Help Randomly having no signal

[KentGirl]

Hi there,

I have had my desire for about 3 weeks now on O2 contract, and have an annoying problem...
I appear to lose signal intermittantly, and end up with a little grey 'x' by my bars. However, this then STAYS like this even when I am back in a normal area, sometimes for hours before I have even noticed that reception was lost!
The only way that I have found to get reception back is to power off my phone and restart it.

I have called o2, and the only advise they had for me was to remove the sim card and 'give it a little wipe', and all will be ok....

Anyone else had this problem???

 

[tanbe174]

Did it work well after the little 'wipe' ?? If not try using another sim card and if the problem persists just go exchange it for another desire as it might be an hardware issue.
I was also on O2 but never had any coverage problems.

 

[rumbataz]

How can cleaning the SIM card contacts improve the reception strength of the phone?

 

[KentGirl]

Well to be fair, I only done the 'wipe' yesterday, but as it is an intermittant problem, its hard to say.
I just cannot see how doing that can improve the reception and reconnect it to the network.

Might I add, when I lose the reception, it offers me all the available networks, i.e, o2, 3, orange etc, and when I select o2, it tells me that I am not authorised to access that network!!!!

 

[Beaker491]

Hi

Quite a few desire users (regardless of network provider) are suffering from lack of signal, it seems to be a problem with the desires radio/antenna. Hopefully the 2.2 froyo update will cure this problem. More info can be found here http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/103417-data-problems-htc-desire-orange.html

Ian

 

[kobirulali]

Hi there,

I have had my desire for about 3 weeks now on O2 contract, and have an annoying problem...
I appear to lose signal intermittantly, and end up with a little grey 'x' by my bars. However, this then STAYS like this even when I am back in a normal area, sometimes for hours before I have even noticed that reception was lost!
The only way that I have found to get reception back is to power off my phone and restart it.

I have called o2, and the only advise they had for me was to remove the sim card and 'give it a little wipe', and all will be ok....

Anyone else had this problem???

I have had the EXACT same problem, same network etc etc. Here's what I went through:

Phone is unlocked (but with O2 splashscreen startup etc) so tried an Orange Sim - same problem

Tried another O2 (PAYG) Sim, same problem

Rang O2, was advised same as you to clean the sim - again didn't help. Rang again, was advised to take it out for 20 minutes and put back in, again it didn't solve it.

Finally had it sent to O2 repair centre (Anovo Phone Repairs?), fault was found and newest software put on, lost all my settings and personalisation etc etc. It seemed to fix it for a bit but again, i've got this problem :-(

Just messed with some of the settings from that *#*# 4636 #*#* menu to set GSM auto (PRL) doesn't make such of a difference :-(

Might root and update to Generic Froyo now, only problem is does this void the warranty and can i undo the update to send back for repairs and they figure out what i did?

Cheers

 

[mlucifersam]

I've got the same problem. I've been in South Wales for 3 days where none of us had ANY signal. Now I'm back in Manchester the phone is STILL not picking up any signal. All my WIFI, Maps, Navigation and Google Earth thingys work now but I can't even make a call and it intermittently sends and receives texts. Before I went to Wales and lost the signal everything was fine. I'm on o2.

Any one any idea what to do?

 

[omgzzlol]

Hello Forum - been lurking for abit and decided to register hoping you'll be able to shed light on my HTC Desire issue.

I've had my Desire for a couple of months now and lately every day I'm loosing all my signal without moving locations. Doesn't matter if I'm at work or at home I can sometimes loose signal and not get anything back for an hour. I've tried rebooting the phone, I've tried a good old fashion battery out and I've tried changing the network settings to GSM only but nothing seems to work until I leave it alone and suddenly I'll get signal again!

Few things I should probably let you know:

I'm on o2, its branded with all the o2 logos.

I've used unrevoked to get psfmod to boot on my phone - has been fine for a while.

Its only started happening in the last week or so.

Android Version is 2.2

Please help

Cheers.

 

[Trito]

I have exacly the same issue and I have it for like two days since I started to use mobile network. Now even if I dont use it or use Wi-Fi I have max signal strenght two bars and sometimes it just lose signal compleatly.
have tryed rebooting, takeing battery out, still the same problem.
I think it's something to do with 3G network. In two days I have only installed two apps - TrafficCounter and 3G Whatchdog, it couldn't be linked right?

 

[Trito]

anyone?

 

[punky]

I have the same problem. I'm unbranded on Orange. Despite being the City Of London the signal strength is very erratic even within my office (20' x 40')

 

[andyg1]

I have this problem all the time on my Desire, using Vodafone. My old Sony phone was years old and never had any problems with network connection (I'm talking phone, not just data connection). Now, in the same room in my house I find it really hard to get a signal and keep it.

My phone takes ages to get a signal back when it loses it, and you can be holding the phone in your hand with a full signal, make a call and it disappears and disconnects you, or the opposite - you can have one bar, connect a call and then it jumps up to four bars.

It's totally inconsistent too. Sometimes it'll happen in some parts of the house and not others, and sometimes even in the street, each time taking far too long to find a signal again.

Incidentally it doesn't fall off to the "X" over the signal strength, just falls down to zero bars and stays there.

 

[andyg1]

I have exactly the same issue with a Desire, on Vodafone. I use the phone in places where I would happily use my last handset. It randomly drops and picks up reception whenever it chooses - most annoyingly during a call!

I have been on the Vodafone forums too and had no luck. Don't believe no one has an answer for this!!

 

[Casual Pete]

Oddly enough I have the same problem,I just thought it was T Mobiles network or something,it's quite annoying anyway.

I haven't found a solution either,would be good to hear if anyone else has?


Unbranded,unrooted btw

 

[jarves]

I have the same issue to here in the Philippines. Signal strength just suddenly drops, especially when using wifi.

 

[andyg1]

I might be on to something here:

I downloaded an app called "Open Signal" or "Open Signal Maps" which, amongst other things, gives you the break down of the connections on the phone, in real time.

The scenario is that I am in the room where I have most of the issues. I have wi-fi off, and have no data connections switched on. It's just my phone network. This is how I have it most of the time.

When I had no signal (no bars on the symbol top right) I opened Open Signal and this is what it said:
Signal strength: (varies from 0% to 10%)
Network: vodafone uk
Connection: HSDPA
Type:GSM
and some other numbers for strength, frequency etc.

Then the phone suddenly went to 5 full bars. The reading on the app then went to:
Signal strength: (varies from 60% to 70%)
Network: vodafone uk
Connection: EDGE
Type:GSM

The difference was the HSDPA to EDGE. I wandered around the room abit the signal changed (and this is a good 30 secs sometimes) from HSPDA to EDGE, and each time it hit the former the bars and signal strength fell away to nothing.

Is this what is causing my drama? Can anyone else download this app and get back to the forum if you have the same symptoms/conditions?

And if this is the cause of the problems, how do I stop him going onto HSDPA?

Hope this helps somebody!

 

[DC E1G]

I find it tends to ocassionally happen when I spend a long time in an area with no service. Toggling airplane mode always fixes the problem for me though.

 

[matttye]

I might be on to something here:

I downloaded an app called "Open Signal" or "Open Signal Maps" which, amongst other things, gives you the break down of the connections on the phone, in real time.

The scenario is that I am in the room where I have most of the issues. I have wi-fi off, and have no data connections switched on. It's just my phone network. This is how I have it most of the time.

When I had no signal (no bars on the symbol top right) I opened Open Signal and this is what it said:
Signal strength: (varies from 0% to 10%)
Network: vodafone uk
Connection: HSDPA
Type:GSM
and some other numbers for strength, frequency etc.

Then the phone suddenly went to 5 full bars. The reading on the app then went to:
Signal strength: (varies from 60% to 70%)
Network: vodafone uk
Connection: EDGE
Type:GSM

The difference was the HSDPA to EDGE. I wandered around the room abit the signal changed (and this is a good 30 secs sometimes) from HSPDA to EDGE, and each time it hit the former the bars and signal strength fell away to nothing.

Is this what is causing my drama? Can anyone else download this app and get back to the forum if you have the same symptoms/conditions?

And if this is the cause of the problems, how do I stop him going onto HSDPA?

Hope this helps somebody!

That is almost definitely the cause of your drama. The phone will pick a crappy 3G connection over a strong 2G one every time! You can set your phone to "gsm only" instead of "gsm/wcdma auto" in the wireless networks options and your phone won't bother with 3G networks then.

 

[jarves]

That is almost definitely the cause of your drama. The phone will pick a crappy 3G connection over a strong 2G one every time! You can set your phone to "gsm only" instead of "gsm/wcdma auto" in the wireless networks options and your phone won't bother with 3G networks then.

Hi, i chose gsm only on the network mode and i will observe how this going to be. Great theory though in signal type switching that might be the cause. Will give feedback to this posts.

 

[channelsurfer]

I appear to lose signal intermittantly, and end up with a little grey 'x' by my bars. However, this then STAYS like this even when I am back in a normal area, sometimes for hours before I have even noticed that reception was lost!
The only way that I have found to get reception back is to power off my phone and restart it.

I had the exact same problem on an unbranded T-Mobile Desire that I got through Mobilephonesdirect. After suffering a few days of having to restart the phone and\or toggling airplane mode on\off, I requested a new SIM card directly from T-Mobile and all has been fine since.

Might be worth a try!

 

[justjax]

I've had a similar problem. I keep going to use my phone only to see no bars and a x through the bars indicator and it saying emergency calls only. This has only happened ocassionally but got really bad yesterday and it was so bad last night that even when I sometimes appeared to have signal, it wouldbn't dial anyone (it would try dialing but then just drop the call before connecting) and then last night I was trying to text and had to re-send two text messages that failed to send (been getting this issue a lot too) about 7 times before they eventually sent .. and on speaking to one of the people I text, they replied but I never got it. Then this morning it wouldn't let me call anyone, again dropping all calls before connecting and this is when I looked at this forum. Anyway .. I switched to gsm only and it seems to sort it. Its annoying that I have to do this. Whats the disadvantage of just setting it to GSM? slower internet I assume? .. if it is a prob switching is this likely to be a handset issue or the network?

 

[Mubble]

A long term friend of mine works as Head of Android Product Development for Motorola. He didn't say kind things about my Desire when I showed him it. One of his comments which stuck was that the Desire notoriously struggles to switch seamlessly from 2G to 3G without losing signal for a period of time. At the time I hadn't noticed it, but as time goes on, I'm noticing it more and more.

 

[jarves]

I've had a similar problem. I keep going to use my phone only to see no bars and a x through the bars indicator and it saying emergency calls only. This has only happened ocassionally but got really bad yesterday and it was so bad last night that even when I sometimes appeared to have signal, it wouldbn't dial anyone (it would try dialing but then just drop the call before connecting) and then last night I was trying to text and had to re-send two text messages that failed to send (been getting this issue a lot too) about 7 times before they eventually sent .. and on speaking to one of the people I text, they replied but I never got it. Then this morning it wouldn't let me call anyone, again dropping all calls before connecting and this is when I looked at this forum. Anyway .. I switched to gsm only and it seems to sort it. Its annoying that I have to do this. Whats the disadvantage of just setting it to GSM? slower internet I assume? .. if it is a prob switching is this likely to be a handset issue or the network?

The gsm only option actually fixed d lost signal issue for. Im always using wifi so i got no problem with 3g. Im not using it anyway.

 

[matttye]

I've had a similar problem. I keep going to use my phone only to see no bars and a x through the bars indicator and it saying emergency calls only. This has only happened ocassionally but got really bad yesterday and it was so bad last night that even when I sometimes appeared to have signal, it wouldbn't dial anyone (it would try dialing but then just drop the call before connecting) and then last night I was trying to text and had to re-send two text messages that failed to send (been getting this issue a lot too) about 7 times before they eventually sent .. and on speaking to one of the people I text, they replied but I never got it. Then this morning it wouldn't let me call anyone, again dropping all calls before connecting and this is when I looked at this forum. Anyway .. I switched to gsm only and it seems to sort it. Its annoying that I have to do this. Whats the disadvantage of just setting it to GSM? slower internet I assume? .. if it is a prob switching is this likely to be a handset issue or the network?

GSM only means slower internet and slightly less sound quality on voice calls (barely noticeable through a phone's speaker anyway).

The other problem with GSM only is that you can't use the internet and the phone at the same time, so you wouldn't be able to look up something in the middle of a call like you can on 3G; you'd have to end the call, look up, then call back.

The benefit, which far outweighs the cons for me, is that you get a much stronger signal almost everywhere. GPRS/EDGE are older technologies than 3G/HSDPA and have been deployed almost everywhere, so you get a much stronger signal.

 

[andyg1]

That is almost definitely the cause of your drama. The phone will pick a crappy 3G connection over a strong 2G one every time! You can set your phone to "gsm only" instead of "gsm/wcdma auto" in the wireless networks options and your phone won't bother with 3G networks then.

This seems to be the cause of my problems. I have changed my settings to GSM only and it has fixed my issues. I have a mate who lives in the countryside and he has had the same problems, and this was a fix for him.

Yeah, you get slower data, and I have noticed a difference in call quality, but it's infinitely better than no call at all! This is only an issue in my house, so the rest of the time I put the original setting back on. You can get an app which changes your settings based on your location. I think it might work for these settings, but I am not 100%. The app is called "Locale" and costs around