I just got my droid on the 29th. Used the GPS from the store to home just to try it. Worked great. I also played around with it often until yesterday I went to Best Buy to get a universal GPS windshield mount and it wouldn't work on the way home. Didn't work for the rest of the night. I have the app that shows which satellites it's looking at. There were always 2 or 3 that it could see, but wouldn't lock on. Well, I left it outside on my deck for about 20 minutes and the battery died. Plugged it in and as soon as it powered up, it had 10 out of 10 sats. Still working this morning.
Who knows, hopefully it keeps working. BTW, I've been with verizon for about 7 years now and live in VA.
Steve
appreciate your postSpalding, I agree with you. I live in Sarasota and I have had the phone now for a few weeks. I have never been able to receive a signal for my gps. I have the apps for the GPS status and they too can not lock onto anything. I have spent countless hours on the phone with verizon, of which I will never get back, and I have several "trouble tickets" with them. Each time I call, I get a different answer. If it is truly because we were Alltel customers, then I find it funny that they will cash my check every month to pay their Verizon bill. Will keep trying and updating as time goes by. Thanks for all of the great information.
I could just be thinking out of my hat here, but I wonder if some of this GPS stuff has something to do with battery power. I have an Acer teeny weeny laptop I take on the road with me and I notice if I just use it unplugged, the screen is darker and 'things' take a bit longer to happen. Once I get to a hotel and plug it in, the screen lights up much brighter and 'things' happen faster. I've read many posts on this site referring to how much power it takes to run apps, and the more apps you have running, the more power it takes and the quicker the battery goes south. So, if you have many apps running, could that be stealing power from the GPS portion and it doesn't have enough power to run the satellite tracking stuff? One post mentioned leaving the Droid outside for a bit to gather satellites - and the battery went dead. Since battery power seems to be a hot topic with these computer/phones, might this be some of the problem getting the GPS function to operate properly? :icon_eek:
I'm just sayin'......
[Added Later]
I'm beginning to wonder if Motorola didn't rush this 'machinery' to the market a tad early to try to capitalize on the Christmas season, hoping to get stuff fixed in 'on-the-job' mode. There seems to be a lot of stuff going on with anything that doesn't relate to actual phone calls (and even then I've seen a complaint from one poster - though it was not experienced by any others).
You might try the update to Google Maps in tha market. I was having similar problems and since i have updated Maps no problems for me.
How to get your GPS (temporarily) working.
OK, we all know there is an issue with the GPS.
So you're absolutely itching to get some cool turn-by turn navigation, even if its only for your drive to work tomorrow?
This almost always works:
(nothing earth-shattering--just a little experience, and some common sense here)
1. If you have not already done so, download and install GPS Status from the android market
2. Before you go to bed for the night, plug your Droid in near (6-10 inches from) a window in your house
3. Start the GPS status program, and place the phone as close to the window as possible
4. leave it overnight.
5. By morning you will PROBABLY have a 10/10 GPS lock, and it will keep that lock**
6. **Here's the rub: If your phone goes into standby (black screen) for more than 1-2 minutes, or you close all GPS apps for more than 2 minutes, you'll lose the lock. as long as you keep google maps, navigation, or GPS status open, and the phone on (like plugged in your car's cig lighter, or set the apps to keep the phone from powering off), you will keep your lock indefinitely!
7. At least you can play like a real Verizon customer for one car trip!
JTG
please excuse my languageI finally bit the bullet and switched to an original VZW number. The GPS has mostly worked in the Tampa area, though I do seem to have an issue connecting outside of my office off of Bruce B Downs/I75 in Tampa. Not that they really know, but the VZW reps at the store I went to said they were told that it could take a year (or more) before the Alltel/VZ issues are resolved. This includes visual Voice Mail and GPS. They said that they were told that VVM may never work with Alltel numbers. I will do some more GPS testing over the next few days and report back.
