I had a similar experience 2 years or so ago with the first N95 .. the GPS was a pain to get setup first time.
to get a decent lock for your initial GPS retrieval .. goto APPS / Location / GPS Data / Options .. Satellite status
Assuming you have reasonable overhead conditions you should see Signal strengths: with a number of satellites returning data .. you can change view to get a rough idea where these satellites are..
When the N95 came out it took ages to get a decent lock .. but after a few firmware iterations the GPS was well sorted and locked almost instantly.
I think this will happen with the N97 too. So be a bit patient with it to start with.
cheers
-seki
Thanks for this useful bit of information (we really need to start a Wiki to capture all of this knowledge).
It appears that we need to set the "Altitude calibration" for our location to make the positioning more accurate.
Have we determined how accurate we can expect the N97's GPS to be?
The GPS status display shows my current "accuracy" around 200-400 ft.
The GPS status display shows my current altititude at 7 ft with an "Alt. acc" of 284 ft. I know I'm at leat another 50-60 ft. higher than it reads.
the n97 comes with the assistance server right out of the box. the original n95 did not. so there wont be any problems like the n95 had, and all reports are saying the n97 GPs lock times are about 15 seconds on average, which is very decent.
GPS lock on my N97 has been extremely positive imo
With my N97 NAM, I have not been able to get any sort of a lock while indoors (office building or home).
In my car, however, after 2-5 minutes I get a pretty good lock.
I wish it were faster.
seki wrote:to get a decent lock for your initial GPS retrieval .. goto APPS / Location / GPS Data / Options .. Satellite status
-seki
Mine says "No satellite data available".
My wife's has 4 satellites. Both bought same day, same time, same operator, same everything (except hers is white).