possible broken antenna on my galaxy s6?

[Android Central Question]

hi. i had an OTA udate a few weeks back. since then my galaxy s6 flat will not connect to 3 or 4g. i have tried all possible software fixes, even rooting phone and trying custom roms thinking it was a software issue but still had the same issue. just out of boredom today, i set it to 2g only and viola! it stays connected. I can only now assume that there is a problem with the antenna. has anyone else experienced this and if so, is there a fix? can i replace the antenna wire maybe? id rather not get rid of an otherwise great phone. thanks in advance

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! What's the exact model number of the phone? Do you know if someone may have flashed a different variant's firmware to the phone prior to purchase, in order to make it compatible with your region or carrier? If so, I wonder if the OTA system update (which would correlate with that different variant) might have introduced some significant incompatibility.

 

[deeboweb]

Hi! and thanks for the welcome im in the uk so its a SM-G920F i bought it new, got it unlocked at a store but they had rooted it (i found superSU...i was not happy about that) i managed to unroot and put stock firmware on and all was good for well over a year (OTA updates worked fine, samsung pay etc) with no issues at all. the problem seems to just be just using 3g and 4g.

 

[deeboweb]

if i select 2g only in the network settings, it works fine and i can send and receive calls and messages. The second i turn on 4g, i lose all connectivity. there are still bars showing but "network is unavailable" is the message i get. I have tried multiple sims and checked my area coverage and all is fine. Its a really irritating problem. ive had to go back to an old htc desire lol

 

[deeboweb]

just as an aside, i contacted samsung uk via their live chat feature, the person at the other end told me to do a hard reset and then hung up lool

 

[B. Diddy]

Who's your carrier? Have you checked to make sure your APN settings are correct?

 

[deeboweb]

yes checked all that. ive tested a bunch of sims. i think its a hardware issue now. is it a seperate modem for 2g? can the modem be replaced?

 

[B. Diddy]

I don't know about the modem, sorry. Have you tried reinstalling the firmware using Odin or Smart Switch?

 

[deeboweb]

yes, tried every type of software based remedy i can think of now. can the hardware be replaced? can it be something as simple as swapping out the small antenna wires on the motherboard?

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry, that's getting beyond my scope of knowledge. The best I could find is that the main antenna is supposed to be along the bottom of the phone, which corresponds to the daughterboard -- so perhaps replacing the daughterboard might help?

 

[deeboweb]

thanks a lot, ill look into it