GPS signal problem?

[Hagfish]

Took my first long journey with the phone today, 20 miles each way, and tested the GPS. Had it in the special car cradle, stuck to the front window. It picked up a GPS signal while I was driving out of my street, and kept it until the road before the turning out of town (the first 60mph road).

On all the A roads (major roads) on the way, the software just said "Determining current position", until the road going into the destination town (also 60mph, I believe). I didn't lose signal while being directed in the destination town.

The same thing happened on the return journey, at about the same points on the route. This is despite having to wait at roundabouts in the middle of the journey, and go through long 50mph sections. Even stranger, the areas where the signal was lost were the ones with the best view of the sky / horizon, on large open roads on high ground.

Has anyone else experienced this? On the "determining current position" screen, what do the 5 squares under the picture of the satellite mean?

[JCHAMMER]

I've just got an A780 on T-Mobile and I'm having problems with no GPS signal in the north London area.
On a trip from Essex to Enfield on the M25 I lost signal from the M11 onwards, and further trips to Harlow and Edmonton again left the "determining current position" message displayed until I started to make my way back.
As the GPS reciever is built into the phone I am veering towards this being the problem rather than Copilot.
At the moment both Motorola and ALK (the maker of Copilot) are blaming each other.
Does anyone know if this is a phone problem and if I exchange the handset will I just end up in the same position as now?
Thanks,
JC.

[JCHAMMER]

Since posting Motorola have told me to exchange the phone, which I have done.
Since doing this the new phone has been noticably slower, with a "no sim" box popping up every now and again.
Today I could not get the phone to send or recieve calls and have taken out the sim card to put in my old phone, which works fine.
Having bought this for the sat nav only I wonder if it's worth sticking with?

[JCHAMMER]

Here's an e-mail I recieved from ALK'
"Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support
center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it
within the next 21 days.

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
North London GPS Blackout


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Priyakant) - 22/03/2006 09.43 AM
Dear John,

Thank you for contacting CoPilot Technical Support.

Please accept our apologies for not responding to you earlier.

The problem you are experiencing is a known issue with the version of CoPilot you are running in the ROM of the A780.

To resolve this issue, you will need to have the latest ROM build of the A780 flashed to your phone and this will require you
sending this into a Motorola Service Center and cannot be performed by the end user.

If you would like to have your phone updated to the latest firmware, can you please send it to the following address. We would
strongly suggest you send it insured for the total cost of the phone as ALK Technologies Ltd and Motorola cannot be held responsible
for any package you send that goes missing before it reaches the destination. We would usually suggest sending via Royal Mail
Special Delivery as this insures the cost of the phone and provides you with online tracking so you can see when it arrives at the
Motorola Service Center.

The Motorola Service Center that deals with this request is as follows:-
F.A.O John White
S.B.E.
Beaver Industrial Estate
Ashford
Kent
TN23 7SH

Tel: +44 1233 619 320

Please enclose a note with your name and address requesting that your phone is upgraded to the following Motorola A780 software
version: R52_G_0D.76.A1R_0D.C0.B1P

Please note that any data stored in your phone memory (such as photos, contacts in the phone, text messages, mp3 files etc) will be
lost in the upgrade process.

If you have any further questions, or feel that this incident has not been resolved to your satisfaction, please do not hesitate to
bring this to our attention.

Regards,

CoPilot European Technical Support
Email: ukcustservice@alk.eu.com
Tel: 020 7404 4222"

Hope this helps anyone with the same problem.
JC.

[apanix]

Hi all,
I have a Spanish version of A780 and it has GPS installed and active but Copilot is not able to get a satellite fix.
When I boot the phone the GPS icon is in grey color, after going out in the road and start Copilot the icon gets a red dish forever...Copilot always shows "Determining current position" and never gets a fix!
When the icon is grey clicking on status bar let me to choose between enable/disable AGPS (I settled ON) but most of time I cannot see the dropdown list to choose ON/OFF.

Anyway some days ago I was able to get a fix and successfully test Copilot navigation, but since that day I'm not anymore able to make Copilot working!
Does anybody have any idea ??
Please help me!

Thanks
Regards

[wolds_wanderer]

JCHammer

Did you send it away and did it cure the problem?

Cheers.

[miaguirre]

What apanix is trying to say is that the AGPS combo box disappeared suddenly from the device state window. I've read trough this web site that the solution is to perform a general erasing of the phone. Sometimes this recovers the AGPS access and sometimes it doesn't, and probably all the stored information will be lost.

Does anybody knows any other procedure?

[ericsm]

I am experienceing the above stated problem too.

[miaguirre]

Today I've gone to the Motorola Customer Service and they told me that they'll give me a new device.

[wolds_wanderer]

JCHammer

Did you send it away and did it cure the problem?

Cheers.

OK So I sent it away and it worked, the firmware update sorted out the CoPilot blackout.

I emailed Motorola and they gave me a case number, I posted it off to the engineers and two weeks later it was back working correctly.

All that they wanted to check was that the phone was still under warrenty, there was no other details to sort out.

Hope this helps all of those with problems.

Cheers,

Vin.