[Discussion] GPS Problems, Lock speed, Accuracy, Fixes - The Poll

larryccf · Jul 29, 2010

ondoteam said:
Hey... check that >>> http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=738529

yeah, had thought about that possibility, but the main issue seems to be not with the GPS seeing a signal or signals, but in locking onto the signal, even when its > 20 SNR

i originally hoped that was a GSM antenna socket, so like an ericsson phone i had, it had a socket in the same place, and a rubber plug on the backside, with a car dock that when you dropped it into th card dock, the external or auxiliary antenna was connected - i was thinking of rural areas where cell coverage gets weak

PsiIion · Jul 29, 2010

Kilack said:
Yeah no offense but a lot of us were saying that in the first couple of days when we got it. Then it either stopped or we started using it more and noticed just how shocking it is. Turn on mytracks and test that out for a week. See if you think the same. There is a reason why there are so many people complaining about it all over the internet . Including all the US variants.

If you have to use it with MyTracks for a week to notice the issue it does not seem like the performance is shocking really, does it?
I have used MyTracks and GPSCompassMap quite a bit with no issues.

Beards · Jul 29, 2010

PsiIion said:
If you have to use it with MyTracks for a week to notice the issue it does not seem like the performance is shocking really, does it?
I have used MyTracks and GPSCompassMap quite a bit with no issues.

Kilack's use of the word 'week' was not an obligation but more an example.
Use it for a day and that would have been deemed too short, so there's nothing wrong in Kilack saying to users to use it for a week.

As to your GPS performance..... You are very fortunate and lucky.
Again quite a large proportion of users would differ.

appelflap · Jul 29, 2010

sjdean said:
Oh dear. Sounds worrying. It's not fixing the underlying issue at all. It's just fudging the data, as I said on JM2, it's taking your last known good position, heading and speed to work out where you could be now if your GPS position goes away. Sort of works, but no fix. It's a fudge.

I agree, it's not a fix. But it is a really welcome addition. I have to test it out yet. But do you know the scenario in which you are coming out of a parking garage but just don't know which direction you have to go to pick up the route the navigator is indicating?

I hope it "fixes" that.

appelflap · Jul 29, 2010

eaglesteve said:
I hope the fix doesn't come only had a year later when it's time to upgrade to the next iPhone killer. It's hard to live without a GPS.

With so many iPhone killers around you would think the iPhone would be dead by now

But the iThing keeps popping up.

GPS works on the SGS.. that's for sure. You only need the shortcomings and a way to work with it. For example, in my favorite tracking/map program I know I have to set a parameter to work with the GPS without any problems.

I think the problem with the GPS is that it is interfering with CPU intensive GPS programs. (it is known that the gps chip delegates some processing dutties to the device CPU)

PsiIion · Jul 29, 2010

Beards said:
Kilack's use of the word 'week' was not an obligation but more an example.
Use it for a day and that would have been deemed too short, so there's nothing wrong in Kilack saying to users to use it for a week.

As to your GPS performance..... You are very fortunate and lucky.
Again quite a large proportion of users would differ.

Obviously a lot of people are experiencing severe issues.
I'm just saying that it doesn't seem like everyone who has satisfactory performance think so because a lack of testing, which seems to be what Kilack is implying.
Shockingly bad performance is something you should notice after having the phone for a couple of weeks and using the GPS a lot.

The big question is in what way am I lucky?
Have I happened to get working GPS hardware, or is it that every time I use the GPS, position of satellites or weather is beneficial while for others it's not?
And why does some people experience that different firmware or settings solves the issue, and some has it working fine for some time only to have it suddenly become completely useless. It's certainly a very confusing issue.

fredphoesh · Jul 29, 2010

JP2 GPS

Hi guys

Last night I flashed to JP2 and the GPS was working fine, actually really well... I will try it more this weekend, but I am convinced it is NOT a hardware issue because it is so intermittent, and I have on occastion got locks more quickly than on my Garmin!

We will see, give Samsung a couple of months to write a fix as someone here reported they said they would.

I used the GPS/navigate last weekend to drive to some place and burst out laughing when i reached the destination and was presented with a street view of the shop I had parked outside!

Amazing.

Beards · Jul 29, 2010

PsiIion said:
Obviously a lot of people are experiencing severe issues.
I'm just saying that it doesn't seem like everyone who has satisfactory performance think so because a lack of testing, which seems to be what Kilack is implying.
Shockingly bad performance is something you should notice after having the phone for a couple of weeks and using the GPS a lot.

The big question is in what way am I lucky?
Have I happened to get working GPS hardware, or is it that every time I use the GPS, position of satellites or weather is beneficial while for others it's not?
And why does some people experience that different firmware or settings solves the issue, and some has it working fine for some time only to have it suddenly become completely useless. It's certainly a very confusing issue.

The biggest issue we have is in identifying the problem.... then again if we knew that, both Samsung and other developers would be insanely happy.

I have read countless stories from users who initially report their GPS works remarkably well and don't understand what all the fuss is about... only to see the same posters come back a couple of weeks later joining all those who have the problem.

Whether it's a software problem caused by various settings being altered at non given times or hardware that is overheating or badly manufactured to show up only when another hardware interacts is unknown.

The only thing we know is there is definitely a problem and one which if Samsung are not careful is going to bite them very hard from behind.... which to be truthful I am now given to believing they deserve it anyway.

sihayqueirseva · Jul 29, 2010

After doing many tests, I have verified that driving in motorcycle (with the mobile in a pocket) the precision is perfect (recording route with mytracks or Sportstracker). Nevertheless, when I go in car, it loses the satellites and starts re-calculating the route as madman. I have a Renault Laguna 04 with athermics crystal (which has not been any problem for my Desire and Omnia HD).

So, Is it a problem of weak signal of the galaxy? Why have a few terminals with problems and others not? Has the whole world that has problems athermics crystals in this car? I'm confused...

My setup:
LbsTestMode:
Standalone, Accuracy-->140, Hot Start
sup.google.com, 7272 port, ssl secure OFF.
In 15-20 sgs view 8-9 satellites, locks 6-8
I9000XWG1, root, mimocan ext4 fix. (no problem at all)
Phone came from UK, simfree.
I´m from Spain.

I hope that helps anyone.

PD.: Sorry for my bad bad english, I know.

Kilack · Jul 29, 2010

PsiIion said:
Obviously a lot of people are experiencing severe issues.
I'm just saying that it doesn't seem like everyone who has satisfactory performance think so because a lack of testing, which seems to be what Kilack is implying.
Shockingly bad performance is something you should notice after having the phone for a couple of weeks and using the GPS a lot.

The big question is in what way am I lucky?
Have I happened to get working GPS hardware, or is it that every time I use the GPS, position of satellites or weather is beneficial while for others it's not?
And why does some people experience that different firmware or settings solves the issue, and some has it working fine for some time only to have it suddenly become completely useless. It's certainly a very confusing issue.

Well lets not get all caught up in the wording of what I wrote please, you were missing my point. I was simply meaning that people might want to hold off on saying it is working perfectly when they have only had the phone for a couple of days simply because quite a few of us that have had the phone more than a couple of days have struck problems later down the track when it seemed to be working perfectly at first.

I have been reading thread after thread about this issue because I guess I find it quite interesting in the fact that no one seems to be able to really find the cause of it whether it be the chipset or the firmware or even the cpu being overloaded, who knows.

All these phones are the same, so a good chance that under the right or wrong conditions its pretty safe to assume that anyones can fail.
So even the people that have a working gps and all appears fine should be at least concerned as to why so many others are failing with the same hardware.

I mentioned mytracks simply because it really makes it obvious, car navigation apps etc snap you to the road so even if the gps is inaccurate sometimes the app is smart enough to make up for it.
You are right in that if it is very bad you would notice it after a couple of weeks of using it a lot, I was replying to someone that had used it for 2 days and I bet probably just briefly

A lot of the people that upgrade the firmware then claim its fixed simple turned their gps on with gpstest and tested how fast they got a lock and then posted its fixed.

Anyway this has all been posted before... I'm glad that yours is working fine, mine is working again too for now...

ghosty_uk · Jul 29, 2010

sorry, i was mearly pointing out that my first one never managed to work at all, yet this new oone seems fine-ish, im still in the process of testing it so i will hav eto wait and see, but for now it looks like it mite work.

as for the testing i use my gps alot, so i guess i will find out how bad this one is in a few days.

as for samsung i can't believe they would not aknowlegde there is a problem, i mean look at what happened to the iphone 4, i think there is definatly something wrong but what i have yet to discover as have may others. then what will be the procedure to fix it, are they going to offfer a free service, or replacement. or is it just a software bug that can be fix by a little bit of code.

as it does not seem to be just the SGS that has this fault, it would appear its an interfacing issue. maybe something in andriod does not like the samsung gps chip. as i have found out its mostly the andriod devices that have this issue.

ultra spikey · Jul 29, 2010

Tell Samsung yourself that GPS is worthless - www.galaxyshelp.com

Samsung just released their official help site for the Galaxy S. I just finished a chat session with tech support concerning the GPS issues. Basically, he said they are aware of it and the engineers are working on it. If enough of us report the issue, I'm sure they will feel the pressure to release a fix to us ASAP.

Arkymedes · Jul 29, 2010

Good finding, thanks!

Beards · Jul 29, 2010

Okay... I received an update from Chris Love at Clove this afternoon.
Here is the message received:-

Mike,
I have spoken to the product manager this afternoon who has confirmed the update to resolve this is now available

I am going to get Richard to test this tomorrow morning and then we can confirm this to you.

Regards
Chris Love

Clove Technology
Tel: 01202 552936
Fax: 01202 552937
www.clove.co.uk
cpl@clove.co.uk

teryz · Jul 29, 2010

Good news, mate but what update is he talking about, is it a firmware or what?

AllGamer · Jul 29, 2010

it only supports American models apparently.

choices are:
AT&T
T-Mobile

i don't think they will care for the Euro/Asia version of the SGS

Beards · Jul 29, 2010

No idea at present.... In my reply I asked Chris to get Richard to mail me all the details including the link where he is getting the update from.

As soon as I have further information I'll post.

However, everyone please bear in mind I shall be in theatre on and off most of tomorrow during the day until 6PM (UK times) and may not get a chance to check my mail.

djglenn1337 · Jul 29, 2010

Beards said:
No idea at present.... In my reply I asked Chris to get Richard to mail me all the details including the link where he is getting the update from.

As soon as I have further information I'll post.

However, everyone please bear in mind I shall be in theatre on and off most of tomorrow during the day until 6PM (UK times) and may not get a chance to check my mail.

Thanks for the great info Beards...what Chris/Richard comes back with is going to determine if I push the button on a Galaxy S or a Desire next week.

Beowulf_pt · Jul 29, 2010

djglenn1337 said:
Thanks for the great info Beards...what Chris/Richard comes back with is going to determine if I push the button on a Galaxy S or a Desire next week.

That makes two of us. I have been observing the SGS for weeks now and the GPS issue is the only thing keeping me from purchasing one.

Lots of confusion about the performance, fake fixes, people confusing a fast assisted TTFF with true accuracy and ability to keep the locks and so on. Sometimes it feels as is there are a dozen of hardware and fw versions.

Right now I really doubt that the problem is only in firmware. Probably a combination of hardware (poor antenna design, component IO and so on) and sw (firmware, drivers, OS...)

Beards · Jul 29, 2010

There are few sellers in the same vein as Clove.
Chris and his team always put their customers wishes as of paramount importance.

As an example I know of another member who is purchasing a Galaxy S from Clove and Chris will be getting Richard to check the update before releasing the phone to the buyer.
If it works the buyer has the option of Richard installing it for him.
There's few if any other sellers who would go this far to ensure the customer is happy.

Again I have absolutely no connection with Clove.
My reason's for recommending are borne from nigh on 20yrs corresponding with Chris.

[Discussion] GPS Problems, Lock speed, Accuracy, Fixes - The Poll

Your GPS oppinion

I use GPS a lot and it works great.

I use GPS a lot and sometimes it's Ok, other times unusable.

I use GPS a lot and it's really bad.

I don't use GPS a lot, when I try - it's OK.

I don't use GPS a lot, when I try - it's really bad.

Other/See Results.

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Inactive Recognized Developer

Inactive Recognized Developer

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Retired Forum Moderator

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Top Liked Posts