920 hangs when searching for POIs

Joined
Jan 9, 2008
Messages
9
I've had my 920 since January, and have had few problems. Suddenly yesterday, when I do ANY kind of a POI search, it gets to the screen that says "Wait a moment.." and hangs. If I use "Find" and type something in, after I hit "Done" the whole screen grays out and freezes there. Any other experiences with this out there???

Thanks,
Linda
 
I had that happen so I started up home and had updated one of the POIs which seemed to fix what ever problem was keeping the POIs from loading.
 
I went and deleted a POI because I didn't know how to update my POIs. After that it seems to be working. I did not roll back my software.
 
I went and deleted a POI because I didn't know how to update my POIs. After that it seems to be working. I did not roll back my software.

Count me in as another 920 owner experiencing this problem. Occasionally it will work, but better than 90% of the time searching for either POIs or street address is impossible. I can only search as far as cities, or find addresses by browsing the map. Unbelievable that a bug this huge has slipped through the cracks.

Anybody else managed to fix it in this manner? I don't have any custom POIs yet, but I presume that's what Melody was referring to removing? I'll try adding one so I can remove it, see if it makes any difference to me.
 
Count me in as another 920 owner experiencing this problem. Occasionally it will work, but better than 90% of the time searching for either POIs or street address is impossible. I can only search as far as cities, or find addresses by browsing the map. Unbelievable that a bug this huge has slipped through the cracks.

Anybody else managed to fix it in this manner? I don't have any custom POIs yet, but I presume that's what Melody was referring to removing? I'll try adding one so I can remove it, see if it makes any difference to me.

no, i think i removed one i decided I didn't need. Not sure it was custom. I like your idea better though. Good luck.
 
Nope, didn't work for me. I added a POI, then deleted it again by finding it in the map, clicking on it, then deleting it from there - the only way I was able to successfully select it for deletion.

There was no immediate change whatsoever. I tried resetting the TomTom (held reset for 15 seconds, then power for five, as directed by TomTom's site). On startup, I was able to search for POIs briefly, but there was now a new problem - a half-second long EXTREMELY loud, staticky, distorted staccato chirping noise - "CHAAACHAAACHAACHAA!" or something along those lines - every minute or so. I guessed it might be something to do with voices, so tried changing the voice and found it to be similarly ridiculously loud and distorted, although I've never had any distortion before even with the volume set to 100%. Hence, I next went and changed the volume to 50%. Then I went back to voices, tested the voice again and for the first couple of words it was still totally blown out, then it suddenly went back to what a normal 50% volume would be.

Since then, no more of the chirping noises, but I'm now back to being unable to search for addresses.

Folks, if you are having this problem, PLEASE call into TomTom about it, EVEN IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DOWNGRADE THE FIRMWARE YOURSELF. They need to see the scale of the problem for themselves (and realise that it is costing them money for the support staff to deal with it), so that they have an incentive to fix it ASAP.

I'll be calling them myself shortly, partly because I don't know where to safely get the older firmware from / want to ensure if it dies in the update that TomTom can't say it was my fault, and partly because I want it on record that I'm one of the many users with this problem.

Anybody else noticed
 
no, i think i removed one i decided I didn't need. Not sure it was custom. I like your idea better though. Good luck.

Ah, interesting Melody. I presume you found it through browsing the map, since the POIs can't be browsed otherwise, right?

The custom POI thing didn't work for me, as noted in my previous post (didn't see yours until after I clicked submit). I might try backing up the TomTom and deleting one of the preinstalled POIs. Have you had any problems since you tried your method, and how long ago was that / how much have you used the GPS since?

If at all possible, I'd like to come up with a 100% repeatable method of causing / preventing this, so when I speak to TomTom support I can give them the info that will help track down and squash this bug.

Edit: Oh, and I meant to say... Has anybody else noticed that powering the TomTom up when the problem is occurring, it doesn't play the statup sound? If I reset the TomTom it plays the "tomtom drums" startup sound normally, but if I shut down and restart again, the sound no longer plays on subsequent startups. (Or is that normal behaviour? I'm not sure if the sound only plays when the TomTom is starting up, and not when it is merely resuming from standby. I've not had the thing long enough to know).
 
Last edited:
Update: I deleted one of the built-in POIs. No immediate change. Upon restarting my TomTom, I am now able to search POIs normally around my current location, route or destination, or by selecting one of these and then doing a "find" for the name of the POI.

HOWEVER: Now, I couldn't enter *city* names, let alone street names. Hence, I reset again.

After the second reset, I was back able to select city names, but no longer able to search for POIs or street addresses again. Adding or deleting POIs (whether custom or built-in POIs) definitely does *not* fix this problem for me.
 
Ah, interesting Melody. I presume you found it through browsing the map, since the POIs can't be browsed otherwise, right?

The custom POI thing didn't work for me, as noted in my previous post (didn't see yours until after I clicked submit). I might try backing up the TomTom and deleting one of the preinstalled POIs. Have you had any problems since you tried your method, and how long ago was that / how much have you used the GPS since?

If at all possible, I'd like to come up with a 100% repeatable method of causing / preventing this, so when I speak to TomTom support I can give them the info that will help track down and squash this bug.

Edit: Oh, and I meant to say... Has anybody else noticed that powering the TomTom up when the problem is occurring, it doesn't play the statup sound? If I reset the TomTom it plays the "tomtom drums" startup sound normally, but if I shut down and restart again, the sound no longer plays on subsequent startups. (Or is that normal behaviour? I'm not sure if the sound only plays when the TomTom is starting up, and not when it is merely resuming from standby. I've not had the thing long enough to know).

Well, I should have mentioned that I did it using the HOME desktop application. I did not do it through the tomtom directly. You may want to try adding your POI, connecting to HOME and deleting it from there.
 
I'm starting to regret buying this thing. :( There seems to be less that actually *does* work, than there is stuff that doesn't work.

TomTom Home's backup and restore feature is yet another thing that - for me at least - does not even slightly work.

I just "restored" the backup I made a couple of hours ago - and it claimed to have completed the restoration in all of about two seconds. I knew something was suspicious with that, and sure enough looking at the GPS not a single thing that was deleted has since been restored, nor has any of the stuff that I've done since the backup been erased. Of course, now I don't *have* any way to restore my backup, nor do I have any other backup.

Shame that such a beautiful piece of hardware - the ONLY thing it really lacks is a replaceable battery - is being so completely and utterly let down by the software. :(
 
Melody, how did you delete the POI through TomTom Home? I don't see anywhere I can select to delete a single POI except through the "Operate My Go" button. I can *add* POIs I download, and I can delete entire classes of POIs (although the only options I am given to delete are "Fire Stations", "Gb Pharmacy", "Gb Police Stations", "Playing Field", and "School" - none of the other POI categories show up).

Given that backups don't work, I am hesitant to delete anything else until I confirm I am using the exact same procedure you did.
 
Melody, how did you delete the POI through TomTom Home? I don't see anywhere I can select to delete a single POI except through the "Operate My Go" button. I can *add* POIs I download, and I can delete entire classes of POIs (although the only options I am given to delete are "Fire Stations", "Gb Pharmacy", "Gb Police Stations", "Playing Field", and "School" - none of the other POI categories show up).

Given that backups don't work, I am hesitant to delete anything else until I confirm I am using the exact same procedure you did.

I can't remember. I don't use Operate my Go because it alway screws it up and loses my settings. I don't have it to look at now but I might have clicked the button to see the contents of my tomtom and found one to delete there. I'm having trouble remembering the options now. Somewhere I found a place where I could delete stuff and it wasn't through operate my go. If you don't find it, I'll check when I get home later.

Oh, and to back up just select everything on your tomtom using windows explorer and copy and paste it somewhere. I've read that is better than the tomtom backup.
 
Ah, interesting Melody. I presume you found it through browsing the map, since the POIs can't be browsed otherwise, right?

The custom POI thing didn't work for me, as noted in my previous post (didn't see yours until after I clicked submit). I might try backing up the TomTom and deleting one of the preinstalled POIs. Have you had any problems since you tried your method, and how long ago was that / how much have you used the GPS since?

If at all possible, I'd like to come up with a 100% repeatable method of causing / preventing this, so when I speak to TomTom support I can give them the info that will help track down and squash this bug.

Edit: Oh, and I meant to say... Has anybody else noticed that powering the TomTom up when the problem is occurring, it doesn't play the statup sound? If I reset the TomTom it plays the "tomtom drums" startup sound normally, but if I shut down and restart again, the sound no longer plays on subsequent startups. (Or is that normal behaviour? I'm not sure if the sound only plays when the TomTom is starting up, and not when it is merely resuming from standby. I've not had the thing long enough to know).



I'm experiencing all of the same problems - except for the "chirping" thing. When I reset the thing (numerous times) it played the tomtom startup sound, subsequently does not play it upon startup. I reset it thinking that it would go back to the default behaviour, but it has not. It continues to hang.

I have numerous custom POIs and tried deleting them, then starting from scratch - didn't work.

I don't know how to "downgrade" because the website does not give an option for downloading software - it just says to use TomTom Home.

As it stands now, this is a $600 piece of junk as far as I am concerned. Just today I tried every way I could think of to put an address in using city, street, and number - but I can't get it to take a street. It just says "One moment please..." and sticks there. I can go Back, but that's it. We are out of state and I really NEED this thing to work - after all, that's why my husband bought it for me.

I also cannot hardly search for ANY POIs. Whenever I search for, say, Banks, it does the same "just a moment" thing.

VERY VERY disappointed in this.

Yes, I will be speaking to TomTom, and worst case scenario - I'll be showing up on their doorstep - as it happens, the very place we are currently out of town at happens to be only 20 miles from TomTom headquarters.
 
how to remove a poi

so in home there is an option to remove items. I selected that. It lists a bunch of stuff including POIs. I selected one that seemed unimportant and deleted it. I haven't had a problem since. Good luck with your tomtom.
 
I'm experiencing all of the same problems - except for the "chirping" thing. When I reset the thing (numerous times) it played the tomtom startup sound, subsequently does not play it upon startup. I reset it thinking that it would go back to the default behaviour, but it has not. It continues to hang.

I have numerous custom POIs and tried deleting them, then starting from scratch - didn't work.

I don't know how to "downgrade" because the website does not give an option for downloading software - it just says to use TomTom Home.

As it stands now, this is a $600 piece of junk as far as I am concerned. Just today I tried every way I could think of to put an address in using city, street, and number - but I can't get it to take a street. It just says "One moment please..." and sticks there. I can go Back, but that's it. We are out of state and I really NEED this thing to work - after all, that's why my husband bought it for me.

I also cannot hardly search for ANY POIs. Whenever I search for, say, Banks, it does the same "just a moment" thing.

VERY VERY disappointed in this.

Yes, I will be speaking to TomTom, and worst case scenario - I'll be showing up on their doorstep - as it happens, the very place we are currently out of town at happens to be only 20 miles from TomTom headquarters.

I'm feeling very much the same as you, so far. The current firmware version is beyond hopeless. In the first 48 hours of ownership, I've also seen several other problems - some I've seen reported elsewhere, some that I haven't:

* Incorrect verbal directions (I was told to bear right when the map CLEARLY showed that it wanted me to bear left, and the road bore left in the real world as well of course)
* Quick Menu items disappear randomly (I've added items to my quick menu many times, then gone back shortly afterwards to find they've vanished)
* The nighttime color scheme is frequently forgotten and replaced by one which is entirely monochromatic
* The brightness is frequently forgotten and the device reverts back to the maximum brightness setting at night with no ambient light to confuse the GPS into thinking it might be daytime (if I go to the brightness menu, the device is configured to dim at night and use the lowest brightness setting, and if I touch the bars the brightness instantly fixes itself - for a while)

So far, I am incredibly unimpressed with the quality of this software. Either TomTom needs better beta testers, more beta testers, or they need to seriously consider increasing the resources they're devoting to software development and alpha / beta testing of new releases.

I have to say at this point, were I in charge of things I'd insist on a complete feature freeze until the bugs have been eliminated from the current version.

so in home there is an option to remove items. I selected that. It lists a bunch of stuff including POIs. I selected one that seemed unimportant and deleted it. I haven't had a problem since. Good luck with your tomtom.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you deleted an entire group of POIs, rather than a specific POI. Can you tell me how many you have in the list? Mine only shows up about four different options, and I get the feeling that's not normal behaviour.
 
Well, I've been back and forth with TomTom Customer Service for over a week. They wanted me to use the Clear Flash Tool, so I tried that. It restored "some" functionality, but I am still experiencing the "one moment please..." hangups when searching for ANY POI, and in many cases, when trying to input a street address. It will let me choose the city, but not a street.

I am currently waiting to hear back from them about a map update that is supposed to restore full function to the unit.

I tried input of longitude and latitude as a workaround, but cannot figure that out - one of my latitudes is a negative number, and the unit will not let me input a negative number. I cannot find any help at all on THIS issue online at TT CS.

Will keep you posted.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Latest resources

Forum statistics

Threads
28,820
Messages
194,341
Members
67,754
Latest member
CSXLocomotive

Latest Threads

Back
Top