Okay so a bit of a back story. I bought this phone for my dad for his birthday one year ago. And so far he's loving it, but now he's run into some problems.
The main issue is, for some reason the wifi signal strength on his phone has gotten worse. It used to catch the wifi signal at a place in my house till maybe a week ago, but now it doesn't. Because of this he used almost 1 GB above his data pack this month (unknowingly, of course).
Since my dad is using it, he's running everything pure stock. No root, no recovery, no custom ROM, no nothing. Now I checked this forum and saw that you guys have ported a stable KitKat build to this phone (congrats, BTW!). What I want to know is, does this come with a new radio too? And will this new radio help in receiving slightly better wifi strength? He gets the signal up to 5 meters away from his room, so all I need is to increase the range by just 5 meters.
So can you guys recommend some stuff? Either a new ROM/radio, maybe an app (but I don't think these work, right?)... But please recommend only fully stable builds. My dad is not tech savvy so he won't understand what to do when there's a bug.
Thanks!
Hello.
I am not a very seasoned developer but I have flashed many Roms on my Canvas HD. So firstly you mentioned that your phone hasn't been rooted. There are plenty of tutorials available online to root your phone. To flash Roms, mods root is a must.
And yes, Roms do improve WiFi connection, phone speed, and in some cases even the battery life. Its all a matter of priorities, whether you want the newest version of android or longer battery usage. Since you need it for your dad, I recommend flashing any jelly bean ROM. It will be stable and perform well as a daily driver. Your WiFi speed and range will also improve because of the ROM tweaks. Hope that helps!
Related
has the gps signal been fixed with the latest ota update?
what is the latest touchwiz on this device?
is it smooth and how is the battery life?
I am on AOKP and get instant and accurate locks instantly indoors or out with or without a good signal.
I know this doesn't answer your question but I haven't had a problem with GPS since froyo.
sent from my ice cream sandwiched Samsung fascinate
shop around... 120 seems steep for a used i500
I just recently picked one up, i was a vibrant user untill work switched over to verizion.... i had just got the darn thing working perfectly too :-(
Mine has no luck with the GPS, it is nearly identical to how my vibrant worked, although the reception is just a little stronger... it is way weaker than a normal phone. It takes nearly 15 min for my phone to get a lock, however once it does, it has the lock... although it does loose quite a few satilights every so often and then grab lock right away again... Seeing how this is exactly how it worked by default on my vibrant, and it didnt get any better till i went to MIUI, who worked out thier own driver which got perfect locks with out dropping the sat lock.
Now for my question....
Im not the account holder on this phone,(its my work phone) and when i had a phone that used a sim card, i had no fear of loosing my regestration info, but im not sure what will happen when i flash this phone to a custom rom. Do you have to reregester it with verizion? or will it just reclaim my number? what kind of issues could i have... i need to make sure i wont have any issues since i dont have the password for activation...
and second, what is the most bug free rom avaliable? I'd like to try out MIUI again or even a stock rom as long as it has better support for GPS.
I've never had to re-activate after flashing anything FWIW. We have MIUI ICS that is quite functional, although I don't believe quite as much works on MIUI compared to the other ICS roms yet. I've had good luck with AOKP, gummy, and THS (rootzwiki) ICS builds. Much better than GB.
For me, the update to Gingerbread (2.3.5) has really improved the GPS performance. It's still not perfect, but it seems to lock up much faster than it used to.
Alright so I've never rooted my phone or done anything fancy with it as far as that goes. Recently the ICS update was released and I didn't update right away, wasn't sure how bad it would mess up my current settings etc. After reading that it retained all my settings and functionality I decided to upgrade. Ok so first off I can't Tether anymore and my portable wifi hotspot does not work either, I'm on Rogers and in Canada, never heard of 'tethering plans' such as other people refer to with AT&T. I have my 4g enabled, can retrieve internet access, and as soon as I turn on my portable hotspot my phone is unable to access the 4g anymore, It enables a wifi hotspot but anything that connects to it gets limited connectivity and can't access the internet either. It's like the phone just shuts it off automatically. I used to use this all the time and was one of my favorite features about my phone.. If I'm unable to use this I don't even want the data plan that I currently have, the data plan I decided on DUE to this feature.. So I'm gonna be pretty pissed off if this amazing little update is trying to force me to pay for something that I already pay extra to utilize properly.
I could be wrong here but I'm pretty damn sure that the battery life has dropped by close to 20% I can watch the percentage go down while I'm doing stuff and it seems to be losing life a lot quicker now, and I noticed that after the first day of using ICS. The resolution on the unlock screen seems to be botched, It's very squished... My old version never did this, and it's kind of annoying for my background images and having the clock looking out of whack.
I'm not sure what to do, there doesn't seem to be an update and as far as I know the update has been out for awhile now, why hasn't this stuff been fixed, who can I make official complaints to as far as Samsung or Rogers goes? I've checked these forums a bit and people seem to be having a lot of issues, some similar to mine some not, some I may have just had the luck to avoid so far. Is factory reset the only real option to fix things, and will that even help my tethering issues?
Also things like browsing through Facebook can eat up 5% of my battery in five or ten minutes... I know for sure that it never used to do that. I don't get why the battery life would be effected so drastically, but even when It's just sitting around while I sleep I lose a higher % of battery life than I did before... I've browsed through various threads but there doesn't seem to be many options, is anyone able to respond to the issues I'm having?
Flash a custom ROM. It's easy, and the experience is much better. There are guides in the stickies on everything you need to do.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2
Like he said above me, flashing a custom rom would fix your problems. I'd recommend CM9 ICS. It's pretty stable and my favorite so far. Downside is you lose S-Pen functionality.
Hysterics said:
Alright so I've never rooted my phone or done anything fancy with it as far as that goes. Recently the ICS update was released and I didn't update right away, wasn't sure how bad it would mess up my current settings etc. After reading that it retained all my settings and functionality I decided to upgrade. Ok so first off I can't Tether anymore and my portable wifi hotspot does not work either, I'm on Rogers and in Canada, never heard of 'tethering plans' such as other people refer to with AT&T. I have my 4g enabled, can retrieve internet access, and as soon as I turn on my portable hotspot my phone is unable to access the 4g anymore, It enables a wifi hotspot but anything that connects to it gets limited connectivity and can't access the internet either. It's like the phone just shuts it off automatically. I used to use this all the time and was one of my favorite features about my phone.. If I'm unable to use this I don't even want the data plan that I currently have, the data plan I decided on DUE to this feature.. So I'm gonna be pretty pissed off if this amazing little update is trying to force me to pay for something that I already pay extra to utilize properly.
I could be wrong here but I'm pretty damn sure that the battery life has dropped by close to 20% I can watch the percentage go down while I'm doing stuff and it seems to be losing life a lot quicker now, and I noticed that after the first day of using ICS. The resolution on the unlock screen seems to be botched, It's very squished... My old version never did this, and it's kind of annoying for my background images and having the clock looking out of whack.
I'm not sure what to do, there doesn't seem to be an update and as far as I know the update has been out for awhile now, why hasn't this stuff been fixed, who can I make official complaints to as far as Samsung or Rogers goes? I've checked these forums a bit and people seem to be having a lot of issues, some similar to mine some not, some I may have just had the luck to avoid so far. Is factory reset the only real option to fix things, and will that even help my tethering issues?
Also things like browsing through Facebook can eat up 5% of my battery in five or ten minutes... I know for sure that it never used to do that. I don't get why the battery life would be effected so drastically, but even when It's just sitting around while I sleep I lose a higher % of battery life than I did before... I've browsed through various threads but there doesn't seem to be many options, is anyone able to respond to the issues I'm having?
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Click to collapse
I had the same problem and found two possible solutions:
1- I installed foxfi and i was able to use the wifi hotspot. I still wasn't able to access the native wifi hotspot functionality on the phone, but foxfi did the same thing so no big deal.
2- factory reset. this option is a little radical, but as has been explained elsewhere on this forum, the upgrade doesn't clear some configurations that remain from the GB ROM and those conflict with things like wifi hotspot and cardock and several other things.
I had to eventually do the factory reset. It was a nuisance because i had to reinstall everything, but now my phone works great and I can access all the native functionality.
You could also flash a custom ROM, but I have done it and while they are faster and sexier than the STOK ROM you always have to give up some functionality and they always have some bugs, and once you start flashing custom ROMs you can get OFD and we may lose you forever... (I had it from my windows mobile days and I would flash a new ROM sometimes more than once per day)..
Root (flash cwm with Odin), do a factory reset, and then flash the rooted/deodexed version of the UCLF6 stock rom. You won't lose ANY functionality, and your phone will be quick as hell again -- or even faster.
Like paleh0rse state...
Here is the thread with all the listing for stock LF6; tools that may be required. Along with all the ROMs.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1740367
If you gonna flash a rooted/deodexed version of the UCLF6 stock ROM, no need to root before hand, just put CWM on and flash away.
Foxfi worked for me. But it doesn't connect right away to the Internet, had to inniate a browser then it connected.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
XDA is no longer worth my time.
Factory reset fixed it for me.
TimOster; I did not use Klies, I am with Rogers so I assume it was one of their Roms, It was a wireless download but through my homes Wifi I believe. And I don't really think I did it manually, I got an update message on my phone one day didn't even realize it was ICS at first, but of course it gave me lots of warnings and obviously realized what it was before doing it, but I wasn't expecting this lol, I wish I had checked it out online first I would have seen all the complaints and just stuck with the old version.
I'm thinking about trying a factory reset first, and if that doesn't fix things, mainly the battery issues, then I'll try a stock rom.
No one seems to mention anything about the battery usage though, am I the only one noticing this effect? :\
XDA is no longer worth my time.
paleh0rse said:
Root (flash cwm with Odin), do a factory reset, and then flash the rooted/deodexed version of the UCLF6 stock rom. You won't lose ANY functionality, and your phone will be quick as hell again -- or even faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm the unofficial self-appointed president of the palehorse fan club, and I approve this message ....LOL
LOL!
Got my vote!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
Hi folks, I've had the AT&T samsung galaxy sII i777 for some time now and i've loved having android capabilities in comparison to the iPhone which i almost went with. I'm having one problem though; I cannot seem to even get a solid connection or establish a call around my part of town, even though other AT&T phones have no problem at all! My sister for example, has a new iphone. And while she gets bad service, she can at least make a call without any problem. For me, it will instantly end my call upon dial, give me a no-service prompt, or will just hang/stall on the dialer app. Very VERY frusterating to say the least.
My theory is that my android keeps trying to search between different networking types to find which type of connection will be ideal (edge, 3g, 4g etc), but won't stay on a service long enough while switching between different types to actually do anything. I've tryed many different modems, but with zero luck. Lately, i've given up on the project and have just been staying on the default one's that comes with the i777 AOKP package updates. And just to be clear, I am running the i777 aokp rom, not the ported i9100 to i777 AOKP rom.
Before i even rooted and flashed the sucker, on the default stock rom, it seemed to run way better than it is right now. I know custom roms are expected to have bugs, but AOKP has been out for some time, and even on the latest builds, i've had lots of apps (mainly the browser) crashing on me constantly. I've been thinking about just completely formatting the SD card, and starting anew with a fresh install of a brand new rom (after doing some thorough homework on it, of course). But that brings up another question, will formatting the SD card, also format Root Access and the installed kernal?
What are the secure steps to Completely clean my SD card, and start from scratch? I definitely don't want to brick my phone.
thank you for any feedback
Your sd card doesn't have anything to do with the functionality of the phone. It will only be a waste of your time, as you will just have to put your media back on it.
Which modem do you have now? Have you tried other ROMs?
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Your problems have NOTHING TO DO with AOKP. Someone reading this may get that idea. Whatever apps u have crash or service errors and reception are not the fault of that rom. It's a mix of at&t problems and user error or poorly written apps.
If you had noticeably better service with the stock rom but wanted the additional features the devs here provide, sounds like you'd be better off with a rom built off a samsung source rather than AOSP source. You can try flashing a different modem first (see the thread at the top of the development forum). My phone came with UCKK6, and now i'm running UCLE5 (on AOKP 6/22), which has always seemed to provide slightly better reception and data rates. I'd start there if i were you.
NegativeSpace said:
If you had noticeably better service with the stock rom but wanted the additional features the devs here provide, sounds like you'd be better off with a rom built off a samsung source rather than AOSP source. You can try flashing a different modem first (see the thread at the top of the development forum). My phone came with UCKK6, and now i'm running UCLE5 (on AOKP 6/22), which has always seemed to provide slightly better reception and data rates. I'd start there if i were you.
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Click to collapse
That's interesting...after doing some testing, I discovered its opposite for me, or at least in the south part of my town. The uckk6 works better than the ucle5 by what seems like 20% or so. But on such a small scale with only getting 1 or 2 bars in the first place, its rally hard to tell. Its only a 10kb/sec difference unless I somehow find a strong connection in my house. My neighbors also have a large HAM radio antenna in their backyard and I think it causes minor interference with the cell towers :*(
Today I moved over to a 4.4aosp rom, and I noticed that the phone switches to 3g a lot, and always when I put it in my pocket. Never had this on TW. Is this common with aosp?
me too
ncwildcat said:
Today I moved over to a 4.4aosp rom, and I noticed that the phone switches to 3g a lot, and always when I put it in my pocket. Never had this on TW. Is this common with aosp?
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Click to collapse
I'm having the same issue. But it's just strictly 3g. I'm on pacrom 4.4.2 nightly 4/21 release. Have tried at least 7 different versions of pacrom. Any fix or somewhere anybody can guide me would be great! Thanks!
ncwildcat said:
Today I moved over to a 4.4aosp rom, and I noticed that the phone switches to 3g a lot, and always when I put it in my pocket. Never had this on TW. Is this common with aosp?
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Click to collapse
kude87 said:
Samsung has the proprietary drivers for cell signal. The RIL for CM Roms cannot obtain the same level of signal. I've compared this countless times with CM vs TW, and TW will always have the better signal/data strength. This is especially pronounced in areas of weaker signal. You'll notice that you'll drop LTE, and it will take a while to get it back. It has been much improved, but if signal is a must for you, TW cannot be beaten. Sometimes you can compare the dbm side by side and it will show the same, but real world use will have AOSP roms suffering more with their signal. Sucks, but it is what it is. I used to always flash aosp for speed and then signal issues would annoy me (work in buildings with poor service to start) and would end up on TW again. Ymmv
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
I hope thats helpful
xredjokerx said:
Originally Posted by kude87
Samsung has the proprietary drivers for cell signal. The RIL for CM Roms cannot obtain the same level of signal. I've compared this countless times with CM vs TW, and TW will always have the better signal/data strength. This is especially pronounced in areas of weaker signal. You'll notice that you'll drop LTE, and it will take a while to get it back. It has been much improved, but if signal is a must for you, TW cannot be beaten. Sometimes you can compare the dbm side by side and it will show the same, but real world use will have AOSP roms suffering more with their signal. Sucks, but it is what it is. I used to always flash aosp for speed and then signal issues would annoy me (work in buildings with poor service to start) and would end up on TW again. Ymmv
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
I hope thats helpful
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Click to collapse
Understandable and thanks for replying back but I am still a little bit confused. This almost means that everybody who is on CM roms have only a 3G signal at best. And from what I have been researching TW roms pretty much do not exist anymore (or at least are not updated) I am just having a difficult time finding a rom that has everything I want as well as my LTE/4G data speeds. I have tried over 10 different nightly PacRom builds and its the same thing. If I mess around with the different "preferred network types I can get it to trigger LTE but then I am unable to make or receive calls. I would post this in the PacRom thread but I do not have enough posts to do so.
Thanks again for replying back.
checkmysmile said:
Understandable and thanks for replying back but I am still a little bit confused. This almost means that everybody who is on CM roms have only a 3G signal at best. And from what I have been researching TW roms pretty much do not exist anymore (or at least are not updated) I am just having a difficult time finding a rom that has everything I want as well as my LTE/4G data speeds. I have tried over 10 different nightly PacRom builds and its the same thing. If I mess around with the different "preferred network types I can get it to trigger LTE but then I am unable to make or receive calls. I would post this in the PacRom thread but I do not have enough posts to do so.
Thanks again for replying back.
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Click to collapse
Do you get full 4G when you're on a TW rom? I run nephilim right now after trying all the roms and I think it works quite well. Theres no perfect rom out there, so you'll have to decide what you're willing to sacrifice
What I noticed on AOSP/CM/AOKP roms:
Battery life is dismal - even on airplane mode I drained my battery to 20 in 6 hours.
GPS performance is lowered - even though I get locked on, it doesnt seem to track me as well. (this could be coincidental or biased.. lol)
Signal - definitely lowered, but barely not very noticeable. (You might want to check on a TW rom like I mentioned earlier)
Camera - some roms are super buggy, crashing every other shot then unable to initialize my camera afterwards
Text reflow is gone
Random bugs all around, usually not bad if I'm working in the office, but for weekend excursions, I'd rather have the stability of TW overall.
Let me know what you think, and definitely try switching back to a TW rom to see if your signal woes are resolved. Could be a hardware issue as well.
xredjokerx said:
Do you get full 4G when you're on a TW rom? I run nephilim right now after trying all the roms and I think it works quite well. Theres no perfect rom out there, so you'll have to decide what you're willing to sacrifice
What I noticed on AOSP/CM/AOKP roms:
Battery life is dismal - even on airplane mode I drained my battery to 20 in 6 hours.
GPS performance is lowered - even though I get locked on, it doesnt seem to track me as well. (this could be coincidental or biased.. lol)
Signal - definitely lowered, but barely not very noticeable. (You might want to check on a TW rom like I mentioned earlier)
Camera - some roms are super buggy, crashing every other shot then unable to initialize my camera afterwards
Text reflow is gone
Random bugs all around, usually not bad if I'm working in the office, but for weekend excursions, I'd rather have the stability of TW overall.
Let me know what you think, and definitely try switching back to a TW rom to see if your signal woes are resolved. Could be a hardware issue as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need to locate a TW rom and go back to check. I am not seeing any that have been updated to 4.4 yet so I guess I will just have to settle with 4.3 because the signal and now that you mention it the battery life is very dismal. Thanks again for your assistance!
xredjokerx said:
Do you get full 4G when you're on a TW rom? I run nephilim right now after trying all the roms and I think it works quite well. Theres no perfect rom out there, so you'll have to decide what you're willing to sacrifice
What I noticed on AOSP/CM/AOKP roms:
Battery life is dismal - even on airplane mode I drained my battery to 20 in 6 hours.
GPS performance is lowered - even though I get locked on, it doesnt seem to track me as well. (this could be coincidental or biased.. lol)
Signal - definitely lowered, but barely not very noticeable. (You might want to check on a TW rom like I mentioned earlier)
Camera - some roms are super buggy, crashing every other shot then unable to initialize my camera afterwards
Text reflow is gone
Random bugs all around, usually not bad if I'm working in the office, but for weekend excursions, I'd rather have the stability of TW overall.
Let me know what you think, and definitely try switching back to a TW rom to see if your signal woes are resolved. Could be a hardware issue as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried Trent's and nephillim ROMs and I still have only 3g on both. This has just started happening recently too but it stays on 3g no matter how many times I wipe data and factory reset. Im starting to think that I may need a new sim card. Also I didn't realize the WiFi issue with the other two 4.3 ROMs until I already flashed them and then reverted back to 4.4
Thanks again for the assistance. I'm gonna get a new late sim card and see if that helps.
checkmysmile said:
I tried Trent's and nephillim ROMs and I still have only 3g on both. This has just started happening recently too but it stays on 3g no matter how many times I wipe data and factory reset. Im starting to think that I may need a new sim card. Also I didn't realize the WiFi issue with the other two 4.3 ROMs until I already flashed them and then reverted back to 4.4
Thanks again for the assistance. I'm gonna get a new late sim card and see if that helps.
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Click to collapse
Sounds like you also are on the old firmware..you will see WiFi issues on 4.3tw if your not on the latest
Just curious if anybody noticed better signal on aosp 4.4 after flashing a leak tw4.4 then back to aosp-like the texting fix floating around
ncwildcat said:
Just curious if anybody noticed better signal on aosp 4.4 after flashing a leak tw4.4 then back to aosp-like the texting fix floating around
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Click to collapse
Nope its the same.
coming from 4.3, I've been going from rom to rom this week in search of a truly stable kitkat TW rom. I won't lie the roms were great in every way but each of them had a major flaw that caused me to switch (constant crashing, gps not working, wifi not working). I've tried dn3, r3ds, trents, and possibly more I don't even remember. yes I've tried agni. And trust me each time I did extensive thread-searching to troubleshoot my issues to no avail which is why I'm getting frustrated. I'm not asking for much. I just want a rom with a working gps, working wifi, and stability. And by stability I mean not just labeled "stable" but doesn't reboot five times a day and won't shut down in the middle of the night to fail to wake me in the morning. I also need s note 3. I don't even care about anything else, seriously. Has anyone had luck finding a rom with the aforementioned criteria? Thanks.
edit: never mind, finally found one.
R3d its the best.