GPS Fix for Samsung Galaxy S phones
Do you have a Galaxy S phone? Do you have GPS issues? Well, you’re not alone. In fact, Samsung has heard the pleas for a fix, and may be releasing something to remedy the problems in a coming OTA update… but until then, why not take matters into your own hands?
The brilliant minds over at xda-forums have come up with a fix for you and your GPS-crippled device. It doesn’t seem that hard, as long as you take a few deep breaths and embrace your inner geek. If you want to take a crack at it, check out the thread here.
If any of our Galaxy S users out there are having GPS trouble and take crack at this fix, let us know the results in the comments below!
[via xda-developers]
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August 4th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I posted this on CNET and I’m posting it here also.
I got my Samsung Galaxy S phone (AT&T Captivate) 2 days ago had this problem. The problem seem to be in how AT&T programmed some settings in the phone, not the phone itself. I got the problem fixed by doing the following.
Step 1. Go to ‘Settings’, choose ‘Location & Security’, uncheck “Use Wireless Networks”.
Step 2. Open the dialer (the green phone button) and enter the following: *#*#1472365#*#* . Doing this will get you to a menu which allows you to change the default GPS setting programmed by AT&T.
?Step 3 In the LbsTestMode menue, go to ‘SUPL/CP Settings’ and change the ‘SUPL Secure Socket’ to OFF. (This alone seem to improve the speed of GPS locking.)
Step 4 In the LBSTestMode menu, find ?SUPL/CP Settings? and change the SERVER & PORT to supl.google.com and port 7276 (DO NOT use www. in front of supl !) => I’m not sure if this really did anything. This was commonly suggested by other people who claimed that this fixed the problem. It looks like the original default setting which uses SERVER ‘www.spirent-lcs.com’ and PORT ‘7275′ seem to work fine or choosing the ‘Server FQDN Type’ to Auto Config seem to work also. I personally believe that all three works fine. You can try to play with this setting.
Step 5 In the LBSTestMode menu, find ‘Application Settings’ and Change the Operation Mode to MS Based. This allows the phone to use combination of GPS signal and location data from network instead of GPS only. This should help to speed up locking.
Step 6. Turn off the phone and reboot the phone.
Step 7 Go to settings > Location & Security. Re Check the box next to “Use Wireless Networks”
With all of the above, my phone sees more satellites, locks quickly, and looks very accurate. Google MAP, Google Earth, and Google Navigation all worked fine even when I was driving in my car.
August 25th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
ATT waived the restocking fee when I returned my Captivate. Luckily, I already tried all the available “fixes” before my 30 days was up. Because none of them truly work, and the fact that Samsung has only promised to “optimize” the GPS, I recommend all those with this phone to return it immediately. Don’t get stuck with this device if you can help it, unless you have no use for GPS, email, and files with long file extensions. If Samsung actually gets the GPS to a usable state, I would consider purchasing the Captivate again, as, other than the GPS issue, it seems like a nice phone.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
“unless you have no use for GPS, email, and files with long file extensions.”
So… the GPS is getting fixed, I haven’t heard about any email problems and NO ONE have use for 16 character file extensions, file extensions are usually 2-4 characters.
August 26th, 2010 at 10:11 am
I changed the settings after returning my galaxy s and getting a replacement and it works fine now the gps on the original diddnt work at all after about a week of it working and it diddnt work on the replacement either until now im on tmobile in the uk