Signal/Call Quality issues. Please help!

[mjesenovec]

1) I've done tons of searching and haven't found an answer. I am running KaosFroyo v34 with the newest baseband, and my signal bars not working properly are driving me nuts. Is there any way to fix this?

2) I have always gotten full signal in my house on all of my verizon phones. i had to call a guy i work with about some priority computer issues i had to take care of, and he say he could barely hear me. he said the sound quality on my phone was complete garbage. I know on my droid, i was able to do the ##PROGRAM trick to change the compression method of voice signals, but the standard password of 000000 does NOT work on my ERIS...so i can't change this setting.

Any help to make me not hate my eris would be greatly appreciated!

 

[doogald]

1) I've done tons of searching and haven't found an answer. I am running KaosFroyo v34 with the newest baseband, and my signal bars not working properly are driving me nuts. Is there any way to fix this?

2) I have always gotten full signal in my house on all of my verizon phones. i had to call a guy i work with about some priority computer issues i had to take care of, and he say he could barely hear me. he said the sound quality on my phone was complete garbage. I know on my droid, i was able to do the ##PROGRAM trick to change the compression method of voice signals, but the standard password of 000000 does NOT work on my ERIS...so i can't change this setting.

Any help to make me not hate my eris would be greatly appreciated!

The ##PST does not work on the Eris Froyo ROMs, but it does work on 2.1 ROMs. You could Nandroid backup KF, install Plain Jane (or Nandroid restore a 2.1 ROM that you may have a backup for already), do the programming, then Nandroid Restore KF and see what happens.

You could also try just doing a complete wipe and reinstall of KF and see if that helps. You may want to install the CFS V4 kernel as well - flash it right after KF V34. I'm not sure if the kernel would affect the radio, but, since it's not working anyway, it's worth a try.

[GPL]2.6.29.6 CFS Kernel V4 9/6/10 - xda-developers

If it's any consolation, I have been running KF for weeks and nobody has complained about voice quality while on calls, so there is nothing about KF that should ruin call quality.

 

[mjesenovec]

The ##PST does not work on the Eris Froyo ROMs, but it does work on 2.1 ROMs. You could Nandroid backup KF, install Plain Jane (or Nandroid restore a 2.1 ROM that you may have a backup for already), do the programming, then Nandroid Restore KF and see what happens.

You could also try just doing a complete wipe and reinstall of KF and see if that helps. You may want to install the CFS V4 kernel as well - flash it right after KF V34. I'm not sure if the kernel would affect the radio, but, since it's not working anyway, it's worth a try.

[GPL]2.6.29.6 CFS Kernel V4 9/6/10 - xda-developers

If it's any consolation, I have been running KF for weeks and nobody has complained about voice quality while on calls, so there is nothing about KF that should ruin call quality.

Thanks for the tip. I'm already using that kernel. seems to be doing well as far as stability goes. i'm hoping a new version of KF will somehow remedy my signal bar issue. it's really tough to judge how my phone is doing or how it will effect battery life if i never see it go above 2 bars. I ranges from 0-2 bars all the time...when i have had full bars at home and at the office on every other phone i've had. it's just weird. gotta be a bug in the OS or something.

It's too bad that the ##PST doesn't work on the eris froyo roms. at this point, i dont know if my signal quality issues have any impact on my call quality...but so far i can't say i'm overly impressed with the phone. I tried to make the best out a less than desirable situation, but it has become frustrating. I'm impressed that the eris is as smooth as it is overlclocked to 748mhz and using Launcher Pro...it's almost as smooth as my droid was. it's just that if i can't make quality calls, or get a decent signal with this phone, i might start feeling like an AT&T customer...and i definitely don't want that

This phone call I made tonight wasn't the first time i've had the person on the other end complain about my voice quality. My girlfriend mentioned it sometime last week too. I rarely make calls, but when i do they should be able to hear me. Now i'm wondering if something is wrong with the phone itself...

 

[doogald]

I'm impressed that the eris is as smooth as it is overlclocked to 748mhz and using Launcher Pro...it's almost as smooth as my droid was. it's just that if i can't make quality calls, or get a decent signal with this phone, i might start feeling like an AT&T customer...and i definitely don't want that

This phone call I made tonight wasn't the first time i've had the person on the other end complain about my voice quality. My girlfriend mentioned it sometime last week too. I rarely make calls, but when i do they should be able to hear me. Now i'm wondering if something is wrong with the phone itself...

748 MHz may be too fast for your phone. Some phones don't work well over 710. Try bringing it down to 710 and see if that is better.

The Eris's radio is not great, and the signal meter is never reliable. I can have a really strong signal and show a single bar.

Speaking of the radio, you say that you have the latest baseband, but what is the version on your phone? Settings->About phone, baseband version. Strangely enough, if it is 2.42.01.04.27 and you are still having signal issues, it may be that an older baseband version would be better (though I'd make that the last thing that you try - flashing radios is risky.)

After running KF for weeks, for a change I'ved decided to try CELB Froyo myself. The main reason is that I am having some weirdness myself with KF. For me the major thing is that the market is flaky; it doesn't always complete downloads and installs, and it hasn't been checking for new versions of my apps for a while. I'm going to see how CELB does. You may want to try another of the Froyo ROMs, just to see if it's KF that is not working on your phone.

All that said, again, I would start at setting the max CPU at 710. Also, if you are using the SetCPU widget on a homescreen, remove it - it is notorious for lag, and perhaps it's causing issues when you are on calls.

 

[mjesenovec]

748 MHz may be too fast for your phone. Some phones don't work well over 710. Try bringing it down to 710 and see if that is better.

The Eris's radio is not great, and the signal meter is never reliable. I can have a really strong signal and show a single bar.

Speaking of the radio, you say that you have the latest baseband, but what is the version on your phone? Settings->About phone, baseband version. Strangely enough, if it is 2.42.01.04.27 and you are still having signal issues, it may be that an older baseband version would be better (though I'd make that the last thing that you try - flashing radios is risky.)

After running KF for weeks, for a change I'ved decided to try CELB Froyo myself. The main reason is that I am having some weirdness myself with KF. For me the major thing is that the market is flaky; it doesn't always complete downloads and installs, and it hasn't been checking for new versions of my apps for a while. I'm going to see how CELB does. You may want to try another of the Froyo ROMs, just to see if it's KF that is not working on your phone.

All that said, again, I would start at setting the max CPU at 710. Also, if you are using the SetCPU widget on a homescreen, remove it - it is notorious for lag, and perhaps it's causing issues when you are on calls.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try to see if i can find an older baseband, since the version you mentioned is the one i have. I dont ever use the setcpu widget, so i can rule that out. I actually dont use any widgets other than the power widget. that way, i dont have silly stuff i dont need boggind down my phone. No widgets, not live wallpapers, no nothing. just some shortcuts, app icons, and that's it. i like to keep my phone simple and stripped down for speed and reliability. i'm not sure if i would want to flash an older baseband. the whole point of upgrading it is that it should improve performance. i think the visual signal bar issues is more of a bug in the eris specific OS's than anything else. the phone knows if it has a good signal or not, it's the OS that decides how to deal with it. so we'll see, maybe i'll just hold out for some newer releases of KA.

what are your thoughts on the CELB versus KA? is CELB better in your opinion? what are some main differences?

 

[doogald]

i'm not sure if i would want to flash an older baseband. the whole point of upgrading it is that it should improve performance.

Again, some people noticed reduced performance after the radio came out, but I think that most people noticed no difference. I would not flash a radio except as a last resort myself.

Another thing that you may want to do first, if you have not already, is to update the PRL (Preferred Roaming List) by dialing *228 and then choosing option 2 (you have to long-press the menu key to get the keyboard in the dialer in KF - another mini-bug. You can also dial *22899 to automatically do option 1 [activation] and option 2 [PRL] in the same call.) It could be that there is a tower that you could roam to but the outdated PRL in the phone isn't aware of that tower.

what are your thoughts on the CELB versus KF? is CELB better in your opinion? what are some main differences?

I'll reply back in a few days after I've used it for a while. As of right now, they are extremely similar. However, the things that I have noticed:

- CELB is bigger - I have less free internal phone storage - maybe 7-10 MB less? That said, it's easy enough to remove the stuff that I don't need.

- KF flashes the trackball for notifications, which I really, really like (I find it easier to notice at a glance that I have notifications than the LED flash.) With CELB you need to go into Settings->Cyanogenmod Settings->User Interface->LED Notifications and, on an app by app basis, set the LED flash color to green or orange for those apps for which you want notifications, and it is the charging LED, not the trackball.

All that said, once that second part was set, everything has been fine. I still haven't had any phone calls, so it's hard to judge that. So far, everything else has been fine and, again, one of the reasons that I switched was because KF's market seems weird to me. Anyway, as I said, I ran KF for several weeks, so I want to try CELB for a while before I can fully decide.