GPS Lockups with SysOnChip CF 256MB Mem GPS in iPAQ hx2410

[phunkin]

Received the SysOnChip CF 256MB Memory GPS card a couple of days ago, installed the drivers and plugged in the CF card. Everything appeared to work fine. Loaded TomTom and took it for a test drive. During a half hour journey it locked up twice and required a soft reset each time.

Started testing it and found that it was the GPS communications that seemed to be the problem. Both TomTom GPS and the SysOnChip GPS viewer would lock, always within half an hour. Stopping and restarting the application restarted the comms. Realised that it could not be software if 2 applications had the same problem so then looked at drivers and hardware.

The solution was a ROM upgrade for the iPAQ from 1.00.09 to 1.00.14, aavilable from http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/22447.html

It appears the original ROM has a problem and one of the fixes detailed is "Fixes issue with CF Modem connection and dropped connections". The CF card is recognised as a modem when first inserted, a modem and the GPS are serial devices so seem to both suffer with the problem.

Don't forget to backup your iPAQ before doing the ROM upgrade as it does a hard reset and wipes the machine completely.

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