Low signal strength on a Nokia 5110... any ideas?

[Albinus]

Hi guys,

I dug out my old 5110 the other day, and when I turn it on, the signal
strength is a lot lower than it used to be, either with the fixed antenna or
an external model via a patch cord. Testing on Telstra, which usually is
around -80dBm (4 bars for those not familiar with NetMon), I'm now getting
around -98dBm (1 bar). Same scenario with Optus and Vodafone as well.

I took apart the phone and cleaned all the contacts, and checked the antenna
connection carefully, no problems there. It seems strange that external
antennas are affected as well. Could this be a fault with the actual Tx/Rx
module?

TIA,

Albinus.

[Frank]

Post by Albinus
Hi guys,
I dug out my old 5110 the other day, and when I turn it on, the signal
strength is a lot lower than it used to be, either with the fixed antenna or
an external model via a patch cord. Testing on Telstra, which usually is
around -80dBm (4 bars for those not familiar with NetMon), I'm now getting
around -98dBm (1 bar). Same scenario with Optus and Vodafone as well.
I took apart the phone and cleaned all the contacts, and checked the antenna
connection carefully, no problems there. It seems strange that external
antennas are affected as well. Could this be a fault with the actual Tx/Rx
module?
TIA,

Albinus,

I found this post in Google ( for a different phone ) while looking for a
fix for a neighbour's Nokia 6150 which exhibits a slightly different
problem. You may want to check it out :

Frank

" when you remove the 6210 from the car kit it doesn't switch back to the
internal aerial.
The aerial connector becomes faulty on the back of the phone, the easy
fix for this is to open the phone and solder a thin piece wire to the
top and bottom contacts on the aerial connector thus permanently
bypassing it, you will then have a noce strong full signal again, and
can still use the phone in the car kit, disadvantage is you cant use
the external aerial anymore, but I dont find this a problem"

[Albinus]

Post by Frank
I found this post in Google ( for a different phone ) while looking for a
fix for a neighbour's Nokia 6150 which exhibits a slightly different

Thanks for the info Frank, but I don't think this is the cause as external
antennas don't work any better (when I normally get at least a 5dBm
improvement). From the gist of that excerpt, if that was the error then the
external antenna should still work fine, which it doesn't. Oh well - 5 year
old phones have to die sometime I suppose.

Thanks anyway,

Albinus.