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Hey guys and gals,
Posted this on Android forums, so thought i'd see what you guys think too. Tried searching but didn't really find anything.
I have been wondering about my signal on my SGS 2 as it's been up and down like a yo yo, and in some instances I get 0 bars and then it goes up on its own. This is whether im set on 2G or 3G or both, and has been getting on my nerves.
Add to the time without signal being quite high, I thought i'd try and work out the issue.
Well it seems that, if i'm on GSM only for example, the phone will switch randomly between GPRS or EDGE, even though I have network traffic turned off.
Whenever it switches between GPRS and EDGE, my reception goes from whatever bars it was on, down to 0, then back up to full. It does this often, and is annoying lol.
On 3G it does exactly the same, but i'm guessing between UTMS and HSPDA.
I tried searching before coming on and found nothing.
Is it possible this is hammering battery life? And affecting whether I have a signal (time without a signal) and can it be addressed?
Anyway hope this helps anyone with the same annoying issues.
Biff.
Ever since I've transferred to AT&T I've had laggy data issues. I finally rooted/flashed to AOKP, and while trying to address the issues of no APNs appearing or saving and no signal status in the status bar, I've come to find both AT&T and T-Mobile as Available Networks under some network setting. Am I chasing ghosts here, or is there something actually up?
EDIT: So I really need help troubleshooting the issue. I'll logcat, dump, or whatever necessary. I've been in many cities/areas and this problem persists: if I haven't used data or the phone hasn't been backgrounding traffic, it'll take anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds before a connection is made when I try to access an internet-related function on my phone (even though 3G/H is displayed in the status bar). Out of shear frustration (this has been happening since I got the phone, under stock ROMs and now under AOKP), I tried messing with *#*#info#*#*. I changed WCDMA-preferred to WCDMA-only -- no improvement. Oddly, I also tried GSM-only. Well, great improvement! Even though I only have E, there is absolutely no latency in waiting for a connection -- so pages and other data end up loading faster on Edge than 3G !
I have absolutely no idea why my phone takes forever to make a connection. Under 3G, I see only but a few upstream network activity blips (even under full bars) for as much as 30 seconds, before there is any downstream activity (and when it comes, it comes). Can anyone help???
P.S.: I'm going to try using a friend's SIM later for comparison.
joebobjoe said:
Ever since I've transferred to AT&T I've had laggy data issues. I finally rooted/flashed to AOKP, and while trying to address the issues of no APNs appearing or saving and no signal status in the status bar, I've come to find both AT&T and T-Mobile as Available Networks under some network setting. Am I chasing ghosts here, or is there something actually up?
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Because they both share the 1900MHz band I believe.
Red5 said:
Because they both share the 1900MHz band I believe.
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I'd like to know if it shows up for anyone else?
joebobjoe said:
I'd like to know if it shows up for anyone else?
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On AOKP it does for me too. Just ignore it.
Red5 said:
On AOKP it does for me too. Just ignore it.
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An aside: does your phone stay on 3G and switch to H only under moderate network traffic?
joebobjoe said:
An aside: does your phone stay on 3G and switch to H only under moderate network traffic?
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The phone displays 3G because thats what it is... then when data is being processed, it shows H because its using the "what AT&T calls 4G but its really HSPA" side of the network. For just standby time with no data, its going to show 3G because HSDPA is traffic, not standby.
Red5 said:
The phone displays 3G because thats what it is... then when data is being processed, it shows H because its using the "what AT&T calls 4G but its really HSPA" side of the network. For just standby time with no data, its going to show 3G because HSDPA is traffic, not standby.
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Well that's strange. I'm used to phones displaying what network-level they are capable of. So why would it not just display H for HSPA+ when HSPA+ service is available, instead of only displaying under traffic.
I'm going to go ahead an edit this thread to help troubleshoot what I think to be the main issue.
After some trials I see that the network indicator switches back and forth between 3G and H a few tines before making the connection and transmitting data. Hmmm...
Basically, "4G" will eat your battery alive so the phone idles at 3G and jumps to H+ only when you use data. If you were on a "stock" ATT rom it would always read H+, but this is technically false since when its idle the phone sits in 3G. CM9 and AOKP accurately display it which is why you see the switch.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
I have a HTC Amaze for a phone and the Galaxy S2 is my media player. Sometimes, when I don't feel like carrying around two devices, I put my T-Mobile SIM in the galaxy and use it as my phone. I must say, Edge is not as slow as I remember it being. Maybe speed is contingent on network traffic. If thats the case, instead of using crowded "faux G" networks, I may defer to Edge to save battery life and get good dl/ul rates.
My phone does the same thing. I noticed it sometime ago. When idle 3g. Internet I get H+. This is with both Shostock2 and Phone Bricker. I was curious to know too but just blew it off because it really doesnt make any difference to me as long as Im getting decent speeds. Im not even with ATT anymore. Went with Straight Talk. Which uses ATT towers. Cant beat the price!!
They don't have the correct apns, but that symbol problem is because the phone doesn't use hspa+ passively, only actively. It causes some lag when downloading, but it is faster fit large data. But your problem is due to a supposed imei range with bad modems. Rehash stick, fix the triangle, and return it.
Sent from my GT-I777 using xda premium
Hey XDA,
I'm running Android Revolution HD 3.0.0 with S-OFF and SuperCID. I am using Mobilicity as my carrier. When I first installed Revolution HD, I did not back up my APN's (it didn't say to do that in guide). After booting up for the first time, I was unable to use Mobile Network until I posted here asking why it wouldn't work, and I was told to put my APN's in.
After putting the APN in for Mobilicity, Mobile Network began to work. Here's the problem though - my phone is trying to use 4G on a network that hardly supports 3.5G. Prior to installing Revolution HD, my phone would switch between using 3G and HSDPA to manage battery consumption better. Now when I turn Mobile Network on, it consistently stays on 4G, burning up more power than before.
I can tell you that 4G is useless on Mobilicity because my data speeds are about 2Mbps download (Speedtest.net App).
Could someone provide me with APN to disable 4G from turning on, or if a different APN is not the solution, provide me with an alternative method.
Thank you so much XDA, you've been great,
Robert
Actually ARHD is based on T-Mobile's ICS, which actually switches between 3G and H (on T-Mobile they label it 4G but it's actually H), as I was saying, it actually switches but T-Mobile had HTC modify the system files to show 4G whether the phone is on 3G or H, it just shows 4G all the time, so calm down.
Next point is, your phone switching between 3G and 4G, it's not a form of saving power, it's just your phone showing what coverage it has, therefore your phone is constantly switching between the two, so your power consumption isn't to blame on your coverage if you're in basically the same areas as you were before flashing and your coverage remains similar, but most likely on some programs you have running in the background or well, you just find the phone more usable with ARHD and you're just glued to it more than you used to be. APN settings have nothing to do with 3G or 4G, most if not all carriers use a general apn, it's upto the devices capabilities to determine what data type would connect and what data coverage they provide.
Alternative to reduce power us would be to switch your phone to GSM (2G) coverage only, which would be slow, compared to your current 3G.
Okay thank you for your reply, but I will dispute the fact that ARHD does not use more power than Stock (or just the same).
Using the built in battery monitor, it shows me how fast my battery dies based on the type of usage (it has that graph thing, i'm pretty sure most android phone have it). The phone remains pretty much stagnant with battery usage when its screen is off, but when I turn the screen on, BAM, the battery begins falling vertically. If I get a chance I will upload a picture of my battery usage.
It is literally the same as stock, I honestly get no better battery life with ARHD than before. Although I am not saying that ARHD does not have its advantages such as running the OS much smoother and ICS being awesome.
Robert
Check if your brightness level is too high, I use auto brightness, ARHD is basically stock, just tweaked and a few additions to make it better and smoother.
You can also check the Amaze Bible thread for tips and tricks on improving battery life, it's a general list, so should be able to help, at least a bit.
Anyone who has LTE care to compare?
Some say that the integrated LTE modem means that LTE won't drain your battery any more than 3G will. I highly, highly doubt it (just my guess).
Thanks
im not sure how clearly i can explain this so bare with me here and tell me if you have no idea what im talking about.
the 3g (cdma) and 4g (lte) radios are both built into the processor so right off the bat they use less power than usual but since there is no lte anywhere yet, no one can accurately say just how much it will use but from what i have been reading, people have been ball parking it and saying that it shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g. their reasoning behind this is the fact that the setting for 3g is tied to the lte so if you turn on the 3g radio your essentially turning on both at the same time and lte will connect and take over the 3g and switch to the lte network whenever possible. now you can set it to only use 3g when you turn on the 3g radio but then there is no other way to toggle lte. since i got my phone i have had it so that it turns them both on at the same time and since i have seen no severe drain i would have to say that if it was infact using the lte network that it wouldn't use anymore than the 3g would at any other time (if i had to guess)
to help explain what i am talking about with the settings, here is a few pics that should make it clearer.
https://www.box.com/s/4d3ae71dea2265ce859a
https://www.box.com/s/a2733587f93ceb8958d1
edit: so in short, no, it won't drain any more battery
That would be awesome. My Samsung Epic sucked the battery dry when 4G was turned on, so I never used it.
The goal with Sprint is to REPLACE 3G with 4G, and not just have it as a secondary like Wimax, or Verizon LTE is now. They are tuning is so much in battery efficiency so that it drains no more, if not less than 3G, since LTE can burst a dl quickly then go back into idle mode much more than 3G, when in use it should take less battery in theory.
Afteraffekt said:
The goal with Sprint is to REPLACE 3G with 4G, and not just have it as a secondary like Wimax, or Verizon LTE is now. They are tuning is so much in battery efficiency so that it drains no more, if not less than 3G, since LTE can burst a dl quickly then go back into idle mode much more than 3G, when in use it should take less battery in theory.
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I understand the theory better now, but in practice, it seems that the AT&T version of the One X does drain more battery? Although you can not turn off LTE so I'm not sure how people are comparing it to HSPA+.
PhxkinMassacre said:
im not sure how clearly i can explain this so bare with me here and tell me if you have no idea what im talking about.
the 3g (cdma) and 4g (lte) radios are both built into the processor so right off the bat they use less power than usual but since there is no lte anywhere yet, no one can accurately say just how much it will use but from what i have been reading, people have been ball parking it and saying that it shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g. their reasoning behind this is the fact that the setting for 3g is tied to the lte so if you turn on the 3g radio your essentially turning on both at the same time and lte will connect and take over the 3g and switch to the lte network whenever possible. now you can set it to only use 3g when you turn on the 3g radio but then there is no other way to toggle lte. since i got my phone i have had it so that it turns them both on at the same time and since i have seen no severe drain i would have to say that if it was infact using the lte network that it wouldn't use anymore than the 3g would at any other time (if i had to guess)
to help explain what i am talking about with the settings, here is a few pics that should make it clearer.
https://www.box.com/s/4d3ae71dea2265ce859a
https://www.box.com/s/a2733587f93ceb8958d1
edit: so in short, no, it won't drain any more battery
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I'm thinking the same way you are,no LTE here yet of course,but I do have it set to 3g,LTE mode not 3g only and have been getting excellent battery life.I'm assuming it must at least occasionally check for LTE coverage.
Of course, no actual LTE yet. But I have run full days with LTE on and off and have noticed little or no difference in battery life. Maybe a little better data speed even on 3g, but not enough in my area to prove it with speedtest.
I believe what it is is the Radio no matter what looks for a signal from CDMA or LTE either way BUT I believe the options only opts as to what type of signal is allowed to be USED by the radio as the primary signal technology. So basically either way it searches for both since they are both integrated into one on the processor but accepts the best one available according to the settings in OS(Best As In LTE if available and CDMA if not, not Best as in terms of signal strength).
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I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
StarrLimit said:
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
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In what? Battery or speed? Good or bad? Numbers to back it up?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
StarrLimit said:
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
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Your defiance astounds and impresses me.
Believe that both 3G and LTE run on the 1900 radio, where the WIMAX used a 2500 separate radio that killed the WIMAX battery life. Plus the LTE phone battery life with the larger battery and ICS (and less HTC crapware polling the network all the time) has lasted all day with moderate use and power left to spare.
Was disappointed that there wasn't an easy switch to turn off the LTE like in WIMAX phones but then if both 3g and LTE are truly tied together that it would be impossible to turn off.
Would you use a 3G only option if it was available on the G3?
I spoke to a Verizon Regional Exec today about the G3 and other Verizon phones that no longer have the option to run on CDMA only. The rep has an iPhone and regularly sets it to 3G only, especially when he let's his kids use the phone. He could not give me a reason why the G3 and other phones no longer has the ability to go to 3G only. He said he would look into this and see if it could be delivered in a future update.
Honestly I rather not have data at all then be stuck on 3G, just my opinion
I would like that option. There are areas where I play Ingress, for example, where the 3g Verizon signal is strong and uncluttered so its a much better option than LTE, which is either weak and eats battery trying over and over to reconnect, or is good but WAY oversold so there is no way to get good speeds on my unlimited data plan, much of the time.
One of the tricks we used to use on the VGNexus phones was select 3g only and save much battery life. 3g can sometimes be faster than 4g and it saves power by not running the rg radio.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
I can do this using com.lge.hiddenmenu. it has an intent that if launched will allow you to pick your desired frequency/bandmode. it includes lte only, cdma only, evdo only, cdma/evdo, and lte/cdmA/evdo as well as global.
i often have poor band 13 lte coverage and so it saves a lot of battery. sometimes it is nice to block 1x to improve speeds and force 3g if the signal is producing more speed then 1x. just my 2 cents,,,and if you get creative you can create a shell script to "su" then run the intent and then exit. place a shortcut on the homescreen and profit.
im reflashing my softbrick now or i would put the exact intent needed, maybe tomorrow if i remember but its network selection, network mode, something like that and way towards the bottom (last third) of the intents i viewed within hiddenmenu,apk
Please conform that the coma,option is available on works on the vs985
I've never seen 3g perform faster then 4g in my area
trent999 said:
I would like that option. There are areas where I play Ingress, for example, where the 3g Verizon signal is strong and uncluttered so its a much better option than LTE, which is either weak and eats battery trying over and over to reconnect, or is good but WAY oversold so there is no way to get good speeds on my unlimited data plan, much of the time.
One of the tricks we used to use on the VGNexus phones was select 3g only and save much battery life. 3g can sometimes be faster than 4g and it saves power by not running the rg radio.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
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The GNex was one of the last phones to be affected by that. Since Qualcomm took over Android, their integrated LTE radios use no more power than 3G radios.
timjp692 said:
I've never seen 3g perform faster then 4g in my area
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Completely agree, even a very weak LTE always works better for me, even over a full 3G signal at times.
geoff5093 said:
Completely agree, even a very weak LTE always works better for me, even over a full 3G signal at times.
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Basically. I think a full 3G signal is a little faster a very weak LTE signal, but at this point anywhere there's full 3G there's LTE.
Just download a massive amount of data and the carriers will throttle you down to 3G or lower, with occasional 4G use. As for some people saying that 3G is never faster, it depends on the carrier. Verizon throttles all 3G usage in an effort to convince 3G users to upgrade to 4G.