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Verizon GS3 signal reception thread

data issues related to dbm #'s?

  • high dbm, data works fine

    Votes: 53 68.8%
  • high dbm, data does not work

    Votes: 17 22.1%
  • other: explain in comments

    Votes: 7 9.1%

  • Total voters
    77
You mean you tried it and it didn't work or you have no clue what I'm talking about :)

Meaning I tried the steps exactly how they were prescribed after a factory rest and clean boot at which time no improvement to my signal strength occurred. After another reboot still now improvement. I even reseated the SIM but that was a hail Mary. I should have my replacement fri so I'll be able to confirm if it was something with the device or my area of service.
 
Meaning I tried the steps exactly how they were prescribed after a factory rest and clean boot at which time no improvement to my signal strength occurred. After another reboot still now improvement. I even reseated the SIM but that was a hail Mary. I should have my replacement fri so I'll be able to confirm if it was something with the device or my area of service.

So it was b, you didn't understand me :)

From my previous post above:

1) Goto settings->more settings->Mobile networks->Global Data Roaming Access
2) Select option 3.
3) Go up one menu.
4) Uncheck Use Packet Data.
5) Recheck Use Packet Data.

Both my S3s could not pull a 3g signal from my local tower but they could from more distant towers. After these steps both were able to pull from the tower next door.

If this fixes it, you should be able to switch data roaming off in a day or two. Note, your're not really roaming unless you leave the US.
 
I should have my replacement fri so I'll be able to confirm if it was something with the device or my area of service.

I dunno about getting any sort of confirmation as to what the problem is. I say that because last week, after both my daughter's SGS3 and mine were having identical terrible reception problems (Drops virtually ALL calls and barely getting 1x at home) I swapped my phone for another at the local corporate Verizon store. I came home and what do ya know...It works a little better. Not nearly up to the standards of any other smart phone in our house but it didn't drop most calls and I could actually use 1x some of the time instead of almost none of the time.

So I'm thinking I'll swap my daughter's phone the next day since obviously my first phone was defective. Her's must be too, right? But when she tested her phone (the original one) right after I came home with my new one it was working exactly the same as the one I just swapped for. Huh? So apparently it wasn't me getting a new phone that improved the reception. Something just magically happened to make both of our phones start working a little better.

A few days later her phone started to go berserk and Backup Assistant+ went on a rampage and wouldn't stop backing up anything and everything on the phone. Even pulling the battery and restarting it wouldn't help. The guys at the Verizon store couldn't fix it either so they gave her a new one. No problem with Backup Assistant and the reception is still in the slightly improved mode.

Bottom line is that at least for us, swapping the phone wasn't necessary to fix the reception problem (at least partially fix it). All you need to do is THREATEN to replace it and the problem will sort of fix itself. :rolleyes:;):)

Benny
 
I was at a VZW Corporate Store today and compared their 2 S3s (white & blue) and 1 Razr Max. The results were a bit disturbing. Mine rarely switched over to 4G and stayed 95% of the time on 3G. Granted this was not a great signal area and the salesguy said 'that's perfectly normal'. He pulled out of his pocket his S3 and it too was on 3G. When I told him the demos seemed to stay on 4G, he said 'no, just play with them and you'll see they'll eventually drop to 3G too'. Hmm, didn't really see much of that at all and I was there for a good 45 minutes.

The two display S3s were on 4G about 95% of the time. I held them, cupped them etc. trying to get them to drop to 3G and they almost never did. I held a display S3 in one hand and mine in the other and theirs remained on 4G, mine on 3G.

The rare times mine did switch to 4G, the display units were about 1 or 2db better. Loading of web pages was consistent with the difference in 3G & 4G. There's loaded more quickly (not a huge difference, but definitely faster).

I walked to the rear of the store and my S3 seemed to hold 4G better there. That enabled me to compare it to a Razr on the rear wall. The Razr LTE signal was about 3-4 db better than mine.

So now I'm wondering, do I try swapping out the phone? Do I try swapping out the sim? Is the difference I saw meaningful in light of the salesguy's S3 also showing 3G?

But inevitably I wonder why the 2 demos held 4G significantly better than mine?
 
I dont know what happened this morning and day with my siii
went off to work and my siii never connected to 3g, I had no data at all! Until I hit 4g areas, like 3g was down in my areas:confused:

I rebooted, removed the battery, removed sim, and all I got was very little 3g, in all areas that I have 4g it was fine but in my 3g areas, mostly no data at all, sometimes I would get some then, nothing again...

I hope they were working on things cause this sucked big time!!!!:mad:

On the way home all seemed well :confused:

I did the post by "sorka" just moments ago, hope that or something verizon was doing, cause all I thought about was having to load everything all over again:mad: after a replacement phone.

One more thing now that I am home I have been watching the wifi data signal up top and it keeps downloading :confused::confused::confused:
I quit everything ran system panel lite and it says im downloading very little data , it has slowed down now but ?? is there any app that will tell me what app is doing this or are all your phones doing the same?
 
Another odd observation between my GNex and S3. I placed the S3 sim (originally the GNex's sim) back into the GNex.

The GNex signal showed -93dbm, 1asu. When I reinserted that sim back into the S3, the S3 signal read -109dbm, 32asu. So I'm wondering why the S3 would show a worse reading on the dbm scale and at the same time a better 'asu' reading. Both were on 4G during the signal readouts.
 
Not necessarily getting any dropped calls, but have gotten a few "unable to connect" calls despite good coverage. One was at 91dbm's and another at 112dbms.
 
Yesterday my wife and I were dining at a local dive. Her S3 was pulling in 4G while mine was hopelessly stuck on 3G. I have had no complaints at all with my reception thus far. My phone has been great. Thought that it was a bit weird that 2 similar S3s (well hers is white, mine is blurple) would show different levels of reception so to speak. Did a reboot on mine, and instantly started pulling in 4G. I think this is the first time I've rebooted since first activating. Not sure if it would help anyone or not, but for some having issues, if you haven't yet, it may be worthwhile to try a reboot. Likely won't solve anything but it helped me in this ONE instance.
 
Might not be signal. My razr drops 4g frequently and not due to poor signal. My speculation is related to how Verizon authenticates...but only Verizon knows for sure...



Yesterday my wife and I were dining at a local dive. Her S3 was pulling in 4G while mine was hopelessly stuck on 3G. I have had no complaints at all with my reception thus far. My phone has been great. Thought that it was a bit weird that 2 similar S3s (well hers is white, mine is blurple) would show different levels of reception so to speak. Did a reboot on mine, and instantly started pulling in 4G. I think this is the first time I've rebooted since first activating. Not sure if it would help anyone or not, but for some having issues, if you haven't yet, it may be worthwhile to try a reboot. Likely won't solve anything but it helped me in this ONE instance.
 
Yesterday my wife and I were dining at a local dive. Her S3 was pulling in 4G while mine was hopelessly stuck on 3G. I have had no complaints at all with my reception thus far. My phone has been great. Thought that it was a bit weird that 2 similar S3s (well hers is white, mine is blurple) would show different levels of reception so to speak. Did a reboot on mine, and instantly started pulling in 4G. I think this is the first time I've rebooted since first activating. Not sure if it would help anyone or not, but for some having issues, if you haven't yet, it may be worthwhile to try a reboot. Likely won't solve anything but it helped me in this ONE instance.

I tested against a Razr, Razr Maxx, and Droid X, and in all cases the Moto phones easily had better signal strength than the GS3 when it comes to Wi-Fi and 3g. In 4g it was pretty close with the GS3 sometimes doing a little better....until today. My co-worker's Razr had a 4g signal while I was on 3g. I tried the reboot and it worked! Then a few seconds later it flipped back to 3g, which didn't make sense because 4g still had a coupler bars on when it flipped. The Razr also had two bars but stayed connected.
 
Ya they way these phones connect and hold a signal is weird. I am really thinking its just the nature of the technology. My droid x at home gets a full 3g signal. If turn the 4g off on my s3 and go to 3g I only get 2 bars. I turn the 4g on and get full bars. My buddy has an S3 he came over last night and was only getting 2 bars of 4g while I was getting 4. We went to his house later where he gets a full bar of 4g service and I was only getting 1-2 bars. I think its just the nature of the beast with the network, radio and antenna and the software analyzing all of it. when we ran a speed test 2 out of 3 times my 1-2 bar 4g signal had higher download speed than his 4 bars.
 
Almost every verizon 4G phone had some glitches, quality issue with SIM, phone affecting some users. And erratic 4G behavior often requires rebooting or toggling airplane mode. Sometimes toggling data roaming helps, but not always. This is partly due to verizon's aggressive SIM authentication and is not necessarily signal reception issue.

I think a lot of this is also due to having to deal with two different radios, CDMA and LTE. LTE is better suited for GSM phone as it's actually advanced HSPA+ data connection. So the hand off between HSPA and LTE is more smooth with less hiccups. We rarely see thread like this for GSM/LTE version.
 
So it was b, you didn't understand me :)

From my previous post above:

1) Goto settings->more settings->Mobile networks->Global Data Roaming Access
2) Select option 3.
3) Go up one menu.
4) Uncheck Use Packet Data.
5) Recheck Use Packet Data.

Both my S3s could not pull a 3g signal from my local tower but they could from more distant towers. After these steps both were able to pull from the tower next door.

If this fixes it, you should be able to switch data roaming off in a day or two. Note, your're not really roaming unless you leave the US.

Ah, great guide but didn't help (for me). I will see later today if the new replacement makes ANY difference and reply back. Oddly I did notice if I toggle Airplane mode I get a better dBm and bar rating for a few seconds while the Mobile Network Type is "unknown" but then it switches to EvDo-rev.A:8 and looses a chunk of 'perceived' strength. How can you determine which tower you are connecting two and those that surround it best?
 
I was at a VZW Corporate Store today and compared their 2 S3s (white & blue) and 1 Razr Max. The results were a bit disturbing. Mine rarely switched over to 4G and stayed 95% of the time on 3G. Granted this was not a great signal area and the salesguy said 'that's perfectly normal'. He pulled out of his pocket his S3 and it too was on 3G. When I told him the demos seemed to stay on 4G, he said 'no, just play with them and you'll see they'll eventually drop to 3G too'. Hmm, didn't really see much of that at all and I was there for a good 45 minutes.

The two display S3s were on 4G about 95% of the time. I held them, cupped them etc. trying to get them to drop to 3G and they almost never did. I held a display S3 in one hand and mine in the other and theirs remained on 4G, mine on 3G.

The rare times mine did switch to 4G, the display units were about 1 or 2db better. Loading of web pages was consistent with the difference in 3G & 4G. There's loaded more quickly (not a huge difference, but definitely faster).

I walked to the rear of the store and my S3 seemed to hold 4G better there. That enabled me to compare it to a Razr on the rear wall. The Razr LTE signal was about 3-4 db better than mine.

So now I'm wondering, do I try swapping out the phone? Do I try swapping out the sim? Is the difference I saw meaningful in light of the salesguy's S3 also showing 3G?

But inevitably I wonder why the 2 demos held 4G significantly better than mine?

I'd go for the sim swap since it's quick and easy. Might as well try that because with phone swap you'd have re-setup all your apps and stuff. Sim swap still working good for me. BTW, sold my Maxx on eBay today for $479. WooHoo! :D
 
Ya they way these phones connect and hold a signal is weird. I am really thinking its just the nature of the technology. My droid x at home gets a full 3g signal. If turn the 4g off on my s3 and go to 3g I only get 2 bars. I turn the 4g on and get full bars. My buddy has an S3 he came over last night and was only getting 2 bars of 4g while I was getting 4. We went to his house later where he gets a full bar of 4g service and I was only getting 1-2 bars. I think its just the nature of the beast with the network, radio and antenna and the software analyzing all of it. when we ran a speed test 2 out of 3 times my 1-2 bar 4g signal had higher download speed than his 4 bars.

And that is the bizarre thing. I do think that in some instances phone A will do better than phone B. But go to another location and the results may flip.

Why? I have no idea. :)
 
I still love my GS3 but i do have some issues with dropping 4g to 3g and 3g to 1x. I have been receiving mobile data lost and mms data lost today and a few times last week at work. If i lose 4g completely, simply entering in *#*#4636*#*# gets it back.

Calls are good for the most part but my thunderbolt got better call quality as a whole. 4G: When i move closer to the window my S3 destroys the TB but overall the TB was better.

In my cube on the TB, 4g never halted. The S3 i have to move 5 inches to the left for it to move pretty well.
 
I still love my GS3 but i do have some issues with dropping 4g to 3g and 3g to 1x. I have been receiving mobile data lost and mms data lost today and a few times last week at work. If i lose 4g completely, simply entering in *#*#4636*#*# gets it back.

Calls are good for the most part but my thunderbolt got better call quality as a whole. 4G: When i move closer to the window my S3 destroys the TB but overall the TB was better.

In my cube on the TB, 4g never halted. The S3 i have to move 5 inches to the left for it to move pretty well.

what is "*#*#4636*#*#" ?
 
I was at a VZW Corporate Store today and compared their 2 S3s (white & blue) and 1 Razr Max. The results were a bit disturbing. Mine rarely switched over to 4G and stayed 95% of the time on 3G. Granted this was not a great signal area and the salesguy said 'that's perfectly normal'. He pulled out of his pocket his S3 and it too was on 3G. When I told him the demos seemed to stay on 4G, he said 'no, just play with them and you'll see they'll eventually drop to 3G too'. Hmm, didn't really see much of that at all and I was there for a good 45 minutes.

The two display S3s were on 4G about 95% of the time. I held them, cupped them etc. trying to get them to drop to 3G and they almost never did. I held a display S3 in one hand and mine in the other and theirs remained on 4G, mine on 3G.

The rare times mine did switch to 4G, the display units were about 1 or 2db better. Loading of web pages was consistent with the difference in 3G & 4G. There's loaded more quickly (not a huge difference, but definitely faster).

I walked to the rear of the store and my S3 seemed to hold 4G better there. That enabled me to compare it to a Razr on the rear wall. The Razr LTE signal was about 3-4 db better than mine.

So now I'm wondering, do I try swapping out the phone? Do I try swapping out the sim? Is the difference I saw meaningful in light of the salesguy's S3 also showing 3G?

But inevitably I wonder why the 2 demos held 4G significantly better than mine?


Could be that those devices have the new kernel update.....
 
Could be that those devices have the new kernel update.....

Apparently not Rush. Here's what happened tonight. I went back to the same store for a possible sim card replacement and to look at cases. Of course I couldn't resist going back to the original two display devices to compare once again.

This time things were quite different. My S3 consistently did better than their blue S3 and generally matched or, at times, did slightly better than their white S3. Same store, same location, same two display S3s and the same approach to comparing, just different results. Bizarre, utterly bizarre.

As a result of this I walked out with a case, but told the sales guy I changed my mind about a sim card swap (which he was more than happy to do for me). At this point I didn't want to mess with anything.

Being as anal as I am, I went to another VZW Corporate Store in a much better signal area. There they had another white & blue S3. Here again my S3 did better than their blue S3 and generally matched their white S3. At times their white S3 showed a bit better signal than mine and a minute or two later, mine showed a bit better signal than theirs.

It seems there are just too many factors that go in to these comparisons and a single test at one location is simply not telling you enough.

At first I felt it was more a question of Phone A doing better than Phone B at one location and then the results potentially switching around at another location. But here I went to the same location that got me concerned and the results were very different. I can't begin to explain why. Even if you conjectured that atmospheric conditions played a role or the signal quality itself changed on that day, it would have done that for all the phones within that general area or store and the comparative results should have been the same.

The bottom line is that I'm happy with what I've got and I'm convinced these results can be all over the place with the same devices. I'd bet the reception, on average, of most of these units falls within a fairly narrow range.

However, do testing on any given day at any given location, and who knows what results you might get. :)
 
Check out the scree shot below. As you can see, I live in a fairly marginal area and spend time in a downright bad area. But while I was in that bad area, I was still able to make and receive calls with good clarity and post some stuff to fb. I have no idea why some of our phones are doing well and others suck. Is it defective phones or Verizon? Not sure, but I'm happy so far. We'll see if I remain so the next time I head up the coast.
 

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Ah, great guide but didn't help (for me). I will see later today if the new replacement makes ANY difference and reply back. Oddly I did notice if I toggle Airplane mode I get a better dBm and bar rating for a few seconds while the Mobile Network Type is "unknown" but then it switches to EvDo-rev.A:8 and looses a chunk of 'perceived' strength. How can you determine which tower you are connecting two and those that surround it best?

New replacement in hand...but no luck in improvement. Something odd though, I downloaded OpenSignalMaps from the market and confirmed the tower in use, then activated the new device and observed its connected to the same tower...as 'expected' I suppose...but instead of a Mobile network type of EvDoxxxx from before it's eHRPD:13. The build, hardware, OS, PRL, ERIC, ect values all match.

I did read here http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/477059-ehrpd-vs-evdo.html that eHRPD is a middle layer all 3G/4G devices should be on to allow the switching to occur between the two modes. Odd the other phone was not showing that for its setting. I need to test but it should also provide voice and data over 3G concurrently. Hmmm...The education and testing continues...

Speed test.net shows DL 1578. UP 862 with a ping of 97ms.
 
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