GSM Galaxy Nexus Receiving Minor Update, Fixes Signal Problems

Samsung Galaxy Nexus received a maintenance update earlier this month, which was supposed to fix some bugs and bring a few new features.

However, all GSM Galaxy Nexus owners who flashed the Android 4.0.4 ICS update were plagued by an unusual bug that made the phone lose signal while it was put in standby mode.

Apparently Google and Samsung, in their desire to save more battery energy, made the update so it drops the processor’s frequency to lower level while the phone is sleeping. 

This translated in sudden loss of GSM signal, which automatically led to the inability to receive calls while the phone is in standby mode.

The problem was recreated by an XDA Member as follows: “The issue as described is very easy to replicate – turn off wifi and then turn off the screen. Wait 5 minutes and try to call your phone – it will not work if you have this issue. When you power the screen back on you may see that you have signal, this looks to be just a cached image, after a second of so you will notice an “x” in the signal bar.”

The unnatural behavior of the smartphone occurred only after the screen was turned off. As we already explained, the cause of this issue was the fact that the CPU’s speed was dropped way under 700 MHz, thus resulting in GSM signal interruptions. 

The problem affected both rooted and unrooted GSM Galaxy Nexus devices running custom/official ROMs based on the latest Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Fortunately, the guys over at AndroidCentral have just learned that Google has already started to push a minor update that fixes this problem. 

Aside from bringing the phone’s firmware to build number build number to IMM76I, the update corrects some small issues, including random lock screen lag.

Posted in: Mobile Phone, Preview, Software