IPhone 3g - GPS No longer functioning

Hi,
I noticed a few days ago that I could no longer get a GPS lock using my iPhone 3G. Google Maps would provide a cross hairs location, but never a 'blue dot' indicating GPS lock. I have several other GPS apps installed, including iTrail, Trackthing and GPSKit. In each case these apps each showed no GPS lock, and no position accuracy greater than about 125 meters - which seemed to be location information based on wi-fi triangulation rather than GPS.
I originally attributed this to a software problem. I saw various references to turning 3G on and off / turning wifi on and off / resetting the network settings on the Phone etc. in these forums and elsewhere. I tried every one to no avail.
Finally I decided a complete firmware and software refresh might do the trick. As I was running firmware 2.2 at the time, I connected the phone to iTunes on my MacBook Pro and upgraded the firmware to 2.2.1, and restored all the apps back to it.
After this upgrade the phone was still unable to obtain a GPS lock (whether in Google Maps or any other GPS / location aware app) despite being left outside with a clear view of the sky for over 15 minutes at a time. It would get a lock using celltower and wifi triangulation, but only to an accuracy of 125 metres at best as before. Certainly no 'blue dot' in Google Maps.
Still thinking this might be a software error, I have now reset the phone completely using iTunes, and have not restored the apps onto it. It now has just firmware 2.2.1 (activated through iTunes) and that's it. Again I have tried getting a 'blue dot' GPS fix in Google Maps, but despite another 20 minutes basking in my garden, the phone still will not get a GPS lock. Again, wifi / celltower is the best it will get.
I am now thinking that it is a hardware problem, and that the GPS hardware in my phone is not working for whatever reason. Before I take the phone back to an Apple store, can anyone recommend anything else that might get it working?
Thanks,
G

Out of curiosity, how did they test/verify it? My GPS is no longer accurate, it gets the general location with an error circle of varying size, but rarely a nice radar blip lock. My local apple store is in the mall, so I don't know what kind of GPS accuracy they would expect in there anyway. I did take some screenshots of my big error circle while driving the major highway in the area.
Anybody know what would cause it to lose accuracy? Again, it gets my general area, but not nearly as well as it used to.
Thanks

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