Laptop GPS World

Because of the concerns I had with slow start up of the built-in GPS in my Asus r2h UMPC, I purchased a copy of Mobile PC with the USB 20x GPS. The idea was to have a reliable GPS device permanently in the vehicle and not worry about whether it was charged.

As was discussed in another S&T thread, I saw that Mobile PC could not find the GPS after the UMPC returned from sleep mode. To restore the GPS functionality, I would have to physically disconnect and reconnect the USB GPS (possibly also restart Mobile PC). I believe this is related to power being removed from the USB ports in sleep mode but I didn't want to spend the time to determine which of the 4 hubs this port was on.

I did confirm the internal GPS would restore immediately after a sleep and my Bluetooth 10x would be found within 20 seconds. I also found the 20x was superior to the built-in unit (no surprise) and the 10x was the best of the three.

Consequently, I am giving this Mobile PC/ 20x to my son. He is planning on relocating from Vancouver Island to New Brunswick in the very near future. This will involve him and his family driving across Canada and he wanted me to recommend a program for his wife's laptop. Of course, I had previously suggested Mobile PC. Free is always good; and I should get some useful feedback.

I will go back to my other Mobile PC copy and the Garmin GPS 10x.

If anyone else can comment on USB GPS units and laptop sleep mode, I might pursue this further.
Terry

My laptop running Vista has enough problems with sleep mode even when nothing is running so I have it set to completely avoid sleep mode. No way I would ever trust it to do anything right in recovering from sleep mode.

...ken...

Although I did receive an upgrade to Vista for the UMPC and tried it, I removed it immediately. This device is way too underpowered for a power hungry o/s. And anyway, I love XP.

I have not confirmed whether I get the same results with hibernation mainly because I won't use it. I takes almost as long to come out of hibernation as from a cold start. Laptops always have to have so much junk running in the background.

Terry