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Resolved GPS not working on 3g with 4.2.1 and 05.11.07 bb?

B

bonchien

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2011
8
0
I was tired of GPS not working on my iPhone 3g with 4.2.1 and the ipad base band 06.15.00 so it could be used on TMO, so I picked up a 3g on craigslist that was unlocked and jailbroke. This 3g has 4.2.1 and 05.11.07 base band. The guy who sold it to me assured me GPS worked fine, but it doesn't. It will only triangulate wifi and cell towers and never finds a GPS signal when I try the skobbler GPS app with wifi turned off.

Is there a way to fix GPS without restoring the firmware? Sorry if this is a NOOB question, but I've read for hours and can't find a straight answer. Should I downgrade the firmware to 3.1.2? If so, can I use the official 3.1.2 firmware and unlock/jailbreak with Blackra1n, or do I need to create a custom firmware to downgrade?

Thanks for any advise.
 
Last edited:
heisenberg123

heisenberg123

macrumors 603
Oct 31, 2010
6,496
9
Hamilton, Ontario
bonchien said:
I was tired of GPS not working on my iPhone 3g with 4.2.1 and the ipad base band 06.15.00 so it could be used on TMO, so I picked up a 3g on craigslist that was unlocked and jailbroke. This 3g has 4.2.1 and 05.11.07 base band. The guy who sold it to me assured me GPS worked fine, but it doesn't. It will only triangulate wifi and cell towers and never finds a GPS signal when I try the skobbler GPS app with wifi turned off.

Is there a way to fix GPS without restoring the firmware? Sorry if this is a NOOB question, but I've read for hours and can't find a straight answer. Should I downgrade the firmware to 3.1.2? If so, can I use the official 3.1.2 firmware and unlock/jailbreak with Blackra1n, or do I need to create a custom firmware to downgrade?

Thanks for any advise.
Click to expand...

i always thought unlocking a 3G disabled the GPS
 
B

bonchien

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2011
8
0
AdrianK said:
Can't you just get a refund from the guy on CL?
Click to expand...

I could try that, but don't envision much success. I would rather have a 3g with working GPS. Just figured downgrading the firmware might work, but don't know for sure.
 
B

bonchien

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2011
8
0
downgrade didn't help GPS

I went ahead and downgraded to 3.1.2 and jailbroke it with Blackra1n, GPS didn't work. Installed the most recent whited00r firmware, and still no GPS. Maybe jailbreaking is killing GPS, or maybe the GPS chip is dead?

I don't have an AT&T sim, so I can't try it on official firmware.
 
B

bonchien

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2011
8
0
Fixed it!

I figured it out. The iPhone 3G with the lower base band 05.11.07 had a new back case when I bought it. I guessed that maybe the GPS antenna didn't get installed correctly. So I swapped the back cases between the 3G with base band 06.15.00 and 5.11.07. Now the one with 05.11.07 base band gets GPS positioning :)

Might be a bad antenna in the 06.15.00 iPhone or it just wasn't connected properly. I won't worry about it until there's a way to downgrade or fix the 06.15.00 base band.
 
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