All Things GPS

[JDR]

Are you using VzW nav or Google nav?

Google, exclusively.

 

[Lars]

My wife's sf has the same issue. My wm Samsung saga was the same way. Slow to lock and easy crash the chip.
Try leaving the wifi on as a fix and set the wifi sleep policy to turn it off with the screen so it doesn't eat your battery.

I've read through (most of) these replies and didn't see anyone with my specific problem, so I'm wondering if any of you guys can help.

I'm stock with the most recent OTA update (phone purchased in Sept. of 2010) and have been having GPS nightmares since day 1, but this issue has really sent me over the top:

I'll be using Google Maps Navigation to get somewhere and I'll receive a phone call or have to use mobile data in the browser or a similar application. When I return to Navigation, it'll say I'm hundreds and hundreds of miles from where I actually am, and will have a precise GPS lock. I'll exit Navigation and go into regular Maps to see my location marker speeding through cornfields and lakes in a neighboring state at the same speed I'm doing. I use GPS Test to double-check my connectivity and when this happens it'll always show that I'm connected to three of three available satellites instead of the regular 7 or 8 out of 10 available satellites. In addition, it'll show coordinates for said location hundreds and hundreds of miles from where I actually am---the phone is convinced I'm there, and the only remedy is to shut down the phone and boot it up again.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

 

[Lars]

I think that box just enables passing gps data to apps like the browser. It enables the google location api.

Has anyone tried this yet? If you disable Google GPS then I can get a lock signal almost instantly, but other applications that require GPS don't work, for example Beautiful widgets, connecting to the www.google.com from your browser will tell you location unavailable.

What exactly is this Google GPS doing that is causing problems with the GPS?

 

[ebenstes]

I haven't seen any posts relating to my issue, so here goes: My GPS works fine, locking into satellites within seconds when I'm here in the US. My problem is when I go to China, I didn't have any luck locking in at all. I prefer to put my phone in airplane mode over there so I don't incur any data charges from Verizon, but even in regular mode, with a wifi connection, I couldn't get a fix. Any thoughts? It should work there, right?

 

[Lars]

Generally not. The gps chip is heavily reliant on the aGPS portion. The way to truly test it is to download mapdroid. Don't try to use googlemaps (even though you may have a wifi connection for data) especially in China. Airplance mode turns off the CDMA chip where the gps is located so both don't work. This varies on the CDMA chip though. I haven't tested any of this with the SF but the Saga had this issue. The Saga was a world phone though and the gps/googlemaps worked fine when the phone was in GSM mode.

 

[ebenstes]

What does mapdroid do? By the way, for the Fascinate putting the phone into airplane mode doesn't affect GPS, I've tested it here in the US with My Tracks and it still records postion, speed, etc.