Help Frequent 'no signal' alerts in ICS

[Martin2]

Hi all... First time poster, so sorry to be asking for help right away.

Since updating to ICS a couple of weeks ago, every day I get dozens of alerts that there's "No Signal". They happen very quickly, and the notification only appears for a fraction of a second, with the signal showing zero bars at the same time.

I have a good signal in my house, and the phone is rarely below three bars, so when a drop happens, the signal goes from a steady four bars to zero for a fraction of a second, then back to four.

To figure out how often this was happening, I install the No Signal Alert app which logs signal drops, and aLogcat.

It seems to happen most when I'm handling the phone. For example, usually when I plug in the USB cable, the alert flickers on a couple of times. But even when the phone is just sitting on the desk the logs show drops happen about every 10 to 30 minutes. It's happened also during calls, and the call is dropped.

The log file shows this event every time the signal drops:

05-17 09:36:51.796 I/GSM ( 487): UpdateNetworkStatusDisplay send Broadcast intent SPN_STRINGS_UPDATED_ACTION: plmn = Fido showPlmn = true spn = null showSpn = false


Some details:
Model: ST18a
Build number: 4.1.A.0.562
Network: Fido

 

[Sam-SonyXperia]

As this has happened since running the update I am inclined to believe that the firmware did not load correctly. With this being the case I would advise reloading the firmware using the same method as previously.

 

[iamviveksri]

in a related ice cream development, i found that while on roaming or when network goes out, my Ray does not "automatically" search for a network even though i have put the operator search on auto!

now searching for an app to oversee this trying the Network Signal Widget.... will revert

 

[Martin2]

As this has happened since running the update I am inclined to believe that the firmware did not load correctly. With this being the case I would advise reloading the firmware using the same method as previously.

Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking the same thing yesterday, so I reloaded the firmware (using PC Companion). I also did a full phone reset, removing all apps and data. It still does the same thing, even before I restored any apps or settings.

Some additional details:
- The signal loss is related to actually performing actions on the phone, not obstructing the antenna. If I handle the phone without unlocking it, nothing happens. The minute I unlock/wake it, I get 'no signal' errors.
- If I turn off WCDMA (set it for GSM only) I get no more errors.

I called tech support, and they recommended sending the phone to a repair centre so they could downgrade it to Gingerbread, though they didn't actually say it was a known problem with ICS.

I think at this point I'd rather run in GSM only and not lose my phone for a few weeks. It would be nice to know if this is a known issue, and whether there might eventually be a fix.

 

[Sam-SonyXperia]

I would also have to advise having the handset looked at by an authorised repair agent. I have flashed a couple of Ray's with ICS now and have not been able to replicate the issue myself.