Diamond GPS locks up after getting position

[limpet]

After a soft reset the GPS starts up normally, finds several satellites, and sends a correct position to the program that opened it. Then it locks up and the next time it is accessed by the same or a different program it will not start. Soft reset enables it again. Hard reset or reflashing with the latest Sprint update does not fix the problem.

The settings/phone/services/location setting is ON. This is a stock Sprint CDMA Diamond.

It does the same thing with each of the startups available with the HTC GPS Tool: hot, warm, cold, and clear memory. GPS data shows up in the window of the tool as it acquires the satellites. As soon as it obtains a position the data flow stops. Closing and opening the GPS has no effect. When in this state, google maps, bing and other programs try to get a position but never see any satellites. Everything else in the phone seems to work even when the GPS is locked up. After a soft reset, all these programs get one correct position before the GPS stops working. I've tried it in more than one location.

Before I buy a replacement phone, I'd like to some advice on whether this could be a fixable problem...whatever it is, it persists after reflashing the rom. Many thanks.

[rhacy]

I doubt the problem is with your hardware. It's normally bad data in the XTRA.BIN from QuickGPS. The bad data can cause your GPS to lock up and the phone to soft reset. Try doing a search in this forum for XTRA.BIN or XTRA. There should be some good info on how to fix it until QuickGPS gets the data fixed on it's end. If I remember correctly, I've temporarily fixed the problem in the past by changing the date of an old saved XTRA.BIN. This is done by opening and saving the old XTRA.BIN with UltraEdit, then dropping the saved version into \Windows on the Diamond. After doing that, I turn off QuickGPS, and do a soft reset. If you do not want to mess with anything, QuickGPS should load a corrected valid XTRA.BIN in the next day or so, if you update it manually, or in the next week or less, if you just let it run on it's automatic update schedule.

Edit: try updating your QuickGPS again now, as it appears that the servers and the time sync are both working correctly again.

Also, here's an old thread on the issue, if you would like more info:

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread...t=XTRA&page=12

Best to all,
R

[horndoctor]

Wirelessly posted (HTC Diamond: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint MP6950SP)

Originally Posted by limpet

After a soft reset the GPS starts up normally, finds several satellites, and sends a correct position to the program that opened it. Then it locks up and the next time it is accessed by the same or a different program it will not start. Soft reset enables it again. Hard reset or reflashing with the latest Sprint update does not fix the problem.

The settings/phone/services/location setting is ON. This is a stock Sprint CDMA Diamond.

It does the same thing with each of the startups available with the HTC GPS Tool: hot, warm, cold, and clear memory. GPS data shows up in the window of the tool as it acquires the satellites. As soon as it obtains a position the data flow stops. Closing and opening the GPS has no effect. When in this state, google maps, bing and other programs try to get a position but never see any satellites. Everything else in the phone seems to work even when the GPS is locked up. After a soft reset, all these programs get one correct position before the GPS stops working. I've tried it in more than one location.

Before I buy a replacement phone, I'd like to some advice on whether this could be a fixable problem...whatever it is, it persists after reflashing the rom. Many thanks.

I agree with rhacy but I will say if you flash the shipped rom and clear storage and you update QuickGPS and still can't get gps to function correctly then it's replacement time.

[limpet]

I had come to the same conclusion horndoctor, but once I was resigned to buying a new phone, I was willing to experiment.

Thanks rhacy, you are right...it's not the hardware, or at least not a permanent hardware failure. The phone is working now...fingers crossed.

I read the postings about XTRA.BIN earlier and experimented with what I think was a corrupted version, with no file at all, and with a valid downloaded version. This seemed to affect the behavior of the phone *after* the GPS had locked up, but not the locking up itself. I could make it crash after it got the first position fix or the failure I described in message #1. I could not, however, solve the problem by messing with the file or the QuickGPS registry settings. I'm pretty sure a cold reset installs a valid version of XTRA.BIN; a warm reset does not change the file.

All of this was done with a phone that had never been unlocked. Finally I unlocked it and flashed a different radio...that didn't solve the problem either.

Then I decided to try WM6.5 so I flashed a copy of OMJ_Diamond_Sense_2.1_23544_v1.2; still no joy! I love the revamped Diamond, but the GPS still locked up after the first position fix.

Finally I remembered that the last GPS program I installed before I noticed the problem was GarminMobileXTforWindowsMobile_50020w. So I tried installing that under WM6.5. After a few soft resets the GPS started to work again and all GPS programs functioned properly.

My tentative conclusion is that there is nonvolatile storage in the GPS hardware that is not updated when either the rom or the radio is flashed. It can be put in a state that will cause problems that are not fixed by a cold reset. I think problems with QuickGPS or other programs can put the hardware in the bad state. A corrupted copy of XTRA.BIN may be involved. I'm pretty sure that the reinstallation of MobileXT while a valid XTRA.BIN was present cleared whatever state the GPS hardware had gotten into and allowed it to be properly reinitialized by a soft reset.

The up side of all this is that I finally understand what all the fuss is about with upgraded roms...many thanks to all you cookers out there.

[horndoctor]

Wirelessly posted (HTC Diamond: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint MP6950SP)

Wow!
Very interesting!
You may be absolutely correct in your conclusion. I'll have to remember this in case I have problems in the future.
I'm glad you got it going again!