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The Sony Xperia XA1 (Model G3123) is an Android smartphone manufactured by Sony Mobile. Released in February 2017.

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Cannot make/receive calls on 3G even though it shows signal

I have received a xperia phone (Xperia XA1 G3121) with following problem which I want to try and resolve: While having a SIM I can make calls and have mobile data as long as I have 4G or H+ indicator on the top right corner.

https://ibb.co/3YwFKVB

In areas where those are unavailable (I get 3G and bars indicator) I cannot make calls nor have mobile data connection.

https://ibb.co/xYRzhnc

While searching the internet I came to find videos about replacing antenna cables. After removing the back I found 2 such cables (black and white):

https://ibb.co/cDg9bt5

I replaced the cables thinking that might solve the problem without any success. In youtube videos I saw variant with only 1 cable and 2 cables. My intuition was that the black one is for 3G since disconnecting the other disabled my 4G signal. Given that on some networks I have data and tone and on older generation frequencies I don't I came here seeking some advice. What can I try to isolate the problem?

Later Edit:

I have replaced the bottom daughterboard earlier because another defect with it was that it would not charge. At that point I did not try 3G or below calls because I couldn’t imagine not working after doing a normal call as a test. The previous daughterboard was thrown as a results. Should I suspect a flaw with the new daughetboard ? Any way to check it other than trying another replacement ?

Any help you can shed is appreciated, thank-you

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Hi @ray14324,

I'm wondering if it is an antenna problem, because as you said, the phone is registering that it is receiving a 3G signal. Maybe it is something else

Have you tried manually setting the Network Mode to GSM only in Settings > More > Mobile networks > Preferred network type?

Have you verified that the APN settings are correct for each provider that you tried?

Have you tried a factory restore and then checked, in case it is corrupted firmware causing the problem? (backup the phone to the cloud or a computer and also remember your Google user name and password- if necessary, before doing the reset)

If it is an antenna problem then perhaps changing the board that houses the GSM antenna may be worth a try.

Here’s a teardown video of the phone.

At 2:45minutes into the video the BT, WiFi, GPS antenna module can be seen being removed followed by the board with the GSM antenna.

Just some thoughts.

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6 Comments:

"Have you tried manually setting the Network Mode to GSM only in Settings > More > Mobile networks > Preferred network type? "

Yes I have tried that, for example setting only to 3G or equivalent GSM (2G) results in no phone calls can be made or received.

I forgot to mention but the component from the video at 2:45 was also replaced because the USB connector was not charging the device. I ordered it from China but could it be that it was a defect in that regard ? Sadly I think I threw away the faulty daughter board because I thought I might not need it.

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@ray14324

If you mean the USB daughter board then I don't think that it would be the problem but I may be wrong about that.

The phone indicates that it is able to receive 4G and 3G signals, (2G may not work anyway as there isn't much of it around anymore as it's being phased out most everywhere) it's just that it doesn't work on 3G. It's only the antenna section on the daughter board, so if the signal was too weak or unable to be read etc then you would think that it shouldn't show up as being received with signal strength bars.

Did you try a factory reset just to eliminate software as the problem, you didn't say?

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Yes, I flashed 2 images from the 2 biggest network operators in my country using xperifirmare and flash tools thinking that I would also flash the firmware from the SIM chip responsible with this. I chose to wipe the user data in both cases without no result.

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@ray14324

Having reflashed it and still not working does seem to point to a hardware problem but can't figure out why if you can receive and identify that there is 3G that it won't connect to it.

maybe replacing the USB daughter board again might be useful if only to prove or eliminate it as being the cause

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That's what also bugs me, I'm not an knowledgeable on how it works though. i thought there may be some software measurements I can take (diagnostic software) to provide some insight.

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