Bug in signal strength indication
xliderider
Newbie

I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm. 

You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.

I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).

I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.

Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate?

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Re: Bug in signal strength indication
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader
I can't comment on signal strength but I do have a question.

Do you have the 3g turned on or not when experience this?

The reason I ask is because on my Eris the signal strength listed in settings >about phone >network strength is always the CDMA voice only strength even though right below it says EDVO Rev A. On the other hand, the bars in the notification bar reflects the strength of network I'm connected to. I see edvo bars (with or without the 3g on), 1x when connected it and CDMA voice bars only when I loose all data. The CDMA voice and 3g strength can be very different

Is it possible the fascinate functions in a similar manner?

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Bug in signal strength indication
xliderider
Newbie

As mentioned in the OP, I'm using the network extender, which operates in only the 1x band.  However, I have very poor signal at my home (both 1x and EvDO) which is why I'm using a network extender.

 

With the network extender, I should be getting full bars of 1x signal, which I am on the Fascinate.  However, the issue here is that the signal strength in -dBm does not reflect this.  The Fascinate doesn't display what the EvDO signal strength is on the Status screen, but I expect it to be much worse than -86dBm.

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Another thing re: signal strength
xliderider
Newbie

Also, the Fascinate reports the signal strength in increments of 5 dBm.  

 

My Fascinate was getting -91, -96, -101, -16, -101, -96 dBm.  

 

So, in addition to not going down below -86 dBm, and fluctuating widely, it also only reports signal strengths in 5 dBm increments instead of the 1 dBm increments that I;ve seen in every other phone I've ever owned.

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Re: Bug in signal strength indication
CodMan
Newbie

No, mine is right at -86. And I have a 200' tower right outside my work door. Is this scheduled to be fixed?

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Re: Bug in signal strength indication
M91-30
Contributor - Level 1
That number is not signal strength, as I have seen it explained on here, it does not directly reflect signal strength. What is more important is that it is below x number. The bars, or strength of signal and the db (decibels, aka how "loud" it is) rating are not proportional by any means.
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