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Suddenly almost always no signal with Xperia Z5

Entchen

Lurker
Oct 4, 2018
7
1
Hi guys,

two days ago my phone started to have problems to get proper mobile connections and yesterday it was even worse so that I almost always can't start a phone call. To solve the problem, I first tried different network-modes (in the service menu) but that changed nothing. My second attempt was to open my phone and put it apart down to the mainboard and put it back together, to eliminate potential problems with loose connectors - but once more no luck.

So my question is, if someone has experience with broken mobile antennas (main or sub-antenna). Are those parts likely to break from time to time? They seem technically quite simple and robust so that I would not have guessed that they can become defect. Do you think it's worth a try to replace them or do you have a other suggestion? At least the antennas are sold as spare parts, so they should be a problem from time to time...

Thanks beforehands for your help!

Markus
 
Thanks for your reply. I haven't tried the SIM in an other phone lately (I will now), but at least it's always recognised and it never shows directly a SIM-card error/failure.
The previous owner of the phone told me, that the display (or the touch screen, i don't know) has been replaced, so it suffered a mechanical damage some time ago...

Edit: I just put the SIM card in an other phone - for now it seems to work just fine there. Vice versa a other SIM (other carrier) in the Xperia Z5 also seems to get no connection to the mobile net :/

Edit 2: I should add, that, since I own it, the phone always seemed to have some fluctuations in the network strengh, even if you don't move (from full strengh to one or zero bars), but I was always able to use it and it never lost the connection to the mobile network completely like now.
 
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So my question is, if someone has experience with broken mobile antennas (main or sub-antenna). Are those parts likely to break from time to time? They seem technically quite simple and robust so that I would not have guessed that they can become defect. Do you think it's worth a try to replace them or do you have a other suggestion? At least the antennas are sold as spare parts, so they should be a problem from time to time...
Just note that a smartphone antenna, which Sony refers to as a 'signal cable', is just a piece of wire. It doesn't have any internal electronic components, it's just a piece of wire with a press-fit connector on the end (with the Z5 it has connectors on both ends). The odds are that little piece of wire actually 'fails' is unlikely. A more likely issue is the one of those press-fit connectors worked loose and just needs to be pressed back into place. A far more problematic issue would be if the actual cellular or the WiFi radio chip on the motherboard is failing. Those chips are soldered to the motherboard, the issue being they are not socketed so they're not user-replaceable. The plus being that's not a likely occurrence.
Have you also been having issues with Bluetooth? A lot of phones share the WiFi and Bluetooth antenna.
There are some repair guides for the Z5 you might want to look at, if you care to actually go through the steps to re-seat those signal cable connectors:
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Sony_Xperia_Z5
but I'd think you'd want to focus more on the SIM card as that would be more likely to be an issue.
 
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Thanks for your reply.
Just note that a smartphone antenna, which Sony refers to as a 'signal cable', is just a piece of wire.
Okay, there is this blue signal cable, but there are also those other two so called antennas I linked in the first post (see pictures) (and an additional WLAN antenna) Does someone know which antenna(part) is needed/used for what?
main-gsm-antenna-official-xperia-z5.jpg secondary-gsm-antenna-official-xperia-z5.jpg

It doesn't have any internal electronic components, (...) The odds are that little piece of wire actually 'fails' is unlikely.
As I mentioned in the first post, I think/thought so aswell for those two antennas. They seem to be quite simple. That's why I asked :)

Have you also been having issues with Bluetooth? A lot of phones share the WiFi and Bluetooth antenna.
No, WiFi workes completly fine. I usually never need bluetooth, but a short file-transfer-test from phone to phone worked also fine. It's only the "mobile" GSM/EDGE/LTE/etc. network connections that don't work.

There are some repair guides for the Z5 you might want to look at, if you care to actually go through the steps to re-seat those signal cable connectors
Thanks, I already re-seated the blue wire - with no change. I also couldn't notice some kind of loose connection, they seem tight :/

but I'd think you'd want to focus more on the SIM card as that would be more likely to be an issue.
Im fine with everything, what would you suggest that I can try more? As mentioned, the SIM card itself workes fine in an other phone.

Edit
So, let's get a bit more confusion into this topic: Yesterday most of the time the problem was, that there was no connection at all. It was not "zero bars" (that means greyed out bars) in the network-meter, there were no bars (an empty triangle).
Now, at this moment I have all four bars, a signal strengh of -89dBm, so quite good, the right carrier, but at "mobile network status" it says "not connected". Those two problem descriptions don't really fit together :/
Screenshot_20181004-175314.png
 
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If you haven't experienced issues with WiFi and it's just cellular connectivity, odds are this isn't an antenna issue and since the SIM card works out in a different phone that's probably not the source of the problem either. You're referring to issues with phone calls so just to confirm that's not WiFi Calling related but just typical phone calling through your carrier's cellular connection, yes?
If you disable WiFi are there any connectivity issues using just mobile data? If yes, with the antenna and SIM card tentatively ruled out, that leaves either a hardware issue with your phone (like the cellular radio chip failing) or just some kind of issue with the signal reception in general (i.e. something affecting the cellular signal broadcast range to the closest cell towers). Where are you located and which carrier service do you use?
You might want to try installing this OpenSignal app, it allows you to test the signal strength to see if that's a problem, and has a mapping function that displays locally detected cell towers.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.staircase3.opensignal&hl=en
Since this problem started a couple of days ago, can you think of anything that might have occurred around that time? Applying an update to your phone? That might have brought the problem up. Or did some new building or construction project just start up nearby? That might be affecting local cell towers or their broadcast coverage.
 
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Thanks once more for your post. I'm quite confused now, because it's different to yesterday. I will answer your questions one by one:

If you haven't experienced issues with WiFi and it's just cellular connectivity, odds are this isn't an antenna issue
Positive, no problems at all with WiFi, only with cellular connectivitiy. But there is a dedicated WLAN antenna, so isn't there a possibility, that the WiFi antenna is fine and only (one of the) "cellular" antennas has a problem?

and since the SIM card works out in a different phone that's probably not the source of the problem either.
I just put the SIM card once more into a other phone and called a third one. Everything worked fine, also the internet connection per mobile data. So the SIM card and the cellular connection works fine with an other phone.
You're referring to issues with phone calls so just to confirm that's not WiFi Calling related but just typical phone calling through your carrier's cellular connection, yes?
That's right, a typical phone calling through my carrier's cellular connection

If you disable WiFi are there any connectivity issues using just mobile data?
Same as the telefone calls, so no Internet connection then.

or just some kind of issue with the signal reception in general (i.e. something affecting the cellular signal broadcast range to the closest cell towers). Where are you located and which carrier service do you use?
I'm here in Vienna, Austria and had the problems in different parts of the city. The carrier is HOT and they are using the network from T-Mobile.

Since this problem started a couple of days ago, can you think of anything that might have occurred around that time? Applying an update to your phone? That might have brought the problem up. Or did some new building or construction project just start up nearby? That might be affecting local cell towers or their broadcast coverage.
No system updates and nothing else i could remember. I used a heat gun to loose the glue of the backcover, but that was after I had the problems.

At the moment, I have no cellular connection at all, so Opensignal also doesn't show anything. An hour ago I had a good signal but the phone wasn't connected to the network...
 
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Thanks once more to all. I already measured the resistance of the wire: <1Ohm, so the wire itself isn't broken. I was able to buy the two mentioned antennas out of a phone with a broken mainboard for 8 Euro shipping included and hope for best. The seller told me, that the phone never had issues with the cellular connection. I try not to be too optimistic, but it's worth a try. If that dosen't change a thing, I will reflash Android and afterwards I'm quite out of ideas, except the mentioned cellular chip failure.

How I observed the problem the last days, the phone gets a strong GSM signal from time to time (like in the screenshot above), when I set it to "GSM_only" in the service settings, but it still does not get connected to the network. If that's the case, OpenSignal shows a 2G connection. And the rest of the time it has a signal strengh of zero.
 
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Hi
Have same issue with Z5 compact, signal just goes, phone says no network but recognises sim, just have no phone signal, wireless and Bluetooth are fine. What I have found is that by removing and replacing sim, sometimes this fixes issue. Unsure if dust, loose connection or failing component. Find it weird as very little needs to happen for phone to loose all GSM connection and not clear on why sometimes sorts issue by removing and replacing sim but not always
 
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Had the same happen with my z5! No network signal at all. Started suddenly without warning. No previous loss. Is there a way to revert to a previous version of Android in case an update was the cause can it be back flashed without risk of damage or would it have to be sent to Sony for a repair? Ran all the tests possible that I can think of, replaced All antennas in the phone to no avail. Everything else on the phone works perfectly, just can't turn on the radio signal! The only thing I can assume is that the radio chip has failed. Any other ideas would help as I had to buy another phone (an XA2) and actually prefer the z5 even tho the xa2 can run android 9 and possibly 10! Still use the z5 as a camera! The xa2's camera isn't a patch on it!

Regards Bri.
 
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Hello, I think I might have found the solution. In my case, I realized that the "second Gsm antenna" which is located on back top of the phone moves when I press it with my finger. If I am not mistaken, it has some parts that have to touch the main board so I used a very small piece of double sided mounting tape (between the glass back of the phone and the gsm antenna) hoping that it will stick the antenna to the main board. I am testing the phone for the last 5 hours. It seems that it works.
antenna-gsm-secondary-official-xperia-Z5.jpg
 
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