[Q] Best option for GPS performance improvement?

[Q] Best option for GPS performance improvement? - Captivate General

I have a 1007 series Captivate (rooted) with the most recent official firmware and have troubles holding GPS lock and doing any real navigation. I had hoped when I bought the phone last year that I would be able to replace my Garmin navigator with the phone, but that has proven to be hit or miss with the GPS performance. I've read through various threads throughout the year regarding the issues/solutions, but I'm wondering what is the best option at this point to resolve these issues? The options I think I'm aware of:
* Attempt to get AT&T to get me a replacement. (Likely a refurb)
* Attempt to get AT&T to allow me an early upgrade without penalty and go to the Infuse 4G for example.
* Try a 3rd party ROM. I've heard this sometimes helps, but that it is hit or miss as well.
* Try some kind of hardware hack.
* Something else?
Given that there are now more phone choices on AT&T, I'm wondering how likely it is that I could get AT&T to help me here? Does anyone have recent experiences that may point me in the best direction?
Thanks,
Craig

Did you not see the sticky in this forum about GPS improvements? It's better to post to an existing thread rather than start a new one.

Thread closed, for the reason above.

Related

I emailed Samsung about a few things, here is the response

Thought I'd share this with you guys. I recommend sending out a similar email so that they know that there are serious concerns about the phone. I did it online at the Contact Us page on the Samsung website.
Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I am quite pleased with the device. However, there are a few things that irritate me about it that I was hoping you could comment on:
1.) There is a serious lag issue. Do a quick google search and you'll find that this is a universal problem with the phone.
2.) The GPS does not work. Also a universal issue.
3.) No 2.2 Froyo.
4.) No last.fm scrobbling support for the default music player (which I love by the way!)
5.) Drivers for Windows 7 x64 do not work well. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got it. Again, a universal issue.
A lot of people complain about the TouchWiz UI, but I personally enjoy it, as long as the lag issue is taken care of. Also I'm pleased with the phone call quality, and almost all other aspects of the phone.
I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
[thecoolestcow]
Here is the response:
Dear [thecoolestcow],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regarding the GPS on the phone, Samsung Mobile is aware that under certain conditions, the GPS on our U.S. Galaxy S devices may not be meeting performance expectations. We are diligently evaluating the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
We advise you to use assisted GPS powered by your service provider.
We still don't have any update regarding the release of the Android 2.2 for the Captivate and the drivers that will be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.
We will forward your report of this behavior along to the appropriate parties for additional review and consideration.
We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Should you desire additional assistance resolving this, we invite you to call Samsung Customer Support by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357 between the hours 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Sincerely,
Technical Support

thecoolestcow said:
Thought I'd share this with you guys. I recommend sending out a similar email so that they know that there are serious concerns about the phone. I did it online at the Contact Us page on the Samsung website.
Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I am quite pleased with the device. However, there are a few things that irritate me about it that I was hoping you could comment on:
1.) There is a serious lag issue. Do a quick google search and you'll find that this is a universal problem with the phone.
2.) The GPS does not work. Also a universal issue.
3.) No 2.2 Froyo.
4.) No last.fm scrobbling support for the default music player (which I love by the way!)
5.) Drivers for Windows 7 x64 do not work well. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got it. Again, a universal issue.
A lot of people complain about the TouchWiz UI, but I personally enjoy it, as long as the lag issue is taken care of. Also I'm pleased with the phone call quality, and almost all other aspects of the phone.
I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
[thecoolestcow]
Here is the response:
Dear [thecoolestcow],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regarding the GPS on the phone, Samsung Mobile is aware that under certain conditions, the GPS on our U.S. Galaxy S devices may not be meeting performance expectations. We are diligently evaluating the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
We advise you to use assisted GPS powered by your service provider.
We still don't have any update regarding the release of the Android 2.2 for the Captivate and the drivers that will be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.
We will forward your report of this behavior along to the appropriate parties for additional review and consideration.
We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Should you desire additional assistance resolving this, we invite you to call Samsung Customer Support by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357 between the hours 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Sincerely,
Technical Support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
man I just dont see this lag yall are talking about... Had the phone since day 1, no lag fix and its fast as my n1 on 2.2. about.. Wierd...
Also GPS does work, just not reliably all the time, some works fine, others not, others sometimes.. So saying it dont work is exadurating. I just dont want people that dont have one think that the GPS dont work. It does and I use it everyday without issue. No fixes or anything, mine and some others works...
2.2 froyo will be here soon. Hold your horses on and it will be here next month I will bet...

I didn't see the lag either for a while, but I see it in most of the Samsung native apps, like Messaging and the screen unlock.
GPS also used to work amazingly. It just stopped completely now for me.
It's good though that they acknowledged in the email that they were going to release a fix for it.

thecoolestcow said:
I didn't see the lag either for a while, but I see it in most of the Samsung native apps, like Messaging and the screen unlock.
GPS also used to work amazingly. It just stopped completely now for me.
It's good though that they acknowledged in the email that they were going to release a fix for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, Well Im certain it will be fixed. The samsung epic 4g is rumored to have a working GPS (more testing needs done for me to believe it for sure) and if we have the same hardware gps wise as the Epic 4g we should definatly see a fix...

Nice, Engadget confirms.
engadget.com/2010/08/18/samsung-says-gps-is-tested-and-validated-on-epic-4g-our-testi/

There is most certainly lag. Like you guys, it wasn't a big deal until I saw the lag fix.
Long story short, I've been running the lag fix about a week, then borked my phone with another tweak and had to revert back to stock. HOLY COW was that thing slow... I never really knew any different until I had seen greener pastures
I will say I don't think the DEFAULT lag is worse than any other phone on the market. But it is capable of much, much faster.

Also you forgot to include the complaint that MMS doesn't work on EDGE, only 3G.

TexUs said:
There is most certainly lag. Like you guys, it wasn't a big deal until I saw the lag fix.
Long story short, I've been running the lag fix about a week, then borked my phone with another tweak and had to revert back to stock. HOLY COW was that thing slow... I never really knew any different until I had seen greener pastures
I will say I don't think the DEFAULT lag is worse than any other phone on the market. But it is capable of much, much faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which lag fix did you use? I saw several. I haven't rooted my device yet because I'm a little girl. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible first.

thecoolestcow said:
Which lag fix did you use? I saw several. I haven't rooted my device yet because I'm a little girl. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I did all my tweaks manually the first time. However when I borked and started over I used this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934
That will do all necessary tweaks at once. Just download the update.zip file to the root of your INTERNAL card, reboot into recovery mode (ask if you don't know how... easiest way is to use ADB), and select "reinstall packages" and you're done.
Just check the post I linked to, but it'll remove all the ATT crapware, remove the loud startup sounds, install root, block ads, etc.
After it's ran you then can go into the app it adds and run the lag fix... After you run that script it needs a reboot... And then you've got a lag fixed phone that runs twice as fast. ROM Manager, for instance, takes like a whole freaking minute it seems to open un-lag-fixed. Lag-fixed it takes several seconds max.

TexUs said:
Well I did all my tweaks manually the first time. However when I borked and started over I used this: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934
That will do all necessary tweaks at once. Just download the update.zip file to the root of your INTERNAL card, reboot into recovery mode (ask if you don't know how... easiest way is to use ADB), and select "reinstall packages" and you're done.
Just check the post I linked to, but it'll remove all the ATT crapware, remove the loud startup sounds, install root, block ads, etc.
After it's ran you then can go into the app it adds and run the lag fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy crap, how did I miss that one? Excellent, thank you. I will likely be doing that in the near future!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

thecoolestcow said:
Holy crap, how did I miss that one? Excellent, thank you. I will likely be doing that in the near future!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NP.
I'm happy with 2.1 right now... I mean the Captivate at 2.1 runs faster than anything else on the market, including the N1 2.2......
So I can live with 2.1 until Samsung releases 2.2
Once you see how much faster it is with the lag fix, you'll start to wonder how much faster 2.2 will be. The Captivate will be untouchable.

There is definitely significant lag on the stock firmware - most notably for me with the marketplace but s also for some other apps when they are loading data. I haven't applied any fixes yet as I'm waiting for a decent firmware update before I do too much with my phone.
JH2/3 are looking like good bets, but I would suspect that an official firmware is right around the corner given the few changes between JH2 and JH3.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Why wait? It takes 5 minutes to vastly improve the usability of your phone.

And worst comes to worst, you use the Odin3 one-click to restore it to stock. Seems pretty awesome. I'll probably be "super-rooting" tonight!

Also to note you should only be doing that super-rooting from stock to start with... It's the most reliable method anyway. You can try it from what you've got but- if there's issues you just need to do it from stock.

Hm. And there's no way to back up my apps/data right?

thecoolestcow said:
Hm. And there's no way to back up my apps/data right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, download ROM Manager but you need to be rooted first I think... So you can root your phone only (same process but it just does rooting: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=725555), download/install ROM Manager (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734163). Then when you reboot into the ROM Manager recovery screen there's nandroid backup utility that'll back up everything.
If you like selective backups of stuff you can also use Titanium Backup (also requires root).

smashpunks said:
man I just dont see this lag yall are talking about... Had the phone since day 1, no lag fix and its fast as my n1 on 2.2. about.. Wierd...
Also GPS does work, just not reliably all the time, some works fine, others not, others sometimes.. So saying it dont work is exadurating. I just dont want people that dont have one think that the GPS dont work. It does and I use it everyday without issue. No fixes or anything, mine and some others works...
2.2 froyo will be here soon. Hold your horses on and it will be here next month I will bet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.

derek4484 said:
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're about a month after release and have Vanilla Android 2.1 ROMs, so chill out. Have some patience, I'm sure we'll see them for 2.2 as well.

derek4484 said:
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine works and so do others in those thousands of people threads. If you would like I can copy n paste them for ya...
Its directed me to many places perfectly so it works, its just unreliable and not the best, hence needs to be optimized ...
now post a link where samsung admitted using incorrect drivers? I've never saw that...

Why I am not angry at Samsung or [email protected]

Maybe I am the only one, but flashing roms and learning how to screw up my captivate, and more importantly learn how to fix it afterwords, has made me not really care about when my phone will get 2.2 or 2.3. The developers here have made roms that I believe are just as good, if not better than the "official" versions. Sure Samsung promised 2.2 a long time ago, but what is the fun in just a boring update? Am I the only one who feels this way, or am I just addicted to flashing?

Here, here!

The only thing an official AT&T update would bring at this point in the game, would be better custom ROMs.
IMVHO of course.

I respect your right not to be upset. Still, I think there are a number of things to be legitimately upset about - none of which are addressed by the ROMS on xda.
The restart issue: this problem has been known for a long time. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have made it easy to get a working phone. They denied the issue for a while. They then recognized it, but never made the exchange process easy. Look at all the random shutdown threads and see the mixed experiences people have had. To make matters worse, broken phones are often replaced with other broken phones. AT&T has been either too lazy or too cheap to pull the affected IMEIs from circulation. People have gone through 2 or 3 phones before getting one that 'works.'
My GPS doesn't work at all. I can stand out in the middle of a field and my phone will see 1 satelite. I get a lock every once in a while, but it NEVER has tracked. I've tried just about every GPS fix out there and none of them work for me (and I shouldn't need to try a bunch of fixes off some internet forum anyhow). Has there been any help from AT&T or Samsung on this issue? - No. They seem to pretend it doesn't exist. To make matters worse, some phones seem to work as expected - BUT some of those have the shutdown issue. People are afraid to turn in their screwed up phone with a working GPS because they might end up with a 'normal' phone with a broken GPS. That's outrageous. Seriously, it shows the truly pathetic quality of the Captivate and the companies that manufacture/distribute it.
There are features that came on my phone that have still not been enabled. Media Hub, for example, was billed all over the place as a great new feature - to be enabled later. It's later...much later. When do I get Media Hub? I don't see it. I can't get it to work via any custom ROMs (unless I'm missing something).
The way that AT&T and Samsung have handled this situation reads as a case study in poor customer service. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it enough to get me to avoid another Samsung phone? Probably. I bet many others would say the same.

Custom ROMs saved me from hating this phone and made it a really great device in every way I can think of, but it doesn't excuse AT&T+Samsung's lack of support on this device.
All I can say is thank goodness for people on this forum who have the interest, know how and drive to do what those companies have not done: make the Captivate a great device.

delugeofspam said:
Here, here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? Where?

Wdustin1 said:
acctually there is a working media hub .apk in one of the forums and it works great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? 10 characters

I agree, I love this phone and I'm thankful for samsung and AT&T not doing their job, because it's made people on these forums come up with some amazing roms/kernels/what-have-you.

The rom leaks developers are working on are part of a conspiracy. Think about it.

rwj5279955 said:
The only thing an official AT&T update would bring at this point in the game, would be better custom ROMs.
IMVHO of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup! My Sentiments exactly.

fldude99 said:
Where? 10 characters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was on the Epic forums.
I tried this a while ago on one of the early versions of cog and it worked fine, but I don't use it enough to keep it on my phone. But I can confirm that it did work for me.

sarcasmo said:
I respect your right not to be upset. Still, I think there are a number of things to be legitimately upset about - none of which are addressed by the ROMS on xda.
The restart issue: this problem has been known for a long time. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have made it easy to get a working phone. They denied the issue for a while. They then recognized it, but never made the exchange process easy. Look at all the random shutdown threads and see the mixed experiences people have had. To make matters worse, broken phones are often replaced with other broken phones. AT&T has been either too lazy or too cheap to pull the affected IMEIs from circulation. People have gone through 2 or 3 phones before getting one that 'works.'
My GPS doesn't work at all. I can stand out in the middle of a field and my phone will see 1 satelite. I get a lock every once in a while, but it NEVER has tracked. I've tried just about every GPS fix out there and none of them work for me (and I shouldn't need to try a bunch of fixes off some internet forum anyhow). Has there been any help from AT&T or Samsung on this issue? - No. They seem to pretend it doesn't exist. To make matters worse, some phones seem to work as expected - BUT some of those have the shutdown issue. People are afraid to turn in their screwed up phone with a working GPS because they might end up with a 'normal' phone with a broken GPS. That's outrageous. Seriously, it shows the truly pathetic quality of the Captivate and the companies that manufacture/distribute it.
There are features that came on my phone that have still not been enabled. Media Hub, for example, was billed all over the place as a great new feature - to be enabled later. It's later...much later. When do I get Media Hub? I don't see it. I can't get it to work via any custom ROMs (unless I'm missing something).
The way that AT&T and Samsung have handled this situation reads as a case study in poor customer service. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it enough to get me to avoid another Samsung phone? Probably. I bet many others would say the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very well said! Btw, LOVE the screen name, lol.
I don't even own this phone, my gf does and I've done limited research so I could flash Cog2.3b8. The phone is WAAAAY better with Cog, but the gps blatantly disappeared on us halfway to our destination last weekend. I sighed and pulled out my mt4g which caught a lock in about 1/10th of a second and guided us there with absolutely no errors.
This made ME feel pretty stupid considering I gave her the phone as a gift. Thank god I bought it used and can probably sell it for what I paid for it.
From my limited experience with AT&T and Samsung I am furious. This phone had tremendous potential but I will avoid Samsung and AT&T like the plague from now on.
Delaying updates is one thing but the GPS issue is ****ing ridiculous. It's a joke!! There's no other way to describe it. You should all be irate and demand your money back.
Yes, T-mobile has had QC issues with the MT4G but everyone in the thread who has returned their phones has praised T-mobile for the way they handle their customer service, including myself. How many have had that experience with AT&T?

You should still be mad at Samsung.
Instead of making good ROMs great, we're making crappy ROMs good.

vunuts said:
It was on the Epic forums.
I tried this a while ago on one of the early versions of cog and it worked fine, but I don't use it enough to keep it on my phone. But I can confirm that it did work for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked for me as well. I just didnt care for it. I would much rather have netflix. I have a different apk somewhere around here. If his doesnt work for you let me know via pm and I will send it... nm i just posted it

Phateless said:
You should all be irate and demand your money back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah. I don't really need GPS, and last time I tried it outside my work building it got lock in about 2 or 3 seconds. I've tried it a couple of times while driving with mixed results. It seems to depend a lot on the area. As expected (or maybe not), it seemed to worked the best in the "wealthy" part of the city. I live in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Other than that I don't know. I haven't had any single random restart that I know it wasn't caused by me, same with charging death, mainly caused by bad UV settings.
I only used the stock rom for about 2 days before I moved and lagfixed it. I killed it once in a bad kernel flashing attempt. The fact that I can revive it using a home made usb jig makes me love it even more.
Right now, I just wished people could experience that same phone I'm experiencing. I think I'm in love with it.

I'm mad at both. My Captivate is my work phone, provided by my employer - so I am less comfortable flashing it to overcome the shortcomings of the standard AT&T build - yet I did root the phone and install the MobileAP so I can actually work when my client doesn't let me connect to their network.
My beef is on smaller things like - disabling tethering, not having more robust support for Exchange, the inability to sideload, or even load Android Market apps that AT&T doesn't want me to see.
As a work tool, I want my phone to let me work, and these limits, largely self-imposed are galling.

I've learned so much over the last week. I must have flashed my phone at least 20 times and got a few good bricks out of it too. Samsung and At&t can do what they want. These roms works much better than anything they could ever do.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I'm not mad at Samsung or Rogers for the reasons stated above, I'm mad at them for broken promises as they relate to hardware - namely the USB-to-HDMI issue, which was a big reason for me to go with this phone over another. We were promised a software update to enable this and were even shown a cable on the official Sammy site, but nada.

The Big List of G2X Questions and Answers

To summarize the most commonly asked questions and give rational answers rather than conspiracy theories, I've compiled a list of questions and answers below. These are based off of reading the LG Forum, the T-Mobile forum, their PR twitter feeds and XDA, as well as a little brain work.
What are the known flaws of the G2X?
Below are some commonly encountered issues:
* Rebooting - Random rebooting that is sometimes associated with charging the phone, but can happen at any time. This varies greatly from phone-to-phone and for some it's an infrequent occurrence while others seem to encounter the issue multiple times a day.
* Slow GPS lock - It can take between 30 seconds - 8 minutes for the phone to get your location using GPS satellites. There is no definitive fix, though various workarounds and solutions have helped some users.
* LCD screen bleed - This is a hardware issue where the screen has lighter areas near the corners. This is a fairly common problem among LCDs in general (not just the G2X), though some phones have it worse than others.
* WiFi/Data issues - Sometimes 4G/3G/EDGE will kick in even when WiFi is enabled, resulting in both icons being in the top notification bar, even though the phone is using your mobile data and not the WiFi. This usually resolves itself over time, though rebooting can help.
* Poor battery life - Some users complain that the battery life is exceptionally short. While this has never been my experience personally, others recommend JuiceDefender to help manage battery life.
When is the Gingerbread update coming out?
The short answer is 'nobody knows.' Various estimates have been given out officially (originally T-Mobile said in May, then 'by summer', LG forum mods said to bank on it by the end of June, etc.) but all of these deadlines have been missed. Whether or not they were ever deadlines or PR people running their mouths without knowing the truth, we don't know.
That being said, here's what we do know: the update is obviously in development as we had a very early leak that's full of bugs, so don't waste your time flashing it. At the 2011 E3 convention, G2Xs were seen running a dev version of Gingerbread. LG Forum moderators do have a recent test build that they're running on their phones. Tmonews.com reported that T-Mobile has been prepping for rolling out a test version to employees, allowing them to test for bugs. So, we know that it exists and we know that they're still in their testing phase.
That still doesn't give us a definitive time period, but it seems likely that they're rather far along in their testing phase if lower level T-Mobile employees are going to be able to test the update. It also means a leak will probably happen.
T-Mobile/LG has to be very careful in releasing the update, because if it doesn't fix all of the major issues on most of the phones, almost everyone that can will swap the phone for a different one, causing both T-Mobile and LG to lose large amounts of money.
Based on the information that's available regarding where they are in testing, it's likely we will see the update within the next month or so, though there are no guarantees.
Will the Gingerbread update fix my problems with this phone?
Again, nobody knows. LCD bleed is a hardware issue and that will certainly not be remedied with a software update. From the few snippets of info we have received about the current update, LG knows about the issues listed above and are aiming to fix them with the software update. But, again, if it's in testing it's still a work-in-progress, so there's no telling what the final version will fix.
Why isn't the G2X available for sale on the T-Mobile website?
LG manufactures the phones and then T-Mobile places an order for a set amount. T-Mobile placed an order to LG for the amount of G2Xs they estimated would last them through the next few months; however, people began swapping their phones 3-4 times, which means they blew through their entire inventory in half the time they thought they would, leading to a shortage.
T-Mobile realizes that if they were to place an order for additional phones, they would continue to run into the same problem: people would complain about LCD bleed, software bugs, etc. and continue to swap their phones, causing them to have to order 4x the amount of phones they should actually need and the customer's problems still might not be fixed.
T-Mobile then told LG "we're not ordering anymore G2Xs until you fix the LCD and update the software and we're not releasing any software updates until we're 100% sure that the bugs are worked out." This is why we've heard that LG is switching their LCD manufacturer and also why the giant delay in the GB update—if they screw up this update, there are going to be a LOT of angry customers wanting their money back or swapping to another phone entirely (which we've already seen happening, but if the update doesn't fix people's issues, you can bet almost everyone is going to demand T-Mobile swaps their phone with another model and it will cause a PR nightmare.)
T-Mobile is likely losing a good amount of money on this whole debacle and wants to ensure they minimize the amount of replacements before they put the G2X back up for sale. In the meantime, the stores are able to sell through their remaining stock.
Are you sure it's not being recalled?
If the G2X were being recalled due to hardware flaws, it's very unlikely stores would continue selling through their stock. It's likely that the online stock ran out and T-Mobile refused to order more for the reasons listed above and the price was raised slightly so T-Mobile could recoup the cost of all of the phone swapping.
A T-Mobile Customer Service Representative told me…
These people often know very little and read off of scripts. When they do give you 'inside information', it is almost always baseless speculation. Most of the misinformation about release dates and issues/recalls are due to CSRs giving bad information based on a misunderstanding of the situation.
Should I switch to the Sensation?
If you'd like, but there's no need to post a thread telling everyone you're doing it. By this time, there are plenty of reviews of both phones and there's nothing you can add to the discussion that isn't written somewhere else.
Which custom ROM should I flash?
This is a personal preference, though I would suggest starting with CyanogenMod 7 and Faux123's AOSP Gingerbread ROMs, since they seem to be the most actively developed and supported.

Wow, I'm pretty sure a lot of people will appreciate the fact the you took the time to write this.
Thank you for this, will help stop alot of other repetitive threads
Sent From My Stock G2x

Need to add the
phone goes "dead", heats up, and requires battery pull to reboot
issue.

Curious.. if they are switching LCD manufacturer, should we opt to swap out phones out once they are selling again?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

unique77 said:
Curious.. if they are switching LCD manufacturer, should we opt to swap out phones out once they are selling again?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind TMO will most likely still have a large backup of the exisiting G2X's (It's how they are doing swaps now), so there would be no guarantee as to which G2X you would get....

[07.01.2013] Touch (Home) Button Issue HTC One S (Helicoptering)

Massive thanks to PulpZilla for letting me have his OP. I will now be able to take care of the updates a lot easier. Mate, this was a nice move. And even though the "Thanks" at the bottom say they where for me, they are still counted to your name. I did not get them from you
-=Introduction=-
This Thread serves as collection and information point for all Data regarding the HOME BUTTON / SCREEN ISSUE or as HTC sometimes likes to call it: HELICOPTERING GLITCH.
It also serves technical and factual discussion in order to maybe find ways to overcome or work around the issue.
For any and all discussion regarding civil, legal or other types of action against HTC we now have a new thread, named:
Operation Rolling Thunder
It is run by Gibarian. Please head over there for discussing actions and options. I would also like to encourage everyone to move discussions of "Buy or not to Buy" this phone over to that thread. So we can keep this clean for rather technical and news things. Apart from that, I would also like to express that i outspokenly support the campaigning as long as it stays civil and serves the sole purpose of raising public awareness and thus creates the necessary pressure on HTC. I would like you to support the current campaign there too to help our issue getting taken more serious. Up till now HTC has delivered nothing but empty promises.
Please refrain from stupid actions/posts/reviews.
Thank you.
Sneakyghost
-=Problem Description=-
Main Symptom:
The capacitive Home Touch Button sometimes likes to press itself. When in an app or the home screen without or with the finger near the home button it seems to get pressed a few quick times in succession without actually being touched.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Additionial symptoms:
- continuous/odd vibration
- multiple screenshots being saved to disk without the user interacting with the phone
- the virtual buttons appear locked/dead/without function [NOTICE] From Base 2.21 onwards, this can turn into the main symptom and the screen switching can disappear.
- long-press menues coming up randomly (On Stock JellyBean 3.16 this would be Google Now popping up all the time)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Occurrence and reproducibility:
Mainly related to GSM activity, rarely on WCDMA only setting. It seems to be related to low GSM signal (1 to 2 bars), switching between networks, calls coming in or building up, seldom wifi and 3g connections. The occurrence still seems rather random as it is hard to purposely reproduce the situation. The best chance to trigger the misbehaviour or malfunction is if signal coverage is low, 3G/HSDPA (or: WCDMA) is not available, try to build up a call or start a heavy data transmission on edge. A few people report the issue only after the first 2- 4 weeks of use.
Also noteworthy: it seems to hit phones in complete unaltered, stock state as well as heavy customized and unlocked phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-=Documentations and Discussions=-
Discussion on the Vodafone UK forums: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/HTC-One-Series/Home-screen-button-problem/td-p/1082393
Discussion on the O2 Germany Forum: http://forum.o2online.de/t5/Software-Firmware/HTC-One-S-Home-Knopf-Problem/td-p/259614
Discussion on the SwissCom Forum: http://supportcommunity.swisscom.ch...onie/HTC-One-S-Home-Knopf-Problem/td-p/121958 (NEW)
Discussion on the Android-Hilfe.de Forum: http://www.android-hilfe.de/htc-one...usgeloest-durch-bestimmte-netzfrequenzen.html
Discussion on the Handy-Faq.de Forum: http://www.handy-faq.de/forum/htc_one_s_forum/251792-display_springt_hin_her_home_ansicht.html
User contributed Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOb1LuWA7N8
User Contributed Video: http://youtu.be/kvPOZsk9I_I
User contributed Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKwMkuisqE
Disassembly video, bottom Antenna, US Model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0jGY2N2h1U
Disassembly Video, complete EU Model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lBT15PgpYw
LeeDroid mention of HTC's own theory: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=26819259&postcount=707
Related:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6xlZFcgPlo (similar issue on Galaxy Nexus) (Thanks to SageKing for pointing this out!)
https://plus.google.com/112413860260589530492/posts/1a4hY7VeqiG (Google Engineer talking about the Galaxy Nexus problem)
http://maps.mobileworldlive.com/ Site to see which operator uses what frequency in which country - cross check against Affected users Spreadsheet!
-=News Articles=- (please send in other articles if you find any as we will pass them on to HTC at some point):
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/htc-one-s-touch-button-bug-makes-phone-go-crazy-26-06-2012/
http://www.phonearena.com/news/HTC-One-S-touch-button-bug-makes-the-phone-go-crazy-video_id31606/
http://www.chip.de/artikel/HTC-One_S-Handy-Test_55316948.html
http://www.chip.de/news/HTC-One-S-Probleme-HTC-bezieht-Stellung_57834622.html --> Chip cites HTC here, yet no source is given.
-=Attempted fixes=-
- Disabling GSM/EDGE completely (no calls in rural areas, Issue not fixed)
- Setting Accessibility → Touch & Hold delay to medium (reported ineffective by some users starting HERE
- Factory Reset (multiple users had tried this, was recommended by different support agents, did not help at all)
- different Radio (there had been different radios involved, but not all radios seem to be affected. Still needing evidence)
- Exhchange SIM Card. (has been done by several users, did not help at all)
- Root device, Unroot device, flash Custom, flash stock, unlock Bootloader, relock bootloader. (did not help at all)
- Removing bottom cover (Mobile Radio Antenna), cleaning spring contacts, examining hight (make sure contact is made) - Not fixed
- Setting Display illumination to Auto Brightness (did not help at all)
- Run CM9/CM10/MIUI/JB Builds. Did not change anything.
- New Radio 1.06s.50.02.27_2_10.08.50.04L (19th of July 2012) Betters it for most users considerably,did not help all Users
- New Radio 1.06es.50.02.31_10.09a.50.04L (21st of August 2012) Worsens the effects clearly for most users, did help some very few. Upgrade NOT recommended!
- New Radio 1.08es.50.02.21_10.09c.50.04L (14th of September 2012) Some users report failure and behavior similar to the 1.06es radio.
- New Radio 1.08ts.50.02.16_10.08e.50.04L (ca. November 2012) Similar to the 1.08es radio
- New Radio 1.09ts.50.02.04_10.08g.50.04L (ca. November 2012 Only my Test-Results available, which where just as bad as 1.08 based Radios.
- New Radio 1.11.50.05.28_10.27.50.08L (24th of December 2012) Worse than the 1.08 radios, but some users also reported a Fix
-=Working Fix(es)=-
none known
Update 4th July 2012: HTC begins to claim towards some users now, they were soon be rolling out a software fix. 4 weeks later, they still say the same.
Update 21st July 2012: HTC has not officially acknowledged the Issue, but allowed this Info from HTC Elevate moderator Jason Dunn to be shared: "A software based Fix is possible and being worked on. A release date is not available but it will come".
Update end of July 2012: HTC released a new RUU (RUU_Ville_U_ICS_40_S_HTC_Europe_2.21.401.10_Radio_1.06s.50.02.27_2_10.08.50.04L__release_271119_signed.exe) with new Radio. Betters it for most users considerably Semi-FIX. Not good for all.
Update 30th August2012: HTC Released a new RUU (RUU_Ville_U_ICS_40_S_HTC_Europe_2.31.401.5_Radio_1 .06es.50.02.31_10.09a.50.04L_release_275655_signed .exe) This Firmware does not help most users but rather worsens the effects again. Upgrade of Radio not recommended!
Update 14th September 2012: HTC released a new OTA to Vodafone Customers going by the Name of 2.38, containing a new Radio 1.08es, which does not solve anything. Like the previous 2.31 WWE release, it seems to make matters worse again.The other carriers succedingly released their updates with either the 1.06es or the 1.08es radio. Only T-Mobile released a 1.08ts variant. None fixed the Issue.
Update 24th December 2012: HTC finally released JellyBean Firmware 3.16 to their customers. It became obvvious only hours later that it did not fix anything. I myself have a worse HBI problem than on 2.31. Plus, reception and Data-Switching got worse too.
-=Workarounds=-
- Disable Home Button: User Beatnix has found out how to disable the Home button completely. It can then be replaced by the App "Button Savior"Obsolete
- Recommended: Custom ROM allowing button remaps. Viper ROM with Venom Tweaks has given me almost a hassle free Experience during the past month due to its ability to map functions to the buttons that either do nothing or do not disturb too much.
- Recommended: After countless tests with all sorts of Radio/Wifi-Partition/Base Version Combinations it is very obvious that the 1.06s Radio from Base 2.21 is by far the best, least bugged Radio.
Note: A "Brick Downgrade[/UL]" might be required, if you are already on or above Firmware Version 1.78, as Radios can only be flashed on lower hboot versions. Here is a [URL="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1990043"]Tutorial
-=What Now?=-
If you are feeling like getting active i would like to invite you to join Gibarians Operation Rolling Thunder which is designed to make our Issue heard. We feel that we have been quietly waiting for a fix long enough and that waiting any longer will just make HTC believe that they do not need to take any further action, so Gibarian has designed a campaign to make the Issue more public and make it obvious to HTC that there is need for urgent action.
At the time of writing, some People have been waiting 6 month for a fix and had not gotten a replacement, nor any other compensation. They have just been left out in the dark with a nearly unusable phone. So, feel free to make yourself heard! Also, if you just have a story to tell, feel free to add it at Gibarian's Thread "Operation Rolling Thunder". You are warmly invited to share your sufferings there and also discuss recommendations for other (potential) buyers.
-= IMPORTANT: Report your device here if affected =-
PLEASE:
file a report with your vendor (most likely your carrier) and ask for repair/replacement
file a report with HTC. Ask for repair/replacement if your Vendor refuses.
This is very important, as this is the only means by which HTC can tell the severity of the issue!
Jason Dunn of HTC Elevate and Richard Willis of HTC Consumer Communications EMEA encourage everyone to report to HTC.
Please also report here: (For updating your Entry please contact Sneakyghost or Zoesdad70)

[UPDATE 11.10.2012]
Here is a new Report Sheet where everyone with a Serial xx26 and higher can report his FULL serial and Contact Details.
Personal Information: This Sheet can only be accessed by me (the Results page) and is only used to be forwarded to HTC. I kindly ask you to leave contact details for the sole purpose of possible further questions. Your data will remain with me and there will be no abuse.
Thank you.
LINK: http://goo.gl/5gAR8
What do we do that for? I am currently talking with another HTC Digital Consumer Communications Manager for the EMEA region and he is trying to find out about the new devices. If it is a lot of them, HTC wants to fix that in time. To be able to do so, they need to know as early as possible. So, your help is greatly appreciated and in the end, will help all. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-=Statistical Data of affected users=-
Updated 7.01.2013
Total number of reports:
793
- Areas where this has been reported:
Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, Swiss, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Malawi, Ethiopia, Niger, Iran, Malaysia, China, Vietnam.
Please pay attention to this! It is mainly northern Europe and Russia. Up till now four reports from the US.
- Serial - Numbers first digits that had been reported as affected:
FA28 (2x)
HT23 (183x)
HT24 (77x)
HT25 (18x)
HT26 (7x)
HT27 (3x)
MB22 (1x)
SH23 (149x)
SH24 (190x)
SH25 (27x)
SH26 (35x)
SH27 (1x)
SH28 (1x)
- Base Versions reported (Entries cleaned up, corrected Base Versions according to reported Radios. This assumes that all reporters used either RUU or OTA).
1.09 (2x)
1.11 (8x)
1.15 (1x) (odd Thailand version - never seen anywhere else)
1.47 (1x)
1.53 (16x)
1.70 (6x)
1.77 (40x)
1.78 (273x)
1.84 (5x)
2.15 (2x)
2.21 (10x)
2.31 (338x)
2.35 (3x)
2.38 (20x)
- Black device count:
577
- Grey device count:
185
- Baseband versions reported:
0.15.31501S.16_3_10.12.31501S.06L
0.15.31501S.19_10.12.31501S.06L
0.15.31501S.19_2_10.13.31501S.06L
0.16.31501S.17_10.23.31501S.10L
0.16.31501S.17_2_10.23.31501S.10L
0.16.31501S.19_2_10.23.31501S.10L
1.06s.50.02.27_2_10.08.50.04L
1.06es.50.02.31_10.09a.50.04L
1.08es.50.02.21_10.09c.50.04L
1.08ts.50.02.16_10.08e.50.04L
1.09es.50.02.07_2_10.09d.50.04L
16.11.20.02U_16.05.20.11_M2
16.12.20.02U_16.05.20.16_M2
16.13.20.02U_16.05.20.24_M
16.13.20.02U_16.05A.20.23_M
Concluding:
All the numbers peak at xx23 and xx24 serials. Base 1.78 and 2.31 are reported most often. My Guess: the March and April devices are worst combined with those two bases.
Source of these figures is the Google Spreadsheet, Anyone wanting to add can do so. Please feel welcome to put in your details via the Form linked in the top left Cell of that table, the top right cell of the table holds another spreadsheet-form for only the newer xx26 and up serials. It is designed so that it remains private because you can put in your contact details so that HTC can contact you. They are currently investigating the newer devices and might need your help.
-=END NOTICE=-
If you came here to find information you were helped hopefully. Please help other people with the same issue by raising your voice and add a report. Please include your Country, your first part of the Serial (“SH23”), Carrier Base, Baseband, Phone color etc. Best is to update the Spreadsheet directly.

Same problem here, although it hasn't happened in a while. I have the phone rooted but even before it was rooted it happened.

interesting. Since you've rooted and changed the ROM it hasn't happened?

Same one here.
I think it has something to do with the gsm-mode. When i'm in an area without HSDPA(only G-Mode, sometimes also in Edge) or when i manually switch the mode to 'only GSM', the switching appeares.
The strange thing is that this is not always the case.
I don't know if this is a hardware error or has something to do with the recent update. I can't compare this because my phone came back from RMA the day the Update was released. On my 'old' phone (before RMA) i never had that problem, but that was before the update.
*edit*: Still on Stock Rom.
Greets,
**Jürgen**

opiswahn said:
Same one here.
I think it has something to do with the gsm-mode. When i'm in an area without HSDPA(only G-Mode, sometimes also in Edge) or when i manually switch the mode to 'only GSM', the switching appeares.
The strange thing is that this is not always the case.
I don't know if this is a hardware error or has something to do with the recent update. I can't compare this because my phone came back from RMA the day the Update was released. On my 'old' phone (before RMA) i never had that problem, but that was before the update.
*edit*: Still on Stock Rom.
Greets,
**Jürgen**
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
funnily enough it seems to happen more when there's less light? also it still happened when i had WiFi on so i'm not exactly sure of the cause. Hopefully it is only a software glitch and something that can be fixed in custom ROMs!

Has someone fixed the problem with a custom rom? Or has that problem with a custom rom?
I'd like to know if i have to RMA ma phone again or if it's a simple software glitch...

after more testing it looks like you're right it seems to happen when the phone is searching for a GSM signal on edge?! really weird...must be others out there having the same issue?

Sure, that problem have more people. I have reported it to HTC this day. The problem is the Edge we think. It can be reproduced if you turn on Gsm.
I hope HTC make a update to solve the problem, but more people must report I think.
P. S. I'm on Trickdroid Rom, this happens on custom Rom to.
Gesendet von meinem HTC One S mit Tapatalk

PulpzillA said:
after more testing it looks like you're right it seems to happen when the phone is searching for a GSM signal on edge?! really weird...must be others out there having the same issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A whole bunch of people have this problem over on the UK Vodafone HTC One S forum

I have this problem whenever I try to press space, I end up hitting home. I noticed that if you slide your finger down from the screen onto the touch buttons, it registers as a button press. Whereas on my Desire S, if I was sliding my finger down (i.e. scrolling a list), even if I went past the screen and onto the touch buttons, it would still continue to scroll. Only if I let go of the screen and then touched the buttons again would it press. I'm pretty sure that's how it should be.

Lamyron said:
Sure, that problem have more people. I have reported it to HTC this day. The problem is the Edge we think. It can be reproduced if you turn on Gsm.
I hope HTC make a update to solve the problem, but more people must report I think.
P. S. I'm on Trickdroid Rom, this happens on custom Rom to.
Gesendet von meinem HTC One S mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you wrote a Mail or did you call some support?
*Edit*
Ok, i just had a chat with a support-lady from HTC, she told me HTC knows of this problem and they are working on an update for this. But there is no release-date for this update.
*Edit2*
This doesn't seen to be a hardware problem, thats good news so far. Everyone who has this problem should report to HTC, to increase the pressure for the fix. This was a hint from the support-lady

I had same problem.
I gave my phone at warranty service, they checked it and approved the problem.
I managed to get the phone to seller and exchange to new one, but I know if I would repair it at service, they would replace back cover (had little chipping), battery and MOTHERBOARD.
So I suggest you to bring it to warranty (if the return period is over) and they should fix it...

PulpzillA said:
interesting. Since you've rooted and changed the ROM it hasn't happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify. I have the phone rooted but still on the stock ROM. And yeah, it seems to happen when its not on 3g.

Here is a video of the problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKwMkuisqE
Please post if you are concerned by the problem.
Conditions foir this issue to happen:
No wifi.
EDGE with low signal. numerous siwtch of the phone between 3G and EDGE.
then you shall reproduce the issue.

Thats exactly it. Just report to HTC to increase the awareness of this problem, so the fix comes out faster.

Really annoying now as the phone is barely usable on GSM signal! Gonna have to complain to HTC. This shouldn't happen whatsoever. It's a simple thing to test for?! Can't believe it wasn't picked up...
Don't know if its worth wiping and seeing what happens?
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

Guys, I turned off the data roaming sound in the network settings and havnt had this problem since. Though I.only turned it off last night but it hasn't happened since.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA

Interesting! thanks for the tip. will try this out and see.

shoffobroff said:
Guys, I turned off the data roaming sound in the network settings and havnt had this problem since. Though I.only turned it off last night but it hasn't happened since.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately that didn't work for me.
I sent mail to HTC support to inform them about problem.
They advise me to try new sim card.
I have new sim card now, but problem still exist
I'll send phone back tomorrow, but I think that next one will be affected by the same issue.

This has been getting worse for me. Seems to happen particularly when outside? Otherwise; exactly as described; when switching to and from Edge.
Neither Vodafone nor HTC UK are aware of the problem. HTC global suggested I hard reset. Currently awaiting next useful repair suggestion...

Upgrading to a new phone

I have another opportunity to go to a new phone. Currently, I have an S5 with AT&T. I'm not pleased with the S5's performance. When I got it in July, it was fantastic. Around November, it just tanked. It randomly soft resets, freezes up, odd issues with the GUI (in order to call anyone, you have to place a call twice as the first one immediately closes out the call app). I blame the forced software updates, although I can't say I've found anyone else with the issue (and now the last few days "Video" will randomly say it stopped working, so oh boy I can imagine what else is next). On top of that, it doesn't appear anywhere it can be rooted, at least not with AT&T (odds are I'll be stuck with AT&T for a while).
I liked the Nexus 6P, but it's only available through Google (i.e. no upgrade discount). I liked the latest Lumina XL (specifically for Continuum), but I know its still flaky (weak app support, buggy). What phone would you recommend me? I can say I don't want an iPhone. I'd really like to be able to root it, so possibly HTC? I work pretty much exclusively with Windows devices, am part developer part desktop technician (part networking guy, and like everything else). I'm not afraid of "more complicated interfaces" or advanced options (e.g. iPhone vs Android).

There's a dedicated thread for such questions here,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620179
Lots of opinions to be had there. So I'll close this thread.
Regards,
Darth
Forum Moderator

Database Info

welcome