My brother-in-law gave me an S5 Active (5.0) last week . I played around with it on Wi-Fi and decided to put my SIM card in and try it out for a while. I'm really trying to like this phone, but it's got some issues that are terribly annoying. The cell signal is terrible just about everywhere I am it seems. It's mostly stuck to 4G, but frequently switches between 4G and LTE. I came from a Lumia 640, and I had LTE and excellent signal everywhere the S5 struggles to even get 2 bars of 4G. My mom lives in a rural area and my 640 had LTE in several parts of her house while the S5 cant obtain a signal to save it's life, let alone it's battery. When it loses its signal or I switch on Airplane Mode to reset it, it takes forever to get a signal back, sometimes I have to reboot the phone to get connected again.
I would really like to root it and flash a different radio if that is even an option. But from what I've seen on the forums you can't downgrade from 5.0. I'd also like to change the DPI because Lollipop really knows how to make a 5" screen look small.. But doing this requires root also.
Does anyone else have signal issues like this with their S5/Active? Anything I can do to fix it? Btw, I'm on Cricket and my location is Southeast Michigan.
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i'm having a problem with the band not switch when its low on signal. for example i will get the H and when it drops down to 1 or no bars it doesn't switch to E. also some times when the reception is around 2 or 1 and its on H, i would drop calls or can't call out at all. for some reason i've noticed that the reception issue happenes a lot and i would have to change the band to GSM and 850, 1900, then it would stay on E.
anyone has this problem or know a fix?
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I was about to suggest you flash a different radio, but then I noticed that you're on AT&T. It's just your network being crap.
I believe the network sets the rules on handing your cellphone signal over to another tower. Only thing you can do is tell your phone to force EDGE or HSPA.
yea when ever i have no signal i have to force it and the best i can get is edge. but this wasn't an issue before? could it be a hardware issue?
Depends on carrier too. I have such issues sometimes.
But X1 also tries to keep 3G/HSDPA as much as possible...
YEAH I BEEN GETTING THE SAME PROBLEMS WITH MY XPERIA, I HATE IT BECAUSE IT IS LIKE IM BEING LIMITED OFF GOOD RECEPTION SIGNAL. SOMETIMES I CANT MAKE CALLS AT ALL. cOULD AT&T BE DOING THIS TO ALL CELLPHONES LIKE MY X1, SINCE THEY WANTED TO CHARGE ME 30 DOLLARS A MONTH FOR UNLIMITED INTERNET,SO I COULD GET 3G SPEED, SOMETHING I DIDNT HAVE BEFORE, BUT I STAYED WITH MY REGULAR INTERNET SPEED, AND NOW I EVEN GET FASTER INTERNET SPEED THAN MY BROTHERS AT&T HTC fUZE 3G PHONE.
Well just a FYI, but AT&Ts network isn't the great in San Franciso anyway.
After 2-3 days of not messing with the phone anymore (flashing, putting root apps, etc) my somewhat alright LTE signal has now turned into 3G with no circle around it meaning it's connected to the network, but not actually getting data. It happened while I had the phone in standby for a few minutes, so I can't think of any one app that caused it. Reinstalled rom even after a full wipe.
The strange thing is I will sometimes get a faint signal of 3G which then dissapears within a minute. I did the latest OTA before I flashed my rom so I should have the newest radios and everything. I can't update profile either. My family is getting good signal so I know it's something with my phone. Any ideas?
Happened to me too..I re activated with Hands Free activation to reset the data connection to Sprints network..Only worked twice for me through out the day then the phone was just stuck in the same spot as yours (3G with circle around it). Nothing we did reset the data link to sprints network(cust. svs rep).I brought the phone back to where I bough it and they didn't allow an exchange unless they held the phone over night to test it..I didn't have time for it and everything i hear about the Triband set up Sprint is doing not allowing data while in a call and the growing pains of the network rebuild have worn down on me after 10 years so i had to return the phone and buy it on a network that allowed the phone to operate the way it was meant to..
When I first got the phone, it would hold an LTE signal much better than my m7. Then last night I notice LTE cutting in & out where it was pretty stable before. I check it was trying to connect to Band 26 which is 800 LTE. It might have been from a further away tower. This was the first time I have ever seen Band 26 in my area which is currently being deployed. The constant cutting in & out also drains my battery down. This has nothing to do with my phone but the towers which my home tower has been having issues since last July. For now I set my phone to CDMA only since I have wi-fi at home & work anyway I don't need the phone on LTE. Even when LTE was working on 1900 which was stable, the signal was still pretty week and would drain more batter than a strong 1X signal. Since LTE is data only right now, there is no reason to have the phone prefer LTE when wi-fi is on. With CDMA only it's not bouncing around all over the place.
[Q] Cell reception indicator constantly flips between "no reception" display and bars
I'm using the Xperia Z3 Compact on TMobile's network in the US.
About 1/4 of the time when I turn on the display the phone indicates that it has no cell reception:
1) The phone shows no bars of reception, and a red X over the bars
2) The lock screen reads "Emergency calls only"
However, within a second or two the phone appears to acquire an excellent signal and I get a full 3-4 bar display. All of the areas in which I use the phone are marked as "Excellent" on TMobile's coverage maps.
This also happens intermittently while I'm using the phone. I'm not sure if it's actually losing the signal or if it's just a software issue. I've never had it drop a call or cut out while I'm talking.
I'm getting only acceptable battery life from the phone (about 25% at the end of the day) despite light usage and conservative app installation, even though this phone has a reputation for excellent battery life. My theory is that this might have to do with the phone constantly disconnecting from the network and then having to re-aquire a signal.
Anyone else had this experience with the Z3C?
Hey mate.. I posted the exact same issue a couple of months back. I was experiencing this exact same issue.
I've had my LTE disabled for about a month now and haven't had a single drop.
Not sure if LTE is a dealbreaker but since my device is a business line, I can "suffer" with better battery life and slower internet if I'm not dropping calls. I've considered trying a ROM with updated radio firmware but figured I'd wait to see what the current Lollipop update does ('ll re-enable LTE once I install it and see if it repeats the same behavior) for my phone before trying a 3rd party system.
Hope this helps
sh0nuff said:
Hey mate.. I posted the exact same issue a couple of months back. I was experiencing this exact same issue.
I've had my LTE disabled for about a month now and haven't had a single drop.
Not sure if LTE is a dealbreaker but since my device is a business line, I can "suffer" with better battery life and slower internet if I'm not dropping calls. I've considered trying a ROM with updated radio firmware but figured I'd wait to see what the current Lollipop update does ('ll re-enable LTE once I install it and see if it repeats the same behavior) for my phone before trying a 3rd party system.
Hope this helps
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Thanks! Really gratifying to know that it's not just my device. Seems like there's a strong possibility this is the issue since I'm on a MVNO that's only been on this LTE network a few months. I've flipped the device into GSM only mode and we'll see if it helps.
Dumb question how do i flip it into gsm?
qylie said:
Dumb question how do i flip it into gsm?
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Click to collapse
Settings>More>Mobile Networks>Preferred Connection type> GSM only
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app
Thanks!!!
I'm having the same issue as you have described. For now I've set the phone to 3G prefered. Looks instantly better. Signal strength is also better.
Provider: Simyo (KPN network) - The Netherlands
Edit - Issue solved:
I switched from the Lollipop Baltic ROM to the Lollipop KPN carrier ROM for The Netherlands. The switching is gone for me. Battery life drastically went up.
Any update on this? I just started experiencing this issue out of no where about 2 weeks ago. I'm not rooted or anything, can't afford to due to job security requirements and such.
I am new to Verizon so maybe this is normal but it seems like when I have 2 and sometimes 3 bars of LTE as soon as I try to do something that requires data the LTE will drop off and the icon will disappear. This is kinda annoying as it makes me think the phone is reporting that it has LTE when it doesn't. I came from AT&T and the Note 3 and it seemed like if I had 2 bars of LTE things were just really slow but would eventually load if you were lucky. With this phone I seems like I need a sold 3-4 bars of LTE to do anything data related.
Is this normal behavior or does my phone have an issue? My phone may be going back for a screen issue anyways so this might be just another nail in the coffin.
killeraxemannic said:
I am new to Verizon so maybe this is normal but it seems like when I have 2 and sometimes 3 bars of LTE as soon as I try to do something that requires data the LTE will drop off and the icon will disappear. This is kinda annoying as it makes me think the phone is reporting that it has LTE when it doesn't. I came from AT&T and the Note 3 and it seemed like if I had 2 bars of LTE things were just really slow but would eventually load if you were lucky. With this phone I seems like I need a sold 3-4 bars of LTE to do anything data related.
Is this normal behavior or does my phone have an issue? My phone may be going back for a screen issue anyways so this might be just another nail in the coffin.
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My note 4 before lollipop used to be able to hold a LTE signal with 2 bars. After lollipop what you described started happening... Got the note 5 and it was even worse... It kept dropping LTE to 1x to 3G. So today I exchanged it for a S6+ and so far it hasn't dropped LTE all day.
I had a S5 and normally had 2 bars of signal in my house all the time around -108dbm signal wise. Sometimes it will drop and lose calls or texts take a while to go thru but generally the phone was reliable and worked good.
I bought my unlocked nexus 6 2 days ago at best buy, popped in my sim card and connected to the network just fine.
In the house my signal bar is all over the damn place. 2 bars then no signal then 1 bar then no signal, is chalk it up to bad signal if it didn't do this outside the house also.
I haven't done anything to the phone so I don't know if it is just something little and stupid i need to change in the settings or if I need to flash the Verizon firmware on it . any help would be appreciated
There is no specific Verizon firmware. LMY48I is the current build. You could try flashing different radios and see if one works better for your towers.