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MTK Phone GPS Software Fix

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There is one common major problem with Mediatek powered Chinese phones and that is their GPS function. The main cause of the problem is the budget GPS chip as well as the lack of proper routing and implementation of antennas within the phone to facilitate a better signal and fix. Therefore, there are two solutions to go about improving the poor GPS performance. One would be a hardware fix whereby the phone will have to be disassembled to install an extended antenna. The other, which is what this article is going to cover, is a software fix where a few different phone functionalities will have to be activated to improve the GPS performance.

This should improve the poor GPS performance in most Mediatek powered phones (MTK6575, 6577 6589, 6589T etc). I cannot guarantee that it will work for all as it did not for one of my phones that I tried on. Sometimes the GPS chip within your phone might be too poorly implemented for the software fix to correct. Nevertheless, there is no harm trying out the fix as it requires nothing much except a few button presses and a few minutes of your time.

What we will be enabling are functions present within Mediatek’s GPS chips. It basically requires you to use some data (yes data is required) to download the coordinates of the satellites as well as to assist the GPS in locating your location. The two different functions are called A-GPS (Assisted GPS) as well as EPO (Extended Prediction Orbit). To start, enter the following into your phone (as if you were calling someone):

*#*#3646633#*#*

An “application” (EngineerMode) should pop up as soon as you enter the very last “*”. Swipe to the right until you reach the “Location” menu. Select “Location Based Service” and then under the sub menu “AGPS”, enable it. Once done, go to the next sub menu “EPO” and enable it as well. Once enabled, press on the EPO (IDLE) button and it should start downloading some data. It should say “EPO update success” in the Log. If it doesn’t, simply press the button again until it is successful. Once all this is done, hit “back” and go back to the “Location” menu.

Select “YGPS” and go on to the “Information” sub menu. Hit on the buttons “hot”, “full” and “AGPS restart” (in that order). Go back to the “satellites” sub menu and wait till you get a fix. Do be under clear skies for this to work. Once you have a fix, you can start using your GPS proper.

If data is not in abundance, the following steps can be done just once and you can simply rely on your GPS after that. A GPS data file is created in the process and that will help in the GPS performance. With that said, I’m not too sure how long before you have to redo the steps again but do note that you do not need to do this every single time you want to use your GPS. To ensure that you are not using any data, do turn off “AGPS” as well as “EPO”.

As mentioned earlier, this will not work for all devices even if they house the same GPS chip. If the phone does not lock on at all, it might be time to either get a new phone or perform a hardware modification to improve the signals. If you do know of any other ways or methods that helps, do leave a comment and share it.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. Hi.

    I’m considering getting a cheap chinesse phone but the GPS problem keeps me from buying it.
    What cheap brand doesn’t suffer the problem (Meizu, Jiayu, THL, UMI, Zopo, Inew, Huawei…)

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    • Unfortunately most cheap brands use budget chips (mediatek) and they all have the same GPS chip. You will have to look for those that don’t use the mediatek chips or if they specifically state the GPS chip used. Do note that they do cost more.

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  2. ¿What about ZTE Z5s mini?
    Do you know if it’ uses a good GPS or even Glonass?
    I’ve read different specs from different sources.

    regards

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    • It should be fine. It is one of those higher end Chinese phones

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  3. hi. i tried several ways to fix this problem but i couldnt.
    my engineer mode enter code is *#*#889988#*#* and in baseband version it says N900ZCUBMI3.

    is there a different way that i can fix this GPS Porblem. and 1 more thing. some shortcut on top slide menu dosent works. i click hotspot for enable but it dosnt work, if i enable it on settings screen it works. but shortcut menu dosent works.

    for now its not a real problem for me but, i really need gps.

    can u help me about this.
    Its Note 3 N9006 Android 4.3

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    • This is the only known software method that works. It might be that the phone’s GPS chip is of inferior quality or the internal antennas are performing poorly. I’m sorry but I can’t help you 🙁

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  4. i have found some forum topics about it. i think i have to install rom for this. everything is ok but i couldnt enter on “download mode”

    do u know how can i enter download mode?
    i tried volume+ menu and power etc but first i enter in recovery mode, second is factory mode and its korean or chineese fonts cant do anything

    how can i enter on download mode

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  5. You can also download better gps fix From play ator e, it changes the NTP Server and region of the GPS, just doing that my GPS improved a lot

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  6. Worked well on my mysaga c1, could not download the epo data, but the agps was enough.

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  7. Hi,
    I have hdc h9500 smartphone gps problem, how can it be solved.
    Thanks.

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  8. I have very poor reception with my h9500+ Chinese mobile. Is their something that can be done?

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  9. Hi. I have a jiayu g5s+ phone with mt6592 and android 4.4.2 version. My problem is that I can not make my gps worked. I see in the video above that at the beginning the a-gps is enabled and then you go to EPO there is no epo enable switch and also no epo files list or sth just the stress test and above epo (download). I can click on this but nothing happening. The wifi is ON. Can you tell me, please, what the problem is and what the solution is? Thanks,
    Frank

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    • hi Frank
      I have the same problem with the same phone
      did you solve it?
      if yes, please share the wisdom….
      thanks

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  10. Hello i am trying to fix with your solution gps on a Doogee DG200 but even i do the procedure as you describe ,i got always EPO download failure.
    Have any idea why????
    Thanks a lot.

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