All things GPS

JNKS · Mar 6, 2011

I agree with the folks that received a new phone, got my Captivate in Aug, GPS never worked, random shutdowns usual issues. Called ATT was sent a replacement and its like having a completely different phone, everything about it is better and the GPS? Only word to describe it is WOW! I can be locked within seconds weather I'm at a stoplight or driving 75 down the highway, it even locks perfectly indoors. Believe me this is what this phone was supposed to be and it is truly amazing I am so happy with this phone now and you can be too with a simple call. Don't bother with all the dumb fixes and patches and all that other nonsense, just have it replaced and you wont be disappointed.

allambition · Mar 6, 2011

My GPS is still hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I wanted to use it yesterday and of course it didn't work. I stood on the street for a long time and even put the phone in my pocket, walked around for awhile and checked on it but still no lock. I can't get a new phone from AT&T as I bought mine off Ebay. So I'm screwed I guess. I will try to reflash my ROM, maybe try Serendipity (I'm on Cognition now). Does anyone know if Serendipity is better with GPS than Cognition?

LarrynKy · Mar 6, 2011

Mine works ok. But I still prefer my Garmin...

fastoy · Mar 6, 2011

JNKS said:
I agree with the folks that received a new phone, got my Captivate in Aug, GPS never worked, random shutdowns usual issues. Called ATT was sent a replacement and its like having a completely different phone, everything about it is better and the GPS? Only word to describe it is WOW! I can be locked within seconds weather I'm at a stoplight or driving 75 down the highway, it even locks perfectly indoors. Believe me this is what this phone was supposed to be and it is truly amazing I am so happy with this phone now and you can be too with a simple call. Don't bother with all the dumb fixes and patches and all that other nonsense, just have it replaced and you wont be disappointed.

Wonder what's a "new phone?" Mine is batch 1008, version 0.4.

I just updated my stock Captivate with Froyo and the GPS is unchanged: undependable, sometimes locks but will never track.

I had exchanged my first Captivate in December and have mixed emotions. The first one's GPS was solid but battery life was horrible. Now I have the reverse. I wish I had noted what batch and version the first one was.

JNKS · Mar 7, 2011

fastoy said:
Wonder what's a "new phone?" Mine is batch 1008, version 0.4.

I just updated my stock Captivate with Froyo and the GPS is unchanged: undependable, sometimes locks but will never track.

I had exchanged my first Captivate in December and have mixed emotions. The first one's GPS was solid but battery life was horrible. Now I have the reverse. I wish I had noted what batch and version the first one was.

Sorry I should have been clear this phone is a refurb batch # on it is 1007, however the att guy who helped me with it was actually pretty knowlegeable and told me the guts of the phone were replaced entirely. He said any replacement at this point would have working GPS because there was a revision to the internal hardware. I'm not an expert but he seemed to know and judging by how amazing mine is I'll take his word for it. Google maps with locked GPS blows my Garmin out of the water.

fastoy · Mar 7, 2011

JNKS said:
Sorry I should have been clear this phone is a refurb batch # on it is 1007, however the att guy who helped me with it was actually pretty knowlegeable and told me the guts of the phone were replaced entirely. He said any replacement at this point would have working GPS because there was a revision to the internal hardware. I'm not an expert but he seemed to know and judging by how amazing mine is I'll take his word for it. Google maps with locked GPS blows my Garmin out of the water.

I guess practice makes perfect with regards to rebuilding a Captivate. I've done it 3 times so far. I've got it down to about 2 hours. The 4th should even be quicker!

Here goes!

gcobb · Mar 8, 2011

I went into an AT&T store about a week ago. They had the new HTC there. I held up my Captivate next to it and loaded an app that uses GPS. They loaded in almost the exact same time. The speed of the HTC wasn't faster enough where it would make me buy it over the Samsung though. But I have things loaded on my phone that aren't on the demo too.

bimmeric · Mar 8, 2011

I just got my third captivate... and again the GPS is pretty bad.

It see's 6-8 satellites immediately, but won't lock on for at least 30seconds to a minute. When it does lock on it is inaccurate by like 30-40 meters, and then after another 30-40 seconds it finds its way over to me. Then if I use an mytracks and walk or drive around the path it traces out is terribly inaccurate, and when I use navigation it occasionally reroutes because it thinks I'm on streets parallel to the one I'm actually on. This is all with a clear sky, bad performance when indoors is expected, but it still sucks when outside.

It's frustrating, the phone would be great if everything worked, but it doesn't seem like thats gonna happen.

cmt074 · Mar 8, 2011

My first Captivate's GPS sucked. I got a replacement unit and the GPS in that phone works great - much better than my standalone Tomtom actually. It works the same in both 2.1 and 2.2. I don't see much of a difference in performance after upgrading to 2.2.

Buddha64 · Mar 8, 2011

Sending mine back to Samsung for repair. We'll see if they actually fix it.

Buddha64 · Mar 8, 2011

Sending mine (purchased Sept 2010) back to Samsung.

I called them and complained that nothing worked to get the GPS functional. I even told the rep on the phone - as she started listing the steps that "we" needed to try - that if she wanted me to get angry she could continue, or just trust that I am not an idiot and have tried ever possible trick in the book to get this thing to work. In fact, , I told her, their Restore program only works if I have another app (GPS Test) run ahead of time.

Let them figure it out. If they can't, I'll keep sending it back.

fldude99 · Mar 8, 2011

^^^What a PITA. I take it an ATT store wouldn't replace it, avoiding having to send it to Samsung? I'm thinking of trying to exchange it as well, but not really wanting to rebuild everything...although I suppose a Titanium backup/restore should make it a lot easier-assuming we can root the exchanged device

Buddha64 · Mar 8, 2011

fldude99 said:
^^^What a PITA. I take it an ATT store wouldn't replace it, avoiding having to send it to Samsung?

I bought it at Sam's Club, and AT&T has disavowed knowledge of my phone. Yeah, it bites to have to unroot and strip it down, send it off, wait, then reroot and load all my apps back on, but if it fixes the GPS once and for all, then it'll be worth it. I was told there would only be a 6 day turn-around (including shipping) - by a sales rep from some place other than Plano Texas (or the US, North America, or Western Hemisphere for that matter) where I am supposed to send it to.

I'm wondering, with that turn around, are they just replacing the guts, or are they really going to attempt repair? We'll see.

fldude99 · Mar 8, 2011

^^^IMO they will send you a refurbished unit

Franceso · Mar 8, 2011

I went to ATT today to try to get a replacement Captivate with a WORKING GPS. I was surprised that ATT said that Samsung told ATT that a non working GPS does not qualify for a replacement phone. I have had one shutdown on the phone and if it occurs more often that qualifies for a replacement. My phone is not rooted and I waited patiently until the 2.2 upgrade which made the GPS worse on my phone. All I know is that I bought a phone in Aug 2010 that was advertised with a WORKING GPS and mine does not work. If ATT or Samsung does not resolve this then I will complain to the consumer protection division at the state Attorney General's Office and ask them to resolve the issue which is a working Captivate or swapping the phone to another brand. I have had good luck in the past with the consumer protection division and hopefully they will come through again. I like the phone very much but I want a good working GPS that I paid for.

Frank

askpcguy · Mar 8, 2011

I know most of you here do not want to see this but there is word of another mapping application called telenav which is free for at least basic navigation. Meaning find a point of interest, navigate to it then navigate back "home".

[APP] Telenav 6.2 (basic navigation is now FREE) - xda-developers

You'd have to use adb to push the apk file to /system/apps because the apk does not have an installer. Does not require root, at least as far as I know.

fldude99 · Mar 8, 2011

^^Why use anything to push the apk file anywhere? It just installs itself.

P.S. This is a GREAT find by the OP at XDA

gcobb · Mar 8, 2011

There are fixes for GPS issues, one of which worked for me. I think part of the problem is that people sit in their homes trying to use GPS and it doesn't work like that. Read some of the articles, learn how GPS works and see if it makes any sense. The random shut down issue warrants a replacement phone. Call Samsung, not AT&T.

selmerdave · Mar 8, 2011

Got my Captivate in January, I remember first time using GPS in Nav it took 25 minutes to get the first lock and less than a minute to lose it. It slowly got better, never became great but was passable if not entirely reliable.

After 2.2 update (factory) and hard-reset GPS was entirely unusable again. After about a week now it has settled down and is working fairly well, but nowhere near as reliable for my position as my Garmin.

Dave

SuFuCru · Mar 8, 2011

askpcguy said:
I know most of you here do not want to see this but there is word of another mapping application called telenav which is free for at least basic navigation. Meaning find a point of interest, navigate to it then navigate back "home".

[APP] Telenav 6.2 (basic navigation is now FREE) - xda-developers

You'd have to use adb to push the apk file to /system/apps because the apk does not have an installer. Does not require root, at least as far as I know.

Awesome find! I used SWM to push it, tested it out and got an instant lock. I'll test it out on my next drive.

BTW, reading on XDA, they think that since we're on AT&T and not T-Mobile, we won't get charged for premium use, but I don't know about that. I went into settings and it had my phone number stored. I don't wanna chance it. The free basic navigation should be just fine.

fldude99 · Mar 8, 2011

There's no need to do anything but go to ota.telenav.com/tn on the phone's browser and proceed. Installed for me with no problem. Works a charm too

Sheba611 · Mar 9, 2011

I flashed Firefly 2.4 to my Captivate and the GPS locked up quick from inside my apartment and was accurate too.

askpcguy · Mar 9, 2011

Because I downloaded the file with my computer and used adb to install the app on my phone.

fldude99 said:
There's no need to do anything but go to ota.telenav.com/tn on the phone's browser and proceed. Installed for me with no problem. Works a charm too

fldude99 · Mar 9, 2011

I've read I don't know how many posts of people getting gps locks indoors. For one thing, I don't know how that's possible without a view of the satellites, but for another-who cares if it can get a lock indoors or not? So far I can still navigate to the bathroom at all hours of the day (that could become an issue in a few years however)

fldude99 · Mar 9, 2011

^^oh ok. I just went to the ota site with the phone's browser and it installed in a minute. Pretty cool maps app too I must say

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