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Author Topic: GPS is 100 percent useless on my phone... does not work in vehicle at all.  (Read 8599 times)
poor_red_neck
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« on: October 08, 2008, 12:19:33 AM »

So the GPS is absolutely USELESS while traveling in a car. I have a "universal" cradle and use the instinct as my primary GPS with a power adapter plugged in.

The problem is I can be inside my 4 story apartment building (my apartment is on the 2nd) with 2 whole floors of building above me and get a FAST GPS placement.

When I'm at work and pull up the Map location it gets my GPS DEAD ON (I work in a large warehouse with lots of fluorscent lights and metal roof etc...

However when I'm sitting in my car and the phone has a CLEAR line of sight through the windshield and a tiny metal roof it FREAKS OUT. It half the time never gets a  GPS signal, or it says that I'm "Off track" (about 75 feet driving though the woods!) or the GPS just stops updating. I exit the application completely and re-start it and it comes back with the same location I was 1/2 mile back.

Note also... I live in a VERY VERY well sprint covered Rev A area as well. ANYTIME I'm outside i always have 5 full bars. Flat terrain, no tall buildings.

Even pulling the battery while its one and re-cycling it screws up.

It is honestly COMPLETELY useless for me as a GPS device. Its been like this for the past month and a half now... before the MR3 release.

Think its a problem with the phone? This one is getting kind of dinged up and I never put a screen protector on it. I have the best buy mobile insurance with no cost replacement.
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psycho0272
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« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2008, 12:46:23 AM »

Sounds like you need to utilize the insurance...
My Gps is dead on, yep, according to mine, I live right next door, lol.
But besides that, never had any problem with it, guess i'm one of the lucky
ones...
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JoeyHeron
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« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2008, 04:33:24 AM »

Dead on here too.  Never have a problem in my car. 
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JoeyHeron
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« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2008, 04:47:12 AM »

best part of this phone is the gps recommend you replace unit.
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jonnythan
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« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2008, 08:49:16 AM »

That's really odd. Do you have one of those de-icing windshields? Some windshields have these special coatings that allow you to defrost them electrically, and those panels tend to block EM signals.

Mine works beautifully in the car. Hell, it works beautifully in the back of a windowless van.
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poor_red_neck
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« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2008, 08:51:26 AM »

Nope...

Just tried it again today. Its useless.


Has anybody ever returned a phone to best buy mobile for insurance?

Do I need to bring everything? Or can I just swap phone for phone.

I'd like to get two new batteries too just for the hell of it. I usually go through a battery and a half a day (I use the phone ALOT) and always bring my 2nd battery with me. I'm trying to find some decent OEM quality 3rd party batteries out there.
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Davy21
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« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2008, 07:57:09 PM »

I first read this post because I had the same plight!  But while driving today my gps was putting me in a field half a mile away.  Same old same old.  I got frustrated and thought it was broke but I remembered that I tried to speed up my internet by changing the buffer length.  So I put that back to the original setting and let it reboot.  Last ditch effort but when it booted back up it was actually working!  It's been bad for around two months and now works!  So long story short, this may be a reason, idk.
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Dwight Schrute
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« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2008, 12:16:04 PM »

I am a chauffeur and  drive few types of vehicle Cadillac sedan, Cadillac Escalade and Mercedes. We had a older model Mercedes that my regular Garmin GPS never worked in. I couldn't figure it out. Then just recently we bought a 2008 Mercedes and I still have the same problem. When I use it my Garmin recieves no signal at all. So I tried out my instinct and the problem is similar to yours where as it does read my location but puts me about 100 feet away and on different streets at times. When I use either GPS in any of the vehicles they both work fine. I think jonnythan is onto something when he talks about the windshield. So long story short is I would try you phones GPS in another model vehicle. Good luck.
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Egidio
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« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2008, 01:59:13 PM »

My GPS is awesome and always right on target!  In fact, I often test it just to see how good it is.  It never fails.  The other day, for example, there was this major accident on I-35.  I stopped at a red light before entering the highway.  When I entered my destination, the GPS came back saying it was checking for traffic.  Then it told to take another route and not enter I-35 because of the accident.  What was really awesome was that the accident had happened only 30 minutes prior to this.  How quickly the GPS got its update!  I complain about a few things with the Instinct, but its GPS is by far the best app the phone has.

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mjsmiley
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« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2008, 02:09:40 PM »

I have to agree with the Vehicle theory.  I have two GPS devices, my Instinct, and a Nokia N810 (meh).  Both work fine for GPS routing in my car, a Nissan Altima, but whenever I get into a Honda: My girlfriend's Civic or my co-workers Accord, my GPS seems to become a lot more irradic.  I'm not saying there isn't some other factors at play, but its proven to me that every time I get into either of those Honda's the GPS on my instict looses its sense, in my car, its fine for the same roads and windsheild placement. 
Additionally, there are parts of town (Dallas, TX) where my GPS gets very patchy (no matter what car), and stops to display the neighboring roads, just the blue course road - rather irritating, but once I'm through that part of town, the GPS functions as normal..I'm figuring it is a network connectivity issue.  Go figure.
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makif
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« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2008, 02:10:22 PM »

My GPS is awesome and always right on target!  In fact, I often test it just to see how good it is.  It never fails.  The other day, for example, there was this major accident on I-35.  I stopped at a red light before entering the highway.  When I entered my destination, the GPS came back saying it was checking for traffic.  Then it told to take another route and not enter I-35 because of the accident.  What was really awesome was that the accident had happened only 30 minutes prior to this.  How quickly the GPS got its update!  I complain about a few things with the Instinct, but its GPS is by far the best app the phone has.



did you make the internet fast hack to your phone?  trying to see if there is a relation between GPS and the hack...somebody above I belive mentioned something along those lines.  My GPS has been pretty inaccurater too lately (always catching up, saying I am off track etc etc). Please let us know.
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Egidio
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« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2008, 02:25:38 PM »

did you make the internet fast hack to your phone? 

Nope.  I've only done 2 hacks: enable to answer phone calls when watching TV and improve TV image.   I have not done the internet fast hack.
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jonnythan
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« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2008, 02:27:04 PM »

What internet fast hack?
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makif
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« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2008, 02:35:36 PM »

Egidio: thanks for the reply.  I think maybe GPS negativity might be related to the fast internet hack.....can we start a poll or something on this (mods--what do u guys think?)?
jonnythan:  there are several mods/hacks you can perform on your instinct that can increase the perforamce of certain tasks.  Search the forum please, and you'll see.
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jonnythan
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« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2008, 02:36:46 PM »

I know of all the hacks already.

None of them are going to affect internet speed. Which one do you think accomplishes this?
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