Help Droid X navigation trouble

[redryder]

First I think the phone is terrific and exceptionally capable.

I have been using the car windshield mount holder / charger.

To the point...... Navigation worked fine for the first hour of use then the Map froze and I had gone 40 miles up I-190 to the end before figuring this out. I powered down, went back to home page, re-opened nav and it worked for around 15 minutes before freezing again. Then it froze after 5-6 minutes.

Called VZW yesterday and was told the best thing is to do a hard reset back to factory fresh, lose all added apps, back up contacts. The woman walking me through it was supposed to call me back to help me re-activate the "new" phone. She didn't so I called and someone else helped me with it. My contacts were all lost except 2 of them. She said there was a way to get google to retrieve contacts that were synced the previous week. Anyone hear of this? She didn't call back and no one else at verizon knows anything about this.

Back to the GPS Navigation..... After the reset, the map doesn't freeze, it just disappears after 15 minutes which is about the time it takes for the phone to get good and warm. Now I don't have to shut the phone off but I go straight to apps and select Navigation again and the map comes back and picks up where it should. Now it stays on for just about 5 minutes. Also, when the map disappears, the guide voice keeps talking but not loud enough to understand it most of the time.

I descibed this to VZW this afternoon and they said go to a store and pick up a new X. Got there and you guessedit.... no X's in stock. They ordered one shipped to my home.

Has anyone else here had similar experience with the Navigation app?

Thanks.

 

[vintagewalrus]

I've had nav freeze a couple times. Sounds like the same issue you described in your first paragraph. Both times I had to reboot. Lets just say I'm keeping my garman around for now.

I don't use the nav often so I figured I'd give it time.
Also of note. I live in fl and my issues have always been during the day so heat could well be a factor here.

 

[redryder]

Update: I am now considering not exchanging as the problem seems licked at least for the moment. I pulled the battery out and left it out for over a minute. Put it back, fired up the GPS and drove around for more than a half hour with no problems and no where near the heat it was putting out before. Still waiting for a really hot day to be sure.

 

[redryder]

Further update:
Next morning the map portion of navigation shut down 4 times during a 30 minute drive.

The new X arrived. (requires using original battery, micro sd, and battery cover).
I activated it and so far no shut down of nav map or any other significant issues and doesn't over heat.

 

[jreed2560]

are you using a task killer?

edit were

 

[jbs01]

Didn't think about the task killer. I also have had the same problem with the mapping navigation page turning the display off after a couple of minutes, despite being plugged into the charger. The audio directions continue, but the display goes to sleep. I've uninstalled Advanced Task Killer and will see if that helps.

 

[Theeulogy]

I

Further update:
Next morning the map portion of navigation shut down 4 times during a 30 minute drive.

The new X arrived. (requires using original battery, micro sd, and battery cover).
I activated it and so far no shut down of nav map or any other significant issues and doesn't over heat.

I used it some on a trip this week. It periodicly shuts down while navigating.

 

[redryder]

are you using a task killer?

edit were

I don't know what a task killer is (other than the obvious from the name) or how to use one.

 

[BoySetsTheFire]

I posted this on the Droid X forum and thought it might be helpful here:

I've been having the same problem as others with Navigation winking out and going to the home screen. Then the screen times out, but the voice directions continue. Many have complained about this and are waiting for an update.

I have a possible solution, so I'm posting here. If this is the wrong place to post, admin may move this and let me know.

Like most of us, the droid x is new and so we are new to it as well. When I first got it, I loaded it up with "crapware" from the market. I got this app that put the day of the month and spelled out the day of the week in the notification bar - cool! Then I started Navigator and it quit instantly. I just could not get it to run. I uninstalled the calendar app and Nav would now run.

Having run a Mac for many years, and working out extension conflicts, I quickly realized that my droid x was a powerful computer, that happened to have a phone as well. And now that Nav was running, I had the same problems the others are having with it. So I deduced that Nav was broken (corrupted) or the system was broken. The maps cache was empty, so there was nothing to clear, and reinstalling maps (I was running the update) did not help. Going back to the factory maps did not help either. That left me thinking the system was broken (corrupted) from all the crapware I loaded onto it.

I went to the Privacy settings and did a factory data reset, wiping my machine clean. This was no big deal, since the google site had my contacts, calendar, etc. Everything synced back as soon as I reactivated my phone and set up my google account. This time, I was careful about loading programs that affect the system. I kept it simple and voided Launcher Pro and others.

I've made several trips with Nav and have not had a reoccurrence of the problem. Two of the trips were of 90 minute duration and several were for 60 minute duration. Previously, I would typically encounter the problem within a few minutes of running Nav.

During one of the 90 minute trips, Nav took a screen freeze and reported that the app was non-responsive. I launched it again and all was fine for the remaining 60 minutes. That was the only problem I encountered and I don't know why. But that is not the same problem that most of us are having.

So I will update this thread if anything unusual happens, or if I have continued success. Input from others that try this would be helpful.

 

[darreno1]

I use the Nav all the time and have never had this problem...knock on wood.

 

[BoySetsTheFire]

Perhaps you can provide some details about your Droid X, apps you are running, version of maps, how often you run Navigation, etc.

 

[Growler48]

I kept it simple and voided Launcher Pro and others.

Understand you're running the Motoblur UI and didn't load LPP at all? I'm switching between LPP and ADW and am having the same issues with the nav cutting out and/or freezing. Would be interesting to see if this is truely app related. Don't want to do a factory reset unless I know what will and won't work. I've got a lot of effort into my current setup.

 

[Napalm]

Didn't think about the task killer. I also have had the same problem with the mapping navigation page turning the display off after a couple of minutes, despite being plugged into the charger. The audio directions continue, but the display goes to sleep. I've uninstalled Advanced Task Killer and will see if that helps.

I had the same problem when my battery was below 60% the first week I had the phone. Likewise I have since loaded Advanced Task Killer and my Nav has been doing as described.

Screen turns off in about 2 minute, only way to get it back on is with power button (IE goes to sleep I think), bounces out of nav mode and I have to hit the blue arrow again, sometimes nav mode locks up and requires re-boot to get it to come back.

When it requires reboot, I noticed that google voice to text (I think that is what its called) doesn't function either.

 

[BoySetsTheFire]

I've had about three more trips with no problem. I do use Advanced Task Killer, but only in the manual mode and only for apps I don't need. I don't use it to kill any "moto-processes".

Yes, it's a pain to go through a new setup after a factory reset. So if the problem comes back, I won't do that again. But so far, so good.

 

[mach1man]

I took mine on a 2 and a half hour trip had the navigation cut out like every 10 to 30 minutes.

 

[Growler48]

I found that pulling the battery also helped. It'll be awhile before I get to test it out again, but it worked perfectly for a few short trips.

 

[redryder]

update:
A VZW tech support person advised me to install advanced task killer.
This has been a big help as I was able to make a 5 hour trip without freeze up or shut down. As far as advanced task killer settings, I left it in the default configuration it had when I installed it.

Also, if I understand correctly, this task killer has not yet been sorted out for Android 2.2 so when the push comes I am hoping they have updated it.

 

[clemsondave]

10 hours of driving this weekend and Nav would shut off anywhere from 5 min to 15 min. Sometimes it would stay on for a few hours. Very random. Kept it plugged in most of the time and it had no effect.

 

[jreed2560]

update:
A VZW tech support person advised me to install advanced task killer.
This has been a big help as I was able to make a 5 hour trip without freeze up or shut down. As far as advanced task killer settings, I left it in the default configuration it had when I installed it.

Also, if I understand correctly, this task killer has not yet been sorted out for Android 2.2 so when the push comes I am hoping they have updated it.

If ATK helped then you have an malfunctioning app somewhere. Because thats all atk does. kills apps

 

[redryder]

If ATK helped then you have an malfunctioning app somewhere. Because thats all atk does. kills apps

It was my understanding that on the droid if I use an app and the close it, it continues to run in the background until something is done to shut it down. This is where ATK is a big help.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this as I am no expert.

 

[HookEmHorns*UT*]

I am having the same nav problems. I started today deleting apps and running nav one at a time. I have not found an app that is causing this disruption yet but i will post back if i figure it out. May take me a couple of days but i will keep you updated.

I have noticed that a gps tracking system will mess up gps signal. My work truck has gps tracking and causes a horrible gps signal on my phone. The tracking company says that it is not supposed to interfere and that the tech may have got some wires backwards. Just an FYI for those with gps tracking or On Star in their cars.

 

[jreed2560]

It was my understanding that on the droid if I use an app and the close it, it continues to run in the background until something is done to shut it down. This is where ATK is a big help.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this as I am no expert.

That's not entirely accurate. If you exit an app using the home key,then yes the os will keep x will keep it in memory until it needs those resources for something else. If you exit the app via the back button or thru that apps exit feature, the os may keep that app in a ready state but it wont actually be taking up resources. The only benifit a task killer would provide is if you have a poorly written app that does not work the ways I mentioned. When bad apps are pushed to the background, they continue to pull resources like they were running in the foreground. In that case one would be inclined to just ditch the app instead of downloading another app just to make it work properly.

 

[Deleted User]

It was my understanding that on the droid if I use an app and the close it, it continues to run in the background until something is done to shut it down. This is where ATK is a big help.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this as I am no expert.

The thing is that android is just fine at managing its own resources. Apps don't use resources when they're suspended and aren't completing a task.

Consequently, most of what a task killer does is make those apps go through the startup process that they already did once -actually wasting battery.

Edit: Oops, beaten to it.

 

[jreed2560]

The thing is that android is just fine at managing its own resources. Apps don't use resources when they're suspended and aren't completing a task.

Consequently, most of what a task killer does is make those apps go through the startup process that they already did once -actually wasting battery.

Edit: Oops, beaten to it.

lol its cool, the more people we get to understand how the Android OS actually works , the better.

 

[HookEmHorns*UT*]

It took me awhile and 3 android devices to learn that the Android OS actually operates and conserves power better if it can just run on its own with no task killers. Android actually seems to get better battery life and not hang up as much since i stopped using task killers.