Hacking/tweaking 3G settings and the radio driver

[froggy503]

This was the build.prop or radiocomm? On Verizon?

I still don't see how the first hack, which is pure GSM, can impact CDMA 3G speeds, although I guess people here says it does.

Yes, Verizon. The speed increases followed the radiocomm hack. Didn't notice any increases from the first hack.

 

[473x15]

This isn't on topic, but sure. Search the settings for Haptic Feedback.

im sorry is out of topic but i just dont wanna start another combo for just a simple question and tks i did what u told me and all i see is for the vibrate soft keys and the screen sound but there is nothing to disable the vibration when you open your device and i mean the screen lock.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

 

[barbaroja]

As for the weak GSM signals, these hacks did not help. Still getting one bar where other cell phones get full 4 GSM bars with the same SIM card. Is there any other way to fix the GSM levels and maybe include the usage for USSD codes? That would be great.

 

[silver6054]

As for the weak GSM signals, these hacks did not help. Still getting one bar where other cell phones get full 4 GSM bars with the same SIM card. Is there any other way to fix the GSM levels and maybe include the usage for USSD codes? That would be great.

Are your signals really weak? Since the initial release of the Droid 2 Global, it has been noted that the bar indicators are way too conservative. It is easy to have perfect voice or data reception with one or even 0 bars. Check the signal strength and compare with the other phones. Basically when I am on GSM, I ignore the bars!

 

[barbaroja]

Are your signals really weak? Since the initial release of the Droid 2 Global, it has been noted that the bar indicators are way too conservative. It is easy to have perfect voice or data reception with one or even 0 bars. Check the signal strength and compare with the other phones. Basically when I am on GSM, I ignore the bars!

Great tip. Will get back numbers

 

[barbaroja]

Ok. So

D2G with the hack is showing signal strength ranging from -100 to -90 dBm
Another D2G without the hack is running the same values.
Old G1: -Around -73 dBm. In ASU units thats doubling it!.

Call reception is good, though. But being a more sophisticated device from the G1, I expected better signal reception. Somehow I feel this has to deal with the radio.

D2Gs running latest OTA.

 

[Gasai Yuno]

Disable 3G. You'll instantly see full bars for GSM. The meter is only broken for UMTS/HSPA.

 

[barbaroja]

Disable 3G. You'll instantly see full bars for GSM. The meter is only broken for UMTS/HSPA.

That worked wonders. Thanks. So I understand this is only a bad metering issue, since the values for dBm read are the same in both.
Still wondering if something in the radio has to be tweaked to achieve full USSD code functionality

Edit: sorry,the values are not the same. Rechecked. Thy .are indeed higher for GSM only

 

[Gasai Yuno]

For 3G GSM signal strength: provided you're rooted, in /system/build.prop change

ro.mot.phonemode.vzwglobalphone=1

to

ro.mot.phonemode.vzwglobalphone=0

and you'll get 5 (instead of 4) bars for the indicator, and 3G signal strength will show up properly.

Via [FIX] Wrong signal indicator bars in UMTS mode - xda-developers

As for USSD, it's probably not something in the radio, but rather in the OS. I'm not sure, though, but I think the OS isn't processing the USSD response properly.

 

[barbaroja]

worked perfectly. thank you!

 

[silver6054]

For 3G GSM signal strength: provided you're rooted, in /system/build.prop change

ro.mot.phonemode.vzwglobalphone=1

to

ro.mot.phonemode.vzwglobalphone=0

and you'll get 5 (instead of 4) bars for the indicator, and 3G signal strength will show up properly.

Via [FIX] Wrong signal indicator bars in UMTS mode - xda-developers

As for USSD, it's probably not something in the radio, but rather in the OS. I'm not sure, though, but I think the OS isn't processing the USSD response properly.

Any idea what else this flag impacts? Just to see, I made the change will running CDMA, and didn't see anything obvious. Just a bit wary to identify the phone as not a VZW Global phone, unless this really just concerns say using the Vodafone SIM on GSM.

 

[Gasai Yuno]

I'm not really sure, but there are other flags that are only of use for VZW global plan users. F.ex. an option that forces SMS routing via VZW's SMSC for those Vodafone NL SIM cards.

 

[473x15]

any one of you guys know if the propmodder app only works on the gsm radio or can you help me out which options are available for global or cdma radio

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

 

[skruid]

I notice a obvious speed in internet speed increase thanks for this hack, all I can say is wow

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

 

[Timetripper]

For 3G GSM signal strength: provided you're rooted, in /system/build.prop change

ro.mot.phonemode.vzwglobalphone=1

to

ro.mot.phonemode.vzwglobalphone=0

and you'll get 5 (instead of 4) bars for the indicator, and 3G signal strength will show up properly.

Via [FIX] Wrong signal indicator bars in UMTS mode - xda-developers

As for USSD, it's probably not something in the radio, but rather in the OS. I'm not sure, though, but I think the OS isn't processing the USSD response properly.

Worked perfect for me, thanks to xda & Gasai for the post

over my 6 month tenure at droid forums, I have learned quite a bit about things I'd have never given thought to. Rooting and romming are pretty basic, but modding system files, sbfing (your first time can be a self induced stress nightmare), and changing the way your radio works get a bit more interesting.

I thought I'd share a couple things I have picked up, one of which will work for pretty much any android phone and the other probably only applies to the Droid 2 Global. This is tweaking your software 3G settings, and modding your radio driver to unthrottle your 3G connection.
Note: This tweak/hack basically bridges the 3G speed increase tweak, a fix for the D2Gs weak GSM signal, and a driver/hardware level unthrottle into a two part process

To start, I assume you have the speedtest.net and rootexplorer apps.

The 3G tweak is as follows:
Open root explorer (or whichever app you use to edit system files) and navigate to /data, long click local.prop and scroll down to open in text editor. at the end of local.prop add the following lines and an extra empty line at the end, then reboot. voila you should have a more consistent, less laggy 3G connection.

the code is (much thanks goes out to Zeppelinrox and his v6 supercharger script):
ro.ril.hsxpa=3
ro.ril.gprsclass=12
ro.ril.hep=1
ro.ril.enable.dtm=1
ro.ril.hsdpa.category=28
ro.ril.enable.a53=1
ro.ril.enable.3g.prefix=1
ro.ril.htcmaskw1.bitmask=4294967295
ro.ril.htcmaskw1=14449
ro.ril.hsupa.category=9

again, save this WITH an extra empty line at the end, reboot and you're done. you should notice overall smoother download speeds, higher upload, and somewhat faster ping.

Now for the fun part! you can try this at your own risk, I have had no problems in the execution of this hack. Much thanks goes out to DF user monks700 for helping me figure things out.

The Radiocomm radio driver Throttle Remover hack!:
(as quoted from his email to me, slightly modified for easability)

Okay so this should be relatively straightforward. Radiocomm will run on W7 32-bit (also 64 bit. ignore the warnings/errors). You need version 11.11.7 (download link is at the bottom of this post). The MA should be set to common->MDM 6x00, under the menu settings->usb you should select PST driver. Then plug in the phone and put it in PC mode. Radio detection should be green. A few drivers may install. Then use the arrow buttons on the right of the screen to scroll to the P2K 4 tab. Select it. In the STElem / RDELEM box you will see a few text fields. change element id to 01C2, record to 0001, offset is unchanged and length to 0001. Data is 01. Press STELEM (one of the buttons in the box). The text box at the upper middle of Radiocomm will change to green and tell you that things were successful (if you scroll down a bit, that is) Go ahead and reboot your phone, it should be all set.

And thats all. I personally have noticed a definite increase and/or sustained rate of download speeds when in a high speed 3G area versus having the speeds jump around before being pushed down.

Links:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7632904/RadioComm_v11.11.7_Install.msi, courtesy of pilonull - Works with 64 bit windows 7!

I have only done the first part of the hack/tweak and have seen up to x2 the download speeds & nice 50% increase in uploads using the FIDO HSDPA network in Canada
compared to stock on same FIDO.
Next up - Radiocomm

Thanks to everyone who contributed to these hacks/ tweaks along the way