Tighten the little Phillips screws inside the phone. Remove the battery for a cold start. Signal levels should be 35 to 43 outside with GPS test app.
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Tighten the little Phillips screws inside the phone. Remove the battery for a cold start. Signal levels should be 35 to 43 outside with GPS test app.
What is the theory behind tightening the screws? It seems many people are having the GPS issues but no one solution to the problem.
There is NO theory. This is a fact I experienced and wanted to share. My sat signal strength degraded over several months time and then it got so bad it would barely find sats. So after reading all the different ideas I tried the simple one first. It worked and my screws are tight and my signals are from 35 to 43 using the GPS test app. This is the largest phone I have owned and I believe that in my pocket it flexes slightly and loosens up the screws. From now on I will tighten my screws about every 2 months!
A LOT of people on xda are reporting this simple fix to be the case for them. Before you do any of those crazy rom flashing and unrooting to return it, try tightening all the screws on the back. A few even said their call quality and reception improved. You can do a search on xda and you'll see it's a common issue.
Is there a formally recognized GPS problem with the Galaxy S3?
Reason I ask is because my GPS started acting up, and I reported it to Verizon...they told me that there is no known GPS issue (even though friends have told me that they had the same problem that I ran into)... Nevertheless, they agreed to replace my phone with a refurbished model, and now my GPS works perfectly (as far as I can tell)...
Started having the same issue myself. Got the app called [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] from the Play Store and I think it fixed it. I need to play with it more to know for sure.
Tightened the phillips screws. Each screw was able to be tightened slightly (much less than a 1/4 or 1/8 of a turn). After this procedure, GPS reception returned to normal.
I had previously tried flashing multiple ROMs and back to stock with no success.
the problem started when i went back to stock Rom... Tightening the screws doesn't seem to help. Think i'm gonna install a different rom to see if that fixes it...
Sure enough! It worked! Thanks for the tip!Quote:
Originally Posted by johnsandiego [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]
Three screws were loose. One of them was very loose. Tightened and checked all screws. Restarted phone. Next time in car dock the GPS (Waze) did not spin around, place vehicle off the road or not know where it should be. Go figure.
Screw check will now be routine maintenance.
I've been accused of having a few screws loose, but nothing that was ever proven in a court of law :eek:
For those of you that are finding loose screws, rather than (hopefully) remembering to check the screws every couple of months, just put some Loctite on the screw threads when you put them in. Or put a little dab on the edge of the screw if it's already tightened. If you're really cheap, you can use something like Elmer's glue, or even bug your girlfriend/wife/mistress for nail polish. (Just a tiny dab; you don't want to bathe the phone in this stuff)
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