• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Captivate reception. Does not even ring..

S

screamin400

Newbie
I am starting to take a strong dislike to my phone. It has not come in well since I got it and seems to have gotten worse. I have cognition in it right now and no difference over stock. Just now I had 4 bars showing and the phone would not ring. Straight to voicemail every time. Getting to be that no one will call me as they never get in touch with me. The sims card in it was new when I got it as I have heard that can cause issues. What are you guys finding with yours? Even with cognition I do not find this phone to be fast. The battery life stinks. I think that is enough of a rant for right now. Ultimately the phone must work as a phone. This one does not. What do you guys think the problem could be? My wife's phone (iphone) never misses a call and I have to hear that everyday. Thanks for any help.
 
Your phone may have a faulty 3G radio.

Try forcing your phone to Edge. If that clears up your prob, then your phone definitely has a 3G radio prob. If you can't get calls even on Edge then both the radios on your phone are faulty. Either way, you'll probably need to do either a warranty exchange (outside of 30-days purchased) or get a new one from the store (if within 30 days of purchase).

Instructions to force your phone to EDGE on the Captivate:
BookLover said:
SAMSERVMODE from the Market will allow you to force your Captivate to Edge.

Once you have it installed, you need to open the app and do the following to force your phone to Edge:

NOTE: Works on Samsung Captivate. Not sure if this would work on other mfgs or other Samsung models.

[1] Debug Screen
[8] Phone Control
[4] UE State Control
[3] Change RAT to GSM
-Click MENU button
-Click END (to save the setting - very important - if you don't do this your settings aren't saved).

Can't remember if this survives are reboot or not, but it does stick even if you go in/out of Airplane mode.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the info. I will take a look at that after work. Where I live there is not 3g. Would that make a difference on a 3g radio?
 
screamin400 said:
Thanks for the info. I will take a look at that after work. Where I live there is not 3g. Would that make a difference on a 3g radio?
Click to expand...

Definitely!

If you don't have 3G where you live, then forcing your phone to Edge will DEFINITELY fix your problem.
 
Just took a minute and tried it. Rang once in my home phone that I was dialing from but went straight to vm. Captivate is showing 3 bars sitting there grinning at me. I called att a few days ago and they rang me back. The one time it actually worked. They told me my phone is fine. I will try this setting for a day or two and give it a chance to see if it helps. Thanks for the info.
 
Download Mobile Signal Widget. It has a more granular view of your signal (more bars) and gives a numerical reading of your signal level.

It may help you diagnose your problem. Perhaps the signal meter on your phone is wrong or if both Mobile Signal Widget and your phone meter tell you the same thing, then something is wrong with your phone's radios.

Make sure your DEFAULT ringtone is as long as possible. If you have a 15 second ringtone, if indeed you have a weak signal at your home, then by the time the tower finds your phone, the 15 secs have already been expended so it goes right to VM.

For example, with my old WinMo phone (which had a weak 3G radio) -- My bf called one time and said that it rang on his end about 6 times. But on my end, it had rung only once when I picked it up.
 
So far no dropped calls that I know of but now here is a new twist. I believe we shut 3g off which I have never had at home and now my 3g lights up like I have it and the phone runs pretty fast. Whats up with that?
 
Have to wonder if I fat fingered something. I rebooted and redid the settings and no more 3g. But the phone can download without 3g in the same position that it has missed calls in the past. What could I have pressed wrong if indeed I did press something wrong? I really don't think I did though.
 
screamin400 said:
Have to wonder if I fat fingered something. I rebooted and redid the settings and no more 3g. But the phone can download without 3g in the same position that it has missed calls in the past. What could I have pressed wrong if indeed I did press something wrong? I really don't think I did though.
Click to expand...

Wrong APN? Shutting it off and rebooting might have forced it to scan and found a good 3G signal.
 
BookLover said:
Your phone may have a faulty 3G radio.

Try forcing your phone to Edge. If that clears up your prob, then your phone definitely has a 3G radio prob. If you can't get calls even on Edge then both the radios on your phone are faulty. Either way, you'll probably need to do either a warranty exchange (outside of 30-days purchased) or get a new one from the store (if within 30 days of purchase).

Instructions to force your phone to EDGE on the Captivate:
Click to expand...


Your instructions helped me solve the problem.

you said a faulty 3g radio is a possibility, in that case is it recomended to change the phone as i am within the 30 day period.

I stay in an area with 3g coverage but after following the instructions i turned the 3g radio off, does that mean that when i access internet i would be using only edge( lower speed) as opposed to 3g.
 
dr_krisg said:
Your instructions helped me solve the problem.

you said a faulty 3g radio is a possibility, in that case is it recomended to change the phone as i am within the 30 day period.

I stay in an area with 3g coverage but after following the instructions i turned the 3g radio off, does that mean that when i access internet i would be using only edge( lower speed) as opposed to 3g.
Click to expand...

Well...you actually could just have a weak 3G signal where you are or a faulty tower or it could be the phone.

How well does your phone work in other areas that you know have strong 3G coverage? For example, when I was in Germany, their 3G coverage was excellent and my phone's battery lasted longer there than when on Edge at home!

To definitively rule out your phone's radio being the problem, you need to get to a metroplitan area that you know has good 3G coverage and make and take some calls. If the calls stay connected, then your 3G radio is fine...which means the problem is with your tower/signal strength.

The latter is easy to solve...when you're in the bad 3G area, put your phone on EDGE. Take it out of EDGE when you're back in a good area.

With my former WinMo phone, I used to default it to EDGE, and then put it into 3G only when I wanted to surf. The downer was that if I'm surfing, calls can't get through on EDGE because you can't have data and calls simultaneously, which 3G allows.

Were I you, I would rule out the phone's 3G radio being faulty. Once you have ruled it out, then you'll just have to manually switch from 3G to EDGE or vice versa whenever you need to.

If you want speedy surfing, Opera Mini is fast even on EDGE. That's my default browser. I switch to Skyfire when I want to Youtube. But 98% of the time I browse with Opera Mini, just because I hate to wait for page loads in any other browser.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom