Help Droid switching to 1x without explination

[stearic]

Well it seems like my droid is switching over to 1x from 3g for no reason i can tell. I've used cellfinder to see where the tower is that i'm connecting to and i'm only a little over a mile away from the tower and my 3g signal always shows atleast 3 of the 4 bars. To get back 3g i have to reboot the phone. Does anyone know of a reason why this is happening? Did i get a bum phone and i'll have to go exchange it?

 

[sneaky_zekey]

my droid does the same and im closer then a mile to the tower in my town. i dont have to reboot or anything. it usually picks up 3 g eventually.

 

[stearic]

I'll have to give that a try, i usually just restart the phone as i'm to impatient to wait for it to try and switch back.

 

[Barbara]

Have you tried calling *228 and selecting option 2? That updates your roaming capabilities. Some have reported that it helps with the signal.

 

[Hellspawn]

mine will do the same thing.. not sure what knocks it out of 3g, but it goes back fast enough that I would never notice if I wasnt watching for it.

does not effect my service as far as I can tell and I stream Slacker to and from work, never lose a signal

 

[stearic]

Yea, i've tried *228 to upgrade the prl on the phone. It often seems like right after i get done using the net on the phone for some stuff like navigation (recent time i've seen it after using the net) it'll just goto 1x. I may go over to 1x and back to 3g w/out me knowing it. Does anyone know of an app or widget that i will tell you the signal strength of both 3g and 1x? It might just be 1x is a stronger signal then 3g and that's why it's showing/using 1x over 3g?

 

[CRPercodani]

Do you know anyone else with VZW? I would try a side by side comparison and see if both phones do it or just your DROID. If its just your DROID then you probably need a replacement, mine never drops to 1x unless I am wayyyyy out on a dirt road and that has only happened once.

 

[sneaky_zekey]

my wife and i are both on verizone. i have the droid and she has the bb curve. i noticed that her curve will do it too,just not as often. when im browseing the droid market,ill notice it drop to 1x and then when i scroll down to fast ill get a pop up saying service was lost with option to retry or exite or something. im thinking its not my phone,just service is crappy in my town. even though i live so close to a tower i also am surrounded by trees and stuff. i dont make much calls,so i dont know if i get dropped calls,just text/internet.

 

[stearic]

My boss has is on vzw, his doesn't show if it's 1x or 3g though (dumbphone), just the signal levels of both. Not sure if this has anything to do with it, but i'm in an area that was previously alltel, could there be some problems stemming from switching over to verizon possibly?

 

[colnago]

..Does anyone know of an app or widget that i will tell you the signal strength of both 3g and 1x? It might just be 1x is a stronger signal then 3g and that's why it's showing/using 1x over 3g?

> Settings > About > Status > Signal strength

 

[stearic]

I was talking about one that shows 1x and 3g separately, outside of that. That only shows you info in general. as for my signal, i average around -78dBm give or take 4 or 5. That, from what i can gather, isn't really that bad at all, especially considering it's showing 3/4 of the bars and all.

 

[colnago]

Found some interesting results today:

http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/19985-homemade-antenna-breakthrough-3g-1x-switching.html

 

[psufan5]

I am having this problem also... 5 bars of 3G in my home, and boom... drops to 1x mode which is nearly unusable...

Sounds like a firmware issue that a lot of people are having?

 

[colnago]

I just posted this yesterday, after being at my mom's for dinner:

http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/21714-got-poor-battery-life-well-how-your-signal.html

Basically, its a bit of a dead'ish zone, not far from my house and local VZ store. 0-1 bars of anything, mostly 0, and signal @ -100dBm. Battery took a beating in 4 hours of non-use, and warm to touch. Signals constantly switching 3G->1x. At my house, I did lose internet connection when it switched. Weird given that I can pull 1.5Mb on my desk, then just totally lose conn. Aside from the antennae/radios being weak, it could be a firmware thing on managing channels.?.? I don't want to wait for the update though...my 2nd Droid is going back. FWIW, 1st phone was a 44/09, 2nd phone 39/09. I really wanted to like this phone.

 

[Turtledroid]

A Verizon Aircard will do the same on occasion. It's all dependent on 3G signal strength. If the signal is too weak, even temporarily, it'll automatically switch over to 1X, then back when the signal strength gets, you know, stronger.

As for battery life, on phones like my Razr v9M, if you go in (ro the programming menu) and force it to CDMA-only, no EVDO, then the battery life gets extended like crazy, 'cause it's not constantly looking for a 3G signal to lock on to. The same thing would happen with the Droid, but then the Droid wouldn't be much fun.

 

[colnago]

A Verizon Aircard will do the same on occasion. It's all dependent on 3G signal strength. If the signal is too weak, even temporarily, it'll automatically switch over to 1X, then back when the signal strength gets, you know, stronger...

Understood however I think the problem is that people are experiencing good signal (4 bars), and good troughput (1.5Mb+), and then a complete loss of signal, without the phone moving or conditions changing.

 

[Turtledroid]

Yeah, it happens exactly that way, on the Droid and with an Aircard. It's a radio signal, and the antenna on the phone is iffy to begin with, so while the perceived conditions might not have changed, it could be as simple as the wrong kind of truck driving by that interrupts the radio signal. I once had that very thing happen, when every time a big truck drove by it (the Aircard) would switch back to 1X and then a few seconds later reacquire the 3G signal. It's a problem, but not necessarily one unique to the Droid, but it's definitely one I see frequently see with the Aircard.

 

[droidpcguru]

Mine does this alot.. annoying.

I switch airplane mode on and off and it fixes it.

 

[syntrix]

TP2 and Imagio do this, so it's probably not a droid problem.


I have noticed that if a background data service tries to get data... it might get it in 1x, and lock the phone in 1x until it's done.... depending on signal, etc.

A good example is to launch pandora in 1x area.... drive into 3G areas... it won't flip back, even if you know you are driving right by VZ owned towers

 

[colnago]

Yeah, it happens exactly that way, on the Droid and with an Aircard. It's a radio signal, and the antenna on the phone is iffy to begin with, so while the perceived conditions might not have changed, it could be as simple as the wrong kind of truck driving by that interrupts the radio signal...

Fair enough, but I don't have any trucks driving past the 3rd story bedroom in my townhouse.

 

[syntrix]

Fair enough, but I don't have any trucks driving past the 3rd story bedroom in my townhouse.

...that you know about


It's common with a lot of carriers. Here's an example....

Think of your cell phone as trying to pair up with a VZ owned tower. If you have a strong signal on a leased tower, VZ might have to pay, say, 3 cents a minute to the owner of the tower, or maybe 3 cents per 10Mb of data.

All hypothetical of course. But lets say you have full strength on this tower, great! Now a VZ owned tower a few miles away is just enough to get you locked onto it, so you get switched..... and so it might go back and forth.

Same with any carrier. When I was on ATT with modern winmo phones, I could look at the carrier status.... wow full strength, then it would randomly switch to 0-1 bars, home it would go between 3G full strength then lock on EDGE all the time. When I was on EDGE the majority of the time, I would not be able to use data (still slow as heck, with high latency for fail) while on a call!!! It's not the phone, I had many phones on ATT and they all did this.

Droid just seems to handle it better than phones on ATT, but it will still happen!

 

[colnago]

...It's not the phone, I had many phones on ATT and they all did this.

Droid just seems to handle it better than phones on ATT, but it will still happen!

Its agreed the PMMV, depending on network in your area, but the reason I say its "phone" is based on other reports along the lines of, "my friends BBerry, also on VZ, had good signal while my Droid next to it switched".

Driving around town in my area, with heavy VZ presence, Droid regularly dropped to (0) bars and 1x while ATT Moto Q right next to it may lose 1 bar. Apples to Oranges I know but just picking up the phone or moving it a few inches, shouldn't give you 50-100% signal drops.

I'm just curious if Dec's update will change anything.

 

[syntrix]

Any chance of an app opening up a data connection?

Some apps, if they open on 1x, will not allow the phone to return to 3G until they have finished the connection! Since you brought up ATT, it's the same on some apps with ATT's edge <-> 3G.

I'm also curious as to the December upgrade and how it will pan out for people with issues

 

[colnago]

Sipdroid...had it working, sort of, with my Vonage softphone account. I Couldn't get it working with main account, even with the "companion" feature.

 

[Telstar_2112]

I have the same problem, phone going often to 1x and data becomes unusable. No Network messages etc. I added a dual band Zboost wireless booster antenna and it helped a little but not much. Settings>Phone>Signal shows -63dbm which I think is pretty good yet it still happens. Booster is supposed to help 3G but maybe doesn't? Although it did seem to help my wife using her Verizon pc "aircard" (usb727).

I too am looking for an app that would show the 1x and 3G signals separately. Also an app to swith to EVDO only and back with one touch would be great instead of having to do the whole ##program,000000,test,test, thing.

My i760 or i730 did not have the issue and I have been in the same house and a verizon customer for years.