Tomtom 550 XXL

[Vulcan1600]

I just acquired a Tomtom 550 XXL that was purchased in February by my late father who passed away last week. I'll be honest, I've been using Google maps with my Android HTC Thunderbolt and totally rely on it. It appears this Tomtom 550 XXL was never used, or maybe used one time. I just used it yesterday and was really disappointed in the overall experience.

1. The voice would either be muted or I'd have to enable and turn the volume up manually
2. Kept showing me off the road and take the next left, etc.
3. Starting the Tomtom up, even though I'm in an open area with blue skies, it can't find any GPS. I found if I just hit the live map where I was it would eventually kick on and would work.

It appears the 550 XXL might be the bottom of the line compared to some of the new Tomtom devices out there. Things like gas prices and where the cameras are hidden don't appear to be accessible on my Tomtom. Is there any 3rd party apps that will add a feature like this?

I went to the Radio Shack where Dad purchased this in February and they told me sorry the 30 day return policy was up, even as I showed him everything was still basically like it was factory with stickers still on the screen and the suction cup. He told me to go to tomtom dot com slash 16964 that shows as an invalid selection, and in fact, that's how I found this forum. Since this is my first post I was not able to put in that website. I am a SMod over on Droidforums for Android phones so I understand that was a spam indicator, please don't one touch me!

Can anyone help me out here and tell me what I have, and if there's anything out there that I can do to modify this thing, and also explain what the Radio Shack guy was talking about with this glitch that the invalid website was supposed to fix?

Thanks.

Scott

 

[dhn]

That link results in a page not found error.

First of all, it would be useful to find out the application and map version installed. If you tap the bottom right of the status bar on the driving screen, the next screen shows the app version installed (the latest is 9.430). Tap the version number and the following screen shows the map and its version. The latest is 890 which came out today.

The computer application for that model is referred to as Home 2. Get it at tomtom.com/home and install it.

Connect the unit to the computer and Home should 'see' the unit. Log in with an email address/password to register the unit. doesn't have to even be a real email address, just in the proper (e-mail address removed) format.

Click on 'update my unit' to see what's available. You should get mapshare files and a gpsquickfix file which should speed up the gps lock.

Yes, the 550 comes with 'EasyMenu' which is basically a dumbed down version of a full menued model.

But with the 9.430 application, some added functionality was included.

Alink to the 550 manual can be found here:
http://download.tomtom.com/open/manuals/xliqr2/ReferenceGuide-US/refman/TomTomXL-en-US.pdf

oh, and welcome to TTF!

 

[Vulcan1600]

Thanks!

DHN,

Thanks so much for the helpful information. I was born in Scarborough in the beginning of the 1960s but been in the U.S. since 1969.

I just looked and the v. 9.161; Map v. 850.2784.

I'm in Casa Grande, AZ until Sunday. For some reason this old laptop computer, which actually runs Win XP cannot seem to install the Home software. When I get back to PA, I'll install it on the Win7 computer. I hope that doesn't open up a new can of worms with permissions problems. The way around that is to create directories from the root.

I appreciate this info you gave me. It appears the Tomtom is in desperate need of an update. I am curious what new features I'll see once updated next week.

And, yes I got an invalid website with what the dude at Radio Shack gave me. I wanted to exchange it for another 550 XXL and he said he can't since it was purchased in February. I showed him how it's still brand new and probably never used by my Dad. He wouldn't budge, even when I said I don't want my money back, but I'd like to exchange it for another because of the problems I had with it yesterday in Sedona. That's when he came up with the so called fix for "ALL TOMTOM DEVICES".

Thanks again.

 

[dhn]

Well, he was feeding you a pile of you-know-what about the website.

What difficulties are you having loading Home on an xp machine. Normally there are no issues on that platform. Do make sureyou have dot net framework installed or Home won't run.

This link should work:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851

 

[Vulcan1600]

Well, he was feeding you a pile of you-know-what about the website.

What difficulties are you having loading Home on an xp machine. Normally there are no issues on that platform. Do make sureyou have dot net framework installed or Home won't run.

This link should work:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851

Ok, I got home late last night and successfully installed the "Home" on my Win7 computer and got the updates I needed. I didn't bother with the XP computer because of how old it is and probably did need the (dot) Net Framework. However I was tethering from my cell phone last week and didn't really have the speed I would have needed.

There was a small patch for the GPS issue, I don't know if it's something new or not, but the GPS does seem to find a signal, even in my house today. My only issue is with a free map upgrade. My Dad purchased the unit in February (I found the receipt), and I registered it last week. All the packaging is basically still on the unit, including the plastic shieldiing over the screen and on the suction cup. TomTom wants me to pay for a map upgrade, even though I thought the first one was free.

Oh well. I'm glad it's working now with the s/w updates. Thanks for your assistance last week too.

Scott

 

[Andy_P]

TomTom wants me to pay for a map upgrade, even though I thought the first one was free.

First one is only free if you download it within a certain time after first use (usually 30 days, or for some models, 90 days)

http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/maps/latest-map-guarantee/