yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] RickPJ:
I think I can say I've found the ultimate solution to the G5 GPS problems. I've posted all the details on iFixit here:

Hope it helps!
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] hazeem89:
Thank you [MENTION=4549943]RickPJ[/MENTION] for your thorough testing and experimenting the G5 GPS. I have read through your new-solution from the link attached, but still, I am not getting a clear picture on how to "...cut through the flexible track leading from the corner spring contact round to the hidden front antenna". Can you attach a picture after you have done that solution? at least show us how a "cut-through" looks like. its a great pleasure to get your response pertaining the above. Thanks in advance.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] RickPJ:
Sorry about the lack of pic, I was sure I had a photo but it had disappeared when I came to write the post :( Anyway, I opened the phone up again and took another pic, I've updated the post over on iFixit with the photo, hope it's clear enough.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ram365:
No... Seriously?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] cheeze.keyk:
I'm sorry, im slow here. but you need to cut certain part of the antenna? Sorry to ask coz I never tried opening the device so I don't have any idea.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Selva123:
I just tried this and my GPS improved a lot! Now I get a lock in seconds, even indoors near a window. Let's hope it doesn't go back to normal in a few days like with other methods that I tested.

This seems promising, thank you very much :D

Check the image in iFixit, it's that white thing that seems broken, on your device you'll see that it's connected, I would mark it but I'm kinda new here and it doesn't allow me to insert images.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] giebeka:
So I took a high quality photo of it.

Could you confirm that we need to cut that green-marked thing? It seems like some kind of 4chan troll joke. I'm not sure if it is a proper sollution. Can someone with higher rep confirm?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] RickPJ:
HI giebeka

Yep, you've got it, that flexible track is what you cut through. I know it sounds pretty bizarre, and I understand your suspicions of it being a bad joke (getting people to break their G5s) but I can assure you it's genuine.

I came up with it almost by chance, and when I worked out what was going on (as I explained in depth on iFixit) I could hardly believe LG had made such a crass mistake. Two things led me to this.

Discovering that the GPS worked fine when the back is removed (i.e. why does it even need an antenna on the back?).

I broke that spring contact, and resorted to fixing it using a spare phone with a broken screen. I reckoned I could remove the bits of track with the contacts from each phone, put the good one on the otherwise good front panel, and re-join the tracks. It was when messing with those bits of track that I discovered the existence of the front antenna, which partly answered point 1.

Having fitted the bit of track with the contact, I tried the phone anyway without re-joining the tracks, and was amazed that I got excellent GPS. Then the penny dropped that the front antenna is redundant, and is interfering because it's still connected. Like I said, serious error on the part of LG.

My partner also has a G5, with similar flaky GPS, so I opened that and cut the track. Bingo - no GPS issues any more.

Got to be one of the weirdest device fixes ever. Is there a top ten for "Oddest ways to make things work better"? This one should definitely be in there!

Cheers
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] waylo:
Weird indeed. That cut antennae isn't used for anything else? Bluetooth?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] nizarp:
Good find indeed! Does anyone have a service manual so that we can confirm is there any other purpose for this?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Selva123:
I use bluetooth everyday and didn´t notice a change.

Everything else works as always, the only thing I couldn't test is NFC
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] RickPJ:
A GPS antenna will never be dual-use, the frequencies are different. GPS operates between 1.1 & 1.6 GHz, Bluetooth uses the ubiquitous 2.4 GHz band. GPS is also a very weak signal, so has to be completely separate from any other RF stuff. (This is a useful page showing the GPS bands).

NFC antennae are coils, in the G5 the coil sits around the camera lenses.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ZKSC:
I'm also interested in cutting the antena but I'm not too sure about it. It might cause some serious damage.

I just want to make sure that this doesn't lead to anything bad.

Can someone provide more info about that antena?

(I know what and how to do it but I don't wanna make my poor gps even worse)
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] sc020521:
I finally make a decision to cut the front antenna and it's GREAT.

(using GPS status will In view: 37 In use: 27)

And I also found that the lower right button screw no fixed will get better GPS performance.

GPS will fix in 3 secnods.

Thanks guys ~~
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Burkules:
So I took the plunge and cut the front antenna cable this morning. Doesn't seem to have improved anything - although it certainly hasn't made anything worse. I currently have some copper tape over the gauze so will try removing that next.

Will report back if anything changes...
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] scote:
According to the FCC document in the 1st post the GPS antenna is also used for LTE band 7 rx (receive) - in the UK that band is used by EE and Vodafone for 4g - band 7 is 2600Mhz so some way off the GPS frequency range of 1164-1610Mhz.

For anyone that has cut that wire does your carrier use band 7 LTE and has it affected 4g reception?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Burkules:
I'm in the UK on EE and haven't noticed any change in my 4G reception since cutting the cable.

I must say it seems my GPS has improved somewhat. I have placed a piece of folded copper tape over the back gauze and clipped the phone face on and i'm now able to find ±5 satellites indoors. I'm stuck in waiting for deliveries today but will update when I get a chance to test out and about..
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] RickPJ:
Even if they use the same band, GPS & 4G will never share an antenna. The receiver hardware is completely different, and feeding two receivers from one antenna won't work any better than feeding two antennae into one receiver (the LG GPS problem).

Signal strength is also wildly different. A usable cell signal is roughly between -60dbm & -110dbm, and the transmitter a few miles away. GPS satellites are 15,000 miles away, and a good signal is no better than -130dbm (these are negative values, so bigger numbers are weaker signals). dB is a logarithmic scale, 10db is a factor of 10, so a good GPS signal is over 100 times weaker than a barely usable cell signal!

Hence the radio hardware has to be kept well separated, in fact it's a technical feat for GPS to work at all on a phone, there's so much other radio interference concentrated in close proximity.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] scote:
EE also use band 26 as well as band 7 for LTE - you can check which band you are using by going into the hidden menu *#LGMENU#*850# from the dialer - Field Test -> Modem Settings -> RAT Selection -> LTE Only (this will stop your phone falling back to 3g/HSDPA/WCDMA if the 4g signal is weak) then go back one menu then select Engineering Mode then press Next four times and the Band currently in use will be displayed. Then You can go back and set the RAT Selection back to Auto or whatever.

I warranty returned my G5 some time ago for this GPS issue and the diagnosis was a new housing was needed - this is what the repairer was told by LG to cure bad cell or GPS reception - I was sceptical - but it worked for about 6-9 months before it degraded again - hence I think the important part is the metal mesh on the rubber pad. IDK if it is supposed to be electrically connected to the metal rear housing or not - I get about one ohm between the mesh and the housing. Looks like I'll be opening up my phone again when I find my self adhesive copper tape.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Burkules:
Have done the above and my band is displaying as B3 / 20MHz.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] giebeka:
I cutted it and it didn't help. My GPS signal is still weak. It didn't break anything either.

Wysłane z mojego LG-H850 przy użyciu Tapatalka
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ZKSC:
Same for me :/
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] auraya:
About a year ago, while my phone was still under warranty, I sent it in to LG and they repaired it.

Defect:	Software Failure

Repair Results:	Swap Board (Main/RF) : Others

Anyway, the GPS worked again for six months until the phone was out of warranty. I'm about to send it back to LG (supposedly $45), but of course it'll just be another short term fix.

Clearly no one, even LG, has a long term, appropriate solution for this aggravating issue.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ZKSC:
I have tested my GPS today after cutting the antena. It's much worse I don't even get lock anymore ?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Burkules:
Well my gps signal is slightly improved after the cut. My location no longer jumps around over a wide area like it used to, but it still takes an age to lock and when it does, it can still lose it rather quickly afterwards.

As I said before, nothing seems to have become any worse though. I'm going to experiment further with extra copper tape and will report back any changes.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ZKSC:
Update: GPS takes ages to lock but it becomes more accurate when it locks. It's still easy to lose fix.

Cutting antena might improved accuracy but it takes longer to lock
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] sc020521:
Hi , I suggest no fix right bottom screw after cut the front antenna cable.

It 's works for me base on the right up corner finger have good contact to conductive tape. The conductive tape is using to fill up the height of the gap between finger and case.

The best way is change a highther finger to contact the case directly without the conductive tape. Because the conductive tape conduction will decay for a time.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Selva123:
Sadly, a week after I cut that ribbon my GPS signal is going back to normal, it doesn't get a lock near high buildings and loses lock occasionally inside my car. Looks like I'll have to change my phone after all :(
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] badger1000:
Hi,

I found the replacement contacts.

They are called TE Finger Springs.

http://www.te.com/usa-en/products/connectors/pcb-connectors/board-to-board-connectors/spring-finger-contacts.html?tab=pgp-story
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] GottZ:
i just used some isopropanol soaked cotton swabs on all the contacts i could find. i also slightly pushed that mesh further into the edge. gps seems insane for me now.

i'll just wait for some dust to build up between the contacts again.. i guess isopropanol is one of the best solutions for a temp fix.

this was after the fix... WITHIN MY APARTMENT. WTF

this was essentially before cleaning contacts with isopropanol and pushing that mesh.

it was essentially impossible to get a lock. position was around one kilometer in radius for the past few weeks.

it will most likely fail in a few months again. so far, cleaning and pushing that mesh further in the edge did some visible improvement.

i'll keep an eye on it on my way to work tomorrow.

PS:

i had my phone repaired once before. they replaced my screen because i had that blue blur on top right and noticed on the report that they replaced the gps antenna (wich i think is highly unlikely since replacing it would physically damage the case)

edit (one day later):

accuracy while driving: 5 to 15 meters. never worse.

this is dope af.

i wonder how long it will last until it breaks down again.

i suspect a few months.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] pjpeter:
Hi all,

I just read through the whole thread. I'd had the G5 replaced once under warranty and that lasted for 6 months. Then I'd tried many times messing with the volume control pins when it wasn't known that they weren't directly related to the GPS Antenna and had great improvement - but only for a few days. Then I came back into it when I read more about adding material behind the circuit board and other suggestions in various xda and other threads.

What I'm seeing now:

gboari92 suggested removing the mesh and cleaning the area: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=75339765&postcount=36

Ultraman1966 added tin foil: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=75435214&postcount=44

Rick PJ said he found "the ultimate solution" by cutting a section of the antenna: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=75718090&postcount=55

All these solutions have been accounted as great by people - but only seem to last for a few days and some others don't have any improvement at all.

Is there actually a definitive solution now to these issues? Or is it still just a waiting game to see how long these temporary fixes last?

Thanks,

Peter
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ChristopherXI:
Cutting the antenna method is legit.

My GPS now doesn't drop as frequent as before and more accurate aswell.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] pjpeter:
Thanks ChristopherXI, not saying it's not legit - but is it the recommendation from this thread to ONLY do that one method?

Or is it worth if you have it open, removing the mesh, inserting foil, cleaning, cutting, inserting, etc..

Thanks,

Peter
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] ChristopherXI:
my phone being hardware revision 1 doesn't have the mesh. I only cut the antenna and then clean the contact points.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] hazeem89:
Well hello there. Thank you for quoting and put all noticeable fixes in one place. for me, I don't know where to start. but I would like to share my awkward or sounds silly-little experiment/ testing. For your information, i have done several of those fixes, put a tin foil and cutting the antenae line solution as in your quotes. Then I start to think, after all, the problem still occured through time like more than a week or month (depend on your situation). afterwards i start to think again, why our GPS will start to operateas normal after we open the back plate of our phone as someone also said, it may re-seat the connection so thats your answer. But, from what i found, the design of our phone is a removable battery, and from that, it also make our phone prone for reboot. again, I start to think, maybe our location-gps-lock-issue saga related to software as well. so now, what im doing, after a long period usage of my phone without reboot, i simply reboot my phone by hoping it also may reboot the related location services as well. I also playing with the configuration by setting to gps only, and turning off the Qualcomm izat location. and BAM, gps-lock in a second again without scracthing our head.

simply stated, could software also related to this issues? its up to you to decide based on your experiment/ testing as well.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] pjpeter:
Hmm. I have noticed a software component myself from testing as well. From my own experience with the GPS I noticed that if I set the phone to Assisted/Network Only modes (ie. "High Accuracy (GPS and Networks)" or "Battery Saving (Networks only")) I had a lot of issues getting a lock and so on. But if I instead locked it into using the dedicated GPS by setting to "Device Sensors only (GPS only)", it was actually much more reliable and able to get locks quickly.

But Google Maps wouldn't get traffic data - it kept telling me I didn't have location services enabled unless I changed it to one of the Network Location modes.

Doing the reseating would allow it to work for a few weeks without any issues, before needing to be reseated again.

What I'm wondering - could it be some kind of issue of a combination of the GPS and Network modes? So that having just the Device Only GPS enabled allows it to bypass the issue, but if it tries to use Network and GPS it causes some kind of interference (like it can't get the Network data to the GPS module/chip, so it fails getting a lock)?

Has anyone else noticed this sort of issue? It would make sense why people say that using certain Diagnostic tools they still get a signal from the GPS fine - since those may be using/testing just the Device GPS and ignoring the network portion.

Thanks,

Peter
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] fttlov:
I bought a new screen with frame (aliexpress) and the problem with GPS is completely gone. Connection to satellites takes 2-3 seconds with 10-15 m. accuracy.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] dublued:
This is a great find. Do you know the part number for the specific one used in the phone? I have about 4 or 5 of them that are broken. Any other type of spring that OP used that I can buy off digikey?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] badger1000:
Hi,

I bought '10 X TE CONNECTIVITY 2108612-5 Connector Accessory Spring Finger, Mobile Phone' from ebay.

These were the closest I could find, not having a Farnell or Digikey account. I'll let you know if they're any good when I attempt to replace them in the next week. I have also bought a brand new rear case from HandyWest in Germany via ebay.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] Lozelota:
can you write the link to the page where you bought the display?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] pjpeter:
Only thing about ordering a new component is that I think we usually see things improve a little after we open up and then close the G5 - it's just over time that the GPS problems start happening again.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] scote:
The mesh grounding plane thats attached to the housing is the critical component IMHO, look at the first post if you are unsure what this is. I removed mine and tried replacing it with a piece of folded over copper tape. I got a GPS lock but it was not great. Next I tried putting a small piece of rubber glued in there with some copper tape on top, I got no GPS lock at all. I then ordered a new housing/back cover after making sure it came with the GPS ground plane - it did. That arrived today and I swapped over all the parts and put it back together an it has fixed my GPS got 14 satellite locks in under a minute . The housing cost me £8.98 so not much considering the hassle of taking my phone apart every few days trying to fix it with some other mod. You need to swap over the volume buttons, vibration motor, a black plastic moulding round the camera holes, under that is the NFC antenna, a black plastic moulding that goes around the right hand screw hole at the bottom, a piece of mesh near just down and to the side of the gps ground plane and another component near the left hand screw hole - all these are stuck on and be carefully pealed off and put on the new housing - gentle heat may help - I only used a heat gun on the vibration motor and the volume buttons, although the nfc antenna was quite hard to get off. My fingerprint was read successfully by the new fingerprint reader so I did not have to redo those. Lets see how long this fix lasts this time - I sent my G5 in for warranty for this issue and they replaced the housing too - the fix lasted almost a year, I think heat had something to do with the degradation - playing pokemon go in the summer.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] cheeze.keyk:
How bout this trick?

https://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1239713
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] thetool:
Link wanted! :)

I did the cut method and it's not so good,

indoors - no reception at all.

outdoors - works but very unstable.
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] fttlov:
1. The screen is not original.

2. Bad oleophobic coating .

3. LSD display quality like the original. (a little uneven screen backlight)

All Screen replacement kit on Ali si not original, except of referbished.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-LG-G5-LCD-Tested-5-3-inch-2560x1440-Display-For-LG-G5-LCD-with-Touch/32825077944.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.1.5ab26688swbKI2&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10152_10151_10065_10344_10068_10342_10343_10340_10341_10543_10696_10084_10083_10618_10307_10301_5711213_10313_10059_10534_100031_10103_10624_10623_443_10622_10621_10620,searchweb201603_25,ppcSwitch_5&algo_expid=7394e583-e765-4683-914d-7f1135efcd57-0&algo_pvid=7394e583-e765-4683-914d-7f1135efcd57&priceBeautifyAB=0[/QUOTE]
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] thetool:
I ordered from ebay, I asked all sellers prior to order if it's new, genuine and original.

Most said referbished or cant tell... I found 1 or 2 who stated that it's genuine, hope he ain't lying lol

https://www.ebay.com/itm/142010886816?ul_noapp=true

How you know for sure it's not original?
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] fttlov:
I'm not 100% sure! )
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] cyobane:
For anyone just coming into this thread you can't go wrong with contact cleaner/electric parts cleaner, find a 2ml tube on google for <$10 and apply as instructed to the GPS contact spots (i.e. the mesh and the few other connection points). I had non-functional GPS about 6 months ago, and a simple contact cleaning (without solution) got my GPS back to working for only about 1 month. Then I tried again using contact cleaner and my GPS is still working after about 5 months. For the first 1-2 months I was getting 5m accuracy acquiring lock instantly outdoors, it's weakened since but it's still working (15-20m accuracy, 10-20 seconds to lock). For simplicity, safety, and non-irrevocability really hard to go wrong with this. Just not the most permanent solution (and no guarantees that it will work, just that it won't damage anything)
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] GottZ:
get some isopropanol. usually sold in liters for less than $10. it's the same except without a snake oil price.

but ye. i agree. just cleaning the contacts leads to a result like this:

View attachment 4447207

anyways..

next i'll try to apply a tiny bit of almost pure silver coating to the mesh where the contact touches it.

if all goes well and the mesh does not magically suck all the silver up i'll have a good surface for that pin to make a proper connection to the mesh.

i'll report back after i did that.

PS:

6 ml silver coating are still cheaper than the cleaning snake oil you mentioned ;)

with silver i actually mean the metal called silver.

with coating i mean a fluid that will harden after 10 minutes.

in germany we call that silberleitlack

when it's dried it has a conduction of 0.5 to 2.0 ohm
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] cyobane:
I unfortunately wasn't able to compare it to cleaning with isopropyl alone, I'm curious if the alcohol could make that big a difference. But compared to just cleaning by wiping with a qtip, the contact enhancer seems to work.

I'm curious if I can find some of the same silver coating you mentioned i'd love to try it out for my next 'refresh'. gps lock has gotten slow

edit:

maybe this is a similar product i can order in the US: https://www.amazon.com/CaiKot-Conductive-Silver-Coating-surfaces/dp/B003D8G8SY
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] GottZ:
german amazon: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B019H11LE6

englands amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019H11LE6

american amazon (you should probably read the reviews. this product seems to be bad): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FEFTHK0

you might want to try this instead: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GKLIJMI

just something like this. seems like the proper translation is: conductive silver
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] cyobane:
the american amazon link you posted looks like it is a conductive glue where the german link is for surface contact enhancement (mentions remote controls, similar to CaiKot 44). Thanks for the suggestion
[LG G5 Guides, News, & Discussion] GottZ:
your quote does not include my edit it seems.

in general i'd avoid any kind of syringe style application of that stuff. could get nasty easy