Database Users

Is my gps faulty

Hi,
I've been using my nexus one for the last couple of weeks using google navigation.
I find on a journey (out in open space) that about about 5/6 times every 30 mins I get a large blue circle around the navigation arrow and an occasional gps signal lost message.
I've used by Blackstone/Touch HD in exactly the same areas before and never had this problem.
I also had a desire for a couple of weeks and never saw this occur.
Has anyone else had a problem like this?
Thanks

I don't know if you rooted or not, but after I installed CM 5.06 I have to put my phone in airplane mode then turn on GPS wait for a lock then turn airplane mode off, to get a lock.

Jack Everyman said:
I don't know if you rooted or not, but after I installed CM 5.06 I have to put my phone in airplane mode then turn on GPS wait for a lock then turn airplane mode off, to get a lock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the reply, no I've not rooted it. Don't have any problems like that, it's just it seems to keep loosing the lock every now and again before regaining it, not great when you are somewhere you don't know and it just stops for 30 seconds.
I guess nobody else has seen this?

Anybody else getting this. Don't want the hassle of returning it to HTC for fixing if other people have the issue.

I've had that happen driving down the highway. Seems to drop out for about 30 seconds or so. I always figures it was switching between satellites or something (I know little about GPS so this may be way wrong). It has happened when using maps and co-pilot.

I see the blue circle pop up every once in a while but I've never seen it lose the signal.
The blue circle just indicates that it doesn't have the optimal GPS signal to get a precise lock... but it's pretty close. I'm not sure why it does this though... once a GPS lock is acquired it shouldn't drop it just driving around on streets.

ive had this on my g1 as well... but it comes right back... its usually after u pass under a bridge or passover or something...

jonze5 said:
ive had this on my g1 as well... but it comes right back... its usually after u pass under a bridge or passover or something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've always had that with things like bridges on previous gps devices or sometimes in urban jungles (ie lots of tall buildings), but not 5/6 times in a 1/2 an hour journey in open space.

this might sound silly, but if you have juice defender installed, disable it before you go on the maps app, when i have juice defender enabled, i cant use my gsp

aldaris652 said:
this might sound silly, but if you have juice defender installed, disable it before you go on the maps app, when i have juice defender enabled, i cant use my gsp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I've got nothing like that installed, but thanks for the suggestion. I've had locale or tasker running some of the time, I know they use GPS, but that shouldn't cause loss of the lock.

Goes out of Standby by itself

I have noticed that my x2a goes out of standby when I am putting it into its case (on my belt). This causes the display to turn on again -- wasting battery time and possibly starting programs.
Has anyone else noticed this? I find that if I hold the phone for an additional 3 seconds befor I place it into the case, going out of standby does not appear to happen ... but that could be just operator error ... and I have tried to avoid hitting any of the buttons when inserting the phone, but the whole thing could be operator error ... or, like I think, that the phone is sensing a position change and jumping out of standby ...
Is there a fix for this?

I thought I'm the only one experiencing that problem.. The thing is, my phone is just on the table and in standby mode and then for some reason it just opens... Very weird..

Sometimes it happens to me too. i don't know why it happens.

Razzino said:
Sometimes it happens to me too. i don't know why it happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a far shot:
Are you guys by any chance using the OneBridge syncronisation software?
I had this problem but it disappeared when my company switched to Activesynch/WMA for Exchange syncronisation.

i noticed my phone was doing this to, so i set it down and watch it for a while and noticed the screen will turn on when it is updating my weather or email, so this may happen when ever it automatically connects (due to some email, weather, ect.) you can try turning off data connection, and see if that changes anything. good luck

yummy-fun said:
i noticed my phone was doing this to, so i set it down and watch it for a while and noticed the screen will turn on when it is updating my weather or email, so this may happen when ever it automatically connects (due to some email, weather, ect.) you can try turning off data connection, and see if that changes anything. good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine was off all along... so I guess it doesn't update anything when this happens...

sorry that didn't work, i'm just thinking out loud now, but my phone has recently stopped turning the screen on by itself. uhm things i've downloaded recently was the SDfix.cab and the htcSDK.cab but both of those wouldn't effect it. uhmmm. is there possibly something running in the background? the only other thing i can think of is lock your phone so you won't push button while its in your pocket, and wait for an update (which an update is unlikely to come out). sorry i couldn't help

yummy-fun said:
sorry that didn't work, i'm just thinking out loud now, but my phone has recently stopped turning the screen on by itself. uhm things i've downloaded recently was the SDfix.cab and the htcSDK.cab but both of those wouldn't effect it. uhmmm. is there possibly something running in the background? the only other thing i can think of is lock your phone so you won't push button while its in your pocket, and wait for an update (which an update is unlikely to come out). sorry i couldn't help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's okay dude, I did what you said.. I locked my phone whenever I have to put it in standby mode, and great... It doesn't turn on by itself.. so I'm guessing that I pushed some buttons while the phone is in my pocket...
cheers mate!

It's the magnet!
I know the question was asked a while ago, but noone has posted this as a possible reason.
There is a magnetic sensor for opening the keyboard in the top left corner of the device. When you move your phone near a magnet (most phone cases' covers are held by magnets) it will detect opening the keyboard and go out of standby.

matt69 said:
I know the question was asked a while ago, but noone has posted this as a possible reason.
There is a magnetic sensor for opening the keyboard in the top left corner of the device. When you move your phone near a magnet (most phone cases' covers are held by magnets) it will detect opening the keyboard and go out of standby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried that, and it does some out of standby when I pull it out of the case ... I was wondering why that happened -- sometimes, and not others -- and that answers the issue of pulling it out of the case ...
Thanks for that explaination ...
But there are other times when it goes out by itself ... but I have it is the case most of the time now, and not on the charger ... so it is not really an issue for me anymore, but it is another mistery solved ...

Yup, my X2 does the same annoying thing.
I agree, best way is to lock the screen.
I noticed that the screen part of the phone is kinda wiggly...

Is this normal?

I assume it is since it happens for my X10 as well as my girlfriends.
1) While texting it seems to freeze and have a constant vibration, then if your fingers kept texting it would eventually type all those keys or the last key multiple times.
2) Run out of memory. I use ATK and I notice after a day it starts off at something around 136mb of free memory then later in the day it will say "7 apps killed, 119mb remaining" and it has gone down to the 80's before. Where is this memory being used?
3) I seem to pocket dial/text a lot even though I lock the screen every time...
4) When on the phone it hangs up a lot from my cheek lol Is there a way to fix this other than bringing up the dialpad and hearing the keys being hit
Also might as well put this here. Is 'rooting' your phone the same as jailbreaking an iPhone?

C3LL0PHANE said:
2) Run out of memory. I use ATK and I notice after a day it starts off at something around 136mb of free memory then later in the day it will say "7 apps killed, 119mb remaining" and it has gone down to the 80's before. Where is this memory being used?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basic stuff for an android phone. High memory usage is nothing to worry about, it's actually almost the opposite, more the merrier.

Hmm I think I've experienced most of those things. They're odd occurances. But be glad they're software issues, because software can be changed/fixed!
As for rooting vs jailbreaking an iphone... the thing is, since iPhone is locked down so much, jailbreaking an iPhone can make a big difference than a stock iPhone. Rooted android allows access to hidden system files, so can allow for more tweaking, but an unrooted Android phone already does so much, as opposed to an unjailbroken iPhone. Rooted android can by far do way more than a jailbroken iPhone. And even in some ways, an unrooted Android phone can do more than a jailbroken iPhone as well.
PS: can you share the numbers of some of you girlfriends? maybe I can help them out with their technical issues

C3LL0PHANE said:
I assume it is since it happens for my X10 as well as my girlfriends.
1) While texting it seems to freeze and have a constant vibration, then if your fingers kept texting it would eventually type all those keys or the last key multiple times.
2) Run out of memory. I use ATK and I notice after a day it starts off at something around 136mb of free memory then later in the day it will say "7 apps killed, 119mb remaining" and it has gone down to the 80's before. Where is this memory being used?
3) I seem to pocket dial/text a lot even though I lock the screen every time...
4) When on the phone it hangs up a lot from my cheek lol Is there a way to fix this other than bringing up the dialpad and hearing the keys being hit
Also might as well put this here. Is 'rooting' your phone the same as jailbreaking an iPhone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I've noticed this. The pattern I notice is that this only happens when you're receiving text and typing. Since in the options for the keyboard you can enable vibration when u type I believe this is the problem. I haven't tested it but the way the phone seems to respond, it seems to be so. It seems to be able to only output one vibration feedback at a time. So in effect it delays those linked to your typing until the vibration for receiving text has ended. I could be wrong though.
2) It is most probably being used by background running processes. Typically you only really close a process by pushing the back button until it closes. If you continually open new tasks after pushing the center button you're essentially putting the current program in the background.
3)What you can do is enable a simple swipe pattern lock to help this, but even so you run the risk of locking your phone if you "guess" the pattern lock too many times. So I would recommend you buying a case for it if you don't have one. I have not had any problem like this and I use a case.
4)It sounds like your proximity sensor isn't working or isn't being properly activated by your cheek. What you can do is go to a mirror and call someone, while speaking to them shift the phone a little bit at a time until you see the screen black. This indicates the proximity sensor has detected your face being close to the phone. While you are at it you can also slide the phone a bit to get peak volume with your phone. From what I can see the in-call speaker is very directional.
EDIT: Yea you can consider rooting to be the android equivalent to jail breaking. Considering you're asking that I am guessing you have not rooted your phone yet. If you don't have the latest firmware it might be a good idea since it fixes some little oddities on the x10 as well as offering battery and speed improvements.

There's an easier way to test the proximity sensor:
While in lockscreen, press: Menu Back Back Menu Back Menu Menu Back
This opens the service menu. Go to Service Tests-Proximity Switch.
Now just move a finger over the sensor to test. It also gives you a sound so you can also try holding it to your cheek!
Hope that helps!

@beno1 cooooolll thanks man.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

So I went into the testing part and checked the proximity switch and it says it is off. That's not what I want now is it? I couldn't figure out how to get it on.
As for pressing the Home button instead of Back.. wouldn't Advanced Task Killer close those applications anyways?

Put your finger over the proximity sensor and it will go from off to on.. then take it off and it will be off..

Tri3Dent said:
Put your finger over the proximity sensor and it will go from off to on.. then take it off and it will be off..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that and it beeps, but goes back to off

C3LL0PHANE said:
I tried that and it beeps, but goes back to off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what it should do! It will only go to on when it is covered then as soon as you uncover it then it swiches back to off.
This is as it should be in the service test. It is working.

DII8 - back to GPS issues.

Anyone having major GPS issues? Seems like it was worse than before. Took forever to get a lock while I was driving, had to stop and turn off GPS/back out of Google Nav, go back in. It got a signal for about 10s then lost it.. with full bars. Anyone else having this problem?

Mine still doesn't work at all. -_-

No problems here ... I usually have it off but whenever I need it, I've always gotten a lock immediately and flawless navigation using Google Maps. Absolutely destroys battery though

Took me 15 min to get a lock on a clear day outside on a fresh reboot and still was off on my location. My touch pro 2 never had this problem.. I could use it inside a building full of metal and still get a lock.. I love the Epic but I would not use the gps in its current state of function for navigation purposes..
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I think for many, it's still having problems on cold boots. Once it locks, it seems to be fine. I never experienced this though, I only have problems getting GPS signal inside buildings.

nimaim said:
I think for many, it's still having problems on cold boots. Once it locks, it seems to be fine. I never experienced this though, I only have problems getting GPS signal inside buildings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No the opposite is true, the problem people are reporting, including those above, are on warm starts where, on occasion, old expired ephemris data is in cache and causes problem getting a lock in otherwise good conditions.
This is much tested and there is a good workaround. By setting the Epic to cold start you overcome this problem, it is stickied as the workaround on the large epic forums elsewhere:
Enter GPS debug/settings application by typing *#1472365#
click "Setup" tab
click "position mode"
Click "starting mode
Enable "Cold Start"
Back out.

Whats the difference between warm start and hot start

mine shows me and my wife in texas half the time and we live in florida, never did it before this update. seems to be picking it up from the wifi I use in my house, as thats ATT and they are SBC and i believe they are in texas, but i never rehooked her phone up to wifi and lattitude shows her in texas at different times and the thing shows me in texas as well, its like cell triangulation doesn't work worth a damn.

nimaim said:
No problems here ... I usually have it off but whenever I need it, I've always gotten a lock immediately and flawless navigation using Google Maps. Absolutely destroys battery though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ Same for me. Never an issue and even locks indoors. Yes it eats batteries for lunch though.
Sent from my wrist watch calculator

The GPS is worthless and can not be relied on. Yes, on occasion it does work and on that rare occasion, it seems to work well. However, on the five occasions that I have NEEDED it, it has failed me completely, NEVER locking on my location. These occasions have been outside with clear sky. When I use GPSStatus, it shows 9 sats but 0 lock. I just don't understand how it can see 9 sats and not lock at all. I have a >10 year old POS handheld GPS that with no network, no maps, no anything locks every time within one minute. Samsung must have actually had to try to f--- this up.
Yes I have applied the cold start "fix" and it has made no difference, sometimes the GPS works and most of the time (especially when I NEED it) it does not.

Using the cold start method posted by aero1, my GPS.... sometimes works. Sitting in my car on a clear day with full signal, the GPS can take up to 5 minutes to get a lock. If I'm moving, It will sometimes lock onto me but still say "searching for GPS" so it won't give me driving directions... even though it can see where I am.
In cases when it does work, it lags a LOT. Sometimes it won't update my position for a minute... which is useless if I have a turn coming up that I don't know about. It is always jumping to where I am every few seconds. Google nav on the EVO was perfectly smooth. It stuck with me around turns and never lagged. Always perfectly accurate. It is the only thing I miss from the EVO.
I've completely given up on the GPS and use my Garmin (/wrists) whenever I need something reliable

hydralisk said:
Using the cold start method posted by aero1, my GPS.... sometimes works. Sitting in my car on a clear day with full signal, the GPS can take up to 5 minutes to get a lock. If I'm moving, It will sometimes lock onto me but still say "searching for GPS" so it won't give me driving directions... even though it can see where I am.
In cases when it does work, it lags a LOT. Sometimes it won't update my position for a minute... which is useless if I have a turn coming up that I don't know about. It is always jumping to where I am every few seconds. Google nav on the EVO was perfectly smooth. It stuck with me around turns and never lagged. Always perfectly accurate. It is the only thing I miss from the EVO.
I've completely given up on the GPS and use my Garmin (/wrists) whenever I need something reliable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same results I'm having now. Using the workaround (cold start) it's hit or miss whether I get a lock or not regardless of how many sats my phone sees.

I put it to "cold boot" and am still getting shaky results. I used it to find my way back to my apartment but it kept putting me on the road NEXT TO the highway and jumping back and forth. Did this again when I was returning from work during lunch just to see if it happened again. Yep, gonna have to lug around my Garmin from now on.
Just sad.

Try this, weird but is working for me.
I installed an app from the market called GPS test to test my GPS signal strength.
Whenever I launch GPS test and then run google navigation it locks on within 10 seconds. If I don't launch GPS test after a cold boot then it takes forever to lock on.
So far this has been working for me for a couple of days. Might be a fluke though.

othan1 said:
Same results I'm having now. Using the workaround (cold start) it's hit or miss whether I get a lock or not regardless of how many sats my phone sees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got three epics which allow me to do extensive controlled testing.
before applying the cold start fix my results were as follows on all three when in perfect sat condensations:
a) about 75% of the time no problem with locks
b) about 20% of the time I was getting many sats seen and none locked (expired ephemeris);
b) 5% or less I was getting few sats seen where they should be seen (bad almanac)
I applied cold start method to one Epic and for several days never experienced a failure to lock. I applied cold start to second Epic and now both Epics with cold start applied have gone over two weeks without a single failure to lock. I am now testing some other methods of flushing out cache
Top me this points to main problem being cache which for me ahs disappeared with cold start -- although there are other GPS problems on epic)
Other issues -- not addressed by cold start fix -- are inherent low SNR, SNR thresholds, samsung hacking the difference between fine and coarse results (30 meter hardcoded), these can all cause problems with GPS.
That said there is absolutely a repair of the main cache problem with cold start, I now see my 3g light up every single time I invoke GPS, with non net based applications, reflecting an objective and factual assistance data download --and without cold start I often would see no data usage on invoking GPS meaning failure to pull assistance data.

[Q] KnockON problems.

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing KnockON inconsistencies with their G2. Turning off always works properly. But if the phone has been idle long, it hardly will ever turn on the first one, two, or even three times I knock on it. Sometimes I have to tap it rather hard to function. I've tried different locations on the screen, as well as the center where the phone actually instructs you to do so. Then I tried faster and slowerand it makes no difference. The tips of my fingers are hurting now lol.
Thanks!

fhblake04 said:
I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing KnockON inconsistencies with their G2. Turning off always works properly. But if the phone has been idle long, it hardly will ever turn on the first one, two, or even three times I knock on it. Sometimes I have to tap it rather hard to function. I've tried different locations on the screen, as well as the center where the phone actually instructs you to do so. Then I tried faster and slowerand it makes no difference. The tips of my fingers are hurting now lol.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surprised you're the first to bring this up, lol! Been watching this device closely on on youtube reviews on this device you can see it right infront of your eyes. Doesn't ALWAYS wake on double tap but does ALWAYS turn off, weird. Idk what to tell ya but yes it isn't just you...

Are you using the stock launcher?
I switched to Nova and noticed its very finicky for me ever since I stopped using the stock launcher.

Still on stock launcher.

I just tap it 4 times when turning on, no big deal.

The only time it fails for me is if I tap too softly. I notice that when turning it on, it does take two distinct forceful taps. It seems to register anything else as a touch. So, while I think it could be better, I don't see it as inconsistent. If it was too sensitive, it might end up turning on in your pocket.

I think it has to do with the motion sensor in the phone. Mine works fine if I just tap it twice while it's in a steady position (even in my hand), but when I'm riding my bicycle I can't get it to tap "on" most of the time (unless I stop). Tap off works much more reliably.

i'm pretty sure there's a deep sleep issue, but that's to be expected..once the process that controls knockon goes to a deep sleep, of course it won't work right away.

Tapping near top of screen seems to work much better.

geoff5093 said:
I just tap it 4 times when turning on, no big deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
Can't have both battery life and also expect the Knock feature not to go to deep sleep. I prefer to eat my cake.
Also, I like that it does not accidentally turn in my pocket or when gripping the screen in my hands, etc.

The Korean version has gotten a few updates to make KnockOn smoother, so you might not have that update yet.

Well, I have a VZW version so updates will not be plentiful lol. Knocking on it several times, rather than twice seems to work better. Thank you guys for your suggestions.

jayochs said:
i'm pretty sure there's a deep sleep issue, but that's to be expected..once the process that controls knockon goes to a deep sleep, of course it won't work right away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe we should shake it a few times and then double-tap the screen. It would be like a Moto X/LG G2 hybrid!

I’m doing a study right now with this feature by recording the time and results. So far 3 quick knocks resulted in successful power ups 100% of the time (7 for 7). When doing 2 knocks (prior to the study) it was intermittent to the point of driving me crazy.
Come to think about it when you knock on someone’s door do you knock 3 times or 2? I always knock 3 times but the video reviews of this feature messed my thought process up with 2. First world problems I guess. LOL
I will report back with my results tonight.

BaronInkjet said:
Tapping near top of screen seems to work much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me. It says you need to either tap in the middle or top of screen. Anywhere else doesn't work as well.
Sent from my LG-D801 using xda app-developers app

Seems to work best if you tap where the lock screen widgets are located -- top center, but not at very top.

Anyone having a problem with the phone going unto deep sleep and then just shutting down?
Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk 2

I have an explanation. I think this happens because when the phones asleep (screen and touch panel is off), knockon uses the motion of the phone, read by the accelerometer, to recognize that two-tap pattern and subsequently turn on.
When the phone and screen are on though, the mechanism happens by direct touch input and is much more reliable, so it should happen every time.
This would explain why in moving situations like riding a bike, or when I was trying to turn it on while it was on the bed, which probably absorbed the motion from the taps it doesn't work as well.
I did hear that the Korean version got a firmware update that helped, though who knows when we'll see that in America.

razball said:
Anyone having a problem with the phone going unto deep sleep and then just shutting down?
Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a defective phone.
Factory reset time!

Good to know dam lol that's annoying well I guess I'll wait till it happens again to be really sure
Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk 2