I have a XT1540, rooted, stock 6.0 ROM. I am searching for advise on troubleshooting the poor performance of the GPS. Is there a way to determine if it is software or hardware related? Recently my GPS has been acting sporadically. Today I am getting a fix. Yesterday I did not. Last week in another location I never had a fix better than 30 meters since only 3 or 4 satellites were used in the solution. I don’t know if this is a software or hardware issue. I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I recently changed carriers from ConcumerCellular (AT&T SIM) to Mint which is a T-Mobile MVNO. I did have to open the phone a few times to change SIM cards, so is it possible the GPS antenna was damaged? I do have GPS Status and Toolbox, installed and have rest AGPS.. Maybe I was not patient enough for the update. I saw the XDA video on How to Make Your GPS Lock Faster. I have not tried changing my gps.conf file yet. The replacement file looks far different than the current file. Any suggestions or recommendations to restore my G3’s GPS reliability is appreciated.
Update and bump
So I restored an older ROM to a time I believe the GPS was working. The GPS performance did not improve. GPS status will show connection of 10/20, but no solution. And the few times I get a solution, the error is in the 100s of meters. Are there any recommendations before I trash this phone?
Related
Hi,
I'm suffering from really bad GPS reception in the last couple of months.
I've read all the topics I could find about these kinds of problems and tried lots of fixes but nothing helped me so far.
I'm trying to understand if it's a software issue or possibly a hardware issue.
I managed to get a hold of another desire s for comparison.
It's S-ON, HBOOT-0.98.0000, RADIO-38.03.02.11_M, stock rom (Doh)
My phone is s-off and rooted so to make the comparison as fair as possible I restored a backup from when I bought the phone (stock) and flashed the same radio like the other phone. Before restoring I made sure to wipe everything (including SD!).
Then I factory reset both phones and put gps test on them.
The comparison:
S-On phone :
Around 10 second after I started the gps, gps test already showed 3 satellites and it improved to a max of 5 after a minute.
Gps test showed "yellow" for most of the satellites signals, red for others..
My Phone:
It found 1 satellite after what looked like 2 minutes, then improved to a max of 2 satellites after a couple of minutes.
Gps test showed "red" for all of the satellites signals.
I don't understand why my phone's GPS reception is so crappy.
Could anyone give me any ideas on why this is happening? for more tests i should try? other fixes i should attempt?
I'd appreciate any help with this!!
--edit--
I'm working on turning my phone back to S-ON so the comparison would be even more fair
I guess you don't have a case or anything else obvious right? Anyway, a have 2 desire s in the house, one pure stock, one rooted s-off. Neither got GPS until I installed the agps fix posted by crypted in the development section on the rooted phone, now that gets a good GPS signal, though I have to reflash the fix every few days. Have you tried that fix?
I flashed the latest patch (3.1) and left gps on for around 10 mins.
0 satellites... worse than stock...
I'll try the 2.1 and the non ssl patches tomorrow.
blu3zy said:
I flashed the latest patch (3.1) and left gps on for around 10 mins.
0 satellites... worse than stock...
I'll try the 2.1 and the non ssl patches tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is actually a app on the market for rooted devices this is called faster fix and it changes your gps pol to your region of choice
here is the link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=825717
FasterFix simply changes 1 setting which you can do yourself if you have root acess. It is also not recommended if you use any other form of GPS fix such as AGPS as it overwrites the changes.
Tried all the agps patches, non of them helped.
The non ssl ones didn't even get 1 sat to show up...
I reverted to S-On and used the RUU to flash to the version my phone came with:
RUU_Saga_HTC_Europe_1.28.401.1_Radio_20.28b.30.0805U_38.03.02.11_M_release_177977_signed
I've factory reset both phones.
I believe now both phones should be same exactly...
But the problem remains, compared to the other phone my phone constantly shows less satellites and with poorer signal on gps test.
Is there anything else I can try?
Or should I give up and hand in the phone to HTC for repairs/checkup?
If everything is the same on both phones and it sounds like you have tried the other fixes that have worked for most people it does seen like a hardware problem you would have to get repaired. Hope you at all under warranty, good luck.
I'm having trouble with my GPS and after searching forum after forum I can't seem to find anyone with the same issue as me, specifically: my GPS not being able to keep the satellites signal.
First off I'm running NexusMod 5.0.4 Beta2 on UCLF6. I've tried both: GPS Fix for Nexus and AGPS Patch. Both work, especially the GPS Fix for the Nexus. I get a lock on satellites quite fast, up to 11 sometimes.
But I am ALWAYS losing satellites. I am constantly going between 5 to 11 satellites and my accuracy is constantly ranging anywhere from 20m to 60m. It's absolutely infuriating looking on GMaps and Navigation and to see that damn blue circle growing larger, smaller, larger, smaller...
Anyway, after two days of searching I'm hoping someone has the same issue as me and hopefully a solution. If not, does anyone have any suggestions as to what in the world could be causing this? I'm hoping it's not a simple solution as the ROM itself since I absolutely love my current ROM; however this was happening when I was running Sky-ICS Themed Gingerbread as well.
Thanks.
Did you ever figure out what was going on?
Were the 5 to 11 satellites seen while inside or in the open?
I am having similar GPS issues and was wondering what the "normal" number of satellites is. Mine seem to range between 0, 2 and 7, and is constantly varying.
At this point I am not sure if in my case it is some sort of hardware issue, or if there is something going on in software.
These symptoms initially showed up while still on stock GB 2.3.5. I made the plunge, wiped everything x3, and tried one of the JB ROMs. GPS seemed to lock on immediately, but would intermittently drop off. I've tried numerous of the GPS fixes out there, but same problem.
I've read elsewhere to wipe even the external SD card, so I am in the process of trying this as a last ditch effort.
If you found any answers or solutions, would very much appreciate what worked for you.
Thanks!
Friend of mine recently told me her GPS on her verizon S3 stopped working. she brought it by, i flashed the newest build of cleanrom on it today and sure enough the GPS still doesnt work. everything needed is turned on but it doesnt get a lock. i checked it with the GPS Status app and it shows like 0/20 satellites and doesnt lock to any. only way i was able to actually get somewhat of a lock on google maps was to hook it up to WiFi and let it gather from that.
any suggestions?
Somewhat common problem. I haven't found a fix as of yet. There is a gps fix somewhere in these forums though that sort of helps. my phone had the same problem. Going back to stock or to any custom rom, nothing worked, the gps was just dead. After flashing one of the fixes I finally managed to get it to get locks, but it needs like 7-8 satellites to get a fix, is highly inaccurate, and loses gps lock a few times on every trip.
Here's the gps fix page
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1880411
I use Galaxy s3 test 3 alt, it's the only one that gets any lock for me. The first time and other intermittent times can take up to 10 minutes or more though, and rebooting the phone or trying again another day does sometimes help.
I know it is definitely the phone, as my pantech marauder which has the same SoC which should be very similar for gps location, finds and locks on to 6-8 towers in like 10 seconds or less all the time, even indoors, and gets location accurate to less than 100ft with 4 satellites while the gs3 needs 7-8 satellites to get a lock to 300-600ft
If none of the software fixes work. And the stock unrooted software does not receive GPS lock.
I would highly recommend replacing the GPS antenna just in case.
I'm 90% sure the headphone jack. External speaker. WiFi antenna and GPS antenna are all in one unit.
This piece is sold for cheap on Amazon. Or eBay or whatever.
Replacing is simply a removing a couple screws and popping the old one out.
Here is a link to eBay
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=160890063224
Possibly you could find one cheaper.
Hopefully this is it for you.
Let me know how it goes.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
I too have this problem: the GPS no longer gets a fix w/o a data connection
the phone recently did an update to jb 411 and now no gps fix w/o data.
I do NOT believe its the antenna.
does anyone else with the os in sight have any info?
palm2droid said:
I too have this problem: the GPS no longer gets a fix w/o a data connection
the phone recently did an update to jb 411 and now no gps fix w/o data.
I do NOT believe its the antenna.
does anyone else with the os in sight have any info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too have the same problems on this rom
Hi,
I got a brand new LG G Pro 2 (Korean F350L version) in Canada. Everything works great except for the GPS which never get a lock. I upgraded the firmware (Sphinx V5a, stock 5.0...), factory reset, tried various GPS apps (GPS Status and test, FasterGPS...), but I still don't get any lock. On GPS Status Test & Fix, I always get 0/22 except once I got 4/20 but still no lock.
Does anybody have an idea of what to do to get a GPS lock? Any reason why a Korean version would not work in north America?
After reading a lot, I came to a likely conclusion that there may be a bad contact between the board and the GPS antenna. I see several fixes for Nexus 5 and Galaxy S3 or S4. I am willing to try this, but I can't find any schematic for the G Pro 2, so I have no idea where the GPS antenna is.
Does anyone could point me where the GPS antenna really are for the G Pro 2?
Thank you very much for your help!
Anyone?
Hi!
I recently bought a D838 and try to use it here in germany.
Unfortunately I have a similar problem as described in the first post. The phone can't get any GPS fix.
The app "GPS status" shows several satellites, but none of them are fixed.
I tried different ROMs, a few gps.conf modifications and let the phone search for a fix for about one hour. But without any positive result.
May that be a hardware problem? Would the phone find satellited, if there is a problem with the hardware?
Any ideas how to fix this?
Thank you!
Hi, mine proved to be hardware defective (likely a bad connection to antenna) and I had it replaced (so did not attempt a repair). The replacement worked like a charm. Basically, if you can have a replacement, I would go that route, otherwise, you could try to attempt a repair at a repair shop to resolder the antenna...
Thx for your answer. I will try to get a new device (or get it repaired - we will see).
Meanwhile I got another device, which shows the same behaviour.
Does anyone else have any idea what that problem may be?
In a absolutely free area in a hill I managed to get a GPS fix. At other places the phone can't get a fix.
Me LG G flex beside that has a good signal with fix, even in buildings.
I am really not an expert. It seems to me that both devices are defective in the sense that your GPS antennas are disconnected from your GPS chip. The chip can still get a fix without antenna in ideal conditions a bit like old FM radios could still get a strong signal without deploying its antenna). Based on my experience with my local phone repair shop, it would need the antennas to be resoldered on the GPS chip or get a replacement. Good luck!
I bought a used unlocked s6 active recently, SM-G890A. After noticing terrible navigation accuracy I eventually realized the phone was only able to use data/WiFi for location. After looking into I now know the GPS is entirely nonfunctional. Using GPS Status app I see "0/0" satellites (not fixing to any, and interestingly not getting the info (don't know the technical term here) for how many satellites are available to get a fix to.
I've left the phone outside, no case, next to my s4 running the app, and the s4 performs great, but still 0/0 on the s6 active.
I did a factory reset. Then I updated the phone from 5.1.1 to 6.0.1 (stock). I've read about some NV rebuild in the service menu on older galaxy phones, but haven't read anywhere that accurately describes how to do this on the s6. I removed the SIM card. I don't know what else to do. I have a few more days to return it, but frankly I have a feeling the hardware is fine and a fix is out there. There are plenty of threads about the S6 having GPS accuracy issues, but not many on my problem.
Any suggestions? Return it (and hopefully not have the seller tell me they think it's working fine and charge me 20% restocking fee)? If anyone can describe the process for the NV rebuild that may yield some results, based on what I've read. Your feedback is appreciated!