Is my gyro or postionning system broken ?

[AC Question]

Hello,
My GalaxyS5 (Android 6.0.1) had no landscape mode switching for several month. More precisely, this switching could reappear when restarting the phone, but it did not stay for long (a few minutes to several hours).
Recently, I wanted to install a compass application, and I discovered that I had also to restart the phone in order to have the compass work.
Thus now I suspect a hardware problem in the positionning or the gyroscopic system.
Is there a way to confirm this diagnostic ?

gabier

 

[Rukbat]

There's no "gyroscopic system" in the phone, but there's a magnetometer that's sensing the phone's orientation to Earth's magnetic field.

You might try GPS Status & Toolbox (it has a compass that works - if you calibrate it first - turn the phone 3 turns in each of the three planes). If the compass doesn't point north no matter which way you turn (try it outside, away from any large metal objects), the magnetometer is probably bad. But ... if you have a case with a magnet on it (to keep the flap closed), that can mess up the magnetometer until you remove the phone from the case and recalibrate it.