D II Pad question. D II SN/D201209xxx 1g/1.2ghz model

[klondar]

Hey I'v been following along here and first want to thank all who have made contributions to further this Tablet (all Models)
and have been thinking it may be time for me to begin tinkering under the hood a bit more than I have.

So far I am only running the stock / updated ROM D/L'd from the D2 site, with the Google play tweaks and the density mod to 160dpi

So far I have to say I am quite pleased with what a great value this tablet is.

But I do have 2 minor annoyances I'd like to correct, If anyone else has anything to add on the subject I'd like to hear it so that we
can get these little tablets the best they can be.

First: The Google location services, not working. I know there is mention of a fix, but what I have found, involving unpacking tweaking and repacking
some files. is a bit more than I am ready to tackle. Does someone have the already tweaked files available that could be installed with ADB
That I would be comfortable with. So I know this issue is solved amd may even be packed in the available ROMS that are out, but for now I'd like
to stay as close to stock as I can.

Second:
And this is the most annoying thing, I think I have see at least one other person mention it but as of yet have not seen it addressed or even what
someone would begin to look at to try and address it. I have 2 of these tablets, and they both have in my opinion a extreamly slow WIFI data
transfer rate. Here at work where our AP are hooked to 1g network connections and most other AP's or routers I connect to The Highest D/L speed I
Get is .64mb down and simular UL speeds. This is just not right. We should have much higher data rates than that. it seems to be the bottleneck that
slows things down on this pad. Perhaps I am the only one with the problem but I'm guessing not. Since I use many access points through the day
I know it's not my router/s. Anyone have any ideas?

Lastly, I'd like to start tinkering, and perhaps if I get som info on where to start try to even lookinto the speed issues, but I have this one question.
If I load the custom recovery, and then one of the available ROMS, can I use Livesuite and the original ROM image to set the tablet back to stock?
I just don't want to go down a road where I have no way back. (in this aspect I am a bit of a novice although I do have experience under the hood)

Thanks,
Klondar

 

[klondar]

Update,

It seems I have spoken too soon about the "My Location services"

It looks like that when I used the introductions listed here : Visual Land Tablets Google Play

That it did indeed correct the "My Location" issue. So one down and one to go. Also searching over at the XDA forums, it seems that Many different devices

running version 4.0.4 are having wifi slowness issues, but I have yet to dig up any concrete data on why or how we might tweak things to correct this.

Anyone else having wifi issues or for that matter anyone using stock ROM on the 201209 1g 1.2 ghz model that is seeing full speeds?

Also further searching seems to indicate, that no matter what recovery/ROM is used we should always be able to restore with Livesuite to stock, Correct?

 

[netizenmt]

1. No sure what you are referring to with regard to the "My Location Services" issue. Perhaps you could elucidate further.

2. I concur about the wifi speed - it's not quite as zippy as I would have expected. I'll post if I find any real fix for this.

3. You are correct - Livesuite will always be able to restore your device to stock, provided there is no hardware failure.

 

[seashell]

I am one who has posted about wifi issues (VERY slow (.64MB would be about a 50% improvement over the top speed I've seen), and leaky- noise into the microphone when the network is active- have you tried Skype or other voice over IP? I'm interested to know if you have similar noise issues). I actually have contacted D2pad.info customer service and they've given me an RMA# to return the unit for replacement (shipping to Torrance, CA). I'm debating whether or not to do that- devil-you-know vs whatever problems a replacement might have? My 8 year old daughter is the official owner of this tablet and she uses it daily to read Kindle books and play games (but she'd LIKE to use it for Skype and Netflix, both of which are impacted-to-unusable by the noisy/slow wifi).

I will probably go ahead and send it in, though, and if the replacement has either the same problems or other ones, I will agitate for a refund and consider ponying up a bit more money for something else.

 

[klondar]

Thanks for the posts, The my location really is mostly use with Google maps (it will put your location on the map) but they use it when you do searches to try and find things close to you. As I noted I have that item working. And it is good to hear (and takes any fear out) so I can start playing with ROMs.

As for the WiFi When using Google Voice to make phone calls, I did not notice and distortion, but will check again. But one thing I am
seeing is that many other devices that use the 4.0.4 version are having some problems with WiFi speeds. but other than one fix where they revert some of the files back to an older version. (I don't remember witch phone it was) I have seen no explanation as to what may be the cause, and where one might look for a fix. What we need is a good Linux guy to poke under the hood at the WiFi con gig files and see if they can figure out whats up.

My question is, Is there anyone out there with this version of the tablet getting full speeds (checked with speed test). My guess is
that we all suffer this problem. and if it were solved, this pad or be even more snappy and awesome than it already is....

 

[seashell]

Not super relevant, but I have sent my DII pad back and am hoping to receive the replacement soon, and in the meantime picked up another, slightly higher-end tablet (FileMate Clear) which is running 4.0.3 (not 4.0.4) and its wifi performance is great (6.5Mbps on our 7Mbps home DSL).

I will be reporting back with my tests of the replacement DII pad I get, as I choose to be optimistic that it will be trouble-free...

 

[klondar]

I'd be interested to hear how WiFi is working on your replacement. If all is well. Could you do a backup (as outlined in other posts) and make them available before you start tweaking it.
This way we can poke around in the system folder and other locations ad see if they made any changes that helped. I think it could be quite valuable, I just find it hard to think (not impossible)
that everyone with the problem has bad hardware... My guess is some WiFi config tweak that was missed before they shipped them...

-Thanks

 

[seashell]

I will certainly let you know the wifi performance when I receive the replacement.

 

[Robyski]

All,

I have the same DII pad, 1.2 GHz processor with 1GB RAM, with s/n D201209Bxxxxx. Still running stock Factory Kernal 3.0.8 on Android 4.0.4.

I've been putting the little DII through its paces the last month or so, and no WiFi complaints here. I've even got the tablet loaded with lots of games, videos, etc. for the kids. No WiFi during the kids play, but getting good WiFi connectivity when it's Mommy's or Daddy's turn to play on the Internet.

Verizon FiOS on home pc at 6.3 - 8.6 MB down and .947 - 1.03 up during test. No other devices accessing Internet at the time. Home router is Netgear Dual Band Gigabit.

Ran tests on DII using Opera Browser. Went to DSLReports.com website. Sitting about 5' from router. Results below:
Test 1 - Ran WiFi test from DSLReports with DII battery at 54%. 1.271 Mb down.
Test 2 - Ran WiFi test from DSLReports with DII battery at 53%. 1.288 Mb down.
Test 3 - Ran WiFi test From DSLReports with DII battery at 51%. 1.187 Mb down.

Bedroom about 40' from router. Results below:
Test 1 - DII with battery at 45%. 1.262 Mb down.
Test 2 - DII with battery at 45%. 1.251 Mb down.

Living Room about 45' from router. Results below:
Test 1 - DII with battery at 44%. 1.232 Mb down.
Test 2 - DII with battery at 43%. 1.158 Mb down.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this good running and hard working little tablet. And the Big Lots price last December was hard to beat!


Good luck,

Robyski

 

[seashell]

So, to boil that down, Robyski, you're getting about 1.2Mbps on a network that you get 7Mbps from your PC? 1Mbps is "enough" for most things, certainly (and would be tons better than the 300Kbps I was seeing on my clearly faulty unit), but that's pretty clearly substantially below what a tablet should be able to get so that's unfortunate (but I agree- for the price point, I'll live, as long as things like Skype otherwise work).

 

[rhg135]

I'd love to see more dev activity maybe try to get jellybean on here. That'd be great.

 

[seashell]

I will certainly let you know the wifi performance when I receive the replacement.

Well, the replacement arrived today, and sadly I am disappointed.

Wifi performance is still quite bad- 400Kbps from both speedtest.net (app) and dslreports.com (using the stock browser). I don't seem to have the noise issues with the microphone, though, and Netflix looks better (like perhaps it's getting a more solid 400kbps than the old unit with its noise). But, and it's a large but, it seems that *sometimes* when it's pulling things on the network it's killing our house wifi (like, turn its wifi on, the laptop drops from 6Mbps to 120kbps; turn the tablet's wifi back off, speed for the laptop goes back up)... but then that has seemed to stop now, and it can be on and the rest of the house has fine wifi service. So... intermittent problem?

I replaced it for my 8yo with a Filemate Clear from Walmart ($129), which is working MUCH better (and has a beautiful display), so at this point the DII-pad is a spare toy (though my 11yo wants it, if it works well enough). I will do more tests, but if it just plain sucks I may agitate for an RMA and refund for it (but- costs $10 to ship it, which I've paid once, so I'd have paid $20 for an $80 refund... I'll probably just keep it and chalk it up to a learning experience and start hacking on it).

 

[seashell]

So, not content with how things were, I looked into things. I noticed how the DII pad's wifi settings were telling me that it had a link speed of 72Mbps sometimes, and 150Mbps other times, and I thought about that and decided to go into my wifi router and adjust things. I tried setting a fixed radio channel, tried channel 1 and 11, no change to speedtest.net app's 400kbps report. Set the router back to auto-detect, but then shut of 802.11N- had it only do 802.11b or 802.11g, no N. And... lo and behold... DII-pad gets 1.1+Mbps using speedtest.net. !

Obviously, it's not right that the pad isn't working well using 802.11n, but right now? I'll take it. 1.1Mbps isn't *great*, but it's totally usable, and our house should function fine on 802.11b/g. I've updated my trouble ticket with diablotek D2 support with all of this information- who knows if they'll do anything, but honestly I was very impressed with the speed and directness with which they handled my RMA.

 

[klondar]

I wonder if there's a setting in the configs where we can turn off the 802.11n on the tablet someplace. I'd be happy with the 1+mb speed. I wonder if turning off "g" and only allowing "b" would add any more speed.

Thanks for the update, at least I'm sure not it's not a "bad HW" problem, just a bad implementation, something we might be able to find a fix for.

 

[seashell]

Huh. So, turning off N made a big difference at home, but of course I can't just do that everywhere. Brought the tablet to work today (new job, part-time, not here all the time), where it happily connected showing a 150Mbps Link speed (so, 802.11n), and speedtest.net shows it getting 2.5Mbps (!) download speeds- the same as my Mac Book Pro is getting on the same network. Perhaps, then, this is a more specific incompatibility with my home wireless router (an Actiontec of some sort, combination DSL modem/wireless access point). I've seen other complaints elsewhere (for other tablets running 4.0.4) with D-Link routers specifically, too.