Jump to content

New OTA (LG4) update to start today for Galaxy S3 (possibly other ICS phones)


Recommended Posts

http://support.sprint.com/support/article/Find_and_update_the_software_version_on_your_Samsung_Galaxy_S_III_smartphone/case-fk158645-20120629-165043?&INTNAV=SU:DP:HDIA

 

In that link it says that it has "Optimized LTE system selection" among other things. Hopefully it won't have anything negative in it like the last one that killed universal search or degraded 3G/WiFi connections...

 

Hopefully this might be our fix on LTE 4G/3G overriding issues.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah first thing I did was went to XDA to see if Blazer was updated yet. Of course I noticed since they split up the GSIII forums it looks like less people are in the forums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Normally XDA gets their hands on updates a few days before the release..Wonder why it wasn't leaked for early adoption.

 

From what I can tell, the XDA community is clueless about this. The update had been announced for about 12 hours with not even a mention there. I just started a thread there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope the OTA will be passed onto other LTE phones soon, I just called Sprint yesterday (For a third time) and they keep telling me the houston market is expirencing outages all over. I get LTE at my house off Binz and 288, spotty at best but atleast i know its working.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the HTC EVO 4G LTE and LG Viper getting a similar update? So far only the Galaxy Nexus and SGS3 have received OTA updates to have more optimized LTE connections.

 

I really hope Sprint puts the appropriate changes into the Motorola Photon Q before release so that it has the optimal LTE connection algorithms so it doesn't need a follow on update.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You need to be stock, or restore to stock, to apply updates like this.

 

To take the OTA, yes you do have to be stock with stock recovery. You can be rooted but you will lose root after flashing the OTA. The better way to do this is to wait for the developers to upload a update.zip file that you can flash via custom recovery like CWM that will keep your root, or that you can easily just flash the root back right after you flash the update.zip file.

 

This guy right here on xda-developers is in the process of uploading the entire update that can be flashed via CWM. It isn't done yet though. If you are stock rooted, you want to get the odexed version not the deodexed version.

 

http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1743923

 

As for what the update contains, no one has posted whether it is good or bad yet. There are so few cities with LTE it might be a while before we know how good the new modem/baseband firmware is or if it makes it worse like LG2 did for some. I am planning to flash that guy's update as soon as it is uploaded and I will test. I can always revert the baseband/modem to another version as there is a post on xda-developers with all the flashes for those too (LEN, LF9, and LG2), but keeps the other updates and reverts just the baseband/modem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I can tell, the XDA community is clueless about this. The update had been announced for about 12 hours with not even a mention there. I just started a thread there.

I mentioned it on there yesterday in the flash radios thread
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mentioned it on there yesterday in the flash radios thread

 

After I posted that comment I did find an earlier thread in the Dev subforum, which is not my usual venue to browse. The General subforums have been in disarray for a couple of days because they are trying to reorganize them by carrier as they should have done all along. (Actually the XDA mods started the GS3 subforums separated several weeks ago, then mashed everything together into a big mess and now are trying to sort everything back to separate.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I understand I cannot flash Radio update unless I have S-off right?

 

SO what do I do then?

 

With EVO LTE, YES, unless already on stock everything(rom, recovery) the S3 already have a downloadable update zip . EVO LTE hasnt had an update since the 1.22 one

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I understand I cannot flash Radio update unless I have S-off right?

 

SO what do I do then?

 

Keep in mind this particular thread is gs3 related so don't get any ideas trying to flash a radio from a different device. To answer your question though, you can flash a radio without having to be s-off, a dev would just have to make it flashable through a custom recovery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny part about calling Sprint or any provider now is they act like the Internet and forums don't exist. Like a person in the Atlanta market and Dallas market don't talk with each other in places like this site. Like we don't compare issues with handsets and service. I love how they say there is a outage in the area and within 15min or in some cases while on the phone with them still confirm with hundreds on people on sites like this that they are full of crap.

Know your customers please. Wish Mr. Hesse would call me and spend 20 min on the phone with me listening to my critique. Then again I would probably drop the call if I was at my job cause I haven't had service in that area in 8 years lol..

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you're GS3 is rooted then you simply need to flash the stock recovery via Odin...download the LG8 update and copy it to the internal storage or sd card...go into the stock recovery and flash it from there. You will lose root.

 

BTW...I can confirm the update does a MUCH better job of switching between 3G and LTE. No need to go into airplane mode...if there is a LTE signal around it will lock on.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is also a modem only zip you can install without Odin. Not sure about switching since no lte here but it did improve my 3G signal

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I installed the stock update instead of the one I posted. That link is in the S3 Android Development forum also. Since I am stock but rooted, I can flash it via CWM recovery then immediately flash the TeamEpic "Root from Recovery" zip file before rebooting and I retain root. If you have uninstalled or freeze apps in Titanium Backup then it might not work because it does check to make sure you are stock before installing. I will again caveat that this is for the Galaxy S3 only, do not flash anything to other LTE phones till you get a specific update for your type of phone.

 

As for signal coverage. I now retain 4G in my office more than I have ever before. I used to have to have the phone pretty close to the window of my office but now I get it just having the phone laying on my desk. It says I have full bars but I am not sure the phone is actually reading the bars from the LTE connection or from my Voice connection. The reason I say that is when running speed tests I get the same speeds as I did before in my office. So it seems as if the update did something to the signal bars that might make it more inaccurate on what you are really getting signal strength wise. For instance the device info area tells me I am getting -75 to -81 signal level with 4G, but if I was getting that I would be pulling 20-25 Mbps down and I am only pulling 4-5 Mbps. So I am guessing that the signal levels in device info is from the CDMA signal for voice.

 

Overall I think it was good update, I am just not sure we can accurately look at our bars or signal levels on our phone anymore and correlate that to LTE signal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As for signal coverage. I now retain 4G in my office more than I have ever before. I used to have to have the phone pretty close to the window of my office but now I get it just having the phone laying on my desk. It says I have full bars but I am not sure the phone is actually reading the bars from the LTE connection or from my Voice connection. The reason I say that is when running speed tests I get the same speeds as I did before in my office. So it seems as if the update did something to the signal bars that might make it more inaccurate on what you are really getting signal strength wise. For instance the device info area tells me I am getting -75 to -81 signal level with 4G, but if I was getting that I would be pulling 20-25 Mbps down and I am only pulling 4-5 Mbps. So I am guessing that the signal levels in device info is from the CDMA signal for voice.

 

Do you recall for sure how the Settings -> About screen reported dBm before the update?

 

If you are right about the update changing that screen to read CDMA voice strength instead of LTE strength, then this phone may have no way to show a dBm reading for LTE. Unless some third-party developer writes as app to pull it from the Android API, which is not standardized or well documented for this purpose.

 

Just to be sure, maybe somebody else with a GS3 in an LTE market could do some before-and-after tests of this particular screen when applying the update.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • large.unreadcontent.png.6ef00db54e758d06

  • gallery_1_23_9202.png

  • Posts

    • Since this is kind of the general chat thread, I have to share this humorous story (at least it is to me): Since around February/March of this year, my S22U has been an absolute pain to charge. USB-C cables would immediately fall out and it progressively got worse and worse until it often took me a number of minutes to get the angle of the cable juuuussst right to get charging to occur at all (not exaggerating). The connection was so weak that even walking heavily could cause the cable to disconnect. I tried cleaning out the port with a stable, a paperclip, etc. Some dust/lint/dirt came out but the connection didn't improve one bit. Needless to say, this was a MONSTER headache and had me hating this phone. I just didn't have the finances right now for a replacement.  Which brings us to the night before last. I am angry as hell because I had spent five minutes trying to get this phone to charge and failed. I am looking in the port and I notice it doesn't look right. The walls look rough and, using a staple, the back and walls feel REALLY rough and very hard. I get some lint/dust out with the staple and it improves charging in the sense I can get it to charge but it doesn't remove any of the hard stuff. It's late and it's charging, so that's enough for now. I decide it's time to see if that hard stuff is part of the connector or not. More aggressive methods are needed! I work in a biochem lab and we have a lot of different sizes of disposable needles available. So, yesterday morning, while in the lab I grab a few different sizes of needles between 26AWG and 31 AWG. When I got home, I got to work and start probing the connector with the 26 AWG and 31 AWG needle. The stuff feels extremely hard, almost like it was part of the connector, but a bit does break off. Under examination of the bit, it's almost sandy with dust/lint embedded in it. It's not part of the connector but instead some sort of rock-hard crap! That's when I remember that I had done some rock hounding at the end of last year and in January. This involved lots of digging in very sandy/dusty soils; soils which bare more than a passing resemblance to the crap in the connector. We have our answer, this debris is basically compacted/cemented rock dust. Over time, moisture in the area combined with the compression from inserting the USB-C connector had turned it into cement. I start going nuts chiseling away at it with the 26 AWG needle. After about 5-10 minutes of constant chiseling and scraping with the 26AWG and 31AWG needles, I see the first signs of metal at the back of the connector. So it is metal around the outsides! Another 5 minutes of work and I have scraped away pretty much all of the crap in the connector. A few finishing passes with the 31AWG needle, a blast of compressed air, and it is time to see if this helped any. I plug my regular USB-C cable and holy crap it clicks into place; it hasn't done that since February! I pick up the phone and the cable has actually latched! The connector works pretty much like it did over a year ago, it's almost like having a brand new phone!
    • That's odd, they are usually almost lock step with TMO. I forgot to mention this also includes the September Security Update.
    • 417.55 MB September security update just downloaded here for S24+ unlocked   Edit:  after Sept security update install, checked and found a 13MB GP System update as well.  Still showing August 1st there however. 
    • T-Mobile is selling the rest of the 3.45GHz spectrum to Columbia Capital.  
    • Still nothing for my AT&T and Visible phones.
  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...