Best Way to Test Signal - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Questions and Answers

Can anyone suggest the best way to test cell signal on the S7 Edge? My wife and I both have the same phone, but hers consistently seems to report more bars in the same location. I've had calls drop quite often on the first dial and then they stay connected the second time I call. I'm looking to test both phones and see if it's all in my head or if there really is an issue with my device. Any help would be appreciated on an app to use or other way to test the two phones. Thanks.

did you try phone info fromthe play store.
under monitor it will tell your signal strength. I believe through its service menu you also preform a signal test.

Yeah, but those numbers don't mean anything to me. Other than saying moderate for level, it doesn't say much.
Edit: My wife is not home right now, so maybe I'll install this on both phones and see if there is a difference in the same location;. Just wondering what options are out there for testing.

when you look i phone info under signal strength the number tells how good your calling capability is,
It is measured in dBm.
average should be should be around -101 dBm for full bars depending on your provider.
compare it with your wife's signal strength.
Keep in mind that software plays a part, please check that base band version and csc is the same.
Different base bands and csc means that signal strength can vary.
These should be identical as these two items communicate with your phone provider re reception and transmission.

Phones are both stock. Same provider and same software version. I'm pretty sure I've got reception issues because of the dropped calls. Like I said, she's not home right now to test, but in looking at bars previously, she always seems to have more bars in the same location as me. My phone in our condo here is always around -111 to -120 (LTE). That is right on the cusp of bad from what I can tell. Not sure where to go from here. Really don't want to do a factory reset, but I've read it can help clear up problems like this. Not sure how. Might be a lemon, as I've only had the device since February.

i suggest you call your provider and ask them to reset your phone on their system.
It might cause a difference because of flushing out of any information that may have been related to issues on your account.

Cosmic Blue said:
i suggest you call your provider and ask them to reset your phone on their system.
It might cause a difference because of flushing out of any information that may have been related to issues on your account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm...not sure what this is or what it would do. Never heard of such a thing.
Just got another dropped call. Signal was about -114. I placed a call. While it was connecting, the signal went to about -130 and then to -102 and then dropped. On a second attempt, the signal went to -97 and it connected fine.

Normally when you call your provider to report a problem with your phone.
One of the things they do is to reset your account in case there is an issue in your file as well as doing other tests.
It is similar to you cleaning the cache on your phone from time to time as bits and piece of old files then to slow down your phone.

Try to swap the SIM cards and check what happens.

So this is an older thread, but the issue had been ongoing. Lots of things tried. New sim. Called Rogers (my provider here in Canada) and had them reset mobile connection settings on their end. Tried resetting on my end. Seemed to get better and then back to being an issue again.
Lately it had gotten worse. When I would drive home and park in our parking garage, I would immediately go into roaming mode and was no longer connected to the Rogers network. I was then connected to Rogers-EXT because I had enabled data roaming on my device, from a previous call to Rogers, it was their suggestion to try and keep connectivity, as it is included in my package. The phone would stay roaming as I rode the elevator and into my condo and then usually connect to WiFi and then eventually reconnect to the main Rogers network. Meanwhile this never happened on my wife's S7 Edge, going the same route from her vehicle. Same device, exact same settings, same software version, same updates, etc. Her's never entered roaming mode or got disconnected from the main Rogers network.
Lately, when mine had been entering roaming mode and after I entered my condo, it would stay connected to Rogers-EXT. No matter what I did, a reboot, turn roaming on and off, etc. I had to physically remove myself from the LTE network and then reconnect and register with the network, and then I would connect to the main Rogers network and stop roaming. This was all getting damn frustrating, especially since the same thing was not happening to my wife's phone.
One setting I had not read much about and had not tried was VoLTE. I went into settings and turned this off. I immediately started getting a bit better readings on signal strength as well as no roaming issues any longer at all. I could park, ride the elevator and get into my condo and stay connected to the main Rogers network without issue, exactly like my wife's phone. Funny thing is, VoLTE is ON, on my wife's phone.
I really have no idea why her's works and mine doesn't, other than a hardware issue on my device. I thought about sending my phone in, as I'm still under warranty until the end of December, but right now, everything is working as expected and I haven't heard call quality suffer at all, with the calls I've made so far. I really didn't want to have to wipe my device and send it in and deal with a loaner if I didn't have to. I only plan on keep the device until about August of next year anyway.
If anyone out there knows of why this was happening to my device and not hers or if you have any other suggestions as to how to fix this and re-enable VoLTE (although I don't think it's really that important), please let me know. Again, it sure seems like a hardware (antenna) issue to me.

Aaaaaaaaand nevermind. Worked fine for about 3 days and today it was roaming again after coming up from the parking garage. Ugh. Wish I knew for sure this was a hardware issue. Such a pain to send your phone in, use a loaner, set your phone all up again when you get it back.

Related

Anyone else seen this behavior with their XDAII?

I've been using mine since December with no problems. I'm using T-Mobile as a carrier and been pleased with both my cell signal and GPRS coverage. However, as of about a week and a half ago I suddenly stopped receiving a carrier signal 100% of the time. I simply get the No Service indicator on my phone. The interesting thing is that when I know I'm in an area where I previously had coverage I can go into settings/phone and click the option to manually select a network and after the phone polls for a few seconds it will connect to the network and provide a list of carriers, in my case I see Cingular and ATT Wireless show up. So I know the hardware is working.
I've done soft resets, hard resets, even let the battery backup run dry and still no luck. I have a secondary cheapy Samsung GSM phone that confirms that my SIM is working as well as how strong the signal is, my XDAII just seems to be not wanting to connect.
Any ideas?
*Oh yes, I'm using the default ROM image that shipped with the unit as it's been working fine and I haven't wanted to risk any complications etc.
Thanks for your time,
-Graah

Not receiving phone calls?

Hello all,
I have had my X1 for about a month, and it seems I've come across a problem that defeats the purpose of a phone. I can't seem to receive calls for some reason...recently my friends and family have been telling me they have tried to call me but it just ends up going to my voice mail. I just tell them I was probably on the phone with someone at that time, or my phone was off. Only today did my friend call me to find me in a parking lot that I finally realize its my phone. So I attempted to call myself with my homephone, and tada! it went straight to voicemail. I don't even get any sign of a missed call.. Did anybody else getting this problem? I did a soft reset and it seem to fix the problem. It has probably happened within the past 2 weeks..I have the generic UK rom so I'm still waiting for the official R2A one. It would be great if someone could explain how to prevent this problem from happening.
not that i have a problem with my x1a, mostly because i rarely get calls and rarely use it but i have another phone that would have a problem that you describe.
i think it was due to the phone switching between 3g and edge signal. i work in the ship yard and the steel walls around the ship interfere with my signal and my phone would switch back and forth between getting the best reception (3g and edge).
well anyways, i think the switching back and forth would somehow screw my phone up and i wouldnt get any calls after getting off work.
my brother who also works at our shipyard and carpools with me would try to call me up to ask me if i was getting off in time but i wouldnt know that he had been trying to call me untill we meet up. he tells me that he has been trying to call me and so as were walking back to the car, i asked him to call me to see if my phone is working.
sure enough, my phone doesnt work untill i turned it off and then turned it back on. so if your in an area with poor 3g reception, maybe that could be causing your problem.
my old phone was an old lg cu500. thats my beater phone and since i dont use it for browsing the internet anymore, i set it and leave to use edge. it gets a stronger signal than 3g but if i do need to use 3g, i just go to my phone settings and set it back to use both signals. for some reason, i almost love that beater phone more than my xperia. mainly because its small, compact and i dont have to worry about scratching or damaging it anymore.
hmm, that is rather interesting...however my service provider's 3g frequency band is not compatible with the x1. I also don't have an internet service type of plan with my phone.
However just going to my settings, I noticed that my phone was set up to attempt to connect to the internet via HSDPA. I'm going to disable it and see what happens.
if you dont have 3g or hsdpa connection, then i would set your phone to use only gsm.
I also miss most of my calls but my problems is other some times it rings and some times it doesnt. Anybody know how to fix this?.
I have seen these problems with another PDA, in that case it seemed to be related with the PDA radio at the beggining, but even if that is one of the probable causes, there are another two to be considered.
The first one is the sim module, I own the same sim since 6 years ago, and this sim was programed specifically for the symbian phones of those years, it is in fact unable to send/receive any MMS with a PDA.
The other PDA I'm talking about is an Universal, the same phone worked ok with my sim and failed to receive many calls (even if the covering of this phone company was "better") -in the same place- with the universal, We first suspected a broken sim, but using this sim in a old gsm phone, it worked just fine.
Also, the cell companies, tend to "abuse" of their position and then to "seed" the phones with applications that do use the phone automatically, these programs are made mainly for symbian phones.
Remember also that the cell networks are exactly that, computer networks, and sometimes their databases are not perfectly compatible with all the possible variations of slightly different phones, in this case, PDAs are the least common type of phone.
So, try your phones with other (another cell company) sim, try using the sim with old phones, etc.
hope this helps.

Error Code 67 while roaming driving me nuts

First off, I have NOT made ANY attempt to use the phone as a WiFi hotspot, and I do NOT live in a 4G area, so don't tell me that's my problem and send me on my way
About 11am PDT today my phone started giving me Error Code 67 (Data Call Failure) whenever I try to access the internet or data services from my office (my office has an 850 MHz repeater so I roam in the office). When I am outside or not in my office and the phone picks up a Sprint signal, everything is fine. As soon as I come back inside and my phone switches to roaming, Error Code 67. I've had two calls with Sprint so far...They're updating the provisioning servers or some such thing at the moment and are going to call me back when that's completed.
Has anyone else experienced this today or recently and if so did you find a resolution? I can't easily take the phone back to where I bought it and have them fiddle with it in person as that's 100 mi away.
Thanks!
I've had the same issue too. See it mostly when traveling and the signal strength changes. Not to much when I'm in one spot.
It's quite annoying. I turn the display off and on hoping to pick the signal back up. Makes me think it is a Sprint network problem especially since I've now confirmed someone else has the problem too.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Well, they've got me fixed up again. Also while I was on the phone the gentleman helping me out received an interoffice message stating a server responsible for doing profile updates (Device Configuration message) on the EVO had gone down, so they're failing right now.
I have been getting it as well. I thought it was the roaming hack but I don't believe that is the case. Think it's just something on Sprints network.
I have gotten it too on both of my EVO's....I guess it's not just me
engagedtosmile said:
I have been getting it as well. I thought it was the roaming hack but I don't believe that is the case. Think it's just something on Sprints network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I read through that whole thread and it seems a fair amount of people have had this happen today. And as I wrote in that thread some service at Sprint related to sending out new PRLs and profiles to our phones went down as well.
I had the same problem yesterday my 3g suddenly went out with the 67 error but 4g still worked. I called sprint and they reset something on their end and after programming itself it w.ent away and my 3g data speed saw a nice speedbump
I've had this issue a few times with my Evo. Every time it has happened to me, I've had little or no signal.
What I think is happening is that the phone begins to authenticate itself with the data servers but then I lose reception, which causes the authentication to fail, hence the error message.
I _think_ I've had this happen on my Hero too.
yeah, (don't quote me on this, i may be wrong) i think error 67 is in regards to no data hookup, and if your phone is set to not get data during roaming, or to dilly dally about it (maybe roam guard?) (check settings > wireless and networks > mobile networks), it'll give you that error
I too had this issue for a while today. It was annoying the crap out of me.
same thing happened to me today, for some reason i wasn't able to get anything but a weak roaming signal at work all day. i called sprint, they wiped my phone and i still wasn't able to do the profile/prl update. i was able to do it once i left the building, of course i had to start with a blank slate on the phone. i'm hoping that after the updates i get a better signal in the building, otherwise i can't keep the phone and will have to return it for a (gag) iphone. after 3 days with a vastly superior OS that would be a tough thing to do.
Mine is def. not the Roam settings... That's the first thing I do is turn off Roam guard, call guard, special roam ring...etc. due to me having almost no signal at work.
I had this issue when I changed to the Alltel PRL. I rebooted, then ran the PRL update. It took a while to do, but once it got the Sprint PRL everything was fine.
-Midnigh7-
I had the same issue yesterday around the same time as the OP. Seems that maybe Sprint was having issues. Anyway, phone is back working and roaming today and even roaming 3G in the DC metro which is Verizon and was never Alltel AFAIK, so that's cool. Actually, some stations have Sprint in them, but others are Verizon and I had 3G Roaming in them today, so I was pleasently surprised, hope it sticks.

[Q] Atrix doesn't play with my at&t microcell

Anyone else having problems making and receiving calls when connected to a microcell? I occasionally get the red circle effect while connected to a cell and a wi-fi router. I’ve seen the threads on connectivity by I’ve not noticed any problems outside of my microcell area so I think this may be different issue. My blackberry (forgive me) plays fine with the same microcell so I don’t think that’s the problem.
been using the microcell with atrix for a month now, havent had any issues
Is your ATRIX an upgrade on a line that was working with the microcell before, or a new line? If it's a new line you have to add the number. My ATRIX is on an existing number and I have no issues with my microcell.
Same number, so I must have a problem. at&t offered to doa, I probably swap. Thanks
I just started having problems during calls, the call cuts out then comes back. My last call was about 3 minutes and it cut out for about 3-5 seconds.
I recently updated the software, Im wondering if this is causing issues with it cause this never happened before.
Yes, I am having the exact same problem with my atrix. I think it started after the latest OTA update. I have had to shutdown my microcell. Better to have a weak, flakey connection than no connection at all.
Gee, thanks AT&T for your terrific service
My two Atrix 4G phones don't seem to have any problems with the Microcell.
tjp888 said:
I have had to shutdown my microcell. Better to have a weak, flakey connection than no connection at all.
Gee, thanks AT&T for your terrific service
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have disconnected my MicroCell at home and went back to low signal. I could hear the people I was talking to fine but they could not hear me at all. I notice the same thing at work when uploading, any kind of uploading on the network keeps people from hearing you.
My atrix seemed to play well with my MicroCell through various radios and ROMs, at most 1 reboot was needed for it to connect.
I have similar behavior, copy/paste from my post on moto's forum today. During calls everything seems to be fine.
I have a Microcell in my office. The 3G and EDGE signal is -100 or worse, so there's no conflict there. The wifi signal in my office is low, ~-80db, and often disconnects/reconnects. Every once in a while my Atrix (stock gingerbread) loses the microcell connection completely and continues to have no network connection. The wifi connection stays connected though. I have to enable and then disable airplane mode to get the connection back up.
Any ideas? I could set up a logcat, but given that this occurs once in a while (maybe 1-2x/day) the log file would be pretty huge.
We bought a microcell for our office and had terrible experience.
I am not sure if it's the device or if something else you need for it but if there was one person in office, it worked fine but as soon as other people came in, it stopped working. You just won't see microcell signal on your phone.
Also, if you come in the office talking on phone, microcell would not pick up. A lot of times we had to reboot. It created more issues than before so we just returned it.
gnahc79 said:
I have similar behavior, copy/paste from my post on moto's forum today. During calls everything seems to be fine.
I have a Microcell in my office. The 3G and EDGE signal is -100 or worse, so there's no conflict there. The wifi signal in my office is low, ~-80db, and often disconnects/reconnects. Every once in a while my Atrix (stock gingerbread) loses the microcell connection completely and continues to have no network connection. The wifi connection stays connected though. I have to enable and then disable airplane mode to get the connection back up.
Any ideas? I could set up a logcat, but given that this occurs once in a while (maybe 1-2x/day) the log file would be pretty huge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted a "me too" reply on your Moto post.
WiredPirate said:
I also have disconnected my MicroCell at home and went back to low signal. I could hear the people I was talking to fine but they could not hear me at all. I notice the same thing at work when uploading, any kind of uploading on the network keeps people from hearing you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having this same problem. After 2-3 minutes I can hear fine but the person on the other end can't hear me.

[Moto G4 with Amazon ads] Always losses carrier network after 24 hours

Hello everyone,
I just bought a Moto G4 16 GB with Amazon Ads for my wife, but we are facing a very annoying problem: the carrier signal always dies after 24 hours give or take. We tested with a different SIM card and the same thing happened. When this happens the device only shows "Emergency Calls Only" and we have to reboot the phone in order to get the signal back.
So, is anyone else facing this problem? Is this really a problem with this phone in particular or every moto g4 has this problem? Should I return the device to amazon?
Thank you very much for any information you can give me!
Zadornov said:
Hello everyone,
I just bought a Moto G4 16 GB with Amazon Ads for my wife, but we are facing a very annoying problem: the carrier signal always dies after 24 hours give or take. We tested with a different SIM card and the same thing happened. When this happens the device only shows "Emergency Calls Only" and we have to reboot the phone in order to get the signal back.
So, is anyone else facing this problem? Is this really a problem with this phone in particular or every moto g4 has this problem? Should I return the device to amazon?
Thank you very much for any information you can give me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problems here since I got my phone last week and I have T-Mobile. You might have to check your apn settings with your carrier.
Caltinpla said:
No problems here since I got my phone last week and I have T-Mobile. You might have to check your apn settings with your carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested the SIM card in a different phone and it worked flawlessly (I also use T-Mobile). The strange thing is that the phone gets the signal very well during more or less one day, after that I have to reboot to get signal again.
Well, this is probably a problem in the device. I already asked Amazon to send a replacement.
Zadornov said:
I tested the SIM card in a different phone and it worked flawlessly (I also use T-Mobile). The strange thing is that the phone gets the signal very well during more or less one day, after that I have to reboot to get signal again.
Well, this is probably a problem in the device. I already asked Amazon to send a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try my APN settings to see if it helps, but locations very important
Zadornov said:
I tested the SIM card in a different phone and it worked flawlessly (I also use T-Mobile). The strange thing is that the phone gets the signal very well during more or less one day, after that I have to reboot to get signal again.
Well, this is probably a problem in the device. I already asked Amazon to send a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have the cellular data always active checked off
Caltinpla said:
Try my APN settings to see if it helps, but locations very important
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, but I just use the t-mobile network. In fact, my carrier is called campusSIMs and it is a MVNO that uses t-mobile network. So, my APN configs are a bit different from yours.
However, I didn't know about this mobile data thing. I didn't touch the developer options. Maybe, it can be a good idea.
Thank you!
It won't be your APN settings since that controls your data settings. If the sim is ok then it could be your phone.
Sent from my SM-T530NU using XDA-Developers mobile app
I'm seeing a similar problem with the data portion of the network (also on T-Mobile). While I'm able to send and receive calls and texts, data doesn't work. There's no indication that it's attached to LTE or even 3G (just a standard signal bar with no other information). I moved the SIM card back to the old phone it was in and it works fine.
Things actually worked yesterday, so something happened overnight to break it.
Damaniel said:
I'm seeing a similar problem with the data portion of the network (also on T-Mobile). While I'm able to send and receive calls and texts, data doesn't work. There's no indication that it's attached to LTE or even 3G (just a standard signal bar with no other information). I moved the SIM card back to the old phone it was in and it works fine.
Things actually worked yesterday, so something happened overnight to break it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could possible be the APN settings. Although usually it's the opposite, they don't work at first then they update from the network later on. Most times the APN settings will set themselves but on the odd occasion they need to manually edited. I don't use T-Mobile but the APN settings are easy enough to find.
Damaniel said:
I'm seeing a similar problem with the data portion of the network (also on T-Mobile). While I'm able to send and receive calls and texts, data doesn't work. There's no indication that it's attached to LTE or even 3G (just a standard signal bar with no other information). I moved the SIM card back to the old phone it was in and it works fine.
Things actually worked yesterday, so something happened overnight to break it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you need to manually enter the APN settings. What you describe is exactly what happens when it hasn't loaded an APN.
I'm "kinda" having an issue here. It's a little different though; the phone works ok for a while (for me about 3 hours, usually), and then I still get an LTE indicator, but have no network connection (get errors in apps/"No internet" page in chrome).
Other times, I lose LTE and get locked in 3g (H indicator), and can only get LTE back by going to Settings/More/Cellular Networks/ and toggle preferred network mode to 2g or 3g, let it connect (H or E), then toggle back to LTE.
Motorola responded to a bad Amazon review requesting I post asking for help on their forums.
Relevant link:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Moto-G...ction-with-LTE-and-strong-signal/td-p/3377242
I'm active over on their forums also and it's good to post over there in case you ever want to do a soak test. They look at your posts there when they ask for soak testers. As for your problem, I've seen it shift back and forth if you are in an area between towers and one isn't sending out LTE. If it were that I wouldn't think you'd get it back so easily. There's an app, don't remember the name, that will show the towers and signal relative to your location, If might be interesting to look at that.
Having the same issue with radio. Just replied to your post, Kalash.
Ok, we got a new phone from Amazon and it has the same problem. So, I believe this phone does not work very well with MVNOs.
I notice that the problem is that the phone cannot reconnect to the network after losing the signal. For example, if you go to an area with bad signal and, eventually the signal vanishes, the phone will not be able to reconnect to the carrier network. The phone only reconnects after reboot. Airplane mode does not solve the problem.
This does not happen with my Blu Life One X. So, I think it is a software problem.
Zadornov said:
Ok, we got a new phone from Amazon and it has the same problem. So, I believe this phone does not work very well with MVNOs.
I notice that the problem is that the phone cannot reconnect to the network after losing the signal. For example, if you go to an area with bad signal and, eventually the signal vanishes, the phone will not be able to reconnect to the carrier network. The phone only reconnects after reboot. Airplane mode does not solve the problem.
This does not happen with my Blu Life One X. So, I think it is a software problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not true on all mvnos' apparently. My wife's phone is on Consumer Cellular, an AT&T mvno and it's never done that. We've been in a no service area several times and it's always connected immediately when getting service back.

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