Alltel + GPS = Not working in home area

Farnz · #1 (**permalink**) 07-10-2009, 11:37 AM

I have a touch pro that I have had nothing but problems with as far as GPS goes. I finally gave in a bought the Alltel Nav plan so GPS will work. Apparently, from the hours upon hours of reading I have done, the first batch of these phones for Alltel were unlocked for GPS. Unfortunately, the one I have is not. Yes, I have made sure the com port is set to 4, location is on, etc, etc, etc. The problem I am having now is since I have placed the EnergyRom on my phone, the GPS will not lock in my local area. I live is SW Florida. If I travel to Clearwater, Tampa, St. Petersburg, etc, the GPS kicks on and works great. Under a 2-3 second lock everytime. If I leave the GPS on and drive home, the GPS will work all of the way back to Port Charlotte. If I turn the GPS off, and back on and try to get a lock(while in Port Charlotte), it never works again while I am in this area. Very frustrating. I thought it might be due to a SID code, but I have verified I am locked to the Tampa code and I did not find one any closer for my current area. Does anyone have any suggestions? I thought about calling Alltel tech support, but they are usually clueless. Thanks.

littleevil · #2 (**permalink**) 07-10-2009, 04:42 PM

have you tried using quickgps to download gps location faster?

Also i used quickgps and googlemaps to help with gps.

FYI i jumped around from rom to rom for a long time nfsrom, energy, mighty, juicy etc with each one there were pluses and minuses however the rom that i stuck with is demolitons for all the capabitlies working ie internet gps data etc..

Just hunt around let me know if any of this helped. If not be happy to help ya find an answer.

Farnz · #3 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 01:01 PM

Yeah, I tried the QuickGPS, and just about everything else out there. I finally gave up yesterday and reloaded the newest Alltel rom that was linked on here. Everything is working fine now. I wish I knew why the phone would only work on GPS in certain areas of the state and not others. Very frustrating.

littleevil · #4 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 01:13 PM

sounds like a radio pri issue.

spiralspirit · #5 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 02:01 PM

I have a telus touch pro and regardless of what rom, what radio what anything, I couldnt get the GPS to lock in under 1/2 hour.

Then someone here mentioned a file called PPST (there were different version numbers). I grabbed the latest one at the time, installed it, ran the PPST executable it placed in the windows folder, called *20833 to reprogram my phone and update the roaming list, and now it locks in about 10 seconds.

GreeNova · #6 (**permalink**) 07-22-2009, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farnz

I have a touch pro that I have had nothing but problems with as far as GPS goes. I finally gave in a bought the Alltel Nav plan so GPS will work. Apparently, from the hours upon hours of reading I have done, the first batch of these phones for Alltel were unlocked for GPS. Unfortunately, the one I have is not. Yes, I have made sure the com port is set to 4, location is on, etc, etc, etc. The problem I am having now is since I have placed the EnergyRom on my phone, the GPS will not lock in my local area. I live is SW Florida. If I travel to Clearwater, Tampa, St. Petersburg, etc, the GPS kicks on and works great. Under a 2-3 second lock everytime. If I leave the GPS on and drive home, the GPS will work all of the way back to Port Charlotte. If I turn the GPS off, and back on and try to get a lock(while in Port Charlotte), it never works again while I am in this area. Very frustrating. I thought it might be due to a SID code, but I have verified I am locked to the Tampa code and I did not find one any closer for my current area. Does anyone have any suggestions? I thought about calling Alltel tech support, but they are usually clueless. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleevil

sounds like a radio pri issue.

I think littleevil is on the right path when it comes to this. I too am on Alltel, but I on the other hand never had problems connecting GPS, until recently. I used to brag about how quick mine would lock on and pick up like 9, 10, and sometimes 11 satellites. I recently updated my phone's radio by installing the latest Alltel ROM with a brand new radio. This was downloaded straight from HTC's website. It loads the latest Alltel radio 1.12.20F and PRI 2.00_011. I figured the latest must be the greatest. Well, I was wrong. I could not get a lock to save my life. Sometimes I could connect to 3 or 4 satellites if I ran an old version of HTC GPS Tool (I think it was v1.1.1 or something) and chose "Clear Memory" and ran that for like 15 minutes. Then I could only connect to about that many in Google Maps. I thought for sure I was screwed since I could not go back to the stock radio I was on (1.03.16F). I tried all sorts of things. But, what I ended up doing in the end was downgrading my radio back to v1.03.15F which was ported from the Alltel Victor (Diamond). I was back to locking on GPS in seconds, 8, 9 10 or sometimes 11 satellites in no time. Before that, I tried all sorts of things, I played around with all sorts of radios, and PRIs , I thought that it was making a difference, but no, I think it was just dumb luck and optimism that was making me believe it was better.

So, here is what I would do. This is the current setup I have and it works great. Get the latest PPST for Alltel Herman_C (attached in this post), download the radio 1.03.15F and load up your favorite ROM. I prefer Mighty ROM 6 which runs flawless for me. And make sure you have established an internet connection on your phone. Do this by launching Opera or IE. Then open QuickGPS. It may show that it has already updated, but just to be on the safe side, update anyway. (I have not had to do this every time since initially, I only did it for good measure.) Then launce Google Maps. Click Menu> Use GPS. You should have a lock within seconds.

If this doesn't work, I am sorry, but it worked for me and a buddy who was in the same boat. Good luck and I hope you get it working.

cassith · #7 (**permalink**) 08-23-2009, 01:23 AM

Thank you GreeNova! Worked perfect

One question though- is it necessary to turn off GPS location(or something else) in order to save the battery?

kinger9 · #8 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 12:48 PM

I'll be trying this when I get a chance greenova, I have alltel and the exact symptoms you had. I also have the 1.12.20F radio and 2.00_011 PRI.

Same question as Cassith - do you have to shut anything off or when you exit googlemaps will it no look for satellights any more?

Any draw backs to running the process you suggested vs the newest Alltel stuff on other programs?

My phone is new as of June 30th 09 anyway to tell if I already have the newest PPST (whatever that means LOL)?

Thanks a lot!

Urufu_Shinjiro · #9 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 12:57 PM

Ok GreeNova, assuming I already have the correct PPST and running mightyrom, can I just install the radio 1.03.15F and be good to go?

kinger9 · #10 (**permalink**) 08-31-2009, 02:00 PM

Does the older radio hurt reception, range, battery life, etc? I would like to do this but I would then lose my stock radio and since I'm new at this I dont know what I'm screwing up LOL. I use this phone in low signal enviroment almost 100% of the time so if it downgrades the recption for push mail, and calls I will have to live with poor GPS reception as I only use that in rare instances. Thanks!