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Sunday, March 6, 2011

AOSP ROM: GPS Not Working or Not Locking

If you're on an AOSP ROM (not HTC Sense-based) you may have an issue where your GPS doesn't work properly on your EVO.  It might just hang trying to search for the GPS signal.  If that's the case for you, there are 2 solutions, which are documented in various places in xda-developers.com and other Android related sites:

1.  Download the "GPS Status" app from the Android Market.  Then go to Menu > Manage A-GPS State > Reset.  Then press "download".  I found this fix to usually be temporary from my experience with the Hero and CM6, and my current EVO with MIUI rom.

I searched around and found another fix, which is supposedly permanent.  I don't know, I'm flashing the MikFroyo ROM right now to test it out for a week or so:

2.  User SantinoInc has documented a fix on XDA.  He says you have to do the following:

I want to post this for whoever may be having trouble with the GPS working properly. There is a fix for this problem but is kind of a pain in the ass. Here is a detailed fix to the problem:

1 - Go to the Market and download the app: MSL Reader
2 - Use this app to get your MSL # (mine was six digits)
2 - Flash to any Sense ROM
3 - Launch phone dialer and dial ##GPSCLRX# (##4772579#)
4 - Enter the MSL Number from above
5 - Your phone will automatically reboot in 10 seconds
6 - After you're rebooted back into the Sense rom you can go and reFlash CM7
7 - Hopefully this fixed your GPS!
3.  A commenter has added that there are new drivers that can be flashed using recovery that may also fix this problem.  Check it out there in the xda forum post.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1132412


Hope these options work out for you.  Again, I'm not taking credit for it - I'm just passing along useful info that others have posted, but are buried too deep to find at times!
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7 comments:

  1. androliticalApril 11, 2011 at 4:05 PM

    Stupid question but when you say flash into a sense rom, do you mean flash a .zip of a sense rom or do you mean restore a nandroid back up of a sense rom?

    Would flashing to a sense rom then flashing back to cm7 screw anything up?

    ReplyDelete
  2. qriusmeApril 11, 2011 at 4:09 PM

    @Mike, you can do either. If you want to flash a new Sense ROM like the MikFroyo or Fresh ROM, that's fine. Or if you want to nandroid restore back to your HTC stock sense rom, that's fine too. Works either way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. androliticalApril 11, 2011 at 4:14 PM

    Thanks for the reply. Would I need to clear data between flashing back and forth (zips)?

    I don't see how the fix would stick if I flash back and forth using nandroid. I thought all the settings and such were completely reverted to whatever was captured when performing the backup.

    ReplyDelete
  4. qriusmeApril 11, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    @Mike - yes, when I tried this, I did wipe everything. I'm not 100% sure how this works either, but all I can say is that it worked for me. I think there must be some sort of "state" that it puts the GPS chip in when you do the fix, that carries forward - I'm assuming that's not stored in any of the data being wiped/cleared.

    Again, just a guess, but it works for most folks from what I could tell from the forums.

    ReplyDelete
  5. androliticalApril 11, 2011 at 4:25 PM

    That makes sense. Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 17, 2011 at 7:53 AM

    This fix is easier and worked for me (CM7 nightly)

    http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14534313&postcount=2478

    ReplyDelete
  7. qriusmeJune 17, 2011 at 9:45 AM

    Thanks josefwells! Added to the post.

    ReplyDelete