Intercity Birmingham (Holloway Head) say that they have the parts in stock to make the repair, but are only open 8.30 to 5.00 and the fix is apparently a bigger "sponge".
They say it'll have to take two days through their system as it has to go through a queue, and they can't reserve the parts. A bit perturbed by that.
Unable to get through to Carphone Warehouse at the Fort.
Meanwhile, optimism abound as Crown Communications in Binley, Coventry, say that they can do the fix, correctly identified the fix as a new backplate, and said they can put the parts up for me. Fix will be 15 minutes. Again, only draw back is an 8.30 to 5.30 opening time. Fingers crossed for Friday. WHOO! Finally.
Cheers
Simon
Good luck! Used mine for the first time in a few weeks the other day and it picked up 7 signals within 30 seconds, can't ask for much more!
Is that with or without A-GPS?
With, but like i say, it locked onto the satellites in 30 seconds, the a-gps kicks in after about 7-10 seconds
Zyyb wrote:Good luck! Used mine for the first time in a few weeks the other day and it picked up 7 signals within 30 seconds, can't ask for much more!
It's not quantity of satellites received, but more a question of signal strength & signal qwuality that really counts.
Howerver, 7 satellites locked would be excellent. What app do you use to identify how many sats were locked-on? (I use Garmin XT's GPS Info screen)
glad to see that everyone is finally getting this issue solved
its beena while but at least they are getting there
i gave up and moved to the omnia hd in the end , miss my 32gb and fm transmitter but thats it really great phone is the omnia hd
hope they are finally shipping working n97s now
peace 😊
Due to get my back cover changed today. But gah, just tried the GPS, internal gps, no good.
With assisted GPS, Im now getting lock on very quickly, seven satellites (according to Google Maps), and Nokia is reporting accuracy to within 30 metres and rising!
And that's with cloud cover!
WTH is happening? It's supposed to be faulty geddamnit
Driving down with A-GPS and Integrated GPS, the phone started off quite nice, then starting bouncing off all the way down the right "route recalculation" as it thought I was on a side road.
15m, backplate changed, drive back, solid as a rock, a couple of drops in the first minute, but no drop outs since, and the speed indicator was steady and never faltered.
But question, what was the fixes for everyone else?
I've had a new backplate fitted which comes with a new lens cover, but another repair centre told me about a "sponge".
What are the (genuine) fixes other people have had?
Cheers
Simon
there is the new backplate as you have mentioned but i would think they have fitted the sponge as well
the sponge is to stop interference from the main board interfering with the gps signal which is quite sensitive
all phones have this sponge , well are supposed to , however the n97 seemed not to have in early batches from users that have dismantled their n97s looking for a fix
main thing is it works
the new backplate and sponge i would have thought would have been fitted together
hopefully problem solved mate 😊
While the new backplate has improved the stability of the device and gets me a lock even without Assisted GPS within 30 seconds, the accuracy is still way off, anywhere between 150 and 300 feet yesterday.
I'll phone the centre up on Monday and ask whether they fitted a sponge, because by the sounds of it, it was just a new backplate.
Cya
Simon
sjdean wrote:While the new backplate has improved the stability of the device and gets me a lock even without Assisted GPS within 30 seconds, the accuracy is still way off, anywhere between 150 and 300 feet yesterday.I'll phone the centre up on Monday and ask whether they fitted a sponge, because by the sounds of it, it was just a new backplate.
I agree with buzxx777, my experience was that fitting the sponge is the repair which improves signal quality and strength drastically and reduces electronic interference.
If the shop only changed the backplate, they only did half the job. As the sponge is free under warranty, I would go back and ask about it.
Does anyone know if the bluetooth chip is also in the backplate that gets changed, as my bluetooth only works for the headset now, and nothing else, it is gradualy getting worse. Will ring up and get mine repaired before Xmas if I can.
Is this sponge a specific part, or can it be cobbled together from some of that foam tape adhesive kind of stuff? Had an ominous conversation with the engineer who said that its basically just some adhesive that sits over the camera cover.
It sounded like it wasn't a specific part, but a bit of a hodge podge fix.
What are other peoples experiences, because I need to ensure I get the right fix!
If after this the GPS still don't work, I might see if I can get my money back. Trouble is if the sale of goods act applies in this situation, I think the retailer is entitled to knock a proportion of the cost off the phone due to the length of use, which is really rubbish because the phone hasn't given me what I wanted in the first place, but I held out for a fix, and if that fix doesn't resolve it, I should be entitled to get my moolah back.
Cya
Simon
sjdean wrote:Is this sponge a specific part, or can it be cobbled together from some of that foam tape adhesive kind of stuff?
...
If after this the GPS still don't work, I might see if I can get my money back.
I imagine the sponge is coated with some kind of anti-static, non conductive, rf-blocking material and not just something you could buy in Boots the Chemist?
On your other question... WHY would GPS not work after the repair? GPS seems to work brilliantly for pretty much all AAS members after their N97's were repaired.
However, if you think GPs is still not 100% after the sponge is fitted, take it back to the NCC or send Freepost to Nokia, so they can diagnose additional repair actions.
I am awaiting the parts to come in to Comm Tech near Gt. Yarmouth to fix the gps but when I phoned to ask about the sponge, the technician didn't know anything about it, so do Nokia automatically send the sponge when they send out the replacement back/camera lens or should the technician have ordered it at the same time?
Greigster
greigster wrote:I am awaiting the parts to come in to Comm Tech near Gt. Yarmouth to fix the gps but when I phoned to ask about the sponge, the technician didn't know anything about it, so do Nokia automatically send the sponge when they send out the replacement back/camera lens or should the technician have ordered it at the same time?Greigster
I may have read somewhere that the replacement back-plates contain a new version of the GPS antennae which is not subject to the RF interference problem of the early release N97's - BICBW!
Im still trying to find anyone that has seen this legendary sponge so I can make comparisons. The guys at Crown Mobile in Coventry showed me a little square, less than 1cm x 1cm, about a mil thick and sort of grey in colour. Looked to be on a little strip.
Just looks like some standard parts.
That's why I asked if there was a specific part that had to be ordered in specially.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Simon
I had mine fixed a while back, and it seems to be hopeless again. dropping out all the time and recalculating alot. I use the sat nav all day 5 days a week for my work. Think I should ring them again?
I had the factory GPS antenna repair back in October. It reduced the time to get a GPS fix significantly, with only occasional loss-of-fixes during Oct/Nov.
Now that we're into December and it is very cold, the GPS gets a fix super-fast and holds it.
I wonder if the problem could also be heat-related?
Back in the summer I'd notice that my N97 was pretty hot when it wasn't getting a good fix.
Maybe that explains why folks in northern Europe were not having as many problems as those of us who were in warmer climes?
rdcinhou wrote:I had the factory GPS antenna repair back in October. ...
I wonder if the problem could also be heat-related?Back in the summer I'd notice that my N97 was pretty hot when it wasn't getting a good fix.
As you stated, you had your GPS fixed in October, that's why it is better now than it was in summer (before the repair).
Ambient temperature has nothing whatsoever to do with GPS accuracy.
To test the TEMPERATURE sensitivity of the N97's GPS I have been running tests:
With the N97 cold I get a GPS fix in 5-20 seconds.
To get the N97 hot, I plugged it into the charge for 30 minutes before taking it outside and trying to get it fix. Five minutes....NO fix, not even one satellite.
I think that the circuitry design cannot work properly when the N97 is over-heated.
Since I'm testing the GPS software for Nokia and reporting the flaws in the program logic and map data, this is another adverse behavior that I'm going to report after I've run it through a couple of more cycles (to ensure repeatability of the error).