[Vibrant General] BadComrade:
This hardware fix worked

perfectly

. Funny thing is, at one point I didn't even need it (although if I had applied it back then, it seems like it would have made my "nearly perfect" GPS 100% perfect). I'm convinced that this is the only "real" fix for anyone with GPS issues.

I have a Galaxy S that was manufactured in August of 2010. Unlike many of you, I never had any real GPS problems. I could get an accurate lock indoors, even. The biggest "problem" I had was that it would take a few minutes to lock. That was fixed with one of the 3 over-the-air updates I have received.

Recently, the GPS pretty much quit working. I could almost never get a lock. I thought maybe something had changed for the worse after upgrading to "FroYo", and I even found people complaining about a change in their GPS after the upgrade. However, I couldn't remember if my GPS problem actually started at the

same

time I upgraded to 2.2, so I started thinking about what other changes I may have made. I downloaded the Samsung GPS restore app (just in case I had accidentally changed something), and it was almost never able to get a GPS Fix. Knowing that although the app hadn't been able to lock 95% of the time, it had at least restored all of the GPS settings, I started thinking about what else I had done with the phone. The only other thing I could think about was the fact that I had opened the phone up a few times. Why? Because my original camera developed a problem where there'd be a "fleck" in the exact same position of every photo. I thought maybe there was something on the lens, so I took the phone apart to check it. Eventually I realized that it was a problem with the image sensor, so I ordered a new camera module from ebay (mistakenly ordered one that had the forward-facing camera... could never find one for sale with just one camera anyway), cut the forward-facing camera off (to keep it from starving the main camera of power, which causes the "banding" issue people who try the forward-facing camera mod are plagued with), installed it, and it worked like a charm. So, while thinking about this and my new GPS issues, I had a theory that maybe when I closed the phone up I didn't seat the back of the phone well enough and it wasn't making proper contact with the tab on the circuit board in the phone. Opened it up tonight, looked at the contacts on either side of the board, and wondered what would happen if I bent each one up a bit. Did a google search on the topic and found this thread.

Glad to know so many people know about this fix.

For anyone who is afraid of bending the tiny little tab: Don't be. I can't imagine what some of the people who broke theirs did to the thing to get it to break. I used the pin on the back of a band button (or "badge"). You could also use a sewing needle, etc. Stick the tip of the needle in and use the tip to gently raise the upper part of the connector up. Don't stick the needle (or whatever tool you're using) under the "hump" in the connector, stick it under the flat part, half way between the "hump" and the bend. If you pry on the "hump" end, you're probably applying too much leverage to the top part of the contact, which might cause it to break. Go slow and start off gentle. If it doesn't raise up after you've tried the first time, use a tiny bit more pressure on your next try. It took me a few times until it finally lifted and stayed. Going slow and gradually applying pressure is a lot better than leveraging the thing like you're trying to pop it off, then popping it off.

Once I put the phone back together and ran 3 different GPS programs (The Star Trek-inspired "Tricorder", which has a "geo" tab for tracking satellites, GPS Status and GPS Test), I was amazed at the fact that I was connected to 10 of 11 visible satellites, and amazed at the signal strength I was getting indoors.

Oh, and another tip: When prying the back of the phone away from the chrome trim, use a thin guitar pick. It'll be strong enough to pop the tabs loose, but not hard enough to destroy anything (like a tiny metal screwdriver could).