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tekstrom

My GPS works extremely poorely since some time back. It takes sometimes several minutes to get a lock and then it drops it again. A factory reset did not help. Since the GPS is quite a central part of a smart phone, I consider this problem quite serious and thinking of change brand.

Hampus

Hi and welcome to the community! Since you're new please be sure that you have checked out our Discussion guidelines.

I suggest that you take a look at the following FAQ-topic to see if you can find any tip:
http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/FAQ/GPS/m-p/351902

DiscoBoy

If the GPS is unable to get a fix with free sight to the sky, first try purging the assistance data and then restart the phone. To purge the assistance data, open the dialer and dial *#*#7378423#*#*, select Service tests -> GPS -> Purge assistance data and then restart the phone.

This made the tick for me. After having problems with my GPS for one year, I tried, what I thought was everything.

Every now and then the GPS was working again albeit a bit slow but never perfect.

With the purge of a-gps, the GPS is snappy again.

Purging the a-gps in the "GPS Test" app, doesn't work but the purge in the service-menu works.

Thanks!

petesk

Did not work for me. My cheap X8 was way better on GPS

RodLyman

This is most likely a hardware malfunction caused by the phone being dropped. I'm on my second Xperia V and have experiencied the very same issues on both. After a while it suffers an increasing difficulty locking in on GPS signals and the margin of error increases correspondingly.

I use GPS status Pro for performance monitoring. It gives you bars showing signal strength for each individual satelite, it gages the number of satelites the phone is fixed on and time to first position fix.

What I've found is that if I remove the back cover and press the corner below the camera, just on the side of the SD/Sim dock while monitoring GPS status the signal bars increase significantly. This should without any doubt confirm that it is a matter of hardware malfunction.

It doesn't however say anything about whether or not you should accept a phone malfunctioning like this from falling off the sofa a couple of times. In my opinion, there is something wrong with the construction of this phone.

RodLyman

I may have solved this issue on my own phone today. Since applying pressure on a specific area of the back of the phone increased signal strength I concluded that it all boiled down to a glitch. It would either be because something had been knocked loose or a result of an error while assembling the phone rather than a part having been broken off.

I googled and found a simple disassembly video through which I was able to separate the frame from screen and thus access the contact pins for the GPS antenna, located about a centimetre below the camera flash diode.

The pins are spring loaded and in their counterparts there were corresponding depressions. I cleansed the contact surfaces and reassembled the phone, careful to let the parts guide themselves to a snug fit and not tangle anything. GPS signal seems to have improved leading me to believe that the error occured while the unit was reassembled when they last replaced the screen. PErhaps one of the latches was dislodged, leading to poor contact between phone and antenna.

Qui5553

Hey guys,

he is absolutely right! - Thank you a lot!! ..I've had issues with my GPS for about six months... It was not able to get a fix without AGPS and with it it took like 10 minutes outside and when i was moving (like in the car) it was not able to get a fix at all...

Then I pressed the place beside the camera-flash while i was monitoring the sats, suddenly the connection increased significantly and after 5 seconds i got a fix.

There are several videos on the internet that show how to open the XV, so don't be afraid. I attached two images that show the crucial point: The Connection between these two little pins and the antenna. What i did was putting some Tunerspray (or Contactspray) on an earbud and cleaning all four things i encircled in the pics. (I'm am sorry, they are a little hard to see, but you will manage that ) - That's all! - Now I get around 10 Sats and a GPS-Fix inside my house after 20 or 30 secs!

It sounds quite strange, but it really changed a lot. If you're facing the same problems, give it a try! - Ahh, and... Put Cyanogenmod on it, my phone is about 3 times as fast as with a plain sony 4.3 stockrom I really wanted to buy a new phone but now, everything is perfect again.

Thanks again, Rod !

Qui5553

Sorry guys, after 2 or 3 days of testing the effect was gone again...

I've been quite disappointed but now I've developed another solution that should work a little longer The procedure does not really change, but you should be equipped with some tape. Just take a look at the picture...

If you want to do the same thing, be sure to isolate everything around these two contact points simply by using tape. I was pretty afraid of creating a short circuit but everything worked out^^ I used the cables of some old earplugs.

GPS is working fine again ..I will keep you up to date, if something changes

Regards