[Andy321]

Last Friday i picked up a new Z30 to replace my Z10, which i've had since last spring. I used bb maps quite a lot on my Z10 and while its performance was occasionally spotty, in general i was quite happy with it. I took my Z10 and Z30 with me to Calgary and attempted to get around using the Z30 maps. This is how i discovered that my Z30 gps receiver is totally defective. when stationary for a long period of time, i would be placed on the map within roughly 1 km of current location (sometimes worse). As soon as movement started, i received an error message that the gps could not contact a satellite. Meanwhile, my wife was sitting in the passenger seat with her Iphone 5, which worked perfectly the entire time. The problem persisted the entire weekend - Z30 was totally useless to get around with. I then compared to my Z10 - Z10 put me spot on the map, and gave excellent performance while travelling. Then i downloaded "HelloGPS" from BBworld on both my Z10 and Z30. Z30 did not show ANY satellites, Z10 showed many, every time.

Home to Winnipeg this morning and went to the MTS store to switch to a new Z30. Guy at the store said many people are complaining about GPS on Z30 specifically. He himself uses a Z30, but had never used it for mapping. We opened maps on his Z30 and, just like on mine, it showed us being 3 streets over with an enormous blue radius extending probably 10 blocks in every direction. At the same time, my z10 had us pinpointed exactly. They gave me a new Z30 and we opened maps. It pinpointed us as accurately as my Z10, so we thought we found a 'winner'.

Up in my office now & downloaded HelloGPS on my latest Z30. Side by side, same app open on my Z10 and Z30 and: Z10 shows a pile of satellites and that it has my location down to +-15 meters. Z30 shows NO satellites and varies in pinpointing my location between 147 meters and 1500 meters. Further, with Maps open on Z10 and Z30 side by side, the Z10 shows the darker blue spot unmoving in the exact location of my tower with no extended light-blue penumbra, whereas the Z30 shows the dark blue spot jumping slightly around my tower with a light blue penumbra covering roughly a city block around the dark blue dot.

It seems to me that if i've had two bum GPS units, the guy at the store has a bum unit, and he's had people coming back with Z30's complaining about the GPS, there must be a big stinking problem with the Z30 GPS. Any thoughts? tips? If i can't get a Z30 with a good unit, i'm going to have to stick with the Z10!!

[DaFoxGrey]

Same cell carrier on your Z30 as the Z10s?

[Andy321]

yes exact same. But cell carrier should not matter. In theory, GPS should work even if you cellular signal is turned off (i believe)

[daniel_gh]

Open Compass and do a calibration outside (good to have gps signal).

Posted via CB10

[Andy321]

i will try that, but i'm having trouble believing that calibrating the compass is the problem when the HelloGPS app does not show ANY satellites

[daniel_gh]

Had a similar problem with an IPhone 4S last week.
A calibration did solve my problem.

Posted via CB10

[Andy321]

ok, i went outside and attempted to calibrate my compass - there is no specific setting for calibrating the compass that i could find. i hit the 'interference' button and then waived the phone around until it stopped showing the 'interference' screen. Not sure if there is any other calibrating that can be done. Long story short - no change. Still detects no satellites using HelloGPS and when i instructed maps to navigate me one block, it could not. It kept hanging before eventually giving me an error message to the effect that it could not detect a gps signal. very frustrated.

[igotaq]

So you have a sim card in both phones? There is also agps which uses cell phone towers. If one phone has a sim card in it, it will probably get your location faster and more accurate.

[Andy321]

yes, sim card in both. my plan was to give my father in law the Z10, since he needs a phone, and keep the Z30 for myself.

[fireater1968]

I gave same issue but noticed a peculiar quirk. Put the phones in airplane mode. Test gos.. I have the free app Hello gos installed. With Radios on it never locks on satellites. In airplane mode it looks in under 5 seconds.
It was working before thus new os as I have a speedometer app working but now it won't fur to inability to lock on.
Same as Mireo don't panic. It show poor satellite signal when Radios are on. But instant full strength with airplane mode turned on.

I think there is a bug here I'm thinking


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[fireater1968]

One more thing!!!!! When my z30 is in 4G it works fine. Gps only fails in LTE mode!!!!

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[fireater1968]

Heh. Just noticed previous post my auto correct "fixed" gps to gos. Lol

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[Andy321]

Huh! that is interesting. Unfortunately i can't test whether turning off the radios would solve the problem because i've given the phone back to MTS and told them to call me when they find one that works! already had enough time wasted! Do you need to turn it into full airplane mode, or does it work if you only turn data off or only turn cellular antenna off?

[Nabob_Mob]

I'm Running VZW with the 1925 leak 1899 radio and am also seeing the problem with the map software. I keep getting "Your location can't be found. (26)" I believe it is a software bug because my GPS coordinates when using the compass are correct.

[jonty12]

Has anyone tried it on 2141 (2102)? I'm getting a Z30 delivered on Friday and am now quite concerned about this.

[fireater1968]

no i found that by shutting off LTE it works... Forced into 4g it works fine now

not a fix but hey im off to blackberry now to post!!

[Nabob_Mob]

one or both of these were my problem.

First, I installed the latest version 10.2.1.778

When I booted it said permissions were not allowing the app to access my location. I fixed that and it seems to be working fine.

[jonty12]

one or both of these were my problem.

First, I installed the latest version 10.2.1.778

When I booted it said permissions were not allowing the app to access my location. I fixed that and it seems to be working fine.

Thanks. That's a relief.

[Andy321]

i posted this problem on the Blackberry Support forum and a user of the forum said that he could cure the problem by turning LTE off as well. I'm going to check whether that will work with the Z30s at the MTS store i have been dealing with. I would imagine there would be very little noticeable difference in operating under HSPA+ mode versus LTE while you are using the phone for navigation. It is not too much trouble to switch to full LTE when the speed is required. I suppose the bigger concern would be whether this would be a temporary hassle fixed in due course with a software update or whether this could be an indication of some kind of hardware problem.

[fireater1968]

Andy that was me! And I called MTS. The tech duplicated my issue. She will be pushing the issue up the tech ladder for submitting the issue to Blackberry

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[byrdbrained]

I also have a Z30 (.1925 in Toronto on Mobilicity) and I haven't noticed this problem. Having said that, I usually use Google Maps as opposed to BB Maps and it's never had an issue finding me - even while moving about in a vehicle. After seeing this post, I fired up BB Maps and it seems to find me okay. I am not posting this to say that you don't have an issue, just posting my personal experience. I will continue to test BB Maps in various locations and will report back here if I also notice similar behaviour.

[Andy321]

Note that the problem I first had was not really with whether the phone would place me on the map in roughly the right place. The problem became apparent any time one tried to use navigation. At that point all hell breaks loose. The maps app could correctly plan a route but when you then ask it to give you driving instructions or get in your car and start moving, that is when I began to get the GPS error. It became really clear that there was a problem when I opened Hello GPS aide by side on my Z10 and Z30. Lots of satellites showing on z10, nothing on Z30.

Point being, testing whether the Z30 can initially place you on a map correctly is not enough to know whether you have this same problem.

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[bigcheeba]

I am having the same issue on MTS. I turned the radio off and used android app "gps test" and it instantly noticed 25 satellites. Wonder if this is an MTS issue if no one else is having the same problems.

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