Database Info

Possible GPS Fix for 2.3 Gingerbread Roms (Also works with 2.2 Froyo Roms)

I have a build 1006 and with all froyo roms my GPS worked flawlessly (I could even lock to several sats indoors). Now on 2.3.4 I can not keep a lock for more than a few minutes outdoors. It's not a hardware issue since it worked perfect with 2.2 (it's definetly for me a software issue).
Anyways, I found this link and applied the fix and now I can lock within 5 seconds to 9+ sats with a 5-15m accuracy outdoors and can even hold a lock to 4+ sats with about 20m accuracy indoors.
I am not sure if this works with CM7 or MIUI
Edit: I ran google maps while driving for about 15 mins (I know not very long) and it held its lock the entire time - I did notice it would jump from fine to not so fine accuracy (that little blue bubble that surrounds the arrow kept going from small to big). It didn't lose lock though. Will test more tomorrow morning.
Edit2: Just switched to DarkCore kernel from TalonDev to see if that matters.
If you want to try the fix follow the below link:
http://www.darkyrom.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-gps-quickest-fix-solution.2022/

mod777 said:
I have a build 1006 and with all froyo roms my GPS worked flawlessly (I could even lock to several sats indoors). Now on 2.3.4 I can not keep a lock. It's not a hardware issue since it worked perfect with 2.2 (it's definetly for me a software issue).
Anyways, I found this link and applied the fix and now I can lock within 5 seconds to 9+ sats with a 5-15m accuracy outdoors and can even hold a lock to 4+ sats with about 20m accuracy indoors.
FYI: I have yet to test it while driving.
Here's the link to the fix:
http://www.darkyrom.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-gps-quickest-fix-solution.2022/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you on cm7?

tjsooley said:
are you on cm7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apex 8.2
I don't know if it works with CM7 or MIUI

I'm on the stock 2.3.3 ROM and I can't see a lot of improvement. I already had fast locks but they weren't all that accurate and still aren't really. I'm still seeing the same average signal strength which IMO is why our GPS sucks.

chrislj said:
I'm on the stock 2.3.3 ROM and I can't see a lot of improvement. I already had fast locks but they weren't all that accurate and still aren't really. I'm still seeing the same average signal strength which IMO is why our GPS sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's something to try. With the Cappy GPS there is many variables and YMMV

Yeah I changed the file anyway. I'm gonna try improving my signal strength also. Maybe the 2 combined will give good results.

I will test it in Dlev ROM 3.81. I give my feedback tomorrow.

This actually helped me find more satellites, but didn't improve the signal strength or ability to lock at all...

pdubcramp said:
This actually helped me find more satellites, but didn't improve the signal strength or ability to lock at all...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it helped find more sats then you might be able to up the accuracy setting in angrygps (2.3) or lbstestmode (2.2) from 50 to 80 or so and see if that helps.

mod777 said:
If it helped find more sats then you might be able to up the accuracy setting in angrygps (2.3) or lbstestmode (2.2) from 50 to 80 or so and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would any of those apps work to just give me a reading of my gps info or do you guys recommend an app that just tells me my gps info instead of me always loading maps. i have searched through the phone and did not find a stock app like that which i would prefer rather then installing one.

Orions said:
would any of those apps work to just give me a reading of my gps info or do you guys recommend an app that just tells me my gps info instead of me always loading maps. i have searched through the phone and did not find a stock app like that which i would prefer rather then installing one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gps status from the market, or use angrygps. You can open angrygps by downloading sgs tools from the market. Go into secret codes and scroll all the way down to agrygps but make sure your gps is enabled and if it don't work then try it once more.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

mod777 said:
If it helped find more sats then you might be able to up the accuracy setting in angrygps (2.3) or lbstestmode (2.2) from 50 to 80 or so and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea this was even an option. I'm running the latest Serendipity ROM, can you offer me any more detail on how I actually do this? Does SGS tools work on an i9000 ROM? lbstestmode force closes SGS Tools. Thanks!
EDIT: Got into AngryGPS with *#3214789650#
Hopefully this will finally do the trick.

Tried this, haven't noticed any significant improvement yet.
Not surprising, though, as looking at the file it's just more tweaks and stuff for the supplemental data over your data connection, which is independent of fundamental GPS function. So I'd hesitate calling this a "fix" even if it shows some improvements for some people. If GPS is still utterly dependent on a data connection to even work 1/10th as good as other GPS devices that don't have data connections, it's still broken.
GPS should still work fine even if you have no cell service.

Amazes me (ok, maybe not that much) how I can have between 4-7 satellites show up on GPS Test and hardly ever get a lock and if I do the accuracy is only to 300 ft. Oh well, I think it is slightly better than before trying this but no where near good enough to be relied upon.

pdubcramp said:
Amazes me (ok, maybe not that much) how I can have between 4-7 satellites show up on GPS Test and hardly ever get a lock and if I do the accuracy is only to 300 ft. Oh well, I think it is slightly better than before trying this but no where near good enough to be relied upon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats the signal strength of the 4-7 satellites?

I tested it again on the way to work 20 minutes and it lost lock once -- still not as reliable as 2.2 was for me. I seem to get a bit more sattelites with anywhere from 30ish to 9ish dbm signal which should be enough to stay locked.
I also changed the accuracy in angrygps to 100 from 50 and it didn't seem to make much of a difference for me.
I did notice while watching the test in angrygps that the phone will lock pretty quickly within 5 seconds and stay locked for a few seconds with several sats then after a bit it loses it's lock to all sats even though dbm does'nt change then a few seconds later it gets the lock again.
I really hope someone that knows more can work on a 2.3 fix like plumbob which seemed to make froyo perfect for me. Oh well I guess more waiting.

chrislj said:
Whats the signal strength of the 4-7 satellites?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Typically below 30. I drove a little today and I had a span of about 15 miles on I-95 where I had 7 satellites, none above that 30 resulting in no lock.

I attached a file with new settings, created by forum member H3llstorm. It works much better, you can find the infor under the Dlev ROM 4.2.

GPS unusable

I posted this in Q&A but got no response so going to try here. I ma running the DarkyROM 10.3 and currently using the KK1 modem. The GPS is just useless on this ROM and modem combo. I have tried a couple of other modems but all of them give me terrible GPS performance. How do I get the GPS usable again on this ROM? What modem seems to work well with the hardware? Is there tweaks that need to be done to the Angry GPS settings to get this working reliably? When I use Google Maps the icon for me just spins around and never gets better than 30 meters accuracy and it is very slow to respond to movement of the vehicle?? Any help would be mucho appreciated.

Blackberrynomore said:
I posted this in Q&A but got no response so going to try here. I ma running the DarkyROM 10.3 and currently using the KK1 modem. The GPS is just useless on this ROM and modem combo. I have tried a couple of other modems but all of them give me terrible GPS performance. How do I get the GPS usable again on this ROM? What modem seems to work well with the hardware? Is there tweaks that need to be done to the Angry GPS settings to get this working reliably? When I use Google Maps the icon for me just spins around and never gets better than 30 meters accuracy and it is very slow to respond to movement of the vehicle?? Any help would be mucho appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried downloading the app called GPS test, clearing agps data, updating agps data, and then rebooting? This fixed all of my gps issues.
Hope this helps solve your problem!

Thanks for the response. I have cleared GPS data with no change. I just downloaded the Darky GPS fix gps.conf file and replaced my stock one and rebooted. Will test that later and see if that has any effect.

This may or may not be related to your problem, but it sounds similar to the issues I was having. I never could get any GPS app to give me my speed, bearing, or any reasonably accurate lock. I tried several modems, different ROMs, and searched every forum to no avail. Was about to give up then discovered when I disabled sensor aiding all those properties started working.
Like I said, it very well could've simply been a special case in my situation with a tweak or version bug bit it's worth a try.
I also use an app from the market called Faster Fix which might help. (I believe it simply does the gps.conf file fix for you)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

It's often as simple as Samsung's GPS hardware is ****. Utter ****. Sometimes it's software, but with Samsung it's more likely hardware.
I've heard of people sending them to Samsung to get the GPS replaced, could try that.

I get usable GPS with only a couple modems... KI3 is best for me
Maybe that could help?
And some ROMs seem to completely break my GPS... if I recall correctly Darky was one of them

I used to have pretty accurate and fast locking gps on infused 2.2.3 and kk4 modem. Then I tried Galnet Miui 2.26.11 and damn the gps locks within 10 seconds outside, and the accuracy is incredible around 12ft, and locks to 8 out of 9 satellites. Maybe you should try kk4 modem.

Blackberrynomore said:
Thanks for the response. I have cleared GPS data with no change. I just downloaded the Darky GPS fix gps.conf file and replaced my stock one and rebooted. Will test that later and see if that has any effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How'd this work for you? I've had no problems with GPS since I bought it on launch day. I've used the Froyo Infused ROM by gtg and recently flashed Darky ROM 10.2 and can't get a lock and GPS Status only sees one satellite. I just flashed Infusion kernel A2 and it didn't change GPS at all.

GPS lock

Everytime I try to use my navigation it takes my phone at least 10 minutes to lock onto my location even if I have gps satellites enabled. I'm running energy rom with stock kernel...what can I do to fix this. And even when I had other Roms I've had the same problems
Sent From My HTC Sensation 4G

What radio do you currently have? I'm on energy also and have the stock tmoUS radio, 10.56. I also used this patch:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1262652&highlight=agps
My gps locks on pretty quickly, I use Chartcross and also Ucenter gps apps, after flashing the rom and setting everything up I let one of those two apps run for ten or twenty minutes. The more you use gps the better it seems to get. Don't use FasterFix app if you use the patch above as it overwrites the patch. Good luck, hope this helps.

ddizzy81 said:
Everytime I try to use my navigation it takes my phone at least 10 minutes to lock onto my location even if I have gps satellites enabled. I'm running energy rom with stock kernel...what can I do to fix this. And even when I had other Roms I've had the same problems
Sent From My HTC Sensation 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming energy rom is still on GB. Try an ICS rom, I wanted to find a solution.. so I was open to new things. I updated to ICS for two reasons.
1) Camera had clipping noises (on sense 3.0)
2) My GPS didn't always lock
Like I said, I wanted to try something new which would hopefully rectify these issues.
ICS
1) fixed those clipping noises
2) GPS locks better than ever!
Bonus: Battery life is (at least for me) 2x longer
Try it!

ddizzy81 said:
Everytime I try to use my navigation it takes my phone at least 10 minutes to lock onto my location even if I have gps satellites enabled. I'm running energy rom with stock kernel...what can I do to fix this. And even when I had other Roms I've had the same problems
Sent From My HTC Sensation 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a gps/agps fix by crypted that works well for some on GB roms. Also make sure you only have the gps.conf file and to delete the suplrootcert (I think that's the name...lol) in system/etc
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1262652&highlight=gps

All I did was use another nav program and all is well now...thanks for all the suggestions
Sent From My HTC Sensation 4G

Fasterfix speeds up locking on.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using Tapatalk

I can strongly recomend this thread.
It's a guide to edit your gps.config so it suit your country and the satellites you access. The standard gps.config is adapted to fit the whole region where your phone's ROM is from.
After i edited my gps.config i get lock in 3-5 seconds.

[Q] Higher battery drain with Wifi off?

I've noticed with at least my Infuse that whenever I have my Wifi on I have significantly lower battery drain than when I have it off. I'm currently running Aeon 1.4 with Entropy's kernel but have noticed this with other kernels and ROMs that I've used. Screenshot attached showing that pretty much as soon as the wireless is turned off the battery usage takes a sudden drop and continues until it comes back on. Is there an issue with my phone or are there some settings that I should be aware of and try changing to remedy the issue?
I tried searching around before I made this thread and couldn't find anything that had the same issues I've been having. Any input would be appreciated.

Scrion said:
I've noticed with at least my Infuse that whenever I have my Wifi on I have significantly lower battery drain than when I have it off. I'm currently running Aeon 1.4 with Entropy's kernel but have noticed this with other kernels and ROMs that I've used. Screenshot attached showing that pretty much as soon as the wireless is turned off the battery usage takes a sudden drop and continues until it comes back on. Is there an issue with my phone or are there some settings that I should be aware of and try changing to remedy the issue?
I tried searching around before I made this thread and couldn't find anything that had the same issues I've been having. Any input would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see what you are talking about, however I think the issue is less with your wifi being off as it is with your cell signal being low. Looking at the cap you provided I can see where in the second wifi off period you could think that the wifi was your problem, but look at the first. you have the same drain with the wifi off as you do with it turned on (practically). Change the modem. Find one that works great in your area, because with the modems for the infuse newer is not always better. Also you can try one of those little RF booster things that go on your phone behind the battery to boost signal. I know they seem like a scam, but they do sometimes give just enough boost to keep a phone from searching for signal when it should have great signal. But try flashing a new modem first.

kirbee213 said:
I see what you are talking about, however I think the issue is less with your wifi being off as it is with your cell signal being low. Looking at the cap you provided I can see where in the second wifi off period you could think that the wifi was your problem, but look at the first. you have the same drain with the wifi off as you do with it turned on (practically). Change the modem. Find one that works great in your area, because with the modems for the infuse newer is not always better. Also you can try one of those little RF booster things that go on your phone behind the battery to boost signal. I know they seem like a scam, but they do sometimes give just enough boost to keep a phone from searching for signal when it should have great signal. But try flashing a new modem first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to start looking around for a new modem, currently I'm on UCLB3; my only concern is this is the only modem to provide me with a quick GPS lock and I don't want to lose that ability. Thanks for the suggestion

Check the modem thread. I had some great luck with an older one (k1 I think it was). I have since passed on my infuse to my son, and I can ping his location within 15 yards in under 2 minutes. I have a post over there where I got 5 days of battery life and it should tell you the modem I was using as well as rom and other info about the setup I had.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 (Skyrocket) using xda premium
---------- Post added at 09:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 AM ----------
I found it for you, it was in the battery tips and tricks thread, buried away.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23402471&postcount=32
I also added a picture of your screenshot to my original post here so you can see where the wifi and the signal are at more accurately on the battery meter.

Thanks for the link, I'm actually using ADW Launcher Ex right now and by the looks of it I shouldn't. Though I don't think I'm ready to spend the money on esf shell; are there any other recommendations for launchers that aren't as much of battery hogs?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app

If you have an ics based rom apex is nice. Launcher pro plus for gb is good IF you don't use the LPP included widgets.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

kirbee213 said:
If you have an ics based rom apex is nice. Launcher pro plus for gb is good IF you don't use the LPP included widgets.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Giving FTL Launcher Lite a shot, if it doesn't work out or if it's not recommended I'll try out Launcher Pro, thanks again!

I tried it for a couple days, was not my cup of tea. But it had outstanding reviews so I gave it a shot. I think I ended up going to LPP or ADW with the infuse.
A few other things to check are: Make sure your phone is not always scanning for wifi networks.
If you are in an area of low cell signal and don't need your phone to call people, flip on airplane mode.
Turn off auto brightness... use the power widget (or the 17 notification toggle tweak) to change your brightness between 10% (low light) 20% (medium light) and full (when in bright daylight conditions).
There is somewhere a tweak to turn off H+ and 3G when not in those service areas, find it, use it. (Google *#*#4636#*#* or is it *#*#3646#*#*... idfk one of those...
Check your sns sync schedule for short times. Set them to a longer interval or off. You should check ALL sync schedules for this, calendar is a major culprit of this, even if you don't have one setup.
Install "badass battery monitor" use it to check wake locks and battery voltage and temp. It has a great "battery sucker" feature that will tell you what is draining your battery.
NEVER USE AUTO APP KILLERS! They do more harm than good. Hold home and open the task manager and kill the apps yourself. It will take 15 seconds and if you do it for 3 days a few times a day, it becomes a habit. Don't be all grrr and do it 60000000 times a day. Just every now and then.
If you have installed a few apps and launchers that didn't work out for you, I would say booting into recovery and clearing the cache or a reset are in order. Uninstalls rarely remove everything they should and leave behind bits of code that will suck your battery like a hidden mosquito you can never swat.
Probably the most helpful tidbit anyone can give you is to not stress over the battery life constantly. You have a wonderful device that you have spent a lot of time customizing to look the way you want it to look. The more you stress over the battery the more you will check it, turning on that big beautiful screen sucking even more life from it. Making user error the major battery sucker in the equation... You wanted that beautiful beast, enjoy it.
Sorry so long, but trying to be thorough and helpful. These are the major tips I used to get 5 days from my phone. But honestly after day 2 or 3 I started really cracking the whip and refused to use my phone for anything other than texting.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

kirbee213 said:
There is somewhere a tweak to turn off H+ and 3G when not in those service areas, find it, use it. (Google *#*#4636#*#* or is it *#*#3646#*#*... idfk one of those...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking around I can't seem to find this, does it just disable all data when there's no service? Sounds great if it does.

No it just drops you down to edge.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

Here ya go...

kirbee213 said:
Here ya go...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic, thanks a lot

So how has your battery been? Updates?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

kirbee213 said:
So how has your battery been? Updates?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its been about the same, possibly a bit better. I've been using the battery app you mentioned to find what's causing the drain and kinda working with it from there. However I was in an area with roaming for a week so I can't give an accurate conclusion.

The BCM4330's standby drain is extremely low. In addition, when active, it requires FAR less energy per byte of data transferred than the cell radio.
OF COURSE background syncs are going to use less power over wifi than over the cell radio.
The whole "turn your wifi off" to save power became invalid over a year ago. (Exception: If the wifi chip misbehaves, such as the infamous BT-AMP bug, but I haven't seen that in many months.)

Here a couple of threads I found regarding this mystery drain.
From the past:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1224052&highlight=battery
Here is the i9000 battery drain issue I was refering to:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1039696
The last few pages hinted that the problem may have been fixed in later gb builds.
Our custom kernels was based of Roger's 2.3.3.
Would the bug be still in it?
Could this be why we (at least me anyway) are still seeing this?

[Q] My network signal strength degrades the longer i am on an ics rom

Does this happen to anybody else? When I'm on an ics rom my signal strength slowly degrades (i.e. i get less bars) until my network simply doesn't work anymore and I am unable to send/receive text messages or calls. 1-clicking back to stock then reflashing the rom fixes this. This has happened to me on AOKP, eriks miui and itzik2shs hebmiui. Why does this happen? Is there anyway to prevent it?

pisherthefisher said:
Does this happen to anybody else? When I'm on an ics rom my signal strength slowly degrades (i.e. i get less bars) until my network simply doesn't work anymore and I am unable to send/receive text messages or calls. 1-clicking back to stock then reflashing the rom fixes this. This has happened to me on AOKP, eriks miui and itzik2shs hebmiui. Why does this happen? Is there anyway to prevent it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that my cell network signal strength doesn't seem as strong on ICS roms as well, or it'simply reporting it differently? Always seems lower than on GB. OFF TOPIC: I sorta want to try Barebone but I can't stand the stock galaxy lock screen. So for now I'm still on ICS.

iamperson347 said:
I noticed that my cell network signal strength doesn't seem as strong on ICS roms as well, or it'simply reporting it differently? Always seems lower than on GB. OFF TOPIC: I sorta want to try Barebone but I can't stand the stock galaxy lock screen. So for now I'm still on ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems that bare bones still had the same signal for me after going back to stock. I went back to aokp ics and got around 0-2 bars. Then as soon as I calIed someone it went to a perfect 4 bars. Try calling someone?
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app