Help GPS issues?

AlexanderA said:

I think you should probably atleast spell it right to be taken seriously

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Uh, yeah. I knew it looked wrong but Firefox wouldn't correct it for me (and now it does. Grrr). And wouldn't you know, when you search for the misspelled version, Google turns up a billion pages with it spelled wrong too. So oops and thanks for the catch. Fixed now.

Okay.... some of you may have now realized Froyo the 'Official' version is now available from the UK.

What concerns me is this is a week early (Nov 11th was the date I was told) and if it includes the NEW ROM which has alterations to RFS.

bbl........

Beards said:

Okay.... some of you may have now realized Froyo the 'Official' version is now available from the UK.

What concerns me is this is a week early (Nov 11th was the date I was told) and if it includes the NEW ROM which has alterations to RFS.

bbl........

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If there any easy was to check the filesystem type?

The new version seems to be out in Sweden too JPA/JPP/JP4

any new reports on the gps performance since the update?

stew007 said:

any new reports on the gps performance since the update?

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I'm very curious as well. I would like to buy a unlocked galaxy s, but I will not if the gps is not fixed. I tried the samung captivate and the gps was crap. I can't belive how anyone would want this phone or give it any sort of positive rating with such a huge problem.

If this issue can be fixed by the froyo upgrage, this phone would be great.

motionxxusxx said:

I'm very curious as well. I would like to buy a unlocked galaxy s, but I will not if the gps is not fixed. I tried the samung captivate and the gps was crap. I can't belive how anyone would want this phone or give it any sort of positive rating with such a huge problem.

If this issue can be fixed by the froyo upgrage, this phone would be great.

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Hah, sounds like you hate it before even owning it (why do you want to buy one exactly then?). In my opinion, the SGS is still the best android phone available right now, at any price. And the GPS isnt 'a huge problem' for everyone I suppose. My GPS is perfectly accurate and very reliable. With stock Eclair ROM and a few custom tweaks. All I hope for is that Froyo doesnt somehow *break* the GPS functionality.

*rates his SGS 5 out of 5*

AlexanderA said:

Hah, sounds like you hate it before even owning it (why do you want to buy one exactly then?). In my opinion, the SGS is still the best android phone available right now, at any price. And the GPS isnt 'a huge problem' for everyone I suppose. My GPS is perfectly accurate and very reliable. With stock Eclair ROM and a few custom tweaks. All I hope for is that Froyo doesnt somehow *break* the GPS functionality.

*rates his SGS 5 out of 5*

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I use gps everyday and the captivate is basically the same phone as the galaxy s. The GPS was useless, otherwise the phone was great. I find it hard to believe that the gps is working great on your phone when it is a known issue.

Looking much better on the update. I used My Tracks for my walk home from work and it locked very well. There's a few odd bits but they are where I walk through narrow city streets with little sky on show. Very pleased!

motionxxusxx said:

I use gps everyday and the captivate is basically the same phone as the galaxy s. The GPS was useless, otherwise the phone was great. I find it hard to believe that the gps is working great on your phone when it is a known issue.

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I was aware of the issue before I bought my SGS a bit over a month ago, so from the start I made regular MyTracks recordings. At first they were messy, with lines hovering randomly across the roads, often being seen on the wrong road, weird jumps due to lost locks, drifting badly when stopping or turning, etc. Just like many others have reported.

I spent a fair bit of time trying out a lot of different settings and 3rd party utilities. Now my unit performs same or better to any other smartphone with gps. Here are a number of my tracks: Google Maps (enable sattelite view and zoom in to see the bike lanes I was on that google maps doesnt show as roads. Bikes dont ride on the car-lane in most parts)

Theres is definitely a problem with SGS and GPS but it appears to be fixable. These tracks arent flukes, i havent had a single error or loss of lock while tracking since I found settings that worked for me. And I use gps quite a lot (i dont tend to record car rides where I also use navi software, but it works fine. I'm not sure what the root of the issue is, i'm thinking maybe some sort of driver/intialization or cache problem but thats just a guess.

But I understand your position very well, its the same I was in when looking for a new phone and finding the SGS to be very attractive, except all the people on forums reporting bad gps performance. It was actually early in this thread that I debated my concerns with the folks here, and I now dare say it was actually our good and always excellently informed friend Mr Beards that made me pull the trigger and get one, instead of waiting for the Desire HD. And I still thank him for that, as I wouldnt want to trade my beloved SGS for a DesireHD now that its out

So there, to give a bit of balance to all the negative talk on forums about SGS & GPS & LAG, I felt like adding a more positive report. But the problems of both gps and lag are definately real, I just found them both to be fixable, and I havent owned a smartphone yet that didnt have some sort of issue so; as long as I can fix them I can accept that.

AlexanderA said:

I was aware of the issue before I bought my SGS a bit over a month ago, so from the start I made regular MyTracks recordings. At first they were messy, with lines hovering randomly across the roads, often being seen on the wrong road, weird jumps due to lost locks, drifting badly when stopping or turning, etc. Just like many others have reported.

I spent a fair bit of time trying out a lot of different settings and 3rd party utilities. Now my unit performs same or better to any other smartphone with gps. Here are a number of my tracks: Google Maps (enable sattelite view and zoom in to see the bike lanes I was on that google maps doesnt show as roads.)

Theres is definitely a problem with SGS and GPS but it appears to be fixable. These tracks arent flukes, i havent had a single error or loss of lock while tracking since I found settings that worked for me. And I use gps quite a lot (i dont tend to record car rides where I also use navi software, but it works fine. I'm not sure what the root of the issue is, i'm thinking maybe some sort of driver/intialization or cache problem but thats just a guess.

But I understand your position very well, its the same I was in when looking for a new phone and finding the SGS to be very attractive, except all the people on forums reporting bad gps performance. It was actually early in this thread that I debated my concerns with the folks here, and I now dare say it was actually our good and always excellently informed friend Mr Beards that made me pull the trigger and get one, instead of waiting for the Desire HD. And I still thank him for that, as I wouldnt want to trade my beloved SGS for a DesireHD now that its out

So there, to give a bit of balance to all the negative talk on forums about SGS & GPS & LAG, I felt like adding a more positive report. But the problems of both gps and lag are definately real, I just found them both to be fixable, and I havent owned a smartphone yet that didnt have some sort of issue so; as long as I can fix them I can accept that.

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Those tracks look pretty accurate. I guess we don't really know why it works sometimes and not others. I'm currently using the iphone 4 which I love. I'm just a smartphone junky and would like an android as well. I do like to develop, so I wouldn't mind putting some android apps together. When using the iphone 4, my gps locks within 2 seconds, even while sitting in my house by the window. The iphone 4, is the best gps I have used in any phone, so that is what I'm comparing everything else to.

stew007 said:

any new reports on the gps performance since the update?

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Looking better to me, sometimes a little slow to lock, but then gets more locks at higher snr levels.

just done a simple route using google navigation in the car and gps works much better...at least on my machine. horrible lag though, seems disappointing that i'm going to have to install a lagfix again after all this.

cleanermonkey said:

Well Just tried out the GPS while driving and tracking it at the same time... I'ts NOT looking good, it is rather grim I'm afraid

GPS test It actually found and locked on to some sats quite fast... but then it just kept loosing fix and stuff :-(

Im running the Android 2.2 (available from KIES for a very short time in scandinavia) on the SGS I9000
Froyo.XWJP6
Base XXJPM

I suspect that IF Samsung have included a GPS "fix" all they have done is Improve how navigation hugs to the streets.

The whole user experience of the Phone is better... its smoother and they fixed alot of things (just not the GPS) it still lags and hangs sometimes and it isn't really much for some combinations of multitasking. f.ex Installing an app and doing other stuff at the same time can sometimes cause it to stutter and lag but not as much as before 2.2
I really hope that the reason 2.2 was pulled again was for 2 things... To really FIX the GPS (still hoping) AND the to FIX the "file system" (cause of the lag)

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This is all very sad news. I was hoping Froyo would save us and fix the GPS. Let me ask, what hardware revision is your phone? I have a Captivate Rev0.4 and these seem to have chronic GPS probs. I'd like to know how many newer revisions Samsung has quietly released since I got this phone.

Hi Mechromancer
I have no idea what my Hardware rev. is... It is the GT i9000 but I don't see any hardware rev. (behind the battery)
But I just want to point out that the Froyo version I'm running is the one that was pulled again from Kies after a day or so, reason unknown. (Only reason I got it was that I had a hangover and didn't want to take a walk with my GF soI decided to stay home and put some music and videos on my phone and there it was the new froyo update.)
I'm pretty sure the file system hasn't been fixed on this version and that they havn't fixed GPS (properly)

Thank you for your reply Cleanermonkey. Samsung's software support is a bit lacking on one of the most prolific Androids worldwide. Heck, we should be getting Android 2.3 this month instead of just catching up with 2.2. Gingerbread come out November 11th .

I love the Android platform, but I don't think I'll ever get another Samsung.

Mechromancer said:

Thank you for your reply Cleanermonkey. Samsung's software support is a bit lacking on one of the most prolific Androids worldwide. Heck, we should be getting Android 2.3 this month instead of just catching up with 2.2. Gingerbread come out November 11th .

I love the Android platform, but I don't think I'll ever get another Samsung.

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The only phones that get new android versions as soon as they appear are the ones marketed by Google. Ironically the next official Google-phone may just be a Samsung Other brands always need time to integrate their own software and drivers after the new OS is done.

motionxxusxx said:

I'm very curious as well. I would like to buy a unlocked galaxy s, but I will not if the gps is not fixed. I tried the samung captivate and the gps was crap. I can't belive how anyone would want this phone or give it any sort of positive rating with such a huge problem.

If this issue can be fixed by the froyo upgrage, this phone would be great.

Click to expand...

I was also checking this phone just today, the screen is really awesome. But I couldn't bring myself to buy one knowing there's a GPS issue. I wish the Lemon Law gets applied to all products, it's unfair for companies to sell defective products.

Another weird episode I had is when I asked Samsung's customer representative at Causeway Point (Singapore) last month, at the Samsung Service Centre, whether the GPS of their Galaxy S is already fixed. The guy told me there has never been an issue with Galaxy S GPS.

ghed said:

Another weird episode I had is when I asked Samsung's customer representative at Causeway Point (Singapore) last month, at the Samsung Service Centre, whether the GPS of their Galaxy S is already fixed. The guy told me there has never been an issue with Galaxy S GPS.

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This just goes towards what I've been thinking all along - it's not a hardware problem, it's something in the implementation/software/firmware AT&T has applied to the phone.

Well i think and i hope that my theory about a hardware fault has been proved wrong.
Updated two days ago to jpo. Unbranded galaxy s on orange uk.
Gps seems better. Dare i say it very good.
Two days of testing and i am much more positive about the phone.
If it is fixed then this phone has just secured top spot.

I've tried eight Galaxy S now and not one had a working GPS, max locks with around 6 sats and they all keep losing them, they got no locks at all in-car.

If it is a hardware problem then there are millions of dodgy handsets out there, Samsung will never admit to it.

GPS is broken, how some people have it working is a mystery.

I'm set to upgrade my phone before Christmas, if Samsung still can't get their act together by then on their Galaxy S or Nexus 2 then I'll settle for HTC DHD. My first choice is Nexus 2 - provided there are no significant issues on the phone. Second choice would be Galaxy S provided GPS is fixed and Nexus 2 is still not out in Singapore. Third choice is HTC Desire HD - it's my last choice because of the lousy battery life.

M

Mine works very well with the right settings, as my maps a few posts ago shows. Yesterday i installed Froyo and now it works well also without additional tools. Typically when i turn it on it sees 10-12 sats with 8-9 locks almost instantly. Tracking is perfect. So i still think its a software issue. Atleast mine does not have a hardware fault as far as i can tell and i use gps a lot. If anyone thinks they have broken hardware they should probably return it. If gps really does not work on your device this shoulndt be too hard.

reinbeau said:

This just goes towards what I've been thinking all along - it's not a hardware problem, it's something in the implementation/software/firmware AT&T has applied to the phone.

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I'm pretty sure it's NOT AT&T's fault as the i9000 in scandinavia (amongst others in the UK, Germany etc.) has the same problems (and AT&T have been no where near them)

I love the Android platform, but I don't think I'll ever get another Samsung.

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Same here but I'm really running out of manufactures to buy from...

Nokia - (N900) Let me down when they cut Maemo 5 after a very short run.
HTC - (HTC HD w/ Winmo 6.1) Kept promising upgrades to win 6.5 but they never came and they moved on to Android.
Sony Ericsson - (G900) Let me down when they cut UQ 3.x AND their android devices were untill just resently still on Androiod 1.6 (and now only upgraded to 2.1 not 2.2)
LG - meh, never made a phone I found interesting. (well LG Optimus Q looked nice but that was only available in Korea)
motorola - The phone I found interesting was not that easy to get in Denmark.
Apple - I don't swing that way

Yesterday I "upgraded to the official new Froyo 2.2
Baseband I9000XXJPP
Build # XWJPA

and this is what the GPS looks like when doing nothing but just standing still down on the street GPS Freakout

definitely still no "FIX" thats for sure