yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] veletron:
Me Too

Hi

Just a 'me too' post i'm afraid. I get the GT saying 'connected' in the MTP app, while Kies says 'Connecting....' forever more. Its REALLY anoying.

I am not interested in any non official roms (wasted far too much time on them on my various WinMo phones). I do want to be able to install an official Gingerbread update though.

My tab used to connect to Kies. It stopped connecting right after it installed an update (to FROYO.XYJJ3), and I have never managed to get it to connect since. I think Kies has a bug (one of many!) which means it will not recognise the current rom on my Tab.

I have tried:

- Removing SD card

- USB debug on/off

- USB connection set to Kies/Choose on Connect

- Reset tab to factory default

- Connect tab then start kies

- Start kies then connect tab

- BT On/OFF

- Wifi On/OFF

- Sim card out

- flight mode enabled

- packet data on/off

- Install kies onto 2 other completely fresh PC's Win7X64 and XP

Nothing has worked, says 'Connecting' but never connects. I'm about ready to just ebay the pile of junk and move on!

Kies version: 2.0.0.11014_49

Tab Build No: FROYO.XWJJ3

Kernel 2.6.32.9

Baseband: P1000XXJID

Tab version 3G+Wifi

Firmware Version: 2.2

Model No: GT-P1000

Been onto Samsung tech, but they are ruddy useless - no help what-so-ever (not that I expected then to be). How Samsung ever expects to compete with apple when their software is even worse than ruddy iTunes I just dont know.

Nigel
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] olinz:
you have to switch to kies mode in the wireless/usb settings. Then before you connect the tab to usb make sure you on your home screen, else Kies mode will never start up. You can start up kies on the pc before or after you connect the tab doesnt matter. If the kies software never starts up at this point, uninstall, make sure the drivers have been uninstalled as well, reboot, reinstall kies. Start kies before you connect the tab as it may have to install updates, then connect the tab in kies mode. Ive used kies mini and regular kies with this method, works. As a side note, the full version of kies will not work with Stock US roms, it will always say phone not supported, so you have to use Kies mini.

Although I don't think i would rely on Kies to do a firmware update....if at all or successfully.
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] veletron:
Kies

Hi

Yep, tried all of that, still refuses to connect to the tab. Tried kies mini on a fresh install of XP and Win7 on another PC - to no avail.

I had hoped to fix this with my pre-order for an Iconia A101, but this has been delayed until end 2011 (and likely cancelled entirely).

HTC flyer is outdated (both processor and OS) at launch date, +they want £599 for it!! Viewsonic 7x is a possibility, but it appears to be WiFi only.

Nigel
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] olinz:
When you connect in Kies mode, does your it show your MTP device in the device settings on the PC?
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ufd108:
Aha! That was my problem! That also explains why when I run the full version of Kies there is no choice for USA for the Kies store.

Now I can backup/restore but the "Phone Upgrade" button is grayed out. Is 2.2 the latest official release? I thought I read that 2.2.1 was the latest, but I've been doing so much research on this device the last couple of days my head is spinning.

If U.S. devices are not natively supported in Kies what is Samsung's official update method in the U.S.?
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] olinz:
US carriers are supposed to provide the update, when, how and why, i don't know. So if you have a US carrier phone be prepared for a long wait..or just do it yourself. The process is easy if you take your time and prepare.
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] veletron:
Device Manager

Hi

After connecting the phone in Kies mode, I see 'SAMSUNG Android USB Composite Device' under 'USB controllers' in the device manager tree.

The driver version is 5.26.0.1 date 09/12/2010

USB VendorId: 0x04E8

USB DeviceId: 0x6877

Sys files in use:

ssadbus.sys

ssahwh.sys

ssadwhnt.sys

Is this the same device as everyone else sees appear when they connect tab to a working Kies setup?

Nigel
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ufd108:
Thanks. I'm going to play with the tab for a few days and if I decide to keep it I'll probably do the upgrade myself.

Thanks again for your help.
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] olinz:
After connecting in kies mode, in your file explorer you should see a device icon for your tab, depending on which you have such as GT-P1000, SGT849, etc, instead of seeing the lettered drives for your sd card. In your device settings you should see Portable devices, and within that, MTP for your device with the name of it, same as above in the file explorer GT-P1000, SGT849, etc. If its not there, or you have a yellow exclamation then you have a driver problem. This is most likely the case. Samsung USB composite device should show under Usb controllers which youve confirmed you do have, so the second piece of the puzzle is making sure MTP is connecting.
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] A. Nonymous:
When I connected to a computer where it actually worked, I saw the Samsung USB composite device you're seeing. It installed drivers for that. Then I saw an MTP device pop up. Somehow after a little bit of prayer and a lot bit of cursing, I got it to install drivers for that. Then it worked. Kies is just a POS piece of software IMO. As soon as prices on Honeycomb tablets start dropping, I'm going to be done with Samsung products I think. I like the Tab, but Samsung's software that goes with it and they're support is crap.
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] veletron:
MTP Device

Hi

No icon shows up in device manager, and there is no 'MTP device' in device manager and no device showing in device manager that is missing its driver.

I have confirmed that Kies works OK (by plugging in a galaxy S, which was detected fine). The tab must be screwed. It would appear to not be enumerating properly - and there would appear to be no mechanism to fix it. The previous firmware update I did by Kies (to JJ3) is the likely causer since it worked OK beforehand.

'MtpApplication' is running on the phone and states 'connected' which is obviously just a lie.

I think i'll just cut my losses and shove it on ebay, life is to short to arse about with stuff that should 'just work'. Tab was cheap, and second hand ones on ebay are selling for the same as I paid new anyway.

Nigel
[Galaxy Tab Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] veletron:
Fixed

Hi

'Fixed' this issue by flashing this 2.3.3 rom: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1073854

Kies sees device just fine after flashing. Previous upgrade must have gone wrong, and prevented device enumerating properly so Kies could not see it.

2.3.3 is far smoother and also faster than 2.2 was on my tab.

UK Sim-Free SGT, WiFi+3G, From ASDA.

Nigel
[Galaxy S II General] papapol:
I received my phone yesterday and gps did just fine. I drained the battery and left it off while charging.

Today my gps won't work, I can't seem to get a single fix anymore (google maps, gps test, mytracks, nothing). I don't know what to do to fix it.

Also my battery drains extremely fast (5 hours and it's dead). Screen acounts for 63%.
[Galaxy S II General] sconstan:
I am having similar problems.

mainly with the GPS. it won't get a lock onto the satellites.

very dissappointing.

other than that it's a great phone.

hope it gets fixed with a firmware update soon!
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
Factory reset first step .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] clubtech:
Same problem here.

GPS sees like 10 satellites but just won't lock.

Factory reset does NOT solve the problem. rooted - not rooted does not fix the problem.
[Galaxy S II General] himarmy:
Me too, see like 10 satlellites but cant get it lock TT
[Galaxy S II General] clubtech:
Just curious, are you guys rooted now? Have been rooted before?

What firmware are you all running? i am on XWKDD. today i upgraded to XWKE1 but didn't have to a chance to see if it fixes the GPS issue just yet.
[Galaxy S II General] Shocky2:
Same problem here, sometimes I have 10 satellites but it just won't get a fix, no root here.
[Galaxy S II General] Raymond77:
I get a fix within a few seconds of firing up the GPS, every time.

Even in my rucksack the GPS tracked me for an hour and a half, within a few metres accuracy, whilst cycling a few days ago, no problem.
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
I assume you're trying this outside without major obstructions around.

I would turn off: wifi, "Use wireless networks", and "Use sensor aiding". Run GPS Status. Under Settings > Tools > Manage A-GPS state, press Reset, then Download.

See if that helps.
[Galaxy S II General] robot1000:
Sensor aiding

Can you explain to me what 'sensor aiding' actually does, as it's not really clear on the settings menu?
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
I don't know anything more than the description it shows under Settings. I've seen theories that it uses the accelerometer, say for instance if you're driving through a tunnel. My experience is it makes my GPS accuracy worse rather than better, so I don't use it. But I'd suggest trying it both ways on the S2 to see if it makes a difference.

I went here:

http://www.google.com/mobile/navigation/

did a search on "sensor aiding" and got zero hits, so it seems Google doesn't want us to know what it is either. :)
[Galaxy S II General] dk206:
usually over 50% of what people reporting that it isn't working is down to user error.

Have a look at this vid and do what this guy does on his SGS II. And see if it works for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzJyKtPkHw&feature=player_embedded
[Galaxy S II General] Shocky2:
Yes I've done all that and yes I'm trying this outside, 10/11 sats in view but no fix.
[Galaxy S II General] himarmy:
Today i upgraded to XWKE1 and giv it another try. I have to wait around 4 minute and it get gps fix !!
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
So, is that the new normal with your phone? Are locks working faster now, or do they typically take minutes? Is the accuracy ok?

It is odd that there are such differences between individual phones. If problems continue I would get it replaced if possible.
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
Really? How did you calculate that number? :)
[Galaxy S II General] clubtech:
Still same problem here. It takes full minutes to get a lock. Not sure what else we can try to fix this.
[Galaxy S II General] siksik6:
Having problems here too. tested today on the way to the supermarket, got a lock within a couple of minutes and worked fine for the duration of the journey. Didn't get a lock all the way back, GPS was definitely turned on, even stopped halfway home to reboot the phone and try again.

Just taken my wife's iPhone 4 outside which locked within 30 seconds, still can't get a lock at all with my GS2.

I've installed that GPS status application, but doesn't lock on to any satellites (at least not within two or three minutes anyway)

Not impressed :(
[Galaxy S II General] ccrows:
Forget Apple, if you want "real results" grab a Nokia E-Series like the e71 or e72.

You get like 2 second instant lock, and that's indoors!... ;)
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
This thread, and posts like this, are what make me so frustrated with Samsung over the GPS issue. They never fixed the SGS, and now with their flagship top-of-the-heap phone they still can't get it consistently right. Even the best reports I've seen on the S2 don't match what some other phones are clearly capable of. It's hard to imagine Samsung is truly technically incapable of making GPS work, so I have to conclude it's just not worth the cost to them. They sold 14 million SGS's, with abysmal GPS, so they've apparently decided most don't care if it works well or not. They may be right, but for some of us it's one of the absolute key features. Very disappointing. Maybe HTC will get it right on the Sensation...
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
They sold 14 million SGS's, with abysmal GPS

Not true i might have had the only SGS with good GPS but i doubt i was a one off .

Not really tested SGS 2 yet so i make no claims for that .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] kar111:
Im on the latest KE2 firmware and am having absolutely no problems at all. It worked perfectly with the previous firmwares as well. Not rootes btw. Maybe try a factory reset?
[Galaxy S II General] Dannyboyni:
Any chance of posting some tracks, or letting us know what accuracy your getting?
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
And I'm certain I'm not one off who's SGS GPS is bonkers. :)

I willingly concede I have no way of knowing what percentage of the 14 million actually have "abysmal GPS", or what percentage of owners care. But the Android forums and blogosphere gave them a huge black-eye on this score, and some problems apparently persist on the new model. Whether that's QA, HW design, or SW, who knows, but it's not reassuring for prospective buyers.
[Galaxy S II General] dk206:
Updated to newest firmware ke2. Gps locks in 5~10 seconds leaving house just like when i bought it. Perfect.

Maybe those saying its not working should give us a video for all to see.

Turn phone on. swipe down. Gps on. Google maps.

Remember it might be slow on the initial lock.

Coming from the original Galaxy S and high end Nokia and TomTom nav for car I can say Gps for SGS II is as it should be. No probs.
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
I have a SGS also, and I can get 5 sec or less lock times as well. That's not proof that all is wonderful. I would also like to know what your fastest, slowest, and average lock times are over a couple of weeks trying it daily. What I see is large fluctuations, sometimes very quick, other times several minutes. And that's just TTFF. Consistent, good accuracy and maintaining locks reliably are as, if not more, important.

I do realize that most reports are the S2 is working well, but with >20% in the poll thread reporting they are not getting <10m, stable accuracy, plus the reports in this thread of not getting locks at all, I think you can say your phone is working, but the percent not working up to par is still unknown.

My motivation is simple. I've used GPS on various devices for over 10 years. The SGS is by far the flakiest I've owned. I only want to make sure I don't get stuck with that problem again on my next phone.
[Galaxy S II General] kar111:
Get a lock within 10 seconds always. I have had one problem though in google navigation when the gps routed and gave me the voice commamds but it still said seatching for GPS. I finished my route fine and all.. but i think its just a glitch as my gps worked
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
SGS 1 forum has a number of posts and fixes that you may care to try .

Personally if my SGS1 had bad GPS it would have been returned as not fit for purpose likewise SGS2 .

The only change i made on SGS 1 was to set GPS.conf to a local pool server not the USA based one .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] troed:
Getting GPS lock in 10 secs even indoors at home (bungalow with wooden roof), accuracy 3 m .............
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
Been there, done all of that, as have many others. Many got replacement phones but problems persist. Mine never totally failed to work. The problem is one day it's fine, the next day it's not. That's why I don't totally trust single reports of the S2 working, particularly with the number of failure or poor performance posts we've seen. I'm not biased against the S2. I would really like it to be excellent. The jury is still out.
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
14 million complaints on SGS1 ??

100 thousand more like .

Number returned due to faulty GPS ??? not many .

That's why I don't totally trust single reports of the S2 working, particularly with the number of failure or poor performance posts we've seen.

Your choice as i said number of tricks posted on SGS 1 forum that may improve an iffy GPS .

It was also noticeable that those that did post good tracks are usually ignored .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] :
Maybe it's a question of expectation. For some 10m seems to be good, for other 50m maybe good enough. Some may be absurd enough to expect 1m accuracy.

But then again, what about the applications which is reporting/calculating the accuracy? Are we also sure Google maps are very accurate? What's the error level for the maps? Nobody mentions that.

I am sure if every hardware has some error levels (by default), what are the chances that applications can interpret the results properly? I will be interested to hear about that also.
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
Fair question. Having reasonable expectations is important.

How about side-by-side comparisons to other brands of phones to see what level of GPS performance is achievable on smartphones?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l92DDaBQZE0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAX0DtRlJPA (skip to 2:30)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKXPOg-gz8U

Just 3 I found in a few minutes of YouTube searching.

For the record using a supl server tweak, doing surgery on my phone to repair the GPS antenna contact, and with the Samsung GPS patch release, I have achieved fair GPS performance on my SGS, however, it remains very unreliable, sometimes very good, and other times unusable. I will buy a S2 when I know it's GPS performance is at least close to as good as I can get on another phone.
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
I want xxx from GPS om mobile phone .

One is reasonable accurate location for stuff around me apps . Fuel Coffee banks etc dont need to be foot or metre perfect .

Two if ever i should need it standalone road navigation like CoPilot .

Three route tracking like my tracks does not need to be inch perfect .

Four i suppose reasonably accurate location to say you are here not over yonder .

SGS 1 1,2,4, yes 3 yes but would be more accurate if i did not keep phone in pocket in the card .

SGS 2 still under test but 1& 4 yes i am here .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
Some additional video goodness.

This one shows a bit of the complexity in evaluating GPS performance. The SGS locks much faster but if you continue watching it shows odd movement and bad accuracy on the map location:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmIx6SR9lXo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m21JdjYdxLs (SGS fairing badly versus Acer Liquid. Again, establishing reasonable expectations.)

And some S2 vids, showing how hard it is to draw firm conclusions based on one test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzJyKtPkHw (SGS2 favorable versus HTC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnQ-QTw4aWU (SGS2 unfavorable versus SGS)
[Galaxy S II General] :
I am only commenting on GS2 links that you posted.

Did you had a chance to check the uploader comments on the 2nd SGS2 video? He clearly says "This was a once off random GPS event. Later testing I got 4-6 meters accuracy with 8 to 10 satellites (Outside) inside around 12m accuracy. Never lost lock. GPS is A+".

Here's another from a XDA member (eitama) http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1073629

He mentions that this test was done indoor (2 more floors above him). He says the test was fairly accurate. Well, for me it was decent for someone sitting indoor.
[Galaxy S II General] samnada:
I do understand this is a SGS2 forum. The reason I posted those SGS vids is to show a comparison between other phones that work very well, by way of establishing expectations for good GPS performance.

I had not read those comments on the 2nd S2 vid, but have now. Still, as I've mentioned, one of the aspects of the SGS GPS that frustrates me most is how inconsistent it is, one day fine, the next day bad. Maybe all phones are that way. But based on many posts I've read other phones lock quickly and accurately every time.

Here's another thread by an S2 owner describing an inconsistent GPS.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1080694

"3) GPS - Sometimes flawless but lock time is definitely a lot slower than the HTC devices. It also has a tendancy to lose lock a lot easier than the HTC devices. Other times it jumps around all over the place before getting a lock. Lots of weird behaviour here."

I'm not ignoring the posts or vids showing the S2 working well, and I'm also not ignoring the ones that indicate it's inconsistent. I really wish this were black or white, but right now it's grey.
[Galaxy S II General] kaassema:
Just to bump this in attention: I'm getting really anoyed by the gps performance...

On the first few days I was blown away by it's performance: quick locks, even indoors... drive away and navigate anytime you like!

Then, I remember it like it was yesterday, it just wouldn't lock: saw 10 satellites, but just would nót lock. Rebooted, problem gone. These days however it seems like it prefers NOT locking way beyond locking.

The patterns:

1) Fire up app, get lock within +/- 60-90 seconds (cold) to +/- 12 seconds (hot) - in carholder (Samsung official carholder) - About 35% of all time

2) Fire up app, drive to my destination in 90 minutes ENTIRELY without lock (reboot after 5 minutes, restart app, switch gps on-off) - in carholder (Samsung official, again) - About 40% of all time

3) Fire up app, drive, wait-wait-wait, suddenly lock after 4 minutes - About 25% of all time

Settings usually are:

Wifi off; Network-assisted on, sensoir-aided on

-GPS Status displays the same behaviour: sometimes just can't get a fix on satellites, even when showing 10 in sight. GPS status does 'flicker' the satellite-stats sometimes: for a quarter of a second all satellites seem to disappear (?? is this normal for GPS-status ??)

-Used fasterfix to set ntp-server to Netherlands / Europe: no difference

-Used angry-gps to switch from standalone to MSBASED gps

-Used angry-gps to test the GPS... TtFF COLD +/- 60-90 secs, HOT +/- 11 seconds; Then suddenly (same spot, a minute later) just won't fix!

Really: if anyone knows to make something out of this... you're welcome!

ps) even with this annoying behaviour my SGS2 is still rocking ;)
[Galaxy S II General] bambollero:
Im experiencing exactly the same behavior (including the GPS Status flicker). Tried both KF3 and KE7, no real difference between the two (maybe a tad faster locks on KF3).

The worst part for me is the 20-30m accuracy which makes navigation programs unstable and jumpy, unless I’m driving in wide open areas (tried three diffrent navigation apps).

What is weird however is that the numerous MyTracks routes, seem quite accurate even in areas with high building density. Does this point to a software/firmware issue?
[Galaxy S II General] nilsoli:
Hi,

I just want to report the behaviour of my S2's gps here to help with the stats and have some support :

I really rarely have a fix with an error inferior to 15 meters (testing with gps status, even with 9 satellites locked); allthough when looking at google map, I have the circle around my position which is due to this error, but my position in the center of this circle seems relatively correct.

I was using a htc hero before getting the S2, and I don't remember having ever seen this circle in google map showing some error when I was using the gps of this hero, which was of a pretty good quality in my opinion.

Do the people here saying they have a good fix with their S2 also have this systematic error of about 15 meters ? Do some people manage to have a less than 10 meters error fix ?
[Galaxy S II General] kaassema:
In addition to myself: now I dó get a fix, but it stays inaccurate, for up to 160 (!!) meters
[Galaxy S II General] atype007:
I too have same problem no more gps on sgs 2. probably coz i used kies it told me i had update so i did it. now im on i9100xxkf1, gingerbread.jpkg2 2.3.3 after update and no gps. this sucks it used to work perfectly 5 sec max it would lock on, now nth not even showing satellites. maybe too many apps did smth in the system ?