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Hi,
So, I slipped into a waterfall together with my GN, for 20 seconds perhaps?
I took apart the the battery and let it dry.
Back home I used hair dryer in hope to dry the internals with heat.
I tried to turn it on but failed, then I proceed to put it into rice.
This morning, the phone was working nice, although haven't tested all the functionality, the basic ones are working fine now.
Except for GPS, I tried turning on Waze, Google Map, GPS Test. Usually there's an icon of GPS in the notification panel.
And it's not there anymore, I'm able to turn on the GPS from UI, but I'm guessing the GPS module has been fried.
How can I make sure it's not software problem? I'm using stock Jelly Bean.
How much does it cost to repair the GPS module if I sent it back to Samsung?
I am relunctant to send it to Samsung for repair because it'll be months without my GN just for a GPS module, sigh.
Thanks.
alvinthen said:
Hi,
So, I slipped into a waterfall together with my GN, for 20 seconds perhaps?
I took apart the the battery and let it dry.
Back home I used hair dryer in hope to dry the internals with heat.
I tried to turn it on but failed, then I proceed to put it into rice.
This morning, the phone was working nice, although haven't tested all the functionality, the basic ones are working fine now.
Except for GPS, I tried turning on Waze, Google Map, GPS Test. Usually there's an icon of GPS in the notification panel.
And it's not there anymore, I'm able to turn on the GPS from UI, but I'm guessing the GPS module has been fried.
How can I make sure it's not software problem? I'm using stock Jelly Bean.
How much does it cost to repair the GPS module if I sent it back to Samsung?
I am relunctant to send it to Samsung for repair because it'll be months without my GN just for a GPS module, sigh.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious if you ever figured this out
I have a gnex that I repaired after it had gotten dunked, and I'm also having GPS trouble...
Like many of you, I've been having some trouble turning on bluetooth and it's been getting more difficult to get the bluetooth turned on. I don't have any other problems with other features, like GPS or wireless connections, but more often than not, I cannot get the bluetooth to turn on unless I reboot and toggle airplane mode a bunch of times.
As the first step in trouble shooting the problem, I decided to go back to a stock ROM since that has seemed to work for others. I deleted all of my user data and formatted system, cache, data and davlik cache before each ROM load. I first tried the stock Gingerbread ROM but the Bluetooth was still not working consistently. I then tried the ICS stock ROM but again the bluetooth did not work correctly. On each ROM, I tested the bluetooth thoroughly by power cycling the phone, using airplane mode, and trying to toggle bluetooth repeatedly. I was able to turn the bluetooth on in each ROM but it would only come on about 10% of the time and there did not appear to be a pattern of reboots or software manipulation that I could do which would cause it to turn on. Nothing seem to work so I suspected there must be a hardware problem.
I opened up the phone tonight and on a hunch, I reseated the antenna (the white antenna on the right side of the phone when it's laying on its face) by removing it and reattaching it to the board by the two ends of the antenna but did not remove it from the middle clip. I'm not sure what happened, but when I restarted, I had no wireless service which made me think I was buying a new phone tomorrow :crying: but the bluetooth was working every time! I opened the phone back up and totally removed the antenna and reseated it. This time when the phone started, I had great wireless signal and the bluetooth worked perfectly. Granted, it's only been a few hours but it's never worked so consistently since I reseated the antenna. No idea if this will last but it seems like in my case, there was an issue with the connection to the antenna. I'm not even sure if that antenna is used for the bluetooth or not.
If this works for the next couple of days, I might try buying a new antenna. If you decide to remove the antenna, make sure that you use a needle nose pliers to remove the two ends of the antenna. You do not want to pull the antenna off by the wire. Also, if you reseat it, make sure there is equal slack on each side from the middle clip because the antenna needs to fit between the two golden lines printed on the case. Otherwise, when you put the case together, it will pinch the antenna. As with all hardware changes, THERE IS A CHANCE THAT THIS WILL SERIOUSLY DAMAGE THE PHONE'S ABILITY TO RECEIVE WIRELESS SIGNAL. I thought for a few minutes I would be at T Mobile tomorrow buying a replacement.
I'll report back if this works long term. Sorry if someone already mentioned this as a solution. I did quite a bit of searching and had never heard of someone trying this.
The attachments show the location of the antenna in the case and the close up of the antenna. If you remove the back cover and unscrew the panel from the back, the antenna is right there.
Bluetooth seems to be a reoccurring issue in a lot of custom roms...for some people anyway.
If you want it to work flawlessly, as well as everything else, there's always stock 4.1.2.
Sent from my Moto X cell phone telephone.....
I tried going back to the stock gingerbread and ICS. I knew that bluetooth worked when I had the stock gingerbread ROM but now in the stock gingerbread ROM, bluetooth no longer turned on consistently. I wiped everything on the phone when I went back to the stock ROM and it just did not work. That's what made me think that there was a hardware problem and possibly a poor or loose connection.
I'm not 100% convinced that reseating the antenna worked because I don't know if bluetooth even uses that antenna but I wanted to post my experience with it. I would go back to a stock ROM first to make sure that it doesn't work there before messing around with the hardware.
Does anyone else have this issue? My GPS loses connection to the satellites every couple minutes. And yes, I have the latest map update.
Must be the bug in update. Try to use 3rd party app! Just because i never updated mine, and is working like a charm
Sent from my LG-E988 using xda app-developers app
The GPS in my phone is not very accurate. Maybe its just this phone. I only get relatively good GPS reception at night.
Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk
Thanks guys. I'm starting to think it may just be this phone as well. The first map told me I was 3 miles away from my house....lol...and the second was accurate but keeps dropping the signal. I do have carhome. I'll try that and see what happens.
I also have this issue though the GPS (which is used a lot by me) was quite OK in the beginning after I bought my LG OG PRO.
I read in one of the Samsung NOTE forums that people mention the same problem claiming that the drops come when there is an "interruption" (which can be an incoming call or SMS or switching from 3G antenna to 3.5G for example). After reading this I realized that my GPS gets lost always after an incoming call plus I see at least a couple of places along my daily driving routine where GPS is lost exactly at the same place every day (making antenna switch assumption logical).
There were no any conclusions or suggested solutions in these forums, people even do not know if it is software or hardware related.
Anyone has such an issue too? Any recommendations for possible fix?
I can't believe but it seems I solved the problem with GPS - 15-20 seconds for GPS lock, no dropping and GPS test application shows very nice picture of 8-9 satellites constantly locked up while most of the signal bars are yellow (i.e. the signal strength is good).
I searched a lot as it really bothered me because I use my GPS very much plus I can say that beside this annoying thing I am very satisfied with my LG OG Pro, but nothing helped until I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBpNtWvY454 (it explains the solution for Nexus 5, but my problem is identical)
Basically, the problem is that there are special contacts on the motherboard connected to the GPS antenna which is part of the back cover and the contacts are not tightened well to the GPS antenna (look at the attached picture where I put the red arrows at the relevant places). Due to the bad touch between the contacts and the antenna, the GPS does not work properly. So, all you need to do is to remove your back cover, gently "un-glue" the GPS antenna end (the rectangle part on the back cover containing 2 golden dots), lift it up a little and put a piece of paper that will tighten the antenna and mother board contacts when the back cover is returned. Good luck.
It is NFC Antenna, you cant fix GPS this way.
I have same issue, but i think NFC and GPS antennas are different. I am disassemble the phone and pull up all golden springs - but gps still very weak(((
Any solution?
same GPS problem for my g pro.
GPS is weaker and weaker
I realigned all the pins inside the phone and fixed it for a bit, but the signal was still weak. I figured it was the modem. I installed a custom rom and it worked like a charm!
I've had this tablet (SM-P600) for almost a year now & it has worked perfectly. Over the last week or so, the WiFi has been randomly turning on & off. Not just losing signal, but actually showing as off in the menus. As of this morning, wifi will not turn on at all. Just says "turning on" on the screen & sits. Never gets to the next screen showing all the open networks.
Everything is fully backed up so I went into recovery tonight. Did the full factory reset and wipe procedures. Tablet boots back like it is as supposed to, but wifi wont turn on when getting to that screen in the initial setup.
Tablet has been well cared in a case, not dropped, and not gotten wet. However I am still positive this is a hardware issue.
Any ideas for things I might try? Help!! Thx in advance
I've the same problem with my galaxy note 10.1 2014 edition SM-P605 :crying: Still haven't found solution
I am almost 100% certain this is some type of hardware problem. I tried flashing about 3 different ROM's and 3 different kernels, all of which successfully booted up. I finished by doing a 100% re-wipe (data & system included) & reinstalling a pure stock kernel and firmware. On every single revision, the words "turning on" would appear when clicking the WiFi option, but then it would get stuck. Message would eventually clear & I could continue using everything on the tablet . . . . . . . just no WiFi or Bluetooth functionality.
Final attempt was to gently remove the back cover. When lightly tapping around different points on the MoBo, the names of my local wireless networks would OCCASIONALLY appear. At one point they locked in & I really thought I had it. However, the whole thing disconnected again after a few minutes & I was back to square 1. :crying:
I never could figure out the perfect sweet spot to pinpoint the problem. My guess now is either a chip or ribbon cable that isn't seated properly, but I poked and pushed (gently!) on everything that was visible without removing any hardware other than just the back cover. Does anyone have a link to the layout of the motherboard that shows EXACTLY which piece is the WiFi/BT module? I did find an online disassembly tutorial with a random Google search, but for some reason they failed to identify this particular module.
Sorry for the long post, but I feel I am SO CLOSE to figuring this out once and for all. Just need a little more tech help to push across the goal line. Thanks!!
~Vol
Vol4Ever said:
I've had this tablet for almost a year now & it has worked perfectly. Over the last week or so, the WiFi has been randomly turning on & off. Not just losing signal, but actually showing as off in the menus. As of this morning, wifi will not turn on at all. Just says "turning on" on the screen & sits. Never gets to the next screen showing all the open networks.
Everything is fully backed up so I went into recovery tonight. Did the full factory reset and wipe procedures. Tablet boots back like it is as supposed to, but wifi wont turn on when getting to that screen in the initial setup.
Tablet has been well cared in a case, not dropped, and not gotten wet. However I am still positive this is a hardware issue.
Any ideas for things I might try? Help!! Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What model is your tablet?
This was sent from my Lenovo A850 via XDA mobile app.
irfanadli97 said:
What model is your tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that. It's just the initial release plain jane WiFi model. SM-P600
Update:
After a little more poking and prodding on the MoBo, I'm starting to see activity. Tablet will finally connect again, but will only hold the connection for 10-15 seconds and then drop back out. A few seconds later the cycle repeats.
I really wish I could find a good hi-res photo of the motherboard to help. HAS to be a simple loose connection, or maybe a not-so-good solder point somewhere???
Vol4Ever said:
Sorry about that. It's just the initial release plain jane WiFi model. SM-P600
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
......
never heard of 'em, is it a cheapo tablet? In my country there's a store of them (Allwinner 6.6" tablet with microSD slot, 2gb internal w/o bluetooth WIFI ONLY INTENDED FOR CASUAL GAMING, or should I call it kids only tablet, RM130 ($35))
That thing has a cheap plasticy housing, unneat design but has a pretty good performance (it plays dead trigger pretty well)
This was sent from my Lenovo A850 via XDA mobile app.
irfanadli97 said:
......
never heard of 'em, is it a cheapo tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SM-P600 is Samsung's actual model number for the WiFi only version of the 2014 Galaxy Note 10.1. Most definitely NOT a cheapo tablet!! Although this wifi issue makes me wonder. I had the functionality back for about a day or so, and then it disappeared again. This has to be a simple case of a loose connector, but I sure can't find it. Ugh. Utterly frustrating.
oo...my bad
maybe software issue
This was sent from my Lenovo A850 via XDA mobile app.
What firmware version are you using because I am having the same issue. I manually updated to the september update (P600UEUCNI1) for the wifi version and started experiencing the same issue.
Same here. I think it's an issue with NII firmware.
*****PARTIAL solution*****
I have proven 100% that mine is problematic hardware . . . . . NOT software or kernel. For the time being my WiFi is back up & seemingly stable. I had to remove the back from the tablet for the fix. You have to be *extremely* careful, but it just snaps off with no screws. Lots of YouTube videos if you choose to attempt, but please don't say I didn't give you fair warning!
The reason I say partial solution is that I haven't pinpointed the exact location of the short. I am 99% sure it is somewhere on the extreme upper left hand corner as you face the front of the tablet. There are a couple of ribbon connectors in that area, and a few snap on type connectors that look like little motherboard chips. After gently poking & prodding the ribbons and disconnecting & reconnecting the snap connectors (being CAREFUL; I cannot stress this enough), my WiFi reappeared.
My final tip is to keep the screen on the page that shows the list of available networks. If you are having the same problem I was, this screen will just show "turning on" and nothing else for the WiFi. While poking around, I would occasionally see the list of networks pop up & then go back off. I finally hit whatever the magic spot is, and the networks held. Snapped the back cover on again, and I've been online for probably 4-5 days now without a single hiccup.
And before I get flamed, I know how dangerous it is to poke around with a powered, exposed tablet. There are probably certain points that could make connection and FRY the entire thing in an instant. I was just willing to take the risk as my tablet was useless without network capability. I had nothing to lose. I would recommend at least trying to poke & prod with the tablet OFF a few times to be safe, but I personally got tired of rebooting over & over & over & over. My luck sucks. With the tablet ON, I was at least able to monitor when something was happening.
Good luck if you attempt it!!
~Vol
Vol4Ever said:
I've had this tablet (SM-P600) for almost a year now & it has worked perfectly. Over the last week or so, the WiFi has been randomly turning on & off. Not just losing signal, but actually showing as off in the menus. As of this morning, wifi will not turn on at all. Just says "turning on" on the screen & sits. Never gets to the next screen showing all the open networks.
Everything is fully backed up so I went into recovery tonight. Did the full factory reset and wipe procedures. Tablet boots back like it is as supposed to, but wifi wont turn on when getting to that screen in the initial setup.
Tablet has been well cared in a case, not dropped, and not gotten wet. However I am still positive this is a hardware issue.
Any ideas for things I might try? Help!! Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought my Note in March of this year, I started having the WiFi issue after the April firmware update. At first I would get the Connected to... message at random times, even though I had full signal strength. At the end of September, I started losing connection at random times and in the middle of October, I had to send it in to Best Buy's Geek Squad service to have them repair it. It is a hardware issue, as the no matter what firmware version I use, it will never connect to the router. I know it, Geek Squad is aware of it, as I have sent it in for repair twice so far. I would have to send it in a third time before they will think about replacing it with a new Note. I will admit, that before I updated it in May, I did root it, because I tried to remove the Business Week+ and New York Times apps, as I never used either one of them. I tried disabling them, only to have them reactivate and update themselves.
Damn, what I read here is not good news. My SM-P605's died yesterday.
With Tapatalk on my Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014)
Hardware issue for sure. Same problem with mine. Opened the back case, disconnected the upper right (as your looking at the screen) small ribbon, reconnected, and boom, perfect wifi once again!
The EZ Package Disabler app is fine for debloating rooted and non-rooted devices with Touchwiz roms. It uses Knox, so that mustn't be removed. The apps are still on the system partition, but are completely dead now. While other apps, especually for non-rooted devices kill the system apps during boit and try to prevent their restart. But during boot the whole stuff is active until the app kicks in, allowing the system apps to receive updates, communicate, spam free flash mem etc.
The app wirks the same way on my rooted P605 and unrooted S5. And gives a reason to buy Samsung stuff, unlike Touchwiz and its bloatware. As far as custom roms go, i found that of my old LG L9 much better. Even if the early roms were AOSP 4.0.4 based, then 4.1.3, they had already had the fresh & bright look & feel of the future Kitkat, and a few useful enhancements like an integrated backup tool, which was more simple, but for me as useful as TB.
As for the main problem here, i think using a case with a hardened backside, and not one if these with a big hole(though being better than nothing), prevents oroblens like battery, display and seemingly wifi connectors loosening. Or bad solder joints. The backplate of the note gives thru any pressure on the back, especially in the middle area. It then rests on the battery, metal shields, connectors and stuff. This seems to generate enough wear over time for problems. The same back plate on a much smaller device(my S5, but that has a subchassis covering the innards, too) would be much stiffer, and my 7" tablet has an aluminium unibody case, such trouble is unknown there.
Hi Gents..
same problem here... I used to own a SM-600 purchased in 2014 unfortunately I lost it... (the first tablet worked without any proble until I lost it...) than I managed to found the same modell brand new on amazon... it worked for 2 weeks and 2 days ago wifi died... but funny enough not straight away.... first couple time just switched off the wifi... I managed to switch simply back... next day it only worked if restarted the device... now factory reset nothing... If it is hardware related why worked 2 weeks witout any problem? If it is software related why not working after software reset? Only installed a few apps from the store.. the device did not overheated or physically damaged...
I have the exact same problem.
Since I bought this a long time ago, I have to pay for the repair. I just want to know if it is worth it. How much did it cost you (if you bothered)?
In my opinion it would be foolish to spend a dime to repair a 4 year old tablet. If the battery is original, it may well be near the end of its useful life as well. FWIW, I bought this tablet used about 8 months ago and have not experienced this wifi problem.
It's still so well equipped, that you can't simply replace with a modern entry level or midline tablet, but with a top of the line one, so a repair is well an option.
I just don't have a clue about the SoCs performance level. To which current ones it would equal and where things get better. I can only compare it to my similarly(Snapdragon 801) equipped phone and my cheap 7" tablet's quad core Mediatek SoC, and that is considerably worse, though being three years newer.
I have taken my smart watch 3 running with me quite a few times over the last 3 weeks since i bought it, and i seem every time, to get some quite odd gps issues. Tried with both runkeeper and ghostracer and both are the same, which leads me to think it is the watch.
When tracking a run, the watch just all of a sudden, seems to lose GPS, no signal what so ever. Sometimes it picks it back up after a few minutes, sometimes it doesnt come back at all.
I have tried a factory reset on the watch and that didnt help at all. I have also tested this in both built up and open areas, in areas that the GPS diag tool in the dev menu says that i have access to 19 satellites, so should have no issues with GPS, but constantly do.
Is this something others have experienced? Or could this be a faulty watch?
i have had similar yet different experiences with mine.
two nights ago, had both runkeeper and ghostracer running at the same time standalone. at 3.6km ghost racer stopped tracking GPS yet runkeepr was fine.
then last night at 2.9km ghostracer again stop tracking gps. but i forgot to run runkeeper at the same time so no knowing if software or hardware.
its an annoying problem to say the least. i have mentioned this on ghostracer Google+ page.
Same problem here. Love this watch as a running watch when it works. Guess I need to start look for a normal running watch that allows me to play my music from the watch. Love the freedom of not having a phone with me.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
I find the ghost racer app buggy as hell on my watch, works fine on my phone but every time i go stand alone it craps out it's got to the stage i only run it if i have my phone with me.
I have had no problems what so ever with Runkeeper so this is what i have been using on my watch can't wait till other devs get there act together and start making there apps work as stand alone on android wear.
rnscotch said:
I find the ghost racer app buggy as hell on my watch, works fine on my phone but every time i go stand alone it craps out it's got to the stage i only run it if i have my phone with me.
I have had no problems what so ever with Runkeeper so this is what i have been using on my watch can't wait till other devs get there act together and start making there apps work as stand alone on android wear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GhostRacer works fine for me: better to to get 4 "steps" of gps signal before starting the run.
I have had the same awful experience since I did few test runs in the past 3 weeks with the Smartwatch 3. I tried the Endomondo and RunKeeper. both can be running stand alone on the watch. The GPS signals were easily lost and could not recover for a long period during the run. It seems to be a problem of the watch, not the apps. I had a 20k run, which ended up with only around 10k was tracked.
In the last trial taken yesterday with Endomondo, which is nice with the GPS signal strength display. I had turned on airplane mode this time. It did have some improvement. The GPS signal lost after 5k run, but I hadn't been aware of its loss until 10k. Then I click open the app and made sure the GPS signal was recovered before resuming the run. It then seems fine until end of run that totally tracked 21.2k out of the 26.3k run.
It's really a frustrating problem to have a runners' watch without proper GPS tracking.
same
i have the same problems with my watch.
after 5k the ghostracer app did not update speed and distance anymore. but the app itself was still okay because the heartrate was still changing and accurate. after 5 k more it suddenly picks up signal again. but of course all running data is useless.
after the issues with the bluetooth and google play music - now the next issue which destroys the actual reason to choose this watch.
to have a stand alone running smartwach with offine music and gps without the need to take the phone with me.
i wonder if this is a software (firmware/wear) issue and can be fixed with the next updates or in the worst case a hardware/design issue.
what do you think?
Same issue here with Endomondo. I haven't tried any other apps but for the last few days I'm getting erratic signal that will randomly stop working and usually never comes back. Really frustrating and hoping it's able to be fixed.
I tried using Ghost Racer and I am still getting constant GPS drop outs that don't come back. I've run the same course before issues cropped up with no problems at all.
Anyone have any additional thoughts on this? It's getting to be very annoying when your full run isn't tracking. Thanks in advance!
cardcowsports said:
I tried using Ghost Racer and I am still getting constant GPS drop outs that don't come back. I've run the same course before issues cropped up with no problems at all.
Anyone have any additional thoughts on this? It's getting to be very annoying when your full run isn't tracking. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same issues. I contracted android wear support through chat and they are going to forward my request to their hardware specialist. They said I was the first they have heard about the issue so speak up to them, make this issue known!
I just got the 5.1 update and itching to go for a run to test the GPS. Has anyone tried since the ota and is there any difference?
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app
AW 5.1.1 and GPS
Hi,
I have tried it (7.2km, mainly in forest) and the GPS signal has been pretty accurate.
Before the update I had a lot of issues on the same route.
So there is a chance that it is finaly fixed.
It seems that the GPS problem has been solved with the 5.1.1 update. I have had a run of 15.6K with Endomondo. It logged exactly the same. But unfortunately, the workout data was lost without being synced with phone app as usual, but the GPS problem definitely solved.
Well I guess I'm an unlucky one. My GPS has always been unreliable - not just inaccurate, but unreliable in that it will stop working part way through all of my runs. I'm lucky to get 2-3 miles before it stops working. I've tried Runkeeper and Ghostracer and it does the same on both. On Ghostracer it shows the GPS "bars", and I wait until it gets 3-4 bars before I run, then as I run it will gradually lose bars until it loses signal completely. I run on open streets with no trees or other obstructions to the sky so not sure what's going on. I upgraded to 5.1.1 in hopes that would address the issue but no such luck. Today I'm on my third ph call with Sony trying to get it RMA'd for repair.
I have yet to run without the GPS losing signal. Tried Runkeeper and Ghost Racer. Usually signal does not return. First 2-3 miles usually works pretty well. Any distance longer I lose signal. Might be heading back to Amazon before my 30 days are up.
Too early to be happy on the 5.1..1 update. The same GPS signals loss issue has come back again since the 2nd trial run. The signal lost around 3k, never coming back most of the time. Still no idea what's getting wrong.
I've been having GPS dropout problems for the last week and a half, ever since installing 5.1.1. According to someone on the Ghostracer App hangout, the problem is caused when the watch gets wet. I don't know if that's really the case, but yesterday before a run I put a layer of duct tape on the back of the watch and didn't have any problems. My previous three runs before that were all mis-recorded because of GPS dropouts.
I'm going to keep putting the tape on to see if it's really a solution.
mkddy said:
I've been having GPS dropout problems for the last week and a half, ever since installing 5.1.1. According to someone on the Ghostracer App hangout, the problem is caused when the watch gets wet. I don't know if that's really the case, but yesterday before a run I put a layer of duct tape on the back of the watch and didn't have any problems. My previous three runs before that were all mis-recorded because of GPS dropouts.
I'm going to keep putting the tape on to see if it's really a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried the duct tape on the back. First longer run that I did not lose GPS. Not really loving the solution putting duct tape on every time I run.
It's absolutely the wet (sweating) causing the dropout. I had tried the duct tape approach, but still experienced the dropout after several kms, which might be due to the wet surrounding. Then I wiped the moisture off the duct tape, and the GPS signal was locked again immediately. The signals were most accurate when I simply took the watch off the wrist and held it during the run, that effectively kept it away from my sweating skin. What a design from Sony!
I'd better try the wristband approach before I decide to dump it!
So, if the moisture is really effecting it, then it would imply that the antenna is mounted in the rear, or grounded to the case. The extra moisture (conductivity from the body salts) against the case means that your body is now able to attenuate (or ground out) the antenna, thus disrupting the signal.
Noting this, i think i may take some flat clear acrylic hobby paint, and give a good layer to the back, and see if it helps. The paint should provide an insulating layer without really irritating the skin.. Can't really hurt to try..