ArcPad FAQ

I can't get a GPS fix, ArcPad won't talk to the GPS, what's wrong with my GPS?

Ah, the good old what's wrong with my GPS question. Many, many things can go wrong with your GPS. Here are a few of the more common ones, and ways to go about fixing them. Unless otherwise noted, all of the menus discussed below are accessed from the Options sub-menu of the Tools menu (top toolbar of ArcPad, looks like a hammer and wrench).

ArcPad is looking for the GPS on the wrong COM port. For the newer iPAQs (distinguished by having a removable storage card on the top of the device and a flat oval cursor button) this should be set to COM 5. For the older iPAQs (no removable storage card, more squared-off "+" shaped cursor) this should be set to COM 4.
The communication protocols are set incorrectly. Baud rate should be 4800 bps. 8 none 1. GPS protocol is NMEA. (This is unlikely to be incorrectly set).
The Last Known Location is significantly far away from where you are currently standing. This can dramatically affect the amount of time it takes the GPS to get a position fix. If you know roughly (within a few degrees) where you are, you can seed these values to speed up GPS acquisition time. If you don't know where you are, but you know the location of the last known position isn't it, then clearing out these values will help somewhat.
Are the date and time on the iPAQ correct? It turns out that this actually seems to matter. Check that the date and time on the iPAQ are set correctly and that if you aren't in MA, that you have selected 'Visiting Time' and chosen a city in your current time zone.
ERROR 55 on COM 5 a universal favorite. This usually means that either the CompactFlash GPS card has come loose from the Compact Flash adaptor, or that the adaptor has come loose from the iPAQ. Check the connections and try again.
Have you used the external antenna? Sometimes, if the GPS is started without the external antenna, and then the antenna is plugged in, the GPS goes buggy (though this doesn't seem to happen in reverse; if you start with the antenna in you can almost always choose to disconnect it). This problem usually requires a soft-reboot by pushing the stylus into the small hole on the bottom of the iPAQ.