yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
You are right, I wouldn't even say work around, this isn't a simple problem that w/o A-GPS, the GPS is locking quickly, the huge issue is that this GPS fail to maintain lock.

Just an update of the testing I did today, it is pretty much more or less the same but the bizarre thing that GPS signal level is very erratic. At times, I get very decent signal level like 3 or 4 with better than 30 SNR. At other times, I get almost instant GPS lock and that's after a 3 hr lunch. However, once the GPS loses location, it takes forever to relock. You might get 10 minutes of great performance but after that, the GPS seemed to stop getting good signal and you lose location, then maybe 20 minutes of on and off, you get good location back. It is a VERY VERY frustrating experience at best.

To me, I don't even think I want to single out this as a cheap antenna issue, cause at times, I could get 18/23 satellite and even the Russian ones and mostly yellow using AndroiTS (between 20~30 SNR) and works like what a normal GPS would. Once not working, you are down to 2 GPS lock but orange (10~20 SNR) and won't locate for a very long time.

I think I have done all I can hardware wise and giving such disparity in performance, I am thinking it is the GPS chip related and since only a few of us are here, we can simply have a bad chip, nothing you can do much about it although I am still hoping that there is a software fix or just a matter of setting some configuration to make this work better. Still hoping to find something out there.

If someone knows beside gps.conf that modify the GPS settings, I am more than willing to hear for you.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vyurin:
I can agree with you. A have similar behaviour with mine instance even after applying GPS antenna fix as well. But I had another instance before and it was the same.

What I have noticed that signal quality depends on smartphone temperature. I get much better results when it is cold.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
After playing around with configuration (e.g. gps_brcm_conf.xml) and what not, I still don't think I have any solution. Fact is, the antenna is probably crappy and I did more browsing around and it seemed the problem is common enough that a reviewer on youtube notice this as well. So at least I didn't feel like I got a lemon.

I did mention a strange behavior earlier that plugging into my car charger made things a lot worst and removing it immediately help. Well, my car charger is 2A, at least I think it is but can't trust dealextreme stuff. I do know it charges my old S3 very quickly like 10% in 10~15 minutes if phone screen is off. However, the phone never recognize as a fast charger and it is like plugging into a USB port and think it is slow. I try the stock cable, same thing.

However, I have a funny feeling that the plugging of the charger and the fact it is slow charging impact the performance of the phone or more importantly, the GPS chip. It seemed like it put it in power saving mode or something thus losing the GPS signal. The thing is, while playing around with the phone last night, I kept it plugged into the stock charger and the fact my phone is at least 2 ft away from the nearest window in my house (not condo BTW), I was able to get decent enough GPS lock to get my a position. As a matter of fact, it is no worst than if I had the phone without any charging used in my car.

This lead to me to believe that it isn't my previous assumption of charger interfering with GPS signal cause if that's the case, no matter if it is mechanical or electrical, it should happen in both case. What I do suspect is that within the LG power saving scheme, something is done to reduce power on the GPS chip. Now I do understand that it is a GPS reception antenna and not a transmission antenna so you can't exactly put more juice and crank up the transmission, it is what you get from the satellite. However, if there was some parameter LG is playing with the GPS chip, I want to know what it is and if there is something that can be done. I would say at least there is so hope that maybe something can be done. The thing about it is I look at my S3 an the antenna is more or less the same sort of layout these days.

Another route I am seriously considering is get a GPS signal booster. I never used one and don't know how they work. However, I wonder if these GPS Re-radiating device like the SBG-190 works.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SBG-190-GPS...981628488?pt=GPS_Antennas&hash=item4d100ada48

They are advertise to help with iPhone and what not.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vyurin:
The more I am trying to understand why sometime it works "well" (in acceptable level) and sometime it doesn't work at all, the less I understand why.

1. I thought it is related to antenna contact, but fix doesn't help.

2. I thought it is related to temperature, but sometime it works well when device is hot.

3. It doesn't work, but after GPS Status restart, reception is significantly improved.

4. It doesn't work well, but after light bending signal significantly improved.

Bad soldering could explain #4, #2 and probably #3 (light vibration restore contact).

Software issue could explain #3, #2 (I still restart GPS Status), but not #4.

Really I am tired from those experiments with GPS. My old S2 have some time have bad reception as well, but it happens less frequent.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jfeen677:
Dont know if this helps, but im on my 3rd G2 (D803 version), due to all of them suffering from GPS problems of it not being able to connect at all, or when it does (after 10 minutes or so) losing signal consistently. I have contacted LG directly who claims that there must be a legit problem, seeing its my 3rd phone, all with the same problem. They said all they can do is look into it (we all know what that means).I have noticed a trend though, this all seems to happen only AFTER I do a factory reset of the phone. The GPS will work fine out of the box, when started for the first time, then upon doing a factory reset, GPS no longer connects and is consistently searching for GPS. I notice that when I do a factory reset, it also deletes some of the LG bloat that comes with the phone, such as the LG soundtrack and sample videos that come with the phone, making me feel that it maybe deletes some settings? I have tried re-flashing stock rom, rooting, and trying just about every GPS fix in the app store, I have also disassembled device to try and increase contact of GPS antenna, with no such luck. The phone seems unfixable. Has anyone else happen to get this problem after a factory reset or wipe?
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vova_y:
You know initially I thought the same, the factory reset did something with phone. So you are not alone.But I did factory reset on the second day,

so it is difficult to confirm this. Mine could work all the day nice, but then fails at evening. The only way to check is to work with GPS several weeks, and then do factory reset. But nobody will agree :) It would be good to have the way to return to manufacture state.

May be someone could send us configuration files from brand-new device.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jfeen677:
Glad to know you dont think im crazy haha....But all 3 devices I have had (all LG G2 D803), GPS only stopped connecting after factory reset. Prior to doing that, they worked perfect.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vova_y:
Mine also D803, but i would like to say that after factory reset it continues to work, but probably reception stability is bad. Unfortunately I didn't a lot of testing before factory reset.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
Hi all,

I don't want to jump to conclusion but I have tried something today that have improve the reception, basically the best I ever had this device for. It could be a lucky day and it was about an hour of testing on and off. However, I like other to try to give me feedback to see if it fix their problem. What you need is the following:

1) First of all, you need to root you phone if you haven't done so, find the post in this forum

2) Download my attachment and unzip it, you should get a gps.conf file. It is a regular text file so open it and determine which NTP server you want, I am in Canada so it is default to Canada right now, you can easily just google the NTP server in your region

3) Using root explorer (or something alike), Goto \system\etc

4) Backup these files (if they exist): gps.conf, gps_brcm_conf.xml, izat.conf to a safe location (e.g. your computer or another location on the phone)

5) Erase those 3 files

6) Copy over my attached gps.conf in the same directory

7) Goto System Settings->General->Apps

8) Scroll over to "All" and find Gnsstest 1.2

9) Force stop the service and clear the cache and data

10) Repeat 9 & 10 for Location Services

11) Reboot phone

12) Run AndroiTS

13) Start GPS

Let me know how that work out for other people. I was getting much better result than I had since I found the problem about 2 weeks ago. It might lose signal momentarily but it seemed to regain it pretty quickly, usually within a few seconds. It isn't perfect but it does make the GPS more livable.

Like I said, I only had one hour of testing so my result may not prove anything, however, if you want to give it a tray and see if it helps, be my guest. Not taking credit for the gps.conf file, I basically looked at a few custom ROM and come up with the file myself. The stock gps.conf is pretty barebone.

Result I got was pretty decent, I was getting at times 3 or 4 satellite over 30 SNR (lime green) using AndroiTS and accuracy as good as 3m while my car is moving. That's unheard of with my unit before.

This is a pretty safe fix as all I am changing is a configuration. Shouldn't screw up your phone. If you want to be safe, do a full backup of the phone before proceeding.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] easyski:
For those that think it may be an antenna issue (it seemed that way for me) this is what I did to fix:

As someone had earlier described soldering an antenna onto the pins, I had thought about doing that, it was frustrating when it would take 5-10 mins for my phone to get a fix (even with wifi turned on, but driving down the road).

So I decided to disassemble my phone (Verizon version). It's quite easy to pop the back cover off. Start with finger nail or plastic credit card at sime card slot and simply work your way around. Then use a #0 phillips screw driver to remove the plastic cover at the top (pictures are linked below).

After removing plastic cover, I could see small indents in the contact points verifying that the GPS antenna was making contact. I had read about people putting a small piece of folded up paper between the chassis to put more pressure on the GPS antenna in hopes of providing better contact. Upon observation of the GPS antenna points, I noticed that they are c shaped springs, I simply extended the springs slightly with my fingernail and replaced all pieces.

I can now get GPS in my house (tested before bending and after) and get a cold start gps fix with GPS status within 30 seconds inside my house and even quicker when I am outside.

Antenna contact points pictures
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HiTekRawkus:
Just tried this and no luck. No lock in about 5 minutes now. Already tried resetting AGPS...next step may be a new phone but I'm hoping it's a software glitch so I don't have to re-do all my settings and such on a new phone.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CtK4949:
verizon LG G2, wrong location!!

For some reason, my GPS is showing that im 30 miles away from my current location!!

It was working fine yesterday.

Anyone having the same issue??
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vova_y:
Here is ugly fix and it gives following results on my balcony (please note that only half of sky are clear, other part shielded by condo).

View attachment 2449262

View attachment 2449263
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
Yeah, there is no doubt the antenna will help quite a bit, however, I still somehow think there is more to why the GPS is bad. Given this GPS (I believe it is part of the Snapdragon 800 capabilities) can do GLONASS, there is no reason why even with a stronger antenna, you are only get 2 Russian satellite lock. This is similar with or without the antenna fix you implement. I know on my S3, I can easily lock 18 satellite with about 1/3 Russian inside my home. My best guess is there is some sort of driver issue here that either 1) Qualcomm has not addressed or 2) LG implementation issue.

On an interesting note, I decided to take a dive and flash a 4.4.1 ROM today, it is running latest KitKat and quite honestly, the GPS has not one bit improve. I assume the majority of the ROM came from the official Nexus 5 which also use a very similar setup Snapdragon 800, placement of antenna. and I get pretty much the same not the most impressive result.

The fix I proposed yesterday is better, but still no where near what I believe a decent GPS receiver will do. I think my next thing I might try is the GPS re-radiating antenna solution to see if that helps. It is a long term investment as I can only imagine down the road, I will run into another weak GPS phone and I hope that's a viable solution.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HiTekRawkus:
After much research and trying all these methods I exchanged my phone for a new device. The GPS locks instantly and stays locked. It even worked indoors! Seems like it's a hardware issue afterall.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
Which phone did you get? Another brand or a replacement?
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HiTekRawkus:
Because I was within my 14 days from puchase, I received a new G2. I love this phone, and was hoping I just got a melon.

It's possible that LG had manufacturing issues and they released a revision; all I can say is that my old G2 had issues with GPS, data (showed traffic but was unresponsive) and screen (incorrect or multiple touches reported when only one was made). The replacement G2 is great, and even shows better battery life.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vyurin:
Congratulations! Let us know after awhile how it is behave. Have you did factory reset?
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayraycarter4:
I only have GPS problems when I flash a 4.4 aosp rom it doesn't even pick up any satellites
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] icecold23:
Mark me down as another one with GPS issues on my Verizon version, stock, rooted.

I tried various GPS apps to try and resolve the issues (GPS Status, GPS Test, AndroiTS, FasterGPS), but nothing worked. I even tried unfreezing all the Verizon apps to see if that was the issue. Next will be trying to flash back to stock, and bringing to Verizon to see if they can help me (which I am not holding my breath).

Unfortunately, I was trying to keep my unlimited data plan, and purchased a phone off of eBay, so I'll really hoping this is a software issue which can be resolved. Otherwise, I guess my only course will be paying the deductible and claiming it under my phone insurance plan.

This is really a shame too. I LOVED this phone up until the GPS issues...
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
This is sad but it is the reality. I did a bit more reading up and trying to understand the root cause of problem and wanted to share that I found that we are not alone (I mean, it isn't just an LG G2 problem).

Traditionally, GPS has it own dedicated chip and Broadcom does make a number of GPS chip. The funny thing is when looking at the stock Rom, there was a config file there for Broadcom as well. I check and it appears my old phone, the Galaxy S3 uses a dedicated GPS chip but ever since Qualcomm came with the S4 processor, then 600, now 800, they have integrated the GPS chip as part of the processor. It makes complete sense from a manufacturing and cost POV, less component, less cost, more power efficiency. However, I think if you google for GS4 for GPS problem it seemed they have the same kind of issue as well. So to me, it is clear there is something about the Qualcomm GPS functionality that isn't as good as a dedicated solution. Also, like I was saying, my consistent behavior where I attach a slow charger to phone would drop the GPS signal seemed to confirm there is some configuration to lower power consumption and thus drop the GPS behavior even further.

To be fair, GPS signal was never rock solid in phone and even dedicated PNA units. After all, satellite are 20,000 km or 12,500 miles above or head and it's hard to expect a tiny little antenna and a low power phone can get great reception. These satellite was design for military purposes long ago and they had to boost the signal transmitted to serve the civilians that are using it every day. We all know power is a total luxury in space and this is why so far, I find our GPS has a hard time locking much of the Russian satellite as I believe they have lower transmission power than the US counterpart. More interesting, I have yet to see one Chinese satellite cause I am not in that part of the world to comment as BeiDou won't go international until 2020 but we are stuck with a problem. My advice is that some phone may perform better but will never be good enough and you can't prevent this from happening with your next phone as technology keep evolving.

I have yet to take the plunge to try to GPS Re-radiating antenna method of boosting this but IMO, it might be worth investing as there is no telling if my next phone is any better (I normally switch phone about every 1~1.5 years). I have tried many things already and the consensus is if it want to work, it will, but there are days it just won't work well at all and not a lot you can do about it.

I don't use GPS every single day so it isn't the most annoying behavior about this phone, the fact there is a lot of positive on this phone beside that (e.g. great battery life, great size for screen, easily will take KitKat) are all advantages. I am not going to lose sleep over the fact the GPS is flakey as there has never been a perfect phone out there for me. So probably will just move on. I am running KitKat and it seemed to be alright in terms of locking speed, (pretty quick at start). It's just that it will lose signal from time to time but regaining is fast if the signal level is alright.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hyperxguy:
We had been Tomtom/Garmin users for years ... until we found GPS on Android devices.

All our 2x 2012N7s, 1x 2013N7, 3x VS980G2s are running great on GPS. Locking (onto Sats) takes a few seconds.

Never lost connections. Re-routing is instant .. life-traffic information ... BIG screen ...

The Tomtom & Garmin are in the drawer somewhere now.

I had a couple of BIG issues:

* On the 2013N7, it was a firmware issue which was later fixed by Goggle (for some time, GPS would just stopped working randomly).

* On my own G2, after rooting & loading a customedROM --> GPS turned bad, couldn't lock on for a long time and couldn't

stay locked on (the pointer could jump from one street to the next, on the map).

I just download GPS Test (free) and let it (clear&re-download) AGPS off the internet --> everything has been great since.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
Check the gps.conf in system/etc before and after. Copy it over and see if it makes any difference.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hyperxguy:
Mine G2 has been great after that GPS hickup (after I rooted...). I just checked the gps.conf ... the date was Aug.2013 so it appears to be the original file (I bought my G2s last month).
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinyuk:
Do you mind sharing your gps.conf file here?
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BaYRiCaN:
Having the same GPS issues will not lock on. Can't even use maps and I need navigation for work. I rooted and flashed a odex stock Rom and lost GPS and can't figure out how to get it to lockon. Tried flashing other stock roms even KitKat rom still no go. Love this phone but may have to get rid of it. Sorry for my rant.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hyperxguy:
Here is my gps.conf file content:

NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org

XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra2.bin

XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra2.bin

XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra2.bin

DEBUG_LEVEL = 5

INTERMEDIATE_POS=0

SUPL_VER=0x20000

ERR_ESTIMATE=0

CAPABILITIES=0x11

SENSOR_ACCEL_BATCHES_PER_SEC=2

SENSOR_ACCEL_SAMPLES_PER_BATCH=5

SENSOR_GYRO_BATCHES_PER_SEC=2

SENSOR_GYRO_SAMPLES_PER_BATCH=5

SENSOR_ACCEL_SAMPLES_PER_BATCH_HIGH=25

SENSOR_GYRO_BATCHES_PER_SEC_HIGH=4

SENSOR_GYRO_SAMPLES_PER_BATCH_HIGH=25

SENSOR_CONTROL_MODE=0

SENSOR_USAGE=1

SENSOR_PROVIDER=1

SENSOR_ALGORITHM_CONFIG_MASK=0x0

QUIPC_ENABLED = 0

ENABLE_WIPER=0

NMEA_PROVIDER=1

LPP_PROFILE = 1

A_GLONASS_POS_PROTOCOL_SELECT = 0

VENDOR=VZW

LGE_GPS_POSITION_MODE=0
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kenkamm:
Is it possible that the following things could be causing some of these issues, either individually or when installed as a group?

Rooting

Installing twrp

Installing Xposed framework

I have an unlimited data plan on Verizon, so each time I change phones I buy one outright from Craigslist or eBay. I bought a G2 from eBay a month or so ago. I don't know the vintage of the phone, it could be one of the very first phones for all I know (I've read that some of the early phones may have actual hardware issues). I almost immediately rooted it, installed twrp and flashed a navbar mod. Since I rooted it immediately, I can't say whether my changes had a negative effect on GPS - but I had terrible GPS performance with this phone, and none of the methods described here helped at all.

Because I was so frustrated with this, I went to the Verizon store on a whim and shelled out full price for a brand new G2. GPS works wonderfully on this new phone. I haven't rooted it yet, and I'm afraid to do so because I don't want to screw it up! I need the GPS to continue to work flawlessly as it does now, and I don't know if rooting will cause issues.

Thoughts?
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vova_y:
Update from my side:

Since custom antenna give much better results, and I have noticed that GPS works great after assembly for some period of time, I have decided to go further with antenna fix. I have replaced duct tape under antenna contacts with small peace of credit card plastic (about 0.5mm thickness). It push board contacts hard against antenna contacts. It was done on Thursday, and I did some testing Friday, Saturday (during Toronto's winter storm) and today and seems to me results are amazing. Usually I have at least 3 sat with signal level more than 35, almost instant lock in a car, and when sky is free from buildings, usually withing first 30sec I get 3m accuracy. Even under snowstorm I still get 3m accuracy.

So I see 3 possible reasons:

1. Bad soldering or micro-crack, that was fixed with minor bending of mainboard.

2. Antenna contacts, even after duct tape, doesn't provided sufficient contact.

One more change that I have - factory reset, no GPS Toolbox installed (only androits), and I never used hidden menu GNSS test program after factory reset.

Other observation related to GPS chip, that I mentioned before. To save power, usually as soon as 3m accuracy reached, chip start to reduce number of observed satellites. Sometimes to 8 from 21 available. And Glonas sats disappear first.

I believe for the same reason it is only track few sats from glonas.
[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MoNsTeReNeRgY22:
I might go for another exchange with Verizon. Only problem I can see is that if it is a hardware problem, my certified like new replacement will be a "first revision"

Sent from my LG G2