Help Had trouble locking onto GPS

[FaroeseViking]

I rarely had trouble with my navigation, but one morning, I could not get a GPS signal. The navigation app had been on for at least 10 minutes and I tried rebooting the phone, still nothing. The only thing different I could remember was I had turned on my wifi earlier which I don't do very often because of the battery life. I turned it off, and instantly got the GPS signal. Anyone else have this same issue?

 

[cutterjohn]

I rarely had trouble with my navigation, but one morning, I could not get a GPS signal. The navigation app had been on for at least 10 minutes and I tried rebooting the phone, still nothing. The only thing different I could remember was I had turned on my wifi earlier which I don't do very often because of the battery life. I turned it off, and instantly got the GPS signal. Anyone else have this same issue?

Not quite. I could still get GPS lock with WiFi on, however I DID find when testing(by accident) that it was quicker to lock IF WiFi was off. Doesn't really matter to me though as any place that I'd be using WiFi I'd likely have to use 3G, download maps before hand, or use a 3rd party mapping app that supplied maps etc.

[EDIT]
Also, I get MUCH better GPS perf IF the phone is held vertically v. horizontally. A noticeable improvement in acc. under GPS Test app...
[/EDIT]

 

[novak921]

I tried using the updated GPS Zip file this morning but it didn't seem to help as my GPS still does not like to find my location. At best it hovers around "within 1200 meters" but once today it got down to "within 30 meters" so hopefully with time and use, it will work itself out and find satellites quicker because I rarely had any issues locking on with my Intercept

 

[androidfonefan]

Never had problems with my Optimus V and GPS. And it seems it is all I have with the Triumph.
I have tried to use the GPS on this phone over 20 times. I actually got to use it twice and once it almost got me lost because it kept taking me in the opposite direction and then taking me off the highway, turning me around and getting me back on the other way.
I am probably going to take it back to the Boost Store I bought it from and try to get another or trade down/up to a phone that actually works. Another Optimus.
I can say this much. What ever I do I will not be buying the next new phone right when it comes out. It will be months after before I even think about it. This Triumph has burned my wallet good and I am not happy with it at all. I only hope the store will work with me for a phone that does work.

 

[KensterVF]

Download the app, "GPSfix" (read it from other thread). It locks onto the signal pretty much instantly. I've tried it and it works for me.

Ken

 

[melissapugs]

Download the app, "GPSfix" (read it from other thread). It locks onto the signal pretty much instantly. I've tried it and it works for me.

Ken

I had tons of GPS issues - even this app took 15 minutes to lock onto my location, in the process eating my battery to the point that it could not even stay charged while charging.
I was convinced that something was interfering, since I had tested the GPS the day I got the phone straight out of the box.
After a factory reset and adding apps one by one, I determined the culprit: Quick Settings, which I had used to toggle mobile data, gps, brightness, etc, had apparently broken the functionality of the Navigation. Fired up Maps, Navigation, Where, Places - and my location got locked in a few seconds.
Hope this helps someone - maybe apps that toggle GPS aren't effectively toggling them back correctly. It seems unlikely, but I had NOTHING else that explains it, as all other apps are back on with full function. I'd like to know if someone is using something similar to Quick Settings with no ill effects on the GPS.

 

[novak921]

Grr, I'm happy and mad you posted that Melissapugs haha. I use Quick settings and my GPS does not work. I guess I will have to uninstall it for the moment and see if that really is the culprit although it sounds very odd.

Will report back...

EDIT: No luck, uninstalled Quick Settings and did a reboot. No luck with the GPS, still "hanging" even with GPSFix.

~Novak

 

[androidfonefan]

I had to remove it as well, but it is not a 100% fix with my phone. there are still many times that I try to use it and it just sits and spins looking for a GPS signal. After 10 min I just turn the phone off and restart it to be sure the GPS is off. With my MT GPS is hit and miss all the time.
Not happy with this phone at all.

""Correction"" I uninstalled Advanced Task Killer not Quick Settings, found it on my phone yesterday and remembered this thread. I removed the app and turned on the GPS and it locked on to my location almost as fast as I pushed the app icon. I mean I touched the icon took my finger off the screen and the app loaded and had lock right now. I used the GPS to guide me home just to see if it would try to take me off course and it was spot on all the way.
If this QS app turns out to be the problem I will be sad to see it go but it would be an acceptable loss to have the phones GPS working properly. I really like the phone otherwise. I can deal with the other glitches until a better phone comes along.
Crossing my fingers on the GPS thing.

 

[JohnACman]

Download the app, "GPSfix" (read it from other thread). It locks onto the signal pretty much instantly. I've tried it and it works for me.

Ken

I just got that app and it worked. GPS locked on a lot faster than before.

 

[goldenu]

I just got that app and it worked. GPS locked on a lot faster than before.

Ditto here: 1 minute average lock was nearly instantaneous. Note that I turn on wifi and GPS for mapping.

 

[androidfonefan]

Download the app, "GPSfix" (read it from other thread). It locks onto the signal pretty much instantly. I've tried it and it works for me.

Ken

Tried that. It would take 14 min for the app to get a fix and then when I tried to use the GPS it would still sit and spin for 10 or more min. I uninstalled the app because it did nothing to help and used up battery.

 

[KryptoNyte]

I'm not getting any joy from these solutions. I do, however, appreciate the folks that have come in here to share their ideas, thank you.

When the GPS attempts to lock, using GPSfix, I noticed that it might be 5 minutes or more before it can even grab the 4th sat. During this period, my 3G signal drops to 1x frequently. Is it possible that while the phone is struggling for the lock that it is also attempted to rob the other hardware in the phone of power and connectivity, in an effort to both lock on, and save on battery life?

I used the Optimus V GPS numerous times weekly, and it is really frustrating that this can't work on this device.

 

[cutterjohn]

Try disabling WiFi location. Maps app seems to get confused with it on occasionally, and I'd forgotten that I just never turned it on to begin with, but did so, tried maps while out for a walk, and it had trouble locking in Maps, but GPS Test picked up right away. So, I turned off WiFi location again and turned off GPS, then back on(quick settings BTW) then ran Maps again, presto nearly instaloc unfortunately with maps it showed me in the middle of the street like on the OV, so maybe Maps, maps aren't quite refined enough.

It might be a case that it tries to determine initial loc via WiFi then GPS for refining it, but since there were no APs nearby it could det initial location and got confused and for some reason never checked GPS... i.e. Maps bug maybe as GPS Test and other apps worked with WiFi loc on...

 

[melissapugs]

Grr, I'm happy and mad you posted that Melissapugs haha. I use Quick settings and my GPS does not work. I guess I will have to uninstall it for the moment and see if that really is the culprit although it sounds very odd.

Will report back...

EDIT: No luck, uninstalled Quick Settings and did a reboot. No luck with the GPS, still "hanging" even with GPSFix.

~Novak

Cutterjohn has good info - wifi locations and maps didn't play together after a couple tests.
Also: been reading about solar flares all around the universe and how they're messing with gps on and off for everyone perhaps. @novak, did you pull the battery? I will re-install quick settings this evening once I get home and see if I was just experiencing a universal hiccup.

 

[novak921]

Hey guys. I keep reading mixed comments about the gps and its fix. I cannot get my gps to lock for the life of me with gpsfix showing I have 5 or more satellites connected. Should I wait or take my phone back for a new one? How many of you have had no gps issues our of the box?

Thanks

Novak

 

[androidfonefan]

I didn't have problems until about 1.5 weeks after the phone was activated and then GPS and other things happened. Problems I never had with my Optimus.

In the end these issues may all be app conflicts. As aggravated as I am with this phone I am trying to let it win me over. Time will tell.

 

[JohnnyCSx]

GPS Fix was updated today with the changelog "Added support for more devices" or something like that. Evidently the Triumph was included because now it works great! Update and give it a shot.

 

[androidfonefan]

Will do. Have to get the work van from the shop about 50 miles from here today. Will download it and see if it helps get me home.

 

[KryptoNyte]

Uninstalled the old GPSfix and installed the new one. I now get a good lock in less than 30 seconds (in the house).

Thank you for posting that.

 

[androidfonefan]

Installed the app and it still takes several min for it to lock in, but at least it is locking in.
Still no where as fast as my OptV was but better than 10 min of spinning and no lock.

 

[cutterjohn]

Installed the app and it still takes several min for it to lock in, but at least it is locking in.
Still no where as fast as my OptV was but better than 10 min of spinning and no lock.

Dunno what the problem might be for some as from what I could tell by looking at the MSM8X55 block diagram and the MSM7X27 block diagrams the GPS component blocks are the same, and actually quite a bit of the SoC blocks are the same with the major diffs being Scorpion v. ARM11, Adreno 205 v. Adreno 200, and CDMA v. GSM.

I think that the fw itself might be a bit on the flakey rushjob side(partially evidenced by two build variants on the MT but AFAICT no discernible real documented perf. diff), but also think that alot of problems can be attributed to rogue apps as I've found apps that just aren't happy with the MT but were fine with the OV major difference as far as those apps go were ARM11 v. Scorpion and Adreno 200 v. Adreno 205 plus the fw builds, one by LG and the other by Foxconn.

[EDIT]
Also remember the solar storm warning. I haven't checked space weather but the earlier warning mention possible satellite and other(including GPS) communication disruptions along with potential power grid disruptions(blown transformers).
[/EDIT]

 

[melissapugs]

NOTE: someone and I were talking about Quick Settings - was that this thread - was NOT the problem. Back to no gps fix, or ten minutes to lock on using gps fix app. This is happening in south georgia, but not in north georgia.
So I let the return period lapse by accident by 2 days not sure what to do now. My boyfriend and I were by the side of the road for half an hour just trying to find an effing mechanic this afternoon - something that would have taken me less than 2 minutes on my OV. Which I gave to my mom and cannot bring myself to ask for back.
Maybe if I bat my eyelashes someone at BestBuy will cut me some slack? Myabe I'm an idiot for buying this thing before the verdict was in? Maybe VM will send me another unit if I bitch enough? Sigh.

 

[stef7]

Likely there its an issue with how our phones process the AGPS data and how that its used top create the first fix. There are people who have rooted and replaced the gps libraries of the operating system and report quick time to first fix and even good results indoors hopefully motorola its aggressively researching the solution.

 

[KryptoNyte]

NOTE: someone and I were talking about Quick Settings - was that this thread - was NOT the problem. Back to no gps fix, or ten minutes to lock on using gps fix app. This is happening in south georgia, but not in north georgia.
So I let the return period lapse by accident by 2 days not sure what to do now. My boyfriend and I were by the side of the road for half an hour just trying to find an effing mechanic this afternoon - something that would have taken me less than 2 minutes on my OV. Which I gave to my mom and cannot bring myself to ask for back.
Maybe if I bat my eyelashes someone at BestBuy will cut me some slack? Myabe I'm an idiot for buying this thing before the verdict was in? Maybe VM will send me another unit if I bitch enough? Sigh.

VM should send you another device, MP. In the event that you are a "Premium Reward Zone member" at Best Buy, I believe they extend your return window to 45 days instead of 30.

 

[melissapugs]

VM should send you another device, MP. In the event that you are a "Premium Reward Zone member" at Best Buy, I believe they extend your return window to 45 days instead of 30.

Is that the one you pay for? I opted out of that one I will go bat my eyelashes at someone tomorrow and see if I can make it happen capn. Otherwise I'll trackphone it if VM will give me another one. THX

And as stef7 mentioned about the update: let's all make sure we demand such an update repeatedly. The more we moan and gripe, the better our chances are