Cannot connect to Airave after updating Galaxy S3 PRL

[dschultznet]

Not sure if this is good place to post... Does anyone have a suggestion.. Here is what happened: I received a replacement Airave. The previous Airave 2.5 died. Yesterday I turned it on and after 2 hours only bottom two LEDs are green. Called Airave support this morning. Spoke with Natalie for about 2 hours... First she took the MAC address reset things.. rebooted and she had me update the PRL... Phone does not connect to Airave after dialing *99. Tried my son's S3.. WORKS every time... have updates, re-boots, and taking the battery out, placing the phone and battery on top of the Airave for 2 minutes (I can't believe they had me do this!)... still nothing.. Son's S3 no problem, it work with Airave 100% of the time. Then decided to update PRL on son's S3... Now this phone no longer works with the Airave. Natalie stated she is sending me to Tier 2 support. Now spoke with Josh for another 2 hours... come to find out he is just another co-worker and their is no tier 2 support! He has me do the same things for the next 2 hours and wants me to factory reset my phone. I'd rather not. I then got my wife's S3 phone, it works fine on the Airave 100% of the time.. I will not update the PRL. I asked how to roll back the PRL to a working one and told I cannot and I must Wipe out the two phones.. I have proven then Airave is fine and the phones only stop working when the PRL is updated ... I asked for this to be escalated he say's it can't. I ask for his manager and he gives me his supervisor. He says he will send a software update to the Airave to fix a GPS problem. I told him the GPS light is fine and my wife's phone with the old PRL is fine with it. After a few minutes he gave me back to Josh and he stated the update went through (airave did not blink once though). Still nothing. He wants to wipe the phones when I demonstrated the PRL caused the problem and there is no one above him that can do anything. I told him I am not ready to wipe my phone and invest many more hours getting all the apps and settings back. ps I also left a twitter note on s4gru

[dschultznet]

Sorry.. I posted this under Smartphone, Misc. Looks like this forum maybe more appropriate. Does anyone have a suggestion.. Here is what happened: I received a replacement Airave. The previous Airave 2.5 died. Yesterday I turned on the new 2.5 and after 2 hours only bottom two LEDs are green. Called Airave support this morning. Spoke with Natalie for about 2 hours... First she took the MAC address & reset things.. rebooted and she had me update the PRL on my phone (Galaxy S3)... Phone does not connect to Airave after dialing *99. Tried my son's S3.. WORKS every time... Back to my phone.. she has me update, several re-boots, remove the battery, placing the phone and battery on top of the Airave for 2 minutes (I can't believe they had me do this!)... still nothing.. Son's S3 no problem, it work with Airave 100% of the time. Then decided to update PRL on son's S3... Now son's S3 no longer works with the Airave. Natalie stated she is sending me to Tier 2 support. Now spoke with Josh for another 2 hours... come to find out he is just another co-worker and their is no tier 2 support! He has me do the same things for the next 2 hours and wants me to factory reset my phone. I'd rather not. I then got my wife's S3 phone (3rd phone), it works fine on the Airave 100% of the time.. I will not update the PRL. I asked how to roll back the PRL to a working one and was told I cannot and I must Wipe out the two phones.. I have proven the Airave is fine and the phones only stop working when the PRL is updated ... I asked for this to be escalated he say's it can't. I ask for his manager and he gives me his supervisor. He says he will send a software update to the Airave to fix a GPS problem. I told him the GPS light is fine and my wife's phone with the old PRL is fine with it. After a few minutes he gave me back to Josh and he stated the update went through (airave did not blink once though). Still nothing. He wants to wipe the phones when I demonstrated the PRL caused the problem and there is no one above him that can do anything. I told him I am not ready to wipe my phone and invest many more hours getting all the apps and settings back. Any thoughts?

 

[digiblur]

You are probably connecting to a 800smr site now. It is normal for your phone to want to connect to it over the airave.

 

Download this app and see what it says under the 1x. See if it says 800 1x.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blueline.signalchecklite

[dschultznet]

Yes, it does say 1X 800. My calls keep dropping in my house and the Airave fixed the problem. When I am down stairs I miss calls all the time and drop them as well. Is there a work around for this?

[CharlieAmerk]

I have noticed my AirRave connection quality go to crap recently, and then received an email from Sprint stating that they were no longer going to support it as of August 1st.  That might be the issue.

[digiblur]

Yes, it does say 1X 800. My calls keep dropping in my house and the Airave fixed the problem. When I am down stairs I miss calls all the time and drop them as well. Is there a work around for this?

 

Do you have a 2.5 airave? I don't remember if you stated that. If not, that version might help.

 

If you live far enough from any site then there might not be a fix. You can write your own PRL but that does take a bit of work.

 

I have noticed my AirRave connection quality go to crap recently, and then received an email from Sprint stating that they were no longer going to support it as of August 1st. That might be the issue.

 

That's only the original one and you will need a replacement to the new one.

[dschultznet]

I received the Airave 2.5 yesterday. I ran the SignalCheck Lite on my wife's S3 (old PRL) and it shows 1xRTT with a VERY strong signal from the Airave! I am back to short battery life and dropped/missed calls with this PRL! Do you think Sprint will eventually do something or I am out of luck?

[digiblur]

I received the Airave 2.5 yesterday. I ran the SignalCheck Lite on my wife's S3 (old PRL) and it shows 1xRTT with a VERY strong signal from the Airave! I am back to short battery life and dropped/missed calls with this PRL! Do you think Sprint will eventually do something or I am out of luck?

 

They haven't shown they are going to do anything different when I ran into this a year ago but the 2.5 Airave did fix the issue since it has a 800SMR beacon that is supposed to kick it over to the PCS band. 

 

You can keep calling but I suspect you'll just run into a brick wall like I have with Sprint tech support again today. 

[dschultznet]

This is interesting... When I go to Settings, About Device, Status - the PRL version (25015) is the same on both phones (wife an mine)... Does this value change when you receive a PRL update? Updating the PRL on my S3 and my son's S3 is what made the first two S3 to no longer work with the Airave, but my wife's S3 continues to work.

[digiblur]

This is interesting... When I go to Settings, About Device, Status - the PRL version (25015) is the same on both phones (wife an mine)... Does this value change when you receive a PRL update? Updating the PRL on my S3 and my son's S3 is what made the first two S3 to no longer work with the Airave, but my wife's S3 continues to work.

 

Yes, it always changes.

[dschultznet]

That is weird... If PRL version changes I wonder why her phone and mine are at the same PRL version, yet, after the "PRL update" my phone and my son's stopped working with the Airave and hers continues to work? all 3 phones are the Galaxy S3

[digiblur]

That is weird... If PRL version changes I wonder why her phone and mine are at the same PRL version, yet, after the "PRL update" my phone and my son's stopped working with the Airave and hers continues to work? all 3 phones are the Galaxy S3

 

Are any other software versions different?

 

Any roaming mode differences? Any cdma lte mode differences?

[dschultznet]

Under Wireless and networks, Mobile networks - Roaming - and under About Device all the same... version, kernel, hw version, build, everything...

[chamb]

This is interesting... When I go to Settings, About Device, Status - the PRL version (25015) is the same on both phones (wife an mine)... Does this value change when you receive a PRL update? Updating the PRL on my S3 and my son's S3 is what made the first two S3 to no longer work with the Airave, but my wife's S3 continues to work.

If a Galaxy 3 on PRL 25015 ever looses its connection to the 1900 network, it will scan and find the 800 network.  So far, your one phone has not seen the need to scan because it has not lost 1900 the signal. Get ready, it eventually will.  What is your receive level on the phones when you look at Signal check and see the 1x 800 network???

[digiblur]

If a Galaxy 3 on PRL 25015 ever looses its connection to the 1900 network, it will scan and find the 800 network.  So far, your one phone has not seen the need to scan because it has not lost 1900 the signal. Get ready, it eventually will.  What is your receive level on the phones when you look at Signal check and see the 1x 800 network???

 

Not again!  Those pesky loose signals!  The PRL update is probably forcing a rescan causing the baseband to step down through the PRL and the 25xxx PRLs scan for 800SMR first.

[chamb]

Not again!  Those pesky loose signals!  The PRL update is probably forcing a rescan causing the baseband to step down through the PRL and the 25xxx PRLs scan for 800SMR first.

 If a Galaxy S3 ever drops off the 800 network, it may find 1900.  If it does, it will stay on the 1900 network until something forces a scan and then it will go back to 800 if it is available.  If that one S3 ever makes a scan, it may find 800 and have the same trouble as the other two.

[dschultznet]

When I call for support they tell me the only thing left is for them to wipe my phones! I said no thanks, it is clear that would only add insult to injury. They will not do anything else about it! They actually claim there is no one else to escalate to, yet they seem to know very little about what they are doing.

[digiblur]

When I call for support they tell me the only thing left is for them to wipe my phones! I said no thanks, it is clear that would only add insult to injury. They will not do anything else about it! They actually claim there is no one else to escalate to, yet they seem to know very little about what they are doing.

 

That's when you act like you are doing it.  Wiping a phone isn't going to fix this issue though.  Nothing really will until another site near you fires up 800SMR.  Sprint's tech support doesn't really know what a PRL is anyways, and some Sprint CSRs will tell you that Samsung controls the PRL.

[Rukin1]

Gah, I had the same problems. I just unplugged it.

[dschultznet]

That's when you act like you are doing it.  Wiping a phone isn't going to fix this issue though.  Nothing really will until another site near you fires up 800SMR.  Sprint's tech support doesn't really know what a PRL is anyways, and some Sprint CSRs will tell you that Samsung controls the PRL.

 

How will another site that starts up the 800SMR help? I am not too savvy with this stuff.

[digiblur]

Gah, I had the same problems. I just unplugged it.

 

How is that going to fix it? His phones already aren't using it.

[digiblur]

 

 

That's when you act like you are doing it. Wiping a phone isn't going to fix this issue though. Nothing really will until another site near you fires up 800SMR. Sprint's tech support doesn't really know what a PRL is anyways, and some Sprint CSRs will tell you that Samsung controls the PRL.

 

 

How will another site that starts up the 800SMR help? I am not too savvy with this stuff.

One that is closer to you that would provide 800smr coverage inside your home.

[Rukin1]

How is that going to fix it? His phones already aren't using it.

I know. Mine went from perfectly working to shit within 4 months. I just waited it out and when I left, I enjoyed it

[chamb]

How will another site that starts up the 800SMR help? I am not too savvy with this stuff.

dshultznet,

Another site with 800 may improve your issue significantly because then your 800 signal may be strong enough to work well. I earlier asked a question that you did not answer.  On the two phones that show 1x 800 using signal check, what is the receive level (the RSSI) on the Signal Check screen?  Also, what is the Ec/lo on the same screen and the SID.

[chgoguy80]

How will another site that starts up the 800SMR help? I am not too savvy with this stuff.

But adding onto chamb's response you will not be using the airrave since it only knows 1900. Unless you have a really inconsistent network like the northside of Chicago. Then just go for a mile or 2 drive and like magic the S3 will lose 800 and phone will attach to 1900 and will work again on your airrave.

 

Hopefully you'll get good 800 coverage from an upgraded tower. If you don't it will be like here in my condo, one day I'm on the airrave next I'm on 800, next day I'm on airrave, just depends on which band my phone lost last when driving around the city.

 

Bottom line the airraves only send 1900 band so if the phone has found 800 it won't pay attention to the airrave unless it gives up on the 800 signal and looks at the next band. Our phones have so much fancy circuitry you would think it be simple enough at least in standby mode to occasionally if phone has poor signal (say 800mhz) check the signal on the other band (1900mhz) but I guess didn't think it would be a useful feature.  If any of really knowledgeable folks know why the phones don't this I'd like to know, maybe not technically easy to do??

 

It would at least solve these kinds of airrave/stronger/weaker signal/band issues etc.