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Hi,
yesterday my brand new Photon Q arrived, which - after doing the SIM mod - hopefully will replace my Sony Xperia Pro.
While playing around with the Photon there was some thing that disappointed me a lot:
The sensitivity of WLAN is very poor. I own 6 android devices with WLAN, and the Photon has the poorest WLAN sensitivity of all.
Using it about 10 m away from my router, through a thin wall of bricks, it tells me connection rates of about 2 MBit only (varies from 1 - 5 MBit).
My Xperia Pro shows - at the same place - connection rates from 60 to 65 MBit!
What are your expierences with WLAN on your Photon Q devices - compared to other devices you own?
Thank you.
P.S.: 2 m away from the router the speed is 60-65 MBit too, so maybe I have an issue with the antenna of the photon Q?
Hi.
Although this is pretty old, I feel like answering to it, since there never has been any answer.
What was it, that caused your poor WLAN? I guess, the guys who do the SIM mod, when they cut the small gap the inner cover where you insert the SIM later, they sometimes damage the antenna in that spot, which may be the WLAN antenna. What do you think?
I have a SIM-modded PQ, but no problems with wi-fi.When I disaśembled PQ I haven't seen anything antenna-like (wires, fractal mazes) on the motherboard...
The back piece of the phone that holds the speaker and camera flash also contains the antennas. On the bottom there is a piece of black tape that I'm pretty sure covers one. Maybe this piece was damaged where an antenna is located?
bmccrary said:
The back piece of the phone that holds the speaker and camera flash also contains the antennas. On the bottom there is a piece of black tape that I'm pretty sure covers one. Maybe this piece was damaged where an antenna is located?
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Click to collapse
That's correct. It holds all sorts of antennas, and on the back of the battery there must be the NFC antenna, right?
The seller, who modded the phone now told me, that at the bottm, where he made the SIM slot, there is the GSM antenna, not the WLAN one. So, today I'll get to open it and have a look, what else looks disordered. Maybe some plug on the mainboard or some of the antenna contact is bad. And just in case - I have one more cover from another PQ.
But if all this doesn't help - I'm grateful for more ideas
Yes, on the back of battery that's NFC antenna. Dismounting PQ is quite easy, but you have to have a T5 torx screwdriver.
I know how to unscrew the cover and even the mainboard of the PQ and I have precise tools.
Having done so and having replaced the cover with the slightly damaged antenna by another one where everything is intact - I experience the same weak WLAN It says 1 MBit/s in 2m distance or up to 20 MBit/s, when I am 10cm next to the access point. What else can be wrong or damaged?
If the cover is ok, maybe connectors to PCB are dirty/damaged (but you've probably already checked it). And how about another router? Maybe the one you're using is damaged or "doesn't like" PQ?
Thanks for the ideas, but from what I can see, they look good and clean and bent the right way to make safe contact And yes I tries other access points. I tried with my Droid4 providing a hotspot, my tablet, at my family's house, my girlfriend's, at work, at home... It's the same everywhere: very close or up to 3 meters, no obstacles, I have signal, but 1 or 6 MBit/s only, Further away or a door in between it's gone.
Can Android (CM 12.1 / 5.1.1) cause this, or must there be a hardware issue? How likely is it that these kind of problems are caused by a broken WLAN chip rather than an antenna problem?
I bought it in this condition from a guy who modded it (SIM mod)
Shaker1978 said:
Thanks for the ideas, but from what I can see, they look good and clean and bent the right way to make safe contact And yes I tries other access points. I tried with my Droid4 providing a hotspot, my tablet, at my family's house, my girlfriend's, at work, at home... It's the same everywhere: very close or up to 3 meters, no obstacles, I have signal, but 1 or 6 MBit/s only, Further away or a door in between it's gone.
Can Android (CM 12.1 / 5.1.1) cause this, or must there be a hardware issue? How likely is it that these kind of problems are caused by a broken WLAN chip rather than an antenna problem?
I bought it in this condition from a guy who modded it (SIM mod)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash stock if you'd like to rule out issues with CM - although I doubt it, definitely sounds like a hardware issue.
I returned the phone to the seller, it was definitely something wrong with the hardware. I ordered a fully working board from another seller, since I still had a damaged Photon Q anyway, SIM modded it myselt and got everything working now, incl. GSM and WLAN. Thanks here.
Hello,
Firstly I'm looking for a comment from an expert who has taken Nexus5s apart before. Also I'm beyond the point of returning the phone as this fault developed after replacing a screen and ribbon cable (after I smashed my phone badly). Any help or advice would be great.
So since screen and USB flex replacement on my D821 i notice that my phone signal will connect with full bars, then drop completely, I can also only get 2g where i was able to get higher. The same sim works fine in my nokia. The Wifi Signal is fine and gps works ok but the 'no service' thing makes my phone unusable. I have tried making sure all contacts are clean and even replaced the loudspeaker unit and the black antenna cable but to no avail.
Can someone put up a picture of exactly the components that are involved in the phone signal / 3g setup? Is it possible something could have been damaged on the mainboard to cause this? I can search for networks, connect (sometimes) then it will just cut out.
I tried google for days but cant find a schematic. Basically im trying to determine if there are any other parts i should try exchanging before giving up. It makes no difference how i hold (or dont hold) the phone.
Thanks
Hello guys and girls,
after experiencing some GPS problems (loss of signal on the road and/or late fix) I did the fix found on youtube (Where you place a bit of paper/tape under the GPS antenna contacts). It worked just fine, my GPS fix is now happening faster and I did not lose the signal ever since. But I am now facing some (weird?) problem: My GSM connection (GRPS, EDGE) is really really bad. In my room I don't get any signal at all, outside I get like 1 out of 4 bars of signal strength, but I lose it after a few seconds. I normally have 4 out of 4 bars in my room. BUT: My 3G connection works fine, 3G, LTE, same connectivity as before.
My friends phone (same carrier) does get the full GRPS/EDGE connection in my room, so it's not the carrier having problems. I didn't do any updates or anything in the last weeks. It would be a huge coincidence, if a software bug happened while I fixed the GPS problem, so I assume it's a hardware related thing?
How might I fix that, what possible solutions are there?
Tried the following so far:
Restarting multiple times, with our without airplane mode
Re-inserting the sim-car
Switching between LTE only, GSM/LTE, GSM only
Flashing new/other modem
Replacing the speaker/antenna-module
-> nothing changed
out of sheer curiousity, and after reading your post, im stuck wondering.. why do you want or need your gprs and edge connection when your 3G/LTE is fine? data speeds are very slow, and drain lots of battery using anything internet or download related..
Yeah, sure, 3G/LTE is better and coverage is really good where I live, that's why it's not an emergency for me, but it's very important to get it back to work properly.
I know at least 2 situations where I really need GSM (GPRS,EDGE):
1) At work (huge metal building, no 3G/LTE, only GSM) -> I can't call, text or do anything with my phone (don't worry, I am allowed to do so and no, there is no WiFi)
2) On the road, especially the german autobahn has large areas where there is no 3G/LTE coverage, so I can't use my navigation-software properly and can't respond to calls or whatsoever
So all in all: GSM in really important for me. Please help me. :crying:
ahh.. I see.
and your GPRS/edge was fine before the GPS "fix"? maybe something got loosened?
Before I did the fix it worked perfectly fine. Directly after I did it, the gsm was gone so I figured that I somehow damaged the antenna. But since I replaced it and nothing changed I am not sure what to do now. Are there other antennas, are there other modules that influence gsm, that I might have damaged or loosened?
That's what can happen when you tinker with guts of your phone. You risk damaging or messing it up. Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a jerk.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Yes, dave2metz, I know. I was fully aware of that when I opened my phone for the first time to fix the GPS thing. But I am not here for moral advice.
Any ideas how I could fix my problem are highly appreciated!
Edit:
Just checked: The sim-card is not the cause of the problem either. I would really appreciate some good ideas guys..
No idea what I might try?
My best guess is that this is a hardware related problem. But how does one fix it? I replaced the antenna (the bottom thing), nothing changed. So that specific antenna was not the cause of the problem.
Are there other antennas?
Are there antenna-connections that I could check?
Any other hardware things that I might check?
Anything that might have lost the physcical contact inside the phone because of that GPS fix?
Could it, against all odds, be a software problem?
Please, I am really in need of a working phone. If I can't fix it I need to replace it sooner or later because GSM is essential.
If anyone can provide me with an idea or something that leads me to a fix, I will reward you (amazon gift-card or whatsoever).
Cheers,
.yasu
Did you figure it out?
.yasu said:
No idea what I might try?
My best guess is that this is a hardware related problem. But how does one fix it? I replaced the antenna (the bottom thing), nothing changed. So that specific antenna was not the cause of the problem.
Are there other antennas?
Are there antenna-connections that I could check?
Any other hardware things that I might check?
Anything that might have lost the physcical contact inside the phone because of that GPS fix?
Could it, against all odds, be a software problem?
Please, I am really in need of a working phone. If I can't fix it I need to replace it sooner or later because GSM is essential.
If anyone can provide me with an idea or something that leads me to a fix, I will reward you (amazon gift-card or whatsoever).
Cheers,
.yasu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you end up figuring anything out for this? I have something along the same lines. I dropped my phone and smashed the screen. I was able to get a guy to replace the screen portion of the unit, but immediately after I got it back it had no cell reception. Rebooted came, back thought everything was cool.
After a couple weeks I notice my phone has lost reception occasionally. It's now gotten worse, I used to be able to reboot it about 5 or 6 times and then it would randomly come back. I've even had it come back without performing a reboot on its own.
I ended up taking the whole thing apart, reseating everything after having a day and half span where I have been unable to get it back and boom reception came back. Thought it was his repair job at that point, but it has since dropped the signal again and I can't get it back. Yesterday even I was showing LTE signal changing from low to strong etc, but my network was still down as I couldn't perform a search, maps, or anything.
I have my phone apart again. I've checked all the connections over and over and wondering what else to look for or try to replace. True my impact could have damaged a component on the mainboard, but my phone works fine in all other areas. I could replace the antenna wires and the antenna/speaker module, but I'm not sure it just a reception problem.
My phone also boots into airplane mode when it has no signal, but turning it off does not restore the connection or anything. Rebooting it puts it back into airplane mode. *#*#4636#*# shows my radio is off. Thinking it's a short or something somewhere, but I doubt I'll be able to fix it in that case - at least without a mainboard?
That's my other question, what part need to be replaced for experiencing no network and its not the antenna or antenna wires? Is the mainboard? Sister board? Currently researching teardown as this phone is modular and I'm sure I could source the part off ebay or something.
Hi,
There's one antenna for 2G/3G/4G so I think if this problem was caused by hardware, it would affect overall connection to mobile network.
I think that this might me software-related problem but actually can't figure out which. Only thing I'm currently thinking of it that your phone has problems with connecting to certain GSM band. For example in Europe are 900 MHz and 1800 MHz standard for GSM.
Lower frequencies bring you better coverage. Your phone might have trouble with connecting to them and automatically selects 1800 MHz layer.
If you are able to get another phone with SIM of the same network provider, I recommend you to download any networking app and compare data about cells. Mainly CID number. It's unique identifier of each cell in an area.
If both phones are connected to same cell (CIDs are equal), you have to compare RSSI values. Lower means better signal. RSSI is defined as a negative number in an interval of <-51; -113>. So -75 dBm is better than -89 dBm. In one place should be difference about +/- 5 dBm.
Reaching slightly different RSSI numbers while connected to same cell in same place might mean that your phone really have problems with radio.
hey mate,
My wife phon is having the same issue 4G works, 3G sort of works, 2G nothing.
[Did the GPS fix on my wife's Nexus 5 (and mine) also]
swapped sim, used another telco same issue.
when into service menu did *#*#4635#*#* , click the 3 dots, select radio band - only see USA band.
While my phone had automatic, usa bad , usa band, japan band.
she is running stock rom with unlocked boot loader, I am on CM11 but doubt that should make any difference.
if I work out what is going on will report back.
nexus 5 3g 4g damaged
hello guys?.. my htc nexus 5 got wet and i notice the signal strength got lost. when i open it up i notice the lines on the antenna got damage. how do i repair it? or should i replace it with new one? Pls help !!
Is issue still remaining?
Hi. I am having the same problem. Could anyone find a fix for this?
My GPS was and is fine. I didn't do the gps fix, but I have replaced my battery and I think it happened after the replace...
At some point in time - I can't tell exactly when - after replacing the earpiece speaker of my N5 and updating to the latest Lineage OS version 3G connectivity stopped working.
4G works fine, but if there's no 4G reception or the phone is forced into 3G mode using the settings it drops down all the way to 2G, although other phones on the same network have flawless 3G reception.
I have reflashed the radio and both the newest and oldest factory images available from Google and also tried cleaning the contact surfaces of the antennas in the back cover and I've also bent up the contact springs a little to ensure more contact pressure, but nothing has helped.
Since 4G coverage is far from 100% in my area this effectively limits the phone to 2G most of the time which makes it pretty useless.
Does anyone have an idea what could cause this problem?
Thanks
Open the smartphone again, check connection on both ends of black and grey antenna cable.
daedric said:
Open the smartphone again, check connection on both ends of black and grey antenna cable.
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Click to collapse
The black cable's connector on the upper, larger board was loose - most likely due to it being so close to the edge of the phone and me not paying attention when prying the back cover open.
I reconnected it and now 3G works again :victory:
Thank you
My original OnePlus One worked great in my area, my Moto E also get's signal all the time so this is not a network coverage issue. I have an OPO that will let me make calls perfectly with great clarity, and then a moment later will say it does cannot find a signal. If left on it will mostly have no signal but after a few power cycles boom there you go, full signal! I would think it was an antenna issue except when it does work I have full signal, not a weak signal like on my old S3 with antenna issues.
I am hoping this is just a modem issue that can be fixed by flashing the latest stock rom/modem but I am hoping I can get some input on the problem.
Thanks for your time!
earmuffs said:
My original OnePlus One worked great in my area, my Moto E also get's signal all the time so this is not a network coverage issue. I have an OPO that will let me make calls perfectly with great clarity, and then a moment later will say it does cannot find a signal. If left on it will mostly have no signal but after a few power cycles boom there you go, full signal! I would think it was an antenna issue except when it does work I have full signal, not a weak signal like on my old S3 with antenna issues.
I am hoping this is just a modem issue that can be fixed by flashing the latest stock rom/modem but I am hoping I can get some input on the problem.
Thanks for your time!
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Click to collapse
have you dropped the device? it could be hardware.....too. Have you tried different modems or not? If not that would be a start. (https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/firmware-modem-oneplus-one-t3462214). If the modems dont help then here what i would check...only if you confident.
Open the OPO and make sure the screws have not come lose as sometimes that can cause issues with signal.
Recently i has something similar but no as bad as you, i ended up replacing the, Speaker Antenna module, microphone flex. you could also replace the coax- i was suppose to be but the one i got sent was too long so i had to stick with the original one.
This is what they ebay guy sent me before i replaced the parts:
first thing to replace is the Coaxial cable (which carry's signal), check both coaxial sockets and the ports on the board it connects to
-Second (like you said) Mic Flex, although it is a tough call between the lower speaker unit and the mic flex as they are equally as likley to be at fault)
the speaker unit contains the GSM Antenna, the Mic flex simply takes the Signal to the main board from the speaker Module.
both would be Ideal unless you have time. speaker unit is relatively cheap.
finally check for any lose connections or wear to any of the Gold inside the phone where it makes a connection, using some wet and dry sandpaper rub the Gold plates Very very lightly to reveal a shinny Gold, some on the mic flex, some on the speaker unit, some on the other flex's,
and finally tighten all screws properly, often the screws can work their way out, pulling the connections away from each other.
I would suggest check the connection and wear to the gold as mentioned if u dont want to replace the parts. I found that the coax on mine has been disconnected on one end so i fixed this but it didnt help hence i ended up replacing the parts.
Service was spotty for me too.. I would have LTE and then the next second EDGE or no service at all. I eventually had to fastboot flash CyanogenOS 13 (latest stock for our device) and start over but it fixed my problem. I have not had a problem since.