(Q)HTC one low signal bars UK EE/Orange - One (M7) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

i recently unlocked, rooted and s-off my htc one, on stock i used to get around 5/4 signal bars and now i only get two/three.
im currently running trickdroid 7.5 rom 4.2.2.
so im looking for a radio which would work for orange/EE in the UK.
please can someone help, or point me into the right direction

this is the one for the 4.2.2 firmware
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=42139108&postcount=18404

Are you sure that it is not the same level? Don't be fooled by the bar looking different, remember that it might show 2 bars of LTE but that could still be better than 5 bars of H+ (as an example).
So if you used to get 5 bars of 3G but your now getting 2 bars of H or H+ then you are better off even though its less bars.
Please do not take this as me treating you as if you are stupid, I am not, I have come across a lot of people recently who thought the same, and it turned out to just be a different type of signal.

fixed
okk i just flashed 1.29.401.12 Radio and it's back to normal.
i found it here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2245615

Lennyuk said:
Are you sure that it is not the same level? Don't be fooled by the bar looking different, remember that it might show 2 bars of LTE but that could still be better than 5 bars of H+ (as an example).
So if you used to get 5 bars of 3G but your now getting 2 bars of H or H+ then you are better off even though its less bars.
Please do not take this as me treating you as if you are stupid, I am not, I have come across a lot of people recently who thought the same, and it turned out to just be a different type of signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the input but!
i never said i was using my data connection,

Same principle applies even with data off.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Lennyuk said:
Are you sure that it is not the same level? Don't be fooled by the bar looking different, remember that it might show 2 bars of LTE but that could still be better than 5 bars of H+ (as an example).
So if you used to get 5 bars of 3G but your now getting 2 bars of H or H+ then you are better off even though its less bars.
Please do not take this as me treating you as if you are stupid, I am not, I have come across a lot of people recently who thought the same, and it turned out to just be a different type of signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if I have 5 bars when set to "GSM" only but 2-3 when set to "GSM/CDMA" .. that's as good?
I'm being serious btw, I normally set mine to just GSM as I seemed to have more signal but if there isn't any point then I won't bother lol ..I'm in the UK btw and on a network that doesn't support LTE (I think)

AllAboutTheCore said:
So if I have 5 bars when set to "GSM" only but 2-3 when set to "GSM/CDMA" .. that's as good?
I'm being serious btw, I normally set mine to just GSM as I seemed to have more signal but if there isn't any point then I won't bother lol ..I'm in the UK btw and on a network that doesn't support LTE (I think)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can confirm the 'type' of signal you are getting at any time in the menu > settings > about part of the phone.
Your phone will automatically switch to whatever the best signal is available at any time, you don't really need to change your GSM/WCDMA settings, unless you really want to force it away from 3G connections (again this does not mean you have to have data turned on).

Cool, I'm not too fussed about what data type it uses as I rarely have data turned on, I just naturally assumed that by switching it from GSM'CDMA Auto to just GSM, meant that I'd have better reception, being that the signal bars went from 2/5 to 5/5 ... You learn something new everyday lol
EDIT: I checked my signal, and I mean my reception, not the data connection type, when switched between GSM/WCDMA Auto and GSM Only and there is a huge difference. I found this guide:
dB Signal - A basic guide
-50 to -60 (very strong, near a cell tower)
-60 to -70 (extremely good, rare)
-80 to -85 (normal downtown)
-90 to -95 (getting on the weak side)
-95 to -98 (weak, dropping calls)
-98 to -100 (bad, hard to stay connected)
-100+ (basically no usable signal)
When I set my phone to GSM Only I hover around -70, which is good, when I switch to GSM/WCDMA Auto it is a different story. I know it changes and finds the best signal, which I might add drains more battery on an already power hungry beast, but I was hovering at -100 which is terrible and often calls were dropping or people were saying it was engaged when infact I hadn't used it.
It's clear to me that in my case, GSM Only is the far better option if I actually want to use my phone to make calls ... Data speeds I'm not arsed about so EDGE is just fine with me.

Related

Possible spotty 3g fix?

Was just messing around with my Nexus One, I have used the *#*#4636#*#* trick to turn on GSM Auto (PRL) Which greatly improved battery life but didn't do much for signal so just now I was messing around went back into the phone info section turned on GSM Auto (PRL) then went down to OEM-Specific Info/Settings and turned off ciphering and wow my dbm went from -101 down to -87 and I seem to be able to hold a 3g signal reliably. If I grasp the phone tightly and intentionaly try to make it lose 3g I still can but holding the phone normally it seems to stay on 3g and doesn't fluctuate nearly as much as before.
Can anyone else give this a try and let me know if it's just a fluke? Never seen my DBM's so low before in front of my computer so seems like something is up here.
I don't see any difference, but I am on 2G right now.
Meh, don't read it if you don't like. It is the first ever thing i've tried that actually noticeably improved my 3g reception so thought i'd share it. If enough people notice simliar increases in 3g reception perhaps it will lead to an official fix from Google. If everyone remains quiet on the subject we will never get anywhere.
Cheers
What's the difference between gsm (prl ) and wcdma that it was naturally set to?
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Jrbourque said:
What's the difference between gsm (prl ) and wcdma that it was naturally set to?
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=682662
Jrbourque said:
What's the difference between gsm (prl ) and wcdma that it was naturally set to?
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't search as much when on wcdma. GSM auto(prl) is basically a file that contains a lists of towers in your area that you have access to. So your phone uses that instead of searching all the time.
Here is some more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_Roaming_List
and I'm sure there is others.
thanks for the tip. I tired it and my dbm went from -102 to -87 to -93 range.
does having a lower dbm means better signal? I have a place where my 3gs gets 2-3 bars, and my nexus has 0 bars. Kind of disappointing, the the cell radio in the nexus 1 is not as strrong as the iphone 3gs. I'll test the phone later there, and let you know.
Yea, lower the dbm the better the signal, it definitely helps but doesn't alleviate the problem with holding the phone from the bottom. I have since switched to WCDMA Only to help combat that problem. It seems I am able to stay on 3g pretty reliably this way even though I sometimes lose all bars when holding the phone from the bottom it still stays connected to 3g and I am able to surf the web and make calls with no bars showing, it's rather peculiar but it's working for now so I won't complain. If this doesn't work out I think I will end up switching to Sprint and going with the EVO on June 4.
Definitely that's one thing I noticed is with zero bars my phone still makes clear calls and fast data, so I just figure the signal meter is just more conservative than other phones.
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So what exactly does turning off ciphering do? Is it worth it for the signal boost?
Ciphering is to keep other people from hearing your conversations, it's like encryption...not a big deal for me as I've nothing to hide and never give out credit card numbers over the phone or anything like that but it might be an issue for some.
ssj4vegita2002 said:
So what exactly does turning off ciphering do? Is it worth it for the signal boost?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.hackcanada.com/blackcrawl/cell/gsm/gsm-secur/gsm-secur.html
I am assuming that Ciphering is purely the encryption aspect ...

Suddenly no 3g, always H?!

My carrier had some little problems during the past weeks, aparently they were working on something. I sometimes, for short periods, did not have data connection or no servic at all. Now the problems are gone and a speedtest today showed that at my home, the download speed went from an average 1 Mbit to over 5 Mbit!
However, the H symbol won't go away anymore! It used to switch to 3g when not data was transferred. I assume that this will influence battery life.
Is there anything I should be worried?
From what I recall, H is faster than 3g, as long as your in a good signal area, the H will always be visable, it will only drop down to 3g if the area your in has no H signal... and if there is no 3g it will drop to a 2g signal... simples, having the H does not meen that data is being transfered!
I am aware of the different speed levels, what I experience now is that the H symbol stays all the time, whereas it used to change to 3g when idling even in areas with very good reception...
GMH24 said:
I am aware of the different speed levels, what I experience now is that the H symbol stays all the time, whereas it used to change to 3g when idling even in areas with very good reception...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, I don't get what you're saying. Let me clear it up:
Very good reception = H
Not so good reception = 3G
You want to see H (means HSDPA which is a a type of 3G data, but it's faster).
MrSimtang said:
Let me clear it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I'll try that too!
I live in an area with very good reception and therefore the phone used to switch from 3g to H whenever data was transfered and back . Now, however, it stays on H all the time and does not switch back to 3g when no traffic occurs.
It is just a change in the pattern my phone behaves so I wanted to get some info on that...
Hi, it's your phone doing what it should by seeking the best signal.
H refers to HSDPA which is based on UMTS (3G). Consider it a 'turbo' version of 3G. It's sometimes also referred to as 3G+ because it's faster then 3G but not really 4G technology. The tower in your area most likely got upgraded to HSDPA that's why you don't see the 3G icon anymore.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App
Not correct, he mentioned that his phone was using H on demand before, so the capability was there already.
The problem is that H mode uses more battery than 3G, which is why it normally only switches to H during data transfers instead of continously being on.
Possibly your provider made a change which forces your phone to stay in H mode. On hardcores homepage (see speedmod kernel thread) he describes a method to manually deactivate H mode if you want to play with it.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
seems to be the explanation... Suddenly I have ~6 Mbit, so almost unsurprisingly there had to be a catch
as for disabling H, it would be permanently so not quite an option. I guess, I'll have to live with it but nevertheless I'll call customer support..
Hspa and 3g are actually different technologies, but can be used on the same site and freq. If you have noticed that your phone is nowdays all the time showing H ( hspa ) and not in 3g like before it means that your carrier has expanded their hspa features and capacity of the network on that area. Main difference between these two tech is of course the speed and how network resources are shared between the users. In 3g you have dedicated ones, but speed limited and in hspa you are sharing the resources between other ones under that cell area. hspa is good if you are near by the cell and there is not too many users from battery consumption point of aswell from througput point of view, 3g is better if you are on the cell edge due to dedicated resources reserved only for you. Main point is, battery consumption of your phone depends mainly how you use your phone ,what kind of applications you have and how often those are connecting/contacted by the network.
Browsing in 3g sucks!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

Updated to 4.3 Firmware and have less signal bars? Read This!

I've seen some people post regarding less/lower signal bars when updating to the new radios which come with 4.3 and you have LTE.
At first I said "WTF" but then I realized... the bars are now sort-of working as intended...
Let me explain,
If you're connected to LTE, the bars are now based off your LTE signal strength. I noticed even at roughly -110 to -100 I only get one bar. I believe the bars start going up dramatically once you have a signal strength greater than -100 (for example, -95db, -85db) And we all know -130db is the cutoff before we lose LTE.
I figured this out once I turned the phone to "CDMA only" to test. Once on "CDMA only" I had almost full bars, (-70-75db for 3G/1x)
To conclude, if you're on LTE and only have 1 bar, you most likely/probably have great cell phone coverage as that 1 bar is determining signal strength for only LTE. When connected to LTE, you're also still connected to 1xRTT which is used for voice. LTE is only used for Data at the moment.
If you really want to test your cell phone coverage, you can get one of those programs to tell you both your 1x signal and 4G signal simultaneously.
Edit: I forgot to mention, Considering the LTE radio and 1x/3g radio are seperate, you're going to get mixed results depending on signal penetration through walls, trees, etc. From what I've seen so far, as of right now 1x/3g penetrates a bit better than LTE. But, really depends on your surroundings
Thanks for the info. Someone else tipped me off about this, and a few SpeedTest checks confirmed it. In fact, 1 bar with the 4.3 ROM produced slightly better results than the 4.1 ROM with 5 bars.
ED2O9 said:
Thanks for the info. Someone else tipped me off about this, and a few SpeedTest checks confirmed it. In fact, 1 bar with the 4.3 ROM produced slightly better results than the 4.1 ROM with 5 bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, which makes sense because when connected to LTE on 4.1 the 5 bars are based off your voice coverage, not LTE strength.
Still seems kind of dumb. I'd rather know what signal I have to make a phone call rather than what kind of data I can expect.
Thanks for info !
Sometimes just 1 bar but internet working well, but 4-5 bars it is not working/slower !

5.1 giving better radio signal?

I have noticed that with 5.1 while I normally got just 1-2 bars at home of signal I am now getting 3-4 and better speeds. At first I thought I was now getting Band 12(tmobile) but LTE Discovery says that I'm still on Band 4.
Anyone else seeing this?
knitler said:
I have noticed that with 5.1 while I normally got just 1-2 bars at home of signal I am now getting 3-4 and better speeds. At first I thought I was now getting Band 12(tmobile) but LTE Discovery says that I'm still on Band 4.
Anyone else seeing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I am in a very weak signal area, I am definitely getting a better LTE signal. But voice/calling (GSM) is worse on AT&T. Where I could make a call previously, on a very weak signal, now I get nothing.
Just finished flashing 5.1 and setting it up - and I'm definitely getting higher single indicators for LTE now (T-mobile Band 4) - I rarely used to get 1 bar in my house, but now it constantly shows 2-3 bars. Whether the coverage is actually improved is yet to be determined...
5.1 is definitely giving me a better radio signal in my house as I usually only had 0 to 1 bars. Now i'm getting 3 to 4 bars and my messages are sending without without delay now. I'm on AT&t.
@OP
Not for me!
Disconnecting
I'm getting better "signal" on 5.1 (more bars) However my lte speeds are horrible now Was 15-20 mbps and now its consistently 3-5 mbps on Tmobile.
Indicators can be changed to always look good. Actual signal probably didn't change.
mzrdisi said:
Indicators can be changed to always look good. Actual signal probably didn't change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
Its showing 3-4 bars of LTE in my house now, where before lucky to have 1.
But dbms are literally the same for me at least.
At work, inside thick concrete walls, inside of more thick concrete walls...I used to be able to keep a solid 4G signal. Now it barely keeps connected, and when it does it never goes off of EDGE. I'm on TMO btw.
I think I'll be switching back to the last radio. Not impressed with this new one from the 5.1 update.
Another thought is the transition from LTE to HSPA might be improved. I wasn't able to make a phone call in my basement at my desk. Now after the 5.1 update I was able to call and hold a conversation in the same spot.
SuperMan(Alex) said:
@OP
Not for me!
Disconnecting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me. Signal is worse, drops down to edge.
updated mine yesterday. i had 0-1 bars, now i have 3-4 in my home
SuperMan(Alex) said:
@OP
Not for me!
Disconnecting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me Too
The 47E radio is the best radio so far (for me at least).

Brand new T-Mobile Nexus 6 Lte not connecting

I have a brand new Nexus 6 64 Gb from T-mobile I just got. I had been on At&t with a different Nexus 6 so I know the phone inside and out. I was testing the phone and noticed the my wives new Lg g2 get perfect reception in my house. My Nexus get Zero bars Lte to 2. Mostly zero. Also I know when you make calls its over Hspa, but after I make a call it does not go back to Lte. Even if I browse the web or do speed test it stays on HSPA for 10+ mins or until I reboot the phone. It does this every time not just once in a while. Several times I have run speed test it has said no network even with 3 bars Lte. I did a lot of searching here and many people have issues with the Nexus 6 and T-mobile.
What do you guys think? Bad phone? T-mobile is sending out a new one just in case.
if you are using data, it wont swich back to lte until you have no data flowing. while you ate using data, it wont switch, period. and the bars dont really matter, as they don't really show your connection. some companies even add extra bars just so the connection looks better. if you want to see your real connection, open your main settings, go to about phone, status, sim status, signal strength.
simms22 said:
if you are using data, it wont swich back to lte until you have no data flowing. while you ate using data, it wont switch, period. and the bars dont really matter, as they don't really show your connection. some companies even add extra bars just so the connection looks better. if you want to see your real connection, open your main settings, go to about phone, status, sim status, signal strength.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I checked my wives phone. In the same spot I will have -115 and she will be at -102. Even right now I am at -91 and dont have full bars. Also after I hang up I can leave it there doing nothing but the screen on, it wont switch back to lte. Even doing Airplane mode on\off should kick lte back on and it does not.
MadHatter01 said:
I checked my wives phone. In the same spot I will have -115 and she will be at -102. Even right now I am at -91 and dont have full bars. Also after I hang up I can leave it there doing nothing but the screen on, it wont switch back to lte. Even doing Airplane mode on\off should kick lte back on and it does not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
airplane mode then back isnt supposed to kick it back to lte. for me it takes anywhere from seconds to 3-4 minutes. but that would also depend on the quality of lte signal in your area.
LMY47M Fixed the issue.

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