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Wavering Reception, Dropped calls

jackson5

Newbie
Jul 17, 2010
15
0
I am not happy with the reception on my phone. The bars waver around from 3-5 or in more remote areas, 0-2 bars. This happens even without moving the phone and the changes occur every few seconds. I have dropped calls as the bars drop from 2 to 0.
This is my second Captivate. The wifi on this one is much weaker than my first one - 0 bars standing outside my house vs. 2 wifi bars on the first phone.
There is something wierd I noticed on the new phone and that is white paint on the antenna contact points of the back cover. I don't think the paint was on the original phone I bought. Can anyone confirm?

Jason
 
i think everybody with this phone has wavering signal, the back cover or near it is used as the antenna out point so if you cover it it blocks the signal. Case won't help not that issue.

Try putting your phone on a flat surface and see the bars jump to 5 bars, then pick it up and it goes to 3 or 2, sucks.
 
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the antenna is in the lower 3rd of the phone, in low signal situations i have blue tooth and hold the phone upside down. the gps and wi-fi antennas are in the top third of the phone it seems. that is why the "death grip" shows up in these style phones so easily.

also you can measure the signal you get from the setting/about phone/status page. it takes a few seconds to update but gives you a number instead of a bar to count.
 
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I talked with Samsung level 3 tech support today. I had to ask to be transferred after the Level 1 person was useless. He said to go and get a new phone and also he said to raise the issue with ATT. One problem is that the phone doesn't automatically switch to edge when in a low 3G signal area. I noticed my phone was jumping from 0-4 bars today while sitting in a chair at the car dealer. This seems like a phone issue. Alas, I have serious concerns about the quality of the phone. Also, I don't think the software is configured properly to work on the ATT network
 
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