Dinc2 tower service issue

[efbld2f]

I have my Incredible 1 sitting a foot from my Incredible 2 and the Incredible 2 has no reception/no service while the Incredible 1 has at least two bars.

I took the Incredible 2 outside, restarted it, and nothing changed. Also, the Incredible 2 has a pretty weak speaker (speaker phone and music).

Any plans on a fix?

[MJKneuro]

Frustrating! I had the same problem - couldn't make a call from home while the dinc 1 and a flip motorola had great reception. Signal strength was running from 95 to 105 and very erratic. Called Verizon and HTC. Of course each said it wasn't a known issue (they should try reading some of these blogs or even their own blogs!!!). Verizon sent me out 2 other Dinc 2's - all had the same crappy signal strength. Now I have an X2 here to try - it's strength is usually 10 below the Dinc 2 so that is much better, but I hate the Motorola interface and really liked the Dinc 2 with 3.2 and the new sense. Frustrating!

[ABQNM]

Same issue with low signal here. My X averages -80 to -72dbm while sitting next to the dinc2 between -105 to -88dbm. Has not missed any calls or failed to dial though. Does affect data speed a bit though. It seems to have to do with the antenna being a part of the battery door. If I attach a 30ga 3" wire to the antenna contact under the battery door I get a 15dbm boost but it is slightly impractical to have a wire hanging from the back of the phone.

Sent from my brain using the human to phone interface.

[MJKneuro]

Do you mean just putting a thin wire against the contacts between the phone and the case? I guess you also mean drilling a hole in the battery cover?
While I was contemplating this I made an interesting observation (to me at least). When I hold the phone by the bottom, cupping the back of the phone with my hand, I am reading about 102-105 db. When I move my hand to the upper half of the phone, it immediately (within a couple seconds) drops 10 db. Did this about 10 times in a row with the same results. Then made a call that dropped twice about 30 minutes ago from the same seat and the connection was much better. Lowered my hand during the call and the connection deteriorated (sound garbled though the call didn't drop).
Guess I can keep my incredible 2 even with the low signal strength if I just learn to hold it differently. Good thing. As much as I played with the X2, it never blew my skirt up. Just didn't like it.

[ABQNM]

On the back of the phone with the battery cover removed and the camera to your top left, at the bottom left corner of the phone, there are 2 contacts. The right one is the cell antenna and meets up with the longer gold strip on the back of the battery door. I used a very small 30 gauge insulated wire and stripped back about 1cm and ran it through the tiny hole in the battery cover below in the antenna contact and ran it across the contact point and put a very tiny piece of electrical tape across the wire above the connection point on the battery door. Close it up and signal went up. I guess if you are using a case, you could hide that small of a wire there with no issues, but it still seems a little impractical.

[ABQNM]

I have also noticed that the signal strength bars do not update as often as they should. If I look at the signal in about phone, it could show no bars at all and be at -78dbm when it should have about 2 bars there. Eventually it updates, but not right away.

As related to the wire on the antenna, here is a picture of what I mean on the battery cover.

[MJKneuro]

Thanks - that's pretty clear now - I have the extended battery and the hole isn't there but that wouldn't be a problem, could make one if I wanted. However, I think I will try playing with the different phone grip and see how that works. Makes a dramatic difference in the DBm reading.
As you say, the bars aren't so quick to respond and aren't something I pay a lot of attention to as the bars seem to be more of an inconsistent and lagging response to (interpretation of) the actual signal strength.
I also wonder if this extended batter and case may not be part of the problem causing a poorer connection. That is how my phone came so I don't have a regular battery and back cover to compare to....

[ABQNM]

The first day or two I had it I was having issues where I was dropping down to -118 (no signal) periodically. I guessed it was not making the best contact as it would get better if I pressed on the battery cover above the antenna. I decided to bend the contact out just a tiny bit with a small screwdriver and it seemed to make better contact. I no longer get the total loss of signal. Be very careful if you do this as that connector could break if you do it too much. That may help a little bit with the extended battery door.

[MJKneuro]

Thanks - I had seen your mention of this in the other discussion (I love you dinc 2). Tried that but it didn't make a difference on my phone. Perhaps I didn't do it enough but I am afraid of braking something, as you cautioned..... Do you have the same effect of your hand position on the signal strength as I do on my phone?

[ABQNM]

Yeah if I cover the antenna with my hand it will drop quite a bit. Since internal antennas became popular years ago, I have always held my phone with just the tips of my index and middle finger and thumb. That way I am not touching the back at all.