Galaxy S3 signal issue and Verizon support

**giper54** · 08-08-2012, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by vicosphi

Registered just to tell you guys I have Galaxy S3 and it loses signal (both data and voice) when switching from 4g to edge in low signal areas. Tried factory reset, custom ROM, CM, original ROM, multiple modems, changed SIM card, changed data plan and what not.

Turns out the phone was defective !!! I never thought it would be a hardware issue but yes it was. Just returned the phone and got a replacement and couldn't be happier. It works flawless. Ofcourse there is an issue with low wifi strength and not so strong 4g reception but that will be addressed in a software update.

So if any of you are having issue where the phone completely loses signal when transitioning from 4g to edge, its a hardware issue and you should exchange it!

Enjoy

Are you on Verizon or AT&T ?

**taylorz_412** · 08-08-2012, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by giper54

Are you on Verizon or AT&T ?

I would assume Verizon since this is the verzion section....

sent from GSIII VZW

**pstellato73** · 08-08-2012, 01:56 PM

I'm having no issues with my S3, or my wife's S3. Wifi is good, no pop ups and 4G almost everywhere I am. To me this phone is a beast.

**giper54** · 08-08-2012, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by taylorz_412

I would assume Verizon since this is the verzion section....

sent from GSIII VZW

Yes but Verizon does not used edge

**joverman56** · 08-08-2012, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by joverman

Me and my girlfriend are having the same exact issues and coming from the same phones. I had a dinc and she had a fascinate. I called Verizon yesterday and they agreed the we have had an extremely large amount of dropped calls since we got our new phones. They said they would look into the issue and call me back within 72 hours. Another issue I have is that I will have 3 or 4 bars of service and try to make a call, the phone will say that I don't have service even though I have 3 or 4 bars. Extremely aggravated about this but not a deal breaker for getting rid of the phone. Just need to be able to make phone calls.

Just got off the phone with Verizon again. They called back after i called the other day. Their response was I could purchase a network extender if I wanted to use my cell phone in my home. I explained to them that I was not trying to use my S3 in my home but outside in my driveway near the road and it was still dropping calls. I also told them my DINC did not have these issues and I was not going to pay for a network extender. I told them to pull up my account and see the amount of dropped calls I've had since i recieved the phone as to compared to the two plus years I had my DINC. The guy then told me to hang on a second. When he came back he told me that Verizon was going to send me a network extender free of charge.... Hopefully this will help.

**taylorz_412** · 08-08-2012, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by joverman

Just got off the phone with Verizon again. They called back after i called the other day. Their response was I could purchase a network extender if I wanted to use my cell phone in my home. I explained to them that I was not trying to use my S3 in my home but outside in my driveway near the road and it was still dropping calls. I also told them my DINC did not have these issues and I was not going to pay for a network extender. I told them to pull up my account and see the amount of dropped calls I've had since i recieved the phone as to compared to the two plus years I had my DINC. The guy then told me to hang on a second. When he came back he told me that Verizon was going to send me a network extender free of charge.... Hopefully this will help.

I've heard nothing but great things about network extenders it should work great

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**ansextra** · 08-08-2012, 07:25 PM

Coming from a Droid X here as well. I have not dropped a call yet either and call quality seems to be quite a bit better on my S3 vs the X.

**fyrfytr24** · 08-09-2012, 04:15 AM

Originally Posted by joverman

Just got off the phone with Verizon again. They called back after i called the other day. Their response was I could purchase a network extender if I wanted to use my cell phone in my home. I explained to them that I was not trying to use my S3 in my home but outside in my driveway near the road and it was still dropping calls. I also told them my DINC did not have these issues and I was not going to pay for a network extender. I told them to pull up my account and see the amount of dropped calls I've had since i recieved the phone as to compared to the two plus years I had my DINC. The guy then told me to hang on a second. When he came back he told me that Verizon was going to send me a network extender free of charge.... Hopefully this will help.

Good luck to ya. Hope it works out, it isn;t just at our house we are dropping calls, we are dropping them everywhere. Heck, today I drove from one side of town to the other (few miles) and I didn't ever have a data signal according to my phone.

The VZW rep I had intially wanted to do a factory reset on the phone to determine if it was a software or hardware issue. When I informed him that it was not just my phone buy my wifes phone, and sitting side by side they will have different singlal strengths he still wanted to do that. However when I pressed to have the phones replaced he did say that he could place an order for us, but we could not go to the store and get them as they are not "equiped" to do that and do not have the phones there. I asked if that ment that they did not have any S3 phones there and I was told that what they would send was not the retail package phone, worries me that I will get a referb or something.

**charlier180** · 08-09-2012, 07:03 AM

Originally Posted by ansextra

Coming from a Droid X here as well. I have not dropped a call yet either and call quality seems to be quite a bit better on my S3 vs the X.

I too came from a Droid X. For me call quality is about the same as the DX.
Even in the local Mall where cell service stinks for some carriers, my S3 gets 4G service and does not drop calls (my DX worked well there also). The same cannot be said for AT&T customers. I also noticed that my S3 does well inside one of my company's manufacturing plants (LOTS of concrete, steel and high voltage electric lines) just like my DX.

After reading about the signal issues posted here and those without issues I do wonder what the real cause is. Is it a hardware issue from a particular assembly plant? Is is a hardware component issue from a particular supplier or supplier's shipment of parts? I do find it interesting that at least for some, having the S3 replaced appeared to solve their problems.

The real test for my S3 will be when I visit some friends of mine in rural Maryland. While my DX did not drop calls at their house the 3G service often dropped to 1G. Should be interesting to see how the S3 performs both for voice and 4G during my next visit.

**ansextra** · 08-09-2012, 08:55 AM

I'm thinking that 4G does not "blanket" as well as 3G. I notice that when I go outside from my house I get an additional signal bar. With 3G on my X I always had a full signal in my house. I also notice that the 4G signal drops only a few blocks from my house, then picks up again or changes to 3G. I'm starting to believe I'm in a 4G fringe area. I do not blame that on the phone. I blame that on Verizon.

**burvee** · 08-09-2012, 05:56 PM

Not always is this true as being a hardware problem. I am on phone #3 with Verizon and the dropped calls, inability to send text messages (mms only) continues to exist. VZW continues to investigate. I have no problems in other parts of town but mainly in this 5-6 square mile area. Tower related??? The sim card has also been changed.

When in other areas, the S3 is a rocking phone!

**dfb8085** · 08-09-2012, 08:42 PM

I'm on att and the problem I have is with wifi signal sensitivity. It seems to be very weak compared to my past phone and current laptops.

**charlier180** · 08-10-2012, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by ansextra

I'm thinking that 4G does not "blanket" as well as 3G. I notice that when I go outside from my house I get an additional signal bar. With 3G on my X I always had a full signal in my house. I also notice that the 4G signal drops only a few blocks from my house, then picks up again or changes to 3G. I'm starting to believe I'm in a 4G fringe area. I do not blame that on the phone. I blame that on Verizon.

I have to wonder if Moto used one algorithm when displaying the number of signal strength bars on the DX and Samsung uses a different algorithm when displaying the number of signal strength bars on the S3.

It does appear you are in a fringe area based on what you are seeing. My S3 will drop to 3G when I go inside my local Super Walmart. That store sits down in a valley and is always a challenge for any cell phone. I does appear to get faster 3G service inside the store than my DX did. One interesting thing I noticed with the S3 is that when I am in church it tends to hold onto 3G service a LOT better than my DX did. The DX would drop out of 3G service MUCH faster. In both the case of the Walmart or Church the S3 goes back to 4G service usually before I can get out of the parking lot.

**radar320** · 08-10-2012, 10:10 AM

It seems one of the issues the last three samsung phones on verizon have had, other than weak signal, is the hand off between 3g and 4g. My charge was especially terrible in this regard. My nexus wouldn't even go into 4g in a strong 4g area. The S3 seems to be better in this arena, but could be even better if they deal with the weak radio issue.

**davidlnewman** · 08-10-2012, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by fyrfytr24

Good luck to ya. Hope it works out, it isn;t just at our house we are dropping calls, we are dropping them everywhere. Heck, today I drove from one side of town to the other (few miles) and I didn't ever have a data signal according to my phone.

The VZW rep I had intially wanted to do a factory reset on the phone to determine if it was a software or hardware issue. When I informed him that it was not just my phone buy my wifes phone, and sitting side by side they will have different singlal strengths he still wanted to do that. However when I pressed to have the phones replaced he did say that he could place an order for us, but we could not go to the store and get them as they are not "equiped" to do that and do not have the phones there. I asked if that ment that they did not have any S3 phones there and I was told that what they would send was not the retail package phone, worries me that I will get a referb or something.

You will get a refurb! We had the same thing with my wife's S3 the day after the 14 day return period and they sent us a refurb. We called Verizon after we opened it up and found this and after a long call they grudingly finally agreed to send us a new phone as a replacement. But believe me, it took a lot of complaining.

**caniacbart** · 08-30-2012, 03:34 PM

Same issue here. Previously my wife and I both had the VZ Moto Razr running the Gingerbread OS. 3-4 bars almost everywhere. Once the Ice Scream Sandwich update came out, I updated both phones and immediately started having poor reception, dropped calls, data connectivity issues, and inability to send/receive text messages. I called VZ, they told me I could not revert back to the original OS and would send me out 2 phones with the Gingerbread OS instead. No more problems.

2 weeks ago, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S3 from a friend and immediately start having the same issue again. I rooted and unlocked the phone and installed several different ROMS and radios but none solved the issue. I even got into a "dispute" with several XDA guys that "were not aware of any of the issues I was complaining about" and suggested that the phone was bad. I maintained my point that I "have" no issues until I use a phone that has ICS on it and that the problem lies within the OS, not the hardware. On another note, when I was with Sprint, I had the Samsung Epic Touch. I installed a ICS based custom ROM on it and had the same problems to. So just another bit of proof that the issue is with the OS and not the hardware.

Today, after trying all options, I will venture to the VZ store for a phone/sim. Even though I don't think this will solve the issues I'm experiencing, it will be the very "last" resort in this extremely frustrating journey.

I'll update everyone once I get back, though I'm not very hopeful.......

**chevyman29** · 08-30-2012, 06:30 PM

well ive had great luck with my s3 . that being said whenever i updated to ICS on my MAXX i started having all sorts of data connectivity problems and random data loss . not to mention dropped calls.

**sspediacci** · 08-30-2012, 06:56 PM

Currently my phone can't copy or paste without shutting down the app that I tried to copy in and it refuses to find a GPS signal, no matter how long I wait. Other than that my signal is pretty spot on and the battery is.....so so.

I still use this phone more than any other phone I've ever owned and love the design and feel of it.

It would be nice if all of this stuff worked without a hitch like the iPhone though. I mean I really shouldn't be using a phone that wasn't tested thoroughly enough to find out these basic issues

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

**bigpapa7272** · 08-31-2012, 05:07 PM

Ive noticed some issues with 4g to 3g handoff, sometimes for it to get to 3g it will tell me i have ablsoutle no signal then magically about 30 to 45 seconds later the signal is back and on 3g. hardware or software issue?

**Mungus99** · 08-31-2012, 05:49 PM

I was having similar issues. Mostly dropped calls. I wad sent a refurb by VZW in mint condition. Seems to have fixed it. So far. Baseband was the f2 now it's a g1. Could that have helped??

Sent from my SCH-I535

**eric3316** · 09-01-2012, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272

Ive noticed some issues with 4g to 3g handoff, sometimes for it to get to 3g it will tell me i have ablsoutle no signal then magically about 30 to 45 seconds later the signal is back and on 3g. hardware or software issue?

As long as it is switching from 4G to 3G I wouldn't worry about it. I think it depends on the area and towers as to how fast you will see the hand off. You might even see it happen quicker 1 day then the other in the same place....

If anything it would be related to software more then hardware. Now if you signal did not come back at all and you needed to reboot the device, then I would switch out the phone for something like that.

**JustLeft** · 09-01-2012, 08:27 AM

I was having similar issues, which started after I dropped the phone. Replacement phone is working much better.

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**heavyhitter82** · 09-01-2012, 03:03 PM

FYI... Verizon offers to discount the price of the network extender by taking $100 off the list price of $250, if you want it for free tell them to offer you the $100 discount but that you will take a refurb, the refurb is only $100 so now you got it for free

. I had to ask for a supervisor to accomplish this but it was easy. I did this on 8/31/12 so good luck.

**rushmore** · 09-01-2012, 05:09 PM

I live in Kentucky and notice compared to the Droid 1, 2, 3, Incredible and Razr:

3g is a little weaker and the device gets hotter in weak 3g signal areas.

4g is better than Razr and runs cooler, with MUCH better battery life. This makes the 3g issues in weak signal areas all the more strange.

Call and text reception is as good as the noted devices.

**piizzadude** · 09-01-2012, 05:46 PM

The first sgs3 I bought had a ton of issues with calls and 4g. Sold that one off and vzw was nice enough to replace my Rezound with another sgs3. This one has been damn near perfect. Good signal, only one help app has done a fc on me.

It has been an awesome phone.

Oh yeah, the signal in every walmart sucks. I have been in three with this guy and never got more than one x

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