yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kamilr:
It is for sure hardware problem, as most of you write. I used knife to scratch some plastic that cover metal gps antena, and then I put in that place 1m long wire, and put this wire outside window.

In gps test software i got fix in 10 seconds, and about 9 satelites found. Then if I remove this added wire, fix is losing immediately, and 0 satelites in app.

From this moment i know that gps antena is to weak.

So i came up with idea, to use aluminium foil, and put it directly in pleace where i removed some plastic from antena. It give me a little antena extender, and i could find even 2-3 satelites near window. Still no fix, but signal is for sure stronger. Maybe it will be enough to not losing fix during drive. I will let you know after trip

I cannot add links and images because of new user limitation, so if you want to check how it looks like then just copy these and paste in browser:

goo.gl/oZUJ84

goo.gl/ViYtVn

------------------- EDIT 2015-12-20

this foil is not working, I removed it. I think the best solution is to change this ****ty s5 mini to something else :(
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kamilr:
Finally something that works! Yestarday i was desperated and trying to do something with gps antena again, in results i melted plastic too much, and gps antena detached from plastic. So it became unusable anymore.

I made my own antena, and now it work excelent during drive, good stable fix :)

How i made it?

I used 0,75mm copper wire:

rajkowski.net/forum/xdev/new/1.jpg

rajkowski.net/forum/xdev/new/2.jpg

Then i made from it, shape like this:

rajkowski.net/forum/xdev/new/3.jpg

rajkowski.net/forum/xdev/new/4.jpg

rajkowski.net/forum/xdev/new/5.jpg

Then I soldered my antena directly to phone, and covered all with silver tape:

rajkowski.net/forum/xdev/new/6.jpg

With my solution your genuine gps antena is safe, you can store it somewhere, and put again if you want to sell phone for example.

While soldering, do not use too long heating. If you use correct flux, it is very easy, and last only 1-2 second max.

Today i tested it, and all was okey!!!!!!! finally working gps!!!!!!!!!!!
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thalesbraga:
doubt

hey man thanks for the tips, but for how long approximately do i have to warm it up?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thalesbraga:
s5 mini GPS issue [soft fix]

Dear all,

First I would like to thank everybody who contributed to this topic, it's clear Samsung messed up with this model.

After trying different things, I came to realize that the issue is due to a mix of bad antenna and bad configuration. Honestly, I wasn't man enough to hairdry my cellphone :P so I started to work around on the gps.config file.

I added "aps" line and south America protocol into it as i like in Brazil, among others things and it's way better now.

As a result, it's forcing gps to automatically fix position from network which means it's not 100% accurate at first, but as it connects to different satellites the error reduces and goes down to less than 10 meters very fast and most important, always fixed, even when multitasking and changing windows/apps which was not the case before.

From the printscreen you can also see the time to fix was 0sec, connected satellites was 20 (never seen so many) and error only 3meters. D

Hope this help you all which are struggling with this "piece of Chinese **** badly assembled phone" :P

*** FILES (remove spaces)

drive google com / drive/ folders/ 0B58i4Lc6vbgZZE5SU3BtMjN5RHM

*** INSTRUCTIONS

Copy and replace the attached gps.config file into "/etc" (needs root) and restart phone.

That's it!

**** END OF INSTRUCTIONS :P

Test and let me know if it works for you as well. If you want to go further and edit config file Also let me know if there is any other configuration which makes your gps connection better and more stable.

Regards,

Tgb
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] samuelaltoe:
Obrigado.

Funcionou na varanda de casa, amanhã vou testar na rua.

Vitória, ES.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ctsbrasil:
Not Work for me!!

[pt-br]

Não funcionou pra mim - São Paulo/SP/Brasil

Cansei de tentar... aparelho lixo, não tem jeito. Acabei comprando um Sony Xperia Aqua M4... Recebi ontem... sincronização com os satélites é quase instantânea... e bastar estar perto de uma janela que ele já começa a sincronização... Samsung Galaxy nunca mais!!! Agora é tentar vender esse lixo.

[en-us]

It did not work for me - São Paulo / SP / Brazil

I'm tired of trying ... garbage device, there's no way. I ended up buying a Sony Xperia Aqua M4 ... Yesterday I received it... synchronization with satellites is almost instantaneous ... and just to be near a window that it starts to sync ... Samsung Galaxy never more !!!

---------- Post added at 04:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:10 PM ----------

It did not work for me.

I'm tired of trying ... garbage device, there's no way. I ended up buying a Sony Xperia Aqua M4 ... Yesterday I received it... synchronization with satellites is almost instantaneous ... and has just to be near a window and it starts to sync ...

It's amazing how Samsung can produce a device without even test it before selling.

Samsung Galaxy never more !!!
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ctsbrasil:
Hello all.

I keep trying to do the gps G800H work better only because I like the size of this unit (small size).

In this way, I got the following gps.conf configuration file that seems to have minimized the problem a little.

I would like to share with you so you can test and see if it Works for you:

gps.conf file:

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

SUPL_TLS_HOST=FQDN

QOS_TIME_OUT_STANDALONE=60

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

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

DEFAULT_AGPS_ENABLE=TRUE

QosHorizontalThreshold=1000

QOS_TIME_OUT_agps=89

AGPS=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

REPORT_POSITION_USE_SUPL_REFLOC=1

SUPL_SECURE_PORT=7275

C2K_HOST=c2k.pde.com

NTP_SERVER=br.pool.ntp.org

INTERMEDIATE_POS=1

AgpsMtConf=0

QOS_ACCURACY=50

QosVerticalThreshold=500

AgpsMtResponseType=1

C2K_PORT=1234

AssistMethodType=1

DEFAULT_USER_PLANE=TRUE

AgpsServerType=1

CURRENT_CARRIER=common

ACCURACY_THRES=5000

SUPL_TLS_CERT=/etc/SuplRootCert

SUPL_NO_SECURE_PORT=3425

AgpsServerIp=3232235555

AgpsUse=1

SUPL_PORT=7276

SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com

As I´m in Brazil, NTP Server is Brazilian, you can change it to yours.

If someone try, please leave your comments. Thanks
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ka81:
)))

no one needs that, cause problem in antenna! and if someone REALLY wants to fix it, he will do it by physically managing inside!
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ctsbrasil:
Yes, you're right.

But using this conf.gps I am, so far, managed to at least use the GPS (though initially with an error of meters in position). This never happened before.

Let's see if someone tests and leave your opinion.

Thanks for your opinion.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ka81:
all the same thing can manage - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.fastergps

and even with explanations.. ;)
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ctsbrasil:
Yes... i know this app... O used it to make this gps conf :)
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Artem_:
Hi Everyone, did anybody try to use Samsung Service Center? Do they admit that it is guarantee case?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iarapilot:
I have had the GPS problem since I bought the phone. I did the foil and thin wire on the back around the little hole on the top left side as you are looking at the back of the phone. Not much help. When I put pressure or bent the phone in that area it would get a quick fix. But when I let go it was 50/50 on whether it would still have a good lock.

When I was in Thailand I went to a repair shop and the guy wanted to open the phone; but I didnt want to do that. He had a plastic back or frame for an S5 that I looked at and it is the same layout around the GPS antenna as the mini.

So, attached is a frame for an S5 mini that has a circle around where the GPS antenna touches the two contacts. I figure that when I bend the phone and put pressure around that area it creates a better contact for the antenna.

So what I did was get a soldering iron and I heated the frame up just above that area to make it soft, and then I got a screwdriver while it was still soft and pushed down until the plastic hardened up; about 30 seconds. It seems to have done the trick for now. If it starts losing a signal in the future, I will do the same thing again, but a little lower.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iarapilot:
Update

It has been 6 weeks on my fix and I still get a fast lock on the GPS.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] h12687:
U damaged your phone I guess.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ka81:
who are you comment on?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Trinotet:
After a lot of reading and bearing in mind that the GPS issue is most likely due to hardware i've been trying to avoid opening up the phone. So after trying a lot of different original roms I finaly got it to work.

Samsung G800H dual sim bought with South Arabic software.

This is what i've done

1 - Flashed via Odin with KitKat 4.4.2 Russian Version G800HXXU1ANH2_OXE1ANG2

2 - Root

3 - Install FasterGPS from PlayStore

4 - Open FasterGPS app and change the NTP settings to Country where you are located.

5 - Install GPS Test from PlayStore and test the GPS outside.

Tested and working in Portugal and in the UK.

Samuel Franco
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Vaako:
[MENTION=5408845]Trinotet[/MENTION]

it realy is a hardware issue and you point that it is software related.

if your gps is now working well your Phone has never suffered from hardware GPS issues.

nice that the solution you mention works for you !
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Vaako:
Yesterday I tested my G800F agains my doughter G800F phone, my phone does receive much more gps sats as I use FasterGPS but the signals I receive are weak.

Conclusion: Antenna defective or a bad connection to the antenna

Here are the results:
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cipanuonea:
I found the solution. Just introduced a copper wire into the hole next to the battery terminals. Find satellites instantly.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gustavo9810:
help

I did some changes in my s5 mini g800h, in both software and hardware, then the gps seemed to be ok. But a few days later it just stopped work (I didn't make any changes in this time) and I can't fix it anymore... I can get some signal (around 25- 35%) but there's still no satellite in use.. and sometimes I can't even see any satellite.. anyone know what is going on?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JuanMarcos2013:
[MENTION=4539345]cipanuonea[/MENTION]

Could you explain a little bit how you proceeded ? A picture could be really useful if possible.

Thanks !
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mannns:
For me, the action of using an hairdryer was incredibly hep full and positive.

I heated very much the place of the gps sensor. the phone was so much hot i was enable to put a finger on . The phone started warning it was too hot and stopped using application.

I waited for a while and I realize that my gps works like a charm. I was unable to receive any contact from satellite before, especially inside.

The only question is now how long will it last?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Alex Takeo:
Hey, can you send me a copy of gps.default.so file?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] RICHARDSUN:
My GPS has worked fine until recently when I have experienced some problems. At first I thought it was a hardware issue, as the "GPS status & toolbox" app was showing no satellites at all.

However, I tried this, which seemed to fix things:-

1. Pull down from top of homescreen. Put phone in flight mode. Turn OFF 'Location'.

2. Launch "GPS status & toolbox" app. Then go Menu > Manage A-GPS state > Reset.

3. Pull down from top of screen and re-enable 'Location'.

4. Leave GPS status & toolbox app open. Gradually it starts to pick up satellites and gets a GPS fix.

5. Pull down from top of screen and exit flight mode.

Not sure exactly what's going on here, it seems there could be a problem with corrupt A-GPS data which doesn't get reset unless location is turned off.

Thought I would post here in case anybody else wanted to try this.

In settings for 'Location' I am also trying 'GPS only' rather than 'High Accuracy' as I feel like using WiFi / Mobile Network location is somehow confusing the GPS - although this is just a theory!

Edit: The above steps seemed to work as a temporary fix. Later I powered off the phone, took out SIM card, rebooted with no SIM, then powered off again and re-inserted SIM card to force the phone to re-register on my network. I tried this because I've recently been abroad, roaming on a different network, and I wondered if this had somehow messed up the AGPS. Anyway, everything seems OK now.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hansbogert:
Adding a piece of aluminium foil did the trick, difference is cursing at every turn I had to make in the navigation app, to a situation where it simply works. Still not as good as the s4 mini, but very usable.

GPStest now says 12-16m accuracy, compared to 24-32m and losing signal in the latter case when trees were overhead.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] starbright_:
Do you have a foto about howto add this?

My has also 24..32m and often losing signal.... :(
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hsino80:
my solution

hi everyone,

My solution is to scratch the paint on the gps antenna "as in the photo"

on housing.

now the connection seems better.

thank you

---------- Post added at 08:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------

sorry i can't not post a picture

because i am new on forum :confused:
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] starbright_:
There are probably two kind of issues, that might be connected, but I am not sure.

a) One is, it takes some time until GPS fix.

b) Another one, and this is for me a much bigger problem, the poor receiption. So after I had a fix, I suddenly loose it for no obvious reason.

b) is for me much worse, while used as Navi in car.

I try to observed my problem a bit further. Used the app SatStat. What I see is:

I continiously have a lot of sats, around 12..20. And for this fix, so while it works I can see around 5 .. 7 used out of this. But than suddenly the used sats drop to 0, while other sat number (all observed) keeps same. This is strange to me. It looks as the receiption itself is ok, but for some reason the algos for calculation doesn't work anymore. Or do I misinterpret this? Does someone knows more about this?

I bought a second S5 mini, and both behaves more or less same. I use LOS14.1, but I think it is same with stock rom.

---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------

You can upload it to a foto hoster and send a link please.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hsino80:
ok sorry for my english

ok I will try to post the photo again

---------- Post added at 12:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 AM ----------
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iarapilot:
I have 2 S5 minis and both have the problem.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] starbright_:
Which of the problems - or both ?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] starbright_:
Did you make the one hole bigger? How and why? What is behind this? Do you connect your foil to something in the hole?

I see that the area of you alu-foil there is something marked at the plastic housing.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hsino80:
hi,

I just scrape the plastic over the antenna with a cutter

look at your housing you will see the shape of the antenna under the plastic

thanks
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iarapilot:
Both have the bad reception problem. I have tried every fix I could think of with no luck.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] starbright_:
Isn't it dangerous to damage whatever is under this hole? Is this the connector or is GPS antenna fixed mounted?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dmxl:
Hi Kamilr,

Where did you solder your antenna to? When I have the cover removed, I see a little metal lever on the board. I noticed I can move this metal lever up and down with a small screwdriver. I'm also not sure whether or not this metal lever should touch the metal part under it? Do you know?

Thanks!

Dennis

---------- Post added at 01:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:26 AM ----------

Hi Squider, you seem to have two things encircled in red, a little metal lever (that I notice I can move up and down a bit with a screwdriver), and a metal squared little block that seems to fall into it when the cover is placed back. Can you tell me if you think this little metal lever, needs to touch the metal underpart on the board properly? Or do you think the lever itself the GPS antenna?

Best regards,

Dennis
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Claudus:
I have to say that the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini is still the best option in november 2018 for my criteria, which are: rather small screen (< 5") to fit in my pocket, swapable battery (as I hate throwing away a phone just because its battery has less power ) Good screen quality, minimum 8MP camera, memory card slot... and eventually dual SIM.

I had 2 consecutive SM G800F ( single SIM) and was quite happy with the GPS before they broke for other reasons. So I decided to go for the SM G800H dual SIM when the last broke, as this option would be quite useful when traveling abroad.

And what a surprise to see so many bad comments about the GPS. The GPS in my G800H is just useless and never catches a position in reasonable time. So in GoogleMaps it's just un-usable, when you have to find your way in the traffic. As I am running several times a week, I use Runtastic and it finds my position in this app, which lets me think this is a software problem. I tried several tricks exposed on this site but could not find a solution: I scratched the paint on the antenna, I did a reset on the a-GPS in flight mode.... but nothing solved this problem. I have uninstalled many applications that were installed lately and will see if there is any improvement. The next step being to reset the whole phone from scratch, but I want to avoid this for the moment.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] v00d007:
For me this issue is present again as I bought a S5 Duos in dream condition some time ago. Recently I wanted to use it, but as I tried GPS the very 1st time I noticed that something's wrong. Very weak signal in all conditions.

But I found the real reason for the trouble: There are 3 connectors located on the inner side of the plate. They are the base of three tiny antennas (see Photo). There are two in the middle. The single one is GPS. All were 1. oxidized on the pin touch points and 2. the rest was covered with a layer of plastic exhalations. So, I cleaned them, removed the leftovers of the double sided adhesive tape with a tiny screwdriver and Iso-Prop. I pulled all three pins coming from the motherboard up a little, put a well dosed film of strong glue (Pattex) all there where the tape has been and pressed it as hard as possible in place again.

And the result: Tested it with "GPS Fix" and GPS setting "GPS only". 1st 3D Fix in under 30s and excellent reception levels. As good as new again! Hope it will last.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZiemlichUndead:
I have two Galaxy S5 Minis. One of them is still actively being used. The other one is just a spare i still got. The actively used one started having gps issues a week ago. To be exact it has not archieved one GPS fix since one week. I started up my spare S5 Mini for reference and noticed that that phone too does not get any GPS fix whatsoever.

I have tried a lot of whats suggested here. I removed the plastic plate, bent the antenna pin out, attached a wire to the antenna, reset AGPS data etc. Nothing helped.

The phones do pick up a lot of satellites with a lot of strength but they just wont archive GPS fix. Also a strange behavior i noticed is that both of my S5 minis lose all satellites in GPS Test every 10ish seconds. Strangely both phones always lose their satellites in sync to each other so it always happens at the exact same time on both these phones. None of my other phones share this behavior with the S5 minis. Also, firmware wise, on one of the phones is on some Lineage OS version i installed a year ago while the other runs on the stock rom.

I started to think that there may be more than an antenna problem going on with the S5 Minis. Maybe some incompatibility due to GPS rollovers or something? I know this should have happened in 2019 and not now but i really have no explanation for why i cant get GPS to work on both of these else perfectly working S5 Minis.

Do any of you experience the same issues with the S5 Mini?
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZiemlichUndead:
Fyi this fixed the issue for me. Since i checked the antenna it makes sense for it to be a software issue.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bernd_bb:
Yes. My setting as well:

One S5 mini with freshly installed Lineage 16 and another one with the last updates from Samsung on stock rom.

Both were stored for years and now I checked them because the screen of my loved LG G4 stays black.

Result:

Both smartphone work like charm, but no GPS reception. GPS test shows not "fix".

I still didn't understand where exactly the GPS antenna is positioned in the S5 mini. Maybe someone can help me. All these cables shown here seem to com out of nowhere to me. And from some YouTube Videos I learned the you have to remove the glued(!!!) screen first to get to the inner curcuits of the S5.

I may try the gps.conf quoted in the post directly above this one.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bernd_bb:
The quoted manual says:

" to a folder / ect / on the device, after putting the right r / w "

So the foldername can be chosen freely? On the other hand it says one should make a copy of the existing one.

So:

1. typo / ect ---> /etc but that's trivial I guess

2. Did you replace the existing gps.conf or put a new one in a new folder (or both?)

3. What are exactly the right r /w? Or does it just mean "Make the folder read and writable". If the last, then to root or to all users?

Thanks in advance!
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZiemlichUndead:
I just copied the content of the existing gps.conf somewhere else for backup and pasted the content of the downloaded conf into the existing file (removed the old content of course).

I think it does not really matter what you do as long as the content of /etc/gps.conf is correct.

I believe that with "right r/w" is just meant that you will have to make the folder writable with your root explorer app of choice. If you can change the file content, your permissions are correct.
[Galaxy S5 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] berndbb:
Thanks for clarifying this. I did exactly this in between, but it didn't help.

If I could get a replacement of the gps unit for a few bucks and find a manual how to replace it, I would give it a try.

Just for practising and curiosity. Better practise with an old unused smartphone than your daily driver ....