I know this sounds crazy.. and until I tried it over and over.. I did not believe it either..
I did the hardware fix , where you bend up the gps antenna a bit, so it touches the cover when closed. but I litteraly had almost no change in signal.. like I could not even get the GPS restore to work..
I was pi$$Ed..
so I took another look at the phone / antenna etc.. got be thinking about signal and its orientation.. the GPS ant. is on the back of the phone, where it gets covered by your hand faces the ground or whatever is under it.. so I turned it- landscape..screen facing me.. clock wise... so the e from tmobile is top side..
guess what.. it works
I am locking on to 9-12 sats..every time..
let me know what you find happens..
How fast are the locks. Te issue is not how many sats since it only needs a few to get an accurate signal. The problem is that the phone takes 1900% longer than any other phone I've ever used to lock, which makes the GPS functionality virtually useless for geotagging pictures and posts to Facebook, twitter, google+ as well as checking into places.
Until it gets a decent lock the bubble around your location is miles in diameter.
Phone literally take upwards of 10 minutes to get a lock at times.
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
with in 10 seconds I was locked in w/less than 40 ft accuracy
N8ter said:
How fast are the locks. Te issue is not how many sats since it only needs a few to get an accurate signal. The problem is that the phone takes 1900% longer than any other phone I've ever used to lock, which makes the GPS functionality virtually useless for geotagging pictures and posts to Facebook, twitter, google+ as well as checking into places.
Until it gets a decent lock the bubble around your location is miles in diameter.
Phone literally take upwards of 10 minutes to get a lock at times.
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a little exaggerated perhaps? my phone is the original batch and i've never had it take ten minutes for a lock. i mean i'm in Manhattan so the wifi assist probably helps it alot in terms of lock. the gps on the vibrant was never good enough for navigation but good enough for everything else imo.
I don't know about you but all my gps successes didn't last. first time i did all my gps fixes, it worked great. as time went on, went back to sh|t.
10 minutes it about right for me at the moment... ill try the orientation thing lol
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
Yea one of the members here found this out a lonnnng time ago ever since then I always face my phone with the back facing the sky to get that first lock. Most of the times it works
dandab said:
I don't know about you but all my gps successes didn't last. first time i did all my gps fixes, it worked great. as time went on, went back to sh|t.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, same experience I've been having. There are some good days and there some days that it's flat out stubborn like a bull. It won't even lock even on a clear night sky.
Related
So I've had my dream since launch day in Canada, and the gps has been working fine until about a week ago. Recently my gps mostly refuses to lock, and when it dose, google maps shows me as being roughly 600km away from where I am.
I just went out for a walk to an area with no buildings or trees to block the sky, (I have had success locking from within my apartment building before, but just to make sure...), and it took about 30 min to establish a 'lock' on my position (600km away 5 km below sea level and moving at around 150 km/h).
GPS status showed between 5 and 6 satellites that it could see the entire walk. I then installed gps test and got roughly the same. I've tried rebooting several times, as well as leaving the phone off for about an hour.
Nothing seems to clear this issue up.
I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and if they got it fixed?
I'm currently running a rooted phone, did that several weeks (and a few reboots) before the gps issue cropped up.
Take it far away from tall buildings. Signals can reflect off of buildings and give you incorrect readings.
I used to be able to lock under a minute, now I can't lock at all. Same here.
hmmmm, I just opened up GPS Status 2 app and I'm not getting a lock either.
I'm guessing google maps is just using phone towers to approximate where I am.
I hope Endeavour didn't crash some sattelites on it's way to the space station lol
turns out my GPS is fine. I thought it worked inside my work place but it does not. It had no issues connecting while Iw as outside.
so I got in touch with rogers technical support, they put me in touch with HTC technical support. they said that it's most likely a hardware issue, and told me to get back to rogers. rogers is now saying it's an application issue, and are directing me to talk to google.
yey rogers....
sigh...
..EDIT..
and three factory resets later I have gps again...
I have meant to write about this before. I have really never had a major issue with my GPS once I got it unlocked. I do generally get fairly fast locks. However I do travel with my job quite a bit. It seems that every time I get off the plane & into a rental car. It takes forever to get a lock. It has taken me sometime as long as 45 minutes. Has anyone else experienced this or have an explanation. I have tried resetting my phone several times, tweaking the registry, & using Clean Ram.
I used to see this sometime with my Dell navigation system for my X51v.
jadesse said:
I have meant to write about this before. I have really never had a major issue with my GPS once I got it unlocked. I do generally get fairly fast locks. However I do travel with my job quite a bit. It seems that every time I get off the plane & into a rental car. It takes forever to get a lock. It has taken me sometime as long as 45 minutes. Has anyone else experienced this or have an explanation. I have tried resetting my phone several times, tweaking the registry, & using Clean Ram.
I used to see this sometime with my Dell navigation system for my X51v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, some locations will give you more satellite lock-ons than others. Aside from that, you could use something like QuickGPS to get aGPS location based, so your device would connect faster... wild guess though
Use QuickGPS or or AstroLauncher, both work fairly nicely. With QuickGPS you have to update every week, but you get signal faster. With AstroLauncher there aren't any updates for satellite info, but it'll take a bit longer, around 5-10 minutes...
Again, long waiting times for locks is a general problem with the Vogue... I guess that is why the carriers decided to hide this feature (that and to try to stick you with data charges and propitiatory GPS software )
i get 11 satellite indoor and map is locking very fast and i am not using wifi network
Indeed, I am getting 10 sats indoors with wifi network turned off. Does a cold lock in seconds.
edit: GPS is not fixed. Can't get a lock after trying again this morning. Had to restart phone.
im excited to get this update!! thanks for the post!
in Baltimore, MD area here, no update for me yet!
Just apply the update yourself. No point waiting for OTA.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=785028
GPS is indeed very accurate now!
Locked within about 10 seconds, got IN MY HOUSE, within about 10 feet from where I'm sitting.
This wasn't listed as one of the fixes for the OTA. Are you SURE it's actually working better now and it's not just a placebo effect?
ANY reset for an update is going to flush the GPS-xtra assistance data cache and force new downland of Alamanc and Ephemris. There is NO way you would know if this update did anything yet. I doubt ANY GPS changes are in this update since device team is still testing various fixes.
I am really curious too.. I looked on the sprints facebook page and some people said they still having probems with the gps even after the update.
I am still waiting to get the update.. patiently grrrr .. lol
I can confirm this too.. I watched the signal lock within no more than like 30-45 sec. As we all know before it was either nothing or a trickle. I have also noticed the performance enhancements they stated. The signal as you drive and the switch of of views as you drive are faster and more detailed before the directions are needed..
The map caches well on 3G and well on 4G. It makes me wonder, Samsung is using everything as guinea pigs to test so next year they bomb us with the Galaxy S2 which they so happily confirmed along with the Tegra 2 Galaxy Tab 2.
Sucks tho, bastards stripped 4G and Voice in the US.. :-( Oh well still have Motorola N HTC for their toys...
Sent From The Moon...
Placebo effect or not, testing it the same way today as I did yesterday (and multiple days before) and having it work immediately without using wireless networks is awesome.
I'll take it.
One thing to note: When I rebooted my phone after the update, I immediately turned on Airplane mode (habit to kill that time without service bug) and a message popped up "Turn off Flight Mode to update firmware" so I immediately turned it back off. Maybe the update causes Sprint to have firmware updates pushed to the phone that affects this?
Or maybe not. Dunno; I ain't a phone guy.
Apparently you guys didnt read Aero1's post. The GPS apparently always works once after a reset, which the update forced. We shouldn't be able to confirm that the GPS is working for a little while yet.
Nope, fail. Update pushed last night, GPS sucks in the morning. Utter, complete fail. Tried to access GPS with WiFi on, now it's sitting there like an idiot until the screen times out. Had to force ephemeris clear to get it to work again. Also, "accuracy" hard-coded value still exists. And now, screen brightness is, for whatever reason, dimmer under auto than before.
Although I never had a GPS problem it does seem a bit faster now. I was really worried about GPS issues after reading all of the reviews and articles. I use GPS a lot and was very disappointed by what I was reading. I got my Epic at 8am on the day of launch and fired up GPS to test and it worked great. Has worked every day since with no issues at all. I don't understand how or why it works for some (because I have seen other people say the same thing about GPS) and not for others.
hydralisk said:
Apparently you guys didnt read Aero1's post. The GPS apparently always works once after a reset, which the update forced. We shouldn't be able to confirm that the GPS is working for a little while yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read it. I have no idea who he is. Doesn't mean he's wrong or right, just means my initial anecdotal evidence is positive. Tomorrow may be different, but I don't take things at the word of people I don't know. If it's bad tomorrow, I'll come back and say so. My experience isn't proof of anything outside of my experience.
Oh, did you know the common dog is actually part of the family felinus and not caninus as previously thought?
othan1 said:
Tomorrow may be different, but I don't take things at the word of people I don't know. If it's bad tomorrow, I'll come back and say so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No disrespect or flamebait intended whatsoever, but isn't that somewhat the point of the forums?
I fear that premature threads like this are counterproductive. If Samsung checks these boards at all they'll think, "Well if even the tech savvy are fooled into thinking it's fixed, we definitely don't actually have to do anything." They are just *looking* for a reason to not actually fix this problem. There really needs to be constant and unrelenting/vocal frustration to force them into addressing this. The minute it appears on gizmodo/engadget is the moment when Samsung *might* begin to care.
I'm particularly fearful that only the gsm versions are getting the official fix because of the Sprint statement that the problem was fixed prior to release. And Epic owners will just be left high and dry.
Yeah, I tested this morning and my GPS is definitely broken, so the problem is indeed not fixed.
Applied update. After letting the GPS search around for a minute it locked outdoors. Turned it off, back on then it locked in seconds. Turned it off, walked inside house turned GPS back on, locked in a few seconds. Walked around my entire house, upstairs and down stairs and it stayed locked to an average of 5 sats. Rebooted my phone, and still near instant lock indoors. This was done with wifi on and then off and with `Use Wireless Networks' disabled for all tests.
styckx said:
Applied update. After letting the GPS search around for a minute it locked outdoors. Turned it off, back on then it locked in seconds. Turned it off, walked inside house turned GPS back on, locked in a few seconds. Walked around my entire house, upstairs and down stairs and it stayed locked to an average of 5 sats. Rebooted my phone, and still near instant lock indoors. This was done with wifi on and then off and with `Use Wireless Networks' disabled for all tests.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait a few hours and try again. It'll probably be broken.
Okay so I know there are many GPS threads, I went through all of them but didn't find a simliar issue.
When driving around Bartlett, IL (a 4G area, not that it makes a difference but just indicating that the suburb isn't small)... I could not get the GPS lock for the life of me. It thought I was mile away, seemed like it was only picking up the cell tower.. and no turning 4G on or off didn't make a difference.
now here is the kicker,
I drove back to my home town, Rockford, IL (only 3G).... and baam...I got a lock right away and the GPS knew exactly where I was on the road.....
I really dont think it's a 4g/3g issue, as GPS should be independent of them (at least form what I know)....
the question is...if it was google maps, why would it lock in one area and not the other....and same with the phone...you'd think if the phone is jacked/ it wouldnt work in either case...
any thoughts?
Gps is weird in general on the Epic, I have to toggle GPS on, Toggle Off, Toggle on and then it works..
it's expected. welcome the the GPS woes club.
jackal424 said:
Okay so I know there are many GPS threads, I went through all of them but didn't find a simliar issue.
When driving around Bartlett, IL (a 4G area, not that it makes a difference but just indicating that the suburb isn't small)... I could not get the GPS lock for the life of me. It thought I was mile away, seemed like it was only picking up the cell tower.. and no turning 4G on or off didn't make a difference.
now here is the kicker,
I drove back to my home town, Rockford, IL (only 3G).... and baam...I got a lock right away and the GPS knew exactly where I was on the road.....
I really dont think it's a 4g/3g issue, as GPS should be independent of them (at least form what I know)....
the question is...if it was google maps, why would it lock in one area and not the other....and same with the phone...you'd think if the phone is jacked/ it wouldnt work in either case...
any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a 4G issue.
When you have 4G or WiFi on the GPS will not lock. Once turned off, it takes SEVERAL minutes for it to snap back to reality and be able to update it's cache to find the sats.
othan1 said:
It's a 4G issue.
When you have 4G or WiFi on the GPS will not lock. Once turned off, it takes SEVERAL minutes for it to snap back to reality and be able to update it's cache to find the sats.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said it occured without even using 4G. All I know is I opened google maps in one area and it works and in another area it didn't.
Difference was only turning gps on/off.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
This is the same GPS issue that is affecting the rest of us. Outdated ephemeris cache bug.
Since my phone arrived that i can't get a GPS signal lock.
GPS Status can indeed see the sattelites but phone can't lock a signal...
After a lot of cache and factory wipes still no luck.
Anyone else having this problem?
How fast can you get a GPS signal lock?
I would like to see some other opinions before i send it back to warranty because it might be something fixable..
P.S: I've searched all around the forum and the web and i couldn't find a solution for this.
Cold boot lock 180 - 250 seconds .
jje
I had similar strange issues the first 2 days.
Then when I finally had a lock, I started using gps more and it works fine now.
It's almost like the gps module had to be warmed up
I read somewhere someone had a similar issue in the beginning and then it worked fine.
I'm also keeping an eye on my gps functionality..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Gawis said:
I had similar strange issues the first 2 days.
Then when I finally had a lock, I started using gps more and it works fine now.
It's almost like the gps module had to be warmed up
I read somewhere someone had a similar issue in the beginning and then it worked fine.
I'm also keeping an eye on my gps functionality..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think i'll keep trying until i get a first lock before i send it back to warranty..
Just flashed back to KE2 to see if it's really not fw related.
I'll post the results after some tests
Do you guys have location service turned on? Not the one based on wifi but cell service?
try the following and tell us if it helped:
1) turn off the wifi- and cell based gps support (this doesn't help you much and sends your pos data to big G)
2) download "GPS Status & Toolbox" app from the market
3) download the actual satellite vectors with this tool (this you will have to do regularly, around once a week)
4) go out, start your nav app, do NOT move (easier for the GPS to get a fix)
5) come back in and tell us if that helped.
Cheers
Zap
Zaphod_b_1 said:
try the following and tell us if it helped:
1) turn off the wifi- and cell based gps support (this doesn't help you much and sends your pos data to big G)
2) download "GPS Status & Toolbox" app from the market
3) download the actual satellite vectors with this tool (this you will have to do regularly, around once a week)
4) go out, start your nav app, do NOT move (easier for the GPS to get a fix)
5) come back in and tell us if that helped.
Cheers
Zap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do.
I'll report back as soon as i test it
Thanks
Also make sure you have 3G data (not wifi) turned on.
I noticed that when 3G data is not on lock takes ages.
clubtech said:
Also make sure you have 3G data (not wifi) turned on.
I noticed that when 3G data is not on lock takes ages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything works fine now.. I didn't know that was necessary to have 3G enabled.. At least the first lock.. After that, with 3G ON i was able to get locks within <15 seconds. Also, after this, with 3G OFF, and after rebooting phone, i got a lock within <15 seconds..
I guess my GPS is not broken after all
Thanks everyone who helped
I don't have 3G and neither do I enable any network. Here is a screenshot i took todays while sitting at a caffee. Maybe the fix takes a minute or two, but then it's very stable, does not loose the connection easy.
ive always locked in about 10 secs from day one every firmware ive tried, always held a solid lock too,best gps ive used yet phone or otherwise.
I'm now having fast locks too without 3G.. Even inside my house, on a 4 floors building (i'm on first) with all windows closed, i'm getting locks within 30 seconds.. Not bad. With 3G ON, it gets a lock within 20 seconds max.
Haven't tried outside yet though.. Will do tomorrow with 3G ON & OFF so i can compare both.
h20pt said:
I'm now having fast locks too without 3G.. Even inside my house, on a 4 floors building (i'm on first) with all windows closed, i'm getting locks within 30 seconds.. Not bad. With 3G ON, it gets a lock within 20 seconds max.
Haven't tried outside yet though.. Will do tomorrow with 3G ON & OFF so i can compare both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it may have been the timing but i couldn't get a lock as soon as i got out of the subway station on saturday within 20~30 sec ish. So i closed google maps and enabled location service and bam 5sec and lock
I tried it with wifi earlier this evening and it jumped around a bit (never had this issue before)
ph00ny said:
it may have been the timing but i couldn't get a lock as soon as i got out of the subway station on saturday within 20~30 sec ish. So i closed google maps and enabled location service and bam 5sec and lock
I tried it with wifi earlier this evening and it jumped around a bit (never had this issue before)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried google maps outside yet, but inside i can say it takes forever to get a lock.. even with 3G ON. However, when it does get a lock, accuracy is really bad (>60m).
On GPS status, GPS accuracy is also kinda bad.. I can't get down of 20 m of error (20 m min.. usually it's around 40/60). However, lock times are faster than on goole maps.
Is there a way of improving accuracy?
Being inside and trying to get a better accuracy is not really possible. With 3G on the GPS will use Cell tower triangulation to get A-GPS which is not very accurate indoor.
Use GPS outdoors!
CEPi said:
Being inside and trying to get a better accuracy is not really possible. With 3G on the GPS will use Cell tower triangulation to get A-GPS which is not very accurate indoor.
Use GPS outdoors!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will.. Tomorrow
Enough of testing for today.. Time to go to bed.
Night all