Will we ever have true A-GPS?

**ScrapMaker** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-20-2008, 11:52 PM

Just curious if this is a limitation of our phones being PDAphones, or what? It's still funny that "dumb" phones on Sprint get solid locks in about 1-2 seconds...

Yet, it takes forever for us to get locks, when we are supposed to have hybrid A-GPS...

**stevedog1** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScrapMaker

Just curious if this is a limitation of our phones being PDAphones, or what? It's still funny that "dumb" phones on Sprint get solid locks in about 1-2 seconds...

Yet, it takes forever for us to get locks, when we are supposed to have hybrid A-GPS...

I Get locks in 5-10 sec. with my touch using the the newest Sprint Official ROM. It doesn't take forever at all. Not even close. And we do have true A-GPS with four modes of operation. Read up on the Qualcomm MSM7500 Chip that is in our phones.

Upgrade your rom to the Official GPS/REV A released a couple days ago, and see if that fixes your issues.

Here is the link:

http://216.139.227.226/RUU_PPST_Vogu..._2.04_Ship.exe

**Torx** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 08:33 AM

umm.. this built in gps is faster than my holux puck, but im going to keep it just in case i get a future phone without builtin gps

**mswlogo** · #4 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScrapMaker

Just curious if this is a limitation of our phones being PDAphones, or what? It's still funny that "dumb" phones on Sprint get solid locks in about 1-2 seconds...

Yet, it takes forever for us to get locks, when we are supposed to have hybrid A-GPS...

Mine might not get assist everytime but it's definitely is running assisted. Like others said a cold gps start might take 10-15 seconds. I used to swear folks were nuts getting 10-15 secs but was completely wrong since this round of leaked roms.

**ScrapMaker** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 10:25 AM

I have tried every ROM under the sun... the only two that give me consistent GPS are DHarvey's latest black vista ROM, and one of OMJ's older ones, I was using it on the 3.37.15 radio, I believe... I actually think OMJ's was the fastest I had ever used, but, alas, I still lost GPS after about a day.

I tried the latest *.4.2 Sprint ROM that was leaked on Friday, and GPS was "pretty good," for the first day---and then a day later, I was getting 45 second locks, or not at all...

I tried the following to get GPS to work again:
-Soft-resetting
-Disable/Enable location in phone options
-Re-run IOTA (which is VERY flaky in this latest release---I couldn't get it to work, it kept failing and giving me vision errors, unlike in the original leaked *.4)
-Installed "Assisted GPS Hack.cab" which enters all the A-GPS settings, including A-GPS server IP, etc.
-Copied over virser_gps.dll .. (does this even do anything?)
-I tried priming it with GPS Viewer, etc, and I got nothing...

The only thing I could do was hard-reset, and I got GPS back immediately---although it wasn't THAT amazing... first lock was about 45 seconds, and recurring locks that were only a minute apart still took about 15-20 seconds...

So far, it seems like DHarvey's 7.29 black vista ROM gives the best GPS results. It truly is using A-GPS, I believe (or at least there is some correlation to internet connection.) When I disable internet, warm locks take about 15 seconds, and with data on, I get 5-10 second locks.

Funny thing is--I got better GPS performance when I had the latest Sprint ROM, and I was in airplane mode!

I wish the ROM had more control over GPS... like in the Comm Manager...

Anyways, to get the latest Sprint ROM to play well with GPS, what did you guys do? I flashed the ROM, immediately hard-reset, then let customizations run, hard-reset, let customizations run, hard-reset again, then let everything run it's course once again...

I like the fact I can run JiveTalk on the stock ROM, but I really like GPS working well on DHarvey's... although, if GPS flakes out again, even on this ROM, I'll probably go back to *.4.2 (or a ROM based on it,) and pretend like my phone doesn't have GPS... I'll just wait for a phone that's got solid GPS... like hopefully the diamond or touch pro will...

taidan · #6 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 10:51 AM

Man you need to stop complaining. For verizon or other non sprint users who dont have GPS supported locks take an average of 30 to 40 sec. Often into the minutes.

stealthbear · #7 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taidan

Man you need to stop complaining. For verizon or other non sprint users who dont have GPS supported locks take an average of 30 to 40 sec. Often into the minutes.

No doubt, I'm on Bell, 1-2mins usually for me, but it works

taidan · #8 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 11:08 AM

Yup. 1-2 min is actualy more like it.

**ScrapMaker** · #9 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taidan

Man you need to stop complaining. For verizon or other non sprint users who dont have GPS supported locks take an average of 30 to 40 sec. Often into the minutes.

There is a difference... with the new ROM, (well I guess, once it's official,) Sprint is specifically OFFERING GPS... as a feature of the phone. They are promoting Sprint Navigation. So I would expect it to work right.

I will not argue that your GPS is even crappier, but I'm just wondering what is causing our A-GPS to not work as well as other phones... no matter what carrier you're on....