Ring Lag fix??

[KSmithInNY]

1) Call Sprint tech support and get your MSL (six digit number)
2) On your keypad dial ##DATA# (##3282#)
3) Select "Edit Mode"
4) Type your MSL as the password and hit "OK"
5) Select Advanced
6) Change your "Slot Cycle Index" to the value of 1 (explination below)
7) Press the Menu button
8) Select "Commit Modifications"
9) wait for your phone to reboot
10) Click the scales on top of this post to add to my rep!

Slot Cycle Index (SCI) - You can tweak your Slot Cycle Index (SCI) to make your phone poll the tower more often. This makes your texts and phone calls come through quicker. This setting is a trade off between lag (most noticeable when receiving calls) and battery life. The default value on our phones is 2. Every step of 1 adds 1.28 seconds to the poll time, so at a value of 2 it is only polling every 5 seconds or so. If you lower this to 1, the phone polls every 2.5 seconds. This won't affect battery life much in areas of good coverage, but may impact it noticeably if you're in a poor reception area.

 

[unixpsycho]

I've been using the SCI method since my old Treo 800w and every phone since which has worked to fix a slow ring. The ACCOLC method is debated as its rumored that the cell tower controls this and not the handset. Although it seems to have an effect on an Airave unit.

 

[KSmithInNY]

I've been using the SCI method since my old Treo 800w and every phone since which has worked to fix a slow ring. The ACCOLC method is debated as its rumored that the cell tower controls this and not the handset. Although it seems to have an effect on an Airave unit.

Yeah i've been playng this game a loooong time. This is not my first rodeo. I've had pretty much every "smartphone" sprint has sold in the last 6 or 7 years.

I stopped using the Airave due to it overwhelming my antena causing it to drop more calls than it helps. There was a big problem that when you entered the range of the Airave, it would overwhelm your antenna causing whatever call you may be on to drop. May have been fixed with a firmware update but i have since moved and no longer need it so havent plugged it in in about a year ... give or take.

P.S. .... I don't think the ACCOLC method is debated much anymore. As i understand it about 5+ years ago the towers used to handle this, like you said, but then sprint baked the logic into their firmware and is now handled by the handset. Unless i've missed something anyway.

 

[unixpsycho]

That may be true now.

Yes, the Airwave refuses to roam when you come into its area. It has a death grip on your phone, even tho the phone tries hard to find an EVDO signal. Killed my battery quickly.

I'll try setting the ACCOLC to see if i get even faster ringing. I remember seeing it set on my Pre to 0 when I was hacking GPS with QPST a while back. 0 cant be good. But then again the radio on the Pre is suspect anyway.

 

[KSmithInNY]

That may be true now.

Yes, the Airwave refuses to roam when you come into its area. It has a death grip on your phone, even tho the phone tries hard to find an EVDO signal. Killed my battery quickly.

I'll try setting the ACCOLC to see if i get even faster ringing. I remember seeing it set on my Pre to 0 when I was hacking GPS with QPST a while back. 0 cant be good. But then again the radio on the Pre is suspect anyway.

Ha Ha 0 cant be good at all. The geek in me made me change the ACCOLC to 2. I tried 5 test calls and ranged anywhere from the first ring to miliseconds into the second ring so im pretty happy with my initial results.

My My My how things have changed. I called Sprint tech support, asked for my MSL and without question or anything, they gave it to me! I remember having to lie cheat and steal to get a MSL back in the day.

 

[unixpsycho]

i just checked my Hero, ACCOLC is set to 1. WTF? I've never touched this setting before.

Must have come from the Network Profile? Oh well, might as well leave it.

 

[KSmithInNY]

i just checked my Hero, ACCOLC is set to 1. WTF? I've never touched this setting before.

Must have come from the Network Profile? Oh well, might as well leave it.

If its 1 by default i'd probably sit back on the couch and crack a beer and bask in the glory! lol

 

[KSmithInNY]

i just checked my Hero, ACCOLC is set to 1. WTF? I've never touched this setting before.

Must have come from the Network Profile? Oh well, might as well leave it.

Hey i forgot to ask, what did you set your SCI to??

Did you do any test calls after adjusting your SCI? If so, what were the results? I did some more test calls this morning and am still coming in at either first ring or part way into second ring.

 

[unixpsycho]

I 1st set my SCI to 1 and the ring came through at 2 1/2 rings... I now have it set to 0 and it comes in at 1 1/2 or at the 2nd ring. I havent tested outside of Airave range yet. I have a feeling it is skewing my tests.

 

[KSmithInNY]

Hmmm, I just went into my programming menu and my ACCOLC was set back to the default number?? I changed it again, rebooted, and the new number (2) is there. I'll keep an eye on it for the next couple of days to see if it reverts back to default. If it does revert back, I'll remove step 7 in my original post.

Anyway the reason I was in the programming menu again is because i changed my SCI to 0. Did 10 test calls and all came in on first ring!!!

I hope some more people test this so we can see if this fixes the lag or not.

 

[unixpsycho]

double hmmm.... I just went in and changed my ACCOLC to 2, saved, rebooted... i checked after reboot and it stayed at 2. I then updated Network Profile, sure enough it changed back to 1. So Sprint controls it through CDMA programming or until you update phone profile.

I have never been able to get a 1st ring. but changing the SCI definitely helps. i'll do more testing whenever I get my lazy rear-end up and out of Airave coverage ;-).

 

[KSmithInNY]

double hmmm.... I just went in and changed my ACCOLC to 2, saved, rebooted... i checked after reboot and it stayed at 2. I then updated Network Profile, sure enough it changed back to 1. So Sprint controls it through CDMA programming or until you update phone profile.

I have never been able to get a 1st ring. but changing the SCI definitely helps. i'll do more testing whenever I get my lazy rear-end up and out of Airave coverage ;-).

Your right, I checked and my ACCOLC was 2, updated my profile and went right back to 9 (damn, I'm low priority!) I will remove the ACCOLC stuff from my original post. Thats fine because its the SCI which is addressing the ring lag issue.

 

[jeremylobaugh]

I don't think you will ever see a 1st ring, especially on an airave. The call has to route to your home switch, locate you, route it to the airave aggregation point, then route it over a public network to your airave.

I am just curious, how much, if any effect does adjusting the slot cycle have on your battery? I have a moment, and the battery gauge is pretty much worthless, so it would be hard to tell.

 

[KSmithInNY]

I don't think you will ever see a 1st ring, especially on an airave. The call has to route to your home switch, locate you, route it to the airave aggregation point, then route it over a public network to your airave.

I am just curious, how much, if any effect does adjusting the slot cycle have on your battery? I have a moment, and the battery gauge is pretty much worthless, so it would be hard to tell.

I think setting the SCI to 0 is definately going to impact your battery. Thats why i think setting it to 1 is a fair trade. You'll spend a little more battery with it at 1, but youll get calls between 1 and 2 rings.

I want to do some battery tests during the night while im sleeping heres what i was thinking;
-Download battery graph from the market
-Night 1, set SCI to 2. Check battery percentage before going to sleep. 6 hours later when i wake up check how much it has drained.
-Night 2, do the same but with SCI at 1
-Night 3, do the same with SCI at 0

That should give a pretty good idea on how much battery you actually lose by changing the SCI which will let people make a more educated decision.

 

[unixpsycho]

Regardless of what SCI setting, the battery drain is next to nothing if you are mostly in good coverage. It becomes a drain if the phone is in a weak area for extended periods of time.

I've had my phone set to 1 since launch day+5 and I get at least 16-18 hours of usage....and I am a hardcore texter. I have it set to 0 now so i'll test for a week during work travel.

 

[unixpsycho]

I don't think you will ever see a 1st ring, especially on an airave. The call has to route to your home switch, locate you, route it to the airave aggregation point, then route it over a public network to your airave.

I am just curious, how much, if any effect does adjusting the slot cycle have on your battery? I have a moment, and the battery gauge is pretty much worthless, so it would be hard to tell.

What makes that different from the normal cell network routing ?

I remember the old days of bag phones and brick phones where the person calling you heard clicking the 1st few seconds before the cell towers found your phone. Then the advent of virtual ring tones came out to give the caller the feeling of the call actually going through instead of waiting in limbo for 5 seconds or so hearing clicking. When in doubt use the SkyPager.

 

[KSmithInNY]

Well changing the SCI def. fixed the ring lag for me. To gain some more results, my buddy bought a Hero this week so we ran a few tests on his phone and consistantly got 3-4 rings on the callers end before his phone reacted. Changed the SCI and consistantly got 1-2 rings on the callers end.

As a side note I did notice an SCI of 0 was using my battery up pretty damn quick. Changed it to 1 and I think its a great compromise between battery and call lag.

Best of luck!

 

[marcch]

I have an Unlocked GSM Hero. http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc-hero/5529-phone-ringtone-goes-off-late.html

And the thing is, the phone is ringing, but the ringtone is going off late.

 

[Ali Fazel]

Worked for me, thanks!

 

[KSmithInNY]

Worked for me, thanks!

Glad to hear it. You're welcome!