Resolve poor GPS issues on your MediaTek phone

[Guest PaulOBrien]

If you're having GPS problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but my GPS ain't one! *thanks to this handy guide

It seems that GPS in the latest quad core MediaTek devices is notoriously poor. I've certainly seen it in my own experience - it was flaky on the iOcean X7 I had and the Sege XYZ-X1 I still have has awful GPS. Or rather, HAD awful GPS, until I happened upon this post on GizChina.

Entitled 'How to fix poor GPS on MediaTek phones', it shows you how to give your MTK phone's GPS a new lease of life in a few simple steps.

Head on over to GizChina for the full details, but let us know how you get on and if it made GPS vastly better on your device as it did for me.

Click here to view the item

[Guest absro]

A little bit off-topic: what's the best MediaTek based phone you tested until now? And is it good enough to use as a main phone?

I'm starting to have issues with my Galaxy Note, I tried to buy the Oppo Find 5 and failed (shipping issues or whatever, I cancelled the order in the end). I'm not a fan of HTC, I'm starting to dislike Samsung more and more because of their update policies, so I'm looking for alternatives and the MediaTek based devices start to sound more and more appealing (I won't have too many firmware updates, I assume, but at least I'll pay less than 1/2 of the price).

Thanks!

[Guest Al_1604]

For a quality MTK phone you could do worse than this one: http://www.modaco.co...-for-under-180/This one seems to have quite decent GPS too. :)

[Guest Sere83]

Tried on the V5, worked for a bit but as with all the fixes I've tried just stops working after a while.

[Guest mrrog]

don't need this fix on the acer liquid e2 because the oem software includes these items, but the gps is a lot crappier than my old omc, and there does appear to be a tracks recording problem with some applications and android 4.2.1. That said the first part of the fix referred to above with only inprove the first lock time not the accuracy thereafter, and probably needs to be repeated monthly thereafter, it downloads satelite position data, on the acer its just a months worth.

[Guest SG8]

These fixes just seem to give an initial lock, but once you start driving or moving, it loses the position making the GPS next to useless, as it cannot give accurate directions if it cannot tell exactly where you are , and in what direction you are travelling.

[Guest tallnutt]

Hi, sorry for bad news, but on my iocean x7 youth turbo (name makes me lol every time), this method makes no difference. I also tried all of the antenna mods. Nothing works. No gps at all. If you have this phone, just accept that there is no usable gps. Annoying I know.

T.

[Guest metal.mickey]

This is just the tip of the iceberg and a complete workaround is listed in the China phone discussion forum.

this youtube post

should go part way to the issue, but youll also need to amend the build.prop file to add an extra line

dalvik.vm.execution-mode = int: fast

it worked on my Newman K1a MTK phone

credit where its due

http://www.modaco.com/topic/359664-offtopic-china-phone-discussion-20032013/page-106#entry2158198

Edited October 29, 2013 by metal.mickey

[Guest tallnutt]

Hi. How do I edit the build.prop file? Thanks.

[Guest tallnutt]

Hi. How do I edit the build.prop file? Thanks.

ok, sorry.. missed it in the post... tried that now, with and without antenna mod, and still no GPS. My phone geta no signal at all from any satellites and since sending it back to Hong Kong would cost more than the phone is worth, I think I give up. Thanks for all the suggestions in everyone's posts. I think if you buy one of these bargain phones, you just have to accept some things won't work. My last mt6570 phone had great gps but terrible wifi!

[Guest metal.mickey]

yeah, i bought my phone inspite of the reported mtk gps issues. I was lucky enough to find a workaround. the guy in the vid goes on about poor arials as well as poor configuration.

MM