Help Signal goes from solid 4G to no data (gray triangle)

[hlsilver]

I had to fight with the Verizon CSR to replace my phone. It took almost 15 minutes of arguing with him. He kept saying that it was a warranty issue and he would order a refurbished replacement. I told him it was a defect and still within my replacement window. It is funny how people here in these forums know more than the Verizon CSRs in the stores. The one that I bought my original Nexus from did not say anything when I popped up and told my wife that I should get a part-time job here selling phones (he obviously knew that his knowledge of the phone was minimal and I had done far more research).

Completely agree, almost all of the Verison CSRs I've dealt with were complete idiots.

Anyway, JKC, I haven't noticed any data drops recently. In my last post the friend who experienced the data drops at the same time was using a Nexus. I don't think it's a radio issue with mine thankfully. Also I had a similar issue with data dropping and not coming back and had to reboot, I dont know if the signal happened to come back while I was rebooting or if the issue was solved by the rebooting, but either way when I started it up I had full 4G again.

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't have banding or really any issues (knock on wood) even considering my devices was manufactured 11/26.

 

[GOOSEgdgt]

Had my SIM card replaced, it worked for maybe an hour. Spent about 30 min with Verizon tech and a guy by the name of Matt told me there is another update due out in second half of Jan that will have an update to the radio files. He said it is a known issue and it does affect a good amount of Nexus and it's random nothing to do with build date. I'm leaving my phone set to CDMA now until this update comes out, I don't have any problems at all when running 3G.

 

[Caveman419]

Had my SIM card replaced, it worked for maybe an hour. Spent about 30 min with Verizon tech and a guy by the name of Matt told me there is another update due out in second half of Jan that will have an update to the radio files. He said it is a known issue and it does affect a good amount of Nexus and it's random nothing to do with build date. I'm leaving my phone set to CDMA now until this update comes out, I don't have any problems at all when running 3G.

I went the SIM card route with no improvement and ended up swapping my phone out for a new phone. The new phone has a much better signal and no dropped data.

A update has been anounced, but I would never put my money on a date that a CSR gave me.

 

[deel]

i think i may have an issue with this as well, in my apt, i get no signal, basically all greyed out. my roommate has att and has 4g most of the time. i know it's a different company, but i would at least expect 3g in my apartment also. how did you guys who got an exchange from verizon convince the csr? i also believe i have banding when i view a white or grey screen and when i showed it to the csr, he said he didnt see it so he called over his manager. manager said he saw it on my phone and on the display phone, but says it's not a defect and refused to do anything


also, regarding no data, do you guys have your phone's Data Roaming box checked? it warns you that you may incur charges, but the csr said it needs to be set anyways. is this true?

 

[zebug]

I've had the same issue, mainly only when sitting in my office which I got horrible reception when I had my old phone (Eris). With my new GNex, I've streamed some movies while at my desk and data would drop here and there.

Today, I checked that "data roaming" box and thus far its been rock solid. I'll post later today to see if it changes. I always have my phone sitting just above my keyboard on a document holder so I am able to see the data signal all day long.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Hmm, so checking data roaming on is easy solution for most folks troubled with signal loss? I guess a lot of them didn't pay attention to it when returning or exchanging nexus for signal issue. I'm not using it yet as mine is not so bad on signal. It just occasionally drops to 3G or goes through 4G-gray bar-4G cycle on weak spots, but never loses signal totally.

Is it absolutely safe to turn it on as long as I don't cross border to Mexico or Canada?

 

[jkc120]

Hmm, so checking data roaming on is easy solution for most folks troubled with signal loss?

I think it can help in some situations, but no it's not a total fix. I truly think the 2 prior Nexuses I had both had a bad radio. It dropped entirely (including voice) all the time, while this one has not. This is different from it dropping from 4G to 3G, which is normal and can happen when the signal gets weak. In my case it was happening even when I had full 4G bars!

I guess a lot of them didn't pay attention to it when returning or exchanging nexus for signal issue. I'm not using it yet as mine is not so bad on signal. It just occasionally drops to 3G or goes through 4G-gray bar-4G cycle on weak spots, but never loses signal totally.

I think you're seeing normal fringe area effects where it's losing the 4G signal, which is normal. Enabling data roaming may help, because it will not (as I understand it and was told by 611 tech support) connect to a 4G tower in the "extended 4G" area (you can see it on their coverage maps) unless you have data roaming enabled.

Is it absolutely safe to turn it on as long as I don't cross border to Mexico or Canada?

I asked exactly that when she recommended I try enabling data roaming, and she said it is safe to do as long as you're not going to Canada or Mexico with my plan. I would recommend calling 611 and asking them, since they can look at your plan and tell you for sure. You'd also be able to note the rep's name and call center location/etc in the event they DO ding you for roaming you have proof of a call asking them about it.

 

[Sandroidfan]

I think it can help in some situations, but no it's not a total fix. I truly think the 2 prior Nexuses I had both had a bad radio. It dropped entirely (including voice) all the time, while this one has not. This is different from it dropping from 4G to 3G, which is normal and can happen when the signal gets weak. In my case it was happening even when I had full 4G bars!

Thanks for answer on data roaming. I will call 611 to find out for me.

I thought you were just unhappy about dropping to 3G or 1X too often with your first couple of Nexuses. So the signal didn't even come back until it's rebooted? Glad you got better one now.

 

[jkc120]

Thanks for answer on data roaming. I will call 611 to find out for me.

You're welcome! Always glad to help if I can

I thought you were just unhappy about dropping to 3G or 1X too often with your first couple of Nexuses. So the signal didn't even come back until it's rebooted? Glad you got better one now.

No, I'd fully understand going 4G --> 3G or even 1X, it happens and there are parts of this area that are not quite stable. But what I was seeing is data and voice going *poof* 10-15 times a day, even when the phone was sitting idle and in an area with full 4G bars.

 

[GOOSEgdgt]

SIM card replacement, data roaming and factory reset did not help my case, going to have phone replaced.

 

[hlsilver]

Still having this issue several times recently when using 4G again after turning on data roaming. Its really not that often though so I cant decide whether its authentication or bad radio. I mean if it was authentication i wouldnt be losing voice right? And if i go to get a replacement, since I bought it through a 3rd party, i would go to that store to get a replacement under manufacturers warrenty correct?

 

[jkc120]

Still having this issue several times recently when using 4G again after turning on data roaming. Its really not that often though so I cant decide whether its authentication or bad radio. I mean if it was authentication i wouldnt be losing voice right? And if i go to get a replacement, since I bought it through a 3rd party, i would go to that store to get a replacement under manufacturers warrenty correct?

I'm not sure how it works at other 3rd party stores. With Costco they claim you can swap it "for any reason" within 90 days. I'm testing their limits I'm sure by going back AGAIN tomorrow or Friday. I'm almost afraid to do it. Yes, the purple tint and banding are annoying, but the radio has been working just fine and I'm sort of afraid I'll wind up with an equally bad or worse screen along with a radio doing this. :/

Luckily, being rooted, I have terminal emulator running and can keep an eye on the radio logs and know when this happens so I should know relatively quickly after replacement whether the new one has the issue or not...

 

[hlsilver]

I see. I got mine from radioshack but im not completely sure what their policy is, and especially considering I ordered online. Hopefully its 90 day.
To be able to check radio logs i have to be rooted dont i?

Also I'm assuming a new phone fixed your issue? Seems weird though, my manufacturing date is 11/26 and I'm having the radio issues while you're not with a phone on 11/16. Quality control is a joke now days...

 

[syntrix]

Still having this issue several times recently when using 4G again after turning on data roaming. Its really not that often though so I cant decide whether its authentication or bad radio. I mean if it was authentication i wouldnt be losing voice right? And if i go to get a replacement, since I bought it through a 3rd party, i would go to that store to get a replacement under manufacturers warrenty correct?

No, data auth on 4G phones is different, your voice is over the old 1x network, which is a damn fine network.

The issue is potentially 4G authentication times in different markets (even 3G data on 4G phones).

Hopefully either the new network improves.. (greater BGP pop sites for the 'auth' servers, or other....ISIS OSPF, more sites etc....). Or maybe the back end is just really slow.... reminds me of the us cellular days of decades ago where you would have to wait like 5 mins for your moto=brick to go through radius services.

Gawd, if they put auth in a virt type "cloud" they already failed.

 

[hlsilver]

No, data auth on 4G phones is different, your voice is over the old 1x network, which is a damn fine network.

The issue is potentially 4G authentication times in different markets (even 3G data on 4G phones).

Hopefully either the new network improves.. (greater BGP pop sites for the 'auth' servers, or other....ISIS OSPF, more sites etc....). Or maybe the back end is just really slow.... reminds me of the us cellular days of decades ago where you would have to wait like 5 mins for your moto=brick to go through radius services.

Gawd, if they put auth in a virt type "cloud" they already failed.

Yea so even if I'm losing 4G or 3G signal, I shouldn't be losing voice. I guess the radio is the only option then. I guess I'll see what Radioshack can do for me...

 

[jkc120]

I see. I got mine from radioshack but im not completely sure what their policy is, and especially considering I ordered online. Hopefully its 90 day.
To be able to check radio logs i have to be rooted dont i?

Yes, I'm fairly sure you will need to be root. I don't think adb logcat -b radio will work unless adbd is running as root. But you may want to try just in case.

Also I'm assuming a new phone fixed your issue? Seems weird though, my manufacturing date is 11/26 and I'm having the radio issues while you're not with a phone on 11/16. Quality control is a joke now days...

Yeah, I dunno. All I know is this one dated 11/16 has a radio that hasn't dropped, whereas the phones built 12/23 (I think the 1st one was 12/23, because it was the same shipment, but not 100% sure) had the radio issue. This is of course only one data point, and I wouldn't be ready to make any conclusions about phones before X date have a good radio and after have a bad one. If it were that bad and it was prevalent, we'd be hearing a LOT more about it. Some of us (me for sure) are just unlucky with cell phones I guess. hahah

I would definitely talk to RS about exchanging it. At this point I've seen no evidence it's not a HW issue, or at least partially HW (e.g. tower does something funky that other Nexuses handle but ours handle it by doing a reset of all the radios). If it were software related, I would expect it to also be more wide spread.

 

[hlsilver]

Yea I see your point. Definitely hardware. Had 4G only on and was fine for 4-5 hours and thought maybe it was fixed...then data drops and i try to send a text, voice gone too. Thats the last sign of motivation I need lol, heading to RS tomorrow to see if they can help me out. Really hoping they can.

 

[jkc120]

Yea I see your point. Definitely hardware. Had 4G only on and was fine for 4-5 hours and thought maybe it was fixed...then data drops and i try to send a text, voice gone too. Thats the last sign of motivation I need lol, heading to RS tomorrow to see if they can help me out. Really hoping they can.

I wish you luck!

I'm hoping Costco's shipment comes in tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the crap out of this Nexus, despite its screen issues.

 

[hlsilver]

Thanks lol! Yea Ive got screen issues too. Im hoping they'll give me a newer replacement that actually has blacks, not just dark purples. Such a nice screen going to waste being purple tinted.

 

[GOOSEgdgt]

OK, had the phone replaced today (new phone build date is 10/30) and this one works beautifully, It's been running for hours now and I haven't had a single data problem, the other phone (build: 11/16) would drop data and phone at least 2-3 times every hour and at least one of every 3 phone calls. This phone has 4.0.1 and it keeps asking me if I want to do the update, I'm a bit scared if I do the update it will mess the radio again, just like the other one... BTW, Verizon Wireless is probably short on refurb phones, they probably haven't received many returns yet, I assume they will have many shortly, I had a brand new phone shipped to me so if you are willing to take the risk the sooner the better.

Update: as far as the purple bar, the old phone also had it but only when I had the keyboard showing, this one does not have the purple bar.

 

[Sandroidfan]

OK, had the phone replaced today (new phone build date is 10/30) and this one works beautifully, It's been running for hours now and I haven't had a single data problem, the other phone (build: 11/16) would drop data and phone at least 2-3 times every hour and at least one of every 3 phone calls. This phone has 4.0.1 and it keeps asking me if I want to do the update, I'm a bit scared if I do the update it will mess the radio again, just like the other one... BTW, Verizon Wireless is probably short on refurb phones, they probably haven't received many returns yet, I assume they will have many shortly, I had a brand new phone shipped to me so if you are willing to take the risk the sooner the better.

Glad that you got good one. It seems like the earliest build we've ever seen on Nexus. It makes me wonder if VZW intentionally screwed up some small number of nexus randomly? Really hope any radio issues are addressed with 4.0.3 or higher.

 

[hlsilver]

On the thread note though, as of now I've had atleast 10 drops today that I'm aware of. Contemplating throwing it at a wall to crack the screen, shell out the $100, and get a replacement from Verizon lol.

 

[jkc120]

OK, had the phone replaced today (new phone build date is 10/30) and this one works beautifully, It's been running for hours now and I haven't had a single data problem, the other phone (build: 11/16) would drop data and phone at least 2-3 times every hour and at least one of every 3 phone calls.

Weird, the manufactured date was 10/30? Odd that such an "old" phone (relative to other build dates we've seen) would get sent out as a new phone for replacement. How is the banding / purple tint to the phone? I was operating under the theory that the tinting/banding were incrementally improved upon in their manufacturing process, but I admit I didn't have enough data on build date and severity of banding/tinting to draw a legit conclusion.

This phone has 4.0.1 and it keeps asking me if I want to do the update, I'm a bit scared if I do the update it will mess the radio again, just like the other one... BTW, Verizon Wireless is probably short on refurb phones, they probably haven't received many returns yet, I assume they will have many shortly, I had a brand new phone shipped to me so if you are willing to take the risk the sooner the better.

If I were you, I'd unlock the bootloader, root it. Install clockworkmod recovery, backup your existing ROM in full, let it upgrade and then if the dung hits the fan, you can roll back. At least I think CWMR will backup the radio, though perhaps not. I guess you could always find the 4.0.1 radio and re-flash it if you ran into trouble with 4.0.2. But I sort of doubt 4.0.2 is the problem. I bet there would be a SLEW of people here and seeing this thread via google searching thrilled to hear that your phone worked fine on 4.0.1 and then had this "data drop" problem on 4.0.2, because it would indicate it is fixable via software! But I don't wish problems upon you...just saying, if you find the data drops correlate to 4.0.2, it's very important info. Maybe give 4.0.1 a go for a week first? When I first got my 2nd Nexus (in round 2) it didn't drop for hours, then it started right up again. So I would definitely give it a few days before concluding it's not having the issue.

Update: as far as the purple bar, the old phone also had it but only when I had the keyboard showing, this one does not have the purple bar.

Oops, typed the above before I saw this. Hmm, so it may really, truly be a total crapshoot whether you get a "good" screen or "good" radio from Samsung? I must be one really unlucky person.

 

[GOOSEgdgt]

Well, I did the update, that message was just annoying me. So far it's working just fine, it hasn't dropped the data once and signal has been very stable 2-3 bars. One thing that I have noted different is that now I see up and down arrows even when the bars are grayed out and it will transfer data even when they are grayed out although they don't stay gray for a very long time once it turns blue.

Now here's the best part. I wanted to send a pic of the build date and after the update the build date CHANGED!!!! Interesting enough it changed to Nov 16 2011 16:29:36, why is it interesting? This is the exact same date and time of the old phone, to the second. I took the old phone out of the return shipment box and checked the build date on it and yes it is Nov 16 2011 16:29:36. It appears that the build date in this screen is not the hardware build date maybe?

Now I'm a bit more convinced this is a hardware problem, see below.

Phone 1 (with data problem):
OMAP-SamsungHW Information
Board Name: tuna Rev 10
Board Rev: LTE - 10
Boot Type: USB MMC1
Device Type: HS
Build Date: Nov 16 2011 16:29:36

Phone 2 (works properly):
OMAP-SamsungHW Information
Board Name: tuna Rev 9
Board Rev: LTE - 9
Boot Type: USB MMC1
Device Type: HS
Build Date: Nov 16 2011 16:29:36

Can anyone recommend a way to take a picture to show these dates? When I take a pic it's too blurry or too bright.

 

[jkc120]

Well, I did the update, that message was just annoying me. So far it's working just fine, it hasn't dropped the data once and signal has been very stable 2-3 bars. One thing that I have noted different is that now I see up and down arrows even when the bars are grayed out and it will transfer data even when they are grayed out although they don't stay gray for a very long time once it turns blue.

Now here's the best part. I wanted to send a pic of the build date and after the update the build date CHANGED!!!! Interesting enough it changed to Nov 16 2011 16:29:36, why is it interesting? This is the exact same date and time of the old phone, to the second. I took the old phone out of the return shipment box and checked the build date on it and yes it is Nov 16 2011 16:29:36. It appears that the build date in this screen is not the hardware build date maybe?

Now I'm a bit more convinced this is a hardware problem, see below.

Phone 1 (with data problem):
OMAP-SamsungHW Information
Board Name: tuna Rev 10
Board Rev: LTE - 10
Boot Type: USB MMC1
Device Type: HS
Build Date: Nov 16 2011 16:29:36

Phone 2 (works properly):
OMAP-SamsungHW Information
Board Name: tuna Rev 9
Board Rev: LTE - 9
Boot Type: USB MMC1
Device Type: HS
Build Date: Nov 16 2011 16:29:36

Can anyone recommend a way to take a picture to show these dates? When I take a pic it's too blurry or too bright.

Interesting!!! GREAT find. So the "build date" is actually the build date of the OS most likely. Which means the only way we can find the manufacture date is via Samsung's website. It also means the date of this phone I have now is unknown. I will need to go register it (despite returning it tomorrow haha) to see what the manufacture date is...

Definitely interesting about the LTE board revision. So I wonder if this rev 10 is bad? If so, that's a HORRIBLE hardware bug to push out when rev 9 was working properly...

I'll check mine and post back here in a bit.