yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] hutchinj:
Prime Time: How I Fixed My Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi and GPS

I don't know if anyone have tried this, but it can't hurt to try.

Our latest Prime is a 64 gig gray model from the newest back with a "C" serial number. It has a great camera and more well-behaved HDMI but it couldn't see a single satellite outdoors under open sky. It was MIA. WiFi reception was weak and the signal dropped considerably as we moved 15 feet from the router and throughput dropped from 25Mbps down (our rated fiber connection speed), to just 4Mbps when 20 feet away (only one partial wall made of wood and sheetrock in between). Rats. I'd checked out Anandtech's Transformer Prime Teardown and noticed that the tablet uses pogo pin connectors. They're like tiny pogo sticks that spring up to make contact with copper tape on the main board. They're used in places with little available space (like skinny Prime tablets) and make opening the casing easier (no wires to rip out).

What if these didn't full extend and make contact when the back plate was affixed via compression tabs and a little glue? There'd be signal loss. A-hah! I contributed tthe following "fix" in an XDA-Developers thread and others found it worked for them, so we've made a video to help you visualize it.

So I pressed along the top edge black bezel (when held in landscape mode) to see if I could get better contact on the two pogo pins for the diversity WiFi antenna and the closer to center one for the GPS. Don't press like you're trying to see if the Gorilla Glass can be cracked! But do press with enough force to see a little temporary light bleed from the display. Use care: I warned you so don't blame me if you hurt your Prime (not trying to scare you, but we have to cover our butts). The result? The tablet gained 15 db of WiFi signal and had normal throughput that matched some of our other tablets and phones. It's still not the strongest signal among mobile devices, but it's now within normal range. I took the tablet outdoors and the tablet saw 12 satellites with 8 in use in 30 seconds according to an app called GPS Test. That doesn't mean the tablet is great in a moving car, but if you've got a seemingly DOA GPS, this fix just might bring it to life.

Note, that you should judge WiFi not by bars but with an app that's more precise like WiFi Analyzer (free). It will show you your signal in db and also let you know if your access point is on the same channel as others nearby. And you can use the Speedtest.net app to check your upload and download speeds.

Here's a video that tells you much the same stuff for those who hate to read, and I also show you where to press and how to press. If your Prime has seriously bad WiFi and no GPS whatsoever, it's worth a try.

The information was from MobileTechReview.com
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] bimbobo:
I did test with WiFi Analyzer and Speedtest.. but I did not try your "workaround", why?

Because it still opens the questions: "what then"?

I know it takes time to find solutions that work, but what then??

FW solves the issue? (I doubt it) but if yes 1-0 for ASUS

FW does not solve it, what are they going to do with the customer?

The previous post was not ment to be polemical, it's just a matter of "customer service/ tech support".

I like the Prime, and I do not wish to send it back yet.

Have the "senior guys" in the forum here a guess about what options they have and can offer us? :)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] bgm307:
I've had my prime almost 3 weeks and have one more week in my return window. I had already decided that barring Asus coming up with any sort of fix it was going back. It's a great tablet. Absolutely none of the problems others are having with the exception of terrible wifi and poor GPS. I have a 30 MBs dsl and can get those speeds everywhere in my house with my laptop. The prime would give me nearly max speed within 15 feet of my AP and then the speeds dropped quickly as I moved away. In my bedroom 30 feet from the AP all I could get was <1 MBs to about 3 or 4 max. After reading about this pinch thing, I tried it. I got 11-15 MBs in the bedroom. High 20's in places I was only getting 9 or 10 before. I actually got 21 in my bedroom on a couple of tests. For me flexing seems to work better than pinching, thumbs on the upper front, fingers spread on the back, not much pressure. After a couple of hours the tablet returns to it's sub par performance. A bit of flexing brings it back. The speeds are all over the place too. When they are low there is wide range and when they are high there is a lot of variation too. I must have run speed test 1000 times in the last 3 weeks and I'm getting really tired of doing it.

GPS has also improved significantly too. After the firmware fix I could get a lock outside eventually with 6 or 7 satellites. 2 days ago after the pinch I got the first gps lock I've ever had at a window in my house with 12 satellites.

Could all this mess really just be a mechanical problem?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] kevinkline:
Gary,

Any chance you can get me a back from the TF101?

Would it fit the 201?

If the back is part of the problem...
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Quarkboy:
*sigh*

My brief Transformer Prime Story - (and believe me, it will be brief)

Purchased my prime from a local B&M bestbuy on 1/20.

I put the prime through it's paces, and had zero wifi issues.

The Prime would consistently beat both my sandybridge i7 and my Galaxy SII in speedtests. Comparing Wifi Analyzer results on the GSII (epic touch) vs the TFP, the TFP consistently got better signal strength, and this was about 40ft from my router through 3 interior walls.

The problem presented itself last night when I attempted to watch Netflix on the prime and stream audio to my BT speaker. Obviously at that point I experienced the diminished wifi speeds and netflix stopped streaming.

So I started transferring a 100mb .mp4 file from my GSII to the TFP, and doing some testing. Running speedtest on the GSII showed no drop in speed, it was still pulling 10kbps down while transferring the files, the TFP however could only pull down a meager 356kb. This was very very repeatable.

In Wifi Analyzer however, signal strength still showed to be stronger on my TFP than the GSII even though wifi speeds were practically non existent.

Today I went to bestbuy and exchanged it for another BC serial version. We tested it in the store with the salesperson and it displayed the exact same behavior. So, rather than waiting for a possible fix I ended up returning the TFP.

It's a shame because this tablet was perfect for me in every way other than this issue. I had no lag issues, no restarts after ICS, practically zero screen bleed and no issues with wifi by itself.

If Asus puts out a real fix for this issue, I will be first in line to buy another one. Until that time I will eye the TF701 and who knows what else will come!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] GuillermoJones:
Well Im back...exchanged my TFP on Thursday, and just had a chance to do some testing. Same WIFI/BT issues as the last one I just exchanged. I am so frustrated and annoyed by all of this...obviously this product was rushed to the market, most likely just to cash in on the 'first quad processor' $$$. I would be surprised if this issue isn't actually an issue every single TFP has...I think most just haven't used the thing in a situation where the problems occur.

So now I have 11 more days to return this thing, so hopefully Gary's fix comes before then. And hopefully it is a firmware fix, and not 'send in for service' fix, because after hearing all of the horror stories I sure as hell will not send my TFP away to Texas facility for any repairs.

And my TFP is one of the newer run too, with a SN of C1OKA...which also sucks and shows me that the issue is still not resolved. Crazy. Im gonna go out on a limb and would bet that Woot.com will have these cheap, as refurbs, once ASUS actually figures out how to fix this thing and gets on it.

Anyways, Ill end my frustrated rant.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] bjfrank:
well...everything has been great with my prime up to yesterday when I got my bluetooth speaker in the mail. I eagerly paired it with my prime and started playing music. As soon as I started playing music, my wireless connection became almost completely useless. This was a big disapointment and a waste of money buying this bt speaker. I hope this gets fixed and hopefully a software fix. Got my prime at the end of decemeber and has a serial BCOKA. This has got to be an issue with every prime sold. Definitely doesn't look like it is isolated to a certain batch looking at the serial number range this is affecting. Most people just haven't tried a bluetooth device yet to notice the issue.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whitepc:
I have the same S/N as yours with gps near non existing. Weak wifi and dropping out bluetooth as well. I found this out when i was linking my htc evo thru bluetooth for gps (search google for this concept). Just to make point of the cover, my evo gets 11 sats wo wifi on inside an aluminum pot held upsidown with phone shoved to the bottom of pot. Guess the evo has superman gps.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] mbo1951:
I sorely wanted this squeeze remedy to work, but in my case there was no improvement, unfortunately. Appreciate your posting the suggestion, though. I'm waiting hopefully for the ASUS fixes and hoping they will work.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] surroundedbytrees:
Returned my Prime on Thusday. Will wait and see how this plays out. One thing I just thought of is although many people are saying they don't use gps or bt that the issues aren't a concern keep in mind they may be important to the next owner. I sold my mint tf101 after 7 months of use at a good price because it was a fully functional unit. Is a tf201 with a poor wifi,bt,gps,hdmi, microsd etc etc going to be worth much come August ?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] dingdonggggg:
Asus Zen Book has same wifi/bt issue

Apparently the Zen Book has the same issues with wifi/bt.

I was googling on Asus and BT and then I came across this YouTube item.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHmne_xbLqo

I'm curious if the hardware is related end if and how the problem was solved.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] maycokidd:
Washed out colors

Is anyone else having problems with their prime displaying washed out colors? This problems seems to be a widespread issue on many units. Is Asus aware of this problem?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] frazipe:
WiFi/BT known issue for a while

I know this is from 2002 (link below) but it sounds like the exact problem we are having. This has to have been fixed by now by either BT/WiFi standards changes or hardware work around by manufacturers. So the question is, why are Asus products having the problem now almost 10 years later?

And this is my first post here so Hello Everyone.

Apparently I can't post links since I am a noob so below is a quick excerpt from the paper from HP.

Wi-Fi™ and Bluetooth™ - Interference Issues January 2002

Introduction

Because both Wi-Fi™ and Bluetooth™ wireless technology share spectrum and will often be located in close physical proximity to one another, there is concern for how they may interfere with one another. Both are inherently resistant to other wireless devices by virtue of their use of spread spectrum techniques.

Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fail gracefully in the presence of interference. By this is meant that the communication protocols are very robust and include mechanisms for error checking and correcting, as well as requesting that corrupted packets be resent. Therefore the result of increasing levels of interference is almost always confined to a slowing of the data rate as more packets need to be resent. Only in extreme conditions, such as setting a Bluetoothenabled cell phone down next to an operating microwave oven, is it likely that communications will cease altogether.

There is quite a bit more and it is a pretty interesting read so if you want to read it just Google WiFi Bluetooth Interference and you'll find it.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] cyanide01:
Are these issues right out of the box? Our after the update to ICS?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] caanda45:
My poor wi-fi signal has been right out of the box on Honeycomb and ICS....
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] bjfrank:
I am more concerned about enjoying my prime than what it is going to sell for in a few months. I bought it to use and not thinking about the next best thing. When I bought it, the specs shown gps. I was not looking for gps since I have one in every car, a handheld, and a smartphone so that feature doesn't concern me. Prob will never turn it on. BT is a different story. I use that so it is an issue. I really dont care about what the next person will use the prime for if I end up selling it. I am only concerned that it will do what I want it to do. So far it is doing a great job. Just need to get this pesky BT issue fixed. :)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] cyanide01:
Man reading all these issues in this forum and others as well makes me hesitant of buying one for my birthday..... :-(

Love all the specs on this tablet.... :-(
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] jsjames:
My WIFI drop out seem to be getting worse. All of a sudden I will just loose my connection and have to toggle the wifi switch to get connected again. Pretty annoying to go along with all my random reboots. Hope the fix comes before my Amazon return window.

BTW - I have a 64GB on the latest OTA firmware.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Yamatime:
This thread is about the gps/wifi issues. I'msure if you search the forums you will find ome thing on that.

Sent from my Transformer Prime on Tapatalk -- BAM that just happened!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] aznmode:
Thanks for pointing this out. Here's a link I found on the web. Interesting stuff and it seems to be what is going on with the Prime. The part it seems is that this is a hardware problem so I don't know how Asus is going to handle it.

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1379911
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] aznmode:
It seems apple ipad suffered the same faith reported by some user here. This was reported a year ago and I'm searching to see if they've fixed it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2424650?start=0&tstart=0

Interestingly though I tested my Acer a100 and it does not have this issue so they're doing something right. Maybe Asus can see what Acer is doing on their tablets.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] aznmode:
This might be a temp fix for some who has access to their router. Can someone try and post result. I rent so I don't have access to our facility router.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2730693?start=15&tstart=0
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] dizzy33:
Everyone owning a prime keeps dreaming about a simple solution to solve the wifi problem ... But there is absolutly no way to fix it unless we replace the back cover.

2 days ago I was in a computer shop where many tablets were exposed, all connected to the shop wifi router (including the tegra 2 asus transformer). Well, when I say "all", in fact except one : the prime ... The seller told me "I don't know why I could never let it connect to the router" ... I watched the Wifi icon and it was only showing one bar where all other tablets were showing three bars.

That's it.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] SexyAndIKnowIt:
I've tested it. no improvement =(
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Evo4sickness:
Ok everyone check it Last night I decided to run a test comparing my speeds with Evo streaming with Bt.

With my Prime for the first time I saw such a drop look at only the numners from the 29

Than here are the numbers from my Evo only 2mbps up compared to the Prime.

So I think what is going on no one really has ever done speed tests with Bt streaming. I was very surprised to see that my phone that doesnt have a Aluminum back also had low numbers this would than prove the article you posted. Now I also Iam not getting any drops what so ever not even once at all.

When I stream through bt and watch youtube vids is the only time that you have to wait for the buffer a bit so it can play without stopping. Any other time streaming music and browsing no problems. Lets see what Gary and the Twain team come up with.

I think a solution for this on a Manufactures side is to put some type of shield on both Bt atena and Wifi so they wont interfere with each other.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Ride525:
Someone at Asus told me something different. That there is a firmware update coming out in "early February" that will hopefully fix WiFi.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Evo4sickness:
Ok who is this is someone we have herd the I know a person who knows a guy whos Aunts Uncles Grandmother knows a person statement lol. Gary has stated that he is in Twain right not working on the problems with Engineering team and will have a software update that will fix the problems in early Feburary its in his Sig.

So please enlighten all of us with your info.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Ride525:
He is the Technical Product Manager at Asus, and the person that Gary Key referred me to. He tested my Prime and a second Prime. Both are at my house right now for me to check WiFi on. (I live in the same city as Asus US headquarters.)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Evo4sickness:
Ok great than I take back my Sarcasm. So whar do your tests conclude and did Asus than already give you the firmware.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] LTLFTCer:
Well, I hope this firmware works out then. I am thinking of sending mine back to Office Depot online before I am out of the return window.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Ride525:
Actually my Prime has been tested twice at Asus for WiFi problems, the second time at a special test area. No problems found either time.

What did my tests find?

1. That channel 6 was a MUCH better channel than channel 1 on my router.

2. That the place (35 feet away) I was using the Prime in my family room, was somewhat of a "dead spot" for WiFi in my home. It's behind the refrigerator and an long kitchen counter with cabinets top and bottom.

3. Using WiFi Analyzer, at about 30 foot distance, screen side towards router gets around 10 dBm lower reading (lower is better) than when back is towards router.

4. Moved router just two feet, for more direct look at router, still through walls, and that helped. Moved it a second time out of under stairs, and four feet closer and four feet higher, and Prime is much happier, and getting full download speed using speedtest.

5. That being said, the Prime's WiFi, is a bit weaker than other tablets. Even at my "dead spot" in the family room, other tablets (HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy 10.1) got better, and often full download speeds before I moved router. (The Prime was often in the 10% to 50% of the other tablets until I moved the router.)

I don't know that a beta version of the firmware is available yet. I offered to test it for him when available, but not sure Asus will release it to me, even to test, before released to general public.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] dingdonggggg:
All devices (ATP, IPad 2, HTC Sensation) suffer from Wifi/BT issues

I decided to do some more testing and compare the performance of my ATP, my HTC Sensation and my wifes IPad 2.

I tested three different configurations for each of the devices:

1. bluetooth of

2. bluetooth on and streaming music located on the device

3. bluetooth on and streaming music from the net with spotify

I tested Wifi performance using speedtest.net.

Test 1 showed no difference in Wifi performance.

All devices throughput of around 7 Mbps

The results of Test 2 and 3 showed that all devices have Wifi/BT issues.

All devices showed significant deterioration of Wifi throughput.

Performance of the HTC Sensation was the least bad.

The IPad 2 was second bad.

The ATP performed the worst.

But all devices performed less than 30% of standard Wifi throughput

Test 3 showed the worst throughput probably because the music stream interfered with the test by Speedtest.net

(if people want to see some test results let me know. I have to do some work now but I will try to free up some time tomorrow)

For me it is clear that it is not just an Asus problem. It is per definition a Wifi/BT problem.

And all manufacturers suffer from it.

I do wish Asus will do their best to enhance the current Wifi performance (if possible)

Wondering why this issue has just come to the attention with the release of the ATP.

I think Asus has, by creating a super slick super tablet, drawn the attention of the creme de la creme, the tweakers and all the nerds on this globe. We had to have this monster.And we are not like the average Apple user who wants to turn on his device and is satisfied if it works and with what Apple wants the user to do with it. Asus has drawn the attention of a rare breed.

And this breed will explore and find all the little secrets and tweak-possiblities.

And faults.

As I said. I hope Asus will do their utmost best to minimize the Wifi/BT issue.

For the future ........

I am looking forward to the moment when the bootloader is released by Asus.

Then the creme de la creme, the tweakers and the nerds can get cracking.

I think we have a great device with great possibilities.

And it looks great :-D
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] droidsrus:
hey everyone, im a bit confused and just need some clarity from anyone who is willing to help me out. before reading any of this i felt like my prime was perfect. now after reading this thread i felt like my prime is having the same issues as everyone else thinkin my prime is supposed to be pulling more mbps than i was actually getting during the tests. so i decided to run the speedtest on all my wireless devices(phone/laptop) and come to find out, they are all pulling the same mbps at the same distances (two rooms away from the router) always ranging from 15-19 mbps. when i go even farther all my devices lose the same amout of signal. so im guessing my prime doesnt have wifi issues? BUT while im transferring through bluetooth. wifi mbps drops down big time! both do work, but just not together. now what im confused about is, is the bad wifi signal people are reporting about are only when bt is enabled or when bt isnt enabled too.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] gbh62:
Some people are having issues using only WiFi, without bt running. Sounds like your WiFi is fine and your only issue is the one described in the first post of the thread. WiFi plus bt.

Same for me. WiFi speed and range are fine when WiFi is on alone. But when I turn on bt at he same time, WiFi speed literally drops to 0, and actually disconnects.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] gh0st665:
I agree, at this point ASUS shelling out TF700 is premature. However, unless they step up with some major fixes (like a re-fitted non-metallic backplate for the TF201) instead of the slap-dash work arounds that have been given; that may be the next logical step. My TF201 is currently in for RMA. Hopefully, the one I get back will work better.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] droidsrus:
Cool. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I can live with not having wifi and bt working together at the same ttime..I can't tthink about any time I actually use both at the same.time. its either one or the other. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't need both in the long run. Hopefully there is a fix sooner or later.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Ride525:
Edited my findings a few posts above

Added one point to my findings, I forgot.

3. Using WiFi Analyzer, at about 30 foot distance, screen side towards router gets 5-10 dBm lower reading (lower is better) than when back is towards router.