OT Help - GPS gone blind!

How long have you left it for? If the GPS has lost its memory of where it last was, which can happen if you leave it without batteries for a long time, then it can take up to 15 minutes to figure out where it is again.

Try leaving it hunting overnight if you can power it for that long, or at least for half an hour or so.

I'd tried leaving it for about 15 minutes last night with no joy. It's now sat in the shed searching and I'll see what it's found when I get back from the (on-topic bit) MOT station where my SIII is booked for its annual teeth-pulling in an hour's time. Fingers crossed that both (GPS and MOT) come good!

Steve

It being in the shed won't help at all, although if it's right by the window (as in pressed up against the glass) then it's not too bad.

If it's in a pickle, then best thing is to put it outside, away from buildings, and let it chew things over for a while, putting it inside the car or a building, or near buildings, blocks part of the view of the sky so makes it harder for it to find the satellites.

I think it's the other way round. It's lost the plot on synchronisation. I had one that would go silly and depriving it of signal (while switched on) made it give up on its memory and start again from scratch.

It was annoying because it was seeing satellites but never getting a lock on so no position fix. Pull the aerial and let it whinge for a few minutes and then it locked in 60 seconds once you plugged things back in.

This was a plug in to the IPAQ not a built in RR lump but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a similar problem. I gather the heads are only made by a couple of companies.

nigelH

Well it's nearly 8 hours now and the thing has been switched on sat outside all day (i moved it out and put it on top of the shed). Still seeing satellites but not fixing its position. Bugger.

The good news is that the SIII got through its MOT, so there's something good come from the day.

Steve

OK I think you've given it more of a chance than it could possibly ask for, it's fooked!

I suppose the alternative is to see if you can try the other recent suggestion, leave it turned on somewhere where it doesn't have a hope in hell of getting a satellite thus making it go into exhaustive search mode then putting it outside.

While it's doing that, try and find the warranty details ;-)

: > Well it's nearly 8 hours now and the thing has been switched on sat outside : > all day (i moved it out and put it on top of the shed). Still seeing : > satellites but not fixing its position. Bugger.

well, just having acquired a silver box thingy that talks to my Nokia E61 over bluetooth and allows me to run the GPS stuff for under £20, then I would just get a new one

Si

Yup, that's the way it's looking. Of course, as soon as I part with the readies someone will tell me that I just needed to stand on one leg facing north and blip out the morse code for SOS on the on/off button and the thing would have reset itself. Oh well.

Steve

Remove the battery for at least 24hrs to allow the memory to drain. Then retry.

Thanks, trying that now (it's been out since 6pm last night). However, hope is fading fast. Absolute last resort is to have a look at

someone on another forum suggested. There's a lot of acronyms inthere though and I don't understand hardly any of it. The up side is thatif the removed battery thing doesn't work and it's still broken then I can'tbreak it any more than it is already! Steve

I had a similar problem with my Garmin 12Xl GPS which sits in a cradle suckered to my screen. Recently it suffered a spate of "power down and re-init" messages, which seemed to have no rhyme or reason. The only thing I had done to the vehicle was change the stereo from a Sony tape player to a Sony Minidisc player. I moved the cradle from the centre of the screen to the edge by the driver's door, and voila! no problem anymore. It seems that the stereo was leaking some signal that b*ggered the GPS reception!

Stuart

|| Remove the battery for at least 24hrs to allow the memory to drain. || Then retry.

Darren, any idea what's up with my Tomtom GO700? I've had it 5 months and it's taken me round Europe already without a problem, at least nothing that a button reset and re-init couldn't cure (twice so far).

I wanted to use it this Sunday, and it had been lying around for about a month, so I gave it an overnight mains charge, but it wouldn't boot up - it kept going to the "hand pointing at the GO" screen and then switching off. Switching it on again takes you right back to the "two hands and the drumbeat" screen, which ISTR was what it did fresh out of the box. After about 10 attempts, it started up and said "no map found". I reset it again (about the nth time that night) and after a few more attempts it started OK. Lucky it did, because the next time it was going out of the window. It worked faultlessly on a long journey on Sunday (switched off 8 hrs between out and return legs). Tonight it's back to turning itself off again.

Any ideas what could be wrong? It's under guarantee (if I can find the receipt) but I don't want to go to the hassle of returning it if there is a simple fix. The battery is internal, so I can't disconnect it as you advise Steve.

Tomtom customer service site is down - I did try them first!

TIA for any help.

Sounds more like a dodgy hard disk. What version of firmware is it running?

|| On 2006-10-16 19:58:50 +0100, "Richard Brookman" || said: ||| ||| Darren, any idea what's up with my Tomtom GO700? I've had it 5 ||| months and it's taken me round Europe already without a problem, at ||| least nothing that a button reset and re-init couldn't cure (twice ||| so far). [...]

|| Sounds more like a dodgy hard disk. What version of firmware is it || running?

Aha! I can't get it running, so I can't tell you that! I bought it in June and it had an immediate firmware update, if that's any help.

Thanks.

Not a lot. It's time to involve TomTom's Support bods assuming it's still in warranty?

After

Does it do this if powered from a reliable external source (vehicle)?

It could be that the internal battery is knackered. NiCds inparticular do not like being left charged. If it had little use, on battery, before being stored the cells won't have fully settled down from new.

|| On 2006-10-17 18:09:03 +0100, "Richard Brookman" || said: || ||| Aha! I can't get it running, so I can't tell you that! I bought ||| it in June and it had an immediate firmware update, if that's any ||| help. ||| ||| Thanks. || || Not a lot. It's time to involve TomTom's Support bods assuming it's || still in warranty?

Customer care part of their site has been down for a few days - I'll give 'em another try. Thanks.

|| On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:58:50 +0100, Richard Brookman wrote: || ||| I wanted to use it this Sunday, and it had been lying around for ||| about a month, so I gave it an overnight mains charge, || || After ||| about 10 attempts, it started up and said "no map found". I reset ||| it again (about the nth time that night) and after a few more ||| attempts it started OK. || || Does it do this if powered from a reliable external source (vehicle)?

In the car it worked fine for the day, after taking several attempts to boot up. But not on the mains adapter in the house.

|| It could be that the internal battery is knackered. NiCds || inparticular do not like being left charged. If it had little use, || on battery, before being stored the cells won't have fully settled || down from new.

I charged it fully from new, and it's been either sitting on a shelf (unpowered) or in the vehicle being used (and on 12v) - I've never used it on battery alone, although the literature says it will use power while in storage and run itself down. It hasn't had the charge/discharge cycle that older batteries like, but I assumed they would have thought of that. It's still turning itself off after about 1 minute.

One more try with Tomtom customer care, and then I'm going to try to exchange it - if I can find the receipt in the box of similar receipts sitting on the floor in here. Could take a while ...

Thanks.

Eventually, in the middle of a journey, the tomtom turned itself off and when it woke up again it had lost all my favourites, including some superb camping locations in Italy that I was hoping to revisit one day .

Tried to get a replacement or refund in Halfords, but the manager was so rude I felt like decking him. His best offer was to send it away for repair, about 14 "working" days (ie 3 weeks). No concept of keeping the customer happy, which these days is quite rare. I finally got through to tomtom on their website, and after following their instructions to reinstall some updated software the thing is totally dead. To be fair, they have now arranged to collect it via UPS and sort it out. Getting there...