This is something that has been bothering me on these boards. The definition of firmware is applied 3 ways and nobody references which way they are using the term.
Firmware seems to mean any or all of these 3 when in most cases it is firmware=bootloader/modem
1. To all of the software as a whole
2. To just the bootloader
3. To just the os, rom, distro of android
Now I have seen you here quite often and know your not a noob when it comes to this but...
- You upgraded to the nc2 bootloader you would have used odin to do this.
- you then odin the nc4 bootloader to fix an issue with ss (does not make much sense as you needed to wait for a new version of SS for this to be fixed...work around being reboot the phone then click recovery in the 10 second boot window)
- you switched modems nothing fixed it
- you then did a nand restore which would have only restored the /system, /data, /cache partitions not the /boot odin would be required to change that
It seems to me that your other phone had a bad bootloader flash.
i thought my bullet points were actually over the top for information needed but i guess if you didnt actually go through them yourself they are not as clear.
i was on MJE on both original and replacement and followed this with both devices:
If you're on Rooted JB MJE/MJ7:
Code:[B] 1.[/B] Install [URL="http://goo.im/devs/Hashcode/note3/hltevzw/safestrap//Safestrap-HLTEVZW-3.71.apk"]Safestrap v3.71 JB[/URL] (follow [URL="http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2517610"]Safestrap instructions[/URL]) [B] 2.[/B] Boot into Safestrap & select Stock Slot [B] 3.[/B] Wipe data/system/cache/dalvik [B] 4.[/B] Flash the latest [COLOR="Magenta"][B]JasmineROM[/B][/COLOR] release [B] 5.[/B] Reboot to Download mode from Safestrap [B] 6.[/B] Extract the updated [URL="http://xdaforums.com/devdb/project/dl/?id=6366"]firmware[/URL] & flash via Odin3 [B] 7.[/B] Reboot to system (be patient, the first boot may take a long time!) [B] 8.[/B] Upgrade to [URL="http://goo.im/devs/Hashcode/note3/hltevzw/safestrap//Safestrap-HLTE-3.72-kk-B01.apk"]Safestrap v3.72 KK[/URL] (follow [URL="http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2517610"]Safestrap instructions[/URL]) [B] 9.[/B] Reboot to Safestrap & select Stock Slot [B]10.[/B] Flash [URL="http://xdaforums.com/devdb/project/dl/?id=6405"]TogglesEnable[/URL] to enable all toggles (don't wipe anything) [B]11.[/B] Reboot to system (it'll be a normal boot) [B]12.[/B] Follow post-installation instructions in [URL="http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=52860445&postcount=2"]Post #2[/URL] [B]***[/B] [B][COLOR="SeaGreen"]Enjoy![/COLOR][/B]
When my original had signal problem i even did THIS to True Factory Reset and followed above again and still had poor reception.
my replacement arrived and again did the exact same thing as above as i had done with my previously PERFECT reception original model however this time the replacement has ZERO issues on NC4 firmware upgrade and in fact is performing better with some data speeds for web surfing.
i did not feel that my original had any issues until KK for the record