CF-29 MK-I and another GPS problem...

Hello all. [First time poster here]

Firstly, let me TIA for all help you could offer, and sorry for any english mistake as my native language is portuguese.
I recently bought a really mint CF-29CTKGBKM (not a single mark on it!). I _really_ didn't need another toughbook, but I'm sure you know about that - couldn't let it go It came with stock GPS unit and English WINXP PRO (SP3). All, including GPS, was working fine.

I swapped the 80GB for a new WD 320GB, 2 partitions, and installed my original brazilian version of WIN XP PRO in the first one. All drivers installed fine, all devices (including touchscreen) working fine - minus GPS!!!

I'm very experienced with computers, but know _nothing_ about GPS. I installed the 2 registry patches for GPS filter, but no driver found for it.
Some say it doesn't need drivers, some say it needs, but I couldn't find any driver for MK-I (altough there are drivers for MK-II, III, IV and V). The one supposed to be for MK-I is, it seems, a GPRS utility that seek for Siemens serial modems and I immediately uninstalled it.

After reading the several threads on the subject here, I managed to change the GPS port from COM2 to COM4 (thanks to ohlip posts), but the results are the same. In WinFast all I see are the same string repeating forever:

$GPGSV,1,1...............*79
$GPRMC,,V.............A*5C
$GPGGA......0,00......*66
$GPVTG............A*3F
$GPGSA,A,1..........*1E
$GPGSV,1,1...............*79
$GPRMC,,V.............A*5C

...and not any sat ever detected.

So my doubts are:

01. Is the strings above a signal that the GPS unit is working fine at a hardware level? Would it be just software? (remember it was working fine when I received it...)
02. Could anyone help me to "read" what those strings mean, or have any idea about what's happening?

Thanks again.

(BTW: thank you Rick, that CF-28 backlit keyboard is pure gold and "new" by all means...)

 

Welcome to the forum... I knew you'd find it!

Reset your BIOS to default... Reboot... Then set up the way you want. The GPS will find its own COM Port. You may also try uninstalling the COM ports and then rebooting and then letting them find everything again.

If you are seeing data flow then your GPS engine is working. Have you checked the antenna connection?

Also... You should probably be outside with a clear view of the sky for testing the first time.

 

I agree with toughbook. With the stock GPS I had an unbelievable 3 hour wait once for satellites to show. Leave it run outside if possible and be patient. As TB said, if you see data streaming (even repeating), then your hardware is fine. Check the antenna connection and let it run for a WHILE!

 

Thanks for the suggestions TB and Doobi.
Will try that tomorrow at morning.

No, I didn't check the antenna connection... yet. Will do that too.

...........

So, as I'm a complete n00b when the subject is GPS (and trying to learn a little bit): the first time you set up a GPS system you need to give it time to find and store some kind of data? And after this initial time, it will be faster for future sat detections?

 

I would try everything else first....