I've had my Vibrant since launch day and coming from the G1, I'm absolutely blown away.
I do have on gripe though and that's with Google Maps.
At first, like many, I have/had GPS problems (poor/slow/no connectivity) which was seemingly somewhat corrected by the fix in this forum (thanks!).
I'm still having another problem though. About 1 out of every three times I open google maps, the phone begins to locate via GPS then freezes (zero functionality). A few seconds later the screen is black with the soft keys lit up. I've had this happen upwards of 20-30 times now. Holding the power button to kill the phone is necessary. The reason it seems like Google maps is not other GPS app has done this.
Today, using navigation, it was working good, until I lost GPS signal (due to river bluffs), and Maps never re-acquired the GPS signal, although a quick check using GPS status revealed a full lock. I had to close (task manager style) maps and re-do the navigation. Then it worked fine again until all of a sudden it locked like usual and completely froze. Hard re-boot, reopen maps, froze, hard re-boot, reopen maps, froze....and this happened 4 times before I was finally able to get in and kill the navigation request. Of course by this time I had missed my turn by about 2 miles.
I also thought it was latitude (before today's incident), since I had never used latitude on my G1; but the girlfriend got a Vibrant (her first smart phone) so we tried out latitude for kicks. But after trying it with Latitude on and off, there doesn't seem to be any ties as if will freeze both ways.
I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Google Maps updates three times now with no changes.
Talking with a guy at the T-Mo store today was no help, other than he said a fix was coming within days to correct the GPS connectivity issue. For my problem though, which the phone faithfully recreated in-store to him (much to my pleasure) he recommended a new phone.
I'm not too crazy about getting a new device or doing a master reset (since I've heard this has helped some folks), so I thought I would ask for any suggestions from this fine community.
Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
EDIT: Just enabled SkyHook out of curiosity, and I haven't been able to replicate this problem yet since doing so. Even doing an immediate operation upon opening Maps its ok. Inside house got a 10m lock withing 15-20 seconds every time. I'll keep trying it some more tomorrow.
I have the same exact problem and it just recently started... want to see if anyone else has a fix or an idea.
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timafey said:
I have the same exact problem and it just recently started... want to see if anyone else has a fix or an idea.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
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Same exact problem? Frozen with black screen shortly after opening?
Have you both tried a reset? This is due to the GPS because the phone will get overwhelmed when it can't get a GPS lock.
I have noticed when my wifi is on I cannot receive a gps lock. Once I turn off wifi the gps is functional and will lock quickly; ~10 secs. I still may only lock 2-3 satellites indoors and accuracy is about 20'.
Also I am using the stock GPS settings.
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I had the issue with google maps and gps when turning gps on will freeze the phone and if it happened that the phone screen is locked you are sol.haven't had the issue since the reset though.
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I had this problem as well. Maps and sometimes Navigation would lock up my phone entirely, just as you described. I did a Factory Reset and that fixed the freezing problem, but my GPS problem was still there. I finally did an exchange and the new phone seems to be working better. I'm crossing my fingers that it will remain that way.
Same exact problem here. It happens with and without the GPS fix applied. I think the only solution is to wait and hope Samsung addresses the bigger GPS issue as I am sure it is all related.
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I have the exact same issues with my phone locking up.
I'm going to do a master reset when I get home from work. If that doesn't work, I'm going to exchange the device at T-Mobile (and hopefully extend my 14-day period, while we wait for the firmware fix).
I love this phone, but if these problems can't be fixed, I'll go back to the stone age.
I'll report back with the master reset / phone swap success rate on my end.
Ditto here. Happened to me last night.
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+1 here. Although I never had a problem with Google Maps/Navigation. It's My Tracks that caused the phone to lock up when recording a track.
medler said:
I have noticed when my wifi is on I cannot receive a gps lock. Once I turn off wifi the gps is functional and will lock quickly; ~10 secs. I still may only lock 2-3 satellites indoors and accuracy is about 20'.
Also I am using the stock GPS settings.
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I have the same issue with "use wireless networks" enable. And wifi turned on... Something wrong with gps and wireless... I have applied the fix...
Now with wireless off I still have an issue:
Gps Test is taking 20-30 seconds when GPS has not been used in awhile. After the first lock, it then only takes 2-5 seconds for a lock.
So what's going with then initial lock?
yeah, the screen turns black and cant do anything... So Factory reset seems to fix the problem? is that the general consensus?
I have the same issue after doing a factory data reset. Just fyi.
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Same here. Even after factory reset, it still does the black-screen crashing act. It's quite annoying. Actually, that happened to me while typing a text message. Samsung messed up royally. The software on this phone is pure trash. I really like this phone, but the issues are just pathetic.
I'm having the same problem on my Vibrant. It has happened before and after a factory reset, before and after the GPS fix. Without the GPS fix, I couldn't even lock onto a satellite. After running Google Maps for a few minutes, the screen goes completely blank. Sometimes, it would reset itself. Sometimes, I would have to hold the power button for a few seconds to get it to reboot. Hope they fix this soon. This makes the GPS completely useless for this phone.
Etrnaly said:
I'm having the same problem on my Vibrant. It has happened before and after a factory reset, before and after the GPS fix. Without the GPS fix, I couldn't even lock onto a satellite. After running Google Maps for a few minutes, the screen goes completely blank. Sometimes, it would reset itself. Sometimes, I would have to hold the power button for a few seconds to get it to reboot. Hope they fix this soon. This makes the GPS completely useless for this phone.
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I haven't tried the factory reset, but for everything else mention my vibrant has acted the same exact way.
I've had the same issue on both the pre-release ROM and the shipped ROM. As others have said, it seems to cause problems with all of the Google Maps-based apps (Navigation, Maps, and My Tracks). You loose signal and next thing you know, black screen with the buttons lit up.
I'm waiting for an opportunity to test it with Maverick and Trimble Outdoors to see if it's just a Google-app problem or not.
Also, a master reset (aka wipe) didn't influence it one bit. About the only thing I didn't try was removing the bundled-in maps apk and replacing it with a market one.
Report these issues!
+1 Just wanted to add that everyone should report this issue (and ALL others ie. compass, GPS, dropped calls) to T-Mobile and most importantly, Samsung. I am now on hold with Samsung level 3 tech support to update my issues with the phone. The more they hear from us, the more likely they are to come out with proper fixes in a timely fashion. If these issues stay on the forums and nowhere else, we're SOL. Do it now!
UPDATE: Eric, a L3 techie, was very appreciative of the info I gave him regarding the inaccurate GPS, GPS crashing, and compass issues. He did state that these were becoming common complaints. The compass issue was said to be less popular but he was able to reproduce the inaccuracies I and many others have, so that's a good thing. He did not have any info regarding a coming fix on anything. Regarding dropped calls (which could be a radio problem) he said, as I assumed, that it is probably a service issue that T-Mo should be notified of.
I and most others have no problems with dropped calls but the only time I get that dreaded screen is when I mess with lbstestmode
Sent from my SGH-T959
hey guys, I don't know what happened but about 30 min ago, every time I try to open Google Maps I get the Force close notification.....anybody have any ideas of how I can fix this? I tried restarting the phone and uninstalling and reinstalling updates but nothing has helped
It's happening to me too. Started about an hour ago. It doesn't happen every time, but pretty often. Since we're not alone, it sounds like google has changed something server side that's sending data that kills the client.
oh pheww.....I thought I was alone lol
not to seem like an a-hole and be happy it's happening to you....but just sayin....haha
Thanks... I was a little worried myself, I installed the wifi tethering mod earlier today and thought I might have screwed the phone up.
Weird! Just started happening to me too. Thanks god for this forum and the search button, because I almost just began the nightmare of trying to figure out which new app or kernel I installed was causing this issue. Guess ill wait now since I'm not the only one. It's probably a Google server causing a problem.....
Same here, just started a little bit ago ... I don't think I can leave the house safely if I don't have access to google maps!$%!
edit: Just a possible fix ... I uninstalled and reinstalled and so far so good...
Are you guys using a modified rom?
Sent from my 1 gigahertz quake 3 playing, Quadrant bustin telephone
I uninstalled/reinstalled didn't help, but if I use WiFi it works fine. Weird.
Me too, except worse - my entire phone freezes up and I have to pull the battery. Not an east or safe thing to do while driving. Started happening about a week ago. Anybody know why?
Forgot to say. Stock ROM on my Vibrant.
shrasmyl said:
Forgot to say. Stock ROM on my Vibrant.
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Stock Rom here too. Just started doing this to me today also, but only when I use it on the wifi on 3g its fine.
uninstall the google maps update and it will work for now. Google broke it and they will fix it.
Elite GunnerX said:
uninstall the google maps update and it will work for now. Google broke it and they will fix it.
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Yeah thats what I did.
Same here...Stock Rom started doing this a couple hours ago.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant
RIP my beloved rooted G1
Same is happening to me...rooted with stock rom. I kind of stop using google maps because of gps issue.
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Have you guys tried factory data wipe and reset?
*2767*3855#
I got the crash only when WiFi was turned on . I uninstalled all the updates and am not getting it anymore.
Mine not forcing close, but a black screen "force me to shut down and boot the phone manually".
Everytime I opened google map with GPS on, the phone hanged and I needed to long press the power button to boot..
That is an issue I have seen with lag fix installed...i had to odin back to stock install lag fox then install apps...fixed all my fc issues on stock and other roms...anyways food for thought.
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Updated today but still black screen when GPS is on...need to restart the phone manually everytime!!
Ok I have noticed that my vibrant is randomly reboot more than usual. I can be on the web or checking email she'll just bog down and restart with no warning. Is anyone else experiencing this issue.
I have my phone rooted running launcher pro and theres one more thing I'm noticing more of the apps are not responding and force quiting are you guys have the issue as well
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I have same thing but untouched vibrant. No root.
It has re-booted three times already since i got it (i.e. last two weeks)
The reason it is re-booting is because kernel is crashing. The reason is still unknown.
It could be GPS driver crashing the kernel or faulty hardware.
Best options is to replace the phone or wait for Froyo and hope this problem goes away.
My epic is on the stock rom, just rooted. I have made no changes to the phone and the only recent changes were installing winamp and the market update. All of sudden the media scanner, at startup, never finishes and hangs until I force close it. My apps won't update, they download but hang at installing and after several reboots there is no change. The phone randomly makes the sound of lost signal twice in a row as if it looses signal and then finds it again right away even though I have full bars and this has never happened before. Also, CacheMate hangs until i force close it when I tried to clean out the cache to see if that would fix the market issue I was having. So out of nowhere, the market issue (apps not updating), media scanner hanging, and apps not working. Im just hoping that either someone knows what this could possibly be cause from or if im just going to have to hard reset my phone. I do have a backup from clockwork, but unfortunately it is quite old and I might as well just reset everything if it comes down to that. Thanks for the help.
2 days ago, my G1 started acting up. Randomly rebooting too often, middle of a call etc. I was digging around, even checked log cat without much luck. Then I seem to have isolated the problem. In the past Google Maps updates usually borked things on my old Enom rom. So I went in and checked. After I loaded it, it gave me a message saying it updated itself. Then I went into settings for it and cleared the cache and map tiles. Since then no more reboots or odd issues.
I had tried to "Clear Cache" in recovery too which didnt do anything. So it does seem to be just google maps related stuff. So I wanted to post this in case anyone else had the same issue. Been using my G1 for 4 years now. Would hate to stop using it heh.
It's a conspiracy--they're trying to force you to upgrade your phone already.
Happening across all devices
Ace42 said:
It's a conspiracy--they're trying to force you to upgrade your phone already.
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This isn't specific to the G1, I had to uninstall maps on my sensation because it was causing reboots.
Yea now its all doing it again.. I may just uninstall maps. Then reinstall it and leave the "auto update" off. Its very annoying, cause Maps is one of the 1st things that loads on bootup.
Edit: Ok things of interest.. took sim out (that later using airplane mode with sim in) no more rebooting. How odd. T-mobile issue somehow I wonder? Or one of their apps.
Well I wondered if it had been Visual Voicemail.. but thats been inconclusive since right after I rebooted, Google Maps decided to download itself again after I had just uninstalled it... >.>