SGS 4G, various roms, antenna probs - Samsung Galaxy S (4G Model)

After I first pulled the back (7 screws and pop back plate off), I started noticing a situation where the antenna was only working at about 1/2 the strength it should. I have tested this on long trip runs. I have pulled the back a number of times to try to fix it.
Thought it might be a faulty coax so pulled that but continuity both center and shield and impedance 0.1nf for what that's worth (not much on a short length). I have stretched slightly and wiped all of the spring contacts, pulled the antenna lobe and examined it closely, poked and prodded, and emphasized attaching the backplate at the bottom first.
I can "fix" it by sticking a 1/2 wave (about 7.15cm) wire (from a twist-tie) into the antenna jack and snaking it under the battery. I may have fixed it on the last run, but I have also stuck the 1/2 wave in there just to be sure it doesn't fail when I need it.
The roms i flash are all working fine so I thought I'd post this to see if it hit a chord with any tinkerers!
(running on straight talk with the tmo SIM so hitting only the tmo towers)(speeds are fine, data works great)

So... what your saying is, our phone is so powerful at doing 4G that it beats the crap out of SGS3, so that's why the antenna is only using 1/2 of its "supposedly" power? What happens when we extend the strength of the antenna? Would we get better reception, especially in dead spots :'(?

I think what he was saying is with some cleaninging and tweaking you can get the full benefit of the antenna.
For reference I use to be into cb radio and a stock radio and antenna will not perform as well as one that has been optimized to its fullest.
Electronics are made in a mass manner and even tho they have quality control at some point production will take precedence over quality. Its not always intentional. When I was a younger man I was always told to look at the manufacturer build date. If it was a friday or monday avoid it. Most factory workers live for the weekends. And Mondays are recovery days and Fridays are IDGAF days.

I knew that but why would Samsung limit the antenna? Battery? Space?

sorry for delay, I've been out trying different things with it.
What I meant to say is that suddenly the radio/modem/antenna is not working like it should - I only get 1/2 to 1/4 of the input signal I should. I have no idea of output, of course.
I thought this happened after I took off the back plate, but I was in the process of flashing about 10 different roms (flashaholicism), so I don't know the cause. I felt I remembered the word "radio" on one of them, so I just went back to Heimdall stock and back up and thought I fixed it, but took a short run and it seems to find and not recover from black holes easily.(where the tmo coverage map says it's excellent)
So at the moment I am confused. At one point I thought I ran across different radios I could use for the SGS 4G so I'm off to look for that.

th3controller said:
I knew that but why would Samsung limit the antenna? Battery? Space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are really limiting the antenna.
I will use the cb radio as a example again. With a standard mobile antenna your range is around 5 miles radius. Now if you use a base antenna and elevate it higher in the air your range will in crease even more.
With mobile phones the antenna is very small so they have to get creative with it. So like the op said he/she created a 1/2 wave booster it will allow a larger area of reflection.
During assembly there is a limited amount of uses on things. After using a solder iron for so long you have to clean/replace the tip. Certain amounts of "corrosion" and "dirt" are allowed before the item has to be rejected. It still meets the specs but with some simple electronics cleaner and such it will improve the connections.
Does that make sense?

I did take it back to stock again and stopped there and went for a walk, but , again, it did seem to be able to find black holes fairly easily.
i do find this complaint to be common. I noticed one comment in the dev thread, but a bunch for generic gal s. Still looking.
This is Boston and coverage is fairly good.
I only got this on the 24th Aug, and I don't recall it doing anything like that until a couple of days ago, though I could have missed it.
I can't find a list of radios for the t959v. Is there one? Thanks!
EDIT - found pointers in one of FB's posts
GB: http://sourceforge.net/projects/teamacid/files/fb/modems/cwm/
CM7etc: http://sourceforge.net/projects/teamacid/files/fb/modems/cm7_padded/

KrisM22 said:
I did take it back to stock again and stopped there and went for a walk, but , again, it did seem to be able to find black holes fairly easily.
i do find this complaint to be common. I noticed one comment in the dev thread, but a bunch for generic gal s. Still looking.
This is Boston and coverage is fairly good.
I only got this on the 24th Aug, and I don't recall it doing anything like that until a couple of days ago, though I could have missed it.
I can't find a list of radios for the t959v. Is there one? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192436

eollie said:
Look in this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192436
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL - just found it there! Thanks! only 3 modems for CM. humph!

The other modems were too large iirc. The black hole you speak of is annoying. I will have full service just outside the local walmart super center. Inside I lose all service. Which pisses me off. If I am talking when I go in it is a crap shoot if I lose service or not. If I am talking on the phone and lose it I have to reboot to regain service once outside.

eollie said:
The other modems were too large iirc. The black hole you speak of is annoying. I will have full service just outside the local walmart super center. Inside I lose all service. Which pisses me off. If I am talking when I go in it is a crap shoot if I lose service or not. If I am talking on the phone and lose it I have to reboot to regain service once outside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huge thanks for that eollie!!! I'm not alone. With that thought I will play a bit with the other 2 modems, and then work on a better antenna.
The antenna is a folded loop with a lot of variations for all the frequencies. it is about 2" long. Just a peel and stick tape wrapped around that lozenge shaped thing that fits into the back plate.

Actually this is all a big psychological experiment - we are given phones and told to expect that they will work. Occasionally things are done to test us.
So I went out on a long bus trip to test modems. Too late I discovered that the one I go into recovery and flash, is not necessarily the one that shows up as the last 3 characters in the baseband. At least once I flashed K1D and later found I had KJ6. I was thinking that K1D was good, but I will have to run the test all over again. My rom for all these tests is the BHUNDVEN R8
Meantime I will spend the next few days with my SIM firmly planted in my Prism to try to get back to reality. At the moment I am simply thinking that the t959v is simply a phone with a weak antenna both for carrier freq and for gps, certainly not usable in a bus.
If I come back to this, I will be testing on stock, but I have to flash a kern to get CWM recovery (I have been using kernel-sms-kj6-v0.2.0-bml.zip) Will I be able to flash the unpadded modems after I flash that kern? or does that change life to CM?

I would flash bhundvens blastoff kernel.

eollie said:
I would flash bhundvens blastoff kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I tried but it aborts.
I do the stock with java thing, root it, then I need a CWM recovery, so I SGS kernel do ...
well, first time I tried the blastoff kernel but it's too big, so did kernel-sms-kj6-v0.2.0-bml.zip but that CWM v5 doesn't like blastoff.
EDIT: never mind, I think I sussed it... we'll see!!!
nope. I'll post on the q&a for that

eollie, I finally got back to a nice simple rom using your rooted one-click and an unnamed rooted spiffy 2.3.6 that bhundven gave me. Now I can start playing with that plethora of GB modems!
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1828176&page=4 bottom of post #40 )

eollie said:
I would flash bhundvens blastoff kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just grabbed your one click that's got that in it! Thanks!!!

KrisM22 said:
Just grabbed your one click that's got that in it! Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one click I have wifi is broken. I got started today attempting to fix this, but life took over. I do know what needs to be done it is just a matter of getting it done. This week is hectic, Im trying to help a friend out that has had some bad luck with vehicles and sadly android takes the backseat to these guys. Good friends are hard to come by and they are good people.

eollie said:
The one click I have wifi is broken. I got started today attempting to fix this, but life took over. I do know what needs to be done it is just a matter of getting it done. This week is hectic, Im trying to help a friend out that has had some bad luck with vehicles and sadly android takes the backseat to these guys. Good friends are hard to come by and they are good people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No prob! Def help friends! That's first!!! I just use bundhven's unnamed and that's fine.

Would a Antenna booster work? The sticker booster?
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

VillaCastana321 said:
Would a Antenna booster work? The sticker booster?
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL - I wondered the same thing. I just got about 15 of them for $3. No change whatsoever.
I changed 2 things: re-joined both sides of the antenna, and changed from stock (with KJ6)(no x's) to bhundven's new kern and unnamed 2.3.6 and got some x's in the tunnel(with KH1). So now I have to separate one side of the antenna and try it again.(and again with the boosters in this configuration)

Related

I got my replacement Captivate and it seems the GPS is working

I recently screwed up my captivate fooling around with terminal. I managed to get it to boot to the AT&T screen so I kinda messed them over. My replacement unit seems to have a better gps chip. I know it has been refurbished because the inside stickers are not OEM. Apparently there is a quick hardware fix that is implemented to get the gps to function. I have a feeling its something to do with grounding and the fact that it uses the back cover for grounding is interesting. I think they might be replacing the copper fitting on the right side of the phone that contacts with the back cover when you open the phone. It seemed too new looking. I saw a post where someone said clean the contact patches on the battery cover and slightly pull out the right copper tab for more contact on the battery plate. I did this and tested my gps during a 100 mile trip. The gps worked pretty efficiently. It stayed locked on and it wasn't bouncing all over the place. I found my lock while moving which was impossible with my old cappy. I say its a grounding issue. I also noticed that my phone wasn't burning hot after an hour and a half of constant gps use but my old cappy would be really hot after 30 minutes. I may not be a phone expert but i learned a bad ground can cause intermittent flow in a circuit which causes that circuit to cut off after a short while. In the galaxy s phones I think it is a grounding issue that has been fixed. I advise people to make sure the contacts in your battery cover is clean(use alcohol to clean them). Pull up the right tab slightly so ensure contact with the metal battery cover(the left is rectactable and cant be pulled). I would make sure you use a rubber or plastic case on your cappy so interference with the gps or antenna will occur(the reason why plastic isn't a bad material to make a cell phone out of). My gps settings are basically AT&T's default. You will only get an accurate lock if you use the data network(cell towers) and of course use gps satelites in the location settings. Thats A-GPS at its finest. I just going to probably keep this captivate as a backup phone (unless someone just gives me the right amount of cash) because i just purchased an unlocked dell streak from dell for 400 bucks since they are having a sale on them. And now i know my gps works on my cappy.
I just got a replacement phone less than 6 hours ago and noticed a big improvement in GPS signal strength on the stock firmware. The inside stickers on mine are also different.
It quickly found multiple satellites with snrs in the 40's. The highest hit 47. I honestly didn't think it was possible to get that high unless you were floating in outer space. It started to lock on to multiple sats around the 30 second mark.
After loading up Darky's port 6.0.2 I tried again and in lbstestmode it found and locked onto 9 satellites in 8 seconds. It honestly blew my mind. Now this rom uses Da_G's GPS files. I still have a ton of real world testing to do but that initial result gave me a lot of hope.
Whats the build number of your replacement phone? Mines 1007 which is old build. You can find it below the serial number on the phone behind the battery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
nybmx said:
I just got a replacement phone less than 6 hours ago and noticed a big improvement in GPS signal strength on the stock firmware. The inside stickers on mine are also different.
It quickly found multiple satellites with snrs in the 40's. The highest hit 47. I honestly didn't think it was possible to get that high unless you were floating in outer space. It started to lock on to multiple sats around the 30 second mark.
After loading up Darky's port 6.0.2 I tried again and in lbstestmode it found and locked onto 9 satellites in 8 seconds. It honestly blew my mind. Now this rom uses Da_G's GPS files. I still have a ton of real world testing to do but that initial result gave me a lot of hope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am happy with it stock. Let me know how your test comes out on the GPS. I will definately watch this post.
att8525user said:
Whats the build number of your replacement phone? Mines 1007 which is old build. You can find it below the serial number on the phone behind the battery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1008 is my build. The newer ones are 1009 and 1010. I had the 1007 build myself at first.
gasolara2002 said:
1008 is my build. The newer ones are 1009 and 1010. I had the 1007 build myself at first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious, do you have the 3 button recovery problem that build 1008 is notorious for?
Also, give it a few days on the GPS. Most times a factory reset makes the GPS work good and then it goes to heck in a hand basket. YMMV
For those who are not able to get a replacement Captivate, you guys might want to follow this link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=876179
The last page has some theories on how to make it better it but have not been tested. Will be doing that shortly.
cappysw10 said:
Curious, do you have the 3 button recovery problem that build 1008 is notorious for?
Also, give it a few days on the GPS. Most times a factory reset makes the GPS work good and then it goes to heck in a hand basket. YMMV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will continue to use it. I have not tweaked anything on the phone just because i don't want to take any chances of may be wrecking my gps through software changes. I have tried it and I get in to recovery mode just fine. Mine is a refurb unit so i think the bugs are worked out.
Just exchanged my Cappy on Monday. My new build is 1012 and the last 4 digits of my IMEI is 6219. This is a very recent build. So far no random shutdowns (I returned my old one for this) and my gps is much improved over my old unit. So far I have had zero issues locking and no longer are my tracks all over both sides of the road. My previous was useless. Leaving it on stock for another week.
Hmmm, what version of the OS is it on the 1012? I guess its jh7 eclair.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
att8525user said:
Hmmm, what version of the OS is it on the 1012? I guess its jh7 eclair.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is still Eclair 2.1 update 1
JH7
2.6.29 [email protected]#2
1012 rev .4
att8525user said:
Whats the build number of your replacement phone? Mines 1007 which is old build. You can find it below the serial number on the phone behind the battery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Build 1008 (same as my original one). Button combos into recovery and dl mode work fine. My original 1008 phone did not have issues with button combos either.
I've only tested the GPS while driving once but it kept a lock, and rerouted me fine when I decided to take a different way then was suggested.
it looks like i might have to use the random shutdown complaint to get a replacement!!
The fix must've come after 1010 because that's what mine is and I need the LBSTestmode mod to make it even remotely usable.
Similar situation
My situation is the opposite though. When I originally got my Captivate back in August the GPS worked flawlessly. I even remember thinking how quick it got a fix compared to old phones and GPS units. After about a week I had to return the phone due to a sound issue. Now my GPS seems to take forever to get a fix, lags a lot and is not very accurate. Kind of like most users report. It seems like you are playing a slot machine when buying a Captivate. Pull the lever and you might get a great phone but the odds are way against you.

GPS Problem (well researched)

I have an inspire running coredroid v8.1 and I cannot get a gps lock at all, even if I let it sit outside for 10 minutes...
I have reflashed the rom several times, and even tried the newest versions of virtuosity and cm
I have followed the video to pull the phone apart and I'm positive the gold pins are making connection
I have tried angel death's patch
I have ran gps status and cleared and re-downloaded in a-gps settings, ran gps test, and ran faster fix
I have tried the trick where you pull the sim out and get a lock (I still get no lock even with no sim)
I've looked everywhere and tried to do all the research before posting a new thread, but I just can't find anything else and I don't know what my problem is...
any insight would be greatly appreciated
EDIT: Also thought I should include that I have flashed radios 12.41.60.19_26.06.04.14_M, 12.54.60.25_26.09.04.11_M2, and 12.62.60.27_26.13.04.19_M with none making a difference
Sorry to tell you but you might just have a bad thing piece of harware. I started a thread a little while ago called "GPS Last Resort". I tried everything... And I mean Everything! I was told that there were "known" hardware issues with the Inspire. So I un-rooted and returned to a "stock" state and went through the PITA process of getting a replacement.
Once I got my replacement, it was a night and day difference. My new one locks in less than 15 seconds with 5-4 meters accuracy.
Don't drive yourself crazy. If it is still under warranty, get it replaced.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
did your phone have any other signs of being defective or was it just the gps? I mean, the phone is great except for this! No boot loops, force closes, glitches, or anything...
Also, if it's just the antenna, could I buy an inspire with like a broke screen or something off ebay and just switch them out? Do you think that's a viable option?
Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this...
You may not even need to replace the antenna at all. When you pop off the cover for the LED camera flash (this is also your gps antenna) there are two little spring like clips that are the contacts for the antenna. If those contacts are not making a good connection - your phone will just keep searching for signal. If you are brave enough - you can pop out the antenna and carefully bend out those contact clips in order to make a better connection.
I was hesitant to do this myself - and sense the phone was still under warranty, I got a replacement.
Sorry again for the delay - hope that helps if you have not already found an answer.
dschreiber69 said:
Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this...
You may not even need to replace the antenna at all. When you pop off the cover for the LED camera flash (this is also your gps antenna) there are two little spring like clips that are the contacts for the antenna. If those contacts are not making a good connection - your phone will just keep searching for signal. If you are brave enough - you can pop out the antenna and carefully bend out those contact clips in order to make a better connection.
I was hesitant to do this myself - and sense the phone was still under warranty, I got a replacement.
Sorry again for the delay - hope that helps if you have not already found an answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea be careful with this. I decided I'd go ahead and pop off the camera cover to readjust my gps antennae contacts and ended up breaking the cover. ~2cm crack just under the flash, which raises up the cover enough that the contacts won't make contact at all unless I'm applying pressure that only Thor could exert on the cover.
side note - 2 weeks after I did this my screen shattered.
Haven't been having much luck lately..
homeslice976 said:
Yea be careful with this. I decided I'd go ahead and pop off the camera cover to readjust my gps antennae contacts and ended up breaking the cover. ~2cm crack just under the flash, which raises up the cover enough that the contacts won't make contact at all unless I'm applying pressure that only Thor could exert on the cover.
side note - 2 weeks after I did this my screen shattered.
Haven't been having much luck lately..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ouch!
That is pretty much why I decided to go for doing the warranty replacement
I did the warranty after trying to remove the gps antenna because it still didnt work after i did that. The sent it back working !!!

[Q] HELP! My Nexus S has no sound

It's just as the title states my nexus s sound isn't working! There isn't any sound at all. Ringtone/notification/media.
When i receive a phone call my phone vibrates but it doesn't ring and when i pick up the phone i can't hear the person i'm speaking to and they can't hear me either.
Had my phone since mid-october,and the first time i encountered this issue is when i put ICS on my phone at the end of december and its been an on and off thing since then but it would last for like 2-3 mins, and it used to be fixed by putting my phone on vibrate, lock it, unlock, turn the volume back up and it would work but that doesn't work anymore i even reverted back to GB and it didn't solve anything
so WHAT CAN I DO TO FIX THIS ? also, do you think it's a hardware or software issue ?
forgot to add whenever i try to use google voice search it crashes
If you plug in headphones, can you hear music? Were you using custom ROM or Stock? Have you tried installing a custom ROM with a complete wipe (factory reset)?
I'd put my money on software. Full wipe (data/factory reset, format /system, format /boot) and then flash your preferred ROM. See if it works after this.
Oogway13 said:
If you plug in headphones, can you hear music? Were you using custom ROM or Stock? Have you tried installing a custom ROM with a complete wipe (factory reset)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, even with headphones there isn't any sound and it first occurred on a custom ICS rom and yesterday I flashed 2 more custom roms with a complete wipe still no progress
Harbb said:
I'd put my money on software. Full wipe (data/factory reset, format /system, format /boot) and then flash your preferred ROM. See if it works after this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just did that and unfortunately it still didn't fix the problem
skillz398 said:
just did that and unfortunately it still didn't fix the problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not good
You may be the very unlucky owner of a dead Wolfson chip in the phone. Is the phone still under 1 year old? Might be time to give samsung a ring and hope for the best. If you do decide to take it in, remember to flash a stock ROM and lock the bootloader.
Maybe someone else on the forum has an idea to help you though, but so far i'm afraid chances look slim. You could possibly try heating behind the battery a little with a hairdryer (not too much) and see if it would work afterward, it could just be a dry solder joint on the audio chip, but you'd still want it fixed.
Harbb said:
That's not good
You may be the very unlucky owner of a dead Wolfson chip in the phone. Is the phone still under 1 year old? Might be time to give samsung a ring and hope for the best. If you do decide to take it in, remember to flash a stock ROM and lock the bootloader.
Maybe someone else on the forum has an idea to help you though, but so far i'm afraid chances look slim. You could possibly try heating behind the battery a little with a hairdryer (not too much) and see if it would work afterward, it could just be a dry solder joint on the audio chip, but you'd still want it fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*sigh* I feared that its a hardware issue and as far as warranty goes I bought it in 11/2011 and it was bought used so how much would it cost to get that fixed ? Also I restored my phone on a custom 2.3.6 from then rebooted my phone and the sound was working, then after a hour of inactivity, then I rebooted my phone and it started working and got greedy and flashed another rom then the sound was cut off again so should I have hope and try your method of drying ?
I have the same problem. Samsung Infuse 4g. I'm back to stock. Tried everything including GTG and Heimdall. (sigh) Sux. I hope u get urs working again, as I do mine. Saw another post where somebody dropped theirs and it starting working again. Better start praying... Good luck to u!
^^^^^^ i'm about to drop mine for an experiment lol
Hard to say how much. Might be easier to replace the whole board or just one chip, or just because it's too much trouble to find the problem. Also depends on shipping as you'd have to pay to send it to samsung, unless they have some kind of repair centre nearby where you can drop it off - and you'd likely be left without your phone for a couple weeks.
I'd be ringing samsung and asking all of this first. Afterward you may be able to get some quotes from a phone repairer if they can find the problem. These days it's often "throw it away and get a new one", and i'm afraid it's largely the same with phones despite what would be only minor problems/fixes.
OK, y'all. I've got news and info on this issue. First, i have the Samsung Infuse 4g. After trying everything possible short of throwing it into the river, I figured it was def hardware related. I, of course prayed & am convinced that is the real reason it started working, bit jic here is what I did. I checked online just to see (I'm not an idiot, I wasn't going to take it apart. Well, probably not). But I was still all for slapping and twisting and flicking the heck out of it. Then, I decided to look at the other side of it. So I removed the battery and there is a tiny little slit-like hole there. I got out a safety pin and just kinda wiggled of a bit mostly toward the inside of phone. Lo and behold sound was working when I turned it back on. I can't believe it! I'm so happy!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA
OK, y'all. I've got news and info on this issue. First, i have the Samsung Infuse 4g. After trying everything possible short of throwing it into the river, I figured it was def hardware related. I, of course prayed & am convinced that is the real reason it started working, bit jic here is what I did. I checked online just to see (I'm not an idiot, I wasn't going to take it apart. Well, probably not). But I was still all for slapping and twisting and flicking the heck out of it. Then, I decided to look at the other side of it. So I removed the battery and there is a tiny little slit-like hole there. I got out a safety pin and just kinda wiggled of a bit mostly toward the inside of phone. Lo and behold sound was working when I turned it back on. I can't believe it! I'm so happy!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear that
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Microphone issues with MT4GS

I've had this Mytouch 4g slide for about 9 months now. It has been good so far, except for the fact that no matter what ROM I'm running on it, and no matter what the T-mobile signal quality on it is, I get poor microphone performance.
What I mean by that is that every few seconds, the microphone becomes completely muffled, and then restores clarity a few seconds later....
Is this something on my side with settings, t-mobiles side, or a faulty phone? It seems odd that the mic would work 100% for a minute, and then die for a few seconds later.
Perhaps I need to update a Kernal or something? I'm running what seems to be 2.6.35.14-cyanogenmod [email protected] #10
The Rom itself is Virtuous Inquisition v4.0.2, but I've tried CM and other ones as well.
Baseband is 10.48.9007.00U_10.12.9007.07_2M
Thanks for any help y'all can provide!
If it goes ROM to ROM and is constant from the same device my bet is hardware.
I had nearly the same thing happen with a GS4G I got on warranty replacement for my original MT4G.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement
I actually just had this start happening to my phone. I've had it for just about a year now and had 0 problems with the mic. I was swapping some roms around 2 days ago. I made some phone calls and people kept asking if they were on speaker phone. I decided it may be the new ROM I was testing so I restored my backup and called them back. They said it sounded better but still not right. In fact one thought they were on speaker phone immediately before I could ask.
I use an Aegis case and have only dropped the phone a few times. If it's a hardware issue I'd say it failed on its own. Although since it traveled with the ROM change I can only conclude that it is indeed hardware.
xzuhto said:
I actually just had this start happening to my phone. I've had it for just about a year now and had 0 problems with the mic. I was swapping some roms around 2 days ago. I made some phone calls and people kept asking if they were on speaker phone. I decided it may be the new ROM I was testing so I restored my backup and called them back. They said it sounded better but still not right. In fact one thought they were on speaker phone immediately before I could ask.
I use an Aegis case and have only dropped the phone a few times. If it's a hardware issue I'd say it failed on its own. Although since it traveled with the ROM change I can only conclude that it is indeed hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
prob you have dust clogged the mic (happens freq where i work) try carefully cleaning it out
crimedave1987 said:
prob you have dust clogged the mic (happens freq where i work) try carefully cleaning it out
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Click to collapse
Any suggestions on how to do this? I'm worried something like compressed air would push dirt farther in. If I use something to actually push in the hole I'm concerned I'd cause damage to the Mic.

Possible to flash radio / rom / anything with broken USB?

After I got my skyrocket, many of my friends and family also decided on the skyrocket Well, now it's up to me to make sure they're all in working order.
So one of my family members left her skyrocket in a bag of water for a while while she was at the beach, and it was completely unresponsive. I fully disassembled it (not my first time), dried out the majority of the water, then left the phone in rice for a few days. The good news is, the phone boots up and seems to work. The battery still works and it charges over USB.
The bad news is, the cellular radio does not work, IMEI comes up as unknown, bluetooth mac is "unavailable", front facing camera is also unresponsive. Really bad news: data/adb over usb does not register at all. A few more days in rice haven't helped.
The phone is completely stock. My first thought was that flashing a new radio might reset the cellular somehow, but not having cwm/odin makes that impossible. I can't seem to get the phone into download mode either because of the USB problem.
One thing that DOES work is the stock recovery. I can tell it to flash the official ATT ICS build, which contains a radio!
However when I try flashing it says.. "E: Short write of /tmp/sideload/package.zip (No space left on device) Installation aborted". Other zips "failed to verify whole-file signature"
Any ideas? My next step will be buying a used skyrocket with a cracked screen, and transplanting the working screen from this unit...
Tom
First off, please use the Q&A section for, you know, questions and answers. Don't create a new thread; I'm going to ask the mods to move this one instead.
Second, your issue is that the hardware radio is dead. The stock ROM only has a software radio included. To put it a different way, the stock ROM includes programming that tells the cell radio what to do. It can't fix the cell radio if it's broken, though. Unfortunately, based on the amount of damage you've got there, I'd say your phone is pretty much toast.
If you're completely stock, try to warranty it out. Just be up front with Sammy about what happened (because, in this instance, they will figure it out if you make up a story or play dumb), and the worst thing they can say is no. You might get a sympathetic rep who'll help you out. If they won't take it, you've already got your backup plan in the working SR.
T.J. Bender said:
First off, please use the Q&A section for, you know, questions and answers. Don't create a new thread; I'm going to ask the mods to move this one instead.
Second, your issue is that the hardware radio is dead. The stock ROM only has a software radio included. To put it a different way, the stock ROM includes programming that tells the cell radio what to do. It can't fix the cell radio if it's broken, though. Unfortunately, based on the amount of damage you've got there, I'd say your phone is pretty much toast.
If you're completely stock, try to warranty it out. Just be up front with Sammy about what happened (because, in this instance, they will figure it out if you make up a story or play dumb), and the worst thing they can say is no. You might get a sympathetic rep who'll help you out. If they won't take it, you've already got your backup plan in the working SR.
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Meant to post this in Q&A, woops. Too many xda tabs open trying to figure this out. Sorry about that
I do know the difference between the hardware/software radios... My thought was that while the phone was turned on and submerged, the software radio could have become corrupt... A long shot perhaps
I'll try contacting samsung, but somehow I doubt they'll cover it. Sidenote, do you really think they have a more sophisticated way to check for water damage than the internal water-damage indicator sticker?
The question still stands though, if anyone is interested. Even without a cell radio, I'd like to be able to root it for other purposes
Thanks for the advice
Tom
dutchthomas said:
Meant to post this in Q&A, woops. Too many xda tabs open trying to figure this out. Sorry about that
I do know the difference between the hardware/software radios... My thought was that while the phone was turned on and submerged, the software radio could have become corrupt... A long shot perhaps
I'll try contacting samsung, but somehow I doubt they'll cover it. Sidenote, do you really think they have a more sophisticated way to check for water damage than the internal water-damage indicator sticker?
The question still stands though, if anyone is interested. Even without a cell radio, I'd like to be able to root it for other purposes
Thanks for the advice
Tom
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Yeah, based on the amount of things going wrong, it's hardware. If the software radio was corrupt, it would be because the internal storage had been corrupted, and your phone likely would not boot.
And yes, they can find water damage beyond the sticker. They can see corrosion plain as day when they open it up and look at the internals.
You can root it without USB working. Is your wifi working? If so, download GooManager off the market, then follow the instructions in the TWRP thread to get TWRP on your phone. Download a custom ROM to your PC, then transfer it to your external SD using an adapter/card reader so you can place it on the card directly (instead of going through the USB port). Use TWRP to flash the pre-rooted ROM onto your phone and viola. Unless there's a pre-rooted stock out there (and I don't think there is for SR), a custom ROM is the only way I can think of to do it.
Be advised, though, that because of the amount of damage done to your phone's internals, there's a better-than-normal chance that something won't work and you'll brick. I'm not responsible for your decisions or for the brick if that happens.
Long story short, just get a replacement SR.
Same thing happened to my girls Atrix. She gave it a nice bath in Green Tea. After shutting it down and pulling it apart I gave it the rice treatment for 48 hours. Booted but returned a radio error. Her USB port was working so I was able to root it and install a few custom ROMs on it. No change. So I would bet you actually fried the chip. Call Sammi and get a quote to cover the repair which will be a new mobo. They pay shipping both ways and are usually pretty cheap.
hechoen said:
Same thing happened to my girls Atrix. She gave it a nice bath in Green Tea. After shutting it down and pulling it apart I gave it the rice treatment for 48 hours. Booted but returned a radio error. Her USB port was working so I was able to root it and install a few custom ROMs on it. No change. So I would bet you actually fried the chip. Call Sammi and get a quote to cover the repair which will be a new mobo. They pay shipping both ways and are usually pretty cheap.
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Heh, this is my mother's phone actually. First she ripped the screen ribbon cable on a nokia E75. Then she smashed her Atrix's screen, tried to fix it herself with a new screen, and managed to rip part of a ribbon cable... so it no longer has a working touch digitizer. Now she left her skyrocket in a bag of water. The girlfriend managed to crack her skyrocket's screen, which I replaced... I've also had to fix 2x nokia N95's, an N97, and a bunch of water damaged dumb phones over the years...
FWIW, the skyrocket seems to have the best repairability / internal layout of any of the phones I've messed with
The cracked screen skyrockets on ebay seem to be going for more than I thought, so I'll be giving sammy a call for sure

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