BlackVue DR770X Dashcam slow to lock GPS

[GeeWhizz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GeeWhizz]

Last week I fitted a new BlackVue DR770X 2CH-II to my 2023 150 GXL. An expensive item but it is my 4th dashcam over 4 different vehicles and I have found that the cheapies do not last long before something goes wrong. This BV model has front and rear cameras, 3-dimension accelerometer and GPS for speed recording and journey mapping, supposedly among the best.

While the video recordings to date are excellent, the GPS is, at best, an under performer. It typically takes over 15 minutes to reliably 'lock' onto satellite signals and provide a record of speed and location. That can be as much as 25 kilometres travelled! I have logged a case with BlackVue but they have just listed a number of possible reasons why it won't lock quicker. Eg Corrupted SD card, being in an underground car park(!!) or faulty firmware. For comparison, the Prado's navigator locks onto sufficient satellites even when parked in my metal-roofed carport within 30 seconds. Similarly, Google maps works fine on my Android phone.

One suggestion was that my vehicle could have metallic heat shielding manufactured into the windscreen glass, which would attenuate satellite signals. I have searched the Prado's Owner's Manual and can't find anything related to the type of glass, or affecting secondary GPS, mobile phone or toll-road transponder signals.

That brings me to the question: Has anyone else had experience with mounting GPS receivers, dashcams or toll road transponders in their Prado?

[watsea Member Find all posts View Profile Close watsea]

I have an older Navman Safety Cam as my dash cam. Recently, after not driving the vehicle for a couple of weeks, the Prado’s engine battery was dead (cell collapsed, I think) and after renewing the car battery, I still did not do any driving for a couple of days.

However, when I did drive it, the camera worked ok, but the speed display on the dash camera screen showed as —km/hr (no speed) for more than 5 minutes. I took it to be that the device had not locked onto satellites during that time. Everything had worked fine since.

with a little discussion at home, we think that perhaps our dashcam’s internal battery had dropped charge during the time of non driving. We do not know though.

If a low internal battery charge is the cause, could your camera lose its charge unexpectedly when parked?

[GeeWhizz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GeeWhizz]

with a little discussion at home, we think that perhaps our dashcam’s internal battery had dropped charge during the time of non driving. We do not know though.

If a low internal battery charge is the cause, could your camera lose its charge unexpectedly when parked?

The initial advice I got was to update the firmware from what was supplied (Jan 2026 release) to the latest (May 2026) version. This is for a device that has been on the market for several years - while I'm pleased that they are actively supporting something that is now superseded, I'm a little surprised that they think there are still significant bugs in the firmware. The update made no noticeable change in its overall performance.

The first operation with the new firmware took just over 10 minutes to lock the GPS (they warned that it would for the first time after a F/W upgrade). I parked for a couple of minutes (ignition and accessories off) and then started up and drove away. This time the GPS locked after about 3 minutes. That looked better! But then, over the next few days, the dashcam returned to its habits of regularly not locking for at least 10 minutes. I live in the suburbs - I use the Prado almost every day but most trips are local and usually under 10 minutes, so a low battery should not be the cause.

The last straw, that broke the camel's back, was a 2-hour trip into the country towing the caravan. On one drive, the GPS took 27 minutes to lock! If that wasn't bad enough, on the 2-hour drive home, it took just over 1 hour and 29 minutes to start recording speed and location data!!

During my career as an electronic design engineer (now retired), I have worked with GPS modules (both hardware interface and software development) and have never experienced a GPS module taking more than a minute from being powered up to lock onto sufficient satellites to provide acceptable output data. While a dashcam may have more stringent criteria for providing a lock, anything longer than a few minutes is not acceptable to me.

I have taken the dashcam to the Australian service agents, who thankfully happen to be local to me, for attention under warranty (I've only had the device for 4 weeks).