No 3g or 4g all day. Just about had it with the Thunderbolt

NHBass39

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Any ideas whats up with this? I am just about ready to trash this phone and go back to the (reliable everything works) Incredible. I tried many restarts also. Any help would be apprecitated. BTW that was the guy right next to me has the incredible and had a strong 3g signal all day. He was laughing at me and said hows the Thunderjunk doing and signal yet.... :mad::mad::mad:
 

project.in.process

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oy. yeah that would make me a little angry.
question: have you tried the Phone Info trick/hack?

download Phone Info from the market to do this easier than the Dialer Code
open the app, and then go into Phone Information--then scroll down to the 1st drop down menu (it'll say CDMA + LTE/EVDO AUTO)--
tap the menu--switch it to CDMA auto (PRL)
this turns the phone to receive 3G signal only.
instsantly, you should see the top of the screen @ the notification bar change and a few seconds later a 3g icon appear

reason i'm saying this--
i had it on CDMA + LTE EvDo auto since i bought it--but would suffer when not around a 4g signal, wouldn't ever even pick up 1x. so i switched it to CDMA auto (PRL) and now i get 3G signal everywhere that i couldn't get 4g signal.

give that a whirl---if you already have, then forget i said it :)

granted--this doesn't fix the reason why you're not getting signal everywhere,
but like me,
you couldn't get 4g or 3g signal. so, i told the phone to search for 3g signal only--and voila, it worked. i picked up 3g in the same exact spot that 2 minutes earlier received none.

edit: updated to include Phone Info market link
 
Last edited:

project.in.process

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no problem.
for some reason--when left on "cdma + LTE EvDo auto"--the phone won't allow the 3g radio to really receive any signal, it'll only get 1x & 4g. so, this kind of circumvents that issue.
also, i edited the post to include the Phone Info app link

hope it works!
 

AubreyPage

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I had similar issues. Turned out to be a defective phone. Second one is fine. I do keep it in 3G mode as explained above since I am not in a 4G area. Thoughts are that this increases battery life and makes the 3G connection more solid.
 

project.in.process

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yeah--good point AubreyPage.

O/P, you may want to go to an area VZW corporate store & ask to see a Thunderbolt

if the display TB has 4g signal, and you do not--then the phone itself is probably defective and you need to swap it.
 

RetiredJedi

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Jul 13, 2010
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yeah--good point AubreyPage.

O/P, you may want to go to an area VZW corporate store & ask to see a Thunderbolt

if the display TB has 4g signal, and you do not--then the phone itself is probably defective and you need to swap it.

Yea I just wanna add that it may be a tower signal issue. The other day when I first discovered 4G here I was trying it out and couldn't get 3G or 4G signal at work and was getting a little mad so I switch off the 4G since we just got it here in Columbia. My connection was back to normal. However today I had strong 4G signal every where and no issues at all.
 

pheatton

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I had this same issue today. No 3g signal since about 1PM. I have mine set the 3g already. Reboot and pulled the battery. Then it just came back after awhile. Possibly VZW doing some maint in the area?
 

steve0617

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This happens to me too - ALL THE ******* TIME.

If I leave it as 4G as it should be, it'll drop out of 4g and go to.... nothing. Sometimes it'll then pop up as 1X, then 3G, then nothing, then 4g then whatever. Navigation is unusable. Pandora too.

Unless I turn off the 4G back to Auto PRL with Phone Info, it NEVER WORKS dropping into 3G.

This is bull****. I will NEVER be an early adopter again.

As much as I HATED AT&T's data network here in Denver (slow as hell), at least the damn iPhone worked.
 

menji

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I realized the other day i have massive 4g connection issues at school. if it cant find 4g, it keeps bouncing all over the place, in the process draining the battery in a couple of hours. luckily i turn off the 4g when I'm there, and i realized the other day my battery is totally killer while only on 3g. in any case i can totally live with this fix for now. do hope they fix it though. lol
 

DroidXcon

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This happens to me too - ALL THE ******* TIME.

If I leave it as 4G as it should be, it'll drop out of 4g and go to.... nothing. Sometimes it'll then pop up as 1X, then 3G, then nothing, then 4g then whatever. Navigation is unusable. Pandora too.

Unless I turn off the 4G back to Auto PRL with Phone Info, it NEVER WORKS dropping into 3G.

This is bull****. I will NEVER be an early adopter again.

As much as I HATED AT&T's data network here in Denver (slow as hell), at least the damn iPhone worked.

Please watch with the language....but i get that problem to , very annoying i cant wait to move on from this phone
 

steve0617

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Please watch with the language....but i get that problem to , very annoying i cant wait to move on from this phone

Sorry. Just ticked that I took an ETF to move to VZW expecting and buying into the VZW is better and they test the hell out of their stuff and it just works.
 

dannofoo

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Try this...

I believe your issue is with the eHRPD 3G connection. I had problems when I first got the phone.

dial ##778#
select 'edit mode'
password 000000
scroll down to 'modem settings'
select 'Rev. A' and change it from 'eHRPD' to 'Enable'

That will put it on the normal 3G service.

The eHRPD setting is new and is used for simultaneous talk and data. It was broken when I first got the phone. I actually switched it back to eHRPD a few days ago and haven't had issues. It could be fixed just in Southern CA.
 

FingerLakesBBUser

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Apr 21, 2011
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I had the same issue with my Thunderbolt. I had it for a week and when I was at work it would constantly go from displaying a perfect 3G signal (-65 dbm) in my office to displaying absolutely no coverage whatsoever (>-120 dbm). I called Verizon and they told me that I was in a known "low coverage" area. I knew this was not true because my co-workers that had other Verizon 3G phones had near perfect signal strength. I was also told that the Thunderbolt is "a 4G phone that happens to do 3G." What this means is it will look for a 4G signal first and if it cannot find one, it will dial down to 3G but since it is always looking for a 4G signal, it might have that behavior. They also said that they might be testing 4G in my area (Raleigh, NC) and that might have something to do with the problem.

Eventually I got fed up with the issue and decided to get a Droid X on a 1 year contract to give Verizon/HTC to work out the bugs with the Thunderbolt. In 1 year hopefully LTE will be more mature with better devices on the market to support it.
 

steve0617

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I believe your issue is with the eHRPD 3G connection. I had problems when I first got the phone.

dial ##778#
select 'edit mode'
password 000000
scroll down to 'modem settings'
select 'Rev. A' and change it from 'eHRPD' to 'Enable'

That will put it on the normal 3G service.

The eHRPD setting is new and is used for simultaneous talk and data. It was broken when I first got the phone. I actually switched it back to eHRPD a few days ago and haven't had issues. It could be fixed just in Southern CA.

I should have said I have done that too. If, in my case, if I leave it in 3G eHPRD, and just turn off the 4G, it STILL screws up. Just not as often.

I have to turn off the 4G with Phone Info and the eHRPD with ##778#.

So basically, to make the latest and greatest phone even work reliably, I have to neuter the two features that are supposed to stand out.
 

droid83

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I had to switch to 3G this past weekend. 4G was nowhere on my phone. I usually get strong at home. Never had to used to LTE switch app til the weekend. Love the phone. Hoping that upcoming update will cure it all
 

ckelly33

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I haven't as I don't want to risk a unapproved update. It could be the phone itself is fine but Denver's just messed up.

I can tell you that it isn't just Denver. I'm in TN and returned my phone because of this. I'm watching closely so that when it is fixed, I can go get a new phone!
 

dlongb13

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I think you are all overreacting and not noticing a trend here. For starters the majority of you are complaining that this issue has started, not had it since the purchase, although some of you have stated other wise. Personally I had this start happening to me this morning and throughout the day, annoying, for sure, the end of the world, no way. With all the testing they have been doing lately and with the launch of 4g in about 10 cities tomorrow, I am not surprised they are having some network issues. These things have to be worked out, just relax.

As for the phones inability to switch from 4G to 3G properly, this will be addressed, and well if has been addressed in the leaked update which I have since flashed. Also we can all hope that in a future update VZW gives its users the ability to turn off 4G in the normal settings menu. All phones launch with issues, name a phone that worked perfectly at launch. Especially a first of its kind phone. If after an update or two things aren't working correctly, then sure by all means, complain away. But you all knew what you were getting into when you decided to get this phone.
 

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