I was checking my battery use details and I noticed something about my cell standby...first of all it is using about 36% of my battery (is this normal?). Also, I noticed it said that 50% of the time it is without a signal...I consistently have at least 3 bars of 3G coverage, how is it possible that 50% of the time I am without a signal?
Cell Standby...NO cell signal?
- Thread starter miamifin33
- Start date
Because your 3G bars are not cell radio (1x/CDMA) signal. This signal is the dbm signal strength readout under Settings -> About Phone - Phone Status page.
And thats not good. Ideally that should say Time without signal: <10% at most. Any higher and it will degrade your active battery life.
And thats not good. Ideally that should say Time without signal: <10% at most. Any higher and it will degrade your active battery life.
So how do I go about correcting this? Because I do have battery issues and maybe this is the cause. Do I need to get a replacement unit? I was home all day today and never have signal problems, nor have I ever with previous phones.
Also, what's a good dBm strength?
Well buddy if you were home all day and you had a Time without Signal of about 50%, I hate to break it to you but your house is a dead zone. I had this issue for the last 3 years with my home being a dead zone for all cellular activity. On my old LG Voyager that showed both 3G and 1x bars, I'd have 3-4 constant bars for 3G and only 1 or no bars for 1x. This was consistent even after getting my Droid X, its just less up front about showing you your true radio signal.
A good signal strength is -50 to -85 dbm. This will allow you to make calls without voice chop or dropping. Any higher than -85 and you start to see some quality issues. -100 and up expect to miss calls completely as you have no signal. Note this also affects texting SMS. If your dbm is very low (ie - -85+) expect your texts to either take awhile to push/receive or even worse expect to NEVER send/receive them.
The solution for me was to buy a Verizon Network Extender. I hooked it up, ran the GPS antenna cable to my nearest window, and in 10 minutes I was up and running. Basically now I get constant 4 bars on my old phones, and my signal strength dbm is now -60 and lower. My Cell Standby never reads anything more than 0%, and this is because when you leave the vicinity of your network extender, it has to switch networks to the nearest cell tower. So theres an intermittent pause between towers where you have no signal for approx <5 seconds. No big deal and won't affect battery any.
I hope this helps. (please click thanks
)
A good signal strength is -50 to -85 dbm. This will allow you to make calls without voice chop or dropping. Any higher than -85 and you start to see some quality issues. -100 and up expect to miss calls completely as you have no signal. Note this also affects texting SMS. If your dbm is very low (ie - -85+) expect your texts to either take awhile to push/receive or even worse expect to NEVER send/receive them.
The solution for me was to buy a Verizon Network Extender. I hooked it up, ran the GPS antenna cable to my nearest window, and in 10 minutes I was up and running. Basically now I get constant 4 bars on my old phones, and my signal strength dbm is now -60 and lower. My Cell Standby never reads anything more than 0%, and this is because when you leave the vicinity of your network extender, it has to switch networks to the nearest cell tower. So theres an intermittent pause between towers where you have no signal for approx <5 seconds. No big deal and won't affect battery any.
I hope this helps. (please click thanks
)I have noticed that mine has had a relatively high time without signal, too. Also , I noticed that the "voice calls" take a huge amount of my battery life! right now, my signal stength is -100 dBm......yet the 3G signal stength is 4 bars. There is a VZW tower aabout 1/2 a mile from my house.
I just saw the CNET prizefight between the DInc and the DX, and they said they got 7+ hours of talk time out of the DX!!! I doubt mine could go more than 2 hours...tops!
I just saw the CNET prizefight between the DInc and the DX, and they said they got 7+ hours of talk time out of the DX!!! I doubt mine could go more than 2 hours...tops!
Its because of that ugly -100dBm you got there QuadCam. Try walking outside in the open and see if you can get your dBm much lower, to like -70 or so. If so then your house is a dead zone too 
My dBm is a constant -84 almost anywhere I go. And no matter what, the time without a signal for me is 50%...even after reboots, so maybe it's not accurate? I don't miss calls or drop calls or experience poor call quality at all.
What affect would that have? And are there any draw backs to doing it? If not, then why isn't every phone shipped with updated roaming capabilities.
For me I live in a high mountain range and forest so I have super spotty signal and 3G coverage and I updated that and now it seems I always have at least 2 bars and 3G
I update about once a month which is recommended by Verizon. Roaming capabilities are constantly changing because of new towers and new system upgrades. It usually makes some kind of difference so try it and see.
It should update your PRL version # which on my phone is 51926. If you haven't done it, yours is probably lower. It's under Settings > About Phone > at the bottom.
Did you check immediately? It usually takes a minute to settle in...you should see your bars disappear and come back. How it usually works for me.
I'm at -85 at home which is passable for me. Dropped called on the Storm all the time but only dropped 1 on the X so far.
I'm at -85 at home which is passable for me. Dropped called on the Storm all the time but only dropped 1 on the X so far.
It seems to have settled down to about -82, but I'm only getting one bar of service compared to 3 or 4 before the update...who knows. Ive never had a drop call though. I'm more concerned with the weak signal killing my battery.
Well I'm certainly no expert on when signal strength (or lack thereof) begins killing battery life.
It may be contributing to poor life for me as well as the two main places I spend my time have generally good 3G service but 1 bar 1x.
It may be contributing to poor life for me as well as the two main places I spend my time have generally good 3G service but 1 bar 1x.
I just did some testing walking around and outside I got up to -70 but was still at 1 bar. At what dBm should the phone change to 2 bars and then 3 etc.?
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