[Question] HDC Galaxy n9500 phone signal issues

[gerbear]

Hi all,

I've spent the last few days looking around trying to solve this, but I don't think there is any solution. My N9500 works quite well, except for the most basic part of it - making a phone call! I'm in work now, I have very strong signal, when I go home I get no signal at all, except for one room in my house. My sim card works in another phone, I get around 2 bars, so the area doesn't have great signal, but it's OK. I've tried other sim cards in my phone from different providers and they don't get any signal either. I've tried installing lots of different basebands, I upgraded to Android 4.2.2 thanks for freegt on patrucco.com, I've messed about with BandMode, turning off 850GSM and pretty much every combination I could think of. Changing network selection to auto, to only GSM etc. Nothing works, I still never pick up any signal in my house. I'm giving up now, I presume there's a problem with the antenna in the phone or it's not a very good one. It's a shame because the phone works great and runs very smooth but the basic aspect of it doesn't work.

I've attached a few screenshots of the About Phone section. None of these made any difference to me picking up a signal at home. I don't particularly care about Edge/3g/hsdpa. I just want reception to send/receive texts and make phone calls!

Another interesting thing is that I have a Network Signal app, which looks like it says it can pick up a signal, when I have no phone coverage, or maybe I'm reading it wrong. When I'm at home it often says 85 dBm for network strength. Does that mean anything?

I'm located in Ireland. I believe GSM is broadcast on 900/1800 band.

Any help would be appreciated, it would be a shame to have to bin this phone!

Thanks in advance!

[GizBeat]

I assume other phones work fine?

What happens when you're outside the house?
Is your work very close to a tower?

It DOES sound like it's likely a physical antenna issue. There are several antenna boosting tricks I've seen posted around here and there.

[gerbear]

I assume other phones work fine?

What happens when you're outside the house?
Is your work very close to a tower?

It DOES sound like it's likely a physical antenna issue. There are several antenna boosting tricks I've seen posted around here and there.

Yes other phones work fine. My sim in other phones works fine. The coverage isn't great around my house, but there is coverage. If I walk down the road a little bit I get coverage. I also go in and out of coverage when I'm indoors in other places. I've tried a lot of your tips and others on how to improve cell signal, I'm pretty sure at this stage it is a hardware problem. I've read other people having similar problems with MTK6589 phones, so I've come to the conclusion that it's just part of the risk you take with buying cheap electronics.

[GizBeat]

Do you or a friend have another MTK phone you can test?

This isn't necessarily just an issue with MTK. You can pretty much Google any name brand and come up with most of the same issues as MTK has.

If you don't want to attempt a replacement with the seller, might be time for some surgery.

[gerbear]

What type of surgery? I'd be willing to give it a go if I had some steps to follow. I got the phone about 2 months ago now from FCT and I don't plan on sending it back anyway!

[GizBeat]

[gerbear]

I got some success with this after thinking about gizbeat's idea of opening the phone up. I took off the back of it and I found the antenna. I found that if I got a piece of metal coil and wrapped it around something (a pen or a chop stick) and held it on the atenna, bingo I got 3 or 4 bars of reception in my house, where previously I had no service. My problem was that I was trying to keep this coil in the back of the phone while putting it back together. I've spent the last 2 hours trying to hold it in place, tried wrapping it down the side of the phone but every time I put it together I go back to no signal. When it's taken apart and I'm holding the coil firmly in place, I'm getting good reception. At first I was a bit nervous taking the back off because you have to be pretty strong with it. I opening up one part of it and running a credit card along the sides of it worked quite well. Now hopefully I can figure out a good design for it and fit the coil in the back of the phone with cover on! Here's a few photos I took with the back off, hopefully can help somebody else.

[Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register]&usp=sharing

[GizBeat]

Great. Let us know what solution you come up with.

I've seen some pictures of people soldering/attaching flat copper to the antenna, and then running it several inches here and there inside the phone.

[hokss]

i have identical problem by the way i'm from Ireland to. so it my be some sort of issue around green island tnx for idea ill my try the same thing and then see.

[hokss]

Ok i did get my reception working fine now.

what i did is -

1 get a power wire from old drill (copper wire) and used only one small string .
2 my phones antenna isn't under plastic cover so all i needed was take off my back cover and plug this wire in to antenna (i made end of wire a bit more flat so its sits in just fine).
3 i carefully put back my back cover leaving small string outside the phone ( i might try later to put wire under the back cover by folding it inside).
4 as i use rubber protector i did fold it under it so wire doesn't sticks out and is invisible

result - i have nearly full reception in places were i cold not get a single bar. It did not made 3g network better but 2G is nearly prefect.

as for gerbeari would try to do same thing by getting wire out using some of scroll holes leaving some scroll loose.

tnx for great idea guys.