Database Users

Swapping my SGS with a new one.

So I've got one of the many Vibrants with the flaky GPS, and none of the fixes out there seem to improve the problem. My local T-Mo store is understanding and quite willing to swap it with a new one since I'm still within the 14 day policy. The only catch is I want to put the phone as close to stock as possible before I do the trade so they can't say it was something I did to it. Right now I've rooted deodexed, and I've got clockwork ROM manager going. I've also deleted almost all the stock cruft and swapped the calendar / camera apps. Because I was so eager to make it "mine", I also failed to make any backups BUT my wife happens to have a totally stock SGS from which I can scavange from but I'd like to do it without having to root it or anything. Is this possible? If not would thread 739091 ("True Stock 2.1 firmware for vibrant"; sorry I can't post links since my account here is still new) get me there?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734475&highlight=stock is what you're looking for. Just flash this with Odin and you'll be fully unrooted.

Awesome, I really appreciate that. I'm not timid when it comes to making the phone my own (I was an early adopter of CyanogenMod for my old G1) but I just returned from a deployment and the whole 'scene' has changed a lot more than I expected lol.

Hehe. you might want to give the new T-Mobile Vibrant firmware that was leaked, it fixes the GPS problem (result may vary). Returning your SGS for a new one isn't going to fix your problem. It's not hardware related, its firmware.

An exchange won't fix your GPS issues anyway so you mine as well keep the one you have. Trust me, we try to swap them out customers all the time at my store.... It's a known issue and Samsung is SUPPOSED to be sending us an OTA soon
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

ShanDestromp said:
Awesome, I really appreciate that. I'm not timid when it comes to making the phone my own (I was an early adopter of CyanogenMod for my old G1) but I just returned from a deployment and the whole 'scene' has changed a lot more than I expected lol.
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Just want to say thank you for serving.

zephiK said:
Returning your SGS for a new one isn't going to fix your problem. It's not hardware related, its firmware.
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Click to collapse
briguydj32 said:
An exchange won't fix your GPS issues anyway so you mine as well keep the one you have.
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Click to collapse
Hmmm, quite a few people I'd talked with locally that have the vibrant said swapping worked for them. Is it possible that newer firmware has been released for phones with a newer "birth" date than mine? Then again who should I trust more, people who hardly utilize their phones, or the people who drool over the prospect of new mods and hacks? hehe. I guess I'll just call T-Mo back and let them know I wont be bothering with a swap after all.
Droidicus said:
Just want to say thank you for serving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, my pleasure. If nothing else, I have the Army to thank for bringing me out to Hawai'i and giving me the chance to meet my now wife hehe.

ALL out of the box Vibrant's have the same firmware. You need to update to the newest firmware version, it works really well. GPS is better than it is on my CLIQ.

I dunno, i've heard reports of GPS working perfect out of the box for some, and the new firmware doesn't seem to do much for my GPS,
10m accuracy at most unless I leave gps on for about an hour and maybe i'll get 6-7m accuracy, but driving, it SKIPS, (still at 10m) instead of gliding along like my G1 did.
So i'm considering perhaps swapping mine.

QwertyAccess said:
I dunno, i've heard reports of GPS working perfect out of the box for some, and the new firmware doesn't seem to do much for my GPS,
10m accuracy at most unless I leave gps on for about an hour and maybe i'll get 6-7m accuracy, but driving, it SKIPS, (still at 10m) instead of gliding along like my G1 did.
So i'm considering perhaps swapping mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10M of accuracy is not bad and if you want to get technical, GMaps interprets the data differently. What shows in GMaps as 10 meters will show up as 7 under GPS test. I've got my Vibrant here at 6 Meters under GPSTest and 10 under GMaps. Get a grip people.

heygrl said:
Get a grip people.
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Click to collapse
I wont speak for Qwerty, but in my case I was LUCKY to get 10m accuracy; usually the best I could get was 40m; usually after 5-10 minutes of 'searching' and when you're driving an unfamiliar city such as Washington DC Like I was this past week, 40m is far too inaccurate for navigation. Your 'get a grip' is completely tasteless and uncalled for in this thread.
That said, I took zephiK's advice and just flashed the new 2.1 (thread 780935), and I must say its a lot better. I can get a 10m fix indoors in less than 5 seconds from a cold start (EG without GMaps knowing where I am at all); before being indoors I would never get less than a 1000m 'fix'. As soon as I get mine fully tweaked, I'll be sure to flash my wifes phone as well since she's got the same issue.

ShanDestromp said:
I wont speak for Qwerty, but in my case I was LUCKY to get 10m accuracy; usually the best I could get was 40m; usually after 5-10 minutes of 'searching' and when you're driving an unfamiliar city such as Washington DC Like I was this past week, 40m is far too inaccurate for navigation. Your 'get a grip' is completely tasteless and uncalled for in this thread.
That said, I took zephiK's advice and just flashed the new 2.1 (thread 780935), and I must say its a lot better. I can get a 10m fix indoors in less than 5 seconds from a cold start (EG without GMaps knowing where I am at all); before being indoors I would never get less than a 1000m 'fix'. As soon as I get mine fully tweaked, I'll be sure to flash my wifes phone as well since she's got the same issue.
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No thats what im saying about.. He does have the update on his Vibrant
Sent from my SGH-T959

Anyways, Qwerty I just hope you get lucky with your swap and get a working gps and hardware recovery.I've been poking around and quite a few people are saying some of thenew vibrants have issues getting into recovery and down load mode
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Yeah, i'm still considering doing the swap, sometime this week, perhaps even today, got up this morning, and phone was off, (Charging Battery Symbol on the screen),
I'm not running any of the custom roms nor am i OCing. Just worried if I do the swap I may end up with even more problems. I don't know what it is with the Samsung phones, if perhaps a lot of the phones have hardware problems or what. I have only used the original stock rom, and the leaked samsung rom.
I don't mean to be picky with my phone, but I remember my 2 year old G1 getting easily 3m lock as soon as i open up the maps inside my room, and navigating with it, was extremely accurate as well. I also never had restart issues with the phone, till after dropping the thing really hard, and then even the restart thing went away.
Today, I'm lucky to get even 40m lock again, on that same leaked updated firmware. My gripe with the samsung vibrant is that there seems to be some sort of hardware problem with the phone and samsung is not saying a thing about it.

I'm telling you guys... don't bother with a swap... I work in a very high volume store and have seen almost every customer come back with GPS issues. We won't even swap them anymore for customers because TMO has listed it as a known issue, and Samsung has announced the firmware update soon... A swap WILL NOT fix the issue, but if you decide to swap it, don't go whining to us our TMO about how you "keep exchanging it and none of them work..." They know this, and YOU know it.

For those still having GPS problems after DK05 radio flash

I still could not get a GPS lock even with the new radio and the DK05 ROM was still to buggy for me. So I went back to stock then back to 4.2 release of Froyo. I needed the GPS so I flashed the radio to the DK05 release and got 12 Sats in just a few seconds. This was the only combination hat has worked for me. Maybe it's just a fluke but it works for me even after reboot. Just thought I would share. I don't know why the rom version would matter 4.2 and DK05 radio gives me orking GPS.
Hope this helps someone......
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Well known fix for a well known bug. Don't use GPS for a few days, then try it and report back, please.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

herzzreh said:
Well known fix for a well known bug. Don't use GPS for a few days, then try it and report back, please.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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I feel like there should be a flashing red line at the top of every forum post
"If you reboot your phone and your gps works, ITS NOT FIXED!"

herzzreh said:
Well known fix for a well known bug. Don't use GPS for a few days, then try it and report back, please.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I understand where your coming from but that's not what I was referring to. My point was that I could barely EVER get a GPS lock until now. I tried the "leaked GPS fix" in the other thread and if it worked it wouldn't after I rebooted the phone. I was simply reporting that with this combination of Radio and ROM that it worked very well. Before it would stop working when I rebooted but it locks right on now.
I am very aware the "Well known fix for a well known issue". This was different for me and I thought it might work for someone else still having issues.

I wasn't trying to be a **** or anything. What you did just forced a complete cache wipe and then a download of new data. Unless you use it daily and unless you have it set to cold start, I guarantee you that your issues will be back.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

herzzreh said:
I wasn't trying to be a **** or anything. What you did just forced a complete cache wipe and then a download of new data. Unless you use it daily and unless you have it set to cold start, I guarantee you that your issues will be back.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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No problem. I guess my whole point was I had done the cache wipes many times with no positive outcome. This was really the first time I was able to use the GPS on my phone. Maybe it was just coincidence but I tried the cache wipe and anything else I could find to get the GPS to lock and this was the only thing that ever worked for me.

No GPS satellites in view
I wanted to share since I have the same problem...
I am now on my third epic as the first two would not even see a satellite for anything. Not sure if anyone else may be this unlucky but the first two were definitely defective. Third one works like a charm.
I do work for Sprint, and I've seen how shoddy quality control can be for some of the devices, but it seems like they almost rushed these out of the factory. Only had two customers come in that actually required a replacement, as the others were just the standard GPS issues, but man is it frustrating for this kind of phone.
I remember when I got my original touch that didn't even have gps enabled yet! How many years old and even with froyo on it, gps works near instantly for all tests.
But anyway, just wanted to share as I don't know that everyone who has been having issues has verified if they are even seeing satellites available.

ramsestut said:
I wanted to share since I have the same problem...
I am now on my third epic as the first two would not even see a satellite for anything. Not sure if anyone else may be this unlucky but the first two were definitely defective. Third one works like a charm.
I do work for Sprint, and I've seen how shoddy quality control can be for some of the devices, but it seems like they almost rushed these out of the factory. Only had two customers come in that actually required a replacement, as the others were just the standard GPS issues, but man is it frustrating for this kind of phone.
I remember when I got my original touch that didn't even have gps enabled yet! How many years old and even with froyo on it, gps works near instantly for all tests.
But anyway, just wanted to share as I don't know that everyone who has been having issues has verified if they are even seeing satellites available.
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Thanks. I was seeing 0/0 in GPS Status. No matter what I did I had nothing. I was swapped out a few times as well but for the capacitive buttons. I got it working pretty good now. Now I get 12/12 outside and like 7/7 inside. Stas seen/Sats locked

I'm unclear on which version is "froyo 4.2". Do you mean the DJ29 leak? NVM. I didn't put 2 + 2 together; you were referring to the 4.2 revision of leaked DJ29.
I'm basically in the same boat OP was, I'm flashed all the way up to the latest DK05 ROM and modem but GPS is still a crapshoot.
At least it's finally looking like the next OTA will for-sure fix the GPS problems. With Samsung supposedly never acknowledging the problem I was worried.

Poryhack said:
At least it's finally looking like the next OTA will for-sure fix the GPS problems. With Samsung supposedly never acknowledging the problem I was worried.
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From reading the anecdotal reports of uncontrolled testing here, I've seen no evidence of that at all. Maybe it's fixed, and maybe it isn't. You should still be worrried.
People are overcoming the novel problem particular to installing the leaked version. This problem, apparently an artifact of the way the leaked firmware is installed, was breaking GPS completely at the outset.
But that is not the same thing as saying that Samsung has fixed the longstanding GPS bug on the Epic. In fact, having the GPS work initially is a symptom perfectly consistent with that bug. (You can get the same effect just by doing of factory reset of your stock Epic running Eclair DI18.)
The Epic's GPS bug occurs over time, as the GPS almanac and ephemeris cache becomes out of date or corrupt. As far as I can see, no one running the leaked firmware has tested the use cases that can replicate the bug on the stock Epic.

boomerbubba said:
The Epic's GPS bug occurs over time, as the GPS almanac and ephemeris cache becomes out of date or corrupt. As far as I can see, no one running the leaked firmware has tested the use cases that can replicate the bug on the stock Epic.
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Click to collapse
I'm not doubting that this is a bug, but my Epic has NEVER been able to get quick and accurate locks, and I have tried after countless wipes. Unless it's just bad hardware there is more then one bug in play here.
The OP's situation seems near-identical to mine so I'm hopeful that trying this might actually have results.

Poryhack said:
At least it's finally looking like the next OTA will for-sure fix the GPS problems. With Samsung supposedly never acknowledging the problem I was worried.
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Click to collapse
First the fact that samsung hasn't acknowledge the problem is not "supposed" it is a documented fact. They refuse 100% to acknowledge the problem and in fact say on the record all GPS issues on Epic were fixed at release.
Second there is zero evidence that the next OTA will do anything for GPS on Epic, where do you even get the slightest indication that is the case?

Poryhack said:
I'm not doubting that this is a bug, but my Epic has NEVER been able to get quick and accurate locks, and I have tried after countless wipes. Unless it's just bad hardware there is more then one bug in play here.
The OP's situation seems near-identical to mine so I'm hopeful that trying this might actually have results.
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Click to collapse
the OP situation is totally different an yours, it has to do with flashing, which killed the GPS on many Epics. IE not an issue with time to first fix, interrmtant falure to fix, or accuracy, but a total killing of GPS.
The fix implemented restores GPS to the same function state as the rest of ours, generally working with some number of failures to flush cache and thereby no fix locaiton on occassion

My 1st gen Vibrant, advice

Hello,
I really love the screen on this phone, the hardware capabilities (720p rec, etc.) and although newer and better processors in phones are coming out I like this 1 enough to hold me over for a long time.
so here is my issue:
I purchased my vibrant about 2 weeks after came out, and the biggest problem I faced initially was the problem with the gps. At this point I have not even use gps is the first month I bought it, instead I just use google maps in follow the directions it gives me.
Since that time, I have rooted my phone. I was really happy to get the first update that was rolled out, even though it was rooted. I have heard of all the difference solutions to fix the gps but is it really worth the effort to practically void my warranty even further than rooting it by opening it up and trying to solder whatever antenna is in there.
Now I know my phone is covered under samsung warranty. I should also mention the other big problem I have with it is the battery life. If I can fix these 2 issues I would love the phone forever.
here's my question:
is it feasible and worth the effort to get my phone returned back to samsung so that the battery and gps are of the newest generation?
does anyone have experience doing this and how willing is samsung to work with me?
Finally if I do end up getting a replacement then I know I will have to un root my phone before I send it to samsung. I'm not stupid but I just haven't flashed any roms before. if I did get my phone back to stock settings, then would I lose all of the applications and I paid for and all the customization I have done to the phone (contacts, accounts, data)?
also just curious but I haven't received the 2.2 over the air update yet am I even going to get it since my phone is rooted? I figure I may as well try 2.2 before I actually send in the phone.
I know these are a lot of questions but I really like this phone and I want to get it to work.
thank you and I appreciate any suggestions or advice for me.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

New and old Vibrants alike have GPS problem.
I don't have an answer to all your questions, but what I can tell you is that you should not wait for your phone to update to 2.2 because it is an over-the-air update.
Follow these instructions if you want to update your phone:
http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/Samsu...-upgrade-to-Android-2-2-Froyo-now/td-p/678871

As far as I've heard the newer ones after 10/10 don't seem to have the same problem. It may be worth it to take it to the store and show them how bad the GPS is. They may exchange it for you. I'd unroot and go back to stock first.
That won't address the battery issue, but that's generic to most of these newer phones. You can do tweaks to get more life out of them, but that seems to be about it.

if I unroot and go back to stock is it going to erase my applications and contacts, and settings?
I bought it online so I would have to send it back to letstalk.com, I'll have to check out the return policy.
thanks for the replies.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

You will not lose your paid apps, they are tied to your google account. Use titanium backup before you unroot your phone to backup all your data, including app data. When you get your new phone, you will have to reroot and then you can restore everything from titanium.
You can try to get a warrantly replacement from Samsung rather than using letstalk, I think it's a pain to exchange with them, but I'm not sure.

As said above, Titanium backup will handle it. I have my phone from someone on this board, so I had to go directly with Samsung. Once I could get the tech support person to understand the phone just didn't work it was easier. Don't know how that would go with the GPS. Mine was for the phone not working as a phone, ie, no connection to the network.

zharptitza said:
As far as I've heard the newer ones after 10/10 don't seem to have the same problem. It may be worth it to take it to the store and show them how bad the GPS is. They may exchange it for you. I'd unroot and go back to stock first.
That won't address the battery issue, but that's generic to most of these newer phones. You can do tweaks to get more life out of them, but that seems to be about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find that to be incorrect. My Vibrant has a 11.01 (2011 January) build date on it and the gps is horrible. I've tried every rom, but I do notice the gps being a little more better with certain roms.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Here is my story:
I phone up t-mobile and say my GPS doesn't work. They made me go through a four day dance trying stuff, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
They then replaced it with a brand new phone.
And they charged me $10 shipping & handling for the new phone.
Before the phone never could reliably get and hold on to a GPS lock; afterwards it locks in seconds and never drops.

Hmm, threads I had seen were saying it was better. I have an older one that I just fixed myself. I was hoping they'd gotten their act together and fixed their antenna construction. Its such a simple thing to fix, you'd think they'd do it at the plant.

False
zharptitza said:
As far as I've heard the newer ones after 10/10 don't seem to have the same problem. It may be worth it to take it to the store and show them how bad the GPS is. They may exchange it for you. I'd unroot and go back to stock first.
That won't address the battery issue, but that's generic to most of these newer phones. You can do tweaks to get more life out of them, but that seems to be about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
False, I've personally used Vibrants made after 10/10 and the GPS is no better than ones produced earlier.
There is no change in hardware, and it has never been proven that a hardware revision on the GPS was made on phones manufactured after 10/10. Just speculation and rumor.

SamsungVibrant said:
False, I've personally used Vibrants made after 10/10 and the GPS is no better than ones produced earlier.
There is no change in hardware, and it has never been proven that a hardware revision on the GPS was made on phones manufactured after 10/10. Just speculation and rumor.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I think I've got to agree on this one.
In the gps case, I really think it is really a hit or miss issue. My gps works pretty decently but my hubby's doesn't work at all. Even when we were both stock, I could lock on some birds but his was never able to. On top of that, when I flashed Nero onto my phone, my gps got even better. Granted, I don't think it would ever see a thing if it was working on standalone; but with wireless networks on, this thing would (and has) pinpoint(ed) me on a moving train accurately.
Aside from firmwares (now), the only difference between them was the build dates: his - 07/10, mine - 09/10.

My questions to "communicate-with-samsung"

Thought i'd post these here. Others can post theres as well. If I get any answers I'll post those here also.
1. Are there plans to fix the gps issues on the epic? Or is it simply hardware related?
2. Why did samsung choose the rfs file system?
3. What is Samsung's corporate position on open-source software development?
Sent from my last samsung phone using tapatalk.

I have a question for you and other members. What exactly is the gps issue? Mine works perfectly on my epic on 2.1 and 2.2.1
Sent from my SPH-M900 using XDA App

rgregg504 said:
I have a question for you and other members. What exactly is the gps issue? Mine works perfectly on my epic on 2.1 and 2.2.1
Sent from my SPH-M900 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Some people have gps issues such as accuracy i believe. some don't

Oh ok thanx just curious because me and my wife both have the epic and both are fine.
Sent from my SPH-M900 using XDA App

I have a problem where the gps doesn't lock at random. Usually a battery pull clears the problem. Accuracy is usually within 30 feet or so.
Rfs? It was the thing they had at the time. On new phones they are using ext4.

Supposedly 2.2.1 official on Monday will address GPS.... we will see... not sure the point of that Q&A at this time (the next few days) as we have yet to see what they listened to for the build they are dropping in a few days. I honestly think he wants our input on matters other than software/hardware complaints that are well known. I think that will be useful if everyone is contented with the 2.2.1 release, Its not a bad thing to have a suggestion box, IF the issues are addressed somewhat promptly...

I asked:
Does Samsung intend to address the hardware keyboard issue that causes the phone to miss keystrokes?
and
one other question that I completely forgot.
Edit: strike that, just remembered.
Is Samsung going to offer firmware updates for the Camera which is available in the settings menu of the leaked 2.2 rom??

rgregg504 said:
I have a question for you and other members. What exactly is the gps issue? Mine works perfectly on my epic on 2.1 and 2.2.1
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Click to collapse
Gps locks fine and quickly, but then loses lock after 5-15 minutes. You have to manually turn the gps on and off again to get it to re lock.
And I asked because it was supposed to be addressed in an update that came our months ago but still happens for a lot of us.

aleph23 said:
Gps locks fine and quickly, but then loses lock after 5-15 minutes. You have to manually turn the gps on and off again to get it to re lock.
And I asked because it was supposed to be addressed in an update that came our months ago but still happens for a lot of us.
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Click to collapse
Dont forget you cant lock GPS with wifi or 4g on.

Well there must be enough wrong with GPS for them to mention it as one of the main features of the udpate to happen monday... hopefully they will fix your issues, I have got my GPS to 2 meters on DK28, but actually have yet to leave it on for an extended period of time, dont really use Nav, I know my city from jobs... and dont really like leaving that on, Ive disabled it since they first came in phones... tinfoil hat and all...
HW Keyboard!!! If it does not improve, I will take it in for service. I got a replacement like Jan 3, for my OG that I had since launch week, and aside from the screen fail, my original never dropped keys... not that I can remember... it also seems to be getting worse, and since January I have not gotten that much faster at typing on it to make a difference that way... but I HOPE its software... else I may end up with another TEP claim.

muyoso said:
Dont forget you cant lock GPS with wifi or 4g on.
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Click to collapse
I lock with wifi on.

My question is what is samsung's plans for future os updates for the epic?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

From the sound of it, Svetius at captivate says that xda will be filtering the questions before they go to Sammy.
Sent from my last samsung phone using tapatalk.

I can probably easily tell you how they will answer it or at least summarize it..
aleph23 said:
1. Are there plans to fix the gps issues on the epic? Or is it simply hardware related?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are working hard to isolate and fix this issue..
2. Why did samsung choose the rfs file system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We chose RFS for its reliability (they made RFS themselves they are not going to say any bad about it)
3. What is Samsung's corporate position on open-source software development?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung is committed to open source
---
Those will be your answers..in a fancier manner..
As for GPS locking , I lock just fine..I noticed Google Maps gets stuck here and there but if I use any other software there is no issue...

aleph23 said:
I lock with wifi on.
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Click to collapse
Generally not for long. Leave WiFi on for 2 days, without ever shutting it off. Then try getting a lock. Promise you won't be able to.

I've never had problems locking on to GPS
The problem that I share with many others is that the GPS will randomly stop connecting with satellites after 10-20 minutes of use. Sometimes a lot sooner than that. It'll reconnect after about 2 minutes, but its really annoying when you're using google nav.
I've tried using GPS status and I can see that it has a great signal, but it won't connect to a couple of sats at random times. Very buggy.

AFTER the update, if it happens, those with GPS issues should get an ALL GPS thread like the 2.2 one... it seems like a real clusterfuk as it stands, and theres no clear proof that its software, or a crappy GPS radio, and thats the end of the story. After the update, which claims to address GPS, those with GPS issues need to compare notes, and figure out as best as possible what is hardware limitation, what is software, what is user error. As stated above, other software besides google maps should be tried as well, in case there is something weird happening with that... I dont use GPS much, so I wonder why this issue keeps popping up so much, and people dont collaborate enough on solving the issue. After that best GPS fix ever thread popped up, I Odin'ed to DI18, and did all the steps, even considered going to DG27 or whatever to be extra retentive, but once I got all the way up to my rooted, rom'd setup, got 2 meters, or maybe 1... thats all I bothered with. I understand those that use their epics as a tom-tom need much higher standards of connectivity.... hopefully you wont be disappointed.

I hope so too. I work at several different locations and user the phone as nav. Gps locks fine, just loses lock soon enough, often at critical times...
Sent from my last samsung phone using tapatalk.

[Q] Signal/Reception issues on MJ7

I live in the sticks and have never had very good reception on Verizon, but always have had workable voice connections and generally could at least get 1x data connections, 3g about half the time. Most of my previous phones have been Motorola but I went to the Note 2 last and it seemed to work just as good as the Motos.
With the Note 3, I can rarely even get a decent voice signal (couldn't even make a call last night, picked up my wife's Note 2 and it worked fine) and data is pretty much non-existent. The phone seems to work fine as long as I'm in 4g coverage, which is most of my day, but not so much at home.
Has anyone else experienced this or have a similar situation to mine where they do not have a problem?
I ask because I paid full price for this phone and only have a few more days to return it. If it's defective hardware, I'll just exchange it, but if this is a real problem with the phone then I may have to look at a different I really like the N3, but if it's not going to work as intended, I can't justify keeping it.
BTW: I am rooted (kingo) with SS, Xposed and Wanam installed, but still OEM stock otherwise.
I would appreciate any thoughts.

reception
I also have mj7 signal issues I think the best thing to do is switch modems back to mj6

The easiest thing to try is switch back to the old modems, here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2524572
If that doesn't improve things, it could very well be a hardware problem. In which case, I'd go back to complete stock and try to get it replaced.

Have the same issues however I am not rooted but after update to MJ7 I am having either no signal or bad signal everywhere in Tucson. Took it to Verizon today and they swapped the sim card to a new one. Problem continues until next software update.
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app

I flashed back to the MI9 modem. I'll see how it does for a day or so. If it doesn't improve, I'm returning exchanging it.

I had my first one replaced because of poor reception. From forums and lots of reading online, it looks like there may have been a batch of devices with bad antennas

Third attempt...
Lost connection on first and second attempt to reply.
So far I see no difference going back to the MI9 modem. Still getting disconnects on cellular and wifi pretty consistently. Just like MJ7.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

bigillz said:
I had my first one replaced because of poor reception. From forums and lots of reading online, it looks like there may have been a batch of devices with bad antennas
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Did the replacement perform better? Looks like I'm going to have to try it.
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G8orDroid said:
Did the replacement perform better? Looks like I'm going to have to try it.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
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Yes, it seems to. My girlfriend still hasn't switched over to my old Note 2 - when she does I'll have a better side-by-side comparison.

I've done a side by side with my wife's N2 and there was no comparison. N2 allowed me to make a clear phone call and stay connected to wifi. From the exact same La-Z-Boy, the N3 had "No service" and constantly disconnects/reconnects to wifi. My MI9 experiment was a waste of time. I actually think that MJ7 performed a little better and it was bad.
There is definitely an antenna/radio problem with this phone. Funny thing is, I thought Samsung had stopped copying Apple, but evidently they had to try one more "innovation". #antennagate#

***DELETE***

Well, I exchanged my N3 today. We'll see if it was worth it at home tonight.
On a more positive note, rooting and updating to MJ7 on this one went way better than the last one. I Kingo'd it pretty much out of the box. Pulled the update.zip (in case anyone wants it). Installed Wanam and set status to "Official". Set SuperSU Survival Mode, then disabled SuperSU. Launched and installed the update. Rebooted and re-enabled SuperSU. Too smooth. All of that in about 20 minutes or less.

Reception with N3 is no better than it was with GS3, which is pretty poor. I still haven't updated to MJ7, so don’t know if it will improve things. Thought that Samsung wouldn't go backward antenna wise from Note 2, seems that was wrong.

G8orDroid said:
Well, I exchanged my N3 today. We'll see if it was worth it at home tonight.
...
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Click to collapse
Nope, it wasn't worth it. I was hoping that I had gotten a unit with a "worse than normal" antenna, but the new one is just as bad. Oh well...