Captivate - GPS Issues

I have the same issue w/ GPS. I is kinda of funny at time. I can be driving and take a curve and the GPS will keep going straight and eventually it will works its way back and then a little while latter it will drift again. I use Trapster and it is really bad w/ it. Google map is a little better but still has issues. I have tried standing in my driveway for almost 5 minutes waiting on the intial lock. Forget it as far as getting a lock inside. My old samsung eternity(dumb phone) gets a lock in a few second when put next to the Captivate.

Many of us have already received the email from Samsung acknowledging there is a GPS problem and they are working on it, with no definitive date for issuance of a fix, and we all know this doesn't help us if we are worrying about our 30 day ATT return policy. What I am about to write should therefore be taken with a grain of salt, but may give solace to some of you. I spoke yesterday to a Samsung level 3 tech regarding another Captivate problem, involving Exchange mail (software glitch, fixed). After we were done, I asked her about the GPS and Froyo. She couldn't give me a date, but indicated that there had been a lot of internal debate about whether to issue these updates  together or separate, but she thought that they both had been pushed out by Samsung in Europe already, which would imply that they should be coming to us soon. Can anyone confirm what she told me about Samsung already pushing out the GPS fix and Froyo in Europe? I'll feel a lot better.

There was a leaked early build of Froyo (as feature incomplete) in Europe. And no GPS fix although they informed many of their european partners that there will be one.

Froyo won't be officially released in Europe until later Sept.

BINGO! I believge that this is a problem inherent in every single Galaxy phone. This is not "under certain circumstances" or " some devices". The people that claim their navigation is working fine are mistaking network location or assist with actually locking in on true GPS. ATT - PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN! THESE PHONES ARE BROKEN.

So she lied to me. Great. I'm returning this at day 29 if it isn't fixed until then -- you can't trust Samsung, and ATT is OTL -- maybe they are counting on bringing me back to Blackberry with the Torch....

I posted this on CNET.  I'm posting it here also.  Let me know how it works.

I got my Samsung Galaxy S phone (AT&T Captivate) 2 days ago had this problem. The problem seem to be in how AT&T programmed some settings in the phone, not the phone itself. I got the problem fixed by doing the following.

Step 1. Go to 'Settings', choose 'Location & Security', uncheck "Use Wireless Networks".
Step 2. Open the dialer (the green phone button) and enter the following: *#*#1472365#*#* . Doing this will get you to a menu which allows you to change the default GPS setting programmed by AT&T.
?Step 3 In the LbsTestMode menue, go to 'SUPL/CP Settings' and change the 'SUPL Secure Socket' to OFF. (This alone seem to improve the speed of GPS locking.)
Step 4 In the LBSTestMode menu, find ?SUPL/CP Settings? and change the SERVER & PORT to supl.google.com and port 7276 (DO NOT use www. in front of supl !) => I'm not sure if this really did anything. This was commonly suggested by other people who claimed that this fixed the problem. It looks like the original default setting which uses SERVER 'www.spirent-lcs.com' and PORT '7275' seem to work fine or choosing the 'Server FQDN Type' to Auto Config seem to work also. I personally believe that all three works fine. You can try to play with this setting.
Step 5 In the LBSTestMode menu, find 'Application Settings' and Change the Operation Mode to MS Based. This allows the phone to use combination of GPS signal and location data from network instead of GPS only. This should help to speed up locking.
Step 6. Turn off the phone and reboot the phone.
Step 7 Go to settings > Location & Security. Re Check the box next to "Use Wireless Networks"

With all of the above, my phone sees more satellites, locks quickly, and looks very accurate. Google MAP, Google Earth, and Google Navigation all worked fine even when I was driving in my car.

I tried the steps mentioned above and my Captivate worked fine for a while. Once I changed my location considerably... took the subway all the way downtown from uptown.... and tried to lock on GPS again the "accuracy" issue came right back. I was walking around the Staten Island Ferry station and my Captivate GPS put me on the water between Governors Island and the Manhattan shore. My wife has the same phone without any modifications and her phone was accurate to within 500 yards.

Here is what CNET posted yesterday about this issue:

I tried the recommend settings changes and no go, as a tech person i tried it many times, thinking it could be the fat finger mistake, still no go.

Sure the navigation and Google maps don't work, but all of the other location based services don't work either.

Weather, find a friend, other programs that note or record your location and share with others.

I called ATT and not exactly worded but this is how they handled it: "they wanted me to active the ATT navigation, because that is the only trouble shooting tools that they had in the script that they read to me, other wise they were clueless."  

From there they forwarded me to Samsung and yes they know that it is a issue, but as stated above, it is being worked on and a fix will be out soon.  They suggested that I register the phone to get updates.

The phone is great, the GPS is a huge oversite, and is a integral part of the phone.

I had the Aria before the S and the navigation on Gmaps was really great, so I am sure when it gets fixed it will be a complete mobile device.

So, where do we start a petition, or get this noticed?