Apparent GPS Failure

[summerfieldjason]

All of a sudden yesterday GPS started working and is working great. Must be Christmas gift early.

 

[jaymeangreen]

Wow,so the gps problem is fixed? I won't be back in ft Myers till after the 1st of the year. Can't wait to try it out

 

[Erich_F]

Hey folks,

There's a guy named Geoffrey on the Motorola User Forums that thinks you are all nuts that a new PRL fixed your GPS systems. You can see his posts starting HERE.

I would like to see some of you more versed in this situation give Mr. "Moto Xpert" a schooling.

I quoted his post below:

49. Dec 31, 2009 3:09 PM in response to: don0401
Re: DROID: GPS Failure
The *228 option does absolutely nothing for GPS. It has a very specific purpose which is to assure the phones tower selection process is accurate and up-to-date.

Any perception this helped with GPS is purely in your mind as *228 has nothing whatever to do with GPS functions in the phone.

*228 option 2 is useful every thirty days just to keep the phones general behavior with the cell network running optimally.

GPS has two components. The first is conventional satellite GPS and the second is less accurate but works in some conditions where satellite GPS does not work, it uses the towers to find the location. Tower location GPS may not work in all areas as the towers may not be properly equipped.

 

[brochaos]

doesn't your phone restart after a *228? a restart always fixes my gps problems, so you would get the same results. i think it is a software conflict that causes the problem.

 

[ronsurf69]

Cell tower selection was indeed the problem. Alltel towers did not have the AGPS capaility. Once My PRL updated the GPS feature on my phone has worked flawlesly. The maps may be wrong, but that is a Google problem :-0 Users should realize this is not a true GPS chip in the phone. Read the article I posted previously in the thread.

Happy New Year! It's the decade of the DROID!

 

[jaymeangreen]

Just got back to Ft Myers and what do you know, my GPS worked and I didn't have to do a thing. FINALLY!!!!

 

[mls21]

I'm having the same GPS problem as others here - not in Florida and not a former Alltel, so none of these fixes worked. I got my Droid in mid-November and GPS worked great until end of December, and since then I have never received a signal (just get the "Searching for GPS..." on Google Maps and GPSTest and GPS Status show no satellites at all). I finally gave up last night and did a factory reset, basically following Erich's procedure (removing SD Card and all). Still nothing. It seems like there are official fixes in place for the Alltel issues, but any fixes for the rest of us?? Should I just go get a new phone (if possible, since I'm beyond my 30 days)?

 

[Erich_F]

At this point, you may have just experienced a random GPS hardware failure. Your Droid has a 1 year warranty, so just got get a new one. It's not that big of a deal, and they know about the GPS issues, by now (I would hope so).

 

[mls21]

Well, I called Verizon, and they're shipping out a new phone (will be here on Monday). Hopefully I have better luck with that one...

 

[Audiophobe]

Was there a Verizon "fix" because mine has been working flawlessly since my problems a few weeks ago.

 

[ronsurf69]

Verizon updated the PRL and immediatly nearly everyone worked! I think this thread is done.:icon_ banana:

 

[DVR6]

Yep manually updating the PRL worked for me about 2 weeks ago when mine went out.

 

[biggestmexi]

How do you manually update the PRL?

 

[DVR6]

How do you manually update the PRL?

*228 then option 2

 

[ronsurf69]

Again?

Trouble again! M wife got an eris, got it working, now my Motorola is not locating me correctly. Anyone else having issues? new prl 65085:icon_evil: