GPS problems TomTom surfaced after long time use - HD2 General

I have been using my HD2 with differnt 6.5 ROM's (lately mhostly Energy's Max Sense), and that has never been a problem. But lately it suddenly has started to mess up. Either it locks up the phone when it's trying to get a fix (around 20-40 seconds after clicking the TomTom icon) or it can't get a fix and complains about bad reception, and asks if I am indoors. Then sometimes I actually manages to get a fix, and it will loose it after a while or lock up completely. Then it can take a day or two (it doesn't seem to matter how many soft resets I do) before I can get it working again.
I have another, very simple GPS program called GPS Speedo (use it to test speedos on bikes and cars), and that seems to work all the time. But I have tried reinstalling TomTom from the ground up several times. This doesn't change anything.
This has been intermittent for a while but getting worse and worse. So I tried to install the latest official ROM (from October or November 2011), and that works without a hitch. Does anybody know what this can be? Driving me crazy... THis weekend I have been navigating through Sweden with my Adam and Igo (which was the best I could find for Android) and I found out that I really don't like any other nav programs than TomTom very much!

Related

TomtomNavigator - Slow Lock

I wonder if anyone can help.
My HTC Advantage is running PK3 ROM With radio 1.5
Although it sees all the satelites, (at the moment 12 satelites showing all grey) it takes upwards of 5 minutes to get a lock.....
I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to what is causing this? BTW this is a legal copy of TTNAV
barneyrubble said:
I wonder if anyone can help.
My HTC Advantage is running PK3 ROM With radio 1.5
Although it sees all the satelites, (at the moment 12 satelites showing all grey) it takes upwards of 5 minutes to get a lock.....
I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to what is causing this? BTW this is a legal copy of TTNAV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few wuestions: Is your QuickGPS data up to date? Also, with the 'new' journies where lock is taking a long time, are you starting from the same place as where you last left or somewhere new? what other apps are running? What is the baud rate set to? How is the unit mounted and where in the car? Is it a renault (or another car with a reflective screen)?
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, quickGPS is up to date. I am indeed starting from the same place where I finished last. For example, drove home last night - with a fix, got up this morning to go out and about 5 mins to fix the position, even though it couls see 12 satelitles for about 3 minutes beforehand.
Other apps - Call firewall, however it's not being used as my primary phone.
Yes it's a Renault Megane. However, I have also tested this sitting on the windowsill (the Advantage - not me and the same results are gained. I have a Brodit mount which sits on the right hand side of the driver against the side window. My TT GPS unit picks up a fix in about 20-30 seconds.
I am coming to the conclusion that I may need to use the TT GPS unit rather than the built in one.
The Baud Rate is set to 9600 I htink.
Personally I blame TomTom.
It is seeing the signals, and is showing multiple strong sattelite signals (i am assuming the bars are blue to show a good signal, not grey to show too weak?). I have seen on with every single bar blue and good signal and still would not get a fix.
Of course, i could be totally misunderstanding the way GPS works, but as I understand it, the chip simply forwards the signals from the satellites and works out a rough location, and then tomtom translates that to a definite fix?
I've seen it on an advantage, a Kaiser and a 3300 updated to Windows Mobile 6 so far. Only with the latest version of TomTom though.
barneyrubble said:
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, quickGPS is up to date. I am indeed starting from the same place where I finished last. For example, drove home last night - with a fix, got up this morning to go out and about 5 mins to fix the position, even though it couls see 12 satelitles for about 3 minutes beforehand.
Other apps - Call firewall, however it's not being used as my primary phone.
Yes it's a Renault Megane. However, I have also tested this sitting on the windowsill (the Advantage - not me and the same results are gained. I have a Brodit mount which sits on the right hand side of the driver against the side window. My TT GPS unit picks up a fix in about 20-30 seconds.
I am coming to the conclusion that I may need to use the TT GPS unit rather than the built in one.
The Baud Rate is set to 9600 I htink.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is really strange. I doubt it is an issue with the TT software - the fact that it is taking a liong time to get a fix from the same position after only a night sounds more like a problem with the GPS than with the software. However, it is getting a fix.
Have you tried testing the GPS with another piece of software (eg Tracky) to see if that gets a quick fix. Tracky will also show you how many satellites have been acquired and when it has a fix.
I was under the impresion it wouldnt, couldnt show the satalites until it had a lock, maybe thats to do with quick gps knowing where you are, "where the satalites should be." but 5 minutes from a cold boot sounds about normal to me, even my old bluetooth reciever took about that long.
you have to take weather conditions ie, is it overcast, cloudy, ect. I found standing by a window didnt get me a lock, if i was testing it leaving it standing by an open window often used to take 15 - 20 minutes.
johnwalk said:
I was under the impresion it wouldnt, couldnt show the satalites until it had a lock, maybe thats to do with quick gps knowing where you are, "where the satalites should be." but 5 minutes from a cold boot sounds about normal to me, even my old bluetooth reciever took about that long.
you have to take weather conditions ie, is it overcast, cloudy, ect. I found standing by a window didnt get me a lock, if i was testing it leaving it standing by an open window often used to take 15 - 20 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No - it does show them. When it shows them, it knows their position. 'Lock' is when it knows your position as a result.
5 minutes is a long time in my experience, even for TT, particularly when starting from where you left off. The 15-20 minutes could have been because the signals were being bounced.
barneyrubble said:
I wonder if anyone can help.
My HTC Advantage is running PK3 ROM With radio 1.5
Although it sees all the satelites, (at the moment 12 satelites showing all grey) it takes upwards of 5 minutes to get a lock.....
I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to what is causing this? BTW this is a legal copy of TTNAV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Could you tell me which version of the TT and the maps you are using. I use TT6.030 and 6.75 maps it works perfectly within ten seconds. you can download the TT6.030 update if you are running TT 6.0... and it is free.
Good luck
Hi there,...
i also can not confirm these long fix times.
I am Using Ameo (with orig. WM6 HTC Rom) and TT 6.030. (ROM 2.21 / Radio 1.50)
I got a fix within <1 min....
When I got in the car, start TT and set target location then it takes only another 10-15 Sec to get the fix. From my point of view I can say nothing
against TT and also not againt the internal GPS. (Quick GPS more or less always valid, due to update with every sync)
Heard of these problem and happy that I can't confirm
Hmmmmm..... Well, TT6.030 won't install on my Advantage. Don't know why, just immediately pops up with "the installation was unsuccessfull". TTHome says 6.030 is not compatible with my device. So I guess that's why.
Trying to get the BB Client working, I made the ROM look like an HTC Hermes, which could be why it's saying it's incoimpatible. I have given up with the Blackberry client at the moment, so will flash it back to be an Athena soon and see if that solves the problem.
Thanks for all the help guys.
Flash Radio rom again
Hi,
I have had the same problems. Mine was solved after I flashed the radio rom again. I think something went wrong while you were flashing the previous rom. Give me a pm and I will send you the latest 6.032 tomtom for your Athena.
QAN

How well does your GPS work?

Just surveying how well the GPS on the Touch works for most people. It seem as though many people still have problems, even after the carrier updates and all the hacking done here. I personally could never get the GPS working consistently without using Alltel Navigator, which cost $10 a month.
My current theory is that the phone's radio injects noise into the GPS receiver, either because it shares an antenna with the phone, or for the same reason why a powerful radio signal (like driving past a transmitter tower) can overwhelm the front end of receivers that aren't even near the transmitter's frequency.
Evidence: If I launch Google Maps when I'm offline, and I can select "Use GPS" and avoid having Google Maps try to go online before it acquires at least 3 GPS satellites, it seems to lock on within a minute or so about 90% of the time.
If anything causes the phone to go online before I've acquired GPS, it almost never seems to succeed.
If I take/make a voice call, or engage in sustained data transfer, it almost always seems to lose the GPS signal.
If I pan/scroll the map and cause Google Maps to need a BIG chunk of data, it will probably lose the GPS signal.
I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else has noticed a similar inverse correlation between RF activity and GPS acquisition.
Hmmm, I haven't noticed any correlation between data and location, it's an interesting theory though. It takes me anywhere from a minute to 15 seconds to get a lock, and when occasionally satellite signal drops out, Google maps finds it again within 10 seconds or less. I'm a verizon user, btw, and I use GMaps, Live, and TomTOm7+GpsViewer.
Mine works great -
Mine works great - I have Garmin XT for turn-by-turn and it seems to find satellites pretty fast - The other day I decided to try a little experiment and I set up both my Sony GPS and my Touch and pressed "go" at the same time and the Touch GPS was just a fraction of a second behind the Sony (both from a cold start), which I think is pretty good - I have no problem using Windows Live, but for some reason the most recent Google Maps doesn't work as well, it can take forever (seemingly) to lock.
baud rate
after doing a little more
research, i found a post
suggesting to use the
57600 baud rate in google
maps. it worked and i got
a lock within about a minute
sorry bought the english
im typing on my phone here
at work.
my 6800 locks consistanly with in 15 seconds. Just bought the wife a 6900 and its been taking about 1-2 minutes. Not sure why that is.
i had a lot of trouple with my gps being inconsistent and what not. this post on ppc geeks fixed the problem now i connect 6-11 satsellites in 30 seconds or less. duno if it'll help u but u can try it:
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=36377&highlight=shadow-tech+agps
not taking any credit for that guide it was pmed to me im pretty sure all acknowledgements are made within the post itself.
Use this to get your GPS working well...
My GPS works excellently with Google maps, as well as with iGO8. I can lock into about 8 sats in 15 seconds or so using the AstroGPSLauncher that AstronusX created and posted at this thread.
Took me just a couple of minutes to create the shortcut and put it in my program list.
I might lose satellites in iGO8 if I get a phone call and take it, but it will get back the sats after a minute or two once the phone call has completed.
Hope this helps.
Steve
Carrick1973 said:
My GPS works excellently with Google maps, as well as with iGO8. I can lock into about 8 sats in 15 seconds or so using the AstroGPSLauncher that AstronusX created and posted at this thread.
Took me just a couple of minutes to create the shortcut and put it in my program list.
I might lose satellites in iGO8 if I get a phone call and take it, but it will get back the sats after a minute or two once the phone call has completed.
Hope this helps.
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have M2D plugin?
I have NFSFAN Rom and Igo8 is really pain. If you switch to Today or just phone - there is no way to get IGo back. Have to Reset.
Yes, I've been running iGo8 on NSFFAN's 1.08 ROM. I agree that it dogs down damn bad when I get a call while running iGo, but I can get it back up without having to reset if there isn't anything else running. It does take quite awhile to get sat locks back though after switching over to phone. It might be quicker to close out of iGo and restart.
Thanks for all the helpful post guys, that 57600 baud rate didn`t last to long. It was just as inconsistant as anything else I tried. I`ve heard about the Shadow Tech`s Fix for a while now but never tried it till last night. I am having some trouble with the dialing ##3424 step. I`ve tried the different 3424 numbers, and using task manager to open Dmrouter.exe under /DIAG parameters. Nothing happens on my phone, and I don`t see HTC Diag in Device Manager on XP. I have another post on the Shadow Tech Fix thread, but if anybody here knows what I`m doing wrong I`d appreciate a little info.
BTW I`m using NFSfans alltel 1.02 rom
pknyo said:
Thanks for all the helpful post guys, that 57600 baud rate didn`t last to long. It was just as inconsistant as anything else I tried. I`ve heard about the Shadow Tech`s Fix for a while now but never tried it till last night. I am having some trouble with the dialing ##3424 step. I`ve tried the different 3424 numbers, and using task manager to open Dmrouter.exe under /DIAG parameters. Nothing happens on my phone, and I don`t see HTC Diag in Device Manager on XP. I have another post on the Shadow Tech Fix thread, but if anybody here knows what I`m doing wrong I`d appreciate a little info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go into windows and execute Dmrouter.exe it should, it may not change anything on your screen. Easy way to tell is if you have an activesync connection, execute it, and if activesync disconnects then your in it. Another way is to check task manager, and see if it is running.
There was a problem with the driver for the Vogue in WModem. I found a thread with the fix:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=462712
Valahalla? I know it has to do with GPS just wondering what it is
Phone shows up as Palm treo modem
I got dmrouter.exe working, but in vista it shows up as palm treo modem after drivers are found and installed. I`ll try again in XP and see if it happens again.
Wow I finally got this to work (Shadow Techs Fix)
It took about a day and a half, but I finally got it!
1.) I flashed back to Official Alltel 6.1 Rom and skipped customizations.
2.) I followed the steps in this thread http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=36377&highlight=shadow-tech+agps
3.) Reflashed back NFSFAN`s 1.02 Rom. I then tested it out and 10 seconds later I had 8 satellites locked on me.
Thanks to everybody who helped me out here with your posts. I started this thread as just a kinda survey to find out if I was not alone in having so much difficulty making my phone work as it should, and ended up a very happy Touch owner.
on alltel
it almost never works. shadow-tech's fix helps immensely
im in dominican republic
and i never manage to get a gps signal.
=/ is it me or the phone?
or the fact that this island is worst then the one in LOST
I checked the accuracy of the GPS on my phone about a year ago- Sometimes I work with surveyors, so we matched my vogue against a survey grade GPS to determine how off it was- My phone was +/- 3 feet (1m) in latititude and +/- 10 feet (3m) in longitude. I think that's pretty damn good. This was in a refinery in NJ, USA, with lots of big steel tanks around.
First I was using gps toggle, now I'm running NSFANs 6.5 v8 with gps viewer. I never have trouble getting a lock after about a minute of warming up.
Concerning the Shadow tech fix some of you guys have used here : http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=36377&highlight=shadow-tech+agps
I was wondering if this fix has already been incorporated into all the cooked ROMs for the Vogue that have come out since March '09?

Garmin XT 5.0.20w loosing GPS fix and more....

OK Guys I was searching this forum and not only this but could not find any answer or tip to my problem, so as far as i do not like to start new thread here we go....
It is a bit weird as it started to happen recently...my Garmin XT working ideally with TOPO maps when u hiking but as soon as i get into a car and connect my HD to power and try to navigate home it starts to loosing the plot... basically it will find the route and start navigating and then suddenly loosing GPS fix and switch screen off sometimes, and even once or twice unload itself so phone went back to main screen. also once it lost fix i can see that Garmin switching between full screen and full window view...as i can see top bar every now and then.
contacting Garmin is a waste of time....as they did not offer any solution except hard resetting the device, and i wont do that, to much work to put back everything together and not enough time.
if anyone have a clue what it might be please share ur thought, and give me a tip to sort this out.
I'm using non modified HD with standard WWE version on Orange UK.
Thanks for any help
PS. For MOD, do not know if I posted in right place so if need to be moved, just move it.
Oh and I thought my Garmin was going crazy ! Actually Sygic is working fine with me except that I get some lags sometimes but it is all fine. But yeah tell me about it ... I tried Garmin and it looked for me better with much more POIS than Sygic but few days ago I was driving and suddenly the software started to go into other direction, like it was tracking something else. I think it is a bug with the software maybe. Thank God I am not the only one aware of many things going on with my HD
have u ppl tried 1.13.25.24 radio rom??
with this update... getting fix is very fast (basically it does not search for com ports, shows u connected when u start GMXT).
only drawback is that u can not see the satellite bars in info section.
used gps for short distances (@ 140kmph not much lagging and no disconnection). maybe i'll go for a long drive this weekend... then i'll know if there is a problem of disconnection or lagging etc.
With TomTom i get the same problem, however i don't know what the problem may be because A-GPS is turned off, but it has happened twice where it would take 4 times as longer to find the signal, and whenever it did it would go find then lost.
Soft Resetting fixed it up however i did notice my QuickGPS was not up to date anymore, must have went out of date the day before and possible cause for it acting up.
Try updating QuickGPS, might fix it up and be sure to have A-GPS off.
still no solution
Psygnosis84 said:
Try updating QuickGPS, might fix it up and be sure to have A-GPS off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did forgot to mention that my A-GPS is already switched off. the problem is that Garmin keep switching between full screen and full window view and i suspect that my be the bottom of losing fix in the car... i want to stress out that while walking & hiking i have no such problem..... ONLY IN THE CAR and that is most frustrating.
and changing radio....well i'm not convinced as this could halt my phone if something go wrong and i cannot let it happen, as it's not only a toy but business tool, so i rather dont play with it.
any solution????
marasp said:
i did forgot to mention that my A-GPS is already switched off. the problem is that Garmin keep switching between full screen and full window view and i suspect that my be the bottom of losing fix in the car... i want to stress out that while walking & hiking i have no such problem..... ONLY IN THE CAR and that is most frustrating.
and changing radio....well i'm not convinced as this could halt my phone if something go wrong and i cannot let it happen, as it's not only a toy but business tool, so i rather dont play with it.
any solution????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing radio won't halt your device. As long as you have Hardspl on your phone beforehand you'll be fine!
And pelase report back if it does solve your problem
Is this a solution????
Hi there, I see we lost some posts over here....so again latest update...
On the way to work this morning I tried garmin with Intermediate Driver and it worked!! but....there always has to be some but....I saw increase in lag...also i did it a bit different way then usually as I did not connected HD to power... will test it again with power connection tomorrow.
i have extensively tested gps of touch hd while driving from 0 to 120 km in open highway
i never lost the fix
it kept locked to satelites but major problem was battery drain
so i have to disconnect gps latter on
i belive with gps on and satelite fixed driving around 80 to 100 km battery with die with in 2 hours .
otherwise there is lag of 5 to 7 km/hr in speed calculated via gps and its normal
my SiRF III CHIP based cowon q5 gps also shows 5 to 10 km /hr differance from actual speed of car
its normal i belive
laggy but working
commando0 said:
otherwise there is lag of 5 to 7 km/hr in speed calculated via gps and its normal
my SiRF III CHIP based cowon q5 gps also shows 5 to 10 km /hr differance from actual speed of car its normal i belive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
from what i experienced earlier with garmin i can say that lag become much bigger...now when i'm past the junction, on the map i suppose to be either on or even before the junction... never had that before so i suspect that intermediate driver might be responsible for that. also i can say that when using tomtom i have no such experience.
wanted to ditch tomtom but with such a laggy response i will have to use both... garmin for off road navigation and tomtom for car navigation.
the only thing i can confirm is that using intermediate driver solved switching between full screen and full window problem as well as loosing gps fix... at least for me. but u get bigger lag instead....

Bing shuts down and sometimes crashes with stock T-Mobile USA HD2 Rom.

I've googled this problem an no one else seems to have it. I'm presently running the stock T-Mobile HD2 ROM (2.10.531.1) and have downloaded the Bing application directly from the Windows Marketplace. When I'm using Bing for navigation it sometimes crashes (rarely) but mostly just shuts down (always). I immediately go in to task manager and see that Bing has shut off completely for no apparent reason. I don't really want to flash a new ROM right now because I misplaced my unlock code and am still stuck with at&t. I suspect it may be a problem with the ROM, but really have no idea what's causing the problem. No other programs display this behavior and I have no problems whatsoever with the phone or OS. Any insight into this problem anyone? Thanks in advance.
I'm on a stock 2.13 ROM and Bing does crash/close on me occasionally. It's inconvenient when it does, because you have to start it up, choose your last destination, etc.
Try uninstalling the app and then reinstalling it again.
@p_synthesis
Thanks for the response. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the application a few times through a Bing cab that was floating at XDA and have also done the same with the Bing app directly from the marketplace and I get the same problems. I have also installed on the storage card and on the internal memory, and still the same problem. Well at least I know I'm not the only one with the problem. This is a fairly major problem as it causes a major inconvenience when using the navigation.
Yeah, mine is doing the same thing, HD2 is stock except for cookies. Although, strangely I was using the navigation today for couple of hours and it didn't crash once. Sometimes seems to get hung up when losing signal momentarily at the same time it needs to do a reroute, although in that instance the app locks up but doesn't disappear. I've only had bing navigation for a few days but as long as doesn't crash too often, and Microsoft puts a little more time into this app to polish it up a little it will be something handy to have. Things they can add to Bing I would like would be to display the current speed with the posted speed limit, options on font sizes, and API to allow other meta data to be displayed if available (speed traps etc). However, I think when Google gets around to adding navi to the WM platform they will have the product to beat. I have a Garmin Nuvi now which I pretty much utterly despise hence I will be using my HD2 for navigation for the time being using Bing. I definitely need to get a adapter for car use though as the HD2 really sucks down the power, even more when the GPS is active.
Problems with Bing turn by turn with voice navigation.
Don't feel bad. Bing has died on me regularly while using voice turn by turn directions on both the stock rom and on elegencia......my theory is it's getting to areas of no net signal, panics and the program exits...would seem to me the stupid program could cache the whole trips from the beginning or at least give a friggin beep when it's gonna die and offer to "resume" from where it left off on restart. Sometimes I give up and just have it print me the directions....been eyeing google maps more and more.
Bing shuts down on HD2.
Thanks for your replies gentlemen. Thing is I never had this problem on my HTC Touch Pro. I was running an NRG WM 6.5 ROM on that Touch Pro and never encountered one single problem with Bing, whether it was a 5 min route or 200+ road trip. I find it amazing that such a popular/useful app on the Windows Marketplace is so glitchy with such an important and popular device. BTW I too have Cookies Home Tab, but I shut down Sense and run SPB Mobile Shell and still have problems with Bing. I will flash to an NRG ROM in two weeks, and will report then.
i have been having the same problem on my tilt 2. the only time i have been able to get it to work is when i have a stock rom or close to stock. if its a rom that can recognize my phone as a tilt 2 bing navigation always works great. i can never get it to work on energy roms : ( m.bing.com wont even load right on energy roms cause the site cant tell what phone im using. drives me crazy cause i love the energy roms but i really want to use bing!
I have been having the same problem as well. Closes after about 10-30 seconds of navigation. Stock rom with tmobile HD2.
Uninstalling and reinstalling bing fixed it for a day, now nothing I can do fixes it.
Been using waze as a secondary, but I would love to find a fix for this.
Bing gets update, maybe fixes crashes?
I just installed the latest version of Bing which can be found at this link (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...ce-cadd-4c37-b3a6-14b7d72626f0&displayLang=en). I haven't had a chance to test the navigation because I'm at the office, but everything else runs very smooth even after toying around with it for about 5 minutes (previous version stalled or shut down on my HD2).
I've only been using the latest version for a very short time, but so far it seems to be much better. I used to get a crash basically every time I used the turn by turn. I was using it quite a bit today, and not one crash. Hopefully that will continue. I'd definitely recommend updating to the latest version if you haven't already. Can't find anything new in the latest version though. Anyone find a change log?
Peace
Dan
Crashes on latest Bing update
Hate to report that on my way back from home Bing crashed during navigation on the latest update. It was fine for about 15 minutes, then the screen froze and I couldn't exit the application. I had to perform a soft reset. This is really frustrating and only reinforces my hatred towards Microsoft for releasing such buggy ****.
I've noticed this too, however, for me it seems to only happen when the phone becomes hot. As soon as the phone cools down it works fine for me. If you have AC in your car hold it in front of the air vent for about 30 seconds and soft reset and it will work fine. As long as it is kept cool it wont shut down.
Also try using navigation without plugging the phone into a car charger as it seems to generate a lot of internal heat while charging. Besides you should get 2-3 hours of navigation if you start with a full charge and that should be more then adequate for most trips.
I don't know why it shuts down automatically but this seems to work for me
Alternatives.
I haven't tested extensively but the Dutty N4S Legacy HD2 ROMS seem very stable with Bing. Here's the link (http://htcpedia.com/htc_dutty_legacy/reviews/rom-builds.html). Or you can try an Android build and use Google Maps navigation, also extremely stable and a pleasure to use and explore. Here's the link (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=787189).
I have the same problems with both bing and google map, the phone reboot itself after about 10-15 minutes of navigation, I have latest stock ROM with original SPL, OS: 5.2.21913, Radio 2.15.50.14. I have no additional application installed.
I believe this hardware issue since i know many people has the same annoying problem.
HD2, T-Mobile, USA

GPS Issues on Desire HD - Considerations, tools and tips

I'd like to make a unique single thread with all the issues related to gps on DHD and the procedures/tips to make it work better.
MY EXPERIENCE
I was ready to go to dinner to my girlfriend's uncle (50km far away). I bought my DHD two days before. Ok, let's try gps. Google navigator. Started driving and my phone didn't get a lock. After five minutes of driving, i needed some help from navigator. Nope, still no gps lock. I stopped the car, got out with DHD in hand and lock again in two minutes with the sky in sight. No problem until destination. At the end of the dinner, on the road again. For the first 3 minutes, gps lock. Then lock lost, gps icon blinking and nothing. Tried to reload the phone. Fast boot first time and complete reboot the second time. I didn't stop the car this time, tried while driving (my girlfriend handled telephone while i was driving ).
It took 45 minutes to get lock again. Thanks god, i learned the route on the journey there.
The same thing happened again three times in the next days.
I thought that some software installed corrupted my phone.....(sorry, i was used to the windows mobile whims!!!!).
Hard resetted, but the problem was always there. Without logic, sometimes i had gps lock, sometimes not. Sometimes my DHD was keeping the lock until destination, other times gps lock was lost while moving.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Not all the people complaints about gps on DHD. I don't know why but there are many people who have problems using it. I think that, except for the faulty devices with defective gps chip, the behaviour is the same for all devices. Only the people perception about the performances of gps are different, and their behaviours of use. I had different expectations about gps. I was used to start driving without gps lock, my HtcHD would have always found lock in one minute anyway. Even if moving, even if many clouds or raining.
People who arrived to Android coming from Windows Mobile do experience a general lack of speed in locking gps position and a very different way about gps is handled by the OS.
My DesireHD hardly locks gps where my previous HtcHD locked gps in few seconds.
The same difficulties I have now with DesireHD, I had them too when I installed Android on my HtcHD. But I thought it was the unstable Android SD ROM's fault.
Another issue is the speed of hot start: DHD seem to have a very very short term memory in fact of gps. Hot start is really hot only if you reconnect within short time.
My HtcHD was able to reconnect in few seconds even if hours passed from the previous lock, if not moved.
My new DHD needs more time to lock, even if the previous lock was 30 minutes before. It happens to take 45 seconds or more to lock again if the sky is not completely in sight.
Even if I get lock with GPS Status, shutdown the program and I reopen it few seconds after, gps lock is not immediate. It takes almost ten seconds to lock.
I think I have to forget the Winmo performances in fact of gps, on Android.
(I think it's the only thing i'm gonna be missing, anyway......)
I think i'll have to wait for the lock before start driving from now.
ISSUES EXPERIENCED BY USERS
- DHD locks gps but when moving it loses the lock and it stays for minutes (from 10 to 60) looking for it again. -
Let DHD get an outdoor strong gps lock for some minutes before starting to move.
- DHD is unable to find a lock. Phone never ever locked gps, whether indoor or outdoor, with the whole sky in sight.
Try resetting AGPS data and let your phone get a lock without data connection, outdoor with the sky in sight on a plain stable surface
If you never ever succeed to get a lock, you should consider to have a faulty chip on your device. I think it's better to contact HTC Repair service.
- DHD behaves with no logic. Sometimes it finds a lock in seconds, sometimes it takes ages to find a lock.
Let DHD get an outdoor strong gps lock for some minutes before starting to move.
- DHD is unable to find a lock if any data connection is available.
Try resetting AGPS data e let your phone get a lock without data connection, outdoor with the sky in sight on a plain stable surface
TIPS
Do all of these steps. And, except for the first, try to do them all the times you use gps. And evaluate the improvements, if there are.
One time procedure:
- Force the phone to lock gps without any data connection and check APN type (see below for the link to step-by-step procedure).
It is important to put the phone outdoor on a stable and straight surface in order to get a strong lock, with a complete view of the sky.
My advice is to empty a-gps data BEFORE doing this operation (this can be done with GPS Status - Menu => Tools => MAnage Agps state => Empty data - The program is free and doesn't need root permissions)
Before every use of gps:
- Use FasterFix (needs root permissions) to change NTP server zone. The system/etc/gps.conf file contains parameters for NTP server and AGPS data. In mine i find that the ntp server used is located in northamerica. I live in Rome so I use Fasterfix to change it, forcing to use european ntp server. I don't know why but Android changes by itself this file, putting again north america server, so i have to change it more than once in a day to keep it using european server.
NOTE: Fasterfix gives back an error the first time you open it, choose the seerver and try to apply it. Only the second or the third attempt, it returns an ok result. Don't mind error. Don't worry about it. Even if returned error, it did its job anyway.
- Synch Device clock with atomic time. I use ClockSynch (needs root permissions), but every program capable of doing the same thing can be used. This is intended to help device in calculating your position. More accurate time means less corrections by the software, faster position calculating and a more accurate position.
- Let the phone get a strong lock BEFORE starting to move with your car. A couple of minutes before, you should let your phone on a stable surface, with sky in sight. Outdoor, obviously. Better if outside the car.
This thing could seem stupid, i know. But let your DHD get the lock in a place where it has a good view to the satellites. Let it acquire precision (you can see it in the left middle part of the screen, using GPS Status). Start moving only when precision has reached a minimum value (expressed in meters/feets - lower value, more accurate). You will see that gps lock will be more and more stable than before.
- Use a task killer program to kill all the processes which may use gps. I noticed that if one or more program able to use gps have been left opened in background, sometimes, without logic, something goes wrong and Gps receiver is no longer reachable by software.
In this situation if I open GPS Status, I see gps icon blinking, but in fact no satellites are seen by the program. I mean that on the screen is not shown 0/3 or 0/5 satellites. On the screen i see nothing about the number of sats, neither 0/0, empty. And in some situations this thing cannot be true (i.e. if i am completely outdoor with a perfect sky view).
RESOURCES
Gps lock without data connection: http://wccftech.com/2010/09/09/solving-gps-nofix-problem-cyanogenmod-6-nexus/
Gps Status: http://www.appbrain.com/app/gps-status-toolbox/com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2
FasterFix: http://www.appbrain.com/app/fasterfix/com.Double.FasterFix
ClockSync: http://www.appbrain.com/app/clocksync/ru.org.amip.ClockSync
Advanced Task Killer: http://www.appbrain.com/app/advanced-task-killer/com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller
EDIT: I have a stock ROM. Nothing upgraded. The only modification is the root access permissions granted with visionary.
Good thread, helpful and insightful.
I am going to download all those applications as I too have been experiencing Slow GPS lock.
Just 1 possible solution for you, have you tried to upgrade your radio? This may sometimes help solve GPS problems.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
No, I didn't upgrade my radio.
I'd like to do it but i'm very hesitant to mess around with my phone like this.
P.S. Let me know if you had some improvements.
giegi_dc said:
No, I didn't upgrade my radio.
I'd like to do it but i'm very hesitant to mess around with my phone like this.
P.S. Let me know if you had some improvements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updated radio can make a MASSIVE difference. One of the best things you can do to your phone if you're having any kind of GPS / 3G / Wifi issues.
Go to:
Menu > Settings > About Phone > Software Info
Where it says Baseband Version, this is your radio version.
For me the most annoything that happens with GPS is that when playing a music and using at the same time an offline map gps program, when a voice or some ding dong sound happens, the music played stops and resumes after those gps sounds ends...
I think this is due to Android sys... even WinMobile it's better on this...
Thanks for the tips. My GPS is locking on very quickly now and even inside buildings. I used clocksync + GPS status + Fasterfix. Fixing to around 8 - 9 satellites indoors and 12/12 outdoors.
Done.
Great.
It Works!!!!
initially it would take me a good minute or two to acquire a precise location INDOORS, now it does it in 10-15 secs!!!!!!
i was already using GPS Status, this is with FasterFix.
Thanks.
so strange I never had problem with GPS, always fixes in less than 10 second and never loses as well.
I use iGO and it never let me down.
I had problem with gps-lock from the beginning.
Tried the link above "gps-lock without dataconnection"
Now it locks within seconds
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Personally, I've had no problem with gps for apps such as Google navigation where the screen stays on.
It's a different story, however, for apps like cardio trainer where the phone loses gps lock when the screen is off. I understand this is a known issue with Android 2.2 and has been fixed for 2.3+. I don't know if anyone else has problems with this.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
magnus66 said:
I had problem with gps-lock from the beginning.
Tried the link above "gps-lock without dataconnection"
Now it locks within seconds
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but mine desire didnt work? first when take out the sim card ,reset and download data ..it work like charm..lock around 10 sec..then put sim card back it took age cant find satelite to lock..
anyone know what wrong?
On my DHD, indoors, GPS sucks badly.. apps such as "aroundme" its pretty useless, just hangs finding a signal. but outdoors when I use navigation, etc it works okay. I dont use GPS that much anyway, so cant complain. It is a tad annoying when your indoors and cant find stuff though.
I've had really big problems with my GPS.
Could not get a lock so I rooted my phone and upgraded the radio. Changed the gps.conf file and reset A-GPS settings and tried GPS without a dataconnection. None of the suggested things above did work, so I downgraded the radio to stock and unrooted my phone and sent it to a repair center.
Hopefully they will fix it.
I have a Hero (root) and a Desire (stock) and they get a lock on within seconds and works flawless even indoors.
I guess HTC has a lot of faulty GPS modules in their Desire HD mobiles, but not all are using GPS so therefore we only hear about some of the problems.
Trying the Nexus one fix as in the first post, after taking SIM out, I do not get any GPS signals on GPS Status, if I put SIM back in I get fixes but GPS unusable as it keeps losing connection whilst in journey. The steps I have taken so far are as follows:
* Take your SIM out of the Nexus One
* Power on the device
* Turn WiFi on
* Turn GPS on
* Open application: GPS Status (ver 3.4)
* Go into its Settings menu
* Click on GPS and Sensors
* Click Manage A-GPS state
* Click Reset
* Click Manage A-GPS state again
* Click Download [You'll see a message telling you that a data connection is needed, ignore it]
* Now put your phone on a stable, straight surface in order to enable the phone to get a lock, within GPS Status. This time, you’ll see your phone get the lock way faster than before.
Any help will be appreciated.
onesolo said:
For me the most annoything that happens with GPS is that when playing a music and using at the same time an offline map gps program, when a voice or some ding dong sound happens, the music played stops and resumes after those gps sounds ends...
I think this is due to Android sys... even WinMobile it's better on this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
quoting my self...
There's some developments about this issue...
Or one use the nice HTC Gps Software (at least the version that cames with gingerbread) or use the iGO Amigo.
I tried the iGO Amigo and I finally can listen to music at same time when the voice from iGo speaks!!! There's no interruptions at all like on the majority of GPS softwares that I tried on my DHD (don't know how it works on another devices)
I think that this issue is something that is only developers fault cause initially I thought it was due android design, maybe it was only possible to play something only from one app at a time. (ie. not play two things from two different apps simultaneous) but I figure that after all that is possible.
Bad developers!!!!
GPS Problems: finally the solution
Hi all,
Here I want to tell my experience with HD Desire GPS to help all those who were (like me) desperate.
The way to solve exists ! Read to the end to know how.
I bought my HD Desire in January 2011 (from Euronics in Rome - Italy) and after one week of use the problems began with the GPS.
It did not fix more ... but above all there were more than 1 or 2 visible satellites ... even in open sky, in good conditions, even outside for 30 minutes.
The phone was obviously still immaculate (without root and with the original ROM and RADIO) then I went back to the shop where I bought ... and using GPS-Status the seller has found that actually did not work.
Very kindly he changed my on the flight the phone ... I installed GPS-Status on the new phone just replaced and now everything works fine (fix in less than 10sec and 7 / 8 satellites visible).
I came at home and for 2/3 days it worked wonders but soon it began again with the same GPS problems.
No more fix and at maximum 2/3 satellites visible.
Building on the fact that the phone had been replaced and ... GPS Status actually had made a fix in less than 10 seconds ... (When I had replaced) ... I said, Sure ... is certainly a software problem and not an hardware one ... because the phone is a new one.
So I did a factory reset ... reset all settings as the original ... and retried. Nothing.
The GPS was dead for the second time in two weeks.
Then, I began a careful search on various forums (both Italian and international).
I've tried everything ... really everything ... but nothing. It does not work !
Tried GPS-Status (A-GPS Reset, Download), then fasterfix (it.pool.ntp.org) then I started to change ROM (root, S-Off and ENF S-Off), then I tried all possible Radio and RIL in all combinations. Sometimes happen that the fix was very fast and this gave me the illusion (temporary) of having finally found the solution. However, on time (sometimes even after a few minutes) the problem returns back!
I also tried to clean the contacts of the GPS as shown in this video on youTube(h**p:/*w*wdotyoutubedotcom/watch?v=7qm_z65LA8k).
At the end ... after 4 months of trying all... I sent back in warranty the phone to the HTC service (S-ON and leave to unroot because it was under warranty).
After 10 days of impatient waiting, HTC gave me back the phone and say that the GPS was faulty and had been replaced.
I redid a restore using Titanium Backup Pro ... restoring back all in the exact same conditions I had when the GPS was not working.
Now everything works wonderfully !!!
Im using the original ROM (RUU 2.36.405.8), original Radio (12.54.60.25U_26.09.04.11_M2) and the original Kernel (2.6.35.10-g0956377).
Fix in 10/20 sec (everytime), with at least 7 / 8 satellites (tested for several days now).
Moral of the story ... There are lots of HTC Desire HD phones (probably the first stock) that today are still in the form of stocks and inventories in some shopping malls / shops with the GPS module that is broken !!! (it works for a few days and then no longer works).
The only way is to send back your phone in warranty and ensure that GPS module is replaced (having first restored with all unroot and S-OFF as otherwise the warranty does not apply).
Believe me ... if you have tried everything ... this is the only way!
Now I'm an happy HTC Desire HD owner (with Gingerbread) with a GPS which is a splinter.
Im currently using Navigator, Google Maps, CoPilot and everything works great !
I hope this post may help and comfort those who are desperate and can not run the GPS on the Desire HD.
Greetings to all.
Andrea.

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