Weird reception issues-- software, sim card, or bad phone?

kludgineer

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I bought my new One S right after they were released, but just a few days before I moved from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR. Ever since I moved I have noticed poor reception, and it seems to be getting worse, though that might just be a perception issue.

Part of the problem is certainly that both my home and office are in areas of town with poor reception. Because of that, I initially assumed it was just a fact of life, and I was working so much for the first few months I was in town that I really didn't have much time to even notice that there was a problem.

A few days ago, though, I was in a part of town that I knew should have good coverage, but I was getting no signal at all. I rebooted the phone and immediately got 5 bars. A few minutes later, I was back to no signal. Rebooted again and 5 bars again. I have since learned that switching into and back out of airplane mode usually, but not always, fixes the problem without rebooting.

I went to the T-Mobile store and they said it sounded like a sim card issue and issued a new one, but it does not seem to have helped. Is there a history of these phones having flaky reception? A quick search of the forums shows a couple similar issues, but no solutions seem to be suggested.

I've already tried a factory reset with no apparent change.

I am wondering what the next step should be. Is it worth changing ROMs? Anything else I should try before exchanging phones?

Thanks in advance!
 

Ryandroid86

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First off.... Replaceing a ROM will not fix this issue.... Replacing your Radio could fix the issue, but most likely not... Here is the issue

Phone companies have to find a balance between Radio reception and getting cancer because of radio waves. Phones have to pass many tests in America which are more strict than others. Each company has a different way of constructing the hardware (antenna) which could lead to poor reception because of placement and body construction.

With that said.... My Data connection sucks and Vegas is great for Tmo. I tried Rooting and making changes but it only made it worse. So I Unrooted.

Last point. Tmobile is currently reframing the Network and will be completed by the end of this year. Once its completed you will need a new sim card to access the new reframed network. Which means less likely to jump between 2G and 4G.

When you are in a poor area with 4G, the phone will try to connect via 4G which will lesson how many bars you have (CDMA network) Tmo is mostly a GSM network, Youll notice that when you are on 2G you will have full bars. Thats the reason why. Just hang in there till the reframing is finished.
 

kludgineer

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Phone companies have to find a balance between Radio reception and getting cancer because of radio waves. Phones have to pass many tests in America which are more strict than others. Each company has a different way of constructing the hardware (antenna) which could lead to poor reception because of placement and body construction.

When you are in a poor area with 4G, the phone will try to connect via 4G which will lesson how many bars you have (CDMA network) Tmo is mostly a GSM network, Youll notice that when you are on 2G you will have full bars. Thats the reason why. Just hang in there till the reframing is finished.

I think you missed a key point, though... I am NOT in an area with poor reception-- at least not always. Even in areas with 5 bars of signal, my phone will frequently show no signal at all. Rebooting the phone will suddenly show 5 bars again. A few minutes later-- without moving-- I will have no signal again, and rebooting again (or usually entering airplane mode) will bring me back to 5 bars.

Because airplane mode usually fixes the problem, I tend to think it is a software issue, not a hardware issue.
 
Jul 19, 2012
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I am having the same problem, I asked my friend and he told me that the antenna is built in the panal that hides the sim card in the back, oh called HTC and they are going to send me a new back and I will see if that works

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Android Central Forums
 

kludgineer

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Just gonna add one more thing here... It may be related to WiFi calling. The problem may have started when I started using WiFi calling at home to deal with the poor connectivity here, however disabling wifi calling did not seem to fix the problem. It would still lose signal regardless of the WiFi calling setting.

When I did the factory reset, it restored my previous settings, including reactivating wifi calling, which I did not notice at first. Turning off WiFi calling after the reset seems to have helped, but it is probably too soon to say. I will watch it for another day or so and see what happens.
 

djdanska

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I was having the same issue and eventually just unlocked the bootloader and loaded a newer radio. (Im using the 21 one i believe) and the issue completely went away and i get much much better reception. And it's stable.
 

Ryandroid86

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I think you missed a key point, though... I am NOT in an area with poor reception-- at least not always. Even in areas with 5 bars of signal, my phone will frequently show no signal at all. Rebooting the phone will suddenly show 5 bars again. A few minutes later-- without moving-- I will have no signal again, and rebooting again (or usually entering airplane mode) will bring me back to 5 bars.

Because airplane mode usually fixes the problem, I tend to think it is a software issue, not a hardware issue.

Sorry, sometimes I have a hard time staying on track. I meant to tell you, Our phones jump between CDMA and GSM. (too much in my opinion) and in doing so.... I have noticed that the phone will lose signal (Its happened to me too) I feel like its a software issue (HTC not android) mixed with a Radio issue. But I feel like after the Reframing.... things will get better.... atleast I hope
 

tuffy54

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I bought a One S right when it came out. Had to return it because the headphone jack broke. The replacement device that TMo sent me had terrible reception issues. I only got a signal (not just data... any signal) about 50% of the time in all the same locations that used to work fine.

Interesting sidenote: I finally got them to send me a 3rd device. That just came in a few minutes ago, and feels considerably heavier than the current One S. I wonder if something inside has changed.
 

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