A few months ago, I flashed liquidsmooth 3.1 (4.4.2) to my phone from 4.4.2 in hopes of taking advantage of some of the extra features from kitkat. Everything is working great except that GPS is having a very hard time getting a lock whereas previously I could get a solid lock within seconds.
If I use an app called 'GPS test' it reveals that there are plenty of satellites in view, but only 3 or 4 are being used at a time, which obviously isn't sufficient enough for turn-by-turn navigation. Clearing and updating AGPS in the app settings doesn't seem to have much an effect either.
Ive read some reports about those upgrading to CM11 M11 (which is what my rom is based on) with similar issues...something about corrupting the NVRAM and it having negative effects on the gps that are not simply fixed by wiping data or flashing a different version of cm. Unfortunately, there seems to be an unclear consensus on how to go about managing this issue.
Any ideas?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!
Mazumo said:
A few months ago, I flashed liquidsmooth 3.1 (4.4.2) to my phone from 4.4.2 in hopes of taking advantage of some of the extra features from kitkat. Everything is working great except that GPS is having a very hard time getting a lock whereas previously I could get a solid lock within seconds.
If I use an app called 'GPS test' it reveals that there are plenty of satellites in view, but only 3 or 4 are being used at a time, which obviously isn't sufficient enough for turn-by-turn navigation. Clearing and updating AGPS in the app settings doesn't seem to have much an effect either.
Ive read some reports about those upgrading to CM11 M11 (which is what my rom is based on) with similar issues...something about corrupting the NVRAM and it having negative effects on the gps that are not simply fixed by wiping data or flashing a different version of cm. Unfortunately, there seems to be an unclear consensus on how to go about managing this issue.
Any ideas?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!
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Click to collapse
I've read if you tighten the screws in the back of the phone it seems to work better, after removing the battery cover of course
Sent from my Nexus 5
Related
All,
Hope you can help. I've been happily using my Desire S with GPS for a couple of years now, mostly on Reaper 3.0 this year and 4.0 since I came out, but also on other ROMs (Endy, Fallout, JellyTime). However at some point in the last few weeks (maybe while test flashing some recent CM10 builds) I no longer get a GPS lock. If I fire up GPS Test or Maps or whatever, the GPS icon keeps flashing, and I've left it for 20 mins at times. Occasionally I'll see some satellites in GPStest, so I know that my reciever works, but I never get a lock.
There are quite a few comments about this scattered across other threads and for other devices, so I've tried quite a few things..
- Used faster fix to set my NTP server to UK.
- Used GPS test to clear and download agps.
- Used Reaper Settings to apply AGPS fix.
- Restored stock gps.conf to the standard - seems to be the same across most ROMs,
- Then used GPS Test to reload aGPS again.
- then retried all of the above in different combinations.
- Flashed CM10 (both nk111 and Flinny), same behaviour.
At one point last week using GPS Test on Reaper 4.0 the icon stopped flashing and I apparently got a lock, but the accuracy was about 4000ft and didn't improve.
I know for other devices you can clear a partition to 'cold start' your GPS. Does such a process exist for the Desire S?
I'm wondering if I've got something cached on my SD card that's persistent across ROM flashes and is screwing my GPS. I've tried using Cachemate to clear everything I felt safe doing, but that didn't help either.
I guess I could format my SD card, but that sounds pretty scary to me and a lot of effort to restore all the stuff I've got on there. Especially as I don't really know if it would help.
Any suggestions?
Matt
It might be a case of bad antenna contact. HW, not SW. When something persists after factory reset - that's probably the case.
Jack_R1 said:
It might be a case of bad antenna contact. HW, not SW. When something persists after factory reset - that's probably the case.
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Is that something I can get my local phone repair shop to look at - ie check connectors are seated etc? Or it is a fairly terminal resoldering type issue? Do you know?
Matt
Out of interest, My phone hes been running GPS Test on Reaper 4.0 now for the last 20 mins. It's seen 6 satellites at best all at a SNR of around 15-20, but still flashing the GPS icon and not locking.
Matt
6 satellites are very few.
It might be as simple as connectors issue.
The GPS antenna is on the top plastic, near the LED.
Have you tried this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1442032
AGPS Patch Desire S 3.1 & 2.2 | GET BACK TO RAPID GPS LOCK, CAN LOCK ONTO MORE SATS
“Microsoft is not the answer. Microsoft is the question. NO is the answer.” – Erik Naggum
jugg1es said:
Have you tried this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1442032
AGPS Patch Desire S 3.1 & 2.2 | GET BACK TO RAPID GPS LOCK, CAN LOCK ONTO MORE SATS
“Microsoft is not the answer. Microsoft is the question. NO is the answer.” – Erik Naggum
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Click to collapse
I did look into that. I believe that's the same AGPS patch that Reaper Settings will apply, but I did try it independantly. It's just an updated /system/etc/gps.conf as far as I can tell. Didn't make any difference for me though.
Matt
So, I prised off the camera cover to reveal the Wifi and GPS antennas. Scuffed the contacts a bit with my thumbnail and lifted the spring contacts slightly to increase the contact pressure.
Popped the cover back on, replaced the battery, turned the phone back on, and voila! Loads of GPS reception. Loads of satellites. Very fast lock.
Pretty simple process too.
Thanks for your advice everyone.
Matt
Hello,
I recently discovered that my battery life had become very poor, and so I checked the wakelocks and it turned out to be RilJ Dialer, leading to a mspi and radio interface wakelock whenever my signal become low or gone( I get poor reception in areas of my school). I learned that RilJ Dialer is used when apps are requesting network location through wifi only, and the most common culprit is Maps. I froze maps and the problem was gone, so I set out to fix maps. It turns out that the background location settings is stuck at manually set location when I try to set it to not report location, it will always change back when I leave the menu. Ive tried uninstalling and reinstalling, fixing permissions, and going online and changing all my map settings through there, and nothing has worked. Is this a bug with Maps? I currently have is froze, and toggle between frozen and unfrozen when I need it, because it takes way too much battery in low/no signal locations. Thank in advance.
Sent from my Optimus 2X using xda app-developers app
I've recently started experiencing this problem as well. My guess is you haven't found a solution yet?
boojay said:
I've recently started experiencing this problem as well. My guess is you haven't found a solution yet?
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Click to collapse
Hey Boojay,
Unfortunately, I was never able to find a solution. I was using Cyanogenmod 7.2, and just froze maps when not in use and unfroze it when I needed it. A few weeks after the problem arose, I had some time off, and so I decided it was time to upgrade my software, and so I flashed Cyanogenmod 10.2, did all the associated upgrades, set up maps, and the problem never came back, and maps is working perfectly as of now on 4.3.1. I'm not sure what Android version you are on, but when I had the problem I tried everything in the original post, but it still didn't work. I understand that your post quite old, so hopefully you have found a solution by now.
lolcakes203 said:
Hey Boojay,
Unfortunately, I was never able to find a solution. I was using Cyanogenmod 7.2, and just froze maps when not in use and unfroze it when I needed it. A few weeks after the problem arose, I had some time off, and so I decided it was time to upgrade my software, and so I flashed Cyanogenmod 10.2, did all the associated upgrades, set up maps, and the problem never came back, and maps is working perfectly as of now on 4.3.1. I'm not sure what Android version you are on, but when I had the problem I tried everything in the original post, but it still didn't work. I understand that your post quite old, so hopefully you have found a solution by now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries and I didn't find a solution, but I'm using a rom now where battery life isn't an issue despite that little quirk.
It seems Google's goal is to use more resources and keep track of our whereabouts at the expense of battery. I'm not too thrilled with the direction they're taking with their apps and OS lately, but what can ya do?
Swyped from my Mi2S
Using Google Maps with Lollipop CM12...Has anyone had the issue where they can get a GPS lock, Google even gives you the ETA of your destination, but as you drive, you lose your lock and Maps gets stuck - thinking you're on a random side street nearby while you're actually moving on course? I am using Location in high accuracy mode. I'm running the official 4.4.4 firmware posted by @Tigerstown too. Never had this issue before. Ideas anyone? Thanks!
calebcabob said:
Using Google Maps with Lollipop CM12...Has anyone had the issue where they can get a GPS lock, Google even gives you the ETA of your destination, but as you drive, you lose your lock and Maps gets stuck - thinking you're on a random side street nearby while you're actually moving on course? I am using Location in high accuracy mode. I'm running the official 4.4.4 firmware posted by @Tigerstown too. Never had this issue before. Ideas anyone? Thanks!
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I have had this issue before. Not on cm cause I don't run that. I'm trying to think of what ROM this was on...I tried all the lock tricks I know. My maps did the same thing as yours. Only choice I had was not to run that ROM..if you get it figured out but I don't know what you can do I didn't try let me know
It looks a lot like this problem : http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/gps-dropping-signal-ota-lollipop-update-t2951515
(Also reported in AOSP : https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=81140 )
Sadly it seems this problem has not yet been solved/acknowledged by Google...
Well that sucks, I'm looking for a fix to it. Preferably a fix that does not involve returning to stock, then reflashing to CM after I get a lock, and hoping the planets were lined up perfectly.
ieatabiscuit said:
Well that sucks, I'm looking for a fix to it. Preferably a fix that does not involve returning to stock, then reflashing to CM after I get a lock, and hoping the planets were lined up perfectly.
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Click to collapse
This issue has been fixed for me for quite some time now. Which device and ROM are u running? And are you 110% sure that you're using the latest firmware?
I got it fixed. Try though, and yes I'm absolutely positive that the firmware is up to date. It happened because I was messaging with a room that used a f2fs /system position, and CM needed it to be ext4, so it was formatted before installing. I just installed a known functional ROM, then installed CM with /system left as is. No Isadora since aside from CM using a newer recovery, and forcing it on us now.
Anyone know how to get a gps lock on CM12 based roms? I have tried using the gps.conf from a sense rom, but to no avail.
Backup aosp ROM
Clean flash sense
Get a GPS lock in maps and/or something like gps toolbox.
Wait a minute or two for good measure.
Restore aosp ROM
Lock on in maps and/or GPS toolbox.
If no lock achieved, try try try again. As per some peoples experience in threads they didn't get it until 5 or 6 times, whereas I have either had working GPS off the start or only had to do it once, so mileage varies.
I hope it works for you
This is kind of reflection as CM as a whole. It's great they support 38475728 devices now but in turn the overall quality has seemed to go south for a year or two. They almost always move on to the new version before making the current one stable.
How I fixed it
xsteven77x said:
This is kind of reflection as CM as a whole. It's great they support 38475728 devices now but in turn the overall quality has seemed to go south for a year or two. They almost always move on to the new version before making the current one stable.
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Click to collapse
My GPS was working on CM 11, but broke since I've gone to CM 12.1 nightlies. After quite a bit of fiddling, I got it working again but the fix is somewhat involved. I outlined it here on the CM Bug tracker, which I can't link to directly because I'm a new user. jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-5691?filter=-3
If you've got root access, you might be able to just drop this .conf file into /system/etc/ (if that dir exists on your CM version) or /etc/ (if /system/etc doesn't exist). Reboot your phone after putting this file in, and see if GPS works. I recommend using the app "GPS Status & Toolbox" by MobiWIA - EclipSim to test your GPS-- it will let you see what's going on with just your GPS, independently of other location services.
Edit: I was going from VZW stock software to CM 12.1, and getting a solid GPS fix on stock software before switching over did not work for me. That said, getting the GPS fix on stock software may be necessary but not sufficient to get the GPS working-- if in doubt, do both.
Good luck.
connorc0405 said:
Anyone know how to get a gps lock on CM12 based roms? I have tried using the gps.conf from a sense rom, but to no avail.
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Click to collapse
For a reliable GPS fix, add/replace two files: gps.conf and gps.conf_default, from a stock rom. You find these files in the system/etc directory. Fix permissions, if necessary. GPS is fixed.
GPS.conf_default file request
Hi. Can you tell me if it is possible to download this file from somewhere as it is missing on my device. I am using SM-N9005 and can't get any lock. Wondering if this file missing may be the cause. Many thanks. Karl.
jdaggar said:
My GPS was working on CM 11, but broke since I've gone to CM 12.1 nightlies. After quite a bit of fiddling, I got it working again but the fix is somewhat involved. I outlined it here on the CM Bug tracker, which I can't link to directly because I'm a new user. jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-5691?filter=-3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been fixed in the CM 12.1 nightlies months ago. Just validated in cm-12.1-20151010-NIGHTLY-m8.zip that PHONE_TYPE=CDMA
I have an issue with my GPS whereby whenever I use Waze / google maps. For the first few minutes, it will run fine. But afterwards, it will keep losing signal for 1-10 seconds, and then lock back location, then lose it again after 1-10 seconds, keep on continuing.
Initially, I thought its the ROM problem. I've literally flashed MOST / near to all of the stock / custom ROMS available. But all still same result.
I've also tried restoring to 100% stock COS / Oxygen, thinking its because I've had too many modifications (custom recovery, root etc). But even after a hard restore (stock recovery, non root, factory reset), its still the same.
I also tried the GPS status & toolbox /Faster GPS app, doesn't help.
Any pros can give some advice? is it some form of hardware problem now, and can it be fixed?
I really appreciate any constructive feedback, as I'm in a dilemma and my OPO is my only phone available. I travel quite often, so I need GPS to be working optimally.
Thanks all!