Ok, before I go and open up another can of worms by getting my N97 looked at, I wanted to ascertain the difference between a faulty GPS unit in an N97 and a GPS unit that's just a bit shit.
So, if I had the "officially" faulty GPS unit, I would be experiencing zero to poor reception with accuracy sky-rocketing to 400m+??
And if I have a "shielded" GPS antenna, it's accuracy fluctuates between 25-150m with intermittent drop out??
I need to know whether I have the faulty antenna or just the crap one 😉
I have just had GPS antennae/camera lens (backplate) replaced in a 30min over the counter operation. I too was looking for the screen underneath the GPS antennae to ensure I had the new model. Well after a close inspection I could not tell if I had the new mod or not.
Results: Now I consistently get a lock in under 10sec....90% of the time in under 3 secs (it used to be 5min or more)
Accuracy is below 20m ..... most of the time below 10m.
I get a satellite lock indoors!!!!
On a side note.....I have a nice clean unscratched lens!
Nokia Care franchise in South Africa did the fix for me in 30min...(and I had the wrong product code on the phone)
I also had sharpie markered the area around the lens in an effort to kill the flash spill into the lens.
No problem to them, all replaced under warrantee!
lovesign wrote:
And if I have a "shielded" GPS antenna, it's accuracy fluctuates between 25-150m with intermittent drop out??I need to know whether I have the faulty antenna or just the crap one 😉
See my posting today after having the shield fitted. I am not (so far experiencing signal drop-out) with the shield fitted, and the GPS signal strength is significantly better.
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum//forum/thread/90081/&page=2
See 3 images below or reception when... Faulty, Fixed (outdoors), and Fixed (indoors)
Wow Dez, that seems like a huge improvement there.. I did not see these graphs side by side yet, so now I really need to take my faulty version to the Care Center soon. The problem is that these centers are only open during office hours, so I need to find some time to drop it off there (as I tend to be working during office hours as well).. Good to see that things are indeed fixed. I almost wanted to order me a new one, but I was afraid that the web shops would be dumping the 'old' versions first...
Gerco wrote:Good to see that things are indeed fixed.
Up until i read Lovesign's earlier post, I was convinced all my troubles with GPS are pernanently resolved, but he/she said there's 2 problems going around...
1. electrical interference degrading the signal - and cured by fitting the shield
2. poor quality/faulty GPS antenna units which needs replaced
If that's true, I don't know if my N97 had one or both problems until yesterday... Time will tell! (AFAIK only the shield was fitted yesterday by the Edin NCC)
dez_borders wrote:Up until i read Lovesign's earlier post, I was convinced all my troubles with GPS are pernanently resolved, but he/she said there's 2 problems going around... 1. electrical interference degrading the signal - and cured by fitting the shield
2. poor quality/faulty GPS antenna units which needs replaced
If that's true, I don't know if my N97 had one or both problems until yesterday... Time will tell! (AFAIK only the shield was fitted yesterday by the Edin NCC)
Definitely a HE! 😉 (to explain, Lovesign is an online moniker I took on in the late 90's. It's the title of a Prince song that I thought was "cool & with it" at the time)
As for the problems, I am only repeating what I have picked up on here and in other places. It seemed to me that the faulty GPS was down to poor shielding but even those who had repairs were still experiencing poor reception. I just wasn't sure whether I had a shielded antenna that was just crap or one of the unshielded varieties.
Anyway, I contacted my local NCC down the road in Ipswich who are awaiting delivery of new antennas. As soon as they have one, it's just a case of me popping in and having it fitted while I wait.
