still have horrible reception

Rickbubello

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Any other phone, lg motorola blackberry even other droid (motorola droid and devour) etc.. all have better db levels for signal. Most phones draw 3-4 almost perfect bars of signal with db of like -80.

My droid incredible is showing a bar sometimes, most times nothing and a db of -104, 96-98 at its best.

I dont know how to solve this but will get rid of this phone asap if this cant be fixed. Is verizon or anyone working on a fix for this incredibly bad unstable signal???

If this cant be fixed, how can this phone really be called an incredible?
 

Blackberry_Lou

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Hey Bro I feel your pain I found the post below on Phandroid and I've been running a hybrid PRL now for two weeks it's improved the call quality and reception tremendously give it a shot.....


I too was experiencing terrible signal problems. I dropped two calls yesterday and I've NEVER dropped a single call in my 3-4 years with VZW. I looked in my phone status and my signal was a -101 which apparently isn't good. Anyways I found a site that has the newest PRL and another site with how to install. With this new PRL installed, my signal is now -91!!!!

First go to this site: HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - Newest 650XX Hybrid PRL and find the post from 5/10/10 that has two zip files. Download the 65133 zip and unzip it. You'll find an RLA file in there. Copy the RLA to the root of your SD card. Then dial ##778 and send. You'll get a popup to view or edit. Hit edit. A password prompt comes up and your password is 000000 (six zeroes). Then scroll down to PRL and hit update PRL. It'll take a few seconds for the screen to change. When it does select for it to find all files and scroll down to the 65133 file and hit okay. Then you'll be back at the previous menu. You aren't done yet though. You have to hit the MENU key and select commit. Your phone will update and restart. Congrats you have updated your PRL!
 

Night Train

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Try this:

Instead of holding the phone with the bottom portion in the palm of your hand, hold it between your thumb and index finger about halfway up the side of the body. My experience was that the signal strength showed marked improvement with the hand away from the bottom of the phone.

I'd seen this demonstrated on the Nexus One...and my jaw dropped when I performed the same trial on my at-the-time brand new Incredible. I thought they'd have solved this, but I guess not. I tried this several times over the course of several days and each time the signal strength went from 96 db or so holding it in my palm to 86 db or so holding it otherwise.
 

YourMobileGuru

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Any other phone, lg motorola blackberry even other droid (motorola droid and devour) etc.. all have better db levels for signal. Most phones draw 3-4 almost perfect bars of signal with db of like -80.

My droid incredible is showing a bar sometimes, most times nothing and a db of -104, 96-98 at its best.

I dont know how to solve this but will get rid of this phone asap if this cant be fixed. Is verizon or anyone working on a fix for this incredibly bad unstable signal???

If this cant be fixed, how can this phone really be called an incredible?

Have you considered that it is at least possible that you have a defective phone (they happen) and tried to get it replaced? Most of us are getting the opposite results you are. Mine works in the break room at work, and almost no phone works for data there. Just saying you may want to consider that before giving up on it.
 

Qazme

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Mine works everywhere. Worst dbM I've seen in signal was a -86 and I was out in the boonies where only weeds and cows grow. Try doing a #228 option2 reboot the phone and check it. A don't go by the bars being drawn, which I don't think you are, because for some reason this phone will display 3 bars of service for the same dbM that any other phone draws 5 bars.

The hybrid prl that some people talk about seems to work for some, others not so good. So give it a try to if updating the phone OTA doesn't do anything for you. Good luck!
 

sURFNmADNESS

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Check out a free app for Android called Antenna. Where I thought I was using one of the towers near my house, this app told me otherwise. I am going much further away from my home than I had figured. You might find the same in your area which could explain some signal power issues.
 

rpfarrah

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Check out a free app for Android called Antenna. Where I thought I was using one of the towers near my house, this app told me otherwise. I am going much further away from my home than I had figured. You might find the same in your area which could explain some signal power issues.

That's interesting. Does the app do anything other than tell you antenna location? Does it allow you to manage the signal somehow? (Probably not, but I thought I'd ask.)
 

gvillager

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Check out a free app for Android called Antenna. Where I thought I was using one of the towers near my house, this app told me otherwise. I am going much further away from my home than I had figured. You might find the same in your area which could explain some signal power issues.

This app doesn't appear to be very accurate for me. It's placing the tower a half of mile away from where it actually is.
 

pounder001

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Horrible reception and signal strength (-98 to -103) for me as well with the Dinc. I have a Storm1 that blows it away. I have a trouble ticket in w/VZN and HTC.
HTC just responded that there is an issue and they are working on it, but no ETA. I'm within my 30 days so I'm off to find a new VZN phone with better reception.
 

Angmoe

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Try this:

Instead of holding the phone with the bottom portion in the palm of your hand, hold it between your thumb and index finger about halfway up the side of the body. My experience was that the signal strength showed marked improvement with the hand away from the bottom of the phone.

I'd seen this demonstrated on the Nexus One...and my jaw dropped when I performed the same trial on my at-the-time brand new Incredible. I thought they'd have solved this, but I guess not. I tried this several times over the course of several days and each time the signal strength went from 96 db or so holding it in my palm to 86 db or so holding it otherwise.


WOW...mine goes from -89 to -102 in my home.
 

davidnc

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Well when I first got my incredible(july 2th) my signal was about -95dbm to -98dbm, I called vzw(july 20th) and said yes I did the PRL thing.The tech looked at my account I guess he could see what PRL I was on because he said he switched it. I did not need to do anything , I dont know if he was BSing me or not ;)

BUT.....All I really know is after that date (july 20th) my signal now has been is low as -73dbm to -85dbm . My blackberry averaged about -82dbm and had 5 bars .My incredible most times shows 3 bars when in the -70'sdbm range and 2 bars when in the -80'sdbm range .My DX and D-INC both have about the same signal when I compair them as well which they avg in the low 80's which is about the same I had with the berry. :)
 
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davidnc

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Also my PRL on my phone I see when I click the MENU button>about phone>software information>shows the PRL Version to be 65144 on my D-INC. Mines all good hopefully Yall's gets better too
 

Revolutionary

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I get ultra-crappy reception in my house, which is only about .6 miles from a tower! There are times when I will have the phone resting on the table--not even touching it--and it has absolutely no signal so that I don't receive calls. I'll pick it up and carry it outside and suddenly get notified of a new voicemail! This NEVER happened with my Storm and does not happen with my wife Envy3.

The only really frustrating thing about this phone, IMO. The battery I can cope with, but there's nothing I can do about crappy reception. (I've updated the PRL three times since May -- just did it again 20 minutes ago -- # 51920).
 

rew001

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Weird.
Sitting on my desk it shows -58 dBm.
when I hold it, gripping the bottom half of the phone, the worst I get is -74 dBm.

Oh and btw, I don't think the "bars" are accurate at all. I've been like 1 bar before and had no problems with 3G or voice. I think that's been covered in these forums, and I think Verizon has even mentioned a fix in an upcoming patch?
 

FramCire

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1. Holding the phone in different places can effect signal..... test it yourself

2. The update coming at some point is addressing signal, call quality, and call dropping issues.

3. If you live in a rural town or old Alltel territory, call in and make sure you dont need a hybrid PRL.
 

thenewnoise

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I was recently in Chicago and I had horrible reception the whole time there. I was sitting at the bar right next to my buddy who has a Droid X. He would have 3 bars and I would have no signal at all. It was pretty frustrating.
 

Revolutionary

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My db last night sitting in my living room was -107. Zero bars. I'm in relatively densely populated suburban Northern Virginia, less than a mile from the tower, in a townhouse (not a bunker). My Storm gets 2-3 bars (-87 db) in the same spot. Maybe it's defective?

Edit: this is interesting. My Storm1 has -80db sitting on my desk at work, but shows 4 bars. The Incredible has -55 db but shows 3 bars. WTF? Clearly the bars are unreliable, but its odd that the Storm gets better reception at home but worse in my office. Might be a difference of antenna sensitivity?
 
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herbmmm

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Just got back from tech support at our local Verizon store and he did something that has definitely helped my reception(Bars are the same but reception is better)! He went to phone and dialed *#*#4636#*#* this brings up a screen that includes Phone Info. At this point click Menu then select Radio Band, a force quit screen pops up(this is normal) click ok then scroll down to CDMA Auto then hit Home! Reboot! That's it!
 
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Revolutionary

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Just got back from tech support at our local Verizon store and he did something that has definitely helped my reception(Bars are the same but reception is better)! He went to phone and dialed *#*#4636#*#* this brings up a screen that includes Phone Info. At this point click Menu then select Radio Band, a force quit screen pops up(this is normal) click ok then scroll down to CDMA Auto then hit Home! That's it!

You can also jump to these settings with the app Network from the market (warning: you can definitely frak up your phone with this set of options) -- unfortunately, mine is already set to CDMA Auto (PRL)...

Incidentally, the "Battery History," "Battery Info," and "Usage Statistics" options in this settings menu are the ones that the app Spare Parts jumps you to. So if you don't need all the visual tweaks that Spare Parts affords, dump that app and just use this. ;)
 

SuzisZoo#AC

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Just got back from tech support at our local Verizon store and he did something that has definitely helped my reception(Bars are the same but reception is better)! He went to phone and dialed *#*#4636#*#* this brings up a screen that includes Phone Info. At this point click Menu then select Radio Band, a force quit screen pops up(this is normal) click ok then scroll down to CDMA Auto then hit Home! That's it!

Thank you for this tip!!!! Mine was set on GSM Auto. Put it on CDMA Auto and jumped from -96 to -82.