Help gps tanked, new dx! plus gps tip

[escalade6103]

well i finally took my dx to verizon because of the gps problem i had. i gots some advice from you guys on here (thanks!) but nothing worked.

day 1. took it to the store and told them my problem, will not find location, if it does its really slow like maybe even an hour, and it would show my location several hundred miles from where i was. so their tech guy messed with it and come back about 10 minutes later and said it was all done. he said not to have all three location settings selected. only have the gps selected when using gps. the other 2 setting, "use wireless networks" and "enable assisted gps", was for everything else like "poynt", "where", weather apps, etc. the reasoning he said was that having all 3 selected made the phone confused on which location setting to use. i thought BS! but it worked at the time.

day 2. next day it was doing the same thing! so i took it back in. their super tech guy wasnt there and the women didnt know anything about how gps works so they ordered me another phone. supposed to be in within a day or so.

so the gps tip is if your gps isnt getting your exact location you mite try to just have the gps only setting on instead of all 3. hope this helps someone!

 

[Bankswood]

I have had all 3 checked from day one and never had a GPS problem. I call BS also. That so called tech is learning as he goes.

 

[&roid]

Calibrate the compass to improve GPS location

 

[nj02vette]

so the gps tip is if your gps isnt getting your exact location you mite try to just have the gps only setting on instead of all 3. hope this helps someone!

NO it doesn't help anyone, it hurts them.

Let me be frank, that tech is completely clueless and shouldn't be working behind that counter. The best ones at least say they don't know anything, the worst ones are those who think they know what they are doing and give customers bad info, like the one you dealt with.

You absoltutely need to have all three checked. That's what they are there for.

"Use Wireless networks" approximates location based on cell tower triangulation. Necessary for rough location fixes, such as Weather or location based services. Without this checked all location based services will default to GPS radio, which takes much more power, especially if it takes a while for a lock. Location is approximate, but lock takes only a fraction of a second. Especially useful if you do a search and pull up a map of locations. Instead of taking 15sec or more, it shows your rough location quickly.

"Use GPS satellites" obviously uses the GPS signal to improve accuracy above and beyond cell tower triangulation. Takes longer to get signals from satellites and heavilly dependant on building structure and weather. The only time you should use this is for detailed level accuracy, such as driving directions. As far as I know, Google Maps and Navigation are the only stock apps that require full GPS.

"Enable Assisted GPS" uses wireless info to improve GPS lock time. Nothing more. Why oh why would anyone not want thier GPS to lock quicker?

Your situation was certainly not the norm. I postualte that perhaps you had a bad GPS antenna or such. Hopefully the new phone will take care of that. Keep us posted.

 

[1324356565]

I have had 1 checked since day 1. No problemo.

 

[escalade6103]

NO it doesn't help anyone, it hurts them.

Let me be frank, that tech is completely clueless and shouldn't be working behind that counter. The best ones at least say they don't know anything, the worst ones are those who think they know what they are doing and give customers bad info, like the one you dealt with.

You absoltutely need to have all three checked. That's what they are there for.

"Use Wireless networks" approximates location based on cell tower triangulation. Necessary for rough location fixes, such as Weather or location based services. Without this checked all location based services will default to GPS radio, which takes much more power, especially if it takes a while for a lock. Location is approximate, but lock takes only a fraction of a second. Especially useful if you do a search and pull up a map of locations. Instead of taking 15sec or more, it shows your rough location quickly.

"Use GPS satellites" obviously uses the GPS signal to improve accuracy above and beyond cell tower triangulation. Takes longer to get signals from satellites and heavilly dependant on building structure and weather. The only time you should use this is for detailed level accuracy, such as driving directions. As far as I know, Google Maps and Navigation are the only stock apps that require full GPS.

"Enable Assisted GPS" uses wireless info to improve GPS lock time. Nothing more. Why oh why would anyone not want thier GPS to lock quicker?

Your situation was certainly not the norm. I postualte that perhaps you had a bad GPS antenna or such. Hopefully the new phone will take care of that. Keep us posted.

That's what i meant if your using your phone for gps is that if you cant get an exact location having all 3 selected then try unselecting the others and just having just the gps selected. That will give their exact location and starting point. Then they can reselect the other 2 again.

So you can't say it won't help anyone. If you were psychic maybe you would be right but since your on here im guessing your not. yes i think that tech was full of BS but like you said gps strength depends on weather so their phone could use cell tower signal as the first means of location instead of gps. But if they turn those off the others when they can't get an exact location and just use gps to get starting location it will use gps signal first and not the others no matter the strength of the gps signal.

 

[nj02vette]

That's what i meant if your using your phone for gps is that if you cant get an exact location having all 3 selected then try unselecting the others and just having just the gps selected. That will give their exact location and starting point. Then they can reselect the other 2 again.

So you can't say it won't help anyone. If you were psychic maybe you would be right but since your on here im guessing your not. yes i think that tech was full of BS but like you said gps strength depends on weather so their phone could use cell tower signal as the first means of location instead of gps. But if they turn those off the others when they can't get an exact location and just use gps to get starting location it will use gps signal first and not the others no matter the strength of the gps signal.

I'm not trying to be difficult, but you're still incorrect. Programs will always default to GPS, if necessary. You seem under the misconception that once it gets a lock by cell, it stops trying to get one under GPS. That is wrong. It may get a quick location by cell, then will continue to refine the position by GPS.

Getting an exact location is only usefull in a handful of situations. For example, Google maps will quickly get a approximate location based on cell towers, and while that's happening, it will also use GPS to get a more accurate fix. You can see that happening, it's not rocket science. First you'll see a large circle around an arrow (cell approx position), and you'll see a satellite flashing in the notification bar trying to get a signal. As soon as it locks, the circle will disappear and only the arrow with fixed location will be there.
Navigation won't even use anything other than GPS, so pointless to uncheck the other options at all.

I just don't understand why you think unchecking the two is good information. Yes, GPS is more accurate, but for any program where location is critical, it always defaults to GPS. So why disable any other methods?

 

[escalade6103]

Im not saying that your wrong. Yeah im sure that's the way it should work but if someone is having problems like i am with getting an exact location then yeah it works. Whether you want to admit it or not it does. Things don't always work as they should and if someone is having trouble with their gps then yeah it's worth a try. Iv already said i thot what they said was BS. Yeah mine is probably messed up but theres probably someone else out there with the same problems as mine. And the person that sent me a message thanking me said it worked for them. And that's why i put it in here so if it helped one persons frustration then it was worth it. Im not trying to have a debate with you on the exact way these things work. In a perfect world no this prob wouldn't work but it ain't a perfect world and sometimes it does.

 

[Napalm]

NO it doesn't help anyone, it hurts them.

Let me be frank, that tech is completely clueless and shouldn't be working behind that counter. The best ones at least say they don't know anything, the worst ones are those who think they know what they are doing and give customers bad info, like the one you dealt with.

You absoltutely need to have all three checked. That's what they are there for.

"Use Wireless networks" approximates location based on cell tower triangulation. Necessary for rough location fixes, such as Weather or location based services. Without this checked all location based services will default to GPS radio, which takes much more power, especially if it takes a while for a lock. Location is approximate, but lock takes only a fraction of a second. Especially useful if you do a search and pull up a map of locations. Instead of taking 15sec or more, it shows your rough location quickly.

"Use GPS satellites" obviously uses the GPS signal to improve accuracy above and beyond cell tower triangulation. Takes longer to get signals from satellites and heavilly dependant on building structure and weather. The only time you should use this is for detailed level accuracy, such as driving directions. As far as I know, Google Maps and Navigation are the only stock apps that require full GPS.

"Enable Assisted GPS" uses wireless info to improve GPS lock time. Nothing more. Why oh why would anyone not want thier GPS to lock quicker?

Your situation was certainly not the norm. I postualte that perhaps you had a bad GPS antenna or such. Hopefully the new phone will take care of that. Keep us posted.

Huge +1.

OP it seems your chip was faulty to begin with, the fact that it worked once in the store is probably a fluke if anything. I remember one of the earlier threads about your issues and I always meant to ask. Does/did your old DX keep proper time?

If the time codes get out of wack, there will be an offset to your location. The reason wireless and GPS on together was acting funny, is because wireless said your phone was at Q and GPS said your phone was at W. and they never matched up.

Bear in mind the above is a guess, from seeing faulty GPS devices on Aircraft.

 

[nj02vette]

Im not saying that your wrong. Yeah im sure that's the way it should work but if someone is having problems like i am with getting an exact location then yeah it works. Whether you want to admit it or not it does. Things don't always work as they should and if someone is having trouble with their gps then yeah it's worth a try. Iv already said i thot what they said was BS. Yeah mine is probably messed up but theres probably someone else out there with the same problems as mine. And the person that sent me a message thanking me said it worked for them. And that's why i put it in here so if it helped one persons frustration then it was worth it. Im not trying to have a debate with you on the exact way these things work. In a perfect world no this prob wouldn't work but it ain't a perfect world and sometimes it does.

Perhaps I misunderstood the intent of your original post. It might be useful for testing and troubleshooting, but to recommend it carte blanche is like putting a band-aid on a torn artery. It might help for a while, but the real problem is still there and should still be fixed.

I bet when you get you're new phone you're going to see how GPS should work and why you'll want all three checked.

 

[escalade6103]

Huge +1.

OP it seems your chip was faulty to begin with, the fact that it worked once in the store is probably a fluke if anything. I remember one of the earlier threads about your issues and I always meant to ask. Does/did your old DX keep proper time?

If the time codes get out of wack, there will be an offset to your location. The reason wireless and GPS on together was acting funny, is because wireless said your phone was at Q and GPS said your phone was at W. and they never matched up.

Bear in mind the above is a guess, from seeing faulty GPS devices on Aircraft.

honestly i missed this comment between the comments between me and vette. but since your a tennessean i gotta go back and answer. yeah it always kept the correct time. the only problem i had with the phone was with the gps. everything else worked fine.

ok to update. i got my new phone today. well a refurbished one. i wasnt real happy with getting a refurbed phone but i got the same warranty and i cant do anything about it besides keep my new one that was bad so i took it. so anyways. well guess what the first thing was i tried was on it, the gps! it worked almost instantly. when i got home i tried it in the house just to see if it would pick up in the house and guess what it did! i tried it with one selected and with all 3 selected. of course i'll keep playing with it over the next few weeks off and on to make sure.

but to clarify something. i never said selecting just one was a permanent fix. i only said it was something to "try". if it worked for them ok, if not then it didnt.