N95 GPS fustration

Yas786 · 28 May 2007 at 13:33

Having had the N95 for a few weeks now, i decided today to try the gps nav facilities on the phone. I went for the 7 day trial to see how it works etc.

Anyways one problem i seem to be having and i dont know if its supposed to be like this, but the first time i used the gps when i first got the phone...i put in the address details of my office. Anyways it found the address no problems but now no matter where i am in the country...it seems to default to that location whenever i open the maps program on the n95.

Any idea on how to get it to stop doing this??

Also how the hell do you get the nav to work...ive put in the address of both locations...made sure that i got a lock on some sat's..got 4 at the moment but yet when i start nav it says no gps position :confused:

. Confused because according to the gps data i have 4 sats locked on....anyone help??

DJMK4 · 28 May 2007 at 14:09

Spawn said:
Anyways one problem i seem to be having and i dont know if its supposed to be like this, but the first time i used the gps when i first got the phone...i put in the address details of my office. Anyways it found the address no problems but now no matter where i am in the country...it seems to default to that location whenever i open the maps program on the n95.

If this is anything like tomtom, then it will default to the last location/home location when you load it, but when you lock onto the satallites it will change its map location to your current location.

PinkPig · 28 May 2007 at 14:25

When you say it's locked on, are you really sure it is? The satellite info will list satellites it's found before it's actually found your location. It's only actually found a position once the icon (bottom right) has changed and the map has moved to your current position.

The maps application should default to the last GPS position found when you start it until it finds a new GPS position. It sounds like you're assuming it's locked on when it hasn't. It does take quite a while - anything from 30 seconds to several minutes for me.

Yas786 · 28 May 2007 at 14:32

[Sniper][Wolf] said:
If this is anything like tomtom, then it will default to the last location/home location when you load it, but when you lock onto the satallites it will change its map location to your current location.

Cheers for the reply mate. Hmmm well the funny thing is that im at home now, turned the gps on and it still reverts back to my office location even though im not there. Even after i get a signal lock on my recent location...close the map app down then re-start it and it goes back to the office location. Checked if i had it saved but nothing is saved...so dunno really....

Yas786 · 28 May 2007 at 14:34

PinkPig said:
When you say it's locked on, are you really sure it is? The satellite info will list satellites it's found before it's actually found your location. It's only actually found a position once the icon (bottom right) has changed and the map has moved to your current position.

The maps application should default to the last GPS position found when you start it until it finds a new GPS position. It sounds like you're assuming it's locked on when it hasn't. It does take quite a while - anything from 30 seconds to several minutes for me.

Cheers Pinkpig, i think u might be right. I get a red x in the corner of the gps pos icon. When i check sat info, it comes up with 4 sats but cant tell if its locked on...how do you check if its locked on. Checked the gps data as well and all it says is waiting for gps data??...i take it that means its not locked on then??

turboshed · 28 May 2007 at 14:38

It is only locked on to a satellite when the bars (when you have the gps program open go to, options then view then down to satellite info) turn solid black. Are you sure there locked on?

Yas786 · 28 May 2007 at 14:48

turboshed said:
It is only locked on to a satellite when the bars (when you have the gps program open go to, options then view then down to satellite info) turn solid black. Are you sure there locked on?

Well thats what im trying to figure out here lol...at the moment i have a sats 28, 2, 13, 25 which the receiver has picked up...they all have long bars but its not filled in black or anything.....am using the normal nokia theme that comes with the phone.

Looking thru the GPS data app, in the nav screen it says waiting for GPS data...so i guess i havent got any locks yet by the looks of it.

turboshed · 28 May 2007 at 14:59

Spawn said:
they all have long bars but its not filled in black or anything

It seems like they not locked then. First they will just be a outline of a bar and then when it locks on it will go solid black.

What firmware are you using?

When i got my N95 it had the following firmware 10.0.018, it took ages to get a satellite lock on (around 5 minutes) and i had to be outside and it would'nt work in the car.

Now with the lastest firmware 11.0.026, it locks on in about 30 seconds and it works in the car + inside my house

see what firmware you are using and if you got 10.0.018 i would suggest that you update it as the gps works a lot better on the later firmware

Yas786 · 28 May 2007 at 15:03

I got the latest firmware on the phone so its been updated. Yep seems like your right, havent got a lock on and god my battery is taking a severe beating as im trying to get a lock. Mind you the weather here is pretty dire, grey and cloudy and sitting in the house, im not getting anything other than sats that are showing up but not locking on.

Cheers for the info turbo, its helped a lot...never really bought the phone for the gps function but thought id give it a go today to see what its all about. Its a shame that it doesnt quite work as well as it should...might invest in a bluetooth gps receiver sometime later.

turboshed · 28 May 2007 at 15:19

Spawn said:
Cheers for the info turbo, its helped a lot...

Glad i could help out for once, i am normally the one seeking help.

When you are trying to use the gps make sure you have the slider open as the gps reciever is under the keypad and it helps out with the signal a little

As for the external gps reciever you can pick them up quite cheap now. My friend bought one from that auction site for £28 delivered. He uses it with his p990 and has never had any problems with it. It does lock on to the satellites much faster but i dont like the fact it's another thing to carry around.

steviec · 28 May 2007 at 16:15

Question if I may, I used the Sat Nav without subscription on the way to our HQ. So it was just the Map displayed. I have been debating subscribing to the Navigation option but already have a TTG 910 which gets used for major trips.

Anyway when you have the Navigation option does the 3D view on the N95 follow the Car from behind? So the view you see is what is in front of you. As when I was using it without the Navigation in 3D Mode and zoomed in slightly it was like following the route on a paper map. Sometimes I was running bottom to top of the screen other times left to right and the reverse, it was really confusing as to what direction I was heading :confused:

Charlie Bravo · 29 May 2007 at 09:07

steviec said:
Question if I may, I used the Sat Nav without subscription on the way to our HQ. So it was just the Map displayed. I have been debating subscribing to the Navigation option but already have a TTG 910 which gets used for major trips.

Anyway when you have the Navigation option does the 3D view on the N95 follow the Car from behind? So the view you see is what is in front of you. As when I was using it without the Navigation in 3D Mode and zoomed in slightly it was like following the route on a paper map. Sometimes I was running bottom to top of the screen other times left to right and the reverse, it was really confusing as to what direction I was heading

I know what you mean. I started using it with the map only and it was at some very strange angles. Having purchased the Sat Nav option for a month though, it always followed me from behind and gave me a good view of what was ahead.

steviec · 29 May 2007 at 09:12

Thanks for that was hoping that was the case. Might have to subscribe to navigation now.

PinkPig · 29 May 2007 at 09:25

As I think people have said, you are only locked on when the red x disappears. You need to wait a while until that happens. At the same time, some of the bars will go black, and the location shown will change to your current position.

Yas786 · 29 May 2007 at 11:54

Cheers to everyone who helped, managed to figure out the whole gps thing. Finally got a lock inside the house but it took so long to get it but once it had then it reverted back to my house etc.

Seems to work alright i suppose, i bought a 7 day nav license so was using that last night as i was driving about. Its not bad but i kept finding the phone would lose signal every so often but it would come right back up with the signal lock. Its pretty good but obviously a dedicated sat nav system would be much better, thinking now to buy a bluetooth gps receiver as the gps receiver on the n95 just doesnt cut it imho. Only problem with buying a bt receiver, it means ill have 2 things to carry around rather than just the n95 itself. Nokia made a mistake, they really should have gone for a better gps receiver, this Texas Instruments one is pretty dire tbh.

PinkPig · 29 May 2007 at 15:41

Spawn said:
Nokia made a mistake, they really should have gone for a better gps receiver, this Texas Instruments one is pretty dire tbh.

I think the problem is that including anything at all in such a small place is impressive by itself - the antenna inevitably has to be tiny in comparison to a full seperate GPS module. I'm sure future phones will improve it.

I really don't think it's that bad though. Obviously it doesn't work inside or well under a tree, and it sometimes has trouble with big buildings, but I have never really lost the signal much outside anywhere remotely open. I think it's probably aimed as much or more at someone walking outside rather than in a car - after all, the signal isn't going to be so good in a car, and in a car there's no advantage at all in having it integrated into the phone rather than seperate.