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Help 3G Issue with Samsung Centura

S

Sledge

Lurker
I have two Samsung Galaxy Centura phones from Wal-Mart with Straight Talk/TracFone. One works great between wifi and 3G. The other rarely recognizes the 3G, unless you turn the phone off/on. I've tried calling for support but all I get is the standard "call in to reprogram" which doesn't help. Also tried switching 3G/wifi on and off, but that only works sometimes. Both phones are used from the exact same area, but only one has this issue. Any suggestions?
 
I'm having the same issue with my 4-month old Centura (Straightalk). Just started happening yesterday, cannot maintain a 3G signal. When I restart phone I can get 3 bars and make maybe one call but soon the bars drop to zero, then bounce to 2 then back to zero. Cannot make/receive any calls without restarting. I'm near downtown Charlotte so should not be having signal problems, phone seems to be having trouble connecting to 3G signal. Wifi seems to be working fine.
 
Any solutions from Samsung or Straightalk? I can't get anything out of Straightalk except reprogramming. I don't think they ever really understand the problem I'm describing.
 
After 1.5 hours on phone with Straight Talk this morning, doing the standard turn on/turn off, remove battery, take outside, etc. processes, the next level of support decided to send me a new phone. Of course I have to return mine first, so I'll be without a phone for about a week.
 
You have to call Straight Talk customer service and they'll tell you to call a number to reprogram the phone.
 
Well here is is 3 weeks later and still no working phone. After a week delay, finally got a mailing label from Straight Talk, sent back the phone (tracking shows they received it 10/31) and I'm told that my replacement phone is still "in processing". So sounds like I'm looking at at least a month without a working phone when I've paid for service. Rep told me there was nothing he could do about the fact that I've paid for a service I'm not getting. Quickly losing faith in Straight Talk.
 
Their Indian telephone support centers SUCK ASS! Talk to their representative on their Facebook page. They seem to care enough to deal with you honestly there at least! I did eventually get a supervisor from telephone customer support to call me back but by then the Facebook person had dealt with my issue.
 
Sledge - did you ever get this fixed? I am having the same problem where my phone works fine with 3G but my husbands hardly ever says 3G. We look at our phones in the same locations, but his wont work. I have gone to mobile network settings and checked the data enabled, but still nothing!
 
Sledge said:
I have two Samsung Galaxy Centura phones from Wal-Mart with Straight Talk/TracFone. One works great between wifi and 3G. The other rarely recognizes the 3G, unless you turn the phone off/on. I've tried calling for support but all I get is the standard "call in to reprogram" which doesn't help. Also tried switching 3G/wifi on and off, but that only works sometimes. Both phones are used from the exact same area, but only one has this issue. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Because you have TWO phones, and one acts like it's got a signal strength issue, I'm going to suggest trying a super-simple fix...

I ran across this when looking for info on GPS signal problems; it was on a Galaxy S3 forum, but made sense and it worked on my Centura.

Remove the back of the phone, and you'll see a series of small torx screws around the perimeter of the plastic case.

These screws compress the plastic case against the phone's circuit boards; the GPS and cell antennas are part of the plastic case, and there are simple pressure contacts between the antennas, and their respective radios on the circuit board.

The Galaxy S3 guys found that many S3's left the factory with fairly LOOSE screws--some guys got three full turns on the screws--loose screws mean less pressure on the contact points between the GPS/cell radios, and their antennas. If contact with antenna is sketchy, reception & transmission will suffer.

While I didn't find any of my Centura screws 'three turns loose', all screws snugged up by a whole turn or more. My GPS lock quickened, and error circle shrank, under same conditions/location.

The (possible) Fix:

---Turn phone OFF. Remove back, and remove battery.

---With correct torx bit, gently turn down each screw until it bottoms out. Don't gorilla-grip/hamfist tighten the screws; firmly hold the driver with two fingers, and that should do it.

...pop the battery back in, snap cover back on, and compare to the other phone. Hopefully, you just solved the problem.

It's fast, easy and safe, as long as you don't over torque the fasteners.

Let us know if this helped!
 
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