yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] llblwskydrgn:
What I ended up doing to minimize introduction of extra phase mismatch was a compromise between the two hardware fix recommendations. I put some extra solder onto the first connector (as indicated in the Samsung Vibrant hardware fix thread), and I also removed the little pad and replaced it with a small mound of solder until it was about the same height as the first GPS connector.

In addition to this, I also added solder to the pads of the GPS antenna. My reasoning for this was to do everything to ensure that the pads on the case would touch their respective GPS connectors without introducing something like a wire connector which would make the phone hard to close and possibly introduce some extra signal modulation.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] qinyujun:
Looks good. Might give a try

thanks
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dannyglover:
Thank you

This really did work. Of course, learning to solder on such a tiny surface was a challenge. I think the wire I used was too thick. I managed to solder it but then there was nowhere for it to sit when I put the casing back on. It was only an insulated 1mm copper wire too. Anyway, I took the wire off and just soldered the spare contact in place, making it tall enough to connect with the contact on the case. Works way better than my GPS ever has. I can't believe how long this phone has lasted. I'm getting GPS reception indoors now, which was never a possibility. Thank you, thank you xda peeps for nutting this one out.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] crazyio:
Hello to all...

i am using the cm-10-20120901-NIGHTLY-galaxysmtd and i face a problem with GPS sync ...

as long as i used the gingerbread 2.3.6 with semaphore kernel the gps was working perfect and was locking satellites very fast.

fast and stable use of the GPS . i had never problem.

in the CM10 my phone faces difficulties to lock satellites and when that happens then it syncs and unsync every 10-15 seconds ...

i have done all wipes, i have install again the cm10 but i have still problems with the GPS signal.

i don't think so that there is a hardware problem because i have done the trick with the tape in the GPS antenna and because in stock 2.3.6 my GPS was working identical !!

by the way i have installed the same nightly in a friends of mine samsung S and his GPS works fine with out any uncyncs....i don't know what happens ..

any ideas ?? anyone with the same problem ???

i would appreciate your help ...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jim-Phelps:
Seems like i finally have a reason to open my phone :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Shiv4m:
This is the most confusing tutorial thread ever. And I can't do it because I don't have the solder tool.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] HTseeWizard:
Method 2 works PERFECT

Chose the wire method and now getting a fix in 5-10secs rathen than almost never. Removed the rubber block with a scalpel, soldered wire and had it done in 5mins. Thanks for the solution you saved me 400-500quid as I was going to buy a new S3. Now I dont need to
[Galaxy S I9000 General] clonfsp:
Hello,

As my GPS was nearly unusuable, I decided to try the fixes I read across the forum. So I opened my phone and after a few minutes I was seening all the conections. The first thing I tried was what I read in a few sites, than putting some kind of non-conductive tape over the rubber can fix the problem, so I did. After turning on my phone and putting GPS-Test to see satelites, after a few seconds it freezed my phone and I was forced to manually turn it off. I opened it again and remove the tape, clean the conection (maybe tape's glue remain) and turn it on again and clean caches. I have not apply any solder fix yet, as now when I test it I only see a satelite with 07 signal streng over my head. It looks like it does not see satelites as it seen before, when there were only 3 o 4, even if I press it in the back.

So my question is: has my i9000 gps dead because I disconnect ground connectivity completly? Is it possible to return it to life?

I ask this before any solder solution, because if it is dead, there is no sense to take risk trying to solder it, as I have not solder anything before.

I have lost the GPS, but anyway was like it was not there.

Thanks.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
gps not dead, you dirty the conductive gummy. Just try to clean it
[Galaxy S I9000 General] clonfsp:
Do you know any method to clean it? I am a coward and, for the moment, not going to solder as I see it quite risky. I would like to return to my previous reception, if possible. I have tried cleaning with water but it does not work. The glue of the tape maybe is sticked in-depth Any home-based tricks to clean it? Also I suppose knowing this would be good to clean other parts.

Thanks.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] finite:
Would 30AWG Kynar be thick enough for this mod?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] siddesu:
Does anyone know where is the GPS antenna connector for the Japanese galaxy S? The PCB layout is different, and there are no connectors that resemble the one in the fix pictures.

TIA,

Sent from my DynaTAC 8000X using magic powers
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jix:
it works !!!!

Hi,

great fix, it works perfectly !!! :D

Hard to do the soldering with small pieces, but the fix worth the pain.

before : even outside with a bue sky, 2 or 3 GPS seen, and lock sometimes, when it wants ... depending of the direction of the wind and the phase of the moon.

after : lock of 9 GPS while inside a building (3 meters from the windows) in 20 seconds!!! absolutly amazing.

now in google map, your path is correctly followed.

Thanks a lot guy for your trick :highfive:. You gave a new life to my SGS. Lots of forgotten feature of this phone will have a new dimension with.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] simo.scorpion:
Thanks work fine

Inviato dal mio GT-I9000 con Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ihartley:
Hail Caesar!

Tried this mod. Pulled the spare contact off. Good. Tried to solder and line up with cover. Bad. Sooooo difficult.

Then tried soldering 1mm solid insulated wire - too thick to close case and nearly trashed vol buttons. Bad. Removed but the solder pad from the board came too. BAD.

Back to drawing board. And this thread. Then soldered ATA wire from ground to cover. RESULT!!!

I love this mod. And the OP should be a God. But a BIG warning should be on post 1. This is a difficult mod.....

Thankz everyone
[Galaxy S I9000 General] SCIENTYREAL:
Hi, can anyone measure the resistance across the rubber connector? I lost it. I am experimenting with different hardware options. I'll post the results once I find the best option. Thanks.

Edit: I got it, its .6 ohms
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magician369:
hi guys i think i missed up ,the little cupper plate on the cover wich supposed to be connected with gps on the board ,was removed during soldring and i cannot find it:eek: , i tried to place a small pieace of cupper instead and connected withe a wire to the board but idid not get any signal:rolleyes:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] gurjon:
Hello,

When my phone views more than 12 satellites, It loses the GPS signal, and when it is less than 13, the signal instantly reappears, please tell me if it is a bug or not and If anyone else complains about this? My phones model is i9001 and standard firmware 2.3.6.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] aidin438:
somebody help me! the 2 keys i mean return and that one except home key don't work at all and the microphone is out of order but the led of 2 keys works.i used second solution.please help me:crying:

---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------

please help me:crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying:

when i was soldering i put some soldering iron on gnd instead of wire.is this the problem?the phone works but it has some problems that i mentioned
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TwinHeadedEagle:
Hello, is this really working?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] trut:
Yes

Sent from my GT-I9000
[Galaxy S I9000 General] raShMan777:
i tried your version but now it's worse than before!? do you have an idea why? :confused:

i think i'll just go to a repair shop and let them do the soldering of leeno's version 1 or 2...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] matthewgwilt:
No soldering needed!

Managed to just place a tiny piece of twisted kitchen foil on the spot where the rubber was... when I say tiny I mean tiny.. I also used nail scissors to cut into shape..

Then clicked the cover back on whilst managing to not knock the foil off the metal connector

hey presto!! Normal GPS function!!

EDIT: I never seem to get 11 or 12 satellites like other people... I only get a maximum of 9 but still locks to all of them
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dethy:
Cover removal

Need some help ...

After I removed the 7 screws, the cover still seems to be stuck to the phone.

Should I lift it up or slip it laterally ?

Thks in adv.

Bruno
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Depends highly on time place etc. No worries, good to go!

---------- Post added at 11:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------

There are a couple of videos on youtube on how to open the i9000.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Giap:
Aluminum kitchen foil?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dethy:
Ground contact

I just replaced the conductive rubber by a piece of kitchen aluminum (same size, no glue, no solder) and it works ! During two years, I have looked for a solution to the gps problem of my Galaxy S. Now it's here.

10 active sat within less than one minute ... thanks a lot to the finder !
[Galaxy S I9000 General] streetsurfer12:
OK, this really works :) I even just registered to say Thankyou for this great solution.. My GPS was nearly unusable in the past. Software-Fixes like Fasterfix or GPS-Aids only managed to get a faster lock but the phone was always losing the signal (usually in times when needed most *grr*). I removed the rubber-thingy and used a part of an old IDE-Cable to connect the mainboard to the ground (like shown in first post) and now my GPS rocks! Fast Fix and really stable signal!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] edgardurao:
Fantastic. Used the approach from 2nd post.

After some experiments, with a thin wire the thing now can work with gps.

Thanks!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] podpowerbest:
I have a gps problem after trying the DarkyRom v.11 I've tryed a lot of things but the problem is still there. It manage to lock max 3 satellites and then it losses them again. Any suggestion would be great! P.s. when I was using the offisial Gingerbread I did not have any problem!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Bo0bz:
Removed the conductive rubber and put some folded aluminum foil without glue on top of the contact. Inside I have 3 GPS visible (34 strenght) no lock. Had 0 before, Going to try outside in a minute! EDIT:

Coldstart after 30s:

Hotstart after 10s:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ioancr:
I confirm the alluminium foil method working. However my phone kept randomly turning off after that and could boot it only by pulling off the battery. I think it was a some kind of short circuit since the foil isn't steady in place could easily touch the nearby parts.

Thus I've modified the solution and used some instant glue to hold in place a tiny cut of a 3 mm insulated wire only 2 mm long just over the golden pad under the rubber. Obviously, I did not apply the glue over it, just beside the wire (the most difficult part, since you have to keep it always vertically and exactly over the pad). Now I see up to 10 satellites inside my house in less than 30 sec and lock to 5 of them in less than a minute cold start inside.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] hertzschi:
For me the tweaking of gps.conf works well.

Maybe I 'improve' my gps with this method when warranty is off :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jago25_98:
Man, it's a difficult thing to test!

I soldered the spring from the unused ariel at the bottom ok but went outside and no signal at all but this time squeezing the area around the GPS antenna didn't help. I can only guess I'm not getting connectivity somehow.

It's a real pain having to go outside in the cold each time to test!

- instead of being able to use a multimeter between ariel and mainboard, since I can't get inside the ariel to test or even see whether the spring is touching the ariel.

I have no idea whether I might have burnt out the GPS chip while soldering.

If you are reading this I suggest trying in order:

0) ( make sure it's not software )

1) jamming paper inside the case to put extra pressure on the sponge connector

2) cleaning/adjusting the sponge connector

3) remove the sponge and replace with aluminum foil

4) try transplanting the unused spring connector on the euro version (see post 1 in this thread)

5) soldering a thick wire between ariel and board

I still can't get any satelites... perhaps i've burnt it out

edit, update:

I found this thread:

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

After that in one last effort I:

-bent the other spring like in the picture on that thread

-bent the spring I had transplanted

-and even put the sponge back on to the transplanted spring

I then got 6 satelites. That's enough for me now! It works... for now. Not sure if I was bending the wrong spring or whether the sponge helped... perhaps it was key:

http://dl.xda-developers.com/attach...751f7/4/6/7/9/7/2/sgsvibrantsideinternals.jpg
[Galaxy S I9000 General] kavkatan:
I recommend

:good:

yesterday After fix i made a couple of month ago
[Galaxy S I9000 General] bardobangis:
:D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lukesan:
Looking at that photo... not like it is supposed to be.

If you check where the 'sponge' touches the antenna on the cover it doesn't match up where it makes contact with yours. (way to low etc)

I would go the wire way if I were you.

Make a screenshot of gps test and that way we can tell if you have done it properly or not.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] talboris:
Vibrant galaxy s

BY mistake i have removed the rubber thing( but the antenna i have bended up) ,what should i do now,gps doesnt work at all,how do i stick back the rubber or what should i do ,i dont have extra contact since vibrant doesnt have unused contacts
[Galaxy S I9000 General] talboris:
VIBRANT

OK,it working

but sometimes i need to reboot so it will work again

why do i need reboot and how to prevent it ,any ideas ?

tnx!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Un Loko:
i9000B

I can confirm this working on an i9000B variant. Used method 2 without cable (made a tiny bubble of soldering iron replacing the rubber). I do not get the highest signals (tested while cloudy, in a remote place in this earth), but I do get much more birds and the connection is not interrupted so I can finally use it for driving in a useful way.

Thank you very much.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Benny-Danny:
I've used the folded aluminum and it is awesome! 10 feet accuracy! Really amazing! Next Monday, gonna try the 2nd post method.

Thanks!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] slowpork:
My i9000 didn't lock GPS, finally today I get tin foil from Kit Kat chocolate bar to replace the rubber and now GPS locks! Accuracy is down to 16 feet. I'll stick with this foil as I don't want to solder. Thanks to everyone who found this solution! :good:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magician369:
it certinly improves gps signal....i used with faster fix app....but i can not get a fix inside a car or at home....also i m unable to connect to mobile data ...so just to be sure ,is it because the other antenna near the gps antenna not connected?or is it because of somthing else?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wogooo:
i fixed it with some tape, much easier :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Benny-Danny:
I've tried to solder the wire (from an IDE cable) but the tin simply doesn't "stick" on the motherboard spot that is supposed to solder. On the back cover works fine. Any help?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] fishears:
I originally did the spare contact fix but my signal started to go off so I opened up and the contact had become detached from my soldering. Then I remembered the phrase "solder turd" and decided to curl one out.

Works like a dream! Thanks.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] UtherPendragon:
Nice fix! Works great for me!

Thanks
[Galaxy S I9000 General] rualex:
Thanks for nice guide.

:thumbup:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] idimintu:
Super fix. wish I knew of / thought about this 2 years ago.. needless to say one very happy OH who can't get lost now hehe
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Badzoo:
Thanks

I did the modification yesterday, unweld the small antenna at the bottom and weld it back at the top. Took me some time to get it all aligned... but finally got it.

I need to run some test in my coming training to see if there is really an improvement, luckily, I got two set of the same phone, one modded, one unmodded.

:)

Right now, it seems that it fix quicker than the unmodded one and see more satellites in my crowded area.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skezza:
I soldered a new piece of wire and it's amazing! Very good :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Badzoo:
Testing done

I fortunately have two of these phones, one modded, one unmodded, both running slimbean 2.7, I went out with my daughter to a nearby playground, we were walking on the road side, we are near a mountain and the area is crowded by high size buildings (35+40 floors).

The modded one would see more satellites than the unmodded in average, 1 to 2 more, but the time to fix and the quality of the fix is so so, sometimes, the modded one would just lose the fix while the unmodded even while seeing less satellites would still be tracking my path. It stays like that for 10 minutes... the modded one was still struggling to fix on any satellites. :(

So at the end, it still improve the reception a bit, I can see more satellites, but it did not improve the ability to use more satelites. :(

I might try the second solution by linking the two point by a wire. Using the third unused contact is a good idea, but not sure it's actually making contact any better.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] LEENO:
If wire connection is good, flash 2.3.6 stock firmware, do software fix and try
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Badzoo:
Do you have a bookmark on a good software fix ? I have been searching since yesterday, but could not find it.

Thanks for your hel p :)

Really appreciate it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] CatalystWon:
This may go down in history as the world famous GPS - Global-turd Positioning Solution :victory:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] slipknot31:
proves it even seems a bit risky if not done right
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Badzoo:
Hey Leeno,

Open the phone again, I found out that the spare antenna was completely crushed down, so the cover is indeed making contact with it, but I was not sure if it's making contact at the right position. So, I looked at the cover and notice a bump just next to the golden contact, I took a cutter and cut it. On your third post, it's the white dimple that is right to where you solder the contact on the bottom face of the cover. I think my spare antenna was placed too much on towards the bottom and the dimple was pushing against it thus lowering the contact quality.

Now, I still need to test my phone against the unmodded one, I don't receive any gps signal at home (high rise building everywhere), so I need to go out and actually try it.

But from my few tries, it seemed better, gps test fixed in less than a minute and would usually find 7-8 satellites. So stay tune for my final test.

:)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Owec:
wow ! it works

thank you

LEENO

now I think GPS is more usable !

my version :
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AusMatt:
I wish I knew what I was meant to look at (I've not opened my phone yet).

Perhaps a circle around the exciting bit would be good?

Also would users of that slightly thicker SGS 2 battery have more problems with GPS antenna connection?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] krutoistudent:
no they should not have any more problems
[Galaxy S I9000 General] T0rchlight:
+1 confirm aluminium foil is working!

Bad signal because I'm testing inside a 2-storey building.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jago25_98:
Definitely burnt out the GPS chip on mine with the soldering... :/

Watch out!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jelle2503:
resoldered unused antenna on my i9000 to gps antenna, and it works wonders now. 7-9 sattelites fast lock! indoor!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] siddesu:
Galaxy S - Japanese model question w/pics

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have an ageing Japanese SGS-1 and I'd like to try the antenna fix on it as the GPS signal is usually pretty abysmal even in good conditions. However, the PCB seems to be quite different from the international model.

Here are the pictures of the phone, can someone guess which is the GPS antenna connector?

https://picasaweb.google.com/109973...&authkey=Gv1sRgCMvE1oe7wKXkNQ&feat=directlink

Thanks in advance for any input,
[Galaxy S I9000 General] BullBash:
Many thanks for you, LEENO!

I've just finished soldering wire following your second solution and it really brings a GPS new life :)

The only hard thing was solder wire to motherboard, but a drop of instant glue - and that's all :)

Thank you again :good:

PS: Sorry for my english :o
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magician369:
hi ...

i used the aluminium method ,i had boot loop so i removed the aluminum,but my phone cannot boot after that ,i cannot get to the recovery or download menu ether .the only thing works is the battery splash screen when i plug the charger.

please help
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AusMatt:
You're not likely to get much help with no information provided by you.

e.g. if using a custom ROM such as CM10 with Semaphore kernel, just wait and boot loop will stop after 3 or 4 cycles, then clear cache in recovery.

Or if using a stock ROM you could reflash it from download mode using Odin or Heimdal (of course you'll need to know how to get your stock ROM with something like the Check fus downloader).

But if you want to keep it all secret you are lucky in that there's plenty of help on xda-developers. You'll be fine after a week or so of reading.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magician369:
well....i cannot turn the device on ,i cannot get the three button method to work either.i think it is a hardware problem.in case it is matter i had

cm10 installed
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Bo0bz:
Clean your phone inside. Maybe something caused a short circuit.

Tapatalked!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nommy:
Does your phone turn on by itself if you put in the battery? Then check your power button. Might be, that it is pressed permanently.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magician369:
well no it dose not,but if i plug in the charger the battery splash screen appears like normal,,,,it might be a power button problem i thought about that but can i fix it?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magician369:
well it is the power button problem...i somehow damaged the small line between the power button and the boared when i put the cover back....anyway it is a small problem it should be fixed easily.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] excosit:
thx
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Elfuente:
tricky

It´s very tricky. If you try that you risk to loos your gps completely. It happened to me. I tried both versions and the Gps now doesn´t work at all anymore.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] fareed1983:
Thanks!!!

This fix works perfectly. I purchased my phone about two years ago and have constantly been trying to fix this. My phone did not have the black rubber conductor. All I did was dab some solder metal on the flat parts of the two connectors and I am getting a fix in 5-10 seconds flat I didn't know my Galaxy S could find so many birds in the sky. After getting lost so many times and actually having to park my car and praying to get a fix on the very moody GPS finally I have the perfect phone!!!

:D:D:D **THANK YOU!!!!** :D:D:D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] neozengar:
I just have a quick question for those who see great improvement after the fix. Can you please tell me what rom you are using? Is it 2.3 or the newer 4.0/4.1 roms? Thanks!