WARNING about antenna booster!!!

[Barbara]

I bought one of those antenna boosters that go under your battery inside your phone. It was only $1.99 so I figured it couldn't hurt. It is nothing more than a plastic sticker with some metal on it. I put it in the phone. Turned the phone back on. Everything was fine. Checked my signal and it didn't seem any different. I put the phone back to sleep and when I went to turn it on to check something, I got nothing! It would not turn on at all. I plugged it into the charger and it turned on, showed that it was charged and then it rebooted. And then it kept rebooting. I took the antenna booster back out and now it seems to be fine again. (I keep turning it on obsessively because that scared the you-know-what out of me!)

My apologies to those who told me that these boosters do nothing and don't bother. As it turns out, it DOES do something: it kills your phone!

P.S. The apology is because I didn't listen to you. Lesson learned.

 

[iamloco724]

thanks for letting us all know..i was considering getting ones of these

 

[colnago]

Sorry to hear that Barbara. You may have had better luck with my "twist-tie mod".

 

[Barbara]

Sorry to hear that Barbara. You may have had better luck with my "twist-tie mod".

I know. (*I should have listened..I should have listened..I should have listened.....*) I actually have not had any signal problems except once when I was at a bowling alley that is out in the middle of nowhere. I'm not messing around with anything else for the time being.

 

[iamloco724]

its funny because you did this for your signal and then almost had a disaster i dont know if you saw my post from last night but i almost had my own disaster trying to improve my signal but by doing it in a totally diff way

 

[Barbara]

its funny because you did this for your signal and then almost had a disaster i dont know if you saw my post from last night but i almost had my own disaster trying to improve my signal but by doing it in a totally diff way

I missed it. I'm glad it was an "almost disaster" for you instead of an outright disaster. I'm not messing around with the signal anymore. I wasn't even having any problems so it wasn't even necessary. I'm leaving it alone from now on. Unless it's something tested and coming from Verizon or Motorola, I'm not trying it.

 

[iamloco724]

yeah i went into settings i shouldnt have...problem is my signal actually is a problem i might wind up calling verizon or going there to see if anything can be done doing *228 doesnt help me so it sucks..i mean its not horrible signal but considering its bad where i use the phone the majority of the time thats the problems

 

[Barbara]

yeah i went into settings i shouldnt have...problem is my signal actually is a problem i might wind up calling verizon or going there to see if anything can be done doing *228 doesnt help me so it sucks..i mean its not horrible signal but considering its bad where i use the phone the majority of the time thats the problems

Did you see the post by the person that had signal problems and contacted Verizon tech support? The sent a signal to the posters phone (I think it was a PRL...Preferred Roaming something) Apparently that helped but you can't do the *228 again or it will negate the new setting.

 

[iamloco724]

yea ive seen all the posts im probably going to try and call them this coming week and see what can be done

 

[colnago]

I know. (*I should have listened..I should have listened..I should have listened.....*) I actually have not had any signal problems except once when I was at a bowling alley that is out in the middle of nowhere. I'm not messing around with anything else for the time being.

Just curious, was the antenna you bought supposed to be installed in a certain direction? If so, did you try in the opposite direction?

 

[Barbara]

Just curious, was the antenna you bought supposed to be installed in a certain direction? If so, did you try in the opposite direction?

It only said as close to the built in antenna as you could get. I didn't try it in any other direction. I took it out of the phone and threw it away.

 

[barry99705]

Those things are snake oil anyway.

 

[jeepguy_1980]

If the manufacturer only had to buy a $2.00 part to significantly enhance the phone's performance, they wouldn't hesitate to do so.

 

[eNons3nse]

Those things are snake oil anyway.

2nd.

Total Scam. There's no possible way for something like that that's not connected to your antenna to boost the signal to your antenna.

 

[sinned]

yea ive seen all the posts im probably going to try and call them this coming week and see what can be done

yea that was me have them do a PRL load to your phone...it worked for my signal problem alot better than *228 did...

 

[johnlgalt]

I originally tried the *228 and then my phone would to boot - thought it was bricked. I was finally able to patiently get it to boot - and figured out later that it was b/c of the 30-odd apps I had installed all at once, back to back, without rebooting. The *228 was not the culprit.

I went back and enable it again on a much more stable phone, but since I had nothing to really compare it to before, all I can say is that it is working....

Most of those 'guaranteed' to fix something are snake oil products one way or another....

 

[barry99705]

2nd.

Total Scam. There's no possible way for something like that that's not connected to your antenna to boost the signal to your antenna.

Actually there is, but these don't. For the life if me I can't remember the term, but those external car cell antennas that stick to your window, then the other half stick to the inside of the window use the technology. There's no physical connection between the two.

 

[jeepguy_1980]

2nd.

Total Scam. There's no possible way for something like that that's not connected to your antenna to boost the signal to your antenna.

There are many things not connected to your antenna that will boost the signal to your antenna (repeaters, Femtocell, cantenna). Granted, the first two are active devices, and the cantenna will make your phone highly directional. But certainly, the antenna booster is not going to do anything to improve the phone's performance.

 

[maescoto]

thanks for letting us all know..i was considering getting ones of these

+1

 

[vincentp]

I hadn't even heard of these things before, but it's nice to know that if I ever got the itch to buy one, I'd know not to. Glad to hear the phone is still working okay, though. Whew!

 

[snapcase]

Aren't those Antenna boosters basically the same exact thing they used to sell to "block the harmful raido waves from your head" to keep you from getting that oh so insidious cellphone induced brain cancer?

Interesting for the same thing to be sold alternately as something to improve reception yet block radio waves.

 

[thecrazing]

If the manufacturer only had to buy a $2.00 part to significantly enhance the phone's performance, they wouldn't hesitate to do so.

I know this is a bit of a necro, but, this is just such a QFT moment. Succinctity.

 

[Aquineas]

<snip>I actually have not had any signal problems except once when I was at a bowling alley that is out in the middle of nowhere. </snip>

This sounds like a really good opening to a C-grade horror movie. Or maybe one of those creepy, circa 2007 Verizon commercials..

 

[bluekgt]

I had one of those boosters in my old lg phone and my son had the same phone. with the booster in i always had 1 bar more signal than him. when i got the droid i took it out of the lg and it has been in my droid ever since. i didnt notice any change at all. the phone works fine but i dont think the signal is any better.

 

[Unclebill]

"Inductive coupling" is the term for the way the two part antennas work.

Those "antenna boosters" you put behind your battery are designed to work at a specific frequency so it may not have been the right one for the phone. An antenna for any radio transmitter has to be at a multiple of the frequency - 1/2, 1/4, 2x, etc. Most likely, the phone was rebooting because of the antenna mismatch - it was causing too much reflective power to "bounce back" at the phone when it tried to transmit a signal to the cell tower. The "reboot" was a protective measure to keep the phone from being damaged.

No damage done to your phone ... it's smarter than a 5th grader.