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Samsung Infuse 4G GPS Failures

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I use GPS and the Android Navigation app on my Samsung Infuse 4G a lot. Sadly, despite loving this phone, I’m going to have to get a new one if Samsung can’t come up with a fix for the horrible GPS reception of the Infuse 4G.

I fire up the Nav app on Android and hit the button to speak my destination. Three out of four times it finds the right location and away I’m ready to go. Unfortunately, I have to sit for about ten minutes while the phone finds a GPS lock. I start driving in hopes that moving will help it, but it doesn’t. I usually know the general direction where I’m going so I can get a head start, but I often have to pull over on the side of the road to wait for the GPS to find a signal.

This is unacceptable.

Samsung Infuse 4G Nav App

Noting the Searching for GPS - that takes 10 minutes to go away

A thread over at XDA Developer’s Forum claims to have a fix. To perform this “fix” try the following steps:

  1. Turn off your GPS radio
  2. Open your phone dialer and enter the following string: *#*#3214789650#*#*
  3. Choose Applications Settings, Operation mode and change it to Standalone – if after trying all of these the fix doesn’t work try MS Mode in this step
  4. Choose Timeouts at the bottom and change it to 100
  5. Go back to the main screen and choose SUPL/CP Settings, Server & Port
  6. Change the server to supl.google.com
  7. Change the port to 7276
  8. Reboot the phone and test – if it still does not work go back to step 3 and change to MS Mode and reboot

I tried this “fix” and nada. I’m not alone since others say they too could not make it work either.

There are other “fixes” out there if you search Google, but none of them seem to improve the quality of the GPS for me. I wish I had noticed this before my return period ended. If you are an Infuse 4G owner with a perfectly working GPS, then be thankful and let me know if you did anything to make it work.

15 Comments

15 Comments

  1. Tkong

    09/28/2011 at 12:46 pm

    I just got my Sam Infuse yesterday.  I’ll fire up the Google maps on my trip home after work.  Will report back tomorrow. 

    • Tkong

      09/29/2011 at 10:30 am

      Okay, I used Google maps and GPS all yesterday evening wherever I went.  It worked okay.  There were a few glitches where it lost my position (on a major highway) and it took three reboots of Navigation for it to find me again.  Once the little blue arrow stopped moving and the GPS gets turned around easily.  It would tell me to turn left where I couldn’t or where I knew it was obviously wrong.  I wouldn’t suggest relying on it 100% but it gets the job done.  I’ll keep running more gps tests but thankfully I’m within my 30-days and the SGSII is coming out Oct 2 :)

      • Tkong

        09/30/2011 at 9:32 am

        Second day testing the GPS using Google Maps on my trip home from work and it failed!  The Infuse’s GPS was never able to lock on and it just kept searching and searching while my battery drained and drained. I tried the entire trip to get the GPS to lock on (mind you, I’m on an interstate) and it failed every time.

        It’s going back Monday after the SGS2 is launched.  I just hope the SGS2 doesn’t have the same GPS issues.

        So disappointed. 

  2. sraldiris

    10/14/2011 at 10:25 am

    I’m having the same problem with my Infuse 4G, and here’s the message up part: It worked very well for weeks, and only recently began having problems locking into the satellite signal. It’s almost as if maybe it automatically updated recently and the update has a bug. What I mean is, I doubt it’s a hardware problem since the phone is only two months old and the GPS worked perfectly before. Unfortunately, I’m not within my 30-day period, so I can’t get the GSII. :( (believe me, I complained and complained, but they said sorry about your luck!)

  3. Bob

    12/23/2011 at 7:01 am

    Mine doesn’t work either. Samsung should be held accountable for this!

  4. guest

    02/01/2012 at 8:51 am

    Mine worked until this week. 5 months without a glitcth and now, nothing.

  5. Nathaniel Gildersleeve

    02/03/2012 at 9:30 am

    I have had the same “Searching for GPS”  problem with my Samsung Charge for months.   It does not appear that Samsung  is willing or able to fix this. Sadly, I’m well past my return period.  I will avoid Samsung phones in the future.

    • gary nashville

      03/18/2012 at 4:19 pm

      I have the same problem with my Infuse. I have had it for over a year. The GPS has always been buggy, or weak, as many have mentioned. This is my first smart phone so I didn’t know any better. Now it seems to require a hard reboot (removing the battery) to get it going again and still takes 5 to 15 minutes to acquire the GPS or at least to link the GPS to Google Navigation. I travel all over the place with other folks with many different phones and now know there are better phones out there with GPS’s that work inside cars and even inside buildings. The GPS in this phone sucks.

      I have used it for biking and hiking, using My Tracks, and when using the GPS like this in stand alone it jumps all over the place, within one hundred meters or so, giving a very inaccurate track. Not much good for use with My Tracks or any mapping software. The software in Google Navigation keeps it on roads so it looks more accurate, but you can see it is not when it takes off down another road (not the one you are on) and then comes back in a few seconds later to catch up with you. Really getting aggravated with Samsung and AT&T.

      I have tried the various mods, using different GPS servers, etc. None of that helped.

      They didn’t support the Infuse with updated software like other phones either. Who could have known?

      I could get a new one with insurance but it would probably be another Infuse.

      • Gary Nashville

        03/28/2012 at 10:21 am

        Revised Post. My GPS is now working quite well (at least in the city). I went back through the directions here and combined with some other threads I found got it to work much better.Here are the modified directions I used.

        1.����� Open
        your phone dialer and enter the following string: *#*#3214789650#*#* (to get
        into the LbsTestMode)

        2.����� Choose
        Applications Settings, Operation mode and
        change it to MS Mode or MS Assisted (doesn’t seem to make any
        difference and they both work. Stand alone not so good) in this step

        3.����� Choose
        Timeouts at the bottom and change it to 100 (I have my time
        out Value: 0. Don�t know if it matters. Tried both. It was 0 before so I left it that way)

        4.����� Go
        back to the main screen and choose SUPL/CP Settings, Server
        & Port

        5.����� Change
        the server to supl.google.com. I tried that and then used
        supl.nokia.com instead. This seems to work much better for me. I read where the
        Nokia server works faster/better.

        6.����� Change
        the port to 7276 (I used 7275 per other instructions for teh Nokia server, don’t
        know if this matters)

        7.����� Reboot
        the phone and test � if it still does not work go back to step 3 and change to
        MS Mode and reboot. Using MS Mode or MS Assist Mode may have been something I missed the first time, but the Nokia
        Server also seems to work better then Google in either mode.

        Now maps comes up with the location very quickly. Google navigation is also
        very fast to acquire GPS and only sometimes gives a message “searching for
        GPS for a few seconds.

        My Track still doesn’t work very well in out of the way places where it is
        using the GPS stand-alone. It bounces all over the place making a jagged track
        within a quarter of a mile or so sometimes. It does seem to work better in an
        urban environment though.

        Conclusion: the Infuse works well for most of what I need it for but I still
        think the GPS sucks

        Thanks Kevin.
        I didn’t use your directions exactly but you input did help.

        • Curthoop

          04/06/2012 at 7:03 pm

          I tried the directions and also experimented around a bit and couldn’t get it to work at all.  Is there any help desk that will take a look at it?  I.e. Samsung or ATT?

  6. TimBo

    03/21/2012 at 2:56 am

    are you sure your “Data network mode” is activated?…Press and Hold the
    Power button to get the “Phone options”…should read “Data network mode
    activated”…that was the problem i was having when my GPS wasn’t
    working.

  7. Modesto

    04/10/2012 at 10:50 pm

    I too have the same issue. GPS is constantly searching. Never had this issue with my Aria, ugh! I thought it may have been the switch to 4G (?). It is hit or miss unreliable. I am back to using my Magellan :-(

  8. Deborah

    06/16/2012 at 4:44 pm

    This is my first smart phone and I followed Gary Nashville’s directions from above. I did exactly what he did whether or not he thought it made a difference….as follows with a little android for dummies like me at the end.

    1.����� Open
    your phone dialer and enter the following string: *#*#3214789650#*#* (to get
    into the LbsTestMode)

    2.����� Choose
    Applications Settings, Operation mode and
    changed it to MS Mode

    3.����� Choose
    Timeouts….I have my time out Value: 0. Don�t know if it matters. Tried both. It was 0 before so I left it that way)

    4.����� Go
    back to the main screen and choose SUPL/CP Settings, Server
    & Port

    5.����� Change
    the server to….supl.nokia.com instead. This seems to work much better for me. I read where the
    Nokia server works faster/better.

    6.����� I…..left mine on 7275 ……per other instructions for teh Nokia server, don’t know if this matters)

    7.����� SHUT DOWN AND REBOOT (

    —Use Home key (arrow at bottom of phone face) to go back to main screen,
    —Shut down (hold on off key for a few seconds until you see “shut down” select it and wait for it go off
    –Then reboot (reboot = remove battery for 20 seconds

    YOU SHOULD BE GOOD TO GO

    Turn the phone back on and try getting some directions to some where

    Just make sure the internet settings/data settings are allowing you to connect to the internet PERIOD (see other posts here) and that the GPS feature is turned on (phone will prompt you when you start trying to navigate somewhere anyway)

  9. Jim

    08/01/2012 at 11:10 am

    Gary, you’re a life saver – your fix worked beautifully – I went with the Nokia server settings like you suggested and its working perfectly now.

  10. jack

    02/21/2013 at 3:54 am

    dude I could totally kiss you…this worked for me. my GPS was fine up until I came to south Korea and then it just stopped working…your updated fix was the ticket…trying to find ones way around Daegu with out it was hit or miss now? Good to go thank you

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