yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] snigade:
Finally it worked !!!!!!!!!! How ??

1. Did not put any paper or rubber in side the phone.... Tried doing that earlier but could not get success.

2. Removed the covering over NC Microphone sensor ( Part A in toxicdust Picture) completely, Put it back ensuring that mic is completely inside the rubber casing. then pressed it firmly in housing.

3. On the lower side of phone there is another mic, it has same rubber covering like Part A, I removed the cover completely and put mic back in cover ensuring it is completely inside cover and pressed it in housing firmly.

4. Put back everything back ..... and the Magic worked....

Now no more echo, low voice on other side problem... the sound is crystal clear and loud on both the sides.

Conclusion what i feel - The main problem is with the rubber covering over both the mics ....

Thanks to Toxicdust and Vista for there guidance to make it possible.
[Galaxy S II General] Kpyto:
vitsa, full instruction in first post, with images :)

:) просто в точности следуй инструкциям, разбери, укрепи динамик, вставь кусочек визитки поверх, собери обратно плотно - и эхо исчезнет.
[Galaxy S II General] SnijbooN1982:
Thank you very much !
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
LOL ... thanks for the hi-jack btw :)
[Galaxy S II General] Seadog33:
While the lte (i727r) isn't exactly the same, adding the piece of paper over the speaker seems to have cured the echo

Great work
[Galaxy S II General] jr866gooner:
So did you prise away the microphones from the board itself?! I would be worried to break them! Lol

sent from t'internet
[Galaxy S II General] snigade:
The rubber over microphone default does not cover it completely. what you need to do exactly is as follows.

1. Lift up the microphone with rubber covering on it from housing, This you can do with the help of tweezers.

2. Check the lower part of rubber covering where microphone is inserted inside the rubber. Now you have 2 options.

a. Either you remove the mic completely, it does not damage the microphone if handled carefully and try put it back fresh inside rubber cover. (Which i followed)

b. You can try push microphone more inside rubber cover.

At both the steps (a and b) you need to ensure that gold portion over microphone is completely inside rubber cover.

3. Now press the rubber cover firmly inside the housing as it was situated originally.

This step is important as it should not leave any gap between housing and rubber cover.

Follow the same steps for lower microphone as well. This isolates both the microphones from the internal speaker sound.

In my case lower microphone was placed little out of rubber cover when looked carefully.
[Galaxy S II General] Kpyto:
vitsa, try to use normal font size.
[Galaxy S II General] vitsa:
It is my own right what font to use.
[Galaxy S II General] EQUANT:
Just a quick question: do ALL new phones come with this flaw? I got mine replaced 3 times, 3 completely new phones, and all of them did the same thing.

My girlfriend bought a SGSII from another operator and her's also does the same thing.

On the other hand, i have tested several (a bit older, from 1month old to few months old) identical phones and none of them did the echo.

I mean .. WTF!?
[Galaxy S II General] slimsim222:
Yea this scares me too since I'm most likely going to go with the S2. Some input from someone would be great
[Galaxy S II General] manmad:
i have it, but my friend doesnt have it and we bought it at the same time in the same shop :(

But it is easily fixed by using the method described in this topic
[Galaxy S II General] _sem_:
Hi all,

I made something like this successfully about a month before this thread started:

> I've opened the phone and inserted two thin layers of white medical tape over the ear speaker (much less tape than in that hebrew sample). The echo gone completely, with and without case.

I didn't check the mikes.

Meanwhile I almost forgot about the issue. But then I spoke to one friend and he complained over this echo. Turned of noise cancelling during call and echo gone... Repeated once more like this with the same friend... dunno???
[Galaxy S II General] rickeh82:
i have come across this problem many times before and i have found that it comes from the mic of the phone.

at the bottom of the phone there is a tiny hole where the mic is located, inside the phone down by that hole you will find the mic that is covered with a grey rubber (i guess the rubber is used to help muffle things) i had found that sometimes or maybe most times that the rubber is out of place or pinched and it causes the clarity of voice to drop real low, and in some cases causes an echo on both caller and receivers end of the call.

if you experience echos or low quality voice calls, you might want to have a look in that area :)

i hope it helps :) enjoy.
[Galaxy S II General] keremonder:
Putting a paper worked for me. I didnt use the rubber method. Thanks for the great post. That helped me a lot.
[Galaxy S II General] _sem_:
It happened again with another friend. It seems this is related to wideband or HQ or whatever audio calls - when it occurs, the reception at my end is better than usual. Has somebody noticed something like this?

Perhaps I'll have to check the mikes or go to service...
[Galaxy S II General] hyte1:
Hi Toxic dust,

Just wanted to say thanks, my wifes 1 weeks old Galaxy s2 suffered from the echo problem when using a case. Your guide has fixed the problem without me having to send it back.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

Chris.
[Galaxy S II General] bennyzhou:
I found a new material seemed better than paper card.

It's Polyethylene. I used a 6mm thick piece.

I'm using a TPU case. It completely covers all edges of S2.

It can be pressed and adapted to the place where people here are suggesting to put on the earpiece.

My test base is one iphone 4 with TPU case. Since I have 2 SIM cards of Vodafone, I can make unlimited free calls between them.

I first connected ip4 and s2, then put the S2 in one bedroom and took ip4 to anther bedroom. I used ip4 to talk to s2 to test the echo.

without case, without mod, I got 0% echo

with case, without mod, I got 100% echo

with paper card I got 10-20% echo

with Polyethylene I got no echo at all

Only issue is that now I have to aim the front earpiece holes to my ear to ear the other party. Before that the voice came out from all over the top part of the phone so that I didn't have to care about aim.
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
I'm a bit concerned though because that foam melts with little heat and the phone under excessive use gets hot enough to melt that Polyethylene. Just keep an eye out for it though.

The other option is that the 1st time you placed the card the rubbers might not have seated perfectly as to now with a little more pressure it does.

I personally recommend something that's not prone to change or misform or even melt when applying heat to it.
[Galaxy S II General] c9arq:
Incorrect assembly of main microphone

First of all my thanks go to toxicdust for its courage in opening a brand new SGS2 and share with us its findings and fix.

In the process of getting my new SGS2 cured from same problem, I discovered evidences that incorrect assembly of main microphone might explain why this problem is affecting randomly some handsets.

Main microphone sensor uses grey rubber chamber that I believe have two purposes: create and convey sounds from cover mic hole to the sensor and isolate and prevent other sounds or noise from parts of the phone to reach it.

I opened my brand new SGS2 (9 days only) following the guide lines from toxicdust. Found that grey rubber mic chamber was squeezed inside its case definitely affecting the purpose of it. From the picture you will clearly see the marks of this incorrect fit. On my case, I managed to partially restore the shape of the chamber with a fine sand paper and prevent it to be squeezed again in the process of closing down the handset. I conclude that if you close your handset first from mic, USB edge, more easily you control the positioning of mic rubber chamber. When all is fit ok, you should not see the grey rubber from mic hole..... I would recommend you inspect upper part of handset and see if black rubber chamber of noise canceling mic does not show any deformation due to incorrect assembling.

That’s it. It worked for me and I am now a happy user of a SG2S phone that was making me mad for days.
[Galaxy S II General] asim.boss:
I fixed mine thanks for this awesome tip!
[Galaxy S II General] lordrage:
Thank you so much. My phone is 4 days old, and the provider told me its the sim card.... yeah.... so I did this and my phone is now working. With the cover on it has a slight echo, but much better than it was, and with no cover its perfect. so I will go without the cover :)

Im gonna email samsung and enlighten them to this thread, cos its a cool phone but bad manufacturing quality....

Thanks guys!!!!
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
I'm just glad someone found it useful.
[Galaxy S II General] mybadongt:
Thanks to u for initiating and pinpointing the problem. I just wish that next time you have more pics and labels to be easier to follow for us who does not have deep technical experience. Thanks also for others who refined the solution. I will try to fix my SGS2 at last an final solution.
[Galaxy S II General] axebite:
galaxy s2 case echo Q

Hello quick question about the fix to the echo my phone as the echo problem but only when I use a case. .

If the rubber is not seated fitted correct thus causing an echo. then why does the s2 work ok when the cover case not on? Suerly. if that was causing the problem it would have an echo with or without the case. this leads me to think that people that only get the echo with there case on as a diff problem?

Cheers
[Galaxy S II General] cwl999:
I've had the S2 for about a month now and have never been a heavy voice caller. Nobody told me that there was an echo until yesterday.

I dialled into my S2 and the echo was exactly like the S2 was repeating myself 1 second later. Googling came across this thread. I'm using one of those cheap S line cases, you know the one with the 2 tone back. Case on = echo, case off = very minor echo.

Being hardware savvy, I decided to take the plunge and investigate further.

Upon splaying the S2 apart, I could clearly see that the rubber housing isolating the mic by the earpiece was not mounted properly (visible indentations).

I took the honours of removing and re-mounting both mic housings, making sure that the both mics were now squarely seated and press towards the mic holes (the top mic housing is quite difficult, so you may want to just wiggle it slightly to ensure that the mic in wholly in the housing).

I then snapped the bottom half back together (upper section first) making sure that pressure was put equally on both sides of the phone (as in the actual left and right sides).

I put the SIM and battery back and dialled into the S2. Without case = no echo, with case = no echo

SUCCESS!!!

Pulled the case off again and proceeded to return the screws back to their homes. Once everything was put back, I tested again and still no echo with or without case.

Job done.

Hopefully the echo is gone for good.
[Galaxy S II General] Jrhoop:
Im going to be having a go at this this afternoon! :cool:
[Galaxy S II General] Jrhoop:
Heres my result:

Echo with no case for callers from day 1. (now day 15)

Removed battery, sim card and micro sd, unscrewed the seven screws and using finger nail unclipped cover to components.

Started with the microphones as suggested. Popped each out of their rubber case, clipped ends of rubber blocks to seat them better. Tricky slotting them back into the rubber seals but got them back in with tweezers etc.

Put everything back together and upon testing (using Samsung Galaxy Ace) calling my SGSII thought it was fixed but slowly back came the echo. Tested using Iphone 4s and also the same. Tested using Nokia c7 and no echo, which was wierd.

Anyway, i went with stage two so opened the SGSII up again and applied the small card on top of the loudspeaker. Tested and very occasionally you can hear a tiny little rumble of feedback but overall its the best that it can be.

Thanks to xda members for the information and advice given in this thread.
[Galaxy S II General] badbearben:
Just did what you said on the first post and great work finding the problem works fantastic because i only go my phone back from tech after a sim problem then this was happing which it did not have this problem of echoing before when i pulled it apart i found that the bottom mike was not in the rubber as well, so fixed 2 problems in the one THANKS FOR ALL YOU HARD WORK ON FINDING THE PROBLEM.................:):):):):):):):)
[Galaxy S II General] elbrujo69:
Good! I'll probe this afternoon

Thx
[Galaxy S II General] RoyvandenBerg:
Works

I registered here just to thank you. This worked for me.
[Galaxy S II General] seagerfreak:
didn't work. i tried several times. am i missing something?
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
Maybe... Did you remove the top speaker as indicated and cleaned out the housing. There could be some residual dirt in there that's causing the speaker to not seat well. Also the NC mic at the top close to the speaker's rubber housing should be seated properly.

If none of the above worked then I would actually love to get your phone to see what your problem is. You could PM me and I will give you my Skype if needed and you could send me some pics of your internals and could check if there is something done wrong ect ect :)
[Galaxy S II General] barryyam:
i have unscrewed all the 7 screw, cannot open the back cover. can you give me more details how to do it?
[Galaxy S II General] SirRafy:
chek here

http://xdaforums.com/show...3&postcount=62
[Galaxy S II General] barryyam:
link is dead, any others?
[Galaxy S II General] ctomgee:
I think he was trying to link to post #62 of this thread, but didn't do it right.
[Galaxy S II General] barryyam:
the picture doesnt show detail how to open it. i been trying for the past 3 days, still no go. i am afriad using too much presure will chips the edge.
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
That's exactly how i felt the 1st time opening it :P

You wont chip the edges. I used my nails to open it and applied a lot of force to the point where it feels your nail will rip off and then all of a sudden POP and its open on one edge. Then all you have to do it pop it only one side and then it comes off easy.

The 1st time getting it off is the hardest. After that it becomes easier. Besides that look again at my 1st post and just follow the 1-6.
[Galaxy S II General] barryyam:
which area to open first?
[Galaxy S II General] Jon_67:
Echo issue

I found putting a piece of card under the back of the top earpiece speaker didn't work as card conducts sound. I cut a piece of white foam wrapping,folded it double and it worked perfectly as foam does not conduct sound throught it to the back case. The white wrapping foam is the type you find most electrical items wrapped in and is widely used.

It is obvious the fault on my phone was due to the earpiece speaker pressing on the hard plastic back case and transmitting the sound through the case to the mic at the bottom causing an echo.

My S2 is now fine at max speaker volume with either a gel case or genuine Samsung mesh one. Both caused a considerable echo previously which is now totally gone.
[Galaxy S II General] jgel:
The role of the cover

Hi!

Thank you for your time.

I have the echo problem only when I use a cover and the volume is set at or near the maximum.

Without a cover and/or at mid volume, I do not have any echo problem.

Did you test your modified Galaxy S2 at maximum volume (and low background noise) with a cover?

Thank you very much.

Jacques
[Galaxy S II General] _sem_:
A medium-thick guitar pick is a good tool. Thinner bank-or-such cards work too; perhaps use a knife to make the edge thinner. Proceed gently. Mind not mess around the volume and power side buttons.

Best to get the sgs2 service manual and follow the instructions. It shows the exact positions of the clips. AFAIK with the display facing down start at top-left corner and proceed in the anti-clockwise direction. Reassembly order is different (top-left-right-down).

I agree a suitable foam should act better as sound insulator.

I find it odd that such sound transmission occurs and that it gets amplified by external cases, but it obviously does. I found nothing odd below the speaker (but I did scratch the speaker while pulling it out - carefully!). The thin circular sticker (number 17 on top) is the only thing Samsung puts there, mine had visible pressure marks made by the back of the case. Maybe the main cause in my case was the squished rubber on the bottom mic which should reduce the transmission from the case to the mic.

The problem comes in different magnitudes. My phone was originally next to unusable, full echo with case, some echo without (max volume). My friend's was affected but not as much, a bit of echo with case.

Btw I think there are other possible causes of echo (firmware, network...?) because I still get the echo problem now and then, although there is no more echo most of the time and the folks that hear themselves echoing generally don't have such problems. Toggling noise cancellation during the call usually helped when the problem occurred; once it would not but the echo disappeared after I hung up and called again.
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
Nice reply sem

Some of the echo could be from the network BUT then it will be in both directions. The relay that you pass through with the call sitting in between would be the problem but like I said then both of you would experience the echo.
[Galaxy S II General] starfarer:
Thank guys. Finally done. Dying to do this for loooong time but 4 of the screws were "slipped".

First thing I noticed was that top rubber housing was not seated properly on mic. In fact it fell off on opening! And what a PITA to put that thing on. Took me a while to figure that out after removing the one from the bottom. And I've also gone with the foam.

Done few tests myself on other phone and definitely it's improved by miles. No sign of echo so far. Always been disappointed by voice call sounds on gs2 and hopefully this has been sorted now. I'll know if in 2days time, I don't have to repeat myself :-).

One other improvement: before mod, during dialling tone or while in call, I could feel the vibration on back cover. Not any more. Not even the slightest one.

A happy reader here!
[Galaxy S II General] ultratwist:
works!

Thank you so much!

I left my speaker like it is because it seemed to be hard to remove and I was afraid to break something. So I just left a piece of thick paper on it and this absolutely did the trick!

Sound is better than ever, all echoes are completely gone, even with my casemate-pop!

You made my day!

:D
[Galaxy S II General] vitsa:
Please someone test video recording, seems after applying this upgrade :-) to my phone, something went wrong with microphone sound during recording the video, if the sound little but more loudly than usual, there become some interrupted
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
Not having that problem at all. I dunno what that would relate to but once everything is correctly seated you should not have any problems like that.

That might be related to Firmware
[Galaxy S II General] 00007:
First I want to thank you for this nice topic.

My S2 causes an echo (at the other side) only by using a silicon case - I have tried to widen both microphone holes without any success.

That´s the reason why I wanted to try your solution.

After removing the screws I tried to unclip the back and front cover but it was so difficult to do that I stopped because I did not want to destroy anything.

I used a plastic card without success, I also carefully tried a small screwdriver.

Normally I am good in repairing - I am a technician - but this step is not really clear to me (I never opened a smartphone for doing a repair before).

Could you please be so kind and give me a detailed instruction how to to unclip my back and front cover from one another withoput breaking anything?

Thank you in advance.
[Galaxy S II General] _sem_:
These are clips like many others in such devices. I guess they could break if mishandled, and a screwdriver could definitely leave marks. An old credit card worked for me, a medium guitar pick too. Must be thin enough to get it into the gap and thick enough not to bend when you twist it slightly to release the clips. Try to sharpen the edge of the card if you can't get it in the gap, or find something a bit thinner. Guitar pics are available in many thicknesses.

Start at the corner and then push it deeper towards the clip position marked in the service manual (which can be googled up on the net), then twist carefully.
[Galaxy S II General] pastnova:
bad news :(

i tries all of these http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=21795243&postcount=62 in this link ; but it didnt work for me.I have still echo problem.I think i will go to the samsung service :(
[Galaxy S II General] 007law:
Thanks for the great post.!! :D:D
[Galaxy S II General] blastcomms:
Has anyone tried replacing the front module (LCD, digitizer, etc)? And how about the USB port (which includes mic, etc)?

Just wondering if an actual replacement part can fix it.
[Galaxy S II General] ctomgee:
The problem is that the ear speaker ends up pressing against the back panel of the phone, transmitting sound back to the lower mic. Cases can exacerbate this by pressing the back panel closer to the speaker, causing the echo on a phone where it might either not exist without a case, or be there to a lesser degree.

So replacing a part will not help, unless when you reassemble the phone, you either create enough separation between the ear speaker and the back panel, or put an insulating material, like the thick card stock, or thin foam.
[Galaxy S II General] toxicdust:
I did another phone that had this problem. I didn't use a card as i did previously because I wanted to test another theory I had.

I used a rubber band. Seeing as they would absorb the vibration and mold itself with high pressure to the exact shape it needs to be as well as absorb shock if the phone should fall.

It worked so well that i replaced the card in mine with some rubber band as well. Only when I was finished I realised I didnt take screenshots of the process or make a video witch I am really sorry about.

I also used the rubber to isolate the bottom mic as it didn't have a rubber housing like the NC sensor has so that's also blocked off now from the rest of the phone and all my called since has been so crisp and clear people think I yet again got a new phone.

Now with or without a cover my phone don't echo.

You could swap out the Card with a rubber band cut up into the right size and should be even better than the card.

For those that haven't had success with the card try this and let us know. I am confident in the solution as it worked on 2 phones now perfectly.
[Galaxy S II General] adrian81:
Hi, I have read this thread having the same problem with the echo using a case. I had this problem even when i bought recently and use the 2000 MHa battery and used the back cover that came with the battery even i didnt had a case on. I have resolved the problem in this case using a black tape on the back of the 2000 Mha back cover and the echo went away. But still there when i put a silicon case on it.

What i have register for is that to say to u that i have updated the official ICS through Kies a few days ago and with it the noise reduction function dissapeared from the menu during a call and so the echo problem having a case on.

I think this information is very important for those that have this problem and dont want to make this surgery on their phone
[Galaxy S II General] Jon_67:
Replacing the smashed front screen on mine actually caused the problem. It was perfectly fine until the screen was replaced. A small piece of thin packing foam behind the back of the earpiece speaker sorted it perfectly isolating it from touching the rear case.