Help Samsung Galaxy S2 GPS Poor Reception - FIXED (Hardware)

[campmountainman]

My wife's Galaxy S2 GPS was failing to find the phones position in Google Maps. After some research and installing the GPS Test App
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chartcross.gpstest&hl=en

I discovered that the phone was lucky to pickup 2 satellites and then very poorly. I read all the articles on rooting the phone and installing various fixes but our problem suggested a hardware problem.
Following the instructions on the fixit site Samsung Galaxy S II Motherboard Replacement - iFixit
I only disassembled till I got the back of the phone off which contains the aerials.
Low and behold I found a small piece of material covering the connector on the phone back. It sat between the main board and the back of the phone preventing the GPS aerial connectors touching. The piece was shaped for the connector so at some point in the manufacture it was put here deliverately

I removed the piece of paper which as not stuck on in any way. Put the phone together and ran GPS Test.

Wow! GPS Test lit up like a Christmas Tree and found its position within seconds.

This will of course void your warranty.

I hope this will help others with this maddening problem.

 

[iowabowtech]

Wow, interesting stuff man. Thanks for the pic too.

 

[erehwon13]

Just in case anyone finds this thread in a search, I had a GPS problem with my S2 but it appears to have been a firmware fault.

I had been using OmniROM KitKat on my S2 for the past few months. I'd been very pleased with it and it was very stable. Unfortunately a few weeks ago I started having problems with my GPS. It had real difficulty obtaining a fix. Like you, GPS Test only showed a couple of satellites.

I tried new updates to OmniROM but they made no difference. I did some research and tried many suggestions but the best I good get was a variable fix.

As a last resort I flashed back to stock Jelly Bean and Hey Presto! the GPS worked again. I don't know why the GPS stopped working in OmniROM but it all seems to be fine now. I had hopped it wouldn't be a hardware problem as I didn't want to have to open up my phone.

Hope this helps someone else fix their GPS.

 

[thewizzarrd89]

Hello! Could you please indicate with some sort of arrows in the picture where that thing was, please? For the less tech savy of us ) And, have you had any more gps problems since? Thank you!

 

[ironass]

Hello! Could you please indicate with some sort of arrows in the picture where that thing was, please? For the less tech savy of us ) And, have you had any more gps problems since? Thank you!

Hello and welcome to Android Forums thewizzarrd89!

Before embarking on complicated hardware repairs, you may want to give the GPS Fix - Dummies Guide a go first.