Note 3 poor wifi, extra bar signal?

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Mickey Padge

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2012
60
15
I have recently purchased a Note 3 (SM-N9005), currently running it rooted with the Polish NB3, unfortunately knox triggered, but never had a faulty phone before, so I hope that continues! :D

One thing that has been bugging me in an otherwise great phone, is the wifi signal, quite weak to say the least, my Sony Xperia Z is roughly 2 bars stronger in the same place, in fact, so is my Q10 and various mobiles I have collected over time (Xiaomi Mi2s, Pantech 840s), annoying to say the least, tried all the tweaks and settings mentioned here and elsewhere and while they may help some, for me the signal is still very poor.......

Was watching an excellent tear down video here:


When he mentioned making sure the little contacts for the antennas were sufficiently bent upwards to make a good contact, very interesting! :)

So I carefully popped off the back after taking out all the twelve little screws, and proceeded to gently bend upwards the two connectors for GPS and wifi, I also ever so slightly roughed the silver connector with a fine needle, all done in theory to aid signal.....

As for the results, well, with the same ROM, and no router reboot etc.... the wifi that used to hover at one signal pip, maybe two, now moves between two and three, it even went full bar briefly, which it had never done before from the spot I used! And there are a few more SSID's in the list too :cool:

I am now as you would expect, very happy, the wifi still isn't fantastic, but it's a damn sight better now!! :good:

Please don't try this and then blame me if you mess up your phone, I take no responsibility if you do, posted this just because I was quite surprised with the results!
 
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Reactions: xeeshan, nakedtime and ratcom
M

Mickey Padge

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2012
60
15
No one the least interested, thought with all the threads about the poor wifi this find may have been of interest? Unless I'm late to the show and this is already been done and dusted :p
 
N

nakedtime

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2013
118
26
no one is interested because its a high risk low reward scenario.
Happy you had good results, but most people dont want to risk destroying their beloved note for a potential (minute) signal increase.
 
M

Mickey Padge

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2012
60
15
nakedtime said:
no one is interested because its a high risk low reward scenario.
Happy you had good results, but most people dont want to risk destroying their beloved note for a potential (minute) signal increase.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Wouldn't say minute, having SSID's that weren't there before and one to two bars better signal is the exact opposite of that! ;)

As for how difficult it is, unscrewing 12 screws and lifting off the back cover is a piece of cake, in fact you don't even need to remove it, just lift one corner away, watch the first few mins of the video, it's petty simple....

My phone didn't have the warranty sticker over one of the screws either, and the phone was brand new and sealed from the provider, weird :p
 
M

Mickey Padge

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2012
60
15
Yeah the 3G and 4G signal seems strong, just poor wifi when compared to multiple phones in the same spot, at least that was the case :)

I guess I trust my hands more than most, bad flashes are more of a concern for me than a few dozen screws lol
 
xeeshan

xeeshan

Member
Aug 24, 2004
40
5
Karachi
Thanks

I gave my phone for repairs once and the wifi reception has been below par since. Had tried what you have posted before but was not quite sure if I had the wifi pin right. Also I had only tinkered with the raised connector on the board and hadn't roughed up the connector on the back panel like you did.

Well your post gave me some courage and with the help of the video that you linked I tried it. Unfortunately, I broke the connector and that obviously made my problem much worse!

But then out of desperation I thought I would get some common copper wire to try and connect the board with the antenna and it actually worked :) Looks extremely ugly but my note 3 now connects to wifi routers even better than my note 1. I am attaching screenshots of the two phones with the wifi analyzer app. There is also a picture of the copper wire mesh that i put below the wifi antenna connector on the panel before I put it all back together.

Definitely do not recommend that anybody try what I did. It was an extremely foolish thing to do for someone as clumsy as me.

Thanks still OP. My Note 3 is in top form again thanks to you :)
 
nadaall

nadaall

Member
Mar 11, 2013
48
3
I had slight water damage to my old Note 3. Since then my GSM signal has been really poor. I replaced the USB flex cable, as the phone wasn't charging as well - replacing it obviously did the job, but GSM signal issue remained.
Cleaned the GSM connectors and lifted the pins - that didn't help. When using o2 SIM inside the building it connects to o2 network straight away (signal not very good btw). When using other (Virgin in this case) SIM it doesn't connect at all and displays "Emergency calls only" message.
I think it might be the MoBo fault now, isn't it?
 
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    M
    Mickey Padge
    I have recently purchased a Note 3 (SM-N9005), currently running it rooted with the Polish NB3, unfortunately knox triggered, but never had a faulty phone before, so I hope that continues! :D

    One thing that has been bugging me in an otherwise great phone, is the wifi signal, quite weak to say the least, my Sony Xperia Z is roughly 2 bars stronger in the same place, in fact, so is my Q10 and various mobiles I have collected over time (Xiaomi Mi2s, Pantech 840s), annoying to say the least, tried all the tweaks and settings mentioned here and elsewhere and while they may help some, for me the signal is still very poor.......

    Was watching an excellent tear down video here:


    When he mentioned making sure the little contacts for the antennas were sufficiently bent upwards to make a good contact, very interesting! :)

    So I carefully popped off the back after taking out all the twelve little screws, and proceeded to gently bend upwards the two connectors for GPS and wifi, I also ever so slightly roughed the silver connector with a fine needle, all done in theory to aid signal.....

    As for the results, well, with the same ROM, and no router reboot etc.... the wifi that used to hover at one signal pip, maybe two, now moves between two and three, it even went full bar briefly, which it had never done before from the spot I used! And there are a few more SSID's in the list too :cool:

    I am now as you would expect, very happy, the wifi still isn't fantastic, but it's a damn sight better now!! :good:

    Please don't try this and then blame me if you mess up your phone, I take no responsibility if you do, posted this just because I was quite surprised with the results!
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    ratcom
    ratcom
    to the OP , very useful thread :D dont be put off because theres been little responce, like the guy said few would dare to unscrew there beloved Note but still useful to know.
    View

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