GPS after Gingerbread

[ShippsAhoy]

Has anyone else noticed that after updating to GB your GPS has sucked! Before GB, my GPS was ok, but now, it's completely useless. Yesterday, I was driving across Lake Washington, no trees, no buildings, clear blue sky, couldn't get a lock to save my life. No case on my phone either.

 

[Piney Boy]

I thought this was just me. I was in Reading, PA a couple of weeks ago and could not get a GPS signal for about 45 minutes. When I was on Froyo and went up there I had no problems. I was in a heavy wooded area at first, but it still should have found a signal after I got out at worst.

 

[shansmi]

Ya. Between the case knocking down the signal I found by searching here at XDA the way to make things better is to install GPS Status and the within that apps options turn off GPS filtering. Makes things MUCH better.

 

[BenjaSands]

Before the GB update by Inspire would always get great GPS signal. Now, it seems I am getting the "Searching for GPS signal" thing more often

 

[shansmi]

if you are rooted, it could be the radio load and RIL. I learned this last night myself. Now all is good.

 

[ShippsAhoy]

My phone is not rooted and I didn't use a case on my phone. Anyone have any idea what would cause this GPS suckiness?

 

[sharksfan7]

Don't know what would cause it, but I would +1 shansmi's recommendation above to install "GPS Status" and turn off filtering, or at least lower the filter strength. I upgraded to GB pretty much as soon as I got my Inspire, so I can't compare how GPS was before, but after installing "GPS Status" I did notice that I would get a GPS lock faster than I did prior.

 

[shansmi]

Have you tried GPS Status? It will show you the satellites seen by your phone, allow you to remove weak signal filtering and re-download AGPS data... The app does not require root.

 

[pablopinzon]

Mine works fine, used all last week on the N.C. Outer Banks and for the evacuation. If anything it was better than before since there is a 'nightime' view where the map darkens.

 

[jerrybaxter]

+1 also on.. install "GPS Status" thingy works good now

 

[shansmi]

+1 also on.. install "GPS Status" thingy works good now

What did you do clear data, download data, remove the filter or all of the above?

 

[TCF]

Well one thing I thought of is that if you do not have any data bars, you can't use the GPS, as the GPS uses data.

 

[shansmi]

Untrue. The map is downloaded over the data connection. You can turn off everything else but the GPS and still use GPS based tools that do not require downloading data of any kind.

 

[TCF]

Untrue. The map is downloaded over the data connection. You can turn off everything else but the GPS and still use GPS based tools that do not require downloading data of any kind.

Sure, but you still need the data to download the map. So, if there is no map loading, then there is the problem. Otherwise, it could be that the GPS is just timing out or that it is polarized to a certain direction. Trying pointing it in another direction maybe?

 

[shansmi]

No. It can be used as a compass with several tools and many map apps that pull data from the SD card. The point is the GPS works just fine without the cellular or WiFi radios enabled.

 

[Wood_doowk]

I've noticed better GPS performance since the Gingerbread update, usually now seeing 10 - 11 'birds' in the GPS Status app, and accuracy down to 2m at times. Prior to GB, my GPS performance was only marginally better then my retired Captivate. (SMS, however, is broken, and I've resorted to installing GO SMS Pro as a workaround.)

 

[shansmi]

SMS/MMS is a known issue with 2 workarounds... Disable the extra address books and if necessary hit the phone nubmer to call the contact but hit "end call" before the call is actually made. There is a fix in the works.

 

[TCF]

Downloaded GPS Status. When I go to work, I will see how it helped. I set filtering to LOW.

 

[shansmi]

Set it to none.

Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

 

[TCF]

Are you sure? It says that the lower the filter, the less stable the connection.