How-to: Fix Droid X GPS after it stopped working

I noticed that a couple months ago my Droid X was having issues connecting to satellites for navigation. The signal for wi-fi was also weaker than it used to be. I initially thought that the gingerbread update was the root of the problem.

So, I installed GPS Test to see what was going on with the GPS antenna. It was finding nothing.

After fiddling with the back cover a bit, with GPS Test on, I noticed that if I pressed between the battery release tab and the sd card, magically the phone was detecting satellites. Upon release the signals were lost simultaneously.

The solution - take a small piece of paper, fold it until it's just thick enough to press on that previously mentioned spot with the cover closed. The cover may bulge a bit. I now have GPS, although it still isn't as strong as it used to be.

What happened? I'm guessing that a connection cracked on the main PCB that has to do with the GPS chip. This happened after repeated downward pressure from being in my pocket over the last year. When that spot is pressed, the connection re-connects and the GPS works.

Unfortunately the only way to really fix this is to have that connection re-soldered, which may not even be worth it.

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