A possible cause of the 50% signal issue with 2.1

[morganpants]

CONFIRMED TO NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE!​

I'm a constant reader of these forums and decide to make a post over a discovery i have made today, I was running the latest PRL from the *228 on Verizon's 3g coverage area, we'll I live in a "out of civilization" area where there is no 3g and i'm stuck with 1x, I started noticing that my phone would keep switching to 3G even though there was no 3g coverage ANYWHERE available in this area when it switched over to 3g it would give me if lucky 1 bar, or it would just sit there and idle at 0 bars, i tested it, 0 reception basically, called myself even with the 1 bar, nothing went thru, direct to voicemail. We'll i had an Alltel PRL that was given to me after Verizon bought out Alltel and started to merge the prl's together, we'll i wanted to see if that would help with the tower switching problem and keep me at a constant 4 bars like normal, loaded up the PRL and reseted phone, worked amazing. We'll i went into town today an hour away and saw that i had full bars and knowing that i usually only get 50% from the bug that plagues 2.1, so i thought maybe it was fixed, dialed *228 and got latest PRL from Verizon, 2 bars if lucky, installed alltel prl again full 3g, tried again with the 228, same results so finally kept the Alltel PRL loaded.. so you might want to try it, it worked for me.

PLEASE post your experiences with before and after reception for others to view and don't forget to thank me if you notice improvements

FIRST download the prl from the attachment or from http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/4/14/2827506//51425m.prl and unzip it to your sdcard

1: dial ##775 and press call
2: password is 000000
3: click Update PRL
4: have the PRL file on the root of the SD folder
5: be sure and click the prl you want to update underneath the OK/CANCEL button (minimize the keyboard since it hides the prl info when maximized)
6: press OK
7: press Menu / Commit changes
8: phone restarts.


things to know: You don't roam using this prl so don't be worried about roaming charges.

 

[morganpants]

http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/4/14/2827506//51425m.prl

 

[Trigen]

How do you load the prl? I only know how to do prl updates w/ *228

 

[morganpants]

How do you load the prl? I only know how to do prl updates w/ *228

go into phone, dial ##775 and press call, it will bring up a password it is 000000 then click on PRL and load the prl off the sdcard and then press menu, commit changes.

 

[Eris_2.1_2010]

What's this prl you speak of? I have 2.1 and I hover around 1to no bars of 3g at my house.

 

[morganpants]

What's this prl you speak of? I have 2.1 and I hover around 1to no bars of 3g at my house.

PRL is a prefered roaming list, it just tells your phone which towers to talk to and since this is a ALLTEL prl it is the same as verizon since verizon put it on my touch pro after the merge saying it was the same as a verizon prl.

 

[Eris_2.1_2010]

Do you think it will help me and when I clicked on the link there was a blank page. I'm on my eris.

 

[morganpants]

Do you think it will help me and when I clicked on the link there was a blank page. I'm on my eris.

it helped me, if it doesnt help then it no loss, u can recall 228 to get the latest prl if its no improvment. yes its a blank page but its a direct download link to download the PRL

but if it does work please post results on here

 

[hasbrobot]

its been updating the prl for about 15 minutes is this normal?

 

[morganpants]

its been updating the prl for about 15 minutes is this normal?

Did you press menu and commit changes? after selecting the PRL from the sd card? after commiting changes your phone will auto restart.

 

[hasbrobot]

Did exactly , but its been committing changes for about 20 minutes now

 

[hasbrobot]

before hitting menu there was a blank spot in the option section where I typed in the folder name, was that correct or did you just skip that step?

 

[morganpants]

Did exactly , but its been committing changes for about 20 minutes now

that's odd, i've done both of my eris's this way and had no problems.

try taking battery out and repeating after phones restarted.

simple instructions just in-case something wasn't right.

1: dial ##775 and press call
2: password is 000000
3: click Update PRL
4: have the PRL file on the root of the SD folder
5: be sure and click the prl you want to update underneath the OK/CANCEL button (lowering the keyboard since it hides the prl info when showed)
6: press OK
7: press Menu / Commit changes
8: phone restarts.

the directory that it says my prl is in on the update prl list is /sdcard/51425m.prl so you might try typing that in if ur prl still isnt saving

 

[hasbrobot]

Ill try it over real quick if you dont hear back from me i have to go to work i have to get onn shift as long as my eris works ill check back with you later , thank you

 

[morganpants]

Ill try it over real quick if you dont hear back from me i have to go to work i have to get onn shift as long as my eris works ill check back with you later , thank you

lol ok, just make sure to minimize the keyboard to be able to select the prl info cuz i think i remember doing something when i first did it and it went on forever cuz i didnt actually select the file.

 

[whitewallman]

I went from none or one bar to 3 and sometimes all in same location. Any adverse effects or possible roaming charges with this?
Where on earth did you find this?
Thanks!

 

[mgreen24]

A year or so ago I got an LG phone through verizon because the rep in the store told me LG phones had a really easy way of forcing a close roaming tower as opposed to a really far verizon one - which is necessary where I live.

When I got the phone (the LG one, not my eris), she showed me how to simply go into the programming menu and switch it to roam only. I don't know if the eris has a simple way like the LG phones do, but I could certainly run into the verizon store today and ask them if theres a known method.

I have been surviving ok with a weak signal for now, but this is worth looking into for areas where verizons service is (uncharacteristically) spotty.

 

[hasbrobot]

that was it I didnt minimize the keyboard to select it , it was hiding that option . its rebooting now , hope this fixes it thanks alot!

 

[morganpants]

I went from none or one bar to 3 and sometimes all in same location. Any adverse effects or possible roaming charges with this?
Where on earth did you find this?
Thanks!

no roaming charges since its a VERIZON/ALLTEL prl (first release to alltel phones to switch to verizon towers) verizon put it on my touch pro for alltel and left the file on my sd card and i been using it since today for my eris with amazing results. full 3g reception when im in town instead of that 50% bug, but like i said i donno why this prl makes a difference with the radio reception but i get better reception in general then the 228 prl's and with the alltel prl my 3g speeds increased also to 2.5megs down and .50up if you tether that would be an amazing increase compared to the 1.5 i was getting before.

 

[morganpants]

A year or so ago I got an LG phone through verizon because the rep in the store told me LG phones had a really easy way of forcing a close roaming tower as opposed to a really far verizon one - which is necessary where I live.

When I got the phone (the LG one, not my eris), she showed me how to simply go into the programming menu and switch it to roam only. I don't know if the eris has a simple way like the LG phones do, but I could certainly run into the verizon store today and ask them if theres a known method.

I have been surviving ok with a weak signal for now, but this is worth looking into for areas where verizons service is (uncharacteristically) spotty.

yeah i tried options in the programming settings and no effect, still was terrible till the prl trick worked.

 

[Caddyman]

oddly enough i just did this

in the office here i wavered from 0-1 bars all the time, now i am getting 1-2...idk if i ever saw 2 in my office.

seems to have settled at 1 bar, will see how it does outside.

 

[hookem]

I have 3 bars here at work, but only 0-1 at home. Will definitely try it when I get home.

 

[vonedaddy]

I just loaded the new prl from my office where I usually have 0-1 bars. Looks like I am getting 2 consistently now. Its not positive proof yet but so far it looks good. I will know more when I get home where before the 2.1 leak was loaded I was getting full service, but after 2.1 I was around 1-2 bars. I will report back... Thanks for this info, this was the ONLY problem I was having with the 2.1 leak.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I can't download anything here at work so I will have to try this later. Although I will say that I have only been getting 1 or 2 bars here at work lately and today for some reason I have 4 bars. Speed test showed 2.4Mbs download so I may not need to worry about it.


I am curious to see if this does anything about the 50% without signal that some of us are having.

 

[shellfish_mickfish]

Sorry - newbie here. Have the updated 2.1 on my Eris. I'm choosing Folder=SD Card, Type=prl files (.prl). Then I get a blank box that I think it wants me to put something in and then OK/Cancel. Nothing below the keyboard.

I'm assuming this is where I'm suppose to name the file? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

** DUH!! the directory that it says my prl is in on the update prl list is /sdcard/51425m.prl so you might try typing that in if ur prl still isnt saving **

Nevermind!