So you just got a brand new BlackBerry, you slap on Foursquare, let it detect your position, but notice that it’s taking forever.  You make your way through the options menu, select the ‘GPS’ menu and start switching ‘location on’ to ‘location off’ back to ‘location on’, then from ‘enable’ to ‘disable’ back to ‘enable’.  At this point you might make your way back to Foursquare, realize that you’ve had enough patience to deal with the nonsense and run to your service provider claiming that your GPS isn’t working.  Hold the phone.

Turns out that there is a fix that may or may not (depending your carrier) “activate” your GPS.

•  Make your way to the options menu.  Select ‘status’ (where you find your PIN).
• Type test – You’ll notice “Device Self Test Application” appear.
• Press the trackball/trackpad or menu key and select “start”.
• Scroll down to GPS and check it.
• Scroll down and select “Run”.

It will ask you to head outside because the signal is stronger (I’ve done this test indoors, in case you are wondering).  

• Click on the trackball/trackpad and select “Start Fixing”.

Great news, at this point you should see “GPS fixing succeeds!”.  In some cases you might face a ‘time out’ or a ‘failure’ to fix and it’s usually because your GPS is locked, all thanks to your dearly beloved mobile carrier.  Once this process is over (which takes no more than 5 minutes), click down on your trackball/trackpad, select “skip all” and you are back to “Device Self Test Application”.  Hit the back button and make your way out of the options menu.

[Tip courtesy of PinStack]

© Giancarlo Casale for BlackBerry Cool, 2010