I have never replaced my screen, however what I have replaced has been both my battery and my power button, I don't remember if my phone used to get a lock but now it takes forever to get one and it loses the satellites right away, could the pins connecting the main board to my back panel be responsible for this? If I add aluminium foil forcing it to touch the back panel, in case it isn't making contact do you think it would help boost the signal?
Nexus 4 GPS not Fixing after Screen Replacement FIXED , GPS Antenna MOD!
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18Edit : The major issue seems to be grounding for most people. I'll mark that and you might wanna try that one first. Might as well wrap your digitizer too since it takes only a second. I'm preserving the post as it was to indicate we've all learned something from this thread. Thanks for sharing your experiences and the nice words folks. Cheers!
DIGITIZER WRAP : So fellas , my family has a lot of nexus 4s , one of them had a broken screen which we replaced. I also fixed the proximity sensor issue with it more than once so feel free to ask questions about it too. After the replacement and fixing those issues , we had another problem which is GPS taking 2 minutes to get a fix , despite the clearly visible sky and whatnot it refused to get a fix. So i set out to find the issue. The internal antenna that is connected to the back cover of the phone (behind your front camera) was clearly making contact , the antenna wire was plugged properly which i tested thoroughly with my trusty fluke on probe setting. Anyway , the problem was the Digitizer , if you can believe that.
Remember the original comes with aluminum tape wrapped around it. I always thought it was to protect it from external interference. I was half-right. It does protect it from external interference but it also protects the antennas from the digitizer's interference. I got some aluminum tape , wrapped it around the Digitizer's IC and et voila! We got a fix in 16 seconds from 14 satellites.
(This mod as it is pointed out by folks here , is pure coincidence it seems. Apparently there is the issue resistance and frequency value of the gps signal , the antenna's resistance needs to match that value or it will not get a signal. So the fact that we even got a signal , let alone a better one is like pure luck. Apparently the added resistance happened to match that value somehow. Anyway , you might wanna just skip this one. Thanks to bla_blaber for pointing that out.)
I also came up with a mod on the back plate.
What we did was , we cut 2 aluminum foils to 3-4 mm width and then starting from the gps contact zones which are located at the right corner of the back plate we started to lay them down avoiding other antennas as best as we can. We worked our way to the bottom with that foil and then connected that foil to the ends of an antenna sticker that we bought off ebay. Then we secured everything in place , and closed the device up. Another et voila , Fixes the position in 5-8 seconds on the same spot. This could theoretically work on the gsm/3g antenna as well although we haven'T tried that , we got pretty good reception where we live. I think those are also on the back plate.
Anyway folks , that's about it. I thought i'd share my experience with you guys so you don'T have to live through the same thing and even make it better. I wish i could provide some pictures but we closed the device up to test it and did not pry it open again. It gets really tense when you're prying open your only phone.
Note : Use copper foil if you can find that , it has better conductivity.
GROUNDING : On top of all those , you need to ground your antennas on the designated places around the frame. Mine came with the pads although some assemblies apparently don't have those , i recently had one. The original has sponge pads to provide contact since those parts of the board are recessed a bit. So , the ground connections need elevation to make contact. Use conductive tape (stack 3-5 together that should be enough) to elevate the points. The ground point just below the front camera is responsible for grounding the gps antenna , i'll mark that in the picture.
The other pictures are there to point out other components. The reference one is the one with the blue tape all over it.
That blue tape insulates the the chips , especially the emmc from the frame. You also need to do the same. You don't want the frame to accumulate charge , because then it won't ground.
WARNING : CUT THE EXCESS TAPE TO THE SHAPE OF THE RECESSED GROUNDING POINT. DON'T SHORT ANYTHING OUT. ESPECIALLY THE ICs.
Thanks to Eriol The Mariner for bringing the grounding issue to my attention.9
I recently had to do another n4 sceen replacement. The protective magnesium coating on n4 is already conductive , so there is no need to scratch that. The problem is , contact points can't touch the frame by themselves. So , you need some kind of elevation. They used conductive sponge pads that are wrapped with a perforated aluminum sheet on the original. Since you probably wouldn't be able to find that , you can use conductive tape. Copper preferably.
And a treat for you guys , i've traced the grounding for the gps antenna , turns out the contact point just below the front camera is the one you're looking for. If you install the pad just on that , the gps will instalock with my mod. The beautiful thing about it is , you can reuse the original tape on that. The others are small and come apart but this one (just below the front camera) is big. You can just lift it with a small flat screwdriver and tweezers. I'll mark the position (in red) on the frame since you'll be installing the tape on the frame rather than the board.
Other points for grounding serve other purposes. The two at the bottom of the device where the charging port is located is responsible for GSM and possibly Wi-fi. I couldn't trace Wi-fi there must be a component in between.
Good luck.7Solution
Hi guys, this is how I solved my GPS problem after changing my Nexus 4 screen.
I bought my screen on ebay and it came with the aluminium foil around the digitizer chip, also the antenna pins on the back cover was working fine.
What I was missing was a good GROUND CONNECTIONS between the mainboard and the metal midframe.
My new screen in fact was provided without the little conductive pads that connect the mainboard with the midframe. They are those small soft metallic adhesive squares, you can't miss them.
I carefully detached them from the old midframe with an xacto blade and put it in the same positions on the new midframe. The small adhesive remaining on the pads will be good, mainboard and screws will help to keep them in position. You can also replace them if you know where to buy new conductive tape.
In the attached image I marked the position of the ones I can remember, sorry but I don't want to reopen my phone before I really need it. Don't miss the long one under the SCREEN FLAT (or miss it, I'm not a technician).
The GPS antenna is the original one, and it's working fine.
I hope to have helped you, have a great day!5
Good news!
Previously I was on PA 6.0 and using Quanta kernel. Using those same aluminium foil method, I didnt get any satellites signal plus GPS Status mentioned that my Gps is unavailable in this device.
I decided to try official CM13 build and flashed it with Revival kernel, and to my surprise, it does lock 11/22 satellites.
I just put around 10 layers of foil at position number 1, approx 5 layers at position number 2,3,5.
I'm glad that now I can use Waze again.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA-Developers mobile app3Thank you @boltthrower56. I fixed my GPS using just several pieces of foil. I just want to add photos of display+frame (my previous, broken) where GPS works fine. Just pay attention on places where the foil is located and put little pieces in the same places if your new display+frame have missing foils.
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