yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
Very cool! I'm subscribed to this thread and I'm looking forward to what you find. Thanks for putting extra work into it. Hopefully the contact just needed to be bent, and it will stay that way. My GPS NEVER worked right from day 1 so I'm confident mine was just assembled sloppy.
[Vibrant General] blanked:
Is there a chance Someone could write a step-by-step with photos for doing this hardware fix? Would be totally awesome.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
I have the ability and the experience to do this, and I would be totally willing to do a full write-up with photos and a video if it were not for two major issues:

My phone is only a couple months old and still under warranty

My GPS generally works ok for me, and I would not really use it since I own a Nuvi

Other than that - no problem. Maybe if somebody that has a phone that does not work at all and wanted it fixed sent it to me and payed shipping both ways I could do the leg work, but otherwise somebody else will need to step up.
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
Here is a disassembly video. It shows MUCH more than you need to know. All you have to do is remove the back cover, battery, sim, microSD. Then the 7 screws. The hard part is removing the back plastic. The video makes it look easy (it's the part where she is running her fingernail along the edges). The first time you do it it's tough. Just go slow and carefully and you'll be fine. The hard part is that the "chrome" covers the seam that your fingernail needs to get into. Pop up the "chrome" but DON'T try to remove it. You could break the plastic tabs in there if you go into it recklessly.

Once the phone is essentially in two halves (and be careful not to lose the power and volume rockers if they fall out) all you have to do is take a tiny flathead screwdriver and pry up the top part of the contact that is circled in the pic I posted. It makes sense once you see it, but basically picture two pieces of bread stacked on top of each other. Both pieces are attached to each other on the same end and the other three sides are free. All you're doing is gently bending the top piece of "bread" up.

It's an easy fix.

For those paranoid about your warranty. There are no "STOP! Go any further and your warranty is voided" stickers/seals, etc. If your worried about it, note which screws with blue loctite correspond with which holes and add some more when you reinstall them. When I took mine apart, I couldn't even tell any of them had been tightened with loctite in the first place. ;)
[Vibrant General] ZX3ZX4:
KWKSLVR-

Thanks for the link to that awesome video, and your advice. Now if I could just hand her my phone and pay her $25 for 5 minutes of her time I'd be totally relaxed trying it! She obviously is experienced with this; it might take me half an hour before I got the plate off (or broke it). When you say "pop up the chrome" do you mean to bend it a little way away from where it rests so you can get in there with your fingernail? The disassembly does seem pretty straightforward, though, and at the 2:10 mark it looks like you can see the contact and that's all the further you need to go. Finally, on reassembly is there any difficulty in snapping the plate back in so that all the tabs engage correctly?

blanked-

Are you thinking of trying this on your existing phone before you exchange it, and then comparing the two?
[Vibrant General] robo21:
EXACTLY my experience to the letter! Absolutely. I also noticed that not only is it locking quicker, locking more sats, staying locked (no dropped connections to GPS), but the signal strength is higher on all GPS sats.

My production date is 10/20/10 and it was a new not refurbished phone.

The Tmo rep who wrote up the exchange seemed strongly and strangely confident about the GPS no longer being an issue on a new phone when I expressed concerns over getting a warranty replacement with GPS problems. He would not elaborate, so I just said "Okay, time will tell." The phone showed up and I was pleasantly amazed at the speed and precision of the the GPS.

Way to go Samsung! And thanks to the OP for this thread. :D
[Vibrant General] blanked:
No... I don't want to risk physical damage and having to pay hundreds of dollars because of it. If the new phone isn't much better then perhaps. But the reports of newer phones being OK gives me hope.

Sent by carrier pigeon
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
Yep, Exactly. don't get me wrong. The plastic is robust. I'm just saying not to think that taking that chrome edge off is what will pop the phone apart. :)
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
Also, the backplate pops right back in and snaps with no problems when you put it back together.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
Maybe misleading and maybe not. I recently had to do a warranty exchange and I was wondering the exact same thing Lex. The signal strength for each bird is noticeably higher and GPS lockup speeds are a second or two both of which are dramatically improved over my old phone. And if you've seen my posts over at the Android Forum you know that my GPS has worked from the beginning but with slow lockup and lower signal strength.

The new phone (10/20/10) was a warranty exchange for a haptic feedback failure. The rep seemed to be certain there would be no GPS issue, why this would be we can only speculate because he wasn't talking. But I did let him know that my GPS was working on my old Vibrant and that I definitely didn't want to get a phone that had working haptic feedback but non-working GPS. He said, "I can assure you that won't be the case." etc.
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Wonderful.... Find this when i'm like 14 days out of exchangability with Newegg.

Sadly, it's no contract, so I get to deal with Samsung and their outsourced support.

Yay...
[Vibrant General] blanked:
Well it would make sense that it's an issue with the contact given that:

- Everyone has varying degrees of GPS functionality (full to none)

- There is no one known fix that works for everybody

- Samsung hasn't been able to provide a fix that works for everybody

- Everyone has the same GPS sensor that we know of

- Firmware update provided mixed results

Samsung doesn't want to a massive, expensive, embarrassing recall because of this, so it's in their interest not to disclose that it's a manufacturing issue.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
I would contact Newegg anyway. In the past they have exchanged PC parts for me that were outside of the normal exchange period to maintain goodwill. I bought a lot of parts from them in the past. If at first they say "no" ask for a supervisor. You might be in for a surprise. ;)
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Only one problem with that theory. This is actually the second one they've sent me, I got them to RMA it about a week in. The first was dated July 24th, this one June 27th, so I essentially went backwards. Since this information didn't really exist at the time I let it sit.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
I take it both were new and not refurb. Anyway I just noticed the dates you posted. We are talking about phones with mid to late October dating so the there is no "problem with the theory."
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Both were "new", aside from them removing the SIM i'm assuming comes with due to it being no contract.

Both with the dates I listed above.
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Sorry! By theory I meant contacting newegg for another exchange.

Edit: What I mean is that I have no guarantee of a newer unit.
[Vibrant General] mrxela:
I'm looking for a way to dump GPS SNR into a log file. Does anyone know of an app or another way of writing signal levels into a file that i can extract and convert into a spreadsheet? This would be the only way to eliminate guessing and placebo effects and compare actual numbers post fix as well as help us figure out which type of solution works best (full resolder a la Dsellers2, cleanup contacts, conductive grease, etc).

Also, if anyone with electrical/electronic background can shed some light on various types of conductive grease it would be much appreciated. My experience with this stuff is very limited, but i do know it's used a widely in RC community and in solderless wire caps that i use for demarc patch cables, etc.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
Ah, ok well, I had hopes that you might get lucky as I did with their willingness to provide an excellent customer experience. I've enjoyed doing business with Newegg for many years.
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Yeah i've had good experiences with them usually. They even did a price match on their own promo code that came out a day after I bought some things from them.

I finally got done with Samsung, they have to "talk to the engineers and get back with me" Don't see that doing much, if I can get them to refuse an exchange, newegg said they would probably exchange it for me. But again, I doubt they can say "give him one dated past so and so date"
[Vibrant General] ZX3ZX4:
KWKSLVR-

Again, thanks for clarifying. I'm going back-and-forth on whether I'm ready to try this given that my GPS is pretty good (though not perfect), so I think I'll wait to see what a few other folks report back first. I've followed this issue for months and this mechanical fix definitely sounds promising. I'm starting to think the GPS "problem" is not a single problem. In my case, I went from pretty non-functional GPS to pretty good with just the JI6 update, so I'm thinking the GPS performance "issue" is a combo of bad software/firmware, plus contacts which range from good to bad, and in between. That leaves me with balancing the risk of disassembling the phone vs. the possibility of marginal or no improvement.

The really interesting comparison will be in

absolute

GPS performance comparing: 1) people who get a new, recently manufactured phone, and 2) those who succeed with the mechanical fix. For example, with my phone (bought the first week it came out in the U.S.), I now get quick locks on, say, 7-10 out of 10 birds at good SNR ratios, but I still get occasional wandering. I'd love to hear whether either the phone exchange or the mechanical fix makes the phone's GPS impeccable...beyond just locking on satellites. Is there any wandering in "my Location" with Google Earth, or unnecessary re-routing in Google Maps? What does My Tracks show? What's the best accuracy? Etc.
[Vibrant General] ZX3ZX4:
blanked-

Makes sense...I understand completely.

So...if you're not ready to be a guinea pig :), I'm still hoping you'll provide a report after you get your new -- hopefully functioning -- GPS and have put it though a test of its limits.
[Vibrant General] blanked:
Most definitely I'll provide a report. Should have it in my hands before the end of the day.
[Vibrant General] jayty97:
opened her up, bent up the contacts.....

and what do you know, a major improvement! I read this thread this morning, then tried every fix available on eugene's gingerbread clone. Tried on other roms in the past and no software fixes have been of any help. I simply could not get a lock.. was only picking up 2 sats. Got back this afternoon, tested with the same results and decided to tear in and give this theory a go. While driving earlier I tried simply whacking the device using the gps test app and within a couple of seconds it jumped up to 7 sats and 70 foot accuracy, but then once again fizzled out.

After the fix and after 3 minutes on a cold start (cleared gps out), I am picking up 10 sats, connected to 5 and jumping between 20-30 ft accuracy. Seems to be holding steady. I will try to navigate with it tomorrow, which will be the true test as since launch day, I have been unable to for more than a minute or two. This is my 3rd (new) vibrant. I'll report back tomorrow with an update of my results. I will Odin back to a fresh Rom tonight to get rid of any fixes I've done.

No lock to a solid one is definitely an improvement I have to say!
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
It definitely helps and after extensive testing I'm comfortable saying that this was the source of my GPS issues. Sitting in the house I can lock on 8/12 with a 28 foot accuracy from a cold start in under 20 seconds. Much, MUCH better.
[Vibrant General] ZX3ZX4:
KWKSLVR-

That's good to hear, but I'd be interested to know how it does on practical tests like navigating and using My Tracks.

I also tried something yesterday as an experiment. I didn't want to completely disassemble the phone to get to the GPS contacts yet, so I simply took off the back and turned on GPS Test while pressing really hard right where the contacts are so that I could flex the interior plate a bit and possibly bring the contacts closer together. It didn't seem to make any difference in my already decent GPS performance, but it might for someone where there was a marginal contact. (Disclaimer: I don't want to hear back from anyone that I have to buy them a new phone because they cracked something using this approach. :))
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
I can't vouch for MyTracks, but I took the day to do some Christmas shopping and decided to use Google Nav. It was spot on. Aquired sats quickly and held a signal. Cloudy/Rainy day today too.
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
Im anxious to give this fix a try. I removed the screws but I was only able to pry the cover off from 1/8 of the phone. I dont want to break anything.

Anyone have any tips on taking it off? I dont have long nails like the chick in the video :P
[Vibrant General] blanked:
Got the replacement phone. It works! Consistently gets a lock under in 6 seconds. Very fast and accurate. Additionally, the compass seems to be much more accurate as well.

The phone didn't come in a retail package, so I can't tell you when it was manufactured. There is what appears to be a version number of some kind under the battery: "10.11"

My original phone that's broken has a number as well: "10.07"

Not sure if that means anything. But GPS works wonderfully in both the stock ROM and in Nero 1.0.
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
Who has done this "contract pry" fix ? Is there another thread dedicated to that fix? I'm curious if everyone has had success with it. I did something similar with my guitar hero controller. The contacts weren't making a consistent connection on the neck so I modified the contact point and everything was good.

The big issue with this though is breaking that little tab off when trying to pry it up, its a big risk.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
I pulled the battery on my new-retail pkg/non-refurb, perfectly functioning phone with a build date (off the box) of 10/20/10. The numbers on the white tag you are referring to are 10.10 I have no idea what they mean, but they could be the build month and year I suppose. If so, your phone is even newer than mine :) .

Glad to hear your GPS is working as it should, please keep the thread updated as time goes on.

Everything about my replacement feels better and I have not rooted yet.
[Vibrant General] blanked:
Ahh, that would make sense! July was my old phone's build date. Good catch good sir.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
Bingo! Enjoy!
[Vibrant General] mrxela:
Please post your snr levels, from post fix and those that get newer batch phones.
[Vibrant General] blanked:
How do you determine what the SNR levels are?
[Vibrant General] ludeboye:
Tried this today with no success, same old problem wont lock in stock 1.2 with jl6 modem.
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
Clear and reset your GPS settings and give it some time. If you haven't had a lock in a long time, it may take it 10 minutes to get the first one.
[Vibrant General] robo21:
Download the app GPS Test by Chartcross Limited and that will give you relative SNR numbers.
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
You guys will probably find that your SNR numbers don't go above 40. The key is holding the lock and an improved number of satellites. Is it perfect? Definitely not. But it IS usable.
[Vibrant General] SamsungVibrant:
I think this thread is misleading, I don't see any evidence that Samsung changed the actual hardware.

If I am not mistaken robo21, you didn't wait for the official JI6, and you flashed it yourself. Although people on here claim the leaked and kies JI6 was the same as the OTA, I don't believe it was. For one simple reason. People with hardware locked phones, had the issue resolved if they applied the official OTA JI6 directly over the air from T-MOBILE. The JI6 found here, and the kies JI6 did not resolve the 3-button issue. It makes me conclude the official OTA was different and included other fixes if and only if you applied it over the air.

I think people who are getting new phones from t-mobile thinking the hardware is different are mistaken. These are probably people who never waited for the official OTA. Just my opinion, but I don't think the hardware was changed in October manufactured phones.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Hmmm. . .

My GPS is not great, but not terrible. I would say it is borderline, just shy of being worth cracking it open to do anything with it as I have stated before.

Also as I have stated before, due to radio adjustments of the receiver sensitivty or the phasing of the signal, software can overcome minor hardware issues such as a slightly wrong length or mis-tuned antenna, or a poor connection between the radio and the antenna.

You might have to go back several pages to see it, but I did say it and it was discussed. That being said I have two things to say.

Fixing a poor spring type connection to the antenna makes sense.

I rooted my phone and installed a ROM for the first time two days after recieving the OTA update to JI6

I don't know what the OTA JI6 does that would not surely be overwritten by the other modems that have been flashed with my newer ROMS, but I am just throwing that out there.
[Vibrant General] Fedburin:
My GPS has been terrible and getting worse. I bought an bluetooth external GPS to compensate. I took apart my phone today and lifted the GPS contact slightly. I also use contact cleaner on the contact for the antenna as I didn't want to spray it on my motherboard. I put the phone back together and booted up. I got an almost instant lock with the GPS and Navigation worked great. I have tried ever fix under to sun to get it to work prior to this. Opening the phone and adjusting the contact is the only thing that worked for me.
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
What did you try, opening and prying the contact up?
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
Well I went ahead and tried it, disassembled my phone. DOH! Im ready to put it back together but I see a little round black rubber/plastic piece that im not sure where it came from. Looking at the tear down videos, I dont see one of these pieces.

Anyone know where this goes?
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Just above where the battery goes, on the right side is a little round thing. It goes on that and there's a hole in the back for it to fit into.
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
Yep, I found a pic a little bit after posting that shows it. Weird thing is, some other pics Ive seen of the International SGS and the Captivate doesnt have that piece, just a open hole.

FYI for others, see pic below. Make sure you dont lose the Volume rocker, Power button, and thingamajig.
[Vibrant General] DMaverick50:
I had to.give up on the vibrant about a week ago and had to get the iPhone which pissed me off because I'm essentially buying another Samsung device (still have my nexus one on contract though so it's not a total loss). Anyway its unreal that you're all still having to screw with this stupid phone. How is it ok that Samsung doesn't take responsibility here?

GPS is advertised for the vibrant, and clearly the industry standard is that of a working reliable GPS, its been around for years in other phones running flawlessly so there is literally not an excuse or valid reason Samsung can give to ignore the defect. Whether its a design defect or a manufacturing defect the liability almost surely falls to samsung. Do we have to sue the damn company to get them to make the uber expensive product they sold to millions of people work properly? I just hope everyone who is affected by this will look elsewhere for their next android. Samsung is getting too cocky to address issues, and that sucks.
[Vibrant General] ispano:
Out of curiosity does anyone know if the Nexus S has these issues, i'm assuming and hoping not. I bought my Vibrant no-contract from Newegg, i've exchanged it once with them already and im past the policy date now. I've tried contacting samsung but they won't do an exchange at all of course. I did try this fix, and it does help, I need to do further testing first.

But if the Nexus S doesn't have this problem, I may consider it, especially since I don't have a T-Mobile contract, only AT&T(Vibrant is unlocked running on AT&T ATM) So it wouldn't be a huge drop in the bucket to keep this as a backup and grab the Nexus.

Or I could just get a contract with T-Mobile with a new Vibrant and hope for the best.
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
What?! Why would you buy another Samsung phone? Get an HTC, especially since you are buying unlocked/no contract.
[Vibrant General] ispano:
I wouldn't be buying it no contract, I've been meaning to get T-Mobile service for a while now. Get rid of this craptacular AT&T. And don't get me wrong, HTC phones are by no means bad, I just don't like em much.

And i've grown accustomed to the AMOLED, I love making the 3 iphone 4 users at work twitch when they try to compare.
[Vibrant General] ludeboye:
Yes, and I work at a electronics repair shop so I had all the tools (not like you need anything special). But prying the contacts up didn't work for me at all.
[Vibrant General] ZX3ZX4:
To everyone who tries this mechanical fix and has success with getting an improved GPS:

Please post some quantitative info, such as:

- accuracy in feet/meters

- average SNR numbers

- number of birds typically locked vs. in view

- time to lock after having GPS off for at least 12 hours

And some qualitative info:

- any unnecessary re-routing while navigating?

- any observable wandering while using Google Earth or Google Navigation?

- any temporary "lost signal" message while navigating?

- behavior while using My Tracks
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
I have not been in there, so I can not bee sure, but it looks to me like the thingamajig is a cover for a U.FL antenna connector that maybe did not get used in this particular revision.

So many of the Galaxy S kine are similar enough it would not surprise me at all if the raw board is the same for all devices and only the used components are different. So the board itself supports all configurations. If you have ever seen a board that appears to have "missing" chips and components, tis is usually why. I would bet the black plastic cover that the plug/thingamajig fits into is also used on multiple devices. The i9000 at least.