GPS Signal Broken -- Fix Found

jpk17 · Nov 8, 2012

Hello all,

Long time lurker, just wanted to share an issue I had.

I've flashed nearly every ROM that is out there since I got my SGS3 and have never had any GPS issues, however this weekend I used it without a problem but Tuesday all of a sudden turning it on and off still produced nothing...not even the increased battery drain from having GPS on.

Here's what I did in hopes that it can help someone or at least give some knowledge as there wasn't a lot out there when I searched:

1.) Restored a previous Nandroid that I knew had a working GPS --- Result = FAIL
2.) Searched XDA and Google...found a video with some USSD codes for the dialer, etc.. ---- Result = FAIL
3.) Pulled battery and sim card, etc... --- Result = FAIL
4.) Flashed Wicked as I know that is a stable and highly used ROM. Everything great but still no GPS. ---- Result = FAIL
5.) Found a suggestion about clearing cache in google framework, Maps and uninstalling Maps updates. Result = FAIL
**however Play Store wouldn't let me update Maps when I rebooted as it said it wasn't compatible with my phone. No clue why.

6.) Finally I decided to do Triangle Away and Chainfires unrooting procedure to get back to unrooted stock. ---Result = SUCCESS!

Not sure what about it made GPS come back, however the next step will of course be to root again and see if there are any issues.

Hope this helps someone who ends up in my situation. Feel free to PM if you need more details.

Thanks to all

Edit: Just as an FYI -- when I rooted again, GPS was still back and I've had no issues since.

isikh · Nov 8, 2012

Thanks man, I like threads like these because you never know when you may need them. Same issue for me. On CM10 ROMs,I have trouble locking onto GPS, and the fix for me has been downloading GPS test and running that before using something like navigation.it's a minor inconvenience but it works great

mt3g · Nov 8, 2012

Overall, if you have something borked, no matter what rom you use... no matter how many times you wipe... odin back to stock, should fix it always.

isikh · Nov 8, 2012

mt3g said:
Overall, if you have something borked, no matter what rom you use... no matter how many times you wipe... odin back to stock, should fix it always.

True, but honestly, that doesn't always work. I have a second SGS3 Pebble Blue 32GB, and it won't play nice with Lean Kernel/Ktoonz, unless it's the touchwiz based kernels, whereas my white 16GB runs all of them flawlessly. They were rooted and booted the same way, and they both have the same GPS issue.

Out of curiosity, what's the chainfire way of going back to stock?

Also, do we have any guides here/on youtube that detail how to odin back to stock. I'm gonna give it a go on the blue one again/cross my fingers hoping I made a mistake, hence why I want a guide lol! *Searches*

henreeg · Nov 8, 2012

thanks for the info jpk17!
saved us a lot of time here for whoever has that issue in the future.

can you provide the link to Chainfire's unroot procedure?

thanks!

lazarat · Nov 8, 2012

Good to know but youcould have got straight to the point rather than writting five pages of useless stuff then saying something that to be honest is not any special invention anyways.

jjlean · Nov 8, 2012

lazarat said:
Good to know but youcould have got straight to the point rather than writting five pages of useless stuff then saying something that to be honest is not any special invention anyways.

Kind of a **** huh? He was just explaining what he did. Geeze.

Sent from my SGS3 Stock Rooted & Odexed
I love this thing!

benjimatt · Nov 8, 2012

The only time my gps was ever messed up was when i used a sprint leak JB rom and had the gps turned off. Flashed a couple roms after no gps whatsoever. Odin'ed with 2 or 3 different versions and still couldnt get the gps back.

Finally I flashed another JB rom based on the sprint leak and turned GPS back on and everything started working again. Lesson learned on using sprint leaks lol.

theminigame · Nov 9, 2012

Had op's problem myself before, and full wiping and Odin'ing back to stock actually didn't work.. what did work though was after full unroot, doing tmo ota update.

Who knows, this info could help someone out as well..

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

jpk17 · Nov 9, 2012

Unroot Procedure Used

HG! said:
thanks for the info jpk17!
saved us a lot of time here for whoever has that issue in the future.

can you provide the link to Chainfire's unroot procedure?

thanks!

Here is the procedure I followed to unroot...followed step by step and couldn't have been easier to follow:

I can't post links as I don't have over 10 posts yet, but should be able to figure it out from this:

www . androidrootz . com

Copy the next line after the .com and you'll get to the page.

/2012/10/how-to-unroot-samsung-galaxy-s3-at.html

jpk17 · Nov 9, 2012

Mr. Pot ...meet Mr. Kettle

lazarat said:
Good to know but youcould have got straight to the point rather than writting five pages of useless stuff then saying something that to be honest is not any special invention anyways.

My sincere apologies that my 15 line post was too much to handle.
I'd also like to thank you for such a nice response to a first time poster that was clearly just trying to help the community for an issue that is rare and relatively undocumented based on my searches.

I shall go back to normal... lurking and wading through useless posts like yours to find those with relevance...

cordell383 · Nov 10, 2012

jpk17 said:
My sincere apologies that my 15 line post was too much to handle.
I'd also like to thank you for such a nice response to a first time poster that was clearly just trying to help the community for an issue that is rare and relatively undocumented based on my searches.

I shall go back to normal... lurking and wading through useless posts like yours to find those with relevance...

Just dont get some people....thanks for the steps. But im traveling away from home and only have my MAC and it cant get Bootcamp to work on this one, so my question is, how do i unroot on a mac.

Thanks i advance guys....

elesbb · Nov 10, 2012

jpk17 said:
My sincere apologies that my 15 line post was too much to handle.
I'd also like to thank you for such a nice response to a first time poster that was clearly just trying to help the community for an issue that is rare and relatively undocumented based on my searches.

I shall go back to normal... lurking and wading through useless posts like yours to find those with relevance...

Dont let this guy discourage you. He's generally an arse to everyone. When i see a pointless **** post from him like you received, just keep reading through

Thanks for the thread!

lorddart · Nov 11, 2012

jpk17 said:
My sincere apologies that my 15 line post was too much to handle.
I'd also like to thank you for such a nice response to a first time poster that was clearly just trying to help the community for an issue that is rare and relatively undocumented based on my searches.

I shall go back to normal... lurking and wading through useless posts like yours to find those with relevance...

Hey man props for the post it'll probably help someone out, assuming they are respectful enough to search and try things before posting. Which I also want to commend you on. Most like to post frantically wanting help before bothering to search or try anything. So gj man

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

osmosizzz · Nov 11, 2012

Confirmed working

This fixed my GPS too. Triangle away and then flash stock NON ROOTED firmware and GPS will come back...NOW hopefully this fixes my weird battery life too. About to root again and shoot right back to PA android and see if it works there. Wish me luck

Edit. Yup it works. Went straight to pa android

cordell383 · Nov 11, 2012

osmosizzz said:
This fixed my GPS too. Triangle away and then flash stock NON ROOTED firmware and GPS will come back...NOW hopefully this fixes my weird battery life too. About to root again and shoot right back to PA android and see if it works there. Wish me luck

Edit. Yup it works. Went straight to pa android

Ok so i finally unrooted using above steps. Still no gps. Tried GPS Toolbox, GPS Test and the google navigation. Nothing.

What Im seeing is that the little Icon in the upper status bar never shows. Like ether it doesnt even see a SAT, or the receiver in my phone isnt even turning on.

If i cant figure out, i guess ill go back to Tmo....

Thanks for the help.

osmosizzz · Nov 11, 2012

What I did was go to a stock ics based Rom then triangle away and then I followed the site that op posted. The download was ridiculously slow. Took like an hour for 690mb. That should do the trick. Do it in that order

Sent from my Rooted Gameboy

cordell383 · Nov 11, 2012

osmosizzz said:
What I did was go to a stock ics based Rom then triangle away and then I followed the site that op posted. The download was ridiculously slow. Took like an hour for 690mb. That should do the trick. Do it in that order

Sent from my Rooted Gameboy

HAHA funny, i actually did it EXACTLY like that. I tried a stock ICS ROM from wildchild and nothing. Then Triangle away, ODIN flash to stock with un root and factory reset and nothing.

If i wasnt getting lock, that would be different. But im not getting the little Icon in top left corner.

I have a friend with a Stock Sprint phone and his works in same room.

Thanks

jpk17 · Nov 11, 2012

Sucks cordell... Sorry you're not getting it working.

Only thought I had if I followed you correctly is you said you went to a wildchild stock. Maybe you need to go back to the older stock from the link that worked for osmosis and I?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

cordell383 · Nov 11, 2012

jpk17 said:
Sucks cordell... Sorry you're not getting it working.

Only thought I had if I followed you correctly is you said you went to a wildchild stock. Maybe you need to go back to the older stock from the link that worked for osmosis and I?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

I went to wild child stock just before i unrooted and went to Stock Tmo form the guide above. I didnt think that would have made a difference.
Im not gonna root and go to store, so ill go to store and see what they say.

The reason i went to the wildchild stock based ICS rom was hope that I wouldnt have to unroot....

Thanks.

EDIT>>> Just did the OTA from Tmo and back .. Yes GPS back,

Thanks minigame

GPS Signal Broken -- Fix Found

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