Is your GPS working?

I was quite worried about my gps as my phone locks on quickly and accurately from inside the house. But I suppose that this is using cell tower triangulation as well as gps to get locks ?

even if I take my tab outside and wait for 10 minutes using one of the gps tools on the market, it seems very flakey, however I recently decided to give it a proper test and took it on a 30 minute journey in the car with me, I started off using a wifi hotspot on my phone, and at teh bottom of my road I turned this off leaving the gps to work with cached maps and gps alone. It did a good job, only lagging behind a touch towards the end of the journey ( which is usually when you really need it :/ ) and eventually dropping off altogether unable to re lock. not what I would call a great gps, but is this sufficiently b0rked to get replaced ?

edit - just installed 3.1 ota and now gps locks quiite quickly indoors.
 
Last edited:
I also spoke with an Acer tech support rep who was pretty up front about GPS on the Acer - he essentially told me that the GPS on the Acer wasn't meant to be "true" GPS. In other words, no matter how much a sales rep at Best Buy brags about how awesome the GPS is, don't believe it.

I have a MyTouch 4G and I can get a GPS fix with no less than 11 satellites within a few seconds. I can literally stand in trhe middle of an open field with ZERO obstructions and it will take no less than 10 minutes to get a fix of even five satellites. Even with the update, my GPS completely sucks.

And once I DO get a fix, it is impossible to maintain it. Tried using the GPS on a road trip - utterly useless.
 
What does "true gps" even mean? It's either gps or not. It might be crappy gps, but it is gps.

I did an 80-mile round trip last week to a new address. I have navigon on my Acer and phone so I had downloaded maps for the entire US. I had the Acer on my front passenger seat under the sun roof. It did take much longer to get a lock (not 10 minutes, and it was cloudy & rainy that day). Once it got lock, it kept for the entire 42-mile trip. My final destination was in a hilly and heavily wooded area and I was expecting to lose lock, but it held until I arrived. Then I closed the app down and went about my intended business. On the return leg, I could not get lock at the area I was parked in (under lots of trees and heavy foliage) on the Acer and didn't want to fool with the phone. So I just took off with the Acer searching for a gps lock. I made a wrong turn and ended up going in totally the wrong direction. By this time I got my phone out and got lock immediately and got headed out correctly. After about 5 or 6 minutes, the Acer achieved lock and got on the same route as my phone. I did lose lock a couple of times on the return trip. I went under a series of hwy overpasses and lost it (surprising) and then again for no reason other than the weather. But it held lock until I got home. I'm going to make the same trip in 30 minutes and it is sunny today, so it will be good to see if things work better with no clouds/rain.

The gps appears not to be very sensitive. IME.

I have an old i-blue blue-tooth gps receiver that I used to use with my laptop and MS Streets and Trips. I got it to pair with the Acer (this was last night) but it would not connect. I looked at some newer ones on Amazon and found one comment by some guy who got one to work with his 7-inch Android tablet. It has a range of about 10 ft, so you could put it in a good spot in your car to get a good gps signal and still link to your tablet via blue tooth. I wonder if this could be done on the Acer and the wifi-only iPad.
 
My gps worked fine until 3.1 update installed. Now nothing gps works. Spent several
hours with level 2 tech to no avail. They forwarded problem to engineering - with no set time- and wil not notify me when solved (if). Gave me a case number and said I need to call them to check on status......
 
For everyone who's having problems with GPS in his Iconia A500.

I had the same problems that most of you describe in this thread. I was not getting any signal, with or without wifi enabled.

The problem IS DEFINITELY A HARDWARE PROBLEM. I did the same tests with my first unit, and none did work. Yesterday I changed my tablet for a new one, and everything that didn't work in the first one, now works flawlessly, with 3.0.1 and with 3.1, with AGPS and with GPS only... no need of wifi, no need of anything.

Just turn on your navigation software or gps test utility, stay in a clear site (see the sky at least 50% of your field of vision) and wait 2-3 minutes and it'll fix without any problem. If it does not, GO TO YOUR RETAIL STORE AND CHANGE YOUR UNIT FOR A NEW ONE.

It seems to be that Acer shipped some batches of this product with GPS defects, I assume... So don't start doing tests and roots and fixes and strange ROM versions... just change it for a new one and all will work as intented.

Now I'm REALLY HAPPY with my Iconia... it rocks!

Cheers
 
Long time lurker on this site and love the feedback.
I just bought an A500 and have been trying to get the GPS to work.
The first one I got had 3.01. I first tested GPS and it worked fine. Was able to get connected to the satellites no problem. Downloaded and installed 3.1 on it and now GPS doesn't work at all. Tested it with the two programs: GPS test and GPS utilities.
Stood outside on a clear day and nothing happened. Tested all the settings and still not one satellite.
After reading a lot of the threads and doing a lot of searching I exchanged it for another one.
Did the same thing. Tested it on 3.01 and it worked then installed 3.1 and it didn't work again on this second one. Went throug all the troubleshooting steps: deleted the cache, reset the gps, etc. Even left it on over night sitting at GPS Test and Google Places.
Doesn't make sense that it works on 3.01 and not on 3.1. Sounds more of a software issue than a hardware issue. But for it to work with some others with 3.1 then I may exchange it for another one again.
Wondering if it was during a certain build that others are having the same issue. Both of the ones i got were manufacturered in April. Could April just be a bad month or several months before that?
I may exchange it for another and see what happens, if it happens again i may have to look into get something else.
 
teka,
Exactly my story. I spent hours on phone with tech support to no avail. 5 days before 2 weeks runs out for exchange. That would be my third !
 
@ tekageek my first one had a manufactur date of April. Lot's of problems. Took it back and the one I now have was manufactured June. Absolutely no issuses so far and that's been two weeks.

Where did you buy your's?
 
Bought mine in FL at one of the bestbuy stores. going to a different bestbuy store tomorrow and exchange for another one. this time going to look at the manufacturer date and check for a different month.
right now im watching the gps symbol at the bottom keep blinking and go from the gps test app to see if its going to pick up a satellite for the last hour.
 
Here's my skinny:

Thought my GPS was just whack. Like many here, it was always only just showing "searching"

GMaps always showed me about 1/4 mile away, having triagulated that spot.

After reading this entire thread I checked several things.

I am on A500 with 3.1

I use my tab 99.9% indoors

After several different configs learned this

Indoor with OEM rubber sleeve: 10 mins for 4 sats and no lock. (Wifi off)
Indoor with rubber off: 5 seconds for 6 sats / no lock.
Outdoor, no sleeve: immediate 8 sats, after 20 secs got lock and data, wifi off.

Then wifi still off, gmaps gave me exact location to 3 feet fully on sat, and wifi off.

Hope that helps some of you

Using Chartcross GPS plus"

Sent from my A500
 
This is how i had the other one setup and just installed 3.1 OTA:

All the settings for Location were turned on.
Was outside on sunny day with GPS Test on. After about 10 minutes nothing happened. THen I opened "Navigator" and it was at "Searching for GPS...." for the longest time.
No lock on anything. Looked at the bottom right and the GPS symbol kept blinking.
Was connected to wifi and Navigator showed where I was but about 40 meters away.

Specs: 3.1 OTA, manufacturered in April,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just exchanged it today and charging it. This one was manufacturered in May and came with a folded colored instruction!
 
I finally gave up and traded for asus transformer. Right out of the box I have 10 satellites sitting here in my living room. I finally gave up on acer after 2 units and 5 hrs on the acer support phone. Will try this for a week or so....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Y
Is your GPS working?
Replies
9
Views
7K
Jento
Jento
R
Gps solution found
Replies
9
Views
8K
robitron929
R
R
MAJOR GPS SOURCE FIX FOUND ,its the SD!
Replies
0
Views
9K
robitron929
R
K
Gps??
2
Replies
25
Views
15K
robdroid
robdroid
pbrauer
  • Sticky
Bluetooth GPS on G Tab - Skymap and Nav working!
2
Replies
29
Views
33K
kuojo
K
Back
Top