Galaxy S3 signal issue and Verizon support

[HawtDogFlvrWtr]

I just wanted to chime in and say that I got a G S3 the day before yesterday and noticed that as I was driving through different connection areas (loss of LTE to 3g), it would never go back to the fastest speed when back in a different connection area and sometimes would even drop to no data or 1x connections and never come back to 3g or LTE. To get the phone back into the highest data mode, I had to reboot the phone.

After reading this thread yesterday, I went back to the Verizon store and asked them to replace my SIM card, referencing this post.. and it works fine now.

The guy at the store mentioned the update coming sometime in October and was attempting to get me to brush it under the rug.. but I told him that I wasn't going to keep this phone if he wasn't going to at least replace the SIM, because my 15 days would be up before the patch came out and I didn't want to risk having a dud of a phone after the 15 days if the patch didn't fix a hardware issue.

Needless to say, no more reboots to get back into higher bandwidth modes.. Also, I'm new to Verizon so the SIM card they replaced was already brand new (1 day old). In either case though, replacing the SIM worked like a charm..

 

[hockeymn25]

will they actually try to fix the reception issue with this phone? if the signal was just a bit stronger this phone would be perfect!

 

[walkingrock]

That won't work with a 4G phone.

I had not able to get a data signal at work with my S III; I had been able to with my previous phone, a Droid 2. I was extremely disappointed. I tried all kinds of various setting changes and apps, without improvement. Finally went to Verizon and spoke to them, was told to turn off the phone, in the location I was having trouble with, Turn it back on, dial *228, then #832. I was extremely skeptical. This is supposed to have something to do with getting the phone to "talk" to the closest tower or something. I tried it, and was very surprized that it worked. My work is in the basement of a large building, and is notoriously known for being difficult to get a signal. I paid the fee for breaking my contract with AT & T and came to Verizon because of that very issue (nearly 4 yrs ago). I don't know if this is something that will help others, I'm sure it depends on what the signal problem is. I was ready to get another Motorola phone!

 

[breeze]

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.

A couple of days ago I did the following measurements at my house:
4G LTE -111 dBm
3G -94 dBm
1x -93 dBm
I have no real explanation why the big difference between 4G and 3G (Verizon). My guess is I'm hitting different towers for 4G and 3G or the same tower and there are fewer antennas for 4g.

 

[leroybrute]

A couple of days ago I did the following measurements at my house:
4G LTE -111 dBm
3G -94 dBm
1x -93 dBm
I have no real explanation why the big difference between 4G and 3G (Verizon). My guess is I'm hitting different towers for 4G and 3G or the same tower and there are fewer antennas for 4g.

They are seperate radio's. I know 4G is on chip,but I believe 3G is not on chip.

 

[Wnrgway]

I was at a Verizon store yesterday and was checking reception on my phone to some other Android phones. It seemed a little worse than he nexus. Signal on other manufacturers were about 10 dbm better. My phone was similar to other gs3's there.

Just sitting at home now where I've had a lot of dropped calls and the bars jump fluctuate fairly rapidly from 0 to 4 bars.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[pblakk]

. Believe me, the MAXX is awesome but after seeing the 2 screens next to each other it makes me want to stay with the S3. Not sure what to do.
Make sure that if you are having similar issues with your VZW SGS3 that you call into VZW tech support and haven them open a support ticket.

But if you ended up with the MAXX, you would've maybe regretted it when the MAXX HD releases this Fall. S3 is a very sweet device, it's a shame. Very nice screen, and LIGHT device!

---------- Post Merged at 11:55 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:51 PM ----------

. Believe me, the MAXX is awesome but after seeing the 2 screens next to each other it makes me want to stay with the S3. Not sure what to do.
Make sure that if you are having similar issues with your VZW SGS3 that you call into VZW tech support and haven them open a support ticket.

But if you ended up with the MAXX, you would've maybe regretted it when the MAXX HD releases this Fall. S3 is a very sweet device, it's a shame. Very nice screen, and LIGHT device!

 

[cintate]

Just downloaded the app. Hoping it helps! Thanks for the info!!

 

[VeronicaTomlinson]

So these issues were posted in July. Here it is mid November and I just got the phone and am havineg the same issues. Has this just gotten brushed under the rug by Verizon? :-\

 

[steveh552]

So these issues were posted in July. Here it is mid November and I just got the phone and am havineg the same issues. Has this just gotten brushed under the rug by Verizon? :-\

I been dealing with it since I bought this phone in July. Tech support admitted that other phones hold signal better and offered me another model but nothing that is comparable with the s3.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[nj1266]

I want to register a complaint about the Galaxy S3 as well. My partner got one on October 22nd despite telling her NOT TO GET IT. I told her to get the iPhone 5 like I did. I have had an iphone 4 and a 5 without any dropped calls or choppy reception on the phone at our house. I have also had all other feature phones from a Samsung Rogue to a Motorola to an LG. No problem at all with dropped calls or reception where we live.

I tried so many tips that I found on Android forums to trouble shoot the phone but nothing worked. I tried downloading apps to boost the signal, but that did not work either. The reception was choppy and you could not hear half of the words from the person you are talking to. She also had a lot of dropped calls.

She made THREE trips to the Verizon store. The FIRST one, they replaced the SIM card with a newer model. The problem persisted. The SECOND trip, they told her to do a hard reset. When she came home, I did the hard reset. That did not fix the problem. She took the phone to Verizon the THIRD time and they ordered her another one. Today we got the refurbished phone, w/o a battery, w/o a back cover, and w/o a SIM card. PATHETIC. Now she has to make a FOURTH trip to the store to get a back cover, a battery, and get it activated.

I hope the refurbished phone works, but I have my doubts. This is a hardware problem with the radios that Samsung uses on their smartphones. The radios are weak and they cannot pick up a signal once it drops below a certain level. That is why some people get this problem and others do not. If you have a super strong signal at home, then you get no dropped calls and a clear conversation. If you have a less than strong signal, then that is when the trouble starts. You do not get that with the iphone or a motorola phone (my brother has an Atrix 2 and has no signal issues at my place) because the radios are better quality than the ones used on the GS3. One possible solution is to purchase a signal booster so the GS3 radios can pick up a stronger signal while in the house. But that means, she will have to pay $250 on top of the $200 she paid for the phone on contract.

I was contemplating getting the GS3 after I played with her phone for a while. There is a lot to like about the GS3, but if the phone does not work as a phone where I live, then there is no point in getting it.

 

[dubge]

what happened to the back cover, sim and battery from the original phone?

I have a GS3 from launch and have had very little signal issues and nothing that didn't improve with the newer ROMs (and radios) I put on the phone (yes I know not everyone roots and ROMs but just giving my .02)
Good luck with the replacement

 

[steveh552]

So after talking to Verizon once again I was told in the store by a sales rep that the S3s have weak antennas and that Iphones and Motorolas work much better in that department. I bit the bullet and ditched my S3, trying an Iphone 5, due to being a premium rewards zone member on Best Buy I get 60 days to decide if I like it. I am mixed, I like Android and the bigger screen, but this phone does work, holds signal and has no issues so far so that tells me the 2 GS3's both had weak antennas/radios

 

[broadwayblues]

So after talking to Verizon once again I was told in the store by a sales rep that the S3s have weak antennas and that Iphones and Motorolas work much better in that department. I bit the bullet and ditched my S3, trying an Iphone 5, due to being a premium rewards zone member on Best Buy I get 60 days to decide if I like it. I am mixed, I like Android and the bigger screen, but this phone does work, holds signal and has no issues so far so that tells me the 2 GS3's both had weak antennas/radios

I am in the same boat, fringe area and dropping LTE a lot. Have 4G and then bam, nothing. Then 4G again. Verizon actually upgraded hardware on the tower by me, but it didn't help.

My Wilson electronics LTE booster gives me full bars of LTE, and it's always worked great so I know it isn't the booster. Wife's Maxx is fine for the most part too.

Tired of weak Samsung radios, ready to just get a better phone, even if it a iPhone 5.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[VeronicaTomlinson]

I gave up on the S3 as well and went back to my iPhone 5 a few days ago. Best decision I ever made.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

FWIW, I'm running CleanROM 5.0 with latest Radio leak, and I believe most of the radio issues folks describe here have been fixed...it's just too bad Verizon won't release the JB update to help everyone out.

My signal wasn't great when I first got my phone, but right now I've got 3 bars of 3G at my desk at work, whereas a few weeks ago I could barely hold on to a 1X signal from this same spot.

 

[charlier180]

FWIW, I have found that my S3 has performed as well or even better than my old Moto Droid X. Recently, I visited friends who live in a rural area in Maryland. My old Droid X always had trouble holding 2 bars and 1X signal strength at their house. My S3 consistently provides 3 or more bars and 4G service with 12-20+ Mbps download speeds. I have had also seen good performance from my S3 in a number of other cities, states and rural areas in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and other states. I realize my results don't mean diddly to people that have had performance issues with their S3s. Personally, I am satisfied with the performance with my S3 and plan on keeping it. For those that are having performance issues with their S3 , I fully understand their frustration, concerns their need to find a solution that works for them.

 

[orgelbau]

I was checking out the RAZR Maxx HD in a VZ store today. When I checked the actual signal strength of CDMA and LTE using the Android Signal Info app on each device, the S3 reported stronger signal than the RAZR. They would leapfrog each other in CDMA strength but never get more than 4-5 db between them. But the S3 was consistently stronger for LTE strength and maintained a stronger reading for the entire 20 minutes I was playing around with the RAZR.

 

[briankoi]

I have just purchased Galaxy Nexus and having same issue. Prior I had 3g Iphone 4s withe excellent coverage with Verizon, at&t sucked.. I got no bar at my house and not getting messages my friends sent me. Called verizon tech for support but no solution. I really like the phone, i think its better than iphone now especially with jellybean app. Personally, looking at many blogs from these forums, Verizon 4G phones are having reception issues. Motorola, Samsumsung, and HTC all seem to be having an issue when I research it.. Verizon is know for excellent coverage and it did with 3G, but, now I have no doubt there is an issue they are admitting. Hopefully they will solve this issue because I really liked Verizon service...

 

[scruffy2k]

Hi gang. Quick condensed story. Been running old razor on at&t forever. Last aug. they changed something in their system and since then comm has been almost impossible as you only get short pieces of words coming across. Finally after bugging them almost to the point of getting kicked off, I gave up and thought I would try tmobile and a new smartphone. Got a pair of htc one S but they had the 4.0.4 upgrade and they were doing weird stuff in this fringe area, like data roaming when they shouldn't. Talked tmobile into sending me 2 galaxy s3 as replacement. Signal strength seemed aprox. comparable between the HTC and Samsung: lousy in this area with between 0 and 2 bars, and data flipping between showing 4g and Edge constantly. Ok. at least the s3 was staying on channel and was able to pull data. Customer service with tmobile was offering differing opinions about how much satuation I should have in my area. This lead me to investigate the antenna situation on the S3. I had done that already with the htc and had noted the antennas that were foil on the reverse side of the lower cover. So I took the s3 apart and noted how the antennas on the s3 are also foil only much smaller, more like two little squares that are underneath the clipon sub cover on the s3. the one you have to take the 8 or so little screws out to take off. So nothing unusual there. I was noting that the S3 had MORE SIGNAL strength with the back cover removed. What is called the Battery Door. The back cover that you remove with your fingernail to get in to change the sim card or the battery, that door. Ok, I found with the back door removed my signal strength WENT UP by about a bar or 2. Well that was highly interesting. Being a retired rf engineer I thought it was really interesting. At first I thought the problem was something to do with the material used in making the rear door. But that was not the problem. The attenuation seemed to occur when I snapped the last snaps further up the phone towards the top, as I would watch the signal strength while putting the battery door back on. Then I found the problem and I wasnt rf attenuation from the back cover. I found I could raise the sensitivity by 1 to 2 bars by simply raising the BATTERY up SLIGHTLY from that white pad that it lays against when its snapped into its little square space. I took a few pieces of Clear Tape like scotch tape and folded them over sticky to sticky and made a little clear plastic bed that goes in under the battery. Build it up with a few layers, there is some room to play with as the tape is very thin. If you use too much tape and make a battery bed that is too thick then the battery wont clip in and the back wont go on and you will know you over did it. This easy mod gets the battery up off of the bottom of the battery compartment and that seems to LOWER the amount of electronic hash that is ruining reception on the cell phone transponder and also the wi fi perks up a few bars too. I have done this to 3 hand units so far with the same good results. Also hold the s3 from the top of the unit, not the bottom. TRY THIS MOD. put a few layers of plastic tape under the battery, close it up and see what happens. over and out.