[Galaxy S I9000 General] sxi200:
EDIT: 30/1/2012.

Just a follow up on this fix. Well, got sick of constantly having to replace the tape under the battery cover. Over time it flattens, so since I now use the S2 as my daily phone I decided to open it up.

First I found the GPS connection on the motherboard. It connects to / touches a small metal piece on the inside of the rear housing. It's like a U shaped connector so I decided to lift it up with my fingernail.

For a little while it worked great but the problem returned. So I decided to open it up again and lift the connector even higher. Unfortunately I broke it leaving only a flat bottom metal piece on the motherboard side. There was now no way for the 2 pieces to touch so I screwed it completely.

So I then decided to solder a small bit on the rear housing side. I did that and put it back together. Ever since then the GPS has truely been 100% fixed. It hasn't missed a beat over the last 3 or so months of trying.

END EDIT.

NOTE: This is a hardware fix for those whose GPS is completely busted (NO sat views & lock). It is NOT a fix to improve tracking or lock or make an already working GPS better.

After flashing every modem, fw and kernal version I had completely given up on my galaxy s GPS. It had to be a hardware fault.

Back when I first got it, it was OK but a few months later became useless. This fix is hardware related and takes only minutes to diagnose and fix.

It's also probably more useful for pre-October models (i9000 international) which had this fault.

I do not take credit for finding out the fix. Credit for that goes to member 'allottios' (who heard about it from 'cbdrift') for bringing it to my attention on another forum topic.

The fix is simple. Remove the back cover and to the right of the speaker is the GPS antenna. It is covered by what looks like some sort of soft plastic tape.

Now open a GPS test app and then apply light pressure to the very top of the antenna with your finger. NOT the middle or bottom - that makes it worse.

If, like me your GPS shows instant improvement then you have just worked out your problem.

Simply attach a small piece of double sided tape or similar to the top of the antenna so that when you put the back cover on again their is pressure on that spot.

Hope you get the same results I did.

Edit: PICS ADDED: 1ST PIC - AT THE TOP RIGHT CORNER, YOU CAN SEE A WHITE STRIP WHICH IS THE DOUBLE-SIDED TAPE I ATTACHED TO THE TOP OF THE GPS ANTENNA. I DID NOT PEEL THE TOP LAYER FROM THE TAPE SO IT WOULDN'T STICK TO THE BACK COVER.

View attachment 573520, View attachment 573521

Edit (03/05) - If this fix doesn't help, you may also want to try out another fix posted by 'stockie78' (post 209).

There is also a link below for more detail, including pics for this fix.

It is not as simple as the above fix and it involves removing the housing. I have not tried / tested this myself and am not responsible if you break your phone.

"stockie78

Unfortunately the g-spot trick did not work for me, so I decided to look a little closer and removed the plastic housing.

Another guy installed on the metal thingys there a cable and I did some test, too. Again no improvement with different cables and lengths.

But while fiddling around with the metal connector I thought maybe lifting it could help and indeed this was the trick for me. Improved my gps dramatically!

So instead of something pushing the antenna tighter, the metal connector now pushes harder and improves the signal quality.

Maybe a solution for some of you too..."

Link: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=878970