What is the reason for terrible GPS performance on the Vogue?

[ScrapMaker]

Any GPS experts out there? Is it the Qualcomm chip that sucks, in terms of sensitivitiy? Is it purely drivers, or what?

Also, has anyone ever been able to TRULY enable A-GPS? I have never seen any evidence of this on my Sprint Touch. I have literally done everything I can to get flawless GPS. Radio 3.37.10, 3.37.15, and 3.42.30. I have tried every ROM under the sun, to no avail.

I used to run the 2.03 PPST before the 2.04 came out, and it seemed to have REALLY quick GPS locks--in under 5 seconds most times, but then after about 10 GPS uses (start/stop/start/stop,) I would lose GPS altogether.

Now, with the leaked/officlal 3.03 Sprint ROM, and the 3.42.30 radio, (allowing PPST.exe to run,) my first GPS lock after a soft-reset is usually about 40 seconds, (which is worse than the 3.37.15 radio.) VERY HOT locks are still about 10-30 seconds... On the 3.37.15 radio, VERY HOT locks were instant---like if I just used GPSToday a few seconds ago...

Anyways, I still lose GPS on the new radio, after a few GPS attempts... requiring a soft-reset. -- In general, I'd say the GPS on this device is TERRIBLE. Other's say they have awesome GPS performance, but then they mention locks "only" taking a minute, or 2 minutes... That's not even usable.

So is this due to the MM7500 chipset, or what? Is A-GPS not really enabled?

All-in-all, I must have been spoiled by my Sanyo M1 on Sprint, because I never once had a lock take more than 5 seconds... A-GPS is the king... because it still works even when I have no cell reception...

If we could get the GPS to ALWAYS lock in less than 5 seconds, it would actually be what I would expect if I purchased a GPS unit... perhaps this is why HTC and Sprint chose not to enable GPS?

Feel free to throw your thoughts on the table... I'm just getting fed up with flashing 20 ROMs a week, trying all sorts of tweaks/programs to get something to work half as well as the majority of all other phones out there...

[Compusmurf]

LOL, wish the 2 units my my cars would give me 5 second locks!!!!!! Both cars avg about 15-20 seconds after startup to get a nice, steady lock.

[maggyban]

I feel your pain. Fortunately I use garmin xt software and gets locks on average in about 10-15 sec from a cold start, which is fine by me. However, I do not typically stop and start the GPS so I couldn't comment on that.

I have a Sprint touch running on the official rom with no tweaks, except for the teathering hack.

[Scrotum]

I am running the test sprint ROM, with the updated PPST and I have no problems getting a lock, the longest it takes to get a lock is about 30 seconds, and this is with regular use over several days without a soft reset.
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[ScrapMaker]

Well, if you use a program like GPSToday, with GeoTagger, then GPS is turned on several times a day... (well almost every time you take a picture.)

Can anyone else try repeatedly using GPS... like off/on a bunch of times in a row? To see if their GPS stays perfect? If so, I won't give up, I'll keep looking for a way...

I just don't get why my M1, as well as my LG Fusic would get A-GPS locks in less than 5 seconds, no matter what... I even got locks inside metal warehouses, like Sam's or Wal-Mart... no problem... now I can't, ever... I have to check to see if I am even under a metal roof of a gas station area...

Just depressing I guess--since I've been trying so many damn ROMs and tweaks, only to get to the "official" release, and find it's still exibiting similar problems...

I'm sad inside.

[ScrapMaker]

oh, also, does anyone still use GPSMODE=4 on the new ROM? Most people had said it didn't really do anything from the get-go...

[Compusmurf]

Ok, just tested mine with google maps after not using the gps part for at least a week.

I got 6 sats from my living room in 13 seconds. Ok, could have been 14, but you get my point.

I reset, tried it with live, < 4 seconds.

I powered off the phone, back on, and got locks in my living room with google in 6 seconds.

I powered off, and back on, used TomTom, and got locks in just under 14 seconds.

Not a very scientific method. second counter on digital watch, but it is still faster than my car!

Of course, I didn't BUY this to be my gps, I have dedicated units for that, but for it being a win mobile PPC and phone.
Hmm

I might try seeing how long after a reset with the phone radio off (airplane mode) to see if it affects lock time.

[Compusmurf]

Ok, very odd.

Flight mode enabled, no cell, I swear tomtom got a signal faster. Also alternating between 8-9 sats.

I've tried this 4 different times now and I swear, I'm getting more sats and faster lock.

wow, weird, but very unscientific testing.

[ckl_88]

Hmm... interesting.

Could you guys leave your units with GPS off for at least 8 hours (overnight) and try again and see if you get a lock within 5 seconds? Make sure you are not running GPSToday, GPSViewer or any software related to GPS during this time.

I use the GPS in the Touch almost daily ever since I got the GPS rom installed back when Alltell came out with it. Never have I gotten a 5 second lock on a cold start. I don't use GPSViewer, GPSToday or anything that keeps the GPS active in the background (or whatever it is that it does). I just basically use AstroGPS and IGO8 and on average it takes me about 1-2 minutes to get a solid lock on 4+ sats to start navigating. Sometimes, I get a lock on 1-2 sats in the morning within about 20 seconds but it is not enough for the nav program to be useful... in fact, on those occasions, it even takes longer for me to actually start navigating correctly because it will stay locked on those 2 sats for about 2 minutes (all the while, giving me an inaccurate location and wrong instructions). Then all of a sudden all sats disappear (as if it does a reset) and then it starts re-acquiring all over again which takes another 1-2 minutes. I've experience the same behaviour when I was using Garmin Mobile XT as well.

It's funny because when I'm actually sitting there watching the satellite view in IGO 8 and (previously) Garmin Mobile XT, I can see when it's having trouble because numerous satellites start appearing and disappearing within a split second. This goes on for about 10 seconds or so like the unit has gone haywire, but then eventually, it gets a lock. I don't really understand what the heck it's doing when this is happening but I thought it had something to do with the AGPS.

Like you, I have played around with those SUPL AGPS settings and ran the 2.03 PPST as well as the 1.33 Bell PPST and even the 2.04 PPST (which f'ed up my data connection) and still, lock times, on average are about 1-2 minutes. I'm currently running the official sprint radio and 2.03 PPST with NFSFAN's 1.08 rom.

At this moment, I have given up on getting sub 30 second locks on cold starts and shifted my priorities to finding the combination of radio and ROM that will give me the most consistent and reliable lock times. Consistent meaning I know exactly how long it will take to lock and reliable meaning not having to soft-reset every so often because it fails to lock.

On a side note, my Nokia N95 with AGPS never got 5 second locks either. It's average lock times were about 30secs to a minute. Without AGPS, it took about 2 minutes.

[ajones7279]

I've never had a problem with GPS. I always run PPST when trying a new rom. Then I turn the GPS on with the Today screen toggle plugin, and open my gps program (MioMap) and by the time the program is running, I'm always locked on. And I always get quick locks, no more than 20-30 seconds, on the inside whereas actual GPS units don't. I've tried it side by side and the GPS unit wouldn't lock. Even tried it in Circuit City and none of the GPS units would lock on the inside but my Touch did