GPS no fix fixed - Xperia Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everyone just thought I would share my own experience in case it will help anyone. My z started being very erratic with a GPS fix, navigon would lose fix every 15 seconds I used GPS test and it only found 3/4 sats. Flashed other ROM same issue, downgraded to 4.3 same problem. Thought it was hardware so I took of the back and removed the GPS module, on there was two pins that make contact with the GPS module and one was slightly lower than the other, I gently pulled them up so they made good contact with the GPS module, cleaned the contacts on the GPS module put it back together and hey presto almost instant fix on 11/14 sats. I did drop the phone and also had a bad habit of flexing it sometimes also worth mentioning one motherboard screw on the left was fully out when I took the back of. Hope this will help anyone with similar issue.

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GPS remarkable observation

Guys,
I spent 2 weeks of holidays (my wife almost left me for that) mostly trying to find out why GPS performance on my P970 is so poor, losing satellites fixes every so often and sometimes no fix at all although 'seeing' satellites. I did not find a 'real' solution, even after tests on both mostly Huexxx 7 and lately boype's 0909, too.
Best results now on boype's 0909 CM7 but with adapted gps.conf and gps_brcm_conf.xml. Nevertheless, the result is still disappointing, far away from satisfying.
However, during all these checks, I found that satellite's receiption is depending on the way I hold the device in my hands, at least on MY device. Whenever I hold a finger on the top left of the chassis (just above the location where the GPS chip is located, see pictures), then receiption improves by 0 up to 14 db (!!!).
Also the number of 'seen' and 'used' birds increases from 6 to 10 easily!!! However, the fix did not become more stable through that.
Pls check on your devices if you can verify the same behaviour.
If so, what could be the reason (i do not put any pressure on the device)? And is there anything that we can do to make this improvement permanent, i.e. put a piece of 'aluminium foil' between the back lid and the device or something similiar?
Let me know your remarks, guys.
No problem at all. Riding on the tram right now. Fix on 12 in few seconds. Sure it's not because of your position? And 6 is enough to fix the position.
@eighty-four
I appreciate your info, and you are surely right it is depending on my position. My question was a different one though: Do you observe the same reaction as soon as you put the finger on top of the device; i.e. increase of signal strength?
BTW You attached an impressive picture, would like to aks you are you still on AOKP beta 1.1 ICS 4.0.4 and how do your files gps.conf and gps_brcm_conf.xml look like? Can you share them?
AOKP 1.1, no any GPS fixes
Hard to say about reaction while on move. But didn't noticed any noticeable changes.
Can't check now - I'm in home.
I've been using Marvel v9 since released, with the GPS "Tweaks" installed too.
I'm getting GPS signal, sometimes really fast, some others i need to wait for a couple of minutes (maximum 3 minutes).
There are certain times though, that it doesnt lock no matter what, just like in your situation. It manages to find many sattelites (7+) with an average decent signal strength but it refuses to get a gps fix location.
I believe it has to do with the temperature of the chip (i couldnt get easy GPS fix at winter) because now that summer passed by and used my GPS a lot, i had no issues... might be the clouds, might be the stars alignment and zodiacs ... i really dont know.
It's not that accurate and fast though for city driving. Some turns are being announced way too late (Sygic Aura) and the error treshold is about 10meters mostly, rarely goes down at 5meters.
I guess it's a chip manufacturing bull**** rather than a "case construction" or antenna problem.
@morx
I just wanted to check if others can verify better receiption when holding finger on top.
I agree it seems a hw or engineering defect, nevertheless I am trying to optimize the settings in order to compaensate at least partially.
Interesting you mention the temperature: In my research I came across a relationship between temperature and gps accuracy. Our (and any other gps chip) uses a oscillator hw module for precision timing. These oscillators' accuracies depend on the temperature and are measuered in PPM. There is also a setting in the gps_brcm_conf.xml that refers to this, it is "FrqPlan". The usual value in CM7 is "FRQ_PLAN_26MHZ_2PPM_26MHZ_300PPB". However, other values do also work, like "FRQ_PLAN_26MHZ_2PPM_26MHZ_100PPB".
You can check details in THIS post.
Would be interesting to determine if different values lead to better results.
I had no clue that chip temperature had a side effect on GPS fix !!
When i was writing my concern about that, i was feeling stupid until i saw your redirection to that post...
hmmm there are many factors which can be put on the table about optimization and troubleshooting.
Later on, i'll give a try keeping the cellphone with both hands, different angles, one handed on top/bottom etc...
Interesting thoughts.
I'm on CM10 nightly and always had blazing fast fixes until yesterday. I activated GPS in my car and after 3 minutes it fixed (in Osmand), after some more minutes the fix got currently lost.
Due to my big custom 3500 mAh battery I couldn't place my phone in the cradle therefore I simply laid it onto my dashboard. Maybe because of this the signals were harder to receive.
I will switch back to the normal battery today and try to test your variant.
Sent from my LG-P970 using xda app-developers app

GPS cant lock

My gps cant lock without enabling.wireless connections (wifi, 3g). So im asking if someone else is having that problem. Im using 4.1.2 jelly bean
you are not using the gps but its wifi! so i fixed it by:
you can always do the gps antena hack.
i just opened mine and looked for gps contact point
its located above the rear camera.
theres a little coper spring like metal tha conects the main board
to the rear case of the phone.
if you examine it well.
the main reason we cant connect or lock that fast
its because the contact copper is not touching the small antenna on the rear case
that why soldering it or putting some folded paper(easy) bellow that copper spring will fully
push the conntacts between the mobo and ant.
then put it all back in. and try many app for testing gps lock.
i opened mine because its so frustrating that if with0ut this hack gps will lock more than 2-5mins which is b**s***
as i sc it before dou to other problem and they pull my waranty sticker,
so now i can freely open my unit and check things out as well.
now it locks much faster than before. but to tell you
"sgy-young" is way too fast to lock location about 8-15 seconds only!
i fixed my gps, (PLUS!) my:: wifi boost range and network boosted too!
i just solder copper wires inside to do the trick.
so goodluck! and you can do it! no need to use wifi or mobile data.
just pure gps!
it'l be solve, as it solved mine!
goodluck
I dont understand why i have to do this. Why didnt samsung fixed it properly.? So you re telling me that this is a hardware problem. This sucks i dont want to open my phone
Try use "FIX GPS" (google play)

[Q] GPS Issue

Hello all,
After 2 week I bought my G800H, the GPS star to take too long to get GPS Signal. Some times more than 10 minutes
Even with 3G (H+) working well and the configuration in "High accuracy".
Other thing that happens is the GPS notification keeps blinking even when no app running.
Anyone with the same problem?
Thanks and B.R.
I have the same problem. Didnt find any solutions yet. Reboot, apps, settings. For me i could be the OS or the sensor. I have a S3 Mini and the gps signal works as a beauty!!!!
RaLq said:
Hello all,
After 2 week I bought my G800H, the GPS star to take too long to get GPS Signal. Some times more than 10 minutes
Even with 3G (H+) working well and the configuration in "High accuracy".
Other thing that happens is the GPS notification keeps blinking even when no app running.
Anyone with the same problem?
Thanks and B.R.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happened to me also few times, but it happens only when I try to use GPS in car. Outside it works without any problems and gets lock within a minute.
Sometimes in car it gets lock and then looses it after few seconds and has to reacquire it again, which takes few minutes.
Maybe there is some interference?
i've similar issue with my sm-g800 f with 3g connection disabled (ten minutes to fix), when i enable connectionless tha n 1 minute.
I my case problem is wrong server in gps conf file (north america server), but i'am in europe. I dont' know any method without root device to fix it
(changing server with right one, and reset agps data with gps test is the ony way to fix i know)
I have narrowed down my problem to Sygic BlackBox.
If I disable this addon, GPS works correctly and is able to fix quickly. When enabled, I experience poor quality of signal for the first 10-15 minutes, even with data enabled.
Create an issue with sygic, hopefully they will have some tips for me
Today I was experiencing GPS issues again but unfortunately it was not related to sygic.
I have searched around internet a found a bunch of people complaining about GPS signal on S5 mini (both single and dual sim).
Reset of AGPS data and restart helped, but that's not really useful.
Anyone else here experiencing weak GPS signal? I will try to ping Samsung support on Monday...
Here the same problem. G800h mini on my s5. poor gps fix and very inaccurate. I flashed to firmware G800HXXU1ANK2_G800HXEO1ANL1_G800HXXU1ANK2_HOME.
Anyone a solution?
[emoji20]
Poor GPS
immerzu said:
Here the same problem. G800h mini on my s5. poor gps fix and very inaccurate. I flashed to firmware G800HXXU1ANK2_G800HXEO1ANL1_G800HXXU1ANK2_HOME.
Anyone a solution?
[emoji20]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! Same problem on my S5 mini duos using MAPS ou WAZE. Any news about a solution?
It seems to be fixed for me, at least last 3 days I didn't have problems and I was able to navigate with sygic without any issues (2x 150km trips).
I tried GPS Status application and that was not able to get signal also, so I have tried to do factory reset, whether this is software related problem, but that did not help either.
So I though it might be some issue with antenna and connection to motherboard. But S5 mini does not have any bolts or anything like that, everything holds together by strong adhesive.
So I decided to heat the back side around GPS antenna (left upper corner if you are looking at the back of cell phone) with hair drier and push it hard inside when it was warm.
After that I have tried GPS Status application and it locked in 21 seconds and was able to lock on 15 satellites (Before I didn't get more then one or two satellite after 15 minutes even with data enabled).
Don't know if it will help anyone else, but might be worth a try.
that sounds interesting.
Guys, any news ou resolution about this issue? I bought mine few weeks ago and the GPS is the worst i' ever had! I can't use WAZE ou GMAPS properly because of this!!! First time this is happening to me....
Lake292 said:
It seems to be fixed for me, at least last 3 days I didn't have problems and I was able to navigate with sygic without any issues (2x 150km trips).
I tried GPS Status application and that was not able to get signal also, so I have tried to do factory reset, whether this is software related problem, but that did not help either.
So I though it might be some issue with antenna and connection to motherboard. But S5 mini does not have any bolts or anything like that, everything holds together by strong adhesive.
So I decided to heat the back side around GPS antenna (left upper corner if you are looking at the back of cell phone) with hair drier and push it hard inside when it was warm.
After that I have tried GPS Status application and it locked in 21 seconds and was able to lock on 15 satellites (Before I didn't get more then one or two satellite after 15 minutes even with data enabled).
Don't know if it will help anyone else, but might be worth a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i could fix my wifes s5 mini too with the hairdryer, thx for the idea :good:
1. remove backcover, lay it flat on a towel (face down)
2. heaten up the upper left corner (backside) as described above,
3. then push it hard down for about 5 minutes til cooldown to be sure it is fixed in position
4. profit
:laugh:
edit: before the procedure the phone received 4 to 5 weak satellites in gps test, now the phone receive 16 satellites after 10 seconds.
Glad to hear it helped to someone else also.
I know it sounds stupid but works
@dawaldi Please can you portray a picture of it?
Gesendet von meinem SM-G800H mit Tapatalk
Here is picture of the phone with the back cover opened up, there are some kind of springs and glue inside the "doors"
Personally I have pushed down both side, just to be sure.
thank you! Today I had tested on my phone. Heated with a hair dryer and then the finger pressure on the body. It is better but the pressure is not sufficient permanent.
I will test tomorrow.
Gesendet von meinem SM-G800H mit Tapatalk
Oh my god! I live in Brazil and I hve been strugling to find a solution to my GPS issue for 3months . It worked In the third attempt of pressing it down after hairdrying it!! Now it gets locked within 3 seconds inside my house! !! Thanks guys!! Im so happy!!! No I can go to short hikes and travel with it again!
CHEERS MATES!!
after 20h n back to the begining
Bad news. After 20h my gps came back to where it was.... i tried the hair dryer again a few times but with no success..... i believe i have to send it to repair
Best of luck for you guys....
Well, it worked for me ate least for 3 days... After, the same problem.how about u guys?!
borciolli said:
Well, it worked for me ate least for 3 days... After, the same problem.how about u guys?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here too!

GPS issues

So I got my note the first day it came out and a couple days latter used my GPS and noticed it was off a little, anyways I downloaded GPS status and thought it'll fix it but I never used it or tested it to see if it got fixed or not.
I used my GPS a couple days ago and the GPS seemed to be worse than last time, if I stopped at a stop sign or a light the GPS would freeze for about a minute or two and then catch up, I'd be in the highway and it'll show I was getting out in an exit even tho I was still going straight and it would really route and te route again. So is my GPS just faulty or is there a way to fix it?
Ps. I uninstalled GPS status since it looked like it made it worse
What kind of case are you using? I am using the official Samsung blue protective case and it makes my GPS barely work. As soon as I use the phone without the case my GPS locks in to 10 ft no problem.
I am using the tech 21 case from Tmobile most of the time.
All I have to do when case is on and GPS isn't working is shake the phone and it works/locks.

GPS issues, still haven't found a fixable solution after 9 months!

I've been having GPS issues with my Mi5 since I got it last July. Issue is simple - it takes a very long time to lock a signal, then it never stays locked for much longer after.
I've tried all sorts of gps.conf edits (including the recent Magisk fix), different ROMs (MIUI, LOS, RR), different MIUI firmwares, and still the same issue. Using GPS locker, it views about 25-30 satellites immediately, but can take a while to actually "use" any of those satellites.
The GPS works fine if I'm standing outside on the street (locks in about 15-20 seconds), but if I get in a car or on a bus, then it can take up to several minutes to lock and does not stayed locked for more than a few minutes. I was using my GPS on my bike and it worked fine, but as soon as I passed under a bridge, it lost signal.
I find this whole thing very strange and I've searched everywhere for a solution with no results. I almost seems like it's something hardware related but I have no idea what. Any help would be greatly appreciated. In fact, if anyone can find a solid solution for me, I'm willing to reward you with a gift. I'm serious - because it's so frustrating that I've even considered buying a whole new phone.
I really think it's an hardware problem my friend. GPS shouldn't even take 20 seconds to fix on a Snap 820. My cheap Huawei smartphone locks in literally 3-4 seconds (when it's slow) outside. Maybe the gps antenna on our Mi5 isn't well placed or doesn't have a good sensitivity compared to other devices. Flashed back the stock miui, didn't have an improvement so I think we can jump to a simple conclusion....
Hello vorsprungtechnik, got exactly the same issue as you describe, do you found something to fix this ?
its hardware problem. antenna doesnt enough. we had two choices. modify antenna or improve with software. my advice is try some custom rom because xda devolopers really good at this. i prefer Syberia Rom, give a chance. My gemini already have this rom and agps integration no any problem about GPS.

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