yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Vibrant General] regP:
I Thought that was the wifi contact and the cell antenna was on the bottom of the phone.

In any case.. I'll prolly give this a shot since the GPS fix worked so well for me. Instead of trying to bend it up though I think Ill follow the lead of some people in the GPS thread and place a small piece of rubberband under the contact. Dont wana have to solder due to breaking the contract a second time lol.
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
You might be right. I wasn't 100 percent sure it was the antenna. But In any case it definitely improved my signal quality on two seperate phones.

Please let me know if this works for you!:-)
[Vibrant General] Mattymat:
I'm interested in hearing if anyone else tries it. This sounds very promising!

Sent from my mobile
[Vibrant General] ferhanmm:
sorry to go off topic, but is this real? - http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn210/imitebewrong/storm.jpg
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Haha yeah that's real. I took that picture I think in 08. That storm produced a tornado that killed a few boyscouts near Omaha nebraska. I was driving to visit a friend in Omaha and I got hit with 80 mph winds while in my car! It was nuts.
[Vibrant General] darksandz93:
I can confirm this, when i did the hardware fix i noticed 2 of the same tabs at the bottom and the one on the left that the OP is talking about so i decided to bend ALL of them up and voila getting pretty good signal ever since
[Vibrant General] OmniNut:
haha *sigh* I guess I'll give it a go! Taking the phone apart is a real B*!@# though. I'll report back when it's done
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Thanks for sharing, I'll post the option of bending the other tabs in the OP. Doesn't hurt to try.
[Vibrant General] darksandz93:
yea sounds good but don't forget to mention in big giant bold letters to take EXTREME caution so as not to snap any of the connections off, don't want anyone coming back here to ***** at everyone because they made a stupid mistake.
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Haha, good point. OP updated.
[Vibrant General] iynfynity:
man i want to try this because i don't have 3g at my place when i'm holding the phone on the bottom. I'm just scared, really scared.
[Vibrant General] OmniNut:
Alright I just tried the hardware fix and I can report that it has not improved my 3g connection dramatically. I'm not sure if I'm under placebo effect but I think it is helping a tiny bit with keeping the connection strong; could be wrong. Report back after some more testing.
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
I just want to clarify this fix did not improve my actual speed, but made my connection more reliable and steady. before I could barely browse, now i can very consistently go from page to page with no hanging or having to reload many times. :)
[Vibrant General] mrfred24:
yupp...so the unthinkable:mad: ,while having a very heated discussion with girlfriend on instant messenger via computer ,i broke the little copper contact ,,,,

if your as dumb as me (argueing with girlfriend:p )while bending the little tabs, all hope is not lost i stripped some copper wire out of a phone cord and looped it through the little hole where the copper is attached to the phone twisted it together tight snapped the phone together and did some intense browsing ,seems to be working great
[Vibrant General] Frostbyrne:
Unless you're using wifi this shouldnt do anything. The tab you are bending is used for wifi only. The tab that is used for cellular is on the bottom.
[Vibrant General] trekker123:
I tried this, and now my phone is out of commission. Might be a coincidence since I have been doing some modem changes but any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated. I posted in the Vibrant Q&A forum:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=949089
[Vibrant General] Frostbyrne:
If everything is in place inside the phone and its just the screen you can get it into odin (Plug in USB and hold volume buttons while booting.) and then flash back to stock and warranty the thing. You dont even need to see the screen to do it, your computer should tell you if the phone is connected.

My instructions suck, try these

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=848737
[Vibrant General] Flak_Munky:
I did this too sometime last month and saw an improvement. I decided to take it a step farther like the a couple guys did in the GPS thread did. All 4 of the contacts now have a small drop of solder on them, filed down to the right height, and I am seeing improvements across the board (nothing dramatic, but more of consistency). I need to file 1 down just a hair more though.
[Vibrant General] nuke777:
first of all I want to thank you for addressing this serous issue. some people may not realize that their reception is drastically worst then on other Vibrants because they never saw other vibrants but I can confirm. I played around with four different Vibrants and 2 of them had significantly worst signals then the other 2, even though all four had identical everything. I opened my vibrant so many time and tried bending that white antenna but nothing happened. now this fix looks very promissing but I have hard time following your instructions. what meta tab are u talking about?? would you be so kind and circle in red the component u r talking about on one of the pictures that all ready exist.

again thanks a lot ;)

EDIT: oops I did not notice the pic because I was so exited :) . one quastion though, I thought that white wire was antenna??
[Vibrant General] lbridges:
Nice photo.

For those interested...there are many similar style shots by Mike Hollingshead at his web site www.extremeinstability.com.

A photo taken from what might be near the same spot is on the cover of a book he published jointly with Eric Nguyen (deceased): Adventures in Tornado Alley: The Storm Chasers

Sorry for the O/T jaunt.
[Vibrant General] d0rkster:
For those that claim this works, why do you guys think adjusting the height of the wifi tab improves the connection for 3G reception?
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
I can't really tell you, but using two phones it has improved my 3G's reception quality by leaps and bounds. The difference isn't just a placebo effect, at least for me and my fiance. from the moment I put both phones back together they immediately responded to browsing, Pandora radio, XDA app, etc, where as before it would just hang and I'd have to wait minutes at a time to get the download arrow to light up.

Maybe improving the WiFi contact somehow has attracted more of the 3G frequency to the phone, kinda of acting as a crutch to the cellular atenna. I know its a long shot, but something happened here when I bent that antenna and improved the contact.

Also, others that have tried this bent and improved the contacts on their cellular antenna as well, that could be the reason why their particular device is getting an improvement.

I was only sharing this to give those with intermittent 3G data to improve theirs as well since I had such good success with it. I know it's strange, and if you don't have any issues with your 3G signal quality than there is no purpose in trying this.
[Vibrant General] Mannymal:
HAhahahaha... I T313C0mun1s7 has to read this...
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Haha I know it's silly, but i cant explain why it's working! :p
[Vibrant General] regP:
I wonder if all these hardware issues were addressed in the Vibrant 4g..
[Vibrant General] Mannymal:
The only hardware issue is the GPS. My Vibrant and all the ones I've tried have great voice and data reception.
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
Same here. With the KA7 Modem my 3G connection is stronger in the house than the EDGE connection on my old Blackberry...this shocked me, because if anything gets awesome reception, it's a Blackberry.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
I did finally open mine up and perform the fix. I adjusted all of the contacts because why not if you are there anyhow and I tucked a very small amount of foam under them for good measure.

As for why adjusting the Wi-Fi antenna fixed the GPS issue? It probably didn't. Rather, the opening and re-seating of the back plastic itself might have been enough to improve the contact without needing any real bending up of the contact. Unlike the other contacts the GSM antenna has 3 points of failure instead of 1 because of the two cable ends. Minor movement at any of these three points may have fixed it.

Everyone already knows I think the design itself is poor and why. I mean OMG why have the cable to the bottom then a leaf spring connection when they could have just turned the bottom connection over and attached it right to the antenna itself?? I could have designed this one better in my sleep. Off the top of my head I would not have had the plastic stuck down with any of the little tabs. Instead I would have the spring contacts be male and female MHF4 SMT connectors. Then the top piece would have snapped on with the connectors themselves holding it in place. From there the screws would have been sufficient.

This would have made the connections MUCH, MUCH better while being correct for the high frequencies. At the same time it would have made the device easier to service.
[Vibrant General] Mannymal:
I decided to go for it and raised all tabs and put bits of rubber band under them. I'm still getting the same number of bars I got before. Hopefully there will be at least a little improvement even if I can't measure it.
[Vibrant General] iynfynity:
mine does have a hardware issue when it comes to 3g.
[Vibrant General] nuke777:
it is a fact that some vibrants have much ****ter reception then other vibrants. I'll try this methode as soon as I'll grow some nails, so I can open that bloody case!;)
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Just go purchase a guitar pick from a music shop. A dozen usually go for $2-$3 dollars, but a lot of music shops will sell singles for pocket change.
[Vibrant General] nanim0n:
just wanted to pointed out that the two tabs on the bottom fixed my auto rotate
[Vibrant General] Tankrat:
Did the mod and now I get gps inside and more bars inside. Map has given me a 6 meter accuracy I use to only get 10 meters.

Haven't tried out the 3g yet been one the wifi and installed the Seidio 3000mah battery and cover. Today i'll check out the 3g.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Well . . . something did when you where in there, but I really doubt it had anything to do with the antenna contacts.
[Vibrant General] nanim0n:
Then I must be tripping because thats all I did
[Vibrant General] n2ishun:
Wow dude....weak.

Yours - http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn210/imitebewrong/storm.jpg

The one you copied - http://www.extremeinstability.com/faves/slides/fb26.html
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
The description of the photo on the original says "Sun shines under long-lived supercell moving across northeast Nebraska May 28, 2004, almost following highway 12 from Niobrara down to Sioux City perfectly."

So you are off by four years and WAAAAY south. Omaha is strait south of Sioux City, which is where this storm ENDED, not where the picture was taken. The photo was taken west of there towards Niobrara. Just Sioux City to Omaha is 100 miles, turn and head towards Niobrara and you could be adding another 70 or so miles.

@nanim0n No, that is all you did intentionally. You pried that back off right? Then you snapped it back on. That is a lot of pulling twisting and prying, all of with shifts things around slightly. Who knows what else you may have done that you don't know about. Something may have been re-seated, or was stuck and broke free. The devices that detect the movement work on the principal of the surface they are printed on being slightly flexed by movement and inertia. You flexed the phone more getting that cover off than you do waving it around in the air.
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
First off im from sioux city. I honestly thought that was a picture I took of a storm in 08. I wasnt trying to take credit for anyone elses work.it was probably added on photobucket a few years ago and I just forgot which one it is. Its been a while but I filmed a storm in 08 while taking some photography classes with my slr camera. I was traveling from sioux city to omaha. They even put them in the SiouxCity journal
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
I am not stating that you didn't take them. Just that your proclamation and the summary of the photo on that site don't match. They are not even close. I am sure the EXIF tags embedded in the photograph would clear it up. Even if taken with a 35mm SLR it had to be scanned in at some point to be in digital form on a website, and the scanner would have embedded the scanned date in the image. You story is easy to prove, just attach the original jpeg and I can check the scanner model and scanned date to confirm.
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
The pictures were from almost 5 years ago. I don't even own an slr anymore or the sd with it. The pics are long lost. I have a few pics on photobucketsthat are just reminants of different things. I didn't start the thread saying hey look at this picture I took, to try and steal anyones thunder :P. It was just a mistake on my part and I apologize.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
How did this whole thing start anyhow? Is it just because you had a picture in your PhotoBucket stream that someone noticed, but was not referenced at all in your post, and then somebody else made a accusatory comment based on their own assumptions just because it was on your PhotoBucket account? I mean if that is what started this then it is rather, what is the word I am looking for? Weak maybe?
[Vibrant General] n2ishun:
perhaps the remote thought of reading the thread has slipped past you ?
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
No, it hasn't - it was sarcasm. This is a concept which is apparently too complex for your feeble mind.

First you are accusatory, in a very childish way I might add, and totally off topic. Then when your own word get's used in your direction you take a jab at me. Of course I can safely just ignore you because your value to these forums and your opinion don't seem to carry much weight. In evidence of this I submit that although we have been members of the forums for roughly the same length of time you only have been thanked for your efforts 3 times and I have been thanked 36 times. Also, I note you have no friends (as determined by your profile), where I do have friends. Finally, I rest my case on your two posts in this thread which are at about the mentality of somebody who has yet to graduate from from primary education, thus the use of the word weak.

You can attempt to lash back if you find my words to be less than factual, but I warn you that would be in poor judgment. Others have tried and failed at that here and I guarantee you would fail at being the first to manage and get away without looking like a fool for trying.

I think both Mannymal (thanked 8 times in the last two months) and KWKSLVR (thanked 76 times) can attest to both what it means to be of value in these forums and that I am not a person to mess with. Would you two agree?
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Its alright guys, lets not turn this thread into battlegrounds. I apologize for my misinformation on the photo pulled from an old photobucket account. What do you say we put it all behind us and work as friends for the mutual goal of improving our devices :)

Back to the topic...

Anyone try the fix lately?
[Vibrant General] dseldown:
Reception Mod

Not looking to get flamed here, I appreciate your effort in bringing this to all of us! But I read a sticky thread here that said these weak contact issues with the GPS and now your reception delimna were only for vibrants manufactured before October 2010 and any phones made after that date dont have these issues anymore! Reason I'm mentioning this, is because I travel on the road for a living and I have signal issues all the time as well as living out in the weeds too far from my town, and just wanted to know if what I read is true and accurate so as to not mod my phone if it isn't necessary because of so-called improvements in the manufacturing quality of these phones from 10-2010 concerning the weak contacts issues they supposedly addressed! [GPS and apparently antenna]

Just looking for confirmation! or if all vibrants still have these weak contacts still in manufacturing?
[Vibrant General] j56bp:
dumb Q: after the 7 screws......whats the best way to apart it ?:confused:

plz advice
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
You have to determine for yourself if you think attempting these fixes will be worth it for you. That being said, if you posses basic knowledge of electrical principals, and a fair amount of common sense the fix is rather easy. I used a credit card to separate the pieces, but I felt it was a bit thick and if I were to do it again I would go purchase a stiff guitar pick. I found it was easier to start by pressing strait down into the seam rather than at an angle.

This post from the GPS thread (I recently answered basically the same question for somebody else, but it is buried on page 17) should answer you question about manufacture date. http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=11224849&postcount=508 Basically it is a strong rule of thumb more than it is a hard and fast law.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Get a guitar pick (usually $2-$3 a dozen, or purchase singles from a music store for pocket change) and press it strait down into the seam. You might have to try a couple different places, but it will pop. Then either run the pick around the edge like a zipper, or just press it in like you did to start it in a few other places. Do this over a clean surface of a solid color, preferably a light color and watch closely in case your power button, volume rocker, or the little black cover for the axillary antenna fall out.

If you want more info there is volumes and volumes in the GPS thread linked in my signature.
[Vibrant General] dseldown:
Quote from T313Comun1s7 " Basically it is a strong rule of thumb more than it is a hard and fast law."

Well, Ill take your reply as an answer that they prolly didn't do anything better to address the contact issues as that actually would require an engineering change in production of said Vibrant! And seeing how my need for better signal strength/reception can be a make or break issue for me at times [In the boonies] when I'm trying to retrieve data from my travel agent [BROKER] for my next load. Ill just proceed with the mod and hope my results are as satisfactory as members here who have already done and achieved improvements in their celly's! And yes Im very proficient at electrical/electronic/sensitive types of repairs, even though I can still effect repairs with 1 inch drive impacts as well! LOL U have to be versatile in this world or it ll race over your face unless u have deep pockets! Thanks for the reply! Have a big week Bro!
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
In the GPS thread I at one point postulated that it is entirely possible rather than actually do anything to fix they issue they may have just run out of their supply of the contacts at that point in time, and the the new lot were somehow slightly better by either having an ever so slightly less radius in the bend, or are made by a different manufacturer, etc . . .

Depending on what you want to spend and how important your need for the signal is you might try making your car into your own personal femtocell with this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011GI94Q
[Vibrant General] dseldown:
WOW is all I can say! I have bent the tab up a bit increasing the contact presure for said GPS antenna, and I already have significantly quicker and stronger aquisition of the birds! This will make a tremendous impact [less stress] as Im always driving and have come to rely on the routing created by this freebee navagational aid! I also burnished/cleaned the contacts before reassembly as a further step! Anyways KUDO's to the origonal thread starter and person who had the Gray matter to try this and pass it on, this actually does work! NUFF SAID! Running on Froyo KA6 kernel:2.6.32.9
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
That would be Plato56 who first came up with the idea, tested it, and posted it. From there it splintered into several GPS threads and KWKSLVR took it upon himself to create the thread linked in my sig to combine all the information and make a thread that is the one-stop-shop for all your GPS questions. He does a very good job of keeping the OP up to date. I answer most of the technical questions and try to keep the information on track and correct to the best of my abilities, because people will always post their wrong assumptions, and somebody has to correct it and keep bad info from going viral (like conditioning your battery has done, that is a VERY bad idea).
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Yes, thank Plato56! :)

I wouldn't have started this thread had his GPS fix not worked so well for me in the first place, giving me the idea to maybe try other contacts to improve reception as well.
[Vibrant General] regP:
Used a razor to cut 3 tiny pieces of a credit card to stick under the wifi and cell contacts. Ran speedtest a couple times and I'm noticing more consistant speeds on wifi. No noticeable difference in cell signal strength or speed yet.

I wish raising the GPS contact had gone this smoothly... Would have saved me a lot of time soldering a new contact. :rolleyes:
[Vibrant General] nuke777:
how far should I bend these contacts?? at what angle should I stop? and what is the breaking point angle??
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
They break easy, and they don't need to move much. In fact you may hardly know the difference. It may be best to tuck something under them (sliver of credit card, or a piece of foam) just deep enough to see them deflect up and stay there.
[Vibrant General] nuke777:
thanks for the heads up!! I might follow ur second advise ;)
[Vibrant General] nacron:
I did this to all the contacts when I did the gps fix and I sometimes get an error when trying to activate the wifi.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
The only time I ever got errors activating WiFi it was because I did not yet know that after flashing a ROM and when restoring my Titanium backup I should not restore the system backups.
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
Wow t313comun1s7, I really appreciate all the help you are giving people on this thread! I've been really busy at work and haven't had much time to follow it!

Thank you!
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
[YOUTUBE]5XcKBmdfpWs[/YOUTUBE]
[Vibrant General] imitebewrong:
That is hilarious! ....Ohhh I love Styx
[Vibrant General] nuke777:
as I expected, this fix did absolutely nothing to improve my signal strength. my Vibrant is still inferior in the signal strength to my brothers vibrant by a good 10 dbm :(. As for gps it is fairly accurate, but I don't understand how you can tell the number of satellites it is connected to and the accuracy in fit??

ohh well, I am glad I at least tried it.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Sorry, it didn't work out for you. As I have stated in the GPS Hardware thread in my sig, it is a combo problem of hardware and software, and different things work for different people - most likely the same could apply here.

I know for the GPS hardware fix some people that initially did not see much difference finally did after resetting the GPS. I am not sure what you would reset in this case however.

At least you got to grow your fingernails out. :p
[Vibrant General] Tankrat:
You can get the info about the satillites buy getting GPS Test from the market.

For me it has provided better download and connection rate and increased my gsp reception from all below 40 to most above 40 & accurate to 15' in 16 sec hotstart in gps test.
[Vibrant General] nuke777:
dont realy care about the GPS as long as it shows me my location with in at least 50 mitters :D but looking at my poor -111 dbm signal while in the same location another vibrant shows me -95 dbm is a bit upsetting to put it mildly.
[Vibrant General] Christ1119:
I know how you feel, my Vibrant is the same.