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The walls in our house are either too thick or my wireless hub is too thin, so I have to have two of them. The trouble is, I tell WM6 to connect and it connects to the last one I chose even if the signal strength is very poor and the other hub signal strength is very strong. I can change manually, but that is a pain. Generally, I struggle with poor connections for ages until I realise why. Is there any way to make WM6 automatically switch to a network (one which is already authorised) if the signal strength is much better than the existing one? It seems to do it automatically if the last network is unreachable, but not otherwise.
alexmay said:
The walls in our house are either too thick or my wireless hub is too thin, so I have to have two of them. The trouble is, I tell WM6 to connect and it connects to the last one I chose even if the signal strength is very poor and the other hub signal strength is very strong. I can change manually, but that is a pain. Generally, I struggle with poor connections for ages until I realise why. Is there any way to make WM6 automatically switch to a network (one which is already authorised) if the signal strength is much better than the existing one? It seems to do it automatically if the last network is unreachable, but not otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm trying best wifi apps from google play right now. it's quite good
What is WM6, please?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 11:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 AM ----------
Hi,
In this message, "NETWORK = WIFI", not cell.
Before responding, you may want to go and look at a program called "NetSetMan" for the PC (Windows), to reference what I mean here.
NetSetMan runs all the time and auto-switches to an available network. It has 6 tabs that you can customize (it is not limited to 6 networks though).
Tab 1 = Home Network. You set up your own network here. Mine's Static, so it's handy.
Tab 2 = Generic, Free, Open DHCP networks.
Tabs 3-6 = Any networks that you visit however often, that are passworded, DHCP or Static.
You can set these tabs up for anything you want. That's how I use them on my laptop. You can even set up the printers on the various networks if you want. It's a really cool app!
The point here though is, that I want an auto-connect app that will just do it (hence, "auto") and I do't have to worry about it. I can either preconfigure, or configure at the time, but either way, "remember" networks and have the ability to auto-connect to any standard, open network. But I don't want it to ever switch to another network, while I am connected to one of my "remembered" closed (passworded) networks. People seem to complain a lot about apps switching to a weaker network or something and in my opinion, an app like this should never switch when you're on a preset network, unless it goes down and another "remembered", or open network is available.
Does anyone know of a decent auto-switching network app out there? Even if it doesn't work exactly as I described. I can start writing to the developer and see if he/she/they will do something to make it better. Most are pretty good about it.
Thanks,
--
Zeuszoos
ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T 10.1" Tab. 64GB, WiFi
nVidia Tegra3 Quad Core CPU/12 Core GPU, ICS 4.0.3, Rooted
i guest the best wifi apps didn't have the more advanced option like the way you want it.
it just switching back and forth based on the saved wifi networks which has the best wifi signal out there.
the minimum default signal is set to 4 out of 10, then if one of your saved wifi networks has signal above the current using,
it will switch to the one with the highest signal.
I use WEFI Connect from the Play Store. I believe it does what you're looking for.
Unknown apps.
alexmay said:
The walls in our house are either too thick or my wireless hub is too thin, so I have to have two of them. The trouble is, I tell WM6 to connect and it connects to the last one I chose even if the signal strength is very poor and the other hub signal strength is very strong. I can change manually, but that is a pain. Generally, I struggle with poor connections for ages until I realise why. Is there any way to make WM6 automatically switch to a network (one which is already authorised) if the signal strength is much better than the existing one? It seems to do it automatically if the last network is unreachable, but not otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been looking for the same type of app without success. finally just put a wi-fi signal booster on router.
AlanVG said:
I use WEFI Connect from the Play Store. I believe it does what you're looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that one. I must have missed something in it. Is there a setting that you noticed?
Btw, I asked a question out of curiousity, but even though people are talking about it, no one seems to know what "WM6" is. I just noticed it's in the context of network connection apps. Do you know what it is by chance???
Zeuszoos said:
I tried that one. I must have missed something in it. Is there a setting that you noticed?
Btw, I asked a question out of curiousity, but even though people are talking about it, no one seems to know what "WM6" is. I just noticed it's in the context of network connection apps. Do you know what it is by chance???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you noticed this thread has 3 years? WM6 means Windows Mobile 6, btw.
Sent from my LT26i with Tapatalk 2
Hello everyone, first off introductions out of the way.
Former iPhone 2g, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Droid 1, Nexus one, iPhone 4, Atrix 4G owner.
Now i've got the G2x.
Let me first get the scenario out of the way before I go on my Epic rant, in case those of you don't want to read my rant.
Went to bed last night, with Wifi TURNED ON, plugged into the charger.
Woke up this morning woke up the phone, looked at the top and the wifi icon was missing and 4G icon was missing just bars and that's it.
I turned off Wifi with the Widget, then turned it back on and all of a sudden a bunch of stuff POPPED as the Wifi icon came back.
I had 2 missed phone calls, 3 text messages and tons of Emails both IMAP and Gmail waiting for me.
So wait a second..I didn't even have a data connection???
Actually you know what.. as i've been writing this, i don't even feel like going on a rant.. it's just not worth wasting my breath.
So tell me people, what type of Epic fix and tweaks Do i have to make to my phone in order to be able to fix this BASIC function not working properly.
What is this i'm hearing about a Wifi sleep policy? and Why can't I have a data connection if things go "sour" with the software not working properly.?
Go to settings, wireless and network settings> wifi settings, hit menu> advanced> turn wifi sleep policy to never. It seems u may have the policy so wifi disables when the screen is off. Also make sure u have mobile data enabled
My phone still does odd things now and then.
But my wife's has data issues. We will be replacing hers.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
xdmds said:
Go to settings, wireless and network settings> wifi settings, hit menu> advanced> turn wifi sleep policy to never. It seems u may have the policy so wifi disables when the screen is off. Also make sure u have mobile data enabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you make it so "Mobile Data" is enabled? where is that setting at.
Go to settings > wireless and network settings > mobile networks > check the data enabled box.
It's already checked for me.
That still doesn't explain why the data is turning off when my Wifi goes haywire.
does this have something to do with the Wifi calling app? I have that Disabled as well, but that still doesn't mean there's a bug out there somewhere that's still disabling my data.
A rant over this seems like overkill if this is the only example of this for you. Sometimes stuff like this happens and the data connection may drop out. Has it happened again? If have not had any connection issues at all on my G2x so it is not a phone problem. Could be any number of setting or network issues, or just a one time glitch.
xdmds said:
Go to settings, wireless and network settings> wifi settings, hit menu> advanced> turn wifi sleep policy to never. It seems u may have the policy so wifi disables when the screen is off. Also make sure u have mobile data enabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I had no idea that such a setting existed... I get almost no signal in my apartment, and am heavily dependent on Wi-Fi, so I was losing all data every night until I changed this.
The OP is right - if the phone can't do the basics it's pretty much useless no matter how fast the processor is. In his situation, when Wi-Fi dropped, the phone should have failed over to 2/3/4G. To have a slew of calls, e-mails, and texts not make it through means the phone was off the network entirely.
We're all big boys and girls and know that no electronic device is perfect. The G2X is just plain erratic. The problems are intermittent, not consistently repeatable, and can screw up using the phone for basic communication in the process.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are a mess - especially the way they interact with the 2/3/4G and the different apps loaded and pre-loaded on the phone.
Here's my list of issues:
1) Wi-Fi loses signal even though the task bar indicator shows full strength.
2) Apps turn on 2/3/4G even when Wi-Fi is enabled.
3) Wi-Fi Calling enables itself randomly shutting down all other data. If item 1 occurs the outcome is what happened to the OP - the phone's off the network.
4) The task indicator's always showing 4G whether it's connected at 4G or not and the signal strength shown isn't accurate - sometimes it's optimistic sometimes it's pessimistic.
5) The Bluetooth profile appears and disappears randomly and doesn't show at all if Bluetooth is turned off.
6) Wi-Fi won't connect to anything less than a strong signal but will hold the connection if it weakens. If you try to connect to a weak signal it disables the profile of the device it's trying to connect to.
If you look at the post count of the people that are having connectivity issues they're fairly senior members and have owned a lot of high-end phones. I've played around with two demo units at two different T-Mobile stores and most of what I've detailed above is repeatable. If you aren't a heavy Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or outside connectivity user and/or don't depend on your phone's reliability for business some or all of this may not matter to you or you may not experience it. But, choose to accept it or not, this phone (and not my particular unit) has some serious stability problems.
I like the phone and I'm sure that because of the severity and quantity of the problems that there will be an update soon. That's the reason I'm keeping it. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that T-Mobile needed something newsworthy to show they're still viable as a stand-alone entity after the AT&T acquisition was announced. They rushed this phone to market to generate buzz and it shows.
I've had no issues with this device but my post count is pretty low
jlevy73 said:
I've had no issues with this device but my post count is pretty low
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Your radio must have failed completely since voice calls and SMS don't require a data connection to Tx or Rx. I seem to have no problem connecting to weak WiFi signals. I never leave WiFi enabled unless I'm browsing or downloading so I can't speak on the long-term effects of staying connected to an AP for any length of time.
These seem like software issues to me so I wouldn't worry about it too much. There will be an official update soon and probably a good amount of roms to come. For now, I suggest toggling WiFi on only while actively using data.
BarryH_GEG said:
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you need all this from a phone, you should not be an early adopter.
BarryH_GEG said:
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a business owner so I push my device pretty hard. Exchange push, plus multiple other push accounts through K-9. Wifi calling placed and received from China, although I prefer normal network for that. I definitely pushing at least 5gb/month and my monthly bill is atrocious.
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why you'd be using a just-released phone with such a laundry-list of business requirements, either.
Yea the lovely iphone couldn't do MMS or exchange for 3 years. They still don't have a native Facebook app.
Anyway, I replied to this thread before but it was lost to the server being funny.
But what happened is quite logical and working properly. WiFi calling and WiFi Sleep policy are both set a default setting which saves the most battery. Using them both in tandem would require set and testing, which obviously wasn't done.
So really you can not blame the phone for the WiFi shutting down after X period of inactivity and WiFi Calling going stale.
I average about 6-7mb a month of pure data (I don't download anything on my phone except a rare occasion) in addition to what I use on WiFi. It is working great for me. Sure I'm not tethering a Cisco Bluetooth Speaker, but whatever.
I've used WiFi Calling on my Nexus One and it seems much more stable then I'm used to. WiFi calling is not a cellular repeater and depending on traffic may impede performance.
I do suspect there are odd/missing bluetooth profiles though. But lucky for us the kernel was already released so it will get fixed by the great developers here if not by Tmobile/LG themselves.
Irishdoom said:
I don't know why you'd be using a just-released phone with such a laundry-list of business requirements, either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adequately tested, there should be no problem. The G2X is considered an "Enterprise Class" device which means it's recommended for National and Multi-National accounts. I had one of the first HD2's and G2's and didn't use them any differently and had no problems with core functionality. There's a big difference between quirky behavior and not being able to function as a phone which was the complaint posted by the OP.
player911 said:
I've used WiFi Calling on my Nexus One and it seems much more stable then I'm used to. WiFi calling is not a cellular repeater and depending on traffic may impede performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wi-Fi Calling is terrific and a feature that sets T-Mobile apart. I used it heavily on my G2 and it was pretty reliable. There is no setting to make it default to "on" yet out of the box it enabled itself and it's randomly enabled itself a couple of times when the phone's been up for hours. It hard-locks the 2/3/4G data signal to off so if the phone's drops Wi-Fi it's basically off the network. The app's supposed to revert to 2/3/4G in the absence of a Wi-Fi signal when you have the setting checked as "Wi-Fi Preferred" which it only does randomly.
So, if in the middle of the night, Wi-Fi Calling enabled itself on the OP's phone and then lost the Wi-Fi signal it was basically off the network. I've seen Wi-Fi Calling enable itself on my phone and the two in the store. I'm assuming it's the same version of the app that's on the G2 so, again, there's something flaky with LG's implementation of Wi-Fi, the 2/3/4G radio, or both.
I'm only belaboring this because of people saying "it's your phone" or "it's got to be hardware." This phone has issues with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that need to be corrected.
jlevy73 said:
I've had no issues with this device but my post count is pretty low
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same thing here
Hardcore business users need a blackberry... Especially if they value their privacy, trade secrets, or if they handle government related information.
Sent from my LG-P999
High Level Symptoms:
- I notice battery has drained very quickly in a short time even when I have not been using phone (i.e. idle with display off)
- Phone feels noticeably warm/hot even when I have not been using phone (e.g. like it does while charging)
- Issue only seems to happen when running in 4G LTE mode
- I have gathered detailed usage statistics and do not believe there are any miss-behaving apps or system processes responsible
- I have noticed issue start most often near my office (in midtown NYC)
Note: This is where I use the phone on battery the most, so it may just be sampling bias
- I can temporarily stop the rapid power burn by switching out of 4G LTE mode (i.e. to 3G mode, or disabling radio)
- I have not found a way to stop the issue in 4G LTE mode once it starts except by restarting phone
(things I tried without success: toggling airplane mode, switching to 3G and back to 4G, radio off/on, and moving to different location/tower; rapid burn starts back up again as soon as 4G LTE mode is re-enabled)
Power Burn Rate:
- Data captured using Battery Monitor Widget which I have set to sample/log battery available % and usage every minute (this is a great app!)
- Available % dropping at a rate of about 20% / hour while phone is idle w/ screen off (my normal is about 5% / hour)
- Usage shows a very flat baseline of about 1000 mW / 250 mA (normal baseline is more like 100 mW / 40 mA)
(by baseline I mean many samples are equal to that baseline value with the rest being spikes up to greater values; no observed values are less than the baseline)
Background Info:
- My phone is unrooted and running stock firmware w/ the Verizon OTA upgrade (installed ~2011-05-19)
- I have noticed this issue many times since first getting the phone (~2011-04-12), and this issue is still present even with the newest LTE radio FW in the OTA update
- I am new to Android (~2 months in) but I am diving in deep with all the amazing tools both built-in and via add-on apps; I have collected a range of data/observations from numerous sources that are detailed in this post
My hypothesis is that the LTE radio hardware is responsible for this power burn. Most likely due to a software/firmware bug, but I'm not sure how to confirm that.
I wonder how common this issue is. I remember reading other posts on the forum that sound like the same thing. For example: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1008761
Can anyone else confirm they have seen this issue? If this issue is wide spread, I think it may be a contributing factor to the wide spread reports of 4G LTE a lot of battery.
I do not think this is the only factor that causes 4G LTE to use more power than 3G. I have read the reports, and personaly seen, higher 4G LTE power consumption when in low signal areas. However, I belive that to be independant from the burn issue I am describing here. The worst case power consumption I've seen that I think was "low LTE signal" related was only about 500 mW / 130 mA. The burn issue I'm refering too consumes power at about twice that rate and happened when I had strong signal. I had three to four of four possible bars. Also, I grabbed more detailed information:
----------
Phone info
reached using "LTE OnOff" app, "Network" app, or by dialing *#*#4636#*#* -> Phone information
Signal strength: -67 dBm to -80 dBm, 3 to 4 asu
Location: BID = 39b SID = 16 NID = 4
LAT = 7fffffff LONG = 7fffffff
Network Type: CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto
I believe this is good signal (e.g. issue not due to a low signal condition)
==================
Usage Data Capture
I briefly connected to power to reset the statistics after noticing the issue had started and and captured about an hours worth of data. My understanding of the data is that the display was off for almost all the time, and no apps or system processes are listed as using any significant amount of CPU/sensors in comparison to the hour data collection window.
-----------
Battery Use
reached using Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Use, or Battery Monitor Widget -> Usage
When last unplugged for 57m 12s
Display 30%
* Time on 1m 11s
* Auto Brightness
Cell Standby 21%
* Time on 57m 12s
Phone idle 19%
* Time on 56m 1s
Foursquare 11%
* CPU total 8s
* CPU foreground 6s
* GPS 26s
* Data sent 13.59 KB
* Data received 379.93 KB
Android System 7%
* CPU total 41s
* CPU foreground 2s
* Data sent 12.09 KB
* Data received 20.27 KB
Android OS 6%
* CPU total 39s
* Data sent 20.11 KB
* Data received 136.25 KB
Pandora 6%
* CPU total 35s
* Data sent 1.83 KB
* Data received 27.16 KB
---------------
Battery History
reached using Battery Monitor Widget -> Statistics, or by dialing *#*#4636#*#* -> Battery history
since last unplugged
CPU usage
* Android System (Total time:39s)
* Pandora (Total time:35s)
* suspend (Total time:31s)
* Foursquare (Total time:7s)
... (Note: more apps listed but with smaller total times)
Sensor usage
* Android System 29m 47s
* AccuWeather.com 28m 36s
(Note: after this capture I uninstalled AccuWeather.com app and retested. It wasn't listed anymore, but power drain behavior was unaltered)
Partial wake usage
* K-9 Mail 7m14s
* Android System 5m 4s
* Seesmic 9s
... (Note: more apps listed but with smaller times)
Other Usage
* Running (27.6%)
* Screen on (2.1%)
-------------------
CPU Spy v0.3.0 beta
Note: timers reset at begining of measurement interval
Time in state
1024 MHz 4:21 7%
768 MHz 0:54 1%
368 MHz 0:35 0%
245 MHz 12:11 20%
Deep Sleep 41:34 69%
This is a typical distribution I see when the phone is mostly idle (CPU sleeping for most of the time).
=================
Variation testing
After the data capture I systematicly tried several methods to see what it took to stop the abnormal drain in 4G LTE mode. In the end only rebooting the phone did it.
Set preferred network type: "CDMA auto (PRL)" (i.e. 3G mode) -> normal power usage (5:00pm-5:18pm)
Set preferred network type: "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto" (i.e. 4G mode) -> abnormally high power usage (5:18pm to 5:43pm)
Set airplane mode (i.e. radio off) -> very low power usage (5:43pm to 6:54pm)
Turned off airplane mode (i.e. 4G mode) -> abnormally high power usage
Set preferred network type: "LTE mode" (i.e. ONLY 4G mode) -> abnormally high power usage
Set preferred network type: "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto" (i.e. 4G mode) -> abnormally high power usage
Moved to a new place:
Signal strength: -65 dBm 4 asu
Location: BID = 23c SID = 16 NID = 4
LAT = 7fffffff LONG = 7fffffff
-> abnormally high power usage
Phone info "Turn off radio" button -> very low power usage
Phone info "Turn on radio" button -> abnormally high power usage
Restart phone -> normal power usage
I experience the same problem. My guess is that the radio firmware gets into a bad state when you are in an area with bad coverage.
I have been in a state where disabling data didn't stp the battery drain, only entering airplane mode would stop it.
crpalmer said:
I experience the same problem. My guess is that the radio firmware gets into a bad state when you are in an area with bad coverage.
I have been in a state where disabling data didn't stp the battery drain, only
entering airplane mode would stop it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I originally thought the same thing about the issue starting while in poor coverage, but since I have seen it occur multiple times in a good coverage area I began to doubt that was the case. The extra power consumption I usually get while in poor coverage is less in magnitude, and varies much more, and goes away when I have good coverage again. This issue feels distinctly different to me.
When you say disabling data didn't stop the drain you experienced, do you mean turning off Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks? I haven't tried playing with that option. I'll give it a try next time I see the issue too.
You said entering airplane mode would stop it. Did you have the same experience that when you turned airplane mode off that the drain started back up again until you restarted?
Thanks
Excellent post, I would venture a guess that your background is in one the sciences.
One thing I noticed you didn't try was connecting through wifi. I believe this will render the 4g radio on but not in use. If the issue persists, it could help narrow down the cause.
As far as attempting to fix it, you can factory reset it or go to verizon for a replacement.. but that doesn't do much for others with this problem.
I have been having the same issue, both on stock and BAMF 1.6. Thanks for looking so thoroughly at this problem. It appears not everyone is affected. Can someone confirm? If so, exchanging the could be the solution.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
To test your hypothesis, I'd recommend turning off LTE somehow. My suggestion for non-rooted phone:
Dial ##778#
Chose edit mode, password: 000000
You should be able to turn off LTE in Modem Settings->Preferred Mode
Please let us know your finding.
Nice work on the research!
The scenario you described happened to me yesterday.
I was in a building where I didn't get any reception at all. I noticed the phone started to warm up. By the time I got outside and the phone re-established a connection with the 4g network, it was extremely warm and the phone was at 7% life begging to be charged.
This has happened to me on two other occasions but I don't recall being in an area of zero to poor reception.
My bolt is also rooted running the BAMF Remix 1.6.
agdaniels said:
Excellent post, I would venture a guess that your background is in one the sciences.
One thing I noticed you didn't try was connecting through wifi. I believe this will render the 4g radio on but not in use. If the issue persists, it could help narrow down the cause.
As far as attempting to fix it, you can factory reset it or go to verizon for a replacement.. but that doesn't do much for others with this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. Your guess is spot on; I did my Ph. D. in computer science.
I have not tried switching to WiFi. Next time I see the issue I will put that to the test. I find I haven't been using WiFi much with this phone since I have lower standby power consumption in 3G mode when I don't need the speed. When I do want more speed, I find here in NYC 4G LTE is actually significantly faster than either my home or work Internet connection (Cable and DSL respectively) (Crazy!). Also, here in NYC the 2.4 GHz band is VERY crowded so WiFi can slow down at times even on a good wired Internet connection. I wish this phone was 5 GHz WiFi capable to help avoid this particular issue.
My intuition is that this is a radio firmware issue so I have my doubts that a factory reset or even a replacement would fix anything. Factory reset would help if there were misbehaving apps or screwed up settings on my phone, but this seems unlikely. I'll probably need to root my phone so I can back it up before I try a factory reset. A replacement would only help if there was a hardware fault. Part of the purpose of this thread is to help gauge if many other people have this problem. The more that do, the less likely it is an abnormal HW fault with only my phone, and more likely a bug or other HW errata issue that hasn't been worked around correctly.
I think it is still too early in the game to make the call that it is not fixable in FW. I was aware that this LTE network/chipset is quite new and this phone was likely to have some rough spots at the start. Verizon/HTC/Qualcomm have only made one OTA release so far, and even that release has major bugs that were not present in the original stock FW (e.g. the frequent spontaneous rebooting when in 3G mode). Forums like this seem like great places for us users to publicly characterize issues we encounter. I hope it helps the engineers involved in making fixes and that we get updates not too far down the line.
cuguy said:
To test your hypothesis, I'd recommend turning off LTE somehow. My suggestion for non-rooted phone:
Dial ##778#
Chose edit mode, password: 000000
You should be able to turn off LTE in Modem Settings->Preferred Mode
Please let us know your finding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion.
If you look at the last part of my post under the "Variation Testing" heading, I believe I did try a number of configurations with LTE off. Each case where LTE was off I saw normal or low power consumption. This is why I grew to suspect the LTE radio in the first place.
The technique I used for switching between 3G and 4G modes was actually the "Set prefered network type" drop down on the "Phone info" menu that can be reached using "LTE OnOff" app, "Network" app, or by dialing *#*#4636#*#* and selecting "Phone Information".
I have used the dial ##778# to get the ESPT menu before, but that was to modify the "Rev. A" setting from "eHRPD" to "Enable" as a work around to re-enable 3G EVDO during the few days of nation wide 4G LTE & 3G SVDO outage we had a month or so ago. BTW, it looks like I had by phone set to the non-stock "Enable" setting rather than "eHRPD" for the original data capture. I switched this back to "eHRPD" and I'll report if I have the issue again. I was last playing with this setting to see if had any effect on the random reboots after the OTA while on 3G, but it did not.
In the ESPT -> Modem Settings -> Preferred Mode drop down I only see the options for:
- Automatic
- HDR Only
- Digital Only
- CDMA Only (selected by default)
- CDMA HDR Only
There is also a a Preferred Mode(9k) drop down that has these options:
- Automatic
- HDR Only
- LTE Only
- HDR LTE only (selected by default)
I believe that these are settings for the voice radio and the data radio respectively. See the third page of the excellent Anandtech review of the HTC Thunderbolt: <Sorry, I am a new xda-developers forum member so it won't let me post external links yet.>
Do you have suggestions on how to set these? I am unfamiliar with the HDR acronym and haven't turned up anything that seems relevant in my Google searches.
I had another instance of the 4G LTE power burn issue today. I tried a few of the above suggestions.
I enabled WiFi and logged on to an access point. This did not stop the abnormally high power burn. Instead it went up slightly; I assume this was the extra power for the WiFi radio.
I also tried turning off Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks. That resulted in the 4G LTE icon going away but the signal bars were still showing. I couldn't use the Internet but a SMS came through in this mode. This mode did not stop the power burn either.
The burn stopped only when I rebooted.
The reboot happened when I dialed ##778# to get the ESPT menu and switched the "Rev. A" setting from "Enable" to "eHRPD" and this time remembered to commit the changes (forgot to when I posted above). Committing the changes auto-rebooted the phone, which returned me to normal power consumption. I will report if I have the problem again now that I have confirmed I am back in the stock eHRPD mode.
Most of today I was in very good signal conditions, judging by the time the drain started, I could have been out on a errand in the neighborhood. So I can't 100% guarantee that the 4G signal was high the whole time.
Does anyone know of an app that works on the Thunderbolt that can log signal strength over time and preferably graph it too (e.g. similar to Battery Monitor Widget). I have tried to download and use a few without success including: Open Signal Maps, Network Signal Info, RF Signal Tracker, and Signal Finder. Some of these apps didn't work at all (I suspect 4G signal is reported a bit differently and this confuses some of them). Some work in general but I can't seem to get the logging I'm looking for.
Thanks!
OdinGuru said:
I originally thought the same thing about the issue starting while in poor coverage, but since I have seen it occur multiple times in a good coverage area I began to doubt that was the case. The extra power consumption I usually get while in poor coverage is less in magnitude, and varies much more, and goes away when I have good coverage again. This issue feels distinctly different to me.
When you say disabling data didn't stop the drain you experienced, do you mean turning off Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks? I haven't tried playing with that option. I'll give it a try next time I see the issue too.
You said entering airplane mode would stop it. Did you have the same experience that when you turned airplane mode off that the drain started back up again until you restarted?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By disabling data, I was actually using the notification tools in most rooted roms. That should be equivalent to what you said.
Toggling airplane mode toggled the battery drain problem until it failed to enter airplane mode and I had to reboot.
I see the same thing
Where I live at home we only have 3G at work I have 4G. The phone will get itself into some kind of mode at work and burn through the battery in 4-5 hours. So I keep it charging on my desk all day. If I didn't, some days it wouldn't make it till lunch.
OdinGuru said:
Thank you. Your guess is spot on; I did my Ph. D. in computer science.
I have not tried switching to WiFi. Next time I see the issue I will put that to the test. I find I haven't been using WiFi much with this phone since I have lower standby power consumption in 3G mode when I don't need the speed. When I do want more speed, I find here in NYC 4G LTE is actually significantly faster than either my home or work Internet connection (Cable and DSL respectively) (Crazy!). Also, here in NYC the 2.4 GHz band is VERY crowded so WiFi can slow down at times even on a good wired Internet connection. I wish this phone was 5 GHz WiFi capable to help avoid this particular issue.
My intuition is that this is a radio firmware issue so I have my doubts that a factory reset or even a replacement would fix anything. Factory reset would help if there were misbehaving apps or screwed up settings on my phone, but this seems unlikely. I'll probably need to root my phone so I can back it up before I try a factory reset. A replacement would only help if there was a hardware fault. Part of the purpose of this thread is to help gauge if many other people have this problem. The more that do, the less likely it is an abnormal HW fault with only my phone, and more likely a bug or other HW errata issue that hasn't been worked around correctly.
I think it is still too early in the game to make the call that it is not fixable in FW. I was aware that this LTE network/chipset is quite new and this phone was likely to have some rough spots at the start. Verizon/HTC/Qualcomm have only made one OTA release so far, and even that release has major bugs that were not present in the original stock FW (e.g. the frequent spontaneous rebooting when in 3G mode). Forums like this seem like great places for us users to publicly characterize issues we encounter. I hope it helps the engineers involved in making fixes and that we get updates not too far down the line.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are absolutely correct on all three points, my main focus with the two suggestions were background data for the factory reset and faulty hardware for the replacement.
If you have the ability to disable all background data syncing while on 4g- on the application side, sense ui side, and the android side you could completely rule out software being the cause. My thoughts with this are some background service is keeping the radio active, causing the burn.
The replacement device would help to narrow down whether the issue lies on the device side, or if its more related to the towers/the way lte functions. The latter is bad news for you. My thoughts on this are that some people report no issues running lte, while others are having similar problems as you have reported; I doubt that it is faulty phone hardware, but its possible.
I share your conclusion that this is a firmware(baseband) issue. Actually going in and manipulating it would require root, a considerable understanding of how the interaction between hardware and software works, and the abilty to make tweaks and test them. I will also contact some people more knowledgable then myself and see if they want to chime in on the matter.
crpalmer said:
By disabling data, I was actually using the notification tools in most rooted roms. That should be equivalent to what you said.
Toggling airplane mode toggled the battery drain problem until it failed to enter airplane mode and I had to reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent idea. I then I was able to execute the test you suggested yesterday when I re-encountered the issue. I saw the exact same behavior you reported: even though I disable applications data over LTE, the drain did not stop. This is strong supporting evidence that it is not an issue with some kind of rouge app / sync settings.
Drain toggling with airplane mode is the exactly consistent with my observations as well. Sounds like we have confirmed you having the exact same burn issue.
Thank you for the feedback and confirmation.
mcargil05 said:
Where I live at home we only have 3G at work I have 4G. The phone will get itself into some kind of mode at work and burn through the battery in 4-5 hours. So I keep it charging on my desk all day. If I didn't, some days it wouldn't make it till lunch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is consistent with my observations of the burn issue. The baseline power consumption I observed is about 20% of the battery per hour while phone is idle with screen off. That would correspond to the phone burning through a full charge in 5 hours even if you didn't use it at all. Add any extra actual usage on top of that and 4-5 hours of life sounds very plausible. That assumes you have the problem right away though (the worst case).
I typically see a variable amount of time of normal consumption before the issue starts. For instance, let's say I've been running normally for 3 hours and am at 80% before the issue starts. Then I'd quickly burn through the last 80% in 4 hours or less. In that case I'd get less than 7 hours of total battery life (e.g. not making it through the day). If my normal usage had continued, it should be more like 15 hours (e.g. more than enough for a long day and needs charging every night).
There is still the question if this issue is related or not to 4G signal levels. What do you normally see in the office? Number of bars is useful, and also the more detailed dBm number can be found in Settings -> About Phone -> Network.
Thank you for your report.
agdaniels said:
You are absolutely correct on all three points, my main focus with the two suggestions were background data for the factory reset and faulty hardware for the replacement.
If you have the ability to disable all background data syncing while on 4g- on the application side, sense ui side, and the android side you could completely rule out software being the cause. My thoughts with this are some background service is keeping the radio active, causing the burn.
The replacement device would help to narrow down whether the issue lies on the device side, or if its more related to the towers/the way lte functions. The latter is bad news for you. My thoughts on this are that some people report no issues running lte, while others are having similar problems as you have reported; I doubt that it is faulty phone hardware, but its possible.
I share your conclusion that this is a firmware(baseband) issue. Actually going in and manipulating it would require root, a considerable understanding of how the interaction between hardware and software works, and the abilty to make tweaks and test them. I will also contact some people more knowledgable then myself and see if they want to chime in on the matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the most recent test I disabled "Mobile Networks" which effectively shutdown data service. I also tested switching to WiFi which should have redirected all data away from the 4G LTE radio. Neither one of these stopped the power burn. Do you agree this is sufficient enough to rule out apps/services?
I noticed on the Phone info screen there are some counters for number of bytes sent over the radio. Next time I have the issue perhaps I'll keep track of how those change when I'm having the issue vs not.
I agree that trying replacement HW would be a useful data point to help identify if the issue is inherent or tower related. I'm not quite ready to jump through all the hoops with Verizon to do it myself yet. I'd want to root first to create a backup of my current setup first to reduce the pain of the procedure. And I'll probably give them the benefit of the doubt and wait for the next OTA to give them another shot at fixing the issue with FW.
Part of our questions would be answered if there was indeed a user out there that runs 4G LTE and can document that they do not have this issue. Does anyone out there run Battery Monitor Widget or similar and can say they have never seen the tell-tail pattern of power burn I am talking about?
I really wish Android had a built in screen capture feature. I need to get adb installed and setup on my computer so I can post examples of what the graphs look like; I think that would help other users to identify the issue as it happens so they know when to re-boot to save what is left of their battery.
I agree there is very little we as users can do to fix the issue if it is in the radio FW. As you say, it would indeed take very detailed knowledge of the HW. Also, I think it would be impossible without the radio FW source code. Although I haven't looked through the HTC released code, I would be very surprised if this was included. It wouldn't be covered under the Android or Linux open source licenses as it likely originally came from Qualcomm and is considered proprietary. Without that, we can only hope that Qualcomm/HTC/Verizon work together to get it figured out. The good news is that they all have a good business case to do so. This LTE chipset is likely to be used in several phones so they need these issues resolved before it affects their whole lineup.
Anyone know if the new Samsung Droid Charge has this issue too?
After experiencing all the same issues myself, I have noticed that this seems to have been addressed in the leaked Gingerbread radio. Might be worthwhile to repeat testing using that radio and then somehow compare code.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
I would have to agree you've sufficiently ruled out software, the point about the gingerbread build not having issues is worth noting though. Can someone confirm the 2.3 release has new radio firmware? It wouldn't be difficult at all to pull it out and flash it if it does
My thunderbolt will be in hand Monday, I don't have the phd you have in c.s (mines just a bs) but I've been in the business long enough to throw some graphs together. We'll compare notes then if we don't find resolution sooner.
I experience the same problem in North Phoenix when running 4GLTE in a weak 4g signal area. It doesn't happen too often if I'm in a heavily blanketed 4g area.
EDIT. I'm running rooted. OC to usually 1400 mhz. I'm constantly being synced with the Exchange Server. My phone gets super hot when running navigation plus 4GLTE. Temperature gets up to around 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
When I notice my phone heating up, I'll switch to CDMA prl and immediately my battery temperature starts dropping to normal levels, ie. 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
At the time I was running on different radio combinations. Such as, CDMA. 6 and lte. 7 radio combo. I have recently switched to Gingerbread so more testing is needed.
Had a spare minute to look up the radio, looks like its bricking certain devices after flashing. Not completely ruling it out, maybe you can flash it, test it, then flash it back, but there is some risk involved.
Whatever the case, its reassuring to know updates are coming eventually.
Here is a link for reference:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098363&page=70
So the S3 has known WiFi issues, but mine seems to have none of the issues I've read about thus far. It does have one irritating thing that has been driving me crazy for the longest time. If I ever move outside of the range of my network, reboot, or etc such that the WiFi has to be reestablished, it will decide that my network is "out of range" even though the signal is well within an acceptable minimum (it's a tad bit weak, but, once established it holds extremely steady pretty much no matter what I'm doing.) If I remove and re-add the network settings it works perfectly, again with a stable signal and perfect speeds until the next time I move out of range or reboot.
For now I've reenabled SSID broadcast, but I really liked the idea of having it off as it's a ridiculously simple yet strikingly effective security mechanism (I like the "security through obscurity" methods when I can -- especially since I'm having to use the old WEP encryption protocol to support some older devices, though I'm just about ready just to give up on them at this point. Even the best hacker in the world couldn't get into my network if (s)he never actually made any attempt to do so in the first place.) With SSID enabled, it has no troubles picking up my network every time, it just won't automatically pick it up without it.
Is this just an issue with the software itself or something? Anything that can be fixed from the user side, or is it something that can only be fixed by an update to the OS or related software itself? (But then with 4.1 coming soon supposedly I'm kind of hoping that if it is an issue with the software that would fix it. Still, that's a while away at least and this is assuming their plans aren't messed up with this whole lawsuit business causing them so many problems right now.)
If you have SSID broadcast disabled, how do you expect your phone to recognize the network? I can see how it would work if you enable SSID, connect to your network then disable it again, but it's not going magically reconnect with SSID disabled, its not logical seeing your SSID is what makes it possible for your phone to find your network.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Wep sucks ofcourse but how about just setting up a mac addy auth to give another layer of security and enable ur ssid
Sent from my SCH-I535
I do use MAC address filtering if that's what you mean. While it might stop a script kiddie, I don't have a huge amount of confidence in it. MAC address spoofing is so pitifully easy than with computer equipment at least you usually are even presented with a configuration option that lets you specifically change the MAC address to anything you want. I'm definitely sticking with it because, well, there's absolutely no reason not to, but I actually have less confidence in MAC address filtering to stop anyone than disabled SSID broadcasting because anyone actually actively trying to break in should pretty much immediately bypass that particular mechanism right off.
Shibby87 said:
If you have SSID broadcast disabled, how do you expect your phone to recognize the network? I can see how it would work if you enable SSID, connect to your network then disable it again, but it's not going magically reconnect with SSID disabled, its not logical seeing your SSID is what makes it possible for your phone to find your network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ALL other devices are smart enough to search for a manually configured network if they actually know the SSID to search for. My Roku, my Android 2.2 "Internet Tablet" (basically a PDA) by Archos, my Nintendo DS (this is the main thing holding me back at WEP, and as ancient and pitiful as its networking is, even IT can connect on its own without making me manually recreate the settings every time!) and my EeePC running Windows XP without any software to manage the WiFi settings except the built-in Windows thing.
Nazo said:
So the S3 has known WiFi issues, but mine seems to have none of the issues I've read about thus far. It does have one irritating thing that has been driving me crazy for the longest time. If I ever move outside of the range of my network, reboot, or etc such that the WiFi has to be reestablished, it will decide that my network is "out of range" even though the signal is well within an acceptable minimum (it's a tad bit weak, but, once established it holds extremely steady pretty much no matter what I'm doing.) If I remove and re-add the network settings it works perfectly, again with a stable signal and perfect speeds until the next time I move out of range or reboot.
For now I've reenabled SSID broadcast, but I really liked the idea of having it off as it's a ridiculously simple yet strikingly effective security mechanism (I like the "security through obscurity" methods when I can -- especially since I'm having to use the old WEP encryption protocol to support some older devices, though I'm just about ready just to give up on them at this point. Even the best hacker in the world couldn't get into my network if (s)he never actually made any attempt to do so in the first place.) With SSID enabled, it has no troubles picking up my network every time, it just won't automatically pick it up without it.
Is this just an issue with the software itself or something? Anything that can be fixed from the user side, or is it something that can only be fixed by an update to the OS or related software itself? (But then with 4.1 coming soon supposedly I'm kind of hoping that if it is an issue with the software that would fix it. Still, that's a while away at least and this is assuming their plans aren't messed up with this whole lawsuit business causing them so many problems right now.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hidden ssid enabler will solve this problem. it works great for me. follow the directions in comments of play store though.
You know, I do believe that did actually solve the problem. I guess more testing is needed, but in my initial test it seems to have worked just fine with the SSID broadcast set to hidden again (I even rebooted the router and phone both just to be sure the settings fully took.)
It still strikes me as being a bit dumb that my ancient Nintendo DS that can't even handle WPA can handle a non-broadcast SSID and my previous Android PDA could as well, yet this Android phone couldn't out of the box...
This has got me massively frustrated.
I have a two-year-old Moto G7 phone that I put LineageOS (v16.1) on right out of the box. Over time its wireless connectivity seems to have got weaker and weaker and now it drops calls (with a "No Service" error) more often than I'm willing to tolerate. For the longest I was writing it off to my location, thinking maybe my home office was in a "radio shadow," or there was too much RFI from the wall of electronic gizmos (CPUs, NASs, UPSs, etc) next to my computer desk.
Then I discontinued my landline phone service and bought a $30 AOSP flip phone as my "home" phone. Comparing the $30 phone side-by-side to my G7, I noticed that the flip phone always shows 4-5 bars of service and never drops a call, while the Moto 7 only occasionally gets as high as two bars, and drops calls frequently.
I had never had it happen and didn't know if it was possible for a cellular transceiver to die gradually, and it's not like I have a spare part I could install to test that theory, so I thought instead I would test the possibility that this might be being caused by some fashion of firmware degradation by switching ROMs.
I had installed microG on the LOS ROM anyway so first I tried the LOS for microG ROM v18.1. It had the same sketchy reception, only it was move involved to troubleshoot because in the G7's LOS 18.1 has 33 different options for "Preferred Network Type." The default selection wasn't working very well so I tried testing several of the others (after winnowing the selection by finding out which are not for the US market), including 'Global.'
That really got off in the weeds because several of the selections showed strong reception (4-5 bars) but the phone couldn't 'connect' under SIM status. And the ones that did appear to connect were showing very low signal strength. The best any of them would do is two bars.
When it did manage to connect, watching the signal strength under SIM status, it would bounce around from -80-ish to -105-ish and occasionally would fall to zero, at which time the Service State would show "Disconnected." So there's my dropped call with a "No Service" message.
Since microG wasn't fixing my problem I flashed a standard LOS ROM (also v18.1) but it was no better than microG LOS. So I broke down and flashed an OEM Motorola ROM, and low and behold, I've got four to five bars from anywhere in the house.
But the experience of setting up a clean install of Google's Android only reminded me how intrusive they are, and why I bothered putting up with 3-rd party ROMS to begin with.
The up-side of going back to an OEM ROM is that 1., now I know the cellular transceiver's hardware is fine, and 2., I got to see the settings the Motorola ROM defaulted to for "Preferred Network Type" and "Access Point Name." And since those selections are working a treat, that at least gives me a blueprint for the next effort at installing a 3-rd party ROM.
But long story short, has anyone else had this sort of experience with LOS/microG? And is there any hope, what else is there I could try, to get cellular reception with a 3-rd party ROM that's as strong as the OEM Motorola ROM does?
@DrWu Thread closed!
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