Possible GPS software fix for fascinate

[Droidable]

Didnt make any difference for me..Damn!

 

[NickL1185]

I don't know if this will help anyone, but it's worth a try in case it does.

This wasn't working for me when I tested it, but I think it's because I was doing it right after I read it....inside my house. I tried it out in the car today and it didn't work right away, so then I changed the settings in GPS Status so that it could operate when the GPS is off. I turned the GPS off, then reset and downloaded GPS info through the app, and then turned the GPS back on via the notifications bar while the program was still open. It literally locked immediately...and I've done it a few more times since.

 

[Cory Streater]

I don't know if this will help anyone, but it's worth a try in case it does.

This wasn't working for me when I tested it, but I think it's because I was doing it right after I read it....inside my house. I tried it out in the car today and it didn't work right away, so then I changed the settings in GPS Status so that it could operate when the GPS is off. I turned the GPS off, then reset and downloaded GPS info through the app, and then turned the GPS back on via the notifications bar while the program was still open. It literally locked immediately...and I've done it a few more times since.

I'm heading to Calgary tomorrow and will try this when I land. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

I don't know if this will help anyone, but it's worth a try in case it does.

This wasn't working for me when I tested it, but I think it's because I was doing it right after I read it....inside my house. I tried it out in the car today and it didn't work right away, so then I changed the settings in GPS Status so that it could operate when the GPS is off. I turned the GPS off, then reset and downloaded GPS info through the app, and then turned the GPS back on via the notifications bar while the program was still open. It literally locked immediately...and I've done it a few more times since.

So I was able to get a lock pretty quickly prior to this, and now I can't seem to get a lock at all. Using GPS Test I can't even see any sats in view, much less have any in use...

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Edit: So I did a battery pull and power cycle, and upon restarting I got an instant lock.

 

[Destination Moon]

Make sure you don't have Airplane Mode turned on. I did this today by mistake when turnoff wifi. Almost tossed it out the window when I had 0 in view after 10 minutes

On a comical note, you would think Airplane Mode would energize the GPS!! Lol

 

[JaeKar99]

In my attempts to duplicate the instant lock of yesterday morning: 4 attempts failed. I think this is a random feature and there is not a dependable way to get an instant GPS lock without a lot of; turning apps on and off, phone on and off, and just letting the system warm up.

I will put all of this asside until 2.2 becomes available.

 

[Cory Streater]

In my attempts to duplicate the instant lock of yesterday morning: 4 attempts failed. I think this is a random feature and there is not a dependable way to get an instant GPS lock without a lot of; turning apps on and off, phone on and off, and just letting the system warm up.

I will put all of this asside until 2.2 becomes available.

Based on my experience I would totally agree.

 

[jwebste9]

Could someone explain the difference between the three gps modes. There is standalone verizon and google. What is used for what seems like if they are all turned on gps work in seconds. But still want to know the difference. Thanks

 

[emptycube]

In my attempts to duplicate the instant lock of yesterday morning: 4 attempts failed. I think this is a random feature and there is not a dependable way to get an instant GPS lock without a lot of; turning apps on and off, phone on and off, and just letting the system warm up.

I will put all of this asside until 2.2 becomes available.

I've been hesitant to say whether any of the fixes/changes are doing anything for me. If I, for example, open the GPS Status app in the morning it may take 2-3 minutes to get a lock. But after doing that I get a lock in a couple of seconds, even if I then turn the phone off then back on again. Still locks within seconds. But after some period of time (not sure exactly how long, or if it varies) it will take 2-3 minutes to lock again. I'm talking an order of magnitude of a half day or so. Doesn't seem to matter if I download new aGPS info or not.

Even when new/unmolested (I'm not rooted, just unbinged fwiw), my phone almost never took more than ~3 minutes. Longest was 5.5 minutes (but that was inside my house where it usually takes ~3 minutes, or seconds if I recently had a lock).

Just the fact that after getting a lock it will then lock within seconds seems to imply that this could be fixed.

 

[Destination Moon]

Could someone explain the difference between the three gps modes. There is standalone verizon and google. What is used for what seems like if they are all turned on gps work in seconds. But still want to know the difference. Thanks

I'm not certain about this, but from the way its worded it seems to me those switches allow your phone to relay its GPS data back to Verizon and / or google in order to provide you with certain information or services. I don't think it really has anything to do with getting a gps fix. That's based on nothing other than interpreting the names given those check boxes.

 

[Skyeclad]

I don't think there is any fix that reliably makes a difference. I tried a few things and no matter what, I almost always get locks between 30 sec to 5 minutes depending on how long since the last lock.

Nothing seems to change that but GPS Status does give me something to look at other than "Waiting for GPS" which seems to make the time go by a lot slower.

I think there is more required to fix the GPS that what we can currently do so I will resign myself to the current level of performance and hope that Samsung drops a GPS fix in the near future.

 

[wtherrell]

Well, they are going to need to fix the voice turn guidance volume problem before I will chuck my standalone Magellan PND. Just nowhere near loud enough. I really, really like the goolgle navigation--especially the speak destination feature.

 

[stayqued]

I have to agree that regardless of what I've tried- and I've tried them all- there seems to nothing that works to get me a reliable lock in under a minute.

Totally hit or miss.

 

[Cory Streater]

I'm going to add to the list of things to try, with no guarantees that it will work. It could have been a total fluke, but after sitting in my car for 10 minutes waiting to get a satellite connection this morning, I got a fairly quick Satellite lock (AGPS was turned off) after following the steps below. Before I did this, the Fascinate was viewing 0 satellites in both the GPS Status and GPS Test apps. Keep in mind that my purpose of using GPS is not for 3rd party apps, like weather and Yelp that work fairly well with general locations using AGPS, but instead getting a precise location for the purpose of navigation. With that in mind, go to settings then location & security:

1. VZW location services is off.
2. Standalone GPS services is on.
3. Google location services is off.
4. From the dialer pad: *#1472365#
5. Click start GPS

Note: a pre-requisite of being able to enter the dialer code above is that you had previously entered the following in the phone screen:

1. *#83786633 followed by a press of the Home key
2. After step 1, clear first code from the phone screen and enter *#22745927
3. When prompted for an a box will come up asking for the SPC code, type in 000000
4. Press the Hiddenmenu Enable radio button.

Note 2: The settings above, will NEVER work in doors. You need a clear view of the sky to use standalone GPS services.

 

[Destination Moon]

This worked the last three days. I used the stock task killer to force closed Launcher Pro. As soon as my home screen opened, I launched GPS status. Did not update the AGPS data. Got a lock in under a minute each time. Twice I was indoors. Fingers Crossed this works.

 

[Cory Streater]

I just got back from a multi-day road trip and tried starting the GPS per post #35. It locked fast each and every time. I'm still going to keep testing, but so far this has been working extremely well.

 

[SteveC]

Cory,

Trying to follow your above directions, I see no place to enter the 0000 SPC code, nor is there an obvious means of finding a Hiddenmenu Enable Key. There is likely something rather dumb I'm doing, but can you clarify that post a bit . Thanks. I tried the edit portion of the post first then went to settings>location&security.

SO the procedure was
1. dial *83786633
2. press Home
3. clear step 1
4. dial#22745927
5. Then there is no SPC prompt. If you press send on the phone pad, the voice gives a string of numbers, but no SPC prompt.

I already had the Standalone on and VZW and Google off.

Didn't dial *#1472365# yet.

 

[NickA]

It's *#83786633
Looks like you are missing the "#". Same for step 4. And it's 6 zeros (000000).

 

[Cory Streater]

What Nick said. You have to dial the digits exactly as written, or it won't work.