The Samsung Galaxy S24
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Teacher

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21 Messages

Friday, July 23rd, 2010 1:46 PM

Captivate - GPS Issues

Anyone else experiencing basically no GPS lock?

 

I've seen it mentioned in plenty of other forums, but not here. I've tried all kinds of fixes and settings and the GPS on my unit is basically useless. I can get a very poor lock using just the wireless networks, but GPS never locks.

Master

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4.3K Messages

13 years ago


@tylerdurdin wrote:

When my first device was new It locked for the first week, and then , nothing. A friend got two new devices same story worked for a week then nothing. For some reason it seems that most of the devices act this way, which is why people think when they get a new device it is fixed. Users should not have to use apps like GPS TEST and Toolbox to  make anything function correctly. The froyo I am running has nothing applied and is still working great. If you want to really test your gps toggle it on and off a couple of times, shut off wifi assistance, and then launch google navigator with the gps set to off so that the phone prompts you to turn it on. I have successfully got every captivate I have messed with to fail to lock using this method of testing. I even did it on a brand new device in front of a AT&T associate. It may work a couple of times but as soon as that error gets cached, GPS is done. For a successful gps at this point the only thing I have ever seen that has worked is from a brand new device, once we got a lock we left the GPS on, with google location sevices and wifi, never had a issue, used the navigator everyday for work and the places app for going out to dinner at night. All stayed well until the first time i shut the gps off.


If you're in any product business, the first product in a product line is usually buggy. So "early adopters", the ones that buy the first product, usually end up being beta testers, whether they want to be or not. So, if you don't like working through bugs, then wait for release 2 of a product, don't buy the "first" of whatever, whether it be a 3D TV or a cell phone with a new-to-market OS. If you do buy the first release of a product, then you pretty much have to suck it up and live/work through the fixes. Early adopters are the bug finders, so to speak, to go along with their bragging rights.

 

That said, if the GPS had not worked from Day 1 and ever since on my Captivate, I would have returned it for either another phone or another brand of phone within my trial period.

 

I came from using the original Tilt (did not upgrade to Tilt II) -- which always needed GPS Test to jumpstart the GPS chip in the phone. My Tilt locked every time with GPS Test, never without. So, it made sense to me to install GPS Test on my Android, even before I used it the first time. So when I first started GPS on my Captivate and it didn't lock, the next thing I did was open GPS Test, and it got the lock right away. Maybe I've had good luck because GPS Test did something to the phone/gps chip that kept it working fine. Don't know. And it's been very accurate at the street level. Even through the JH7 upgrade.

 

Anyway, my point is that early adopters in all industries pay the price of living through buggy first-release devices. It just comes with the territory. No product is ever perfect at the first release. So as early adopters, you gotta do what you gotta do to make your phone work the way you want, even though it doesn't seem fair. That's the price one pays to be an early adopter. If you don't like that price, become a late adopter, and all the issues will have been worked out by the time you get it.

 

Mentor

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73 Messages

13 years ago


@Zandora wrote:

 

Anyway, my point is that early adopters in all industries pay the price of living through buggy first-release devices. It just comes with the territory. No product is ever perfect at the first release. So as early adopters, you gotta do what you gotta do to make your phone work the way you want, even though it doesn't seem fair. That's the price one pays to be an early adopter. If you don't like that price, become a late adopter, and all the issues will have been worked out by the time you get it.

 


I’m not entirely sure I understand your argument;   this is not Samsungs first GSM phone with GPS.  It’s not even their first Android phone with GPS.  They have had a few before hand and should be able to produce working products.  Samsung has been making GPS cell phones for well over 5 years… when do we remove the early adopter sticker from them?  

 

I had my weekly phone call with Samsung support.  The guy seemed tiered of hearing about GPS problems and said that he sent the message up the pipe but has been told there is no fix in the immediate future.   That leaves me to think that the Froyo patch they are reading in the next few weeks will not have it.

 

Master

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4.3K Messages

13 years ago

You remove "early adopter" when at Captivate II. Basically, if the first time you buy a product you buy the 2nd generation of that product then you're not considered an early adopter.

Guru

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1.3K Messages

13 years ago

Well I am running JI6 Froyo and I did notice that after 30-40 mins my GPS would work perfectly fine but once I shut it down it would go back to its routine of a good initial lock but no tracking whatsoever so to me it seem like the GPS needs to "warm up" I dunno why I am hesitant to do a exchange cause I really don't want a refurb phone but if the "official" release of Froyo doesn't fix I defiantly will do a exchange to me GPS is on a secondary feature that I need 2-3x per year so I will wait for the official 2.2 update.

Mentor

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56 Messages

13 years ago

Are you running a early i9000 rom? If you are, you should expect gps issues, Anyone running a rom leaked more than five or six months ago is going to have issues most likely. There was no gps fix in the washer at this point, and devs were implementing their own fixes. I had really good luck with GPS while running later Cognition roms not so much with any of the earlier ones. The froyo I am running now is the leak from the beginning of october and other than some glitchy apps this GPS works fine, and produced same results on two other captivates, most important is that it is untouched by Devs, which for me means there is no outside GPS tweaks involved. I am not saying that there is anything final but samsung is not going to release anything at this point that is not a fix. The multiple instances of GPS failure you are speaking of are off of many different froyo leaks of course there will be no consistency. Also most people should not have to do any testing to their phone, its the beauty of buying a new phone, anyone who launches a gps app should have it work for them. I am not doubting your knowledge of phones but I think you are summing up an entire market based on a few hacked roms and a thousand people who have mixed results based on mixed roms. I am on XDA all the time and have had my first captivate since release day, and been closely following this since. One last thing NO report you have read has anything official, You most likely read the same crap I do and it all comes from blogs and opinion samsung has not released a single comment other than some open ended apologies and a couple of update coming soon stories.  

Tutor

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4 Messages

13 years ago

Tyler,

 

I am not being sarcastic here, bou may have actually stumbled onto the needle in the haystack that they have been looking for in their debugging of this problem. You should really (PLEASE!!!) call Samsung tech support and ask to talk to a level 3 tech and tell him/her what you have found. Debugging this issue must be a total nightmare with all of the different combinations of apps/settings/actions taken by the people who had problems.

Tutor

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7 Messages

13 years ago

I can’t believe it’s actually working better than ever!!!  After going through two phones, multiple tips & tricks to improve GPS performance the "GSM Hard Reset" actually worked.  Now I am ecstatic that I can say my GPS works super smooth in City, Highway, Rural areas.  I have been testing it out in the city, setting my destination and purposely going of route.  With each turn the Google Nav was on point, and before I could reach the end of the block it had already recalculated the route.  I was actually astonished to see Google Maps lock on to the satellites within about 10 seconds after a reboot, and with in 4 after initial GPS fix.  I used to place the phone in my cradle under my windshield, then wait (not moving) sometimes 2 minutes or longer before it would fix.  After the "GSM Hard Reset" it actually locked onto satellites while still in my hand, before I could get it in the dock.  Now after I received the JH7 update my GPS was still wonky, but much better than before JH7.  The issue with update feature in menu returning "Could not connect AT&T Server" is gone.  It actually checked for an OTA update and returned "No Updates".  I saw several post and video from end users saying that this also improved their devices.  However before I trusted just some guy off the net, I tweeted @GalaxySsupport.  They told me it was no guarantee but they have seen a lot of users have success with a factory reset.  This is preformed with the dialer not the settings menu.  It will erase everything from the phone (internal SD also), so make sure you back up you stuff to your expandable SD if you have one/PC if not.  BE SURE TO REMOVE SD CARD & SIM!!! 

 

Tweet @GalaxySsupport for full instructions on twitter.  Trust me it really works, and was well worth the time!!!

 

Master

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2.7K Messages

13 years ago

GSM Hard Reset  will wipe out everything on your phone. You should warn anyone who wants to try your tip.

 

How many days have passed since you GSM reseted your phone?

Tutor

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7 Messages

13 years ago

Thanks, Last sentence in the Paragraph.

 

It will erase everything from the phone (internal SD also), so make sure you back up you stuff to your expandable SD if you have one/PC if not.  BE SURE TO REMOVE SD CARD & SIM!!! 

 

I actually reset it yesterday 10-26-10, I know its soon but this it the biggest improvement I've seen on this phone.  I will keep the room posted as time passes.

 

I am aware "Its not a new trick."  Simply tried it, working for me & wanted to share my experience.

 

 

Master

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2.7K Messages

13 years ago

Yeah, I wouldn't trust anything until you passed 7-day mark.

 

This isn't some new trick and doe not necessary work for everyone.

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