Anyone notice a sudden loss of phone signal bars/strength?

DarkTreo · 11/03/2009, 04:00 PM

Got Pre on opening day and was pretty happy with the signal strength (in SF Bay Area) very comparable to my Treo. I would get full bars in most of my house and 2-3 bars in the basement studio.

Recently however I have noticed a dramatic loss of signal strength. I see the phone going offline, signal bars going from full strength to half to 1 bar. In the basement I now often get the dreaded "x" (no signal) then maybe 1 bar or so. My EvDo meter is going from 1x to EV to nothing and then cycles again.......it's frustrating. (thank god for wifi)

I did update the phone's network settings and PRL settings and noticed no real change. I am beginning to suspect perhaps a app or patch I installed may be the culprit? So before I start tearing apart my Pre (uninstalling a bunch of stuff) I wanted to ask:

1) if anyone has noticed the same/similar thing?
2) Anyone know if an app that might hinder the phone's signal?

I'm on Sprint, CDMA Pre, SF Bay Area.

thanks

DT

lakulazuli · 11/03/2009, 04:21 PM

I notice that but when i call sprint they told me it was probably because of the location i live, wich is orange county but i see a big difference with cellphones from my kids wich they have full bars and i have almost none or 3 =/

d.moss · 11/03/2009, 04:30 PM

yeah.. today i've been having some weird signal issues like what you've described.. getting the no signal "x" and not being able to get evdo, just 1x.. i rebooted my phone and was back in evdo.. no change of location.. 4g was just released in my area.. wonder if there are some issues

RoyFripple · 11/03/2009, 04:40 PM

I've been getting a pop up message on my phone at least once every day that says "the phone could not establish a data connection. Please contact Sprint (129)."

I thought this must've been happening because of a patch I had installed or something, but my wife got this same message on her Pre the other day as well. She has a stock Pre with no modifications to it (she does have some homebrew apps installed).

ejohnnyk · 11/03/2009, 04:48 PM

Same here.

Started a week or so ago. Getting no signal, dropping to 1x, in areas where I used to have excellent signal.

I live in western New York State.

Buzzard Jr · 11/03/2009, 05:00 PM

that is what my two phones did, which is why i got rid of it. i was told its not a software issue but a hardware issue. even though it was fine at one point the antenna is not picking up the signal

because of this i have to go with no pre. they (sprint)told me i should wait till the next hardware update, but who knows when that will be.

KJ78 · 11/03/2009, 05:24 PM

my signal has been deteriorating. in early july at my place i had about half the bars minimum, and usually 3/4. now its 1/4 and often in 1x especially with any consistent throughput. at work, since the last prl update, i've been roaming almost all 8 hours and in 1x for most of the rest of the time. did sprint sell off too much capacity?

jabou · 11/03/2009, 05:32 PM

i am in LA and have been having the same issue. My guess is, Sprint has sold too many Pre's and Android devices that are heavy on data which has slowed down the network. Kind of like the ATT/Iphone effect. Since Sprint has less towers than Verizon or Att even a modest bump in data traffic will be felt in the Sprint network. Granted its just a theory but my issues started around the time the android hero came on line

remix2000 · 11/04/2009, 12:40 AM

I was having the same issue with EVDO dropping suddenly to 1x. I took my Pre in and they told me it was a bad radio in my phone. They said even while trying to test the phone whenever they tried the radio failed. I overheard the Techs saying that they were seeing it a lot lately. I had my Pre replaced a week and a half ago and the new one is doing the same thing. So I went to a different tech store and they again said the radio in my replacement Pre was bad and ordered me another phone. I'm still waiting for that to come in. I really don't know what to think about it but I've noticed that even GPS seems to be affected.

laestrella · 11/04/2009, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoyFripple

I've been getting a pop up message on my phone at least once every day that says "the phone could not establish a data connection. Please contact Sprint (129)."

I thought this must've been happening because of a patch I had installed or something, but my wife got this same message on her Pre the other day as well. She has a stock Pre with no modifications to it (she does have some homebrew apps installed).

I'm getting the same 129 message. Just started happening the past few days. It's really annoying.

KJ78 · 11/04/2009, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by laestrella

I'm getting the same 129 message. Just started happening the past few days. It's really annoying.

same here

scott091981 · 11/04/2009, 05:47 PM

Today the phone had only 1 bar on 1x and went into roaming. Going into a area I knew was a full bar EVDO it would not come out of roaming. Restarting the phone brought back the normal EVDO symbol and 3 bars.

This is the first sign of anything odd with this phone in just over a month of ownership

redninja · 11/04/2009, 06:06 PM

my signal dropped the day i got rid of my mogul for this thing,i wish i never would of lazed about past my 30 days,i get more voicemails than calls

BMIC50 · 11/04/2009, 06:14 PM

Maybe T-Mobile's outage has caused those customers to run and get Boost prepaid phones, thus crippling our network!

And when the Droid phone comes out, it will further cripple things, considering the roaming agreements with Sprint and Verizon!! We all want data now..!!

NOVA_Guy · 11/04/2009, 06:15 PM

Started noticing the same thing happening in DC and Northern Virginia over the past week or so too. Just about 2 weeks past my first 30 days with Sprint too...

Dshowtime718 · 11/04/2009, 07:21 PM

wow and i thought is was a patch that i installed was the reason i was getting that error message!

DarkTreo · 11/04/2009, 08:10 PM

man!...I thought it was only me! Well since my OP I removed all tweaks and I still have the signal bars and EV/1x icon jumping around losing signal and going to full bars. (although I will say my phone is WAY more responsive in terms of lag and delay..but I digress)

So now with so may responses I will do some tests with my wife's Pre and see if there are similarities to blame ....our area or individual phones. I am somewhat leery of just outright blaming the phone as this morning I was unable to send picture mail and then all of a sudden it started working....uhhh Sprint?? Also I dread getting a new phone cause of all the apps (i know app catalog will come back but I have homebrews that are now in app catalog etc....)

Thanks for the responses...keep the info coming.

DT