Alltel Signal Issues

skycarcass · #1 (**permalink**) 02-20-2009, 11:31 AM

I'm having an issue where the phone shows 3 or 4 bars of signal strength for a second or so, and then it shows none for a little while. More often than not it is showing no signal. When it shows no signal I do not get phone calls or text messages. To the caller, the phone rings several times and then goes to voicemail. Nothing on the phone notifies me of this until I get the New Voicemail alert. This happens when the phone is just sitting still on my desk, nothing should be interfering with it. I thought perhaps it was a weird Alltel quirk so I flashed to conflippers most recent ROM. The same thing happened, so I flashed back to stock and relocked. Same issue. I then read about the fieldtest.exe utility so I ran that. I noticed that on the 1X screen under BAND # it is showing Sleep Mode most of the time, however once in awhile it will switch to CDMA Cellular, it then changes back to sleep mode within a couple seconds. Durring that CDMA moment, the phone shows 3 or 4 bars. And Rx Power goes to -85 dbm. While in Sleep Mode the Rx Power is at 105 dbm.

First - does what I just described make sense?
Second - does this happen with anyone else's Alltel phone?
Third - my guess is that the radio goes into a sleep mode, while its asleep it does not wake up to receive incoming alerts (whether it be a phone call or a txt message). Is there any way to fix this?

Again I'd like to clarify that the phone itself is not going to sleep. I've already turned off bluetooth, wifi, and the today timeout.

I'll post some pictures in a bit, I'm waiting for the camera's battery to charge.

Thank you for any assistance or advice.

benanthony · #2 (**permalink**) 02-20-2009, 04:28 PM

Its that way on the Alltel Radio and any other radio I have flashed. I think it has to do with being in a poor signal area more than anything. I think that the telus radio did help a little bit but not that much. You can also change your slot cycle to a lower value and that seems to help with showing more bars more often but I think it drains the battery faster.

skycarcass · #3 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 08:45 AM

Well I changed the polling cycle to 1 (it was at 2) and it fixed my signal issues. It also made my battery life at least 3 times better. Now I know that most of you say this shouldn't be the case, but this is what I think was going on.

I still go into the configuration and see that the MODE is going to sleep quite often, however my signal strength is staying at 3 or 4 bars. I believe the MODE is referring to the data connection to the cell tower. Before it was impacting the call signal and when the data went to sleep, so did the call side of things. Because of this, the phone kept searching for a signal and running the battery down quickly. After changing the polling cycle, the data connection going to sleep is not impacting the call connection, so I maintain a good signal all day long. Battery life improves over what I used to have and I'm getting all my calls and txts

I am finally happy with my phone.

jesusio · #4 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 12:31 AM

I have the same problem in a "questionable" service area. I just switched to Alltel, how do you get into change the slot cycle index? Thank you.

**GrandMasterB** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 02:53 AM

I had the Alltel Touch Pro for all of a day and a half and was having the same problem, so I sent mine back cancelled Alltel and continued my existing Verizon account. This would have been helpful information about a month ago , lol.

My wife , my sister and a few other coworkers all have the same issue with Alltel on various phones so I figure its just an Alltel thing.....

skycarcass · #6 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 11:03 AM

Go to the phone app and type in

##778#

it should then bring up a menu with three options. View/Edit/Cancel.
Choose View (1.jpg)

It will then ask you for the security code. Which is six zeros 000000. then press enter. (2.jpg)

It will load up an EPST Program.

At the bottom Left click on View Info and Select Modem Settings. (3.jpg)

The first Item is the Slot Cycle Index. (4.jpg)

Highlight it, press Menu, and choose Edit. You can then use the arrows to change from 2 to 1. (5.jpg)

Then press ok

You will be back at the Modem Settings page. Press Menu -> OK

It will ask you to reset the device. After reset you everything was 100% better for me

skycarcass · #7 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 11:17 AM

Here is a fuzzy video I took with another cell phone of how to change the slot cycle. I apologize for the screw ups and the fuzzy parts. Its hard to use a touch screen while your looking through another camera

Please use the jpg's in my previous post.

**GrandMasterB** · #8 (**permalink**) 02-24-2009, 11:48 PM

Great pics and walkthrough, THANKS!

sagamoredad · #9 (**permalink**) 02-26-2009, 02:09 PM

FYI. I had to use "edit" not "view" to change the values. Using Confippers Alltel ROM.

FusionZ06 · #10 (**permalink**) 02-26-2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skycarcass

Go to the phone app and type in

##778#

it should then bring up a menu with three options. View/Edit/Cancel.
Choose View (1.jpg)

It will then ask you for the security code. Which is six zeros 000000. then press enter. (2.jpg)

It will load up an EPST Program.

At the bottom Left click on View Info and Select Modem Settings. (3.jpg)

The first Item is the Slot Cycle Index. (4.jpg)

Highlight it, press Menu, and choose Edit. You can then use the arrows to change from 2 to 1. (5.jpg)

Then press ok

You will be back at the Modem Settings page. Press Menu -> OK

It will ask you to reset the device. After reset you everything was 100% better for me

I'll try this and report back.