"Time without signal 50%", airplane mode fix, and possible build.prop solution?

[LeslieAnn]

Hardware/software bug + "Good" VM account = no battery drain problem

Hardware/software bug + "Bad" VM account = battery drain problem

"Good" and "Bad" being what differentiates the way VM handles our accounts. Or maybe it is how the phones interact with certain Sprint towers that are around home and workplaces.

While at first I dismissed this, the more I think about it, the more possible it is.

How many have to re-up their accounts each month and have issues with VM billing?
How many have the reset account loop?

I don't get those, but I do the get the 50% TWS.
I also wasn't one of the people having major issues with data drops (I did on and off, but I was always able to trace the issue).

However, it may not just be the accounts, it also could be the location to towers.

 

[mmarz]

I'm telling you.... YouTube - Operant conditioning

Airplane Mode!

 

[obijohn]

While at first I dismissed this, the more I think about it, the more possible it is.

How many have to re-up their accounts each month and have issues with VM billing?
How many have the reset account loop?

I don't get those, but I do the get the 50% TWS.
I also wasn't one of the people having major issues with data drops (I did on and off, but I was always able to trace the issue).

However, it may not just be the accounts, it also could be the location to towers.

I'm not having any account problems. It could very well be a tower issue. I know that in my area, I was one of the people without any 3g/1x at all yesterday. The 3G/1x icon didn't even display. I've also got a cdma/1x-only emergency candybar phone that could not get data (only used to show remaining minutes) yesterday during the same time, so it was definitely the network and not the V.

However, I will sometimes get no data received even when the network is ok (based on the other phone). The 3G icon will show an up-arrow flashing, but no down-arrow. Nothing works to reset it accept the Activate app. The app itself fails with an error, since my account is activated and ok, but it somehow resets the data connection when nothing else does.

I'm telling you.... YouTube - Operant conditioning

Airplane Mode!

Airplane mode does not work to get data restored for me when this happens. Neither does rebooting in any mode, radio on/off, wifi on/off, airplane mode on/off, etc. Only the Activate app will reset it, since it does some voodoo on the radio I haven't figured out. It does put the radio in CDMA-only mode, but it's not setting the ro.telephony.default_network property, I've checked that. There's probably some hardware API they're accessing that resets it.

I've disassembled the app, and the only thing I've figured out is it uses SMS to communicate. I can't find where it's changing the radio (yet -- I'm just getting started on ti).

 

[Liquidplacidity]

I'm gonna try to work on this and try to find the source of the problem.

 

[LeslieAnn]

The 3G icon will show an up-arrow flashing, but no down-arrow. Nothing works to reset it accept the Activate app. The app itself fails with an error, since my account is activated and ok, but it somehow resets the data connection when nothing else does.

Mine is activated as well, and the first time I re-ran it, it failed, running it a second time it passed.

Run it again, it should pass, and it may improve some things for you.

 

[KSmithInNY]

If this is meant to be a generic patch that can be applied to any android device, then it failed on mine. My phone boots up fine after the mod but TWS bug remains. Multiple reboots still had the TWS bug. I restored a backup to reserve it.

No, this is not a patch for any phone except that specific samsung device he made it for. He posted Dif's, decompile the Optimus framework and open the difs and compare. It's significantly different. The fix is similar though, just on our framework instead of theirs.

 

[Superorb]

If the software keeps scanning using a non existent antenna (GSM) then how can power be drained by a non-existent part? Is it just that it's wasting clocks in the CPU to constantly be trying to poll the GSM antenna?

 

[picasticks]

No reason to be sorry. I wasn't taking it personally. Sometimes I turn into this guy: xkcd: Duty Calls

I have a crazy idea as to what might be causing this. You have the exact same hardware and software as me. If one of us experiences a problem the other can't replicate, we could assume two things:

1. One of our phones has become sentient and will soon launch a global attack on humanity.
2. The problem is not caused solely by the phone. It is a combination of our phone with something VM/Sprint is doing.

Well, if I were an evil sentient phone, I would do what this one is doing and just screw with people's heads, it's way more fun.

If only any of us actually were running the same software ... I mean between kernels and ROMs and little tweaks everything is probably different.

The fact that taking the network interface down and bringing it back up again post-boot fixes the problem is the only clue we have. There probably is some kind of race condition but the million dollar question is, what?

It could even be something like the device not triangulating the tower distances correctly, and trying to boost the signal to compensate.

The LS670 has gone through 3 (or 4 if you count V8) versions with different radio baseband code, and I haven't even diffed them to see what's changed, nor do I even know which one best corresponds to the VM670.

Anyway, I guess installing the airplane mode hack APK isn't too bad a workaround for you if the alternative is flaming leg syndrome.

 

[mmarz]

I bet 99% of Optimus V users won't experience the battery or TWS bug because they hardly ever reboot their phones. It is only people developing and applying mods that constantly reboot. Otherwise, you'll toggle airplane mode once and never notice problems after that. I guess the airplane toggle trick is good enough for now. I wonder who decided on the length of time to keep airplane mode on with the app. I would have just done a quick toggle.

 

[LeslieAnn]

It is only people developing and applying mods that constantly reboot.

About the only time mine reboots is when it crashes, otherwise it reboots only to get into recovery so I can flash something, which is nearly a daily occurrence.

My poor, poor phone. :'(
I should name him Timex, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

 

[Superorb]

The airplane mode toggle doesn't work for my phone.

Mine is at 64% Cell Standby and 81% time without a signal.

 

[mmarz]

The airplane mode toggle doesn't work for my phone.

Mine is at 64% Cell Standby and 81% time without a signal.

As long as you are not stuck at 50% exactly, it is not the same bug that is being discussed. Starting out with the TWS 50% bug and then fixing it using the airplane toggle might lead to strange TWS values. Plug your phone into a power source for a moment to reset the battery stats, and it should go back down to near zero. You may also just be in a bad service area. Or maybe it is a new bug.

Do you get bad battery life with the 2.2 roms? Or excessive heat output?

 

[picasticks]

About the only time mine reboots is when it crashes, otherwise it reboots only to get into recovery so I can flash something, which is nearly a daily occurrence.

My poor, poor phone. :'(
I should name him Timex, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

I was benchmarking different SD interface kernel options a couple of days ago and it was all good, I thought I'd improved read/write performance with stuff like MMC_BLOCK_BOUNCE, which adds a buffer. I even beat the record on Antutu System Benchmark. Then everything started to go slower and slower, no matter what kernel I flashed. Like 1/5 of where it had been. I think it was my SD card telling me to leave it the hell alone.

 

[Superorb]

As long as you are not stuck at 50% exactly, it is not the same bug that is being discussed. Starting out with the TWS 50% bug and then fixing it using the airplane toggle might lead to strange TWS values. Plug your phone into a power source for a moment to reset the battery stats, and it should go back down to near zero. You may also just be in a bad service area. Or maybe it is a new bug.

Do you get bad battery life with the 2.2 roms? Or excessive heat output?

I normally only have 1-2 bars of service at home, maybe that has something to do with it? The only time I get terrible battery life is when I used to leave 3g on overnight. It would always be dead in the morning. I use Green Power to manage the data connections. It doesn't normally get very hot, but I have it in a plastic case that might be insulating it. Battery life has been Ok with Rodimus and the stock ROM.

 

[mmarz]

I normally only have 1-2 bars of service at home, maybe that has something to do with it? The only time I get terrible battery life is when I used to leave 3g on overnight. It would always be dead in the morning. I use Green Power to manage the data connections. It doesn't normally get very hot, but I have it in a plastic case that might be insulating it. Battery life has been Ok with Rodimus and the stock ROM.

Poor service could be the cause of it. It is hard to tell without moving to a new home. Dying overnight is never good. The phone should use up no more than 2-3% an hour at most on standby unless you have something running/downloading in the background.

 

[Superorb]

^^ I have data/wifi disabled when the screen is locked, so nothing should be downloading. And almost none of my Apps close when I exit them, so they sit in memory. Things load so fast that I don't know why they don't completely exit/stop running when I want them to. It's really frustrating. There are several Apps I only check every few days, I'd rather them not run in the background for days before I use it again.

 

[gvc]

I bet 99% of Optimus V users won't experience the battery or TWS bug because they hardly ever reboot their phones. It is only people developing and applying mods that constantly reboot. Otherwise, you'll toggle airplane mode once and never notice problems after that. I guess the airplane toggle trick is good enough for now. I wonder who decided on the length of time to keep airplane mode on with the app. I would have just done a quick toggle.

I use the "netschedule" app ( https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tomatox.netschedule&feature=search_result) to automatically put my phone in Airplane mode at midnight and then turn back on at 6am. but , if I reboot early in the day, then I have to remember to do the airplane mode toggle but there's an app that will automatically toggle after any boot.

 

[Superorb]

I use the "netschedule" app ( https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tomatox.netschedule&feature=search_result) to automatically put my phone in Airplane mode at midnight and then turn back on at 6am. but , if I reboot early in the day, then I have to remember to do the airplane mode toggle but there's an app that will automatically toggle after any boot.

What if somebody needs to reach you in the middle of the night?

 

[mmarz]

I use the "netschedule" app ( https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tomatox.netschedule&feature=search_result) to automatically put my phone in Airplane mode at midnight and then turn back on at 6am. but , if I reboot early in the day, then I have to remember to do the airplane mode toggle but there's an app that will automatically toggle after any boot.

Why do you reboot?

 

[gvc]

What if somebody needs to reach you in the middle of the night?

very rare occurance for me so its not a problem.