for wifi, cellular or an antenna for both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i recall from the last time i had my phone apart (over a year ago) its the wifi radio antenna, which just runs up to the top of the phone near the earpiece and connects to a metal plate to give a bit more area for the antenna to work with. You phone will still have wifi, but there is a good chance the reduced antenna area could affect the range at which you can detect/connect to networks. Having said that you are only losing a couple inches of antenna area so you may not even notice much of a difference.
Has anyone bought an amplified GPS antenna? I find my KGL unit struggles to keep a locked signal - if I move the antenna around it locks again, but drops after an hour or two and I have to move it around again.
Thinking of getting an amplified antenna -but not sure if it'll help?
Just try a different antenna and make sure its fitting well. Also, mount it on the side of the dash farthest away from edge of the road. In the US that's the drivers side. The reason is that the center of the road generally has the most clear path to the sky.
My antenna is stuck to the top of the windshield with velcro - under the dash I almost always had no signal. I've tried removing and reconnecting it a few times... instead of ordering another plain antenna, I'd prefer to find an amplified one.
Most people don't have amplified antennas because they are generally not needed.
If you have it velcro'd to the top of the windshield ... I wonder if you mounted it upside down. Can you take a picture? The flat side with the label should be down.
Geez, my MTCB GPS antenna is working inside my house and in my garage so i'm surprised even under a plastic dash pad you would have a signal issue. I have one on the underside of a vette w/o any signal issues also but that's a pioneer HU.
Ok, I've got a old Note 3 still chugging along. The USB port was starting to get so loose I was having difficulties even with new USB cords. So I figured I'd swap out the board as it's a pretty simple swap (or so I expected). This isn't the first time I've done internal repairs, boards swaps, etc.
I replaced the old charge port board with the new one, made sure the 3G antenna cable was re-attached, and fired up the phone. All seemed fine. The connections were good and the speakerphone and mic worked (one frequent complaint of bad replacement boards). But, I was on Wifi and didn't notice until the next day that... Mobile data would drop frequently, my phone would frequently go to 4G only (something I rarely saw previously, it's usually straight into 4GLTE here in Chicago) and mobile data was very unreliable. Frequently I'd lose all bars and even if it was showing 3bars and 4G (not LTE), I wouldn't have data. I rarely do calls so I'm not sure if calls would go through.
So I opened the phone again, and checked the connections. All looked good. I used my fluke to test continuity from the ground side of the cable on the motherboard through to the pins on the USB chargeboard (where they connect to the outer back case antenna). All continuous. Resistances are all very low, even on the old board. Still messed up data and cell signal. Hmm, the lower antenna is only the 3G connection I think. Perhaps I have a bad charge board after all. I swapped the original USB board back in, but it still had the same problem.
At this point, I'm not sure what the issue is (other than I have a big problem). Is it possible the antenna embedded in the rear housing is bad or was damaged during removal? I cleaned all the connectors multiple times (first with isopropyl, then with DeoxIT Gold). I have my previous Sprint Note 3, but I don't know if the 3G antenna would be compatible (perhaps it's close enough I could use it to test). Anyone have any ideas on what I could have missed?
Thanks!