My Bionic Frustrations Solved!

[draexo]

After having the Bionic for 2 weeks, I have solved my troubles.
The situation was this: data drops - both 3g and 4g (other Verizon phones around me were not having similar problems)
battery life was horrible - 8 hours with it sitting on the desk all day with light use.


I approached this problem by starting with Verizon Tech Support at my local store. Their solutions were to keep the phone for 6 hours and test the battery. They also installed a new SIM card and informed me that 8 hours battery life on a Bionic was "Great for a 4G phone". The battery tested out fine and the new SIM card did nothing. After a few more frustrating days, I went back to my Droid X until I could get back to the store. Meanwhile I bricked the phone by mistake and learned all sorts of stuff about FXZ files and why RSD Lite loves my Droid X but not my Bionic. I eventually restored my phone and I received authorization by Verizon to FedEx my Bionic back and was waiting on a return label when I read about the .901 radio update. I went back to Verizon Store and got a new SIM card and re-activated the phone. As expected, as I drove around town and came home, I experienced the usual data drops.
I then followed the steps to install the .901 radio update.
Viola!
All is good now. Battery made it 14 hours in mostly standby and was at 20% when I finally plugged it in. Data drops are history as well. This is all with the stock rom.

So for all you frustrated Bionic users, I suggest you try the .901 update as it has made a HUGE difference for me.

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Congrats and thanks for posting up the info!

 

[Shadez]

I think I may have to try this...

 

[JRParsons]

Verizon Wireless is sending me out a Bionic to replace my Thunderbolt, how do it get the 901 build, do I need to be rooted. Oh and did I trade trouble for trouble.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[Carboo]

Really? .901 actually corrects data connectivity issues? Why hasn't it been released to everyone?

 

[Cinoib]

How do I get a ligit .901 update?

I have a bionic that is presently at 5.5.893 (OTA upgraded from 5.5.886). There was talk of leaked updates that disabled the ability to update to stock .893. My fear is if I Cheesecake to .901, I'll miss ICS from Motorola/Verizon.

 

[foamman]

I have a bionic that is presently at 5.5.893 (OTA upgraded from 5.5.886). There was talk of leaked updates that disabled the ability to update to stock .893. My fear is if I Cheesecake to .901, I'll miss ICS from Motorola/Verizon.

.901 isn't a cheescake it was pushed to some of us disgruntled Bionic users by Verizon Wireless.

DROID Bionic Receiving Mysterious 5.9.901 Update? – Droid Life

You must be completely stock to install. If you are rooted you must Forever Root to maintain it. Install via Stock Recovery.

 

[rdgxray]

I keep seeing this term "cheesecake"? What does it mean? 9.01 is an official update pushed by error to a few phones. You can install it through boot recovery. No root needed. In fact you have to be stock with latest ota update 8.93 to install it. My phone works much better with it. No guarantees about staying on upgrade path...motorola has acknowledge the update and hopefully will support it.

 

[deduct]

I am on 901 and I NEVER drop 4g anymore. 3g will still drop once or twice a day. Battery life is much improved and have not had any bsod issues since updating. Highly recommend updating your phone to this build.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

 

[tjk629]

Lucky.

I'm on 901 and still drop data.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[captainkjblack]

so how do I get the .901 update? my phone system says it is up to date. I'm having the same problems. Never had any problems with my droid X

 

[tjk629]

so how do I get the .901 update? my phone system says it is up to date. I'm having the same problems. Never had any problems with my droid X

DROID Life has the file somewhere on their site.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Fokkerdmr]

Data drops on the Bionic have to do with the fact that that LTE network and the 3G network use different authentication schemes. A bug in the pre-.901 builds causes the switchover from 3G to 4G to retry for a very long time when it shouldn't need to retry. Eventually, the phone gives up and as far as you can see, you now have a "data drop". That's why you don't have the problem on your DX. DX was only 3G. There are also problems with the 4G LTE network that VZ is working to fix - hence the broader 4G outages that affected all 4G users in mid/late December and early January. The combination of these two issues has caused Bionic owners to be doubly-affected. I know that Bionic owners "in the know" - meaning those of us on the forums and trying to figure out how to fix our phones - are clamoring to get the update that solves all the problems, but if the rumors of a .902 update are true, then there probably was some additional change that needed to be made to the .901 build. That's probably why we haven't seen the .901 build pushed out to phones yet. It could even be related to changes that VZ is making on their network, who knows.

For those who have put .901 on their phones - I was still seeing data outages immediately after putting on .901. Until I did a battery pull. That fixed it. Now, my switchovers from 3G to 4G are fast, no drops, and switchovers from 1x to 4G are fine, and dropping WiFi to go to 4G is fine. There is a slight delay picking up 4G when powering on (e.g. from having screen turned off) but nothing that's a real problem. My battery life is good - but I tend to set my sync schedules to be > 2 hours, and I dont' use push.

The one thing that seems odd is I've been in very strong 4G signal area, yet speedtest.net app gets stuck around the 300 kb/s or 600 kb/s range. Sometimes, it's rockin with >40 mb/s but sometimes it just seems "stuck on slow." Not sure if this is a phone problem or VZ network problem, whether it'll ever get fixed, etc.. Just interesting behavior I've observed since being on .901.

Here's hoping for a build to come out soon that clears up the issues!

 

[stephen_lacman]

DO NOT FLASH THE 901 UPDATE. it will take you off verizons update path, and reverting from 901 back to full stock is a royal pain in the ass. Trust me, i bricked one trying and had to use some sly words to get verizon to replace it.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[dkelly701]

How do you know that it takes you off of the update path? I understand that earlier versions took you off the upgrade path because they were not ota releases from Verizon. 901 was released by Verizon by mistake to some people. If you received this update from Verizon are you now off the update path even though they sent it to you?

DO NOT FLASH THE 901 UPDATE. it will take you off verizons update path, and reverting from 901 back to full stock is a royal pain in the ass. Trust me, i bricked one trying and had to use some sly words to get verizon to replace it.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums