Help GPS Issues

darrin2520 · Sep 2, 2011

Is anyone else having GPS issues with their phone? More often than not, I have to reboot my phone to get my GPS to work. It is turned on and I can see the symbol in the window but none of my apps are able to use it / find it including Navigation, Cardio Trainer or GPS Status. This is always fixed by rebooting the phone. Just wondering if I got a glitchy phone or if this is an issue anyone else is having. Also, on cardio trainer, it really struggles to follow the route, where my OG droid was almost dead on for the same route.

The other unrelated (possibly related) problem I am having is reboots. I can always tell when it will reboot because the unlock screen is nearly unresponsive before it happens. I have read every thread on here and so far I haven't found a solution.

I'm not big on returning things, but if no one else can confirm these issues, I may look into a replacement phone. Love the phone, but these are pretty annoying things for what I use on my phone.

azdawg · Sep 2, 2011

I have the same issue with my GPS..... don't know if its a hardware or software issue....

B360155 · Sep 2, 2011

Usually, my DX locks onto the signal within just a few seconds but a couple of times this week the icon just kept flashing and couldn't get a lock. What worked for me was to toggle to turn on airplane mode, then immediately toggle back out of airplane mode.

thruapole · Sep 8, 2011

It's not just yours, mine acts the same way. A reboot has always fixed it. I miss how well the gps worked on my d1 as well.

pbwhite · Sep 8, 2011

I think it's fairly common with the D3 so far - it happens to me a every so often. Fortunately, it's as easy as a) rebooting, b) toggling airplane mode on/off or c) turning off and back on GPS services under settings|location & security.

Doing any of these seems to fix the problem and you have GPS lock almost immediately after.

azdawg · Sep 8, 2011

It seems to me now that I have updated to the leaked upgrade... that my GPS works every time I turn it on and off.... I haven't had to reboot for GPS issue yet....

rushmore · Sep 9, 2011

GPS seems slow to lock on (can take up to two minutes). Come to think of it, all of my phones have had slow to lock GPS.... The Incredible was the worst.

azdawg · Sep 10, 2011

Mine locks within seconds..... I'm diggin it.....

bebbles · Sep 10, 2011

Yes.

Everytime I use navi, a few minutes into it it will say that I lost signal and wont pick it back up. I have to exit out of the navi and go back in and itll work.

Also, the screen will lock in navi at random times.

Hopefully there will be an update soon to fix this...

HadouGhost · Sep 10, 2011

havent turned on gps all day so i turned it on and went to google maps and then clicked my location. used my computers analog clock to count how long it took to get my location. 40 seconds. Not bad. not the best but its not as bad as my old samsung vibrant. 40 seconds is plenty acceptable.

bebbles · Sep 11, 2011

Ghost, Keep using the GPS. Mine finds my location almost instantly... but the GPS signal cuts out randomly while using the navigation to get anywhere. Its a huge pain, Ive gotten thrown off course a couple times already =T

rushmore · Sep 11, 2011

Mine averages a minute to lock on, but stays on when it does.

bishop0114 · Sep 16, 2011

I had similar issues. I finally had VZW replace my phone and the new one has had no issues.

ndoren · Sep 17, 2011

I made a change to my /etc/gps.conf file and the difference has been night and day. I went from huge inaccuracies, to losing lock with gps (requiring reboot) to having nearly perfect lock and great accuracy. It has to do with changing the ntp server specification in the conf file. That may explain why some of you have better luck than others with GPS, because it's somewhat location dependent as far as the NTP time server used. You have to be rooted... and it's safe cuz you make a backup of the current config file. But I can't tell if it will work for anyone else.

Use root explorer (from the market). Change partition to r/w.

If you are desperate, try changing your /etc/gps.conf as follows:
Change:
NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
To:
NTP_SERVER=us.pool.ntp.org

Let me know if this helps. If your gps works fine already, don't bother with this change.

G4bama · Sep 18, 2011

When I select GPS I do not see an icon in the noticifaction bar unless I am using google maps at the same time. I read on the Bionic forum page that this appears to be a programmed function within gingerbread 2.3 and higher.
My HTC eris showed the GPS icon in the noticication bar as long as GPS was turned on. I guess we will just have to adjust and get use to the way the system works. It is aggravating though.

darrin2520 · Sep 19, 2011

ndoren said:
I made a change to my /etc/gps.conf file and the difference has been night and day. I went from huge inaccuracies, to losing lock with gps (requiring reboot) to having nearly perfect lock and great accuracy. It has to do with changing the ntp server specification in the conf file. That may explain why some of you have better luck than others with GPS, because it's somewhat location dependent as far as the NTP time server used. You have to be rooted... and it's safe cuz you make a backup of the current config file. But I can't tell if it will work for anyone else.

Use root explorer (from the market). Change partition to r/w.

If you are desperate, try changing your /etc/gps.conf as follows:
Change:
NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
To:
NTP_SERVER=us.pool.ntp.org

Let me know if this helps. If your gps works fine already, don't bother with this change.

Right now I have been resisting rooting, but I may go this route if after the OTA things are a bit better. Thanks for this. If I implement it, I will comment back for sure.

redsox985 · Sep 19, 2011

I feel mine is quite tempermental. At first, it would take more than a few minutes to lock, or would never lock unless I went into location settings and reassigned 3rd party GPS new rights to share location. Now, I can flip on the toggle as I'm getting in the car and it will be locked on by the time it's in car dock mode.

ndoren · Sep 19, 2011

Yeah, its pretty sad you have to root to fix this, but hey, at least we can root. Yeah, not a bad idea to see if its fixed in the ota update.

BMeyer · Sep 25, 2011

I having the same problem with GPS & my WiFi is getting buggy too. Dumb question, what is "OTA"?

Sneeky · Sep 25, 2011

Mine seems to be okay, it does have issues finding sats inside, and have had an issue from time to time with it not loading right away, but for the most part mines been okay

Sneeky · Sep 25, 2011

BMeyer said:
Dumb question, what is "OTA"?

Over The Air referring to an update that you will recieve remotely or over the air, instead of having to hardwire and install it

Not a dumb question friend...just a question, after all if you dont ask you may never know.

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