Apparent GPS Failure

[Erich_F]

That's the same store I exchanged mine at. Michelle took good care of me there. She's also worth the drive, IYKWIM

 

[crankygypsy]

That's the same store I exchanged mine at. Michelle took good care of me there. She's also worth the drive, IYKWIM

ha, i don't know who michelle is, but i told my friend he works with a nice lookin' group of people ...IYKWIM.

has your GPS continued to function since your personally-concocted "fix"

 

[Erich_F]

has your GPS continued to function since your personally-concocted "fix"

Yes, has been solid now for a couple weeks without issue. I have even been back and forth to Gainesville/Ocala a couple more times with no problems. However, I'm not an Alltel refugee...so this is obviously a multi-faceted issue. One App that I have not re-installed since is the Weather Bug widget. Maybe that thing was part of my issue, who knows...but it's been great ever since I did a proper reset.

 

[spalding12]

if verizon would just make AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT THAT:
1. they know about the problem
2. they are working on a solution
with or without a time estimate for its "fix"
just stupid business sense

to be frank, i am curious as to what you've personally done to get an official statement out of VZW and on the forum? griping in this thread isn't getting the problem any closer to being solved. it actually lengthens the thread to the point that others with similar problems are not reading it completely and/or are unable to follow the dilemma ...then adding to the confusion.

1. i didn't buy the phone for its gps capabilities.
that's would be dumb as he__
i have several other gps units

2. i've talked with verizon PLENTY
i'm NOT their "USUAL" customer
they get about $4,000.00 of MY money every month of the year
not just for wireless... but, for a T1 for my business phones, etc
so... i think that i have a RIGHT to demand that they publicly announce the issues and what they are doing to fix them

3. verizon is being UNwise by keeping this under wraps
after all... it's the holiday season and THOUSANDS OF SHOPPERS are considering the DROID vs. iPhone issues
it would behoove verizon to fix this problem immediately and or tell us IN PLAIN ENGLISH why they can't
getting a different answer from every level-1 tech makes me wonder if they educate these folks AT ALL before putting them on the phone


as for MY griping lengthening this thread....
baloney...
it's made others chime in with THEIR experience(s), thereby letting us know that it is a LARGE problem and not just some motorola-related error in manufacturing

i'm not trying to offend
maybe YOUR nickname here is more TELLING than i originally thought...

 

[spalding12]

. One App that I have not re-installed since is the Weather Bug widget. Maybe that thing was part of my issue, who knows...but it's been great ever since I did a proper reset.

does anyone else have any thoughts about this WEATHER BUG app?
i have it installed on MY droid and use it all the time

thanks

 

[Erich_F]

Well, one way to find out...uninstall it via the App Market and reset your phone. Make sure you take out the battery for 15 minutes before reactivating it, though.

Erich

 

[spalding12]

Well, one way to find out...uninstall it via the App Market and reset your phone. Make sure you take out the battery for 15 minutes before reactivating it, though.

Erich

thanks, erich
let me ask you this:
why 15 minutes to take out the battery?
what purpose does that time serve.... please?

 

[Erich_F]

As a little background, I'm an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technican/operator. These things rely on GPS to work at all, so I have lots of experience (2000 flight hours) with various GPS related issues.

Most GPS engines have some way to manage power spikes and drops in their power systems. Many also have power backup batteries to keep the almanac current when primary power is removed. Generally, though, smaller units like this one just use a capacitor to condition power to the GPS chip.

Leaving the battery out of the phone for at least 15 minutes is to let any residual charge in the system drop off, and truely reset the GPS memory. This is actually a procedure for a GPS reset on one of the UAVs I operate.

How much of this actually applies to the GPS used in this phone, I don't know. I just used procedures I'm familiar with to attempt a fix, and ultimately worked in my situation.

 

[Xerozix]

Erich, you fly UAVs? Where the freak have I been?

These GPS units are really not necessary. But it's useful for shoving into an iPhone fanboy's face haha.

Is it possible to download the entire world map to my SD card? Would be useful in a situation with no cell signal

 

[Erich_F]

As for right now, in the current Beta version of Google Maps and Nav, you have to have a network connection to download the map imagery in real time. There is a Basemap file on the Droid, but I don't know what detail it has. It may not even be imagery at all, just lat/long data.

 

[Backnblack]

Leaving the battery out of the phone for at least 15 minutes is to let any residual charge in the system drop off, and truely reset the GPS memory. This is actually a procedure for a GPS reset on one of the UAVs I operate.

That is also SOP with the GPS Survey Equipment that I use...

 

[spalding12]

As a little background, I'm an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technican/operator. These things rely on GPS to work at all, so I have lots of experience (2000 flight hours) with various GPS related issues.

Most GPS engines have some way to manage power spikes and drops in their power systems. Many also have power backup batteries to keep the almanac current when primary power is removed. Generally, though, smaller units like this one just use a capacitor to condition power to the GPS chip.

Leaving the battery out of the phone for at least 15 minutes is to let any residual charge in the system drop off, and truely reset the GPS memory. This is actually a procedure for a GPS reset on one of the UAVs I operate.

How much of this actually applies to the GPS used in this phone, I don't know. I just used procedures I'm familiar with to attempt a fix, and ultimately worked in my situation.

thank you for the info and education, erich
i greatly appreciate it

 

[jaymeangreen]

it just baffles me that as long as im north of ocala fl ( again i live in ft myers ) it will work perfectly. once i get south of it ,no go. I wonder if iphone has an app for that LOL.

 

[spalding12]

it just baffles me that as long as im north of ocala fl ( again i live in ft myers ) it will work perfectly. once i get south of it ,no go. I wonder if the iPhone has an app for that LOL.

LOL, for sure

 

[Audiophobe]

So wierd. My Nav was working great til 3 hours ago. Then I got a wide grey bar across the top of the screen with the message:

"Follow the route"

and a thinner grey bay on on the bottom that says:

"Searching for GPS..."
I rebooted, took the battery out and let it sit, 3 times.... nothing.
Then I decided to exchange it tomorrow. I think in made my little Droid sad and ir suddenly started to work again. I wonder if it will last...........................................????
Then