Read-only archive of the All About Symbian forum (2001–2013) · About this archive

No GPS signal after firmware update? Look here

14 replies · 7,843 views · Started 25 October 2009

In case this is useful to others...

After I updated my N97 to V12 firmware, I could not get a GPS lock at all. Either in Maps or Location. I tried several times standing outside for more than 5 minutes at a time without getting a single lock. I was able to get (weak) signals with V11 so I knew something was wrong. I was going to send it in for repair when I decided to have another go at it today.

I first turned on Assisted GPS, then went back to Location>GPS Position and I started getting signals. I then went to Maps and managed to get a signal there aswell. Grand.

So I turned off A-GPS again to see if I could get a lock without it (again). When I went into GPS Position I managed to get an excellent signal and accuracy of 10-20 meters. I tried Maps too and within seconds I was getting a good, solid signal. I can now even get a signal indoors in Maps.

It seems that turning on and off A-GPS solved my problem. Perhaps something messed up the GPS in the phone with the update and cycling the A-GPS returned it to normal. So, thankfully, my problem was a simple software glitch.

This might help anyone else who is in my position.

At a guess, the phone might have cached the position/satellite information, hence the quick lock.

There are several user reports , as well for different devices as for the different Symbian Firmware Updates , after booting up , reinstalling , etc. and then trying the GPS , it will fail . (BTW : not allways ! )
A Firmware Update in general , causes wiping out files from memory .
I believe also , that the GPS settings will be deleted .
I have been reading two ways of getting the GPS to work :
1) Go straight after the Firmwareupdate and reboot , to the GPS and get it work . Before anything else .
2) Also possible after step 1) : right after Firmwareupdate do a Hard Reset or Vulcan Death Grip , and get GPS work .
3) It is surprising . Now it looks like there is a third solution : take your time and after some patience you can be successfull too .
Of course : always with the aGPS ON , for the first fix . It saves several minutes and cost only 3-4 kB's .

😊 Regards jApi NL

Maximus434 wrote:In case this is useful to others...

After I updated my N97 to V12 firmware, I could not get a GPS lock at all. Either in Maps or Location. I tried several times standing outside for more than 5 minutes at a time without getting a single lock. I was able to get (weak) signals with V11 so I knew something was wrong. I was going to send it in for repair when I decided to have another go at it today.

I first turned on Assisted GPS, then went back to Location>GPS Position and I started getting signals. I then went to Maps and managed to get a signal there aswell. Grand.

So I turned off A-GPS again to see if I could get a lock without it (again). When I went into GPS Position I managed to get an excellent signal and accuracy of 10-20 meters. I tried Maps too and within seconds I was getting a good, solid signal. I can now even get a signal indoors in Maps.

It seems that turning on and off A-GPS solved my problem. Perhaps something messed up the GPS in the phone with the update and cycling the A-GPS returned it to normal. So, thankfully, my problem was a simple software glitch.

This might help anyone else who is in my position.

How do you turn aGPS on and off? I don't use Ovi/Nokia Maps - I use Garmin and it doesn't allow me to turn it off...

This is a try . Like to be corrected : for S60 v 3 it goes like this :
Menu > Settings > General > Position > Methods
I have got 4 selections : Bluetooth , aGPS , default GPS , Network .

😊 Regards jApi NL

jApi NL wrote:This is a try . Like to be corrected : for S60 v 3 it goes like this :
Menu > Settings > General > Position > Methods
I have got 4 selections : Bluetooth , aGPS , default GPS , Network .

😊 Regards jApi NL

Thanks! I get a signal, but my accuracy is about 100m-150m... Its pretty bad. Whenever I drive I am actrually 0.5miles ahead of what the GPS is telling me. It does show 5 bars worth of signal, so why such bad accuracy? I know US GPS data is supposed to be less accurate due to the whole security military thing, but 100m-150m is horrible...

MonarchX,

Even if your warranty is voided, you could still pay the repair center to do the fix for you. One poster on another thread said that they paid �63 for their repair. Don't give up hope yet.

rdcinhou wrote:MonarchX,

Even if your warranty is voided, you could still pay the repair center to do the fix for you. One poster on another thread said that they paid �63 for their repair. Don't give up hope yet.

There are no repair centers in Ameica and for that amount of $ Nokia should also offer oral sex to customers. I mean why should I pay for something Nokia couldn't do when a customer needed them, CAUSING the customer to do it himself/herself?

All I need are those two new tiny antennas that I can attach myself and they cost less than $1.

MonarchX wrote:There are no repair centers in America ...
All I need are those two new tiny antennas that I can attach myself and they cost less than $1.

I beg to differ...I'm in America and I just received mine back from an authorized repair center in Alabama (see my reply in another post!).

It's MORE than just the two new tiny antennas--there is some shielding that is required internally as the motherboard can interfere with the GPS signal.

*** SIDE NOTE...if you want, you could spend ~US$30 to get a keychain BT GPS to be paired with your N97. Other have reported this as working while sorting out the GPS problems.

rdcinhou wrote:I beg to differ...I'm in America and I just received mine back from an authorized repair center in Alabama (see my reply in another post!).

It's MORE than just the two new tiny antennas--there is some shielding that is required internally as the motherboard can interfere with the GPS signal.

*** SIDE NOTE...if you want, you could spend ~US$30 to get a keychain BT GPS to be paired with your N97. Other have reported this as working while sorting out the GPS problems.

What was the turn-around time? 3 weeks since the day you shipped it?

Maximus434 wrote:In case this is useful to others...

After I updated my N97 to V12 firmware, I could not get a GPS lock at all. Either in Maps or Location. I tried several times standing outside for more than 5 minutes at a time without getting a single lock. I was able to get (weak) signals with V11 so I knew something was wrong. I was going to send it in for repair when I decided to have another go at it today.

I first turned on Assisted GPS, then went back to Location>GPS Position and I started getting signals. I then went to Maps and managed to get a signal there aswell. Grand.

So I turned off A-GPS again to see if I could get a lock without it (again). When I went into GPS Position I managed to get an excellent signal and accuracy of 10-20 meters. I tried Maps too and within seconds I was getting a good, solid signal. I can now even get a signal indoors in Maps.

It seems that turning on and off A-GPS solved my problem. Perhaps something messed up the GPS in the phone with the update and cycling the A-GPS returned it to normal. So, thankfully, my problem was a simple software glitch.

This might help anyone else who is in my position.

Hi guys, Im a newbie. Nice to join this forum.