Intermittent cell reception with Galaxy S8

magenta7691167
magenta7691167 Feb 18, 2019 9:03 AM
  • Member Since: Feb 12, 2019

    Hello,

     

    My Nexus 5X died and I replaced it last week with an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S8 with my existing SIM card. This is a brand new phone, and out of the gate I'm seeing a weird issue. Where my 5X got full cell reception, the S8 sits on 1-2 bars. As a result, I intermittently miss texts, and phone calls go right to VM.

     

    Here's the twist. If I initiate a text, it fails the first time, but a retry sends it through. After that, I get all the texts I had missed in the mean time. If I initiate a call, it goes through, and while the call is in progress, I get 4 bars, no problem. After the call ends, it's right back to 1-2 bars and missing my messages intermittently.

     

    To be clear: this affects both texts and phone, so I don't think it's as simple as my text app going into power saving mode (which I already disabled). It's like the phone is putting the cell antenna in some kind of low power mode when it's not actively being used, but it's degrading the signal enough to make incoming messages unreliable.

     

    Has anyone heard of this behavior?

     

    Android 8.0.0, patch level Jan 1, 2019.

    • 651 Views
    • 8 Replies
    • Latest reply on Feb 18, 2019 10:32 AM by syaoran

      All replies

      • landonloco

        Re: Intermittent cell reception with Galaxy S8

        landonloco Feb 12, 2019 11:31 AM (in response to magenta7691167)
        • Member Since: Dec 11, 2016

        Well this is really odd did you try your sim card on another phone maybe the sim card faulty if it's a software problem did you try a factory reset. You can also try reinstall the stock firmware and software this is a more technical solution and for people that aren't adapt with tech might feel lost altrough I say most people in these forums can be quite knowledgeable of tech so I guess that isn't much of a problem

          • magenta7691167

            Re: Intermittent cell reception with Galaxy S8

            magenta7691167 Feb 12, 2019 12:28 PM (in response to landonloco)
            • Member Since: Feb 12, 2019

            Well, it's a brand new phone (less than a week old) with the stock ROM using a SIM that's worked fine for the last 3 years in my 5X, so the SIM is known-good and resetting wouldn't seem to accomplish much other than be annoying having to do a bunch of app setup again.

              • landonloco

                Re: Intermittent cell reception with Galaxy S8

                landonloco Feb 12, 2019 1:18 PM (in response to magenta7691167)
                • Member Since: Dec 11, 2016

                Yes I know it's weird that it's behaving like that, that's why to narrow down the problems I want to make sure it isn't a software issue or rather an oreo problem I have heard that some people had issues with their s8 after the oreo update so. That's why I tell you to install or rather reinstall the firmware since this revert to it's factory version that I think it was nogoat

            • syaoran

              Re: Intermittent cell reception with Galaxy S8

              syaoran Feb 13, 2019 10:20 AM (in response to magenta7691167)
              • Member Since: Oct 28, 2018

              is the device up to date?  Manually check for updates by going to Settings, Software Update, and manually checking for updates.  It has probably been sitting in the box for so long, that the firmware it came with is more than likely way out of date.  If you still have the issues after the device is fully up to date, then try a factory reset.

               

              You mention the device is an unlocked Galaxy S8.  Under Settings, About Phone.  What model number is it?  Under Software Information in the About Phone menu, What Service Provider Software Ver. does it list?