A500 is getting a GPS fix...

[davea]

My A500 would take forever to lock on sats and I could not navigate with it. Acer said send it in and they would repair under warranty.
Thinking it was firmware or something I asked why can't they just push the software to me. The rep says they will be putting some part in or replacing something as well as software.

This is all very interesting. It seems to be a tacit admission that something is definitely wrong with some of the A500's and they need to replace hardware.

Oh well, at least I don't have to pay to have it shipped back to me.

 

[Icebike]

Well you might not even have to send it back.

Have you tried this: Acer Iconia, GPS How to make it work 1st Time. | Old Time Blogger

Once you get the GPS Almanac downloaded (which can take a while), and keep it up to date by letting it idle with GPS on (say in maps or something) for a few minutes every day it will load and lock quickly.

As for navigation, you do realize that the navigation with a wifi tablet requires one of the following:

1) constant internet access (which you won't have once you are on the road unless you tether to your phone)
2) with Google navigation you must: obtain a sat lock, select a destination, and start navigation while you still are connected to wifi.
3) install a third party navigation package like https://market.android.com/details?...lt#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zeWdpYy5hdXJhIl0.

 

[davea]

That's interesting. I think I will try it when I get my A500 back.

I still think it's a curious thing that Acer wants to replace hardware in my unit also. I can tether to my phone so one way or another, I will finally have full functioning GPS.

 

[Icebike]

I still think it's a curious thing that Acer wants to replace hardware in my unit also. I can tether to my phone so one way or another, I will finally have full functioning GPS.

You place way too much trust in what was told to you by the idiots they hire to answer the phone. Most of these people are reading from a script and were flipping burgers last week. Everybody on this forum who has dealt with them ends up discovering they know nothing, and will tell you anything.

They won't fix and return your tablet.

If there is really something wrong with your tablet they will send you a factory refurb.

Which means you inherit someone else's problems that they didn't fix during the regurb process (which largely consists of a tablet whip followed by software reload, and a cursory test. Anything that involves actual motherboard component replacement results in a scrapping of the tablet, and the expensive bits (screen, battery,) being sold to repair shops as parts. Board-level work (micro soldering) is simply not worth the time and effort.

Its just economics. They probably pay around 6 bucks for the processor (the heart of the tablet) and it would cost them an hour of work to get it off the board, cleaned up, and sent back into production. Even at Chinese wages, it just doesn't pay.

 

[spexwood]

*I retracted this post in fear of pissing someone off. It was pretty funny though*

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[Icebike]

I thought it was funny too.

Way I figure it, this is the internet, and people have to grow a skin or log off.