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Help GPS not working?

TRS-80

Android Enthusiast
Dec 29, 2010
408
81
Eastern US
www.fsf.org
Since I got my brand new Indulge, I don't think the GPS has ever worked. I even turned on WiFi, and let it sit on my dashboard (with a good view of the sky) for a good long while, but still nothing.

Well, this is what it actually does: The little crosshairs will actually come up in the notification bar. This means GPS lock, right (please correct me if I am wrong)? But as soon as you try to go into anything that needs GPS data (Navigation, Maps, GasBuddy app, for example) the little flashing satellite dish icon shows up instead of the crosshair icon. Now, that means searching for GPS signal/lock, right? And then, after a little while, it gives up with an error about not being able to get location or something.

Now I have tried switching airplane mode on and off, and power cycling, as well as turning on WiFi, and even Bluetooth. But nothing seems to work. I guess I will try a battery pull next.

So when I go to do the battery pull, should I power down the phone normally first? Or just rip it out while the phone is on?

Also, any other ideas about this GPS issue would be appreciated. I am starting to wonder if I may have just gotten a bad phone...
 
The cross hairs are just there to remind you that location is on. Not for gps status. In fact, they will remain on whether r not gps is on at the time. Location is network-not gps-based.

As far as gps is concerned, download gps status from the market and clear the existing gps data through that app. Once you're done, turn on wifi (make sure gps is already on by the way) and open google maps to get a lock on your location.

The blinking satellite icon means searching for gps, and when you have a satellite lock, it will become steady.

If you are doing a pull, just rip out the battery, it's way more fun and hasn't broken my phone so far
 
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Do I need to enable "Google location services (Use location services provided by Google)"?

Because when I went to enable that, it says "Location consent - Allow Google's location service to collect anonymous location data. Collection will occur even when no applications are running. Agree Disagree" Well, of course I selected "Disagree." WTF is up with that? Do I need to allow this to get any GPS stuff to work?
 
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Do I need to enable "Google location services (Use location services provided by Google)"?

Because when I went to enable that, it says "Location consent - Allow Google's location service to collect anonymous location data. Collection will occur even when no applications are running. Agree Disagree" Well, of course I selected "Disagree." WTF is up with that? Do I need to allow this to get any GPS stuff to work?

What that does is try to get GPS location, and if it cant it will look at all the wifi hotspots near by and ask google, "hey I can see 3 wifi hotspots with the MAC address's XXXX XXXX XXXX, Where the heck am I?" Google then looks in their database for any match's. If it finds a match is sends back a message to the phone saying "your are located at XXXXX"
 
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The satellite icon will flash at times when its locking on to additional satellites even if the location is fixed. With a good GPS signal your google map circle will be small enough to be accurate up to 2-3 meters (thats what mine says when I'm inside the house)

I just checked and the GPS "turns off" if you exit the application using it. If you reopen the application soon enough it will use the cached frequencies to quickly regain a high accuracy lock. Mine went down from 2000 meters accuracy to 4 meters in just 5 seconds

BTW off topic but I think your signature has a typo. There was no 54.4 modem. Connecting with V.44 got higher compression. v.92 gave 48kbit upload. V.90 was 56k down when dialing to a digital based ISP though it was theoretically possible to connect at 57333. You may have also seen 57600 which was the port speed between the computer and modem.

The closest thing to 54.4 I can remember was if you set the Init string with &n37 to limit the top download connection speed to 54666
 
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The crosshairs do not indicate E911. The crosshairs only show that you have enabled the use of the GPS sensor, known location of the cell tower youre connected to, or the location of your IP address on the internet or the wifi networks around you

Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs, as well as user input. No guarantee is given that the API returns the device’s actual location.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6gqipmbcok
 
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Thanks everyone for all the useful info!

Well, I got it to work today, I needed to find my way to some place and Navigation worked for me. I never did a battery pull or cleared the cached GPS data as suggested. I just went to use it today and it worked. *shrug* I will continue to monitor it and will report back if I have any other issues.

BTW off topic but I think your signature has a typo. There was no 54.4 modem. Connecting with V.44 got higher compression. v.92 gave 48kbit upload. V.90 was 56k down when dialing to a digital based ISP though it was theoretically possible to connect at 57333. You may have also seen 57600 which was the port speed between the computer and modem.

The closest thing to 54.4 I can remember was if you set the Init string with &n37 to limit the top download connection speed to 54666

I did a little googling and you may be right. Why is it I seem to remember the number "54.4"? Old age / foggy memory? lol Or maybe that was the speed it connected at?
 
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