AT&T Asus Vivo Tab RT connectivity problems.

[jchapman01]

I have an ASUS Vivo Tab RT on my AT&T plan and I am having some connectivity issues. It will show no connection or limited connectivity until I reboot it. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

[asus_usa]

Has this been happening ever since you purchased the device or did it just come up recently? Have you tried a new SIM card?

 

[mach]

Also having a similar problem and on multiple devices.
I ordered 2, one was fine and the other had the same problem you described. Fine when you power cycle, but after a while would drop to limited connectivity (still showing several bars and 4G) or no connectivity. Had the SIM replaced and that didn't fix it. AT&T tech support asked that I swap SIMs to see if the new SIM was also bad. Instead that caused the same problem on the other, 'good' tablet. I asked that they are both replaced.
The first replacement arrived and it is doing the same thing. You get a few minutes of use, then the connection drops and a bit after that it says limited access.

I was supposed to be ordering 6 more of these, but unless this can be resolved very quickly I'll have to switch to something else.

 

[mach]

As a note, it appears that going in to settings and turning Mobile Broadband off and on again is enough to reset the connection. Of course that doesn't solve the issue that the connection only stays up for a couple of minutes.

 

[asus_usa]

Mach, I would see if you can get another one exchanged. Usually, I would recommend sending it for servicing, but considering how new the unit is, I would hate to see you send it in for repairs already. Since you have a working on, I think it's safe to assume the non-working unit has a defect modem, SIM slot, antenna, ect.

 

[jchapman01]

Has this been happening ever since you purchased the device or did it just come up recently? Have you tried a new SIM card?

its been happening ever since I got it. I haven't changed the sim card yet but I'll try that.

 

[mach]

I've now had 4 devices all with the same problem. AT&T replaced the SIM in the first one and that didn't fix the problem. The second one was fine until AT&T requested a SIM swap between the good and bad units specifically to confirm it wasn't a SIM card problem. That didn't fix the problem for the bad unit and the problem then migrated to the previously good unit. Both were returned and replaced. Of the replacements, one was immediately dropping to limited access. The other waited about 3 hours, working normally in that time, and now drops rapidly to limited access. The first 2 units were fully patched and updated. The second 2 units have had no updates of any kind installed, they are on factory defaults.

I'll be talking to some elevated level of AT&T tech support soon, today hopefully, I'll post about whatever we find out. It seems odd I've had 4 bad units, but the problem doesn't seem widespread. Unless my search skills are failing, this is an unusual fault.

 

[mach]

The AT&T engineer is wondering if they may have a local network issue so we are going to test that. However, one question he had was the type of modem built in to the TF600TL. It just lists as an LTE Modem device. asus_us, can you provide a make a model of the LTE modem these use please?

 

[asus_usa]

I'm sorry I can't get that information. It's manufactured into the main board and there is no separate part number for it.

 

[mach]

OK, no problem. The AT&T engineer said it sounds like a network issue rather than directly a device issue. Apparently there can be problems with some devices not connecting if there is a microcell in operation or similar. I took the tablets across town, and they seem to both work fine. JChapman, have you tried the tablet in other places, far enough away at least to be on a different cell?

 

[jchapman01]

@Mach -- yes I did some testing today in a town about 20 miles away and was able to use it all day long. So far it seems to be only around my house that it only has limited connectivity. I'm going to test it tomorrow to see how it does. Thanks for the info.