550 Rider White Screen (of Death?!)

[Peter Perfect]

I switched my Tom-Tom Rider 550 on last Sunday and the screen is bright white. I've tried switching it off and on again, a soft reset, and a long reset.

Does anyone know if this is repairable? If so, how? Or is it the Tom-Tom equivalent of the "Blue Screen of Death" on a PC?

If I have to get Tom-Tom to do the repair how do I contact them? A real person, phone number, email address?

I tried the Chatbot but it doesn't recognise the Serial Number, 12 digits, 2 letters followed by 10 numbers.

 

[canderson]

Were you unable to shut your device off with the long press?
What were the results of the long-press reset? Did you hear anything (the TomTom drums) at any point?

I'd almost be inclined to leave it on until the battery is depleted (screen shuts off), then give it a good charge and see if it wakes up normally after that.

 

[Peter Perfect]

Were you unable to shut your device off with the long press?
What were the results of the long-press reset? Did you hear anything (the TomTom drums) at any point?

I'd almost be inclined to leave it on until the battery is depleted (screen shuts off), then give it a good charge and see if it wakes up normally after that.

Right..., I've switched it back on..., 1328 hrs..

 

[canderson]

Right..., I've switched it back on..., 1328 hrs..

Keep us posted on results. Fingers crossed.

 

[Peter Perfect]

Were you unable to shut your device off with the long press?
What were the results of the long-press reset? Did you hear anything (the TomTom drums) at any point?

I'd almost be inclined to leave it on until the battery is depleted (screen shuts off), then give it a good charge and see if it wakes up normally after that.

I've left it on all afternoon, tried it again at 7.30 p.m. and it's still the same...

 

[canderson]

I've left it on all afternoon, tried it again at 7.30 p.m. and it's still the same...

So you let the battery go completely flat, recharged, an still no joy? Ugh. Not much we can do for that.

Would still like to know, from above, "What were the results of the long-press reset? Did you hear anything (the TomTom drums) at any point?" Trying to get a sense as to whether the entire unit is locked up, or whether it might only be a display issue that could be remedied with a touch screen replacement.

 

[Peter Perfect]

So you let the battery go completely flat, recharged, an still no joy? Ugh. Not much we can do for that.

Would still like to know, from above, "What were the results of the long-press reset? Did you hear anything (the TomTom drums) at any point?" Trying to get a sense as to whether the entire unit is locked up, or whether it might only be a display issue that could be remedied with a touch screen replacement.

It was doing the Tom-Tom Drums. I found a video on YouTube of someone who opened theirs up carefully and edged the loose connector together. I don't think I was careful enough. It comes on White Screen and then goes off after a second. Tom-Tom Drums no longer sound..

 

[[email protected].]

I switched my Tom-Tom Rider 550 on last Sunday and the screen is bright white. I've tried switching it off and on again, a soft reset, and a long reset.

Does anyone know if this is repairable? If so, how? Or is it the Tom-Tom equivalent of the "Blue Screen of Death" on a PC?

If I have to get Tom-Tom to do the repair how do I contact them? A real person, phone number, email address?

I tried the Chatbot but it doesn't recognise the Serial Number, 12 digits, 2 letters followed by 10 numbers.

Mine did that. In desperation I went to settings, selected a different map, let it load and then reselected the actual map I wanted. After about five minutes the map appeared and the device has worked normally ever since.

Worth a try?

 

[canderson]

Mine did that. In desperation I went to settings, selected a different map, let it load and then reselected the actual map I wanted. After about five minutes the map appeared and the device has worked normally ever since.

Worth a try?

The OP wouldn't have been able to do that. His screen was truly *white*. No access to menus for settings, etc.

Your solution applies to those who are in an area for which there is no map loaded, or good in the event that the map didn't load properly on program boot.

 

[george.s]

I think the screen hardware is toast. But I would anyway try the following: you need to try and really get all power removed from the electronics. How ?
- run the battery down (all the way until it quits),
- turn it on a few more times (it may start but eventually not finish because of lack of juice),
- when you really feel it's empty keep it off for a few days,
- try again, did the battery recover a little and still allows the device to start ?
- now let it sit for a week (if you have that patience).

Then and only then charge for an hour and then start your device.
Screen still white ? It goes to TT for repair (if you think that is worth it).

 

[picard.jeanlouis@hotmail.]

Bonjour
qui peut me dire mon gps 550 ryder ne s'allume plus en mode secteur ou sur la moto sa viens de quoi il est mort ou c est la batterie merci cdt

 

[RvdH]

I have this white screen sometimes too, what works for me is pushing the top button shortly, screen goes off, push it again, screen comes on again - sometimes its still white so I repeat the procedure until I see the normal display again. Annoying but it works for me..

 

[KevinBerry]

I have this white screen sometimes too, what works for me is pushing the top button shortly, screen goes off, push it again, screen comes on again - sometimes its still white so I repeat the procedure until I see the normal display again. Annoying but it works for me..

My Rider 550 does this too. Does anyone know how to fix this? The issue persists with my 3220 MaH battery fully charged, the screen ribbon cable cleaned and reset, the power button pressed manually beneath the rubber lid, the unit charging on a power supply set anywhere from 12 to 14 volts up to 10 amps, countless soft resets, two hard resets and restores using MyDrive.

 

[Willy875]

My Rider 550 does this too. Does anyone know how to fix this? The issue persists with my 3220 MaH battery fully charged, the screen ribbon cable cleaned and reset, the power button pressed manually beneath the rubber lid, the unit charging on a power supply set anywhere from 12 to 14 volts up to 10 amps, countless soft resets, two hard resets and restores using MyDrive.

A white screen means it's receiving power, but not video signals.

Therefore, several causes are possible:

- It could be a faulty LCD panel.

- It could be a fault with the motherboard.

- The ribbon cable connecting the panel to the motherboard could be damaged or improperly connected (due to impact?).

 

[KevinBerry]

Therefore, several causes are possible:

The screen does receive proper video on startup maybe 5 percent of the time. When booted with the white screen showing, pressing the power button shortly puts the unit to sleep. 75 percent of the time the unit displays proper video on wake. Sometimes it takes several wakes to get proper video. I've suspected the battery is not delivering proper power on startup, or the power button is disrupting normal power flow on startup maybe with poor contact. I'm hoping someone knows definitively what the issue is, since a number of people experience this.

 

[JohnnyBlaze]

I've had this issue now for about almost 2 years I think (can't quite recall how long exactly).

When I turn on my TomTom Rider 550 it is as if the screen brightness is cranked up to 200%. It also makes the startup sound. When I hold the device flat (horizontal) and glance over the screen, I can barely see a "scrollbar" (the full height of the screen) go from left to right. I also see a tiny red "smudge" of the logo and some indistinct markings to the left of that which I assume are the letters "TOMTOM". After a few seconds I can vaguely make out that something is being displayed on screen (the map and some UI buttons that do actually respond to touch). When I view the screen head on (as you would normally) all I see is white. Note that everything I see in a flat screen position is basically white-on-white; barely visible.

I tried to do a reset, get the black screen with white text to show up, but cannot get it to do that. I don't know if it this is simply broken, or it just all shows up white-on-white and I get the timing wrong doing the tripple button push that is needed. I tried it multiple times.

The white screen issue started after installing updates and rebooting the device.

All this time I've had to fall back on my Android phone and the MyRoute app. This works fine, but alas it drains the phone's battery quite fast compared to the TomTom.

 

[Willy875]

@JohnnyBlaze

If your problem occurred two years ago, your GPS might still have been under warranty; TomTom could therefore have repaired it.

Things to try:
Make sure the battery is fully charged.
Press and hold the On/Off button until the device restarts. Keep holding the button down during the "drum roll" sequence, then release it. This process may take 15 seconds or more.

To reinstall the software, you need to press the button three times within a one-second interval.

 

[JohnnyBlaze]

@JohnnyBlaze

If your problem occurred two years ago, your GPS might still have been under warranty; TomTom could therefore have repaired it.

Things to try:
Make sure the battery is fully charged.
Press and hold the On/Off button until the device restarts. Keep holding the button down during the "drum roll" sequence, then release it. This process may take 15 seconds or more.

To reinstall the software, you need to press the button three times within a one-second interval.

Unfortunately the device was already past its warranty.

I had tried doing the steps that you suggested (I do hear the drum roll sequence), but it fails at the point where I need to press the button three times within a one-second interval. I might be doing it to early or to late, and don't really have visual feedback (except for the screen going white) after that. It just seems to either reboot again (another drum roll), or just starts up with a white screen (which I can tell is actually loading the map when I hold the screen horizontal and look over it at a very low angle at the 6 o'clock position.

Guess, I'll keep trying. Maybe I'll get lucky at some point, and can then reinstall the software.