yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Vibrant General] OTAw:
@ OP, thanks.. I now get satellite locks with Slim ICS 4.2 outside in about 5-7 seconds.
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
It didn't work in my case.... What do you mean by "immediatelly got etc", did you keep your phone on all this time or immediatelly on the next boot after the fix? Also, do you still have your gps connector hardware fixed?
[Vibrant General] t-jet:
Guys, forget the spring bending, we have a new hero right over here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1697217

I can confirm that it works better BY FAR than the spring bending method.
[Vibrant General] chingoo04:
Google Navigation Beta.

Im currently using Macnut r14. I have problems with my Google Navigation. It gets my position and everything. But when i try to use the navigation. It will say GPS Searching.. Could anyone please answer my question.. I have been trying to fix this for several days now and couldn't. Thank you.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Ding! We have a winner. That was the one I was thinking of, thank you.

I will PM him and see if they have a source for the contacts.
[Vibrant General] Poser:
I was getting decent GPS performance prior to trying this (gene's GC R2: jl4 modem)... seeing 10-12 birds and locking up to 6 indoors and 9-10 outdoors... in average of 30s-1m.

I tried the mod... and I am not seeing improved lock numbers or speed to lock... but what I do observe is a definite improvement in signal quality. This has definitely helped with accuracy and track jitter.

EDIT: after flashing new kernel (Voodoo 5.0.4 + JL4) I am getting outstanding performance. 9 out 9 birds locking, indoors from a cold start in under 30 seconds.... not thats the shiz I am talkin bout!!!!
[Vibrant General] scrued:
I had the same thing happened to my phone. the gps just stopped working. So I called tmobile on monday and asked for a replacement. Received the replacement phone today wednesday, and everything is good again. Im running the leaked jl5 stock rom now.
[Vibrant General] Fictional Reality:
ok, i'm not trying this in fear of jacking my phone up, but am i to assume that this gps problem with the galaxy is a hardware issue and not a firmware issue? lol i don't know if anyone mentioned this earlier in the thread i was getting bored of reading it....so with that being known lol i shouldn't EVER expect a fix unless they replace my phone and start fixing this with newer versions? lol this is hilarious lol
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Caution: Technical

All of your questions are answered in this thread (more than once, because people won't actually read).

Here we go again.

Q) Is it hardware?

A) It's complicated. We are talking about very high frequency RF here, you gotta understand how electricity acts when you reach these frequencies to fully get this, but I will summarize. At zero hertz or DC current electricity flows through the body or center of the conductor. As long as you have enough conductor to carry the required current you are good. So the type of spring contact they used is fine for DC, in fact I went looking for replacement contacts and the only thing I can find are designed for either battery tabs or for grounding contacts. As you go higher in frequency the AC current of electricity takes on what we call skin effect, it travels as waves around the surface of the conductor. For this reason large diameter, low loss coax usually has a hollow center conductor. It make no difference electrically and makes it more flexible, lighter, and less expensive because it saves copper. Connections have to be solid and shielded because the RF can "leak", noise can be introduced, and the conductor should be tuned to the frequency carried. In short, these spring connectors are about as bad a connection as you could have picked. It is not enough that they touch the pad, you need good solid contact for a good transfer with the skin effect and to minimize loss. It seems that this problem is exasperated by poor contact. This fix it to simply improve the contact by increasing the pressure and hope to minimize the ill effects of this poor choice of contact design. To complicate things there are in fact things that can be done in software to improve the situation - this made trouble shooting harder because people tend to see these things as black and white and therefore either hardware OR software. If you want to know how software can affect this, then you will need to read back through the thread as I have already explained it twice and this answer is already too long.

Q) Should I ever expect a fix?

A) Read the OP. It was "fixed" (ie they improved the connection, but they did not re-engineer a proper fix) already. It seems if it was made in September there is a good chance it is ok or marginal. If it was made (or possibly re-manufactured?) in October it seems they are at least as good as the fix we are applying in this thread. Either they are using better contacts or they are increasing the angle to apply more pressure.

Q) Will T-mobile replace it?

A) They recognize the problem. This is what the app Samsung released is for. It resets everything to the stock settings (and nothing else). If you use it and can show unacceptable performance with the GPS (via the measurements the app makes - it is the official guide replacement), then they should replace the phone for you without any fight.
[Vibrant General] Plato56:
I love when T313C0mun1s7 get technical lol...

So Im going to answer a few questions I read here since my last post.

A. Read the thread. All your answers are in here alread.

B. How fast can I lock. let me check real quick, hold on. Cold boot lock, 6 out of 12 sats in 25 seconds INDOORS, 10 seconds latter 10 out of 13 with 18 foot accuracy. So 35 sec indoors with 18 foot accurcy. 20 sec on a cold boot inside is good even for a dedicated gps.

Lets go outside and see what it is with. 3 seconds 8 out of 13 birds. At 5 seconds 9 birds and at 15 seconds 12 out of 13 birds. Concidering that I dont usualy need a GPS to navigate in my house (well at least most of the time), I think that my GPS officaly qualifies as working. It meets my standard at least.

REMEMBER THIS IS WITH BOTH THE HARDWARE TWEEK AND WITH SOFTWARE UPDATES.

Quick tips if you did the hardware fix and are loosing locks.

1. Before anything else, make shure your WiFI radio is OFF. I dont mean not connected, I don't mean out of range, I mean hardware swiched off threw your settings or via the drop down status bar.

2. Use the Samsung GPS restore to get you LBS settings to default.

3. Update your modem to one of the 2.2 versions. Im particularly happy with JL4 modem myself

4. Learn to use ODIN!!!! Use this to reload your firmware of choice. Prior to flashing you favorate ROM, Always flash back to JDF (BONE STOCK FIRMWARE).

5. If you dont know what im talking about in 4, then go to the developers section and read, read, read.

6. If you have any other questions refer to sujection 1 first, then ask. Honistly, alot of people have put some work into verifing if this fix works and testing with various software, the least you can do is read this body of work and you just might end up with a working GPS.

7. My last tip of the day. Be patent with your first locks, the GPS does improve the more data it collects. This also means dont delete your GPS data unless you changed modems or are having real lock and or accuracy issues
[Vibrant General] nirogu325:
Tried this and...my reaction: o_o! Really amazing. I'm getting locks indoor (a truly problematic zone where I live) on about 7 to 9 seconds! I also bent up the other two contacts on the lower part of the unit and I'm getting even better cellphone signal now (yes, those two other contacts were also flat as well). On cellphone signal before I got 2-3 bars minimum, now it gets 4 to 5 bars constantly. My unit was made on September 26, 2010, for reference, and I'm running Nero v3 with Voodoo 5.0.4.
[Vibrant General] BaoQ:
I could view the satelittes(10-12) but can't get any locks. What should i do next?
[Vibrant General] Ilmoran:
I also PM'd him, and in the mean time went to Radio Shack to see if I could find the item he was referring to, or a suitable replacement. Unfortunately, I dont think the RS here had a very good selection (there are 3 more within a few miles that I might check Sunday, but I don't have much hope for them either), and I haven't found anything online yet, but I'll keep looking.
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
I have not (yet) got a reply, but if he gave you anything like a part number you should be able to find them at radioshack.com and order them direct. I was hoping to be able to reference to Radar, Mouser, or someone similar and not have to pay the Radio Shack 200% markup.
[Vibrant General] Ilmoran:
I haven't received a reply yet either, I meant that while I was waiting for a reply, I decided to see if I could find it at RS. If they were fairly inexpensive I planned to get them at RS just to try it sooner, otherwise I planned to look elsewhere as well once I had a reference product. Either way, still waiting on a reply (and looking online :rolleyes:)
[Vibrant General] huchein:
Vibrant GPS working

Hey guys, i've tried a lot of fixes for GPS after i got my vibrant. I tried flashing GPS files from another phone, played with Lbstestmode, tried a couple of ROMs. Macnut, Nero, Axura 2.05, Froyo Stock...etc.

And finally i found out a way that fixed my GPS.

Here's what i did.

I flashed Axura 2.1 and ran Samsung Gps restore. After all the processes were complete i rebooted the device. My GPS works like a charm now.

I've tried this method with other ROMS but it didnt work. I would like to know if this helps anyone else.

Cheers.
[Vibrant General] engineer14:
great post, but it might be easier just to tell tmobile your gps does not work properly and get a replacement
[Vibrant General] jree:
When I originally flashed the Axura 2.2 rom into my phone my GPS stopped working all together. I mean absolutley nothing. Someone suggested GPS restore and even though it may be working, its still got some bugs and jumps around the screen but atleast its working again. I think with software fixes and stuff like that its hit or miss
[Vibrant General] AEguyNYC5:
Good Afternoon,

Thank you all for the very informative posts & information. I tried this last night and almost had a heart attack. Then I finally got it apart and bent the contact up. I panicked when I put it back together because I thought I broke the bezelled frame. Fortunately it looks untouched but I think maybe I must have disconnected something by mistake because I just made it worse. Before it saw the satellites it just would not lock onto any of them. I get no readings whatsoever, gps wont start at all. I used the Samsung GPSRestore & SGS Tools and neither can get the GPS to start anymore. SGS Tools now freezes my phone and I have to force a restart doing the 3 button hold combo. Any suggestions? I take full reponsibility for my actions by the way and I still thank all of you. I must have done something wrong.

Thanks & Happy Holidays
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
You are absolutely right IF you are a T-mobile customer still under warranty or you have the insurance.

That said, there are people here with US Vibrants that have been unlocked and they use Bell in Canada. There are people no longer under warranty because they got it from Craigslist, or Ebay, or Amazon, or used, or whatever, etc. ad nauseum.

Which ones do you think are most willing to open their phones and try this? To those people this fix is a God send, and those people owe Plato56 and the others brave enough to confirm his find like KWKSLVR and dsellers2 as well as all the others I have forgotten quite a vote of thanks.
[Vibrant General] elrojo:
A little dab'll doer!

Broke the sucker off, dollop of solder for the win.

For those having difficulties.... replace the screws before testing, or you're going to have some serious problems/loose heart.

Signal much more stable (less shifting between reads). Indoor accuracy between 17 and 18 feet. Quick lock.

Thanks to the brave souls and pioneering spirit that made this phone great.

Now to try it while actually moving about (hopefully no drift/rerout).

Ahoy
[Vibrant General] elrojo:
Freaked out after I broke my cotnact... manymalls post on page 4 saved the day.

Solder ftw!
[Vibrant General] Fictional Reality:
ok, so i guess i have to answer my own question (why did i ask in the first place?), seeing as i HAVE to open my phone up and void the warranty, its a problem internally. So yes...thank me *pats self on back*..for the answer...have a nice day ...
[Vibrant General] pimpinitalian:
Thank you so much :D
[Vibrant General] roponor:
Even more, that i9000 fix is using exactly the same contact that hupcus taped over (antenna ground). So, it works better both if we destroy the contact OR fix it. Interesting.
[Vibrant General] cricri207:
Repairing without opening the phone

I have successfully repaired the gps of my i9000 without opening by doing the following :

- I have drilled a hole of 2mm on the the side of the back cover, using connector location on the pictures displayed in this forum (the hole has to be just beside the connector)

- I have inserted a plastic cable that is used originally for garden trimmer ; the purpose is that the plastic part goes under the connector to be pushed on the antenna.

That is all. It is safe and it takes 3mn to do.

After doing this my gps goes from no fix outside at a fix indoor in 20 seconds.

Regards, Chris
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
Could you provide us some photos?
[Vibrant General] cricri207:
Here is the picture : the only difficult point is to locate the hole at the right position.

You see the plastic wire used in blue beside the phone. I've just adapted the diameter using a cutter.
[Vibrant General] nexzor:
THANK YOU!

i just made the trick with mey i9000 from aug. 2010, and finnaly after 2 years of pain with the gps i can eaven get a connection to the satelites in my room. this wasnt the case before i have dun this fix.

maybe i will also try the soldering fix, but only if a friend of mine has time to solder it for me.

and i have seen a socond option. sry if it was allready postet i only read the op

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1697217
[Vibrant General] elcaro:
Thank you for this. For the first time in 2 years, I got a lock inside my house within a min. Outside, it locks to 10 satellites within 15 seconds. Great fix !!
[Vibrant General] llblwskydrgn:
Which ROM are you all using with the hardware fix? I did the hardware fix but haven't had any luck, but it might be the ROM that I'm using (Hellybean). Can anybody confirm that their GPS with hardware fix has worked with Hellybean or give me a suggestion of which ROM to try out my GPS on?
[Vibrant General] KWKSLVR:
I always had luck on stock ROM's, CyanogenMod and Team Whiskey's Bionix.
[Vibrant General] elcaro:
I have tested this fix on Stock GB, CM10 and SlimBean 2.2. Works on all 3 but for some reason stock GB gave me the most number of fixes outdoors and indoors compared to the CM10 roms.
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
Try HB 813. Has the best GPS on my phone.
[Vibrant General] llblwskydrgn:
I combined this hardware fix with the one linked from the other post by t-jet two pages back. I put some solder onto the little connector. I also put some solder onto the GPS antenna pads on the phone case and also replaced the little conductive rubber pad with solder. My GPS got its first lock ever on Hellybean. :)
[Vibrant General] eksasol:
Just out of curiosity, what is the gold contact on the opposite side of the GPS one on the phone.
[Vibrant General] Shiv4m:
Wow! This worked perfectly! Taking the back cover off took me a good 10 minutes to open up, but then the rest was easy. I powered up the device and deleted all the GPS data, and then I enabled GPS! In that same second I caught on 10 satellites, and I've never had that experience before!
[Vibrant General] ronfulkerson:
The hardware fix did nothing for me, but I suspect the problem has more to do with my ROM (SlimBean 2.3) than anything else now. I tried using Devil 1.41 kernel, but that did not help either.

Any suggestions on a kernel that works well with GPS and SlimBean?
[Vibrant General] Shiv4m:
Do you guys have a problem with Google Maps staying on after using it? That's one of the problems I had and I thought it would be fixed after fixing the GPS.
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
I have had good GPS using Semaphore kernel, one with the GPS fix for build 2.1. Try it.
[Vibrant General] ronfulkerson:
I tried SlimBean 2.1 (fixed) with no luck on GPS, but that was prior to doing the hardware fix. I'll try the 2.1 kernel again and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the suggestion.
[Vibrant General] eksasol:
I would have zero GPS without putting on some solder to the contacts. SlimBean/JellyBean have a harder time getting GPS lock though. The first time after a clean flash took over 3min, but less than one min afterward.

For CM7 and SlimICS, its about 2min or less for the first time, then around 30seconds and less afterward. This is all outdoor of course. Also generally more satellites locking. And 3 to 4 satellites locked while indoor near windows, while with JellyBean unable to get a lock.

Just have to wait for JellyBean to be more compatible.
[Vibrant General] ufuuu:
That really works! You don't need any soldering, bending is just OK.

Thanks.
[Vibrant General] ChmT:
This kind of connection (yellow on the pic) is used for all antennas on the phone so if it is no good than we should have problems with all receptions like, wifi, gsm...

I think that problem could be on the grounding connection (red on the pic) like it is shown on this tutorial because that connection is the only one that is different than any other connections to the antennas on the phone.
[Vibrant General] paypalbid:
The gold contact on the oppsite side of the GPS is the radio/reception antenna. I took fine copper wires stripped from a used headphones and wrapped it around the attena gold pronge. I also stuffed extra copper underneath it to prevent the pronge collapsing (similar stratagey as the GPS antenna pronge). I now have 3 solid bars of signal to 4 bars inside my office. Before it was consistently 2 bars.

The GPS and Radio antenna both now work better than ever before.
[Vibrant General] st379:
What is the round plastic that can fall i did not understand?
[Vibrant General] talboris:
Vibrant gps fix

hi

i have vibrant,i have bended the metal connector,i have removed the rubber (or gummy) BUT still get nothing

IS IT POSSIBLE,it doesnt work because i have removed the sticky-paper from the back cover where the gps antena is ?

(the gps suppose to touch antenna on the other side of the back plastic cover, there is a black sticky paper,accidentally i removed it,inside the sticky paper was number BH3023g Ver 1.9)

may it be the problem ?

tnx in advance!
[Vibrant General] talboris:
Vibrant

OK,i made the hardware fix and GPS is working

BUT!

! i can use it olny once then i need to reboot in order to use it

any ideas how to fix that ?
[Vibrant General] paypalbid:
The reboot thing probably have to to with sofware. Go to the market and download Fasterfix and set your phone to North America (if you are in US). Then use GPS test to lock in GPS before using any Nav/Map. This works better for me but once a while still need a reboot if I dont get a GPS lock within few minutes.
[Vibrant General] talboris:
i have already a FASTERIX,i use ASIA ,but it doesnt help.first time it works perfectly but after a while lets say 20 minutes if i dont use the gps,even the GPSTEST wont see any birsds.. after reboot it works again,its some how loosing his magic when idle....
[Vibrant General] talboris:
i have noticed GPS works only at the beginnig,right away after reboot,if i switch it later it doesnt work anymore
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
What ROM are you on? Kernel? It was a very common issue on ICS (the so called "sleep of death").
[Vibrant General] talboris:
ICS PASSION ,Kernel : 3.1.10_ICS_Kiss yum_yum_good#1

what should i use? CHRIMERA will be ok ?
[Vibrant General] paypalbid:
That is a common issue for chimera. People have moved on to CM10 nightly which is what i have.
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
The last ICS ROM I used (now I moved to JB) with great GPS was RemICS 1.2 with Kiss 2.2 Kernel. My GPS was absolutely fantastic, yet a bit lazy after deep sleep. You can try one of the last SubZero (not supported anymore :( ), the greatest Kernel known to workaround the sleep of death issue on ICS.
[Vibrant General] talboris:
i tried CM10 with Subzero,but it couldnt work,android didnt work at all..

how about ICS Passion with SUBZERO ?
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
LOL. SubZero is for ICS only! I hope your phone is still ok? Just flash the Stock CM10 latest nightly, on build 1013 I have very good results for GPS. But read carefully WHAT you flash.
[Vibrant General] talboris:
:),it wasnt ok, so i tried from the recovery mode to install ics passion,and some how it worked out..

now i test SUBZERO with Passion

did u have GPS problem before the CM10 ?
[Vibrant General] ioancr:
My GPS was/is never perfect, even after hardware fix. I've noticed long time ago that it was a ROM/Kernel problem too. I could have great GPS on the same ROM with a given Kernel, yet another (kernel) would simply break it or be less accurate. And I could reproduce these, I've in fact compared my best combo to the others.

I know my GPS can give more, it did more than once (I had accuracy 3 meters! inside, the first time I did the fix, never happened after...). I stii keep my research, who knows.
[Vibrant General] Magnumutz:
So, i followed this guide and bent that contact.

And YES, i've experienced better lock!

Thanks for this guide!
[Vibrant General] Freich:
I did the 1st fix.

First I bended the contact somewhat higher.

Then I put a single wire from a rj45 connector (ethernet cable) shaved little bit off from one side with a stanley knife. So that it would fit somewhat better.

Then I just shoved it in very carefully from the side ;)

See pics.

Will report later for results.

Thanks for fix!
[Vibrant General] Hayabusa_XDA:
KWKSLVR's fix itself is great although one shouldn't expect the big wonder if the SGS has GPS fix before.

To put such a big (inflexible) cable below the spring could be too much. I don't think there is so much space below the plastic cover, furthermore the foampad contact below the spring might suffer as you increase the distance.

The better idea would be to bend the spring a little and carefully (i.e. with a q-tip cotton swabs) add some electronic contact spray on the spring and its counterpart . This will not only help to get a better contact immediately but also help to keep this contact alive in the long run (e.g. here in Germany KONTAKT CHEMIE TUNER 600).
[Vibrant General] ronfulkerson:
Using Slim Bean 2.9, with the latest GPS patch, along with this hardware fix, and it is working great so far!

---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 PM ----------

The GPS patch mentioned for Slim Bean can be found here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=33844820.
[Vibrant General] cliffordconradsumner:
After doing the hardware fix my GPS completely stopped working :crying:

I was thinking about soldering a very small wire between the two contacts...what do you guys think?

Will it totally not work if it isn't shielded?

I also tried wrapping the contact with a bit of bare wire and frayed it out some and ran that over the top of the contact where it mates with the antenna...no dice of course :(
[Vibrant General] T313C0mun1s7:
Skim / Browse deeper into the thread, about 20 pages or so. There are many very detailed posts by myself and others that cover this and other technical things that are going on here. You will find multiple fixes for your issue. If you are really lazy, concentrate on the longer posts.
[Vibrant General] Duo94:
Hi, I completely removed the plaque. Now I do not know if this motherboard conductive. Now I want to give there tin. However, I do not know if the motherboard conductive

@edit

Or break the sticker on the other side of the case we will lose gps signal? I dont have it.