[Q] Froyo vs Gingerbread: Network Location Differences on AT&T?

[Corporate Dog]

Weird stuff going on with my local cell towers and the network location provider on my Aria.

For the longest time, I'd been using the Aria Liberated R012 ROM. I never had any problems with using the network location provider in various apps (HTC Date/Weather Clock, Google Maps, Yelp, etc.) until just about two weeks ago.

I noticed that on the road from home to work, I wasn't getting ANY location fix. But when I'd take a trip out to a different location for shopping, suddenly I'd get the location updates again. GPS works fine, but I don't want to keep it on all the time for simple location data.

I thought perhaps AT&T's recent slews of OTA updates might have something to do with it. So I decided I'd do something I was planning on doing for a while now anyway: load a newer ROM which might incorporate any patches that AT&T had made.

I opted for Cyanogen 7. Installed it last night. Found it ran a little sluggish on my Aria (even after overclocking), but noted that my network location provider was working again.

I ultimately decided that I couldn't deal with the sluggishness. So this morning, I installed Cyanogen 6, AND THEN I tried out the new Aria Liberated 2.2.2 ROM. What I noticed in BOTH of these Froyo builds, was that my network location provider was once again NOT working.

I know part of this puzzle involves the configuration of AT&T's local cell towers. But what about the rest of it: why would Cyanogen 7 (Gingerbread) work, while Cyanogen 6 and Liberated 2.2.2 (Froyo) fail?

And in the case of the two Cyanogen mods, might the difference have something to do with what version of the Google Apps addon I install? When I get a free minute today, I might do some further testing on this last theory. Scratch that theory. I had previously tried installing Cyanogen 6 with a version of Google Apps from 2010. But even with a Google Apps APK from May 1st, 2011, the network location provider ain't providin'.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

 

[CallMeAria]

Weird stuff going on with my local cell towers and the network location provider on my Aria.

For the longest time, I'd been using the Aria Liberated R012 ROM. I never had any problems with using the network location provider in various apps (HTC Date/Weather Clock, Google Maps, Yelp, etc.) until just about two weeks ago.

I noticed that on the road from home to work, I wasn't getting ANY location fix. But when I'd take a trip out to a different location for shopping, suddenly I'd get the location updates again. GPS works fine, but I don't want to keep it on all the time for simple location data.

I thought perhaps AT&T's recent slews of OTA updates might have something to do with it. So I decided I'd do something I was planning on doing for a while now anyway: load a newer ROM which might incorporate any patches that AT&T had made.

I opted for Cyanogen 7. Installed it last night. Found it ran a little sluggish on my Aria (even after overclocking), but noted that my network location provider was working again.

I ultimately decided that I couldn't deal with the sluggishness. So this morning, I installed Cyanogen 6, AND THEN I tried out the new Aria Liberated 2.2.2 ROM. What I noticed in BOTH of these Froyo builds, was that my network location provider was once again NOT working.

I know part of this puzzle involves the configuration of AT&T's local cell towers. But what about the rest of it: why would Cyanogen 7 (Gingerbread) work, while Cyanogen 6 and Liberated 2.2.2 (Froyo) fail?

And in the case of the two Cyanogen mods, might the difference have something to do with what version of the Google Apps addon I install? When I get a free minute today, I might do some further testing on this last theory. Scratch that theory. I had previously tried installing Cyanogen 6 with a version of Google Apps from 2010. But even with a Google Apps APK from May 1st, 2011, the network location provider ain't providin'.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

While I can't help with the actual problem, cm7 has a lot of eye candy turned on by default that can be turned off. It needs a little love but you can definitely get rid of that sluggishness and it will run very smooth and snappy.

Sent from my cm7 Aria.

 

[Corporate Dog]

While I can't help with the actual problem, cm7 has a lot of eye candy turned on by default that can be turned off. It needs a little love but you can definitely get rid of that sluggishness and it will run very smooth and snappy.

Sent from my cm7 Aria.

Thanks! I'll probably take a second look at that cm7 thread when I get a chance, and might even try to reinstall it.

For what it's worth, the Aria Liberated 2.2.2 thread clued me in to the fact that AT&T also pushed a radio update when they pushed the OS update. It's possible they made some tweaks to my local cell towers that don't play nice with the old radio configuration. Guess I'll try to install that radio update next.

EDIT: And that's strike two.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

 

[drumist]

Thanks! I'll probably take a second look at that cm7 thread when I get a chance, and might even try to reinstall it.

For what it's worth, the Aria Liberated 2.2.2 thread clued me in to the fact that AT&T also pushed a radio update when they pushed the OS update. It's possible they made some tweaks to my local cell towers that don't play nice with the old radio configuration. Guess I'll try to install that radio update next.

EDIT: And that's strike two.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

Your radio only needs to be installed once. It doesn't get cleared or overwritten when you wipe/install new ROMs through Clockworkmod. You can check the version either from the HBOOT screen or from Phone settings when booted up.

It's HIGHLY recommended that you not change the radio version more than absolutely necessary as it is a very risky installation that can permanently brick your phone if it goes wrong. I'm not saying to be scared of installing it once, but just don't install it every time you install a ROM.

As for CM7 -- I find that the default launcher (ADW) lags like crazy. I always immediately switch to LauncherPro and get a much smoother experience. You should probably give that a try.

 

[brswattt]

While I can't help with the actual problem, cm7 has a lot of eye candy turned on by default that can be turned off. It needs a little love but you can definitely get rid of that sluggishness and it will run very smooth and snappy.

Sent from my cm7 Aria.

What default options are turned on?

 

[CallMeAria]

What default options are turned on?

Surface dithering, over scroll effects, and window animations are a few I can remember off the top of my head. Turn those off and drop vm heap down to 24 (or 16 if your apps allow it) and set home to persistent and you get a nice little boost. Then there's the fact that adw is set up for looks, not performance, out of the box. Scroll and opening speeds are set rather slow.

I'm not sure about adw, but launcherpro also has advanced settings to tweak for performance gains.

Sent from my cm7 Aria.

 

[Corporate Dog]

Heh. Turns out I was wrong about cm7. I must've had GPS turned on at the time, because my latest test run with it isn't producing a network location fix.

Time to go 10 rounds with AT&T tech support. Should be real fun trying to explain to the level 1 script reader that there's a problem with their local cell tower.

Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

 

[Corporate Dog]

A new development:

When I go into Settings and check 'Use Only 2G Networks', network-based positioning works again.

Seems to be some sort of problem with WCDMA versus GSM. I've managed to dig up some other threads (in this forum and others) where folks with other types of phones (N1, HTC Inspire) have reported similar issues.

I blamed AT&T in my last post, but I've also seen a suggestion that the problem might have something to do with a setting in the Google Services Framework that points to an incorrect URL for the LAC/CID to Lat/Long translation service. I may play with that when I get a chance.

That also doesn't really explain why my original Eclair mod stopped working, or why more people don't seem to have this problem.

More information as it becomes available...

Regards,
Corporate Dog

 

[xboxhaxorz]

Regarding radio, i have the latest radio that was posted. It seems to have improved my reception fairly well.

 

[Corporate Dog]

Meh. The Google Services Framework fix that I found...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9576852&postcount=108

... didn't do anything for me. YMMV.

At this point, I suspect that I have to chalk this up to cell tower configuration.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

EDIT: Just got off the phone with AT&T Customer Support. I called them a few days ago, and the Level 1 support drone forewarded me to the "TeleNav" service center (despite all of my protestations). TeleNav support proceeded to tell me that they don't do support for phones (Gosh. You don't say...) Today's Level 1 drone was a bit better, and forwarded me to someone who actually seemed to be in a position to help.

He didn't have an answer for me, but he WAS willing to help me escalate this to an engineering ticket. He told me to go pick up a new sim card at my local AT&T store, and see if a new sim/device provisioning would take care of the issue. In the meantime, he's sending me a second Aria through the Warranty Exchange process, so I can try to recreate the issue on a different phone.

If I strike out on both counts, he'll escalate it. Otherwise, I'll have a solution of SOME kind sitting in the palm of my hand.

 

[brswattt]

Is setting home for persistent only for adw launcher ?

Surface dithering, over scroll effects, and window animations are a few I can remember off the top of my head. Turn those off and drop vm heap down to 24 (or 16 if your apps allow it) and set home to persistent and you get a nice little boost. Then there's the fact that adw is set up for looks, not performance, out of the box. Scroll and opening speeds are set rather slow.

I'm not sure about adw, but launcherpro also has advanced settings to tweak for performance gains.

Sent from my cm7 Aria.

Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

 

[Corporate Dog]

The new sim card didn't do anything for me.

But suddenly, completely out of the blue, at some point yesterday afternoon...? The network location provider decided that it wanted to begin working for my area again. I hadn't done a THING to the configuration on my phone all day, and when I stepped outside my office, it just worked.

I think I'll still call AT&T back, and ask them what the hell they changed with their cell tower configuration. I doubt I'll get anywhere with it, but it would be useful to know, since this seems to be a random thing that occurs from time-to-time on different carriers (the link I provided earlier described the same issue, but on Rogers Communication's network).

Regards,
Corporate Dog

UPDATE: I called AT&T today, and unfortunately, they couldn't tell me whether anything changed on their towers. It'd be nice to know what they were tinkering with, so I could just cut to the chase with tech support if it happens again, but for now, I guess I'll just be happy that it's working again.