Weak Signal Strength

[Doreen]

I just upgrade from the Blackberry Curve to the Droid Incredible by HTC.  I am having issues with a weak signal strength at home that was not an issue previously with my blackberry.  I did the roaming upgrade *228 and that did not seem to help at all.  Has anyone else had issues with this as well?  I have called Verizon twice but they don't seem to be able to offer much of a solution at this point. Thanks

[applecalypse]

Check the first two posts on this thread... I had the same questions and did some digging of my own:

http://community.vzw.com/t5/DROID-Incredible-by-HTC/HTC-not-so-incredible-reception-effect-on-batter...

[Doreen]

Thanks so much for your reply!  It's good to know that I am not alone with my issue and I will wait till the 22nd and see if that upgrade helps out at all. 

[AZSALUKI]

there are actually 2 issues. one: the "bars" are not very accurate. for example.....many people (including myself) have noticed that even with one bar and 3g not showing up, we still have great reception and high speeds. 2: actuall poor signal strength. i suspect this is what your problem is? there is an advanced setting you can try if you'd like. it changes the type of signal your phone searches for.

dial ##778 (you are not actually making a call...rather going into the advanced settings of the device)

select edit mode

type 000000 (password)

select cdma settings

change your "home page," "home orig," and "roam orig" from evrc to evrc-b

touch menu and select commit modifications.

this worked for me to improve my call quality. HOWEVER.....KEEP THESE INSTRUCTIONS. if the towers around you do not support evrc-b (it is newer technology) this will make it worse or even give you no signal at all. if this is the case, then you need to change those three items back to evrc.

hope it helps!!!!

[fezzik]

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AZSALUKI wrote:

there are actually 2 issues. one: the "bars" are not very accurate. for example.....many people (including myself) have noticed that even with one bar and 3g not showing up, we still have great reception and high speeds. 2: actuall poor signal strength. i suspect this is what your problem is? there is an advanced setting you can try if you'd like. it changes the type of signal your phone searches for.

dial ##778 (you are not actually making a call...rather going into the advanced settings of the device)

select edit mode

type 000000 (password)

select cdma settings

change your "home page," "home orig," and "roam orig" from evrc to evrc-b

touch menu and select commit modifications.

this worked for me to improve my call quality. HOWEVER.....KEEP THESE INSTRUCTIONS. if the towers around you do not support evrc-b (it is newer technology) this will make it worse or even give you no signal at all. if this is the case, then you need to change those three items back to evrc.

hope it helps!!!!

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You should get better or the same quality by disabling Vocode and it should be universally supported. 

[Doreen]

Thanks!  My call quality is fine and I am not having issues with the internet or speed of use at all.  I think mine issue is a lot like the others on this site and that the signal bars are not accurate.  Hopefully the upgrade will help but if not my phone does work fine and I can at least stop calling Verizon's techincal support and just enjoy my new phone.

[AZSALUKI]

fezz....where do i do that. i think we've actually had this conversation and for some reason i thought you had a moto droid or a different device because i couldn't find the option to disable vocode on the inc??? or is that the same as disabling evrc???

[Mike01]

I use to get 3 bars in my home on the Blackberry Storm and earlier on a Razor.  Now on the Droid's "incredible" I am luckey to get 1 bar.

[JoeBobHarris]

The first thing I discovered about my Incredible is that the signal bars are pretty useless.

What I mean is this:

Anyone who has low bars, you should go to >settings>about phone>network. From there look at "Signal Strength".

At home, even with 1 bar, my "signal strength" will show -74 dbm or -78. Which is a strong signal. Just checked. It was bouncing between one and two bars with a signal strength of -78 dbm. That's a good signal.

Since this is a negative number, a smaller number (i.e. closer to zero) is a stronger signal. So -74 is a stronger signal than -94 etc.

I consider anything larger than -100 to be poor.

Hard to believe a phone could be released with such poor performing "bars" software. Think of the grief this is causing as people fret over lack of signal when in fact they could very well have a "booming" signal. Surely this will be addressed in a software update.

[budone]

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JoeBobHarris wrote:

The first thing I discovered about my Incredible is that the signal bars are pretty useless.

What I mean is this:

Anyone who has low bars, you should go to >settings>about phone>network. From there look at "Signal Strength".

At home, even with 1 bar, my "signal strength" will show -74 dbm or -78. Which is a strong signal. Just checked. It was bouncing between one and two bars with a signal strength of -78 dbm. That's a good signal.

Since this is a negative number, a smaller number (i.e. closer to zero) is a stronger signal. So -74 is a stronger signal than -94 etc.

I consider anything larger than -100 to be poor.

Hard to believe a phone could be released with such poor performing "bars" software. Think of the grief this is causing as people fret over lack of signal when in fact they could very well have a "booming" signal. Surely this will be addressed in a software update.

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This is fixed with the Froyo update