I need to reset screen every day for 3G cellular to work.

[rainman50]

I searched and could not find anything on this. I have an October classic 2014 P85. Within the last 3 weeks I have had to reset the screen (hold down 2 rotating knobs for a while) in order to have my 3G to function every day. There is no cellular service where I live. WiFi kicks in there. When I leave the house the 3G never connects no matter what. I pass near a tower where I typically get full bars and it still don't connect, .I can drive all day, if I don't do a reset , it will never connect. If I stop and reset the screen then after a few minutes it works fine. I can be parked at the office where I have about 3 bars and it stays connected fine all day and when driving.

It seems to not work afterwards if I don't receive any signal. It seems like it latches off at that point. I have also done a reset using the 2 upper steering wheel buttons. It has done this once in a while over the time I had the car but when I performed reset it would typically work for weeks or a few months.

I will get with service to take a look but wondered if anyone else had this kind of a problem. I'm also wondering if this would be a good time to get the LTE cellular added especially if they need to remove the screen.

One other question. I thought that since I have the Nav maps option that the maps/streets (stored in the car right?) would show up even if cellular service is not present since it seems to know where I'm located because a blank grid map moves. GPS should still function OK.

Thanks for any input.

Dave

 

[scottm]

our cars are similar vintage

I did have some connectivity issues on occasion with 3G requiring some reboots.. and once bars showed up, taking 15 minutes for internet based functions to work.. "No internet" until then. But a reboot always fixed these no connect / laggy connect issues. Maybe once every couple of weeks it would happen.

FYI, I have WiFi turned off and leave it off always. I also turn off energy savings modes and have "always remain connected" selected as settings. Just way better usability from the App when parked and I want to check on the car.

One day my Nav function stopped working, even though GPS car position and tracking showed on the scrolling center console map... Just Nav destination picking, blue path routing, and small Nav app on left-of-center console didn't come up.

That called for computer replacement, which they did.

I did get the LTE upgrade, at the same time (about 5 months ago now).

There is no appreciable user experience (speed) improvement because of LTE over 3G.

But I must say, I have not had "connectivity issues" since... or necessitated reboots. Internet is more soildly connected to all the time. And it will flip between 3G and LTE based on availability of cell type coverage in the areas I travel. So if LTE buys you just this, it is probably worth it to you.

 

[rainman50]

Thanks for the reply. I also have energy saving modes off. and have "always remain connected" selected. But I do have WiFi on at house. If not then I would have no updates during the night. I have tried having WiFi off for a few days but I still had to reset the screen when I left the house.

 

[markn455]

I don't normally have to. However, we had to reboot today to get it to pick up 3G.

 

[Woland]

I have to do this every day. It's becoming a huge pain.

 

[sorka]

I pretty much have to do it every day too. Tesla has recommended that I do the LTE upgrade to fix the issue

 

[markn455]

Okay, perhaps it was bad luck reading this topic. Since my post Sat starting that I didn't have to reboot the screen to get a 3G connection until that day, I have had to reboot the last two days in a row to get 3G to work.

 

[ZBB]

I've noticed 3G taking longer to connect over the last couple days. I don't have to reboot, but 3G has taken more than a minute or two to wake up after the car has been asleep. May be an issue in the current firmware...

 

[markn455]

I've noticed 3G taking longer to connect over the last couple days. I don't have to reboot, but 3G has taken more than a minute or two to wake up after the car has been asleep. May be an issue in the current firmware...

This morning I had connectivity but the signal strength showed an E rather than the normal 3G. After about 3 miles of driving it finally changed to 3G. Something is defiantly odd lately. When I first reported my problem I drove 20+/- miles and it never connected. Finally I rebooted the main screen and 3G connection was established a few minutes after the reboot.

 

[brkaus]

I pretty much have to do it every day too. Tesla has recommended that I do the LTE upgrade to fix the issue

Hum... Not a very good answer, unless it's warranty work.

 

[scottm]

It's true... 3G tower resources are going to start to diminish, giving rise to more 4G and beyond.

E means "edge" when you're on 3G.. a tower may have been decommissioned near where that happened, your home?

The main reason I upgraded to LTE was to time proof the car a bit for the inevitable 3G disappearance.

I have found it does connect faster, and after connection, services on the network are also ready to be used sooner. A 3G reboot was the kiss of 10 to 15 minutes of dark time from the net, for me, in Canada.

At the time of negotiation with carriers and picking a network for the car, circa what 2010?... 3G was "the thing" as LTE was just being launched... exactly right about then. There was no LTE network when Model S was born.

Tesla does not control or influence what the carriers are doing with their migration and coverage areas.

Recommending an LTE upgrade is about all Tesla can do. The best answer they can offer.

To swap the car from 3G to LTE is not warranty work, you'll pay if you want it. If you have a radio problem on 3G and they do warranty work to replace the radio, you'll get a 3G replacement put back in.

 

[markn455]

It's true... 3G tower resources are going to start to diminish, giving rise to more 4G and beyond.

E means "edge" when you're on 3G.. a tower may have been decommissioned near where that happened, your home?

The main reason I upgraded to LTE was to time proof the car a bit for the inevitable 3G disappearance.

I have found it does connect faster, and after connection, services on the network are also ready to be used sooner. A 3G reboot was the kiss of 10 to 15 minutes of dark time from the net, for me, in Canada.

At the time of negotiation with carriers and picking a network for the car, circa what 2010?... 3G was "the thing" as LTE was just being launched... exactly right about then. There was no LTE network when Model S was born.

Tesla does not control or influence what the carriers are doing with their migration and coverage areas.

Recommending an LTE upgrade is about all Tesla can do. The best answer they can offer.

To swap the car from 3G to LTE is not warranty work, you'll pay if you want it. If you have a radio problem on 3G and they do warranty work to replace the radio, you'll get a 3G replacement put back in.

I may have to have the LTE upgrade. I noticed on a recent trip to Knoxville that there is no 3G signal when drive North from GA to Knoxville unless you are on the Interstate. State roads, forget it.

So many upgrades I want to look at doing... LTE, Console, Wheels. Too much more and it will be cheaper to just trade for a new MS.

 

[scottm]

just trade for a new MS.

Bingo!

 

[sorka]

To swap the car from 3G to LTE is not warranty work, you'll pay if you want it. If you have a radio problem on 3G and they do warranty work to replace the radio, you'll get a 3G replacement put back in.

I don't want LTE. I just want what I paid for to actually work. If Tesla thinks the only way for the them to fix whatI already paid for is to change out the hardware, that's on them. If they want, they throttle it to 3g speeds.

Having my 3g not working for 4 hours straight in the midlde of San Jose when my GSM based gps tracker which only has 3g and not 4g has a 100% signal strength is working just fine at the same time tells me that there's either a hardware defect or AT&T is somehow limiting connections on Tesla's while not on other GSM based devices.

 

[scottm]

Fair enough. Hardware failure (bad 3G radio, or antenna, or .. ?) is covered under warranty. Get your call in if it's broken and get it looked at. Returning it to the state you bought it is expected.

But updating hardware to adapt to changing environment, i.e. data network technologies... there's no promise or obligation (or warranty) on Tesla to do that.

Hardware is such a drag. It "bakes" your investment to a moment in time, freezing you there. Unfortunately some level of hardware is necessary to run software. Keeping at a certain hardware level will show erosion of function over time, we've all seen that - software outgrowing hardware resources. This is normal computer industry at play.

People buy new phones to take advantage of a new network. Apple doesn't hand 'em out.

Tesla wants you to buy a newer car when the hardware has been eclipsed. I find it's actually quite amazing that you *can* upgrade just the radio to 4G with a Tesla. Thank you for modularizing the radio. I decided to future proof my car a bit, extend its useful life to me, and paid for the upgrade.

 

[sorka]

I've had it in multiple times for that issue. My point is that they acknowledge the issue and suggest that it could be fixed by upgrading to LTE.

 

[scottm]

For those comments of "fixing" a 3G issue with a LTE radio swap... what I'm saying is "fix" is the wrong word ... if the Tesla stuff aint broke. Fixing it under warranty would not be called for.

Tesla has suggest a potential (and probable) resolution to solve 3G issues that may related to something outside of their control. Doing so would kill a few different stones... They should offer this option to you if it's available.

But say you upgrade, paying for it... you might find LTE does not solve coverage or connectivity problems on that network in that location. Then what?

Did you drive a test car / check with other Tesla drivers in the area reporting "no problem" with LTE? If so, then it could be a wise choice to consider an upgrade to LTE. Or skip that and go to 5G when it's available (in the Model 3 first)

 

[sorka]

The only reason I'd upgrade is if I wanted faster throughput, but I don't. I just want it to work as promised. Other AT&T 3g devices can get data in the same areas when my Tesla's 3g can't. If their suggested fix is to change it to 4g, then they can do that. If their suggested fix is to replace the existing hardware, they can do that too. I don't really care what they do as long as they fix it.

But I'm not paying $500 to fix something I already paid for.

 

[scottm]

Fair enough. Hardware failure (bad 3G radio, or antenna, or .. ?) is covered under warranty. Get your call in if it's broken and get it looked at. Returning it to the state you bought it is expected.

If they do the warranty work, and you get new 3G, antennas, .. whatever... They will test the connectivity where the work is done. If the car connects to tower and mothership.. the work is deemed good. They probably won't repeat the work just because of coverage issues in a certain area in the cellular network.

They've pulled logs, right? If nothing is showing up as a fault in the car... what have they got to go on?

Maybe you could check with AT&T and see if they changed cellular service in the affected area? Maybe they're having an outage. As them why some 3G devices work at a spot and others not when trying to tune into their network. Worth a try. They don't want to lose revenue and have others flips to roaming on competitive networks. They can do a lot to help diagnose these kinds of issues too. They may ask for your CID of the device, which you can get from the SIM card in the radio in the Tesla, or maybe Tesla can give it to you by sniffing the car and asking them for it.

 

[SFPD]

For what it's worth, I opted to upgrade to LTE after I had similar problems, and I've still been having issues with cellular connection that occasionally require me to reboot the screen. So don't think that an LTE upgrade will necessarily solve everything.

I've noticed that the connection drops most frequently when the car is parked somewhere with bad cell reception but good WiFi-- it connects to the WiFi and then occasionally fails to reconnect to cell afterwards.