yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
You need soldering iron
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
You have not modify your marked contacts. You can follow full tutorial in this thread
[Galaxy S I9000 General] flapane:
Edit
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
sure you can do wire solution

for the other solution i need your back cover photo for check
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
yes
[Galaxy S I9000 General] laica24:
unfortunatelly i destroyed my phone (gps). i tried to solder the unsoldering wire to the mainboard, but then a contact broke. phone still works but gps is dead forever. on the other side i only had problems with this phone.

i think next would be a huawei honor
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
If I remove the wire now, will the solder left behind oxidate causing the contact to become useless? I'm just thinking the coax cable method might be possible, I have loads of old cables I could use for that. Failing that, I'll get a thicker wire, less than 3cm long inserted. It's getting reasonable reception now though.

LEENO, what are the software fixes, I've never tried them.

---------- Post added at 12:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 AM ----------

If just a contact is broke, you could easily fix that. You'd just need to solder 2 wires instead of one? Or a new contact which is also possible.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Have you broken the rubber contact? If yes there is no problem, read this post

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=30510931&postcount=186
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Root the phone and use

1) Fasterfix

2) Gpsfix

Then wipe cache from recovery.

If agps can't connetc to internet, first gps fix can take some minutes

if not work

1) full wipe in recovery

2) flash gingerbread stock firmware

3) full wipe in recovery

if not work type *2767*3855# in dialer (this will reset system files settings and format internal memory)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qtekker:
I applied the wired method with success.

Yesterday I took out the sim card.

When I inserted it back I put it upside down: no phone signal.

I turned off the phone and put in the sim card in the correct way.

But since then the phone doesn't turn on anymore.

I opened the inside, checked all wires and connectors.

Everything seems ok.

I even cut the soldered gps ground wire.

Still dead. Even with spare battery or ac adapter.

Any advice on this? Do I have short circuit?

I'm not sure if the problem is related to soldering.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Open it up again and make a photo of the pcb (printje ;) ) in high detail so we can have a look at it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] elitevet:
For the guy with the Captivate.

This solution is inapplicable as is to your phone. There is no conductive rubber in Cappy, and it's antenna is in the battery cover (at least a part of it). It has it's own illness - the springy pin contact which I saw falling apart on my friends phone, causing him no GPS reception. Please post a picture with battery cover removed and back cover unscrewed

sent from CM10 powered SGS
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Charge is working?

If yes check power key

If no check battery or short circuit.

You need multimeter connected to phone and phone battery for check mah while power key pressed
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
Luke, apologies for nagging, but what we were talking about earlier with solder oxidation. If I remove the wire ive included then use a spring connection will the left over solder oxidate and cause the connection to turn bad ?

It's annoying because I'm looking for springs on the Internet and it's as if you can't buy them. They are called spring fingers, or grounding springs or ground springs and you can see pictures of them but nowhere sells them. I was thinking of buying some because I have no phone to dismantle. Annoying, might be a coax DIY fix then.

I had this problem as explained earlier in this thread.

Try this:

1. Take the back cover off your phone.

2. Next to the bottom right of the SIM card, there is a little hole in the case with like a little pole inside. Find that.

3. Take an ultra thin piece of wire (we're talking a single fiber from a multiple core wire) and basically place the wire in the hole. It's a bit awkward so it might need a bit of patience.

4. Turn over the phone. If you get signal, you know that your internal antenna hasn't been disconnected. Pull the wire back out and see if it starts working again. If you don't get any signal, it has been disconnected, I'm not sure what the fix. I checked the grey cable on the right and it had come loose. Plugged in sorted.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Don't worry about the oxidation. If you take a soldering station and heat it up again you are good to go.

Not sure in which country you are but can't you buy or get like an old Nokia or so for free? Those things are full of nice useful stuf.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
I think I have a 3210 from donkeys years ago in the loft. That may have something. However, I was thinking I might be able to buy some of the universal contacts from the Internet as they are newer and clean but I've only been able to find these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ITT-CANNO...Supplies_ET&hash=item3a70f07f2d#ht_500wt_1287

Which doesn't really look suitable. I'm just thinking if I can find an old broken coax cable or something that I could make one myself. Last roll of the dice, I use a <3cm piece of thicker wire.

Call it a work in progress :P
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qtekker:
Thank you all for your advice.

I'm at work and I'll try again tonight.

I'm afraid it will be a long night...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
In fact, I might try network cable as described by lukesan or even a USB cable, i'll have a look what I've got lying around. I'm still looking at possibilities of how to make the terminal myself but unfortunately I can't find something i'm satisfied with.

---------- Post added at 12:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------

Also, the ic socket idea you said a while back would work I reckon. I'm just thinking about how we could do it.

What we need eventually, is the OP to have a really great solution that works for everyone. The wire solution is good but im starting to agree that the smaller the connection distance, the better.

Wire is obviously more comfortable and easier but surely the pin connection is better. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find them for cheap delivery so it's DIY by the looks of it.

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 PM ----------

Also LEENO on your first post with the moved contact, I notice that the contact covers the right hand contact of those two contacts above the left spring.

Is this safe? Or does it not short?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
It is safe, both point are ground, in my image where i soldered contact.

Both point are shorted without contact too

You can check by yourself too with multimeter
[Galaxy S I9000 General] flapane:
Another comparison:

BT gps VS integrated gps while riding my bike. They're both in a mountain bike bag, so that just a little part (where antenna is) looks directly towards the sky.

I guess you can notice by yourselves when I closed my BT GPS and enabled integrated GPS. I was curious to see if I could use it in case of an emergency (ie. dead BT GPS battery).

Left track: integrated GPS (as you can see, it's less accurated, somehow it does its job in case of emergencies) /// Right track: BT GPS
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
Flaplane that's a good looking performance there. Mine isn't bad but i just think the wire i used is too thin, so although it works, it's not perfect. I desperately wish I'd used thicker wire now, but I'm now looking at the IC socket idea. Might see if there's a Maplins open nearby, if I can do it, I'll put up some images in this thread to demonstrate how to make your own.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
See my gps test and velocity (accurancy is less then 5 meters, reported in feet), i9000 integrated gps is very good if gps antenna is good attached to mainboard ground.

Best solution is to solder not used antenna contact to gps ground contact as showed in first post. 99,9% use this kind of contact as antenna, instead of "conductive rubber"
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Skezza going to send you a private message ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jaggyjags:
Before and after. Amazing!! No soldering for the moment, just placing it in the right position after cleaning all the rubber. Pressure keeps it still.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] flapane:
No luck. Vibrant doesn't have any unused contact.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
I cleaned rubber in past, it worked not much time. Gps signal stop to work when phone become hot some minutes, like explained in first post
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qtekker:
Charge is not working. I don'nt have a multi meter. Besides, if I have one I wouldn't know how to use it.

I tried skezza's advice to put a little wire in the little hole beside the sim card, but still dead.

Well, next step is repair center...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] laica24:
as you read . i tried a gps hardware fix and the golden contact broak. but i was uable to solder a new contact or wire there.

then i was so angry ( also gps worked only with a ****ing CM9 custom rom wich consumed a lot of energy with shoth battery time).

I was so angry that i broke the phone with my pure hands. I tored the mainboard with my hands. Ich was so angry.

Now i bought a huawei honor. SHAME ON SAMSUNG. The huawei is much better. starts in 8 seconds gps works and has a huge battery.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
A bit difficult to see anything on that photo.

Du can send the other parts to me if you like ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] IceTe:
yay

add me to the list :D

I just did it with my i9001 without soldering (just like jaggyjags).

Feels good to have accomplished this by myself ^^

About warranty loss:

Do you think they would even notice this?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
I'm sorry for you, where are you from?

About samsung, it is most complete brand in the world, all brand use samsung components: iphone, playstation3, nokia mobile ecc

Im surprised about this gps fault, anyway Samsung can have problems like all electrial components so it give warranty
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qtekker:
I'm from The Netherlands.

It's not a big deal, because I intend to buy a htc one x+ or a sony lt29i, or xiaomi mi-2. I like samsung for it's bootloader policy, but no plastic sgs 3 for me!

That's why I took the risk of soldering the gps contact.

No big deal. However, all 3 phones are not available yet.

So I needed my sgs 1 two more months.

And with Elite's Jelly Bean custom rom it was running very smooth.

I had a kind of 'mental relation' with my sgs 1 (don't misunderstand me!).

It's hard to say goodbye. So I don't give up yet. I'll try again this weekend.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Too bad you live to far away or I would have taken a look at it.

I was in Amsterdam for a couple of weeks but I won't return for months.

What I would certainly check is that you haven't damaged or moved contacts in the sim card slot. Might be some short there.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] elitevet:
The most self-embarrassing post I've ever read on XDA. Congrats.

sent from CM10 powered SGS
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
I always suggest Samsung, it produce all components so it offer best products at lower price. I still have i9000 but i think to buy i9300 or wait galaxy s3 mini, only for faster processor
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
To be honest, I had to read it twice.

Then I remembered the famous words 'I am not silly!' while staring at the pictures

After 10 seconds I almost bursted out in tears of laughter.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Wire in hole disable gsm antenna, it can't help you
[Galaxy S I9000 General] laica24:
hi i am from germany ( near Nuremnberg). I had no warranty because i bought it privat at ebay.

But not only the hardware is not good . also the software. with the stock rom and my fix with desoldering wire nothing worked. (a gps fix lasted 5 minutes). With cm9 i had a fix in 5 seconds. but the signal strenght asn t that good, which is a problem if you youse gps on the backkseat of a car.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
I still prefer stock rom 2.2.1, only applyed root, voodo kernel, callrecord mod and removed many system app. Gps test picture in first post is done with 2.2.1 rom. Aniway gingerbread rom is better for gps.

So please flash stock gingerbread, apply software fix and then follow my tutorial
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Well most of the time that I need GPS I sit in the front seat of the car.

I would be carefull if I were you. :angel:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] elitevet:
pictures?

sent from CM10 powered SGS
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
lol +1 this. I dont know anyone who uses GPS on the back seat of their car. You must have very long arms and can reach the wheel from metres away :D

Are you sure? I was told a wire in the hole bridged the GSM antenna if it was disconnected? So you would know if the to the antenna was disconnected?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
This one http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=30514439&postcount=192
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
I'm sure, and you? Are you sure?

I talk only when I'm sure. It disable internal gsm antenna and connect external gsm antenna. Isn't useful talk about gsm solution in gps thread.

If you post without know, members may follow simply solution but not working
[Galaxy S I9000 General] encurto:
Done

Thank you so much! :victory:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
Point taken. Please accept my apologies.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
bloody bloody ...

Just received my phone. The contacts that I had from the Nokia are way to big.

I would suggest that you follow number 1 from Leeno ... but only if you are equipped properly and have patience.

Maybe 1 remark that I can make is to use a needle (ask your wife or girlfriend) to keep the springlike contact open if you solder it on the pcb.

Mine is 'kinda' fixed. Not getting the results Leeno is getting but alot better than I got it 5 hours ago.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qtekker:
Thanks, I appreciate your help.

I have some progress.

Two months ago I had a repair (under guarantee) on my speakers. The repair center replaced the speakers.

But I found out that my external sd card was dead.

No big deal. I took out the sd card, I didn't need it anyway.

Today I opened the inner backcover and put a hard piece of carton in place of the sd card slot. I pushed the power button and ... The phone boots! There is still life!

There was no sim card. So I opened the inner back cover again. Soldered a gps wire again, insert sim card, push the power button and ... nothing. The phone is dead again.

Conclusion? Don't know. Maybe short circuit in external sd card. The hard carton is still there, but it doesn't go on anymore. Or maybe this time The pcb was too hot when I soldered the gps wire.

I'll continue later again. There is still hope!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Maybe short circuit in memory card reader. Check memory card reader contacts and move in original position
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qtekker:
Yes, it's short circuit in the memory card reader!

I put an old 1 GB micro sd card in the slot and ... REBOOT!!!

The problems have nothing to do with soldering after all.

Thanks you all for your advice!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ioancr:
Un'osservazione/Just a note

Some time ago one suggested to isolate (instead of enhance it) the rubber contact as a probable gps fix. When I put over it an isolation tape I lost/experienced bad GSM and had no locks at all though could see sats. Is this contact also related to GSM reception?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] flapane:
I guess they were "AGPS satellites" .
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sucre213:
can i use this method on chinese i9000 ?

is there any difference between European and chinese i90000?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] manvi111:
I have fixed without changes

Yeah you are absolutely right about hardware issue in I9000.

But I have fixed it by just put one thick sticker on GPS antenna(To Push it). It solves my GPS issue without any risk.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
The rubber contact need good contact with antenna as explained in first post. It is gps antenna part 1 of 2.

It's not true suggestion you talk about, it cause totally dead gps signal because isolate gps antenna. Whare is this suggestion?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Before my fix, it was best fix because it press gps antenna on rubber and gnd but not work forever and, pressing motherboard, can damage phone
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
Please post internal backcover photo
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ioancr:
Here
[Galaxy S I9000 General] albertocastillo2001:
Hello

Do you know if that whole board can be exchanged for a new one (maybe in ebay) in case you damage it?

Does this solution help for people who has a 2011 model? (the GPS fault was on the pre October 2010 models as far as I know.

Thank you!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] elitevet:
Weird. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what Leeno has done?

sent from CM10 powered SGS

---------- Post added at 01:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------

I have a march '11 phone and it did significantly improve GPS on my phone.

sent from CM10 powered SGS
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
It is fake. Gps can't work with isolated gps antenna
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
You can buy back cover if you not drill motherboard. Anyway this solution work only because you press antenna on rubber. Is not needed to drill, just press but after time, motherboard may be curved on center and may dead
[Galaxy S I9000 General] manvi111:
Yeah, you may right. Thanks you ..
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ayky33:
thanks.....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Bo0bz:
Is it possible to buy one of those golden antenna things :p ( or how they are called ). Want to keep the other one and just adding a new one to the gps. Been destroying old phones but they have weird connectors

Tapatalked!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
What I seem to notice is that JB reports a different, lower, SNR than in 2.3.6

Anyone else noticed this?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wang1chung:
i noticed the same but thought it was because im running cm10 and its experimental with bugs and all. what version of JB are u running?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
I have tested CM10 and Mackay, but I think all JB (and maybe ICS) roms have this,

Now not so a 100% fan of numbers. Did a test of the S, S2 and a Huawei tablet whom all reported a 5 meter fix on gps test. Then I opened google maps and 2 of them were atleast 30 meter away of the spot I was standing on.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kristi-Tech:
I'm on CM10 and GPS signal is lower than on JW4.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] .:Crack:.:
Hey,

My GPS just worked when I pressed on the black tape on the back.

I now tried the clean method but I dont get any signal?? What could be wrong?

Edit: when turning it in and testing Wirth GPS test i instantly 'see' one satelite right above me, but hat seems weird.. the snr dos not change, its like frozen
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ioancr:
It happens whenever the GPS daemon gets interrupted for some reason, usually before getting a lock (not necessarily a fix). Try to delete gps data or reboot & clear caches.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] suriya83:
This is ridiculous!

I could almost never use GPS at all! In my garden my phone could sometimes see 2 or 3 sats but never lock.

After this fix i went out and puff: 6/6 in maybe 8 seconds!

Finally i can use my phone when i go mountainbiking!!!!

btw it was my first soldering try so i didn't really solder just put a bubble of tin on it after removing that stupid rubber. Hope it lasts.....

THANKS A TON!!!!!

Grande uomo!!! sei il migliore!!! Edit: mi rimane solo una curiosita' come si fa a saldare su una robetta cosi piccola? c'e' un trucco particolare?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] .:Crack:.:
Hell Yeah :) Pressed on the black tape for about 30 secs and now I instantly get 8 satelites and about 15-5m accuracy!

Thanks alot LEENO!!!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] llblwskydrgn:
I was wondering does anybody know why this works? The two contacts on the phone's cover are actually shorted/connected, so I was wondering why don't people try soldering directly from the pad which the rubber is on, to the gps connector which needs to bend up to reach the contact on the cover. It seems like the only reason it needs to tough those contacts on the cover is so that the two will be shorted/connected together.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
We are talking HF or RF (high frequency or radio frequency) and not the standard electricity here. So a short that you can measure with your multimeter is not a 'short' in HF.

Like alot of people ask me. 'the coax of my tv antenna says 75 Ohms but I can't measure it. Is it broken?'

Most of the time I want to smack them with their heads against the wall.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] tusko5:
This fix works great. With the help of a friend we made second version with cable and now GPS reception is much better.

I think that a simpler, non-invasive and without cables option can be to let the conductive rubber stay and drop a little bit of solder in the antenna connector in the cover. This will increase the pressure and hopefully the conductivity. What do you think?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
you need "leadfree iron solder". Iron tips point is smaller then contact
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nommy:
Even though my GPS worked quite well, I applied the fix with soldering the unused antenna contact to the rubber position. Placing the contact at the right position and soldering it there was quite difficult for me - I think I have to buy me some glases :cool:

But after that, my GPS was even better than before. Instant fix and good SNR (I'm on HellyBean, so SNR is quite below the GB values). This morning on my way to work, I had not a single loss of GPS signal, before the fix I had several losses.

TANK YOU LEENO!!!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] yokoonno:
Had the 1st option done at a local repair shop.

Working like a charm now, even have fix inside, before did not have any signal outside.

Thanks!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] llblwskydrgn:
I understand that, but I see that one of the suggestions is to solder a lead from the pad which the conductive rubber is on to the pad on the case which I assume is the antenna which modulates the signal. We're dealing with frequencies, so wouldn't the leads depending on the lengths modulate the signal? I'm interested in what the pads on the cover connect to since I wasn't able to find information online about how cellphones utilize the case as a gpa antenna.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Aha, wait, I read your question again and I was wrong. I thought that you wanted to short the 2 points (the rubber and the spring thing).

I haven't got a clue how the actual antenna looks like.

There is a seller on ebay selling this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-S...UK_Mobiles_Accessories_RL&hash=item4aaa3fb7ee

Now I have no clue about that one... I think this is NOT from or for a i9000 but you can see that the antenna structure is a bit more complicated than what most people think.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] !n!t6:
The picture shows the gsm and not the gps antenna.Indeed the structure can be complicated and it is very sensitive to changes. The different approaches placing wires or other contacts can dramatically change the reception quality. The soldered wire solution for instance will add a phase which from my point of view should normally lead into a total mismatch compared to the initial design. The results can be totally unpredictable! Some people experience improvements while others wonder what they did wrong.