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To Everyone Who IS/WAS Having GPS Problems

visited AT&T yesterday re GPS prob.
helped by Moe good guy
pointed out that Google nav is still in beta
downloaded AT&T nav on my phone and gave me a $20 credit to try
on way home worked great much better than Google
@ home tried GPS Test, was definitely quicker to lock and found more Sats.
realise that may degrade over time as per Forum comments
wondering a whether AT&T have enabled a fix if u download and pay for AT&T maps/nav. ??
but find that hard to believe !
Moe uncommital whether this was a recommended fix from AT&T
5 days left for return oh! well
 
meadrealty said:
visited AT&T yesterday re GPS prob.
helped by Moe good guy
pointed out that Google nav is still in beta
downloaded AT&T nav on my phone and gave me a $20 credit to try
on way home worked great much better than Google
@ home tried GPS Test, was definitely quicker to lock and found more Sats.
realise that may degrade over time as per Forum comments
wondering a whether AT&T have enabled a fix if u download and pay for AT&T maps/nav. ??
but find that hard to believe !
Moe uncommital whether this was a recommended fix from AT&T
5 days left for return oh! well
Click to expand...

Google nav isn't the only problem... every GPS program doesn't work properly. Including ATT maps (I won't use nav)
 
KappaG9 said:
Explain why it wouldn't do squat?
Click to expand...

GPS Status only reads the status, it doesn't change how your gps works. It just turns the GPS receiver on and gets the data telling you if it's locked on etc. It forces the GPS to work and collect cached data. That may make it seem like it's fixed or working faster, but if your GPS is truly not working (bad hardware or software settings), the status app won't do anything.
 
meadrealty said:
visited AT&T yesterday re GPS prob.
helped by Moe good guy
pointed out that Google nav is still in beta
downloaded AT&T nav on my phone and gave me a $20 credit to try
on way home worked great much better than Google
@ home tried GPS Test, was definitely quicker to lock and found more Sats.
realise that may degrade over time as per Forum comments
wondering a whether AT&T have enabled a fix if u download and pay for AT&T maps/nav. ??
but find that hard to believe !
Moe uncommital whether this was a recommended fix from AT&T
5 days left for return oh! well
Click to expand...

that's a load of crap. A salesman making a sale is all you experienced
 
dantheman2 said:
GPS Status only reads the status, it doesn't change how your gps works. It just turns the GPS receiver on and gets the data telling you if it's locked on etc. It forces the GPS to work and collect cached data. That may make it seem like it's fixed or working faster, but if your GPS is truly not working (bad hardware or software settings), the status app won't do anything.
Click to expand...

gotcha
 
Google maps said my position couldn't be found, but ATT maps found me almost right away. The built in nav also knew where i was right away. Im doing some experimenting now because it seemed that google maps found me (to 30m) after using ATT maps.

After a restart LbsTestMode found 7 sats in 10-20 seconds (im indoors in corner room w/ 2 windows). Now Google maps has me to 10meters.

Seems like something somewhere is wrong with the software.
 
THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!


I just got off the phone with "Joel" in Level 3 technical support and he actually told me with a straight face that the Samsung Galaxy S was designed and its "specifications" are such that the phone's GPS is meant to get you within WAIT FOR IT ..... 1600 METERS OF YOUR ACTUAL LOCATION!!!!! THAT'S RIGHT 1 MILE! If you haven't already returned this phone DO IT NOW. I am stuck with this POS!
 
I have no way to explain this at all, but for some reason I've been getting really solid GPS performance over the last two days.

I've had the phone for a little over a week, have tried every "workaround" posted on the forums, and nothing made a difference. Absolutely horrible GPS performance. Mytracks (everyone please get this app for any real GPS testing) would produce things like this:

picture4pm.png


That was Monday. MILES of no position awareness at all.. a total joke.

Yesterday driving to San Francisco up I280 I decided to try again, somehow it was able to track me the entire way (40 miles or so):

picture3th.png


But, that's a mostly straight open road.. nothing to complicated. So this morning I took a really wacky route out to Phil'z Coffee in Palo Alto, here's the most interesting part of the track:

picture1yce.png



I have no way to explain it.. it's like it just woke up or something. GMaps Navigation is also working great now. ?!!@!?
 
I just tried my GPS and it locked on in 10 seconds INDOORS! thats a first for me and i live in a town house and the arrow is right on the one im in...weird
 
Mines working very good with locks ranging from ~30 seconds to 2 minutes with accuracy. I tried GM, GN and Mytracks. My real test will be next week when I make a 450 mile road trip. Of course Ill bring my iphone 3g with TomTom for a backup.
 
I went outside at lunch and experimented. My GPS has been working (although not fast to get a gps lock), but I made the settings (the so called fix with lbstestmode). I use a program c:geo for geocaching.

1. I did all the settings according to the lbstestmode changes to supl.google.com, etc. I rebooted the phone and re-enabled use wireless networks.

2. Outside, started up GPS Test. It would show 7, 8, 9 sattelites in view, but would never show them in use. Signal was in the 20s and 30s. All the sats stayed gray, not locked.

3. I started Google Maps. It was quick to give me a network (cell tower) location with the blue circle around, but after several minutes still no lock.

4. I rebooted again. Still no lock, would not lock after several minutes 5 or so.

5. I started the c:geo app. I chose find all the nearby caches (geocaches). It found some after a few minutes, but this was based on network location. Most of these apps would show the pumping GPS icon, but I could not get a lock. IN the c:geo program, I selected to navigate to the nearest cache using compass/gps. The compass and gps would show that the gps data used was based on "last known" location shown at the bottom right with 3900 feet accuracy. Then, it switched showing using network, showing 4000+ feet accuracy. After several minutes, still not using gps for accuracy.

6. Then I said use turn by turn navigation to locate the cache. Google Navigation started up and in about 10 to 15 seconds, the gps got a lock. Then I left google navigation and went back to c:geo to use the compass and gps to locate the cache. It showed that I was using 5 out of 7 or 8 sattelites and accuracy was at either 33 or 16 feet!! It stayed locked. I went into GPS Test and it showed that GPS on was green instead of yellow and showed 3 to 5 satellites locked on and in use.

7. So, I rebooted the phone again. This time I started Navigation right away selected an address and got a lock right away within the 10 to 30 seconds time frame.

I am thinking that some of the apps do not correctly get the satellites to lock on like Google Maps does not, but Navigation does. Google Maps gives up right away and uses network location. There's also the cached GPS data too, so apps will use 3 forms of location data and it is on a per app basis.

GPS Test seems to only report the lock on status, but doesn't get a lock. I also tried starting GPS Test and pressed the GPS on button which took me to the settings for GPS (location and security). Turning the GPS off and then back on also seemed to get me a lock while in GPS Test.

So, I think at some point GPS may go to sleep, but then certain apps wake it up, other apps don't. So the issue may be fixable by Samsung or from certain apps.

Try toggling you GPS off and back on or start Google Navigation and select an address and get a GPS lock. then use the app you want to use.

EDIT: I think what I did in step 1 above made no difference compared to factory/stock settings.


D
 
jfogs1 said:
THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!


I just got off the phone with "Joel" in Level 3 technical support and he actually told me with a straight face that the Samsung Galaxy S was designed and its "specifications" are such that the phone's GPS is meant to get you within WAIT FOR IT ..... 1600 METERS OF YOUR ACTUAL LOCATION!!!!! THAT'S RIGHT 1 MILE! If you haven't already returned this phone DO IT NOW. I am stuck with this POS!
Click to expand...


Not to be a jerk, but how do you know what his faced looked like if you were on the phone with him?
 
ElTigre2323 said:
Not to be a jerk, but how do you know what his faced looked like if you were on the phone with him?
Click to expand...

hahahahhahahahahahaha!!!!!


On a side note, there's a new firmware for the captivate floating around. It may have the fix. We won't know for sure until someone can flash to the new ROM and have a functional GPS for a few days.
 
Mine stopped working with the suggested GPS fixes. Now it worked great again (Even on Edge) on my 400 mile trip home.
 
WELL this is great - pulled from ATT boards:

Re: Captivate GPS issue




Options










08-11-2010 09:12:33 AM
IT IS LOOKING WORSE FOR A SOLUTION.

This is the response I just received from Samsung. Note that now when has been replaced with when/if. This is not good. Also, "should this become available" adds no level of comfort.

We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
 
FWIW, I tried just launching Google Navigation app directly without running lbsTest or GPS Status or GPS Test apps in the background. I tried this outdoors and Navigation app got lock within 15-20 sec. Drove for 15 miles with turn by turn navigation. GPS lock stayed on for the full duration (about 30 min during peak hour) and I never saw a blue circle around the navigation arrow.
After reaching the destination, I turned off the Navigation app, used Taskiller to completely stop/kill it. Started again after 10 min and got GPS lock within 5-10 sec. Drove another 10 miles and everything worked perfectly.
Did the same thing again - closing/killing etc., Left the phone unused for 2 hours. Started the Navigation app again and got the GPS lock within 10-15 sec. Test drove another 15 miles to a new destination and it worked perfectly.
I did use all the recommended settings elaborated in many posts. Only thing I did different this time around is starting the Navigation app instead of Maps and not running any other apps that use GPS.
I don't know how long this will work. I will try every day for next few days and report if this continues to work or breaks down after a while.

UPDATE 8/12: Tried similar steps as above after not using the phone for 10 hours. Everything worked perfectly. GPS Lock within 15 sec. No loss of lock or accuracy while driving (avg. 65 mph speed). I will try reporting for next couple of days
 
jfogs1 said:
WELL this is great - pulled from ATT boards:

Re: Captivate GPS issue




Options










08-11-2010 09:12:33 AM
IT IS LOOKING WORSE FOR A SOLUTION.

This is the response I just received from Samsung. Note that now when has been replaced with when/if. This is not good. Also, "should this become available" adds no level of comfort.

We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Click to expand...

returned mine and going to play the wait and see game with samsung. I dont really have that much faith in samsung at the moment. They knew of this problem for a few months already and they have a sketchy track record at best with support of their phones.
 
simulator said:
Same experience for me. Did they push something out to the phone???
Click to expand...

Mine has been working well for the last 2-3 days. Previously, even when it 'worked' it would start me in the right condo complex, but not at my correct location. The last few days, it's correctly placed me at my condo.

Taking a trip halfway across the country in a few days ... very curious to see how it'll work out there.
 
I live in a 2-story house. Let me get a ladder and climb on top of the chimney to see if getting closer to galaxy will help my gps reception.

Over & Out!!!
 
Yeah i saw that a few people were still saying it didn't work well but hopefully its just their phones. I'm gonna wait for the official update as this one is not.
 
Another 100 miles around town today and mine is still working great. I'm not talking about initial lock, I mean it didn't lose it over 50 miles of driving.. I really don't get why so many people are focused on initial lock.

Anyway.. If anyone wants to know what my settings here they are. I don't really believe any of these tweaks make much of a difference, but since I'm having such good luck now (after having such TERRIBLE luck before) I'm not changing a single one.

Application Settings
Session Type: Tracking
Test Mode: S/W Test
Operation Mode: MS Based
Start Mode: Hot Start
GPS Plus: ON
Dynamic Accuracy: ON
Accuracy: 100
Use Skyhook: ON
Use PC Tool: OFF

SUPL/CP Settings
Server FQDN Type: AUTO Config
SUPL Secure Socket: ON
AGPS Mode: SUPL
 
JayC said:
I live in a 2-story house. Let me get a ladder and climb on top of the chimney to see if getting closer to galaxy will help my gps reception.

Over & Out!!!
Click to expand...

Confirmed!!!!!.........I shit u not that I got an instant lock from moving upstairs from downstairs.
 
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