Droid X weak wifi signal, only strong if I press on the back

[blackrandom]

So my hand me down Droid X has bad wifi reception unless I put pressure on the back of the phone near the SD card. I get full bars immediately but once I let go it drops drastically. It got better when I sbf'd back to froyo from gingerbread but its still bad.
Any advice on how I could fix this problem?

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[AndyMcDroid]

I too have a weak wifi signal -typically 30dB weaker than on my Bionic sitting right next to the Droid X. I tried applying pressure on the back around the SD card and saw some improvement too.

Off to see if I can find out where the wifi antenna connects, without actually taking the phone apart.

 

[blackrandom]

I feel like taking the phone apart, but I don't know what that would really accomplish if I don't know what to fix

 

[AndyMcDroid]

I feel like taking the phone apart, but I don't know what that would really accomplish if I don't know what to fix

Me too. The signal is so poor it's almost like the antenna is disconnected or damaged. What really ticks me off is that I bought the phone used, and made an assumption that it was at least a year old and out of warranty. It turns out that the warranty expired 3 weeks AFTER I bought it, but I didn't discover this until about 3 weeks after that.

From the teardown videos I've seen, there are six screws to remove to get to where I think the antenna connects to the motherboard (near the SD card) - two behind the battery door, and two each behind the panels on the front, above and below the display. My main concern about disassembling anything is getting it back together in working order.

Let me know if your curiosity gets the better of you and you open up the phone. I'll do the same.

 

[AndyMcDroid]

Just a follow-up... my problem appears to have been caused by using the extended battery with the stock battery cover. I'm no using the extended battery cover and have a strong, reliable signal. I think the pressure caused by squeezing the extended battery under the stock cover was the culprit.

 

[blackrandom]

I kind of "fixed" my issue. What I did was put a piece of paper of the right thickness to put pressure around the SD card area. Then I just put the cover on and looks at the signal strength to see if it worked, if not I adjusted the paper's orientation, thickness, or location. Rinse and repeat until you find your optimal signal strength.

 

[jmitsche]

When I removed the battery cover, I noticed the signal strength improved remarkably. I was able to maintain the stronger signal by not sliding the cover shut. I am using an Otter cover, so leaving the cover unsecured is not a problem (so far).