cell reception issue?

[oldAGE]

AGE, I'm also using a Network Extender at home due to really poor Verizon signal. I find that the Fascinate doesn't even report a strong signal when in the same room as the NE. My Droid would get down to -67 or so. The Fascinate shows -85 dBm when its literally 12 feet away from the extender.

As for the cell standby issue, it might be a bug with the software. Droid Eris and even Droid 1 owners sometimes had this issue. The cell standby shouldn't be any higher than the teens, it definitely shouldn't be 30% or more.

Xliderider - with it over my head and behind me by 4', I range from 2 to 4 bars with a signal of no better than -86 dBm. I consider this good in my book as I don't think I have ever seen anything better than an -84 or so with my Storm... and that's anywhere and I travel everywhere... I dream of "decent" signals
AGE

 

[Sabban]

on my fascinate here is what i've seen:

-86dBm is 4 bars
-91dBm is 3 bars
-96dBm is 2 bars

thats what i range between. think i've only seen -101dBm two or three times since i got the phone.

 

[oldAGE]

on my fascinate here is what i've seen:

-86dBm is 4 bars
-91dBm is 3 bars
-96dBm is 2 bars

thats what i range between. think i've only seen -101dBm two or three times since i got the phone.

I have opened a ticket with Verizon as in my 2700 sq. ft. home with your standard 2 x 4 inner wall construction, I get 0 to 1 bar and even down to 1X in my kitchen which is around 65 floor feet from my Extender. That ranges from -101 to -106 dBm. My wife's Droid X usually reports one bar better than me on average. Again, my Storm reported much better service even outside through insulated 2x6 construction on my deck and on my patio (over 90ft. away on the deck and down a half flight on the patio). What's offensive to me is using the Extender is that I am carrying the local loop of my service and still paying Verizon Wireless.

 

[earsly]

Did any of you guys return your phone and get a replacement that had better signal? I went to the store yesterday and the tech says my phone is fine. I had to argue to get them to send me a new one.

My phone goes from 2 bars to 0 bars and uses a large percentage of my battery when I'm on the phone. I guess it's struggling to find good 3g signal. I have never had any signal problems with my tour, storm, bold, dare, and Q.

Anyways, VZ is sending me a refurbished phone soon and I hope this one has better reception. If not, I guess I'll look to trade someone for an X.

 

[Chris3D]

I had really bad reception, rarely above -106dBm, and it killed my battery life. The cell standby battery usage was typically 60% to 65% if I recall correctly.

Hard to believe all these problems are defective units - either a radio is good and works, or it's bad and doesn't. I just don't think radios are so hard to manufacture that the performance would vary so much from one unit to another.

It'd really be nice to have some idea of whether this is simply an inherently weak radio/antennae design or a software bug/optimization issue.

 

[tchaney86]

My Fascinate is absolutely horrible with reception. I have 0 bars in places where my friends D1 has full service. I watch the phone go from 3 bars to 1 bar to 2 bars back to 3 bars. Its crazy how much it changes when I know im in a spot that has service. Cell Standby is usually right under Display in the battery stats. I took the phone to verizon and they did some stupid #228 update thing and handed the phone back to me. Complete waste of time that was. Has anyone fixed this issue by using a modded baseband or something to improve the signal?

 

[chaddymoff]

Used to have issues with reception both at my office and at home with the Incredible. Switched to the Fascinate and I can't get a call to blip, let alone drop. Can't say I pay attention to bars, but Fascinate remedied my DInc reception issues.

 

[joebob2000]

My Fascinate is absolutely horrible with reception. I have 0 bars in places where my friends D1 has full service. I watch the phone go from 3 bars to 1 bar to 2 bars back to 3 bars. Its crazy how much it changes when I know im in a spot that has service. Cell Standby is usually right under Display in the battery stats. I took the phone to verizon and they did some stupid #228 update thing and handed the phone back to me. Complete waste of time that was. Has anyone fixed this issue by using a modded baseband or something to improve the signal?

Keep complaining, go back to the store and demand a new one. There will be no magic baseband fix for the phone (not any time soon anyhow) so if you want to make it better you need to just swap it out. I have found the bars to be somewhat inconsistent, too; but when it comes time to make a call it always goes through. That's what counts. I have even started playing the "how much 3g" game when i am out on the town and bored. The speedtest.net app is fast, and i can find out if i really have a good signal or if the bars are lying to me.

 

[tchaney86]

Thanks for the replies. I would take the phone back to verizon but I bought the phone brand new unopened off ebay. So i am not sure if they will replace the phone for me considering i didnt buy it from verizon.

 

[droidX1991]

they wont

 

[tchaney86]

oh yes they will!!! lol Verizon is sending me a replacement Fascinate as I type. Hopefully this one is better.

 

[earsly]

I got a replacement phone and its the same issue. This phone just doesn't have great reception. I live in San Jose, CA and usually I always have good reception. Oh well.

 

[storm6610]

I think some of the reception issues..the GPS issues...the Sidetone issues...all have to do with the radio/modem as it is referred to.

If you really do a lot of investigating on the subject, you will see that one of the 'fixes' that Samsung is pushing with Froyo (Anytime now VZW and Samsung, we are all patiently waiting ) is a fix for the GPS/Modem issues.

Lets hope..let me say that again...lets hope that fixes all the common complaints we all rant about.

The humorous part of this is if you ask VZW about these issues...whether it be your rep or customer service or someone in the store...they look at you like "Huh..really?? We have never heard this nonsense before"

Anyone who has cruised Android Central Forums probably has witnessed the timely responses from the dev Maildroid Developer...Even if you don't use his program, you probably appreciate that he is a dev who puts in hours to respond to his customer base.

Why some of the cell phone companies or manufacturers can't have a PR department that responds to their customers (Motorola kind of does I guess), is amazing to me....

 

[joebob2000]

I am convinced there is a bug in the radio, the battery usage app, or both. I have started paying attention to the "cell standby" entry in battery usage and it is reporting an *absurd* 40+% "time without signal" on a regular basis. Day to day, i am *never* in an area without signal for more than a minute or two at a time. Now, it is suggesting i spent the last hour and a half (out of three and a half ours unplugged) without a signal. Either the bars are lying or the battery usage meter is lying...

 

[tchaney86]

Yea, there is definitely something wrong. With nothing open and i hold the phone i have full bars. ( very rare to have full bars but i do here at work ) Now when i open up the Market it shoots down to 1 bar of service. I close the Market and back up to full bars. Yea, figure that one out.

 

[storm6610]

Don't think there is any rhyme or reason to it all. It's bugged.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

[tchaney86]

Just got my replacement Fascinate. Same exact problem. What a waste of time. Is there an android phone that doesn't have any problems?

 

[NickA]

Just got my replacement Fascinate. Same exact problem. What a waste of time. Is there an android phone that doesn't have any problems?

There's never a perfect phone. Don't blame it on Android; it just runs on the hardware.

 

[wowser]

I got a replacement phone and its the same issue. This phone just doesn't have great reception. I live in San Jose, CA and usually I always have good reception. Oh well.

Same for me. I'm also from San Jose and my Blackberry Tour signal was solid as a rock. I just took my phone off of the charger an hour ago and i'm down 12% and "Cell Standby" is taking 46% of the battery? I used to get full signal in my house with the Blackberry and the Fascinate shows 1-2 bars in my house. Why the heck is the phone losing signal???

 

[peconomou]

I'm having the same problem. I always have full service at my house, regardless of carrier...but for some reason its 1-3 bars and 600-800kbps.

Seems crappy. I'll stick with the phone regardless, but I really hope they fix the issue.