Captivate's GPS is pissing me off

saint168 · Jul 27, 2010

I take a walk everyday after lunch at the office and use RunKeeper to keep track of my progress. When I was using the Aria, I open the app, click the start button and never had trouble. With the Captivate, I have to stand on the street corner for 1 - 15 minutes before I get a GPS fix. This is unacceptable! I tried to follow the direction of the other posting and it's not helping much.

I feel like I made a bad decision to return the Aria and got the Captivate.

oriveradel · Aug 28, 2011

after reading tons of forums and post about the gps on captivate, I found out itis the google navigation software not the actual GPS, I got rid of all my problems once I switched the software to Sygic GPS, which is not free however; pm me and will hook you up!

emuneee · Aug 28, 2011

Buy a different phone. After a year with the Captivate, no matter the tweak, GPS for navigation purposes or tracking purposes is not reliable. I used to use it with My Tracks for tracking my runs as well and it was shotty at best.

It is not Google Navigation either as Google Navigation on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 is freaking flawless.

The GPS on the Captivate sucks. Period. /endThread

curti.nogg · Aug 28, 2011

After I got a refurb mine has worked and locks on quickly, but my previous Captivate did the same thing. It would take forever or sometimes not work at all.

Sent from my Captivate

mpencexda · Aug 29, 2011

The gps is spotty.. You can try turning on the control plane (hardware) also i noticed increase by removing case.. (hardware) other than that we have crappy chip with insufficient antenna..

sent from an alternate reality

MikeyMike01 · Aug 29, 2011

The Captivate GPS is broken. Period. It doesn't work. Never has, never will. Anyone telling you anything else has low standards, poor testing, or is a liar.

BenKranged · Aug 29, 2011

With stock settings GPS is clearly broken.

That said changing the to the google SUPL server and occasionally running the "GPSRestore" app by samsung if I can't get a fix are pretty much the only GPS fixes I've ever needed.

I think my phone is a 1007.

But based on the majority of posts here my experience is not the norm.

baoli · Aug 29, 2011

What's the build date on your phone? I got mine recently with a Feb 2011 build date and the thing locked in seconds out of the box. I've used Co-Pilot to take me from Vancouver to Las Vegas with no issues. What bugs me about this phone is the battery life..

FishyFishFishingForFun · Aug 29, 2011

same

happens to me as well.

rob ben · Aug 29, 2011

My stock captivate was great I'd get a 9 sat lock in 12 seconds nearly all the time.
I got hooked on flashing and my gps was usually crap on other roms.

Now I'm running apex 9 with a talon kernal and I'm getting a 9 sat lock in 10 to 12 again. So go figure

techn · Aug 29, 2011

same here i think i got a bad phone so i send it back and a new one and everything works fine now.

asrrin29 · Aug 29, 2011

Anyone telling you that the Cappy's GPS is broken is running Stock or doesn't know what they are talking about. It's not bad hardware, it's bad drivers. Use any ROM other than stock and they use updated drivers from other devices. I get a solid lock with 6-10 sats in less than 15 seconds as long as I can see the sky. the only time my GPS loses accuracy (it's usually at less than 5 meters, i.e. no circle in Google Nav) is when I go under a thick grove of trees or under a bridge.

newter55 · Aug 29, 2011

asrrin29 said:
Anyone telling you that the Cappy's GPS is broken is running Stock or doesn't know what they are talking about. It's not bad hardware, it's bad drivers. Use any ROM other than stock and they use updated drivers from other devices. I get a solid lock with 6-10 sats in less than 15 seconds as long as I can see the sky. the only time my GPS loses accuracy (it's usually at less than 5 meters, i.e. no circle in Google Nav) is when I go under a thick grove of trees or under a bridge.

Congrats on your fortunate luck but to insinuate that your solution is a universal fix is naive.

asrrin29 · Aug 29, 2011

newter55 said:
Congrats on your fortunate luck but to insinuate that your solution is a universal fix is naive.

There was quite a lengthy breakdown of the entire process for fixing the GPS, but basically it comes down to two problems.

1. The drivers that were shipped out with the stick ROM were HORRIBLE and did not work. through using the SGSII and Nexus S ROMS, as well as some config file fixes, they were able to fix the drivers.

2. There is a hardware bug, but it only manifests itself when the screen is oriented in landscape mode. While in landscape, the CPU has to do extra calculations which slows the phone down and also boggles up the GPS, since the GPS is CPU assisted. As long as you keep the phone in portrait mode with a clear view of the sky, you will get flawless locks. Even if you don't do these two things, you should still get decent locks with the new drivers, just not instantaneous and super accurate.

Anyone who has installed any of the latest gingerbread mods has noticed the huge increase in the GPS vs. Stock. Only a few people complain that it's not as accurate or fast as their (dedicated) TomTom's and Garmins. But no one I have seen has claimed that the GPS fix has not worked. I urge you to give a GB ROM a try.

Rhiannon224 · Aug 29, 2011

asrrin29 said:
There was quite a lengthy breakdown of the entire process for fixing the GPS, but basically it comes down to two problems.

1. The drivers that were shipped out with the stick ROM were HORRIBLE and did not work. through using the SGSII and Nexus S ROMS, as well as some config file fixes, they were able to fix the drivers.

2. There is a hardware bug, but it only manifests itself when the screen is oriented in landscape mode. While in landscape, the CPU has to do extra calculations which slows the phone down and also boggles up the GPS, since the GPS is CPU assisted. As long as you keep the phone in portrait mode with a clear view of the sky, you will get flawless locks. Even if you don't do these two things, you should still get decent locks with the new drivers, just not instantaneous and super accurate.

Anyone who has installed any of the latest gingerbread mods has noticed the huge increase in the GPS vs. Stock. Only a few people complain that it's not as accurate or fast as their (dedicated) TomTom's and Garmins. But no one I have seen has claimed that the GPS fix has not worked. I urge you to give a GB ROM a try.

Wrong! You can argue your point all you want but you are incorrect. I ran GB ROMS, Froyo ROMs, all of the numerous GPS fixes throughout the forums and nothing worked. GPS on my Captivate doesn't work, it is broken, I know what I am doing, I have been flashing custom ROMS for a year on it, it is inaccurate, can't hold a lock and just sucks. After dumping the Captivate for an HTC Sensation I now know what a working GPS is, it works out of the box, no need for patches or fixes, it just works. I am happy with my new device, I get over a day on battery with 5 hours of screen time without turning the brightness all the way down, 4 hours of calls all on one charge. I don't regret my decision to get rid of a broken device, Samsung makes great tv's but I doubt I will buy another Samsung phones again.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk

speedy_11 · Aug 29, 2011

The gps on the captivate is either hit or a miss. For some it works other it doesn't. Its all in experience and opinion. You can make an excuse and try to get a captivate replacement with a better gps.

Other than the gps and a pentile screen the cappy is a pretty great phone

tking0036 · Aug 30, 2011

Gps On Mine is worthless as wel..

I find gps to be better on KF1 KH3 Roms rather than jvr, cm7, etc

prbassplayer · Aug 30, 2011

Might be better but the fact is the older Captivate's have faulty gps. Newer builds have better gps performance.

tlkraus1965 · Sep 14, 2011

I agree it's a phone issue.. had my 07/2010 Captivate for 11mos, 2 weeks.. tried everything.. one day it would lock great the next 5 days nothing.. with 2 weeks left on my warranty I went to an ATT warranty center, luckily one close to my work, and they reflashed it with brand new software from Samsung as of last week and that did nothing, they gave me a refurb( looks brand new) and running Stock Froyo I got a 9 second lock 3 times in a row, you can even tell the GPS anntenae is different than my previous phone. GPS is awesome on this new phone, old one was defective..period. Running Fasty II Gingerbread did not affect the GPS on either phone.. if anyone is under warranty, work ATT warranty support and see if they can get you to send it back for an exchange.. my wife's worked great out of the box, mine did not but the replacement is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hero2zero · Sep 14, 2011

Rhiannon224 said:
Wrong! You can argue your point all you want but you are incorrect. I ran GB ROMS, Froyo ROMs, all of the numerous GPS fixes throughout the forums and nothing worked. GPS on my Captivate doesn't work, it is broken, I know what I am doing, I have been flashing custom ROMS for a year on it, it is inaccurate, can't hold a lock and just sucks.

I agree with you. I've been posting on the FastyII Q&A forum about this. I bought my Captivate last August and have been flashing ROMs ever since. The only ROM that came close to nailing a GPS lock was Serendipity. I'm using FastyII now which is awesome, but, as usual, can't get GPS. BTW, how long are these things warrantied?

Captivate's GPS is pissing me off

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