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Garmin GPS Lock still extremely Sluggish Post 4.80

Darren_Aylward
over 4 years ago

I recently bought a Venu and love the AMOLED screen and other functions but am finding the GPS lock ridiculously slow in comparison to my old Vivoactive 3 Music.

I have the latest firmware 5.10 & GPS software 4.80 but it can still take anywhere from 30 secs to well over a minute to get an initial lock (in a fairly open UK suburban area)  whereas my old VA3M is still doing the same in about 5-10 secs. Thinking it was a fault I had it replaced, but the new one is exactly the same. Is anybody else having this issue? Strangely for the first few days after buying the first unit it was only taking 10-15 secs., something I can no longer replicate. This would have been about the same time the GPS software was updated from 4.6 to 4.8 so I'm wondering if that was a factor.

There are those that may be thinking that 30-60+ secs is is not so bad (especially compared to the pre-4.60 gps software) but the last watch that I had that took this long was my old 110 all those years ago! Often I am still waiting at the club house for a lock whilst my club mates are halfway down the road.

Is this a case of bad software optimization (4.6->4.8) or as a direct result of the new Sony GPS chip that I believe the Venu has?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    See related post. Might be worth a try...

    Garmin-Brooks said:
    • Plug the watch into a computer
    • Open the device hard drive
      • Windows: 
        • Open File Explorer
        • Click on This PC
        • Click on the Venu
      • Mac
        • Open Finder
        • Go to Computer
        • Click on the Garmin Drive
    • Once in click on the Garmin Folder
    • In the Garmin Folder delete the RemoteSW folder.
    • Sync with Garmin Express

    I would just add to this after syncing with Garmin Express, take the watch outside with a clear view of the sky for 30 minutes to get the initial satellite lock.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to seilogramp

    Thanks for the response seilogramp, I'll do that now and take it outside after dinner.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Darren_Aylward

    Alas, this morning it's no different. A perfectly clear sky and 55 seconds to get a lock!

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Darren_Aylward

    That's what it takes for mine. Always thought that was adequate. Most that are complaining on here are waiting for 5 minutes to get a lock or not getting a lock at all.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to seilogramp

    30 seconds to get a lock is reasonable, and in fact you want to wait at least that long to calibrate the altimeter (a "3d fix").

    Even a minute doesn't seem that odd, as it's not only clear skies, but which sats are in view.  If the activity is just set to use GPS, changing it to GPS+GLONASS or GPS+GALILEO can also help.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Thanks for the response  . I should have stated that have have tried the three GPS variant options and it doesn't make a huge amount of difference between them. I also have no surrounding tall buildings where I'm trying this atm and I would counter that if it were the position of the satellites that were the issue, my old VA3M would not be able to get a lock in the 5 or so seconds that it can. This seems like a hardware or software limitation of this particular watch. I suspect the latter as I was definitely getting getting a much faster pick-up when I first used the initial watch which was about the time of the 4.60->4.80 GPS 'upgrade'.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Darren_Aylward

    The GPS HW is different between the va3 and this watch.  Also. are you near a large body of water?  That can also impact things as the water will reflect some of the GPS signal.