How to: Ultimate calibration method for your Nokia N97's compass (side issue with N97 not getting GPS fix at all)
One of Mark Guim’s readers, RobertH, may have found the best solution for calibrating the Nokia N97.
We’ve previously seen the Symbian World guys’ “wrist twist”, allowing compass calibration within 3 seconds.
Later, Mark found a more subtle calibration method – but that required turning auto rotate off, which I was not prepared to be doing each time or to give up on auto rotate.
Now, RobertH has probably given us the best method I’ve tried so far.
Once Ovi maps has loaded:
- Turn on keylock (switch)
- flick your wrist, turning the phone over and back (I’ve found a minimum of 7 times for more or less 100% success rate – I’ve gotten calibration from 3 turns but not always.)
Advantages
- It’s really fast – keylock+7 flicks takes about 4 seconds.
- you don’t look like you’re angry with your phone (Symbian-World method) or some compulsive baton twirler (Nokia method)
- it’s the most reliable method, going green for calibration almost every attempt, increasing in reliability of calibration as you increase the number of times to turn the phone over and back.
The brilliance of this method is that turning on keylock lets Ovi Maps focus the accelerometer on getting the compass calibrated instead of auto rotating the display. Just as long as you turn keylock off and move the N97 about, be it shaking or just turning, you’ll get a fast compass calibration. You don’t need to have GPS fix for it to work, but the red point must be at the centre of the map. The slightest nudge away from the centre and the compass won’t work. You can easily centre the map by:
- scrolling away until your red dot disappears and another reappears in the top right hand corner.
- Pressing on the new red dot centres your position.
via thenokiablog
Now this would be all fine and good for sat-nav experience on the N97 and Ovi Maps but that’s if I could get a GPS fix. This brings me onto my side issue:
GPS Broken – No GPS fix on Nokia N97
I cannot get a GPS fix at all from the N97 I’m using. For several days now, I haven’t been able to get a fix. Ovi Maps’ last position is a random street a mile away and Google Maps is stuck at a base station.
It has possibly been like this ever since the 3.01 Ovi Maps update. However, I only noticed lack of GPS properly on Monday as on previous occasions, I didn’t bother waiting longer than 1 minute and just turned off maps, dismissing the lack of GPS fix to being in a car.
I didn’t think too much about it, as from past experiences, I knew being in enclosed areas such as being indoors or in a car/train/bus would make the N97 take a tad longer than it usually does when in open spaces (usually between 5-10 seconds).
Until then, it’s never taken the N97 more than 2 minutes when in a vehicle (and that’s speeding along the motor way at 70mph or inside a train or even inside buildings), and no more than 30 seconds when in an open space. I tried leaving the N97 for an hour outside (clear and sunny so not being affected by clouds) but it did not get GPS fix at all.
When checking satellite status it either shows:
- No satellite connection
- gives me an error that “GPS works poorly when indoors or in enclosed areas”
- Signal strength bars – one to four connections but rapidly disconnects reverting to the error message.
I’ve tried (and failed) positioning method and combinations of:
- Assisted GPS
- Integrated GPS
- Network Based
Not yet tried an external bluetooth to see if it’s a problem with using GPS data and not the integrated GPS, but even so, having to use an external bluetooth receiver is NOT AN OPTION.
I’m not in some GPS blackspot or underground :p other GPS integrated devices work fine.
I reckon it’s a N97 hardware fault. The Voice Dialling is also broken so maybe the trial handset I’m using is a rare exception? Having said that, there are a few entries on google from N97 users who also aren’t getting decent GPS locks or at all.
There’s a possibility that a hard reset may fix it – I will try that before I send this N97 back.
If you do experience similar GPS problems and hard reset doesn’t fix it, I suggest trying to get a replacement from your retailer or bringing in to a Nokia Care Point.
Category: 5th Edition, How to:, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian, Video
hahaha “some compulsive baton twirler (Nokia method)”
[...] 1 votes vote How to: Ultimate calibration method for your Nokia N97 (side issue with N97 not getting GPS fix at a… One of Mark Guim’s readers, RobertH, may have found the best solution for calibrating the [...]
way i prefer to do it is to just rotate once in each direction.
[...] Turn your N97 into a compass. It looks really good, like an old fashioned nautical bubble compass, and tells you your current GPS coordinates and the exact degree your N97 is pointing. You have to calibrate it first to get it working properly. Check out tutorial here [...]
I just got my N97 about couple of weeks. I’m using it in the North America region. I can’t seem to get my GPS to work. When turned on the signal (satelite) just keep blinking. When I try to put in a address for driving, my phone says searching for gps connection. I’m a little new at this so any help (step by step) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Hi,
I am from Singapore and I too have the exact same problem with the GPS while driving. It just picks up random locations and most of the time, not connecting at all. I have the XpressMusic 5800 on and it worked OK. Hence, not the satellite issue for sure.
And then I tried turning off the compass, it seems to work better. Still losing the GPS location here and there. But definitely nothing random like before (at times I was on the sea!).
Thanks for the tips of compass calibration! I was having quite a hard time trying to wave the phone like a mad man in public. And by the way, I realize that once the GPS location is lost, I have to recalibrate the compass again. Do you have the same issue?
Please let us know if your problem is fixed after a firmware upgrade or exchange. Cheers.
Hello,
I have the same problem with my fucking gps in my N97
The firmware is not stabile!!!
But I think overall it is the best cell phone !!!
Hi,
I’m from Romania and i have also problems with my N97 gps signal.i have tested until now Nokia Ovi Maps and Garmin Mobile XT 5.
Waiting for a stable firmware release to fix gps problem.
Anybody knows how to patch the phone to increase gps reception??
Many tkanks !!
I travel around Middle East, and hove got no fix with my N97 GPS in all countries, bad or good weather, inside or outside.
I have a similar issue with the GPS. Also for the records, today while driving back with navigation instructions on, after couple of incorrect turns i took, the GPS gave up…it just crashed and reset the entire phone, also needless to say that I was shocked out of my wits and was driving..anyway parked the car on the side and restarted maps….came up but since that time i have not got a lock on the GPS….drove about 15km, but no luck…..also I rebooted the phone once, just to give a proper restart, however that too did not help…can any body on this forum guide me how to fix this issue….I hate to call the Nokia Care, for them this would be another non issue. Also thanks for the compass calibration rick…really works
Guys and girls. Try to update the firmware to version 12. It works for me. Also, there is a new Map Loader version 3. My advice is to reload your maps too. Hope this work out for you.
Ive had my n97 for 4 months now. I have never been able to get the GPS to work, so finally a technician had a look at it and said the 1st problem is that im using a 16k SIM card. LOL. it was my 1st SIM card ever (9yrs ago), so I got a Simswap for the new 3g card and VOILA!!!! I got a GPS fix in 5secs. FINALLY~!@!@!@!
[...] with the N97 as in you weren’t sure it was really ever going to work when you wanted it to. Sure you could have made it work with the wrist twist trick but not in [...]
The integrated gps is a piece of crap for all phones, I have a 5800. Get a holux m1000 bluetooth gps !! You wont believe the reception it can get everywhere, and its free to use, it is the fastest, faster than most pna-s! and it goes for about 20hours on a charge, and it has a removable nokia compatible battery. WONT REGRET IT A BIT!!
Navigacija…
[...]How to: Ultimate calibration method for your Nokia N97's compass (side issue with N97 not getting GPS fix at all) : My Nokia Blog[...]…