It seems a lot of people are looking for a simple, step by step break down of how to do alot of the things here. "Flashing", using "Odin", etc. I know the frustration with learning all of this stuff because its pretty scattered out and mostly posted by people familiar with the fancy computer lingo. I'm gonna try to make it really easy here and answer a lot of peoples questions all in one post. After all this, your phone will be super quick, your gps should be at least functional, (hopefully they release 2.2 or at least another firmware which is a final fix once and for all) and your phone will run quadrant scores over 2000!! A lot of people are hesitant to do most of this stuff for fear of breaking (also called bricking) their phones. Rest assured, even if you mess something up so bad that you can not use your phone or even turn it on, there is a program that will, 99% of the time, reinstall your phones operating system back to factory and completely erase any mistakes you may have made. That being said, I'm not responsible if you mess your phone up and can't fix it, but I've done most of this stuff so much, and have messed things up a few times, and am pretty confident that it's pretty easy to fix, almost no matter what. This may be long, so bear with me. First, just a few basic terms.
Flashing: Just fancy lingo for putting a newer (or older) operating system or "ROM" on your phone. Exactly how to "flash" your phone is outlined in this post.
Rooting: All this means is that you gain the ability to grant permission to certain apps that only AT&T or other carriers would be able to grant. For example, you can only wireless tether your phone (turn it into a mobile hotspot) IF at&t grants your phone "permission" for you and then you pay them. If you are rooted, then you have "superuser permission" and you can grant your phone permission for yourself, provided you can install the app, which brings me to the next term, sideloading.
Sideloading: At&t (or any other carrier) doesnt want you to be able to wireless tether all by yourself without paying them, so they build the phones to prevent you from installing apps that let you do so. Just think of Sideloading as "getting a key to the side door" so you can move apps in without getting stopped by your carrier. There is a very user friendly program called the "Android Sideload Wonder Machine" that makes this SUPER easy to do. For the sake of all the stuff I have to cover in this post, and because I feel the instructions on another page are quite clear, just google it, and you will find a link to a page with very clear and easy instructions on how to do this as well as a youtube video demonstrating it. ***Sideloading lets you put the apps on your phone, rooting lets you give permission to those apps to run****
Roms. Roms in a nutshell are different operating systems. Think of it like this. Windows released their not so popular operating system, Vista, and it had its glitches and bugs so they went in tweaked things, and changed things, made improvements, now we have Windows 7. When you install a new rom, you are just installing a new operating system that someone has tweaked and usually made improvements to. Often a lot of the unnecessary junk will be removed and some glitches may be gone and the performance is usually better. (some new bugs may be present though, but its usually worth the trade off for the improvements)
Froyo, or Android 2.2 This is the official upgrade in operating system from the current version of 2.1 that all captivates are running right now. You will read a lot of people drooling over this because it is a significant improvement. It has been released for other phones that have been on the market longer and it greatly sped up the phones and browsing abilities of the phones it has been put on. For example, the Google nexus one, which is much older (by tech standards) than the captivate, and has inferior hardware, i.e., slower processor, and less memory, scores higher in popular speed tests than the captivate does with better hardware. Its like going from Windows Vista to Windows 7 on speed.
Ahhh, the infamous GPS issue. Through all the changes I've made on my phone, the "fixes", etc., it has come and gone with small successes, but mostly unacceptable results. The new firmware that has been released, is a definate improvement, but results have been mixed among people who have tried it in different forums. I am still testing it myself and while sometimes it seems to be spot on, but sometimes it is quirky and comes and goes. I've found that it does take a couple of minutes to get a lock, and it seems to get and maintain a lock better if I am running the app "GPS status" or "GPS Test" in the background. A definate improvement so far, but it should get better with future releases or hopefully, the next official upgrade in operating systems, Android 2.2, also known as Froyo.
In order to install the GPS firmware, you will need to download a few things to your desktop. First, lets get the program that you are going to use if you mess anything up, because its probably a good idea to use it to reset your phone back to factory before trying to install the GPS firmware. Its called "Odin3 one-click Downloader" Here is the link to a site called XDA developers. These guys are geniuses and are mostly responsibe for the fact that we are able to do this cool techy hacking stuff. Please donate to them if possibe as thats how most of them afford to take the time to do this stuff. Ok, here is the link to download the first Odin program you need: Click on the brown link that is under the large blue text that begins with I897..........
[STOCK ROM] Odin3 One-Click Downloader and Drivers - xda-developers
1. Once you download and install this program on your desktop, open it. It will just be a smallish window that says right at the top, "Odin3 one-click Downloader" with a bunch of empty boxes and "start" and "master clear" at the bottom.
2. Turn your phone off.
3. Remove your sim card and SD micro card. Put the battery back in but DO NOT RESTART your phone.
3. Plug your usb cable into your computer.
4. Hold down BOTH volume up and volume down buttons.
5. WHILE STILL HOLDING both volume buttons down, plug your usb cable into your phone and continue to hold the volume buttons until you see your phone enter "download mode" then release the volume buttons. You will have a triangle with an android in it holding a shovel.
6. You should see a yellow box in the upper left portion of Odin on your computer that signifies that your phone has been recognized. This means that Odin sees your phone and is ready to go.
7. THIS WILL WIPE YOUR PHONE COMPLETELY BACK TO FACTORY SETTINGS AND ERASE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE, APPS, DATA, ETC. You can get your apps back from the market, and as long as your pictures and whatever you want to keep are saved on your Micro SD card that you removed, you should be all set. This will not wipe your internal SD card that comes with the phone, so you don't have to worry about losing any data there. I've also done this with the Micro SD card still in the phone and it hasn't ever erased anything there either, so if you forget to remove it, don't have a heart attack, you'll probably be ok.
8. Click "start" on Odin and wait for the program to run and the phone to reboot. It will be like it was out of the box. You can remove the usb cable. Congradulations, you are now ready for the GPS fix, and you also know how to fix your phone should you ever do anything to mess it up. Even if it wont turn on, or is otherwise unusable, you should always be able to get into download mode and "flash" your phone with this program to fix it.
If your GPS is working fine, you can skip this step and go scroll down to the part that starts with the 1.2ghz overclock. Gps fix is going to be a similar procedure with a slighly different program. Its going to be Odin again, but it will look a little different and this version is "Odin3_v1.0". You can download the new version of Odin that you need here: (download and save to your desktop again)
Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!
When you open it, it will be a bigger version, with more boxes. Don't be intimidated, its easy to use.
You only need one file for the GPS firmware fix. You can get it here:
Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!
Again download and save to desktop or someplace you can easily find it. Once the icon appears on your desktop, it is going to be a zip file. Right click on the file and select "extract". Again, try to extract it to your desktop or someplace easy for you to find. Once you click "extract", its going to ask you for a password. The password is either "samsung-firmwares.com", which is what worked for me, or its "samfirmware.com" which has reportedly worked for others. Click ok and it will upzip the file and save it for you. Now it's pretty much the same steps as before, only one difference. Go to the new Odin3_v1.0 that yuo have open on your computer and click the button that says "PDA". Do not check the box next to "PDA", just click the actual PDA button. You will need to locate the file you just unzipped. It will be named "I897UCJH2". Select it and open it, it will show you another file named the same thing, select that and open it, and you should see another file named the same thing again, but it should end in ".tar" When you select that file and click open again, it will load the file into the "PDA" area of your Odin program. Now, follow the same step by step instructions as before.
1. Turn off your phone again, make sure sim and micro sd are removed.
2. Boot into recovery mode again, using the volume buttons and usb cable. Odin will show another yellow box in the upper left and some writing in the lower right message box that says your phone has been "added"
3. Click start, let the program run, it will reboot your phone after its done and bam, your GPS should be working like a champ!! Remember, your phone is back to factory so you will need to relog into google and all that other jazz!! On one phone that I did this to, (yes, I have done these things to multiple Samsung Captivates) the GPS seemed to not be working right away, and I had to download and run an app called "GPS staus" in the background, but after that, everything seemed to work great with no gps status app needed. Just FYI. This seemed like an anomoly and I'm thinking you will not need to do this yourself. Probably just a braincramp i was having that day. Now that your GPS is working like it should have to begin with, if you want to make your phone run silky smooth, fast and sexy, continue on to the next section.
1.2 GHz Overclock and Lagfix!!
Once again, our friends at XDA have made this so incredibly easy!
Overclocking just means that you are taking the processor that came with the phone, and boosting its speed from 1.0Ghz to 1.2Ghz, thus increasing the speed of your phone 20%. Makes things run smoother and faster and I have had absolutely zero issues with battery life or anything else. For what its worth, I use Launcher Pro, which for those that don't know is just a program that changes your user interface (for the better, tons of people use it, give it a try) and seems to make things run a little smoother than the "touchwiz" interface that the phone comes with. There are many other posts on Laucher Pro and another called ADW launcher which is pretty cool.
Also, there has been a "lagfix" developed, which in a real big nutshell just means that the phone "lags" or runs slowly when trying to do certain things, (like browsing apps in the marketplace) because of the way the system is using the files on the phone. The lagfix changes the way the phone uses, or reads, the files, and makes it MUCH snappier and smoother running. Fortunately, the geniuses at XDA have put these both into one file that you can install on your phone. Again, this is all stuff that I have done myself and currently have running on my phone, together with the GPS firmware, and have no issues what so ever.
Now, this particular program is going to give NUMEROUS things all together in one package. It is going to root your phone for you automatically, so you don't have to, it is going to remove all the JUNK At&t apps and bloatware that is on your phone. It is going to remove the annoying At&t sounds that play when you restart you phone and shut it down, it will install the app "Titanium Backup" which is awesome and lets you backup all the apps on your phone at any given time. After you back them up with Titanium backup, even if you go back to a full factory wipe, you can reinstall titanium backup and put the apps back that you had on your phone before the factory wipe! Pretty cool, I know.
The file will also give you a few other things. You can read the whole list on the page you will land on from the link I give you. Remember, after you install this file, if you decide you don't the changes it makes to your phone (which probably means you are crazy) then you can start at the beginning of this page and use the first odin program again and it will once again, put everything back the way it was when you first took your phone out of its shiny new box. No harm, no foul. Here is the link to the XDA page with the link to download the file: Download the brown link that says "best version" and save to your desktop or some easy place to find.
★ ☆ ★ SRE v1.3.1c ★ ☆ ★ | Root + 1.2GHz OC/UV + MobileAP + USB Tether + LagFix - xda-developers
(There is another program like this called "Unleash the Beast" which is popular. It is a little different in what it gives you, no 1.2ghz overclock, but if you want to google it and check it out, you can install it with this same method here. People report it makes their phone run faster and there seem to be few if any bugs with it as well)
Once you download it, and it shows on your desktop, right click on the file and select "rename". Change the name of the file to "update" not "update.zip". When you put the file on your phone, it will automatically add the ".zip" If you name the file "update.zip", when you move it to your phone, it will automatically name the file "update.zip.zip" and wont recognize the file when it tries to install it. And now........
1. Go to "setting" in your phone.
2. From there select "applications"
3. From there select "USB settings"
4. Select "mass storage"
5. Go back one screen to usb settings and select "Development"
6. Check the box that says "USB Debugging"
Now you are ready to load the file onto your phone. Plug your phone into your computer, it will tell you that your usb is connected and that you are in debugging mode. Reminder, in order to do this, I am assuming you have the samsung captivate drivers installed on your computer that will let your phone communicate with your computer. You can find the drivers almost anywhere by googling "samsung captivate usb drivers". Download them and install them to your computer. So.....now that your usb is connected and you are in debugging mode, slide down the notification bar on your phone and click the box that says "USB connected". It will give you a pop up, click the "mount" box. At least one "autoplay" window, usually two should open on your computer that asks you what you want to do for "removable disk D" and another for "removable disk F". In "removable disk F", select "open folder to view files". Once the files window opens, all you have to do is drag the "update" file that is on your desktop, and drop it in with the rest of the files in the window. (This place that you are dropping the file is called the "root file". You will read things from other people and when they say put it in your root file, this is what they mean) Should only take a moment to transfer. Once it transfers, unplug your phone, and power it down. Now that you have the file on your phone, you are going to boot your phone into "recovery" mode. Easy.
1. With the phone turned off, press and hold your volume up and volume down buttons at the same time.
2. While holding both buttons down, press and hold your power button until you see your phone booting up, then release all three buttons.
3. It will boot to a black screen with blue and yellow writing. Using the volume keys, scroll down to the second selection, "reinstall packages".
4. Once you are on the "reinstall packages" selection, hit the power button and wait for the files to load and your phone to reboot. You will notice no At&t animation flying across the screen, as well as no annoying sound, and all the At&t "junk" is gone!! Also, you are overclocked to 1.2Ghz, but there is still one more thing we need to do to make that complete. However, first............
5. After the phone completely starts back up, go to your applications and find the app that says "SL4A"
6. Open the app and select "LagFix_Ext4.sh" This is the of course, the lagfix that will make your phone run faster! You can choose to run the "ext2" lagfix, but in my experience with both, (yes I've tried both) there is no real difference other than some people say the ext2 lagfix may not be stable. Supposedly the ext4 is better and I've not had a single hiccup with it.
7. Once that runs, if memory serves me right, your phone will reboot. Go to the market and download an app called "Overclockwidget" once its installed, go to any of the home screens on your phone and long press, until window pops up where you can select "widgets".
8. Select the overclockwidget and once its on your screen, give it a minute or two to start up. A screen will pop asking you to grant "superuser permission" (yes, you are a superuser now!!
). Give it permission and let it finish starting up. Once the widget finishes loading, you should be able to open the widget and set your clock speed up to 1.2 Ghz. (it will read "max: 1200000, which is 1.2Ghz.
There you go! You have now "flashed" your phone!! You're GPS should be functional!! You are overclocked to 1.2Ghz, which means your phones processor is 20% faster!! AND you have the lagfix installed!! AND you're a superuser!!!!! AND titanium backup is installed for you so you can back everything up!!!! AND all the At&t junk is gone!!! And other things!!
If you have a problem with the GPS initially, try the GPS Status app in the background once. I don't think you'll need to though. As far as battery life goes, I haven't noticed ANY drop in battery life from any of these things or any other bugs at all for that matter!
Hope this helps, if you liked it or any of it was useful, feel free to click the "thanks" button at the bottom and feel free to ask any questions!!
P.S. My brain is salad at the moment, so I'll come back to proof read this tomorrow to see if I forgot anything or messed anything up. If anyone who knows more about this stuff than I do sees something out of place or that is incorrect, please correct me. I'm not a programmer and don't pretend to have an intimate working knowledge of android. This stuff is just from my experience poking around, reading things from people smarter than me, and trying things out for the first time while crossing my fingers!!
Here are a few screen shots from the apps "GPS Status" and "GPS Test" showing my locks while I was driving. I also included an actual Navigation screen shot as well so you know I'm not just standing in a field and am actually Driving.
Flashing: Just fancy lingo for putting a newer (or older) operating system or "ROM" on your phone. Exactly how to "flash" your phone is outlined in this post.
Rooting: All this means is that you gain the ability to grant permission to certain apps that only AT&T or other carriers would be able to grant. For example, you can only wireless tether your phone (turn it into a mobile hotspot) IF at&t grants your phone "permission" for you and then you pay them. If you are rooted, then you have "superuser permission" and you can grant your phone permission for yourself, provided you can install the app, which brings me to the next term, sideloading.
Sideloading: At&t (or any other carrier) doesnt want you to be able to wireless tether all by yourself without paying them, so they build the phones to prevent you from installing apps that let you do so. Just think of Sideloading as "getting a key to the side door" so you can move apps in without getting stopped by your carrier. There is a very user friendly program called the "Android Sideload Wonder Machine" that makes this SUPER easy to do. For the sake of all the stuff I have to cover in this post, and because I feel the instructions on another page are quite clear, just google it, and you will find a link to a page with very clear and easy instructions on how to do this as well as a youtube video demonstrating it. ***Sideloading lets you put the apps on your phone, rooting lets you give permission to those apps to run****
Roms. Roms in a nutshell are different operating systems. Think of it like this. Windows released their not so popular operating system, Vista, and it had its glitches and bugs so they went in tweaked things, and changed things, made improvements, now we have Windows 7. When you install a new rom, you are just installing a new operating system that someone has tweaked and usually made improvements to. Often a lot of the unnecessary junk will be removed and some glitches may be gone and the performance is usually better. (some new bugs may be present though, but its usually worth the trade off for the improvements)
Froyo, or Android 2.2 This is the official upgrade in operating system from the current version of 2.1 that all captivates are running right now. You will read a lot of people drooling over this because it is a significant improvement. It has been released for other phones that have been on the market longer and it greatly sped up the phones and browsing abilities of the phones it has been put on. For example, the Google nexus one, which is much older (by tech standards) than the captivate, and has inferior hardware, i.e., slower processor, and less memory, scores higher in popular speed tests than the captivate does with better hardware. Its like going from Windows Vista to Windows 7 on speed.
Ahhh, the infamous GPS issue. Through all the changes I've made on my phone, the "fixes", etc., it has come and gone with small successes, but mostly unacceptable results. The new firmware that has been released, is a definate improvement, but results have been mixed among people who have tried it in different forums. I am still testing it myself and while sometimes it seems to be spot on, but sometimes it is quirky and comes and goes. I've found that it does take a couple of minutes to get a lock, and it seems to get and maintain a lock better if I am running the app "GPS status" or "GPS Test" in the background. A definate improvement so far, but it should get better with future releases or hopefully, the next official upgrade in operating systems, Android 2.2, also known as Froyo.
In order to install the GPS firmware, you will need to download a few things to your desktop. First, lets get the program that you are going to use if you mess anything up, because its probably a good idea to use it to reset your phone back to factory before trying to install the GPS firmware. Its called "Odin3 one-click Downloader" Here is the link to a site called XDA developers. These guys are geniuses and are mostly responsibe for the fact that we are able to do this cool techy hacking stuff. Please donate to them if possibe as thats how most of them afford to take the time to do this stuff. Ok, here is the link to download the first Odin program you need: Click on the brown link that is under the large blue text that begins with I897..........
[STOCK ROM] Odin3 One-Click Downloader and Drivers - xda-developers
1. Once you download and install this program on your desktop, open it. It will just be a smallish window that says right at the top, "Odin3 one-click Downloader" with a bunch of empty boxes and "start" and "master clear" at the bottom.
2. Turn your phone off.
3. Remove your sim card and SD micro card. Put the battery back in but DO NOT RESTART your phone.
3. Plug your usb cable into your computer.
4. Hold down BOTH volume up and volume down buttons.
5. WHILE STILL HOLDING both volume buttons down, plug your usb cable into your phone and continue to hold the volume buttons until you see your phone enter "download mode" then release the volume buttons. You will have a triangle with an android in it holding a shovel.
6. You should see a yellow box in the upper left portion of Odin on your computer that signifies that your phone has been recognized. This means that Odin sees your phone and is ready to go.
7. THIS WILL WIPE YOUR PHONE COMPLETELY BACK TO FACTORY SETTINGS AND ERASE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE, APPS, DATA, ETC. You can get your apps back from the market, and as long as your pictures and whatever you want to keep are saved on your Micro SD card that you removed, you should be all set. This will not wipe your internal SD card that comes with the phone, so you don't have to worry about losing any data there. I've also done this with the Micro SD card still in the phone and it hasn't ever erased anything there either, so if you forget to remove it, don't have a heart attack, you'll probably be ok.
8. Click "start" on Odin and wait for the program to run and the phone to reboot. It will be like it was out of the box. You can remove the usb cable. Congradulations, you are now ready for the GPS fix, and you also know how to fix your phone should you ever do anything to mess it up. Even if it wont turn on, or is otherwise unusable, you should always be able to get into download mode and "flash" your phone with this program to fix it.
If your GPS is working fine, you can skip this step and go scroll down to the part that starts with the 1.2ghz overclock. Gps fix is going to be a similar procedure with a slighly different program. Its going to be Odin again, but it will look a little different and this version is "Odin3_v1.0". You can download the new version of Odin that you need here: (download and save to your desktop again)
Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!
When you open it, it will be a bigger version, with more boxes. Don't be intimidated, its easy to use.
You only need one file for the GPS firmware fix. You can get it here:Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!
Again download and save to desktop or someplace you can easily find it. Once the icon appears on your desktop, it is going to be a zip file. Right click on the file and select "extract". Again, try to extract it to your desktop or someplace easy for you to find. Once you click "extract", its going to ask you for a password. The password is either "samsung-firmwares.com", which is what worked for me, or its "samfirmware.com" which has reportedly worked for others. Click ok and it will upzip the file and save it for you. Now it's pretty much the same steps as before, only one difference. Go to the new Odin3_v1.0 that yuo have open on your computer and click the button that says "PDA". Do not check the box next to "PDA", just click the actual PDA button. You will need to locate the file you just unzipped. It will be named "I897UCJH2". Select it and open it, it will show you another file named the same thing, select that and open it, and you should see another file named the same thing again, but it should end in ".tar" When you select that file and click open again, it will load the file into the "PDA" area of your Odin program. Now, follow the same step by step instructions as before.
1. Turn off your phone again, make sure sim and micro sd are removed.
2. Boot into recovery mode again, using the volume buttons and usb cable. Odin will show another yellow box in the upper left and some writing in the lower right message box that says your phone has been "added"
3. Click start, let the program run, it will reboot your phone after its done and bam, your GPS should be working like a champ!! Remember, your phone is back to factory so you will need to relog into google and all that other jazz!! On one phone that I did this to, (yes, I have done these things to multiple Samsung Captivates) the GPS seemed to not be working right away, and I had to download and run an app called "GPS staus" in the background, but after that, everything seemed to work great with no gps status app needed. Just FYI. This seemed like an anomoly and I'm thinking you will not need to do this yourself. Probably just a braincramp i was having that day. Now that your GPS is working like it should have to begin with, if you want to make your phone run silky smooth, fast and sexy,
continue on to the next section.1.2 GHz Overclock and Lagfix!!
Once again, our friends at XDA have made this so incredibly easy!
Overclocking just means that you are taking the processor that came with the phone, and boosting its speed from 1.0Ghz to 1.2Ghz, thus increasing the speed of your phone 20%. Makes things run smoother and faster and I have had absolutely zero issues with battery life or anything else. For what its worth, I use Launcher Pro, which for those that don't know is just a program that changes your user interface (for the better, tons of people use it, give it a try) and seems to make things run a little smoother than the "touchwiz" interface that the phone comes with. There are many other posts on Laucher Pro and another called ADW launcher which is pretty cool.
Also, there has been a "lagfix" developed, which in a real big nutshell just means that the phone "lags" or runs slowly when trying to do certain things, (like browsing apps in the marketplace) because of the way the system is using the files on the phone. The lagfix changes the way the phone uses, or reads, the files, and makes it MUCH snappier and smoother running. Fortunately, the geniuses at XDA have put these both into one file that you can install on your phone. Again, this is all stuff that I have done myself and currently have running on my phone, together with the GPS firmware, and have no issues what so ever.
Now, this particular program is going to give NUMEROUS things all together in one package. It is going to root your phone for you automatically, so you don't have to, it is going to remove all the JUNK At&t apps and bloatware that is on your phone. It is going to remove the annoying At&t sounds that play when you restart you phone and shut it down, it will install the app "Titanium Backup" which is awesome and lets you backup all the apps on your phone at any given time. After you back them up with Titanium backup, even if you go back to a full factory wipe, you can reinstall titanium backup and put the apps back that you had on your phone before the factory wipe! Pretty cool, I know.
The file will also give you a few other things. You can read the whole list on the page you will land on from the link I give you. Remember, after you install this file, if you decide you don't the changes it makes to your phone (which probably means you are crazy
) then you can start at the beginning of this page and use the first odin program again and it will once again, put everything back the way it was when you first took your phone out of its shiny new box. No harm, no foul. Here is the link to the XDA page with the link to download the file: Download the brown link that says "best version" and save to your desktop or some easy place to find.★ ☆ ★ SRE v1.3.1c ★ ☆ ★ | Root + 1.2GHz OC/UV + MobileAP + USB Tether + LagFix - xda-developers
(There is another program like this called "Unleash the Beast" which is popular. It is a little different in what it gives you, no 1.2ghz overclock, but if you want to google it and check it out, you can install it with this same method here. People report it makes their phone run faster and there seem to be few if any bugs with it as well)
Once you download it, and it shows on your desktop, right click on the file and select "rename". Change the name of the file to "update" not "update.zip". When you put the file on your phone, it will automatically add the ".zip" If you name the file "update.zip", when you move it to your phone, it will automatically name the file "update.zip.zip" and wont recognize the file when it tries to install it. And now........
1. Go to "setting" in your phone.
2. From there select "applications"
3. From there select "USB settings"
4. Select "mass storage"
5. Go back one screen to usb settings and select "Development"
6. Check the box that says "USB Debugging"
Now you are ready to load the file onto your phone. Plug your phone into your computer, it will tell you that your usb is connected and that you are in debugging mode. Reminder, in order to do this, I am assuming you have the samsung captivate drivers installed on your computer that will let your phone communicate with your computer. You can find the drivers almost anywhere by googling "samsung captivate usb drivers". Download them and install them to your computer. So.....now that your usb is connected and you are in debugging mode, slide down the notification bar on your phone and click the box that says "USB connected". It will give you a pop up, click the "mount" box. At least one "autoplay" window, usually two should open on your computer that asks you what you want to do for "removable disk D" and another for "removable disk F". In "removable disk F", select "open folder to view files". Once the files window opens, all you have to do is drag the "update" file that is on your desktop, and drop it in with the rest of the files in the window. (This place that you are dropping the file is called the "root file". You will read things from other people and when they say put it in your root file, this is what they mean) Should only take a moment to transfer. Once it transfers, unplug your phone, and power it down. Now that you have the file on your phone, you are going to boot your phone into "recovery" mode. Easy.
1. With the phone turned off, press and hold your volume up and volume down buttons at the same time.
2. While holding both buttons down, press and hold your power button until you see your phone booting up, then release all three buttons.
3. It will boot to a black screen with blue and yellow writing. Using the volume keys, scroll down to the second selection, "reinstall packages".
4. Once you are on the "reinstall packages" selection, hit the power button and wait for the files to load and your phone to reboot. You will notice no At&t animation flying across the screen, as well as no annoying sound, and all the At&t "junk" is gone!! Also, you are overclocked to 1.2Ghz, but there is still one more thing we need to do to make that complete. However, first............
5. After the phone completely starts back up, go to your applications and find the app that says "SL4A"
6. Open the app and select "LagFix_Ext4.sh" This is the of course, the lagfix that will make your phone run faster! You can choose to run the "ext2" lagfix, but in my experience with both, (yes I've tried both) there is no real difference other than some people say the ext2 lagfix may not be stable. Supposedly the ext4 is better and I've not had a single hiccup with it.
7. Once that runs, if memory serves me right, your phone will reboot. Go to the market and download an app called "Overclockwidget" once its installed, go to any of the home screens on your phone and long press, until window pops up where you can select "widgets".
8. Select the overclockwidget and once its on your screen, give it a minute or two to start up. A screen will pop asking you to grant "superuser permission" (yes, you are a superuser now!!
). Give it permission and let it finish starting up. Once the widget finishes loading, you should be able to open the widget and set your clock speed up to 1.2 Ghz. (it will read "max: 1200000, which is 1.2Ghz. There you go! You have now "flashed" your phone!! You're GPS should be functional!! You are overclocked to 1.2Ghz, which means your phones processor is 20% faster!! AND you have the lagfix installed!! AND you're a superuser!!!!! AND titanium backup is installed for you so you can back everything up!!!! AND all the At&t junk is gone!!! And other things!!
If you have a problem with the GPS initially, try the GPS Status app in the background once. I don't think you'll need to though. As far as battery life goes, I haven't noticed ANY drop in battery life from any of these things or any other bugs at all for that matter!
Hope this helps, if you liked it or any of it was useful, feel free to click the "thanks" button at the bottom and feel free to ask any questions!!
P.S. My brain is salad at the moment, so I'll come back to proof read this tomorrow to see if I forgot anything or messed anything up. If anyone who knows more about this stuff than I do sees something out of place or that is incorrect, please correct me. I'm not a programmer and don't pretend to have an intimate working knowledge of android. This stuff is just from my experience poking around, reading things from people smarter than me, and trying things out for the first time while crossing my fingers!!
Here are a few screen shots from the apps "GPS Status" and "GPS Test" showing my locks while I was driving. I also included an actual Navigation screen shot as well so you know I'm not just standing in a field and am actually Driving.
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