bad signal just started

OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

I am in South Texas. The Rio grande valley specifically La feria, tx.
For about a year I got good signal about -80 to -84, and now for about 3 days the signal has jumped from -97 to -106. Nothing has changed I haven't moved my modem or anything. Anyone know why this might be happening?
I have a sprint 595u modem.

OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

If anyone can help or tell me why this happened all of a sudden it would be greatly appreciated. Look at my speedtest results. lol usually I'm at about 1500 down 300 up and 300 ping.

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:35 pm Post subject:

Could be lots of things. Tower went down, your modem is kaput, battery in 595U is not charging, not enough power to modem, etc. Try the modem in another computer or use the Y-cable. A powered USB hub would help.
If using connection manager, try the modem directly via Network Connections thus bypassing the software.

good luck
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OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

my computers USB ports are powered so it should be fine, right now i have it in the cradle that comes with the 595u. I'll try a different usb port and bypassing the cradle. What is the Y-cable? Also I'll try it on my other computer in the other room see if the results are the same.
I was thinking about getting a usb cable extender to try moving my modem around

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject:

The Y-cable utilizes the power of two USB ports into one connector to the modem. Some packaged versions of the 595U came with it in the box. Yours may not have.
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OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

I tried leaving it off to charge on 1 usb port for a hour and another usb port for another hour and still same results. I'm gonna take the modem to a friends house tommorrow to see if its still bad signal at his house. If it is I'm gonna take it to the sprint store and see if there is anything they can do. If its good signal at my friends house I guess I will try getting a usb extender cable or might be tower down. and yea mine didn't come with a y cable Sad

OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

Is there anywhere to buy a y-cable? I checked the 3gstore and could not find one. I took my modem to the sprint store today and they said my modem is fine and they basically have no clue why my signal dropped out.

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:01 am Post subject:

There are lots of places that sell it. Just google "usb y cable". A better option is a powered USB hub. You get the additional ports for other devices and it does not suck power from your pc. Make sure it has its own power supply. You can find these at just about any electronics store or even WalMart. If you have not done so, take a laptop with your modem and drive to where the tower is. If you still get the same slow results as at home ... its a tower problem. Call sprint and report it. What kind of speeds did you get at the Sprint store?
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OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

The rep at the store did not tell me what speeds the modem got, but he told me that it is working fine. I haven't had time to take it to my friends house who lives like 20 miles away yet to test it that way it would be ona different tower. I don't have a laptop to try driving around with. I have 3 desktops in my house though. 2 of them got EVDO at about -100 dbm and the 3rd would not even pick up a EVDO connection just a RTT connection. I am pretty sure something went wrong with there tower... because before I was getting -80dbm evdo rev a at each computer. I'm going to see if I can get over to my friends house today to test it there and if not take it back to the sprint store and ask them to tell me the signal there. plus call tech support and attempt to convince them to send a tech to check there towers. I just hope they didnt tweak the towers and it took my signal away but gave it to another location.

vpnavy · EVDO Junkie Joined: 29 Jul 2005 Posts: 169

Careful with all the changes you are now making - give it some time. I've had the same problem over the years and all of a sudden the speed would come back to normal. My "life saver" is my cell phone. When I start having problems - I just look at my cell phone EV-DO reception and you can immediately see if it is the problem with the signal dropping. Just about everytime - it has come back up days later which could mean your Cell company was doing some work on the tower.

OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

I didn't even think about checking the evdo reception on my cell phone. I have internet disable on my cell phone, but when it trys to connect i can see the evdo trying to work and the signal change.. but I only have bars. I don't have an exact signal strength on my phone. I will check that when I get home. so basically if my bars drop down to like none when trying to connect to net on my cell phone its probably a tower issue?

vpnavy · EVDO Junkie Joined: 29 Jul 2005 Posts: 169

billarf · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:34 am Post subject:

Are you running the current PRL ?

OiMouseboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 18

Franklinone · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject:

[quote="OiMouseboy"][quote="billarf"]Are you running the current PRL ?[/quote]

What does PRL stand for? I'm running the current version of the sprint connection manager and my firmware is up to date. I actually thought it might be my firmware, so I updated it after it started going low signal and it had the same results. .[/quote]

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