Database Info

Poor 3G Reception

Treo 750v very Poor 3G reception in buildings and on trains around London.
I have now changed job and work in central London and I have noticed on my route to and from home to central London I loose reception a number of times in various spots but on my TyTN which I took to test had no issues.
I have two Treo 750v and they both are doing it one installed with vodaphone and one Cingular rom. The lady next to me thought I was going mad two mobiles one in each hand and my eyes fixed on the reception bars all the way to London at 6:40am yesterday morning. I have not really noticed any issues with reception before this as around home it works flawlessly and I know it is not related to T-Mobile UK. I missed two calls also and whilst at work, phone on all day I got 3 voicemails. Various reviews on the internet have also said reception is poor on these phones and now it is starting to become a reality the more I use it in different areas.
I tested on the way home I rung my two land lines and spoke to my children and girlfriend on the TyTN and 750v the treo cut out 5 times whilst the TyTN held the connection from start to finish. Testing the 750v set to GSM today the phone cut out 2 so slight improvement I don't know if there will be a fix of some sort i.e. (radio or rom upgrade like the TyTN) over time fingers crossed, There is no difference for reception on the Cingular rom vs. vodaphone. But like anything it could be a hardware problem. I am sure if the treo had an antenna it would be better. First attempt for an antenna less Treo it is a good start. I hope they do a new revision of this Treo or this fault does gets fixed as I love the form factor of this phone far better than the TyTN imo.
Reception set to GSM is far better under band selection, I loose the fast browsing speed abilities of UTMS but call quality is much better overall.
Does anyone else suffer from reception issues related to 3G?
Tmobile
Vodaphone
O2
Sim cards tested in both phones.

I am also experiencing problems on 3G here in the Netherlands. I have some bad reception during calls and also alot of dropped calls when on the move and the phone is trying to fall back from UMTS to GSM.
I am also having some Bluetooth stack problems: the Bluetooth sometimes crashes, even in the middle of a conversation on the carkit. The audio connection gets lost with the parrot carkit.

mkoster007 said:
I am also experiencing problems on 3G here in the Netherlands. I have some bad reception during calls and also alot of dropped calls when on the move and the phone is trying to fall back from UMTS to GSM.
I am also having some Bluetooth stack problems: the Bluetooth sometimes crashes, even in the middle of a conversation on the carkit. The audio connection gets lost with the parrot carkit.
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The issues you are having are just like mine, Not having any bluetooth issues like you mention though. UTMS to GSM is a big problem with the phone it is like it gets confused and then freaks out.
The reception part is really starting to get to me as my main phone it is not doing to well if you know what I mean. I only hope that a software upgrade can fix the issues. I am sure the bluetooth issues will get sorted with an update.

Same here (Italy). Bad 3G reception (Vodafone network): sometimes the 750V switches to GPRS and the call quality is fine, sometimes it doesn't, and it's a pain... I noticed a slight improvement when I upgraded from the original Vodafone ROM to newer Cingular's. Hope this means it's a software-related issue, and can be solved via a ROM upgraded in the future. After all, the 750V is made - like the TyTN - by HTC, so the reception should be more or less the same in both the devices.
Bye,
F.

xxnoelziexx said:
Treo 750v very Poor 3G reception in buildings and on trains around London.
I have now changed job and work in central London and I have noticed on my route to and from home to central London I loose reception a number of times in various spots but on my TyTN which I took to test had no issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With my TyTN (radio 1.16) I get reception on a dead spot where I couldn't get reception with several other phone's (Nokia, SE, Motorola). Much better then with the standard radio 1.03 which didn't work there also. The Palm's reception is somewhere in between, and probably software-related too.

xxnoelziexx said:
The issues you are having are just like mine, Not having any bluetooth issues like you mention though. UTMS to GSM is a big problem with the phone it is like it gets confused and then freaks out.
The reception part is really starting to get to me as my main phone it is not doing to well if you know what I mean. I only hope that a software upgrade can fix the issues. I am sure the bluetooth issues will get sorted with an update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got the same problem. Fixed it by changing the band selection from "automatic" to "gsm". I'll have to change it back whenever I want to access the internet, which is a pain, but at least it's now usable as a phone.

Whats the gprs and 3g reception like?

Hi.
I have a diamond and compared to my vario 2 the reception on gprs and 3g is very poor.
I only need to be about a mile from the mast and reception drops out while my vario 2 still has 2 bars and my friends nokia n95 has 3.
Could anyone try a comparison. I need to know if the radio is better than my diamond before spending a lot of money on the raphael.
Thanks in advance.
Sean.

I have had both devices in a lab environment and the radio performance (at least on the radio versions I tested) was as near identical as makes no difference - as would be expected due to the hardware being practically identical.
Comparing signal strength by number of bars (especially on devices from different vendors!) is an exercise in futility.

dabs said:
Comparing signal strength by number of bars (especially on devices from different vendors!) is an exercise in futility.
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Biiiig 2nd. The iPhone 3G's got complained about a lot because "they only have 1 or 2 bars of service" yet the people would never complain of dropped calls or slow data connections. I think the 2.0.1 update did nothing more than lower the signal required to get a bar.

My reception levels seem ok (i.e. bars) but my data speeds feel slow.

I work in London and get HSPA, 3G and GPRS completely fine and of course the unit switches between them accordingly fine! This is on my HTC Touch Pro, but sadly I don't have the Diamond to compare with, but logically it should be the same since same hardware.
FWIW I updated the weather using HSPA whilst on the train this morning without problem, so I guess it's all down to coverage as always! Vodafone are pretty good in London.

b0yce said:
I work in London and get HSPA, 3G and GPRS completely fine and of course the unit switches between them accordingly fine! This is on my HTC Touch Pro, but sadly I don't have the Diamond to compare with, but logically it should be the same since same hardware.
FWIW I updated the weather using HSPA whilst on the train this morning without problem, so I guess it's all down to coverage as always! Vodafone are pretty good in London.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hrm I'm in London too but on T-Mobile. My Kaiser is fine but the Touch Pro is definitely having data issues.
For example, it doesnt always initiate a data session when you need one, like whne you want to refresh your RSS or sync email etc.

Syphon Filter said:
Hrm I'm in London too but on T-Mobile. My Kaiser is fine but the Touch Pro is definitely having data issues.
For example, it doesnt always initiate a data session when you need one, like whne you want to refresh your RSS or sync email etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that, hopefully a ROM update (more specifically the Radio) will help you out! As always, the first ROM versions can be a bit funny which later versions iron out!
Out of coincidence, when you first started your Touch Pro, did you automatically set the settings according to the Network when prompted or did you perform this manually? I did this automatically as set by Vodafone network and all seems well!

b0yce said:
Sorry to hear that, hopefully a ROM update (more specifically the Radio) will help you out! As always, the first ROM versions can be a bit funny which later versions iron out!
Out of coincidence, when you first started your Touch Pro, did you automatically set the settings according to the Network when prompted or did you perform this manually? I did this automatically as set by Vodafone network and all seems well!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Auto configured as usual...

Also in London, on Vodafone, and I'm going to say that the Raphael is pretty much identical for signal strength as the Diamond. Not found any places where it won't work yet (rail tunnels excepted). 3G signal still isn't available inside my house. But it never was with any phone.
I never had any problem with the Kaiser, Hermes, Universal, Magician, or any other device. All the reflashing of Radio ROM's that goes on around here for an extrordinarily marginal (and subjective) improvment completely baffles me...!
@Syphon Filter - My wife is on T-Mobile with an original Touch. Can't get a signal in our house at all unless she hangs out of the window or stands in the garden, but that's T-Mobile in South-East London for you...

Oh that's bad news. I was hoping the different housing could give the Raphael some improvement on 3G reception.
The Diamonds 3G reception is definitely worse then the reception quality of my TyTN and if the Raphael is identical to the Diamond...

foo said:
Oh that's bad news. I was hoping the different housing could give the Raphael some improvement on 3G reception.
The Diamonds 3G reception is definitely worse then the reception quality of my TyTN and if the Raphael is identical to the Diamond...
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Click to collapse
Like I said, it's all subjective. I've never ever struggled for 3G reception on my Diamond in any location where my Hermes (TyTN) worked. Even in low signal areas, the Diamond has never failed me.
Admittedly speaker volume was better on the Hermes, but that's a different matter...

Well it's not that subjective because it's simply counting bars.
Where Diamond shows 1 bar, TyTN shows 2 bars - same location, same time, same network.

foo said:
Well it's not that subjective because it's simply counting bars.
Where Diamond shows 1 bar, TyTN shows 2 bars - same location, same time, same network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But how do you know that 1 Diamond bar doesn't equal 2 Tytn bars?

hi
I understand about the bars but the problem is how far from the transmitter you can use the phone.
There are many places where I can make calls and use the interner on my tytn bus I can't on my diamond.
at work I can walk about and have a conversation with no problems on my tytn but with my diamond I can only use it by a window.
listening to internet radio while driving is no problem with the tytn but with the diamond I keep having to restart the stream at various places when I lose the signal completely.
This is why a comparison would be helpful
Thanks to everyone so far for the feedback on this

nuttyphilt said:
But how do you know that 1 Diamond bar doesn't equal 2 Tytn bars?
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Click to collapse
This is of course a valid argument, but I also experienced, that the Diamond did not switch to 3G without forcing it by setting because of this weak 1 bar reception quality while the TyTN automatically switched to 3G.
So it seems that also the software internally assumed that the reception is too weak for 3G.
I would assume that the reception indicator is quite comparable between different HTC devices as the same operating system and the same manufacturer is involved.

Don't think I can add anything more to this discussion, on the basis that all of my 3G HTC devices have performed almost identically even in weaker signal areas.
I must just be very lucky? Best of luck to the rest of you though.

For me connection is definitely very very similar between the touch pro and tytn II. However I do think that the point at which is switches of 3g, becauase it doesn't think there is a good enough connection, may well be too early. It definitely seems to switch between 3g and gprs more often than the tytn II. Hopefully this can be fixed quite easily with an update.

Mine's going back.
My Hermes and Kaiser never lose the network in my house. My Touch Pro is constantly on and off. All with T-Mobile SIMs.
Shame 'cos it looks like a great device.

I have two phones here. TYTN II and a Raphael. Both on T-Mobile UK
The trusty TYTN II has 3 bars and always shows a 'H' whilst the Raphael is drifting from 'G' to 'H' and 1 bar occasionally losing a signal altogether.
I really want to like this phone but I might have to keep using the old one till HTC sort this out

I have both the Diamond and the Raphael side by side on the same network (Vodafone) and the signal strength is exactly the same.

Radio 1.14.25.05 - Excellent results

When I made the switch from the AT&T Tilt to the Fuze in December the one thing that I missed was a working GPS. I travel a lot and with the Tilt I could mount the phone in my rental car and by the time I was out of the lot everything was working. I never even thought about it.
As many of you know by now the Fuze GPS is, shall we say, challenged. Some people have worse results than others. Mine would usually get a fix but it took a while, and the lag was also an issue.
I tried various fixes that I found here and none of them did any good, they have all been removed now. I finally decided to bite the bullet and install the 1.12.25.19 radio that some people were raving about. I noticed very little, if any, improvement.
Then I tried the 1.14.25.05 radio. That was a big improvement. It could get a fix in places that even my Tilt couldn't and it got it quickly. I tried it in the car using Tomtom and was surprised that the lag was almost gone. I never looked at the Tilt this closely, it just worked, but it seems that now the Fuze is working as well as the Tilt.
I have seen reports here saying that 1.14.25.05 isn't as good as some others, but it is worth a try if you are already experimenting with radios.
For the record, I have the stock rom without bloat and started with the 1.02.25.32 radio. And I didn't change the rilphone.dll.
Now if we could just get the Tilt buttons onto the Fuze this device would be perfect.

sdbe said:
Now if we could just get the Tilt buttons onto the Fuze this device would be perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ae button!
http://ae.inc.ru/aebplus.php

What part of the US are you in? I'm in Southern California, have the .19 radio and GPS fix is under 10sec when using Google Maps. However, it didn't improve my phone reception very much (my wife's iphone gets 1-2 bars more than I do). Curious to know whether it improved your phone reception at all?
sdbe said:
When I made the switch from the AT&T Tilt to the Fuze in December the one thing that I missed was a working GPS. I travel a lot and with the Tilt I could mount the phone in my rental car and by the time I was out of the lot everything was working. I never even thought about it.
As many of you know by now the Fuze GPS is, shall we say, challenged. Some people have worse results than others. Mine would usually get a fix but it took a while, and the lag was also an issue.
I tried various fixes that I found here and none of them did any good, they have all been removed now. I finally decided to bite the bullet and install the 1.12.25.19 radio that some people were raving about. I noticed very little, if any, improvement.
Then I tried the 1.14.25.05 radio. That was a big improvement. It could get a fix in places that even my Tilt couldn't and it got it quickly. I tried it in the car using Tomtom and was surprised that the lag was almost gone. I never looked at the Tilt this closely, it just worked, but it seems that now the Fuze is working as well as the Tilt.
I have seen reports here saying that 1.14.25.05 isn't as good as some others, but it is worth a try if you are already experimenting with radios.
For the record, I have the stock rom without bloat and started with the 1.02.25.32 radio. And I didn't change the rilphone.dll.
Now if we could just get the Tilt buttons onto the Fuze this device would be perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I am in Central Florida where we have good reception almost everywhere. I didn't notice any difference among all three radios that I tried, reception was always the same, which was good.
One thing that I noticed about the 1.12.25.19 radio was that the gps was inaccurate. When I used google maps with my Tilt I could see what room in the house I was in. With the original radio, 1.02.25.32, it was almost as good, at least I could see that I was in the house. The 1.12.25.19 radio would sometimes put me 1/4 mile away from where I actually was. This even happened when I was outdoors. Tomtom seemed to be able to compensate for the errors but with Tomtom it would get 'lost' occasionally. 1.12.25.19 was my least favorite radio. The 1.14.25.05 radio is quick and accurate at least for me.
The 1.14.25.05 doesn't require anything to get an accurate fix. I used to have to use gpstest or some other program to 'prime' the gps. Now I don't have to worry about it. I just turn it on and a few seconds later it is working.

the gps issue has been resolved and proven over here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=496800

princeasi said:
the gps issue has been resolved and proven over here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=496800
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I tried it and it didn't do a thing for me with either of the first two radios that I tried. So I guess you could say that I proved that it doesn't work.
The strange thing about this problem is that what works for some doesn't for others.
For me the 1.14.25.05 radio made the gps work like it should have in the beginning. None of the other fixes had any affect. Also note that I used the original rilphone whereas others tried changing theirs. That may be why I had better luck.
At this point I have to say that the Fuze has a very good gps with little or no lag. That is not something that I would have said a few weeks ago. Everything on my phone is original except the newer radio. Maybe HTC discovered this but didn't advertise it.

Im using the stock fuze rom 5.08.502.1 with radio 1.12.25.19. If your looking to speed up the gps lock and have a similar setup, I would recommend using the gps hack first, before flashing a different radio, its much safer, Duces!

Thank you!!!
I can get a fix indoors!!
it was nice of you to share, you helped me a lot.

1.14 is better for me too.
second the original commenter

Both 1.12.25.19 & 1.14.25.05 worked fine for me. However 1.14.25.05 was slightly better. I am also using the registry hack and I set the poll interval to 500.
I recommend this radio to anyone facing problems with GPS.
Thanks for sharing.

This is strange. I live in central florida too, 1/4 mile away from cell phone tower and in the house I'm getting signal strength 2-3 bars, even if phone laying next to the window. From that window I would be able see the tower if it wouldn't be for the huge oak tree in front.
The GPS gets lock in about...5-15 MINUTES! and only outdoors.
With 1.12.25.19 radio I don't get better signal strength, but GPS locks in 10-20 seconds, even indoors.

GPS is definitely better with 1.12.25.19 radio. That radio is by far the champion in overall experience - GPS, GSM signal, HSDPA signal...

As someone already mentioned, it seems results can vary by user. I tried several radios after reading the suggestions on this forum. For my .02 it's the 1.14.25.05v. It gets me a really fast gps lock with usually about ten sattellites. Also, the RF is a little better, calls are clear and whats not to like. I'm stickin' with it.

Raphael Antenna Hard Mod

Hi, I am seriously considering making a wifi/GPS antenna hard mod to increase reception for these services. My raphael has about 3x lower reception for both wifi and satelites than my older buddy HTC Artemis and I am really getting pissed, because enhancing the signal through software has its limits.
I wanted to ask if anyone has experiences with this procedure or wifi/gps antennas in general. I don't know which metal to use or whether should I focus on extending the antenna length or make the surface larger.
Here is the disassembly procedure http://translate.google.com/transla...tp://www.pdacenter.ru/razborka/htc-touch-pro/
Here is directly the antenna http://www.pdacenter.ru/images/Touch_Pro-031.jpg
Any input is appreciated, I want to gather as much information as I can before I make the mod. I would not prefer trial and error on this one

before you embark on this ambitious journey, have you tried everything you can do?
1) different Radios/Roms
2) using certain materials to boost the reception? (like those wifi usb external mod/dish aka this
your friend's Artemis uses SiRF III chip, which is one of the best GPS chips... but this chip is separate from other stuff, draws a lot of power
the HTC Touch Pro uses the Qualcomm MSM7201A which integrates GPS, Wifi, GSM, obviously less power sucking and one less chip, and hence gives a little less performance than the SiRF III chip
how about an external BT GPS unit? i have one for my Dell Axim x51v PDA, the BT SiRF III unit has it's own 1300mAh battery that lasts at least 8 hours
can't help you on the WiFi side though... up to you to try to up the antenna, but you are risking your $200+ device, and i don't think there is any place inside the device to place a better antenna (unless you hang it outside, or get the extended battery cover)

I tried everything, radios, hours of registry tweaking and field testing.
Best I can get is cold GPS lock in 2-3 minutes and wifi is stable when I set lower beacon interval in routers. But my artemis can do both much much better without any hacks, don't tell me this is purely Qualcomm issue. I get zero wifi signal on raphael and about half on artemis under same conditions so I believe this is problem with poor antenna rather than chipset/drivers.
External GPS module is not an option and it doesn't solve the wifi signal issues in areas where I don't have admin access to the router/AP.
I am really willing to go through with it once I gather enough info but I will TRY not to do anything destructive to the antenna so that the mod is reversable if it has no effect.

I would not want to try modifying the antenna myself. At these frequencies and antenna size it is more art than science. A seemingly innocent change could render it completely useless and could be irreversible.

ok its not that hard to get a gps lock in 15 secs or so .
first flash NRG's latest rom (mercury 7/29)
second flash this radio http://rapidshare.com/files/220917041/Raph_Radio_1.14.25.05.zip
DO NOT CHANGE RILPHONE.DLL'S the one provided in the rom works best with this radio .
once the rom is up and running do the following:
go to start>gps>quickgps>and click download . it really helps and lasts for a week . if you travel or drastically change in loacation (a couple hundred miles ) where the gps isn't active during that time i reccomend redownloading in the new location .
and finnaly go to start>settings>system>AGPS Settings > and click in the box to enable it . then click ok to exit and try google maps (which is installed in the rom already).
you can find google maps in start>gps if you don't get a lock withing 20 seconds then you should search for either
t-back's agps settings
or
atomang's agps settings
and download the respective cabs .

to add to my previous post i flashed his most recent rom yesterday and just followed my own instructions and got a lock in about 12 to 13 seconds .
note this was a cold start and the first time to use gps on the rom .
the best part is ... im inside my house . so i can't belive how fast it would be outside !

Guess you're lucky to get one of the few working pieces
I don't have data plan so no AGPS for me (I'm in Europe we have wifi everywhere).
Actually I get cold fix in about 3-10s from 5 satellites but the fix is extremely unstable and HDOP is 25-600, tooks 2 minutes to settle down and get stable reading with HDOP < 5. This is all because the satellite signals are very weak, I get like 20-35% of the signal bars most of the time. Artemis rarely drops any satellite below 60%. I get the feeling that raph needs much more satellites to get a precise fix to compensate the poor signal, while artemis can get a stable lock with 4 or 5 sats.
And yeah I have Energy ROM with my own GPS tweaks which get faster lock than NRG's defaults.

wow , you should try the austrailian radio . ive heard it works good outside of the usa
i never hve less then 7 satelites in my area and i also have unlimited data so agps (tbh i didn't even know it used data thx for tellin me lol)
sorry man i can't help you other than what i have said lol .

Well after much consideration I gave up the hard mod and started more research to software approach and I have to say it was a success!
I am getting cold GPS lock in under 30s, warm lock is virtually instant.
Using this setup:
Energy ROM 2.0 b41609
Xperia Radio 1.16.25.48 (needs security unlock first)
1.16.25.48 Rilphone DLL
Took my time with trial and error and made a registry tweak for the GPS driver as well.

Signal Problems

First of all thanks @LS.xD because I asked in emergency theard and he was the only who answer me. I have a huge problem with my HOS . A few weeks ago I take it apart back covers to clean them, and after that it was better the speaker the mic, charging and notification light, like new. Unfurtunatly I got a big problem with gsm signal (just gsm not wi-fi or gps) it is unstable, when I call somebody he hears me with cutted words ( hope you understand) and at every call longer then 5 minutes I lost the signal and the call ends, I can see at my signal meter that I have drops, I thing if the antena is not fitting well I have all time poor signal but I have moments when the signal metter shows well, but allso when it shows well I have problems. Where shell I take a look ? What can I do, I'm desperated I can't use my phone and I don't wanna change it. Please guys please a lot help me

What radio are you using? In RO the best radio I found was 1.15...not 1.20 nor 1.35a. Have you tried that one or at least reflash radio?
Sent from nowhere over the air...