Samsung Galaxy S3 - Wifi connect issue

[techguy001]

Hi,

I picked up this new phone last week and am generally happy with how it works but have found some issues so far.

Am using both bluetooth and wifi in addition to LTE plan.   I have set up my phone to connect to available wifi (especially at home) whenever possible as well as bluetooth.   The phone connects successfully to my router but randomly seems to lose its connection after a few minutes.   Sometimes it picks it up again, other times I have to prod it to re-connect.

My wifi is very strong and consistent and this problem occurs even when I am 10 feet from the router.   I know my router is fine as it maintains a good signal and I have other wireless devices in the house that never lose the connection or signal strenth.  This happens regardless of using the 2.4 Ghz band or the 5 Ghz band.

I see from the Android forums that other people have run into this problem.  There is a quick fix on there to change a setting in the kernel by issuing a special command thru the phone dial however that sequence fails to do anything on my phone.   The fix supposedly is to turn off power saving feature on the wifi radio.   Surprisingly there is no such setting on the many custom settings that exist on this phone.

If anyone else has run into this, please respond.  Thank you.

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[Smeelious]

Settings -- > Wifi --> "Menu Button" --> Advanced --> Keep Wifi on During Sleep --> Always.

hrm...Try that.  Can't hurt.

[techguy001]

Thanks.  Already tried that though and other setting choices as well but no difference.   Also tried a cold restart of the phone.  What's interesting is that the procedure published on the Android forum doesn't work on this phone.  Makes you wonder if Samsung/Rogers changed the software for the Canadian market.     

[blood]

i know to get mine to work properly wiht my router i had to go in to the router's settings and add it as a mac adress and fiddle with it for a bit

[techguy001]

Thanks.  I have no issues connecting with my router.  It's only keeping that connection after a few minutes of being established that seems to be an issue.

Doing some more testing it seems that as long as the phone is plugged in, the connection remains solid but when it's on battery power is when I see the problem.  This confirms that the power saving logic is somehow affecting this even though I've turned off the key power saving options.

[beamrgurl]

Hello. Im glad I took took a look at this forum. I am also noticing that when I am near the router my signal is full strength but if i go to my living room, signal goes down to half, and If I do download an app, it does take longer. But it doesnt disconnect it from the wifi at all. This is referring to it not being plugged in at all, just on battery.

[techguy001]

After learning a bit more from the android forums on this issue, the fix noted below for this seems to work for me.

After re-initializing my phone by powering it down and re-starting it, I was able to issue the procedure that I referred to before here that puts the phone into service mode.   This is done by dialing  a special sequence of characters thru the phone screen.   Once the change is done, exit the screen and return to main menu and ensure the wifi is configured to work for your own situation.   See attached link below for the simple procedure listed near the bottom of the message.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=26987997&postcount=80

This change essentially removed the power saving mode from the wifi radio and helps to keep a signal lock on your router by the looks of it.   It has the potential to increase battery consumption on the phone, however I haven't seen much of a problem from it.  You may want to watch for that.

Hope this helps others.  

[techguy001 · Accepted solution]

This issue could be closed now.   Since Samsung/Rogers issued a new Android software release update a few weeks ago this problem was fixed in that release on my phone and WI-FI now works as it should.    Given that the release should have reached all users by now this thread should be closed.

[kcyrus]

Hi All,

I just got a Galaxy S3, and can not connect to my Wifi, even trying all the items listed below from all the link on the internet

Thanks in advance if any of you have a solution.

1)  *#0011#   Wifi PowerSave Mode to OFF

2)  Changing the router Channels to 11 or any other

3)  keep wifi-on during sleep

I have the following s/w revisions on my phone.

Model SGH-1747M

Andriod 4.0.4

Baseband Ver. I747MVLLH1

Kernel 3.0.8-20120814.100513-user

Build Number IMM76D.I747MVLALH1

My Router is suplied by Bell  - its the  white standing up model  its a 802.11 b/g

Manufacturer: 2Wire, Inc. Model: 2701HG-G Gateway Serial number: 290711076493 Hardware version: 2700-100618-005 Software version: 6.1.5.74-enh.tm Key code:

52HQ-2374-62A2-22AS-32FR