Database Users

Weird GPS problem. Moving even while my car is motionless.

Hi i have weird problem with my GPS.
While I driving (car is moving) everything is beauty and sweet but once I stop my car my GPS is still moving for about 10 sometimes 20 sec showing 2km/h then 0km/h then 2km/h again. Sometimes when I stop car on junction my Gps will jump on the perpendicular road and from time to time my arrow on the map just turn around to opposite direction and the maps sets a new route! Once i move my car everything going back to normal.
I was using first my TomTom and i just thought it`s a map problem although i haven`t problem with that on my Rhodium either X1. So I decided to try Igo8 and it`s exactly this same. Even on the roundabout my gps can jump somewhere else on different road.
I tried all Radios available for HD2, many Roms and just have no idea what more I can do. Many people on HD2 forum in Poland have this same problem.
I also tried GPS fix cab downloaded here from xda but no luck its ever worst.
I can add that i'm getting GPS fix in few second so its good the problem is just my gps is moving around.
PS. Very, very rarely have no problem with this jumpin gps around. But is like 1/30.

Do you have access to an external Bluetooth GPS receiver you can test out? That could eliminate or isolate some possibilities.

balane said:
Do you have access to an external Bluetooth GPS receiver you can test out? That could eliminate or isolate some possibilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately i don`t. but on my Touch Pro 2 and Xperia never had this problem.

hi,
are you using the 'gpsmoddriver' software, that is floating around here in the forum?. its made for using the compass data when no gps fix is available. it causes such failures in igo and copilot on my hd2. after uninstalling it gps works much more percise to me, when im not moving.
regards mad

Happens with mine as well. I have replaced my HD2 and it seems that the 2nd unit acts the same. tried various ROMs/RADIOs (official/cooked) - nothing seemed to fix this.
It's quite funny though... most of the people rather paying attention to the fix time instead of the accuracy (which is quite bad imo) in addition to this weird phenomenon. I doubt that the AGPS is somehow related, but it will be nice to know how to disable this feature, and try to acquire the signal without it. maybe this is the cause.
Btw, check this out - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600232

Fatherboard said:
Happens with mine as well. I have replaced my HD2 and it seems that the 2nd unit acts the same. tried various ROMs/RADIOs (official/cooked) - nothing seemed to fix this.
It's quite funny though... most of the people rather paying attention to the fix time instead of the accuracy (which is quite bad imo) in addition to this weird phenomenon. I doubt that the AGPS is somehow related, but it will be nice to know how to disable this feature, and try to acquire the signal without it. maybe this is the cause.
Btw, check this out - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600232
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agps - this feature is available in NRGZ roms. I tried to turn on and off and it was no different.
PS. thanks for answering.
madbird said:
hi,
are you using the 'gpsmoddriver' software, that is floating around here in the forum?. its made for using the compass data when no gps fix is available. it causes such failures in igo and copilot on my hd2. after uninstalling it gps works much more percise to me, when im not moving.
regards mad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As i said before : i was using it. I had feelings its jumping around the places more than without it so I uninstalled it.

Tried to email HTC regarding this. they claim that their HD2's don't exhibit this behavior, even though I've tried two different units, from different batches.
I don't know what to do... this drives IGO nuts - it causes igo to switch lanes, directions and having the route recalculated without any good reason.

Fatherboard said:
Tried to email HTC regarding this. they claim that their HD2's don't exhibit this behavior, even though I've tried two different units, from different batches.
I don't know what to do... this drives IGO nuts - it causes igo to switch lanes, directions and having the route recalculated without any good reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes its just pointless to talk with those dickheads.
They ll never say true.
With pink camera was this same. They were saying at the beginning that they have no problem with pink spot at all. And what was next? We need just more people to email or ring them.
Most of them even not using HD2. They've seen for few minutes and think they'll know everything about it.
It was so many bugs with this device they just dont want to hear about another one!

In addition to that, both of my units tended to show different position and altitude readings each time i powered up igo or google maps. while exhibiting the differences I obviously didn't from my current position, not even an inch.
to try to make things clearer. that's what I did :
loading igo -> acquiring signal within seconds -> getting a certain position reading with altitude of 11 meters (for example) -> quit -> reloading igo -> acquiring signal within seconds -> slightly different position, altitude of 75 meters or a negative value (for example).
even the small blinking dot in igo (which determines the actual gps mark) doesn't fit to my physical location on the road which I'm currently driving on. it sometimes blinks few meters to the right/left, and sometimes it tracks behind the guidance arrow (as it should be).

Could be
Simply a limitation of GPS. I have seen it on other GPS's. Garmin etrex. Try walking with one and even thou you are walking in a straight line it plots a zigzag path. More satelites (10+) should reduce this issue.
Basically the GPS is only accurate to a certain range from +-50m to +- 2 meters depending on the no of sats. The location is detemined by timing from when the signal was sent to when it was received. Calcs how far away the sat is (Speed of light??). It is possible you care getting a fluctuation in your current location. Eg
Sample 1 says you are point a.
Sample 2 says you are 2 meters to the right.
Sample 3 says you are 2 meters to the left.
Still in the +- 5 meters but the gps is plotting you moving backwards and forwards.

Guys, it is a problem everyone has, gps position is not as accurate or stable on the hd2 as on most other htc devices. And with an erratic gps position automatically comes an erratic speed. Don't know yet if it is because of a different gps module that's inside the hd2 or because of the inclusion of crappy gps drivers. Will try to find out soon....
Anyway, gpsmoddriver is not the cause of this problem since the problem is also on an hd2 without having gpsmoddriver installed. Because of the functionality of gpsmoddriver to improve the gps readings, in some cases it can amplify your erratic gps position, and that is also what some of you have been experiencing. Remember you can always use gpsmoddriver to add the hardware compass functionality to your navigation software, while additionally configuring gpsmoddriver to leave gps data untouched so it won't make the erratic position and speed worse. For more info or help, please visit the gpsmoddriver thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=571266
EDIT: Of course the HD2 has a new snapdragon chip which has built-in GPS just like many previous generations of phones. Most likely qualcomm changed the way gps works in their new line of Snapdragon processors...

The movement of vehicles around you or even the movement of the sun's rays on buildings nearby can distort GPS signals. The GPS navigator software tries to rationalize this distortion and that usually appears as a movement when you are still. On the other hand, if you drive into a tunnel using TomTom and some other software, you will often see yourself driving straight on in the tunnel well after the GPS is receiving no more satellite signals.
In top-of-the-line built-in navigation systems, the GPS data is supplemented by inertial guidance. (Someone could create a similar supplement for the HD2 The supplementary information allows the system to reconcile the GPS information with information on your car's actual movement.
But for us mere mortals, we just have to live with it.

Well... this particular gps chip is quite useless, then. if my navigation program has to recalculate the route each time I stop at traffic light, then it seems that I either have to purchase a usb-based gps to pair with the HD2, or replace this device. I counted on it to perform well.

Fatherboard said:
Well... this particular gps chip is quite useless, then. if my navigation program has to recalculate the route each time I stop at traffic light, then it seems that I either have to purchase a usb-based gps to pair with the HD2, or replace this device. I counted on it to perform well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Complain to HTC, perhaps if they get enough complains they will come out with a hotfix or a rom upgrade that fixes it. Nobody said that the hardware is not that good (though it's possible), but it could also very well be a bad implementation by HTC!!

Already did.
They have obviously denied my complaints.
thanks again, anyway.

I noticed this behaviour yesterday night, at about 10pm. I was playing with NoniGPSplot, and while I was completely still (and freezing me arse outside believe me), it was tracking a movement back and fro and all around in small step, keeping track of me traveling some meters still while I was standing in the same point.
It was night and I was in my big yard, so no sunrays nor moving vehicles around nor buildings over my head.
I think this behaviour is very well hidden in tomtom since it automatically puts you on a road, and "smoothens" the gps data by making you follow that road no matter what, but a "realtime" software like nonigps tracks that all so well. Gonna notify htc about it now.

Guys, let's not go overboard on this. Non-military GPS is only claimed accurate to around 20 metres, regardless of the quality of the receiver. It's the US Defense Department messing with your HD2, not HTC.

Stephen Selby said:
Guys, let's not go overboard on this. Non-military GPS is only claimed accurate to around 20 metres, regardless of the quality of the receiver. It's the US Defense Department messing with your HD2, not HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, absolutely, I've noticed the same behaviour with all three of the BlueTooth GPS I used in the past. So, I would not be too quick to blame HTC for this.

my touch cruise's gps receiver worked with static navigation enabled to avoid this false movement. maybe this is just a usual behaviour?

Agree to that.
But regardless of the fact that the thing is not a military GPS system, It should do it's work correctly as for me the GPS is almost useless when driving slow or within a city. My 2nd phone (HTC DIAMOND) and 3 personal navigation devices are mounted in my car to compare and all work fine when the HD2 isn’t .
The GPS looses all the time the fix to the satellites and then quickly gets the fix back. when using a GPS monitor you can see that the satellites constantly moving really rapidly. (moving --> getting fix and loosing it again)
This is for 4 other reference devices which are running simultaneously not the case so it seems really an issue with the GPS device.
I tested this with different ROMs (1.44 Vodafone, 0.6 dutty WM 6.5.5, 1.66 stock and another one I cannot recall the producer anymore.)

I might be on to something for the GPS issue.

Well like everyone I had the GPS issue and it was frustrating. I do run an app killer and I always notice many apps (especially the preloaded ones) Keep launching themselves. It got rather irritating. Specifically Telenav.
I noticed with Telenav my GPS would be very flaky. Once I got "killed" it the gps seemed to improve. I thought to myself maybe I'm just being paranoid.
Did a bit of research and found an app called "Start UP Auditor" which completely kills an app and restricts it from every starting up again. My gps seems to be working much better now.
I drove a few miles and on the Verrazano Bridge here in NY and the GPS was super percise. When I was at the end of the block it was at the end of the block as well at the same time. Not like it was before.
Now I can launch google maps and it will find me exactly in front of my house and not 200 feet away.
Takes a solid minute to lock on. Not more but not less unfortunately. So there still is a bit of a problem but for me at least it has exponentially gotten better. Versus it not even locking on previously.
I think I might be on to something. I cannot give all credit to me because I saw on a Tmobile forum someone say that they think the problem might be with the self launching apps so that's where I started to draw conclusions.
EDIT: Scratch that one min thing. It seriously just now took me 10 seconds to lock on and the GPS to start talking to tell me where to turn inside my house. Issue fixed?

I completly removed TeleNav and I still have GPS issues... It is not any software causing this problem. It is a Hardware / Firmware / Driver issue.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

gravis86 said:
I completly removed TeleNav and I still have GPS issues... It is not any software causing this problem. It is a Hardware / Firmware / Driver issue.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, one of the first things I did after rooting was remove all the bloatware, and Telenav was one of them.

gravis86 said:
I completly removed TeleNav and I still have GPS issues... It is not any software causing this problem. It is a Hardware / Firmware / Driver issue.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... Interesting.
My GPS issues seem to have disappeared after killing Telenav.
This just takes me back to the drawing board once more. I just do not understand...
I would like to see others responses. Does there happen to be vibrants with different firmwares?

So what happened to me?
Was it some magical stroke of luck?

Wow.
Initially, disabling TeleNav gave me a significant improvement in GPS performance. Indoors, I went from having 50-60ft. of accuracy (with multiple locks), to 12-15ft. of accuracy with a single lock. Initial accuracy was in the upper 40s, but quickly dropped to the highest accuracy I've seen with the device (the 12-15ft. figure) - indoor or outdoor - within a minute. Crazy.
Outdoor, on a perfectly clear sky, the best I've achieved was previously 25ft. of accuracy.
I rebooted (the phone froze, wheee!), with TeleNav still selected as disabled, and now, I'm only getting 30-52ft. of accuracy with a single lock. This took about two minutes to come down from 170ft. or so.
GPS settings have been switched to 'Automatic', from the stock supl server, for all of these tests.
Maps still shows me in Issaquah, initially (incorrect data), but quickly updates my position my exact location (within a few seconds). Previously, Maps would take at least a half hour to place me in even the correct city! Margin of Error: ~50ft. or so (shows me on the street, rather than on my property), within seconds.
Compass, as expected: still totally ****ing broken and ****ty.
I can confirm that - besides not being able to lock onto more than a single sat - I'm seeing drastic improvements. Thanks for pointing this out.
Still, I'm not sure the improvement will be enough to convince me to hang onto the device while we wait to hear from Samsung. :/

Jon C said:
Wow.
Initially, disabling TeleNav gave me a significant improvement in GPS performance. Indoors, I went from having 50-60ft. of accuracy (with multiple locks), to 12-15ft. of accuracy with a single lock. Initial accuracy was in the upper 40s, but quickly dropped to the highest accuracy I've seen with the device (the 12-15ft. figure) - indoor or outdoor - within a minute. Crazy.
Outdoor, on a perfectly clear sky, the best I've achieved was previously 25ft. of accuracy.
I rebooted (the phone froze, wheee!), with TeleNav still selected as disabled, and now, I'm only getting 30-52ft. of accuracy with a single lock. This took about two minutes to come down from 170ft. or so.
GPS settings have been switched to 'Automatic', from the stock supl server, for all of these tests.
Maps still shows me in Issaquah, initially (incorrect data), but quickly updates my position my exact location (within a few seconds). Previously, Maps would take at least a half hour to place me in even the correct city! Margin of Error: ~50ft. or so (shows me on the street, rather than on my property), within seconds.
Compass, as expected: still totally ****ing broken and ****ty.
I can confirm that - besides not being able to lock onto more than a single sat - I'm seeing drastic improvements. Thanks for pointing this out.
Still, I'm not sure the improvement will be enough to convince me to hang onto the device while we wait to hear from Samsung. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea like I said in the OP the fix is better but there definitely is a problem that needs to be addressed. That might be either hardware or firmware, All thats left is to wait for sammy to fix it up. However my GPS performance for my needs is more than exceptional.

I have noticed that while running GPStest, Google Maps starts to work. Something is wrong with the API.

If anyone is getting black screen freeze ups, disabling GPS will clear that right up.

And, we're back to square one. So much for that.
Location services can no longer locate me, and show that I'm in a neighboring city. Nothing I adjust fixes this for more than a short period of time.
Oh, Samsung...

dattaway said:
I have noticed that while running GPStest, Google Maps starts to work. Something is wrong with the API.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to me that it is definitely a software problem. I don't think the hardware is bad. (The gps chip?)
heygrl said:
If anyone is getting black screen freeze ups, disabling GPS will clear that right up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I drove for miles and had nothing. Though if I am not using GPS I always turn it off to conserve battery.
Jon C said:
And, we're back to square one. So much for that.
Location services can no longer locate me, and show that I'm in a neighboring city. Nothing I adjust fixes this for more than a short period of time.
Oh, Samsung...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if they can't even find the issue yet. It will probably be fix in the 2.2 update.

I removed TelNav within 4days of owning my phone and it really for me hasn't changed a thing.
What helped me was turning off the wireless location feature. From what I noticed it looks for your location based off the cell towers first then it looks for your location via GPS. If its slow to find you via wireless then well its slow to find you via GPS too.

I didn't really tried the GPS when I saw the threads saying there was a problem with it and I read somewhere about "how to fix it" so I applied the fix before even using the GPS before, so I have no clue if I had problems or not, but after the fix, the GPS locks in about 10 to 15 seconds and gest my location on the spot, even indoors.
just change the GPS settings to google servers

Directly after rebooting my gps/navigation seems to work much better.
To make it more clear... I'll be using my phone throughout the day and then i'll try to use navigation. Usually it will just keep trying to find the route but it never actually finds it. I'll reboot the phone and it'll find my location and the route in <10 seconds.

kizer said:
I removed TelNav within 4days of owning my phone and it really for me hasn't changed a thing.
What helped me was turning off the wireless location feature. From what I noticed it looks for your location based off the cell towers first then it looks for your location via GPS. If its slow to find you via wireless then well its slow to find you via GPS too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe the wifi and GPS share the same antenna. Anyone know which antennas do what for sure?

Our cellular antenna is at the bottom under the bump. The one at the top next to the antenna port does the rest.

heygrl said:
If anyone is getting black screen freeze ups, disabling GPS will clear that right up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this tip, I hadn't caught this in the other GPS threads.

I ran and used My Tracks but forgot to turn on GPS. When I tried nav it could not get a fix until I restarted. Next time I'll try killing conflicting apps.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I just deleted the Tel-Nav app and now my GPS locks on in about 10 seconds and is dead on accurate. I even drove 165 miles today and never dropped a GPS signal. I could never do that before.

Does anyone know why the times are off one the gps sensors? My local time is 10:51, but gps test has it as 18:51 that is about 8 hours off.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

GPS fix issue, don't exchange the tablet just yet!

There seems to be MANY factors that affect the GPS on these tablets and exchanging one for another *may seem* to get you a better unit. I bought a second a500 unit today and when I first brought up google maps, it had my fix as soon as the screen opened. Cool, this must be a better unit than my other right? Not necessarily because I believe the new unit used my wifi for the quick fix. As soon as I turned off the wifi assistance, the unit no longer gave me immediate fixes. I loaded gps status and the new unit struggled to find just 1 satellite. My other unit which I've had 2 weeks, is now suddenly a gps 'mofo' as it finds and locks position really quick, sometimes in 5 or 10 seconds (wifi assist turned off). The only thing I installed recently is gps monitor, but that's just gives you a monitoring status in the taskbar. It does state that it's turning off gps when you exit maps, which if it does may help conserve battery.
So I'm not sure why my A500 decided to suddenly work really well with GPS. When I first bought it, it was actually kind of terrible. Of course I have the 3.1 update on my unit, but the new one is still 3.01. I don't know how much of a difference that makes either. I had planned on buying an Asus unit today, but could not find the 32gb unit locally (not settling for 16gb).
My unit is stock and not rooted. I don't see a need to root it because so far it's working quite well. If only the microphone pickup was better, but I can live with talking louder at it or into the top of the unit. I have to do that with my samsung galaxy phone also.
Rob

It's funny, the very first time I used the GPS It took forever to find & lock on to sats. Now it's really fast. I'm thinking it has a " learning curve" ?
Update : Tried in the same place tonight , it only picked up 1 sat & didn't lock.

It is aGPS which means Assisted. It uses WIFI to set your location and search for satellites based on that location.

There are a number of factors which affect the GPS on this unit, as the original poster stated. I've been researching this for sometime, and found a number of things that could lead to a replacement unit working better than a current unit.
I've another thread on this subject, but I'll post the cliff notes here.
The following can affect GPS on your unit:
Obstruction (Roof, Cover)
Weather (Clouds vs Sun)
Internet Access
Nearby magnets
Compass Calibration
Your almanac server (gps.conf)
For starters, download a program called "GPS Test", not to be confused with "GPS Status and Toolbox", which you should also have for different reasons.
Plug your unit in and set it up in a spot where you know you can get a signal on other devices (phone, etc). This does not include your basement, but it also doesn't have to be outside. A woodframe house will not usually obstruct the signal enough to interfere. Use your best judgement.
Start up GPS Test and go into the settings menu. Select the option where the screen stays on all of the time. Check to see if your unit will ever pick up any satellites. If it takes more than 30 minutes and you are sure you should be picking up satellites, this indicates a problem. The first step should be diagnostic.
Leave it run overnight. If you look at it in the morning and find a multitude of satellites then your GPS receiver is working fine. This means your GPS can see the satellites, but the only way it can find them is through sheer dumb luck. It needs to be told where to look, and its having problems getting that information. The problem is likely with your compass or almanac.
If you arrive in the morning to find no satellites at all, then your GPS is likely broken (not unheard of) or you need to try again in a better location.
If you know your GPS transmitter is working, the next step is the check your compass. This is where GPS Status and Tools comes into play. The first screen you see when you open the program will be the compass. Make sure north == north. If it does not, almanac data is useless because the tablet won't know which way to look. GPS Status and Toolbox comes with a compass calibration tool. Use it. If your compass will not stay pointed north, then your compass is broken. If it works, then its time to look at your almanac.
Unless your system is rooted, there is no point in reading further. All the following steps require root access.
There are two files that you need to be concerned with. They are /etc/gps.conf and /etc/gps/gpsconfig.xml
You either need to edit them manually, replace them with pre-configured optimized versions for your region (link below), or use a program (fasterfix) to edit them for you. Results with each approach may vary.
I won't go into this step into detail since its been covered a million times on the forums already. I will provide a link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068416
This is the one that helped me the most, but there are others.
Best of luck. And remember: Hardware failure is a real possibility, but so is a crappy environment. Make sure there is no outside interference and you're not trying to get your location from an underground bunker and wondering why it doesn't work. A little common sense goes a long way.
Cheers,
-PW

long time lurker on this site.
I just bought an A500 and have been trying to get this GPS to work.
The first one I got had 3.01. I first tested GPS and it worked fine. Was able to get connected to the satelites no problem. Downloaded and installed 3.1 on it and now GPS doesn't work at all. Tested it with the two programs: GPS test and GPS utilities.
Stood outside on a clear day and nothing happened. Tested all the settings and still not one satellite.
After reading a lot of the threads and doing a lot of searching I exchanged it for another one.
Did the same thing. Tested it on 3.01 and it worked then installed 3.1 and it didn't work again on this second one. Went throug all the troubleshooting steps: deleted the cache, reset the gps, etc. Even left it on over night sitting at GPS Test and Google Places.
Doesn't make sense that it works on 3.01 and not on 3.1. Sounds more of a software issue than a hardware issue. But for it to work with some others with 3.1 then I may exchange it for another one again.
Wondering if it was during a certain build that other are having the same issue. Both of the ones i got were manufacturered in April. Could April just be a bad month or several months before that?

3.1 does not have any problem with GPS
Wifi assist turned off, get lock with sygic and can use the navigator.
(but)
- if you go under an express way (like I got in my country they are highway), you lost the signal very quick
HOW TO FIX ?
- buy a GPS enhancer and put in your car, that will increase the signal received and give the tablet a very big help
the poor part of the GPS tablet is the antena... the receiver is not that happy behind a metal case, and oftenly... GPS antena should be on the roof of the car, or external for better signal.
I got locked in 15s

sanaell said:
3.1 does not have any problem with GPS
Wifi assist turned off, get lock with sygic and can use the navigator.
(but)
- if you go under an express way (like I got in my country they are highway), you lost the signal very quick
HOW TO FIX ?
- buy a GPS enhancer and put in your car, that will increase the signal received and give the tablet a very big help
the poor part of the GPS tablet is the antena... the receiver is not that happy behind a metal case, and oftenly... GPS antena should be on the roof of the car, or external for better signal.
I got locked in 15s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is that Acer subcontracts out parts production for items like the GPS antenna used in the A500 and the quality of those antenna has been very inconsistent (same with the microphone). I have an A500 with a June build date and it has very good GPS pickup. It doesn't lock instantly like the Xoom does, but usually within 10-20 seconds (sometimes sooner) which is still acceptable. Surprisingly, this unit also has a fairly good microphone that picks up my voice well while holding it at any angle. It's still running 3.01 unmodified since it hasn't got the OTA yet. I previously had an A500 with an April build date (it's on the back of the box) and both the GPS and microphone performed rather poorly even with 3.1.
Rob

going to exchange this one at a different bestbuy store and see if they have a different manufacturer date. I did the exchange on Monday and hope they have a different lot.

tekageek said:
long time lurker on this site.
I just bought an A500 and have been trying to get this GPS to work.
The first one I got had 3.01. I first tested GPS and it worked fine. Was able to get connected to the satelites no problem. Downloaded and installed 3.1 on it and now GPS doesn't work at all. Tested it with the two programs: GPS test and GPS utilities.
Stood outside on a clear day and nothing happened. Tested all the settings and still not one satellite.
After reading a lot of the threads and doing a lot of searching I exchanged it for another one.
Did the same thing. Tested it on 3.01 and it worked then installed 3.1 and it didn't work again on this second one. Went throug all the troubleshooting steps: deleted the cache, reset the gps, etc. Even left it on over night sitting at GPS Test and Google Places.
Doesn't make sense that it works on 3.01 and not on 3.1. Sounds more of a software issue than a hardware issue. But for it to work with some others with 3.1 then I may exchange it for another one again.
Wondering if it was during a certain build that other are having the same issue. Both of the ones i got were manufacturered in April. Could April just be a bad month or several months before that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 3.1 you're installing is OTA or you are downloading it from somewhere ? My first unit failed with 3.1 with a downloaded 3.1 (it seemed to be the correct for Spain) ... I exchanged the unit, and this new one offered me OTA. It's working perfect with OTA 3.1

I did a test one day with GPS and found it to be marvelous if used properly.
Here is what I did.
1. I cleared my agps data with program GPS Status
2. Redownloaded the data and waited until I had like 6 up 11 fixes
Then I went out and waited at bus station and got a lock with Google maps and I travelled about 75 kilometers and had a perfect fix the entire time, I had about 5 satellites fixed constantly on average. And this was using stock everythings I love the GPS it works fine now.
In the 3.01 version I did the exact same test and it didn't work, everytime the train or bus started moving the signal was gone and stayed gone.
Now its fine! You just have to remember. That this is Agps not GPS A is for assisted, so you use the internet abit and download the data and you're fine! Just learn to use A-GPS!

I have tried everything, and nothing works. What a ****ty thing to screw up on a tablet. I'm trading mine in tomorrow, and if I have the same issue, I'm rooting and switching roms. This is ridiculous ..........
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

well well well, this one worked. I exchanged for another one.
3.01
turned it on and opened Navigator. in 10 seconds it locked into the gps. Installed gps test and saw 6 to 7 satellites, in use= 6 looked at the map and it found my location. Opened both Navigator and Places
3.1
Installed 3.1 OTA, once rebooted i opened gps test and now i see 7 satellites! Opened Navigator and worked fine. Opened Places and also worked fine. Both found my location and saw 6 to 7 satellites.
4.010.13.comgen2
wish there was a list of what this update does. installed this update and gps still works. Seeing 6 to 7 satellites. navigator and places still work.
Before i even took this tab i asked the sales guy the manufactured date. This one is from: May

GPS fix
Initially, my gps did not work that well. When I compared my gps.conf with the 2 A500's whose GPS worked very well I found that their GPS.conf contained only this
"NTP_SERVER=north-America.pool.ntp.org". I'm in US, by the way. After I rooted my A500, my GPS worked alot better. After I edited my GPS.conf the fix time was improved.
Before: outdoor : cold start and there.after
Time to fix= 5 min to infinity and 3 mins to infinity
Indoor = no GPS.
After: outdoor= 30 sec to 211 sec. and 10 sec to 90 sec
Indoor= 110 sec to 5 mins. and 29 sec to 90 sec
Hope that helps.
I'm on rooted stock 3.1.

I guess I got lucky then.
When I start mine up, it locates for the weatherbug app update feature and I've never seen it fail.
I haven't done any GPS-specific stuff with it yet, but much of the time I'm using an ad hoc connection from my phone, so it's not a wif AGPS fix.
Interesting read. Makes me want to explore the GPS feature more.

One other thing that is universal across any device using GPS, both commercial and military---your device needs to know where in the sky the satellites are. The initial gps fix will always take more time because the device doesn't have a reference fit the sats. This will also be the case the longer you go between fixes as the device will lose track of the sats over time. Aside from physical obstructions this is often the biggest contributing factor to the length of time required to get a fix.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Noob question here. So this is assisted GPS. I assume it needs the WiFI to access the aGPS servers, but they aren't necessary if a) you have a confirmed working device and b) everything is calibrated properly. Is this correct.

I just don't understand the inconsistency in the GPS fix. I have a rooted A500, with 4.010.13_COM_GEN2, manufactured in April. For some reason, I cannot get a consistent, day-to-day lock on position. I have installed and used successfully in the past:
Fasterfix
GPSFix
GPS Test
GPS Status
I have edited the gps.conf file manually to use, separately, both north-america.pool.ntp.org as well as us.pool.ntp.org;
I have used the "manage A-GPS status" to reset the status as well as downloading the assist data in GPS Status;
After several unsuccessful attempts last night, I was able to gain a GPS lock from my living room in about 20-30 seconds. Today, in the clear open air I could not obtain more than a partial lock on more than 3-4 satellites at a time, and only once obtained a fix, and then for only 20 minutes while stationary. I am now in the exact same position as I was last night, and cannot find a single *blinking* satellite.
While traveling home on the Interstate, I could see more than two satellites at a time and never got a lock on position. In contrast, my Droid (2.3.3) obtained a lock in about 5 seconds with GPS Status. Using a Bluetooth GPS unit and a Bluetooth Mouse GPS, I obtained a position lock in 2 seconds on the A500.
So what gives here? Is it a hardware problem? Why does it work so well one day and then not at all the next, with all other things being equal? It does not seem to be a software issue or sky visibility issue.
UPDATE, 8/9/11: I noticed that in the current configuration as described above, the only satellites that could be seen were those on a bearing of 000, and largely on the horizon. When a different satellite was seen, it would only appear in the northern two quadrants. I restored a back-up from two days ago, and uninstalled FasterFix but manually edited the gps.conf file to us.pool.ntp.org. The GPS fix was improved - not lightning fast, but at least 4 satellites were seen relatively quickly, without particular preference for hemisphere. Position fix still takes a few minutes - two to five minutes or so. Still working on consistency, but may switch to a custom ROM.
UPDATE, 8/11/11: This thing is driving me nuts - no clear consistency on when the GPS works or not. Tried two custom ROMs, same lack of consistent lock. Back to square 1. Droid-1 picks up 10 sats (w/o network checked), A500 only 4. Got a lock away from home this morning, cannot get one at home tonight. Taking it in for exchange tomorrow. Since the first sat it does see is always at 000 and at the horizon, I am wondering if the internal referencing for the GPS unit within the A500 is somehow not set up to handle the assist data format properly. Sort of like it is reading the data, but things are off a space or two. Thus, the GPS unit seems to look, but is looking in the wrong direction. Comments?

GPS not working on 2.3 ROMs

hi.
It seems now that every 2.3 based ROM supports GPS, and people say they get a very fast lock.
But I was never able to get a lock with any ROM, I have tried several versions of MIUI and several versions of CM7.
The only ROMs I am able to use GPS in, are Froyo based.
Even there, it takes around 5 minuted to get a lock.
I did the hardware fix half a year ago, it helped very much because I was using Froyo then (it took only 5 minutes vs 15 minutes to lock) but now it doesn't lock at all.
Any solution?
Thanks.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1370910

i applied that fix and noticed no improvement, unfortunately. i had great hopes for it from reading the comments others had left about success using it.
the gps on my vibrant (running CM7) is quite odd.. it seems to 'know' where i am, but won't ever get off of the 'searching for gps' message, and of course, won't switch gears to the point where it actually tells me where to go. but if i want to look at my location on my phone and follow the 'map' it displays, or read the directions, it sort of works, in a hinky sort of way.

Try a program called GPS Aids from the market - Ive had mixed results with it.

the gps on my vibrant (running CM7) is quite odd.. it seems to 'know' where i am, but won't ever get off of the 'searching for gps' message, and of course, won't switch gears to the point where it actually tells me where to go. but if i want to look at my location on my phone and follow the 'map' it displays, or read the directions, it sort of works, in a hinky sort of way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that you are using the AGPS function, which uses the WiFi and mobile network to determine your location. It is much less accurate than GPS, which doesn't work.
About the GPS fix and GPS AIDS, I will try later and post the results, thanks!

romitkin said:
I think that you are using the AGPS function, which uses the WiFi and mobile network to determine your location. It is much less accurate than GPS, which doesn't work.
About the GPS fix and GPS AIDS, I will try later and post the results, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that makes sense.. its just getting rough position with the mobile network.. (i usually have wifi antennae off)
last night i downloaded a gps test tool from the market... ZERO satellites... and mine worked perfectly when i was running Axura. i'll probably be going back there very soon.

cannot connect to gps

i picked up a focus 1.3 for my wife for a replacement because she broke her phone. i cannot get the gps to work. would not work on 7720, i forced update to 8107, still would not work. just installed the clean rom 2.0 (8773) and still will not work with maps, nokia drive or garmin street pilot.
i can't figure out why it's not working, but my wife really needs gps. are there any fixes?

svtfmook said:
i picked up a focus 1.3 for my wife for a replacement because she broke her phone. i cannot get the gps to work. would not work on 7720, i forced update to 8107, still would not work. just installed the clean rom 2.0 (8773) and still will not work with maps, nokia drive or garmin street pilot.
i can't figure out why it's not working, but my wife really needs gps. are there any fixes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try GPSInfo. I used to recommend GPS App (has Bing location), but now that is paid. GPSInfo gives you info about:
- GPS State
- Mode
- Accuracy (H/V)
- Course
If GPS State doesn't state "GPS Started", you have a HW problem.

EnderPsp said:
Try GPSInfo. I used to recommend GPS App (has Bing location), but now that is paid. GPSInfo gives you info about:
- GPS State
- Mode
- Accuracy (H/V)
- Course
If GPS State doesn't state "GPS Started", you have a HW problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it states started, but it's only using a-gps for location. which will not allow me to use on any navigation apps.

svtfmook said:
it states started, but it's only using a-gps for location. which will not allow me to use on any navigation apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should say "Full GPS mode, satellites data" when fully working.
Make sure you turn off ALL data connections, you waited at least 10 minutes under a clouded sky and you are not in (or very near to a building) You do need to see the sky to get satellites.
If after 10-15 minutes under a clear sky you still see "A-GPS Mode" your hw may be affected
LE: A possible cause I can think of would be wrong drivers/firmware issue. As a possible way to fix that you can try flashing a stock rom or a custom rom. Normally I caution people away from custom roms as I've seen several "stuck at boot/samsung logo" through out the forum, all tied to custom roms. A stock rom is the firmware meant for your phone and even if you start from scratch at least you know it's the right thing for your phone. If you want to try that, see the post in my signature.

even with the 7720 update through zune, i had this issue.
i did revert back to stock, turn location off, then did the updates. all the way to 8773, and the gps would lock after a few minutes outside.
however, while driving, with the garmin app, all of a sudden my "vehicle" went shooting about a 100 yards off the road, then it never was right the rest of the trip.
so the gps seems to just be working intermittently, or whenever it feels like it..

svtfmook said:
even with the 7720 update through zune, i had this issue.
i did revert back to stock, turn location off, then did the updates. all the way to 8773, and the gps would lock after a few minutes outside.
however, while driving, with the garmin app, all of a sudden my "vehicle" went shooting about a 100 yards off the road, then it never was right the rest of the trip.
so the gps seems to just be working intermittently, or whenever it feels like it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering 8773 (Tango) was not yet officially released/tested for Focus, I need to ask: is your phone a Focus (i917)? If so, it might explain some if the issues you're having. I would suggest staying with stock 8107 for the moment, but ultimately it is your choice. Also, make sure the phone's drivers are updated properly, 'cause if they don't, what you're going to get is issues...

like i said though, it was the same deal from 7720 on up with the updates from zune. i'm going to try to to revert back to 7720 and install the samsung drivers for mango cab that i have.

GPS
Had similar GPS problems on Focus 1.3, tried different ROMs, etc. Only decent fixes I've found are pulling the battery out for ~30 minutes and turning on find my phone in settings. Not sure why battery thing works, but have seen the same suggestion for a lot of other phones.
Problem is my fixes have been temporary; GPS works for a while, then gets flaky again in a few days, even after reflashing.
Other Samsung phones that came out around the same time as orig Focus w/ similar HW specs had people tearing their hair out with GPS problems (Captivate, Galaxy S). Unfortunately, general consensus in Captivate forum seems to be problem is 75% hardware. Those guys tried endless SW / OS tweaks; some helped a little. Unlocked mine to try to find similar tweaks, but haven't solved the problem yet