910 charging problem

[nojyttap]

Am I just screwed? My 910 is having a charging problem if I watch the charging meter it jumps all over the place not rapidly but sporadically.

Sometime it shows that it is charging with an 80% green bar sometime it's only 50% or even red at maybe 1%. Then it will change to 50% yellow and then 5% red.

Most of the time that happens in my car when it changes so I believe I have a bad solder joint between the interface connector and the circuit board.

Some Questions:

-Does my theory about the cause sound reasonable? Have you heard of this actually being the case?

-As I'm typing this my 910 is on the docking station at my desk charging and the meter, although it shows it is charging, is jumping around as described above; what do these different meter displays actually mean? What is the difference between an 80% green bar with the word "charging" under it and a 1% red bar with "charging"? Aren't they both charging and shouldn't it be showing me how much charge it has?

 

[zerimar]

Since the same thing happens to both your home and car dock, then the problem lies in the device itself. Here's a link where you could download a copy of the Dismantling Guide I wrote some time ago (in second post). https://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=5589&highlight=dismantling

Perforom a hard reset. The reset button is to the lower-right of the rubber grommet (see 1st photo). You'll need a pin or a paper clip. Also check that the gold contacts on the connector protrude evenly. If the problem persists even after doing a hard reset and the connector looks ok, I'm quite positive that the battery has gone south.

The battery is available via online shops. In the Guide, you'll find photos with specs of the components used in the 910.

 

[garybat]

I have charging problem too!

My 910 is doing the same thing as user "nojyttap". I actually can't even use mine in the car with it connected to the windshield mount and powered with the cigarette lighter connection (it stays on long enough to boot-up, but then immediately turns-off).
When connected to the computer dock, however, the unit will boot-up and stay on but the changing indicator is constantly switching on & off and never appears to charge the battery - I suspected either a battery problem (most likely) or an internal electronics problem. I will probably attempt to replace the battery. Any advice on doing this would be apprreciated (I have already downloaded the 910 Disassembly Manual posted on this forum).

 

[the5rs]

My 910 is doing the same thing as user "nojyttap". I actually can't even use mine in the car with it connected to the windshield mount and powered with the cigarette lighter connection (it stays on long enough to boot-up, but then immediately turns-off).
When connected to the computer dock, however, the unit will boot-up and stay on but the changing indicator is constantly switching on & off and never appears to charge the battery - I suspected either a battery problem (most likely) or an internal electronics problem. I will probably attempt to replace the battery. Any advice on doing this would be apprreciated (I have already downloaded the 910 Disassembly Manual posted on this forum).

I have just fixed this same problem on my 910 by spraying Switch Cleaning Lubricant onto the contacts on the base of the 910 itself. This was only after I had already bought and fitted a new battery to no avail. TomTom themselves were not interested and suggested that it would be better to buy a new one as the 910 was discontinued and parts were scarce.

 

[pete1982]

910 prob

Well people i had my 910 go through the same thing. what i did was connect my device to the computer and copied all my files as back up to the computer. then i deleted EVERYTHING from the device . hooked it up to tomtom home and installed everything again and it solved it for me. now it charges and doesn't keeping booting up anymore.

 

[tomtotom]

I have a similar problem which is worse.

The interface connector inside the main tomtom unit is broken. The 16 pin soldered contacts have broken off the main unit. I am referring to this component:

This component has totally come off when I open the unit. It does stay in place when the unit is closed but I have to press very hard on the charger in order to charge the unit. But if I leave it alone, the charging light goes off and if the battery is dead, the unit doesn't switch on.

Someone please help. What can I do? I am thinking of soldering it back to the pcb but those contacts are very small and soldering the unit myself might soldier adjacent contacts together (which can be de-soldered but its a pain.)

What can I do?

 

[habee]

Same happened to me. I think it is always the same problem when there are problems
with charging the device.

In my case the connector of the external gps-antenna was already completely ripped off,
including the solder pads. No chance to get the external gps-connector fixed again.

But I managed to solder the other contacts. And to get the connector really fixed I drilled
holes in the connector and fixed it through the alignement holes with two screws. Hope this will
last longer than just solder the contacts. The device now charges without problems.

So if you were able to solder the pads again, I recommend to put screws through it.
When you turn the pcb you will see two holes, where the connector is aligned with two
plastic pins. Drill a little hole (1mm Driller) in them (be careful to go straight through the connector, but not
to deep! ) and fix the hole bunch with 2 small screws.

Maybe I?ll be able to take some pictures.

Edit: Ok, I took tomtotom?s pictures and marked red where I put the screws through from the bottom of the pcb.

To solder the pads you should use a really small tip (1 mm), but a solder iron with enough power (min. 30W). Otherwise you will get problems to melt the solder, especially when soldering the ground contacts. Use copper wire
(entl?tlitze) to remove solder, when there was to much applied.

Bye

habee

 

[tomtotom]

Thanks for the info habee. That's a good idea and thanks for the soldering tips. I will try it out and see what happens.

 

[calmant224]

Try to look for a professional repair centre
Try this one

[live link removed by moderator - if you're attempting to sell your repair service as you have posted it in numerous posts, please contact our forum administrator regarding paid advertising]

 

[Plaincrosser]

GO910 not chargingi

I have had similar symptoms to the many posts here. The unit went dead and won't come on. Changed the battery and the new battery had enough juice in it to power the unit and see what was going on. Were able to jiggle it on the mounting arm to get a good connection and see it charge to full. Interface connector solder joints to the motherboards were broken ( hence bad connection and intermittent charging). Will try to reattach and solder and hope it works.
Will keep u posted.